October 2022 Edition

Attendance update

Currently our Attendance rate is just below 90%. On the surface this looks fine but it means that every day we have over 100 pupils who are absent (often without notice). This puts them at a huge disadvantage – we need every child in every day if at all possible, and ON TIME – the day starts at 7.30am so please aim to be here BEFORE 7.30am.

90% attendance = ½ day missed every week!! (Would your boss like you to be off work this much??). That’s practically part time! 1 school year at 90% attendance = 4 whole weeks of lessons MISSED!!! 90% attendance over 5 years of secondary school…. Half a Year missed! Research suggests that 17 missed school days a year = GCSE grade DROP in achievement. The greater the attendance the greater the achievement.

Please help us and your child by ensuring their attendance remains above 95%, allowing them to achieve their potential. We are looking to award special certificates and star awards to all pupils (and staff) who achieve 100% attendance over the year.

Extra Curricular Activities

As mentioned before one of my targets for this year is to boost Extra curricular activities, be that sports, drama, clubs and societies or whatever. The soft skills that these activities develop is central to the preparedness of our pupils for the outside world. Four weeks in I can proudly announce that we have 1346 pupils taking part on a weekly basis with the extra curricular clubs across the school. Evidence that this is something the pupils want too. My thanks go to my staff who are looking after so many of these activities on top of their normal teaching load. If you get the chance please thank them too. They really are going the extra mile.

Parents On Site

Please can parents be aware that parents not be allowed in and on campus unless you have a pre booked appointment. This is not in order to be secretive rather it ties in with our Safeguarding / child protection policies, where we don’t allow strangers on site in order to keep all pupils safe. Your cooperation with this would be appreciated. Thank you.

Synchronised Swimming

Congratulations to Lourdi Perera and her partner Jithmi (from CIS) were placed first in their duet in the Junior category. (16-18 years. Lourdi was placed 2nd in her Solo at the Artistic Swimming National Age Groups Championships 2022

Inter House Drama

The Junior and the Intermediate drama competitions were completed successfully before exams. Due to the fuel crisis we couldn’t do the senior one- mainly due to the fact that they were completing IGCSE, A/Level exams. They however were able to do digital versions of their impromptu playlets and those were sent out to be judged . The results are as follows:

First Place – Noreen House
Second Place – Kalan House
Third Place – Felix House
Fourth Place – Ruby House
Best Actor – Rayanka Jawawardane (Noreen House) Best Supporting Actor – Meth Abeysinghe (Noreen House)
Special Mentions: Pravan Williams ( Felix House), Siyath Anandasiri ( Ruby House), Jaden David ( Kalan House)

Suggestion Box

I am delighted to announce that we have set up a suggestion box in reception. It is often the case that pupils make some really good suggestions that we can implement. Sometimes they are a little unrealistic (free ice creams every day ! etc) but it is good to ask the opinion on pupils (our customers). This goes hand in hand with the School Council we are setting up, which will also act as a sounding board for possible improvements across the school. Exciting times.

The first batch of suggestions mentioned the state of the girls toilets, and the Canteen as popular topics. We have already improved the girls toilets as requested and I’ve just had a meeting with the Canteen to improve matters there too. See below.

Parent Directory

As mentioned last term I am keen to set up a Parental Directory of businesses and opportunities for both other parents and my staff. Being a Stafford International School Parent is a bit like being part of a well trusted and values driven club. You should therefore be able to trust a fellow SIS parent. As such I hope this directory grows as more parents are comfortable sharing their products and details with the rest of the “club”. If you would like your details and offer added please send it to Cheryl at cherylh@siscolombo.lk Many thanks

Canteen Update

We are delighted to have the Good Market providing healthy snacks and meals to our pupils in the canteen. It is vital that pupils have nutritious food so that they grow both mentally and physically. Educating pupils about healthy eating is also one thing we take seriously.

Having met with the team from the Good Market they are revising their menu and their offering following constructive feedback.

We have also set up a pre ordering number where parents can pre order food for their children to pick up on site (thereby removing the need to queue and carry cash) Call Punsara on 0774 188 764 to pre order food for your child.
Furthermore, we are looking into a debit card that parents can top up that allows pupils to purchase food with.
The menu has been revised and prices have been kept as low as possible. The Good Market team are passionate about their message of healthy food, and are proud to be offering this service at virtually cost prices.
The SIS canteen has a Zero-Waste policy and is committed to eliminating #SingleUsePlastic. Therefore we only use glass bottles, wooden cutlery, and paper boxes. ♻️TO GET RS.20 OFF ON YOUR NEXT PURCHASE, RETURN YOUR EMPTY GLASS BOTTLE! #ReturnEmptyBottle #Discount #ZeroWasteLet’s keep our school clean! Protect Mother Earth! 🌎
The canteen will host a #NoSugar campaign throughout the month of October to raise awareness on why sugar is harmful for ones health. *#SayNoToAddedSugar in Drinks and get 25% OFF on NATURAL JUICES.

Tennis victory

Congratulations to all those who played so well when representing Stafford at the National Tennis Championships. Stafford is rapidly becoming THE place to come if Tennis is your sport.

The School came out as overall winners of the U18 Tournament.
U18 Champion Stafford’s very own Chathurya Nilaweera
U16 Champion Vichinthya Nilaweera
U16 Champion of Division 2 – Amrik Wettimuny
U12 3rd place in the second division to Avantha

Geography News

Making an active volcano. As a part of our Geography lesson “Earthquakes and volcanoes” a model of an active volcano was made as a group activity in an outdoor setup. Children came up with creative ideas for erupting the volcanoes. Some groups were able to recreate active volcanoes and a few groups had their dormant volcanoes.
Geography project – ‘Paint your own t-shirt’ As a part of our Geography lesson “Seas and Ocean” children were asked to paint a t-shirt on the topic “Save Our Ocean”. Children came up with various ideas and lot of fun creating their own t-shirts.