It was wonderful to see many parents this week at the Meet the Teacher Nights. Many of you commented on the positive impact of the works that were done at Paterson over the holidays. This weekend we will be replacing the covering over the Elementary School playground which will allow us to have an outdoor all weather area.
I was also delighted this week to welcome Ms Roselinda Binte Famin our new Paterson Secretary. Linda joins Ms Sharon Chua in the Paterson office helping to make the school run smoothly. ManageBac All parents should by now have received log in details of the school's ManageBac site and be able to log in. All parents in our system should also be receiving informational emails from ISS via ManageBac. If you are not receiving emails it may indicate that: 1. The email we have for you on ManageBac is incorrect. 2. The emails are going into your Junk Mail. You can log in to ManageBac via the link to the school's website. It is very important that you ensure that the contact information we hold for you on Managebac is up to date as this is where we look in order to make contact with you.
If you have had any difficulty logging in, have not received your log in details or are not receiving emails please email: [email protected] Haze Today was the haziest day so far this year. Hopefully this period of haze will be brief however I would like to remind you of the ISS Haze Policy : 3 hour PSI index at school 100-200 :
3 hr PSI 201-300
3 hr PSI 300+
More Haze information can be found on: http://www.haze.gov.sg/ PTA Event September 2nd- Paterson 4pm - 7pm The PTA will be holding a wine and cheese welcome back event next Friday. The aim of the event is for parents, teachers and administration staff to get to know each other outside of the classroom context- an important way the collaborative spirit necessary to create a nurturing, inclusive and empowering culture. Please try to drop- by even for a short while. September 12th Public Holiday As you will be aware September 12th is Hari Raya Haji and as a result is a Public Holiday. The School will be closed on this day. Elementary School News It was great to see so many parents attend our Meet the Teacher Evening this past Wednesday. It was a great opportunity to get to know the teachers better and ensure clarity in the lines of communication between home and school. Congratulations to the Grade 5 House Leaders for the 2016/17 school year! These students will continue to support Mr. Nathan and the House Events throughout the school year. Reminders from ES Meet the Teacher Evening: ManageBac tutorial for parents - click here School Website - Programme of Inquiry, K-12 Curriculum Outcomes, Grade Level Yearly Overviews; click here Class blogs - click here Upcoming Events: Monday, 29th August, - Grade 5 trip to Chinatown Heritage Center Tuesday, 30th August, MPR- 8:00 am -9:15 am Elementary School ESL Coffee Morning Friday, 2nd September, 4:00-7:00pm - PTA Social Middle School (MS) News Greetings and welcome to your weekly dose of life in Middle School (MS). Tuesday night saw a fantastic rollout of parents and guardians for the Meet the MS Teachers evening. Lots of questions and lots of busy chatter amongst the group regarding learning and life in the MS. Managebac is our main communication channel home to parents and guardians. Next Wednesday the school will send out a test message via ManageBac to all Grade 6, Grade 7 and Grade 8 parents and guardians. In Homeroom on Thursday, each student will be asked if their parent and/ or guardian received the message. Students will be reminded to ask parents and guardians, in Homeroom next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Not sure how to use ManageBac? Here is a training video specially made for you: https://youtu.be/nCSGha-wpzA Week Without Walls is from 14-18 November. All MS students must attend. Information will come out next week and an information evening will occur on September 6th. Stay tuned! Upcoming Events: Tuesday, 30th August 6:30-8:00pm MS Hall Mother tongue evening Friday, 2nd September, 4:00-7:00pm - PTA Social It has been a joy to see the impact that the work done over the break to improve the learning spaces at ISS has had. Both students and teachers are loving the new spaces and furniture.I look forward to sharing the learning spaces with parents at this week's meet the teacher nights.
ECA's Information on ECAs for both ES & MS students for Semester 1 is now available at http://www.isseca.weebly.com Online sign up will open at 12 noon on Monday August 22nd and run until 11:59pm on Friday August 26th. Please click on the here to see the date each ECA begins . Elementary School News Our first full week of school has come to a close. While engaging in new units of inquiry and understanding school routines, the students have also spent some time thinking about the ISS 4 Be’s, which guide our behaviours as we maintain a nurturing, inclusive and empowering school environment. In order to highlight being Responsible, we have reminded the students to return any blue Imagination Playground equipment or balls they may use on the playground before leaving school. PPU Pick When picking your children up from the PPU rooms at the end of the day please wait for your child to be brought to the door of the PPU room so that we can ensure that all children are going home with the correct adult. To help make this process as smooth as possible please could parents wait slightly back from the door of the PPU Room to give space for students to be handed over to their parents by the duty teacher. ES Meet the Teachers Night Wednesday, August 24th, (5:30-7:30) will provide you with a chance to meet your child's teacher and find out more about how the learning at ISS is organised. The timeline for the evening is as follows: 5:30- 5:45- Introduction with coffee and snacks in the ES MPR 5:45- 6:15 - Meet the specialist teachers 6:30- 6:55 - First session with class teachers 7:05- 7:30 - Second session with class teachers NB: The two sessions with class teachers are the same to allow parents with siblings to attend sessions with more than one teacher or parents unable to attend the first session to come to the second. This event is a parent event. If you are unable to find alternative childcare arrangements for the evening I will be able to supervise a small number of students in the Library during the class teachers sessions. Upcoming Events: Wednesday, 24th August, 5:30 pm MPR- Elementary School Meet the Teachers Night - A chance to meet your child’s teacher and find out more about classroom routines. Monday, 29th August - Parent Teacher Association (PTA) Meeting Tuesday, 30th August, MPR- Elementary School ESL Coffee Morning Middle School News The first full week of Middle School is done. Students and staff alike have settled into their routines and business of learning is well underway. The first few weeks set up the remainder of the year. Students have been asked to nominate for the Student Council, by Ms Kakaw and the House Captains, by Ms Allan. These positions of responsibility present students with wonderful opportunities to be involved in not only the direction of the school but also to represent the students body. Meet the MS Teachers evening This coming Tuesday, 23rd August is Meet the MS Teachers evening. A invitation was sent out to all parent emails via ManageBac. The evening will move around MS working on the following timelines: 6:15 - Homerooms open for parents to visit 6:30 - Grade level parent meeting: - Grade 6 Art Room - Grade 7 Room 2 - Grade 8 Room 8 7:00 - Move to MS Hall 7:05 - Meet Mr Pinchbeck and Mr Taylor 7:15 - Move around the Hall and meet subject teachers Reading, Organising and Writing (ROW) In the Middle School we offer a student support program called ROW (Reading, Organising and Writing). The support enables all students to dedicate time developing academic skills across the subject range that may require a more one to one and focused approach. ROW will commence on Friday 2nd September from 2:45- 3:45 (Room 7). Teachers will notify students they think will benefit from ROW. Upcoming Events: Tuesday, 23rd August (6:30) ‘Meet the teachers’ Monday, 29th August - Parent Teacher Association (PTA) Meeting Friday 2nd September Reading Organising Writing (ROW) begins It's been a very busy first week back and the students have all settled well. It's been wonderful to see so many cheerful and engaged students happy to be back at ISS and learning new things.
Thank you everyone for wearing your passes this week we can now move onto the second phase of upgrading our security the issuing of new photo passes. Please see the instructions below. New Security Passes As many of you will have seen in the letter Dr Alvarez's sent out on Wednesday we are introducing new security passes for parents and guardians. To register for these please follow the instructions below.
From Monday to Wednesday we will be taking photos of all students to update the pictures we have on record. Please make sure your child brings a normal school uniform top to wear for the photo even if they have PE scheduled for that day. The schedule for photographs is: Monday: K1, K2, Grade 1, Grade 2, Grade 3 and Grade 4 Tuesday: Grade 5 and 6 Wednesday Grade 7 and 8 Elementary School News Welcome back to the 2016-2017 school year. I hope you have had a wonderful summer holiday. It has been great seeing our students' excitement as they explored their new learning spaces for the year. The students have also been busy this week reconnecting with old friends as well as making new ones, truly modelling the IB learner profile attributes of being caring and open-minded. I would like to take this opportunity to introduce you to our highly experienced and talented new staff in the Elementary School. K2.2 Ms. Smita Punamiya G3.1 Ms. Minaal Amin G4.1 Mr. Michael Reid G5.3 Mrs. Michelle Jasinska English Language Support: Mrs. Estelle Elsaadi English Language Support/ Learning Support: Mrs. Tina Wolter Mandarin: Mrs. Lichun Rong Upcoming Events: Wednesday, 24th August, 5:30 pm MPR - Elementary School Meet the Teachers Night - A chance to meet your child’s teacher and find out more about classroom routines. Middle School News Well there you go- Week One of school is done and a great opening week it was too! Middle School (MS) welcomed many new students and some new teachers to this academic year. A revamped library and a new design centre are just a few improvements that make for what is going to be a great year at ISS. It is with great pleasure that we welcome the following MS teachers:
Tuesday 23rd August 6:30 pm MS Hall - Middle School Meet the Teachers Night. This will be a wonderful opportunity for every parent and guardian to experience and get some insight into a day in the life of their ISS student. A very big welcome to all new families and a welcome back to returning families.
As you will see when you come onto Paterson Campus, we have been busy over June and July upgrading the campus. We have re-floored a number of classrooms, moved walls around to enlarge learning spaces, placed new furniture in the Grade 3- 5 classrooms and put new glass doors in classrooms. The collective results of all of this work is to create a much brighter and airier feel to the campus and really exploit our advantage of being a green oasis in the centre of the bustling city. In a month's time the campus will be further improved by the installation of new covers over the Elementary School playground. As well as upgrading the campus facilities, those of you who were here last year will notice that we have changed our organisational structure slightly. I am now in the new position of Head of Campus as well as being Head of Learning for the whole school. As Head of Campus I will be making sure that all students from K- 8 have exceptional learning experiences supported by our nurturing and talented staff. Ms Sharyn Skrtic will now be Head of Elementary School and responsible for the day to day running of the Elementary School and Mr Michael Taylor will now be Head of Middle School and responsible for the day to day running of the Middle School. To reflect this change the weekly blog will now be for the whole of Paterson Campus with contributions from myself, Ms Skrtic and Mr Taylor. An archive of last year's blogs by the ES and MS Principals can be found in the side bar. I look forward to meeting all of you at events during the course of this year and am sure that your children will have an amazing year’s learning at ISS and grow and develop in our nurturing and empowering school. Derek Pinchbeck Important Campus information Security As part of our constant focus on security procedures please make sure that all adults are wearing their ISS security pass when coming into school. We will shortly be introducing new improved passes and details about these will follow in the first week. Lunch Service This year we will be operating a new online ordering system for lunches. In order to use this system parents will need to pick up a card from SATS which gives you the website, log in details and password (you can change the password after first use). Once you have registered with the site students should bring their card to school to pick up their lunches. Card Registration Fee is $2, replacement fee is $5. Parents can either come to school to collect the cards themselves from SATs or send in $2 with their children so they can pick up the card.
Students from K1- Gr 2 should bring in a home (packed) lunch for the first 3 days. Classroom delivery of ordered lunches to K1-Gr 2 begins on Monday 15th August. Key points Online ordering is enabled once your card collected. (The website is on the card) Meals must be ordered 3 days in advance. Elementary School News Welcome to the 2016-2017 school year. I would like to welcome back all of our returning families and share a warm welcome to all of our new families. Key information for the first week back
Middle School News Welcome to another exciting year in Middle School. Students will go to the MS Hall at 08:00. All students are more than welcome onto the Paterson campus from 07:30. We look forward to seeing everyone back at school. Michael Taylor |
Susan Tilney
Paterson Principal Archives
April 2020
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