IGB International School’s Weekly Newsletter - Issue 152. Week 4. April 2018.
Grade 4 trip to Royal Selangor Visitor Centre ~ Pg.4
Get Comfy and Read ~ Pg.5
Mike & Linda, the Phoenix Support Team are ready for the Open Day2 ~ 27th & 28th April 2018
26th & 27th April 2018
Pg.10 & 11
IBDP Exams start Friday 27 April | Pg. 6 + Be a Media Mentor | Pg. 9 + PVO News | Pg. 5 Follow us on
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Message from Head of School Dear IGBIS Parents and Community Members, Deidre Fischer of DF Education came to school to conduct training with the IGBIS Board of Governors this week. The governors compared the IGBIS mission statement with that of the IB, studied the IB Learner Profile and learnt about the IB standards and practices. One of the interesting points of discussion was around the statement that IGBIS provides ‘a challenging IB education….’. The governors wondered if prospective parents might think that an IB education would be too challenging and hard for their children, as many of them are looking to study in a university or college, but not necessarily an Ivy League college. The perspective of the committee that reviewed the mission had been that IB programmes challenge children to think and solve problems in new ways while being supported in a caring environment. IGBIS offers alternative pathways to Grade 11 and 12 students with the
IB Diploma, the IB Career-related Programme and the IGBIS High School Diploma. This topic is one for us to explore further with our community! The Grade 5 students gave a fantastic introduction to the PYP Exhibition on Thursday and Friday this week. Families who have not yet seen the Exhibition will be able to view the work on Saturday April 28th during the Student Led Conferences. We hope to see all of our families in school engaging in the conferences. A reminder that Open Days are taking place on April 27-28 and school is closed for public holidays on May 1 and May 9.
Anne Fowles Head of School
News from Elementary School This week has seen a big push from our Grade 5 students as they prepared for the IB PYP Exhibition. This was a successful event on Thursday and Friday where students were able to demonstrate their creativity, independence, knowledge and action. We hope that many of you were able to come and experience this final project for our Grade 5 students as they showed their knowledge and understanding of the PYP Essential Elements (knowledge, skills, concepts, attitudes and action). A big thank you goes to all those involved to make the IB PYP Exhibition a success: parents, mentors, the Grade 5 teachers, Ms. Aga - the PYP Coordinator, and our facilities and procurement team. It was a team effort and I am sure our students appreciate the collective spirit and work that took place. The Grade 3 healthy living fair took place on Wednesday. Students shared their learning with parents and students in the classroom setting about the body system that they wanted to explore/inquire into further. They also put their parents through their paces in the sports hall as they were worked extremely hard engaging with the student-created fitness circuits devised in PE. It was great to see so many hot and sweaty parents after that session!
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On Friday and upcoming on Saturday we have more IGBIS Open Days. With the IB PYP Exhibition and Student Led Conferences taking place at the same time it makes for an authentic IB experience. We hope that prospective families enjoyed the experience and will apply to us for the next academic year. The Student Led Conferences are a special time when students can share their growth and development since the beginning of the year. It is a great opportunity for families to see, hear and experience school through a child’s eyes as they take the lead to share their learning. We hope you enjoy this day on Saturday.
Dates for your diaries: • • • •
Monday 30th April: EY Field trip Tuesday 1st May: Public holiday Friday 4th May: KG Field trip Friday 4th May - Sunday 6th May: Special Olympics hosted at IGBIS
Simon Millward
Elementary School Principal
Igniting Minds
Impacting Lives
News from Secondary School Dear Parents, What will I be.... after the IB?? We said farewell to our Grade 12 students this week in spectacular fashion, with an amazing assembly full of performances by Grade 11 and 12 students. Dance performances, video tributes, and an original composition by the Grade 11 students (What Will I Be...) were particular highlights. Ms Kim and the Grade 11 students organised a truly tremendous assembly - well done! After the assembly the Grade 12 students, their parents and teachers enjoyed a lovely breakfast in the Staff Lounge. We will welcome our Grade 12 students back, after they conclude their exams, for Graduation on May 25th at 11:00 am. Looking forward, around 40 secondary students will be at IGBIS on May 4th and 5th for the Special Olympics Malaysia National Games. They will be involved in a variety of functions to support the athletes and the running of the Games. All members of the IGBIS community are welcome to come to the Games to watch and cheer on the athletes. Next week, we will have a holiday on May 1st, so I encourage parents and students to keep an eye on the rotating timetable. As a reminder, the published dates of the rotating timetable can be found here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1n0-trNO0obLWSfnWA ssary. I hope the Student Led Conferences this weekend will be very informative for you about your child's learning and you learn some new skills from them as well! Sincerely yours,
Michael Arcidiacono Secondary School Principal
Igniting Minds
Impacting Lives
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Grade 4 trip to Royal Selangor Visitor Centre
Nathan Marshall Grade 4
.................................................................................................................... We have been inquiring into How The World Works with the central idea of “Materials behave, interact, change and are manipulated to meet the needs of humans”. We went to the Royal Selangor Visitor Centre to learn some more about our unit. The guide told us about the rare pewter which was made using copper, tin and antimony. We also learned about what money was like in the old days and what pewter was used for. Pewter was used for making racing car trophies, cups, dishes, bowls and weapons. They also had handprints of people who worked there, we all found the handprint that matches us in size and shape. We learned about this teapot that saved someone from World War II. A man was traveling around a broken house and stumbled across a pewter teapot. Instead of leaving it there, the man bent down to pick it up. When he bent down, a bit of bomb from a nearby plane just flew over his head! The teapot had just saved that man’s life, we were staring at that exact teapot right in the museum. While we were exploring the museum, we walked into this huge factory of pewter. The guide explained the process to make pewter cups. Finally it was time to make our own pewter bowls by using a mallet and a thin plate of pewter. It was very loud and tiring but we were happy with what came out of it.
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Get Comfy and Read Ming Zhou Lee Grade 4
.................................................................................................................... On the 23rd of April, Day Five, the whole of Elementary School participated in this superb event, “GET COMFY AND READ”. This event involved getting the community together to celebrate the love of reading and having the chance to just sit and relax with a book. To start the day, every grade level had been given a Mystery Reader. The Mystery Readers sent in secret clues about themselves that each class had a chance to guess. Once the Mystery Reader was revealed, they shared a story with the class and some of them had props and costumes to go along with their books. The next activity was Buddy Reading. Buddy Reading is when the older grades go read to the younger grades. This activity brings the whole school together and everyone loved listening to the stories. The final event was a Book Swap. Students had brought in books the week before that they were willing to swap. During the swap everyone got to pick “new” books to bring back home with them. Afterwards everyone was able to just relax with their stories and read. While we were reading we were all surprised with a special treat of milk and cookies! We should thank the Student Council and some of the staff for all they have done to make this happen, and let’s hope for more fun events to come.
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IBDP Exams start Friday 27 April
G12 students and their Homeroom teachers, Mr Marshall and Ms Spivey-Jones
Mary Boyd Diploma Programme & Career-related Programme Coordinator
................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ In just under a month’s time, we will host Graduation Day at 11:00am on Friday 25 May. Between now and then, we wish our Grade 12 students and their families all the very best for the final DP examinations from Friday 27 April, until Friday 18 May, as in the timetable below.
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Be a Media Mentor Geoff Derry
going to school where they are expected to use technology with little or no idea of how to use it.
IT Integration Specialist
.................................................................................................................... We are all biased in one way or another and one of the hardest things we can be asked to do is to identify our own biases. Many of us see screen time as unhealthy or not as useful as other uses of our (or our children's) time. The fact that we use terms like screen time and not book time, food time or swimming time influences the way we see it. Many parents are worried about their children's use of digital devices and the time they spend online. Like any other uses of our childrens time we need to mentor, monitor and help them to make sensible and correct choices. When it comes to helping our children to navigate the tricky use of their time (online and offline) we have three main choices. We can be limiter parents, where we limit the exposure to the online or digital world, for example we might keep kids away from the internet or severely limit their screen time. While many parents choose this method, often the children become digital exiles and many schools (and parents) are finding that their children are
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We can be enabler parents, where we let our children range freely with screen time or the internet, we let them go where they want (digitally speaking), whenever they want with little or no supervision. Here, children become digital orphans without their parents to guide them online. We can be mentor parents, where we spend and enjoy online and screen time activities with our children. Here the parents cultivate their kids digital skills and foster online learning. This enables children to become digital heirs, where they inherit the habits and behaviours of their mentors. To be successful parents of children in our digital age, I think we need a mix of all three styles of online parenting. Sometimes we need to limit our children's access to digital tools, sometimes we need to let them explore on their own. One thing we should never do is underestimate the power of working with our children and mentoring them on safe and appropriate online use. It can be as simple as watching YouTube together or asking them to explain how to play their favourite game, or you showing them your Facebook feed.
Impacting Lives
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Grade 5 PYP Exhibition
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PVO News Julie Arcidiacono
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Community & Events Coordinator
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Please make sure foods are nut- and pork-free. Label beef/ chicken/lamb accordingly. Please contact your class parent representative if you have any questions.
PVO Support during Special Olympics National Games Saturday, 5 May 2018 The PVO will be selling foods and beverages to athletes, coaches and supporters on Saturday, 5 May from 8:00 am to 1:00 pm. Kindly contact Wei Ling Poon at weiling.poon.parent@igbis.edu. my should you wish to volunteer your time or if you’d like to contribute with food and beverages. Proceeds will be donated to the Special Olympics National Games.
Staff Appreciation Lunch Tuesday, 15 May 2018 More details will be shared with you via email, but please save the date and keep these in mind for your planning: • Contributions can be food (savoury, vegetarian, dessert) or beverages (hot or cold). • Aim to serve at least 6-8 people. A good suggestion is to bring something that would be enough to serve your family. (We have approximately 150 staff members in total, including cleaning, security and kitchen staff.) • School will provide plates, cutlery, cups, mugs.
Uniform Drive - Buy/Swap/Donate! Friday, 1 June 2018 Have your kids outgrown their uniforms? Are they moving on to Secondary School and need new shirts? Are your children graduating or leaving IGBIS and you’re not quite sure what to do with their school uniforms? A Uniform Drive will be held on Friday, 1 June from 1:00 - 3:00 pm. Stop by the Parent Lounge on Level 5 to buy used uniforms or bring your own uniforms to swap for different ones. Uniform donations can be dropped off anytime at my office on Level 5 next to the Finance counter or at Reception. Tokens will be issued for each item of clothing that is donated. Tokens can be swapped for an item of clothing during the Uniform Drive. If you do not have a token, used uniforms can be purchased for RM10 each. Proceeds collected will go to the PVO fund.
Baby news! We are thrilled to announce the safe arrival of Mr Chris and Ms Sissi’s new son, Holden Klesch. He was born on Tuesday 24th April at 13.37pm, weighing 3.16kg. All of the Klesch family are very happy and Sissi is recovering well!
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