Bulletin 7
International
School of London
London
Week 8
Week 9
Lower and Middle School
Friday 16th October 2015
Key dates
Monday th23
Monday
19
February
October
Tuesday 24
Tuesday
20th
February
October
th
Wednesday 25
st
Wednesday
21
February
October
th
Thursday 26
nd
Thursday
22
February
October
th
Friday 27
rd
Friday
23
February
October
8:30-10:00
Parent Workshop
‘Children and
International
Relocation’
8:30-11:00
PYP Parent
Workshop ‘ Early
Years Induction’ EC
1 & 2 parent
18:30-19:30
India Trip
Information Evening
12:30-15:00
PTA Trunk or Treat
Halloween for PYP
8:40-9:30
Primary Assembly:
Grade 3C
rd
th
Wear it Pink Day PTA Bake Sales
MYP Halloween
Costume Day
8:40-13:15
Grade 3 visit to
Shri Swaminarayan
Mandir
Saturday 24th
October
9:00-14:00
Saturday Music
School
8:00-16:00
Grades 8-12 Boys
& Girls Volleyball
Tournament at
Maymount
click on the titles below to read the articles
Principal’s Welcome
Middle School
Important School Announcements
Mother Tongue
Open Day, ISL Photographs
Key dates, ISSA
Lower School
ISL Art gallery
Attachments
PE ISSA hosting information
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Bulletin 7
Principal’s Welcome
Busy last week of Term 1
It was wonderful to welcome so many parents to our
Open Day this week. For the students it was nice to
share some of their learning with you all and it is always
a pleasure to be able to showcase the teaching of our
very talented ISL staff.
We have an event packed week next week and plenty
of activities to get everyone excited in time for the halfterm holiday: We have a special music exchange with
Middle School students from the International School of
The Hague on Tuesday; the school is supporting cancer
awareness with Wear it Pink Day on Wednesday - thank
you in advance for everyone who is helping with the
PTA Baking Sales;
The Primary School will have a spooky Trunk and Treat
and dress-up on Thursday and the Middle School will
have their own dress-up and scary story competition
on Friday. We are also having parent workshops and the
India Information night next week.
Finally, I would like to encourage as many families as
possible to help with hosting for the upcoming ISSA Boys
Football on 4th-6th November and ISSA Girls Volleyball
on 11th-13th November; we have several student teams
arriving in London after the break who will need host
families during the 3-day tournament. It is really a great
opportunity for our students to make new friendships
and to support the school’s sports programme.
If you can accommodate any students for that period
please contact Luis Bello on lbello@isllondon.org
Andrew Mitchell
Principal of the Lower and Middle School
Open Morning
- “It was nice to see all the parents here to see what we do in school and how their children have fun in ISL” - Matteo G4 (left)
- ”I liked that I could see my mom at school” - Remy G3H (middle)
Important School Announcements
Children and International Relocation Parent Workshop - 19th October
ISL will be hosting a series of parent workshops on Transition. The first one will take place on Monday 19th October from 8:3010:00am. Please book a place by contacting school Counsellor Elizabeth Jones on ejones@isllondon.org or simply turn up.
ISL Photographs
ISL London Photographs Day will be on Thursday the 5th of November 2015. If you require sibling or a family
photo, please inform Dorcas Mbavarira by Friday the 29th of October via email: dmbavarira@isllondon.org.
Reminder - Saturday Music School
The Saturday Music School was launched last weekend and it was great fun!
If you have the interest in playing any instruments or singing, please contact Music Co-ordinator Mr James Ryan on
jryan@isllondon.org for more information.
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Bulletin 7
Wear it Pink Day - PTA bake sales
October is officially Breast Cancer Awareness
Month and we are holding our Wear It Pink Day
this Wednesday 21st October. Come to school
wearing pink and bring money to purchase
some lovely baked goods during our PYP and
MYP morning breaks! See hoe the students
have enjoyed themselves last year on the right.
All proceeds will go to help beat breast cancer.
Varsity Volleyball Tournament this weekend
Varsity Boys Football results
This
Saturday
17th
November
our
ISL
volleyball
teams
are
playing the Marymount
International
School
Invitational
Volleyball
tournament. In 4 weeks
we will play the ISSA
Tournaments and these
preparation games will be
a very good opportunity to
practise our tactics. We are
going to try a very advance
The boys played their
first Game of the year on
Monday 5th October against
Southbank International
School at GSSC. It was
a good start for them
since they won the game.
Unfortunately, this week
was more difficult for
the ISL team against ACS
Hillingdon as the boys lost.
5-1 (one setter and five
hitters) system for the first
time in the last 5 years.
Kiichi (G10) for boys, and
Iara (G11) for girls, will be
the setters. This season we
have a very young uniform
group of players in Girls
and Boys. We’ll be playing
against French Lycee,
Marymount and German
School.
Go ISL!!!
We wish them good
luck in their preparation
before the ISSA Football
Tournament (at the German
School) that is coming
up very soon in 2 weeks!
Good luck to coaches Sean
Bennet, Danny Cox and
Borja Angulo and their
team. Go Foxes!
MYP Halloween
MYP Students join in the Halloween spirit by writing scary stories and wearing fancy dress costumes to raise money to buy
books for the Bi-Lingual Library in Vienna, the world’s largest public children’s mother-tongue library. We have joined the
Turn the Page Challenge an initiative by Who I am and the European Council of International Schools (ECIS) to eradicate global
illiteracy.
Grades 6 to 8 students have been writing scary stories in mother tongue classes and the winner from each grade will win
a prize on Thursday 22nd October. All the stories written will be bound into a maga-zine and donated to the Vienna Public
Libraries.
In addition, Grades 6 to 10 students will be allowed to wear Halloween costumes on Friday 23rd Octo-ber if they donate a
minimum of £2 for the charity.
Save the date - India Trip
The India Information Evening will take place on
Wednesday 21st October from 6:30-7:30 pm in the
School Hall.
We have decided on the dates for the India Trip!
We will be travelling from 18th-30th March 2016. Watch
this space for further information.
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Save the date - Ski Trip
We have decided on the dates for the Ski Trip!
We will be travelling from 13th-20th February 2016.
Watch this space for further information.
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Bulletin 7
Lower School News
Trunk or Treat!
Learning about various cultural celebrations and
traditions from around the world is an important part
of the PYP. It encourages our learners to be curious and
inquire about the world around them, to become more
knowledgeable and open-minded. It is also a way for us
to recognise the diverse backgrounds of our students.
This morning at assembly some of our students shared
with us how they celebrate Islamic New Year - Al-Hijra.
Next week, we will be joining in with some Halloween
fun, a tradition enjoyed by many of our students from
different parts of the world.
On Thursday 22nd October, the PTA have organised
a special treat for Halloween - ‘Trunk or Treat’. The
students will get to experience the fun of ‘trick or
treating’ by collecting treats from the car trunks of some
Grade 5W
Grade 5W have been exploring the concept of emotion. We
have been describing our emotions and the emotions of
characters or people who are migrating for many different
reasons. We have compared characters from stories to
real life pictures from news articles.
We created a huge word bank so we no longer need to
use words like happy or sad. We literally have hundreds
to choose from! Yasmeen came up with heartbroken and
depressed while Kate has begun using desperate and
phenomenal. Luca used a thesaurus as an excellent tool to
find more interesting vocabulary. This will help when we
begin writing our stories this week, focusing on including
emotive language so the audience empathizes with the
characters.
We found a lot of emotive language in our class novel, “Boy
Overboard”. We are so excited to read it, wondering what
is going to happen next. When we are reading it, there are
sounds of “Nooooooooooooo, keep reading!” when we
get to the end of a chapter. We are going to use the reading
strategy of visualizing to create some artwork next week
to show our understanding of the story.
Michelle Worth
Grade 5W Homeroom Teacher
of our parents, which will be decorated in a festive or
spooky Halloween style!
It is also a dress-up day for PYP students. We are looking
forward to seeing all the students dressed-up in their
costumes! Please remember, if your child has PE on
Thursday they will need to bring their PE kit and sports
shoes to school with them to change into for their
lesson. We also kindly ask that you check your child can
easily access the bathroom in their costume and please
leave any toy weapons (guns, swords etc.) at home.
Thank you to the PTA and parent volunteers for
organising this fun treat for us!
Michelle Newman
Lower School Leader for Learning
Grade 3H
What is transdisciplinary learning in the PYP?
As part of our Beliefs and Values unit, this week, Grade 3H have
been inquiring into aspects of World Religions. What do they
all have in common? What makes them unique? On Monday
we were inspired by the Hindu and Sikh Diwali celebrations
(launched in London’s Trafalgar Square last weekend) and so
we tried out some Bangalore dance moves, in true Bollywood
style!!
Whilst learning about 2D polygons and quadrilaterals in maths,
we observed Islamic art and then started experimenting to
make our own geometric tessellations, collaborating in groups.
Some even used the ICT sketch-up programme to assist.
Wednesday took us on a visit to The London Central Mosque
and Cultural Centre; here students were able to see real-life,
2D and 3D shapes within the architecture and interior design.
The children also learnt about the Quran, prayer routines, Eid
and the ethos behind the five Pillars of Islam. The guide was
impressed with the student’s questions, respect and openmindedness.
The Grade 3 classes have applied their learning to help design
a giant beliefs tessellation mural, which parents and their
children started to paint on the playground wooden panels
during the open morning.
On Friday, many Muslim children from our class narrated
during a special assembly on Al-Hijra (The Islamic New Year).
Through the style of the PYP curriculum, genuine, fun
connections have been made between language, maths, ICT,
social sciences and even PE (with shape sorting relays and
jump-on game)!
Matt Holton
Grade 3H Homeroom Teacher
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Bulletin 7
Middle School News
Integrated Subjects in the MYP
We have received a number of questions regarding
subject name changes and the way some courses have
been organized in the Grade 10 timetable, particularly
the new integrated courses for Science and Individuals
and Societies. The following information seeks to give
you an explanation for these changes:
As part of the IB Next Chapter curriculum review of the
MYP several subjects groups had a change in name so
there was consistency between the MYP and DP – an
effort to provide greater clarity for students, teachers
and parents. One example of this was the Humanities
subject group that has now become Individuals and
Societies.
In addition, two subject groups are now following
the integrated curriculum model rather than having
separate disciplines titles on the timetable:
• Chemistry, Physics and Biology is now titled Sciences
• Economics, Geography and History is now titled Individuals
and Societies
In both cases all students still follow curriculum material
from each distinct discipline either in a modular format
or, when appropriate, grouped within the same unit.
Access to Diploma courses remains unchanged and the
new integrated models still prepare students for these
routes (for example, a student following integrated
Science can proceed to Diploma Biology Physics or
Chemistry courses).
Interim reports in Grades 6-10
This week we started our Guidance meetings for all
grades. During these meetings we look at all classes and
students with a more specific focus on the ones who
might need extra attention in whatever way suitable.
The first report, called the Interim Report mainly focuses
on Approaches to Learning skills. Teachers select the
appropriate level of each student, between the range
of Needs Improvement and Exceeds Expectations. The
Homeroom teachers will add a comment based on what
was discussed in the meetings and/or their personal
findings.
The Interim Report will be issued through ManageBac and
parents will receive an email once they are uploaded. In
the weeks after Half Term you will have the opportunity
to speak to the different teachers during the Parent
Teacher meetings. For Grade 10 this will take place on
3rd November, Grades 8 and 9 on 12th November and
for Grades 6 and 7 on December 3rd. All meetings take
place between 17:00 and 19:30 and sign up forms will be
issued beforehand.
Ate Hemmes
Middle School Leader for Learning
MYP Co-ordinator
Music - Visit from the International School of The Hague
On Tuesday 20th October we are fortunate enough to have a musical visit from The International School of the
Hague. They will be bringing 37 of their music students from G6-12 as well as four music teachers for a collaborative
workshop with some of our young musicians from ISL. We will be looking at soundscapes and improvisation with
large ensembles and singers. We plan on holding a performance at 12:25 after a morning of collaboration, practise
and rehearsal.
Christopher Beecroft
Music Teacher
Service as Action
I would like to introduce myself as the Service as Action
Leader.
Service as Action (SA) is an aspect of the MYP that aligns
to Action in PYP and CAS in the DP.
SA is organised within the curriculum to provide
sufficient opportunities for students to meet the seven
learning outcomes for service in every year of the
programme.
The students will upload their participations in SA
to Managebac. All activities are co-ordinated by a
supervisor and monitored by the homeroom teacher
and the Service as Action Leader.
The Service as Action programme reflects the model
of education where students learn by taking action
and experiencing real world situations at first hand.
The SA programme intends to encourage students to
be responsible, inquirers and reflect critically on the
units studied. In addition, it helps students to prepare
Diversity
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for their future by providing new opportunities and
experiences beyond the classroom.
At the same time that SA broadens the horizons of
individual students, they also will be helping our
community to develop a caring approach and make
a positive difference to the life of others and the
environment.
It is important for students to be able to develop their
own projects and to incorporate their own interests,
expertise and aptitudes into their chosen activities.
SA has the potential to grow beyond the walls of ISL
London, I am planning to involve parents as well as our
colleagues and students from ISL Surrey and ISL Qatar.
Please send ideas, comments and feedback on the
current projects to my email: cpawel@isllondon.org
Cristina Pawel
Head of Arts & Service as Action Leader
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Bulletin 7
Mother Tongue
Japanese
Spanish
Japanese Mother Tongue KG-G2 students completed
a quiz in their Unit on dietary choices. Some of the
questions were challenging, but team effort made it
fun and rewarding.
This is Juana, G5 finishing her poster about “Identity”
last month in her Spanish Mother Tongue lessons.
For her Identity she decided to include places and
people that are important in her life. Her hobbies
and preferences are present as well (food, sports,
music...) Everybody is very welcome to come and
see the final product in S8.
Kazuko Kimura
Japanese Teacher
Maria Blanco
Spanish Teacher
G9&11 Czech, Dutch, German and Art students painting in the playground
It was my pleasure to witness their accurate planning with attention to detail, brave mixing of vibrant colours and passionate
delivery with well organized division of jobs within the team, alongside exemplary work ethic and enthusiasm. The result
has brought us a lot of joy, which will be hopefully shared by the rest of the school community. As for myself, I improved
slightly on my carpenter pencil sharpening technique and managed not to injure myself with the craft knife.
Dana Peerless
Czech Teacher
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Bulletin 7
ISL London Art Gallery
Work in Progress
Francesca Stigliano
Mould making - Clay
Grade 9 Visual Arts
Follow us:
Website : www.isllondon.org
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