ACG School Jakarta August 2020 Newsletter

AUGUST NEWSLETTER

EVENT OF THE MONTH Diploma Programme Retreat

In This Issue Diploma Programme Retreat Page 1

Message from the Principal Page 2

Message from the Vice Principal Page 3

Upcoming Events Page 3

Learning at ACG School Jakarta Page 4

Student Leadership Page 8

Academic Achievement Page 9

Staff Updates The start of the academic year often presents challenges with new faculty, students and families settling in and adjusting to life in Jakarta and the new school. However, this year presented a whole new level of ‘challenge.’ Like many other schools across the Inspired Education Group of schools, our tight-knit community embraced the challenges by working together, communicating online frequently and solving problems with a positive and creative mindset.

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Events Page 12

Whole School Updates Page 16

Academic Calendar Page 14

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Message from the Principal Dear Parents and Caregivers, The start of the academic year often presents challenges with new faculty, students and families settling in and adjusting to life in Jakarta and the new school. However, this year presented a whole new level of ‘challenge.’

Like many other schools across the Inspired Education Group of schools, our tight-knit community embraced the challenges by working together, communicating online frequently and solving problems with a positive and creative mindset.

We would like to warmly welcome our new teachers, students and families once again and trust that the first few weeks of the school year has provided opportunities for you and your son/daughter to meet (virtually) our wonderful school community. We also hope that our returning teachers, students and families have settled into daily routines and have enjoyed meeting some new faces.

We encourage all of our students and parents to be active in seeking information and interact and communicate with teachers and school leaders in a range of different ways. We recognize that people do not learn in the same way and a range of methods should be used to accommodate different learning styles. When gathering information about the School or your son / daughter’s learning at school, there are a number of ways to do this.

The School’s website has information for new and returning families including our updated Parent Essentials page that provides details about our Re-Opening Contingency, Library Portal, Forms, Conferences and Parent Workshops. Our Newsletter and Handbooks page is also useful and gives access to monthly newsletters and the Parent & Student Handbook.

Another method of receiving information is via direct email and we ask that you notify the school if your email details change. It is important for us to have email contact with you so that we can make you aware of special events and activities coming up that are specifically designed for parents.

If you are a WhatsApp user, you can join the ACG School Jakarta WhatsApp group. Year Level Parent Reps will also be nominated soon and will become Admin for the Year Level WhatsApp Groups.

ManageBac is an online planning, assessment, and reporting platform. At ACG School Jakarta, we use ManageBac to take attendance, record assessment data, plan our units, and report on student progress for all students.

Parents can login to ManageBac, where they can access student reports and attendance for their child(ren). Parent guidance for ManageBac is provided by the school. In addition, the Secondary school uses ManageBac to show students’ timetables, issue assessment tasks, provide a calendar of summative assessments, and make course outlines and assessment schedules available to students and parents.

In primary, student learning is kept on the online Seesaw application. Access for parents is available via the Seesaw Family application, which is available as an app for iPhone and Android as well as on your web browser. For information about how you can access your child’s portfolio, please contact their Homeroom Teacher. Teachers and parents may also communicate via the Seesaw chat feature built into the application.

In the coming weeks, we will be setting up parent workshops where we will go over the eCommunication tools we use in School and provide some helpful hints to help you navigate your way through SeeSaw and ManageBac. If you have provided the school with your correct email address, then a ManageBac parent account has already been created and you may have received a welcome message from ManageBac. We ask each parent to sustain a high level of interest and involvement in his/her son / daughter’s learning. We need you to be part of the team of teachers and parents that surround your son / daughter with support as s/he strives to succeed in school. Please join us in feeling very proud to be a part of ACG School Jakarta. We look forward to welcoming you to the School and trust that the year ahead will be a very successful one.

Shawn Hutchinson Principal

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Message from the Vice Principal

Upcoming Events

Dear Parents and Caregivers, It gives me great pleasure to greet you for the first time in my new role as Vice Principal here at ACG School Jakarta!

4 September Parents as Learners:

The school year has started at a very fast pace indeed with the pandemic situation giving our creative problem solving abilities a very good work-out!

University Prep Session

We had some very good examination results in both IBDP and the IGCSE ‘examinations’ despite it being one of the most stressful exam sessions on record.

8 September

This year’s IBDP average points total was 32.6, more than a whole point up on last year’s average!

Year 7 Parent Webinar

As always we will strive to make even more progress this year through supporting our students with even more effective feedback on their studies.

9 September

IGCSE A* awards accounted for 17% of our total grades, a remarkable achievement when you consider that the world average in 2019 was only 10%.

You will most likely be aware that our whole school focus this year is communication.

The reason for this is simple; we believe that better communication means better learning.

Throughout the year I will be running sessions designed to help students, teachers and parents communicate more effectively in different ways and for different purposes.

Part of my role is also to help develop the connectivity of the different school sections through building relationships, skills, the knowledge base and professional development.

Year 8 Parent Webinar 10 September Year 9 Parent Webinar 18 September Whole School Assembly 25 September ACG Community Group Meeting

I look forward to involving you and sharing with you at various points in the year.

The first offering will be a University preparation process workshop next Friday in the first Parents as Learners session of the Year. I will be outlining what ACG School Jakarta can do to help your son /daughter make the best applications at the right time. Helping me in this will be Mr Guy Mills, a University Guidance specialist for our New Zealand schools.

Please do not hesitate to contact me for any reason, my virtual door is always open!

Richard Todd Vice Principal

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Learning at ACG School Jakarta Kindergarten It has been absolutely wonderful to welcome the Kindergarten students back to school and it has been a joy to see their happy, smiley faces on Zoom each and every day! We have been very busy exploring number and repeating patterns in maths, as well as learning the alphabet and new letter sounds in lots of different ways, to develop their pre-literacy skills. Kindergarten students are certainly fast learners! We have been introducing our new Unit Of Inquiry (Who We Are), by thinking about how the students have grown and changed since they were babies. We have seen some very cute baby photos! The Kindergarten team are very proud of the way the students have adapted so quickly to virtual school, new routines, schedules and ways to learn. A special thanks to our amazing parents, who support the students in so many ways, enabling them to experience success and enjoyment in their learning. We really can’t wait to see you all in person!

Primary - Year 4 Year 4 students began the year with discussions on digital citizenship and leadership as we navigate through virtual learning during this pandemic. We invited Head Boy Danu Yulianto and Head Girl Isabel ten Have to share their experience as leaders along with attributes of a good leader. Mr Hutchinson even popped in to join in the discussions. Year 4 students often lead student sharing sessions on Zoom as part of their leadership development.

It is something they are highly enthusiastic about as well seeing it as an opportunity to lead discussions and learn about meeting etiquette. It is a highlight of their week.

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Learning at ACG School Jakarta Primary - Year 4 “Bringing Literacy Alive “ Year 4 Students act out figurative language over a Zoom lesson.

Secondary - Physical Education To start the school year in Physical Education, the year nine’s have begun to learn about the different components of fitness. Up first was the concept of Coordination, which is the ability to link different body parts together for movement. The students reinforced this concept with the practical activity of juggling! They used a ten-minute online video tutorial and recorded their results for submission, a later reflection, and a class discussion. They also covered the concept of Reaction Time, which is the ability of the athlete to react to an external stimulus. After covering this content in class, the students tested their own reaction time using the universally recognized “Ruler Drop Test” for which they compared themselves to established set of standards for their age group. Up next is Cardiovascular Endurance and the “three-minute step test”.

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Learning at ACG School Jakarta Secondary - Biology Year 13 have been studying the anatomy and function of the Heart. As part of the IB DP Biology course students are required to study in depth the numerous organ systems present in humans. The quality of work produced by our senior students is reflective of the high standard and expectations across the school. The above notes are taken from Najma’s (Year 13) online notebook.

Diploma Programme Retreat As far as school year beginnings go, this has to be the strangest one any of us have ever experienced.

We are all trying so hard to keep positive, work hard, be organized, have a sense of perspective and humour, despite all the uncertainty.

And guess what? It seems to be working!

During the DP retreat the Year 12 and 13 students brough with them a fantastic attitude, they knuckled down to hard work and kept each other and themselves happy and focused.

The 12’s made great progress with introductory workshops on the Extended Essay, Theory of Knowledge and CAS and even managed to put in an assignment or two. All of this made possible by some great presentations from Mr McPhee, Mr. Sweales and Mr Campbell.

The Year 13’s made big in-roads into their Extended Essays and made a trial run at the ToK Essay format.

SAT’s and University possibilities were looked at with the help of Mr. Karl Keuroghlian of https://estep.asia/ and Mr. Guy Mills who works with our New Zealand schools.

My favourite session, though was the Alumni and Graduates Q+A. Our alumni panel of Edwin, Anisa and Adinda joined forces with two of my own children, Jack and Molly to give the our students insights into approaching the DP successfully and how to choose a University.

The feeling of camaraderie across thousands of miles was palpable.

Please enjoy these snapshots and wish the classes of 2021 and 2022 all the best in their studies.

Richard Todd DP Coordinator

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Learning at ACG School Jakarta Diploma Programme Retreat Continued

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Student Leadership Head Girl

My name is Isabel ten Have and I am 16 years old and I am Dutch and Indonesian. I have been a student at ACG School Jakarta since 2015 when I joined the school in Year 8. Making many friendships and connections since, including with Danu, it is my pleasure and a wonderful opportunity to take up the role as Head Girl for the Academic Year of 2020-2021. With my previous positions as Cicaks House Captain, Prefect in 2019-2020, having participated and represented the school on the Orcas Swim team, Wolves Senior Volleyball Team, as well as various musical performances, I have had a multitude of great experiences with ACG parents, teachers, staff, and of course, students. I am very excited and looking forward to working with these brilliant people again and seeing what we can achieve this year!

Head Boy

My name is Danujati Yulianto and I’m a 17-year-old Indonesian who enrolled in ACG School Jakarta in 2009, starting when I was in Year 1. Even though I was born in Bandung, Indonesia, I spent the first 6 years of my life living abroad: around 2 years in Saudi-Arabia and 4 years in Egypt before coming back home. Doing sports and playing music are some of my perennial hobbies, which I try to develop in ACG by joining many sports teams and performing in musical events around the school. I’m a regular member of the student council as this is my third consecutive year being a part of it – in Year 11 as a representative, in Year 12 as a prefect and lastly in Year 13 as the Head Boy. I am extremely eager to see what we can do this year as a student council!

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Academic Achievement Cambridge Results ACG School Jakarta is thrilled with their IGCSE Cambridge International results after students received perfect pass rates in the recent assessments.

ACG School Jakarta’s IGCSE Cambridge pass rates for 2020 show an incredibly high level of achievement.

IGCSE pass rate: 100% Additionally, 32% of ACG Jakarta’s IGCSE level papers received an A grade (80% or better) which looks sure to solidify the school’s academic reputation over the coming years.

Special mention must also be made of the exceptional performances of two standout students:

Michelle Wilding Michelle received a remarkable seven A* grades (90% and above) for IGCSE level biology, business studies, English, art and design, global perspectives, Bahasa Indonesian, and English literature, with a further A grade for mathematics.

Raahim Hadi Raahim was awarded an outstanding seven A* grades across his IGCSE subjects. These included mathematics, chemistry, physics, English, global perspectives, English literature, and physical education.

As the number of Cambridge International students continues to grow around the world, it is becoming ever more challenging to achieve top outcomes. With that in mind, these results are a true testament not only upon the school and it’s dedicated teaching staff, but also to ACG Jakarta’s highly motivated students and their extremely supportive families.

Principal Shawn Hutchinson believes these strong results reflect the hard work and dedication of all students across the board.

“After experiencing the final stages of the IGCSE courses under challenging circumstances, we were very pleased with the excellent results our students achieved,” he confirms.

“The IGCSE qualifications continue to provide a solid foundation for students, developing essential approaches to learning skills that will see those moving up to the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) commence their studies with confidence. Congratulations to all of our students. We look forward to working with them over the next two years as we guide and support them through the IBDP.”

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Learning at ACG School Jakarta Student Study Bubbles We continue to actively work with local authorities around the re-opening of the school, but the situation in Jakarta continues to be challenging and we are yet to receive confirmation of a reopening date.

However, we have been working over the past few weeks to introduce families and students to the possibility of Student Study Bubbles. With student, staff and parent health and safety as a priority, we are planning to provide opportunities during the week when students can come to school to receive ‘tutorials’ from their teachers.

We will endeavour to outline how Student Study Bubbles will be managed over the next few days. If you have any questions or concerns, please email Shawn.hutchinson@acgedu.com directly.

Learner Profile of the Month As you know here at ACG School Jakarta, we like to award a ‘Learner Profile of the month’ certificate to our primary students from Kindergarten to Year 6. We would like to continue to do this, but with some small changes: •

Teachers will award a monthly Learner Profile (LP) certificate based on any one of the Ten Learner Profiles (previously the Ten Learner Profiles were divided into ten months and awarded one per month).

•

Teachers will be looking to award a LP certificate to the student who is authentically displaying any of the Learner Profile traits through their learning and what they say, think and do in different ways and different contexts.

•

As ‘Student Agency’ (Voice/Choice/Ownership) and ‘Action’ is central to do what we do here at ACG, by opening up the LP choices, we are able to celebrate what individual students are demonstrating

•

Learner Profile Certificates will be awarded virtually, at the end of every month and posted as a ‘Family Announcement’, so that they can be celebrated with all members of the class community.

•

We will also be looking to award any students that ‘Take Action’ at home and these certificates will be awarded at any time and also shared as a ‘Family Announcement’, so that all class members can see what ‘Action’ looks like and students can learn from one another.

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Staff Update We started this academic year by welcoming new locally hired teachers to take on specialist teaching roles. Ms. Eny Rahayu returned to ACG School Jakarta to take on the teaching of senior Bahasa Indonesia in the Secondary School. Ms Tia Kusmugiarti also returns to the school to take on the primary art teaching responsibilities.

New to the school this year is Ms Samantha Pho who will be teaching Chinese Mandarin across the school.

Samantha brings years of teaching experience and we are looking forward to seeing Ms Samantha inspire more students to take up Chinese Mandarin as a foreign language.

Upon completing her one-year studies at Central Universities for Nationalities in China, Samantha pursued her Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in Chinese Language and Literature from the Communication University of China in Beijing. Before falling in love with teaching in 2016, she pursued a career in the creative industry, divulging in many fields and getting experience working as a Copywriter and Content Editor, as well as a Creative Associate for 3 years.

Now as an enthusiastic and committed educator, she strives to build students’ self-esteem and encourage an understanding of cultural diversity. Her main goal is to provide students with an experience where they can appreciate the journey toward their goals, as much as their accomplishment of the goal itself. Even if it’s a little, progress is still progress. Joining ACG this year, she is excited to provide an inspiring learning experience to her students.

Eny Rahayu received a Bachelor of Humanities Degree with a specialisation in English Literature from University of Indonesia (UI). She has taught in various schools and corporation, teaching for most of grade levels.

Her teaching career spans 12 years and has gained expertise in a variety of teaching methodology through workshops and seminars. During this time, she has been an English teacher, English Instructor for corporate training, English lecturer and Head of Literacy. She loves teaching, cooking and reading. She is a wife and proud mother of one daughter, aged 13 years. Eny is open minded, friendly and energetic. She is looking forward to working collaboratively with students, teachers, parents and guardians in ACG School Jakarta.

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Events

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Events

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Events

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Whole School Updates Learning Resources to Support Virtual Learning Thank you very much for your ongoing support and hard work during this time of Virtual School. Students in the Kindergarten, Primary and Secondary School will be able to collect learning resource packs this week.

To further support the kindergarten and primary students in their home learning activities, we have put together some fantastic resources packs, including art and writing materials, exercise books, paper and other essential stationery items. We hope the students like them.

Please be reminded that when we return to face-to face, on campus learning, all students will need to bring their resources back into school, so that they can continue using them, and ensure materials are not being shared with others (as stated in our ACG Reopening Contingency Plan).

In addition to our student packs, we have our remote online resources available, including school subscriptions and online resources. Please also be reminded that your son / daughter can access our library materials through single sign-on. Click HERE to check our online resources website, which will be updated with resources from time to time.

The resource packs will be available for collection from the school lobby from Wednesday 2 September. Please drive onto the campus and park outside the lobby area. A member of our security team will deliver the student(s) packs to your car. Please do not exit your vehicle.

Parent Information Portal Please visit https://jakarta.acgedu.com/school-information/parent-essentials/ for updated information for parents and students.

Social Responsibility As a community of learners, we have the responsibility to model behaviours and actions that we want our students to display. We are committed to embracing the energy and events of our time to advance social change in the areas of environmental protection, animal welfare and disaster relief.

Parents as Learners Parents are encouraged to visit this section of our Information Portal to learn more about upcoming parent workshops and learning opportunities.

Uniforms: We now have an online uniform order system and would like to encourage parents to use this online service.

Payment can be made easily by bank transfer, credit card or cash.

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Academic Calendar

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Academic Calendar

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