Everything at school seems to have got off to a smooth start this year and, at the end of our first week back, the majority of the Hanova community seem to be happy, positive and productive.
The issue regarding the entry to Bodi School gate is still ongoing and we have tried our best to minimize the effects on our children. A meeting between Bodi School and Hanova is being pIanned for next week. I will of course keep you all up-dated.
We will be having several meeting opportunities over the next few weeks. We will be holding an IB Diploma information workshop on Friday, 24th August, and a PYP ‘Meet the Teacher’ event on Thursday, 23rd August. More details of these are below.
Those parents whose children are in Secondary School should be reminded that our MYP and Diploma languages policies both explicitly state that English – as our language of instruction – is to be spoken in all classes except in ‘host language’ or ‘mother-tongue’ classes such as Chinese or Korean. We would ask parents to encourage their children to abide by this policy. In Primary School, the issue of English is being reviewed.
One of our school aims this year is to improve the communications between school and the community. To achieve part of this aim, we therefore intend to find means of sharing our school policies so that parents are better informed of our educational standards and practices.
News from Secondary School. Secondary School got off to a strong start this year. After some brief initial assemblies and meetings, students were back to their studies very quickly. With the timetables and staff allocations in place, our students were able to settle in with minimal disruption, and our new students – including those promoted into Year 7 – have received excellent support and guidance from their homeroom tutors.
Managebac is up and running and since the majority of the students’ work and assessments are on Managebac, this has meant that their studies has been efficiently carried over from last year.
As was expressed in the ‘Open Day’ on Friday, 10th August, Secondary School will be consolidating and improving its written and delivered curriculum in IB MYP and IB Diploma. Work has already taken place in order to achieve this.
A Secondary School academic management system was established back in 2014 for our IB authorization. This was largely based upon a Faculty approach based upon the IB model, where a Head of Faculty took responsibility for the coordination of subjects within their faculty. So, we are very pleased to announce that the faculty management system has been re-established for 2018-19. This in part due to the appointments of three Heads of Faculty; David English, Jelena Dovic and Jennifer Lazareck. The Heads of Faculty for 2018-19 are;
Group 1 Languages (Korean A, Chinese A, English A) David English
Group 2 Languages (English B, Chinese B, Spanish) Jelena Dovic
Group 3 Individuals and Societies (Humanities) Sonali Roy
Group 4 Sciences Aristipo Rodriguez
Group 5 Mathematics Anneke Krynauw
Group 6 Arts (Drama, Music, Art) Jennifer Lazareck
In addition to the events being planned for PYP and Diploma, there will be an MYP Parental Information event. Details will be shared with the community next week.
IB Diploma Information Workshop. We are happy to invite all parents of Years 11 to 13 to the first of our planned IB DP Information Workshops this year. This event will take place in the IB Diploma Common Room on Friday, 24th August, starting at 2.00pm.
Students in Years 12 and 13 are also welcome to attend.
During this event, two major IB Diploma policies and practices will be shared with parents: DP Assessment and Academic Integrity. We also want to show parents how they can access Managebac to see how their sons and daughters are doing in the Diploma programmes.
It is very important to us as a school that parents are as involved as much as possible; we therefore strongly recommend you to attend this event.
News from Primary School. During this first week, teachers and students have been settling into their new academic year by getting to know each other, establishing class and school routines, positive working relationships and learning expectations.
We have focused on the IB Learner Profile attributes and how we can use and display these in our daily school lives. Each class shared their understanding of one of the Learner Profile attributes at the Primary School Assembly on Friday.
Parents are invited to a PYP “Meet the Teacher” event on Thursday, August 23, 2018 beginning at 2:20 in your child’s classroom.
This will be a time for parents to get more detailed information regarding their child’s teacher, the class timetable, class procedures and class-specific academic programs. At this time the teacher will help set up the Class WeChat groups and discuss the group chat essential agreements.
If you have more than one child in the PYP, perhaps you can attend part of the session in each classroom as needed.
At 3:10, after your time with your child’s homeroom teacher, you will get a chance to “Meet the Management” of the PYP in the auditorium.
We hope that you can attend these sessions as we feel that it will answer some more specific questions and concerns you may be thinking about at the beginning of the school year. Thank you for your support and we are excited that the school year has had such a successful beginning!
Thanks again for your continuing support.
Best regards,
Robert C. Muntzer
Upcoming Events
Please take note of these dates, while we will soon inform about any additional events and activities that will take place in the following weeks:
Thursday, 23rd August PYP ‘Meet the Teachers’
Friday, 24th August IB Diploma Parents’ Meeting
Friday & Saturday, 14th and 15th September Staff Professional Development Days
Monday, 24th September Mid-Autumn Holiday
