The New Campus – Work in Progress! Over the last two weeks, the MYP Design Room has been a busy place. Mr. Ashworth, with some help from students, has managed to build a scale model of the new Secondary School building!
As we can see, the new building is five floors high. The scale model has been built with each floor plan inside. The Heads of Faculty and Secondary School management have met and conducted planning sessions. We have reviewed the floor plans and have made some recommendations to the school board about room allocations and designations. The school board has agreed with these suggestions.
Our MYP Design students have begun a project using the scale model to start visualizing key rooms and labs in the new school. Our Diploma students have also been involved and hopefully they will be undertaking a CAS Project designing their new IB DP Study Room and IB DP Common Room!
Now that the new Primary School superstructure has been completed, the Primary management team are also busy working on internal infrastructure planning.
More will be revealed later but – in the meantime – courtesy of Mr. Gallerno – here is a light-hearted photo of the new campus security team!
Hanova Parents Teacher Association (HPTA) – 2019-20. The school Board have announced that the HPTA will be reconvened this academic year but it will be organized in a reviewed manner. We are currently revising the HPTA Constitution. When this is completed, this will be shared with all parents at Hanova.
The next stage will be to convene an AGM (Annual General Meeting) to which all Hanova parents will be invited to attend. During the course of the AGM, parents will be able to vote for their chosen candidates for the HPTA Committee.
This year we are looking to elect a new Chairperson, Vice Chairperson, Treasurer and Committee members representing Primary School and Secondary School. We are very keen to have a fair representation of our community and would encourage parents of our main communities to become involved – Chinese, Korean and other expatriates.
Until we have elections of our teacher representative in 2020-21, it has been decided that our Head of Primary, Mrs. Jeannie Rice, and Head of Secondary, Mr. Aristipo Rodriguez, will represent the teaching staff.
We hope to hold our HPTA AGM by the end of September. If you have any questions in the meantime, please contact me directly – robert.muntzer@his-xian.com
Child Safety – Temperature and Humidity. As announced at the PYP ‘Meet the Management’ meeting on Tuesday, it has been decided that, to further safeguard our children, we are introducing guidelines for external activities during times of high temperature and humidity.
When the temperature exceeds 32 degrees C and/or the humidity level exceeds 40%, staff will be advised that our students should not be outside. PE lessons and other external activities will take place inside school buildings.
The PE Department will monitor this every day and issue a warning when the temperature and/or humidity levels are too high.
Please be advised that decisions will be made depending upon the ages of the classes affected.
Staff Professional Development – Friday, 20th September. Please be reminded that, on Friday, 20th September, the school will be closed for students because the teaching staff will be under-going official IB training in Primary and Secondary.
International Day – Friday, 25th October. Because of the IB Diploma Review Visit that takes place between the 16th and 18th of October, our International Day will be held on Friday, 25th October.
News from Primary School
Meet the Teacher and Meet the Management. We had a wonderful turnout from our supportive parent community at Tuesday’s event. The parents enjoyed a session with each homeroom teacher discovering the methods of learning and curriculum content they can expect their child to enjoy throughout the year. Each parent received a curriculum pack with the learning objectives and Units of Inquiry that will be covered in their child’s year level.
After the teacher session was complete, all the PYP parents met together for an information session led by our PYP Coordinator, Ms. Trish Scott. After Ms. Trish shared some information about the IB approach to teaching and learning, the parents had a chance to ask questions of the primary management team and give suggestions for future parent sessions.
We hope this will be the beginning of a year of consistent communication between our parent and teacher community in PYP.
News from Secondary School
IB DP CAS Challenge. One of the first big school events for Yr 12 students after the summer vacation at Hanova is the CAS Challenge. On August 14, all the secondary students united into one to have a fun competition between the four Houses. Yr 12 students take responsibility for the event. Our roles were to design and plan all the activities and games that would be performed during the CAS challenge and to lead the entire event.
By doing this activity, I perceived and noticed that initiating and planning an event like this takes a lot of effort and it could not be accomplished successfully by one person. But, it can be finished if team members, students and teachers cooperate. Furthermore, I could develop respect for everyone who endeavors to initiate other big events at school.
I felt involved when our class was in the planning stage. We all shared our own activity ideas and selected the best ones by voting. By respecting each other’s opinion and keeping the mood of a formal meeting, even though there was no teacher guiding us, we could come up with a good plan. Moreover, at the moment when all the secondary students got widely excited and cheered in unison at the end of the CAS Challenge activities, I felt proud of myself.
The CAS Challenge is meaningful since this allows not only Y12 students but also secondary students to collaborate with each other. For secondary students, they can build their teamwork skills by doing the activities we made – which were all designed to be collaborative, as well as mentally & physically challenging. By this, I could recognize the benefits of working together. The reason we could finish the event successfully without any accident is because all of the members performed their own role as best as they can.
This CAS Challenge activity meant a lot to me because this experience involved lots of effort and commitment from the start to end. And this led me to improve myself with different learning outcomes. First, it has a lot of value because it was an initiative activity that I never expected to be involved in. Before the CAS challenge, all I did to create a new activity was just follow teacher’s directions and give some supporting ideas, which does not involve any big initiative from me. However, by running the CAS Challenge activities, I could have more developed initiative, since all the events are planned without any teacher’s help or instruction. This was the first CAS experience for me as a Yr12 student, and I found it very fulfilling and valuable.
By Gaon Kim (Year 12)
IB Announces Candidate Registration Fee Eliminated from November 2019. We are delighted to share with you the good news that the IB has announced the elimination of the $172 USD candidate registration fee effective with the November 2019 Exams. Historically, this flat fee applied to each student registering for IB examinations on top of the per subject fee of $119. As a result, taking additional exams or pursuing the full Diploma Programme is made more affordable for students and schools. This will make it financially feasible for more students to take additional exams, pursue a full Diploma Programme or join the community of our more than five-thousand schools worldwide.
Y11 and Y10 Provisional DP Subject Choices and University Aspirations Interviews. Starting from next Monday, 2nd September, The Diploma Coordinator, Ms. Sharon, together with the University and Careers Counsellor, Ms. Jane, are going to start individual student interviews with students in Years 10 and 11. The purpose is to establish their provisional DP subject choices based upon their university and career aspirations. The interviews aim to motivate students to start thinking about their university and careers ambitions.
Coping with Maths Anxiety. During the summer break I read a very fascinating essay from W. H. Smith and B. S. Smith, which takes a constructive look at maths anxiety, its causes, its effects, and at how students can learn to manage this anxiety so that it no longer hinders their study of mathematics.
“A famous stage actress was once asked if she had ever suffered from stage-fright and, if so, how she had gotten over it. She laughed at the interviewer’s naive assumption that, since she was an accomplished actress now, she must not feel that kind of anxiety. She assured him that she had always had stage fright, and that she had never gotten over it. Instead, she had learned to walk on stage and perform—in spite of it.
Like stage fright, maths anxiety can be a disabling condition, causing humiliation, resentment, and even panic. Even the best mathematicians, like the actress mentioned above, are prone to anxiety—even about the very thing they do best and love most.”
W.H. Smith and B. S. Smith essay examines special strategies for studying mathematics, doing homework, and taking exams. I encourage all students and parents to read this enlightening literature.
- Mr Luis Rauth – Head of Faculty – Maths
Thanks again for your continuing support.
Yours,
Robert C. Muntzer
Upcoming Events.
Please take note of these dates. As soon as they are confirmed, we will inform you about any additional events and activities that may take place in the following weeks:
Tuesday, 3rd September MYP Parents’ Information Session
Friday, 13th September Mid-Autumn Festival Holiday
Friday, 20th September Staff Professional Development (school closed)
Friday, 27th September MYP First Interim Report issued
30th – 6th October National Day Holidays
Wednesday, 9th October MYP Parent Teacher Conferences
Friday, 25th October International Day
