Moshi Campus News – 23 Feb 15

We are hoping to enter another big Team ISM in this year’s Kilimanjaro Marathon on Sunday, 1st March. All parents, friends, staff and students are warmly invited to take part in either the 5km Fun Run or the Half or Full Marathon as a member of Team ISM. Details and an entry form can be downloaded from www.uwcea.org/marathon. Please register by lunch time tomorroew – Tuesday, 24th February. If you are not able to come to school to register, send all documents by email to Marika Farrell on and send the fee by MPesa to 0767-534766 (please also send an SMS to confirm who the entry is for).

Our P6 students will be starting work on their unit for the PYP Exhibition from tomorrow. Hence there will be a split in the P5/6 class with Miss Kate working with the P6s, whilst Ms Kacey starts a new unit with the P5s. We welcome Ms Kacey back to the campus.
The P6 students will also be travelling to ISM Arusha Campus for Wednesday and Thursday this week in order to share an Exhibition Retreat with the Arusha Campus P6 students.

Memorial University from Newfoundland, Canada will be visiting ISM on Tuesday, 24th February and will be speaking to our M5 and diploma students at 2pm. Memorial is a good university that appeals to many families because of its inviting tuition fee rates.

Our M1 students will be travelling to Lake Manyara on Wednesday, 25th February to take part in a joint field study trip with their Arusha Campus counterparts. They will return to Moshi on Friday, 27th February.

Tanzania’s national form four results were published yesterday, and ISM is now welcoming applications from very successful form four leavers to join our diploma programme on a full scholarship. We have two scholarships available again this year and are expecting a strong field of candidates. If you know of any form four leaver who has achieved a distinction in their examinations with a GPA of 4.4 or higher, please encourage them to consider this opportunity. Further details are given at www.uwcea.org/scholarship.

You are cordially invited to the Diploma Music Recital on Wednesday March 4th at 6:30pm. Our students in the Diploma music classes have been working hard all year to fulfill their performance requirements. This will be an evening filled with music of a wide variety of styles and genres from five of our students. The performances will be give on the stage outside of the practice rooms between Karibu Hall the the music classroom. Feel free to bring lawn chairs, a blanket, some drinks or picnic dinner and join us for a relaxing evening of music.

The PA Committee will be meeting again at 8am on Monday, 2nd March. If you would like to meet with them to raise any issues, please feel free to join them between 8am and 8:30am in Bob Horton’s office.

As our work on our self-study continues, I would like to remind you of our second Late Start Day on Thursday, 5th March. On that day, classes will start at 10:35am. Prior to that time teachers will be engaged in meetings working on the self-study.

For families paying fees by quarterly instalments, the fourth and final instalment of this school year is due to be received by us before Sunday, 1st March. Please ensure that we receive fees on time, so as to avoid being surcharged by 10% on any overdue amounts.
Some families have also not yet completed payment of the 3rd quarter fees, despite being surcharged on these. If fees are still overdue for the 3rd quarter, we will soo be askin your child to leave school until these are paid.

We had a wonderful primary swim gala last week with opportunities for all our primary students to win ribbons in fun races and serious races. We also had a synchronised swim team performance which was delightful. We are grateful to our PA for setting up a refreshment stall and to all the parents that came to support their children. The big news was that we didn’t have a straight winner this year. Meru, Mawenzi and Kibo tied for 1st place which both amazed and pleased all the children.


This was a great chance for our competitive swimmers to practise swimming in proper races as they prepare for the St. Constantine’s Swim Gala in Arusha this Saturday and looking towards their big event in Dar in May.

It has been a very productive semester for all the many different swim groups, from EC all the way to Diploma. Coach Noah, Coach Sabini, Coach Mary, Coach Ryan, Coach Zoe, and Coach Hazel among others have been at the pool everday with your students, with some working towards basic stroke progressions and others preparing for key swim meets (galas) that are upcoming.
On behalf of the coaches, we want to emphasize the critical importance of appropriate swimming gear that should be a part of every swimmer’s kit. Googles that are designed to fit the swimmer (i.e, junior goggles for younger swimmers, and larger goggles for older swimmers), proper, competitive swim suits (not baggy shorts) and swim caps for girls with long hair are essential for competitive swimmers. Without goggles, swimmers are constantly rubbing their eyes and stopping during training sets. Getting used to competitive swim suits (costumes) and wearing goggles everyday is a part of every competitive swimming environment. This will go a long way to build a strong swimming culture at ISM.
If possible, suitable kickboards, pull-buoys, and hand-paddles are also recommended, but these are not essential and may be harder to come by. ISM has a collection of kickboards and pull-bouys, but it is also good to have your own. Clearly write student initials in permanent marker on all equipment to identify it as a swimmer’s own.
If you have the opportunity to purchase any of the equipment listed above, please do so. Note that goggles can be tempermental, and finding the right fit might involve trying out a pair to see if they are suitable for your child.
Hope you all enjoyed the long weekend! May your swim sets be long, and your races fast! Marika Farrell

Congratulations to the girls’ football team who won again last Wednesday.

SR GIRLS NETBALL TEAM DEFEATS MOSHI TECH The Senior Girls’ Netball team were invited to Moshi Tech this week, to play their girls’ team. The ISM team won 17-9, and really dominated throughout the game. We are very proud of them, as they played like a strong cohesive team. Congratulations, and we are looking forward to Season 3, when the team will play in numerous tournaments in Arusha and Moshi.
Coach Maria

The peace and tranquillity of Kiraha House, the school’s house on the Pangani coast, were broken this weekend when more than 50 boarders descended for a holiday trip. Swimming, football and ‘Capture the Flag’ were interspersed with card games, music and sleep.

Language Acquisition Swahili (M1-M3 COMBINED), Phase 2/3 The group started this school year by doing a unit on school and school life, discussing what school and school life meant. They compared our school with other local schools. The class continued by doing another unit on sports and leisure which was part of school life.

They found that sports could help build relationship and confidence. Now we are doing a new unit on town and services. The inquiry questions invite us to discuss the challenges facing Tanzanian town. In particular, how do advertisements influence our behaviour and decisions? Photos show some of the services provided at our school.

Bonjour!
The French club is still very popular this semester and it is lovely to see enthusiastic students working on their homework or practising a specific point they want to improve. This club is either a creative activity when students come to receive extra help, or a service activity when older students want to develop their skills by helping others with their homework. We are also fortunate to have two native speakers of French, Dmitri and Alexandre, to help everybody in this club. Anyone is welcome to visit us to practise French!
Merci
Valérie Veillon

Last Tuesday, ISM welcomed Jeanette Patterson and Jacqueline Kombe from the Canadian High Commission in Dar es Salaam. Their visit was aimed at consular outreach – making connections with Canadians and the community in which they live. Their visit including a stay at AMEG Lodge, a tour of the campus, and a visit to KCMC. They also shared a meal at Moshi’s Kaliwa Thai restaurant. Rounding off their visit was an unobstructed view of Kilimanjaro from the Director’s garden, with a fresh snowfall covering the top almost completely. It was a unique visit to Moshi, very much connected to life here at ISM, seeing the world through our eyes. Both expressed their gratitude for the hospitality and kindness shared by all those who assisted during their stay.

The intensity of the rigorous IB DP program means that with some frequency students develop an unhealthy sleep pattern that inhibits their learning. Parents are asked to encourage their children studying in the DP in this regard as highlighted in this article – www.uwcea.org/dip67.
D2s continue planning for their May 23rd graduation. This week they advanced on the process of selecting songs and a theme for that happy event.
PLEASE find a way if at all possible to attend the parent-teacher meeting on the morning of Friday March 27th. I cannot overstate how important it is for parents to regularly visit ISM and get a sense of your son or daughter’s progress. Find a way please to make it to Moshi a few times a year if you are within an hour or two-flight range and can. It makes such a difference!
Regular ISM lessons continue until Friday March 27th and resume on Monday April 13th. Parents do a disservice to their child if they permit early departures or late returns. Irreplaceable D2 exam revision sessions amplify the importance of this for D2s.
I recently participated in the global Diploma Coordination meetings in The Hague as the representative from the Africa, Europe and Middle East region. Items of interest to ISM parents include: 1.   Today’s IB DP that now includes enrollment by over 300,000 students in 137 countries. A comprehensive top-down global review of the DP is underway. and the professionalism of the process is apparent. This typified the first-rate systems that embody the IB and make it the ‘gold star’ of secondary education. 2.   Findings from an IB research project on DP student workload and stress demonstrate the importance of parental involvement. 3.   The IB-Americas representative shared news associated with implementing Ecuador’s decision to institute the IB DP at all of its 700+ secondary schools. 4.   There has been a steady 5-6% growth per year in new IB World schools over the past five years. 5.   In the May 2014 exam there were over 200 cases of academic dishonesty from a pool of 136,000 exam takers – so actually not many in statistical terms. This fact highlights the consistent marking quality and the tight systems of the IB exam process. 6.   A research study was recently commissioned with the Institute of Eucation, University of London, UK to look at curriculum review processes across the world and to compare them to the DP process and make recommendations. Results were favorable.
In summary, the exceptional competence and depth of experience of the the IBO’s representatives from its three regional hubs – The Hague, Bethesda and Singapore – was completely apparent. The IBO is a very sound organization. Besides its exceptional team of officials, the IBO appears to have an array of commendable, evolving and dynamic systems to ensure quality and a bright future. It is on the right path, in my view, to uphold its idealistic vision statement which reads “The International Baccalaureate aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect” (www.ibo.org/en/about-the-ib/mission/)
Feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns. Sincerely, Rick Fitzpatrick – DP Coordinator

Unit of Inquiry
This week we will continue our inquiry into stories told through music with our work on ‘Peter and the Wolf’. The children learnt about different instruments of the orchestra and how the composer used the instruments to represent the different characters. The children found out that this piece of music was originally written as ballet music, which led us onto the questions, ‘What is ballet?’ and ‘Can you tell a story through ballet?’ We will watch excerpts from famous ballets to see how stories come to life through dance.
It is also time to start the summative assessment of this unit. The younger children will retell a well-known story and the older ones will make up their own story. Everyone will be given the choice of how to tell/retell their story, for example; acting it out on the stage, painting pictures of the story, using small world figures to tell their story, making a book, recording themselves telling the story, etc.
Language We are still working one to one with the children to write their stickers stories. Children will write/draw about the long weekend activities. EC1s will be introduced to the sounds s and t through Letterland characters Sammy Snake and Talking Tess. The children will look for objects beginning with s and t in the sandpit. Artwork will also be based on these letter sounds. EC2s will look at the sound made by wh.
Numeracy For our last week focusing on 3D shapes, the children will work in groups to make information posters about all the things they have found out. They will also play a ‘Feely bag’ game to practice describing these shapes to each other. Number work will continue to focus on subtraction. With EC1 children this will be singing rhymes such as ‘5 little monkeys jumping on the bed’ to see how we take one away each time and with EC2 it will be using board games that involve taking away and stating how many are left. Some children are ready to record simple subtraction facts using pictures and appropriate numerals and symbols.
Things to remember this week

• PE for EC2 on Tuesday and swimming for EC1
• Library on Tuesday and Friday. Please return library books on these days so that your child can enjoy choosing more books
• PE for EC1 and swimming for EC2 on Friday
• Don’t forget to check out the google+ community page that you have all been invited to join. Please let me know if you haven’t received an invite. All you have to do is open a gmail account if you haven’t already got one and then look out for posts, photos and information about what your child is doing at school.

Information for Parents
We had a great swim gala on Wednesday. The children really had a good time, and I think we wore them out. I’ve included a picture of the exciting warm up with their boring teacher not participating :(. We worked last week on building boats as a summative assessment for our structures and materials unit. This week we will test them in the water to see if they can carry a Lego man for one minute.
Literacy Focus for the Week This week we will continue to read every day in our reading groups. We will also learn about sequencing in stories. We will order events in stories we read as a group and as individuals. Then we will write short stories working on good sequencing.
Maths Focus for the Week We will work on adding and subtracting this week. We will be focusing on deciding when to add and when to subtract.
Unit of Inquiry Wish us luck as we test our boats this week.
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) Friday Show and Tell
   

Information for Parents Save the date! We have confirmed our P4/5 camping trip. We will be going to the Marangu Hotel on March 10th for a one night trip. We will be investigating the area and looking at the different types of plant life that can be found there.
It is difficult to believe that we are already at the end of our fourth unit of in-quiry. Students have really enjoyed learning about plants and all the hands-on experiments and activities that we have done.
Language focus for the week We will be learning about persuasive writing techniques. Students will be using their research about trees found in Tanzania to persuade people to make it the official tree of Tanzania. We will not have a spelling test due to the short week. We will also be sharing our articles about forests and trees and using critical thinking skills to evaluate them.
Maths focus for the week We will focus on multi-digit multiplication. Students are doing well on knowing their basic facts. Memorizing these facts will make more complicated problems much easier, so please continue to review them with your child. We will also be looking at fact families and how division and multiplication are related.
Unit of Inquiry We will take care of the seeds that we planted last week by watering them and making sure they are receiving enough sunlight. We will also spend a great deal of time working on our summative assessment posters. Children will choose a plant that interests them and design a poster to cover all of our lines of inquiry and central idea. We will also reflect on our unit and how our experiments worked.
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)

It has been a short week, but a very busy one in P5/6. We finished our unit early because Exhibition is about to begin for the P6 students. That means the children had to complete their summative assessments, add to their portfolios and write their reflections.
Their summative assessments have turned out really well. It became clear throughout this unit on persuasion that many of the students felt passionately about protecting Tanzania’s endangered wildlife. After Marlies Gabriel came to speak to the class last week, they became more knowledgeable about the plight of our elephants. They found out that half of all Africa’s elephants have been killed in the last five years. Therefore they were excited to complete the unit by making posters and leaflets persuading people to help protect elephants. Marlies will take the children’s work with her to Austria next week. She is attending a conference about elephants and will display all the posters there on a large board.

The children were further inspired on this subject when M5 student Bruce Roussos came to speak to the class about the problems facing elephants, lions, giraffes and other species in Ruaha National Park. Bruce recently completed an excellent M5 Personal Project on this subject and was extremely knowledgeable on the issues. The P5/6 students asked him excellent questions which he answered in a clear and passionate way. By the time he left they had many more questions – they are becoming true inquirers!
The week ahead: From now until the end of April the P6 students will work on their PYP Exhibitions. They will be based in Room 16 with Ms Kate. The seven P5 students will work on a new unit (Central Idea: Our personal choices can affect the environment). They will be based in Room 15 with Ms Kacey as their teacher.
Monday: ISM holiday Tuesday: Homework set Wednesday: Swimming session for Ms Kacey’s P5s Wednesday – Thursday: P6 students away on Exhibition Retreat to Arusha Friday: PE lesson | Homework due in Sunday: Kilimanjaro Marathon

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