Moshi Campus News – 16 Sep 2017

This week we have the International Day of Peace and the UWC Day with a diversity focus that are shaping our activities.  We have our Monday assembly; a moment of silence on Thursday at 9am in connection with the UN; mural painting and a number of class activities.  Peace One Day, a group heavily involved this day, have a slogan “Who will you make peace with?” which helps us to remember that this is not just about international peace, but also peace locally.  While we don’t all have the ability to influence world events, we do have the ability to make peace with our classmates, neighbors and colleagues.  So, this week please think about your relationships with those around you and what you are doing to improve peace locally.

Last weekend, the M1 class from both the Moshi and Arusha campuses came together for a fun-filled weekend of camping and outdoor pursuits at Marangu. This introductory O/P Trip provided M1 students with the basic skills of camping, packing their own packs and preparing their own meals. As trip leaders, we were all very impressed with the ways in which the M1 students interacted with each other, showed enthusiasm for all of the activities and proved themselves to be principled and caring ISM students.

We enjoyed a hike to the waterfalls, a very refreshing swim and a four hour hike through the majestic villages and banana fields of Marangu. We are hopeful that this positive experience for the M1 students is the beginning of many more O/P adventures.

On Monday 18th September we will hold a whole school Spirit Day. On this day students and teachers can wear blue and white for peace, i.e. the colours of the UN. This means primary children do not have to wear their ISM t-shirts, unless they wish to wear the blue one. We will also hold a special Peace Assembly on this day. Parents are welcome to join us at 7.35am in Karibu Hall.

On Saturday September 23rd at 1:30 pm we will be adding a little diversity of color to the school walls.  Each house will be painting two walls using bright colors to add a little splash of excitement.  During that time, our CAS Service group will be running a fun fair with food, drink and games in order to raise money for ISM’s service projects in the community.  Please join us for this event as all students and families are welcome.  If you plan to paint I would suggest that you dress appropriately as I suspect the wall will not be the only thing with added colors.

Update:

• Our ninety-three IB Diploma students (56 – D1s & 37 – D2s) demonstrated focus in their academics, benefitted from CAS activities and learned about the United World College movement https://www.uwc.org/.
• The recommendation is 9 hours per night of sleep for adolescents https://bit.ly/1lP3opl.
• The ‘easy’ drop-add 1-month period for D1s has ended.  A discussion/form will be required for further course changes.
• D2s await feedback from their EE supervisor after which time changes will be incorporated before submission of the final version in November.
• DP faculty participated in a presentation by Hazel Ndong (Head of Individuals and Societies/Theory of Knowledge) on incorporating TOK in lessons and on the IB’s Approaches to Learning/Approaches to Teaching framework.

Upcoming:

Oct 6th will be the last day of this quarter and there will be the opportunity for parent teacher meetings from 10:35 am.  Please do not remove your child early and ensure they return promptly to begin lessons on Mon Oct 23rd.

Weblinks:
On learning/the importance of social cues – https://nyti.ms/2iEwFOd

Rick Fitzpatrick

M2 

• The M2 students came back on Friday afternoon after a successful curriculum trip to Pangani.

MYP- Oncoming events

M5

• Tuesday September 19-21, the M5 class  will be out for a curriculum trip on Leadership. This will be an academic trip deriving concepts and skills from The Lord of the Flies in Language and Literature and Power from Integrated Humanities course.
• The week of September 25-29, they will be expected to have  completed their first draft of the Personal Project report (Evaluation of the quality of product/outcome  reflection on their learning).

M4- Kili Trip

• The M4 students are going away on a curriculum trip from Sept 26-29. This trip will involve Science and Mathematics subjects. In this trip they will investigate the correlation between altitude and temperature among other studies in the eco-system.

David Ochieng

Next week some of our lessons will be geared towards the themes of peace and diversity. This is because Thursday 21st September marks the UN Day of Peace and also UWC Day. The United World College aims to bring diverse groups of students together to cause more intercultural understanding. The result of this should be a more peaceful world. That is something that ISM wishes to promote at both primary and secondary level. Parents are invited to the Peace Day assembly on Monday morning. We wish all community members to dress in blue and white on Monday for our Spirit Day, i.e. blue and white for peace.

The week ahead:
Monday: Spirit Day: wear blue and white. Peace Day Assembly at 7.35am in Karibu Hall
Thursday: International Day of Peace and UWC Day. One-minute silence at 9am for peace.
Friday: First unit of inquiry ends for P1 – P6 classes.
Saturday morning: NTAA U11 Rounders Tournament at ISM Moshi
Saturday afternoon: Community colourful wall painting and fun fair at ISM

Kate Schermbrucker

We had a successful blood donation drive in school on Friday 15th September at Rafiki hall. We thank those parents of older boarders who allowed their children to take part in this noble cause.

A number of activities are planned this weekend for boarders, including a trip to the hot springs on Saturday.

We appreciate the parents who are following the school procedures for boarders who wish to sign out for the weekend. We will once more remind parents that the invitations must be finalized by Thursday evening preceding the weekend. Please provide a name and telephone contact of the host.

Parents are encouraged to be in touch with Boarding Parents from time to time. If calling, please be aware of time zone changes so these calls are at reasonable times. Please remember that students are not allowed to receive or make calls during Study Hall as this disrupts their and others studying.

School closes for the quarter on Friday 6th October. Boarders can leave the same day, and return for quarter two on Sunday 22nd October.

Rosemary Bango

Thank you to everyone that came to donate blood yesterday.  We had over 50 people come to donate this time and the event is attracting more people each time.  The next one will be in February but will be early enough so that those running the marathon will be able to donate and it will not affect you.  Thank you also to all the people from KCMC that ran the event for us.

HOME OF THE LEOPARDS

This past weekend we hosted the first round of the NTAA, our U15 basketball and U19 football teams were in action. Lots of great things to be excited about, for example our U15 Boys Basketball team winning both games, but there is also lots of room for improvement.

The ISM U19 Netball team was victorious in their friendly match with a local school the score was 26-7, while the U15 team lost their game.

On Friday September 15th U15 Boys Basketball, U15/19 Boys football, and the Rugby team will be action.

ISM will host the NTAA schools on Saturday September 23rd when the U11 Rounders and U13 Basketball teams will be in action. Please come out and support the teams.

This weekend we will also have swimmers heading to Mwanza for a what we hope will be a fun as well as competitive event.

As the season and year progress 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

UWC schools have identified lack of access to education as a major issue affecting young refugees. They are five times more likely to be out of school than more fortunate young people. Refugee communities need future leaders with strong abilities, social consciousness and drive for peace and reconciliation. As a result of this an average of 5% of students at UWC schools are refugees and this year in light of the escalation of many young people fleeing conflict and natural disasters they are increasing their number of scholarships annually by 100, read here: https://www.uwc.org/uwcrefugeeinitiative

ISM has started its own refugee initiative training secondary school teachers in Kakuma camp in Kenya in partnership with Utrecht University of Applied Sciences, UNHCR Kenya and Windle Trust who run the secondary schools in the camp. Our teachers are online mentors to the new teachers in the camp and will be running workshops to help the new teachers with skills such as classroom management, teacher and student welfare and how to break down curriculum for classroom teaching. You can read more in our Summit magazine here: https://www.uwcea.org/wp-content/newsletters/summit1706.pdf.

Through this initiative we are also looking for donors to help support a number of refugee scholarships to our IB Diploma course at ISM. Please contact gemmamay@ed.ismoshi.com for more information on this or you can support us with a one off donation or monthly contribution at: https://www.justgiving.com/campaigns/charity/i-s-m/africanleadershipscholarship.

This week saw visits from some of our parents. Mama Tiago helped us to think about the similarities and differences between our families, Mama Aditi introduced us to several different religions and Mama Eefke shared some of the things that are important to her and her family. This included finding out (many for the first time) a little about differently-abled people.

The children worked in pairs to research online the seeds available to us and then each designed part of a bed in terms of colour and plant type, going on to plant the seeds for their design.

Next week sees whole-school themes of diversity and peace that fit well with our unit.

Please send in any cultural items, photographs, toys, pieces of material, costumes, flags and other artefacts that we might display around the room to help us discuss the theme.

Have a great weekend,
Owain Evans

Dear Parents,

You might have noticed your children helping around the house or asking if they could give you a hug. We having been brainstorming what actions we could take from what we have been learning. Very special thanks to Mama Gus who came to speak with us on Wednesday. She shared about the effects of watching too much T.V. and the actions they take in their home.

We have also been learning how to read and make block graphs. We have been asking these main questions; How many people chose that item? Which was chosen the most/least? Next week, we are going to begin to analyse the information we have collected about needs and wants using these questions.

Everyone has been working hard with their reading and reading comprehension. Our phonics sounds for next week will be c and k for phase 2 and th and ng for phase 3.

Mboka Mwasongwe

Thank you to everyone who came and supported the class during Friday’s Primary Gathering. The children worked so hard and presented with a lot of confidence.

This week the class created mental images using the books Sheila Rae the Brave and The Kissing Hand. The children have become more confident when asking questions and giving their opinions.
This week we will be making different connections with the books we read. In writing lessons, the class will be looking at the writing process and what makes a good piece of writing.

The children will be continuing their Top Trump Friend cards as part of their summative assessment for this unit. They have worked collaboratively on their checklist and designed a criterion to use for assessment.

In math, we will continue to work on place value and look at different ways in which to solve number stories.

If you have any questions about homework please stop by or have your child ask – Thanks.

Monday – Peace Day assembly and Spirit Day: please wear blue and white
PE: Tuesday and Thursday
Library: Tuesday
Homework due on: Friday

Clare Hibbard

Our P4 class has been working hard completing work leading up to our Math, English and Unit of Inquiry assessment next week. To conclude this unit they would like to invite you to participate in our celebration of the official UN International Day of Peace with us on Thursday, September 21st at 7:35am in our classroom. If you join us you will have a chance to hear some presentations and take a look at the range of infographics which the students have created. These relate to human rights. To get a sampling of the diversity of the students in our class we would love to have some contributions of food that represent your culture to taste and share. If you could help with this I am sure the students will appreciate it. Your child may ask to wear (or bring) cultural clothes on this day and may wish to bring an outfit related to their biographical person. We look forward to seeing you there.

Julie Bowen

This week the children put their interviewing skills to good use in their French lesson when they interviewed Ms. Laura , the MYP/DP French teacher, about her migration experiences and her journey to Moshi (see photo.) In Maths we have been playing some place value games. In Language we have written a class book celebrating that whilst something may be part of a group it can also be unique. Next week brings us to the close of our Unit of Inquiry about migration. P5 will participate in a celebration of diversity on Thursday and share something from their home cultures to enrich our class community and enable us to see how special each of us is.

Peace Day Assembly, Library and new homework packet – Monday
P.E. – Tuesday and Thursday
P5 Diversity celebration  – Thursday

Deborah Mills

The P6 students have been working hard on their Summative Assessment. They also had a great time working on their “Fakebook” profile pages and learning about stereotypes.
In the coming week, we celebrate UN Peace Day where students will dress up in blue and white for this Spirit day. Our focus during this year’s peace day is diversity and what it means to us as we move towards becoming a UWC.

In P6 we are connecting this with stereotypes where we think of ways to raise awareness about diversity as we do away with labelling or stereotyping groups of people or animals. You can have these conversations with your child at home and share some ideas with them.

I am still facing challenges with a few students who are not appropriately dressed for P.E. Kindly encourage your child to be more Principled and respectful by preparing better for sport every Monday and Wednesday.

Next week:
Monday: Spirit Day- UN Peace Day
Wednesday: Summative Assessment presentations
Thursday: Official UN Peace Day- Reflections
Friday: Portfolio selections

Have a lovely weekend,
Cathy Wambua