IGBIS Newsletter, Issue 238

Message from the Head of School

Mrs Anne Fowles, Head of School

Dear IGBIS Families,

Thank you to all of the parents who came into school to meet our secondary school leadership team on Wednesday. It was wonderful to see so many familiar faces in the theatre.

To give you an update on our cleaning and sanitising protocols. You will have heard from the principals and homeroom teachers that students have a clean in, clean out routine whereby the surfaces are cleaned when they arrive at a deskspace and again when they leave. Similarly, the cafeteria is cleaned between users, the classrooms are cleaned a minimum of three times a day, all of the PHE and other equipment is cleaned before and after use and sanitisation and misting of the whole school takes place at least once per week. 

Our next COVID update will be coming out in the next two days, until then, a reminder that the government has announced that there will be a quarantine imposed for people who have been to Sabah. We are aware that there have been rumours circulating that there might be another more stringent time of MCO due to the recent upsurge in cases. There have also been rumours that schools might close. I have been in a meeting with heads of AIMS schools and at this point, no school has announced that they are closing and no school is considering closure unless there is a government announcement. If this was to occur, we would notify parents by SMS and by email as we have before.

From the Elementary School Principal

Simon Millward, Elementary School Principal

Virtual Parent-Teacher Conference Fireflies to G1 and 3 Way Conference G2 – G5 (student, parent and teacher)

These virtual conferences will take place on Thursday 8th October from 8.30 – 5.00 pm. There will be no school for students on this day, apart from when they are having their virtual 3 Way conferences with the homeroom teachers and single-subject teachers. You will have already received an email from Ms Ruba the Elementary Secretary in order for you to book your conference. Please remember you need to be signed in to your parent school email account to receive the booking confirmation.

Student Learning

On Monday this week, we had our Elementary assembly that celebrates student learning. As I was watching the assembly in the theatre I had a big grin on my face as there was so much variety on show. The EY students had been inquiring and exploring mini beasts.

The KG students shared how they have been solving riddles of the day. They even posed a riddle of the day for everyone to solve. It was great to hear everyone calling out with their guesses.

The Grade 1’s have been learning all about how to be a good friend. A very important part of learning in a community. There were many ways that they were showing how to be a good friend. 

The grade 2 students had been making a variety of learning games. They had designed and created their own games and then they taught their games to their classmates.

The Grade 3’s have been learning all about communication and they delved further into communicating through apps and social media. They collaborated cooperatively to plan, research and share their findings.

Grade 4 has been inquiring into beliefs and values and how these can influence your actions. They also shared all about language connections and helped us understand what similes and metaphors were.

Can you figure out which of these examples that the Grade4 students gave are similes and which are metaphors?

And finally, our Grade 5 students shared how they care about the world and are taking action with collecting e-waste. They even have an ultimate goal of raising enough funds to buy a composter! That would be good for our Phoenix Garden!

Watch this space for more details about this!

Dates for your diaries

• Thursday 8th October: 3 Way/Parent teacher conferences. 

• 26th – 30th October: School holiday

Ms Kerri Chan

Parents, we miss your visits to the IGBIS library!  To help you get books from the library to your home, we have created the IGBIS Grab Books system.  Just like Grab Food, we will deliver your books to either your child’s homeroom or for pick up at Reception within 24 hours (Monday – Friday). 

In order to use Grab Books, please do the following.

1. Email Ms Chan to ensure you have a username and password in our Destiny library system.
2. Using the Grab Books form, you can either order books directly from our Destiny OR we can select a collection of books for you. 
3. You can choose to have your books delivered to your homeroom or at Reception where parents can pick them up.

It’s that easy!  All parents are allowed to check out a maximum of 10 books at a time for a check out period of two (2) weeks.  Returns can be made either through your child’s homeroom or left at reception for pick up. 

There will be two Grab Books workshops for parents at 11 am and 3 pm on Thursday, 8 October (Parent Conference Day).  There will be a tutorial on how to use the Grab Books form and an overview on Destiny to see what books we have in the library.  Please let me know if you have any questions about Grab Books or the IGBIS library.

Happy Reading!

Ms. Chan

From the Secondary Principal

Sandy van Nooten, Secondary School Principal

It has been an action-packed week in Secondary. On Monday, we launched our latest break and lunch schedule. It is fantastic to see Gr.6 to 8 kids on the field during the break. Some are playing (non-contact) football, others are using the hula hoops, jump ropes, frisbees or chilling with friends under a tree. The sports hall is available on a rota system to all our students. The younger students have the field at the break and the sports hall at lunch, older students have the sports hall during either break or lunch each day. In the sports hall, the games of choice have been volleyball, badminton and shooting hoops. 

On Wednesday morning, Magnus, Lennan and I welcomed secondary parents into school for a presentation on ‘Secondary – Impressions, priorities and plans’. It was fabulous to finally meet some 3 dimensional parents during and after the event. I really want to thank the ~50 parents who were able to attend. Here’s a link to the presentation. Please don’t hesitate to contact any of us if you have questions.

Next week, we will be hosting virtual 3-way conferences. Secondary teachers will be available from 4:30 to 6:00 on Wednesday 7th Oct, and from 8:30 to 4:30 on Thursday 8th Oct. We hope that your secondary student will join you at the conferences. It is important and impactful if we talk with them as much as possible (rather than about them). Parents received a link to the sign-up site last night. Please make sure you sign-up before the end of the school day on Tuesday. On Wednesday, you will receive a summary of your bookings along with the associated GoogleMeet links.

We’ve been working on a ‘Behaviour Guide’ for secondary school. It is intended to clarify behavioural expectations and show appropriate scaled consequences. We built it with the GLCs and Heads of Department. Student Council then provided valuable feedback and ideas and we should be in a position to share this with the community in a week or so. One of our next jobs will be to review our assessment expectations (particularly around timing of assessments, number of assessments and how we handle late or non-submissions). 

Yesterday, I had the distinct pleasure of joining the Gr.11/12 Theatre class to watch some high quality workshops in action. What a wonderful space, what articulate, passionate, and talented students. I was humbled.

IGBIS kids are a pretty impressive bunch. Thanks for sharing them with us. We do not take this responsibility lightly 🙂

Don’t hesitate to get in contact if you have questions, ideas or concerns.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend.