Author: Damian Rentoule

1. Principal's Message Dear HIS Families We have been wondering how best to communicate information to our diverse HIS community and thought that you may be interested in the breakdown of languages that our families speak. As you can see, English-only and Japanese-only are significant groups and our English bilingual families is the largest, which may not be a surprise. We also have members of the community who speak neither Japanese nor English and others who speak Japanese and another language. A rich array. Navigating this linguistic diversity is one of the challenges of being part of an international school and it is excellent preparation for all of us, adults and children, in our futures as global citizens. Kind regards Damian Rentoule, Principal 2. The Crane Video 3. Festive Eve (Chitty Chitty…

Dear HIS Families I hope you have enjoyed the week. We want The Crane to be the one place you go for all necessary information. In order to help make this document more accessible, we are going to try and cut down on the content. We will do this firstly by using a separate Community Event page, which was started last week and can be accessed by a link if you are interested. Secondly, I will start a Principal Blog page for longer posts about our program such as the recent Learner Profile series. These are not time sensitive and you can read whenever you have time. A link will appear in The Crane. A 'translated' tag will appear in red font above any post that has been translated (English followed by…

Dear HIS Families As we get ready to come together as a community for Bonfire Night, an appropriate Learner Profile attribute for this week would be 'balanced'. Why would we want students to be at school in the evening when they could be home studying? In some ways, this attribute is the one that really tests a school's belief in its mission and we need to ask if our day to day life at home and in school really reflects that of a balanced learner. Here is the definition: Balanced バランスのとれた人 They understand the importance of intellectual, physical and emotional balance to achieve personal well-being for themselves and others. 私たちは、自分自身や他の人々の幸福にとって、私たちの生を 構成する知性、身体、心のバランスをとることが大切だと理解 しています。また、私たちが他の人々や、私たちが住むこの世 界と相互に依存していることを認識しています。 That idea about well-being is extremely important and will remain so to each of us for the…

Dear HIS Families This week, I'd like to introduce another of the IB Learner Profile attributes, Communicators. Language is central to what we do here at HIS. The IB programs at HIS focus on the development of deep conceptual  understandings. We use language to help us develop these understandings and also to communicate these understandings in both English and Japanese. We also encourage the continued development of each student's Mother Tongue, for this same purpose. The development of both communicative and academic language is extremely important. Communicators コミュニケーションができる人 They understand and express ideas and information confidently and creatively in more than one language and in a variety of modes of communication. They work effectively and willingly in collaboration with others. 私たちは、複数の言語やさまざまな方法を用いて、自信をもっ て創造的に自分自身を表現します。他の人々や他の集団のもの の見方に注意深く耳を傾け、効果的に協力し合います。 We want to develop truely multilingual learners, not…

Dear HIS Families Welcome to the October break. This week, I wanted to introduce the Learner Profile attribute, 'caring' and also reinforce the idea that the Learner Profile is not just about students. In an IB school, adults and children are all considered to be learners and this has important implications for adult behaviour in the school community. We are the role models that students look to to see how the world should work. For example, we want our children to grow up with empathy, compassion and respect towards the needs and feelings of others. We also want them to act to make a positive difference in the lives of others, as we see in the description below. Caring 思いやりのある人 They show empathy, compassion and respect towards the needs and…