MIDD LE SCHOOL

Friday Bulletin
Weekly Publication for Middle School Parents

From the Middle School Office

Dear Parents: On Tuesday, May 21 the Music department concluded the performance season with the Grade 5 and 6 Recital and it was an evening filled with smiles and style. Thank you to Mr. Odendaal, Ms. Hausman and Mr. Howrey for all their efforts in supporting our aspiring musicians. As the senior students of the Middle School, the grade 8 students enjoy the privilege of a few special events. On Friday, May 31 the students will hear about the transition to High School and enjoy a Dinner Dance, participate in outreach activities on June 3, and enjoy an Activity Day on June 4. Finally, the Moving On Ceremony will take place on June 5 in the Fine Arts Theater from 4:00 6:00 P.M. We are looking forward to a positive end for our students as they say farewell to their Middle School years. Please be informed that Powerschool will be closed starting on Monday, May 27 in order for teachers to finalize grades and comments. Powerschool will reopen on June 6 so that second semester reports can be viewed. Report card distribution will begin on June 11. As we enter the final two weeks of school, please make sure that your child gets enough rest so that they can focus on their assignments. Energy and excitement levels are high at this time of the year and we want to make sure that our students remain healthy and are making positive choices to maintain their well-being. Looking aheadThe last day of school will be on Thursday, June 6 and students will be dismissed at 12:00 noon. Please make the necessary arrangements to have your child picked up from school. Have a fabulous weekend!

ISSUE # 35
W EEK OF MAY 27 TO MAY 31, 2013

Inside this issue:

From the High School Administration From the Office of Admissions and Advancement - Re-enrollment for SY13-14 From the Human Resources Department: Cashless Campus From the Superintendents Office From the Math Department From the ATAC Office From the Music Department 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

End of Year Activities

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

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, those who have given a negative reply all write comments, and some of these can be pretty excoriating. Comparatively few of those writing favorable responses bother to add a comment, all of which means that if one were to 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 the few who have a negative impression, 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 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. PLEASE NOTE: Last day for all ATAC team training is Friday May 30th. There will be no team training the last week of school June 3-5! Congratulations to our MS Touch teams who traveled to Jakarta last weekend for their season ending tournament. The ISM Touch Bearcats were on fire with the girls team winning their division and both the boys grade 7 and grade 8 teams playing off in the final against each other. The grade 7 boys team came up with a great win to take out the gold medal for this annual event hosted by Jakarta International School. Fantastic job Bearcats and a huge thanks to Coach Van Der Merwe, Coach Conte and Coach Highland who have done such a great job during the season and last weekend.

May 29th All year round teams end of year awarding will be in the Little Theatre, from 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. 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 1st. 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!

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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 30th from 11:30am (venue to be announced) Final selling day for the Den will be June 4th, 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

From the Music Department

Congratulations to the Grade 5-6 Students who performed last Tuesday for their music recital. The Choirs, Strings and Bands all performed magnificently! Keep making such wonderful music!

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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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