February 2015

The ISL Headlines

“Striving for

Excellence”

From the Head of School : Mr. Martin Gough

You may not know it, but International Schools are right in the middle of the recruiting season for

teachers for next year. International schools generally have some teacher turnover each year and

given the time it takes to organize the movement of teaching staff, the process starts in November

and finishes when the last person is hired, hopefully by the end of February each year.

At the end of this school year we also have some major changes in the school administration as

both the Primary and Secondary Principals will be leaving ISL after a cumulative total of 32 years

of loyal service to the ISL students and wider community.

Mr. Clement Mwanza, who joined ISL as a Maths teacher in 1994, became Secondary Vice-

Principal in 2000 and moved up to Secondary Principal in August 2010, will be retiring. Clement

has given the school over 20 years of service and his presence around the school will be missed.

We wish him well as he moves into a new stage in his life.

Mr. Phil Bowen came to ISL from BMIS in Malawi in 2004 and will complete 11 years at the

school. He started off as a Primary Classroom teacher, but has also been the Primary Art teacher

and was the school’s first IBPYP Coordinator, before becoming Primary Principal and Deputy

Head of School in 2011. Phil also had just over a year as Acting Head of School in 2012-13. During

that year he managed, through working with the Finance & Administration Manager and the

Board of Governors, to bring the school from a position of deficit to a small surplus. Phil is moving

to Arusha in Tanzania, with his wife Amanda, Year 2 teacher, and daughters Gabriella and Jessi-

ca, to take up a new challenge as Head of Campus at the Arusha campus of the International

School of Moshi. ISL will miss Phil’s practical nature and the high levels of energy and enthusi-

asm he puts into organizing anything from school assemblies, trips to Treetops and major events

such as Carnival and Ultra-Marathon, along with his ability and keenness to just step into a

classroom and teach a lesson or run an activity when needed.

The new Secondary School Principal is Mr. Craig Patterson who joins us with his wife, Moona,

and two children. He hails from Canada and has been working as a teacher and administrator in

International Schools in Yemen, India and Vietnam. Craig has a great deal of experience with the

IBDP and IGCSE programmes that we offer in Secondary and is an IBDP Authorisation Consult-

ant for the International Baccalaureate Organisation. Craig is a keen sportsperson and I am sure

will be fully involved in all aspects the life of the Secondary School, including academics, sports

and other areas too.

In Primary, Mrs. Sunita Nair will move from her role as PYP Coordinator to take on the responsi-

bility of Primary School Principal. Mrs. Grace Kambeu will move from being Upper Primary Coor-

dinator to take on the challenge of PYP Coordinator. I would like to congratulate them both on

their appointments to their new roles. Both Sunita and Grace have large boots to fill. They both

bring different skills and experiences to their new roles and I am sure will carry them out with

their own styles. I am sure that Sunita and Grace will do well as they make the transition and

ask for your support of them in their new jobs.

There are also a small number of teachers moving on from ISL to other schools elsewhere. We will

announce who is leaving and who will replace them later in the year, as teachers generally don’t

want to disturb their classes and prefer to tell their students at an appropriate time.

Students also come and go from schools. Over the December vacation I am pleased to say that we

gained 37 students, some from other schools in Zambia and others from overseas. During the

same time, 14 students moved on, with most of those leaving the country as their parents were

relocating elsewhere. It is great to see the student numbers increasing and the student numbers

are now around 685. Should you know of anyone interested in sending their child to ISL, please do

encourage them to contact our Admissions Officer, Ms. Christabel Muyanga, on enquir-

ies@islzambia.org or 211 250351. We do offer a modest financial encouragement (a small amount

off your next fees invoice) to parents who introduce a new family who then place a child in the

school.

Important Dates

Head Of school 1

Primary/PYP 2

Upper Primary 3

Secondary 4

IB/IGCSE 5

Battle of Bands 6

Austria Ski trip 7

Community ser-vice

8

Contents

Yr 9 Nduba-luba Trip

2nd Feb

to 6th

feb

IB/IGCSE

PTC

Wednes-

day, 11th

Feb

IB English Oral exams

begin

Monday

23rd Feb

IB 2 Music concert

Wednes-

day, 4th

March

Primary Message from the Primary Principal: Mr. Bowen

Returning to School after the December holiday is one of my favourite times of year. Not

only do we have a chance to welcome new faces to ISL but the grounds themselves

appear to have a new face after the holiday rains. This year was no exception and we

have all come back to the most lush, green environment we could possibly imagine.

Beautiful. For that we must thank our gardening team and their supervisor Mrs Byrne.

Thank you indeed for your contributions over the past two years.

There are still DVD‟s available for the Primary Production of

„A Night at the Circus‟ and these may be purchased from the

Primary Office at a price of K100.

Compliments of the season and a warm welcome to our ISL families- both old and new! A refreshing holiday relaxes you, perks you up and gets you ready for the comeback. The adrenalin has begun working and we are happy to be back in the classrooms with your children!!

We have received confirmation regarding the PYP visit in March this year. Our visitors are Mr. John Sauer, an IB Educator: PYP School Services Manager IBAEM, Netherlands and Mrs. Avril van Zyl, IB Educator- from Windhoek International School, Namibia. They will be with us from 18

th – 20

th March. An agenda has been planned and sent to the visiting team-

this includes meetings with students, parents, Board members, visits to classrooms, dis-cussions with teachers and so much more. We look forward to parents meeting with the team. Please do inform either Mr. Bowen or me if meeting the team interests you.

Our next PYP workshop for parents will be early March! Please look out for more information on this in our next newslet-ter. We always look forward to meeting you and sharing ideas.

Wishing everybody a wonderful healthy and prosperous 2015!

ISL Headlines! Page 2

Message from the PYP Coordinator: Mrs Sunita Nair

Primary From the Early Years—Karen Hedstrom

How to support role play readers Role play readers show an interest in books and the print they see around them. They imitate

the things they see adult readers doing, such as holding the book carefully. They often pretend

to read by using pictures and their memory. Long before a child can read by themselves, they

learn many things when an adult reads aloud to them. They hear new vocabulary, build com-

prehension skills and realise that reading is cozy and a fun experience. Expose your children

to a variety of texts that can be read many times so children become familiar with them. Famili-

arity helps build self confidence. Ensure your child sees other family members reading. Lastly

encourage your child‟s attempts to „read‟.

House keeping The rain seems to have subsided (or not as it is pouring down right now) for a while but a reminder that while it is still

swimming season, to send you child ready for a PE lesson.

The Yr2’s concluded their unit on ‘Materials have properties that determine their use and these properties can change’ by holding a science fair. They inquired into characteristics of natural and man made materials, states and changes of matter and how we can reduce, reuse and recycle in our community. It was an informative and fun filled morning with experiments happening all around and a constant buzz, as parents asked questions and the Yr2‟s shared their learning. Well done!

ISL Headlines! Page 3

Yr 2 Science Fair

Welcome back and a happy new year to you all!

We have so many great things planned in upper primary this semester. Teachers and students

are soaring to new heights in all areas. They will continue as always working hard together to

solve difficult problems and applying their learning to real world situations.

An Update on Year 6 Exhibition

Our journey to the Year 6 exhibition is now underway. As you already know, this year the exhibi-

tion is on Poverty and the central idea is, “For many generations, worldwide poverty has been a

big problem but our actions and decisions can change the future.” This falls under our transdis-

ciplinary theme, “How We Organise Ourselves.” Within the central idea they have formulated

seven inquiry points as follows: Causes of poverty; The role of poverty in our community/lives;

How poverty levels can be reduced; Responsibilities of different societies; How human rights

get violated by poverty; Different opinions of countries on poverty and how they distribute their

resources.

After a lot of group discussions, the children have decided to do independ-ent inquiry of their own interest, which they will research on and present. Furthermore, they will work in their mentor groups which will run as clubs and focus on activities that will raise awareness on poverty. More details to follow on how these clubs will be coordinated. In an attempt to involve more of the community, we appeal to you to en-courage anyone you may know who has knowledge or expertise on the above issue to visit the Year 6 classrooms to discuss things further. A big thank you to those Year 6 parents who have already come forward to sup-port.

Year 4 had a fascinating fieldtrip looking at Lusaka‟s

housing; from expensive modern mansions to coloni-

al, indigenous and compound housing. The students

learned that houses can be made to look very differ-

ent.

Year 3 are exploring transpiration in the unit of Inquiry: How the World Works. They have been learning about the phenomenon of sources of water in the at-mosphere for the rain cycle.

Overall – Total House Points:

In 3rd

place we have Luangwa with 779 points; Zambezi in second place with 820 points and in the lead is Kafue with

827. Go Kafue!!!!!!

UPPER PRIMARY: Mrs. Grace Kambeu

ISL Headlines! Page 4

From the Secondary Principal: Mr. Mwanza

We offer a warm “welcome - back - to - school” to all families, students, parents, plus ISL staff and faculty. Also, a warm welcome goes to all the many students joining our school this time; we are certain our students and teachers will make them very welcome.

The second semester is always a busy period. The Y11 and IB2 students have just com-pleted two weeks of rigorous mock examinations; this is a wakeup call for them as they prepare for the real one in May/June 2015. The Y11 and IB2 reports will be issued on Tuesday the 10th of February in time for a Parent – Teacher conference for these two year groups to be held on Wednesday the 11

th of February. Please make an effort to come to

school and talk to the teachers preparing your children for external examinations. I also wish to extend a warm invitation to all Y11 parents to the IB information evening on the evening of the 11

th of February in the Fine Arts Centre. This is an important meeting con-

sidering that the boys and girls in year 11 have reached cross roads where they must make an informed decision on further education beyond the IGCSE programme. More details are given elsewhere in this newsletter by the IB and IGCSE Coordinators.

Our year nine students are going out on a field trip to Ndubaluba on Monday 2nd

February and will be back on Friday

the 6th. Before they go, please take time off to look at the survey form with your child to choose a possible combination

of subjects for the academic year 2015/16. This survey will help us plan for the upcoming information evening. We ad-

vise that you add to your planner the date of the IGCSE information evening for year 9 parents and students which is on

Tuesday the 9th of March 2015 at 18 00hrs. Thank you.

Welcome back for another exciting semester at ISL. Loads of activities and events will be on offer so listen during assemblies and registration and get involved!

I would like to congratulate all the Junior Secondary students for their end of se-

mester assessments results and especially the Y7 students for whom formal as-

sessments are a new experience. I know it was very stressful for some of you and

I am very proud of you all. Keep up the good work in 2015!

The beginning of the new Semester is time to get back into good study hab-its so you can do even better in the end of year examinations.

1. Be here on time 2. Be organised - Use your HW journal 3. Do your homework - Homework helps reinforce what you learnt in class. 4. Develop good study habits - Use your time wisely/ make a revision time-table and stick to it 5. Strive for good grades - Set realistic goals for yourself during your pastoral lessons 6. Participate in class - Show enthusiasm and interest during class 7. Get involved - Sign up for extracurricular activities 9. Take responsibility for your actions

10. Have fun! - Learning is fun

Remember everything that you do, or not do, as a Junior School student really DOES matter! The skills you

gain and improve upon while attending Junior secondary school will not only help you be successful at IGCSE

and IB but they will help you succeed in life!

From Junior Secondary School : Mrs.Dodd

Secondary ISL Headlines! Page 5

SL Headlines! Page 6

The Trial exams have been successfully and uninterruptedly concluded this week, thanks to the good behaviour of the students and the peaceful election process . Teachers are now busy marking and writing reports for the Year 11 students. These reports with Trial exam grades and comments will be issued to the students on Tues-day 10

th February 2015. The next day -Wednesday 11

th February- we hope to meet all

the parents of Year 11 students for the Parent Teacher Consultation in the Fine arts building and surroundings from 15.00-18.00. This will be their last PTC-opportunity. A

letter of invitation will follow nearer to the event. Please note: The IGCSE evening (for mostly the parents of year 9 students) is put forward from 18

th March to Tuesday

10th of March 2015, from 18.00 till 19.00 hours.

From the IGCSE coordinator: Mr R Van de Velde

The IB open evening will be taking place on Wednesday 11

th February 2015 from18.00-

19.00 in the Fine Arts building. This is an information evening for prospective IB students starting in August 2015. The aim is to give an overview of the course, to look at the bene-fits of the IB programme when compared to A-levels and finally to look ahead to university admissions. This event is open to both ISL and non-ISL students/parents. Please come along and meet the IB teachers, college counselor and some current IB students. I hope to see you there.

With regards to university placements, the IB 2 students have already received early offers from universities in the U.S., Canada, U.K., and Malaysia. Courses of study that students have been accepted to, include (but are not limited to) Aer-ospace Engineering, Aeronautics and Astronautics, Biomedical Sciences, International Relations, Business, Mechanical Engineering, and Public Health. Collectively, students have thus far been awarded $45,000 in scholarship money. As the year progresses, students will continue to apply to and receive offers from universities around the globe. Well done to our students so far. The follow universities have given one or more IB 2 students offers: United Kingdom Oxford Brookes University University of Cardiff University College London University of Kent University of Manchester University of Northampton University of Southampton United States Florida Institute of Technology Florida Tech University Purdue University University of Minnesota University of South Florida University of Tampa Malaysia University of Southampton, Malaysia Campus Canada University of Waterloo South Africa The applications process will begin in April 2015

IB Corner! From Mr. Hearsum

ISL Headlines! Page 6

SL Headlines! Page 7

Battle of the Bands’ – ISL Secondary Inter-house Music competition

On Friday the 12th December 2014, the MPC was once more transformed into a rock venue ready to host our 3

rd annual

inter-house music competition, Battle of the Bands.

With Irshaad Dodia as MC extraordinaire and an international judging panel of professional artists, (Kiki Militsis – sing-er, Tsungai Garise – musician, playwright and the infamous, Pola Kimena – dancer) the stage was set for an outstand-ing morning showcasing musical and artistic excellence.

The first category to be contested was that of „Solo Instrumentalist‟. Definitely only for those with nerves of steel, it was finally Nathan Doras who won it for Zambezi with a heavy funk version of Victor Wooten‟s „More Love‟ on solo bass. The „Karaoke‟ category also saw Zambezi triumph courtesy of Piranesi Chiumya‟s fine rendition of „Rude‟ by Magic!

New to the competition this year was the „Unplugged‟ category which focused on an acoustic duet. This was won by the Kafue power-house duo of Tong Yu on piano and vocalist Helen Pikira with their stellar performance of „Secrets‟ by One Republic.

The fourth category of the morning was the keenly contested „Rock Group‟ category. With the standard of musicianship rising each year this section has produced some outstanding performances; some by established and well-known ISL musicians and some by students who, quite literally, take the stage by storm. This year treated us to the frontman ex-pertise of Kennie Onwuka as he led the Luangwa Che sisters through pieces by Train and Franz Ferdinand. With high-octane crowd pumping performances by all groups there was in the end only a one point difference. With the formidable expertise of vocal queen, Mifaly Andriamady, supported by Vision Kim, Nathan Doras, Jin Hwang and Gaurav Menon, it was Zambezi who claimed the crown in the rock band category.

The final performances of the morning were left to the dance crews of each of the three houses. With an input of many hours of rehearsal and upwards of a dozen dancers onstage, this category is always a wonderful representation of the spirit of ISL; internationally-minded, unified and inclusive. With tremendous dance routines that brought members of the audience to their feet it was, in the end, Zambezi who were awarded the winners of this category and, resoundingly, „Battle of the Bands‟ 2014 champions overall.

Although this is a competition, it cannot be emphasized enough that all the students who took part in this event are win-ners; all participants devote tremendous time and energy to the preparation of their performances and each student is, without question, a risk-taker.

Many thanks to all the students and staff who attended this event, the judges who were given the challenging duty of

adjudicating and of course, once more, the numerous performers who participated. On the last day of term there is

surely no better way to begin a well-earned holiday than with rhythm in your soul accompanied by a strong sense of

school spirit.

Mr. Fraser Dodd, Head of Creative Arts

ISL Headlines! Page 7

SL Headlines! Page 8

On 12th December 13 ISL students from primary and second

day left to go to Zell Am See, Austria. We left for Dubai first and arrived the next day. We later left on a plane to go to Mu-nich, Germany. We got on a coach from Munich to Zell Am See which took three hours. Once we arrived we were greeted by our tour guide Norman. We immediately went to the ski shop and rented the boots, skis, and poles. We then left to go to our hotel the Haus Der Jugend. Once we arrived we got settled and we were told how we should be dressed for the next day. On Monday we made our own sandwiches and put on our boots and carried our skis and boots. It took a 20 minute drive to the mountain. We got on a ski lift using our ski cards. We arrived at the first stop and we met our ski instructors Colin and Karl. We played with the snow for a few minutes and our lessons begun. We were taught how to stop by using the snow plough. Later in the night we all went bowling.

On Tuesday we went to the top of the mountain which was over 3000m, it was -7 degrees that day. Most of us had a hard time and we had to go up on a lift where you stand and it pulls you. If you sat you would fall off and it was the only way up. During the night we went to watch a hockey match.

On Wednesday we went to the middle of the mountain where the offices of the sckischule were. It was called the Alpine center. We learnt how to ski as a group in a snake like motion down the mountain. Later In the day we were separated into two groups the good ones and the ok ones. Later In the night we went ice skating. It was great fun.

On Thursday we went back to the Alpine center to ski. Mrs. Lungu treated us to lunch at the Alpine center. We skied for the rest of the afternoon and went back to the hotel. Later in the night we went swimming in a heated pool which had diving boards and slides.

On our Last day skiing we were given certificates and we had to go back to the ski shop to return the boots, poles and skis. Overall the trip was amazing we had many activities to do. We went shopping in the town and the mall. At our hotel we could see the lake behind us that was slightly frozen. We also passed Mr. Porche‟s house. We then left for Munich on Saturday Afternoon. If I could do this trip again I would. Even though there were many falls and rolling down the slopes, we had a lot of fun

Written by Natasha Kamanga

Year 10

SKI TRIP TO AUSTRIA

There is no better experience in the world than rac-ing unrestricted down mountains in some of the most majestic places on the planet.

The world of skiing is filled with excitement and vast wonders that titillates the taste buds and quenches one's hunger for adventure. This experience is not only exciting but takes you through beautiful scenery with new things to see every day. The feeling one gets when speeding down the mountain is one of a kind. Skiing leads to a vast world filled with fresh powder and hard ice along with huge chair lifts that whisk you up the mountain to experience the won-ders of skiing.

This was the experience of our 13 students that went on a memorable ski trip to Zell Am See in Austria.

Mr.Chizyuka and I wish to congratulate the students for being risk takers by undertaking this adventurous trip and exhib-iting mature behavior throughout. A big thank you also goes to all the parents that worked hard to ensure that their chil-dren were part of the ski trip.

The good news to all students that missed the last trip is that the next ski trip will be in FRANCE in December. Details

will be communicated by the end of February.

Mrs. P.Lungu

Ski Trips Organiser

ISL Headlines! Page 8

2014 Zell Am See, Austria Ski Trip

CONTACT US The International School of Lusaka

6945 Nangwenya Road

Lusaka, Zambia

Phone: +260 211 252291

Fax: +260 211 252865

E-mail: info@islzambia.org

www.islzambia.org

http://www.cois.org/ http://www.cie.org.uk/

http://www.neasc.org/ http://www.ibo.org/ http://www.pamojaeducation.com/

The Yr 10 Community service group went to Cheshire Homes the whole of last semester. The students enjoyed plan-ning activities and interacting with the children at Cheshire Homes. It was a good experience for most of them as they learnt to appreciate their abilities. The children at the centre enjoyed playing and singing with our students.

Mr Muchindu Chizyuka

Community service—visit to Chesire home

ISL Headlines! Page 9