Moshi Campus News – 26 Apr 15

As our self-study continues, our teachers will be meeting again in committees tomorrow on Monday morning, 27th April. Classes on that day will therefore start at 10:35am. We recognise that starting school later in the morning does cause inconvenience to some families and we apologise for this. However we also need to ensure that our teachers take the time to carry out a detailed analysis of our strengths and weaknesses and develop plans to address these as part of our accreditation process. This is the last “Late Start” day of this school year.
Early Childhood children will be able to stay in class until 13:05 tomorrow for those families who would like this.

P6 will be presenting their PYP Exhibition this week. This is the culminating presntation for their Primary School Years before they join the Middle Years Programme in August. They will be presenting to students on 28th April. Parents are welcome to view the PYP Exhibition on Wednesday evening, 29th April from 6pm.

Today, Sunday 26th April is Union Day – a public holiday to commemorate the anniversary of the union betwen Tanganyika and Zanzibar in 1964.
Next Friday, 1st May, is Workers’ Day – a public holiday in Tanzania. There will be no classes on Friday, but there will be various activities for boarders over the long weekend. CAS activities will take place as usual on Thursday, 30th April and students are expected to participate in these as usual.

The next Outdoor Pursuits (OP) trip will be to Little Meru from 1st May to 3rd May. Places are still available for students on this trip.

Most universities around the world will require some additional test scores from applicants and we advise D1 students to ensure that they take the necessary tests this quarter. These tests are as follows:
TOEFL PBT – to be held in Moshi on Saturday, 30th May. This English Language test should only be taken by students applying for the USA or Canada who have not taken IELTS and who are not nationals of the USA, UK, or Canada. Our internal registration deadline is Thursday, 30th April.
SAT – to be held in Moshi on Saturday, 6th June. This test should be taken by all applicants to US universities except those registered for ACT tests (see below). Our internal registration deadline is Thursday, 30th April.
ACT – to be held in Moshi on Saturday, 13th June. We strongly recommend that all applicants to US universities take this test. Our internal registration deadline is Thursday, 30th April.
Students wishing to register must do so as soon as possible. Any needing assistance with credit card payments or bank transfers should contact Keiron White well before the registration deadline.
All students taking IELTS or TOEFL tests MUST have their passport (original required – no copies accepted) with them for both tests. If your child is taking tests and does not have their passport, please arrange to send it immediately. IELTS tests will be held in Moshi on Saturday, 9th May.

All D1 students will also be taking internal school examinations from 25th May to 1st June. They are required to reach a minimum standard in these examinations in order to be allowed to continue into D2 with their programme of study.

After a loud and papery celebration for the end of their classes, our D2 students now have a week of private study time before the exams begin. During the Study Week, day students may stay at home to study if they wish, or they may come to school to meet with teachers for advice. All D2 teachers will be available at the normal D2 class times and at pre-arranged alternative times to help students in their preparation. Boarders may remain in school and study in their bedrooms but, if they choose to do so, they will be expected to follow normal wake-up and curfew times, attend all meals, and meet regular school expectations. Boarders may also choose to return home for the study week – in this situation, we request that parents inform your child’s boarding parent of any travel plans well in advance.
Formal diploma exams begin on Monday, 4th May. The IB exam schedule is available to view at www.uwcea.org/dipexams.
22nd May: Diploma Exams end 22nd May: Dinner for D2 Graduands, their parents and teachers 23rd May: Graduation Ceremony at 2pm in Karibu Hall, followed by tea.

Last week we practised a lockdown procedure in school – this is the procedure that we would adopt if there was a dangerous intruder on campus. The students carried out this first practice extremely well and kept to the stipulation for complete silence; hardly a sound could be heard in the clssroom block during the drill. We will continue to practise both evacuation and lockdown drills from time to time.

Our Sports Banquet last Thursday evening was a great success as we presented numerous awards to the ISM sports personalities of the year. Special congratulations to:

• U14 Girls Athlete of the Year – Natalie
• U14 Boys Athlete of the Year – Tommaso
• U19 Girls Athlete of the Year – Frieke
• U19 Boys Athlete of the Year – Twan

Some of our primary students will be invited to attend some sports tournaments this quarter. A letter will go home if they are invited to participate with all the relevant information; all students going will need to pay 15,000 Tsh beforehand towards the transport costs.
Tuesday 19 May P3-6 Touch Rugby Tournament at Kennedy House
Thursday 21 May P1/2 Football Fun at SCIS
Wednesday 27 May P3-6 Netball Tournament at Kennedy House
Friday to Sunday, 30 May-1 June Primary Sports Weekend at IST, Dar Es Salaam
Friday 5 June P3-6 Touch Rugby & Netball Tournaments at Moshi Campus (to be confirmed)
Primary Swim Team Our primary swim team is training regularly towards their big event at the end of May. Please ensure that your child has an ISM swim hat and a green ISM T-shirt to wear at the event, both available at reception.
Primary Date for your Diary: Muffins for Mums & Dads May 18 A celebration of parenting, although nothing to do with sports! – please join us for this assembly at 7.45am in Karibu Hall followed by tea, coffee and Muffins!

Last Thursday we took photos of all the classes as they were dressed for Spirit Week. These photos are available to view and download at www.uwcea.org/spirit15.

Recently we have been surprised and concerned at how much cash some boarders are keeping in their bedrooms, exposing themselves to the risk of loss or theft. When you give our child his or her pocket money at the beginning of term, do you know where they keep it? We require all students to keep cash in the school bank which is set up for this purpose. Students can withdraw money on Tuesdays and/or Thursdays and just take enough for the next few days. Students should not keep large amounts of cash in their bedrooms; we cannot be responsible for concerns about loss or theft when students do not use the school bank for cash. At other times the boarding parents can help to look after cash if the school bank is closed.
When you send your child’s pocket money, are you certain that they deposit this in the school bank? Please remember that you can also send pocket money by paying directly into one of the school’s bank accounts (and emailing the paying-in slip to us with a confirmation of the reason for the deposit) or my sending MPesa to 0767 534766 (following with an SMS message to confirm the details).

It is well documented that consumption of sugary drinks such as sodas increase the risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and other chronic conditions (ref: www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/healthy-drinks/soft-drinks-and-disease/). With this in mind, we will be starting a trial period from Monday, 27th April when we will not sell sodas in the school duka during the morning or at lunchtime. This restriction excludes unsweetened soda water. We will also request that parents of day students do not send their children to school with sodas for morning break or lunch. The duka management have confirmed that they will be stocking other alternative drinks to buy. We will review the effectiveness of this restriction at the end of the trial period and consider what steps to take in future.

With only three full-time teachers leaving the Moshi Campus this year, we have only recruited a small number of new teachers to join us in August. You can see details of our three new teachers at www.uwcea.org/newt

Starting from August 2015, M5 students will be expected to choose only one Arts choice from the three courses available (Visual Art, Drama, Music) and will be assessed in just one Arts subject as part of their MYP programme. This change comes about as our 2015-16 MYP students prepare for the new MYP curriculum (called The Next Chapter) which will be assessed through online tests and e-portfolios in 2016. The full MYP Handbook for 2015/16 is now available to download from www.uwcea.org/wp-content/docs/archive_documents/MYPHBook.pdf.
Please also note that our Diploma Handbook for 2015-17 is also available from www.uwcea.org/wp-content/docs/archive_documents/diphbook.pdf.

I am sure that you saw all the photos from our International Fun Day just over a week ago. Many thanks to our Parent Association who organised the event as a community-building activity and not specifically as a fundraiser. Nevertheless some funds were raised by the PA and TSh 6,173,400/- was collected out of which Tshs 3,815,000/- was from the silent auction. The PA has now raised a total of TSh 23,478,000/- from a number of different events and will be discussing how this will be used at their next meeting.

We now have reports of head-lice in P1/2 and P4/5. Please can all primary parents check their children’s hair and take appropriate continuous action as the primary students spend time with each other across the classes? All students with long hair should wear their hair up during the school day as well as for clubs.

Just over a week remains until the class of 2015 starts their IB exams on Monday May 4th. Thereafter, there will be on-going exams until Friday May 22nd. Annually the IB provides the exam results to students on July 6th and each D2 student will receive the log-in information to check on their results.
For study week (April 27th-May 1st) many D2s will remain on campus and thus have easy access to teachers and ISM resources. Wisely many of these also appeared to be continuing with exercise routines and that bodes well for their results as noted in this article – www.uwcea.org/dip85.
The DP Coordinator met with all D1 students this week to assess the progress on Extended Essays and discuss the May 25-June 1 end-of-D1-year exams. It seems most are doing quite well and D1 parent follow-up on this matter is always welcome.
DP History classes considered the importance reading more widely and especially when it is award-winning writing. Special attention was given to the 2015 Pulitzer Prize winning writings and which were announced this week. Learn more at: www.uwcea.org/dip86.
A reminder that the final 2014-2015 school year parent-teacher meeting will take place on Wednesday morning June 17th. I cannot overstate how absolutely critical it is for DP parents to make some of these face-to-face visits to ISM during your child’s DP study time.
Feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns. Sincerely, Rick Fitzpatrick – DP Coordinator

Unit of Inquiry The children have spent time in the dark room experimenting with different sources of light. Please continue to send in any light sources you have that might be interesting to talk about. We sorted all our lights according to how they get their power; fire, electricity, the sun, batteries. This week we will spend more time on the second line of inquiry ‘How we use light.’ Depending on the answers children come up with we will start our inquiries into uses of light. Please consider coming to the classroom to talk about how you use light in your family/religious celebrations. Our ‘Little books of light’ will form a major part of our literacy this week as the children identify and write about a variety of light sources.
Literacy EC1 will be thinking about the letter sounds p made by Peter Puppy and e made by Eddy elephant. EC2 will focus on the long vowel sounds a made by Mr A, the apron man and i made by Mr I the ice cream man. We are reading many non-fiction books about light. We will continue to think about the differences between fiction and non-fiction books as the children make their own light books about light sources and their uses. Much of our literacy work is ongoing according to the needs of the individual child;

• Fine motor skills are developed through threading beads, playing with playdough, manipulating small construction toys. Free choice at the writing table enables children to use stencils to develop their fine motor skills as well as make pictures and cards and experiment with mark making/writing
• Word building CVC, CCVC using a variety of hands on games and puzzles
• Letter sound recognition using sound lotto, art activities, sorting objects
• Sight word recognition(EC2) using computer power point and computer programmes as well as sight word games/lotto

Information for Parents We will be having a late start on Monday. Teachers will be working on preparing for our school accreditation. Class will begin at 10:35, and we will be out at 1:05. We will also have clubs as normal until 3:00.
There will be no school on Friday.
We had a great time last week with our spirit days. Thank you for helping your child to participate. We especially had fun on career day. We acted out all of our jobs which ended with a performance by our pop star (and many other acts).
Literacy Focus for the Week This week we will continue to focus on words with suffixes. We will use these words in our writing as well. We will also continue to read in our reading groups.
Maths Focus for the Week We will work with large numbers this week. The Group 1 children will work on place value and adding to 20. The Group 2 children will work on double digit adding.
Unit of Inquiry We will finish our unit this week. We will talk about helping take care of our envi-ronment, and we will finish our summative assessment power point presentations.
What to Bring to School Children need a hat for playtime and a healthful snack every day.
Timetable Monday: Library (return your books) Wednesday: PE (please send proper shoes and house shirt) Thursday: Swimming (please send swimwear) Friday: May 1st Holiday

The students have been very impressive with their presentations this week. They have enjoyed using the IT suite to put text and images together. I will be emailing your child’s presentation to you shortly, so that you can enjoy their efforts too. In English we have continued to look at persuasive writing, and have looked at a range of magazine, TV and radio adverts, focusing on what makes them successful. They have also been working independently on producing their own advert, some choosing to produce it for a magazine, others for TV or radio. In Maths we have been comparing, ordering and finding equivalents of fractions.
Next week we begin a new unit under the transdisciplinary theme of Sharing the Planet. Our central idea is: Our planet has limited resources that are unevenly distributed.
In English we will be reading letters and postcards, developing our understanding of what we read as well as discussing the features of this text-type. In Maths we will explore the concept of time, and practice telling the time using analogue clocks.
Thank you for all your help at home this week with costumes; it has really been a successful spirit week for us. Next week, please be reminded that Monday is a late start day and that Friday is a holiday. Also, please note that next week’s swimming lesson will be the final one of the year, and that the session will become a second PE lesson from the following week onwards.
What to bring to school Hat , Water-bottle , Communication book (everyday please).
Timetable Monday: Late Start Day. PE. Homework will be set. Thursday: Swimming and Library. This will be the final swimming lesson of this academic year. Friday: No School.

Information for Parents Thank you so much to Dr. Marieke for coming in to our class this week. The students had many questions for her about the human body and enjoyed her visit. We wrapped up our study of the nervous system this week and had our last swimming session for the school year. We will now have an extra PE session on Thursdays. This is a short week for us so there will not be a spelling test.
Language focus for the week We are finishing our stories this week. Students are focusing on the editing step of the process by identifying and fixing misspelled words and the correct use of punctuation. We have begun a new read aloud in class and the kids are listening carefully to try to determine the genre.
Maths focus for the week We will continue our practice on area and perimeter. Students are designing their own robots and then finding the area and perimeter of each body part. Next week they will find the area and perimeter of each letter in their first name.
Unit of Inquiry This week much time will be spent on our summative assessments. Children will be preparing a presentation on one of the human body systems that we have learned about. They will share their presentations with some of the other primary students on Thursday.
What to bring to school: A hat for playtime and a healthful snack.
Timetable: Monday: Late start (school begins at 10:35) Tuesday: PE (wear trainers and house shirt) Thursday: Library (bring books)     PE (wear trainers and house shirt) Friday: No school (National Holiday)

It is hard to believe that we are wrapping up our time together as P5. It has been a wonderful unit together and I have loved seeing each student grow in many areas. We are looking forward to completing our summative reports and presenting them to our P6 friends. It is our hope that we will all make good choices concerning the environment. Students have become very passionate about the topic!
We will continue to work on double digit multiplication and long division this week as the class is proud of the progress they’ve made in these skills. Our language work will focus on cause and effect with continued emphasis on finding one’s own mistakes in writing.
Don’t forget the late start on Monday morning! Come in ready for work at 10:35. Do bring library books as we will try to exchange them in on Monday or Tuesday.
Wednesday swimming is back on this week as the pump has been fixed.
Homework is due on Thursday because of the holiday on Friday.

This week the P6 students have been sometimes tired and anxious, but also very excited and proud of their work. It’s just a few days now until the final presentations. Decisions were made about where they would present, how they would present and the equipment they would require. The big and small boards were moved into the classrooms and so it has been a chaotic space but all of the students were respectful of each other and the work that needed to be done.
The Wild Animals team still found time to visit Makoa Farm to interview the vet there about the wild animals that he looks after. They also spoke further to Marlies Gabriel about the dangers facing wild animals in Africa today.
The Trees team bought 9 trees and planted them in the school orchard. They chose the trees based on the benefits they would provide to the birdlife and wildlife of this area. They raised the money for the saplings by asking for donations at International Fun Day last week. Since the planting took place they have been watering and caring for the saplings and intend to continue until they are more established.
The Albinos in Tanzania team visited KCMC hospital and spoke to the team of dermatologists who are developing sun cream and other products to help Albinos care for their health. They met some Albino people who work there and learned that they actually feel quite positive about their situation.
The Sport, Health and Exercise team continued their weekly lessons with the young children from the Daycare Centre. They borrowed balls and the parachute silk from the ISM store and devised games for the boys and girls to play.
The Nature Group worked really hard to put together their oral and visual displays. They are currently the most rehearsed and prepared team. They came up with the wonderful idea of creating music using natural and recycled products. The sound they came up with is fantastic and I am sure you will all enjoy listening to it at their final presentations.
We are looking forward to seeing almost all the families at the final presentation. I would like to thank you all for making this a priority – especially those who are flying in from elsewhere.
Exhibition Presentation Dates: To students – 28th April (daytime). To parents – 29th April (evening).
Tuesday: Students will present their Exhibitions to primary and secondary students during the school day. Wednesday: Final swimming session this quarter. | P6 students will not attend clubs on this day. Instead they will set up their presentation areas from 2pm onwards. They will then go home to rest and eat early before returning at 5.30 for the final presentations to parents and other guests. Friday: Public Holiday – no lessons

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