The Tiger, 6 May, 2022
Head of School Message
Namaste!
This week, we have had excitement on our campus with our P8 students presenting their research and findings at the PYP Exhibition. They rose to the occasion and delivered articulate presentations on intriguing topics such as inquiries into self-care, poverty, improving life at Stonehill, animals, climate change, food waste, and life on land and below water. A big thank you to our parents who came in to support our learners.
The Council of International School’s (CIS) pre-accreditation visit commenced virtually last week between the 25th and 29th of April. The week was a very busy one with two evaluators, one from the CIS accreditation body and the other from New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC). A special thank you to all the parents, students, faculty and staff who participated in either the classroom visits, created videos, wrote reports or participated in the interviews. We are happy to report that there has been positive feedback from our evaluators.
Our schoolwide task in the next academic year 2022-2023 will be to convene a self-study review in reflection of specified CIS/NEASC domains and our Guiding Statements. Our main accreditation visit will take place in September 2023.
Lastly, we are looking for interested parents who would like to volunteer to be a part of our Parent Teacher Association (PTA) for the next academic year 2022-2023. The PTA is a not-for-profit organisation that exists to fulfil the following mission:
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Enhance the educational experience of all students at Stonehill
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Welcome new families
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Develop closer connections between the school and home via parent involvement in school or PTA events and activities
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Promote positive community spirit in the school environment
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Coordinate parent volunteers and support of PTA and school activities
The PTA organises multiple events that are aimed at encouraging community spirit and togetherness like the Back-to-School BBQ, Coffee Mornings, the International Food Fair, Diwali Mela, Bake Sales, Staff Appreciation Day, and various other charity events. If interested please contact: pta@stonehill.in
Dr. Brian Brumsickle
Head of School
Primary School
The PYPX (Exhibition) is on this week! Today, I learnt about self-care, a balanced diet, exercise and activity, poverty and how to prevent food waste.
Over the week we will continue to learn about the issues and interests that our P8 students have inquired into over the past eight weeks. The presentations are interactive, thought-provoking and are fueled by a motivated group of learners.
We are constantly impressed by their willingness, maturity and need to learn. P8 - you are making us very proud!
Parent Afternoon Get-togethers
The Primary School and the PTA are hosting a series of afternoon get togethers. Our first outing was held on Monday, 2nd May, for the P1 and P2 parents. These get-togethers have no agenda. There is no discussion about learning and teaching. The purpose is to get parents back on campus and for parents who have children in the same grade to be together, meet each other and hope to make long-lasting connections.
On Monday, Wednesday and Friday of each week a different grade will get together. At some stage, we will also encourage parents to join us to assist in the rebuilding of our PTA. Please look out for opportunities to connect and recreate the social element of our community.
Setting up for the next academic year
The Primary Leadership Team met on Monday to discuss and decide on the Primary School focus for the new academic year beginning in August. We have agreed that Assessment will be our focus.
As you know, we have introduced SOLO taxonomy this academic year. This taxonomy ensures we map growth over time giving students a role in the development of their skills, knowledge and understanding. It builds responsibility and respect for the assessment process as an element of learning.
Focussing on assessment ensures we fully implement SOLO and articulate the tools and strategies used in the process of gathering data on your child. A reminder, next week we MAP test P4 through to P8 students.
Have a wonderful weekend,
Karen Crooke
Primary School Principal
PYP Counsellor
Helpful Hints for Teaching Your Children About Body Safety
Quite often, I have parents ask me when and how to start teaching their children about personal space, body safety, and consent. Over the course of this month, across the Primary School, this is my Personal Social Education (PSE) focus. However, while we can impart explicit training to your children at school, you too, as parents, play a massive role in reinforcing these principles and concepts at home.
Here are a few tips to help you get the conversation started:
Teach your children the correct names for their body parts
This is easily the first and the most important step when it comes to teaching body safety. When children have the right vocabulary, they are more likely to be able to report more accurately if someone has not been respectful of their personal space and body boundaries.
Explain private body parts
The easiest way to explain to your child what their private body parts are would be to tell them they are those body parts under their bathing suit (also include the mouth).
Teach them to Recognise, Refuse, and Report when a body safety rule is violated
Once children are aware of body safety rules, they must also be made aware of the concept of consent. They have every right to refuse even a safe touch if they don’t like it. The need to be able to firmly tell a person trying to break a body safety rule to stop, even if the person is older than them or is known to you/your child.
Teach them the difference between safe and unsafe secrets
An unsafe secret must never be kept. Make sure your child knows that they should report any incident involving the breaking of body safety rules, immediately.
Help them identify their safety network
Who are the trusted adults in your child’s life? Make sure your child knows who to go to report any incident involving abuse of any kind.
Be available to listen and take action!
Assure your child that you will always be available to listen to them and that you will believe them if they report someone having broken any of their body safety rules. Also, make sure to let your child know that you would never blame them for it or think it’s their fault.
Neeti Sarkar
PYP Counsellor
Primary News
PYP Exhibition
In P8, we have been exploring the idea of How Global Citizens Look for Opportunities to Put Empathy into Action. Through the PYP Exhibition process, the learners have had the chance to inquire into different topics, research information and plan actions that can make a change in the community. From self-care to food management, from inequalities to poverty, and from climate change to learning a new language, there is no doubt the P8 learners have explored and grown as inquirers on so many levels.
The P8 Team
Information Literacy
Solo Taxonomy represents student learning through a growth matrix similar to the learning of research skills. In Information Literacy we start them young. The students learn to see the difference between fiction and non-fiction, search for books by genre and they learn to cite credible sources and bibliographies. We allow learners to build on their learning and thinking.
Digital Citizenship lessons are conducted on how to create strong passwords, note-taking skills, keyword search, comprehending information before paraphrasing, plagiarism and synthesising of information. These tools allow students to embrace technology safely while preparing them to be responsible digital citizens.
When Play Bubbles opened up, our readers flocked together to read to one another
With the summer break just around the corner, Friday, May 20th will be the last date for students to borrow library books. Friday, 27th May will be the last day for students to return all the borrowed books. An automated reminder email will be sent to parents on the 23rd of May. For any questions email us at primarylibrary@stonehill.in or lamiya.bharmal@stonehill.in
The Primary Library Team
Secondary School
Confidence, Student Engagement and the Accreditation Visit
One of the things that most attracted me to Stonehill three years ago as I was looking around the international school world was the inclusion of ‘confidence’ in the values of the school. Most international schools talk about developing knowledgeable, caring and responsible students - they have to, especially if they are running IB programmes. But ‘confidence’ was a new one for me, and it got me thinking about how important being confident is for young people today.
Looking back on my daughter’s education experience, I remember that one of the most pleasing things I heard from a teacher was when my eldest daughter, naturally quiet and reserved, was in Grade 8. During a debate on international politics in Individuals and Societies, it turns out that she had voiced her opinion very powerfully, and confidently debated some of the more outspoken members of the class. I couldn’t imagine her doing this, but it gave me a renewed sense of optimism about how she would be able to handle difficult people and situations in the future.
My younger daughter, who has always been more confident, has starred in drama productions, won speech and debate competitions, and has been elected to the Student Council on a number of occasions. These successes have always meant much more to us as parents than the scores she gets on assessment tasks, as we know they are the key skills for success in the future.
Confidence. Not arrogance, loud-mouthed, opinionated nonsense or vanity. Taking the time to become knowledgeable about a subject, believing that what you have to say is valuable for others to hear, being able to respectfully disagree when necessary, having the language skills to express your points clearly and effectively, knowing when to defend your points and when to compromise or change your views, and being convinced that your efforts will have a positive impact on the world in some way. These are the key attributes that our students need to develop.
Our children will be competing with millions of others around the world to have their voices heard in an increasingly cacophonous social marketplace. We need to do everything we can to give them the tools to speak with confidence. It seems that many of them are already well on their way.
Joe Lumsden
Secondary School Principal
Secondary Focus
Physical and Health Education (PHE)
The M1-M3 students focussed on net games this semester exploring badminton, volleyball and tennis. Through these sports, the students have an understanding that there are transferable skills within different sports and it gives students the opportunity to interact with others and helps develop their interpersonal skills.
We are currently focussing on Approaches to Learning (ATL) Skills and exploring a variety of sports/games and gaining a greater understanding of how these skills are adaptable within different areas of Physical Education. Some of the key approaches to learning skills are communication, thinking and social skills. The students have been able to identify different ways of communicating such as giving and receiving meaningful feedback and using non-verbal communication techniques to outwit opponents. Social skills are also very valuable within Physical Education and we have been able to understand that when collaborating we can learn from listening to others and sharing responsibility and roles within a team.
The M3 students are also focussing on a Personal Exercise Programme where they are identifying a health or skills component of fitness to improve. This is individual so it can be specific to a sport or activity each student participates in or outside of school. This could also be an area of health they would like to work on. Providing the opportunity for students to focus on their own physical health and wellbeing encourages lifelong learners and gives students independence and ownership over their own improvement.
This semester, the M4 students also completed a unit on net games. They developed their understanding of different competition formats and how they are organised. Singles leagues and doubles knockout competitions with pairs seeded according to previous performances were just two of the competition formats students led and played in. As games were self-refereed, students' knowledge and application of rules were an important aspect of the unit.
The M5 students have been working hard to complete each of the four PHE e-Portfolio Tasks. All IB and non-IB submissions are now complete and have been graded. We have been really impressed by the commitment to self improvement shown throughout this unit as well as developing interpersonal skills such as working collaboratively and communicating effectively. All students in M5 have developed their knowledge and understanding of yoga and hopefully, will incorporate what they have learnt into their daily lives.
All the MYP students will have two weeks of swimming before the end of the academic year. The PHE Department would really appreciate your support in reiterating the importance of participating practically during swimming lessons with your child. We are very fortunate to be the only school in Bangalore to have a temperature controlled swimming pool, which enables all children to swim comfortably all year round. Please note, It is compulsory for all students to swim unless they are exempt for medical reasons. As we only have a relatively short period of time in the water, it is crucial that all students participate practically during their allocated time at the pool. We are focusing on developing stroke techniques, lifesaving knowledge and water polo skills.
Although this has already been shared via ManageBac, please see below the weeks where each grade level will have swimming lessons. This should help everyone be prepared and ready to swim during these weeks.
Mark Howarth, HoD Physical Education Department & MYP Physical Education & the
PHE Team
Boarding News
After more than two years, the boarding staff planned the annual boarding dinner on the 22nd of April and there was excitement all around. The boarding community came together to share a meal, celebrate the academic year gone by and bid farewell to the D2 students. The evening saw incredible musical talent from the secondary students and emotional speeches by the seniors. Many thanks to everyone who contributed to a fantastic evening.
A few boarders along with Ms. Tenzin prepared a delicious Tibetan dish called shabhaley. The children had a wonderful experience trying to roll the dough. In the end, they were impressed with their effort as the shabhaley looked absolutely amazing and tasted great.
The BAASC football tournaments are back after a long hiatus. It has been great to see so many boarding students representing Stonehill at the tournament held at Canadian International School. The students have continued to benefit from the competitive matchday experience.
Have a lovely weekend!
Glen Johnson
Head of Boarding
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