NEWSLETTER

ISK: a learning focused school Date: March 3, 2017

is a lifelong adventure by which our brains make connections between the knowledge we gain, the skills we develop and the understanding that deepens over time.

ISK definition of learning

CONTENTS

Upcoming Events……………………..1 Learning Updates……………………..2 Personal Learning……………………..4 After School Activities …………… 5 HSSE ………………………………………..7 PTA ……………………………………….. 8

UPCOMING EVENTS

March 6-10 -Year 4 - Year 9 Art Gallery Exhibition Year 4 - year 9 will display and present their artwork in the ISK student art gallery. Come visit the ISK Art Gallery located on the 5th Floor. Artwork will be on display from March 6 - March 10

March 6 - Start of SPRING ASA Season Please check the allocation list that was sent on Friday February 25.

March 7 - SKAC Middle School Volleyball Competition - Busan (BFS girls, BIFS boys)

March 9 - House Day All students are invited to wear their House t-shirts. March 11 - SKAC Elementary School Basketball Competition - Busan International Foreign School March 11- Quiz Night Save the date for an adult only Middle School House Build Fundraiser!

March 15,16,17- Years 5 and 6 Overnight Trip Years 5 and 6 will be staying in Tongyeong this year. Click here for more detailed information. The Parental Acknowledgement Form can be downloaded here.

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March 20-24 - Cambodia Donation Drive We will be hosting a donation drive for community centre outside of Siem Reap. See below for more details. March 25 - April 10 - Spring Break May 2 - Infant Sports Day Please note this is a revised date to hopefully coincide with more clement weather.

School calendar: www.iskoje.org/calendar--events.html

LEARNING UPDATES

The Five Needs of the Adolescent Brain As you all know, the middle school is going for the IMYC Accreditation in April of this year. One of the criterion

that we will be evaluated on, that is different than the IPC Accreditation last year is the Five Needs of the

Adolescent Brain. We have been working with students

over the course of this academic year, and to some

extent, last year is well, to make them aware and

understand the needs of their developing brain. Last

week, ISK hosted a parents information evening to discuss

these needs with our community.

We had a lovely evening talking about how our students’

(children’s) brains are broken, but merely “under

construction.” Their prefrontal cortex, the part of the

brain that helps

with strategizing,

planning, and

decision-making is

still in the developing stage and that is one of the main reasons why we

need to give explicit support to this age group’ needs. For those of you that

were unable to attend, have no fear! Your representatives passed the final

test with flying colors. They were asked, “What are the five needs of the

adolescent brain?” At ISK we use the mnemonic PRISM to help us

remember these needs.

P= Peer enriched learning (working in groups or with your friends)

R= Risk-taking in a safe environment (our school musical and presenting exit

points)

I= Interlinking learning ( all subjects connecting to the Big Idea)

S= Support the transition from primary to secondary education (student

planners, Haiku Home Learning pages)

M= Making meaning (this would be seen in reflective journals and the

students exit points).

If you have any questions about this criterion or any aspect of the IMYC

curriculum and our learning journey towards accreditation, please do not

hesitate to contact me, Paul Boland, anytime at paul.boland@iskoje.org

International Mindedness in the Middle School

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The middle school spent last Friday talking about, and celebrating our

International Mindedness. The students spent some time looking at our

school’s International Mindedness definition, what it means to them, and

how we have changed because of our experiences here at ISK. Impressively,

the students were able to highlight and share International Mindedness in

each of their subjects.

Proudly, the Year 8, Phoenix Class, received the the

ISK’s Internationally Mindedness Award for the month of February for

making great connections in their learning, to events happening in the

world we live in. The Phoenix class was learning about the Spanish

Conquest of South America and some of the negative impacts on the

South American culture. One topic that came up was the forced

conversion of religions during this time period. We then had a

fantastic discussion about how we see this in the world today.

Students were able to connect this learning to the Boko Haram school

girl kidnappings in Nigeria a few years ago, as well as the issues in Syria and Iraq with the group ISIS. The class

discussion was very open and was amazing to see the students attempt to view such a “hot-button” issue from

multiple perspectives.

Students used our learning showcase to show what International Mindedness

meant to them Students were given the option of writing a description, creating a

poster, or creating a model from clay. The results were astounding. Our student

body is not only internationally minded, but very creative!

Informal Art Exhibition and Special Guests Music ASA’s Congratulations to all the performers and artists who participated in the ISK Art Gallery Opening reception. Thank

you to all the parents and teachers who came out to support the music students who performed in the ASA

informal concert. Students performed pieces from Piano, drums, to brass instruments to ukulele, displaying their

talents and learning. Thank you to Ms. Betthilde, Ms. Ma, Ms. Suwon for all their efforts, as well as all the music

ASA teachers. The students were really proud to share their learning at this event.

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With excellent reviews from visitors to the opening reception of the ISK Art Gallery, the students in Year 4 to Year

9 were also excited to have an opportunity to share their learning and efforts in art. We have a large crowd for

opening night, but not to worry. If you did not get a chance to get a good look at the artwork, come take a look

this week. The artwork will be on display in the 5th Floor ISK Art Gallery through to March 10.

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PERSONAL LEARNING

Our focus this month is: ENQUIRY ‘I ask why things are the way they are and collect evidence to support my ideas.’

@Home

Please check out our ISK @Home booklet for our Personal Goals and activity ideas for all the family to enjoy.

March - Enquiry

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AFTER SCHOOL ACTIVITIES

GREAT OPPORTUNITY - ABRSM MUSIC THEORY LESSONS ABRSM (The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music) is the UK’s largest music

education body, one of its largest music publishers and the world’s leading provider of

music exams, offering assessments to more than 630,000 candidates in 93 countries every

year. For more information, click here.

Ms. YoungMi, who currently teaches piano at ISK, is now able to start the Music theory

lessons to prepare for ABRSM Music theory exams at ISK. The lesson will be a 40 minutes group lesson and there

will be 4 students in a group.

Ms. YoungMi will open two timeslots on Friday after school; 3.10pm - 3.50pm and 4.00pm - 4.40pm . The lesson

will start March 17. Costs for these lessons are 10.000 Won per lesson per student. If you are interested in these

lessons, please let Ms Ma know soon via email: eunbyoul.ma@iskoje.org

CAMBODIA QUIZ NIGHT- SATURDAY, MARCH 11!

We would like to invite you to our Cambodia Quiz Night on Saturday, March

11th. The doors open at 6:30pm with some Casino games to play. The Quiz

will start at 8:00pm. All proceeds will go towards the cost of materials for our

middle school students to build a house in Siem Reap, Cambodia. In April, a

group of middle school students will be traveling to Siem Reap to partake in

a worthwhile project where a village comes together to build houses, wells,

and toilets for members of the community who need it most. Volunteer

Building Cambodia is an NGO that works with volunteers from around the

world to help improve living conditions by providing community members

with safe, dry housing. Students will be volunteering with other members of

the community, and building alongside the family who will receive the

house.

The Cambodia Quiz Night is an adult only fundraising night. There will be a

Grand Prize of 100,000 won gift certificate to a local restaurant. Additionally, there will be table with prizes that

will be raffled off throughout the night. Tickets are limited and can be purchased in advance from the office for

15000 ₩ or from Mr. Paul in the Social Studies room on the 4th floor.

Donation Request

As part of our evening, there will be prizes for different activities that

happen throughout the night. We are looking to our extremely generous ISK

community to help us. Prizes can vary as there will be a raffle section, and

prizes for different games. For example, gift certificates, unopened

alcohol, tickets to sporting games, gift baskets, coupon for homemade

cake, handmade crafts, framed photos. Basically, there is no limit! We

appreciate any donations as it will help make our night a great success!

If you are interested in making a monetary or prize donation, please

contact Mr. Paul at paul.boland@iskoje.org.

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DONATION DRIVE- MARCH 20- 24!

Help us collect items to help a community centre in need!

When our Service Trip Students are in Cambodia, they will be volunteering for an NGO named Volunteer Building

Cambodia (VBC). VBC organizes house, toilet, and well builds. Additionally, they are in the process of building a

local community centre to support the community. At the community centre, they will host lessons to better the

residents of the community. There will be reading and writing lessons in Khmer, English lessons, as well as trade

lessons. VBC will hire members of the Siem Reap community to come to the village to teach locals trades such as

hair styling and carpeting to allow village members to open their own businesses and become economically

independent. In order to support the efforts of VBC, we are hosting a donation drive to kick start their program.

As part of our donation drive, we are having a friendly competition to see which class has the highest ratio of donations per student! Each day, teachers will count their classes donation, and the leading classes will be announced at the end of each day. There will be a class winner from Infant, Junior, and Middle school, and they will receive a small token of appreciation from the ISK Service Trip Team! If you are interested in donating items, please send them in with your child the week of March 20- 24. Click here to see a list of requested items, and other donations are more than welcomed! Thank you for your support! If you have any questions or comments, feel free to contact Ms. Amanda at amanda.hart@iskoje.

BEDSHEETS Nurse Florence Nightingale needs to make some bandages for the upcoming Time Dame Junior Musical. Please donate any old bed sheets you may have to do so. They can be dropped off to Ms Lida, Ms Jane or Mr Dan S.

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HEALTH AND SAFETY

NOTICE OF CONSTRUCTION WORKS Some of our parents may have already noticed the large banners opposite the ISK car park. They indicate that

work will soon begin on the Drop-Off area just inside the Admiral Residence next to ISK. In actual fact, some dump

trucks have already been spotted and trees are being removed. The plan is to widen the road that runs between

ISK and the apartments and provide a large turning circle at the end. Some of our ISK families live in the Admiral

Residence, so please be very careful when coming and going. The works are likely to continue well into May

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PTA NEWS

Quiz Night Tickets available from Mr Paul or the school office.

Raffle Donations

Raffle prizes needed for the Cambodia Quiz Night Fundraiser

Do you have any items you could donate to be used in the raffle to raise funds for

the

Cambodia House Building Project?

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These could be a bottle of wine, box of chocolates, a gift voucher for cafe or restaurant, or an unwanted gift.

A box is inside the school entrance doors to place the items in

Many thanks!!

Family Fun Day

Save the Date!!!

Saturday 22nd April 2017

ISK Yard

If you can help in any way, with the arrangements and planning. then please join this group and share you ideas with us ISK Family Carnival / BBQ Day Planning Group

Cafeteria Help Needed

Can you help for an hour every so often in the Cafeteria? This is for lunchtime from 12.20pm till 1.20pm, it can be only one day or as many as you would like, please add your name to this form:

Cafeteria Rota Feb to Mar 2017 , many thanks or email us isk_pta@iskoje.org

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Introduction to First Aid

For Cafeteria Volunteers, or anyone interested, one of our parents is holding a short course in school on Wed 8th March 2017 at 8.30am, focusing on choking, spaces are very limited so please let us know if you would like to attend

Sign up here Purple Hoodies and T-shirts

On display in the reception area now are samples of the Hoodies, T-shirts and Aprons we have available to buy. There are order forms next to the clothing or you can print off this form and return to school with the correct money. Hurry, stock is limited!

PTA School Clothing Order Form (forms can returned to the PTA Post Box at the school gates, Amy in Reception Office, or your class teacher)

Pre-loved T-shirts

Also in Reception Area is a box filled with "pre-loved" Blue ISK and House t-shirts in various sizes. If you wish to take any of these for your children please do so, and if you would like to make a small cash donation that would be great but not essential. Many thanks!!!

PTA Members and Helpers

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We have the following PTA member roles available now:

Secretary - to take notes/minutes at meetings

Vice President - support the President

Korean Liaison Officer - do you speak Korean and can you help the

Board in general matters, such as ordering items and communication?

Please email us isk_pta@iskoje.org if you can help

in any way

Upcoming PTA Events:- 11th Mar 2017 Adult Quiz / Kasino Night - Fundraiser for Cambodia at Ice Bean Cafe, Okpo April 2017 (to be confirmed - may change) Sports Day 22nd April 2017 Family Fun /Carnival BBQ Day 2nd May 2017 (to be confirmed - may change) Bake Sale 15th May 2017 Teacher Appreciation Day

You can keep upto date with PTA events and activities in the following ways:

● School Website http://www.iskoje.org/parent-teacher-association-pta.html ● Our Facebook Page - please “like” this ISK Parent Teacher Association ● PTA Dates for Events 2017

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