Waterloo Newsletter April 2023

NEWS FROM THE SENIOR LEADERSHIP

Exciting news for thestudents of ISF! On 29 March 2023, ISF launched a future-focused online secondary school. Inventum Online, a subsidiary of ISF, aims to provideaffordable, high-quality, internationally recognised education to students from all over theworld. Thereis also a strong focus on futuretechnologies. In most schools, students are only exposed to a very limited number of these technologies, which areoften doneas an extracurricular activity, perhaps through STEM Club. To ensurethat all students arebest prepared for theworld of tomorrow, it is crucial that they engagein thetechnologies which will shapethe world of tomorrow. ISF and Inventum have partnered with TheKnowledgeSociety (TKS) to deliver thesefuturetechnologies modules to our students.

This partnership is an excellent opportunity for students to learn from industry experts and gain insights into thelatest technological advancements.

What does this mean for students at ISF?They will engagein bespokecourses teaching them about these technologies and their real-world applications and implications. They will apply their knowledgein collaborativeprojects, promoting 21st-century skills, such as group work, resilience, multiculturalism, and ethical considerations.

March 2023

NEWS FROM THE SENIOR LEADERSHIP

ISF Students studying IGCSE and A-Levels also havetheadded benefit of taking courses and subjects which wedo not offer at ISF, for example, Psychology, Sociology, or Computer Science. The numerous subjects weoffer via our onlineschool will benefit ISF students as they can engagewith subjects they arepassionateabout and broaden their knowledgeand skills.

Inventum Onlineprovides an exciting and innovative way for students to learn and preparethemselves for thefuture. With a focus on futuretechnologies, bespokecourses, collaborativeprojects and industry partnerships, students will haveaccess to a high-quality education that is tailored to their needs and interests.

FROM OURLEADERS-HEAD OF PRIMARY

At ISF, onewholeday each term in thePrimary classes across both campuses is dedicated to STEMScience, Technology, Engineering and Mathsfollowing themovement to increaseinvestment in STEM initiatives in schools worldwide. Not only does this aim to equip our students with essential skills for thefuture, thestudents really lovethese days, as they arean opportunity to work collaboratively on a project outsideof their normal lessons.

This term wedecided to try a STEAM activity, STEM plus Art guided by thetheme?Mathematics

Through theArts? .

Our world is a beautiful, complex and intricate tapestry of learning and thePrimary students were thrilled to discover thebeautiful and almost magical relationship between Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths and Art, following in the footsteps of great polymaths likeLeonardo Da Vinci, Khayyam and Zhu Shijie, amongst others.

A programmethat incorporates thearts into the curriculum has been proven to increasecreativity, improveacademic performance, strengthen motor skills, enhancevisual learning, and boost higher decision-making skills. ?ScienceDaily? , a respected American publication, said recently ?Incorporating Art intoMathandSciencewill not only help students becomemorecreativeandbetter problemsolvers, it

FROM OURLEADERS-HEAD OF PRIMARY

will help themunderstandMathandSciencebetter."

Our brief was simple: to find an activity that incorporated Maths into Art. Herearesomeof the results:

Pre-Primary students designed robots thinking about colour, materials and thetask their robot would perform. They then worked as a class to build a larger-than-liferobot!

Year 4 used themathematical tangram as a template, cutting out and creating colourful animals.

Year 6 studied thework of theDutch artist Escher, using repeated tessellation as a basis for watercolour paintings.

Other classes took inspiration from 2D shapes, Rangoli patterns from India, Japaneseorigami, the work of Pablo Picasso, and tiles with geometric patterns from Islamic art and architecture.

Amazing work!

Analida Anguizola

Head of Primary

FROM OURLEADERS-HEAD OF SECONDARY

This year has seen a steady expansion of our modern languages department in Secondary School. At thestart of theyear weintroduced Spanish at Lower Secondary, and now at theend of Term 2, we haveintroduced a new level of French for thesame Key Stage. After English, Mandarin and Hindi, Spanish and French arethefourth and fifth most spoken languages in theworld with 512 million and 284 million speakers respectively.

Why learn another language?Asidefrom thefact that a multilingual person can communicatewith peoplefrom different cultures, being fluent in many languages has a few benefits for theperson.

Several studies haveshown that multilingual people on averagehavesymptoms of Alzheimer's disease appear on averagefiveyear later than monolingual individuals. This, apparently, is dueto increased connectivity in certain areas of thebrain that help to

protect them from dementia. It seems that this connectivity, or thewiring of thebilingual brain, contributes to another advantage, problem solving skills. Switching from onelanguageto another is tantamount to brain gymnastics. This in turn allows thebilingual brain to go on different routes allowing theperson morelateral thinking and creativeways to approach problems.

Most importantly, with each new languagecomes a wholenew way of looking at and interacting with theworld, expanding one's horizon, and enriching one's day to day life.

Nadim Bayeh Head of Secondary

SCHOOL COUNSELOR

Bullying in I nternational Schools: I dentifying, Preventing, and Coping with I t

Bullying is a serious concern in schools worldwide, and international schools arenot exempt from this issue. Students in international schools may bemore vulnerableto bullying dueto theadded stress of adjusting to a new cultureand environment. As a school counselor in ISF, it is crucial for methat our community understand what bullying is, how to identify it, how to prevent it, and how to copewith it effectively.

Bullying is a repeated and intentional use of power, aggression, or force to harm or intimidate another person, either physically or emotionally. This may manifest in different forms, including verbal, social, physical, or cyberbullying.

Parents can play a significant rolein preventing and addressing bullying by identifying early signs at home. Someindicators can bechanges in their child's behaviour, mood, or academic performance, as thesemay indicatethat they arebeing bullied. If your child becomes withdrawn, anxious, depressed, or disinterested in activities they onceenjoyed and developed a fear of attending school, they may be experiencing bullying.

Preventing bullying requires cooperation between parents, educators and thecommunity.

Herearesomestrategies that can help prevent bullying:

- Teach empathy and kindness: Children who learn empathy areless likely to engagein bullying behaviour. Encourageyour child to treat others with kindness and respect. At

SCHOOL COUNSELOR

ISF, weteach this through our PSHE lessons, and it is ingrained in our school values.

- Providea safeand supportiveenvironment: Wehaveclear policies and procedures in place to tacklebullying and providea safeand supportiveenvironment whereall pupils feel valued and respected. It is essential that pupils feel freeto speak to their parents at home.

- Monitor onlineactivity: Cyberbullying is a growing concern, and it is crucial for parents to monitor their child's onlineactivity and teach them safeonlinebehaviour.

- Encourageopen communication: Encourage your child to talk to you or a trusted adult if they experienceor witness bullying. As a school counselor, students know they can talk to meif they feel it is necessary.

Psychological research suggests that parenting stylealso plays a rolein preventing bullying.

Authoritativeparenting, which involves warmth and support combined with clear expectations and boundaries, has been found to bethemost effective parenting stylefor preventing bullying.

Authoritarian parenting, which involves strict rules and punishment, has been found to beineffective and may even increasethelikelihood of bullying.

SCHOOL COUNSELOR

If you or your child is a victim of bullying, it is important to takeaction. Victims should report the bullying to a trusted adult, such as a teacher, counselor or parent. ISF has a protocol for dealing with bullying and supporting victims. However, our students areencouraged to develop coping skills to help them deal with stressful situations. Steps to take if your child is being bullied:

- Listen and offer support: Listen to your child without judgment and offer support and reassurance.

- Report thebullying: Contact us and report the bullying. Wehaveclear procedures for investigating and dealing with incidents of bullying.

- Encourageassertiveness: Teach your child to stand up for themselves and assert their

boundaries calmly and confidently.

- Seek professional help: If your child is experiencing severeemotional distress, seek professional help from a therapist or counselor. However, sometimes bullying can beperceived, but it is natural adolescent behaviour for which it is important to maintain open communication. Cultural diversity can also play a rolein behaviour, which could beseen as bullying, but it is not. Students from different cultural backgrounds may havedifferent social norms and expectations regarding teasing and humour. Weareawareof thesecultural differences, and weteach our students about respectful communication and cultural sensitivity.

SCHOOL COUNSELOR

It is also important to distinguish between teasing and bullying. Whileteasing is often a common and harmless form of social interaction, it can become bullying when it is used to harm or humiliateanother person intentionally. Pupils aretaught to recognise when teasing has crossed thelineinto bullying and how to communicatetheir boundaries assertively.

Students also need to develop resilienceand problem-solving skills to deal with thesesituations.

By teaching students coping strategies through our school system, wecan empower them to handle challenging situations and build their confidence.

As an international school community, we recognisetheprevalenceof bullying and its impact on students. Wearecommitted to preventing bullying and promoting a safeand inclusive learning environment. Our focus is on providing students with tools and skills to recognisebullying, promotecultural sensitivity and respect, and build resilienceand problem-solving skills. Together, we arecreating a supportiveand inclusiveschool community whereall students can thrive.

Juan Francisco Betancourt School Counselor

During our enrichment in Pre-School thestudents havebeen having fun making slimeusing corn flour, water, and food colouring. They explored thetwo properties of theslimeas a solid when touching it, and as a liquid as they picked it up and ran it through their fingers. Thechildren really enjoyed this activity as it was seen on their excited faces.

In our last IPC Unit, Year 1 werelearning all about peoplein thecommunity, thejobs they do and how they help us. Westarted off our unit by investigating thedifferent shops you would find in a town and why they areimportant. Weplanned our own town which wecalled ?Rainbow Town?and thought carefully about how theroads and streets would belayed out in a safeway for pedestrians.

YEAR1

Thenext thing wediscussed werethedifferent types of jobs you would find within a community and why they areimportant. Wehad many discussions about thedifferent peoplewho help us and who wecan turn to if weneed help. Wehad learnt so much about different jobs that wedecided to baseour class assembly on what thestudents wanted to bewhen they grew up.

They had to think carefully about why they wanted to work in theprofession they picked. Thestudents also had to learn a song and perform it in front of all of primary and their parents! All their hard work paid off and they did a fantastic job.

Well doneYear 1!

TheYear 3 students havebecomephysicists over the last few weeks whileexploring new concepts in the IPC unit ?Feel theForce? . They started theunit off with a friendly gameof tug of war wherethe students looked at thedifferent forces that were being used. They then conducted different experiments measuring friction using marbles and different surfacematerials, testing to seewhich surfaces allowed themarbles to go thefastest.

They conducted a fun and entertaining experiment trying to seeif they could pick up icecubes and sugar cubes with chopsticks. This experiment really madethestudents laugh! Wethen moved on to the topic of air resistanceand created our own parachutes and competed against each other to see whoseparachutetook thelongest to fall. Weended theunit by creating marbleruns together in small groups. Thestudents really enjoyed this unit and werevery eager to learn more!

YEAR5

Theyear 5 students had a wonderful timeduring their school trip to theLion?s Mound War Memorial Museum. Thetrip was part of theexit point to our AD 900 IPC unit.

In this unit, thestudents learned about different civilisations, leadership, what holds an empire together, and what leads to its decline.

During our visit to themuseum, thestudents noted many facts about theWaterloo Battle. They learned about theFrench and British empires. Thestudents watched a 3D movieabout thethemeand saw a panorama of thebattle.

When wereturned to class, thestudents wrotea report about theBattleof Waterloo and presented it to their classmates.

CHEMISTRY

In theIGSCE curriculum, welearn about Organic Chemistry. During our learning, wemadea project: making soap at home. It is very easy. You only need 4 ingredients: oliveoil, lye, water, and essential oil which is optional. Thefirst step is mixing thewater, thelyeand theessential oil. Secondly, preparea largesaucepan in which you heat thewater until it reaches 60 ? , then add thelyeto it.

Thirdly, combinethelyesolution with theoil in a pot with thehelp of a stick blender until a ?trace?is reached. Traceis thepoint when themixtureis reacting to form a denser substance. Finally, pour thesoap into a mould. Allow curing in themould for 24-48 hours at room temperaturebefore unmoulding. After thosetwo days, your soap is ready to beused.

PHYSICS BIOLOGY

In Year 7 we areinvestigating Energy. The students are learning about different types of energy and how energy is converted into different forms. In a catapult, potential elastic energy is transferred into kinetic energy. The students used catapults to investigate how changing the force on the elastic band affects the distance that the projectile will travel. They conducted the experiment in pairs, recorded their results, calculated averages and plotted their data in a graph. The students then reflected on the difficulties they encountered taking these measurements and how this might have affected their results.

In AS Biology, wearecoming to theend of our standard level syllabus. Wearecovering a unit on theimmunesystem. Theimmunesystem is complex and thestudents need to remember thenames of all thecomponents and how they interact with each other. In this picture, theAS Biology students are working together to makean annotated diagram of theimmunesystem to consolidatetheir understanding of thetopic.

GEOGRAPHY

Our IGCSE 1 Geography students havebeen busy investigating thecauses and impacts of earthquakes and volcanoes. They created a variety of diagrams about specific earthquakes or volcanic eruptions, using theseto build knowledgeand understanding which they later applied to a successful end of unit test.

Students arenow busy studying settlement and urbanisation, looking at patterns, functions and growth. They havealso been practising their grid referencing along with identifying features and patterns of settlements on a map.

IGCSE 2 Geography students havejust completed their mocks exams and havegonethrough them with Mrs Hodges, identifying theareas that need further revision and which errors need ironing out. They arenow on study leaveworking towards their finals. Wewish them thebest of luck with their revision and final exams.

ISF students have been busy in their Geography lessons this term. Year 7 have been carrying out daily weather observations as part of their fieldwork and have been studying extremes of weather. Recently they investigated the kinetic energy that creates a dust storm, using bouncy balls and table tennis balls to represent the dust particales. They dropped the balls together to see kinetic energy in action. Lots of fun learning took place.

Year 8 have been looking at globalisation, with a link to the book ´The Almighty Dollar.´ They have learnt about how globalisation has changed over time and how it has impacted various aspects of our lives, for the positive and the negative. Students have also created a display to show their ideas, knowledgeand understanding.

In Year 9 the students have been studying the

importance of rivers along with practicing their map skills. Some lovely booklets about the formation of river features were created as too the solving of the ´rock in my wellies mystery´. They are now studying the topic of ´What?s the use - How can Earth meet our resource needs?´, catagorising resources and discussing which are essential to life and which are not. Year 9 students will go on to investigatetheuseof oil, the mining and use of diamonds and the tuna fishing industry as part of their work on this topic.

GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES

ISF students havebeen busy in their Global Perspectivelessons this term. Year 7 havebeen learning about different customs and traditions in the?Diplomacy and National Traditions?unit. They havegiven short presentations of national tradition from their homecountry. Furthermore, they areworking on formulating good research questions and presenting their findings in a creativeand engaging way.

In Year 9 thestudents havebeen studying ?Languages? and impact languages haveon them, thepeoplearound them, and theworld. They haveconsidered the importanceof languageand analysed different scenarios predicting theconsequences they might have on a local, national and global scale. Furthermore, they areworking on writing clear arguments with supporting evidence.

Year 8 havebeen looking at different ?Beliefs about food? . They haveconsidered and discussed the many factors that influencea person?s diet such as a person?s health, environmental concerns, cultural traditions and personal beliefs. Additionally, they arealso practicing their analytical skills, reading texts and identifying different strengths and weaknesses of an author?s arguments.

MATHEMATICS

On Tuesday 14th March wecelebrated The International Day of Mathematics . Why this date? Well theuniversal constant pi (Circumferencedivided by diameter) is approximately 3.142? .. And March 14th? .

Well, what did wedo?

Wehad a poster competition. You can seeall 6 finalists here. Which onewould you havevoted for?

MATHEMATICS

In addition wehad a ?ChineseWhispers?chain whereeach Househad to add a string of numbers together.

Afterwards, Years 7-9 took part in a times table competition and theolder students watched some Maths lectures. You can seethem too hereand here.

Thereal highlight was thepi-down when some students attempted to memoriseas many digits of pi as possible. Wehad so many entries! HereI (Mr. Cavanagh) am with oneof thestudents checking they had it correct.

AS English students researched the variety of narrative writing techniques and determined that Freytag's pyramid is one way of structuring a narrative essay. They discovered that Freytag´s pyramid follows a series of five stages of growing tension and action which is resolved following a dramatic climax. Other narrative structures like Labov?s 6 core elements was also discussed and students were then tasked to plan and produce a narrativeessay of their own.

On Wednesday 15th March, oneof theYear 8 Project Management groups hosted a pyjama day to raisemoney to bolster student council finds. Everyonewho took part paid 50 cents to wear their pyjamas for theday. It was a fun-filled day, and they raised 55 euros. Well doneto all theteam members who organised theevent and a big thank you to thoseof you who took part.

WWF/ITZA EDUCATION

One Planet - Oceans Challenge 2023.

All students in years 7 to 9 took part in the ITZA/WWF OnePlanet, OneOcean Challenge. Each student was given a uniqueusernameto log in with, examples of somearebelow. Thechallengeentailed completing quizzes, watching videos and playing games, learning all thetimeabout our oceans, thelife within them, thethreats and how wecan look after them. Thestudents completed thechallenges and for each onewere awarded points aiming to gain as many as they could. They did a great job, our school finished first on theNational Leaderboard and seventh on the final Global leaderboard. ISFs top players are Mooneagle8754, Tinypanda2237 and Coolturtle

3387. Our year group winners will beannounced soon. A hugethank you and well doneto all.

As Mr Steyn said ´Awesome!´

PRIMARY CLUBS

During Term 1 and Term 2, Primary students werebusy exploring their talents, skills and sharpening their intelligenceand practical abilities by taking part in oneor moreof thenumerous clubs teachers offered, including Arts & Crafts, Multisports, STEM, Board Games, Jewelry and Drama.

STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Students who took part in the sessions had thechanceto cometogether, exploreand havefun with a rangeof activities from building robots and lava lamps, designing towers and bridges and exploring chemistry and mathematical challenges. They developed their problem-solving skills, critical thinking and teamwork abilities. They learned about cutting-edgetechnologies, how theseareconstantly changing theworld around us and had lots of fun!

PRIMARY CLUBS

Thestudents who joined Arts & Crafts had the opportunity to express their creativity and explore different art forms. From painting and drawing to origami art and jewellery, theclub offered a wide rangeof activities to suit all interests. Students also learned about thehistory and cultural significanceof different art forms and developed their skills in techniques such as shading and composition. It was a great way for students to unwind, relax and exploretheir artistic talents!

The Multisports Club was perfect for students who enjoy physical activity and wanted to try out different sports. The club offered a variety of sports including basketball, football, obstacle courses, and track and field. Students could practise new skills and techniques, improve their fitness and develop their spatial awareness and teamwork abilities. It was such an amazing opportunity for students of all ages to come together, work as a team, assist each other and enjoy physical activity after a long school day!

ECO-SCHOOL

Wearepleased to announcethat theEco-Committee has been formed and our committeehas decided to focus on two topics this year: energy and water. We believethat by educating our students about these important issues, wecan makea positiveimpact on the environment.

Miss Anne-ChristineHendrickx pre-primary@isfwaterloo.org

Mrs Sarah Hodges s.hodges@isfwaterloo.org

Wearevery proud of theYear 4 students who brainstormed about saving electricity and cameup with the?ISF Earth Hour?initiative. On Friday 24th March, theschool was encouraged not to useelectricity for an hour. Theinitiativewas a great success, well doneISF!

TheEco-Committeestudents in Secondary School have also been carrying out someinitial surveys of our energy and water use. This data can guideour future events and investigations.

Our weekly ´Green Challenges´ arealso doing well, with many of our community making great efforts to makethem a success. Do check out our noticeboard outsidetheBonapartebuilding for thelatest news and information. Wealso welcomeideas and suggestions from all in our community.

Together, we can make a difference and create a more sustainable future for our planet.

If you would liketo join us and shareideas or information you can contact: