TISP Headteacher's Communication Term Two 2023

Dear parents,

Today we come to the end of yet another eventful term. We thank the almighty God for guiding us and for giving us the protection that we needed to navigate through the challenges of the term. It has been a remarkable journey filled with academic achievements, extracurricular triumphs and moments of personal growth for our pupils. Through their unwavering dedication, the collective efforts of our staff, parents and community members, we have created an environment that fosters learning, discovery and the pursuit of excellence. Below is a reflection on the highlights of this term and an envision of the exciting possibilities that lie ahead. Thank you, all dear parents, for supporting us and for always being here for our children!

A very big welcome to all of those who joined us this time. We hope that you had a wonderful time with your new family. We are a family because everyone here is each other's keeper. We insist on happiness, and we hope that you have been happy throughout. We want our children to excel academically but we also want them to be excellent at the 5Cs with which they have interacted since the beginning of your time here.

Term Two is basically a teaching term. Term One is a foundation term and a time for everybody to learn each other. Term Two becomes a time to progress on all fronts. As a result, we have noticed tremendous progress in the academics of many learners. Their reading levels especially in the Lower School have tremendously improved. Handwriting and spelling have all shown markable improvement. The end-of-term examinations have also indicated that a lot of children achieved on that front as well. We thank you for always keeping in touch with the teachers; making sure that the journey to progress for our learners is two-way. Socially we bring back to you better children, better behaved, better responsive to instruction and largely with a higher level of work ethics. We hope you can consolidate these gains at home so that Term Three gives us a chance to continue progressing.

The Nursery School had their Sports Day this term. Even though the weather interrupted the proceedings, we ended up having a good time with you and the babies. It was good to see babies enjoying and getting lots of opportunities to participate in as many games. This is one of our efforts to try and separate the babies from the larger school community as far as activities that concern the whole school. Thank you again for coming and for participating fully in the activities. You made the babies, and the school at large, proud.

This term we had the Exposition as the major focus. We chose to give our children the basics of business. The theme of the exposition was “Create: Our business.” With this theme, children were able to think of a business idea and creative ways of making money out of it. Together with their teachers, they devised means of making the business work. They produced prototypes, made finished goods and planned all the packaging. They designed marketing strategies and implemented them to make money. As you must have noticed on the day children confidently explained the processes and spoke business language all through. As a school, we are delighted to have introduced these young souls to the basics of production, marketing and sales. This is the whole purpose of the exposition and we believe that our children are not the same.

After the exposition, sat down and analysed their performance as a class. Those who made profits have acquired class items to celebrate their profits. Those who unfortunately were not able to make profits had to sit down to analyse the cause so that it becomes a learning opportunity for them in life. Thank you for turning up in large numbers and thank you for supporting the children. Special thanks go to all those parents who helped particular classes with different items from home which enabled the children to run their businesses and to put up such a fantastic show! Challenge these children at home over the holidays to showcase the skills that they picked up. Allow them to start small businesses now that they are buzzing with all these ideas. We don't want them to be killed! As a school, we are meant to light the candle and I believe we did this in more than one way. It's now your time to keep the candle burning.

Cambridge section had their Non-Uniform day whose theme is always to foster acts of kindness. Children pay for the privilege of not using a uniform on this day by involving themselves in an act of kindness in return. This time they collected little monies from their pocket money and put together close to 500,000 shillings. This money was used to buy household items like a mattress, a blanket and food groceries. These were donated to an old lady in Ssisa who lives by herself and survives literally on donations from well wishes! A group of them represented the section and handed over these items. It is these random acts of kindness that we hope to use to teach our children the spirit of giving and understanding that we need one another in this world. We believe this is the sort of education that will make our children movers and shakers of this world in the future.

We had our maiden Music Week this term. This week was dedicated to singing only and this time they were accompanied by a live band music instruments played by our senior children from the secondary school guided by Teacher Jimmy. Every lunchtime for the entire week, we had children singing their favourite songs accompanied by the band. All those who thought they had the talent in singing were given a chance to showcase and, in the process, we were able to identify children with real singing talent. We have asked our Teacher Emmanuel, the Music teacher, here to communicate with the individual parents of those children who showed real talent for singing so they can plan to progress their talent. Again, because we have always prided ourselves in discovering a hero in every child, we believe this week was such an important addition to our very rich provision outside of academics. We implore you, parents to always take the lead from our discoveries. As a school, we can only provide the foundation but like in sports we expect you to further these children's talents by enrolling them into clubs out there that have specialised in this individual talent development programmes.

The Cambridge school also had their very successful Book Week, a special week dedicated to highlighting the importance of reading in one's life. During this week, children do a lot of activities related to books including a special focus on book structure, genres and many other things. They choose books and act them out for enjoyment but also for growing a deep understanding of the book. This is celebrated on a Friday afternoon. This week was a massive success this time with amazing acting skills exhibited on the day. I would like to thank our teachers who work tirelessly with the children to always come up with these far-reaching learning activities which come sometimes in quick succession of each other.

We resumed Darasa lessons after a long interruption by COVID-19. Teacher Ismail Nsanja has managed this very well and a lot of you have supported by contributing a nominal fee which helps to run this exercise. Children were tested and the results indicate that progress is being made! I believe with consistent effort, by the end of the year, children will have really improved. We appreciate those who have come in handy to see this programme succeed. Always contact Teacher Ismail on 0705943426 for any issues or clarifications that you might want regarding this programme.

Catechism classes to prepare children for sacraments that they are supposed to receive next term have also been ongoing. Archbishop of Kampala Diocese, His Grace, Paul Ssemogerere, has agreed to preside over the ceremony to administer these sacraments to our children next term on 30th September, 2023. For all the parents whose children are participating, please make sure to be in touch with the teacher Peter Ssemwogerere who is coordinating this. It is important that you have paid the required money for this ceremony to happen but also to ensure that other requirements like the baptism cards and everything else are in order. Teacher Peter Ssemwogerere can be reached on 0783405162/0703075351.

In Taibah, we believe that travelling is an important part of one’s learning. Whenever one travels, they never remain the same. That is why trips are a major part of our education here. Every class is entitled to a trip fully paid for by the school. By the time children go through to Year 6 or P7, they should have been to more than nine trips within the country. These internal trips are basically study trips which are designed to complement the learning that happens in the classroom. However, for those who might want to extend their experiences out of Uganda, trips are organised but are exclusively paid for by the parent. Two international trips have been organised this year one to East Africa and another one to Dubai. Both trips are scheduled to take place at the end of Term Three in December. Those who might be interested should find the necessary information from the front office. Also, speak to teacher Umar for those intending to travel to Dubai on 0703461695/0772516366. Teacher John who is coordinating Nairobi and Mombasa trip can be reached on 0772520172/0755028181. These international trips require early planning. Therefore, those intending to facilitate their children for these trips should make early plans by making deposits at the beginning of Term Three so that plans can be made in time.

Next term, we resume the Principal's Friday meetings. These are small, cosy meetings where you get to interact with the School Principal over matters of the school and beyond. Please remember to sign up at the beginning of the term for one of these meetings.

There are only a few places left in our Cambridge school in Years 2, 3 and 4. If you know anyone who is looking to join us, please inform them to take this opportunity. Let them speak to Ms Joweria at the Front Office as soon as possible.

Year 6 candidates return two weeks earlier than the rest of the school because their exams come early in the term. They return on the 27th and 28th of August for Boarders and Day scholars respectively. They will be sitting their International Primary Checkpoint Exam on the 18th, 19th and 20th of October 2023. Term 3 for the rest of the school, will begin on 12th and 13th September 2023 for Boarders and Day scholars respectively.

Once again, we thank you very much for being supportive parents and for being here every time we needed you. We ask the Almighty to bless you and make it easy for you all the time. Have a wonderful Holiday with the children. God bless you.

Looking forward to seeing you next term!

Yours,

Judith Musisi

Head Teacher