Kinderboekenweek at ISA

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This week, ISA celebrated Kinderboekenweek! Kinderboekenweek is an annual celebration of children’s literature throughout the Netherlands. Lovers of literature, art, dance, and music join together to celebrate Dutch authors and illustrators of children’s books for ages 2-10 and activities are organized throughout the country in schools, libraries and bookstores.

What a great week it was. Once again, the ISA Librarians teamed up with the Dutch and PE departments to share the Kinderboekenweek festivities, following this year’s theme of environment, animals and having fun outside. Students took part in many fun activities, including assemblies, listening to Dutch guest readers in library lessons and reading and performing a short play of the Kinderboekenweek book Egalus.

For the grand finale, students have been learning the theme song Gi-ga-groen in Dutch, complete with the dance moves in some PE classes. The video was played at the end of Friday’s assembly, and everyone enjoyed the opportunity to sing and dance along!

As an international community, Kinderboekenweek is a fun way to honour our host country and get to know some local customs. Thank you to everyone who participated, donating their time and effort to the celebrations a great success.

ISA Community Involvement at the IB Global Conference 2022

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“What Does It Mean To Be A Sustainable Foodie?” Project

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On Friday, 30 September, Gus Ranieri from Taste Before You Waste, a foundation with the mission to reduce consumer food waste, spoke to our Grade 9 and 10 French class about food waste and its impact on the planet. 

By raising awareness, Taste Before You Waste aims to provide citizens with inspiration and the opportunity for responsible and waste-free consumption, contributing to a social movement that pushes for a sustainable food system and, ultimately, an environmentally just society. Some ways that they strive for this vision is through hosting donation-based events such as foodcycle markets, wasteless Wednesday dinners, educational workshops, event catering and presentations, ultimately showcasing that food that we may currently regard as waste is actually delicious and valuable. 

Demonstrating the IB Learner Profile attribute of inquiry, students will use their learning from the talk to create projects in French which focus on the issue of food waste, allowing them to nurture their curiosity and further develop their independent and collaborative research skills.

Grade 10 student Olivia said: “for my French class, we are looking for solutions to the global waste problem that exists in typical western society. We are looking at different systems where we waste and to the extent of it. For example, materials, infrastructure, and cosmetics are large contributors to environmental concerns that we rarely even consider. Food waste interested me, as we don’t realise how much we waste. People think we don’t have enough food, but we do. It’s just in the wrong places. The labour and transportation costs, and movement of food, are the ideas that we are inquiring upon. In our French class, we are trying to create ideas that would help to improve this issue and that are more sustainable. We are looking at factors that could make less waste and create more ways to enable people to donate food to food banks. We will be doing the research and then presenting it to the class. We will have an interactive discussion around our ideas and findings. This will be all in French, of course.”

Wellbeing Week at ISA with Natasha Devon

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Last week, Natasha Devon, a mental health, inclusion and diversity campaigner, visited ISA to talk to the community about wellbeing as part of the school’s first-ever Wellbeing Awareness Week.

ISA is committed to highlighting the importance of leading a balanced life, and students at ISA learn to make informed choices, manage challenges and set priorities, all valuable life skills to prepare them for their next steps. To start the new school year with this in mind, Debbie O’Hara, our Adult Learning Coordinator, organised a wellbeing week for our community to highlight the importance of staying aware of our mental health and overall wellbeing. She invited Natasha to engage with the community through various sessions over the course of the week.

Natasha held workshops for students in grades 5-12 on a variety of topics, including stress and anxiety, social media and regulating our relationship with technology and exam preparation and study skills that nurture our mental health. In addition, Natasha also discussed body image with the parent community and hosted a staff session on wellbeing, self-care and the importance of setting boundaries.

Reflecting on her week at ISA, Natasha said: “all the audiences I spoke to were really engaged and enthusiastic. I’m really happy to have been invited to the school and hope the messages resonated. I’ll be sending follow-up resources to ISA staff so key themes can be reiterated throughout the academic year.”

Wellbeing week was an opportunity for our community to reflect on and reevaluate their own wellbeing, self-care and mental health practices. Debbie said: “Inviting Natasha Devon to speak to our ISA student, staff and parent communities started important conversations about wellbeing and mental health. We help build a community of care when we engage in shared experiences on topics that speak to our values and beliefs. We also deepen our commitment to creating a culture of thinking when these engagements enlighten us collectively.”

Book Donation to Ethiopian Schools

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For many of us, the start of a school year is a time to reset, take stock of where we are, and get ready to approach the new experiences and challenges that the year will bring. At ISA, we have a tradition which helps us start the new year on the right foot and with a positive mindset.

Throughout August, ISA faculty and staff gathered and collected a variety of English textbooks, reading books and class materials for donation to the ISOB Foundation, a charity working to build and stock schools and libraries in Ethiopia. ISA’s commitment to empathising with others and forging strong connections with our local and global partners are deeply embedded in our culture, helping us to further our mission to educate for international understanding.

Getachew Negate, an ISOB representative, came to pick up the books, which took two car journeys! Getachew was delighted with the books collected and expressed his sincere gratitude to the ISA community for this support to schools and libraries in marginal areas of the country.

Thank you to everyone involved with this project for helping ISA to continue this longstanding tradition of contributing to a sustainable future.

AISAP Vision and Values Award 2022

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