Children's Book Week

2025-11-07 12:25 Whole School

This week's bulletin:

Children’s Book Week / Reading and Literacy Focus
Primary Library Activities and Book Fair (Bug Club, DEAR, events)
Secondary Assemblies and EAL Book Projects
Montessori: Story Time and Cultural Storytelling
Wellbeing Activity: Fountain of Good Thoughts and Kindness
Arts Cargo Festival Trip (MYP 4–5)
AI Olympiad in Kazakhstan (Tech Leaders of the Future)
Next Week: Friendship and Kindness Week
Waldorf Lantern Festival (St Martin)
Parent Teacher Committee Meetings Begin
Grade 10 Option Guidance Session (DP/CP

"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.”
— Dr. Seuss

Dear Parents and Students,

I hope everyone had an amazing and refreshing mid-term break!

This week we have focused on reading for Children’s Book Week, which runs from 3–7 November. Reading provides significant mental and physical health benefits, including reducing stress, improving memory and concentration, expanding vocabulary, and increasing knowledge. It is very important for learning a new language and it fosters empathy, creativity, analytical skills, and even promotes longevity by keeping the brain active.

For our students at The Island School, being literate in more than one language is vital to their ability to learn and flourish. We encourage regular reading. In Primary School, students take part in Bug Club, which encourages them to read and reflect on their books. In Secondary, every Wednesday morning students enjoy quiet reading during their wellbeing sessions. We have two library spaces in our school, one in Primary and the other in Secondary, offering a wide range of books and reading materials in English, Russian, Ukrainian, Hebrew and other languages. In English lessons across all programmes, students are required to read both fiction / literature and non-fiction.

Primary Library Activities and Book Fair

This week our Primary Librarian, Ms Leanne, organised a number of activities, including DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) every day, and a wonderful Book Fair offering books to buy for all Primary children. There have been daily events in the library at lunchtimes, all related to reading books.

In Secondary assemblies, students were reminded of the benefits of reading and played a book-based game, matching first lines of different books to their titles — ranging from Cat in the Hat to 1984.

Also, EAL classes in Secondary welcomed PYP2 and PYP3 students to read their own versions of well-known fairytales, with a “twist” ending. These MYP students collaborated to create their own picture books.

Montessori: Story Time and Cultural Storytelling

In Montessori Primary, inspired by Literacy Week, teachers added a special story time to their daily schedule. During this time, children enjoyed and discussed stories from around the world, helping them appreciate different cultures and storytelling traditions.

Wellbeing Activity: Fountain of Good Thoughts and Kindness

As part of our wellbeing lessons, we created a Fountain of Good Thoughts and Kindness. Students observed how kind words are like water, washing away the “dark” water in a jar and making it bright again — a beautiful illustration of how kindness can positively impact ourselves and others.

Arts Cargo Festival — Creative Expression Through Live Performance

A number of MYP 4 and 5 students had the opportunity to attend the Arts Cargo Festival on Friday, which is part of the wider Limassol Arts Festival. Students experienced a variety of live performances and artistic expressions. They watched Kamchàtka, a “walk-about” theatre piece where eight mysterious characters arrive in the city with suitcases, exploring themes of travel, migration, and identity.

This experience allowed students to connect classroom learning to real-world artistic expression and reflect on the role of the arts in contemporary society.

AI Olympiad in Kazakhstan — Tech Leaders of the Future

During the half-term break, three students from our Tech Leaders of the Future programme (MYP and DP), accompanied by Mr Sergey and Miss Jenny, travelled to Almaty, Kazakhstan, to represent our school in an AI Computer Science Olympiad. Despite the very long journey, they performed exceptionally well, and we are proud of their achievement in such a prestigious international competition.

Looking Ahead: Friendship and Kindness Week

Next week we will celebrate Friendship and Kindness Week, and we are looking forward to many positive activities around that theme.

Waldorf Lantern Festival — St Martin

The Waldorf programme will be celebrating the Festival of St Martin (Lantern Festival) on Tuesday.

Parent Teacher Committee Meetings Begin

We are also beginning to hold our Parent Teacher Committee meetings. The first one will be for Waldorf on Wednesday, and we look forward to seeing many of you there to facilitate positive relationships and collaborations on behalf of the students and our school.

Grade 10 Option Guidance Session (DP/CP Pathways)

On Monday we will hold the first in our series of Option Guidance Sessions for Grade 10 students and parents, as they begin the important process of choosing their DP or CP subject options for next academic year. We hope Grade 10 parents and students can attend this session at 5–6pm in person.

I wish you all a relaxing weekend curled up with a good book!

Best Regards
Deborah Economou
Head of School