Moshi Campus News – 18 Jan 2020

I has been great to see everyone returning this week and to meet all our new students and families.  I would also like to welcome Emily Otieno who has joined us this semester to teach Physics and Math. 

While the calendar year is new, the school year is almost half over for our D2 students. For them more than anyone, this is a time to look back at what they have learned and look forward to the exams in May.  However, before they get there, they have the Mock exams starting January 27th.  While the exams are happening, you will see signs around Rafiki Hall mostly asking for your cooperation in keeping the noise down so they can focus on the task at hand. 

In February you will also see around the front of campus some work starting to prepare the space for the new building.  We need to shift some power lines and other items to start the building around March 1st.  In the coffee morning I will provide more updates on the progress of the building.

We have sports, outdoor pursuits and other events happening this month, so please keep an eye on the calendar and contact me if you have any questions.

Bob Cofer

Please join us Tuesday at 7:45am in the social center for the first parent coffee morning of 2020.  We look forward to seeing you there.

On Thursday afternoon at 5pm we will have the Semester 1 Sports Awards in Rafiki Hall, please join us to congratulate the teams and individuals on their hard work and achievements.

We are right back into the swing of things at UWCEA. There are a number of unfamiliar faces on campus and, once again, a warm welcome to our new families. A special welcome to Emily Otieno who has joined us in the Maths and Science department.

At this time of year, many of us are busy setting resolutions. As I am sure you will already be aware, a New Year’s resolution is a tradition in which a person resolves to continue good practices, change an undesired trait or behavior, accomplish a personal goal, or otherwise improve their life. A 2007 study by Richard Wiseman from the University of Bristol involving 3,000 people showed that 88% of people who set New Year resolutions fail despite the fact that 52% of the study’s participants were confident of success at the beginning. As the saying goes, “I can’t believe it is a year since I didn’t become a better person.”

With our D1 students this week, we decided to give New Year’s resolutions a twist. Instead, we have started creating Vision Boards. A vision board is a tool used to help clarify, concentrate and maintain focus on specific goals. Literally, a vision board is any sort of board on which you display images that represent whatever you want to be, do or have in your life.

Research shows that Vision Boards serve a number of purposes, including providing clarity and daily reinforcement. The idea is that, once completed, these Vision Boards will take pride of place in the bedrooms of our D1 cohort and serve as a daily reminder of their goals, allowing them to keep their attention on their intentions.

Why not try and create your own Vision Board at home? You never know, it might inspire you!

Ben Morley

It has been lovely to see the diploma students back on campus, those who have travelled overseas are full of stories of their travels and have brought back snacks for us to try. We still have a few to return but hopefully we will have everyone back in a couple of days.

The D1 students have settled back into the routines of classes quickly, hopefully following the feedback from their reports. Plans are being made for events including a mindfulness evening, cultural nights and a fashion show. In Life Skills they have started making vision boards which will help them make plans for their futures. In Research and Writing they have been learning about the command terms and how knowing these will make interpreting assessment questions easier.

The D2 students have made it to their final semester of school. We have had some big university deadlines this week which has kept some of them very busy. Their time in class is spent preparing for their Mock Examinations. On Monday we will meet with them all to talk about the procedures for the examinations. The mocks are not just about being tested on the content but being exposed to the regulations for IB DP Examinations. Students should see this as an opportunity to see how they should prepare for the final examinations. If they study well this time, it will be easier in May.

The Mock Examinations last for 6 days for most students and they will have two or three examinations a day. Day students should remain on campus between examinations but do not need to attend class. It is the student’s responsibility to be ready to go into Rafiki Hall with any equipment they need at the time given on the timetable. If they are late they will not be given extra time and may not be able to sit the examination. Good luck to all of them.

Margaret Brunt

As we begin the new year, it is also important to reflect on what has led us to this point before we plan to move forward. This week we provided opportunities for students to take some time to think about the year that has passed through journaling and different types of imagery, while also focusing on what is to come. There is so much to look forward to, but it is so important to take time to appreciate what has happened in the recent past and what we can learn from it to move ahead in the best possible way.

Deadlines are a critical part of our lives, but we also have to look back at how well we met them to ensure that we have an efficient plan for dealing with them in the future. For many of our D2 students, they faced a university application deadline of 15 January (UK and US) and M5s are looking ahead at a fast approaching deadline for their Personal Projects. Working with both of these groups this week in Life Skills it is very evident that some of us are adept at meeting deadlines with ease, while others scramble to the last minute (and beyond) crossing the finish line at the very last second. Although it can be thrilling to just make it, it can also lead to unhealthy habits and behaviors. So, with a new year full of possibilities, let’s start encouraging our young people, and each other, to not only be aware of deadlines but to create plans to meet them in effective and efficient ways. Take a breath and try sharing some of these tips for being effective in meeting deadlines.

As a final bit of motivation for the D2 students before pending deadlines and Mock Exams, we had the privilege of welcoming Ms. Niwaeli Kimambo to our campus. She is from Moshi, and graduated from UWC Mahindra College in India. Now she is completing her doctorate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and was so gracious to come and spend time with our students to provide them some words of encouragement as well as answer their questions about life after UWC East Africa. We are always appreciative of guests who come to share their stories (successes and struggles) with our students to help prepare them for what lies ahead. If you are interested in sharing your story, and any life strategies you may have, with our students, please feel free to contact me at cassandraford@uwcea.org.

Finally, we know that there may have been some issues/concerns that arose over the break that you may want to explore with a counselor. Please feel free to contact Ms. Ford or Mr. Kileo to discuss any potential counseling needs you may have for your child.

Wishing you all a wonderful start to 2020!

Cassandra Ford

A warm welcome to both returning and new students and Happy New Year!

New students
To all new MYP parents, we wish to thank you for making UWCEA your school of choice and we feel privileged to partner with you in educating your children. Your children/wards are settling in well within a network of supportive staff and fellow students. Feel free to contact us in case of any further clarifications. As your MYP Coordinator, you can reach me at davidochieng@uwcea.org. For parents with students in the residence, feel free to get in touch with the residential parents.  You definitely have their email addresses at this time.

International Schools Theatre Association (ISTA)
ISTA is a theatre organization based in the UK which ties in strongly with IB concepts and learning as well as having a goal to connect young people across the world, giving opportunities to increase creativity and problem-solving skills. This year the Cairo American College in Cairo, Egypt will be hosting a Middle School festival on 12th – 15th March 2020. The age limit for Middle School is 10-14 years old, but minimum class level is M1.

Preparations are now at an advanced stage and students who have expressed interest have received latest information on logistics including how to make payments. Those interested can contact Ms Aman at jeanneaman@uwcea.org or myself for further details.

M5 PP Reports Submission
All the M5 PP reports are due on January 29. These candidates have received feedback on their second draft reports this week.  The Personal Project Exhibition will be on Tuesday February 11. We request members of the community, particularly parents, to plan to attend.  Details will follow soon from the PP coordinator.

M1 Trip (Lake Eyasi)
The M1 class an interdisciplinary trip planned for February 17-20. This is a cross campus trip involving our Arusha campus and features both Integrated Humanities and Design subjects. More details will be released soon.

David Ochieng

There has been a buzz of activity this week in and around the residential houses as students began to arrive back, some as early as Saturday from their Christmas Break. The peak days for large numbers of returning students were last Sunday and Monday, and by Tuesday when classes started, over 75 students had arrived back mostly via Kilimanjaro International Airport, with others arriving independently via local overland buses or private transport.

As you can imagine the logistics of organising the students’ school transport back to school, who are arriving from so many different destinations in the world and on so many different airlines, is quite a challenging task, hopefully now made a little easier via the new shared online Student Transport System which I trialled during this Quarter. I ask Parents/Guardians to please continue to pass on their child’s/children’s travel details to their respective Residential Parent, who will then forward these details to me via the online form. Keeping track of last-minute flight changes and cancellations, also proves difficult to manage at times however, given good and timely communication, we get there in the end!

On Thursday evening I convened a Residential Life Weekend Planning Meeting, during which student representatives from each Residential House, together with our Interns and Ms Delphine, discussed and planned events and activities for the full 11-week Quarter. It was a very productive student-led meeting during which an exciting mixture of on and off campus activities were discussed. This weekend begins with an outside wellness session of yoga and meditation organised by Othello in D1.

This Saturday I watched some of our PYP resident students practicing football with fellow day-students in readiness for the forthcoming UWCEA Primary Sports Weekend soccer tournament on Saturday February 15th. I wish all of our PYP teams the best of luck for their practice and success in this tournament.

A large number of our older resident students play a friendly football game each week in their Community Football Match, and this morning (Saturday) a number of our U19 resident girls are competing in a football tournament at Arusha Campus.

Things are warming up for another very busy but exciting Quarter 3!

Ian Horne

I hope everyone has had a restful break, and managed to keep some exercise going.  We will hit the ground running this Quarter with U19 girls’ soccer playing in the NTSAA tournament this weekend at UWCEA Arusha.  Next week the Netball will have their tournaments for the NTSAA with U13s competing on Friday at UWCEA Arusha and the U15 and U19s competing on Saturday at SCIS and Arusha.  In Primary the Soccer and Rounders seasons have finished and we will be trialing a Cricket team for U11 and U9 season which will run up to the April break and the Touch Rugby, Cross Country and Netball also get underway.  

If you have any experience coaching or playing (even backyard) Cricket and can spare an hour every Thursday from 2-3pm please contact me ASAP as we would greatly appreciate the assistance.

Don’t forget we will be celebrating semester 1 sports on Thursday the 23rd of January, 5pm start.  All athletes and parents are welcome, there will be nibbles and refreshments from 4.30pm. 

Our outdoor fitness area next to the pool is now complete.  Feel free to check it out. Parents and community members please come to talk to me in the design room beside the Duka if you would like instructions on how to use some/all of the equipment.

NOTE: this is a fitness area and is in no way suitable for children of primary age or below, parents please be informed and inform your Dadas that under no circumstances may young children use this equipment.  MYP students under the age of 16 may only use this equipment under the supervision of an appropriate adult (PE teacher, approved club leader). Students 16 years and above may use this equipment whenever they are free but only after instruction from either Mr. Marsh, a PE teacher or approved club leader. 

Thank you in advance for your support in keeping this area safe and ,as a result, open to our community.

Coach Charles is offering free group lessons for Tennis for P3 and P4 students on Mondays at break time and for P5 and P6 students on Tuesday at break time. If your child is interested in this, then please contact Mr Marsh as there is a limit to the number of students who can take part. He is also running group lessons on Wednesday from 3-4pm and Saturday from 9.30am to 10.30am for TSH 10,000/sessions/participant. If your child would like private lessons they are available as well for TSH20,000 per session.  Please contact Charles on 0757606766 if you are interested in the group or private sessions.

The Kili Marathon is fast approaching and our MYP students are already in training mode. If you are in Diploma and would like to take part, please contact Mr. Marsh ASAP. If you are a parent who has a primary child wanting to take part in the 5km fun run please contact Mr. Marsh ASAP, robinmarsh@uwcea.org.

Go Leopards
Robin Marsh

We had a great start to the week. Arusha teachers joined us on the Monday, for a day of planning. We also welcomed a new student teacher in P4, Gunnhildur Ásmundsdóttir, from Iceland. She will be with us until end of February.

The students have also settled well over the week, eager to engage in their various inquiries.

I hope all the children who signed up for clubs, received a slip indicating their activities for the week. Clubs begin on Monday, therefore make necessary arrangements for your child. It is also getting warmer, so please remind your child to drink and to bring a hat to school for outdoor activities.

We will have a Primary Gathering on Friday 24th Feb and we hope to see many of you there.

Cathy Wambua-Saha

The children were very excited to welcome each other and wish one another a “Happy New Year.” They enjoyed sharing many stories about their holiday. Some stories shared were about playing different games, places they went for New Year and how they had a great time with their families.

We welcome James, a new member of our class. Everybody was caring and very kind towards him, eager to make him a friend.
In our unit on exploring and understanding the world we live in, we were exploring our five senses. Some guiding questions we used were; “What are the senses?” and, “How do we use our senses?” The young learners tried to find out by collecting data around the school campus. They worked in pairs and explored what they could see, smell, taste, hear and touch.  They recorded their findings through drawings and models.

The children made connections during snack time. They realised that they often apply more than one sense at the same time. It was interesting for them to see how the senses work together. We look forward to having Mr. Owain back to join us in the coming week.

Have a great weekend,
Ms. Grace and Mr. Emmanuel

What a great start to the third quarter. We spent the first day talking about our holidays and sharing our highlights. Some drew and others wrote about their favourite parts of the holidays. Thank you to all who sent in PowerPoint presentations with pictures of holiday highlights. Our Friday art project evolved from these discussions and we took time to make ‘Forky’. I am sure you have all had a chance to see them as they took them home.

This week, we continued to look at life cycles. We read a book given to us by Ms. Debbie called, ‘Once There Were Giants’ written by Martin Waddell and talked about how our lives change over time. The children drew their own human life cycles. They shared stories of life cycles happening in their own homes involving chickens, rabbits, dogs and so on. We watched interesting videos on YouTube that talked about chickens. Next week, they would like to look at frogs.

Mboka Mwasongwe

We’ve been conducting investigations in class this week. The students have looked at the amount of freshwater in the world, and then discussed how we can conserve water. This has led to the creation of posters which will be put up around the school. We have created the water cycle in a bottle and observed the various stages that we discussed in class. The students also looked at the surface tension of water by conducting an experiment about how many drops of water a 100 shilling coin can hold before spilling over.

The students have also completed their pollution stories from last semester. These stories will be made into books that we will then leave in class for you to come and see. In math, we have reviewed doubling numbers, and began halving them in order to see the relationship between addition and subtraction.

The P3 camp will take place on February 6-7. More information about this will be sent out shortly.

Elisha Jaffer

This week we explored concepts around telling time and Aboriginal art. We saw how people from the Maori tribe from New Zealand welcome visitors and we came up with ways to welcome our student teacher, Gunnhildur, to our community. We were exploring different fables and learning how different stories have unique characteristics. We started creating our e-stories and will be getting into the editing stage in the coming week.

We would like to invite parents to share stories or information about their culture. Please feel free to come in and read stories, play some music, do some art or bring foods to share as we celebrate each others cultures, beliefs, and values.

We ended the week with 2 birthdays. Happy Birthday Ms. Zitha and Nadia, wishing you many more 🙂

Cathy Wambua-Saha

The P5 had a great first week back to welcome a new year. We reviewed our Classroom Agreements to help ensure that everyone does their best in our class community. The images are from our art projects this past week. For math, we started our fraction unit by making fraction kits. The class would like to have a fraction food day next Friday. We will need a few parents to participate, so just a fraction!  If ¼ – ½  of you could volunteer to send in a food that can be divided into portions for next Friday that would be superb.  Examples: pie, cake, pizza, quesadilla, apples, oranges and any other food item that when cut, it is part of the of a whole.

Next Friday will also be our sharing day for our summatives. We invite you in to see the Rube Golberg Machines the students have built in groups. For a personal summative, they have an option to draw a detailed plan of a Rube Golberg Machine or record one they have constructed at home. Have Fun!

Sarah Brummel

It was lovely to see the children return to school refreshed and full of energy this week. I enjoyed hearing their news about their holiday activities. The P6 students have started using their new email addresses. We have spent some time in class discussing email etiquette (writing a heading in the subject line, beginning with a greeting) and online safety (e.g. Don’t share personal information online, don’t open attachments unless you are sure they are safe.) These topics will form part of ongoing discussions for the remainder of the school year about using the internet appropriately and safely. On Wednesday Ms. Grace Mushy taught the children to use Google slides and the children have created presentations showing what they know about plants. Many thanks to Ms. Grace for her support and expertise. We planted cress and sunflower seeds and used pastel crayons to draw still life pictures of fruit. In maths we did an assessment to identify areas that needed reinforcement and, as a result, spent some time working on long division.  Please note that on Monday the children will bring home a letter with details of our Exhibition retreat in Arusha (3rd – 4th February.)

Deborah Mills