Diploma Programme and Middle Year Plans. Over the past two weeks there have been evening meetings held in the school to explain the school’s approach to ensuring students get the best possible chance to go to the university of their choice to achieve the career goals they have in mind.  Robert Muntzer explained to parents over the last two Wednesdays how these goals and choices need to be gradually refined over the years leading up to final Diploma subject choices being made before the end of Year 11.  This process has already started with students in Years 9 to 12.  Once a career or area of work has been identified by the student in liaison with their parents and the school, then the potential country of university and course type can be identified.  This selection enables students to ensure that their subject choices at Diploma level fit the goals they wish to achieve. There is a wealth of experience in school to help students make these choices.  We are appointing a number of high quality and experienced Diploma Programme teachers, examiners and support staff to ensure we offer your children the best possible education to achieve their and your aims.

If you were not able to attend these meetings, or have children in the Primary, but wish to know more, please look out for the notes of these meetings which will shortly be on our website.  Alternatively do not hesitate to contact school via Ms May Liu (may.liu@his-xian.com) who will pass your enquiry on in your preferred language to the relevant staff.

At the meeting last night, it was revealed how the IB Diploma and the Hanova Diploma would be implemented from September 2015. More details of this will be forthcoming but, in response to some parents’ questions, here are some clarifications. Diploma subject choices will not need to be finalised by our current Year 10 students until March 2015 as part of their Diploma induction programme. Diploma students, starting in September 2015, will have a six week window that will allow them to confirm their Diploma subjects. Thereafter, no changes of subject will be permitted. However, it may be possible to change levels of subjects provided it is allowed by IB. Students who wish to move from the IB Diploma to the Hanova Diploma may do so with the authorization of the IB Diploma Coordinator. 

New levelled readers. The school has recently imported over 500 English books to support our Reading programme.  These books have been integrated into our levelled reading scheme.  This means that at each level of reading that there is now a broader range of books to support the development of reading – both skills of decoding and the more challenging reading for understanding. Reading for understanding requires a higher degree of engagement and receptive English language level.

Directions of Curriculum Growth at Hanova

Parent School Association (PSA). There have been a lot of changes at Hanova as the school has grown so rapidly in the last year.  As parents of our older students are aware from the meetings we had last week and this, we are now driving forward developments to implement the top quality IB Diploma Programme.  We are working towards verification by the IB in November 2014.  Our aim is to provide excellence in our senior years, graduating students to attend top quality universities and careers around the World. 

The growth in the school has inevitably raised challenges for the school in making adjustments to ensure a top quality programme across the school and for students who have a range of English Language proficiency. 

We are currently working on developing and refining a Language Policy in school.  We would therefore like to have a meeting with parents to hear your views on the Directions of Curriculum Growth at Hanova.  This might cover teaching of English, Chinese, the development of the senior years programme or any other issues the meeting would like to bring up.

This meeting follows on from the last PSA meeting.

It will start with a short introduction (no more than 15 minutes!) and then the majority of the time, at least 1 hour, will be a question and answer (Q&A) session. This session will be in English, our language of instruction, with translation into Korean and Chinese.  It will be held on Tuesday, 11^th March in the library.

We are looking forward to seeing as many of our parents as possible at this meeting.

Chinese Department. Julia Zhou will be arriving at school next week and beginning the process of taking over the line management of the Chinese department.  We welcome her.  There was a short biography of her in the newsletter of February 13^th.

Scholastic Book Orders. The Scholastic Book Order was sent off last Friday.  We have been told that the anticipated delivery date is 21^st March.  Ms Camellia Feng will distribute the books as soon as they arrive.

Bus Information. If your child or children are not going to be using the school bus in the morning, would you please call the bus monitor at least 15 minutes prior to your scheduled pick up time and inform them.  This will help us in trying to keep to the schedule as much as possible.

If a school bus is going to be late to a stop by ten minutes or more, the bus monitor or the office staff, will call you to inform you of the bus' progress.

For those of you that pick up and drop off students in your own car, please remember once you are in the school campus to slow down your car to a safe speed.  Our priority is the safety of the children.  Also ensure you park your car ensuring you do not block the school bus.

Exam Week. As you know from last week's newsletter, our Middle and Senior Years students are getting ready for upcoming examinations. This week, each student will be given the timetable for examinations for the week running from March 17^th to March 20^th. As is usual in the run up to exams, some class time will be spent reviewing content and completing practice questions in order to best prepare students. It is also helpful if parents can support their son/daughter, particularly those in younger year groups, Year 7-9, by talking to them about their timetable and revision plan. If you have any questions about upcoming examinations, please feel free to contact either our Middle Years Coordinator Kris Quigley (kristofer.quigley@his-xian.com) or our Year 12/13 Homeroom teacher Peter Donkin (peter.donkin@his-xian.com).

Laptops and computer games. As you may know students are not allowed to play computer games during school hours in any part of the school, unless a game is part of the curriculum.  Students with their own laptops are prohibited from having any games installed.  We trust students to use their laptop appropriately for learning.  Playing games online is also disallowed.  If students are caught acting in defiance of this rule, then they will lose their laptop for a whole day whilst the games are deleted.  If this is repeated then the students would not be able to use it at home on that evening.  Any further violation would lead to access being restricted only to certain applications and, if deemed necessary, websites.  The school would take over the administration role on the laptop. This is a step that we feel would be necessary to ensure students are appropriately focused on their study.

Best regards,

Martin Hughes

 

Forthcoming events

Wednesday, 5^th                          Middle Years and IB Diploma Programme Plans Y9 and Y10, and any other interested parents and students  7pm

Friday, 7^th                                     Yr 7-13 Parent EOTC Information Meeting, after Friday Assembly

Tuesday, 11^th                               PSA Q&A session  - Directions of Curriculum Growth at Hanova 3pm

Thursday, 13^th                             Parent Volunteer Group Meeting – Staff Room at 3:40pm – all are welcome to attend! 

Monday, 17^th –Thursday, 20^th Exam week MY and SY