One of the highlights of the academic year is the Primary School Learning Conferences. These are a wonderful occasion that provide our children the opportunity to share their learning with their families. Each conference includes a three-way conference between the child, parents and the homeroom teacher to discuss the learning journey so far and consider next steps. The children then lead families through a range of activities to share some of their learning in homerooms, in Music, in swimming, in HPE, in languages and of course in the Visual Arts through the stunning Art Splash 2019 Exhibition in the MPR.

It is wonderful to see how much joy the children get from sharing a few of their learning journey milestones. Thank you to all families that joined us for this important event. The Recent Events page captures a few images from the day.

Part of our programme at Nexus includes giving our learners the opportunity to meet and talk to people that will inspire and challenge them to see the vast range of opportunities and experiences available to them as they explore the world. This term we were delighted to be joined by the Russian marine biologist and explorer, Alexander Semenov. Learners in Years 4, 5 and 6 took part in a presentation and Q&A session with this explorer of the deepest oceans. To see some of the images he captures with his team take a look at the Recent Events page.

Last weekend, Nexus also hosted Singapore's annual ACSIS Middle School Swim Meet with 450 swimmers from 16 International Schools attending. With a strong team of 34 swimmers, including some of our Primary Phase 4 learners, our Nexus Swim Team finished a very respectable 5th overall. Congratulations to all of our swimmers who took part and all those that helped put on such a great event.

On a less cheerful note, some scooters have been going missing in school and, even though they often re-appear after a few days, it is very annoying for the rightful owners. Please make sure your child has the correct scooter when they travel home. We also recommend that all scooters are named and have security labels or tags. We have increased our camera coverage around the scooter parking areas to try to eradicate this issue.

Finally, we took time to welcome in the Lunar New Year! On Thursday, our Chinese language learners shared some of their learning about the Lunar New Year festival in this week's assembly. We also enjoyed a simply mesmerising performance by a 'face changer'. This was followed by an opportunity for all our learners to explore some traditional food and games , including writing wishes on the cherry blossom tree, trying their hand at handkerchief spinning, hoop rolling, picking up marbles with chopsticks, playing jianzi and origami. We ended the day with an incredibly loud and incredibly exciting Lion Dance to usher in the new year. My huge thanks to everyone involved, particularly our Chinese teachers and all the parents that came along to share some of their traditions with our learners.

May I take this opportunity to wish all our families celebrating the Lunar New Year, a happy new year and I wish you and your family good luck for the Year of Pig.

恭贺新禧，猪事如意

Paul Beach

Head of Primary School