This week, our D2 students have been sitting their Mock Exams and are to be commended for their mature and diligent approach to it all, both in Rafiki Hall and in the time between exams…keep it up!
As I have referenced before, studies suggest that 75% of students consider themselves to be procrastinators. The author of one of the biggest studies on procrastination, researcher Piers Steel, states that “the further away an event is, the less impact it has on people’s decisions.” However, the research also suggests that testing yourself is an effective way to improve your knowledge and ability to recall information. In a study on mock exams, researchers found that students who sat a practice test after a period of revision performed better on the final exam than those students who did not sit a mock exam and had just spent the whole time revising.
As has been reiterated many times, we want the D2 students to see these mocks as an opportunity to figure out what works best for them under exam conditions and what they need to focus on over the coming months. As my English teacher used to say, it is better to have a “shock in the mock” than in the main event!
D2s, we are all here to support you and we hope you appreciated the delicious “Good Luck Muffins” kindly handed out by the Primary Cooking Club.
Ben Morley
Music Lessons
Individual music lessons will resume next week. Students or parents/guardians should sign up on the notice board outside the Music classroom. Please contact Mr. Samuel if you have any questions.
Samuel Wilkinson
Sports Update
This week, after school sports training, clubs and activities got back on track after our short hiatus. Students seem to have got back into the swing of things very well and the fields, courts, pool and gym are looking full of students out looking after their health and wellbeing. As a result of concerns over the last 2 weeks, we have decided to suspend all inter-school competition for this quarter. However, there is communication from other schools suggesting a virtual swim meet, where each school holds races for their swimmers and then uploads the results to a shared document and we can have some virtual competition, strive for personal bests and determine a winner.
Q3 Sports Training Schedule
Community Activities
Tennis with Coach Charles
Tennis with coach Charles continues with him offering private and/or group lessons on Wednesdays at 3:30pm to 4:30pm or Saturdays from 9:30am to 11:30am. Please contact Coach Charles at the courts at the above-mentioned times or call/message on 0710606766.
PYP Saturday Soccer
Saturday Soccer with Mr T and several of our skilled M5, D1 and D2 students resumes this weekend. It kicks off at 9:00am and finishes at 10:30am just in time for the PYP Swim Squad to get their laps in.
Go Leopards Robin Marsh
From the Counselor
Onward and Upward
With a new month underway, we are continuing to find new ways to build resilience and empower our young people, and staff, during this very uncertain time. This week presented an opportunity to build awareness of mental health for children as we recognized Children’s Mental Health Week. We encourage your family to continue the conversation as we all benefit from better understanding the mental health challenges that are faced by children, especially amid a global pandemic. Along with the resources shared for this week’s initiative, we encourage you to access the COVID-19 Counselor Resources, which we continually update with information that we hope will be useful to support your child and family.
The power of perseverance continues to be on display as we celebrate Black History Month. We invite you to take some time to explore the vast array of information that is available this month with a focus on learning about the ways Black people around the world have overcome tremendous obstacles to find success in all facets of life. Reading the biographies of individuals who have paved a way out of no way can be very encouraging. Recently, an author published these stories of Black Canadian Women to enlighten and educate about the impact they had on shaping the nation of Canada. We hope you will find these short stories interesting and will seek to learn more with your child.
For the college side, we continue to invite parents of M4-D2 students to request Parent Access to their child’s Maia Learning account where a majority of the post-secondary planning work will take place. You can send an email to counselor_moshi@uwcea.org with your child’s name, grade level, your name, and preferred email address in order to be provided access to follow along on your child’s planning journey. If you would like a better understanding of exactly what Maia Learning is, please take a look at this brief Parent/Family Overview video.
M4 through (still undecided) D2 students and families are reminded to participate in the various virtual presentations available to learn about colleges and universities around the world. If you would like some tips on how to help your child make the most of a College Fair opportunity, you can read this brief article Parent Tips: How to help your child prepare for a college fair and get out of their way. In addition, please review the constantly changing list of the upcoming events on this link, and register to attend one or two that interest you.
Wishing you a wonderful weekend of wellness,
UWCEA School Counseling Team
DP News
This has been an intense week for the D2 students with the mock exams. We started with an information meeting to share the regulations we have to follow and also to talk about the purpose of mock exams. They are the ultimate formative assessment–students and teachers learn what they know, students learn about the rules and procedures for the final exams, students learn about how they study and how they handle the stress. Their attitude and behaviour have been excellent and, hopefully, the results will be as well. It is important to remember that ‘excellent’ is not the same for everybody, we want students to achieve their excellent. Many students have commented that they appreciate the process they are going through. Mock exams continue until Wednesday.
We have recently heard from the IB about the May exams. We are still reading through this and working out what it means for our school. We will contact parents with more information in due course but a summary of the information is here and the IB information site is here.
The D1 students were pleased to get back in the classroom after online learning and life is slowly getting back to normal.
Margaret Brunt
MYP News
MYP is back in full swing. Please remind your students that we have Mock Exams taking place in the DP and to be respectful. Many of our M5s are finalising their Personal Projects and could use our support and encouragement. If you know an M5 student, ask them about it. We have many MYP students heading off on an OP adventure this weekend, be safe and come back with great stories!
Have a restful weekend, keep safe and well. Take care of yourself and each other.
Jeanne Aman
PYP News
We have had a lovely week back. The children are enjoying the warm weather-please remind them to pack a hat and water bottle each day. The after school clubs program is going well. Many thanks to everyone who is running a club-we have teachers, Educational Assistants, parents, Diploma students and even a PYP student (supported by a parent) who are running clubs this quarter! Enjoy your weekend.
Deborah Mills and Mboka Mwasongwe
EC/P1 Class
The class enjoyed water play this week. We explored sinking and floating using various items. They particularly enjoyed the Sinking and Floating song from CBeebies. You can continue exploring with them at home as well.
P1s read books on water and its properties on getepic.com. They shared their knowledge with one another and will continue to do so in the coming week. Next week, we will be going into the kitchen and looking at how water changes states from solid to liquid to gas.
In Mathematics, P1s ploughed through subtraction with ease. They used little bears, blocks, fingers and so on. We were very impressed. The journey will continue next week.
EC/P1 would like to say thank you to Community Garden Club workers. They came in this week and cleared out weeds and watered the garden. They worked really hard and we are grateful.
Mboka Mwasongwe
P2/3 Class
We have been having fun with fractions this week. We have looked at how we can break numbers into pieces and how we can cut up circles into different pieces to represent fractions. The students have asked to have a Valentine’s Day Fraction Party on Friday the 12th. Can we please ask you to send in some food or drink that we can divide into fractions for the Valentine’s Day Party? Feel free to recreate your child’s smoothie recipe from online learning.
We have been using sticky notes to create the beginning, middle and end of stories we are coming up with and are hoping to have a written up story ready to publish by next week!
Elsewhere, we have started talking about our new Unit of Inquiry which will focus on the Solar System. Please look out for long-term home learning that will be coming next week. Weekly home learning activities will also begin next week.
Elisha Jaffer
P4 Class
It was a busy week with lots of activities. Two highlights stand out in my mind. The first was definitely our class Diwali celebration. Navya from D1 led a discussion and activity on Diwali and Mridula, also from D1, was brave enough to sing for us! We also were able to try special Diwali foods cooked by the mamas of Simreet, Tejvir and Angad. This has been such a delicious unit! The second highlight was the stories that the students are writing about Anansi-they have been creative and fun. We are missing our home learners this week but they have been keeping up with class lessons and working very hard.
Kacey Buckley
P5 Class
This week, the P5 class have been researching the effects of smoking on our body systems. The children have also used water soluble oil pastels to create art in the style of Keith Haring, with the intention of promoting the benefits of exercise.
Next week, this Unit of Inquiry will come to a close and the children will share what they have learned about their chosen body systems and how to care for them. We hope to visit the secondary science labs to complete a dissection with Ms. Jackie. In Maths, we have worked with pie charts and line graphs. Next week, we will look at how to identify the mode, median and mean of data.
Deborah Mills
P6 Class
If this week was a preview for PYP Exhibitions, we are in for a treat this year with the P6 class. On Thursday, they shared their inventors by dressing up in character and giving autobiographical speeches. They all did an amazing job with this and impressed both PYP and MYP audience members.
On Thursday and Friday, they shared their partner summatives with extensive slideshows about an ancient civilization. These slideshows were packed full of information, well planned, and contained great illustrations to accompany the facts they shared. It was lovely to hear the compliments they shared with one another when done presenting.
To top off the week, P6 had some good luck at the dance last December and were awarded a pool party and cake. They enjoyed both of these to end a productive and successful week. Please look in your email and log into SeeSaw for pictures and videos from their presentations.
