The Crane 25 November 2016

The Crane
1. Principal's Message  校長からのメッセージ Dear HIS Families I hope you enjoyed the week. We were very proud of our HIS student tour-guides who showed visiting families around our school during the Open Campus on Wednesday. We received many comments on how confidently they presented and the level of detail that they were able to provide during the tour, providing a unique perspective into school life at HIS. Click here for the Life at HIS blog post - it's about 'reading'. Enjoy your weekend. Regards Damian Rentoule (Principal) 2. The Crane Video  (Translated) 3. Art Exhibition: Heiwa Kodomo Ten (Peace art exhibition)  へいわこども展 Heiwa Kodomo Ten is a collaborative art exhibition with Korean school, Jogakuin Girls' JH/SH, Sakuragaoka SH and HIS. It started last year and we will be once again participating…
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The Crane 18 November 2016

The Crane
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…
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The Crane 11 November 2016

The Crane
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…
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The Crane 4 November 2016

The Crane, Uncategorized
Dear HIS Families As the bonfire burns at HIS, we hope you are all enjoying the end of another great week. This week I wanted to introduce the Learner Profile attribute,'reflective'. We are celebrating a British tradition this evening with the burning of the effigy of Guy Fawkes. Burning an effigy is normally associated with protest and this burning has become a tradition in the UK, a form of repetition through time, a reminder of that day of treason, plots and gunpowder in 1605 when Guy Fawkes tried to blow up the English Parliament. Giving thoughtful consideration to our learning and experiences is one function of tradition, as we see with Guy Fawkes, but it is also important in our day-to-day lives, as individuals, and is an essential element in an IB education.…
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The Crane 28 October 2016

The Crane
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…
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The Crane 21 October 2016

The Crane
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…
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The Crane 7 October 2016

The Crane
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…
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The Crane 30 September 2016

The Crane, Uncategorized
Dear HIS Families I hope you have all had a great week. I have three notes for you this week in my message. In search of a Treasurer for the Board of Directors (BOD): We are also seeking a Treasurer for our BOD. This is an extremely important role in our school as the BOD manages school finances and plans strategically for the future of HIS. As a school community, we rely heavily on the goodwill of these volunteers from both the BOD and the BOT who devote their time for the benefit of us all.  The Treasurer has a key role and we would love to hear from anyone who would be interested in a nomination for this position. PTA representative to the Board of Trustees (BOT): The process to…
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The Crane 23 September 2016

The Crane
Dear HIS Families I hope you all had  a great week. We were fortunate that Tuesday's typhoon continued on its way and didn't end up swinging toward us here in Hiroshima. It was a short week, but you can see some images in this week's video. Following on from last week when I asked you all which of the IB Learner Profile attributes (■IB learner profile/IBの学習者像) would be most important to your family, I would like to focus on Inquirer today. I also asked if there was one that you would be willing to do without for your child and this is also a vital question to keep in mind when considering what type of education you want for your family. All three IB programs develop Inquirers. In an IB context an inquirer:…
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