NEWSLETTER

ISK: a learning focused school Date: Sept 9, 2016

is a lifelong adventure by which our brains make connections between the knowledge we gain, the skills we develop and the understanding that deepens over time.

ISK definition of learning

CONTENTS PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE

Upcoming Events……………………..1 Learning Updates……………………..2 Personal Learning……………………..4 After School Activities …………… 4 HSSE ………………………………………..5 PTA ……………………………………….. 6

Many thanks to all who came to the Parent Information Evening on Wednesday. I hope you found it as helpful as I did in understanding how children will be learning in their new classes. The event was created in response to parent feedback from last year. The idea is that shortly after the start of the school year, parents should receive a detailed introduction to the class and some of the learning processes being used. We have also supported this in writing by revising and improving the Welcome Booklets that were sent out by homeroom teachers last Friday. In addition, consistent approaches to class blogs will hopefully ensure that we are always providing sufficient information about what children are learning and how they are doing it. Later this term there will be further Parent Information Evenings, Education Committee meetings and in mid-October, the Parent Teacher Conferences. And finally, our teachers are also happy to schedule a meeting to discuss your child’s progress at other times if you send them an email request. So if you read all the info and come to every event, you’ll be experts in no time! - Mr Myles

UPCOMING EVENTS

School Closed: Monday 19 Sept Staff safety training - Emergency First Response course. Please note: our school calendar says there will be 5 days in the year when the school will close for staff training. The other dates will be confirmed asap.

Chuseok Holday: Wed 14, Thu 15 & Fri 16 Sept Please note that at ISK, we often follow the Korean National holidays. ISK will only be open on Monday and Tuesday next week. Everyone enjoy the Chuseok Holiday long weekend.

House Day - Friday 23 Sept Students should wear their house t-shirts on this day for some friendly inter-house competition.

Elementary Football - Saturday 24 Sept The Year 4 - 6 Elementary Football teams will head to Daegu International School to compete against several other schools

IMYC Coffee House- Fri. Sept. 30 at 10:50am See below for more details.

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School calendar: www.iskoje.org/calendar--events.html

LEARNING UPDATES

IMYC Coffee House- Week B Friday at 10:50am Thank you to all the parents who came to the last Coffee House. We had a very

productive conversation, and are very pleased with all of the feedback we

received.

At our next Coffee House, Friday, September 30th at 10:50 am, we will be

focusing on Criterion 9 of our Self-Review Document for Accreditation. Criterion 9 is Assessment that improves

learning. We will be discussing our range of assessment practices.

If you would like to attend Friday, September 30th’s Coffee House, please fill out this

form. We look forward to seeing you there. If you have any questions, please do not

hesitate to contact Ms. Amanda. (amanda.hart@iskoje.org)

Parent Information Evening at ISK Wednesday 7th September marked the first ISK Parent

Information Evening, and we felt it was a great success.

The event was in response to feedback that suggested

we provide more opportunities that inform parents of

our class curriculum, behaviour and routines. We hope

you found the evening beneficial and it gave you the

chance to see how learning works across our school.

We understand that there are ways we can improve this

in the future, in particular ensuring parents of multiple

children have access to the information for all their

homeroom classes. One way we have addressed this is to

upload all slides and presentations to Haiku, so please

check your class blog for presentations you may have missed. You can also click here to add any other

constructive feedback.

Another opportunity we are excited to provide, is the Curriculum Workshop Evening. This is a chance to learn

about our Maths, Language Arts, IPC, IMYC and EAL curriculum in more detail, with workshops lead by the

Leaders for Learning . We look forward to seeing you there in October, exact dates and times to follow.

Auditions Going Well for MS Musical During the first two weeks of school, 25 Middle School students have already done one (or more) auditions for the Middle School Musical. We are really pleased to see students coming so

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well prepared to audition. Wonderful effort so far, Middle School students! In case you still need to audition; you can read all about this musical and find audition materials following this link. Please select Disney Jr. Peter Pan and you see all the roles and script and songs to prepare. Sign up is via email. All students in Middle School received information how to sign up. Once the music team has heard all voices we will announce the cast. On October 21 we will start rehearsing for this musical during our Middle School Art blocks. Performance dates: Middle School students will perform on December 8 (evening) and December 10 (afternoon). We will have a Saturday Rehearsal on November 26 and a school day rehearsal on December 5. On Wednesday December 7 there will be a Dress rehearsal after school. Please mark your calendars already; we need all Middle School students to be present on these dates. For now; good luck with your auditions, Middle School students!

Infant Birthday Cake Are you a cake decorator? If so, the Infants need your help to decorate a dummy cake to celebrate Infant birthdays. If you are able to help, please contact daniel.slevin@iskoje.org

ISK Class Parents At this time of year, we try to ensure that each of our classes has a Class Parent. Class Parents play an important

part in helping us to provide the best learning environment for our students. Without the assistance of our Class

Parents, many events would be difficult or even impossible to organize.

The main role of the Class Parent is to provide support for the teacher and the

class. There may be a variety of classroom tasks that the teacher may ask

his/her Class Parent to help with.The role requires a certain level of

commitment, but as a Class Parent you will find that there are many other

parents in your class that are very willing to assist.

For a more detailed description of what you can expect as a Class Parent click

on the link here. If you would like to offer support to your child’s class by

becoming a Class Parent, please take a few moments to register your interest

here.

Even if you feel that the role of Class Parent is not for you, you may be able to help in your child’s classroom in

many other ways. Contact your class teacher at any time to see how you can assist.

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PERSONAL LEARNING

Our focus this month is Adaptability : I accept change and I welcome new ideas Over the past 2 weeks we have all grown to be more adaptable. The Establishment Phase of the new school year has meant that all students and staff have been exposed to many new ideas and changes, particularly in the area of learning behaviours. We already new that we had a wonderfully adaptable group of students at ISK, but we have now taken it to a new level. Please talk to your children at home about the importance of adaptability, not just within school, but beyond the school gates.

AFTER SCHOOL ACTIVITIES

Cross-Country Running Club Represents ISK at Handong International School SKAC Meet On Thursday, September 8th the ISK Cross-Country Running Club had their first meet at HIS in Pohong. All competitors challenged themselves, and we had some personal bests. The primary boys both finished their 2.5 kilometer race under 14 minutes, earning ISK a silver medal. The middle school boys ran a strong race with our silver medalist finishing the 5 kilometer race in under 24 minutes. Our primary girls competed in their first race and demonstrated their personal best times. Congratulations to all runners. We look forward to the next race in October.

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HEALTH AND SAFETY

Cholera Outbreak on Geoje Island It has recently been reported in the media that concerns have been growing over the spread of cholera in Korea, following the confirmation of a second case of the disease near the country's south coast. A 73-year-old woman living on Geoje Island was confirmed to have been infected, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) Thursday. The announcement comes two days after the KCDC's first confirmation of a cholera case in Korea in 15 years.

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As always, we will continue to monitor the situation. For more about cholera, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides very comprehensive information.

PTA NEWS

What is the PTA? The PTA (the Parent Teacher Association) is an organisation of parents and teachers working together to encourage parental participation in school to the benefit of our children.

PTA Board Member 2016-17 We have a new Board for the new school year! Welcome to the new volunteers and hope we have a successful and enjoyable year!

OKPO FOOTBALL CLUB - Facebook page : Okpo Football Club

This Saturday will be the last chance for Registration! Registrations will then be closed until January 2017. Group 1 - 8.45am. Group 2 - 9.30am. Cost:- ₩50,000 for returning players. ₩85,000 for new members. Money must be payed on the day! VOLUNTEERS!!!! We are also looking for Parents to help with the running of the club. Please think about this, maybe every week, every other week or even just once a month.

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If you're interested let us know as lot of our current volunteers are either working on Saturdays or leaving the Island.

No volunteers NO CLUB!

PTA General Meeting This meeting is for ALL Parents to attend, ALL Parents are automatically part of the PTA. Please come along and let us know YOUR ideas for events and activities you would like to see happen in ISK.

Upcoming PTA Events:- Wed 28th Sep 2016 - PTA General Board Meeting 10.30am

You can keep upto date with PTA events and activities in the following ways:

● School Website http://www.iskoje.org/parent-teacher-association-pta.html ● Our Facebook Page - please “like” this ISK Parent Teacher Association ● Join our ISK PTA Volunteers Group ● PTA Dates 2016

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