IGB International School Newsletter, Issue 39, Week 3, May 2015

IGB International School’s Weekly Newsletter - Issue 39, Week 3, May 2015

International Day Dance

Inside this week’s Newsletter

Upcoming Events 28th May 2015 Dengue Fever Talk, 8.15am, room opposite clinic Grade 5 to Grade 6 Transition for Students and Parents

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

5th June 2015 Last day for After School Activities Secondary School Student Council Social Night, 7.00pm, Music and Drama Rooms (Level 3)

News from Elementary School Mrs. Claire McLeod, Elementary School Principal News from Secondary School Mr. Lennox Meldrum, Secondary School Principal

9th June 2015 Elementary School Musical Performance ‘Rats’, 8.20am, Theater

Updates from Admissions Mrs. Bronwyn Thorburn, Admissions Director

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, There was a lot of excitement in the air last week as the final preparations were made for our International Day. The committee had a full programme organised beginning with the opening and parade of nations in the theatre at 10.00 am on Saturday, 23rd May. Students looked fantastic in their national dress for the opening ceremony, teachers and admin staff had activities ready and parents cooked up a range of treats for their country group to share. We hope that everyone joined in the fun and enjoyed the day. It was definitely one of the highlights of the school year! Our thanks are extended to the organising committee and all of the parents and staff members who made the day such a success.

With just one month left of our founding year, planning is in place for the year ahead; additional teachers hired, more resources ordered, more elementary classrooms being set up and expansion plans in place for development of the seventh floor of our building to accommodate more secondary classrooms. We are delighted with the quality of education that we have been able to offer our students in the first year of operation and it is now time to invite our families to return to IGB International School for the 2015-16 academic year. The Admissions Office is sending parents a link to the re-enrolment process on our OpenApply system, so that they may indicate their intention to return to IGBIS in 2015-16 and update their contact details. This is very important to us as with over one hundred new students joining the school in August, we need accurate records for class lists, scheduling and resources and most of all, to ensure that our returning IGBIS students are given first priority.

IGBIS prides itself on the high quality of its teaching staff. All of our teachers have overseas qualifications and experience of teaching outside of their own countries, in addition to accredited training and experience in the IB programmes. This quality comes at a significant cost, which with ongoing increments, is a large portion of our operating costs and coupled with the recently imposed GST, impacts on the IGBIS operational budget.

The Board Executive Committee has discussed the tuition and other fees at length and having received official confirmation from the Ministry of Education, the board has now set the school fees for the 2015-16 school year. It has been decided that our School fees will be increased in line with those of other international schools and the increase in operating costs. However, in recognition of the commitment of current IGBIS families who joined the school in its founding year and continue into 2015, the Board has agreed to significant discounts.

The Board has also agreed to offer the following discounts for families: 1. A discount of five percent (5%) is applicable for advance payment of the full amount of the total annual Tuition Fee. 2. Sibling discount to families with two or more children attending IGBIS at the same time.

3. Sibling discount on the Enrolment Fee for new or additional siblings who begin in 2015-16.

News from Elementary School Mrs. Claire McLeod Elementary School Principal Rehearsals for the Elementary School Musical production Rats has been going on for some time; we are now scheduling more regular rehearsals for all of Elementary. Excitement is starting to build, as the students know their performance is only 2 weeks away. We ask that all parents please save the date for Tuesday, 9th June at 8.20am in the Theatre.

Following this performance there will be a special transition meeting for parents and students in Grade 5 who will be moving to Grade 6 and IBMYP in August. We decided to schedule this immediately after the Rats performance to save parents making two visits to the school that week. Grade 5 parents will receive more information shortly.

valuable visit to KL and most importantly to our school. Our new teachers of Grade 5, Grade 3, Kindergarten, Learning Support and ESOL have been amazed with the facilities we have for such a new school and overwhelmingly delighted with the design and layout of classrooms and specialist areas.

Although we only have 4 weeks of school left for our first academic year, I can assure you that teachers are continuing to challenge our students in all areas of the curriculum. Final assessments are in process and reports are being written.

We have been fortunate to have a number of our new teachers visit in the last few weeks, as they fly in for a quick but highly

It’s hard to believe that our first year has almost finished; whilst I am looking forward to my holidays, I feel we still have so much we want to achieve before Thursday, 18th June!

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Impacting Lives

Igniting Minds

News from Secondary School Mr. Lennox Meldrum Secondary School Principal I can’t say much more about International Day that hasn’t been said, shown in photos, shared on social media, or talked about between people with huge smiles on their faces - it was awesome! I had such a great time throughout the entire day, but especially loved working in the cricket activity with Gabe Evans where our passion outside of teaching and food were able to come alive. Gabe and I are lifelong cricket fans, both of us with memories from childhood of attending games or playing with friends until the sun was so far below the horizon that we couldn’t safely see the ball any more. It was great to be able to throw down a few balls, hit some around the tennis court, and hopefully inspire some future champions into the game. Thank you to everyone who contributed to a fantastic International Day, especially the organising committee led by Mary Richards, Yuri Kim, and Peter Syme, and all of the parents and community members who cooked up amazing food and arranged some wonderful activities representing the many cultures we have at IGBIS. You should all be very proud of your achievements.

Another event from last week was a fundraiser run by the Student Council to help reduce the cost to students for their end of year social evening on Friday 5th June. Each lunch time they arranged for teachers and Student Council members to sit out on the field and have wet sponges thrown at them, paid for by students who wanted the opportunity to dowse their teachers and friends. I was lucky enough to be a happy participant on Friday along with Mr Derry, Ms Seehaus, and Mr Thompson (who was VERY popular with the Grade 11 students!). We all had a fun time and it was a great initiative from the Student Council.

Grade 11 students are sitting their final exams for the year this week and we all wish them the very best.

Updates from Admissions Mrs. Bronwyn Thorburn Admissions Director Dear IGBIS Parents and Guardians, Summer School Summer School course information has been sent to you this week. Please return the forms and payment in the next week, so that we can confirm the programmes in early June.

Re-enrolment A link to our OpenApply Admissions Database has been sent to you today asking you to confirm you intention to return for the 20152016 academic year - we have also asked you to check and update your contact details. The new school fees are also being sent to you later today.

Yearbook We are also working on producing the Yearbook in Marketing. Further information will be sent in due course.

School Photos School, class and individual photos were taken last week. These will be forwarded to your directly from the photographer in the next two week.

Website Finally, a new look to our website will be launched in the next week! It has been built by our team here at school. Please have a look and enjoy the updated information.

Best regards.

Igniting Minds

Impacting Lives

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Responsible Action and Service in the MYP One of the many things that sets the the IB Middle Years Programme (MYP) apart from other educational systems and models is the emphasis on responsible action and service.

As students progress through the MYP, they gain deeper understandings of important, transferable concepts, they consider local, national, regional and global issues and develop their own sense of self and of personal responsibility in their community.

“As students become more aware and acquire a better understanding of the context, and of their responsibilities, they become empowered to make choices about how to take thoughtful and positive action… The action may involve students in: • • • • • • •

feeling empathy towards others making small-scale changes to their behaviour undertaking larger and more significant projects acting on their own acting collaboratively taking physical action suggesting modifications to an existing system to the benefit of all involved • lobbying people in more influential positions to act.”

(IBO, p.24) Service in the MYP empowers students to build authentic connections between what they learn in class with what they encounter in their community. Teachers create learning opportunities for students to make these connections, to ensure the experience of service offers genuine opportunities for students to apply the concepts, skills and knowledge that have been learnt in school.

One example of school learning being transferred into responsible action and service can be seen in the first year of MYP in Grade 6 at IGBIS. Earlier this year in English class, Grade 6 students studied the novel “Boy Overboard” by Maurice Gleitzman. The fictional novel tells the story of a family of refugees fleeing from

persecution in their home country and trying to find a better, safer life overseas. The students considered the characters in the novel alongside the real and often tragic stories of refugees that we frequently see on the news.

Over the past few months, we have been working with volunteers from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) here in Kuala Lumpur to create a programme for our Grade 6 students to transfer their learning in English class into responsible action and service.

Not far from IGBIS, in Sungai Buloh, is the MRCEC school for refugee children from Myanmar. Once a month our Grade 6 students host a group of students from MRCEC at IGBIS. During PHE class, our students collaborate, develop their leadership skills and build relationships with the refugee students as they organise sporting activities in the gym and swimming activities in the pool.

The activities are conducted under the careful guidance and supervision of Mr Fowles and other IGBIS and MRCEC staff.

The UN volunteer office staff are as pleased as we are to have established this partnership, which we are reliably informed is the first of its kind in Malaysia. We look forward to further developing our partnership with the UNHCR and MRCEC school in the months and years ahead.

I am sharing with permission a copy of a letter from Ms Edwina Tan, one of the UNHCR volunteers at MRCEC:

Dear Mr Fowles, Thank you very much for the wonderful extracurricular afternoon enjoyed by the Myanmar refugee children today, and for the considerable preparation and effort that ensured everything went so well.

Our grateful thanks go particularly to the year 6 students of IGBIS. They deserve much credit for their warm hospitality and friendship towards the refugee children. Some strong leadership skills were observed.

It is a demanding task to keep 26 little boys and girls who are beginners in English language safely and happily occupied for two hours. Many an adult would be unequal to the challenge! However your students really rose to the occasion and their mothers and fathers should be extremely proud of them.

I am forwarding a few photos taken during the afternoon; more are included in a subsequent mail. Please feel free to make use of them as you see fit.

We look forward to returning in May with our older students.

Best wishes, Edwina Tan UNHCR Volunteer Phil Clark, Middle Years Programme Coordinator Works Cited: International Baccalaureate Organisation. MYP: From Principles into Practice. Cardiff: IBO, 2014. Print.

Maurice Gleitzman. Boy Overboard. London: Penguin, 2003. Print.

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Igniting Minds

Impacting Lives

International Day I don’t know about you, but I think the first IGBIS International Day was a resounding success. The food was delicious, the weather was perfect, the food was scrumptious, the activities were great, the food was so tasty, the music was wonderful and did I mention the food?

As we all know, these sorts of events do not just happen. As a community, we should feel proud of what we were able to achieve on our first attempt. The donations, the time, the energy and the commitment that went into the day was largely due to our parent body and the school’s organising committee. This was supported by our enthusiastic staff who helped coordinate and run a large variety of activities.

I was truly inspired by the number of people who participated and helped out on the day and this will ensure that next years edition will be a fantastic event again. The most valuable memory I have taken from the day is that we are truly international and that our school community is thriving.

Mr. Peter Syme On behalf of the Organizing Committee

Igniting Minds

Impacting Lives

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