Middle School Parent Bulletin - Issue No. 27 - March 18 to 22

7/29/2019 Middle School Parent Bulletin - Issue No. 27 - March 18 to 22

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From the Middle School OfficeISSUE # 27

W EEK OF MARCH 18 TO 22, 2013

Friday Bulletin M I DD L E SC H O O L

Weekly Publication for Middle School Parents

Measures of Academic Progress

From the Office of Admissionsand

From the PTA

From the ATAC Office

From the Music DepartmentYoung, Wild and Free 2013

From the HS Guidance Office

3rd Season Training ScheduleAdult Language Courses

ISM Community Art Auction 1

Inside this issue:

UPCOMING EVENTSUPCOMING EVENTS MARCH

4 to 27 MAP Testing

25 to 27 Spirit Week

28 to 29 School Holiday

APRIL

1 to 8 School Holiday

9 National Holiday(Bataan Day)

15 to 19 ESL Placement Testing

19 Courtyard Event

25 Parent Coffee

Dear Parents:

MAP (Measures of Academic Progress) tes ng con nues this week. Inthe event that your child misses a tes ng session, make -up sessions willbe held on Wednesdays star ng at 7:30 A.M. If your child requires amake -up session, the MS O ce will no fy you and we ask that youmake the necessary arrangements to bring your child to school early onWednesday.

Looking aheadThe upcoming school holiday runs from March 28 to

April 9. Classes resume on April 10.

Have a fabulous weekend!

Yours in Educa on,

Simon Gillespie Clarissa Sayson Middle School Principal Middle School Assistant Principal

The Yearbook Pictures are now available for pick up in the MS Office.

POWERSCHOOL UPDATPOWERSCHOOL UPDATAPRIL

12 Progress ReportDistribution

From the Treasury DepartmentDear ISM Parents:

This is a reminder to please view and check the ISM Web Online at h p://community.ismanila.org/d/2/ for the latest update on your billing state-ment and se le any remaining balance of account(s).

Please note that the 2nd semester Tui on fee for SY2012-2013 was duelast December 07,2012 while other school fees on your billing statementsare already due as billed. For those who havent se led yet, we appreciateyour immediate se lement of the accounts.

For related billing and payment ques ons including any username andpassword concerns, please call 840 -85-22 / 840 -85-06 / 840 -85-12 and lookfor RHODA VILLA (Accountant) or MARISSA DULAY (Treasury Supervisor)and Elmer Esguerra ( Cashier). You can also email us at [email protected] [email protected]. and [email protected].
http://community.ismanila.org/d/2/http://community.ismanila.org/d/2/mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]://community.ismanila.org/d/2/http://community.ismanila.org/d/2/


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F R I D AY B U L L E T I N P AG E 2

Dear Parents,

From March 4 to 27, ISM will conduct the Measures of Academic ProgressTM (MAP) tests for Semester 2.

What are MAP tests? MAP tests are an external assessment from the United States, used to assist in determining students instruc onal

level. Currently, there are 370 interna onal schools in 123 countries, including 56% member schools of EAR-COS (East Asia Regional Council of Schools), who conduct MAP tes ng.

Who does MAP tes ng at ISM? Students in Grades 3 to 10 take MAP tests. Students receiving Learning Support and ESL services will be given the

opportunity, where appropriate, to par cipate in the MAP tes ng. Parents will be contacted individually re-garding any modi ca ons taking place.

What do MAP tests assess and how o en do they occur? These tests will measure academic growth across the school year in the areas of Reading, Language and Mathe-

ma cs , and are administered twice a year at ISM. The Semester 1 tests were taken in September/Octoberduring the rst semester.

How do MAP tests work? Your child will take the tests on a computer. MAP tests are unique in that they are adap ve. The test becomes

more di cult the more ques ons the student answers correctly. When a student incorrectly answers a ques-on, the following test ques on is adjusted accordingly and is at an easier level. In this way, your child will

take a test speci cally created for his or her learning level.

How are MAP tests reported? Your childs MAP results are reported in RIT (Rasch Unit) scores . This is a di erent type of score than a typical test

that provides a percentage correct. Parents will receive a report that shows their RIT score, the norma ve RITscores for the grade level at ISM, and the norma ve scores for students in the United States within the same

grade level. These reports will be available in early May.What does ISM do with the informa on that MAP provides?

Teachers use the data from MAP tes ng to inform learning and teaching. It assists in determining which skills re-quire enhancing, which skills students have already developed, and which skills need to be introduced. MAPtests also provide our school with a reference point for the ongoing development of the school -wide curricu-lum. This data allows us to look for trends within certain areas of our curriculum.

How do I prepare my child for MAP tes ng?Factors such as sleep and how a child is feeling can all a ect results of a standardized test. Please talk to your child

to help avoid him/her feeling anxious about MAP tes ng.

Lastly It is important to remember that MAP results provide one piece of assessment data in the process of acquiring

informa on and making judgments about student progress toward intended learning. At ISM, we believesound assessment involves crea ng a mul tude of ways to measure and communicate student learning overme a photo album versus a single snapshot.

For more informa on on MAP tes ng, please consult the NWEA (North West Evalua on Associa on) website atwww.nwea.org. In addi on, parents can access the MAP Parent Toolkit at h p://www.nwea.org/support/ar cle/930/

parent -toolkit .

Sincerely, Simon Gillespie Clarissa Sayson Middle School Principal Middle School Assistant Principal

Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) Tests
http://www.nwea.org/http://www.nwea.org/support/article/930/parent-toolkithttp://www.nwea.org/support/article/930/parent-toolkithttp://www.nwea.org/support/article/930/parent-toolkithttp://www.nwea.org/support/article/930/parent-toolkithttp://www.nwea.org/support/article/930/parent-toolkithttp://www.nwea.org/support/article/930/parent-toolkithttp://www.nwea.org/support/article/930/parent-toolkithttp://www.nwea.org/


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From the Office of Admissions and AdvancementDear Parents,

Please be reminded that keeping your contact informa on updated is vital to facilita ng communica on with theschool. If you would like to view/change any of the details on your current record, simply follow the steps below.


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Withdrawal Procedure for Students Leaving ISM

For those students who will be withdrawing from Interna onal School Manila this year, the following procedure applies:

Parents are obliged to inform the School o cially through a WITHDRAWAL NOTIFICATION FORM, before the second Friday of May, if their children will not be returning to ISM.

Failure to do so will lead to a deduc on of US$1,000 from the Facili es Upgrade Deposit (FUD), in compensa on for having held aspace for the child and thus preven ng the School from o ering that space to another child prior to the summer holiday break.

The Withdrawal No ca on Form can be obtained from the Admissions O ce or directly from the ISM website www.ismanila.orgunder Admissions > Re -Enrollment & Withdrawal > Withdrawal

STEP 1: Return the Withdrawal No ca on Form to the Admissions O ce or scanned and e -mailed as an a achment [email protected] .

Upon receipt of the Withdrawal No ca on Form by the Admissions O ce, a copy will be forwarded to the appropriateSchool O ce and the Finance O ce for their ac on.

The School O ce, upon receipt of the Withdrawal No ca on Form, will ini ate the student clearance procedure whichrequires a Middle or High School student to have the Student Clearance Slip signed by the indicated teachers and o cesfor clearance. For Elementary students, the Elementary O ce will handle the withdrawal clearance.

Note that school transcripts and records will be available from the par cular school o ce approximately een workingdays a er the childs last day of a endance at ISM. Please coordinate directly with the par cular School O ce if yourequire other arrangements.

STEP 2: If required, and when completed, the Student Clearance Slip must be taken to the Cashiers O ce. Only a er the Cashierhas received and signed the completed clearance form will the childs transcript or school records be released from the Elementary,Middle or High School O ce. Please note that one copy of the transcript is provided free of charge, addi onal copies cost P100each, payable at the Cashiers O ce before release. Please coordinate directly with the par cular School O ce if you requiremore than one copy of school records.

STEP 3: In order to receive your Facili es Upgrade Deposit or FUD (formerly the Special Project Deposit) refund, the following mustbe submi ed to the Cashiers O ce:

1) Signed Student Clearance Slip 2) Signed Facili es Upgrade Deposit Cer cate

Please note that the FUD refund will not be released before your childs last day of school and may take up to thirty ( 30) days . Onlythe person whose name appears on the FUD Cer cate may claim the refund at the Cashiers O ce.

Please call the Cashier at 840 -8506 if you have ques ons regarding your FUD Cer cate.

Please allow the withdrawal process to go smoothly by star ng the process early. Thank you for your help and understanding.

If you will be withdrawing before the end of the school year and wish to receive your childs YEARBOOK please submit the appropri-ate form to the School O ce. The forms are available through the web site: Admission > Re -Enrollment & Withdraw-al>Withdrawal

Elementary School Yearbook: ALAALA Middle School Yearbook: SALINLAHI High School Yearbook: KAWAYAN

Sincerely,

Stephanie H. Hagedorn Director of Admissions & Advancement

F RIDAY B U L L E T I N P AG E 4
http://www.ismanila.org/mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.ismanila.org/


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PTA CULTURAL SHOW 2013

A er all the fun, excitement, and food from the various countries that rep-resented the ISM community during the Interna onal Family Fun Day, it is now

me to showcase the folkdances and folksongs from our mul cultural society.

The Cultural Show will take place on the 19 th of March, 2013 in the Li leTheater from 7:30 un l 9:30 am. All ISM parents are welcome.

Criteria in the performances are as follows:

Members of the ISM community especially parents are encouraged to par c-ipate. Maximum two performances; either a dance and/or song from each country. Performances must not exceed 4minutes for each item i.e., a total of 8minutes for two performances. All par cipants must register and con rm on the 6 th of March at the very lat-est to be able to join this event; and If you wish to invite an outsider guest who is not an ISM parent please con-tact the numbers below.

For further inquiries please contact: Marsha Ronald, DMD on 0921 - 693 - 7676 or

Maria Handa on 0917 - 817 - 9988

Yours truly,Marsha Ronald, DMD PTA Head of Hospitality

From the Parent-Teacher Association


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MS/HS 3 rd Season sports prac ce schedules for Badminton, So ball, Track & Field and MSMixed Touch: please see prac ce schedule via the ATAC blog schedules pages or school no ceboards ( h p://atac.ism -online.org/schedules/hs/)

IASAS Track and Field April 10 -14: Housing le ers for the IASAS Track and Field event arenow available via the ATAC blog. Please sign up early to house a visi ng track athlete in April.We need to house 150 athletes in total and s ll require 20 athletes to be housed. Teamsarrive the day we return from spring break so deadline for return of le ers is March 15th inorder for us to con rm all housing assignments prior to the holiday star ng. For general infor-ma on about housing at IASAS tournaments please see the housing and hos ng page ( h p://atac.ism -online.org/iasas/iasas -housing/) .

Sail sh Head Coach Appointment: We are pleased to announce that ES PE teacher/varsityswim coach Miss Holly Chapman has been appointed as Head Sail sh Coach for next year toreplace Coach Andy. Coach Chapman has already started working with Coach Andy and hasthe added bonus of being able to mentor with him over the next 2 months to ensure asmooth transi on for next year. She will a end the Gold Coast Australia swim coaches confer-

ence in May to further her coaching creden als. She has her Australian Swim coaches compe ve strokes quali ca onand was a junior county swimmer in the UK and has coached swimming in her previous employment prior to arriving atISM.

Coach Andy has done a wonderful job with our Sail sh program since his arrival 5 years ago. His enthusiasm and drivewill certainly be missed. He has developed a strong program, doubled the numbers of squad swimmers, brought to-gether a commi ed parent support group and established clear guidelines and opera ng systems for swimmers, par-ents and coaches and more importantly he has provided excellent coaching to our sail sh swimmers. We wish Andyand his family the very best for their move to Europe this summer.

Swimming Facility Renova on: Please remember the swimming facility will close for renova on works beginning May17 and the planned reopening of the pool is set for September 1 st . We are building a new two -level grandstand, newlocker rooms, new storage area, new coaches locker rooms, addi onal restrooms for the public and resurfacing the

pool surrounds.ISM Summer Sports Camps informa on will be coming out later this month. Announcements will be placed in the par-ent bulle ns and all informa on will be available on the summer camps page on the ATAC blog. Stay tuned for moreinforma on!

Friday, March 16 is the nal Track meet of the local season. Warm -up starts at 7:15pm. Meet starts at 8:00am and runsll about 3:00 pm. 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 twi er (see twi er feed on the blog home page). Each Monday I will post the weeks happen-ings and highlight important events for students and parents informa on on the ATAC blog and in the regular Fridayparent bulle ns.

GAME SCHEDULE PDF (access to game schedule informa on): Informa on about all mid -week/weekend xtures forISM teams can be found via the ATAC blog. Please note the game schedule does change o en due to involvement

with many local schools so please check the page regularly to nd out the latest informa on of where and when theBearcats teams are playing. Please click on schedules tab or the Bearcat logo to be directed to the power school securesite ( h p://powerschool.ismanila.org/public/) . You will need your power school user name and password to access thegame schedule pdf.

HS Student registra on for ATAC ac vi es (new for school year 12 -13): A Google doc registra on is now available forall HS students who will take part in any ATAC seasonal sports teams, MUN and Cultural Conven on programs. Pleasetake the me to complete this online registra on for ac vi es that you plan on joining this school year. Please accessthe form via the HS Student Registra on tab found under the helpful shortcuts bar on the ATAC blog home page.Please note this is for HS students only and you must use your school email address to access the link. Personal gmailor hotmail addresses will not allow you to access the page.

From the Athletics & Activities Office
http://atac.ism-online.org/schedules/hs/http://atac.ism-online.org/schedules/hs/http://atac.ism-online.org/schedules/hs/http://atac.ism-online.org/iasas/iasas-housing/http://atac.ism-online.org/iasas/iasas-housing/http://atac.ism-online.org/iasas/iasas-housing/http://atac.ism-online.org/iasas/iasas-housing/http://atac.ism-online.org/iasas/iasas-housing/http://atac.ism-online.org/iasas/iasas-housing/http://powerschool.ismanila.org/public/http://powerschool.ismanila.org/public/http://atac.ism-online.org/iasas/iasas-housing/http://atac.ism-online.org/iasas/iasas-housing/http://atac.ism-online.org/schedules/hs/


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BEARCAT DEN:h p://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 greatteam of volunteers who run the den and are always looking for more people to help out. If you are interested in joininga fantas c 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 [email protected]. We are always looking for newvolunteers and encourage parents from ES/MS to join our group.

Regular Opening Hours for the Bearcat Den: Wed and Fridays from 11:30am 1:00pm and each a ernoon from 2:30 -4pm.

On Friday, March 22 at 3PM in the Middle School Court-yard, the Music Department presents a special edi on of

A ernoon Delights called Strings Extravaganza . Over 90middle school string students will gather to performmany orchestra pieces, including Palladio , Moonlight Tango, Billie Jean, and My heart will go on. See youthere!

From the Music Department
http://atac.ism-online.org/bearcat-den/http://atac.ism-online.org/bearcat-den/http://atac.ism-online.org/bearcat-den/http://atac.ism-online.org/bearcat-den/http://atac.ism-online.org/bearcat-den/http://atac.ism-online.org/bearcat-den/mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]://atac.ism-online.org/bearcat-den/


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Dear HS Parents,

We are very pleased to introduce/reintroduce you to an exci ng ini a ve developed back in 2010 bythe HS Guidance Department in coopera on with the HS Administra on:

Bearcat Career Experience As we all know well, high school for students is (among many things) a me of self -discovery. It is a

me where our students begin to be er acknowledge their ap tudes/likes, where they hone their strengthsand where they begin to sort through that rather complicated map known as their educa onal and future ca-reer path. Unfortunately, it is o en a map with gaps between what they learn in their academic classroomsand 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 ve-daysummer internship (June 10th 14th, 2013) with various companies in the Metro Manila area.

Last year we were very fortunate to place over 120 ISM highschool students (sophomores and juniors) with 30 companies(including Alaska Milk, Asian Development Bank (ADB), and MakaMedical Center to name a few) in the Metro Manila area. This year, wede nitely feel those numbers could increase. However, in order tomake 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 mo vated HS students, youmay own, be employed by, or know of a company interested in sup-

por ng this very worthwhile endeavor. We ask for your support inhelping us develop poten al Career Experience placements and sub-sequently, las ng posi ve rela onships with companies in the MetroManila area.

We ask that you take me to re ect on this important ini a ve (currently in its 3 rd year) and its valuefor our ISM community.

Please take a look at our website here h p://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. h p://bearcat -careers.ism -online.org/media/

If you are in a posi on to take one or more of our students at your company or know of an interest-ed company, please let me know.

Please also contact me at [email protected] if you have any ques ons or need further clari ca on.

Informa on about how your son or daughter (current sophomores and juniors only) could apply for aCareer Experience posi on 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 ourfacebook page at h ps://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


From the High School Guidance Office
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F RIDAY B U L L E T I N P AG E 1 0

Documents

Middle School Parent Bulletin - Issue No. 27 - March 18 to 22