IGBIS Weekly Newsletter. Issue 86, Week 3, September 2016.

IGB International School’s Weekly Newsletter - Issue 86, Week 3, September 2016

• IGBIS Malaysia Day Assembly. ~ September 15th, 2016.

Inside this week’s Newsletter Message from Head of School Mrs. Anne Fowles Head of School ....................................................................................

News from Elementary School Mrs. Claire McLeod Elementary School Principal ....................................................................................

From the Secondary School Principal Mr. Michael Arcidiacono Secondary School Principal ....................................................................................

Parent Workshop Day Mr. Phil Clark MYP Coordinator ....................................................................................

Diploma Programme & GIN at IGBIS Mary Boyd DP Coordinator ....................................................................................

Parent Volunteer Organisation Julie Arcidiacono Community Support & Services Coordinator

Upcoming Event US, Canadian and Dutch University Fair at IGBIS Tuesday, September 27th 2016 8:00 am - 10:00 am

IGBIS

Message from Head of School Dear IGBIS Parents and Community Members, The Malaysia Day assembly really showed the tapestry of Malaysia with nearly all of our students and staff (and a number of parents too!) dressed in national clothing. We learnt a lot about Malaysian history and culture, from the

Next week our secondary school students will be going away on camp. This is an excellent opportunity for them to build team-building skills, independence and get to know each other more in a setting outside of school. The camps also have aspects of service learning and outdoor education.

Representatives of the IB are visiting the school on September 22 and 23, to conduct a verification visit for our Primary Years Programme. Preparation for the visit has taken place over many months as our elementary teachers

secondary student presentations. But it was the elementary students who stole the show with their singing and dancing.

We were again reminded of the wonderful community that is IGB International School as we celebrated this national event.

and PYP Coordinator (Simon Millward) continue to refine our curriculum. We are confident that all is in readiness for the visit, but at the same time appreciate the chance to hear the perspective of the visiting team.

It has been a short but busy week. I hope that all of our IGBIS families enjoy a relaxing long weekend

Mrs. Anne Fowles Head of School

News from Elementary School Our Malaysia Day Assembly was enjoyable and informative, with songs, presentations and a dance performed by students from across the school.

Thank you to Ms Diane Douglas and Ms Dianti Ranofla for organising this assembly.

Next week the Elementary School will have two visitors from the International Baccalaureate here to review our Verification application as an IB PYP school. We are looking forward to receiving their feedback which will help guide our way forward.

I hope everyone enjoys another lovely long weekend.

Until next time,

Mrs. Claire McLeod Elementary School Principal

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Igniting Minds

Impacting Lives

News from Secondary School It has been a short week but a busy one in the Secondary School. With Camps Week around the corner, everyone has been busy preparing themselves to face new challenges, forge stronger friendships with fellow students, and develop themselves in ways beyond academics. The camps websites have been launched and are available for parent viewing. The websites will be the main form of communication for how the community will be updated.

Hopefully, internet connections will cooperate!

Meanwhile, Grade 12 students will be busy with a variety of tasks next week - science projects, oral commentary tasks in English, university preparation, registering for their IB exams, to mention just a few. They will get a bit of

fun, however, with a Grade 12 outing next week - a well deserved opportunity to maintain balance.

I learned quite a bit more about Malaysian culture on Thursday, thanks to the presentations and performances of our students and staff during our Malaysia Day Assembly.

I am thankful for the work of our emcees Balqis and Adrianna, organisers Ms Douglas & Ms Ranofla, and all the students and staff who helped make the day a celebration of our host country.

Michael Arcidiacono Secondary School Principal

Parent Workshop Day - MYP CONCEPTS and CONTEXTS Phil Clark

Middle Years Programme Coordinator .......................................................................................

The workshop begins at 8:00am in the School Library on Level 5.

8:00 - 9:45 am

Introduction & Inquiry

In last week’s newsletter I wrote about how the IB Middle Years Programme is structured around conceptual understandings that are taught through real world contexts.

9:45 - 10:00 am

Break & Refreshments

10:00 - 11:30 am

Action

11:30 - 11:45 am

Break & Refreshments

Next Friday 23 September we will organise a full day for parents to experience learning through concepts and contexts. In the morning parents will have the opportunity to participate in a hands-on mini unit of inquiry that will simulate how Grades 6-10 students learn and are assessed in MYP. In the afternoon parents are invited to join our Grade 12 IB Diploma Programme students who will be presenting the collaborative, interdisciplinary science projects that they have been conducting throughout the week.

11:45 am - 1:00 pm

Reflection & Conclusion

1:00 - 1:45 pm

Lunch provided from school cafeteria

1:50 - 3:00 pm

DP Group 4 Science Project Presentations

If you would like to join us, please click this link to register: https://goo.gl/forms/SaaLnK76yng7ZRg13

Diploma Programme Mary Boyd

DP Coordinator .......................................................................................

G12 Camp Week During Camp Week, 20-23 September, the G12s will remain in school.

As outlined last Wednesday morning, the schedule for the week is as follows:

Extended Essay (EE) Camp Week opens with an EE overview, to check everyone is aware of our and the IBO’s requirements. Students will be reminded of the requirements of the EE, as stated in the IBO’s subject guide criteria, and of the importance of Academic Honesty and of the deadline dates, which are 24-28 Oct for the draft, and 13-17 Feb for the final Extended Essays.

G12 students will then be split into groups for the EE workshops, to check progress, gain advice and continue working on their EE. The EE supervisors that remain in school for the week are Miss Heys, Mr Spivey-Jones, Mr Evans, Mr Thompson and Mr Aherne. The 12 students of Ms Chotard, Mr Watters, Mr Hawkes, Ms Kelly and Mr Marshall will be assigned to one of the remaining EE supervisor’s group, for the purposes of these workshops.

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Group IV Project, ToK, College Counselling, bowling trip and registration for IBDP Exams The rest of the week will concentrate on the Group IV Project, interpersed with some ToK, College Counselling, registering for IBDP exams and, to lighten things up, a bowling trip to 1Utama on Wednesday afternoon.

was shown on Wednesday morning.

The Group IV Project The Group IV Project is an interdisciplinary, collaborative experience for students to analyse a common scientific or technological topic or problem, with emphasis on the processes involved, the skills of planning, acting upon findings and evaluation. Each G12 student will work in groups on a common task.

IBDP Exam Registration G12 students have been asked to complete a registration form to confirm their full name and list of DP subjects. This is to make sure that the name used to register students for the IBDP exams, is the same as that on their passports. Each G12 student will be registered one-by-one with me, the schedule for which

G12 Students in a normal Chemistry class of Ms Settle, titrating sodium hydroxide against vinegar so they can calculate the exact concentration of ethanoic acid in the latter.

G12’s Camp Week culminates in the G12 students’ Group IV presentations on Friday afternoon, starting at 1:50pm, in the science rooms, to which we welcome parents openly and warmly. We hope to see as many of you there as possible.

GIN: Global Issues Network, at IGBIS

by Mary Boyd

Our first few GIN meetings have been spent discussing some of the most prominent global issues, trying to agree on those we wish to tackle first,

and in formulating a plan to take these issues beyond the group, into the IGBIS communty and beyond.

Last week’s GIN meeeting was led by our President, Charlene (G12) and this week’s was chaired by Rachel (G11).

This year, the GIN club will have the opportunity to work alongside Achievers Academy, a refugee school (formerly known as Pandawas).

We a plan to increase awareness of the importance of recycling within our school through creating a notice board which will provide useful information. We hope to place recycling boxes around school and possibly link a house competition with our recycling program. We also plan to work with the less fortunate at a local home for children during the winter holidays.

Last year the GIN club conducted ‘Nepal Week’ and had planned IGBIS’s very own Earth Day dress up in hopes of being able to make the student body aware of what’s happening to our world. The RM600 that was raised from the Earth Day bake sale went towards buying supplies for Paws Animal Welfare Society (PAWS).

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Parent Volunteer Organisation Julie Arcidiacono

school Splash page, ManageBac, etc. We will ask Geoff to conduct another how to session at our next meeting on Thursday 20 October.

Our first PVO meeting for the new school year was held last Wednesday with a good number of parents from many grade levels attending. We discussed the aims of the PVO and began thinking about some of the upcoming events we have planned, including a Picnic at the Park, the 24hr Race, and December Bazaar. If you would like to be part of these organisational teams, please do let me know!

Our very own PVO website has recently been launched at https://sites.google.com/igbis.edu.my/pvo (or click on the Parent Volunterer Organisation tab on the school webpage).

The site is still a work in progress, with additional content (and beautification) to be added in the coming weeks, but we have already made available meeting presentations, meeting minutes, upcoming PVO-related dates and contact information for each Class Representative. We also have links to ongoing sign-up sheets for events, which parents are welcome to join at any time: more volunteers is definitely merrier when strengthening our community!

Community Support & Services Coordinator .......................................................................................

Another highlight of our meeting was having Geoff Derry, our Technology Integrator, speak about creating and managing Google profiles as a way to easily alternate between school and personal emails and subsequently, the

Open Day September 24th 10.00am to 1.00pm - Please tell all your friends!

We are having our first Open Day for the year on Saturday 24th September from 10.00am to 1.00pm and would like to see as many people as possible attend. We are hoping that lots of the people that we talked to at our ‘Edu-booth

at Gardens Mall’ will come to see the school and learn more about our programmes. We would really appreciate it, if you could spread the word to any of your friends or colleagues who you think might be interested.

Igniting Minds

Impacting Lives

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