Year 10 Newsletter
6
October 5, 2007
From our
Middle and High School Team:
The pick up situation at the close of the school day
at any school can seem chaotic with children swarming around, duty teachers
ensuring the right children get on the right bus and drivers wanting to depart
on time in order to keep their schedules.
At the Convent Campus, we have all this and more. The risks have become more acute now that we
have even more students and buses confined to the same small space. Although we will only be at this site for a
little over eight more months, it only takes a second for a tragedy to occur.
To help ensure the safety of the children we need the
help of all parents. Please help the dismissal
duty teachers by reinforcing the following safety tips:
Ø In the morning, when dropping
your children off, please ensure that the children only get out of your vehicle
on the sidewalk side of the car
Ø Parents should only pull into
the bus area in front of the
school going in the correct direction of the flow of traffic (ie. facing uphill). Drivers should never
pull into the FIS bus lane by crossing over Zum Flughafen while coming from the north (uphill side).
However, and more importantly, we also need your help
not just with words but also with actions.
For those parents collecting their children directly from school please
bear the following in mind:
Ø Parents and children who
cross Zum Flughafen please
do so only at the traffic
lights and only when both
lanes of traffic have stopped to allow pedestrians to cross safely.
Ø Ideally parents should meet
their child on the footpath directly outside the school gates
Ø Please do not shout out to
your child from the other side of the road.
In a fit of exuberance we have noticed children running across the
street to greet parents. This is simply
an accident waiting to happen.
It is a sobering thought but schools are not immune to
tragedies and disasters. The onus is on
all of us to help ensure the safety of our children.
From our Head of Administration, Ms. Petra Niemczyk:
On September 27 our FIS Board of Directors met for
its first meeting of the new school year. There were numerous issues
discussed at this meeting including a recap of the 2006-07 school year and an outlook toward our current 2007-08 school
year. The following goals for this school year were discussed and
generally agreed to as belonging to the top priorities for the FIS for the
upcoming school year:
-
continue
with a quality program
-
further
implementing the IPC (International Primary Curriculum) in the Elementary
School
-
ensure
the smooth liaison between the different school sections
-
introduce
and expand the High School IB Diploma and establish a stronger High School
identity
-
complete
construction of the new FIS on time and organize smooth move to
-
further
implement our Essandtials fund raising campaign for
our new facilities
Updates on all Board of Director meetings will be
communicated via the newsletter following each meeting.
ESL Welcome Tea: The ESL Team would like to invite all parents of ESL
students at the FIS (ES, MS & HS) to an
informational ESL Welcome Tea on Wednesday, October 10 at the
Dassler Villa (ES). We will start at
Parent Teacher
Conferences: Will be held on Tuesday, October 23 for the Kiga/Elementary School and Wednesday, October 24 for
the Middle/High School. If you have not
already done so, please complete and return one sign up form per child. The Kiga /
Elementary School conferences will take place at the Dassler Villa and will be
scheduled. The schedule for the Kiga / ES conferences will be developed in the next week
and letters detailing your appointment times will be sent home with the
students the following week. In order to accommodate the open forum
style of the Middle / High School conferences these conferences will take place at the Vereinshaus in Herzogenaurach located at Hintere Gasse 22. Please see map below for directions to the Vereinshaus from the Convent Campus.
There will therefore be no classes for the Kiga & Elementary School students on Tuesday, October
23 and no classes for the Middle & High School students on Wednesday,
October 24. Students in Grades Two
through Four are encouraged to join their parents at the conferences. Attendance at the conferences is mandatory
for students in Grades Five through 11. After School Activities will be cancelled on Tuesday, October 23
for the Kiga/ES students and on Wednesday, October 24
for the MS/HS Students.
School Pictures:
Individual and class pictures will be taken on Tuesday, October 16 (Whole
School Photo, sibling portraits and Middle and High School class pictures and
portraits) and Wednesday October 17 (Kindergarten and Elementary School
students’ class pictures and portraits), by D.i.g.i.t.@.l
Schulfotografie.
Processing time will be approximately two weeks, after which the
pictures will be given to the students on a purchase or return option. If any families would like to have a special
sibling sitting for brothers and sisters, please advise Mrs. Potrykus or Mrs.
Wiegel by no later than Wednesday
October 11th, and we will schedule this as well. Please be aware that babies can only be included in sibling photos if the parent is also in the
photo holding the baby. We also require three parent volunteers to assist with
the sibling photos. Please contact Mrs. Potrykus at 09132-797910 if you are
able to help out.
The whole school photo will
be taken at
English Book Fair:
There will be an English book fair held in the art room of the Dassler
Villa on Monday, October 22. Please send
money with your children on this day if they are interested in purchasing
books. Parents are also welcome to
attend!
Standardized Testing in the Middle School: One of the tools many schools use to
measure students’ achievement, as well as the accuracy of the school’s
curriculum, is standardized testing. These tests, written by agencies which specialize
in this area, are normed against scores of children
within a certain geographical area, and the results enable schools to assess
students’ progress, as well as the accuracy of a school’s curriculum.
Next
week, on Wednesday October 10th and Thursday October 11th,
the
The tests will take place during the
morning each day. Please be sure that your child gets a good night’s sleep on
Tuesday and Wednesday night, and on test mornings, eats a healthy breakfast,
and comes to school supplied with a healthy snack and beverage, pencils, and an
eraser.
For Rent: Lovely, large apartment in protected building
(former Schloss) in Wilmersbach/Gerhardshofen
for rent. For more information please
visit the following website: www.immoscout24.de, scout ID 43305997 or contact Martina Lawler at 09163
997716.
Storage Room Needed: approximately 20 m2 in the
Counselor Notes—from Mrs. Ang: Welcome to another new year at the
FIS! In order to begin the year on a positive note, it is important for
students to fall back into good study habits. The following study tips may help
you to organize your time and feel relaxed when it’s time to open up the books
at home.
- Homework
diaries: In the
Middle and High Schools these should be brought to every class (and used!)
and brought home, as well. Using homework diaries should not be considered
a nuisance, but a good practice for school and for the future.
- When to
memorize: Memorizing
left until the night before a test/quiz does not allow information to be
committed to long term memory. Chronic poor test/quiz grades often result
because of this habit. Information presented in class should be studied
every day, with a constant review of material from previous lessons. A
simple way to review is to use note cards—write the information you need
to know on cards and look over them each day.
- Daily
study schedule:
Formulate your own study schedule with your parents. Be flexible in
revising when it is not realistic. Shorter “chunks” of time are often more
profitable than lengthy ones in order to foster concentration and
comprehension.
- Big
projects: Break down
long-term projects into smaller, more manageable tasks.
- Don’t
just sit there! Engage
in some sort of physical activity to burn off any stress from the day
before you tackle your homework.
- Don’t
give up: Review your
notes and try to figure it out on your
own. Most knowledge will come by correcting yourself.
- Confused
about what to do? If
you don’t remember or don’t understand what you need to do for homework,
call a classmate to find out.
- Use
note-taking strategies: There are many strategies out there that can help you better
organize your notes and your ideas, such as using visual aids,
mind-mapping, and causation webbing. If you’d like tips on how to use
these, ask your teacher or see Mrs. Ang.
- Phone
calls, internet, TV, and music: Prearrange incoming and outgoing phone call
times and length of conversation times with friends as well as television
time so as not to interrupt the study schedule. Usually early in the
evening, students are more alert for studying. Consider coordinating study
schedules with friends and friends’ parents so all are free at the same
time and have the same rules about times and lengths of times on the
phone. As for music, each individual has individual needs. Some students
will want to block out all noise and have silence; some will want to block
out outdoor and household noises with music. Music without lyrics is
sometimes better than music with lyrics because the tendency is to sing
along which disrupts studying. Discuss this with your parents to find out
the best way for each individual to study.
- Still
not achieving? If
you feel that you’re using good study habits and still aren’t achieving,
please talk to your parents, your teacher, or to Mrs. Ang, or all of us,
so we can work together to determine the nature of the problem and how to
best work toward solutions.
NEXT WEEK AT THE
|
Monday Oct 8 |
Ø
15:30-16:30
- A.S.A.P at the Dassler Villa Ø
15:40-16:40
– A.S.A.P at the Convent Campus |
|
Tuesday Oct 9 |
Ø
Ø
|
|
Wednesday Oct 10 |
Ø
15:30-16:30
- A.S.A.P at the Dassler Villa Ø
15:40-16:40
– A.S.A.P at the Convent Campus Ø
17 :00
- ESL Welcome Tea at the Dassler Villa |
|
Thursday Oct 11 |
Ø
15:30-16:30
- A.S.A.P at the Dassler Villa Ø
15:40-16:40
– A.S.A.P at the Convent Campus Ø
15:30-16:30
– French School, Initiation & Reprise groups, at the DV Ø
|
|
Friday Oct 12 |
|