CAC High School Principal’s Notes
Hello from Hanoi!
Hello from London!
We’re off to South Africa!
We’re off to Rome!
Week Without Walls is finally here! After many many months of planning, the first four international WWW trip groups have departed safely from the CAC campus. Groups traveling to South Africa, Vietnam, London and Rome all left successfully and students have already begun exploring those countries at the beginning of their programs. Of course, we look forward to them returning with many wonderful adventures and stories—lifelong memories will certainly be made this week.
Loading the buses
The remaining international groups will head out tonight and our local Egypt trips depart tomorrow and Sunday. For everybody else, the exciting on-campus and around Cairo programs will commence on Sunday morning. Please don’t forget that every student is expected to be here on campus on Thursday 2 March. Which will begin at 9:30 a.m. (The only exception is the South Africa group who will be arriving back on that day.) A big thank you in advance must go to our wonderful PTO and Booster Club who have agreed to provide a fantastic breakfast for our faculty and students on the morning of Thursday, 2nd of March to kick the day off well. Thank you to those wonderful volunteers!
In other news, immediately after Week Without Walls is Spring Break. Students and faculty will take a well-earned holiday and use the time to refresh and recharge, ready for an action-packed final quarter of the school year. With the many national holidays occurring in April and May, time in the classroom for focused learning and study is particularly precious. Please support us by ensuring your child attends school regularly and misses as few days as possible in this final quarter.
Shortly after the break, on March 20, the Quarter 3 progress report will be available in Skyward. This report will contain your child’s grades at this halfway point in the semester. Our grade 11 students will also receive an updated set of IB Current Scores to update you on progress within their IB classes. At the end of March (28th and 29th), we will open the doors for the second round of Parent-Teacher-Student Conferences and we look forward to welcoming you to meet with teachers on those days. More details will be coming home soon.
In the meantime, if your children are traveling this week, enjoy a peaceful time! We wish everybody a restful and relaxing spring holiday. School will commence on Sunday, March 12. I look forward to seeing you on campus around that time.
HS Parent Coffee Morning
We will be hosting a HS Parent Coffee on Wednesday 1 March, 9:30 – 10:30. The topic will be Parenting in the Digital Age. In this session, we will explore issues relevant to parents of teenagers such as online safety, digital footprints, managing inappropriate content and AI tools such as ChatGPT. I hope that you will be able to join us.
CAC students visited AUC to watch the Piece of Mind performances
Touring AUC
At AUC Gerhart Theatre
New mural is complete in the student lounge
Dates for your Diary
• Wed 1 Mar: HS Parent Coffee. 9:30 – 10:30. HS Meeting Room
• Thu 2 Mar: All students on campus for WWW closure activities
• 3-11 Mar: Spring Break
• Sun 12 Mar: Back to school. H Day.
• Mon 20 Mar: Early Release Day. Students Dismissed at 11:30 a.m.
• Mon 20 Mar: Quarter 3 report card issued in Skyward
• Wed 22 Mar: First day of Ramadan (subject to change)
• Mon 27 Mar: IB Art Exhibition Opening (5:00 p.m.)
• Mon 27 Mar: NHS Induction Ceremony 6:00 p.m.
• Tue 28 Mar: Parent-Teacher-Student conferences. 3:30 – 5:30 p.m.
• Wed 29 Mar: Parent-Teacher-Student conferences. 7:45 a.m. – 4:10 p.m.
• Thu 30 Mar: HS Talent Show 6:30 p.m.
• Sun 9 Apr: Western Easter Holiday
• Sun 16 Apr: Eastern Easter Holiday
Andrew Buckman Rachel McCall
HS Principal HS Assistant Principal
Counseling Department Announcements
Week of February 23, 2023
Grades 9 & 11 Course Registration: Rising grades 10 and 12 indicated their course requests recently in Skyward. Verification forms should have been signed by you and returned to our office by Feb 22nd.
Grade 11 families- Please schedule your college meeting (student, parent and counselor) to occur by April 20th (we ask that you calendar the meeting by March 13th).
Grade 11- Tuesday lunch sessions for juniors are underway! Our second university research and exploration session was held this past Tuesday during lunch for those who opt in. The focus this week was on UK universities. The information from this session and subsequent sessions can be found by going to the following link: CAC HS Resources Webpage – Tuesdays sessions. (UK will be added after the break).
Grade 9 – Health & Wellbeing Seminar
In collaboration with the Physical Education Department, this month’s seminar focused on Relationships as they pertain to navigating high school. Topics included healthy and unhealthy relationships, communication and consent, bullying, and being an upstander.
Upcoming College Visits
March 15- 11:15- 12 noon: Glion & Les Roches Swiss Hospitality Institutions
Grades 9-11: Summer Programs
Immersing yourself in a summer program is one of the best ways to use your time away from CAC to gain valuable experience. There are thousands of summer opportunities and programs being offered around the world each year. Click HERE to check out a few we have come across.
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: students have been reminded to check their application portals for any messages from their universities, and also to check their SPAM folder! They should let the counselors know when they have been given a decision.
Claudia Bean, Jody Stiles, Kasey Semler
HS Counseling
General Announcements
From The Aquatics
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfU7INa3zhKE7XktiVDUvUPCAHVEUeGXW6WLxTnIa0Asn2I3w/viewform
Aquatics Office
ES After-School Activities
The ES students always leave each session with big smiles, Thanks to the wonderful High School students who generously donate their time, knowledge, and kindness.
The ES Activities office greatly values the support and dedication you have demonstrated throughout the program and recognizes the significant contributions and impact you had.
We are extremely grateful and excited to have such a fantastic group of students and eagerly anticipate collaborating with you in future ASA seasons.
Mahmoud Abdel Fattah
ES Activities Coordinator
Joy for Janitors Drive
Dear CAC families,
In the third grade we recently finished our “How we Organize Ourselves” unit, where we learned that we can take action to support our community. Ramadan is an opportunity for sharing, reflecting and giving, and the janitors are a very important part of our community. They do so much work to keep our school beautiful, so we want to give back some of the love that they give to us! We have organized a collection of food and books:
What: sugar, dried fruits, shredded coconut and dates and honey in plastic jars.
What: books in English or Arabic for children ages 4 – 10 (picture books are the best)
OR if you prefer to donate cash, (all 5 items cost about 200LE, but any amount would be appreciated) look for the cash box in the elementary office.
When: Now until March 21st.
Where: The red donation boxes by the front gate, cash box in the ES office or Third Grade resource room 203 in the ES building (Look for the signs in the third grade hallway).
Thank you for all the donations we have started to receive! We know we can meet our goal of one Ramadan bag per janitor and at least one book per child, keep the love coming!
Monte Davis
Grade 3 Classroom Teacher
CAC PTO Open Meeting – Sunday, February 26
CAC PTO
Chopin Piano Competition for Children and Youth in Egypt 2023
We kindly inform you that the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Cairo and the European Foundation for Education and Culture Zielona Góra are organizing the next edition of “Chopin Piano Competition for Children and Youth in Egypt 2023”, addressed to the young pianists living in Egypt.
The Competition is held in Cairo from March 17th to 20th 2023.
We would like to spread the information so anyone willing to participate could join. More information and registration are available on the web page https://www.chopin-competition-in-cairo.org/.
We cordially invite you to participate!
With kind regards!
Parenting Together With Positive Discipline (Tweens & Teens) – Starts March 28
Join Carey Harris for a parenting course designed for all CAC parents!
The 8-week long course meets weekly to…
• address real issues for parents of today’s tweens & teens
• learn over 50 long-term, take-away tools for parenting during the adolescent years
• create a support network for parents of the Cairo American College community
To learn more about the course visit: https://parentingtogether.edublogs.org/
Space is limited! Save your spot – register here!
Carey Harris
ES Guidance Teacher / School Counselor
Positive Discipline Parent & Classroom Educator
NESA Parents as Partners Series
ON-DEMAND LIBRARIES OF WEBINAR RECORDINGS
2020-2021 / 2021-2022 / 2022-2023
You may access the libraries and their over 35 webinar recordings at this link.
Parents as Partners: Bringing Out the Best
WITH JOY MARCHESE
February 28, March 21, April 4, 2023
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.