Moshi Campus News – 16 April 2017

Calling All Secondary School Students, you are cordially invited to the Annual Sports Award Evening
The Annual Sports Award Evening, will take place in the ISM Dining Hall on Thursday, April 20th. During this event, we will honor and recognize our students who participated in all our sporting teams during the school year. The event will open at 17:00, and dinner will start at 17:20. There will be a possible guest speaker and the team presentations will follow. The event will close at 19:30.
Please click here for the Awards Evening Invite: www.uwcea.org/sportsinvite Please click here for the Awards Evening Schedule: www.uwcea.org/sportschedule
Please note that parents and day students will be asked to purchase a meal ticket at a cost of TSh 6000/- for this event

Welcome back. I hope everyone has enjoyed the holiday as we now enter the last quarter of the school year. As always, the end of the school year is full of events. For our D2 students the IB exams will start in just over two weeks on Monday May 1st. For our M5 students they get a little more time before the MYP exams start on Tuesday May 9th.
This quarter Students will be on the move as we have three OP trips planned, the D1 Group 4 trip, and the M3 arts trip. They will of course likewise be on the move for various sports competitions. Students will also be involved in the M5 work experience week, TOK Days, MYP Focus days, the Secondary Sports day, the Careers workshop and the Variety show among other events. Students should not have any time to get bored the rest of the year.
Please also remember that the Graduation for D2 students is on Saturday May 20th and M5 students will have their ceremony on Friday June 2nd. Bob Cofer

Welcome back to the final quarter of the academic year. I hope you have all managed to have an enjoyable holiday. I was lucky enough to visit beautiful Tarangire National Park with members of my family. It really is a joy to have such areas of wilderness on our doorstep. I find that being so close to nature is always the best form of recuperation.
Many thanks to all the parents who attended the Student Led Conferences just before the holidays began. Thanks also for participating fully by asking questions and taking a genuine interest in the children’s responses. We hope you found this to be a useful insight into your child’s education here at ISM.
As usual it is going to be a busy quarter with lots of exciting activities going on in the Primary School. We are most looking forward to the PYP Exhibition Presentations which will be held in early May. The P6 children have been working hard on their interesting issues both in and out of school. Many thanks to members of our wider community who have been helping them to carry out such worthwhile research – both locally and globally.
Dates for your diaries: Wednesday 19th April – Lessons begin at 7.30am. Children should be collected at 1.05pm this week. Monday 24th April – Homework will be sent home. Clubs will begin. Wednesday 26th April – public holiday – no lessons Monday 1st May – public holiday – no lessons Friday 5th May – PTA Talent Show Monday 15th May – Muffins for Mums and Dads Assembly
Kate Schermbrucker, Head of Primary / PYP Coordinator
The photos here show the visit of teachers from Alliance Française to the primary school last quarter

Two further national holidays are approaching: Wednesday, 26th April is Union Day in celebration of the union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar – there will be no classes on this day
Monday, 1st May is Workers’ Day. There will be no classes on this day, although scheduled D2 exams will take place.

HOME OF THE LEOPARDS The ISM Sports Department hopes that everyone has had a restful and enjoyable holiday. The Leopards need to be ready to fight as we look to close out Season Three in style!
Just before the holiday break our Netball and Rugby teams were in action as ISM hosted the first round of the NTAA 3rd Season. Please find below the results for each team:

U19 Rugby won its first game by the score of 3 to 2 against St Jude’s, but lost its second game by the score 2 to 4 versus ISMAC.

U15 Netball won against St Jude’s 11 to 10 and beat St Connie’s by the score of 18 to 16.

U19 Netball lost against St Jude’s 7 to 21, but then recovered nicely to beat Braeburn 17 to 10. The teams look forward to their next games which are on Saturday May 6th and Saturday May 13th.
March Madness Just before the holiday break Secondary School students took part in the traditional “March Madness” Basketball Tournament. There were lots of competitive games and great enthusiasm shown by the students playing and spectating. Congratulations to the “Black Team” for winning the Tournament!
Activities As always the ISM Sports Department wants to advertise three excellent after-school activities, so please find below information regarding swimming, tennis and horseback riding.
Swimming lessons for beginners, intermediate and advanced with Coach Sabini. Those students and parents who are interested in arranging lessons are kindly requested to contact Coach Sabini in person.
Tennis Lessons for beginners, intermediate and advanced players with Coach Charles. Those students and parents who are interested in arranging lessons are kindly requested to contact him at 0757606766.
Horse riding is also available and those interested need to contact Mr Priva at 0758053280 for more information regarding times, prices and requirements.
As the year progresses please keep up with all the info, news, and sports reports by reading the Moshi Campus News.
Go Leopards Scott Hibbard, (Head of Sport and Physical Education)

D1 students now need to start preparing for their university applications and getting ready for the tests that are required by universities in many countries.
TOEFL (Test of English as Foreign Language). This test is required of all students (except those of USA or UK nationality) who plan to study in the USA, Canada, Australia and some other countries (excluding UK). It is a paper-based test held in Moshi on 13th May 2017. The cost is US$170 (if paying with your personal credit card), or TSh 400,000 if asking the school to process payment on your behalf. Registrations have now formally closed, but it IS still possible to register as a late entrant at the same price.
ACT Test. D1 students planning to study in the USA (only) must register for this test which will be held in Moshi on 10th June 2017. Students must register online before 30th April 2017. The fee is US$109.50 (if paying with your own credit card) or US$ 118 if you ask the school to process payment on your behalf.
SAT Reasoning Test. The SAT is an alternative to ACT and most of our D1 students will not need to take this if they are registering for ACT. It is only useful for students planning to study in the USA. The next SAT test will be held in Moshi on 6th May 2017. Registrations have now closed for this test, but it is still possible to register s a standby candidate for an additional fee.
IELTS Academic UKVI. This English Language test is usually required for non-EU citizens who wish to study in the UK. It is NOT available in Moshi and students will need to register with the British Council in Dar es Salaam to take the test. Tests are available in Dar es Salaam on 3rd June, and 15th July at a fee of TSh 558,000. Students must register and pay online as early as possible before the test. ISM can process test fee payments on your behalf, but will need to charge a total of TSh 600,000 to also cover administration expenses and bank fees.

Congratulations to our D2 Visual Arts students who presented an excellent exhibition on the last weekend of last quarter. It was very encouraging to see the quality and diversity of their many pieces.
If you missed the exhibition and wish to view the art work, it is available at www.uwcea.org/dipart17. Please remember that all work is copyright (© 2017) and may not be reproduced without permission.
 

At the end of Quarter 3, we recognised the academic, sporting and other achievements of many of our students over the quarter. We were also entertained by our Pop Choir and by the Primary Singers amongst others. Congratulations to all who received awards, led or performed at the event.

 

  Many thanks to the brownies, brownie parents, Ms Jip, Ms Deborah and all our customers for a successful Bake Sale last quarter. We raised 300,000/- (selling 300 cakes and cookies!) in aid of the campaign to raise awareness of the plight of the elephants through our Sparkling elephant group.

Well done brownies!
 

This is a reminder that for those families paying school fees quarterly, the lst instalment was due to have been received by us by 1st March. Fees which are now overdue will be surcharged by 10% and, if fees remain unpaid, children will be excluded from classes. Please do ensure that your fee payments are up to date – we rely on fees to cover our expenses and if these are paid late, the school is unable to carry out all its operations smoothly.

Sadly some students will be leaving ISM at the end of this school year in June, often as their families move elsewhere. If your child will not be continuing in ISM for the 2017/18 school year, please give us sufficient notice (by 5th May at the latest) by email to . Please note that the school reserves the right to levy additional charges if sufficient notice of departure is not given.

The ISM Brownie guides will be organizing a garage sale on Saturday, May 27th from 10am to 1pm.
If you are leaving Moshi this summer this is an ideal opportunity for you to sell items you do not wish to take with you. It’s also a great place to pick up some bargains; toys, books, shoes, kitchenware and bedding, etc
You can support this event by hiring a table to sell your goods or by coming to buy from the stalls. Refreshments will be on sale throughout the morning. Tables must be paid for in advance at the main school office. The price for a table is 20,000 TSH. Please see Annalee Horton if you have any questions about this event.

Update:

The forty-seven members of the class of 2017 return for three regular school days followed by study week and then the three-week exam period (May 1 – 19).

D1s should have made serious progress on their Extended Essay during the 18-day April break.
Upcoming:

Parents of D2 students would do their son or daughter a great service by communicating more frequently in the coming super high-stress IB DP exam period. As you are likely already doing – listen, encourage, support, and facilitate their embracing this challenging time and helping them to recall that: “adopting the right attitude can convert a negative stress into a positive one.” by Hans Selye (www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/h/hansselye381383.html)

D2 Grad weekend events: a) Decoration of Karibu Hall (parents/D2s) – Fri May 19th – 9am-noon; b) Grad Fri evening dinner at AMEG Lodge in Moshi at 6:30pm; c) Grad Ceremony – Sat May 20th with arrival at 2:00 for a 2:30pm start; d) Tea in the Director’s Garden 4:30-6:30pm.

It is time for parents of D1 students to plan now for the end of this 2016-2017 school year. Schoolwork related learning continues until Thursday June 15th at 9:15am. Parents do a disservice to their child if they permit early departures or late returns. An important end-of-D1-year parent-teacher meeting session will also occur as from 10:30-12:00 noon on that day. D1 parents should aim to attend this key teacher feedback event as D1 ends.

Annual Sports Awards evening – next Thursday April 20th – and in which many DP students will deservingly receive an array of awards for their athletic prowess and sportsmanship.

Last day of D2 classes on Friday April 21st followed by ‘study week’ and the IB DP exams.
Weblinks

On why the IB DP benefits the student – www.yakimaherald.com/unleashed/columnists/challenging-yourself-holistic-nature-of-ib-program-pays-dividends/article_3ac4850e-1be6-11e7-9081-1b8aadcfd622.html

On Sir Ken Robinson’s famous/insightful TED talk on learning – www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_bring_on_the_revolution/transcript
Rick Fitzpatrick, (Diploma Coordinator):

Welcome back to school! I hope you had an enjoyable and fun filled holiday. Some fantastic news to share with you!! Our dear teaching assistant Ms Grace adopted a baby boy this holiday. His name is Joshua and he is 8 months old. We would like to wish Ms Grace and her husband every happiness for the future with their new addition to the family.
I hope you enjoyed the student led conferences last quarter. I feel the children did extremely well at showing how they learn at school. We will continue to add to their portfolios in order for it to reflect the whole school year.
This week the children will share memories of their holiday so please talk to them about the special times you have spent together. EC2 students will be encouraged to write their own news using the letter sounds they know. I read an interesting article this holiday about children’s literacy development that claims that recent research shows that children learn so much about literacy through their own invented spelling. If your child is interested in writing at home please do not correct their spelling, but encourage them to read it back to you. At this stage in their development they might only write the first letter of each word or maybe a few consonants but this is a stage they go through and one to be praised and encouraged. If you have any questions please feel free to ask.
In numeracy the children will be setting goals for the last 8 weeks of the school year. Please try to bring counting and number sense into your everyday lives, through baking activities, looking for numbers in the environment, counting for a purpose such as laying the table for dinner and asking your child to put out 4 knives, 4 forks, 4 spoons, etc. If children understand why they have to count and recognize numbers it obviously makes it more meaningful to them.
Our new unit is under the transdisciplinary theme of ‘How we express ourselves.’ The central idea is ‘The art of story telling uses many different devices that develop our understanding of the world.’ This is a wonderful unit for early childhood children and we are excited about helping them to develop a love of stories and the many different ways that they can be told. More news to come after we have done some tuning in to this unit this week.
There will be swimming as usual this Friday.

Dear Parents,
Welcome back. I hope that you all had a wonderful holiday with your families.
Thank you to all of you that came to the Student Led Conferences. The children were very proud to show you their work.
This week is a short week, but a busy one. There will be no homework this week, but the children are encouraged to continue with their reading and using Razz Kids.
The Week Ahead in class Unit of Inquiry This week we will be looking at the following line of inquiry:How the world works Central idea: Life on earth is directly related to how the solar system works. The children will be continuing to work on and finish off their animal migration group book. The children will also be designing this unit’s summative assessment and rubric.
Reading: The children will continue and review their book characters. They will be looking at the traits of the character and why do they think the author created the character this way.
Writing: The children will continue to write and add more to their non-fiction migration books. They will also write a postcard about their holidays.
Math: This week we will review many of the number sense activities we have covered. The children will also be asked to convince me: for example, 7+8 (7+7 = 14 and then add one more). We will also review tell the time.
The Week Ahead: Wednesday: P3 French – No homework Thursday: P3 French, Indoor football (house T-shirt) Friday: PE
Useful websites: www.softschools.com/math/games www.kizphonics.com/learn-to-write-alphabet
All the best Clare Hibbard P2/3

I hope you had a nice break. This week we will be continuing work on our Unit of Inquiry personal projects using Google drive.
The students enjoyed discovering which 3D shapes in their environment are the strongest by creating and testing bridges. The students managed to support an entire box of Lego on the cuboid shape! Our original (but overly ambitious) collaborative project on student-led conference day, of making a life-sized geodesic dome as has led us to consider how detail, angle and precision is important in architecture. We will begin to examine angles this week and continue looking at shape.
As it is a short week we will do a little poetry related to a natural disaster and draw out some vocabulary in preparation for writing creation myths in the following week.
  

It was lovely to see everyone at the Student Led Conferences before the break. The children enjoyed sharing their portfolios with you.
The first week back at school will be a short but busy one. There will be no after school clubs. The clubs will start on Monday, April 24th. Please return library books to school on the first day back (Wednesday) so that the children can choose some new reading material from the library. There will be no homework set but the children should still read in the evenings.
A preview of the week ahead: Maths – working on decimals and percentages. Unit of Inquiry – researching a chosen governmental system. Language Arts – planning and writing an information book. Art – working on our graffiti featuring issues of social justice.
Monday & Tuesday – no school Wednesday – Swahili and please return library books. Children will bring home slips with details of after school clubs which will start next week. Thursday – French Friday – Swimming, Swahili, Music. Dates for your diary – Friday, 12th May will be the P5 primary gathering. Deborah Mills, (P5 Teacher)

I hope all of you had a wonderful break and that the P6s are well rested.
In the final week of Quarter 3, the P6s were busy with the Exhibition unit of inquiry. It has been very pleasing to see the progress they have made so far and have since grown in so many aspects as students. Parents you are welcome to support us during this final phase of the journey.

Sports Group- this group is focusing on the benefits of sports in helping us maintain good health and wellbeing. They have worked very well towards their action both in school and at home.

Recycling Group- has been keen on using the trash they collect from their environment and changing it into beautiful art pieces. They have organized clean ups around the school and have kept us entertained us in class with a game they created out of the recycled materials.

Conservation Group – they have had a blast under the guidance of one of our parents Jasmijn. They have interviewed a number of “nature heroes” and visited Natural Extracts to see how certain plants are used to make different products but with conservation of the environment as a priority. The students have been very active in taking care of the “Mpingo” trees in our school orchard and spreading their love for nature.

Gaming group- this group has worked very well and enlightened us as a Primary School about the positive and negative effects of gaming. They have demonstrated great creativity as they came up with their action and have been working on some crafts, which they will display during their presentation.
Reminders: Kindly ensure that your child attends school on all these days leading to the Exhibition. It is important that they avoid disruptions and work on the projects ahead of them with as much ease as possible.
Exhibition presentations are on Wednesday, 3rd (ISM and P6 ISMAC students and teachers) and Thursday 4th of May (for the ISM P6 parents and family friends). More on this will be announced in the coming news.

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