Parent Information Session on Dutch Traditions and Celebrations

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Who is Sint Maarten? What are olliebollen? Why do children leave out a shoe for Sinterklaas? These questions and many more were answered at the Lower School parent information session on “Dutch traditions and celebrations” in November.

Geared towards families new to the Netherlands, the session allowed newcomers to learn more about some of the most important Dutch festival s and traditions that they may wish to take part in while making Holland there home. Additionally parent had the opportunity to find out more about which celebrations are observed at ISA, how the school chooses to participate and how Dutch families at the school celebrate these occasions at home.

Green Team Trash Audit

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On 31 October the Green Team and their volunteers gave up their Sunday morning to help reduce waste at ISA. Over two days the Green Team collected garbage bags from around the school that volunteers would sift through to ensure that the waste was disposed of properly.  

The Green Team discovered some good news, as well as some areas of improvement. On the plus side— the total amount of non-recycled waste collected went down since last year, despite a rising school population. But on the down side— the food waste continues to climb. The Green Team found a whopping 85kg of food that had been thrown in general waste, despite prominently labeled food bins. Another problem was finding 6kg of plastic bottles that were not thrown out in the designated plastic bins.

Over the next year the Green Team and the cafeteria staff will work on solutions to ensure that less food is wasted and that waste is properly disposed of. Some recommendations will include:

  • Encouraging students to bring reusable plastic bottles to school either by bringing one from home or purchasing reusable Doppler bottles from the PTA Store
  • Supporting better waste disposal habits at home by encouraging students to segregate and throw waste into the right trash bins at home

Everyone can play their part in reducing unnecessary waste going to landfill: so please ‘Think Before You Throw’! With these efforts we hope to see less waste at next year’s Trash Audit!

ISA hosts film screening of ‘The Empowerment Project’

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What would you do if you knew you would succeed?

 

The ISA Upper School hosted a screening of the documentary film ‘The Empowerment Project’ on 2 November.  The event opened with introductions from student leaders from ISA’s two student feminist groups – Like a Girl and Girl Up –  outlining the role that today’s young feminist at ISA wish to play in the fight for equality. Both groups are new to ISA this year and work to address issues surrounding inequality and human rights violations for women and children.

The documentary showcased a group of women documentary filmmakers as they travelled across the United States to interview strong female role models in a variety of industries from science to non-profit management and military leadership. Following the screening, the student group leaders moderated a Q&A sessions between the filmmakers Sarah Moshman and Dana Cook and the over 100 student and parent attendees.

ISA Book Week 2016

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Reading Shapes Our World: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Read!

The ISA Library Team would like to take this opportunity to announce Book Week 2016!

The ISA Book Week 2016 slogan centres around a green theme, primarily sustainability and how libraries are proponents of this important way of living: Reading Shapes Our World: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Read! 
This year, our students will be delighted by the award-winning authors and storytellers that we will host. We have such a great line-up this year with award-winning authors and illustrators.
The Upper School Library will welcome Saci Lloyd from October 10th-12th.
The Lower School Library will welcome The Two Steves from October 11th-14th.
The Early Childhood Library will welcome Jeff Mack from October 11th-14th.

Saci Lloyd        2 Steves        jeff-mack

Book Week will be from October 10-14, 2016. Of special note, Lower School students may dress as their favourite book character on 14 October.

Enjoy and happy reading!

High School Student Council Elections

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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!

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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

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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.

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR ISMTF MIDDLE SCHOOL MATH COMPETITORS

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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!

World Water Day

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WORLD WATER DAY
Every year the ISA Lower School Student Council organises a fundraising campaign to support East African Care in Kenya to improve access to clean water in their own communities. This can range from providing new wells to building latrines for schools and village communities.

ISA Lower School students collect Euro coins in a reusable bottles over a week. They place a coin in the bottle each time water is used in their home,  helping to raise awareness within their family regarding how lucky they are to have easy access to clean water in the Netherlands.

Last year the students raised over 2700 euros to support access to clean water in Kenya and hope to collect more this year.

 

ISA Basketball Teams Compete in NECIS Tournaments in Rotterdam and Antwerp

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The ISA U12, U14, Junior Varsity and Varsity Basketball teams recently competed in NECIS tournaments in Rotterdam and Antwerp rounding out a great season of training and international competitions. The results of the four tournaments are below.

U12 and U14 – Rotterdam
The U12 and U14 girls and boys teams competed March 4-6 in Rotterdam with exciting games featuring everything you expect to see in a tournament; joy, disappointments, determination, teamwork and sportsmanship. With support from friends and families, the ISA teams achieved the following results:
U12 Girls: 6th place
U12 Boys: 2nd place
U14 Girls: 2nd place
U14 Boys: 7th place
JV and Varsity – Antwerp 
The Junior Varsity and Varsity teams competed March 11-12 in Rotterdam. The tournament, which was also live streamed, had a great crowd turnout with families from all competing schools in attendance. The ISA teams fought hard and were successful in achieving the following results:
JV Girls: 3rd place
JV Boys: 1st place
Varsity Girls: 4th place
Varsity Boys: 2nd place