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Dear Parents, Friends and Families, It is nearly that time of year again, when we say goodbye to some students moving on and congratulations to students moving up. Let's not forget that this is only our second year at JVLR. There have been many differences compared to the first year and we have continued to enhance the programme for all our learners. One of most positive impacts I have seen has been the creation of our primary student council. A group of enthusiastic students who have taken the charge in leading student agency. They asked me if they could have a student council room so they could have meetings and when I attended one of these meetings, I noticed on the window that they had each written the name of a student council member with a strength, talent and skill that someone else thought they brought to the council. This is what being part of an 'internationally-minded' community looks like. Last week, we held our Moving Up Ceremony for our Grade 5 students, as I said in my speech, I am very proud of this group of students who I strongly believe will go on to be change makers.
On another note, please make sure that you are reading any emails from your child's HRT, there is a lot happening in the last few days and we want you to be well informed. We will end the year with class parties, so be sure to reach out to your child's teacher and see how you can help. Many thanks for your continued support and happy holidays and safe travels, Lisa Hughes Head of Primary @JVLR Campus
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As the year quickly comes to a close, JVLR is creating a few opportunities to clean out items and give to others. 1. This Friday, May 17, JVLR will be hosting a book exchange. Think about books that you are no longer reading or books that your kids are finished with and bring them in. It will be like a yard sale (for those of you know about yard sales) but it's completely free. Bring a book, take a book. It's a great opportunity to get some great summer reads. Children's books, picture books, teen fiction, adult fiction, nonfiction. If you are finished with the books and think someone else can enjoy, please bring it in. 2. We are starting to collect school supplies for Goonj. Goonj is an Indian NGO that helps distribute materials to those in need. Last year, we also collected for Goonj at this time of year. They are collecting the following by end of May. Collection boxes are in the lobby.
 This past Tuesday, a group of Primary and Middle School parents met to discuss a book, The Self-Driven Child. The book, by William Stixrud and Ned Johnson, dives into brain science research, case studies and the importance of giving our kids freedom to make decisions...fail... and learn from them. Starting with a discussion around the false assumptions:
**There is increasing danger in the world We talked through several chapters about understanding the brain and decision making, stress, the struggle over homework and allowing our kids to make decisions. The parent group, ranging from nursery parents through grade 7, talked about their own struggles with giving kids freedom, but setting limits. These ideas stood out:
The book explain the reasons as to why we should let kids make decisions:
Dear Parents, Friends and Families,
Thank you very much for the support that you have given your child over the last few weeks. With our student-led Science Day, we had 193 students want to share their passion for the subject and with limited teacher guidance, the students chose to share many different examples of how science works. These events cannot happen with the organisation of teaching and non-teaching staff, which I would also like to thank. I can safely say, we have a lot of teachers who care for our students and want them to be learning things that they are passionate about with a balance of teacher support, facilitation and/or guidance. Our organisation of SLCs changed slightly due to some parent feedback from last year. This year, we had the grade 4 and 5 students choose the single subject teachers and show work that the students wanted to see, we had to encourage the students to be really proud of the work they were sharing with parents and not just sharing work that parents wanted to see or work that they thought parents would like. We are striving to empower our students and for them to be accountable for their own learning. This was a challenge for some of our students and an area for us to continue to develop. Parents also commented that they would like a longer amount of time for SLCs, which we can easily implement next year, we would also like to give all students the opportunity next year, not just Grade 4 and 5, to visit the single subject spaces, if the students choose to do so. SLCs are not an opportunity to for the teacher and parent to meet and it is for the individual child to share, not perform or work with in a group. It is a time when, as a parent, you listen to your child and what they know, what they understand and what they are able to do. We are rounding off this break, with our Early Years Spring Concert, and a Holi party for our staff. I would like to take this opportunity to wish all the teachers, students and parents a happy and restful break. Dates for Diaries: March 15th: Language acquisition presentation for Grade 5. 8:05-9:30 March 15th: EY Concert for parents. 8:30-9:30 March 28th: Grade 2 Student Sharing swimming to Grade 5 students April 11th: Grade 5 MYP Parent Presentation. 8:00-9:00 April 22nd: Earth Day - Digital Detox Day. A day without devices! April 26th: Transition Day for Grade 5 May 4th: Swim @ JVLR for selected swimmers in Primary May 17th: ECA Drama Production for Grades 3 -5 May 31st: Grade 5 Ceremony June 5th: Primary Concert Grades 1-5 Dear Parents, Friends and Families, On Thursday, March 7th, OIS JVLR will host Student-Led Conferences (SLC’s). This will be a non-student day. “Student-led conferences involve the student and the parents. The students are responsible for leading the conference, and also take responsibility for their learning by sharing the process with their parents. The conference involves the student discussing and reflecting upon samples of work that they have previously chosen to share with their parents. These samples have been previously selected with guidance and support from the teacher.” (Making the PYP happen: A curriculum framework for international primary education, 2009). Parents will be asked to sign up for a 20 minute slot via an appointment scheduler which will be shared just before the conferences. Students are expected to do all the talking and leading and the conference can be in a language of a child’s choice. Parents are encouraged to play the role of a listener and be led by their child. Throughout the session, parents are also encouraged to ask questions that will help the child be empowered and successful. Some guiding questions that can help could be:
Notice there are no specific questions about correcting spelling or grammar, as tempting as it is to correct a child’s piece of work this is not the purpose of SLC’s. Such conventions are noted by the homeroom teachers and are kept as a separate assessment record. At the end of the SLC, you will be asked to complete a reflection of what you understood from your child’s conference. The reflection may be designed by the student or given to you by the homeroom teacher. The homeroom teacher’s role is evident in the planning and preparation of the conference, a great deal of work has been done in preparing the students for this conference, however, on the day, the teacher is not available for an individual meeting with you. If you wish to create a time to meet with the teacher to discuss your reflections, this can be done at another time. The purpose of the conference is to empower the student. Miss Lisa Hughes Head of Primary @OISJVLR
Reading is power and power is reading. This year, reading has been happening: in groups, with teachers, individually. As we celebrate Read Aloud Month at JVLR, parents have been in to classrooms reading; there have been reading workshops for parents; students are carrying on with their guided reading sessions; different grades are reading to each other; students are dropping everything and reading at a certain time every day (DEAR time).
Our focus has been on reading comprehension or what students understand by their reading. With practice, students gain fluency, and with some guidance from teachers, they learn to decode, but what we really want from reading is the ability to think and learn and discuss. In our guided reading groups happening, students are learning the power of pausing as they read. As one student said to me the other day, "I love going slowly with books, and I like our discussions." Coming from a student who loves to race through books, it was wonderful to hear. We are focusing on slowing down and enjoying books. With parents, over the last two weeks, we have discussed read alouds and the research behind it. Thank you to all the parents who took the time to come in for the discussions. There is research behind the power of reading aloud. It opens up worlds for our children who can understand so much more when being read to. It gives us time to pause and bond with our children. Reading aloud is a chance to read and discuss different lives and emotions. Overall, reading with understanding allows us to experience empathy. I've uploaded presentations from the two read aloud sessions: one for early years and the other aimed toward primary parents. Take some time to look through the presentations. Come to the book exhibition happening on student-led conference day. And read to your children every day. 
Dear Parents,
This post is regarding an invitation to the parents from (Nursery to grade 8) for the OIS JVLR Science fair, which will be held in the lobby area ground floor. OIS JVLR students (Skg-Grade 5) have been researching for the last few weeks on experiments and science models which will be showcased for parent viewing on Friday,28th Feb 2019. Doors will be open from 9:30 to 11:30. Students as well as parents are welcome to come dressed up in scientist costumes to support our budding scientists. OIS Events Team Before the holidays, OIS JVLR had a consultant from the IB come through the school as part of our authorisation process for the IB. Throughout this past year, the primary school has been working toward authorisation for the IB Primary Years Programme. The process is an arduous one, designed to prepare the school, staff, community and student to practice and live the IB values and mission.
The consultant, Monita Sen, who came before the holidays, spent several days at the school observing, meeting with teams of parents, teachers, admin and students and trying to get an understanding of everyone's comfort with the IB. She looked through evidence of learning as well. We received feedback from Monita and she had a lot of good things to say about the direction of the school:
To help us improve, the report also mentioned that we need to do the following:
Over the next year, the school will be working on the assessment policy. We are analyzing assessment data, working in committees on understanding different types of assessment and helping the community to understand assessment at OIS JVLR. We look forward to rolling this out to you! Dear Parents, Friends and Families, Recently we have been discussing and questioning; what is learning at OIS? As a leadership team, we met with coordinators and had input from out teachers to collect different perspectives. We are still working on reviewing our definition and making sure that we all have 'buy-in.' Recently, I went through my personal collection of school photos. Every day I do a walkabout of the school to touch base with teachers, observe some lessons or even better, talk to the students. What I realised during my walks and following the discussion about learning, was that learning can take many different forms but at the centre is student engagement and interest, built around this is the role of the adults and how they facilitate or activate learning, build around the teacher, is the environment. How are the learners using their environment to learn? Here are some of the photos I think shows how we learn at OIS: As you can see, there are many different forms of teaching and learning.
At OIS we make sure to make learning:
I am guessing it was very different! Thank you for all your support, Miss Lisa Hughes Head of Primary @OISJVLR, #ois_primary Happy New Year! Throughout the year, the PE team has been hosting end of unit celebrations for the primary school and getting parents involved. During the first week back in 2019, the PE team hosted a Striking and Fielding celebrations on the turf, inviting parents in to participate. Students have been working hard on their ball handling skills and enjoying the game of kickball and cricket ball. Grades 3-5 had a great time with their parents this week--parents sometimes getting more excited and involved than their kids. Everyone had a great time. These celebrations are just one way we involve the parents at OIS JVLR. Next week, we begin with some technology workshops for parents. See below for some upcoming events. Thank you for your support as we head into the latter half of the school year. Kids are growing, changing, inquiring and super excited to be back in school. Jan. 15: Technology and wellbeing for early years parents (Nursery, JKG, SKG) Jan. 23: Happiness workshop with Ms. Tiffany (OIS school counselor) Feb. 5: Technology and wellbeing for primary parents (Grades 1-5) Feb. 21: International Family Tongue Day February/March: Reading workshops for parents ~Kristen, PYP Coordinator |
Lisa Hughes
Primary Head
KRISTEN BLUM
PYP CO-ORDINATOR
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April 2019
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