Kudos to our summer readers! 🌞📚 Your love for books made this summer unforgettable. Keep the reading magic alive!

We're excited to introduce our new reading buddy in the ESLC! Students have been having a blast playing with him and coming up with creative name suggestions. After all the votes were counted, we're thrilled to announce that our new friend will be called **Biscuit**! 

A special shoutout to Ms. Rafiqa’s Class 1A, who took it a step further by incorporating a math activity to create a graph representing all the name suggestions. Additionally, Mr. Cook’s Class 3C created their own graph to represent the data that was collected. 

We can't wait for more fun reading adventures together.

ASA's (After School Activities)

PowerSchool registration has now closed; if you did not meet the deadline, we cannot guarantee you an ASA in the 1st session. Early next week, we will compile the data and send out what ASA your child got into. Again, each ASA has different restrictions regarding capacity so if you child doesn't make it into that one they will make it into at least one of their top three choices.

You can find out more information on the ASA site page

ES Back To School Night is on Monday, September 2 from 5:00 - 7:00. We will begin in the theater and then families are invited to go to their child(ren)’s homeroom classes and to meet the specialists. Please note that this is an adult-only event. 

Elementary Back to School Night Schedule

5:00 – 5:15 Welcome to ES Back to School Night in the Theater

5:30 – 5:50 Grades EY, KG-5 Homeroom Class Session #1

6:00 – 6:35 Drop in visits with specialist teachers

6:40 - 7:00 Grades EY, KG-5 Homeroom Class Session #2

Specialist Teacher Locations

Arabic Teachers - Rms 110, 112, 114, 116

Music K, 2 & 3  Grade –Rm 109

 Music EYP, 1, 4 & 5th Grade – Rm 111

 Art – Art Facility (upstairs, next to the Gym)

 PE – ES Learning Commons

Counselors - ES Learning Commons

Learning Support Teachers - Rm 108

 Library – ES Learning Commons

This year, we are off to a safe, kind and responsible start with elementary students. A quick reminder regarding student lunches; heating of items brought from home is not permitted during lunchtime. Microwaves are not available to students, nor is it the responsibility of Blue Fig staff to heat items from home. Please make sure your students have items they can eat directly from their lunchboxes. If you have any questions, please contact Andy Martinez amartinez@acsamman.edu.jo  

Students will have their indiviual photos taken for the Yearbook the week of September 16th. Your child's class teacher will let you know which day your child will have their photo taken in their communication with you next week.

Sunshine and fresh air are a recipe for a fun recess, but protecting your child's skin from the sun's rays is essential. That's where hats come in!

Here at ACS, we encourage all students to wear hats during outdoor play. A wide-brimmed hat or legionnaire style hat is recommended for the best protection. Not only do hats shade your child's face and neck, but they also help keep their head cool and comfortable.

Sun Safety Matters!

Sun exposure, especially during peak hours, can lead to sunburn, premature aging, and even increase the risk of skin cancer. Hats are a simple and effective way to minimize these risks and ensure your child can enjoy recess safely.

Don't Forget to Label It!

With all the excitement of recess, hats can sometimes get lost. To help make sure your child's hat finds its way back home safely, please label it clearly with their name.

Working Together for Sun Safety

By working together, we can ensure all our students enjoy a fun and sun-safe recess. So pack that hat, label it with [Child's Name], and let the playtime begin!

Most students in grades 2 -10 will take the Math, Reading, and Language forms of the assessment in the next few weeks. Your child’s teacher will share the exact days that your child is taking the assessment.  

The MAP assessments provide us with external data that compares your child’s performance with a set of recognized standards. Because the assessment is adaptive, we are able to gather information about children outside of the constraints of grade level bands. 

This is not an assessment that your child can study for. In order to help her or him do their very best, please ensure that your child gets plenty of rest and eats a healthy breakfast. You can also help your child by not making a big deal about this testing experience. It is not a high stakes assessment and the children have no reason to feel stressed about their performance. Your child’s teachers will share the exact dates that the students in their class are taking each of the three components of the assessment. 

You will receive information about your child’s performance on the MAP assessment after all students have completed the tests. For more about the MAP assessment, you can jump to the MAP Family Toolkit. As a school, we look at the results of the MAP assessments to help us understand each learner as well as our programs. Our classroom teachers will spend time together looking at MAP results in conjunction with other pieces of data about learning. As administrators, we use multiple data points (including MAP) over time to help us understand where our students are doing well and where we might consider making programmatic changes. 

We invite you to join us on October 28 at 8:15 in the morning for a special MAP Parent Chat.This presentation will be recorded for parents that are not able to join us. 

We hope that each ES class has at least one class parent. If you are interested in helping in this role, please contact your homeroom teacher.  

Here are the key responsibilities of a Room Parent:

• Liaise with your homeroom teachers to assist with specific requests. 

The teacher in each classroom will have specific requests and levels of involvement which will vary from class to class and grade to grade.  These usually relate to homeroom activities and chaperones for class trips. Room parents are NOT expected to do everything themselves. 

• Attend Elementary School Parent Coffees and Parent Teacher Group (PTG) Meetings.

Whenever possible, please have at least one class parent attend PTG meetings and  Coffee mornings. Specific dates are listed in your Elementary School events calendar.

• Assist with parent volunteers. 

You will be contacted from time to time by the chairs of various events to help find volunteers. Your assistance is greatly appreciated.

• Assist with recruiting of chaperones for field trips if needed. 

A minimum of two chaperones will accompany students on all field trips.. The student-to-chaperone ratio for overnight travel must be no more than 8:1. The student-to-chaperone ratio for walking and day field trips must be no more than 10:1 . A chaperone is defined as a teacher, teacher assistant, parent, School employee, or other responsible adult that has been approved by the principal.

Additional Information

• Parent Issues and complaints

When parents approach you with personal or academic problems involving their child at school, please do not attempt to handle these problems yourself. Rather, refer the parent to the appropriate teacher or ACS staff member involved. As a parent rep, please  manage WhatsApp discussions so that they remain positive and helpful. 

• Class pot-luck events or other whole class “extra” activities

You are welcome to have class potlucks and other class wide or grade wide events outside of the school day.  Please understand that the homeroom teacher may not always be able to attend.

Some of the holiday events or ‘extras’ which occur in some classes are not possible without the tremendous support and organization skills of dedicated parents.

Chances are your child's emotions fluctuate quite often!  Over time, this may make you feel stuck as a parent around how to support your child and yourself in addressing emotional outbursts.  It is taxing work. To possibly help, we've added another tool to our ES Counseling Website - Check out these Tools to Try posters you can print and hang in your home to remind yourself and family members that there are tools you can use.  The tools are best used together, as a family - not just for the kids!

We are here and happy to support you if you have any questions or would like to discuss ways to create a calmer home environment.

Tim Steadman and Hayley Jeanes