ISSUE # 16

MIDDLE SCHOOL
WEEK OF:
DECEMBER 9 to 13

SY 2013 2014

Friday Bulletin
Inside this issue:
HS Guidance Office Operations & Security Music Department Athletics & Activities Admissions & Advancement ISM Upcoming Events

Weekly Publication for Middle School Parents

Dear Parents: Can you believe that only eight days remain in the first semester? Where does the time go? With the end of the semester brings final assignments and numerous culminating activities. During this time, please encourage your child to get enough sleep, stay organized and manage time wisely. Please join us on Wednesday, December 11 for the Grade 7-8 Concert and hear the talents of our musicians. The performance begins at 5:30 in the FAT. On Friday, December 13, we will then be treated to the Grade 5-6 Concert, which begins at 5:00 in the FAT. We hope to see you at one or both of these events! The Middle School art exhibit opens this week on Monday, December 9 at 3:00 P.M. and the artwork showcases our students creativity and originality. The pieces will be displayed in the lobby of the Middle School Media Center until December 17 so please take some time to visit when you are on campus. A big thank you to the Art department teachers for the work that they do with our students. From December 9 - 13 the Middle School will be celebrating Spirit Week. Each day has been assigned a specific theme and all students are encouraged to dress accordingly: Monday Crazy Hair Day Tuesday Pajama Day Wednesday Home Country Day Thursday Favorite Character Day Friday Mix It Up Day (wear mismatched clothing and/or shoes) If your child has PE, please remind your child that s/he still needs to bring the PE uniform to school. While we do want the students to enjoy the time out of uniform, please encourage your child to exercise sound judgment when choosing their attire so that they arrive at school dressed appropriately (no bare midriffs, spaghetti straps, baggy pants, etc.). If your child opts not to dress in the theme of the day, your child is expected to be in school uniform. On Tuesday, December 17 the PE Department has organized a Sports Day. Each student has been assigned to a house and will have opportunities to participate in events throughout the day. All parents are invited to attend and cheer on their child.

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Events & Activities:

DECEMBER

9 - 13 9 - 17 11 13 17 19 - 31
JANUARY

Spirit Week Art Exhibit G 7/8 Music Concert G 5/6 Music Concert Sports Day School Holiday

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School Holiday

Saturday Service Dates:

12/14 Tzu Chi Foundation

During Sports Day the PTA will be hosting a barbecue and drinks and food items will be on sale during the day. Please note that your child will need cash to make a purchase; it will not be possible for them to use their ID card to buy food. Looking aheadWednesday, December 18 is the last day of the semester and students will be dismissed at 12:00 noon. Please make the necessary arrangements to ensure that your child is picked up on time. Next school year we are implementing a Bring Your Own Device initiative for grades 7 and 8 and we would like to see all students bring a personal laptop to school. We have discussed this initiative on a few occasions in Parent Coffee meetings since the start of the year and information is also available through the Middle School blog. Please review the information on the ISM Connect pages which can be accessed through the link https://sites.google.com/a/ismanila.org/byod/home. If you have additional questions or need clarification, please feel free to contact the Middle School IT Program Leader, Matthew Chadwick at chadwickm@ismanila.org. Have a restful weekend! Yours in Education, Simon Gillespie Middle School Principal

Clarissa Sayson Middle School Assistant Principal

Hello Bearcat Parents, I hope all is well. As you may or may not know, every JANUARY we have a career-focused week at International School Manila called Bearcat Career Exploration Week. It is a week dedicated to helping our high school students learn more about themselves and the vast array of careers that exist and continue to be created in our world. (Click here if you would like more information on the week: http://bearcat-careers.ismonline.org/career-explore/) This year the Bearcat Career Exploration week is January 20-24, 2014. There are a number of special activities going on this week, but some of the more popular ones are the Career Talks that are given by various professionals from the ISM community. I was hoping some of you Bearcat parents might be interested in giving a short (20 minutes to 30 minutes) talk about your career area to some of our high school students during that week. If you are interested in giving a career-focused talk during that week, please click the link below and fill out the Google form. I will then be in touch shortly to confirm your participation. https://docs.google.com/a/ismanila.org/forms/d/13nLVKq50zS8gXqGTGyq_eODA33-Ul4-jFYoB41XKesU/ viewform In the meantime, if you have questions about the week, please feel free to email me anytime at mcqueend@ismanila.org. Best regards, Doug McQueen HS Grade 9/10 Guidance Counselor
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Parent IDs: We are now issuing new parent IDs for the school year 2013/14. To reduce the inconvenience to parents of this replacement program, the old parent ID cards will be valid for school access until the end of the first semester on December 18th, 2013. The standard new parent cards will be issued free of charge. Parents may, however, elect to apply for a smartcard ID which will be usable with the new cashless payment system being introduced into the school for SY 2013 14. There will be a fee of P250.00 for a smartcard which covers in part the registration fee the school is required to pay for each card issued. The security office is now processing applications for the new parent IDs. As we require new photographs for the cards, parents are asked to visit the security office for the taking of their picture. Thank you. Michael Flynn Director of Operations and Security

Host Families still required for AMIS MS Orchestra Festival

ISM is pleased to host the Association for Music in International Schools (AMIS) Orchestra Festival between January 22nd and 26th, 2014. AMIS is a by -audition orchestra of 80 students and the 2014 participants come from a mix of 12 different international schools in East and South East Asia. ISM is pleased to have secured 9 slots in the orchestra but this means we still need to find hosts for our 71 visiting students. Although January may still seem far away, we really would like to secure homes for these students before Christmas. More details of hosting responsibilities and forms can be downloaded from the Fine Arts blog at http://arts.ism-online.org/2013/12/05/host-families-needed-for-ms-orchestrafestival-please-help/ or by contacting the Fine Arts Office on 8404000 ex 630/631/ email HillmanM@ismanila.org .

The 2nd season practice schedule which runs from October 23 to February 7 is posted on notice boards around school, and is available on the ATAC blog (http://atac.ism-online.org/schedules/hs/). ISM proudly hosts IASAS swimming from February 5 to 9, 2014 and host families are required to house the visiting IASAS swimmers. The housing letter is available via the ATAC blog and via the Sailfish blog. Please assist us to make this a wonderful event for our community by housing a pair of swimmers for IASAS. We need to house 120 swimmers from the IASAS Schools. Please print, complete and return the slip to the ATAC office. (http://atac.ism-online.org/iasas/iasas-housing/iasas-swim-meet-housing-letter/) ISM hosted a great Fall swim meet last Saturday, November 30th. Well done to our Sailfish swimmers and coaches for a great day. There were many personal best times swum and a great atmosphere around the swimming pool. Thanks also to the sailfish parents who helped out with snack booths during the day. Please note HS families during ICARE week: JV teams will not have training from Tuesday to Friday (December 9-13). Varsity teams whose coach is available and for players that are on local sites training sessions will be held as normal. Good luck this Saturday to our Bearcat Wall Climbing team. ISM will be hosting a wall/speed climbing competition at the MS gym climbing area. Should be a great morning of exciting climbing action. Our MS Tennis teams all have matches this coming Saturday at ISM . A reminder to all players for morning matches that you must be at the courts by 7:40 A.M. and for afternoon matches by 12:40 P.M. New families, please take some time to peruse the ATAC blog as this will help orientate you with the wide variety of co-curricular programs ISM offers. A great way to stay in touch with the ISM ATAC program is to subscribe via RSS feed to the ATAC blog and also to follow via twitter (see twitter feed on the blog home page) Each Monday, I will post the weeks happenings and highlight important events for students and parents information on the ATAC blog and in the regular Friday parent bulletins. GAME SCHEDULE PDF (access to game schedule information): Information about all mid-week/weekend fixtures for ISM teams can be found via the ATAC blog. Please note the game schedule does change often due to involvement with many local schools so please check the page regularly to find out the latest information of where and when the Bearcats teams are playing. Click on schedules tab or the Bearcat logo to be directed to the power school secure site (http://powerschool.ismanila.org/public/). You will need your power school user name and password to access the game schedule pdf.
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The Bearcat Den is open for business, please drop by to check out the range of Bearcat products. We have a great team of volunteers who run the den and are always looking for more people to help out. If you are interested in joining a fantastic group, please contact any of our den members during den opening hours or please contact Carolyn Ching for details carolynqching@yahoo.com. We are always looking for new volunteers and encourage parents from ES/MS to join our group. BEARCAT DEN: http://atac.ism-online.org/bearcat-den/

Have a great year at the Home of the Bearcats!

Regards, Mark Pekin Director of Athletics/Activities

UPDATE YOUR CONTACT DETAILS THROUGH THE ISM PARENT PORTAL

Dear Parents, We are pleased to inform you that your childs PowerSchool account may be accessed through the ISM Parent Portal. Aside from being a gateway to PowerSchool, the Parent Portal also provides information on school events, useful links, as well as child-specific academic blogs and student portfolios. Should you need to make any changes to your contact information, visit the Parent Portal and follow the steps below:

Leaving ISM?
For those students that will be withdrawing from International School Manila this school year (SY 13 -14), the following procedure applies: Parents are obliged to officially inform the Admissions Office in writing through a Withdrawal Notification Form at least fifteen (15) days prior to your childs last day of school.

For those leaving at the end of the school year, you MUST submit a Withdrawal Notification Form on or before May 09, 2014.
Failure to do so will lead to a deduction of US$1,000 from the Facilities Upgrade Deposit (FUD) in compensation for having held a space for the child and thus preventing the School from offering that space to another child prior to the summer holiday break. The Withdrawal Notification Form can be obtained from the Admissions Office or downloaded from the ISM website here. We hope that your child has had an enriching stay at ISM and wish you and your family the very best in the future.
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ART SHOW! Opening is Monday from 3-4 in MSMC. Please come join in on the art, food, music, and fun! ART SHOW STUDENTS, don't forget to pay the cashier for your t-shirt and show the receipt to your art teacher. You are to wear your ARTIST shirt on Monday of next week!
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The Giving Tree - December 2013

The Giving Tree was established to collect donated items from the ISM Community and distribute them to our Service Partners. People have been extremely generous before, so we will run the project again from the 2nd December until the 17th December. Your donations will support partners such as the SPECS Foundation, Stairway Foundation, PCF and our ISM Livelihood Partners. Where? The Giving Tree will be outside the MS/ HS canteen to receive your donations. What can be donated? childrens books clothing toys puzzles & games toiletries school stationary shoes sports equipment food (rice, pasta, milk, canned goods, sugar, honey) When? From Monday, 2nd December until Monday, 17th December

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