UCSI magazine October issue

October 2019 UCSI Eco-School club
Issue #1 visits MISl

Keeping it real in PYP See what PYP
What is it? Why? are up to

A message from the
Principal

Dear Students, Parents and Teachers!

Welcome our IB newsletter issue number 1 of 2019-2020 academic year. We are looking forward to
beginning our most exciting academic year in terms of IB development in all programmes offered by the
school. As you may know, all three of our IB programmes are undergoing evaluation this October and
have made signi cant improvements based on feedback from our learning community and actions
planned throughout the self-study process. Because of this, we have been able to build more rigorous
academic programmes, while simultaneously enhancing our holistic approaches to teaching and learning,
and creating deeper connections within our learning community.

As an IB World School learning community, we rmly believe that teachers, students and parents will
recognise a common educational framework- a consistent philosophy about teaching and learning that
focuses on the development of the whole child, and an overarching concept of how to develop
international-mindedness. The IB mission statement demonstrates the IBO’s commitment to the
development of an all-round, internationally educated global citizen. “The International Baccalaureate,” it
says, “aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and
more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect.” In a modern world society, it
becomes crucially important to foster learning how to learn skills and ability to maintain personal goals
among our students. Learning how to learn requires that students realistically evaluate and self-regulate
their performance. “ In all IB Programmes, teaching is…. designed to remove barriers of learning.
Teaching is inclusive and values diversity. It affirms students’ identities, and aims to create learning
opportunities that enable every student to develop and pursue appropriate personal goals.” (What is an
IB education 2013:6)

In order to take the next step forward in sharing the IB education philosophy and approaches to
teaching and learning, our staff group has developed a system of Edublogs to inform our parents' group
and share efficiently on our school daily excitements and learning fun. An Edublog is a blog with an
educational purpose. Blogs can be surprisingly useful, and instant publication motivates kids to write. We
will use the space to communicate with parents and administrators about what classes and the school are
doing and encourage stakeholders to contribute collaboratively to a whole school newsletter.

Parents & Friends
School History
Events
School Counsellor
ECO School
House Groups
ECA Programme

These blogs will play a vital role in terms of informing and sharing among community members,
likewise, in terms of facilitating regular Newsletters and other media for promoting IB education and
International-mindedness.

wElCoME notE P2-3

PYP PlaYground ProjECt P4

KindErgartEn taKE a giant triP P5

PYP Mindful Mornings P6-7

intErnational MindEdnEss P8

ProfEssional lEarning CoMMunitiEs P9

ECo-sChool P10

uCsi BEaCh ClEan uP P11

MYP rEading PrograM P12-13

MYP art@uCsi P14-15

PEEr suPPort in MiddlE YEars P16-17

sPort housEs 2019-2020 P18-19

uCsi Boarding P20-21

sPotlight on staff P22-P23

ParEnts CoffEE Morning P24

Editor & CrEator: MiChEllE ChEung-KistlEr













International Mindedness: By Jamie Kistler
Keeping it Real in the PYP

I believe every learning experience can also be an The next day, PYP 5 students helped each
opportunity to develop international mindedness; other prepare the dishes they had planned. As I
therefore, I would like to share an example of how demonstrated how to cut a cucumber, one of
we can embed international mindedness and the boys said, "I’ve never seen a man cook
intercultural learning into seemingly unrelated before." I said, "Really?" and we had a little talk
activities, as we did recently in PYP 5. about that as a class while I invited him over to
give it a try for himself. Later, my students
As we are currently studying the impact of lifestyle shared their dishes with their classmates in the
choices on our bodies, students did research into canteen and answered the questions of other
foods that were healthy for them and created their PYP students. They discussed the inspiration
own multilingual restaurant menus with a partner. for the dishes, explained how they made them
They took influences from a variety of cuisines, such and justified why they were healthy options.
as Vietnamese, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Pakistani Throughout this activity, which was supposedly
and Chinese to make their menus and recipes. only about eating healthily, students learned
Once they had finished their recipes, we went on a about different cultures and viewed situations
field trip to Aeon mall for a healthy meal and to go from new and different perspectives. Sure, we
shopping for the ingredients they would need to also went on to compare the receipts from the
prepare their dishes. We worked together to choose restaurant and the grocery store and split the
a restaurant that we thought would be perfect for bills as assessments for our understanding of
supporting our dietary needs and our current unit. decimals, but that’s beside the point.
We knew that the restaurant had to be halal to
support students’ dietary restrictions, so we The point is that international mindedness is
thought sushi would be nice since we knew that best developed in students when it’s integrated
there would be healthy halal options. Furthermore, a into all of their learning experiences, which
few of our students who had never tried sushi should also be integrated into the context of
before and were a bit intimidated by it, which of their real lives.
course humored our Japanese student, Yona, thus
presenting another perfect opportunity for
intercultural learning. At the restaurant, students
were encouraged to not only choose healthy dishes,
but to try foods they were afraid to eat. Yona,
encouraged them by happily demonstrating and
describing how delicious everything was. After
eating at the restaurant, we went shopping for
ingredients. While shopping, we discussed food
items that were unfamiliar to each other, and
students used multiple languages to communicate
with supermarket staff.

As the school moves forward, every professional in the building must engage with
colleagues in the ongoing exploration of three crucial questions that drive the work

of those within a professional learning community:

What do we want each student to learn?
How will we know when each student has learned it?
How will we respond when a student experiences difficulty in learning?

To discuss these key questions and to support the best of students learning
process, our teachers are learning together collaboratively during planning and

professional development sessions every Friday afternoon.
As a group of life-long learners, we work hard to obtain more progressive and
effective teaching strategies and to analyse their impact on the entire learning
environment. We focus on the concept of learning from different angles, such as

inquiry, engagement, reflection and action.





























We would like to use our first issue of the School
Newsletter as a great chance to express our warm
appreciation to all parents who have been attending
our regular Coffee Morning events. These meetings
are providing us with an open platform to discuss and
share IB philosophy and essential elements, likewise,
to keep a constructive dialogue on learning outcomes,
results and challenges.

Looking forward to meeting you all on the 7th of
November!