Moshi Campus News – 19 April 2014

We are looking forward to seeing all boarders back at school by 6pm on Monday afternoon if possible. If your child is arriving by air and you have not yet arranged his/her transport from KIA, please email Rosemary Bango TODAY on . Classes for all students start at 7:30am on Tuesday, 22nd April. Primary Clubs, CAS and Sports activities for all students will start on Tuesday.

Happy Easter!

We are pleased to inform parents of Middle Years girls that the extension of Kiongozi boarding house has been completed. This has added four self-contained rooms to the dorm that can take 8 beds. It follows that we have now closed Kipawa house as the M4 girls move back to Kiongozi. Thank you for bearing with us during the time of construction.

-Please remember to send transport details to us in good time if you need your child to be collected from the airport.

Laundry: Please assist us to sort your child’s laundry by ensuring that items they bring to school are labelled properly.

Parental Consent Forms: Also ensure that your child has an updated PC form that will assist the boarding parents to manage their stay in school. These are available on-line from www.uwcea.org/about-us/publications. Please especially ensure that you have given consent or otherwise for unsupervised access to the internet. The PC Form can be revised from time to time.

We look foward to having your child back in school for the final quarter of this year.
Rosemary Bango,
Head of Boarding

Our D2 students only have four days of classes this week before they finish their final class in ISM on Friday, 25th April. The following week is designated as a study week in preparation for their exams. During study week, D2 boarders staying in school will be expected to follow all normal school rules, including attendance at all meals. They are not expected to attend classes but should be studying in their own rooms or in the library at the time of classes. D2 teachers will be available at the normal class times to assist where needed. D2 Boarders may elect to return home to their family during study week – if they choose to do so, parents are requested to contact the boarding parent in advance to ensure that we are fully informed. However it is expected that most boarders will remain in school to study. D2 day students are only expected to come to school if they wish to consult a teacher or to study in the library or study room.

D2 exams will begin on Monday, 5th May. The D2 exam schedule is available to download at www.uwcea.org/exams. Boarders who have completed their exams often return home (parents – please let the boarding parent know arrangements for this) but, if they choose to stay in school after exams, they will still be expected to follow all normal school rules. All D2 students must return to school by Friday, May 23rd (see below).

Other notable dates:
Friday, May 23rd – Dinner for graduates and families
Saturday, May 24th – Graduation Ceremony

The annual Sports Banquet has now been postponed to Wednesday, April 30th (as Ms Farrell cannot be in school this week for medical reasons). All secondary athletes (M1-D2) are invited to the banquet at 5:30pm on that day to celebrate ISM’s sporting achievements and champions of the year. Day students will be asked to sign up for the dinner and to pay a charge of TSh 5000/-.

A number of Outdoor Pursuits trips are scheduled for this term as follows:

• 26-27 April: Mandara Hut
• 1-4 May: Socialist Peak
• 8-11 May: Mawenzi Hut
• 16-18 May: Little Meru
• 18 May – 1 June: Uhuru Peak

Our M3 students from both campuses will be undertaking their field study trip with a focus on the arts from 28th to 30th April. More details next week.

ISM will be a center for a TOEFL paper-based test in Moshi on Saturday, 31st May. These tests are required for second language English speakers applying to study in the USA or Canada. Registration for the TOEFL PBT will take place over the next 2 weeks. Note: Students who have already registered for the IELTS test in Moshi on 10th May do NOT need to register for TOEFL as well.

This week we look forward to welcoming a volunteer working with PE and Sports. Matts Latham comes from England and is studying to be a Physical Education Teacher and Sports Coach. He is now in his second year at St Mary’s University College at Twickenham taking a degree in Physical & Sports Education. Matts most enjoys playing Rugby Union for his University and Middlesex County and refereeing and coaching the game at a local school. He also plays Hockey, Cricket, Athletics and American Football.

MYP Technology had an invigorating last quarter experimenting with ISM’s foray into the world of Google Apps. We have been using Google docs and sites to give parents access to their children’s technology projects and teacher comments. You can follow this project at www.uwcea.org/mypdesign. I encourage you to visit and support your children with regular interaction.

Things you can find on the site are the M1’s Fashion shops, the M2’s kinetic cars, M3’s home designs, M4’s planning for their video and M5’s sculptures and next quarter we will have a new range of engaging units.

This research has culminated in setting up a school domain with Google to better manage all our student and staff email and calendars, but it also gives us a way to manage blogs, forums, sites, wikis, file sharing, other collaborative tools. Now, specifically for their school work, every MYP student has an ISM email in the format of EricB14@ed.ismoshi.com (name initial & year of DP graduation). This facility will be integrated across ISM far more widely in the next school year as we all discover the potential together.
The above photo shows Dancing Girl, by Lulu in M5

As basketball season wound down, the ISM Leopard boys team participated in a tournament hosted by Braeburn International School in Arusha on the last weekend of last quarter. Six Senior teams from Northern Tanzania participated. Our team has experienced some amazing highs this season, unfortunately the Braeburn tournament was not one. But hey… We’ve come a long way when 3rd place becomes a bit of a disappointment. As a whole, this year has been one of exceptional effort by our Leopard Men, a season in which we have grown accustomed to winning. Our desire is to continue building a winning culture on the court for many years to come! Even our Junior Boys have caught the winning spirit. The u14s really exceeded all expectations and came home with some hardware: RUNNERS-UP TROPHY! Let’s Go Leopards!!! Senior Stats for the weekend: Twan 17 points, 10 rebounds, 4 steals, 1 blocked shot
Daniel M 16 points, 10 rebounds, 3 steals, 4 blocked shots
Leo 15 points, 12 rebounds, 1 steal
Joseph 5 points, 3 rebounds, 2 steals
David K 4 points, 10 rebounds, 2 steals
Siamito 2 points, 9 rebounds, 2 steals
Peter K 2 points, 3 rebounds
Blaise 3 rebounds
Lui & Sahil participated in support roles.
Furthermore… May I say the presiding committee got it wrong… Louie was the BEST DEFENSIVE player in the u14 division. Keep on ballin’.
Coach Greg

We said farewell to Coach Greg and his family at the final assembly last quarter and thanked them all for the great help and support they have given ISM.

Unfortunately we begin this quarter with an unusually high level of overdue fees due to us from families, which is causing some difficulties with our cash flow. I would like to remind all parents that we do surcharge late fees with a heavy 10% penalty and, if fees still remain unpaid, we then ask children to leave the school. A number have sadly been asked not to return this quarter. If you have fees overdue, please pay them immediately or, if you have financial difficulties, please contact Keiron White on to discuss a possible rescheduling arrangement.
Fees invoices for students continuing in ISM in 2014/15 are now being issued. If your plans have changed and your child will not be attending ISM next school year, please let me know immediately as we have a number of students waiting for places.

Some of our current teachers will be leaving ISM in June and we have now employed a number of new teachers who will join us in August. If you would like to know more, you can read about them at www.uwcea.org/newt.

In two weeks on Monday May 5th, students in the class of 2014 will start their IB exams. Thereafter, there will be on-going exams until Friday May 23rd. Annually the IB provides the exam results to students on July 6th and each D2 student has been given the log-in information to check on their results. The last day of official class lessons will be on Friday April 25th and for their study week many have indicated that they will remain on campus.
Wisely many of these will continue with exercise regimens and that could bode well for their results as noted in this article – www.uwcea.org/dip16.
A reminder that the end of the 2013-2014 school year parent-teacher meetings will take place on Friday morning June 20th. I cannot overstate how absolutely critical it is for DP parents to make face-to-face visits to ISM during your child’s DP study time. If for some reason, commitments inhibit your making the trip to Moshi, then arrange, if possible to fly up (if you are in the region) to Moshi for the day and the DPC will set up meetings with all of the teachers/boarding parents. One parent took advantage of this approach recently and had an incredibly productive 5-hour visit that included 8 one-to-one brief meetings.
Course selection plans are nearly finalized for the nearly thirty members of the ISM DP class of 2016 – several of whom will taken advantage of the IB online courses through Pamoja Education and this will be our fourth year of collaboration with that outstanding organization.
Our DP Math teacher and CAS Coordinator, Madeline Leno, stumbled upon this insightful link – https://boostnation.boostup.org – and she states that “I found this link randomly, and thought, in light of many students at our school leaving early/ returning late, it might be beneficial to show parents how their children’s absences statistically affect their academic performance. Granted this study was taken in the States, but I imagine the results would be analogous for any institution of learning.”
Feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns. Sincerely, Rick Fitzpatrick Diploma Programme Coordinator

Dear Parents, I hope you had a wonderful holiday with family and friends. I am looking forward to welcoming your children back to school for the final Semester of the school year. On Tuesday we welcome another new student, Han Ryul to our class. We hope he settles quickly and happily into ISM.
Unit of Inquiry Our new unit of inquiry is called ‘Art Attack’ which comes under the transdisciplinary theme of ‘How we express ourselves.’ This unit will be totally art based with the central idea, ‘Expression through art takes many different forms.’ The lines of inquiry are as follows;

• Expression through art
• Different art media
• Artists express themselves in different ways

Welcome back everybody! Hope you all had a wonderful break. This photo shows our assembly at the end of last quarter.
New Student: We welcome a new student to P2, Zuberi de Haan.
Portfolio Day – Last Quarter Thank you for taking the time to come to school and share your child’s portfolio at the end of last quarter. The children are very proud of their portfolios. We will continue to work on them throughout this quarter.
Unit of Inquiry – Going Going…Gone (Endangered Animals) Theme – How we share the planet Central Idea – Many species of animals are endangered and some are already extinct. Lines of Inquiry: 1. The basic needs of animals. 2. Factors leading to endangerment of species. 3. Humans responsibility to share the planet. In pairs the children will research an endangered animal and produce their own fact sheet. With support, they will create a simple power point presentation that will include pictures, titles, labels and captions. We will continue learning more about animals and their basic needs. We will learn about food chains.
Language focus for the week Write a recount of the holiday. Children will be encouraged to use the language of time. (First, Next, Then, After that, The next day…) Sentence and word level work will also focus on descriptive language. We hope to display this writing so keep a look out on the P1 and 2 display boards. Handwriting: Patterns, own name, numerals and Ladder Letters (litujy) Phonics – Group 1: Long vowel sounds, ee as in feet Group 2: oi as in coin and oy as in toys
Maths focus for the week Mental skills will focus on counting on and back from any number. Quick recall of addition facts of 10 and 20. Doubles, near doubles and halving. All children will learn about place value and ordering numbers. Some children will learn about tens and units, others will move onto 3 digit numbers and learn about hundreds, tens and units.
Art The clay is ready to make animals!
Swimming We will now finish class swimming lessons and have 2 PE lessons a week instead.
What to bring to school: Everyday: A hat for playtime, a healthy snack, water bottle and reading folder. Timetable: Monday – Public Holiday, School Closed Tuesday

New reading books will be issued.

PE – Wear shorts, house T shirt and trainers (sport shoes). Thursday

New reading books will be issued.

Library – Most children returned their books at the end of last quarter so will be able to choose new books to borrow. Please remember to bring your library bag if you have it at home. Friday

Spelling tests will begin next week

As this picture shows, we said goodbye to Ms Kacey last quarter as she left us for her maternity leave. We are now very pleased to welcome Ms Maggie Farrell who was with us last quarter and is now taking over the P2/3 class for the remainder of this school year. Here is Ms Maggie’s preview for the P2/3 class:
Dear Parents, Welcome back from holiday! I hope your families all had a relaxing, fun-filled break. I just wanted to take this opportunity to introduce myself as Kacey’s maternity leave replacement. She has some big shoes to fill, but I am excited for the challenge and can’t wait to begin working with all of your children! My name is Maggie Farrell (Miss Maggie) and I am a certified Elementary Teacher from New York. I came to ISM in January to volunteer in all of the PYP Classrooms. Over the last few months I have gotten the chance to get to know all of the PYP students and have spent an extended period of time in the P2/3 classroom. I spent the last few weeks before break working solely with Miss Kacey and feel well prepared to pick up right where she left off! With that said, I have written below a little bit about what we will be covering in class this first week back.
Language: This week we will be working on writing fiction stories about animals that can be found in Tanzania. As a class, we had read a few books by the author Mwenye Hadithi, before break. This assignment will be inspired by some of the books we have read such as; Greedy Zebra and Handsome Hog. Students will also be asked to write a recount of their holiday. We will start by writing a list in class of some of the things they did, saw, ate, or places they visited. They will then be asked to write in further detail about their holiday for homework this week.
Math: In Math we will continue to work on telling time. We will start by reviewing what we learned before break and then expand on that by learning to tell time by the minute. We will also begin to look at how to tell time using word problems.
Unit of Inquiry: For our Unit of Inquiry this week, we will look closely at a map of Tanzania in hope that the students will be able to identify major cities, bodies of water, and mountain ranges. We will also review what we learned prior to break about some different cultures and languages that are found in Tanzania. We will also learn about some of the history of Tanzania.
Reminders: Wednesday: PE, remember to wear your sneakers and a hat and bring your water bottle. Thursday: Swimming, bring your suit and a towel. Reading books swapped out, bring your Reading Log as well. Friday: Spelling test and return completed homework.

Welcome back to the final quarter of the 2013/2014 year. I trust that you all had an enjoyable and restful holiday. This is what our learning in class will look like this week:
Unit Of Inquiry Unit 5 – How we organise ourselves – “People Helping People”. Central Idea: People around the world are engaged in helping others in need. Lines of Inquiry: Identifying people in need         The motivation to help others         Empowering people to help themselves         Structure and function of humanitarian organisations So far in this unit, we have had two people who have come to speak to us about the work they are doing in Tanzania – a medical doctor and someone who has set up an NGO to help educate children and families. I am hoping to have more visiting speakers in class this week who will tell us what they are doing in Tanzania to try and help others and what their motivation for this is. If there are any parents who are able to come and share what they are doing to help others in Tanzania or have contacts that we could use for this purpose, please let me know. We will also be looking up different organisations on the internet, studying their logos and discovering what they are doing around the world to help others.
Maths – Miss Jann’s Group – We will finish off our learning about weight and investigate capacity/volume – units of measurement, conversions and problems related to these concepts. Miss Debbie’s Group – Time. Reading digital and analogue clocks to the hour, half-hour and quarter-hour.
Language – Holiday news. Letter writing e.g. writing letters to invite guest speakers to come and talk to us and to thank our guest speakers for taking the time to share with us and help us in our learning. Writing notes about what different NGOs are doing to help others. Spelling – Group 1: “y” as in very e.g. February, really Group 2: Sometimes magic “er” e.g. crater, driver, computer Group 3: long a sound: ai in the middle of words; -ay at the end of words e.g. train, rail, today, stay
Reminders Every day: School t-shirts or polo shirts, zip bags (reading book, reading log, spelling book all need to come to school every day), a healthy snack for break time. Tuesday: Only spelling, reading and times tables for homework this week Wednesday: P.E. – house t-shirts and shorts or tights. Long hair tied up. Thursday: Library. Please remember book bags. Friday: Times tables test – 12 x Spelling test Swimming – remember costumes, towels, goggles (if you wear them) etc…
Looking forward to a great last term together. Miss Jann

I hope you all enjoyed a super holiday and are sufficiently refreshed. This promises to be an exciting term as we begin with the P6 exhibition before P5 and P6 reunite for our absorbing last unit.
Unit Of Inquiry – P5 Unit 5 – ‘Law and Order’ Central Idea: Different communities and groups establish different rules by which they operate The children will review study from the last semester before beginning their summative tasks.
P6 Exhibition Unit – ‘Shaping positive change’ Central Idea: A rapidly changing planet requires modern approaches, thinking and action The children will face a week of frenetic activity where they collate every aspect of their inquiry and seek to present it in attractive displays for the exhibition
Reading and Writing For P6 Language lessons will be consumed by work on the exhibition and how to appropriately and effectively display, present and articulate their inquiry. P5 will be reviewing their studies before beginning a summative task.
Maths This week we will focus on reviewing work done in the last semester.
P.E. – is on Wednesday and Thursday. Thursday will once again be swimming.
Library – we will try to find a slot during the week to change library books.

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