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:

• The school is committed to IB learning, its philosophy, mission.
• Teachers, students and community understand the PYP and drive decisions based on it.
• The programme of inquiry drives learning and is accessible to the entire community. 
• Learning at OIS JVLR is transdisciplinary, and the timetable and planning allows for this.
• The school is committed to inquiry and constructivist learning.
• Collaboration is important at the school, and teachers, students and community make an effort to be collaborative in everything they do.
• Pedagogical leadership is shared.

To help us improve, the report also mentioned that we need to do the following:

• Work toward ensuring everyone understands and implements the language policy.
• Work toward sharing the assessment policy with the community so there is common understanding. 
• Ensure every teacher is certified in category 1 PYP training. 

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!
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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?
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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:

• Collaborative
• Independent
• Fun
• Challenging
• Authentic
• Inquiry-Driven
• Across subjects
• Creative
• Learning from our peers
• Learning from our environment
• Connected to prior experiences....and many more.

How did learning happen for you, when you were a child?
​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