The Crane, 8 May

Items:

• Student messages to teachers;
• Sayonara to the Annex and the Foundation Stone Project;
• Diploma Program Exams;
• Li’s Service Project;
• Jump Rope Challenge;
• Library Access.

Principal’s Message

Dear HIS Community

I hope you all enjoyed Golden Week, staying pretty close to home this year, I imagine. Our distance learning has resumed smoothly as we head into this last part of the year. Early next week, we will assess the public health situation and make a decision regarding the last four weeks of school. I will send a message out to families regarding this on Wednesday, next week. Thank you for your patience and all the work you are doing at home to support your child’s learning. Our teachers have been working really hard with the distance learning and appreciate your support very much.

I also wanted to say a quick note regarding the buses. During the distance learning period, we are not using the buses, however as we are on an annual contract, the bus company is unable to refund us for the unused period as they have organized themselves to deliver the service for us all year, with sufficient drivers and vehicles for our contract needs. There are many sectors of the economy, including most businesses involved in the transport of people, that have been badly affected by Coronavirus-related changes and we are all hoping that life will gradually return to relative normality over the coming months.

On another note, we have a Board of Trustees meeting on Monday evening so I would like to thank all of our Board members of both the Board of Trustees and Board of Directors who, in their volunteer capacity, support HIS with the big decisions that continue to guide our direction as a school.

For our TED Talk today, we have a really interesting perspective on walls and this interested me because our mission at HIS relates to creating a more sustainable and peaceful world. In this sense, the breaking down of walls and barriers is of central importance for us here at HIS and the fact that not all walls can be seen is a really important idea for us all. Enjoy your weekend.

Kind regards

Damian Rentoule

Student Messages to Teachers

Thank you very much to all the contributors for the lovely messages and also to Jackie, Maki, and Kumi for masterminding the project. It was much appreciated by all of us.

Sayonara to the Annex & the Foundation Stone Project

It is coming to that time when we will say, ‘otsukaresama’ to our old friend, the Annex. The teachers have been packing up the classes, and furniture will be moved over the next week before the building is taken away. The whole process will take approximately six weeks and the construction of the new building will commence in July. Although not the most aesthetically pleasing structure, it has served us well for over a decade and we all have fond memories linked to the Annex. I think we will all remember it fondly.

This upcoming construction project is a pivotal time in the ongoing development of HIS and we are very excited to be taking this next step. As we prepare for the construction, I would like to introduce our Foundation Stone Project which we would invite all of the members of our HIS community to participate in. It is explained in the video below however the project is simple:

1. Choose a stone. We have lovely smooth ones in the rivers surrounding Hiroshima.
2. Draw and/or write a message on it regarding your hopes and dreams for the future of the new building and HIS. Be as creative and symbolic as you like. (Permanent markers work better than paint, but anything is fine.)
3. We will collect the foundation stones with your messages for use in a display outside the new building.
4. This is a great family activity and a perfect opportunity for you to have a conversation with your children about what HIS means to them.

We look forward to receiving your Foundation Stones. I will place a box outside our front entrance to deposit finished stones in when you are ready. We are hoping to collect all the stones by the end of June, so there is no hurry. I can introduce some of the stones on the Crane as they come in.

Diploma Program Exams

Our Diploma Program students started their final exams yesterday. Due to the public health situation around the world, the IB is not holding the external exams this year so we are conducting a set or our own internally assessed exams and doing this remotely with teachers supervising through Zoom. 2020 just keeps proving us new challenges to solve and new things to learn. Best of luck to our Grade 12 students!

Li’s Service Project

Congratulations to Li (Gr12) for the great Creativity, Activity, Service (CAS) project making gauze masks for a local nursing home. I am sure that your action was much appreciated but the staff and residents. Through this experience, you not only learned a lot regarding the challenges of this process but you developed new skills and considered the ethics of choices and actions, important learning outcomes of the CAS program. Well done, Li. We are proud of you.

Jump Rope Challenge

★ Jump Rope Challenge Week  (Mon 11th- Sun 17th)

In PE we will have a Jump Rope Challenge Week!

We are inviting the whole school community.

★Parents are welcome to participate in the jump rope challenge with your child/ren.

EC and KG/1 students are welcome to participate, but even if they have never tried, they will be able to enjoy watching their family members try and also playing with a jump rope; jump over or under the rope, etc.

★We hope to cheer up your days and have people feel the bond of our HIS community during this self-imposed isolation time.

Jump Rope Challenge Week

Library Access