October 2013 Quarter 1
The Tiger Times
INSIDE THIS ISSUE Principal’s Message ..................... 2 VP’s Message ............................... 3 PYP/IB/IGCSE ................................ 4 Library Link .................................... 5 Rec/Gr 11 story time .................... 6 Water Puppet CCP ...................... 7 Career News ................................ 8 Student Council…………………..10 PTA…………………………………..11 Athletics…………………………….12 Swimming Gala…………………..14 MRISA Leadership Conf…………15
From Mr. Terry Hamilton, Principal This is our first school newsletter for the year and I can report that we have had a great start to the new academic year. On behalf of the school and the school board I extend a special welcome to our new students and families. I would like to touch on a number of areas of interest to you all. The end of the last academic year saw a very low turn-over of staff with three full time staff and two part time staff leaving HIS. We have had new teaching staff joining H.I.S. and we welcome them most warmly. Ms. Ceri Thorns will be teaching Science and Biology, Mr. Steven Stander teaching Secondary EAL with some ICT, Mr. Andrew Smith teaching P.E. and some Math’s and is the coordinator for the co-curricular programme, Ms. Jessica Ingram teaching Secondary EAL and supporting Special Educational Needs and Ms. Kaori Ichijo teaching Japanese. All new staff have settled in well and are now a sound part of the HIS community. Continued on page 2...
Hanoi International School has been operating since 1996, providing an international English education to international and Vietnamese students from Reception to Grade 12. The school’s academic programmes include the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Prgramme (IBPYP) from Reception to Grade 5, preparation for the Cambridge University’s IGCSE from Grades 610 and the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme for Grades 11 and 12. HNOI INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL 48 Lieu Giai Street, Ba Dinh District, Ha Noi Vietnam www.hisietnam.com
Over the summer holiday period much effort and significant investment was put into getting the school building and site ready to start the new school year. The biggest building project was further improvement in the roofing and entrance way into the school, a new main office and refurbished auditorium and re-surfacing with Astroturf the fields next door to the school. In addition we have a new and improved swimming venue for that programme. Investment continued in technology for teaching and learning with new computers, more interactive white boards and a range of tablets and laptops. On-going investment will take place throughout the year for instance we are now set to put new curtains and a new sound system into the auditorium. We have upgraded the canteen and kitchens area and ‘Donkey Bakery’ is the new and sole provider of food for the school canteen. A wide ranging menu is on offer and their services continue to grow in popularity. At this time of year HIS is host to a number of visits by universities and their admissions staff who come and introduce their universities to our older students. To date we have had two such visits from US universities and on October 18th there is a large fair at HIS with British universities making presentations. I am very pleased to report that on both visits so far, admissions staff have written to us praising our students for their intelligent questioning, for their excellent manners and for just being great students. This makes us all very proud of our senior students.
This was a great opportunity for student leaders from all MRISA member schools to get together and share ideas. We all take seriously the student input into the decision making that goes on in our schools. The Conference was a great event and enjoyed by all. Sports and cultural events will follow shortly. Can I remind you that we will be having our accreditation visit from CIS (Council of International Schools) and NEASC (New England Association of Schools and Colleges) between October 26 and November 1. A team of ten educators from a number of countries will be in HIS for a week evaluation us against what we wrote in our Self-Study document and against the CIS and NEASC Standards of Accreditation. Their findings and report will be welcomed when it comes and will support future planning. The first quarter is coming to an end and we will have the autumn holiday break followed by two days of staff professional development. This means the school is closed for students from 3.00pm on Friday October 4 until Wednesday morning October 16. Thank you all for a very smooth and well supported start up to the year and please regularly look at our web site for all on-going information and communication. Yours most sincerely, Terry Hamilton
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Principal.
From the Head of Secondary It is hard to believe we are at the end of the first quarter of the year. It seems like only the other day we were welcoming students back to school and experiencing the changes that took place over the summer. Now here we are 8 weeks later! Our PE department predicted the weather beautifully and we had a fantastic Swim Gala and last weekend we very successfully hosted the MRISA Leadership conference. Feedback from the visiting schools was unanimously positive and the team involved in this event are feeling justifiably proud of what they have accomplished. Now it is time for a well-earned week off, and we'll look forward to seeing everyone back in school on Wednesday October 16th, ready for an activity-packed Quarter Two. David Miles
From the Head of Elementary As we draw closer to the end of the first quarter, it’s great to be able to say that our smooth start to the school year has continued. There are wonderful learning opportunities happening in all areas of the school and our students are motivated and enthusiastic. I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to our teacher assistants for all their hard work in the school. Our students benefit every day in so many ways because of their care, their hard work and their dedication. We are so fortunate to be working with such a competent group. I’d also like to say thanks to Mr Adam for the outstanding organisation of the swimming galas. The junior elementary swim gala was great fun, and even some of the teachers joined in the relay. It was disappointing to be rained out for both days of the upper elementary swim gala but we are looking forward to having this event at the end of the academic year. I would like to remind parents that you are welcome to visit our school at any time. Our classrooms are looking great, and the corridors are a colourful celebration of our learning. If you would like to visit your child’s class, please make a suitable time with the class teacher.
Warren Bowers
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What is PYP? What is PYP from a student’s perspective One of Grade 5’s recent projects was to choose a way to communicate the beliefs and values behind the PYP. Each student chose their own way of showing their learning. Some children created posters, some created Prezi’s, some created PowerPoints, some created artwork and some wrote a speech and shared it in Assembly. The example I have attached was done by Claudia Ovejero. She created a powerpoint in gmail. The simple nature of her presentation makes it clear to an audience, what is PYP, how does it work and how does it connect to us.
Miss Lisa PYP Coodinator Grade 5 Teacher
HIS IGCSE-IB Diploma Results May/June 2013 At a glance
Cambridge IGCSE
20 students entered 137 exams sat 68% A*-C 65.2% A*-C World Average
A* A
9 26
B
35
C D E
23 27 11
International Baccalaureate Diploma
17 students entered 128 exams sat Number of candidates registered for Diploma- 13 Number of candidates who passed the Diploma- 12 Average points obtained by candidates at HIS- 33 points World average points obtained (May 2013) - 29.8 points Highest number of points obtained- 40 points (2 students) 4
The Library Link
Other students have also been enjoying Kanami’s chair.
Kanami Suzuki, grade 9, designed this wonderful ‘book’ chair for the Art Exhibition last year.
Holiday Fun
Ms Loan is sorting out over 400 new books! You can read them NOW! Read ‘Goodnight Ipad’ on this link A guy walks up to the library desk and says, “Can I have a large burger, fries and a coke please?" The librarian replies, "Sir, this is a library." So he whispers, "Oh ok, I'll have a large burger, fries and a coke please."
http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=kIhiJK5xa18
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Grade 11 and Reception Buddy Interview
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Water Puppets CCP HIS is the first school in Vietnam to adopt this brand new and exciting project. With the help and guidance of board member Mr Truyen, HIS is preparing to perform an original water puppet show based on the Japanese tale, Momotaro. Our creative team is busy designing the production from scratch. This includes writing the script, making the puppets and props by hand, acting with the puppets, selecting the music, recording the performance, making CDs……phew! The list goes on and on! We are lucky enough to have our very own mini mobile water puppet theatre and are being trained by famous water puppet artisan Phan Thanh Liem (check out his name on google…you’ll be impressed!) The Team: Miku Mishima, Sami Mathur, Diyanah Almad Zaki, Vic Dang (UNIS), Miss Jess, Mr Liem, Mr Tuyen, Miss Chi Looking forward to you being our first audience at a live performance next quarter! Jess Ingram
Our very own mini-mobile water puppet theatre!
Mr Phan Thanh Liem and his super-cute son.
One of Mr Phan Thanh Liem’s training classes…mind the SPLASH!
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Career news Counselor’s Corner August and September have been very productive months in terms of informing our secondary students about tertiary education options. From the USA, we were delighted to host these colleges and universities: Hendrix Boston Bowdoin Carleton Pomona Swarthmore College Centre Hampshire Beloit Millsaps Lewis & Clark Southern Illinois University Carbondale Hillsborough Community College The University of Edinburgh Kansas State University Mt Holyoke Northern Michigan University Miami University University of Connecticut In addition to the USA universities, we also hosted the University of Edinburgh. We are especially fond of this institution because our alumnus, Esther Park, is currently in the second year of Medicine at Edinburgh.
Grade 9 students have taken their first steps towards career discovery and work experience. Each student completed a vocational test to help them to plan an appropriate career, and many of the students have subsequently decided on a work experience placement. Students from other year levels may also be interested in this test, which can be found atwww.myfuture.com.au The Grade 9 work experience program will he held from 20th to 24th January. An email has been sent to Grade 9 parents in English, Japanese, Vietnamese and Korean, explaining the aims of work experience. Rigo working hard at the Melia Hotel during the 2013 Work
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A large number of Grade 11 and 12 students are offering CCPs as part of their CAS programs this year. Among the offerings are Beginners’ Mandarin; Conversational English; IGCSE Revision; Japanese for Adult Learners; Beginners’ Vietnamese; English for Japanese Students; and Cooking. Our senior students are learning so much from their leadership of these programs and at the same time are engaging in valuable experiences that will increase their chances of university selection. We look forward to even more senior students leading CCPs in the future.
English for Japanese Students CCP
While on the topic of universities, our Grade 12 students are preparing their tertiary wish-lists and some students have already commenced the application process. Our first deadline is Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, rated number one in Asia for science. HIS alumnus Hui Yeong Moon has just started her first year at HKUST and we are hoping to send a few more students to this prestigious research university in 2014. Chan Min, Eui Jeong, Chelsea and Ji Soo are currently writing their applications to HKUST and we wish them every success!
We extend our congratulations to all 3 of our graduating Japanese students for securing places at some of Japan's most prestigious universities. Shotaro (far left) will commence Liberal Arts at Sophia University, Reina (front centre) will study Human Science at Yokohama National University and Shizuka (back centre) will join HIS alumnus Mika Niimura at Waseda University.
Begginer’s Mandarin CCP
HKUST
English Lessons for HIS Mothers are continuing this year, meeting every Wednesday at 3pm. Our classes are informal and focus on conversation. During Quarter Two, among other topics we will cover the English skills and vocabulary needed to enable parents to access information about tertiary options for their children and to interact with university selection officers. Everyone is welcome to join our lessons.
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Secondary Student Council I am Norihiro from grade 11. I have been elected as a vice president this year. We recently had
Jin Wook Baek -
MRISA leadership conference and we have learnt
President
a fair amount of things which we had never had
It was quite challenging for me to
before. For this year, I would like each of the
become a president. There were
students to get involved in decision making
three nationalities: Korean, Indian
because people who create a entertained year
and Vietnamese. As Korean is most populated in HIS, there were some
are not only student council members but also each of the HIS students. Let's make a great school year together!
advantages for me. However, it was hard to predict who was going to win the election: me, Ansh or Tom! During the speech, I slapped my brother, Sungwook, and said “If I become the president, I will not care about my brother!” This action was one of my tactics to get some young children like grade 6 students. I promised to hold lots of
My idea to run for secretary started from a minor thinking. I thought it would be amazing if I was part of student council. Since I like to speak and share my ideas to others, I decided to try to be a person in a student council who was confident in front of crowds. Despite my enthusiasm to be secretary, I froze on the stage for my speech. However, the result was totally different from my expectations. Some people complimented and encouraged me a lot. Therefore, although I was unsatisfied about my speech, some people’s compliments made me feel better. . After unexpectedly elected as secretary, I was so happy and proud of myself because it gave me a feeling of achievement and success. I encourage the next Grade 11 students to try to be a part of student council. It was one of the best experiences for me and more and more people need to try these amazing experiences.— Jee Hyuk Woo
events, be more productive and efficient, and alleviate the chaos in
The election was all right for me. Actually, I spent days agonizing
cafeteria. That was it. I became a
over whether to wear the headband or not. However, even if I lost
president. The student council’s first
this election, it is a good experience in my life so I decided to
event will be held during Halloween!
wear headband in order to make everyone remember me. I was very nervous but I tried to look confident to HIS students. It was a valuable experience. So Yeon Kim, Treasurer
Elementary Student Council Claudia from Grade 5 L will be the new Chair for Elementary Student Council. Claudia made her debut speech at the Singing Assembly on October 1. Watch this space……...
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PTA in Quarter 1 The first official PTA meeting this school year was on September 12, attended by 23 parents and HIS teachers. Subjects discussed during the first session were MRISA Leadership Conference Housing, Draft of PTA constitution, canteen with Donkey’s Bakery and PTA committee elections. The new committee consists as last year of Susanne Dollmann (President), Janice Park (Vice President), Mia Rees (Secretary) and Yuko Takahashi (Treasurer). Upcoming Events are the International Day (November 15) the HIWC Bazaar( November 24). Just like previous years, the PTA is getting ready to help prepare the school for the HIS booth. Everybody’s support welcome! Next PTA meeting is scheduled for October 17 at 3.15 p.m. at Secondary Library. On Monday, October 14,12.30 p.m. there will be an informal PTA-lunch at BISTRO, 2/2C, Pho van Phuc,. Everybody welcome! We are looking forward to collaborating with and for HIS in the PTA in the new school year! All parents are welcome to join us any time to make our organization lively. Thanks for all the great support of so many of parents and HIS staff!
With best regards, Susanne Dollmann PTA President Hanoi, September 30, 2013 11
Athletics It’s been a busy, fun filled Quarter for PE and Sport so far. Plenty of fixtures for our MRISA Volleyball and Basketball Teams, two swimming galas and a MRISA Leadership Conference hosted at HIS!!! In preparation for MRISA HS Volleyball and MS Basketball competitions in Cambodia our teams have played plenty of warm up matches against local schools. The boys MS team coached by Mr Spencer and Mr Adam have played 4 games winning 3 of them. The MS Girls are a new team and have played two matches, although they lost twice they have made improvements in their game. Well done Ms Althea and Young Cho for their hard work with the team. Our HS Volleyball teams have been involved in fixtures/tournaments against UNIS playing against their MRISA and APAC teams. Matches have been close and the players have made excellent progress under the guidance of their coaches Mr Andy and Mr Xousath.
Recently, we held two Swimming Gala’s, one for Secondary school and one for Rec – 2. Both events were well organised, students and staff had a fantastic time at both.
SECONDARY SCHOOL
REC – 2 GALA
1ST PLACE – DRAGON 865
1ST PLACE - GECKO 296
2ND PLACE- BUFFALO 681
2ND PLACE- DRAGON 279
3RD PLACE- GECKO 540
3RD PLACE – BUFFALO 275
Due to the weather we had to cancel the Grade 3 – 5 Gala this will be held in May/June 2014. Continued on next page...
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Athletics, continued from previous page: At the weekend HIS welcomed schools from Cambodia, Lao, HCMC, Hanoi and Thailand to the first MRISA event of 2013 -2014. The Leadership Conference was a brilliant event which ran for two days. The students learned a lot about Leadership and the feedback received was positive. It was great to show off our school and put on an event which teachers said “was the best they had attended�. Special thanks to Mr Dan, Ms Danielle and Mr Adam for the planning and organisation. Other special thank you goes to Donkey Bakery for providing amazing food for the weekend, also a big thank you to our HS students who gave up their weekend to take photos and videos of the event.
- Adam Lee
Junior Girls Basketball The Junior Girls have been training hard and are showing great improvement. Our captain, Karen, scored two baskets in our last game against UNIS. Young Sung Cho in Year 11 has been a great help coaching the girls. Last week, we held a bake sale to raise some money to support him, so he can travel with us to Cambodia for the tournament, and we were able to raise 3, 341, 000 VND. He has never had a bake sale held is his honour before and felt quite special! Ms Althea
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Secondary & Lower Elementary Swimming Gala
MRISA LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE
‘The best leadership conference I have been to in 3 years of attending them.’ (Mike from ISPP) HIS were the proud hosts of the 2013 MRISA Leadership Conference this quarter. On the weekend of Friday 27th September, around forty students from schools along the Mekong Delta, including ISPP, ISHCMC, UNIS, —————converged at HIS for an action-packed weekend of problem-solving, communication and teamwork in order to further develop their leadership skills. The Conference began with a series of fun ice-breaker challenges, designed to allow the students to get to know one another a little better, to relax and build confidence, whilst starting to consider the main focus for the weekend- what makes a good leader? Then the students were presented with the ‘mystery challenge’ for the weekend- The Amazing Race! Groups were dropped off in the middle of the Old Quarter with a limited budget and limited time, to complete a series of tasks. The aim was to complete as many tasks as possible to gain points. The winning team managed to stay within budget, end the race on time and gather an amazing total of 96 points!!! To make the task more challenging, students were placed in mixed teams from a variety of schools/nationalities and were only given 1 hour to come up with a teamwork strategy! Students had a lot of fun! On the second day of the conference, students gathered again at basecamp HIS, for another day of team work, problem solving and strategy. The aim was for student s to reflect upon their strengths as a leader and to recognize their areas for improvement. Students took part in a card game designed to test their thinking skills and teamwork and finally students used their new found leadership skills to deliver a presentation on how to organize a successful school event. All in all, it was a fantastic weekend and many students expressed how enjoyable and valuable an experience they found it. ‘On behalf of our ISHCMC student representatives, I would like to thank you and all HIS staff involved in hosting the recent MRISA Leadership Conference. Our students have expressed that it was a very valuable and enjoyable learning experience. Your efforts are greatly appreciated!’ Regards, Bob(ISHCMC) Organisers: Mr. Dan Slaughter, Mr. Adam Lee, Ms. Danielle Kaunhoven
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Quarter 2 Events
Mid semester break
5-13 October
Staff PD (NO CLASSES)
14-15 October
UK Universities Visit
18 October
PTA Lunch
11 November
PTA Meeting
14 November
International Day
15 November
Secondary Camp Week
18-22 November
PTA Lunch
2 December
PTA Meeting
5 December
Book Week
9-13 December
Yoga at HIS Parents from the HIS community are invited to join our yoga classes held on Wednesdays at 3:15 pm. Email landerson@hisvietnam.com for more information.
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