Week 36 of Academic Year

Week 36 of Academic Year 2014-15 The countdown to the end of the academic year is well and truly on and students and staff are working hard to complete their final units for the year. Teachers are busy writing reports and in Secondary School, students in Years 7 to 10 are preparing for exams which will take place from the 1 st to 4 th of June (Note: Tuesday 2 nd June is a public holiday except for those sitting the IGCSE Business Studies Exam). Students in Years 11 and 12 will finally finish their IGCSE and AS Exams on the 5 th June - a marathon effort given these exams started in mid-april. We wish all students well for their exams! The past month has been a particularly busy one on campus, with many events and activities scheduled - Book Week, the reports, exams, JASIS Swim Carnival, Music Recital and the list goes on. Many of these events are highlighted in our Newsletters and I thank all staff, parents and students who have contributed so enthusiastically to their success! I would particularly like to recognise the efforts of the Book Week team led by Mr. Spencer Green, who worked hard to set the scene for a week of literary based activities culminating in a Primary Assembly where students shared their literary experiences while sporting hats inspired by the stories the children had read. We also enjoyed a terrific story read by Mr. Green. The JASIS swim meet hosted by AIS Jakarta was a terrific day for ACG School Jakarta students. The team were well prepared by Mr. David, Mr. Dhani and Ms. Alia and experienced successes across the age groups. It was particularly pleasing to see our young swimmers take the challenge and compete so strongly which bodes well for the future of our Swim Team. At the end of competition, ACG School Jakarta was placed second, just 16 points behind a strong AIS Team. Congratulations to all the swimmers, the coaching team and parents for their wonderful support! Go ACG! Calendar Events Following are some important upcoming dates: 29 th May, 2015 Term 4 1 st June - Secondary Exams begin 2 nd June - Waisak School Closed 3 rd - 5 th June - Lost and Found Sale 3 rd - 4 th June - Secondary Exams continue 12 th June - Secondary Farewell / Formal 15 th June - Reports available from 3pm Year 6 Graduation 16 th June - Last day of School Year End of Year Assembly commences at 10:45am prior to a 12pm Finish. End of Term 4 10 th August - Academic Year for students begins Next year s school calendar has been updated with events and celebrations that are planned throughout the year. I encourage you to visit our website regularly to check for updates. The latest version can be found at http://www.acgedu.com/ images/acg_jakarta/documents/school_life/school_events_and_calendar_2015-16.pdf Parents are invited to our final assembly of the year which will include presentation of Principal Awards. The assembly will commence at 10:45am in the gymnasium. The day will conclude at 12:00pm and bus schedules will be adjusted to accommodate the early finish. Finally, as we approach the end of the year, we are busy finalising our enrolment

picture for next school year. We have committed to opening additional classes at Years 4 and 5 and have expanded our teaching staff in Secondary School to better meet the diverse needs of our learners in Math and Science. At this time, we have been successful in recruiting a strong team of new staff and look forward to welcoming them to Jakarta in late July. New enrolments are healthy and we expect this situation to continue over the coming weeks and over the summer break. Consequently, we will not be releasing final class lists in Primary School until early August, as enrolments over the summer will inevitably impact placement of students as we endeavour to balance nationalities, friendship groups, English language proficiencies, gender and special needs in each class. Releasing preliminary lists before the summer will only lead to disappointment for some and this is something we wish to avoid. Much effort goes into placement of students each year and may I remind everyone that school policy dictates that we do not take parent requests for placement into consideration during this process. Wishing you well for the final weeks of academic Year 2014-15. Henri Bemelmans Principal henri.bemelmans@acgedu.com From Mrs. Green Hello everyone, A ship is always safe at the shore - but that is NOT what it is built for. Albert Einstein As you know, the Primary School celebrates how our students use and demonstrate the IB Learner Profile and attitudes each and every day. It is acknowledged through each student s portfolio as well as through our PYP assemblies. Our focus recently has been on being CARING and being a RISKTAKER. Every day I see our students, not only caring for each other, but also caring about our environment and our wider community. One example includes our Year 1 students recently using Book Week as an opportunity to make books in English for a local school. Delivering these books required them to consider others whilst stepping outside their comfort zone. Another example includes our Year 3 students showing their risk-taking skills when they attended an activity day in Taman Budaya. They had to climb through a low ropes course and use their problem solving skills. It was a pleasure to see them overcoming their fear and participating fully in activities they would not normally have an opportunity to take part in during a normal school day. When recently looking for ideas on the Internet about how we can support students to be risk-takers I came across this information which I thought you might find useful. (http://brown.dpsk12.org/international-baccalaureate-program/ being-an-ib-pyp-parent/) How can parents help to develop students to be Risk-Takers at home? If your child is feeling uneasy about trying something, encourage them to attempt it and then reflect on both whether they liked the activity and how it felt to try something new. Your child might want to set some short-term goals. Consider activities that make him/her nervous. What are realistic goals for the week? Your child might set a goal to: - Offer an opinion in class - Spend one recess with someone they might not usually play with - Order something different from the lunch menu - Try an activity they haven t tried before Sometimes being a risk-taker involves standing up for what one believes. Discuss famous people like Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, Ibu Kartini, Rosa Parks, etc. Be careful to explain to your child the difference between being a risk-taker by trying new things and doing dangerous things. Finally, as mentioned by Mr. Henri, this time of year is a busy one in any school as teachers work towards completing end-of-year reports, reflect on learning goals and complete end-of-year assessments. Whenever possible, please inform class teachers of any absence as soon as possible to ensure the minimum impact during this time. As always, please do drop by and see me if you have any questions or news to share. Sarah-Jane Green Vice-Principal - Primary School sarah-jane.green@acgedu.com

From English Language Support (ELS) Emily and Ahreumbi chose to create some bookmarks for their classmates as part of the PYP exhibition Yena and Jennifer are answering Year 3 students questions during exhibition What s happening in ELS Year 6? The students in ELS in Year 6 were very busy for several weeks as they worked on their exhibition topics. There were a range of interesting topics, such as banned books, newspapers, food advertising, natural disasters, TV and the Internet. The students researched their topics on the Internet and by reading books and watching videos. They then had the task of putting their information on their boards. Some of our students chose to present their information in their home language as well as in English. This allowed students to be more comfortable presenting the information to different audiences. Here are some quotes from Year 6 students in ELS about the exhibition: The exhibition was important. Jin Seo I learned a lot of English. Ye Na There was a lot of work to do and ideas to share. Hasan The Exhibition was not just about working; it was about learning and enjoying learning. Emily The Exhibition was something new and it made me nervous but I had fun because I learned together with my friends. Ahreumbi It was exciting. Min Seo and Yong Ho It was good. Neunghyo Ms. Emily Kling From the Two K4 Classes It has been a busy month for the two K4 classes. Through the Book Week the children read a selection of books by two different authors, did buddy reading and helped create a door display that provided clues to their books. The week culminated with a book character Hat Parade at school assembly. In our Unit of Inquiry children have been investigating the different roles animals play in their lives and their responsibility towards the well-being of these animals. Children helped create dioramas, puppets and wall displays which support their dramatic play as they share their knowledge and listen to different perspectives, helping to further clarify their learning and understanding. This learning and discovery is on-going. Ms. Ada Ma Ms. Molly Paul

Year 2 The students in Year 2A have just finished a Unit of Inquiry about Earth in space. They enjoyed finding out interesting facts about the Solar System and the planets. For example, did you know that Jupiter has 63 moons? We would like to say thank you to the parents who supported us during this unit. Ms. Caoimhe Buckley Manjiri and Andrea working on the Solar System Year 3 Activity Adventure Days All of Year 3 children recently participated in activity days that spanned Thursday 7 th May and Friday 8 th May. On Thursday, the students played games on the field, swam, played drama games and ate dinner at school with friends. Up bright and early the next day, Year 3 departed for Taman Budaya in Sentul City. The students participated in negotiating their way around an obstacle course using balance and courage. Next, the children displayed cooperation skills when playing team games. Students enjoyed creating designs for a kite and then experienced the challenge of flying them! Thank you to all Year 3 teachers; Mr. David, Mr Joe, Mrs Green and our Year 3 teaching assistants for making our activity days a successful experience for our students. Ms. Michelle Pedder Virginia from 3J climbing up the obstacle course at Taman Budaya Students from Year 3 cooperate to play the maze game Jiyou, Sara and Dong Kyu from 3M make their way around the obstacle course at Taman Budaya Mini-Exhibition As part of our student summative assessment for the How The World Works unit of inquiry, Year 3 students presented a mini-exhibition to parents and other ACG primary students on Wednesday 29 th April. Year 3 students chose a natural phenomenon and created a model to demonstrate how it works. The students also inquired and presented the positives and negatives of their natural event using De Bono s Yellow and Black Thinking Hats to the visitors. Ms. Michelle Pedder 3D Mini-Exhibition Qismina from 3M enthusiastically demonstrates her model to Year 5 Sara from 3M shows her Mum her model

Year 4 Book Week What do Winnie, Wenda, Greg, Stanley Yelnats, the Grinch, Scarecrow, Willy-the Wimp, the Jumblies, Hansel and Gretel, Paddington, Big Bad Wolf, George the Hungry Caterpillar, Enid Blyton, the Bad Tempered Ladybird, Ms Frizzle and Elmer have in common? Can you spot the odd one out? Which character would you choose to describe on your door? Would you make it easy like Year 4 Rhys? Or much trickier like Year 4 Green? The idea was to have a description, from which viewers could guess the character. Our author was Martin Hanford. An author/illustrator known worldwide for his clever books that hide a tall, stripy character in crowds of people. Fodhouli ( ) فضولي (Arabic), Holger (Danish), Waldo (North America), Vallu (Finnish), ウォー リー (Wōrī) (Japanese), 월리 (Wolli) (Korean), Ali, Gezgin Veli (Turkish) are just some of his international names. In England we know him as Wally. During the week we created our own artwork inspired by Hanford s artwork. I really liked Hachi s Where is Hachi on the Golf Course? and several of the portraits including Liam s mixture of Odlaw and Wally. We also investigated the real life settings of some of the pictures from the Wild West and Ancient China to Persia and Transylvania! Really? That s a real place? Really? Are you sure? Like Hotel Transylvania? There is a real place in the world called Transylvania? Yes, but there are no vampires there. We had great plans for our door. The idea was that everyone could draw and cut out lots of characters and we would make our own version of Where s Mr Green and His Class? This was a good strategy until we realised how long it would take to do this properly. It takes Martin Handford months to create each double page picture and some pages contain as many as 3 or 4 thousand characters! After forty minutes of deep concentration and drawing we had 22.5 useable characters. Time for plan B: one character, clues, colours and make it look like the page of a book. In a rather devious twist we decided not to use Wally for our door, but rather his friend Wenda. It was a good plan, except everyone kept getting it wrong, so we had to put up a sign: No it s NOT Wally or Waldo! On Thursday 7 th May we had a hat parade in the gym. There were all kinds of hats from pointy ones, to flat ones. Each class had to go up on stage to show their hats. Some teachers even had a hat on. You had to make your hat alone at home. What hat did your child make? Our door was n_ a. We made our door for a game. We all had to walk around school and guess everyone s door from Kindy to Year 6. (Ines and Angella 4 Green) Mr. Spencer Green Wally Portrait by Vivienne WallyOdlaw by Liam Where's Hachi? Woof by Sophie Odlaw by Taha Where's Ines?

University and Careers Counselor ACG School Jakarta was pleased to welcome Ms. Viktoria Kolesikova on the 24 th April. Viktoria is an excellent resource for a very large number of universities in the US. Since there are over 3,000 universities in the US, knowing what universities to research is challenging! Students who attended the presentation received very valuable information on how to get accepted into top universities in the US. Viktoria will be back to ACG School Jakarta on Monday 25 th May to talk specifically about Business and Entrepreneurship courses and requirements. Her presentation is general and not targeted just to the US. Anyone interested in Business should be there! On May 8 th, ACG School Jakarta was pleased to welcome Jony Liem from Axel Management. Jony gave an inspirational talk to Year 10 and 11 students on ways to find the best fit career. He stressed that students need the Passion and Skill and there must be demand for the specific career. These three combined will lead to success in finding the best fit career! Please telephone Axel Management on (021) 5823821 if you want further assistance in your plan for university. Ms. Jan will be available on Monday 6th June for individual consultations with students and parents. Please book an appointment through the front desk. Ms Jan Russell University Placement Counselor Winner - Book Week Door Decorating Competition! It was yet another incredible victory for the invincible students of Year 7.1 who have had an outstanding academic year 2014-15 at ACG School Jakarta. Already winners of the February 2015 International Day Room Decorating Competition; sweeping a whole multiplicity of Principal s Awards across a range of subjects at the end of every term; fielding the winning student for his age (Danujati Yulianto) at the JASIS Spelling Bee Competition; bringing home a string of firsts from the Boys Under 12 JSFL League and the JASIS Girls Under 12 Swimming Team; the class decided to add yet another trophy to an already brimming cabinet. During Book Week, class teachers who wished to participate, had to select a non-fiction book relating to their subject area and celebrate the essential tenets of its teachings or influences upon human cultures or societies. The class selected the eminent work Art of War by Sun Tzu. Sun Tzu is internationally recognised as a brilliant Chinese military strategist, Taoist philosopher, and General in the 6th century BCE who is widely recognized for his work The Art of War, a treatise on military strategy (also known as The Thirteen Chapters). Lida Zuidhoff s father, Haiko, kindly provided a copy of the original text and class members produced an A3 book synthesising and assimilating the essential tenets and teachings of the treatise; to this day, it is still referred to by military tacticians, politicians and corporate chief executives as an aide memoire and a guide to achieving victory: it certainly guided Year 7.1 to total victory! Mr. Dan Gittins

ACG School Jakarta Music Recital Saturday 23 rd May saw ACG School Jakarta hold its inaugural Secondary Music Recital. Students from Year 6 through to Year 12 showcased their many talents, individually or as part of a group. Coordinated by our music teacher Mr. J.C. Natal and well supported by Mr. Bambang, Mr. Iqbal, Ms Artha and our team of support staff, students performed on piano, guitar, violin, flute, drums, synthesizer and the very unique sasando which derives from the traditions of Nusa Tenggara Timur in Indonesia. The music ranged from classical to contemporary pop, with a range of wonderful solo and group vocal performances rounding out the programme. It is hoped that this will be the start of a new tradition at ACG School Jakarta, with recitals providing students the opportunity to not only showcase what they learn in music class, but also to showcase their musical talents developed outside of the school. Thanks to all the staff who supported this event, to our musicians and vocalists and to all the parents, relatives and friends who were in attendance.