Dear parents,
Please note that the After School Recreation Centre (SFO) is opened during the summer holiday weeks 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31 and 32 – from June 28 to August 13. The price per child per week during the summer holiday is DKK 400.00.
Due to the planning in the SFO, it is important for us to know before the end of April, if you wish for your child/children to attend the SFO during the summer holidays.
Tomorrow we will decorate our classrooms for Christmas. After we are done cutting paper chains, red and green goblins, Christmas trees, folding paper stars and hearts, we will hopefully end up in a great Christmas mood.
The students are more than welcome to bring patterns and christmas music on a cd. The students in Lower Secondary will decorate from 8 am until 11 am, and the Primary students will decorate from 8 am until noon.
We hope that we will have a nice and different school day with all the students.
Bullying can be stopped if students, parents and teachers work together
The Cosmo and Kolding Realskole have a moral obligation to reduce bullying. Furthermore, the charter agreement lay down by the school board specifically states that the school strives to “provide a safe physical and emotional environment”. At school, teachers are doing their best to keep an eye open for potential bully situations and if possible stop them before they take place, though this is not always possible.
That being said, parents also have an obligation to help stop bullying, and we are not able to help and take action, unless we are informed by the students and/or the parents, so please inform the class room teacher, if there is anything we should be aware of.
If bullying occurs, we will have a serious talk with the student or students, who bully, and thereafter the parents will be informed. Should such an incident arise a second time, we will consider suspend the student in question for a shorter period, and if the bullying does not stop hereafter, the final step will be to expel the student from our school.
“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me…”
Do you remember that old nursery rhyme? Honestly, it wasn’t true when you were in school, and it isn’t true now. Teasing, taunting and other forms of bullying can cause serious emotional harm to children, and it may last much longer than a bloody nose or scraped knees.
Before the summer holidays a 12-year-old Danish boy committed suicide by hanging himself in a tree after having been the victim of excessive bullying from other students of his own age. Due to an Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, popularly called ADHD, this young boy proved to be an easy target for bullies at his school, and according to the Danish newspapers “…these bullies drove him over the edge of what he was able to endure”.
Even though the dead boy’s mother was well aware that he was having problems at school, she was totally taken by surprise by her son’s suicide. The dead boy was due to move to a new school, where his brother had already moved, because of the persistent bullying. The school has been criticised for not having done enough to stop the incessant bullying.
What can we do to prevent something as horrible as this from happening ever again?
Before trying to answer that question I believe it is necessary to explore what bullying really is and how we can stop bullies and bullying at school?
What is bullying?
Bullying can be defined in many different ways, and even though many countries do not have a legal definition of bullying, it can generally been seen as peer abuse. The reasons for bullying might be many; but most students have a tendency of bullying those who are in some ways different.
Bullying is every intentional act aimed at harming others, through verbal harassment, name calling and use of foul language, physical assault or other more subtle methods of coercion such as manipulation, threats or the like.
A definition of bullying can be when a person is exposed, repeatedly and over time, to negative actions on the part of one or more persons. The negative actions are, when a person intentionally inflicts injury or discomfort upon another person, through physical contact, words or in other ways.
Electronic bullying also known as cyber-bullying
Bullying can also happen on-line or electronically. This form of harassment is known as cyber-bullying. It occurs when someone bullies through the Internet, over mobile phones or via other electronic means of communication. Examples include sending mean-spirited text, e-mail, or instant messages; posting inappropriate pictures or messages about others on blogs or on websites; using someone else’s user name and identity to spread rumors or lies about someone and finally lying to hurt internally and externally.
Some facts about bullying
A rough estimate made by the Danish Children’s Council (Børnerådet) says that 7% or every 14th child will experience being bullied once a week.
According to the survey from the Danish Children’s Council:
Other facts about bullying:
Stop bullying
Please help us to stop bullying by informing us about any incidents that might be classified as bullying.
As a starting point our aim is to teach and help our part time students improve and develop their English skills both in writing and orally.
We do attend to them individually as they are on very different levels academically. The classroom language is English at any time. We cooperate with the Danish teachers in their home room class so we are aware that we do not “cross” any lines academically.
During our lessons we combine classroom teaching and individual teaching. We work with films and books which we talk about and write about.
Apart from this they each have their own workbooks, but we also encourage the students to do oral presentations on the interactive whiteboard and in front of the other students in general. The background material for this will be books or topics in general which the students have prepared during lessons. This is mainly based on the will and motivation of the students as we do not see any purpose in forcing the youngest students to present projects until they feel safe in front of a class. We do believe that the most important task for them is to practise oral English as they do not have the same opportunity to speak that much English in their classes at Kolding Realskole therefore it is our aim to speak as much with each one of them as possible.
We do not, however, give them homework, but they are welcome to work in their workbooks during the week as long as we are informed about this and the arrangements have been made.
Synne Lindum Haagensen
Class room teacher – CIPP
Please bear in mind that it is very important for the students to remember to bring their lunch every day. They all have rather long school days, and we see a clear difference in their concentration before and after they have eaten.
They are sometimes able to borrow money from a teacher, if they forget their lunch, but of course they like their own lunches better, which are healthier and more nutrient than the food which they are able to buy at the school.
As we spoke about at the parents-teachers’ meeting we would like to make an automatic link to your mail addresses, when we post news on the blog. This way you will always be updated on news written on the blog.
In order to be able to do so, we need your mail addresses. Please send a note from home or mail it to the headmaster info@thecosmo.dk Simon Mosekjaer or class room teacher Synne Lindum Haagensen synne.lindum@kolding-real.dk with mail addresses on every parent in the family, who would like the automatic link.
Moreover you also have the possibility to subscribe to new posts published on the blog. This subscription is called RSS feeds. Read more about RSS feeds at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS.
After each post on the blog you will find the following text: “You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.” If you press RSS 2.0, a new page will appear, and on this page you need to click on “Abonner på dette feed”; “subscribe to this feed”, in English. Thereafter you will receive all updates from the blog.
Welcome
Welcome to new and old students alike. The teachers and I hope that you all had a pleasant and enjoyable summer and are ready to begin a new and interesting school year 2009-2010.
Transportation
Any student at the school can apply for reimbursement of seasonal bus and train tickets, of which the school will cover 50%, if the student meets the conditions concerning distance between home and school. (See the two forms below)
Milk
The Danish dairies offer cheap milk to all students provided that the students order for half a year at a time. 1/4 litre of milk – skimmed milk; semi-skimmed milk; full-cream milk or buttermilk – costs DKK 286.00 for six months. If you are interested, please send me an e-mail before the end of this week containing; full name of the student, phone number and which type of milk you child would like, and I will order for you.
The first week
The first week the Cosmo-students follow the tradition of Kolding Realskole, where all the Lower Secondary students are off at 11.35 and the Primary students at 11.50 to give the students a gentle start. The regular timetable begins next Monday.
After School Recreation Centre
Should you wish your child to attend the After School Recreation Centre, I would like to know as soon as possible, and on Friday at the very latest.
New Teachers
We have two new teachers this year Mr. Ripley Davenport and Monika Jensen. Read more about them at www.thecosmo.dk under Education, Teachers.
Simon Mosekjær
Concerning transportation for the school year 2009/10
The school covers 50 % of the travelling expenses; however it is only students, who meet the conditions concerning distance between home and school, who will receive subsidies. Furthermore can students who are ill or invalid apply for subsidies from special funds. Only students enrolled by September 5 can apply for the subsidies.
Minimum / maximum distance
Kindergarten – 3rd class 2.6 km/12.5 km
4th – 6th class 6.1 km/16.0 km
7th – 9th class 7.1 km/16.0 km
10th class 9.1 km/17.0 km
Provided that the student has a season ticket with more zones, than he or she is entitled to from the maximum distance, or if the student lives further away than the maximum distance, there will be a deduction in the subsidies.
The procedure is that you buy the season ticket for bus or train. Hereafter you fill out an application for coverage of travelling expenses, and we will make sure you receive 50% of the ticket’s price in your bank account, if the student is entitled to the coverage.
Application for reimbursement of seasonal bus and train tickets
The school covers 50% of the ticket cost, if the student meets the conditions concerning distance between home and school.
Please fill out the form with all the required information. We will hereafter transfer the money to your account, if the student is entitled to the refund. Remember that we must have a copy of the bus/train card and the tickets every time you request a refund. If the student moves, notice must be given at once.
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Transportation 2009/10
Student’s name________________________________________________________
Student’s address______________________________________________________
Social Security Number __________________________ Class 2009/10_________
Date of entry ___________________________
Registration’s number _______________
Account number ______________________________________
___________________ ______________________________________
Date Parental signature
For the school:
Coverage in DKK ___________________ Calculated distance____________
Own payment DKK _____________________
Validation period ___________________________________
As a teacher for 11 years and a Head for almost two of them, I have yet to work in a school where everyone reckons that communication is good and that information is passed on satisfactorily. In the schools I have worked in, I have asked for input on how to improve things from staff, parents and students. Almost inevitably, as if it were some kind of mantra, every time I ask how the school could be better I get the response that communication needs to be improved.
Every time I have had this response I have thought long and hard about what can be done, and every time I have started some initiative that is meant to improve the situation. And yet, still, the response from some group or other will be that communication needs to be improved, is not good enough or is inefficient.
I know that we are not unique in any way, that most schools do most of all of what we do and that we will all face the charge, at some time or other, of not communicating well. I feel that this is a particular issue in international schools. Parents and staff come from different educational and cultural backgrounds and the international school never fully matches up to what the parents and students have been used to or what they expect…
Teachers will be used to one way of communication and find another in operation or will find the language confusing or will find the style of management strange, parents, possibly paying tuition fees for the first time for their children’s education, may expect a greater degree of communication that they had before. International schools have their own, developed, systems which have grown out of their particular and peculiar circumstances and these often do not conform to any institution, parents, students or staff have met before.
All of this is a partial explanation as to why; we have decided to have this blog. A blog, for those of you who do not know it, is essentially a web page on which you can write very easily and create a number of dated, sequential entries, rather like a diary. There is also the possibility for the readers of the blog to post comments on it, related to the entry they have just read.
We have a common responsibility for seeking information on the blog and the website, which gives us a common ground dealing with whatever issues that may arise. Should the nature of the message in question be of a more personal character, we all have e-mail addresses to which you are more than welcome to direct your questions and individual pieces of information. You will find the teachers’ e-mail addresses on the website.
The inspiration for the blog came from Ann Meier from Business Kolding, who thought that a blog might be a way to introduce a more personal note into the communication between the members of staff, parents, students and other collaborators.
Hopefully this blog can alleviate some of the communication gaps which are said to be there!
Best regards,
Simon Mosekjær
Head of Department
Thomas Stieglitz and Keegan Mobley are trying to tip over this tree…
Ailey Mobley is challenging herself climbing a tree