Arusha Campus News – 26 Mar 2022

The intrepid Hanang hikers advance into the clouds encircling Hanang peak (3420m asl), Tanzania’s 4th highest.

Festival of the arts opened with our recently formed. And “SiKimya”, meaning “not silence”. The group have been working together in Band CCA with Mr. Denis Cox and performed their debut at the festival of the arts. Watch this space for their next gig!

The Festival of Arts that took place this week showcased our creative talent. The evening started in our Performance Area with a programme of music and theatre followed by a gallery walk around secondary artwork displayed in the classrooms. Displaying images of the art in this newsletter would do the authors a disservice and I hope we can create some sort of digital exhibition to record what was on show. Some of the pieces were simply out of this world.

One of the perks of my job is that I can walk around and go to any class I wish! This week I followed my nose and was delighted to discover pizza making going on in P4/5 – just the sort of lesson that needs an extra adult to supervise (if you know what I mean!) Pictured right is Julius sampling his ‘Smit Margherita!’

If you are a secondary student I would like to draw your attention to the Secondary student discussion about the war in Ukraine. We will meet at 3pm on Monday 28th March to discuss the multiple perspectives of the conflict.

This has been organised by Annabell (Austria) and Marko (Macedonia) who had conflicting fortunes during the week’s football World Cup qualifying matches. Annabell, admittedly, was largely unmoved by the news of Austria’s exit from the competition at the hands of Wales, whilst Marko’s Macedonian victory over the mighty Italians has made him the noisiest person on campus ever since. Here he is, proud as punch, with his Macedonia shirt.

As we go to press our Reefs Level 4 students are safely in Tanga in spite of a rare school Land Cruiser breakdown en route, whilst our U13 Netball team performed brilliantly on Arusha Campus and lost by just two goals to Orkeeswa! Our U9 and U11 hockey teams were at St Constantine’s School coming 3rd and 4th respectively. More news on their respective fortunes next week but in the meantime see the picture below.

Have a wonderful weekend – just one more week to go before a well deserved holiday.

Phil

Our U11 hockey players in action this morning.

Wednesday 30th March – PYP Student-led Conferences

Thursday 31st March – 5pm MYP Personal Project Exhibition 

Friday 1st April – Last day of Q3 

This week we celebrated our swimming (see gallery above) through the PYP FUN Gala. We had a fantastic afternoon enjoying noodle races, ball relays, collecting people on noodles, kickboard-bodysurfing, swapping t-shirts and more. The improvement in our students swimming was fantastic to see. All children showed confidence in the water and supported each other.
Being safe and confident in the water is a life skill that we encourage our children to gain.
We look forward to the postponed EC Pool picnic on Tuesday.

PYP Student Led Conferences will take place on Wednesday 30th March. Please remember this is a non-teaching day.
Thanks

Amanda

Our Under 13 football heroes watch on during last weekend’s penalty shootout

Last Saturday we went to a football tournament at Braeburn. We entered 2 U13 teams in the tournament and one of our teams made it to the final whilst the other got knocked out in the group stage. In our first game we played Braeburn and won one zero with Quintin scoring a header after a cross into the box. In our next game we played Jaffery and drew zero zero. In our third game we played Moshi B and we drew zero zero again. We topped our group and made it to the final against Orkeeswa. It was an intense game and both teams played very well and by half time the scores were as they started. In the second half we had many chances and we were by far the better team, but unfortunately we couldn’t make it count so we went into penalties. We missed our first penalty but so did they. Yuvraj took the next penalty and scored then so did they. No one else scored until the third last penalty and Orkeeswa scored it so we had to score our last penalty to keep going on but unfortunately we missed so Orkeeswa won.

In the end it was a fun tournament for both teams and we hope we could have more.

By Aidan and Yuvraj (M1)

Shahad in D1 (above) recently attended the Global Peace Summit Dubai 2022: The aim of the Global Peace Summit Dubai 2022 is to bring prospective youths from all around the world to discuss the importance of Peace Education, countering extreme violence, Global Citizenship, Peace Petition Signatory Campaign, Youth Development and to provide a dynamic platform to excel their leadership traits with the engagement of international communities & world leaders and to share their thoughts on “Peace by Dialogue” concept. During the conference, participants from different countries presented peace-related projects that they implemented in their societies. The conference included debates through which the conflicts between different countries such as Ukraine and Russia, Palestine and Israel, as well as Armenia and Azerbaijan were discussed.

The last couple of weeks have been busy with D1 students brainstorming possible topics of research within the subject of their choice for their Extended Essay, and working on formulating an adequate research question. They have also formally started their active university search and application process with a presentation by Mr Kieron White on the various tests for university entry (SAT, ACT, English proficiency tests…). The list is available on https://www.uwcea.org/tests/.

In the meantime, the D2 students put the last touches to their TOK essay and Extended Essay before submitting to the IB. They must now focus on completing the rest of their internal assessments and they are expected to spend the Easter break revising for their IB exams. Please see the schedule of the May 2022 session.

On Monday, Annabell and I will mark the culmination of a month’s worth of dedication towards bringing and evaluating global issues on our campus. The diverse nature of our community is an advantage like no other school has. For this reason, the Ukraine War is an opportunity for us, as students, to discuss multiple perspectives and the aspects in which this situation affects the world and Tanzania.

The Panel Discussion is scheduled for Monday at 3 PM. We do understand that the students do not have an obligation to stay after school and participate in the event. Nonetheless, we would appreciate all secondary students participating in this event because if the future global leaders do not take part, who will?

Marko, Macedonia, D1

The Extended Essay is an independent, self-directed piece of research, finishing with a 4,000-word paper and is compulsory for any students taking the full Diploma. The students must stick to the internal deadlines to make the process as smooth as possible! As part of the EE process timeline, this year we have decided to assign 2 days off timetable in order for the students to start writing their EE under supervision. The idea is to send them home for the long break with at least half of their EE completed so they are on track to finish it over the break and come back with a full draft in August.

Please see the deadlines below for the current D1 students  (also posted on Managebac):

Since graduating IB at ISMAC I have continued my journey of becoming a marine biologist and oceanographer! ISMAC, my family and the community which I grew up in were so encouraging towards exploration, research and conservation of the planet and all its inhabitants and it definitely motivated me to be doing what I am now! I am currently enrolled at University of Plymouth, studying BSc (hons) Marine Biology and Oceanography.

I have also taken some time gaining experience in the field including spending a portion of my time with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in Zanzibar, exploring shark and ray landings at fish markets and aiding the documentation of a detrimental decline in landings compared to a decade ago. I have also assisted master and PhD students with genetics and behavioural studies in South Africa, involving shark species like blacktip oceanic, bull and tiger sharks! I have additionally focussed on gaining skills such as underwater photography and becoming a commercial SCUBA diver.

Through a collaboration between Plymouth University and the Manta Trust, I was awarded an apprenticeship with the Ocean Giants Programme! Ocean Giants Programme is a student-led collaborative non-profit organisation, working internationally to aid protection and conservation of the oceans largest and most threatened marine species and their habitats. Through this programme we volunteer our time to support a multitude of NGOs, including: Large Marine Vertebrates Research Institute Philippines (LAMAVE). We are currently interested in supporting LAMAVE by providing them with a Clarius veterinary ultrasound scanner! And I’d love to involve my Tanzanian based community in this epic journey of exploring the possibility of using ultrasound research to detect and classify more marine areas as vulnerable and important environments. We are so excited to launch this project and with this campaign, strive for more advanced research and conservation!

Leila

Last Saturday a group of well-prepared MYP and DP students from Arusha and Moshi (see image above) embarked on a weekend hike up Tanzania’s 4th highest peak. We began on a muddy trek to a salt lake near the base of the mountain where we bonded over mud-covered legs and goofy photos. The first night at base camp was filled with laughter and deep conversations under the stars. The next morning we woke up at the crack of dawn to pack lunches and gear in preparation for our first day of climbing.

After a long day of climbing thousands of meters of elevation, we were excited to push our legs even further to the summit. We were faced with some bumps along the way including fatigue, strong winds and chilly nights, but it all paid off when we reached the summit and its gorgeous views. Overall we had an amazing experience even with the sore legs and sunburnt foreheads. We’d like to say a big thanks to the teachers and cooking staff who made the trip possible! We’re all looking forward to climbing Mount Meru, with the hope of making it to Kili!

Olivia and Irem (DP)

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