Arusha Campus News – 3 May 2022

Arusha Campus Newsletter Tuesday 3rd May 2022

Dear Parents

The Silver Award Duke of Edinburgh adventurers approach their first night campsite near Lengijavi this weekend.

May I wish everyone a very Happy Eid on this Tuesday morning in Arusha. The School will be closed for two days to celebrate the end of the holy muslim month of Ramadan.

Diploma 2 students will be in school toorrow to continue with the final exams. Best of luck to them.

Last weekend we had two groups out and about. Miss Peterson, Miss Caitrin and Mr Niels accompanied our Level 1 Reef students to Tanga. A report follows in this bulletin.

Meanwhile, Miss Amanda and Miss Ann-Joyce, our Duke of Edinburgh International Award co-ordinators, oversaw the adventures of a Silver Award Group and two Bronze award Groups.

I am very pleased to say that everyone on both Reefs and Duke of Edinburgh passed with flying colours. Well done.

I chaired a meeting last week in Moshi to discuss how we as a school can continue to conduct our many trips whilst making even greater consideration of our impact on the environment. We discussed measures that we would like to implement to reduce the negatives of this impact. Food packaging, food choices, transport, water and fuel were all brought into the conversation to see what improvements we could make.

We hope you and your students welcome the changes that you will see in coming weeks.

Have a restful holiday,

Phil

Bronze Group: Chiara, Juanita, Sophie, Alvar, Sameeha and Troy take a breather at the top of Kilima Moto.

The second Bronze Group: Sahil, Liam, Suryanshu and Alutte enjoy the scenery on Saturday morning.

Silver Group: Harry, Valerie, SeungGyu, Avalon, Vivek, Emma and Gaby emerge from the gloom approaching checkpoint 1 on Saturday morning.

Dates for the Diary

Thursday 5th, Friday 6th – P2/3 Trip to Wildtracks

Thursday 5th, Friday 6th May – DP Biology and ESS Fieldtrip

Saturday 7th May – Plains Level 4 Trip to Tarangire

Tuesday 10th May – M5 On-screen Exams start

Thursday 12th May – P4/5 Trip to Mto wa Mbu

Saturday 14th May  – Reefs Level 5 to Tanga

What Kind of Week has it Been?

What a strange start to the quarter, with 3 shortened weeks in a row! Teachers, students, and parents may be struggling to get back into routines after the long break. My suggestion is to take those unusual mid-week days off and keep yourself to a routine, waking up at the same time, eating, resting, playing, and working as you would if you were in school – almost!

The campus is changing, as is normal at this time of year. The weather is cooler and wetter, and our Secondary cohort gets smaller and smaller. The D2s are now finished classes and are into exams – we rarely see them anymore. The M5s finished this week to head into their study break in preparation for their eAssessments. Breaks and play times need to be quieter as we all support the M5s and D2s in their exams. Share time and assemblies will also look different as the Performance Area is unavailable for the next month.

But, the important things, like our values, remain the same.

Value #8 – A shared responsibility and collective duty of care for ourselves, each other, and the environment
Our expanded recycling centers in the secondary area have made a real impact on what goes into the trash. If you haven’t been to the Bomas recently, you should see all the different bins and the efforts they are making to properly sort and recycle! (see image above)

Value #3 – A holistic and diverse portfolio of learning experiences
Value #7 – Opportunities to engage with the culture and nature of East Africa.

If you’re a PYP parent, I’m sure you’ve seen the information about all of the great field trips happening this quarter, giving our youngest students some real-world learning in different areas. This busy Quarter also sees an OP or class trip nearly every weekend, including the Duke of Edinburgh trip which departed on Friday afternoon. CCAs begin once again on Monday with a great variety of activities for kids in all age groups and the D1s head out for their annual Bio/Ess fieldwork adventure.

Value #6 – The ambition of students to demonstrate initiative and take on leadership roles
As graduation nears, the D1 graduation committee has taken over the work started by the D2s. Plans are coming together and with the assistance of the local D2 parents I’m sure the celebration will be worthy of these wonderful students – but first, they have to finish exams! Graduation will take place on Friday, May 20th in the Performance Area.

Finally, I’d like to mention our brothers and sisters at UWC USA. The staff and students in New Mexico were evacuated this weekend due to devastating fires in the area. I can’t imagine how stressful and frightening this must be, particularly for the D2 students who should be focused on their exams. I wish them a safe return to their home away from home and an end to the devastation of these fires.

Have a great holiday and Eid Mubarak to those who observe.

Have a great weekend,
Ms. Christy

PYP News

Nursery/EC1 buddies with P2/3 chalk drawing animals

Another amazing week has whizzed by.
The P6 class are working hard on their exhibition. They are arranging interviews with experts in their areas and beginning to take action on their learning.

The P4/5 class held a fantastic snack sale with pakora’s, waffles, pizza, juice, smoothies, date balls, tomato soup, oat cakes and traditional Finnish pies to name a few!

P2/3 visited Arusha Coffee Lodge to learn about tourism. They were treated to hot chocolate and biscuits as well as a tour of the facilities and services on offer. Thank you Arusha Coffee Lodge.

P1 had a great time painting pictures of different types of air, land and sea transport.

EC1/2 had fun learning rhymes about throwing objects out of the window!

Nursery/EC1 had fun with their buddies drawing different coloured animals.
What a busy week!

Amanda

P2/3’s fantastic trip to Arusha Coffee Lodge with Miss Alina

P4/5 Make Snacks for Everyone!

The Chefs of P4/5 on their shopping trip to the market.

P4/5 concluded their Unit of Inquiry about the complexities of trade by running a break time snack sale on Thursday. They were given a budget by Mama Grace in finance and set off to the market to buy ingredients. Once back at school they produced an amazing range of snacks including hummus, veggies and flatbreads, date balls, pizza, soup and fresh rolls, onion pakoda, fruit waffles, smoothies and juices, golden milk and Finnish karjalan piirakka! Over the course of the Unit the class learned cooking skills from Maral (Mama Ava), Richa and Anshul (Mama Aarav) and Miss Alina – thank you to all our visitors.

Thank you also to the PTA. Much work and fundraising has gone toward the new primary kitchen and equipment. This wonderful space has been central to so much great learning over the course of this unit and the results would not otherwise have been possible.

Mr Ali, P4/5

Outdoor Pursuits: Reefs Level 1 Trip

Litter collection on the beach at Fish Eagle Point near Tanga

From Thursday 28th to Sunday, May 1st a total of 10 students from the Arusha campus went on the OP trip Reefs Level 1. After a bus drive from 10 hours straight (of which most students slept 8 hours), we arrived safely at Fish Eagle Point, close to Tanga. There we met our friends from Moshi. Since we left early, we were in time to have a first snorkel-swim. Friday and Saturday were full-on, with a stunning snorkel-tour through the dense mangrove tree forest, beach cleaning activities, kayaking, a ‘walk’ through the mangroves, more snorkeling, and …. some more snorkeling. Not to forget cooking: we were completely self-reliant and the students were amazing.

For some it was there first-time snorkeling, some were more experienced, but everyone made great progress, and enjoyed it to the max.

Reefs 2, here we come!

Liam and Hanna-Salma show off their production!

Mats concentrates on his pancake

Would you buy a pizza off these two? Of course, Rowan and Jimmy prepare piuzza toppings!

Calendar

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

May

June