Head of School: September 17, 2021

Dear AISC,

Today, AISC has started celebrating the United Nation’s International Day of Peace. This year’s theme is "Recovering Better for a Sustainable and Equitable World." We had over 560 community members join us earlier today for our UN Day Virtual Assembly. Thank you! If you had trouble viewing the video or were unable to attend, you can watch it here.

The International Day of Peace was established in 1981 and in 2001, September 21st was set aside as a day devoted to reinforcing the ideals of peace between and within all countries. The United Nations General Assembly chose this day to demonstrate a commitment to the ideals of non-violence among all peoples of all nations.

The United Nations organizes many international days throughout the year to educate people across the globe on relevant issues, to activate collective will and shared resources to tackle systemic problems, and to celebrate human accomplishment.

Today’s myriad global and local challenges currently facing leaders, policy-makers and activists are weighty. Climate change, misinformation networks, anti-democratic movements, and economic disparity, to name a few, are all profoundly significant dilemmas. How people work together to address these issues in the coming years will have a significant impact on the safety, wellbeing, and quality of life of future generations across the globe.

These dilemmas are serious at the best of times. In the midst of a global pandemic, we must find collective resolve through our shared experiences and the alignment of basic universal aspirations.

Among the many silver linings of the past 18 months is that we have all been reminded of our global interconnectedness and mutual dependency.

How will countries, communities, and organizations respond and adapt? More than ever, the conversations among and between us matter. Let’s continue to have them!

We are also starting the PCA International Community Celebration today. This event is an opportunity for our community to come together to celebrate our diversity, cultural backgrounds, and unique traditions.

See below for more information!

Here are a few captures of what experience looked like on AISC’s campus this week.

NEW - Current State Update – High School Students on Campus/ES & MS Virtual Learning

What do we know? Given the latest Government Orders of August 21^st and August 31^st:

High school students are on campus engaged in hybrid learning.
The re-opening of nursery and grades 1-8 after September 15^th will be considered.
A press release of September 9, did not include any new indications for schools.
ES and MS students are in Virtual Learning until students in those grades are permitted to return to campus pending a government announcement.
Once grade levels are permitted to return to campus, we will begin a phased approach to returning students to campus.
We will continue to communicate school opening information in a timely fashion.

Our ears and inboxes are open, so continue to use us as resources.

NEW – Next Week At-A-Glance

Date	Event	Details
September 17	International Community Celebration3:30 p.m. onwards	See PCA blog for more information
September 17	ASA Fall Camp Registration Begins	See Athletics and Activities blog
September 20-24	ES MAP Tests Grades 3 -5
September 21	HS Parent Coffee 8:45-9:45 a.m.	Zoom Link here Passcode: HS
September 22	ES Family Math Morning K - 2 9:30 a.m.	Zoom Meeting Meeting ID: 958 0207 5264 Passcode: aisc
September 22	Early Release 2:30 p.m. Faculty Meetings 3:00-5:00 p.m.
September 23	ES Family Math Morning 3 - 5 9:30 a.m.	Zoom Meeting Meeting ID: 938 0421 6371 Passcode: aisc
September 23	Portal Project 4:30-5:30 p.m.
September 23 & 24	Adaptive Schools Training
September 25-October 3	Fall Break

Office of Teaching and Learning Update – Joelle Basnight, Deputy Head of School

What is Sacred? - a Portal Project Conversation - Thursday, September 23^rd

The first Portal Project dialogue will take place on Thursday, September 23^rd at 4:30 p.m. on Zoom. Students, parents and faculty are invited to attend and explore "What is sacred" at AISC now and into the future! Not only will the dialogue be enjoyable in its own right, but participants will help generate data used in our ongoing futures planning process!

Click here to add the link directly to your google calendar or here for the Zoom link if you use a different calendar service.

Parent Relations – Deborah Allen, Director of Admissions and Parent/Alumni Relations

PCA International Community Celebration – September 17, 2021, 3:30pm onwards

Please visit our PCA International Community Celebration webpage, which includes entertaining community created pre-recorded videos! Students are encouraged to complete the PCA's international online QUIZ after watching all of the videos by Monday, September 20th at 11:59 p.m. - quiz link on webpage. The PCA Executive team will randomly select winners from the highest scoring quiz responses received (4 prizes, one for each group: EY-G2; G3-G5; MS; and HS). Winners will be announced in the PCA blog post on Friday, September 24th.

In addition, the PCA, in collaboration with our Communications team, has (re)created a print version of the AISC Passport, including stickers for "stamping" the country page, as well as country-specific activities and information. You may stop by the AISC school security gate and pick up the AISC Passport(s) for the children in your family until Friday, September 24^th, 4:30 p.m. (Gate pick up: Mon-Sat, 8:30 a.m.- 4:30 p.m.)

NOTE: The PCA International Community Celebration webpage is best experienced on a laptop/desktop with the Chrome browser.

NESA Parents as Partners Series - Webinar #2, Tuesday, September 21st, 6:30 p.m.

Please register for the 2021-2022 NESA Webinar Series: Parents as Partners—an engaging collection of webinars for parents addressing child development within the context of family and school. Twice each month, for one hour, you can join parents from across the NESA region to listen to distinguished specialists and learn new strategies in support of your child as a learner.

The webinar series is FREE to all AISC parents; register in advance with the following link:

https://nesacenter-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_twD9UwmCRQOyV75Zej1FjQ

NOTE: On the registration form, please type the FULL NAME of our school: American International School Chennai (do NOT use the acronym, AISC).

Upcoming: Webinar #2, A Parent's Guide to the Science of Attention -- Presented by Andrew Watson, on Tuesday, September 21st, 2021, 6:30 p.m. IST

“Why don’t children just pay attention?” Decades of neuroscience and psychology research have shown that – surprise! – attention is not one unified brain process. Instead, the behavior we call “paying attention” results from a just-right balance of three (yes, 3!) distinct mental functions. When adults foster those three neural processes, children find that ideal cognitive balance where they can focus. Focus at school. Focus at home, even focus at the dinner table. This lively and practical talk – based on years of classroom experience, and decades of brain research – provides both fresh brain perspectives and practical parenting strategies.

Have a restful weekend. Stay connected. And, in the coming weeks continue to practice patience and grace.

Andrew A. Hoover
Head of School
headofschool@aischennai.org

NOTES & REMINDERS

Commitments in 2021-2022

Our Commitments for the 2021-2022 school year are here!

Staying RaptorSafe

Our RaptorSafe information is here!

Student Protection Manual 2021-22

Health Office Update

If any members of the school community have concerns about a student’s safety, please contact one of AISC's counselors (ES, MS & HS), principals or the School Psychologist.

1. Complete this permission signature form. Parents MUST give permission to their child to return to campus. This has been a government SOP requirement. By completing this signature page, you indicate your willingness and interest to send your child to campus.

2. Completed medical forms. For most grade levels, these can be completed by a parent. New students and those starting grades 3, 6, or 9 will need a physician to complete form B and then parents should email the document to the health office. All other students will need form A completed and submitted. Additional forms are needed only for students that take prescribed medication during the day while on campus and for students that have allergies or asthma.

Form	For	Completed by:
A - Annual Medical Form	All students every year	Parent - digital form
B - Physician’s Medical Form	New students and those entering grades 3, 6, or 9	Physician - hard copy
C - Medications	Any students that take medicine during the school day.	Parent with attached hard copy of prescription
D - Allergies and Asthma	Any students that have allergies or asthma	Parent - hard copy

3. Weekly Rapid Antigen Testing. AISC has sourced PanBio COVID-19 test kits for the use of staff and students. Every person on campus will have a weekly home test conducted with kits provided by the school. These tests were recently approved by the Indian Council of Medical Research and similar tests are used throughout the world in helping screen the health of people coming on campus.

It's important to note that these tests will not be entirely replacing the RT-PCR tests. We'll still utilize RT-PCR tests whenever a community member is symptomatic or has had close contact (such as household) exposure to a confirmed case. We will also be able to use these tests to immediately test anyone sequestered to the isolation room on campus, expediting our ability to contact trace.

4. Every day your child is to come to campus you must attest to your child(ren)’s health. AISC has partnered with the educational software company ParentLocker to offer a way for us to monitor student, faculty, and staff health and wellness. Using this app, parents will attest daily to the health safety of their children. Everyone will need to do this each day once we are back on campus.

Requirements to attend classes on campus

To ensure the safety of everyone on campus we have the following expectations:

Vaccination Requirements

AISC now requires proof of vaccination for all adults (non-students) over the age of 18 in order to access the campus. This vaccination requirement will also apply to all visitors, including parents.

If you have access to vaccines, we advise you to follow your government’s directives to get vaccinated as soon as possible.

Distancing

AISC is ensuring safety through screening, testing of everyone on campus, vaccination requirements of adults, mask wearing, rigorous cleaning schedule, and a focus on ventilation. We will be maintaining 6 feet of distancing according to locally directed protocols.

Contact Tracing

We conduct our own in-house contact tracing whenever there is a positive case on campus. In light of the greater transmissibility of newer strains of the virus, we will be casting a broad net in having contacts quarantine. Classmates and staff that may have been present in a classroom with a confirmed case will be asked to quarantine for 5 days and then test before returning. We may adjust as the year progresses, but will start with a very aggressive approach to minimizing community spread.

Illness Reporting

Despite being in Virtual Learning, it is vital that AISC continues to monitor the health of our student body. While our attendance has been spectacular this year, we also need to know when a student is not well enough to participate in a day’s learning activities.

By way of reminder: Elementary, Middle, and High School parents and/or High School students are expected to email the section offices with the reason for virtual absence when a student cannot attend to/participate in the day’s learning activities. [esoffice@asichennai.org; msoffice@aischennai.org; hsoffice@aischennai.org]

In a typical year, we track illnesses, fevers, and flu symptoms. Now, more than ever, it is so important that we know if a student or household member has flu symptoms and/or has tested positive for COVID-19.

Our Health Office is open virtually. Please use us as a resource.

Our school nurses are Jessy David, Suvitha R and Barkath B and are available on all school days from 8:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Contact our Health Office by email on healthoffice@aischennai.org or by phone on +919840729563 / +919940635827 for any health-related questions or if you need assistance.

Positive COVID Case Reporting

Given the contagious nature of the coronavirus, the AISC Health Office must stay informed of positive cases in our families’ households. In order to serve and protect community members, positive COVID cases need to be reported to us immediately.

Here are a few guidelines:

If anyone in your household -- including staff (live-in/non live-in) -- tests positive, please inform the School by writing to the section offices -- [esoffice@aischennai.org; msoffice@aischennai.org; hsoffice@aischennai.org] or to the Health Office contact details shared above.
All health information provided by AISC families has always been and will continue to be kept confidential and used by our Health and Planning Teams for record-keeping. When reporting positive cases within our community, the School will not use personally identifiable information.

We thank you for your cooperation in helping us keep our community safe. With collective and personal responsibility, we can all do our part to ensure the health of our community members and to help flatten the COVID-19 curve.

2021-2022 Data Center

Below find snapshots from our COVID-19 Data Lab. During the school year, we will update these each week (until further notice). Use this information to compliment external sources of information to understand our local context, inform decisions, and as opportunities to ask more questions.

1. Below, Return to Campus variables are trending yellow. The signs are getting better almost every day…

Return to Campus Rubric

The variables on our Rubric have been approved by our partner International SOS and have the support of the AISC Board.

All of the Decision-Making Variables below must be GREEN (GO) for AISC to consider re-opening campus for students.

SLOW

STOP

Decision-Making Variables	Explanation
Lock-Down lifted.	Tamil Nadu has relaxed most lockdown elements. Some specific and selective restrictions remain in the areas of travel, retail, commercial, recreational, industrial activities and movement within the city.
Government has lifted school closure orders.	Students in grades 9-12 have been given the green light to return to campus on September 1^st.
Emergency COVID Health Care.	This assessment is based on data from 9 major hospitals in Chennai. Availability of hospital COVID beds, ICU and O2 beds is high. Vacancy rates remain well above 25%.
Emergency Non-COVID Health Care.	Emergency care and access to emergency care facilities are close to normal.
COVID-19 Testing Levels.	Testing levels continue to be high.
Access to Supplies and Equipment at AISC.	Our campus is well-supplied and remains prepared to be opened, when permitted.

We also keep our eyes on the following Decision-Informing Variables, among many others, every day:

Decision-Informing Variables	Explanation
New cases below 1,000 per day.	New cases began falling below 1,000 on June 12. They are now consistently below 200.
5 Day Moving Average of new cases over total cases is less than 2% for two incubation periods.	This remains well under 2%.
Percentage positive test rate at acceptable level for one incubation period.	(WHO 3-12%) We have been below 12% for several incubation periods. See graph below.

2. Below, notice the curve is flat. Total cases in Chennai are now increasing very slowly as patients recover and new cases hold steady.

3. Below, daily new cases in Chennai have been below 1,000 since June 12 indicating continuing flattening levels of local spread

4. Below, we summarize the availability of emergency COVID Care in 9 major private hospitals in Chennai. COVID Care infrastructure and resources continue to improve and have returned to pre-surge normalcy.

5. Below the percent of positive tests relative to total tests has levelled off indicating fairly low levels of local spread.

sda

6. Below we have 162 confirmed COVID-19 cases in our community since January 2021, with 5 active cases currently. Active case individuals observe a 14-day quarantine at home and require two negative tests before returning to campus. Confidentiality is strictly observed.