Dear Grade 9 Families:
Firstly, I would like to thank our school nurse Linda See and the GAP Parent Leadership Team who have all invested incredible time and energy helping your child and family in so many ways.
Gillian Alcock GLC
Fiona Cooper
Dorota Davidson
Sherri Fergus
Fabienne Rushworth
Tina Schuessler
Helene Seiler
Deepika Sondhi
Lora Ellison
Michelle Hemingway
Kyung-Shin Hahn Grade 9 Liaison
Kumiko Toyoda and Yuko Nomamoto Grade 9 Liaisons
Maria-Ann Watkins GLC
Phillippa Flynn, PTA President and Rhonda Scott, HS PTA VP
Nurse Linda's professional expertise/personal dedication to our ISKL community is invaluable.
Your Grade 9 PARENT LEADERSHIP Team has been tremendous:
1) organizing the parents of each travel group into EMAIL GROUPS and generously SHARING GAP INFORMATION
2) enthusiastically arranging SNACK ROSTERS for each group and coordinating a site for each Travel Group Potluck (This has taken many hours, a lot of energy, and even more patience.)
3) assisting with the collection of passports so we could arrange GAP country visas
4) meeting to review and assist in the finalizing of critical medical/safety information and advising what procedures would assist families in their GAP preparation
Please be sure to thank them when you can.
I would also like to thank in advance the families that are hosting the TRAVEL GROUP Potluck GATHERINGS on Oct. 11th in order that all parents can meet each other ---as well as the HS Faculty GAP Leaders--- in an enjoyable social setting. We hope you value community involvement and have offered your support to those families kind enough to organize and host the get-togethers for your child's group.
Travel Group POTLUCK HOSTESSES
Dorota Davidson
Sherri Fergus
Tina Schuessler
Helen Chong
Jan Keith
Mei Remington
Elyce Smith
Stacy Taylor
Your child's OCTOBER 11th Potluck Gathering will be an excellent opportunity for you and your partner
to express your individual appreciation to your child's GAP Faculty Leaders for the time they are investing in this exciting new program that your child's class has the extraordinary distinction of launching.
VISAS/PASSPORT update
Our international visa handler originally thought all GAP visas would be processed by today and that we would be able to return all passports at today's GAP meetings. Unfortunately, we were delayed last week by some students forgetting to have their passport, required number of photos, and completed visa applications to us in the HS office before 8 am Thursday morning. That has impacted our scheduled return of passports.
Here is the status of the GAP Visa Applications:
Today at 5:00 pm (17:00) some passports were returned. The Nepal Group passports are back (except for students who traveled last weekend on sports exchanges). We will keep them locked safely in the HS office and return them next Thursday, October 8th at the GAP meeting. By then the passports of the students who traveled to Bangkok, Jakarta and Penang this past weekend (and submitted their passports on Monday) should also be ready.
The Laos Group A and B passports should be back at ISKL by next Tuesday and so those will also be returned at the Thursday, October 8th's meeting.
The Vietnam Group a and B passports should be back at ISKL by next Monday and so should also be returned at the Thursday, October 8th meeting.
The Chinese Embassy closed today to celebrate their national day. They will not re-open until October 8th and communicated to our visa handler that they will need the 9th--12th to finish processing the China Group's passports so we will be able to return them on October 14th. If your child is in the China group and you are planning international travel for your Grade 9 child prior to October 14th, please let me know today.
TRIP PAYMENTS/REFUNDS:
The process of developing documents to communicate to you the extensive health/safety protocols we have in place has been more time consuming than we expected. Therefore, payment/refund information will be sent out to you next week. Please expect a health care/medical emergency information packet from your children Monday evening.
Thank you all for your involvement and support.
Julie James
Global Action Director
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