MIDD LE SCHOOL

Friday Bulletin
Weekly Publication for Middle School Parents ISSUE # 22
W EEK OF FEBRUARY 11 TO 15, 2013

From the Middle School Office

Dear Parents: This week the students and teachers will be participating in a range of Classroom Without Walls (CWW) activities. As our students go off to various sites, we are confident that the students experiences will be memorable, leave a lasting impression and raise their awareness of how to become an active citizen. When your child returns from the trip, please take some time to engage your child and discuss ways that your child can build on the experience. For parents of grade 8 students Please note that the High School Course Selection Meeting has been moved to Tuesday, February 19 from 5:30 6:30 P.M. in the Little Theater. The meeting will not take place on February 21 as printed in the school calendar. Looking aheadOn Thursday, March 7 students will be released early at 12:00 noon, and we will have an afternoon of Student-Led Conferences, which is a change in our conference format for second semester. The student-led conference is an opportunity for students to share their learning with their parents and teachers and the goals of a student-led conference include the following: To encourage students to accept responsibility for their learning and progress. To help students recognize and take ownership for the things that interfered with their learning success. To teach students the process of self-evaluation. To facilitate the development of students oral communication skills and self-confidence. To enhance communication between student and parents. On that afternoon you will accompany your child to each class for approximately ten minutes and have the opportunity to discuss samples of their work. For student-led conferences, parents will not need to schedule appointments. Please note that if both parents are unable to attend the student-led conference, your child is expected to go home at dismissal and not remain on campus. We will provide more detailed information in the coming weeks including questions you can ask your child and the schedule for the afternoon. We look forward to implementing this conference format and supporting your conversations with your child about his/her learning. Have a fabulous weekend! Yours in Education, Simon Gillespie Middle School Principal Clarissa Sayson Middle School Assistant Principal
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Inside this issue:

From the Office of Admissions and Advancement / Art Auction From the Operations & Security Office From the Treasury Department From the AFAC Office From the ATAC Office Adult Language Courses at ISM MS End of Season Sports Awards 3rd Season Training Schedule 2 6 7 7 8 16

UPCOMING EVENTS
FEBRUARY
11 to 15 19 Classroom Without Walls (CWW) Grade 8 Parents HS Course Selection Meeting (5:30 P.M., - 6:30 P.M., Little Theater) MS Parent Coffee (7:45 A.M., Little Theater) No Classes (EDSA Revolution Holiday) No Classes: Faculty In-Service Grade 8 Course Registration

27 to Mar. 01

MARCH
4 to 8 15 18 to 22 25 to 27 Course Registration MS Party (Grade 5 to 8) English Honors Testing Spirit Week

The Yearbook Pictures are now available for pick up in the MS Office.

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From the Office of Admissions and Advancement

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ISM Community Art Auction

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Withdrawal Procedure for Students Leaving ISM

For those students who will be withdrawing from International School Manila this year, the following procedure applies: Parents are obliged to inform the School officially through a WITHDRAWAL NOTIFICATION FORM, before the second Friday of May, if their children will not be returning to ISM. 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 directly from the ISM website www.ismanila.org under Admissions > Re-Enrollment & Withdrawal > Withdrawal STEP 1: Return the Withdrawal Notification Form to the Admissions Office or scanned and e-mailed as an attachment to admissions@ismanila.org . Upon receipt of the Withdrawal Notification Form by the Admissions Office, a copy will be forwarded to the appropriate School Office and the Finance Office for their action. The School Office, upon receipt of the Withdrawal Notification Form, will initiate the student clearance procedure which requires a Middle or High School student to have the Student Clearance Slip signed by the indicated teachers and offices for clearance. For Elementary students, the Elementary Office will handle the withdrawal clearance. Note that school transcripts and records will be available from the particular school office approximately fifteen working days after the childs last day of attendance at ISM. Please coordinate directly with the particular School Office if you require other arrangements. STEP 2: If required, and when completed, the Student Clearance Slip must be taken to the Cashiers Office. Only after the Cashier has received and signed the completed clearance form will the childs transcript or school records be released from the Elementary, Middle or High School Office. Please note that one copy of the transcript is provided free of charge, additional copies cost P100 each, payable at the Cashiers Office before release. Please coordinate directly with the particular School Office if you require more than one copy of school records. STEP 3: In order to receive your Facilities Upgrade Deposit or FUD (formerly the Special Project Deposit) refund, the following must be submitted to the Cashiers Office: 1) Signed Student Clearance Slip 2) Signed Facilities Upgrade Deposit Certificate Please note that the FUD refund will not be released before your childs last day of school and may take up to thirty (30) days. Only the person whose name appears on the FUD Certificate may claim the refund at the Cashiers Office. Please call the Cashier at 840-8506 if you have questions regarding your FUD Certificate. Please allow the withdrawal process to go smoothly by starting the process early. Thank you for your help and understanding. If you will be withdrawing before the end of the school year and wish to receive your childs YEARBOOK please submit the appropriate form to the School Office. The forms are available through the web site: Admission > Re-Enrollment

& Withdrawal>Withdrawal
Elementary School Yearbook: ALAALA Middle School Yearbook: SALINLAHI High School Yearbook: KAWAYAN Sincerely, Stephanie H. Hagedorn Director of Admissions & Advancement admissions@ismanila.org

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From the Operations & Security Office

Drivers, Helpers and Bodyguards Drivers, helpers and bodyguards should not be waiting on campus for students throughout the school day. After dropping off students they should exit the school grounds and not return more than 30 minutes before dismissal time. Those who repeatedly fail to comply with the regulation will have their access privilege suspended. Only those vehicles carrying parents or other people with business within the school will be allowed to return to the campus before 1:45 p.m. There are designated areas for unaccompanied drivers, yayas, helpers and security escorts to wait for parents and students. Unless specifically authorized, they may not enter any other area. In the interest of security, and to prevent congestion at the pedestrian entrances to the covered parking area, parents are requested to emphasize to their employees the importance of cooperating with the security staff and remaining in the appropriate areas. Termination of Employment In the event of the termination of service of a family employee, parents are asked to secure the former employees ISM ID card and return it to the Security office. If this is not possible, it is important tat the Security Office is still informed of the change of circumstances. Finally, I would like to thank all members of the ISM community for their cooperation in helping us maintain ISM as a safe and secure environment for our children. Firearms All members of the ISM community are reminded that it is strictly forbidden for firearms to be brought onto the campus. This includes concealed weapons carried by bodyguards for close protection. Any person arriving at the school with a firearm should inform the gate guard and arrangements will be made for the weapon to be safely and securely stored during the visitors stay. Security staff directions Our security team is endeavoring to make the school as safe and secure an environment as possible for all members of our community. We as that everybody cooperate with us in this important task. In particular, all those entering our campus are requested to comply with any direction given to them by members of our guard force. In the event that anyone is unclear as to the purpose of such instructions they can seek clarifications from the security office. Please note that it is the parents responsibility to advise their staff accordingly. Thank you for your cooperation. We are looking forward to another successful semester at International School Manila. Regards, MICHAEL FLYNN Director Operations & Security

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From the Treasury Department: Dear ISM Parents: This is a reminder to please view and check the ISM Web Online at http://community.ismanila.org/d/2/ for the latest update on your billing statement and settle any remaining balance of account (s). Please note that the 2nd semester Tuition fee for SY2012-2013 was due last December 07,2012 while other school fees on your billing statements are already due as billed. For those who havent settled yet, we appreciate your immediate settlement of the accounts. For related billing and payment questions including any username and password concerns, please call 840-85-22/ 840-85-06/840-8512 and look for RHODA VILLA (Accountant) or MARISSA DULAY(Treasury Supervisor) and Elmer Esguerra ( Cashier). You can also email us at villar@ismanila.org or dulaym@ismanila.org. and esguerrae@ismanila.org.

From the After-School Activities Office:

There will be no afterschool activities from February 11 to 15 due to Classroom Without Walls! Second session after school sports activities: tennis, badminton, volleyball and cricket will start on February 18, 2013 (Monday).

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From the Athletics & Activities Office

3rd Season sports started this week with tryouts for (Badminton, Softball and Track & Field) Practice schedule starts from next Monday until April 13. Please check the schedule via the ATAC blog schedules pages. http://atac.ism-online.org/schedules/hs/ http://atac.ism-online.org/schedules/tryouts/ IASAS Golf makes its debut this year at ISKL. If you want to be a part of history and represent ISM in the first ever IASAS Golf Tournament, contact Mr. Hamaguchi to register your name. IASAS Results 2nd season: Tennis Boys and Girls GOLD (boys 2nd win in a row and girls team got the 3 peat!) ISM dominated winning 11 of 12 matches in the boys and girls finals. SILVER BRONZE 4th place 5th place 6th place

Girls Touch Boys Basketball Girls Basketball Rugby Swimming Boys and Girls -

Congratulations to all our Bearcats (players and coaches) for your hard work and dedication at the 2nd season IASAS events. A great effort from all teams and a special congratulations to our medal winning tennis, touch and basketball teams. Well done to all of you! Please remember we will celebrate the efforts of all our 2nd season teams on Tuesday, Feb 19th at the sports awards which will be in the Lofthouse at 5:30p.m. Atthletes and parents, please mark your calendars. A big THANK-YOU to ISM families that agreed to host IASAS Tennis athletes. It was an incredible tournament widely regarded by all coaches and players as the best IASAS Tennis event ever. We had crowds of 700 people watching and supporting the players. Host families play a huge role and events like this cannot happen without your support. Many thanks for opening your home and supporting ISM. If you are able and willing, we will host Track and Field in 9 weeks time. Please sign up again and see below for details. Our wonderful IASAS Tennis Bulletin team led by Kimberly Go has put together a great publication to wrap up the tennis tournamentcheck it out http://www.scribd.com/doc/123684619/IASAS-Tennis-Bulletin-2013 IASAS Track and Field April 10-14. Housing letters for the IASAS Track and Field event are now available via the ATAC blog. Please sign up early to house a visiting track athlete in April. We need to house 150 athletes. For general information about housing at IASAS tournaments see the housing and hosting page.http://atac.ismonline.org/iasas/iasas-housing/ Housing deadline is on March 22nd! Our MS boys B and girls tennis teams have made it to the ISTA league semifinals to be played on Feb 16. The MS Gold girls and boys basketball teams played in the finals of the local league this past Saturday at ISM MS gym. Unfortunately, both teams lost their finals but they have had a great season and are very deserving of the Runners-up trophies. Well done players and coaches. Our MS Boys Green Basketball team won their 3rd place play game to end the season with the 2nd runners-up trophy. 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.

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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. HS Student registration for ATAC activities: (new for school year 12-13) A Google doc registration is now available for all HS students who will take part in any ATAC seasonal sports teams, MUN and Cultural Convention programs. Please take the time to complete this online registration for activities that you plan on joining this school year. Please access the form via the HS Student Registration tab found under the Helpful Shortcuts bar on the ATAC blog home page. Please note this is for HS students only and you must use your school email address to access the link. Personal gmail or hotmail addresses will not allow you to access the page. BEARCAT DEN: http://atac.ism-online.org/bearcat-den/ Our 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. We have a new volunteer coordinator thanks so much to Carolyn for stepping forward to take on this role. If youre interested in joining the Den volunteers, 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. Regular Opening Hours for the Bearcat Den: Wed and Fridays from 11:30 a.m. 1:00 p.m. and each afternoon from 2:30 a.m. -4:00 p.m. Regards, Mark Pekin Director of Athletics/Activities

A number of new school swimming records were set at IASAS in Taipei last week. Congratulations to the following members of the swim team on a great performance.
Boys 13-14 100 Backstroke OLD 1:05.81 Kaizer Soh at ISM Fall Meet 2012 NEW 1:05.62 Kaizer Soh at IASAS 2013 Boys 13-14 200 Backstroke OLD 2:22.51 Kaizer Soh at Varsity Invitational January 2013 NEW 2:21.23 Kaizer Soh at IASAS 2013 Boys OPEN and 15 & Over 50 Breaststroke OLD 33.69 Daiki Kuriyama at IASAS 2012 2/2/2012 NEW 32.88 Daiki Kuriyama at IASAS 2013 1/31/2013 Boys OPEN and 15 & Over 100 Breaststroke OLD 1:11.64 Kentaro Hosoki at IASAS 2007 NEW 1:10.36 Daiki Kuriyama at IASAS 2013 Boys OPEN and 15 & Over 200 Breaststroke OLD 2:38.26 Kentaro Hosoki at IASAS 2007 NEW 2:34.94 Daiki Kuriyama at IASAS 2013 Girls OPEN and 15&Over 200 Free Relay OLD 2:04.88 A. Oo, L. Iai, J. Hirsch, L. Toppari NEW 2:03.06 L. Iai, L. Toppari, L. Langvin, J. Hirsch Boys OPEN and 15&Over 400 Medley Relay OLD 4:24.79 S.Moon, K.Hosoki, G.Go, V.Villareal NEW 4:24.60 K. Soh, D. Kuriyama, J. Jang, H. Cho

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