In TCS in the Middle and High Schools, a schedule is managed by letters from A to E, in order to have continuity in the weeks, since in Colombia there are many holidays. This ensures that there is a full schedule throughout the school year.
Students in Early Years and Elementary School are not allowed to bring any personal devices, including cell phones, iPads, tablets or iWatches. The school has enough electronic devices such as iPads, Chromebooks and others to lend students when the teacher has programmed a class that will use them.
Middle School students are not allowed to use cellular phones at school. If for security reasons, they need to bring their phone, it should be left in their backpack and only used after leaving school in the afternoon.
High School students are allowed to bring cellular phones. However, they are encouraged to use them in a responsible and non disruptive way.
Students at TCS have two breaks or recess followed by snack or lunch. Each family can decide if their child brings a lunchbox from home or uses the food service provided by the school through a third party.
For Early Years and Elementary: if you decide to use the food service, the family has the option to sign up and pay monthly for a snack and a daily lunch, just a daily snack or just a daily lunch.
Students are not allowed to bring money to school to pay in the cafeteria.
The food company charges a fee for each school day, this means that some months may have a higher cost than others depending on the number of days of the month.
Middle and High School: students can choose to register and pay the month in advance to have a daily lunch, bring a lunchbox from home or buy at the cafeteria every day.
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The school works with two different companies that offer transportation services to students at The Columbus School. Not all grades use the same buses.
The school suggests using transportation services for logistical and environmental care reasons, but if there is a family that wishes to bring their child, it is also possible as long as the arrival and departure time matches our schedule.
The contract with the transport company is directly with the family and not with TCS.
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At TCS we believe in free expression, so students can dress as they like, as long as it is respectful to others. Only on the days that students have physical education (P.E.) should they wear the uniform.
If the family or student decides, it is also acceptable to wear the P.E. uniform on days different from those they have class.
We ask students not to bring jewelry or other expensive accessories to school.
For more information and to purchase the P.E. uniforms through the Foundation, click here.
We are a calendar B school, the SY goes from August to June. There is a 1 week break in October, 2 days off for Thanksgiving, Christmas holidays from around the 15th of Dec to 10th of Jan, 1 week off for Holy Week in March or April and Summer vacations from around the 15th of June to the 10th of August.
TCS offers many co-curricular activities. Some of them complement academic life such as GIN, STEM, COSMUN, DI and TOM.
Columbus Life is the area in charge of our afterschool programs which offer different activities in sports, languages, arts and others.
For K4 to 1st grade classes are offered on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays depending on the activity selected. Schedules vary: Tuesdays and Thursdays classes are from 2:45 – 4:30 p.m. and Wednesdays classes are from 1:45 – 3:30 p.m. For K4 students these classes are only offered starting on the second semester of the school year.
For students from 2nd to 5th grade, the classes are offered on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 3:15 pm to 4:50 pm and on Wednesday from 2:00 pm to 3:50 pm.
For students from 6th to 12th grade, the classes are offered on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 3:30 pm to 5:00 pm and on Wednesday from 2:10 pm to 3:50 pm.
Binational games (sports festivals and competitions with other AdvancEd schools in Colombia) and other sports competitions and festivals are always part of our school year ́s program.
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TCS offers field trips in almost every grade level. These are considered valuable educational and social experiences for students. They help to enhance a certain unit of study expose students to different experiences of learning and connects them to the real world.
The objective of Classrooms Without Walls (experiential education program) is to provide a unique learning opportunity for The Columbus School students otherwise not possible in the daily classroom. It is an opportunity to build friendships, develop team building and leadership skills, and travel within and outside of Colombia while participating in enriched activity-based programs.
The trips are organized by TCS in conjunction with a third party provider and faculty use this opportunity to get to know their students outside of a normal academic setting.
None of the Classroom without walls activities are mandatory. These activities have an extra cost.
TCS has no mandatory international exchange programs, nevertheless some families decide on their own to leave school for a short period of time (up to 1 year) to do exchange programs with other schools. TCS can keep their spot up to a year according to the Temporary Withdrawal Policy.
Columbus Life offers 3 weeks of different types of activities during the summer for children of all ages. Make sure to ask for the school year ́s offer at the Columbus Life department.
