Arusha Campus News – 23 Feb 2018

‘Good Morning’ in exactly how many languages?

The PTA had an interesting discussion last week surrounding our performance in Primary Sports events. Our children compete in almost every sports tournament on the calendar. Whilst we all agreed that our competitive spirit and will to compete could not be faulted, we also felt that our teams might benefit from not necessarily entering every event and instead use the time to practise and prepare for those events that we do attend. We will try this approach over the coming weeks and hopefully, the students will feel better about their performances. That, after all, is the important thing.

Talking of events, there has been no let up! On Wednesday we walked into school to be met by a Mother Tongue Greetings Board! The pride with which students, parents and even school visitors scribbled their mother tongue greeting was heart warming. The Primary Mother Tongue Sharetime was a hoot, see Miss Carmen pictured above with her P2s.

Today, the ISMAC sports fields will be buzzing with activity in the form of Under 15 football andUNder 19 basketball. Pop down and lend your support if you can.

You will notice that this week’s newsletter has a definite ‘Women’s Day Theme’. From surveys to football matches, we will be celebrating this day in earnest. Starting this evening with a dramatisation. Our fantastic Head of English, Miss Arora and Music maestro Mr Dixon would love us to attend their play ‘The Vagina Monologues’ at 6pm tonight at Via Via. Yes that’s right, they will ON stage for a change and they will be helped by some of our students. Please get along if you can. All proceeds go to NAFGEM fundraising in Tanzania.

Phil

For my CAS project I am organising ISM’s contribution to the EAC’s event for International Women’s Day on March 8th. 

In my CCA we have decided to create a short video featuring people’s experiences with gender inequality and gender equality. To get these experiences we created a survey, allowing people to give their stories anonymously.

In order to have a good depth in our video, we need as many responses as possible. The link is:  

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/LXPCF82

or CLICK ON THE IMAGE RIGHT

Thank you, Georgie Bowknecht (D2)

Dear Parents,

It has been another busy, if short, week this week. We have been immersed in languages with Mother Tongue Day on Thursday.

In PYP parents and teachers led language based activities in their mother tongue: these included Polish songs, Hebrew stories, Dutch games, German games and rhymes, Swahili games, Swedish games, sign language, Spanish dancing, Italian stories and French vocabulary. The morning culminated in a sharetime, followed by a Swahili cafe of mandazi and juice.

In secondary, students and teachers came together to share a common story read in six languages: Mandarin, German, Dutch, French, Swahili and finally in English. The common story was Little Red Riding Hood and yes I think I was the last to guess correctly! Students were grouped into their houses and competed to show their knowledge of world language in a language quiz. Congratulations to Kibo for leading the way.

I would like to thank all parents, staff and students for their time and effort in celebrating the diversity of language we have at ISM.

Next week we celebrate book week: look out for details later in this newsletter.

Enjoy the weekend,

Darren

Click on the image above to watch our very own promotional video, created by Jessica Bowen in P5

Mardi Gras is French for ‘Fat Tuesday’ also known as ‘Shrove Tuesday’. This day is a popular celebration in France and francophone countries where people eat ‘fatty’ foods and dress up for Carnival events. Nowadays Mardi Gras is mainly about festivities and parties but it originates from a Christian event reflecting the practice of eating richer foods before fasting on Ash Wednesday and for Lent during the next 40 days. Miss Larpent’s French Class enjoying ‘Fat Tuesday’in class this week (pictured above).

Students in P4 to P6 will be taking the online MAP tests this quarter. This is a test that the school has selected to replace the ISA tests students have taken in the past. There is no need to study or prepare for these tests. These are non-timed tests that are adaptive so that students will be able to demonstrate accurately their current skills and help inform teachers what they are ready to learn next. There are tests in Reading, Language Usage and Mathematics.

Students will start with a warm-up session prior to the tests to familiarise themselves with the layout. Then they will go through the three tests in hour-long sessions.

We will keep you up to date with the scheduled timings as we finalise the preparations in the next couple of weeks.

The OP mountain bike trip on March 10-11 is now full. There are still places available for the following hiking trips: Level 1B to South Pare mountains, Level 2 to Usambara mountains and Level 5 to Uhuru peak.

Please see below information regarding OP dates and cost:

This week, M5 students have handed in the second draft of their Personal Project Report and received oral feedback from their supervisor. This weekend is their last opportunity to make final changes to improve their report before submitting it next week on Monday 26th of February. In March, students will prepare for the Personal Project Exhibition in order to celebrate the end of their PP journey on Tuesday the 20th of March. Save the date!

‘In July the UWC offers a short course in Bali, Indonesia entitled; International Biosphere Stewardship Program.  The Biosphere Foundation offers a once in a lifetime experience that brings together teenagers from all over the world to the spectacular island of Bali, Indonesia. Our unique program intertwines adventure and learning to inspire young people to be intelligent stewards of our planet. For 15-18 year olds and if you need help with the application, Rabail, our UWC volunteer in Moshi is happy to help and any funding issues we can help with finding support. gemmamay@ed.ismoshi.com and rabailhabib@ed.ismoshi.com