 Dear Parents, One of the things I look forward to everyday is talking with students. It may sound surprising to you but everyday, I often have a group of children who want to action something in the school. Ideas from the students have ranged from improving our relationships when we play football, starting an Earth Club, starting a writing club, Student Council events, making our recess time more enjoyable, clothes collection for disadvantaged children, Shoe Box Drive for a local orphanage, and many, many more. We really encourage our students to take action and to follow through with an idea they may have. So please have a chat with your child about anything they might be involved with outside the classroom. A group of students are organising a second clothing drive, this time for summer clothes and have asked me to put it on the blog. 
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Dear Parents, Friends and Families,
Happy New Year!! Welcome to 2020, I hope you all had a relaxing break and enjoyed spending time with your little ones. I am hoping that most of you have read the recent school announcement sent by our Head of School, Mr Steve: Message from Head of School Dear parents, Happy New Year, and welcome back to the second half of our academic year! In my travels around the school today, it was very clear that our students are happy to be back in school with their friends and their teachers, back to the business of learning. I would like to announce, with great pleasure, that on December 30, we received word from the International Baccalaureate Organization that our application for PYP authorization was approved. Therefore, the OIS - JVLR Campus is now officially an IB World School authorized for the Primary Years Program!This is an achievement that all of us can take pride in, as we all have had a role in bringing it to fruition. In particular, the Primary School faculty, led by Lisa, Nicola and Kristen, have made all of this possible through their hard work over the last 2+ years. I am also grateful to our parents for supporting us and trusting us throughout this process. Particularly for those parents who were with us on that very first day of school back in August 2017, I hope you are feeling especially proud of your decision to join us at the very beginning of our journey. Finally, I must acknowledge our students; their eagerness to learn, their curiosity, their sense of wonder energizes us on a daily basis. Many thanks to you all for this fantastic accomplishment! Best wishes, Stephen Augeri We are very happy to finally have the stamp of approval from the IB to give us confirmation that we are doing exactly what we should be doing in terms of being in line with the IB Standards and Practices. Also many thanks to our group of parents who helped with this process. Dates for diaries: Wednesday, 22nd January: Celebrating Republic Day Monday 27th January: PD Day - non student day Wednesday, 12th February: IB PYP Maths in EY Presentation Monday, 2nd March: EY PSPE Showcase Thursday, 5th March: SLCs Tuesday, 10th March: Holi 14th-22nd March: Spring break Wednesday 25th March: Gudi Padwa Friday 10th April: Good Friday Thursday 23rd April: World Book Day/Primary Book Club 29th and 30th April: Musical Production Friday 1st May: Maharastra Day Wednesday 27th May: PYP Exhibition Thursday 4th June: Moving up Ceremony for Grade 5 Wednesday 10th June: Last half day for students  A group of primary students, grades 3-5 finished off a month of writing in November and produced some fun stories and novels. Nanowriting is an international writing event every November where young people and adults all over the world set a writing target and try to meet up. Our JVLR young writers, from grades 3-5 set word count targets anywhere from 700 words to 12,000 words and met their goals.
Every lunch time, students came in to write and plan. Students then typed up their stories at home on the Nanowrimo site. Congratulations young authors! The stories have been published and in the hands of our young writers now. Many are inspired to keep writing and there's talk of more writing clubs to come.  PYP Exhibition: The Process Parents’ Report Exhibition is the culminating, collaborative experience in the final year of the PYP. It is a process that gives students a chance to explore, document and share understanding of an issue/opportunity that is personally important On November 28, 2019, a group of grade 5 students shared with their parents how they organize and document their learning. This was the first in a series of student sharing as part of the IBPYP Exhibition process. Naisha, Sumukhi, Advita, Navya, Hrehaan, Amay, Ria, Aravh, Nivaan, Reya, Neil, Vedant, Kareena and Veer discussed Seesaw, Google Docs and slides and iTunes U. They explained to their parents how each of these applications helped them collaborate, organize and share their learning with their peers, teachers and parents. Here’s what parents had to say about the different applications that students use.
Here’s what parents had to say about why they share their learning using different technologies:
Here’s what parents had to say about how this will help students in the future.
Appreciation from the parents:
Great job on the first in our PYP Exhibition series. These students took the risk to be the first ones to present their learning to parents and can now help the other groups going through the process. Congratulations! 
Dear Parents,
Many of you know that this Wednesday and Thursday, we will be going through our PYP Verification Visit 2019 at JVLR! Many people have worked incredibly hard to make this visit happen. A big shout out to Kristen for leading the school to this point so far! A thank you to our parents who are part of the visit and have worked alongside Kristen since the application for PYP; a thank you to our students who will show the visitors around and give them a very truthful perspective of our school. A huge thank you in advance to our teachers, who work tirelessly to make the best possible education for our students! Please find shared an general idea of what is expected of our school. Thanks, Miss Lisa  On Tuesday, October 15, we welcomed our Nursery and JKG parents to OISJVLR for some information about the early years at JVLR and then a chance to play. We discussed the major elements of the early years PYP programme: relationships, learning environments, symbolic exploration and expression and play. Parents had an opportunity to learn more about the early years and their child's learning. The session followed by classroom play with children. Parents were building blocks with their kids; they were messing around with paints, playing jump rope, singing and dancing. A lot of laughter and a lot of silliness by all. When parents were asked what was surprising or inspiring, they said over and over again that they enjoyed the creativity, the enthusiasm, how children explored, listened, constructed, organized, made connections. See the photos below for some insights into the early years curriculum morning. To see the slideshow and investigate some of the great resources on play, please see the Parent Workshops in the right hand column.  "Language wraps itself around, in through and between everything that we teachers and learners do in the classroom." (Ritchhart 2002:141 Language and learning in the IB programmes-September 2011)
In our school, we want to nurture lifelong learners who can apply English but also other languages at increasingly complex levels. English is our medium, but students have the opportunity to take Hindi, starting in grade 1 and then follow up with Spanish and French, starting in grade 3. When students move into middle school, they focus on an additional language and then carry this with them throughout their secondary years. Why different languages? Language is important in all learning and provides the support for inquiry and the way that children construct meaning. The IB and OIS want to ensure that students are competent in a language so they can think critically, collaborate with others and make sense of the world around them. In IB programmes, students at the age of 7 have the opportunity to learn in more than one language. International mindedness is the overarching goal of all for all of our learning community. "We aim to create responsible, global citizens who show understanding, compassion and acceptance of the differences in the world. " Across all of the curriculum at OIS, students will be immersed in language. From our youngest learners to our grade 5 students, students are learning the language of skills, of learning attributes and specific academic language. In PSPE, they are learning how to communicate as individuals and teams. They are learning the language of specific sports as well. In music, they are communicating about tempo and rhythm but also about practicing the language of risk-taking. In Visual Arts, they are learning about perspective, about design, artistic elements. All is language. In the early years, we think about the 100 languages of the child. Language underpins everything we do. For more information about language at OIS, please see our school Language Policy. https://bit.ly/2VxzuAt Parent questions from ‘Parents New to PYP Session and New Admissions’
Where are the unit links for Grade levels? Please ask your child’s homeroom teacher for any links you feel you are missing; they will be able to point you in the right direction. How are the subjects like Mathematics interwoven in these units of inquiry, that predominantly feel more open ended? The IB tell us that wherever possible Mathematics should be taught through relevant and realistic units of inquiry that are directly taken from the schools Programme of Inquiry (POI). Sometimes, students need a series of strategies for learning mathematical skills in order to progress in their mathematical understanding rather than struggling to proceed, and these are taught directly. Assessment Assessment is part of our Action Plan for this Academic year. During the course of the year, we will share with the learning community many different aspects of assessment such as: How we can assess without grades Different ways of assessing Our Assessment Policy Schedule The reason behind the 8 day cycle is quite simply to avoid students missing the same subjects, should there be school holidays. Curriculum With regards to curriculum, rigour and content knowledge and learning outcomes for specific subject, we will share these at our next PYP Parent Meeting. Through Seesaw, please get a glimpse into the curriculum. Also, unit letters at the beginning of each unit will share learning outcomes for each subject in the unit, including single subjects. Furthermore, parent workshops will take place throughout the year. For example, there will also be a maths workshop nearing the end of Semester 1. Curriculum presentations will also be posted on the blog, if you are unable to attend the meetings. Differentiation Differentiation is a vast concept to explore. Parents should be able to ask teachers how learning engagements are differentiated for their child and what does learning look like for your child. The Role of Parents Parents asked about their roles, and in particular, their role in the learning process. We do post a variety of articles, tips, hints and advice on our blogs and we will do so on a weekly basis. Every parent has their own approach to parenting; we can merely provide some tools for parents who wish to think differently about their role as a parent. We have room parents in Early Years and the PTA for Primary. Please reach out to these groups of people to see how you can help. We have also recently shared a ‘parent database’ so please add your area of expertise for us to contact you. If you ever want to know how you can help with a unit, please contact your child’s homeroom teacher. At the beginning of every unit, you will be shared a slide of resources you can use for discussion at home. Parents - please if you have any questions about your child’s understanding, knowledge, skills please make time with the homeroom teacher; don’t just leave it until conference time. iPads We have already run a boot-camp for parents on how we use the iPads in education for Grade 5. We will provide more digital webinars for parents to show exactly what this means for our Primary learners. We also have a session planned for our Early Years learners. Single Subjects Some parents asked about the role of sports (PSPE) and Music. We have recently posted on the blog an overview as to what we do with these subjects. If you wish to have a one-to-one parent conversation with a single subject teacher, they are available by appointment only and their email addresses can be found on the school blog. Thank you, If you have any other questions please forward them to your child's homeroom teacher. Miss Lisa Dear Parents,
Thank you to all those families who made time to come to school on Friday, 20th September for PTMs and 3Way Conferences. We were very pleased to have close to 100% attendance. Students were able to share their goals and their strengths with their loved ones and each one owned their own learning. Nearly all of our new students are very used to parents and teachers talking about them and the student having no-part in sharing their learning. 3Way Conferencing is a powerful platform allowing each student to take ownership and responsibility for their own learning. Almost immediately, one could see how empowered the students felt about informing the grown-ups about their learning. Well done to all our students! Parents make sure that you have access to the school app where you can easily find upcoming events. Stay tuned for ECA information. In the meantime please find below some dates for your diaries: Dates for Diaries September 26th and 27th: ISA testing Grades 3 and 5 October 1st: Camp presentation (3, 4 and 5) October 2nd: School closed October 7th: PD day II. Non-Student day October 11th: JVLR teachers sharing MM @ OGC October 23rd: Festival of Lights (Events committee) November 5th: Parent Book Club led by Lisa November 6th-8th: Grade 4 Camp November 13th-15th: Jennifer Abrams PD sessions for teachers November 18th: SKG Early Childhood development followed by SKG visit. Led by Lisa November 20th and 21st: PYP Verification visit November 22nd: PD Day III. Non-Student Day December 13th: Choir Festival December 16th-17th: Grade 3 camp January 29th-31st: Grade 5 camp Miss Lisa  During our PYP New Family Orientation, we had a few questions about the programme. One question that kept arising was how to engage in discussion with my child about what they are learning, if I don’t know what they are learning - how can I help?
Just to make it clear for new parents:
Yours sincerely, Miss Lisa Hughes |
Lisa Hughes
Primary Head
Nicola Holloway
Deputy Primary Head
KRISTEN BLUM
PYP CO-ORDINATOR
The Hive BlogSingle SubjectsIntroduction to the single subject teachersPSPEForeign LanguageHindiVisual Art
Music
DramaArchives
January 2020
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