One of the joys and challenges of being a truly diverse international community is to try to understand the complex cultural expectations that students have of learning. The better we understand this the more effective the school can be at optimising learning to allow every student to achieve their potential.
To help us with this over the next two weeks ISS is going to be one of 20 pilot international schools taking part in the Council of International Schools (CIS) Student Cultural Dispositions & Learning Preferences Survey. This survey will be taken online by students from grades 4-12 and will take about 30 minutes to complete. We believe the survey has great potential to investigate some important questions on students, culture and learning, and to positively influence teaching and learning at ISS. The survey yields valuable insights that will help ISS answer the following questions: How can we better support students in adjusting to the culture of ISS? How can teachers appreciate and understand an individual’s culture and its influence on learning? How do we manage transitions, both inward and outward from ISS? The survey was developed by International School Helsinki to address a dilemma common to international schools. As Peter Welch, the Director of IS Helsinki, states, “each new international student who enrolls arrives with distinct, values, assumptions and approaches to learning. Yet generalizing teaching strategies to address culture based on points of origin is problematic.” This survey is a practical tool that helps teachers leverage the rich cultural diversity of ISS towards better teaching and learning. Click here to watch a short video explaining the survey. As part of this survey students will be asked to fill in some brief demographic data. One of these questions asks students the nationality of the passport (s) held by their parents. If you think your student might not know the nationality of the passport(s) you hold, or indeed the passport(s) they hold, please could you inform them of this so that they can complete this question. Elementary School News Collaboration is a central part of ISS for both our students and teachers. This week G1 students worked together to test out their bridge designs while G2 students planned, prepared and shared their learning with the school at assembly as a team. Our PE teacher, Mr. Nathan, and Middle School PE teacher, Ms. Allan, also demonstrated the power of collaboration by planning learning experiences for G8 students to work with our elementary students. We ended the week with a successful pajama day as we continue to support the Singapore Food Bank. It is exciting to see the collaboration within our school and Singapore community alive and continuing to grow. Elementary School Concert Friday, 9th December This is to inform you that all ES students will be participating in the Performing Arts Concert on Friday, December 9th at 6:30pm. The venue for this year's concert will be the Anglo Chinese School, 121 Dover Road, Singapore, 139 650. Tickets can be purchased here Upcoming Events Monday, 28th December - K1 Field Trip to Art Science Museum Wednesday, 30th November - Festival of Lights (Preston Campus 6:30pm) Friday, 2nd December - K1 Field Trip to ISS High School Friday, 2nd December - G4 Field Trip to On sight climbing Friday, 9th December - Elementary School Concert (Anglo Chinese School Independent hall 6:30pm) Middle School News Greetings and welcome to the week that was and all things on the horizon for Middle School. A very tired bunch of students and teachers returned to the island of Singapore last Friday. The friendships that are forged and the opportunities that the student experience can never be underestimated. Already in the classrooms and at breaks we can see new friendships have been established. Now our attention becomes more focussed on the end of the semester. Each end of semester is a good checkpoint for students to reflect on their strengths and their areas of development. For parents and teachers it is important to encourage each student to discuss these areas, with the next semester in mind. Its is an opportunity to set goals based on their achievement in Semester One. Reports will be going out on the Thursday, 15th December. This week the MS has been focused on the International Baccalaureate (IB) learner profiles of caring and principled. To be caring it starts with us being empathetic, showing compassion and respect for others. Our principled approach allows us to embrace integrity and honesty. Sometimes, with the advent of technology and various communication platforms, we all can forget what it means to be caring and principled. This week it has been a timely reminder about who we are and why caring and principled are part of our school culture. An early invitation to parents and guardians for the end of semester sambutan (assembly). It will be a musical, drama, student lead celebration. This will happen on Friday, 16th December at 1:40pm in the MS Hall. Please let us know at [email protected] if you are going to join. Have a great weekend Upcoming Events Wednesday, 30th November - Festival of Lights (Preston Campus 6:30pm) Thursday, 1st December - Auditions for ‘Into the Woods’ (MS Hall- 2:45pm) Friday, 9th December - Elementary School Concert (Anglo Chinese School Independent hall 6:30pm) Sunday 11th December - Christmas concert performance (Eurasian Association 12pm)) Thursday, 15th December - Walking toward Zero Hunger (East Coast parkway) Friday, 16th December - End of semester sambutan (celebration) Comments are closed.
|
Susan Tilney
Paterson Principal Archives
April 2020
Categories |