Moshi Campus News – 6th April 2013

Dear Parents,

I hope that you have all had an enjoyable Easter break with your family and I also wish you all the best for Karume Day tomorrow, 7th April. We are looking forward to welcomng back all boarders tomorrow and day students on Monday morning ready for the start of the busy 4th quarter of this school year.

Boarders re expected to return to school tomorrow, Sunday, 7th April, by 6pm. If you would like us to arrange transport from the airport, please text Rosemary Bango with all the details immediately.

Classes begin on Monday morning at 7:30am and we will be straight back into a full schedule. CAS, Sports and Primary club activities will all start in the first couple of days and many will just continue from last quarter.

Many thanks to Mark Dombkins and Anine Pier who led the school ski trip to Switzerland during the holiday. All went well and the students had a great time. We hope to be planning another ski trip for the Easter holiday in 2014.

Many D1 students will be taking ACT tests next Saturday, 13th April. Quite a number of these candidates gave up a week of their holiday to prepare for the tests in Dar es Salaam at preparation classes managed by TANSAO. We now hope that this will translate into strong scores.

Most students have now signed up if they wish to take part in our Outdoor Pursuits programme this quarter for the following trips:

Dates	Route	Price	Details
Apr 26-28	Horombo, Kilimanjaro	110,000/-	A level 2 hiking trip going up to 3800m on Kilimanjaro. Students should have successfully completed a level 1 trip before joining this group.
May 2-5	Mawenzi Hut, Kilimanjaro	135,000/-	A level 3 hiking trip going above 4500m on Kilimanjaro. Students must have successfully completed a level 2 trip before being eligible to join this group.
May 8-12	Kilimanjaro: Machame-Mweka Circuit	220,000/-	A level 4 hiking trip – students will need to be ready to hike for five days, sometimes at altitude, with a full pack. Students must have successfully completed a level 3 trip before being eligible to join this group.
May 27-31	Uhuru Peak, Kilimanjaro	320,000/-	A level 5 trip open to diploma students (D1s and graduating D2s) only. Participants for this trip must have previously successfully completed a level 4 trip to Socialist Peak or to Kibo Hut.

Next Monday, 15th April we shall be holding our annual Sports Banquet in school to honour the best sporting students of the school year. Day students will be invited to attend. Full details will be published in school this week.

A major part on the school generator has failed in the last couple of days and we are now urgently seeking to replace it. However this may take a few days in which case we will be without power when the TANESCO main supply goes out. We are doing our best to ensure that this will be resolved very quickly.

The school has more 8Gb USB memeory sticks available for sale, now at TSh 16,000/- each. These will be available from reception.

We also have ISM swimming caps available for sale at TSh 10,000/- each. A “must buy” for the students representing ISM later this quarter in swimming! Please purchase these from Anita in reception.

D2 official IB exams commence on Thursday May 2nd and will continue through Tuesday May 21st. One hopes that the ISM DP class of 2013 took advantage of the two-week mid-term break by studying for their exams. In a pre-holiday ‘pep talk’ on March 21st I emphasized that ‘Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance’ in the context of their exam preparatory review work.

D1 students hopefully were also busy with their Extended Essay preparations so that their Extended Essay supervisor can confirm that solid progress has been made on this huge writing project.

A number of D1s made great use of their holiday and participated in intensive standardized test preparation activities at TANSAO (the Tanzanian Student Achievement Organization) that is led by ISM’s highly experienced university counselor Daryl Rustad (darylr@uwcea.net) whom I assist as the Assistant College Counselor. Parents of DP students – if they have not done so already – would be wise to make contact with him to dialogue about the higher education options.

Starting on our first day back on Monday April 8th, D2 students will have ten full days of lessons as they approach their last day of formal classes on Friday April 19th. Then, they will have essentially a weeklong study break and ISM encourages students to remain on campus for this period to take advantage of DP teachers who are available throughout. The upcoming two Tuesday afternoon Guidance hours will also be taken up for many D2s with advice from subject teachers.

Prior to the break on Sunday March 18th our D2 Visual Arts students displayed in Karibu Hall a tremendous array of talent in the public showing of their art work. Credit was given to the dedicated Visual Arts teacher Ms. Pier whose tireless efforts have helped our DP students tremendously.

Academic honesty remains an exemplary hallmark of the IB’s programs. In this global age of testing for school-aged students, we educators are attuned to the need for us to role model character education. The well-managed IB DP exam marking system does just that. Shockingly to us educators (and myself as a US-certified teacher), we read of an astounding degree (allegedly) of academic dishonesty in one huge US urban school district in this article entitled, “Ex-Schools Chief in Atlanta Is Indicted in Testing Scandal” at www.nytimes.com/2013/03/30/us/former-school-chief-in-atlanta-indicted-in-cheating-scandal.html.

This is a frank reminder that the academic program for DP students depends on attendance and participation in DP lessons. Parents make an unwise choice to remove students early for vacation-convenience (or other superfluous) reasons. Aim to give your adolescent’s education the priority and their learning will be enhanced. This point cannot be overstated.

As usual feel free to email or call with any questions/concerns.
Sincerely,
Rick Fitzpatrick – (Diploma Coordinator)
rickf@uwcea.net

Early Childhood Preview

We are looking forward to welcoming the children back to school for the final quarter of the school year. Our fourth and last unit of inquiry is a science -based unit. It comes under the trans-disciplinary theme of ‘How the world works.’

How the World Works:
Central Idea: Light and sound are essential resources
Lines of Inquiry:

• Different sources of light
• Different sources of sound
• What light can do and how we use it
• What sound can do and how we use it

Teacher questions:

• Where does light come from?
• Where does sound come from?
• How can light help us?
• How can sound help us?

This week we will be finding out what the students already know about light through hands on learning experiences. They will play in our classroom laboratory which will be a dark room where they can experiment and wonder in the dark! There will be books and photographs to enhance their thinking and wondering and sources of light out for them to experiment with. The adults will watch, listen and question to find out what they already know about light and what they would like to find out.

Literacy
We still have some presentation performances left from our story telling unit so each day the children will be part of the audience or a performer. We look forward to puppet shows, acting out on the stage or using small world play people. This will give students a chance to develop their communication skills as well as listening skills.

Other literacy activities

• Writing/drawing about the holiday
• EC1 – letter sound b. Please help your child to bring some objects beginning with b.
• EC1 – develop fine motor skills; write b in sand, trace writing patterns, practise writing name if appropriate, thread beads and make peg pictures.
• EC2 – correct formation of letters and numbers concentrating on each individual child’s needs.
• EC2 – high frequency word recognition through power point, word bingo and reading books. Please continue to use the power point at home.
• EC2 – word building concentrating on the short vowel sound a within cvc and ccvc words.

Numeracy

• Measurement ; understanding the vocabulary of times of day; morning, afternoon, night and day. This is a continuation/revision of our work during the last unit. Students will create pictures of things that happen at night and during the day. They will sequence pictures of events in their day.
• Number; continue to explore the language of number using concrete materials. This week we will use our estimation jar everyday to estimate quantities up to 20. We will also practice counting forwards and backwards. EC2 will begin to look at counting in 2s if confident in 1s.

Things to remember

• Library is on Monday and Friday. Children change books both days; please remember to return books on these days.
• Tuesday is PE and children should wear their house T -shirts
• Thursday is swimming.
• Please remember that children should wear the school uniform T-shirt everyday for school. New stock should arrive in the office shortly.

Annalee

P1/2 Preview

Welcome back! Hope you all had a great holiday and children are ready to learn.

Swimming
We will keep swimming on the timetable for the time being and see how the weather is. If we decide it is too cold we will not swim and will have PE instead.

School Trip
We had a wonderful trip at the end of last quarter to the Echtwel Estate. The children thoroughly enjoyed learning about how Melinda and her husband use their land. A big thank you to Melinda and her staff for their kind hospitality! We drew some fabulous maps of her estate.

Student Led Conferences
Thank you to all the parents and carers attending Stendent Led Conferences at the end of last quarter. I felt it was a huge success and the children appeared to enjoying showing off their super portfolios. Let’s see what we can add to them this final quarter!

Language focus for the week
Writing:
Recount of the holiday. Using the language of time. (First…Then I…Next I…Later…At the end). Using adjectives, (amazing, fantastic, wonderful, scary, huge…)

Write sentence captions to match different types of land use. (Linked to UOI)
Handwriting: Patterns, writing numerals and a focus on the Ladder Letter Family (l, i, t, u, y, j) Some children are joining letters together.

Phonics:
1. CVCs (middle vowels) Focus on en, et, ed, eg, eck and ell words.
2. Long vowel: ee as in feet, ea as in beak.
3. Revise or(fork), oor(door), ore(sore), aw(straw, au(sauce)

Maths focus for the week
Mental skills will focus on counting in 2s, 5s and 10s. Doubles, near doubles and counting on and back. Also quick recall of the addition facts of 10 and 20.
All children will continue to learn about money and real life problems.
Group 1: Recognise coins of different values. Find totals up to 20p/20c.
Group 2: See Group 1. Find totals up to £1/$

Unit of Inquiry
New Unit: Land Ahoy!
Central Idea: People interact with, use and value the natural environment in different ways.
Lines of Inquiry:
1. How land is used.
2. Local land use.
3. Actions that benefit and harm the local environment.
We will make a book about different types of land use.

Art – Paint holiday pictures.

What to bring to school:
A hat for playtime and a healthy snack. (No hat, no play!)

Timetable:
Monday
New reading books and homework packs including spellings issued.
Tuesday
Library (New books can be chosen if there are no overdue books)
Swimming (swimming costume, towel, flip flops, sun cream, swim aids such as arm bands if required)
Thursday
New reading books issued
Friday
PE
Spelling Test (Hand in yellow homework pack)