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- Arusha Campus News – 26 Jan 2025
UWC East Africa Arusha Campus Newsletter Sunday 26th January 2025
Top of the World! ALL of our Meru climbers successfully summited Socialist Peak at the top of Tanzania’s second tallest mountain. Mt Meru stands at 4566m above sea level.
Upcoming dates
TBA – Hoops for Hope Basketball at Arusha Campus
Mon 3rd-Thur 13th Feb – Diploma 2 Mock Exams
Mon 17th-Sat 22nd Feb – OP Peaks Challenge to Mt Kilimanjaro
Mon 17th-Fri 21st Feb – OP Plains Challenge to Serengeti
Thu 20th-Tue 25th Feb – Mid-term Holiday School Closed
Dear Parents
I love this amazing photo taken by former student Hunter Scheltema. The picture is taken through a fish eye lens on a panoramic setting. You can see the edge of the image shows the horizons and Mt Meru is clearly visible. The image also encapsulates our beautiful campus with all its wide open spaces and greenery.
As news broke last week of a potential outbreak of Marburg’s virus in the lakes region of Tanzania, my mind was catapulted to memories of the previous global pandemic and the resulting concerns of mental well-being amongst our stakeholders.
Fortunately, we have a diverse and bustling community on both campuses. Small villages if you like. So social events within residential bomas and houses can take place and provide that social stimulation that we all need. This weekend, students had the opportunity to celebrate the Vietnamese Lunar New Year on Friday and then on Saturday several activities were organised on campus – fabric painting, pool and table tennis competition and an open ultimate frisbee game.
We welcome back the Mt Meru climbers! A party of 12 climbers from Arusha Campus joined a similar sized group from Moshi on Thursday morning last week and managed to summit in the early hours of Saturday morning. A tremendous achievement and one that will live long in their memories I hope.
We will continue to operate OP trips for the forseeable future and activities on campus will be organised to be diverse and appealing to all.
Thanks for your understanding during this time.
Phil
Primary Years Programme News
P6 look at different plant structures earlier this week as part of their current unit which looks at plants in our environment.
Children need to be taught how to be healthy especially in this time of health scares. Please help your child to develop good habits! https://www.manipalhospitals.com/blog/10-healthy-habits-to-teach-your-kids/
1. Teeth Brushing twice a day – Teach your child how to brush their teeth and to have good dental hygiene
2. Bathing every day – Teach them the hygienic importance of bathing and being neat and clean.
3. Eating routine – Have a routine of breakfast-lunch-dinner to help them avoid unnecessary snacks right from the beginning.
4. Hand washing – Make sure you explain the importance of washing hands. Teach your child to wash hands after using the washroom, before eating food, after they come home from playing outdoors.
5. Drink water, not soda – water is healthy while soft drinks contain too much sugar which is bad for you.
6. Regular physical activities – encourage your child to find happiness in outdoor games or ask them to perform household activities like washing toys or gardening. Encourage them to play different sports and even if they don’t find any sports interesting, encourage them to try again and again and be active with them.
7. Read everyday – Help your child read, and reading out to them helps develop strong listening and reading skills to succeed at school and work in the later stages of life.
8. Family time – Family time is extremely important for a child. This helps with communication as they enjoy time with you.
9. Spend time with friends – Friends are very important to the healthy development of a child. Playing with good friends teaches your kids valuable social skills such as communication, cooperation and problem solving.
10. Stay positive – Teach them the importance of staying positive with healthy self-esteem and a positive mindset by telling them that they are lovable and unique.
11. Plenty of Sleep – a minimum of 10 hours sleep is required for Primary aged children’s brains to develop optimally.
Amanda, Head of Primary Years Programme
P4’s unit is looking at how materials change and so what more satisfying way of demonstrating this process than to make jelly! Here are P4 pictured above!
P6 make the step up!
P6 visited the secondary science labs this week to learn more about photosynthesis. They learned much about the process as well as gaining experience of working in a real life science laboratory.
Book Donation to Refugees in Uganda
Happy teachers and students (above) at the Umoja Innovation Refugee Centre in Uganda celebrate the arrival of books from Arusha Campus!
Now this is a nice story. Delphin Kyanda is a remarkable young man in our Diploma 2 year. Delphin lived in a refugee camp in Uganda before he came to Arusha and retains very close links with the camp. In fact he has gone so far as to set up an NGO in Uganda that supports the education of children and young adults in the camp that he left behind two years ago. Delphin has been to talk at our local Rotary Club and the passion, integrity and quiet determination that he exudes was there for all to see. We all now believe in this project and so last term MIss Amanda sorted through our shelves of teaching books and between her and Delphin, they filled Delphin’s December baggage allowance with books for the camp. And Delphin took them in his luggage!
MYP News
Our MYP students learning about considering others’ boundaries in our Wellness Workshop on Monday,
It was great to see (almost) everyone back on campus this week! Some were not quite ready to return to school as they busied themselves climbing Africa’s highest mountain, Mt Kilimanjaro. Pictured below is Blake (M4) at Uhuru Peak, bravo!
The rest of our MYP students started on Tuesday morning with a workshop led by Ms Lina who is a school & wellness counselor from Linden Education. The workshop focused on pushing your own boundaries of understanding and awareness of other people’s feelings. Of course this is a serious topic, but the workshop was also active and fun as demonstrated by Pierre, Ethan, Khalif and Erik (in the picture above)
Miss Anoek, Head of MYP
DP Corner
The Diploma 1 students (above) meet with the Swahili teachers to discuss their Extended Essay proposals.
We have had an interesting first two weeks welcoming diploma students back. Straight into work and activities it feels like the holidays were a long time ago already. I had some interesting discussions with students about how we are feeling and ensuring we check in with each other and find support when needed. Enjoying the UWC experience and being successful in our IB program can be a tough balance to find. We have our student led conferences February 20th which is a great opportunity for diploma students to check in with their teachers and mentors (more information to come)
D1
The D1 students are well and truly immersed into the diploma now. Supervisor met to discuss the Extended Essay proposals and students will be given their feedback this coming week. Choosing a topic and research question is one of the hardest parts, now that they are underway we hope to facilitate a smooth learning process in writing an extensive 4,000 word essay.
In addition some subjects have started to introduce the internal assessments and students will begin these final products which account for a large percentage of their finals. D1 students need to think ahead and manage their time as their D1 end of year exams will be here before they know it (start June 2nd).
D2
The D2s have returned to school with a mix of feelings as they enter their final full quarter before exams.Next week starting February 3rd, we will run a set of mock exams for students to prepare for their final exams. They will receive a full report at the end of this quarter with feedback on specific areas of focus.
Looking ahead planning for prom, dinner and graduation is in full swing as we finalise dates.
Diploma Parent Zoom reminder Tuesday, 25th March @2.00pm EAT.
We look forward to a great semester ahead!
Jessica Peterson, Head of Diploma, DP Coordinator, DP Biology
Extended Essay
On Thursday 17th January, D1 students presented their Extended Essay proposals to potential supervisors. As one of the compulsory Core components of the Diploma Programme, the EE will be at the forefront of Q3 and Q4.
Rachel Rabanowitz, Extended Esssay Co-ordinator
Escape Room CCA
All last semester a big group of secondary students, from M1 to D2, have been working and playing together; learning about escape rooms, solving puzzles and finally designing and putting-together an escape room of their own. Their creativity and efforts have been rewarded by the official opening of “Disast-Air in the Jungle”, which is open for members of the UWCEA community to come and play – whilst making money for the scholarship fund. We hope to have the room available for the first few weeks of the new semester.
Congratulations to the Escape Room Team!
University and Career Guidance News
Dear D2 Students (and Families),
I hope you’ve had a great first week back! Here are some to-do reminders and resources for you.
Resources:
If it’s helpful for you, feel free to make a copy of the College Cost Comparison sheet (pictured above, click on the image if you would like your own template). If you fill in the rows in green, the other rows will automatically do the calculations for you.Our College Advising website has gotten a facelift! If you’re looking for resources to help with any part of your process, you can find our best resources there.
To Do:
Share Financial Aid Award Details: We collect this information so that we can learn about the financial aid, scholarships and grants offered at universities so that we (the university counselors) can offer more informed guidance to the UWCEA students in lower grades. To say this another way, this helps us to know which universities are most/least affordable so that we can help other students and families find these universities, too. Please note that the information shared here will only be seen by the UWCEA university counselors. Please complete both of the following steps for each university where you are accepted:Step 1: Submit a copy of your Financial Aid Award form for all offers you have received. The more details you can provide, the better.
Step 2: In your shared folder that includes your counselor brag sheet, etc, make a new folder titled “Financial Aid Award Letters”. In this folder, add a copy of your decision letter and any financial aid award information to your shared folder.
Keep Maia Learning Updated on Your Applications: As you submit any non-US applications, please let me know so that I can add them to your “Applied” list in Maia Learning.
Update your decision status in Maia Learning. In your “Applying” tab, scroll to the university who has given you a decision. Click on the light green “Not Set” bar next to “Application Decision,” and choose the appropriate option in the pop-up window. The most common decisions you’d choose will be:Accepted
Conditional Acceptance (usually UK/Europe only – this is generally NOT what you would get in the US. This is if you have an acceptance that, say, requires a specific IB score on your final diploma.)
Deferred (this may be your decision from ED/EA applications – they are not denying your application yet, but they are deferring you to their regular decision round.)Denied
Unconditional Acceptance (usually UK/Europe only – this is what you can choose if they have accepted you without requiring any conditions to be met in your final IB diploma)Waitlisted
Withdrawn (if you end up withdrawing any of your applications – for instance, because you are admitted into an ED school – then you would choose this for any applications that you submitted but that you withdrew before receiving a decision.)
After you choose where to enroll, you will update your decision for the university where you are enrolling to include the “-> Attend” at the end. For instance – “Accepted -> Attend” or “Waitlisted -> Accepted -> Attend”
When you’ve made your decision to accept a spot:
Confirm your acceptance with the university, using whatever method they’ve asked. This may include paying a deposit.
Withdraw any other applications (if you haven’t gotten a decision yet); decline any other acceptances (either in their portal, or by email).
Start to prepare for your visa application, if needed.
Stop by to get your star to add to my bulletin board!
And as always – stop by if there’s anything I can do to help support your university applications and decision process!Adam K, University and Career Counselor
Swimming Pool Times
The image above shows everyone exactly when the swimming pool is available to certain stakehiolders. If the image is too small you may navigate to a live version of the page by clicking on the image itself.
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