At assembly, on Monday morning, secondary students were encouraged to reflect on the legacy they will one day leave on this world and were challenged on the virtue of self respect, which is the beginning point of respect for the world and those we come into contact with every day. The depth of this topic is far and wide and makes for wonderful conversation around the dinner table.

I was recently blown away by the standard of persuasive letter writing produced by our Year 5’s. Under Ms Evie’s magical guidance, they presented me with a collection of letters, where their objective was to convince me that there was a dire need to support the Pafiakos Animal Shelter. Their writing talent certainly succeeded in its persuasiveness and the Year 5’s will now be looking for ways to raise funds and practical necessities for their chosen charity.

This coming week is going to be a busy one as we have two significant dates emerging on the calendar for both primary and secondary. The first of which is Valentine’s Day and the theme of caring for our world through kindness is being felt strongly by ourselves here at TLC. The secondary and primary school’s will be fundraising to support the Pafiakos Animal Shelter as we show our care for those that have no voice, by having a raffle where students can give 50c per guess to estimate the number of sweets in a jar, and the person with the exact or closest number to the correct amount will win the prize. There will be two of these raffles taking place so both schools have the chance to raise funds to support this cause. Also, on Valentine’s Day a few of our secondary students will head down to primary, where they will be holding a bake sale and adding to the sweetness of our school.

As red is the symbolic colour of love, kindness and care, the primary school has requested that the students come to school on Valentine’s Day wearing their school uniform, but dressing it up with a red scarf, hat, hair band or accessories. There is also an opportunity for each child to donate 1 Euro to the Pafiakos charity on the day.

Wednesday will see Ms Emma busy at the Peyia Stadium as she runs through the disciplines to be covered with the students who have selected to participate in the hope of reaching the annual regional (PANPAFIO) track and field event.

The second significant date for both schools is “Tsiknopempti”, which takes place this coming Thursday. At 12 o’clock we’ll see both schools involved with festivities that embrace this time of year leading up to lent. To celebrate this the school will be providing the Tsiknopempti lunch. We kindly ask that each child brings a 2 Euro contribution to assist in covering part of the cost associated with this celebration. The primary school students are asked to come to school in their physical education uniform for the day along with a colourful carnival hat.

At the mention of physical education uniform, a gentle reminder to the secondary parents to ensure your children are correctly dressed for the days that they partake in PE. They should wear the correct PE kit which is compulsory, however it is not expected to buy the tracksuit, but if your child is cold on these days they must wear their full winter school uniform and then quickly change into their PE kit for their lesson and then back into their school uniform thereafter.

The return of our MEDIMUN team on Saturday night saw the team arrive back having had an amazing and unforgettable time and they all expressed a desire to do it all again next year. The experience taught them to be more confident in themselves, how to speak publicly and how to research more efficiently. The event connected them with students from all over Cyprus and it is something they will treasure forever. A very big thank you must be extended to Mr and Mrs Wareham for putting in so much extra time and effort while accompanying our students on this trip to ensure their safety at all times as well as their superb debating skills.

For the second time in two weeks, I stepped out of the primary building and enjoyed the voices of the children singing with gusto. This week the song was, “One Call Away” by Charlie Puth. This is true, I am only one call or email away, should you feel the need to make contact with the school. I’m not sure I can sing that line as well as he can though.

Have a lovely weekend and we’ll see you next week.

Kind regards,

Justin van Zyl

Principal