Moshi Campus News – 12th May 2013

Dear Parents,

A number of families attended Saturday’s presentation of ISM in Dar es Salaam and we are continuing to expect a good number of new students joining ISM in August. Meanwhile our P6 class are now getting ready for their PYP Exhibition in Karibu Hall on Thursday and Friday, whilst our D1 students have spent a quiet but busy weekend preparing for their end of year examinations which begin tomorrow.

You are cordially invited to attend our P6 Exhibition at Karibu Hall on Thursday 16th May at 6.30pm. The exhibition will run until lunchtime on Friday 17th May. Our students have put in a huge amount of work and they will value and enjoy your support.

We will have collection boxes for old toys and clothes, as well as cans or packets of foodstuffs. The P5 class will be running the bake sale to raise funds for some of the causes the P6 students are championing. Please bring some cash!

Congratulations to all the ISM students who took practical music exams last Monday. We are very pleased that all passed their exams – particular congratulations go to Annie, Nandi and Mathias who all obtained merits.

D1 students are taking examinations over the next few days which examine the work that they have studied so far in this first part of their diploma programme. Students are expected to obtain a certain minimum score if they are to continue with the diploma in D2 and those who do not achieve this minimum may be required to re-sit certain examinations in early August before the new school year starts. Their achievement grades this semester also form an important part of information sent to universities next semester when they are applying for admission. The formal exams are from Monday, May 13th to May 20th.

Work began last week on building four new rooms in Kivuli boarding house (Middle School boys) to accommodate eight additional students from August. A screen has been placed across the courtyard so as to minimise any disruption for the boys living there while building work goes ahead. Some minor building work will also take place in Kijana and Kiongozi boarding houses in June and July.

Although the school organises celebrations for the D2 graduation, the students have usually additionally opted to arrange their own private parties off-campus. These are likely to be on 25th May after the official ceremony. These student-organised parties are not school events and we cannot, as a school, take responsibility for them. Invariably, there is alcohol available at these parties and minimal, if any, adult supervision. We are concerned about the inevitable, and potentially serious risks that arise from these situations, particularly for many of the younger students who frequently receive invitations to attend and we have endeavoured to deal with such issues from an educational point of view in our Life Skills lessons. We also need to be especially confident that parents are aware of the nature of these events, and are happy with their own children’s involvement. We would therefore offer the following requests and guidelines.

For parents of boarders:
Boarders staying in school that weekend will NOT be allowed to attend any unsupervised parties. If boarders do want to attend, they can only do so if their parents agree and they have been taken out of the school’s care by staying with another family for the weekend. Even if you have already indicated on the Parental Consent form that your child may sign out to friends at weekends, we would like to further confirm that it is acceptable on this particular weekend. If you have children intending to sign out for this weekend, could you please contact us with that confirmation? You may contact either the boarding parent or Mrs Bango on by whatever means is most convenient (telephone, letter, email or fax). Boarders will be expected to remain in school for the weekend if we have not heard from you before MONDAY, MAY 20th.

We would also suggest on this occasion, that you contact the host family directly to discuss what you feel would be appropriate arrangements, curfew etc for your children on the evening of the party.

For parents offering to host boarders:
Boarders signing out on these weekends will need to sign out for the whole weekend from the Friday afternoon until midday on the Sunday, although they may of course attend the Graduation Ceremony if invited. We would suggest that before you take on the responsibility for the guest students over this period, you are confident of their own parent’s expectations in terms of curfew, supervision etc.

We do not in any way wish to curtail the students’ opportunity for well-deserved celebration on these occasions, but we are concerned for their safety and their parents’ full consent and understanding.

D2 students continued with their official IB DP exams for the second week. D2s also participated in a graduation meeting. In two weeks, they will enjoy a fabulous graduation weekend starting with the Graduation dinner on May 24th and then the Graduation on the afternoon of May 25th.

D1 students commence a six-day segment of end-of-year exams. In preparation, Head of Secondary Ms. Totty Aris met with them to highlight exam-taking rules and academic honesty issues. DPC Rick Fitzpatrick also reviewed in this session the plan for the Extended Essay presentations in June and Theory of Knowledge/English teacher Alastair Brandon discussed the D1 special lesson days of June 10, 11 and 12 where ToK and the EE work will be the focus.

Each D1 student also received the 2013-2014 academic calendar and students were advised to not leave early or return late from holidays as it negatively impacts on learning. Could you as parents kindly help your ISM DP child in this regard by carefully scheduling vacations to not occur during school days? If you do, that would be an incredibly wise act in terms of your child’s DP education.

DP parents would do us a great service by encouraging their sons/daughters to get enough sleep as this article www.educationnews.org/international-uk/study-sleep-deprivation-has-impact-on-student-achievement-worldwide – sadly matches the reality for too many ISM DP students who unwisely and despite our advice to the contrary stay up far too late.

Can all D1 parents please mark your calendars and make a point of being in Moshi for the final parent-teacher meeting on the morning of Friday June 14th? We can overstate how essential it is that parents meet face-to-face with the teachers/boarding parents.

The IB DP received more favorable coverage recently with this article in the UK- www.telegraph.co.uk/education/secondaryeducation/10017618/International-Baccalaureate-is-it-any-good.html.

Feel free to contact me with questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Rick Fitzpatrick – (Diploma Coordinator)

Our small community of students have been doing a lot of interesting work in the various subjects. First I would like to talk about our younger students of M1 and M2 who seem to occupy little place in my newsletter but rest assured they are not forgotten. In the Drama lessons, they have been doing very interesting activities:
Our M1 students are learning how to make silent films and they are thoroughly enjoying this project. Their films will be posted on the new Arts website which is being developed by one student from D1, Papias.

The M2 students have been developing public speaking skills where they had to give a speech on the question: ‘How should we treat people who are different from us?’ This is a very important aspect in an international school as we are all from different cultures and we have different views on certain things. Understanding each other and being able to live together in peace and harmony is becoming more and more of a challenge in this century and if we teach our young generation of the need to be open minded and respectful to others then in future, our world will hopefully be an even better place to live. According to Ms Reily, the Drama teacher, Rukaiya gave the best speech.

M4 students have already started thinking about their personal projects. After our first meeting, they all seem very enthusiastic about this culminating task of the Middle years Programme. On Tuesday, I will meet them again and we will look at how far they have gone in their thought process. This initial stage is very important as the students have to understand that the process is very important in this project as it leads to a very good outcome. My apologies to the parents of our boarders, I have not been able to post the presentation on the website yet, I will look into it next week.

M5 – I would like to thank all the parents who have sent me the consent letter and especially those who have been very supportive in the organization of this important event in the lives of our young students. A school can only be successful with the support and understanding of our parents and I am very pleased to say that we have a very supportive community of parents out there. I am finalizing the last details and all parents will be informed of the placement of their child if they are not already aware of it. I would also like to thanks members of the community who have agreed to host our students during their work experience week.

M5 Ceremonies – our M5 students are very excited about their special day. Today we had our first meeting and we discussed the logistics of this important event. This is their day and I want to give them the opportunity to choose what they want to do and how we are going to celebrate their success. The ceremony is on the 7th June at 2:30 pm a letter will be sent with all the details nearer to the day.

As we carry on with our busy life, I would like to leave you with quote for our children:
“Life doesn’t have a remote, get up and change it yourself” (Anonymous)

An excellent week to All!!!
Jaimala Quinlan (MYP Coordinator)

After two short weeks it’s been good to have a long one again! P6 Students are busy on the exhibition and many of our other students are busy with summative assessment tasks, teachers are beginning to write their end of semester reports – all is happening here at Moshi!

P1/2 Assembly
Congratulations to Miss Nina and her P1/2 class for their fantastic dance assembly last Monday.

Dar Swimming and Football Tournament
Our students have been training like olympic athletes for this big event. If your child is going on the trip and you haven’t yet paid your TSh 100,000/- to Miss Cindy, then please do so as soon as possible.

Early Childhood Preview

Unit of Inquiry
Many thanks to all who completed the sound survey. If you haven’t already done so please work on it with your child this weekend and return to school on Monday. We now have a good idea of where sounds come from. We have also begun to find out how we use sounds and this will be our focus this week. We will find out about sounds as signals, such as police sirens or alarms and about different types of musical sounds. We will be listening to the music of ‘Peter and the wolf’ by Sergei Prokofiev and find out how the composer uses different instrumental sounds to portray his characters. We will sort loud and quiet sounds and test different sounds to find out how far they travel.

DON’T FORGET TO SEND SOUND SOURCES TO CLASS FOR OUR DISPLAY! (so far we have whistles, timers and toy cars that make sounds.)

Literacy
This week I am continuing with my assessments and observations of the students with regard to speaking and listening, reading, writing and viewing. In order to allow time to do this I will set up literacy centres in the classroom as well as some assessment tasks, which I will observe.

Numeracy
Measurement this week will involve weight;
EC1 – investigating with balance scales to find the heaviest and lightest
EC2 – using non-standard units to compare and order 2 or 3 weights.
We will also integrate into the sounds unit by making up rhythmic patterns using our bodies and instruments.

Information Technology – making links with a school in Lincolnshire, UK.

Many thanks to everyone who has sent in photographs for our power points. This is an important part of our IT work over the last few weeks of school so please continue to email me photographs that show what your life is like here in Moshi. The children will be making captions for the photographs and learning how to make a PowerPoint®.

P1/2 Preview

General Information
What a great dance assembly! Thank you parents for coming. Well done children for a wonderful performance.

Swimming
We have not been able to swim recently due to cool and wet weather. It has been decided we will have a PE lesson on Tuesdays and Fridays and we will stop swimming lessons in P1 and 2 for this academic year.

Language focus for the week
Writing:
Recount of the weekend. Using the language of time. (First…Then I…Next I…Later…At the end). Using adjectives, (amazing, fantastic, wonderful, scary, huge…)
Shape Poems
Handwriting: Patterns, writing numerals and a focus on the One Armed Robot Letters (bhkpnmr) Some children are joining letters together.

Phonics:
1. th as in thumb, nd as in sand.
2. Long vowel: oa as in soap
3. Revise magic e then introduce air as in chair and are as in stare.

Maths focus for the week
Mental skills will focus on doubles, near doubles and counting on and back. Quick recall of addition and subtraction facts to 10/20.
All children will learn about handling data. We will sort and organise information in different ways such as tables, graphs and Venn diagrams.
Team work

Unit of Inquiry : In a workplace people share responsibility towards a common purpose.
Lines of Inquiry:
1. Importance of working as an effective team.
2. Individual roles and responsibilities.
3. How systems are organised.
We will kick off this unit by talking about what makes a team. Can the children think of different kinds of teams? What makes a team effective? We will observe some senior students playing sport as a team.

Art – Papier màché

What to bring to school:
A hat for playtime and a healthy snack. (No hat, no play!)

Timetable:
Monday
P1 and 2 Class Assembly
New reading books and homework packs including spellings issued.
Tuesday
Library (New books can be chosen if there are no overdue books)
PE
Thursday
New reading books issued
Friday
PE
Spelling test (Hand in yellow homework pack)

P3/4 Preview

Week 6 and this means that we are half-way through the last quarter of this school year.

This is what our learning in class will look like this week:
UOI – We will be completing our summative assessment task for our unit on “Exploration”. Our new Unit, “Water, Water Everywhere” will be introduced.
Central Idea: Our planet has limited resources that are unevenly distributed.
Lines of Inquiry: – Finite and infinite resources

• Distribution and availability of clean water
• How human activity has affected the availability of usable water
• The effects of not having access to clean water
• Our responsibility for water conservation

Writing – Expressive language
Spelling Groups 1) phonetic words ending in -amp & -ank (e.g. lamp, bank), 2) words ending in -ark or -ost (e.g. park, most) and containing -ea- (e.g. tea), 3) Words that have a silent d before soft ge, ( e.g. edge) 4) words containing “y” that says “i” as in bicycle
Language/grammar – singular and plural nouns, adjectives and apostrophes.
Cursive writing – Nelson script. Letters which finish at the top of the x height – f, o, r, v, w and how they join to letters which start at the top of the x height – a, c, d, e, g, i, j, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, u, v, w, x, and y.

Maths – P3 simple multiplication – as repeated addition. Introduction to data collection and representation. Talley charts and bar graphs.
Tables 2x, 5x, 10x 11x 3x, 4x. Basic facts up to 10/20 (+ and -).
P4 Introduction to data collection and representation. Talley charts and bar graphs.
Tables – 2x, 3x, 4 x, 5x, 6x, 9x, 10x , 11x, 12x . Basic facts up to 20 (+ and -).

REMINDERS:
Every day: Hats and polo shirts/t- shirts
      Zip bags, spelling note books, reading books and reading logs.
      Healthy snack for break time. Lunch if necessary.

School Readers: Unfortunately some students are not bringing their reading books and reading logs to school every day. This causes great inconvenience at reading time. Please could all families check that books are in zipped folders every day and that reading homework is done and reading logs signed. Could everyone also have a good look at home for any school readers that may not have been returned and send them back as soon as possible.

Spelling books: There are also too many spelling books being left at home. Work then has to be done on bits of paper which are subject to getting lost. Please make sure spelling books also come to school every day. Thank you.

MONDAY
Homework – spelling, reading and maths and language sheets sent home.
P.E. – wear house T-shirts, shorts and trainers. We will be doing orienteering, so students will need suitable attire and trainers, as we will be running around the school grounds.
THURSDAY
Library – bring book bags and books – No bag, no books. Overdue books incur a fine.
P.E. – bring swimming gear. We swim at the warmest time of the day. I invariably get in the pool with the children and the temperature of the water is still very pleasant.
FRIDAY
Spelling test
Homework – due in (or before if finished)

Looking forward to another great week together.
Miss Jann

P5 Preview

Maths
We have started on a comprehensive assessment test from Singapore which is quite challenging. Once we’ve completed that we’ll be looking at decimals and percentages.

Language
We’ll be putting the final touches to our adventure stories and reading them to each other. Students will practise skimming and scanning and finding the main idea and key points in a newspaper article.

UOI
Our summative assessment task is well underway, students have planned and performed little educational skits about recycling and have been interviewed. We still have a little more filming to do and then we’ll start the big job of editing the footage and turning our video clips into a movie with Moviemaker. We started the very messay process of making our own paper.

IT
We’ll continue to sharpen our skills with Moviemaker.

Visual Arts
We’re going to make piggy banks with paper mache. Oh no! More mess!

P6 Preview

Our focus and efforts now are directed almost entirely towards the exhibition. We now have just four days to go. Time has flown and I have been trying to impress on the children the need for urgency and increased effort. Time is becoming very precious and many pairs still have a lot to do. Below I will detail some of the ways you can help your child this week.

UOI – Exhibition Unit
Central Idea: Seven billion people requires us to confront the threats to our health, environment and society
It is very important that the children decide on some ‘Action’ which they personally take in an attempt to alleviate the problems associated with their issue on a local level. Obviously for issues like deforestation this is more straightforward. We can plant trees. For other issues it may mean creating some kind of educational material simply to make others aware of the problem.

It also remains crucial that the children use a variety of means to display their evidence. We will spend Monday looking at all the collated evidence they have so far and trying to fill the gaps. Then we will try to ensure each pair is using a variety of presentational methods. We will also try to help proof read each other’s work as there are still many typing errors to be rectified. Tuesday and Wednesday will be spent arranging their displays and practicing their oral presentations with each other to build confidence before the day of the exhibition. Proofreading and coaching of oral presentations are two ways that you can support your child now.

Reading, Writing and Drama
Reading, writing, viewing and presentation skills will all be much used over the next few weeks as the children look for evidence and information to support their inquiry.

Maths
Whilst the main focus now is to concentrate on preparing for the impending exhibition we will embrace some mental Maths. Many children are consolidating their data handling skills through their exhibition as they both analyse and create bar charts, line graphs and pie charts.

P.E. – Swimming remains on Thursday and Karibu Hall based activities will provide the essence of Friday’s P.E. lesson.

Library – is on Tuesday. Please remind the children to bring back books for exchange/renewal.