NEWSLETTER
March 2021
In This Issue:
MESSAGE FROM HEAD OF SCHOOL
Dear AIS Families,
The ray of hope we have all been eagerly awaiting is finally at our doorstep, and I am proud to share that we have welcomed it with a lot of enthusiasm! I am extremely pleased to report that many of our staff members, including myself, have taken the first jab of COVID 19 vaccine. As per the instructions from the Government of Uganda, we have been registered to be vaccinated and so we have!
We understand that there are several challenges, ranging from misinformation campaigns to public hesitancy. But as an educational institution, we feel responsible to spread and encourage COVID-19 vaccination. Don’t miss it!
We hope all of you are as excited as us about an action-packed Term 3! As more and more students are returning to campus, we are looking forward to Science and Design Week, Assessments, Graduations, Celebration of Learning and so much more!
In addition to all these calendared events, Term 3 will see one new addition – ‘Making A Difference Award’ for AIS staff, in conjunction with PTO. We are very grateful to the PTO for this initiative and more details are available under PTO updates of this newsletter.
With three more streams of Year 6 moving up to the MYP Department, we looking forward to growing, learning, and tackling all the challenges that come with the territory. So, in addition to next year’s academic calendar, please read on for some important announcements to be rolled out next academic year:
As I say, it is onwards and upwards for us, and I am so glad that I have such a wonderful AIS Family to accompany me on this journey! Wish you all a happy Term Break. Happy Easter and Festival season!
MESSAGE FROM PARENT TEACHER ORGANISATION
The AIS Parent Teacher Organisation (PTO) has met twice this month on Zoom. Our first meeting was held on February 26, 2021 and our second meeting this term was held on March 23, 2021. Some of the topics the PTO has discussed this term is awarding students at the end of the year who have earned the most house points for their team. Students earn house points in school for making good behavioral choices and working hard academically. At the end of the academic year, the PTO will be awarding the house team with the most points with a trophy and cupcakes.
In addition to this, the PTO has decided to award one member of staff who has been outstanding this academic year by working hard and making a difference in their students lives. The “Making a Difference” Award is a PTO initiative to encourage teachers to continue to do their best. In Secondary, students will vote for and nominate their favorite teachers, while in other departments (Early Childhood and Primary) teachers will vote amongst themselves for the teacher who best exemplifies the qualities mentioned in a rubric. These teachers will be awarded at the end of the year with a dinner and gift.
The funds that will be used to pay for the above projects will be collected from the PTO Home Clothes Days, which will be held on the last Friday of every month. The next PTO Home Clothes Day will be Friday, April 30, 2021.
This term the PTO was also happy to receive Ms. Ameena in one of its meeting, who came to speak about a few things regarding next academic year. One of the items mentioned was the extended school day for all of secondary student, which will be going up until 4:15 p.m. The reason for this extension in time is to enrich the curriculum by offering more programs and classes for students, including: debate, food tech, labs and so much more. Another item mentioned was the addition of several members of staff, including a clinical psychologist, counselor for secondary, DP and A Level qualified teachers. Taking these all into consideration, Ms. Ameena reported that there would be an increase in tuition fees of 7-9%. The PTO thanks Ms. Ameena for her detailed presentation and transparency and encourages parents to reach out to members of the PTO in case they have any questions or feedback that they would like discussed in our next PTO meeting.
Feel free to reach out to any of the following individuals regarding PTO matters:
Duggan Byakora, PTO Chair: 0772743445
Arianna Anglin, PTO Vice-Chair: 0794795805
Godwin Kyegombe, PTO Treasurer: 0776236792
Harriet Sanyu, PTO Secretary: 0772410992
Sridevi Prasana, PTO Vice-Secretary: 0777172786
Duggan Byakora
Chairperson
_______________________
Arianna Anglin
Vice-Chairperson
MESSAGE FROM HEADS OF DEPARTMENTS
Early Childhood
Whew, we have made it through our first term back on campus and we couldn’t have done it without your support! Teachers and students have surely enjoyed themselves this term and the smiles I see everyday around the department are evidence of this.
We continue to grow as a department, and in Term 3 we will be starting a third stream of EC2. It’s a wonderful feeling to see some things getting back to normal. Another exciting addition to Term 3, swimming! Each EC class will have a chance to swim in Term 3.
A few reminders: please note there is NO DAYCARE and students are expected to be picked up by their designated pick up times below.
EC1 and EC2: 12:15pm-12:30pm
Reception: 2:40pm-3:00pm
When we come back from our break, we will be kicking off Term 3 with a “Healthy Eating Week.” This is the perfect time to encourage you to pack a healthy snack for your student! Please try to pack a fruit or vegetable every day and make sure you are sending a water bottle to school each day, to ensure they are drinking enough water.
Have a wonderful break!
Sarah Bowman
Head of Early Childhood Department
__________________________
Tel: +256 756 770 676
Email: [email protected]
Primary
This term has been interesting and fun! We have participated in sports activities, Talent Hunt, and for the first time, we celebrated Francophonie Day at school. The students have enjoyed all these activities, both online and on campus. Our teachers continue to do online professional development to meet the needs of all individual learners. They have done professional development in differentiation and guided reading.
I take this opportunity to thank you for being a part of your child’s education. We have always been thrilled to see you engaged in the student-led conferences, mock exhibitions, and any other activities that we have in the school. As a school, we take note of the reflections from students on the report card seriously. Teachers will continue to engage students on the concepts that need emphasize to reach their potential. With your continued support, I believe we can achieve this goal.
For this last part of the term, students have looked at Pluralism as the AIS value of the month. They explored learner profile attributes such as Open-mindedness, Caring, Communicator, and Risk-taker. They are learning to be generous, respectful, and tolerant towards other cultures through engagement in a rich diversity while still valuing their own identity, languages, and beliefs. We request that you continue to instill these values in the students and appreciate them when they make the effort to exercise them.
I take this opportunity to thank all our teachers , students, parents, and the taskforce for the patience in ensuring that the SOPs are followed. This term has been a success because of all of you.
We wish you a restful break!
Shallon Baguma
Head of Primary Department
______________________
Tel: +256 758 202 666
Email: [email protected]
Secondary
During the second half of Term 2, all students have been involved in a number of different school activities such as Assemblies, Sports Day, Talent Hunt, and Francophonie Day. It has been a pleasure to see our Secondary students participating in these different activities and watch them grow as they explore new hobbies.
This year, we are extremely excited to announce that we will be holding our first set of MYP 5 eAssessments and A-Level exams. Last year and sadly this year, in some parts of the world, students are unable to sit their exams due to COVID 19. We are extremely grateful to all our parents for your support and of course to the students for their hard work and dedication to their studies. We will be starting our exams and eAssessments at the start of Term 3. Best of luck to all our candidates.
See you all on April 13th
Zoe Calder
Head of Secondary Department
_______________________
Tel: +256 758 965 632
Email: [email protected]
MESSAGE FROM CURRICUM COORDINATORS
We are just finishing our fourth Unit of Inquiry, titled, “How the World Works”.
Classes are learning about food that grows in the garden, how to support plants growth, and how weather affects our lives.
Learning doesn’t stop at school, so please ask your child about what they are learning at school and continue the fun at home!
Our next unit is, “How We Organise Ourselves”. In this unit, we will learn about different homes, types of transport and community helpers.
Reception and EC2 classes now have three new shiny tablets in class, for their ICT centres. Students have a chance to use them during their play-based learning time.
Sarah Bowman
Head of Early Childhood Department
__________________________
Tel: +256 756 770 676
Email: [email protected]
At AIS, the PYPX Experience is a journey of many steps; one of the milestones is the Mock Exhibition. This is a time when our PYPX students go through a journey of self-discovery. Guided by the transdisciplinary unit – WHO WE ARE, learners get to find out more about themselves, their roots, beliefs, likes, dislikes, plans and goals. The final product is a detailed inquiry and presentation titled ‘ALL ABOUT ME’. This year’s group perfected last year’s virtual model by using Voicethread to share their presentations with Y6 families. These presentations now become part of their portfolio for their actual Exhibition.
Evans Kimani
PYP Coordinator
______________________
Tel: +256 758 202 668
Email: [email protected]
As the term comes to a close, I would like to thank all our students, teachers and parents for their unwavering support and commitment. Term 2 has been packed with increased workload and pressure for both students and teachers, as we strived to prepare for the impending A Level Cambridge exams. I would like to thank the parents, for allowing us the opportunity to meet students over the weekend and a special thanks to all teachers and students for making all possible. We are in high spirits, as we prepare for final exams.
The AS candidates have received a copy of mocks and final exam timetables, while DP1 students have also received a copy of the internal assessment calendar and have embarked on the extended essays. Looking forward to eventful term 3. Happy holidays to all!
Kenneth Kanyesigye
A Level Coordinator
______________________
Tel: +256 772 282 381
Email: [email protected]
MYP3 COMMUNITY PROJECT
Our MYP 3 students are unstoppable! Need proof? Ask them about their Community Project. This year, they’ve been involved with not one, but two projects! For the first, the students have been investigating and developing a goal to help recycle the plastic waste within a very small community next to Queen Elizabeth National Park. This project is designed to help relieve poverty and promote education and sustainable living within the community.
In addition, this year, the students were also involved with the wonderful ‘Flipflopi Expedition’, and created a raft using recycled items. A small group of students were able to join a competition with other international schools to showcase their design. The group enjoyed working together and will share their design with the community and help promote recycling.
MESSAGE FROM AIS COVID- 19 TASKFORCE
Nishitha Shrivastava
Community Liaison Officer for AIS COVID 19 Taskforce/ Head of Admissions and
Administration
__________________________
Tel: +256 758 202 681
Email: [email protected]
STUDENT-LED CONFERENCES
Early Childhood
Thank you to all the parents who signed up and attended and conference with your child’s teacher. Teachers were able to share the ePortfolios with parents to show off all the progress that their students have made. If you were not able to make it for a conference, I urge you to reach out to your child’s homeroom teacher to arrange a meeting. It is very important that you are kept up-to-date with your child’s development and progress at school.
Primary
These term’s conferences are always student-led; a session whereby students get to communicate their learning through portfolios, presentations, reports and reflections. It is also a chance for our students to develop much-needed communication skills as they discuss reports with their parents and set goals for the coming term. This term’s report usually contains student levels achieved in the tested subjects, as well as student reflections. Conferences are also a good opportunity to get feedback from parents regarding student learning and we appreciate all the commendations and suggestions you give in the feedback forms provided.
Secondary
At the end of Term 2, Secondary homeroom teachers always meet with students and their parents to discuss their term. This year, all SLCs were held online, via Zoom, allowing the students and parents to work together and view the student’s Managebac accounts. Thank you to the students for taking the lead this term, and we hope that you have been able to reflect on your progress and look forward to returning for the final term this academic year.
HOUSE TEAM CAPTAINS / STUDENT COUNCIL
This year’s house team captions will also represent the school as the Student Council committee. The student council members will have the opportunity to meet and interact with the PTO during term three to help with the term 3 events. Congratulations to this year’s House team Captains and Student Council members.
ASSISSTANT HOUSE TEAM CAPTAINS (EC & PRIMARY)
The Early Childhood and Primary Department held Assistant House Captain elections during March for students on campus. In Primary, the Assistant House Team Captains are from Year 6, and all interested students were requested to submit applications informing of why they were interested in representing their house team. The responses were reviewed and the top 4 student responses for each house team were slated to run. Students shared brief speeches to their fellow classmates in Year 6 as to what makes them best fit to lead. Students then cast their votes for their choice of leader. In EC, the PE teachers nominated candidates, who were then voted for by the EC teachers. The following were the results from the Assistant House Captain elections:
Congratulations
SPORTS WEEK
AIS held its annual Sports Week events between Wednesday, March 17 to Thursday, March 25. Students participated in events within their social bubbles, while taking strict sanitization measures into consideration. It was a week full of cheers, excitement, and perseverance! Students worked very hard with the members of their team and we are excited to announce our ‘House Teams of the Year’ for each department:
Early Childhood
Primary
Secondary
An excellent job done by all those who competed and a big thank you to our sports teachers who put on an exciting and well-organized Sports Week for our students!
ASSEMBLIES
Each class had a virtual Assembly in Term 2! Thank you to everyone who showed up to cheer on our little stars ★
Assemblies are a chance for students to show off what they are learning in school and that is just what they did! Reception Class taught us about weather, EC2 taught us what plants need to grow and EC1 students taught us about what grows in the garden.
Our students are so knowledgeable!
TALENT HUNT
This year, due to the pandemic, our annual Talent Hunt Competition was held as an intra-school, rather than inter. Our youngest students in Early Childhood to our oldest students in our IB Diploma Programme and Cambridge A levels were encouraged to submit video clips of their talents in either voice, instrument, dance or creative arts (poetry, drama, etc.) categories. Let’s just say there is A LOT of talent amongst the student population at AIS. The Talent Hunt event was held on Saturday, March 27, the following are our winners for each category, a big congratulations to them and a job well done to all students who participated!
Early Childhood
Lower Primary
Upper Primary
Lower Secondary
Upper Secondary
FRANCOPHONIE DAY
This year, our students celebrated Francophonie Day on Friday, March 19.
Francophonie Day is a celebration of the French language and Francophone culture. With 369 million speakers, French is the fifth most-spoken language in the world and the official language of 29 countries. At AIS, we learn French as a foreign language starting from our Early Childhood Department, all the way up to our DP classes.
On this special day, AIS launched an online event on YouTube. Students from EC to DP shared their knowledge
and love for the French language. They introduced Francophone countries, gave facts about the language, shared their favorite words, laughed with tongue-twisters, sang songs and danced. It was also a lovely moment to bring students together who are studying at home with those on campus.
We are so proud to see how knowledgeable and open-minded our AIS students are. Bravo et Vive la Francophonie !
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