Newsletter of International School Suva
The last day for our IB students
Ta l a n o a Counselors Corner
08 August, 2014
Volume 5
Do you remember your last day at school? It is such a significant event and yet the IB examinations which begin today are the focus and for most of our Year 12 students leaving school does not seem quite real yet. It
25 May 2012
Electronic copy available at http://www.international.school.fj/docs/talanoa.pdf Electronic copy available at http://www.international.school.fj/docs/talanoa.pdf
Volume 8
Inside This Issue: * Principal’s Report * Year 7 Camp Experience * ISS Nets take to nationals
* Primary Perspective * Advertisements * Fun Day Updates * Upcoming Events Term 3 * ISS Healthy Smart Choices Policy
Principal’s Report Dear Parents and Guardians, Welcome back to the third term of 2014 and the seventh issue of Talanoa. This term started with much excitement as we prepared for Fun Day. The day itself was a tremendous success and on behalf of the entire school community I thank Lydia Sprankle, Patricia Evers and their PTFA team for organising such a great day. Whilst we all experience the day and appreciate the many and diverse foods, activities and games on offer, of course this is not achieved without an enormous amount of hard work. The PTFA working with ISS’s Events and Marketing coordinator, Salote Narayan, make it look easy, but we all know how much time and effort is put in to make the day a hit. It remains the favourite day of the school year for many of the students and I know the upcoming period of reflection will focus on how to make it even better for next year. Earlier this term we said goodbye to Dinaulu Neilako and Mereoni Rosova, who both left ISS to take up positions in the UAE, and in their places we welcomed Chelsea Bulmer and Buffy Jack. Chelsea graduated from Ballarat University, Australia with a Bachelor of Primary Education in 2013. As a newly-qualified teacher she comes to ISS fresh with new ideas, enthusiasm and energy. Buffy, whilst graduating a few years earlier in 2008 with a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education from the Central Methodist University, comes with equal energy and enthusiasm. They are both welcome additions to our lower primary team. I also welcome David Bennet on to the staff of International School Suva. David has over 20 years teaching experience having qualified as a teacher in 1984 from the University of London. David has experience teaching middle and high school history and English and has been employed on a part-time basis to work with our second language students and lead our self-taught, first language programme. Secondary mathematics has also seen some staffing changes after the unexpected resignation of Ravinesh Chand to take up a position at USP. I would like to thank Sushita Sharma, Ashniel Bijay, Jeshneel Chandra and Megan Navunisaravi for stepping in to teach Mr Chand’s classes whilst a replacement is sought. Thanks also have to go to Carol Yao and Cynthia Chen who continue to teach middle school Chinese whilst we work on securing a permanent teacher for this position. Our building project continues to move on and the building is beginning to take shape. The second floor is about to go up and you can now begin to see what the final building will look like. The weather has been good and Ramesh Narayan, site foreman, and Ram Bali, internal project manager, are happy with the progress. This is all I need to know. I have learnt that when they are happy, I can be happy. Big decisions remain, however, and the burning question is ‘what colour?’ In addition to the new building we are also undertaking painting of some of the old buildings. The facilities committee of the school council has been discussing colours and as yet there is no consensus, what do you think? I am delighted to inform all bus users that the price of the school buses has been reduced from the beginning of this term. The full day, termly pass has been reduced to $170 and the one way, termly pass to $85.00. A casual pass has also been reduced to $2.50. Finally, the year 5s deserve a special mention. They are all in the middle of their exhibition research and preparation. This significant body of work marks the beginning of the end of their time in our primary school and their transition into the secondary school. They have a few weeks left before the exhibition presentation and I look forward to seeing all they have done.
Anna Marsden Principal
Year 7 Camp Experience We proceeded to the lovo making where the villagers taught us to sort leaves, scrape coconuts, wash cassava and much more. When our jobs were done we spent our free time horseback riding, swimming and enjoying entertainment in the form of Mr. Masonis and his tales. After a few hours of continued rain, the men uncovered the layers that blanketed the earthen oven and lovo was served. We returned to our tents which were now flooded. To brighten everything up, we built a humongous bonfire that burned bright and clear through the night, with flying sparks and licking flames. We returned to our tents and those of us whose tents were not completely flooded slept, whereas the others were moved to teachers’ tents which, for some amazing reason, were not flooded in the slightest bit. Everyone bubbled with excitement as we waited for the arrival of the bus that would take us to Narata Village. Farewells were said and kisses blown as we boarded the bus. It was a three hour long journey but nonetheless pleasant with singing, laughter and food. We stopped at the Korotogo Beach House to have lunch and to use the washroom. We continued on and after a while, stopped and walked to the village, lugging our bags along the dirt road. We were warmly welcomed by the elders of the village and
We rose and awoke Mr. Mario to the sound of our glorious voices singing “Happy Birthday’, then had breakfast and decided that it was time to start packing up. We walked up to the village, laid our bags down and played games while waiting for the bus. Mr. Masonis also revealed his talent as a skilled guitarist and vocalist. The bus arrived and all of a sudden it was time to go!
the Sevusevu ceremony took place. We set up our tents and wandered around admiring the scenery; we had a much needed dip in the cool refreshing river, and played and threw sand at each other….until the crisis took place where Angela Hui foolishly dropped her camera in the water, but it was soon found by Antonia. After that we held a campfire competition which was won by the boys who had cleverly used rocks. These campfires were what we prepared our food on and with full bellies we once again wandered around watching the horses race. When it was dark we gathered once more and Mr Masonis told us a tale of Spiderman - not the hero you know of but rather a twisted, evil creature of the darkness. After a game of hide and seek in the dark with teachers, we retreated to our tents and slept. That was the first day. We awoke to the calls of Mr Masonis at six o’clock in the morning. Guided by Rex one of the villagers, we trekked through the bush and up hills munching on sugar cane we found on the way. Sweaty and exhausted we returned and prepared a simple breakfast, we then changed into swimmers and had a dip. We made lunch and before long it began to pour.
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We said our ‘goodbyes’, loaded the bus and left with Robert and Vuki who had been our helpful guides. We sped back to International School Suva and went our separate ways as we all needed our refreshing showers. Lilieta Soakai and Hana Fuji-Bennet A few comments from students Hana Orimoto-Etheridge: “ At camp, we did lots of great activities such as swimming in the river, horse riding, making cooking fires and going hiking.” Isabel : “The first day of camp, when we just got of the bus, we had the ‘asking ceremony’ and the people from the village asked their ancestors if we could camp near the village.” Patresio: “I really enjoyed our camp at the village. The villagers were so kind to us and helpful. The camp was awesome, not forgetting the horseback ride.” Tom: “ Camp was wet, it was cold and it was fun ! We did a walk that showed us the ‘Sigatoka salad bowl’, we did a hide and seek game, we had a huge bonfire and roasted marshmallows.” Disoro: “ I had the best time in camp. The part that I thought I hated was when we hiked in the morning but afterwards I felt energized and it was a very pretty view.”
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The team has been training and learning the rules and technical side of the sport since Term 2. They will have three more training sessions and some matches against a Suva Menz team to help with their preparation towards the Nationals next week. It has truly been exciting working with these young men and seeing the explosive skills in netball being displayed. On behalf of the ISS NETS and Management Team, I would like to rally the support of the ISS Community at the Fiji Secondary Schools’ National Competitions next week. ISS NETS are our Menz netball team that consists of Finally, to our ISS NETS, we wish you all the very best students from the ages of 12 to 19. Our young men for the Nationals. Thank you for making us proud! have enjoyed a very successful Zone-season performance with exceptional victories against Ratu Sukuna Memorial School and Marist Champagnat Institute. As the teacher in charge of netball, it has truly been an inspiring experience to have the interest of very talented sportsmen. The objective for having a Menz team was to encourage the sport, boost the interest and to have the players enjoy a very fast and physical game. The ISS NETS went on to display more than what the Team Management had expected. This year is the first year that an International School Netball team has not only won the Suva Zone 1 Menz Finals but has also qualified for the Fiji Secondary Schools’ National Competitions on August 14th and 15th at the National Netball Centre in Suva. Our young men achieved this through their very convincing win in the Suva Zone 1 finals against Ratu Sukuna Memorial School, 13 points to 5. This has boosted the interest of the sport in the school as we are proud to celebrate the commitment and talent of our young men in a usually female-dominated sport. The ISS NETS are coached by Mr. Fesaitu Mario and myself. The players consist of Joshua Uluiviti (Captain), Jacob Waqanivalu (V/Captain), Saimoni Navunisaravi, Samuela Bola, Timoci Ravouvou, Brady Boehm, Waisea Jikoiono, Zane Elias, Mohammed Uzair Aktar, Inigo Lavina Gonzalez, Etuate Kasami, Josaia Matthews and Joseph Bennion. Teacher in Charge - Ms. Tanya Vatubua
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Primary Perspective It hardly feels like we have been on holidays. Week 4 has already ended and we are close to being halfway through our term 3 already. Once again, busy times in primary, with preparations for Fun Day being a major focus and many year levels already heading out on excursions and camps. Our focus attribute for the next few weeks is Independence. Within the Talanoa this week, you will find the usual information sheet to support discussions with your children on this attribute. Teachers will be busy trying to ‘catch’ students out being independent within the classroom and out in the playground. As each week passes, another class or single subject webpage is completed and published. Each class or year level is doing a wonderful job in developing their pages. Have you checked out the primary webpage lately? Please do, there’s much to see and read about. Let us know what you think! Our athletics program for Year 1 to Year 5 students is currently underway in Mr Waqa’s HPE classes and we are very excited about our upcoming athletics carnival at the ANZ stadium on Thursday, week 7. Details regarding the athletics carnival will be emailed to all parents and caregivers as the even approaches. We will once again encourage parents to help us out at the carnival. We are sure that Mr Waqa will find a job for you to do and at the same time you can enjoy the carnival spirit and watch your children compete. We have welcomed two new teachers this term with the departure of two of our longstanding teachers, Ms Rosova and Ms Di. Miss Chelsea (from Australia) is our new Reception teacher and Ms Buffy (from USA), our Year 1 teacher. It is wonderful to have two enthusiastic teachers join our ISS primary staff and community. We look forward to working with you both! Primary assemblies occur each Friday, except for our two whole school assemblies which are always Week 5 and Week 10 of the school term.
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We welcome all parents to join us at these assemblies where you will enjoy class presentations, singing (and sometimes dancing), award presentations and birthday greetings. They begin at 8.15 and generally run no later than 9. We look forward to seeing more of you in the crowd next week! Next week is our whole school Humanitarian Assembly with Year 2 featuring in the festivities. Whole school assemblies are a little later, starting at 9.20. Thank you to all of our parents who contributed towards the recent success of our PTFA fun day. Your help and contributions through MUFTI collections each week was extraordinary. It was a super, ‘FUN’ day! Thank you PTFA for planning such a great day out for all of us. Recently, you would have all received an email regarding our revised Intervention Program. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact me or Ms Inga/Mr James, our coordinators of the program. Included in this month’s Talanoa is ISS’ newly developed framework, ‘Healthy Smart Choices’. Please take the time to read this policy and if you have any feedback, we welcome that also. It is a step in the right direction to becoming a ‘healthier’ school. It was developed by the canteen committee over the past 12 months and is based upon much research from other international schools and Fiji’s rules and regulations regarding healthy canteens. We also thank parents for their contributions towards this framework. A great team effort! Teachers continue to learn about differentiation in the classrooms in their professional learning sessions. This learning will enable teachers to embed these practices within planning for all students in their classroom. Implementation of these strategies is integral in the success of our new intervention framework. If you would like to know more about ‘differentiation’, ask any one of us. We are becoming quite the experts! Primary Press is coming your way at the end of Week 6. Watch your email inboxes for loads of year level and single subject updates! Finally, I would like to thank the parents who sent well wishes my way during my recent back surgery and rehabilitation in Australia. Karen (Head of Primary)
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UPCOMING EVENTS Term 3 Week 05
Week 07
Week 08
Tuesday, August 12 ICAS Maths
Monday, August 25 Mock IB/IGCSE exams continue Year 8 Camp
Monday, September 1 ISS Go Green day
Thursday, August 14 National Netball Championships 4pm Governance Friday, August 15 National Netball Championships Humanitarian Day Assembly
Week 06 Wednesday, 20 August
Primary Tadra Kahani Year8 SS excursion Thursday, 21 August
Tuesday, August 26 Year 8 SS Excursion (whole day) Wednesday, August 27 PTFA Meeting Thursday, August 28 Athletics Carnival 4pm Facilities Blood Drive Friday, August 29 Assembly - Year 4
4.30pm Human Resources Friday, 22 August Assembly - Reception Mock IB/IGCSE exams begin YC update
Tuesday, 2 September AST Exams Wednesday, September 3 Year 3 Camp AST Exams Thursday, September 4 ECH Fathers’ Day Breakfast Reception Glow in the Dark Evening Year 3 Camp 4pm Finance 5pm Council Friday, September 5 Year 3 Camp Assembly - Fijian Studies Talanoa Saturday, September 6 Plugged in
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