IGB International School’s Weekly Newsletter - Issue 25, Week 4, January 2015
The Weekly Newsletter is our online school-wide form of communication to the Parent and Student community. It is sent electronically every week to the e-mail contact you have provided to Admissions. You can either access it through the link sent to your e-mail or through the website at www.igbis.edu.my. Please read the newsletter every week! News, events, school developments and highlights are shared and parents and students should make sure they read this every week.
Kindergarten and Grade 1 have been learning about how to design Wau (Traditional Malay kite) pattern.
Inside this week’s Newsletter
Upcoming Events 2nd February 2015 First day of school for Semester 2
Message from Head of School Mrs. Anne Fowles, Head of School
3rd February 2015 Public Holiday – Thaipusam
News from Elementary School Mrs. Claire McLeod, Elementary School Principal
4th February 2015 Parent Coffee Morning, 8.00am, Lobby Cafe Welcome New Parents
News from Secondary School Mr. Lennox Meldrum, Secondary School Principal Updates from Student Services Mr. Peter Fowles, Head of Student Services Updates from Academic and Support Services Mr. Peter Syme, Director of Academic and Support Services Updates from Admissions Mrs. Bronwyn Thorburn, Admissions Director
11th February 2015 Chinese New Year Assembly, 2.00pm, Theatre Semester One Reports 13 February 2015 Last Day of School before Holiday 16th – 20th February 2015 School Holiday 19th – 20th February 2015 Public Holiday - Chinese New Year 25th February 2015 Parent-Teacher Conference
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, This week marks the end of semester one and IGBIS is half way through its first academic year. This is a significant milestone for student progress. Student reports will be sent home on 11th February followed by Parent-Teacher Conferences on 25th February. Please mark these dates on your calendar. It has been pleasing to see the number of parents who have come into school for the elementary school parent coffee mornings over the last week. These are a very good way for parents to meet other parents, hear updates from the school administration and have an input into a range of school functions. There will be a coffee morning to welcome all of our new parents on 4th February – we hope that as many of you as possible can attend this one, then Secondary school parent coffees will take place over 10th to 27th February. We plan to continue these through the year. Our next whole school assembly will be for Chinese New Year on 11th February. There have been a lot of preparations for this assembly and I am sure that you will find that it will provide an excellent insight into students’ work as well as a celebration of a national festival. Have a good weekend.
News from Elementary School Mrs. Claire McLeod Elementary School Principal Over the last week it has been very enjoyable meeting parents at our grade level coffee mornings. The feedback has been very positive and there have been some good suggestions as well. In a few weeks I will be able to confirm a date for our first IB PYP information session for parents when Simon Millward, our PYP Coordinator, and myself will provide you with information about the PYP and how we are implementing the programme at IGBIS. In this week’s newsletter I have included a few photos of inquiry. Grade 4 visited Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM) this week and had a guided tour by FRIM staff. They discussed how they could make connections to the current Unit of Inquiry related to exploration. This field trip sparked a lot of conversation and is the prompt for their summative assessment. In mathematics, Grade 2 students are learning about time and constructing clocks to understand the connections between the numbers on clocks, number patterns and how our seconds, minutes, hours and days are determined. Some of our Early Years 2 students have been busy constructing using blocks, plastic animals and other artefacts in the room. At a glance you may think this is just play; however, from an educational perspective we can see the development of mathematic skills and the social skills of communicating, sharing, cooperation, collaboration, negotiating, tolerance and, finally, caring in that this has stayed in tact for a few days!
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Igniting Minds
Semester 2 We will have a new timetable for semester 2, which starts on Monday. In most cases there have only been a few changes; your teachers will inform you of these. With the start of semester 2 we will welcome a number of new students and their families to the school and I know from speaking with our students they are eagerly waiting the arrival of their new peers. Chinese New Year Assembly Our Chinese New Year Assembly is scheduled for Wednesday, 11th February at 2.00pm in the Theatre. Students are encouraged to wear something that reflects the Chinese culture and parents are welcome to attend the afternoon assembly. Uniform Hats are now available in the school shop. There are three sizes Small, Medium and Large and the price is RM20.00. Students are required to wear a hat when they are playing on the soccer pitch, either at lunch or during their PE lesson. They should also wear a hat when they are involved in an outside activity such as tennis. I’d like to remind parents and students that white is the colour for our school socks. Until next time.
Impacting Lives
Elementary Bahasa Melayu and Host Nation Welcome back from Christmas holidays and Happy New Year 2015. Elementary School students in Bahasa Melayu class continue to learn a lot of topics to enhance their knowledge in Bahasa Melayu. In Early Years 1 and 2, students started to recognise 10 haiwan (animals) and the animal sound such as kucing (cat), anjing (dog), ayam (chicken), singa (lion), lembu (cow) and kambing (goat) by doing colouring and acting activities. Students are using an iPad to record animal sounds with their voice. Grades 2 and 3 have learnt about Kata Adjektif (adjectives) such as masam (sour), manis (sweet), pahit (bitter), cantik (beautiful) and licin (smooth) and how to write a sentences in Bahasa Melayu. They enjoyed doing a role play and using mobile learning to have a look a different pictures for all those adjectives. Grades 4 and 5 have been learning about words to describe people, their looks and characteristics, and using these words to describe our friends. We will be playing who’s who this Friday, using these words that we have learnt. After that, we will be writing about our best friend.
In Host Nation Studies, Early Years 1 and 2 have been learning to recognise Tikar Mengkuang (Malay Traditional Mat) and how to weave tikar mengkuang by using two different paper. Kindergarten and Grade 1 have been learning about Permainan Tradisional Melayu (Malay Traditional Games) such as gasing, teng-teng, batu seremban, baling selipar, congkak and layanglayang. They had enjoyed playing congkak. They also learned how to design Wau pattern by colouring the picture. Grade 2 and Grade 3 have learned about Tarian Tradisional Malaysia (Malay Traditional Dance) such as Tarian Inang, Tarian Zapin, Tarian Joget and Tarian Kipas. They have learned the differences between the movement, costumes and music for each dance by watching through YouTube. Grades 4 and 5 have learned about Batik Malaysia (Malaysian Batik). They have learnt about the batik patterns, colours and clothing. Learning has mainly taken place through interactive activities. Over the week they have enjoyed amazing activities and produced pieces of work to enhance students skills and creativity. Ms. Dianti Ranofla, Early Years - Grade 3 & Mrs. Diane Douglos, Grades 4 - 5
Elementary School Chinese Happy Chinese New Year! In this unit, the students are inquiring into Chinese New Year celebrations and Legends. The inquiries they are talking about are like, “Why do Chinese people celebrate Chinese New Year? How do they celebrate it? Why are there 12 zodiacs? If I am the king, what zodiacs will I choose and how will I decide their order? What is the lunar calendar?” During the learning process, students are exploring some Chinese legends, mainly related to “Nian, the 12 zodiac stories”. They are enjoying the many different activities, like making Hong Bao, lanterns, little dragons, paper cutting and calligraphy. They obtain language skills, gain knowledge about Chinese culture and reflect upon their learning. At the same time, students are preparing for their Chinese New Year assembly. Early Years and KG are practicing the song “Gongxi Gongxi.” They are going to perform the song with their teachers and some Secondary School students on the stage. Grade 1 students are planning a Chinese traditional lantern dance. Grades 2 and 3 are combining to perform the song “Sun is after the rain.”
Igniting Minds
Grade 4 & 5 students are excited to perform a play called “Chinese 12 animal zodiac”. They learned the background, vocabulary and expressions based on it. They also looked into the different personalities represented by animals and compared and discussed with each other how these may be reflected on us. To prepare for the play, a strong effort was made to memorize their lines and perform their roles. Students have displayed commitment by learning their lines and songs and they have been cooperative as a whole group. Parents are welcome to join our Chinese New Year assembly, which will happen on 11th February. We look forward to sharing the program with you and hope everyone enjoys our presentation. 新年快乐， 万事如意！ Mrs. Xiaoping Li, Mrs. Yuri Kim, Mrs. Mu Rong Chinese Teachers
Impacting Lives
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News from Secondary School Mr. Lennox Meldrum Secondary School Principal Semester one comes to an end today and it is a good time to embrace the IB Learner Profile of Reflective. We have a lot to be proud of in the Secondary School. Our students and families have quickly adopted the language and philosophy of an IB education. This is evident when students approach tasks not only from an academic view but also through the lens of the Learner Profile, their approaches to learning skills, and how service and action can be considered. By being immersed in a multicultural environment our students have started to express themselves with a greater understanding of the international mindedness that an IB education promotes. One of the benefits of being in an IB World School is how students are not only challenged academically by our rigorous curriculum but also encouraged to become caring and compassionate members of our global society. I am very pleased to see this growth happening with our students. We are also proud of the commitment of all of our staff to help establish the routines common to international schools within our first semester. Our Model United Nations students have attended events at other schools and we have hosted own own huge conference. Our sporting teams have started games against other schools, both on our own campus and at other locations. Students have been involved in service activities including a 24 hour run that raised money and awareness of slavery and human trafficking. Our Student Council have been active with establishing roles for their members and organising of some activities within the school. I’m sure you have enjoyed reading about these activities and more in previous school newsletters. Being reflective isn’t only about remembering our successes, but also how we can continue to improve. Your feedback and the input from our students is vital to aid in this process and we always welcome your communication. Expansion of our Grade 6 and Grade 9 classes will open new challenges in which we plan to thrive. Our bus system is expanding with new routes to accommodate our student growth and we will be trialling a new serving system in our cafeteria from next week to speed up the lunch process. Homeroom has been moved to the start of the day to enhance our pastoral programme and students now have a longer morning break. So much going on - our school is a busy place! Thank you for your continued support and for spreading the news about IGBIS. Many families who come to enquire are telling us that they heard about IGBIS from someone in our community. We aim to continue to provide a supportive and exciting place in which your children can immerse themselves in their education. Have a wonderful weekend.
Updates from Student Services Mr. Peter Fowles Head of Student Services Service Learning Opportunities Action for service at IGBIS is seen as engaging and dynamic, building on the core curriculum, as a natural progression of classroom practice. Students will through guided inquiry, investigate, prepare, demonstrate and reflect while engaged in the stages of action for service. Students will be encouraged and inspired to further their participation and resolve for action for service through school activities, camps and calendared service programmes.
While action for service is seen as part of the scope and sequence of ‘action’ within the IB programmes, at IGBIS it will be used where relevant and appropriate to facilitate, guide and support students in making informed choices in regard to the MYP projects in year 3, 4 or 5 of the programme. Action for service at IGBIS will follow the IB guidelines for schools for its development and implementation, which will begin in February as our students engage with the MRCEC School, Sg Buloh. The IGBIS school community hope to build a partnership with MREC to facilitate a mutual service opportunity based on regular extra-curricular interaction.
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Igniting Minds
Impacting Lives
Performing Arts IGB Instrumental Ensemble Last week I wrote about the developing IGBIS Instrumental Ensemble that meets each Tuesday afternoon as part of the Activity Program. I would like to extend an invitation to any parents who have time and play a musical instrument to come along and join in. All you need to do is bring your instrument. The activity is from 3.00pm - 4.00pm each Tuesday in the Music Room. Grade 8 Performing Arts - Bunraku Puppets Grade 8 students have been learning about puppetry during their Performing Arts classes. They have completed some research on different types of puppets and in groups have made their own puppet characters using ideas from the traditional Japanese puppetry form know as Bunraku.
These puppets are manipulated by two or three puppeteers and a quite sophisticated. The students are looking forward to writing their own puppet stories for performance in a couple of weeks time IGBIS Instrumental Music Academy Thank you to all the parents who have registered or re-registered their children for Instrumental Music Lessons in Semester 2. Due to the availability of our tutoring staff Piano, Violin and Guitar lessons are now full. This is very exciting indeed for the program and will mean that we will need to expand in the 2015 -16 school year. Please contact me by email at jon.suffolk@igbis.edu.my if you have any questions regarding this program. Senior Drama Production The Senior Drama Production for 2015 will be performed on the 25th February. This is the same day as the Parent Teacher conferences. The production “A Suitcase Full Of Surprises” is about 35 minutes long and will be performed at 3pm and again at 7.00pm on that evening. The play is a montage of scenes about the human existence and uses physical theatre, comedy, dance and music, and, as the title suggests, is full of surprises. Using techniques inspired by the UK’s world renowned theatre company COMPLICITE, the students have been working on this production since the beginning of the activity program. They look forward to seeing you all in the audience. Mr. Jon Suffolk, Performing Arts Teacher
News from the DP Coordinator The Grade 11 Semester One Reports will be released on 11th February and will be an indication of academic achievement based on assessment completed in Semester One. Student academic achievement is measured and reported on a numerical 1-7 scale according to IBDP guidelines. IBDP subjects use course-specific grade boundaries and grade weights to determine the level of academic achievement. Grade weights will reflect the weights used in the IB Subject Guides and the grade boundaries from the latest DP May exam session will be used. The Semester One Exams are weighted as 25% of the Semester One grade. Once a percentage grade is formulated and weighted using the aforementioned grade weights, the most recent DP May exam session grade boundary will be used to derive a 1 -7 grade. Detailed information regarding grade weights and grade boundaries for DP courses at IGBIS, as well as a detailed explanation on how Semester grades are formulated, can be found in the IGBIS DP Student Handbook which was given to parents during the orientation in August. This document can also be found on ManageBac and was emailed to the Grade 11 students. If there are any questions regarding the grade formulation for Grade 11, or any aspect of the IBDP at IGBIS, please email me at matthew.marshall@igbis.edu.my. Mr. Matthew Marshall, Diploma Programme Coordinator
Igniting Minds
Impacting Lives
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Updates from Academic and Support Services Mr. Peter Syme Director of Academic and Support Services Cash Top Up on Access Cards and Bracelets For February lunches, the students will need to ensure that they have topped up their access cards or bracelets. There are two places to top up at the moment. In the Secondary School cafeteria on Level 6, there is a cash kiosk which will take automatically top up an access card. After top up, you should print a receipt. You can also top up at the Finance Payment Counter. The staff there have a laptop and card reader for automatic top up. Again ask for a receipt. There is no need to get a receipt every lunch time. By the end of next week, we hope to have ready access to all your individual accounts on line so you will be able to check your balance. This will save the need to print daily receipts and also save paper in the process. You must have your access card with you to top up. Elementary School parents who are topping up for their younger children will need to have their child’s bracelet with them to top up. Progress has been made with the bank to activate the online payment system from home but it is taking longer than anticipated. We will keep you informed when we hope to activate this system. February costs and menus have been placed in both the cafeterias. It is still essential that the total amounts for February are put on the cards so that the kitchen staff know how much to prepare. At lunch time in February, there will be a sandwich bar if students would prefer this option. The sandwich or roll will come with fresh fruit or fruit juice.
Updates from Admissions Mrs. Bronwyn Thorburn Admissions Director Please note the following dates are coming up for Whole School and Secondary School coffee mornings: All School Coffee Morning 4th February, 8.00am in the Secondary School Library Secondary School Grade 6 - 10th February, 8.00am in the Lobby Cafe (outside the Theatre) Grade 7 - 12th February, 8.00am in the Lobby Cafe (outside the Theatre) Grade 8 - 13rd February, 8.00am in the Lobby Cafe (outside the Theatre) Grade 9 - 24th February, 8.00am in the Lobby Cafe (outside the Theatre) Grade 10 - 26th February, 8.00am in the Lobby Cafe (outside the Theatre) Grade 11 - 27th February, 8.00am in the Lobby Cafe (outside the Theatre) Thank you to those parents who made the Elementary School Coffee Mornings. We will be in contact soon with dates scheduled for the PYP presentation. Open Day, 28th March We will be hosting another Open Day. The date for this event will be Saturday, 28th March. Further information to follow soon. New Students In the next month, we have another 23 students starting in the school. Welcome to all the new students and parents.We look forward to seeing you are the Parent Coffee Morning next week! Lobby Cafe We are planning to open the Lobby Cafe after the Chinese New Year break with a small supply of coffee, tea and pastries on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings from 7.30am to 10.30am, and then Monday and Wednesday from 2.00pm to 4.30pm. More information on this will follow soon!
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Igniting Minds
Impacting Lives