Author: Damian Rentoule

Items Message from the HIS Board of Directors, Director General Kitchen Schedule for  Afternoon Tearoom at HIS Fun Day Growth Mindset Parent Workshop PTA News Principal's Message Dear HIS Community It was wonderful to see our Diploma Program (DP) Music students performing in the recitals this afternoon. It is amazing to see the level of performance that comes as a result of a very long learning journey full of creativity and hard work. Congratulations to our students as well as Takako sensei who is with them for the journey. This week's talk is a TED event from Japan and the subject is 'action', a very important part of our IB programs. This one is in Japanese and it does sound very much like someone putting forward an argument for an IB style education,…

Items HIS Hoodie Order Sports Day on Friday 19 April Article on Kotaro's motorcycle racing Principal's Message Dear HIS Community I hope you enjoyed our HIS Idol this evening. That was quite a remarkable event with so much variety and with so many students willing to get up on stage. Well done to you all. Also, thank you to our HIS families for coming to our Student-Parent-Teacher conferences. It is a great chance to learn more about your child's learning journey. We hope you enjoyed the day. As part of our IB programs, we have a set of skills that are taught across the curriculum. One of these is self-management, including mindfulness (being present, without distractions) and learning to relax, so I thought you may enjoy some practical tips in this TED…

Items Parent Workshop - Growth Mindset; Welcome to our teaching-practice interns; PTA News Principal's Message Dear HIS Families I hope you have been enjoying the week. We will be holding a Parent Workshop on 1 April looking at the idea of a growth mindset. The basic idea behind a growth mindset is that we see ourselves as developing learners, a view that treats intelligence, in all its forms, as malleable. In short, we replace the idea that 'I am not very good at something' with the idea that 'I am not very good at something, yet'.  It is an empowering message that challenges many negative self-perceptions. Related to this idea is an area that we should all be concerned about which is the unrealistic and unhealthy expectations that children are exposed to…

Items Secondary Visual Arts Exhibition; Homestay families still  needed; HIS Fun Day; HIS Sports Day; Bento Orders; PTA News. Principal's Message Dear HIS Community Congratulations to our Grade 10 students and to all the supporting teachers for the Personal Project Exhibition yesterday. The Personal Project is the culminating task for the Middle Years Program and is a chance for students to show off the independent inquiry skills that they have developed. Well done to you all. The TED Talk this week is about a way of looking at the world, specifically, a way at looking at learning. This is a great talk that challenges the way we often look at ourselves as learners. The past few talks have examined the idea of identity and this re-evaluation of our self-perceptions as particular…

Items Personal Project; Secondary Camp dates; PTA News. Principal's Message Dear HIS Community When someone asks me what is special about HIS, the answer always comes back to our students. We have a uniquely supportive and caring school culture and an exceptional educational program and I think that there is no doubt that this helps our students to shine in all of the different ways they do. That was a great image presented on the flyer for the Photography Club Exhibition. It was a photo by Nanako (Gr11) with a single sunflower standing apart from the rest - unique, proud and strong.  You can hear a short explanation of the reasoning for this image's selection in the series of interviews with the photographers in this week's Crane Video. This idea…

Items Photography Exhibition; Music for Peace Concert; Withdrawal Form Reminder; Host Families Needed; PTA News. Principal's Message Dear HIS Community Thank you very much to the PTA who organized a great bake-sale event for Valentines Day, including some lovely snacks for HIS staff which were much appreciated.   Last week, a Ted Talk was included that discussed some surprising ideas about motivation, which is central to learning. This week, we have a talk about sleep. In many ways, if we are not sleeping enough, there is no task that will motivate us. Russel Foster, a neuroscientist, presents a great argument for shifting our views on sleep. Through the Primary Years, Middle Years and Diploma programs, we lead students through a process of structured inquiry and engagement is extremely important. It…

Items Annual Report 2017/2018 Host families needed Library Books International Schools Assessment (ISA) PTA News Principal's Message Dear HIS Community Thank you to the PTA for the creative work on the HIS Festival which will be known as HIS Fun Day. We are very grateful to the patience and flexibility of the PTA Committee as you work toward the goal of organizing a fun day for the HIS community. We are all looking forward to HIS Fun Day! This week's TED Talk is one that has been quite influential in education and with over 22,000,000 views and addresses the topic of motivation. Daniel Pink gives us some interesting perspectives on what motivates us. It is presented in a business context, but equally applicable in a school context when we look at…

Items Student Newsletter; Photography Exhibition; Global School Play Day Letter (Primary); HIS Idol Information PTA Hoodie Order Form; PTA Festival Question link; International Schools Assessment (ISA); PTA News. Principal's Message Dear HIS Community Next Wednesday is the Global School Play Day and our primary school will be dedicating a block of time for some play. Play is spontaneous, unstructured, voluntary and negotiated by those participating. It is a profoundly creative act. For adults, it can be a challenge to redefine what we think of as play and treat it as seriously as we need to, in our adult lives as well. In this sense, soccer, for example, is not 'play' because the rules are set, although in English the word play is used, creating some misconceptions. Likewise, video games do not fall under this definition…

Items PTA News HIS After School Club Sign Up HIS Festival Question HIS Parker Orders HIS Secondary Visual Arts Exhibition Principal's Message Dear HIS Community I hope you are all enjoying this surprisingly mild January weather. As we move into our second semester we get ready for a number of significant culminating events in our IB programs. In the Primary Years Program (PYP), Grade 5 students undertake the PYP Exhibition which is a substantive group-based inquiry that is presented to the HIS community at the end of the year. In the Middle Years Program (MYP), the Grade 10 students undertake an individual inquiry known as the Personal Project which they also present to the HIS community later in the year. In the Diploma Program (DP), Grade 12 students complete a range…