Hereafter the great news related to this past week, continuing to show our effort and results, in preparation of the end of this Semester.
Author Visit. On Monday 21st and Tuesday 22nd November, Hanova will host Stan Cullimore, an author for children and teenagers. Stan is from United Kingdom, and as well as playing guitar for a rock band called The Housemartins, he became a children’s author with over 120 books published in over 32 countries. These books vary from picture books all the way up to teenage novels.
During his stay, he will be holding special creative writing workshops and storytelling sessions with our Primary students from Nursery to Year 6, taking them from building ideas to writing drafts to the ending process. He will also bring copies of his books, which students can then purchase and which he will sign for them: should you wish a copy, you can contact Ms. Hou ( amy.hou@his-xian.com ) to place your order. We all look forward to having Stan with us, and reading all the creative stories that our students will create!
Good language practice in PYP. Language is the major connecting element across the curriculum. Therefore, in a PYP school the focus is not only on language for its own sake, but also on its application across the subject areas and throughout the transdisciplinary programme of inquiry. It also facilitates connections with the wider community.
Teachers in PYP schools should strive to develop a caring language community in which all students feel accepted and confident that they will be supported by others in language learning and in taking risks. To encourage students to take risks in language learning (especially learning an additional language), they need to believe that there is a good chance they will succeed; they may not be willing to try unless they believe they have the confidence to get it at least partially right.
Learning language in a PYP classroom extends beyond the classroom walls, and has close connections to the central school library/media centre and to other classrooms. The teacher plans in collaboration with other classroom teachers and single-subject teachers. Additional-language teachers play a particularly important role in reinforcing, supporting and extending the classroom work.
The degree of change needed to teach language in this way will depend on the individual teacher. It is suggested, rather, that teachers engage in reflection on their own practice, both individually and in collaboration with colleagues, with a view to sharing ideas and strengths, and with the primary aim of improving their teaching to improve student learning. In doing so, they will be modeling the skills and attitudes that have been identified as essential for students.
Sports. Saturday 12th November 2016 our basketball squad traveled to Xi’an International School to play in an international schools’ basketball tournament. A short report from the team captain Collins.
The team started well since at the end of the first quarter on our match against XHIS, the score stood comfortably at 18-0, to us. In the second quarter we were able to score a few more points from simple passing. In the third quarter it was clear to see that the ball was flowing well from player to player and this allowed the team to apply some of the plays prepared during our practice sessions. We won with such a large margin despite being short in numbers, concluding the fourth quarter with a final score standing at 54-27.
Our second match against XIS, was more competitive. We were able to take an early lead in the game maintaining a margin of 12 points, but as the match progressed XIS managed to catch up, reducing the margin to 4 points. Nonetheless, the team remained calm and went back to some of the plays and tactics, pushing the margin back up to 10 points, with the final score being 34-24 for us.
We are all grateful and proud of the results, and look forward to similar events in the future.
PYP Parent – Teacher Conferences. We would like to invite all primary parents to attend the first Parent-Teacher Conferences for this school year on both Thursday, Nov. 29th and Thursday, Dec. 1st from 2pm-5pm. Conferences are a way to discuss students’ learning, report on progress, and set learning goals. Primary School will finish at 2pm on these two days.
All parents will need to complete a booking form that has been sent home to select a time that is convenient to attend the conference(s). We will make every effort to arrange a meeting time based on your preference. The Primary Leadership will confirm the day and time of the conference, a meeting to talk with your child(ren)’s classroom teacher. If you would like to see any of the Primary specialist teachers, please contact the Ms. Yang ( zena.yang@his-xian.com ).
NOTE: Each conference lasts 10 minutes. If a longer period is required a further appointment can be made at the meeting with the teacher.
Secondary Parents Meeting. Last Wednesday 16th November we held our weekly Secondary Parents in Partnership meeting on Units of Inquiry in the Middle Years Programme.
The Parent-Teacher Conference is scheduled for next Wednesday 23rd November. Your child(ren) will have an appointment sheet to book a 5 minute slot with the relevant teachers. We would like to encourage all students to attend with their parents and ask that you join us between 2-4pm in the Auditorium.
The school day will remain the same and buses will leave school at 4.30pm as normal. If you wish to take your child home with you, please inform the office that they will not be taking the bus.
University Visits. We had four Canadian universities visiting Hanova: Wilfrid Laurier University, Concordia University, University of New Brunswick and Southern Alberta Institute of Technology.
We appreciate the parents who joined us for this event and we continue to welcome them for the future, since it is a great opportunity to communicate with admission officers directly. Please contact Ms. Zhu ( sharon.zhu@his-xian.com ).
ECAs. Wednesday 23rd Nov. will be the last day of our 1st Semester ECAs, with buses leaving after 4:30pm. From the week after, buses will leave earlier on Wednesdays until the next block of ECAs.
However, some ECA activities (Model United Nations, Basketball, …) will continue regularly until 13th December: please contact the respective teachers and supervisors for specific information. In these cases, students will have to arrange their transportation home after school.
Thanks again for your continuing support.
Yours,
Francesco Masetti-Placci
