Arusha Campus News – 20 Mar 2022

Miss Rosemary joins in the Swahili DAy celebrations on Friday.

Our parent Swahili troupe formed a stunning finale to Swahili Assembly. 

The highlight of this week for many of us was the Swahili Day on Friday! What a wonderful way to end the week. The assembly was scheduled during Primary Share Time but it ended up attracting secondary students, teachers, support staff and even security guards who crammed around the Performance Area to see what was going on!

Performances from all and sundry had one thing in common (apart from the obvious Swahili theme!) That’s right, the whole event was organised by Miss Ann-Joyce. What an amazing accomplishment and what an amazing teacher she is.

Asante Ann-Joyce!

Phil

Monday 21st March – PYP MAP Testing starts (P4-P6)

Thursday 24th March – 5pm Festival of the Arts 

Wednesday 30th March – PYP Student-led Conferences

Thursday 31st March – 5pm MYP Personal Project Exhibition 

Friday 1st April – Last day of Q3 

 

Nowruz Celebrations (above) in full swing on Tuesday night

Value #3 – A holistic and diverse portfolio of learning experiences

On Tuesday evening, residential students had the opportunity to learn about the festival of Nowruz (Persian New Year). Part of this celebration includes “Chaharshanbe soori” which is literally translated to the Wednesday Festival but is celebrated on the last Tuesday of each year. If you were near Baobab on Tuesday night you would have witnessed students and teachers jumping over a small fire to keep away the bad spirits and be ready for the new year. There were also small fireworks. The festival continues on Sunday evening. Nowruz, the Persian new year, begins on the spring equinox and marks the beginning of Farvardin, the first month of the Solar Hijri calendar. More than 300 million people, from all around the world, celebrate it every year. In Iran, it is celebrated ‘at the EXACT moment of the spring equinox’ so if you’re interested, join our Iranian students in the Performance Area Sunday evening around 6:15 pm.

In PYP the P6s have begun their P6 Exhibition journey. I am excited to find out what they are focusing on this year and look forward to working with another great group of soon-to-be Secondary students!

Value #5 – Innovation over perfection within a supportive community where students are motivated to embrace personal challenge and reflection

M3 students shared their explorations in science during Thursday’s fantastic Science Fair. Some real creativity and inquiry were on display as well as presentation skills. Great job M3 and Mr. Henry!

M5s have been busy all week writing their mock E-Assessments. These challenging online exams will be used as a summative assessment for 3rd Quarter and will help them prepare for the real thing in May.

Value #6 – The ambition of students to demonstrate initiative and take on leadership roles

On Tuesday, the D1 students presented the Project Week experiences to the secondary school. What a diverse collection of projects! Hopefully, the M5 students were inspired as they will participate in our second Project Week next year.

Value #8 – A shared responsibility and collective duty of care for ourselves, each other, and the environment

Continuing to improve our recycling on campus, the environmental group has introduced a recycling station near the science labs. More stations in secondary and at the back gate for residentia staff will follow shortly.

Value #9 – A healthy lifestyle and active pursuits

The House Council is partnering with the Swim Club to plan our end-of-quarter House event on Friday, April 1st. All secondary students will participate in a FUN Swim Gala. Please ensure your child has signed up for an event and is at school on time and ready to swim!

Miss Christy

Celebrating Tanzania culture and language is an important aspect of international mindedness. During our Share Time the students demonstrated a fabulous collection of plays, songs, dances and drumming. See montage above. The Support Staff and Parents joined in our celebrations and entertained us. A HUGE thank you to Miss Ann-Joyce for organising the event and engaging us in Tanzanian Culture.

Our school website https://www.uwcea.org defines what we our school believes it means to be Internationally Minded People

At UWC East Africa we have developed our own definition of International Mindedness.

Internationally Minded People:

Are curious about the world and different cultures.
Demonstrate the values of UWC and of the International Baccalaureate.
Strive to learn about the values, beliefs and practices of their own culture so that they can better understand those found in their host country and elsewhere.
Seek to understand how personal values, beliefs and practices impact one’s own and other’s contexts for learning and interacting in a variety of settings.
Are influenced by, but not confined to, the cultures of their upbringing.
Recognise that many values, beliefs and practices are in fact universal.
Recognise and reflect on their place in an increasingly interdependent, globalised and connected world.
Recognise and critically engage with multiple perspectives.
Bridge cultures and act to create a more peaceful and sustainable world.

Amanda

M5 enjoyed the Second Round of On-screen Exams in the IT Lab this week.

M5 students sat their second round of mock exams from Monday to Friday to prepare for the official exams in May. These sessions have given them a better picture of what to expect in the May 2022 exams and how to revise for those exams. A big thank you to M5s, to the invigilators, and to the IT team who supported us in the successful administration of these exams. We wish our students every success in the upcoming exams.

Anisa exhibits her Science Fair project which tested the reactions of her pet snake to different forms of food invitations!

The M3 Science Fair took place on Thursday in the Performance Area with each student in the class exhibiting their own investigation that they have carried out in previous weeks. The variety of experiments was impressive and even better was the collective ability of the students’ to present and explain their work. Congratulations to the whole of M3 but also to teachers Mr David, Mr Henry and Miss Beatrice. 

Many of you may have heard of India’s revolutionary anti-colonial nationalist (Mahatma Gandhi), America’s civil rights legend (Martin Luther King Jr), or even  Julius Kambarage Nyerere-Tanzania’s ‘Baba wa Taifa’ (Father of nation), but have you ever heard of Nelson Mandela?  A Pan-African political leader and philanthropist who had united several people in order fight the discriminatory legislation, known as Apartheid, that undermind the liberal rights of South Africa’s non-white civilians. Throughout his lifetime Mandela had the charisma and compassion that allowed him to reform a once racist colonial South Africa into the influential and diverse nation that it is today. During his rise to power, Mandela had always put the well-being of others before himself, so much to the extent that, he made the decision to rebuff the opportunity of succeeding his father as chief, and instead chose to continue his studies as he aspired to become a lawyer. However, Mandela instead, became a member of the A.N.C (African National Congress) as a fighter and the rest is history. Whilst reading Nelson Mandela’s autobiography “Long Walk to Freedom”, we can join Mandela in his long walk to freedom as this book explains the aspects that allowed him to achieve remarkable success as a leader. In fact, this book has the ability to equip the reader with the formula that made it possible for a Xhola boy from the village of Mvezo, to become the President of a powerful nation.

Eben, M3

Click on any month (below) to link to the live School calendar on our website