September 1st, 2008,
Dear Parents and Students,
Welcome back to our returning students and a big welcome to our 8 new students – Elif Dusunceli (6H), James Rothwell (6H), Shruti Naik (6H), Emre Dusunceli (6M), Conner Lock (6M), Gregorio Sorgi (6M), Holly Zhang (7T), Eleonora Tucci (7T) and Carl Kuylenstierna (7T). New Students should meet in the Atrium on Wednesday morning at 09:00.
I hope that you have had a restful and enjoyable holiday. We have been busy getting your classrooms ready for the first day of the new school year. We look forward to seeing you on Thursday.
Here is some useful information for the beginning of the year:
The first day of school is Thursday, 4th September. Middle school students should plan to arrive no later than 08:45 and proceed directly to the small front pitch where you will meet your homeroom teacher.
To provide the necessary co-planning time for Ambrit teachers, the schedule of language classes has been adjusted to allow teacher teams to meet every day to plan the "programme of inquiries", the in-depth investigations into important ideas. The block scheduling in Middle School has been abandoned in favor of hour-long lessons. Each core subject will meet four hours per week and each special will be allocated one hour per week. All Middle School language courses (Italian Preparation for State Exams, Italian for Fluent Speakers, Italian as an Additional Language (IAL), French, Mandarin) will be taught simultaneously.
Each year, Ambrit's relationship with the Italian school ("Ruggero Bonghi") where Ambrit students take the Quinta and the Terza Media Italian State exams becomes more challenging. The Director and the faculty of "Ruggero Bonghi" have agreed to host our students for an additional three years on the condition that we reduce
the number of students presented. In accordance Ambrit will limit the number of students preparing for the Quinta and the Terza Media State exams to Italian nationals who will transfer or go on to an Italian school.
In Middle School, there will be still be the three Italian programs options: Preparation for State Exams, Italian for Fluent Speakers and Italian as an Additional Language (IAL). French and Mandarin are also offered as additional core languages. Beginning this September, the students enrolled in Italian Preparation for State Exams will have their Math (and "Tecnica") lessons in Italian.
We wish to make parents aware of the additional costs involved in the exam preparation. As of September 2009, we will ask families whose children are in Italian State program to share the expenses, which we estimate at 500 Euro per child. These fees will be used to offset the cost of afterschool lessons, Saturday school, consultant fees paid to the host school, additional salary paid to Italian teachers who work with host school.
Class meetings will be scheduled shortly and will be held from 10-12 September – 6th grade Wednesday 10th; 7th grade Thursday, 11th and 8th grade Friday, 12th. You will receive more information about this important meeting with your child’s teachers. This meeting is a perfect opportunity to hear about your child’s classes, the curriculum, homework and to meet other parents.
It is of the utmost importance that students arrive on time at school each morning. School officially begins at 08:45 but students should plan to arrive a little earlier so that they will not miss the homeroom period which outlines important information about their day. We invite students to refer to the policies on the Ambrit dress code and digital material.
The New Parent cocktail party will be held on Saturday, 6th September from 17:00 – 20:00 at Mr. Mullane’s home. Invitations have been sent out.
Thank you for all your support.
Bernard Mullane
Director
