MSHS UPDATES

Written by Mr. Alex Nenes

As we prepare for Term 1 assessment period, we have also kept ourselves busy with lots of wonderful things taking place everyday in MSHS. EXs started and we are very excited with the engagement of our students this year in the twenty-eight different activities offered. The EXs are a part of SWA BEST Pathways, which is aimed at encouraging students to build a robust portfolio that will strengthen their profile for university applications. We highly recommend a balanced approach to the Extra Curricular activities by including one sport, one BEST Pathways, and a third one that can be creative or academic. At the same time that students are free to choose the EXs of their choice, it is a mandatory part of the programme.

The Makers Return!
Written by Mr. Ciaran

After a hiatus of more than 2 years, the SWA Makers returned to action on Friday, September 2nd.

The Makers were a very active part of the SWA community between 2017 and 2020, but the pandemic prevented the club from meeting and creating the spectacular projects we were known for, such as the talking macan, and the infinity mirrors (both of which are on display in the SWA lobby).

We began the first session with our traditional arduino treasure hunt, which provided new students with an insight into the potential of arduino, as they competed to solve a series of challenging electronic puzzles, in a quest for bragging rights (as well as a sizable box of doughnuts).

Well done to Aradhya, Le, Zachary, Nathan and Grant whose team won the treasure hunt activity. In coming weeks they will design their own arduino-based treasure hunt for their rival team.

If students are in Grade 7 or older, and are passionate about technology, design and programming, they are very welcome to come along to a Maker’s session- every Friday at 3pm in DT building 1st floor.

Younger students are encouraged to check out our junior counterpart, the Micro:bits club, which meets every Tuesday at 3pm in DT building 1st floor.

MSHS Learning Support

Written by Mr. Alex Nenes

MSHS Learning Support will start on September 12th with English and Math classes. This is an early action in order to support students who need a differentiated approach to their learning journey so they can better adjust to SWA's learning culture and progress faster. The learning support aims at providing differentiation for students by tailoring instruction to meet individual needs. Whether teachers differentiate content, process, products, or the learning environment, the use of ongoing assessment and flexible grouping makes this a successful approach to instruction. Here at SWA we differentiate both inside the classroom by offering an approach that allows for all students to perform at their highest ability level and outside the classroom, which aims at addressing the students individual needs.

After Term 1 PTCs, at the beginning of Term 2, students who receive progress concern will be placed in Learning Support, which will be discussed during the Parent Teacher Conferences on October 7th, so save the date to make appointments with teachers, HODs, Coordinators and the Co-Principal.

With the end of Term 1 exactly one month away, we would like to ask parents and guardians to keep a close eye on Managebac for feedback on formative and summative assessment and contact the MSHS Admin office to clarify any questions or concerns.

PERIOD 10

We would like to remind you all that Period 10 (15:05 to 15:45) is a dedicated period for learning support, Task Completion, EXs and other activities, thus it should be considered as part of the school day. Please do not make any appointments or other commitments that require your child(ren) to be unavailable during that time as it is part of the school day at SWA. Your kind support is highly appreciated.

Whole School Coffee Morning - September 7th, 2022

Written by Mr. Alex Nenes

The first Coffee Morning of the year was really nice and we really appreciate the great support provided by parents by joining both on campus or online. It was held in the MSHS Library and streamed live via Microsoft Teams. The information shared was really valuable and the parents had the opportunity to share their opinions. The highlights of the meeting were the reflection on the SWA Mission and Vision and the activity about the IB Learner Profile Attributes.

During the SWA Mission and Vision Reflection several parents gave their testimonial on how they perceive the mission and vision of school materialized through friendship, acceptance, a welcoming environment and the internationally minded nature of our student body and their families. Three new parents shared that they feel welcomed and that after one month of school their children feel well adjusted and integrated to the class and community.

Parents were invited to share their opinions on the IB Learner Profile by naming the top 3 attributes. Below are the results of the quick activity in which parents selected their top 3 Learner Profile Attributes.

MYP UPDATES

Written by Mr. Haoken

Dear MYP Parents & Guardians,

Our MYP Programme embraces key elements of the IB Middle Years Programme (MYP) as well as external assessments of CAIE. Together with our BEST Pathways, SWA's Grade 6 to 10 Programme combines age appropriate approaches, a focus on ATL skills development and academic rigour ensuring that our students are prepared for success.

Please see a few notices and reminders for Weeks #5 - #7 of Term 1:

1. Summative assessment tasks are posted on Managebac. Teachers clarify the expectations for each Summative Task with direct reference to subject assessment criteria, (A,B,C,D). All teachers will provide a minimum of 5 days notice in advance informing students of summative assessments. Assignment feedback will be key to encouraging our student's development. Teachers provide an overall guidance comment within the Managebac platform and return all marking within the 7 days turn around. Please feel free to contact us if you encounter any issues.

2. Homework is a type of formative assessment that teachers use to extend learning, skill building and mastery development outside of the classroom. Grade 6 - 8 teachers limit the amount of homework assigned per week as follows:

• Grade 6 : 60 minutes per week per subject (except Math which is 90 minutes per week)

• Grade 7 : 80 minutes per week per subject (except Math which is 120 minutes per week)

• Grade 8 : 125 minutes per week per subject (except Math which is 150 minutes per week)

• Grade 9 & 10 : 150 minutes per week per subject (except Math which is 180 minutes per week)

Please contact us if you feel your child is getting more than this amount in a given subject.

3. Students participated in SWA's EX / CAS Fair and letters have been Emailed on Thursday (August 25th, 2022). We encourage all students to be involved in at least one Sport or Athletic EX. Please review your child's chosen activities to ensure pickup time arrangements as needed.

4. Academic Support classes have begun in Math and English as addressed by Mr. Alex in earlier message. These support sessions take precedent over non-paid EX and CAS activities. Teachers may place students on these academic support lists as needed based on performance on assessments.

5. The Grade 10 personal project provides an opportunity for students to undertake an independent and age-appropriate exploration into an area of personal interest. Through the process of inquiry, action and reflection, students are encouraged to demonstrate and strengthen their approaches to learning (ATL) skills. Grade 10 students completed their Objective A - Planning during August 2022 and progressed into their Objective B - Applying Skills in September 2022. By February 1st, 2023, Students should be able to complete three elements:

• Product or outcome—evidence of tangible or intangible results: what the student was aiming to achieve or create

• Process journal—ideas, criteria, developments, challenges, plans, research, possible solutions and progress reports

• PP report—an account of the project and its impact, to a structure that follows the assessment criteria. The report includes a bibliography and evidence from the process journal that documents students’ development and achievements.

6. Please check Managebac regularly and contact us if you are having any trouble logging into the website.

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

Literacy Day

Written by Ms Katherine

At the moment all grades are preparing for their project-based summatives. Grade 8's are excited about making their own Public Service Announcements; they will make a 30-second film to persuade the audience to think/behave or give a warning in a particular way. Grade 9's are going to research a topic that interests them and present to the class how the media presents their topic. These types of summatives allow students to explore their own interests and be creative in their presentation of information.

Meanwhile on September 2nd, we celebrated World Literacy Day in assembly. Literacy Day was established in 1967 "to remind the public of the importance of literacy as a matter of dignity and human rights, and to advance the literacy agenda towards a more literate and sustainable society". The English department thought it would be fun to do activities based around this important day. Students participated in a house competition which involved a quiz, word games and finding book titles in the library. Classes also visited the library during this week and took out books of interest to them. Surprisingly Komodo house won the overall competition with the most points and it was great to see the students in the houses working together to achieve the tasks. Below are some photos of students busy in the assembly.

SCIENCE DEPARTMENT

Grade 7 Digital Design

Written by Mr. Rajesh

The focus for G7 during the last two weeks was on learning Microsoft Disk Operating System (DOS) commands. This was a new concept introduced to the students. Most of the students in class are Mac users and working on Windows platform that too on command line interface (CLI) was their first ever experience. While it is still debatable whether it is necessary to learn DOS commands when most of the things can be managed using the GUI applications, but knowing these commands is quite useful as it helps to understand how things are happening within the computer system. This will be useful with many courses in the future such as OS and Network. The use of these commands is paramount to troubleshoot computer problems. Students used the ICT lab to do the practicals and they enjoyed creating folders, files, copying documents from one folder to another, searching the files and several other commands at the command line.

Grade 11 Computer Science

Written by Mr. Rajesh

Computer science is a constantly changing field and the computer science curriculum aims to address the adapting nature of the subject. In order to take a more conceptual approach, working within global contexts, developing skills to explore significant content, the focus during the last two weeks of August was on developing familiarity with project development tools. The learning objective for this unit was to make the students understand various tools that are used to develop applications for end users. Students learned about the GUI application development with Java Netbeans jfames as frontend and MySQL database as backend. The skills learned in these classes will benefit the students not only to meet the IA requirements in their IB Diploma course but also give them an edge to meet the university course requirements if they chose to pursue computer science engineering. Students collaborated well with each other to discuss the problems and find appropriate solutions.

MATHEMATICS DEPARTMENT

Grade 9 International Mathematics Investigation: The Legend of Sissa ibn Dahir
Written by Mr. Emerson

An excerpt by the Kurdish historian, Ibn Khallikan, details how Sissa ibn Dahir should be rewarded by King Shihram for inventing the chess board. Sissa outlined that the king should reward him with a grain of wheat for the first square of the chess board, 2 grains of wheat for the second square, 4 grains of wheat for the third square, and so on, doubling the number of wheat on each succeeding square. In this project, students are asked to investigate the simple sequence of the number of wheat in each square Sissa should receive and how many grains of wheat are in total. Students are expected to use an appropriate form of number, especially when writing very large numbers. They are also expected to connect their investigation to another real-life situation. Marks are awarded based on the achievement levels of Criteria B and D.

Grade 10 International Mathematics Investigation: Von Koch's Snowflake Curve

Written by Mr. Emerson

Niels Fabian Helge von Koch is a Swedish mathematician who enjoyed exploring patterns, sequences, and fractals. He came up with a special snowflake curve by following some rules. In this investigation, students are asked to find the perimeter and area of von Koch's snowflake curve, applying their mathematical skills of sequences. Students are also expected to connect their investigation to answering how the volume formula of a sphere has been derived and to apply the mathematics to another real-life scenario. Criteria B and D are where the works of the students will be based for marking.

INDONESIAN DEPARTMENT

Grade 6 ILL Observation Report
Written by Ms. Junita

Grade 6 ILL students learned about writing an observation report. They had to work in groups and each group wrote an observation report about a place in their school. They were assigned to observe some places, such as EYES playground, school's canteen, library, and MSHS Gym. Besides observing those places, they also interviewed some people (school staff) in those places. After doing observations and interviewing the people, they wrote their observation reports and presented them to the class. Below are the pictures where some students worked on their observations and interviewed some school staff.

I&S Department

Grade 10 Global Perspective Class
Learner Profile reflections

Written by Mr. Alex Nenes

The students in Grade 10 Global Perspectives dedicated some time during their class this week to reflect on the IB Learner Profile. It represents 10 attributes valued by IB World Schools. We believe these attributes, and others like them, can help individuals and groups become responsible members of local, national and global communities. Students reflected on the IB LP and chose the one they identified with the most. Below you will see the pictures of the students in front of the posters pointing to the ones they chose. The most popular IB Learner Profile attributes selected were Principled, Communicators, Risk Takers and Caring.

Grade 11 Economics

Written by Ms. Renu

Grade 11 Economics students are presenting what they explores about the methodology used by economists and how this approach differs from natural sciences. They also discussed the work of different economists over time. Because Economics is based on human behaviour its theories cannot be tested in the same way as a theory or idea can be in natural sciences such as Biology, Physics or Chemistry. Economists cannot use laboratories and control experiments. Economists test their theories, laws and ideas by using empirical evidence. This is evidence gathered by observing how people behave and by using data. This involves coverage of the work of Adam Smith to John Maynard Keynes through to modern-day economists such as Kate Raworth.

Grade 6 Volcano Project

Written by Mr. Aleksandar Marchev

Last week the Grade 6 students were engaged in completing a project-based summative assignment consisting of creating a volcano model as well as a poster on the topics of volcanoes. The purpose of the task was to raise awareness about volcanoes, practice one's creativity and also be better prepared to react when encountering such mighty forces of nature as volcanoes and earthquakes. Another important requirement for the student was to formulate a research question. Overall the students in G6 embraced this task full-heartedly and some even exceeded expectations by opting to create their own volcano model, rather than opt for the template provided. The pictures and posters below highlight some of the students' work and achievements.

MUSIC DEPARTMENT

Written by Mr. Freddy

The first unit of Music MYP3 this semester is Percussion Music where the Grade 8 Music students will have the opportunity to explore various percussion music both tuned and untuned. During classes, they learned about the history and background of percussion music as the oldest instrument since the prehistoric era after vocal music. They did their first tuned percussion ensemble performance of this semester during the Independence Day assembly on August 18th, 2022 as we shared in the previous infobyte. They played the kolintang in 2 different groups, the melodic line, and the bass line with Indonesian pentatonic scale, presenting a medley of "Untukmu Indonesiaku" and "Karawitan" featuring Qiara from Grade 7 who sang "Simfoni Raya". Lee Chae Ah, one of the Grade 8 students, started the ensemble performance with her beautiful solo violin performance to give the touch of the melodic instrument as an additional ornament to their percussion ensemble. While Qiara from Grade 7 closed our performance with her solo singing part. It was a successful performance, all of the Grade 8 students feel proud of their performance and they repeat their performance again for SWA Open House and WSC Opening Ceremony in August 2022. During Music classes this term, they also prepared their summative group task, where they were divided into groups to prepare the presentation about percussion music, the different methods of Orff and Kodaly in learning music, and they arranged their djembe performance with specific djembe notes for their song cover project. They have learned at least 3 basic djembe notes, which are bass tone, open tone, and slap tone, to be explored and improved in various patterns. Every group will present their arrangement for their djembe performance in front of the class and during the lunch acoustic session. They also have to record all the development process step by step in their journal from the beginning until the presentation day, complete with their reflection.

VISUAL ARTS DEPARTMENT

Written by Mr.Alan

I'm pumped-up and super excited to share two amazing activities that happened recently to celebrate in today's issue,

The EX - Fashion Club and My Grade 7 Visual Art Class.

EX started two weeks ago and I was blown away by the excitement and enthusiasm of students who picked the Fashion Club from grade 6 to grade 11. And recently my visual art grade 7 students were working on their formative scenery drawing and applying the graphite pencil shading techniques skills in and outside the classroom setup.

Below is a picture where students are watching an exclusive fashion show run by graduation students from Bunka Fashion College, Tokyo. (this given our students an idea about what is like running a fashion show as a community or teamwork and not individual) and some pictures where my grade 7 visual art students doing their work without noticing me taking their pictures, look how focused and serious they are working toward the art.

CREATIVITY, ACTIVITY, AND SERVICE

En Paswant Chess Club

The chess club is back on! We started off with two sessions in the new school year welcoming new and old members. This year we will focus more on teaching our members and improving their skills in chess, including through Chessle. Chessle is a daily Wordle game for chess openings. It resets every day and anyone can try it through the link jackli.gg/chessle. We are encouraging all our members to try this fun challenge daily to expand their knowledge of chess openings. This year we will also be attempting to teach students in collaboration with project limitless to spread the influence of chess. We are very excited and look forward to a fun year of learning and competition!

Habitat for Humanity

Habitat For Humanity's global mission is to address global issues such as poverty and poor living conditions. HFH cultivates a solid community in order to provide shelter to those in need, concentrating on the 11th SDG, Sustainable Cities and Communities, which ensures that everyone has access to safe and healthy living conditions. This extracurricular activity includes building a better shelter, fundraising events, contributions, and other ways to help people in need. We previously held an E-Sports event during the pandemic, sold homemade drinks on Sports Day, and presented our work at SWA's open house event to raise funds. We were able to raise around Rp. 20,000,000.00 through these events. This year, many members and executives hope to earn more money than the previous year in order to build a shelter for a deserving family. We're all looking forward to all of our members' amazing achievements this year. If you want to join HFH or see what we do on a weekly basis, you can follow us on Instagram at @hfh.swa

Riveria English

Riveria English has made a few notable accomplishments just a month into the school year. We had the honour of attending SWA’s August 20th open house event to present our progress and achievements over the past year to guests that came to visit the school, both parents and fellow students alike. We have also recruited new members after the EX fair, and are excited to begin working with them! New windows of opportunities are now open to us as our team continues to grow, and we are looking forward to all the great feats that we can achieve next. We hope you are too! Extended information can be found on our Instagram page @riveriaenglish.

ComiClub

Official ComiClub, founded by Zheng Ban (G12) and secretated by Benedict (G12) has launched its weekly sessions, Currently, it has amassed 12 active members, 6 executives, and 1 mascot with each one having their own unique style and way of expression.

ComiClub has commenced Creative Comic-Creating Classes every Monday 3-4pm in DT Third floor in the room of Mr. Alan’s. Our sessions surely bring out our members’ talents. We already have three Comic Workshop Sessions, where new members briefly learn the basics of illustration and get the chance to express their own creativity through Comic Creation, with enthusiastic executives ready to assist them and give drawing tips. Although it might help, members of our ComiClub do not necessarily need to have an “art background”, they just need to be passionate about storytelling.

Check out our instagram: @official.comiclub (not @unofficial.comiclub)

Be officially part of the ComiClub Community by answering this form.

High Hoops

Highhoops has made a few improvements since last year. From holding weekly basketball sessions, we have now decided to expanded the CAS project to run the football EX weekly. We aim to focus on providing these sports sessions to allow students to have fun after-school, taking their mind off stressful school work. This is to ensure that we keep a healthy body, not only physically due to exercise, but also mentally, as during these sessions we regularly interact and communicate with different people. We will also be releasing merchandise in order to raise funds for sports equipment, so stay tuned.

TeamTrees

Since our last tree planting activity on the March of 2022, we are planning to go further and plant another dozen. For spoilers, we may be bringing the SWA community to both educate the importance of trees, as well as let them plant their own trees. But before looking at the future, we must once more look at our past. Our last event with trees4trees was a success and we were able to plant more than 500 trees. We learned a lot of things that day. Not to mention the skills we develop in the process, especially teamwork skills. We hope that we could do more in the near future and move on to the second stage of out CAS journey. Which is education and spreading of awareness. Because what we did has huge short term effects, but the long term effects of education on trees potentially would play a bigger role in saving the planet.

Terkasi

Our project's goal is to donate toys and supplies to children whose parents have unfortunately passed away due to Covid-19. We aim to provide a reason for these children to smile about during their hard times. So far we have donated to families in Dompu, set up a Christmas charity drive and have also donated to multiple children from SDN Cilenggang. We are looking to fundraise and donate to more families this year. For more information on how to get involved and support us, follow our instagram @terkasi.swa