News

10Jun 2017 by Damian Rentoule

The Crane, 9 June 2017

The Crane
1. Principal's Message Dear HIS Families The Secondary Camps went well with the Peace Ride team cycling back from Hamada today. We also have the PYP Exhibition coming up this week, so there is a lot of activity at school as we head toward the final days of school. The students' last day is the Wednesday 21 June, so there is not long to go now. Looking toward next year, the Board of Directors is having a full-day retreat on Sunday and one of the major tasks is to examine the feedback from the different brainstorming sessions held during the year involving parents, teachers, students and the Board of Directors. Using these ideas we will continue planning for a bright future. Thank you for all of the ideas along the…
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02Jun 2017 by Damian Rentoule

The Crane, 6 June 2017

The Crane
1. Principal's Message Dear HIS Families We are very close to the end of the year, as you know, so we are looking toward next year and would like to find some kind, generous people to help us out on our PTA committee. Thank you to our wonderful PTA Committee this year for all of your hard work and selfless dedication. The role that the volunteer PTA plays in school is extremely important. The PTA, along with out Board of Directors and Board of Trustees, are volunteers who support HIS and we, quite literally, couldn't function without the generous support of these three groups. If you would like to take a place on the PTA Committee, we would love to hear from you. Kind regards Damian Rentoule 2. Crane Video 3.…
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29May 2017 by Damian Rentoule

HIS 2017 Graduation Principal Address

Principal's Blog
HIS 2017 Graduation Principal Address Congratulations to you, the Class of 2017. As you come to the end of this important stage of your lives, this part that you may have thought would never end, we hope that you are feeling confident about the challenges that you will face over the coming years. Now that your schooling has ended, you are confronted with the harsh reality that you will now be treated by society, in many ways, as adults. This takes some adjustment. You have to review your own place in the world. After the stress of the final DP exams, when your world may have seemed to shrink into a recurring loop of study, stress and exam, the feeling of freedom and relief that you had expected when the…
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26May 2017 by Damian Rentoule

The Crane, 26 May 2017

The Crane
1. Principal's Message Dear HIS Families As we approach the end of another school year, one of the big questions that we must ask ourselves as parents is, how much has my child read this year? You can't do much about the past, but you can reflect on it and make plans for the future. If you look at the table below, some information related to the effects of reading can be seen. Reading strengthens language skills, which support other academic development. Parents control routines at home. Please make reading an important part of your child's routine. Source: http://www.dentonisd.org/Page/61217 Enjoy your weekend, perhaps with a book. Kind regards Damian Rentoule (Principal) 2. The Crane Video 3. Congratulations to our Grade 12 Students The graduation ceremony and dinner is on Saturday afternoon for…
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19May 2017 by Damian Rentoule

The Crane, 19 May 2017

The Crane
1. Principal's Message Dear HIS Families I would like to congratulate all of our Grade 12 students who have just finished their Diploma Program (DP) exams. The DP is a rigorous university preparatory program and these final two years of schooling hold numerous challenges that provide the foundations for success, not only in university, but throughout later life. You will still see a few students around school over the next couple of weeks as some of the CAS projects are completed and this is part of the perseverance that will be necessary in later life and one of the great lessons of the DP. We will bid farewell to our Class of 2017 next weekend at the graduation ceremony. The Class of 2017 received acceptances from a wide range of universities, which…
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12May 2017 by Damian Rentoule

The Crane 12 May 2017

The Crane
1. Principal's Message Dear HIS Families I hope you all enjoyed the beautiful weather over Golden Week. I wanted to remind everyone that next Monday is Student Led Conferences and next Friday evening is Spring Concert, so we have a week and for this reason, quite a lot of information below. On Monday, for the Student Led Conferences (SLC), we do not have a regular school day, rather students come to school with their families at the scheduled SLC time. On Friday, for the Spring Concert, primary students come home early - buses leave HIS at 1:00pm and the exact arrival times at each bus stop will be sent home on Monday. Enjoy your weekend and we hope to see you at school next week. Regards Damian 2. The Crane…
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01May 2017 by Damian Rentoule

Patterns in conversations and what they can teach us

Principal's Blog
[caption id="attachment_1194" align="alignnone" width="750"] Going further with your conversations. These two questions are posed to an Early Childhood 3&4 year-old class at HIS.[/caption] Our brains seek patterns. It’s the way we make sense of our world and it is also the way we learn. Conversational patterns are an important part of our world, particularly as they govern the nature of our interactions.  As we learn language initially from our earliest interactions, the ongoing conversations between parents and young children have a strong impact on not only our language development but of our view of the world and our place in it. We know that children of parents who speak to them a lot develop larger vocabularies. This seems like common sense. However, as Bari Walsh from Harvard Graduate School of…
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01May 2017 by Damian Rentoule

HIS Teachers – What qualities are important?

Principal's Blog
The question about what makes a great teacher is an interesting one, particularly as we don't really know the answer. It is also an important one as much research suggests that the individual teacher is the single most important factor related to impacting learning in the classroom (For example, see Hattie, Visible Learning, 2009). As an IB school, experience teaching in an IB program is an advantage of course for teachers joining our school, along with their breadth of experience, however one of the most important qualities that a teacher can bring to HIS is a genuine interest in the student as a person, as an individual. This is also one of the most important qualities our students look for as you can see in the comments in the video above.…
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28Apr 2017 by Damian Rentoule

The Crane 28 April 2017

The Crane
1. Principal's Message Dear HIS Families Our Grade 12 students begin their DP exams on Monday. It is always the start of May, so starts during Golden Week. All IB schools around the world do each exam on the same day and we have strict procedures to follow, including the maintenance of a relatively quiet space. For this reason, we will be asking everyone, at certain times, to keep the genkan a relatively quiet space. Signs will be posted. Thanks. I would like to wish the Grade 12 students all the best. It is a tough journey during these last couple of years, but all worth it in the end. Also, the newspaper Wendy came and interviewed me a couple of weeks ago and here is a link to the article that…
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