Secondary School Updates (30 September 2022)

Secondary School Updates (30 September 2022) Next week, our Year 9 and Year 11 students begin the process of choosing their subjects for the years ahead.

Key Dates | Pastoral Update | Secondary Learning Showcase

Weekly update from Head of Secondary

Dear Parents,

Next week, our Year 9 and Year 11 students begin the process of choosing their subjects for the years ahead. These are exciting moments in their journey, but they can also be daunting.

In the secondary school, we place students at the centre of their learning experience and encourage them to make their own choices. That being said, sound decision-making requires conversation and consideration. In school, we provide an enormous amount of information as well as workshops and individual support. As parents at home, you can play a role by coaching your child through the decision-making process.

We hope to see Year 9 and 11 parents at the upcoming Options Information Evening – please check your emails for details. The event will take place on  Thursday October 6th , 5.00–6.45pm.

A kind reminder to also take a moment to complete the CIS Community Survey. We hope to gather as many responses as possible in order to identify the strengths of our school and areas for improvement. 

The survey will take approximately 10 minutes to complete. You should complete one survey per child enrolled in the school before 7 October.For your ease and comfort, the survey is available in multiple languages, including English, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, and Chinese.

Please access the survey through the link: Parent Community Survey.

Chris Newman 

Head of Secondary

Key Dates

• Thursday 6 October: Year 9 and 11 Options Evening 

• Saturday 8 October: International Festival

• Week beginning 10 October: International Week 

• Monday 10 October: International Parade

Pastoral Update

As mentioned at the start of the academic year, our wellbeing curriculum aims to deliver a balance of essential life skills as well as allow opportunities for students to self-regulate their wellbeing. This week, Year 7 students watched some fascinating TED talks about the adolescent brain and ways to cope with change. Year 8 stepped outside the classroom and asked students to take part in either yoga, qi gong, meditation, or cooking. It was so exciting to see students step outside their "comfort zone".

Year 10 focused on International Women's Day, influential leaders, and the challenges they face in achieving their objectives. Year 11 students were given the opportunity to learn more about the IB options and their potential choices.

Today, all secondary students were given a reminder of what "safeguarding" is in school and how to support one another. A fantastic and exciting week of student learning in wellbeing lessons.

Mr. Rob Taylor 

Assistant Head of Secondary (Wellbeing)

Secondary Learning Showcase

MFL | Computer Science | PE | Art | Music

MFL

What a great week we have had in the Languages Department celebrating Languages Week! It all kicked off with our MFL Assembly last Friday, which was an excellent celebration of the incredible multilingualism that we have at our school.

The assembly started with two of our IB French and Spanish students, Bac Dung and Daniel, explaining to the students why they study languages and how important they are to them. We then heard from fifteen of our students, from all ages, who read a lovely fable in their native or studied language. The students in the auditorium had to guess the language just by hearing it.

The languages ranged from Portuguese to Mandarin to Ukrainian to Japanese and even Welsh! It was an incredible celebration of all the languages our students speak. After completing a 300 person Kahoot all about different languages, we then were lucky enough to be treated to a performance from our staff – singing Hakuna Matata in French, Spanish, and English!

Our celebrations of all things languages carried on throughout the week, culminating in two wonderful film evenings, where the school theatre was transformed into a cinema showing two very funny films: one in French and one in Spanish! Over 100 students joined our film nights and were even treated to popcorn and other yummy snacks provided by our Sixth Form CAS students. The buzz around the theatre was brilliant, with students from all year groups enjoying watching the films in another language and learning all about the different cultures.

The Languages Department has had the best week celebrating with our students, and we can’t wait for the next language event...

Ms. Georgina Dorr

Head of MFL

Music

Our Year 10 IGCSE Music Class continues to grow, in numbers, in knowledge and in practical experience. This week the students were excited to try out the instruments of the string family and learned the basics of playing the orchestral bowed string instruments with their hands-on experience, including the violin, viola, cello, and double bass in their lesson on Wednesday. On Friday, we will explore the plucked strings, and students will gain an insight into the electric guitar, bass guitar, classical guitar, and ukulele, and learn about how the roles of these instruments have developed over time.

Later on in the course, we will also explore the string instruments of seven diverse musical cultures around the world, alongside learning about the cultures and traditions in which these instruments and musical genres have evolved. Having real-life experience and knowledge of the physicality and technicalities of playing these instruments is an invaluable skill in their journey as both composers and analysts. This in turn allows their creativity to be informed by real world knowledge and will allow them to emerge as young composers and musicians who are practical and reflective – skills highly sought after in further education and the world of work beyond. Many thanks to one of our Year 13 students for lending us their double bass for this experience...does anyone know where we can find a harp?

Mr. Jonathan Scott 

Music Teacher 

Computer Science

Year 7 are learning how to “think computationally” this term, using four steps: 

1. Decompose the big problem into smaller, manageable chunks 
2. Look for patterns 
3. Use “abstraction” to focus on the details that matter (that was a big word!) 
4. Create an algorithm – a series of clear steps, in the right order to resolve a problem. 

To help with this last step, the students were divided into pairs where one acted as a human robot, whilst the other played the part of the “programmer”.  The programmer was given small set of (4) instructions and asked to direct their robot around the school grounds, using only the instructions they were given.  This episode reinforced the need to give simple and clear instructions, in the correct order to achieve the objective...and to have some fun in the process!  Here are some photos to illustrate! 

Mr. Rob Shepley

Head of Computer Science

Art

On Monday Year 12 and 13 Visual Arts IB students visited Art Vietnam, and learn about the collection of curator and art expert Suzanne Lecht, and to view an exhibition of artist Dinh Thi Tham Poong. Suzanne Lecht is one of the leading authorities on Vietnamese contemporary art in the world, and Tham Poong is arguably Vietnams more famous female artist. Therefore, it was a great opportunity for students to learn from these inspiring women. We had a talk from Suzanne (and met her pet turtle!) before being able to explore the gallery, and finally ask questions at the end.  The information gleaned from this visit will hopefully support students as they begin preparing for their Process Portfolios and Exhibition units in IB. Many students commented that they were glad to learn a little more about the history of Vietnam and the way that it has shaped the contemporary art scene that we see today.   

PE

Year 10 IGCSE PE – practical coursework 

As part of the IGCSE PE course, students must show performances in four sports that result in 50% of their final grade. These four sports are then recorded and sent away to an external moderator at Cambridge Assessment International Education. The idea of recording yourself or each other playing a sport may sound easy, but this is actually a very hard skill to master. Therefore, students need to learn how to moderate each other in a range of sports, in line with the PE syllabus. So, to prepare for this, last week we took part in a run-through of a moderation day that included students being recorded, participating in isolated skills, dynamic drills, and conditioning games.

Then this week in our theory lessons, we focused on how to assess each other using the sport-specific criteria whilst watching our videos from last week’s lessons. The students critiqued the performances, understanding what skills were needed for each level and what they had to do to reach the next grade boundary. They then shared their findings with each other and planned what they had to do to improve their practical coursework. Students now understand how to record a sporting performance and what needs to be shown to achieve the grade they are aspiring to.