Principal’s Report

04 September, 2015 Ta l a n o a Volume 6

Newsletter of International School SuvaNewsletter of International School SuvaNewsletter of International School Suva

Dear Parents and Guardians,

Welcome to the final issue of Talanoa for term three. I am delighted to have seen so many parents in and around the school over the last few weeks be this at the Year 5 Exhibition assembly, ECH Father’s Day breakfast, Year 7 Poetry Slam, Year 1 Day Camp or Year 6 Habitat Preservation exposition to name but a few. At all events the focus is, as always, on the students sharing what they have leant with you and with their teachers. Unfailingly they make us proud.

The Year 10s and Year 12s have been sharing what they have learnt with us in a very different way. I congratulate them on completing their mock IGCSE and IB examinations and, for Year 12, their final AST, ACT Scaling Test. Whilst it is only a small portion of what we do at ISS, these final High School examinations are often cause for celebration and I wish both our Year 12 and Year 10 students good luck as they move into the final few weeks of their courses. If you would like more information on the High School curriculum at International School Suva you can find details inside this issue of Talanoa.

It is with sadness that I report that Amanda Vateitei left ISS and Fiji at the end of last week and returned to the US. We enjoyed having her at school and are sorry that she had to leave before the end of the year. We are lucky, however, that we were able to replace her so quickly and welcome Mere Faletono to the ECH staff. Ms Faletono has 20 years experience in Early Childhood Education of which 11 years have been in the IB PYP programme at International School Nadi. Since leaving ISN in 2011, Ms Faletono has been teaching in New Zealand and at CMF Primary School in Suva.

I know we all look forward to working with Mere.

Principal Anna Marsden

Inside this Issue

High School News

Year 8 Article

ISS Basketball

Invitation to Parents

Primary Update\

Alumni Visit

School Photograph

Year 7 Articles

French Examination

ISS Holiday Sports

PTFA Acknowledgment

Library

Funday Gallery

Upcoming Events

FROM THE HIGH SCHOOL: Curriculum and results International School Suva runs the ACT and IB Diploma programmes in Years 11 and 12 and the

IGCSE programme in Years 9 and 10. Whilst the following gives an overview of achievement

from 2010 it is noted that cohorts vary from year to year and therefore year to year comparisons

are not always meaningful.

Australian Capital Territories Year 12 Certificate, the ACT

The ACT courses offered at ISS are accredited by the Board of Senior Secondary Studies, in Can-

berra, Australia. ISS, who has been offering the ACT since 2004, is one of 33 schools in Canberra

and regionally offering this programme and every year over 4000 students matriculate with an

ACT Year 12 Certificate. Students who also sit the ACT Scaling TEST, the AST, receive an Aus-

tralian Tertiary Admissions Rank, ATAR. Every December 50,000 students across Australia, and

few outside, receive their ATAR and it is this ranking, out of a maximum 99.95, along with other

data on which universities base their admissions. The ATAR gives a percentile ranking which

means that an ATAR of 99 denotes that the student achieved in the top 1% of the cohort receiving

an ATAR that year.

International School Suva ATAR Statistics 2010-14

From the five years under consideration only two students did not receive an ATAR, one did not

sit the scaling test and one was deemed by the Board of Senior Secondary Studies to have not un-

dertaken a serious attempt at the AST.

International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme, IBDP

ISS was initially authorised to offer the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme in 1990

and has been reauthorised every five years since then. Between 2010 and 2014 forty-two students

have sat for the IB Diploma examinations and all bar four have been awarded a full diploma.

International School Suva IBDP Statistics 2010-14

Up to and including students completing Year 12 in 2015, all students sitting for IB examinations

are also part of the BSSS ACT cohort. In response to concerns raised by students, parents and

teachers about the heavy workload experienced by students taking both the ACT and IBDP stu-

dents starting Year 11 in January 2015 were asked to choose which course they wished to take and

then focus on this.

Cambridge International Examinations: International General Certificate of Secondary

Education, IGCSE

ISS has been authorised to offer IGCSE examinations since the late 1980s. Prior to 2012

Year 10 students chose which examinations they would like to sit with the majority of students

sitting for none. However from 2012 all students, bar a few exceptions and with parental agree-

ment, have sat IGCSE examinations in all subjects.

Whilst the 2015 results are included above these represent only Foreign Language Mandarin (there

is no October/November session for this course) and the results from the accelerated Cambridge

International Mathematics class. The remaining subjects will be sat during October and Novem-

ber.

Megan Navunisaravi

Year Number

of

students

Range % of student achieving an ATAR ISS

Median

All

Schools

Median ≥ 90 ≥ 80 ≥ 70 ≥ 60

2010 19 99.50 -

53.25

37 63 68 89 87.50 77.34

2011 23 95.90 -

51.20

30 56 69 82 82.45 76.97

2012 18 96.85 -

45.50

33 44 66 77 77.35 76.93

2013 27 99.70 -

45.70

11 33 70 89 75.45 76.80

2014 29 99.30 -

44.65

28 45 62 83 78.55 76.07

Year Total entries

A* A B C Total percentage A*-C grades

2010 74 5 11 23 15 73

2011 73 2 13 27 26 93

2012 133 7 14 32 41 71

2013 228 5 25 58 77 72

2014 233 11 32 47 61 65

2015 20 7 8 4 0 95

Year Number of students

Range Mean score Diploma awarded

%

ISS Global ISS Global

2010 9 43 - 28 34 31 100 80

2011 16 37 - 21 31 31 94 80

2012 6 36 - 25 30 30 100 79

2013 8 40 - 23 30 30 87 80

2014 13 38 - 23 31 31 92 79

ISS Basketball

The Fiji Secondary Schools Basketball Championships have been taking place at the Vodafone

Arena from the 24th - 26th August. We have had three teams competing and representing the

school, an U17 girls’ team, an U17 and U19 boys’ teams.

Unfortunately, none of the teams have made the semi-finals despite playing some great games.

Some highlights

*The majority of the U17 girls’ team is new to the finer points of Basketball having had very little

competition experience. However, as the competition progressed, they began to gel as a team

and the potential for a very strong team next year is definite. They were ably captained by Itziar

Lavina Gonzalez.

*The U19 boys had only three teams in their pool and each game challenged their finer skills. If

they have learnt one thing it would be that the finer finishes were lacking in their game. It was

really great to see them fully gel as a cooperative and thinking team against Yat Sen school,

unfortunately, losing to them in a very close and exciting match. This team was captained by Inigo

Lavina Gonzalez who provided that level headed support that allowed the individuals to combine

their skills effectively in some very impressive moves in later games.

*The U17 boys had mixed success with winning two games and losing two. If Suva Grammar

had lost to Marist they would have been in the semi-finals on a count back by goals for and

against. The team was captained by Muhammad Akhtar who along with Jose Santos worked hard

to mould the boys into a team to be wary of. The more games they played the more efficient they

became.

All three teams have a lot of work ahead of them to improve on their skill. Please congratulate

them for the effort they have put into this tournament and for representing the school in a fair and

very sporting manner. This was one of the focuses of the tournament this year.

YEAR 8 STUDENTS GET INVOLVED IN THE YOUTH AWARENESS

WASTE-TO-ART INITIATIVE

Ten year 8 students attended a workshop and created artwork at the Lami Town Council last May as part of a Waste-to-Art initiative for conservation and waste management practices. More information here: https://www.iucn.org/news_homepage/all_news_by_region/?21425/Youth-Awareness-Waste-to-Art-Workshop-launches-in-LamiFiji These students are invited to attend the art installation day in October. All photos courtesy of IUCN.org

Invitation to High School Parents and Students!

The Chief Executive Officer, John Stenhouse and the Technical Advisor, Lyn Mernagh of the

office of the Board of Senior Secondary Studies in Canberra are visiting ISS next week on

Tuesday and Wednesday (8 – 9 September). As part of their visit, the school has scheduled an

opportunity for them to meet with interested parents and students. At this meeting, they will

discuss the Australian Capital Territory and the Australian Curriculum packages and will be on

hand to answer questions you may have regarding the Australian Curriculum and its

implementation. This session is open to all interested students in Year 9 -12 and their parents.

The meeting will be held from 6 pm to 7 pm at ISS in the Amphitheatre on Tuesday the 8 th of

September.

Jeshneel Chandra

ACT Coordinator

jchandra@international.school.fj

Visiting Alumni - Jonathan Brown (86 - 88)

Director Forensics,

London, UK “My education provided me with a strong basis for the future. I met children

from many nationalities, helping me to understand other cultures.”

With only two weeks remaining until our September break, we have much to reflect on with regards to learning in primary for Term 3.

In between camps, excursions, exhibition and assemblies, all classes have been busy in the classrooms with their units of inquiry in collaboration with the specialist subject areas. This is where our transdisciplinary approach to teaching and learning comes into play. This approach refers to learning that is authentic and relevant to the real world. Teachers, when effectively using this approach do not compartmentalize learning, but rather explore content within the context of inquiry. Rather than take a 40 minute lesson on data handling with tally marks and graphs as a stand-alone lesson, children in a PYP context would explore the same content but within their theme, for example, „Who we are‟, students may notice that they all come from different countries. Teachers would then teach to that moment and investigate data handling by helping the students create a survey in order to observe, collect and record data about the nationalities represented within their own classroom and school. Our year ones are currently focusing on human rights through the lens of multidisciplines, including Hindi Studies with Ms Subadra. Our Reception students are currently focusing on imagination alongside Ms. Kasatoka in Fijian Studies. The inquiry topics should always be meaningful and relevant to the student and have relevance across subject areas. Learning that transcends their confines and connects with the real world! If you would like to know more about our transdisciplinary learning and teaching, come and see us. Ms. Rosi, our PYP coordinator and I are always willing to discuss curriculum with our parents and caregivers.

Next week we celebrate literacy week once more, this time with a focus on writing. There are many literacy activities on offer as sent home via email earlier this week to all parents and caregivers. You are all very welcome to attend any of our sessions at any time during the week. The book character parade is always lots of fun!

The Year 5 PYP exhibition is also fast approaching. It‟s busy times in the year 5 classrooms as they prepare for their exhibition displays in the final week of term. All Year 5 students have been working hard to prepare their transdisciplinary inquiries for display. We wish them every success for exhibition week!

Being an inquirer is our last focus attribute of the Learner Profile for Term 3. “We nurture our curiosity, developing skills for inquiry and research. We know how to learn independently and with others. We learn with enthusiasm and sustain our love of learning throughout life.” (IB) Inquiring is a way of approaching learning. An inquiry teacher asks herself, “How will my students discover new knowledge today? What experiences can I provide them so that they formulate new understandings? “ Teachers listen carefully to their students and document where they are in their learning. It is an essential part of the process that assists teachers plan and prepare for the next chapter. Students in our schools discover the curriculum. It is not delivered solely to them by their teachers. Learning in this way becomes meaningful to students and we know that when there is meaning or understanding, the learning is embedded. Inquiry classrooms foster creative and critical thinking skills where students make and test theories. Explicit teaching of skills is done ‟just in time‟ and are taught exactly when students need them, there and then. This is in essence our PYP curriculum. We are all inquirers each and every day!

Keep an eye out in the last week of school for our last edition of the Primary Press for Term 3.

Karen and the Primary Team

Primary Update

September 4, 2015

SCHOOL PHOTOGRAPHS

Photo orders have been extended until Thursday, 10th

September for all those who are still interested and had

missed out on the deadline.

Parents with more than one child can contact Siti directly

on viticreative@gmail.com and he will create a private

gallery to view sibling photographs.

Year 7 News There has been a buzz of learning around the Year 7 classrooms this term with lots of innovative learning experiences happening in different curriculum areas. In Social Science and English the Year 7 students have been exploring the concepts of culture and migration through the following themes: HOW WE EXPRESS OURSELVES An inquiry into the ways in which we discover and express ideas, feelings, nature, culture, beliefs and values; the ways in which we reflect on, extend and enjoy our creativity; our appreciation of the aesthetic. WHERE WE ARE IN TIME AND PLACE This is an inquiry into orientation in place and time; personal histories; homes and journeys; the discoveries, explorations and migrations of humankind; the relationships between and the interconnectedness of individuals and civilizations, from local and global perspectives. Our guiding statement was – groups of people move into and out of areas causing change in the cultural makeup of a society. Our learning focused on the reasons for migration, the causes and effect of emigration and immigration, the impact migration has on culture and the global perspectives of this type of human movement. Although students did some extensive research, they also spent much of their time in Social Science and English learning about culture (home country and host country) and migration through poetry. They have explored these concepts through photographs, illustrations, picture books, videos, personal experiences and research and applied our knowledge and understanding through the use of different poetry elements in a range of poetry formats. This culminated in our very successful Poetry Slam last Tuesday evening in which each student recited a poem that was self-authored. The purpose of our Poetry Slam evening is threefold, firstly to provide the Year 7 students an opportunity to share their learning with their parents, secondly to enable our parents to become more involved in their child‟s/children‟s learning and thirdly, to have fun. Parents and guardians were invited to provide feedback on their own child‟s/children‟s presentation by completing a rubric. In Science, the Year 7 students have been learning about crystallization as it occurs in nature. They have also been learning how to test the hardness of rocks and have created their crystals in a recent science experiment. While in Mathematics, they have been learning about 3D nets and how they form different complex shapes. They have also been exploring different units of measurement and how important these are in forming accurate calculations when measuring space for a purpose.

YEAR 7 - DRAMA YEAR 7 - Visual Art

Year 7 working with watercolours and acrylic and the images show them experimenting with geometric painting techniques.

The Drama unit portrayed the Roles of Production with an excerpt from "Little Shop of Horrors"

The ISS PTFA wishes to acknowledge and thank their sponsors for Fun

Day :

Dominion Insurance/Capital Insurance BSP - Bank of the South Pacific

Bronze Sponsor for FUN DAY - 2015

Southtex Fiji Ltd.

Fish Partner Retail Partner

Celebrate

ISS Library & Literacy Week

7th - 11th, September. 2015

Monday

I know where to find resources in my

library—SCAVENGER HUNT

CHALLENGE!

Tuesday

TONGUE TWISTER

CHALLENGE

PASS-IT-ALONG STORY

WRITING

Wednesday

MATCH AUTHORS TO BOOKS

ALL POETRY SLAM

ENTRIES DUE!

DOOR VOTING DAY!

DRESS UP AS YOUR FAVORITE

BOOK CHARACTER

Thursday

JIGSAW PUZZLE

CHALLENGE

DESIGN A BOOK MARK CHAL-

LENGE

DOOR JUDGING DAY!

Friday

POETRY SLAM

CHALLENGE!

Decorate your

classroom door

to win a $100

Scholastic

Book club

voucher

Primary Book

Character

Parade

Dress up as your

favorite book

character

Come view a 3D printer

demonstration by the US

Embassy Resource Room

Staff on Wednesday

Post a selfie with your favorite

book

Be a RISK

TAKER and

go on a blind

date with a

book!

Teachers Read

Too! Match teach-

ers to the books

they read

To win great prizes

UNLIMITED

POSSIBILITIES

@

YOUR

LIBRARY

AMNESTY WEEK

Return all your OVERDUE

library fiction books and go

into the draw to win great

prizes

Take part in our Poet-

ry Slam Challenge to

win 2 movie pass to

VMAX Damodar City

Take part in our library activities to win

great prizes!

Make a craft in the library to win

a prize

FUNDAY 2015

Term 3

Week 9 Tuesday, September 8

ACT Visit

Wednesday, September 9 ACT Visit

5:00pm ISS PTFA Social Hour

Friday, September 11 Primary Assembly - Year 4 (8.15 - 9.00)

Reception USP Cultural Art Excursion

Week 10

Monday, September 14 T3 Week 10

8:00am Bookclub: The Opposite of Spoiled

Wednesday, September 16 2:40pm

ISS PTFA Monthly Meeting

Friday, September 18 Primary Press

Whole School International Literacy Day Assembly - Reception

YC Update

Term ends

Term 4

Week 1

Monday, October 5 10:00am - PTFA Workshop (tentative)

11:00am - PTFA Appreciation Tea

Tuesday, October 6 All students begin

Friday, October 9 Whole School Fiji Day Assembly - Year 1

Fiji Day Assembly Y10

Week 2

Monday, October 12 ISA ASSESSMENT - Years 3 - 5

ISA Assessment Y6-10

Tuesday, October 13 ISA ASSESSMENT - Years 3 - 5

ISA Assessment Y6-10

Wednesday, October 14 ISA ASSESSMENT - Years 3 - 5

ISA Assessment Y6-10

5:00pm - ISS PTFA Social Hour

Thursday, October 15 Secondary Parent-Teacher interviews

Council / Finance Meeting

Friday, October 16 Primary Assembly - Fijian Studies (8.15 - 9.00)

Head student speeches

YC Update

Family Sports Day

Week 3

Monday, October 19 PAT Assessment - Reading & Spelling

Head Student Voting

Tuesday, October 20 PAT Assessment - Reading & Spelling

Wednesday, October 21

PAT Assessment - Reading & Spelling

Thursday, October 22

PAT Assessment - Reading & Spelling

Year 8 into 9 Parent Info evening

Friday, October 23 PAT Assessment - Reading & Spelling

Primary Assembly (8.15 - 9.00)

Last day Y12 IB, Y10 Exam leave

Week 4

Monday, October 26 PAT Assessment - Mathematics & Vocabulary

Tuesday, October 27

PAT Assessment - Mathematics & Vocabulary

Wednesday, October 28 PAT Assessment - Mathematics & Vocabulary - 2:40pm

ISS PTFA Monthly Meeting

Thursday, October 29 PAT Assessment - Mathematics & Vocabulary

Primary Halloween at Primary Hardcourt (4pm - 6pm)

6:00pm - Year 10 into 11 Parent Info evening

Friday, October 30 PAT Assessment - Maths

Primary Assembly - Reception (8.15 - 9.00)

Halloween social

Talanoa

Upcoming Events (Term 3 Week 9 - Week 10)(Term 4 Week 1 - Week 4)