Clarion Newsletter, February 18, 2022

Happy Friday Clarion School parents!

Is it just me or am I the only one still getting use to the new weekend and workweek structure! It seems like only yesterday that I was still adjusting to the Sunday-Thursday week!

Happy weekend and there is a lot of excitement coming up for us at Clarion:

Running Club: The Running Club is meeting Friday mornings at 7 AM. Ms. Maxi, one of our super Clarion moms, is helping to lead and organize and has asked that we send a reminder- thanks Maxi!

She also offered her phone # out to all of you to be added into a Running Club Whatsapp group: 0558999529, as she wants to give interested parents more info about running events in and around Dubai. Thank you so much Maxi.

Open Mornings: We had one this week and a very nice group of very interested parents came, and signed up for later this term and for next year. Thank you to any of you as current Clarion parents for your ability to “spread the word” about Clarion! Parents and students are the best ways that others can find out about Clarion and we appreciate your efforts.

We will have one each month going forward the rest of this year and you can sign up your friends to come see for themselves the school you talk about all the time!

Ripe Market event for CPC and Clarion School: On the 26th and 27th of this month Clarion CPC and School are ‘taking over’ the RIPE MARKET hosted on the Dubai Police grounds each weekend during the good weather. There is an attached flyer for this event inviting parents to come for a nice picnic together, and Clarion School will have a stand there both days to promote all the good things we do here, that you are so familiar with already. If you join us that weekend at Ripe Market, please stop by the booth and say hi - I’ll be there both days 10 AM to 6 PM as will many staff too!

100 Days of School: Earlier this week, K2 discovered many different ways of celebrating “100 days of school” this year. I am so proud of the children and teachers for their efforts! Now parents in K2- take that 100 and double it! Triple it! Have FUN with numbers!

STUCO movie nights: The members of the STUCO (Student Council) met with me this morning to review their proposal to run two “movie nights” in March. I am so proud of them for their note to me and for their leadership. We will be working it out to work best for students and families and more details will follow. Thank you STUCO!

International Day: Friday, March 4th, 2022: We have postponed International Day one week to March 4th (see the attached flyer) and are so excited to see the CPC leading in this effort. We will do a mix of last years’ “Avenue of Flags” in the courtyard and out front by Gate 3 when you come in to school in the morning and what we did on National Day- with booths set up in the street from 8 AM to noon.

The CPC met this week and are already organizing- and on that note, this link below will permit you to sign up your ‘country’ for a table:

https://forms.gle/URHfGu5so8t5xm9W9

We will extend the event into the atrium that day and out front under the trees in the grassy areas of Gate 3 if we need to do so. Students will have a 'dress up' day that day and do many activities in class to support each other as ‘members of humanity all sharing one Earth’ while recognizing that everyone comes from somewhere and EVERYONE is special.

Teachers will run the events in their rooms, and parents with the CPC overseeing will run the events in the street, atrium and front by Gate 3.

One thing we can’t do is have you all in all day; at pick up you can of course come look at how it went; and at drop of feel free to ‘find your flag(s)’ for a photo op with your family and friends. But according to protocols, we are still in school social distancing so this is not a day long open event (a way around this is to volunteer to help CPC all day that day….just sayin!).

Any food the CPC brings will be processed and packaged as required by KHDA to ensure safety- we cannot have home baked/cooked foods according to the rules- sorry! And of course, the CPC will have Nurse Kristine ‘vet’ everything for safety.

Field trips to Expo and what parents can (and can’t) do concerning our school expo trips:

First of all thank you to the dozens of parents who have already gone to Expo as chaperones and who are signed up for later in February and in March. We are so grateful to you. I do need to reiterate that we are obligated to follow Expo requirements: (the below in italics is from Shazia- thank you Shazia!)

We are getting this question from many as to if parents are allowed to meet their school group at Expo 2020 Dubai. As per the information given to us parents are not allowed to enter Expo 2020 Dubai with a school group. However, we have gained special permission and are encouraging parents to be chaperones on these trips.

To ensure security protocols are followed, parents are requested to not show up at the Expo 2020 site with a general admission ticket to join the school group. Also, parent chaperones on the trip will not be allowed to take their child home directly from the Expo 2020 site. Due to security restrictions, children and the parent chaperones must return on the same bus that they arrived in.

What this means is that if you are a chaperone for the trip you must come to school and go on the bus and then return to school with us.

As a parent you should not ‘rock up’ to Expo to pick up your child. Expo does not want that to happen and we are obligated to follow Expo rules.

Thanks for your understanding!

Have a great weekend Clarion families and we appreciate your trust in us as the educators and caretakers of your children!

Sincerely,

Jim #FridayIsMyFavDay Pastore