IGBIS Weekly Newsletter. Issue 145, Week 1, March, 2018.

IGB International School’s Weekly Newsletter - Issue 145. Week 1. March 2018.

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The Lion Dance created a lot of excitement in school on last Thursday.

Message from Head of School Mrs. Anne Fowles Head of School

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News from Elementary School Mr. Simon Millward Elementary School Principal

Day 1. Mar 5

Fun Facts from the Elementary School Library | Pg. 3 Grade 1 Field Trip to Jaya Grocer

News from Secondary School Dr. Michael Arcidiacono Secondary School Principal

INSIDE | Pg. 4

Grade 4 Camp | Pg. 5 Grade 5 Camp Roundup | Pg. 6 The Lion Dance | Pg. 7

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Visit from Zo Learning Centre | Pg. 8 Sign Up for a Cooking Class at International Day | Pg. 8 EosMUN 2018 | Pg. 9 Career Exploration Morning | Pg. 11 College Counselling News | Pg. 12 PVO News | Pg. 13

10:10 am – 10:30 am University Visit: St Andrews University @ SS Library

Day 2. Mar 6

10:10 am – 10:30 am University Visit: SUNY Plattsburgh @ SS Library

Day 3. Mar 7

8:00 am – 9:00 am Fireflies Parent Presentation @ PVO Room 8:00 am – 9:25 am University Visit: University of St Andrews @ L6 Multi-purpose room

Day 4. Thu, Mar 8

4:00 pm – 5:30 pm U13 Boys Basketball Finals @ IGBIS

Day 5. Fri, Mar 9

8:00 am – 8:40 am ES Assembly: Shareathon @ L3 ES Music Room 12:00 pm – 4:00 pm Booth set-up for International Day @ Sports Hall

Sat, Mar 10

9:00 am - 12:00 pm International Day @ L7 Sports Hall

Message from Head of School Dear IGBIS Parents and Community Members, The Council of International Schools (CIS) and New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) team visit has been very positive and we are looking forward to hearing some of the verbal feedback to staff today with the written report some weeks away. Our thanks are again extended to all of the students, parents and staff that have assisted with our self-study and made time to meet with the visiting team during this last week.

The Lion Dance created a lot of excitement in school on Thursday as the dancers and musicians made their way through reception, the administration offices, secondary and elementary school offices, classrooms, the elementary playground and the sports hall before making their way back to the front of the school.

International Day is now just a week away. Please mark March 10th on your calendar. It is one of the highlights of the school year!

Have a wonderful weekend ahead.

Anne Fowles Head of School

News from Secondary School A very busy week was closed with blessing as the Lion Dance stopped by the Secondary Office in a visit which will hopefully bring an excellent second semester!

I would like to thank Mr Bill Mitchell for organising an excellent Careers Day this past Wednesday. The students were clearly engaged and we had some wonderful speakers presenting to them, which has made the second annual career day a big success.

The University Roadshow followed Careers Day on Wednesday and was a nice segue for students as the moved from careers to getting to know possible universities.

This also concluded our CIS/NEASC accreditation process, in what will hopefully result in IGBIS receiving international accreditation in the next 4-6 weeks. We have had a chance to hear feedback from the visitors over the course of the week. A constant message from them was about the wonderful students we have at IGBIS. The visitors were very impressed with the students they met - their poise, thoughtfulness, and caring approach. We couldn't be more proud of our students!

Looking forward to next week, we will continue to have several basketball fixtures taking place. As well, secondary athletics will participate in KLISS on March 9th. Go Phoenix!

Sincerely yours,

Michael Arcidiacono Secondary School Principal

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News from Elementary School Over the course of the last month groups of students have been working on the Imagination Foundation ‘Inventor’s Challenge’.

This week saw the students present their process by way of 5-minute videos. As I watched the videos I learned about specific problems that the students identified as needing an invention to solve. Most groups managed to design their inventions and build a prototype. What struck me as I watched group after group was the selfless nature of their inventions. They focused on others rather than themselves, their caring personalities came through loud and clear. What also was evident was their creative solutions.

I certainly hope that the 5-minute videos of the Inventor’s Challenge inspired other students to take part next time, or even start to take action themselves on issues that they identify.

As the Grade 5 students prepare for their PYP Exhibition, this week saw them consider the problems that people face - themselves, in school, in the region and worldwide. They used a visual organiser of their thoughts which could be considered concentric squares (see the pictures below). I look forward to seeing how their PYP Exhibition projects develop over the coming months.

With such great things happening around Elementary School it was wonderful to be able to host visitors from Council of International Schools (CIS), New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) and the International Baccalaureate (IB) as they conducted their accreditation assessment of the school. Early indications from the team were positive, especially NEASC whose primary responsibility was focused on the classrooms and what is happening there.

Dates for your diaries: • • • •

Saturday 10th March: International Day Thursday 15th - 17th March: ISTA conference Sunday 25th March: Pyramid tyre community playground build Thursday 29th March: Elementary Production - Phoenix: A Musical Story

Simon Millward

Elementary School Principal

Fun Facts from the Elementary School Library.

Amanda Clark

each! We have 133 books in Chinese, 142 books in Japanese and 89 books in Korean, with more on order.

Whole School Teacher Librarian

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Since the school started with students three and a half years ago, there have been some huge changes to our library, that your children have been a very big part of. Our library collection now has 6,972 books available to borrow, which is an impressive collection for a school our size. At the time of writing, 1157 books are checked out of the library and are in the hands of our learners.

The top ten most popular series/books in the elementary library are the Lunch Lady books, LEGO books, Amulet series, The Babysitter's Club and the Wimpy Kid books. In the Wimpy Kid series, the most popular 2 books have been checked out 118 times

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As we continue to grow and develop our collection, the library team looks forward to increasing the range and number of books that we have, knowing that our library definitely has something for everyone!

We very much appreciate the effort and time that you as parents put in to making sure that your children are reading at home, spending time with books, talking about books, reading with your children and making sure that they remember to return their library books regularly. Thank you for all that you are doing to support reading!

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Grade 1 Field Trip to Jaya Grocer Mary Richards and Sally Watters Grade 1 Teachers

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Grade 1 students have been thinking about how people use different measurement systems to organise their daily lives.

They have been specifically enquiring into how different measurement systems work, how they connect to everyday life, and the challenges people face when they don’t have an agreed measurement system. A shop is the perfect place to see different measuring systems in real life, so the students planned a shopping trip to Jaya Grocer to buy ingredients for some cooking activities.

The children worked in groups and made shopping lists, including how much of each ingredient was needed. Once in Jaya Grocer there were all kinds of challenges and decisions to be made: • • • • • •

There were lots of different types of butter at different prices, which one should we buy?

We needed 300g of marshmallows, but marshmallows came in bags of 250g. Did we need one or two bags?

We needed 250ml of milk, but could only find 1L cartons.

Some people were not sure what 1L was.

We needed two bananas but all the bananas were the small variety. How many small bananas equal a regular banana?

We needed 150ml of honey but on the bottle the quantity was in grams and not ml. How much did we need?

When paying for the ingredients, how much change should we get?

Our shopping trip certainly involved lots of measurement and math!

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Grade 4 Camp Niclas and Sophia Grade 4

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Last week we had our Grade 4 Camp. It was so much fun! The first day we spent at SkyTrex, which is a obstacle course in the trees. Our favourite part of this day was the ‘flying foxes’ because we got to go very fast, and sometimes we got stuck and LOTS of people were laughing. Also we could work on getting over our fear of heights. The second day was spent at 1Utama doing two different activities, Camp 5 rock climbing and 10-pin bowling.

Our favourite part of Day 2 was the challenges in rock climbing at Camp 5 because we had to work together to achieve our goal of beating the other teams. Bowling was also great because it was the first time bowling for many of us. Our third day was spent out in the forest at Selangor Nature Park. Our favourite part of Day three was cooking lunch because we got to learn how to make a fire, and we made it in the forest. We had to mix all the ingredients together in a giant pot over the fire. It was the most delicious food we have ever eaten. Then we got to do river walking. That was fun and challenging because sometimes the current was fast but sometimes it was slow, and we never knew when it could change. We loved our camp experience and it has been one of the highlights of Grade Four so far!

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Grade 5 Camp Roundup Marshall Hudson and Lisa McClurg Grade 5 Teachers

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Success! Everything was impressive about our Camp experience, from the highly experienced Nomad staff to the amazing attitude of all the students. Here is a short summary of our time at Earth Camp in Gopeng.

Day 1: We arrived late morning on Wednesday to be greeted by the Nomad staff. After settling into the dorms, we played some outdoor games and were then put into three groups: Pirates, Superheroes and Ninjas. After lunch, the groups played games and completed teamwork challenges before going on a jungle trek. On the trek were several stations where students identified flora and fauna, practiced panning for tin in the river and walked through a palm oil plantation. Students reflected along the way about how the experience was perceived by all five senses. They were also challenged to notice connections between the natural and human environment. After dinner, we had a relaxing session painting rocks that were collected throughout the day. Then, lights out!

Day 2: It was an early start with breakfast at 7:15. After enjoying toast with jam, eggs and other goodies, we headed to the river where we spent the rest of the day. Morning stations included training and practice with defensive swimming, swimming across a current, and river crossing. All students participated with enthusiasm and began to mesh as a team. After an onsite lunch, we learned paddling skills and spent the rest of the afternoon rafting down the river. Of course, we stopped halfway through to take a break and swim in the river. Once back at camp, we had some free time to play board games, ball games or just run around outside. After dinner, we had a campfire with songs and marshmallow roasting. The night ended on a much quieter note than the previous night as everyone was exhausted!

Day 3: Time to move from the river to the mountain! We spent the morning at Nomad Mountain School in our groups participating in three stations: giant swing, rock climbing (on real rock) and quiet cave exploring. There was plenty of opportunity here for students to encourage each other to push themselves and overcome fears.

Teams further bonded and more new friendships were made. After another amazing lunch, teams had one final chance to reflect on their time at Camp. On the bus ride home, students continued to reflect on their adventures, sing songs and talk about their plans for when they got home.

All in all, we were extremely impressed with Nomad Adventures and the level of participation of the students. Camp will surely make this year’s highlight reel for most Grade 5 students.

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The Lion Dance Rayyan Salam Grade 6

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Drums and gongs crash The red and shiny gold clash They roll around like dogs But they also jump like frogs The masks are scary The costumes are hairy The person does all the flips While the lions do all the tricks It's time to say goodbye Gong Xi Fa Cai

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Visit from Zo Learning Centre Aasiyah Badlisyah Grade 8

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On the 23rd of February Grade 8 had the opportunity to work with 24 children from the ZO Learning Centre (ZOLC), located in Taman Permai Wangsa Permai. The different activities taking place were badminton, singing, football, basketball, dancing and playing the piano. In the 30 minutes that the activities took place, the Grade 8 students and their buddies all bonded and became more comfortable with each other. Those with little english from the ZOLC really made an effort to talk to their buddy which was really fantastic and wonderful to hear. In the next few months, the ZO children will come in and we will have more sessions with the Grade 8 students. Overall, the day was really lovely and I really hope they had as good a time as we did.

Sign Up for a Cooking Class at International Day Alex Cima Vivarelli Grade 11

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If there’s one thing my Nonna always told me, it is that the key to any great plate of pasta is the sauce. It sounds a little intimidating, but the formula is actually as easy as pie (or in this case, pasta). If you want to know the secret to making one of the simplest and most versatile of sauces suitable for any plate of pasta, then do sign up for my once in a lifetime cookery course: A Way to Pasta Time! Happening only on 10th March during International Day! The sign up form: https://goo.gl/forms/waPHlgRjHmhDgtRp1

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Maryam Humaira IGBIS EOSMUN Secretary-General Grade 11

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The Hostesses with the Mostess EOS Model United Nations is a conference which has been held annually at IGBIS since 2014 and we have continued the legacy with a successful event this year. Here are our behind the scenes stories; the first is an account from Maryam Humaira and the second from Jenny Kim.

EosMUN 2018 Joshua Wihlborg President of MUN Grade 11

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IGBIS Blitzes EOSMUN 2018 The EOSMUN 2018 conference which was held from 9th to 11th February at IGBIS was filled with students both familiar and new to the Model United Nations (MUN) scene. Despite many of our MUN Club members being a part of the EOSMUN Secretariat (who did an amazing job) we still managed to achieve a combined total of 5 honorary mentions and other awards acknowledging the success of many of our IGBIS students.

It is fantastic to see our MUN Club grow from around 15 members last academic year to over 30 students this year, with the majority of these students being new to MUN. Furthermore, witnessing these students representing IGBIS at different MUN conferences and this time around, proudly representing our school at our own conference, was astounding.

Being a part of the EOSMUN 2017 Secretariat as the Deputy Secretary General of Marketing was already considered a huge achievement in my journey to stepping out of my comfort zone; so, when Ernest Ng, this year’s Honorary Secretary General/Senior Advisor encouraged me to take a bigger risk than I did before and attend the interview for the position of Secretary General for EOSMUN 2018, I was immediately taken aback because I knew I had to live up to everyone’s expectations, and more importantly, those of previous Secretaries General’. I have never seen myself as a natural-born leader, but I figured that this was the best opportunity for me to develop the appropriate skills to become one.

The process behind the preparation for the conference was nowhere near easy, and I knew there were going to be multiple bumps along the way, but I was beyond blessed to have been able to work with a team of ten other amazing individuals who put in an uncountable amount of effort and time for close to six months, culminating in a three-day conference packed with incomprehensible walkie-talkie conversations, frantic runs along the hallways, ‘fruitful debate’, but most importantly, a heap of new memories made. Words don’t do justice when it comes to describing how happy and relieved I am with how the conference turned out. I am Maryam Humaira, and I am proud to be the Secretary General of EOSMUN 2018.

It has been a pleasure to have watched our MUN Club members grow and improve from 'newbies' to seasoned award-winning MUNers. It was especially fulfilling to see many of the new MUNers take risks during the EOSMUN conference and participate in MUN format councils that we have yet to cover in our weekly meetings. This initiative to learn and take risks lets me know, as the President of our IGBIS MUN Club, that I have instilled in my peers a mindset to get out of their comfort zone and further improve by immersing themselves in different situations. This ultimately will help to improve our young MUN debaters even more and, with a rising presence in the MUN community, I have no doubt IGBIS will be recognised for the quality of our debating at other conferences in the near future and the overall high calibre of our own conferences.

I would like to commend the EOSMUN Secretariat for their tireless work and for hosting an extremely successful conference, as well as the members of our IGBIS MUN Club for experiencing success once again.

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Jenny Kim IGBIS EOSMUN Secretary-General Grade 11

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I would first like to officially introduce myself. My name is Kim Si Yeon (Jenny) and I come from Incheon, South Korea. I came across the opportunity to try out as EOSMUN's next Secretary General through Grade 12 senior, Ernest Ng who saw my potential. I am glad I took the interview because EOSMUN was a valuable learning journey for me: one of the very first. Here are three lessons I learnt: 1.

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To listen to others by being more open-minded Learning to follow up Being a sponge

As I am a cheerful person by nature, I wanted to sustain the positivity in my team throughout the journey. However, that was one of the most demanding tasks because I had to portray a contrasting emotion on the outside. As a Secretary General, from my experience, you do not execute the tasks but need to delegate them. I found that quite challenging because I had to create a checklist that could have been faulty. However, I was absolutely grateful that my team members supported me by filling in my weaknesses in the same manner that I could do for them. It facilitated my inner goal to keep smiling and to create a comforting environment for the team because everyone motivated each other and stuck to this year's motto, "We strive for excellence not success."

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Career Exploration Morning Bill Mitchell Secondary School Counsellor

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The richness of the IGBIS family and community was on full display this past Wednesday morning as our grade 6 to 11 students engaged in career-related seminars. Through the four seminar rotations in the morning, students were exposed to the world of Management, Hospitality, Human Resources, Banking, Multinational Corporations, Real Estate, Investment, Media, Entrepreneurship, Healthcare, Visual Arts, Engineering, Computer

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Science, Archeology, Biological Sciences, Actuarial Science, Corporate Law and Business Innovation. Speaking to the vitality of the IGBIS community, some of the speakers were parents, teachers, or accessed via our family network.

Heartfelt thanks go out to our speakers and those that assisted in arranging for them to attend. This exploration also could not have been as successful if not for the extra hours and hard work put in by our Heads of Grade, Ms. Kelly, Ms. Heys, Mr. Wetherell and Ms. Kim. Appreciation also goes out to all our Secondary Teachers who welcomed our guests and ensured the seminars went smoothly.

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College Counselling News Bill Mitchell

Friday 16 March - ISN University Fair @ IGBIS 12.30pm to 1.30pm in the 6th Floor multipurpose room

Grade 9-12 School Counsellor

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IGBIS Events Upcoming University visits Monday 5 March - Summer School @ St. Andrews 10.00am to 10.30am in the Secondary Library The University of St Andrews offers a number of summer school programmes each year. These programmes are taught by fulltime members of the faculties of the University, and are open to students and individuals from around the world. For students who are interested in experiencing what it is like to study at the University of St Andrews or are looking for a taste of university life, a summer school may be the perfect opportunity.

Visitors to be confirmed, but there are expected to be upwards of 18 universities from the United States. Parents and students welcome.

Follow the Secondary Calendar or see the College Counselling Events calendar for future visits and events. College Counselling Events

Kuala Lumpur Events

Tuesday 6 March - State University of New York - Plattsburgh 10.00am to 10.35 am in the Secondary Library As one of U.S. News and World Report’s “America's Best Colleges" of 2014, SUNY Plattsburgh is deeply committed to academic excellence. Located in a beautiful upstate New York setting, it offers more than 60 high-quality, affordable degree programmes.

You’ll learn from faculty who are leaders in their field — educators who actually take the time to mentor their students as well as teach them (our student-to-faculty ratio is 16-1).

Wednesday 7 March - University of St. Andrews 8.30am to 9.30am in the 7th Floor multipurpose room St Andrews is a unique place to study and live. Nestled on the east coast of Scotland, students may find themselves crossing golf courses on their way to class, or jogging along the beach after dinner. Not only does the University have a world-class reputation, it also offers a diverse range of social activities — including over 140 student societies and 50 sports clubs. Historic buildings are juxtaposed against the modern facilities, and the many student traditions truly make studying at St Andrews an unforgettable experience.

Click here to register for EducationUSA events in Kuala Lumpur.

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SAT Prep Program at MKIS Test Takers will be running an intensive SAT preparation programme hosted by MKIS from 2 to 9 April. More details and the registration link can be found here.

The total course fee is S$600. Students will receive the full course binder, Study Buddy flashcard box, and Official College Board study guide. Payment can be made via credit card through PayPal

at no extra fee.

If you have any questions please email info@testtakers-sg.com.

Every Tuesday And Thursday U.S. University Advising: EducationUSA Advisers provide comprehensive U.S. university advising. Register Here

PVO News Julie Arcidiacono

pm on Friday, 9th March.

Community & Events Coordinator

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It is only one more week until International Day. For people decorating country booths, please note that the Sports Hall will be available for booth set-up from 12:00 noon until 4:00

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On Saturday, 10th March students who wish to participate in our Parade of Nations should be at the Level 7 classrooms by 8:45 am.

There will be teachers on duty to supervise, so parents are free to finish setting up their booths or enjoy a cup of coffee while waiting in the Sports Hall for a prompt start at 9:00 am.

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IGBIS INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL

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