Issue 23 - Rome International School

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RIS
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Issue 23, June 2013 - www.romeinternationalschool.it
The Journey
Continues
IN THIS ISSUE:
Grade 13 say goodbye to high school;
Charity Evening & May Fair highlights;
Why Global Citizenship matters
Rome International School
This is why IB
means quality
On 23 May, in his report at the annual general mee?ng of Confindustria, the confedera?on of Italian industry, president Giorgio Squinzi stated the need for a “non-­‐
ritualis?c vision and project on schools and educa?on that must be abreast of the ?mes and of a larger, faster and more mobile world”. According to Squinzi, this is one of the pillars on which development policies must be based. He is not the only person to think along these lines. On the White House official website, President Barack Obama says “If we want America to lead the 21st century, nothing is more important than giving everyone the best educa?on possible – from the day they start preschool to the day they start their career.” This similarity of views, in terms of policies, on both sides of the Atlan?c, and between two people who have such different roles and responsibili?es, once again reminds us that the best investment we can make for the future is to give priority to our children’s educa?on through quality schooling. But how can we establish that a school system (or a par?cular school, since this concerns us more closely) is a quality one and abreast of the ?mes? One indicator of quality is certainly the ease in accessing the job market or, before this step, the desired sphere of academic specializa?on. Therefore, such things as high exam grades, a high percentage of admissions to the most p r e s ? g i o u s u n i v e r s i ? e s o r a j o b corresponding to our aspira?ons are all very important aspects. However, over and beyond the possible influences of variables outside the school itself, the above aspects are actually the effects of a school that works – they are the “ends”. They do not help us very much, for example, if we wish to see whether a certain primary or middle school are “of quality”. That is why the focus should actually be on the quality of the “educa?onal process” and on the elements enabling its “cer?fica?on”: the possibility of breaking down and of ‘objec?vising’ the phases of the process (including the design phase), the standards and minimum requirements for each phase, a defini?on of the aims, the traceability of the study path, a targeted management of anomalies, an appropriate training and forma?on of resources, and the systema?c evalua?on of the efficiency of independent third par?es. What I am describing here is none other than the framework of the IBO for the various school levels. One of its strengths is adop?ng (more or less explicitly so) a system of mobile standards that systema?cally move ahead as a func?on of the changes taking place in society, in the job market, and in science and technology. That is why we are proud that RIS is an IB World School.
2
Ivano Boragine
Head of School Charity Evening 2013
An evening of solidarity & fun
BY TOMMASO TILLI
GRADE 12
n the night of the 10th of June the school organised a Charity Evening to which all parents were invited for an entrance fee of €80. The event happened at the Casina di Macchia Madama, who donated the hire of the venue for this event. The evening was focused on collec?ng funds to help the charity organisa?on, Fondazione Francesca Rava N.P.H. Italy. All the funds went, as Mr Boragine, Head of School at RIS stated, to providing life saving surgeries at the St Damien Hospital in Hai?. The evening began at 19:30 with a selec?on of hors d’oeuvres sta?oned in the garden for guests to enjoy. Raffle ?ckets were available to purchase un?l 21.00, with the chance to win over 24 great prizes. Many guests made offers for a selec?on of artwork donated by RIS secondary students, as part of the silent auc?on. Nine pain?ngs were divided into five lots and the highest bidder for each lot was awarded the pain?ngs. O
While the guests seWled into their seats for dinner, Mr Boragine spoke to the aWendees to emphasise both the theme of the event and the importance and significance this would have on the children of Hai?. Other noteworthy speeches were given by Mrs Ro?, Vice President of the Fondazione Rava as well as hear[elt addresses by Ms Rosalba Forcini?, 2012 Olympic Judo Champion and Admiral Giuseppe De Giorgi, Chief of Staff, Italian Navy. The Admiral spoke to guests about the navy’s role in providing relief to the people in Hai?. A_er these speeches, guests were treated to a three-­‐course dinner a_er-­‐
which the evening’s entertainment began with Mr Dario Vergassola. Mr Boragine on stage with Mr Vergassola
The raffle draw was held at 23:00 and several people won great prizes including family weekends away. The winners of the silent auc?on were also announced, and the respec?ve winners received their new works of art. The evening concluded with music played by the skilled DJ. Thanks to all the generous par?cipants and sponsors, €4,500 will be donated to the St Damien Hospital in Hai?, meaning that 10 life-­‐saving surgeries are assured. Photo highlights from the event are available on our website. Reasons to be proud
GREASE
A musical performance by
grades 7 and 8
BY VICTORIA CHAPMAN
DRAMA TEACHER
n Thursday 13 June, Grades 7
and 8 performed their version
of "Grease", with the addition
of an A-Z of historical and cultural
events from the 50's at Teatro
Euclide.
O
The performance was fantastic!
Students gave their absolute best
and the show was a triumph of
acting, singing and dancing, filled
with colour, music, humour and
originality.
As director of the show I felt
extremely proud of the effort which
the students made and the whole
experience reaffirms my passionate
belief that Drama and indeed the
Arts in general in schools play a very
important role in the education and
development of children.
I would like to congratulate ALL the
students who took part in the show
and I would also like to thank the
support of staff and parents.
Click here to see the photos!
It is difficult to sum up all of the events, developments and achievements of the last academic year. So many things happen in a school, an?cipated and unexpected, planned and unrehearsed, that a precise account is almost impossible. A school is a truly unique environment, where the concrete day to day work is forever connected to the infinitely human. Each day is different because individuals are different. Each day can be unpredictable because so are people some?mes! However, in terms of our set goals we can certainly reflect that we have achieved a great deal over the last ten months.
We are now authorised for IGCSE through Cambridge University. This is a great step forward in terms of the interna?onal profile of the school. The UK GCSE system has served us well, however it is ?me to use a syllabus with a more interna?onal outlook and set of resources. This will help us work towards making sure our curriculum represents a real con?nuum, leading from PYP in the primary school right through to the Interna?onal Baccalaureate Diploma in the final two years.
The work with our charity partners has con?nued successfully throughout the year and the CAS programme has shown that our students can engage in meaningful and purposeful work within and outside our school community. The students have shown responsibility, commitment and a posi?ve aqtude, which is what the programme is really all about.
Our students have once again been offered places at university across Europe and in the Unites States and Canada. This endorses the fact that the way RIS approaches the delivery of the IB Diploma really helps create a vast range of opportuni?es and possibili?es in terms of higher levels of study. Educa?on, like everything else, is a global market and our students have shown the necessary academic ability and the spirit of enterprise to really take advantage of this fact. But perhaps most of all, what we have achieved this year is to cement the fact that we are a suppor?ve, inclusive and caring school. A school that treats every student as an individual and every individual as a learner. Our gradua?ng grade 13 class will be missed and their posi?ve par?ng words about our staff and our approach is probably the best tes?mony to a successful year that a school can hope for. William Ireland
Principal, Middle and High School
Deputy Head of School
3
Article sur le monde du sport
65% des Français déclarent praEquer régulièrement une acEvité physique, au moins une fois par semaine. Parmi les sports les plus populaires, on trouve: la marche, les sports de nage, le vélo, la gymnasEque, la course, le ski et le football. En classe de Grade 12, nous avons étudié “le monde du sport”, en analysant les bienfaits du sport mais aussi ses dessous…
PAR CLAUDIA, VIRGINIA, LIVIA ET MISS BRUNET
es bienfaits: pourquoi praEquer une acEvité physique?
Mens sana in corpore sano -­‐ Un esprit sain dans un corps sain…. Le sport est bénéfique aussi bien au corps qu’au mental. En effet, il est reconnu que pra?quer un sport de façon régulière permet de prévenir les risques de décès prématuré. L
C’est aussi un moyen fantas?que pour évacuer le stress et se délasser. Et, lorsqu’on se sent mieux dans son corps…cela influence de façon posi?ve notre moral et notre percep?on personnelle.
En second lieu, le sport permet l’acquisi?on de compétences humaines et sociales. Il permet en effet de se confronter aux autres, de se fixer des objec?fs et de travailler pour les aWeindre, de dépasser ses limites aussi. Les sports d’équipe permeWent de ?sser des liens avec autrui et de travailler collabora?vement autour d’un même objec?f.
Puis, le sport peut être vu comme un moyen d’ascension sociale. En France, la majeure par?e des enfants qui proviennent de quar?ers défavorisés jouent au football, et rêvent de devenir le futur Zidane. Un bon modèle auquel s’iden?fier.
Sans oublier, que le sport nous enseigne la no?on de fair-­‐play: le respect de l’adversaire, des règles et savoir perdre.
Hélas, le monde du sport a aussi ses côtés obscurs. Il suffit de penser à quelques scandales et aberra?ons liés au monde spor?f. Tout d’abord, croyez-­‐vous qu’il soit normal que le salaire annuel d’une travailleuse du tex?le au Cambodge représente 0,0009 % du bénéfice annuel de la mul?na?onale qui l’emploie ? Que vous inspire le salaire de cristiano-ronaldo.org
Cris?ano Ronaldo: selon Futebol Finance, Cris?ano Ronaldo est devenu le footballeur dont le salaire est le plus élevé au monde avec… 1,083 million d' euros par mois ! Dans les ateliers de misère, les pe?tes mains touchent en moyenne 40 dollars par mois…
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Ensuite, le racisme et la violence dans les stades. En France, il existe la no?on d’interdit de stade, qui vise notamment à luWer contre les violences, le hooliganisme et le racisme dans le sport, en par?culier dans le football. On voit hélas parfois des drapeaux Nazis ou des supporters lançent des bananes sur le terrain de foot lorqu’un adversaire de couleur noire touche le ballon! C’est inacceptable et va à l’encontre des valeurs spor?ves, de respect de l’autre. Enfin, le dopage. Récemment, le scandale autour du Tour de France et Lance Amstrong a remis en ques?on l’éthique spor?ve. Mais à qui la faute? Un peu à tout le monde: au spor?f lui-­‐
même bien sûr qui ne respecte pas le code de conduite spor?ve en trichant, à tout l’entourage spor?f et aux médecins, qui par leur complicité, ne font qu’encourager le dopage. La faute aussi aux médias et à nous, public: toujours plus haut, toujours plus fort, c’est la gagne à tout prix. Or, ne demandons-­‐nous pas parfois un effort surhumain à ces spor?fs de haut niveau?
En conclusion, on peut dire qu’il est important que l’éduca?on physique fasse toujours par?e de l’emploi du temps des écoliers en France, car ceWe ma?ère scolaire procure un bien être physique et moral. On peut espérer que le dopage cesse, car sinon à quoi bon voir des records truqués? Bien que le culte de la performance fasse par?e intégrante de notre société actuelle n’est-­‐il pas aussi essen?el que tout pe?t, on comprenne que…l’important ce n’est pas gagner, mais bien par?ciper?
i http://www.sports.gouv.fr/IMG/pdf/Stat_Info_no11-02_de_novembre_2011.pdf
ii Cordula Sandwald - Cordula Sandwald a écrit le dossier Le sport, enjeu global à l’occasion
de l’année internationale du sport et de l’éducation physique pour la Coopération suisse,
Alliance Sud et Education et Développement.
iii Cordula Sandwald
Our special community
A collaborative approach enriches learning
BY PATRICIA MARTIN-SMITH
EARLY YEARS & ELEMENTARY PRINCIPAL
greater focus on inquiry based education this
year has given our students more control over
their own learning. Students understand that the
learning is not only in the finished product, but in the
process or journey they take to get to the final product the conversations, the problem solving and the
negotiating. Tracking these conversations is always hard,
but if you sit in and observe, you will hear the rich
discussions that take place.
A
Positive educational outcomes are the result of the work
of a large number of people: the students prepared to
take a risk and commit to their own learning; the parents
who teach more to their children through their daily
dealings, than we ever could in the short time they are
exposed to us; the management team and admin staff
who are on the front line and provide all the information
to parents and students regarding the day to day
running of the school; the auxiliary staff, who work in the
background to support all good teaching and learning
practices; the teacher aides who provide support for our
students and teachers, doing jobs well beyond the call
of duty; the janitors and lunch ladies who look after the
hygiene and safety of the school.
immersed. They are the glue that really holds it all
together. Teaching is not a 9 to 5 job. It is a job that goes
home with you in the evenings, is with you on the
weekends and is even taken with you on holidays. It is
dedication.
As well as being teachers, our teachers are also mentors,
first aiders, coaches, computer whizzes, counsellors,
peace negotiators, toilet trainers, advocates and friends.
Their job is huge. It is ever changing, dynamic, and much
of the time, thankless. So I would like to thank the team
we have here at RIS for all the inspiration they have
provided for your children this year.
For our departing staff, I would like to thank them for all
they have contributed to our school in their time with us.
I know they will continue their journeys of professional
growth, richer, for the experience of being a part of the
RIS school community. To our Grade 6 students, wherever
your future leads you, I will be watching and cheering for
you. I am looking forward to updates from your lives and
seeing where your education leads.
Lastly, to all the families of RIS, I wish you safe and
exciting summer holidays.
It is the teachers however, who provide the programmes
and the wonder, into which our students become
Our wonderful May Fair
BY GOVHAR & AIZHAR
GRADE 5M
ur May Fair was wonderful, we enjoyed it a lot
and everybody who came enjoyed it too!
There were a lot of shops and games, there
was a special entertainer called Ciccialsugo
who all the kids liked and we thought he did a great
job. Hopefully he will come again next year. This
Mayfair was special because we had lots of shops
and food. Everyone went away happy.
The stalls sold very useful things like books and very
good toys. The money that was collected will go to
help little kids that are sick or who have a difficult life.
O
There were shops like the nail polish stall, jewellery
stands and finally the makeup stall which every girl
wanted to go to! The grade 6 students did well!
Some mums helped with the food and drink stalls
and they also did a great job. Everybody needs to
say thank you to the teachers because it was thanks
to their help, as well as all that of the students and
parents, which helped make the May Fair so
successful!
Click here to view the photo gallery!
5
Continuing the Journey
BY
CHIARA TABET
UNIVERSITY ADVISER & IB DP COORDINATOR
n Thursday 23 May, at 17.00 sharp, Rome InternaEonal School’s third graduaEon ceremony began. Twenty-­‐four students stood behind the curtains, while Sherida Jarre_’s beauEful voice opened the O
choices. They acknowledged this throughout their IB DP, GCSEs, middle and elementary school studies: it was always being there – in the classroom, in London for a history inves?ga?on, ac?ng on stage, helping out for last year’s Gala ceremony. When the curtains opened, the graduaEng class dinner – that was important. Truly being there, for each of 2013 impressed the audience with their cheerfulness other, for themselves and for their teachers, for their families and for the less fortunate, was what made a and professionalism as they led the ceremony. difference. These twenty-­‐four students finished their IB exams two days before the ceremony. They were all ?red, but showed up This is not to say that results and conclusions are early in the morning, for rehearsals. All of them worked on their speeches, prac?ced them, planned and thought about their contribu?on to the ceremony. All of them, once again, worked together to make the ceremony a success, and had fun in the process.
As they were on stage, as the audience enjoyed the result of their hard work, as what could be seen was elegance and smiles and well-­‐recited speeches, one thing, not visible to the eye, was especially striking. Beyond their smiles, their acknowledgment of an important end, their being blinded by the stage lights (in some cases literally) was also an acknowledgement of the importance of the process, of making a difference here and now, and – as one of the speeches cited – not just in the ‘extraordinary moments’, which are temporary conclusions, pauses in the open-­‐ended unimportant. We are especially proud of our students this year: they all received excellent university offers, including some from UCL and Russell group universi?es such as Exeter, Edinburgh and Brunel – with no student receiving less than three offers (a true record). We are proud of every single test on which they did well, and every single award they received. We are proud of Beatriz Tellez, to whom the AWAR global ci?zenship award was given. We are proud of Hester Ireland and Raul Cohen, who won an academic excellence award. We are proud of Lintle Mokake, Paolo Marro, Kosmas Preponis, Leonardo Scheqni and ViWoria Notarbartolo, who were each awarded a prize during the ceremony. And we are proud of every single achievement, academic and non-­‐academic, of Lorenzo Men?ni, MaWeo Marcolini, Massimilla Dussoni, Bianca di Simone, Anna Rose, Andrea Borzelli, MaWeo Marcolini, Giulio de Cadilhac, Jessica journey that shapes us as we learn and progress. They Haile-­‐Selassie, Gianlupo Os?, Enrico dal Cin, Salehin acknowledged this during the rehearsals, by enjoying the Mahbub, Giovanni Astarita, Filippo Cappella, Francesco prepara?on as much as the show itself. They acknowledged Mancini Caterini and Iacopo Micangeli.
this during the academic year by working on their University 6
What we call the beginning is o@en the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.
-­‐ T. S. Eliot But we are especially proud of their journey. I believe it wasn’t by chance that all the ins?tu?onal speeches, given by Avv. Boragine, Dr Ireland, Ms Brunet, Dr Orbison and Dr Tabet during the ceremony, as well as Mrs Cini’s speech on behalf of the American Women’s Associa?on in Rome (AWAR), were, directly or indirectly, ?ed to the theme of travelling. Through the words of Buddhist philosophers, Italian and American writers and Greek poets, all cited by these speeches, the message at the heart of the ceremony was one that our gradua?ng class has learnt well: enjoy the journey, always be yourself – and dare to make a difference – through every step of it. Learn through every experience, every person, every idea you encounter. Be brave, as true travellers are, and look beyond appearances since, as Ms Brunet put it, ‘trust is colour blind and knows no geographical boundaries’.
Our goodbye for this gradua?ng class, then, is also a wish: that every end be a beginning. In the words of C.P. Cavafy, quoted by Avvocato Boragine in his speech during the ceremony:
Have Ithaka always in your mind.
Your arrival there is what you are des?ned for.
But don't in the least hurry the journey.
BeWer it last for years,
so that when you reach the island you are old,
rich with all you have gained on the way,
not expec?ng Ithaka to give you wealth.
(…) And if you find her poor, Ithaka hasn't deceived you.
So wise you will have become, of such experience,
that you will have understood by then what these Ithakas mean. Grade 13 receive record uni offers!
“We are pleased to confirm that all grade 13 students
have received university offers ranging from a minimum
of two and maximum of eight per students! This year our
students have applied to and received offers from
universities in Italy, the UK, USA, Canada, Switzerland,
South Africa and Turkey. Well done to all of them!”
- 31 May 2013
When you set out for Ithaka
ask that your way be long,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
angry Poseidon -­‐ do not fear them:
such as these you will never find
as long as your thought is lo_y, as long as a rare emo?on touches your spirit and your body.
In 2012, overall acceptance of our students
into HEIs was 100%.
Additional Resources
- Get an overview of the RIS High School curriculum
- Hear what a former student has to say about her
High School experience
- Learn how we work with each student to guide them
through the university application process.
(…)
7
Global Citizenship
RIS
If we believe,
we can make a
difference
report
RIS report is a monthly publication by
Rome International School.
Registration
Registrazione n. 476 del 31/12/10
Direttore Responsabile
Maria Corbi
BY CLAUDIA ZACCARI
GRADE 12
Editor-in-Chief
Tania Gobena
tgobena@romeinternationalschool.it
Graphic design
Tania Gobena
Rome International School
Via Panama 25
00198, Rome
+39 06 84482650/1
office@romeinternationalschool.it
www.romeinternationalschool.it
facebook.com/romeinternationalschool
8
lobal citizenship is now an area
of the curriculum which is
becoming an increasingly
important feature of our learning in the
21st century.
It is a term which has many
connotations and therefore the
interpretation of its definition and
people’s views of global citizenship are
many. Oxfam Education Association is
working to promote the idea that “we
a r e c i t i ze n s o f t h e g l o b e t o a n
acknowledgement of our responsibilities
both to each other and to the Earth
itself.”1 Global citizenship encourages
the understanding of the need to tackle
injustice and inequalities, the desire
and ability to work actively to obtain
s e t t a r g e t s , va l u i n g t h e E a r t h ’s
resources and safeguarding these for
the future generations.
A recent article by Richard Kind, a
journalist who works for Oxfam wrote
in the Guardian about the need for
teachers to actively encourage global
citizenship. His article entitled “The 10
tips to promote global citizenship in the
classroom” 2 provides teachers with
various projects and resources which
they can use in assemblies, plus
activities and goals to support the
global citizen in the classroom. He lists,
fully describes and discusses each point
by emphasizing its importance in order
to achieve this fundamental goal.
In my opinion the most crucial point he
supports is to invite and encourage
children to challenge the perceptions
about the world around them.
Perception is how we see the world, our
sensory experience of what and who
G
surrounds us. It is through the
perceptual process that we gain
knowledge about the properties and
elements of the environment that are
critical to our survival. Perception
allows us not only to create
experiences but also to interact within
our environment. The problems with
perception are the limitations of our
human knowledge and the bias of our
ideas and beliefs. We can never fully
p i c t u r e a ny t h i n g w i t h o u t h av i n g
personally experienced the incident and
it is inevitable that our view is biased.
Richard Kind insists on the idea of
perception as being essential. He insists
pupils must be taught about the
limitations of perception in order to
overcome these. They must be fed with
knowledge about global issues, social
and cultural backgrounds and
worldwide organisations. A good tool
says Mr Kind, “is the development
compass rose which prompts thinking
about the political, social, economic and
environmental aspect of any issue.”3
As Friedrich Nietzsche stated: “all
things are subject to interpretation.
Whichever interpretation prevails at a
given time is a function of power and
not truth.”
Perception is a key ingredient to strive
for global citizenship in our community.
1 http://goodworkorgoodtimes.wordpress.com/what-isglobal-citizenship/
2 http://www.guardian.co.uk/teacher-network/2012/nov/
09/global-citizenship-10-teaching-tips
3 IBID