Newsletter #23

Dear parents*,

The Junior School Student Led Conferences will be held on the following days:

Sign up will be available from:

Please note that appointments on the evening of Wednesday, March 18th will not be available for Pre-K and JA parents as it is too late for those students to lead their conferences.

The Student Led Conferences are an opportunity to:

"It’s hard to imagine a more high-leverage practice for improving learning than this. It brings the family in as a partner in the child’s growth—instead of being intimidated by facing news from a teacher, the family members are proud to listen to their child present herself with candor and clarity, even when there are challenges."

Taking into consideration parent feedback and recommendations from our teachers:

The conference will last:

Pascal Vallet, Junior School Principal 

Susan Scullin, Junior School Assistant Principal


* This information was shared last year and, as the design of our conferences remains the same this year, it applies to the upcoming conferences as well.

STUDENT LED CONFERENCES IN PRE-K

In Pre-K, the children will be sharing their learning during the Thursday and Friday (March 19th and March 20th) Student Led Conferences times, but in a different format. The students have been working hard on our Journey Inquiry and, in celebration, we will be creating an exhibit like a “museum of learning.” The children will plan and create the museum. When you arrive with them they will walk you through the exhibit explaining the many points of interest along the way. The exhibit will be interdisciplinary and incorporate learning from all the Learning Specialists as well.   

Pre-K will still have Student Led Conferences, but they will be towards the end of April, before and after school, and this is when the children will share their individual PK portfolio of work. This is a more appropriate time for the Pre-Ks to be ready to reflect and share their growth.  

Please sign up for a time to view the exhibit with your child on March 19th or 20th using the same Student Led Conference sign up process as the rest of the JS grades.

IMPORTANT DATES

EVENTS THIS WEEK

UPCOMING EVENTS

IN THIS NEWSLETTER

TO DO: PARENT SUSTAINABILITY GROUP - VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

Please help support sustainability at UNIS!  The Parent Sustainability Group is looking for volunteers to help with upcoming events and future initiatives.  Even if you only have an occasional hour or two to spare, we would love your help! If you are interested in hearing more, please contact Karen Weissman, Magda Torres & Dana Meilands at karen.weissman@pa.unis.org

HIGH PRIORITY: JS PARENT COFFEE ON LITERACY- WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4

We are inviting you to spend the morning thinking and talking about characters in stories. Throughout their journey at UNIS, your child works to develop critical thinking skills and to apply reading strategies to a variety of texts and to their own lives. Join us to experience Reading Workshop as a Junior School student. Find connections to children's social and emotional development and to a progression of work that stretches to the IB and beyond. We look forward to seeing you all there!

The Parent Coffee to be held next Wednesday, March 4 at 8:30am in the Cafe, will be a discussion about Literacy, hosted by Audra Robb, K-8 Literacy and Humanities Curriculum Specialist.

INFORMATION: JS PARENT COFFEE on MATH- WEDNESDAY, MAY 6

We are excited to invite you to spend a morning in May as a mathematician. Throughout their journey at UNIS, your child works to develop their critical thinking habits. Join us to experience Math Workshop as a Junior School student. Discover the concepts behind the numbers and how they connect to the higher level mathematics your child will encounter in the IB and beyond. We look forward to seeing you all there! 

Save the Date: The Parent Coffee to be held on May 6 at 8:30am in the Cafe, will be a discussion about Math, hosted by Samantha Mosher, JS Learning Specialist, and Amy Morris, K-8 Math/Science Curriculum Specialist.

INFORMATION: FRIENDSHIP DAY

In honor of Friendship Day, Tracey Turner, J2 Teacher, asked this burning question to her students: What is love? Here are her students' answers!

J2 Turner

The J4 Teaching Team on Friendship Day 2020

INFORMATION: MATILDA TICKETS ARE ON SALE

Tickets for the Junior/Middle School production of Matilda are now on sale! Be sure to visit www.unis.org/arts/theatre to buy your tickets today!

BIT OF NEWS: MATILDA THE MUSICAL - PARENT VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

The Parent Association is looking for parents to help run the Matilda concessions stand for the run of the show. Please consider this a great way to be a part of the show and give back to the community in a big way. We also need help at the Musical Cast Party on Saturday, March 14th from 4:15pm. Please complete the form below and indicate which you would like to volunteer for.

BIT OF NEWS: JS CONCERTS

The J3 Winter Concert took place on Monday, February 10th. If you weren’t able to join us for any  of the concerts, or if you want to enjoy the fabulous performances all over again, the videos and photos are shared here.

BIT OF NEWS: FOR J4 FAMILIES - OPTIONAL TRIP TO SEE SING STREET ON BROADWAY!

The annual J4 Trip to Broadway is back! This is an optional activity for J4s only, and requires sign-up and payment from families. To learn more about the trip and why it's a special event, please see all the information by clicking on the link below

BIT OF NEWS: UPCOMING EVENTS

1. UN Kids and Family Day: Feb 21, 2020

The UN Visitor Centre has extended this invitation to the UNIS Community. They are hosting an event for children: UN Kid's Day. Please see this link for more information if interested in attending.

 2. UNIS Students to Perform at the Young Genius Concert with the Foundation for the Revival of Classical Culture (March 1, 2020):

 SUNDAY, MARCH 1st: 3:00-4:30pm, followed by reception

St. John’s In the Village

218 West 11th street, NYC

ARTISTS: Cheng-cheng Song, XiaoZhou Xu, Kynan Thristlewaite, Jose Vega, FFRCC Youth Chorus

PROGRAM: Exceptional young artists from the United Nations International School, Juilliard Pre-College and others, performs this beautiful instrumental and vocal concert!

REPERTOIRE: Bach Double Violin Concerto, Liszt & Prokofiev piano compositions, Mozart songs, African-American spirituals

FREE TO PUBLIC, AT WILL DONATION.  RESERVATION REQUESTED. FOR TICKETS TO MARCH 1, CLICK HERE

BIT OF NEWS: 2020-2021 RE ENROLLMENT REMINDER - DUE MARCH 12

In order to enroll your child for the 2020-2021 academic year, you are asked to complete an electronic enrollment contract by Thursday, 12 March 2020.

Your child's personalized Enrollment Contract is available by visiting the UNIS Parent Portal:  Online Enrollment. You will need to complete separate enrollment contracts through the online process for each of your children.

If you have any questions about the online enrollment process, please contact the UNIS Enrollment Team at enrollment@unis.org.

REMINDER: UNIS BOOK DRIVE MARCH 2nd – MARCH 6th, 2020

Give back to your community, donate your gently used children’s books:

Children of Bellevue (CoB) is a non-profit organization established to improve the health and well-being of children at Bellevue Hospital Center.

Children of Bellevue’s Reach out and Read is part of a national initiative that encourages reading aloud as a regular, joyful home activity that can improve language development, parent-child interactions, and academic success. Pediatricians provide a brand new book to every child at regular well visits starting at birth. To find out more, please visit: childrenofbellevue.org/reach-out-and-read

Parent Volunteers: We are looking for parent volunteers to help assist in book collection, sorting, packing and delivering. To volunteer, please sign up at:

If you have any questions, please e-mail: Abhilasha Mahan: abhilasha.mahan@gmail.com Rachel Barbee: sungirlrmb@aol.com

REMINDER: NYICFF 2020

It's finally time! NYICFF 2020 is just around the corner and will be showcasing the best new films for ages 3-18. The Festival is packed full of fantastic film programs for your family this year and, even better, our school earns $3 back for every ticket you purchase!

Check out the Festival's wildly-popular and diverse short film programs: Short Films 1 (ages 5-10), ¡Hola NYICFF! Shorts in Spanish (ages 8+), NYICFF Rocks: Musical Shorts (all ages) and more! 

Calling all animal lovers! Catch these Special Screenings of Disneynature’s Elephant and Dolphin Reef (all ages) for some big-screen nature thrills. 

And if it’s animation that you love, get on board with The Prince’s Voyage (ages 7+) to see what happens when a monkey prince washes ashore in this adventurous and mesmerizing film. 

To buy tickets and raise money for our school simply:

And just like that, for each ticket you purchase, $3 will be donated to our PA! 

REMINDER: SPRING SESSION AFTER SCHOOL AND ATHLETICS - UPDATE SDM

All Winter Session classes have ended. If you registered your child for Spring Session After School Activities or Athletics beginning week of March 2nd, please take the time now to update School Dismissal Manager (SDM).

Add all the new Spring Session class descriptions in SDM and each of the dates that your child's Spring classes will meet.

SDM must be updated by your family throughout the school year to reflect all changes in your child’s After School and Athletics enrollment. The school does not make these updates for you. If you are not familiar with making updates yourself, please click on the “Update the Dismissal Manager” link on the bottom of this newsletter, or stop by the JS Office or phone 212-584-3113 to request a quick tutorial.

Dismissing teachers rely on the information that families enter in SDM each day to direct their students to the correct After School or Athletic activity. If information in SDM is not accurate, your child may be placed in the Care Program instead.

REMINDER: SDG CLUB DRIVE - NEW EYES 4 SDGS (UN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS)

DONATE GENTLY USED EYEGLASSES

A collection box is in the Junior School office from February 3 to April 2. Prescription, Reading, Sunglasses, Children’s glasses are accepted. Please drop them off in a case, bubble wrap or envelope. No contact lenses. These eyeglasses will be donated to a nonprofit organization 20/20 for 2020 that provides eyeglasses to people who need them in the US and in developing countries.

SET YOUR SIGHTS ON ACHIEVING SDG 3

Nayesha Krishna, T2 student - Founder- President SDG club

REMINDER: UNIS FUNDRAISER GALA ON FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 28

Don't Miss the Best Party to support our School!

Tickets are going fast

Click here to get yours today!!!


REMINDER: LOST AND FOUND UPDATED POLICY

UNIS has implemented new lost and found procedures. Lost and found items will be collected weekly and displayed on racks just outside the front door of the school every Monday, and any unretrieved items will be donated on Friday. Items that are collected after Monday will remain in the lost and found crate by the playground doors until the following week. Any items that are not retrieved from the racks by the front doors after a week of display, will be deposited in our RefashionNYC Bin. RefashionNYC is NYC's official clothing reuse program in partnership with NYC Department of Sanitation and Housing Works to make textile donations to those in need. Once items are deposited into the RefashionNYC bin, we cannot retrieve them.

We ask that you please label all clothing, lunch boxes and water bottles. Labeled items will be delivered to the appropriate school office to be reunited with their owners. Please note that unlabeled lunch boxes and unlabeled water bottles will be discarded at the end of each week. We will no longer set out lost and found during parent teacher conferences. Please stop by the racks on your way in and out of school to retrieve items and ask your children to check for any lost items. 

REMINDER: UPDATE YOUR PARENT CONTACT INFORMATION

Please take the time now to review your family profile and contact information to ensure that your cell phone numbers, email addresses and home address are correct. You may update your information at any point throughout the year, but if you have not reviewed your information since the school year began, we encourage you to do it today. 

All departments at UNIS, including the Nurse, rely on the information that you provide in the Veracross Parent Portal to contact you. The only way you can be reached in an emergency is through the information that you have entered in the Portal. After logging in to the Portal at myunis.vc , you may review and update all of your family contact information by:

If you need support in order to make your updates, please email veracross@unis.org

REMINDER: UPDATE YOUR CHILD’S DISMISSAL PLANS

Our homeroom teachers follow the instructions entered by parents in School Dismissal Manager each day. Please update your SDM account to indicate what the plans are for your child for each day of the week.

SDM is the only way of letting your homeroom teacher know where your child should go at 2:55 dismissal. In addition to indicating that there is an Athletic or After School Activity, you must enter a description of the activity in the box below. If the activity name is not entered in SDM your child may be placed in the Care Program instead.