Arusha Campus News – 27 Sep 2019

The spectacular peak of Kilimanjaro in the warm evening sun on Thursday evening.

Mt Meru as seen on Tuesday morning from the Acacia House, boarding residence.

Warm greetings this week from Zambia where I am competing in the Elephant Charge, an off-road rally that raises funds for wildlife conservation in Africa.

As I flew down to Lusaka yesterday, I thought about how often we take the spectacular sights of Arusha and Moshi for granted. The images above represent what we look at on a daily basis from the grounds of both campuses! I keep having to remind myself that we are now a boarding camopus and that many of our parents have never been to the school and therefore do not see what we see. We should count ourselves very lucky to wake up every morning in such a beautiful part of the world.

We have one more week to go until the mid-term break and as my colleague, Ciprian mentions below ‘How time flies!’ Here are some announcements to bear in mind:

This is the last week of CCAs. If your son/daughter was taking part in one of the paid CCAs please could you kindly assist to finalize the payment if you haven’t done so already.

The end of Q1 assembly will start at 10:30am on Friday 4th at the performance Area and we will also have the Friday Market at that day from 10am so come along and buy your holiday goodies from our stall holders.

All the Lost and found property will be put outside the main office for the whole of next week.

The Sports Weekend Sign Up for Secondary students was finalised today. More information about Sports Weekend will follow shortly.

Have a super weekend.

Phil

It is quite remarkable how quickly time flew these past few weeks at UWCEA and we are now already thinking of and making plans for the upcoming October break! The diversity of academic and cross-curricular offerings, our well-established OP program, residential life, events, sports, performances and celebrations keep us continually engaged with students in their pursuit for more learning.

The end of Quarter 1 is also an opportunity to reflect on student progress and on what we have achieved so far this school year. Primary students will have an opportunity to share their learning with parents and teachers during their PYP three way conferences on October 2nd. Secondary students will receive their Quarter 1 interim reports before the break; these will include student reflections, mentor comments and Approaches to Learning (ATL) ratings for all grades. D1 and D2 students will also receive their first achievement grades for this year, in addition to narratives on their CAS commitments.

We are currently finishing our first MAP testing session this year and results will be shared with parents after the break. A make up MAP testing session for M1-M3 is scheduled for Monday September 30th at 8 am and the respective students will be informed accordingly. Enjoy your weekend and have a great week ahead!

With best regards,
Ciprian

We have had an extremely busy week this week. The U9 and U11 went to play football at SCIS on Tuesday and were swimming at Kennedy House on Friday. The student council organised a ‘Mix It Up’ lunch with a child from each class sitting on each table. They discussed many different topics as well as meeting new people. The P2/3 shared their learning with their buddies, and P1 visited Sable Square with their buddies.

Next week is equally as busy…
P4 will be celebrating their unit on Heroes on Monday 30th October at 8am.
EC – P6 will have 3 Way Conferences on Wednesday. Please remember this is a non-teaching day and parents should only come at the allocated time with their child(ren).
EC will be having a picnic lunch on Thursday 3rd October from 11.30 – 1.00pm. P3-6 will participate in the inter-house sports day from 8.00-10.30am on Friday 4th October.

What is a Three-Way Conference?

A Three-Way Conference is an opportunity for students to share their strengths, areas for growth and to set a learning goal with their parents and teachers.

Why do we have Three-Way Conferences?

We hold the Three-Way Conferences as an opportunity to value the students’ strengths, to encourage self-direction in their learning and to enhance the development of a growth mind-set in our students.

Who do Three-Way Conferences involve?

The child, the child’s homeroom teacher, the child’s parent(s).

How do Three-Way Conferences take place?

The conferences take place in the child’s homeroom classroom as a 10-minute appointment.

Amanda

In Swahili we learned that ‘Leisure’ has the following definitions: 

to be happy, to do exercises, to be creative, running, play tag, imagination, play football, and visiting friends. Those were the answers from P2 /3 Swahili class students.

In Swahili we tried to be creative this week and we made make ”wanasesere “( Tanzanians dolls). As the picture above demonstrates, it was a fun activity!

P2/3 shared their learning (see picture above) with their P5 buddies. They created a chart and pictures showing what they do for work, leisure and sleep. The P2/3’s shared their knowledge confidently

Hello from the Acacia House!

Last weekend we celebrated UWC Day with a number of events both in and outside of school.  Friday started with a number of whole school activities involving friendly competitions between the three ‘houses’ on campus. A number of us enjoyed the vegetarian barbecue at our canteen for dinner, and the evening concluded with an international disco at the Residence House.

On Saturday morning, a number of D1 and D2 students took part in a walk through Arusha culminating in a well earned refreshment at a cafe near the clocktower. As a new member of the community myself, it is a pleasure to see the recent additions to our school community, fresh with ideas and excitement of joining a new UWC school, meeting friends and getting to know the history and traditions of our twenty year old school here in Arusha.

Following next week our residents will be taking advantage of the October break to travel.  Some students are returning home while others are joining friends who live nearby.  A number of our students will be spending time at our school property in Pangani, Kihara House, and enjoying a taste of ocean life!

A big thank you to the growing number of Link Families that are getting to know our residential students through dinner gatherings and weekend trips.  If you are interested in inviting one of our students to meet your family, please let me know.

Regards

Chris Green
Head of Residential Life

The M4/5 Drama class has been working on physical acting, specifically the Pantomime, in Q1 in order to explore how we can communicate complex emotions and actions using only body language. In their original Pantomime performances on Thursday they made it clear that character can be clearly expressed without the need for verbal communication. The enthusiastic audience, made up of parents, primary students and teachers, really enjoyed the skits. The M4/5 Drama class would like to thank everyone who attended the performance. Even though they were very nervous before hand it was easy to tell that they appreciated the opportunity to perform for a real audience. Next Quarter the class will focus on the voice and sound effects and producing original radio plays/podcasts which we hope to share with the campus community. Stay tuned!

Pictured above, are the CCA’s on offer for secondary for quarter two. CCAs will start again on Monday, October 28th and will end on Friday, December 13th (7 weeks). Due to an increase in weeks, the paid for CCA’s will in-turn increase in price

School of Rock rehearsals will continue the last week of Quarter 1 and the first week of Quarter 2. Please arrange transport for students Monday and Wednesday at 3.30pm.

Some our new boarding students require football boots and shorts for the upcoming season. If you have any going spare, we would really appreciate them. All sizes and conditions are welcome. Please donate to Caroline at the main reception.