Elementary School News
As mentioned by Mr Taylor, the entire school staff met together on Monday to work together on the planning for the next academic year and beyond by being involved in the new Strategic Plan. It is a reflective and empowering time. This week saw the culmination of learning in the PYP for Grade 5 as they completed their Exhibition, which is seen as an important milestone in any IB students’ world. All the students in Grade 5 worked in groups to explore an issue or passion that they felt strongly about. Their research, communication and presentation skills were certainly stretched and visitors to the Exhibition learned a great deal. Congratulations Grade 5! The Grade 5s are also preparing for their camp to Bintan on 8 May. Parents of Grade 5 will have received the final information pack which contains important information. Please complete the forms and return them to school as soon as possible. Mr Taylor, Ms Jasinska, Ms Dayal and Ms Mahapatra will be accompanying the students to Bintan. What fun! Equally exciting is the Grade 3 & 4 camp to the Singapore Zoo on 13 & 14 May. Students will enjoy learning about how a zoo works, interact with the animals and sleep over in the zoo camp. Parents of Grade 3 & 4 should read the information pack they will receive and return the information form. The Grade 3 & 4 teachers, plus Ms Loadwick and Ms Wolter will be accompanying the students. We can’t wait! The Student Led Conferences on Friday saw many parents at school, learning from their children. It is such special time for students to explain their learning in their way. Thank you parents for attending this important event in your child’s learning journey. You will shortly receive a survey asking your child to indicate which ECAs (Extra Curricular Activities) he/she would like to see happen at school next year. We are committed to offering staff run activities on Tuesday - Thursday that encompass students’ choices. We wish you all an enjoyable family weekend. Middle School News Greetings everyone and welcome to Week 32 of the school year. From Grade 5 to Grade 8 we are seeing many activities happening across the school that includes both campuses. Teachers worked towards planning for the next academic year on Monday by going through the Annual ISS survey results. This is an important step as we build for the next iteration of the strategic plan. Grade 8 transition to Grade 9 It is a big for Grade 8 as they begin to get insight into life at Preston Campus. Starting Tuesday they enjoyed a taster day at the Preston Campus. During this time they experienced classes, interacted with teachers and generally explored the verdant Preston campus. Feedback from the Preston teachers was how impressed they were by the maturity of the group. On Thursday and Friday this week, those Grade 8 students (and their parents) transferring to ISS Grade 9 met with Mr Hayward and Mrs Edwards to plan their academic pathway. As students move towards to the IB Diploma make considered choices is one key aspect to academic success. Grade 5 Exhibition Whilst this is a Primary Years milestone, Middle Years students always attend and enjoy seeing the development of the Grade 5 actions and topics. It also give the older students time to reflect on where they have come from and where they are now. Well done Grade 5 and your teachers. Kampong Cup This week saw the final of the Grade 6 girls Kampong Cup (football). Great enthusiasm and physicality was shown by all students involved. The final placing being announced in Sambutan. A very tight finish indeed. We now move onto to Grade 7-8 girls competition. It started with some rousing first round classes. Have a great weekend one and all Michael Elementary School News
We have had a wonderful week of learning across the school, with the ES students working together with the Middle School for STEAM week and Exhibition students racing around with surveys and research projects. ISS certainly challenges students! You will have received a note from your teacher regarding our Student Led Conferences. These conferences are an important part of a student’s PYP journey and a true reflection of how they see themselves as a learner. Please make sure you sign up through the portal that has been sent to you. Our PTA did the school proud on Friday night; the Family Fun Evening was amazing! There were lots of happy families participating in the events that were organised. Thank you PTA! It is good to see the support given to the charities that ISS supports. The PYP Grade 5 Exhibition will be held at school on Tuesday and Wednesday 23 & 24 April. All parents are welcome to attend. We are looking at class placements for next year; if you are leaving the school would you please let us know so that we can plan for the 2019/2020 school year. A number of new students have already enrolled so we expect to have a dynamic school community! Middle School News The weeks go quicker and the learning gets busier. Students are well focussed as move into the ‘heart’ of Term Four. Production is around the corner, exam week is coming and Grade 8 will leave Paterson Campus. A good time for parents and guardians to check in on how their son/ daughter/ ward is going. Most students are managing many events during the week. Always good to see what support they need. From a staff perspective, we are very focused at this time of the year on student well being. STEAM Week It has been a great week with the Science Technology Engineering Arts and Math programme running the entire time. Thanks to the tireless work of Dr Jeremiah we have had guest speakers talking to students about engineering in the Middle East, the chemistry of making perfumes and how to be part of the next generation of astronauts both from Singapore and from NASA. Students have embraced the opportunities to be ambassadors for Science and led workshops for parents and students alike. Family Fun Festival What a wonderful success was the Family Fun Festival. Showing great innovation and flexibility our diligent PTA revamped this event to the amazement of all who attended. For what will now become a permanent fixture on the social calendar, everyone enjoyed the auction, the diversity of foods on offer and a chance to socialise with the ISS community. Wonderful stuff! Council of International Schools (CIS) survey Each year ISS seeks feedback about our school from parents, guardians, staff members and students using a survey created by our accreditation agencies. Each question relates to an accreditation standard. Over the last few years we have invested considerable time and resources in strengthening our communications about the school through social media and other channels. As a result, we have added some questions at the end of the survey that will help us gauge our reach in that area. The findings from the survey are used to inform our strategic planning process. Student and Faculty findings will be explored during focus group meetings to be held over the coming weeks. ACSIS Sport Our U14 Basketball team took on SJII during the week. Another close fought tussle. The boys performed very well and were edged out in another close contest. Only one game to go and Mr Orgee has the lads primed for a big finale. Elementary School News
We welcomed a number of new students to the Elementary School on Monday and it is warming to see how our existing students welcome them. The playground is certainly a happy place! Our enrolments for 2019/20 are filling up so if you know of any family who wants to come to ISS please remind them to register soon; there are limited places in all our grade levels. This evening we are hoping for a clear night for our Family Fun Evening. Thanks go to the PTA for their outstanding efforts. As parents it is your responsibility to monitor what your children are viewing on-line, particularly games that show violence. Some students are telling us that they ‘game’ late into the night, which is obviously not good for their sleep patterns and their overall well being. Please be vigilant and know exactly what your children watch. Thank you all for completing the Camp formalities for Grades 3,4 and 5. The students will certainly enjoy their time at Camp. You may have noticed lots of ‘animals’ around the school on Friday - all part of student action! Wishing you all a fantastic Friday evening and a fun filled weekend! Middle School News Welcome everyone to Term Four! First question is ‘Where did Term Three go?’ It seems like last week we were only returning from December break and now we are already in the final stretch to the end of another academic year. New families Welcome to ISS for all our new students. Great to see so many new faces joining ISS. Specifically to Grade 6-8 families, as these students settle in to this year but as importantly prepare for next academic year. We are as excited to have you here, as I am sure you are excited to be with us. Family Fun Event As this blog ‘goes to press’ the PTA Family Fun Festival is in full swing. So much work has on in the background and we cannot thank the PTA enough for all their hard work. Wonderful the PTA have embraced their Risk Taker Learner Profile and totally revamped the format for this from the Sunday fair to a Friday night festival. More to talk about in next week’s blog. See you at the Festival :) ACSIS Sports Our valiant basketballers returned from a two week break and immediately had a road trip to GEMS World Academy. Whilst the boys toiled hard, their minds must have still been on holidays and we came second. This time. See you next round GEMS! STEAM Week Dr Jeremiah has kicked off this years STEAM week launching (pardon the pun) straight into a presentation with the Singapore Space Programme talking to students in Sambutan on Friday. With us in Serangoon Hall was Lim Seng the man behind the idea of sending a Singaporean into space. This will be followed over the next week with student workshops and interviews with scientists innovators and researchers. World of Work For the last three days Paterson Campus has hosted three Grade 10 students as part of the World of Work programme. Over this time the students shadowed a teacher during their day and got some authentic experience into what teaching and learning is all about. A wonderful initiative that will contribute to creating the teachers of tomorrow. Term Four Things to look forward to in Term Four are the Arts Exhibition and performance of Once ON This Island jr which is in the last week of May. The Grade 8 Farewell ceremony in the last week of term. Not to mention the whole school Sports Day on the last Monday of term. More information to follow on all these events. Have a great Family Fun Festival and weekend. Michael Elementary School News
Today is International Women’s Day - let’s celebrate all the amazing women that we know! https://www.internationalwomensday.com/ The K - 5s are buzzing with excitement as our performance of Spring into Music comes to fruition. It is amazing to see such talent on the stage and to be part of this dynamic group of teachers who always support each other with enthusiasm. I hope you have all bought your tickets for the performance on 12 March! Please be reminded that school for ES ends at noon on the performance day; the students will eat lunch before leaving school. The school buses will take bus children home at 12.00 pm. Please ensure that your child is at the venue, the Singapore Conference Hall, 7 Shenton Way, at 5.45 pm. Please do not be late! Thank you to those parents who attended the Grade 3 and Grade 4 Camp talk on Tuesday. School camps are part of the IB Curriculum and therefore are compulsory. School camps are a feature of the curriculum from Grade 3 - 12. It is always interesting to see how innovative our students are - this week the students are playing ‘spinning tops’. Little do they know that this was a playground pastime long before even their parents were born! Please remember to donate to the SILENT AUCTION for our family gathering on 5 April. If you can donate a dinner for two, shampoo pack, theatre tickets, art work, vouchers for spas etc.; anything that can be auctioned for charity, please bring send these to me by 3 April. We have some amazing art work by renowned artist Robert Lovett (which he has specifically painted for the auction, depicting Chinese scenes), restaurant vouchers from 1 Degree 15, and many more items, but we NEED MORE!!! The students in K - 5 are collecting items for their class ‘basket’ - please encourage them to participate fully in this charity initiative. School will finish next Friday 15 March until 1 April; have a wonderful break! Middle School News Greetings and welcome to the last blog of the term. It is International Women’s Day (IWD). Today is great opportunity to recognise the contributions women make to every aspect of our society. ‘A balanced world is a better world. How can you help forge a more gender-balanced world? Celebrate women's achievement. Raise awareness against bias. Take action for equality.’ #BalanceforBetter Our female representatives on the Student Council ran our Sambutan today. During this time they shared what IWD is all about and why it is important for us to recognise the contributions, skills, abilities and diversity of the female population. ACSIS Sports The U14 boys basketball responded to losing their coach to illness this week with a strong performance against UWC. With Coach Inman holding the reigns and battling on without a number of key players the team performed admirably. According to the coach, combinations are coming together and teamwork is improving. Onwards to next game. Once On This Island (OOTI) On Friday night March 08 the students and some teachers held a late night rehearsal for OOTI. As the performance really starts taking shape, the opportunity to practice as will happen later in May is invaluable for experience. ‘Break a leg’ one and all! Term Four Have a safe March break everyone. School commences on the 1st April for Term Four and this is no April Fools joke! Many exciting events in the term and no more exciting than the PTA Family Fun Evening on Friday 5 APril from 4-8pm at Paterson Campus. Have a great weekend! MT Elementary School News
The school was buzzing with activity during our Literacy Week; authors were visiting and sharing their stories with students, books were being swapped and ‘mystery’ readers were opening up the wonders of the printed word to our eager and enthusiastic core of avid readers. On Wednesday the whole Paterson campus dressed up as their favourite book characters, to the delight of everyone. Grade 5.2 won the overall coveted first place, as the students had worked really hard on producing innovative and extraordinary costumes. The staff joined in the fun, with the Early Years teachers dressing up as ‘Crayons’. Friday saw parents coming and going during the Three Way Conferences. The teachers at Paterson value this time with students and parents as this gives them an opportunity to celebrate and advise about the learning in their classrooms. Thank you to everyone for their efforts in creating an atmosphere of professional dialogue with each other. Our Performing Arts teacher, Mr Palumbo, is working very hard with the students, preparing for the March 12 concert, which promises to be full of music and song. If you have not purchased your tickets, please do so - these are available at the school office. Thank you to those people who have donated items to the SILENT AUCTION to be held during the Family Fair on April 5. We still need a lot more to auction; meal vouchers, spa vouchers, paintings, vases, jewellery, hairdresser vouchers…..anything that can be auctioned for charity. Please dig deep and bring all the items to school as soon as possible. Have a wonderful weekend! Middle School News Greetings and welcome to what’s been happening in Middle School. Let me say, there has been a lot happening! Whilst in the midst of Literacy Week we have also had numerous sporting activities as well and Three Way Conferences. Three Way Conferences (3WC) Great to see so many familiar faces during 3WC. Thanks to all the parents, guardians, students and teachers who contribute to make 3WC such a worthwhile experience for all concerned. Literacy Week Investigative reporter Frank from Grade 8 did a great job interviewing our visiting author Ding Li. We found out about what inspires an author, how long it takes to write a book, and how do you actually write a book. Other activities during Literacy Week included the ever popular favourite book character parade, the book exchange, and Middle School students reading to Elementary School students. ACSIS Basketball Basketball is now in full swing. A couple of competitive games to start the season, though not many wins. The boys finally pulled it together this week and notched their first win of the season. Well done Coach Orgee. Responsible Use Agreement (RUA) A reminder that every student has signed and returned their RUA. This is a student’s commitment to using technology appropriately whilst at school. Students who break their RUA contract will have their device(s) confiscated until a parent note has been provided. Attendance A reminder that whenever your son/ daughter/ student is going to be away from school, parents or guardians need to send a message via ManageBac Attendance > Submit Attendance Excusal: (https://iss.managebac.com/parent/attendance/excusals/new?date=2018-03-02). Please include all relevant information. It is a Council for Private Education (CPE) requirement that all absences are centrally recorded. If a student is late to school (After 08:00). They MUST register at the Paterson Office. Have a great weekend! MT Elementaruy School News
Gosh - what a busy week! With a focus on student safety ISS has established 5 km/h is a safe speed for cars. This is about a person's walking pace. Please check your speed as you enter and leave the campus. Young lives depend on it! Last Friday we were fortunate to enjoy coffee with Mr Marvyn Lim Seng from his start up company, Go Space Singaporean into Space who will be travelling to Australia in April to launch the first SIngaporean astronaut into space. Marvyn has kindly offered to speak to our Middle and High School students about his journey into the space industry and how he, as a Scientist and entrepreneur, has co-opted similar thinking people to put the first Singaporean into Space. We are very proud of our Under 11 Football Team who have performed really well during the season. LV Manglani, Archie Proulx, Saadullah Albitar and Aditya Dinukumar certainly enjoyed representing the school and were fine ambassadors for ISS. The school is looking forward to our Literacy Week. Please keep yourself informed of all the activities through your class teacher and thank you for all your contributions to the Book Swap. Please be reminded that 3 Way Conferences will be held at school on Friday 1 March. You should have received a sign up sheet. This is not a normal school day. I will be around the school if you wish to talk to me. The Family Fun Fair is on April 5. I am collecting donations for the Silent Auction. If you can donate a Spa Voucher, Dinner voucher, Body Shop basket or anything that is new and could be auctioned please drop it in to the office. We are collecting for Clean Water toilet systems for those families who the Grade 5s will be supporting through their camp experience. Next academic year Kindergarten will start at 3 years old. You will have the opportunity to choose between a 2, 3 or 5 day programme with longer hours if required. The Kindergarten will run the Early Years Programme of the PYP. More details are available on the website and through admissions or myself. Middle School News Greetings and welcome to the Middle School news update. With a focus on student safety ISS has established 5 km/h is a safe speed for cars. This is about a person's walking pace. Please check your speed as you enter and leave the campus. Young lives depend on it! ISA reports Having now completed the ISA for the year, we can feedback they have again been a great opportunity to to judge their progress in literacy and also benchmark themselves against a wider community. The individual ISA reports will go into ManageBac around the end of April. ACSIS sports ISS U14 boys basketball started their campaign against Chatsworth. Early in the season the boys show plenty of potential. It was a solid start to the season according to Coach Orgee. Plenty of potential for the season ahead. Three Way Conferences (3WC) On Friday 1st March the Three Way Conferences are being held in Serangoon Hall. These will run for Middle School students from 08.00am- 4.00pm. All parents and guardians are encouraged, with their student(s) to be a part of 3WC. Signup via the links: Looking forward to seeing you on the day. Have a great weekend MT Elementary School News
Spring Into Music On March 12th, 2019, all students K1 - Grade 5 will take part in the ISS Elementary School Spring Concert, Spring Into Music. The concert will be held after school at 6:30pm at the Singapore Conference Hall located at 7 Shenton Way. As each grade level has been preparing for this performance throughout the year, all students will be expected to attend and take part in the concert. Spring Into Music will feature student performances in vocal ensembles and instrumental groups, in which students will display their skills on the xylophone, ukulele, recorder, and a variety of other instruments they've learned within performing arts classes. You will hear repertoire which ranges across multiple genres and generations, including pieces such as Vivaldi's Four Seasons, Bobby McFerrin's Don't Worry, Be Happy, and more popular songs from around the world. Additionally, K1 and K2 will collaboratively perform a musical play titled The Season Wizard. The opportunity for students to participate in a public performance is of such great value as they grow and develop as risk-takers and communicators. The dedication which goes into preparing for this event is a true display of our student's commitment to learning and well-rounded, balanced nature. Seeing our Elementary School students flourish throughout the year in Performing Arts has been immensely rewarding as a music educator, and we at ISS are excited to share the result of their work with our school community. Tickets for Spring Into Music are available in the Paterson Campus Admin Office for the price of $20 each. Thank you for supporting your child’s involvement in performing arts, and we look forward to seeing you at the performance. The ISS teachers enjoyed two days of professional development at our ISS Conference and section PD days on 7 & 8 February. All our staff were highly engaged and shared their knowledge through workshops and presentations. We all participated in a wonderful community lunch hosted by our CEO Mrs. Chan which made our Chinese New Year Celebrations really special. Last Tuesday we were enthralled by the Lion Dance; every student in the school from K to 12 was present to take part in this celebration. Our Grade 3,4 and 5 students have been participating in the ISA as part of our ongoing assessment practices. By all accounts, the students reported that they felt comfortable with the questions in the assessment. The staff has been meeting to discuss the Grade 5 Exhibition which will take place on 23 and 24 April. A number of teachers will be helping the students as ‘mentors’. It will be an opportunity for all our staff to be part of the students educational journey. Middle School News Greetings and happy Week 24 of the school year! With a little over a third of the school year remaining things are really picking up pace. Rest assured the health and well being of our students is foremost in the minds of everyone at ISS. This week to finish off the International Schools Assessment (ISA), students went on a mindful walk. The chance to breathe deeply in and out; to look up at the sky; and to mix with their friends. All whilst getting some exercise. Following on from this we held a ‘Silent Reading Party’. Spread out of the basketball courts students read a book by themselves for 40 mins. What a wonderful way to to meander into the weekend International Schools Assessment (ISA) ISA is done for another year. We are hopeful of having results by mid-April. These assessments will assist in guiding the development of the curriculum in the next academic year and help guide teachers in personalising learning for students for the remainder of this year. Students managed the ISAs very well. It is always good preparation for further external assessments that students will be exposed later in their educational life. Each individual ISA report will be placed into every student who has sat the ISA. This will happen toward the end of April this year. WIDA ISS is very excited about hosting the WIDA Conference at Paterson Campus from 21-24 February. Over 40 educators from all over South-East Asia will descend on ISS for four days of intense review, learnings and experiences that will support the learning of English using the WIDA framework. More updates in our next blog. ISS supporting the community Building on the WIDA conference theme, just updating everyone on the role ISS is taking in the community. Last weekend Paterson Campus hosted a well being conference for parents and educators. Focusing on self-awareness, it was by all reports very successful. On Tuesday night a further parent support session ‘Now and Here’ was held in Changi hall and focused on supporting well being. Next weekend the Global Mothers Network will host a full Changi Hall where parents will discuss parenting, students and living life abroad. Have a great weekend MT The students in Elementary enjoyed a fabulous assembly performed by students in Mandarin - celebrating the Year of the Pig. Students all over the school are getting excited as they and their families prepare for this auspicious event. When we come back to school after the Lunar New Year break our founder, Mrs Chan, has organised a Lion Dance for our students which promises to be spectacular.
As Mr Taylor has mentioned in his blog, students from Grade 3 to 5 have been preparing for their ISA. Not all students will be taking this as it is dependant on their level of English language acquisition, but those students who are not participating will have the opportunity to work on test samples to familiarise them with ISA going forward. The students are working very hard on the ES ‘Spring into Music’ on March 12. Don’t forget to book your tickets soon! May I ask that if you stay after school to play in the ES play area that you encourage your children to put all the blue blocks away, keep the sand in the sandpit (and don’t add water to it) and place all the footballs in the cage. We do expect our students to clear up after themselves, and after school is no exception. This semester we are offering Mindfulness sessions for Parents and Guardians on Thursdays from 2:35-3:30 in Room 26. Do come and join us from 14th February. We all wish you a Happy Lunar New Year and look forward to seeing you on Monday 11 February. The school office will be open from 7 February as the teachers will be participating in two days of Professional Development. Middle School News Wow! What a week we just had. Between International School Assessment (ISA) Coffee Morning and a visit from the Zhengheng Secondary School from China, it was go go go. In between times, the dedicated staff started preparing themselves for the delivery of the ISA, to ensure a smooth and stress free assessment. As well staff are reviewing data sets from Semester One as they start to work with students to build towards strong but challenging goals. The students for their part are continuing the work begun in Sambutan last week. Reviewing their Semester One report and developing goals that either build on a strength or turn an area of development into a strength. It’s all about individualising learning! Year of the Pig Some do and don’ts for the upcoming year of the pig (adapted from smh.com.au) Do these things
Lucky numbers: 2, 5, 8 Have a great lunar new year and see you in the year of the pig. MT Elementary School News
What an industrious time we have had at ISS this week. The ESL children were making gingerbread men in support of their literacy programme (Reading the book ‘The Gingerbread Man’) students were inventing games with the skipping ropes and upper elementary students have been unpicking ‘Action’ (see photographs). The joy of the PYP is that students take ownership of their learning and through this, decide on how to learn as well as how to take action through their learning. The Grade 2s are certainly taking action by deciding to collect items for the Salvation Army. We thank you all for your donations and encourage you to keep these coming in. Friday saw the students racing around the field in support of the ‘Fun Run’. This was a House competition supported by the PE department and was an exciting way to finish the week. Next Thursday 31 January we will be conducting an information session on the upcoming ISA assessments that some of our students will be taking. This is just one of our assessment tools which tells us how our students are doing, compared with other schools of a similar cohort. The session is open to parents of Grades 3 to 9 and will start at 8.00 am. Our school camps are coming up and we will be inviting parents to information sessions after the Lunar New Year break. Grade 5 are going to Bintan May 8 - 10 and Grades 3 & 4 will be staying overnight at the Singapore Zoo 13 - 14 May. Everyday is an open day at ISS so if you wish to encourage your friends to visit as they decide on schools for their children, please feel free to contact us. We are proud of what we do everyday! Middle School News Greetings everyone and welcome to the wonderful world of ISS Middle School and Paterson Campus. This week students have done a ‘deep dive’ into their Semester One school report. In our Developing Approaches To Learning (DATL) period, students were asked to review and analyse, for each subject, where they were strong and areas for development. From this data point they created their own Semester Two Goals, linked to an ATL, with steps on how they are going to achieve the goal. As a parent and or guardian, you can check to see your child’s goals! International Schools Assessment (ISA) A reminder that we have an ISA information morning on Thursday 31 January starting at 8AM. This will be in Changi Hall. In the session you find out about what is the ISA and why do we use this external assessment at ISS. There will be a practical element of completing part of the assessment as well. No study required! RSVP here. Science Excursions Dr Jeremiah has the all the students going to the Science Centre here in Singapore. It is a wonderful opportunity for our scientist to delve into many more advanced experiments and experiences. Make sure when your child comes home to quiz them about all the ‘cool’ things they tried at the Science Centre. ACSIS sports Our footballers, lead by Coach Orgee, finished the season on a high with a come from behind win against Tanglin Trust School. Showing the true meaning of resilience, the U14s bounced back from 0-2 down at half time, to record a historic ISS victory. Well done lads and all those who supported over the season. A true testament to the game and ISS in general. School exchange We are privileged to have students from Zhengheng Secondary School join us next Thursday. In an effort to develop our learning network and experiences, 16 students from G6-7 will spend the day at ISS with a buddy. They will go to classes, eat lunch, learn about ISS and Singapore in general. Hopefully this is the beginning of many such exchanges between the two schools. Have a great weekend MT Elementary School News
I have been quite simply amazed at the standard of work and presentation of the Grade 4 Mini-Exhibition on ‘The Human Body’. The students were well prepared and were certainly knowledgeable, confident and risk takers! An excellent job done, Grade 4. Our new students are settling into ISS very well and have made new friends; playtime is always a wonderful place to see our students welcoming those who have just arrived at ISS. This Semester we will be celebrating our Grade 5 students’ ‘graduation’ to Middle School with a Valedictory dinner on May 29th - please put this new date in your calendar. Other dates to put in your diary are: Grade 3 - 9 ISA Information Morning January 31 Family Fair (PTA) - Friday April 5 At the Fair we will be having a ‘Silent Auction’. You will be able to bid on precious paintings by Robert Lovett, dining experiences, travel vouchers and food baskets. If you are able to donate a Spa treatment, dinner voucher or some other item that you think people would like please email Savannah of the PTA. Please look out for future dates for Camp meetings. The ES camps take place in May. Middle School News Greetings and welcome everyone to the week that was and what is on the horizon. The Middle School (MS) push on the use of diaries by students has started quite successfully. Reinforced by the teachers and by the parents/ guardians, students are getting into the habit of recording and reviewing any and all matters that relate to school. This will be something that ultimately will serve them well as they move on to further education and into the workforce. To quote Benjamin Franklin ‘For every minute spent in organizing, an hour is earned.’ Once On This Island production Today many of our students who are participating in the production Once On This Island (OOTI) also participated in a Physical Theatre Workshop. Mr Lebon and Ms Missen were able to bring an external facilitator who worked at further developing each student’s physical stage presence. This will all contribute to another wonderful production come May this year. ACSIS sport The U14 footballers have been quite busy this week with two games in two days. Having secured a hard fought draw verse Tanglin Trust School on Tuesday, they could not maintain the momentum on Wednesday against National Public School. Well done to the Grade 5 students who ‘stepped up’ and played in the big leagues for the NPS game. International Schools Assessment (ISA) On Monday you will receive your letter outlining this years ISA. The ISA assessment program is designed specifically for students in international schools in Grades 3–9. It is based on the internationally endorsed reading, mathematical literacy and scientific literacy frameworks of the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). (https://www.acer.org/au/isa) This is an annual data point the school uses to establish learning trends within the school and in comparison to other similar schools to ISS. We will be inviting you to join us for a background and information session on Thursday 31st January at Paterson Campus (08:00am) Have a good weekend one and all MT |
Susan Tilney
Paterson Principal Archives
April 2020
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