Moshi Campus News – 9 Apr 2016

How do we demonstrate our commitment to high quality international education to our parents, students and staff members? How do we ensure our school is continually improving and keeping up with the best international education standards?
School Evaluation and Accreditation is an evaluation process that drives a school’s continuous improvement, through:

• rigorous evaluation against internationally-agreed standards;
• a blend of support and challenge, focused on a school’s development; and
• a peer-based model that brings together international educators from across the world of CIS-accredited schools.

As you may know, International School Moshi is currently a candidate school for joining the United World Colleges (UWC) movement. As a part of this process a UWC task force will be visiting the school in May. Further details will follow in later newsletters.

The Student Council has organised a Spirit Week for the first week of this quarter to get us all ready for the term ahead! They are asking students to come to school in crazy ways this week:

Tuesday: Pyjama Day

Wednesday: Mix & Match, or Crazy Hair Day

Thursday: Career / Job-alike Day

Friday: Class choice day – each class should discuss and agree their own theme for the day
There will be an assembly at 7:45 on Monday morning to remind the students of the Spirit Week and to brief them on our Accreditation Visit.

On Friday April 15th we will be taking the brownies to Weru Weru lodge to camp for two nights. We will leave directly after lunch on the 15th and return at 10.30am on Sunday April 17th. The focus of the trip will be to complete 2 badges; the advanced camping badge and the agility badge. Please be aware that this is an optional trip, but we highly encourage all members of the Brownies to join us for a fun and challenging weekend. Accompanying the trip will be Ms Annalee, Mrs Aris (Friday night), Ms Debbie (Saturday night), Felicity Aris(D2 student), and Ms Leah.

There are a number of tests taking place in school this quarter and many of our D1 students will need to register to take these:

TOEFL PBT (Test of English as a Foreign Language – Paper Based Test)- Saturday, 28th May Students who are applying to universities in the USA, Canada or Australia, who are NOT nationals of the UK, USA, Canada or Ireland should register for this test

ACT – Saturday, 11th June – Students applying to universities in the USA should take this test

SAT Reasoning Test – Saturday, 4th June – Students applying to universities in the USA should take this test only if they are not taking the ACT.
Registration for the TOEFL test can only be done through the school. Parents can either provide their own credit card details and make a payment of $170 on their own credit card, or may pay the school TSh 410,000 to process their child’s application on their behalf.
Registration for SAT ($89.50) or ACT ($96.50) can either be made online using your own credit card or, if you wish the school to process the payment on your behalf, we can do so at an additional 8% charge to cover our costs.
All registrations should be completed by Thursday, 28th April.
Students applying to universities in the UK who are not nationals of the EU, USA or Canada will need to take an IELTS for UKVI English test for immigration purposes. These are not available in ISM and can only be taken in Dar es Salaam or Nairobi. The next tests in Dar are on 4th June or on 16th July or on 4th August and cost TSh 685,000/-. Early registration is advised as places fill up quickly. Again, you may either register yourself online, or may ask the school to process the payment for you at an additional 8% charge to cover costs. When registering, please be careful – the “IELTS” test is NOT the same as the “IELTS for UKVI” test and it is easy to accidentally register for the wrong test. Only the “IELTS for UKVI” test is valid for UK immigration purposes.

Students in P4, P5, P6, M1 and M3 took ISA tests in February. Unfortunately there have been delays in the release of scores from these tests and these were made available to us only yesterday. We expect to be sending individual score reports to parents over the next two weeks.

Another successful Diploma Arts Exhibition opening night took place at the end of last quarter! The 12 graduating Visual Art students had the pleasure of being the first group to exhibit their work on location at the school’s Kishari House. All 12 of the students have worked very hard during the two year course to complete a body of work which includes process, development, exhibition work and an art historical analysis which relates and connects to their own work. Their group exhibition, which is now part of their assessment, demonstrated their ability to think like artists and showed their ability to work as a team. The opening night was a beautiful show casing of their work, all the artists spoke enthusiastically to their guests about their work and the feedback about both the quality of work and the location was very positive.
Congratulations to this year’s D2 Visual Arts class! Many thanks to Anine Pier for all her work in preparing this class.
You can view all the pieces on display at
www.uwcea.org/dipart16
 

At the end of last quarter, we were very pleased to award three full tuition and boarding scholarships to Tanzanian students who were highly sucessful in the form four NECTA exams and who will join D1 in Moshi in August. The three successful scholars are Ezra Nkala from Ilboru Secondary School, Evelyn Manyatta from Marian Girls High School, and Mercy Idindile from Feza Girls Secondary School.
    Two of these scholarships are funded directly by ISM, and the third is funded from contributions made by parents and others to our scholarship fund over the last five years. We were also similarly able to offer three tuition scholarships to students joining D1 in Arusha Campus. Many thanks to all those contributors who have made these two additional scholarships across the two campuses possible. International School Moshi is proud to be able to fund six D1 scholarships in 2016-18.

Every year we are sad to say farewell to many of our students. Of course our D2 class will leave and move on to the next stage of their education, but there are also others who may be moving schools for various family or other reasons. If you think that your child will be leaving ISM in June this year, could you please let me know as soon as possible on ? Even if you are still unsure, it is helpful for us to know about this situation well ahead of time.

The official deadline for notifying the school of your child’s withdrawal is 6th May 2016, but earlier information is helpful so that we can plan new admissions.

 
Last quarter, the M5 French class worked on a unit about Education. They learnt more about the French education system and did some comparisons with other school systems and rules. As part of a class community and service project we decided to go to Masoka Secondary School and teach some basic French skills to students. M5 students were very excited about that opportunity and delivered really good lessons to large classes. They were impressed by how receptive and engaged students were and how they learnt the basis of a new language very fast.
This has been such a great experience for both parts that we’ll try to organize a new session in Quarter 4.
 

Currently, the M2 Math students are studying circle geometry. In celebration of Pi Day (March 14), the students were challenged to recite from memory as many digits of π as they were able. Zainab, Alicia, Laura, Darsh and James (pictured) proved to have the best memories as they were each able to recite at least 24 digits! Darsh recited 100 digits of π.

Welcome back from the Music Room! Hopefully you had a restful holiday and your children are ready to start the final quarter of this school year.
Even though the end of the school year is in sight, there are still many activities going on in the Music program. Our D2s are very busy preparing for their IB Diploma Music exam in May. The M5s will be finishing up their MYP Music experience by writing an original song to be performed at the M5 Ceremony in June. M1 students will be involved with a cross-curricular unit with Drama and preparing a short musical production for the end of the quarter. The P6 class will be busy working on their exhibition projects and in Music class, focusing on ways to incorporate their music learning into their projects. All of this and much more over the coming weeks means lots of learning is still to happen.
A reminder that private music lessons for this quarter will start on Monday, April 11. Our last day of lessons and open practice rooms will be June 10. Mr. Swai and I need time to take inventory of all music items, clean up the rooms, and store everything for the long holiday. We appreciate your understanding with this. Musically yours, Susan Kellerman ISM Music Teacher and Program Coordinator

Last quarter, a number of children in school suffered from head lice. Although these are unpleasant and itchy, they are not a sign of poor hygiene and do not generally cause disease. Unfortunately they can spread quite easily in a school setting. Advice for how to deal with head lice is given here: www.uwcea.org/wp-content/docs/archive_documents/headlice.pdf. Many thanks to Dr Anna Maze for this advice.

Key Dates for DP students:

Extended Essay ‘Initial Progress Self-Report and Supervisor Report’ for D1s writing an EE – Wed April 20th

Last day of classes for D2 students – Friday April 22nd

Registration deadline for TOEFL, ACT and SAT for D1 students – Thursday, April 28th

ISM IB official exams for D2s – Monday May 2nd to Friday May 20th,

D2 Parents’ Lead/Support in Decorating of Karibu Hall for Graduation – Friday May 20th 8:30am-2:00pm

Graduation Dinner at AMEG in Moshi – Friday May 20th 6:30pm (only D2 students and their parents are invited free-of-charge, other family members interested in attending may do so but must purchase a ticket at ISM reception for Tsh 30,000 per person)

Graduation in Karibu Hall at ISM – Saturday May 21st – arrival at 2:00pm for 2:30pm sharp start

Graduation Tea in ISM Director’s Garden on campus – Saturday May 21st – 4:30pm (approximately)

D1 exams – Monday May 23rd to Tuesday May 31st

Last day of school, whole school assembly and the Parent-Teacher conference – Friday June 17th
Rick Fitzpatrick, DP Coordinator

Welcome back to school. I hope you had a wonderful break with family and friends. This week we are celebrating the beginning of the quarter with Spirit week when the children are encouraged to dress up each day.
The themes for dress up are as follows:

• Tuesday – Pyjama day. You get out of bed and come to school! No need to get dressed into your uniform.
• Wednesday – Crazy hair day and mix and match clothes. You can come in spots and stripes, odd socks and shoes, a variety of coloured clothes and hair accessories. Be creative!
• Thursday – career day. What do you want to be when you grow up? This is a chance to dress as a dream job character; builder, doctor, teacher, swim coach!
• Friday – Class theme of ‘Dress as a Letterland character.’ Who is your favourite letterland character? Think about how you can dress up as that character.

Information for Parents Welcome back. I hope you all had a nice holiday. This week is spirit week. I’ve listed the days below. These are exciting days in P1/2, so please try to have your child participate.

Tuesday – Pyjama Day

Wednesday – Crazy Hair or Mix and Match Day

Thursday – Job-a-like Day

Friday – Class Choice (our class is doing Animal Day)
Language focus for the week We will focus on sequencing this week. We will put stories in order and discuss the basic format of a story. We will also read in our reading groups and write every day.
Maths focus for the week Both groups will learn about 3D shapes this week. We will learn about their names, and where we can find them in our daily lives.
Unit of Inquiry We will finish up learning about animal habitats this week. Then we will learn more about endangered species and the reasons they become endangered.
What to bring to school: A hat for playtime and a healthful snack.
Timetable: Monday – Wear proper clothes and shoes for P.E. Tuesday – Bring your library bag. Friday – Bring swim bag.

I hope the children have all enjoyed a restful holiday and a break from academic work. It was wonderful to see all the P2/3 parents at the Primary Informance and the Student Led Conferences at the end of Quarter 3. I thought the students showed a great deal of independence and confidence in the way they described their learning to you. Thanks for participating so nicely and asking such good quality questions; this was a great support to the children on this important day.
In the final week of Quarter 3 the students enjoyed having the opportunity to view the D2 students’ art exhibition at Kishari House. They walked along the road really sensibly – thinking about all they had learned about road safety in our previous unit. Then when they viewed the many different kinds of art, they thought carefully about the pieces and wrote some well thought out responses.
We continued to learn about the features of poetry and how it can be used as a form of expression. The students have developed a fondness for Roald Dahl’s poetry thanks to a book brought in and shared by Fedya. We learned about rhyming couplets and enjoyed making our own. In the first week back the students will start to write their own poetry using all that they learned previously. Later on they will type up their poems as we have been learning the skill of touch typing in our IT lessons.
On Tuesday we were lucky enough to have a visit by another mystery reader. The children got a nice surprise when Townes’ grandmother, who is visiting from the United States, came to read us a wonderful story all about pretending. This fitted perfectly with our unit all about imagination. It led to a discussion all about how much we love to build forts. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Townes’ grandmother for taking the time to read to us.
Please note that this week is Spirit Week. Your child can dress up in:

Tuesday 12th April – pyjamas

Wednesday 13th April – crazy hair and mix and match

Thursday 14th April – Job-a-like, e.g. doctor, gardener, farmer etc.

Friday 15th April – sporty outfits (this is the P2/3 class choice)
Unit of Inquiry: Transdisciplinary Theme: How we express ourselves Central Idea: Images and ideas from our imagination can be expressed in many ways This week the students will do some painting, acting and writing poetry in order to express what is in their imagination. They will also be brainstorming some ideas for actions we could carry out for this unit.
Mathematics Focus: Properties of 2D and 3D shapes
English Focus: Poetry as a form of expression. The students will write their own poetry using rhyming couplets.
What to bring to school every day: A hat, water bottle, a pair of indoor shoes and a healthy snack.
The Week Ahead: Monday: Swimming session | Homework will be set Tuesday: Library session Thursday: PE lesson Friday: Homework due in

  I hope all the families had a wonderful break. I am looking forward to working with the P4 students again and having another exciting quarter.
Unit of Inquiry – We continue with our unit on learning about helping the needy around us. This week we will inquire into the various ways support and empowerment can be given to those in need. Parents who work with self-help groups, you are very much welcome to enrich our learning by sharing your expertise and experiences.
Language Arts – Students have done some good work writing friendly letters to each other. This week we are going to be writing official letters to different organizations; inquiring about them and finding out how we can be involved in making a positive difference. The students will also revise punctuation and parts of speech learned.
Math – Students will build on their knowledge from quarter 3 on money. We will work on finding the total amount and calculating change by creating a shopping activity. Students are encouraged to bring 2-3 toy items for their shop/stall. The toy items will be returned home once the activity is over.
Kindly note: Swimming will continue as usual until further notice.
Monday – Library and Swimming Tuesday – I.T. Thursday – P.E. Friday – I.T. and French
 

Information for Parents Welcome back! I hope you all had a relaxing and refreshing school break. I had a great balance of going on safari, spending time with friends, and relaxing at home. I can’t wait to get back and start the last quarter of the school year! The plan is for the kids to continue swimming until the weather gets cold, so please send swim kits on Thursday.
Language focus for the week We will work on research skills this week. We will focus on the difference between primary and secondary sources of information and practise analyzing primary sources to better our understanding.
Maths focus for the week This week our focus is on lines and shapes. We will review parallel and perpendicular lines and look for them in real-world situations. We will also classify shapes according to different attributes and learn more about lines, segments, rays, and points.
Unit of Inquiry We are into the finding out stage of our unit and are learning more about the achievements of early civilizations that have stood the test of time. This week will we learn why people developed a need for written laws and writing systems. Students will also choose a civilization that they are interested in and research to find out more about it and how different achievements developed over time.
What to bring to school: A hat for playtime and a healthful snack.
Timetable: Monday: PE (please wear house t-shirt and trainers) Thursday: Swimming (Please bring swim kit) Friday: Library (please return library books)

Welcome back to the final quarter! After a well-earned break I trust that the P6 students are ready to begin their final unit of inquiry: The Exhibition. During our Retreat Day, back in December, we established that we all felt both nervous and excited about this 8-week-long unit. As with any inquiry, the students will inquire into a topic they are interested in. This week we are Tuning in – exploring our passions and establishing what a successful Exhibition consists of. During the final week, P6 will be presenting their findings to various groups within our community. The special presentation for Parents will be on Tuesday 31st May in the evening. Save the date! As well as a chance to present student work, this evening will be a celebration of the students’ journey through their Primary Years.
Many thanks to Ms Alley for teaching the P6 class whilst I was enjoying my Maternity Leave. The classroom is looking super colourful with all the Q3 work!
This week is also Spirit Week. I look forward to seeing the P6s in some crazy costumes this week, starting with Pyjamas on Tuesday. Ms Sarah

IN THIS ISSUE