ISA Student Debate Skills on Show at Oxford School Debate Tournament

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On Sunday, 5 February, 12 students from ISA represented the school at the Dutch regional finals of the global Oxford Schools Debate Tournament, held at the Wolfert Tweetalig School in Rotterdam. Organised by the Oxford University Debating Union, the tournament saw around 100 students from across the Netherlands debate and explore topical social issues including international development aid, welfare, and the purpose of the European Union. ISA students performed extremely well, with all achieving some success and Grade 9 student, Lukas Joosten, placing 4th out of all the speakers that participated on the day.

The students’ debating skills were developed for the event through training with high school teachers, Ian Kilbride and Jonathon Denny and grade 12 senior students, Chhavi Nashier and Ryan Collins. Although the ISA teams were not invited to Oxford for the global finals, debate coach, Ian Kilbride, said he was really impressed at the students’ improvement throughout the competition.

“The students listened to the feedback of the judges well and applied the advice [they received] to how they approached the next motion and, more importantly, all of the students enjoyed the day,” said Kilbride.  Congratulations to all of the ISA students that participated in the tournament.

ISA Beach Cleanup a Real Success

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via The Lower School News Blog

The ISA Green Team organised a beach clean-up for the first time on Saturday. A group of students, parents and staff participated, bringing together people from across our school. We’d been warned to dress up warm after a windy week and were fully prepared to brace ourselves against the cold.  But we were pleasantly surprised by the gorgeous weather that awaited us on the beach at Zandvoort.  We found a wide variety of objects including a diaper, bottle tops, cans, cartons, plastic bags, straws, socks, string, styrofoam, pieces of glass, buckets, string, an old body-board, a tyre and even a curtain!  

We also visited the Jutters Museum further along the beach which houses a fascinating collection of an even wider range of objects than we’d collected such as pacifiers, slippers, buoys and boat signs. The museum also houses displays of local natural history and creatures from the sea.  

A Spring event will be organised as well. Keep an eye out for more information after the Crocus break.

Record-setting Trash Audit Results from Green Team

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Be sure to check out this great video from the ISA Green Team highlighting the results of their recent trash audit of the school. More than 80 volunteers attended – a new record! See which trash has increased and where we, as a school, have improved on eliminating waste.

Go Green Team!

Duke of Edinburgh Award Dates 2015-16

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The dates for the ISA Duke of Edinburgh Award practices and finals are now available. ISA students have been participating in the international award programme for over 17 years and have gained invaluable life skills from the programme challenges. 

Bronze-level practice will be from 8-10 October, 2015 and the final will be from 4-7 May, 2016. Silver practice will be from 16-20 October, 2015 and the final will be from 12-16 May, 2016. Gold practice will be from 22-27 March, 2016 and the final will be from 15-21 April, 2016.

ISA Debate Team Closes Season at Roosevelt World Schools Academy

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Members of the ISA Debate team rounded out the 2014-15 season by attended the prestigious Roosevelt World Schools Academy at University College Roosevelt in historic Middelburg. The programme, offers debaters three days of master classes, coaching and feedback from debate experts.

ISA debaters, Nicolas Carmont, Hugo Debaig, Frederique Joosten and Sofia Romansky took part in the event, which was organised by the Netherlands Debate Institute, Cogency and the Dutch Schools Debating Foundation. Special congratulations to Frederique and Hugo who were invited to try out for the national debate team.