The ISL Headlines - September 2014

s e n i l d a e H The ISL From the Head of School : Mr. Martin Gough “Striving for Excellence”

Important Dates Yr 6 Tree Tops Trip

8th Sep

ISL PTA Welcome Braii

12th Sep

Yr 7 Wild Tracks Trip

15th Sep

Staff Devel- 19th Sep opment Day– No Students

Contents Head of School

1

Board Chair

2

Primary

3

Upper Primary

4

Secondary

5

IGCSE/IB

6

Sports/ Community news

7

September 2014

Whether you are a new or returning student, teacher or parent, I would like to welcome you to the new school year 2014-15.

We are already into the second full week of term and school is busy and buzzing as always.

If you have been in school you will have noticed that we have been quite busy upgrading various parts of the school. 5 toilet blocks have been totally gutted and upgraded with completely new sanitary ware and new tiled floors and walls. I know from feedback that the students have told parents about the new facilities and appreciate the more hygienic and attractive bathrooms. At the same time, we converted some extra, very decrepit toilet spaces into offices for the IBDP Coordinator and Secondary School Guidance Counsellor; they are now both located opposite the library entrance in a location that is much more accessible to secondary students. Various other areas were upgraded including three social studies classrooms and also the admissions office.

As well as the renovations, there has been some other important activity regarding school redevelopment. A group of architects, engineers and quantity surveyors spent several weeks in July surveying the whole school campus to review the present state of the buildings and infrastructure and start the process of planning and costing redevelopment of the facilities. This redevelopment is essential given the advanced age and poor condition of a number of our facilities. The next stage will be to consider which project to prioritize and how to fund the improvements. This is likely to be a long term process that will take years to complete. However, the school has made a start and we hope to continue moving forward with the planning this year.

I would like to welcome the new teachers who joined us in August. They have all got off to a great start at ISL. I have heard plenty of positive comments from them about the pleasant and cooperative students and the welcome they have received. The new teachers are: Arbory McNulty – Primary Class Teacher Anna Lantink – Primary Class Teacher Rima Choudhuri – Primary Class Teacher Tessa Van Aardt – Primary Class Teacher Ackim Kaseya – Primary French Teacher Stephen Powell – Secondary Maths Teacher Cherry Gough – Secondary English Teacher Courtney Nicoletti – Secondary Art Teacher Abigail Petit – Secondary Drama Teacher Leah Rapaport – Secondary Guidance & University Counsellor Nathanja Meyer – ESL Teacher Fiona Munro – Learning Support Teacher Please do take the time to drop in and meet the new teachers or, alternatively, catch up with them at the PTA Back to School Braai at 1700 on Friday 12th September in the open amphitheatre near the secondary carpark.

Whether you are new to ISL or have been here for a while, welcome – we wish your children a happy but challenging school year.

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Message From The Board Chairman—Mr Martin Pikira ISL is one of the oldest schools in the region, and is committed to the development of students who are openminded, balanced, environmentally conscious and principled citizens of the world who will strive for excellence and cherish life-long learning. As parents of ISL students, I am sure we are all proud of the school our children are going to.

The Board of Governors are elected members of ISL community who serve as the Executive Committee of the Association. The current Board was elected at the ISL Association Annual General Meeing in June 2014 and is composed of:

Name

Position

E-mail Address

Martin Pikira

Board Chairperson

Islboardchair@gmail.com

Anitha Menon

Board Vice Chairperson

martinpik@hotmail.co.uk anithamenon667@hotmail.co

Ken Simwaba

Board Member, Chair Finance & Human Resources, Vice Chair Estates & Projects

ken@mfinance.co.zm

Musapenda Phiri Lav Khetrepal

Board Member, Chair Policy, Planning & IT

musapendajp@yahoo.co.uk

Board Member, Chair Estates & Projects

fca.lkp@gmail.com

Elizabeth Jere

Board Member, Chair Marketing

elizabethjere@gmail.com

Selby Lane

Board member, Vice Chair Finance & Human Resources Board Member, Vice Chair Policy, Planning & IT Board Member, Vice Chair Marketing

SLane@barrick.com

Raphael Njoroge Michael Bentley

r_njoroge@hotmail.com sales@actionauto.co.zm

The Board carries out many of its activities through Board Committees (Finance, Policy & Planning, Marketing, and Estates & Projects) which address different aspects of the School. These committees also include parents and teachers as well as board members.

Support from parents is essential to efficiently carry out the mandate of the committees and therefore parents are strongly encouraged to join the committee of their interest. If you need to find out more about any of the committees, please get in touch with the Chair or Vice- Chair of the Committees.

I look forward to the support of the ISL community in all the activities of the School.

Martin Pikira ISL Board Chair 2014-15

ry

Prima

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Message from the Primary Principal: Mr. Bowen

The Primary School is already in full flow with the annual Year 6 Treetops trip about to set off next week. We have some new faces among the teaching personnel in the Primary and I will take the opportunity to give them brief introductions. Please take the time to find them and introduce yourselves and welcome them to the PYP Programme.

Year 6 Teacher – Anna Lantink (Holland) is not new to Zambia having taught in the Lusaka Dutch School for a few years.

Year 4 Teacher – Arbury Mc Nulty (Scotland) knows the school well as she is a parent of 4 ISL students.

Year 3 Teacher – Rima Choudhuri (India) has joined our Year 3 team with a wealth of teaching experience behind her.

Year 1 Teacher – Tessa van Aardt (Zambia), is a long time Zambian hand who has taught in several Lusaka schools.

Primary French – Ackim Kaseya (Zambia) has actually been at ISL for several years already working in the Learning Support department. Now he takes on our Primary French.

I have been lucky enough to meet most of you already this year through the new look Open House sessions that we have been holding at school this year. If you do have something you wish to talk to me or a teacher about please do not hesitate to call me on 0977606567 and we can arrange a time to meet.

There will be more from me in future editions but for now, read on and hear what Mrs Nair (PYP Coordinator), Mrs Kambeu (Upper Primary) and Miss Karen (Early Years) have to say.

From the Early Years Coordinator: Mrs Karen Hedstrom I would like to take this opportunity to welcome all parents and students to what promises to be another exciting year in the Early Years. An extra special welcome to our new families and especially our brave little ones in Nursery, who have taken the giant step into „big school‟.

I am delighted to report that all the children seem to have settled in well and are back into the swing of the school routine. We hope you enjoyed attending the Open House and found it to be an informative morning. It was lovely seeing so many parents attend. Please feel free to pop in and see your child‟s teacher should you have any further questions.

For those of you who may not have made it to the Open House I would like to go through a couple of important reminders.

The official starting and ending time of the school day in the Early Years is different in each Year, please ensure you are aware of the times. We strongly encourage you to drop off and collect your children on time.

As the weather begins to warm up I would like to remind you of the NO HAT NO PLAY policy. Please ensure to send in a clearly labeled hat that can be left at school.

We are encouraging healthy snacks so please don‟t send in any sweets, chocolates or fizzy drinks.

Please label all items sent to school, especially P.E shirts.

Thank you and good luck for the year!

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Message from the PYP Coordinator: Mrs Sunita Nair “Welcome on board the ISL bandwagon” to all our new families and a “Very warm welcome back” to our returning families. It is wonderful to see all of you this academic year and we hope to have many more opportunities during the year to meet, discuss and share ideas, thoughts and experiences.

I must say, we have started school with a BANG- an introductory workshop for new parents in the first week of school and Open House on different days for the various grade levels. “THANK YOU” to all parents who attended and showed a keen interest in their child‟s education. Your response made our day! We do have other opportunities for parents to attend PYP workshops during the academic year and we will keep you posted via emails and notice boards. You would not want to miss these as they are fun and help us learn together and understand each other! We look forward to seeing you.

We are currently going through a five year review process with our Primary Years Programme, a requirement from the IBO (International Baccalaureate Organisation). We hope to complete our self -study by December and expect visitors from the IBO into school by March 2015.

This process helps our school introspect and reflect on our programme (eg: curriculum, resources, philosophy, teaching and learning, etc.) and consider and develop ways and means to further improve the programme.

Once again- good to see you all and wishing your children and you another wonderful year at ISL!

UPPER PRIMARY: Mrs. Grace Kambeu I would like to welcome you all to the new school year. It has been lovely to see so many familiar faces. We also warmly welcome our new teachers, parents and children joining from different schools and countries.

We are pleased to have the following teachers join the Upper Primary team: Mrs. R Choudhuri in Year 3, Mrs. A Mc Nulty teaching Year 4 and Ms. A Lantink up in Year 6.

We are all looking forward to a busy and productive year of learning and fun in Upper Primary!

As usual Year 6 students will be zooming off to Treetops from the 8th September to 5th.

Last week, House Captain Elections were held and it was good to see Year 6 students participate in the process. Well done to all the students who took part in the campaigns and presented thoughtful and creative speeches to their houses. Although not all campaigns were successful, we hope the experience was a positive learning experience for everyone.

Watch out for our new house captains in the next newsletter and notice boards!

On a sad note, we are all saddened by the untimely death of Mr. Fred Chembo, a long serving teacher assistant in Upper Primary. He was a friend, colleague and a dedicated worker. The gap he has left in our department and in our hearts can only be filled by God Almighty. Our hearts feel for his children. MHSRIP.

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Secondary From the Secondary Principal: Mr. Mwanza Welcome back to the start of another school year. The students have had a busy and exciting one and half weeks settling in to their academic studies and choices of co-curricular afternoon activities. A special welcome is extended to Year 7 and all new students and their families that have joined us in the secondary school this year. For many of us in our stimulating profession, this is the very best time of the year – it is the time of new beginnings, opportunities and challenges. We are very proud of our school and the programmes we offer and hope that your child will take advantage of every chance to achieve success.

The faculty and I will do everything we can to see that this happens.

There will be new parent Handbooks which attempt to acquaint you with ISL by providing information which will give you a total picture of our programmes, facilities, administration and faculty. During the year, we expect to work together with you to ensure that your child receives the best education possible. We strongly believe that the process of educating a child involves the cooperative effort of parents and teachers. Please support your subject teachers and attend meetings.

Our first parent evening was for Year 7 parents held on Friday 29th August at 18 00 hr in the Fine Arts Centre. We thank all the parents that came and met with homeroom and subject teachers. For parents that could not make it, please make an effort to see the Junior Secondary School Coordinator, Mrs. Dodd, to be availed with an outline of the Year 7 curriculum. Similar meetings are planned for IGCSE and IB1 parents.

The performance of our examination classes in May/June this year was very good. We are proud of the achievement of our IB and IGCSE students and they deserve our congratulations. Details are given elsewhere in this bulletin by the programme coordinators.

From Junior Secondary School : Mrs.Dodd Welcome back to school everyone! A special welcome is extended to incoming Year 7 students, other new students and their parents. I hope this letter finds you and your family in good health after having enjoyed the long holidays.

Coming to a new school can be exciting and daunting, and there are ways parents can help make this move as smooth as possible.

As your child moves from primary to secondary school, homework will become more frequent and it may become harder, so please help your child at home by checking his/her journal daily. Also our time-table in Secondary can be confusing at first, so post their time-table in a central place and help them pack their bags for the first few weeks. Soon students will be offered lockers to avoid carrying tons of books around, so make sure to buy a padlock and give me a copy of their key. You can allow your child to have a phone so he/she can communicate with you during break and after school– however never bring expensive mobiles to school as ISL will not be held responsible for any loss or damages. If you have any queries or issues don‟t hesitate to contact me kdodd@islzambia.org I wish all our Junior Secondary students a wonderfully productive and successful year.

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From the IGCSE coordinator: Mr R Van de Velde A new school year with new faces and new challenges. I wish to welcome the new Year 10 students and hope they feel settled soon.

In the case a certain subject choice doesnâ€&#x;t turn out as expected, no worry, you can change your option within an option block, provided it is done before 26th of September 2014. Come and see me in Lab 3.

The sooner you make a change the better, otherwise you will lose some vital weeks of teaching in the newly chosen subject.

The Year 10 trip to Wildtracks (near Lower Zambezi) is in early October. You are kindly invited to a presentation by Wildtracks on Tuesday 2nd September 2014 at 1400 in the Fine Arts building for more info and the opportunity to ask questions about the trip. The current Year 11 students have their trip to Treetops in September 2014. Hopefully all students will sign up for these trips since they are an important part of their education. They involve team building, environmental awareness, field study and more.

The Year 11 group who sat exams last May/June didnâ€&#x;t manage to beat the excellent results of the previous year but still achieved 70% A* to C grades. Well done!

On Wednesday 24th of September there is a chance for the parents of new students in Year 10 and 11 to meet the teachers. I am looking forward to meeting you there.

I am also looking forward to an educational AND fun school year 2014-2015.

IB Corner! From Mr. Hearsum First of all I would like to offer my congratulations to the IB graduating class of 2014. They have received and accepted offers from some of the most prestigious universities around the world. As an open enrolment school our examination results were excellent. The average IB grade was 32 points (world average 29.9), with over 50% of our IB Diploma Programme students achieving 34.7 points and the top 30% students gaining an average of 36.6 points.

Furthermore I would like to congratulate seven members of the teaching faculty who are also IB examiners, for grading the work of over 4,000 students worldwide.

In August the new IB1 students went to Pioneer Camp to learn about the programme, team build and problem solve. All of the elements of the learner profile were in evidence and a great deal of fun was had by all. Now is the next stage as subject choices and HL/SL options are made. It is important to make an appointment with our counsellor Ms. Rapaport to discuss university requirements.

Currently IB2 are in the process of handing in first drafts of their extended essays. They are at a critical stage of the programme as deadlines for internal assessments are approaching.

Keep working hard!

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From the P.E Director—Mr. Todd Meyer A huge welcome to all students and parents. I trust you are all excited as the PE department is start another season of physical education and sport at ISL. We will be offering volleyball, basketball and swimming as our main competitive sports this term.

I would like to take this opportunity to explain why ISL values sport so highly. We strongly believe that a healthy, physically active student is more likely to be academically motivated, alert, and successful. Below is an extract of a recently publicized study which perfectly explains our values.

A study by psychology professor Art Kramer and his colleagues of the University of Illinois has found an association between physical fitness and the brain in 9- and 10-year-old children. Those who are more fit tend to have a bigger hippocampus. The hippocampus is a structure tucked deep in the brain and it is known to be important in learning and memory. The children who were in better physical condition did better on tests of relational memory – the ability to remember and integrate various types of information – than their less-fit peers.

The new findings suggest that interventions to increase childhood physical activity have an important effect on their brain development.

CASH BAR

ISL PTA WELCOME BRAII 12TH SEPTEMBER MUSIC

1700 HRS…….

CHILDREN’S MOVIE

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