Clarion Newsletter, June 3, 2022

Good afternoon Clarion parents and friends of Clarion!

I had the wonderful opportunity to attend a swim meet at another school yesterday. And apart from it being 44 degrees up on the rooftop pool (note to self: when building schools put the pool UNDER a building not on TOP of a building….kinda like Clarion did!), the atmosphere was wonderful. Clarion had 25+ swimmers there, led by their PE teacher/ coaches Ms. Narsisa and Mr. Antonis, and assisted by Ms. Laurine, one of our K2 teachers.

The Clarion kids were fantastic! And so many of them surprised me with their energy and competitiveness. But most of all, they saw it for what it was - FUN.

I wish parents could have attended, but there wasn’t enough space. But I know, Ms. Narsisa is setting up another meet or two, and at one of them there is space for parents to attend!

Our social media on Instagram will have some photos of yesterday’s event, and I will ask Ms. Narsisa to put together all her photos and films into a safe spot online for the parents of the swimmers to see. I apologize in advance if we could not film every event- it was close to two hours! And Narsisa was coaching and organizing too, while Mr. Antonis was one of the pool judges, and Ms. Laurine did the organizing of racers at the farther end of the pool.

Thank you TEAM CLARION – teachers and students – for a job well done!

Clarion Commons: Workshop for Parents Part 2:

A friendly reminder on Clarion Commons for our Clarion's VP, Ms. Suzanne’s workshop on ‘How Reflective Learning Benefits Us’ to be held on Wednesday, June 8 at 8:30 am (flyer attached). Please use the RSVP link to register for the event RSVP - Workshop June 8

Stay and Play at Clarion for Potential Families interested in Clarion School:

Clarion invites all your friends for a ‘Stay and Play’ event on Thursday, June 9, from 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm. This will be a great opportunity to meet the team, the children can play in our classrooms and on the spot assessments will be available for admission. The event is for children looking to enroll in Pre K, K1 and K2 classes for September 2022. For more information please see the flyer attached, and the RSVP link Stay and Play, June 9

Bouncing Books Thank You Note :

Dear Clarion Parents and Community,

Thank you very much for all the amazing kindness you have shown in your book donations to the Bouncing Books Foundation.

We now have over 3,500 books, of which you have all provided just over 2,000 – amazing community effort.

Our website is now live if you wish to learn more about the great work we will be doing in Tanzania The Bouncing Books Foundation

We will be shipping all our books to Tanzania on the June 30, in which time we hope to reach out target of 10,000 books. If you have any additional books you would like to contribute there is still a bit of time to drop them at reception.

Thank you once again for your kindness and we look forward to sending photos to Clarion of the children reading the books and utilizing the Library Book service will be providing

- Rachel, Luke, Albie and Grace Ellyard

Monkeypox Awareness:

Recently Monkeypox has been reported in several countries that did not previously have active Monkeypox cases. As of June 2, UAE has reported four new cases of viral zoonotic disease Monkeypox. This takes the total number of cases detected in the UAE to eight, and were detected as part of the country’s epidemiological surveillance system. While it is contagious, but its spread is limited if compared to COVID-19.

In line with increasing awareness about Monkeypox, please have a read on the information sent out by the DHA to Nurse Kristine, by clicking on the link Monkeypox .pdf

CCI’s (after school activity) for 2022-2023 school year:

This year we had a parent run one of our CCIs this half of the year, and we are open to parents who would want to run a CCI or to help out with a CCI activity for next year. If so, please inform Ms. Shazia admin@clarionschool.com

The new Academic Calendar for school year 2022-2023:

Attached to this note is the Clarion School Academic Calendar for the 2022-2023 school year. It has been approved by KHDA. Having said that, there are always things that pop up, especially in a school like Clarion. The most important notes are the KHDA and MOE approved holiday breaks- those will not be changed for any reason unless the government makes a change at the federal level.

Final Word:

A recent study has shown that if you read with your child before Grade 1 (ages 1 to 5) an average of 5 children’s books a day, that is approximately 1.5 million words that they here and process. That’s a LOT of words. Language is first of all ORAL in scope. The more children hear words, and learn to use words, the better they will be at the writing and reading aspects of literacy. Why am I bringing this up? It’s getting hot out there. And cooling off with a few nice books each evening together, and in the mornings before the TV and internet get their attention, are great ways for families to practice reading together. Just enjoy the books together. Ask questions of your child such as “what do you think the character will do next?” or “What will happen next?” or “Why do you think that just happened in the story?”

And if your child has a favorite book they NEED to hear every day….read it to them every day.

Every

Single

Day

Make reading a fun family habit!

Sincerely,

Jim #ReadseveryDayOnPaper Pastore