MIDD LE SCHOOL

Friday Bulletin
Weekly Publication for Middle School Parents

From the Middle School Office

Dear Parents: This week the Grade 4 Tour and Talk takes place as part of our transition program from Elementary School to Middle School. Serving as ambassadors, some of our grade 5 students will take the grade 4 students around campus, visit classes and share tips and insights about life in Middle School. Were excited to see our grade 5 students assuming these leadership roles and hope the grade 4 students leave excited about their upcoming move. In the classroom, our grade 8 students are busily preparing for one of their major end-of-year activities, Advocating for Change. This project involves the students in honing their research, writing and presentation skills as they tackle global issues. Their work will culminate in a summit-type meeting where they share their research and opinions on Thursday, May 30, not May 28 as previously published. Parents of grade 8 students are often invited to attend these hearings so keep an eye out for upcoming announcements. We hope youll be able to join us and support your child. On Wednesday, May 15 the Music department had a Finale Concert for the Grade 7 and 8 students and the audience enjoyed an hour of ear pleasing music. This coming Tuesday, May 21, the Music department will conclude the performance season with the Grade 5 and 6 concert. Please plan to attend and support our aspiring musicians. Thank you to Mr. Odendaal, Ms. Hausman and Mr. Howrey for all their efforts in preparing the students. Enjoy the weekend!

ISSUE # 34
W EEK OF MAY 20 TO MAY 24, 2013

Inside this issue:

From the High School Administration From the Office of Admissions and Advancement - Re-enrollment for SY12-13 From the Human Resources Department: Cashless Campus From the Superintendents Office From the Math Department From the Music Department From the ATAC Office From the HS Guidance Office Homeless World Cup The Giving Tree June Summer Sports Camp Uniform Shop Announcement Newsflash Applications Lost and Found Viewing 4 6 7 8 9 10 2

11 12

Yours in Education, Simon Gillespie Middle School Principal Clarissa Sayson Middle School Assistant Principal

End of Year Activities

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT:
Powerschool Update
Online re-enrollment will be unavailable from May 27- June 5 as PowerSchool will be closed at this time. However, parents may continue to settle accounts through Online Billing and submit required forms to ISM Offices during this period.
Access to online re-enrollment will resume on

June 6, 4:00 pm.

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From the High School Administration

Dear Grade 8 Parents, I would like to extend a very warm welcome to all those who will be moving on from Grade 8 and joining the ISM HS in the school year 2013-2014. We are very fortunate that at ISM the difference between MS and HS is not such a physical or structural jump. After all grade 7 and 8 students operate a very similar schedule to HS and we are only a few meters away from each other, often sharing similar common facilities. That being said the HS will obviously do its very best to help transition all grade 8 students to HS. A special transition morning has been organized by the HS Counselors on the morning of May 31st to assist the grade 8 students with this process. A couple of differences that do exist in the HS center around earning and awarding of credit and so attendance and passing a course for credit, are two potential changes in student life. Another change for next school year that we are very excited about is the extension of our very successful Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) program, that we have been running at grades 11 and 12, to grades 9 and 10. I asked our HS IT Coordinator Mr. Brandon Hoover to write a short comment on what this will mean for learning in the HS. He writes: International School Manila is committed to delivering the highest quality education in line with current best practices in the integration of technology. Over the last two years students in grades 11 and 12 have participated in our Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) program resulting in an effective 21th Century learning environment. It is with pleasure that we announce the expansion of this program to include grades 9 and 10 for SY 2013-14. We believe that students thrive in an environment in which education with technology is a seamless part of their lives. The new BYOD program will help enable students to take ownership and responsibility for their learning both in and outside of the classroom. For school year 2013-14, High School students at ISM will bring their own laptops to school each day. We have developed a website called ISM Connect which will serve as a guide for information, requirements and frequently asked questions. You may view it here: http://connect.ismanila.org We look forward to the exciting range of opportunities this program will provide for all of our HS students. Having a 1:1 laptop environment will provide many synergies for next year, including some exciting new developments where all students will have their assignments and homework in their individual Google calendar. This will significantly streamline the use of the ISM blogs. The HS demonstrated the new functionality of using the Google set of Applications and an integrated Teacher Dashboard program, to the HS Parent Coffee forum in March and received a very positive response. We believe it is a necessary step forward at this time to enhance the educational experience for all of our students. If you have questions about BYOD or ISM Connect that cannot be answered by the website then please do not hesitate to contact either Brandon Hoover [email protected] or myself at [email protected] Congratulations to all grade 8 students for having successfully negotiated MS. Now its time for HS. We are going to have an awesome year! Kind regards, William Brown

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From the Office of Admissions and Advancement

Online Re-enrollment for SY 13-14
All returning students must complete the re-enrollment process in order to start school on 12th August 2013. This year re-enrollment may be completed via PowerSchool. For your guide to the online system, please click on the links below: Students Re-enrolling SY 13-14 Re-enrollment Incoming Grade 1 SY 13-14 Re-enrollment Incoming Grade 5 SY 13-14 Re-enrollment Incoming Grade 7 SY 13-14 Re-enrollment Incoming Grade 9 SY 13-14 Please note that to complete re-enrollment you must settle your accounts for SY 12-13 and pay the first quota of tuition fees for SY 13-14. Beginning 5th June, 2013 you may view your account details through Online Billing. SY 13-14 tuition is due on 12th July 2013. For questions/concerns, please contact the School Offices or the Admissions Office.

From the Human Resources Office: Cashless Campus

Dear Parents and Students, The end of the school year is fast approaching, and we wanted you to know that, starting in August, we shall be introducing a Campus Card payment scheme. This system has been in the research stage for some time now, and we have been consulting carefully with our colleague schools in IASAS, all of whom make use of a card for payments on their campuses. The system works through an individual identity chip that is implanted into student ID cards. One of the main purposes for making this move to is to provide a debit system in the canteen. Some of the benefits are: Limit the amount of money that students are obliged to bring to school. Speed up canteen lines during breaks since cash exchange will not be needed. Give online access to parents so they may see what their children are eating at lunch. The intention is to run parallel cash / debit system initially, but in time we intend to move towards a complete debit system during school hours. Parents and students will have several options with regards to topping up their card. They can do this online by credit card or PayPal or through an accredited bank (all for a minimal fee), at kiosks (similar to ATMs) located in two different areas on campus, or at the cashiers office. In addition to purchasing food at the canteen, the Smart Card may be used for paying other activities that take place on campus: school plays, Family Fun day, concerts, T-shirts, etc. We also hope that the Uniform Shop will be able to accept payments in this way. Parents and helpers may also apply for an ID card complete with chip should they wish to use a debit system on campus rather than cash payments. In conjunction with the debit system, the Smart Cards issued in Middle School will allow students to access the new lockers we are purchasing. We shall be sending out more instructions on how this system will work later in the school year and again in August. Like any new system, we suspect that there will be some teething problems, but we are confident that we shall overcome these and that the card system will be beneficial for the entire school. Sincerely, Michelle Mapua Director of Human Resources

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From the Superintendents Office

Dear Middle School Parents: I have attached below the statistics from the recent parent surveys with comparative data from the previous three years. You will see that the figures have remained broadly the same since 2010. Of course the data would be more useful still if a greater proportion of parents had completed the survey: the 125 families who completed the survey out of a possible 584 families represents a return of approximately 21%. One of the things that always strikes me about these surveys is the discrepancy in the responses. Take, for example, Question 2: My childs teachers are committed and enthusiastic in their approach to teaching. 60 responses are in the 6 range or excellent; 49 responses are 5 or very good; 12 responses are 4 or good. There is one 2 or poor and then there are three 0s or neutral/no response. In other words, there are 121 favorable responses and 1 negative response. Invariably, the person who has given a negative reply will write a comment, and this may well be pretty excoriating. Comparatively few of those writing favorable responses bother to add a comment, all of which means that if one read the comments only, one would get a very distorted picture of how parents view the school. That doesnt of course invalidate the views of those who have negative impressions, but it does place those views in perspective. What I would say is that, if you are unhappy with any element of your childs education here at ISM, I urge you to come in to talk to us about this. We want our school to be a place where every child succeeds, and in order for that to happen we need your input! Best wishes, David Toze Superintendent

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From the Mathematics Department

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From the Music Department

Congratulations to the Grade 7 - 8 students who performed for the Finale concert last Wednesday! It was so enjoyable to hear such great music from Beethoven, as well as other Classical and Romantic Music. Your passion and excitement for singing and playing your instruments is inspiring! - Mr. Guime Odendaal

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From the Athletics & Activities Office

4th season practices are now taking place for some of next years HS teams to start training. This is open for current grade 8s who will be freshmen 9th grade next year to join these practices. If you have questions, talk with the coaches. Sailfish Awards will be on Friday evening, May 17th. Please see Sailfish blog for information. May 17-19th MS Touch team to Jakarta for invitational tournament. May 29th All year round teams end of years awarding Little Theatre 3:15 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. May 29th Homeless World Cup Soccer Tournament at ISM: fundraiser to send Philippines team to the annual World Cup Tournament. See Ms. Vogt for details and team registration. Bearcat Council applications for school year 2013 -14 are now closed. Information will be provided in the next two weeks to all applicants via the current exec group. Please remember the ISM swimming facility will close for renovation works from this Friday May 17 and the planned reopening of the pool is set for September 1 st. We are building a new 2 level grandstand, new locker rooms, new storage area, new coaches locker rooms, additional restrooms for the public and resurfacing the pool surrounds. ISM Summer Sports Camps information is now available on the ATAC summer camps blog page. The informational flyer will also be in the parent bulletins. Sign ups are on a first come first served basis! A great way to stay in touch with the ISM ATAC program is to subscribe via RSS feed to the ATAC blog and also to follow via twitter (see twitter feed on the blog home page). Each Monday, I will post the weeks happenings and highlight important events for students and parents information on the ATAC blog and in the regular Friday parent bulletins. GAME SCHEDULE PDF (access to game schedule information): Information about all mid-week/ weekend fixtures for ISM teams can be found via the ATAC blog. Please note the game schedule does change often due to involvement with many local schools, so please check the page regularly to find out the latest information of where and when the Bearcats teams are playing. Click on schedules tab or the Bearcat logo to be directed to the power school secure site http://powerschool.ismanila.org/public/ You will need your power school user name and password to access the game schedule pdf. BEARCAT DEN: http://atac.ism-online.org/bearcat-den/ Our Bearcat Den is open for business, please drop by to check out the range of Bearcat products. We have a great team of volunteers who run the den and are always looking for more people to help out. If you are interested in joining a fantastic group, please contact any of our den members during den opening hours. If youre interested in joining the Den volunteers, please contact Carolyn Ching for details at [email protected]. We are always looking for new volunteers and encourage parents from ES/MS to join our group. Please note end of year lunch for Den volunteers is May 30 th from 11:30am (venue to be announced) Final selling day for the Den will be June 4 th, Den will be closed for inventory and summer pack up June 5. The Den will re -open for business in the new school year on Monday, August 12th,2013

Sincerely, Mark Pekin Director of Athletics/ Activities

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From the High School Guidance Office

Dear HS Parents, We are very pleased to introduce/reintroduce you to an exciting initiative developed back in 2010 by the HS Guidance Department in cooperation with the HS Administration:

Bearcat Career Experience

As we all know well, high school for students is (among many things) a time of self-discovery. It is a time where our students begin to better acknowledge their aptitudes/likes, where they hone their strengths and where they begin to sort through that rather complicated map known as their educational and future career path. Unfortunately, it is often a map with gaps between what they learn in their academic classrooms and the real world their teachers are working to prepare them for. In short, we hope to help bridge that gap for some of our high school students through a five-day summer internship (June 10th 14th, 2013) with various companies in the Metro Manila area. Last year we were very fortunate to place over 120 ISM high school students (sophomores and juniors) with 30 companies (including Alaska Milk, Asian Development Bank (ADB), and Makati Medical Center to name a few) in the Metro Manila area. This year, we definitely feel those numbers could increase. However, in order to make this a reality, we need reputable companies from a variety of industries to form partnerships with us and take part. As parents of our dedicated and motivated HS students, you may own, be employed by, or know of a company interested in supporting this very worthwhile endeavor. We ask for your support in helping us develop potential Career Experience placements and subsequently, lasting positive relationships with companies in the Metro Manila area. We ask that you take time to reflect on this important initiative (currently in its 3rd year) and its value for our ISM community. Please take a look at our website here http://bearcat-careers.ism-online.org/what-is-a-bearcat-career -experience/ . This page should give you an idea of what the program is all about. You might also want to check out this video too. http://bearcat-careers.ism-online.org/media/ If you are in a position to take one or more of our students at your company or know of an interested company, please let me know. Please also contact me at [email protected] if you have any questions or need further clarification. Information about how your son or daughter (current sophomores and juniors only) could apply for a Career Experience position will be communicated to all of you at a later date. You can also get more informed and up to date posts about the Bearcat Career Experience by liking our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/BearcatCareerExperience Thank you very much for your support and I look forward to hearing back from some of you. J Sincerely, Doug McQueen High School Counselor

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