IGB International School’s Weekly Newsletter - Issue 175. Week 2. December 2018.
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Message from Head of School Dear IGBIS Parents and Community Members, The school is buzzing with people who have come in for the Holiday Bazaar and the assembly today. Thank you to Mrs Julie Chen Arcidiacono, the PVO, and the facilities team for a very successful bazaar. The Christmas Assembly was a first for IGBIS, as it was a student-led cultural assembly. The Secondary School Student Council has been looking to provide more opportunities for student leadership and student-led involvement. A big thank you to Denny Seo G9, who was deeply involved in all of the planning and execution. Thanks also to all of the performers. Our new school website was launched this week. Do browse through the website and share it with your friends as it is an excellent way of sharing ‘the IGBIS experience’ and all that we have to offer our students and community. Thanks are extended to Adam Morris who led the website project supported by Tanya Cornish and Adi Ibrahim along with other staff who provided information and photos.
Have a Merry Christmas and a fabulous New Year. I hope that you all have a wonderful holiday with your family. Keep safe and we look forward to seeing you back in school on January 7.
Anne Fowles Head of School
News from Secondary School Dear parents, We hosted our 5th Personal Project Exhibition on Thursday and the Display Boards created by the Grade 10 students are still up on Level 6, and will continue to be available to view until January. I was very intrigued by the variety of topics students explored this year, and impressed by the depth of student reflection as they talked about their learning journey through the process. What is so enjoyable about the Personal Project is that it is a synthesis of two critically important ideas for us as a school: that students must explore their passions and have the learning skills to be able to do so successfully. This project was a result of several months of work, and my congratulations go to all of our Grade 10 students and Ms Chan for her support of their endeavours. We have a variety of exciting events coming up as we enter the second half of the school year. I encourage parents to keep track of the published calendars and forthcoming emails that detail these opportunities to witness the never ending journey that is learning at IGBIS.
Michael Arcidiacono Secondary School Principal
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News from Elementary School
It is that time of year again when we have to say ‘farewell’ to some of our families. For those that are leaving our IGBIS community we wish you every success on your educational journey. We hope that the festivities of Friday 14th were a suitable send off for you. The Christmas assembly was a big success and it brought smiles to many people’s faces. Our thanks goes to the Secondary Student Council for organising this event, especially Denny Seo in Grade 9 for taking on a significant leadership role planning and executing its success. All of the performances were a credit to all those involved, not only the performers but those that assisted with bringing them from an idea to a performance. The Holiday Bazaar was also a great success, thank you to all those that worked so hard to bring together such a variety of stalls, especially Julie Arcidiacono with her organisation and coordination. We hope you managed to buy a few last minute gifts or even some snacks to enjoy, as you started to get into the holiday festivity mood.
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Just a reminder that school starts back on Monday 7th January, when we will be welcoming quite a few new students into our community. This will also see the start of the paid activities, with other activities running from the following week. You should have by now received an email with your children’s activity confirmation. I hope you have a safe and restful holiday.
Dates for your diaries • • •
15th Dec - 6th January: IGBIS school holiday 7th January: First day back at school, activities start. Tuesday 15th & Thursday 17th January: 2-3pm Music Academy concerts
Simon Millward Elementary School Principal
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PVO News Julie Arcidiacono Community and Events Coordinator
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Uniform Drive We will hold another Uniform Drive on Friday 11 January from 1.00pm to 3.00pm. If your child has any outgrown items, save them for the uniform ‘swap’ or donate them to school. Uniform donations can be dropped off at Reception on Level 5 at any time.
celebrations will be big. Details will be shared next year, but as in the past, it will be held in the Sports Hall where we will have country booths and games, along with cultural performances. If you are planning on going back to your home country over the break, this would be an ideal opportunity to bring back typical clothing for you and your family to wear, as well as decorations and small nibbles for a country booth should you and fellow IGBIS parents choose to have one. All current and former IGBIS parents, students and staff members are invited to this event.
International Day International Day is a day where the school’s cultural diversity is celebrated. It will be held on Saturday 10 March. This year marks our school’s 5-year anniversary and the
Our New Look Website: How it Came to Be Adam Morris Coordinator, Website revamp committee
.................................................................................................................... In many ways, our website redevelopment project represents what our community is all about. At IGBIS, learning is about valuing the ability to design and build, to improve slowly but methodically, listen to feedback, and execute according to a well-drawn plan. Head over to our new website at igbis.edu.my. In so many ways, it represents who we are.
being the case, we investigated software solutions that would ensure that our website would have a responsive theme, with plenty of options for us to tinker, no matter what screen size we were dealing with. We also had a few other items on our to-do list, such as incorporating student experiences, and refreshing our images. When it came to execution, that is where our choice of software became important. While our initial proposal included seriously considering third-party solutions, we once again chose WordPress and Open Source technology as the best solution for us. What made that selection easy is when we reviewed the newest features of WordPress 5.0, which included an easier and more intuitive way for us to refresh our content. Furthermore, the abundance of themes available in the WordPress ecosystem meant that we could select and acquire a professionally-designed blueprint, but modify it for our own purposes. In fact, it was quite fun for me to roll up my sleeves and dig into some advanced features of WordPress, called Custom CSS. In fact we teach this technology in our Design Department! How cool is that?
Over the last several years, we have been collecting feedback on our community's expectations for a publicfacing website. One of the key insights our stakeholders had was that our previous website was difficult to navigate. With that in mind, we looked carefully at how other school websites organised their own pages, and realised that one of our problems was that we were relying on a dropdown system that wasn't allowing the users to explore and discover our site. Another comment was that the previous site wasn't very friendly to mobile devices. That
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The completion of this project in some way is like the completion of my own Personal Project, and it was a joy to celebrate it together with the Grade 10 students who also displayed their wares on Thursday. I would also like to thank Arvindar, Adiyati, and Tanya in the Marketing Department for all their numerous contributions. Also thanks to staff members who rewrote and submitted photos for our growing collection of awesome IGBIS experiences.
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News from the Elementary Chinese Department In a PYP school like IGBIS, language education does not only focus on the learning of a language for its own sake, but also on its application across the whole subject and throughout the transdisciplinary programme of inquiry. It also facilitates the students’ personal connections with the real world and the wider community. In the Grade 4 and Grade 2 students’ recent units, Chinese learning has played a significant role in reinforcing, supporting and extending their homeroom UOI concepts. In Grade 4, students increased their knowledge about currency, shopping at a market or store, and bargaining. Students were given opportunities to inquire, explore and then create their own shopping scenarios based on their various language levels. Through these creative activities, students were able to apply their language skills in an authentic and creative way, to allow deeper learning to happen. In Grade 2, students learned how to retell stories in various ways. With guided template support by teachers, students created their own versions of written story books and picture books. They also designed and constructed paper puppets to present their stories in the form of a shadow puppet show. We are very proud of the students’ progress, and we are happy to see our students actively engaging in Chinese learning through participating in dynamic, creative activities. We hope everyone has a relaxing and well-earned winter holiday ahead, and we look forward to seeing you in 2019. “I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.” - Confucius
The Elementary Chinese Team
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Evidence of Inclusion Lizzie Hudson Learning Support Teacher
Tanya Cornish Shadow Aide
.................................................................................................................... IGBIS is an inclusive school. We talk about it in our Mission “To provide an inclusive learning community, embracing diversity by offering a challenging IB education which empowers its members to be caring, global citizens.” And we live it every day. But what does that mean for our community? Inclusion involves giving everyone the opportunity to reach their potential, whether or not they have a different educational requirement, religion, sexual orientation, race, gender, or culture. There are more people directly involved in inclusion in our school that we may realise. There are the teachers, the students, the classmates, the parents: the whole school community benefits from inclusion. How do they benefit? Well... Parent: Inclusion is not just about special needs students, it is about everyone being included and being with everyone. There is no obligation for staff to go above and beyond, but the staff here have. They are all so caring. Special needs parents always worry about other parents and if they will think "why are you making so much trouble for the school?" But all of the teachers here have helped, so transitions and stress have been reduced. Caring is one of the main words in the IB but it must be demonstrated and modelled, it must be shown as an example to students. Everyone here behaves that way so the students who leave IGBIS will make a difference. Empathy is another important word and since arriving here my son has learned about feelings, thinking of others, and encouragement. People here do this for him and he picks it up and learns from them. Schools that are not inclusive look down on special needs students and then those students go into the world thinking they are not equal to them, but my son is receiving, and learning about, empathy and belonging. Here, school is an equal part of life. Teacher: Working at IGBIS, I have learned to work with students with many different needs. This has added more tools to my teacher tool box. I have also enjoyed how students consider those with special needs as part of the community. With initiatives like 'Circle of Friends', students have become more open-minded and learned strategies for supporting each other. This has helped create a culture where students work together as opposed to competing against each other. Teacher and parent: Teaching in an inclusive school has challenged me to reflect on my teaching style and strategies, and to make improvements and adjustments to better meet the needs of all students
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under my care. I have become more flexible in my thinking and understanding of how students learn and achieve success. I have been able to create a learning environment for my students that has become more open, safe, and inviting for any and all students in our community. I really believe that I have become a stronger and more confident teacher, and I now make more deliberate choices on what and how I teach on a daily basis. My own children would probably not even realise that we are an inclusive school because their entire school experience has been one where everyone is included. They accept that people are different and learn in different ways and don't really question why or notice these differences as being anything other than typical. My boys are able to recognise their friends' strengths and weaknesses as just a part of who they are. Being in an inclusive school has allowed my boys to develop self-confidence to be their own person, appreciation for differences, and empathy towards people from all cultures with varying abilities. Their own ability to communicate and share information and knowledge with others is strong and allows them to interact with most people they meet both within our community and beyond IGBIS. Parent: As a parent of a child with challenges I have had to make the conscious effort to change my perspective in order to understand my child’s needs. When I look at things from my son’s perspective, I can understand his world better and I have a better idea of how to help meet his needs. This is what happens every day at IGBIS: looking at challenges from different perspectives can make them easier to overcome. In one of the learning areas of school there is an inspiring quote from A. A. Milne on the wall, "As soon as I saw you, I knew an adventure was going to happen." This is the one of beautiful
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the ways we embrace diversity here at IGBIS. Student: This school has helped me to realise that it’s unfair to treat people differently, and I should just treat everyone the same. I used to be a bystander whenever there was conflict and I wasn’t proud of that, but I was scared to step in. Being in an inclusive school has given me the courage to stand up for others. Student: I hadn’t been in a school where people learn differently before I got to this school, so I hadn’t been around people who had different needs. I knew not to be mean to them, but now I realise that everyone deserves to have friends and I can be friends with anyone.
Student: I’ve been part of the Circle of Friends in our school for a while now. It has given me a different perspective on what other students are going through. I have made a lot of new friends because I have learnt to welcome everyone, no matter who they are or how we might be different from each other. After reading these various perspectives, it is clear that inclusion benefits everyone in our community. At a time of year when many of us are thinking of being together with family, celebrating our similarities, as well as our differences, perhaps we can spare a thought for others who may experience learning—and living—a little differently to us. Perhaps we can consider ways we can make their experiences a little easier. And, little by little, we can spread both the joy of learning and the joy of being an inclusive community far and wide.
Performing Artist Residency Programme Jamie Cant ....................................................................................................................
in theatre, film and television, and her experience as a facilitator/educator position Ms. Brockway to offer a wide range of experiences to our students of all ages.
IGBIS will commence it’s inaugural Performing Artist In Residence programme in the new year. We will welcome experienced actor and educator Ms. Anna Brockway from Australia to spend two weeks working with our students and teachers as part of our Drama and Theatre programmes.
The IGBIS Performing Artist Residency programme has far reaching benefits for many of our students. The programme will contribute significantly to the ongoing development of our arts community and further enhance the profile of our curricular and co-curricular Drama and Theatre programmes.
Performing Arts Teacher
Ms. Brockway enjoys sharing acting tools to create a structure for the imagination and creativity of young people. Her extensive training and profile as an actor
Grade 1 Field Trip “Simple machines have a role in our everyday life”. This is the central idea in Grade 1 students’ current Unit of Inquiry, How The World Works. To investigate simple machines in action, last week the students headed out of school on an MRT adventure, visiting the new Sungai Buloh train station. The station was a great choice to look at simple machines, because a lot of the internal mechanisms are visible. Students searched for six simple machines which they then drew and labelled, and discussed how they worked. Some of the highlights included buying tokens themselves and riding the train to the next station (the first train journey for many students), seeing maps and symbols, and finding so many simple machines. Students demonstrated what they had learned by easily identifying simple machines to each other on the journey back to school.
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Grade 1 Field Trip
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Kindergarten field trip
The Kindergarten classes have been looking at recycling in their Sharing the Planet Unit of Inquiry. We found out that there are some materials that can be reused and recycled. We discovered ways we could reduce the amount of materials being used such using both sides of the paper when we draw instead of only one side. One of the ways we decided to take action was to create a Recycling Centre in our Learning Lounge. We painted old cardboard boxes and created our own recycling signs to indicate where the plastic, paper, and cans should go. Recyclable materials were brought in from home, as well as from school snacks and lunch boxes. Before long the boxes were full and we needed to decide what to do with all the materials we collected. We found out there was a Recycling Centre just up the road by the Valencia Guardhouse. On Wednesday morning we loaded our recycled materials into the school van and we all headed to the Recycling Centre. Once there we sorted our materials into the giant recycling containers. We are planning to keep our Recycling Centre in our Learning Lounge and will continue to make trips to the Recycling Centre as needed. The students had a lot to say about the unit, especially the field trip. The bus ride was a highlight for everyone, but everyone understood the importance of what they were doing. Here is part of their reflections: Brian: The recycling part, I liked it most. Because we want to help the earth. It’s not a playground. We should do it again. Zhi Jen: I enjoyed the trip. I feel sad because it’s hard. I throw rubbish, recycle plastic, paper and we make the rubbish all go to recycle. Regina: We need to recycle because today the school had this event. I helped my mum throw the rubbish at home. Aaron: I liked the recycle centre because it’s beautiful. The recyclable is amazing. Elena: I never do recycle before so I want to try. I want to do more recycle because it’s more fun.
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Kindergarten field trip Aston: We must recycle because we can’t keep the earth dirty and recycle will help the earth and make the earth happy. Aron: I saw cans, plastic and paper at recycling centre. I helped the earth by giving recycle things to recycle centre. Adira: We need to recycle because it was good for the environment. I don’t feel it was a waste of time because it was a bit fun. It will be more fun if we do it again. Duke: I enjoyed a lot in the trip. Recycling with Aston is the favourite part in the trip. Damien: We recycled stuff at Valencia. We recycled all the rubbish. Because we do not want rubbish. Julian: I feel really, really happy because I like to make the environment happy. Elijah: It’s not a waste of time. And I think we should go again when the boxes get full. Emma: We did this because we have to help the planet, we don’t want rubbish everywhere. Ze Hao: I learned to recycle and help the earth. Hayato: We put plastic in the plastic bin. We recycled because Earth is sad. Shakira: I enjoyed this trip a lot. I feel good because I make the earth happy. Galen: I put paper and plastic into the bins to help the earth. To help the earth have no more plastic. Sangyoon: If we don’t recycle, then rubbish will become rubbish mountain.
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Grade 10 Personal Project Launch
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Christmas Assembly
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Holiday Bazaar 2018
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