International School Manila

ES PARENT BULLETIN
Volume 02 09 September 2009

had the opportunity over the past three weeks to get to know
IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER their students and we are ready to provide them with an excel-
lent school year at ISM.
SEPT
10, 11 Faculty In-Service - No School for Students Be Safe, Be Respectful and Be Responsible is a phrase we hope
your children have told you about. We teach our students these
Wednesday Morning Student Late Start @ three important concepts as the basis for our expectations of
16, 23, 30
8.30am student behavior. Safety of our students is a priority for us. With
this we have made some changes this year to improve our super-
17 ES Parent Coffee @ 7.30am, Little Theatre vision. We have moved Grade 2 from morning recess play time
for ECLC and Grade one with fewer children on the playground,
21 School Holiday for Eid-ul-Fitr - No School
and for lunch time we now have ECLC on their own and Grade
one on their own. We have already observed considerable differ-
From the ES Administration ence in student behavior, and their ability to finish eating. Bus
supervision has also changed. In the past all bus supervisors
Dear Elementary School Parents,
were organized by the bus company, but now each bus contains
one of our own supervisors which we are working closely together
This coming Thursday September 17 we will have our first
with to ensure consistency of behavior on the bus and follow up
of four elementary school parent coffees for the year. This
when concerns arise.
will take place at 7:30 in the Little Theater and will last one
hour. This will be an opportunity for you to hear from us
One of our beliefs, as articulated in our ISM mission statement, is
about what is happening in the elementary school, and also
that we strive to “maintain a healthy balance in the time devoted
to talk informally with us, and with other parents after our
to work, rest and recreation.” After a 7-hour school day students
presentation. On the agenda for our first parent coffee
are involved in a variety of activities including first language learn-
will be 1. Be Safe, Be Respectful, Be Responsible; 2. Home-
ing, instrument lessons and sports – all of which assist in the de-
work in Elementary School; 3. What makes us an Interna-
velopment of the whole child. At the completion of a long day, it
tional school our focus on nurturing cultural diversity; and
is also essential for children to have time to relax, rest and have
4. External testing. We hope you are able to make it, and
fun with family and friends. Equally so, it is important for chil-
find the time useful.
dren to have time to decide what they will do in their free
time. This helps them to become independent, creative and con-
On August 25 and 26 we had our “Back to School Nights”
fident people.
and an opportunity for you to learn more about your
child’s program for the school year. If you were unable to
We are aware of the many different national approaches to, and
make, or have not yet met your child’s teacher, please set
opinions of, Elementary School homework. Current research fo-
up a time to come in. In the middle of October we will
cuses on ensuring homework tasks are meaningful and connected
have parent-teacher conferences which will be an opportu-
to learning in the classroom, homework is not punitive, and is not
nity for you to have a focused discussion with your child’s
assigned for the sake of providing students with busy work that
teacher about the progress they are making.
does not have an impact on their overall learning. As such, it is
our belief that homework should be purposeful, rele-
During “Back to School Night”, we also had the opportu-
vant to student learning, and at the same time recog-
nity to speak with you in the Fine Arts Theater, and below
nize the importance of balance in our students’ lives.
is the speeches that we gave:
Reading is an important part of development for children in Ele-
Good evening parents and welcome to our 2009 Elementary
mentary School. Providing daily opportunities for students to read
“Back to School Night”. For those of you who don’t know me, I
is essential in improving reading fluency and comprehension. In
am Simon Gillespie the Elementary School Principal, and I am
addition, it helps build vocabulary and develop writing skills. We
joined this evening by Michael Rourke our Elementary School
recommend that children spend a minimum of fifteen
Assistant Principal. We are excited to be a part of your chil-
minutes each day reading independently or with an
dren’s learning this school year and are impressed with how well
(Continued on page 2)
everyone has settled back into the school year. Teachers have
Elementary School Parent Bulletin
From the ES Administration
(Continued from page 1)
adult in their first or second language. At each grade
level (ECLC to Grade Four) a home reading program is in place
to support this important aspect of learning. Students are re-
quired to log their reading and complete an assigned task (such
as a reading reflection in a reading journal).
In addition to our home reading program, there may be times
when other homework tasks are assigned. These assignments
are designed for a purpose to support and reinforce learning in
the classroom, and may not be assigned every evening.
As students begin their transition to Middle School in Grade
Four, they will begin to prepare for different expectations of
homework.
Our approach to homework is based on the following premise:
1. Homework is given to support work, projects and research
undertaken during the school day. It is connected to what
is happening in the classroom and has a distinct purpose.
2. Some homework projects may be open-ended: a research
assignment, an art project or a survey that may be com-
pleted over several nights.
3. Homework is what the child does, not the parent or the
caregiver. It is for discussion, but the child is responsible
for completing it.
4. Homework time for Elementary Students should, under no
circumstances, become stressful. It is a time for children
and parents to share discussions on school work and
school life in general.
5. If family commitments do not allow time for homework, a
note to the teacher explaining this will be sufficient.
If you have questions about the individual homework needs of
your child, please discuss these with your child’s class teacher.
Communication with you is important to us. We have devised a
number of different strategies for communicating with you on a
regular basis, not only about school events, but more impor-
tantly the learning that is happening in your child’s class-
room. This year we will continue with our grade level newslet-
ters the first Friday of the month, Elementary School Parent
Bulletins the second and last Friday of the month, and Individual
Classroom newsletters the third Friday of the month. We are
currently looking at ways to further develop our individual class-
room newsletters in the form of blogs which a team of teachers
are working on right now and which we will share with you
more about later in the term. We will continue with our report
cards at the end of each semester, parent conferences in Octo-
ber, and student led conferences in March. At any time if you
need more information, have questions, problems or concerns,
2
09 September 2009
please speak to your child’s class teacher, they are open to find-
ing a suitable time to meet with you. Michael and I are also
available and look forward to speaking with as many of you as
we can over the course of the school year.
I will now turn it over to Michael who is going to give an over-
view of our curriculum framework.
Hello everyone and thank you for coming to our Back to School
Night! My name is Michael Rourke for those people I haven’t
yet met, and as Simon mentioned, I am the Elementary Assis-
tant Principal. I am an ISM parent myself with two children here
in the Elementary (and one a few years away from being eligi-
ble…)
I wanted to talk to you this evening, just to give a brief overview
of our curriculum framework. I encourage you to ask questions
of your child’s classroom and specialist teachers about what is
happening in the ES in terms of teaching and learning. Equally, I
can be contacted should you have any queries at any time
about our curriculum and how it is implemented.
Our Elementary School is in a constant process of developing
and refining the framework for how we deliver our curriculum.
Through our planning, we identify what the learning is that we
are intending for our students. From Preschool to Grade 4 we
work with integrated units of inquiry (where the skills and con-
cepts from more than one subject area are taught within the
context of a meaningful, culturally inclusive unit of work). In
addition, we use what we term ‘stand alone’ units of work.
The units of inquiry address ideas that are concept based as
opposed to content based. For example, the balance of nature
in Grade 2, where we live influences how we live in Grade 3 and
the effects of human migration in Grade 4. They contain under-
standings that are relevant, have significant meaning, and are
engaging for kids. This quarter, our second graders will be learn-
ing about the interconnectedness of organisms and their envi-
ronments and about how changes in one part of the system will
affect other parts of the system. The third grade children will be
investigating the notion of geographical location – how we rep-
resent it and how we adapt to it. Grade 4 meanwhile will begin
the year by looking at how migration affects individuals, families
and cultures. I was fortunate enough to be in two Grade 4 class-
rooms this morning to hear teachers talking about their own
family history ‘migration stories’ as part of a rotation between
the classes. The children were using listening and note-taking
skills, as well as synthesizing and organizing ideas. What I was
most impressed with however, was their ability to make connec-
tions between the different stories they heard and to recognize
that the ripple effect of someone’s great, great grandfather
moving at the age of 18 from one country to another to seek a
better life, is still being felt today. I was able to see that the
students were making these connections because of the ques-
(Continued on page 3)
Elementary School Parent Bulletin
From the ES Administration
(Continued from page 2)
tions they were asking their teachers, not by the answers they
were giving to teachers’ questions.
Both the units of inquiry and our ‘stand alone units’ house, or
provide a framework for, the standards and indicators for differ-
ent learning areas. These standards and indicators from Math,
English, Science, Social Studies, Wellness, PE, IT, Music and Art,
address skills and understandings which are measurable. For
example, paragraph writing, counting by 5s or 7s, writing accu-
rate sentences using possessive apostrophes, balancing on a
beam, singing g b a, or using multimedia to present an idea.
Incorporated into our teaching and learning program are what
we call Transdisciplinary skills – things like Communication,
Personal Management and Reflection, and Research skills such
as those used by the Fourth Graders I was with today. These
skills, along with Dispositions, or how a child approaches his or
her learning, form the basis of our units of inquiry in Preschool
and ECLC. From Grade 1 to 4, the units becoming progressively
more concerned with knowledge – moving toward more ab-
stract concepts, such as discovery, biodiversity or human rights.
These Transdisciplinary skills and Dispositions, which are in fact
planned for, modeled, taught and assessed from Preschool to
Grade 12, stem from our ISM school-wide goals. You may have
seen the posters around our school which talk about striving for
example, to become ‘Inquiring and Reflective Problem Solvers.
An inquiring mind is one that will approach an issue with won-
der and curiosity but also have the skills in place to be creative
in problem solving. When planning our teaching and learning, all
teachers at ISM look at how they will know whether their stu-
dents have learned what we intended. A year ago, a team of
teachers and administrators, along with an internationally re-
nowned educator by the name of Ms Bambi Betts, worked to
produce a document called the ISM Assessment Policy. This
document, relevant for all teachers, students and parents at
ISM, clearly defines our assessment practices. Together as
teachers, it is our responsibility to work to collect evidence of the
Standards and Indicators, Transdisciplinary Skills and Disposi-
tions I just mentioned; we evaluate the evidence, provide timely
feedback to students and communicate all this progress toward
intended learning to parents. Students are included in the as-
sessment process, they have opportunities to self assess, they
have models provided for what is expected of them, and they
have opportunities to revisit tasks in order to demonstrate what
they have learned.
Once we know WHAT we intend for our students to learn, and
how we will find out WHETHER that learning is happening, we
can then focus on how we will teach our students. Through
guided inquiry, we build upon what children already know –
3
09 September 2009
different languages, different cultural contexts, different experi-
ences – and encourage them to generate their own questions
within the framework of the intended learning. Children are
then taught the skills and develop their understandings so that
they can refine their questions and find out more. We promote
reflection and give our children strategies for thinking about
their learning. We encourage them to explore ideas from differ-
ent perspectives – how might I feel about this if I didn’t speak
English as my first language or if I were born in another coun-
try? How might a scientist look at this problem? Or what I ex-
amined this through the lens of environmental sustainability?
We ask them to not only appreciate others’ points of view but
to actively seek them out. Being an inquirer sometimes means
collaborating - with teachers, with peers, with parents. It may
mean using different ways of learning and knowing – through
words, images, movement, music or nature, or working alone,
with others in large or small teams.
One of the most significant things about providing an interna-
tional education for our students is to give them access to a
curriculum that values international-mindedness. By interna-
tional-mindedness I don’t mean making flags or having food
festivals, although these can be valuable and fun. I mean nurtur-
ing the diversity that exists in our learning context and placing
value on the relationship we have with our host culture of the
Philippines. I mean developing the attributes of a person who
possesses intercultural awareness, who is has well-developed
skills in communication, the ability to feel empathy and think
critically about how and why we behave in certain ways.
I’ll finish with a quote from a Canadian educator, Dr. Irene
Davy, who in addressing the question of international-
mindedness, refers to habits of mind, - which are the disposi-
tions and skills I’ve mentioned :
“Why is it important to foster international-mindedness in edu-
cation?”
because…
“Children educated for tomorrow’s world must be equipped with
the habits of mind that allow them to act in meaningful ways,
whether globally or locally.
It is as important to understand the ‘other’s point of view’ as it
is to understand one’s own.
When we learn to view our world not as ‘us and them’ but as
‘us and us’ we will come closer to finding fair and just solutions
to the issues facing humanity.
~ [Dr. Irene Davy. Director, Sunnybrook School, Toronto.]
Yours in Education,
Simon Gillespie Michael Rourke
ES Principal ES Assistant Principal
Elementary School Parent Bulletin 09 September 2009

Pizza Day! From the Art Department

Every Friday is Pizza Day for Elementary School. Stuff
The pizzas are being supplied by Piadina.
Hello all. Once again the ES art department are on
Pizzette Quattro Formaggi - Php 60.00 the hunt for materials to use in creating art works. At
Pizzette Margherita - Php 50.00 the moment we have plenty of Styrofoam trays,
boxes, bottles and magazines. What we are really in
Coupons will be sold at need of is oddments such as keys, tools, wood scraps,
the undercovered ES fabric, rocks, pebbles, beads, jewels, caps/lids metal
playground every Friday or plastic, coat hangers (big and tiny), curtain rings,
from 6:30 a.m. up to 7:30 packing materials such as foam, hair clips, cutlery,
a.m. These coupons are toys, badges etc. Broken items are fine. The idea is to
then redeemed by the
recycle the seemingly useless. The more random the
students at the ES Can-
teen during their lunch item the better! If you are not sure if we will want it
break. just email me at joneso@ismanila.org or drop it off
at room 1189 opposite the ES Gym.
Many thanks,
From the School Clinic Olivia Jones
TIME TO SIGN UP FOR THE HEPATITIS A AND B
VACCINATIONS

Date Price (Php)

October 7th, 2009 Hepatitis A (Adult) 2249
Hepatitis A (Junior) 1125
Hepatitis B (Adult) 630
Hepatitis B (Junior) 355
Hepatitis A and B combined vaccine (Adult) 2000
Hepatitis A and B combined vaccine (Junior) 1000

(Prices are per individual vaccine in a course of either 2 or 3 vaccinations)

If you would like more information or you wish to sign up to receive any of the above vaccines, please call in at the clinic
to pick up a registration form (next to the elementary canteen). Only people with a valid ISM ID may participate in this
program.

PAYMENT FOR THESE VACCINATIONS MUST BE MADE TO In an effort to maintain frequent communication
THE CASHIER DEPARTMENT BY NO LATER THAN FRIDAY with the ISM community about the development
25TH SEPTEMBER 2009. VACCINES WILL THEN BE OR- and impact of H1N1 influenza on our school com-
DERED AND NO FURTHER REGISTRATIONS WILL BE AC-
munity, we would like to reassure you that we con-
CEPTED.
tinue to monitor sickness and absence throughout
Clinic direct number: 840 8580 the ES, MS and HS schools. There have been no
Email: clinic@ismanila.org confirmed cases of H1N1 to our knowledge in the
school community and we have seen no identifi-
Many thanks able clusters of flu-like illness which may suggest
infection with H1N1. Please keep your children at
home if they are ill and any child coming to school
Debbie Duckworth with a fever will be sent home. Thank you for
ISM Clinic Administrator your continued support.
840 8581
duckworthd@ismanila.org

4
Elementary School Parent Bulletin 09 September 2009

YOU ARE INVITED!

GRADE 3 and GRADE 4 students are invited to visit
ANIMARVELOUS, an ES Afterschool Activity on
Thursday afternoon, September 17.

Ms. Cabrera from the PAWS Animal Shelter will be at ISM to talk about their or-
ganization and shelter here in Manila. She will also answer your questions.

WHO: Grade 3 and Grade 4 students

WHAT: GUEST SPEAKER (Ms. Cabrera) from PAWS Animal

Shelter visiting ANIMARVELOUS

WHEN: Thursday, September 17 from 2:15 to 3:15pm

(Please try to be present no later than 2:20pm)

WHERE: Mrs. Diaz Music Classroom 1168, diazi@ismanila.org

**REMINDER**
If you want to visit ANIMARVELOUS on September 17 and you usually go home at 2:15pm then
please make sure you arrange to be picked up at 3:15pm from Room 1168 after Ms. Cabrera’s
presentation.

From the CMC From the ATAC Office

Hello parents, Friday Sept 11th: Varsity/JV Volleyball
at Brent (Team Bus departs 3pm)
As September begins and the school year gets un-
derway, the CMC is full of children who are eager to Saturday Sept 12th:
explore the new books and re-read old favorites. As MS HS volleyball at ISM (check game
you can imagine, the CMC is quite a popular place schedule for match times)
to be! We can hardly keep up with re-shelving and HS Soccer teams boys and girls at ISM
processing new books! We are looking for volunteers (check game schedule for match
to help us with these tasks, as well as to read and times)
summarize our new foreign language books. If you
Saturday Sept 19th:
enjoy interacting with children, love books and enjoy
RIFA Soccer festival for C,E,G teams at
being in a calm and pleasant atmosphere, volun- CSA ( 8am-Noon)
teering in the CMC would be a great match for you. RIFA MS girls festival at CSA (1pm-
Please stop in for more information and to sign up. 5pm)
We’ll be hosting a Welcome Tea for volunteers on Swim meet at Brent
Wednesday, September 23, 2009. Stay tuned for fur- Cross Country MS/HS at Faith
ther details.
Please check Game Schedule on ATAC
and school divisional websites for accu-
Rebecca Pierce rate and up to date fixtures for all sports
Teacher Librarian teams.

5
Elementary School Parent Bulletin 09 September 2009

Dear ISM Parents/Students:

IASAS Housing:

The IASAS Soccer housing letter is now available via; parent bulletins, the ATAC office and it has been
distributed to our HS first season athletes via their coaches.
HS Students participating in ATAC activities must house in order to be on a team. This is an ex-
pected obligation and is mandated in the school planner and on the ATAC page of the school web-
site.
Housing visiting athletes is an integral part of the IASAS experience as all of our varsity athletes
will be housed when they go away to tournaments during their HS career. In order for us to ensure
we are able to host successful IASAS exchange weekends and IASAS tournaments we hope that all mem-
bers of our community who have students involved in ATAC activities will be willing to house for this fan-
tastic tournament from October 14-18. We require 160 housing placements for our visiting male/
female soccer players from the IASAS schools.

Expectations of host families:

Pick up and drop off of visiting athletes each day to school. Visiting athletes can ride the school
bus if that is how your children get to school.
Provide a comfortable place for athlete to sleep/assist the athlete with laundry of their uniforms.
Provide a breakfast each morning and some evening meals. Athletes will buy lunches at school
and may have a team dinner together.
Be available each evening to receive curfew calls from the athletes coaches around 10pm.
Ensure there is parental supervision at home each evening you are hosting.

Questions will no doubt arise?

What if I cannot house? You have to find a friend who can and get them to sign off on the form with full
name, details etc.

What if I am away at the IASAS Volleyball/Cross Country tournament? You still can house as your
parents may now have space in the house. Quite a number of parents housed last year when their children
were away at the IASAS Soccer event in Taipei.

What if I can’t house for IASAS Soccer? You must commit to house for an event. Other options during
the year are: Pre-I Basketball in November and IASAS Art/Music in March. You should indicate on the re-
turn slip which event you will house for and have your parents sign off.

What if I live too far away? Alabang and Merville for example are not too far away! We have had a num-
ber of students housed here at past tournaments. As a general rule we do not want visiting athletes to
travel more than 45 minutes to/from school. Please contact us if you have questions about the travel dis-
tance.

“HOUSING FOR IASAS EVENTS IS AN EXPECTATION NOT A CHOICE”

We hope you will support the 28th Annual IASAS Soccer Championships. Our varsity girls will be
gunning for a “THREE-PEAT” and defending the gold medals they have won the past two years
and we are anticipating a great home performance from our boys team as they strive for a medal
this year.

If you or your parents have questions please call the ATAC office and/or talk with your coach.

Mark Pekin
Athletics & Activities Coordinator

6
Elementary School Parent Bulletin 09 September 2009

From Go Green
Want your trash to become someone else’s treasure?

Please continue to support INVISIBLE institute.

We need your: Eco invites you to a community clean up!
Plastic bags Dry cleaner bags Where? Taktak Falls in Antipolo
CDs Cassette tapes
Old VHS tapes Fabric scraps When? 6.30am-2pm Saturday 19th September.
Meet at the bus, ES playground
Æ Collection points can be found in the ES, MS and
HS offices. How? Collect your permission slip from either
the MS or HS office and return to Ms
This waste will be crocheted into beautiful bags for
Gillman or Mr Pasamba by Wed. 16th
sale. By donating this trash, you will be helping to
provide an income for some of the poorest women in Sept.
Manila.

Be part of the solution, not the pollution.

Many thanks for supporting this project,

Let’s Go Green.

For more info, please check out:

http://www.invisiblesisters.org/

More details about ECo initiatives can be found at:

www.ism-online.org/gogreen/ See you there!

From the PE Department

Parents can help in PE by LABELING all
PE uniforms, swimsuits and towels for
elementary physical education. Children
learn self management skills and grow
more independent by taking responsibility
for their belongings at school. This task is
made much easier (and saves a lot of angst
for both student and teachers) when mis-
placed items such as PE shirts are labeled.
They can easily be returned to their owner
if labeled. Sometimes children accidentally
pick up the wrong shirt when in the
change rooms after swimming lessons and
we can easily clarify the mix up if the
items are labeled.
From the Board Office
This is to request you to please submit to the Admission’s Office
or the Superintendent’s Office (c/o Luz M. de Jesus, Board
Secretary) the form for Member’s Approval to Amend ISM’s Arti-
cles of Incorporation. This form was included in the “Re-
Enrollment Packet” sent to you by Admissions Office.
The amendment to be approved is the simple insertion of the
phrase “non-stock and non-profit” in our Articles of Incorpora-
tion to preserve our status as a non-tax paying corporation. We
need a signed document in order to comply with local regulations.
Though this seems relatively trivial, the financial implications for
the School - and thus for you parents – are significant.

Amanda Pekin Thank you for your attention and support.

ES PE Program Leader

7
Elementary School Parent Bulletin 09 September 2009

From the Admission Office
Please update the Admission Office if you
have changed your residence or billing
address, telephone or cell phone contact
numbers, or your current e-mail address.
This is especially important with regard to
the mobile numbers for the school
TextConnect system which is used in
emergency situations when parents need
to be urgently informed about something.
From the Operations & Security Office
9 September 2009
We have been informed that the Every Nation Building will be
holding an emergency evacuation drill on September 17, 2009
from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. They will be using the corner of
14th Street and University Parkway as their evacuation site.
We have been assured that traffic marshals will be deployed
and access to Gate 3 will not be impeded.

We try to keep everything current in our It is likely that emergency service vehicles will be deployed to
database but if you are not sure if we the area in support of this activity. They should not be a cause
have it right, please either call us at 840 for concern.
8488 or email your current information to
admission@ismanila.org using the form Mike Flynn
below. Thank you for your help.
Director
Operations & Security

IN T E R N A T I O N A L S C H O O L M A N I LA – Admission Office
University Parkway Fort Bonifacio. 1634 Taguig Metro Manila . Philippines
Box 1526 MCPO . 1255 Makati City, Philippines . Tel. 840-8488

CHANGE OF CONTACT INFORMATION

Address : Home Phone :

From : From :
To : To :

Office Phone : ( Mother o Father o ) Mobile Number : ( Mother o Father o )

From : From :
To : To :

EMAIL : ( Mother o Father o )

From :
To :

Child’s Name : Grade Level :

Change of contact information given by:

Name : ______________________________ Relation : ________________ Signature : ___________

Office Use Only Below

Receiving Office / Initials / Date Admission Office Updated / Initials TextConnect Updated / Initials