Dear families,

We were very proud to see the contributions of our Grade 5 students for the PYPVirtualX and all their evidence gathered can be viewed on their PYPExhibition site.  If you haven't had a chance please add to their padlet and leave a comment:

sites.google.com/oberoi-is.org/pypx-oisjvlr/home

We are approaching the end of school, a year unlike any other and a year where the final 11 weeks have truly shown the resilience of our young learners, supported by their families.
           
In This Last Week:                

June 01                                                         

• Learning tasks for Monday and Tuesday can be accessed on Seesaw
• Celebration Day for Grade 5

            
June 02

• Class celebrations                  

June 03

• Class celebrations

June 04

• Reports available on Managebac
• Transition videos sent to families
• 12:00 School finished for children

Along with our entire primary school community, I would like to extend our thanks to the members of the Primary Student Council who have helped to Take Care Tuesdays and a virtual round of applause for our Grade 5 teachers and students for doing such a great job with our first Virtual PYPX.
                                    
Staff Farewells            
This week, as a faculty we will celebrate the year that was and look toward what the new academic year will bring. We will sadly say goodbye to Ms Kristen and Ms Suprabha, who have been valuable members of our team, we wish them all the best for the future.  Although we are saying goodbye to two members of staff, we are happy to report that all our current staff will be returning in the next academic year; which is great to have some stability in a time of uncertainty. 
We will only have a handful of new teachers join our JVLR family; a new PE teacher, A new French teacher, two new Hindi teachers.  We will also welcome a new PYP Coordinator; Archana Gera.

End of Year Reports                            
End of Year reports will look different this year and will serve to supplement the discussion had during the ‘virtual’ 3-Way Conference. The school has reported on the units covered before ‘learning from home’ began, whilst for the second half of the semester teachers have written a narrative of the work uncovered. The Faculty are in the process of completing their End of Year Reports; these will be uploaded on Thursday when they will be available for you to access online. You will receive a message from the School when they are ready.
                                
Please note: Families leaving OIS this year will need to download their child's report cards ​as the portal will be closed to you after the close of school on Thursday.
                                
Summer Break Pack                                
A number of parents have requested activities and tasks for their children over the holiday period. In response we have developed a list of websites, online learning suggestions, links to virtual field trips and we have provided usernames and passwords for some of the sites we use and that the children are familiar with. Some of the sites and suggestions are grade specific and others may be of interest over a wider age group. A link to these resources will be sent later in the week. Parents also requested continued access to ‘Seesaw’ and this we have done. Access, just like you have had, will remain open where you can revisit learning tasks, and links should you wish too. You will not be able to however, upload to Seesaw for teacher comments.

To those children and families leaving Oberoi International School on Thursday, I wish you well for the new opportunities you have ahead of you. To those families returning, I look forward to welcoming you and your children back in August.

Kindest regards and happy holidays Stay safe and stay well,
​
Miss Lisa

Dear parents, friends and families,

We are recognising that the longer we are at home there are things that we are missing, and this is true for all of us, parents, teachers, students, non-teaching staff  and leadership alike, we are all having to rethink what is important in our lives what do we truly need as opposed to what we want.  This can only be good a good thing as we think about 'essential' items in our lives.  More families are recycling, upcycling, reducing and reusing; we are starting to realise that it makes sense to be mindful of our resources, which can only be a good thing.  

We know that our teachers and their co-teachers are extremely busy every day.  Our teachers are not only researching and posting weekly assignments but they meet with other, in their Grade levels on a daily basis.  Collaboration between teachers has always been evident in our school but now teachers are telling me that their meetings are much more effective and efficient.  Our teachers are also giving feedback to students individually on a day to day basis, they have meetings with the PYP Coordinator once a week, they have been involved in Virtual Care Calls and will be involved in 3WayConferences, report writing and 'live-teaching sessions.'  Some Grade levels have initiated 'new' systems in their Grade levels, from Nursery using a Green screen to go on a field trip to the bus depo to grade 3 virtual cafe sessions, to Grade 5 students taking part in our first PYPVirtualX and playing the part of panelists with a group of adult experts.  
Our Single Subject teachers are launching live sessions this week and have also been busy with meetings.  The Drama and music team are putting something together for the Early Years and for our Grade 5 students.  There is so much happening in these last few weeks.
Our parents have also been undoubtedly busy teaching, trying to run households, shopping, cooking, looking after family member, cleaning (which my friends in the UK find quite amusing that we are missing our house help) and some parents are working themselves.  It is safe to say that this pandemic has made us even more busy than before!
 
The Pedagogical Leadership team have been busy too, as you know Ms Nik and Ms Kristen are working from different countries and both of them are parents.  As a leadership team, we have tried to be as involved as we can and not just problem solving or holding the fort.
The leadership team have daily meetings with teachers, we are involved in senior leadership meetings, we are also researching about the possibilities for next year and taking part in many webinars to find out international perspective of schools.  I continue to look at all the regular, normal school happenings at this time of year; staff appraisals, staff allocations for next year, orders and meetings with the Senior Leadership Team.
On a student level, I meet with Grade 4 students once a week for a check in, to see how they are doing and to implement some of their ideas to make learning better for them.  I am also leading and guiding a PYPX group, which I am very excited about; we are investigating the topic of well-being.  I will also join the Early Years live-singalong sessions, which I can't wait for!  I meet regularly with our Primary Student Council to discuss 'Take Care Tuesdays' and a culminating week of celebrations, which we are hoping to focus on appreciation for our teachers.  The Leadership team have also set up a 'readaloud' channel, giving children some time to watch people they know, listen to stories they may not know.

Ms. Kristen has been busy too, here's what Ms Kristen has to say.......
"I've been busy helping to make sure that things are running smoothly for OIS JVLR Distant Learning. This means meeting with teachers of homeroom teams to ensure that education is happening in the best way possible and that it's as aligned with the PYP framework as possible. We are working together to provide students with engaging learning experiences that help them build skills and learning dispositions and gain content knowledge. I continue to coordinate planning, reports, conferences and critical feedback and make sure that documents are in order. In addition, I've been helping get our first PYP Exhibition for grade 5 running smoothly. We've quickly had to transition to a virtual Exhibition, and I've helped put together organization, timeline, information videos and am mentoring a group of grade 5 students several times a week. The students and I have had fun meeting and discussing the current situation and finding some positive ways to help out. 
And I've enjoyed doing read alouds--on videos--for OISJVLR students and receiving feedback from them on how they've enjoyed the read alouds. Next up is some poetry!
The time difference has been challenging (I'm in the US) but talking with the kids, teachers, Ms Lisa and Ms Nik and keeping OISJVLR running smoothly has been a great joy during this time."

And Ms Nik......"My role has changed a lot since we left the building and it is continually adapting. It is keeping me on my toes. I am in the UK at the moment so I get up really early to have meetings at Mumbai time. I am working a lot with our single subject team who have been trying to plan live sessions, fun tasks and interactive learning. I am spending a lot of time on Google Meet in virtual meetings with teams and individuals. In the last few weeks I have been working with the Grade 5 students, I have 4 meetings a week with my PYPx groups; they are researching how Coronovirus has changed technology and the environment. I have also joined in Morning Meetings and live lessons with different classes. We are still looking towards the future and I am having online interactions with families who are in Mumbai and around the world, that would like to join our school. The pedagogical leaders in the school are still working behind the scenes working out how the school will run and how we will move forwards. I am also talking with the Secondary Leadership Team to plan for a smooth transition for Grade 5 going to Grade 6. I’m not sure how I will need to adapt over the next few weeks as we approach the end of the school year, but I am ready for the challenge."

...and breathe...

Thank you for your continued support,

​Miss Lisa

Dear Parents,

Don't forget parents, you can access readalouds from our teachers @ www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdLwM_sksrZjsCjWDtNYWhZNPAwfPNobq.

On Wednesday 20th May and Friday 22nd May we will organise 3WayConferences.  We recognise that parents have played a vital role in ensuring their child is learning at home and we value our parents' contribution to these conferences.
We are asking all parents to prepare one positive statement about the learner profile/ATL to share with the students/teachers at the conference.  We will give parents a template to help guide students through a conversation about their child's learning.  We ask that you return this template before the actual 3WayConference. 

Please read carefully below.
Form:  Three way conferences involve parents, students and a teacher.

Function:  On Monday 11th May parents will be given a template of how you can best prepare, this will involve parents having a conversation with their children about learning at home.
Parents are requested to return the form to their child's homeroom teacher or Point of contact teacher on Friday 15th May.  We require all parents to do this, so that the teacher can have time to plan the conference using your observations and your child’s perspective before the conference call.

Responsibility
Parents please use the template as a guide to talk to your child about their learning.  Parents can sign up for a 20 minute slot which teachers will share with you.  Teachers will call you at your assigned time via Google Meet, so please make sure you have the App downloaded.

These conference calls will be different from the VCC and will focus on skills, concepts, knowledge and action. So please encourage your child to think about what they have learnt, using the template provided.

Yours Sincerely, 
Miss Lisa Hughes