ISSUE # 17

SY 20152016

MIDDLE SCHOOL
WEEK OF:

Friday Bulletin

Weekly Publication for Middle School Parents

JANUARY 11 TO 15

Inside this issue:

Dear Middle School Parents,
Happy New Year, and all the best for 2016 to you and your families. It has been entertaining and enlightening to have so many conversations with students and teachers
this week hearing about everyone's travel adventures or time together connecting
with family and friends during our end of semester break. It seems we have covered
the globe over the recent break and many also enjoyed time exploring our host country.

Parent Community
Association

Guidance Office

After-School Activities

Athletics and Activities

Operations & Security

ISM Upcoming Events

We welcome our new families that have come for the start of second semester.
NEED TO KNOW:

Teachers are now in the process of finalizing report card achievement and learning
habit levels along with writing report card comments. Semester one report cards will
be available for parents on January 20th, 2016 - you will be able to access a pdf copy
of the report card through the online parent portal and power school, in advance of
this we will send out a guide with screen shots for how to access your child's report
cards. We will not be sending out hard copies of the report card. If you have any
questions please contact the Middle School Office.
We will have a Middle School new parent coffee on Thursday morning from 7:45 9:00 in the Little Theater. We will share with you some information about Middle
School and provide the opportunity to meet other new parents and members of the
PCA.
NICE TO KNOW:

Next week January 11-15th PCA Author in Residence, NY times bestseller, Alex London, will be at ISM. The week kicks off with a Parent coffee in the Little Theater at
8am. All welcome.
Towards the end of the month January 29th and 30th at 6pm is our annual Middle
school play. The performance this year of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' will be outside in the High school courtyard. The weather this time of year is perfect for an outdoor performance and we hope that many students and families are able to join us.
School photos ordered and taken from last semester are due to arrive this month and
will be distributed to students through their Advisory classes. Parents will be informed
of the distribution date through a future parent bulletin.

MS Upcoming Events:
JANUARY - FEBRUARY:
PARENT COFFEE - ALEX LONDON
Monday, January 11
MS NEW PARENT COFFEE
Thursday, January 14
MS PLAY
January 29 - 30
G4-5 PARENT TRANSITION MEETING
Wednesday, February 3
NATIONAL HOLIDAY
Monday, February 8
CLASSROOM WITHOUT WALLS
February 15 - 19
PARENT COFFEE - LITERACY
Tuesday, February 23
NATIONAL HOLIDAY
Thursday, February 25

As we begin second semester we would like to share with parents that over the past couple of years in Elementary and
Middle School a group of parents have come together to organize after school lessons for students to further develop
and support Mother Tongue language development. This has been parent driven with the hiring of instructors in the
language and these have taken place in Chinese, Dutch, French, Hindi, German, Spanish, and Russian. If you would like
to find out more information about what classes are being offered this year or how to set up a course please contact
Mei Dacer our after school activities secretary (AFAC -afac@ismanila.org) who is located in the ES office area and she
can put parents in touch with the other parent liaisons for the different languages.
We are looking forward to a great second semester ahead!
Yours in Education,
Rachel Harrington, Middle School Principal
Amanda Pekin, Middle School Assistant Principal

Dear Middle School Parents,

The After-school Activities Program for Middle School (MS AFAC) Season 1 and 2 will end January 29th. We will
be done with tryouts and CWW first after Season 2 finishes that is why Season 3 will start later in February.
For Season 3 and 4 activities, please see dates below:
Season 3: February 22 to March 22, 2016
Season 4: April 4 to June 3, 2016
For more info on activities and relevant information on sign ups, activity offerings, AFAC guidelines, dates and
seasons, please visit: http://ms-activities.ism-online.org/
The REGISTRATION FORM is filled-in online (first come, first served) which will go live on the blog address
above on January 11th, 4:00 pm.
ONLINE SIGN-UP DATES:
January 11 to 15, 2016 for 3rd & 4th Season Activities
All students still need to sign up again if they wish to continue on the year-round activities, first come, first
served.
Thanks,
AFAC Office

Happy New Year Bearcats and welcome back to school for For our Sailfish swim team program please check the Sail2016.
fish blog for information. http://sailfish.ism-online.org/
The S2 practice schedule which runs until the end of Janu- Please note the practice times for ATAC programs for SY
ary is posted on notice boards around school and on the 15-16 are as follows: ATAC all year round teams- 3:15ATAC blog schedules page.
4:30. See schedule for our All year round
teams program here...
Season 3 (S3) tryouts will begin first week of Feb, announcements will be posted on notice boards after the
All HS seasonal teams practice from 3:05- 4:50pm each
break. ATAC S3 sports for MS are Badminton,
day. MS seasonal teams practice 3:15-4:45pm. In order to
Track&Field, Mixed Touch and Co-ed Softball. For HS S3
clear the campus prior to 5pm all after school programs
sports are Golf, Track&Field, Softball and Badminton.
will conclude by 4:50pm or earlier. The last bus is
4:55pm this is due to the ever increasing traffic concerns
Upcoming events:
in our area.
Jan 8 HS Basketball teams at Faith
Parents and students please take some time to peruse
Jan 9 Varsity touch at Faith (am games)
the ATAC blog it has a wide variety of information and
Jan 9 Varsity tennis at CSA/MS tennis at ISM
links to our sports and activities program. If you have any
Jan 15 HS Basketball at Brent
Jan 16 Puma Touch League Finals at Brent (all teams) questions regarding the competitive program of sports at
ISM after reading the information on the blog please send
Jan 16 ISM HS swim invitational
an email to pekinm@ismanila.org and I will endeavor to
Jan 20 IASAS Send off assembly/send off lunch.
assist you as best I can.
Jan 27-31 IASAS Rugby/Touch at JIS, Tennis at ISB,
Swimming at SAS, Basketball at ISKL
The ATAC game schedule pdf which is updated regularly
Feb 1-5 S3 tryouts week for MS/HS teams
by Triz Gonzalez (ATAC Athletics Coordinator) gives the

Feb 11 S2 HS sports awards night

most up to date information on where/when and who
our Bearcat teams will be playing throughout the school
ISM Robotics Results. Congratulations to ISM Robotics
year. Access to the game schedule is now via the ISM parteam members who participated in the Vex championships at Taipei American School just prior to the semester ent portal not via power school as in the past. A navigation guide is available here. ATAC Game Schedule Users
break. The ISM freshman team was part of an alliance
Guide. Access the parent portal via this link, log in with
that won tournament champion. The sophomore team
your user name/password and then look for the ATAC
won the 'Amaze Award' and as our strongest team was
Game Schedule tab under the left side quick links. Don't
chosen to represent ISM at the World Championships in
Kentucky, USA in April. See full results at- blog post of the forget to refresh the pdf page each time it opens so you
access the most current schedule. Please note this schedresults here.
ule does change often and at short notice due to involvement with many local schools and organizations. Check it
Freshman team (tourney champs): Mack Crowe, David
regularly for the most up to date information. For security
Zhang, Jericho Bantigue, and Yupang Yuan. Sophomore
purposes....access to the ATAC game schedule pdf must
Team (winners of Amaze award and World Champ
be linked via the secure parent portal and details should
spot): Ashish Tutakne, Ishan Pradhan, Aayush Gupta,
not be shared with non ISM community members.
Abhinav Bathula.
Well done to our ISM Table Tennis juniors and midgets
teams who won the silver and champion titles at the local
PRADA Table Tennis tournament for 2015-16 before the
holiday break. Champion Team members- Joshua G, Alexis B, Takao S, Apoorv P, Sirpi, and Shamir.
Silver Team members - Johsua T, Iasson.B, Tigha. M,
Charles. T, Chris T, Ashwin B.

Bearcat Den- drop by our fantastic spirit store. Bearcat

Den hours of operation- 7am-4pm Mon-Fri.
Best Regards,
Mark Pekin
Director of Athletics and Activities

A few reminders from Operations and Security

Access and parking within the campus are important security and safety issues. For the wellbeing of all members of the ISM community, those
entering the school campus are requested to take
note of the information and procedures outlined
below.

Due to parking restrictions, and in the interests of

security, it will not be open in the afternoon for
pick-ups. During the time it is open, it will be under the supervision of members of the ISM Guard
Force.

Drivers should stop adjacent to the paved area and

students should alight from the right side of their
Vehicular Access
vehicle. The driver should then move off, clearing
During drop-off and pick-up times, vehicles may
the space for other vehicles dropping off students.
enter the campus through Gates 2 and 3. Those
Under no circumstances should a student be
entering through Gate 2 should proceed to the
dropped off from the middle lane. This is dangerdrop off area and, once the student has alighted or
ous as the student would need to walk in front of
boarded, they should exit via Gate 1. Those vehianother vehicle. Drivers are reminded that traffic
cles entering through Gate 3 must turn into the
regulations forbid parking on the roads around
covered parking area and use the designated dropISM. Therefore, vehicles should only be stopping
off areas. All vehicles must exit through Gate 1.
for the brief time it takes for a student to alight.
Please note that Gate 2 may only be used by those Drivers must not wait for anybody to return to the
drivers and passengers who have an ISM ID card
vehicle.
and who are in a vehicle displaying a valid ISM vehicle sticker.
ID Cards
ID cards should be worn at all times while on camAlternatively, vehicles entering through Gate 3 may
pus. If you have not been issued an ID card, or you
park in the covered car park. The spaces reserved
have lost it, you should obtain one by visiting the
for parent-driven cars should only be used by those
security office and completing the appropriate apvehicles which are driven by parents themselves.
plication form.
Vehicles in which parents are traveling, but which
are driven by a driver, should not use these spaces.
Vehicle Checks
Rather, they should park elsewhere in the covered
The practice of inspecting vehicles will continue.
car park or make use of the outside spaces next to
During off-peak hours, all vehicles will be checked
the power center.
before they are allowed to enter the campus.
Visitors to ISM must enter through Gate 3. There is
During peak hours (drop off and pick-up times), all
an area for short-stay visitor parking near Gate 1.
vehicles without valid stickers and randomly selected vehicles with stickers will be asked to undergo
The Pedestrian Gate
an examination.
The pedestrian gate is located in the perimeter
fence mid-way between Gate 1 and Gate 2. There Whether an examination is conducted or not, it is
is a paved area between the road and the perime- important that the security staff at the gates are
ter fence, allowing easy access to the gate. The
able to identify the occupants of vehicles entering
pedestrian gate is solely for the entry of members the campus; therefore IDs must be clearly disof the ISM Community at the beginning of the
played. Vehicles with tinted windows must roll
school day. It will only be open between 7:00 am down windows to allow a clear view of the interior
and 7:45 am (8:00 am to 8:45 am on Wednesdays). of the vehicle.
5

Drivers, Helpers and Bodyguards

Drivers, helpers and bodyguards should not wait
on campus for students throughout the school day.
After dropping off students they should exit the
school grounds and not return earlier than 30
minutes before dismissal time. Those who repeatedly fail to comply with the regulation will have
their access privilege suspended.

Security Staff Directions

Our security team is endeavoring to make the
school as safe and secure an environment as possible for all members of our community.
We ask that everybody cooperate with us in this
important task. In particular, all those entering our
campus are requested to comply with any directions given to them by members of our guard
force.

Only those vehicles carrying parents or other people with business within the school will be allowed
to return to the campus before the scheduled pickup time.
If you are confused or unclear as to the purpose of
such instructions, please seek clarification from the
There are designated areas for unaccompanied
security office. Please note that it is the parents
drivers, yayas, helpers and security escorts to wait responsibility to advise their staff accordingly.
for parents and students. Unless specifically authorized, they may not enter any other area. In the Thank you for your cooperation. We are looking
interest of security, and to prevent congestion at
forward to another great year at International
the pedestrian entrances to the covered parking
School Manila.
area, parents are requested to emphasize to their
employees the importance of cooperating with the
security staff and remaining in the appropriate are- Best wishes,
as.
MIKE FLYNN
Director
Termination of Employment
Operations & Security
In the event of the termination of service of a family employee, parents are asked to secure the former employees ISM ID card and return it to the
Security office. If this is not possible, it is important that the Security Office is still informed of
the change of circumstances.
Firearms
All members of the ISM community are reminded
that it is strictly forbidden for firearms to be
brought onto the campus. This includes concealed
weapons carried by bodyguards for close protection. Any person arriving at the school with a firearm should inform the gate guard, and arrangements will be made for the weapon to be safely
and securely stored during the visitors stay.

Dear ISM Parents,

New York Times bestselling author, Alex London, will be at ISM
January 11-15, 2016, kindly
sponsored by the ISM PCA.
He will be working with grades 3
-12 during his week with us. He
has written numerous titles for
elementary, middle, and high
school students, both fiction
and nonfiction.
Please join us for a Parent
Coffee on Monday, January 11th
at 8am, to hear Alex give an
overview of his books, purchase
titles, and have a chance to
have them signed for you or
your students.

REGISTRATION LINK
You don't want to miss this
event!
Kind regards,
ISM Professional Learning Office