Primary Newsletter
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ISH NEWS # 02 PRIMARY SCHOOL
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Primary Newsletter, IPC, International School of The Hague
Transcript of Primary Newsletter
ISHNEWS
#02PRIMARY SCHOOL
Primary Newsletter | Issue 02 | 14 September 2012
The International School of The HagueP. O. Box 520472505 CA The HagueWijndaelerduin 12554 BX The Hague [email protected]
Primary SchoolTelephone +31 (0)70 338 4567Fax +31 (0)70 328 2049Email [email protected]
This Issue is made byVerona Schroder [email protected] contact for Newsletter items
In this issue
3 Dear ISH News Readers,
4 - 5 Mother Tongue News
6 - 7 Primary News
8 MR News
9 Dates for your Diary
10 Parent Info
11 Sportsday Photographs
12-13 Parent Info
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Dear Parents,It was great to see so many of you at the ‘Meet the Teacher’ evening on Thursday 6th September. I hope that you found all the information useful and that you and your children are suitably prepared for the year ahead. A number of parents have asked if I could make my presentation available on the website and I will arrange for this to happen at the beginning of next week. During the course of this year we will be holding several workshops to share with you developments that are taking place within the school, some of these will be year group specific, whilst others will focus on factors that affect the whole of the Primary School. We hope that you will be able to find the time to attend these meetings and share your child’s learning journey with us. The first of these evenings will take place on Thursday 20th September from 6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. for parents of children from Y3-6 and deals with the subject of mathematics.
On Tuesday 4th September I was delighted to be invited to attend a celebration of the end of Ramadan. A delicious and extensive buffet was prepared by members of our Muslim Community. This annual celebration was once again superbly organised by Saima Choudhary and enjoyed by many members of the ISH community.
Upper School sportsday took place on Wednesday, 12 September and was enjoyed by everyone taking part. Thank you to all staff who helped the day run smoothly and to all parents who gave their support. Special thanks to Ms Ana and Mr Alex for all their efforts in organising such a successful day. You can see photographs of the day in this newsletter.
On Sunday, 16 September The International Community Fair “Feel at home in The Hague” will take place in the City Hall Atrium from 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. ISH will have a stand there which will be operated by various members of staff throughout the day. Hopefully I will meet some of you there.On Friday, 21 September it is the International Day of Peace. To mark this occaison our year 6’s will participate in the Peace Walk. This event is hosted by the organisation Peace One Day.
Please note that school will be closed on Tuesday, 18 September when I am looking forward to attending my first Prinsjesdaglunch. School will also be closed on Friday, 28 September for staff training.
Have a safe and enjoyable weekend.Kind Regards
Kevin Rae Primary Principal
Dear ISH News Readers,
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Primary Newsletter | Issue 02 | 14 September 2012
Mother Tongue NewsDear Parents,
Knowledge to Share:“Children’s mother tongues are fragile and easily lost in the early years of school. Many people marvel at how quickly bilingual children seem to “pick up” conversational skills in the majority language in the early years at school (although it takes much longer for them to catch up to native speakers in academic language skills). However, educators are often much less aware about how quickly children can lose their ability to use their mother tongues, even in the home context. The extent and rapidity of language loss will vary according to the concentration of families from a particular linguistic group in the school and neighborhood. Where the mother tongue is used extensively in the community outside the school, then language loss among young children will be less. However, where language communities are not concentrated or “ghettoized” in particular neighborhoods, children can lose their ability to communicate in their mother tongue within 2-3 years of starting school. They may retain receptive (understanding) skills in the language but they will use the majority language in speaking with their peers and siblings and in responding to their parents. By the time children become adolescents, the linguistic gap between parents and children has become an emotional chasm. Pupils frequently become alienated from the cultures of both home and school with predictable results.To reduce the extent of language loss, parents should establish a strong home language policy and provide ample opportunities for children to expand the functions for which they use the mother tongue (e.g. reading and writing) and the contexts in which they can use it (e.g. community mother tongue day care or play groups, visits to the country of origin, etc.).”J. Cummins, Bilingual Children’s Mother Tongue: Why Is It Important for Education, http://iteachilearn.org
Some announcements:- Keep this date in your agenda: Tuesday, 2 October, 6:00-7:30PM you are invited to our EAL and Mother Tongue information evening! - If you have some teaching qualification or experience of working with children and would be interested in having an active part as a mother tongue tutor during our after school programme just contact me. We are currently looking for additional Dutch, German and French tutors. We are also interested in the possibility of other language tutors we could contact if we have a requests to open a new language group.- We have 18 students from secondary that have been registering as Mother Tongue buddies. They join the MT classes within the curriculum and help our children to speak, read or write in their mother tongue. In
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Mother Tongue Newsreturn they receive CAS or C&S point for their MYP or DP programme. If you have a child in secondary we would love to have him/her joining and supporting his/her brother/sister MT group. We had around 40 students helping last year and hope we will have many more this year. Mother Tongue within the curriculum:MT time within the curriculum will take place every Tuesday from 2:20 to 2:55. Y2-3, 4-6 will start on Tuesday, 25 October. R-Y1 will start after the October holiday. We would love to have parents joining us during that special time to support the children. Whether you can come every week, only a few times or even just once it makes a huge difference to our children and your child. Children love it when you join their group!
After School Mother Tongue Programme:These classes are for native children only. The information leaflet and registration form for the After School Mother Tongue Programme has gone home today. If you did not receive it, you can obtain a copy from the office. Please make sure you register your child timely. Classes will be opened when we have the minimum of 4 children per group subject to the availablity of a teacher. If a class has to start later you will be contacted. For registration question you can contact Ms. Mariela Cock, [email protected] . If you would like to discuss possibilities of opening a new language group please contact me, [email protected] . On top of the languages organised through the school we facilitate a couple of initiatives organised by the parents (e.g. by providing a room for their MT class). If you speak Catalan you can contact Ms. Jessica, [email protected] , for details. For Hungarian Ms. Zsofia, [email protected] . We wait for confirmation for Bulgarian and some discussions are taking place for Romanian. If you want to explore this possibility for your language you can also contact me.
Mother Tongue classes around The Hague:-There is a regular Polish school which is meant for Polish families who are temporarily outside of Poland. They work through the same curriculum as in Poland. Here is more info: http://spk-haga.nl/ . Otherwise, there is a Saturday playgroup for Polish children, every two weeks for ages 3-8 in The Hague. More info at http://www.szkolahaga.nl/oszkole.php-Saturday morning school for Danish children which takes place at the American School, most Saturdays. If anyone is interested in it they can contact the teacher Gudrun Gilhuis at [email protected] or 01 34 637 607.-For the Italian you can also check: http://www.scuolaitaliana.nl/ .-If your child is following another Mother tongue class in The Hague area, could you please let us know which language is offered by whom, the location and possibly contact detail/website. We will make a list of all the MT classes available in The Hague and will communicate it through the newsletter so everyone is aware of language possibilities outside the school.
Kind regards,Pascale HertayDeputy Head
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Primary Newsletter | Issue 02 | 14 September 2012
Primary NewsEAL Fun ClubAll new students at the ISH with little or no English join the EAL Fun Club in the beginning of the year. (English as an Additional Language)
During this intensive English programme we cover various topics such as classroom language, colours, body parts, expressing feelings and much more. We have lots of fun together while learning English. All the children enthusiastically join the groups while singing songs, playing games and learning new words.
After the Fun Club the children will continue to be withdrawn for EAL to work on building vocabulary and sentence skills.If you have any questions the EAL teachers will happily answer them! Please do not hesitate to come and see us in room A.116.Looking forward to meeting you all at the EAL and Mother Tongue evening on Tuesday 2nd of October.
In the meantime, if you would like to stay informed about what is happening in EAL, you can always visit our EAL Blog http://isheal1.blogspot.nl/ for updates and pictures.
Kind Regards,
Mrs. Lara RikersEAL Coordinator
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Primary NewsMaths EveningDear Parent/Guardian,Re: Upper School Maths EveningOn Thursday 20th September there will be a maths information evening for parents of children in the upper school (Y3-6).The purpose of the evening is to explain the maths program in school, the approaches we take when teaching calculations and to share some ideas of how parents can help their children at home.The event will be held in the Speellokaal from 6.30pm—7.30pm with some time afterwards for coffee and informal discussion.We hope to see you there. ISH Primary maths team
Upper School Sports Day Last Wednesday we had our annual US Sports day with lots of fun activities and great sportsmanship.The children had an excting day participating in a wide variety of games, providing them with an opportuniy to use their skills and showing us how good they are at implementing their SquISH capabilities.The weather was beautiful and enabled us to have a lovely morning of sports.A big thank you to all involved in this event and we hope you enjoy viewing some of the photos taken of the day.Ms Ana and Mr Alex
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Primary Newsletter | Issue 02 | 14 September 2012
MR NewsA call for GMR CandidatesThe GMR, or Gemeenschapelijke Medezeggenschapsraad, is a legal body within our organization which provides staff and parents an opportunity to have a voice in the direction we take at the Stichting level. Each of our three elementary schools (ISH Primary, Eerste Nederlands Montessori School and The European School of The Hague) provides two members to this council which meets four times per year. One member from each school must be a parent and the other must be a staff member. The meetings take place in a combination of Dutch and English but a lot of the relevant documentation is in Dutch.
GMR members are appointed by the Medezeggenschapsrad of their respective schools. Terms are three years in duration.
Last year, ISH Primary was ably represented by Mr. Maarten Buijs. As his children have moved along to Secondary, Mr. Buijs is no longer able to represent our school on the GMR. We really appreciate all of the dedication and attention to detail which Mr. Buijs has provided both the MR and the GMR during his tenure.
The departure of Mr. Buijs has left an opening for a parent representative on our GMR. If you are interested in helping to represent our school at this level and can work in Dutch, please submit a letter of interest to the MR ([email protected]).
Regards,
Kevin Curiston (Mr. C.)MR Primary Chairman
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Dates for your Diary
Prinsjesdag - School is Closed
Maths Evening Upper School year 3-6
18:00-19:30
School Closed - Inset day for Staff
EAL and Mother Tongue Info Evening
Maths Evening year 1-2
18:00-19:30
October Holiday - Students back to school
on Monday, 29 October
September October
18
20
28
Please check our website for a complete calendar.
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Primary Newsletter | Issue 02 | 14 September 2012
Parent Info Health MattersDear Parents/Guardians,Health Services at the ISH works to foster the heatlh of your children while at school. This is made possible with your support in providing us with health information pertaining to your child, and we would like to extend a thank-you to all who have completed and submitted the electronic student health forms for your children attending ISH.
While recognizing the many demands of a new school year, we wanted to share with you the Student Health Form’s web address in the event you were unaware or you haven’t yet completed them, http://www.ishthehague.nl/content/student-health-record. We would ask that they be completed as soon as possible.
If your child’s health status changes throughout the school year, please feel free to contact the Health Officer ([email protected]) to inform of the changes.
Thank-you again.Wishing you a great weekend!Sincerely,
Carolin FiegeHealth Officer
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Sportsday Photographs
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Primary Newsletter | Issue 02 | 14 September 2012
Parent InfoDear all,Thanks to meetings with representatives of public transport companies, a lot of progress has been made in the provision of English information in trams, trains and stations. First of all we are happy to send you the attached package full of digital, English information about traveling by public transport in and towards The Hague region. The information answers the most FAQ’s of your English speaking staff and/or business visitors. OV-chipkaart· Traveling with the OV-chipkaart: info about different types, checking in and out and topping up
Traveling in the by tram· HTM Tour Guide: general information about travelling by tram (incl. maps & touristic spots in The Hague)· HTM Tickets: Information about HTM (tram) Day Tickets, Business Return Tickets and Single TicketsPlans to travel by train?· Explore Holland by Train: all about travelling, tickets and prices in English, German, Spanish & Italian· Stops from Schiphol to The Hague· http://www.9292.nl/en for your national journey· http://www.nshispeed.nl/en for your international journey And more good news…in all HTM vehicles English announcements will be provided at the most important stops. >> Read more at the ICP website http://www.icplatform.nl/htm-tickets.html
Kind regards,
International Community Platform (ICP)Noordwal 102513 EA Den HaagT: +31 (0)6 42340311 W: www.ICPlatform.nl
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Parent InfoBadmintonParents Badminton Clubmeets Tuesdays 9:30 – 10:30 Ockenburgh sports hall (next to the bowling)Come and give it a try!New members needed – all levels (including beginners) welcome.For more informaFon e- ‐mail [email protected]
Open Day at the European Patent Office23 September is international day at The Hague and it is the day on which the EPO will allow a glimpse behind the scenes. It will open its doors from 12 to 17 hrs and will approach the topic “sustaining the future” from different angles of view: It will give the floor to initiatives run by EPO staff and by external partners, you may expect interesting lectures and presentations and a hands-on approach to patenting, the EPO’s core-business. Leiden University will present edible plants, the internationally successful “cradle to cradle” initiative will join, the NUNA solar-mobile team from TU Delft will bring a solar car, TU Delft presents various projects related to sustainable environmental management, energy-saving inventions, etc.. Selected inventors will present products generated from their inventions, among them Merle de Kreuk who was nominated for the European Inventor Award. Share this news with friends and bring your families! Win ipods and other prices in one of the games around inventions! Please bring an identity card.
European Patent Office (EPO) Patentlaan 2, 2288 EE Rijswijk, tram 17, stop Patentlaan
Games, films and and many more activities enrich the hands-on approach to patents and innovative technologies. More information: www.denhaag.nl/internationalday.
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