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Message from the Head of School

Dear IGBIS Parents and Community Members,

We had a very positive PVO meeting this week where parents in groups discussed the topic ‘How do our interactions build community?’ There were some animated and thoughtful discussions with some encouraging responses around the three main prompts of what the PVO looks like, feels like and sounds like.

The PVO looks like:  

• A big family where we are growing together and learning to live with each other. We need to encourage parents to attend the PVO meetings so that they can lead and guide different events
• There is a good balance between school, teachers and parents.
• The PVO is a purpose-driven group with good processes in place.
• It is a fun, distributive leadership and partnership that is organised, with clear guidelines regarding the partnership.
• We are working towards the primary objective.

The PVO feels like:

• The PVO is supportive – we are free to ask questions.
• Language liaison
• Encouragement
• Confidence building
• Keep this simple: Sense of belonging
• Fun, positive, energy, exciting
• Sharing and interaction
• Family, friendly, approachable, supportive, sensitive to needs
• Supportive and receptive to parent ideas
• Not emotional, not personal
• Official at appropriate times, happy, equality
• Children are the centre of our thinking/acting – not to take things personally
• Clear expectations with guidelines – common language and understanding

The PVO sounds like:

• Busy
• Multi-lingual
• Excitable
• Dynamic
• Fun
• Laughter
• Enjoyment
• Good momentum
• Informative interactive
• Comfortable
• Positive interactions
• Close-knit
• Accepting the positive with the negative
• A family where everyone is respected and listened to.
• Working as a team; not shouting, but discussing passionately.

There were some excellent ideas for things that we might do to further build community in the school such as:

• Family fun day and sports day
• Movie under the stars
• Family potluck
• Grade-level parties
• Craft activities with food
• Purpose driven Whatsapp groups that contain facts only
• The PVO has the Learner Profile at its heart. This creates continuity and consistency

Please visit our PVO section of the school Splash Page for more information about the PVO and the meeting this week.

Mrs Anne Fowles | Head of School

News from Elementary School

The best words to describe this week in the Elementary school are risk takers and experiential learning. On Tuesday and Thursday this week we had our Music academy concerts. This showcased the growth the students have made with their instrumental playing over the course of the semester. Seeing students standing up in front of their peers, teachers and parents as an audience, can be quite imposing.  The supportive community we have enabled the students to be risk takers and give their all. Mistakes were made, however having the courage to keep going is an important trait to develop and our students showed their resilience by being able to carry on. A big thank you to Ms. Hadewych and the music instrumental teachers for making this possible.

Our Elementary students were also competing this week in not only sport, but the AIMS maths competition. These were huge learning experiences. The Grade 4 students not only had team mathematical problems to solve they had individual ones too. It seems like the ‘murder mystery’ challenge was a hit with the students and they felt proud of themselves as they found out who the murderer was.

The Elementary students were also playing football against other schools this week. These games were a chance for them to try out their team formation, positional responsibilities and to compete against another team. Whilst the results did not go our way, the experience will stand us in good stead against other schools in the KLISS tournament. Thank you to the coaches of the teams and to the parents who went to cheer them on.

Dates for your diaries

• Monday 21st January: Public holiday
• Friday 25th January: Semester 1 reports go home
• Monday 28th January: ES sports day
• Friday 1st February: Chinese New Year assembly, Theatre 1.30pm

Simon Millward | Elementary School Principal

News from Secondary School

Season 2 of our athletics and activities programme is underway and this is a significant part of the life of the secondary school. Several basketball fixtures are taking place or scheduled and we are fortunate to now have very large teams of students who are interested in participating. Participation in a host of other activities is also very high, as preparations are underway for another student-led production in Semester two, recycling initiatives, and a variety of other CAS/Service/Arts related activities. Many examples of these were on display in our Student Council Assembly this past Tuesday.

Looking forward, as we begin Semester 2 our expected changes to the Host Nation course will take effect from January 25th, on a Day 1. MYP students will have some modification to their timetables as a result; Managebac will be updated with the new timetables on the 24th of January. Next week we will also send off 11 MYP students to Chiang Mai, Thailand to participate in the ISTA festival, accompanied by Mr. Cant and Ms. Dujardin.This should be a very exciting trip and illuminating experience for the participants. Finally, we will issue reports to students and parents via Managebac on January 25th.

Sincerely yours,

Michael Arcidiacono | Secondary School Principal

Elementary Cafeteria Art House Event

The IGBIS Grade 5 House Captains were thinking about a way to make the elementary cafeteria more beautiful and exciting. To go with the house team seating areas that we arranged we decided to do some artwork. The activity was held last week. There were two different activities that Elementary Students could do. These were painting and cutting and pasting!

Painting activity

In the painting activity, we had Kindergarten,Grade 2, Grade 3, and some Grade 5 students participating. We had white art paper – A4, A5, A3 paper, green paint, white paint and many other interesting items that students loved to paint with. All of the students were so focused, even the kindergarten students really created some impressive work. Something that surprised me the most was the communication and cooperation of all the students. All the students enjoyed painting so much, that they almost used up all the paint! There was also some group work going on, making a big piece with many students. It was also a chance to get to know the other people in the same house. At the end we had some spare time, so we got to play some fun games that everyone enjoyed. After that, when it was cleaning time, all the house members helped the teachers to clean up the big mess, which made the clean up progress faster, and it ended up much cleaner. At the end, all the art supplies were clean (Ms. Eli will be very happy)  and all the tables were shining. When the students left, the drying racks were packed with paintings, there were so many pieces of art that the tables were also covered. I am very grateful for that day, and I am proud being the Terra Team Captain.

Chloe | Terra Team Captain

Terra Team Captain

Cutting and pasting activity

I worked with 5M, Grade 4, and Grade 1. The kids were very responsible and were showing the learner profiles throughout the day. They were being thinkers when they were making their beautiful artwork and were communicating well when they needed something, wanted help, were sharing their ideas, or wanting to show their art work to the group. Everyone was using a variety of tools to make the students artwork unique, some used coloured paper, plain white paper, magazines and different tools to make them beautiful. Everyone was kind towards each other and that was very good. Everyone was enthusiastic about making the art and everyone was participating. People in groups cooperated fantastically and, best of all, everyone looked like they were having a great time. The little kids interacted with the big kids and got to know each other better. That raised the House spirit. Overall the day was fantastic and it was good way to create House spirit!  

Tilly | Ignis Team Captain

Instrumental Music Academy Concerts

As Semester One draws to a close, students participating in the Instrumental Music Academy were given the opportunity to show the school community what they had learned over the semester. Featuring violinists, guitarists, pianists and singers, the performances were a fabulous showcase of our students’ talents. Not only did the audience get involved, singing and clapping in time to some of the songs, but the performers showed their support for each other, helping and encouraging their fellow performers when they needed a boost.

Special thanks must go to Ms. Hadewych for keeping the Instrumental Music Academy flame burning bright, as well as to our wonderful tutors who continue to inspire our students.

Chinese New Year in the Elementary Library

Ms. Usa and Ms. Fatin have been busy decorating the Elementary Library in preparation for the upcoming Chinese New Year celebrations. The main display table has many books about this festive event ready for students to borrow.

Don’t forget that parents are able to borrow books as well as students, so why not visit the library to see what is available.

Grade 1 parents “tune-in” with their children

Grade 1 students have just begun a new Unit of Inquiry, How We Express Ourselves, with the central idea “Important personal and cultural events are expressed through celebration”. To explore this idea further, parents were invited to class on Friday morning to explore what different celebrations mean to their children and their own families. Mums, Dads and children sat together and explored some meaningful celebrations and asked why, why, why? While the answers started out quite varied, they all seemed to end up with a similar idea: that being around loved ones is important during times of celebration and we celebrate to be with, or remember loved ones.