SCHOOL NEWS

16/08/2010: WELCOME!

Dear Parents,

Welcome to Lighthouse Special Education and Three Little Ships Preschool for the 2010-2011 school year! We know that you join us in looking forward to an exciting new school year of growth and learning. The school has been thoroughly cleaned over the summer and the teams are busy setting up the classrooms, materials and supplies in preparation for your children.

We are fortunate to have most staff returning this year. A few staff updates: Gen Kessler is on maternity leave through December 2010, Lena Hammero and Lucie England have returned from leave of absence and are now back to Lighthouse and Three Little Ships, respectively. At Lighthouse, we continue to integrate more children into mainstream classes at KSS. This year, Lucie Bradley will be working in integration at KSS, and Milika Boseniyana will primarily work in the classroom at Lighthouse.

We are very sorry to say goodbye to Sara Mayo, who has accepted a position at the International School of The Hague. Although we will miss her dearly, we celebrate this wonderful career opportunity for Sara. Joan Toebes will no longer be working at Lighthouse, but we are happy to say that she will continue to work within the HSV schools. We have been interviewing teaching staff and lunch supervisors for the supply list, and have many new applicants who come with excellent references. Please help us welcome them to our schools.

As you may know, there is an initiative underway to expand the Lighthouse facility. The Lighthouse Foundation has made significant progress toward the expansion project and continues efforts toward large-scale fund-raising. While we are awaiting the expansion, we are fortunate to have use of the porto-cabin for individual and small group work. Along the lines of fundraising, through the generous support of our Lighthouse families, the spring book, toy and DVD sale raised nearly €150 for play equipment!

A special meeting for your calendar: There will be a parent meeting for Lighthouse families on Sept. 14th at 19:30. The purpose of the meeting is to meet the heads of the HSV, to learn a bit about the organization, and to discuss a parent-teacher advisory for Lighthouse. The Three Little Ships has a parent-advisory group specific to the preschool that is re-established each year. Preschool parents will receive information about the preschool parent-advisory meeting in the next few weeks.

We are proud to say that Fiona Passantino will continue as the Lighthouse representative on the GMR (General Parent-Teacher Council for the HSV). Thank you, Fiona, for your ongoing time and effort. We would also like to start the year by thanking Michela Quaglia, parent of Pietro, for continuing to volunteer as the administrator of our websites. Michela’s dedication to designing and maintaining the websites helps families and community members find the information they need about our schools. Please use the websites as a reference, as we will continue to post school-related information and activities on these sites throughout the year: www.lighthousese.nl and www.threelittleships.nl

We look forward to seeing you next week.

Yours sincerely,

Cynthia Jaeger
Location Leader