Island Primary Update #3

With 5 months to go our number one question asked by folks is "How is the building coming along?" Since our last update we've tackled some huge milestones, with our roof now complete, the windows and doors installed, ceiling and floor tiles now underway, room wall finishes almost complete, and our covered cabana and walkway footings in place and ready for their covering.

We are hugely grateful to those folks who already reached out with offers of trees, and we're thrilled to share pictures below of the trees in place already, the football field which is nearly complete with grass plugs and irrigation, and our perimeter hedging planted and growing nicely to be joined by the perimeter fencing in the next couple of months.

Please see our short video of our recent progress here.

Our back and side gardens will be planted over the coming months, with much of it taking place in late May and June once the heavy equipment has all been removed from the site. We also ask once again, and ever so humbly, that if any of our readers have any shade or fruit trees that need a home, we’d happily provide a loving ground for them. We also have an abundance of mature coconut trees we’d be equally happy to relocate in return!

Over the last couple of months we've been working to secure a uniform provider who aligns to our values and our need for a uniform that reflects our identity, and recognizes that our students will be active and enjoy the outdoor spaces comfortably. Scimitar Sports, a Cayman company, does just that and are the leading provider in Cayman for many schools in both the private and public school system and many sporting events held locally.

Our uniforms will be a combination of a 'formal uniform' to be worn on non-PE days, and at all school functions, and a PE uniform to be worn twice weekly on PE days, and at all sporting events.

Formal uniforms will consist of an Island Primary unisex logo'd sports polo shirt, khaki shorts or skorts, black socks and black shoes (non-leather please, black sneakers/trainers are perfect!), and topped with a very lightweight, breathable, washable, scrunchable tilly style hat.

Our PE uniforms will consist of Island Primary sports shorts, unisex sweat wicking performance house shirts, black socks, black shoes (same shoes as the formal uniform), and the same lightweight hat.

The school has taken collective views of many families who prioritized comfort, practicality, washability, ease of obtaining, darker non-staining colours, unisex focus and shoes that reflect an active lifestyle. After taking all considerations and recommendations on board, and went one step further to ensure the shirts (both formal and PE) contain an element of recycled material to ensure our approach to sustainability continues to resonate in our daily life.

Our formal Island Primary shirts, PE shirts, PE shorts and hats will all be available for purchase at the school commencing August 20th. We ask that parents only provide their child's khaki shorts/skorts which can be obtained locally or from any provider overseas, along with black sneakers/trainers and black socks. The full details of our uniform policy will be posted to our website shortly but will reflect the items detailed in this newsletter.

Our PE shirts will also represent our 4 house names and colours as shown below in the sample images.

Learning Means the World: Changing Hearts & Changing Minds

Perhaps viewed as little more than a Truism, Learning Means the World assumes much greater significance when used in the context of Island Primary. It forms the foundation of our curriculum, one which not only connects our educational philosophy to what is planned, taught, and learned at our school, but one which links learning between year groups and between subjects, all the way from Reception to Year 6.

Based around the standards from the UK National Curriculum (2014), Learning Means the World seeks to:

• explore four key international (and local) issues: communication, conflict, culture, and conservation.
• develop children’s shared understanding of 4 core competencies: community, courage, creativity, and commitment.
• nurture life-skills including: resilience, curiosity, independence, and perseverance.
• authentically integrate individual subjects within coherent and carefully constructed units to deepen the understanding of each

Above all else, Learning Means the World is a curriculum which places children at the heart of what is learned by continuously focusing on children learning with, learning from, and learning about one another.

We’re thrilled to be working with Dimensions UK to develop this curriculum for our Island Primary learning community, and invite you to learn more about how it will benefit your child by reading here.

Our Open House Event was so successful we ran a second one on March 27th, and we wanted to extend a very large thank you to all those who attended.

In preparation for the event, we asked registered guests to provide questions they were interested in learning more about. We've taken a few minutes to compile them all here, along with our responses, and we hope you find the information helpful. As always, if you have any questions at all please don't hesitate to reach out to us at info@islandprimary.org.

During the whole process of making Island Primary come to life, we have always said we wanted community to be at the heart. What has been lovely to see is that the community building has already begun.

Our team have had their first social to come together which was full of anticipation and excitement. Behind the scenes we’ve been finalising our resource orders, and through that process, we’ve been connecting with our teams in English, Maths, Science, specialist subjects and year group teachers both on and off island.

Every time we meet, whether online or in person, our sense of belonging to something bigger than ourselves sets in. This is the same when working with our external providers such as Dimensions for our ‘Learning Means the World’ curriculum. It was also wonderful to meet some of our prospective parents at the Open House evenings and to continue evolving our community in that way.

Everyone involved in this mammoth process is investing part of themselves. So, to all of you, near and far; parents, children, staff, stakeholders, external providers and for those who are just genuinely interested and supporting us from the side-lines, a big heartfelt THANK YOU for helping build what we believe is going to be a truly remarkable community.

Best wishes,

Ems

Email: info@islandprimary.org
Website: www.islandprimary.org
Location: Buttonwod Park, Grand Cayman
Phone: (345) 926 8185
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/islandprimary

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