The last two weeks have been full of energy in the Primary School with all our learners involved in a range of exciting learning engagements. Highlights have included a visit to the theatre for our Kindergarten children who enjoyed a tumultuous retelling of Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat' in Mandarin; Year 4 learners taking a day to explore some of the cultural highlights of Singapore and Year 6 learners leading Digital Workshops for their parents. (See under Recent Events.)

This week has also seen the start of Season 1 of the ECA and CCA programme. With over 90 activities taking place, before school, during lunchtimes and after school the children have had a wonderful time exploring their passions! The first sporting event of the season, our Years 3 to 6 Interhouse Cross Country at Bedok Reservoir, took place last Friday. The extremely heavy rains didn't dampen the children's competitive team spirits and the great fun had by us all. Due to the weather, our Year 6 learners were unable to race and took part on an alternative course created at school. My thanks to the fantastic HPE team and everyone involved in making the event such a success. Thanks also to the very wet parents who came to support our undaunted athletes. (See under Recent Events.)

Last weekend La Salle Colege of the Arts held it's annual Rock and Indie Music Festival. We were delighted that one of our primary learners, Claro joined some of our secondary school learners as our two Nexus Beat bands were invited to perform. They put on a great show! We are also thrilled that over twenty of our primary children have been successful in auditions for this year's production of The Wizard of Oz (See under Arts.)

This week we hosted Greg Jansen, a world-reknowned expert on Restorative Practices. Not only did Greg lead several sessions with staff - working with them to build strong and lasting learning relationships, he also ran a great parent workshop for a packed audience. To find out which Parent Workshops are coming up in the future and to register your interest click here. The workshops take place in the Mulitpurpose Room (on Level 2) every Tuesday at 8.30am. Next week our session is: How can I best help my child to learn a language, both in out of the classroom?

Two important upcoming events include our Primary School Parent Teacher Conferences and United Nations Global Goals Week. The Parent Teacher Conferences take place on Monday, 24 and Wednesday, 26 September. For further details please look under the Important Notices tab. From 24 to 28 September we are celebrating the United Nations Global Goals Week. There will be lots of activities, events and guest speakers to encourage us to think global.. act local! See below for more details of just some of the whole-school activities taking place. On Friday, 28 September our IBDP learners will be organising a series of activities to raise money to support village building projects which they will support on their CAS trip in October. The focus for the day will be the UN Global Goal of providing High Quality Education for all children. We are inviting all learners to come dressed as their proposed future career choice. There will also be a coin challenge, so we encourage learners to bring all their loose coins!

As a school near to busy roads may I ask you to have conversations with your children and helpers regarding road safety. Please encourage your children to only cross roads at pedestrian crossings, to stay well back from the edge of the road before crossing (particularly if they are on scooters or bikes), to look both ways before crossing and remain focused as they cross the road. These are conversations that we reinforce in school. Later this semester we will be working with the Land Transport Authority to deliver our road safety programme for all learners in Years 1, 3 and 5. Please also be reminded that families are asked to arrive on campus from 8.15am. We appreciate that a small number of families may arrive earlier. If you do, we ask that you wait in the cafeteria until 8.15am and not in other areas of the school campus.

Finally, we believe that the Nexus family is a strong, thriving, and supportive community. This would not be achieved without the energy of the active and generous participation of our parent community. The new NPG (Nexus Parent Group) executive has been elected and is looking for volunteers to join a variety of sub-committees to support their different events. All parents are encouraged to come along on Wednesday, 19 September, at 8:30am in the NPG Lounge to find out how they can get involved.

With warm regards,

Paul Beach

Head of Primary School