27th September 2013
newsletter D
ear ISHCMC community
I had the pleasure last week to visit and participate in some of the secondary school field trips which took place in a variety of locations in Vietnam. It was wonderful to see the enthusiasm across the year levels as students were challenged in a broad range of pursuits. I also learnt that my mountain biking years have well and truly passed me by! Outdoor activities are an important part of the development of our children. To be taken outside ones comfort zone and to accomplish what one may have thought would be unachievable, is not only satisfying but also builds selfconfidence and self-belief. I congratulate the staff who guided each grade level through their various activities. It is a big commitment to give of their time, expertise and energy, as well as carrying a good deal of responsibility to ensure that our students obtain the greatest possible benefit from their field trip week.
Simon Leslie Headmaster
The School is currently investigating ways and means of upgrading our school communications systems. Shortly an SMS system will be introduced. This will enable the School to contact parents with a brief message should there be an urgent need to do so. Within the next two weeks we shall experiment with the system to ensure that it is working. So please expect a test run at some point in time! The Celebrations of Cultures will be held on Thursday 10th October. The reputation for this annual event has traveled far and wide, so as a new member of the staff at ISHCMC I am particularly looking forward to it. Please note that at the end of the event at the Parklands field all students will return to school for the continuation of lessons until the end of the school day. With kind regards. Simon Leslie
D
ear Parents,
I hope you have had a good couple of weeks. I certainly have, and I want to share two different experiences that I have enjoyed since I last wrote to you. The first was the fun, excitement and challenge that I witnessed on the faces of students as I visited the Secondary School field trips. I was fortunate to be able to visit the Grade 7, 9, 10 and 12 trips on site and speak with Grade 6 and 8 students at school. All the students that I spoke to seemed to be having a great time. Now this year’s Secondary Trips are over we will be carrying out a general SWOT analysis, talking to teachers and students and looking to build a scope and sequence of activities that provide students with age appropriate challenges whilst teaching leadership, interdependence, collaboration and general outward bound survival skills.
Adrian Watts
Director of Academic Studies Deputy Headmaster
The other experience that has excited me this past two weeks is an interaction I have had with a primary student regarding his passion for scientific discovery. As Academic Director it is always makes me excited when a student comes to talk to me about their passion for learning and to be a witness to students carrying out real inquiry is one of the reasons I love my job so much. To sit with a young man whose eyes are twinkling with excitement as he discusses his idea and what hypothesis he wants to test and then to have a return visit to be told about the results, look at his observations and data and be part of the brainstorming for the next phase of the experiment. It is at moment like these that one realizes there is no better job than teaching. It is our hope that through inquiry based learning, that is a fundamental part of all three of the IB programmes at ISHCMC we can ignite this sort passion in all our students be it for science, mathematics, literature, physical education, the arts etc. For most of us inquiry based learning wasn’t invented when we were at school and our experience was aimed more at memorization and regurgitation of the information that the teacher told us. Hence I have included this very short and simple video on inquiry teaching that will help to illustrate a small part of why and how this technique is applied to modern classrooms. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLQPXd8BiIA And here is a short TED talk which further promotes the power of inquiry for developing/ maintaining the curiosity of students as they move through school. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsYHqfk0X2A I would also like to take this opportunity to let you know that the first round of MAP testing in both Primary and Secondary has been taking place this week from Grades 3 to 10. The importance of MAP testing is first and foremost to show that your child had been making progress during the year. It is important to remember that every child has different strengths and weaknesses and will therefore score differently from their friends. The MAP test is one test at one point in time. It does not measure intelligence or a student’s capacity for learning. Consequently there are no good or bad scores in MAP testing, each score is individual to your child and their teacher to be used to identify areas for growth, additional focus or extension. The primary reason for the tests is therefore not to compare your child’s score with all your child’s friends, but rather to see the growth in learning that they have made during a year and use this as a diagnostic tool to analyse progress in both mathematics and reading. In addition teachers will be looking at the results to analyse student understanding, unexpected results and effectiveness of their practice in general. Having students take MAP tests is important for us as a school because they provide external assessment data that we can use to ascertain the success of our programmes and pedagogy of instruction in relation to individual academic student development, and help us ensure we are fostering individual achievement in our students. If you would like to read more about current educational practice, including inquiry based learning then please visit the blog that I have created for ISHCMC parents at www.4u2nomore.blogspot.com Have a great weekend, Yours, Adrian
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