EDITION 08 / 06 NOV 2020
ALL THE NEWS...
From the Director's Chair
T-CUP
I once found myself speaking to an elite military skydiver. We had a fascinating discussion about his successful, competition-winning jumps, but what really drew my attention was when the conversation turned to the jumps that had gone wrong. As a veteran of more than 10,000 jumps, he had experienced a handful of occasions on which he had experienced catastrophic parachute failure, and he explained to me how he had extricated himself from those potentially fatal situations. It was a lesson in how to deal with extreme pressure. Remember, he was hurtling at 200km/h towards the Earth and had maybe 20-30 seconds to rectify the problem.
I tried to imagine how I would react in those situations. I wondered if, in reality, I would panic.
How would you react?
He explained to me that, counter-intuitively, the actions that saved his life on each of those occasions did not happen in the air. It was the preparation and planning for all eventualities, and constant practice that allowed him to respond under the most extreme pressure. His thinking had already taken place on the ground, not in the air!
It reminded me of rugby World Cup winning coach, Sir Clive Woodward’s mantra of T-CUP – thinking clearly under pressure. Sir Clive used to place his players deliberately under pressure during practice – the idea being to train their minds to think logically and rationally when in extreme situations. And it worked. When England lost their lead in the final of the World Cup with just one minute of extra time to go, the players knew exactly how to respond. They had played out that scenario many times in training. 60 seconds later they were world champions.
Of course, preparing for stressful situations is not a strategy designed solely for sport. There are many applications for us at ISM. The leadership team has, for example, been trying to plan for a wide variety of Covid-related scenarios. We aim to be as prepared as we can possibly be if we are required to act with speed under stress. Mr Wellings says more about this in his blog this week.
Students may wonder why during their school careers they have to sit so many tests and exams which some would say “don’t count for anything”. Yet those assessments are about so much more than just knowledge retention; they are about the experience of applying that knowledge under pressure. Every student will experience on occasion mistimed papers, misread questions, panic or even writer’s block – all of these are valuable experiences, and all are part of the mental training that is so important for success. So that when they arrive in the exam room on the days that count, they are ready to think clearly under pressure.
As one Navy Seal once put it
“Under pressure, you don’t rise to the occasion, you sink to the level of your preparation”
Best wishes,
Julian Thomas
Director
From the Health Coordinators
Weekly Covid-19 Update
We continue to be rigorous with our protocols, and our health and sanitary measures continue to be monitored daily within school. We thank our whole school community for their respect and regard for these protocols which includes mask wearing, regular hand cleansing and general courtesies such as following one-way systems and bubbles.
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.
Please note that the Health team remains fully contactable during the weekend. Please email healthcoordinators@ismonaco.com or lindsay.wright@ismonaco.com for anything Covid related.
As a continued reminder:
Please note that Distance Learning is only in place for Covid-related reasons which 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 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
To check your child's temperature before arriving at school.
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In addition to the school support, Monaco has a call centre (available in French and English) which you can call 7/7 days between the hours of 8.00am and 8.00pm.
Monaco also has a dedicated testing centre at L’Espace Leo Ferre in Fontvieille which is open Monday to Friday from 9.00am to 4.00pm. A prescription from your Doctor is obligatory and you must make an appointment by calling 92.05.55.00.
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.comSymptoms to stay home for and alert the school for an absence COVID RELATED SYMPTOMS are:
- Cough, difficulty breathing, rapid breathing rate
- Temperature of 38C 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.
PHYSICAL EDUCATION UPDATE
Following the new Monaco Government guidelines, we have been advised that practical Physical Education lessons are not to take place until 1st December, at which point we expect a review of the current standing.
The opening of the ISM multi sports surfaces – aka “the cages” - on Port Hercule during the weekends is therefore suspended.
During this period of time, we have put in place an alternative Physical Education curriculum that the students will follow with their Physical Education teachers in class. This will continue to challenge and motivate our students, who will be planning a personal fitness programme to follow at home, whilst learning about nutrition, fitness and the physiology of the human body.
Classes 10 (Tuesday Period 4) and 11 (Monday Period 4) in the Secondary School will be able to either leave school after lunch to access the PE curriculum on a distance learning basis or remain at school for private study. If you would like your child to go home after lunch and complete practical PE lessons at home, please fill in this form.
Students attending the IGCSE course will be able to complete the practical requirements at home (Monday Period 1). Attendance is required and will be recorded for all students who must join the Google Meet for the online lessons.
Click below for all the news & information from your child's section of the school
From the Early Years
Dear Parents,
If one thing has become clear during these pandemic months, it’s that our school isn’t just about education. It is at the heart of our community, not only the place of learning, but provides our children with the care, support and very important friendships… as they try to make sense of the challenges we are all facing! We must keep our school open for the sake of our children for now and for their future. Here in the Early Years, we have adapted to the COVID 19 situation and our teachers have ensured that learning has continued. Our children’s emotional well-being is always our priority, as we work hard to minimise the long-term impact on their educational progress.
So, it was with great pleasure to see all our little faces, back with us after the half-term break and I would like to congratulate our Parents on the good attendance this week! Children generally seem very happy and excited to be back in their classrooms, eager to get on and buckle down to their learning and catch up with classmates and teachers!
A big welcome to all our new families joining us this week!
Here are some points of information:
Seesaw
We are now going to be using Seesaw as our online learning platform enabling all our children to have a digital portfolio. We used this when school was closed last year and feel that it has many advantages.
We have 32 new iPads arriving in the Early Years to support this new incentive.
Please note that your child will need to have access to an iPad or a laptop, at home, to participate in Seesaw activities on our Distance Learning Programme. For an iPad, the Seesaw class app must be downloaded.
Parent Conferences
Parent Conferences will take place online, in google meets, as follows:
Wednesday 11th November for Classes 3B, 3A and 2B
Wednesday 18th November for Classes 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D, 2A, 3C and 2C
Wednesday 25th November for Transition A and B
Details to follow
For Kindergarten Classes, parents will be invited into school, on Wednesday 2nd December, in the afternoon. You will receive a letter indicating your meeting time with the teachers. This conferencing is for parents and teachers only. Children are not invited in at this time.
Sports Lessons
Please note that due to COVID restrictions, Sport and Music and Movement are suspended until further notice. Children no longer need to come to school in ISM Sports uniform. I will keep you well informed.
Christmas card competition
Roll up, roll up, roll up!! Join in our Christmas card competition!
The winning entries will be announced in Friday 27th November’s edition of the Pulse!
These will become ISM’s official Christmas cards this year, sold to our families, in aid of ISM’s charities that we support.
That’s it for now
Wishing you and your families a restful and enjoyable weekend!
Mrs Ragi and the Early Years Team
From Primary
Dear Parents,
Welcome Back
After a welcome break, it has been a real pleasure, at a time when new restrictions impact upon our daily lives, to see so many happy children returning to school. Despite all that is going on in the world around us, to see children in school, engaged in their learning and interacting with their peers, is extremely heartwarming and, despite all the wonders of technology that we have at our disposal, there is no substitute for face-to-face communication within a school environment when it comes to children’s learning and wellbeing.
Physical Education and Extra-Curricular Activities
As I’m sure you are all aware, all school sporting activities have been suspended in Monaco until further notice. We very much hope, like you, that this suspension will be lifted in the not too distant future, however, for the time being our P.E. department has been working hard to ensure that all students will be assigned individual physical activities that can be carried out from home. You will hear more about these plans in due course.
The suspension of sporting activities has also meant that the Primary School has had to readjust its Extra-Curricular programme. All non-sporting activities are continuing as previously, and we are now able to offer a wide range of new activities run by the Primary School team.
By clicking on the link below, you can now register your child for these activities. If your child was previously enrolled in a sporting activity that is now temporarily suspended, you may enrol them for a new activity. When sporting activities resume your child will have the option of returning to their original sporting activity.
As previously stated, we are unable to mix year groups for indoor activities, therefore not all activities are open to all students. We have endeavoured to ensure that each year group has a wide and interesting range of activities to choose from and we will also look at the possibility of rotating some of these activities (by year group) later in the school year.
Students will be informed next week about the activities they are registered for and these new activities will commence on Monday 16th November. As always, we will do our very best to accommodate the students’ choices, in as far as this is possible.
Keep in Touch!
This week we have had our first round of parent/teacher meetings. These first meetings were reserved for parents of new students and a select group of students who we have earmarked for additional support.
Whilst the first round of parent/teacher conferences for all students are not due until January, your child’s teachers are available to meet with you (either in school or via video conference) upon your request. We will also not hesitate to contact you should we feel this is necessary. The email addresses of all Primary School staff members can be found here.
Student Work
Many parents will not have had the opportunity to see inside the Primary School this year, therefore we wanted to give you the opportunity to see some of the displays of student work that can be found around the Primary School.
Although the students performed admirably during last school year’s distance learning, many of them were out of practice in their writing, upon their return to school in September. We therefore placed an increased emphasis on student writing this first term. These displays are examples of much of the great written work that the students have produced. We will be uploading much of this written work to the Primary Parents’ Website over the course of the next week and a link to this will be shared with you shortly.
Warmest Regards,
Chris Benson
From Secondary
Dear Secondary Parents (Class 7-13),
I sincerely hope that you had a restful time last week and were able to see some friends and family for the first time in a while. For many this is still not possible and our best wishes go out to all ISM families who have loved ones around the world who they are not yet able to see.
During the latter stages of the last century I was a kid growing up in England. A big part of my childhood was being a member of the Scouts. For anybody unfamiliar with this organisation the scouts are a group that work with kids to develop a love for the outdoors, to foster teamwork and to inculcate a thirst for adventure. I feel a little nostalgic thinking about it now! The reason I include this here is that the motto of the scouts is:
“Be prepared”
Earlier this week a parent asked me if we were ready for another lockdown and the above motto came racing back to me. Are we prepared for a lockdown? A partial closure? Exam challenges? Rotations? Or any other variation of problems this COVID world might throw at us?
These are valid and important questions that no doubt take up some of your headspace from time to time. They take up a lot of mine, almost all of the time! It is worthwhile then to explore some of the ways in which we have been getting ready for what may come.
Our current 4 period day was brought in to allow us to teach effective hybrid classes meaning that students who cannot be in school, and who have been fully authorised for distance learning, have full access to live lessons. We’ve also completed the installation of new video conferencing systems in each classroom to improve this experience for both those at home and those in school. These systems mean that we can confidently and effectively continue learning during any kind of partial lockdown or rotation. Importantly, the school day for the students in any of these scenarios would essentially look the same even though a child's physical location might be different. A full lockdown would mean that students would still follow the same timetable, but from home.
We wrote the 4 period timetable in August in anticipation of what has happened, what is happening, and what might happen in the future.
It’s impossible for me or anyone in school to accurately predict what might happen in the coming months. We can only hope for the best and prepare for the worst. With that comes a sense of confidence and strength and whatever happens over the rest of this year we will continue to provide quality learning experiences, we will make sure our examination years students get the best outcomes possible and we will ensure that the wellbeing of the children in our care remains at the forefront of our minds.
So, does ISM make a good scout troop? Are we prepared?
My answer. Yes, but complacency must not creep in. Being prepared is also a mindset, it’s being ready to deal with the unpredictable as well as the predictable.
So like any good scout I believe we have the tools we need, we will keep an eye on the path ahead and we will carry a compass as well as a map. Just in case.
Have a lovely weekend everyone.
James Wellings
ARTS FESTIVAL 2021- REHEARSALS
NEW: YR 11-13 COFFEE BAR
COLLECTION OF EXAMINATION CERTIFICATES
UNIVERSITY NEWS
ACADEMIC ENRICHMENT - FOR IB & IGCSE STUDENTS
From the Deputy Director Wellbeing
School Blazer clothing items
To help with the sizing requirements for ordering online with School Blazer, ISM now has a large selection of items in stock for students to try on to determine which size is appropriate for each item. This should make your ordering experience online with School Blazer more straight forward and should help reduce the number of items needing to be returned.
We are also happy to announce that from March 2021, long-sleeved polos will be available.
From September 2021 all School Blazer items will be compulsory for ISM students and we are currently working on the additional items such as trousers, shorts and skirts. More information will follow as soon as this range is in production.
Should you wish to size your child for School Blazer items, please make an individual appointment with Emilie Perquis (emilie.perquis@ismonaco.com)
Anti-Bullying Assembly
On Wednesday 4th November, the Secondary School all took part in an assembly with the theme ‘United Against Bullying’.
Led from the office of Mrs Mackenzie-Wright, the whole Secondary School logged in with their Homerooms using the newly installed video conferencing system which led to a highly interactive, lively, focused and engaging assembly which used student voice as the most powerful tool in making change. Initiatives coming up include Anti-Bullying Week (16th-20th November), training of new and current Anti-Bullying Ambassadors, individual pledges of what each student is committed to doing to help make change, and a continued collaboration between younger and older students. Please discuss this assembly with your children and how their contribution will continue to make ISM a safe and nurturing school to learn.
Similar assemblies will be taking place across the different sections of ISM.
From the Deputy Director Academic
5 questions to ask your child about school every day
How many of you have had the following conversation after school with your child: "how was your day today?" - "fine", "what did you learn?" - "nothing"
This type of exchange can be frustrating as you want to be involved in your child's life.
Try these 5 questions, in order to get to the root of your child's day and to identify both their successes and struggles in school:
What was the best part of your day?
What was the hardest thing you had to do today?
Did any of your classmates do anything funny?
Who did you sit with at lunch?
Can you show me something you learned (or did) today?
Happy conversations!
Abigail Furey
Deputy Director Academic
From the Board of Trustees
Dear Parents,
Following the approval of the amended Articles of Association, the Board will be holding elections for new Board Members in early 2021. Eileen Barnes-Vachell, our Board Adviser, will be running a briefing session on the 24th November for any parents who would like to find out more about the role and how governance works at ISM. This is an exciting opportunity for you to join the Board in its journey to become one of the top international schools in Europe. We welcome interest from any Member as we value diversity and new talent and views.
Yours sincerely,
The Board of Trustees
DID YOU KNOW...
Did you know that studying the IB Diploma can lead to not only qualifications but .. LOVE?!
Congratulations to Lorenzo Pellegrini, Class of 2014, and Yvonne Reilly, Class of 2015, who met over the shared joys of TOK and the Extended Essay.
They recently graduated from the prestigious Ecole Hotelière de Lausanne (EHL) and have just announced their engagement. Yvonne is working as Consultant Tax/Legal for KPMG in Lausanne and Lorenzo is employed at EHL as an academic assistant specializing in oenology.
Wedding bells are planned for next summer!
HOT OFF THE PRESS
MEET GARETH HARDY
Joining the ISM team as Head of English has been great, as staff and students at the school are so kind and so welcoming. The school has a really positive vibe about it and despite a lot of challenges in everyone’s lives right now, people here have just been really generous and helpful.
For the last 8 years I have been teaching at international schools in Vietnam and China. Most recently, I spent 4 years at Wellington College in Shanghai, which was a great experience being part of such an elite school and all the options it offered to its students. Previous to living in Asia, I spent 8 years teaching in the UK, where I was Director of Humanities when working in the quaint counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. My time in the UK gave me some excellent professional experience, and I had the good fortune to be a part of some outstanding schools.
In my spare time when I’m not at school or with my lovely family, I write. I do this whenever I can and I write a lot of stories and scripts. My other interest is in languages, and what I may lack in skill I more than make up for with enthusiasm. ISM’s bilingualism and community of polyglots was definitely a draw to coming here. I’m offering Chinese for Beginners in the Middle School this term and I’m really impressed with the take up from the students.
Celebrating student achievements
We know that many of our students are actively participating in an amazing variety of sports outside the classroom. This week we'd like to celebrate three achievements:
Firstly, congratulations to Katarina Repetto in Class 9 who took first prize in the 115 cm category of the prestigious "Hubside" show jumping competition in St Tropez last month, on her mare "Amazing".
Congratulations also to Marie Ferrero Class 8, another passionate equestrian who achieved second place in the same competition on her horse "Havana".
Highly commended this week also is Chloe de Verner, Class 10, who took third prize in the Ladies Grand Prix golf competition at Sainte Maxime last week.
All three of these young sports women are skillfully combining a passion for their respective sports with their academic studies, and we salute their courage and tenacity !
Katarina REPETTO on "Amazing"
Marie FERRERO on "Havana"
*ALUMNI STORIES*
We are delighted to share with you some recent news of our Alumni.
Top law firms recruit our graduates!
Claudia Morosini, Class of 2011, gained her undergraduate degree in Management, at the London School of Economics in 2014, before earning her postgraduate law qualifications at BPP in London. She has just been appointed an Associate at Harbottle and Lewis, legal advisers to the British Royal Family.
Maria Bergamasco, Class of 2012, took her undergraduate law degree at Cambridge, graduating in 2015. She followed this with a Masters in International Legal Studies at New York University and spent some time at the International Criminal Court in The Hague before joining Slaughter and May (a Magic Circle firm) in London.
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New ISM Training Top
Despite the challenges we are currently facing, we are always looking to improve the quality and appearance of our sporting teams within ISM. Before the half-term break it was agreed that students regularly attending school sports would have the opportunity to purchase an ISM training top for their respective teams. Currently this offer is available to the Secondary School football and volleyball teams, but will hopefully be extended to include basketball, tennis and the Primary School in due course. The shirt is personalised with the students initials, the school badge, the year 2020/21 and the team represented across the shoulders and will be used for training, warm-ups and team events where possible.
If your child(ren) currently partake in school training and would like to place an order for either an ISM FOOTBALL (navy blue) or ISM VOLLEYBALL (red) training top (€25) please speak to a member of the PE department for an order form. Please be aware that this is currently only available to students who are signed up for activities already, and we look forward to having everyone back on the training fields as soon as possible. An example of the new training top can be seen here.
GROW A MOUSTACHE !
November has started , in this very strange year, and Movember has started too...
Even if it won't be the same this year, and we may not see so many moustaches growing under the masks, it is not too late to sponsor this event which raises funds for men's health charities
or choose to support an individual.
In that case, go on movember.com and search the name of your "MoBro" or "MoSistas" and make your donation.
Thank you for helping Movember "change the face of men's health" !
