IGBIS Weekly Newsletter. Issue 103, Week 3, February, 2017.

IGB International School’s Weekly Newsletter - Issue 103, Week 3, February 2017

Pietro Della Rosa under pressure in the opening fixture against Stamford American International School. ~ SEAFA Basketball Tournament, Singapore.

Feb. 10 - 11, 2017

Inside This Week Message from Head of School Mrs. Anne Fowles 2 Head of School ..............................................................

News from Elementary School Mrs. Claire McLeod 2 Elementary School Principal ..............................................................

News from Secondary School Mr. Michael Arcidiacono 3 Secondary School Principal

Happening.

MYP Personal Project. ~ Pg. 3 Career Exploration Morning. ~ Pg. 4 Extended Essay. ~ Pg. 4 We All Need a Positive Digital Footprint.

~ Pg. 5

Friendship Benches. ~ Pg. 5 SEAFA Basketball Tournament. ~ Pg. 6 PVO News. ~ Pg. 8 Friends of the Phoenix. ~ Pg. 9

You are invited to our

The Gardens Mall, Mid Valley City 1st Floor (in front of TGI Friday)

3 - 5 March 2017 / 10:00 11 March 2017 / 10:00

am

am

- 10:00

- 1:30

pm

pm

++ Tuesday, 21st February ~ ACER-ISA Assessment (Grades 3-10) *Until 22nd ~ U13 Boys Basketball @ BSKL (4:00 pm – 5:30 pm) ~ U13 Girls Basketball @ IGBIS (4:00 pm – 5:30 pm) ++ Wednesday 22nd February ~ Sheena Cameron Reading Workshop (parents) @ PVO Room (8:00 am – 8:45 am) ~ U9 Boys Football @ ISP (4:00 pm – 5:30 pm) ~ U9 Girls Football @ BSKL (4:00 pm – 5:30 pm) ++ Thursday 23rd February ~ Canadian University Fair @ L6 Multi-Purpose Room (9:40 am – 10:40 am) ~ U15 Boys Basketball @ Taylor’s International School (4:00 pm – 5:30 pm) ~ U15 Girls Basketball @ IGBIS (4:00 pm – 5:30 pm) ++ Friday 24th February ~ ES Assembly (EYR) @ L3 ES Music Classroom (8:00 am – 8:30 am) ~ Varsity Education Summer Programmes: Preparation for Competitive UK University Admissions @ L6 Multi-Purpose Room (8:00 am – 8:30 am)

Message from Head of School Dear IGBIS Parents and Community Members,

taking part in their first overnight camp outside of school.

Last week the IGBIS boys and girls basketball teams travelled to Singapore to take part in the SEAFA tournament. This was our first international sports event and a great opportunity for the students to play against and interact with students from Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia. Please look to the athletics section of this newsletter to find more details

The PVO meeting this week was well attended and there was a lot of discussion about ideas for International Day. More information about International Day and how families might be involved will be shared by our Community Liaison and Marketing team.

Our grade 4 and 5 students are very excited to be out on camp this week. The Grade 4 students have been based in school and staying here overnight, while the Grade 5 students are

Mrs. Anne Fowles Head of School

News from Elementary School It is always such a relief when the camp buses roll into school and we see happy, if exhausted, students and their teachers. This was the case today when the Grade 5 students returned from the 3 day 2 night bush camp north of the city.

River rafting, bush walking, participating in the ropes course, eating outside and sleeping close to nature gave our students amazing experiences and opportunities to further develop their resilience, open mindedness, commitment and ability to work together collaboratively.

Grade 4 students also returned home exhausted but extremely pleased with themselves after 3 days of activities in the city and in a local national park. Many of the students had never built a campfire or prepared and cooked their own meal over a fire. “I can’t believe that the food l cooked was so nice, l expected it to be awful, as l thought l was a terrible cook,” said one boy. “The river walk looked scary and l really didn’t think l could do it, but l persevered and loved it,” said another.

I joined them today for the rock climbing and bowling and was impressed with their willingness to have a go, even when it looked daunting for some. The support and cheering by their peers was heart warming and made all the teachers extremely proud. To finish the experience, l was delighted to watch a caring Grade 9 student walk over and offer to help a Grade 4 student who was struggling to maneuver his sleeping gear through the turnstiles and walk to the bus line up area.

Planning and preparing for camp, then overseeing and ensuring everyone is happy, challenged and safe is a huge task and l thank our teachers for providing two wonderful camp experiences for our students.

Until next time,

Mrs. Claire McLeod Elementary School Principal

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Igniting Minds

Impacting Lives

News from Secondary School Dear parents, The first Career Exploration Day at IGBIS was a great success! I sat in on several presentations and they provided some very interesting stimula for students (and teachers) to consider more deeply the nature of different types of careers.

The morning moved quickly and students had the opportunity to hear about several different careers, and also gain a sense of the life experiences of the presenters that formed who they are today. I am very grateful to Mrs Davidson and her team for their organisation of the event, and to all our parents and community members who came to share their experience.

Thank you!

Next week secondary students (in grades 6-10) will sit the ACER International Schools Assessment (ISA) test on Tuesday and Wednesday morning. I ask that students be especially careful about being on time these mornings, as the testing starts at the beginning of each day. Parents are encouraged to see the recent emails that Mrs Mcleod has sent to learn more about the ISA test.

Sincerely,

Michael Arcidiacono Secondary School Principal

MYP Personal Project Phil Clark MYP Coordinator ...............................................................................................

“MYP Projects help students to develop the attributes of the IB learner profile; provide students with an essential opportunity to demonstrate Approaches to Learning (ATL) skills developed through the MYP; and foster the development of independent, lifelong learners.” (“MYP Projects Guide”, IBO, 2014)

more weeks in which to complete their Personal Projects.

The Personal Project provides opportunities for students to identify areas of personal interest, to inquire more deeply into those interests, to learn more about them and to take some form of responsible action as a result of their inquiries.

Students work on their projects in their own time over a ninemonth period. They are guided by teacher supervisors through a cycle of investigation, planning, taking action and reflecting.

While the Grade 8 students recently completed their semesterlong Community Projects, Grade 10 students still have a few

The Personal Project is an important, culminating, selfdirected project in the MYP which connects students personal interests with school learning. Examples of some of this year’s varied projects include “How can I introduce the game of badminton to beginners?”, “How can I use digital media to create electronic dance music?”, “Why is sleeping important to keep ourselves physically and mentally healthy?”, “How can I create an easy way for people to improve their physical and mental fitness through an app?”, “How can I make a creative and comfortable dog house that expresses who I am?”, “How can an awareness campaign be used to influence people’s decision-making about the environment?”.

Igniting Minds

The Grade 10 students have finished creating their products and are nearing the end of the reflecting stage. Over the next couple of weeks they will be drafting their Personal Project reports, meeting with their supervisors to seek feedback, before submitting their final report on Monday 20 March. The Personal Project report prepares students for the Extended Essay in the IB Diploma Programme and for research papers at university, and will be formally assessed against MYP assessment criteria.

The Personal Projects will be exhibited to the school community during Student-Led Conferences in May.

Impacting Lives

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Career Exploration Morning.

Pauline Davidson Grade 9-12 School Counsellor ...............................................................................................

On Wednesday 15th February IGBIS Secondary School hosted its first Career Exploration Morning. The aim of the morning was to inspire our students in grades 6-11 in ways that will continue to impact lives in their post-secondary education. We began with an assembly in the theatre where Mr. Arcidiacono shared how his 5 and 7 year old boys wanted to grow up to be Spiderman, inventors, or spies. He then discussed how throughout our lives these goals and hopes for our future are ever fluid.

Often we ask students the wrong question. “What do you want to be when you grow up?” is a question that most students don’t like to answer. Some better things to have students consider are “What problem do you want to solve?” and “What problem occupies your thoughts?” We want students to think about the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to solve

world problems.

Senior students shared a video about things they were passionate about and the problems in the world that they would like to see fixed in the future. Teachers talked about the jobs they had before working in education.

Following the assembly, all students in grades 6-11 chose to listen to up to four presentations from 15 choices, with topics on: hospitality; life sciences; investment banking; creative industry; accountancy & management; humanitarian work; communications & media; multi-national corporations & banking; nursing / dentistry; engineering; education & leadership; oil & gas industry; social media literacy; law; and non-government organisations.

IGBIS teachers and students would like to say a big thank you to all the presenters who shared their life stories and experiences with students. We hope to see this event grow even bigger in future years.

Extended Essay.

Mary Boyd DP Coordinator ...............................................................................................

A huge sigh of relief and sense of achievement rings throughout IGBIS today, as our Grade 12 students submit their final Extended Essay.

In their footsteps follow our Grade 11 students, already chewing over their biros in thought and brimming with ideas for their 4000 word mini-dissertation. We very much look forward to seeing those take form in due course.

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It is a wonderful achievement and the product of much research and hours of hard work on their part, as well as the close collaboration with their EE Supervisors: Mr Hawkes, Mr Evans, Ms Kelly, Mr Spivey-Jones, Mr Marshall, Ms Heys, Mr Thompson, Mr Watters, Mr Aherne and Ms Chotard. Well done all!

On Wednesday 22nd February, Grade 10 students have their Options Fair, during which they can find out more about each of their desired Diploma subjects, be it for the IBDP or IBCP. Grade 10 parents are most welcome to join us in the Secondary School library at 9:30am.

Igniting Minds

Impacting Lives

We All Need a Positive Digital Footprint.

Geoffrey Derry Technology Integration Specialist ...............................................................................................

I recently spoke to some Secondary students about their digital footprint: what it is, how it can affect their career and university opportunities, and the importance of having a positive online presence.

Commonsense Media (www.commonsensemedia.org) defines a digital footprint as “all of the information about a person that can be found online”.

Anyone who has posted something online, (Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, Instagram, Snapchat, Youtube, Google+, etc.) has a digital footprint. It is just like a real footprint; it is the trail left behind by online activity. When someone else posts a photo or a comment about you or tags you, they also contribute to your digital footprint.

Many of our students in Elementary and most of Secondary have a digital footprint and for some of them, and some of their parents, this can seem scary. This is especially a concern when you hear that future employers and universities can easily look up their applicants online when they apply for jobs or university places.

Some students were asking me, “What if we don’t have an online presence? Isn’t this a good thing?” This might sound like a good idea and a good way forward, but in reality when future employers or universities start looking for a digital presence and they don’t find one this can raise more questions.

While it is true that no digital presence is better than a bad one, an even better strategy is for students, adults and teachers to have a positive digital footprint. A Facebook profile, Youtube, Twitter or Instagram account or blog that highlights and shares charity work, sports success or participation, showcases excellent school work including things like the Community Projects or Exhibitions is a very positive online presence. This is something that future employers and universities will look upon favourably. Making sure you have positive interactions and comments online can impact your digital footprint.

Although there still may be some negative content online, students can drown out the negative information with positive online content. Students should start creating their positive digital footprint sooner rather than later, as people will search a long way back to get a true picture of the person they are inquiring about. That means it is not too early for all of us, even Elementary students to start thinking about how they can have a positive digital footprint.

Friendship Benches.

Milton, Zi Xuan, Audrey & Abbigael Grade 4 Student Council Members .............................................................

In the Elementary Student Council, we have been discussing how to make the school a better place. We came up with the idea of the ‘Friendship Bench’. These Friendship Benches help students make friends or play with someone different or new. We organised a Friendship Day on the 18th of November where students could wear bright colours to represent happiness. Students were asked to bring in a donation of RM5-10 to help raise money to buy the benches.

Overall, we raised RM800+. This was enough money to get two brand new benches. Mrs. McLeod bought a third one and we assembled them together.

We made a stencil that said “Friendship Bench” and painted it on the benches.

We introduced these benches to Elementary School during assembly. We made skits to show how to use the Friendship Bench correctly. These Friendship Benches were placed in the play areas around the school: one in the Level 1 Playground, one in the Level 6 Sports Field and one in the Level 7 Sports Hall. These benches help make IGB International School a better place.

Igniting Minds

Impacting Lives

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Flying Phoenix.

Tim Bartle Athletics & Activities Coordinator ...............................................................................................

The opening day of the tournament was a challenging one for both teams. The girls started nervously in their opening game against the hosts. Being a regular school day, the team from Stamford had plenty of support in the stands. Our girls showed fighting spirit but our slow start took its toll. The girls second game was against the eventual tournament champions who proved to be too strong and skillful.

The boys managed to put together some good patches of play in their opener, but couldn’t sustain that intensity for the duration of the game, ultimately going down to a more composed team. Another difficult assignment followed as they too took on the eventual champions in their second game.

Against a talented outfit, our boys never really settled and eventually succumbed to the physicality of the contest.

In what was another school first, the U18 boys and girls basketball teams travelled internationally for the SEAFA (South East Asian Friendship Athletics) basketball competition that took place last weekend. Recently formed, the SEAFA organisation currently involves international schools from Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia. This first SEAFA basketball tournament was hosted by Stamford American International School in Singapore.

Arriving into Singapore on Thursday afternoon, the team took the opportunity to stretch their legs by taking a lovely scenic walk to the marina area. A delicious dinner was enjoyed at Telok Ayer Market before ambling back to the hotel for the night.

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The Phoenix was back in action early on Day Two of the tournament. The girls never gave up in their third game against Harrow International School but were outplayed by a very strong team. The team faced the American International School Vietnam in their final game of the tournament. Neither side could shake their opponents off in a game that saw the lead change numerous times. Disappointingly, our girls fell just short at the final buzzer. They had played their best basketball of the tournament and executed a number of offensive and defensive strategies that they had been working on. After the game coach Ms. Snooks said “I couldn’t be more proud of your effort.”

The boys started Day Two with a grinding win over Harrow International. Trailing 13-18 early in the second quarter, the boys rallied to take the lead. Raaid Rafee and Ken Woon scored some important baskets to maintain a slender lead and when young gun Shoma Sumida held his nerve to make some

Igniting Minds

Impacting Lives

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The teams stand together for the opening ceremony.

clutch baskets, and the game was finally ours.

The IGBIS boys jumped out to an early lead in their final game of the tournament against the American International School Vietnam. A scrappy contest ensued driving up the foul count for a number of our players. With the scores level at the half, our gradual lead was in danger when Josh received a heavy hit and Ken and Pietro got into foul trouble. In a gruelling contest the boys ended up going down 37-33 and just missed out on the semi finals.

The boys warmly welcomed by Larry the Lion.

Whilst the focus was largely on the basketball, a strong emphasis was placed on fair play, spirit and friendship by all participating schools. Students enjoyed the competition on the court but also sought opportunities to socialise off the court too. Both IGBIS teams were commended by opposition coaches and the tournament director on the way they conducted themselves throughout the tournament. Much to their surprise, the boys team were voted by their competition peers as winners of the “SEAFA Fair Play Award.� Reina Takahashi (Grade 9) and Rene Himpe (Grade 12) were also acknowledged as members of the SEAFA 2017 All Star Team at the awards ceremony evening.

1, 2, 3... Phoenix!

The success of this trip cannot solely be measured in wins and losses for our teams. Our students have learnt much about themselves, the game of basketball and how to be gracious in defeat. SEAFA 2017 could not have been possible without Ms. Tamara Snooks and Mr. Jonathon Woon who took on the roles of coach for the girls and boys team respectively. We eagerly look forward to our involvement in future international tournaments with SEAFA.

Pietro Della Rosa under pressure in the opening fixture against Stamford American International School.

(L-R: Momone, Zoe, Reina, Pei Xien, Lisa, Theevya, Yin Xzi, Momoka, Aria)

(L-R: Jia Dong, Shoma, Raaid, Ting Jie, Pietro, Joshua, Abdallah, Leon, Rene, Ken)

Yin Xzi (#7) fights for position whilst Pei Xien (#10) moves in for the rebound.

Igniting Minds

Impacting Lives

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PVO News Julie Chen Arcidiacono Community Support & Services Coordinator ...............................................................................................

Career Exploration Day As mentioned by Mrs Davidson, our Grades 9-12 School Counsellor, our first Career Exploration Morning was a great success. I would like to thank the parents who volunteered to share their professional backgrounds with our students: Louise Edmondson, Datuk Johan Iris, Jacqueline Lee, Julie Teh, Tze Yeng Ng, Julian Hopkins and our staff parent presenters Jonathon Woon, Shireen Blakeway, Geoff Derry and Tanya Cornish.

International Day We had a successful PVO event planning morning last Thursday. I appreciate the time that many parents took to join us. Some Grade 11 parents even enjoyed a mini-International Day potluck lunch after the meeting. I would also like to thank those parents who submitted responses to the International Day survey.

A brief summary of what was discussed: ++ The theme of this year’s International Day is The Mosaic, where we aim to celebrate our diversity, our cultural connections and the cultural “mosaic” that is our IGBIS community. ++ The event will begin at 8:30am with a Parade of Nations, where all IGBIS nationalities will be represented, including a “Global Citizens” flag for families that identify with multicultural backgrounds. ++ After the opening ceremony, students and families will be

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invited to join the parade and follow the flag bearers into the Sports Hall, where select countries will have displays and food offerings. ++ Cultural activities, performances and sporting fixtures will run simultaneously in the Sports Hall and Field. The event is expected to conclude at 11:00am. ++ Our next International Day meeting is scheduled for Thursday 23 February at 8:00am.

The slide presentation with International Day details is available on the PVO website. Parents may have already been contacted by email about getting involved in International Day. If you are interested, please let me or the designated parent country leader know. Class representatives can also assist with clarifications.

Igniting Minds

Impacting Lives

Grade 11 parents enjoy a potluck lunch after the PVO meeting.

Friends of the Phoenix Postcard from our alumnus

Miki Mei Qi Wong, class of 2016

Figuring out the artworks @ Goldsmiths

Igniting Minds

Impacting Lives

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IGBIS INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL

Igniting Minds

Impacting Lives