Moshi Campus News – 4 June 2016

As an end of year celebration of our school community the PA is organising our very own ‘ISM Factor!’ on Friday, 10th June from 12:30pm to 5pm.
It will be an open mic extravaganza with a (kind-hearted!) judging panel, teacher-student quiz, BBQ, and the excitement of seeing who (teachers, students or parents!!) is the most talented group of our school community!
So, look out for the sign up sheets, dust off your routines, and prepare for a fun afternoon in fine ISM spirit. We hope to see as many ISM families as possible at this event. Karibuni!!

Our D1 students all take at least one science subject and all will be undertaking field study this week.
The D1 Environmental Systems and Societies students will be travelling to Pangani on Sunday, 5th June to undertake environmental studies on the Indian Ocean coast. They will be travelling with counterparts from Arusha Campus and will return on Thursday, 9th June.
Our Physics, Chemistry and Biology students will be camping at Olisiti with their colleagues from Arusha Campus from 7th to 9th June, where they will plan and undertake a number of field study experiments.

Quite a number of our students will start fasting this week for the Muslim Holy month of Ramadhan. Our boarders who are fasting will eat supper sightly later than other boarders during this period and we will provide food for their breakfast in the boarding houses early every morning. We wish all the best for this period.

One of our CAS groups has been working hard to produce a Year Book for this school year and the printed copies have now arrived in school.
Please purchase your Year Book from Reception at a cost of only TSh 22,000/-. It will serve as a wonderful reminder of your child’s year in school.

Our annual Summit Magazine will be available for free distribution before the end of this school year and each student will be given a printed copy to take home. If you would like a sneak preview of the June 2016 Summit magazine, please go to: www.uwcea.org/summit

Although many of our teachers will be leaving ISM this year (details next week), we have had an excellent recruitment season and are very pleased to welcome a strong group of new teachers who will be joining us at the end of July in preparation for the new school year. You will find many details of our incoming teachers at www.uwcea.org/newt, but may need to enter a password to access this page (email the Head of Campus to request the password).

At the end of this semester in June, all our students’ reports (both primary and secondary) will be published on ManageBac for you to view or download in pdf format from there. We will not be issuing reports on paper this semester, except by special request. All parents should have received their login details for how to access ManageBac. If you have not received these or are having any difficulties with access, please contact Grace on .
I would encourage you to log in and become familiar with the site, so that you have no difficulties later when reports are issued.

A number of our charges will be changing from 1st August 2016:

Airport transport: We will no longer be making a charge to transport boarders to/from Kilimanjaro Airport on the first day and last day of each quarter provided that we are given travel details well in advance – for next quarter these days are on 8th August and 7th October. However we will still charge for airport pickup/dropoff on other days.

Sports Trips: We will no longer charge transport costs to students in sports teams travelling in a school vehicle to compete in Arusha or elsewhere in Kilimanjaro/Arusha regions.

Meal tickets: The price for a lunch or supper ticket for a day student to eat in the dining hall will rise to TSh 6,000/- per meal. A weekly snack ticket rises to TSh 12,000/- per week.

Music lessons: The cost for an individual music instrument lesson will rise to TSh 19,000 per half hour from 1st August.

Some families still have amounts remaining to be paid in school fees for this current quarter of 2015/16. Please pay any outstanding fees immediately to ensure that your child receives his/her report this term.
We would once again remind families of the need to pay fees for the new school year by the dates specified on your invoice. If fees are not received in time and alternative payment arrangements have not been agreed, your child’s place in the school cannot be guaranteed for the new year.

The school has now published our calendar of school term dates for the school year for 2017/18 (the year after next!). You can view/download this from our website at www.uwcea.org/moshi-arusha/calendar; the calendar for 2016/17 is also on the same page.

The DP geography students went on a 2 hour fieldwork study on Thursday, investigating the urban heat island effect (UHI) of Moshi town and its environs. The report they write thereafter forms part of their final IB geography grade. It constitutes 20% of the HL Internal Assessment, whilst the SL is 25%.

Last month over 149,000 students worldwide took the May 2016 IB DP exams. All of these (and including the 41 in the ISM DP cohort) await the release of the results on July 6th.

Our ‘Diploma Progression Policy’ requires us to ask any D1 student who did not reach 24 total points (as the end-of-D1-year exam grade on his/her 6 classes) and 12 higher-level points to return for the re-take exams that will take place on several days before the start of school. In the coming week parents of D1 students in this situation will receive an email on this matter. Also participating in re-take exams will be students who achieved a ‘2’ mark in higher-level classes. Similarly, those ‘Diploma Course’ students who obtained more than one mark of 3 or below must take re-sit exams and pass these in order to progress to D2.

The final D1 Life Skills class addressed the topic of turning failure into success in one’s life. Two short videos were shown. The first was the 2005 Stanford University graduation speech by Apple founder Steve Jobs (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc) and ‘Failure Is Part of Success’: Eduardo Zanatta at TEDxBYU (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bujIb_sQZvQ)
Key dates:

Sunday June 5th to Thursday June 9th – D1 ESS Pangani Trip

Tuesday, June 7 – Thursday, June 9: D1 Physics/Chemistry/Biology Field Study to Olasiti

Saturday, June 11th – ACT tests for D1

Monday June 13th – Wed June 15th – Theory of Knowledge/Extended Essay Days for D1 students

Thursday June 16th – Final D1 reports published on ManageBac

Friday June 17th Last day of school, whole school assembly & Parent-Teacher conferences

Tuesday August 9th – First day of school for the 2016-2017 Academic Year
DP-related web-links:

www.uwcea.org/dip109 – The rigors of the IB DP require us as parents to assist our DP students to maintain balance in their life. Regular exercise, a healthy diet and adequate sleep are essential pieces of this puzzle but it is too often forgotten. Can you encourage your son/daughter to develop good exercise-related habits now as teenagers? Try this website for related ideas.

www.uwcea.org/dip110 – The IBO’s varied and important research studies are posted here.
Rick Fitzpatrick, DP Coordinator

We will be preparing for our art exhibition this week. Please keep Tuesday June 14th from 10.35 to 11.15am free to visit the EC art gallery and view your child’s amazing artwork.
The children will continue to look at posters and photographs of different artworks and talk about them from their perspective, to help them to understand that we all view art in different ways. We will also be cutting paper shapes to make art in the style of the artist Henri Matisse. The children will be choosing their final portfolio pieces for the year and reflecting on their goals for the last quarter.


Literacy

Write/draw about the weekend.

Add finishing touches to our class book

Continue with individual books on favourite artwork

Discussions on various artworks and why we like them/how they make us feel


Numeracy

3D shapes – sorting, making pictures with 3D shape faces

Practice writing numbers – (EC2 and EC1 children who are ready for this)

Introduction to clocks and o’clock times

Number activities

Information for Parents
Here are some important upcoming dates: June 9 – Last day for clubs June 10 – Portfolios sent home June 13 – No homework sent home June 17 – Last day of school – 10:15 dismissal
Language focus for the week This week we will work on reading and writing words with suffixes. Group 1 will work with regular spellings, and Group 2 will learn rules about doubling the final consonant and changing the “y” to and “i”. We will also continue to read and write every day.
Maths focus for the week Both groups will continue to work with double digit numbers this week. We will add and subtract them. We will also look at different ways to represent them on paper.
Unit of Inquiry This week children will do their summative assessment for our unit. Children will choose to dance, paint, sing, or do a drama to express their feelings and ideas.
What to bring to school: A hat for playtime and a healthful snack.
Timetable: Monday: Wear proper clothes and shoes for P.E. Tuesday: Bring your library bag. Friday: Wear proper clothes and shoes for P.E.

We started the week off by listening to Aiden’s father, Simon Mtuy, speak to us all about the changes he has witnessed to Kilimanjaro over the years. As a long time mountain guide and world record holder, he gave personal accounts of the melting glaciers and deforestation which he has witnessed. The children were intrigued and asked him a variety of useful questions.
In his talk, Simon mentioned the value of trees, so we spent the next two days focussing our studies mainly on them. In maths we carried out an investigation of trees. Each group studied one tree; working out, e.g. the circumference of the trunk, the length of branches, estimating the length of the roots and the height of the tree etc. They recorded their data and then shared their findings with the class.
In unit of inquiry lessons we played games that caused us to touch and get to know individual trees. We also listened to four M1 students tell us about when they had planted 9 indigenous saplings on campus last year for their Exhibition. They showed us their locations and explained how they cared for these now thriving young trees. The P2/3s found it very inspiring. Many thanks to Simon, Willem, Donyo, Mridula and Aftab for sharing their knowledge and time with the P2/3 children last week.
Unit of Inquiry: Transdisciplinary Theme: Sharing the planet Central Idea: Human survival is connected to understanding the continual changing nature of the earth. The children will continue to explore Prezi as an IT tool to present their research findings.
Mathematics Focus: area of rectangles
English Focus: possessive apostrophes
What to bring to school every day: A hat, water bottle, a pair of indoor shoes and a healthy snack.
The Week Ahead: Monday: PE lesson| Homework set Tuesday: Library session Thursday: PE lesson | Final day for clubs Friday: Homework due in Kate Schermbrucker P2/3 Class Teacher and PYP Coordinator

The ECs and P4s had their assembly on Monday early this week and they presented with enthusiasm and confidence. We also had Revogatus Tesha who was one of our D2 students. He came to speak to us about the rights of children and the importance of being responsible while you exercise your rights.
Weekly focus: Language Arts: we are going to be using different comprehension strategies for comprehension strategies to deepen our understanding of stories. Examples of these are summarizing, prediction, visualizing and questioning. For word study we will look at prefixes re, un, dis, im and in.
Mathematics: In Math we will be reviewing concepts related to the number system. The children will do this through magic squares, riddles and other activities. A different group of students will be working on more complex word problems.
Unit of Inquiry – we will be working on our Summative Assessment. The children will be reflecting on the information downloaded from the internet and how we apply academic honesty.
Gentle reminders: Clubs end on Thursday, 9th June 2016 All borrowed library books need to be returned within the coming week.

Information for Parents The kids did a great job communicating their learning during the Primary Gathering on Friday. They are very enthusiastic about this unit and were excited to share some of their projects with the rest of primary. This week we will begin to wrap up the school year. Students will begin bringing home materials no longer needed in class.
Language focus for the week Since I was out last week, we will continue our study of revising, this time focusing on adding details. We will also review the use of apostrophes and talk about when to use me and I. Students are continuing to read and research information about animal and plant adaptations.

Maths focus for the week The children had a lot of fun exploring Fermi questions last week and were amazed to discover how much time they have already spend doing small tasks, like brushing their teeth! We will be reviewing previously learned topics for the remainder of the school year.
Unit of Inquiry The creativity of students is evident as the groups work to build their bulletin boards. It is really interesting to see how each board differs from the others and how the children work together. Hopefully we will have finished products by the end of the week so that you can see pictures in the next newsletter!
What to bring to school: A hat for playtime and a healthful snack.
Timetable: Monday: PE (please wear house T-shirt and trainers) Thursday: We will have an extra PE lesson this week (please wear house T-shirt and trainers) Friday: Library (please return library books)

From Thursday to Friday the P6 class, Ms Kate, Mr Foya and Ms Durriyah, camped at Weru Weru River Lodge. The children enjoyed learning camping skills, hiking through rural villages and farms and playing team building games. They were enthusiastic, responsible and a pleasure to lead.



 

Last week was the eighth and final week of the PYP Exhibition. The P6 students presented their Exhibition units a total of 10 times to the ISM community on Monday and to their parents on Tuesday evening. While they were all fighting nerves at the beginning, they soon relaxed and spoke with confidence. In their reflections the students wrote about how much they learnt from doing their inquiries and how they developed in various ways, while having lots of fun along the way. On the Thursday and Friday, the students went on a camping trip to Weruweru River Lodge. Please see further details about this above. Thank you to Ms Kate, Mr Foya and Ms Durriyah for accompanying the students on this trip.
Next week the students will spend Monday in M1, finishing the day at 6pm. They will follow a very different timetable, which reflects a typical day in the MYP. Please see details of their day below. For the remainder of the week, we will be reflecting on the camp and completing Exhibition assessments/reflections. They will also be having some lessons on puberty.
If the students bring a USB into school next week, they can take the photographs of their Exhibition journey to keep.
TIMETABLE FOR MONDAY: 7:30 Room 27 Registration 7:40 Arts Assembly 8:15 Introduction to the MYP 9:15 Science 10:15 BREAKTIME 10:35 Drama 11:55 Introduction to the MYP (part 2) 12:35 LUNCH 1:20 Individuals and Societies 2:00 Introduction to the OP Program 2:20 Life Skills 3:00 CAS – Choosing from: Basketball, Woodwork or Journalism Club 4:30 Sports – choosing from: Ultimate, Tennis, Indoor Football, Fitness Bootcamp 6:00pm GO HOME

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