Newsletter of International School Suva
The last day for our IB students
Counselors Ta l a n Corner oa
Volume 1
Do you remember your last day at school? It is such a significant event and yet the IB examinations which begin today are th e focus and for most of our Year 12 students leaving school does not seem quite real yet. It
14 February, 2014
25 May 2012
Electronic copy available at http://www.international.school.fj/docs/talanoa.pdf Electronic copy available at http://www.international.school.fj/docs/talanoa.pdf
Volume 8
Inside This Issue: * Principal’s Report * Counselors Corner * CAS * Library
* Notice * 2013 Examination Successes * Year 601 reflections * Primary Perspective
* Chair of Council Report * In the High School * PYP Attitude * PTFA Report
Principal’s Report It gives me great pleasure to welcome you all, new and old, to a new year at ISS. I have enjoyed meeting many of you at the welcome assembly and other functions this term. In addition to the ninety-four new students that have started we also welcome six new staff this term. Dona Baledravu has joined the PE department as a teaching assistant. He is an accomplished soccer and hockey player and brings over twenty years experience as a player and coach in these sports. Ashniel Bijay is an experienced physics and mathematics teacher of seven years standing who has a BSc (Physics and Mathematics), PGCE and has recently completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Physics. Before coming to ISS he was teaching at Laucala Bay Secondary School. Ravinesh Chand graduated from the University of the South Pacific with a BSc (Mathematics and Physics) and Graduate Certificate in Education in 2013. Whilst he has experience as a tutor in both mathematics and physics, ISS is his first teaching position. James McMorrow has completed his BEd (Primary) from the Australian Catholic University and has come to ISS to work in the primary learning support department. He has three and a half years experience working with young children, age 5-12, in a variety of educational settings. Amandine Neirinck has a MEd in French teaching from the University of New Caledonia and a BA in Human and Social Sciences from Toulouse-le-Mirail University, France. Before ISS she taught at the Alliance Française in Suva and worked as a tutor in New Caledonia. Sarah Raikabo has joined ISS as a reception teacher. She has a Bachelor‟s degree in Education (Primary) from the University of the Sunshine Coast and has extensive experience wor king with young children in schools and in the community, both in Australia and further afield. January also sees the school receive the results of the external year 10 and 12 examinations which our students took in October and November last year. We are delighted with their results and congratulate both the students and their teachers for their success. We are proud to announce that seventy percent of our Year 12 students achieved scores in the top thirty percent of all students obtaining the same high school graduation certificate in the Australian Capital Territory. Fifteen of our year 12 graduates also studied the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme and thirteen students achieved the diploma with two receiving certificates. Students from thi s graduating class have now been offered places to study in Fiji at the University of the South Pacific, in Australia at Macquarie University, Monash University, the University of Sydney, the University of New South Wales and the Sydney University of Technology, in New Zealand at the University of Auckland and in the United Kingdom at Nottingham Trent University. Many others are waiting to hear from universities around the world. The achievement of our year 12 students was mirrored with that of our year 10 students in their recent Cambridge International General Certificate in Secondary Education, IGCSE, examinations with 74% achieving five or more certificates with grades A*-C. This, our first year of compulsory year 10 IGCSE examinations for all students, compares very favourably with available data from international schools worldwide. The school year has started at full speed with information evenings, welcome cocktails and family nights. Amidst this we also had time to bury our 2014 time capsule during the „first pour‟ ceremony conducted at the school on Friday 7 th February. This ceremony saw the pouring of the first concrete pads in our new building and signifies that the excavation phase of the building is coming to an end. From now we should start seeing the building going up rather than us digging down. Last year saw the students, parents and staff of ISS express their thoughts about the school through our opinion surveys. The information from these surveys has been very useful as we work through the self study process we use for our WASC accreditation. We will continue to use this data as we formulate our whole-school action plan and are planning to include them as part of our annual reflection. Please follow this link to access a summary of the responses we received. We value your feedback and please feel free to contact me or any of the Heads of School with any suggestions for improvement, comments or concerns at any time. Finally the dates for our termly blood drives have been set with the first being Thursday 27 th February. You are all invited to give blood on this date. Anna Marsden Principal amarsden@international.school.fj