Moshi Campus News – 9 Sep 2017

Thank you for taking the time to read this weekly newsletter. I hope many of you will be able to attend the campus meetings with the Board taking place over the next two weeks where Tine Hemelings, the Chair of the Board of ISM, asks for you to share your ideas about how we can increase enrolment on our campuses. I now ask you to think why you send your children to ISM to experience the education offered by the school in conjunction with the International Baccalaureate. Is it because you heard your primary-age child explain how trees make their food from water and the gas humans breath out, thus beginning to explore the interconnectedness of flora and fauna, or perhaps your fourteen-year old son who spends so many hours in his room suddenly talked to you passionately about the impact of blood diamonds in the Democratic Republic of Congo and took it upon himself to go into jewellery shops and ask to see their import certificates, or maybe you were simply amazed by your child in the Diploma Programme producing in their extended essay a body of work far greater than you could ever have imagined? You know why you send your children to ISM and I ask you to share this with your friends and family and then I challenge you persuade one new family to visit us. If you bring me families with whom to talk, it becomes my job to show them what is so great about ISM, a job I, with Phil Bowen and Bob Cofer, would love to do. I am on the Moshi campus on Mondays, Tuesdays and on Arusha on Thursdays and Fridays, Wednesdays I split between the two. You can reach me by email on annamarsden@ed.ismoshi.com, or you can contact Phil Bowen on  philb@ismac.ac.tz and Bob Cofer on bobcofer@ed.ismoshi.com.

Anna Marsden

Dear Parents and Staff,

On behalf of the Governing Board of International School Moshi I warmly welcome you at the beginning of this new school year.

The Governing Board currently consists of the following members: William Kivuyo, Rachelly Mboya, Hilda Mungure, Kajiru Kilonzo, Geoffrey Sigalla, Marius Jacobs, Monique Janmaat and myself, all appointed by the shareholders. Marco van Zwetselaar and Mark Blackett are respectively the Moshi and Arusha campus PTA representatives. The ex-officio members of the Board are Anna Marsden, Director, Bob Cofer and Phil Bowen, Heads of Moshi and Arusha campuses, Mustafa Madan, Finance Manager and Ann-Joyce Mwamafupa and Scott Hibbard, teacher representatives. This picture was taken at the previous board meeting in May 2017, where we welcomed our new director, Anna Marsden.

At our next Board meeting to be held on 28th September 2017 we will be reviewing our strategic direction in light of the changing environment of international education in Tanzania. All options for the school will be considered, including the future of the Arusha IB Diploma Programme and the school’s ongoing journey to join the United World College movement.

We believe we have a strong community which has significant experience. We therefore would like to hear your ideas before this meeting, particularly those focussing on strategies to increase enrolment as we feel this is critical for our school in this current environment. Please fee free to contact  the school leadership or any board member if you have ideas you want to discuss.

Ms Tine Hemelings, Chair of the Board

ISM now has an online platform for alumni, parents and staff; past and present to be able to reconnect and network together. There are opportunities to ask for help, to mentor others, open doors and to share events and jobs. With ISM’s 50th birthday in 2019 we want to be able to get as many people on here as possible so we can celebrate all over the world! It is free and you can use you LinkedIn profile, Facebook or just your email to sign up. Please spread the word and let’s get as many ISMers back together as possible! https://ismglobalconnect.org/dashboard

I have had a lot of discussions recently about our push to become a United World College and at the same time have been working with colleagues on our school’s events related to International Peace Day.  The Mission Statement of the UWC is “UWC makes education a force to unite people, nations and cultures for peace and a sustainable future.” In this it is easy to see why UWC day and International Peace Day are both on September 21st. 

On our campus, with the boarding facilities, we have students living in close proximity 24 hours a day.  Anyone who has brothers or sisters knows that this leads to the inevitable disagreements, which on the surface are a bad thing.  However, once you scratch the surface, they are not bad, they are the opportunities for learning to get along.  This is the seed of the mission statement above.  Our boarding currently represents over 120 students with 15 nationalities.  While it is just a start, it is that opportunity for our students to learn how different people with different cultures can learn to live together, and hopefully through their work in the community, spread what they have learned.

Bob Cofer

Our first university fair of the year is this week when a group of universities from the UK join us Monday September 11th at 2:30pm.

All our M5, D1 and D2 students have been invited to come and parents are of course welcome as well.

We will have other fairs including Harvard and MIT on September 22nd and University of British Columbia on September 27th.

Update:

• Most DP teachers have given assessments and feedback on recent units studied and it would be worthwhile to dialogue with your son/daughter in the DP on the outcomes.
• ISM DP students’ comradery and helping one another is apparent throughout the campus and wonderful to observe particularly in the library.
• Disciplined study habits, especially on the weekends, remain a skill that most DP students are working on. Parental encouragement and support would be invaluable in helping us as we try to teach this skill.
• A review of the Mon-Th afternoon CAS activities demonstrates real involvement and commitment and is great to see.

Upcoming:

• By 10pm on Monday Sept 11th, D2 students will submit their complete extended essay draft on ManageBac. The EE supervisors will review/provide feedback by Mon Sept 25 and the improved final version will be due in early November.

Rick Fitzpatrick

M1
There is an OP trip to  Marangu scheduled for September 9.

M2 – Pangani Trip
Tuesday September 12 the M2 students proceed to Pangani for a curriculum trip involving Mathematics and Integrated Humanities. Students will explore the coastal features while estimating heights of cliffs and waves, collecting and analysing  data in the eco-system. They will be back on September 15. 

M5
Registration for May 2018 eAssessment examination is currently on. Details will be verified by parents soon.

Tuesday September 19-21, the M5 class  will be out for a curriculum trip on Leadership. This will be an academic trip deriving concepts and skills from The Lord of the Flies in Language and Literature and Power from Integrated Humanities course.

The week of September 25-29, they will be expected to have  completed their first draft of the Personal Project report (Evaluation of the quality of product/outcome reflection on their learning).

David Ochieng

Please remember that Friday September 15th at 1pm we have a Blood Drive in conjunction with KCMC.  KCMC will be running this event again in order to meet the continuous need for blood at the hospital.  Return donators are of course welcome, but we would love to see new faces this time.  The event will be in the new Rafiki hall on campus.

ManageBac is one of our major communication tools at the school.  Students’ grades are viewed and you can keep up with the current work the students are working on.  This is also the access point for student reports.  If you have not signed in to ManageBac, please make sure that you can.  If you have a problem, please let us know so we can help.

HOME OF THE LEOPARDS

The sporting season is in full swing, this coming Saturday September 9th ISM is proud to host the 1st Round of the NTAA in U15 Boys/Girls Basketball and U19 Boys/Girls Football. The Leopard teams are ready for action!

ISM will also be hosting local schools on Friday September 15th for friendlies matches in basketball, football, netball and rugby. ISM will host the NTAA schools on Saturday September 23rd when the U11 Rounders and U13 Basketball teams will be in action.

Come out and support the teams

As the season and year progress please keep up with all the info, news, and sports reports by reading the Moshi Campus News.

Go Leopards

Scott Hibbard
Head of Sport and Physical Education

We thank all parents who have sent us consent forms for the year. Boarders will not be allowed to sign out without a current PC form. The forms can be downloaded from the school website.

Once again, we want to remind parents of boarders who may wish to allow their children to sign out for the weekend that:

• Before a student can leave for the weekend, the host family must contact the Boarding Parent by letter, phone, or in person so that we can be confident of the invitation.
• Invitations be made by the Thursday evening preceding the weekend
• The parent, whose child has been invited, needs to communicate with us to say that they accept the invitation, and be confident that they are in touch with the host family. A name and telephone contact will be appropriate. This must also happen by Thursday evening latest. This is gives us the confidence that the children will be adequately supervised while they are away.
• The school reserves the right to withdraw permission for a student to accept weekend invitations if we feel that adequate supervision will not be given.
• We sign out boarders to school families, not to places.
• Boarders are not allowed to ride on the back of a motorcycle, in a tuk-tuk or any form of open vehicles.

This Sunday, The PA has organized a picnic for the school community at the Moshi club, and a few of our boarders will attend from 11.am to 3.00pm.

We are planning to attend a High School (M4-D2) ISTA festival in Cairo, Egypt from 1st-3rd February 2018.

ISTA festivals bring together students from International Schools around the globe to experience the beauty of researching, devising and performing to an audience. The students work with others from different schools and an ISTA artist. (These are professional actors, directors and producers and theatre practitioners from around the world). The students get a first-hand experience in drama outside the conventional classroom approach through a variety of workshops and other learning activities that the students engage in. The out and about tour also gives the students an opportunity to explore the beauty of Cairo. It is a refreshing and rewarding experience that we think our students would gain from immensely.

We are presently working on the logistics and would like to highlight the following key areas of this trip.

• The trip targets M4-D2 students, aged 15-18. There is a possibility that we could take some 14 year olds if they are very keen to go. These are the students who are presently in M3, M4, M5 and D1.
• The Cairo High School Festival will be hosted at an international school in Cairo.
• The students will be staying with host families (and therefore will not pay for accommodation).
• Each participating student will be required to pay $1250.

Feel free to look at the ISTA website https://www.ista.co.uk/whats-on/festival/muscat-middle-school-festival/ for further information.

George Juma.

Art students and Art Lovers are invited to an Exhibition of Sudanese artist, Hussein Halfawi at the home of Coy and Kacey Buckley next weekend, September 16th and 17th. Mr Halfawi has exhibited his work in Khartoum, Nairobi, Germany, France, and Canada. Everyone is welcome on Saturday 2-6 or Sunday 2-4. Call, text or email Kacey if you need directions- 0762958521 or johkc@hotmail.com

The International School of Moshi invites students and parents to participate in a photo contest under the theme of Diversity.  Interpret this as you want and submit your BEST diversity-themed photo.  Follow these guidelines: 

• Each student or parent submitting a hard copy a of their photo to Mr Ian Horne (Visual Art teacher) or the D2 student Salman Hussein (at 730am in Art Room daily for tutor group).  An electronic copy should also be submitted to either salmanhussein18@ed.ismoshi.com or ianhorne@ed.ismoshi.com
• The size of the color photo should be A5 or A4
• 1 photo submissions per person
• The photo will be judged on its quality and composition by a student-led committee
• Deadline:  Friday Sept 29th at 12:35pm
• Winners will be announced on Monday Oct 2nd and there will be prizes for the top three photographers

Come and join in and participate in a fun community event on the tennis courts!  There will be a two-day informal, organized tennis tournament on Sat 16 Sept and Sun 17 Sept. Both days it will start at 8am. Participants from outside ISM are welcome as well as ISM current students and parents. The cost will be Tsh 10,000 for children and Tsh 20,000 for adults.

Please email rickfitzpatrick@ed.ismoshi.com for an entry sheet or collect it at the front gate and sign up on the sheet in the breezeway area at school.

As there are now just two weeks of the first unit remaining, the children in P1 – P6 will be starting their summative assessment work soon, i.e. applying and showing what they have learned. In this they will make connections to the central idea and lines of inquiry.

It was encouraging to see so many Primary parents at the Meet the Director event on Monday. We hope you got to understand better who Anna Marsden is and her vision for the school – especially regarding our exciting journey to become a United World College.? For further details please visit the UWC website: www.uwc.org

It was a pleasure to host Michael Murray, the Head of Primary from St Constantine’s School, on Tuesday. I went to visit his school last year and it was ?good to meet with him here this time. He was interested to learn more about our campus and we both believe our schools benefit from this type of collaboration.

Dates for your diary:

PTA Picnic at Moshi Club: Sunday 10th September
ISM Blood Drive for KCMC Hospital: Friday 15th September
Tennis Tournament on Moshi Campus: Saturday 16th (students) and Sunday 17th (adults) September
ISMAC Triathlon: Saturday 16th September
Peace Day Assembly: Monday 18th September
Spirit Day: Children can wear blue and white, i.e. the colours of the UN. They don’t need to wear their ISM t-shirts that day: Monday 18th September
UN Day of Peace and UWC Day: Thursday 21st September

Ms Kate

This week we made a survey of eye-colour, hair-colour and T-shirt colours around the school. The children showed that they are developing as risk takers by bravely stopping and questioning people, adding a smiley face to the categories on their little clipboards.

Our garden is filling out. Please send in seedlings for us to plant and any gardening equipment that you can spare. We’ve had a few tummy aches this week, so please continue to work with your children at home on the importance of washing hands correctly.

Next week we have some visits from Mama Eefke, Mama Tiago and Mama Aditi who will be chatting with us about similarities and differences in families and local communities. Let me know if you’d like to join us too!

Huge congratulations to Sofia and her family on their recent good news!

All the best,
Mr. Evans

This week, we looked at our last line of inquiry; understanding and respecting other people’s needs and wants. The children have been busy trying to get as many people to fill our survey board as possible. If you haven’t done so, please pass by and fill it in. We will be taking it down at the end of our unit. This coming week, we will be heading into our assessments and thinking about what actions we are going to take as a result of our learning.

In math, we have been busy adding to our list of addition strategies. The children are beginning to reach a stage where they can pick and choose the one that they find the quickest to use in solving math problems. This coming week, we will be looking at how people collect information and organise it.

Phase 2 Sounds: g and o
Phase 3 Sounds: ch and sh
Friday’s show and tell: Jasmijn and Colin

Mboka Mwasongwe

Dear P2/3 Parents,

This week the class have read the books Enemy Pie and How to fill your bucket. Please ask them questions about both. We are using the phrases fill your bucket and dip your bucket in class. These are helping the children build positive relationships and express themselves more confidently.

We wrote poems about friendship and looked at the different poetry styles. We will continue this next week. In reading the children have begun to use Raz Kids to help broaden their reading genres. The children have been working on asking questions about what they read. Others have been using strategies to help with tricky words.
In math, we will continue to work on numbers, some children will work on friends of ten and others multiplication strategies.
If you have any questions about homework please stop by or have your child ask – Thanks

PE: Tuesday and Thursday
Library: Tuesday
Homework due on: Friday
Next Friday: P2/3 present the Primary Gathering @7:35

Have a great weekend

Clare Hibbard

We have had an interesting week in P4 as we are ‘digging deep’ into our Unit. We are working on some great biographies in English. On top of the note taking skills we are developing the children will explore connectives and sentence openers to add interest to their work. They will be presenting their chosen topic to the class next week and we are excited to learn about Martin Luther, Gandhi, Helen Keller along with many other role models.
In Math we are looking at the book If the World was a Village of 100 and we are exploring fractions and percentages as they arise. In Unit of Inquiry we will look at presenting this data visually and using technology.

Next week we will talk about education and how access to this depends on many factors.

Please remember to send proper shoes for Monday and Wednesday as these are PE days. The coach has requested that the students bring water bottles.

Many thanks to Mr. Owain Evans, who visited our class on Wednesday to talk to the children about his interest in the history of early man and the sources of evidence for this time period. The photo shows Mr. Evans demonstrating his best “Neanderthal man” face. Ms. Gemma May (Development Officer) and Mr. Amit (UWC alumnus) came to speak to the children on Thursday about ISM’s journey towards being a United World College. They focused on how this would increase the diversity within our school and why this would be positive and beneficial. This presentation linked very well with our line of inquiry, “Why diversity enriches societies.” Next week the children will focus their individual inquiries on the diversity that they each bring to our classroom. They will consider what makes them special and what talents, traditions, beliefs, languages, interests etc. they contribute to our P5 community.

Monday – Bring library books to school. Take home the weekly homework packet.
Tuesday – French homework will come home.
Thursday – Return French homework to school.
Friday – Some P5 students will MC the P2/3 primary gathering (everyone will have the chance to do this during the course of the year.)  Homework will be returned and shared in class.

Deborah Mills

The P6s had a great week. Thanks to the parents who could make it for our Friday Gathering and to you all for supporting the children with dressing up. The children did us proud with the rap on e-safety

This week we worked on creating bias headlines for news articles, practising towards the Friday gathering and learning more about the dollar and other currencies. The students continue to build positive working relationships with different peers each day so as to be more open-minded when working with others.

In the coming week we will use their knowledge of the pound to teach decimals and review place value. They will continue to practise multiplication facts as these will be needed when working on conversion.

In Language students will be learning about stereotypes through articles, videos and other materials around us, find out examples of stereotypes around us and share what our responsibility is in being open-minded about different issues around us.

Kindly note: all students are expected to bring a hat and water bottle for outdoor play and P.E. Also, students are encouraged to wear their own hats and avoid sharing them during playtime.

I wish you all a lovely weekend,
Ms Cathy.

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