TODAYIssue: SPRING 2014

Character Beyond The Classroom

Inspiring Excellence, Building Character - Since 1912

A F O C U S O N E D U C AT I N G T H E W H O L E C H I L D

This past month our Seoul Foreign British School hosted the regional FOBISIA (Federation Of British International Schools In Asia) U13 Games welcoming over 300 visiting students, teachers and parents from Taipei, Hong Kong and China.

This level of competition is not unique at SFS. One glance at our school calendar will reveal the monthly events that we are either active participants in, or hosting at an Asia Pacific level through APAC or on a local level via KAIAC competitions.

Visit the campus after school during Spring and you are likely to see our High School soccer teams, badminton & track athletes busy practicing. Our Middle School and Key Stage 3 KAIAC sports program has had a tremendous season of table tennis, and volleyball, and the basketball season is just getting underway. Our younger students have also benefit from jamborees with other international schools in Seoul.

All these programs involve a tremendous committment from faculty and coaches, hours of practice from students and the partnership of our parent community.

SFS athletes develop character, responsibility, dedication, commitment, teamwork, leadership, and experience applicable in all areas of life. While our teams enjoy winning results in competitive conferences, we measure success well beyond the win-loss column.Quote from SFS Website -Athletics Page

SFS is committed to ‘educating the whole child’, and our commitment doesn’t stop with athletic opportunity, this is just the beginning! It’s a committment to the development of every child - academically, spiritually, emotionally, physically, and artistically.

Reflective Learners p6 Counseling That Counts P7NIK - PYP Candidate School p5

Character is not something that’s taught from a textbook. It takes a dedicated and intentional focus of a community to create learning experiences that will build the foundation of character in the lives of students.

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IN THE SPOTLIGHT 2 What does it mean, educating the whole child? Insights from our HS Principal Kevin Baker.

SNAP SHOT BOX 4S.W.E.P. an extensive range of opportunities for students to participate in after school activities all year.

High School Clubs experience increased interest and extend their range of offerings.

Character Building Cover StoryThe athletics program developing important life skills.

Namsan Intl. Kindergarten 3Gains PYP Candidate School status as their program grows.

Reflective Learners 6 Opportunities to develop character, values and faith.

Counseling That Counts 7How our guidance counselors impact the lives of students Pre K - 12

As our students prepare to enter the twenty second century (many of our younger students will see the next century), it is critical that we are educating the whole child for an ever-changing future.

At Seoul Foreign School, educating the whole child means providing a rich and robust, comprehensive educational experience, in a warm

nurturing culture, for each and every student at our school.

We strive to ensure that each student’s educational journey at SFS is one that challenges and grows their heads, hearts and hands.This means a rigorous intel-lectual inquiry based educa-tion where students not only learn content but also social and emotional competencies and the important critical thinking and trans-discipli-nary skills that will support them for a lifetime. This also means an educational expe-rience that challenges our student’s hearts – it presents them with opportunities to explore and develop their character and values.

At SFS, we have the unique oppor-tunity to incorporate the dialogue of faith into this important process. We seek to stretch our students by presenting them with challeng-es and opportunities to put their knowledge, skills and values in action through meaningful, life changing service learning experi-ences. Part of being a global citizen is embracing the responsibility that comes with this role and to look for ways to give back to the world and to pay forward the incredible blessings that each of our students have been given.

Educating the whole child is not just about standardized test scores, great SAT results, and selective university admissions. It is about imbedding the mission of SFS into the heart of each student so that they leave us equipped and motivated to truly make a difference in the world. This is what we strive for each day at SFS – this is our blessed calling.

Kevin Baker,HS Principal

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Seoul Foreign School39 Yeonhui-ro 22-gil, Seodaemun-gu Seoul, Korea 120-823

Tel: 82-2-330-3100Fax: 82-2-335-1857yjum@seoulforeign.orgWhat does it

mean to educate the whole child?

IN THE SPOTLIGHT - SFS Opinion Column

2 TODAY

Inspiring Excellence, Building Character - Since 1912 3

Check www.seoulforeign.org and link to MY SFS our Parent Homepage for all our school announcements.

World Recognition - Scholastic Awards

As an International Baccalaureate (IB) - Primary Years Programme Candidate School, Namsan Inter-national Kindergarten is dedicated to achieving the ‘education of the whole child’.

What exactly does the ubiquitous phrase, ‘educating the whole child’ mean, at NIK? Stated simply, it is the kind of teaching and learning that prepares our young students to become creative problem solvers who can take initiative and respon-sibility.

We achieve this by engaging them in project-based learn-

NIK- PYP Candidate School

ing where they work in teams and address real problems in the world, that require them to apply what they have learned.

Recently, our Pre-K and Kindergar-ten children set out in teams of 5 to 6 and went shopping at the adja-cent outdoor market place. When they returned to the classrooms, they analyzed, recorded, and show-cased their business transactions and acquisitions. Such real-world, real-time learning is a prime exam-ple of allowing the wholeness of the child to engage with real-life learn-ing experiences.

MAXIMIzING ACADEMIC POTENTIAL

Education through real life experiences

This year SFS students out did them-selves, winning an unprecedented 41 awards for art and writing in the Regional & National Section of the 2014 Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. SFS students were award-ed 2 National Gold Medals, 8 Gold Keys, 19 Silver Keys, and 12 Honor-able Mentions. To see a full list of SFS award winners visit MY SFS.

The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards is a 90 year old program – the most prestigious and longest running in the US – that provides opportunities for budding artists and writers to showcase their tal-ents. Awards are given to work that best ‘exemplifies originality, tech-nical skill and the emergence of a

artists in the nation (USA). Only the top 1% were recognized at this level. Their work will be exhibited at a Na-tional Ceremony in NYC at Carnegie Hall, which will also be webcast live on June 6th. Visit: www.artandwriting.org to learn more.

personal voice or vision’. In being selected as Regional winners, our students have joined the ranks of other famous authors and artists including Sylvia Plath, Truman Ca-pote, Andy Warhol, Stephen King and John Updike.

The students’ ability to acquit them-selves so well on a world scale is a testament to the strength of our art and writing programs, and the teaching and learning that takes place on a daily basis in our class-rooms.

Our 2 Gold Medal Winners have been identified by pan-els of creative professionals as the most talented young

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Clubs give our students a valuable opportunity to col-laborate with their peers outside the classroom, show leadership, or develop a social conscience, or their areas of interest.

The choice and variety of clubs is astounding, with over 50 different clubs catering to a diverse range of inter-ests they can be categorized as non-fundraising clubs, fundraising clubs, and teacher led clubs. Visit our High School Activities page on the SFS website for a complete listing of what is on offer at: www.seoulforeign.org/page.cfm?p=380

The AERO Science Club is a club that has experienced surprising recent growth.

FOBISIA Performing Arts Carnival This year on March 27, 16 students from Year 5 and 6 flew to Kuala Lumpur to the Alice Smith School, joining with 18 other British schools from around South East Asia.

Our students rehearsed music together twice a week for the Carnival since last November. During 4 days of the Carnival, they had an op-portunity to see the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra in action at an open rehearsal. They also participated in many different areas of the performing arts, including various workshops in music, drama and dance.

We opened up membership to AERO just over a year ago but the club has seen incredible growth lately; in fact, there are about 50 active members at this time.Andy HanHS Senior

Photo credit: Andy Han, HS Senior

AERO Science Club inspiring BS Students

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Four Seasons of S.W.E.P.Unlike other international schools in Seoul, we are blessed with a wonderfully large, green campus which S.W.E.P. (School Wide Extra-curricular Pro-gram) takes full advantage of.

See our SFS website, www.seoulforeign.org - Stu-dent Life pages to learn more about the opportunities your child has to be involved in activities after school.Also, check out our SUMMER PROGRAM - ‘Summer Seoulstice’, which provides academic, non-academic and sports-related opportunities for our SFS students during the summer holidays.

THE SNAP SHOT BOX

On the StageSeoul Foreign School enjoys a long history of rich curricular and co-cur-ricular performing and visual arts programs.

Over 90% of our students are involved in the arts each year and are showcased in our visual arts displays, and over 40 annual public performances put on by our music and drama departments.

If you haven’t had a chance to attend any performances so far this year, please join our final major drama production brought to you by Grade 4, The Phantom Tollbooth performing May 15 and 16. Our Spring mu-sic concerts are coming up later this month, April 17 and April 24. The British School Creative Arts Evening is on April 25, and the Middle School Afternoon of Jazz is May 1.

See our Fine Arts pages on www.seoulforeign.org for performance times.

Inspiring Excellence, Building Character - Since 1912 5DEVELOPING ARTISTIC TALENTS

A Festival Of Opportunities

The spring term brings with it a host of opportunities for our mu-sic students. Our music program is enhanced by our involvement in various festivals and special-ist music organizations such as: KIMEA (Korean International Mu-sic Educators Association), KAIAC (Korean American Inter-Scholas-tic Activities Conference), APAC (Asia Pacific Activities Conference) Festivals, AMIS (The Association of Music in International Schools), and FOBISIA (Federation Of Brit-

Inspiring Excellence, Building Character - Since 1912 5

ish International Schools In Asia)Music Festivals.

Seoul Foreign School’s su-perb theater facilities con-tribute to the success of such wonderful events. Not only do we have a superb per-formance venue in the Lyso Centre, our Black-box Theat-er and Robb Hall also allow for complex rehearsal sched-ules to proceed with ease.

A Few Fast Facts:

• Our High School Choir and their director Mrs. Allison Lyso recently gained Plati-num for their performance at the KAIAC Choir Large Group Festival hosted by YISS.

• 39 of our Grade 5 students re-cently attended the KIMEA Elementary Chorus Festival at Chadwick, joining 200+ students from international schools in Korea.

• For the past 3 years we’ve hosted the annual KAIAC High School Honor Festival for band, choir and orchestra. Representing the best musi-cians across Korea, SFS stu-dents make up about 25% of these ensembles each year.

These value added events are important and special as they encourage students to collaborate in music making, and es-tablish cross- school friendships.

• APAC Festivals are the most extensive events that bring together 96 musicians from 6 schools across Asia. This year’s APAC Band Festival, hosted by SAS Pudong Campus, saw 16 of our students travel to Shanghai.

• AMIS is an organization estab-lished 29 years ago to promote ensemble music. Selection is by recorded audition and is highly competitive.

• Since becoming a member of AMIS our School has had MS & HS students involved, and this year we had an impres-sive 7 students selected for the Women’s Choir and String Orchestra Festival in Dussel-dorf and 4 students selected for the Band and Mixed Choir Festival in London.

Music At a Glance

6 TODAYCOMMITTED TO SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT

Reflective Learnersweek. They are safe and fun plac-es where students can ask tough questions, be challenged to learn and grow in knowledge of faith, and make friends that can last a lifetime. IMPACT is open to all MS and KS3 students to come out and play some crazy games and hear a short message on the Christ-like Attitude of the Month. Addition-ally, MS and KS3 students have the opportunity each year to join the 30hr Famine. Students are challenged to both see the great needs in the world and recognize their personal re-sponsibility to help. This year our students raised nearly $25,000 to help World Vision fight hunger!

In the High School, students can also participate in Discipleship groups and in monthly G2G out-reach events that are similar to the IMPACT events in MS/KS3. Many

SFS is deeply committed to educating and caring for ‘the whole child’. A central component in our mission is to encourage and nurture the faith development of our students.

The Christian Ministries Depart-ment is committed to offering en-gaging, meaningful, and age appro-priate extra-curricular ministries in which students can choose to partic-ipate from as young as 5 all the way through high school.

For the Elementary and Key Stage 1 and 2 students, the AWANA pro-gram happens every Wednesday afternoon. These young students are supported by a team of high school “leaders in training” and parent volunteers. Students engage in game and craft times, learn Bible

Ministries

Caring

Discipleship

Impact

ChristianFaith

Leadership

Service

Reflection

Vida Nueva Retreat

have several opportunities to engage in lead-ership development throughout the Christian Ministry programs, including leading in the younger age group programs mentioned pre-viously, or participating in the Psalms Choir as student leaders.

Although these ministries are critical to our school mission as we seek to nurture the whole child, the crucial factor that enables us to be “Christ Centered” is the Christian teacher. Daily, they model their faith both in and out of the classroom showing what it means to be a person of char-acter and faith. Without these caring, passionate, and excellent educators, SFS simply wouldn’t be the quality of school it is renowned for in Asia.

Awana

verses, and hear stories of faith all structured through a system of pos-itive rewards that encourage both character and faith development.

In the Middle School and Key Stage 3, students can participate in week-ly Discipleship groups and month-ly large group IMPACT meetings. The Discipleship groups are small single gender groups that meet with an adult mentor an hour each

students get involved in the Vida Nueva retreat and leadership de-velopment program that happens twice each year. About 80 students and adults from schools around Seoul work to put on a powerful, life-transforming retreat for 36 stu-dents. This program not only ex-poses students to the core tenets of the Christian faith, but empowers and equips them to be leaders with a heart for service. HS students

Awanapsalms Choir

United In Prayer

Inspiring Excellence, Building Character - Since 1912 7NUTURING CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

A bucket filler is someone who cheers peo-ple up and makes them happy. This person also brings joy to others.Max JefferdGrade 2 Student

This year, the Elementary School launched an ini-tiative during weekly guidance lessons called Fill a Bucket, aimed at building positive character.

When students fill someone’s bucket, they are showing kindness and appreciation through their words and actions. Students have learned that the manner we relate to others is important and are encouraged to think about the way they treat others.

Each month, one student from each class is chosen as the bucket filler of the month. The student is recog-nized at the monthly chapels, receives a certificate, takes a group photo (displayed in the ES lobby), and celebrates with other bucket fillers at an ice cream party.

Pre K - 12 we provide students with access to trained counselors who support them in various and vital ways.

As a parent at SFS our counselors welcome your partnership and offer regular parent chats in most divisions.

Our students have access to invididual and confiden-tial counseling in regards to transitioning, emotional developmet, social skills, conflict resolution, stress management, and of course college counseling. Our counselors also work with teachers and students in small groups, or in a larger context to help develop positive character and build awareness of important health and personal safety issues.

Impact

ChristianFaith

Vida Nueva Retreat

United In Prayer

ES ChapelsEver wondered how the Christ-like attitudes of the month are incorporated into learning at SFS? Our approach to this is different at each age level, but in our El-ementary School our regular chapel services provide a won-derful opportunity for students to perform in front of their peers and demonstrate the attitudes through songs, plays and Bible verses.

Grade 2 Chapel on Forgiveness

Inspiring Excellence, Building Character - Since 1912 7

Counseling Counts

Fill a Bucket

8 TODAY

Teachers Pushing the Boundaries

NOTICE SOMETHING DIFFERENT?

We’ve made some changes to TODAY

Since releasing their first issue of the Tech Crewsaders Magazine in the Fall of 2013 this group of young tech enthusiasts in our High School have come a long way!

Take a moment to Google search TECH CREWSADERS, and see what you discover! We don’t want to spoil the surprise, but when you get to their website techcrewsaders.com you’ll be blown away by the content these students produce on a weekly and quarterly basis, and the regular services, and training programs they

PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES

On any given day if you were to walk the halls of Seoul Foreign School, you would see teachers ‘pushing the boundaries’. They might be apply-ing new teaching techniques, have students researching in a new and innovative manner, or be utalizing technology that is cutting edge.

These activities are open for all to see, but complimenting this very public ‘pushing the boundaries’, teachers are do-ing more behind the scenes.

provide for our high school students and clubs.

Some of their accomplishments in-clude: providing support for the 2013 Google Summit at SFS, designing the website for APAC Forensics, collab-orating with American International School of Guangzhou to help them start their own student led technol-ogy support and innovation team, being featured in the Learning 2.013 Conference at UWCSEA in Singa-pore, collaborating with the Activ-ities Directors Office and creating

Tech Crewsaders

For example, in our High School alone over the last few years there has been a significant increase in the number of teachers that are applying to become IB Examiners.

Currently high school teachers are IB Examiners in Math, Music, English, Korean, Psychology and one staff member sits on the world wide Ex-tended Essay review board. This is just one example across our School illustrating how our teachers are

taking on new challenges and de-veloping their skill set in an attempt to“push the boundaries” and become even more effective teachers.

Considered by many educators as some of the best profession-al development available to IB teachers, our high shool teach-ers are taking on the challenge like never before.

sfsapac.com for all things APAC, and many more. And now, the Tech Crewsaders have their eyes set on new horizons.

The group aims to further di-versify their services to include the launch of their e-textbook service and phase 1 of their HS Club services focused on web development. Committed to fostering such raw enthusiasm and innovation in our School, we ask you to keep an eye out and support the work of these talented students.

http://tinyurl.com/SFSTODAYemail: yjum@seoulforeign.org

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