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The International School of Samui Newsletter I S S U E
Important Dates
Thursday 12th February -
3
A C A D E M I C
Y E A R
2 0 1 4 / 2 0 1 5
ISS hosts its first FINATHON fundraiser
KG Carnival
Friday 13th February Chinese New Year Celebration
16th - 20th February Half Term Break
Friday 27th February Kindergarten Open Morning
Thursday 5th March World Book Day
Friday 6th March - Thai Food Cultural Day
9th March - 13th March Parent Meeting Week
16th March - 20th March Year 11 IGCSE Mock week
19th/ 20th March Primary Science Super Learning Days
Friday 27th March - PTA Quiz Evening
Wednesday 1st April PTA Easter Egg Hunt
Thursday 2nd April Songkran Day
Friday 3rd April - Primary Dance Competition
Friday 3rd April - School closes at 12:30pm for Songkran holiday
Monday 20th April School opens for Term 3
F E B R U A R Y
Since the Shark Guardian charity came to visit ISS, the children have been fascinated by sharks and it has left us all wanting to do more to help. The school has become FINatical about sharks and we wanted to join thousands of other people by swimming against finning, the process by which sharks are killed for their fins. Therefore our very first ISS FINathon took place on Friday 30th January 2015. Our challenge was to swim 2200 lengths or 55,000m (which is the same distance as one lap around Koh Samui) to raise awareness and much needed funds. All our students from Year 1 to Year 11 participated and were charged with raising their own sponsorship funds. The results were amazing... The day began with our youngest swimmers completing lengths of our dedicated small training pool and the finale of the day was a wonderful display by our school swim squad, ISS Sharks. We were also joined by swimmers from The Dive Academy Dive School, who participated on behalf of Project Aware. It was a wonderful day, in which our students all worked together and displayed many fantastic qualities that we are proud to promote here at ISS; teamwork, perseverance, dedication to name but a few… The final result of the day was absolutely breathtaking, as our children swum 5523 length, which is 138,075 metres. (over two laps around the whole of Koh Samui.) The students also managed to raise a staggering 121,335 THB , which we will be happily donating to the Shark Guardians and Project Aware charities. We are so proud of all of our students, and we would like to thank them and all the members of our community who helped make the event such a success and who helped support the children's efforts.
2 0 1 5
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The International School of Samui Newsletter
HM The King’s Birthday Celebration On Thursday 4th December we celebrated His Majesty The King’s birthday and Father’s day. This auspicious occasion was a wonderful chance to celebrate and pay tribute to His Majesty the King. Our celebrations began in our Kindergarten, where we welcomed a group of local Monks who hosted a blessing over all our students and their fathers. Within this special ceremony there were chances to share food, as well as a time for our younger students to present flowers and lots of cuddles to their fathers. During the day our students all deepened their knowledge about His Majesty The King and how Fathers Day is celebrated in Thailand. The closing ceremony of the day brought all our students together to pay tribute to His Majesty The King and to all their fathers. Parents, students and teachers all joined together to sing songs in Thai, read poems and to share in watching some of our students perform some amazing Thai dance performances. Our school Headmistress, Mrs Taylor Hawkins led the ceremony by paying her respects to King Bhumibol Adulyadej. Finally our students throughout the Primary and Senior Schools were given the opportunity to pay respect to their own fathers by handing over presents and beautiful flowers.
Miss Wakelin’s trip to Mae Sot Orphanages over the holidays Miss Louise Wakelin was volunteering over the Christmas holidays for a registered charity called Open Mind in Mae Sot, which is on the border to Myanmar. Children there are aged between 1 and 4 years and have lost their parents and families due to the Burmese crisis or from illness. Louise was helping them during their daily routines and taught them songs, read stories and experienced different orphanages around the area. During Louise’s presentation about her volunteer work in Mae Sot, she told of one orphanage, which was just a house with one bedroom, where over one hundred children are sleeping each night on the floor. We will be continuing to collect ongoing donations but the most needed items are mattresses and blankets. If you have any extra or clothes and toys, please be kind to drop them off with Louise. She will be sending parcels to Mae Sot frequently and you can see in the photos below how happy these little children were with the donations which came from some of our generous families. We would like to offer our sincerest gratitude to all the members of the ISS community who generously donated their unwanted items.
www.iss.ac.th
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The International School of Samui Newsletter
ISS Learning trips that have taken part this term Year 1 Senses trip to Anantara Lawana: On Tuesday 27th January 2015 our Year One classes went on a curriculum trip to the Anantara Lawana in Chaweng. Year One are learning all about their senses this term and have been exploring how they can use them in different ways to find out more information about the world around them. When they went to visit the Anantara Lawana, they worked with the chefs to explore how to use their senses in the preparation and eating of a variety of different foods. It was an amazing experience and we would like to say a big THANK YOU to Lars and Ivan and the entire Anantara team for having us there. Y5 geography trip to Hin Lad Waterfall: Our Year Five students are studying rivers as part of their Topic and Humanities learning and on 19th January 2015 went on a Geography Field Trip to Hin Lad Waterfall. The children learned first hand knowledge of their local landforms, river processes, water erosion and wildlife. The students were involved in data collection of the velocity of the water and the depth of the river. This reinforced the work which the students have been studying in class. At the International School of Samui we are committed to educating the children by providing school trips and field studies. We place huge emphasis on allowing our students the opportunity to transfer their learning and apply it to real life situations. Later this term we have a variety of other wonderful learning trips planned including Year 10/11’s visit to the W resort to learn more about marketing, finance and employee motivation and our nursery and reception students visiting the airport .
www.iss.ac.th
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The International School of Samui Newsletter
ISS Sharks is invited to compete at FOBISIA championship, Bangkok The ISS swim squad, ISS Sharks recently attended the FOBISIA Age Group Swimming Championships from 22nd until 26th January 2015 being held at Shrewsbury International School in Bangkok. The students were very excited to travel to Bangkok by boat and aeroplane, to represent our school at this prestigious FOBISIA event. The students took part in three days of intensive competition and we were very proud by what each member of the team achieved. Many of our students placed in their age range categories, and many swam their own personal best times. The students were great ambassadors for ISS and we were very proud of the mature and sensible way they represented our school. Their next event is scheduled for 27th February, where they will travel to Phuket to represent our school in the second leg of the FOBISIA schools Phuket league. Good luck to each of them and we wish them every success in this forthcoming event.
ISS welcomes a new SENCO and EAL Coordinator to our team Miss Rebecca Carver joined ISS in January to take over the coordination of our EAL department and to introduce further provision for students who may have specific learning needs. Miss Carver is a fully qualified teacher from the UK, who has a wealth of experience in teaching learners across the Primary and Senior School phases. She can be contacted at r.carver@iss.ac.th We are extremely happy to welcome Miss Carver to the team and look forward to having her help strengthen our already strong provision here at ISS.
PTA Quiz On Friday 27th March, ISS PTA will be hosting an ISS Parent Quiz night on the school basketball court . Our ISS Sixth Form students will be helping to organise the event in conjunction with the PTA. More details to follow but please save the date for what promises to be a fun evening!
Senior School Residential Meeting All Year 6 and Senior School parents are invited to attend a parent presentation about this years planned residential trips. The meeting will take place on Tuesday 3rd March at 3:30pm in the school library. We hope to see you all there, as there are important changes to this years residential that will be announced.
www.iss.ac.th
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The International School of Samui Newsletter
Recent events in ISS Kindergarten
Stay and Play
On Friday 9th January we were holding a ‘Stay and Play’ morning. This was an opportunity for parents and friends to stay and play with their child and get to meet the teachers and teaching assistants that are working in kindergarten this year. It was also a chance to see some of the different type of play activities that we offer to enrich children’s learning experience in school. We look forward to sharing with you more updates on our curriculum learning trips throughout the year.
New Caps and Bucket Hats are now available for purchase.
KG Story Café The KG story café took place on Friday 30th January 2015 and was a great success. The aim was to promote Literacy and love of reading in the Kindergarten and we invited families and friends to come along and to enjoy stories, followed by some activities.
ISS open day We are having an open morning at Kindergarten and invite new families and friends to come and join, meet our team and ask questions.
Firemen / Paramedics Visit & Little Dig Day On Tuesday 3rd February 2015 kindergarten children were excited to welcome a fire truck and ambulance at the school’s entrance. The firemen and paramedics showed them all their equipment and it was a great addition to their topic about vehicles. On Friday 6th February 2015 Kindergarten children were participating in another ‘Little Dig Day’ to develop the activities in the Kindergarten garden. They did various activities including planting seeds, herbs and flowers, making bird feeders, dens, wind mobiles, water activities and mark making activities. Children learned about how plants grow and what they need in order to survive. They will now take it in turns to care for the garden every week and get to care for and taste the fruit and vegetables that we produce, thus helping to promote healthy eating.
450 Baht including name embroidery
www.iss.ac.th
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The International School of Samui Newsletter
XMAS Revival Kindergarten
KS1
KS2
Senior
INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF SAMUI 141/21 Moo 6 Bophut Koh Samui Surat Thani 84320 Thailand School secretary Tel: +66(0) 77 48 45 48 secretary@iss.ac.th ***
Contact our admissions department: Eng/French: Christophe admissions@iss.ac.th
Thai: Khun Jae
liaisonmanager@iss.ac.th
Eng/German: Becky
admissionsassistant@iss.ac.th
Russian: Anastasia pr@iss.ac.th
A special welcome to all our new students here at ISS: Early Years: Saniya Tyler Emily Katrin Year 4: Chan Year 11: Nathalie
www.iss.ac.th
You can watch our Senior production of Spamalot on YouTube: http://goo.gl/dF1c5N
Santa’s Visit and Xmas Market