RECTOR’S BLOG – May 18, 2020

Dear Member of the TES community,

Our thoughts are with you at this challenging time, especially with regard to your health. We, therefore, send our best wishes and an ‘abrazo virtual’ to everyone but with a special thought to those of you quietly and bravely suffering from illness.

So, what are we doing in terms of TES decision-making?

Our school leadership continues to monitor closely and follow the latest COVID-19 health and safety decrees and recommendations laid out by the government and the education and health ministries. We also share proposals and ideas with our friends and colleagues in the Bogotá private school and corporate sectors whilst examining the good examples set by similar leading international schools in Europe and Asia as they return to school.

Here in Colombia, we are hopefully approaching the same stage and next week we will be sharing our plan for a safe and well-organised return to school.

More obviously, as you will know from numerous online meetings, we do things guided by The English Way. Our school leadership with SELT (Senior Educational Leadership Team), SALT (Senior Administrative Leadership Team) and parent representative groups, especially the Junta de Dirección and Consejo de Padres, are dedicating many, many hours of our work and time in mutual support and guidance. As our TES parents especially will know this is a very strong and special feature of our school’s decision-making structure and it is to be valued and used appropriately.

We, therefore, thank each and every member of the TES community hugely for their ongoing feedback, support and understanding during this difficult and extended period of campus closure. Our aim is quite clearly to fulfil ‘our mission statement The English Way, actively upholding our core values of respect, trust, integrity and the principles of the IB Learner Profile’.

Our current and developing decisions for the return to school are based on the following factors:

• The virus is not yet fully controlled in the Bogotá city region and therefore there is a health and safety risk for students and staff at school.
• Key information and all steps required for private schools to reopen have not yet been clearly communicated by the government and education ministry for Calendar B private schools for the next academic year. Official forecasts as indicated on this particular site (http://saludata.saludcapital.gov.co/osb/index.php/datos-de-salud/enfermedades-trasmisibles/modelo-covid/) are for peak infection to be passed in time for a projected return to school in August. I am ever optimistic but also realistic.
• Deliverable health and safety protocols and social distancing expectations for schools need to be in place with TES operating a higher level of safety and security than the norms in Bogotá for the foreseeable future.
• The need for safe transport to and from the home to our campus, especially for students and staff.
• Measuring the requirements for the first phases of reopening, our school will change dramatically affecting all learning and teaching engagement and on-site movement.
• The success of our current online TES Distance Learning Plan and how the reopening of the campus will affect that.
• Keeping together as a TES community, because We are all one, The English Way.

During the current extended campus closure, we will continue engaging students and guiding student learning through our established plan. We will continue to actively develop this programme based on our student, staff and parent feedback and we will motivate our students. I continue to be impressed with the level of dedication of students, teachers, support staff and parents across all grades and areas of the school.
In the short term, we hope that everyone in the TES community will do their part to help prevent the spread of infection by following the measures and the guidelines as directed by the authorities and by the school.

Please note that we are looking to re-open our campus in August and we will communicate our plan next week after a thorough consultation phase. Much will depend on the progression of COVID-19 and governmental decisions but our TES community will continue to plan ahead of the game situation.
As always, please do feel encouraged to continue to engage with our school leadership and representative groups through official channels and meetings with any feedback or questions that you may have.
Keep positive and engaged. We will get there together for the students, The English Way!

With kind regards,
Jeff

RECTOR’S BLOG – may 7,  2020.

Dear Students of The English School,

This is a very special and challenging time in your life, in all of our lives.

You are at home now with your family but you need to know that we the teachers and support staff miss you. We miss your laughter, we miss your stories, we miss your smiles when you quietly go through the ‘Aha’ moment when you realise you understand something new, we miss your grins when you realise you can do something much, much better, we miss your opinions when you tell us how you want everything to be… just perfect, and we miss your celebrations for winning an award, getting to a final or getting that place you and your families always wanted at a great university.

You are at home now learning in a new and exciting 21st Century style. It’s frustrating when we cannot get connected to the lesson and it’s even more frustrating when we have to reload. But this is temporary, we have a spirit and we are like never before in our lessons listening, reading, writing, making calculations, playing, discovering and experimenting, The English Way. 

We are more responsible for learning by ourselves but we ask our parents and brothers and sisters for help when they need to call in at work for meetings, do their own jobs and lessons or do some research. Members of our family are working together like never before and even though they sometimes say something wrong at the wrong time, we know that they are doing their best for us and especially so when sometimes they do not feel well and are just… tired out! And that’s the time to give them a hug.

This coronavirus Covid-19 is affecting us as we cannot go out and meet friends and family, shop, dance, play sport, go on a walk in the countryside or go on a weekend trip. When we read the news we know that the situation is not as bad and sad as it is in many other parts of the world, we know that many people in Bogota, Colombia and the world are suffering but we know that our leaders in Colombia are doing a good job. So, we thank our politicians and we thank the security services, and we thank our doctors and nurses for protecting, for caring and for saving our people. But most of all we thank our families for providing a safe and encouraging environment at the time in our lives when we need it.

We are not alone, we are a community, we are The English School and we look forward to our future together, The English Way!

Jeff.

BLOG DEL RECTOR – 29 de abril de 2020

Photo: https://www.eltiempo.com

Dear TES Community Member,

We at The English School are a community with a vision The English Way to look forward and provide first class opportunities for our students in Colombia and on the world stage. 

Our students enter universities and the world of work with globally recognised qualifications from the International Baccalaureate and the Alliance Francaise. Our students also gain experience, confidence and skills that they develop at conferences of the Model United Nations in New York City and The Hague. 

I also know from experience that the reputation of Colombians is growing in a very positive manner across the world from East Asia to the Middle East and from Europe to North America.

It is therefore with delight that I encourage our TES community to celebrate that on Tuesday of this week Colombia became the 37th member of the OECD. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is an exclusive group of countries that discuss and develop economic and social policy. OECD members are democratic countries that support free-market economies.

This is a fantastic achievement and will most certainly open doors for young and aspirational Colombians. Right now our multi-talented TES students are building a platform for themselves to take advantage of such a world of opportunity.

Well done Colombia!

Jeff

Read about this now in English: https://www.oecd.org/countries/colombia/global-oecd-welcomes-colombia-as-its-37th-member.htm

Read about this now in French: https://www.oecd.org/fr/pays/colombie/l-ocde-organisation-de-portee-mondiale-accueille-la-colombie-qui-devient-son-37e-membre.htm