Moshi Campus News – 20 Mar 2021

Moshi Campus News – 20 March 2021

Contents

Notes Concerning this Week

Diploma News

MYP News

Residential Life

PYP News

EC/P1 Class

P2/3 Class

P4 Class

P5 Class

P6 Class

Our Condolences and Best Wishes

UWC East Africa was shocked and saddened by the news earlier this week about the tragic passing away of President John Pombe Magufuli. As we reiterate our messages of condolence to his own family and his family of Tanzania, we also lend our wholehearted support to President Samia Suluhu Hassan. We recognise her call for unity and acknowledge that this is a time for togetherness, peace and a time to set aside differences. These are the intrinsic values of UWC and we look forward to continuing to support our Government and President Hassan in this philosophy.

Mungu awabariki Presidents Magufuli and Hassan.

Her Excellency President Samia Suluhu Hassan

Notes Concerning this Week

Based on the most recent information we have, the public holidays have been shifted and now will be on Monday the 22nd and Friday the 26th. We will update you if we hear anything further.

Art Exhibition

Due to the arrangements in place for the funeral of the late President Magufuli, we are changing the timings for the D2 Visual Art Exhibition. It will be open to members of the school community on Tuesday 23rd March from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm. As this will be inside, please wear a mask.

MAP Testing

Due to the public holidays we will alter the previously listed test schedule.  M1-M3 students will take the tests on the three days of school this week and then finish off Monday and Tuesday of next week.

M4 IDU trip

At the moment this will continue as scheduled, but should we need to shift by a day or reschedule we will contact parents directly.

PYP Student Led Conference

This will continue as scheduled on Wednesday.

Diploma News

For most of the D2 students the oral exams are now over, the few students who missed their exams will make them up in the next week. The externally assessed work – Extended Essay, HL essay for Language A and the TOK essays have been submitted to IB. For a group of organised students, all of their Internal Assessments have been submitted. For others, this weekend is one dedicated to tying up loose ends and getting these in. The residential parents are supporting this process for those on campus. Submitting all work means the focus can be on the preparation for the final exams. The detailed timetable for these will be shared soon.

The IB exams finish on May 20th, with a contingency day on May 21st. The evening of May 21st we will have a on campus celebration with a combined graduation with Arusha campus on May 22nd in Usa River. More details will be sent soon.
For our Art students the final celebration of their work is happening as you read this. The set up for the art exhibition started Friday afternoon. The exhibition will be open to students coming with their teachers during the day on Tuesday and in the evening for other members of the school community.

The D1 students have been thinking about their Extended Essay choices. They had a general introduction, followed by subject specific introductions and then they have been meeting with teachers to discuss their ideas. After reading their ideas, the subjects will be allocated. If a subject is popular then the relevant teachers will be given anonymised justifications to decide who should do that subject. The deadline for the choice of subject is Monday 22nd March at 10:30 am.

Teachers have been talking about the timeline for D1 Internal Assessment submissions and we hope to share the draft of this before the end of the quarter. The work on these should start in D1 and in fact the first Economics commentary will be submitted next quarter and the TOK exhibition will take place in June.

Margaret Brunt – DP Coordinator

MYP News

The M1 students have returned from their recent trip and they had a lovely time. Please ask them about their adventure as they have fun stories and are willing to share.  The M4s are getting ready to head out to Simba Farm and will hopefully avoid the rains, wish them luck.

Please keep kindness in your thoughts and actions in the coming weeks, stay safe and healthy.

Jeanne Aman – MYP Coordinator

Residential Life

For this update, I thought it pertinent to firstly thank all of the 157 students who have managed to firm their travel plans with me for the upcoming Spring Break. This is particularly important as we navigate our holiday with caution and the safety of all residential and day students in the forefront of our minds. Our focus is to have a physical and mental break which is well and truly needed, but to ensure we all return in good health.

On that note, a majority of our Diploma Students have decided to remain on campus and whilst activities will be planned amongst the study workshops, many have decided to use this time to put in place uplifting residential campus projects to leave their legacy. I am excited to see what this will bring for our Kijana, Kiongozi Extension, Kilele and Kipepeo and Kisiwa houses. Indeed, we have just finished our study centre in Kivuli and are now creating a similar centre of sorts in Kisiwa as approach the business end of their academic year.

Over the weekend, we had an array of activities organised by our staff and students. We started our Friday with a wonderful movie night put together by our Diploma students in the music atrium. This, however, was equalled by our waffle making competitions with Mr Samuel, river and boulder hopping with Mr Marsh and Ms Hilda and an array of fun and games with Ms Debbie for our Primary Students. I cannot thank our mentors and residential parents enough for their contribution to our houses.

Whilst I know that our students and staff are exhausted, I applaud their resilience and perseverance through an array of trying times. Indeed, the death of late President Magufuli has affected many and our thoughts and prayers go out to all affected by his passing.

On a final note, if any parents change their child’s travel plans, please contact me directly to coordinate accordingly and through our systems.

Simon Johnston – Head of Residential Life

PYP News

Student led conferences will be held on Wednesday the 24th of March. A sign up link has been sent to you already. Please do sign up as the children are eager to share their work with you during these conferences. There will be no classes on this day so you will arrive with your child for your selected appointment.

During the conferences, we will be taking all health precautions necessary. Tables will be set up far apart inside or outside each class where you will be able to settle in with your child/ren and listen to what they will be sharing with you. After each session, tables and other items will be wiped down with sanitizer before the next family uses them. Please do wear a mask as you attend.

Our P6 students have started working on their PYP Exhibition which they share with the school on May 19th and the community on May 20th. Good luck P6. We are looking forward to seeing the results of your endeavours.

As we come closer to the end of the quarter, do put the following dates into your calendar.

Tuesday, 30th March – Last day of After School Clubs.

Wednesday 31st March – Last day of school for the quarter. This is not an early finish day. We will finish at 1:10pm as normal.

Friday, 26th March was to be a fundraiser movie night for the Simba Foundation. The government has declared this day a national holiday and so this event will be rescheduled and information will be shared with you as soon as details are clear.

Mboka Mwasongwe & Deborah Mills – PYP Coordinators

EC/P1 Class

This quarter, Rhea C ran a club for our younger learners. She successfully created activities and games that made them want to return every Wednesday. Not only that, she also joined them a couple of break times, chasing them across their playground and causing a lot of laughter and merriment. Thank you Rhea for your work with EC/P1! We appreciate your efforts immensely.

Next week, we will be carrying out student led conferences. When you come with the children, they will share their work with you and some of the games they have been playing in class. Please do sign up for a slot as I am sure they will enjoy sharing their learning with you. Even EC1 will take part in sharing their learning with you.

This week, P1s have been learning to make predictions in their reading. Help them to develop this skill in their everyday life at home. The question, ‘What do you think will happen next?’ is a powerful question that can lead to solving many problems in life. Next week, they will be working on solving addition and subtraction word problems in mathematics.

Mboka Mwasongwe

P2/3 Class

We ended this week by having a tea party. We realized earlier this week that some of us had never experienced a tea party, so it only made sense to pull out Ms. Elisha’s unused tea set before she gives it away. In many cultures, tea is a time to meet up with friends and family and have a chat. In my family, this has loosely translated to gossip, and this is also true of our classroom! The kids have decided that they would like to have a high tea to end the quarter, and I’ll send out more information pertinent to that next week.

We’ve been practicing our skip counting this week and preparing for the Student Led Conferences next Wednesday. Please keep an eye out for the link to sign up for them.

To all Tanzanian families in the class, I convey my condolences to you on the passing of our president this week. Poleni sana. 


Elisha Jaffer

P4 Class

I was so impressed this week with the effort that P4 students put into their MAP tests. We also managed to wrap up our Inventions Unit which has been interesting and fun. In Friday’s class, students came up with their own futuristic inventions and it was fun to see their personal interests shine through- a collar for a dog that reminds it to bring back the ball when playing catch, a book whose words enlarge as you read them so it’s easier to read in bed at night, etc.

As you’ve been informed by emails, the week ahead will be short. National holidays on Monday and Friday in addition to the Student-Led Conferences on Wednesday. Believe it or not, we have quite a few things we’ll squeeze into our Tuesday and Thursday! Our new unit already has the kids excited. We’ll be studying Endangered Animals.

Kacey Buckley

P5 Class

The children and I are very much looking forward to the P5 parents joining us for Student Led Conferences on Wednesday of next week. The children will share their portfolios, play maths  and language games with you and challenge you to a game of badminton – be sure to wear appropriate footwear! This week our main focus was on the MAP growth tests, the results of which will be shared with you shortly. We are sad to say goodbye to Amelia and family. We wish them happy experiences on their travels and hope they will return to Moshi in the future. This week was the last French lesson with Mme Stephanie (see photo). The children have been working on drawing monsters and describing them in French. Be sure to look at the display on the breezeway. We look forward to Mme Pearl’s return to school next week.

Deborah Mills

P6 Class

PYP Exhibition 2021 has officially begun with the P6 spending the week researching their chosen topics, drafting central ideas with lines of inquiry, and essential agreements being made. They all have ideas for actions that could take place as well as people to interview. Next week they will meet their mentors, and create their bulletin boards in the breezeway.

As for MAP testing, everyone was present for the week which allowed them to get it done in the time allotted. We celebrated a job well done by sharing donuts and juice. I started reading a new book in class, which has already hooked most of them. They also are now learning cursive, and are enjoying the new style of handwriting.

Today they prepared their portfolios to share for Student Led Conferences. I hope you are impressed with their work as much as I am. The historical fictions that they completed and media summatives are a nice highlight for a great quarter.

Sarah Brummel