Moshi Campus News – 30 Apr 2016

Dear Parents,

With the M4 e-Assessments now over, next week sees the start of the final written examinations for our D2 students. We wish them all the best in the next three challenging weeks and look forward to their Graduation Ceremony on 21st May. Also, this Monday morning, the parents of our primary children can join us for our Muffins for Mums and Dads celebration (see below). This weekend many of our swimmers are in Mwanza for a big schools competition and next weekend we welcome the visiting UWC Task Force who will be meeting students and teachers to discuss and advise on our progress towards possible UWC membership.
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Workers’ Day
Tomorrow, Sunday 1st May, is Workers’ Day in Tanzania. This is a public holiday when labour unions and other organisations celebrate the contribution of workers to the country’s development. Monday will be a regular day with classes as normal.
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Muffins for Mums and Dads
Primary Assembly – Muffins for Mums and Dads, Monday 2 May at 7:40am As is tradition, our primary students will be celebrating their parents and carers this Monday morning in our Muffins for Mums and Dads assembly. Parents and Guardians are warmly invited to attend our assembly in Karibu Hall at 07.40am.

“A Thank You to those that Care for Us”
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Swimming in Mwanza
Yesterday a large group swimmers left the Moshi Campus to join up with their friends from Arusha Campus and fly to Mwanza to take part in the Isamilo Invitational Swim Gala. Moshi and Arusha campuses joined forces and travelled as one team in the spirit of One School One Mission! What a formidable force! We wish them the best of luck and there will be news about how they got on in next week’s newsletter.
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Continuing Students & Leavers
We would like to thank all those families with children in ISM who have supported us over this school year 2015/16. As a school almost entirely dependant upon school fees for the education and facilities we offer, we appreciate the hard work and effort that it is for many to ensure that fees are received by the school and that this financial support continues. Most of our students will be continuing into next school year and parents will have received invoices for next year’s fees over the last couple of weeks. Please do note the due dates for payments shown on those invoices.
If your child will be leaving ISM this school year, we wish him/her and all your family all the best for the future. Please note that 6th May is the deadline for informing us of any departures this school year if you have not already done so; we do have a penalty fee (of half the first quarter fee) if we are not informed of withdrawal by 6th May, as we need to allocate spaces to new applicants.
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D2 Lunch
Our D2s celebrated the end of their formal classes just over a week ago with a class lunch at a local restaurant.
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Private Parties
Although the school organises celebrations for the D2 graduation, the students have usually additionally opted to arrange their own private parties off-campus. These are likely to be on 21st May after the official ceremony. These student-organised parties are not school events and we cannot, as a school, take responsibility for them. Invariably, there is alcohol available at these parties and minimal, if any, adult supervision. We are concerned about the inevitable, and potentially serious risks that arise from these situations, particularly for many of the younger students who frequently receive invitations to attend and we have endeavoured to deal with such issues from an educational point of view in our Life Skills lessons. We also need to be especially confident that parents are aware of the nature of these events, and are happy with their own children’s involvement. We would therefore offer the following requests and guidelines.
For parents of boarders: Boarders staying in school that weekend will NOT be allowed to attend any unsupervised parties. If boarders do want to attend, they can only do so if their parents agree and they have been taken out of the school’s care by staying with another family for the weekend. Even if you have already indicated on the Parental Consent form that your child may sign out to friends at weekends, we would like to further confirm that it is acceptable on this particular weekend. If you have children intending to sign out for this weekend, could you please contact us with that confirmation? You may contact either the boarding parent or Mrs Bango on by whatever means is most convenient (telephone, letter, or email). Boarders will be expected to remain in school for the weekend if we have not heard from you before MONDAY, MAY 16th.
We would also suggest on this occasion, that you contact the host family directly to discuss what you feel would be appropriate arrangements, curfew etc for your children on the evening of the party.
For parents offering to host boarders: Boarders signing out on these weekends will need to sign out for the whole weekend from the Friday afternoon until midday on the Sunday, although they may of course attend the Graduation Ceremony if invited. We would suggest that before you take on the responsibility for the guest students over this period, you are confident of their own parent’s expectations in terms of curfew, supervision etc.
We do not in any way wish to curtail the students’ opportunity for well-deserved celebration on these occasions, but we are concerned for their safety and their parents’ full consent and understanding.
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Diploma Key Dates
  • ISM IB DP official exams for D2s – Monday May 2nd to Friday May 20th
  • D2 Parents’ 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
  • D1 EE Presentations to Peers/Selected Faculty – Monday June 13th
  • Last day of school, whole school assembly and the Parent-Teacher conference – Friday June 17th Rick Fitzpatrick, DP Coordinator
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    M4 Assessments
    The M4 students have just completed one week of various assessments, most of which have been practice e-Assessments taken on a laptop. Now that the International Baccalaureate (IB) has introduced formal e-Assessments taken on a computer for the final year students in M5, we felt that it would be helpful for M4 students to experience a similar form of assessment so that they become familiar with the new IB format. These assessments have been designed to be more as a preparation and are not intended as a final examination for the M4s. The M4 grades for this school year will be determined based on the many tasks and assessments that they have taken throughout the year and these e-Assessments are only a small part of that.
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    International Festival
    ISM Arusha Campus is holding their International Festival this coming Friday, 6th May from 2pm. If you will be in Arusha this Friday, why not drop in and enjoy the festivities?
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    Boarding News
    The third week of the quarter is coming to an end, and the D2 students continue to prepare for final exams which begin on Monday 2nd May.
    A number of activities have been planned for the weekend. These include town trips, pyjama and pool party, karaoke, and Amazing race.
    A group of boarders left on Friday morning for the swimming competition in Mwanza. Others went for Rugby and netball tournaments in ISMAC on Saturday morning.
    We encourage our boarders to visit respective places of worship. Every Friday we have a trip to a mosque in town, and on Sunday we have church trips to different places of worship.
    There will be a few changes in Kivuli boarding house starting in the month of May. Mr Kyara, who has been the main boarding parent, has taken another responsibility, and will not be able to continue as main boarding parent. His position will be taken by Mr. Robert Thadeus for the remainder of this quarter. Robert can be reached on phone number 0767 416492, or on email through .
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    French News
    Congratulations to our D2 student, Abdoulaye Dia for being selected to go to France for one month in July! He will follow a cultural and linguistic programme organised by the Centres Internationaux francophones des Lions Clubs de France. This is the second year that ISM has been able to send a student and we hope we can continue to be fortunate next year.
    Alliance Française Partnership Our final event for this school year will be on Monday 23rd May 10:35-14:20. We are looking forward to welcome again 2 teachers from Alliance Française of Arusha to conduct special workshops in french. P5/6, M3 and M4 French students will take part in those different and fun activities.
    MYP French – M1 This quarter this class is so enthusiastic and busy to learn about french food. They are making fast progress in acquiring the vocabulary and grammar necessary to express their likes and dislikes about food. We’ll be starting to look at french recipes of famous dishes; students will be able to identify ingredients and perhaps try out one recipe. Our aim is to bake ‘crêpes’ at the end of the quarter. This is promising to be fun and entertaining as well as tasty! They will also have to perform a rôle play situation at a restaurant and order their food in French.
    M2 The M2 French class has been very busy working on moving their knowledge of French language into action-based learning, participating in the Language Assembly during the IB/ CIS visit. This required a lot of preparation, planning, resilience, and reflection on their part, key ATL skills that are an integral part of the IB MYP. Our current unit is ‘En voyage’, where the class has moved in many directions, recalling past travel adventures and the experiences that accompany them. Both phases are strengthening their ability to communicate with friends and family while overseas, and student-led discussions have enriched the classes with personal anecdotes of travel from around the world.
    M3 Students are currently working on a unit focusing on health which allow them to learn vocabulary related to healthy lifestyles including food; revise body parts and being able to describe when something is going wrong; learn vocabulary related to doctor and medicine. They learnt about the importance of daily exercise and had to create their own fitness programme in French. They were then testing their programmes on their classmate giving them instructions in French. Their next project will be a rôle play situation at the doctor in which they will have to say what is wrong and give prescription.
    M4 This quarter our unit is focusing on relationships : family and friendship. Through those important topics in a teenagers’ life students can learn all the vocabulary related to personnality description and discuss on the important qualities they value in a friend. They wrote really lovely and fun recipes for a good friendhip and enjoyed that activity. A debate about the possibility of having a boy-girl friendship is coming soon ; a promising discussion ! They will also look at family relationship and focus on parent-brother/sister relationships and all the challenges as well as happiness that come with it. They will have to perform rôle plays portraying real life situations about relationships issues (arguments between friends or parents/sister/brother).
    M5 This quarter students are studying and discussing issues about their future plans. We have been focusing on vocabulary related to expressing their future intentions in terms of studying or even working (as they are doing their work experience this quarter). They revised jobs in french and discussed about reasons to choose a career in particular, advantages and disadvantages of some jobs. They are learning how to apply for a job and write a proper cover letter as well as how to answer to interview questions. They will be asked to rôle play a job interview.
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    Early Childhood Preview
    We are looking forward to seeing you at the special assembly on Monday morning. EC1s will be singing a song and EC2s will be telling you about the new unit of inquiry.
    Unit of Inquiry This week the children will continue to use paint in a variety of ways, including listening to different types of music and responding to the music through painting. The children will also try out a range of art experiences involving paper, including tearing, weaving and making collages. We will also continue to look at art posters and try to understand how and why we interpret art in different ways. We are planning a trip to the Cultural Heritage Centre in Arusha in the next few weeks to look at the variety of art exhibited there. We will have lunch and outside playtime with the EC class at Arusha Campus and then travel back to school in the afternoon. Further details and permission slips will be out later on this week.
    If you have any art pieces at home that you would like to come and share through a short presentation then please let me know. Likewise if you have an unusual art activity you would like to try out with the children we would love to hear about it.
    Literacy
  • Continue to draw/write about what makes us happy, sad, angry, excited, etc
  • Role- play in the house and shop; writing shopping lists.
  • Read storybook ‘Mousepaint’ to inspire colour mixing
  • Read ‘A Color of His Own’ by Leo Lionni
    If you have any storybooks about artists or art such as the ones I have mentioned above then please send them into school for us to read.
    Numeracy
  • Continue to use 2D shapes to make art. Make 2D shape posters to show what the children know about these shapes
  • Sort shapes according to a variety of criteria
  • Estimating groups of objects, counting and understanding of conservation of number
  • Water play to develop understanding of full, half full and empty
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    P1/2 Preview
    Information for Parents In case you didn’t get your child’s invitation to Monday’s assembly, I would like to invite you to Muffins for Mums and Dads. On Monday at 7:35 we will be honoring our mums and dads with a song, and we will show a little bit of what we have been working on in class. The children are excited to share their song, so I hope all parents can attend.

    Language focus for the week We are going to start the process of writing and publishing a story this week. We will begin by organizing our thoughts on paper and then starting a rough draft.
    Maths focus for the week We will continue our investigation into fractions this week. We will continue to cut, draw, color, and write fractions.
    Unit of Inquiry We begin our final unit of the year this week. We will shift our focus from endangered animals to how artists express themselves. This unit will give us a lot of exciting opportunities to learn about expression through visual art, drama, music, and dance. We will investigate other artists as well as express our own feelings through art.
    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.
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    P2/3 Preview

    This week the students started their summative assessment task. They are each creating a poem, a piece of abstract art or a mime about one or more of these words – peace, rainbow, explosion and/or laughter. They have come up with some very creative ideas and I am looking forward to seeing their finished products next week.
    Unit of Inquiry: New Transdisciplinary Theme: Sharing the planet New Central Idea: Human survival is connected to understanding the continual changing nature of the earth. On Monday and Tuesday we will finish off and reflect on our current unit and on Wednesday we will start tuning in to our new unit.
    Mathematics Focus: Estimating
    English Focus: Features of information books
    What to bring to school every day: A hat, water bottle, a pair of indoor shoes and a healthy snack.
    The Week Ahead: Monday: Final swimming session | Homework will be set | 7.40 in K-hall – Muffins for Mums and Dads primary assembly. Tuesday: Library session Thursday: PE lesson Friday: Homework due in
    Kate Schermbrucker P2/3 Class Teacher and PYP Coordinator
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    P4 Preview
    Thank you P4 families for sending donation items that will be sent to the ISM Daycare Centre. I am sure the little ones will enjoy playing with the toys and reading the books you have donated.
    We are winding up the unit on humanitarian action and it has been a wonderful inquiry for us all. We have been humbled by the reality of the issues that surround us and also are more aware of ways we can make a difference.
    Focus for the new week In Language Arts the students will work on Instructional writing. In word study they will work on “tch” and “ch” words as well as unit related words and sequencing words.
    In Math the students are going to work on capacity in ml and l. We will use real life situations to solve problems.
    Unit of Inquiry The students have worked hard towards their Summative Assessment. In the coming week they will share brochures, posters, biographies of famous humanitarians as part of the assessment and will share reflections of this unit.
    Our new unit of Inquiry Central Idea: Children are a unique part of our society who have specific rights. Lines of Inquiry:
  • rights of the child
  • roles and responsibilities of children
  • application of children’s right in different parts of the world Key Concepts: Responsibility and Causation IB Attributes: Caring, Principled, Empathy and Tolerance
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    P5 Preview
    Information for Parents There is a Primary Assembly on Monday morning. We will be presenting some interesting information about our current unit of inquiry. We hope that you can join us to share in our learning experiences. Hard to believe that we are already into May! We will be staring our last unit of inquiry this week.
    Language focus for the week Most of the students have completed their details and personal reactions for their biography project. This week we will begin to write our essays, making sure that we include a mix of factual details and our own personal reactions. We will also do some word work, exploring vocabulary related to our new unit.

    Maths focus for the week This week we will compare 2D and 3D shapes. We will also learn about rotating shapes and symmetry. We will end the week with a review of classifying angles and measuring angles using protractors.
    Unit of Inquiry The first part of the week will be spent wrapping up our current units. Groups will share their summative assessments on ancient achievements and the lasting effects they have had on our current lives. The central idea for our next unit is: Over time, living things need to adapt in order to survive. Our lines of inquiry are: the concept of adaptation, circumstances that lead to adaptation, how East African animals and plants have adapted to local conditions.
    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)
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    P6 Preview
    This week the students have got stuck into the Finding Out phase of their Exhibition journey. Their enthusiasm and curiosity have led them to find useful information from a variety of sources. So far, the groups have used text books, the Internet, surveys and interviews to gain insight into their lines of inquiry. Next week, they will continue to find out more.
    We have been thinking about online safety and how to send emails responsibly. The students have also been learning about the importance of academic honesty – citing their sources and not copying other’s written work.
    On Monday the 2nd May, there is a special assembly after registration for Primary Parents. The P6 class will be announcing their Central Ideas and Lines of Inquiry as part of this. Please do be part of the audience if possible.
    On Friday 6th May, again after registration, P6 will be leading the Primary Gathering. In this they will be telling the audience about some of their research findings. Again, you are very welcome to attend.
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    IN THIS ISSUE
    Workers’ Day
    Muffins Mums & Dads
    Swimming
    Leavers & Continuers
    D2 Lunch
    Private Parties
    Diploma Dates
    M4 Assessments
    Int. Festival
    Boarding News
    French News
    Primary Previews
    CONTACT US International School Moshi
    PO Box 733
    Moshi, Tanzania
    Tel: +255 27 2755005
    Fax: +255 736 605320
    Email:

    Mobile:
    +255 767 534766
    NOTES This newsletter has been sent to you from International School Moshi. if your email address changes or if you would like me to add another email address to this mailing list.

    Keiron White
    Head of Moshi Campus

    International School Moshi provides a world-class education through a challenging international curriculum in a dynamic environment. We are committed to developing balanced global citizens who are empowered to act responsibly in a complex world.
    Do you know of somebody who would like to receive this newsletter, or is there an extra email address you would like me to send it to?
    Email me, Keiron White, on to tell me. This newsletter published by International School Moshi (Moshi Campus) © 2016