CONTENTS IMPORTANT DATES - APRIL

01/ FEATURED STORIES 10th - 14th School Closed for Spring Break

20th PYP Exhibition

21st D2 Leavers Assembly

22nd PTA Charity Gala

27th Secondary Spring Music Concert

02/ PRIMARY NEWS

12/ SECONDARY NEWS

17/ BOARDING NEWS

19/ PTA NEWS

HIGHLIGHTS PTA Glamour & Glitz PYP Exhibition news PYP Cross Country and Athletics Secondary Mid Term Reports Secondary Sciences Boarding Update PTA - Stonehill Tees and Hats

Dear Parents,

What an incredible few weeks we have had as a school community!

Students and teachers have been actively engaged in cross country and athletics events, Grease rehearsals and performances, a talent quest and, to top it off, a combined CIS/NEASC accreditation visit.

Events like these, that occur on top of the already excellent teaching and learning at Stonehill, are more proof that our school is a premier school community in the region.

Congratulations to everyone involved in each of these events - your contributions have made a significant positive impact on our community!

Spring Break offers time for us all to take a well deserved and welcome break. It is an opportunity for teachers and students to recharge before the final weeks of our school year.

Please relax and enjoy your family time. Safe travels.

With best regards,

Dr. Beverly SortlandHead of School

TheWeeklyBulle+nof

StonehillInterna-onalSchoolVolume5,Issue626April,2017

THE TIGER

Dear Parents,

The Stonehill PTA would like to thank all of you who have supported our charities by purchasing tickets to this year's Gala. We're all working very hard to assure that the evening is a success. There will be great food prepared by Michelin Star chef Anupam Banerjee and his team, raffles, an auction, games and more! All to help raise funds for the PTA's adopted charities: Stonehill Government School, Iksha Foundation and Morning Star Ashram. 

Since most of you will be leaving to go on holiday this weekend, remember that the last day to pay for your Gala tickets will be Wednesday, April 12th. Please feel free to ask friends and family to join you. 

Warm regards,PTA team

FEATURED STORIES

FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL

Designing a Primary Curriculum to Develop Global Citizens The global goals that provide the blueprint for the world’s development over the next 15 years were ratified by UN member states in New York on September 2015. The UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, described the goals as, “a to-do list for people and planet, and a blueprint for success.” He went on to add, “We can no longer afford to think and work in silos. Institutions will have to become fit for purpose, a grand new purpose.” The goals are ambitious and important.

As international educators, it is critical that in our own institutions, we do all that we can to ensure our students have a deep understanding of their significance. The Global Goals for Sustainable Development Website highlights the increasing importance for us to view ourselves as Global Citizens with Planet Earth as our shared home.

www.pypcurriculum.com

With this in mind, PYP Teachers at Stonehill took time last year to review and revise the Primary Programme of Inquiry to ensure that learners are provided with the essential knowledge, skills and understandings to equip them for the future. We are pleased to announce that we have now updated our PYP Curriculum Website to enable you to see how we have made these changes and additions which ensure that our curriculum aligns with the school's Vision, and with the Global Goals.

www.pypglobalgoals.weebly.com

PRIMARY SCHOOL NEWS

PYP Music ConcertOur school community enjoyed a fantastic PYP Music Concert last week. It was wonderful to see the Primary children performing to such a high standard, enjoying their music and making so much progress with their learning. I would like to thank Mary Macaulay for organising an enjoyable concert that allowed all students to participate and share their musical skills.

Important Upcoming Primary Dates

Thursday 20th April - PYP ExhibitionSaturday 22nd April - PTA GalaThursday 27th April - Instrumental Music ConcertMonday 1st May - May day HolidayFriday 5th May - Host Culture Celebration DaySaturday 6th May - Global Codeathon

Simon McCloskeyPrimary Principal@SISPrimary

PYP Visual Arts - A Community of Creative Thinkers and Doers “Creativity is not just something you think about — it is something you do.”

- Tina Seelig, inGenius

In the PYP Visual Arts classroom, we have been working all year to develop a community of creative thinkers and doers. From a combination of teacher-led and student-led projects, PYP students are building their observational and fine motor skills, connecting ideas, experimenting, and challenging themselves to find solutions to problems.

Our Art Exhibition on March 10th was a fine example of some of the learning, skill building, and creativity that has been taking place in our PYP community. Through a variety of media, the students did a wonderful job in expressing themselves. From the purity of the P1 self-portraits to the fine details of the P8 Op Art drawings, a wide range of skills and creativity were evident. Congratulations to all of the PYP students for a job well done!

One of the ways we have been encouraging our creative thinking and action this year is by paying attention to our physical and social environment. We have set up the classroom environment so that it gives students independent access to a variety of materials which they can use to draw, paint, sculpt, and build. Tape, staples, cardboard boxes and wool yarn can be found, along with more traditional supplies such as coloured pencils and paint. Students are encouraged to “do”: to experiment and explore. In addition to student-led projects during some of the regular Art class times, students are invited to create their own projects after lunch, twice each week. Students work independently and collaboratively (often between different year groups), to share ideas, to reflect on their processes, and to have fun with creative and design thinking.

Here are two things parents can do to support our community of creative thinkers and doers:1. Donating recycled materials such as cardboard

boxes (any size), paper tubes, plastic lids, fabric, etc. These can be dropped off at the PYP Art classroom any time. Thank you in advance!

2. Designating a place at home for your child’s creative projects. Having a small table or desk (along with a variety of art supplies) that is used specifically for experimentation and exploration. Preferably this space does not have to be thoroughly cleaned each day. This provides the child with a physical and social environment in which he/she can feel encouraged to have fun while developing creative and design thinking skills.

Ron Gresham

PYP SPORT AND PE

Athletics SkillsThe Athletics Skills unit saw P4-P8 students focus on building fundamental skills improving their fitness as well as experiencing the joys of participating in sports. Students also improved their personal best scores in events like 100m, 200m, high jump and 400m. The unit culminated in the recently held PYP Sports Day and Cross Country Run.

These performance events instil a sense of teamwork, good sportsmanship and provide a platform for our students to showcase their learned skills in a fun and competitive environment that fosters grit and risk-taking.

PYP Sports DayThis year’s Sports Day saw our P4-P8 students participate in a myriad of fun and challenging activities such as javelin, long jump, shot put, high jump, sack race and tug-of-war.

Every participating student was able to score house points. In the end, the results were tight, with Chawla edging it, closely followed by Bachendri in second, Gandhi in third and Nehru in fourth place.

PYP Cross Country RunWe held our PYP Cross Country Run this week. Students from P1-P8 participated in various events of between 200m to 2km. Our students performed extremely well and were able to overcome the challenging course and the warm temperatures.

Once again, the scores were neck-to-neck to the end. Gandhi came first, Bachendri second, Chawla third, followed by Nehru.

A big thank you to all the teachers for volunteering during the event, the IT and Maintenance Staff for supporting the event, and the parents for joining in and cheering the students.

Gilbert Kaburu, Ph.DPYP PE

Water Pollution: We are the Water Pollution Group. Through our research and field trips we noticed lots of polluted areas of water in Bangalore which had caused serious damage to the living beings around. We interviewed a scientist Dr. Sangunni, a former professor of the Indian Institute of Science now working at the Puttanahalli Trust. We were privileged to get a lot of information about the lakes in Bangalore and the cause for pollution. As part of our action plan, we decided to make two dioramas to educate people on the difference between a polluted and unpolluted lake. We also made cards to encourage people to save water and the different ways to not pollute it. We have worked to create sculptures out of trash from the water bottles that we found post the Grease concert. This was to persuade people that instead of trashing waste, there are many ways that they can upcycle and make wonderful things.

PYP Exhibition - Meet the Exhibition Groups

Street Dogs:We have written a book about Street Dogs in India as you might already know and now we have it on Kindle! You can download the Kindle app on your phone and then you can by if for ₹64 in India. All the money that we collect goes to CARE

Climate ChangeWe are Hridaya, Leander & Suhotra and we are part of the Climate Change group. For our action we are planting seeds in the P4 and P5 garden. We are planning to have a gardening week. In the gardening week everyone from P4 to P8 plants a seed. We put up posters around school asking the primary students to bring in egg shells for composting or seeds.

Aashi: As part of the climate change group, I am interested in the amount of Sparrows that are decreasing. I am making bird feeders to attract more birds. I am also writing instructions of how to make a bird feeder. People who would like to take action can get a sheet of instructions.

Positive Mindset:I am Rahul, and I am finding out about growth mindset. My idea for action is to create activities and games to develop a growth mindset. I also plan to attend a staff meeting to show/teach the teachers about growth mindsets. I chose this topic because when people learn, sometimes they try only about 50% to accomplish what they do (from my perspective) so with a growth mindset they can have a better chance of being a successful person.

Animal Rights: We are the Animal Rights Group. As a part of our action we want to educate everyone on the brand of eggs you should buy. The preferred brand, by us, is Keggs. They are within a reasonable price range considering the feed is organic and the chickens are healthy and free range. We are proud to say that Stonehill uses free range eggs. We also made a board game to educate everyone on animals. Come and play it because it is fun. Many thanks from Lizzie and Rowan.

Gender Equality:We are the Gender Equality group, our names are Youjean, Nanase, Matthijs and Zahra. We found it unfair to have gender inequality in our community. What can you do to help? We should all think about it. We should help before it is too late! We made a video about gender inequality. You should watch it on Exhibition night! We went to the Shell offices to have interviews with staff. Come speak to us if you want to find out more!

Video Game Addiction:We are the Video Game Addiction group. Our members are Maarten, Sharan and Oliver. We are learning more about the positive and negative effects of playing video games. Our action consists of handing out stickers to the students. We also created 25 cards for parents to take home. The parent card tells what parents should know and do about gaming addiction.

Extinct and Endangered animals: We are the extinct and endangered animals group. Have you ever asked yourself why, how and what animals are extinct? We researched and we found out that the main reason why animals are becoming extinct is habitat loss. Our action is to create habitats. This is how we are helping: one, to plant trees and two to make a birdhouse. We also ordered a birdhouse on Amazon. You can also help by doing the same thing or maybe do small things like recycling! By recycling for example wood, people are going to cut down less trees so animals are not going to lose their habitats. Then it is less likely they are going to become extinct.

Sustainable Gardening:We are the Sustainable Gardening group. Our group members are Palaash and Matthias. As part of our action we are making a vermicompost bin to reduce organic waste and turn the waste into nutritious soil, to plant fruits and vegetables. We are also creating a sustainable garden in the P4 soil pit. Our main idea is to make the community aware of the pesticides being used in our fruits and vegetables and persuade people to plant. We went on a field trip to an environmentalist to tell us about planting tips and about composting. To put our idea into action, we will ask children from P4 to P8 to participate in “The Gardening Week” where everyone plants a seed of their choice.

Poverty and Opportunities:We are the Poverty and Opportunities group. Our names are Claudia, Saher, Clara and Miki. We are trying to make a difference in our community, because we see many people knocking on the window doors of cars and we think that it is unfair, as well as children on the street working. We are trying to stop the food waste in our school. We thought we had too much food wasted in our school so, we changed the serving spoon to a smaller one. We also made a poster that will remind the students about food waste. We made an iMovie and put the information into it. We also have another action which is we are making a new ECA where we teach the Stonehill government school children English. We are doing this so they can learn English and get a global job when they grow up. We are trying to make a difference and we hope you will too. We also made another iMovie to explain what is poverty and opportunities.

The Secondary Mid-Semester 2 Report will be released electronically on Friday, 7 April at 15.30 on ManageBac.

Secondary Parent-Teacher-Student ConferencesWe would like to invite you to the second mid-semester Parent-Student-Teacher Conferences on Wednesday, 26 April from 08.00 to 16.30. During the conference, you will have the opportunity to speak with the subject teachers about progress made this quarter, receive specific advice to enable improvement and ask questions of an academic and general nature related to your son/daughter’s learning. It is an ideal opportunity to facilitate communication, and we strongly encourage all the parents and students to take advantage of it. There will be no classes on that day.All details and sign-up procedures will be emailed on Monday 17 April 2017. Please remember that reservations are on a first come, first served basis.

On Wednesday, Mr. Antonio Orlando and Ms. Clare Orlando conducted a mathematics workshop for MYP parents. The presentation was very informative, with most doubts cleared for the nine parents who attended the session.

I wish you all a safe and Happy Spring Break and look forward to seeing students back on Monday, 17 April 2017 with renewed energy.

Kind regardsNarendra MehrotraSecondary Principal

SECONDARY NEWS

Self Image:We are the self-image exhibition group. Our names are Kimia, Livie, Mirabai and Karina. We are all interested in this because we noticed that people compare themselves with others and we want them to realise that everyone is unique. We also wanted to help people turn a negative self-image into a positive one. Our actions are to perform a skit about self-image and hand out compliment cards.

Secondary SciencesIt has almost been two months since our last report and the Science Department has been as busy as bees in the spring time.

In Chemistry, M5 students were exploring the impact of organic chemistry in different spheres of life. While some students made organic soaps and biodegradable plastics to help the environment, others reflected upon the ill effects of abusing drugs and alcohol.

Akshara and the soap she made as part of her research.

In the words of Prapti Chatoo, a student of M5:

‘My presentation was about the effects of alcohol, specifically in India. I looked at the different sales of liquors in states, and correlated them to the lack of productivity in those particular states. I found out that alcohol has been one of the leading causes of poverty in India. This is because alcohol slows down your reflexes, and ability to do work. The biggest reason of his is the lack of awareness about what liquor can actually do to your body. So, I made this poster, to inform people about this. ‘

Meanwhile M5 Physics students are really delving deeply into matter! Their study of sub atomic particles has led to a genuine appreciation of the might of tiny things. The documentary films made by them will answer the question, ‘Nuclear energy, friend or foe?’

The presentations of the mini group 4 projects by the M4 students to their peers and teachers in the library was a roaring success.

As if it was not getting hot enough! In the Physics lab, M4 students are investigating how heat is transferred through different ways by using a very colourful experiment.

Waves, be they heat waves or water waves, seem to be the topic of the month. The M4 students are busy generating ripples even as they learn about waves.

The D1 students on the other hand are analysing the properties of lights waves that are passed through a polarizer.

M4 Chemistry students (right) are representing what happens during the displacement reactions of the alkali metals with water.

After exploring the reactivity of the alkali metals in the laboratory, they were demonstrating their understanding of the reaction in this simulation.

Biology is the flavour of the month for the M3 students. They are learning about the science behind ‘Puberty’ and therefore the changes happening in and around them.

In M1 students have been working on a summative investigation into how materials (water or wax) change when heat energy is added or taken away. They designed safe and logical experiments then collect data. This is the end of our Everyday Chemistry Unit and discovering how matter goes through changes of state.

In M2 students have been working on a summative investigation into the factors that affect elastic or gravitational potential energy. Students designed experiments and then collect data. This is the end of our Mechanical Energy unit and we are looking at how energy transforms.

During the month of February, the M1 and M2 students continued to work with the Government school students. The science experiments performed collaboratively by the students of both schools was a learning process for all involved

This week also saw the final lessons for the D2 science students before their Diploma exams. We will all miss them very much!All of us from the Science Department wish them all the best for the future!

Hi Stonehill Community!

Parents know the challenges faced on a daily basis of getting children up and ready for school. Imagine waking up 40 students or more each day and ensuring that they have showered, their rooms are tidy, are wearing correct uniform, are prepared for ECA’s and have eaten breakfast. Welcome to Boarding at Stonehill.

Boarding students are a “tight knit” group in any school. They are often seen together during breaks, at lunch and at play. They live together. They are family. They are protective of one another. However, if you look closely, the boarders also have non-boarding friends as well who they value highly and mix with freely. The Boarders are in fact, students of Stonehill who happen to live on campus. All are very much involved in the fabric of the Stonehill school programmes ranging from ISACI, ECA’s, Grease and other events!

We currently have a Boarding cohort consisting predominantly of D2, D1 and M5 students. This is a world-wide trend that reflects a need for students in grades 10, 11 and 12 (15 years to 18 years of age) to live and study independently.

We also have some students in M1 to M4 (Grade 6 to Grade 9). With an age range like this, Boarding faces the challenge of having a boarding programme that caters for age, gender and cultural diversity. Devising an activities programmed to cater for this diversity is also challenging. Recently on a closed school day, the Boarders were seen to be involved in “capture the flag” and Lagori (seven stones) on the school’s synthetic surface. It was great fun for all involved.

Boarding will be celebrating and saying farewell our to our DP2 Boarders on Thursday 20th April.

Boarding closes for the Mid Term Break from 4pm on Friday 7th April and re-opens from 4pm on Sunday 16th April. We wish the Boarding students and their families all the best and we hope you enjoy the time together.

The Boarders will be saying farewell our to our DP2 Boarders on Thursday 20th April with a celebratory dinner in the Boarding gardens.

John BussenschuttHead of Boarding

BOARDING NEWS

The Boarders playing “Seven Stones” as part of their recreation activities.

“Capture the Flag” - another of the Boarding recreation activities.

Summer Angels… A Great Success!Thank you again to our generous Stonehill community for donating towards our Summer Angels toy drive.Iksha foundation has started handing out toys to comfort kids after their eye cancer surgeries and they love them!Last week, many Stonehill parents helped the PTA Charity team drop off groceries and Summer Angels gifts at the Morning Star Ashram. The kids’ smiles absolutely made it a day we can't ever forget.You ALL made this happen, we can't thank you enough! 

  Summer is coming, get your Stonehill Tees and Hats now! The PTA is selling a great variety of Stonehill athletic wear in all sizes.  Show your Tiger support! Please email Sal if you are interested in purchasing items. She can be available during drop off (7.30 am) and pick up time (3 -4 pm) if your child wants to try them on for size.  Sal’s email address is: salmoonsamy@gmail.com  

Questions or Comments for the PTA? If you have any questions, comments, or feedback for the Stonehill PTA, please drop us an email at: pta@stonehill.in.  We look forward to hearing from you.

PTA NEWS

Stonehill International SchoolTarahunise Post Jala HobliBangalore North 562157India

Contacting the school:

Admissions Ms. Rishika GanapathyT + 91 8043418300 Prinary School Ms Nijika Bhardwaj

+ 91 8043418318 Secondary School Ms Saathi Vinay

M + 91 9008307684 Transport Mr Rahul I

E info@stonehill.in Head Nurse Ms Charlotte Macdonald