IGB International School’s Weekly Newsletter - Issue 88, Week 5, September 2016 • Grade 4 Health & Sport Drink Expo. ~ September 27th, 2016. - Pg. 4 Inside This Week’s Newsletter GIN IGBIS’ Recycling Project 8 Ms. Mary Boyd Message from Head of School 2 ............................................................................................... Mrs. Anne Fowles Performing Arts 9 ............................................................................................... Mr. Jon Suffolk News from Elementary School 2 ............................................................................................... Mrs. Claire McLeod IB Pre-Universities Symposium 9 ............................................................................................... Ms. Mary Boyd PYP Verification Visit 3 ............................................................................................... Mr. Simon Millward Open Day Thank You 10 ............................................................................................... Mr. Wayne Demnar Grade 1 Valencia Field Trip 3 ............................................................................................... Sally Watters and Shireen Blakeway PVO & Alumni News 10 ............................................................................................... Ms. Julie Arcidiacono Grade 4 Health & Sports Drink Expo Steven Harvey and Kari Twedt 4 ............................................................................................... Upcoming Event at IGBIS Supporting Language Development... Ms. Amanda Clark 4 U11 Girls Basketball Preliminaries ............................................................................................... Wed, October 12, 4 pm – 6 pm (Indoor Sports Hall) From the Secondary School Principal 5 ............................................................................................... Mr. Michael Arcidiacono U13 Boys Football Friendly ............................................................................................... Thu, October 13, 4 pm – 5 pm (Track and Field) Parent Workshop Day 5 ............................................................................................... Mr. Phil Clark Kopitiam with the Principal ............................................................................................... Fri, October 14 - (SS - 8:00 am) (ES - 8:40 am) University News Ms. Pauline Davidson 7 Message from Head of School Dear IGBIS Parents and Community Members, some very enthusiastic families coming to visit the school. Thanks are extended to the staff, students and parents who We are delighted to announce that we have been successful came to school on Saturday to meet potential new families. in gaining the appropriate license for our Fireflies programme for 2-year-old children. The programme will commence on We hope that all of our school community are able to take time October 10, straight after the mid-term break. For further to have some family time over the mid-term break. information about the Fireflies programme, please contact our Admissions staff. (Email: [email protected]; Phone: 03 6145 4688). Mrs. Anne Fowles Our Open Day on September 24 was very successful with Head of School News from Elementary School Grade 4 dren who have no funds available. When the account is empty I had an enjoyable visit to the Grade 4 classrooms this week lunches are provided in Elementary School and names noted when they had their Health and Sports Drink Expo. The focus so the meals are accounted for. was on the students’ presentation skills, knowledge of their product and marketing skills as well as how their product tast- I hope everyone has a lovely break and l look forward to see- ed. Before l arrived in the rooms l could hear their spruiking ing refreshed students join us on Monday 10th October. from afar; their enthusiasm and passion was obvious and they seemed to get louder as l moved around the room! Until next time, Cafeteria Account Parents are reminded to check their child/children’s cafeteria account to ensure there are sufficient funds for lunches. Over Mrs. Claire McLeod the last week cafeteria staff have noticed there are a few chil- Elementary School Principal 2 Igniting Minds Impacting Lives IB PYP Verification Visit Simon Millward Having gathered a lot of information their job now is to write a PYP Coordinator report based on the IBO’s standards and practices and submit ............................................................................................... it to the IBO. A decision will then be made whether to grant IGB International School authorisation status. On Thursday 22nd and Friday 23rd September the school hosted two visitors, Rima Singh and Inga Bela, representing In the final meeting with the visiting team they made many the International Baccalaureate Organisation (IBO). The positive comments about what they saw. The sense of purpose of their visit was to verify that the information that community felt within the school was evident and there we had previously submitted about the school was being was open communication between students, teachers and implemented. the parent body. Particularly pleasing was the visiting team highlighting that the students spoke knowledgeably about their They toured the school, visited classes, talked to the learning and the PYP programme. Elementary Student Council, met with teachers to discuss the practices we employ to deliver the PYP curriculum and Whilst we still have to wait for the process to be completed, met with a representative of the Board and a group of parents. there were many positives that we can take from the visit. Grade 1 Valencia Field Trip Grade 1 students are finishing off their Unit of Inquiry, investigating the central idea “Humans use maps to understand their environment”. The children went off campus on another field trip, this time heading to nearby Valencia to put into practice all the map reading skills they have learnt. They also used a compass to find north, east, south and west. At six different locations, students followed directions such as, “Head north to the sand pit, turn to the west and walk to the path, turn right and walk forward 17 paces.” Boxes were hidden at each location and once discovered children needed to solve a puzzle to open the box. Inside the box was a puzzle piece and directions to the next location. Once all the puzzle pieces had been found and fitted together, the children discovered the Sally Watters and Shireen Blakeway location of a well-earned snack. Despite the heat, everyone PYP Teachers had a wonderful time, thanks to great teamwork and generous ............................................................................................... assistance from the parent helpers. Igniting Minds Impacting Lives 3 Grade 4 Sports Drink Expo Steven Harvey and Kari Twedt hour spruiking their product and applying various advertising PYP Teachers techniques, such as emotional appeal, exaggeration, loaded ............................................................................................... words and bandwagon appeal, to encourage everyone who passed by to taste their drink. The exercise had the students Grade 4 students finished up their Unit of Inquiry “How We tap into their creativity, while building their confidence, ensuring Express Ourselves” this week with a Sports Drink Expo. This they continue to be effective communicators and inquirers. was one of the final activities of the unit, which students had been working towards for the past six weeks. The central idea was that media influences how we think and the choices we make, and students demonstrated their understanding of different styles and techniques of advertising. They did this by designing advertising posters for a mock sports drink that encompassed the principles of design - contrast, alignment, repetition and proximity. They prepared their drinks and as much advertising material as they wanted and spent an Supporting Language Development in the Elementary Library Amanda Clark Helping our students develop a love of reading is a huge Whole School Teacher Librarian part of what we do in school. This happens in homerooms, in ............................................................................................... single subject areas and, of course, in the library. Elementary students come to the library for one lesson a week where, as part of what we do, students have the chance to borrow books to take home and read. They are able to keep these books for two weeks, however most of the books are returned each week when the students come as a class. Being literate in your mother tongue language (the language that is used most commonly at home), is essential to supporting the development of additional languages, such as English. To help your children grow and develop in their use of their mother tongue language, the library has a growing collection of books in Bahasa Malay, Chinese, Japanese and Korean. The books are either translated from English, and include a lot of our most popular titles, or they are books that are originals, written in the mother tongue. We encourage all our readers to enjoy these fabulous books, in all languages. 4 Igniting Minds Impacting Lives News from Secondary School Dear parents, Thinking in this manner is part of the reflection process and helps students to consider their progress from different It was a busy week in Secondary as we head into the October perspectives. Just as teachers plan