ISF WATERLOO INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL
Newsletter March 2014 - Term 2
News from the Head of School
Invitation from the ISF Waterloo
School Board
We would like to welcome a new member
of staff to our team Ms Valerie Mambu.
She will be replacing Mr Sean until the
end of the school year in Class 6 whilst
he is taking Parental leave. On March
18th we also welcomed back Mrs Analida
Anguizola from maternity leave. She has
resumed her role in the Library, assisting students with English as an additional
language and helping Pre-school for two
afternoons.
The ISF Waterloo School Board would
like to invite all parents and staff to an
information evening on Thursday 27th
March at 19:30 in the School Gymnasium.
The Board will report on progress in all
areas of the school’s operations and outline plans for the future. Please feel free
to bring along friends and colleagues who
may be interested in joining our school.
Last half term ISF Waterloo continued
its commitment to Professional Develop-
From the Primary Years
Co-ordinator
ment for staff. In the last week of term
Ms Orla, Ms Morrison and I attended a
conference in Amsterdam on teaching
students whose Mother Tongue is not
English. It was an inspiring conference
which gave us many ideas to strengthen
ISF Waterloo’s Language programme in
the future. The conference highlighted to
me just how lucky we are to have 32 different nationalities and 27 different languages in our school.
The Primary students and teachers have
had a very busy half term. We had two
more House Meetings, these were organized and guided by the teacher and student captains. We had an exciting group
quiz before the holidays where the students played fun team games together.
These meetings are a wonderful opportunity for all the students to get to know
each other, work together as a team and
have fun at the same time.
We also thank the PTA for organizing
Crazy Hair Day, the students love this
day and we certainly saw an amazing array of crazy hairstyles!
In February we also had our first Interactive White board delivered! The teachers
took part in a training course on how to
use this technology and the benefits it will
bring to the teaching and learning in their
classes.
Primary Students also participated in Science Day. Each Primary class investigated ‘Where is the Art in Science , Where
is the Science in Art’? all classes explored the theme through experiments in
class and each year group made a poster
of their work. The Primary students also
had the opportunity to visit the Science
Fair and see what experiments the Secondary students had prepared.
I wish everyone a productive half term
ahead!
Belinda Yates
Head of School
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Thank you to Mr Nadim for organizing a
great day.
We will finish up the year with our wonderful Summer Fair. Stay tuned for details on
all of these events and how you can participate. None of these wonderful events
would be possible without your generosity. Thank you for your continued support.
We have also introduced the Cambridge
Early Learners Certificate; this program
gives a reliable and consistent measure
of how well a child is doing in English.
There are three levels to the certificate.
Class teachers recommend the level
most suited to each student, the students
are prepared for the test in class and can
also work at home with their parents. An
Examiner from Cambridge University then
gives the test. The students work towards
a range of Shields and Certificates. We
believe this is a wonderful opportunity for
our students and we have had an excellent response so far.
The PTA
Pre-School - Bears
This term the Pre-school unit was Bears.
Central to this unit are the stories “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” and “We’re
Going on a Bear Hunt”.
In IPC we made bear masks and feet and
wore them to learn how bears move and
thought about what it is like to be a bear.
The pre-schoolers had lots of ideas about
how a bear sounds and how they move.
We learned about small, middle-size and
big things by moving around in the classroom and the gym and by comparing toys
and pictures. We made porridge as in
the Goldilocks story. We also made picnic baskets for a Teddy Bear Picnic we
are planning to have when the weather
permits. Pre-school learned about working together by making a big bear. Preschool 1 and 2 made the arms, feet, body
and head together by sharing the tasks
and giving each other space to create
something new side by side as a group.
Ms Orla Mc Loughlin
Primary Years Co-ordinator
News from the PTA
We played out the bear hunt story as an
action track in PE which the pre-schoolers found very exciting, the best bit was
to crawl into the cave, find the bear and
run back through the whole track! We also
made a sensory track to have the experience of how ‘long wavy grass’, ‘thick oozy
mud’, ‘a deep cold river’ etc. actually feel
like. The pre-schoolers found the touching and trying lots of fun, especially sticking their fingers in the mud was a blast!
The PTA would like to thank everyone
who donated delicious baked goods and
volunteered their time to support our Valentine’s Day Bake Sale. The event was
a huge success, raising over 300 euro!
The funds will be used to host several fun
events for your children in the upcoming
months. In April, we look forward to our
annual Egg Scavenger Hunt and the first
ever annual Dinner and Dance for the
children in Secondary.
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All the children were happy to share their
special dish with their classmates and
we all had the opportunity to taste many
dishes from many different home countries. As a final activity, Class 1 created
an International Cookbook from all of the
dishes we tasted, the students will take
this home and be able to try out their
classmate’s dishes again at home. Bonne
Appetite!
Using a balance to weigh objects
in Class 2
This week in Math, Class 2 learned about
the words “heavier” and “lighter” and
used a balance to weigh objects from
around the classroom. First, each of the
students had the chance to experiment
with using the balance by placing blocks
of different sizes in each of the baskets.
The students quickly understood that the
basket with the heavier block fell to the
bottom and the basket with the lighter
block rose to the top. The students also
came to understand that an object that
is larger in size might not be heavier in
weight. The students then worked in their
“Space, Shape, and Measures” Workbook
to identify which of two objects was the
heavier and lighter (such as a pencil or
a paintbrush). Each of the students had
the opportunity to complete an example
and share their findings with the class.
IPC in Class 1
As Part of our IPC Unit ‘Food’, Class 1
students investigated different foods from
different countries; we learned that people eat lots of different kinds of foods in
different countries. We looked at all the
countries that Class 1 students come from
and talked about the kinds of foods that
are eaten in these countries. The children had lots to say about this topic and
were happy to talk about their favourite
dishes from their home country. We then
enlisted the help of Class 1 parents by
asking them to send in a dish from their
country.
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What the students enjoyed weighing the
most were their own shoes! The students
were very curious to see whose shoes
weighed the most and the least! After
their work was complete the students had
the opportunity to play with the balances
using any objects from the classroom. It
was interesting to observe how the students put multiple objects inside the baskets in an effort to balance the scales.
It was very exciting to see the students
working together and using their new
Math vocabulary!
The yeast acted as a helper to remove
the oxygen from the hydrogen peroxide.
Since it did this very fast, it created lots
and lots of bubbles. We also noticed that
the bottle got warmer. The third experiment was about how plants absorb water. We used food colouring and cabbage
leaves to show how plants distribute water
up through their stems. The results were
very pretty indeed. In the last science
experiment we placed different coloured
M&Ms in the microwave, we waited to
see which ones got hot and cracked first?
The scientific question we tried to answer
was do certain colors of M&Ms absorb
more microwave radiation than others?
We found out that the darker colours like
brown crack faster because they absorb
more radiation. If you have ever stood in
the sun wearing a black shirt, you should
know that darker colors absorb light better.
Science in Class 3
The Children in Class 3 really enjoyed all
four experiments that we did for the Science Fair. We realised that in Science
we not only learn a lot of useful information but we can also enjoy the practical
side of the subject and have a lot of fun.
Our first experiment involved finding out
what vinegar does to dirty coins. There
was some fancy chemistry going on in
our little bowls. It turned out that vinegar
is an acid, and the acid in the vinegar reacts with the salt to remove copper oxide, which makes our coins dull. Probably
the most exciting experiment was the Elephant Toothpaste. The colourful foam
we made was special because each tiny
foam bubble is filled with oxygen.
IPC in Class 4 ‘Feel the Force’
Class 4 is just wrapping up an IPC unit
called ‘Feel the Force.’ Throughout this
unit the students discovered and experimented with forces that act on us daily.
One activity we used to learn about these
forces was playing a game of Tug of War.
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We started out with one against one and
ultimately had a whole class Tug of War.
The students came up with great ideas to
change the working forces. We played
some rounds with socks on, some with
bare feet, we changed the order of people pulling from largest to smallest and
smallest to largest. The children labeled
the forces pushing and pulling on them,
and then thought about and drew what it
would be like to play a game of Tug of
War on the moon where gravity wouldn’t
be affecting us.
We will plant our own seeds, water them,
look after them and watch them grow to
fully grown plants. Students will be investigating the life cycle of plants, local
food chains, why plants have leaves and
where the plants we eat come from. To
finish the unit we will go to The National
Plant Garden of Belgium in April. This is
going to be a fun and interesting unit.
In IPC we are learning about plants. On
Friday we planted our own seeds in the
School playground. We also learned
about the different parts of a plant; the
root, stem, leaves and the flowers. We
learned about the function of each part
of the plant. We talked about the different
parts of a plant we can eat for example
when we eat Carrots we eat the root of a
plant and when we eat Asparagus we eat
the stem of the plant.
By Ghalia Alattas
IPC in Class 5
We are starting with our new IPC Unit –
Lets Plant It. Plants grow in all corners
of the globe – even in extremely hot and
extremely cold places. Plants provide us
with food and materials, and they clean
the air we breathe. Over the next few
weeks, we will be looking at all the different plants in our school playground.
Students will investigate the things plants
need in order to grow.
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Class 6 visit PASS
Class 7 School Trip
In January, Class 6 visited PASS the Interactive Museum of Sciences located in
Frameries. They started off the day with
a workshop on Robotics where they had
to build and then program a robot to navigate a tricky maze. Then they watched a
spectacular 5D projection movie entitled
H2O! Here they felt completely immersed
in the movie as 100 m2 screens were
all around them - left, right, top, bottom
and facing them. To finish off the day the
children went on a discovery mission to
Antarctica where they discovered the answers to many difficult questions. How
can an iceberg as big as Belgium float?
How does ice preserve the history of our
climate? A fun day was had by all including, our bus driver Mr. Kristian.
Class 7 went on a school trip to a science museum called PASS in February.
We first watched a movie about water.
Everyone enjoyed it. We then went to the
human body exhibit. Some of us saw the
real hearts of an elephant, a sheep and a
mouse. Then we saw the brain of a horse
and a man. It was amazing! We then went
to the Antarctica exhibit where we had to
get into groups to answer the questions in
our booklet. We had to go to certain places to find the answers. After that it was
time for lunch and all of the food looked
good and delicious. After lunch we went
to the TV studio. It had cameras, microphones, a sound system and many more
things. We had two interviewers (Gavin
and Salihu) and three guests (Huda, Jonathan, Yara). There were also interviewers and interviewees in Hollywood. Jannis was the cameraman and Nuruddeen
and Flavian were in the control booth. We
then got to watch the video that we made.
It was so much fun!
Huda Abogamel (Class 7)
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News from Upper Years
Young people are faced with many choices when leaving school and this fact is,
perhaps, compounded for students from
international backgrounds who face a
plethora of decisions not just about what
to study and what career path to embark
on, but also about where in the world
they will do this. Will it be in their home
country, in their host country, in an English speaking country or anywhere else in
the world that they may have lived during
their childhood years? Choice, in this respect, may seem to be both an advantage
and a drawback as it can be quite overwhelming for a young person considering
their future options.
This term, I had the pleasure of receiving news from our first graduating A-level
student, Thai Vy Lam who wrote to say
that she is settling in to student life at the
University of Arizona in the USA.
Of the academic demands of her University she said,
“I’ve been in the States for almost two
months now. Everything is going great
so far. School is a little bit overwhelming but quite fun, maybe it’s because
of my major that requires a lot of reading and writing. Thanks to what I learnt
during A’level courses in Singapore and
ISF, especially the academic writing skill,
university papers are not so scary anymore.”
Therefore, at ISF Waterloo, we suggest
that students start researching their options early. Both in school tutorial sessions and outside of school with parents
and communities, IGCSE students should
start to think about their likes and dislikes,
their strengths and weaknesses and also
about where in the world they would like
to spend the next 3 or 4 years after leaving school.
Socially she mentioned,
“I have made a lot of friends here. Being in ISF with people from different parts
of the world, I don’t have much problem
making friends with people who are different from me.”
Questions to consider and discuss...
* Which subjects do I enjoy at school?
* Where do my talents lie?
* What are my hobbies and non-academic interests?
* Do I want to join a certain profession
and do I know anything about it?
* Where can I find information about professions? Are there people in my community who I can talk to?
* Should I consider a course with the
It was great to hear that a former ISF
Waterloo student credits our small community with helping her cope with the demands that she faces as a University student and young adult.
chance to study abroad and/or one that
includes a work placement?
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Lying here gazing at the stars,
*Which careers will different courses al-
Wondering why you have to be so far,
low me to pursue?
* Does the course give me an opportu-
You are my light in the dark,
nity to go on to study for post-graduate
My doorway to happiness,
qualifications?
You hold the key to my heart,
*What are the costs associated and are
You hold my deepest desires,
there any grants or awards available for
You’re the one I’d save in a fire,
students?
You keep me cool when it’s hot,
* What are the advantages and disad-
Holding all my precious needs,
vantages of studying in different places?
Where you are is where I belong,
As our A-level programme grows, we
hope that we will be able to share more
stories about the young people that confidently venture out into the wider world
from our close-knit community. We hope
that, like Thai Vy, they will take with them
a fondness for Belgium and for ISF Waterloo International School.
But you can’t love me back
Because you’re a … fridge.
Science Day
Friday February 21st was the 2014 Science Day.
The theme for this year was taken from
the Bill Bryson Competition “Where is art
in Science? Where is science in Art?” All
the students from secondary participated
with very interesting projects. During
the week the primary classes were also
doing investigations and science experiments along the same theme. The projects for this year ranged from fireworks
to lipstick!
Although everybody did amazing work, 6
winning projects had to be selected. The
winners were announced on Wednesday
February 26th and were as follows:
Ms Kate Morrison
Secondary Years Co-ordinator
Middle Years Valentine’s Poetry
Competition
This term all Middle Years students submitted poems to the Valentine’s Poetry
Competition! This year teachers decided
to add a new category for the poem with
the most humour, as many students used
their creative writing in humorous ways.
Dibbo Ghosh won for the best poem by
an English as a first language student,
Logan d’Ursel won for the best poem by
an English as a second language student,
and Madison Nichols won for the poem
with the most humour. Congratulations to
all our students for their wonderful and
creative submissions!
° Best overall project 1st prize: Sound
and Music by Valentina Geerlings and
Tullio Tranquillini
° Most innovative project: Paint and Science by Praise Nwanegbo, Isha Arora
and Rukayah Sulu-Gambari
° Best investigation: Bath bombs by Savanah Hussey, Gemma Tranquillini and
Madison Nichols
The following humorous Valentine’s poem
was written by IGCSE 1 student Elsa Vermoesen.
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° Best individual effort: Logan D’Ursel
MY Science Trip
° Best presentation: Light and Science by
Braydan Chaouat and Alexis Dumelie
This year’s MY science
trip went to the Vivarium
of Tournai to discover
predation and escape in
the food chain. The
students had the
opportunity to take a
closer look at how some
species are adapted to the chase, while
others are adapted to hide and survive.
It was a rather quiet day in the vivarium
and the animals did not seem to mind
the excited crowd around them. The
spiders were minding their own business in their respective aquaria, one
turtle was yawning, another was hitching
a free ride on the back of the alligator.
of course the highlight of the day was
meeting the resident corn snake... in
person!
° Best artwork: Mosaics and light by Samavia Abbassi
It was a fun day and everyone enjoyed
themselves.
Nadim Bayeh
Nadim Bayeh & Jana Dubravova
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Life in the Science Lab
Biology School Trip
It is always busy in the science lab.
This semester was no exception. MY1
students started exploring the world
of chemistry. Observing the suck back
effect was fun while popping hydrogen and passing carbon dioxide in lime
water have now no secrets to them.
During this second half of the year, the A
level students are getting more involved
with the practical aspect of their curriculum.
As practice work for their paper 3 practical examination in May, they have conducted an experiment where they observe
the effect of changing the temperature on
the reaction between yeast and hydrogen
peroxide.
MY2/3 have been experimenting with
the heat conduction properties of water.
IGCSE students learned about photosynthesis by conducting the iodine test on a
variegated leaf. But when it was time to
test the laws of physics, we had to relocate to the corridor for a ticker tape race!
On Friday January 24th they visited
the labs of Culture in Vivo and had the
chance to do a genetic manipulation of a
lab bacterium. The purpose of the experiment was for them of course to learn the
basic principles of genetic engineering.
They thus produced a GMO (genetically
modified organism) by incorporating part
of the DNA of a jellyfish into E-coli bacteria. Then the bacteria were left some time
to incubate. On Wednesday 29th of January, we were able to observe the results of
the manipulation. Out of 31 successfully
incubated colonies, one glowed a bright
fluorescent green under the black light,
indicating the incorporation of the DNA.
Nadim Bayeh & Jana Dubravova
On a parallel track, they were given a
special media that they applied to different surfaces: the inside of a shoe, their
lab coat, the inside of the mouth, the forehead, the inside of the ear... After a proper incubation time, the results were pretty
surprising!
by Nadim Bayeh
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From January, the students in French
as a foreign language worked on giving
more details about themselves and about
their feelings. Each group covered the
theme on being healthy from a different
perspective, according to their level of
French. They enjoyed making projects
and building up vocabulary.
They learned how to:
- order some food items
- describe someone’s attitude
- describe the outfit of people.
News from the French
department
French 1MY 123 have been asked to write
a poem about St Valentin. They had to follow the grammar rule of the famous “si”
followed with the imperfect tense ( known
as “les si n’aiment pas les rai”) and then
the conditional. It was very good practise to avoid the horrible classic mistake.
Valentina Geerlings’ poem one was the
best. Not only was it good grammatically
but the images she chose were fantastic.
Well done.
By Anne Marie Trottier
By Florence Jones
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From the Art Department
Images of the mind
When researching around the theme ‘Images of the mind’, MY2/3 students produced a number of ‘rubbing experiments’
(frottage) in the gym as a starting point
for giving our school building a new, colourful and imaginary facade, based on
their fantasy and aesthetic judgment. The
students worked in groups and in the end,
the design by Gemma, Rukayah, Raheeg
and Samavia was chosen as the most
original design by Mrs. Yates.
Monoprint - advertisement
design by Gloria Nwanegbo IGCSE 1
chosen by Elaina Chaouat
Art trip to the ABC Studio
IGCSE 1 and 2 students went on an Art
trip to the ABC Studio in Brussels and
had a fantastic time! After a general visit
of the Creativity Studios they participated
in several workshops and made terrific
designs in wood and paper. Congratulations to all students for their great work
and original designs!
Important Dates
17-21 March MY1- IGCSE 1 Assesment
Week
24-28 March Book Week
25 March Parents’ Evening (MY1-IGSE1)
Picture of the month
27 March Open Day 9-15:00
27 March ISF Waterloo Board Presentation to Parents 19:30
28 March Book Fair
1 April Class 5 Trip – National Plant Garden
2 April Class 1 Trip to Woluwe Shopping
Centre
4 April PTA Egg Hunt 11am (Volunteers
needed)
4 April Last Day of Term Finish at 12:30.
observational study of an african mask
by Maha Mukhtiar MY1
chosen by Mr. Nadim
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