In this issue
Principal's Message
Dear Parents,
Many of you have now met our newest member of staff, Ms Gauri Dave. We were very pleased to welcome Ms Dave to the Grade 5 team to take the place of one of our new hires who, at the last minute, was unable to take up her position at YIS.
This week you have the opportunity to sign-up online for the Parent-Teacher conferences scheduled for 12 October. You should have received a detailed communication about how to arrange your interview schedule with your child’s teachers. We hope this will be a convenient, fair and consistent system through the Elementary, Middle and High school divisions.
 When you were celebrating Silver Week last week, the Elementary teachers were working on developing our skills as Math teachers. Our workshop leader was one of the original authors of the Math section of the IB Primary Years program, Ms Ellen Alquist. One of Ms Alquist’s key points with us was a distinction between Arithmetic and Math. Arithmetic is the foundation function that provides for Math to be applied in helping our students develop their understanding of the world. She also strongly emphasized the need to consolidate students’ conceptual understandings with the extended use of manipulatives and concrete materials.
Safety and Security
I have a few procedural requests for parents who are regularly at school. I am raising these concerns with the view to improving the safety of our children and smooth operation of the school:
1. Please cooperate with our school traffic wardens, most areas near the school are no parking areas and vehicles should not be left unattended at any time. Our traffic wardens are doing their jobs when they remind parents about these rules. We are trying to be good citizens and neighbours while trying to optimize the safety of our students and their families.
2. When you are entering or leaving the playground from the rear entrance in the afternoon please use the single door gate. Children who are being picked up by their parents, family friends or taxis wait at the big sliding gates and are then accompanied to their cars. For safety reasons, it would be appreciated if adults could use the single door gate, and leave this exit point for our “pick-up children”.
3. If you bring young children to school (toddlers or pre-schoolers), when you are dropping off or meeting your child, please supervise their movement and play. Do not leave them unattended.
Grade Placement Protocol
In some recent parent meetings there has been some discussion about how children are assigned to classes for the new school year and why notification of placement is made just prior to the commencement of the year. The ES Class Placement protocol is available for your perusal in the Parent Handbook. In a nutshell, we try to set up each class so the children will have some of their good friends, we try to balance gender, ability, English language ability and nationalities. These criteria are more fully explained in the Parent Handbook. The class lists are not finalized until just prior to the commencement of the new academic year. We often have new enrolments and some withdrawls during the summer vacation and do not have the final class composition until this time. Should you have any questions after you have read the protocols, please feel free to contact me.
Influenza
Please note that previously announced measures to help prevent the spread of influenza remain in effect. In particular, please encourage your children to practice good hand hygiene and do not send them to school if they are sick.
Also, weather forecasts are predicting that a typhoon may hit the Kanto area later this week. Please check the website for any updates.
 Just to finish this newsletter I would like to tell you about a recent event for some of our ES students. One of our Japanese language teachers, Ms Naoko Imada, organized a surf school for 15 lucky students. The children had a great time at the beach with their five surf instructors and Ms Imada, Mr Ise, Ms Saito and myself. All of the children are hopeful that similar opportunities will be offered in the future. It was wonderful to see our students become surfboard riders for the first time.
Yours sincerely,
Paul Neary
Elementary School Principal
Announcements and Upcoming Events
Library Looking for Parent Volunteers
The YIS Library would appreciate any parent volunteers who are able to come in for an hour or two each week to help with shelving, circulation and other tasks. Please contact Mr. Farrell, Head of Library and Information Services (farrellb@yis.ac.jp)
Do you have a tutor you can recommend?
We often get asked for advice about after-school tutoring for students, and we would like to compile a list based on parent recommendations. If your child has extra tutoring and you would like to recommend the tutor, please get in touch. It would help if you include details of the subject and grade level of tutoring offered.
Please e-mail details to Eddy Jones, Director of Student Support Services (jonese@yis.ac.jp).
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News
New Arrival
 Mr and Mrs Schoff are now proud parents of Harry and his new baby brother, Oscar Ray Schoff, born September 25th.. I am sure you will join us in wishing them well.
 YIS Student “Surprise Guest” at Tokyo Olympic Bid in Copenhagen
Those of you who happened to tune into the 2016 Olympics selection press conference from Copenhagen on October 2 may have been surprised to see the Japan delegation’s “surprise delegate” -- our own Resa Mishina (Grade 10) -- delivering a speech to the assembled dignitaries and millions watching the live broadcast around the world. Carried into the venue on the shoulders of hammer throw gold medalist Koji Murofushi and seated on the dais next to Prime Minister Hatoyama, Resa performed with great poise and gave an articulate and impassioned plea for the 2016 games to be held in Tokyo. Although the games were ultimately awarded to Rio de Janeiro, Resa did a fantastic job for which she, Japan and YIS can all be proud.
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