November 2015

Volume 1, Issue 3

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

My science school trip .............2

Year 12 Art field trip ................2

MUN ........................................3

NASA FIELD TRIP .................. 4

NEW STUDENT COUNCIL .... 4

CHRISTMAS SCHOOL PRODUCTION ........................ 6

PARENTS CLUB ..................... 7

December calendar.................. 8

OIS Newsletter

Editorial Welcome friends to the November edition of the OIS newsletter. As you will see, a lot

has happened these last few weeks, and things are still busy as teachers complete

reports and put up Christmas decorations in their rooms.

Please make special note of the dates for the upcoming school production and the

Christmas Evening.

Please also remember that school finishes at 1 p.m. on Friday 18th December and your

children must bring all their belongings home by then. As is now traditional, the

Christmas assembly, starting at 12, will be a celebration of student’s achievement and

will contain carols, prize-giving and, of course, the 12 Days of Christmas rendition. Please

do come along and join in.

Term 2 begins January 4th.

Also, as there will not be a December edition of the newsletter, may I take this

opportunity to wish you all a peaceful Christmas and a wonderful New Year!

Steve Bruce-Lomba

My science school trip

2

This October my science class visited two animal sanctuaries, the Centro Recuperação Lobo

Iberico (Mafra) and the Tapada de Mafra. The first sanctuary hosts rescued wolves that cannot

be released into the wild and it is my favourite. It was very

interesting seeing Iberian wolves in their habitat and

observing their behaviour.

My favourite moment of the visit was when one of the

wolves came really close. The wolf was about two meters

away from me and it was magnificent to see such a

beautiful creature. I also learnt a

lot from this trip about how carefully scientists study the wolves

before introducing them into an enclosure.

In my opinion this is a very well developed sanctuary that supports a

good cause as well as helping science and the study of wolf behaviour.

In my opinion, the second sanctuary was not as exciting because the species that we could see

were deer, wild boars and birds of prey. They were cute but not as interesting as wolves. I liked

seeing the stags or male deer and their huge antlers. This was one of the best trips that I have

ever been.

The Year 12 Biology High students had a great "hands on" visit to the IGC in Oeiras.

As well as preparing knives for the microtome, they got to use the Transmission Electron Microscope.

Steve Bruce-Lomba

Year 12 Art field trip

Last week the Visual Arts students went to MNAA. It´s an important Art Museum with art

pieces from the XV until XIX century. Located in the old part of Lisbon, the Museu Nacional de

Arte Antiga, has paintings from Bosch to Rembrant, this is one of the most interesting museum

in Portugal. In the same week, we went to Museu Berardo an important Contemporary Art

Museum also in Lisbon

For year 12 Visual Arts Diploma programme, it is very important these type of field trips to

create a good structure for Comparative Study, that counts for 20% for final grade.

PedroZamith

Arts Teacher

"Paineis de São Vicente Fora", XV century, One of the most important paintings from Portuguese Art History, Nuno Gonçalves.

THE COMPARATIVE STUDY

In the second week of school, students from Years 9-11 were asked if we would be interested in attending the BRAMUN Conference in three weeks. Three weeks to choose a country, prepare research and write a clause? This was a huge challenge, even for our experienced MUNers. As Year 11 students we would have to manage our Personal Project tasks along with all our other school work. Could we manage the work required for BRAMUN? When the meeting was called to see who was interested, there were over 25 students vying for the 20 available positions. OIS was up to the challenge!

Our school was well prepared and performed extremely well at the conference. Every delegate participated in the debates on topics ranging from the Refugee Issues, The Empowerment of Women and Eradicating Xenophobia. This year was the first BRAMUN to have a Security Council and Saalem Sorathia and I were offered positions as the delegates of Russia and Malaysia. It was the highest level of debate I have ever attended with experienced and knowledgeable delegates challenging us to serious debates. It was a lot of fun.

OIS was awarded four of the seven awards for Most Distinguished Delegate- Saalem Sorathia, Matthew Roberts, Katie Patient and myself. Tiago Oliveira received The Best Debut Delegate award. It was great to see first-time MUNers receiving awards, and Dinis Silva appeared on Porto TV presenting his resolution on the Refugee Crisis. As a team we performed very well and all felt proud to be a part of OIS. Now to prepare for IMUN (Nov.12th) and PIMUN (Nov. 20th)!

Ilyas Esmail year 11

3

OIS Shines at Braga Model United Nations

“all thanks to MUN “

I started MUN when I was 11. My English was not particularly good and neither was my knowledge on global issues. I remember back then, that I was a very stubborn kid. When I had an idea I would do everything possible to convince everyone that I was right and on the contrary I was not easily convinced.

I was very at ease on my first conference, I always loved these kind of things where I get to stick up for my opinion, and truthfully when I first started I did not put myself in my country’s shoes.

I will always remember when the chair would ask us to raise our placards and I would have already raised it, and the chair would get annoyed. I think what was hardest most back then, was having to wait to speak and, while waiting having to hear other delegates blabbing on about their opinion whom I thought was wrong.

As time passed, I started to pay attention and build up credible arguments against them. As the delegates adopted more and more of their countries’ opinions, bringing out new ways of seeing things, I did the same. I had become more and more open minded, all thanks to MUN

Margaux Marzuoli year 11

On October 7th, our Physics students attended a wonderful presentation with Alice Bowman mission operations manager of New Horizon mission to Pluto. Dr. Bowman described in detail how this important mission was successfully accomplished, the science behind it, the implications of their findings on Pluto and encouraged students to find their passion and work hard for it. OIS students were very active, asking smart questions and discussing ideas. Enjoy the photos! More information about New Horizon mission can be found here: http://www.jhuapl.edu/employment/meet/bowman.asp

http://www.wired.com/2015/07/alive-new-horizons-survived-date-pluto/

4

NEW STUDENT COUNCIL

May I introduce you to the new OIS student council. From left to right with Mrs. Empis and myself are:

Katie Patient - President

Tatjana Tranaeus - Vice President

Sofia Andersen - Secretary

Saalem Sorathia - Treasurer

We wish them every success in this challenging, but rewarding responsibility.

NASA FIELD TRIP

5

SABEMOS O QUE A COMISSÃO DA JUNTA DE FREGUESIA DE BACARENA FAZ?

No dia 4 de Novembro de 2015, nós, os alunos do Oeiras International School, tivemos a grande honra de poder entrevistar o senhor presidente da Junta de Freguesia de Barcarena, Fernando Afonso, com o intuito de entender o que é e o que faz a

Comissão Social da Junta de Freguesia de Barcarena (CSJFB).

Na entrevista que fizemos foi-nos explicado que o principal objetivo desta Comissão é ajudar, na medida do possível, as pessoas que, devido a diferentes situações, estão a passar por dificuldades económicas. Ficamos também a saber que a CSJFB engloba mais de 20 entidades, nomeadamente, Associações Culturais e Desportivas, os Clubes, o Centro de Acolhimento Temporário (CAT). De entre estas, e não obstante o forte contributo de todas, as três entidades que mais se destacam são o Centro Social e Paroquial, a Oeiras International School (OIS) e a Cerci Oeiras.

O Centro Social Paroquial assume não só uma responsabilidade socioeducativa, através de creches e jardins de infância, como também de apoio aos idosos e crianças em idade escolar e ainda, através das suas assistentes sociais que, em colaboração com a assistente social da Câmara Municipal de Oeiras fazem o diagnóstico das famílias carenciadas. Depois de este diagnóstico estar concluído, a Comissão toma a decisão sobre como e a quem prestar o apoio necessário. Este apoio é materializado de várias formas, como por exemplo, o Banco Alimentar, o F.E.S. (Fundo de Emergência Social) ou então através da própria Comissão, com os cabazes. Entregam-se cabazes mensais, com o limite mínimo de um cabaz por mês, e cujos os números se alteram conforme as necessidades, e também os cabazes da Páscoa e do Natal que, em 2014, foram 32 e 50, respectivamente. As entidades que distribuem os cabazes são a Junta e a CSJFB.

Relativamente à nossa Escola, o apoio incide na elaboração de cabazes e na proposta de ações para o plano anual de atividades da Comissão. Por fim, a Cerci Oeiras colabora na componente da educação e reabilitação de cidadãos com incapacidade.

Quisemos também saber como é que a Comissão avalia o impacto deste apoio na população de Barcarena. O Sr. Presidente informou-nos que a Comissão de Barcarena tem uma tarefa difícil pois não é fácil avaliar, por ser um assunto muito delicado. Destacou que o papel dos voluntários é muito importante, porque são eles que ajudam estas famílias no dia a dia e reportam à Comissão, quando identificam necessidade de ajuda, para que, assim, este órgão social da Junta possa prestar o auxílio que essas famílias necessitam, de modo a garantir as suas necessidades básicas. Quando perguntamos como a Comissão afere o impacto destas ajudas nas vidas das pessoas, Fernando Afonso afirmou: “o modo como aferimos este impacto vem, sobretudo, da expressão de gratidão que vemos nestas pessoas, e isto é algo que nos incentiva a continuar a crescer, no sentido de poderemos chegar a um maior número de famílias.”

Soubemos ainda que atualmente está a decorrer uma campanha de sensibilização para a recolha de alimentos que irão constituir os cabazes e que as próximas campanhas dependerão de vários fatores, mas, sobretudo da imaginação dos responsáveis pelo projeto.

Tínhamos particular interesse em compreender o papel da OIS no âmbito do trabalho social desenvolvido pela Comissão. Gostámos de saber que esta parceria começou

praticamente desde a abertura da nossa escola, sendo, ela própria, membro fundador desta Comissão. Desde então, tem sido uma das principais parceiras, contribuindo não só

com alimentos da nossa

horta biológica, mas também através da oferta de cabazes de Natal. De entre as mais de 20 entidades que integram a CSJFB, a OIS nunca falhou uma reunião, sendo que a última decorreu nas suas instalações. O Sr. Presidente resumiu o contributo da nossa escola, dizendo que “em todas as ações em que se envolve, destaca-se pelo profissionalismo, dedicação e grande nível de compromisso”.

Interessou-nos, ainda, saber o que Barcarena tem de especial. E tem muito. Esta vila é única na Península Ibérica, pois alberga as ruínas de uma povoação com mais de 5.550 anos, a Estação Arqueológica de Leceia, e também a antiga Fábrica da Pólvora, que, durante muitos anos, foi muito importante para a defesa do território nacional, ultramarino e para a expansão dos descobrimentos portugueses.

Esta entrevista foi, para nós, muito interessante e elucidativa, pois ficamos a perceber o que realmente faz a Comissão da Junta de Barcarena e de que modo a nossa Escola participa como entidade desta Comissão. Ficamos, também, a saber melhor o que de fantástico existe em Barcarena.

José Miguel Oliveira, Alfonso Stichaner, Tiago Oliveira, Francisco Inocentes, William Ferreira e Enzo Morlock.

Dear OIS Community;

It is once again my pleasure to invite you to our annual Christmas Musical production. This year our students have worked very hard to put a fun and energy filled performance of "The Witch".

It will be an evening of laughs, music, amazing costumes, fantastic singing/acting and emotions. I hope you can come and attend!

The productions dates are 10th 11th, and 12th of December at 19:00.

I hope to see you there!

Barbara de Castro Guimarães

CHRISTMAS SCHOOL PRODUCTION

Finally, as the true spirit of Christmas is all about giving - we encourage you to support the Christmas Hampers for the Bar-

carena community that is being organized by Gaya Almeida Araújo. Please send in your donations (that have been advised

by year group, via several emails,) prior to the end of November. Please encourage your children to donate a minimum of

2 Euros to help buy a Christmas present for a child in need.

Many thanks and best wishes,

The Parents Club Committee

It’s been a busy few months with lots of activities and it’s great to see such good support and participation from parents

both old and new. A very big Thank You to Ineke Overdijk for the wonderful outings she has organized for us and for the

many that are planned for the coming terms. Here is a link to photos of some of the recent activities:

https://oeirasinternationalschool-my.sharepoint.com/personal/parents_club_oeirasinternationalschool_com/Documents/

Pictures

This month we introduced a new initiative for parents, which builds on the diversity of our school community and enables us

to share some important aspects of our nationalities, through the common bond of food! Deema and Amjad Wahbeh invit-

ed us to share an evening at their home where we were introduced to the gourmet delights of Palestinian/Jordanian food.

Those of us quick enough and lucky enough to attend, had a wonderful evening at this inaugural event and we look forward

to many more fun evenings together over the coming months. As these events take place in private homes the number of

people that can be catered for is limited, so be ready to respond immediately upon receipt of the invitation email so as not

to miss out. Deema has very kindly offered to be the coordinator for the Social Dinner Club and details of the next event,

scheduled for Sunday 6th December have been sent out.

Several Year Groups have also organized social functions ranging from dinners, lunches and morning and afternoon teas. We

encourage you to contact your class representative to offer ideas of activities that would be suitable for your year group.

This is a great informal way to meet other parents of your children’s classmates and to exchange ideas, information or to get

updated on current year specific activities. If you would like details on how to contact your class parent representative to

ensure you are on the class mailing list please contact the Parents Club at parents.club@oeirasinternationalschool.com and

we will connect you.

The Festive Season is fast approaching and once again our family event will take place on the final day of the school musical

production - Saturday 12th December between 4-7 pm. We invite you to come and jingle and mingle and join in some fun

traditional party games, listen to some wonderful holiday music and enjoy sampling some seasonal delicacies from some of

the many nationalities that we represent at OIS. An invitation to our “Christmas around the World” party will follow shortly.

As a fun end of year activity the Physical and Health Education department will be organizing a Parents, vs Teachers vs

Students sports afternoon on Tuesday 15th December from 4pm onwards. This will be a great opportunity to get in some last

minute exercise before the excesses of the festive season so we hope to see lots of participation from Mums, Dads,

Grannies and Grandpa to demonstrate to the kids that we’ve not completely over the hill!

PARENTS CLUB UPDATE

Oeiras International School

Rua Antero de Quental nº7 2730-013 Barcarena

info@oeirasinternationalschool.com

211935330