After reading about a rather greedy dingo who wanted to make a tasty wombat stew, the children of K4A decided to cook up their own concoction using an array of resources readily available in the garden; mud, stones, leaves and twigs. All the essentials needed for a perfect chocolate stew! Would it be crunchy munchy or chewy gooey?  They boys and girls where a little disappointed that they couldn’t eat this muddy leafy stew and so decided that they should cook up a real chocolate treat…. Chocolate Marshmallow Crispy Cake. It disappeared into the children’s tummies very quickly and it was both crunchy munchy and chewy gooey. We all agreed it tastes a lot better than wombat stew!

 

K4A Co-teacher – Caroline PROCTOR & Grace ZHOU

Transition is a very exciting time of year for most students. Our primary focus in the first few days and weeks has been to ensure the children are learning how to navigate the new layout and class schedules, meeting new friends and teachers, and reconnecting with old ones. As in any time of change and transition, this can also be a rather stressful period; this is true for both returning families as well as those who are new to YCIS. Students who are new to the school have the biggest adjustment, but even moving up a year means coping with a new teacher, more academic demands and a changing social circle. These are a few things you can do to help your child settle back into school.

1. Be prepared

It is important to get to know what is expected of you and your child, so there is continuity between school and home. Take full advantage of information sessions where possible. (Keep an eye out for the upcoming parent workshops, we would love your support). If you are new to YCIS, encourage your children to make some friends in the same class; if they feel lost or overwhelmed during the school day, encourage them to seek out help and to voice their feelings. All teachers are here to help and promote feelings of security and safety.

2. Good routine

In Year 1, the timetable is a little more demanding and thus children take a while to get used to how it works, especially at the beginning of the year. Make sure your child’s body clock is ready for the school day. It is a good idea to start adjusting bed times and wake up times early enough to get children back into the rhythm of the school day. Tired and grumpy children, or children who are rushing out of the house in the morning and dropped off in a hurry often get anxious and irritable because they don’t have enough time to adjust.

3. Stay Positive

It is important to stay positive about the new school year. Children need to feel that you are happy about them going to school or being away from you so that they don’t worry about you or feel that they are missing out on some other fun.

4. Talk about expectations

Letting children know how you want them to behave at school in a positive way is really helpful, for example saying, “Share the toys and listen to the teacher,” rather than what you don’t want such as, “Don’t fight and don’t be naughty”. Explaining as much as you think they will understand helps them to be well prepared.

We hope these suggestions assist with your family’s transition period. Please don’t hesitate to contact your child’s class teacher for any more information you may need regarding this important time.

Y1 Leader & Y1A Class Teacher – Monica GANNON

“It is such a delight to have friends coming from afar!”

In the new academic year, students welcomed their new fellow classmates and teachers as well. Besides, in the delightful September, Year 6 students also made acquaintance with a new friend-Confucius in their Chinese Studies Lessons. Being the founder of Chinese Confucian school, Confucius has devoted all his wisdom to the cultivation of his pupils. His words of wisdom were recorded in the classic Analects of Confucius and has been spread for thousands of years.

By watching the video materials, Year 6 students went to the ancient China back in over two thousand years ago. There they had a conversation with Confucius, the greatest educator in the Chinese history about What Is Good Friendship and How to Be a Useful Friend.

By studying Analects of Confucius, students learned about the classic line “There must be one out of three who can be your teacher.” It means you should always learn from others’ strengths and draw lessons from others’ weakness. That was quite practical for students at the beginning of the semester. As Confucius said that “A gentleman should greet his friends with culture and enrich his morality by the communications with them.” No matter new or old friends, we should always care and help each other and make progress all together. Then, students took out their pens and wrote down their own understanding of friendship.

 “A good friend is always patient and listens to you.”

“Friends help and respect each other.”

“A good friend will not mock at you even if you do something wrong.”

……….

 

Y6D Class Teacher—Lily SUN

 

In this semester, school launched the initiative of “15 minutes a day can cultivate a good habit of reading” to all the bus students. With the encouragement of class teachers, children responded to the call actively. They started to have appropriate books in their backpacks and enter school gym orderly and quietly with books in the hands. Once they sit down in the bus lines, they can start reading immediately, which is completely different from before. 15 minutes a day is inconspicuous, but it will be accumulated to 47 hours for 188 school days of a school year. We sincerely hope that children can take this opportunity to cultivate the good habit of reading and learn to manage the time efficiently, which will benefit them for a lifetime.

Primary Chinese Coordinator – Anna LI

 

The first round of CISSA Touch Rugby kicked off on Thursday 30^th with Coach Potters’ Year 7 ‘Junior’ team and Coach Mitchell’s Year 8 and 9 ‘Senior 2’ team taking to the road to play games at SAS Puxi. That left Coach Howards Year 8 and 9 ‘Senior 1’ team playing at home against SCIS. The home match started quite evenly with both teams conceding one try early on. However, as time went by YCIS increased their communication and skill execution, and after some wise words from Coach Howard, the speed of the game increased immensely, with successful performances by all team members. Coach Potter and Coach Mitchell reported positive performances and improvements from their away games.

Lower Secondary Sports Coordinator – Ryan Hotham

It is an educational simulation of the United Nation (UN) proceedings and an academic activity in which students can learn about diplomacy, international relations, and the UN. Model United Nations also allows our students to represent some of the 193 countries across the world where they lobby, merge and debate their ideas to solve real and current issues affecting the world.

This academic year our students will be attending 4 conferences – some of who were selected as Student Officers (Chairs who lead committees) in highly contestable positions, in very established and elite conferences. The dates are as follows:

TIANMUN -Tianjin, China – October 24-27, 2018 – residential

THIMUN – Singapore – November 18-24, 2018 – residential

CISSMUN – Pudong, China – January 18-20, 2019

ISQMUN – Qingdao, China – February 28- March 02, 2019 – residential

In preparation for these conferences, students will learn The Hague International Model United Nations (THIMUN) rules. Becoming a member requires commitment and weekly attendance to our Tuesday meetings after school in A311.

MUNers will be taught the skills of persuasive communication both verbally and in writing. Students will learn how to write resolutions that aim to solve current issues affecting vulnerable populations around the world.

Model United Nations is an international and elite club that attracts potential global leaders with a passion to effect global changes in ways that include, but are not limited to: Peace and Security; The Rule of Law; Human Rights; Climate Change and Sustainable Development.

We encourage students to join this exciting and intellectually stimulating CCA, to tackle the big questions we face today; meet like-minded students from around the world – make lifelong friendships; increase confidence in public speaking; use diplomatic skills to communicate. MUN will also provide students with CAS hours – the hours earned depends on the amount of tutoring and coaching of less experienced YCIS MUNers and the roles achieved at each conference.

MUN Director Hall

Learning from peers or peer collaboration is a common practice in education. It promotes discovery learning and critical thinking skills when students are investigating and problem-solving together. It is a skill that can be learned in school and is a necessity for meeting our future workforce needs.  (Damon & Phelps) Based on the research by Professor John Hattie and theVisible Learning Team, co-operative learning is one of the top 7 effects on student achievement because students learn better co-operatively than alone or competitively. Peer tutoring increases interest and the ability to problem solve through interactive learning. In peer tutoring, students improve self-regulation and increase motivation by taking over responsibility from the teacher and become self-managers of their learning or learning of others. (Hattie 2009)

At YCIS, we celebrate the 8^th year of implementation of the peer tutoring programme as an option for after school activity and CAS activity. The peer tutoring programme can offer the opportunity for participating students to apply their learned knowledge through the channel of helping other students. Studies have found both positive academic and social development gains in both tutors and tutees.

Don’t miss such a great opportunity to build experiences in co-operative learning! Sign up forms are available for becoming a peer tutor outside of B311. Homework help is available for all students from Monday to Friday after school in the library. Just come to the library and look for one of the supervising teachers to arrange a peer tutoring session for you.

Learning Resource Coordinator – Carolyn Lee

Supervising teachers: Carolyn Lee, Karla Castle, Karin Zijlmans & Griffith Harty.

Coming Up:

EOTC Week from 29^th Oct – 2 Nov

Year 7: Tonglu

 

 

 

 

 

 

Year 8: Moganshan

 

 

 

 

 

 

Year 9: Beijing

 

 

 

 

 

 

Year 10: Qiandaohu

 

 

 

 

 

 

It would be helpful if travel documents of your child(ren) including passport and visa are up to date before this trip. We will be collecting them in the week prior. Further info including packing lists and itineraries available on Moodle.

EOTC Coordinator – Philippa Walter

Where are you from?

I come from The United States of America, New York.

How long have you been at YCIS HQ?

I’ve been here for about 5 years.

What do you enjoy most about learning here?

My favourite subjects are Maths, Extra P.E, Topic, Literacy, and Chinese.

Tell us an interesting fact about you?

I don’t really enjoy basketball, but I like dodgeball.

Can you share a favourite quote?

Don’t tell me the sky is the limit when there are footprints on the moon.

 

Interviewed by:

School Captains –  Kyle KO and Augustine SEUGE

Where are you from?    

I come from Bundaberg, Australia, the most beautiful place in the whole world (apart from Shanghai!)

How long have you been teaching?  

I have been teaching for 17 years, and I have loved every minute of it!

What do you enjoy the most about teaching at YCIS?   

I really enjoy working with and meeting people from all over the world.

Tell us an interesting fact about you?  

I play the piano and the flute. I play the flute with the School Orchestra.

Can you share your favorite book?  

My favourite book is “Sprung “by Andrew Daddo, a comical book.

 

Interviewed by:

School Captains – Kyle KO and Augustine SEUGE