In less than a week the Moshi Campus will once again transform for Sports Weekend. This is now a school tradition which this year will involve about 750 secondary students from both UWCEA campuses and 10 other schools from within Tanzania playing football, basketball, netball, volleyball, touch rugby, ultimate frisbee, tennis and running cross country. The sports will kick off Friday at the end of school and run well into the evening. After a rest the students start back up at 7am on Saturday and go through the full day. Sunday is full of elimination matches that wrap up after lunch. While this is very competitive it is actually about bringing together this large group of students from all over Tanzania for fun as well as sport. Personally, I feel the sportsmanship, which can be seen in so many different ways throughout the weekend, is even more valuable that the competition.
In addition to the sports, there is also an extended Farmers’ Market on Saturday for those with a break from competing or just watching. As you can see below, the PTA is organizing food vendors and the Student Government is also running drink sales.
As you look through the newsletter please also see all the other fantastic items from the last week and updates on events coming up.
Bob Cofer – Head of Campus
Upcoming
Beauty and the Beast
The full school production of Beauty and the Beast will be performed on the 2nd / 3rd February.
Logo / Graphics competition – deadline 24th November
All students are invited to submit designs for artwork and graphics to be used in the promotional material for the production. The selected winning entries will be used on tickets, posters, brochure etc. Designs will be judged anonymously, for the different school sections, by the student Promotions team.
Please submit your artwork on PLAIN, WHITE paper to Mr Morley’s office by the end of school on Thursday 24th November. Designs on lined or squared paper will not be accepted.
All entries will be displayed outside the Middle School Art Room and on the evenings of the Production.
Set / Costume / Props / Promotions We are looking for people (students or parents!) with enthusiasm and / or skills to help with the above areas of the production in the coming weeks. Please contact Heloise if you have some time to help out….even if just for an afternoon….you are welcome! (DP students, this can count towards CAS points!!)
PTA News
On Monday evening a new PTA committee at our AGM was voted in, here they are:
Chairman – Mandy Stein
Vice Chairman – Amardeep Bhamra
Treasurer – Gurpreet (Gupz) Kaur Bhamra
Secretary – Munira Mauly
Parent representative to the School Board (from August 2023): Tara Mtuy (Debbie Bachmann still active until June 2023)
This Tuesday morning the PTA committee met to discuss some important upcoming events:
Sports Weekend 18-20 November
To help make it a big success the PTA is organizing the vendors so that the students and their chaperones as well as our own teaching staff and parents have some snacks, smoothies and tasty meals to keep them going throughout the day. Our very own PTA will run a cake bake stand and a fruit ice lolly stand. For this we rely on parents support in the form of donations: cakes, cookies, brownies, samosas etc. OR even money to an M-pesa account (+255 757 558744) as well as volunteers who are willing to sign up for a 1-hour slot to help sell these things.
Please can you let us know if you are able to:
help volunteer your time to man the stand
donate a goodie for us to sell during the Sports Weekend
You can Whatsapp our PTA group to inform us! If money is sent to the M-Pesa account, we will use your money to order baked goodies and sell them on your behalf!
PA meeting (only for parents and the PTA committee members) – date, time and place to be advised!
If you would like to join the PTA Whatsapp group, please email us your name and phone number so we can add you to our group. This is where we regularly post our updates: uwceamoshipta@gmail.com
Ben’s Corner
With Sports Weekend a week away, I wanted to use my corner of the newsletter to draw our collective attention to just how much happens on and around our campus. All. The. Time. I also want to acknowledge that this is a reflection of the incredible dedication of many teachers, support staff and parents who continue to support so much across the community.
At UWCEA, a dedicated and enormously committed group of adults facilitates such varied and rich learning experiences beyond the classroom walls. So much so, that it has become the norm. It is expected. For me, this is a dangerous sentiment as it fails to recognise how special this is and just how much time, effort and energy goes into maintaining such a plethora of opportunities. We are a small group but we punch well above our weight.
In the last five days alone we have facilitated collaborative service learning and trips to local partners, such as Upendo. We have hosted a large number of sports teams across the ages and disciplines, including football, volleyball, basketball, netball, and, not forgetting, an army of orange at the Primary Athletics Meet in Arusha, with Secondary heading out on Saturday.
We have come together as a community to organise evening rehearsals and choral practices for the upcoming production. As I write, there are people working on costumes, backdrops and marketing. At the same time, we continue to host numerous universities and colleges in virtual evening presentations and seminars, such as Lake Forest and Hamilton this week. The ongoing conveyor belt of OP Trips has continued, with Reefs L3 returning with a bus load of freshly qualified divers. In fact, this weekend will be the first weekend without an OP Trip since the start of the school year! Incredible.
At the same time, teachers are organising and running clubs, activities and excursions every day, including weekends, as well as supervising daily academic support sessions for students across the year groups after hours. The list is endless and it is the same, week in and week out. I feel that we forget that this does not happen in every school. Far from it. In fact, this happens in very few schools.
For many of us, this is why we chose to work at UWCEA and we see these additional commitments as a bonus, enormously rewarding and, often, a privilege. These opportunities offer us so much that, perhaps, classroom teaching cannot. They allow us to build incredible relationships with students and colleagues, to connect on a completely different level. However, it can be taxing at times. It is exhausting, believe me, and it does mean we often have to sacrifice other things. Of course, many of us will continue to do it because we love our community and are proud of the role we play in it. Still, all too often, we become too caught up in our own day-to-day happenings to recognise and appreciate this. So, today, ahead of another action-packed programme next week, please, please, PLEASE take a moment to say thank you. Do not take all of these amazing, additional learning opportunities for granted, as students, parents or colleagues. This does not happen at many other schools. We are special. We are fortunate. We have a lot to be thankful for. Let people know. It is the right thing to do.
Ben Morley – Deputy Head of Campus
DP News
On Monday we had an assembly where we introduced a new initiative the upstander culture. Students were told about the results of a survey about “snitches” and were then asked to pick a group to work with to create a proposal. The groups will look at things like bullying, mental health and anonymous reporting methods. A large number of students have volunteered to lead these groups and the discussions will take place on Monday next week. The response to this from students has been amazing.
On Thursday in guidance time we had the Self-Taught Collaboration which was really good to see.
Wednesday afternoon is always an impressive time as we have service. The KCMC group went to the hospital and took baked goods. NEEMA entertained the visiting children. Iris worked on planning an assembly and the Bee Club had a visitor.
The D1 students found out their project week groups and supervisors this week and have started their detailed planning.
Margaret Brunt – DP Coordinator
Self-Taught Collaboration
This week, the Language A self-taught students met with other students (and one parent) on campus to discuss an extract from the novel, Animal Farm. As a class, the D2 students had studied the extract in English and then applied their analysis to their own language. There were many interesting discussions around the ‘accuracy’ of translations and how authorial choices differ between languages. Here is some feedback from the D1 students:
It was helpful as I got to remember literary devices in Spanish.
It was a wonderful experience to be able to meet someone of the same origin.
I got to speak in my mother tongue after a long time.
My D2 was very clear, gave me good tips and was explicit about where to focus.
I learnt how the IB Arabic questions work.
It was helpful because I understand the IB requirements now and all of it was explained in my own language by my LOVELY D2.
Catherine Dowie
MYP News
Lots of learning is taking place in the MYP, as usual, and there are some really interesting learning experiences and activities taking place in all the MYP classrooms. Teaching and learning through inquiry involves the active construction of meaning by our learners while they respond to authentic questions to “uncover” knowledge!
What happened in M2 this week? As part of their I&S unit, “The Middle Ages”, students created their own “Personal Coat of Arms”.
Knights and nobles in the Middle Ages often had a coat of arms. This was a special symbol that represented their family.
Through a Think/Pair/Share activity, students explored the following:
What are values, and what makes up your personal identity?
Decide which values, beliefs, or other things are important to you.
Think about how you can represent them (pictures, symbols, colors)
Each Coat of Arms contained:
A Shield
A Motto
4 symbols
2 different colors
Students showcased their communication skills by describing and explaining their products orally. The discovered that some values from the Middle Ages are still present today. After all, our students are the knights of the 21st century!
Stay tuned for what M3 has to share with us next week!
Farah Fawaz – MYP Coordinator
Residential Life
For this week in Residential Life, I wanted to highlight one of the key guiding statements of UWCEA: A sense of belonging, acceptance, and tolerance. For this rings true in so many facets week in and week out!
In our Diploma program we have banded together and built the first stage of our outdoor boma – keeping to the Kisiwa Swahili meaning of ‘island.’ A rustic Zanzibar feel with even children from PYP learning to hammer, nail and saw. From my end, it is so pleasing to see them
accept one another’s skills, talents and importantly, to have a break from the academic rigours of the IB programme. Speaking of breaks, Kijana and Kiongozi had an afternoon off campus relaxing by the poolside at one of our beautiful lodges nearby. Thank you to Dr Kitomary for chaperoning them for this wonderful afternoon of leisure.
For the remainder of my article, I wanted to include an honest blurb from Velyn, a residential student in Kiota who has been creating an inclusive software that will enhance our mentoring program in MYP and soon, PYP:
“Our school offers a design curriculum that runs from M1 to M5, and I decided to develop a website for my design project. The website is targeted towards MYP female dorms at the moment, and its purpose is to help the DP mentors bond with us even more by assisting us with schoolwork. The website is still in the progress, and hopefully it will be ready before the Christmas break. It will be used for the third quarter as a trial until the long weekend. If everything goes well, it will be moved to Kivuli and PYP.
Before I proceed, I’d want to thank my design instructor, Mr Simon, my dorm parents, and the DPs who are assisting me in making this possible. I honestly had little hope for this project, and it was going to be one of those things that I tried, failed, and then gave up on. It makes me so pleased to see this going ahead, and I hope that it becomes a significant part of boarding to connect DP and MYP all the way to PYP, as this is one of our commitments.
If Mr. Simon hasn’t cut this portion out yet, I must have piqued his interest. So, in summary, the website would have a photo of the mentor as well as the subjects they teach, a google form link for the students to fill out, and a link to the official dorm email. Finally, there would be a Google sheet for students to fill out so that all of the data is in one place and easy to organize and manage.”
I look forward to our residential movie trips this weekend and celebrating with the Irish on our cultural evening on Sunday.
Simon Johnston – Head of Residential Life
Outdoor Pursuits
Rides Level 1
Outdoor Pursuits Rides level 1 took place at Simba farms in a region west of Kilimanjaro this past weekend. We had a group of 49 riders racing through the dirt tracks and muscling up the hills. Using the Simba Farm campsite as our homebase, we cycled 18 km on the first day and 8 km on the second day.
The Rides trip was a really good qualifier experience for our students. For many students this trip gave them the confidence to definitely say yes for Rides level 2. I want to extend a huge appreciation to our support staff on this trip who help the team load and off load bikes and assisted with tube puncture repairs, ensuring riders get back on track, Thank you!
Reefs Level 3
On the same weekend a group of students set out to Fish Eagle point to complete their PADI open water certificate qualification. Here is Damien’s report on the trip.
“The sea is an underwater museum still awaiting its visitors.”- Phillip Diole. The Reefs Level 3 Trip granted 30 students and 3 educators access to this museum. We experienced a completely different world, a world full of new sounds, comparable to popping popcorn, and creatures of all
shapes and sizes, some with teeth and others without eyes. To put it simply, this trip will be counted amongst favorites at UWCEA. Alongside this, dancing to good music while cooking, beach volleyball and cold showers are just some of the other things we got up to while we were outside the water. I would like to congratulate all the new divers on their newly granted access to this underwater museum, I look forward to diving alongside you in the future.”
Baden Dowie – Experiential Learning Coordinator
From the Counselors
This was a busy week with our last in-person university visit from Bennington College. We are fortunate to have had 18 colleges/universities visit both the Arusha and Moshi campuses this school year. These visits gave our M5-D2 students a chance to learn firsthand about the academic and scholarship opportunities at these colleges. This week we also finished with our virtual university visits. To date, we have had 13 colleges conduct virtual visits. This is a total of 31 colleges, mostly Davis Partner Colleges and Universities, that our students were invited to meet with and glean information to help inform their college list or future college decisions.
This past week we also held a Financial Aid Part II virtual session that focused on frequently asked questions in completing the CSS Profile and International Student Financial Aid Application forms, which are the most commonly used forms by US financial aid offices. Please contact me for access to the link to both parts of the financial aid virtual sessions if you missed them.
Regular Admissions or Early Decision II Season (U.S., Canada, and UK) It is now time to prepare university applications for students applying for early decision II (this is a binding decision) or regular admissions. A student Overview Preparation session will be held in person on Wednesday, November 16th on the Moshi campus from 7:30-8:30 pm to help prepare students for all materials needed along with a checklist to follow. I recognize that many students will begin to focus on their regular admissions applications once our December break begins.
I will be working part of the December break but students will not have the ability to stop by the office to ask questions that arise and I want families to be equipped to complete the application and financial aid processes during this time. I will however, be checking email during certain times of the day, and can make myself available for zoom calls if needed during parts of the December break. The internal deadline for applications (possibly some financial aid forms as well; students must verify with this with the university themselves) is December 28th. After this date, I will be on vacation and not able to send application materials until after we return to school, which is after the deadline for most US colleges and universities. For those students applying to Canada and the UK, the internal deadline is in January once we return to school. All students, who have yet to apply to USA, Canadian, and UK universities, are encouraged to attend the Overview Presentation.
Andrea Kitomary – University Counselor
Sports Update
Last week was full of sports events and positive vibes on and off campus! Below is a summary of our sports. Details on Secondary Athletics will come next week.
Primary Athletics: The Primary Athletics at Arusha was a success. UWCEA Moshi got third place overall. We would like to thank all the teachers and parents who supported the students on this long journey to Arusha. A HUGE thank you Mr Thadeus, Ms Frida, Ms Pearls, Ms Neema, Mrs Heloise, Mr Emmanuel, and Mrs Chrissy for the tremendous effort and time they put into this event, making it enjoyable and fun for the students.
PYP Athletics
Volleyball Open: The volleyball team led by Mr Julien and Dr Volker had a friendly game against Moshi Tech. It was a great start to prepare for Sports Weekend.
Basketball Open: The boys’ and girls’ team played brilliantly against Moshi Tech last week but were unlucky. However, the learning outcomes were excellent for Sports Weekend Preparation.
Football Boys Open: They had two friendly games against Mawenzi and Moshi Tech. The boys beat Mawenzi 3-1 and tied with Moshi Tech 0-0. The boys played brilliantly in both games with team collaboration and spirit.
Football Girls Open: The girls’ team won both Mawenzi and Moshi Tech games. Eunice scored a hat-trick for Moshi, leading the team to 3-0.
UWCEA Moshi is excited to host the 22nd Sports Weekend this Friday. The countdown to the biggest school sports event of the year starts; 5 days to go!
Mostafa Rihan – Sports & Activities Coordinator
PYP News
Congratulations to our PYP Athletics team who headed to Arusha campus on Friday. The team finished in 3rd place overall. The event finished on a high for Moshi, with our boys’ relay team taking first place in the final race.
On Friday, 18th November, the Daycare Centre will present the Primary Gathering in Rafiki Hall at 7:35 am. Please come along to support these young children. They will be very excited about presenting to us and it would be great to give them a large audience.
Friday, 25th November will be the PYP Sharing Assembly in Rafiki Hall at 7:35am. More details will follow.
The PYP children have been invited to take part in a logo/graphics competition for the school production of Beauty and the Beast (performance dates 2nd and 3rd February 2023). The winning art work will be used on the brochures, posters, tickets and other promotional material for the production. You can read the full details elsewhere in this newsletter but it is important to note that all artwork should be submitted on PLAIN WHITE PAPER to Mr. Morley’s office (name and class on the back please) by the end of the school day on Thursday, 24th November.
Please look out for an email regarding PYP children making purchases at the Duka. In the light of feedback from the Educational Assistants and the Duka staff, it seems many PYP children are spending money on sweets and treats, particularly at 3pm when clubs finish. School staff will accompany children to the duka at 1:10pm to buy a healthy lunch but it is not possible for Educational Assistants to supervise the purchases that are made after clubs. We ask that PYP children are accompanied by their own adult in order to purchase items from the duka after school.
Deborah Mills – PYP Coordinator
EC/P1 Class
We continued our explorations of buildings this week. The children walked around school again and climbed the stairs to the art room. We had fun discussions once on top, especially concerning how high we were and how we felt about it.
Mama Aarefa joined us on Wednesday and gave a very insightful presentation about the process involved in construction. She showed the children pictures of construction sites and machines which were being used. She also brought in tools that the children were given an opportunity to use. The crowning activity of the day was when she gave each child a blue hard hat with their own name on it. This was a wonderful present donated by Aarefa’s grandfather. He also donated garden rakes which we took to Mr. Ken so that they could be used by the garden club. Thank you very much for your kindness and generosity. Pictures will be shared on Toddle.
Mboka Mwasongwe
P2/3 Class
Hibernation, time for Hibernation – if you’ve not heard this song at home yet, I’d be surprised! You’ll have the chance to hear it from the whole class if you are able to attend the Sharing Assembly on the 25th.
This week, we jumped into a study of forests and focused on seasons and how animals adapt for winter (3 main ways – hibernation, migration and storing food.) Next week we’ll look at arctic biomes which should be really cool.
In Math, we did more work on graphs this week and we looked at strategies for subtraction. We’ll continue working on past tense verbs next week. The photo was taken during Kiswahili class when students had to match the name of an animal with its picture.
Kacey Buckley
P4/5 Class
This week we revised the different layers of the Earth by making playdough models – it was messy but lots of fun (see photo). The children have been learning about climate change and have been watching a WWF video and discussing the material presented. The video covers extreme weather and also the effect of climate change on animals. The children have each chosen a natural hazard that they wish to investigate. They will carry out their research using books and the internet and will use the information to create a Google Slides presentation. In maths we have started a unit on multiplication and division and, as part of their home learning, the children will be bringing home times tables, division facts or work on factors to practice. We will also be looking at measuring temperature next week. Many of the P4/5 class went to Arusha on Friday to compete in the Athletics Meet. We missed you and hope you had a successful day!
Deborah Mills
P6 Class
This week the class created a digital commercial for a product they chose. They were tasked with adding images, video and persuasive language and promotional techniques. These were shared with the class and peer assessed to finish off our media topic. The results were mostly very good and some examples are on display outside our class now. Our next topic is Understanding energy transformation allows us to utilise its power. It will be brief to allow us to start our PYP exhibition in the New Year: we’ve already begun working towards that. This week we started line graphs in maths and worked on creative and plausible endings for our class novel which we’ll finish next week. The class really enjoyed doing Kinetic Art (see photo) with Ms Heloise and we’ll put our energy into developing that in the coming weeks. Well done to the P6 children who represented our school in the NTSAA athletics on Friday.
