Moshi Campus News – 2 June 2018

This week I attended the P6 Ceremony, the Primary Gathering for leaving students and the M5 Ceremony.  These were times of joy looking at the accomplishments of our students as they progress in their educational journey.  They were also times that were a bit sad as we say goodbye to some students that are leaving us.  Some have been here only a short time, but some have been with us for a decade.  And for most of them, they have been here longer than I have.  However, it was said, it is far better that we focus on the positive impacts they have left on those of us staying than the negatives of them leaving.  I do not always love social media, but technology has definitely made it easier for us to stay in touch with those that no longer live next door.  For those staying and those leaving, I do hope you keep those bonds strong by keeping in touch with each other.

I would like to congratulate the P6 and M5 students on their accomplishments and wish them all the best next year as they move on to the next challenge.

Last weekend, a group of 13 students (pictured below) from both Arusha and Moshi campuses travelled to South Pare Mountains for a great hiking trip in sunny weather. On Day 1, after reaching the village Mgaba, the group hiked up to Malameni Rock, an impressive rock with a sad history. The rock is also known as the ‘sacrifice rock’ where deformed or albino children used to be sacrificed many centuries ago.

Day 2 consisted of a whole day hike to reach Ranzi Dam at the top of Pare mountains and back down to camp at Tona lodge. On the way back, we were blessed by a clear view of Mount Kilimanjaro which was covered with snow!

M5 Ceremony
We wish to express gratitude to all members of the ISM community who graced our occasion on Friday June 1. Your attendance made the occasion memorable.

MYP Service Days
The MYP students will be involved in various service activities on June 8, 11 and 12. The M1-2 students will be in the school’s day Care Centre, M3 will be going to Kili Centre while M4 students will be away at Upendo Orphanage.

P6-MYP Move Up day
The P6 students were introduced to the MYP on Wednesday May 30. They were not only curious but also took time to reflect on the events of the day. The event was organized in collaboration with the Primary school teachers and involved P6 students attending lessons together with M1s. We have scheduled more elaborate induction sessions for them in early August.

M4 End Year Examinations
The M4 students completed their exams on Monday May 28. The marking is going on now and results will be available before the Summer Break when reports are released.

David Ochieng

The M5 Ceremony this week was a wonderful culminating event.  Thank you to those that attended.

D1 end-of-year exams concluded on Tuesday.  Teachers are marking these assessments and will record them on the Semester 2 report and provide feedback on the results.  This week the D1 students will be involved in the Group 4 project and the Theory of Knowledge symposium.  The D1 students may want to use their June/July holiday to work on a complete draft of their 4,000-word independent research project – the Extended Essay which is due at the end of August. 

Please find time to attend the parent-teacher meeting on June 14th. Classes resume for the 2018-2019 ISM school year on Monday August 13th.

The new ISM DP Coordinator Anthony Hemmens and the outgoing DPC Rick Fitzpatrick have held DP course selection meetings with one-third of the forty members (current number) in the incoming D1 class.

Rick Fitzpatrick

Our M5 boarders have all left campus for home after a wonderful ceremony this weekend.

On that note, we wish to remind the parents of all boarders to make arrangements for their children to travel on Thursday the 14th.  If you have not emailed me your travel information or tickets, please do this soon at rosemarybango@ed.ismoshi.com.

Various activities have been planned to engage boarders this weekend, including a trip to the Kili Fair.

Rosemary Bango

Thank you to all that attended the Coffee Morning on Tuesday.  We talked a little about the new teachers for next year then.  This is a quick summary of those teachers and some pictures below.

• Margaret Brunt, UK, BSc (Newcastle ,UK), PGCE (Cambridge, UK) – Joining us to teach Math after spending the last 8 years in India at Ecole Mondiale in Mumbai where she was Head of Mathematics and Extended Essay coordinator.  She has an 11 year old daughter.
• Ben Morley, UK, BA (Durham, UK) – New Deputy Head of Campus. He arrives from United World College of South East Asia, Singapore, where he has worked since 2011. He is coming with his wife and 4 children.
• Jackie O’Brien, Ireland, BSc (Cork, Ireland), PGCE (Cambridge, UK) – Joining us to teach Biology and Sports after 6 years at Nanjing International School.  She is coming with Robin and their 2 children.
• Robin Marsh, Australia, 1BEd (Griffith, Australia) – Joining us to teach Design and Sports from Nanjing International School after 6 years there. He is coming with Jackie and their 2 children.
• Elisha Jaffer, TZ, BA (McMaster, Ontario), PGDE (Auckland, NZ) – She is joining us to teach the Primary 2/3 class after teaching in Dar for the last few years. She attended IST growing up.  
• Sanna Jartsjo, Sweden, MA (Lund, Sweden) – Sanna is joining us to teach humanities and other courses.  She has been in Moshi before through the exchange program in her Swedesh school.
• Julia Fibicher, Switzerland, 4 years, MA (Zurich, Switzerland), BA (Bern, Switzerland) – Julia studied English Literature for both her BA and MA, but is fluent in multiple languages.  She is currently teaching English in Biel, Switzerland, and will teach the same here. She will be coming with her boyfriend Thomas.
• William Melhado, US, MEd (Lehman, US), BSc (Middlebury, US) – He will be joining us to teach Chemistry from the the Bronx in New York City and is looking forward to the outdoor life.
• William Francis, TZ, BEd (Mzumbe, TZ) – Previously taught at St Mary Goreti before starting in January at the Arusha Campus teaching Math. He will now be moving back to Moshi to teach math here.
• Sarah Brummel, US, BSc (Califirnia, US) Sarah is joining us to teach Primary 5 after years in the US teaching outdoor education and the last 5 teaching upper primary.
• Teresa Solero, Brazil, BSc (Sao Paulo, Brazil) – Teresa will be joining us to teach Math and Physics from Escola Maria Imaculada in Sao Paulo Brazil. Teresa will be accompanied by her husband.
• Brian Jackson, US, BA (Canterbury, UK), PGDE (New England, Australia) – Brian is coming back to teaching after a year traveling and will work in boarding and teach English.  He last taught at IS Bangkok and has experience in English and Design.  He is accompanied by his wife Ruby and their children Jelani (CJ) and Khensani (Kenzy).

 

This upcoming week we will be having the NTAA meeting that will plan the sporting fixtures for the 2018/19 school year.  Soon after that we will publish those dates in the ISM calendar.

Primary Sports

Many congratulations to ISM’s U11 Touch Rugby Team who won the NTAA tournament at St Constantine’s School last Saturday. Dominic also won the Player of the Tournament award. Credit must go to Coach Sabini who has been training the team hard this Quarter and was thrilled with the result.

Capoeira demonstration last Wednesday.

Congratulations to our eldest Primary students who had their P6 Ceremony on Monday. This marked the successful conclusion of their journey through the IB Primary Years Programme. In August they will be ready to join the MYP. This was further clarified by their M1 Move Up Day on Wednesday when they had their first taste of Secondary School life. They coped well and asked good questions.

It was wonderful to see so many Primary parents at the Coffee Morning with the Director. We appreciate your questions and ideas and continue to work together to provide the best learning environment for your children.

Reminder: It will soon be time to return all the ISM library books and library bags to Ms Tahera. Please bring them in from home.

Reminder: Please be so kind as to drop me a short email if your child needs to start their holiday before 10.15am on Thursday 14th June (kateschermbrucker@ed.ismoshi.com)

Kate Schermbrucker

This week EC have been preparing for our end of unit assessments. Each child has chosen their favourite story type and art form. We hope to treat you to twelve individual stories told through art, books, campfire stories, puppet shows and theatre performances. It’s all hands on deck for the next week then- with students from Y5, Y6, parents, teachers and assistants already chipping in to support our fantastic EC1 and EC2 children in producing a festival atmosphere of storytelling magic.

Wish us luck… and please come and see us to find out how you can join us in both the preparations and the event itself, scheduled for the final week of this semester.

Owain Evans

Family trees are a great way to learn about your history. Thank you to all the parents who have taken time to talk about their family tree with their children this week. We will be sharing them with each other as we begin to wrap up our investigations and prepare for our Summative Assessment. We will also be creating stories of children who go on journeys to other lands.

This week, the children were involved in mathematics investigations involving liquids. They looked at the properties of liquids and began to inquire into how we can measure them. They looked at different kinds of measuring cylinders and began to read their scales. We will look at fractions as we end this quarter.

This coming Friday, we will have a ‘free for all’ for show and tell. If your child would like to take part, please feel free to let them.

Mboka Mwasongwe

This week the P2/3 children have chosen their individual writing genres and are in the process of writing their own pieces. They will continue writing them this week.

In reading all the children have completed a reading assessment – Well done, there has been lots of improvement. This week we will be reviewing helpful strategies through read aloud picture books.

The children will continue to review time and play math games to strengthen their basic operations (plus, minus, multiplication and division).

Please ensure your child completes their homework.

• Monday – homework
• Tuesday – Library all books to be brought back / PE
• Wednesday – French
• Thursday – optional swimming / PE
• Friday – Homework to be completed.

Have a lovely weekend
Clare Hibbard

We are working on teamwork this week again and the students have been  playing board games together to renew some social skills. They are playing language games in groups and reflecting on their interactions. Next week we will be using writing prompts and improving our abilities to write dialogue in a narrative.

This week we began our construction on the recycled tetra pak walkway the kids have designed. The children met with head gardener Juma to share the project with him and get his advice. We measured out and calculated the number of boxes we will need to complete this project and found our multiplication skills came in handy here. We hope to have this project successfully completed by Wednesday. Please continue to send in your milk cartons if you can help.

Julie Bowen

P5 have spent the week focusing on their lungs. Dr. Mac and Ms. Ogello led the class through some very exciting activities in the science lab on Monday. The children had the opportunity to exercise whilst breathing through a straw, measure their lung capacity in a variety of ways and try to inflate a piece of lung tissue. Many thanks to Dr. Mac, Ms. Ogello, Mr. Justin and Ms. Mary who made this great learning experience possible. We presented our work in the final  Primary Gathering of the school year on Friday – well done P5 for being such risk takers! Next week we will focus on the changes that happen to our bodies as we move into puberty. Dr. Henke will also visit the class to give a presentation on blood. In maths we have been working with money, totalling up the cost of items and working out change. We will continue with this work next week.

Deborah Mills

The students had a great ceremony early this week and were all very proud of completing the PYP. We appreciate all the parents for making this a big success.

We also had an interesting time inquiring into lungs with practical experiments. The students blew into them and saw how they were suited for the task of holding the air we need for our bodies and expelling the air we do not need.

On Wednesday, the P6s had a great experience during the move to M1. They have brought home the workbook they used which they will continue with when they come back in August.

In the coming week we will be looking at strategies we use to deal with experiences we go through as we develop through different stages. We will make an analysis of different measurements we take and come up with conclusions about how we develop. Students will receive their final homework, kindly ensure that your child does it and hands it in on Thursday. Clubs will run until June 12th.

Cathy Wambua