As we complete the first few days of Home Based Learning I take this opportunity to share some images from learning from home and to sincerely thank all students, parents and teachers for your active and enthusiastic participation.
This week I would like to focus on the Grade 5 PYP Exhibition. Although not quite in the way that we had planned, or using approaches from previous years, the exhibition will take place, most likely in a virtual way. This is the culminating project that all IB PYP students enage in and it also helps prepare Elementary students for the next phase in their education. It unites students, teachers, parents and other members of the school community in a collaborative experience that incorporates the essential elements of the PYP. Students apply their learning from previous years and reflect on their journey through the PYP. An essential element of the exhibition is for students to demonstrate how they can take action as a result of their interests and learning. Students use Approaches to Learning skills such as Social Skills, Communication Skills, Thinking Skills, Research Skills and Self-Management Skills. Students identify a real-life issue or problem that interests them. They carry out an open-ended inquiry into that real-life issue or problem. Teachers guide students through the exhibition process and students present their exhibition to the school community. Parents also have a role. As well as offering encouragement and support, parents can discuss the process with students along the way, help them access resources – such as people, places, media, etc., ensure that Exhibition homework is completed in a timely manner and celebrate with the students by “attending” Exhibition Day. This will be the last blog for a few weeks, look out for a Vlog series coming your way very soon! Kindest wishes and a Happy Easter to those celebrating, Susan Tilney. The first virtual three way conferences were held on 3rd and 6th March. Connections went smoothly and conversations were informative from the school’s point of view, if you did experience any problems with the Google hangout meetings please pass this information along to teachers so that we may continually improve our services.
World Maths Day was a great opportunity to highlight mathematics learning at ISS and for students to engage in fun and challenging Maths activities. During Maths Day on 4th March students had opportunities to create their own maths puzzles, patterns, mystery numbers or word problems for others to solve. The “creations”were displayed on boards outside Changi Hall. Teachers and students took a gallery walk and left feedback on stickie notes. Students also participated in a March Maths Challenge which was organised by Mathletics. This presented challenges for students with adaptive maths curriculum questions and live multi-player games. At the end of the day marks were talled to see which class earned the most ISS house points. Students were invited to dress up as a symbol, or a number, or to wear a riddle. Mathematical world days continue next week with World π Day on 14th March. Celebrated in countries that follow the month/day (m/dd) date format, because the digits in the date, March 14 or 3/14, are the first three digits of π (3.14). Have a lovely weekend, Susan Tilney. Literacy Week on the Paterson campus this week has been full of educational and fun events, culminating on Friday with book character dress up day. Lots of superheroes, characters from “Frozen”, “Harry Potter”, “Where’s Wally”, Eric Carle favourites and “Peter Pan” to mention just a few.
Throughout the week students took part in competitions in the library such as: “Guess the Teachers Favourite Book”. Teachers had previously uploaded the titles and reasons for their choice of book, and “Guess the Title, Character and Author”. Elementary classes decorated their classroom doors to represent books and literary themes. Literacy Connections were made through partnerships between Middle School and Elementary School students and teachers. Literacy and music with Middle School music classes partnering with Grade 4 and literacy and art where Middle School worked closely with Grade 5. This message from Ms. Hima Venkateswaran offers an interesting and informative literacy interdisciplinary aspect of the week: The Literacy week Art display board of favourite storybook characters is up on the 3rd floor staircase (Art Room end). Not only can you see some superb drawing skills, you may also notice : - the development of drawing skills from K-5 - the interest levels and reading profiles of different classes - a rise in the popularity of Greg Heffler from Diary of a wimpy kid. Close on his heels is Dog Man - The Avengers and Marvel characters have sneaked in..as well as Disney... and oh, Where's Wally? Looking forward to our first virtual three way conferences next week on 3rd and 6th March. Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you experience any problems with the Google hangout meetings. Teachers and students have had a chance to practice so we’re hoping for smooth running conversations. It may be helpful if you refresh your memory of the end of Semester 1 report and ISA results if appropriate as these may be referred to in the “meetings”. Have a lovely weekend, Susan Tilney. With the start of ECAs this week students were involved in a variety of activities: having lots of fun getting messy in “Messy Kids”, carefully learning gentler traditional crafts such as crochet, origami, sewing and knitting. Coding is very popular as are the more active ECAs such as volleyball, netball, yoga and mindfulness. Aladdin ECA rehearsals have been adjusted to once a week as the postponed production is now scheduled for June.
Note that there will be no ECAs the week beginning 2nd March as virtual 3 way conferences will take place that week. On Tuesday 3rd March Middle School students will go home at the end of period 4, i.e. 11:50am. 3rd March will be a regular school day for Elementary School students. On Friday 6th March there will be no regular classes, all Paterson students should not come to school while teachers will be at school on that day. The links for signing up for conferences will be available on Managebac later today. I thank you most sincerely for your tremendous and ongoing support for the school, our dedicated teachers, teaching assistants, guards, secretaries, nurse and drivers in these uncertain times. Together we are continuing to keep the whole community safe and well. The truly special nature of ISS shines through every day. Have a lovely weekend, Susan Tilney. Today I share some insights into learning at Paterson from 2 of our wonderful teachers:
Mrs. Janienne Vaughan - “I had a lovely, happy lesson with my Grade 1 ESL children today. The children looked at the words soap, boat, road and float to learn more about the ‘long o ‘sound. Then they read a story about a soap boat before making their own little soap boats. We pretended to float them on blue paper water at the end.” Dr. Dharshini Jeremiah - “G6 students continue to enjoy their practical experiments in the science laboratory. This week they investigated the effect of gravity on a spring. A simple experiment which allowed students to contextualise the difference between weight and mass. Students became more aware of their skill level as they applied their skills in social collaboration, communication, creative and critical thinking. A wonderful week of learning, grounded in the IB Approaches to Learning (ATL).” Have a lovely weekend, Susan Tilney. “Show and tell” is an important part of a lower Elementary day. This gives students opportunities to prepare a small speech or presentation about something they want to “show” and to “tell” others. It can be a favourite toy, a collection, a passion - anything that interests them or that follows a particular theme perhaps. This helps to build confidence for the speaker and to improve listening skills for the audience. Often students will ask and answer questions which helps them to appreciate that they need to have some background knowledge about their chosen subject. Grade 1 students have recently been showcasing their “show and tell” skills.
Grade 3 students have continued thinking about how technology and tools are created, using the Design Thinking Process to guide their thoughts. Students reflected on life in school and shared problems or issues they had noticed or could EMPATHISE with.Then they worked to clearly DEFINE what caused these problems. Students began to discuss and sketch possible solutions during the IDEATE stage. After collecting their materials, students made their chosen PROTOTYPE design. To see if it solved the problem, they had to TEST and if necessary go back to the Ideate stage and change their prototype. At this stage of the design process, many students began getting feedback from other students in class. Children shared their designs and gave and received feedback and when Ms. Hima visited class, she also gave the designers feedback using the Ladder of Feedback routine. Middle School students made the most of our two campuses this week! On Thursday afternoon, Ms Dayal took her Grade 8 MYP Science class to visit the High School Physics laboratory to investigate electromagnets with our G6-12 Scientific Literacies Coordinator, Mr Vaughan. Students had a wonderful time, and really appreciated the hands-on experience to learn Science at the Preston campus. In what was an enjoyable and creative way to overcome field trip restrictions, the students were the final winners - as they received the best learning by far from our resident expert! Thank you to Ms Dayal and Mr Vaughan for facilitating this visit. Have a lovely weekend, Susan Tilney. Welcome back after the Lunar New Year break. I hope you all enjoyed time with family and friends. The Elementary School Home Language Programme launched today. This includes a 45 minute lesson where students are supported with their home language in the areas of reading, writing, speaking and listening. Whilst the school’s medium of instruction is English, we recognise the importance of bilingualism and strengthening our students’ home languages. There were lessons in Bengali, Japanese, Arabic, Swedish, Mandarin, Bahasa, Korean, Russian, Hindi, English and Spanish. Before the Lunar New Year break, Ms. Rehu met with a small number of parents who have volunteered to help with this exciting initiative. Our intention is that classes will be run by teachers and parents together. Lessons will take place every Friday from 12:45 - 1:35pm, at school. Each home language class has a designated teacher and support person who will be working with parent volunteers to develop this programme further. If you are interested in supporting your child's home language and assisting our teachers with teaching these classes, please send me an email expressing your interest. In the current circumstances the classes will be run by teachers only and we will confirm the starting date for parent volunteers as soon as the health and safety measures surrounding the coronavirus are eased. Welcome to “Workout Wednesdays” before school on Wednesday mornings, students will lead us all in a mini-dance “Workout”. What a great way to start the day! As you are aware, some student guests were due to join Elementary School classes for a few days in January and early February. Although the students are not from Wuhan or Hubei, we have taken the precautionary measure of postponing their visit for the foreseeable future. There will be a delayed start to Semester 2 ECAs and ASAs, the proposed new starting date will be the week beginning 17th February, this will be reviewed and confirmed in due course. We are all looking forward to some new and some returning activities. Have a lovely weekend, Susan Tilney. Great excitement on Friday afternoon as the first House Event of 2020 was held. Student House leaders and Mrs. Adamberry organised a Lunar New Year event that featured lantern making and traditional games such as “Catch the Dragon’s Tail” and a chopstick relay. Each house was awarded points that will go towards their total for the year. An exciting with result with a draw for second place.
The Semester two ECA and ASA schedule has now been shared with you. Looking forward to some new activities commencing the week beginning 10th February. Ms. Rehu met with a small number of parents who have volunteered to help with home languages in Semester 2. More information is forthcoming. Please join me in welcoming some student guests who will be joining Elementary School classes for a few days later in January. Please remember to return the Travel Declaration form as mentioned in last week’s blog. As an educational organisation from time to time ISS will facilitate internships such as trainee teachers, counsellors or librarians. Interns will be under the supervision of professionals and be mentored throughout their time with us. Currently there are two counselling interns training with us: Ms. Audrey Moh at High School and Ms. Tatianna Nasr at Paterson. Please remember to return the Travel Declaration form as mentioned in last week’s blog. Upcoming Events:
Susan Tilney. Welcome to the second Semester and to the third decade of the 21st century!
January is traditionally a time for looking both backwards and forwards. A time for reflection about past events and achievements, resolving to make some changes and improvements in the year ahead and for setting targets and goals. This is of course particularly appropriate at school. You will have received your child’s end of Semester one report, where both achievements and goals have been outlined. Semester two offers multiple opportunities to reach higher and further. In recognition of those students who achieved the ISS Honour Roll certificates will be presented at a special assembly on Thursday 16th January. Parents of students who will receive certificates have been informed by e-mail today. The Semester two ECA and ASA schedule is ready and will be shared with you early next week. There will be a 10 week programme of both free activities run by teachers and paid activities run by outside providers, commencing the week beginning 10th February. Thank you to all the parents who volunteered to help with home languages in Semester 2, the meeting will be held as planned on 17th January at 8:00am in room 26. As part of our ongoing efforts to safeguard ISS Community health, all student and staff travel must be declared during vacation periods. Initially this will be retospective and will record travel that did take place over the recent break, following which the form will be completed prior to all breaks eg before Chinese New Year, before Spring break etc. Students in Grades 4-8 will complete a Travel Declaration form at school next week, forms for students in KG to G3 will be sent home for parents to complete. Please note that information will only be used in the case of medical emergencies. Upcoming Events:
Susan Tilney. Wednesday 18th December will be Mrs. Mabel Periera’s last day with ISS. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mabel for her loyal service. She is alway caring, sincere and highly professional. Mabel has been with ISS for 25 years and during that time she has made a difference in the lives of 100’s of students and been a trustworthy friend and colleague for many staff and faculty. Wishing you all the very best, Mabel.
What an exciting couple of weeks there have been at both Paterson and Preston campuses. The first ISS Christmas Fair on 7th December was a memorable event with suitably festive music, Christmas shopping opportunities at the wide range of stalls and student performances. There was even a special guest - with an early appearance of Santa! A colourful display of costumes and flags representing 37 countries were on display at International Day on 13th December. Food was kindly provided by families and students, parents and guests enthusiastically tasted an array of authentic dishes. Performances by musicians, singers, actors and dancers entertained and thrilled us all. Students from across the school worked together with a focus on climate change and some of the possible effects that this may have on the planet. Thank you to all the parents who have volunteered to help with home languages in Semester 2, the meeting will now be held on 17th January and more information will be sent out on Tuesday 17th December. The Semester 2 ECA and ASA schedule will be shared with you in the new year. Semester One reports will be published on 18th December and Semester two will commence on Wednesday 8th January 2020. I wish everyone a relaxing end of semester break and to those of you celebrating Christmas, I wish you a Merry Christmas. Upcoming Events:
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Paterson Principal Archives
April 2020
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