The Weekly Bulletin of Stonehill International School Volume 8, Issue 161 17th January 2020

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FEATURED STORY

Congratulations D2 students, Jayati, Tayyibah, Krutartha and Daksha for winning 100% tuition fee scholarships to universities in the US

CONTENTS FEATURED STORY WHOLE SCHOOL NEWS MESSAGE FROM HEAD OF PRIMARY PRIMARY LEARNING FOCUS MESSAGE FROM HEAD OF SECONDARY SECONDARY LEARNING FOCUS MESSAGE FROM HEAD OF BOARDING INTRODUCING PTA NEWS

THE TIGER

IMPORTANT DATES JANUARY ‘20 21st Semester 2-ASAs begin 24th New Family Orientation Day 24th Stonehill Secondary Science Bowl 24th End of Semester One 25th PTA International Food Fair 27th Semester Two Begins 28th -31st P8 Camp 30th-31st D1 Drama Production

We are elated to share the wonderful news that four of our D2 students, Jayati, Tayyibah, Krutartha and Daksha, have won 100% tuition fee scholarships, from universities of their choice in the United States, through the Next Genius Foundation. This is the first time our students have participated in the Next Genius scholarship search programme and all Stonehill participants have won coveted scholarships! The applications for these scholarships started in August 2019 and more than five hundred students across the country applied for them. The students had to write a logic and reasoning test, followed by a group discussion, and a personal interview round, with college admission officers in Mumbai. Congratulations to all! Wishing them all the best in their future endeavours! Praseeja Nambiar Career and Guidance Counselor

WHOLE SCHOOL NEWS

Major League Baseball visits Stonehill

On Thursday, 16th January, a delegation from Major League Baseball visited Stonehill, on a fact finding mission to gain a better idea of the culture of sports in India. The delegation wad led by Kim Ng, Senior Vice President of Baseball Operations with Major League Baseball. They are traveling all across India, visiting schools that have a strong sports programmme. Baseball entered India in 2005, and Major League Baseball is looking to make a greater push in furthering its development. It was an honor to have had them visit and meet with us here at Stonehill. John Bertken Whole School Sports Coordinator

FROM THE HEAD OF PRIMARY

Cyber Workshop Thank you to all parents who attended David Towse’s workshop, on the online platforms we use, and the platforms children have access to. We all learned something new that we could take home and utilise within our home context.Parent workshops are an embedded part of our processes at Stonehill. The purpose is for you to understand what happens at school and why. You can then initiate conversations with your children in order to grow their understanding of the concepts, skills and knowledge being covered. Please keep an eye out for information regarding our next workshop, by the Extended Music Programme. This workshop is for parents whose children are already participating in the Extended Music Programme, and for those parents whose children are not Karen Crooke participating as well. I have just read the script and you will all get something out of this opportunity. Bangkok and London Search Fairs Brian and I have just returned from the Bangkok Fair, having hired four Primary School teachers for the new academic year. Brian and Joe will now attend the London Fair to see if we can complete hiring for the new academic year. Search has been a supportive company in our hiring processes. Their commitment to Child Protection ensures we have the right documentation to make the right decisions when hiring. Pollution Levels At the moment the pollution levels have been quite high in the mornings. We have moved most of our PE lessons inside. Some children have chosen to stay inside during morning play time, which is fine. I have instructed teachers to discuss this issue with their class, along with our support for children wearing face masks. If you wish to have this conversation at home, please do so. We will also support the wearing of masks, should you wish to send one to school. This is not something we will enforce, but we will definitely support. Inspirational Learning in Action! The P7 students are currently speaking via Skype, with learners from Mozambique, in order to learn more about community connections, set up to enhance their own learning and build lines of development, within the community. This is authentic learning at its best. Our learners investigations just became REAL! Semester Two ASAs Semester Two ASAs begin on the 21st of January. School will finish at 4pm, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Please contact Elvis at elvis.clinton@stonehill.in if your child is yet to choose their ASAs. If you do not want your child/ren involved in ASAs, please collect them from the Primary Office, at 3pm sharp, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Thank you! Orientation for New Families If you arrived at Stonehill post September, you are invited to attend the Orientation Day, on the 24th of January. Brian, Joe and I will open the session, and our curriculum coordinators, will share snippets of information to support your transition. Personnel from other parts of the school will attend to answer all of your questions. The key to a smooth transition is to be open-minded to new ways of doing and to take up the many opportunities to be a part of our Stonehill community. PTA International Food Fair This is an absolutely wonderful event where you get to eat lovely food and build relationships across our community. It is joyful, supportive and delicious! Join us!! Have a lovely week, Karen Crooke Primary School Principal

PRIMARY LEARNING FOCUS

Hindi in the Primary School

The P4 students learnt Hindi letters, numbers and words related to family, like, maataji, pitaaji. They also learnt important phrases, colours and days of the week. They drew a family tree and a house with their family. They enjoyed making the family house, the family tree, learning and writing Hindi letters.

The P5 sudents learnt greeting each other in Hindi. They learnt adjectives, hindi letters, words, numbers and colours. They researched about Indian food and the names of fruits and vegetables. They also learnt the names of the week and learnt to read time in Hindi. Their favourite part was playing games to learn Hindi words.

The P6 students have been learning Hindi letters and how to write and pronounce it. They have progressed to learning phrases, vocabulary related to clothes, emotions, important sight words, adjectives, numbers and colours. They learned the order of sentence structure, conversational sentences, and played games to learn Hindi words. They set goals and are trying hard to accomplish them.

The P7 students did translations, sentence formation and comprehension, and researched different modes of transport. They read and listened to stories and rewrote them. This helped them improve their spelling and grammar.

The P8 students learnt about different professions and chose three of their favourite professions. They explained why they chose them and how they could make a difference in the world through them. They did creative writing exercises, comprehension, numbers, translation, researched on different celebrations around the world and explored Indian traditional games like carrom.

Raji VK Host culture and Hindi Teacher

FROM THE HEAD OF SECONDARY

January is often a time for a number of students to transition in or out of International Schools around the world. Parents’ contracts at work often end in December or January, and academic years in certain parts of the globe also often finish at the end of the calendar year. This year, we expect to be receiving at least ten new students in the Secondary School in January, all of whom have come from different educational systems across the world. Some are IB veterans, while others have spent their years so far, in more traditional educational systems. Some are confident world-travelers; others will be stepping out of their comfort zone for the first time. Joe Lumsden This is one of the main reasons why creating a welcoming school culture is vital for schools like Stonehill International School. It is daunting coming to a school half-way through the year, and it is always very reassuring to see the vast majority of new students, welcomed into friendship groups from day one. Counselors and coordinators go out of their way to ensure that the transition for every new student is as smooth as possible, and teachers provide as much flexibility as possible, in order to give new students time to get used to the new academic system and expectations in international schools. I am looking forward to getting to know all of our new students this January and I am confident that they will also bring all kinds of excitement and interest to our school community. In the meantime, please do not forget to:

1. Update all of your contact details on ManageBac.

2. Attend the parent information sessions for the experiential learning trips next week, as given below: -Monday, 20th January 2-3 pm: M1 Trip Meeting -Tuesday, 21st January 2-3 pm: M2 Trip Meeting -Wednesday, 22nd January 2-3 pm: M3 Trip Meeting -Thursday, 23rd January 1-2 pm: M4 and M5 Trips Meetings -Friday, 24th January 2-3 pm: D1 Trip Meeting

3. Join us at the International Food Fair on the 25th of January. Joe Lumsden Secondary School Principal

SECONDARY LEARNING FOCUS

Secondary Language Acquisition- English

The M1 students are currently on the topic: Making New Connections. Students will explore questions related to friendships. They are required to think about human relationships and related topics such as Identity. They will explore questions such as: Who are we? What are our beliefs and values? What is our mental, social and spiritual health? What does it mean to be a human being?

Learning a language involves learning to interact with another culture, whose customs may be different from our own, or the ones that we are used to. Making new friendships requires us to step out of our comfort zones.

The M2 students created an advertising campaign just before the holidays, which enabled them to practice the persuasive devices they learned. This formed part of the assessment in their unit on entertainment and advertising.

The M3 students are currently on the topic: “Resolving Conflicts with the Global Context of Fairness and Development.” Students will explore the consequences of our common humanity, the themes of sharing finite

resources as well as causes and consequences of conflicts and their resolutions. They will be looking at a series of teaching stories from around the world to see what each story can teach them about how and why arguments lead to conflicts and how those conflicts can be peacefully resolved. The M4 students started a new topic: Can we sustain the planet? In learning about sustainability, the M4 students looked at some logos to interpret their meaning. After reviewing what a metaphor is, they created their own logo for sustainability. An example is “Meatless Monday’ which encourages people to give up eating meat one day a week as the meat industry is responsible for nearly one-fifth of human-made greenhouse gas emissions!

The M5 students are preparing for their MYP e-Portfolio. The topic is Globalisation and Sustainability. Students explore the interconnectedness of man made systems and communities, and the relationships and tensions between local and global processes. Towards achieving this, students have researched the impact human actions have on the environment. They will also learn how audience and purpose shape the way we communicate about any given topic. Kassandra Rieck Head of Student Support Services & MYP and DP English B

MESSAGE FROM THE HEAD OF BOARDING

It has been an amazing start to the year, with fantastic weather and great enthusiasm all around! Weekend Activities Zumba starts again on Saturday. The fantastic workout has grown in popularity with our boarding students.

Glen Johnson Sustainable Garden The D1 students are excited to continue the garden project started last year, behind the boarding houses. They have put forward a proposal to install a drip irrigation system. This year, students have decided what herbs, vegetables and fruits to grow in each section.

Visit to the Nursery On Wednesday, the girls in D1 boarding were chaperoned by Ms. Manpreet to a local flower nursery to learn about indoor plants. They learnt all about growing and nourishing potted plants. Students chose their plants, potted them and gave them a special place in their rooms. The gardener taught them techniques to prepare the soil, and to repot and prune the plants. On their way back, they had sugarcane, and ended the beautiful day with a ride back in a decorated tractor! Congratulations!

Congratulations to M3 student, Shriya, for achieving the level 1 award, with distinction in Speech and Drama, from Trinity College, London. We are proud of you! Well done! Here is what she had to say: “The Trinity examination has been a challenge. It gave me a purpose and a goal to work for. The classes gave me so much self-confidence and understanding. I have completed grade three and have five more years to become a certified actor. I am grateful for the constant encouragement and support I received from my boarding parents and friends.”

Glen Johnson Head of Boarding

INTRODUCING

Each week we feature a Stonehill Teacher in our weekly bulletin. This week, we interviewed Design Lab Technician, Amit Chikkamath. What do you teach at Stonehill? I am a Design Lab Technician and teach woodworking and carpentry. Where are you from? I am from Bangalore. What inspired you to become a teacher? My interaction with children and their enthusiasm to come up with creative ideas. What is your educational philosophy? My educational philosophy is to help kids understand the importance of putting theory Amit Chikkamath to practice and focus on life skills. What made you choose Stonehill? Stonehill chose me! What is the best part of your job? The best part of my job is that I get to turn my ideas and dreams into reality! What are your hobbies and interests? My hobbies are carpentry, woodworking and metalworking. I have a great interest in sports as well! What is your favourite book? “The Shiva Trilogy” by Amish Tripathi. What is your favourite music? I enjoy listening to Electronic Dance Music (EDM).

PTA NEWS

Warm Regards Your PTA

STONEHILL CAFETERIA MENU FOR JANUARY 2020 A detailed monthly menu can now be downloaded from the menu page on the school website. It contains the Continental, Indian and Boarding Menus.

Stonehill International School

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