Year 7 News - 14th October 2016

International Week seems such a long time ago now, but I have to begin this newsletter with a special thank you to all the parents, staff and students who helped to make this an extremely special and memorable day for the students. As part of the celebrations we saw Naina Jaiswal 7A perform on stage with some of her counterparts in the Indian dance; the costumes were amazing and the dancing was thoroughly appreciated by everyone. The day itself meant the students had smiles from ear to ear as they represented their home countries. As the rain stopped an outside parade, the students continued to work on their form challenge with 7B winning overall in the last half term. Rewards will be given at the end of this full term though – so 7A and 7C have some catching up to do!

Project Week

Another huge thank you to all the parents for getting the jotforms completed for project week. I can confirm that all the flights have been booked and we will ensure that we give you the information about drop off/ pick up times when that becomes available to us.

Flights

The outward bound flight:

• Pudong Airport Terminal 1, Flight FM9379
• 31^st October 2016 at 08:35, landing at 11:20 in Yangshuo.

The inward bound flight:

• Yangshuo, Flight FM9380
• 4^th November at 12:10, landing into Terminal 1 at Pudong Airport at 14:25.

If you would like your child to meet us at Pudong Airport for the outward bound flight, can you please e-mail me as soon as possible. Similarly if you want to meet your child at the airport when we return can you please email me, as every child has to return on the bus with me, unless permission has been given from the parents - p-alderson@naispudong.com.

Packing list:

The autumn climate in the Yangshuo area is cool to warm, however it may also be rainy at times, so we recommend a good mixture of warm and wet weather clothing to ensure that students are properly clothed at all times. The temperatures typically range from 18 to 26 °C. This is our suggested packing list for your trip, including the clothes worn.

Clothing

•           5 T-shirts (synthetic is preferable)

•           1 sweatshirt (evening wear)

•           1 waterproof outer shell jacket with hood

•           3 pairs of shorts

•           2 pair of pants/jeans (evening wear)

•           5 changes of underwear

•           5 pairs of socks

•           1 full set of old clothes and shoes for caving (will get very muddy)

•           1 pair of sneakers/hiking shoes (will get dirty)

•           1 pair of extra sneakers (for when first pair gets wet/dirty)

Watersports Clothing

•           1 Long sleeve surf shirt/rash guard

•           1 pair of neoprene water shoes (essential)

•           board shorts / one piece swimsuit (please NO bikinis)

•           1 lightweight towel

Daypack

•           1 daypack 20 – 35L (essential)

•           1 liter water bottle (essential)

•           1 bottle of water resistant sun block SPF 50+ (essential)

•           1 small bottle of bug spray (essential)

•           1 pair of sunglasses

•           1 hat/cap (essential)

•           Bandaids & hand sanitizer

Miscellaneous

•           1 head torch/flashlight

•           Personal toiletries, including body wash, toothpaste & toothbrush.

•           Medication & note from parents to leader giving explanation/permission.

•           A small amount of spending money.

•           Camera (optional)

• Phones & small electronic devices are not forbidden on the trip but should not be used during the activities. Insight Adventures takes no responsibility for electronic items used during activities by either students or teachers.

The preliminary itinerary for the trip is as follows:

More details will follow shortly.

With Monday being Halloween, I have suggested that the students can take a Halloween costume to wear on that night, so that we can enjoy a themed dinner for that evening.

In school, the students have started the preparation of English lessons for the students at the local primary school as well as thinking of some sports they could try with them. With only a short time until we leave, they are enjoying the aspect of preparing to become teachers for a short time themselves.

Through the Classroom Keyhole

There are a number of photographs to share with you all for this newsletter.

Art: It was lovely to be invited in to see some of the art work produced by the year 7 students. They have a theme of Alice in Wonderland and their initial sketches were amazing. Well done to Lenard Chang 7A who has won Artist of the month – his drawing of the mad hatter is superb.

Science: 7A were making stop motion movies with play-doh to show the process of mitosis – cell division for their last topic of cells. Their movies were uploaded to moxtra – please ask your child to have a look at their work. All year 7 have now been placed into their sets now in Science following their assessment.

Geography: Students completed their “Landscape in a Box” projects which served as a great introduction to the study of Geography. They each chose a landscape that meant something to them and then researched the physical and human aspects of the location as well as investigating possible threats to their chosen place and how we might work to protect it in future. As well as making the boxes students produced maps to locate their landscapes and planned a 3 minute presentation to the rest of their class. The responses from the students has been fantastic and all the Geography department have been overwhelmed with the hard work gone into these, including the pink sand beaches of the Bahamas, Stonehenge, Niagara Falls and even Lujiazui!

History: Year 7 have begun studying History at NAIS in spectacular style. The attached pictures show some of our students enacting the Battle of Hastings in 1066 as part of their first unit of the year, Medieval Realms c.1066-1485. Students took great care to present their characters with precise application of historical detail in the form of names, dates, statistics, quotations, people, places and events and had heaps of fun re-enacting how a conversation between the four main contenders might go … and unlike King Harold, nobody received an arrow in the eye!

Student Reporters

These are from 7C this time, who have given us an insight into some of their lessons.

Marlene Wiener – Guidance

In guidance we are learning about how to stay more organized. What I enjoyed the most was doing some drama on what was right and what was wrong and what to do if somebody wants to do something wrong.

Juliette le Godec – Maths

Juliette has utilised her incredible IT skills and done a pic-collage to summarise her lesson, see photos.

Harry Lin – Science

Over the past half term, we have learned about hazard symbols and what they mean, the different parts of a microscope and how to use it. Then we learned about cells, the types of specialised cells and their function and what they had in common.

Coming up in the next newsletter will have student reporters from 7A. We look forward to reading their highlights from Music, Design Technology, Mandarin, Science, Spanish & English.

Global Campus

CREATIVE WRITING COMPETITION

This is an annual competition where all Nord Anglia students are invited to take part. The winning entries will be published in a book! Students who want to take part in the Creative Writing competition must join via the online space on Global Campus Online. When they join they receive a certificate that celebrates their participation in the competition.

GLOBAL LIBRARY

The Nord Anglia Global Library is now open and books are available in the Learning Centre. Students who want to take part in the Global Library must join via the online space on Global Campus Online.  When they join they receive a certificate that celebrates their participation in the Global Library. They are also able to earn badges for their efforts and students can find out more about this on the Global Campus Online.

MIT

We are very fortunate to be able to send four of our Year 6 and 7 students to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in April! This is an amazing opportunity for our students to learn from inspiring professors who are at the forefront of their field alongside peers from twenty five other Nord Anglia schools around the world. Please see the letter below for more information.

Upcoming dates are:

17^th & 19^th October – ARE

31^st Oct – 4^th Nov – Project Week

21^st Nov – Start of Assessment Cycle 1

27^th Nov – Christmas Bazaar

9^th Dec – CCA’s finish for Term 1

16^th Dec – School closes at 12pm for the holidays.

Have a great weekend.

Paula Alderson

Year 7 Leader