KISU Newsletter

Today's newsletter is so long that we are considering going back to issuing separate Primary and Secondary newsletters next week. This is a reflection of the fact that we are returning to normal. I could have included much more - Saturday football clubs available to students from KG2 to DP2, Saturday Primary swimming club, Year 4's assembly, all the after school clubs that are up and running etc. It is almost like old times!!

A number of classes are now completely back and therefore for them online learning will come to an end. A few classes still have one or 2 students online but as you can see below the students in school are doing lots of practical learning that they were not able to do when they were online. Again can I remind students and parents that it is not possible for students to move in and out of online learning; it makes organizing lessons really difficult if at 8.00am we receive an email saying a student will be online today. If a student is too sick to be at school then they are to sick to do online learning. The only possible exception is if a child has a family member who has COVID and they are isolating to protect the rest of the school but are not ill themselves.

A reminder to Secondary students and parents that from Year 7 upwards Secondary students should not stay in their PE kit all day. If they have PE periods 1, 2 or 3 then they can come in PE kit but have to be changed into school uniform by period 4. If they have PE in periods 4 and 5 they should change out of school uniform into PE kit for their lesson and then back into uniform for period 6. If they have PE period 6 or 7 then they can change into PE kit at lunchtime and can go home in their PE kit. These are not new arrangements but with students out of school for so long they have got out of the habit.

Another reminder is that students should only be on the field after school if they have a club based there. We only have staff on the field to supervise the waiting areas and this is where students should be.

One or two of the pictures in this week's newsletter have cut parts of the heads off our children. If you want to see the whole picture simple hover the cursor over the picture, click on the magnifying glass and a larger version will magically appear.

The letter below was sent out to parents earlier this week:

Dear Parents/Guardians

Please note School photographs will be taken on the 7th Feb , 8th Feb and 9th Feb 2022.

Mr. Mehul Kanani from Colour Chrome will be taking the photographs again this year. Once photos have been taken, you will be asked to come into school over a period of 3 days (these dates will be confirmed at a later stage) to allow you to view the sample photographs and to place your order.

In case if you are not able to come into school to view the sample photographs, you can go directly to Colour Chrome at Acacia Mall to view and order your child/ren’s photographs with Mr. Mahul. Photographs payments will be handled by him directly.

SCHOOL UNIFORM

Please ensure the children wear the correct full uniform to school as per the class schedule. Should your child/ren have PE, please ensure to pack a clean GREEN uniform inside their school bag which they can change here before the photograph is taken.

In the event of cancellation due to bad weather we will inform you of the rescheduled dates.

If your child happens to be absent on the appointed day and you want an individual or sibling photograph taken on another day, please get in touch with the class teacher otherwise the photograph will not be taken.

SIBLING PHOTOGRAPHS

Please fill attached SIBLING FORM if you would like your children to have a joint sibling photograph and return your form to the primary / secondary offices by no later than 1st February 2022.

Should we not receive your completed sibling form by Tuesday 1st Feb, NO sibling photo will be taken.

Please note School Photograph Schedule:-

Monday 7th February 2022 Tuesday 8th February 2022

EY, KS 1 & KS 2 Class & individual photos Secondary Class & individual photos

Siblings only in Primary Siblings in primary & secondary per family

Wednesday 9th February

Staff pictures (Admin / ancillary / academic / security / canteen / supervisors)

Warm regards

Daman Sachdeva

Head of Admissions and Administration

KISU offers music lessons in all levels of advancement and for all ages. In addition to piano, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass guitar, modern drums, African drums, recorder, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, flute, trombone and African Xylophone, our strings program has expanded to include the cello. You can sign up for lessons on any of the above musical instruments. Registration forms can be obtained from the reception office, primary office, or secondary music room. A minimum of ten lessons is required for registration at a fee of USHS 50,000 per lesson. Violin lessons fees are at USHS 60,000/=

KISU is a centre for Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music Examinations that are taken annually. ABRSM examiners from England come here for about a week to assess our students on various instruments of their choice including voice, piano, recorder, guitar, flute, and clarinet. This year, the examinations will take place during the first to second week of June 2022.

If you need more information regarding the ABRSM examinations or our music programmes, please contact Dr. Benon Kigozi, Head of Creative Arts and Head of Music on 0774 655864

The early year's musicians have had a lot of fun with different musical activities while focusing on keeping a steady beat ,rhythm and tempo; the speed of music. They have explored different nursery rhymes with actions which led them to move bodies to sounds that they enjoyed. The children also enjoyed playing a variety of instruments which helps build fine and gross motor skills to support sensory development and also enhance hand eye coordination.

Year 2 has been busy learning about different shapes; we can tell you all about the 2D and 3D shapes we might find around the classroom or even in our desks. We have even been finding 2D shapes on the faces of our 3D shapes. Have a look at some pictures of us with our shapes... we want to show everyone about our knowledge!

The year 5 class has been enjoying our return to in-person schooling the past few weeks as we got back into more hands-on learning and collaborative work. Diving deeper into suspense and mystery writing has been a spookily fun experience as we put our heads together to write a suspenseful short story as a class in preparation to write individual texts contributing to a class book of hair-raising tales. Check out this excerpt from our collaborative effort:

"Trying to escape the whipping wind, the children ran into the house to step inside to safety. The moment they entered, their noses were filled with the musty scent of decades of abandonment. Flickering lights formed eerie shadows in the hallway. The house was as still as a mouse trap about to spring. They continue into the hallway, stepping around fallen stone statues which used to line the entryway.

Wait a minute,” Ashley paused, “I think I know where we are. Have you ever heard of that abandoned house where those children got lost years ago?”

“I think I remember, but I don’t want to hear about that now,” James shuddered.

“We may as well know what we’re up against,” Ashley retorted as she began to recount the story…

After having PE behind the camera for quite a long time, we have missed the life of teamwork, fun games and the sense of competition in different sports. Finally we are back to normal lessons and the fun has got better with the return of swimming lessons.

For the next 6 - 7 weeks, Year 5 & 6 will be concentrating on a football unit, learning and improving on the different football skills.

In swimming, students are currently working on their endurance and stroke correction as we are settling in for this term.

The most merit awards this year have been awarded to;

Year 7 Francessa

Year 8 Begum

Year 9 Djenneba

Year 10 Sheeba

Year 11- Mock examinations

DP1 - Herbert

DP2 - Lucy

The highest number of merits this week were awarded to Begum and Djenneba

Practical work is an essential part of all science courses. This week Year 11 took their mock IGCSE chemistry practical.

CAS is an element of the IB program where students record experiences that they do in relation to any of the 3 strands Creativity, Activity, Service. Students record each CAS experience they do on their designated portfolio where they also have to show evidence that the experiences were genuinely done. Each experience must also have an adult supervisor who is responsible for writing a short report at the end reflecting on the students performance and the journey throughout the experience. At the end of each term, the student with the most CAS experiences recorded in their portfolio, that is diverse, unique and interesting, gets the CAS award.

CAS enables students to enhance their personal and interpersonal development by learning through experience. It provides opportunities for self-determination and collaborative work, stimulating a sense of accomplishment and enjoyment. At the same time, CAS is an important counterbalance to the academic pressures of secondary and later on in IB.

With the COVID 19 pandemic in the past 2 years, doing CAS would have been very difficult due to the lack of flexibility of experiences that are possible to do. However, now that physical school is back, and the majority of students are present on the school campus, students should aim to meet any/all of the 4 CAS learning outcomes with the experiences they do.

• Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth

• Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process

• Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences

• Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively

The first strand of CAS is creativity; creativity is exploring and extending ideas leading to an original or interpretive product or performance. Creativity comes from a student’s passion for something or from the curiosity to explore different ideas and imaginations. Activities for this strand can include performing arts, digital design, writing, film, culinary arts, crafts and composition. Furthermore, some activities that meet the creativity strand are available in the school as after school activities for example handicrafts, Bug club and Marvel club.

The second strand in CAS stands for activity. Activity signifies Physical exertion contributing to a healthy lifestyle, to put in simpler words any physical activity will meet the activity strand. Physical activity can help improve memory and brain function, it helps a person stay healthy, it can include different types of activities like , dance, outdoor recreation, fitness training, and any other form of physical exertion that purposefully contributes to a healthy lifestyle. Some activities provided as after school clubs at school include volleyball, dirt training, golf, swimming, athletics, Field Hockey and football.

The final stand of CAS is service;, service is collaborative and reciprocal engagement with the community in response to an authentic need. There are 4 types of service: direct service, indirect service, advocacy and research. For any activity to count as service it should help benefit the community. Some examples include, helping in an animal shelter, developing a garden in partnership with the refugees, volunteering at a local charity shop, etc.

For this week’s newsletter I wanted to focus on sharing some of the fantastic artwork our students are producing across KS3, KS4 and IB. For those who have not yet met me, my name is Daniel Grimshawe and I am the Secondary Art Lead at KISU.

It is so refreshing to have the majority of our students back on campus and physically working in the Art rooms. The collaboration of ideas, creativity and passion of our students is exactly the reason why I got into teaching.

Below, I have shared some artwork from Year 7, 9, 10 and IB Visual Arts. These photographs capture the week that has just passed and show the diverse range of projects we cover.

Year 7 – African Masks

During online learning, the students were sometimes limited to what they could produce at home. The African Masks project started with the students learning about the history of African masks, the cultural significance and intricate symmetrical designs. The students designed their own African mask and used a variety of pencil shading in order to show successful tonal range. The students are now transforming their designs into a cardboard montage, which will later be painted.

Surrealism was an art movement that originated in the early 1920’s. The movement sought to express the unconscious mind, dreams and often random situations. Students in Year 9 were introduced to the Surrealist movement and looked at the work of several famous Surrealists, these ranged from Rene Magritte, Max Ernst and Salvador Dalí. They then selected words at random, mimicking the ‘chance’ aspect of Surrealism, in order to build ideas for an absurd scenario. This narrative of ‘chance’ became the catalyst for the development of their surrealist compositions.

Since the start of Year 10, students have been following the theme of ‘Distortion and Manipulation’. They have produced a range of different self-portraits that each focus on a different method of distortion. The next phase of the project is a self-portrait inspired by the artist Takahiro Kimura (Artist’s work can be seen below). Firstly, the students took images that demonstrated a range of expressions. Then, they used these images to create a collage and later produced an A2 drawing of the collage. Below, you can see their experimental, abstract styles of painting.

In the IB Visual Arts course, students have the creative freedom to select their own theme. This encourages our students to invest in their work and consider the development of their ideas.

Throughout the two-year course, students have three major components:

1) Comparative Study (20%) – Students are required to select two-three artworks from different cultural backgrounds and compare with specific criterion.

2) The Exhibition (40%) – Students have to create 4-7 (SL) or 8-11 (HL) final pieces throughout the two years. The final pieces should relate to their chosen theme, demonstrate critical understanding and show refinement.

3) Process Portfolio (40%) – During the course, students will practice, experiment and develop their ideas. All of these developments are later formed into a portfolio, where students explain their journey.

Below are images of Lucy and Dishin working on their final pieces. As you can see, they are both completely different in style and medium.

For further updates and images of our students work, you can follow our Instagram account - @kisuartdepartment