The Weekly Bulletin of

Stonehill International School

Volume 8, Issue 160

10th January 2020

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FEATURED STORY

Congratulations D2 student, Venkat, for achieving the coveted Duke of Edinburgh's International Gold Award and Badge!

CONTENTS FEATURED STORY WHOLE SCHOOL NEWS MESSAGE FROM HEAD OF PRIMARY MESSAGE FROM HEAD OF SECONDARY INTRODUCING NEWS FROM THE PTA

THE TIGER

IMPORTANT DATES JANUARY ‘20 10th M4-M5 & D1 Examinations Begin 15th Makara Sankranti-Holiday 21st Semester 2-ASAs begin 24th New Family Orientation Day 24th Stonehill Secondary Science Bowl 24th End of Semester One 25th PTA International Food Fair 27th Semester Two Begins

The Duke of Edinburgh's Award (DofE) is a youth awards programme founded in the United Kingdom in 1956 by Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, that has since expanded to 144 nations. The awards recognise adolescents and young adults for completing a series of self-improvement exercises modelled on Kurt Hahn's solution to the "Six Declines of Modern Youth". India awards the "International Award for Young People" to youth who complete a self-improvement programme based on the Duke of Edinburgh's award model. The Duke of Edinburgh's Award programmes take between one and four years to complete. “The Duke of Edinburgh's Award is the world's leading youth achievement award, with over 4,38,000 young people currently pursuing their DofE in the UK. The Duke of Edinburgh International award is one that pushes an individual immensely. It was extremely time consuming and difficult but the reward in the end was truly satisfying. Earlier, I was awarded the Bronze and Silver Award by the Kenyan President. The award pushed me in terms of physical endurance through various intense sporting activities. Along with that, I had to pursue a creative skill and learn a service, for a period of 12 months, making it a well rounded experience. I would like to thank all my friends and mentors for helping me in this journey. I truly would not have been able to do it without them”, says an elated Venkat.

WHOLE SCHOOL NEWS

Sports at Stonehill

In keeping with Stonehill’s mission of enhancing opportunities in sports, the first semester opened new doors for our students to participate in sports. We put forth sixteen teams, including three teams in the primary school, for the first time, for a total of hundred and forty eight student athletes ranging from P5-D2. In the second semester we are running out seventeen more teams, with the addition of two new competitive sports, badminton and tennis. While enhancing sports opportunities, we have also introduced a new model for staffing each sport. The Centre for Sports Excellence has partnered with us to provide professional coaching for all of our teams and we have also ensured that the children's welfare and our educational philosophy are in place with a faculty member as a "team manager" on each team as well. This semester, we are hosting the ISACI Swim Championship on April 23rd through 25th. We will need to provide housing for ninety swimmers for our competing schools. We need to call on upon our incredible school community to once again open their homes and their hearts to provide accommodation. I will be sending out a form to see who would be able to help. The mission of the school is the mission of the community and enhancing opportunities in sport takes the whole community to make it happen! Thank you for your support! John Bertken Whole School Sports Coordinator

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The mantra of the PE department at Stonehill is very simple; we strive to create opportunities for students that promotes the importance of leading an active and healthy lifestyle, not only at school but well into adulthood as well. Events like the Cross Country Run help to bring this to life, as every student in School, along with a good number of enthusiastic parents and faculty members, took part in either the 1.5km, 3km or 4.5km route to make this community event a success. We have the Primary Sports Day coming up on Thursday, 6th February and the Secondary Sports Day on Friday, 7th February. The Secondary Sports Day will be a House event, which is comprised of a mixture of traditional track and field events as well as some fun problem solving activities. Additional information, for both events, will be shared with you closer to the time and we hope to see many of you there! Mark Howarth Head of Physical Education

FROM THE HEAD OF PRIMARY

Welcome to our new families I would like to extend a very warm welcome to all of our new families who joined us on the 6th of January. We hope you are finding your transition smooth. Please do not hesitate to ask questions and encourage your children to ask them too. It is only by asking that you will find out the correct answers. All teachers and teaching assistants are willing and happy to help. If it is a tricky one, please come into the office and ask Nijika. Anthony and I are very happy to help too. Ongoing enrolment New families will continue to join us throughout January. At this stage we will Karen Crooke have twenty new shining faces joining us. We are very excited. Resettling into class Our returning learners have settled in nicely. They are full of holiday stories and excited to continue learning. Welcome back to your routine, Mum and Dad! ASA sign-ups Sign-ups seemed to go smoothly. There has been a request to have it later in the first week which we will probably grant. ASAs start on the 21st of January. New Family Orientation Semester Two formally starts on January 27th. In order to set everyone up for success, we will run an orientation session on January 24th. If you are new to school, please try to attend. It is a nice way to get a school overview and have any further questions answered. End of Semester Reports We release End of Semester Reports on January 27th. You will need to log-in to Managebac to access your child’s teacher’s feedback on learning. P8 Exhibition Camp P8 head off to camp on January 28th. This is where they complete collaborative activities and decide what their passion project is going to be about and find out who has a similar passion. It is a very important part of the Exhibition process. The Exhibition is the culminating project for the Primary Years Programme. (PYP) You will learn lots more about it as the semester goes on...keep a look out! Have a lovely week Karen Crooke Primary School Principal

FROM THE HEAD OF SECONDARY

Welcome Back It is nice to be back at Stonehill after the winter break. All of our students seemed excited to see their friends again and there has been a good post-holiday buzz around the Secondary School this week. Today saw the beginning of our first semester exam period. M4-D1 students will be sitting exams in the majority of their subjects over a three or four day period. M4-M5 exams take place on computers and are designed to prepare students for the MYP eAssessments that take place in May. Joe Lumsden The D1 exams are a first opportunity for our DP students and teachers to check their progress in the various courses they take. While pen/paper exams often seem archaic, the IB DP still runs its final exams in such a way, and it is important for our students to be comfortable working in such conditions. Alongside the exam period, we are also now up and running with the third season in the sports calendar. This involves High School Basketball, Volleyball and Cricket teams, as well as the Middle School ISACI Football/Basketball teams. Tournaments will be coming up in February and March and it has been great to see so many students signing up to participate. We are now using coaches from the Centre for Sports Excellence, to work alongside assistant coaches from our faculty, and this should enable us to provide a higher quality experience for our students. Please do not forget that during the week of the 20th -24th of January, we will be running our parent meetings for the various experiential learning trips that take place in the last of February. Also, it will be delightful to see everybody here for the PTA International Food Fair on the 25th of January. Joe Lumsden Secondary School Principal

INTRODUCING

Each week, we feature a Stonehill Teacher in our weekly bulletin. This week, we interviewed MYP/DP Sciences/Biology Facilitator, Priya George. Qualification and certifications I completed an MSc in Microbiology from Pune University and a B.Ed. from Bangalore University. What do you teach at Stonehill? I am a MYP/DP Sciences/Biology Facilitator. Where are you from and where else have you lived? I was born and brought up in Pune. However, my roots go back Palakkad (Kerala) and Mysore (Karnataka). I have travelled to Karad, Kolhapur, Jammu, Assam for educational and professional purposes. Priya George What inspired you to become a teacher? After stints in sales and marketing, customer experience analytics, I realised that I was always keen on communication, but wanted a different audience. My mother has been a teacher for many years, and I think that somewhere she might have indirectly had an impact on me with regards to pursuing this calling. What is your educational philosophy? I feel very passionately that while content knowledge is important, it is important that we try to inculcate in our students value systems and skills that help them and those around them when they go out into the world. What made you choose Stonehill? I felt it was the right environment for me to hone and explore my skills as an educator. What is the best part of your job? I enjoy interacting with my friends, colleagues and students from different parts of the globe. What are your hobbies and interests? Watching cooking shows like Masterchef Australia, Simply Nigella, Top Chef and Gordon Ramsay. I also love reading, listening to music , collecting stationery, watching movies and MotoGP as well. What is your favourite book? I cannot name one. Although a few that come to mind right now are, ‘The Tree Grows in Brooklyn’ by Betty Smith, ‘Quo Vadis’ by Henryk Sienkiewicz, and most recently ‘Born A Crime’ by Trevor Noah. Asterix and the “Just William” series still work wonders to this day! What is your favourite music? I listen to an eclectic range of music. However, I am partial to 70s and 80s rock.

PTA NEWS

Warm Regards Your PTA

STONEHILL CAFETERIA MENU FOR JANUARY 2020 A detailed monthly menu can now be downloaded from the menu page on the school website .It contains the Continental, Indian and Boarding Menus.

Stonehill International School

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