AusIS

Dhaka

January, 2015

What’s On This Month February 15-19 February Bookweek 19 February AusIS Ekushey Day C1/C2 Portfolios sent home 20-22 February—MYP Work-shop (India) - Mr Bowmer away 28 February—AusIS Sports Day

HAPPY BIRTHDAY February

EC Yasaar Tarik Hassan

Inaara Chowdhury

Faij Rabbani Wadi

Safwana Sattar

F Pranjal Saha

PP

Year 1 Arfan Fayad Zafeer Nawal Rahman Zayan Akash Zaman Auritro Muksedur Rahman Ayesha Zara Rahman Prateek Majumder

Year 2 Arish Yasin Bhuiyah

Year 3

Year 4 Inaaya Chowdhury Seowoo Choi

Year 5 Nashita Nimaat Ahmed

Year 6 Nusrat Jahan Zebin

Year 7 Saba Musarrat

Year 8 Aryan Chopra Safwan Islam

Year 9

Year 10

Year 11

Year 12

Together We Achieve www.ausisdhaka.net Issue 1, 2015

From The Principal Mr Michael Bowmer M.Ed, M.Couns email: principal@ausisdhaka.net

AusIS STAFF EXCEL

Happy New Year everyone. All of us here at AusIS hope that every

member of our school family had a safe, restful and exciting holiday.

Whilst the holidays have been on, we have

r received exciting news from some of our

t staff members. Ms Farhana Rahman, home-

ro room teacher at Campus 1 shared this

hievement achievement with me at the start of term:

“Dear Mr Michael, I would like to share my biggest educational

attainment so far. I am glad to inform you that in November 2014 I

have completed my MEd in Educational Leadership Planning and

Management from BRAC University. I achieved VC’s gold medal for

the highest distinction which is CGPA 3.92 out of 4.00. I am very

grateful to the school authority and my beloved colleagues for their

immense support and cooperation during my study in terms of

implementing my new learning in the classroom.”

In addition, also over the holidays, Ms Farida Jahan Kajol our Campus

2 and 3 Assistant PE Teacher received some tremendous news:

“I would like to share with you that I received a scholarship for Leipzig

University at Germany. I will be doing a post

graduate course on Volleyball Coaching. I enjoy

working with my students and colleagues and

hopefully I will come back as soon as I finish my

course and see these lovely faces again”.

Well done Ms Farhana and Ms Kajol. We are all

very proud of your accomplishments, which once

again shows the high standards of our teachers here at AusIS.

Santa visits Campus 1

Ho Ho Ho Merry

Christmas AusIS

Unfortunately, due to family and health reasons, Mr Paul Halford and Mr Gary

Boyd have both decided not to join our school. Instead, the school has offered

positions to Mr Julius Mulligan as our Campus 3 Coordinating Teacher, Ms Jo

Rollason as our Campus 2 Coordinating Teacher and Mr Noel Lavin to assist

Mrs Bowmer as a C1 Coordinating Teacher. We are excited to have all of these

experienced teachers on board at AusIS. Mr Mulligan and Ms Rollason have

taught in schools in China and Malaysia and are experienced with the Interna-

tional Baccalaureate program. Mr Lavin has taught here in Dhaka, as well as

Bahrain. Mr Mulligan and Mr Lavin will join us as soon as work visas can be ar-

ranged, whilst Ms Rollason will join us as early as possible, hopefully by 1st

March, 2015.

IB Update

It is with great pleasure that I can inform our school community that AusIS has

been granted ‘Candidate Status’ for implementing the Primary Years Program

of the International Baccalaureate. Ms. Taslima Khatoon is our PYP Coordina-

tor who has done much of the necessary work so far. Whilst in Australia over

the Winter vacation, Mrs. Angela attended a PYP Workshop “Assessment in

the Early Years’ and will be sharing some ideas on how to improve our Early

Years Program at Campus 1 with the Campus 1 staff. At the same time, Mr

Bowmer attended an information workshop on implementing the IB Year 11

and 12 Diploma to the school.

Ms. Nusrat Khan, our C2 Local Coordinator is taking up the position of MYP

Coordinator, and the school hopes to complete the registration as a Candidate

MYP School ready to beging teaching this program next Academic Year.

Mr Julius Mulligan (C3 CT)

Ms Joanne Rollason (C2 CT)

Mr Noel Lavin (C1 CT)

STAFFING UPDATE

Welcome Mr Michael Baroi to our team here at AusIS. As mentioned in earlier newsletters, Mr Baroi is

our new Vice Principal, Administration. Joining him on our team are Mr Bachu, Logistics Executive and

Ms Priya Nair as our Year 6 teacher at Campus 2. Ms Priya Nair taught Year 6 here at AusIS only a few

years ago. Welcome back Ms Priya.

2014/15 YEARBOOK COVER COMPETITION

Planning for our Annual Yearbook is beginning, and once again this year, we will have a design competi-

tion for the front cover. The theme for the design is based on the UNESCO 2014 theme ‘International

Year of Farming’. (http://www.un.org/en/events/observances/years.shtml).

Family Farming is an important industry both here in Bangladesh, and also in Australia. All students are

eligible to enter, and any medium—pencil, crayon, watercolour, charcoal, etc is allowed. Besides the

winning entry, the next best entries will also be used as watermarks throughout the book. Good luck

everybody and get your thinking caps on.

AUSIS SCHOOL RULES We do not need to remember a lot of rules at AusIS. In fact, research shows that the fewer the rules, stated in a positive way, the better. Here at AusIS, our School Rules are: Be Safe Be Responsible Be Prepared Be Respectful If we all follow these 4 simple rules, we will all have a great time learning!

NEW CAMPUS UPDATE AusIS is rapidly becoming one of the finest schools in Bangladesh. We already offer a wonderful curricu-lum through the Australian Curriculum. This is now being supported through the melding of the Austra-lian Curriculum with that of the International Baccalaureate’s programs. We have outstanding teachers, and soon we will have a first class learning environment. The tendering process of the new campus took place over the winter Semester break. With the tendering process complete, construction of the new campus is set to begin. School staff and families will be kept informed of progress at all times. We want everyone to know what a great school we are, so please feel free to share our newsletter with your family and friends. It is also available online through our webpage at: www.ausisdhaka.net

HARTAL POLICY “IF YOU CAN REACH—WE CAN TEACH!” As an International School, all of us at AusIS take the safety of our students very seriously. To ensure that our staff and students are safe, Management of the school receives advice from other International Schools, as well from the Australian High Commission in Dhaka. We continually monitor and assess whether it is safe for the school to be open, or whether it should be closed.

Our school policy states that if it is unsafe for any student or staff member to travel to school during a Hartal (or Blockade), then they should remain at home, but this is the decision of the individual parents to make. The school will make every effort to remain open. Our policy is ‘if you can reach us, we can teach you!’

Apart from the safety of our staff and students, a major consideration is to make sure that our curriculum obligations to the West Australian Curriculum Council are fulfilled. Disruptions and long periods of absences impact on the flow of learning. With a large number of days closed, it would be impossible to make up all of the lost learning time on weekends. To this end, the school is implementing an ‘Online Learning Pack’ for students during these disruptions. We will initially use software called ‘Edmodo’. This is a free and easily used piece of software. It operates in a similar fashion to Facebook. Teachers will create an account for their class, and ‘invite’ their students to join their class group. Once students have joined, they will have access to the day’s learning materials, as well as real time access to their teacher, where they can ask questions, get feedback on their work and receive advice. In this way, we hope that learning will be able to continue in as smooth a manner as possible. Remember though, face to face teaching and learning is always best!

SPORTS DAY Our annual Sports Carnival, was to be held on Saturday 31st January, 2015. Unfortunately we have not had the opportunity to practice any of the events this month, and in addition, many students may find it difficult to attend. Instead, we have postponed our annual Sports Day at the ISD oval to take place on Saturday 28th February, 2015. Our Special Guest will again be the Australian High Commissioner, Mr Greg Wilcock, who will present awards to some students in the afternoon.

BLANKADESH AND CHRISTMAS CARNIVAL

A huge thank you to all who have supported our Blankadesh , Winter Clothing Drive and Christmas Carnival appeals. It is wonderful to see our school community with such generous hearts sharing and supporting so many people who are not so well off. Our Christmas Fair, held at Campus 3, raised over 10,000 taka which has been given to the Acid Survivors Foundation'. These projects would not have been possible without

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BANGLA LESSONS, LEARNING ANOTHER LANGUAGE SURVEY Last term, I sent home this short survey regarding teaching a second language at AusIS. Unfortunately I have only received a handful of responses, so am repeating this survey in this newsletter. Please cut off, complete and return the following survey to the suggestion box at your campus by Friday 12th January, or when you drop off or pick up your child from school.

Bangla as our mother tongue is very important at our school. Unfortunately, Bengali is not recognized as an official 2nd language for students when they sit for the WACE in Year 12 however as we move towards the Middle Years Program of the IB, Bengali is recognized as a second language.

As a result, the school will continue with Bangla in our Primary Years to Grade 5, but will consider introducing another language from Grade 6 onwards. This other language could possibly be French, Chinese or Spanish in Grades 6 to 10.

Our AusIS Mission Statement A Mission Statement encapsulates the beliefs of an organization and is behind all that drives that organization forward. In todays world, a Mission Statement is often a very brief slogan, with a set of goals behind it. It could be said, that at our vision statement at AusIS is ‘Together we achieve”, however this is not true. Our Mission Statement is: “AusIS is committed to recognizing and developing the individual student, while providing opportunities for a well-rounded education. To this end, AusIS aims to: Ensure quality educational experiences Foster creativity in individuals Provide an enriching co-curricular environment with a strong focus on sports in the middle

and upper school Nurture the talents of each child and provide opportunity for growth Encourage global awareness, including exposure to a variety of cultures Create a continuous wealth of knowledge Offer a caring learning environment, and Support the development of sound social values.

AusIS SECOND LANGUAGE SURVEY (cut and return by Friday 12th February, 2015

I would like my child to learn (choose either Bengali or Other; if Other is selected, please indicate which other language would be preferred) from Grades 6 to 10:

Bengali or Other: French Spanish Other ______________________________________________ (please specify which language, eg Chinese, German, etc)

Note: Bengali will still be taught to all students up to and including Grade 5.