IGB International School’s Weekly Newsletter - Issue 40, Week 4, May 2015
Grade 10 Drama Group Devised Project performing “When We Were Young”
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
News from Secondary School Mr. Lennox Meldrum, Secondary School Principal
Updates from Student Services Mr. Peter Fowles, Head of Student Services
Upcoming Events 5th June 2015 Last day for After School Activities Secondary School Student Council Social Night, 7.00pm, Music and Drama Rooms (Level 3) 9th June 2015 Elementary School Musical Performance ‘Rats’, 8.20am, Theater Grade 5 to Grade 6 Transition Meeting, 9.30am 11th - 14th June 2015 Duke of Edinburgh Trip 18th June 2015 Whole School Final Assembly, 11.00am - 12.30pm
Updates from Academic and Support Services
Mr. Peter Syme, Director of Academic and Support Services
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, At the end of this week, I have been in Adelaide, Australia leading a visiting team that has been undertaking the evaluation of a private independent school for the International Baccalaureate. Conducting school visits is excellent professional development and a means of comparing the progress of IGBIS with other schools in the region. Several of our IGBIS staff are school visitors and are invited by the IB to undertake such visits.
With only three weeks left in the school year, students are completing exams and assessment tasks, the teachers are busy writing end of year reports and preparations are being made for end of year culminating events. Please make sure that you check the calendar section of the newsletter to keep abreast of all of the end of year activities. We look forward to seeing our parents at the final assemblies and award ceremonies.
News from Elementary School Mrs. Claire McLeod Elementary School Principal On Friday afternoon, we had a friendly Under 11 Track Meet with HELP International School. We appreciate the teachers, students and parents from HELP joining us and providing our students with another opportunity to improve their stamina and enjoy keeping fit. Thank you to our PE team and Elementary coaches for supporting this friendly competition. In the next few weeks, teachers in Elementary School will be considering class placement for the new school year. Where possible each class will have an even distribution of: • • • • • •
age gender nationality academic/developmental ability ESOL level/native English speakers. friendship groups.
Newly enrolled students will be added to these classes based on the knowledge we already have about these students; however, the finalizing of classes will not be complete until early August. Parents will be notified before school starts as to which class their child has been placed and the name of the new teacher. Over the next week there will be a number of rehearsals for our up coming Rats performance, which will be performed on Tuesday, 9th June at 8.20am in the Theatre. Please make sure you have placed this in your calendar as we hope all parents will attend. Following this performance our Grade 5 parents are reminded that there will be a Grade 5 to Grade 6 Transition meeting scheduled for 9.30am. Until next time.
News from Secondary School Mr. Lennox Meldrum Secondary School Principal Another week has flown by, full of a wide range of activities again. Our Grade 11 students completed their end of year exams that were held under examination conditions modelled on the final IB exams they will sit in May 2016. We are very proud of every student in our first Diploma Programme cohort and the progress they have made in their courses this year, both academically and in their approach to learning, as well as their contributions to the wider school community. They still have a few weeks left of learning in the year with their Group 4 Project (an interdisciplinary sciences investigation, further work on their extended essays, and preparation in all subjects for topics that will be covered next year. Students in our Middle Years Programme also have some exciting events coming up in the next few weeks. A number of these are being led by our Grade 8 students through their Community Project. These include a series of sports events, a talent show, and a whole school spirit-building activity. The Grade 8 students have been working hard on organising these exciting opportunities for our student community and we look forward to joining in the fun. The busy month of June also includes the Student Council End Of Year Social Event on 5th June, a trip by the Duke of Edinburgh students from 11th till 14th June, transition programmes for the
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Igniting Minds
Grade 10 students going on to Grade 11 and the Grade 5 students going on to Grade 6, and many classroom based activities. There are also still sporting events taking place in June, and the photo with this article shows our Grade 10 student helpers having some fun while assisting with the Under 11 track meet on Friday. The conclusion to the school year will be our Final Assembly on 18th June from 11.00am-12.30pm. Please mark this in your diary and look for more information coming soon. This week all students took home their ISA results from the testing performed in February. Please take some time to look through the results and refer to http://www.acer.edu.au/isa or contact us if you have any questions. Congratulations to the Grade 10 Drama students who performed an excellent piece on assembly this week. We have asked them to repeat this performance at the Final Assembly for both Elementary School and Secondary School on 18th June so that all of community can enjoy their talents. You can also see the performance on the televisions around the school. I will be out of school from 1st till 4th June visiting a school in Singapore as an IB representative, looking at their MYP as a visiting team member.
Impacting Lives
Information from the Diploma Programme Coordinator Congratulations to our Grade 11 students, who completed a tough week of Grade 11 Final Examinations. The experience the students gained from these exams will help prepare them for the challenging IBDP exams at the end of Grade 12. The results of the exams will be factored into the Semester Two Report grades. The Grade 11 Semester Two Reports will be released on ManageBac on 15th June, 2015 and will be an indication of academic achievement based on assessment completed in Semester Two. 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 Grade 11 Final Exams are weighted as 50% of the Semester Two 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 and students during the orientation last August. This document can also be found on ManageBac and was emailed to the Grade 11 students. The Grade 11 students will need to spend some time on their Extended Essay (EE) this summer. The EE is a challenging research-style essay that is an IBDP core requirement which each DP student must complete. The students have been working on this assignment for several months, and are advised to take some time this summer to work on this assignment. The students have EE supervisors, who will be meeting with them next week to advise them on areas of the EE that the students should focus on during the summer holiday. The draft deadline and final deadline for the EE can be found on the IGBIS Academic Deadlines document, which is on ManageBac and was emailed to the Grade 11 parents earlier this year. If there are any questions regarding the grade formulation for G11, IGBIS Academic Deadlines, the Extended Essay, or any aspect of the IBDP at IGBIS, please email me at matthew.marshall@igbis.edu.my. Mr. Matthew Marshall, Diploma Programme Coordinator
Updates from Student Services Mr. Peter Fowles Head of Student Services Our Children Are Our Concern The establishment of Student Services at IGBIS is in line with the schools mission of ensuring that they receive a holistic approach to both their academic growth and general well-being. A phrase often used to describe this practice, is to say we are addressing both sides of the same coin. Meaningful care goes beyond providing the essential elements of an activity and sports programme that engages students outside of the classroom. A sub plot of this umbrella programme is to create opportunities for teachers and students to interact in a range of environments. This interaction helps to build connections and understandings that foster mutual respect. This is part of a community approach to wellbeing which was celebrated in fantastic fashion, at International day. The holistic approach to supporting young people has been driven by research and literature. As described by Dr. Debra Koss, a child psychiatrist in Sparta, N.J, who has been treating children for more than 20 years. She states, “The hurly-burly of modern life plays a part. I believe that both teenagers and families face more external pressure and stress today than they did years ago. Part of that’s from the explosion in technology, especially in the proliferation in phone, computer and TV screens, which eat up an estimated five to seven hours of the average child’s day. That time spent inert in front of a screen is time not spent socializing, or playing sports, or getting out into the world, all of which contribute to healthy emotional development”.
Igniting Minds
Student Services follows a team approach for general well-being in the school community and specifically for students of concern. Home room teachers are at the very beginning of the support process and are a feature across the school. In Secondary there are weekly meetings where concerns and celebrations are discussed. The Counsellors, learning and language support work together to form strategies to assist individuals and groups. The great positives as we look to next academic year are a consolidation of student services and better defined processes and procedures for across the school. In Secondary we have 10 minutes of homeroom time as a daily check in and an eighty minute block once a week for welfare and pastoral needs. These are the schdeuled times of focus for addressing the emotional and social needs of students through positive interventions. A way forward can be to establish a culture of mindfulness and wellbeing. It is essential that this is a partnership between teachers, students, parents which is intrinsically embedded into the core values and beliefs of IGBIS.
Impacting Lives
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Updates from Academic and Support Services Mr. Peter Syme Director of Academic and Support Services Basketball Academy The Ken Huber Basketball Academy will be commencing their summer training sessions starting at school in the Sports Hall on Saturday, 20th June 2015. There will be two sessions; Under 18’s (12yrs – 18yrs) starting at 3:00pm and Under 11’s starting at 4:00pm. Each session will cost RM50, or you can pay one cost of RM500 for 10 sessions. These will take place every Saturday for 10 weeks. For more information, you can email Ken at kenbotak@aol.com and check out his Facebook page. Tennis Academy A reminder to anyone who is interested in signing up for the Tennis Academy to do so directly to German tennis coach, Jens Hiestermann. Coach Jens will be running two free tennis Open Days at the IGBIS tennis courts on a trial basis. Coach Jens is hoping to start tennis classes for all standards soon after that at the school courts. Keep the following dates in mind and remember to contact Jens directly to reserve your free place. There are some posters around the school with some more information about Jens and his experiences and qualifications in coaching in Germany, The US, Spain and Malaysia. Saturday, 6 June 2015 8:00am-9:00am…….10 years and under 9:00am-10:00am…..11 years and older
Last Orders for Lunch June will only have 13 days of lunches as students will be leaving school on Thursday 18 June at 12:45pm, and therefore no lunches will be served. Secondary students will be able to try out the new Salad Bar for June. We will be doing a last round of checking on students who may still owe something for January and the IT department will be deducting money if this has not happened already. Please ensure you have enough money in your accounts and do not worry if you have an outstanding balance as it will be carried forward to the new school year. Should you be leaving the school and have a balance, please see the IT department for verification and they will direct you to the Finance Counter for a refund. Please refer to the table below for payments and check out the menu on the website under Student Services.
Lunch Only
Snack and Lunch
Breakfast and Lunch
Tuesday, 9 June 2015 4:30pm-5:30pm……10 years and under 5:30pm-6:30pm……11 years and older
Sandwich Only
Contact Coach Jens to register on jenshiestermann@aol.com.
Snack and Sandwich
Breakfast & Sandwich
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Igniting Minds
Early Years 1 & 2, KG
Grades 1-5
Grades 6-11
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Impacting Lives