March 2014

The ISL Headlines

“Striving for

Excellence”

From the Head of School : Mr. Martin Gough

Early March may not seem so long since school started on January 12th. However, we have noticed that the num-ber of students reporting to the nurse each day has been very high in the last few weeks and teachers have report-ed that students are quite tired. So, the two long week-ends came just in time for students and teachers to have a break and recharge their batteries a bit.

IBDP and IGCSE students are in the run up to their final examinations which start at the beginning of May. They are still finishing coursework and are taking oral examina-tions, which make up significant percentage of their final grades. If you are the parent of a Year 11 or IB2 student,

now is the time to ensure that your child has planned and started their revision schedule, which should run from now until their final examination. Students need a quiet place to study at home. They should make a schedule, including breaks for drinks, snacks and, very importantly, exercise, with times for studying and examina-tion question practice in each subject. Waiting until just before the exams and cram-ming will not allow them to reach their potential or lead to success.

The school grounds are looking nice and green at the moment, thanks to the rains, and we have been making good progress with tidying up the school gardens during this time. You will see the area near the old pond has been cleared and is being landscaped, the verges have been leveled and new grass is being planted along the school wall on the road running up past the sports field, and we are clearing years of weeds and piles of concrete from the old exit road near the MPC.

In other areas of the campus, 3 new, large water filter-coolers have been placed in

Early Years, near the ampitheatre and by the tuck shop. These have multiple outlets

and are designed for students to use to fill a bottle. We will be encouraging students

to bring a bottle, rather than buy water and other drinks at the tuck shop. Drinking

high-sugar fruit and other juices is not as healthy an option as plain water and, fur-

thermore, we are producing far too much plastic and aluminium waste through the

high sales of drinks. So, please help us by encouraging your child to bring and fill a

bottle with water for healthy drinking, better brain activity and to cut down litter and

waste at the school.

The weekend of 21st March will see ISL hosting the ISAZ National U 19 Soccer and

Netball Championships. Seventeen schools from the Copperbelt and Midlands re-

gions will be taking part. My thanks go to Mr. Todd Meyer, Athletics Director, and

his staff for putting up this event on at very short notice.

Important Dates

Head of School 1

Primary/Early years

2/3

PYP/Primary 4

Upper Primary 5

Second-ary/IGCSE/IB

6

Junior Secondary School

7

Poetry Recital at US Embassy

8

Contents

IB2/IGCSE Oral exams begin

16th

March

Yr 10 work Experience week

16th-

20th

March

Easter Break 3rd April

to 12th

April

School Reo-pens

13th

April

ISAZ U19 soc-cer/Netball

20th/21s

t March

Primary Message from the Primary Principal: Mr. Bowen

What a month of activity in February. If you scroll ahead to Miss Karen‟s column you will see some marvellous pictures of the special days that have taken place.

We started with St Valentine‟s Day when everyone in the Primary School dressed up in pink, white or red. The way we explain this day at ISL is to convey attitudes of compas-sion and appreciation for friends and family. As such it has become an ideal day on which to display the very best of our PYP character.

St Valentine‟s Day also happened to be our 100th day of school. To celebrate this not

insignificant achievement we all brought in snacks and each wore a shirt depicting a number.

Mother Tongue Day followed and we invited mums and dads from families with a huge array of cultural backgrounds. The day was spectacular in that it brought home to me the immense wealth of culture that we have in our ranks. The events of the day only reinforced my determination to introduce a new subject in the Primary School next year. My hope is to incorporate a lesson in Zambian Studies which will include the teaching of Chinyanja. There are times when our knowledge of Zambia, its history and geography as well as a grasp of its languages is alarmingly poor. As an interna-tional School in Zambia, we have an obligation to change that.

Finally, to Spirit Week which was planned by our very own Student Council. In a discussion with a colleague this morn-

ing we commented upon how our ancestors might turn in their graves to see today‟s children coming to school in pyja-

mas or in odd shoes. In reality our children loved the opportunity for free expression and the chance to demonstrate

how they can make sensible choices. On the days, there was not a single child who took the opportunity to dress inap-

propriately and the ensuing mood of partnership and cooperation was hugely rewarding. During Spirit Week we even

made time for Book Day and spent the day in our pyjamas reading bedtime stories to one another. What a brilliant idea!

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From the Early Years Coordinator: Mrs Karen Hedstrom

'A picture says a

thousand words

100 days of school

Primary

ISL Headlines! Page 3

Pajama Day and World Book Day

Mother Tongue Day

Spirit week—Early years

Our workshop on “Everyday Science” was very successful!! The parents who came in were involved and engaged meaningfully. Smaller groups do mean you get our undivided attention. We shared quite a few laughs, ide-as and learnt from each other. We sincerely thank the parents who turned up for the workshop and supported us. Our teachers take time to plan and prepare for the workshop despite their busy schedule with classes, so we appreciate your participation and input.

We are always willing to share what we do in the classrooms and how we do it with you. Please do not hesi-tate to join us in our next workshop which is scheduled in May. Our notice boards serve as a constant re-minder for workshops and we do send emails too!

Our visiting team (Mr. John Sauer and Mrs. Avril van Zyl) from the IBO will be here on the 18th,19thand 20th of March. We have scheduled 19th of March- 8:30a.m, as the time for parents to meet the team. This will be in-formal and only last for half an hour in the PYP Conference room. Kindly inform Mr. Bowen or myself if you would be interested to meet them and have a chat. This will help us ensure we include your names on our parent list.

More news in our next newsletter…..

Hello! We are Keertana, Axelle, Deborah and Chilufya and we are the Primary Peace Keepers. Together with Ms Marit we have had training to develop our communication and coordination skills.

Primary Peace Keepers help students from Year 1- Year 5 when they have fights or problems with friends.

Every student can come and talk to us directly or leave us a message on one of the pink paper slips outside Ms Marit‟s office. We will try to meet with the students the following day at break time.

Feel free to meet us, we are here to help!

Primary Peace Keepers

Message from the PYP Coordinator: Mrs Sunita Nair

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Exhibition; Mentor Clubs

The Year Six Exhibition Journey has started and this will be for the next six weeks. The Exhibi-tion is a process where students are engaged in a collaborative and student-led, in-depth in-quiry facilitated by teachers. As you already know they decided to research on “Poverty” and they are making further investigations into ways of raising awareness about poverty and taking action to reduce poverty.

The students came up with the following clubs: cooking club, drama club, products of local ma-

terials club, photo exhibition club, documentary club, organizing activities club, visual art club, orphanage club. The chil-

dren are being assisted by their mentors who are other teachers in the school and Mr. J. Armstrong, Mrs. Karthikeyan

and Mrs. Sileshi, who are parents have kindly volunteered to offer their help too. The mentor clubs have already starting

meeting and some have had outside trips to

consolidate their research. We are asking the

ISL community to come forward if you have

any expertise in any of the above topics that

can be shared with the children. We already

have had talks from various guest speakers

who have enlightened and empowered the

children about poverty and other related is-

sues. It would not be possible to have these

clubs running interesting inquiries without the help of the mentors.

Thanks to all the mentors!

Mother Tongue Day

On Friday 20th February 2015, we celebrated Mother Tongue Day. Thanks to the enthusiasm of many parents, Mother

Tongue Day was a big success. Children sang songs, read books, learned to say tongue twisters (or at least were chal-

lenged to give it a try), they gained some vocabulary in different languages, received calendars with beautiful pictures,

got an inside into different cultural habits, talked about proverbs and learned, played games and did many more. It was

a fun and interesting morning, so once again, to all involved a BIG Thank You!

Book Day

This year we decided to link pyjama day with World Book Day on Thursday, 5

th March. Dressed in pyjamas, equipped with pil-

lows and teddy bears, the children enjoyed their DEAR moment (Drop Everything And Read) in which they read their favourite bedtime stories. During paired reading all students from year 3 and up brought a book to school and read to the younger chil-dren. The young children enjoyed listening to the stories and the older children enjoyed entertaining the young ones with their books

Year 3

Year 3 had a new gadget to play with during the Unit of Inquiry: How the world works, it is

called The Therma- data studio. They have been using it to study the weather patterns

following daily graphs of air pressure and temperature.

UPPER PRIMARY: Mrs. Grace Kambeu

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From the Secondary School

My first experience with a TV camera was when I was 7 years old and I performed a salsa dance on ZNBC with my mentor Mr. Japhael Banda. Since then, I've done a lot of TV and Radio shows. I believe responsible media play a very vital role in the lives of youth as they receive different kinds of knowledge and information from the media (TV, Radio, Newspapers, Internet...etc.). Everyone depends on some kind of media for the latest news and updates, so it's the best way to raise awareness in society. This was one of the main reasons I was attracted towards this industry. So far, my experience with the media has been very exciting and I'm looking forward to some more exciting and chal-lenging work in the studios!

Secondary ISL Headlines! Page 6

International Day of Broadcasting for Children : From Tanya Yadav Yr 10

After most of the recent focus went to Y11 with their successful Trial exams and well attended Parent Teacher‟s Consultations, we now concentrate more on the Y9 and Y 10 students: For the Y9 parents and students we organised an IGCSE information evening on Tuesday 10/03 at 18.00 in the Fine Arts Building. The purpose was to explain what IGCSE is all about and how

it prepares the students for the next step, i.e. the IB- Programme. It also gave parents the chance to meet with the Yr10 teachers for further questions about option subjects. On Wednesday18th March the Y9 students have their Induction Day when they spend the whole day in Y10 subject classes to find out more about content and expectations of each subject. These two events will help them to make a more informed choice about the options they will take in Year 10. During the week of 16th-20th March, the Y10 students will be out of school for their Work Experience Week. They are stationed somewhere around Lusaka to get some real life experience about how a working place of their choice oper-ates.

From the IGCSE coordinator: Mr R Van de Velde

Many thanks to all of the parents and Year 11 students who attended the IB Information Evening held in February. The attendance was impressive and the reaction from parents was extremely positive. Parents who did not attend can make individual appointments to see me by emailing me at ibcoordinator@islzambia.org. Alternatively the IB booklet is available on the website at http://www.islzambia.org/ibdiploma.html. IB2 students will have a „Last Supper‟ on 23rd April 2015. This is an opportunity for the students

and faculty to enjoy a meal together and celebrate the end of their IB courses. April 24th will be the last formal day of

lessons before examinations start on May 4th .

IB Corner! From Mr. Hearsum

SL Headlines! Page 7

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Our Year 9 students had a fantastic 5 day trip to Ndubaluba Outdoor Center located

close to the Mwendafye Hills in beautiful Miombo woodlands. All went very smoothly

thanks to our 3 tutors who cared for our children as if they were their own. Thank you

Mr Silondwa, Mr Banda and Mrs Nithyanathan.

“Everything was amazing! This trip taught us lots about ourselves and the world

around us! We learnt to trust each other and work together! At the end our team

won the Rocket race! ”

“Ndubaluba was the best trip ever! The hardest activity was the Rocket Race

because we had to walk 10 km while holding on to a rope!”

”The food was great and the instructors really friendly and efficient”

“We did loads of great activities but the one that stood out to me was canoeing

because it was a first time experience and I really enjoyed it”

“I will never forget this trip and I am so glad I spent it with my friendly

class!”

From Junior Secondary School : Mrs.Dodd

CONTACT US The International School of Lusaka

6945 Nangwenya Road

Lusaka, Zambia

Phone: +260 211 252291

Fax: +260 211 252865

E-mail: info@islzambia.org

www.islzambia.org

http://www.cois.org/

http://www.cie.org.uk/

http://www.neasc.org/ http://www.ibo.org/ http://www.pamojaeducation.com/

On February 27, a group of ISL students took their love of poetry and performance to the U.S. Embassy as they participated in a Black History Month Poetry Recital. Our students collaborated with Bittersweet Poets Zambia to explore themes of freedom, equality, and justice in African American and Zambian poetry. Vedika Basu, Taheera Mussa, and Kennie Onwuka bravely took to the stage along with an intimidating group of seasoned poets. Through their emotional readings, our performers brought the poetry of Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou to life before an audience of embassy officials, government school students, and poetry enthusiasts. They proved once again what a talented student body ISL boasts. Even those students who did not perform represented our school well with their thoughtful contributions to the discussion at the end of the session:

Melody Che Mariam Qubia Towella Munthali Medha Sood Raahilah Essu Nadia Sheikh

On the bus ride home, the students talked excitedly about organizing more poetry performances here at school. A poetry slam might be in our future! Mrs. Petit Drama Teacher

Students Shine at U.S. Embassy Poetry Recital

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