MIDD LE SCHOOL

Friday Bulletin
Weekly Publication for Middle School Parents ISSUE # 30
W EEK OF APRIL 22 TO 26, 2013

From the Middle School Office

Dear Parents: On Thursday, April 25 we will be hosting a Parent Coffee in the Little Theater from 7:45 9:00 A.M. and we will continue to explore the role that technology and social network sites play in the lives of adolescents. Please mark your calendars and plan to join us! Looking aheadThe Middle School Play is just around the corner and this years production, The Wiz, is sure to excite everyone. The show will open on Thursday, May 2 with performances on May 3 and May 4. Stay tuned for more details! Have a wonderful weekend!

Inside this issue:

From the Office of Admissions and Advancement From the ATAC Office Form the HS Guidance office ISM Community Art Auction PTA Used Book Sale MS End of Season Sports Awards 2 4 5 6 7 8

UPCOMING EVENTS
Yours in Education, Simon Gillespie Middle School Principal Clarissa Sayson Middle School Assistant Principal
APRIL 25 MAY 2 to 4 2 to 15 MS Play Art Exhibit Activity Day MS Tour & Talk Grade 5 to 8 Party/ Bearcat Idol Grade 8 Advocating for Change Homeless World Cup Tourney Parent Coffee

From the Treasury Department

Dear ISM Parents: This is a reminder to please view and check the ISM Web Online at http:// community.ismanila.org/d/2/ for the latest update on your billing statement and settle any remaining balance of account(s). Please note that the 2 semester Tuition fee for SY2012-2013 was due last December 07,2012 while other school fees on your billing statements are already due as billed. For those who havent settled yet, we appreciate your immediate settlement of the accounts. For related billing and payment questions including any username and password concerns, please call 840-85-22/ 840-85-06/840-85-12 and look for RHODA VILLA (Accountant) or MARISSA DULAY (Treasury Supervisor) and Elmer Esguerra ( Cashier). You can also email us at villar@ismanila.org or dulaym@ismanila.org. and esguerrae@ismanila.org.
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10 20 to 24 24 28 29

POWERSCHOOL UPDATE
MAY
10 Progress Reports Distribution

The Yearbook Pictures are now available for pick up in the MS Office.

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From the Office of Admissions and Advancement

Dear Parents, Please be reminded that keeping your contact information updated is vital to facilitating communication with the school. If you would like to view/change any of the details on your current record, simply follow the steps below.

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Withdrawal Procedure for Students Leaving ISM

For those students who will be withdrawing from International School Manila this year, the following procedure applies: Parents are obliged to inform the School officially through a WITHDRAWAL NOTIFICATION FORM, before the second Friday of May, if their children will not be returning to ISM. Failure to do so will lead to a deduction of US$1,000 from the Facilities Upgrade Deposit (FUD), in compensation for having held a space for the child and thus preventing the School from offering that space to another child prior to the summer holiday break. The Withdrawal Notification Form can be obtained from the Admissions Office or directly from the ISM website www.ismanila.org under Admissions > Re-Enrollment & Withdrawal > Withdrawal STEP 1: Return the Withdrawal Notification Form to the Admissions Office or scanned and e-mailed as an attachment to admissions@ismanila.org . Upon receipt of the Withdrawal Notification Form by the Admissions Office, a copy will be forwarded to the appropriate School Office and the Finance Office for their action. The School Office, upon receipt of the Withdrawal Notification Form, will initiate the student clearance procedure which requires a Middle or High School student to have the Student Clearance Slip signed by the indicated teachers and offices for clearance. For Elementary students, the Elementary Office will handle the withdrawal clearance. Note that school transcripts and records will be available from the particular school office approximately fifteen working days after the childs last day of attendance at ISM. Please coordinate directly with the particular School Office if you require other arrangements. STEP 2: If required, and when completed, the Student Clearance Slip must be taken to the Cashiers Office. Only after the Cashier has received and signed the completed clearance form will the childs transcript or school records be released from the Elementary, Middle or High School Office. Please note that one copy of the transcript is provided free of charge, additional copies cost P100 each, payable at the Cashiers Office before release. Please coordinate directly with the particular School Office if you require more than one copy of school records. STEP 3: In order to receive your Facilities Upgrade Deposit or FUD (formerly the Special Project Deposit) refund, the following must be submitted to the Cashiers Office: 1) Signed Student Clearance Slip 2) Signed Facilities Upgrade Deposit Certificate Please note that the FUD refund will not be released before your childs last day of school and may take up to thirty ( 30) days. Only the person whose name appears on the FUD Certificate may claim the refund at the Cashiers Office. Please call the Cashier at 840-8506 if you have questions regarding your FUD Certificate. Please allow the withdrawal process to go smoothly by starting the process early. Thank you for your help and understanding. If you will be withdrawing before the end of the school year and wish to receive your childs YEARBOOK please submit the appropriate form to the School Office. The forms are available through the web site: Admission > Re-Enrollment & Withdraw-

al>Withdrawal
Elementary School Yearbook: ALAALA Middle School Yearbook: SALINLAHI High School Yearbook: KAWAYAN Sincerely, Stephanie H. Hagedorn Director of Admissions & Advancement

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From the Athletics & Activities Office

MS/HS 3rd Season sports have now concluded with the IASAS Championships taking place this past week. 4th season schedules are now posted on notice boards for some of next years teams to start training. This is open for current gr.8s who will be freshmen 9th grade next year to join these practices. If you have questions talk with the coaches. The 3rd season sports awards will be held April 24. 3:15-4:15 for MS (Badminton/Track teams) at the Little Theatre and from 5:30pm at the Lofthouse for the HS awards (Badminton/Softball/Track teams/Golf) IASAS Results: A huge congratulations to our boys track athletes who won GOLD for the first time. It was a fantastic effort to win at home and made a great event even better! Thanks to all our coaches and athletes. The boys and girls Golf team won SILVER and BRONZE in Kuala Lumpur at the first ever IASAS Golf Championships. Our softball girls won BRONZE and boys came 4th in Taipei and our Badminton girls won SILVER in Jakarta.

Results: Track boys 1st, girls 6th Softball girls 3rd, boys 4th Badminton girls 2nd, boys 6th Golf boys 2nd, girls 3rd
A huge thanks to all the host families who housed for IASAS track. We cannot put on such great events for our students without your support. Please remember the swimming facility will close for renovation works on May 17 and the planned reopening of the pool is set for September 1st. We are building a new 2 level grandstand, new locker rooms, new storage area, new coaches locker rooms, additional restrooms for the public and resurfacing the pool surrounds. ISM Summer Sports Camps information is now available on the ATAC summer camps blog page. The informational flyer will also be in the parent bulletins. Sign ups are on a first come first served basis! A great way to stay in touch with the ISM ATAC program is to subscribe via RSS feed to the ATAC blog and also to follow via twitter (see twitter feed on the blog home page). Each Monday, I will post the weeks happenings and highlight important events for students and parents information on the ATAC blog and in the regular Friday parent bulletins. GAME SCHEDULE PDF (access to game schedule information): Information about all mid-week/ weekend fixtures for ISM teams can be found via the ATAC blog. Please note the game schedule does change often due to involvement with many local schools, so please check the page regularly to find out the latest information of where and when the Bearcats teams are playing. Click on schedules tab or the Bearcat logo to be directed to the power school secure site http://powerschool.ismanila.org/public/ You will need your power school user name and password to access the game schedule pdf. BEARCAT DEN: http://atac.ism-online.org/bearcat-den/ Our Bearcat Den is open for business, please drop by to check out the range of Bearcat products. We have a great team of volunteers who run the den and are always looking for more people to help out. If you are interested in joining a fantastic group, please contact any of our den members during den opening hours. If youre interested in joining the Den volunteers, please contact Carolyn Ching for details at carolynqching@yahoo.com. We are always looking for new volunteers and encourage parents from ES/MS to join our group. Regular Opening Hours for the Bearcat Den: Wednesdays and Fridays from 11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. and each afternoon from 2:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.

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From the High School Guidance Office

Dear HS Parents, We are very pleased to introduce/reintroduce you to an exciting initiative developed back in 2010 by the HS Guidance Department in cooperation with the HS Administration:

Bearcat Career Experience

As we all know well, high school for students is (among many things) a time of self-discovery. It is a time where our students begin to better acknowledge their aptitudes/likes, where they hone their strengths and where they begin to sort through that rather complicated map known as their educational and future career path. Unfortunately, it is often a map with gaps between what they learn in their academic classrooms and the real world their teachers are working to prepare them for. In short, we hope to help bridge that gap for some of our high school students through a five-day summer internship (June 10th 14th, 2013) with various companies in the Metro Manila area. Last year we were very fortunate to place over 120 ISM high school students (sophomores and juniors) with 30 companies (including Alaska Milk, Asian Development Bank (ADB), and Makati Medical Center to name a few) in the Metro Manila area. This year, we definitely feel those numbers could increase. However, in order to make this a reality, we need reputable companies from a variety of industries to form partnerships with us and take part. As parents of our dedicated and motivated HS students, you may own, be employed by, or know of a company interested in supporting this very worthwhile endeavor. We ask for your support in helping us develop potential Career Experience placements and subsequently, lasting positive relationships with companies in the Metro Manila area. We ask that you take time to reflect on this important initiative (currently in its 3rd year) and its value for our ISM community. Please take a look at our website here http://bearcat-careers.ism-online.org/what-is-a-bearcat-career -experience/ . This page should give you an idea of what the program is all about. You might also want to check out this video too. http://bearcat-careers.ism-online.org/media/ If you are in a position to take one or more of our students at your company or know of an interested company, please let me know. Please also contact me at mcqueend@ismanila.org if you have any questions or need further clarification. Information about how your son or daughter (current sophomores and juniors only) could apply for a Career Experience position will be communicated to all of you at a later date. You can also get more informed and up to date posts about the Bearcat Career Experience by liking our facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/BearcatCareerExperience Thank you very much for your support and I look forward to hearing back from some of you. J Sincerely, Doug McQueen High School Counselor

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