May 1, 2015
Dear Parents,
We welcome Mr. Thomas to our faculty who has arrived from
India on 28th April. A well Qualified and experienced teacher
Mr. Thomas will teach Economics, Entrepreneurship and social studies to Middle, Secondary and Senior Secondary classes.
We are happy to inform Yokohama parents that Japan Cricket
Association is starting a cricket program for Yokohama students, the program targets 8-12 year old players specifically and focuses on giving everyone a fair and equal go no matter their level of ability or experience. We are also actively encouraging girls to take part and will have some placements from Australia coming throughout the year from a women's cricket organization. If your ward is interested in Joining the program let us know through e mail. No calls are accepted. Bus children will be picked as usual as they have been arriving school much before time.
Yokohama parents please note this change also. After Golden week school will start ten minutes earlier. That means from
9:20. The reason is students loose first ten minutes in settling down and only 30 minutes are left for teaching. Also we would like to have 10 minutes for morning assembly and teachers giving some good guidance to children first thing in the morning buses.
We understand that many parents are under the impression that if you have PR you are not eligible to enter Japanese

universities under Global 30 Program. It is not true. Any nationality is eligible provided they have 5 years of English medium education. Parents please do not go for rumors. You can always call the school to confirm your doubts.
Parents Association of Tokyo campus would like to collect 500 yen as membership fee from each IISJ family. Please send the money with your ward to be handed over to the respective homeroom teacher.
Parents Association also like to let all parents know that for the initial meeting for the school carnival (Tokyo) will be held on
May 12 th in the school gym. Parents who are interested in hosting stalls and participate as volunteers are requested to attend the meeting. The carnival will be on 6 th June.
Members of the cricket club will participate over Golden Week in a U-15 friendly match on May 3 rd against the Chiba My Ys.
As mentioned before, these are matches set up to get the field set for a U-15 league that would include the IISJ team. Thank you to the parents, Mr. Retharekar and Mr. Sahoo for taking their time to help organize this event and lead the team in
Chiba.
We are pleased to inform you that the students of the debate club took part in the National Forensic League of Japan’s minitournament debate on April 29 th , 2015, and won not only the debates, but were also chosen as the best speakers. Out of the five best overall individual speakers, the positions we bagged are as follows:
1 st place: Avani Adhikari of Grade 10
2 nd place: Shreya Jadhav Grade 10
4 th place: Yana Stegniy of Grade 10

In the team debate rounds, the pairings were:
 Shreya Jadhav and Disha Mohta (winners of both rounds)
 Shubhankar Vakde and Khizar Bilalb(winners of the second round)
 Yana Stegniy and Avani Adhikari (winners of both rounds)
 Yui Takahashi and Abheepsita Mukhopadhyay did not win but they put a commendable fight against the boys of St Mary's
International School.
The judges were enthralled by all our students.
We are pleased to announce the creation of an electric drum pad club for those musicians out there. The club will be for grades 6-12. The day of the week is currently under discussion and will be posted in a future Friday Pouch. Stay tuned drummers.
The students of grades 8-12 including student council have canvassed over the past couple days to raise funds for the
Nepal Earthquake Relief efforts. Due to some requests, we have extended the current donation drive until next Friday (May
8 th ) in order to allow those who couldn’t donate this week to do so. Thank you all for your generosity and for helping the students feel the joy of volunteerism.
The World Scholar’s Cup will take place this weekend from
Tuesday to Wednesday. A handout was given this week with the information about meeting times and place. One update is required. The meeting time has been pushed back from 8am on
Tuesday to 8:30 on Tuesday. Make sure you get those 30 extra minutes of rest. The following is information for parents and students regarding the event:
The following are the times for each day;

Day 1 (May 5 th ): Arrive by 8:30 am. The check-in is at
8:45 am. It will end at 5:45 pm. This is the day of the debates as well so all Debate Judges should be present on this day.
Day 2 (May 6 th ): Arrive by 8:45. This day is scheduled to end around 6pm. This day is optional for the Debate Judges because there is no debate on this day.
Next, the location is at the National Olympic Memorial
Youth Center which is located by Yoyogi Park. The closest station is Sangubashi. From Funabori, it takes roughly 45 minutes to arrive at the station and about 5-10 minutes walking to reach the event’s location. Please plan accordingly.
The meeting place is the Center and students are responsible for reaching promptly.
Lunch will be available for purchase at the cafeteria onsite and those who pre-ordered need not to worry about bringing lunch. It seems most people have opted to bring their lunch on that day so do not forget your lunch and bring some drinks to stay hydrated during the tournament as you will be working your brain all day long.
The attire is the school uniform. Please wear the appropriate attire for the event. It is also confirmed that students may bring their own computer or device for research but that they will not need a computer for the writing section.
However, any notes, etc. that students wish to bring should be brought on both days. There is supposed to be free wi-fi available at the venue.
If you have any questions regarding the tournament, please feel free to contact Mr.Ted at tedman1313@yahoo.com.
Make sure to bring your thinking caps and have fun with this tournament. Good luck in your studies.
The following is a summary of the event from a coordinator of the event:

We'll start Day One at around 8 am with check-in. Here you will receive your nametags and your room assignments for your debate adjudicators. If there are no changes to be made to your roster, you'll essentially just pick up your things and head on to the location for the opening ceremonies. Those will start around 9 am.
From the opening ceremonies, teams will move on to the collaborative writing, the Scholar's Challenge, and the debates. (The exact order of these will be determined closer to the event, as final numbers are confirmed.) For the Collaborative Writing, the teams will need to bring only something to write with and something to access the
Internet, if they desire. They are also welcome to bring any notes or study guides. For the first 25 minutes, they will be able to access the Internet, use any materials they bring with them, and of course, collaborate with their teammates. For the next 45 minutes they will write individually, in a provided composition booklet. Finally, they will have 15 minutes to again collaborate with their teammates.
The Scholar's Challenge is a multiple-choice quiz, with an innovative twist. The students will be allowed to mark multiple answers if they so desire. The trade-off is that the point values they will receive are reduced if they do so.
To wit: mark two answers and receive 1/2 point if correct, mark three and receive 1/3, four and receive 1/4, five and receive 1/5. Students should bring a pencil with eraser.
For team debate, the students will have 15 minutes of preparation time after receiving each of the three motions.
Those preparation periods are exactly like the first 25 minutes in Collaborative Writing, in that the students can

use the Internet and whatever they bring with them.
During the debates, each student will speak for up to four minutes. They may bring with them to the front of the room any notes they like, or even their tablets or laptops if they desire. They should not expect to speak from a lectern. The attached debate script and scoring criteria could be very helpful, if you haven't seen them yet. (I also included the writing booklet, which has the rules printed on the cover, and the Challenge score sheet, for your reference.)
Those three events will take all of Day One. Day Two will begin with the Scholar's Bowl. Here each team will be given an electronic clicker to buzz in their answers. No materials are necessary, or even allowed. I think your students will have a wonderful time with this event!
Rounding out the day are a debate showcase (eight top speakers from eight different schools form two new teams and lead the community in a debate and forum discussion) and a talent show. If the students would like to participate in the talent show and need any instruments or backing tracks, they should bring those along. Finally, we conclude with the awards ceremony.
Please be informed that May 4, 5 and 6 will be holiday for both campuses (Golden week).
Have a nice weekend.
Nirmal Jain.