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The Principal's Newsletter

Middle Years Programme rolls out Managebac for IB Programme

By Mr Martin Hughes

Dear Parents and

International Day. Next Wednesday (17th October) we will celebrate International Day.  The United Nations recognises this date as International Eradication of Poverty Day, when it is intended that the voices of the poor are heard.  As an International School we are celebrating the different nationalities and cultures that we have within our school community. 

The day will start with an assembly.  We hope that as many students (and parents) as possible can come to school in their national colours, or in their national costume.  The students might like to bring their school uniform also to change into later to be more comfortable.   The assembly will celebrate some different aspects of internationalism in presentations and songs.

After the assembly the students will be split into mixed age groups to participate in a number of activities set up that come from particular countries – among these will be games, sports, cooking, craft activities and similar. Parents will be most welcome to join these groups and go round with their child.  The students will have a snack before these activities.  We will have a later than usual lunch about 1:15pm when we will share the international dishes brought into school by parents and staff.

In the latter part of the afternoon students will return to their usual class lessons.

Parents are most welcome to come to school on the school bus, provided there is room, and are welcome to remain in school to return on the buses too.  If you would like to come on and/or back on the bus please call May Liu at school or email her at may.liu@his-xian.com to be sure of your seat.

Immediately after the event I would like to hold a short meeting about a possible Parent School Association – all parents and friends of the school are welcome to attend this initial informal meeting. 

Parent School Association. There will be a meeting aiming to start at 2:15pm in school immediately after the International Day.  The meeting will finish before 3:35pm.  We will have just finished our first school event, other than information sessions.  I am sure with the willing parents and friends we have in school that a Parent School Association could considerably enhance such events by joining in to help, suggesting other ideas, or even running parts of events.

Community Service at Hanova. On Friday, October 19th, the students from Year 7 to 13 will be starting their first Community Service project. They will be going to the Yellow River Soup Kitchen for the morning to assist people in Xi’an who are less fortunate. The leader of the Yellow River Soup Kitchen, Mr Tony Day, will be making a short presentation about the good work that this organisation does with poor people in and around the city.

Our students will be joined for this Community Service project by students from Amerasia International School in Qingdao.  These students will be touring Xi’an and expressed an interest in collaborating with Hanova students on an activity that would benefit our community. We look forward to meeting new friends from other cities!

Donations. Because we will be visiting the Yellow River Soup Kitchen next Friday, we would like to request that parents send donations of clothing, shoes, or cash that will be delivered to Mr Day. If you have any of the above items to donate, please send them with your child to be collected by homeroom teachers. Your generosity would be greatly appreciated.

Middle Years Management of IB Programme. We have recently rolled out ManageBac for testing with the teachers and students.  ManageBac is an online planning, assessment and reporting system for IB programmes.  The first stage of this testing will be with the MYP. Initially this will just contain subject units and assessments from a few teachers.  Over the course of the next few months this will be rolled out to all subjects as well as the Personal Project, Community Action and Service, reports and general house keeping.  Once Managebac has been fully implemented, parents will also be a part of the system.  Once logged in you will be able to follow the progress of your child and be informed directly of any school news.

Until the system has been fully implemented students will be required to continue writing their homework in their Communication Diary as usual.

Application for IB. Our applications to become a candidate school for the International Baccalaureate (IB) programmes in the Primary, the Middle and in the Diploma Programmes have been received by the IB before the deadline of 30th September.  The next step is for them to analyse our applications and suggest amendments.  After we have successfully met their criteria we will be able to call ourselves a Candidate School.  We hope to have that in place in January 2013.

Professional Development Day – No classes Monday, 22nd October. Please note that the school will be closed to the students for a Professional Development (PD) day for the teachers.  We are very pleased that a very experienced IB trainer, Alasdair Maclean, is able to come in his school holiday to assist us with our training and school development.  This does mean that we have had to move our PD day from the date on the school calendar (25th October) to Monday, 22nd October – school will be closed to students on that day.  I apologise for any inconvenience that this change of date may cause.

Hallowe’en. With all the events that our school is currently involved in there is no school wide event planned for Hallowe’en.  However, a number of classes will undertake activities related to this tradition.  Your child’s teacher will be informing their classes individually about any activities that are taking place.

Best regards,

Martin Hughes

 

Forthcoming events

October

Wednesday, 17th                          8:45am-2:15pm International Day

Wednesday, 17th                          2:15pm Parent School Association planning meeting

Friday, 19th                                    Y7-13 to Yellow River Soup Kitchen (donations appreciated) – joined by Amerasia International School

Sunday, 21st to Thursday, 25th    Alasdair Maclean visit to school

Monday, 22nd                                Professional Development Day – no classes

Thursday, 25th and Friday, 26th   Beijing Star Books Book Fair – more information to follow

Saturday, 27th                               Visit of students from Bradford Grammar School, England

Week beginning, 29th                   Parent Consultations


About the Author


Martin Hughes

Former School Principal

Mr Martin Hughes was the founding Principal of Hanova from 2012-15. Prior to his time at Hanova, he already had 23 years of experience as Principal in the UK and China at five different schools - including posts at Wuxi EtonHouse and EtonHouse's flagship Suzhou school. During his time as founding Principal at Hanova, he helped support the initial IB Diploma Programme authorisation (2014) and used his educational vision to help plant our then brand new school on a firm foundation. Under his leadership, Hanova's motto emerged, "Enabling children to become independent, creative and lifelong learners!"


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