by Lural Ramirez | Jan 18, 2019
Welcome to the 2019 school year! On behalf of the Futuro Verde board of directors, our amazing team of teachers, our dedicated leadership team and our incredible support and auxiliary staff we welcome you to this new school year and thank you for joining us on this educational journey at our loving, IB World School!
Below you will find important details as you help your student(s) have the best beginning of the year possible!
School Supply Lists: Click the link below for access to our 2019 school supply lists! Thank you for fulfilling your child’s full supply list!
Supply List
Uniform policy: Please find below our school uniform policy, which has no changes from last year to this year. Uniforms are in stock and for sale at the school office. A reminder that uniform shirts have a cost of: ₡8,000 and PE uniforms (shirt and shorts) have a cost of: ₡12,500
2019 FV Uniform
2019 Student/Parent Handbook: Click the link below to read our updated 2019 school handbook! There are important policies in the handbook regarding topics including absences, curriculum, discipline policies and more. Please assure you read the handbook in full and review it with your child. Thank you!
School Handbook 2019
Get involved!: We are starting a formal FV Parent’s Commission for the first time this year! Are you a parent interested in becoming more involved with the school? Do you love helping with school events and fundraisers? Are you interested in helping make fun and exciting things happen at Futuro Verde? Well, then our FV Parent’s Commission might be just the group for you! Click on the link below to indicate your interest to get involved and our FV Parent’s Commission organizers will be in touch!
FV Parents Commission
by Lural Ramirez | Nov 17, 2018
At Futuro Verde we look forward to each new school year because the start of a new year brings with it opportunities to implement new and improved curricular plans! Here is a short summary of some exciting changes coming to our curricular offering:
World Languages: Our ever-expanding additional languages program in secondary is taking new shape in 2019! Eight different teachers will be collaborating together for this class and the structure will bring together multiple languages to be learned and explored (Classical Languages, French, Translation Studies and more!). The class will also provide for a time for students in need to receive additional support in their development of either English or Spanish, if they are newer to either of the languages. With a self-study, student-directed component to the World Languages course development, this new class is a perfect fit for our inquisitive secondary students!
Reaching that 50-50 English/Spanish goal in secondary!: New staffing choices and curricular decisions in 2019 are allowing for us to finally achieve a more perfect balance between English and Spanish instruction in the middle and high school grades. A more ideally balanced linguistic program makes for more well-developed language in both Spanish and English!
We finally add in 12th grade!!: 2019 starts with a real bang with 12th graders joining our preschool through 11th grade campus for the first time. We are immensely excited and proud to take this important step as a school! 12th grade also brings the final year of a two-year program of study for our first generation of International Baccalaureate (IB) graduates! This first group of 12th graders will take their final exams in November 2019 and, depending on their exam results, can qualify for two diplomas simultaneously: MEP bachillerato and the Bilingual IB Diploma.
Improved pool rental facilities and a brand new multi-use sports court!: 2019 marks a year of huge gains in sports programming within the Futuro Verde curriculum. We are working out the final details for the agreement with the privately owned, semi-Olympic pool facility directly across the street from Futuro Verde and construction will be complete before the new school year on our very own multi-use sports court facility located right on our campus!
College Counseling starting in 7th grade: We know that Futuro Verde is many things, to many people! Two of the aspects of our school that we are the most proud of combine next year for a new class for our 7th through 12th graders- College Counseling. Students and families love how we provide personalized and loving attention to all our students and most families choose our school because of the academic rigor and opportunity for a bright post-secondary future. The college counseling class will be co-taught by two Futuro Verde teachers whom have university and post-secondary experience in Costa Rica, Europe, Africa and the United States and they are excited to support our students in identifying their interests and passions, exploring university options or helping students to find their path in life.
Art/music/PE plan: Two big changes are coming to three of the biggest contributors to our holistic programming at Futuro Verde:
- In the early grades, we have hired a new specialist generalist who is tasked to teach Physical Education, Music and Art to our students grades preschool through 4th grade. All swimming classes will still be taught by Alejandro Ramirez, our certified swim instructor, with assistance from our new specialist generalist, Katie Reading.
- In the middle school years students will have a slight modification in their art and music classes, in that they will end each school year with a class that will be a collaborative performance and production class between the art and music classes. Students will be putting theory into practice in this collaborative performance and production class and we can’t wait to see their creativity applied to a real context!
As you can see, the curricular offering is just getting better and better in 2019 at Futuro Verde!
by Lural Ramirez | Oct 20, 2018
There are a number of events we hold at Futuro Verde each year – events to look forward to from year to year and events which highlight our unique school culture, our students’ talents and creativity and our focus on sustainability and critical thinking. Each December, as the school year comes to a close, we hold a beautiful whole school celebration called RAP: Respeto, Armonia y Paz. This event began in 2016 with the intention to bring together our diverse school population with a showcase of memorable dances, music, theatre presentations, lyrical poetry and much, much more!
This year’s event is scheduled for Friday, December 7th and will include the same quality of unforgettable performances plus some additional surprises not to be missed, including special presentations from two of our graduating classes- Prepa and 9th grade.
We ask parents to help us in two ways as we prepare for this fun-filled event:
- Please encourage your child to actively participate in the event!
- Please plan to attend the day’s event as an audience member by setting aside the date now in your social and work calendar!
Thank you and see you at RAP 2018 on Friday, December 7th!
by Lural Ramirez | Oct 10, 2018
With the 2018 school year coming to an end and the 2019 school year already taking shape in the minds of the Futuro Verde leadership team, teachers and current and future parents, I share with you some interesting facts regarding enrollment projections for the coming year! Please note that there are still three months of time remaining for families to enroll students and we usually have significant increases in enrollment over that period of time. Numbers shared today are current to the first week of November.
by Lural Ramirez | Sep 20, 2018
Great news! Futuro Verde’s 2019 school calendar has been finalized! Every year our school leadership team works to develop the new school calendar for the coming year. It is a complex process, as we consider the following aspects:
- The minimum 200 school days (student contact and teacher development)
- The legal requirements regarding national holidays
- The most favorable dates for school events, traditions and trimester divisions
- Prioritization of holiday periods favorable to our diverse community’s needs and wants (a vacation period good for North Americans, another for Europeans and yet another favorable to our Tico community)
The talking and planning has come to an end and the 2019 calendar is ready! Key dates are listed here below and your complimentary 2019 calendar magnet will come once all your registration steps have been confirmed!
Feb 5th: First day of school
April 15th-19th: Spring Break
June 24-July 12th: Mid-year vacation
September 23-October 4: Winter vacation
December 12th: Last Day of School
December 13th and 14th: Conferences and grade reports
December 15th: Graduation
by Lural Ramirez | Sep 20, 2018
For the last few weeks Futuro Verde parents have had the opportunity to give their invaluable feedback to the Futuro Verde leadership team regarding different aspects of our school. Huge appreciation to all of our families who responded. We had a great turn-out, with respondents from all different cultural backgrounds, native languages, years with the school and with students from every grade level. We appreciate and value your feedback and will take to heart all of your suggestions and comments- Thank you!
Some of the survey results have guided important decisions we have been pondering as a staff. Today, I would like to specifically share with you the results regarding our structure for graduations.
Parents were asked to share their feedback on the level of event we hold for the different graduation levels (Prepa,6th, 9th and 12th grades). Well, the results are in and the survey shows that 56% of Futuro Verde parents prefer a change in the way we have traditionally done graduations. A group of leadership team members, teachers and parents will work to finalize details, but I can share with you today that we will be making the following changes to our graduation structure from this year on:
For Prepa and 9th grade, graduation acknowledgement will be integrated into our festivities during RAP each year. Prepa students will also hold a celebration in their classroom to acknowledge this important change of grade level.
For 6th grade, graduation will happen at Futuro Verde each year. We will hold the graduation on campus, with beautiful decorations and a formal ceremony. This ceremony will be held the second day of conferences as a late afternoon event. This year’s event will be held at 5:00 pm on Friday, December 14th.
There will be no high school graduation event this year, as our current 11th graders will become our first class of 12th graders in 2019. Next year, and from then on out, 12th graders will have an off-campus formal graduation ceremony that will incorporate both the IB and MEP diplomas earned at the end of 12th grade.
This new graduation structure reflects the wishes of a majority of our school community and we are excited to modify our structure in order to make it the most meaningful and appropriate for each graduating class. Again, thank you for your feedback and suggestions!
