Newsletter of International School Suva
The last day for our IB students
Ta l a n o a Counselors Corner
08 August, 2014
Volume 5
Do you remember your last day at school? It is such a significant event and yet the IB examinations which begin today are the focus and for most of our Year 12 students leaving school does not seem quite real yet. It
25 May 2012
Electronic copy available at http://www.international.school.fj/docs/talanoa.pdf Electronic copy available at http://www.international.school.fj/docs/talanoa.pdf
Volume 8
Inside This Issue: * Principal’s Report * Year 7 Camp Experience * ISS Nets take to nationals
* Primary Perspective * Advertisements * Fun Day Updates * Upcoming Events Term 3 * ISS Healthy Smart Choices Policy
Principal’s Report Dear Parents and Guardians, Welcome back to the third term of 2014 and the seventh issue of Talanoa. This term started with much excitement as we prepared for Fun Day. The day itself was a tremendous success and on behalf of the entire school community I thank Lydia Sprankle, Patricia Evers and their PTFA team for organising such a great day. Whilst we all experience the day and appreciate the many and diverse foods, activities and games on offer, of course this is not achieved without an enormous amount of hard work. The PTFA working with ISS’s Events and Marketing coordinator, Salote Narayan, make it look easy, but we all know how much time and effort is put in to make the day a hit. It remains the favourite day of the school year for many of the students and I know the upcoming period of reflection will focus on how to make it even better for next year. Earlier this term we said goodbye to Dinaulu Neilako and Mereoni Rosova, who both left ISS to take up positions in the UAE, and in their places we welcomed Chelsea Bulmer and Buffy Jack. Chelsea graduated from Ballarat University, Australia with a Bachelor of Primary Education in 2013. As a newly-qualified teacher she comes to ISS fresh with new ideas, enthusiasm and energy. Buffy, whilst graduating a few years earlier in 2008 with a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education from the Central Methodist University, comes with equal energy and enthusiasm. They are both welcome additions to our lower primary team. I also welcome David Bennet on to the staff of International School Suva. David has over 20 years teaching experience having qualified as a teacher in 1984 from the University of London. David has experience teaching middle and high school history and English and has been employed on a part-time basis to work with our second language students and lead our self-taught, first language programme. Secondary mathematics has also seen some staffing changes after the unexpected resignation of Ravinesh Chand to take up a position at USP. I would like to thank Sushita Sharma, Ashniel Bijay, Jeshneel Chandra and Megan Navunisaravi for stepping in to teach Mr Chand’s classes whilst a replacement is sought. Thanks also have to go to Carol Yao and Cynthia Chen who continue to teach middle school Chinese whilst we work on securing a permanent teacher for this position. Our building project continues to move on and the building is beginning to take shape. The second floor is about to go up and you can now begin to see what the final building will look like. The weather has been good and Ramesh Narayan, site foreman, and Ram Bali, internal project manager, are happy with the progress. This is all I need to know. I have learnt that when they are happy, I can be happy. Big decisions remain, however, and the burning question is ‘what colour?’ In addition to the new building we are also undertaking painting of some of the old buildings. The facilities committee of the school council has been discussing colours and as yet there is no consensus, what do you think? I am delighted to inform all bus users that the price of the school buses has been reduced from the beginning of this term. The full day, termly pass has been reduced to $170 and the one way, termly pass to $85.00. A casual pass has also been reduced to $2.50. Finally, the year 5s deserve a special mention. They are all in the middle of their exhibition research and preparation. This significant body of work marks the beginning of the end of their time in our primary school and their transition into the secondary school. They have a few weeks left before the exhibition presentation and I look forward to seeing all they have done.
Anna Marsden Principal