After four weeks now, we are slowly getting into our stride and this last week has seen some more memorable achievements and developments.

In terms of EOTCs, Year 6 has already gone to visit the Grand Mosque and the Qinglongsi Temple. The students learned a lot about other cultural belief systems.

In Secondary School, our IB Diploma students conducted their IB DP Geography fieldtrip and very soon the IB DP Biology students will be undertaking their fieldwork up in a mountain forest.

As we speak, all the IB Diploma students in Years 12 and 13 are on their way to the Gubei Watertown, north of Beijing.

As an IB Continuum School, languages play a very important part of our children’s education. In terms of cultural understanding and in making the world a better and more peaceful place, languages are critical. That’s why Hanova’s philosophy on languages maintains that all languages – irrespective of whether they are ‘host country’, ‘mother tongue’ and English are of equal importance.

We have been working to improve our languages provision and we hope that over the next few weeks we will be able to announce further developments.

However, in the meantime, please be reminded that the language of instruction at Hanova is English and please encourage your children to practice their English outside of the classroom and the school.

I would like to share with you another very useful resource. Some parents may have heard of TED ED. TED ED is part of the organization that has been sharing TED Talks for several years now. TED ED is a free web-site that has possibly thousands of excellent and though-provoking mini-lessons in a very wide range of subjects – English, Maths, Sciences, Humanities etc. The mini-lessons are very short and are animated – that means that students who find English difficult should be able to learn from them. TED ED is suitable for students in Years 5 up to Year 13.

News from Secondary School. At Hanova International School students use a laptop as part of their learning in most subjects.

The laptops are important for different purposes.  For instance;

• accessing specialist programmes
• doing research
• presenting student work
• maintaining digital journals and work books

It has been clear this year that students in many levels of the Secondary School are using technology for other purposes not related to their learning.  In particular, we are concerned that students are using their laptops for;

• playing games
• accessing social media

Both of these are unacceptable.  We have asked students not to use their laptops for playing games or accessing social media.  We would ask parents to support that view.  At break and lunch-time we would also encourage students to go outside now that the temperature is at a reasonable level.

Yesterday it was tremendous to see the first week of our ECA programme. It was wonderful to see all students engaged in a large variety of different activities.  Nearly every student got their first choice and no club is over prescribed.  Over the next few weeks we look forward to students producing a wide variety of different outcomes.

Congratulations to the new house leaders who were elected on Friday 7^th September 2018.

The house system at Hanova gives students the opportunity to work together across the year groups to win points for their house. House points are awarded on the basis of: sports and cultural activities and academic achievements. Houses also work together to fill and run a stall at our Christmas market and plan and run activities at our Carnival at the end of the academic year. We wish our new leaders every success in the year ahead!

This week our IB Diploma Geography students went on a field trip into the city of Xi’an. The whole excursion was planned and run by the students to meet the requirements of their Internal Assessment. We have studied ‘Urban Environments’ in the course and have been inspired to understand more about our city. We investigated three very different neighbor-hoods and are now analyzing how people in those places perceive relevant urban stressors.

News from Primary School. We are pleased to announce that after careful consideration and input from teachers and parents, we have decided to use RaZ Kids as an online literacy resource from Years 1-6.  This will allow consistency across the PYP and provide a great library of English resources for all the PYP families to access at home. Each homeroom teacher will be setting up their class lists and passwords in the next week. For Nursery and Reception students, we will be using Starfall, a literacy and math resource geared for younger children.  You will receive more detailed information from your homeroom teachers.  We are currently making decisions regarding a math resource, and will let you know as soon as this has been confirmed.

Mother Tongue lessons will begin after the National Holiday for Years 3-6 students.  We will be sending home more information regarding the vision and purpose of this program.  In the meantime, if any parents are interested in assisting in the Mother Tongue program, please feel free to contact our PYP Coordinator, Miss Trish Scott via email at trish.scott@his-xian.com.

There was much excitement among the students on Wednesday afternoon as they attended the ECA (Extra Curricular Activity) of their choice.  We hope your children enjoyed the various activities.  We look forward to seeing the outcomes and achievements of this first block of extra-curricular activities.

6b have been inquiring into “Who we are” for our first Unit of Inquiry. We created self-portrait silhouettes, displaying who we are, as individuals. We thought about what our hobbies were, who our family and friends are and values and beliefs that make us, us!

Thanks again for your continuing support.

Best regards,

Robert 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 13^th to Sunday, 16^th September               DP CAS Excursion

Friday & Saturday, 14^th and 15^th September            Staff PD Days

Monday, 24^th September                                          Mid-Autumn Holiday

1^st to 5^th October                                                      National Day Holidays

Friday, 12^th October                                                  MYP Interim Reports

Wednesday, 17^th October                                         MYP PTC

Friday, 26^th October                                                  UN/International Day

Wednesday, 31^st October                                         Year 12 IB DP Reports