Encouraging our students to think

Dear Parents, Friends and Families, 

As you know OIS believes in the values of the IB, and so offers the 3 programmes at OIS OGC and is currently seeking authorisation for IBPYP at JVLR. 
As part of this process for Verification we are expected to implement specific standards and practices.  One of the many elements of the the programme that I would like to bring to your attention is called the Essential Elements.  You can read the definitions below:

Through these essential elements we are ensuring that students receive a balance of approaches to learning.  As you can see our programme promotes 'knowledge,' but knowledge is only one component.  The element that we are currently working on is to developing skills with the students and in particular, developing their thinking skills.

As you can see the notion of thinking, according to the IB, is broken down into sub-strands and the skill of thinking needs to be explicitly taught, learned, assessed and modelled in an IB school.   At OIS, we promote the act of thinking by simply asking thoughtful questions to tour students, such as:

• What makes you say that?
• Why do you feel that way?
• How can we do this differently?
• How do you know?
• Do you think there is another perspective?

Some Grade 2 students showed evidence of their thinking skills when they were questioned by the Principal about their summative assessment.​

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Through careful questioning techniques you can encourage your child to think and reflect back on their day and help us focus on thinking skills at home. 
I think I have share this before but here is a link to some key questions you can ask at home to investigate how your child has spent their day:
www.huffingtonpost.com/liz-evans/25-ways-to-ask-your-kids-so-how-was-school-today-without-asking-them-so-how-was-school-today_b_5738338.html.

Dates for your diaries
We are coming to the end of our first AY @ JVLR and we have a lot to celebrate and some key events are also planned  in the next few weeks.  One of which will be 'Coffee mornings' will be held with Mr Steve.
SKG Parents: May 2nd, 8-9am
Grade 1:  May 3rd, 8-9am
Grade 2:  May 4th, 8am-9am
Grade 3 and 4:  May 8th, 8-9am
JKG: May 9th, 8-9am
Nursery:  May 10th, 8-9am

We will also be celebrating the end of the year and the opening of the Auditorium on June 1st - more details to follow.
Class parties for the end of year will be held on Tuesday June 5th.  Your child's homeroom teacher will contact you with more details.
Wednesday 6th June will be a half day for students.  All students finishing school at 11:30.

Parent Communication
Just to be clear to parents, for any notifications or communications, currently we use the following modes of communication:

• A school announcement is sent to all parents via Open Apply.
• Some key items/dates/information sessions and links are added to the school blog:  www.ois.org
• Homeroom teachers send reminders on a weekly basis
• Nursery send a weekly e-letter for parent reminders
• An activity calendar is set up on Managebac for parents to access

We are working on sending 'ping' reminders or SMS reminders to parents about upcoming activities.

Next AY, we would like to focus on Maths in the PYP and Writing as well as continued support for IT integration.  

Thank you,
​Lisa Hughes