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Dear Parents and Guardi-
ans,
It is with great pleasure
that I welcome back our
returning students andwish to extend a very warm
welcome to our new stu-
dents and their families
who have come to join our
Governor de Graaff commu-
nity
This year three new teach-
ers have joined Governor
de
Graaff,
and I
would
like towel-
come Teacher Zila, Meneer
Roel and Teacher Elska.
Our primary goal is to as-
sure that your child (ren)
experiences a positive and
productive school year in
which they will self-
actualize and grow aca-
demically, emotionally, and
morally.
As research continuously
underscores the fact that the more involved parents
are in their children’s
schooling the more suc-
cessful students are in
school, parents are invited
to become involved in the
school life of their children
and in the life of the school.
I wish your family and all
our students a creative,
industrious, and fulfilling
2011-2012 school year.
Sincerely,
Floyd Woodley, Principal
Volume 1, Issue 1
OPENING SCHOOOL YEAR 2011/2012
New School Board of the Governor de Graaff School
On May 31, 2011 a new
school board was ap-
pointed by the Executive
Council of the Public Entity
St. Eustatius.
The board consist of the
President Ms. Cherida
Creebsburg, Secretary Ms.
Wilma van Zoest and the
treasurer position is held by
Ms. Florence Marlin. Mr.
Gene Herbert and
Ms. Brenda van Putten,
both members, complete
this team of individuals
who since being appointed
have embarked on a very
important task. With the
implementation of the BES
Education law, the school
board along with the staff,
parents and all stake-
holders involved have a
huge challenge ahead. The
GdG School Board is ready,
able willing and capable to
do all that is necessary to
achieve all the goals and
objectives that have been
set.
Newsletter: September 2011
G o v e r n o r d e G r a a f f S c h o o l
GdG News
In this Issue
Opening Schoolyear
New Board Governor
de Graaff School
Message Principle GdG
School
Message President
Schoolboard
Teacher Christina
Timber-Glover
Compulsory School Law
In picture L to R, Brenda
v. Putten, Cherida Creebs-
burg, Florence Marlin.
Not pictured: Gene
Herbert & Wilma van
Zoest
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Dear Parents/Guardians,
Teachers, students andother stakeholders in Educa-
tion,
With a feeling of hope for the
future, I address you in our
first newsletter.
This newsletter is made by
the School Board to make
the first step towards a bet-
ter communication between
the school and home. To me,
good communication is very
important, so together we
can provide our students
with a safe climate and qual-
ity education.We want to work together
with everyone on improve-
ment in education. The input
of parents/guardians is very
important in this process,
therefore we want to estab-
lish a platform in the form of a P.T.A. (Parent Teachers
Association).
Because the School Board
and Management want to
introduce the newsletter as
part of their school policy, we
would like to ask your input
as well. We are therefore
asking from you to submit
interesting, loving and nice
articles for our future news-
letters.
In closing, I would like to say
that together we can work towards a beautiful and safe
school, where our children
love to go to learn and grow.
We of the school board,
teachers and management
will work towards that and
ask from you to assist wher-
ever and whenever you can.
Sincerely,
Cherida Creebsburg
President
P A G E 2
Important Educational Changes
Message from President GdG School Board
tion and their possibilities
and chances will increase.
That is the reason that this
Board will do everything inits power to make this chal-
lenge a great success.
One of the changes that will
slowly be implemented is the
language. We as a school
want to give our students a
good start before they go to
the secondary education.
That is why a lot of attention
will be given to more and
better education in the
Dutch language, besides a
good knowledge of the Eng-
lish language. To reach this,
we will help those students,
who have arrears. We arepresently busy with develop-
ing a plan to give extra lan-
guage and reading educa-
tion, the same counts for
math.
Besides that, we would also
like to stimulate the creative
talents of the students, with
the goal to help them dis-
cover their wonderful tal-
ents.
We would like to inform you
about the changes that are
lying ahead of us. These
changes are the rules andlaws which now are imple-
mented for the BES Islands,
in particular for the Educa-
tion on the BES Islands. In
March 2011, there was an
Education conference held
on Bonaire and during this
conference the Education
Agenda was made and pre-
sented to the three Islands.
The strive is that in 2016 all
schools from the BES Islands
must be comparable to the
average school in the Neth-
erlands. The School Board of
the Governor de Graaff School sees this as a great
challenge, it expect every-
one’s input, especially from
the School Board and man-
agement. The beauty of this
challenge is that the ultimate
goal will be that all children
from St. Eustatius will re-
ceive a better quality educa-
“He who opens a school
door, closes a prison”
G D G N E W S
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VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1
In keeping with the Compul-
sory Education Law BES, allchildren on St.Eustatius
must attend school. Compul-
sory education goes into
effect from the first day of
the month following a child’s
fourth (4 th) birthday until the
end of the school year in
which the child turns 16
years old, or at the end of
the 12 th school year. Chil-
dren four (4) years old are
required be enrolled in and
attend school. The entire
primary school period counts
as 8 school years, even if in
reality a child completes it a
shorter time.
Supervision The executive
council of St.Eustatius super-vises the adherence to Com-
pulsory Education Law BES
and has appointed a Com-
pulsory Education Officer to
perform this task.
Reporting Sick If your child
cannot attend school due to
illness or any other reason,
you are obligated to report
this to the school by tele-
phone, in person or in writing
at the beginning of the
school day. Informing the
school of the reason for the
child’s absence is important,
especially in cases of trans-mittable sickness with the
potential risk of infection for
other students.
Visits to Doctor, dentist etc.
The school must be informed
of these visits and appreci-
ates your cooperation inscheduling appointments
outside of school hours
when possible. When an
appointment is scheduled
during school hours, you are
required to pick up your child
at school (and bring them
back). The school will not be
sending any child home or to
an appointment alone.
When students are required
to travel for medical reasons,
parents must have a doc-
tor’s letter stamped and
signed by the school as proof
of permission for travel dur-ing school time.
In our next issue of GdG
News we will bring you part II
pate. Participation does not
mean that your parenting
skills are not good, the train-
ing is there to better equipparents, for the time we live
in.
We would like to involve
parents in the entire process
of improving our education.
By setting up a P.T.A., con-
sisting of parents/guardians
& teachers we can work
together to reach this goal.
Therefore, we would like to
encourage you to sign up for
this. You can do this by filling
out the attached form and
Raising children is not an
easy task. Children today
want to be treated as equal
partners and that requires adifferent approach of parent-
ing. Globally you see that
parents are being assisted in
this through various trainings
and methods.
The School Board would
therefore also like to offer
the parents the possibility to
take part in an “Active Par-
enting” training. We would
like to encourage all par-
ents/guardians to sign up for
this training and to partici-
submit it to one of the
School Board members.
P A G E 3
Thank You Teacher Kris
Compulsory Education Law (Part I)
Parent & Teacher Involvement
At the start of new school
year we were no longer
graced with the presence of
Teacher Christina Timber-
Glover, affectionately calledTeacher Kris. Teacher Kris
has been with the Governor
de Graaff school for the past
nineteen years.“A child miseducated is
a child lost.”
As a devoted and much
loved teacher she willed be
missed by all at the GdG
School. Teacher Kris hasembarked on a new chapter
in her career as a Remedial
Teacher at the Expertise
Center. Thank you Teacher
Kris and much success.
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Vision
To provide a place where children feel safe and learn & develop with pleasure. The personal development
of children is the essence. The various talents of our children plays a central role. It is our duty that our
children are properly prepared for the future and that our teachers pay extra attention to the questions
they might have. Natural curiosity to the world around is most welcomed and will be nurtured.
Mission
To guide our children in their development to become independent, responsible adults, who within their
own possibilities will bring harmony and peace in their surroundings.
We want to achieve:
- That all children and teachers will go to school with pleasure
- That there is attention and care for all our students
- That all the necessary methods and material are available for every child
- That all students develop socially, emotionally, physically and intellectually
- That all students get meaningful education.
Telephone: 318 2321
Fax 318 2321
Email: [email protected]
Fiscal z/n
St. Eustatius,D.C.
Governor de Graaff School
Fun Facts
Antarctica is the only continent without reptiles.
They have square watermelons in Japan - they stack better.
Over 1,000 birds a year die from smashing into windows.
Thomas Edison, light bulb inventor, was afraid of the dark.
More people use blue toothbrushes than red ones.
Owls are the only birds who can see the color blue.
An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.
A flamingo can eat only when its head is upside down.
Soldiers from every country salute with their right hand.
Vision & Mission
We are open to suggestions and ideas that
you might have to make our newsletter a suc-
cess. Please submit your suggestions and/or
idea(s) to Ms. Isa Glover at the Governor de
Graaff School.
e-mail:[email protected]
Fall break: October 10 - 14
Notices
