High School Student Council Elections

On 25 August, ISA welcomed over 1300 students and their families to campus for the first day of school. The halls of ISA came alive again as friends shared hugs and told stories from their exciting summer vacations. There is no doubt that this year will be filled with new memories, friendships, and accomplishments.

At the end of the last school year, the high school student body elected three new Student Council leaders. These students will serve as role models and advocates for their fellow students as they plan and implement a variety of projects over the next year. We look forward to seeing what they have in store.

The newly elected members are:

President: Ari Economon
Vice-President: Ryan Collins
Secretary/Treasurer: Blanca Carmont-Zaragoza

DP Results Exam Year 2016 – Congratulations to the Class of 2016!

Dear Members of the ISA Community,

I would like to take the time to celebrate with you this year’s final IB diploma results. In early July, we received the first IB exam results for the Class of 2016. After a few remarks over the summer, these results are now final. Once again they are something to be very proud of.

ISA students performed exceptionally well on these externally assessed exams and assignments. In fact, ISA’s average grade in each course was 5.25 points; to put that in context, the worldwide average was 4.95.

The graduating class of 2016 included the highest number of IB Diplomas earned in the history of ISA: 59 candidates earned the full ID Diploma with a total average score of 34 points! Out of these, 7 of the 59 received a total of 40 or more points! And if this was not enough, 96.7% of this year’s diploma candidates received one or more bonus points for their work in Theory of Knowledge and the Extended Essay.  Finally, 44 % of our diploma candidates received a bi-lingual diploma.

Whilst these statistics are impressive, they do not tell a complete story. Indeed, not all IB grades are equal as some grades achieved by this year’s DP candidates, whilst perhaps statistically not as impressive, are nevertheless genuine accomplishments and thus worthy of praise. For example, we had a few candidates this year who arrived at ISA in grade 10 with intermediate-level English and nevertheless received their IB diplomas with flying colors.

Such results are contingent on a number of factors. For sure the resilience, hard work, and perseverance of this year’s IB Diploma and IB Course candidates contributed greatly to their success but they could never have achieved it without the support and care of their parents and guardians. A great thank you thus goes out to parents and guardians of this year’s graduating class.

Finally however it is important to acknowledge in particular the hard work of ISA’s faculty, both the Lower School as well as the Upper School faculties as some of our students have been at ISA most of their educational careers. Indeed, our DP candidates would not have been able to achieve such results without their continued commitment and profound sense of professionalism.

Congratulations to the class of 2016!

Kind regards,

Matt Lynch

DP Coordinator

International School of Amsterdam 

 

“Education is the most powerful weapon that you can use to change the world” 

Nelson Mandela

Visit the ISA School Store for Back to School Supplies

The ISA School Store – the Bear Necessities – stocks many of the school supplies ISA students need for the academic year.

Be sure to check the supplies lists below to make sure you have everything for the first day.
Nursery, Pre-School, Pre-K, Kindergarten, Grade 1, Grade 2, Grade 3, Grade 4, Grade 5 and Upper School.

The store also sells maps of Amsterdam and surrounding areas and a variety of books and dictionaries to help you settle in the Netherlands.

The profits generated by the store go to the PTA and are used to cover costs of various PTA-sponsored events and as matching donations for SHARE charities.

Store Hours:

Monday: 15:00 – 16:00
Tuesday to Thursday: 8:10 – 9:00 and 15:00 – 16:00
Friday: 9:10 – 10:00

Bear Necessities has extended shop hours during the first ten days of school in August/September, as well as at the beginning of January.

ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL WORLD WATER DAY FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN 

Recent Lower School assemblies have focussed on the PYP attitude of “appreciation”. Students enjoyed listening to Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World” and learned how appreciative so many different groups of people are for the support in the recent World Water Day campaign.

The Lower School Student Council helped organise the campaign and counted all the coins donated through the small water bottles.  An amazing €4,222.60 was raised in just one week! We are so appreciative and we are sure that both East Africa Care and the communities that we help will be too!  Thank you to everyone who took part.

Thank you to every class who took part in the challenge.

POSITIVE DISCIPLINE WORKSHOPS

 

During the month of November, Denise Granai, one of the Lower School Counselor’s, offered two hour ‘Parenting with Positive Discipline’ workshops. These two hour workshops provided an overview of Positive Discipline through experiential activities.

To learn more about the importance of Positive Discipline read our recent article in ISA Connections magazine.

 

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR ISMTF MIDDLE SCHOOL MATH COMPETITORS

Several of our Middle School students competed in the recent International Schools Mathematics Teachers Foundation (ISMTF) Middle School Math Competition at the International School of Zug and Lucerne. Out of a total of 41 teams, ISA Team A (Anna Economon, Mamie Wilson, and Sylvia Liu) placed 4th and Team B (Daniel Duncanson, Pranjal Ray, and Vivienne Shi) placed 30th. Congratulations to everyone who competed!