​ ISN NEWSLETTER Term 1, Week 2 5 February, 2021 Dear parents, guardians and friends, A week ago the school had to close due to Cyclone Ana. We are thankful that the school community was safe and we did not receive any reports of concern from the community. Three members of the ISN staff reside in Ba town which was adversely affected by the flood. Unfortunately, Kara’s family home was flooded and they had to evacuate. They lost a few items but no one was hurt. We are grateful to have Kara back at work this week. We were also fortunate to re-open the school on Tuesday with the approval of the Natural Disasters Management Office (NDMO). This was possible on the condition that the school would ensure that staff and students well-being and safety were paramount. Our thoughts are with some members of the wider community in Fiji who were impacted drastically by Cyclone Ana. We hope that in time they will be able to rebuild their lives. Erik As most of you are aware, Erik suffered a Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) in his left leg and was admitted at Nadi Hospital. It was risky to travel anywhere else. Following progress made after the medication he was given, Erik is now recovering at home. He will travel to Suva for an angiogram on Monday, 8th February. We will keep the school community updated on Erik’s progress. Student Leadership Elections and Induction Assembly Towards the end of 2020, we had the Head students election and this involved students in the current DP2 class. This year, we had elections for a number of leadership positions at the school and this was conducted this week. The PYP Head student election took place on Wednesday, 3rd February. Nine courageous students who expressed interest in the leadership role presented inspiring speeches during the assembly. We also had the Student Representative Council (SRC) class representatives elected for secondary pastoral classes and the House Captains for secondary and primary. The following students are congratulated for being elected into the various student leadership roles at the school 2021 STUDENT LEADERS Blue House Chloe Sellwood PYP 6 Role Name Year Junior Captain level Green House Zachary Wakeman DP 1 Head Boy Matteo Dressino DP 2 Senior Captain Head Girl Vivian Evanson DP 2 Green House Senior Teresia Nasoga DP 1 Captain Deputy Head Girl Rameen Zaheer DP 2 Green House Junior Francis Atchison PYP 6 Deputy Head Boy Jay Meghji DP 2 Captain Primary Head Boy Jayden Magnifico PYP 6 Green House Junior Riley Gann PYP 6 Captain Primary Head Girl Georgina Lalor PYP 6 Student Representative Divya Nadan MYP 1 Deputy Primary Everett Checketts PYP 6 Council Head Boy Student Representative Lukas Macquet MYP 1 Deputy Primary Keishaa Chandra PYP 6 Council Head Girl Student Representative Shyam MYP 2 Yellow House Senior Tashkeel Abadan DP 1 Council Paranthaman Captain Student Representative Aanya Naidu MYP 2 Yellow House Senior Tehillah Raqona DP 1 Council Captain Student Representative Haoyi Zhao (Danny) MYP 3 Yellow House Junior Kama Bradley PYP 6 Council Captain Student Representative Tagici Sowane MYP 3 Yellow House Junior Emilie Wade PYP 6 Council Captain Student Representative Thomas Robinson MYP 4 Red House Wei Lai DP 1 Council Senior Captain Student Representative Gemma Hopf MYP 4 Red House Atalya Cavalevu MYP 5 Council Senior Captain Student Representative Jack Spillane MYP 5 Red House Nathaniel Puamau PYP 6 Council Junior Captain Student Representative Shanvi Naidu MYP 5 Red House Cameron Hill PYP 6 Council Junior Captain Student Representative Tianzi Guan (Alex) DP1 Blue House Sacha-Lilly D’Cruz DP 1 Council Senior Captain Student Representative Mukesh DP 2 Blue House Michael Checketts MYP 5 Council Paranthaman Senior Captain Blue House Sahil Naidu PYP 5 Junior Captain There will be an induction ceremony at the school on Thursday 11th February. Parents and guardians of the elected students will be emailed an invitation letter to attend the assembly. The ceremony will begin at 8.30am followed by morning tea for students, parents and staff. After School Activities After School Activities will commence on Monday 8th February from 2.30pm-3.30pm. A friendly reminder that full payments for Soccer and Yoga will need to be paid to Shiwani at the front office prior to commencing these activities. Swimming Classes scheduled for swimming will start from next week (Week 3). Students should pack their swimming gear and a towel. All students will go to the pool with their teachers. Secondary PE Uniforms MYP students are required to wear the PE uniform for PE classes. This will be closely monitored by the PE teachers to ensure that students wear the correct uniform to class. Uniforms are available at the uniform shop at school if parents wish to purchase the PE uniform for their child. (Size 8-16) $27.00 $20.00 ​ (Size S - XL) $28.00 Back to School Night Join us for Back to School Night on Wednesday, 10th February from 5.00 - 7.00pm. Below is a schedule of the information sessions. You will also have the opportunity to meet your child’s teachers. Please be aware that as your child has only been at ISN for 2 weeks, it will not be possible for our teachers to discuss their academic progress with you. TIME ROOM 9 ROOM 10 ROOM 11 ROOM 12 Primary Years Overview of IB DP Creativity Activity ManageBac for parents Programme programmes Service Learn more about the Learn more about the PYP Learn a little about the Learn about the DP CAS school’s learning programme and gain history, structure and programme and gain management system and insight into some of the philosophy of the insight into how you can how it relates to ways that you can support International support your child in attendance, assessment your child as a PYP Baccalaureate. achieving their goals in and reporting. Gain insight 5-5.30pm parent. this element of the into how you can use Recommended for parents Diploma. ManageBac to support Recommended for PYP new to the IB. your child’s success. parents Recommended for DP Led by Hannah parents Recommend for all MYP & Led by the Primary Uluinakauvadra DP parents Leadership team Led by Bethan Paterson Led by Shabha Begum Introduction to Middle “I’ll Do It Later!” Academic Honesty What is Map Growth? Years Programme A brief session with the This session will highlight Learn about how MAP Learn about the Middle Wellbeing Coordinator on the responsibilities of Growth assessments Years Programme how to motivate your child students and teachers work, what they measure including the instructional or adolescent to do their and will offer advice on and how teachers will use philosophy, units of homework and/or house how you can support your this information to 5.30-6pm instruction and chores. child to be academically personalise learning. assessment. honest. Recommended for all Recommended for Recommended for MYP parents Recommended for MYP PYP3-DP1 parents Parents and DP parents. Led by Robyn Bristow Led by Svetlana Led by Bhawna Kundra Led by Bethan Paterson Afuhaamango Primary Years MYP Service As Action Applying for Universities ManageBac for parents Programme This session will provide Learn more about Learn more about the Learn more about the an overview of the Service university application school’s learning Primary Years programme as Action programme in procedures, support management system and and some of the ways that the Middle Years structures in place at the how it relates to you can support your child Programme. school and what you can attendance, assessment as a PYP parent. to to help your child to and reporting. Gain insight 6-6.30pm Recommended for MYP explore their options. into how you can use Recommended for PYP parents ManageBac to support parents Recommended for MYP5 your child’s success. Led by Ranjeeta Prasad & DP parents. Led by the Primary Recommend for all MYP & Leadership team Led by Bethan Paterson DP parents Led by Shabha Begum Meet the Teachers “I’ll Do It Later!” Academic Honesty Assessment in the MYP Teachers mingling with A brief session with the This session will highlight A short session on MYP parents over a cup of tea Wellbeing Coordinator on the responsibilities of tasks and assessments. how to motivate your child students and teachers Learn more about what or adolescent to do their and will offer advice on criteria based assessment homework and/or house how you can support your and how they are graded. 6.30-7pm chores. child to be academically honest. Recommend for MYP Recommended for all parents. parents Recommended for MYP and DP parents. Led by Shabha Begum Led by Robyn Bristow Led by Bethan Paterson IB Evaluation Process This term the school will undergo an IB programme evaluation. This occurs in all IB schools every five years and it is designed to be a reflective exercise that involves the entire school community working collaboratively to support the school’s efforts to continually improve our delivery of the programmes. The evaluation will be conducted remotely which means that we will be sharing school policies, video footage of class activities and other supporting documents with a team of IB evaluators. All materials and footage will only be viewed by the IB team. If you have any questions or concerns about this, please contact Ms Hannah. In addition to the evidence we will be uploading, there will be a three day schedule of interviews that will be conducted by the IB from Monday 22nd to Wednesday 24th March and live classroom observations. The IB evaluating teams will want to hear parent feedback for the three programmes offered at the school and it would be a good opportunity for parents to reflect and share their experiences.