Newsletter March 2019

Overseas Family SchoolMiddle School

Master Policy:To maintain a happy, safe and effective school for overseas families living in Singapore

From The Parent Association (PA) Desk

Michael LeeMiddle School Principalmichael_lee@ofs.edu.sg

Principal’s MessageThe Middle School Parent-Student-Teacher Conferences have just been completed. The 3-way conference is always a great formal opportunity to share with our families. This year the Middle School met almost 90% of the schedule requests made by our parents. Remember that you can always contact us at any time during the academic year, should you feel that we can be of further assistance. We hosted our 10th Middle Years Model United Nations Conference at Overseas Family School (MY-MUNOFS X) from 22 to 24 February, with over 500 participating students from 22 different schools in attendance. This included schools travelling from Macau, Indonesia, Jordan, Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan, China and India. Many thanks to Mr David Taylor, Dean of International Relations, Dr Jyoti Mayall, Mrs Jessica Purchase and Ms Sanjeevani Bandara for preparing the 75 Middle School students for this event. Other school events covered during the month included a very successful Book Week organised by Ms Clare Gilpin, Middle School teacher-librarian and a terrific Sports Day organised by Mrs Hayley Brian, Physical and Health Education Subject Area Leader. Our Grade 8 students (and their parents) have also had their Grade 9 transition talks and they will be making some crucial choices for Junior High School as they continue their educational journey. We are now preparing for our Music, Art, Drama and Dance (M.A.D.D.) Week commencing Monday, 25 March 2019 and the Global Picnic on Saturday, 6 April 2019.

Links:

Middle School Homepage – https://www.ofs.edu.sg/schools/ms/

ASSP – https://www.ofs.edu.sg/courses/sports/

Enrichment Programs – https://www.ofs.edu.sg/courses/enrichment/

Middle School Events – https://www.ofs.edu.sg/schools/ms/events/

Second Meeting for Country Coordinators

The annual Global Picnic, an international fair where all the families in the school get together to celebrate being part of an International Culture, will take place on Saturday, 6 April 2019. This is a great opportunity for you to represent your country by bringing popular traditional food to your country table, performing a musical or dance number which represents your country, or sharing an activity from your culture. If you have any talented family members who wish to perform or family recipes to share, please come along and join in the fun. The second and final meeting for the Country Coordinators will be on:

Date: Thursday, 21 March 2019 Time: 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Venue: Parent Lounge (Level 4 of Administration Block)

We invite you to come join us and represent your country. Further information regarding the Global Picnic is available on the school website: https://www.ofs.edu.sg/about/pa/events/global-picnic/

Music NewsSeveral Middle School music classes were lucky enough to have a former OFS alumni, Pipo Fernandez, visit their classes recently. Pipo was back in town visiting his family in Singapore and decided to come in and speak with several music classes. Pipo graduated from OFS in 2013 and went on to study Film, Music and Video Game Scoring Music at Berklee College of Music. He is currently residing in Brooklyn, NYC (USA). Pipo is becoming quite a well known singer, songwriter, and music producer. He has worked on a number of placements for the likes of Disney, Viacom and Netflix. The students learned so much from Pipo about music composition and learning how to find their own unique musical voice.

(Nora Patterson – SAL The Arts)

PA Coffee Morning

Overseas Family School Middle School Newsletter March 2019

Deputy Principal’s MessageThe Parent-Student-Teacher Conferences have been a time to celebrate the progress that each student has made throughout the academic year and highlight areas for further development. At OFS, we believe it is very important to have clear communication with families of our students, and emails and meetings are welcome at any time. The second semester has been a busy time so far with a range of events. Clubs and teams have also provided fun and engaging activities for students. All subject areas also run support clubs to allow students time to work on tasks at their own pace, ask questions about assessments, or to have in-depth discussions with their teachers about various topics. SPP students have also been involved in clubs and subject support sessions, developing their use of English language and increasing their interactions with others in the school. Furthermore, Grade 8 students have been enjoying their last Middle School Model United Nations Interdisciplinary Unit. The focus for this MUN IDU is: ‘How can global decision-making help us achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals?’ Interdisciplinary teaching and learning has been used to develop student understanding of the United Nations and the Global Context Globalisation and Sustainability. Through this experience, students understand that informed and inspired people who challenge themselves and others, will inevitably make a difference to our world.

“Meaningful interdisciplinary teaching and learning experiences can have positive effects on students, teachers and learning environments. To explain a phenomenon, solve a problem, create a product, or raise a new question in ways that would have been unlikely through a single discipline.” – MYP: From principles into practice.

(Karoline Hlawatsch – Middle School Deputy Principal)k_hlawatsch@ofs.edu.sg

MYP ActionAs part of their MYP Action, centred on ‘building relationships’, Homebase 8.01 organised a beach clean-up in Pasir Ris Park in early December 2018. Students from other Grade 8 classes joined after school to collect rubbish and litter along the beach. Many students were surprised to see how much they collected in such a short amount of time. It was an opportunity for Grade 8 students to work together to build relationships, organise an event and contribute to the local community and environment. It also prepared the students for the upcoming Model United Nations Interdisciplinary Unit where Grade 8 students look at sustainable development.

(Hana Ucko Neill – 8.01 Homebase Teacher)

Master Policy:To maintain a happy, safe and effective school for overseas families living in Singapore

Grade 5 Parent Orientation NightIt was wonderful to welcome the Grade 5 parents on 21 February 2019 and to introduce them to the Middle School. Items covered on the evening included information on the key personnel, the academic program, the pastoral development program, sports and arts events. The slideshow for the presentation can be found on the parent’s OFS dashboard. The parents also had the opportunity to go through a similar experience to what their children will go through in that they were given timetables with which to visit the different subject areas in the Middle School. In so doing, they were able to navigate around the school and receive an overview of the subjects in the different classrooms they visited. Overall, the Middle School faculty is certainly looking forward to welcoming the new Grade 6 students and their parents in the new academic year.

(Aidan Spencer – Student Advisor)

Middle Years Model United Nations ConferenceThe 10th annual Middle Years Model United Nations conference, hosted here at Overseas Family School (MY-MUNOFS X), once again provided a powerful learning and growing experience for hundreds of students. 75 of our own Middle School children took part as diplomats representing a wide range of countries and interests. Three Grade 8 students even served as Deputy Chairs of committees: Charli Horchner, Samadrita Sen, and Anna Purchase. Very well done! The combined MY-MUNOFS X and PY-MUNOFS VI weekend was attended by 900 students in total from 30 schools, both in Singapore and abroad, providing a wonderfully diverse environment of opinions, experiences, encounters, discussion and debate. Through the various experiences, your children learned to better understand the views of others, improved their public speaking skills, and broadened their comprehension of important global issues ranging from economic to environmental to social and human rights. Congratulations to all our Middle School children who participated in the conference, and to Mrs. Purchase, Miss. Bandara and Dr. Mayall, our Middle School MUN Supervisors who coach them.

(David Taylor – Dean of International Relations)

Middle School Sports Day 2019This year all grades took part in Football, Basketball and Water Polo during the Middle School Sports Day on 1 March 2019. It was a whole day event which saw students work together in their Homebase to be crowned the winners. Students showed great enthusiasm and teamwork and should be very proud of their efforts. Some Homebase’s even designed their own t-shirts for the day and were very creative in their choice of team names. The overall winners were:

Grade 6: Boneless Pizza (6.03)

Grade 7: The Food Pandas (67 SPP1, 7 SPP2 and 7 SPP3)

Grade 8: The Green Lanterns (8.01)

(Hayley Brian – SAL Physical & Health Education)

Overseas Family School Middle School Newsletter March 2019

Book Week

Sports NewsOn 2 March 2019, OFS sent both boys and girls 14U teams to the GESS Volkswagen Cup. It is an annual event which brings many of Singapore’s top footballers from international schools to battle on the indoor surface. The highlight for OFS had to be the boy’s overcoming a shaky start to remain undefeated after their first match to take silver medals, while the girls finished 5th and 7th in their categories. Each student had a role to play in the team’s promising performance that bodes well for the upcoming invitational at home. Our 13U boys badminton team travelled to St Patrick’s Secondary School in late February 2019 and faced very strong competition from the home team, which no doubt they will learn a lot from. It’s always great to build sporting relationships with both local and international schools on the eastern part of the island.

(Jason Lawrence – Dean of Physical Advancement)