Arusha Campus News – 11 Aug 2017

The wonderful 2017 ISMAC Diploma Graduates

A hearty ‘Welcome Back’ to everybody as I take this opporrunity to remind you that the new school year starts on Monday 14th August. We will be meeting plenty of new students and indeed some new teachers. Those teachers are introduced by Darren below and will be presented at the whole school assembly on Monday at 9.30am. We will also be presenting a short biography about them in our forthcoming newsletters.

Our Class of 2017 Diploma graduates received their results recently and I am pleased to say that their average score was impressive indeed. Our students achieved an 85% pass rate. Our MYP results were even better with some outstanding individual scores; parents will receive the individual results soon. Congratulations to all our high flying stiudents.

The PTA have been busy over the holiday period in their renovations of the school library. Walter (our maintenance manager) and his team have installe dnew windows and the PTA’s interior refabrication looks wonderful. Thank you everyone.

Phil

Welcome to a new year at International School Moshi. It is with great excitement that I write to you for the first time and I take this opportunity to thank everyone who has made my initial days at ISM so enjoyable. In both Arusha and Moshi it is evident that the spirit of tunategemeana is alive and well, and I am confident that as we work together ISM will continue to flourish and remain a school who keeps the students in our care at the heart of all we do. I look forward to having the opportunity to meet with you all in the weeks, months and years to come.

Dear Parents,

I hope you have had a good break and are ready for an exciting and busy new academic year at ISMAC.

Primary Focus:

This year I will be taking on the role of Head of Primary (as well as continuing as the Head of Secondary) and look forward to spending time in primary classes getting to know the students. I feel very privileged to be leading an excellent team of educators, who together have a wealth of experience with the PYP.

I would like to introduce the primary teaching team for 2017-18:

EC – Liz Acomb, who will also be the PYP Coordinator

P1 – AnnJoyce Mwamafupa

P2 – Carmen Maarschalk – new to ISMAC this year

P3 – Alley Weston

P4/5 – Sarah Lema

P6 – Ms Amanda Bowen

The class teachers will be ready to welcome you in their classrooms on Monday from 07.45, with the school day starting at 08.00.

You will receive an email from the class teacher of your child(ren) with welcome information before Monday. Within the first two weeks of the semester there will be parent information sessions within each class; you will receive further information from each class teacher in due course.

If you have questions regarding academic aspects within the PYP (EC-P6) please contact Liz Acomb via liza@ismac.ac.tz. Liz will have her office next to the school nurse in the former SEN room.

Please remember to ensure that your child(ren) have all they need for school on Monday, including their ISM t-shirt, water bottle and hat.

Secondary Focus

In Secondary we also have some new staff joining us:

Sophie Croteau will be teaching MYP Mathematics in M2 through M5 and Mathematics SL in D2. In addition she will be teaching French in the M1-3 group. She will be based in room S21.

Anoek van der Vinne will be teaching I&S to M1 through M4. She will be based in room DV3.

We wish them both all the best as they prepare for the new academic year.

Across primary and secondary we will have a new Head of Learning Support in the form of Katrina Stanford. She will be teaching EAL and will be based in the EAL room. Marilyn Simonson will continue in her role as SEN teacher, but will now be based in the old Head of Primary office, next to EAL.

Unfortunately our new Chemistry/Maths teacher has been unable to join us due to illness. This has meant we have had to make some changes for the beginning of the year: Jessica Peterson, Annette Wood and Gina Kinsey will be taking on more of the science teaching across the MYP and you will see Reed Anderson and myself teaching some PHE. Our new director, Dr Anna Marsden will be taking on D2 Chemistry and we welcome Mehtab Walji who will teach M1 Mathematics and D2 Mathematics Studies. I would like to personally thank everyone for stepping in to fill this gap at such short notice.

We are looking forward to another great year at ISMAC and I hope that we can all make the most of the opportunities afforded us by ISM and by the amazing environment in which we live.

Wishing you all a great start to the new school year and looking forward to seeing you all on Monday.

Darren

On Thursday 17 August we will be hosting an MYP information session for the parents and students of M1, and any parent and student new to ISMAC. Please come and join us at 14.45.

As you will know, it is school policy to expect payment of school fees for each quarter on a date before the start of the quarter. If we have not yet received your child’s fees for this quarter, you will have been advised by our accounts office. In this situation it is likely that we will not allow your child to attend classes and we will need to arrange to send boarding students home. To avoid this difficult situation, please do ensure that fees are always paid before the due date specified on invoices.

If you anticipate difficulty in paying school fees and would like to move to a monthly payment plan or reschedule payment dates, please contact me on bobcofer@ed.ismoshi.com before Friday so that we can discuss possible arrangements.

Primary students are asked to wear an ISM T-shirt when attending school. A good selection of T-shirts are available from Reception at school at a cost of TSh 10,000/- per shirt. We are still awaiting a new stock of T-shirts to increase the number of and colours available in different sizes.

All students in both primary and secondary are asked to buy a house T-Shirt according to the house they are in (Kibo – blue, Mawenzi – green, Meru – yellow). New students will be told their houses on Monday. House T-shirts are also available from Reception at 10,000/- each.

You can also access the school calendar which is available at https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed?src=intsmoshi%40gmail.com&ctz=Africa/Dar_es_Salaam.

Alternatively you can add the calendar to your Google Calendar account by searching for the ISM Public Calendar owned by intsmoshi@gmail.com [Please do not use this address for correspondence].