April 29

 Dear Parents and students,

This week was an interesting one as we finished the week with a Mix-it Up lunch. Student Ambassadors and their Advisors Ms. Gretchen and Mr. Gregg created an event that allowed students to stretch their courage by sitting at tables with students with whom they do not necessarily socialize. Creativity and confidence were on full view today as students were event emcees, live musical soundtracks for the event and masters of games. Students were encouraged to show compassion as they chatted with new friends and lived the AISC mission.

Here is the calendar of upcoming events:

Date	Event		Details
May 2	Order the complimentary MS school lunch
May 2	May Long Weekend School Holiday
May 3	MS to HS Parent Coffee		8:45 - 9:45 am In-person (BBT) 5:00 - 6:00 pm Zoom
May 4	MS Portfolio Conferences		See details below
May 4	Early Release 2:30 p.m. Faculty Meetings  3:00-5:00 p.m.
May 13	MS VfL Day		See details below
May 16	Grade 5 Bump Up Day
May 17	5th to 6th grade Transition Parent Coffee		8:45 - 9:45 am In-person (Madras Hall)

Grade 8 Parents:

Wondering what to expect next year? How to prepare your child for success in High School? This parent coffee is for you! Please join the HS Counselors and 4 HS parents who will be sharing their experiences and tips they have found helpful in supporting their child's transition to high school. Tuesday May 3rd at 8:45 - 9:45 am In-person in the Black Box Theater (right in front of the Admissions office) and again at 5:00 - 6:00 pm Zoom.

 

Portfolio Conferences:

Portfolio conferences are student led and are an opportunity for students to present artifacts and reflections of their learning to parents. These conferences are students’ own evaluation of their learning and a time to celebrate successes and identify challenges.

 

This coming week, Wednesday or Thursday, we invite you to participate in your child’s portfolio conference at home at a time that is convenient for you. Students have received instructions on how to conduct conferences through advisory. Here are complete instructions for students and parents. Parent instructions have been translated into French, Korean and Japanese for your convenience.

 

Follow up on the conference can be done through this E-Portfolio Parent Feedback Form and we would love to see students sharing their portfolios with parents. Send a selfie during your at-home portfolio conference to msoffice@aischennai.org. 

 

May 13th is VfL Day

We are offering another Vision for a Learner Day on May 13th. It is exciting to be offering this opportunity on campus and there are a wide range of activities that students can participate in.

Here is the menu of student activities that students were given. They had 17 options to choose from and were asked to complete a survey with their top 5 choices. Students will find out their choices via email from their activity leader by Wednesday next week. We are excited about the opportunities that VfL Day offers our students: SCUBA; card-making; surfing & beach clean-up; synchronized swimming and baking.  This is a wonderful chance for students to engage in the VfL traits while engaging in activities that are not part of their normal schedule.

 

Request to Issue Transfer Certificate/Past Records:

The MS office has updated the form to request a transfer certificate and school records. You can access the form by clicking on the link above. You can also stop by the office to pick up a paper copy. Please be aware of the following points when requesting documents or a transfer certificate:

• The office requires 5 working days' notice in order to process the transfer certificate request.

• Transfer certificate and/or past records will be issued on the student’s last day at school provided all school materials and fees are accounted for.

• One set of documents will be issued by the school. Additional copies if required (not more than 10 sets) can be made by family and brought to the office for school stamp / seal

 

Homework Club:

Homework Club Session 3 started on March 22nd and will end on May 21st. It will happen on Mondays and Fridays from 3.45 pm to 4.30 pm. Use the sign-up form here to enroll in the HW club. Avail the opportunity to get expert guidance from our HS tutors.

Have a wonderful long weekend!

Take care,

 

Jennifer Bertram

Middle School Principal

April 22

Dear Parents and students,

It has been a great week and a busy one also. Students have been involved in MAP testing and most have already finished their tests and those who have not will finish next week after school. We also had great fun with the Earth Week and Spirit week celebrations. Students enjoyed dressing up and participating in the themes for each of the days. MS students also worked with ES students in the Discovery Lab and some made presentations in the ES classrooms as you can see in the photos below:

Here is the calendar of upcoming events:

Date	Event	Details
April 24th	Order the complimentary MS school lunch
May 3	MS to HS Parent Coffee
May 4	MS Portfolio Conferences	To be done at home with your children (see details below)

Staff Appreciation:
We had a wonderful Staff Appreciation Event yesterday. Our students did a wonderful job handing out flowers to the staff and thanking them. Also, huge kudos to Rakesh Rajmohan and Archisha Sarath for representing the Middle School by preparing and presentingTamil and English speeches to the community.

Earth Week Book Swap:

Thanks to Barbara Bowman, Marion Whisnant, Jyoti Unni, Karthikeyan P, Shemy Ann Susan Raj, Teena Marie Pennefather and Sarat Appigatla, as well as all the volunteers for encouraging reading and a love of books with the Book Swap. There were so many people out and about in the courtyard over the past two days perusing the many tables and swapping with well-loved books they had at home. There is a lot of reading happening in the AISC community! All proceeds will benefit the India Literacy Project in support of their ongoing programs. 
 

MS/HS Concert:

Huge thanks go out to Jason Kennedy, Bob Krebs, Atul Isaac, Vijay Saravanan and Thyagu for leading our MS and HS students through such a wonderful and delightful concert. Seeing such a big audience yesterday at the concert certainly DID give us hope as the concert promised. Guest artist Greg Clinton brought a surprise element as he accompanied the students on cello. Thanks also go to Shereen, Gautami, Anushka, Pradeep and Cyril in the media and communications department. The video and photo presentation throughout the event and also beforehand made it personalized and special. Also, we could not have done it without the IT Department who were responsible for recording the event as well as the live stream. As they say, “beautiful things happen in the presence of music”. Certainly that was the case last night! In case you missed it, here is the link to the concert! 

Request to Issue Transfer Certificate/Past Records:
The MS office has updated the form to request a transfer certificate and school records. You can access the form by clicking on the link above. You can also stop by the office to pick up a paper copy. Please be aware of the following points when requesting documents or a transfer certificate:  

• The office requires 5 working days' notice in order to process the transfer certificate request.
• Transfer certificate and/or past records will be issued on the student’s last day at school provided all school materials and fees are accounted for.
• One set of documents will be issued by the school. Additional copies if required (not more than 10 sets) can be made by family and brought to the office for school stamp / seal

E-Portfolios:
Here is a great learning opportunity! Students will be presenting their e-portfolios to parents during the week of May 3rd at home. This can be done any time during that week and we will be sending a feedback form for parents to fill in and send to us as they share in their child’s learning journey - please stay tuned for more details. 

Mask wearing optional:
The low number of cases currently in Chennai, combined with other factor external metrics, and that we know the probability of transmission when outside is very low, starting Monday, April 4, using masks when outdoors on campus is optional.

Homework Club:

Homework Club Session 3 started on March 22nd and will end on May 21st. It will happen on Mondays and Fridays from 3.45 pm to 4.30 pm. Use the sign-up form here to enroll in the HW club. Avail the opportunity to get expert guidance from our HS tutors.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Take care,

 

Jennifer Bertram

Middle School Principal

April 13

Dear Parents and students,

We had a wonderful week on campus and invited our parents to the first MS Parent Coffee on campus in a long time. Last week we had our first MS Assembly in person and here are some photos of that event. It was one that brought the magic back to the middle, as you can see! Special thanks go to the Assembly Crew, Mr. Kennedy and the MS Band for bringing the magic!

Here is the calendar of upcoming events:

Date	Event		Details
April 14 & 15	Tamil New Year’s Day Good Friday
April 17th	Order the complimentary MS school lunch
April 18 - 21	Earth Week
April 19 & 20	MS MAP
April 21	MS/HS Spring Concert		In person (FAC Theater) @4:30 pm
April 22	Community SMS Test

MS/HS School Concert:

We invite our parent community to our first in-person curricular concert for the secondary school (our last concert was 869 days ago) on Thursday, April 21st @ 4:30 pm in the theatre.  Share in the creative process and see your child perform on the big stage. Help us support our students' resilience and success with your energy and presence. These musicians will have a mandatory dress rehearsal on Tuesday, April 19th from 3:45-5:00 pm, and of course the concert on Thursday, April 21st. If your child attends an ASA, or club, or has a schedule conflict, we appreciate your flexibility to arrange their schedule to allow your child to participate in their rehearsal and concert. Please inform your child's ASA coaches and club advisors that they will be missing the afternoon of Tuesday, April 19th, and Thursday, April 21st, and will take care of any missing work/responsibilities as required.

 

If you plan on attending the concert please declare your vaccination status and upload vaccine information here.  Parents that uploaded information already for conferences do not need to resubmit, we have it on file.  Anyone that has not will need to show their record at the door or show an RT-PCR result no older than 72 hours. Please bring your school photo ID card. It would be great if family members sat together and left a gap between them and the next person. Masks will be required inside. The concert will be recorded and live-streamed, and available to watch on the AISC website, so you will not need to use your phone during the concert. We hope to see you there!

Earth Week Book Swap:

The Earth Week Book Swap is taking place in the Unity Courtyard on April 21st and 22nd and we are excited for our community to be able to swap books! As advertised, for every two books that are donated, one ticket will be issued to swap for a new book. In addition, on Friday only, we will be allowing staff, students, and parents to purchase books for only ten rupees each! All proceeds will benefit the India Literacy Project in support of their ongoing programs. 

 

Parents and families are welcome to attend the book swap on Friday, April 22nd from 12:00-3:30pm. Please reach out to Ms. Babs if you have any questions. 

AISC WELLBEING UPDATE 

Students from grades 3 to 12 will have the opportunity to answer age appropriate questions relating to the AISC Wellbeing framework to support their own personal reflection and growth. This will take place in High School Crew, Middle School Advisory and Elementary School Wellbeing classes in late April. Once completed, students will receive a personalized report with helpful guidance and resources to explore on their own and those facilitating the process will also be available for additional guidance. To ensure your child's privacy, your child's data from this survey will not be saved and individual responses will be anonymous.

 

The Wellbeing framework includes four domains: Positive Relationships, Self Awareness, Self Management and Healthy Habits. As such, the questions range from nutrition to sleep patterns and recognizing emotions to appreciating family and cultural ties. These questions are short and accessible to all. 

 

This wonderful initiative is part of the AISC Wellbeing Futures Planning process. All questions and related feedback have been developed by the EY-12 Wellbeing Council and vetted by counselors, Health/PE teachers and other health professionals. If you have any questions please feel free to email the council leads:  Shez Billett and Joelle Basnight

 

Swimming Pool:

Next week we will begin to offer MS and HS students the opportunity to do lap swimming after school from 3:45-4:45. MS classes will be using some time next week to determine swim levels. Saturday the 23rd we plan to offer swim level testing to determine swim levels of most elementary students that may be interested.  We’ll send a direct email with information for how to participate. 

 

Request to Issue Transfer Certificate/Past Records:

The MS office has updated the form to request a transfer certificate and school records. You can access the form by clicking on the link above. You can also stop by the office to pick up a paper copy. Please be aware of the following points when requesting documents or a transfer certificate:

• The office requires 5 working days' notice in order to process the transfer certificate request.

• Transfer certificate and/or past records will be issued on the student’s last day at school provided all school materials and fees are accounted for.

• One copy of the documents will be issued by the school. Extra copies can be made by family and brought to the office for school stamp, if needed.

Repeat: Elective Courses 2022/23:

It’s that time of year again - a moment to meet with your child(ren) to discuss their interests and the classes they would like to take. Please take a moment to look through the Elective Course Description 2022-23 for the current grade 6 and 7 middle school students.  Students will be reviewing the electives on April 12th and choosing their electives on Tuesday, April 19th in Advisory.  Please have discussions with your child before April 19th.

Repeat: Math Class Choices for next year:

If your child is an independent thinker, shows extraordinary skills, and has a high level of motivation to learn mathematics, you might be interested in learning more about our process for exceptional math students here. If you have any questions please feel free to contact your child’s math teacher.

 

Repeat: Mask wearing optional:

The low number of cases currently in Chennai, combined with other factor external metrics, and that we know the probability of transmission when outside is very low, starting Monday, April 4, using masks when outdoors on campus is optional.

 

Repeat: Homework Club:

Homework Club Session 3 started on March 22nd and will end on May 21st. It will happen on Mondays and Fridays from 3.45 pm to 4.30 pm. Use the sign-up form here to enroll in the HW club. Avail the opportunity to get expert guidance from our HS tutors.

 

Repeat information: Mark your calendars: Portal Project - Parent Sessions

We are excited to introduce a speaker series for parents starting in November called Parenting Beyond the Pandemic. These virtual sessions will bring experts and practitioners directly to our parent community to address a variety of relevant topics. The full list of sessions can be found here and the titles below. Registration for the sessions will take place through Eventbrite. 

Have a great weekend and enjoy the long weekend!

Take care,

 

Jennifer Bertram

Middle School Principal