Welcome back speech March, 2005      “ OPEN EVENING”   Headmaster's Letter

Last year was a great year for Fleming. 

Amid all the changes all the demands both students and staff reacted beautifully and we had possibly the most successful year in the history of the school.

Not only did the academic level rise, not only did our students work harder than they ever have but we had not even one case of serious bad conduct at all

Last year we enjoyed the jazz evening in the Teatro Municipal, the amazing success of Jesus Christ superstar

and the wonderful evening of art at the Alianza Francesa.

But more than this it was the way the students accepted our demands in terms of academic levels, conduct and effort that made me very happy.

If last year was great, this year is going to be even more successful, many people have complemented us on the changes this years…macanudo..chevere….in fact last year the changes were just as significant they changed the atmosphere of the school.  This year the changes are more visible and shortly you will be able to see them for yourself.

The staff have now evolved into a great team. It was impossible to change many members overnight but little by little it has changed and what I have now with the addition of 7 new staff is an excellent, professional and talented team and I am delighted with them.

I would like to present the new members to you:

1.    Rosario Olivares,  Head of  Science  -Secondary. Experience of working in San Silvestre  and in  the United States.  Already shown  she is going to be a demanding and hard working team leader and you are all about to see a huge improvement in our teaching of science and maths.

2.       From England we gave recruited: Vicky Nicholson English  Alex Venables

      English Primary / Secondary.

4.       Julia Pelaez Art Primary / Secondary Enrique Aguilar who can’t be with us tonight is replacing Miss Hermila Amoroto who resigned recently due to ill health. We wish her well.

Part-time

1.       Carmen Prieto Maths  -  Primary . She has won prizes on a national level in her maths teaching.

2.       Miriam Núñez Spanish - Secondary

The atmosphere in the staff room since the beginning of the year is the best most united and positive atmosphere I have ever experienced in a school.

We have also added to the school,

We have as promised:

new buildings

new resources

we are placing a new emphasis on sports

extra curricular is going to be bigger and better

we will be teaching art in the new art room

other developments include:

1. We have a british writer coming to lead sessions on story telling and writing

2. We will be organising vocational training in secondary……one example is in 4^th year were we will be teaching our students how to set up and run their own business

3. We will be teaching courses of  study habits and exam technique

4. Science is beginning to be taught in English.

 We have four principal themes this year…

Firstly

The development of the maths and science dept

hence the new head of science

Secondly

The promotion of sport

Working with Jorge Quiros we will open many doors to sports in the city.

We will play in the stadiums,  swim in the clubs and invite teams to participate in our own competitions.

We are writing a sports charter which will ensure that all students and parents understand what it means to represent the school.

That although we want to win any competition we enter we want to do so in a fair and educated way.

That we will support our teams without criticising opposition, that we will greet our opponents before and after games, that we will not criticise referees.  And as I said this will apply to parents as well as students.

This charter will be placed on the website.

Thirdly

The development of a reading culture in the school and in the

homes of the students

we already start the day with silent reading but many plans are being made for making sure that this is the year that Fleming really starts to read

and  fourthly

The development of a coherent values system in the school.

Hence the appointment of Ysabel Hoffman as head of pastoral to ensure that we have a coherent and ordered plan to develop and promote values in the school

We have also appointed Dra. Gabriela Navarro to increase and develop our special needs dept.

When I finish speaking you will be able to walk around and see for yourselves that the school is looking beautiful, and you will see our new rooms.

We are extremely proud of what we have achieved and I am sure you now realise that Fleming is beginning to provide what you always hoped it will

A sign of how responsible the school now is we invited the Defensa Civil to school.

They inspected us and we have carried out all recommendations to the cost of approx $10 000.

Unlike many institutions we did not wait to be inspected we invited them in.

I want to ensure that we not only have a great school but that we have a completely safe one.

The new website will be available to parents very soon… it will be informative and dynamic and you will be able to use it to find the information you need, to find out latest news, check forthcoming events and see examples of student work.

I will put my speech onto it for parents to see. I will place my development plan etc.

We will be placing the school rules there and copies of our syllabi

All syllabi are being written and when ready will be made available on line

Last Friday we signed a convenio with Trevor McKinlay, the director of Markham who came to visit us…..

We  agreed to work together to promote cultural, academic and sporting exchanges.

He was delighted with what he saw and took ideas back to Lima with him.

I very much liked one of the things he said.

He said ‘it is very important that people in Lima realise that there are centres of educational excellence outside of our very centralised capital. This is what they will see when they come to Fleming

Jointly with schools in Lima we will perform in

Short story competitions

We will send some sports teams there and they will send them here.

Together we will participate in drama workshops and plays

Together with the best schools throughout Latin America we will be sending two students to Brazil to a special student conference in September..

We will also be working together on a scheme to give something back to the community.

Students from Markham Fleming and perhaps another international school will decide on a community project and will attempt to ensure that we contribute significantly to improve conditions for a less fortunate group.

And finally I am very, very pleased to say that Mr.  Memo Ganoza has announced that once again he will help the school by directing our show.

We have all worked very, very hard to ensure that the school is in perfect condition and I invite you now to wander around and see it for yourselves.

This year is the year when Fleming will show the rest of Trujillo and the rest of Peru what a great school we are.

Welcome back to our old parents and to our new ones… I am delighted to say that we have approximately 100 new student this year

We are now going to invite you to attend a session in the audio visual lab and then you are free to wander around the school… look at the library etc

On Thursday please come to our open day.

A chance to see the school in action.  We ask you to wander around but allow us to continue as a normal day… so let the students study without being distracted.

Thank you for coming

Enjoy your tour of the school.

And welcome back

Alan Nocker

Headmaster

 More information: Gladys Cuba

gcuba@fleming.edu.pe