NEWS#07

PRIMARY SCHOOL

Primary Newsletter | Issue 08| January 14 2011

The International School of The Hague

Wijndaelerduin 12554 BX The Hague www.ishthehague.nl

Primary SchoolTelephone +31 (0)70 338 4567Fax +31 (0)70 328 2049Email ish.primary@ishthehague.nl

Secondary SchoolTelephone +31 (0)70 328 1450Fax +31 (0)70 328 2049Email ish.secondary@ishthehague.nl

In this issue

2 Dear ISH News Readers,

4}6 Primary News and Mother Tongue

7 Dates for your Diary & Events

8}9 Year 6 Work

2

Dear Parents,

A Happy New Year to you all. I hope your holiday was not too disrupted by the weather. I have already heard some awful stories from parents of hours and days spent in airports. Wherever you went, I hope you managed to spend some quality time with your children. I would like to say a big thank you to you all for helping to make our school safer. The traffi c situation in the mornings is so much better now. As you know, we moved the buses to the rear of the school to free up the drop-off zone at the front. Now we have secondary students in orange refl ective vests helping to escort children from their car into the playground. Please ask these students for help if you need it; it is sometimes diffi cult for them to work out which children need escorting and which do not. I’m sure they would rather be kept busy! I know that the traffi c situation outside school is still congested but at least our children are safer. After school, we still have one or two parents parking on the yellow lines and this creates problems. This week on two occasions large buses were delayed because they could not get past the cars parked on the yellow lines. We

are so close to making this situation signifi cantly better – let’s go the rest of the way….I appreciate that it is sometimes diffi cult to battle through the traffi c to drop off children in the mornings. However, we do have a signifi cant number of children who are late coming to school, and a smaller proportion who are continually late. The start of the day is a very important time here. Children start learning almost immediately and the day is often mapped out so that the children can make important links between different aspects of their learning. If they miss this part of the day, they rarely catch up. Please make a special effort to get your children to school on time so they are not disadvantaged.This week I was in London for two days this week at the Apple Leadership Summit. This is an event that is hosted by Apple to examine innovations in technology that can infl uence the education world. It is important that our school is at the forefront of digital learning which is why it was nice to be invited to this event as guests of Apple. Our keynote speaker yesterday morning was Sir Bob Geldof, who gave us a fascinating and uplifting insight into how technology is being used to improve the lives of those less fortunate than we are. He also had

Dear ISH News Readers,

This Issue is made byVerona Schroder v.schroder@ishthehague.nlGraeme Scott

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Primary Newsletter | Issue 08| January 14 2011

Primary News

some very strong opinions about technology itself, but it’s probably best if I don’t quote him directly in this newsletter! Apple are very interested (and not just in a commercial way) in our work with ipods in Year 6 and, having spent time in all three Y6 classrooms recently, I can report that our 1:1 ipod programme is going extremely well. Children are really enjoying their learning and are using the ipods in almost the same natural way that you or I might use a pencil and notepad – but they are much more productive in their multitasking. Later in the year, we hope to upload some video of the children working with ipods onto our website. We have also just taken delivery of our fi rst iPads, for use by our EAL and SEN departments. I was given an iPad to use for the two days of the summit and it was very diffi cult to emotionally detach myself from it and hand it back at the end! I really believe that these mobile devices (iPods, iPads etc.) will play a huge part in children’s learning in the future. We are already seeing the impact they are having now. What an exciting time this is to be in education!The remainder of the school year is traditionally packed with events and this year is no exception. Please look out for updates and invitations to events in future newsletters. The next important

dates for you to put in your diary are the issuing of progress reports on Friday 11th February and Parent Consultations on Tuesday 15th and Thursday 17th February.

Best wishes,

Graeme Scott

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Mother Tongue

Mother Tongue News (MT)

Dear Parents,

It was nice to see everyone back after the holiday. Quite a lot of you have been visiting their family and friends back in their home country. The children have been enjoying it and have been sharing lots of stories with us. Their Mother Tongue has been benefi ting from these visits as well!

Welcome to our new families. In each newsletter you will fi nd the last update on the Mother Tongue Programmes in our school.

As promised in the previous newsletter some statistics for 2010-2011. In primary we have now 73 nationalities and our children and families speak up to 60 different languages!

MT Within the Curriculum

MT within the curriculum started for Y2-6 and will start next week for R-Y1. Yesterday the US was introduced to their new project. We are going to internationalise our famous Squish!

After School

2nd MT term is starting Wednesday 19/01 for LS and Thursday 20/01 for US. Before the holiday the re-registration leafl et was sent home. If you didn’t receive it but would like your child to join one of our MT classes please come to the offi ce to fi ll a registration form on Monday 17/01 latest.

A note has been sent home to inform that Madame Edith Gillet will however not be able to start on the 20/01. Her French group will then start on the

27/01 instead and we will catch up the missing session on the 21 April.

Other

We are very happy that our Hungarian and Arabic MT tutors could bring back some new Hungarian and Arabic books for our library from their holidays home!

Kind regards,

Pascale Hertay, Deputy Head, p.hertay@ishthehague.nl

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Primary Newsletter | Issue 08| January 14 2011

Primary News and Events

The use of the Strippenkaart will soon

be discontinued throughout The Hague.

As of the 3rd of February a chipcard

will replace the old strippenkaart, more

information can be found online :

http://www.ov-chipkaart.nl/faq/?taal=en

KIKA Collection

Dear Parents,

Last term we hosted the ISH talent show in order to raise funds of the charity KIKA. Our school raised an incredibly impressive amount, in total 1401.25 was collected. Well done to all involved and many thanks for all the contributions that were made. Ms. Rikers & Ms. Comeau

Challenge your Talent

by Yarona van der Horst

What are the social emotional needs of gifted and talented children? How can we support their needs? We are going to discuss these unique issues, watch a short movie and you will get an introduction to a special course:”Challenge your Talent”- a course for social emotional development of gifted children, written and given by Yarona van der Horst. Yarona is an educational counsellor with many years of experience with gifted children.

Date: Wednesday, February 16th 19:30-21:30

Place: The Hungry Mind clubhouse, Sportpark Ockenburgh Wijndaelerweg 9a 2554 BZ The Hague (behind the International School of The Hague - ISH) Cost: 25 euro pp

To register please send an email to: yaronavdh@hotmail.com

Website: www.challengeyourtalent.nl

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Dates for your Diary

School Reports to Parents

Parent Consultation 17:00 - 19:00

Parent Consultation 15:30 - 17:30

International Mother Language Day

Start of Spring Holiday, School starts

on 07 March

City Pier City Run

Open Day from 9:00 - 10:30

Spring Fair

May Holiday, School starts again on

09 May

Ms. Rikers

Ms. Rikers

Mt. Willis

Mr. Silvester

Ms. Rikers

Ms. Rikers

Ms. Rikers

Ms. Priestman

Ms. Priestman

February CT DAYSCT DAYS

17 Jan11

Please check our website for a complete calendar

18 Jan

19 Jan

20 Jan

21 Jan

13

March

21

17

15

26

27 Jan

28 Jan

09

24

April

22

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Primary Newsletter | Issue 08| January 14 2011

Events

CPC Run 2011

Dear parents,Once again we are getting ready for the City-Pier-City (CPC) Run.This is a famous half Marathon organised every year in The Hague and they also organise shorter distances races for amateurs and for children. For more info on how to register see our website: http://www.ishthehague.nl/content/cpc-run-2011-registration-form

The ISH Ladies netball club

starts again on Thursday 20th January. We play every Thursday from 7.30 – 9.00 p.m in the school gyms. If you have never played netball but want to give it a try then please come along OR maybe you used to play at school and would like to try again ! Whatever your level or age you are very welcome !For more information please contact a.scott@ishthehague.nl

Greening the ISH

Green Space: The plans for the green space at the front of the school are progressing well. A contractor has been hired to come and lay the ground work over the winter months. The idea is that the landscaping will be completed in time for Green Week (30th May to 2nd June inclusive), when the children will be able to make their own contribution by planting seeds, etc. Recycling bins: We are proud to announce the arrival of recycling bins, which are coming this month. There will be 4 bins, for each of the following: paper, plastics, organic (compost) and non-organic (metals).

ISH AFTER-SCHOOL ACTIVITIES

UPDATE 2011

Second Session: SPRING

Our After School Activities

Program will commence on

Monday, 7th March immediately

after the Spring mid-term break

and is open to all children from

Year 1 to Year 6.

The Activity Schedule and

registration form will come

home on Tuesday, 1st February

with registrations closing on

Friday, 4th February.

LOOK OUT FOR IT……..

After School Mother Tongue

classes will start next week

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Events

ISH-Factor

The Upper School’s Mother Tongue topic ‘ISH-Factor’ was a great success! All the children worked really hard on their items and the teachers had a gruelling job in choosing a winning performance from each Mother Tongue class. In some classes there was a joint 1st place awarded. A great big thank you to all the children who participated… you should all be commended for your effort and hard work!

The fi nal stage of The ‘ISH-Factor’, the grand fi nale, went off really well! There were 15 different items to the variety show – from a play, an instrumental, a duet to a few singing, dancing items! There were many parents who were able to make it to the fi nal… thank you, parents! We appreciate your care and enthusiasm!

We were delighted to have 3 smashing celebrity guests as our panel of judges… Mrs Lucy Capon, Mrs Monique Rubin and the ever famous Ms Cheryl Cole, who fl ew in all the way from Newcastle especially for the ‘ISH-Factor’ grand fi nale! The judges had a tough job on their hands… deciding who would be our very fi rst ‘ISH-Factor’ winner!

In third place, was the group (Cedric Degrave, Arno Lismont, Jesse Janssen & Maya Peeters) singing the Flemish song “ Ik heb de zon zien zakken in de zee” and in second place was the group (Niclas Muller-Hof, Jan-Erik Ruppert, Philip Muller-Hof, Marius Kielhofer, Ivar Iverus, Layi Eicker & Jan Kruijsse) singing the Austrian song “Weil Der Mensch Zëhlt”. The title of the very fi rst

‘ISH-Factor’ winner went to Hector Ha, who did a solo Korean Tai-kwondo Dance!We look forward to seeing some great photos of this fun event… keep checking the website!Also, check http://web.mac.com/christel.vanmeeuwen/ISH

Kind Regards,Shelley Gardella Year 4 – 6 Mother Tongue Coordinator 2010-2011

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Primary Newsletter | Issue 08| January 14 2011

Year 6 Work

Flashback

I was lying down on my grandparents’ dark red sofa. My head was resting on an old fl ower patterned cushion. The smell of the food my grandmother was cooking slowly crept to my nose like a lion to its prey and fi lled it with the sent of fresh home-made tomato soup that remembered me of the alliance of the heat and freshness of the south of France. The sunlight fl ooded through the window and refl ected on the metal beads of the leather armchair next to me like hundreds of little suns. I was really tired so, I put my head on the arm of the sofa and gazed at the small marble cupboard next to me its lines spiraling on the marble plates. That propelled me back to the time when my great-grandfather had shown me his pipe collection…A that time I think my great-grandfather was 95. I had found a golden key on top of this cupboard. And what do you do when you fi nd a key on top of a cupboard? You turn it in the lock of course!! So I opened it. My great-grandfather came to me and explained to me what I saw in there. I saw a multitude of pipes. One golden, another in the shape of a duck and one in varnished wood. I don’t remember all of the pipes but only those. I was amazed when he told me that he once used to smoke but had stopped smoking when doctors told him it was dangerous (which I found amazing

because I thought it was impossible to stop smoking). After this I remembered when he had died...I woke up and sat right up, startled. I had a hungry feeling in my stomach; you know that kind of contraction you get when you’re hungry. My family was now eating dessert and the light of the sun was like a hot blanket on my skin. Then I remembered when I had had the same feeling along time ago, but not in a galaxy far, far away, and just in the south of France…I was hungry (yep, once again). My grandpa and my parents (and me of course) where walking to a restaurant. I had taken a raspberry fl avored water bottle and a pizza. The cashier gave me a kite. After this we went to my grandpa’s house (unfortunately I don’t remember details of the house) which was next to a model shop (so when we came to see him he would give us a toy car or a model). This day he gave me and my brother a Diorama (an already made model of a car inside a plastic case. This was the last thing he gave us. My parents decided it was too fragile for me to keep so they kept it until a few months ago when they discovered it in a hidden box (remember I was small at that time). Then there was an earthquake. No, wait a minute, there isn’t any earthquakes in the city my grandpa lived in! Somebody was shaking me!

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Year 6 Work

My mother was shaking me. I looked at the clock. It was 2:30 pm! I had the appetite of a bear (for that I was very lucky because my grandmother cooks hum, let’s say a lot!) And was still on the red sofa! My brother was outside in the garden. I went to eat.Written by Malo

Remembering my Ancestors

I am in our car returning home from a holiday in France. I am playing on my Nintendo but I can barely hear it because of the sound of the cars motor going at 100 km per hour and the constant sound of the windscreen wipers swishing across the windscreen. After a while my mom says to me:“Get of that Nintendo Marta you’re playing three hours already!” I groan as I switch it of. I am bored I have fi nished reading all my library books. I try to play a word game in my head it is much more fun with more people. I try to focus more on my surroundings. The inside of our car is quite comfortable I must say, it is a bit squashed especially with all the extra things we bought; jam; honey; cookies; you name it. I am still bored I look out of the window, its still pouring. Then as if by magic, it suddenly stopped, I look again. I could only see a vast cemetery that stretched out for what seemed like eternity, I tried to remember my dead ancestors, the only one I could think of was my grandpa Tolik. I thought of all the fun we had together. It was at that moment that I found out that I had shrunk, my hair no longer in a plait but in two short pigtails and a fringe…I am now standing in front of my grandma’s house. It smells beautiful like all the fl owers blooming at once. Suddenly my grandpa appear he grabs me under my armpits I shriek, he lifts me up and twirls me all around until I scream with excitement and joyfulness “So that’s where you’ve been hiding you cheeky girl!” he bellows “I’ve been looking for you everywhere! Come on let’s blow up the paddling pool.” The

next hour while we were waiting for the water to heat up was fi lled with fun. See sawing together; feeding the rabbits and the chickens; cycling; and then jumping into the pool and getting my hair and sunhat soaked; then while drying picking strawberries from the garden. Surprisingly no one showed up so we were alone for ages. I wanted it to go on forever but then somebody was shaking me awake and gently whispering“Marta wake up were at the service station”Half an hour later…“ Mmmm those spare ribs sure were delicious,” I declared licking my lips clean of sauce as I got back into the car. After a while of playing zero zero seven with my brother I looked out of the window and saw a small old fashioned village house exactly like my great grandmas outside kitchen and all. That reminded me of the last time I saw my great gran. Just then I realized that we were actually in that house and for some strange reason it was summer.We were all sitting at the dining table with our cousins and grandma and all. Then my great gran comes in with a plate piled high with pancakes.“Help yourselves my dears help yourselves.” We all tuck in. After dinner we get sent outside to play with our cousins, both of them younger than me. First of all we went to explore the kitchen, there we found a bucket containing oats; corn; barley; etc. to say the least it was chicken feed. We each took a handful then went outside and scattered it to the chickens and watched them peck at it. We decided that that was enough after all we didn’t want the chickens to get too fat. Then we went to the vegetable/fruit garden, we were meant to latch the gate but one of us obviously forgot because after a while we noticed that the chickens were all over the place! When we fi nally got them all out of the garden we leaned against the gate and sighed ”phew” then I noticed the well in a corner of the garden.“Hey!” I cried out “Come here!” they all came “Lets check it out!”

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Primary Newsletter | Issue 08| January 14 2011

Year 6 Work

“But we’re not allowed!” my cousin said horrifi ed. I didn’t remember what came next because the next thing I know is that I’m back in the car bored. My brother is wailing his head of. Everything was back to normal and still halfway to go! This was going to be a long night and I was not looking forward to it.Written by Marta

GRANNY ATTACK

I was in my lovely bedroom lying on my pink bed because I gave up doing my super hard addition math homework (how should I know what 153268 + 89321659 equals?) on my brown wooden desk which looked as though it has come straight from the tree and they had just stuck four legs on to fi nish it. Next to the desk is my dollhouse which is blue like a sky with no clouds in sight; furthermore it has seven white wooden windows with some fake glasses that act as being the windows. On the grey stony roof there are some warm cosy chimneys that bring out lovely, fi ery smoke when I am not there. My room smells like trees blooming. When I go out on my balcony I hear people chattering but you can also hear birds twittering around. When I walk around my room my old-fashioned gigantic wardrobe starts creaking until I stop, then there is a scary, freaky silence that surrounds the room until on the other side there is some noise from my brothers room. Meanwhile my mum is cooking the most delicious diner downstairs while waiting for my dad to fi nally arrive on time for dinner. And

this is the routine of my family. Well, I was looking through my admirable balcony when I saw a caring mother loving her baby when without warning I found myself in a place that I had seen before…I found myself in the exciting station of Sevilla with all my family. There were lots of people, which means lots of noise.“Violeta, ha llegado el tren!!”My grandma exclaimed. Then all my cousins picked the huge poster and waited… On the poster it said in big blobby letters “WELCOME TO THE FAMILY NATALIA!!!” but it was written in Spanish. The station has a very modern appearance; it has a clock that moves gently throughout the day. Lots of trains were passing by but I could never see the day when the right one stopped and let out all there prisoners that are willing to escape. At 12:33 in the morning a train fi nally stopped and fi rstly we saw lots of people crowded, as the crowd started to smooth out we noticed that they weren’t there until we saw the fi rst two wheels of a buggy, subsequently we saw cute little feet, as the buggy moved forward we saw it all, but we still had to wait a second longer for them to go up the escalators.We all looked at her and gave her presents, but the fi rst thing I did was to give an emotional hug to my aunt and uncle, I felt wonderful being with my whole family once again, then I stepped forward to my cousin when suddenly my face lid up with love, I felt deep inside that I’ve known her for my whole

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Year 6 Work

life. I looked at her and smiled then she looked at me straight in the eyes and gave me an innocent smile back to me. In the same way as me everyone crowded around her and squashed our non-verbal eye-to-eye communication. Then while the crowd was pushing me back when I heard my mum yelling,“Violeta! Vete a ducharte que te lo he dicho mil veces!!!!”Thanks to my mum I landed from this long journey back in time.Above all I saw my huge pile of homework and i thought to myself“Mr McCarthy won’t mind if I don’t do my homework today…” So as my mum told me, I went to the shower and as the water drizzeled I thought “What a pity that grandpa wasn’t there to see this splendid event.” And I thought and thought when subsequently I was in my house in Spain heading towards the hospital.“Mum, I’m going to get him a present!!” I said cheerfully, meanwhile my head bend down and I saw a little branch, just a branch with little sticks sticking out, and on the sticks there were microscopic leaves, they were green and they were already starting to get suntanned by the bright sun of autumn. I picked it up and held it in my hand as if it was a precious rock, as I stared at it I thought “This is the perfect present for him!”“Violeta, Lets go!” my mum mentioned. And so we hopped in the car. A few minutes later we were parking, while I was curiously looking around I saw at least 10 ambulances parked together ready for any emergency. At last we were in the room. I saw my grandpa lying down on the bed. Then my grandpa looked back at me and I realised that he was trying to tell me to sit down on the pale, depressing bed, instantly I stretched out the branch, he gave me a really strong smile, he held my hand tightly and took the branch, just then he dipped it in a glass of water while holding my hand, he looked at me deep in my eyes and gave me a kiss. Just at that instance, while he was backing away from me when without warning I heard a noise, it was

my mother shouting quite crossly “Violeta!!!! You’ve been in the shower for AGES!!!!”“ Sorry mummy! I didn’t notice, its like if I have been in another land…” I replied.As the water stopped drizzling on me, I went back to my lovely room, furthermore I headed towards my balcony and stared at trees dancing with the wind and at the birds starting to hibernate as the people chattered while the cars were passing by, but that is only the background scene, actually what is stared at was at a grandpa kissing there granddaughter and I thought wisely “Some people might say that, that kiss was the last kiss he gave to anyone but he gives me a good night kiss every night.”

Written by Violeta

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