Author: Damian Rentoule

Items Madame Butterfly Homestays for Students from the Netherlands Staffing update for 2018/2019 Late Arrivals and Early Dismissals PTA News 1. Principal's Message Dear HIS Community As you know, we have 10 Learner Profile attributes that form the basis of teaching and learning at HIS. 'Balanced' is one of these. With all of that wonderful technology that helps us out each day, there is the potential for us to lose some balance in our lives. We are wanting to encourage members of our school community to try out some technology-related challenges. We will be asking ourselves to think of some areas in our lives where we feel that the use of technology is interfering with our sense of balance. For example, sometimes gaming or social media may interfere with sleep patterns or the phone could be a distraction from…

Items: Madame Butterfly; Host Families Needed for April; PTA News. 1. Principal's Message Dear HIS Community Congratulations to our Secondary Model United Nations (MUN) team who visited Kobe this week to collaborate with other schools in the region. The students were very active during debates and collaborated with delegates from other schools to discuss resolutions on issues such as euthanasia and combating terrorism. (Great photo by either Ms Annie or Mr Hardisty) Also, following up on last week, I was wondering if you were surprised by anything in our Academic honesty policy 2017. With a whole public domain of information available to students, ensuring that other people's ideas (including images) are acknowledged takes a broad set of research skills and a commitment to academic honesty. You can talk to your children…

Outline HIS Partnerships - Letter from the Director General MYP Assessment Coffee Mornings Spring Holiday Care PTA News 1. Principal's Message Dear HIS A word of thanks to our volunteers in the HIS community. Volunteers, working silently in the background and generally without receiving much in the way of recognition are a cornerstone of any vibrant school community for it is through such work that the school comes alive. The ski day organized for next week, the valentines beautifully crafted chocolate flowers and the ongoing work surrounding the HIS playground are just a few examples. This week, I also wanted to highlight our academic honesty policy. Do you know what sort of information would be contained within a policy like this? Now is your chance to find out. What skills do…

Items Visual Arts Exhibition Secondary Masquerade Ball Spring Holiday Care Student Teachers from The Netherlands PTA News HIS Idol Hiroshima Peace Art Program 1. Principal's Message Dear HIS Community Two weeks ago, I asked if you could remember any terms used in our HIS Mission Statement. I wonder how many terms you can recall? One of the ways that we pursue our Mission is to promote the Learner Profile within our units of inquiry, as well as in the other aspects of our day-to-day life at school such as the way we treat each other on the playground. My question for you this week is how many of the Learner Attributes can you recall. If you can't think of the ten, please ask your child. Enjoy your long weekend. Kind regards Damian…

Items Spring Holiday Program Host families needed Coffee morning: Assessment in the MYP (16 February) PTA News 1. Principal's Message Dear HIS Families I hope you have all enjoyed the week. I would like to thank Jackie for all of her work in the organization and coordination of the event planned for tomorrow where some of our secondary students will have the opportunity to partner up with students from the Think Global School and meet with six survivors of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and hear their stories. It will be a wonderful experience for our students. Kind regards Damian Rentoule (Principal) 2. The Crane Video  3. Spring Holiday Program A spring holiday program will run for the week: Monday, 26 February – Friday, 2 March. Please, sign-up at this link if…

Items HIS Vision & Mission Language Camps HIS Idol PTA News 1. Principal's Message Dear HIS Families Schedules at home and balance: Thank you to the parents who came along to the coffee this morning. We had a chance to briefly look at the ISA testing at HIS and also share some ideas regarding helpful routines at home. Every family is different in terms of a schedule that works but our schedules can not only help us to get work done, they can also ensure that our lives maintain balance (one of our 10 Learner Profile attributes), incorporating time for homework, reading, relaxing, being active as well as social time with friends and family. As a reflection, we can all ask ourselves if our current schedules allowing us to maintain balance?…

Items Instructional policies PTA News 1. Principal's Message Dear HIS Families I hope you have enjoyed your week. I am currently in London attending a recruitment fair for international schools interviewing teachers for next year. This particular fair specializes in teachers with IB experience. The success of any school depends on the dedication and passion of its teachers and we are fortunate to have such a great team of teachers at HIS. I have been interviewing some great teachers and will announce the successful candidates in the Crane in the near future. It is an exciting time of year for HIS. There have been some activities that our students have been involved in with Think Global School (TGS), an amazing high school that moves around the world, shifting four times per year.…

Items Staffing changes from August 2018 Bento orders PTA News Kanji Club 1. Principal's Message Dear HIS Families Firstly, I would like to thank everyone who helped out to make our Japanese Culture Day such an enjoyable event on Wednesday. You can see some images in this week's video. Each year, we welcome new teachers into our community and farewell others as they move off on new adventures. As we move into the new year, we look at our staffing for 2018/2019 and in June we get ready to say farewell to some of our teachers who have helped to make HIS such a special place for our students to learn. You will see some notes about this below. Also, if any of you are interested, there is a great…

Items: Introducing John Savage; Contributing to HIS; Festive Eve Survey; Syrian Refugee Winter Clothing Drive; Sakura Medal; 1. Principal's Message Dear HIS Families I hope you all have a happy and safe holiday. Please make sure you keep up a consistent routine of reading through the holidays (English & Japanese) and also practice that kanji. Just a bit each day can make a big difference over time. See you all back in January. Kind regards Damian Rentoule (Principal) 2. Crane Video 3. Introducing John Savage Here is an introduction from John Savage who will be joining HIS as MYP Coordinator/Secondary Vice Principal in 2018/2019. We are all looking forward to seeing you here next year. As a Canadian born educator, I spent the first part of my teaching career in…

Topics: Festive Eve; Kanji Club update; Japanese Culture Day; Soccer Opportunity; PYP Cleaning Day; Otafuku Visit; Hirosho Department Store; Soccer Coaching in English 1. Principal's Message Dear HIS Families Thank you to the HIS families who are organizing the Kanji Club, an opportunity to create some time for children to practice kanji. The kanji club has sent home an order form for a kanji book that will be used for this practice.  The book can only be ordered through a school, so we will place one order for anyone who would like a copy. This does not follow the units of inquiry in our program but has a range of kanji that parents may find useful to practice. Your child's Japanese teacher will be able to let you know which kanji…