Lower School Newsletter 27  March 2023

HIS CALENDAR

                        DATES

Upcoming Event

*27-29 March   Book Fair                   *28 March     Student-Led Conferences               -no school. Parents attend with                 their child's at appointment.     *30 March      Coffee Morning 10.00am              Wellness and Academic Success   *31 March   Mid-term progress reports   *3-5 April  Spring break/tomb sweeping

2023-2024 dates                                *23 August -15 December -Semester 1 2023                                                 *09 January -21 June  -Semester 2 2024

Field trips-Units of inquiry in Action Students from Grade 5 connect to two local presentations and focus on how pieces are curated and audiences interact with the exhibits.This research is to assist them as they commence Exhibition.    

Grade 4 Assembly and Unit of inquiry collaboration with Art, Drama and Music as they explore ways to communicate.

                      SAVE THE DATE                                     A must for All Families                 STUDENT-LED CONFERENCES 

Dear Families,

We are excited and looking forward to welcoming you tomorrow to our Student-Led Conferences. Students and staff have been busy preparing their learning to share with you. Please arrive a few minutes earlier so that you can locate your child’s class and maybe have a drink and snack. Also, save time to visit the Book Fair in the Upper School library near the café.      

Students should wear their school uniform and always be under their parents’ care. Please note the playgrounds are out of bounds.

We suggest that you come by Didi tomorrow as we have limited designated parking near the ECE. If you are traveling by car, please make yourself aware of the public designated parking areas close to the school and use these. We continue to work with local authorities to help with these matters.

We look forward to seeing you and your child tomorrow. 

Kind regards,

Lynn

                          STUDENT-LED CONFERENCES- For all students EY-PYP 5

                                                Tuesday, 28 March

Dear Families,

We are very excited to invite you to our Student-Led Conferences on Tuesday, 28 March. Student-Led Conferences are the celebration and showcasing of your child’s learning and their ongoing portfolio of artifacts. Please place this special date in your diary and where possible attend as a family.

Each family will select a time for their child’s conference. Teachers will write to you outlining how the conference will be scheduled for your child’s class. With different ages and class numbers, there will be slight variations in the length of the conferences, lasting up to an hour. They will be held with small groups of students, up to five families at each time slot, to enable a relaxed and quieter setting for students to showcase their learning.

This is an important opportunity for your child to share their classroom program with you. Also, it is a time for your family to celebrate your child’s growth and plan learning and personal goals together. We encourage a ‘growth mindset’ that helps students understand that they can always change, grow and improve. In the PYP, understanding what you are learning, talking about it, reflecting on the following processes, and setting goals are essential skills that support lifelong learners. 

There will also be opportunities to visit the Specialist teachers and some of their learning spaces, while others will set up displays and interactive material in your child’s learning corridor. This can be at your leisure. Additionally, the library will be holding the Book Fair that you can also attend with your child. 

The purpose of the Student-Led Conference is to:

• Help students assume responsibility for their own learning by giving them the opportunity to lead a structured discussion with parents and family about their learning progress
• highlight key features of the student’s selected work in different curricula areas
• involve parents in their child’s learning by demonstrating classroom learning engagements and together set future goals.

We understand that it may be difficult for some families to attend, and we warmly welcome grandparents, ayis, or other family members to share your child’s learning. Students will deliver their work in English or, if required, the language families are most comfortable with to fully appreciate the work. For those new to Student-Led Conferences, your class teacher will provide support material to guide your questioning if you need assistance. Please note parents will be responsible for their children while they are on the school grounds.

Teachers are always happy to meet with parents if you have further questions you would like to discuss. Please contact your class teacher via email, and they will arrange an appointment to meet with you.

We look forward to having you join us to share in celebrating the unique growth and development of your child and the partnership we share together at HIS.

Kind regards,

Lynn Pendleton

Lower School Principal

                      Vice Principal's                        PYP Co-ordinator

Learner Agency: Children as agents in their own learning

Part Two: The Home

Last week we explored what learner agency is and how we promote it at HIS. This week, we will look at how you can help promote agency at home.

Firstly, a quick recap of what agency is and why it is important: agency is to do with childrens’ belief that they can affect an outcome and have an influence on their world. Agency can include having a voice, a say in what’s happening; choice, options within a situation; and ownership (responsibility and independence) over a situation. Sometimes your child will not be able to have all three elements to the same level; however, by being conscious about these three elements—and how we are providing opportunities for our children to use their agency and take responsibility for the consequences—we are helping our children to grow critical skills and supporting their health and well-being.

The benefits of helping a child to see themselves as agentic learners include:

· Fosters a sense of belonging and trust,

· Children are in less trouble at school,

· Children are less impulsive,

· Helps to regulate emotions,

· Children are more aware of why they do certain things and the consequences,

· Positive influence on health, well-being and adjustment,

· Positive influence on academic success,

· Develops leadership skills,

· Helps children move from decisions into action,

· Helps children advocate for themselves,

· Develops the idea that you can have ideas and not wait for others to tell you what to do,

· Helps children see the world from others’ points of view.

Students showing their agency at Student-Led Conferences

Tomorrow you will see your child take charge of their learning journey as they share with you what they have learned this year. They will also reflect on their strengths and areas of growth and take you through the process of learning. This event is an important moment for your child: an event that does not happen in a day of preparation but in a year of hard work, reflection and constant improvement. We encourage you to be present as your child explains what learning they have struggled with, how they overcame it and what is next for them.

Below are some useful questions and prompts to get them to explain their reasoning for their statements; these include:

· Tell me about x.

· What did you learn from this experience?

· What makes you say that?

· What evidence do you have to support this?

· What changed your thinking?

· What helped you learn x?

· What did you do well? What supported this?

· What would you change next time? Why?

· What are you most proud of? Why?

· What are your next steps? What do you need to help you get there? What can we do to help?

Eight tips to foster agency at home

To help you at home, consider what opportunities you can offer your child to give them some real experiences with using their agency to affect others and their world. Some ways you can continue to support your child use their agency at home include:

· Listen to your child (including verbal and non-verbal cues) and acknowledge that you have heard them. This might include reflecting back what they have said, building on to their thoughts, empathizing with them, and asking questions to find out more. Asking “What makes you say that?” or promoting with “Tell me more about it” will help children to expand their reasoning skills and ensure they feel heard. (Note: This does not mean you will always do what they want).

· Help them see what they can control (within limits). You could ask them to choose between two choices or within a range that is acceptable for your circumstances.

· Listen to the child’s opinion and ask them to give reasons. Use open-ended questions – what might the consequences be If we do x, what might the consequences be if we do y? Help them see the path forward by using questions.

· Encourage risk-taking, trying new things and learning from mistakes or failures.

· Promote your family values in decision-making. For example, if you value honesty, helping others, living a balanced lifestyle, that might influence how you make decisions.

· Be flexible and adapt routines to your child’s cues.

· Allow children to participate in routine tasks and give them responsibilities – such as setting the tables, packing their school bag, putting away toys, making the bed, washing dishes, cooking, etc.

· Set goals. help your child to set goals and how they will reach them and support them as needed. You can also share your goals and how you go about achieving them.

We look forward to welcoming you to school with your children tomorrow as your child leads you through their learning journey for the 2022-23 school year.

 Early Years Assembly

Inspired by watching the performances of many of the grade 3, 4 and 5 students who have visited the EY Assembly showcasing their fantastic talent from the recent Mandarin showcase, our Pre K students demonstrated we have plenty of talent in the ECE just waiting to perform !

CCA Garden Club harvesting their crops

Principal's Message

Dear Parents,

Grade 2 Assembly and Music, Drama, and Art Collaboration

It is beautiful to see how the PYP works with collaboration from the Specialist teachers working with the class teachers to enhance students' understanding of a concept such as Communication. 

Student Led Conferences

I look forward to meeting you tomorrow at one of the highlights of the LS year, Student-led Conferences.

This day is to celebrate all your children's learning and the power of talking about growth and the next steps with a loved one. I enjoy watching the excitement and nervousness as the students arrive to share learning with their parents. Families leave feeling so proud of the work and understanding their child has showcased. 

Coffee Morning This Thursday 10am  Ms. Ruth and Dr. Ayers 

 If you want your child to achieve all they can at school, please join this informative coffee morning that links wellness and academic success.

Moments 365

Thank you to the many parents using Moments 365 for contact with staff. As a reminder for important information or sensitive discussions, please use email to correspond.

Teachers have been updating their Moments 365 and would appreciate parents accessing their child's account and responding with a short response to any pictures or comments. 

I appreciate your support with this matter.

Spring Break

Please have a wonderful, safe Spring break shared with family and friends, and we look forward to seeing you on Thursday, 6 April.

Kind regards,

Lynn

Lynn Pendleton 

LS Principal

              Health and Safety Reminders               Care for our LS community

Wearing masks to enter the school is optional for students and staff. Masks will still be available for students who want to wear them. 

Please note all visitors must wear masks.

Temperature and hand sanitizer checks will still continue.

 Procedures and Protocols

We have a number of students with high temperatures this week. Please ensure that if your child is ill that they do not attend school If your child continues with a high temperature or remains unwell, please seek medical support. We ask that parents err on the side of caution and keep children at home until they have fully recovered. 

Please pay strict attention to your COVID/flu prevention protocols and monitor your health code status regularly.

Masks are optional on entry and can be removed when children are inside the school grounds.

Please note that if your child is absent due to COVID you must ensure they have a valid negative COVID test to reenter the school. Please forward your child's result to

lilyfan@hisdragons.org.cn or florali@hisdragons.org.cn

HOW TO CONTACT  TEACHERS WE ARE ONLY USING WECHAT FOR EMERGENCY SITUATIONS SUCH AS SCHOOL CLOSURES AND LOCKDOWNS

Moments 365 Help

Help with Moments 365 is available from Mr Emlyn Majoos (Mr.M) to ensure we have all parents using this platform.  If you need a Chinese or speaker of another language please contact Mr M.and we will arrange support.

emlynmajoos@hisdragons.org.cn

Contacting Teachers

We ask parents to contact teachers via Moments 365 or by email. Teachers are busy working with students, attending meetings, preparing class materials, and ensuring student safety. They infrequently look at their computers or mobile phones and may miss your message. For changes to pick-up arrangements or urgent news, please get in touch with the school secretaries, who are online all day.

ECE lilyfan@hisdragons.org.cn               LS main building florali@hisdragons.org.cn

Online teaching and Student/Teacher contact

For online teaching and correspondence between teachers and students we use TEAMS.

ACAMIS JUNIOR SWIM CHAMPIONSHIPS 

Huge CONGRATULATIONS to our young swimmers, who just pulled off the biggest event on our swim calendar this past weekend with 20 ACAMIS teams. We are very proud of their resilience, determination, and tireless energy to endure a long trip that quite honestly would have tested anyone’s strength to continue. Despite the challenges thrown at the team at the eleventh hour, the team made it work, and incredibly well! With teamwork, our 16 Dragons swimmers accumulated 53 Personal Bests in 2 days. “When the going gets tough, the tough HIS Dragons swimmers get going.” Fantastic job! 

A shoutout as well to the very special people who can always be counted on when things beyond our control hit the fan. Thank you! Parents and coaches, you guys are AWESOME! 

AWARDS 

Shirley Lin 

Girls 9-10 50 Meter Breaststroke: Silver Medal (42.64) 

Girls 9-10 50 Meter Backstroke: 4th Place (38.72) 

Girls 9-10 200 Meter Freestyle: 5th Place (2:46.93) 

Girls 9-10 100 Meter IM: 6th Place (1:24.56) 

Girls 9-10 100 Meter Freestyle: 6th Place (1:16.26) 

Coco Jin 

Girls 9-10 200 Meter Free: 7th Place (3:05.51) 

Pippa Willoughby, Rachel Wang, Shirley Lin, Coco Jin 

Girls 9-10 4x50 Meter Medley Relay: Bronze Medal (2:54.94) 

Lisa Wu, Lydia Yu, Helen Zhong, Amber Lam 

Girls 11-12 4x50 Meter Medley Relay: 6th Place (2:47.83) 

  Yihao Zhou, Ethan Yang, Jake Li, Flynn Yu 

Boys 9-10 4x50 Meter Medley Relay: 8th Place (3:08.17) 

Amber Lam, Allison Wang, Lisa Wu, Lydia Yu 

Girls 11-12 4x50 Meter Free Relay: 8th Place (2:20.48)   

Yihao Zhou, Ethan Yang, Jake Li, Flynn Yu 

Boys 9-10 4x50 Meter Free Relay: 6th Place (2:36.45) 

TEAM SCORES 

Girls – 7th place  

Boys – 14th Place 

Combined – 10th Place 

Help us congratulate our student-athletes: 

Boys U11 – Flynn Yu, Jake Li, William Lou, Ethan Yang, Yihao Zhou 

Girls U11 – Shirley Lin, Carol Zhong, Mable Lu, Coco Jin, Pippa Willoughby, Yuchen Wang 

Boys U13 – Peter Pan, Eachan Lu, Aditya Sharma 

Girls U13 – Amber Lam, Allison Wang, Lydia Yu, Lisa Wu, Helen Zhong, Akeelah Lyu 

PHOTOS – 2023 ACAMIS Junior Swim Championships 

Link: https://as.alltuu.com/album/1345455277/?from=qrCode&menu=live 

SCAN QR Code below 

 2023 ACAMIS SENIOR SWIM CHAMPIONSHIPS 

CONGRATULATIONS! 

HIS Dragons swim team had strong showings this past weekend at the 2023 ACAMIS Senior Swim Championships in Beijing. The 2 full day event resulted in the accumulation of 16 Relay and 8 Individual Meet records broken (2 from HIS Dragons courtesy of Tina Liu), 44 HIS Personal Bests, 3 Gold medals, 1 Silver medal, 1 Bronze medal, 5th and 12th place ribbons. It’s always heartwarming to see camaraderie grow, times drop, and goals achieved. HIS Dragons Swim Team had a blast! We hope to bring 15&Over swimmers next year. 

Help us congratulate our student-athletes: 

Boys 13-14: Harry Wang, Carlos Chu, Paweike Tukula, Derek Xu, Anderson Lai, David Lou, Divay Agarwal 

Girls 13-14: Tina Liu, Anna Lu, Naomi Xia, Junlin Yang, Sylvie Hao, Phoebe Spinks 

Awards  

Girls 13-14 200m Freestyle: Tina Liu - Gold Medal (New ACAMIS Senior Swim Record – 2:17.44), Naomi Xia - 12th Place (2:56.81)  

Girls 13-14 100m Backstroke: Tina Liu - Gold Medal (New ACAMIS Senior Swim Record – 1:05.20) 

Boys 13-14 200m Freestyle: Harry Wang - Bronze Medal (2:06.59)  

Boys 13-14 100m Butterfly: Harry Wang - Bronze Medal (1:06.72) 

Girls 13-14 200m IM: Tina Liu - Silver Medal (2:33.16)  

Girls 13-14 100m Freestyle: Tina Liu - Gold Medal (1:00.29)  

Boys 13-14 100m Freestyle: Harry Wang - 5th Place (1:02.80) 

Girls 13-14 200m Freestyle Relay: Tina Liu, Naomi Xia, Anna Lu, Junlin Yang 5th Place (2:08.17) 

PHOTOS – 2023 ACAMIS Senior Swim Championships 

Link: https://pan.baidu.com/s/1RI12eTHgi-2yJRoaKKdkDQ 

Password: 2023 

SHANGHAI SWIM LEAGUE ROUND 4 AWARDS 

Girls 9-10 50m Freestyle – Gold Medal - Shirley Lin 

Girls 9-10 50m Backstroke – Silver Medal - Shirley Lin, 4th Place - Carol Zhong 

Girls 9-10 50m Breaststroke – Silver Medal - Shirley Lin, 5th Place - Carol Zhong 

Girls 9-10 200m Medley Relay – 4th Place (Shirley Lin, Carol Zhong, Kaho Inoue, Scarlett Wawrzuta) 

Girls 9-10 200m Freestyle Relay – 6th Place (Shirley Lin, Carol Zhong, Pippa Willoughby, Kaho Inoue) 

Boys 11-12 200m Freestyle Relay – 7th Place (Richard Xu, Aditya Sharma, Astin Hong, Jean Mao) 

Age Group 9-10 Overall – 3rd Place Trophy 

Congratulations to everyone involved and well done for your hard work! 

NEW DRAGONS SWIM TEAM MEMBER  

Kari Amalia Borsdorf (G10) - Gold 

Simeon Borsdorf (G7) - Pre-Gold  

Elli Joleen Borsdorf (G5) - Pre-Gold 

Nikolas Borsdorf (G2) - Silver 

UPCOMING SWIM MEETS: 

April 22-23 – Shanghai Swim League Championships at Shanghai American School – Pudong 

May 27 – HISAC Swim Meet at The Wave HIS 

CLICK THE LINK BELOW for Swim Meet Results 

https://www.his-china.org/extend/swim-team/results 

Email swimming@hisdragons.org.cn for inquiries, and visit the Aquatics Swim Meet Calendar for updated events and practice schedules. 

CCA INFORMATION   

Please visit the Co-Curricular page on the HIS website for more information https://www.his-china.org/extend/co-curricular-activities-clone.  

You can also send an email to activities@hisdragons.org.cn if you have any inquiries. 

PICK UP OF STUDENTS DELAYS  AND IMPORTANT MESSAGES TO TEACHERS

Please assist staff by advising us early (before lunchtime) wherever possible, if you need your child to do something different at their usual pick-up time and location. Teachers focus on working and engaging their class while maintaining a safe environment. They get to their computers sporadically and may miss changes. In addition, some classes are with Specialist staff for the last lesson and bring the students to the pick-up locations. They may be unaware of last-minute changes.

If you need to make a late change to plans, I'd suggest you send a message to our Lower School secretaries, florali@hisdragons.org.cn or in the ECE lilyfan@hisdragons.org.cn, and they can pass on your message.

GIN CLUB NEWS

HIS GIN Club is collecting plastic!

Please, join to HIS GIN club members and recycle the plastic at home. They will be creating an artwork piece while supporting multiple recycle efforts around the community.

               INTERNATIONAL DAY                A HIGHLIGHT OF THE HIS CALENDAR!

HIS International Day!   -Save the date, Saturday, April 29- 

What is International Day?

It is our traditional event open to HIS students, parents, faculty, staff members, and the wider HIS community. During the event, we all represent our cultural backgrounds participating in the “Parade of Nations” followed by the Dragon and Lion Dance, traditional performances, activities, food from all over the world, and much more. This year we will be celebrating our 20th anniversary as well!

If you would like to organize as a country and participate in any way to celebrate your cultural background and community (for example, sharing traditional food, preparing games, performing on stage, or sharing celebrations from your country) please, contact Ms. Andrea Stubbs.     

SAVE THE DATE!

The Adams Family, a New Musical Comedy – Save the date, Saturday, May 06 @ the HIS Theater.

An Upper School musical production for the whole family!

                   Lost Property              

Please label your child's jackets, coats, umbrellas, waterbottles......everything! It is very worrying to see the number of unclaimed items, some of them brand new, but without a name and the ability to find the owner! We will try and locate the owner if the item has a name on it! Please help us and avoid needing to buy new items that could be located, if only we knew who it belonged to.

            LIBRARY NEWS          

Dear Families,

Our Spring Book Fair starts Monday March 27th and lasts until Wednesday March 29th! We are excited to welcome you and have you explore all the lovely books on offer. The event will be held in the upper school library. See you there!

This week the spotlight is on another Battle of The Books, the book is “Hope – Project Go Green” written by Alyssa Milano with Debbie Rigaud. This is a great fiction book for Grade 5 as they prepare for exhibition. It may be a fiction book, but it deals with real life problems and how even children can help their communities and the earth. Here is the synopsis of the book:

Hope attends a camp where she learns about going green – and how to protect the earth. She leaves the camp determined to save the world. Hope starts at home by instructing her family to be more conscious of their waste and she gets her school to add more recycling bins.

But will Hope's plans to help the planet backfire?

Congratulations to all the students who have read enough books to earn a keychain! Excellent work and keep on reading! Grade 2 students need to have read and completed the quizzes for 7 books, Grade 3 students can read up to 10 books and Grade 4 and 5 students can read 12 books to win a prize. Remember you only need to read 5 books to enter the voting round!

If you would like to contact the libraries, please use the email addresses listed below:

ECE Library, Ms. Ivy – ecelibrary@hisdragons.org.cn

Lower School Library, Mrs. Majoos and Ms. Amy – lslibrary@hisdragons.org.cn

Upper School Library, Ms. Sara– uslibrary@hisdragons.org.cn

Happy reading!

Best wishes,

Mrs. Majoos

Lower School Librarian

Parent and Student ID Cards All students and parents should have an HIS Identification Card. Please review the information on the website to submit your photo to the secretary for ID card generation. HIS ID card information

DRAGONS WEAR THEIR UNIFORM WITH PRIDE EACH DAY!

School Uniform

Please wear our school uniform with pride each day, and we seek your support in having your child dressed in the complete uniform each day. We will notify you if it is a special day to dress up; otherwise, students should be in uniform. Also, please have your child wear their PE kit on swim days (Grade1-5). Please label your child's clothing to help us return it to you. We often find many items without names, and the students cannot recognize their belongings.    

Purchasing School Uniform

Families can purchase items at the Dragon Shop. It is open

Monday to Friday from 

9.00 am-11.00 am and 1.00 pm-3.00 pm

For more information, please contact the dragon shop:

olivexu@hisdragons.org.cn

                         LS ADMINISTRATION TEAM                     

Lynn Pendleton

Lower School Principal 

Aaron Ayers

Lower School

Vice Principal

Student Welfare

Cilla Giannopoulos

Lower School

Vice Principal 

PYP Co-ordinator

                                SCHOOL LUNCH                           

See this week's cafeteria menu

HIS Mission Statement

We provide international learners with opportunities to pursue academic and personal excellence within a caring community.