Another successful and constructive week draws to a close and I’d like to share with our community what we have achieved and what lies ahead.

One question raised by a parent last week was asked about finding out more about our IB programmes – PYP, MYP and IB Diploma. An email was subsequently sent out to parents in Years 10 to 13 showing them links to various IBO (International Baccalaureate Organization) web-pages. However, for the rest of the school’s community, here there are again:

For general information about IB programmes, please visit the information pages for parents:

https://ibo.org/information-for-parents/

For more information on the IB Diploma programme, please visit the information pages:

https://ibo.org/programmes/diploma-programme/

For specific information on the various IB Diploma subjects, IB has provided subject briefs for every IB Diploma subject. Here you will find information about course content and assessment of each subject:

https://ibo.org/university-admission/ib-recognition-resources-and-document-library/#dp_briefs

As was suggested last week, our ECA programme in Primary and Secondary schools will re-commence on Wednesday, 12^th September. It can also be announced that our Sports Academies will be re-starting next week; Tuesday and Thursday after-school.

Please be reminded that Friday, 14^th September, the school will be closed to students because of staff training.

And we are happy to announce that the planned IB Diploma CAS Excursion for Years 12 and 13 will be going ahead from Thursday, 13^th September to Sunday, 16^th September. The IB Diploma students will be visiting various sites of cultural and creative interest around Beijing, including The Forbidden Palace, National Museum, 798 Art Zone, Gubei Watertown and the Great Wall at Simatai.

But the most important news of this last week was that, on Thursday, 30^th August, Hanova International School held its ‘Ground-Breaking’ ceremony at its new campus in the Chan Ba District. More details will follow but it can now be announced that the new school campus is scheduled to be opened in September 2020!

News from Secondary School. Thank you to the parents who attended the MYP and Diploma parents’ meetings at the school over the last week.  It was great to see a large turnout.  Please contact the school if there are any concerns about your child’s progress in their class.

Next week we are excited to start on our new sports academy programme at the secondary school.  On Tuesday after school will be the MYP football (soccer) academy and on Thursday will be the MYP basketball academy.  We are very excited to be able to offer these two academies and the school would like to thank the staff and parents who have volunteered to help manage and coach these teams.

We will be playing a number of games against local high schools and are also investigating involvement in competitions outside Xi’an.  Students who wish to attend either or both of these academies must turn up with gear suitable for these sports and parents will need to take responsibility for ensuring that there is transport for their child to return home.

IB Diploma Workshop for Parents. It was really impressive to see so many parents at this information session – only two parents couldn’t attend – and that’s because they were teaching!

Our IB Diploma Coordinator, Ms. Sharon Zhu, showed parents and students of Years 11 to 13 an outline of our current school policies on Admissions, DP Assessment and DP Academic Integrity.

At the end of the session, parents took the opportunity to ask questions and comments made were listened carefully to.

It has subsequently been decided that important DP documentation that required parental consent would be translated into Korean as well as Chinese.

The next IB Diploma Workshop will focus on Creativity, Activity, Service (CAS); details will be released later.

MYP ‘Meet the Teachers’ Information Session. It was great to see so many parents at our MYP Meet the Teachers and the Management. We want to ensure that the channels of communication between the school and parents are open and if there are any issues that you would like to discuss with me, please just email (sandy.trull@his-xian.com).

The MYP curriculum model shows the student at the centre of the learning. At Hanova we are pleased to announce that our student-leaders have developed our Student Code of Conduct and all students chose the white rhino to be the animal we will support, this academic year.

I would like to encourage all parents to reinforce their child’s learning by checking Managebac regularly as all assessment tasks and deadlines are visible there. Also, I ask parents to be aware of the homework timetable and to ensure that students are spending the required amount of time (without the distractions of the social media) to focus on homework tasks and additional English reading.

We celebrate our students’ achievements in Celebrations of Success Assemblies, at the end of each semester. We really hope that all parents and friends will be able to join us for these events.

In addition, we have inter-house sports events, inter-schools sports events, arts assemblies and much more, where we would love to see our parents. We will keep you updated.

Sports activities begin next week with football on Tuesday after school and basketball on Thursday afternoon. All Secondary students are welcome!

Lastly, we reminded parents that absences of longer than one day could not be excused without a medical certificate from the doctor or hospital and that we want our students to wear their uniform well.

I am very grateful to all those parents who took the time out of their busy schedules to be with us on Tuesday afternoon, and look forward to seeing you all at the upcoming MYP events.

News from Primary School. Last week, we commenced our “reading buddy” program at Hanova within the PYP and this will run every three weeks.  Younger and older students are paired up for reading together throughout the school year. This “reading buddy” program helps build a community where students can read together and respect one another, regardless of age differences.

The ‘Little Buddies’ benefit from:

• hearing stories read-aloud (modeling of reading fluency, phrasing and expression)
• having conversations with an older student about topics that interest and involve them (extending their vocabulary, oral language abilities)
• having regular opportunities to practice familiar reading with 1:1 assistance
• enjoying fun, positive experiences with a ‘big kid’ who is now a recognizable face in the school community

The ‘Big Buddies’ benefit from:

• further developing their own literacy skills
• fostering leadership and problem-solving skills
• improved self-confidence that comes from being looked-up to
• a very real and important reason to be responsible, and an opportunity to be ‘caught’ (and praised) for positive behavior
• bragging rights

Reading Buddies programs promote a higher interest and engagement in reading, improvement in social and communication skills, particularly for students learning English as a second language.  And, most importantly, it’s just FUN!

This collaboration will not only be limited to the “reading buddy” program. Year 6 will be inviting Year 2B to participate in other events in the near future, which I am sure you will all agree is a great example of an IB school in action!  We hope to set up other similar programs in the future and look forward to sharing them with the parent community.

News from Primary School. Last week, we commenced our “reading buddy” program at Hanova within the PYP and this will run every three weeks.  Younger and older students are paired up for reading together throughout the school year. This “reading buddy” program helps build a community where students can read together and respect one another, regardless of age differences.

The ‘Little Buddies’ benefit from:

• hearing stories read-aloud (modeling of reading fluency, phrasing and expression)
• having conversations with an older student about topics that interest and involve them (extending their vocabulary, oral language abilities)
• having regular opportunities to practice familiar reading with 1:1 assistance
• enjoying fun, positive experiences with a ‘big kid’ who is now a recognizable face in the school community

The ‘Big Buddies’ benefit from:

• further developing their own literacy skills
• fostering leadership and problem-solving skills
• improved self-confidence that comes from being looked-up to
• a very real and important reason to be responsible, and an opportunity to be ‘caught’ (and praised) for positive behavior
• bragging rights

Reading Buddies programs promote a higher interest and engagement in reading, improvement in social and communication skills, particularly for students learning English as a second language.  And, most importantly, it’s just FUN!

This collaboration will not only be limited to the “reading buddy” program. Year 6 will be inviting Year 2B to participate in other events in the near future, which I am sure you will all agree is a great example of an IB school in action!  We hope to set up other similar programs in the future and look forward to sharing them with the parent community.

Thanks again for your continuing support.

Best regards,

Robert Muntzer

 
 

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