CAC High School Principal’s Notes
As you are all aware, at the beginning of this week our community was shocked by the sudden and tragic passing of Ms Menna Ashraf. Menna worked in the high school counseling department since 2018 and has brought light and joy into many students, staff and parents’ lives through the kind and professional work that she did. Her passing was a terrible shock for everyone in our community. However, we drew strength from the overwhelming amount of positive support received from the entire community. I received many messages of condolence and offers of help from our parent community and for each of those messages I am deeply grateful, as are the team members. Additionally, the Booster Club donated a memory tree to the school and everyone is invited to leave a message of hope tied to its branches. The tree can be found in the HS lobby area and it will remain there in January when we reopen school.
Despite the tragedy, school continued for our students, and they have now all successfully completed their semester exams. This has been a difficult semester for many of our students—both very busy and engaging but also rocked by two separate tragic events. Our students are ready for a well-earned holiday. We encourage them all to take a break from their studies, connect with family and spend time doing things they love for themselves. During this break, of course, many students will still have some work to do and our Grade 12s in particular will be working on IB coursework and university application processes. However, balancing this with time to recharge batteries is especially important at this time of year
School will reopen on January 8 and we look forward to welcoming the community back on that day. At the end of that week we will be releasing the semester one report cards which will give you a chance to see how your child is progressing with their studies
May I take this opportunity to wish you all a wonderful holiday, and if you are traveling, please do so safely. Wishing you all the best for a happy, peaceful and prosperous 2023.
Dates for your Diary
• 16 Dec – 7 Jan – Winter Break.
• Sun 8 Jan: School resumes (Semester 2 begins; it will be an A day)
• Thu 12 Jan – Semester One Report Card Issued
• Sun 15 Jan – WWW Payments are due (100%)
• Fri 20 Jan: Hope Run (in Wadi Degla)
Andrew Buckman Rachel McCall
HS Principal HS Assistant Principal
Counseling Department Announcements
Week of December 15, 2022
Semester Exams – Study Snacks Matter
Healthy study snacks that will do much more than simply satisfy your hunger. When you choose the right brain fuel, you will be more than ready and prepared to take on those exams, mid term projects, finals, and term papers with ease. The high school counseling team promoted healthy eating by offering the high school students free healthy snacks throughout exam week.
Grade 11 University Application Kick Off
February 7th – save the date!
Grade 11 Programing
Prior to the university application kick off the counselors will meet all grade 11 students to review PSAT scores and prepare for the February 7th university presentation.
Grade 10 Programing
In January the counselors will meet with all grade 10 students to review PSAT scores and prepare for course selections. The course selection process between grades 10 and 11 is important, therefore each student will be asked to complete a 4 year academic plan to help ensure they are on a suitable pathway to individual success.
ACT Prep Course
CAC has partnered with Higher Ground Learning to offer a 2-weekend in-person ACT prep course at CAC in March. To learn more about registration and the cost, please click here. There must be at least 5 people enrolled for the course to take place.
ACT Test information:
Students may register for the upcoming 22-23 test dates at CAC, or other test locations in Cairo. Please go here to find out more.
Grade 12
Upcoming Applications: Students should continue working on applications for the later USA EA & RD submissions, The Netherlands, UC’s, and UCAS. The internal CAC deadline to have all applications complete and ready to submit through January 15th was Nov. 30th.
Students should continue to check application portals on a regular schedule after an application is submitted, to see if there are any additional requirements or SRAR (Self-Reported Academic Record) forms to fill out.
Document Request Forms: Seniors submitting applications must be sure to submit a Document Request Form (DRF) to the counseling office. This form ensures we know exactly what documents are needed to send to each of the different institutions being applied to. If your senior has not yet submitted the DRF’s for the UC’s and any earlier January deadline dates, they need to do so ASAP as those must be processed before winter break (students can still work on the student submission after Dec. 15th, but the CAC portion must be submitted to our office before winter break).
Claudia Bean, Jody Stiles, Kasey Semler
HS Counseling
General Announcements
Moving on from CAC before the winter break?
Please use the link below to let us know if you are withdrawing from CAC this semester so that we can prepare records in time for your departure. Please note that this semester’s middle school report cards and the final high school transcript which includes this semester’s grades will not be available until mid-January 2023.
A few days before your departure, a withdrawal form that includes several signatures must also be completed by middle and high school students in order to clear any outstanding obligations, and turned in to the Admission/Registrar’s Office to release records.
https://cacegypt.org/index.php/withdrawal-request
Registrar’s office
HS Library
Introducing PressReader – free for you from the CAC Libraries!
PressReader offers hundreds of magazines and newspapers from around the world and in multiple languages!
Click here for directions on how to Sign-in to PressReader using your CAC Google Account – note you will need to click “Library/Group” on the sign-in page to access the subscription.
Meghan Ennis
Library
The Maadi Basketball Association (MBA)
The MBA is a basketball league for children in the Maadi community. The MBA includes boys and girls from age 5 through 16, and is played in the CAC gyms and outside basketball court. The season runs from Jan. 8 through March 18.
Register for the league at the link below:
MBA 2023 Registration Form
Parents, please consider supporting the league by being a coordinator, coach, team parent. For more information, contact the MBA Coordinator, Monte Davis, at: mdavis@cacegypt.org.
Monte Davis
MBA Coordinator
Parents as Partners Second Semester: Info Packet for Parents
We are delighted that your parent community will be joining us for four more interconnected and interactive webinars led by Joy Marchese.
Attendance is open to parents, as well as any school faculty and staff.
Parents as Partners: Bringing Out the Best
WITH JOY MARCHESE
January 17, February 28, March 21, April 4, 2023
Four Sessions, Tuesdays 4:00-5:00pm (Athens GMT+2/+3)
VIEW INFOSHEET | VISIT THE INFOHUB
REGISTER NOW
Note: There is no cost to register. Register at any time before the session you wish to attend. You will receive a link to join in an email shortly after completing the form. You may use the same link to join all three sessions, or register again to receive a new link.
*Please note: Daylight savings time begins in Greece on March 26, 2023. This will affect local session start times in areas that do not observe daylight savings.
Recordings will be uploaded to the InfoHub after each session.
Bring Out the Best in Yourself, Your Child and Your Home
Continue to develop community practices within the home to increase your confidence as a parent and develop a plan for those (inevitable) challenging times. Learn practical tools and habits that anyone – a caregiver or not – can apply to their lives.
This 4-part series will explore effective communication, child development, wellbeing, behavioral psychology, and positive parenting as a way to create an environment where children (and adults) are encouraged and engaged, and feel a sense of connection, value and belonging.
Learn more »
About Joy Marchese
Joy Marchese is founder and director of Positive Discipline UK and co-author of Positive Discipline for Today’s Busy (& Overwhelmed) Parent. She runs a successful global educational consultancy and coaching practice, and develops SEL courses and products to teach social-emotional skills in homes, schools, and multiple organizations throughout the world.
The NESA Team
CAC PTO