Moshi Campus News – 31 Jan 2015

Every year our students in P4, P5, P6, M1 and M3 take standardised tests designed for international schools and set by the Australian Council for Educational Research. These tests, in Mathematics, Reading and Writing, assess our students against those in other international schools around the world. For parents, they can give you a report on how your child achieved in the tests when compared with others in the same class elsewhere in the world. For the school these tests can help to inform us on the areas we are delivering well within the curriculum and also those areas in which we need to improve.
Last week we conducted some online trial tests with the students. This week on 2nd and 6th February, we will be conducting the full ISA tests. These will be done using pencil and paper and results will be reported after about ten weeks.

The Moshi PA committee had a successful meeting last Monday. The minutes of this meeting and other PA committee meetings are available for all parents to view on the ISM Website at www.uwcea.org/ism-parents/parent-documents/. You may be asked for a password to access this page. Please contact the Head of Campus to receive a password.

On Wednesday, February 4th, we will be running our Annual Inter-House Swim Gala, from 7:45am to 12:50pm. We have 84 different events on the go, from competitive stroke races, to fun relays. Even the teachers will be competing!
Please come on out and enjoy the day with us! For students Wednesday will also be a House Spirit Day. All our students, both primary and secondary are encouraged to wear their house T-shirts on Wednesday.
Go Mawenzi! Go Kibo! Go Meru!

In this semester we have an increased number of student activities in the swimming pool. Student activities take priority over public free swimming and we therefore need to limit the use of the swimming pool for families or community members to the following times: Mondays: 15:00-16:20, 17:30-18:00 Tuesdays: 15:00-16:20 Wednesdays: 15:00-16:20, 17:30-18:00 Thursdays: 14:00-15:00, 17:30-18:00 Fridays: 15:00-18:00 Saturdays & Sundays: 12:00-13:00, 14:00-17:45

Our primary football teams got an opportunity to compete in a tournament at Kennedy House School on Friday. It was an exciting day of football and friendship among all of the schools in attendance. Our children represented ISM well with great play and great sportsmanship. We congratulate them on a tournament well played.

Some primary students may be invited to participate in sporting events at other schools this quarter. An invitation letter will be sent home to those participating; students can only participate if they pay the TSh 15,000 contribution for the bus (If students go with their own parents this fee is waived). All trips are accompanied by two members of ISM staff. As with all small payments, parents of boarders can always pay through M-Pesa to 0767-534766 (with a following SMS to confirm details of the transfer).

Date	Host School	Event	Classes
Friday, 6 Feb.	Braeburn, Arusha	Football	EC
Wednesday, 18 Feb	ISM	Inter-House Swimming Gala	All Primary
Saturday, 28 Feb	St Constantine’s, Arusha	Inter-Schools Swim Gala	Under-8, U-10, U-12
Friday, 13 Mar	Kennedy House, Usa River	Swim Gala	P3-P6
Wednesday, 25 March	ISM	Inter-House games	All Primary

All our students will be participating in the two primary inter-house school events.

Below are the list of sports events for Quarter 3. If you son/daughter is currently playing on the ISM and is chosen to represent ISM at any of these events, there is a TSh 15,000 fee required to help pay for transportation, when events are in Arusha or beyond. Please note that payment needs to be made before the event, so please ensure your son/daughter has money available. If you would like to make payment for the whole season, that is also welcomed. As with all small payments, parents of boarders can always pay through M-Pesa to 0767-534766 (with a following SMS to confirm details of the transfer).

Date	Host School	Event	Students
Saturday, 31 Jan	St Jude, Arusha	Football	Under-14
Saturday, 7 Feb	Orkeeswa	Basketball	Under-19
Saturday, 28 Feb	St Constantine’s, Arusha	Inter-Schools Swim Gala	U-12 to U-19
Saturday, 14 Mar	ISM	Football Basketball	Under 14 Under 19
Saturday, 21 March	Braeburn	Football Basketball	Under 14 Under 19

The Kilimanjaro Marathon will take place in and around Moshi on Sunday, 1st March. Once again we hope to enter a large Team ISM comprising students, staff, parents, and friends of the school so that we can make a big splash in the event. We will be organising the registration of runners in the 5km Fun Run, as well as the half- and full marathons. We hope that as many ISM community members as possible will want to participate. Next week we will provide full details of how to register with Team ISM.

Many students have joined the cycling club and alost none have cycling helmets! We are asking that all students riding in this club wear helmets unless their parents have given an explicit waiver allowing them to ride without a helmet. If anyone can recommend a place where these can be purchased locally, please do let us know.

Greetings from the Music Room! While this quarter is one of the longer ones, due to so many other activities going on, including OP trips, long weekends, and other things, it seems as if many classes will be having less music time than normal. Please ensure that your MYP or DP child is keeping up with their music work. They will always have something to do, even if it’s just practising rhythms or specific songs that they are working on. The consistent practice and brain work is paramount to the children gaining (and retaining) the musical skills in order to become better musicians.
We have some great units going on this quarter in the MYP: Samba, Cuban Cha-Cha-Cha, Body Percussion, Jazz, and Transcribing and Arranging. Everyone seems very enthusiastic about their learning, so our end-of-the-unit projects are sure to be exciting, interesting and creative.
Please remember that if you would like your child to take private music lessons, stop by the bulletin board outside of Room 12 to sign him/her up, then get the contact information of the private instructor. As a parent, we ask that you be in direct communication with the private instructor. Our boarders stay in contact with the private instructor either on their own, or with the help of their boarding parent.
Finally, if your child is taking private music lessons and is interested in taking the ABRSM practical exam in May/June, please do email me on directly so that they can be registered. We must have the list in to ABRSM soon, so I ask that you email me no later than Friday, February 6th. Thank you for your respect of this deadline.
Susan Kellerman

The beautiful M4 Kiswahili class has been having different experiences throughout. There are 7 students from different countries with different nationalities such as Italian, Indians and Tanzanians. Students are currently focusing on Language and Literature texts.
They have been reading various books from different genres, such as novel and drama where they have gained an understanding of proverbs, sayings and riddles. They have also completed tasks in response to literature and language proficiency. “This class has enabled us students to speak our national language with many other students and the reading has assisted us to becoming better role models for the younger ones”. (By Isaac Mubangizi)
So far in this Quarter the students have been very motivated. In the last few lessons they have been doing revision and recently they did a test to close up their literary texts that they had last semester. For this quarter their unit is Non-Literary texts/Non-Fiction texts. They are all excited to start this new unit as it may change their point of view towards aspects of their lives.

Bags of Love On Thursday the Brownies delivered the bags of presents to the children at the day care centre. Many thanks to all those who contributed to this project. The children and teachers were thrilled to receive their carefully packed gift bag with a personal card from each Brownie. P5/6 and the Guides also helped enormously and we are very grateful to them too. It was wonderful to watch the children being helped by their Brownie buddy to open their gifts and we have had very positive feedback from the teachers and parents at the day care centre.
Once again thank you for your generosity.
 

For those families paying fees by quarterly instalments, the fees for the current quarter were due to have been received by us on 1st December 2014. In keeping with school policy, fees not received by that due date have been surcharged by 10%. If you have not yet completed payment of the 3rd quarter fees for your child, please do so this week. If payments are not received we will soon stop allowing students affected to attend classes. Questions concerning fees can be addressed to .

Fees for the 4th quarter are due to be received by us before 1st March 2015.

Many thanks to the 80 parents who have completed the community survey to help us to plan our improvements for the future. If you have not yet completed this, please do so very soon. Parents of students on the Moshi Campus (only) should go to www.endicottresearchcenter.net and enter the survey code which you can obtain from the Head of Campus.

On the late-start school day this past Wed Jan 29th, teachers collaborated well on the first day of work on the IB self-study. An integral part of the five-year re-authorization program as an IB school, we expect to observe how this self-study endeavor (that will occur this whole calendar year) will enable us to do an even better job of educating students in the future.
D1 Life Skills students this week had an ‘active lifestyle’ focused lesson on Swimming for Life. Those non-swimmers had a ‘learn to swim’ lesson. Swimmers received an intensive and varied workout in the pool followed by a fun water polo game. All ISM students must be able to swim by the time of their graduation.
By next week, teachers of D2 students will have finished marking the mock exams. Thereafter in February, parents will be informed of the results via email. The official IB exams will extend from Monday May 4th to Friday May 22nd. Hence, D2 students have three months to improve their work in each subject and prepare well for these important examinations.
D2 students held their first Graduation Planning meeting and elected Komal, Lusajo and Jerry as the student leaders of this effort. A reminder to parents of D2 students to reserve on your calendar May 22nd and 23rd as that is Graduation Weekend.
As we look to the end of this academic quarter and the last day of this quarter on Friday March 27th, parents of DP students are encouraged to make plans to attend the parent-teacher conference on that day. As usual, please ensure that your child in the DP does not leave early and schedule his/her return to Moshi for the start of classes on Monday, April 13th.
As usual feel free to email or call with any questions/concerns. Sincerely, Rick Fitzpatrick – DP Coordinator

Dear Parents, Unit of Inquiry This week our story will be ‘The Three Little Pigs.’ The classroom stage will be set up this week so that children can act out this story and others that they make up themselves during role-play. We will also begin thinking about our second line of inquiry, ‘The elements of a story.’ We will compare and contrast the characters, settings and plots of the stories we have focused on so far and think about what makes up a good story.
Language EC2 are continuing to write their story of ‘The Three Billy Goats Gruff.’ They will also work on the sounds made by th as in ‘three’ and ‘the’. EC1 will sequence pictures of ‘The Three Little Pigs’ and make books about the story. They will also be introduced to the sounds y and z.
Maths We will continue our investigations into the number 3 and sizes. Ordinal numbers will naturally come into our story with the 1st, 2nd and 3rd little pig. EC2 will work on number bonds to 5.

Information for Parents
What a great day! Thanks again for your support of our Authors’ Tea. The children really enjoyed having so many parents there to share their books with, and I know they enjoyed the snacks. It was a nice way to end our unit, and it was good for the children to feel that sense of accomplishment.
Literacy Focus for the Week We will continue to read in our reading groups this week. Thank you for continu-ing to read with your child every day at home. P1 children will work with “ch” words, and P2 children will work with “air” and “ear” words.
Maths Focus for the Week This week we will finish our work with measuring weight. Then the Group 1 children will work on using symbols to represent missing numbers in maths facts. The Group 2 children will do adding and subtracting with three numbers.
Unit of Inquiry We had a good start to our unit about materials and structures. We looked at different types of materials and made a poster showing what we will be learning about. This week we will visit the construction site here on campus to investigate the materials they are using to build the new changing rooms. We will also start to learn about different types of buildings.
What to Bring to School Children need a hat for playtime and a healthful snack every day.
Timetable Monday Library (we will choose new books) Wednesday PE (wear PE shoes and a house T shirt) Thursday Swimming (please send swimwear) Friday Show and Tell

This week we have begun our inquiry into our new Explorers Unit. The children have been engaged in various activities designed to get them thinking about their current understandings, previous experiences of exploration and feelings towards the theme. They particularly enjoyed creating work for “If I were an explorer and could explore anywhere, I would choose to go… because…” A few of the students were even brave enough on Friday morning to present their ideas during the Primary Gathering.
In Maths we have been looking at Maps and plotting position using coordinates, while in English we have been reading news reports. In PE we have been learning about attacking and defending roles in Invasion Games, and this focus will continue over the coming weeks.
All the children took a small part in Monday’s assembly and I felt that they did a great job considering I had been away from school the previous week and they hadn’t had much preparation time. Great job P3!
Language focus for the week We will be checking the news daily for articles of interest. The website www.bbc.co.uk/newsround provides child-friendly reports and you may wish to start reading the news at home together. The children will be developing their reading comprehension skills, and secure a better understanding of how journalists collect their information through conducting research, surveys and interviews.
Mathematics focus for the week The children will develop understanding of place, direction and movement. They will be using language connected with turns and direction, for example: clockwise, quarter-turn, right/left, North-East.
Unit of Inquiry Transdisciplinary Theme: Where we are in time and place. Central Idea: People explore their world; their methods and reasons are constantly changing. After selecting a question for research we will be finding methods of gathering information. The use of the library and IT suite will be important, and the children will have experience of an interview and a survey too.
Date for your diary P3 will be going on a camping trip to Kahawa Shamba on the 19th-20th March. More information to follow in a few weeks.
What to bring to school Hat , Water-bottle , Communication book (everyday please).
Timetable Monday: PE Wednesday: Please note that Wednesday is House Spirit day and children should wear their House T-shirts on that day. Thursday: Swimming and Library Friday: Mini-tests day and homework handing-in day.

Information for Parents The assembly last Monday was a big hit! The children did an outstanding job and really proved that they are becoming skilled communicators. Everyone spoke loudly and clearly, directly into the microphone. The children have received some good practice this week by taking the ISA test in the IT lab. Next week we will take the paper version in the classroom. The paper version is the test that will be used for the students’ scores.
Language focus for the week We have been practising a reading strategy called close reading, and will contin-ue it next week. In close reading children read a passage several times, each time reading for a different purpose. They will be bringing their story home and reading it again as homework to answer some questions next week. We will also work on writing directions using transition words.

Maths focus for the week The children have enjoyed our maths study into multiplication and hopping out their facts. Please help children work on their times tables at home as part of their homework. They should have their 3s and 4s memorized by next week and will begin working on 2s and 5s.
Unit of Inquiry The children developed several ideas that they would like to do during our next unit of inquiry, so we will begin tackling some of those next week. We will be examining plants, conducting some experiments, and reading about plant life as we work to find out more. I am pleased with all of the action taking place at home. The children are very inquisitive about this unit!
What to bring to school: A hat for playtime and a healthful snack.
Timetable: Tuesday PE (wear trainers and a house shirt) Thursday Library (bring books) Swimming (Bring swimming kit)

This week the students have been ‘tuning in’ to their new unit about advertising, the media and persuasion. They have been looking at examples of adverts, considering who they are aimed at and thinking about how they may manipulate people to buy more of their products. The children have learned that some adverts are more subtle than others and that it is useful to be aware of when you are being targeted by advertisers.
In English we have been studying leaflets as a form of persuasion. The children have identified the features that leaflets often have in common, e.g. a single piece of paper, an informative title, a logo, information text, a map or directions, a web address, phone number, email address, bright colours and glossy photographs.
In maths we have continued to learn about percentages and on Thursday the students carried out an investigation around the school. Working in mixed ability groups they figured out percentages to do with items around the school, e.g. if there are 8 swings and 3 are made from tyres, then 38% of the swings are made from tyres.
The students appeared to enjoy the experience of taking their practice ISA tests on the computer. This week they will take the real tests, but this time they will write the answers in booklets in the classroom; they are not on the computer.
Unit: Transdisciplinary Theme: How we express ourselves Central Idea: People use many ways to influence others
The week ahead: Monday: ISA tests | Homework set Wednesday: No swimming lesson due to the secondary swim gala Friday: ISA tests | PE lesson | Homework due

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