I shared my thanks to everyone who facilitated Sports Weekend in Monday’s edition of this letter but I would like to add my voice to that of Ben below – I have heard from many people saying what a great time they had at the event.
This week was a bit of a recovery time as we come down from the excitement of Sports Weekend both emotionally and physically. That said, we have not stopped as this week had its own events from 2 outdoor pursuits trips; more sports at primary and secondary; the primary Sharing Assembly; and the special movie night. You can see some more of the school activities from this week and learn more about upcoming activities below.
Please note that we are approaching December, and the semester will be ending in 3 weeks.For secondary students this means they will have a number of assessments over the next two weeks as teachers try to get the most accurate picture of students’ learning. End of semester reports will be issued in the last week.
Bob Cofer – Head of Campus
Upcoming
Ben’s Corner
I can only apologise if I am repeating what is mentioned elsewhere but I wanted to dedicate my corner today to say a massive thank you to everyone who worked so tirelessly over many months to make Sports Weekend such a success. People always say you should never thank everyone involved in a large, community event because you run the risk of forgetting someone. So, if I do miss someone out, again, I apologise. However, I wanted to illustrate the scale of the work involved in organising such a gathering and say asante to:
the Coaches, not only for their work supporting their teams over the weekend but, more so, for facilitating training and friendly matches for many months
the P.E. team for supporting sport for all, teamwork and promoting healthy choices
the Sports Managers for making sure fixtures started on time, recording scores, accommodating changes where possible and trying to promote sportsmanship throughout
the referees, for working relentlessly from Friday through to Sunday and encouraging a sense of fair play and camaraderie
the PYP runners for carrying the score slips for every single fixture, in every single sport, up to Ms. Brunt in the P.E. office
the scorer herself, Ms. Brunt, for working without a break for the whole weekend, making sure every result was entered correctly, calculating league tables and fixtures and fielding ceaseless questions and impassioned (!) queries
the cleaners for working around the clock, tidying up after us and long after we had all gone home on Sunday so classrooms were ready for Monday
the catering staff who served hundreds and hundreds of delicious meals over the weekend and, many of whom, slept in tents beside the Dining Hall to save on travel time across the days…incredible
the medical staff who were on standby to help us with knocks and twists or to rehydrate us when we were flagging
the drivers who ferried us back and forth across Moshi and beyond and were on call if needed at all times
the facilities team who worked so hard in the run up to the event to make sure the pitches and courts were as match ready as they could be
…and, more importantly, for helping us fight the mud and the rain with constant buckets of sand!
the security team who kept us safe and kept vigil throughout the night
the photographers who took countless photos to capture the whole thing and shared them with the world
the food vendors, the stallholders, the vocal supporters and, of course, the 700+ students who participated!
A special thank you to the Moshi teachers and students who sacrificed their classroom spaces so that everyone had somewhere to sleep but, of course, were left to put everything back to ‘normal’ come Monday morning…the later start for Secondary was much appreciated!
…and, of course, to Coach Pickell, for overseeing the whole event. He maintained his composure, his patience and his grace throughout and I only hope it will be more straightforward for him next time around…remember, trophies gather dust but memories last forever!
Lastly, I wanted to say a special “Hello” to Bablo and Paula in Argentina who I know are dedicated newsletter readers, translators and redistributors!
Ben Morley – Deputy Head of Campus
Residential Life
Dear UWCEA Community,
This week has seen many of our students preparing for their Student Government Candidacies and submitting their applications. Campaigning will begin on the 27th and go through the 1st of December. Good luck to all the candidates!
December 1st, the Student Government is organizing a movie night for PYP residential students and M1-M3 day and residential students. Feel free to join us. The movie will be showing from 7:00 pm in Rafiki Hall.
Enjoy! Adnan Mackovic – Head of Residential Life
Diploma News
School seems so much quieter this week after the impact of Sports Weekend which left many a bit tired. The students are also quiet as many lost their voices with all the screaming they did.
The D1 students found out what group they are in for Project Week. Some have already met with their supervisors and the serious planning begins now. They will be given time in Life Skills on Tuesday to meet together and plan. We are looking at hiring a bus to take students to Tanga and Dar. Please talk to your student about what they are doing and where they are going, the more conversations they have the more problems they will anticipate. The planning is an important part of the process. I will send an email to parents with a little more information soon.
The D2 students should have picked their TOK essay title and have decided on the Areas of Knowledge they will address. The planning and thinking about the structure of this essay will take longer than the actual writing. We are also looking at their Extended Essays and making sure they have written their second reflection.
The weeks beginning the 2nd and 9th December the D2 students will have oral exams.
For the School Supported Self-Taught students this will be their final oral. They need to select extracts from two texts they have studied that are linked by a global issue. They will then talk about these for 15 minutes.
For English A and Kiswahili A they will be mock orals. These follow the same format as School Supported Self Taught but the students talk for 10 minutes and then the teacher asks questions.
For English and French B HL they will be mock orals. Students select one of two extracts taken from a book they have studied provided by the teacher. They talk about the extract and then the text and then have more general conversation.
For English and French B SL, Kiswahili ab initio and Spanish ab initio they are mock orals. Students select one of two pictures. They will talk about the picture and then about the theme the picture is taken from and then have more general conversation.
Students have been practising the format of these in class and the oral will be carried out by their class teacher. All orals take place in Rafiki Hall.
On Friday evening we had a showing of Vuta N’Kvute, the Kiswahili A students have been involved in organising this. This Saturday a group of students are taking part in a chess tournament organised online by a Chilean school.
Margaret Brunt – Diploma Coordinator
MYP News
“Miss do we have community support?” Greetings from the MYP community! I want to kick off this week’s news with a shout out to a couple of rockstar students. Every Friday, they ask me, ‘Miss, community support today?’ I tell them not this time, but they continue, ‘Can we still come and help?’ and they have been doing it every week since they got tagged for community support.
What’s cool is, more students catch wind of it and ask if they can jump in. Seeing these kids stepping up makes me smile (of course it also makes me think, what am I going to do with all of them on a Friday afternoon, but we find plenty to do and to help with). It is evident that these students comprehend the essence of our shared educational journey: ‘We live and learn together as part of a community that places emphasis on shared responsibility and a collective duty of care for ourselves, each other, and the environment.’
This ethos transcends the traditional confines of textbooks and grades, reflecting a broader commitment to our community’s well-being… and this is plenty to celebrate.
Words of The Wiser: Who better to share their learning stories than the students?
“We are applying all the skills we are learning in I&S to draw a map of the school! This is just the start, we will share the final products soon!” – Sena, Anais and Sabine M1
“For my Personal Project, I am designing basketball kits for the under 16 boys’ basketball team. I am learning how to use Digital Design platforms to design kits/clothes. I will achieve this by doing research on how to use the digital platforms and by looking at professional collaborative work between Nike and D1 basketball colleges. This will help me leave my mark on the school.”– Manzi, Tendo and Musoke M5
“For English class in M4, we’ve started writing our own spoken word poems that each have to be related to a chosen them linked to our unit’s key and related concepts. In a way the freedom we get with this project is nice to have, but frequently coming across writer’s block is so difficult to deal with as well. Being able to speak freely and express how we feel through the form of spoken word is a new way that I’ve discovered I can be in touch with my emotions.“ – Zena M4
MYP Dates to Remember:
November 28th – M5 Personal Project Check-in
December 4th – Spoken Word Poetry Night M4
December 8th – Evening of the Arts
December 15th – Last day of Semester/ Semester 1 Reports
Farah Fawaz MYP Coordinator
Dress Code Reminder
Dear Parents,
Please see the linked letter being shared with both campuses about the dress code for secondary students. It is really a reminder of the code and how it was established as we all try and work together on this topic.
Bob Cofer
Sports Update
Leopards on the Move!
After a non-stop Sports Weekend, students are slowly starting to appear back out on the courts.
Continuing with the momentum from sports weekend, our primary had a friendly competition this Friday here on campus in football.
Saturday we are hosting an NTSAA event. Our U13 boy and girl football teams will be starting around 9am and finishing around 2pm.
U16 boys’ and girls’ basketball will be filling K-hall again this Saturday. Those games are always fun to watch, see you there!
Our primary will also be traveling on Dec 2 for a U9 and U11 football tournament at SCIS.
Coach Pickell
PYP News
Thank you to everyone who came to the Primary Sharing Assembly on Friday. I hope you enjoyed seeing the children onstage sharing the work they have been doing in class as well as in French, Swahili, PE and Music. Many thanks to Ms. Grace and Mr. Emmanuel for their technical and musical support. The children were very proud of their performances. On Friday afternoon many of the children took part in a friendly football tournament alongside PPA and Kibo Shanty. The results will be shared in next week’s newsletter. On Friday, 1st December, we have a primary gathering that will be presented by the Daycare students. This will take place on the tennis courts under tents and will begin at 7:40am. You are very welcome to attend. Also on 1st December, at 4:30pm, the Beachball Disco will take place in Rafiki Hall. This has been organised by Mr. Ben, Ms. Zitha and the Student Voice. The tickets are 5000 Tshillings and are available from your child’s teacher. This price includes a drink – all subsequent drinks cost 2000 Tshillings.
As shared by email last week, for the time being the weekly swim class has been replaced by a PE class. Please send your child with appropriate footwear for running on this day. More information will be shared when available.
Other dates for your diary:
2nd December – Primary NTSAA football tournament at St. Constantine’s
8th December – Evening of the Arts (more details to follow)
11th December – Whole school assembly in Karibu Hall at 10:30
13th December – PYP Parent Teacher Conferences
15th December – Primary Gathering and last day of classes.
Deborah Mills – PYP Coordinator
EC/P1 Class
Thank you to all who have sent in boxes and rolls. We have gathered quite a number of them but we need more. We are also looking for little Knick knacks such as bottle tops, loose screws, bent forks, dead batteries/light bulbs, and the like. These will work well as accessories to our robots.
The children are loving their phonics home learning. Please encourage independent reading as much as possible as well as going through words more than once. We have time to go through their words together as well in class once they return home learning. Consistency in this helps to build their fluency and they love this.
Mboka Mwasongwe
P2/3 Class
This past week flew past, it was a whirl of gratitude as we looked at the Harvest Festivals from around the world! Children were very interested in the different traditions and rituals. Next week, Home Learning will involve thinking about traditions that your family enjoys that are unique to you.
As mentioned before, both Tuesday and Thursday PE sessions will be on the pitch (or K-Hall if there’s rain) so please send children with running shoes for both days.
It was wonderful to have so many of you at the Sharing Assembly. The class was very keen to share the learning from our Science unit.
Kacey Buckley
P4/5 Class
This week we started our new unit about sustainable food production. We discussed the fact that some foods can be pretty much eaten just as they are (fruits and vegetables) and that other foods undergo some sort of process. The children have come up with a (huge) list of foods that they want to research and they have made a start on this. We will continue with this next week and will also consider whether our food is locally grown, from somewhere else within Tanzania, or imported from another country. We will learn about “food miles” and conduct some research at home, looking in the kitchen cupboards. The times table and division flashcards are still going well and we will also do some revision of graphing in maths next week. The children have written a reflection on the first semester of the school year and these will be shared with you in their school reports next month.
Deborah Mills
P6 Class
This week was a big IT week in P6 as they used the apps Canva and Animoto for their advertising campaigns. P6 also enjoyed presenting their knowledge about how to be safe online and how to use IT responsibly at the PYP Sharing Assembly. They also talked about why sportsmanship is important in sports. Thank you for coming to see us.
In Maths, P6 concentrated on finding the perimeter and area of regular quadrilaterals and completed a Summative Assessment on Number. Next week, they’ll explore different types of triangles and practice measuring and constructing angles using a protractor.
We will also begin a new Unit of Inquiry: Transdisciplinary Theme: How The World Works Our Central Idea: Understanding energy transformation allows us to utilise its power.
Lines of Inquiry:
Sources and forms of energy.
How energy is transformed to do work.
Energy Conservation.
Natasha Berri
From the Counselors
Thank you so much to those of you who were able to join for this weeks D1 parents presentation to introduce you to the Career and College/University Readiness process here at UWC East Africa. We hope you found the information useful, and welcome any additional questions that you may have about how to support your child on their journey to life after secondary school.
Please use these to see the presentation we went through, and a document with links to some of the items we referenced during the presentation. If you are interested in access to the Parent Portal of Maia Learning, please complete the link at the top of the page and we will set up an account for you.
The recording will be available on the UWCEA Careers website in the Past Presentations section later this week if you would like to review it.
Aizhan Smagulova – University and Career Counselor
