Inside This Week Happening. - igbis.edu.my · one and all, as you plan your imminent departure to...

IGB International School’s Weekly Newsletter - Issue 122. Week 4. August 2017.

Happening. + Sat, Aug 26

~ PYP Parent University: Play as a way of knowing @ PVO Room | 8:30 am – 11:30 am

+ Tue, Aug 29 ~ Meet the Teacher | All day

+ Thu, Aug 31 ~ Public Holiday: Merdeka Day

+ Fri, Sep 1 ~ Public Holiday: Hari Raya Qurban

Meet the Teacher Evening ~ Pg. 2

IGBIS Instrumental Music Academy ~ Pg. 3

MYP: Welcome to the New School year 2016-17 ~ Pg. 4

Class of 2017 ~ Pg. 5

Raising a Successful Child ~ Pg. 6

College Counselling News ~ Pg. 7

Upper Secondary School House Sports

Competitions ~ Pg. 8

Admissions and Marketing News ~ Pg. 9

PVO News ~ Pg. 9

Photos: New Parent Coffee ~ Pg. 10 - 11

Inside This Week

Message from Head of SchoolMrs. Anne FowlesHead of School....................................................News from Elementary SchoolMr. Simon MillwardElementary School Principal....................................................News from Secondary SchoolMr. Michael ArcidiaconoSecondary School Principal

2

3

4

2 Igniting Minds Impacting Lives

Message from Head of School

Dear IGBIS Parents and Community Members,

The celebrations continue at IGB International School this

week as news was received of our top five scholars of 2016-

17.

All five students achieved IB Diploma results of 40 points

or more, putting them in the top 5% globally. Our highest

achiever, Zoe Teh, achieved 43 points, which puts her in the

top 1% globally.

The university destinations for these students is also

outstanding with offers from the University of Cambridge

(Magdalene College), University College London, Imperial

College London, Kings College London, University of St

Andrews, University of Edinburgh, University of Bristol,

University of Warwick, Durham University, New York University,

University of California, Quest University (Canada) and Yale-

NUS College.

Anne FowlesHead of School

Meet the Teacher Evening Tuesday 29th August: 5:00pm – 7:15pm

Our ‘Meet the Teacher / Back to School’ evening will be held on

Tuesday 29th August from 5:00pm - 7:15pm. The purpose of

the evening is to find out about the PYP, MYP, DP and CP and

how they are being delivered in homeroom classes and single

subject classes. Teachers will share the class routines, and

discuss the role of single subject teachers.

While this is not a time to discuss the specifics of your own

child’s progress at this stage in the year, if you would like to meet

the teacher for this purpose you may make an appointment for

a later date. Please note that this is an evening for parents

only, students are not required to attend.

Elementary school will consist of three sessions, running

from 5:00pm to 6:40pm. Sessions 1 (5:00pm – 5:30pm) and

3 (6:10pm – 6:40pm) will be the same. This will allow parents

with more than one child in Elementary school in different

grade levels to attend both of the grade level sessions.

Session 2, from 5:35pm – 6:05pm will be a single subject

presentation in the elementary school library as teachers talk

about their programmes for the year. Session 3 will also offer

an opportunity to experience a taster of the Parent University

course that the PYP Coordinator, Ms. Aga, is offering this year.

The evening for Secondary school will start at 5:30pm and

finish at 7:15pm. This is to enable parents with children in

both sections of the school to attend specific sessions. All

Secondary school presentations will be on levels 6 and 7.

Grade levels will meet for 20 minutes with their homeroom

teachers, and then meet individual subject teachers after that.

Refreshments will be provided near each presentation area.

Igniting Minds Impacting Lives 3

News from the Elementary Principal

Building CommunityAt IGBIS we want to grow the communication and relation-

ship between home and school: we see it as a partnership. To

help students we need to know if anything has happened that

may affect student learning, for example a grandparent may

have visited but over the weekend they returned to their na-

tive country. This could have an impact on a student. Likewise

something may have happened at school that you as parents

should know about. The classroom teachers would be commu-

nicating with you also.

One of the structures that the school has in place is the ‘Class

Representatives’. In the Elementary school each class has a

class rep and part of that person’s role is to be a welcoming

face to new families, as well as supporting existing parents,

building a community both in and out of school.

As families move to Malaysia or even to Kuala Lumpur, know-

ing where to have birthday parties or to visit places on the

weekend is valuable information. As a community we can as-

sist not only with our knowledge but possibly by going to these

places with them.

Within school, families may need help with where to or whom

to go to for a variety of different reasons, for example they

may have forgotten who runs the Instrumental Music Academy

programme (Mr. Suffolk), they may not know how to get to the

‘Splash Page’ to register either. Your assistance as a class rep

would be to guide and help them settle and navigate the ‘new’

school.

At this morning’s New Parent Coffee some of you signed up

and indicated you would like to be considered for the class

rep role, if you didn’t sign up, but after reading my article

you are interested. please contact Julie Arcidiacono at julie.

[email protected] to register your interest. Once I

have class reps for each class I will hold a meeting where we

can talk through the role in greater detail. Your help to build a

strong parent community at IGBIS is much appreciated. The

buzz/feel at the coffee morning was wonderful and I hope we

can grow and develop this further. I look forward to seeing you

on Saturday 26th August at the first ‘PYP Parent University’

session and also the ‘Back to School’ evening on Tuesday

29th August.

Just a reminder that school will be closed on Thursday 31st

August (Merdeka Day) and Friday 1st September (Hari Raya

Qurban).

Simon MillwardElementary School Principal

IGBIS Instrumental Music Academy

Jon SuffolkInstrumental Music Academy Coordinator...............................................................................................

Online registration for Semester 1 is still open.

The number of students returning to the Instrumental Music

Academy this year is very encouraging. The work of our

wonderful tutors in encouraging students to continue to learn,

practice and perform is a credit to them. There are also many

new students to IGBIS who have chosen to register for lessons.

Registration may be completed online via the Splash Page.

Parent emails must be used for the registration document, not

student emails. Our finance department will soon be sending

out invoices for Semester 1.

Semester 1 schedules will be shared via the Splash Page by

next Wednesday.

If anyone would like more information about the Academy,

please email me at [email protected].


News from the Secondary School Principal

Dear parents,

It was a pleasure to see so many of you at our Parent Coffee

this week - maintaining strong communication with our parents

is critical to the success of our students. This connection was

brought home for me when there was an opportunity to slip out

of the Parent Coffee and see our 2016 award winning students

for a quick picture. Their outstanding achievements have been

supported by our school-home partnership.

This Friday I am sharing with parents the first of our

communications for our Secondary Camps. These camps are a

fantastic experience for our students, to challenge themselves

and forge stronger friendships with their classmates. We will

be speaking more about Camp at our Meet the Teacher or

“Back to School” night this Tuesday. I hope all parents can

make it, as we have planned a very nice evening for you, to

learn more about what is happening for your son/daughter this

year in their classes. We build this sense of spirit in our student

community through camps, and many other activities, such as

the house sports competitions that took place this week.

I remind our students and families to take extra care to ensure

safety at pickup and drop off - we are constantly checking that

we have students wearing seat belts on buses, wearing their

bike helmets if they have ridden to school, etc. Please help us

continue to have a safe environment here at school. Lastly,

students should be sure to bring their ID cards every day to

school, as it is essential to all of our school routines (entrance,

cafeteria, printing).

Sincerely yours,

Michael ArcidiaconoSecondary School Principal

MYP: Welcome to the new school year 2017-18

Phil ClarkMiddle Years Programme Coordinator...............................................................................................

Welcome back to another year at IGB International School. It

has been lovely to see so many familiar faces around school

these past couple of weeks as returning families came back

from their long vacation. It has also been wonderful to welcome

so many new students, parents and teachers into the IGBIS

community.

Our new Secondary School teachers have quickly settled into

life at IGBIS, ably assisted by our team of returning teachers

who have been eager to ease transition for their new colleagues

as we all prepared for the start of school. Comments from new

and returning teachers indicate how excited everyone was

for students to return to classes and for us to start our fourth

year together. It has been a very positive start, with students

speaking highly of their new teachers, and the teachers being

equally impressed by our students.

This week we introduced the MYP Community Project to

Grade 8 students and the MYP Personal Project to Grade 10

students. MYP projects are a key component of the Middle

Years Programme. They are student-centred, age-appropriate

projects that students conduct for an extended period during

their own time. Students engage in practical explorations

through a cycle of inquiry, action and reflection. The Community

[ Continue next page ]


[ ...Continued ]

Project focuses on community and service, encouraging

students to explore their right and responsibility to implement

service as action in the community. The Personal Project

encourages students to develop an area of personal interest,

to consolidate prior learning, and to practise and strengthen

their approaches to learning (ATL) skills. Grade 8 students will

conduct their Community Projects during Semester 1 while

Grade 10 students will conduct their Personal Projects during

Semesters 1 and 2. I will share more information about MYP

projects in future newsletters.

We look forward to meeting parents again on Tuesday 29

August for our annual “Meet the Teacher” evening, when

parents will have the opportunity to meet with their child’s

teachers and find out more about what and how their child will

be learning this year. Throughout the year I will also be offering

a series of parent workshops for parents who would like to

learn more about the IB Middle Years Programme.

Class of 2017

Mary BoydDiploma Programme Coordinator...............................................................................................

Well done to our graduated Class of 2017, and good luck to one and all, as you plan your imminent departure to the next chapter in your lives, or as you settle into university life for those already exploring pastures new.

It was a delight to see many of our graduated students return, before they depart for universities in Canada, Singapore and the UK. Many have already gone to take up places in Australia, Singapore and Japan. We wish every one of them every good wish for their futures, and look forward to learning how they fare through our alumni group.

We were unanimous in our joy celebrating Hwei Minn’s acceptance to read Natural Sciences at Magdalene College, Cambridge. A remarkable achievement, and a huge source of pride for us and her family.

Before they depart for the UK, we had the pleasure of seeing our 40 plus group together, with the exception of Soeren, to celebrate their fantastic achievements, placing them in the top 5% of the IBDP global cohort.

Last, but not least, it was a delight to see Zoe, to congratulate her for the top score in the school, 43 points, placing her in the top 1% of the IBDP cohort, in the whole world.

Grade 11 Students, their Homeroom teachers, Ms Chotard and Mr Spivey-Jones and the Head of Grade, Ms Kim

Hwei Minn with her family, before she departs for Magdalene College, Cambridge.

Our graduating students who achieved 40+ points, placing them in the top 5% in the world (missing from the picture is Soeren).

Zoe, our top scorer that placed her in the top 1% globally


Raising a Successful Child

Christopher KleschEarly Years to Grade 8 Counsellor...............................................................................................

I read a great book over the summer called, Becoming Brilliant:

What Science Tells Us About Raising Successful Children by

Roberta Michnick Golinkoff PhD and Kathy Hirsh-Pasek PhD.

The book gives a great many tips about what you can do as

a parent to help foster a creative and robust critical thinker at

home.

As a parent myself, I too embrace the inquiry-based curriculum

of the PYP, MYP and Diploma programmes. I believe that

play, free association, investigation, problem solving and a

multitude of other activities help make a more resilient and

balanced student. Parents, however, can struggle at home

with infusing a delightful sense of questioning and wonder into

everyday life. Many of us snap back to a more rigid structure of

schedules and defined expectations and this may be due to a

parental muscle memory that we have adopted from our own

parents, a lack of time and resources or simply being unable

to see the forest for the trees.

Golinkoff and Hirsh-Pasek give us instruction in how we can

continue this inquiry process naturally and effortlessly at home.

They imbue this sense of awe in the book by referencing the

Marvel Comics series, What If?. This is relevant because the

Watcher, Uatu, begins each issue with a hypothetical scenario

like what would happen if Spiderman was a villain or Captain

America was Russian. Fantastical and fun questioning can be

used as a jumping off point for critical thinking and creativity.

Golinkoff and Hirsh-Pasek ask teachers and parents to use

similar hypotheticals in everyday life by asking questions

like “What if my classroom was a submarine?”, “What if

it never rained again?”, or “What if we could no longer use

petrol powered vehicles?”. Not only does this type of thinking

motivate students to think uniquely and innovatively about

things, it allows them to access the 6Cs that the authors

believe are “the key skills that will help all children become the

thinkers and entrepreneurs of tomorrow” (Golinkoff, Hirsh-Pasek, 2016, Introduction, Location 42/4959) .

These 6Cs are collaboration, communication, content, critical

thinking, creativity and confidence. I have found these qualities

to be a key to success for the many students I have taught and

counselled as well. Having taught in high school and worked

as a university guidance counsellor, I keep in touch with many

students and the ones that are the most successful are not

always the highest performing students. They are the ones

that best embody the 6Cs above. Students that do well on

tests, assessments and exams do well initially but students

that exhibit many of the qualities above can more easily ask for

a raise successfully and navigate workplace challenges more

effectively.

How do you make sure students exhibit these 6Cs? I know

that while the PYP, MYP, DP and CP do not include the 6Cs in

reports, they are addressed through our Learner Profile which

is omnipresent in everything we do at school.

How do you help your child develop the 6Cs outside of the

classroom? There are simple things that you can do as parents.

Open questioning at home like, “What if people did not use

money? What would the world be like?” helps students with

their creativity, critical thinking and communication. Answering

the questions with siblings, friends or other family members

helps children hone their collaboration skills and it also helps

them build confidence. Moreover, taking children to things and

places that are new and that stimulate their curiosity is another

basic way students can practice critical thinking and creativity

and build confidence to name just a few benefits.

A great resource for big questions is What If: Serious Scientific

Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions. Randall Monroe

proposes great hypothetical questions like, “How many Lego

bricks would it take to build a bridge capable of carrying traffic

from London to New York?” that you can share with your child.

The book also provides great, plausible answers. Becoming

Brilliant: What Science Tells Us About Raising Successful

Children can be found at amazon both in digital and print and

What if?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical

Questions can be found both in digital form on iBooks and

Amazon and in print from Amazon.

ResourcesGolinkoff, R. PhD, Hirsh-Pasek, K. (2016).

Becoming Brilliant: What Science Tells

Us About Raising Successful Children.

[Kindle DX version]. Retrieved from

https://www.amazon.com/Becoming-

Brilliant-Successful-Children-Lifetools/

dp/1433822393

Monroe, R. 2014. What If?: Serious

Scientific Answers to Absurd

Hypothetical Questions. [iBooks version]

Retrieved from https://itunes.apple.com/

us/book/what-if/id839632923?mt=11


College Counselling News

Bill MitchellGrades 9-12 School Counsellor...............................................................................................

Grade 12 students were recently engaged in small workshops

to help them understand UCAS, the application portal for the

United Kingdom; and Common Application, a widely used

application portal for the colleges and Universities in the

United States. We will follow these sessions up with work on

Personal Statements and Application Essays next week.

Grade 12 Parent University MeetingI would like to meet and update parents of our Grade 12

students on “our” progress thus far and provide an overview of

the application processes that your students are undertaking.

I will also need to enlist assistance from parents in a few areas

relating to universities.

When - Wednesday, 6th September, 2017

Where - Level 6 Multi-Purpose Room

Time - 6:30pm to 8:00pm

Please RSVP to [email protected] so that I can

ensure we have enough refreshments and seating for all.

Grade 12 students are required to attend.

University VisitsEmerson and Simmons Colleges

Emerson College and Simmons College, hailing from Boston,

USA stopped in to chat about their Liberal Arts offerings

and the Arts & Communications programmes. Of particular

interest was Simmons’ FULL Kotzen SCHOLARSHIP - Kotzen

Scholarship - Simmons College

[http://www.simmons.edu/admission-and-financial-aid/

student-financial-services/financial-aid/scholarships/kotzen-

scholarship]

University of British Columbia

When - Tuesday 5th September

Where - Secondary Library

Time - 12:30pm – 1:30pm

Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne / IE University

When - Thursday 7th September

Where - Secondary Library

Time - 9:30am – 10:30am

Follow the Secondary Calendar or see the College Counselling

Events calendar for future visits and events.

Kuala Lumpur EventsUniversity of Melbourne Information Day

When - Sunday 27 August 2017

Where - Hilton Kuala Lumpur

Time - 2:00pm to 6:00pm

For more information, or to register, please go to INFO/

REGISTER

[https://futurestudents.unimelb.edu.au/explore/events/

international/south-east_asia/malaysia/information-day]

#1 Most livable city in world #33 Ranked Uni in the world

http://www.unimelb.edu.au/

AEO Tour

Regional EventsOxbridge Penang Outreach


Upper Secondary School House Sports Competitions

Vanessa & AlyssaGrade 11...............................................................................................

As the sun was shining, the grade 9 to 12 students - decked

out in their house colours - walked onto the field expecting

to face each other in a football tournament. Instead, we were

surprised to find that each of the eight teams (each house was

divided into two) would be participating in a circuit of activities,

modified to incorporate a football or football skills in some way.

The PE department had set up a variety of activities where we

found ourselves working as a unit, practicing skills, or simply

using the football in ways we never thought possible before.

The morning kicked off with teams shooting goals, moving

footballs across the field using their foreheads, running in

zig-zags having spun round 10 times, standing in a circle

attempting to head the ball and much more. Each team moved

swiftly between the activities, having to collect the most points

(and the most fun) within the allocated four minutes. The

activities differed in the ways you could earn points, such as

collecting a point after every member of the team used their

quick feet to make it across the ladder, or collecting two points

if the football landed in the container having thrown it from

a further distance. Everyone was inevitably determined to

surpass the score of the team before them as we moved from

station to station. The chants and cheers got progressively

louder as well as we fought for bonus team spirit points and

came to the end of our last station.

Like the amazing race last week, this house activity created

deeper bonds and memories across the grades - making it a

memorable day only two weeks into the first semester.

One of the events which everyone was hyped for was when

six members (three girls, three boys) from each house were

asked to volunteer to come forward to try and eliminate the

other houses. Successfully, Terra had eliminated Aer within

the first few minutes, followed by Aqua. With only two teams

remaining, the event got so intense that the Head of PE (Mr.

Bartle) had to put a stop to the never ending game. But the

cheering in the background from all the other houses had

made it worthwhile for each of the six volunteers.

“It’s safe to say that the house spirit is well and truly alive

in the upper secondary school at IGBIS. It was great to see

the new IGBIS students warmly welcomed into their houses

and everyone getting involved in the activities. I’m excited

and looking forward to the Secondary School House Cross

Country event on September 6th”, commented Mr Bartle.

Though everyone had given it their all, it was Ignis who came

away victorious, with only 10 points separating the first and

third place. But more than the points, it was an eventful morning

of working cohesively with people we may not have known all

that well, repeatedly chanting our house names, sharing some

good laughs and igniting that bit of house spirit in each and

every one one of us. Drenched in sweat and knees red (from

all the crawling) we walked away excited, knowing that this

was the first of many house events to come - where the fight to

end the year as champions is still any houses’ game.


Admissions and Marketing News

The New Parent Coffee was a great success and we were

pleased with the attendance of both new and returning parents.

Many of the staff were able to take the time to come and meet

the parents and it was a very positive vibe to start the year.

Mrs Julie Arcidiacono organised the morning beautifully and

we thank Ms Stephanie Wafzig and her student assistants for

getting us all moving with some line dancing.

Please tell all your friends and colleagues -

Our first Open Day for the year will be held on Friday 15th

September (from 9.00am to 12.00pm) and we would like

your assistance in letting as many friends and colleagues as

possible know about the Open Day as we would love to see a

large crowd in attendance.

Wayne DemnarAdmissions and Marketing Director

PVO News

Julie ArcidiaconoCommunity & Events Coordinator.........................................................................

What do you really know about IGBIS? Apparently, a lot!

During the New Parents Coffee on Thursday, Grade 10

parents answered almost all questions correctly in this ice-

breaker activity, including the awkward question posed by Mr.

Geoff Derry involving Mr. Wayne Demnar’s age. Almost 80

parents joined us for a fun morning that included lots of “Nice

to see you again” and “Getting to know you” talks, and even

country line dancing led by our own elementary teacher Ms.

Stephanie Wafzig and her trio of Grade 4 students. Thank you

parents, teachers and staff for joining us - I hope that you are

as excited for this new year as I am!

All parents of students attending IGBIS are automatically

members of the Parent Volunteer Organisation (PVO).

Important information regarding our PVO can be found online

by clicking on the PVO icon on the parent Splash Page. Please

check the website and save the dates for our upcoming PVO

meetings, Kopi with Principals, and for more information on

our four exciting parent-run events this year, with the first one

coming up on 3rd November - our Parent Mingle / Gala. We

are looking for parent volunteers to organise this and other

events, so I encourage you to sign up online.

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