Dear Parents, Students and Families,

The first full week of school went by so quickly! It’s been wonderful to see how easily students are settling into new routines and building meaningful relationships with their peers and faculty. Of course I can’t help sharing more images of students reading. The first photo is especially inspiring because not only is this student reading, but she is also the first student to arrive at school that day! My thanks to Mr. Post for the second photo.

Vaccines

As promised, I am pleased to share with you that over 93% of all AIS Faculty and Staff are fully vaccinated. This rate of vaccination is considered very high, and includes administration, teachers, office, maintenance, security, and custodial staff, as well as Cafe Concepts and California Coach employees. All AIS families and students can feel confident that the staff at AIS are taking every precaution available to keep them as safe as possible. For the very few staff that remain unvaccinated for medical reasons, AIS requires that they provide the school with bi-weekly copies of negative COVID-19 tests in order to come on campus and interact with students, in accordance with government guidelines. This requirement has been in place since school resumed on 12 August.

Extra-Curricular Activities (ECAs)

As you might imagine, AIS is looking forward to the time when we can offer ECAs for students once again. In preparation, we are asking for your help in assessing how quickly we might be in a position to extend these learning opportunities to our students. According to the 2 August 2021 memo from the Education Bureau, when the teachers and school staff as well as the students of school have achieved a 70% vaccination rate, schools “can arrange non-academic extracurricular activities (e.g. music and physical activities).” Being fully vaccinated is defined as having “received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine for more than 14 days”.  When that threshold is met, schools can offer ECAs.

Practically, this opportunity only applies to students who are 12 years of age or older, because the vaccinations are only permitted for use with this age group at this time. As a result, we are currently asking parents of students aged 12 years of age and up to let us know if their child or children are fully vaccinated, and, if not, whether they plan on having their children become fully vaccinated by 30 September. Please let us know this information as soon as possible by completing THIS FORM as soon as possible but no later than Wednesday, 1 September.

If more than 70% of students aged 12 and up are fully vaccinated and/or plan on becoming fully vaccinated by the end of September, AIS will be in the position to plan for ECAs and sports activities, given our high faculty and staff vaccination rate. Current government guidelines are clear that teacher and student vaccination rates must both be 70% or more for this to occur. The memo also states that individual students who are fully vaccinated can participate in ECAs, so it is possible that we might be able to organize activities based on this data. Once again, we will keep you informed.

Special thanks to the more than 70 High School Families who attended this morning’s High School Orientation Session on Zoom. It was wonderful to see so many involved parents!

Have a lovely weekend ahead.

My best,

Anita Simpson
Head of School