Issue 11 - Australian International School Malaysia

Main Schools Performing Arts Others
Senior School News
International Competitions and Assessments for
Schools (ICAS) Tests, Thursday 24th July
With the Computer Skills, Science and English tests now
completed, only the Mathematics test remains. This will
take place on Tuesday, 24th July. Students who have
registered to sit for this test have been given a reminder
letter to take home. Full details and venue will be provided
before the test.
Council of International Schools (CIS) Accreditation
As many of you will know, AISM is currently undertaking an
accreditation process through The Council of International
Schools (CIS). There are a number of reasons for choosing
CIS as our accrediting body:
• The rigorous but supportive process involved in
accreditation ensures that only the best schools can
obtain their seal of approval.
• The nature of the process is one of self-reflection leading
to improvement.
• It involves the whole school community and so, requires
engagement and input from parents, students, staff and
the governing bodies.
• The process is ongoing.
In October last year, we were visited by a team from CIS
to determine our readiness to undertake the two year,
self-study process. The team recognized that the school
is in ‘good shape’ and more than ready to undertake the
next stage of the process.
We have set ourselves a goal to have our main visit in late
2013 and have constructed a timeline based on this endpoint.
It is important that we stick to that timeline and
consult widely across our school community.
Part 1 of the process has two main stages:
• The School Profile – collection of materials that
describe how the school operates.
• Opinion Surveys – These gather opinions from
different segments of the school community (students,
faculty and support staff, parents and members of the
governing body).
The opinion surveys form the basis for the second part of
the process which is the self-study proper. (This survey
will replace the previous survey undertaken by Taylors).
This involves the formation of different committees to
review the practices and procedures of the school and
how they align these practices with the CIS standards
and the school’s Mission and Vision. As with the survey,
committees will include representatives from different
parts of the school community.
The purpose of this article is to introduce families to the
CIS process and to give advanced notice of the upcoming
survey and the opportunities to join committees. Full
details regarding the survey and committees will be
sent out under separate cover. We believe that the CIS
accreditation process is extremely valuable in moving the
school forward. We look forward to your support.
Ian Martineau, Head of Senior School
Middle School News
Welcome back to Term 3 and Semester 2 in the Middle
School. First of all I would like to welcome our 12 new
students and their families to the Middle School and our
AISM community. We look forward to getting to know all
of our new students and their families throughout the
term. I would also like to acknowledge a new teacher to
our Middle and Senior School, Mrs Luna Deller who will
be teaching French and Spanish. Term 3 is an exciting
term with the Swimming Carnival, Science and Music
Showcase as well as the China Tour in Week 10. We also
have International Day, ICAS competitions and Book
Week. There are many rich and exciting experiences for
the students and I will be encouraging our Middle School
students to participate and contribute to these events as
much as they can.
I would also like congratulate the students involved in
the World Scholars’ Cup. Their commitment to the World
Scholars’ Cup was certainly rewarded with outstanding
results. These students were recognized at our combined
Middle and Senior School Assembly today.
Kylie Booker, Head of Middle School
Junior School News
Welcome back everyone. It was fantastic to see everyone
so refreshed and eager to start the new term. We have
quite a number of new students in Junior School this
term and I trust we can all make the effort to make them
feel welcome and a part of the school community.
At the beginning of the term, the teachers spent two
days attending workshops here at school. The main
focus for the Junior School was Inquiry Learning and
Differentiation. Inquiry learning is an approach to teaching
and learning that has the children asking questions for
learning, investigating, researching and presenting their
learning. It is an approach that has the students taking
a more leading role in their learning.They are essentially
learning to learn and taking more responsibility for their
learning. For a student to be truly successful in the future
they need to know how to learn, how to ask questions,
how to research and how to respond to questions. Inquiry
Learning in the Junior classrooms is all about setting our
students on the path for greater learning success in the
future.
The other main focus of the workshops was differentiation.
Differentiation is about teaching to the individuals in the
class, recognizing the needs of all students and ensuring
each of the students is making appropriate progress.
We have previously done a number of workshops on
this and will continue to make this a main focus in the
Junior School as it is of paramount importance that each
individual achieves at his or her maximum potential. You
should be hearing a lot more about these focus areas of
our Junior School in the future.
This term, we have our Annual Junior School Production
and we are in the midst of creating something very new
and exciting this year. It will be something to really look
forward to.
Damian Baynes, Head of Junior School
Page 2 20th July 2012