Parent forum The Flu 151119

Back to School Forum

Many thanks to all of you who came to the Back to School forum it was great to see so many returning and new faces. As I mentioned at the meeting, for your information, please find the presentation below. If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to ask the teacher or contact me at junev@kis.ac.th   Next week we will share further information on Forums, workshops and other dates to remember.

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Parent Forum BTS 23819

Parent Forum Friday 17th May 

Dear Parents,

Many thanks to those of you who attended the Forum on Friday. Here is the Teaching Model for 2019-2020 as shared at the meeting. I will share the renovation and playground plans after they have been shared with the students on June 5th. If you have any questions please let me know. I will also share the end of year calendar early in the week after a couple of adjustments.

For the slide show of the Numicon workshop held by Ms. Jen on May 10th, please click here.

PRIMARY SCHOOL STAFFING MODEL 19-20 F

Parent Workshop, April 19th – Numicon

As promised here is the Slide shoe from the workshop. An Additional session will be organized to support grade level understanding – May 24th 8:00 AP room.

Numicon parent workshop

Thanks, June

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Student-Led Conferences May 20th, 2019

The signup sheets for SLCs can now be found outside the classroom, please book your appointment for this exciting conference on the 20th. If you have questions please check your class blog or talk to your child’s teacher.

Thanks, June

PS_SLC May 20th 2019

MAP Testing Spring 19

Dear Parents,

Please find the MAP schedule below. The testing schedule will take place between May 13-24 for G3-G5 students. If you would like further information please follow this link.

Schedule for MAP testing spring 19

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Yesterday’s wonderful interactions during mother tongue day provoked me to reflect on the value of multilingualism. Thank you so much to everyone who volunteered to make this a great cultural sharing day. Children really enjoyed the read alouds and stories that were shared, and it demonstrates the depth of resource that we have in our inclusive and caring community.

‘IB schools are committed to multilingualism as a means of affirming cultural identity and developing international-mindedness. The term “multilingualism” in the PYP refers to linguistic ability in more than one language, and recognizes that each of a student’s languages may be developed to different levels, and within different contexts, depending on their social and academic experiences.

In addition, multilingualism has cognitive benefits relating to:

• attention and focus

• problem-solving thinking skills

• thinking about language.

(Kessler, Quinn 1980; Zelasko, Antunez 2000)

Students who are multilingual:

• have an improved capacity to think, talk and reflect on how languages work
• become cognitively more flexible, creative and better at problem-solving.

‘Students who see and hear their own languages within the learning environment, and who are encouraged to actively make links to their prior linguistic experiences, connect more quickly to the community and their own learning’ (Cummins 2000).’

source From Principles to Practice: Learning and Teaching ibo.org

This article may give you more insights into the process

Children and languages

As parents of bilingual and multilingual children, it is important that you support home language development.

Children need to cognitively process and develop vocabulary in their home language.

This aids language development and academic progress. Have regular conversations that require cognitive processing about:

• concepts being learned at schools
• books, films, other cultural experiences
• travel
• leisure activities such as sports, arts and games

Unite for Literacy offers read alouds in languages such as Korean, Hindi, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic and multiple European languages, which can be useful to listen to while looking at the book, and then having discussions in the language using the vocabulary experienced.

 Additionally, teach rhymes and games in your home language, and listen to popular music. Involve children in preparing food, discussing the process and the tastes and smells. This will help your child develop language structure and vocabulary in their home language, which research shows us, impacts their ability to process in target instructional languages.

It is wonderful to see some of our children taking self directed action at home and creating resources to share in class using dual language.

Children need to read regularly in their home language as well as the target instructional language (in our case English)

Regular reading time, both independent and shared, is one of the most powerful ways of supporting language development. Some studies show that reading develops vocabulary up to 10 x as much as oral language exchange. Parent read aloud such as we had yesterday, and shared reading,

 It may feel challenging to source appropriate reading material, but there are a developing range of online resources which can help. Trilingual mama which is a great blog to follow, has collated a lot of ebook resources in this one post: online stories for children.

Our library at KIS would love to develop a stronger collection of books in different languages, so when your children outgrow books, consider donating them so that others may benefit. This is a wonderful sustainable action we can all take to expand understanding within our diverse community.

Have fun exploring and developing your multilingual skills with your children.  And I look forward to more cultural sharing throughout the year!

Kirsten Durward

PYP Coordinator

KIS

Dear Parents,

Many to those who attended the forum this morning, on the Agenda:

1. Air quality – see the notes below
2. Volunteer required for Parent/Teacher Communication Policy (Primary and Secondary Parents)
3. Chinese new year Lion dance this Thursday 7th – 12:40 please join if you can
4. Recruitment updates
5. Sports day will go ahead on the 13th, should cancellation be needed we will let you know the evening of the 12th

Air Quality Parent Forum Summary_4Feb19

please find the notes taken regarding AQI below.

School closure and Home Learning

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 Dear Parents,

Thank you for your emails and messages today regarding the air pollution levels, we realize they are quite high at the moment and concerning for our community. I would just like to take this opportunity, inform new,  and remind existing parents about our current Air Quality Index (AQI) Policy and procedures.

Last year we had our first bout of concerning pollution, at which point we worked with several other schools in Bangkok to develop a policy that would ensure the safety and well being of our students, and also provide some consistency in procedure in school across the city.  This policy was developed collaboratively, approved and put into practice. Along with the documentation and guidelines, we purchased four Air quality monitors which are placed strategically around the school so that our AQI readings are directly related to our campus. These monitors give us the AQI and PM2.5 levels.  Teachers and staff have access to live readings via the school server on their devices, throughout the day.  Before each break or outside activity, the index/data is checked and the appropriate protocol put in place. we are also in the process of purchasing a quantity of air purifiers for indoor use around the school.

Please be assured your child’s well being is our first priority, and we will continue to do all we can to ensure their environment whilst at school is as safe as possible. I have attached the policy for you to read, feel free to drop me a line at junev@kis.ac.th and let me know if you have any additional questions.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Warm regards,
June

Air Quality Policy

KIS Quality Learning Statement:

At KIS we believe that quality learning takes place through the delivery of a rigorous and dynamic international curriculum that develops the knowledge , skills and characteristics that will support students in the pursuit of  their goals and in becoming lifelong learners in an ever changing and diverse global community.

Quality Learning Behaviours:

• Striving for understanding
• Nurturing passion in self and others
• Taking Action ethically

CIS Statements presentation parents 2

 KNOWLEDGE: Striving for Understanding:

Our new “Year Long Unit of Inquiry, “Inspiring Individuals” provides the students with opportunities to find out how they learn best, by implementing new strategies, learning new skills, reflecting and understanding themselves as learners. They strive for understanding in each of their units and in the many disciplines and can use their toolkit of strategies and skills to make connections and support them in their learning and make connections.

Teachers have also been doing workshops to develop themselves and their understanding of the many strategies we use at KIS, and how they can support the students in becoming more independent in their learning by taking ownership and reflecting on their next steps of development.

In our parent workshop, Parents were striving for understanding and looking at their role in supporting their child as a learner. This was a great workshop with lots of ideas and understandings developing along the way.

INSPIRATION: Nurturing passion in self and others

We have had lots of opportunities this term to share our passions and encourage others to become involved. Our sports teams are involved in many inter-school activities and our Primary Dancers won both the Primary section and the Over All Dance categories at the “So you think you can dance” inter-school competition, really sharing their passions and talents with the greater school community.

Our young mathematicians have been taking part in inter-school math activities, and our young artists have been sharing their passion for beadwork with the support staff, parents, staff and each other. There have been some excellent pieces made by collaborating as a community.

SPIRIT: Taking ethical Action

We had some guest visitors who shared their talents and made us think about ways we can help. we had one of the rescue team from the Thai Cave disaster come to talk to us about his skills and how he helped with the rescue process. Our guest could not speak English, luckily we have some very talented bilingual students on hand to help us.

Creating a caring and inclusive community

As a part of our first unit and the KIS spirit, we have done many things to create and encourage community over the course of the first term. We have had several house days and assemblies, coffee meetings, forums and workshops providing and many opportunities for parents to join in the school activities.

Our Indian parent community shared their culture and celebrations with us, teaching us about Diwali by reading traditional stories in the Library,  by creating Rangoli patterns and designing Henna tattoos with the students.

The Thai department also shared one our Host country festivals, Loy Krathong. The students had fun creating their own Krathongs in class and then being able to take them home to float in the evening.

Text placeholder (2)Christmas tree reminderDiwali

Parent Forum BTS 3011

Dear Parents,

Many thanks to those of you who were able to attend our first Forum of the year today, I hope it gave you some insight into the exciting projects and ideas in store for the upcoming year. I am sharing the presentation here with you all, and we will be having additional workshop and forums in the future to look in more depth at the items discussed today.

Teachers will also be sending out information shortly to invite you to the first Grade level coffee meetings, this is a  great opportunity to meet the teachers,  find out about your child’s class and the learning for the year ahead.

KIS BTS 1819 Draft.ppt

Dear Parents,

The End of the academic year is coming quickly. We are in the last few weeks of term and they are action packed/ Please find the calendar events calendar below but make sure you check with classroom teachers regarding times and requirements.

Dear KISPA and KIS families,

I would just like to say a big thank you on behalf of the staff and students for such an amazing day yesterday, luckily the weather remained in our favor. The day was excellent from start to finish, thanks to all of the risk takers who performed for us in the assembly, and to all the families who shared their cultures through food and the arts in the amazing showcase. The students and staff had a great day, and everyone felt a real sense of community and sharing.

Many thanks for all the hard work we know went into putting this on. June