The Weekly Bulletin of

Stonehill International School Volume 6, Issue 72

18 August 2017

FEATURED STORIES

Welcome Back!

The Primary, Secondary and Boarding orientation for the 2017 - 2018 academic year was held on Monday, August 14th.

IMPORTANT DATES: AUGUST

23rd PYP MEET THE TEACHER EVENING (6:30pm) 25th SCHOOL CLOSED FOR GANESH CHATURTHI HOLIDAY

SEPTEMBER

1st – 2nd P6 – P8 SPORTS CAMP 1st – 2nd ABSA CONFERENCE HOSTED AT STONEHILL 1st – 3rd DP LEADERSHIP CAMP

CONTENTS 01/ FEATURED STORIES 06/ MESSAGE FROM THE HEAD OF THE SCHOOL 07/ WHOLE SCHOOL NEWS 09/ PRIMARY NEWS 10/ SECONDARY NEWS 14/ BOARDING NEWS 17/ PTA NEWS 18/ AUGUST MENU

HIGHLIGHTS Photos from Orientation Day Bus Station Guidelines Primary Meet the Teacher Evening Lifelong learning: IB In-School Workshop for Secondary Teachers

THE TIGER

It was wonderful to see all our new, as well as returning, students and parents. We're looking forward to an exciting and engaging new year at Stonehill! Here are some pictures from the day.

Dr. Beverly Sortland, Head of School, welcomes everyone to the new school year.

Mr. McCloskey, Primary Principal, asking students to wave at him if they were going to Primary classes!

Primary students and parents meet their Class Teachers.

Mr. Mehrotra, Secondary Principal, welcomes all Secondary students and parents.

Secondary students and parents meet their Homeroom Teachers.

Parents and teachers meet various specialist and subject teachers.

Parents and students get school uniforms and shoes.

Mr. John Bussenschutt, Head of Boarding, weclomes all new boarding students and parents.

FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL

Dear Friends, Welcome back to school! I hope the school year has gotten off to a good start for all our school families. We welcomed 409 students on Wednesday, which is a record enrolment for Stonehill. We’re looking forward to continued growth and the opportunities and challenges it will bring. Our boarding programme also continues to grow, with 35 students currently resident at Stonehill. Boarding options—full-time or weekly (Sunday through Thursday) are now available for students from P7 through D2. New car stickers for Stonehill families who wish to enter the campus by car are now available at reception. Please do pick up your car sticker as soon as possible, to ensure that you have access to school. In an effort to increase safety and security, we are implementing new procedures for student drop-off and pick up. Please see the full details in the Whole School section of the Tiger, and thank you for your cooperation. Our DP results from 2017 have been updated by the IB, as several of our students’ marks were raised. Once again, our students did extremely well; three of them scored 43 out of 45 points. The average pass rate was 33 points, with an overall DP average of 31 points, as compared to the world average of 29.9 points. You will see some new faces at Stonehill this year. On the academic side, you’ll meet new teachers in Primary Homeroom, PYP Coordinator, Technology Coordinator, Learning Support, PE, Humanities, Economics and Business Management, Science, Spanish, and Hindi. On the admin side, please welcome new staff in HR and Reception. I’m looking forward to meeting many of you at the upcoming Back-to-School BBQ, which is sponsored by the PTA and scheduled for September 9th. Wishing you a pleasant weekend. With best regards, Dr. Beverly Sortland Head of School

WHOLE SCHOOL NEWS

Bus Station Guidelines

Primary

Please take a moment to read the important safety reminders below to ensure that children remain safe on campus during morning drop-off and afternoon pick-up times.

• Please remember to drive slowly and safely when on campus at all times. • During the morning drop-off in front of the Primary School entrance please make sure that

you do not park parallel to other vehicles. If there is no space to park adjacent to the pavement, please drive around to the Primary Car Park to drop children off or wait until a space is available.

• Please do not park your vehicle at the bus station or on the other side of the road when dropping your child to the classroom. Do park the vehicle at the Primary Parking Area

• Cars should not collect students from the front of the Primary School at the end of the day. During this time, the area is reserved for School Buses only. If you are collecting children at the end of the day, please park in the Primary Car Park and walk up to meet children in front of the Primary Office.

• Please make sure that all cars on campus have the 2017/18 Stonehill Car Sticker (you will be refused entry to the main campus if your vehicle does not have this sticker).

• We would be very grateful if you could communicate this important information to your driver or designated child-minder. We will be stopping cars and issuing warnings to drivers that are not adhering to these rules next week.

Secondary

Please take a moment to read the important safety reminders below to ensure that children remain safe on campus during morning drop-off and afternoon pick-up times.

• Please remember to drive slowly and safely when on campus at all times. • During the morning drop-off please drop off your child at the secondary parking area. If you

are driving down to the bus stop, please make sure that you do not park parallel to other vehicles. If there is no space to park adjacent to the pavement, please drive around to the Primary Car Park to drop children off or wait until a space is available.

• Please do not park your vehicle at the bus station or on the other side of the road when dropping your child to the classroom. Do park the vehicle at the Secondary Parking Area.

• Cars should not collect students from the front of the Secondary School at the end of the day. During this time, the area is reserved for School Buses only. If you are collecting children at the end of the day, please park in the Secondary Car Park and walk up to meet children in front of the Secondary Office.

• Please make sure that all cars on campus have the 2017/18 Stonehill Car Sticker (you will be refused entry to the main campus if your vehicle does not have this sticker).

• We would be very grateful if you could communicate this important information to your driver or designated child-minder. We will be stopping cars and issuing warnings to drivers that are not adhering to these rules next week.

Billing Information

Please make note of the following points regarding questions, concerns or updates for billing: Billing Address

For any updates regarding billing address, please send an email to the Admissions Office at admissions@stonehill.in

Accounts/Billing Information

For all other billing or accounted related queries, concerns and update, please send an email to accounts@stonehill.in

Best regards, Admissions Team

School Counselling Team

Dear Parents, Welcome back to a new academic year. We, the Counselling Team would like to take this opportunity to introduce ourselves :

At Stonehill International School, we are committed to providing quality education to our students. In an effort to achieve this goal, teachers, or parents/guardians may refer students for counselling. Older students have the opportunity to request counselling for them as well. As a part of our services we provide short-term counselling, and group therapy sessions. We also do Personal Social Emotional/Developmental lessons, which are a part of the curriculum. The aim of the school counselling service is to help students have a more effective education and socialization within the school community. Some issues that we often work with are- coping with changes, transition, self-esteem, friendship and relationship issues, study skills, stress management, fears or worries, academic progress, conflict resolution, social skills, adjustment to school or culture, etc.

Ms. Shyamalika Nagendra Primary Counsellor

Ms. Venmal Elango Secondary Counsellor

If you would like to reach out to either of us kindly email us at:

Shyamalika Nagendra (shyamalika.nagendra@stonehill.in) Venmal Elango (venmal.elango@stonehill.in)

Ms. Shyamalika Nagendra & Ms. Venmal Elango Primary & Secondary Counsellors

PRIMARY NEWS

Welcome Back

I would like to extend a warm welcome to all new and returning families. The children have had a great time this week talking about their summer adventures, catching up with old friends and making lots of new ones. We look forward to seeing all primary parents next week at the PYP Meet the Teacher Evening on Wednesday 23rd August at 6:30pm. We will be sharing information to help you support your child’s learning during the year ahead and giving you an opportunity to meet with Homeroom Teachers, Specialist Teachers and Teaching Assistants. To ensure that you have all the information that you need from your child’s class teacher please do make sure that you subscribe to the Class Blog to receive email updates (www.pypblogs.com). Best regards, Simon McCloskey Primary Principal

Subscribe to the PYP Blogs by entering email address here.

Important Upcoming Primary Dates

● Friday 25th August - Ganesh Chaturthi. School Closed. ● Friday 1st September - PYP Sports Camp ● Saturday 9th September - PTA Welcome Back BBQ at 12:00pm ● Thursday 14th September - Inter-House Basketball Tournament. ● Friday 15th September - Parent Teacher Student Conferences (PTSC’s) ● Monday 18th September - After School Activities (ASAs) begin

SECONDARY NEWS Dear Parents, It is my great pleasure to welcome both new and returning students and parents to a new academic year in the Secondary School. I hope that our new families are settling in comfortably in Bengaluru, and that our returning families have all enjoyed a pleasant and restful holiday. On Monday, August 14th, we welcomed 65 new students and their parents to the Secondary School during our orientation afternoon. We now have 155 MYP and 60 DP students, bringing the total to 215 students in the Secondary School.

First Day of School

Our first day of school on Wednesday, August 16th, started with an Assembly where we introduced our new teachers and set clear expectations for our students. We had four presentations – Aero-Modelling by an a vendor who specialises in aero modelling classes for schools, Sports by Ms.

Kerstin Bender, student-led School Magazine by Mr. Adam Esiyok and Vinicius from D2 and lastly, Student Council by Ms Preethi Menon. The presentations were informative and I hope they inspired students to take part in the many activities Stonehill has to offer. It was wonderful to see so many

smiling faces at school.

IB Interdisciplinary Workshop

During the academic orientation last week, teachers were working very hard to prepare for another exciting and challenging year with a number of sporting and cultural events planned in addition to normal academic work. On Friday and Saturday, all Secondary teachers participated in an IB interdisciplinary workshop. Our teachers were very enthusiastic and engaged throughout the two days.

Mr. Bernard Kerr from the IB speaks to teachers.

School Uniform & Puntcuality

In order to make the most of the year ahead, we ask parents to support us in ensuring that students settle quickly into a positive learning routine at school. This includes wearing the correct school uniform and being punctual. This year, attendance will be taken in every lesson to ensure the safety and security of each and every student and to discourage tardiness.

In Case of Concerns Regarding Your Child If your son/daughter has any problems at school please contact their Homeroom Teacher or the relevant Subject Teacher directly in the first instance and then the appropriate Coordinator (MYP or DP) or Head of Department if required. It is very important that students feel safe and supported in their educational experience.

Your Contact Information

Please make sure that we have your current contact details on file at school. Most of the communication from the school will be sent through email. Please inform the admissions department or the secondary secretary if you have not been receiving emails from us.

Secondary Leadership Team

The details of the Secondary Leadership Team with their names and email addresses are being emailed separately to all secondary parents, including links to the Parent Student Handbook, MYP/DP Uniform, Good Standing Policy, Student Behaviour Expectations and summary of the report card process.

Back to School Event

Our first major event in the secondary school will be “Back to School” on Saturday, 9th September from 9:30am to 12:15pm where parents will get to meet all of the teachers and get an overview of the curriculum for each grade. This will be followed by the annual PTA Barbeque. I hope to see you all there!

2017 Diploma Exams You will all be pleased to know that this year, once again, our students did extremely well in their IB DP examination. I would like to commend our D2 class of 2017 who worked very hard for this incredible achievement. Thank you to all our wonderful Diploma teachers who also worked hard with them with determination and drive and gave them all of the possible support. Once again, welcome to the new academic year and the secondary school! Kind regards, Narendra Mehrotra Secondary School Principal narendra.mehrotra@stonehill.in

Lifelong learning: IB In-School Workshop for Secondary Teachers

Secondary teachers started this academic year with an IB In-School workshop on Interdisciplinary teaching and learning. This workshop will help our teaching to one step further wherein teachers will collaborate to create units with common understandings. Two senior IB professionals led the workshop, Mr. Bernard Kerr and Patrick Ong.

Bernard was Curriculum Leader for the Arts, Head of Visual Arts and Coordinator for Theory of Knowledge at Scotch College in Perth, Western Australia and Chair of the Course Advisory Committee for Visual Arts at the Western Australian Curriculum Council. From 2014 to 2016, he was Vice-Principal and MYP Coordinator at Binus International School Simprug, Indonesia. Patrick has also been an IB educator since 2011 and was the IB recognition ambassador to the Philippines, and presently functions as an MYP and DP workshop leader and examiner, and DP school visit team member. He also participated in the trials and curriculum review for Languages B in preparation for MYP: Next Chapter. The teachers took away a lot of learning from this workshp and will be working on Interndisciplinary Units throughout the year. Mr. Jitendra Pandey MYP Coordinator

BOARDING NEWS

Welcome to all new Boarding students and parents! Orientation Day for Boarding this year was on Monday 16th August. It followed on from the Secondary School Orientation, both of which were held in the Multi-Purpose Hall. It was a great afternoon of information sharing, questions and community.

The boarders and their families then moved to the Boarding Precinct for room allocation, unpacking and settling in. The night culminated with dinner in the Cafeteria followed by farewells. The next day, 15th of August was a public holiday. The new Boarders and House Parents joined the Security Guards midmorning for the Independence Day flag unfurling ceremony on our school grounds.

Flag hoisting ceremony on Independence Day with Stonehill Security Personnel and Boarding community.

We also warmly welcome back our returning boarders, a number of whom enjoyed some great experiences during their vacation – more about those in the next Tiger.

Considering Weekly Boarding? As a parent, the decision to send your child to Boarding School can be a difficult one. However, Boarding can be of great benefit to students. The rise in popularity of Weekly Boarding is quite easy to explain. Families in big cities, who spend a lot of time in traffic in the morning and afternoon, find that placing their son or daughter in Weekly Boarding provides ease of mind, better management of time for both student and parent and of course a number of advantages, some of which are list below.

Five reasons to consider boarding as an option: Boarding is an incredible adventure – challenging the student in ways you could not imagine. From academic support to pastoral and residential care, experiencing new social situations, and living with others from a range of cultural and racial backgrounds – boarding opens a new world to a young person.

1. Living on campus means that the student will have much more time outside of school hours, to take part in sporting, creative and academic pursuits. For Stonehill students who take up the Weekly Boarding option, it means less time on the bus to and from school - more relaxed in the morning, more focused for study in the evening. Boarding schools, by nature allow students to invest more time in personal interests – simply said – more time available. Boarding school provides access to a range of support networks and facilities, as well as more time for before and after school. Busy parents suddenly find time in the mornings and evenings as well, reducing the pressure of a busy week.

2. No matter what their passions are, boarding offers students the chance to connect with

others who share the similar passions at a level, that Day School cannot provide. Living with others, determined to succeed in their chosen field, provides students with an extra incentive to do the same.

3. Boarding friendships are often the start of lifelong connections, both personal and

professional. Many alumni groups meet regularly for reunions, casual dinners or at major school events such as sporting events and major functions. Boarding friendships are important for resilience when dealing with the stress of the academic school programme.

4. Boarding staff are dedicated teachers and residential advisors who want the best for

students in boarding. These staff members work around the clock to care and support boarders, often living on campus or close by. They are available before and after school for tutoring, as well as being a close mentor that students can rely on.

Weekly Boarding Living on campus as a weekly residential student provides students with the best of two worlds:

• School - “home away from home”, peers/ friends, recreation, sports training and staff - in the one place Monday to Thursday.

• Home – quality family time – Friday pm, Saturday and Sunday. If parents are interested to find out more about Weekly Boarding, please feel free to contact me at any time:

John Bussenschutt Head of Boarding

john.bussenschutt@stonehill.in Mobile: +91 7026612412

Technology at work in Boarding Stonehill is a leading Boarding School in India and world. We are introducing in the coming weeks, REACH, an outstanding boarding management software programme and hardware that helps us manage students, staff, leave, transport, and communications. It is now used by a large number of the top boarding schools in Australia, the UK and the USA. Stonehill is the first and only school in India currently using this technology. Parents can request leave via an app on their mobile phone, students sign in and sign out using a biometric sensor and staff can track the whereabouts of students via their mobile phone or an iPad. Best regards, John Bussenschutt Head of Boarding

PTA NEWS Dear Parents, The PTA Elect Council welcomes you to the 2017 – 2018 school year at Stonehill International School – home of the Stonehill Tigers! The purpose of the PTA is to help support all members of the Stonehill community as well as our adopted charities. Our kick off meeting will be held Thursday morning, August 24th. We welcome all of you to stop by the Administration building between 10:00 and 11:00am to say hello, find out more about the PTA, our adopted charities and see how you can become involved in the many upcoming Stonehill events held throughout the year.

Upcoming Events to Remember August 30th - Teacher's & Admin Staff Appreciation Breakfast

Show the Stonehill Faculty how much you care by sending in some breakfast items and yummy treats with your child that morning.

September 9th - Back to school BBQ A fun-filled day of games, music and delicious BBQ! A chance to meet up with old friends and make new ones as well.

The PTA has another busy and exciting year ahead of us and we encourage all of you to become involved. Looking forward to seeing you soon! Warm regards, Stonehill PTA Team

STONEHILL CAFETERIA MENU FOR AUGUST

14 Aug (Monday)

15 Aug (Tuesday)

16 Aug (Wednesday)

17 Aug (Thursday)

18 Aug (Friday)

Orientation Day

Independence day

Spaghetti Bolognese Tomato sauce Mushroom cream sauce Baked cheese pasta Garlic Bread

Steak, Roasted Chicken Vegetarian Cannelloni, Grilled Vegetables, Rice & Soup

Beef , chicken or Vegetable burgers French fries

21 Aug (Monday)

22 Aug (Tuesday)

23 Aug (Wednesday)

24 Aug (Thursday)

25 Aug (Friday)

Meat balls Vegetable stroganoff Vegetable ratatouille Mashed potatoes Grilled vegetables

Chicken and Veg Shashlik, Vegetarian Rollatini backed macaroni, Steamed Veg & Rice

Fish Finger, Corn on the cob Stir fried Tofu Mixed vegetables Rice & Soup

Stir fried Chicken Vegetable Quiche Stir fried Tofu Steamed French beans Rice

Pizza - assorted Chicken wing with garlic sauce, Grilled Vegetables

28 Aug (Monday)

29 Aug (Tuesday)

30 Aug (Wednesday)

31 Aug (Thursday)

1 Sept (Friday)

Pasta Bolognese Tomato sauce Mushroom cream sauce Baked cheese pasta Garlic Bread

Chicken Manchurian Vegetable Manchurian Vegetable Moussaka Steamed French beans Rice

Roasted Beef & Chicken Gratin Dauphinois, Sauté Vegetables Veg Burritos Rice

BBQ Chicken Vegetable kebab Egg fried Rice Grilled vegetables Rice

Chicken or vegetable Hot Dogs. French fries Steamed mix-veggies

Do note, there is a salad bar, plain yoghurt, and fresh fruit available each day in addition to the above meals. There is also an Indian meal alternative.

Stonehill International School

Tarahunise Post Jala Hobli Contacting the School: Bangalore North 562157 India Admissions Ms. Rishika Ganapathy T + 91 8043418300 Primary School Ms. Nijika Bhardwaj + 91 8043418318 Secondary School Ms. Saathi Vinay M + 91 9008307684 Transport Mr. Rahul. I E info@stonehill.in Head Nurse Ms Charlette Macdonald