Arusha Campus News – 1 Mar 2020

The UWC Visiting Delegates admire the Student Residence on Friday evening

The D1 East African Dance Troupe perfrom a memorable welcome to the visiting UWC Delegates on Friday evening

Plenty to report upon this week – hence the late publication.

Extremely proud of all our students this week as they hosted the UWC Visitors who were here in Arusha for a series of UWC Governance Meetings and Head’s Retreat activities. Also a big ‘Well Done’ to Husseina and her Debate Team as they marched to victory in the Arusha Debate Open held at Arusha Campus this weekend.

In amongst all of that, our Under-11 boys performed heroically at Saturday’s football competition at TGT, our OP Level 3’ers retrurned from Usambara and our Diploma 1’s partook in a well-being weekend at the home of one of our supportive parents.

And we are back to start again tomorrow….

Phil

I was reminded once again this Saturday how rich a UWC learning experience can be for students! We woke up in the morning and packed our tents in Usambara Mountains to return to school for a wonderful reception of the UWC governance meetings guests from around the world, filled with inspiring student performances after a full day of debating in the first edition of the Arusha Open Schools Debate Series.

Next week will be also exciting with the Book Week activities both in the primary and secondary and two D1 field trips, one ESS/Biology and another for Language B students. These are meant to extend students’ understanding and skills of the respective subjects, while also having them engage with local environments and cultures.

The diversity of our school community and the richness of experiences students bring to school on a daily basis makes this educational experience unique. Do click on the link below to see a video students have created for International Mother Language Day celebrated recently to experience the diversity of linguistic backgrounds we celebrate and use for learning in school: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIDRxVeq77s

Ciprian

On Friday the primary school was treated to another fantastic Swahili ShareTime (pictured above) when each class presented an item in Swahili. We saw songs, skits and powerpoints. Miss Ann-Joyce clearly showed differentiation between the classes.

All languages are celebrated at our school and the IB says……
Using home and family languages in school supports students who are new to the language of instruction. It engages them quickly in learning by helping them to access their prior knowledge. Parents have a vital role to play as they discuss learning at home with students, deepening understandings across and beyond
the programme of inquiry. This also enables connections among languages to develop.
A learning community builds a positive culture of language learning by:
• embedding the values and beliefs that underpin multilingualism, such as being open-minded, caring, communicators
• recognizing the importance of belonging and connectedness in personal and cultural identities
• recognizing the vital role families play in supporting, developing and sustaining children’s language development
• creating environments where students use their home language with pride, and access host or global languages to engage with the world
• ensuring that multiple languages are seen and heard throughout the school
• promoting language learning as a means to build and strengthen intercultural relationships

Amanda

Ian Salaka just sold and sold merchandise all night!

Exquisite, cosy, delightable… I could go on and on to try and fathom an adjective that would do justice to the UWC delegate welcoming. It seems however that I cannot get to such as it defies description. From the welcoming East African composed dance, to the detailed tour of the school, the scrumptious dinner and the performances-individual and group- every detail of the day fell in sync as the guests were both appreciative and left in awe at the achievements and accomplishments undertaken by the school and hence deservedly a UWC school. So this is to thank all those who worked their hats off to see to it that the evening went on without a glitch and moreover to give a big shoutout to all the performances. Good job guys hope to having more spectacular events just like the last day of February 2020!

Yours,
Phillip Mwadime D1

The Tanzania Competitive Rhetoric Organization (TCRO) in partnership with the United World College East Africa organised the inaugural Arusha Open Schools Debate Series dubbed Arusha Open at United World College, Arusha Campus this weekend.

The Arusha Open was the first of its kind as a series cup that invites schools from around Tanzania to engage in the competitive World Schools Debate Format culture. The aim is to promote the craft of debate and effective communication.

A team is comprised of three principal speakers. However, a team can have two reserve speakers making a possible total 5 speakers per team.

The competition had 4 preliminary rounds on Saturday that featured accumulative win/points rounds. On day 2, only 8 teams with the highest wins/points ratio qualified to the quarter finals, 4 teams to the semifinals and 2 teams to the finals. Only the winner and first runner up will be awarded a trophy respectively along with medals and certificates. 

Amazingly, after two days of heavy debate, the two finalists were UWC Arusha Campus and UWC Moshi Campus! And the eventual winner was………ARUSHA! (the winning team is pictured above) However, it couldn’t have been any closer as the score stood at 5-4!

Congratulations to both teams and the tournament’s organisers Dominic and our very Husseina.

It has been an exciting week of debate, lobbying and resolution writing at the 38th annual East Africa MUN conference in Nairobi. Last Saturday, 11 Arusha and Moshi students traveled to the capital of Kenya to discuss global politics, economics, human rights, and ecology with over 2,000 students from around the world. The UWCEA students have fantastically represented our school by engaging with fellow delegates in robust debates about issues affecting their generation. For the first time in the history of this conference, students participated in the MUN Refugee Challenge to write resolutions to address the current refugee crisis, the best resolutions will be presented before the actual United Nations to help solve some of the most pressing issues faced by millions of displaced people around the world. The theme of this years conference, “Our Vision, My Mission”, was brought to life on Wednesday morning by an inspiring speech from Joyce Msuya, Deputy Executive Director of the UNEP and graduate of Weru Weru Secondary School in Moshi!  All of the UWCEA delegates showed tremendous determination and growth over the five days, and three of our students were recognized for their excellent contributions to the conference: the Political Committee from Qatar won Best Resolution and Bridget Aman (D1) won Best Speaker for Special Summit. Congratulations to all of them.

The art exhibition on Thursday displayed the large skillset of UWCEA’s talented artists and performers.

The evening began with several performances by students joined in by our gifted music teacher Mr Tyler. It also included an exciting interactive improv session by Monsieur Olivier and an artistic traditional dance performed by the D1 East African Boarders. Students brimmed with curiosity eager to see the pieces of the Diploma 1 cohort, revealed beautifully and cohesively in the large library room. This was a great opportunity for the group to showcase their works in a public setting. The big reveal of Ghaidaa Dakik’s (D2, pictured above) diploma exhibition had been the talk of the week, and the mesmerizing paintings and photographs titled ‘perspective’ showcased her view of the world. Her pinhole camera was a great morph of the school’s water tower, allowing one to view the school’s beautiful landscapes.

Two silent auctions were held by Art for Humanity- a SIP dedicated to selling student-made art to raise money for different charity organizations; and the selling of lamps made by the M3’s. This was a great first-time event for the school and an exciting start for more to come!

Mariya Putwa- D1

This was a wonderful opportunity to explore the surroundings of Lushoto and the adjacent Usambara mountains for a level 3 and 4 day hike experience with our Moshi counterparts. The mountains are clad in virgin tropical rainforest which has been isolated for a long period and host a great number of endemic species. We were spoiled by the sight of many chameleons by the trail! There are many protected zones throughout the range which are being expanded and contributed to by the Tanzanian government, associated NGO’s and research team.

We had a chance to do a tour of Lushoto town in the rain on the first day and learn about colonial history, the railway and the important political role this town had in Tanzanian history. Luckily the weather was on our side during the hiking days and we managed to enjoy (dry!) this very special natural environment. Due to a lack of glaciations and a relatively consistent climate, the rainforest has gone through a long term and unique evolution resulting in an impressive amount of endemism and an old growth cloud rainforests.We look forward to the next OP Trip!

On Saturday, our Under-11 Boys Footballers (pictured above) took on an international cast of opponents in the Future Stars Tournament. Whilst they didnt come away as overall winners, their coaches (and watching parents!) were exceedingly proud! Well done boys!

On 20th March 2020, from 4:00 pm to 6:30 pm, Arusha Climate Change Conference, a first of its kind, will be hosted at our very own UWCEA Arusha campus. It is being organized by WeInspire, a network of resourceful students who, led by Husseina Nurbhai and Paul Ochen, discuss and address looming global issues, climate change being our first global topic. The key objective of this conference is to raise awareness about climate change and challenge people to take necessary action in a bid to respond to it. There will also be student-engaging activities through the week leading up to the conference. Two expert speakers have been invited to give their views on how best climate change can be addressed in the 21st century. Also, people attending will be designated into groups of five through which they will discuss and develop simple yet informative proposals for a climate change response project, which will then be implemented with the proceeds from the conference. Tickets for the conference go for Tzshs 3,000 before the 20th of March, and Tzshs 5,000 on the 20th of March. Interested in attending? – make your payment and get your ticket through Ms Caroline Munishi at the reception. For more information, please feel free to contact WeInspire network through we.inspire21@gmail.com

UWCEA  has a school membership at the Alliance Française providing benefits to school community members such as free use of the library to borrow books, movie and cultural evenings and discounts on some  other events such as the DELF.

The DELF (Diplôme d’Études en Langue Française) is an internationally recognized diploma awarded by the French Ministry of Education to certify the competency of candidates in the French Language. There is an opportunity to sign-up for a DELF session in June with the Alliance Française of Arusha.

This event is for non-native French students who would like their French skills to be recognized for personal or professional purposes. Sign-up will take place between March 2-April 2 for Secondary students and April 2- May 23 for Primary students. 

Cost varies according to the certificate level students register for (starting from 120,000 Tsh). If you would like more information, please speak to me or contact Aude Hertzler from the Alliance Française directly: training@aftarusha.org

Outdoor Pursuits Programme
Please note that there has been  a slight change to the Ngorongoro-Natron Level 4 hiking trip. It is now open to students from M4 to D2 (rather than M5-D2). Students can sign-up by clicking on this link:

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/9040E4FAAAA22A6F94-outdoor

Please find below the OP trips for the rest of the semester:

Anyone who’s interested, please let me know either via email http://davidratsakatika@uwcea.org or in person. Also, for those who would like tennis coaching, Arusha Campus has access to the best tennis coach in Arusha in Lembris. He’ll be on the tennis courts with his coaching team every Tuesday from 4:30pm-5:30pm. All UWCEA-Arusha parents and teachers are welcome to attend coaching sessions, all abilities welcome. Lembris charges a 10,000TSH pay as you play service so karibuni.