School Bulletin 31 – 14th of October 2022

Upcoming Dates

 
Whole School

School closure  –  We would like to thank all members of our Learning Community for their collaboration and support following the unplanned and unexpected school closure between Tuesday and Friday of this week.  We would particularly like to thank our teaching staff and students who, with very little notice, moved all learning experiences online to ensure that disruption to learning was kept to a minimum.
 
Communication channels  –  The School employs two major channels of communication to send emails to groups of parents depending on the target audience involved: i) Mailchimp – as for this Bulletin, which takes us about 10 minutes to send emails to the whole parent community and ii) a Gmail system where parents’ emails are grouped by Grade Level, which we use to send emails to specific targets e.g. that particular Grade or all one section e.g. Primary.  On the Gmail system, we can change the grade level of every student in 10 minutes at the beginning of each school year, on Mailchimp, no!
 
If for any reason you believe that you have not been receiving the School’s official communications through one of these channels, then please contact Reception (reception@bscr.ed.cr) so that we can check that we have the right addresses for you.
 
Haitian Fundraising Initiative  –  Due to this week’s closure, our shoe and clothing donation drive in order to support Haitian immigrants, will be extended until Friday of next week.  We highly encourage the BSCR community to engage in this Year 12 student initiative by donating their used apparel, which will be collected at the entrance by Reception.
 
Early Years and Primary

Virtual Learning  –  We would like to thank all students and parents for their efforts with virtual learning this week. Though we, as a Learning Community, are now more prepared for virtual learning it is still a frustrating process for many.  This is perhaps even more so for our younger students where virtual learning can be particularly challenging.  As a result, we greatly appreciate all the efforts that have been made by our younger students and parents this week.  While there are variations between year groups, in general, our aim is to try and ensure that children continue to stick to a regular academic routine while at home.  As a result, anything that you can do at home to support this is very welcome.
 
House Update  –  Next week, our House Captains are organizing a House Football competition as part of our House events. So far this quarter, Poás have pulled into a small lead though there are still many weeks to go.
 
Early Years Cultures Day  –  Due to this week’s school closure, our Early Years Cultures Day activities have now been moved to Wednesday 19^th of October.  As we celebrate the diverse cultures that are represented in our Learning Community, on this day, Early Years students are invited to come to school in the national dress of any country from around the world with the exception of Costa Rica (football shirts are not permitted).
 
Secondary
 
IGCSE and IB Art Exhibition  –  On the evening of Monday 10^th of October, teachers, parents, friends and family, came together in the School Auditorium to celebrate and support the artistic successes and achievements of the IB and IGCSE Visual Arts students in a wonderful end of year Visual Arts exhibition. Congratulations to all the artists involved in this excellent event: The IB Visual Arts students, Poppy Charnock and Valentina Sosto, and the Year 10 IGCSE Visual artists, Camila Beirute, Gabriel Campos, Victoria Coto, Camila Gutiérrez, Marie-Claire Joseph, Miranda Mendoza, Jeshaiah Miller, Marianna Ortiz, Isabella Palma, Raquel Rodríguez, Alexa Rubinstein, Sarah Thomas and Emma Videche. Well done and thank you from the Art Department to everyone who supported the Visual Arts exhibition 2022. Photo
 
PSAT – 15^th October  –  Year 10 and Year 11 students who registered and paid to take the PSAT exam will be taking this exam on Saturday, October 15th in the Auditorium.  Students should arrive at school between 7:30 and 7:45am. The test will begin at 8am and will finish by noon.  Students should bring a mask, their own calculator, number 2 pencils, eraser and sharpener. Students can bring snacks and beverages for break time. School uniform is not required.
 
Pura Vida University College Fair – 19^th October, 4pm to 7pm  –  The 2022 Pura Vida University College Fair is just around the corner!  This event will host dozens of universities from around the world!   Year 9 to 12 students are invited to join the Fair as well as parents and teachers who want to participate and take advantage of this wonderful opportunity.  Previous registration to the event is necessary in order to participate.

• All participants should REGISTER on the platform here: https://puravida.webifairs.com/form.php
• Here are some recommendations to make the most of virtual college fairs

Year 11 Talk  –  Last Thursday, October 8th, all Year 11 students participated in a talk conducted by the “Rescuing Lives Foundation”. Their founder, Julia Woodbridge, spoke to our students about the topic of Suicide Prevention in Teenagers. This event, which coincides with September being the WHO’s month for suicide prevention, links in with some literature that the NB students have been reading in their Spanish class this quarter.  Mrs. Woodbridge gave a moving speech about her personal experience on this topic and shared very important guidelines on how to deal with crises during the adolescent period.