7 September 2018

Dear Parents,

We are 4 weeks into the Term, with Summer turning to Autumn day by day. The School is the largest it has ever been at 720+ students, there are many talented new Teachers and Assistants in place, with the last appointments taking place now to meet the extra number of classes in the school. To meet the increased numbers, we will b7 17 September open a third class in both Grade 2 and in Grade 3 with a Teacher and a TA in each. We are also looking at the 5+ class to see how numbers settle for a second class in this year group.

The Term 1 Calendar, which is viewable on the website and on main Noticeboards, details the 3 Parents’ Evenings in weeks 7 and 8 which provide an opportunity for Parents of all children throughout ESM (from 3+ to Grade 12) to meet Form Tutors and other Teachers to review how the year has started.

On the Calendar too are details of the various inter-school Basketball (the team sport for Term 1) fixtures and the sporting choice is wider than ever from an ever-enlarging Football programme to new activities like Yoga and Jiu-Jitsu. The Friday Lunchtime Informal Concert season starts this week (piano and violin duets today) and the first Duke of Edinburgh Trip is scheduled for Week 6.

Our Countryside Days have enjoyed mixed weather over the last two weeks (much more Summer Rain than usual!), but, as always, these outings demonstrated Mongolians’ innate sense of Fieldcraft and were popular and enjoyable occasions for all of the students from Grade 1 upwards.

This early in the school year is a good moment to instill sensible and substantial working and home habits for all ESM students and we ask parents to help us in achieving a true balance of recreation and homework in the hours after school and at the weekends – as adults (parents, teachers, whoever) we all need to show the way about maximum hours spent on our mobiles, computer games, Facebook and the rest. And about realistic sleeping hours too, please.

The big majority of our students are coming to school looking very smart in their uniforms and our thanks to parents for supporting ESM in this way. It is important that our appearance in and out of school should be a credit to everyone.

All parents will by now have a contact point with Form Tutors this Term and we very much encourage liaison both ways to ensure that we are all working together, as fully as we can, to support your children’s education.

Regards,

Graham Hill

Director

The English School of Mongolia