Issue 11 - Australian International School Malaysia
Issue 11 - Australian International School Malaysia
Issue 11 - Australian International School Malaysia
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Main <strong>School</strong>s Performing Arts Others<br />
Senior <strong>School</strong> News<br />
<strong>International</strong> Competitions and Assessments for<br />
<strong>School</strong>s (ICAS) Tests, Thursday 24th July<br />
With the Computer Skills, Science and English tests now<br />
completed, only the Mathematics test remains. This will<br />
take place on Tuesday, 24th July. Students who have<br />
registered to sit for this test have been given a reminder<br />
letter to take home. Full details and venue will be provided<br />
before the test.<br />
Council of <strong>International</strong> <strong>School</strong>s (CIS) Accreditation<br />
As many of you will know, AISM is currently undertaking an<br />
accreditation process through The Council of <strong>International</strong><br />
<strong>School</strong>s (CIS). There are a number of reasons for choosing<br />
CIS as our accrediting body:<br />
• The rigorous but supportive process involved in<br />
accreditation ensures that only the best schools can<br />
obtain their seal of approval.<br />
• The nature of the process is one of self-reflection leading<br />
to improvement.<br />
• It involves the whole school community and so, requires<br />
engagement and input from parents, students, staff and<br />
the governing bodies.<br />
• The process is ongoing.<br />
In October last year, we were visited by a team from CIS<br />
to determine our readiness to undertake the two year,<br />
self-study process. The team recognized that the school<br />
is in ‘good shape’ and more than ready to undertake the<br />
next stage of the process.<br />
We have set ourselves a goal to have our main visit in late<br />
2013 and have constructed a timeline based on this endpoint.<br />
It is important that we stick to that timeline and<br />
consult widely across our school community.<br />
Part 1 of the process has two main stages:<br />
• The <strong>School</strong> Profile – collection of materials that<br />
describe how the school operates.<br />
• Opinion Surveys – These gather opinions from<br />
different segments of the school community (students,<br />
faculty and support staff, parents and members of the<br />
governing body).<br />
The opinion surveys form the basis for the second part of<br />
the process which is the self-study proper. (This survey<br />
will replace the previous survey undertaken by Taylors).<br />
This involves the formation of different committees to<br />
review the practices and procedures of the school and<br />
how they align these practices with the CIS standards<br />
and the school’s Mission and Vision. As with the survey,<br />
committees will include representatives from different<br />
parts of the school community.<br />
The purpose of this article is to introduce families to the<br />
CIS process and to give advanced notice of the upcoming<br />
survey and the opportunities to join committees. Full<br />
details regarding the survey and committees will be<br />
sent out under separate cover. We believe that the CIS<br />
accreditation process is extremely valuable in moving the<br />
school forward. We look forward to your support.<br />
Ian Martineau, Head of Senior <strong>School</strong><br />
Middle <strong>School</strong> News<br />
Welcome back to Term 3 and Semester 2 in the Middle<br />
<strong>School</strong>. First of all I would like to welcome our 12 new<br />
students and their families to the Middle <strong>School</strong> and our<br />
AISM community. We look forward to getting to know all<br />
of our new students and their families throughout the<br />
term. I would also like to acknowledge a new teacher to<br />
our Middle and Senior <strong>School</strong>, Mrs Luna Deller who will<br />
be teaching French and Spanish. Term 3 is an exciting<br />
term with the Swimming Carnival, Science and Music<br />
Showcase as well as the China Tour in Week 10. We also<br />
have <strong>International</strong> Day, ICAS competitions and Book<br />
Week. There are many rich and exciting experiences for<br />
the students and I will be encouraging our Middle <strong>School</strong><br />
students to participate and contribute to these events as<br />
much as they can.<br />
I would also like congratulate the students involved in<br />
the World Scholars’ Cup. Their commitment to the World<br />
Scholars’ Cup was certainly rewarded with outstanding<br />
results. These students were recognized at our combined<br />
Middle and Senior <strong>School</strong> Assembly today.<br />
Kylie Booker, Head of Middle <strong>School</strong><br />
Junior <strong>School</strong> News<br />
Welcome back everyone. It was fantastic to see everyone<br />
so refreshed and eager to start the new term. We have<br />
quite a number of new students in Junior <strong>School</strong> this<br />
term and I trust we can all make the effort to make them<br />
feel welcome and a part of the school community.<br />
At the beginning of the term, the teachers spent two<br />
days attending workshops here at school. The main<br />
focus for the Junior <strong>School</strong> was Inquiry Learning and<br />
Differentiation. Inquiry learning is an approach to teaching<br />
and learning that has the children asking questions for<br />
learning, investigating, researching and presenting their<br />
learning. It is an approach that has the students taking<br />
a more leading role in their learning.They are essentially<br />
learning to learn and taking more responsibility for their<br />
learning. For a student to be truly successful in the future<br />
they need to know how to learn, how to ask questions,<br />
how to research and how to respond to questions. Inquiry<br />
Learning in the Junior classrooms is all about setting our<br />
students on the path for greater learning success in the<br />
future.<br />
The other main focus of the workshops was differentiation.<br />
Differentiation is about teaching to the individuals in the<br />
class, recognizing the needs of all students and ensuring<br />
each of the students is making appropriate progress.<br />
We have previously done a number of workshops on<br />
this and will continue to make this a main focus in the<br />
Junior <strong>School</strong> as it is of paramount importance that each<br />
individual achieves at his or her maximum potential. You<br />
should be hearing a lot more about these focus areas of<br />
our Junior <strong>School</strong> in the future.<br />
This term, we have our Annual Junior <strong>School</strong> Production<br />
and we are in the midst of creating something very new<br />
and exciting this year. It will be something to really look<br />
forward to.<br />
Damian Baynes, Head of Junior <strong>School</strong><br />
Page 2 20th July 2012