Moshi Campus News – 11 Jan 2015

If your child is a boarder and needs transport from Kilimanjaro Airport, please contact Rosemary Bango immediately on to confirm arrangements. As usual we will charge $30 for this airport service on Tuesday. [Please note that this costs $60 on other days].
Classes start for all students at the usual time on Wednesday morning, 14th January. D2 students will only have two days of regular classes before they start their mock diploma examinations on Friday, 16th January.

Some of our students will be travelling to St Constantine’s school in Arusha this weekend to participate in Under-19 basketball and Under-14 football competitions.

Our affiliation with the Norwegian University in Agder continues this year as we will be welcoming three Norwegian student teachers: Brandon Trung (PE & English), Christin Mathiesen (History & English) and Dagny Regine (Humanities). They will be supervised closely for six weeks by our own teachers to complete one of their teaching practices at our school. We always enjoy having student teachers as it adds another dynamic to the classes when team-teaching takes place. Often these teachers will bring other perspectives and experiences that enhance our students’ education.

ABRSM Music theory examinations will be held in school in early March. Students who wish to register to take these exams must contact Ms Susan Kellerman () by Friday, 16th January at the latest.

Congratulations to all who took part in the Horse Show at the very end of last semester. Milou and Lynn won the team challenge competition with Milou (pictured here) as the top scorer.

This quarter we will be beginning a full self-study of International School Moshi, reviewing all our practices, policies and results, with the aim of preparing a report to present to our accrediting agencies by the end of 2015. This is a lengthy and comprehensive process. To start this process, we would like to collate the views of you, parents of children enrolled in ISM, as to where the school is succeeding and where we need to improve. To this end we will be asking you later this week to assist us by completing a survey on your views and opinions of the school. I will email you details of the survey and how to complete it later this week. We will also separately be asking secondary students, teachers and alumni for their views.

May I remind you that Wednesday, 28th January has been designated as a late start day? This means that classes will start at 10:35am for all students on that day. Teachers will be using the first three hours of the morning to meet and analyse our progress, strengths and areas for improvement within the three IB curriculum programmes.

If you have not yet paid the fees for this 3rd quarter which is just beginning, please do so immediately. The fees were due for receipt on December 1st 2014 and late fees have now been surcharged.

On the afternoon of Tuesday, 27th January, four UK universities, Kent, Reading, Aston and Northumbria, will be presenting to diploma and M5 students in the school.

The MYP Physical Education classes will beginning their unit on swimming this quarter. Swimming is an essential life skill, and we are very lucky to have nice warm weather and a pool to learn in! This is a compulsory part of the PE program here at ISM, and we look forward to your support in ensuring your son/daughter comes prepared for this unit.
Please be sure your son/daughter returns to ISM with the following items:

• One piece swimsuit (girls)
• Swim shorts (boys)
• Goggles
• Swim cap (optional)
• Towel
• Flip flops

We are looking for people in the ISM Community who would be willing to coach sports at either the Primary or Secondary level. If you have any interest and/or experience, we would love to have you join our program.
Generally our sports program runs from 2:00-3:00pm (Primary) and from 4:30-6:00pm (Secondary) from Monday to Thursday. However, we are also open to other times (mornings or weekends) if that works better for you. If you can help us out, please contact Marika Farrell at . Thanks!

As part of the ISM sports programme we will be offering Mountain Biking this semester for students in M4-D2. If your child has expressed interest and has a bicycle could you please make sure they bring it with them when they return to school.
For those that do not have a bike but want to participate there will be the opportunity to rent bikes locally. There are also a limited number of school bikes of varying quality that will be available.
Please note that although every effort will be made to ensure rider safety there are always some risks associated with Mountain Biking. If your child is hoping to participate and you are concerned about their safety please make sure they bring a helmet when they return after the holiday.

ISM is excited to offer a range of Outdoor Pursuits trips for this semester. We hope that all students from M1-D2 will join our programme, and challenge themselves in the great outdoors of this region. At ISM, we offer a 5 level programme, where each student (and teacher) must complete each level of the programme before moving up to the next level. Our OP store has lots of equipment to lend (tents, sleeping bags, sleeping mats, flashlights, hiking boots, rain jacket and pants, etc.), so we can help you be prepared for the trips.
Here are the trips on offer this coming semester:

Trip	Level	Dates	Details
Pare Mountains	1b	Jan 31 – Feb 1	M1-D2 (starting level for new students in these classes)
Mawenzi Hut	3	Mar 15 – 18	Students who have successfully completed level 2
Mandara Hut	1	Mar 21 – 22	M1 students who have successfully completed camp craft or others new to the programme.
Machame Route	4	Apr 15 – 19	Students who have successfully completed level 3.
Little Meru	2	May 1 – 3	Students who have successfully completed level 1b

Primary Clubs will start on Monday, 19th January and run until Tuesday, 24th March. All clubs will run from 2-3pm unless otherwise stipulated by the leader. Please ensure you pick your child up promptly as there is no direct supervision beyond 3pm.
Day students may stay for supervised lunch, either bringing a packed lunch or purchasing a ticket for dining hall lunch. After lunch there is also supervised play at the playground. Please let your class teacher know if your child is staying at school for lunch.
All students should wear a hat for any outdoor activities: play-time, sports or clubs. At break we run a No Hat – No Play policy.
Birthdays: A reminder that if you wish your child to celebrate their birthday with their class at break-time, you need to give the teacher 24 hours notice to arrange this. Please only bring a cake/cupcakes and no sweets, sodas. This way all birthdays are equal events and can be enjoyed by all.
We are looking forward to another packed quarter. A few classes will be going on overnight camping trips, more details to follow from the class teachers.

We hope that ISM’s DP students have enjoyed the holiday but have also invested time in their studies. The thirty-six D2 students return for two days of classes on Wednesday January 14th and Thursday January 15th; then their seven school days of mock exams commence on Friday January 16th. The mock exams in each of the DP classes serve as a key signpost of how D2 students will likely perform on the official May 2015 exams.
During the December 17, 2014 end-of-semester school-wide assembly, six ISM IB DP students received learner profile awards. We commended the six award winners – D1 Principled (Corrie); D2 Principled (Daniel); D1 Knowledgeable (Revogatus); D2 Knowledgeable (Yakuta); D1 Balanced (Mohamed M); D2 Balanced (Roman).
All IB DP students at ISM enroll in a Life Skills class. One key component of this class concerns the ability to swim. Prior to the conclusion of their D1 year, all D1 students will have attained this key ‘life skill’ as it is an ISM requirement. On January 21st or January 22nd in their Life Skills class, all D1 students will take a swimming test in the school pool. Those who are not yet swimmers will schedule with Swim Coach Mr Sabini their individual lessons (free-of-charge) as part of their CAS activities.
Parents of DP students will want to plan now for the two final parent-teacher meetings for this academic year. One takes place at the end of academic quarter 3 on Friday March 27th and the other on the last day of the school year on Wednesday June 17th. Regarding booking flights for IB DP students, kindly ensure that your son or daughter do not leave before the afternoon of these dates as then they do not lose any valuable school lessons.
As ISM looks to the 2015-2016 academic year and the incoming IB DP class of 2017, we have decided that one additional IB DP course will be on offer next school year – French ab initio (for beginners). This course will be offered as an on-line class with our long-standing IB partner for these DP courses – Pamoja Education. The other Pamoja Education on-line classes ISM offers are Psychology SL, Psychology HL, Spanish ab initio and Chinese ab initio.
As D1 students look to this second semester they (and their parents will need to keep in mind the guidelines of ISM’s Diploma Retention Policy) which states: “At the end of the D1 year, all full diploma students will be expected to have a minimum of 24 points (obtained by adding the end-of-year examination grades from their six subjects excluding ToK and EE). Any student achieving fewer than 24 points (or fewer than 12 HL points) at this stage will be required to take re-sit examinations before the start of the D2 school year in subjects and at times and on dates set by the Diploma Programme Coordinator. If, after the resit examinations, the total points score is still less than 24 points (or HL points are below 12), the student will be required to reduce their programme of study.”
More reasons to exercise (including its benefits for academic success) are provided in this article – www.uwcea.org/dip64.
The IB’s growth continues as highlighted in this article – www.uwcea.org/dip65.
As usual feel free to email or call with any questions/concerns. Sincerely, Rick Fitzpatrick – DP Coordinator

Dear Parents, Happy New Year! We are looking forward to welcoming the children back to school on Wednesday 14th January. Two new children will be joining us: Mahi and Maxine, and we hope that they will settle happily into the class.
This week we will begin our new unit under the transdisciplinary theme, ‘How we express ourselves’. This unit is a literacy based unit with the central idea ‘We can tell stories in many different ways’. The lines of inquiry are as follows:

• Stories
• How we share stories in different ways
• The elements of a good story
• Creating stories

This week we will be discussing, ‘What is a story?’. If possible I would like the children to bring in their favourite story to share with the class. Please spend a few minutes talking to your child about why it is their favourite so that they can share this in class. This will be the basis of our literacy work this week and I would be very grateful for your support. Don’t forget that your child can check out their favourite story from the library if necessary. If you would like to read a story to the class during this unit of inquiry please let me know.
Numeracy This week the focus will be on number work at each child’s level. We will practise counting backwards from 10 and 20 and EC2s will work on counting in 2s. EC1s will match groups of objects to the correct number. They will also sort objects according to a variety of critera. EC2s will work on addition and subtraction stories as a revision from the end of last semester.
Don’t forget that swimming and library are on Friday.

Information for Parents
I trust everyone had a good break. My family is getting ready to leave the U.S. as I write this. It is currently 21 degrees below zero, so we are looking forward to getting back to some warmer weather. I enjoy break, but I always look forward to getting back to school. I hope your child is excited to get back to see friends and get back into the routine of school.

Literacy Focus for the Week We will continue to read in our reading groups this week. Thank you for continuing to read with your child every day at home. Students will work this week on making words in word families.
Maths Focus for the Week The Group 1 students will work on adding facts to 12 and making stories for those facts. Group 2 will be making stories for the tens multiplication facts.
Unit of Inquiry This week we will continue to work on writing our stories. Some of the children will be sharing their stories at the primary gathering on Friday.
What to Bring to School Children need a hat for playtime and a healthful snack every day.
Timetable Wednesday PE (wear PE shoes and a house T-shirt) Thursday Swimming (please send swimwear)

Welcome back! This week in P3 we will be thinking about the following: Maths – revisiting multiplication; recalling facts as well as simple word problems that involve multiplication. English – adjectives and how to describe objects and the materials that they are made from.
UOI – developing our research skills. The children will begin to do research on a material/object that they are interested in as part of their Summative Assessment. We will be using the library books and IT resources to help us.
Remember that our Swimming and Library sessions are on Thursday.

Information for Parents I hope that you have had a restful and relaxing school break. I have spent the break in the United States, visiting family in Minnesota and Wisconsin. As I sit writing this, it is snowing and -25 degrees Celsius. I am looking forward to returning to Moshi and enjoying the warmer weather! School will resume on Wednesday, January 14th. We will have shorter nightly homework to ease back into school rather that a weekly packet.
Language focus for the week Writing will be our focus over the next few weeks as we learn how to write different types of poems. There will not be any vocabulary or spelling words during this first, short week.
Maths focus for the week We will review rounding and practise rounding money to the nearest whole number. We will focus on solving word problems and using key words to figure out which mathematical operation is needed to solve the problem.
Unit of Inquiry We are nearing the end of our unit, so students will be working on their summative assessment over the next couple of weeks. The assessment will be a book of all of the poems they have written over the course of the unit. We will also be finishing an art project related to onomatopoeia words. Ask your child if they remember what that type of figurative language is!

What to bring to school: A hat for playtime and a healthful snack.
Timetable: Thursday Library (bring books) Swimming (Bring swimming kit)

The final Monday of last Quarter saw the P5/6 students rehearsing hard and then presenting their parts in Around the World in 80 Minutes. What a fantastic evening of entertainment this was! Thanks to all the parents who came to enjoy, watch and support. Thanks especially to Ms Kleinveld for providing the makeup and face paint.
The pupils also enjoyed their end of term party. This was organised and run by the children themselves. It was a unit related party and the students dressed up in outfits to do with money, economics etc. It was a lot of fun with music, games, food and even a catwalk to show off the outfits.
On the Tuesday it was a pleasure to meet with so many of you at the parent-teacher consultations and to report on all the hard work and progress being made by the students.
On the final Wednesday we all enjoyed the Diploma Students’ Raft Race with the whole school watching. This is a great ISM tradition as I understand it. The older students were tasked with building a raft which could carry a P6 student for 50 metres. Great fun was had by all. Some stayed dry, some got decidedly wet!
Current Unit: Transdisciplinary Theme: How we organise ourselves Central Idea: Systems of exchange serve the needs of the community This week the students will be preparing for their summative assessment task.
Wednesday: classes resume | swimming lesson (please bring swimming costume, towel, flip flops and goggles) Friday: sport lesson
What to bring everyday: Please bring a bottle of water to keep on the desk. A healthy snack for break times. A hat for break times, lunchtimes and sport lessons.

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