First off let me say what a great set of performances it was this week as the team actually ran 6 performances of The Strange Case of Jekyll and Hyde. The intimate nature of the productions was a very different experience as an audience member, and I can only imagine the challenge for the theater team. Congratulations to the cast, crew, Alastair, Heloise, David and Ben for all their hard work on this production. I also know they are already looking ahead and planning for next year. I can’t wait to see what they come up with.
As you can see that is not the only thing that has happened this week. Wrapped around the production we have had NTSAA sports, outdoor pursuits, a visiting cellist, primary gathering and of course the normal class routine.
Looking at the rest of this weekend and into next week you will see a few notices below. In addition to these the same day as the blood drive (Friday March 1st) we will have the first Farmers’ Market of 2024. A perfect opportunity for people to come shop and do a good deed at the same time.
For the parents of secondary students, the Week-Without-Walls and Project week are right around the corner. Please make sure you are up to date on all details regarding trip requirements and travel details.
Lastly from me, a big save the date from the PTA and Student Government:
2024 International Day – Saturday March 9th on the Green from 2 to 5pm.
While more details will be released soon, these days are always a lot of fun and a great way to both share your culture and learn about others.
Bob Cofer – Head of Campus
Upcoming
Parents and community members
Join us for an unforgettable night as UWC East Africa proudly presents the 80’s Valentine’s Ball! Bring your friends and loved ones for an evening of timeless 80’s tunes, groovy dance moves and a special live band performance.
Fun drinks available for purchase, bites included in the ticket fee and more surprises. By purchasing your ticket, you’re not only securing a fantastic night out, but also contributing to the UWC East Africa Scholarship Fund. Consider expanding your impact even more by purchasing the VIP Generous ticket and get a welcome surprise at the entrance. Doors open at 8pm.
This is an exclusive adult event. Get your tickets with Ingrid, Agnes or Mwegelo. Tickets are limited.
On the 1st of March, the KCMC service group will be hosting the second blood drive of this year, where people from the community and the school can donate blood for the greater cause of saving lives. This will be held in Rafiki Hall, from 8am to 5pm and because last time we were able to reach our goal of 100 donations quite easily, this time we are striving for 200 donations. Everyone above the age of 15 can donate blood though if you are younger than 18, you need to get parental consent to take part in the blood drive.
Remember, 1 donation can save 3 lives!
Math Olympiad
South African Mathematics Olympiad (SAMO) is a competitive maths contest. It is a stage for math enthusiasts from DPs and MYPs to show their passion and ability. The first round is on 14th of March (3.14, yes, that is Pi day!) and we encourage everyone to participate. Additionally, participation fees for the first 20 participants signed-up (reply to the email Zhiyi sent regarding this) are covered by the school! —— Mr. Julien and Zhiyi
Ben’s Corner
Huge congratulations to everyone involved in this week’s multiple performances of “The Strange Case of Jekyll and Hyde.” This year’s sell-out production was an extremely intimate and immersive experience in the unique (and very warm!) setting of the Black Box, where the audience had the privilege of being so close to the action.
As the IB proclaims, theatre encourages discovery through experimentation, the taking of risks and the presentation of ideas to others. It results in the development of both theatre and life skills; the building of confidence, creativity and working collaboratively.
As always, the production overcame bumps in the road to share a wonderful performance, another marvellous showcase of the diverse talents across our student cohort and faculty. The performances were the culmination of a huge amount of work by many people and the true learning has been spread out over the preceding weeks for all involved. The cast, crew and supporting adults should be feeling very proud right now and I hope it has been a joyful and memorable experience for you all.
Ben Morley – Deputy Head of Campus
The Strange Case of Jekyll and Hyde
The cast and crew of UWCEA Moshi’s production of The Strange Case of Jekyll and Hyde have triumphed!
Between our first and second performances on Thursday night I stepped out of the Black Box Theatre into K-Hall where a small crowd of staff, students and friends of the school were quick to step forward and offer their full congratulations to the cast and crew for putting on a wonderful show, remarking on the talent of the performers on stage!
And what a performance! Our cast of talented young actors: Arsine M, Cyiza R, Kwagala N, Lyra M, Malo M, Nazlican A, Polina G, Sharon B and Zuhri L, are all team players who were ready to show-up and put in the hard yards.
Back in November some upheaval had proved the original planned production of The Matchmaker to be fraught and unworkable, requiring a change of scripts and plays, leaving only six (school) weeks to our opening. Our remaining cast proved to be reliable and demonstrated true UWC spirit: as open-minded and principled risk-takers. They recognised the need to pull together, put individual egos aside and embraced the challenge of a new ensemble performance.
The production they put on is a one-act stage adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Jekyll and Hyde, giving it a modern twist. Our play starts with the cast asking the audience a question about identity. Dr Jekyll (Kwagala) has invented a compound which transforms her identity as the respectable scientist, into the low, vulgar and murderous Miss Hyde (Zuhri). The respectable London lawyer, Utterson (Cyiza), is suspicious and investigates. The play explores the duality of identity and the dangers of playing God.
They performed two preview performances for the P4/5, P6, and M4 classes, and then four performances over two nights. All together just over 180 lucky audience members have been able to step into our Black Box Theatre and go on this intimate journey of intrigue and mystery with us.
We would like to thank many people for their support: Jinyoung for taking on lighting allowing our cast to be seen; Heloise Morley for costumes, helping to polish up the set (providing half her living room furniture), and bringing coffee when needed most! Many thanks also to Mr Ben Morley, Mr Emmanuel Swai, and Mr Afzal Paliwala for their support as well with many facets of the production. And of course the other backstage crew
Lastly a big thank you to my co-director, Mr Alastair Brandon, for helping keep everything on track and giving the cast direction they needed. You are an amazing team member and I am so grateful you were there alongside us as we barrelled through those 6 short weeks.
Bravo Cast of Jekyll and Hyde, you were an absolute pleasure to work with and I am proud of what you achieved.
David Bucknell
Diploma News
On Tuesday I talked to D1 about the Extended Essay. This along with Theory of Knowledge and Creativity, Activity & Service is part of the Core of the Diploma. The skills developed here are the ones that make Diploma Students attractive to universities.
The Extended Essay is a 4000-word essay based on a subject and topic of the student’s choice. Following on from the conversation on Tuesday they will hear more in class about the Extended Essay in particular subjects along with discussions about the process in Diploma Success Skills. After this they get to choose two subjects they are interested in and then we have the hard job of allocating subjects and supervisors. With 87 students it is difficult to give everyone what they want, so we ask students to explain why they want to do a particular subject. After they know their supervisor, they will meet with and start to brainstorm a topic. The process for this varies by subject and the supervisor will guide them. However, the ideas must come from the student.
There is one week left for planning for project week. Some groups have met with disappointment as they have been let down by outside agencies, but they have risen to the challenge and are making new plans. This is why we do project week and the skills they develop are critical in life. Thank you for approving their leave on Life for this and I have encouraged them to keep you updated about what they do.
For D2 it has been a busy week. There are still submissions to complete and then the mock examinations will start on Wednesday. The mock examinations are the ultimate formative assessment. It is not just about showing knowledge and understanding, it is about the process. For our self-taught students they have to write for one hour and 45 minutes in their own language, which they have not done for a while. Some students will have 15 different papers to write in 8 days it is a challenge, but we believe they are well prepared. The lessons learned from the mocks will help them for the final examinations in April and May.
Margaret Brunt – Diploma Coordinator
DP History
The D2 History class hosted a panel discussion with three leaders of the Moshi Community: Sylvie Wilson Emmanuel (former ISM teacher from the 1970s), Reverend Wilfred Mlay (former Geography professor and current Anglican deacon), and Dhiru Chauhan (former ISM board member and retired businessman).
The panel provided our students with a deeper understanding of Tanzania’s first fifteen years of independence and life under President Nyerere’s Ujamaa policies.
Sustainability Committee
We are very happy to announce the new corner for the sustainability committee in the UWCEA Moshi Campus newsletter!
We are a team of 12 students in D1 and M5 and 2 teachers who are actively working to make our campus and surrounding community more sustainable. We are a continuation of last year’s Sustainability Committee and one of our main goals as the new committee is to communicate with the parents, teachers, staff and students on what we are doing or planning to do, so that everyone can participate and involve themselves in this mission. We already have some new projects coming up and will announce them very soon, however if you are interested in seeing what is happening at all times, we have an Instagram page in which we will be posting updates often @uwcea_sustainability.
Thank you,
Sustainability Committee
MYP News
MYP continues to bustle with knowledge enthusiasts and wisdom wanderers! Everyone is exploring quite a wild ride through the “edu-comedy” rollercoaster with our MYP community.
As the legendary Mark Twain once cheekily remarked, “I never let my schooling interfere with my education.”
He must have time travelled and seen us, tossing textbooks aside and embracing the uproarious side of learning.
This week, laughter has proven to be the best classroom companion. In our community, we don our thinking caps (or wizard hats for teachers and parents!), and we dive into the not-so-serious side of education where giggles are mandatory and knowledge comes with a side of chuckles! I invite everyone to remember to laugh, to smile and to giggle because this definitely makes our days brighter on campus!
New Students Welcome! We are very excited to welcome Adriel to our MYP community!
M1 I&S: This week students have presented their research into Ancient Civilizations answering the question ‘What were the achievements of the Ancient Sumerian and Egyptian civilizations?’.
We found out some incredibly interesting facts! Did you know that the Egyptians invented toothpaste? They used a mixture of myrrh, oxen hooves, water, pumice, and eggshells to keep their teeth clean
Thank you, Ms. Rachel.
Week Without Walls Reminder: Kindly review and ensure the completion/update of the following on our Life platform:
Permission form
Medical records
ID documents (passport or government ID; non-Tanzanians require a Student Pass)
Contact information
All documents must be current. Upload copies by logging into life.uwcea.org and selecting the Passports tab. For permission passes, sign in at life.uwcea.org, access their account, and select the Trips tab.
MYP Dates to Remember:
February 5th – Deadline for updating WWW information on Life
February 12th – 16th Week Without Walls
February 22nd – 27th Long Weekend
March 4th – 8th Book Week
March 12th – 14th – M5 Mocks (tentative-details to follow)
March 19th – Secondary PTC Day 1 (1:00-5:00)
March 21st – Secondary PTC Day 2 (7:30-11:00)
April 17th – All day set up for PP M5
April 18th – MYP PPX
May 6th – 17th – MYP e-Assessments (details and plans to follow)
Farah Fawaz – MYP Coordinator
Sports Update
Last weekend St Jude’s, Arusha Meru and Jaffery School visited Moshi as a kickoff to this season’s NTSAA sports. This season the U-19 are competing in basketball and the U-16 in Football. Overall Moshi did well winning both their games in Basketball and setting themselves up for the cross-division finals on March 16th. Congratulations to both. The boys football won their first game and drew the second with Arusha Meru on an unlucky bounce. The girls also had some bad luck in a 1-0 loss to Arusha Meru. The football is next in action on February 10th. Good results here will influence who goes to the finals.
On Thursday and Friday students from the Primary and Secondary participated in the rescheduled NTSAA athletics. More details will come next week.
PYP News
Congratulations to our PYP athletes who competed in the NTSAA athletics meet on Thursday – the school was very quiet without them! Thank you to Coach Pickell, Coach T and Ms. Lydia, who chaperoned the event.
The Brownies are collecting plastic kilimanjaro bottles with lids (the lids are important). Dr. Marieke has asked us to make some weights to be used by her spinal patients. We are looking for 1.5 litre bottles and 0.7 litre bottles which we plan to decorate and fill with sand. Please drop bottles off outside Room 16 (P4/5 classroom).
On Friday, all of the children participated in the PE themed Primary Gathering – it was an energetic occasion. Thank you Coach T, for all of the time and effort put into teaching the children. Mr. Ben handed out the new metal leaves that will replace the green paper ones and these have been hung on the tree in the centre of the primary quad. Next Friday, 9th February, the P4/5 class will present the Primary Gathering.
Ms. Kacey’s class shared their work on artefacts on Friday and presented their learning in a class museum. Congratulations P2/3 on a lovely presentation. In the primary gathering Ms. Kacey reminded us that Book Week is coming soon. More information will be shared later but there will be a dress as a book character day and also a “get caught reading” photo competition where the children submit photos of themselves reading in unusual locations or situations.
The Student Voice is organising a joke competition. The children have been given a sheet of paper on which to submit their favourite joke and win points for their house. The closing date is Friday, 16th February. Jokes can be dropped off in Mr. Morley’s office or handed in to the class teachers.
The photos shows some children enjoying activities at Ms. Natasha’s Science Club, listening to a visiting cellist and presenting at the gathering.
Advance notice:
Monday, 4th March – Book Week (details to be shared later)
Friday, 8th March – Smarty Party – a Student Voice organised disco (details to be shared later)
Deborah Mills – PYP Coordinator
PYP in Moshi
EC/P1 Class
Jurassic World is the idea that the children had this week. So we have started to create one in class. We have the dinosaurs. We created background colours and a river using crepe paper and fabric. This coming week, we will create trees. We collected thick sticks and we will work on a plan of how to turn them into trees. The children love this project.
We spent the week exploring the square. Next week, we will look at the rectangle so we can learn how it is different from the square.
Some afternoons can be quite hot and sunny. Please send in a hat that the children can wear when they play at the sand pit and the mud kitchen. The hats can remain in their cubbies.
Mboka Mwasongwe
P2/P3 Class
The Class Museum was a wonderful success. The children were so very happy to share their displays with family, friends, and teachers. It was clear that students had lots to say about the cultures represented by their creations. The artefacts included Grecian urns, traditional shields, totem poles, hieroglyphics and more.
We will now turn our attention to the next terrific unit – Exploration. We will kick off by considering exploration around the world and then we will focus on Space!
I would like your help with being more consistent with the return of Home Learning on Fridays. It makes it much easier to prepare for the week ahead when the Home Learning folders are returned on time. Thank you!
Kacey Buckley
P4/5 Class
Every week in P4/5 is a busy week but this one seemed even more action packed than usual. The children spent some time in Mr. Baden’s Design room, working on costumes for a musical performance that they will share with us at a future date. We also enjoyed a performance by Mr. Chris, a visiting cellist. Mr. Bucknell kindly invited us to be the audience for the dress rehearsal of “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde.” On Thursday most of the class went to Arusha for the NTSAA athletics. The remaining 4 children did a sugar crystallisation activity and Ms. Heloise taught them how to use oil pastels to create some superb still life drawings of avocados (now on display outside our classroom). On Friday everyone presented in the PE primary gathering. We have started on our mapping and navigation unit and on Friday the children used trundle wheels and metre rulers to measure the primary boarding house and grounds. Next week we will make a plan of this area with a scale. In maths we work with metres and centimetres, kilograms and grams. Our Primary Gathering will be on Friday, 9th February – we hope to see you there.
Deborah Mills
P6 Class
This week P6 had the opportunity to meet with Mr. Chris Stuberg, who plays the cello and has been doing so since he was just 7 years old. This connected with their current lessons on different instruments in an orchestra. Chris showed the children how to play the cello, explained its parts, and answered their interesting questions. Maybe some of our P6 students will become budding cellists in the future!
In French, P6 looked at the 10 Learner Profile attributes, and read sentences in French that best fit these attributes. For example, for “open-minded” – ouvert d’esprit, and for “I listen and I respect others’ ideas” – J’écoute et je respecte les idées des autres. For their PYPX preparation, the children worked on their Central Ideas in French, using bilingual dictionaries for research and translation.
In PE, the children focused on passing skills and worked together to create lines for this week’s Primary Gathering (well done on doing a great job as MCs). They also helped each other with feedback during presentations and had a great time playing basketball, showing excellent teamwork.
And finally in IT, P6 explored their creativity and spatial design skills by using Minecraft to construct a house with unique features. Overall, it was a week full of fun and exciting learning experiences for our class.
Natasha Berri
Dance Clinic at KCMC
Last Friday, on the 26th January, our KCMC Service group visited the young pediatric oncology patients at the hospital.
For many, this may seem like a one-time event but in reality, it’s a result of a long-lasting collaboration with this particular hospital department. We’ve been visiting and have spent some time with the children at least once every month since the start of this school year.
This time, we made it a bit bigger. Thanks to the help from the canteen (and their amazing juices), Dr. Mariekke, our supervisor Ms. Stephanie, Alexander’s chocolate muffins, Arsine’s dance skills, and Verus’ omnipresence, we organised and delivered an amazing aerobic and dance lesson for everybody, who is at the moment a patient in or near the pediatric oncology department.
It’s always heart melting to see the difference in the facial expressions when we come and leave. The joy and hope we can share with these people just through such ‘smaller’ actions, knowing all the hardship and suffering the patients face. It is the reason why this service is one of the most important things I’ve come across here so far.
Anne KCMC Service Co-leader
Outdoor Pursuits
Once we reached the campsite, we had a wonderful dinner as the sun set, thanks to Mr. Isaac and Mr. Salimu. During the nighttime, we had a campfire set up and the night sky was full of stars! The subsequent day I woke up early to watch the sunrise as it appeared from the east, where Mount Kilimanjaro was. After, we packed our tents, had our breakfast and continued to our next campsite, this time, a 12km walk. Where along the way we learned about Maasai culture, and how they lived and had lunch. A wonderful experience, and after 4km of walking, the campsite was 100 yards away from us, however, a river separated us from it, and with no bridge anywhere, we had to cross the shallow river. Once there, we were met with windy grassy plains that stretched for kilometers and mountains in the distance. Because of the wind, we had little trouble setting up our tents as they kept on flying away from us. but we got there eventually and had dinner. Once that, we went to bed early, as the next day we had to walk for 8km before heading back to both campuses. The next day we also met the sunrise, however, distant fog and cloudy weather surrounded us, and made the morning walk in the plains a never-forgetting experience! As we walked 8km, we got to the busses to take us back to campus.
