Elementary Update September 27 - International School of Yangon

ISY Elementary Blog

Elementary Update – September 27

Sandy Sheppard, Elementary School Principal

Dear all,

The teachers enjoyed the Compassion Conference on Friday. They were able to learn not only new ideas but be inspired by our keynote speaker, Wilma Derksen. I hope that many of you were also able to attend Wilma’s parent talk this week.

Please read below for information on our Math information session coming up next week. We hope to see many of you there.

Have a fabulous weekend.
Sandy Sheppard

Swimming Information

Weekly swimming in PE has been going well with most students arriving prepared for learning. Thank you to all parents and helpers for supporting us! This programme will continue all year but occasionally there may be interruptions due to timetabling and facility needs.
Please note that there will be a 3 week break in swimming for all the elementary school from October 21 – Nov 8.

Influenza Information

At ISY we closely monitor any signs of viruses appearing in Yangon and as school begins, we want to maintain a safe and healthy environment for our students. In an effort to be proactive in this regard, we want to inform you of the following precautions we are implementing for the start of school.

First and foremost, if your child is feeling feverish or is showing signs of influenza, please do not send them to school. It is much better for them to recover at home.

If a student appears to be ill at school, they will be sent to the ISY clinic. Any child exhibiting a temperature will be sent home.

At the end of each day, all surfaces students come in contact with will be cleaned with a disinfectant. This includes desks, hand railings, tables, and counters.

Teachers will ask all elementary school students to clean their hands each morning, before and after recess and lunch, and after interaction with well used surfaces. Secondary school students will be strongly encouraged to wash their hands around similar events.

At ISY there are hand sanitizers placed throughout the school. While hand sanitizers are not as effective as washing with soap and water, they provide us with an added measure of proactive care and we strongly recommend students to use them.

Finally, if you know of any suspected cases of viruses in our school community including the H1N1, let us know so we can follow up with appropriate support. We will continue to update you if there is any further news regarding any viruses at school.

World Languages

You have received an email in regards to our World Languages program. This email has information on recent developments. These developments are the result of community feedback that was gained through a survey conducted last year.
There were also links to a new survey, see these links below:

Elementary School World Language Survey
Secondary School World Language Survey

ASA Mother Tongue Language Classes – Expressions of Interest

We are interested to hear of any other language groups interested in developing ‘Mother Tongue’ language classes as part of our ASA program. We are committed to working with our community to provide more Myanmar language opportunities to our students. We are therefore particularly interested in hearing from our host country families with a view to supporting Myanmar Mother Tongue language classes as part of our ASA program.

If you are interested in finding out more about how ISY can work with you to develop an ASA Mother Tongue language program, please email our Mike Simpson, our Director of Curriculum and Learning at msimpson@isyedu.org.

Math Night

Mark your calendars for our math information session on the 3rd of October. This event will take place from 5:30 – 6:00. The event will take place in the Cafeteria. This is an opportunity to find out general information about our Math practices at ISY. This is an adult only event.
The event will be followed up at a later date with a Math open morning in classrooms.