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From the Head of British Secondary and High School Section Christmas Tree. Thank you to Rian Hui and Adrienne Goh from the ESC PA who assisted our Student Council erect the ESC Christmas Tree this week. The Christmas Tree lights were turned on for the first time this morning in a small ceremony involving the Student Council and the ESC PA. Congratulations and thank you to all concerned.

Christmas Bazaar. A final reminder from me about next week’s Christmas Bazaar. Please continue to look out for emails from the various parent groups that are organizing activities on the day. Any assistance you can provide will certainly be most appreciated. The Christmas Bazaar is to be held at the EPC on Saturday November 24 and is undoubtedly one of the highlights of the TES calendar. I know the Houses, TABITHA and Roots and Shoots are busy preparing for a fun packed day and I encourage all members of the TES community to support their activities. Our musicians will also perform throughout the day so please keep an eye (and ear) out for them. I look forward to seeing as many of you there as possible.

Music FOBISSEA Thank you to Mr Papps for leading and organizing the MUSIC FOBISSEA trip to Vietnam. All students that I have spoken to were tremendously positive about the experience. Our school was heavily represented and apart from the host school we had the most students attend. I think that speaks volumes for the great work being completed by staff and students in Music at TES. I am sure the students learnt a lot from the experience. Congratulations to all staff and students involved.

Warm regards, Stuart Glascott

SCHOOL WEBSITE: www.taipeieuropeanschool.com

CONTACT: Taipei European School, Swire European Secondary Campus, 31 Jian Ye Road,

Shihlin, Taipei 11193 Telephone: +886 2 8145 9007

EUROPEAN SECONDARY CAMPUS

NEWSLETTER Edition 6.0 Friday 16th November 2012

TAIPEI EUROPEAN SCHOOL 台北歐洲學校

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From the Deputy Head Dear Parents, ‘Tis the season to be jolly and in the spirit of Christmas you can now see a beautifully decorated tree in our Phase 2 Atrium. With only 5 weeks left of term there is plenty to be looking forward to: Key Stage 3 Academic Reports will be issued in December and teachers are now collating their assessment data to provide the most accurate and up to date picture of your child’s progress; plans for the Christmas Bazaar are underway in what promises to be an enjoyable day of festivity and performance with huge contributions being made by staff, students and parents alike; our Music Forbissea was a huge success and you can see pictures of our students and teachers thoroughly enjoying themselves in Vietnam last week in this newsletter and Mr Papps is already looking forward to hearing some of our students perform live on ICRT Radio at 10.30 on Monday morning (19th November) please tune in! Also this half term: our H3 students will shortly be receiving their IGCSE certificates in a celebration assembly in recognition of their success in summer’s examinations – signaling the end of one phase of their academic career and the beginning of another, just as our H4 and H2 students prepare for January’s mock exams. Michael Pohl – a leading educationalist on developing a Thinking Culture in schools – has spent the week with staff at the EPC and ESC, providing some excellent training opportunities for teaching colleagues. Students will no doubt see the benefit of some creative and inspiring approaches to learning and thinking in their classrooms in the coming weeks and months. Mr Morris our Head of Drama explores this in more depth in his fascinating article below.

Chinese Poetry Singing Competition KS3 students have been keenly rehearsing for their Chinese Poetry Singing Competition recently. The first run was held on Nov. 14 for three Y8 classes with the first champion singers coming out with their beautiful singing of “The Smell of Rice”. The winners are: Jimmy Yang, William Chen, Will Huang, Alan Kuo and Johnson Lee. Students were very creative with their production by integrating their Chinese proficiency with their talents in music, drama and even art. Other performances will take place on Nov. 19 and Nov. 23 at the MPR and please come along to enjoy students’ beautiful singing in Chinese! Flora Sung Head of Chinese Language and Culture - ESC

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News from the Mathematics Department On November 6th 2012, our fantastic mathematicians at TES took part in the Senior Maths Challenge – a worldwide competition set by the UK Mathematics Trust and the University of Leeds. The Senior Challenge is the hardest of the competitions we run. Here are a couple of the questions that puzzled our students this year.

Results will be out shortly – keep an eye on the UKMT noticeboard!

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From the Music Department TES at Music FOBISSEA Ho Chi Minh 2012

It was another very successful Music FOBISSEA Festival this year for TES, with thirty two students and four staff attending from both the ESC and EPC. This year’s festival was held in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, with students getting the opportunity to sing or perform in a combined orchestra and choir of over 300 people. Students also got the chance to try out some different activities, such as Yoga, iPad Orchestra, Writing a Pop Song, Rock Band and had the chance to go on a walking tour of the

city and visit Ben Thanh Market. However, the highlight of the festival had to be the final Gala Performance in front of large audience of parents, invited guests and general public. All students arrived back in Taipei very tired, but also very enthused for next year’s festival and music in general. Student articles about the festival will be submitted in the next newsletter!

Peripatetic Programme A Guitar tutor has now been found for this programme and lessons have started this week. Please be aware that there will be 8 lessons for Guitar in this first Semester.

Peripatetic Guitar Lessons 2012-2013 - Semester 1

A reminder to all parents to continue checking student Peripatetic Instrument Programme Diaries to monitor progress and individual practice.

Mr Chris Papps – HOD Music

Lesson 1 2 3 4 5 Xmas

Break 6 7 8

Make Up

Make Up

Month November December January

Mon 19 26 3 10 17 ** 7 14 21 28 4

Tues 13 20 29 4 11 18 ** 8 15 22 29 5

Wed 14 21 30 5 12 19 ** 9 16 23 30 6

Thur 15 22 1 6 13 20 ** 10 17 24 31 7

Fri 16 23 2 7 14 21 ** 11 18 25 1 8

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From the Art Department Taipei: Home to many of today’s foremost connoisseurs of Art, and what better place could there be to develop your collection by acquiring a piece of Art work from our world renowned IB Visual Arts students?

This Year’s Christmas Bazaar promises to be the most exciting and entertaining we have ever had.

The H4 Visual Art students will be contributing as always through the sale of their work. We have 17 graduating Art students this year who will go on to study for careers in Architecture, Fine Art and illustration as well as the huge field of the Applied Arts. The silent auction will be taking place in the main cafeteria between 11:00 and 2:30.

DE BONO, BUSINESS AND H4 THEATRE ARTS

“A culture of trust is a trademark of

high performing teams and

organizations”.

This is the concluding quote from a

recent edition of the Harvard business

review which published an article

about the importance of questioning in

organizations. The article began with

the proposal that ‘Influence is one of

the most important competencies of

leaders in the twenty-first century’.

Given that as well as preparing our

students for the world of work, we as

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teachers also secretly hope that we might be able to help influence our students towards their

development as tomorrow’s leaders, this article begs the question of how we do this

effectively within our subjects.

The recent inset which teachers attended this week delivered by Michael Pohl, extolled the

value of deep questioning and gave us all insight into a range of strategies about nurturing

thinking awareness in our students. The high school drama department attended the De Bono

six thinking hats session on the Tuesday.

Of course, the seminal De Bono text and initial hype about the ‘hats’ happened a while ago for

many of us. Australia has long had a tradition of this at schools such as ‘Wilderness’ and the

like and indeed, this meta-cognitively driven strategy was originally conceived as a business

tool long before educationalists identified the relevance of it. In fact, it was a friend of mine

that introduced me to this some seven years or so ago; he had been learning about it for his

MBA whilst consulting for Arthur Andersen. It is ironic now of course to recollect what

happened to the culture of trust there…The relationship between education and business has

always been an awkward one but certainly the six thinking hats still have something powerful

to say in both contexts.

In a recent H4 drama lesson this week students first reflectively identified their own thinking

styles (they wore actual coloured hats just to make it a little less abstract) before

contemplating how they might use this knowledge to improve their group work and project

management but of course what they were really doing was managing their influence over

each other and assessing how to finesse it in order to produce the best possible collaborative

outcome. It should be said that at no time did these students regard the six thinking hats as a

finite tool for managing the complex processes at work in looking at contemporary drama

texts and the modes of consumption that surround them, but they were an invaluable help.

Thinking in parallel whilst doing say yellow hat thinking, allowed them to identify semantic

threads, differentiate between ideological standpoints and better hone their own assumptions.

In the case of their current text, a contemporary London hit play called ‘earthquakes in

London’ about the bio-cultural demise of a society which has lost sight of the fundamental

values of what it means to be human, (delivered with a satirical pathos and a divergent to

convergent structure of which Pohl would have been proud and which typifies the twenty-first

century concept of the epic state of the nation play) they were able to break the text down into

manageable parts. The study of contemporary work which is constituted out of so many

influences simply would not be possible without the employment of some of these techniques.

The text they studied prior to this one, which acted as a companion piece to ‘earthquakes’

was another contemporary epic state of the nation satire : ‘Enron’.

The culture of trust to which many institutions aspire (but which few achieve) is of course

accomplished by managing ‘influence’ carefully. Learning that there is equity to be found in

traditionally second tier concepts like trust, honesty and transparency is in effect a paradigm

shift which relocates the bottom line in our thinking about productivity and indeed progress.

The same bottom line that brought De Bono to business and which should have brought De

Bono to us much earlier.

Whilst the thinking hats may once have helped corporations skate with agility on the cutting

edges of emerging markets it is for us, in theatre arts at least, a way not only of creating more

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efficiently but also of increasing our equity in the collaborative evaluation of the end product

and how it sits in the world that we want to build.

Mike Bartlett’s play is perhaps most subversive in its largely blue hat analysis of the

abandonment of truly ethical blue hat thinking (blue hat meaning evaluating the processes

rather than the content / overview / thinking about thinking etc…). Just like the world that we

live in, it can all be complicated to unravel at first but with De Bono on board, I think our H4

students will ‘get it’.

Physical Education: The Physical Education Department would like to extend its congratulations to the following students on their achievement in class. These students have not only demonstrated TES school values, but have also excelled during our class activities. Students of the Month are:

September October

KS3 Tom Wikstrom John Park

KS3 Audrey Lam Nancy Zuniga

H1/H2 Henry Reynolds Jonas Huber

We look forward to your continued success!

Craig Morris Head of Physical Education

From the Assistant Head (High School)

In recent weeks High School students have had the opportunity to review their academic targets with their peers and teachers through dynamic and collaborative activities. Both Mr Winter and Mr Latchford are in the process of meeting with individual students to discuss their progress so far and to explore ways to even further improve their results.

These conversations are especially important for H2 and H4 students who are currently completing coursework tasks and beginning to prepare for the upcoming January mock examinations. This can be a stressful time of year for students, so it is essential that they take good care of themselves and stay focused on working towards achieving their targets. In the next two newsletters I will provide some revision tips and strategies to help parents support their children ahead of the mock examinations.

Ms. Sonya Papps Assistant Head (High School)

From IB Co-ordinator Next Friday (23rd November) is the deadline for the Extended Essay. Students need to hand in a paper version of their essay to the IB Office by 3pm. In the weeks following (before Christmas), students will have viva voce interviews with their supervisors and prepare for final submission. Mr. Latchford IB Co-ordinator

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CAS (Creativity, Action and Service) – Featured Activity

Throughout this academic year, we will feature some IB CAS (Creativity, Action and Service) activities that students have been participating in. In this edition we follow Kevin Liu’s and his preparations he made in his participation in the 2012 IDEERS (Introducing and Demonstrating Earthquake Engineering Research in Schools) earthquake structure competition. Kevin has been kind enough to allow me to quote directly from some of the thoughts and reflections he has recorded as he progressed in the competition.

Before beginning an activity, students are encouraged to plan their activities before they begin them, and think about the challenges they may face. Here is Kevin’s description of what he expected to encounter in his activity: “The IDEERS competition is an international tournament held yearly that aims to challenge high school students to design and construct structures to withstand earthquakes. I've always had a deep interest in projects that involve designing and building things, and this will definitely challenge and push my abilities.

The competition restricts team members to build only during the competition itself in order to maintain fairness. We are, however, allowed to design prototypes in our spare time and come up with an optimal solution - which is exactly what we'll do. Obviously, this'll have to be done out of school, and will be very time consuming (at least 6 hours each, which is the given time in the real competition). As a team of four, we have to find out how we're going to delegate tasks and learn to specialize so that we can get to work immediately once the competition comes around. With each new design, we'll develop new techniques, as well as find out what is and isn't effective for structural integrity.”

One of the requirements of CAS is that students provide evidence and reflect on their experiences. This is a crucial element of CAS, and where students develop into reflective learners. Here are Kevin’s reflections:

“Earthquakes are a very big problem in Taiwan, and I felt that spending the time to do this competition allowed us to understand the difficulties behind designing a building to remain upright in a country where earthquakes happen all the time. We have spent two or three weeks planning, designing, and building our prototypes for the structure we will build. Our team spent an entire night on video chat contributing our ideas, while I used 3D-modelling software to give everyone an idea of how the structure might look. The time it took to actually come up with our first design took around 3 days. However, we very quickly realized that we couldn't use the design we had in mind because our base wasn't strong enough. This led to a complete restructuring of the base, where we had also had to come up with the best way to join two parallel wooden beams. We never got around to finishing the first one; there were simply too many flaws with it. It was too stiff, too heavy (the scores are based on efficiency), and too time consuming.”

“After some discussion with our supervisor, we set out to build our second version. This one went back to the basics- everything was made as simple and light as possible. This one went a lot smoother. Immediately, we could see the experience from the previous build had carried through- there were less mistakes, more efficiency, and a much clearer and unified idea of what we were trying to achieve. “

“So, what have I learned over the past two days in the competition?

I'm really glad we spent the time to properly plan everything. In the opening stages of the competition, we overheard the team from the next table that they had no clue how they were going to build theirs. We, however, were cruising with relative ease. Everyone knew what they had to do; and those who finished early would help others to keep the team's overall progress moving along consistently. I don't think I could have asked for a better team. Being friends, we were cooperative, we were in sync, and we had the time of our lives. “

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Kevin Liu (H4) and the rest of the team with their final earthquake-proof design.

Mr. Paul Lee CAS Co-ordinator

Guest Speaker – Andy Fletcher Andy Fletcher, the founder of TOK Seminars and author of the book Life, the Universe and Everything arrived in Taipei main station on Monday, November 5th to be met by Mr. Kenny, the Team Leader of Theory of Knowledge course. Andy had just completed a day of teaching in I-Shou International School in Kaohsiung and was due to present for two days in TAS, beginning on Thursday. For Tuesday and Wednesday he was all ours. This collaboration between the three IBO schools in bringing Andy to Taiwan will hopefully lead to greater island-wide TOK co-operation. During his time with TES Andy led a wide ranging discussion on the nature of TOK education with the team of TOK teachers in H3 and H4, gave a workshop presentation on the issues facing Third Culture Kids to 50 plus parents at the EPC, and presented three lectures on the New Physics to TOK students in H3 and H4 as well as an introductory session to H2. After the school day ended, Andy’s brains were picked by some keen H4s on knowledge issues they face in writing their TOK essays. All of Andy’s talks were very well-prepared and once again we were able to see why he is so popular with TOK schools around the world. One of the science teachers even told me he enjoyed the presentation, and that’s high praise! In the weeks preceding his time with us in Taiwan he had been in the UK and several other EU countries, and he left us to go on to China and Japan. He made his audiences laugh but he also presented us with intriguing questions about how to fit the latest scientific discoveries into the bigger picture all of us must assemble about the meaning of life. In short, he is an excellent educator and we look forward to his next visit to TES. Mr Sean Kenny TOK Team Leader

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University and Careers Update

European Universities Mini-Fair, 9th November

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Roots and Shoots at the Christmas Bazaar

Roots and Shoots students have been busy preparing items for sale at the Christmas Bazaar. This is the first year that we have decided to have a stall to raise money to continue our environmental action. The students have hand printed re-usable lute and cotton bags over the past four weeks. On Wednesday we learnt how to prepare bath salts and hand sanitizers from Ms Kathie Chang. More of Ms Chang's healthy body wash, shampoo, and lip balms will also be sold next Saturday. The stall will sell Taiwan produced clothing made from recycled plastic bottles. We look forward to seeing you on 24th November at the Christmas Bazaar!

From the Assistant Head (Key Stage 3)

Targets and Motivation

In Newsletter 5 I wrote about the importance of setting SMART targets and how they can serve as a great motivating tool for all of us. Pushing yourself and achieving a target is extremely rewarding and it can then lead to you wanting to strive for even better results in teh future. I had first hand experience of this on Saturday as I took on my challenge of completing the Taiwan KOM challenge in Hualien which was a 103.5km ride with over 3,300m of vertical climbing to altitude. My aim was to finish the event in one piece, I certainly had no misconceptions of staying with the Professional riders and Tour de France stars.

I achieved my goal after 5 hours of pain and spectacular views however as soon as I finished I began to think of how I could do better in the future. Within 5 minutes of finishing I had already set myself my next goal of retuning next year and completing it at least 30 minutes faster! Mr Imbleau and Mr Sing Key had exactly the same experience the previous week as they bravely completed the Taroko Half Marathon. They too were thrilled with the achievement but also motivated to improve on their times in the future.

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Setting challenging SMART goals is such a positive and motivating tool that all of our Key Stage 3 students should be using in the run up to the end of Term 1. If these goals are reached then it is likely that this will further inspire students to push themselves to achieve more. Key Stage 3 is such an important time in the education of our students as they develop the skills and drive to succeed in High School. I further encourage students to look at their performances in school, identify an area for development and set a SMART target. This process will most definitely result in them raising their attainment.

Next week all Key Stage 3 will be aiming to achieve their fitness goals as they are re-tested in the Beep Test. Students have been working hard over the past 5 weeks in fitness lessons and will all be aiming to improve on their previous scores with the extra motivation of knowing this is a house competition. Good luck to all students and I hope they will all be rewarded with an improved fitness score.

Good Luck

We have a large number of Key Stage 3 students in the U15 FOBISSEA team this year which is fantastic. To gain a place in the U15 team while still in Key Stage 3 is a huge achievement and myself and Mr Sing Key wish all the Year 9 students travelling to China the very best of luck.

The whole FOBISSEA experience is such a positive one as students compete at a high level in a range of sports as well as having the opportunity to meet and socialise with students from all over South East Asia.

Good luck to the team and most importantly I hope it is a trip that they will remember for years to come.

James Woodall Assistant Head KS3

Healthy Living

Year 7s will focus on ‘Healthy Living’ for the next month in PSHCE. This unit of study is interlinked with their gardening Service Project that they have been working on since the term began. The Year 7 cohort is showing great responsibility by watering and weeding their raised-garden beds twice a week during their lunch hours and this tremendous effort put forth will pay off in dividends in a month’s time when they will harvest their own garden veggies and eat a delicious and healthy lunch at school.

Eating healthy is an important habit for everyone but especially for young teenagers as they begin to go out more often and are asked to make choices when dining with friends. ‘Should I buy fries and a hamburger or should I replace the fries with an apple or salad?’ In the next month, students will be asked to design questionnaires, analyse data and draw conclusions from the information they find on healthy living. Not only will we focus on diet, but getting the proper amount of sleep and exercise as well.

This should be both a fun and educational unit where Year 7s will think critically about their present lifestyle and see whether or not they might want to make some changes in order to live healthier.

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Tips on how to tackle assessment anxiety in KS3

The Christmas break is fast approaching, but before we can all enjoy a well deserved holiday,

KS3 students will have to prepare to write assessments on the work they have covered thus

far. We do not have an exam week in KS3 so students do not need to worry about this but

they may have some end of unit assessments.

It is normal for students to experience some level of anxiety during assessments, however,

when anxiety affects exam performance it becomes a problem which must be addressed.

While preparing the assessments for my Geography classes, I thought I would share few

pointers on how to tackle assessment anxiety and stress during this busy time of year.

Assessment preparation to reduce anxiety:

● Approach the assessment with confidence.

● Use whatever strategies you can to personalise success: visualisation, logic, talking to

your self, practice, team work, journaling, etc.

● View the exam as an opportunity to show how much you have studied and to receive a

reward for the studying you have done.

● Be prepared! In other words … STUDY!

● Learn your material thoroughly and organise what materials you will need for the test.

Use a checklist.

● Avoid cramming just before the activity/assessment.

● Avoid speaking with any fellow students who have not prepared, who express

negativity, who will distract your preparation.

● Exercise is said to sharpen the mind.

● Get a good night's sleep the night before the assessment.

● Don't go to school with an empty stomach! Fresh fruits and vegetables are often

recommended to reduce stress. Avoid high sugar content (candy) or foods containing

preservatives or heavy spices.

During the test:

● Read the directions carefully

● Budget your test taking time

● If you go blank, skip the question and go on

● Do not panic when students start handing in their papers. There is no reward for

finishing first!

Remember, your teachers are always there to help you. So if you are unsure of any work,

homework or simply have questions, take responsibility (one of our Secondary Values) for

your academic success and approach your teacher for assistance. Who knows, your question

just may be in the assessment!

Mr Sing Key

Head of Year 8 & 9

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From the Secondary and High School Library Dear parents and students, Being part of the upcoming Book Week activity, the library is holding a literary quiz of our visiting author- Xiao Ye (小野) at Phase II library. Student who answers questions on the bulletin board correctly can obtain i-Points from the librarian! The more you answer, the more you get! There are new questions coming out frequently, don’t forget to check the bulletin board everyday! Happy Reading! Angela Chang Chief Librarian

From the Head of Sport

HOUSE Glee The house captains are working extremely hard with their teams in preparation for the Glee competition. Hours and hours of rehearsals are taking place and the standard looks to be very high again. The teams still have time to develop further so it is very exciting. We can’t wait for the big event on the final day of term.

Mistral practicing hard to try and win GLEE for a 3rd time in a row. Christmas Bazaar The Houses will compete on Saturday 25 November to be the most innovative with their fairground stalls. Come and support the Houses and play a few games. There will be: Bora: pillow fights, face painting and football goal scoring Marin: Sack races, hair spraying and ball throwing Mistral: Hair braiding and basketball shooting Sirocco: Spartan spear throwing, and ping pong throwing.

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SPORTS JV Girls Volleyball and Boys Football Tournament

JV Boys TISSA Football Champions: With the JVB boys winning the TISSA tournament the week before the pressure was on our JV boys to bring home another trophy. There was a wobbly moment when we went down to 10 men in the 3rd game due to a handball in the goal area but the boys pulled together to win. The team out classed all others and comfortably won all games making TES the JV Boys Champions as well as the JVB Boys and the JV girls. The JV teams also travelled down to Taichung to play in the TISSA tournaments hosted by Morrison Academy Central. The girls started off nervously against a weaker ISIS side and were down in the first set. However the girls found their composure and went on to win the first two matches comfortably. The girls then played against a side from AST who were very strong and tall. Our girls played with heart and performed their set plays excellently seeing the team win and going through to the final. The final was against KAS and unfortunately the nerves the girls had in the first game came back to haunt them so losing the first set. Coach AJ fired up the girls and the second set was a different story. They served fantastically and played amazingly well at the net. The girls were up 24-17 in the second set, but today was not their day. The girls are a fantastic team and always look after each other. They have great spirit and were very pleased to become the silver medalists. New Season: The football and volleyball seasons officially end with the JV tournament. Middle School are now training for the softball tournament on December 8 and the High School move into their basketball season. The basketball tournaments will be on January 19.

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First basketball game of the season: JV boys v DIS. And Year 8 boys softball training. U15 FOBISSEA The U15 team travel to Suzhou on November 21 to compete in Athletics, Swimming, Basketball and Football. Having won Gold in Football and Silver in Basketball last year in Beijing we are hopeful for a repeat performance. Good luck to the squad to the of 32 Year 9 and H1 students in their team and individual events.