We are now progressing in our First Semester of school, and you will soon receive more information about the additional activities that will complement the students’ learning beyond the classroom.

 DP Students Excursion. The Year 12 students have been working very hard in organizing the first IB Diploma CAS Excursion for Years 12 and 13, as part of their EOTC and CAS programme. This event, which will take place on 13^th – 15^th October, will enable the Year 13 students to complete their CAS programmes more efficiently and the Year 12 will get off to a strong start with this CAS Project.

The students will leave school at Friday lunchtime, travel by bus to the Huashan Mountains, where they will be undertaking various activities – camping, food sourcing, cooking – on Friday night. On Saturday, most students will attempt the seven-hour climb to the East Peak, where they will stay overnight. All students will then return to Xi’an on Sunday.

This is a very exciting project because it is the students themselves who have done all the organization and planning. More details will be released during the next weeks.

DP Candidate Registrations for May 2018 and May 2019. We will begin registration of our Year 13 and then Year 12 students with the IBO for their Diploma examination entries. This year, this will be done via Managebac.

Students and parents will have then to verify their passport details and email addresses, so that the correct accurate data is uploaded. Please therefore ensure that the needed information is given to our Secondary IB Administrator Mrs. Li ( lilian.li@his-xian.com ).

MYP Personal Project. MYP students in Year 11 have begun their Personal Project preparation with great enthusiasm, so we can all expect an outstanding set of projects in this academic year! In that regard, we remind that there will be an Information Session on 13^th September at 3:00pm in Room 308B focused on the MYP Personal Project. We invite all Year 11 parents, as well as any other parents that are interested in finding out more about the Personal Project, to attend this session.

MYP News. The whole of the MYP has spent time discussing the IB learner Profile, and what it means for each of us in our daily lives. Hereafter is a very sweet photograph to reflect our caring attitude!

The results of the MYP assessments conducted in the first half of this semester will be available in the interim reports, which will be issued on the 13^th October. Thereafter we will host our first MYP Parent-Teacher-Student Conference of the year on 18^th October, where you will be able to discuss academic achievement and any other relevant issues with each of your child’s teachers.

Please encourage them to manage their time carefully and check their Communication Diaries, especially in Years 7-9, to ensure that you are aware of their homework tasks. In addition, we encourage all parents to log in and watch Managebac for additional notices and the deadlines of all assessments. We would like to work with you, to develop our students into strong and independent learners.

For any questions related to the MYP activities, please contact directly our MYP Coordinator Mrs. Trull ( sandy.trull@his-xian.com ).

Primary News. The Year 4 classes have been looking at Human Rights, in particularly “our needs, wants and rights as a child”. After discussions on the Children’s Rights Conference document, students wrote their own Bill of Rights. They have also listened to Martin Luther King’s famous “I have a dream” speech and used this as a basis for their own dreams of a better world speech.

For any questions related to the PYP activities, please contact directly our PYP Coordinator Mrs. Biglands ( melissa.biglands@his-xian.com ). Please also note the upcoming PYP Parent Information Sessions, held every Wednesday at 3pm in the Auditorium. The next topics include:

• 13^th September: Language in the PYP
• 20^th September: Mathematics in the PYP

Primary House Leaders. On Friday 1^st September, all the Primary students participated in a special Assembly to select their house captains for this academic year. There were many candidates from Year 6 who were interested in leading their respective houses and ready to give their motivational speech in front of the rest of the PYP students, who then voted for their captain and co-captain. Here are the results:

• Song House: Captain Lily Young             Co-captain: Raphael Trull
• Qin House: Captain:Mina Kang               Co-captain: Candy Gao
• Tang House: Captain: Daniel Kim            Co-captain: Sally Lee
• Han House: Captain: Ellie Bae                Co-captain: Tze Yo Ng

Congratulation to all the new PYP House leaders and we are looking forward to exciting and fun filled House events along this year. For more information on the PYP house activities, please contact Mrs. Petra ( petra.vejvodova@his-xian.com ).

ECAs. Our popular Extra-curricular Activity (ECA) programme will restart from 20th September 2017. This year there are some changes to the programme, which we hope will be viewed as improvements.

ECAs will take place every Wednesday, during the last period in the timetable, instead of after school hours as it was in previous years. Consequently, since ECAs will take place during normal school hours, participation is mandatory for all students from Nursery through Year 11.

It is then important that parents carefully look at the ECA Form with their children, to make sure that they sign up for activities that they really want to do. This form will be sent home soon to all students and parents.

We will have two ECA Blocks: Block 1 will start from 20th September 2017 and end on 24th January 2018; Block 2 will go from 31st January 2018 to 30th May 2018. Please note that buses will no longer leave late on ECA days.

The program will include the most popular ECAs proposed in the past, plus some new proposals based on student interest and availability of appropriate supervision. Since we want to run as many activities as possible, parents and students from Year 10 to Year 12 are welcome to offer ideas for ECAs that they would then lead, with support from Hanova teachers or staff. So, parents, if you have a hobby or talent that you believe would be interesting for our students, please contact Ms. Petra (petra.vejvodova@his-xian.com) in Primary or Mr. Gallerno (richard.gallerno@his-xian.com) in Secondary. We look forward to hearing from you!

University Visit. As we start the new academic year, we also continue to expect several university visits. These visits are always a valuable opportunity for our students to broaden their horizons and think about their future. The upcoming visits are as following:

• 14^th September (13:00) University of California – Davis (USA)
• 19^th September (13:00) Wooster College (USA)
• 10^th October (13:00) School of the Art Institute of Chicago-SAIC (USA)
• 11^th October (13:00) University of Pittsburgh (USA)
• 17^th October (13:00) Baylor University (USA)
• 18^th October (14:00) University Fair (More than 20 universities)

In November (dates still to be confirmed) we will host University of Central Missouri, Gonzaga University, Monmouth College (all from USA) and University of Calgary (Canada).

We will then have many more visits, which will be confirmed in the future newsletters. Please contact our University Counselor Ms. Zhu ( sharon.zhu@his-xian.com ) for any inquiries.

Friday Schedule

From 15th September 2017, similarly to last academic year, on Fridays the school day schedule will be adjusted to ensure that students can leave the school on time and arrive home early. We will thus organize a shorter lunchtime, so as to anticipate the afternoon finish time to 3:30pm. This will allow the school buses, to leave earlier and on time from inside the school gate, bringing the students home by mid-afternoon before the weekend. Please ensure appropriate arrangement for Friday pick-up of your child(ren) in school at 3:30pm or at the bus stops.

Thanks again for your continuing support.

Yours,

Francesco Masetti-Placci

 
 

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