I think my role in the newsletter each week is to direct people to what is below and to highlight certain parts. As silly as it may seem that is a bit of a challenge as I think you should read it all. To get the full flavor of what is happening here you almost need to read the full newsletter every week.
In this newsletter there is important information about upcoming events like the cultural night, UWC Day, the 24-Hour run as well as sports, activities and clubs. There are also recaps of last week’s happenings. So, this week take a few extra minutes to browse through the full newsletter and see what catches your eye.
As sometimes we cannot find everything we need here in Tanzania, we yearly bring in a container of items from Europe. This year things went well in our shipping and the container arrived this week. It was like Christmas in September in Rafiki hall on Thursday.
From Thursday through next week, I will be away from campus. We had our accreditation in 2022 by volunteers from other schools and this is my opportunity to return the favor and provide feedback to another school.
Bob Cofer – Head of Campus
Upcoming
Kilimanjaro Mountain Club
Save the date for our September indoor presentation on Monday 25th September 2023, 19:30Hrs at our usual venue, UWCEA Moshi campus social center.
The presenters are Douglas Hardy who in February 2000 installed an automated weather station (AWS) on the Northern Icefield, in support of an ice-core drilling operation to help understand environmental changes on Kilimanjaro. Measurements have continued since, along with exploration and observations of the summit glaciers. The result has been one of the world’s longest high-elevation climate datasets, as well as fascinating discoveries of mummified mammals and subglacial melt cavities. Doug will be presenting with his colleagues Emily Collier and Michael Winkler. Emily is a climate scientist and her research focuses on mountain climate and climate-glacier interactions on High Mountain Asia and Kilimanjaro and Michael is a meteorologist who focused on the glaciers of Kilimanjaro during his PhD work. More details and flyers to follow soon.
Ben’s Corner
Huge kudos to the Primary Student Voice for organising a great 24-Hour Run ‘launch’ event on Thursday. The “24 Minute Fun Run” was a student-led initiative to raise awareness and excitement for our upcoming fundraiser. Everyone turned up for school in their sports gear and the whole Primary School, the teachers and EAs, all gathered on the pitch for 24 minutes of laps around the bottom pitch.
There was jogging, crawling, catwalking, hopping, dancing and all sorts of other ways of moving and some spectacular tunes to accompany us! It all ended with everyone joining together in a giant conga line behind the 24 Hour Run banner! It certainly was a lot of fun.
Hopefully, everyone left excited to be involved in the main event at the end of the month and, more importantly, inspired to collect a few pledges to add to the scholarship fund. Remember, every little helps!
Ben Morley – Deputy Head of Campus
Diploma News
In mentor time on Monday students had a chance to check in with their mentors about how things are going. For D2 it was about their work on Internal Assessments and their subject entries. For D1 it was about how they are settling in and preparation for their CAS interviews. The mentor is a teacher who is there to support the student throughout their two years.
The first CAS (Creativity, Activity and Service) interviews start next week. The students have 3 interviews over the two years. The first one is about making sure students understand the process and discussing their plans. They should have an idea of what they would like to do for each strand and have started writing reflections. The second one at the end of D1 is a review of both what they have done and how they have documented it. The final one at the end of D2 is a presentation about what they have achieved. CAS is not just about doing an activity for example but how you reflect on it, what you have learned, what skills you have developed, and the interviews are the way we can determine that.
One of the lovely aspects of a through school is the interactions between students of different ages. Some examples of this I have seen this week: Three D1 students are helping with the beginner swimmers in PYP, one of them told me how Coach Sabini taught him to swim and now he is helping Coach Sabini to teach others. Another group are teaching boxing to PYP students. A group of M1 students came into a D2 lesson to ask questions for their Individual and Societies lesson.
Student led events are an important part of the school. We have a group organising the UWC Day on Thursday 21st September. There will be an assembly at 1:30 pm and then some workshops, culminating in a group photograph on the pitch. On Friday, I spent some time in Culture Club, the students were discussing pro-life vs pro-choice. It was very impressive to see a group of students voluntarily spending their time doing this respectfully and with the moderation done by fellow students. On Sunday we have the Irish Cultural night again organised by students.
Margaret Brunt – DP Coordinator
Go Make A Difference
This Sunday, Sep. 10th, the Go Make a Difference 2023 workshop happened at UWCEA. The workshop in Moshi was led by me, Mr. Joao, and had the participation of several enthusiastic D1 students and, simultaneously, the workshop in Arusha was happening and being led there by Mr. Juan Celaya and Ms. Kaya Mizugushi who are the coordinators of this UWC initiative here at our school.
After presenting the initiative and going over some of the past projects which have been selected and implemented in different parts of the world, we established a zoom video call to let the students from both campuses collaborate and talk to each other about possible ideas to implement in a GO MAD project. The concept of 1 school, 2 campuses was, again, put into play.
The Go Make a Difference is a grant scheme available to UWC Diploma students only. Even though US $1,000 has traditionally been the maximum amount of the award, this amount has been doubled (!) and, as of 2024 each successful project will be granted up to US $2,000 (!!).
The Go Make a Difference was established in 2001 by a former UWC Atlantic student and, at first, was only available for students from that UWC school. Now, it reaches all the 18 UWC schools and colleges around the world and more than 200 projects, involving more than 850 UWC students, have already been delivered across 40 different countries throughout the regions of Africa, Asia, Europe, the Americas and the Middle East. There are about 30 awards/grants available per year being made available for students who want to make a difference.
If you are passionate about an issue, if you have an idea which would provide enduring benefit, bring a sustainable outcome and help foster peace in a community somewhere in the world, take a step forward, be original, challenge yourself and submit a GO MAD project.
This initiative allows students to put into practice the ideals of the UWC movement and to make a difference, benefiting thousands of lives around the world.
GO MAD!
Residential Life
Dear UWCEA Community,
This week’s newsletter on behalf of Residential Life is prepared by our Student Government representatives. Enjoy!
Warm greetings from the Student Government,
We are already in the middle of quarter one, and our campus has been beaming with constant learning, sharing, and building the home away from home together. The student government and its offset partners work tirelessly to continue living the UWC mission.
Speaking about UWC, we have the annually celebrated UWC Day coming up next week on 21st September with a beautiful theme that is dear to Moshi: “shaping a sustainable future”.
We have planned several student-led workshops and activities as well as a whole school assembly to share what shaping a sustainable future looks like for us; we have students right from EC to Diploma involved.
The Sustainability Committee is organizing a challenge from Monday 18th until Friday 22nd, “How low can we go”. The main aim is to minimize our food waste on campus. In addition to that, there will be a competition in each of the dorms to nominate the most sustainable person.
Additionally, the campus and cultural committee have been organizing amazing Cultural Nights. This Sunday we have the Irish Cultural Night. These evenings are always fun and a unique opportunity to learn and celebrate the diversity of this community.
The wellbeing committee is also on the countdown to Spirit Week. We have also worked closely with the Student Voice. Please look at the poster above, and we look forward to your spirited participation. Remember we have prizes lined up as well!
Last but not least, the Activities Committee in preparation for the UWC Day celebrations is organizing the first inter-house competition of the school year. This is coming up right next week with the aim to increase action and awareness around sustainability on the Moshi campus. We look forward to your positive involvement in the “INTERHOUSE TRASH COLLECTING” May the best house win!
On another note, last Tuesday evening, our student government hosted our very first residential dinner of the year, and it was nothing short of amazing! With the theme ‘Glow in the Dark,’ the evening brought all of our residential students and staff together for a fantastic night filled with fun games and activities. The highlight of the night was the unforgettable Karaoke session in Rafiki Hall.
It’s safe to say that most of the students thoroughly enjoyed the dinner and all the exciting activities we had planned. A heartfelt shoutout to our talented kitchen staff for preparing such a delicious meal that left everyone satisfied.
A big thank you goes out to the dedicated members of the student government who put in their time and effort to organize this fantastic event. Your hard work truly paid off, and it made for an unforgettable evening.
Looking ahead, we’re excited to announce that Kisiwa will be hosting our next residential dinner. We can’t wait to see what they have in store for us!
Once again we are able to do all this because of your unwavering support and positive involvement.
We look forward to seeing you on Thursday and remember to turn off the lights when you leave the room.
A sustainable world for us all.
With love and kindness Moshi Student Government ’23
MYP News
I came across a video as I was preparing the week’s activities that made me think of all our MYP students. The video started with a quote by John Cleese: “Nothing will stop you from being creative so effectively as the fear of making a mistake”. The video continues to discuss how creativity is not a talent, but rather a way of operating and an ability to play. To play is to experiment: What happens if I do this? What will change if I do that? How can I change this or that? What if …
The core essence of playfulness is the open-minded mindset that makes us think that anything is possible and anything can happen, and whatever happens is okay! So, we cannot be playful if we are frightened that moving in some direction will be wrong. There is no wrong way to be creative, and everyone is creative. This really got me thinking the whole week and reflecting on how wonderfully creative our MYP students are and how valuable mistakes are in the process of operating this creativity. Let us remember to make room for mistakes and embrace them as learning opportunities to foster creativity in teaching and learning.
MYP Assembly We had our first MYP assembly this year where our M1 students were risk-takers and got on stage to talk about their experience at Campcraft. Our D2 students discussed sustainability and explored ways in which we can be more sustainable. Our students “jamming” on the ukulele with Ms. Jamie was a really cool experience!
M1 I&S Ms. Brunt invited our M1 students into her DP class so they could gather information for the I&S units by asking the students questions and collecting their answers as data. I mean this is research in action!
M5 Personal Project .. and so the journey begins. This week M5 students had two sessions during which they explored the fundamentals of the process of completing their Personal Projects this year. I am very excited because the students spent some time during summer break exploring interesting ideas for their projects. We discussed the importance of the process and not the end product. We agreed on the following work ethics for this journey: time management (no procrastination), academic integrity and authenticity and respecting deadlines. This is going to be a lot of fun!
MYP Dates to Remember
September 21st – UWC Day
September 29th – 24 Hour Run
Farah Fawaz – MYP Coordinator
Sports Update
Leopards on the Move!
Saturday Sept. 23 our teams will be traveling to St. Jude’s for the day for footbol and basketball games. Good luck teams.
Coach Charles is one of our tennis coaches. He is offering private lessons during the week and weekends. He can be reached at 0757 606 766 or at wenseslausshayo2017@gmail.com and the number there is 0757 763 829.
I also wanted to share an updated community swim hours for the pool. You are welcome to come enjoy the pool as the weather starts to get warmer.
Coach Pickell – Sports & Activities Coordinator
PYP News
Many thanks to our Primary Student Voice, who organised 24 minutes of fun for us on Thursday, to get us ready for the 24 hour run (29 – 30 September). We crawled, zombie marched and leap frogged around the track. It was a great event. Please encourage your child to get a few sponsors and participate in the 24 hour run in 2 weeks’ time, to help raise funds for scholarships.
We enjoyed the P6 gathering on Friday. They explained to us about the importance of being a “bucket filler” – a person who practices kindness and good behaviour. The next Primary Gathering will be presented by P2/3 on Friday, 29th September.
On Monday, 18th September, the P4 – P6 children will practice in the IT lab so they learn the format of the MAP online assessments. On Tuesday – Thursday, they will take assessments in Reading, Language and Maths. These will provide useful information as to the next steps for each child to move forward. There’s no need to do anything special to prepare for the MAP assessments – a good night’s sleep, a nutritious breakfast and a healthy snack are the only preparations that are necessary. The results will be shared by email at a future date.
Thursday, 21st September, is UWC day. This will involve a change to our normal routine. The afternoon events are optional but we hope the children will be able to attend.
The children are invited to dress in blue and white on this day, as it is also the International Day of Peace. They do not have to wear their school T-shirts when they come to school.
There will be no afternoon clubs on Thursday.
Lunch will begin at 1pm on this day, to enable the children to finish lunch in time for a 1:30pm start. If your child goes home for lunch please collect them at 1:00pm.
EC children must be accompanied by a parent/adult if they wish to participate.
We will begin with a whole school assembly on the theme of sustainability at 1:30pm in Karibu Hall.
After the assembly the PYP children are invited to participate in fun activities. You are very welcome to join your child. Each class will be assigned to an activity and accompanied by a teacher/EA.
The event will end with a whole school photo on the bottom pitch at 4:00- 4:30pm. If you do not plan to stay with your child for the afternoon’s activities you can collect your child from the classroom after the photograph.
Deborah Mills – PYP Coordinator
EC/P1 Class
It is always necessary to review emotions and how they affect us. This week, we have reminded ourselves of our everyday emotions, and how they look and sound. Everyone has emotions and it is okay to have them. One thing that the children highlighted was that it was not good to hurt others when we have our emotions. We talked about how to deal with anger and sadness. Please take time to talk more about this in the coming week.
In Math, we learned how to use the greater/ less than or equal to symbol. Numberblock’s Blockzilla helped to make this learning very accessible. If you wish, you can take the learning further and find Blockzilla on YouTube to make learning more fun at home. Blockzilla loves to play and pretend to eat the biggest number only.
A number of children are now receiving books with words they need to read on their own with minimal help. Let me know in the comment section of the reading logs how they are progressing.
The picture shows Aarefa’s sand art.
Mboka Mwasongwe
P2/3 Class
Phew, it was a very active week for P2/3! We had our first PE Swim lesson and it was a success. I love watching these lessons because there is often laughter and silliness and there are opportunities to see children overcoming their fears. Coach Sabini, Coach T, and our own Mr. Emmanuel are so committed to helping the whole class advance in their skills. We really are lucky to have them!
We also had a wonderful time on Thursday with the 24-minute Fun Run! That’s a long time to run but our class did their best and enjoyed the wacky styles. My favorite involved leapfrogging with Uma and MacKenzie!
We are winding down our Hero Unit next week but we will keep working on a few things for our class presentation at the Primary Gathering on the 29th. Please make a note in your calendar to be there!
Kacey Buckley
P4/5 Class
P4/5 shared their research on things that were “invented by accident” this week to reinforce the idea that mistakes are inevitable and sometimes have a very positive outcome. We talked about resilience and perseverance and made model snails to remind us of these qualities. The children tried to build towers from playing cards – “We haven’t been successful …yet!” Next week we will set some learning goals and come up with some steps to achieve them.
In maths we went on a right angle hunt and are learning vocabulary such as acute, obtuse and reflex. Our number work has focused on mental addition and subtraction. In language we have continued with reading groups and have also learned about different types of nouns. We will continue with this next week.
Next week, the children will participate in the online MAP assessments in Reading, Language and Maths. Please see the PYP section of the newsletter. Thursday is UWC Day. There are special events planned for the afternoon from 1:30pm.
Deborah Mills
P6 Class
The 24-minute Challenge was a fun way for the Student Voice (supported by a very enthusiastic Mr Ben) to get us moving, raise awareness for the upcoming 24-hour Run and celebrate the 24th day of school. P6 laughed and cheered each other on, as we zombie walked, crawled and leapfrogged each other around the pitch (just to name a few of the fun moves we did).
At our Primary Gathering this week, we asked the question, “Have you Filled a Bucket Today?” and enjoyed discussing the differences between being bucket fillers and bucket dippers. Thank you to everyone who was able to attend.
In Math, we practised converting 12-hour and 24-hour time and worked on improving our fluency skills through the Numerical Acumen Challenge. P6 also continued their research on an early civilisation and an invention connected to it.
Next week we have our online MAP testing. There is no preparation needed. The schedule for P6 is as follows:
Monday: Practice Test
Tuesday: Reading Test
Wednesday: Math Test
Thursday: Language Test
Friday: Make-up Tests
Natasha Berri
24-Hour Run Essentials
Hello everyone! Start tying your shoes, because the countdown for the 24-hour run has already started! With less than 2 weeks left, your organizing team keeps working at full speed to make the 24-hour run as memorable as possible. But the run is not only a fun event, it’s also our occasion to raise funds. Don’t forget to sign up to a team and (if you can) donate and share.
Before coming to the field make sure you have:
Money for food and drinks available on campus (all proceeds go to scholarship fund)
Head lamp
Hat
Sun cream
Hoodie and blanket (this night all senior dorms are locked)
Walking shoes
Flip-flops or slides
Country’s flag
Movie character strut: Costume of your favorite movie character
