Volume 5 Newsletter of International School Suva Dear Parents and Guardians,
16 August, 2017
Principal’s Report Inside this Issue
Our year is more than half finished and much has happened. First of all, I am here as the new Principal of ISS writing you my first Principal’s Report. My wife Paula and I are delighted to be in the ISS community enjoying all it has to offer. Our welcome has been first rate with everyone being helpful and generous to a fault! I am proud to call Fiji my new home and International School Suva my new opportunity to make the world better! Thank you all for making this possible. We have several other new staff who deserve welcomes, but I will just highlight our new Head of Primary, Rebecca Clentworth, who has joined us from China. She is a veteran of Primary leadership with more than ten years of administrative experience, and everyone who has met her knows she is also a pleasant and positive presence in the school. She is also an IB Primary Years Program expert who will ensure our continuous student-centered improvement. Please take time to get to know her.
Principal’s Report Chair of Council Family Movie Night Nurse Article Counselors Corner
We are dedicated to making ISS a top school with student learning a priority. I hope every parent and child at ISS senses that our success is measured by the overall success of our students more than CAS- DIY – Group anything else. We are not content with any student failing to succeed and will work to make sure that does not happen. International Our facilities continue to improve with the new turf play area added and a new play structure being installed as I write this. The Primary Think Tank is now an attractive local landmark and the new larger playing field is being constructed for use later in the year. As with all our school facilities, they tend to be busy places that add to our children’s learning opportunities. Finally, as we begin our planning for next year, I invite parents to take time to give me feedback about the school. I always assume I can improve over time, but I do not always know what my priorities should be. Of course, I am always willing to hear good things that our staff make happen and will try to recognize our successes when I am aware of them. I plan to post a virtual “suggestion box” soon, so you may use that if you are too busy to stop by. Best wishes! I think ISS is a warm educational family and that your children should feel safe and supported here. Please help us build on that by talking to your teachers constructively, attending events, and sharing your time. Sincerely, Steve Cathers
Mindedness
Kaji Rugby Soccer Competition Travel & Tourism Funday Photos Term Dates 2018 Upcoming Events
ISS Council Note from the Chair:
We have two vacant positions on Council currently. Currently Council has 6 elected parents, 2 staff (elected by the Staff Association) and 1 alumni rep, giving us total of 9 council members. Per our Articles we need 8 to form a quorum. Our Articles of Association (Article 36) we can appoint from the association people to hold those seats until the next AGM, at which time an election will be held for those positions. Council would like to invite any Association members who would like to join Council to send a 150 word biography to our email address by August 17th : council@international.school.fj
Articles of Association Review. The governance sub-committee will be working on a review of our Articles of Association. Council is inviting people who have experience in governance and some spare time to volunteer to join the Governance Sub-committee for the review. If you are interested please send a brief (150 word) summary of your experience in this area to the Chair of Governance, Kate Davey: kateandbaby@gmail.com. Please send any expressions of interest by August 17th.
Two resignations were tabled and accepted at the July Council meeting. Council would like to thank Mark Halabe and Indira Sharma for their time on ISS Council, 8 years and 3 years respectively.
Siobhan Sinclair Chair of Council
International Day of Family Movie Night Hi everyone, Year 7 and Year 4S are hosting a family movie night on Friday, August 18 (please see the flyer posted in this Talanoa). Originally we were to host the International Day of Family whole school assembly that was scheduled for the same day, but this has since been changed to a family night. To celebrate the concept of family, we wanted to host an event in which all families (mums, dads, grandparents, and children) could attend. We would like to invite all our ISS families from ECH to Year 12 to our family movie night. Year 7 and 4S will be presenting an item to kick-start the evening; however, we are looking for interested families who may like to also perform a family act as part of our entertainment program. Please contact one of the Year 7 teachers (Ms. Shelly or Mr. Ludher) or Ms. Bulai of 4S if you are keen to be a part of the live entertainment part of our evening. There will be limited food on sale (sausage sizzle, snacks and drinks), but we do encourage each family to bring their own picnic dinner to enjoy while watching the movie. The suggested program: 6.00pm Arrive and set-up picnic area 6.10pm Live entertainment (Yr 7, Yr 4S, family acts) 6.30pm Movie (The Incredibles as it centers around a family of superheroes) & dinner 8.30pm Pack-up and home We look forward to seeing your there. Kind regards Ryan Ludher & Shelly Forbes & Litiana Bulai Year 7 Teachers & Year 4S Teacher
SCHOOL NURSE NEWS AND NOTES 10 Tips for Excellent Inhaler Technique 1. Stand up. 2. Use a full inhaler. 3. Shake the inhaler before you use it. 4. Look straight ahead. 5. Use a spacer. 6. One breath per puff. 7. Don't let your tongue or teeth get in the way. 8. Keep a good seal with your lips. 9. Aim the inhaler at the back of the throat.
Children with asthma using inhalers incorrectly The number of children diagnosed with Asthma increases each year. Although many use an inhaler to assist in keeping their airways open, experts agree that most children are not using correct technique resulting in reduced/insufficient effect of medication. Use of a spacer, for all age groups, is current best practice. Without it, 80% of inhaler medication settles in the mouth and never gets to the lungs where it is needed. It is vital for parents to have a GP or respiratory health professional evaluate their child’s inhaler technique. Often times, increased medications are prescribed in instances of poorly controlled Asthma. However, effective use of inhalers with the correct medications at the lowest dose possible has been shown to dramatically reduce symptoms of Asthma.
Important dates: https://www.asthma.org.uk/advice/inhalers-medicinesreatments/using-inhalers/
End Term 3
22/9/17
Start Term 4
11/10/17
https://www.nationalasthma.org.au/living-with-asthma/ resources/health-professionals/charts/inhaler-techniquechecklists
Family Day Assembly
18/8/17
Fathers Day
01/9/17
Constitution Day
07/9/17
J. Barons (RN)
Public Holiday
Bula everyone! Term 3 is already off to a busy start… this term is considered one of the busiest and most stressful of terms. This is especially so for students that are preparing for external examinations and the Year 12s have the added pressure of applying for tertiary education. Sometimes, everything can get a bit too much. Below are some TIPS that may help in reducing undue stress:
Create a Daily Plan- Plan your day before it unfolds. Do this in the morning or at night before you sleep. The plan gives you an overview of how your day will pan out. Your job for the day is to stick to the plan as best as possible.
Use a Diary/Calendar/Organizer- this will help you to keep on top of everything in your life. It’s your central tool to organize all the activities and assignments that need to be done.
Know Your Deadlines- Mark the deadlines out clearly on your Diary/ Calendar/Organizer so you know when you need to finish them.
Learn to Say “No”- Don’t take on more that you can handle. Stick with your plans and defer items that will interrupt your plans to a later period.
Focus- Are you multi-tasking so much that you are just not getting anything done? If so, focus on just one key task at a time.
Block out Distractions- What is distracting you in your work? Instant messages? Phone ringing? Your friends chatting? When doing planned work, block out these distractions, this helps you to concentrate better.
Don’t Fuss about Unimportant Details- You are never going to get everything done in exactly the way that you want and trying to do so is sometimes ineffective. Do the best you can.
Prioritize- Since you can’t do everything; learn to prioritize the important and let go of the rest. CAREER TALKS A series of 8 Career Talks is scheduled to begin; Wednesday 16 August, during lunch break. We are indeed grateful to the professionals who have volunteered to come and chat with students about the career fields that they work in and guide students in their quest towards meaningful career opportunities. WORK EXPERIENCE The Year 10s and Year 11 ACT students have started preparing themselves for the Work Experience Program. This program is scheduled for Friday 24 November to Friday 1 December, which is a total of six working days. Work Experience is an opportunity for students to get a sense of what the real world of work is like. It is anticipated that the students will find work placements in fields where their career interests lie. During work experience, students are able to:
Witness first-hand what happens in a typical day on the job, thus receiving realistic ideas of the positive and negative components of a job which helps them make a more informed choice when it comes to career planning. Meet people at their work placements and be able to ask questions, such as what they like best about their job, how they ended up in their line of work, and what qualifications they have. Learn about related careers in the same field, which could give you more ideas about what kind of career they may want to go into.
Please, do let us know should you have work experience opportunities that you can offer to our students. Let us enjoy whatever this term has in store for us and remember to practice good time management skills, in order to minimize the stress that comes along with a busy term. morning Motivation When I woke up this morning lying in bed, I was asking myself, What are some of the secrets of success in life? I found the answer right there, in my very room. The Fan said…… Be Cool The Roof said…… Aim High The Window said…… See the World The Clock said…… Every minute is Precious The Mirror said…… Reflect before You Act The Calendar said…… Be Up-to-date The Door said…… Push Hard for Your Goals Fenella David School Counsellor fdavid@international.school.fj
Title: CAS- DIY Group We developed our group with the initiative of helping those that are less fortunate in society and to do the best we could to make a change in their lives. Hence, we came up with the idea of creating hair bows with the intention of donating all profits to charity. We aimed to collect a total of $500 by the end of the year. This activity was no easy task. Initially, we had pretty low efficiency as for most of us, this was a completely new skill to learn and master. There were times where some of us had our fingers burned by the hot glue gun and when our products weren’t up to our expectations. However, with an intention of helping people as much as possible, we overcame these obstacles and were soon on the right track and were able to carry out our individual tasks in a more time efficient manner. Every Thursday afternoon, we got together in the library and began making hair bows straight away. Due to our wise management of time, we usually made 10-15 hair bows every afternoon. As a result of our hard work and commitment, we managed to produce 52 hair bows before Fun Day. Each of us did our very best; we created our own cards for each of the bows with the appropriate designs and labeling. Furthermore, we planned a promotion strategy by designing posters and put them up as a form of advertising in the school.
Finally, during the school’s Fun Day we managed to successfully sell off all the hair bows for a total of $260! This was definitely higher than we had expected. We were more than delighted and felt extremely proud of ourselves to have known that our hard work had paid of. However, this did not necessarily mean the end of our activity for this experience motivated us to strive harder in achieving our goals. Hence, we are also planning to have our products sold at the Roc Market, as well as create Halloween-inspired hair accessories for the upcoming Halloween Social. During the past few months of participating in the CAS program, we learnt that one does not have to be a millionaire to make a significant difference; even small donations have the potential to drastically improve an individual’s quality of life. Having said all these, we would like to end with an inspirational quote by Mother Teresa who once said that, “Charity is not about how much we give but how much love we put into giving.”
International-Mindedness As educators we must have a long-term vision of education, a set of principles that inspires, motivates and focuses our learning and teaching which we actively promote in all facets of our lives. A complementary set of goals that are explicit and detailed, that provide a road map of values and characteristics which our children will be able to uphold all their lives is important. We as educators must also uphold these characteristics, value and feel they are imperative for our children to be the lifelong learners that they will need to be in order to be happy, healthy and safe in their lives. At ISS we value an international education and are committed to developing internationally-minded students. We achieve this by actively promoting the learner profile throughout our school and community. The learner profile provides us with this long-term vision of internationalism for our students. We strive for students to be knowledgeable in different learning areas; make connections across those learning areas and access knowledge quickly. Solve personal, local and global problems effectively, which will inevitably be complex and trans disciplinary in nature. Be curious about everything in the world around them and to use that curiosity to inquire, to ask the difficult and the awkward questions and persist including the answers. Be able to think for themselves with confidence, to analyze and synthesize information and then be able to discriminate between what is good or bad, right or wrong. Communicate effectively, with sensitivity, clarity and conviction, in more than one language, with people from diverse cultures with diverse ways of thinking. Have the desire to know about and understand the lives, beliefs and thoughts of others, which will help them understand the basis for their own thoughts and beliefs. Be prepared to be bold in their thinking and be prepared to make mistakes, knowing that mistakes can lead to greater understanding. Be able to put themselves in other people’s shoes; they should be prepared to act to change what is wrong. Value their own lives and live them thoughtfully, reflectively and with integrity. I encourage you to ask your child how they show the IB learner profile attributes in their lives. Rebecca Clentworth Head of Primary
PYP Exhibition 2017 This semester in Year 5 we have been focusing on the PYP Exhibition. Exhibition is when students pick a focus area to do with the Central Idea and they find out more about it. Exhibition is what we have been leading up to from our earliest primary years in ECH 1 from this school or others. After 7 weeks of herd work we present to family, friends, other schools and people who have helped us throughout the process. We have to create our key concept questions, research and answer them, write a report, make a survey, make handouts, take action and much more. We have mentors to guide us through the process as extra support. We find Exhibition fun but sometimes very stressful. It is a hard-working process but eventually it pays off when we present it to the community. By Milla, Maira and Myah
KAJI RUGBY COMPETITION 2017 The ISS rugby program affiliated with the Suva Kaji Rugby Association in 2017. Three grades took part in the weekly competitions: Under 9, Under 10 and Under 11. The ISS boys really enjoyed participating this year. The Under 9 and 10 partnered with Stella Maris School and the under 11 with Assembly of God Primary School. We are very pleased with the overall results of the competition. The Under 10 just missed out in the Cup semi-final and the Under 9 & 11 made it all the way through just losing out in the Cup final. Big CONGRATULATIONS to four of our boys for having been selected to represent the Suva Team in the Galaxy Kaji Rugby Competition later this year. Hats off to Archie Wyley(Under 9), Christian Faletau(Under10) as well as Chris Milthrope and Jack Cartmells(Under 11). We are looking forward to even more of our ISS boys being a part of the Suva Team in future!
SOCCER COMPETITION 2017 Our school took part in the Suva Primary Schools soccer competition throughout Term 2 and just had the Finals last week. We were very thankful to the organizers for considering our holidays and moving our games forward to this term. We fielded two teams, an under-12 and under-10 boys’ team. Our under-12 team played well but took an unlucky draw and did not make it through to the Semi-finals. We congratulate our under-10 teams for their effort and bravery. They gave it their all and were able to fight their way through. They were 1st place winners in the end beating the team that beat them in the pool games by accurate penalty kicks during the finals. Congratulations to Varun Erasmus and Atabek Burkhanov for scoring a goal each in the penalty kicks in the Semifinals and the Final. Well done to the Man of the Moment, Henrix Jensen for stopping all the penalty kicks, not a single ball got past him! Three of our students were selected to represent the Suva team to the Southern Zone Inter-primary School Competition. They are Joseva Baleiveicau, Mohammed Salim and Atabek Burkhanov. Congratulations to all players for their effort, input and skills, helping their under-10 team win the competition. Go ISS!
ATHLETICS CARNIVAL 2017 The Primary Athletics Carnival is an annual event where students look forward to having time out from academics to showcase their athletic skills of running, jumping and throwing. These are the skills that students have been learning in PSPE throughout this term. It is also a time for teachers to identify and appreciate students with these skills and help develop them, preparing for future competitions. Our annual athletics carnival was met with a very beautiful and sunny day after experiencing heavy rain just days before the carnival. The carnival involved students from Reception through Year 5. Reception and Year 1 students competed in the slalom relay on the track and the Formula 10 competition was held on the Hockey turf. Year 2 to Year 5 students battled it out in the several events including; 50m, 75m 100m and the 800m, the cricket and softball throwing events as well as the long and high jump. Students really enjoyed themselves, not only showing off their athletics skills but also applying some of the trans-disciplinary skills throughout the day as well as demonstrating many of the personal attitudes we value.
Travel and Tourism Field Trip to GPH On Monday the 31st of August the Year 9 and 10 IGCSE Travel and Tourism students went offsite for a visit to the Grand Pacific Hotel. Here they were provided with a guided tour from the lovely guest services officer, Storm, who took them through the hotel and its facilities. Students were able to explore everything from the outdoor facilities to the function rooms and the amazing heritage Queen Elizabeth Suite, which was a big highlight for the students. Students were able to ask questions about the rooms and facilities, the customer service and how to handle and resolve conflict situations. This directly relates to parts 1, 3 and 4 of their IGCSE Travel and Tourism course and the real-world example helps students to make concrete and lasting connections between the theory and practice of travel and tourism. Below are some excerpts from student reflections on the experience: “The pieces kind of came together when we went to the GPH, because I could visually see how things work, which was helpful because the things we learned in class applied to the work and facilities we were shown.” Esther yr 10 “I learned about their personal presentation, which was very good, how their uniforms, make- up and hair should be, in order to meet the standards.” Disoro yr 10 ”I really enjoyed the trip to the GPH as I was able to see the concept of „prestige pricing‟ in action.” Nicola yr 10
INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL SUVA World Class Citizens ~ Lifelong Learners
TERM DATES 2018 Term 1 (10 weeks) Tuesday16th January 2018 Thursday 18th January 2018 Tuesday 23rd January 2018 Thursday 29th March 2018 Friday 30th March 2018
New teachers start All teachers start Students start Term ends Good Friday
Term 2 (10 weeks) Teachers and Y11 and Y12 ACT students start All Students start. Term ends National Sports day
Monday 16th April 2018 Tuesday 17th April 2018 Friday 22nd June 2018 Friday 29 June 2018
Term 3 (10 weeks) Teachers start Teachers, Y11 and Y12 ACT students start All Students start Constitution Day – Public Holiday Term ends
Monday 16th July 2018 Tuesday 17th July 2018 Wednesday 18th July 2018 Friday 7 September 2018 Friday 21st September 2018
Term 4 (9 weeks) Teachers start Students start Fiji Day – Public Holiday Diwali Prophet Muhammad’s birthday Term ends for students Term ends for Teachers
Monday 8th October 2018 Tuesday 9th October 2018 Wednesday 10thOctober 2018 Wed 7 November 2018 Monday 19 November 2018 Thursday 6th December 2018 Friday 7th December 2018
Upcoming Events Term 3 Week 5 - Week 10 T3 Week 5 Monday, August 14 Netball Competition (Fiji Secondary Schools National Competition) U-19 Girls / Open Boys Tuesday, August 15 ICAS Maths Thursday, August 17 Council Meeting Friday, August 18 Movie Night (for families) T3 Week 6 Monday, August 21 PYP Evaluation Visit 21-25 August T3 Week 7 Monday, August 28 Mock Examinations Year 10 IGCSE Year12 IB Diploma
T3 Week 8 Tuesday, September 5 AST Final Examinations Wednesday, September 6 AST Final Examinations Thursday, September 7 Public Holiday - Constitution Day Friday, September 8 Talanoa issued T3 Week 9 Monday, September 11 Year 12 Outdoor Education Camp Monday-Wednesday Wednesday, September 13 Science Fair Middle School Science fair Thursday, September 14 Science Fair Middle School Science fair Arts Evening T3 Week 10 Monday, September 18 Year 11 Camp MondayWednesday Friday, September 22 Term Ends