Newsletter from QSI International School of Atyrau: May 31, 2019 No Images? Click here May 31, 2019 QSIA NEWSUpcoming Events: NO OPEN GYM THIS WEEKEND Spring Picnic and Spring Concert - Friday, June 7 - 4:00 Secondary End-of-Year celebration - Saturday, June 8 Coffee with the Director - Tuesday, June 11 - 10:00 Field Day - June 13 Wet-and-Wild Day - June 14 Last day of school (HALF DAY) - June 14 First day of school 2019-2020 - August 22 School CalendarOur school calendar for the 2019-2020 school year is available on our website (or click HERE)! Please note that school begins on Thursday August 22, 2019. MAP Assessment DataOur school has recently completed the Spring Measurement for Academic Progress (MAP) assessment with outstanding results. Students showed growth in all assessed subjects: Mathematics, Reading, Language Usage, and Science. In our school, we do not place an overemphasis on examinations or test results. We do not conduct "high-stakes" examinations, and we do not give our students large scale summative tests. We believe there are many different ways children can demonstrate understanding. A focus on test-taking skills teaches students how to be good at taking tests; a skill that is not very valuable in the "real world." However, it is useful to gather data, like MAP assessments, to track how our students are developing and compare our program to other schools around the world. It is inspiring to see our school's scores in comparison to worldwide and international school data. The world-wide normative data was collected from over 1000 schools from around the world (including the USA), averaging scores from over 153,000 students. The international school data was collected from English-Language international schools in South America (AASSA), Central America (Tri-Association), Africa (AISA), Europe (CEESA, ECIS, and MAIS), and Asia (EARCOS and NESA). Looking at the School-wide average scores below, you can see we scored 15-16 points higher than other schools in Mathematics, 11-13 points higher in Reading, and 12 points higher in Language usage. Examining the breakdown for each grade (found here), we can see that each grade, in each subject, scored above the normative averages in both the international school and worldwide data sets. This is an enormous success and a confirmation of the outstanding work our teachers and students do at our school. Children at QSI International School of Atyrau are high achieving, and above their peers in both English and Mathematics. The data shows what I have always said: children at QSI International School of Atyrau receive a world-class education. Our school truly is a wonderful place to learn and grow! Please do not hesitate to contact the school if you have any questions about this data or the MAP assessment. Our final Coffee with the Director will be on June 11th at 10:00 where we will share this data. June 7th Concert and Picnic!We are very excited to invite you all to our campus on Friday, June 7th for the end of year concert and picnic! Here are some logistics to help you plan:
The Preschool Spring Concert was a huge sucess! Way to go Mr. Stevenson and the preschool team!!Recycling and CompostingSabine came and spoke to the 5s, 6s, and 11s about recycling and composting. She gave us some great ideas about composting even if you live in an apartment. You can use a recycled plastic bottle and layer your fruits and vegetable waste with cardboard or paper. In several weeks it will turn to beautiful soil you can use in potted plants. She also gave us a handy idea for compacting our plastic and wrapper waste into a plastic bottle. Get it as compact as you can, keep adding to it until you can’t add any more. Then throw the bottle in the garbage or collect them and use them to make retaining walls or planter boxes. This helps to reduce the amount of space we are using in landfills and keeps all those small pesky plastics contained instead of flying away and getting into our rivers and streams, polluting our water. We are starting to do this in our classrooms for the rest of the year. Next year we would like to make it a school-wide initiative. Composting, separating, and containing our trash in this way also reduces the amount of methane gas developing in our landfills from polluting our air. It also reduces the amount of leachate from landfills polluting our groundwater and other water sources. Wraping it up with the 8-year-old classAs we are winding down the school year, the 8-year-old class has been participating in a lot of educational activities. We conducted entirely student designed and performed science experiments for the science exhibition. We also took time to clean up the school grounds after some intense windstorms to learn about human interaction with the environment which coincided with our cultural studies units. On top of that, we finished all our math units for the 8-year-old curriculum and have dove into learning algebra while hosting intra-classroom math competitions. Finally, we have been learning about literary genres and are writing our own stories, some mysteries, some dramas, some historical, but all fantastic. This has been a wonderful year in the 8-year-old class! New Staff for the 2019-2020 School yearWith every new school year we sadly say goodby to some of our teaching staff, and welcome a new group of enthusastic, talented, highly certified educators to our community. Below are some of our new teachers, and a few familiar faces returning to Atyrau! Hello! I am Lani Spigolon, and I am so excited to return to Atyrau this fall. I will be teaching English, writing, drama, and math classes. I have an adult son named Scott who will be joining me and a daughter, son-in-law, and two grandsons who will be joining QSI in Almaty this year. I look forward to seeing the wonderful people I’ve previously met in Atyrau and meeting new friends. I know that we will have an amazing year. Hello Atyrau! I am Jen Wilson. I have been with QSI for 11 years and three of those years were spent teaching in Atyrau, Kazakhstan. The experience of living and working in Atyrau is a memory I treasure! I look forward to returning to both the school and community of Atyrau after spending time in China. I will be teaching literature and culture studies classes. I am thrilled to return and look forward to seeing old friends and making new friends! My name is Elmer Roze and after summer I will be teaching Dutch to QSI students from The Netherlands and perhaps Belgium. My family (Denise 35, Senn 4, Nova 3) will join me on this Kazakh adventure. Right now, we're in Kigali, Rwanda and until two years ago we were based in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Living abroad has been pretty amazing so far and we're very much looking forward to continuing the journey in picturesque Atyrau. I'm excited to meet you all soon! My name is Dieudonne Nahishakiye. I was born and raised in the small Central African country of Burundi. I moved to the US to pursue my education in 1995, and I consider the USA my adoptive country. After obtaining my Bachelors of Science in Mathematics and my Masters of Education along with my teaching certificate, I taught Middle and High School Mathematics in the Atlanta metropolitan area in Georgia for ten years before embarking on my international teaching career. I have been teaching Mathematics in various international Schools since 2012. My first international teaching job was in Bahrain, where I taught High School Mathematics. After Bahrain, I moved to Nazarbayev Intellectual School of Physics and Mathematics in Shymkent, Kazakhstan where I taught advanced Mathematics. I currently teach IGCSE and IB Mathematics at Kampala International School in Uganda. I am very excited about the opportunity to teach at QSI International School of Atyrau, and I look forward to being part of the school community. Books, Books, BooksAs the year comes to a close, the 4-year old class is able to sit longer, listen with more understanding, and can better appreciate a full range of literacy genre. From tall tales to poetry, from the reading of favorite picture books of both nonfiction and fiction, our young learners have fallen in love with the words of many a loved story. Our class has discovered favorite authors and illustrators, and can choose a book based on its beloved character, its funny plot, or its predictable sequence of events. The young “readers” can now successfully retell a story in their own words, and can share with a partner their favorite part and why. We are learning story elements crucial to comprehension, such as the setting, main character, and beginning, middle and end. The young 4-year olds may not be able to read on their own yet, but they are able to turn the pages of a favorite story and share with the teacher and/or one another what is unfolding on the page, and how it relates to their own personal experiences. They have come a long way. Hopefully the 4’s will flourish and connect even more to their new love for reading during the long summer days ahead. Lunch MenuAll meals come with fresh vegetables, seasonal fruit, bread, and compote/kissel. Monday:
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Contact the school reception to order lunch. |