The Tiger, 26th November 2021
Head of School Message
Greetings Community!
We have recently received a fair amount of unseasonal rain. Last Friday, we received a mandate from the State Government to close schools.
We have always been prepared for such emergencies, more so during the pandemic, so we were able to continue uninterrupted instruction online.
Our Parent-Teacher Conferences ensued without disruption as well.
Travel restrictions have been opening up worldwide. We realize that many from our Stonehill community will be travelling to destinations around the world during the Christmas break. That said, we know that different countries and regions worldwide are experiencing a resurgence of the Covid virus. To help mitigate any spread of the virus at School and throughout our community, we hope to have a plan in place prior to reopening school on January 10th, 2022. More information will be forthcoming next week.
Today is Professional Development Day. Our talented teachers and staff were hard at work learning and sharpening their skills as instructors, researchers, and educators. The Primary division focussed on Solo Taxonomy and the Secondary school focussed on Differentiation. Professional Development days are integral for our teachers' growth and development in order to provide the best for our students.
Just as a reminder, if you have any non-academic related questions or queries please contact our parent support helpline at parent.support@stonehill.in.
Most sincerely,
Dr. Brian Brumsickle
Head of School
Primary School
What a great way to start December!
Our banners welcoming our learners back to campus full time, will be up on Monday.
Every child will receive a treat and we will celebrate in the best of style by committing ourselves to our learning with all of our classmates.
It will be a day of complete and utter joy! It has been way too long for us to be apart but now, we are one again.
Here are some reminders now that we are back at school full time:
Sleep
Please make sure that your child is getting enough sleep. Children cannot participate in a full day programme if they are not well rested. Here are the recommended sleep times by age. A sleep routine is important for all of us, more so for children.
Breakfast
One of the key issues we are facing is children who have got used to eating when they wish - grazing, to use a term. We have increased food at break time to accommodate this. However, making sure your child eats breakfast that includes a protein, ensures that they are “brain-ready” for the day.
Professional Learning Day
Teachers came together today to collaboratively develop their understanding of the SOLO Taxonomy - our new grading system. They investigated the Design Cycle, evaluated the skills continuums of the upgraded Speaking and Listening curriculum and utilised visible thinking strategies to improve teaching and learning in our classrooms.
Have a wonderful weekend,
With best wishes,
Karen Crooke
Primary School Principal
PYP Coordinator
The Art of Noticing
Last week, The P5 students watched caterpillars turning into butterflies, the P4 students watched seeds sprouting and growing into nourishing food, and the P1 and P2 students watched snails carrying their shells.These are just a few examples of extraordinarily beautiful occurrences in nature that made our young inquirers slow down, enjoy, and explore everything the natural world has to offer.
The art of noticing is a gift that will last a lifetime. It’s powerful when we slow down and take the time to notice the little things that are often overlooked in our busy lives, such as clouds moving, the colours of a rainbow, leaves blowing in the wind or observing how things in the natural world change over time, e.g. same flower changing everyday. Sharing these small moments with our children encourages them to develop an awareness and appreciation for the world around them. This can lead to the desire for inquiry and deeper understanding. By getting outside, showing enthusiasm for new discoveries, asking questions about observations, and modelling ways to research the answers we don’t know, we build a positive attitude towards science.
One of the attributes of the IB Learner Profile is being an inquirer. “Inquirers develop their natural curiosity. They acquire the skills necessary to conduct research and show independence in learning. They actively enjoy learning and this love of learning will be sustained throughout their lives.” The skill of noticing is the first important step into becoming a successful lifelong learner.
Zita Joyce
PYP Coordinator
Primary Focus
It’s been a very busy few weeks in PE. We have been busy getting the students used to routines, staying safe, working individually and in pairs but mainly having fun and playing a variety of games.
The P1-P3 students have been focusing on different FUNdamental Movement skills, problem solving, running games and yoga poses.
The P4 and P5 students have been solving different challenges individually and in pairs. The focus has been working together as a team to overcome a challenge.
The P1-P5 students worked on their hand eye coordination, throwing, catching and dribbling skills. The students have adapted to lessons in school, listening and following instructions, working together and persevering different activities.
Samantha Mitchell
PE Teacher
It’s a great relief to see the students and teachers back on campus. We have had the time to learn and explore many things at school. In the first two weeks we had fun with the ice breaking sessions for the P6-P8 students. We are now getting adjusted to the increased physical, mental and emotional load. Currently, the P6-P8 students are working on problem solving activities.
Avinash Kumar
PYP Physical and Health Education
PYP Counsellor
Helpful Hints for Preparing Children to Return to School Full Time
We are excited to have all our learners back on campus everyday, starting next week. Every transition has its own set of challenges and moving from a blended to a full time structure will come with its fair share of challenges. Nonetheless, the best we can do is ensure our kids are provided the right support at this juncture. Here are a few tips:
Share vital information
Children feel safe, comfortable, and more in control when they have enough information about what to expect. Having received official and detailed communication from school, make sure you pass on the necessary information to your child in a way that they understand it without getting overwhelmed.
Set and follow new routines
Children were used to different routines through the pandemic, and now with no school days at home, routines are bound to change again. Going to bed early, eating meals at the same time, getting enough time to play, are all equally important. Children thrive on routine. Make sure you follow one consistently.
Be prepared for pushback
There is definitely excitement in the air about coming back to school full-time but there also is a chance that a five day week at school might initially be overwhelming for some children. There may be tears and tantrums. Listen to your child’s concern, talk them through it when they are better regulated and are willing to have a conversation.
Empathise with them, but also know when and how to say “no” if you have to.
Ask the right questions
We all feel the need to be seen and heard. It is no different for our kids. When they get home from school, don’t just ask them how their day was or if they liked their lunch. Be specific. Ask them what made them smile in school, who they sat with for lunch, what was the hardest essential agreement to follow that day, what is something they know today that they didn’t know yesterday, and maybe even who they showed kindness to that day.
Neeti Sarkar
PYP Counsellor
Secondary School
Reigniting our Mission Statement
The pandemic and enforced school closures impacted education in many different ways. Thankfully, teachers and students were able to use technology effectively to ensure that academic learning continued while campus was closed.
However, for a school that promotes and believes in a ‘broad’ curriculum, our biggest challenge was to provide students with meaningful opportunities to engage in sports and the arts. Hopefully, this difficult phase is coming to an end now.
Building on the success of the cross-country club before Diwali, this week sees the beginning of a new competitive sports season. The students from M1-D2 have signed up for Track and Field and Boys and Girls Football tournaments. The teams will train over the coming three months and, fingers crossed, will compete with other international schools in Bangalore in February. For now, it seems sensible to focus on ‘outdoor’ sports rather than any activities in confined indoor spaces.
It was also pleasing to watch a successful M4 Drama production just before Diwali. Although much more low key than in pre-Covid times, we were able to run a short production with a limited grade-level audience so that our drama students were able to share their work and experience performing live. Last week, our M3 students displayed their Art work in the MYP Courtyard. It’s been delightful to see the work produced by our students.
This week, we had our M5 Drama production, again with a grade-level audience. None of this is easy, and sometimes it feels as though we’re lifting a very heavy weight trying to run events and activities with covid restrictions. However, there seems to be a great deal of motivation and energy from both the students and the teachers in the Secondary School to start making things happen again. We need to find ways to say ‘yes’ to as many proposals as possible to begin to recreate the memories that we all enjoyed prior to March 2020.
Next up, will be some student-led events closer to the winter holiday. Expect to see a winter dance, a winter bazaar (or something of that sort!), bake sales, awareness campaigns, new clubs being formed, and whatever else our student body comes up with.
Joe Lumsden
Secondary School Principal
Secondary Focus
Swimming
One activity the rain hasn’t put a stop to is swimming! It’s been brilliant to have our students back in the pool and enjoying their swimming lessons. The students are following the clearly communicated guidelines to ensure that everyone remains safe.
The students have been working on understanding the importance of adopting a ‘streamline position’ and focusing on developing their practical understanding and application of freestyle, breaststroke and backstroke techniques. They have also been given the opportunity to develop their interpersonal skills by giving and receiving individual feedback based around the learning outcomes. Taking on different roles within the lesson has really helped students consolidate their understanding of the taught concepts.
The M1, M2 and M3 students have been focusing on invasion games. We have covered a variety of sports including basketball, football, capture the flag, danish longball and benchball. Our focus as a PE department has been on the wellbeing of the students, giving them opportunities to reconnect with their peers and be physically active in a purposeful learning environment. We have been focusing on developing the five Approaches to Learning Skills (ATLs) which are:
We have also embraced the water again, focussing on eliminating those fears that may have built up due to swimming pools being closed for so long. Learning to be a competent swimmer is such an important life skill. The students have shown great commitment during the start of our swimming unit and we look forward to building upon the excellent progress made to date.
M4 Summative Task
The second unit of the year for M4 students has been invasion games. The sports played during the unit include basketball, football, capture the flag and benchball. Through these sports, the students have developed and tested their understanding of adapting strategies and formations based on the strengths and weaknesses of their team members and the opposition team. The students are creating short videos to analyse their own performances, evidence their learning, and to demonstrate the individual and team tactics being employed in different game situations. It has been great to see high levels of enthusiasm and engagement during the unit as students have been able to play team sports again.
M5 upcoming PHE e-Portfolio
This week, the M5 students will be introduced to the PHE e-Portfolio. The unit title is - ‘The Joy of Movement’, which we will be exploring through the medium of Yoga. The students will need to complete 4 tasks, which assess a) knowledge and understanding, b) planning for performance, c) applying and performing and d) reflecting and improving performance. This is a project based assessment task that will be completed by mid March.
The Secondary PHE Team
Language Acquisition
While there have been many outstanding experiences in the Spanish classes, we have been particularly excited about the M1 and M2 beginners group. The students have shown that having fun and being creative go hand in hand.
One of the most exciting things we’ve seen come out of this group was their outstanding comic strips, telling stories about their friends and family. This was a project completed in September 2021. The students made this project their own, with some of them choosing to show off their drawing skills and do the entire project by hand. Some students got creative with their technology skills, and used a wide variety of tech tools.
Always eager to help each other, the “experts” were regularly helping their classmates to make the most of their chosen tools, for this high quality authentic assessment task.
Moving on to M3 and M4, the French, Chinese and Spanish students have been working in small groups to plan a seven to ten day school trip to another country.
The French students chose a francophone destination and will organise the whole itinerary, including detailed information about every aspect of the trip. This includes but is not limited to all accommodation, food, travel within the country, cultural activities, and complete costs per participant. This is a great way for our learners to understand budgeting and what there is to discover in the francophone world. Once all the groups have finished, they will present it to their classmates and the best trip will be selected by their peers.
The M5 Chinese language acquisition students are doing a practical and integrated unit project related to “Technology and our lives”. This learning opportunity consists of students critically examining the information technology they are allowed to use according to our school policy, with the final aim of analyzing and evaluating whether usage of computers, mobile phones and other devices are effectively implemented during school time.
Upon completion, the students will share their findings with the Educational Leadership Team in order to provide suggestions on how to improve the usage of technology in school. Of course, the teacher will need to help present the findings, since all student work is being conducted and produced in Chinese!
The Language Acquisition Team
Boarding
Afternoon activities have increased and you can see students playing football, basketball, badminton or using the gym after school.
On Friday 12th November, First Aid training was organised for faculty and Admin staff which was conducted by American Hearts Association.
I particularly enjoyed this course as it was relevant, informative, engaging and packed with useful life saving information. I was very impressed with the practice sessions on resuscitation, CPR and choking.
In the evening a ‘Trashion Show’ was organised for the boarders. Our students created cool new fashion out of waste materials like newspapers, garbage bags and silver foil. The goal was to experiment with creative ideas in fashion design and encourage the development of eco-friendly products. The models were D2 students who walked the ramp. Points were awarded to each group. Thank you to all the participants.
On the 13th of November, the senior boys went on a 5km hike around Tarahunsie lake chaperoned by Chef Arjun, Mr. Glen and Ms.Glenda.Despite the inclement weather and muddy conditions, they had fun exploring the local flora and fauna. On our return, we visited the Embassy Riding School stables. The boys had a wonderful experience.
Basketball and badminton training has started twice a week for our boarders and we hope to have a boarding team for both the sports next semester. The training sessions are being led by Mr.Wayne and Mr. Lobsang.
Congratulations to one of our boarders, Aditya who was the first runner up at the U18 50Km Bicycle Championship held in Bangalore on the 14th of November. We are proud of our Tigers! Well done!
Glen Johnson
Head of Boarding
Whole School News
Let’s Do More (LDM)
A Sports Update
Cross Country
On the 25th of October, our Cross Country team competed in an international competition hosted virtually by the Anglo American School in Moscow. Thirty international schools from twenty six countries submitted their results to AAS Moscow. Our team, coached by John Browne, had very respectable results. Ranjiv, M1 finished 9th out of 157 middle school boys and Anushka, D2 finished 12th out of 88 high school girls. The other Stonehill top runners in their grade level were Maia, M1 who finished 44th out of 158 middle school girls and Zoran, M4 who finished 119th out of 134 participants. The coaches also had a competition, and John Browne placed 6th out of 32 runners.
The team results were as follows. The high school girls placed 7th out of 30 teams and the middle school girls placed 16th out of 30 teams. The high school boys placed 20th out of 30 teams and the middle school boys placed 18th out of 30 teams. So proud of all the participants as many reported their personal best. Congratulations to all the runners!
Winter Season Tryouts
The Tryouts for Track and Field and Football for both boys and girls in middle school have begun. We had over 100 athletes competing for limited positions this season. It was decided by the Bangalore Activities and Athletics Schools Conference (BAASC) member schools to move cautiously in resuming competitive sports during this COVID transition phase. Therefore, we are limited in the numbers of sports being allowed at this time and the number of athletes on each team.
The Track and Field end of season meet will be held on the 29th of January and Football will be held on the 12th of February. The teams will practice twice a week and we will try to schedule the non-conference friendlies on Saturdays to provide more competitions for the students.
The students are excited about the after school activities. We are looking forward to great results in the future!
Go Tigers!
John Bertken
Whole School Sports and Activities Coordinator
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