International School Moshi Moshi Campus News - 26th February 2009
Dear Parents,
Thank you to all parents, students, teachers and board members who participated in the comprehensive ISM Director Search process earlier this week. The Board has selected a candidate to offer the Directorship to and we should hear if he has accepted sometime next week. Our Model United Nations students are currently in Nairobi for a week of negotiations and debate on topical environmental, economic and political issues with students from other schools in the region.
Kilimanjaro Marathon
On Sunday, 1st March, the Kilimanjaro Marathon will be held in Moshi together with a Half Marathon and a 5.8km Fun Run. We are establishing Team ISM to join any one of these races and are trying to raise sponsorship funds through this for our Scholarship Programme. Any student aged 10 years or over can join the Fun Run and we hope many parents and other community members will also join Team ISM. For a fee of TSh 20,000/- you will get a Team ISM T-Shirt, refreshments on race day, transport to/from school to the race and the amount remaining will be donated to the Scholarship Fund. Come out Sunday to support Team ISM. Thank you to Kate Robertson, Charles Schofield and Chris Dawson for organizing Team ISM and the scholarship fundraising and related events.
I-Pods are being offered as prizes for the top fund-raisers in Team ISM. For further details, please check www.ismoshi.org/marathon.htm.
World Math Day
It's that exciting time of year again! The school is buzzing with maths talk! All ISM students should have been given a username and password by now. Students can start the competition the moment it is Wednesday 4th March west of the International Dateline and finish 48 hours later when it is no longer 4 March anywhere in the World!
Last year our D2 class won a trophy for being ranked first in Tanzania (this year Sandra thinks we should aim for Number 1 in AFRICA!) and many students received certificates for their excellent participation. This year we will again encourage as many students as possible to participate online on Wednesday, 4th March. Students from P1 to D2 will receive passwords to enter. Practice sessions are already available at www.worldmathday.com The aim is to beat the record for the number of math questions answered correctly worldwide in one day - in 2008 this was over 182 million.
The Primary Assembly on March 6th will also focus on activities related to World Maths Day. Good luck to everyone. Only a few days to go now.
Dira: Heartbeat - Ya Piga Ya Moyu
Secondary students on Arusha Campus are staging their production of Dira/Heartbeat on Friday, 27th and Saturday 28th February on Arusha Campus. All are welcome to this celebration of dance, rhythm and song from around the world. There is a bus going from Moshi Campus for our own students to join in the fun - all places on the bus have been filled!
New M4 Trip to West Kilimanjaro
The M4 Class Trip has been rescheduled for the first week in June. The trip will involve Geography fieldwork with farm visits that will focus upon studies of rivers, climate and altitude. More details regarding which teachers from each campus will be supervising the trip and preparations will be forthcoming from the MYP Coordinators on each campus.
MYP Update
Attached to the email version of this newsletter was a copy of the letter from our MYP Coordinator that went home to parents of day students. Look for the MYP Minute from Mr. Holcomb in next week’s newsletter.
P5/6 Trip to Magara
The P5/P6 classes from both campuses returned from their field study trip to Magara on Wednesday safe and sound. During the trip they climbed the escarpment, interviewed people from different tribes in the area and camped at the site.
Blood Sucking in the Library
The recent movie, Twilight about teenaged vampires, will be screened on Tuesday, March 3rd for students from M5 to D2 at 7:00 p.m. in the Moshi Library. The following week, on Tuesday, March 10th, the M1-M4 students will get their chance to be terrified. Parents please be forewarned that this movie will be screened in the dark.
Book Sale
The Moshi Library will also be holding a book sale next week for Fiction - New and Used books from Wednesday to Friday (March 4,5,6).
International Day
The Parents Association, in coordination with Ms. Rosi, Mr. Lee and Mr. White, will be organizing a whole school International Day on Moshi Campus on Saturday, March 14th. This is a whole school event to celebrate the many cultures represented at ISM through food, fun and song. Tables with food representative of our many cultures will be posted near the pool and a small stage will be set up for cultural performances. We are hoping that all our ISM families who are available will come over to Moshi for the day. Watch for more details in next week’s newsletter.
Campus Beautification
Many thanks to Fons Nijenhuis for donating truckloads of beautiful flowers to the Campus this week Vasso Farms. With the advent of the rainy season, this is perfect time to get some colourful flowers into the ground and brighten up our learning environment.
ABRSM Theory Exams
The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) Theory Exams will take place on Thursday, 5th March. Students have already registered for these examinations.
Scholarship Students for 2009/10
The Tanzanian national form four examination results were published a couple of weeks ago and we have started our search for the two students who will join the D1 class in August with a full tuition and boarding scholarship. We are seeking students with demonstrated academic excellence and a record of active involvement in co-curricular and/or community service activities. If you know of any suitable Tanzanian student, please encourage them to apply. Further details are given at www.ismoshi.org/scholarship.htm with a closing date for applications of 8th March.
Primary Drama Club - The Hills are Alive
The Primary Drama Club will perform The Sound of Music on stage in Karibu Hall on March 25th at 7:00 p.m. Make sure you arrive early to get a good seat.
Primary Polo Shirts and PE T-Shirts
Please check with Anita at Reception if you still need to purchase uniform polo shirts. Colours available include, Khaki, Orange, Black, Grey, Navy Blue, Pink and Pale Pink in several sizes. Anita also has shorts, trousers and skorts.
A reminder that white sports T-shirts are available for purchase at Reception in the main office for TSh 6,000/-.
Maulid
There will be no classes on Monday, March 9th as we celebrate Maulid. Classes will resume on Tuesday, 10th March. There will be a programme of activities for the boarders over the weekend and on the public holiday as usual.
New Teachers for 09/10
Those of you who keep track of our teacher vacancies will already know we have made a couple more appointments this week and that our list of openings is steadily shrinking. We have some excellent teachers joining ISM next year and I have written asking them to send a brief biography and photo that we can share with parents by the end of the term.
Who’s on First?
Mr. White and Mr. Moody have both been asked by the Council of International Schools (CIS) to travel to Cameroon next week to conduct an accreditation visit of an international school there. Professionally, this shows the high regard in which they are both held by CIS as educational administrators. It also means that after 5 years I will finally be in charge of the entire school for the first time. I’ll be in Moshi on Monday and Tuesday as I am on boarding duty those days and I’ll shift to Arusha for Wednesday and Thursday. Feel free to drop by.
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