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NEWSLETTER

12 FEBRUARY 2014

VALENTINE’S DAY – Friday Feb 14! – (Upper School) Hello Upper School! Don't forget to wear pink, red and white this Friday, February 14th in spirit of Valentine's Day! There will be prizes awarded to the house that shows the most spirit. Also, bring 500 won to school to buy your Valentines a Candy 'o Gram!

PRINCESS & PRINCE BALL – (Lower School)

Friday 14 Feb, 4:30pm-6:00pm @ the LS Hall

All Y1- Y3 students are welcome to attend!

Tickets will be on sale Friday 14 Feb at 2:50pm at the entrance to the Lower School and at 4:30pm at the entrance to the hall! (Tickets are W5 000 each).

There will be food, drinks, and plenty of games to keep the kids occupied! There will be a photo booth, crafts and face painting available at an extra cost.

IPC EXIT POINT – FALCON & EAGLE – “Water for Everyone” Last Tuesday, 4th February, The Eagle and Falcon classes held their Exit Point for their IPC unit ‘Water for Everyone’. Both classes organized a fundraising day to raise money for Water Aid. The Exit Point allowed the children to demonstrate what they had learnt throughout the unit. It also gave them an opportunity to raise awareness about the charity “Water Aid” and the work that they do.

To raise money, the children took part in a sponsored walk. They walked a mile, carrying water, to help them to better understand the difficulties faced by communities without access to clean, safe water. There was also a bake sale. The day was a great success and Year 5 raised an incredible 1,000,000KRW for WaterAid. A big thank you to everyone who supported them and helped them reach this fantastic total. The money will make a huge difference to people’s lives all over the world.

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The ARC had their 2nd race last Thursday. The White Team (previously the green team) started off with a 10sec head start which they won from a bonus challenge in race #1. To start off race #2, teams had to solve a riddle to get to their challenge location. In the first challenge, teams had to “Hit the target” by using rings to knock 7 different bottles down. Their second challenge tested both teams on their knowledge of the library and their letter recognition skills as each team had to help Miss Claire by re-shelving a basket of library books. In their third challenge, teams had to complete an obstacle course to get a piece of their ‘Puzzle’. Once all pieces were collected they had to work together to solve the puzzle. In this challenge, the teams were tested on their knowledge of our 8 ISK personal goals. Teams had to match the correct coloured pencil and character to each of the 8 goals. The White team, led by Leif, were leading after the first two challenges. The Blue Team however, soon caught up and eventually overtook the White team to win the race thanks to the members’ knowledge of the personal goals. They will start race #3 with a 15 second head start (time difference from Challenge #3). Both teams displayed great team spirit and cooperation as they worked together to solve the clues and complete each challenge. The race is on with 8 races remaining till we crown our ultimate race winner! Who will it be?

SOLVING THE FIRST CLUE FIRST CHALLENGE! SECOND CHALLENGE

THIRD CHALLENGE

WINNERS: BLUE TEAM!

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Foundation IPC Entry Point

LEARNING ALL ABOUT FOOD

This term, the Foundation classes are beginning their new IPC topic: Food!

To start of the topic, the Ladybirds had a class picnic at the Bunny Park last Wednesday! Each child brought in a food item that belonged to one of the five major food groups- Grains (Carbohydrates), Fruit & Vegetables, Meat (Protein), Dairy and Others (Sweets, Cookies etc.).

Prior to the Picnic, we learnt about the Food Pyramid and the different food groups. We also discussed what “Healthy Eating” meant and why it was important to make sure that the food we chose came from more than one food group. We also discussed which of the five food groups were the most important in providing us the energy we needed for our bodies.

On the day of the Picnic, the Ladybirds each had a special clip board with a record sheet (“What’s on my plate”) for them to record the types of food they were eating. For each food item that they chose, they got a sticker/stamp under the corresponding food group. When they arrived at the Bunny Park, all the food had been set up according to the five food groups and the children got to choose their food, buffet style!

It was wonderful to see the thought and consideration that each of the Ladybirds put into deciding the kinds of food that they would eat.

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Towards Accreditation

Assessment and Reporting at ISK: Introducing the Assessment for Learning Programme at ISK

Last week the mid-year reports were sent home which were largely in the form of comments on student learning followed by next steps for improvement. The end of year report will add assessment data to this format which will come from the IPC and IMYC Assessment for Learning programme, or ‘AfL’ for short. An important step towards IPC and IMYC accreditation is the implementation of the Assessment for Learning programme from Year 1 to Year 9. It is a comprehensive method of assessing skills development. The primary purpose of AfL is to provide feedback for improving student learning while also giving us a method of tracking student progress over time. To facilitate analysis and reporting, the results of student assessments are entered into an online database which is part of the IPC and IMYC website. Results from our data tracking will be used in the end of year reports and will increasingly inform feedback on learning in every subject and in every unit of work.

Standardised Testing at ISK: How to interpret standardized test scores on student reports

Most children’s reports from Year 2 upwards contain a section about Formal Assessments. The results in this section are from tests administered in September 2013. At ISK, children from Year 2 upwards are assessed twice a year using external independent assessments in the areas of mathematics, reading and spelling. (See “GL Assessment”) These written assessments generate standardized scores that in many ways are far more useful than the ‘raw score’, which is simply the total number of marks from correct answers. Standardized scores help us to see how our students are progressing and to compare their level relative to how other children scored in a much larger sample. They are also adjusted to take account of a student’s actual age in years and months

Assessment for Learning - online tracking tool

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and are, therefore, fair in representing the achievements of children of different chronological ages even within the same year group. A standardized score can be placed on a scale with an average score set to 100. This makes it easy to see whether a student is above or below average for his or her age. Please remember that these assessments are regarded as a snap-shot of ability at any given time. A student may perform better, or worse, on another day. Taking this possibility into account, the table below with ability bands provides some additional detail which should help to answer questions you may have about your child’s reported scores.

Standardised Score Percentage of Students

Very high 127 and above 4

Above average 112 – 126 19

Average 89 – 111 54

Below average 74 – 88 19

Very Low 73 and below 4

This week at ISK, teachers will be administering the second round of assessments. The results will be used to monitor and evaluate student progress and help inform teachers and management about learning in the school. Results from these assessments will be communicated to parents in the near future.

Principal’s Awards! Congratulations to all students who have been nominated for Principal’s Awards this week!

Principal’s Awards are presented at Friday assemblies and are awarded to students who clearly demonstrate one or more of our 8 ISK Personal Goals!

NAME: CLASS: NAME: CLASS: Eakary Kyaw Kyaw Ladybird Maurits Laurhammer Kangaroo

Azia O’Brien Butterfly Dominika Stankina Kiwi

Remco Veen Panda Lily Cole Tiger

Pavlos Spiliopoulos Panda Ellen Williamson Crocodile

Ava Ang Hellebo Owl Micala Smith Kraken

Samantha Yuso Povlsen Dolphin

Clara Karup Dolphin

Aum Desai Seal

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PTA VOLUNTEER SIGN-UP SHEET 2014

Dear Parents Please find attached to this week’s newsletter a Volunteer Sign-up sheet for ISK PTA. There are many PTA events, activities, and necessary functions that occur at ISK throughout the school year. All of them need people to plan, coordinate and staff them. Please take a look and see if you can help us. ISK PTA is for ALL parents at ISK – no need to "join", you are a parent so that makes you a member! Please "like" the "ISK Parent Teacher Association" page to stay updated on PTA and ISK. Many Thanks ISK PTA

ISK CALENDAR OF EVENTS

FEBRUARY

4 Student Reports 5 Term 3 Starts 13 House Day 14 Valentine’s Day Princess & Prince Ball (Y1-Y3) 18 100th Day of School 21 Movie Night 28 Pizza Day

MARCH

6&7 No School 10-14 Art Exhibition (Lower School) 13 House Day 17 St Patrick’s Day 20 Informal Concert [changed from 14th] 21 Movie Night 26&27 Parent-Teacher Conferences 28 Pizza Day