This week the campus settled into its normal pattern of life. As you can see below there have been activities at all levels from PYP camps to interhouse sports. As I write this, we have teams competing in NTSAA Basketball and Football on campus, a large group on a Plains OP trip and Production practice.
You will have received the email about next week’s production of “The Strange Case of Jekyll & Hyde” and we look forward to seeing you. From what I hear it is nearly sold out. Next week also has the rescheduled NTSAA athletics for primary and secondary.
In just over a week our D2 students will be starting 8 days of Mock exams as they prepare for the actual exams in May and in two weeks’ time, we have a major exodus from campus as all our MYP students are off on their Week-Without-Walls trips and the D1 students on their self-directed project weeks.
Please see below for details of a fundraising Valentine’s Ball which is being organised by the Advancement Office for adults in the community.
Please remember that you can keep track of all of this information on the school calendar and your child’s school information through the online portal Life.
Bob Cofer – Head of Campus
Upcoming Events
Join us for an unforgettable night as UWC East Africa proudly presents the 80’s Valentine’s Ball! 💖 Bring your friends and loved ones for an evening of timeless 80’s tunes, groovy dance moves, and a special live band performance. 🕺💃
Get ready for a night of fun with drinks available for purchase, delectable bites included in the ticket fee, and more surprises. By purchasing your ticket, you’re not only securing a fantastic night out but also contributing to the UWC East Africa Scholarship Fund, consider expanding your impact even more by purchasing the VIP Generous fee & get a welcome surprise at the entrance. Doors open at 8:00 PM
Please note that this is an exclusive adult event. For information about how to obtain your tickets contact the Advancement Office via email to fundraising@uwcea.org.
Ben’s Corner
If you have not already secured your (FREE) tickets for next week’s performances of “The Strange Case of Jekyll and Hyde,” be sure to visit Ms. Agnes in the Front Office as soon as possible. There will be two consecutive performances in the Black Box (K-Hall) on Thursday and two again on Friday. Seats are currently limited to 32 for each showing. Mr. David, Mr. Brandon and the small cast and crew have been working very hard to get everything ready for what promises to be a very intimate theatrical experience for the audience.
In other news, huge kudos to Verus, Sage, Alwalid, Belinda and everyone else who helped deliver meals to patients at KCMC throughout the December break. Each meal was delivered in person, which involved pushing the food trolley for 6km a week through the hospital…even in the rain! Of course, this would not be possible without Ms. Tahera, Mr. Pelle and the amazing catering team at UWCEA Moshi for preparing all the meals (and for making our students a delicious cake to say Asante!).
This really is the perfect example of our students going above and beyond in their own time to exemplify our Values.
Lastly, with the start of a new Semester, we welcome our new Student Government in the Secondary School…and a new Student Voice in the Primary. We look forward to enjoying their events, Spirit Days and activities to bring us all together and celebrate our wonderful UWCEA community.
Ben Morley – Deputy Head of Campus
Diploma News
On Monday we had a Welcome Back assembly. This was a chance to get together as a school and meet the new student government. DP honour roll names were announced although the certificates have already been put on Life.
On Tuesday the D1 students had their final planning session for Project Week. A letter was sent to parents about giving permission. For some reason the name on the email was not mine, we are trying to rectify that. Please logon to Life and go to trips on the right-hand side, read the trip letter and your child’s group’s details and then grant permission. As this is a student led experience, your child should be the first person you ask if you have any questions. The only part the school is involved in, is arranging a bus to Dar for the groups who are travelling there.
For D2 students it has been another week of deadlines, finishing the syllabus and preparing for the mock examinations.
One of the amazing things about this school is the student body and how they can be a source of information. In a Theory of Knowledge lesson we were talking about banning languages as a means to oppress people. We were very fortunate to have a member of staff and four students who were able to talk about the banning of Breton, Welsh and Irish and the impact that had both personally and on a larger scale.
On Friday we had the interhouse athletics day organised by the student government. The plans were started by last year’s student government and continued by the new one. It was good to see so many students participate on behalf of their house and it was a very enjoyable afternoon.
Margaret Brunt – Diploma Coordinator
DP English
The start of this quarter saw some collaboration between English classes as Mr Russell’s and Ms Dowie’s D2 classes joined together to prepare for the Paper 2 Comparative Analysis. Here is what the students had to say about the workshop:
“I enjoyed how the lessons were meticulously planned and explained in detail. It was like paving a simple pathway to prepping the paper 2.”
“I feel more prepared but still have much work to put in.”
“I now know how much I still have to do.”
The students are hard at work preparing for their quarter 2 assessments and mock exams. It is a busy assessment quarter. Mock exams are an excellent opportunity to practice and receive feedback before the final exams. It is wonderful to see students rereading their works, adding sticky notes and annotations. We wish them well in the upcoming assessment season.
Mrs Dowie and Mr Russell
Residential Life
Dear UWCEA Community,
The highlight of this week has been our Interhouse Athletics Competition. Kudos to the Student Government’s Activities Committee for organizing their first event of the year in such a short time. Well done!
Thank you to all the staff and students who participated and volunteered their time to make the event a success. Enjoy some photos from the day.
Adnan Mackovic – Head of Residential Life
MYP News
In ‘The Little Prince,’ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry imparts a timeless truth through the words of a fox: “On ne voit bien qu’avec le cœur. L’essentiel est invisible pour les yeux.”
One sees clearly only with the heart. What is essential is invisible to the eye.’ This “nugget: of wisdom resonates in our MYP journey. Just as the Little Prince learns to see beyond appearances, our MYP students, teachers, and parents embrace the connections, understanding, and deeper meanings that shape our daily experiences at our school. We continue to witness these essential qualities in our shared exploration within the MYP filled with the heartful pursuit of knowledge and personal growth.
New Students Welcome! We are very excited to welcome Reigns to our MYP community! It feels like Reigns has been with us for a long time and is a wonderful addition!
M5 Extended Math: This week the students created the Chinese version of the board game Ticket to ride. They first designed the network of China’s railways between province capitals. This is the board in the game. Then each student created mission cards, selecting 2 cities and finding out the length of the shortest railway connecting these with Dijkstra’s algorithm (see Sharon’s work for example). Thank you, Mr. Julien!
Week Without Walls: February is approaching, and preparations for our Week Without Walls experience are in full swing. All MYP students are expected to join the trips scheduled from February 12 to 16, 2024, alongside peers from the Arusha campus. These 5-day/4-night experiential learning journeys include hands-on and outdoor activities, aligned with the curriculum. Attendance is mandatory for all students.
This experience combines learning, recreational, and cultural activities, offering students experiential, challenging, and inclusive local experiences beyond the classroom. Trip letters containing all the details are being dispatched to parents/guardians.
Please review them and ensure completion/update of the following on our Life platform:
Permission form
Medical records
ID documents (passport or government ID; non-Tanzanians require a Student Pass)
Contact information
All documents must be current. Upload copies by logging into life.uwcea.org and selecting the Passports tab. For permission passes, sign in at life.uwcea.org, access their account, and select the Trips tab.
The deadline for the above is Monday, February 5th, 2024.
MYP Dates to Remember:
January 30th – M5 PP Criterion B due
February 12th – 16th Week Without Walls
February 22nd – 27th Long Weekend
March 4th – 8th Book Week
March 19 – Secondary PTC Day 1 (1:00-5:00)
March 21 – Secondary PTC Day 2 (7:30-11:00)
Have a beautiful week ahead!
Farah Fawaz – MYP Coordinator
Sports Update
This weekend the U19 basketball teams, the U16 football teams and the U13 basketball team are in action welcoming teams to Moshi. Next Thursday selected students will be traveling to participate in the rescheduled NTSAA Athletics. On Friday the secondary students will travel for their rescheduled NTSAA Athletics.
Coach Pickell
Leopard Sharks Swimming
On 16-17 December, swimmers participated in the East African Chipkizi Swimming Championship in Arusha. Delhem, Patrick, Aiden, Sahil and Rhea came back with a combined 17 gold, 11 silver and 2 bronze medals. Congratulations Leopard Sharks!
Secondary swim squad training schedule for this semester is as follows: Mon/ Tues/ Wed @ 4.30 Thurs @ 3.15
PYP News
The first week of clubs has gone well. Thanks to the support of teachers, parents and Diploma students the PYP children have a wide variety of after school activities to choose from.
Some of our PYP students will be heading to Arusha on Thursday, 1st February, to participate in the NTSAA athletics meet. Parents should have received an email from Coach Pickell and will need to sign their children up on Life. We wish our young athletes lots of success.
On Friday, 2nd February, we will have a Primary Gathering with a PE focus. This will take place in Rafiki Hall at 7:40am. You are warmly invited to attend. Straight after the gathering, Ms. Kacey’s class will present their class museum in Room 4.
As you read through the class newsletters below, you will see references to older children helping the younger children, secondary school teachers working with primary school children and parents visiting the classroom or organising wonderful school visits. Thank you to everyone who supports our primary children and enriches their learning experience.
Deborah Mills – PYP Coordinator
EC/P1 Class
Our shape of the week was the circle. We learned a circle song, drew circles, and completed a circle art. We also learned about Wassily Kandinsky and practiced how to make concentric circles like he did. P1s created funny shapes out of circles. Next week we will explore squares.
We read Tyrannosaurus Drip by Julia Donaldson and it opened a whole world of fun. The children chose to learn more about T-Rex. We gathered some facts about T-rex and danced like T-rex to some fun songs. P1s and EC2s have listed the dinosaurs they want to learn more about and we will start looking at them next week.
We will be welcoming a new EC2 student next week. We are excited about the increase in our community.
Thank you P6s and Ms. Natasha for reading to us during buddy time this week.
Mboka Mwasongwe
P2/3 Class
Welcome one and all to our Class Museum on Friday after the Primary Gathering. The class is very excited to have visitors to come and see what we’ve been learning about artefacts. We hope that you can make it! Let me know if no one will be able to come from your family and I will arrange to have someone from school to stop by in order to specifically visit your child’s display.
We are very grateful to our 2 guest speakers who came last week to give our class a cultural experience. We made a small rangoli with colored powder and learned more about Diwali with Mrs. Pavz. Mrs. Munira gave a wonderful, thorough explanation of Ramadan to the class. Both of our guests brought food to share which I think gave the students a real sense of celebration!
Kacy Buckley
P4/5 Class
We had a great trip to TPC on Wednesday to learn about sugar production. Didier (Baba Jeremy and Thomas) and Sebastian (Baba James and Luke) worked very hard to provide the children with an enjoyable and informative experience. Thank you to both of them for taking time out of their busy schedules to show the P4/5 class the cane fields, the irrigation system and part of the factory floor. The children were allowed to taste the sugar which made for a very lively journey back to school! On Thursday, we travelled to Kahawa Shambani for an overnight camp. We went on a coffee tour and learned about coffee production in the Kilimanjaro region. The weather was mostly kind and the children enjoyed playing outside and gathering round the campfire for toasted marshmallows, stories and songs in the evening.
Next week we will start our new unit:
Central Idea: Different tools and strategies help us navigate our surroundings and develop awareness of where we are
Lines of Inquiry:
What key aspects are important for reading and making maps.
How geography affects communities
Changes in technology and affect on mapmaking and navigation
On Wednesday, Mr. Bucknell has invited the class to attend the dress rehearsal of the school production, “The strange case of Jekyll and Hyde,” which we are looking forward to.
Deborah Mills
P4/5 at TPC
At the coffee plantation
P6 Class
This week, the P6 students completed writing their Lines of Inquiry and moved into the research phase of their PYP Exhibition preparation. Many of them engaged in initial meetings with their mentors, who will provide guidance and advice throughout this entire journey. Thank you for attending the PYP Parent Information Session which provided a good opportunity to share the goals and expectations of the PYPX with you.
Clubs resumed this week, sparking much excitement, and P6 students met with their buddies in EC/P1, to share the joy of reading together.
Looking ahead to next week in Maths, our focus will be on multiplying and dividing fractions with common denominators, along with mastering the conversion between simple fractions, percentages, and decimals.
Just a reminder that the NTSAA meet from last quarter has been rescheduled for Thursday, 1st February.
Natasha Berri
From the Counselors
What’s Next For M4-D2
This quarter the work of the College and Career Counseling department expands. I will work with students from M4-D2, and look forward to exploring what the future may hold. Here is a brief overview of what is to come:
M4 and M5: Career Exploration in Life Skills (I introduced this to M5s last Thursday morning, and will start with M4s when they finish their current unit.)
D1s: Post-Secondary planning process and first one-on-one planning meeting starts next week.
D2s: Preparing for What’s Next in Life Skills and DSS. Also, stay tuned because soon we will start celebrating the offers of admission and scholarships received so far by the Class of 2024!
