Dear Parents,
On Friday, our Fab Four Academic Challenge Finalists travelled to Chengdu to compete in what proved to be an exciting end to an incredible competition! Rylan, Brontë, Mattea and Jasmine went head-to-head against a very strong team from Léman International School in four grueling rounds on Science and Technology, History and Geography, Art and Literature and General knowledge. Both teams were neck and neck by the end of round three making the final series of questions even more exciting for staff and students in the audience. Our Fab Four fought until the end and went on to be crowned champions of the Academic Challenge!
A huge congratulations to all our students and a massive thank you to Mrs Rankin and our hosts at LIS Chengdu for putting on such a wonderful final.
SPORTING UPDATE
U12 Girls Volleyball headed to HKIS on Monday 29th April. This was only their second match of the season, competing in a sport that is new to most of the team. Roni was the captain of the team and took these duties seriously as the girls warmed up for the match. Set 1 saw our team taking a 5 - 0 lead with some great serving from Clarice, however once HKIS got into their rhythm they pulled the lead back and we finished the first set 25 - 21 to HKIS. The second set started and again the girls took an early lead, but a few miscommunication moments in the front row caused HKIS to pull back the lead and go onto the win the second set 25 - 18. The third set started with determination after a good team talk between the girls. This was a close set with each time going up a point, then losing a point until the last few plays of the game, where tiredness crept into the movement and skill of our team and HKIS won the final set 25 -20 to win the match overall. Even though the girls lost, it was a hard-fought game to the end and there is a lot of promise with these players as they improved with every point played throughout the match. Go Knights!
U12 girls' volleyball headed to CIS on 30th April for their second game of the week. The girls came out strong and showed their progression in skills since the beginning of the season. The final score was 3-1 to CIS with the Knights winning their first set! Great work girls!
In a thrilling match between U12 Girls Football v DSC on Thursday 2nd May, the season kicked off with an exciting goal fest. NAISHK took an early lead with a goal from Ariel, but a defensive communication breakdown allowed DSC to score two rapid goals. The girls plugged away and created some chances but were 1-4 down at halftime. After discussing the basics and making a slight formation adjustment, NAISHK stunned DSC with two quick goals. DSC managed to claw one back, but NAISHK scored two more in the final 5 minutes of the game. Margaret's brave saves kept us in the game. Despite numerous close chances, the NAISHK girls couldn't secure a winning goal. A draw was a fair result, marking a great start to the season. Goal scorers: Ariel (2), Tiana (1), Clarice (1), Paula (1). Player of the match: Ariel P
HISTORY SPOTLIGHT AND HIGHLY COMMENDED
Year 7
Year 7 have just finished our new comparative unit Knights and Samurai: What was life like in Medieval England and Feudal Japan? Jumping from different sides of the globe each lesson, this unit has seen a wide range of activities, from presentations on different castles to make their own swords/shields. Each lesson deep dived into a different aspect of life in these two countries such as, women, religion, society and feudalism. This unit has culminated with each student creating a comparative focus, specialising in one area of life looking at the similarities and differences of the two countries.
Following this, Year 7 are beginning to make their way down the Silk Road to end up in the Middle East in readiness for their final unit For God and Glory: Why did Christian-Islamic relations lead to war? So far in their learning, students found out about Marco Polo and his travels and have “helped” Marco Polo create a travel book for a given city along the Silk Road and investigating its importance before arriving in Baghdad, the centre of knowledge.
Year 8
Carrying on with a focus on Black History, Year 8 have been studying The fight for equal rights: How did Black Americans fight for Civil Rights? Here, they have studied the long-term causes of the movement, the importance of certain individuals and organisations such as Emmett Till, Malcom X and The Black Panther Party. All this knowledge enabled the students to make an educated judgement on overall how much progress Black Americans saw and creating knowledge rich, detailed and visually effective timelines that also evaluated the most significant events of the movement.
Year 8 have now jumped over the Atlantic to visit early 20th century Britain, looking at History or His Story: How did women gain the right to vote? Investigating the work of the Suffragists and the Suffragettes in their aim to secure women the right to vote. However, before they can dig deep into this investigation, it is essential that they start the unit looking into the role and status of women in England throughout history.
Year 9
Year 9 have dealt with some difficult and heavy topics this past term, in which they have demonstrated high levels of emotional maturity in doing so. Starting with the descent of Germany from a democracy to a dictatorship, students explored how Hitler and the Nazis used the Great Depression to their advantage, playing on public vulnerability and their fear of communism in their rise to power. They all came to a conclusion on what they think was the most significant reason for Hitler gaining power, before moving onto looking at life in Nazi Germany, the methods that the Nazis used in an attempt to indoctrinate a whole nation.
Keeping on German history, Year 9 moved onto the harrowing, yet important, topic of the Holocaust. Before we could set them off on this unit, it was vital that as a department we addressed the misconceptions of what is classified as genocide and investigated selected case studies of genocides in the 20th century. This helped overcome misconceptions that genocide is a. defined by the number of deaths and b. that the Holocaust “was the only genocide”
Key Stage 4
Earlier this term we waved goodbye to our Year 11s, who left us equipped with all the knowledge and the skills needed to help them in their iGCSE exams. Meanwhile, Year 10 and Year 12 are still hard at work.
Year 10 are currently on their Depth Study looking into the USA, 1919-1914. So far, they have learnt about factors that led to the economic boom the USA experienced in the early 1920s which in turn has helped lay the foundation of knowledge on why the Roaring 20s came into existence. That being said, it’s not all fun and games in this unit as well some lived a very extravagant “Great Gatsby” life, there were many who did share the prosperity and many who faced high levels of intolerance, helping students understand the issues that are still prevalent in today’s society. One activity that students completed to support this understanding was completing a literacy test that Black Americans had to pass register to vote. One wrong answer, or not completing the test in time results in failure. Unfortunately, and unsurprisingly, they all failed! Highlighting the injustice many were served, being forced to take an unpassable test in an attempt to gain access to what was their constitutional right.
IBDP
Our budding historians have focused their studies on two European nations recently, Germany with Miss O’Malley and Italy with Miss Bennett. In their Germany case study, they began with the unit on authoritarian states where they investigated Hitler’s consolidation and maintenance of power, along with aims and impact of his policies before moving onto German foreign policy.
For their Italian case study, they have explored the role of fascist ideology in Italy, how this helped Mussolini and his other methods that he used to take control and consolidated power, this in turn us supporting their new unit looking at how Italian expansionism was a contributing factor to global war.
UPCOMING EVENTS – TERM 3
Enjoy the lovely weather and have a great week!
Fiona Thorndike
Head of Secondary
