OFFICIAL OPENING OF NURSE’S STATION IN NEW WING

On Friday, 25 September, ISA officially opened the new nursing station in the Early Childhood section of the new wing. It was a great opportunity to view the new facilities and meet the two new ISA nurses, Parvathi den Herder and Masha Goldis and our nursing assistants, Renee de Man and Emilie de Man.

The new station allows for quicker access to health information and emergency health services for Upper and Lower School students attending classes within the new extension to the school. For more information in the ISA nursing team and for health updates be sure to login and view the Nurses Pages on MyISA.

 

 

Thank you from PTA for Welcome BBQ Success

Dear ISA families and friends,

Thank you to everyone for making the PTA BBQ the success that it was!

It was a lovely day with a great turn out of 1250 people enjoying delicious food, great music and awesome weather. It seems that the skies cleared just for that day for us! We were truly lucky that the drizzle started only as we walked out of the building in the evening. Overall, the atmosphere was amazing and could see smiles everywhere.

We have the privilege to work with a fantastic, supportive and hard working team. We would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to the school management, operations, and maintenance. Last, but not least, a huge thank you to the happy ISA families that streamed in. What’s a party without the people, good food, music and yes, the sun shining down especially for us.

Sincerely,

The PTA Team

Photos by Luciana Blair

PTA and Expatcenter Amsterdam Host Newcomers Meeting

The PTA Newcomers Committee hosted an information session about expat life in the Netherlands on Friday, 11 September in the cafeteria annex. The programme, developed in cooperation with the Expatcenter Amsterdam featured a speaker from the community organisation who discussed transitioning to life in the Netherlands and answered any questions new families had on this subject.

Excellent DP Results for Class of 2015

In early July, we received the IB Diploma results for the Class of 2015 and once again they are something to make us all proud.

This year 98% of our diploma candidates achieved the full diploma (51 out of 52) with a total average score of 34 points. ISA’s average grade was 5.35 points while the world average was 4.99 and 39% of our diploma candidate’s obtained 36 points or more, which comes to an average of 6 points per student.

In total 9 of our diploma candidates obtained 40 points or more, with 2 having obtained nearly perfect scores with totals of 44 points.

Additionally, 91% of this year’s diploma candidates received one or more bonus points for their work in Theory of Knowledge and the Extended Essay. Lastly, 39 % of our diploma candidates received a bi-lingual diploma.

Congratulations!

 

Lower School EAL Parent Sessions

On August 31, ISA hosted parent sessions covering the ISA English as an Additional Language programme.

The programme, while open for all parents, was geared towards parents of children who are still acquiring English as an additional language. The sessions were also provided in English, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin and Russian.

A sincere thank you to all parent volunteers who helped to bring this programme to our community

ISA Raises €13,600 to Aid Nepal Earthquake Victims

In response to the massive earthquake that struck Nepal in April which killed over 8,500 and injured scores more, the ISA community mobilised to raise funds to benefit the victims of the tragedy.

“As the major international relief organisations are already benefiting from large-scale donations, we have chosen to support a local charity, which works specifically with children” noted Dr. Ed Greene, ISA Director.

“The DOCS Foundation Nepal (The Destitute and Orphan Children Safeguarding Foundation Nepal) is a non-governmental, non-political and non-profit organisation established in 2002. This organisation, which is known to a member of our community with strong ties to Nepal, is already bringing relief to victims: providing shelter, food and healthcare in extremely harsh conditions. ISA would like to support their work directly, so that all the money raised at ISA for this appeal will benefit children whose lives have been devastated by not only losing their families but also their homes and all means of support.”

The ISA student and parent communities hosted a variety of events including bake and rummage sales, as well as  food sales from the Japanese Relief and Philippines Relief clubs. The parent fundraising group, SHARE,  also donated a portion of the profits from their Gala fundraising event to generate funds for the campaign.

In total so far, ISA raised more than 13,600 euros, which will directly benefit the orphans of the DOCS Foundation Nepal.

To donate to help the ISA Nepali Relief for DOCS Foundation Nepal, send your donation to “ISA NEPALI RELIEF”

International School of Amsterdam in Amstelveen
IBAN: NL40ABNA0467218382
BIC code: ABNANL2A
Reference: ISA Nepali Relief


ISA & JAI Host Discussion On Ivy League Admissions Policies

In May, ISA in cooperation with the John Adams Institute, The Ivy Circle and the Harvard NL Club, hosted a speaker session to discuss the timely topic of exclusiveness in American college and university admissions policies.

The session, Who Gets In, What Comes Out: Accessibility and Responsibility of Top Education, featured Jerome Karabel, renowned author of Chosen: The Hidden History of Admission and Exclusion at Harvard, Yale and Princeton  and Alexander Rinnooy Kan, Professor of Economics at the Universiteit van Amsterdam and was moderated by ISA parent and Chair of the Ivy Circle Netherlands, Hollis Kurman.

Comparison of the highly selective admissions policies of Ivy League and other elite universities was made to the more standardised and transparent policies of Dutch universities and arguments for both were presented. The role of grants, financial aid and the reality of the economic opportunities post-graduation were also explored with a view to finding answers to the growing challenge of equal opportunity for all in the pursuit of higher education.

ISA Wins Best Employer Award

In the Fall of 2014, ISA was awarded with the Best Employer Award as the top education employer in the Netherlands.

ISA was nominated for top education employer and top employer for a business in the Netherlands with under 1000 employees, as a result of the participation of and high scores from faculty and staff input from an internal employee satisfaction survey.

From the over 300 participating companies within the Netherlands, ISA was awarded top prize for the education sector and placed in the top ten nationally with a sixth-placed ranking for employers with under 1000 employees.

“The results reflect the true quality of our faculty and staff and just how special our organisation is,” says Ed Greene, ISA Director. “The commitment of our community is reflected in this award.”