News 

November 19, 2009

Principal's Message

Dear Parents

YIS is a busy place with so much happening. I think the teachers mostly keep you up-to-date with what is happening with your children in the classroom. There are lots of valuable information on the class web pages and sent home as class newsletters.

As you know Mr and Ms Schoff will be leaving YIS during the Winter vacation. Mr Schoff has been appointed as Assistant Principal at a PYP school in Adelaide, Australia. Mr and Ms Schoff have been great colleagues at YIS and have been a very positive influence at the ELC and in the Elementary School. I am happy to be able to tell you a little about the teacher who will be replacing Mr Schoff. Ms Helen Keogh is an internationally experienced teacher coming to us from Australia. Ms Keogh has extensive training and experience in Early Childhood education. While she is currently working in Sydney Australia Ms Keogh formerly worked at the New International School in Thailand (NIST). We will be welcoming her on 6 January. Ms Mcilroy will work with Ms Keogh during her first week at YIS to help her get settled into life at YIS and Japan.

From the beginning of this academic year the staff have been preparing for our PYP evaluation visit. This is scheduled for early March 2010, with all of our documentation due to the regional IB office in Singapore by the time we close the school for the Winter break. The process for our evaluation is a major self-study where we rate our selves against a set of standards that applies to all PYP schools. The rating shows that we meet, exceed and do not meet the standards. If we do not meet the standard we have to have an operational plan for improvement. In March, representatives from the IB will visit the school for some days to see that our self-study has been accurate and fair, and that our development plan is suited to the school’s current situation. We are currently completing our considerations and ratings against the standards, which apply globally to all PYP schools.

I would like to thank those parents who have followed their children’s directions and my requests about exiting from the playground in the afternoon. We ask our pedestrian parents to use the small, single gate near the entrance near Gr 1 and Kindergarten classroom. This saves extra crowding when we are trying to get the “pick-up” children into their cars at the end of the day. This is a good opportunity to remind our parents that if you are picking up your ES child after school there is only one pick-up point and that is the sliding gate near the K and Gr 1 classroom. Your co-operation with the traffic wardens is appreciated.

“The pleasure of learning, knowing, and understanding is one of the first important feelings that children expect from the experiences that they confront individually, with other children, and with adults.” From ‘the Hundred Languages Exhibition’)

Student-Parent Interaction Days were held with much pleasure at the ELC during the week of October 19th following Parent-Teacher conferences. On these days, ELC parents and some grandparents spent part of the morning or the afternoon exploring the various spaces of the ELC together with their child/grandchild as their guide. Our intention for these days is that members of family can experience life at the ELC first hand, whether it be to model clay, role-play in the piazza, read books together, paint, or to build with various building materials, numerous experiences that the children participate in daily with their friends and teachers. It is our hope that the

Student-Parent Interaction Days may provide a meaningful opportunity for both the child and adult, to engage in many conversations at home about what is going on in school so that the daily experiences of ‘learning, knowing and understanding’ of the children may become shared experiences with the family to further strengthen the communication and relationship between home and school.

Finally, I have a request that parents do not send their children to arrive at school before 8:00am. YIS does not officially open for children before 8:00, we do not have any supervision scheduled until 8:10. So please plan for your children to arrive at school sometime between 8:10 and 8:20 am.

Yours sincerely,
Paul Neary
Elementary School Principal

 Announcements and Upcoming Events

Van der Poel Community Service Project

This year’s Van der Poel Community Service activities have been put to the test with the unfolding of unpredictable circumstances that threatened some of the usual Fall activities.

The first activity, scheduled on October 10, was nearly canceled after Typhoon Melor hit Japan two days before, resulting in the cancelation of school on that day. If there was some suspense until the day after the typhoon whether the activity could go on or not, this was not to count with the enthusiasm of our high school students who were eager to participate. Luckily, clear blue skies and dry weather afterwards made it possible to go “Potato Digging” in a soil that had dried up by then. This year, sixteen students from grades 9 to 12, accompanied by Mr. Hooker and Ms. Gadsby, travelled to Chigasaki to meet the children of Kodomonosono, one of the homes sponsored by the Yokohama International Women’s Club. The day began with the traditional digging of “satsumaimo”, sweet potatoes, in a nearby field and ended with games enjoyed by all.

The second activity, a trip to Disneyland with the children of Kofu Kodomoen, which was scheduled on October 24, had to be cancelled due to the flu outbreak at the home. Needless to say how disappointed our students were when they heard the news. We are now going to concentrate our efforts towards the annual Orphanage Christmas Party scheduled on Saturday December 5 in the YIS cafeteria. No doubt we will see again a huge interest on behalf of our students to strengthen the ties we have made with the two homes over the years. Over the next few weeks, the students will be busy preparing decorations, wrapping presents and of course they will help out on the day.

As part of our support towards the event, we are again this year launching our annual fundraising campaign to fill the stockings of the children. The starting date is Monday, November 16 and it will end on Friday, November 27. If you would like to contribute, please send any monetary donations through your child during those two weeks or they may be left directly in a collection box in the school office. We would like to thank the YIS community for responding generously each year to make this event a memorable one for those children and we look forward to keeping everyone updated on the success of this event.

With many thanks for your kind attention,

Steven Hooker, Sylvie Maeda
Van der Poel Community Project supervisors

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.

(Thanks to those of you who responded to this request in the last newsletter. Unfortunately, we did not hear from nearly enough people to make a list! If you know of good tutors, please get in touch!)

Please e-mail details to Eddy Jones, Director of Student Support Services (jonese@yis.ac.jp)

News

Elementary Cross Country Day 2009

The weather was beautiful and the students were full of energy and spirit for Cross Country day this year. Thanks to all of the parents who came and supported the event. All of the students deserve a big congratulations and here are some of the results from the day.

Team Competition ? Lowest Points Win

4th Place = 806 points ? Kita
3rd Place = 766 points ? Higashi
2nd Place = 727 points ? Minami
1st Place = 609 points ? Nishi

Individual Medal Winners

Yokohama International School
258 Yamate-cho, Naka-ku, Yokohama 231 0862 Japan
Tel: + 81 (0)45-622-0084
Email: yis@yis.ac.jp

Copyright (C) *2009 Yokohama International School*