I hope you have all enjoyed your week. I received a question this week at the PTA meeting regarding the reason why HIS is considering a boarding program. I thought I would say a few words about that today. Firstly, a boarding program has been discussed by the Board of Directors for a number of years. The main benefit of a boarding program would be to boost the number of students in our upper Secondary classes to stabilize enrolments at HIS over time. Historically, enrolment numbers have gone up and down, year-to-year. When student numbers go down, the costs of running the school do not. For this reason, if student numbers decline, only two options are available; increase enrolment or increase tuition. Obviously, the former is the preferred choice. Other potential benefits of higher upper secondary student numbers are increased cultural and linguistic diversity and potential expansion of DP course offerings and resources. Ultimately, these are benefits to our whole school community.
It would be a major strategic move for the school and we have been investigating potential facilities and student recruitment options as we head toward a final decision. For example, I traveled to Beijing during the October break to meet with a number of agents who work with the placement of international students, so we are currently gathering as much information as we can. I will keep you informed and please don’t hesitate to ask me any questions you may have.
Kind regards
Damian Rentoule (Principal)
2. Crane Video
3. PTA News
(日本語は以下に）
1. We are looking for volunteers to chaperone the Secondary Halloween dance party on October 27th. Details regarding the party will be provided by the school. If you are available to 1) help decorating 2) pick up pizza(Costco) and bring it to school 3) supervise, please let us know by Oct. 25th. pta@hiroshima-is.ac.jp
2.A special reminder for teachers and HIS staff to begin preparing your Halloween costumes! The students will be voting on their favorite HIS staff costume and the winner will receive an exciting prize!
3. The minutes of the September PTA meeting are now updated on the PTA Homepage.
Our family moved to Hiroshima in mid-August from Utah, USA for Thomas’ job at Micron. Thomas and Brooke have two boys attending HIS- Vaughn is G3 and Vincent in KG. We had to leave our beloved Boston Terrier dog, Bubba, back home with friends during our 2-year assignment here. While Thomas and Brooke have lived in several states in the U.S. prior to Utah including Virginia, Idaho, and Colorado, this is the first move for our children. We had to coordinate both an international and domestic move from Utah as we will return to Boise, Idaho after we leave Japan. We are very excited for our adventures in Japan and hope to be “weekend warriors” traveling and experiencing as much as possible while we are here. So far we have enjoyed immersing ourselves in the culture, meeting many new friends and tasting all of the new, delicious foods!
2)
Jayron Daniel: G3 (4th year in HIS)
Mom: Ryoko Jordan(HIS teacher)
Aunt: Yoko Yanagi (HIS Japanese teacher)
Sister: Vivica Daniel (Graduated in June)
Younger brother: Alex Takeru Jordan
Where to live at Koyocho
Languages: 70%Japanese and 30%English
Jayron had been living in Hiroshima from his birth up to 6 and lived Okinawa from 6 to 9 years old. We enjoy fishing and beach activities such as BBQ or clam hunting.
* We are still waiting for the return of many interview sheets. If you still have the sheet at home please fill out and send back to the HIS office.
Bentos start on Monday. We had 27 orders and 25 of the orders received had student names included. If you think you ordered a bento but did not receive an invoice, you may be one of our mystery customers. We asked to have two extra bentos on the first day, just in case.
5. Netherlands Student Exchange Meeting
On Tuesday 24 October from 12:30-1:30, we will have a meeting for parents and students interested in participating in our partnership with Comenius College near Rotterdam, Netherlands. At the meeting, we will share the experiences from the trip in September and gauge interest in a trip next year for students who will be in grades 9-12 for the 2018-19 school year. We will also provide information for families who may be interested in hosting a student this year. Comenius College is planning on visiting Hiroshima with 6 students at the beginning of April. Please consider hosting a student so this partnership can continue!
6. Coffee Morning Workshops 27 October
Our coffee morning for October will be held at HIS to accommodate two different workshops. Beginning at 9:00 am, Ms. Annie Levasseur, MYP coordinator, and Ms. Pechhold, Secondary Vice Principal, will present an update on MYP implementation at HIS and a workshop focused on learning through inquiry in the MYP. After a brief coffee break, the Japanese Language Department will host a follow-up workshop to September’s meeting about changes in the approach to kanji instruction at HIS. The workshop will begin at 10:30 and will be focused on Kanji instruction in the secondary program. We will share strategies HIS is implementing to prepare students for the Diploma Programme. To best meet the needs of the audience, we are requesting that parents submit questions about kanji learning ahead of time. Please access this form to submit questions. We will try our best to incorporate responses into the workshop and during the question and answer session.
We hope you will join us for this coffee morning. All parents are invited to attend.
7. Secondary Student Halloween Party
The Student Representative Council will host a Halloween Party for Secondary students on Friday 27 October. Students are invited to stay after school to prepare for the party. The party will end by 9:00 pm. There is a 500 JPY fee to attend which includes: one slice of pizza, snacks, and drinks. Additional pizza can be purchased for 200 JPY/slice. Payment will be collected by Thursday 26 October. A form will be sent out to all students to register their attendance and order additional slices of pizza or alternate food choice if you have dietary restrictions. In addition to the 500 JPY, all students are asked to bring one bag of Halloween candy. Candy should be brought to HIS by Thursday 26 October. Activities will include a costume contest, Halloween games, and movies. The PTA has kindly donated a prize worth 3000 JPY for the best costume!
8. Vocabulary Study for Secondary Students
We are cooperating with researchers from Hiroshima University and Doshisha University on a study called ‘Bridging the vocabulary gap for English as Additional Language learners: Establishing an EAL word list’. On Monday, we will send home consent forms in Japanese and English with all of the Secondary students and would appreciate it if you could read them and send signed forms back if you agree. Vocabulary acquisition is very important for our students’ ongoing language acquisition so we are happy to be a part of this study. The forms that you will receive on Monday are linked below.
It looks like a typhoon is heading our way and due to pass by on Monday so keep an eye on the website on Monday (6:00 am) morning if in doubt.
10. Japanese Survey by Parent Group (Re-posting)
Follow-up on Japanese language survey
Thank you to all parents and guardians who completed the Japanese language/ kanji survey. We would like as many responses as possible, so if you haven’t done the survey please do! We will close the link on Monday, October 23.
