IGB International School Newsletter, Issue 8, Week 1, September 2014

IGB International School’s Weekly Newsletter - Issue 8, Week 1, September 2014

Inside this week’s Newsletter Message from Head of School Mrs. Anne Fowles, Head of School

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

Upcoming Events September Tuesday, 16th September 2014 Public Holiday - Malaysia Day Wednesday, 17th September 2014 Whole School Assembly - Malaysia Day October

News from Secondary School Mr. Lennox Meldrum, Secondary School Principal

7th - 10th October 2014 Secondary School Camp (Grade 6 - 11)

Updates from Academic and Support Services

Mr. Peter Syme, Director of Academic and Support Services

Updates from Admissions Mrs. Bronwyn Thorburn, Admissions Director

Updates from Student Services Mr. Peter Fowles, Head of Student Services

Wednesday, 15th October 2014 Whole School Assembly - Deepavali Celebration 18th - 26th October 2014 School Holidays Wednesday, 22nd October 2014 Public Holiday - Deepavali Thursday, 30th October 2014 Parent Teacher Interviews

Igniting Minds

Impacting Lives

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Message from Head of School Mrs. Anne Fowles Head of School Dear IGBIS Parents and Community Members, We were delighted to see nearly all of our students’ parents attend the Meet the Teacher afternoon this Wednesday. The feedback I received was all very positive both from teachers who found parents to be interested and supportive, and from parents who were very impressed with the quality of the presentations and the opportunity to find out more about what their children are learning and how they will be assessed. My thanks are extended to all of the academic staff for their preparation for the event and their professionalism in presenting to parents.

First Whole School Assembly Our next major event in the school will be our first whole school assembly on September 17th where we will celebrate Malaysia day with a range of items from our host country language and culture classes, music and dance. This assembly is open to parents. We will be encouraging everyone to wear clothing to reflect the various cultures and regions of Malaysia, so please prepare the clothing that you and your children will wear! The assembly will begin at 2.20 pm so that you may collect your children after the assembly. The second whole school assembly will take place on October 15th to celebrate Deepavali.

After School Activities Programme The Activities Programme commenced this week. I particularly enjoyed seeing students interested in the swim squad begin to swim in the Olympic size pool and others use the fitness centre for the first time.

News from Elementary School Mrs. Claire McLeod Elementary School Principal I hope everyone had a relaxing long weekend. I enjoyed three days at the beach with no TV or internet, just swimming and reading; just what I needed after a busy lead up to the opening of school.

Student Led Elementary School Assembly Our Elementary School Assembly last Friday was led by our Grade 5 students and Ms Johanson. The students were a little nervous as they prepared their lines and the presentation they had for everyone. However, there was not a sign of nervousness on the day even though we had approximately 40 guests from educational institutions in India join the assembly. The students wrote a small skit to raise awareness for saving paper in the bathroom, encouraging everyone to wash and shake their hands 12 times, fold the paper and wipe their hands. Mr Simon was a great sport and joined in and together with the audience we had everyone practicing the wash, shake, fold and wipe.

Please ask your children and see if they can explain the message. Our youngest students in Early Years 1 & 2 joined the assembly and enjoyed this presentation as well as the group singing led by Ms Michelle and Ms Kath. Check out the video here: http://bit.ly/shakefoldwipe Play Area As I moved around the playground on Level 1 at lunchtime this week I talked with the students about the rules we should develop to ensure everyone stays safe. It was reassuring that they were all very knowledgeable and wanted to contribute their thoughts and suggestions. These will be shared and together with students we will finalize a list of

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Igniting Minds

rights and responsibilities for everyone. As the students identified what we should be careful of or perhaps ban, I took some photos to add to our playground agreements.

Grade 1 students were very helpful today as I had lost some documents and they offered to look around the school to see if they could find them.

They were surprised to find some clues that led to a jigsaw and then a map. My involvement with Grade 1 was a provocation, a strategy to tune the students into their new inquiry on maps, how maps are used and how they help people at home, school and at work. They were highly delighted when they returned my lost documents, describing the paths they took to search, the clues they found and finally the map. Please ask them about this activity, I am sure you will find them to very vocal and totally enthused.

As I look out my window and see the rain coming down I am grateful that we have under covered parking, such a luxury!

Enjoy the weekend.

Impacting Lives

News from Secondary School Mr. Lennox R. Meldrum Secondary School Principal Meet The Teacher Afternoon Thank you to everyone who attended the Meet The Teacher afternoon this week. It was an excellent turnout and our teachers were excited to have the opportunity to explain how learning was taking place in their classrooms. The experience of our teachers is evident in not only how they deliver their teaching, but also in the depth of their planning to make sure a relevant and stimulated set of learning opportunities are made available to their students. Some families were unable to attend or could not make every session so we have made available the presentations on this website, http://bit.ly/meet-the-teacher. As always, you are welcome to follow up with any of our staff through email.

ManageBac, Online Learning Portal One of the sessions on Wednesday afternoon was focused on ManageBac, our online learning portal. Our students and teachers regularly use ManageBac for daily communication, setting and submission of assessment items, and sharing of resources relevant to the unit being studied. Our teachers develop their curriculum on ManageBac and also use it to maintain students records such as class attendance. Many parents were interested in how they can start to use the portal and more information on this will come in the next couple of weeks.

First School Camps From October 7 to 10, all Secondary School students will be attending our first school camps. These will be run at locations within Malaysia and will focus on areas such as team building, service, and personal development. Further details will come out next week.

Our first couple of weeks of school helped to develop school spirit and allowed students to get settled into our regular class routines.

This week we began a pastoral focus on identities and relationships, this week through the lens of the Learner Profile attribute of caring.

One of the areas discussed with students was about cyberbullying.

With a wide range of technology available both in and out of school, we will continue to be vigilant in both our education of students in this area as well as monitoring any signs of bullying behaviour, cyber or through other means.

Malaysia Day Whole School Assembly On September 17 we will have a whole school Malaysia Day assembly during our last period of the day and we hope that you are able to attend and enjoy the celebration with your children. Throughout the year there will be opportunities extended to our families to attend assembly and other such celebrations and we will try to make them accessible by having them at the start or the end of the day, around the time that many families drop off or pick up their children. Please keep an eye on our newsletter for news on these events.

Have a wonderful weeked.

Updates from Academic and Support Services Mr. Peter Syme Director of Academic and Support Services Car Stickers Thank you to all the families who have now collected their car stickers.

There are only about 12 families now who have not collected them.

These are the only forms of school community identification that we have at the moment and they do help the guards identify you all when you come to school.

Please display your car stickers and for those yet to collect them, it is now very important that you do so. Next week the guards will be focusing on these stickers and if they are not displayed, you will be asked to manually sign in and provide another means of identification before being allowed entry.

Electronic Card Access System The Administration Departments here at IGBIS are continuing to work through the processes of getting all the electronic cards ready as soon as they are able. All the staff, including the support teams of cleaners, kitchen staff, security have been receiving their cards

recently and the student and parent cards are being worked on currently. Yes it is a long process and we thank you for your patience.

Car Parking I would like to extend our appreciation to you all for using the car park for student drop-off and pick-up in a safe and timely manner.

We are very fortunate to have such a facility at an international school whereby the students can feel safe and you know that they are safe at the drop-off zone.

If for some reason you are going to be late for student pick-up by more than 15mins, it is recommended you call the reception counter so that this information is passed on to the teacher on duty so that they are aware of the situation. Sometimes it cannot be helped. With younger students, it is particularly important as they can get rather anxious waiting for you at the end of a school day.

Updates from Admissions Mrs. Bronwyn Thorburn Admissions Director Uniform Shop The Uniform shop will continue to be open from Monday to Friday, 7:45am to 8:45am and 2:30pm - 3:30pm on the Lower Ground area (Level 3) until further notice.

Parent ID Parent ID cards are in the process of being created. These will be available in the next couple of weeks.

If you have any questions about the above information, please do contact the Admissions Office at admissions@igbis.edu.my.

Igniting Minds

Impacting Lives

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Updates from Student Services Mr. Peter Fowles Head of Student Services Dear School community, Activities are underway and we look forward to basketball, volleyball and badminton starting at the end of September or early October when the gym will come into use. There will be another offer of activities from December 5th which will give students the opportunity to change and select from a wider range of options.

Elementary School schedule until December 5th 2014 All activities are from 3.10pm until 4.00pm.

Day

Tuesdays

Time

Activity

Shadow puppet making

Students are introduced to the art of puppet making using shadow as the medium.

Tuesday

Swim squad

Students who are already competent swimmers are trained for eventual competition (must be approved by the PHE department)

Tuesday

Lego robotics

Students create their own working robots

Wednesday

Computer programming

Computer skills are enhanced to make their own games.

Thursday

Kids taking action

A club built along the lines of a student council where by students choose topics that become their projects that they can make happen within the school or community

Thursday

German

A learning language class

Thursday

Football

Fun for both girls and boys

Secondary School schedule until December 5th 2014 Day

Time

Activity

Tuesday

Lunch time

Global net work issues

Tuesday

3.10pm – 4.00pm

Dance Zumba: G 6 to 11 (Action) Football: G6 to 11 (Action) Home work help: G6 to 11 Instrumental ensemble: G 6 to 11 (Creativity) Swim squad: G 6 to 11 (Action) Lego Robotics: G 6 to 10 (Creativity) Badminton: G 6 to 11 (Action)

Wednesday

3.10pm – 4.00pm

Basketball: G6 to 11 (Action) Floor Hockey: G6 to 11(Action) Ceramics, clay work: G 6 to 11 (Creativity) Touch rugby: G6 to 11 (Action) Theatre & performances: G 6 to 11(Creativity)

Thursday

3.10pm – 4.00pm

Computer programming: G9 to11 (Creativity) Gym training: G 6 to 11 (Action) German: G6 to 11 (Creativity) Volleyball: G6 to 11 (Action) Yoga for teens: G6 to 11 (Action) Writing club: G6 to 11 (Creativity)

Monday

Lunch time

Student council G 6-10 (Service)

For more information please contact: peter.fowles@igbis.edu.my.

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Igniting Minds

Impacting Lives