Newsletter March 2019

Overseas Family SchoolHigh School

Master Policy:To maintain a happy, safe and effective school for overseas families living in Singapore

Principal’s MessageMarch is a particularly busy month for students and teachers. Grade 10 and Grade 12 students finish off their course work for external moderation, and sit mock examinations. Obviously these examinations are excellent for providing a key indicator to the students about what still needs to be achieved before the actual examinations in May 2019. As part of our commitment to students’ creativity and well-being, Book Week offered a range of activities and information to help all students balance their workload with fun activities. March is also the time when students in Grade 8, Grade 10 and non-IB Diploma Grade 11 will be completing their course selections online in preparation for the next academic year. I hope that the parent and student meetings to explain our curriculum programmes available in Grade 9 and Grade 11 help you make an informed decision of your child/ward’s schooling at OFS in the next academic year. As you can see from the photos and articles every month, numerous students have been representing the school in sporting events, arts activities, community service opportunities and sports trips. Some of these are proposed, organised and led by students. All High School students are expected to take part in both community service and extra-curricular activities – they are an integral part of learning. It is vital that the education of your child or ward is a partnership between you, the teachers and administrators. Therefore, as always, if you have anything that you would like to discuss, particularly in relation to subject choices for next academic year, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Suzanne BentinHigh School Principal(suzanne_bentin@ofs.edu.sg)

8-19 March: IGCSE Mock Examinations

11 March: Last day for online course selections for Grade

8 students

14 March: Visit by Øregård High School from Denmark

22 March: Last day for online course selections for Grade

10 and non-IB Diploma Grade 11 students

28 March: 3rd Quarter reports posted home

UPCOMING EVENTS IN MARCH 2019

From The Parent Association (PA) DeskSecond Meeting for Country CoordinatorsThe annual Global Picnic, an international fair where all the families in the school get together to celebrate being part of an International Culture, will take place on Saturday, 6 April 2019. This is a great opportunity for you to represent your country by bringing popular traditional food to your country table, performing a musical or dance number which represents your country, or sharing an activity from your culture. If you have any talented family members who wish to perform or family recipes toshare, please come along and join in the fun. The second and final meeting for the Country Coordinators will be on:

Date: Thursday, 21 March 2019 Time: 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Venue: Parent Lounge (Level 4 of Administration Block)

We invite you to come join us and represent your country. Further information regarding the Global Picnic is available on the school website: https://www.ofs.edu.sg/about/pa/events/global-picnic/

Science OlympiadOn Friday, 8 March 2019, three teams of Grade 9 students represented OFS in a Science Olympiad competition at Tanglin Trust School against teams from many international schools. The competition consisted of three practical challenges and a science-based quiz. Team Theta from OFS achieved a very creditable fourth place overall out of the sixteen teams competing.

(Dr. David Fairley – Science

teacher)

Team Dry Osmosis

Team Theta

Team Ch-amps

Overseas Family School High School Newsletter March 2019

Pirate Challenge – Arrggghhh!What can you do with 16 ice cream sticks, some adhesive tape and 30 cm of aluminium foil? Well, build a boat of course! Those were all the supplies and materials Grade 11 Pre-IB Science students could use in their pirate challenge. Under the guise of designing and making their pirate boats to hold the greatest mass of ‘treasure’, the students had to apply their knowledge and understanding of forces, buoyancy and density. And how did the boats fare? The winning team managed to build a boat that support mass weighing over 900 grams. Perhaps, they are on their way to become the next generation of nautical engineers. This challenge was a class/course activity, applying skills developed in class, in a practical manner.

(Troy Hayduk – Science teacher)

Upcoming Visual Arts ExhibitionsThe High School Visual Arts Department cordially invites you to attend the following annual OFS High School exhibitions of student art work. IB2 Visual Arts Exhibition: This is the culminating display of art work produced by students throughout the IBDP Visual Arts course. Opening and “Meet the Artists”, is on Monday, 25 March 2019 between 5:00pm and 7:00pm (followed by exhibition hours of 8:30am to 4:00pm from Tuesday to Thursday, 26 to 28 March 2019). The exhibition will be held in room S06-07 on Level 6 and in rooms S11-07 and S11-09 on Level 11 of the Senior block. High School Visual Arts Exhibition: Visual Arts students from IB1, Pre IB, G1/MYP 9 and G2/MYP10 classes will combine to display a collection of art works they have created throughout the academic year. The exhibition will be open from Monday, 22 April until Thursday 25 April 2019 from 8:30am to 4:00pm on the Level 11 of the Senior block. We look forward to your visit.

(Leanne Stephen – The Arts Subject Area Leader)

Junior High School NewsGrade 10 IGCSE registrations are now completed and the mock IGCSE examinations are underway. Once the Mock examinations are over, teachers will continue to assist the Grade 10 students by giving them feedback on how to improve when answering specific IGCSE questions as well as reviewing examination techniques. This will also be an opportunity to reflect on IB Diploma subject choices. The deadline for the online subject selection for Grade 10 students is 22 March 2019. It is worth noting that in the second semester, many subjects offer additional support/revision sessions, during lunchtime and after-school to assist students with refining their understanding of IGCSE content. All students registered for IGCSE subjects are encouraged to make use of these additional support sessions. The final OFS IGCSE Examination Schedule is also viewable on yours and your child’s OFS dashboard, when you log into the school website. Please take the time to look at it as some of our examinations occur after the last day of school. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about our programs, course selections, or the up-coming IGCSE examinations.

(Nathalie Buckland-Brough – High School Deputy Principal and

IB MYP/IGCSE Coordinator)

IB Diploma News – Education For Life GRADE 12

• The Theory of Knowledge (TOK) course has been completed. StudentsnowhaveastudyperiodduringTOKlessons,whichcanbe used to review their mock examination results.

• The Mock examinations in March 2019 will provide invaluable experience for the actual examination session this May. Mock examination results will be posted to parents/guardians. These results should be used to assess strengths and weaknesses, so that more targeted preparation can be undertaken for the final IB examinations.

• LastdayofclassesforGrade12(IB2)classesisThursday,25April2019.

• Grade12studentstakingGrade11IBclassesandPEareexpectedto attend those classes up to the start of the OFS final examination period, commencing on Thursday, 9 May 2018.

GRADE 11

• ExtendedEssaypresentationsregardingthenatureofthetaskhave been given to our IB Diploma candidates by the Extended Essay Coordinator, Mr. Holloway. Students are in the process of researching their topics and setting out their research question.

• IBregulationsstipulatethatfailuretomeetschoolsetand/orIBset deadlines disqualify a candidate from successful completion of the IB Diploma. It is therefore extremely important that all IB Diploma candidates meet deadlines for completion of IB assessments. Organisation and a strong work ethic are important ingredients for success.

• ForstudentsstudyingOFSDiplomaonly(notdoingfull-IBDiploma), online course selections for the next academic year are open and will close on Thursday, 22 March 2018. Any IB subjects currently taken in Grade 11 will automatically promote to the second year of the subject. Students currently taking a Pre-IB course must select a first year IB course for Grade 12 to replace the Pre-IB course. A meeting with your child/ward’s Academic Advisor is encouraged if you are unsure about which course(s) to select.

(Phillip Riordan – IB DP Coordinator)

Wu Peiheng and Wei Haohan, gathering an audience for the testing of their design – falling just 50g short of the class record

Arima Keita and Hanataka Myuto discuss ideas for their boat’s design

Ji Lijie and Kim Dayoung, with the test boat carrying loads up to 850g

Master Policy:To maintain a happy, safe and effective school for overseas families living in Singapore

Personal Project Workshops for Grade 9 Students and ParentsAll the mainstream Grade 9 students were recently introduced to their approximately eight-month long journey to the MYP Personal Project. This was done through two 2-hour workshops on the 26 and 27 February 2019, which gave the students general information on their products and a detailed introduction into the IB MYP Global Contexts, explorations, Approaches to Learning (ATL) skills and IB Learner Profile attributes. The students also took part indifferentactivitiessuchascrosswords,Kahootsand‘matchthefollowing’ activities to make the process of understanding these concepts better, as they are very important elements in their report, which will be due by the end of this October.

Although the workshops focused on a lot of information that had to be processed, the Grade 9 students managed to gain a good understanding of the subject matters. Throughout the evening, they participated positively in all the activities, as well as paid good attention to the presentations being made by

Book Week (18-22 February 2019)With an action-packed, tightly filled schedule, the OFS High School Book Club is proud to confirm a successful Book Week. With daily activities lasting for an entire week, the schedule was evenly split to entertain, engage and educate with many activities revolving around reading, discussions, and social activities. The Debate Club joined up with the Book Club to put on a debate about “To what extent do movie adaptations of books add value?” On Tuesday, the Book Club put on a social ‘book café’ where students were invited to come together, have a tea and read or do mindful colouring.OnWednesday, theBookClubputonaKahoot-style

trivia game revolving around popular literature. In addition, we must not forget the incredible dress-up day on Friday where we got theprivilegeofcheeringonourKindergartenersastheyventuredup to the Senior block to march and show off their costumes. Conversely, the High Schoolers were asked to volunteer part of theirdaytoreadstoriestotheKindergartenandElementarySchoolchildren before school and during lunch. It was a real treat to have this cross – school connection and as some of the students said “the highlight of their week” and “it brought me such joy to interact with the little ones”. The Library invited Melinda Murphy, an Emmy award winning writer, journalist, TV personality to give the students a talk about what it takes to be a writer in today’s world. Along the way, she entertained us with her start in university and her road to journalism in New York, New Jersey, Los Angeles and her final leg of working for Expat Living in Singapore. She even brought in one of her Emmys which all of the students and teachers were excited to hold and get a photo of.

(Yotam Tomer – Grade 11, Book Club Co-Leader)

the Personal Project Coordinator, Ms. Trapti Trivedi and Grade 10 students from the Personal Project Support Group. A lot of students started coming up with creative and unique ideas for their products and topics, as well as relevant Global Contexts and explorations. On the evening of 27 February 2019, there was also a Personal Project introductory workshop for the parents of Grade 9 students. The Personal Project Support Group conducted a mini exhibition of the products they made, as well as some exemplar reports to give the parents an idea of the journey their children will be experiencing. They were also introduced to the Global Contexts, ATLs and IB Learner Profile attributes, as well as the report and the rubric used by the teachers to grade the reports. It was exciting to see such a huge turnout of parents and to see how actively engaged the parents were in the question and answer session.

(Riya Oliver Singh – Grade 10, Personal Project Support Group)

Overseas Family School High School Newsletter March 2019

Sports News RECENT SPORTS NEWS

• The19UBoysSoftballteamreturnedtoUWCEastfortheDragonsInvitational2019.The developing squad with players new to the sport took 4th spot.

• 19U football girls took part in the Volkswagen Futsal tournament held at GESS and finished 6th. A lot of potential to podium but they struggled on the day without the services of their specialist goalkeeper.

• Our19Uand16UcricketershavebeencompetingattournamentsheldbyGIIS,aswellas fixtures with UWC Dover and Raffles Institution.

• WehostedtheLoyangViewSecondarySchool16UNetballteamforaseriesoftraining matches for our G9-11 netballers. An excellent event that gave our students exposure to competition and higher level netball.

(Jason Lawrence – Dean of Physical Advancement)

Extracurricular Activities (ECAs) and Service ClubsExtracurricular Activities (ECAs) and Service Clubs are an integral part of student life at OFS. Aside from the After School Sports Program (ASSP), the High School offers over 60 ECAs and Service Activities for students to choose from. Many of these are subject related and give students an opportunity to explore their interests in specific subjects. Some are hobby related and provide a good opportunity for stress relief. Some are music related and give students a chance to collaborate with their peers on musical projects. Others are service related and provide important service to OFS and the Singapore community. Here is just a sample of the many clubs that are going on in the High School in a week:

Subject Related ECAs:Advanced Computer Programming ClubAeronautical Engineering ClubAI and Deep Learning ClubApplied Engineering ClubBehavioural Economics ClubChemistry ClubDebate ClubHistory ClubLaw AcademyMath ClubMedical Scholars ClubModel United NationsPhilosophy in ScienceQuantum Physics Discussion Group

Hobby Related ECAs:Acting and Directing ClubBook ClubChinese CalligraphyComic Book Illustration ClubJazz & Broadway Dance ClubPoetry SlamUrban Dance Club

Music ECAs:Acoustic Guitar ClubChoir Flute ChoirJazz OrchestraOrchestraRock Club

Service Activities: Animal Welfare ClubEarth ClubES/MS Coaching AssistantsMovement for the Intellectually Disabled of Singapore (MINDS)Peer TutoringPlant ProjectRecycling ProjectRiding for the Disabled Association of SingaporeSchool Photographers

(Arin Mares-Manton – CAS & Community Service Coordinator)