20 January 2012 Volume 10 ES PARENT BULLETIN International School Manila IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER JAN 21 International Family Fun Day @ 1pm Band Aid @ 7pm, Fine Arts Theatre 23 Chinese New Year Holiday - No Classes 25 Student Late Start @ 8.30am 31 PTA Morning Coffee Bearcat Welcome @ 7.30am, Little Theatre FEB 1 Gr4 to 5 Transition Parent Meeting @ 5pm, Fine Arts Theatre 1, 8, 15, 22 Student Late Start @ 8.30am 3, 16 ES Parent Bulletin 9 Children’s Musical Theatre @ 1pm & 6pm, Fine Arts Theatre 17 Faculty Inservice Day - No Classes 24 ES Sports Day 14 ES Parent Coffee @ 7.30am, Little Theatre From the ES Administration rom the ES Administration Dear Elementary School Parents, Welcome Welcome back to 2012 at ISM and in particular a special welcome to our 20 new students who have just started in the Elementary School. At a new parent coffee morning which was held this week, we once again were able to emphasize one of the core underlying philosophies of the educational process at ISM - communication. By this, we explicitly mean maintaining healthy and continual dialogue between home and school, such that parents feel very much a part of their child’s learning at ISM. This then enables us to gain further insights and context about just how your child does learn. Please do continue to talk with your class teacher on a regular basis, be it face to face or through email. Also know, that you have access to all of our support professionals in the Elementary School (counseling, learning support and ESL) and both of us, as Principals. What is a concept-driven curriculum? Yesterday, a group of our program leaders were able to spend a day looking at our curriculum through the lens of ‘concepts’. What does this a ctually mean? A concept -driven curriculum enables us to overcome the issue ofa curriculum that is overloaded with content. In an age where most information is easily accessible for our students, concepts enable us to bring focus and depth to learning and hopefully lead our students to ‘enduring understanding’ or simply, learning that ‘sticks’. A concept is a mental construct that is timeless, universal and abstract. It takes our students to a gr eater depth of thinking and very often gives them the opportunity to bring their own interest in terms of content, to the learning table, whilst viewing this through a conceptual (Continued on page 2) UPDATING PARENT CONTACT INFORMATION In order to best serve the ISM Parent Community, it is essential that information be quickly disseminated when necessary. For this reason, the accuracy of your contact details in our database is of the utmost importance. Please note that Parent Contact Information must be updated online by the parent. To make any changes or verification in contact information, please access one of your children’s data file via the ISM website (www.ismanila.org) and then under Login, click on Powerschool Public Access and enter your Username and Password. On the page that opens, click on the Demographic Update icon for changing or updating demographic information.
