newsletter4th April 2014

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Adrian WattsDirector of Academic StudiesDeputy Headmaster

Simon LeslieHeadmaster

Dear ISHCMC community,

On Tuesday this week I enjoyed lunch with all of our parent cultural representatives and organizers of the recent International Festival held here at the School. ISHCMC is very grateful to all of our parents who involve themselves enthusiastically within the life of the School in many different ways during the course of the year. The expertise of our parent community provides opportunities that our students may not otherwise enjoy.

With the hot and humid weather well and truly upon us we have installed some water cooled fans at one end of the pitch. This enables students and staff to stop playing when needed to get some respite from the heat.

I hope that you all enjoyed the break last week with your families.

With kind regards.

Simon

VERY IMPORTANT MESSAGE

WORK EXPERIENCE FOR GRADE 10 STUDENTS.

We sent all families a letter recently regarding our plan to introduce a work experience scheme for Grade 10 students.

Our hope was that this would run from Monday 2nd June to Friday 7th June and give our students a week of experience in a work place.

We believe that having a programme like this will give our Grade 10 ISHCMC students:• invaluable experience of the work place and its expectations• the opportunity to see how the classroom links with the workplace• an insight into potential careers• help students to make better informed choices regarding university courses• contact with businesses and employers for the future• give students the time following this placement to build their work experiences to give them an edge on their university and employment applications in the future.

Many good Schools offer such an opportunity for their students at this point in their development. It is usual for schools to contact their parent community for these placements. Hence our original letter requesting your support. I am both surprised and disappointed to report that we have had almost no ISHCMC community response which means that unless there is a dramatic change we will have to cancel this initiative and our Grade 10 students will miss out on this opportunity.

What offering a placement involves:• Having a student assigned to a role within your business/ workplace for 5 days• Having a set of tasks or activities that you want the student to complete during their week• Having clear expectations for start, finish, behaviour and dress code whilst in the work place• Assigning a supervisor to ensure the student follows has a mentor or coach to work with

Thanking you in advance for your support and in helping to make this a powerful learning opportunity for our students.

For You to Know More is a blog that I have created to share articles that all parents should be reading and thinking about. Education is very different from when we were at school and as parents we should expect that to be the case……..after all isn’t our world different? Hence, it is important if you are to support your children, to be the best they can be, that you read about education and the key topics that are being discussed. Each week I post two articles that I think you will find of interest, that adds up to 61 posts. So far there have been only 1100 visits to this blog, at my previous school with a similar international population and only a few more families, there were over 15,000 visits per year. If you haven’t taken time to visit this blog then you should because education is a very exciting sector and there really is a lot to be thinking about and understand as you raise your children these days.

http://4u2nomore.blogspot.com/

Have a good weekend,

Yours,Adrian

gala concert 2014

See the video http://www.ishcmc.com/gala-concert-2014.html

Pto Used Book sale

The 2014 PTO Used Book Sale was again a great success which surely proves that online reading has not taken the place of paper books!

Although there were not as many books donated, this year there was the added attraction of “Designing your own Bookmark” competition. This was a great hit especially with the primary students as they searched for their design displayed on the notice board.

I would like to thank the amazing team of volunteers that helped this year and it was wonderful to see some different faces amongst them.

The most popular sections of the Used Book Sale was the Primary and Secondary tables.

The bookmark winners received free books as their prize.The winners of the bookmark competition:

Junior till grade 2 Fiona KG C Rama 2C Khanh Vu 2D

Elementary Min Suh 3B Bopha 3 B Valeriya 4D

Secondary Chia, En Li 6 B2 William 6A2 Bartholomew 8C

The book collection winners:

Whole school winner (Pizza) 2E with 216 booksRunners up (chocolate cakes):7 D Secondary with 207 books4 C Primary with 185 booksKG C Lower Primary with 163 books

It is never too late to donate!

If you would like to sponsor a child it is not too late. The final number of sponsorships will be announced soon. We will keep you posted.

www.loretovietnam.orgl i f t i n g l e a r n e r s i n t o t h e f u t u r e

S c h o o l Y e a r 2 0 1 4 - 2 0 1 5

Annual LoretoScholarship Appeal

for vision-impaired, hearing-impaired and intellectually disabled students

Sponsor a child for one year for only 2 million VNDEach donor will receive a scholarship certificate with a photo of their sponsored child.

Please place donations in a sealed envelope clearly marked “Loreto” and add your full name and homeroom. Please hand to Secondary Secretary or Primary Homeroom Teacher.

by Friday 21st March

stingrays – isB sPlashOver the weekend of March 15th and 16th the Stingrays swim team took 48 swimmers from grade 2 to grade 10 to the ISB Splash Meet in Bangkok. The swimmers competed in both individual and team events on Saturday during the short course competition. Over all we placed 6th out of 12 teams against some strong international competition from Thailand, China and Singapore. Individually there were a number of top three finishes and a multitude of personal best.

On Sunday a number of the swimmers also competed in the long course meet where ISHCMC captured it’s only gold with SungJun Lim taking first in the 200m butterfly. All swimmers did a great job and showed amazing spirit and improvement. For many swimmers this was their first international meet and we all look forward to the ISHCMC Invitational on May 10th and 11th when we will be hosting teams from all over South East Asia.

Bonnie ColesPE Teacher & Aquatics Director

In the MPR 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm, April 8th 2014

Visual Arts IB Diploma Programme Art Show

rhino hUt newsThe Rhino Hut is the place on campus for cool ISHCMC themed gear … from tees and shorts to coolies and sweatbands. New items include our “fierce” Rhino basketball shirts and cute and cuddly rhinos!

Our weekend sports bags are back in stock too and for this hot weather we have dri-fit tees and a dri-fit cap. If you’re looking for sports shorts then come and see us. We have basketball shorts, running shorts and girls’ gym shorts!

If you have ideas for other products that you would to see available at the Rhino Hut please put your suggestions in the PTO Box (in the Rhino Hut!).

The Rhino Hut opens every Friday afternoon from 2pm -4pm.

GO RHINOS!

From the clinic

Breakfast and Sleep – THE LOW DOWN

Why is sleep so important?

Lack of sleep: Reduces concentration and reduces the brains ability to absorb new

information Reduces decision making and problem solving skills Reduces your ability to memorise – lower test scores! Leads to mood swings, trouble getting on with others, and lack of

motivation Makes you more inclined to feel sad / suffer depression.

Age Recommended Amount of Sleep

2-4 yrs old 11–12 hours a day

5-12 years old At least 10 hours a day

13 – 18yrs old 9–10 hours a day

Why is breakfast so important ? If you miss breakfast your sugar levels hit a low mid-morning, you crave a

quick fix and you may snack on junk food (and put on weight!) Have trouble focusing and concentrating in class, with delayed cognition

and less memory for learning new information Have mood swings and problematic behaviour in class, and have trouble

getting along with others. Less energy for sport and exercise during the day, as blood sugar is low =

less fit! **Studies show that a healthy breakfast improves academic performance**

Links to articles and research http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3737458/ Why is sleep important? http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/sdd/why.html How much sleep do children need/age : http://www.cdc.gov/sleep/about_sleep/how_much_sleep.htm

UNTIL NEXT TIME