January 2016

The ISL Headlines

“Striving for

Excellence”

From the Head of School : Mr. Martin Gough

I am writing this on Monday 15th February, we are into Week 6

of Term 3 and last Wednesday 10th February the Early Years

children celebrated 100 days of school. The year is flying by.

Year 11 and Year 13 (DP2) students have just completed their trial exams for IGCSE and IBDP and their reports have been published on ManageBac. In the coming weeks these stu-dents will complete all their internally assessed work for these courses and then the focus will move to preparation for the final exams, which start at the beginning of May. Suddenly, before they realise it, the DP2 students will find themselves leaving

school and looking forward to a fresh start in university.

In fact, this month a number of last year’s IBDP students are just starting their university courses in South Africa, having taken a gap period since finishing school last May. They are joining the rest of our 2015 graduates who started univer-sity in USA, Canada, UK, Europe and elsewhere last October. If you are a DP1 par-ent and want to start preparing for university applications from September 2016, please feel free to contact the University Guidance Counselor, Ms. Leah Rapaport, to learn more about what you can do in preparation now and over the June-July hol-iday.

In the coming weeks, look out for Information Evenings for Year 9 students as they prepare for the move into IGCSE in Year 10, and for Year 11 students as they learn more about the IB Diploma Programme in Years 12-13. For more on why studying for the IBDP is the wise choice, click on this link: Why the IB Diploma Programme is the perfect passport to university

Talking of links, I hope that you have discovered and bookmarked the new ISL Fa-cebook page. We have been getting lots of ‘Likes’ and comments on the page posts. Our intention is that this page will be used to keep you informed and up to date about ISL news, events and sports meetings, matches and results in a way that is more immediate and relevant to you and our students. For example, the IBDP article, mentioned above, was posted on the Facebook Page and reached 1796 people in the first 3 days after we posted it.

A few reminders:

Friday 26th February is a holiday for students and a professional development

workday for teachers. Now that Lukasu Road and the MPC entrance and carpark have been tar-

macked, you may wish to consider dropping or picking up children from the MPC area in order to avoid congestion in the other car-parks.

ISL is a smoking free zone – sorry to be blunt, but please do not smoke on cam-pus (even in your car!) and do expect a teacher, staff member or another parent to remind you that we are fag-free if you happen to forget.

And back to the idea of time flying, it is not just the school year that goes quickly - do you realise that there are only 940 Saturdays between a child's birth and the day he or she turns 18. Don’t miss spending those days with your children. You won’t get them back.

Important Dates

Head of School 1

Primary Princi-pal/Green com-

2

Early Years 3

Upper Primary 4

IBPYP Coordina-tor

5

Secondary Princi-pal

6

IB/IGCSE 7

CAS 8

Contents

Teacher PD day

26th Feb

School Holi-day

7th

March

Yr 10 Work Week

14th to

18th

March

Easter Holi-days

25th

March-

1st April

The month of February is short and the tasks to complete are many!!

Our Primary teachers are dynamic, full of energy and enthusiasm when it comes to making plans for our young students. Valentine’s Day, Mother Tongue Day, 100 days, Professional Development Day (for parents) all seem to come together this month. Three cheers for all the teachers!!

The team of people working on Section A (dealing with School Guiding Statements, Vision, Mission and Objectives)of the CIS/NEASC Accreditation report have begun their work in right earnest and are working towards com-pleting their section by Easter break. This is being worked on by Board Members, Teaching staff, Student Council and Parents. Part One of the Accreditation report is almost complete too. This is primarily being worked on by Members of the teaching faculty and Administration. These two sections will help other com-mittees (Section B- G) with information on school when they begin work on their sections.

The Early Years Production is gradually gaining momentum and will be staged on March 23rd

. Another date to look out for!

Please remember that we collect plastic bags, books, newspapers at our school and send them to APTERS and CHIKUMBUSO to recycle. If you are wondering what to do with old books, newspapers, plastics bags, wonder no more!!! You can send them to us.

The IBDP1 students are organizing a Book Drive for children at UTH. If you have books or toys that your chil-dren have outgrown, please put them in the box in the Reception car park. The little ones in the wards would appreciate anything to read or have read to them.

Work goes on, life moves on------ until next month

Ciao!

ISL Headlines! Page 2

Message from the Primary Principal: Mrs Sunita Nair Primary

Green Committee tip

Citrus fresh

Get chopping boards and work surfaces

extra clean with the juice of a lemon to

avoid using chemical cleaning products.

Simply rub and rinse off!

GO GREEN …..

ISL Headlines! Page 3

We have had a lot to celebrate this month in the Early Years. As always I would like to thank the parents for your help and commitment to making these days a success.

If you haven’t already saved the date, it’s time for our EY production, The

True Story of the Big Bad Wolf on Wednesday 23rd

March. Looking for-

ward to seeing you all there.

Valentine’s Day! 100 Days of School

Mother Tongue Day

After six weeks of intensive and fun science investiga-

tions under the organising theme" How the World

Works," the Year 2s organised a Science Morning. This

was to showcase all the knowledge and skills they had

acquired through various learning activities. A big thank

you to all the parents for making time for the event.

From the Early Years Coordinator: Mrs Karen Hedstrom

Sara Holbrook and Michael Salinger are teaching artists who inspire and engage students as they build literacy skills and find their own voic-es. We invited Sara and Michael to our school on Monday 8

th February

2016. The Primary students at ISL were very privileged to have an excit-ing poetry assembly followed by a fun-filled day of poetry writing work-shops.

Sara Holbrook is a full time educator, author/poet and consultant who brings practical knowledge to the classroom helping students to develop the complex thinking and literacy skills they will need to succeed in the 21st century workplace. With over 30 years’ experience, she is also the author of more than a doz-en books for children, adults and teachers as well as an award-winning performance poet. A fre-quent keynote speaker, she shows teachers how to use writing and oral presentation exercises in order to help raise vocabulary and other literacy skills.

Michael Salinger has been writing and performing poetry and fiction for over 30 years. His work has appeared in dozens of literary journals published in the U.S.A. and Canada.

Michael is the founder of the teen writing and performance pro-gram at Cleveland's Playhouse Square Foundation, the second largest performing arts center in the United States after Broad-way.

He is now a full time educator/consultant bringing practical knowledge to writing instruction.

From the Upper Primary Coordinator: Mrs Tasneem Mohmed

ISL Headlines! Page 4

Poets in School

The violin

Under the bright light Near the long bow

Beside the confused boy On the wide wooden ta-

ble In the black velvet case

The lovely violin sits

By Ella Armstrong

The man is scared

In the middle of nowhere

Among dark clouds

Through an angry mist

On shaking ground

Upon a baby’s sandals

Without a sword or horse

With sweat on his face

Like a fly in a trap

Underneath a heavy helmet

Beyond Rome he travels

Although he is a great soldier

The man is scared.

By Nangamika Mwondela

Welcome back to all our parents and students! It is good to see the students refreshed and eager to get back to the classroom. On Thursday 11

th February, our very own teaching assistants had a workshops on Nu-

micon and use of iPads in Upper Primary. Numicon is a new maths program that has been introduced in early years and it was good to see teacher assistants engaged and building numbers using different shapes and structures.

Thank you to Mrs. Amanda Garraway and Mrs. Arbory McNulty for leading these workshops.

We had another exciting workshop on Wednesday 17th February, when parents were guided into a hi-tech

world where they had an opportunity to explore and discover how Managebac works. This platform opens doors for parents to monitor their child’s progress on a daily basis and allows them to communicate with teachers instantaneously. Furthermore, Education City was presented in order to provide parents with ideas on how to help their child at home whilst enjoying the lessons and activities on offer and acquiring the neces-sary skills

The Action Cycle

May I take this opportunity to share one important component of the PYP: the Action Cycle (REFLECT, CHOOSE & ACT). At ISL, we encourage students to act on what they are learning and by reflecting on their learning, students can make a choice and take action. Students are expected to initiate action that demon-strates deeper learning through service to peers, our school, their homes and our community. Action can be taken as a group working collaboratively or individually. It could be simple action, such as when year 2 stu-dents share and advocate for healthy food at home during their healthy life unit. Another example is when students request additional books to learn more about the unit they are studying in class. What’s more, action can be a large project. For instance, last year, the Year 6 students collected items to give to street kids and orphans.

It is very useful for us to see what action your child has been taking at home-related to their units of inquiry. We have been sending home an action form at the end of each unit. Please remember to record any learning, action or inquiry your child has demonstrated in that particular unit and return the form to school.

Wishing you all a happy and peaceful year!

Message from the IBPYP Coordinator: Mrs Grace Kambeu

ISL Headlines! Page 5

The Secondary school has a lot going on these days, both at the academic and admin-

istrational levels.

Year 11 and 13 have just finished off their trial exams, and are now heading into the

home stretch, completing internal assessments and preparing for the final exams com-

ing up in just a few months. Sensible time management including plenty of sleep and

healthy eating/exercise habits will prepare the mind and body for April, May and June. Subject teachers will

be organizing review material to ensure all students have covered the syllabus material over the past two

years of the programme.

Parents and students should remember that all academic departments are part of the afterschool academic

support programme. I strongly urge students and parents to take advantage to these extra-help sessions.

The schedule has been emailed in the past, but contact the office if you need a copy. N.B. Modern Language

(French and Spanish) classes now take place on Tuesday, not Monday.)

It seems to be warming up a bit lately and that may be the reason we are seeing more students pushing the

limits of our dress code. ISL students have considerable freedom about which clothes to wear to school, and

generally students dress appropriately. As a reminder, excessively short, tight or revealing clothing is not al-

lowed. Clothing which depicts illegal substances or has profane language on it is equally inappropriate. Stu-

dents who are not able to dress in accordance with the dress code will be asked to return home to change

into suitable clothing. If students need more clarification on this, please ask them to see me.

Academic Updates:

Middle School: ISL welcomes International Middle Years Curriculum (IMYC) trainer Ms Tracey Cripps who

will conduct the in-house professional development from Thursday to Saturday this week. This intensive

training will support our implementation of the IMYC in Years 7 and 8 in the next academic year. Implementa-

tion in Year 9 will start in August 2018. This will provide ISL with three excellent curricula in the Secondary;

IMYC > IGCSE > IBDP. Parent information evenings on the IMYC will take place on our return in August.

High School: In our continuing efforts to make the IGCSE and IBDP programmes the best in the region, we

would like to inform you of the following additions to both programmes in the coming academic year:

IGCSE: Economics and Global Perspectives

IBDP: Economics and Computer Science

More details on these and other changes will be given at the upcoming IGCSE and IBD programme infor-

mation evenings.

Message from the Secondary Principal Mr Craig Patterson

ISL Headlines! Page 6

It has been a long time since our last newsletter contribution and the IBDP stu-dents have been very busy in the last couple of months.

The IBDP 2 students sat their trial examinations in January and following their results, some students have been assigned to the Tuesday IBDP clinic until study leave, in order to give them the opportunity to work on their weak subjects under supervision. They are also expected to make use of the subject clinics after school. The study leave for the IBDP2 students will start on the 23

rd April

and the IB examinations will start on the 2nd

May 2016.

This term the IBDP 1 students have officially started the Extended Essay process and are currently working on a research question. They have also been formally introduced to the beginning of their active university search and application process. They have begun to meet with Ms. Leah Rapaport on a bi-weekly basis in order to gain insight into the particulars of attending university in different countries. So far this term, they have participated in a virtual visit with one of the top universities in France, Sciences Po, and have the opportunity to participate in an upcoming in-person information session with a representative from the University of Victoria (Canada). In conjunction with Columbia University (USA), Sciences Po offers a unique Dual BA program that allows students to spend half of their time in New-York and the other half in Paris. The University of Victoria offers over 100 differ-ent programs of study on their beautifully located campus in British Columbia (Canada). We contin-ue to look forward to connecting our students with a variety of top universities from around the world.

N. Vignard L. Rapaport

IBDP Coordinator College Counsellor

Year 11 finished their trial exams in January and after a successful Stu-dent-Parent-Teacher Conference, they are now fully engaged in the last preparations for their final examinations, starting on April 26

th.

The practical IGCSE examinations, like Art and the oral examinations in the Foreign Languages and ESL are conducted in March. Music, PE and ICT practical work/coursework will be done by mid- April. For Year 9 there are 2 important events: The parents of Y9 students are invited to attend the IGCSE INFORMATION evening on Wednesday 9

th March in the Fine Arts building from 18.30 -

19.30. We hope to inform you adequately in order for you to make the right option choices for your children when they join Y10. On Wednesday 16

th March, the Year 9 student will have a Year 10 in-

duction day: They will follow a 25-minute sample lessons in all the option subjects. These short les-sons should give them a flavour of the variety of subjects on offer and help them decide whether the subject meets with their needs or expectations. Have a short but great Easter break.

Secondary ISL Headlines! Page 7

IB Corner! From Nathalie Vignard

From the IGCSE coordinator: Mr R Van de Velde

CONTACT US The International School of Lusaka

6945 Nangwenya Road

Lusaka, Zambia

Phone: +260 211 252291

Fax: +260 211 252865

E-mail: info@islzambia.org

www.islzambia.org

http://www.cois.org/ http://www.cie.org.uk/

http://www.neasc.org/ http://www.ibo.org/ http://www.pamojaeducation.com/

This term we have a new community service project at the Children’s Cancer ward at UTH. The ward has about 35 patients from 2-16 at any one time and has benefit-ed from considerable support from the local community over the year to improve the facilities and provide drugs. Depending on their treatment the children may spend many months or even a year in the ward. There is a very pleasant playroom but it is kept locked because it is empty and does not have any toys for the children to play with. 4 ISL students are now going on a weekly basis to do activities with the children who are thrilled to have some stimulation. They are also helping with very practical improvements to the playroom: so far they have thrown away rubbish, put pictures on the walls and taken the carpet for cleaning.

The students are also having a toy and book drive to stock the playroom. If you have toys or children’s books at your home which are no longer in use, please con-sider donating them to this worthy cause. The following items would be especially appreciated:

Imaginative play: teasets, cooking sets, wendy house, dolls, cars etc

Constructive play: duplo, lego, other construction toys Puzzles, games Markers, crayons, colouring books Picture books

There are boxes around school for the books and toys – please be generous and send those toys and books which are clutter-ing up your home to where they will be much appreciated!

ISL Headlines! Page 8

CAS NEWS by Mrs Cherry Gough