IGBIS Weekly Newsletter. Issue 107, Week 3, March, 2017.

IGB International School’s Weekly Newsletter - Issue 107, Week 3, March 2017

Happening.

Four of our Grade 4 students participated in the Year 5/ Grade 4 Association of International Malaysian Schools (AIMS) Maths Challenge 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 5 Secondary School Principal

Elementary Book Day and Book Swap. ~ Pg. 3 AIMS Maths Challenge 2017. ~ Pg. 4 Student-Initiated Action. ~ Pg. 5 Visit from MRCEC Refugee School. ~ Pg. 6 DP Visual Arts Exhibition. ~ Pg. 7 Achiever’s Academy Book Donations. ~ Pg. 9 IGBIS Student Becomes AAYFF Finalist.

~ Pg. 9

The Importance of Sleep. ~ Pg. 10 Friends of the Phoenix. ~ Pg. 11

++ Monday, 20 March ~ Mock Exam Week (G12) (Mar 20 – Mar 31) ~ Secondary Swim Meet @ IGBIS (3:30 pm – 5:00 pm) ++ Tuesday, 21 March ~ University Visit: Loughborough University @ L6 Learning Lounge (9:30 am – 10:30 am) ++ Wednesday, 22 March ~ UAL Study & Design Talk @ L6 Multi-Purpose Room (12:45 pm – 1:30 pm) ~ U9 Boys Football Friendly @ Tenby ( 3:15 pm – 6:00 pm) ++ Thursday 23 March ~ DP Art Exhibition @ L2 Visual Arts (6:30 pm – 8:00 pm) ++ Friday 24 March ~ LAST DAY Season 2: Athletics and Activities ~ ES Assembly (KG) @ L3 ES Music Classroom (8:00 am – 8:30 am) ~ KLISS Elementary Track & Field @ IGBIS (8:00 am – 1:00 pm) ++ Saturday 25 March ~ International Day (8:30 am – 11:00 am)

Message from Head of School Dear IGBIS Parents and Community Members, Last week in my newsletter article I talked about the school vision. This week I would like to bring your attention to the IGBIS mission:

To provide an inclusive learning community, embracing diversity by offering a challenging IB education that empowers its members to be caring, global citizens.

In a future article I will discuss the many ways that IGBIS is inclusive. This week I would like to concentrate on diversity.

IGBIS has students of over 30 nationalities attending the school. Of these, around 45% are Malaysian with the next

largest groups being from North America, Japan, Australia, India, Korea, the Netherlands, United Kingdom and Canada.

Amongst our teaching staff we also have diversity with over 12 countries represented.

Next Saturday, March 25th, IGBIS will hold its third International Day. This will be an excellent opportunity for our community to celebrate diversity as well as areas of connection. Please come along and join us.

Mrs. Anne Fowles Head of School

News from Elementary School This week IGBIS hosted the AIMS (Association of International Malaysian Schools) Grade 4 Maths Challenge over two days.

Ten schools from Kuala Lumpur and two schools from Penang sent teams of four or eight students to participate in problem solving maths tasks. We were delighted with the enthusiasm, perseverance and commitment displayed by all students.

Thank you to Ms Blakeway, Mr Derry and Mrs Arcidiacono for their excellent organisation.

This Friday 24th March IGBIS will host the KLISS (Kuala Lumpur International School Sports) Primary Schools’ Athletics Championships. This event will be held on the field on Level 6 from 8.15 -12.00 and all parents are welcome to attend.

Parents are reminded that the Elementary Student Council is organising a Book Day on Thursday 30th March. Students are encouraged to dress up as their favourite book character and consider bringing along some of their books from home that they would like to swap.

Mrs. Claire McLeod Elementary School Principal

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Elementary Book Day and Book Swap Kari Twedt Elementary Student Council ...............................................................................................

There is literary fun galore planned for the elementary students in two weeks.

From Monday 27th to Wednesday 29th March elementary students are encouraged to bring books that they no longer read to school for a Book Swap. Students will receive a token for each book that they bring in, which can then be used on Thursday 30th March to swap for a different book. The tokens will be genre-specific, so if a student brings in a picture book, they will swap it for another picture book; if they bring in a chapter book, they will swap it for another chapter book, etc.

Thursday 30th March is Book Day in Elementary School.

Students are encouraged to come up with a costume to represent their favourite character from a book, which they will bring in with them on the day. Costumes should be created from items you already have at home: there is no need to purchase a new costume for the event.

We look forward to sharing our preloved books and seeing some creative outfits during these upcoming events.

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AIMS Maths Challenge 2017 Shireen Blakeway Elementary Mathematics Coordinator ...............................................................................................

Four of our Grade 4 students participated in the Year 5/Grade 4 Association of International Malaysian Schools (AIMS) Maths Challenge 2017. IGBIS hosted 80 students from 12 schools for two days of mathematical challenges. Three of the participating teams travelled from as far away as Penang. The challenges that the students participated in were varied and included: ++ Designing and building a model of a new city; ++ Solving a magic card trick; ++ Creating a new square from other squares of different dimensions; ++ Solving some mystery codes; ++ Building a model of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (it had to roll,

fly and sail), using materials ‘purchased’ from a tight budget; ++ Building 3D shapes out of spaghetti and marshmallows; ++ Participating in two problem solving relays; and ++ Working as a team and communicating their thinking to explain how they would solve questions such as: ++ How many grains of rice are in this container? ++ What is the area of the running track? ++ How many people can fit in the grandstand? ++ How can you make a ball stop after rolling exactly two metres?

The aim of the competition was to encourage mathematical thinking and teamwork. The challenges encouraged the students to apply their knowledge and understanding and to communicate their thinking, with fun incorporated into each activity. The students did extremely well solving some difficult questions and a thoroughly enjoyable couple of days were had by all.

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News from Secondary School It was a busy week in secondary as students and teachers took part in Spirit Week, in advance of the basketball tournaments this weekend for our U18 boys (away) and U18 girls (at IGBIS).

The Secondary Student Council and the student ambassadors did a great job of organising the event, encouraging all of secondary to participate and “mix it up” with classmates from different year levels. Well done!

Next week will see the beginning of our Grade 12 mock exams, as well as our DP Art Exhibition on March 23rd. The exhibition promises to be an excellent event that showcases the varied talents of our Grade 12 students. Please do come along.,

Michael Arcidiacono Secondary School Principal

“Leap of Faith” is the theme of the MUN conference this weekend, hosted at IGBIS and organised by the MUN Secretariat, led by Grade 11 students Ernest and Rachel. The theme speaks to the importance of stepping forward, being courageous and taking risks to have a positive impact on the world. The astute reader will note that the last five words in the preceding sentence are taken directly from our school mission. I am very proud of our student leaders as they put our mission into action this weekend. To learn more about the conference they have organised, please go to their website: http://eosmunkl.wixsite.com/eosmun

Student-Initiated Action Phil Clark MYP Coordinator ...............................................................................................

I have written previously about the important role that Service as Action plays in the IB Middle Years Programme. Action and service are key components of all IB programmes, and the IB identifies seven learning outcomes for Service as Action in the MYP.

to provide a bit of light relief for the Grade 12 students before they embark on their mock exams next week. Spirit Week was a great success involving many creative costumes and lots of laugher. Thank you to the Secondary School Student Council for leading this initiative, and we wish them luck in the busy weeks ahead as they prepare for next week’s Secondary School Talent Show Assembly on Wednesday morning, their photo booth activity at International Day and their April social event.

With appropriate guidance and support, MYP students should, through their engagement with service as action: ++ become more aware of their own strengths and areas for growth ++ undertake challenges that develop new skills ++ discuss, evaluate and plan student-initiated activities ++ persevere in action ++ work collaboratively with others ++ develop international-mindedness through global engagement, multilingualism and intercultural understanding ++ consider the ethical implications of their actions.

Our Student Ambassadors led a Mix-it-Up initiative during our Wednesday morning AMP period and during lunch on Thursday. Their goal was for students to get to know other students who they do not usually socialise with, and thereby also reinforcing the same strong sense of belonging and community in Secondary School. Student Ambassadors had been busy the previous weekend supporting the school on Open Day as they chaperoned potential new families around the campus and helped them get a feel for life at IGBIS. We thank our Student Ambassadors for being such great role models for our school.

This week secondary students and staff enjoyed a variety of student-initiated activities that encouraged participation and collaboration by all.

At the end of the week, we hosted the EOSMUN conference at IGBIS. This Model United Nations conference is another student-led and organised initiative with many of our own students organising, leading and participating throughout the weekend, alongside many students from other schools.

Our Secondary School Student Council took the initiative to organise a Spirit Week where secondary students and staff were encouraged to dress-up according to the theme for the day - Monochrome Monday, Twins Tuesday, Wacky Wednesday, T[hair]sday was hair day and the week concluded with Freaky Friday. The purpose was to break up and energise the two-month academic stretch between Chinese New Year and the April holiday with a bit of fun, to reinforce a strong sense of belonging and community in Secondary School and

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Student-led initiatives like these help our students to develop and apply their Approaches to Learning (ATL) skills and their Learner Profile attributes. They allow students to follow their passions, to take responsibility and to develop their leadership skills. Staff are proud to be able to observe and support our students as they perform with confidence and add to the community spirit of our school.

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Visit from MRCEC Refugee School Emily Heys Grade 7 & 8 Coordinator ...............................................................................................

On Wednesday 15th March, 22 students aged 3-15 years visited IGBIS to participate in some activities led by our grade 6 and 7 ambassadors. Our Service Coordinator, Ms Nathalie Chotard worked with the ambassadors to successfully plan a fun-filled hour of play and learning.

Tamanna showed the students around the elementary library and they were able to read, build, solve puzzles and play chess.

Out on the field, Andy and Matteo ran some soccer drills and a mini-game, while Charisse, Reeti, Aasiyah and Lara played a range of tag games and ‘Getting-to-know-you Bingo’, where some of our visitors were able to put their English reading and speaking skills into practice.

It was a successful day and all the students left with a smile on their face. This event could not have been successful

without the work of Ms Chotard and our facilities, catering and teaching staff, and of course our wonderful grade 6 and 7 students. Thanks everyone.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.

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.

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DP Visual Arts Exhibition Feature Artist Nur Afifah Azmi ...............................................................................................

Afifah explains her art. She is one of 7 artists that will exhibit at this years DP Visual Arts Exhibition Opening on Thursday the 23rd of March at 6:30pm. All are encouraged to attend this event.

The main theme addressed in my artworks is “changing perceptions”. I started by painting Land Nymphs as a parody of Gustav Klimt Water Nymphs, which took Klimt’s concept of what women are and inverted it. The idea of inverting stereotypes became a running trend among my works, and has since expanded into my main theme.

Throughout history we have seen how art has developed and changed, continually challenging how we see both the world and art itself. Everyone has their own idea about what art is, while the conventions of what makes good art are always changing. This collection of works, among other things, addresses the conventions of the art world itself. Larkspurs (shown above) documents a range of art movements that were once questioned and ridiculed, but are now highly acclaimed; for example, the Impressionist movement. (The name “Impressionist” was once a slur, making fun of how Impressionist works looked unfinished, but the style is now amongst the most popular in western art history.) The five sections of Larkspurs represent the historical timeline of when the different art styles first debuted, from left to right. The final section is blank because an animated gif will be projected onto it. I feel that animation is a very undervalued media today, just like Impressionism once was. Many would not consider a gif to be art, so I intended to challenge this preconception.

Meanwhile, Art is Made for Shock value is intended to remind people about the implications of taking things at face value.

The font used in it came from comparing Arabic and Latin scripts to find as many visual equivalents between each letter as possible. For example, I used the mid form of the letter “ ” to replace the letter M, because the three little points resemble the arches of the letter M. Although the letters sound completely different phonetically (“ ” makes the “S” sound), I relied on the fact that a majority of the audience for my artwork would not be able to read Arabic, and therefore would not

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be able to confuse the sounds. The purpose of the Arabicinspired Latin font was to disguise the English sentence with Arabic. The fact that many people equate the Arabic language with terrorism, and consequently fear it as well, will make their expectations obscure the true meaning of the words to them. We tend to become complacent with our thinking, so the intention behind these pieces was for the viewer to walk away with something new to think about or to reconsider.

In order to challenge perceptions within art itself, the collection of works tries to be as diverse as possible in terms of medium, subject and tone. I have combined traditional medias such as drawing, painting, and sculpture with contemporary media, animation and digital work.“Highbrow” art and art exhibitions are often associated with more traditional art forms like painting, so I hoped that my digital work in particular could send the message that art is much broader than that. The Diploma Programme allowed me the opportunity to experiment with media, creating 3D works for the first time. The subject matter of all the works, again, is varied, though there are several connecting factors such as the use of animals and some references to my religion. The tone of the works range from playful to serious.

The colour schemes across all the works were carefully considered. While greens and pinks are dominant in Larkspur and Land Nymphs, blue and yellow contrast in Ce ne sont pas des canards, and Autobiography picks up those colours again in the flowers. Location is another factor that I have explored in my installation work, Ce ne sont pas des canards, as it takes advantage of the pool area. Hopefully it will be something new for everyone to see.

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Achiever’s Academy Book Donations Sumire Uenishi Grade 11 ...............................................................................................

“It is no exaggeration to say that refugee children’s well-being depends on a major degree on their school experiences, successes and failures. “ ~ Mr. Paul Gueuning, Volunteer at Achiever’s Academy, 2017 This is why we will be donating English-language books for our partner refugee school, Achiever’s Academy, from 20th to 25th March.

From Monday 20th to Friday 24th March there will be drop-off boxes located at the secondary school and elementary school offices. During International day, more boxes will be located in the gym for further book donations.

Please check out Mathilda’s film on YouTube. We wish her the very best of luck at the AAYFF gala screening and awards evening in Singapore on 24 March.

IGBIS Student Becomes AAYFF Finalist Congratulations to Grade 9 student, Mathilda Khoo, on having her short film, “You’re Worth It”, shortlisted for the finals of the “Across Asia Youth Film Festival (AAYFF) 2017.

“The AAYFF is a celebration of creativity and risk through independent filmmaking,” Mathilda explained. “It encourages and inspires young filmmakers across Asia to put their work out there and reach their fullest potential.”

When asked about the inspiration for creating her film, Mathilda said, “I have always had an interest in filmmaking without actually realising it. My inspiration and motivation all started from YouTube, a media platform where millions of videos can be found. Content creators such as Connor Franta, Tim Kellner, Finn Harries and many others inspired me to

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make this film that I called “You’re Worth It”. The idea popped into my head at midnight one night and eventually I made a short film out of it. It’s a video about self worth and finding true happiness on your own. I strive to inspire people or at least change a part of their lives into something better. Putting my work out there is one of the hardest challenges for me but it has also brought me a lot of opportunities that I never expected to happen.”

Please check out Mathilda’s film on YouTube. We wish her the very best of luck at the AAYFF gala screening and awards evening in Singapore on 24 March.

“You’re Worth It” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PnA77anXyQ&t=15s

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The Importance of Sleep Chris Klesch Early Years to Grade 8 Counsellor ...............................................................................................

Sleep is extremely important for students. Secondary students I have recently spoken to know this, but when asked to supply as to why it is important, they cannot give exact details. They say it is good or healthy. Delving deeper reveals that sleep is fundamentally important and does more than just affect academic or work performances but it also affects mood, mental health and income levels.

The Guardian’s Jenny Kleeman recently wrote an article entitled, ‘I’ll go to school on two and a half hours’ sleep’: Why British Children Aren’t Sleeping (https://www.theguardian. com/lifeandstyle/2017/mar/04/go-school-two-half-hourssleep-british-children-arent-sleeping?CMP=Share_iOSApp_ Other) about sleep and how it is important for children to receive optimal levels of sleep. While the article details British findings and efforts to improve sleep I have found these details to be just as relevant here in Malaysia. The article highlights the fact that children do not get the sleep they need because of excessive screen time and poor diet. The article also states that students who suffer from a lack of sleep are often misdiagnosed with ADHD. The article’s author offers tips taken from the Children’s Sleep Charity, which I have shared below:

7. Have a set wake-up time, even at the weekend.

8. Provide your child with a visual cue so they know when it’s time to get up, like a light on a timer. That way they know it’s time to sleep when the light is off.

• Source: The Children’s Sleep Charity. (http://www.thechildrenssleepcharity.org.uk/leaflets.php) For more inquiry into sleep, sleep habits and the importance of restfulness there is a great podcast called Freakonomics which has a great two-part episode on the importance of sleep.

In The Economics of Sleep Part I (http://freakonomics.com/ podcast/the-economics-of-sleep-part-1-a-new-freakonomicsradio-episode/), the sleep researcher, Lauren Hale, states that people who receive more sleep have more opportunities and better control over their lives. Hale also discusses the importance of shutting down screens before bedtime.

In The Economics of Sleep Part II (http://freakonomics. com/podcast/economics-sleep-part-2-freakonomics-radiorebroadcast/) the podcast dives more into the actual economics of sleep and examines the varied evidence that shows that people who sleep more, generally have higher incomes.

So when we consider our children’s health and all of the variables, the most important of which includes diet and exercise, sleep has recently become just as important. I know as a parent, my wife and I have changed a few things that we do after reading the Guardian article. We have greatly reduced our son’s screen time and this has not only improved his sleep but his temperament and appetite as well.

Sleep tight: tips for a good night 1. Avoid sugary snacks and caffeine, particularly at supper time. Opt for alternatives like banana, porridge or wholemeal bread.

2. Think about the bedroom environment: is it calm and conducive to sleep?

3. Have a consistent routine that you follow every evening in the hour before bedtime.

4. Consider whether bathtime is relaxing. If it isn’t, separate it from the bedtime routine. If it is, have the bath 30 minutes before bedtime to allow the body temperature to rise and then drop again – this helps us feel sleepy.

5. No screen activity in the hour before bed; no TVs, computers, phones or tablets.

6. Activities that involve hand-eye coordination, such as jigsaw puzzles or colouring in, help the brain wind down before bed.

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Friends of the Phoenix Alumnus

Laavanya Anand Hunt, Class of 2016 Columbia College Chicago (Art & Fashion Design)

#When you learn about lighting in class but have an impromptu photoshoot instead @ The Chicago International Film Festival

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IGBIS INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL

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