Dear AISC,
Enjoy your long weekend! Happy Tamil New Year, and Happy Easter!
We have an important week on campus next week! On Monday, April 18, we begin Earth Week – our community-wide effort to call attention to environmental issues and actions associated with Earth Day 2022.
Why is this so important to us?
Among the AISC Core Beliefs, two are particularly relevant in today’s world: A. We are responsible for our choices and their effect on ourselves, others and the environment; and B. In an interconnected world, our positive contributions to the community and the environment are essential.
Contrary to the views of an array of all too vocal skeptics worldwide, the scientific evidence of global warming is virtually beyond doubt. Likewise, the role of human activity in the pattern of climate change, rising global temperatures, and environmental degradation is widely in evidence. AISC’s Core Beliefs above are commitments that our community assumes to make a difference in the future health of our planet.
These beliefs should also translate into specific actions that will aim to diminish our collective impact on the environment. At AISC, we believe that we can make a difference and contribute to a more environmentally sustainable future.
The challenge is how do we do that? The first thing to do is to keep that priority in focus.
The global environmental verification system, LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), certifies buildings and campuses for their environmental sustainability. The American International School Chennai is one of the first schools in the world to achieve Platinum Status using the ARC system. When you are on the AISC Campus, you are standing in a LEED certified space.
Earth Day, celebrated annually on April 22, started in 1970 as a call-to-action in service of environmental issues has become a significant annual event to focus global attention on the health of our planet and the role of human activity in environmental degradation.
With more details below in On Campus Reminders and Updates, starting on Monday, April 18, our Earth Week begins…
On Campus Reminders & Updates - Ryan McFarland, Student Life Director
Earth
Week
Next week is Earth Week. We have themes for specific action, and spirit themes to show support. There will be many activities throughout the week, but here are some of the highlights and how you might be involved.
Monday, April 18th
Energy Day, Meatless
Monday, and Dress Like Your Spirit Animal
We’ll be reducing our power consumption on campus and invite you to do so also. Also, the foods served on campus will not have meat. Some classes will be taking a tour to understand more about AISC’s solar panels.
Tuesday, April 19th
Transportation Tuesday,
and Dress to Impress
Consider sharing rides with other people in your neighborhood! All day we will have tire pressure checks and filling available in the school’s drop-off area. Fuel economy is a financial and environmental incentive! We’ll be making a commitment to make AISC carbon neutral for all school travel for the 2022-2023 year.
Wednesday, April 20th
Waste Wednesday, and
Trash Fashion
We’ll be informing students of our school’s measures to reduce waste and launching a community drop-off for certain recyclables.
Thursday, April 21st
Water Thursday, and
Wear Your PJs
We’re installing faucet aerators in frequently used sinks and some classes will be conducting tours of that school’s water treatment plant which reuses our waste water to fill toilets or water our plants.
Friday, April 22nd
Earth Day, and Wear
Green
Student-created upcycled art pieces will be on display, a massive book swap, and Earth Day Mela with environmentally friendly vendors and organizations will be on campus and open to parents from 12-4:15 p.m.
Hoodie
orders
Place an order for a custom AISC hoodie here by April 22nd to have your hoodie by the end of the year. If you want to know sizing, stop by the Athletics & Activities office next to the iHub. Questions? Contact mryan@aischennai.org.
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 p.m. MS classes will be using 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.
Here are a few captures of student experiences during this short week.
Updated! Project Get Back Update
In the coming weeks, we are phasing-in the following routines/activities while maintaining our RaptorSafe Protocols:
Here are the other aspects of campus life we are working to bring back soon…
- Interscholastic
team play
- ES
Movie Night
- Field
Trips
- HS/MS
in-person CareerX experiences
- AISC Staff Crèche
We will continue to welcome your questions, ideas and input as we continue to work on Project Get Back. Email Ryan McFarland or Andrew Hoover directly at mryan@aischennai.org or headofschool@aischennai.org.
Board of Directors Update
Biannual
General Meeting of the Association held on Wednesday, April 13
As per tradition, at the April Bi-Annual General Meeting (the second of two each year), Andrew shared slices of survey results from parents, faculty, and students. The presentation slides are in Information and Reminders below.
Elections
Committee Update
Congratulations to Francesca Hammond, Ravishankar Pillai, and Sunitha Kumaran on their elections to the Board of Directors.
Next Week At-A-Glance
|
Date |
Event |
Details |
|
April 4- 22 |
ES WIDA Testing |
|
|
April 14 & 15 |
Tamil New Year’s Day and Good
Friday NO SCHOOL |
|
|
April 18 - 22 |
Earth Week |
See Principals’ notes for more info |
|
April 19 |
ES Parent Coffee 9:00
a.m. Transitions & MAP Testing
Information (Grades 2-5) |
See info in ES Principal’s
notes |
|
April 19 |
ES Art Exhibition 3:30 - 5:30
p.m. (parent and student event
in-person) |
See info in ES Principal’s
notes |
|
April 19-20 |
MS MAP |
|
|
April 20 |
Early Release 2:30 p.m. Faculty Meetings 3:00-5:00 p.m. |
|
|
April 20-22 |
SAISA Season 3 |
|
|
April 21 |
Book Swap |
|
|
April 21 |
HS Discover Earth Day |
|
|
April 21 |
HS/MS Band/Choir Concert |
|
|
April 22 |
Grade 4 Sleepover |
|
|
April 22 |
Last Day for IBDP students |
|
|
April 22 |
Community SMS Test |
|
Health Office Update
Reminder
- Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease (HFMD)
The city of Chennai is seeing a recent surge in the Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease (HFMD). It is a common viral illness that usually affects infants and children younger than 5 years old. However, it can sometimes occur in adults. Symptoms of hand, foot, and mouth disease include fever, blister-like sores in the mouth (herpangina), and a skin rash in the hands and feet. More details on this disease can be found here in this link.
AISC currently does not have any cases of HFMD.
We request parents to be watchful and consult your paediatrician immediately should your child develop any symptoms. Please do not send your child to school if he/she has any symptoms of HFMD.
Reminder
- Vaccinations in Chennai for 15-18 Year-olds and 12-14 Year-olds
If
anyone would like assistance coordinating vaccinations for your child 12 or
older, please email healthoffice@aischennai.org.
Technology – Dr. Greg Clinton, Director of Technologies/Research &
Development
Reminder
- Website Approaching!
We
are performing a "soft launch" of the new school website to our
faculty and staff this week so we can get feedback, look for any bugs or areas
for refinement, and prepare for a global, all community launch on Wednesday,
April 27. Stay tuned to AISC social media and newsletter announcements for more
details leading up to that date.
Parent Relations – Deborah Allen, Director of Admissions
and Parent/Alumni Relations
Reminder
- PCA Election: Executive Committee 2022-2023
Please consider serving on the PCA Executive Committee for the 2022-2023 school year! Being a part of the Executive team is a rewarding experience and an opportunity to engage with the school, developing what often ends up being long lasting relationships with many members in our community. Self-nomination forms are available by emailing Seema Thomas at tseema@aischennai.org. Completed forms should be returned to Seema by 12:00 noon on Monday, April 18th. The PCA Elections will be conducted using an electronic ballot, the ballots will be open to the AISC community May 10-12, 2022, and results announced on Friday, May 13th.
Reminder - NESA Parents as Partners - Webinar #8, Tuesday, April 19th, 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.*
Join us for the Parents as Partners Webinar Series. To participate you may use the same link you used previously, or you may (re)register to receive an email with the link. This is the LAST WEBINAR for this semester.
Webinar #8, Reflecting on the Journey -- Presented by Ellen Mahoney on Tuesday, 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.
Reflect on the work we have done this school year around the inner work required of the adults in young people's lives. How have we strengthened our mindsets and social emotional competencies? What insights can we glean from learning alongside our youth? Share with each other and provide social support around your insights this year and the next steps you can take in your Adult Social Emotional Learning journey.
NOTE: If you are unable to attend, or you want to listen to the session again, the webinar recordings and slides from the previous sessions are posted on the Parents as Partners Info Hub a day or so after each session.
AISC Wellbeing Update – Wellbeing Council
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 childs 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.
Reminder - AISC Libraries - The #earthweek2022 Coming to AISC in April
The AISC
Libraries are collecting book donations now for our first ever Earth Week Book
Swap! If you have any pre-loved books (still in good condition) in any
language, for any age, and in any genre, please drop them off in the ES/MS or HS
libraries. For every two books you donate, you get a free book at the swap!
Please let Babs know on bbarbara@aischennai.org if you have any
questions.
Curricular Concert – From Secondary Music Department
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 p.m. 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 p.m., 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!
Stay connected.
Have an amazing long weekend!
Andrew A. Hoover
Head of School
headofschool@aischennai.org
COMMUNITY NOTES
Reminder – Student Protection – Michele Ness, School Psychologist/ES
Counselor
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.
FOR REFERENCE
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 keep the COVID-19 curve flat.
2021-2022 Data Center
We have reduced the data share in our Data Center to the four most relevant items right now: daily new cases, hospitalization data, community illness data, and local vaccines rates.
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, we are sharing daily new case
graphs in Chennai comparing the Omicron Surge to the two previous surges --
Alpha and Delta. (The x-axis is the number of days and the y-axis is number of
new cases/day.)
2. Below, we summarize the availability of emergency COVID Care in
9 major private hospitals in Chennai,
and of more 13,000 beds across Chennai in Community Health Centers (CHC) and
Communicable Disease Hospitals (CDH). COVID Care infrastructure and resources are
steadily returning to normal.
Percent of Chennai COVID-19 CHC and CDH Beds Available Since
January 1, 2022
3. Below we have 312 confirmed COVID-19 cases in our community since January 2022, with 1 active case currently, including staff, students and family members. Active case individuals who expect to be on campus observe a 10-day quarantine at home and require two negative tests before returning to campus. Confidentiality is strictly observed.
4. Vaccination efforts continue in Chennai. More than 99% of the
adult eligible population Chennai has been vaccinated and more than 79% of the
adult eligible population of Chennai has been FULLY vaccinated. 76% of eligible
children in Chennai between the ages of 15-17 have been vaccinated.
Commitments in 2021-2022
Our Commitments for the 2021-2022 school year are here!
Staying RaptorSafe
Our RaptorSafe information is here!
Information and Reminders:
AGM Head of School Presentation – April 13, 2022 | Head of School Coffee Presentation – March 10, 2022 | Head of School Coffee Q&A – March 10, 2022 | #MeetAISC Survey | AISC Community Directory – 2021-2022 | AISC Annual Calendar – 2022-2023 | Head of School Coffee Presentation – November 11, 2021 | Head of School Coffee Q&A – November 11, 2021 | AGM Head of School Presentation – September 8, 2021 | Head of School Coffee Presentation – August 12, 2021 | Head of School Coffee Q&A - August 12, 2021 | Senior Leadership Team Town Hall Presentation – July 27, 2021 | Senior Leadership Team Town Hall Meeting – Q&A – July 27, 2021 | Learning Models Framework | Student Protection Manual 2021-2022