Primary Newsletter

NEWS#16

PRIMARY SCHOOL

Primary Newsletter | Issue 16| May 27 2011

The International School of The Hague

Wijndaelerduin 12554 BX The Hague www.ishthehague.nl

Primary SchoolTelephone +31 (0)70 338 4567Fax +31 (0)70 328 2049Email [email protected]

Secondary SchoolTelephone +31 (0)70 328 1450Fax +31 (0)70 328 2049Email [email protected]

In this issue

3 - 4 Dear ISH News Readers,

5 Mother Tongue News

6 Primary News

7 Dates for your Diary

8 -13 Primary News and Events

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Dear Parents,

We are now in the busiest part of the school year, with many learning-focused school visits, sports days, camps and of course, report writing going on. Our Year 4 children returned from a very successful and enjoyable camp at Noordwijk. The children were extremely well behaved and, as usual, the Stayokay camp staff complimented our school. We had a wonderful sports day for our upper school children on Wednesday. Many thanks to Ms. Ana and her staff for organizing such an enjoyable event and well done to our children for some great performances and excellent sportsmanship. Congratulations to the winner, team Munich and also to team Stockholm as winners of the Fair Play Award. We are now preparing for our annual primary performance, on 7th, 8th and 9th June. I can promise you a spectacular evening’s entertainment.

In a previous newsletter, I informed you about our cooperation with the Eerste Nederlands Montessori School (ENMS) and I promised to keep you informed about any developments that might take place. This week, the two schools moved a step closer, with the agreement to share a license. On Wednesday, I sent letters to all primary parents (except for leavers and year 6 children who will be

moving on to our secondary school, technically a separate school with a separate license number ) requesting that you deregister from our current license number, currently held by HSV and register with our new license number, shared with ENMS. It is very important that you do this promptly as all children must be registered with a school. There is no other way to do this – the school cannot do this for you; by law, you must do it yourself. I would like to take this opportunity to thank our friends at HSV for their cooperation over the years. I am sure that the two schools will continue to cooperate closely in an informal way, working together to deliver quality international education in The Hague.

Plans have now been finalized for an extension of the primary building, into the space currently occupied by the Triodus nursery. All work should be completed over the summer break, providing us with four new primary classrooms, a larger staffroom for our 70 plus staff, a new primary office and additional Special Needs rooms. The new classrooms will be used for Year 2 children. All children will continue to enter around the side of the building into the playground. The new entrance to the Primary Office will be on the ground floor, where the current Triodus entrance is, so you will no longer need to use the main entrance and walk all the way around to the

Dear ISH News Readers,

This Issue is made byVerona Schroder [email protected] Scott

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Dear ISH News Readers,primary part of school. Also, there will be a hatch/sliding window in the office, so if you require forms such as special leave , you can collect them without going right into school. We do ask you to limit your visits to the office, as it is a very busy place, particularly at the beginning and end of the school day. All visitors will of course be required to sign in and wear a visitor badge. We are also looking forward to seeing the additional play area at the front of the school take shape – it is slowly turning from brown into green!

Finally, a reminder that all after school activities end next week. Due to secondary exams taling place in the gyms, all gym activities with the exception of Judo finished last week.

Have a pleasant weekend

Graeme Scott

Primary Principal

The first day of Green Week will be 30 May. To support and create environmental awareness the school Campus will be a car free zone on 30, 31 May and 01 June. No cars will be allowed on site with the exception of school buses and vehicles bearing a disabled sticker. Please use the car park adjacent to the school for these days. Thank you for your participation and understanding.

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Mother Tongue News

Language acquisition, Some knowledge to shareLanguage Acquisition, Some Knowledge to ShareIn which language should the children start reading in? In our situation: in English, the school language or in their Mother Tongue, the home language? Crawford and Krashen tell us that: “Literacy in the native language provides a shortcut to literacy in English.” Why: “1. We learn to read by reading, by making sense of what we see on the page. 2. If we learn to read by reading, it will be much easier to learn to read in a language we already understand. 3. Once you can read, you can read. Being literate in one language makes it much easier to develop reading ability in additional languages. In other words, literacy transfers across languages.”

Mother Tongue News*After School Mother Tongue:Last term MT after school started this week. -2nd term catch up classes update: on the 29/06 LS French, Arabic and Italian, on the 30/06 US French Mr. Lucas- Open position as Mother Tongue Tutor from September: German and French. Depending on the number of children registered class will take place on Wednesday 12:30-1:50 (Lower School) and Thursday 3:00-4:10 (Upper School). We are also happy to receive application for other languages we could offer to our families.Kind regards,Pascale HertayDeputy [email protected]

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Primary News

Year 5 Bake Sale

Animal HospitalYou might have noticed that there have been two bake sales on Monday, May 23rd and Wednesday, May 25th. The money will actually go to an animal hospital called the Dierenambulance. It is located in Den Haag and it is quite a small organization, so that is why they need extra help. Do you know what they will do with the money? They will use this money to help one of these cats: Louise, Beneton and Fredor. Beneton has wounds on his neck and head. He needs care. Lousi has an allergy against his own body. He

needs to be washed twice per week and has to bewashed with a special soap. Fredor was found by some bushes next to the highway. He was there for three days and needs medicine to get his health back. In total, we raised €243.77 and there will soon be another bake sale in the secondary to support them as well.We would like to thank everyone who supported our fundraising!

By: Eleonora, Zephyra, Paris and Sarina (5C)

Louise Fredor Benton

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Dates for your Diary

Green Week, ISH has a car-free campus

Annual Upper School Performance 17:00



Year 6 Camp until 17 June

Year 5 Camp

Last Day of School. School Ends at

12:00

Introduction day for New Students

Joining ISH and Their Parents

First Day of School for All Students

Ms. Bradley

Ms. Bradley

Ms. Munnick

Ms. Byatt

Ms. Byatt

Ms. Ms. Priestman

Ms. Ms. Priestman

Ms. Hoenselaar

Ms. Sutton

Ms. Bradley

May CT DAYS

30 May

Please check our website for a complete calendar

01 June

07 June

10 June

30

06 June

July

07

08

0909 June

14

22

01

17

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June August7


Primary NewsGreen Week Events to do with your child(ren) Green Smoothies on sale on MondayWith parents after school by the entrance to GreenSpace

Green Photo competitionAll week Outside school time, with parents. See poster for where to send entries. Prizes for best entries

Design a windmill/turbine for The ISH campus competition All week Eternal fame for best entry

Create Green Art With parents in GreenSpace Wednesday from 13.00-15.00 (Primary only)

Design Green Graffiti Art piece on designated screens in schoolAll week best piece to be sprayed on designated screens in school8

Primary NewsAuthor visit Tanya Batt

Once Upon A Time long, long Ago before time was caughtand put in clocks, in a time whenmagic was easier to find...there was a story….…one that falls in through your eye when you are staring up at the stars one night, or perhaps you swallowed it... or maybe it seeped in through your skin like air or water or the thick warm scent of summer, or maybe you caught it like a cold from your great-great-great-grandmother, or like a fish on a long-line of truth... Don’t you remember someone telling you a story?Last Monday, Reception and Year 1 were treated to the magic story telling of Tanya Batt. A truly inspiring story teller who captivated the children and fired their imaginations. Reception listened to stories about the elements, “Gaia has a necklace and on it are four beads,” begins the story. The children participated and listened to two stories about the elements: water and fire. In the water story, the children took on the role of the frog, Tidalik and moved around drinking water from the creek, then the river and finally the lake until he was so large he could not move! Rainbow bird in our second story was very brave taking away fire from

Crocodile Man. Alia and Harry proved themselves to be budding actors! Tanya certainly wetted our appetite.

In the afternoon Year One children were treated to two further stories about Gaia and the elements. Tanya skilfully captured the children’s interest as they anticipated what she would pull out of her story sack. First 1L and 1W listened to a story about a boy stopping the wind, so the wind eagle could not fly. This had disasterous consequences with the rivers becoming dirty. Eventually everything was put right. The children then listened to 4 pieces of music that represented earth, wind, fire and water and drew pictures. Finally 1S and 1P listened to a creation story from North America about a brave duck who dove down deep into the water to drag up the earth so he could have a rest when he was tired. They had oportunity to move to music representing the 4 elements and then got into groups to draw giant collective pictures. It was a truly inspiring experience for all the children and they all came away telling a new story. ``````````

Details of Tanya’s stories and events can be found on her web site: www.imagined-worlds.net

Margaret Clough and Helen Priestman

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Primary NewsYear 6 visit to Neeltje JansOn Friday 20th May 2011 the year 6 students of the International School of The Hague (ISH) went on a school trip to “Neeltje Jans”, in the province Zeeland. The students went to learn more about their science topic rivers.

The Students had a two hour bus ride, on a double-Decker bus. Lots of students brought card games, books and some even started singing! On the way to “Neeltje Jans” there were lots of interesting sights to see.

“Neeltje Jans” was a museum split up into various parts. At the entrance the students watched a short movie about the flood disaster on 1953. A student, called Vita had something to say about the movie and considered “the movie was a bit boring in the end”. But despite that some other students thought it was interesting.

There were lots of activities to do! There was a hurricane simulator, a dam that you could see and a little ship which would spin in circles. The hurricane simulator made kids experience a hurricane, not a real one though. A student named Fabianna, who had experienced the simulator thought that one of the finest things at “Neeltje Jans” was “the hurricane simulator because you experience how strong a hurricane is!” However a student called Cosmin thought differently about one of the activities, he thought that one of the annoying activities was “The silly boat ride, because it kept doing the same thing, it’s for babies!” Mostly all students did all the activities.

Towards the end of the day there was a whale exhibition. There were many facts about whales and the students learned new things about whales that they did not know. One student was

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Primary Newsimpressed by “How much a baby whale drinks, because it’s a lot!” Another student named Sophie thought a real impressive thing was “The whale skeleton”. There was also a little movie on whales for students who were interested.

It was the end of the day and there was still time to have more fun! When word came that there was a water slide, students immediately rushed to the queue. The student named Vita thought the best part was “The playground and waterslide because it was VERY fun!” There were games which showed miniature dams which one could open and close, also a playground with slides and ropes. The students loved the day, probably the best museum yet!

Year 6 students went to “Neeltje Jans” in the province of Zeeland and learned about rivers and water protection and many other things too.

Victoria

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Events

More of Christel’s photographs can be found online:http://web.mac.com/christel.vanmeeuwen/ISH/Overview/Overview.html

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Events

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