Moshi Campus News – 26 April 2013

Dear Parents,

The outdoor pursuits group left on their 3-day trek to Horombo on Kilimanjaro this morning and we wish them all the best for this. Next weekend another group will go those few metres higher when they walk to Mawenzi Hut. Last week our M3 students had a successful field study trip to UAACC. I hope that many families are enjoying Union Day and taking advantage of this long weekend. Please ensure that all students are in class on Monday and Tuesday even though there is another holiday for Workers Day on Wednesday.

Formal written diploma examinations for D2 students begin on Thursday, 2nd May. Different students have different schedules depending on the subjects they are studying, but all will complete exams by Tuesday, 21st May. Boarders will usually travel home after their exams are completed; if they do elect to remain in school, all usual school rules and expectations will apply. Parents can download the diploma exams schedule at www.uwcea.org/dipexams.

Many of our D1 students will be taking the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) paper-based test (PBT) next Saturday, 4th May. It is important to note that all candidates MUST present their passport on that morning. Copies or scans are NOT acceptable. Other types of photo ID are NOT acceptable. If your child is taking this test, please ensure that they do have their passport with them. The TOEFL PBT is accepted as an acceptable test of English language proficiency by universities or immigration officers in many countries (including the USA and Canada), but is not accepted in the UK. Students planning to study in the UK must instead take the TOEFL internet-based test (iBT) or the IELTS test both of which are only available in Dar es Salaam.

D1 students are also fast aproaching their internal eams which will assess their work over the whole of this school year. These formal exams are from Monday, May 13th to May 20th.

Our Director, Bob Horton, will be leading a presentation on the school at the Hotel Sea Cliff in Dar es Salaam at 10am on Saturday, May 11th. We would be grateful if you would bring this to the attention of any of your friends and family who live in the area who may be interested to learn more about ISM. This will be the final school presentation in Dar es Salaam for the 2012-13 school year and we would like to thank all parents who have helped to make these so successful.

M4 students are undertaking a community project trying to collect clothing for the Hope Home Orphanage. All details are on the flyer attached. If you have any clothes to donate, please check these details and help.

Please note that Wednesday, 1st May is Workers’ Day. There will be no classes in school on this public holiday.

Less than a week remains until students in the class of 2013 start their IB exams on Thursday May 2nd. Thereafter, there will be on-going exams until Tuesday May 21st. Annually the IB provides the exam results to students on July 6th and each D2 student has been given the log-in information to check on their results.

For study week many D2s remained on campus. Wisely many of these also appeared to be continuing with exercise routines which bodes well for their results as noted in this article – www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/9133534/Daily-exercise-significantly-improves-pupils-test-scores.html.

The DP Coordinator met with all D1 students this week to assess the progress on Extended Essays, discuss the May 13-20 end-of-D1-year exams, evaluate the August 2012 D1 orientation and discuss the role D1s will play in the preparation and execution of the D2 graduation next month.
Of course, the opportunity could not be missed to share our DP motto – Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance.

A reminder that the end of the 2012-2013 school year parent-teacher meetings will take place on Friday morning June 14th. I cannot overstate how absolutely critical it is for DP parents to make face-to-face visits to ISM during your child’s DP study time. If for some reason, commitments inhibit your making the trip to Moshi, then arrange, if possible to fly up (if you are in the region) to Moshi for the day and the DPC will set up meetings with all of the teachers/boarding parents. One parent took advantage of this approach this Tuesday and had an incredibly productive 5-hour visit that included 8 one-to-one brief meetings.

Course selection plans are nearly finalized for the members of the ISM DP class of 2015 – all of whom will have the chance to take DP Music and DP Mandarin ab initio – the two new courses on offer at ISM.

DP students at ISM continue to get exposed to the challenges facing our planet as they as the ‘future leaders’ examine how to beat these scourges such as Malaria which we are mindful of this week as April 25th was World Malaria Day and this article highlights it – www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/1df0979c-accd-11e2-b27f-00144feabdc0.html.

Feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Rick Fitzpatrick – (Diploma Coordinator)

And we are in another busy week of this last term! As time is flying by, our young students are getting more and more absorbed in their busy schedule.

M3 students returned from their field trip which addressed the Arts subjects. From their teacher’s report, all went very well and the students made the best of this opportunity to work within a community. More details will be given next week in the newsletter.

M5 students have very little time left now in order to improve their grades in all their subjects. I would request the support of parents and boarding parents in reminding them that it is crucial that they meet the deadlines of the various assignments that will be given to them. All the marks that have been so far recorded will contribute to their end of the year final grades. The work experience is well under way and the students are all excited about this new experience. A letter will be sent to all M5 parents regarding this important event.

M4 students are approaching the final lap of this year before they start their last year in the Middle Years. This week there will be a workshop with the students concerning the Personal project. The Personal Project is the culminating activity in the Middle Years and contributes to the award of the IB MYP certificate at the end of M5. At the end of last term, I had given our students a brief introduction to this project but now is the time to look at this long term assignment in more detail. We will spend time looking at the guide that I have put together for them and all the material that will help them in this project. Following this workshop with the students, there will be a Personal project presentation evening on Thursday 2nd May – a letter has been sent to the parents concerned. If you cannot make it on that day, I will be available over the course of the term to address all queries that you might have. I would also like to point out here that though the support of the parents is needed, it is the responsibility of the students to organise how they want to do this project. It should not be an expensive project nor demanding on the part of the parents. The advice we give the students is to keep their project simple, feasible and original. I would also like to thank those parents who have already responded to my email.

As we look towards another exciting week at ISM, I leave you with this thought:
Five frogs are sitting on a log. Four decide to jump off. How many are left?
There are still five – because there’s a difference between deciding and doing.
“Five Frogs On A Log” by Mark L Feldman & Michael F Spratt

An excellent week to All!!!
Jaimala Quinlan (MYP Coordinator)

P6 Exhibition
Our P6 students are hard at work doing their research for their big exhibition. Please bookmark the date 16th May at 6.30pm in Karibu hall. It is sure to be a great evening as our students showcase their work and their learning.

Dar Swimmers
Our swimmers going to Dar have the opportunity to attend extra swimming practices kindly arranged by Miss Jann and Mrs Mary Fitzpatrick. Swimmers will have received a letter outlining days and times and they are encouraged to attend these extra swim sessions.

Martial Arts Club
Some students have still not paid their TSh 20,000/- for the quarter. This needs to be paid by Monday at the latest.

Early Childhood Preview

Unit of Inquiry
Due to the four day week last week and this week we will continue to inquire into the final line of inquiry, “how light is connected to us”, before moving on to our inquiries into sound next week. When tackling the last line of inquiry we will focus on light as a necessity for life and growth and experiment with growing seeds under different conditions to see what effect light has on growth. Last week we talked about light being used for celebrations because Sahil brought in a special candle stick. We sat around a lit candle and shared our experiences of using candles to celebrate birthdays, Christmas and Diwali. If anyone would like to share their experiences of a ‘festival of light’ with the class please let me know.

We didn’t manage to find out about shadows and what causes them last week so this is a major focus, as well as completing the ‘light sources’ scavenger hunt around the campus! Don’t forget to complete your light survey and return on Monday if you haven’t already done so.

Literacy
EC2 – write about light sources and what they are used for
EC2 – continue to focus on rhyming words. If you have any stories that rhyme please send them into school for us to share. We really enjoyed “A squash and a squeeze” and “Puff the magic dragon” that Jay and Sahil brought in last week to share.
EC2 – word building focusing on the short vowel sound i
EC2 – work on letter sounds at child’s individual need
EC1 -Finish off work on the letter sound e
EC1 – sorting objects within initial sounds we have covered in the last few weeks.
EC1 – develop fine motor skills

Numeracy
EC2 use non-standard units to find the longest, shortest, tallest.
EC1 compare objects to find out which one is the longest, shortest, tallest.
EC2 using manipulatives to add and subtract to 10
EC1 continuing to develop an understanding of one to one correspondence when counting objects

Reminders

• Library on Monday and Friday. Please return books on both days so that your child can change them when they visit the library.
• House T -shirts and trainers should be worn on Tuesday for PE
• Swimming as usual on Thursday. Please send swimming bags into school every Thursday. The weather usually warms up by 10.30 but of course we will not swim if it is too cold.

P1/2 Preview

General Information
Date for your diary: Monday 6th May will be our class assembly.

We welcomed a new student to P1 last week, Iman. We also look forward to Brian joining us as a P2 boarder this week.
Due to last week being short, spelling tests will be on Monday. New homework packs will then be given out Monday afternoon.
Remember, Wednesday is a public holiday too.

Language focus for the week
Writing:
Recount of the long weekend. Using the language of time. (First…Then I…Next I…Later…At the end). Using adjectives, (amazing, fantastic, wonderful, scary, huge…)
Continue to write sentence captions to match different types of land use. (Linked to UOI)
Continue summative assessment. Draw and label 4 ways Farmer Pickles could use his land.
Handwriting: Patterns, writing numerals and a focus on the Caterpillar Family (cadgoq) and Zig Zag Letters (vwxz).
Some children are joining letters together.

Phonics:
1. CVCs (middle vowels) Focus: ub, uck, ud, uff, ug, um, un, up, uss, ut, uch.
2. Long vowel: y as in cry
3. Introduce Magic e words: o-e as in bone

Maths focus for the week
Mental skills will focus on doubles, near doubles and counting on and back. Also saying 10 more/less and 1 more/less than any 2 digit number.
All children will learn about symmetry and talk about things that turn. They will make whole, half and quarter turns with objects and themselves.
All children will learn about time. We will revise o’clock and half past. Some children will be introduced to quarter to and quarter past.

Unit of Inquiry
Land Ahoy!
Central Idea: People interact with, use and value the natural environment in different ways.
Lines of Inquiry:
1. How land is used.
2. Local land use.
3. Actions that benefit and harm the local environment.
We will complete the book about different types of land use. We will discuss the third line of inquiry and also complete the summative assessment task: Draw and label 4 different ways Farmer Pickles could use his land. This unit will be wrapped up this week.

Art – Symmetrical drawings and papier mache. Also weaving with P5 children!

What to bring to school:
A hat for playtime and a healthy snack. (No hat, no play!)

Timetable:
Monday
New reading books and homework packs including spellings issued.
Tuesday
Library (New books can be chosen if there are no overdue books)
Swimming (swimming costume, towel, flip flops, sun cream, swim aids such as arm bands if required)
Wednesday
Public Holiday – No School
Thursday
New reading books issued
Friday
PE
Spelling test (Hand in yellow homework pack)

P3/4 Preview

We had the most amazing opportunity last week when we had a class visit from Mr. Jay who used to work at NASA. It was great to hear firsthand about space exploration, look at photos and video clips and be able to ask questions.

I trust everyone had a relaxing long weekend. This will be another short week, with Wednesday being a public holiday.

This is what our learning in class will look like this week:
UOI – “Exploration”
Central Idea: People explore their world; their methods and reasons are constantly changing.
Lines of Inquiry: Who explorers are
        How people explore
        Why people explore
        Consequences of exploration
Working in groups and investigating the journeys of other famous explorers like Scott and Amundsen, Edmund Hillary, James Cook etc… is proving to be more challenging than expected and taking much longer than anticipated, so our work on this will continue this week. Each group is working towards producing a poster about the explorer they are researching.

Writing – Historical recounts of explorers and newspaper articles using the 5 w and 1 h questions – where?, what?, why? , who? and how? Publishing stories about Neil Armstrong on the computer using Word.

Spelling Groups 1) phonetic words ending in -and & -all (e.g. sand, ball), 2) words ending in -old (cold), -ild (wild), -ind (kind), 3) Words that have a soft g combined with e, i or y ( e.g. gentle, ginger, gym) 4) words containing “y” as in very.
Language/grammar – past, present and future tense and suffixes. Comprehension exercises.
Cursive writing – Nelson script. Letters which start at the top of the ascender – b, f, h, k, l, t

Maths – P3 Assessment on time. Simple multiplication – as repeated addition. Tables 2x, 5x, 10x 11x 3x, 4x. Basic facts up to 10/20 (+ and -).
P4 Assessment on decimals and fractions. Perimeter and area.
Tables – 2x, 3x, 4 x, 5x, 6x, 9x, 10x , 11x, 12x . Basic facts up to 20 (+ and -).

REMINDERS:
ISM book bags and caps are now available for sale in the office.
Every day: Hats and polo shirts/t-shirts
        Zip bags, spelling note books, reading books and reading
       logs – too often these are getting left at home which causes
        inconvenience.
        Healthy snack for break time

MONDAY
Homework – spelling, reading and maths and language sheets sent home.
P.E. – wear house t-shirts, shorts and trainers. We will be doing orienteering, so students will need suitable attire and trainers, as we will be running around the school grounds.
WEDNESDAY
No school – public holiday
THURSDAY
Library – bring book bags and books – No bag, no books. Overdue books incur a fine.
P.E. – bring swimming gear. We swim at the warmest time of the day. I invariably get in the pool with the children and the temperature of the water is still very pleasant.
FRIDAY
Spelling test
Homework – due in (or before if finished)

Looking forward to another great week together.
Miss Jann

P5 Preview

Maths
We’ll be continuing to master fractions and will move on to adding and subtracting fractions and finding the common denominator.

Language
The past week we made character sketches for our hero in an adventure story. This week we’ll develop the characters and plot, plan and write the story by following the writing cycle. We’ll be looking at ways to make our writing more fluent and exciting to read.

Visual Arts
Our P5 students will be going into other primary classes to lead art lessons using recycled products. Students have researched different art activities and worked in groups to plan them.

Unit of Inquiry
After successful pollution presentations, students will be looking into how they can take responsibility with regards to re-using, recycling and reducing. This past week they met with Mr White to get feedback on the letter they presented him with which listed problems and solutions to issues they had found while doing a recycling health check on campus. Mr White has given different groups tasks to complete and we’ll meet with him again this coming Tuesday to discuss progress our students have made into turning ISM campus into a model of recycling, re-using and reducing.