Middle School Parent Bulletin - Issue No. 36 - June 3 to 6

7/28/2019 Middle School Parent Bulletin - Issue No. 36 - June 3 to 6

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From the Middle School OfficeISSUE # 36

WEEKOF JUNE 3 TO 6, 2013

Friday BulletinMIDDLE SCHOOL

Weekly Publication for Middle School Parents

From the High School

Administraon2

From the Oce of Admissions

and Advancement

- Re-enrollment for SY13-14

3

From the Human Resources De-

partment:

Cashless Campus

Canteen Concessionaires

3

4

From the Treasury Department

4

From the Superintendents

Oce5

From the Math Department 7

From the ATAC Oce 8

From the HS Guidance Oce 9

Uniform Shop Announcements

The Giving Tree

June Summer Sports Camp

10

Inside this issue:Dear Parents:Unbelievably we have reached the final days of the school year and this willbe the last edition of the Parent Bulletin for school year 2012-2013. Wheredid the months go? They have flown by and been filled with loads of hardwork and activities, and its clear that everyone is anticipating a well-earnedholiday.

On Thursday the grade 8 students did an outstanding job presenting theirresearch on a range of global issues and debating clauses during theAdvocating for Change Summit. We applaud all their efforts and hard workand thank the many teachers who were involved. It is hoped that all thestudents will continue to take interest in the global issues that were raised andcontinue to consider their own roles and responsibilities as part of the solution.

To round out their final week, the grade 8 students had a transition to HighSchool event on Friday followed by their Dinner Dance in the evening.Monday will be Community Outreach Day and on Tuesday they will have anawards assembly and Activity Day. On Wednesday, June 5 we recognize theachievements of the grade 8 students and celebrate their completion of theMiddle School years. The Moving On Ceremony will take place in the FineArts Theater from 4:00 6:00 P.M. We congratulate all the students forsuccessfully completing Middle School and wish them all the best in HighSchool.

Please be reminded that PowerSchool is closed so that teachers can finalizegrades and comments. PowerSchool will reopen on June 6 so that secondsemester reports can be viewed. Report card distribution will begin on June

11.

The last day of school will be on Thursday, June 6 and students will bedismissed at 12:00 noon. Please make the necessary arrangements to haveyour child picked up from school.

In closing we would like to express our gratitude to the students, parents,teachers and staff for making this school year an outstanding one. It was ayear filled with growth and progress as we continually strive to improve ourprogram and student life. To those of our families who are traveling abroad orwithin the Philippines, we wish you a rejuvenating and safe holiday. To thosefamilies who are leaving the ISM community, we extend our sincere wishes forcontinued success and happiness in your new homes and schools.Yours in Education,

Simon Gillespie Clarissa SaysonMiddle School Principal Middle School Assistant Principal

Online re-enrollment will be available unl June 5th

, 4pm. Those who are unable to re-enroll unl this me may do so whe

PowerSchool re-opens on June 6th

, 4pm. Parents may connue to sele accounts through Online Billing and submit require

forms to ISM Oces throughout this period.

To access online re-enrollment, please click here.

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: Powerschool Update

End of Year Activities
http://powerschool.ismanila.org/public/home.htmlhttp://powerschool.ismanila.org/public/home.htmlhttp://powerschool.ismanila.org/public/home.html


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FRIDAY BULLETIN PAGE 2

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 joiningthe ISM HS in the school year 2013-2014. We are very fortunate that at ISM the dierence between MS

and HS is not such a physical or structural jump. Aer all grade 7 and 8 students operate a very similar

schedule to HS and we are only a few meters away from each other, oen sharing similar common facili-

es.

That being said the HS will obviously do its very best to help transion all grade 8 students to HS. A spe-

cial transion 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 dierences that do exist in the HS center around earning

and awarding of credit and so aendance and passing a course for credit, are two potenal 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:

Internaonal School Manila is commied to delivering the highest quality educaon in line with current

best pracces in the integraon of technology. Over the last two years students in grades 11 and 12 have

parcipated in our Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) program resulng in an eecve 21th Century learn-

ing 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 educaon with tech-

nology is a seamless part of their lives. The new BYOD program will help enable students to take owner-

ship 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 web-

site calledISM Connectwhich will serve as a guide for informaon, requirements and frequently asked

quesons. You may view it here: hp://connect.ismanila.org

We look forward to the excing range of opportunies this program will provide for all of our HS stu-

dents.

Having a 1:1 laptop environment will provide many synergies for next year, including some excing new

developments where all students will have their assignments and homework in their individual Google

calendar. This will signicantly streamline the use of the ISM blogs. The HS demonstrated the new func-

onality of using the Google set of Applicaons and an integrated Teacher Dashboard program, to the HS

Parent Coee forum in March and received a very posive response. We believe it is a necessary step

forward at this me to enhance the educaonal experience for all of our students. If you have quesonsabout BYOD or ISM Connect that cannot be answered by the website then please do not hesitate to con-

tact either Brandon Hoover [email protected] or myself at [email protected]

Congratulaons to all grade 8 students for having successfully negoated MS. Now its me for HS. We

are going to have an awesome year!

Kind regards,

William Brown
http://connect.ismanila.org/http://connect.ismanila.org/mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]://connect.ismanila.org/


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From the Office of Admissions and Advancement

All returning students must complete the re-

enrollment process in order to start school on 12

th

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




Please note that to complete re-enrollment you must sele your accounts for SY 12-13 and pay the rst

quota of tuion fees for SY 13-14. Beginning 5th

June, 2013 you may view your account details through

Online Billing. SY 13-14 tuion is due on 12th July 2013.

For quesons/concerns, please contact the School Oces or the Admissions Oce.

Online Re-enrollment for SY 13-14

From the Human Resources Office:

Cashless CampusThe end of the school year is fast approaching, and we wanted you to know that, starng in August, we shall

be introducing a Campus Card payment scheme. This system has been in the research stage for some me

now, and we have been consulng 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 identy 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

benets 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 eang at lunch.

The intenon is to run parallel cash / debit system inially, but in me we intend to move towards a com-

plete debit system during school hours.

Parents and students will have several opons 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) lo-

cated in two dierent areas on campus, or at the cashiers oce.

In addion to purchasing food at the canteen, the Smart Card may be used for paying other acvies 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 conjuncon 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 instrucons 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 condent

that we shall overcome these and that the card system will be benecial for the enre school.
http://www.ismanila.org/uploaded/Admissions/Re-enrollment/Students_Re-enrolling_SY_13-14.pdfhttp://www.ismanila.org/uploaded/Admissions/Re-enrollment/Students_Re-enrolling_SY_13-14.pdfhttp://www.ismanila.org/uploaded/Admissions/Re-enrollment/Students_Re-enrolling_SY_13-14.pdfhttp://www.ismanila.org/uploaded/Admissions/Re-enrollment/Students_Re-enrolling_SY_13-14.pdfhttp://www.ismanila.org/uploaded/Admissions/Re-enrollment/Students_Re-enrolling_SY_13-14.pdfhttp://www.ismanila.org/uploaded/Admissions/Re-enrollment/Students_Re-enrolling_SY_13-14.pdfhttp://www.ismanila.org/uploaded/Admissions/Re-enrollment/Re-enrollment_Incoming_Grade1_FINAL.pdfhttp://www.ismanila.org/uploaded/Admissions/Re-enrollment/Re-enrollment_Incoming_Grade1_FINAL.pdfhttp://www.ismanila.org/uploaded/Admissions/Re-enrollment/Re-enrollment_Incoming_Grade1_FINAL.pdfhttp://www.ismanila.org/uploaded/Admissions/Re-enrollment/Re-enrollment_Incoming_Grade1_FINAL.pdfhttp://www.ismanila.org/uploaded/Admissions/Re-enrollment/Re-enrollment_Incoming_Grade1_FINAL.pdfhttp://www.ismanila.org/uploaded/Admissions/Re-enrollment/Re-enrollment_Incoming_Grade1_FINAL.pdfhttp://www.ismanila.org/uploaded/Admissions/Re-enrollment/Re-enrollment_Incoming_Grade5_FINAL.pdfhttp://www.ismanila.org/uploaded/Admissions/Re-enrollment/Re-enrollment_Incoming_Grade5_FINAL.pdfhttp://www.ismanila.org/uploaded/Admissions/Re-enrollment/Re-enrollment_Incoming_Grade5_FINAL.pdfhttp://www.ismanila.org/uploaded/Admissions/Re-enrollment/Re-enrollment_Incoming_Grade5_FINAL.pdfhttp://www.ismanila.org/uploaded/Admissions/Re-enrollment/Re-enrollment_Incoming_Grade5_FINAL.pdfhttp://www.ismanila.org/uploaded/Admissions/Re-enrollment/Re-enrollment_Incoming_Grade5_FINAL.pdfhttp://www.ismanila.org/uploaded/Admissions/Re-enrollment/Re-enrollment_Incoming_Grade7_FINAL.pdfhttp://www.ismanila.org/uploaded/Admissions/Re-enrollment/Re-enrollment_Incoming_Grade7_FINAL.pdfhttp://www.ismanila.org/uploaded/Admissions/Re-enrollment/Re-enrollment_Incoming_Grade7_FINAL.pdfhttp://www.ismanila.org/uploaded/Admissions/Re-enrollment/Re-enrollment_Incoming_Grade7_FINAL.pdfhttp://www.ismanila.org/uploaded/Admissions/Re-enrollment/Re-enrollment_Incoming_Grade7_FINAL.pdfhttp://www.ismanila.org/uploaded/Admissions/Re-enrollment/Re-enrollment_Incoming_Grade7_FINAL.pdfhttp://www.ismanila.org/uploaded/Admissions/Re-enrollment/Re-enrollment_Incoming_Grade9_FINAL.pdfhttp://www.ismanila.org/uploaded/Admissions/Re-enrollment/Re-enrollment_Incoming_Grade9_FINAL.pdfhttp://www.ismanila.org/uploaded/Admissions/Re-enrollment/Re-enrollment_Incoming_Grade9_FINAL.pdfhttp://www.ismanila.org/uploaded/Admissions/Re-enrollment/Re-enrollment_Incoming_Grade9_FINAL.pdfhttp://www.ismanila.org/uploaded/Admissions/Re-enrollment/Re-enrollment_Incoming_Grade9_FINAL.pdfhttp://www.ismanila.org/uploaded/Admissions/Re-enrollment/Re-enrollment_Incoming_Grade9_FINAL.pdfhttp://community.ismanila.org/d/2/login.aspxhttp://community.ismanila.org/d/2/login.aspxhttp://www.ismanila.org/uploaded/Admissions/Re-enrollment/Re-enrollment_Incoming_Grade9_FINAL.pdfhttp://www.ismanila.org/uploaded/Admissions/Re-enrollment/Re-enrollment_Incoming_Grade7_FINAL.pdfhttp://www.ismanila.org/uploaded/Admissions/Re-enrollment/Re-enrollment_Incoming_Grade5_FINAL.pdfhttp://www.ismanila.org/uploaded/Admissions/Re-enrollment/Re-enrollment_Incoming_Grade1_FINAL.pdfhttp://www.ismanila.org/uploaded/Admissions/Re-enrollment/Students_Re-enrolling_SY_13-14.pdf


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Canteen Concessionaires (SY 2013 - 2014)Hi All,

I am pleased to inform all that starng school year 2013 there will be a couple of changes in the can-teen. Aer a lengthy bidding process overseen by a commiee of Faculty, Principals, Support Sta, Stu-

dents and Parents it has been decided that the concessionaires, Urban, Yogi, Allegro and Piadina will be

renewed for another 3 years. It has also been determined that CafeFrance will be replaced by Gourmet to

Go. Many of you may be familiar with Gourmet to Go as they are in several locaons around the city, the

nearest one being Powerplant Mall at the basement oor fronng Rustans. Gourmet to Go has a wide

range of ready-to-go salads, sandwiches and soups, which we feel will be a perfect match for the busy ISM

community. Red Kimono will change its menu selecon to cater to a wider range of Asian cuisine and will

also undergo a name change. We congratulate those concessionaires that have been selected for the up-

coming school years and we want to thank CafFrance for their many years of superb service at ISM.

In connecon with the canteen services, ISM will also be implemenng a debit (cashless) system in the

canteen.

This will allow faculty, sta and students to load their ID cards with funds and use their ID cards

as a payment method in all concessionaires in the canteen. Addional informaon connected to this sys-

tem will be sent out to all in the weeks leading to the start of the school year.

We thank all who have been involved in the canteen commiee process and we look forward to the

changes.

Any quesons please do not hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,

Michelle Mapua

Director of Human Resources

In ancipaon of the year-end clearance for SY2012-2013, please note that only MS and HS students who

have paid in full their SY2012-2013 fees will have their clearance forms signed by the cashier and will then

have access to school documents such as report cards and transcripts.

Likewise, for next school years incoming Pre-School 4 to Grade 4 students, secon cards will be released by

the Accounng Oce on June 6, 2013 only if current school year (2012-2013) fees are fully seled.

Parents and guardians are advised to sele the remaining unpaid fees on or before June 3, 2013 to avoid

long queues at the end of School Year.

Please note that we can no longer accept checks, whether peso or dollar, to sele 2012/13 accounts, since

these will not be cleared by banks in sucient me.

For any inquiry please call 840-85-22/840-85-06 and ask for RHODA VILLA (Accountant) or MARISSA DULAY

(Treasury Supervisor). You may also email us at [email protected] or [email protected].

For payment/remiance inquiry please call 840-85-12 and look for ELMER ESGUERRA (Cashier). You can

also email him at [email protected]

From the Treasury Department
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


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From the Superintendents Office

Dear Middle School Parents:

I have aached below the stascs from the recent parent surveys with comparave data from the previous

three years. You will see that the gures have remained broadly the same since 2010. Of course the data would

be more useful sll if a greater proporon 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 exam-

ple, Queson 2: My childs teachers are commied and enthusiasc in their approach to teaching. 60 respons-

es 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 negave response.

Invariably, those who have given a negave reply all write comments, and some of these can be prey excori-

ang. Comparavely few of those wring favorable responses bother to add a comment, all of which means thatif 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 negave impression, but it does place those

views in perspecve. What I would say is that, if you are unhappy with any element of your childs educaon 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 suc-

ceeds, and in order for that to happen we need your input.

Best wishes,

David Toze

Superintendent


6/10



7/10


From the Mathematics Department


8/10


From the Athletics & Activities Office

This will be the nal ATAC post in the Friday bullen for this school year, on behalf of the ATAC

oce sta I would like to wish students and parents a safe and enjoyable vacaon. Stay safe, stay t Bear-

cats and come back ready for an excing year of ATAC acvies in SY 13-14.

Tryouts week for 1st

season sports will start Mon Aug 12 the rst day of school for HS teams. MS tryouts

will start from Wed Aug 14th

see tryouts dra schedule on the ATAC blog for details.

PLEASE NOTE: Last day for all ATAC team training is today, Friday, May 31st.

Please remember the ISM swimming facility is now closed for renovaon works. The planned reo-

pening of the pool is set for September 1st

. However, with good weather and a bit of luck, we hope to be

able to open earlier. We are building a new 2 level grandstand, new locker rooms, new storage area, new

coaches locker rooms, addional restrooms for the public and resurfacing the pool surrounds.

ISM Summer Sports Camps informaon is now available on the ATAC summer camps blog page.

The informaonal yer will also be in the parent bullens. Sign ups are on a rst come rst served ba-

sis!

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 twier (see twier feed on the blog home page). Each Monday, I will post the weeks

happenings and highlight important events for students and parents informaon on the ATAC blog and in

the regular Friday parent bullens.

GAME SCHEDULE PDF (access to game schedule informaon): Informaon about all mid-week/

weekend xtures for ISM teams can be found via the ATAC blog. Please note the game schedule does

change oen due to involvement with many local schools, so please check the page regularly to ndout the latest informaon 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 hp://powerschool.ismanila.org/public/

You will need your power school user name and password to access the game schedule pdf.

BEARCAT DEN: hp://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 fantasc group, please contact any of our den members during den open-

ing hours. If youre interested in joining the Den volunteers, please contact Carolyn Ching for details [email protected]. We are always looking for new volunteers and encourage parents from ES/

MS to join our group. Final selling day for the Den will be on June 4th

, then it will be closed for inventory

and summer pack up on June 5. The Den will re-open for business in the new school year on Monday,

August 12th

,2013

Sincerely,

Mark Pekin

Director of Athlecs/ Acvies
http://powerschool.ismanila.org/public/http://powerschool.ismanila.org/public/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/http://powerschool.ismanila.org/public/


9/10

Dear HS Parents,

We are very pleased to introduce/reintroduce you to an excing iniave developed back in 2010 by

the HS Guidance Department in cooperaon with the HS Administraon:

Bearcat Career Experience

As we all know well, high school for students is (among many things) a me of self-discovery. It is ame where our students begin to beer acknowledge their aptudes/likes, where they hone their strengthsand where they begin to sort through that rather complicated map known as their educaonal and future ca-reer path. Unfortunately, it is oen 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 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, wedenitely feel those numbers could increase. However, in order tomake this a reality, we need reputable companies from a variety ofindustries to form partnerships with us and take part.

As parents of our dedicated and movated HS students, youmay own, be employed by, or know of a company interested in sup-

porng this very worthwhile endeavor. We ask for your support inhelping us develop potenal Career Experience placements and sub-sequently, lasng posive relaonships with companies in the MetroManila area.

We ask that you take me to reect on this important iniave (currently in its 3rd

year) and its valuefor our ISM community.

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

If you are in a posion 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 quesons or need further claricaon.

Informaon about how your son or daughter (current sophomores and juniors only) could apply for aCareer Experience posion 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 hps://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 McQueenHigh School Counselor


From the High School Guidance Office
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10/10


Documents

Middle School Parent Bulletin - Issue No. 36 - June 3 to 6