Dili International School Newsletter - Timor Leste

DIS Newsletter, Term 2, Week 2 , 14 April 2010 - Page 1

DIS Manager: Carmel Bates

[email protected]

website: www.distimor.com

Dili International School 14 April 2010 Term 2, Week 2

Issue Six, 2010

Welcome back all!Welcome back all students and parents to Term Two at DIS.Extra curricular activities are on again this term. Activities include basketball and tennis, computer programming, EFL support, jewellery making, board games, guitar, piano, violin, fl ute and recorder lessons, Tetun lessons, voice ensemble choir, movie club, contemporary dance, ballet and junior Tots ballet. The program will be sent out today and also emailed to you.We also introduce and welcome Robert August Zeiran, Mr ‘Gus‛, who is our new Grade 3-4 teacher, pictured right.

Welcome Mr ‘Gus’ to DISRobert August Zeiran, called ‘Gus’, is our new Grade 3-4 teacher. Mr Gus comes from New York but has spent many years studying and working in San Francisco. Mr Gus has taught in the States, as well as international schools in Bali and Thailand. These are some of his thoughts on teaching:‘The most important thing in classroom teaching is to provide a safe, friendly environment that is conducive to learning. I like to make the students feel welcomed and confi dent, encouraging them to try their best. In my own teaching I value good classroom management skills, preparation, and catering for the students different learning styles.Good communication with students and parents is essential at all times. I ensure students are clear on my expectations of them and I encourage open communication with parents. I like to incorporate visual aids, technology and fun activities in my classroom.’Mr Gus is a keen athlete, is interested in the arts and is a very creative person in general. All of which he brings to the classroom when working with students.Gus says that he is looking forward to meeting and working with families to provide a great educational experience for the students in his class. Welcome Mr Gus.


From Term One End-of-term Assembly.

Left: Alex and Liam present their Soccer report.

Right: Sheridan O’Neill (and mum Evie) went to great lengths with this dazzling braided hair for her class item. Below: Mr Tim and class with their Australian Aboriginal

dugong fi shing-hunt song.

F T O E d f t

End of Term One Assembly pics

Late fees penalties to be appliedDear DIS Parents. Thank you to those families who pay your school fees promptly at the commencement of each term.

Regrettably there are still many families whose fee payments are regularly paid late and a number remain outstanding from last term. For this reason the recent meeting of the School Advisory Committee decided on a penalty for late fees.

A $30 per week penalty will be imposed on fees which remain unpaid at the end of this week, Week Two, Friday 16 April.

Further, Term One arrears and Term Two fees which have not been brought up to date by the end of Week Four will result in the enrolment being cancelled.

We regret the need to take this action but late fee payments create great diffi culties for managing activities as well as longer term planning, and impacts on the education provided to all children. As such families who have made timely payments are unfairly disadvantaged.

Families involved in employer-paid arrangements who are still unsure of how to meet your fee responsibilities whilst awaiting employer processing please email Tony.

Invoices for Term Two were sent home with students at the end of Term One. If you did not receive your invoice please email Tony or contact Donia at the offi ce on 7316065 or 7339030.

As always if your family is experiencing extenuating circumstances please contact us.


From the Principal

Welcome back to Term 2Welcome back to all students, staff and families to Term 2 at DIS.

Teachers will be sending home timetables and other class related information with students over the next few days. Please take time to read through this information, and contact the class teacher if you have any questions. Academic reports will be sent home at the end of this term.Term Dates and Public HolidaysThere will be two public holidays this term, Monday the 3rd of May and Thursday the 20th of May. Term 2: Wednesday 7th April- Friday 11th JuneTerm 3: Tuesday 20th July- Friday 24th SeptemberTerm 4: Tuesday 5th October- Friday 10th DecemberCongratulations to Ms MaryCongratulations to Deo and Mary, one of our wonderful assistants at the Lower Campus, on the birth of a healthy baby girl, Dea. Dea was born last Thursday afternoon, the 8th of April, with a healthy weight of 3.6 kilograms. Community PreschoolWe are very excited to be able to expand our Community Preschool program this term from two days to four days each week. The program, which is co-ordinated by Ms Sonia, with Ms Fatima, Ms Rosa, Ms Zelia, Ms Dete, Ms Tina and Ms Jess, runs in the afternoon from Tuesdays to Fridays, with 16 children from the local community.

Staying Sun SafeDIS encourages all students to be safe in the sun. Please ensure that your child brings a clearly labelled hat to school each day, as all students must wear a hat at all times when in the sun. In addition to this, we recommend that students apply sunscreen each morning before school, and wear long sleeved, loose clothing.Healthy Snacks and LunchesPlease ensure that your child brings to school a healthy snack for morning tea and a healthy meal for lunch. Teachers have observed some students regularly eating food that is high in sugar, which can have a negative effect on both concentration and behaviour. Eating healthy, nutritious food enables children and teenagers to have sustained energy for all the activities involved in the school day.Thanks for your support in these matters.If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me via email or message, or call me after 1 pm weekdays.Alison Bailey, Principal742 8402 [email protected]

Parents, please send your child to school with a hat.


In Preschool this term we are learning about Water

and Weather as part of our integrated

Humanities/Science unit. To begin the term, we

examined water and ice, and investigated the properties of ice as it

melted back into water. We talked about how water

becomes ice when it gets very cold, and described

what the ice and water felt like.

We have also been learning about capacity using water and a range of containers

of different shapes and sizes, and have begun observing the sky and

talking about the weather.


• Term Two: Wednesday 7th April- Friday 11th June• Term Three: Tuesday 20th July- Friday 24th September• Term Four: Tuesday 5th October- Friday 10th DecemberPupil Free Days• Monday 19th July• Monday 4th October.

TERM DATES FOR 2010

This term our Unit of Work will have an environmental fo-cus. We will be read-ing “The Lorax” by the popular chil-dren’s author Dr. Seuss. This haunt-ing fable about the dangers of destroy-ing our forests will provide our class with many opportu-nities to investigate the impact that we have on our environ-ment.

The main theme of this book is that every individual can make a difference

on the environment.

Our unit of work will also coincide with World Student Earth Day on April 22nd. On this day students from all over the world will be celebrating the Lorax’s message and signing pledges to encourage them to conserve and beautify their local environment.

All students across the school can take the pledge to do what they can to help their local envi-

ronment. Just fill in the slip attached to this page and return it to Ms. Jen. We will attach all the pledges to our class-room tree.

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”

Welcome Back ! THANKS ! All the students in Ms. Jen’s class would like to say THANK-YOU to Ms. Gulnara for teaching our class for the last three weeks of Term One. All the students had a wonderful time and we are looking for-ward to seeing Ms. Gulnara again.

Extra Curricula Activity Ms. Jen will be tak-ing Chess and Indoor Games on Monday afternoons this term. Students will be able to play familiar games such as Scrab-ble and Monopoly along with Chess and Checkers.

What’s happening in Upper Primary


ANIMATED FILMSAnimated films are ones in which individual drawings, paintings, or illustrations are photographed frame by frame (stop-frame cinematography). Usually, each frame differs slightly from the one preceding it, giving the illusion of movement when frames areprojected in rapid succession at 24 frames per second.

Animations are not a strictly-defined genre category, but rather a film technique, although they often contain genre-like elements.Animated films are often directed to, or appeal most to children, but easily can be enjoyed by all

Historically and technically, the first animated film was Humorous Phases of Funny Faces (1906) by newspaper cartoonist J. Stuart Blackton. It was the first cartoon to use the single frame method, and was projected at 20 frames per second.

The first animated character that attained superstar status during the silent era was the mischievous Felix the Cat, in Pat Sullivan Studios.

The Debut of Thomas Cat (1920) was the first animated short genuinely made in color using color film. Drawings were made on transparent celluloid and painted on the reverse, then photographed with a two-color camera.

Innovations continued to be created in the short creative animations, the first official Mickey Mouse cartoons made in color were titled The Band Concert (1935), Music Land (1935) and The Old Mill (1937) - the latter being the first to use the multi-plane camera to provide an illusion of spatial depth and movement.

What do you think about animated films?

Sebastian, Grade 2

Hugo, Grade 2

Fitun, Grade 2

I like real movies more because they are scary and it’s real fun to watch live action.

Cartoons… They are fun to watch and less work needed to make them, because they don’t need acting out.

I prefer cartoons. They are enjoyable and funny most of the

time.


DIS Calendar 2010The school year calendar is a hybrid that caters for Australian and Northern Hemisphere families as well as those from Timor Leste.

There are four x ten week terms. Students have a fi ve week holiday at Christmas and fi ve weeks in the middle of the year, as well as a one week holiday in March also in September.

DIS has fi ve Pupil Free Days each year, set aside for the fi rst day back at the end of each holiday period. DIS closes for national public holidays as outlined in below. DIS provides 189 contact days for students and 194 contact days for staff.


PLAYGROUP Coordinator: Tess Burrows, Leaders: Yen Serrano,

Glaucia Miqueletti , Assistants: Ms Tina, Ms Fatima

JUNIOR PRESCHOOL Teacher: Tess Burrows [email protected]: 7751547 Assistants: Ms A-Rey, Ms Rosa

PRESCHOOL Principal/Teacher: Alison Bailey alisonlesleybailey@gmail.

com 7428402 Assts: Ms Sonia, Ms Dete, Mr Cipriano

JUNIOR PRIMARY Y (TRANSITION)Teacher: Yulia Prikhodko Ph: 7397815 [email protected] Assts: Ms Evie, Ms Jess, Ms Ruksana

JUNIOR PRIMARY S (GRADE 1) Teacher: Samantha Brumpton Ph: 743 7141

[email protected] Assistants: Ms Zelia, Ms Ruksana

JUNIOR PRIMARY Y (GRADE 2) Teacher: Yvonne Abey [email protected] 763 3544 Assistants: Ms Jess, Ms Ruksana

GRADE 3 AND 4 Teacher: Robert (Gus) Zieran [email protected]

Ph: 7767529 Assistants: Ms Liz, Ms Rosa

GRADE 5 AND 6 Teacher: Jen Lobb Ph: 744 6670 [email protected] Assistants: Ms Liz, Ms Rosa

JUNIOR SECONDARY HOMEROOM TEACHER Teacher: Chris Hyde Ph: 741 5922

[email protected]

Secondary Coordinator, Middle Secondary Homeroom Teacher.Teacher: Kirsty Hilson Ph: 7457049 [email protected]

SECONDARY DISTANCE EDUCATIONCoordinator: Linda Glasson Ph: 763 3453

[email protected] Assistants: Ms A-Rey

Specialist Health and Physical Education Teacher, Extra Curricular Program CoordinatorTeacher: Lucy Clapham Ph: 7451708 [email protected] Assistant: Mr Adam

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Dili International School Newsletter - Timor Leste