Arusha Campus News – 11 Oct 2021

Arusha Campus Newsletter Monday 11th October 2021

We ALL made it! The triumphant Kili climbers pose for a photo yesterday morning at 5895 metres. Well done everyone!

Dear Parents

The precociously talented P6 class perform expertly at Friday’s assembly. A shame about the gatecrasher with no moves in the middle!

Whatever your walk of life, I have found it rather tiresome to keep saying ‘we’ve done as well as we can in the light of the pandemic’. Personally I have also become weary of telling people that we have ‘had a difficult start to the year’. As I gazed at my rather forlorn Land Rover (image right) lying on its side on a remote hillside during the recent Guptas Buffalo Charge rally, I made a resolution to start looking on the brighter side of life! Time to shrug off the sad old and bring in the happy new.

And if you speak to anyone who was present at Friday’s Assembly on Arusha Campus, I think we can safely say we have turned the corner. From Miss Sarah and her belting band of teachers, Miss Carmen’s polished P6 Performers, Amr (D2) with his sensational saxophony, Amitis with her Teacher Talents awards not to mention the mischievous miscreants Miss Amanda and Miss Peterson!

When I was a young teacher in England, my headmaster was an old chap who was about to retire. My mentor. He used to tell me that there will always be a new educational innovation to catch up on, and that in all probability by the time we become accomplished at it, it will be replaced by something newer and more complicated! Just do your best with those, he would say, just remember there is something much more important. Your students, staff, parents and teachers must want to come to school everyday so make the place happy! I hope we carry on in true Rhinos spirit and make sure that remains the case. To reinforce that message, this (overdue) newsletter is punctuated with images of happy community members – try and count the smiles!

Have a safe and happy holiday and remember we open again on Wednesday 20th October!

Phil

What kind of week has it been?

Is everyone as relieved as I am to have Mr. Phil back on campus??

Our first Quarter is now complete. It ended with wonderful PYP House sports events, spiders on the floor in Share Time, Kilimanjaro Level 5 OP, a large group of students volunteering with the Buffalo Charge or in Moshi to write their SATs – I know which destination I would prefer! In addition, the secondary students were treated to some excellent speeches by our fantastic group of candidates hoping to be elected to the brand new Student Government executive.

Thursday evening many in our community came out to enjoy the Rotary club’s monthly trivia. This week was a special treat as the quiz was set and hosted by the Interact club from our campus. They put on a fantastic quiz which was entertainingly hosted by D2 Shrishti. She handled a rowdy crowd with grace and humour. They were able to raise over 700000 tsh to help support The Lorax group, our finalists in the Young Aurora competition. A grudging congratulations goes out to the winning team which included Mr Adam, Ms Sue, and Mr Ali even though they narrowly beat my team.

Last week’s conferences got under way and we enjoyed welcoming MYP students and parents on Monday, DP parents and students on Tuesday, and PYP families on Wednesday. I also had a chance to meet with our global families on Wednesday evening over Zoom.

Have a great vacation!

Ms Christy

Deputy Head

PYP News

As we often say, its not the children who misbehave, its their parents! Baba Aidan and Baba Kajuni (top) breaking the rules in the parent obstacle race!

We have had a fantastic couple of weeks that have been full of activities. The DP/PYP meet up was a great success. The PYP students had a fantastic time getting to know the DP students and playing games with everyone. Thank you DP students for making the morning enjoyable.

On Thursday and Friday we had our Athletics events. The students showed their improvement in throwing, jumping and running. We had a great time having a go at every station and every child was involved in every event. The parents’ races were a highlight for everyone involved.

Amanda Bowen
PYP Coordinator Arusha Campus
UWC East Africa

Diploma students took it upon themselves to take a breather from their intense academic prigramme to organise a fun carousel of activities for their Primary counterparts. The main point of the exercise? For big people to get to know little people and vice-versa!

PYP Athletics Days

PYP Student Council

The PYP Student Council recognised the PYP Educational Assistants recently by awarding their own PYP Certifcates.

MYP News

MAP stands for Measures of Academic Progress. Designed by the North Western Evaluation Association, a non-profit education institution in Oregon, USA , the purpose of MAP Growth is to determine what the student knows and is ready to learn next. Unlike paper and pencil tests, where all students are asked the same questions and spend a fixed amount of time taking the test, MAP Growth is a computer adaptive test. That means every student gets a unique set of test questions based on responses to previous questions. As the student answers correctly, questions get harder. If the student answers incorrectly, the questions get easier. By the end of the test, most students will have answered about half the questions correctly, as is common on adaptive tests. The purpose of MAP Growth is to determine what the student knows and is ready to learn next. Using MAP results, we are able to pick up any difficulties students may be experiencing and also evaluate gaps in the teachers’ delivery or students’ knowledge.

DP Corner

What is Theory of Knowledge (TOK)?

Alongside the Extended Essay (EE), and Creativity, Action and Service (CAS), TOK forms the mandatory ‘core’ component of the IB Diploma. Students develop skills and experiences within the core component that not only prepare them to become successful ‘citizens of the world’, but also make them highly sought-after candidates for discerning universities.

TOK is a 100-hour critical thinking course, in which students consider many aspects of knowledge, such as how we produce it, what we use it for, and why it develops over time. We think about concepts such as truth, perspectives, objectivity, and culture, and how these impact on the way we understand the world.

The course is structured into 6 different units, each one of which asks a ‘Big Question’ about knowledge. The Big Questions are dispayed above.

A few weeks ago, the D2 completed the first assessment component of their TOK course: the TOK exhibition. This semester they will choose one of the following six May 2022 prompts and complete their second and last assessment component, the TOK essay:


1. Can there be knowledge that is independent of culture? Discuss with reference to mathematics and one other area of knowledge.
2. To what extent do you agree with the claim that “there’s a world of difference between truth and facts” (Maya Angelou)? Answer with reference to two areas of knowledge.
3. Is there solid justification for regarding knowledge in the natural sciences more highly than knowledge in another area of knowledge? Discuss with reference to the natural sciences and one other area of knowledge.
4. How do historians and human scientists give knowledge meaning through the telling of stories? Discuss with reference to history and the human sciences.
5. How can we distinguish between good and bad interpretations? Discuss with reference to the arts and one other area of knowledge.
6. If we conclude that there is some knowledge we should not pursue on ethical grounds, how can we determine the boundaries of acceptable investigation within an area of knowledge? Discuss with reference to two areas of knowledge.

Nathalie

DP Co-ordinator

Environmental Systems and Societies with Miss Jennifer

These pictures show ESS students investigating the soil texture in different areas around the school such as the canteen, the Primary playground, residential bomas, and many other areas. This investigation is part of their fifth topic in the ESS syllabus about soil systems and terrestrial food production. We can also see from the pictures how students were enjoying going out of their classroom and doing some investigation on their own. It was a very nice and informative experience.

Armandine, D2

Play for a Cause

Alfred, Kenya (centre) and Miguel, Venezuela (left) pose with their protegees from Magereza School.

Last year, we organised a successful football tournament at our campus, ‘Play for a Cause’. Thank you everyone for the charitable donations which helped in improving the sports facilities for Magereza Primary School. There are no words to describe how much our school community has helped in bringing joy to them. This weekend we hosted them for a friendly match between our U9/U11 football club and the Magareza students. All the kids played superbly and we were very happy to hand over jerseys, training bibs, balls and cones. We however noticed a huge inadequacy of shoes which is vital equipment in sports hence we decided to reach out to members of our community to see whether you could help through donations of some football shoes, that your children no longer use. Or any other items that can help them enjoy sports in a more comfortable way. Outside the administration office there would be a box written “Football Shoes for Magereza“. Feel free to put your kind donations.

Alfred, D2

Outdoor Pursuits – Rides Level 1 to Mukuru

Around 35 bikers from Moshi and Arusha campuses met on the northern slopes of Mt Meru to embark on a two day cycle safari through the barren Maasai pasturelands. Fundi Paulo and his team were incredible fixing six punctures on one tyre alone. Paulo made the mobile school bus his workshop and repaired bikes on the move as we cycled along in true Formula 1 Racing style fashion!

Swim Squad Update

For those of you reading the newsletter from far off lands, you may not know that Arusha has yet to ‘warm up’ after the winter chills of July and August. The swimming pool has been particularly arctic. Here are some the brave (foolhardy?) swim squad members who swim every morning at 6am.   “We don’t need it warm to swim in the morning we need strong drills to keep our hearts pumping” 

From your PTA

Dear Parents and Guardians,

The first quarter is over and time has flown by.

Thank you to the parents who have filled in our survey forms, we appreciate the feedback and hope to be able to improve the way PTA serves you and the whole school community. For those that missed our newsletter and email with the links, please find them below. There are two surveys, so please help us by filling both.

In other news, by the time you return from holidays, the Recycle Depot will be accepting batteries! This is due to our collaboration with The Recycler, and is a wonderful addition to our ability to serve you. Batteries have long been an issue to recycle, but now you can bring them all to the Depot at the end of the car park.
With regards to the Depot, could we please remind you to not dump household waste that isn’t included in the list for recycling and again request that you clean out plastics before leaving them.

Thank you.

Your PTA

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdja6xpa3cYwYIzyMJfuI-ppduu2M21R8xIvd1pn1wFZYIlMw/viewform?usp=sf_link

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScU-It3n8K7k4Y4BcIf2mjcRvs-V39Yh334ZlPYye6sXQlgww/viewform?usp=sf_link

 

https://www.kilitrails.com/rotary-triathlon

Calendar

Click on any month (below) to link to the live School calendar on our website

October

November

December