Feb 11, 20223 min read

Message from the Principals 2/11/2022

Hello everyone!

We have lots to share this week!!

1: New Parent Portal

2: How parents can help our students

3: Valentine's Day Info

4: Student ID's

5: STEAM Fair Important Information

6: New Hope Staff!

7: House Points Tally

8: Photos of the week!!!

1: New Parent Portal

We have added a Parent Portal to our homepage. It gives Hope parents access to important school and class information and all of our yearbooks! This was designed as a response to parent feedback. We will continue to work to improve and appreciate all feedback! Please see these slides for guidance on how to access the Parent Portal.

2: How parents can help our students

Another suggestion from parents was a blog section on "How can parents help?".

As a school we love to go on field trips and other large activities. Unfortunately, with the current state of the world and the various restrictions in place, it is difficult for us to do these kinds of things. The good news is that families can help!

We would like every child to come to school ready to learn and excited to be engaged in their projects/activities. This means that their social-emotional needs must be supported at home as well. We encourage all families to engage in fun activities together to strengthen bonds and exercise. We know the pandemic has made it challenging to go outside, but there are many things you can still do together! Here are some family activities suggested by our students:

Playing musical instruments with their grandparents
Eating at restaurants / cooking & baking with the family
Shopping
Watching movies,
Cards, board games, and video games
Hiking
Make a blanket / pillow fort
Go to Round 1
Take a drive / visit Okinawa tourists spots
Visit friends and families
Science experiments
Play sports
Play with robots
Make a toy house.
Reading books together
Make crafts
Go for walks

These were all suggestions directly from the students. Please take some time to engage in a few of these with your children!

3: Valentine's Day Info

This year Hope will not participate in "white day". Rather, if students bring chocolates during valentines day, please make sure to bring something for every member of the class. Students may also dress up and wear red if they wish!

4: Student ID's

We have provided every student with a School Student ID! Students can now take advantage of various student discounts at stores and sight-seeing locations. These ID's will also be used for morning attendance. A QR code based system was created and coded by our High School Student, Sean. It will be used as our morning check-in system! Please note: there is a 500yen fee for replacement of lost or damaged IDs.

5: STEAM Fair Important Information

Our STEAM Fair will be on March 18th. We are currently planning to invite parents to the event! (Subject to change based on the current pandemic situation) Each family can come with 2 adults to watch the event. Parents will be able to vote on the most persuasive presentation from the students. A Google Calendar invite will be sent to parents, please make sure to reply! We look forward to seeing you there!

6: New Hope Staff!

We are happy to welcome new staff to our Hope Community! Ms. Enma is from El Salvador and is our support teacher and school Nurse!

Ms. Delaney is from Tennessee (USA) and will be teaching IPC to the Grade 2 class to provide Ms. Noriko with the time to teach Japanese Culture class.