MS HS NEWS

WELCOME TO INFOBYTE #12!
Written by Mr. Alex

MSHS students and teachers have been busy lately in their academic endeavours. Last week, The English Department led the Family Day Assembly with a beautiful assembly. The event had skits, videos, and students performing and sharing the importance family plays in their lives. This week we have the yearly Career Day on Friday, January 27th, which will give students from grades 8 to 11 the opportunity to learn more about areas they are already interested in and get inspired by the speakers, and explore new areas of professional expertise. This initiative is part of SWA’s BEST Pathways.

On February 1st, all school departments will have the yearly Whole School Photoshoot for this year’s yearbook. We are happy to have the full photoshoot back on campus and I am sure the end result will be amazing. The Chinese New Year (Lunar New Year) was celebrated last weekend, on January 22nd and our Chinese Department is preparing a great assembly with music, performances and much more to be presented to the community on February 2nd.

Happy year of the Rabbit! May it bring us all longevity, peace, and prosperity.

MYP UPDATE

Written by Haoken Huoermaiti

Please see the notices and reminders for the coming few weeks of Term 3:

1. Interdisciplinary Unit (IDU) Presentation: 26 January 2023 @Trini Dewi Theatre

Interdisciplinary Unit (IDU) presentation will take place on Thursday 26 January 2023 being open to the parents from 2:00 - 3:00 PM. 

One of the key features of the MYP is its emphasis on interdisciplinary teaching and learning. Grades 6 - 10 will be completing their interdisciplinary units during the first three weeks of Term 3 (4 - 26 January 2023). Below are the unit titles by grade level:

• Grade 6 "Utopias"

• Grade 7 "My Green School/ Sustainable School"

• Grade 8 "Financial Planning - Money Math"

• Grade 9 "Adventures in Cartography"

• Grade 10 "Raising awareness regarding global issues linked to the use of antibiotics through the production of accessible video clips"

Our MYP teachers have been planning and reflecting collaboratively to consider connections and relationships between different areas, and reinforce shared concepts, content and skills. 

2. Personal Project (PP) Exhibition:  Friday, 17 February 2023 @Art Building

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. The Grade 10 MYP Personal Project exhibition will take place on Friday, 17th Feb 2023 being open to the public from 1:00 - 3:00 PM. All members of the SWA community and beyond are welcome to attend the exhibition in the Dance Room area of the Arts Lobby. 

3. G8 Checkpoint  Mock Examination

Grade 8 Cambridge Checkpoint Mock Examinations will take place from 13 - 15 March 2023 during the last weeks of Term 3. The official Checkpoint exam schedule will be announced. 

4. G10 IGCSE Mock Examination

Grade 10 IGCSE Mock Examinations will take place from 6 - 17  March 2023 during the last two weeks of Term 3. The official IGCSE mock exam schedule will be announced. 

5. Service as Action (SA)

Service as Action continues into Terms 3 and 4 and we are excited to see student project work that is developing. Please take a moment to review the SA Handbook for guidelines and regulations.

DP UPDATE
Written by Ms. Andrea

The Extended Essay is an important component of the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme and it is a mandatory requirement to obtain the IB Diploma. The Extended Essay allows students to research and analyze a topic of their choice in depth and to present their findings in an organized and comprehensive manner. It also encourages students to develop their research and writing skills and their ability to think critically and form their own opinions. The Extended essay also allows students to develop their understanding of the subject and to gain an understanding of the wider world around them. As such, it is an invaluable part of the IB Diploma Programme, and its importance should not be overlooked.

How to help your teen with the Extended essay independent inquiry project?

As you surely already know, the IB elevates independent investigation. It's all about building strong foundations for lifelong learning in an unknowable future. However, these independent chores will give your child a head start on what will be required of them at university or college in the not-too-distant future. Additionally, aiming for the highest grades possible on the Extended Essay and Internal Assessments will help them feel less stressed out before their final exams. A sizable portion of IB points is in the bank if the IAs and EE go well! I believe the work was well worth it.

Here are some tips from experts on how you can support them:

• Start early and with small goals

• Seek some experts in the field for advice and encourage them to reach out for discussions

• Read and understand the Criteria

• Help them to choose a topic they master well and interest them

• Understand how to design the research

• Create opportunities for your child to explain the work

Reach out to the school DPC and or EE Coordinator for more information.

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

Written by Daniele Cupri

With their individual orals behind them, the G12’s have turned their attention to the next demands of the IB Diploma programme. Meanwhile the G10’s have not let the IGCSE exams out of their sights; they continue to hone their analytical reading skills by tackling the meaning behind the sounds and words of poets. The G7’s began their Shakespearean journey with individually chosen lines of enquiry that enlightened students on (amongst other things) the fashion, cuisine, ideology, art, and marital woes of 16th century England.

MATHEMATICS DEPARTMENT

Written by Mr. Lukas

IDU as an approach to tackle problems with multiple perspectives.

Interdisciplinary Unit or IDU in SWA displays a collaboration among teachers from two or more subjects developing a unit that is taught across multiple classes. This year, the mathematics subject teachers also had the chance to collaborate with other subject teachers to present an IDU unit for the students.

In Grade 7, the theme for their IDU unit is Sustainable School. This theme incorporated the disciplines between Mathematics and Science. The students are asked to imagine and conceptualise what a sustainable school would be like. The students are equipped with their knowledge in mathematics such as area and volume (International Mathematics), geometry, and transformation (Additional Mathematics) as well as in science such as energy conservation, to propose some changes in schools in Indonesia they believe would be beneficial for the sustainability of the environment. 

They would locate a school in Indonesia, then research the existing sustainability problems in that school, then propose the improvements that could be made in order to support long-term sustainability. Next, they would bring their plan to life by modeling their dream school using Minecraft. This IDU unit takes 2-3 weeks to complete from planning to presentation.

Grade 7 students giving a short presentation about their dream school that supports sustainability

On the other hand, the students in Grade 9 had Cartography as their IDU topic. This IDU unit incorporated International Mathematics, Additional Mathematics, Arts, and Economics together. Their objective was to analyse some aspects of the economic development of a certain area in Tangerang, and present their findings on a map. They will use their skills in coordinate geometry (Additional Mathematics) and statistics (International Mathematics) along with their skills in Economics and Arts.

Their final task is to present their findings in a short presentation during the school’s assembly. 

Subject teachers from interdisciplinary subjects giving a brief explanation to the grade 9 students.

Student’s group work during the IDU class.

CHINESE DEPARTMENT

Written by G9 (Michelle & Audric), checked by Mr. Charles

一月十六日，九年级CLA4-6班的同学在课上庆祝春节。学生一边观看央视春晚节目一边品尝同学们从家里带来的过年食品。每个人负责带一样食物，如：包子、橘子、桂圆、脆皮烧肉、点心、中国茶，甚至年糕等。年糕是过年必不可少的贺年糕点。老师说，从字面上来看年糕就饱含吉祥之意，“年”与“粘”同音，能理解成为新年或团圆凝聚之意，而“糕”谐音“高”，寓意年年高升。

To learn more about Chinese New Year, our CLA class decided to hold a Chinese New year party to celebrate. Before the party, we learned about Chinese New Year during our class like the celebration, the food, the activities, etc. Everyone decided which foods they'll be able to bring and so we celebrated our early CNY party. We were all talking and drinking tea, while also being able to try new Chinese foods we have never tasted before. 

INDONESIAN/KOREAN DEPARTMENT

Written by Ms. Yulia Arza

In the Indonesian Acquisition class at the beginning of term 3, grade 6 students are learning about directions. First, they were introduced to the term cardinal points in Indonesian by looking at a map of Indonesia. While looking at the cardinal directions, the students were also interested in other parts of Indonesia and started sharing experiences and questions with each other. The class became an arena for discussion on geography lessons, but the teacher asked them to try to insert Indonesian when they asked questions and shared information there.

This activity is also part of brainstorming students' prior knowledge about the topic, and knowing to what extent they are interested in learning other things related to that topic, such as how to go to the other province in Indonesia or the places in their own country. At the beginning of the lesson, after the students had learned the basic vocabulary on this topic, they were asked to write and explain a simple explanation of how they would get to a place nearby Sinarmas World Academy school. The students tried their best to write down the assignment with their respective groups, and present it in front of the class. Even though this activity was carried out at the beginning of the lesson, the students already seemed confident to use the vocabulary in the explanations they wrote. However, there are still many basic language rules that need to be improved so that the results are maximised.

In term 3, grade 8 Indonesian Language and Literature is learning novels as their literature lesson. The Laskar Pelangi novel by Andrea Hirata is the right choice for students to hone students' ability to interpret a fictional story, because it has a lot of meanings and life values that are worth learning. In addition, students are also presented with a very descriptive author's writing style with interesting metaphors and personifications. This is one of the outcomes of this topic, which is knowing the characteristics of the authorship of fiction authors that make their novels have an impact on readers.

At the beginning of the lesson, students were examined for their ability to understand the early chapters of the novel correctly and coherently by summarising them. Students do this in collaboration with their groups for differentiation activities. In this case, not all students are able to understand the intent of the author's writing because some students are not as fluent as others. Therefore, with a group of students of different language levels, all students will benefit. Students who have difficulties in language are assisted by students who are above their language ability to understand the story, meanwhile, the students who are able can also deepen their understanding when explaining it to other students. 

INDIVIDUALS & SOCIETIES DEPARTMENT
Written by Ms. Renu Singh

Students in grade 9 Economics class are using the Investopedia stock simulator to practise trading stocks and learn more about the stock market. The state of a nation's economy as a whole can be seen through the stock market. When the stock market is performing well, it typically means that investors are optimistic about the economy and that businesses are successful. Students are attempting to comprehend the market and investing in various firm shares to gain knowledge of how the market functions.

MUSIC
Written by Mr. Freddy 

Since January 2023, all the MYP Music students from Grades 6, 7, and 8 are busy preparing their performances as class projects to be presented in the Chinese New Year Assembly that will be held this week. All the 3 classes' performances are integrated in a short musical skit about the Nian story. The Grade 6 prepared a djembe and hulusi ensemble performance, the Grade 7 prepared a strings and angklung ensemble to collaborate with Strings club, while all the Grade 8 will sing and act in the skit. All of their performances will be graded as one of their summatives of Term 3 and it’s a collaboration project with the Chinese subjects. 

VISUAL ARTS
Written by Mr. Alan

In the beginning of term 3, we were told to do an IDU Interdisciplinary Unit, Grade 9 students were given the topic ‘Octography’, a collaborative subject of Math, Economic and Visual Art working on a 3 weeks project. The visual art students were divided and put into 5 groups. It Is very interesting to see how students work together in a group, sharing ideas, gathering information from the source, looking out and collecting data, and making analysis. In this project, students have developed creative and critical thinking skills. They exceeded our expectations when the collaboration teachers and I were discussing it a few days ago. Some of the visual art students were using thinking cad created 3-dimensional models and manually illustrate the venue of the map. Here are some snapshots.