EDITION 16 / 29 JAN 2021
ALL THE NEWS...
From the Director's Chair
The Important Moment
One of the most memorable assemblies I have ever heard was by an Art and Design teacher who had previously been a member of the British Armed Forces.
One Monday morning, by recounting an experience from his time in the Army, he transported us to a dawn patrol, conjuring up the scene in vivid detail: a green zone on the edge of a deep river, a burst of machine-gun fire, a field of improvised explosive devices, mass casualties, disaster, failure. Thankfully, what the teacher was describing was a simulation exercise. His rifle platoon was on a training exercise in Norfolk. Nevertheless, many of the soldiers involved were angry and resentful. They felt the exercise was unfair; that they had been set up to fail.
The incident was, however, destined to illustrate brilliantly that, often, the full value of an experience is not revealed until much later.
In fact, it was five months later, that he and his fellow Riflemen found themselves preparing for an operation through an area of Helmand Province known as Yakhchal. The scene was vaguely familiar: another green zone, only this time on the edge of a desert, IEDs, gunfire. In fact, as the teacher said, the scene ‘unfolding’ in front of them was no different from what they had encountered in that final training exercise in Norfolk. This time, they knew exactly what to do. The frustration and anger felt by some of his fellow Riflemen during the ‘dummy’ exercise was replaced by acceptance and understanding. This time, there were no major casualties. Lives were saved.
There is a very important message here, one that resonates in so many areas of life. Quite often, we fail to appreciate the significance of something, simply because its value is not immediately apparent. During his assembly, the teacher was asked, “What was the important moment of the operation in Yakhchal?” The answer was obvious: the important moment had occurred five months earlier, in a green zone in Norfolk. The lesson is simple: we have to commit in the present, and somehow trust that our efforts will count in the future.
For me, this idea is poignantly illustrated in the story of Captain Scott’s ill-fated Terra Nova expedition to the South Pole. Scott and his five companions reached the South Pole on 17th January 1912 but, tragically, all five died of exhaustion as they made their way back to base camp. They were just 11 miles from a food depot. If they had reached that depot, they would have survived. There has been much speculation over the years about this doomed expedition; as I have written previously in Pulse, Scott’s leadership has often been the subject of scrutiny. What I always come back to, however, is a simple matter of distance and time. By my calculations, if Scott and his team had walked for just one extra minute a day, that would have carried them the extra 11 miles. They would have made it to that food depot. Of course, only with the benefit of hindsight can we appreciate the significance of those extra steps, only in retrospect can we judge the value of those extra minutes but, for me, this part of Scott’s story is important because it reminds us of the relationship between present effort and future success.
How many times have I seen students pack up their books a few minutes before the end of a lesson, potentially missing the last opportunities to learn? Over the next few weeks, how many teachers will caution exam classes to make the most of the remaining lessons, reminding them that topics covered now may well appear on an assessment paper in the future? And when that topic appears, will the students ask themselves, “What was the important moment?” The important moment will not be the 30 minutes they take to answer the question; the important moment may well have been two months earlier, in a classroom, in the dying minutes of a lesson.
Julian Thomas
Director
From the Deputy Director Wellbeing
IMPORTANT COVID-19 UPDATE - PLEASE READ:
We have had one confirmed case of Covid-19 this week at ISM. This case was transmitted within the family and the student had not been in school for a significant period prior to the positive case being detected.
Our total number of positive cases of Covid-19 since August stands at 11 students and our data confirms that none of these cases were transmitted in school.
Continued reminders:
Please do be mindful of allowing your children playdates, parties and sleepovers. ISM highly discourages this during a time when Monaco numbers for Covid-19 have risen significantly. For the coming weeks, it would be in the spirit of the school community to keep your child’s contact with others outside of school and unmasked, to a minimum. This in turn helps us work together to ensure the maximum health and safety for your children in school. We are all facing challenges and have had to make sacrifices during this time. Please be reminded of the communication which was sent home two weeks ago.
Please also ensure you inform the school BEFORE information of a positive rapid-antigen test OR PCR test is put on a parent or student WhatsApp group chat. It is preferable that the school is well informed by the parent of any positive case so that we are able to activate protocols before being informed by other means. This is very much appreciated and you can be assured that those protocols will be put in place in a swift and efficient manner.
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PCR tests continue to be available for all students and residents in Monaco.
To schedule an appointment, contact the Covid-19 Call Centre at 92 05 55 00.
In addition to the above, may we please remind you that if any parent, or person you have been in close contact with, tests positive, that you inform the school directly without delay. This, in turn, allows us to react accordingly and to ensure risk is always at a minimum for the school population. This is particularly important as families return from travels abroad.
In addition to this, if a member of your household is awaiting testing or test results due to symptoms of Covid-19, the children should also remain at home until a negative result is received. Do not send your children to school if you as the parent, or a member of your household has symptoms of Covid and is required to take a test. If you have further questions on this, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Please remember that the Health Coordinators and I remain available during the weekends for anything Covid-related. (healthcoordintators@ismonaco.com) (lindsay.wright@ismonaco.com)
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As a continued reminder:
■ The Distance Learning provision remains in place for Covid-related reasons that have been authorised by the Head of Wellbeing, or a Head of School. The Distance Learning programme is not an opt-in, opt-out option, but is there to support our students who are obliged to be out of school for specific reasons related to Covid. If a student is out of school for any other reasons, including a medical reason unrelated to Covid, they will not be granted permission to be on the Distance Learning programme.
■ Students should be bringing 2 masks to school.
■ Communications relating to a class will only be sent to parents once authorised by the Monaco Health Authorities and according to the strict protocols we are following.
■ Please check your child's temperature before arriving at school.
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Further information can also be found on the dedicated Covid-19 website set up by the Monaco Government.
Mrs Lindsay Mackenzie-Wright - Deputy Director - Wellbeing
School Health Coordinators:
healthcoordinators@ismonaco.comDeputy Director (Wellbeing):
lindsay.wright@ismonaco.comFrom the Health Coordinators
COVID-related symptoms to stay home for and alert the school for an absence are:
- Cough, difficulty breathing, rapid breathing rate
- Temperature of 38 degrees Celsius or over
- Loss of sense of smell and/or taste
- Diarrhea
If a PCR test has been ordered for your child, the child needs to stay home until the result has been received. Once you have the result, please forward it to the School Health Coordinators and await further instructions from them on when to come back to school.
When a parent has a positive PCR result for COVID19:- Inform the school via email - healthcoordinators@ismonaco.com - lindsay.wright@ismonaco.com- The whole household is to remain home in quarantine/isolation- Each member of the household is to be PCR tested as soon as possible- Report results of PCR tests to the above addresses- Await instructions from the health coordinators
Click below for all the news & information from your child's section of the school
From the Early Years
Dear Parents,
Animal Day is all about Chimpanzees this year and we ask all children to come to school, on Friday 5th February, wearing a Chimpanzee t-shirt or a brown t-shirt, with a chimpanzee toy, any relevant books or pictures to share in class. There will be lots of wonderful sharings, art and craft workshops as well as a live feed to the chimpanzee enclosure at Edinburgh zoo. We have adopted a chimpanzee, through the WWF, to support all their conservation efforts as they help to save the world’s endangered animals from extinction. We are now running a competition to name our little chimp who the children can see sitting at reception (photo). Your child can pick up an entry form from Fayanne and then post it back, once completed, to the chimp box at reception. The winning name will be announced on Animal Day. We look forward to having a fun-filled day!!
The Early Years hosted a virtual Open Day on Thursday. We had quite a few prospective new families join us online, and I can see that we will be welcoming quite a few siblings in our Kindergarten Class in September 2021! The Early Years is growing rapidly, and today we are at a total of 235 students! If you do have younger children who will be ready to join us, age wise, then I urge you to apply for a place at your earliest convenience by sending an email to admissions@ismonaco.com for more information. Please note that we will also be opening a new Class 1.
We have been learning how to be a good digital citizen in ICT, especially with our Seesaw learning platform, and this is what today’s assembly was all about. Students gave us advice on how to take care of our digital equipment, our iPads and computers. How to be careful with what we do and share online. Year 3 students clearly illustrated how to behave on Google Meets and the importance of our digital footprints. Class 1A added their voice with a fun song about being safe online!
We celebrated good learning, and these children earned House Points in today’s assembly.
Our Early Years’ Bear Family went home with well-deserving students who have excelled in their learning or perhaps shown acts of kindness. These children came out to applause in front of the Early Years audience and were congratulated by their teachers. Well done to all!!
In order to prevent traffic jams and thus keep a safe and efficient ‘Kiss & Fly’ area in front of the Early Years building, please make sure that your child has his or her mask already on and school bags all ready before leaving the car. Florian, our supervisor, will help open the car door between 08.15 and 08.30 and make sure that your child exits safely. If you feel you may need more time, please use the ISM drop-off area in front of the Ruscino building (maximum one minute) or parking spaces in the Parking des Pêcheurs, Parking Digue or Parking Rascasse, where parking is free for an hour.
Thank you for your cooperation.
These last months, Early Years teachers have been tested to their limits, demonstrating their flexibility and determination in keeping our children on track despite disruption due to Covid-19. Sitting in the same place, with limited free movement around a classroom, is no easy feat for a young child, on top of having no PE lessons or Music & Movement lessons and having staggered playtimes. Distance learning continues to be high on our agenda, as we add new resources on a daily basis and increase our momentum on Seesaw. It is really quite incredible to see how our children have adapted to this new learning platform, taking everything in their stride. At least when this pandemic is over, we will all emerge educationally as a stronger and more resilient Early Years Community!
That’s it for now!
Have a lovely weekend,
Mrs. Ragi and the Early Years Team
From Primary
Dear Parents,
Over the next four weeks, up until the half-term break, my weekly articles for the ISM Pulse will focus on the school’s four key values of: integrity, respect, caring and learning.
This week I am focusing on the value of integrity, exploring what integrity is and what it looks like within school and beyond.
As I was researching this particular value, I came across a quote from the English author C.S. Lewis that particularly resonated with me due to its relevance to the times in which we are living… “Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching.”
Integrity in itself can be defined as “The quality of being honest and having strong moral principles.” Whilst this can be demonstrated to students through lessons and assemblies and to parents and the wider community through presentations and communications, it is something that is, in my view, best demonstrated in our daily interactions with one another.
When I was a student at school, it was often the “firm but fair” type of teacher that I felt showed true integrity. They had clear and high expectations of themselves and their students, and they were honest in their feedback. When they praised your achievements and efforts, you knew you’d done well, and yet they could also be very honest in their feedback when they felt you weren’t doing yourself justice. With such people, you knew where you stood, and they helped me to instill a sense of belief in myself.
As individuals, integrity requires us to take a good, honest look at ourselves and to ask “Are we asking the same of ourselves as we are of others?” In a school setting, this can be seen through leading by example. The example we set to our students is arguably the best lesson we can teach any child…even when we don’t think anyone is watching.
I hope that our students will learn to be honest with themselves. As a school, we should do all that we can to encourage our students to strive to be their very best; however, for the students to achieve this we are reliant on them being honest with themselves. This is not easy to attain, as we can all be overly harsh on ourselves, one minute, and too easily pleased, the next. To achieve this, we rely on all parties being honest and open and recognising that none of us are “the finished” product and that we all have a lot to learn. We will make mistakes along the way, have successes and failures, highs and lows; however, if we can face these with integrity, on a daily basis, we can often exceed our own expectations as well as those of others.
Warmest Regards,
Chris Benson
From Secondary
Dear Secondary Parents,
There have been a few questions raised by parents about the homeroom and global challenge lessons that appear on the timetables of students in Class 7 - 9. Following these conversations, I thought it worthwhile to provide all parents with some more information regarding these important elements of our curriculum. I’ve tried to split it up for easy reading below:
The 4 Period Timetable
As you are aware we have been running a 4 period timetable since the start of the year as opposed to our normal 6 period timetable. This has turned out to be an extremely important innovation in the light of the challenges that COVID has thrown at us. We all remain very proud that we have been able to offer 100% of our students full (and “live”) educational provision throughout the pandemic. I’d also like to thank the many of you who have written to us in appreciation of the support we have been able to offer families in difficult and unpredictable situations.
With no end in sight to COVID we will be sticking with the 4 period day until the end of the year. This is an extraordinary solution to an extraordinary problem. It’s also worth noting that the allocated time of subject instruction across the school year equals out as very close to the time students receive on the 6 period day. The core subjects of Maths, Science and English are almost identical. It remains impossible to predict the future but for the 2021/22 school year it is our current intention to return to the 6 period day.
Homeroom
Students have a homeroom check in at the end of each day. This simply replaces the check in that was at the start of each day for the 6 period timetable because lessons currently start at 8.15 rather than 8:30. The 15 min session is, for now, just at the other end of the day rather than the start (there are very good timetable reasons for this, linked to break and lunch).
The Homeroom lesson on the timetable is actually a PSHE lesson and we are going to rename it as such to provide more clarity. PSHE stands for Personal, Health & Social Education and it is an incredibly important subject. In the UK it is a legal obligation. This covers topics such as relationships, age-appropiate sex education, online safety and a range of other essential areas of personal learning for young people. We follow the renowned JIGSAW curriculum, and more information can be found on the Parent room website.
Global Challenge
Built around the principals of the extended project (Pearson), the Global awareness project (Cambridge International) and the Personal Project (IBMYP), the new Global challenge project replaces the extra homeroom session that existed before the Christmas break. There will be more details about this in next week's PULSE, but the project drives students to produce an academically rigorous research-based project to answer a question related to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. We are going to make a change to the timetable name to better reflect this.
The second global challenge lesson is a focused physical education lesson that asks students to solve problems and develop team building skills. We adjusted the timetable so this could be done in small groups and not as a whole year group. This better allows for outside activity and more focused sessions, something that we think is really important at this time. We named it Global Challenge on the timetable as we want students to explicitly reflect upon the skills they gain in these lessons and take them into the project. On reflection, calling both sessions the same name is misleading and we will change this name on the timetable too.
Perhaps not my most philosophical of newsletters but I hope a useful one nevertheless. We really care about developing our students and have made significant changes to adapt to the situation we find ourselves in at the moment. These decisions are indicators that we never look for the easy route and, as our learning value states, “we strive to develop and improve”. I am very proud of this and of the team here who are flexible and innovative enough to ensure ISM students get the best provision possible. Students are not disadvantaged no matter if they are in school, stuck outside of the country, shielding vulnerable loved ones or awaiting test results and following protocols.
Have a lovely weekend everyone,
James Wellings
CLICK HERE FOR VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION FROM SECONDARY REGARDING:
IMPORTANT PE ANNOUNCEMENT FOR CLASS 11
CONGRATULATIONS YEAR 13 UNIVERSITY OFFERS
YEAR 12 - INTRODUCTION TO UNIVERSITIES PARENT PRESENTATION
IB PATHWAYS FAIR - Year 10 & 11
UNIVERSITY NEWS
7-9 PARENT-TEACHER CONFERENCES - YOUR CHANCE TO GIVE US YOUR FEEDBACK
10-13 PARENT-TEACHER CONFERENCES
REGISTER NOW FOR TEDxYOUTH@ISMONACO
ONLINE WORK EXPERIENCE
Y7 CASTLE PROJECT
From the Board of Trustees
Dear Parents,
As a companion to the Candidate Booklet and Directed Proxy Form that you will be receiving by postal mail, we kindly invite you to visit the Board's website in order to view the videos submitted by the candidates for election to the ISM Board of Trustees.
As a reminder, the relevant financial documents which will be put before Members for approval at the AGA are posted on Engage for your review.
Once you have had a chance to fully review these documents and see the candidates standing for election, you are welcome and encouraged to complete your Directed Proxy Form and return it to Kathryn Romero (kathryn.romero@ismonaco.com) by Tuesday, February 9th, 2021.
We hope you have an enjoyable weekend!
Sincerely yours,
The Board of Trustees
HOT OFF THE PRESS
MEET SHASTA ALMI
Our new Marketing & Public Relations Coordinator
Hello everyone, I am thrilled to join the ISM community as Marketing & Public Relations Coordinator and to have the opportunity to help ISM reach new heights and continued success! Despite only having been at ISM for 3 weeks, I already feel as though I've been here for much longer, as everyone has been truly welcoming and helpful in every way.
To tell you a little about myself, I'm American (and recently also became French), although after living abroad for so many years I prefer to think of myself as simply a citizen of the world. I grew up in southern Alabama and was monolingual until my high school years, when I discovered foreign languages and caught the travel bug. As a National Merit Scholar, I did my undergraduate studies in Business in Florida and Mannheim, Germany. I then went on to complete my graduate studies in Linguistics in Freiburg, Germany as a DAAD Scholar. After living and working for several years in Perth, Australia, my (French) husband and I moved to Menton where we have lived for the past ten years. We are proud parents of bilingual joys: a 6-year-old boy and a 2-year-old girl.
Once upon a time, I was a competitive clarinetist, a serial exchange student and world traveller, and an insatiable language learner dabbling in Chinese, Arabic, Norwegian, and Spanish. Now, with a young family and with time more precious than ever before, my passions have evolved into salsa dancing, capturing special moments in photography, working in my garden, and using the languages that I have managed to master thus far: English, French, German, and an intermediate level of Italian. I also confess to a lifelong passion for English grammar, proofreading, and editing. Fun fact: born to hiking and nature enthusiasts, my sister and I are both named after mountains. What’s more, I continued the tradition with my own children!
Over the past ten years, I've worked in education, communications, advertising, and digital marketing for a range of industries in Monaco, and I'm very excited to now use my experience and love of communication to promote the very best of ISM. I am working closely with Marine Tixier, ISM's Head of Admissions and Public Relations, on marketing, public relations, and communications, particularly in the realm of digital marketing, including managing ISM's social media (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn). There are so many wonderful things going on within each part of the school! Whether it be via social media, Pulse, our website or elsewhere, we aim to celebrate the successes of our students and to showcase our exceptional teachers and resources, state-of-the-art facilities, and cutting-edge technology that combine to give ISM students an unparalleled foundation to succeed in every way in their education, careers and beyond.
Thank you to everyone for the warm welcome - I look forward to all that is to come!
At ISM we place great emphasis on our Values. As individuals, we expect our students to uphold their learning value by embracing challenges not just in the classroom, but outside as well. Our students are expected to show integrity and respect, and are also required to show care and kindness towards themselves and others.
During the month of December, a high number of our Lower and Upper Secondary School students submitted their applications to become an Anti-Bullying Ambassador at ISM.
This prestigious and very important role required students to write a letter of motivation, which was then followed up with a rigorous interview, led by myself and Alex Holmes OBE.
I am very pleased to announce the following Secondary School students as new Anti-Bullying Ambassadors for 2021. They will join the task force of Anti-Bullying Ambassadors from last academic year, forming a strong student representation with the Secondary School.
Class 7 - Liz and Amelie
Class 9 - Lily Rose
Class 11 - Cristina, Sophia, Nadia, Adam, Jean-Baptiste, Alexandra, Lauren, Amael
Class 12 - Nadia, Raya, Milena, Maria, Valeria, Kristina
On Friday, an Anti-Bullying Assembly was held in the Primary School and applications were opened for this role. The deadline for applications is Friday 5th February and I look forward to receiving many!
Training for all successful Anti-Bullying Ambassadors will take place with Alex Holmes online in the coming weeks.
Just a reminder that we are giving parents the opportunity to hear more about the developing collaboration between ISM and King’s, and we are therefore holding a partnership information Evening at 6 pm on Monday 1 February. This will be held via zoom using the following link.
If you would like to sign up for this evening and have any questions you would like answered during the presentation, please click here.
In case you might not have seen it yet, our ISM virtual video tour is now viewable below. As in-person school visits are not possible at the moment due to the current health situation, this video gives an overview of the school, highlighting our state-of-the-art facilities and exceptional location in Monaco.
ISM Video Tour (10).mp4
This week, our Year 9 students have worked on developing ideas in art class for making sculptures about natural forms. Before making the sculpture, they brainstorm the ideas that they are interested in. We look forward to seeing their creations soon!
Earlier this week, our Year 7 students practiced their mapping skills in geography class. Using a range of materials, they had fun constructing their own contour islands.
Coming up! TedxYouth @ISMonaco event
Don't forget that ISM will be holding Monaco's first-ever Tedx Youth event on February 13! Via live streaming online, ten ISM students from a range of years will present their thoughts on the theme "Mistakes that change(d) the world". Please visit the Tedx Youth @ISMonaco webpage for more details or fill out our registration form to participate. We hope to see you there!
This week, Mrs. Furey ran the first Dungeons & Dragons activity in the Lower Secondary school. The students enjoyed taking on the challenge and learning new strategies. Well done to our participants!
ISM February Fitness Challenge
ISM will hold a February Fitness Challenge for the entire month of February, to promote movement and wellbeing in the great outdoors. ISM staff, students, and families are all welcome to participate!
How to participate:
Take a photo of yourself doing sports outdoors with something that has ISM branding on it such as an ISM sports outfit, an ISM backpack, an ISM teddy bear, an ISM t-shirt, an ISM face mask, etc. Examples of sports could include: hiking, biking, skiing, or even swimming if you are brave!
Share it on Twitter
Mention @ISMonaco in your tweet
ISM, in turn, will review all of its mentions each day, and throughout the month of February we will do a "retweet of the day" from the ISM Twitter account, which will spotlight a favorite fitness challenge tweet from that particular day.
We look forward to seeing all of the creative ways that the ISM community members stay fit in the great outdoors!
ISM Admissions: Virtual Open Morning
We are very pleased that our first virtual Open Morning, held this week on Thursday, January 28th, was a resounding success. Approximately 30 families participated via Zoom for the live event, which began with a welcome presentation from our director Julian Thomas and a virtual video tour of the school, followed by a presentation on Wellbeing by Lindsay Mackenzie-Wright. Families could then choose to attend a presentation from either the Head of Early Years, Head of Primary School, or Head of Secondary School, followed by a presentation of our IB Diploma Programme and IB Career-related Programme by Hannah Gettel. Many thanks to all who participated in this event and contributed to its success!
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