Bulletin 29 Lower and Middle School

Transcription

1 International School of London London Bulletin 29 Lower and Middle School Friday 15 th May 2015 Week 32 Week 33 Key dates Monday 23 rd Tuesday 24 th Wednesday 25 th Thursday 26 th Friday 27 Monday th February 18 th Tuesday February 19 th Wednesday February 20 th Thursday February 21 st Friday February 22 nd May May May May May 8:45-15:15 Grade 3 visit to Hogsmill Sewage Works G9-12 Boys / Girls Tennis at Sutton Tennis Academy G9-12 Boys / Girls Tennis Day 2 at Sutton Tennis Academy 11:00-16:30 G 9-11 Spanish visit to Courtauld Galler 11:15-14:30 G9-11 India Students visit to ISL Surrey 18:30-19:30 Nigel Warburton - Lecture 1 (parents, students and staff) Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday 29 th May May May May May 8:45-14:00 PYP Exhibition G12 Graduation 8:30-15:00 G10 Personal Project Exhibition at Gunnersbury Sports and Social Club 9:30-15:15 KG visit to Kew Gardens Bank Holiday School Holiday G9-12 Boys / Girls Tennis Day 2 at Sutton Tennis Academy 18:30-19:30 Nigel Warburton - Lecture 2 (parents, students and staff) Grade 9 (all) visit to Imperial War Museum 13:00-16:30 Grade 6-8 Czech, German, Eng L&L visit to Freud Museum 16:30-17:30 Student Council 5K Run Primary Assembly VESAK Day PA Principal s Announcement Lec Art Lectures for all LS Lower School News Run 5K Run MS SA PP Middle School News Service as Action Personal Project PTA Gal Att PTA ISL Arts Gallery Attachments PTA Meeting Minutes 14 th May 5K Run Sponsorship form

2 Principal s Announcement Welcome to Bulletin 29 and Happy Teachers day On my arrival to school today, I was greeted with a beautifully crafted red paper carnation. This represents the South Korea Teacher s day which takes place every 15 th May and is a tradition that has been in Korea since Carnation giving is a traditional way of celebrating the teacher appreciation day and it is a form of acknowledging teachers generosity when sharing knowledge and experience with students. Stop Press We are delighted to announce that Heather Mulkey, Group Marketing and Admissions Officer at The International School of London (ISL) Group, has been awarded Relocation Personality of the Year. The RE:locate Awards Gala Dinner and Presentation Ceremony were held at the Institute of Directors, Pall Mall on Thursday evening. This highly prestigious award recognises Ms Mulkey s significant contribution to the relocation industry over a number of years. She has wide experience in international schools marketing and admissions and has Bulletin 29 served on the Association for Relocation Professionals (ARP) Board for many years. She has played an integral part in ensuring that the relocation industry takes into account the educational and pastoral element of families in transition. Ms Mulkey has provided the relocation industry and families in global transition with training and information about specific educational needs, and raised awareness of the crucial importance that family support and education can play in determining successful outcomes and soft landings. She is a respected writer and has contributed articles to numerous publications including FOCUS, IB World, International HR Advisor, Re:locate Magazine and The EuRApean. I am sure you will join me in congratulating Heather for achieving this award that recognises her contribution to the international community sector. Heather has been a key participant in the development of the ISL Group, we are very lucky to benefit from her expertise that is now appropriately and publicly recognised. Sergio Pawel Lower and Middle School Principal (Acting) Free Art and Philosophy Lectures for students, parents and teachers - Nigel Warburton Lecture 1 Date: Wednesday 20 th May 2015 Time: 6.30pm 7.30pm Venue: Library Focusing on Clive Bell s book Art, this lecture will examine the notion that art is more about the patterns of lines, shapes and colours - the forms - rather than its content. Please use the online register to guarantee your place. For more information on Lectures 2 and 3 please see page 9. Cristina Pawel Head of Arts & Design 2

3 Lower School News Celebrations of Learning Yesterday all Lower School parents should have received an with details of the Student Led Conferences scheduled for Friday 5 th June. This is an opportunity for your child to share their portfolio and show you what they have been learning and the progress they have made throughout the year. These conferences are a celebration of learning, with the child leading the discussion. Please remember to return reply slips to your eldest or only child s class teacher by next Tuesday 19 th May. Hard copies of the letter are available from the school office. Next week there is a very important event in the Lower School calendar, the Grade 5 PYP Exhibition. The PYP Exhibition requires students to engage in a collaborative, in-depth inquiry that starts from a personal interest or passion, but extends into real world local and global issues. It is an opportunity for students to demonstrate independence and responsibility for their own learning, celebrating the transition from the PYP to the MYP, requiring students to apply their learning from previous years. The theme for this year s Exhibition is: Passion Bulletin 29 inspires action. Everyone is invited to visit on Friday 22 nd May between 8:45am and 2:00pm. Please note that the students will be taking their regular morning and lunch breaks, therefore we suggest you do not visit at those times as the students will not be available to explain their work. We highly recommend all PYP parents to come along and learn what the Exhibition is all about and gain an understanding of what your own children are working towards as they progress through the PYP! This is a very exciting event for the students and the school and we hope you will be able to join us for this celebration of learning. Primary Music Recital Wednesday 17 th June :00-7:30pm The Primary Music Recital is a performance event for students who participate in instrumental lessons. This is a wonderful opportunity for students to share their progress on their chosen instrument. Michelle Newman Lower School Leader for Learning PYP Celebration of the Arts Monday 22 nd June :30am The PYP Celebration of the Arts is an exciting musical production for students from EC1 - Grade 5. Priya Wilson - Music Teacher Priya Wilson - Music Teacher PYP in the Lower School Sources of information A really important part of using our research skills is being able to collect data effectively. Students are always encouraged to consult a wide range of both first and second hand sources such as maps, surveys, their own observations, books, films, museums and the use of ICT. Important primary sources are people! Talking with, and interviewing people on a subject they are knowledgeable about can enhance children s understanding significantly. All our Exhibition groups have consulted a broad range of sources and recorded the information accurately by drawing, note-taking, making charts, tallying or writing statements. This gives them the chance to draw conclusions from patterns they find in their data. In the photographs we see Grade 1 interviewing Mr Karam about some action they wanted to take that would affect the kitchen. Mr Karam explained to them the impact of their action and together they problem solved the issues! Grade 2 had a visitor to the classroom to enhance their understanding of ancient civilisations, he was able to bring to life the connections between the Romans and Greeks and link it to modern day. Elizabeth Foster PYP Co-ordinator 3

4 Middle School News India Trip, Crazy Hair Day and Service and Action Last Monday s Assembly was dedicated to Service and Action through an India Trip presentation and a Nepal introduction linked to Crazy Hair Day. Students and teachers who went on this year s trip to India were singing songs and showed pictures and videos about the trip. Amazing images and stories, which are a great example how the set-up of a school trip goes from Action into Service. It s the insight one gets into a total different culture seen from the inside as well as the opportunities to help, share as well as learn from what you see, encounter and who you live with. It was said by many of the students that it was a life changing experience. The second part was to introduce the Crazy Hair Day that was planned for the Wednesday. This was to raise money for the people of Nepal after a tragic earthquake that took many lives and destroyed a large area. To have a fund raising in this way can be fun but we should not forget to create awareness as to why we are doing it. This was organised for the students but we welcome more initiatives from individual students to organise events that continue to work on awareness as well as raise more funding. Action is an important part of the learning process, it creates better understanding and makes students feel responsible for creating opportunities that will make a positive difference. Ate Hemmes Middle School Leader for Learning MYP Coordinator India Assembly Grades 9-11 will be going to Surrey next Wednesday 20 th May This week we presented the India trip experience to the students on their Monday assembly and to the parents last Wednesday. We also presented the cheque to the PTA, thank you to everybody for the fundraising and explaining how the money was used. Grades 9, 10 and 11 will be going to Surrey next Wednesday 20 th May to be part of their assembly and feedback their experience of India. This is an important activity because it involves students from the MYP, Diploma and Surrey. The Lower School students were also involved in the fundraising during the dance-a-thon and we will be organising a thank you assembly in the near future. Cristina Pawel Head of Arts & Design PE LET S GO FOXES! 8 international Schools from Europe will participate at the 2015 ISSA Tennis and Badminton Tournament at the David Lloyd Heston Centre (TW5 9PE). The fun stars Tuesday 19 th May with 16 ISL students competing (Boys and Girls). On this occasion, ISL families are hosting students from BLIS (Ankara) from Monday 18 th May. Needless to say that the ISSA can only continue with the support of our school s families who provide these traveling students with the experience of living in the city/country where each tournament is being hosted. Thank you very much!!! Ms Savage and Mr Bello are coaching our school students and are ready to help them during these two long days. Competition will be running from 9:00am to 5:00pm on Tuesday 19 th May and from 9:00am to 3:30pm on Wednesday 20 th May. Parents are more than welcome to watch and support. We wish them good luck!!! Luis Bello Co-curricular co-ordinator and Head Coach Secondary School Variety Performance Monday 22 nd June :00pm start The Secondary School Variety Performance is a chance for our MYP and DP students to showcase their talent. Information on how to audition for this concert will be in next week s bulletin. For now, get practising! Music Save the date! Chris Beecroft - Music Teacher 4

5 Service as Action Crazy Hair Day - Fundraising for the Nepal Earthquake 5.00 can feed a family for one day, can provide clean water for a family for six weeks and can provide emergency shelter for a family who have lost their home. This is a quote from the Disasters Emergency Committee s website appeal for Nepal. It was with a sense of dread that we learnt that there had been yet another Earthquake in Nepal a few days ago, adding to the catastrophe that was already there. It was with this in mind that Crazy hair day was thought about. It was a fun day but the most important thing was that we raised almost for the earthquake appeal! With the lower school already raising over that means from ISL we will send nearly 1, Many thanks to the staff and parents and of course students that made this a meaningful event. We don t have to stop here. Any other initiatives from students, parents and teachers are still welcome. Nepal needs as much help as we can give! Sue Kumordjie Service as Action Leader To extend the fun we have launched a Crazy Hair competition. We invite all the parents to vote for their favourite crazy hair style using the web link below. WHO S GOT THE CRAZIEST HAIR STYLE? There were many more MYP students and teachers with very crazy hair styles that participated but we have selected some of the craziest for the competition. MS KUMORDJIE MR ATE MS OLAFSDOTTIR FAHIMA G6 REMY G6 JAVIER G6 GIULLIA G6 NIKE G10 KAJ G9 SAIF G6 Please vote here: 5

6 Personal Project Exhibition The Brilliance of ISL s Grade 10 s on Display The Personal Project is the heart and soul of the Middle Years Programme - it is the demonstration of every MYP grade 10 students s learning. Here is where students show themselves and everybody what they can do when challenged to investigate, find solutions and create a product of their own choosing. ISL s Grade 10 s cooked, designed, drawn, photographed, built, organised, videoed, wrote an extraordinary variety of very personal Personal Projects. From the beginning of the school year students carried out research, critically examining the sources they used and recorded this, as well as their planning and thinking, in a Process Journal. Then, as they were completing their actual Product - the project itself, they composed a Written Report of words in which they explained and described their investigation, their planning, reflections, and the process, and they judged the final product based on criteria they created. This is an awesome undertaking for these students; they have had to balance the time and academic demands of the Personal Project with the same in all of their subjects. It has challenged them to show their mastery of Approaches to Learning in the final year of the MYP and the extent to which they are truly IB Learners. Arguably, the Personal Project is the most important thing an MYP student does. ISL proudly invites parents, teachers and students to view these Personal Projects and meet the Grade 10 students who completed them. Their work will be exhibited on Friday 22 nd May at the Gunnersbury Sports and Social Club on Park Place, London W3 8JY. Chris Duggan Head of Humanities/ History Personal Project Co-ordinator 6

7 Art and Philosophy Lectures for students, parents and teachers - Lecture 1-20 th May Bulletin 29 I am delighted to inform you that parents are welcome to attend the lectures with the accomplished philosopher Nigel Warburton. He contributes to BBC productions and is the author of the Theory of Knowledge book used widely by IB Diploma students all over the world. He has confirmed his availability to visit us on three different occasions. The first of the three lectures is set to happen on Wednesday 20 th May at 6:30pm. We are still in the process of deciding the location of the lecture, (main hall or library) and we are asking the parents to please sign up online using this web link: Please note that this is an individual sign up sheet so therefore each family member has to sign up separate. Cristina Pawel Head of Arts & Design The Art Question: an introduction to the Philosophy of Art Lecture 1. Art as Form Wed 20 th May from 18:30 to 19:30 Focusing on Clive Bell s book Art, this lecture will examine the notion that art is more about the patterns of lines, shapes and colours - the forms - rather than its content. Lecture 2: Art as Expression Wed 27 th May from 18:30 to 19:30 Is art mainly a way of expressing emotions? What does that mean? Through an examination of R.G. Collingwood s theory of art this lecture will clarify these questions. Lecture 3: Art as Conceptual Wed 3 rd June from 18:30 to 19:30 How can conceptual art be understood as part of the history of art? This lecture includes a discussion of Arthur Danto s and George Dickie s approaches to the question What is Art? Library On Tuesday 12th May, Sergio Pawel, Ate Hemmes and myself had the pleasure of meeting with five Executive Representatives from Follett-Destiny, the library system we use. We discussed new exciting developments, in particular the possibility of using electronic IB text books in the classroom for every subject, along with hard copy books in the library. They showed us a demonstration in the Library of how to obtain a book from a relevant topic for a particular level or for students in a particular year group. Farideh Urrestarazu Librarian 7

8 Student Council 5K Run The ISL 5km run is organised by the Student Council. It is an event for the whole school community and we hope that there are students, staff and parents involved. The route is an accurately measured 5km circuit around Gunnersbury Park which will be marshalled during the run and the individual timings of finishers recorded. The aim is to have at least 30 members of the school community completing the run within their target time and raising at least each for UNICEF one of the school s selected charities of the year. The course record for a student is currently held by Mansoor Al Nasseri in a time of 19 minutes 58 seconds but all competitors are encouraged to have their own personal goals. Last year the run raised in excess of 1000 for charity and again we are asking that all runners seek sponsorship. We are lucky to have the support of the school s PTA who will be supplying refreshments after the run. This year we are also introducing a walking option, starting at 4.15pm, 15 minutes before the runners. Sponsor Forms are available as an attachment to this Bulletin under this link or can be collected from the school s office. Any queries please contact me on address tpascoe@isllondon.org. Completed forms with sponsor money can be returned to Mr Pascoe as soon after the event as possible. Please find the 5K Run route on the right. Tim Pascoe Student Council Co-ordinator 8

9 PTA Spring Fair 2015 The Spring Fair was a huge success! At the time of writing we don t yet know how much money was raised for Unicef, but it is certain that we did extraordinarily well. Hundreds of ISL families turned out, some as early as 8:00am for the highly professional football tournament. The fair itself officially opened at noon, when we all got to sample the delicious food, bid on the gorgeous raffle baskets, try our luck for a fun prize at the tombola, attempt to win a special activity with a teacher, play the games and loads more. A huge thank you to our sponsors AGS Tradewinds, Danone and Ikea who showed true generosity towards the ISL community. And a shout out to every single volunteer who helped make the fair the amazing event it was. Dozens of parents and students demonstrated a deep commitment and dedication to our school which will always be remembered. Make sure you check out the ISL PTA Facebook page for some photos and a wonderful Spring Fair video made by one of our own students. PTA Please click here to watch the Spring Fair video created by Andrey Kudryashov -Grade 11 9

10 ISL London Art Gallery Wax Rings Grade 10 Design 10