Newsletter 10 - Hollandse School Singapore

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School year 2012 - 2013
NEWSLETTER
10 October 2012
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CONTENT
 Management
 Educational
assistants
 Jip & Janneke
 Sinterklaas band
 NSA theatre
 English staff
 Library
 Vacancy GESS
 Important dates
Attachment to the email
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NEXT WEEK: MIDTERM BREAK
SCHOOL CLOSED
THURSDAY 11 OCTOBER thru SUNDAY 21 OCTOBER
Dear HSL parents,
A short week for our students finishes today, while the HSL
staff has two more interesting days to go.
Wednesday afternoon and evening SCL expert Carola
Riemens will give a training session for the coordinators,
the SEN coordinator and the management team. In the
next two days we will continue to work with Carola and
the primary school team focusing on applying SCL
(Structural Cooperative Learning) to achieve better
learning results with Results Oriented Working (‘OGW’, or
Opbrengst gericht werken) and Inclusive Teaching
(‘HGW’ or Handelingsgericht werken). These concepts are
educational ‘jargon’ and are explained in detail in our
school guide, currently available on our HSL website.
I warmly invite you to download your copy and read it
carefully. The English translation will soon be available as
well.
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The Jip & Janneke team is visiting a local pre-school to find out which improvements or
adjustments our pre-school Jip & Janneke could use. The Jip & Janneke school guide can
also be found on our website, clearly describing our pre-school approach.
On Friday this team is focusing on how to teach a for instance Dutch spoken student can
be stimulated to speak English, or vice versa. The English team will work on a competent
use of the "Oxford reading tree".
In the upcoming break there will be more work done on our school premises; the final dots
on the ‘I’ will be placed in the dressing rooms, and a new top coating on the HSL
gymnasium floor. Work will also be done on the Swiss club parking lot. We are allowed to
use this parking during regular school days, from 7.30 to 9.00 am. Parking spaces will be
made and a safety mirror will be placed in the curve of the road to have a good view of
oncoming traffic when you leave the parking lot.
Starting 22 October you will be able to park your car there up to 9 am, in case you wish to
escort your child or children to their classroom. With these measures we hope to solve the
most severe issues of our rush hour traffic challenge. HSL will place one of the guards at
the parking lot entrance to regulate traffic.
From the first day after the midterm break you will be able to meet educational assistant
Florence, working in groups 1 and 2 during the development – and IPC classes. You may
read more about her below, as she introduces herself on page 3 of this newsletter.
I wish you a wonderful midterm break on behalf of the team.
The renewed school guides for our primary section and for Jip & Janneke are now
available on our website. The English translations will follow after the Midterm break.
www.hollandseschool.org click on ‘schoolgids 2012-2013’
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In education the role of educational assistants is increasingly important. We at HSL are also
deploying educational assistants to support the children, the teacher, the curriculum and
the school. The educational assistant is to carry out their work under the responsibility of
the group and/or specialty teacher.
The assistants, who have an educational background, will carry out specific educational
assignment with individual students or groups of students. They will also observe students
during class, at recess and at play. The educational assistant will stimulate the students’
behavior and work attitude to improve the learning process of themselves and/or the
group.
Mrs. Florence Tan has already started in this new role and per 1 November Mrs. Josephine
Pang will also fulfill the role of educational assistant. In our groups 1 thru 4 English classes
they will support the teachers in applying a bigger differentiation in the groups. In
addition, they will assist groups 1 and 2 during development – and IPC lessons. This will
always concern lessons where the language of instructions may be English. The assistant
will not be requested to assist in any lessons that specifically require Dutch as language of
instruction.
The group - or specialty teacher will always be present in the group and will always carry
final responsibility; they will continue to direct the curriculum and development of the
students in the group. The educational assistant will not communicate with parents directly
about the progress of the children; this remains the group teacher’s responsibility.
The objective is to contribute to an increase in learning results of the HSL students by
deploying teaching assistants.
Florence Tan:
I am Singaporean, married with 4 grown up children and very family-oriented.
I have a passion for children, which leads me to working with them. I have been working
with children aged 3-12 years old for 12 years, with at least 9 of the 12 years with children
from 7-12 years old in a student care (before and after school care).
In the student care, I oversaw the children’s welfare and school homework as their priority.
I also taught them in subjects like English, Maths, Chinese as a 2nd language and Science.
I have also completed a course, which qualifies me as an infant care teacher handling
babies from 2 months to 18 months old.
I love reading novels (fiction and non- fiction) besides watching action packed movies.
This month I started working as a Class Assistant at the Hollandse School in groups 1 – 4.
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Today, the last day before the midterm break, all the kids were dressed up beautifully in
their favorite clothes. After the break we still have some weeks to work on the theme
‘clothing’ before continuing on our next theme ‘Sinterklaas’.
The dear old man is of course arriving in Singapore on 17 November and starting that
Monday 19 November we will continue on the theme Sinterklaas.
The Jip & Janneke teachers will be focusing on language and super schedules this
Thursday and Friday. We are visiting a local school to gain ideas on how to offer the best
possible bilingual education, and in addition Maartje den Ottelander and Jessica
Purchase will help us by showing us how the children can make the most of their
bilingualism.
We also want to make the most of working with themes, so we are also looking into how
super schedules might support us with that. Esther Zwinkels is coming on Thursday for a
workshop on using super schedules in class.
I know, I know, it is really early, but I would still like to ask you to start reflecting on how to
decorate Jip & Janneke for Sinterklaas. The J&J team has a meeting to discuss the subject
on Tuesday 23 October, so if you have any decoration suggestions, please pass them on
in your group so the teacher can take it with them into the meeting.
The Jip & Janneke team wishes everyone happy holidays!
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The Sint band is looking for musically talented parents! We are especially looking for
a drummer and a keyboard player to support the band at Sinterklaas’ arrival, the
celebration at the club and during the Sint festivities at school.
To make it all sound coherent we have planned several practice sessions.
For more information or to sign up with the Sint band please contact Yvette van der Star
(group 3a) or Maaike Bernauer (RT/LSC).
“The cow said, “Moo”, and the goose said, “Hiss” and the Ladybird …”
The five theatre lessons were a blast! The theatrette learners were introduced to riddle,
games, dance, movements, stage vocabularies and rules, and performance. All these
activities were interwoven from two different types of stories; Five Little Monkeys Jumping
on the Bed by Eileen Christelow and What the Ladybird Heard by Julia Donaldson. Mime
and Expression was introduced on the fifth lesson much to the delight of the aspiring
artists. The above book titles were borrowed from HSL’s library, if you wish to read together.
Chelsea Ash
Chelsea Ash moved from South Africa to Singapore at the beginning of August this year.
She has completed a Bachelor of Social Sciences, majoring in English, Media and
Communication and Political Science. Chelsea furthered her education with
postgraduate studies in the different fields of Public Policy, Education and Teaching
English to Speakers of Other Languages. Chelsea will be working three days a week at the
HSL, taking over from Dorienne Sparrow in groups 1, 3 and 4. She also teaches Extra English
on a Monday and Tuesday afternoon.
Dorienne Sparrow
Dorienne Sparrow will be leaving HSL mid-October, to do relief teaching at the Overseas
Family School. Dorienne has worked at the HSL for three years. She looks forward to the
new challenge of adding to her experience of teaching English as a Second Language,
by teaching all subjects within the classroom.
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The below letter was received from children’s book author Jacques Vriens
Dear all,
I would like to thank everyone who voted for the film ‘Achtste groepers huilen niet’
(Group 8s don’t cry) in the past couple of days.
Thanks to you the movie won a Golden Calf (the big award of the Dutch Film Festival).
I am very proud and especially incredibly pleased for everyone who worked on this film.
It has become a film with so much beauty and integrity. This can only make an author
very happy.
I was especially moved by the words of Dennis Bots, the films’ director, upon receiving the
award. He dedicated the award to Anke/Akkie and all other children who lost the battle
against leukemia.
Once more: a very big thanks for your votes.
Best regards
Jacques
Both book and film are available in the HSL library.
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The German European School Singapore (GESS) – situated on a lush green hillside in tropical Singapore -is a
private school association which is led by an elected Committee and the school management. We offer
education to students aged 3 to 18. Our German-speaking section (or German Section, founded in 1971)
offers all German-School leaving certificates including Abitur and is subsidised by the German Government.
Our English-speaking section (or European Section, in operation since 2005) teaches the curricula IB
Diploma, Middle Years and Primary Years Programme. More than 1500 students of more than 50 nationalities
attend our school and more than 270 full and part time employees work at our two campuses.
We are seeking to appoint a well-qualified and dedicated
Marketing & Communications Officer
(40 hours/week)
commencing as soon as possible
Your tasks:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Supporting the Marketing and Communications Manager with all communications (e.g. website,
school publications, advertisements, marketing collaterals, guidelines)
Point of contact for vendors
Point of contact for all academic staff and volunteers for communication and marketing related
topics
Project Management
Update of CRM
Other administrative tasks
We expect
• Bachelor degree in Marketing or equivalent qualification
• 3 years working experience in Marketing & Communications, work experience in educational
institutions would be advantageous
• Strong organizational and project management skills, with proven success in managing multiple
projects efficiently and effectively
• Distinctive creativity and ability to think out of the box
• Good writing skills (e.g. news articles, press releases)
• Good working knowledge with design programmes (Adobe Creative Suite)
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills and the ability to interact with internal and external
stakeholders of the School at all levels
• Ambitious, self-motivated and open-minded personality with ample cultural awareness and eager to
work in a multi-cultural team
• Excellent written/spoken English and near to native German speaker
• Ability to work under pressure
We offer an exciting working environment in an international and cooperative team. Salary and benefits
are competitive and dependent on experience of the successful candidate.
Your application should include: Letter of application, full resume and recent photo and your reasons for
applying for the position. Please submit your application via email, indicating the post for which you are
applying in the subject line.
Your application should reach us no later than October 28, 2012. The school reserves the right to appoint
sooner than this deadline should an outstanding candidate apply. Only shortlisted candidates will be
notified. Thank you for your understanding.
German European School Singapore
Human Resources Manager
72, Bukit Tinggi Road, Singapore 289760
jobapplication@gess.sg
www.gess.sg
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
11 & 12 OCTOBER
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
11 T/M 19 OCTOBER
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
NO NSA BALLET
Holiday camp yoga
No NSA STREETDANCE
Run for Hope
FRIDAY 26 OCTOBER
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Holiday camp hockey
WEDNESDAY 24 OCTOBER
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
Holiday camp football
MIDTERM BREAK
TUESDAY 23 OCTOBER
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
IN-SERVICE TRAINING STAFF – (NO SCHOOL)
HARI RAJA HAJI (PUBLIC HOLIDAY)
TUESDAY 13 NOVEMBER
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DEEPAVALI (PUBLIC HOLIDAY)
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SATURDAY 17 NOVEMBER
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SUNDAY 18 NOVEMBER
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
ARRIVAL SINTERKLAAS
RUN FOR HOPE (SEE NEWSLETTER 7)
TUESDAY 20 NOVEMBER
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FINAL DEADLINE TO REGISTER FOR CIS
INFORMATION EVENING (SEE NEWSLETTER 9)
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WEDNESDAY 21 NOVEMBER
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INFORMATION EVENING GESS – 7pm
VENUE: GESS ROOM “i101”
(SEE NEWSLETTER 9)
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WEDNESDAY 28 NOVEMBER
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INFORMATION EVENING CIS – 7pm
VENUE: CIS LAKESIDE CAMPUS
(SEE NEWSLETTER 9)