Welcome to the third issue of the School Newsletter of 2020-21. In this issue, we look forward to sharing with you:

• News from the Principal
• News from Primary School
• News from Secondary School
• Forthcoming Events

News from the Principal

New Campus Construction Up-date. Construction on the new school campus proceeds apace! According to the latest information, all the internal walls are now in place, and work is underway with the window frames, sills and the windows – all imported from Germany.

The complicated heat-exchange system that will provide under-floor heating has all been laid down, which means that work on the flooring itself can begin.

A lot of thought and discussion between the Board and senior management has gone into the choice of building materials for the external wall cladding and the marble, granite and stone to be used for the window sills and external walkways.

As part of our commitment to energy saving, the exterior wall insulation material has been purchased from Germany, which is the TOP brand that guarantees the heat insulation.

All the windowsill and the holders used in the new campus are manufactured in Germany and imported to China based on the school needs. Currently, the windowsill holders are assembled on site, the holders will be built inside the windowsill, which will not be visible in the future when the exterior wall and windowsill assemblies are completed.

The steel structure of the Sports Centre roof is under construction.

Some of our community may be aware that last year, school staff and management spent a lot of time researching new school furniture, furnishings and fittings for classrooms and other facilities. The Board have now confirmed that the new resources have been ordered and will be installed over the summer holidays in time for school opening in August.

IB PYP/MYP Evaluation and Documentation Review. As the community is aware, as an IB Continuum World School, we are obliged to undergo a five year evaluation procedure for each of our IB programmes. This is to ensure that IB’s rigorous standards and practices are being implemented by IB World Schools.

With our IB Diploma evaluation safely behind us, the IB has now confirmed that the combined PYP/MYP Evaluation Visit will take place in April 2022.

As one of our five ‘whole school aims’ for 2020-21, school staff and management have already been working on the required documentation reviews.

As part of this, all our school policies have been going through a review procedure that culminates in Board re-authorization. Once each document or policy is re-authorized, it will be shared with parents.

The first such policy is our whole school Admissions Policy (2020), which comes into this week. This is now accessible to parents via Managebac. However, I thought it would be beneficial for me to share some of the most important sections with parents today.

Hanova Admissions Policy 2020: “Inclusion. The school recognises that all students are different and each have their own development profile and needs. The school is not set up to deal with complex or significant needs, although it will do its best to meet the needs of any student within the parameters determined by the building, the resources and the expertise of the staff.”

“Parents. When completing the admissions application form on OpenApply, parents will be asked to declare any medical condition or learning needs their child/ren currently have. The completed form requires their written agreement that all declarations have been made. This agreement clearly states that if information has been withheld, the school reserves the right to annul the school’s offer of a place or, if the student has already been admitted, retains the right to ask the student to leave the school.”

“Parents of students applying to Year 10 are advised that full academic reports and grade cards must be provided for at least four academic years before the award of the IB Diploma and the Hanova Diploma. This information will be required for university transcripts. For students from year 3 to year 9, two years’ reports (and/or standardized assessments if available) must be provided. Such documentation must be in English, or are notarized documents with English translation.”

“In the event that an applicant has not been going to school but has been ‘home-schooled’, a general knowledge entrance examination may be set to ascertain the students’ scope of knowledge. This also applies to dependent children of Hanova employees.”

“The child can normally be admitted within ONE week’s time after the Admission Panel decision. If the school does not get any feedback from parents within one week, the admission decision will be invalid and parents need to reapply to the school and complete the entrance examination.”

“Students wishing to join the IB Diploma in Year 12 will not be admitted after the first semester because of all the curriculum content and ongoing Internal Assessment (IA). Thereafter, students may be considered for the Hanova Diploma.”

“Entries into Year 10 follow similar practice. We cannot offer places in Year 11 or after semester one Year 11 – unless the parents sign an agreement that their son/daughter may not be entered for the MYP Course.”

“Due to the requirements of the PYP Exhibition, students may not be admitted into Year 6 after the first semester. Accordingly, any student who applies for an MYP Year 7 place but cannot meet entry requirements, will not be offered a place in PYP Year 6 in semester 2.”

“Students enrolling in Semester Two of any year group may be required to repeat the year level the following year if they do meet educational requirements of that year level. This condition will also apply to those MYP and IB Diploma students in Years 7 to 13 who have been absent more than 10% of the school year or equivalent. This does not apply to PYP students.”

“Given the changes made in 2015 with the new minimum passing criteria and points bonus matrix for TOK and Extended Essay, students who have been given provisional placement on the full IB Diploma Programme are required to achieve the official IB Diploma minimum passing requirements by the end of Year 12. Throughout the academic year, staff will conduct students’ achievement reviews. If is felt that a student is in danger of failing the Diploma, the IB Diploma Coordinator will inform the student and parents. If it is in the student’s best interest, the school reserves the right to move the student from the full IB Diploma to the Hanova Diploma Programme.”

New Staff – 2020-21. Members of the community are probably aware by now that the Chinese Government and immigration authorities have recently introduced two laws that will affect our new staff currently outside of China. Luckily for us, one new staff member managed to get into China before this travel ban. Here is Samuel Wernenlich who has already started teaching in Secondary:

“Greetings all; I and my daughter Samantha in Year 2 have had a warm welcome from the students and staff here at Hanova. I and my daughter are getting settled and looking forward to exploring the fascinating city of Xi’an. We are from the United States, specifically the state of Colorado. I have my BS in Political science and a BA in secondary education. I have been teaching internationally since 1997 with a few breaks teaching back in the US. I worked in the UAE twice; both times in Abu Dhabi, Moscow, Russia as well as Muscat, Oman and finally twice in China, Shanghai and Beijing. This will be my third time in China. Coming from Colorado we enjoy all outdoor things such as hiking, fishing and generally enjoying the outdoors. I will be teaching Theory of Knowledge, DP History as well as DP Economics.”

News from Primary School

Y3 Fieldtrip to the Zoo. Last month we went to the zoo. Before lunch, we went to see the wild animals like tiger, lion, white tiger… We got on a bus because there were many animals that will eat us. When we saw the tigers, there was a tiger walking on the road and it was very close to the bus but it didn’t scratch the window. We also saw 2 animals that could not kill us. I liked to go to on the bus because we could see the animals from far away and we could take pictures. But I didn’t like the bus to go and not stopping because I couldn’t take good pictures.

Then, we went to eat food in a shop and I saw lots of foods that were delicious. Yummy!

After lunch, we saw a lot of animals that were colorful, fast, and like people. Some were in glass cages… and some were cute!!

Last, we came back to the bus and we saw our pictures there. We had fun in the bus as well.

In Year 4 we’ve been working on an Advertising unit based around the Central Idea that

Advertising is intended to influence our economic choices.

Linking to one of our lines of inquiry we have been learning about what makes a good ad and different ad techniques that ad agencies use. We are going to be creating a video advertisement so have learned about the process of Pre-production, Production and Post Production and now have started to work through this process ourselves. We’ve chosen a product to advertise and have been writing a script and storyboarding, ready to start filming our ads.

We have been making economic choices about the purchase of books for our year group and also the purchase of food for our upcoming field trip. We have continued to explore economic choices through Math word problems.

Year 2 students experienced a great ‘provocation’ for their new unit on Earth’s cycles. They visited the Jiu ha yu zhou Space Museum. They enjoyed watching some science experiments, learning a song and information about the planets, making a craft, piloting an aircraft with the flight simulator, and much much more! The students have been so engaged and excited about their learning during this unit of inquiry. Maybe one of them will grow up to be an astronaut!

PYP Costume Day and House Activity: The PYP students enjoyed a fun Costume Day on Friday, October 30th. After the annual Costume Parade, the students split up into their House Groups with their Reading Buddy Classes. They were tasked with making 5 fall-themed crafts together trying to make all 5 crafts look like the example and complete them in the allotted time. Later that afternoon some secret judges came around to choose the best made crafts! House Points were awarded to all students according to the judging outcome. It was a fun-filled morning!

PYP Music:

The students in PYP enjoy a very hands-on and professional approach to music lessons from our teacher, Mrs. Hall. Her subject knowledge, classroom engagement and love of music make her lessons a very valuable part of our academic program. Here is just a glimpse into PYP music!

News from Secondary School

DAY OF THE DEAD. On Monday, November 2nd, DP Spanish ab initio students and their teacher were recreating one of the most famous celebrations in Mexico: “The Day of the Dead” (El Día de Los Muertos). The activity is an essential cultural experience as part of the Spanish Course because it is an opportunity to develop tolerance, International Mindedness and Intercultural Understanding in our IB community.

“The Day of the Dead is a very unique and widely celebrated holiday in Spanish speaking countries, but most celebrated in Mexico. It is a special celebration in memory of the people we have lost. However, it is not to mourn our loved one’s passing, but a happy celebration of the lives that they lived! At school on Monday, the Spanish class was able to wear special Day of the Dead face paint, share Day of the Dead-themed candy with the MYP students, and set up a special “ofrenda” with all the unique cultural elements of the celebration! This year our Year 13 Spanish class had the unique opportunity to share with the Year 1 students about what the Day of the Dead is. Organized by Miss Alex, Isaiah and I helped talk to the students about the holiday and do some fun activities with them!” Isaac Rice Y13

DP 2 (Year 13) Ecology Field trip. Biology Y13 students recently had their Ecology field trip. During the last two years, they have been learning concepts and developing practical skills that help them to solve real-life problems. The ecology field trip is an excellent opportunity for Xi’an Hanova International School students to discover China’s great biodiversity and to know amazing natural landscapes.

Amazing Korean Restaurant. In our DP English B lessons, we have been learning about the themes of “identities” and “experience.” During the class, we explored topics such as the nature of the self and what it is to be human. Our classmates shared our interests during our discussions and found out that all of us are fascinated with food! So, we decided to use one class to cook together, and then we thought that it might be a good experience if we shared a Korean cultural experience with some of our teachers. We worked together to make a plan and then divided up the tasks and materials between us. One student made invitations to hand out to teachers and others were responsible for choosing a recipe and preparing a list of ingredients.

On Wednesday, October 28th, Y12 English B students transformed Mr. Gallerno’s classroom into “Amazing Korean Restaurant.” Before this, we all worked together to prepare the food in the staff kitchen. This was interesting because some of us had very little cooking experience! Our menu was composed of: Rabokki, Yulan, rice burger, Sotteok Sotteok and a sweet rice drink. Rabokki is rice cake mixed with spicy Ramen noodles. Yulan is a sweet dessert made of mashed chestnut balls mixed with cinnamon and honey. Rice burger is a type of “fusion food” that uses rice instead of bread. The filling for the burger can be different according to one’s liking, but we used ham and kimchi. Sotteok Sotteok is a skewered food with sausage and rice cake put in the skewer continuously. Also, red pepper paste is spread on the sausages and rice cakes to make it spicy.

The outcome of our shared cultural experience was fantastic. We all worked together to plan and prepare Korean foods for some teachers, we had a chance to practice useful cooking skills, and we all had a great lunch! All of the teachers said that they liked our food, although Ms. Alexandra said that it was quite a bit spicier than the food she normally eats. I hope that we can do activities like this again.

Handpan Workshop. For the “World Music Unit” of the MYP music class, we invited the local musicians from the Xi’an Youth Pop Music Center to bring the Handpan workshop to us last week. Students in Year 7 and 8 participated in this workshop and learned how to play the handpan.

Thanks again for your continuing support.

Yours,

Robert C. Muntzer

 

Forthcoming Events

Please make a note of the events scheduled to take place over the next month:

Saturday, December 5          SAT Tests

Wednesday, December 9     IB Diploma Information Session

Saturday, December 12        Winter Concert (Open to parents depending on government regulations)

Wednesday, December 16   PYP Reports issued

Friday, December 18            MYP Reports issued

Friday, December 18            MYP/DP Success Assembly