Dear parents

Welcome to this week’s Newsletter. I do hope that you all had a wonderful half-term break.

It has been a busy start to the second half of the Spring Term with an exceptionally well attended Open Day, Digital Learning Day and Busójárás just some of the highlights of the first week back.

Open Day

On Wednesday morning, we welcomed over 40 new and prospective families to our Spring Term Open Day. Even we were surprised at how many people turned up the event! Thankfully, we had ordered plenty of Pogácsa and coffee. I would like to thank all my senior team and Key Stage leaders who worked very hard to introduce and give an overview of their area of the school, Ray and Vera for their input as current parents and PSA members and also to our wonderful tour guides who were able to cater for touring groups in English, Spanish, Chinese, Russian and Hungarian. Very impressive!

Staffing

A great deal of the organisation behind an event such as this is done by our fantastic team in Marketing and Admissions, so great credit goes to Rita and Eszter for making yesterday’s event so successful. It was particularly poignant for Rita, as this was her last main event before leaving the school at the end of this week. I know Rita has loved working at Britannica and we wish her all the best for the future as she relocates to the USA. Lotti Biro will be joining our marketing and admissions team over the next few weeks. I will introduce her in greater detail in a future Newsletter article.

This week has also seen the return of Ian du Feu to the Primary Music department as maternity cover for Katalin Balogh. He takes over as the Music teacher for year’s 1-5 and also the running of the school choir. Ian previously worked as a Music teacher at Britannica until 2015 and joins us from an international school in Vienna. Welcome back, Ian!

Intentions for next academic year

Today, you will have received an email requesting confirmation of your plans for the next academic year. Please can I ask that this is returned as soon as you possibly can? With the school currently full and record numbers of enquiries coming in for the next academic year, I would encourage you to reserve your place as they are going to be at an absolute premium during 2019-2020, until the extension is finished. We really would not want anyone to miss out.

However, due to the huge amount of planning that goes in to the next school year, if confirmation is not received prior to May 1st, we would have to assume that you are not returning and that we are able to offer the place to another family. Just to alert you that this date is crucially important from a contractual point of view as it marks the 90 day notice period before the start of the next academic year. Should you withdraw after this date, unfortunately, you do lose your entitlement to your deposit being returned.

Term Dates 2019-2020

Many parents are already looking to the next academic year and booking their holidays at times when their children do not need to miss days at school. This is really appreciated and makes a huge difference as the school works towards its’ target of at least 95% attendance. It is worth reemphasising the close link between high attendance and good attainment and progress for students. The next academic year will begin for students on Monday 26th August 2019.

The full term dates for 2019-2020 are available on the school website.

Have a fantastic weekend

Neil McGarry (Principal)