Moshi Campus News – 10 Jan 2016

Our first Outdoor Pursuits trip for the new semester begins in the first week: on Saturday and Sunday, 16th and 17th January, a group of students will join the Level One trip to Mandara Hut on Kilimanjaro.
At ISM, we offer a 5 level programme, where each student (and teacher) must complete each level of the programme before moving up to the next level. Our OP store has lots of equipment to lend (tents, sleeping bags, sleeping mats, flashlights, hiking boots, rain jacket and pants, etc.), so we can help you be prepared for the trips.
Here are the trips on offer this semester (with some amendments to the details published in December):

Trip	Level	Dates	For:
Mandara Hut	1	January 16-17	M1 students who have successfully completed campcraft and other beginners to the programme
Ngorongoro & Natron	4	January 20-24	M2-D1: This hiking and camping trip in the Ngorongoro area is not at altitude, but is demanding and is recommended for older students who have successfully completed Level 3.
South Pares	1b	February 5-7	M1-D2 (starting level for new students in M2 and above)
Hanang	3	February 13-15	Students who have successfully completed level 2. This is an exciting new trip within our OP programme.
Uhuru Peak	5	March 1-6	Only for students over the age of 16 who have successfully completed level 4.
Little Meru	2	May 13-15	Open to all students who have successfully completed level 1.

You will remember that last year we strongly recommended that parents of boarders deposited $500 per boarding student with the school to provide funds that could be used for school trips and other school expenses. Many parents did so and these funds were held in a separate account and only used with parental consent to pay for bus fares on sports trips or to cover the cost of OP trips. If your child’s funds have dropped below $500 or you were not able to deposit previously, please consider doing so now. Funds can be paid to us in the same ways as school fees: please send an email to our accounts office [] confirming that the funds are for your child’s trips account and not for school fees.

ISM SPORTS: HOME OF THE LEOPARDS!
Semester 1 Sports were a great success, thanks to all the coaches who gave up their time to coach every week, and travel to tournaments.
The Semester 2 schedule is attached to this newsletter; some changes may occur.
Students began online sign-ups last month through Google Docs. All sports practices will begin the week of Monday January 18th, except for U14 Football and U19 Basketball, which begin earlier as they have their first tournaments on Saturday January 16th. All students must sign up for at least 1 sports club/team per semester.
Students must attend their sport every practice, otherwise a detention will be given. If students are unable to attend due to illness, they must themselves find the coach before practice begins, and let them know. If students are unable to practice due to injury, they should still attend. They can participate in other ways such as refereeing, or helping out.
Sports normally run from 4:30-6:00pm from Monday to Thursday. Some sports train at other or additional times. Students must come on time. Three lates to practice will also equal a detention. If students are participating in a CAS that runs late, he/she may need to make a different sporting commitment.

Students should come for sports dressed in appropriate sports clothing that is needed for that sport. For example, Football – shin guards, cleats. Basketball – shoes with good ankle support.
Students who are selected to represent the ISM team in games, competitions and tournaments must be prepared to be committed for the entire season; both in time and with financial commitments. Students will only be selected for teams if they attend practice regularly, are at the appropriate skill level, and are in the appropriate age group. Marika Farrell

Parents who wish to pay smaller bills to the school or to send money for credit to their child’s pocket money account can do so by sending M-Pesa to 0767 534766. Please note that Airtel or Tigo Money are not accepted. Any M-Pesa payments MUST be followed by an SMS indicating what the payment is for. Please include withdrawal fees within the amount transferred.
Other means of payment to the school include payment to one of our bank accounts or Paypal payments to paypal@uwcea.org.uk. Note that Paypal payments carry an 8% administration fee.

Often it is not clear who you should contact if you have a question or a concern. I hope this guide may help you.

Area	Name/Title	Contact Details
Boarding: An issue about your child	His/her boarding parent	Please exchange contact information with his/her boarding parent
Boarding: A wider concern	Rosemary Bango – Head of Boarding	0689 772346 or
Boarding: Travel Arrangements	Rosemary Bango – Head of Boarding	0689 772346 or
Primary: Your child’s education	His/her class teacher	All teachers can be contacted by email using an address in the form firstname+lastname@ed.ismoshi.com
PYP Curriculum Matters	Kate Schermbrucker – PYP Coordinator
Primary: A wider concern	Totty Aris – Deputy Head of Campus	0762 326385 or
Primary Clubs	Totty Aris
Secondary: Your child’s education	His/her tutor or subject teacher	All teachers can be contacted by email using an address in the form firstname+lastname@ed.ismoshi.com
Secondary: A wider concern	Totty Aris – Deputy Head of Campus	0762 326385 or
IB Diploma Matters	Rick Fitzpatrick – Diploma Coordinator
MYP Matters	Marika Farrell – MYP Coordinator
CAS Activities	Ingrid Chavez – CAS Coordinator
Sports Activities	Marika Farrell – Sports Coordinator
Outdoor Pursuits	Isaac Foya – OP Coordinator
College Counselling	Daryl Rustad – College Counsellor
Routine Accounts queries	Accounts Office
Special Fee Arrangements	Keiron White – Head of Campus	0767 534766 or
Policy issues concerning the whole school (not specific to your child or to the Moshi Campus)	Bob Horton – Director
Any other matters	Keiron White – Head of Campus	0767 534766 or

We are sorry that the planned Easter trip to Paris will not go ahead now due to insufficient student numbers. We still hope that such a trip might attract greater numbers in the following school year.

All parents are welcome to join us on Tuesday, 2nd February from 10:30am to 2:30pm in Karibu Hall, when our M5 students will be presenting their Personal Projects. A great deal of work has gone into these various projects and this is a great opportunity to see what they have achieved. The Personal Project is the culminating project of the Middle Years Programme and showcases the IB Learner Profile attributes within our students. These projects reflect our students’ diverse interests and passions. Please come and join us as they present their products and learning to the ISM community.

As announced last semester, we are very happy that Delphine Riziki has now joined us as the new boarding parent for Kijana which houses diploma girls. Delphine can be contacted on

The fees for Quarter 3 were due to have been received by us by 1st December 2015. If your child’s fees have not yet been paid for this quarter, please do so immediately, as students whose fees are not paid will not be allowed to attend classes this quarter.

Parents of secondary students may have noticed that last semester’s reports were in a new format – these were all produced using the ManageBac software that the school has now adopted. All our secondary students can now access ManageBac to read their report, view the details of their courses, and see the results of their assessments. Later this quarter we will also invite all parents of secondary students to log into ManageBac and see the details of their child’s programme of study. Details will follow in a few weeks.

Congratulations to everyone involved in last quarter’s secondary musical: Little Shop of Horrors. Despite some technical difficulties, the actors did a fantastic job, and thanks are due to the directors, Totty Aris and Susan Kellerman, and all others who contributed to its success.
   

On the last day of last quarter our D1 students faced the challenge of constructing a raft and racing it along the swimming pool with D1 and primary students on board. These pictures capture some of the flavour of that event!

We hope that ISM’s DP students have enjoyed the holiday but have also invested time in their studies. The forty-two D2 students return for two days of classes on Wednesday January 13th and Thursday January 14th, then their seven school days of mock exams commence on Friday January 15th. The mock exams in each of the DP classes serve as a key signpost of how D2 students will likely perform on the official May 2015 exams.
During the December 18, 2015 end-of-semester school-wide assembly, six ISM IB DP students received learner profile awards. We commended the six award winners – D1 Open-Minded (Lydia); D1 Thinker (Jessica); D1 Balanced (Hashim); D2 Open-Minded (Bliss); D2 Thinker (Felicity); D2 Balanced (Revogatus).
All IB DP students at ISM enroll in a Life Skills class. One key component of this class concerns the ability to swim. Prior to the conclusion of their D1 year, all D1 students will have attained this key ‘life skill’ as it is an ISM requirement. In mid-November in their Life Skills class, all D1 students took a swimming test in the school pool. Those who are not yet swimmers will schedule with Swim Coach Mr Sabini their individual lessons (free-of-charge) as part of their CAS activities.
Parents of DP students will want to plan now for the two final parent-teacher meetings for this academic year. One takes place at the end of academic quarter 3 on Friday March 18th, and the other for all except students in M5 and D2 on the last day of the school year on Wednesday June 17th. Regarding booking flights for IB DP students, kindly ensure that your son or daughter do not leave before the afternoon of these dates as then they do not lose any valuable school lessons.
As ISM looks to the 2016-2017 academic year and the incoming IB DP class of 2018, we have decided that two additional IB DP courses will be on offer in Moshi Campus as face-to-face taught classes – Global Politics HL/SL and Psychology HL/SL. Incoming D1 students who wish to take Information Technology in a Global Society and Business Management may also do so, as these will be offered as on-line classes with our long-standing IB partner for these DP courses – Pamoja Education. The other Pamoja Education on-line classes ISM Moshi campus will offer are Spanish ab initio, Chinese ab initio and French ab initio. Due to very small numbers indicated for the class, DP Music will not be on offer in Moshi for the class of 2018. Also in 2016/17 we will be offering additional classes in English, Mathematics, Swahili and Visual Art. The new diploma handbook for 2016-2018 is available to download at www.uwcea.org/wp-content/docs/archive_documents/diphbook.pdf.
As D1 students look to this second semester they (and their parents will need to keep in mind the guidelines of ISM’s Diploma Retention Policy) which states: “At the end of the D1 year, all full diploma students will be expected to have a minimum of 24 points (obtained by adding the end-of-year examination grades from their six subjects excluding ToK and EE). Any student achieving fewer than 24 points (or fewer than 12 HL points) at this stage will be required to take re-sit examinations before the start of the D2 school year in subjects and at times and on dates set by the Diploma Programme Coordinator. If, after the resit examinations, the total points score is still less than 24 points (or HL points are below 12), the student will be required to reduce their programme of study.
At the end of the D1 year, all students taking IB Diploma courses will be expected to have achieved a satisfactory grade (4 or above) on at least four of their end-of-year examination grades. Those that do not meet this requirement will normally be required to repeat the D1 academic year. However, any student who does not achieve a satisfactory grade (4 or above) on at least four of their end-of-year examination grades may take re-sit examinations before the start of the D2 school year in subjects and at times and on dates set by the Diploma Programme Coordinator. The purpose of the re-sit exams would be to provide another opportunity and if on these resit exams he/she raises his grade so that he/she has a satisfactory grade on at least four subjects then that student may proceed to the D2 year of study.”
The IB recently published this infographic on the impact of an IB DP education, see www.uwcea.org/dip102.
More reasons to exercise (including its benefits for academic success) are provided in this article – www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-24608813.
As usual feel free to email or call with any questions/concerns. Rick Fitzpatrick, DP Coordinator

Welcome to a new quarter. We are delighted to welcome some new faces into primary and will introduce them at our first primary gathering on January 22nd.
A reminder of a few of our essential agreements:

Now that the hot season is upon us, we do require all primary students to wear their hats when doing activities outside such as playtime at break or during PE or clubs. We run a no hat=no play rule so please ensure your child has a cap or hat packed in their bags.

All students with long hair are required to tie their hair up. We continue to have issues with head lice and this is a preventative measure. If at any point your child does get head lice, please treat them immediately and consistently and inform your class teacher asap.

Birthdays are wonderful celebrations, however please inform your class teacher by email or in person at least the day before if you intend to bring in a cake so that parents can have a heads up regarding snacks.

We do encourage healthy snacks at break time, please do not send in sodas or junk food, we talk to the students often about a healthy and balanced diet, have a chat with your child about what healthy options they enjoy having at break-time.
Primary Clubs – start Wednesday 13 January The class teacher has an overview of each child’s programme if you are unsure please speak to them. Please ensure your child is picked up promptly at 3pm, younger students will be taken to the playground for their pick-up.
Primary Sports We are looking forward to our Primary Sports Weekend on February 6th when a range of other international schools will join us for a football and swim tournament. Our students will be busy training towards this major event with a few possible meets beforehand: Saturday, 23 Jan – Gymkhana Arusha Swim Meet Saturday, 30 Jan – Dar, Tallis invitational Swim Meet
The Primary Girls’ Football Team (P3-6) will continue to train on Fridays 1.15-2.00pm with Ms Annalee and Coach Noah. We are also very grateful to Coach Nick for continuing to train the Boys’ Football team.

Happy New Year! I hope you had a wonderful holiday. We are looking forward to seeing the children back at school on Wednesday. We have one new student, Tiago Hardy who we welcome to the class! We hope he will settle well at ISM.
The first day will be spent sharing holiday news and drawing/writing about favourite moments. Please talk to your child before Wednesday so that they can tell us about their holidays.
We will also begin tuning into our new unit of inquiry this week, which comes under the Transdisciplinary theme of ‘How the world works.’ The central idea is ‘All living things go through a process of change.’ The Key Concepts are

• Change
• Reflection
• Causation

Information for Parents Welcome back! I hope you all had a nice holiday, and I’m sure the children are looking forward to seeing their friends at school again. It will be nice to get back into the routine of school, and it’s an exciting time of year for P1/2 students as they are doing so much more than at the beginning of the year. Just a reminder that school will resume on Wednesday this week.
Language focus for the week This week Group 1 will be learning how to read short vowel words, and Group 2 will work with “bossy r’s”. We will also continue to read and write every day.
Maths focus for the week Both groups of children will learn about odd and even numbers.
Unit of Inquiry We will conclude our study of journeys by writing about our personal journeys. We will also write silly stories matching up imaginary journeys to places with strange vehicles.
What to bring to school: A hat for playtime and a healthful snack.
Timetable: Friday: Swimming

I hope everyone is feeling well rested after the holidays. It was a pleasure to meet with the parents at the conferences before the holidays.
The students faced a busy final week of term, but enjoyed themselves at lots of different events. This began for our students who are learning French when they attended an interesting workshop hosted by Alliance Française. We also enjoyed watching and cheering on the primary synchronised swimming house teams. The P3 students also had great fun at the end of term Winter Party. This was hosted by Ms Kaira and Mr Lukas. We were all sad to say goodbye to these fantastic German student teachers and wish them well for the rest of their studies in Denmark.
The children chose to take action in many positive ways which related to their unit about relationships: 1. They again read to their EC buddies and this time the younger children were really excited to see them. Obviously their efforts to forge meaningful relationships are really working. This time they read them stories which they had written themselves on the computers and printed out.
2. They also decided it would be nice to put on a party for the P1/2 children as another way of reaching out to others. They chose music and designed suitable games. They organised the food and a sports theme. Afterwards they felt so proud that they had made the younger children happy. They enjoyed the feeling of taking responsibility.
3. Again they took action by learning a song all about friendship, Count on Me. They chose to share this with the community in the final assembly. They sang together nicely and made everyone in Karibu Hall feel happy and friendly towards each other. Well done P2/3 and thank you Mr Lukas for playing the guitar.

All these actions mean the students are making excellent progress with their understanding about the PYP attitudes of respect, empathy and cooperation.
Unit: Transdisciplinary Theme: Who we are Central Idea: People’s relationships with each other can have an impact on well-being. As we approach the end of this unit, the students will be starting their summative assessment task and selecting pieces of work to include in their portfolios.
Mathematics Focus: symmetry
English Focus: This week we will write reflections for the portfolios – considering how to express ourselves in written form.
What to bring to school every day: A hat, water bottle, a pair of indoor shoes and a healthy snack.
Monday: Teacher in-service (no lessons) Tuesday: Public holiday (no lessons) Wednesday: Lessons resume Thursday: PE lesson
Kate Schermbrucker – P2/3 Teacher and PYP Coordinator

Welcome back P4 families! I hope you all had pleasant break and that the year has started well for all of you.
We ended the quarter in high spirits with a “Fun-Sock” Disco, making decorative crafts for the holidays and viewed some great presentations in the assembly.
This quarter I look forward to seeing the students enjoy the different learning engagements and achieve success in various areas.
Unit of Inquiry – this week we will have a recap on the different areas we covered and take look at the different ways the Arts are viewed across different communities.
Language Arts – the students had started to look at direct and reported speech and the different ways speech marks can be used. They will continue to focus on these two areas as they also venture into synonyms of ‘said’ and other words. We will also be looking at unit vocabulary and using these in our writing.
Math – we have been working on multiplication and some students had already moved into the concept of division. Hopefully the students have been practicing the multiplication facts over the holiday and will enjoy the Mental Math activities even more. We will continue to focus on division and review the concept of time.
Polite reminders:

Hats and sunscreen – all students need to bring a hat for outdoor play and sunscreen if necessary. It is going to be very sunny and proper protection is important.

Library books – if students borrowed books from the library to read over the holidays, they are required to bring them back so as to be able to borrow other books over the quarter.

Monday Swimming- if a student will not be swimming they need to bring a note from their parent.
 

Information for Parents We had a lot of fun during our last week of school in December. The kids really enjoyed the primary disco and enjoyed some special activities. We said goodbye to Miss Alley as she will be teaching P6 during next quarter. I hope that you all had a relaxing and wonderful break. We will ease back into the school year with a short three day week.
Language focus for the week We will review reading for information in our reading groups and also focus on recognizing patterns in the stories that we read.
Maths focus for the week We will extend review fractional probability and begin to work at converting fractions to decimals. As we do this, we will investigation the connections that we see between fractions, decimals and percentages.
Unit of Inquiry We will develop the rubric for our summative assessments this week. Students will begin thinking about what type of myth they would like to write and developing a plan for how they will include the necessary elements. We will read and look at the pattern of fire myths and trickster tales.
What to bring to school: A hat for playtime and a healthful snack.
Timetable: Thursday: Swimming (please bring swim kit) Friday: Library (please bring back library books)

Welcome Back! I hope you have enjoyed your long holiday away and are excited and rested to begin our new quarter together!
We will be tuning into our new Unit throughout the next 5 weeks. The theme is: How the world works, and our central idea is, how weather changes as a result of environmental factors and human influences. We will be focusing on how changes in the atmosphere affect weather, how to measure the weather and the interconnectedness of changing weather and human actions for the lines of inquiry.
This Week: Unit of Inquiry: The students will be inquiring about the sky. We will be going outside every day to take a look at our sky to see which types of clouds are visible that day. The students will learn about each type of cloud and what that cloud produces for the environment around us. We can ask questions about: why does it hail, snow, rain and how do these elements take form from certain clouds.
English Language Focus: We will be reading informational texts and doing activities that focus around connecting information to the real world and writing small weather reports on what they have learned.
Maths: Look at temperatures around the world and move into negative and positive numbers. Have the students learn different ranges of numbers in degrees of Celsius and Fahrenheit, take temperatures from around the world and find out averages of those places.
Notices: If you have any questions, please e-mail me: .
Allow me to introduce myself, My name is Alley Weston and I am very excited and thrilled to be teaching P6 this Quarter. It has been very lovely to be introduced to the students throughout the school year and I look forward to teaching them for Quarter 3. We are going to have a very busy and exciting Quarter; I am excited to be covering two mini units with the students. We will be starting with a unit on weather and then going into a unit on people’s beliefs and how they influence behavior. I look forward to this next Quarter with your students and getting to know them as learners and inquirers. Many thanks, Miss Alley Weston

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