Es Parent Bulletin Vol#2 2009 Sept 9

International School Manila

ES PARENT BULLETIN Volume 02

IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER SEPT 10, 11

Faculty In-Service - No School for Students

16, 23, 30

Wednesday Morning Student Late Start @ 8.30am

17

ES Parent Coffee @ 7.30am, Little Theatre

21

School Holiday for Eid-ul-Fitr - No School

From the ES Administration Dear Elementary School Parents,

This coming Thursday September 17 we will have our first of four elementary school parent coffees for the year. This will take place at 7:30 in the Little Theater and will last one hour. This will be an opportunity for you to hear from us about what is happening in the elementary school, and also to talk informally with us, and with other parents after our presentation. On the agenda for our first parent coffee will be 1. Be Safe, Be Respectful, Be Responsible; 2. Homework in Elementary School; 3. What makes us an International school our focus on nurturing cultural diversity; and 4. External testing. We hope you are able to make it, and find the time useful. On August 25 and 26 we had our “Back to School Nights” and an opportunity for you to learn more about your child’s program for the school year. If you were unable to make, or have not yet met your child’s teacher, please set up a time to come in. In the middle of October we will have parent-teacher conferences which will be an opportunity for you to have a focused discussion with your child’s teacher about the progress they are making. During “Back to School Night”, we also had the opportunity to speak with you in the Fine Arts Theater, and below is the speeches that we gave: Good evening parents and welcome to our 2009 Elementary “Back to School Night”. For those of you who don’t know me, I am Simon Gillespie the Elementary School Principal, and I am joined this evening by Michael Rourke our Elementary School Assistant Principal. We are excited to be a part of your children’s learning this school year and are impressed with how well everyone has settled back into the school year. Teachers have

09 September 2009

had the opportunity over the past three weeks to get to know their students and we are ready to provide them with an excellent school year at ISM. Be Safe, Be Respectful and Be Responsible is a phrase we hope your children have told you about. We teach our students these three important concepts as the basis for our expectations of student behavior. Safety of our students is a priority for us. With this we have made some changes this year to improve our supervision. We have moved Grade 2 from morning recess play time for ECLC and Grade one with fewer children on the playground, and for lunch time we now have ECLC on their own and Grade one on their own. We have already observed considerable difference in student behavior, and their ability to finish eating. Bus supervision has also changed. In the past all bus supervisors were organized by the bus company, but now each bus contains one of our own supervisors which we are working closely together with to ensure consistency of behavior on the bus and follow up when concerns arise. One of our beliefs, as articulated in our ISM mission statement, is that we strive to “maintain a healthy balance in the time devoted to work, rest and recreation.” After a 7-hour school day students are involved in a variety of activities including first language learning, instrument lessons and sports – all of which assist in the development of the whole child. At the completion of a long day, it is also essential for children to have time to relax, rest and have fun with family and friends. Equally so, it is important for children to have time to decide what they will do in their free time. This helps them to become independent, creative and confident people. We are aware of the many different national approaches to, and opinions of, Elementary School homework. Current research focuses on ensuring homework tasks are meaningful and connected to learning in the classroom, homework is not punitive, and is not assigned for the sake of providing students with busy work that does not have an impact on their overall learning. As such, it is our belief that homework should be purposeful, relevant to student learning, and at the same time recognize the importance of balance in our students’ lives. Reading is an important part of development for children in Elementary School. Providing daily opportunities for students to read is essential in improving reading fluency and comprehension. In addition, it helps build vocabulary and develop writing skills. We recommend that children spend a minimum of fifteen minutes each day reading independently or with an (Continued on page 2)

Elementary School Parent Bulletin

09 September 2009

please speak to your child’s class teacher, they are open to finding a suitable time to meet with you. Michael and I are also available and look forward to speaking with as many of you as we can over the course of the school year.

From the ES Administration (Continued from page 1)

adult in their first or second language. At each grade level (ECLC to Grade Four) a home reading program is in place to support this important aspect of learning. Students are required to log their reading and complete an assigned task (such as a reading reflection in a reading journal).

I will now turn it over to Michael who is going to give an overview of our curriculum framework. Hello everyone and thank you for coming to our Back to School Night! My name is Michael Rourke for those people I haven’t yet met, and as Simon mentioned, I am the Elementary Assistant Principal. I am an ISM parent myself with two children here in the Elementary (and one a few years away from being eligible…) I wanted to talk to you this evening, just to give a brief overview of our curriculum framework. I encourage you to ask questions of your child’s classroom and specialist teachers about what is happening in the ES in terms of teaching and learning. Equally, I can be contacted should you have any queries at any time about our curriculum and how it is implemented.

In addition to our home reading program, there may be times when other homework tasks are assigned. These assignments are designed for a purpose to support and reinforce learning in the classroom, and may not be assigned every evening. As students begin their transition to Middle School in Grade Four, they will begin to prepare for different expectations of homework. Our approach to homework is based on the following premise: 1. Homework is given to support work, projects and research undertaken during the school day. It is connected to what is happening in the classroom and has a distinct purpose. 2. Some homework projects may be open-ended: a research assignment, an art project or a survey that may be completed over several nights. 3. Homework is what the child does, not the parent or the caregiver. It is for discussion, but the child is responsible for completing it. 4. Homework time for Elementary Students should, under no circumstances, become stressful. It is a time for children and parents to share discussions on school work and school life in general. 5. If family commitments do not allow time for homework, a note to the teacher explaining this will be sufficient.

Our Elementary School is in a constant process of developing and refining the framework for how we deliver our curriculum. Through our planning, we identify what the learning is that we are intending for our students. From Preschool to Grade 4 we work with integrated units of inquiry (where the skills and concepts from more than one subject area are taught within the context of a meaningful, culturally inclusive unit of work). In addition, we use what we term ‘stand alone’ units of work. The units of inquiry address ideas that are concept based as opposed to content based. For example, the balance of nature in Grade 2, where we live influences how we live in Grade 3 and the effects of human migration in Grade 4. They contain understandings that are relevant, have significant meaning, and are engaging for kids. This quarter, our second graders will be learning about the interconnectedness of organisms and their environments and about how changes in one part of the system will affect other parts of the system. The third grade children will be investigating the notion of geographical location – how we represent it and how we adapt to it. Grade 4 meanwhile will begin the year by looking at how migration affects individuals, families and cultures. I was fortunate enough to be in two Grade 4 classrooms this morning to hear teachers talking about their own family history ‘migration stories’ as part of a rotation between the classes. The children were using listening and note-taking skills, as well as synthesizing and organizing ideas. What I was most impressed with however, was their ability to make connections between the different stories they heard and to recognize that the ripple effect of someone’s great, great grandfather moving at the age of 18 from one country to another to seek a better life, is still being felt today. I was able to see that the students were making these connections because of the ques-

If you have questions about the individual homework needs of your child, please discuss these with your child’s class teacher. Communication with you is important to us. We have devised a number of different strategies for communicating with you on a regular basis, not only about school events, but more importantly the learning that is happening in your child’s classroom. This year we will continue with our grade level newsletters the first Friday of the month, Elementary School Parent Bulletins the second and last Friday of the month, and Individual Classroom newsletters the third Friday of the month. We are currently looking at ways to further develop our individual classroom newsletters in the form of blogs which a team of teachers are working on right now and which we will share with you more about later in the term. We will continue with our report cards at the end of each semester, parent conferences in October, and student led conferences in March. At any time if you need more information, have questions, problems or concerns,

(Continued on page 3)

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Elementary School Parent Bulletin

09 September 2009

different languages, different cultural contexts, different experiences – and encourage them to generate their own questions within the framework of the intended learning. Children are then taught the skills and develop their understandings so that they can refine their questions and find out more. We promote reflection and give our children strategies for thinking about their learning. We encourage them to explore ideas from different perspectives – how might I feel about this if I didn’t speak English as my first language or if I were born in another country? How might a scientist look at this problem? Or what I examined this through the lens of environmental sustainability? We ask them to not only appreciate others’ points of view but to actively seek them out. Being an inquirer sometimes means collaborating - with teachers, with peers, with parents. It may mean using different ways of learning and knowing – through words, images, movement, music or nature, or working alone, with others in large or small teams.

From the ES Administration (Continued from page 2)

tions they were asking their teachers, not by the answers they were giving to teachers’ questions. Both the units of inquiry and our ‘stand alone units’ house, or provide a framework for, the standards and indicators for different learning areas. These standards and indicators from Math, English, Science, Social Studies, Wellness, PE, IT, Music and Art, address skills and understandings which are measurable. For example, paragraph writing, counting by 5s or 7s, writing accurate sentences using possessive apostrophes, balancing on a beam, singing g b a, or using multimedia to present an idea. Incorporated into our teaching and learning program are what we call Transdisciplinary skills – things like Communication, Personal Management and Reflection, and Research skills such as those used by the Fourth Graders I was with today. These skills, along with Dispositions, or how a child approaches his or her learning, form the basis of our units of inquiry in Preschool and ECLC. From Grade 1 to 4, the units becoming progressively more concerned with knowledge – moving toward more abstract concepts, such as discovery, biodiversity or human rights.

One of the most significant things about providing an international education for our students is to give them access to a curriculum that values international-mindedness. By international-mindedness I don’t mean making flags or having food festivals, although these can be valuable and fun. I mean nurturing the diversity that exists in our learning context and placing value on the relationship we have with our host culture of the Philippines. I mean developing the attributes of a person who possesses intercultural awareness, who is has well-developed skills in communication, the ability to feel empathy and think critically about how and why we behave in certain ways.

These Transdisciplinary skills and Dispositions, which are in fact planned for, modeled, taught and assessed from Preschool to Grade 12, stem from our ISM school-wide goals. You may have seen the posters around our school which talk about striving for example, to become ‘Inquiring and Reflective Problem Solvers. An inquiring mind is one that will approach an issue with wonder and curiosity but also have the skills in place to be creative in problem solving. When planning our teaching and learning, all teachers at ISM look at how they will know whether their students have learned what we intended. A year ago, a team of teachers and administrators, along with an internationally renowned educator by the name of Ms Bambi Betts, worked to produce a document called the ISM Assessment Policy. This document, relevant for all teachers, students and parents at ISM, clearly defines our assessment practices. Together as teachers, it is our responsibility to work to collect evidence of the Standards and Indicators, Transdisciplinary Skills and Dispositions I just mentioned; we evaluate the evidence, provide timely feedback to students and communicate all this progress toward intended learning to parents. Students are included in the assessment process, they have opportunities to self assess, they have models provided for what is expected of them, and they have opportunities to revisit tasks in order to demonstrate what they have learned.

I’ll finish with a quote from a Canadian educator, Dr. Irene Davy, who in addressing the question of internationalmindedness, refers to habits of mind, - which are the dispositions and skills I’ve mentioned : “Why is it important to foster international-mindedness in education?” because… “Children educated for tomorrow’s world must be equipped with the habits of mind that allow them to act in meaningful ways, whether globally or locally. It is as important to understand the ‘other’s point of view’ as it is to understand one’s own. When we learn to view our world not as ‘us and them’ but as ‘us and us’ we will come closer to finding fair and just solutions to the issues facing humanity. ~ [Dr. Irene Davy. Director, Sunnybrook School, Toronto.] Yours in Education,

Once we know WHAT we intend for our students to learn, and how we will find out WHETHER that learning is happening, we can then focus on how we will teach our students. Through guided inquiry, we build upon what children already know –

Simon Gillespie ES Principal 3

Michael Rourke

ES Assistant Principal

Elementary School Parent Bulletin

09 September 2009

Pizza Day!

From the Art Department

Every Friday is Pizza Day for Elementary School. The pizzas are being supplied by Piadina. Pizzette Quattro Formaggi Pizzette Margherita

Stuff Hello all. Once again the ES art department are on the hunt for materials to use in creating art works. At the moment we have plenty of Styrofoam trays, boxes, bottles and magazines. What we are really in need of is oddments such as keys, tools, wood scraps, fabric, rocks, pebbles, beads, jewels, caps/lids metal or plastic, coat hangers (big and tiny), curtain rings, packing materials such as foam, hair clips, cutlery, toys, badges etc. Broken items are fine. The idea is to recycle the seemingly useless. The more random the item the better! If you are not sure if we will want it just email me at [email protected] or drop it off at room 1189 opposite the ES Gym.

- Php 60.00 - Php 50.00

Coupons will be sold at the undercovered ES playground every Friday from 6:30 a.m. up to 7:30 a.m. These coupons are then redeemed by the students at the ES Canteen during their lunch break.

Many thanks,

From the School Clinic

Olivia Jones

TIME TO SIGN UP FOR THE HEPATITIS A AND B VACCINATIONS Date October 7th, 2009

Price (Php) Hepatitis A (Adult) Hepatitis A (Junior) Hepatitis B (Adult) Hepatitis B (Junior) Hepatitis A and B combined vaccine (Adult) Hepatitis A and B combined vaccine (Junior)

2249 1125 630 355 2000 1000

(Prices are per individual vaccine in a course of either 2 or 3 vaccinations) If you would like more information or you wish to sign up to receive any of the above vaccines, please call in at the clinic to pick up a registration form (next to the elementary canteen). Only people with a valid ISM ID may participate in this program. PAYMENT FOR THESE VACCINATIONS MUST BE MADE TO THE CASHIER DEPARTMENT BY NO LATER THAN FRIDAY 25TH SEPTEMBER 2009. VACCINES WILL THEN BE ORDERED AND NO FURTHER REGISTRATIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED. Clinic direct number: 840 8580 Email: [email protected] Many thanks

Debbie Duckworth ISM Clinic Administrator 840 8581 [email protected] 4

In an effort to maintain frequent communication with the ISM community about the development and impact of H1N1 influenza on our school community, we would like to reassure you that we continue to monitor sickness and absence throughout the ES, MS and HS schools. There have been no confirmed cases of H1N1 to our knowledge in the school community and we have seen no identifiable clusters of flu-like illness which may suggest infection with H1N1. Please keep your children at home if they are ill and any child coming to school with a fever will be sent home. Thank you for your continued support.

Elementary School Parent Bulletin

09 September 2009

YOU ARE INVITED! GRADE 3 and GRADE 4 students are invited to visit ANIMARVELOUS, an ES Afterschool Activity on Thursday afternoon, September 17. Ms. Cabrera from the PAWS Animal Shelter will be at ISM to talk about their organization and shelter here in Manila. She will also answer your questions. WHO:

Grade 3 and Grade 4 students

WHAT:

GUEST SPEAKER (Ms. Cabrera) from PAWS Animal Shelter visiting ANIMARVELOUS

WHEN:

Thursday, September 17 from 2:15 to 3:15pm (Please try to be present no later than 2:20pm)

WHERE: Mrs. Diaz Music Classroom 1168, [email protected] **REMINDER** If you want to visit ANIMARVELOUS on September 17 and you usually go home at 2:15pm then please make sure you arrange to be picked up at 3:15pm from Room 1168 after Ms. Cabrera’s presentation.

From the CMC

From the ATAC Office

Hello parents, As September begins and the school year gets underway, the CMC is full of children who are eager to explore the new books and re-read old favorites. As you can imagine, the CMC is quite a popular place to be! We can hardly keep up with re-shelving and processing new books! We are looking for volunteers to help us with these tasks, as well as to read and summarize our new foreign language books. If you enjoy interacting with children, love books and enjoy being in a calm and pleasant atmosphere, volunteering in the CMC would be a great match for you. Please stop in for more information and to sign up. We’ll be hosting a Welcome Tea for volunteers on Wednesday, September 23, 2009. Stay tuned for further details.

Friday Sept 11th: Varsity/JV Volleyball at Brent (Team Bus departs 3pm) Saturday Sept 12th: MS HS volleyball at ISM (check game schedule for match times) HS Soccer teams boys and girls at ISM (check game schedule for match times) Saturday Sept 19th: RIFA Soccer festival for C,E,G teams at CSA ( 8am-Noon) RIFA MS girls festival at CSA (1pm5pm) Swim meet at Brent Cross Country MS/HS at Faith Please check Game Schedule on ATAC and school divisional websites for accurate and up to date fixtures for all sports teams.

Rebecca Pierce Teacher Librarian 5

Elementary School Parent Bulletin

09 September 2009

Dear ISM Parents/Students: IASAS Housing: The IASAS Soccer housing letter is now available via; parent bulletins, the ATAC office and it has been distributed to our HS first season athletes via their coaches. HS Students participating in ATAC activities must house in order to be on a team. This is an expected obligation and is mandated in the school planner and on the ATAC page of the school website. Housing visiting athletes is an integral part of the IASAS experience as all of our varsity athletes will be housed when they go away to tournaments during their HS career. In order for us to ensure we are able to host successful IASAS exchange weekends and IASAS tournaments we hope that all members of our community who have students involved in ATAC activities will be willing to house for this fantastic tournament from October 14-18. We require 160 housing placements for our visiting male/ female soccer players from the IASAS schools. Expectations of host families: Pick up and drop off of visiting athletes each day to school. Visiting athletes can ride the school bus if that is how your children get to school. Provide a comfortable place for athlete to sleep/assist the athlete with laundry of their uniforms. Provide a breakfast each morning and some evening meals. Athletes will buy lunches at school and may have a team dinner together. Be available each evening to receive curfew calls from the athletes coaches around 10pm. Ensure there is parental supervision at home each evening you are hosting. Questions will no doubt arise? What if I cannot house? You have to find a friend who can and get them to sign off on the form with full name, details etc. What if I am away at the IASAS Volleyball/Cross Country tournament? You still can house as your parents may now have space in the house. Quite a number of parents housed last year when their children were away at the IASAS Soccer event in Taipei. What if I can’t house for IASAS Soccer? You must commit to house for an event. Other options during the year are: Pre-I Basketball in November and IASAS Art/Music in March. You should indicate on the return slip which event you will house for and have your parents sign off. What if I live too far away? Alabang and Merville for example are not too far away! We have had a number of students housed here at past tournaments. As a general rule we do not want visiting athletes to travel more than 45 minutes to/from school. Please contact us if you have questions about the travel distance. “HOUSING FOR IASAS EVENTS IS AN EXPECTATION NOT A CHOICE” We hope you will support the 28th Annual IASAS Soccer Championships. Our varsity girls will be gunning for a “THREE-PEAT” and defending the gold medals they have won the past two years and we are anticipating a great home performance from our boys team as they strive for a medal this year. If you or your parents have questions please call the ATAC office and/or talk with your coach.

Mark Pekin Athletics & Activities Coordinator

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Elementary School Parent Bulletin

09 September 2009

From Go Green Want your trash to become someone else’s treasure? Please continue to support INVISIBLE institute. We need your: Plastic bags Dry cleaner bags CDs Cassette tapes Old VHS tapes Fabric scraps

Eco invites you to a community clean up! Where? Taktak Falls in Antipolo When? 6.30am-2pm Saturday 19th September.

Æ Collection points can be found in the ES, MS and HS offices.

Meet at the bus, ES playground How? Collect your permission slip from either the MS or HS office and return to Ms

This waste will be crocheted into beautiful bags for sale. By donating this trash, you will be helping to provide an income for some of the poorest women in Manila.

Gillman or Mr Pasamba by Wed. 16th Sept.

Be part of the solution, not the pollution. Many thanks for supporting this project, Let’s Go Green. For more info, please check out: http://www.invisiblesisters.org/ More details about ECo initiatives can be found at: www.ism-online.org/gogreen/

See you there!

From the PE Department Parents can help in PE by LABELING all PE uniforms, swimsuits and towels for elementary physical education. Children learn self management skills and grow more independent by taking responsibility for their belongings at school. This task is made much easier (and saves a lot of angst for both student and teachers) when misplaced items such as PE shirts are labeled. They can easily be returned to their owner if labeled. Sometimes children accidentally pick up the wrong shirt when in the change rooms after swimming lessons and we can easily clarify the mix up if the items are labeled.

Amanda Pekin

From the Board Office This is to request you to please submit to the Admission’s Office or the Superintendent’s Office (c/o Luz M. de Jesus, Board Secretary) the form for Member’s Approval to Amend ISM’s Articles of Incorporation. This form was included in the “ReEnrollment Packet” sent to you by Admissions Office. The amendment to be approved is the simple insertion of the phrase “non-stock and non-profit” in our Articles of Incorporation to preserve our status as a non-tax paying corporation. We need a signed document in order to comply with local regulations. Though this seems relatively trivial, the financial implications for the School - and thus for you parents – are significant. Thank you for your attention and support.

ES PE Program Leader 7

Elementary School Parent Bulletin

09 September 2009

From the Operations & Security Office

From the Admission Office Please update the Admission Office if you have changed your residence or billing address, telephone or cell phone contact numbers, or your current e-mail address. This is especially important with regard to the mobile numbers for the school TextConnect system which is used in emergency situations when parents need to be urgently informed about something.

9 September 2009

We try to keep everything current in our database but if you are not sure if we have it right, please either call us at 840 8488 or email your current information to [email protected] using the form below. Thank you for your help.

It is likely that emergency service vehicles will be deployed to the area in support of this activity. They should not be a cause for concern.

We have been informed that the Every Nation Building will be holding an emergency evacuation drill on September 17, 2009 from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. They will be using the corner of 14th Street and University Parkway as their evacuation site. We have been assured that traffic marshals will be deployed and access to Gate 3 will not be impeded.

Mike Flynn Director Operations & Security

IN T E R N A T I O N A L S C H O O L M A N I LA – Admission Office University Parkway Fort Bonifacio. 1634 Taguig Metro Manila . Philippines Box 1526 MCPO . 1255 Makati City, Philippines . Tel. 840-8488

CHANGE OF CONTACT INFORMATION

Address : From :

Home Phone : From :

To :

To :

Office Phone : ( Mother o From :

Father o )

Mobile Number : ( Mother o From :

To : EMAIL : ( Mother o From :

Father o )

To : Father o )

To : Child’s Name :

Grade Level :

Change of contact information given by: Name : ______________________________

Relation : ________________

Signature : ___________

Office Use Only Below

Receiving Office / Initials / Date

Admission Office Updated / Initials

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TextConnect Updated / Initials