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International School Moshi Moshi Campus News - 31st January 2009 |
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Dear Parents, As I write this newsletter, our students are engaged in a very successful basketball tournament here in school and we welcome ISM Arusha Campus, St Constantine's and Braeburn School as well as two others from Moshi who have joined us for the day. Moshi Campus made it to both the girls and boys finals. ISA Tests
On 3rd and 5th February we will be administering ISA [International Schools Assessment] tests to students in the P5, M1 and M3 classes on both campuses. These standardised tests are intended to help us measure our students and our teaching programmes against those of other international schools. Students are not expected to prepare for the tests in any way and we intend to make the process as simple as possible for them. If you would like to read more about the tests that we took in 2008, please go to www.ismoshi.org/isaacer.htm.New Teacher
Last week we were pleased to welcome Marlaina Harper who will be teaching with David Holt in the P5/6 class for at least the remainder of this term.M1 Field Study
The M1 class will head off to study the lands and peoples around Lake Manyara and Lake Eyasi on Monday, 9 February. They'll return to school on Thursday, 12 February. A letter regarding the trip will be going home soon to parents of day students in M1.P1/2 Education Outside the Classroom
P1/2 students will be travelling to Arusha on Thursday (5th February) as part of their unit of inquiry "Messages from Stories". They will be joining the P1/2s at Arusha campus for a storytelling session at Umoja and for other unit activities on both Thursday afternoon and Friday morning. As part of their annual overnight trip P1/2 Moshi students will therefore spend the night on Arusha campus. Narelle, David and Grace are the adults accompanying the class.Moshi students will return to school before the end of the school day on Friday. P3/4 Education Outside the Classroom
P3/4 students will be visiting Imara Furniture Factory in Moshi on Tuesday, 3 February as part of their unit of inquiry "From Land to Hand", to see how primary resources are used to make products, in this case how wood is used to make furniture.On Wednesday, 4th February, P3/4 will be visiting TPC to see how sugar is made. Your child will be bringing a permission slip for parents to complete and return to school no later than Monday (2nd February). Your child will not be able to attend any of the trips if the permission slip is not signed. Students will leave school at 8:30am each day and will be back by the end of the school day. P5/6 Field Study
P5/6 students will be looking forward to their annual field study trip with their counterparts from Arusha Campus in a few weeks time. Their camp trip to Magara has been scheduled for three days in the week of 23rd - 27th February.Primary After-School Clubs
Students have now determined which clubs they would like to participate in for the rest of the term. The Drama club has been cancelled this week on Monday (Feb 2nd) and will resume as usual the following Monday (Feb 9th). If you have any concerns please contact David on email .MYP Certificates
In this week's MYP Minute you will find an explanation of the MYP Certificate that our M1 to M5 students are aiming for and also an explanation of the MYP Record of Achievement. Parents of students in M1-M5 will find this attached. Others may download it from www.ismoshi.org/ParentNews090130_myp.pdf..
The Library & Reading Groups
You might think that reading groups are for book worms to indulge in their favourite passion or to have enjoyable arguments about your favourite story or character with like-minded people. And while this might be true, there are plenty more benefits of belonging to a book club. Reading expands your horizons with in-depth discussions and assimilations of different viewpoints all contributing to increasing your knowledge and appreciation of the world around you. It also helps you extend your reading and tempts you to try books that you might not otherwise have chosen. The informal learning environment makes it easy to participate. And while there are still many benefits, too many to list, let's not forget that book clubs are great social forums that provide many opportunities to meet and befriend new people from all walks of life, as well as providing an enjoyable and meaningful addition to your social calendar.ISM's library is now collecting multiple copies of a variety of books so you too can enjoy the benefits of reading groups. Currently available in multiple copies:
Music Instrumental Lessons
We currently have about 70 students taking individual instrumental music lessons in the school and are grateful to the teachers who come into school to teach them in the afternoons. These lessons cost the students TSh 9000/- per half hour (or TSh 8000/- per half hour if the children in a family have more than one set of lessons at a time); most of this charge is used to pay the instrumental teachers for their time, but a small part is retained by the school to contribute towards the costs of instrument maintenance and replacement. Parents are invoiced near the beginning of each term with an estimated total cost of their child's lessons for the term - a credit note is issued if not all lessons are taken. If a student is not going to attend a music lesson, the teacher must be informed in advance. If the teacher is not informed, the student will be billed for the lesson as the teacher will be sitting waiting for them.Students keeping Cash in School
We have had a number of cases recently where students have been found to have large sums of cash in school and this is causing us much concern. In particular cash sums have been taken from students' rooms in the boarding houses. The school operates a school bank for boarders and our strong advice has been to place all cash in the school bank. Students are free to withdraw from the school bank as they need within any parameters set by their parents. If your child is a boarder and you are providing pocket money, please give this to his/her boarding parent or pay it to a school account with an instruction to transfer it for pocket money - do not give your child large cash sums. Day students are also asked not to bring large sums to school; they should only bring the small amounts that may be needed for the day.Primary Assembly Last week P5/6 led our Language assembly and with a French skit and Kiswahili songs. Thank you to Madame Laborde, Mama Mvungi and the P5/6 students for their effort. We also welcomed Marlaina Harper who will be team teaching with Mr. Holt in P5/6.This week Mr. Lee will be leading the Music assembly. Just a reminder that assemblies on Friday are now being held in Karibu Hall unless stated otherwise during the week. Primary Swimming
It has been very encouraging to see a good turn out of students in the pool on swimming days for all classes. We'd like to thank all parents who are able to assist class teachers during these lessons.Recruitment of New Teachers
Barry Sutherland is presently away from Tanzania attending recruitment fairs in North America in order to recruit our teaching staff for the 2009/10 school year. I will also be heading to London this week on the same task and will be away from Moshi until 10th February. As a result, there will no regular newsletter next weekend. During my absence, Colin Beveridge will act as Head of Campus - he can be contacted on .Keiron White | Available on the web...
This newsletter has been sent to you from International School Moshi. Please advise me on if your email address changes or if you would like me to add another email address to this mailing list. Keiron White Head of Moshi Campus International School Moshi inspires individuals to be lifelong learners in a global community.
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