Arusha Campus News – 9 Dec 2017

Well done Miss Arora and Mr Dixon and everyone involved with the Wizard of Oz! Those that attended last night will have heard my words of praise for the cast and producers of this spectacular show. Dorothy (Dana) and her best friends Toto (Pompom) and Scarecrow (Jack) are pictured right. Terrific in every single respect. If I had my way I would give you all an extra week of holiday – fully deserved!

I think Catherine Wambura in D2 deserves an extra week of holiday! Read about her offer to Cornell University in this newsletter.

We have plenty to accomplish in the last week of term. On Monday we open our doors to guests and prospective students for our annual Open Day. Let’s hope that the day yields some new recruits to ISMAC. 

There will be an end of 2017 assembly at 11am on Friday this week at which we will be celebrating the achievements of the year gone by. There will also be sports awards, house competition updates and even a cheerleading display!

Next week I shall tell you all about our exciting ISMAC forest that we have started to plant on the other side of the fence from the basketball court. Thanks to the 40 000 litres of rainwater which we have collected from the basketball roof, and Edan (Gal’s dad) at Balton, we will be able to drip irrigate the forest throughout the dry season. We have already planted 60 trees and our aim is to top the 200 mark before the Christmas holidays.

Enjoy the Christmas Fair this weekend everybody!

Phil

Dear Parents,

It has been another busy week in the run up to the end of the Semester. We have been amazed by the brilliance of the Wizard of Oz production: huge thanks have to go to Ms Aurora, the band, backstage crew and organisers, as well as the fantastically talented cast. It is all the more amazing when you think that ISM Arusha is a small school – we certainly pack in the talent.

At the beginning of the week we had a group of students complete the Level 4 Ngorongoro OP trip – another excellent achievement for our students.

In the classroom , M5 students have been completing practice ePortfolio projects in preparation for their final ePortfolio tasks in Quarter Three, along with sitting practice onscreen eAssessments next week. We wish them all well with the final stages of their MYP in Semester Two.

Equally, D2 are now getting ready for their final mock examinations which they will sit in the first two weeks after the December break. We wish them luck for their revision over the holidays. Many of the D2 final Internal Assessments (IAs) have also now been completed, including the ToK presentation and the Extended Essay; the final May examinations will be here before we know it.

All students in the PYP (EC-P6) and the MYP (M1-5) will receive full Semester One reports on Friday 15 December. These will be sent via email to all parents.

After the December break, the MYP students will be hosting their Portfolio Conferences on Tuesday 16 January. This is where students present their work from Semester One to their parents and talk through their achievements, along with setting goals for Semester Two. Full details will be sent to parents next week, along with the procedure to set up appointments.

In the primary school, P6 will be starting their PYP Exhibition journey in the new year. This is an exciting time for P6 as they demonstrate their learning from the PYP and begin their transition into the MYP: the next stage of their education.

To kick-off the last week of the semester, ISM Arusha will be hosting an Open Day for EC-D2 on Monday. We have already had a good level of interest and expect a number of prospective students to join classes for the day. If you know of anyone who may be interested the day will begin at 07.45 on Monday.

I hope everyone has a great last week of Semester One. We will finish school at 12 noon on Friday 15 December.

Darren

Alma, Tony and our perennial ‘baddie’, Leila, in full flow during last night’s show. 

Dorothy (Dana) consults the Wizard himself (Assad) in her efforts to get back to Kansas!

The Munchkins and the perennial ‘goodie’, Georgie, comfort Dorothy before she embarks on her journey along the Yellow Brick Road.

The Munchkin Mayor (Olivia) and her crew take the lead.

I have just been informed, as I write this newsletter, that Catherine Wambura, our very own D2 student is about receive an offer from Cornell University for a place at their fine establishment next year. We are hopeful that Catherine will receive a full scholarship to Cornell.

In doing so, Catherine will make history as the first student from our campus to recieve a place at an Ivy League Univesity.

Congratulations to Catherine who is fully deserving of this prestigious award and has made her teachers and everyone at ISMAC extremely proud.

Some of our students travelled to the Ngorongoro highlands last week to undertake a 4 day trek from Olmoti to Lengai. Super weather and a great group of hikers made the trip one to remember. Pictured above are some of our students enjoying a few minutes respite on the shores of the lake in Empakai Crater.

This term some of our P2 children have been working on getting better at playing nicely with each other. At breaktimes this week they received some help in the form of D2’ers, Andi, Milos and Pieter who, being seasoned professionals in the art of playing nicely with one another (!) helped out with some fun games for all to play.

The students in P 4/5 were able to connect their yoga session to their study of forces and motion!  We worked together to demonstrate balanced forces.  Although without concentration we tended to show unbalanced forces!  Thank you to Marion and her team for providing us with amazing yoga lessons this semester, helping us to become more mindful. See Sally and Elaete pictured above.

My name is Gabriel Kalamata. I have been teaching Piano and Music theory following the ABRSM curriculum from the UK at ISM- Arusha Campus since 2008.

Piano and Theory Students can take part of the ABRSM Exams where there are two theory Exams and One Practical Exam in a year.

The Schedule for Piano/Theory Lessons is as follows:

Day               Start Time          Finish Time

Tuesday         2:30pm               4:40 pm
Wednesday    2:00pm               4:30 pm
Thursday       2:30pm               4:30pm

Tuition Fee  is Tsh 20,000tsh per lesson for half an hour.

Parents who are interested to develop the talent of the children;

Contact Gabriel at : +255 753 341076
                 
                   Email: kalamata734@gmail.com.