Newsletter February 2020 Overseas Family School Elementary School Master Policy: To maintain a happy, safe and effective school for overseas families living in Singapore Principal’s Message Art News Dear Parents and Students, All grade levels have started their third IPC Units of Work in Art. Grade 1 students have been using a range of media to create still A warm welcome to our new students and life drawings of fruit, and they get to eat the fruit afterwards! families that have joined us in the Elementary Grade 2 students have transformed their bottles of sand into School at OFS and a “welcome back’ to our the bodies of fabulous bird sculptures. Grade 3 students are returning students and parents. discovering artists who have ‘made a difference’. Grade 4 students Unfortunately with the recent outbreak are busily recycling junk into wearable art and Grade 5 children of the Novel Coronavirus, we have been presented with many have been inspired by Op Art to create art that gives the illusion challenges such as the postponement or even cancellation of of movement. many upcoming events and a temporary suspension to our After (Jennifer Freeman) School Program. Our school is doing its very best to take every precautionary measure to keep our school community safe. We will continue to update parents with new guidelines and practices. I would sincerely like to thank our parents for your support, understanding and cooperation during these trying times. In the meantime, I would like to remind all students to stay home if you are feeling unwell and to continue observing good hygiene practices such as frequent handwashing. Please note a number of ES events coming up in February / March 2020: 17-21 February Book Week 21 February Book Character Dress Up Day 6 March Grade 1 Sports Morning 9 March Grade 2 Sports Morning Lastly, it is my pleasure to welcome Mrs. Jenny Riffel into her new role as Deputy Principal, responsible for students in Grade 1 to 3. Mrs. Riffel has been with OFS since 2007 and is a talented Homebase teacher, as well as the Grade 2 Teachers’ Team Leader. She brings a wealth of experience and knowledge about student learning and support to the role of Deputy Principal. I wish her the very Mother Tongue best in her new role. Mrs. Riffel will be supported by Mr. Matthew Wednesday, 15 January 2020, OFS was honored by a visit of His Young, our Deputy Principal for Grades 4 and 5. Both Mrs. Riffel, Excellency Mr. Andy Detaille, Belgium’s Ambassador to Singapore. Mr. Young and I look forward to a continued partnership with you The ambassador is a skilled linguist and spoke in several languages and your child. with teachers and students while visiting classes in action. A few of our Dutch, French and Belgium students welcomed the ambassador and the Grade 4 - 5 Mother Tongue French students composed an impressive poem for this special occasion. (Clara Oosting) Penny Liew Elementary School Principal [email protected] From The Parent Association (PA) Desk In light of the current measures to enhance protection against Wuhan coronavirus, we regret to inform that the Lion and Dragon dance and Chinese New Year Themed Coffee Morning have been postponed until further notice. We will keep you informed of any new developments as we hope to reschedule these affected events to a later date. Stay Safe! Overseas Family School Elementary School Newsletter February 2020 Grade 1 News Happy New Year to all our Grade 1 families and a special welcome to all the new families who have joined our Grade 1 classes this semester. We have begun the new year with our fourth IPC Unit of Work, “How Are You?” In this unit, students will be exploring what things make them healthy. It is great to see the children bringing in healthy lunches and snacks and taking responsibility to ensure they are eating a healthy diet. We had fun exercising in our Entry point, where we danced to Zumba videos and stretched in different positions while listening to the story, “Going On A Bear Hunt”. (Joanne McLinden) Grade 2 News Grade 3 News Happy New Year and a warm welcome to all our new OFS families! It has been an exciting start to 2020 in Grade 3, with the beginning We have started our new unit, “Land, Sea And Sky”, where we are of our brand new unit, “They Made A Difference”, where students exploring water plants, fish and birds and how each has adapted have been considering and vocalizing what makes someone to its habitat. The children were very excited to visit the science a significant individual because they made a difference to or lab where they observed and sketched a variety of water plants. changed events in world history. During the Entry Point, teachers Our experiment looked at what happens to a land plant when it presented some key achievements and memorable contributions is submerged in water and a water plant that is planted in soil. of five notable figures, while students noted clues from each There was great excitement building our terrariums. presentation in their journals to gain an understanding of what (Dee Randhawa) made each person not just famous, but significant and influential to society. Students are also engaging with the craft of storytelling and developing their skills as writers, as they work their way through the writing process to draft narratives. This exercise in creativity will lead nicely into the upcoming celebration of our love of reading and books, and the famous authors who write them, during Book Week. (Ryan Lecours) Chess News Congratulations to all participants in the Elementary School Championship on 18 January 2020. We had 208 participants in two groups who played seven rounds each. In Grades 1 and 2, the final ranking of the top players are: 1 DHANUKA Ayaan, Grade 2, 7 points 2 RANDHAWA Arjun, Grade 2, 6 points 3 OTTERSKRED Sofia, Grade 2, 6 points The best player from Grade 1 was VYAS Miransh with 5.5 points. In the category comprising Grades 3 to 5 we had the following top 3 placings: 1 DHANUKA Aman, Grade 4, 6½ points 2 KARANAM Srikoustubh, Grade 5, 6½ points 3 QIN Yixuan, Grade 5, 6 points Physical Education (PE) Right behind them was the best player from Grade 3, GOEL, Kartik with 6 points. All students showed a lot of focus, endurance and Students and teachers have been relishing their two PE lessons a fairplay throughout the day. We are proud of them! week since returning from the semester break and we have noticed much better skill progression with the more frequent lessons. We (Dijana Dengler and Philipp Ziegler) have two new PE staff members, Mr. Hawkins and Mr. Leaver who have been busy getting to know the students. Currently, some classes are learning about Net games while others are developing skills for Striking & Fielding games. After Week 4 (approximately 8 lessons), all classes will swap over to the alternate unit. We have sports mornings coming up on Friday, 6 March 2020 (Grade 1) and Monday, 9 March 2020 (Grade 2), with the other grades holding theirs later in the Semester. (Steven Kennedy) Master Policy: To maintain a happy, safe and effective school for overseas families living in Singapore Grade 4 News Grade 5 News Happy New Year and welcome back to all our Grade 5 students and their families. Semester 2 is a very exciting, challenging and rewarding time for our Grade 5 students. It is their final semester as an Elementary School student before moving on to Middle School. The students will be participating in a range of diverse learning experiences this semester. Some of the highlights include presenting their Expo show piece, dressing up for Book Week and attending Grade 5 camp at the zoo. There is of course the Elementary School Musical as well – so much to look forward to! Our new IPC Unit of Work is “Making Things Go (Expo)”. The Expo is a celebration of their time in the Elementary School. They will work in a collaborative group setting, focusing on different aspects of renewable energy. The Grade 5 teaching team and students look forward to all our parents attending our Grade 5 Expo on Wednesday, 25 March 2020. Our new IPC Unit of Work, “Going Global” has begun. This unit focuses on the impact of what we buy and consume, on other people around the world. It also looks at how being a global citizen is to become a part of something bigger than ourselves. Students have been actively involved in trading simulations and experiences, allowing them to broaden their knowledge of how the trading world is interconnected and that a fair degree of integrity is needed if future trade deals are to be successful. Following the Entry Point and early understandings, the Grade 4 students will experience the Model United Nations (MUN) programme, which is a simulation of the United Nations. Each homebase class is representing a country; some developed, others developing. This country is researched in depth and key issues facing the country are debated. In the MUN committee rooms, students report on their country and share their perspectives on a variety of food related issues. These issues include food wastage, sugar taxes, fair trade and genetically modified Junior Student Council (JSC) foods. The experience will culminate in a General Assembly on Friday, 13 March 2020 in the Auditorium, where resolutions will be voted on. The platform of MUN allows children to debate and discuss issues and enables them to verbalise their opinions and thoughts in a safe and unthreatening way.