ISSUE # 21

MIDDLE SCHOOL
WEEK OF:
FEBRUARY 3 to 7

SY 2013 2014

Friday Bulletin
Inside this issue:
Saturday Service Learning Academic Bowl Athletics & Activities Admissions & Advancement ISM Upcoming Events

Weekly Publication for Middle School Parents

Dear Parents, We were able to welcome some of our new parents this morning at an MS new parent coffee, it can be challenging transitioning in half way through the school year for students and parents - if you were unable to attend or have any questions, please feel free to contact us in the MS office or your child's counselor. Classroom Without Walls is fast approaching. The week of February 10 14 all students will be in engaged in a number of different experience to connect with the Philippines culturally, historically and through providing service with many of our service learning partners. This is a great opportunity for our students to develop different types of skills than in the classroom including building empathy and supporting others. We look forward to our students reflections. If you have not received information about your child's CWW experience, please contact their advisory teacher or the MS office. In November students had school pictures taken. The photographer will be back on February 18 for retakes, students that were absent during the first round, and for new students. Our next parent coffee is on February 20, we look forward to meeting with you then and sharing more about developments with how we assess and grade students, along with changes to technology and how we use laptops in the middle school. Have a great long weekend! Yours in Education, Simon Gillespie Middle School Principal Clarissa Sayson Middle School Assistant Principal

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Events & Activities:

JANUARY

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FEBRUARY

National Holiday

5 10 - 14 20 24 25

G4 Transition Meeting CWW Parent Coffee No Classes National Holiday

PowerSchool Update:
FEBRUARY

No regular after-school activities during CWW Week (February 10 to 14). The yearbook photos are available for pick -up in the MS Office.

Progress Reports Access

SEMESTER 2 SATURDAY SERVICE DATES (TENTATIVE)

March 1 Habitat for Humanity & Papaya Academy March 8 Philippines Childrens Fund (PCF) & CRIBS Foundation March 15 Chosen Childrens Village (CCV) March 22 Love2Learn March 29 PAWS April 5 Tzu Chi Foundation
To participate, students need to pick up a permission slip from the MS Office on the Monday before the trip. Once its been signed and returned to the office, a student can sign up on the roster. Some trips fill up quickly so encourage them to sign up early. Parents are welcome to join! All the best, Cory Willey MS Student Advisory Coordinator

Refund for LOST, PAID and Returned Textbook/s

EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY, PAYMENTS MADE FOR LOST TEXTBOOKS WILL ONLY BE REFUNDED, IF THE BOOK IS RETURNED WITHIN THE CURRENT SCHOOL YEAR OR THE FOLLOWING SCHOOL YEAR, AT THE LATEST. For questions, please email textbook@ismanila.org or call 840-8517.

Middle School Academic Bowl TRYOUTS/Practices

Do you know lots of interesting facts and general knowledge? Are you fast on the buzzers? Do you like Are you Smarter than a 5th Grader? THEN COME TO Academic Bowl Tryouts/ Practices!! WHERE - Room P046 (Mrs. Birchenalls classroom) WHEN - Every Thursday, 3:00 P.M. to 4:00 P.M. The successful students will represent ISM at the second semester Academic Bowl competition which is to be held at Faith International School in March. All Middle School students are very welcome to come to the tryout/practice sessions.

Wow! The AMIS Strings Festival was a huge success last weekend. Thank you for your support and encouragement with all our visiting musicians and guests. Thank you especially to all the parents that hosted the students in their homes. The general sentiment that everyone gave was they felt so welcome at ISM! We look forward to more musical events in the coming months! Also, if you did not have a chance to watch the concert, you can watch it here: http://tinyurl.com/AMIS2014 Guime Odendaal 5-12 Music Program Leader
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Season 2 is rapidly coming to a close with the IASAS Championships less than one week away. Venues for IASAS 2nd season championships are as follows.Jakarta for Basketball, Rugby/Touch at Singapore (*note venue change due to political uncertainty in Bangkok), Tennis at Kuala Lumpur and ISM for swimming. Visit www.iasas.asia to keep up with the action at the IASAS venues (results and live stream links).

Well done also to our MS Boys rugby teams who finished their season very well last weekend and also to our MS boys basketball Gold team who won their semi final vs SISCon Saturday. They now take on a very strong CSA team in the final to be played next week. New families please take some time to peruse the ATAC blog as this will help orientate you with the wide variety of co-curricular programs ISM offers.

The season 3 tryouts schedule and the 3rd season practice schedule for MS/HS students is now posted on the tryouts A great way to stay in touch with the ISM ATAC program is and schedules pages of the (ATAC blog) and on notice to subscribe via RSS feed to the ATAC blog and also to folboards around school. low via twitter (see twitter feed on the blog home page). Please note- 2nd season practices for all teams will conclude next week Feb 4th! Saturday Community Tennis resumes Feb 15th through until the end of May. see the flyer on the blog for dates and details. This is open to ISM community members only, outside guests are not allowed. Contact Coach Czarina to book lessons with our ISM Tennis Academy coaches (http://atac.ism-online.org/atac/saturday-communitytennis/) THANK YOU ISM Community.. we now have our IASAS swim housing finalized. For those that are housing guest swimmers, letters with all the details have been sent home this week. ISM proudly hosts IASAS swimming from February 5 to9, 2014. It is going to be a great event! Stay in touch with all the action via www.iasas.asia. You can access the swimming site at ISM along with all the other sites including live stream links from other venues. Please come along and support our ISM swimmers who put in the long lonely hours following the black line. Lets cheer them on from poolside! Each Monday, I will post the weeks happenings and highlight important events for students and parents information on the ATAC blog and in the regular Friday parent bulletins.

GAME SCHEDULE PDF: (access to game schedule information): Information about all mid-week/weekend fixtures for ISM teams can be found via the ATAC blog. Please note the game schedule does change often due to involvement with many local schools so please check the page regularly to find out the latest information of where and when the Bearcats teams are playing. Click on schedules tab or the Bearcat logo to be directed to the power school secure site (http:// powerschool.ismanila.org/public/) You will need your power school user name and password to access the game schedule pdf.

The Bearcat Den (http://atac.ism-online.org/bearcatden/) is open for business, please drop by to check out the range of Bearcat products. We have a great team of volunteers who run the den and are always looking for more people to help out. If you are interested in joining a fanCongratulations to our 3 girls Touch teams who all won tastic group please contact any of our den members durtheir respective divisions at the season ending UP Invitaing den opening hours or please contact Carolyn Ching for tional Tournament. What a great finish to the season for details carolynqching@yahoo.com. We are always looking all teams and coaches. Our JV boys rugby teams finished for new volunteers and encourage parents from ES/MS 2nd and 3rd in the local league finals last Saturday with to join our group. The Bearcat den is now calling for volunour JV gold team losing in extra time to Clark Rugby Club teers to take on POR's (positions of responsibility) for next in a great final. The Varsity Boys B tennis team went unde- school year '14-15) as secretary, treasurer, volunteer coorfeated this year to win the ISTA League B division title and dinator, inventory/merchandise and snacks purchasing. If our Varsity Girls Basketball team continued their great you are interested drop an email to pekinm@ismanila.org season by winning the Hardeman Cup Tournament at Faith Academy on Saturday. Our JV Girls and Boys Basket- Have a great year at the Home of the Bearcats! ball teams took out 3rd and 4th place in the Hardeman Cup Division 2 tournament. Congratulations to the Varsity Regards, Boys Rugby team for winning the PRFU trophyon TuesMark Pekin day after school defeating BSM in a run away victory 50-7. Director of Athletics/Activities
MS/HS Sailfish Squads 5-7 have a shortened training schedule until IASAS. Training will be from 3:15 to 4:00 P.M. until Feb 9th.

UPDATE YOUR CONTACT DETAILS THROUGH THE ISM PARENT PORTAL

Dear Parents, We are pleased to inform you that your childs PowerSchool account may be accessed through the ISM Parent Portal. Aside from being a gateway to PowerSchool, the Parent Portal also provides information on school events, useful links, as well as child-specific academic blogs and student portfolios. Should you need to make any changes to your contact information, visit the Parent Portal and follow the steps below:

Leaving ISM?
For those students that will be withdrawing from International School Manila this school year (SY 13 -14), the following procedure applies: Parents are obliged to officially inform the Admissions Office in writing through a Withdrawal Notification Form at least fifteen (15) days prior to your childs last day of school.

For those leaving at the end of the school year, you MUST submit a Withdrawal Notification Form on or before May 09, 2014.
Failure to do so will lead to a deduction of US$1,000 from the Facilities Upgrade Deposit (FUD) in compensation for having held a space for the child and thus preventing the School from offering that space to another child prior to the summer holiday break. The Withdrawal Notification Form can be obtained from the Admissions Office or downloaded from the ISM website here. We hope that your child has had an enriching stay at ISM and wish you and your family the very best in the future.
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