ISSUE # 26

MIDDLE SCHOOL
WEEK OF:
MARCH 10 TO 14

SY 2013 2014

Friday Bulletin
Inside this issue:
MAP Testing Treasury Department Superintendents Office High School Guidance Service Learning Academic Bowl Athletics & Activities Admissions & Advancement ISM Upcoming Events

Weekly Publication for Middle School Parents

Dear Parents: This week students registered for courses for school year 2014-2015. You and your child should have received a confirmation email regarding the selections that your child made. Please print out the confirmation sheet, sign it and return the form to the Middle School Guidance Office by March 14. If your child was unable to register for class, your child will be called to the Guidance Office to do so next week. On Monday, March 10 we will start the second round of MAP (Measures of Academic Progress) testing. Please see the separate letter included in the bulletin for more details. In the event that your child misses a testing session, we will hold make-up sessions on Wednesdays starting at 7:30 A.M. If your child requires a make-up session, the MS Office will notify you and we ask that you make the necessary arrangements to bring your child to school early on Wednesday. On Thursday, March 20 students will be released early at 12:00 noon, and we will have an afternoon of Student-Led Conferences, which provide an opportunity for students to share their learning with their parents. Within the next week we will provide more information about the afternoon, questions you can ask your child during the conferences, and a goal setting sheet. On that afternoon parents will accompany their child to each class for approximately ten minutes and have the opportunity to discuss samples of work. There will be two sessions, 12:30 - 2:30 and 3:00 - 5:00, with students divided according to the alphabet. It is recommended that students with surnames A-K attend the first session, and students with surnames L-Z attend the second session; however, this is flexible. If you are unable to attend the recommended session time, you are welcome to participate in the alternate session. For student-led conferences, parents will not need to schedule appointments. Please note that if both parents are unable to attend the student-led conference, your child is expected to go home at dismissal and not remain on campus. In recent weeks we have seen more Middle School students in the Elementary School playground after school. We recognize that some students must be there to board the buses and that is fine. Unfortunately, some of the students are making poor choices and not being positive role models for the younger students. If your child must remain on campus to wait for a sibling, please tell your child that they should go to the MS Courtyard or Cafeteria after school where they can be productive or have down time with their friends. Alternatively, encourage them to get involved in an after school activity so they can try something new and expand their circle of friends. There are a range of activities that still have available spaces and are looking for more participants. Looking aheadThis year the Middle School will take a step toward joining the Elementary School International Day on Friday, March 21. Middle School students will begin the day in Advisory for attendance then proceed to watch the flag ceremony. Students are encouraged to dress in attire that represents their home country. We look forward to everyone getting involved and celebrating the diversity of the ISM community. Have a fabulous weekend! Yours in Education, Simon Gillespie Middle School Principal Clarissa Sayson Middle School Assistant Principal

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Events & Activities:

MARCH

10 - 14 20 25 - 31 27

MAP Testing Student-Led Conferences MAP Testing Grade 5/6 All Strings Concert

Middle School Students are encouraged to wear their House Shirts on Friday, March 14!

To All ISM Parents: Important Advisory : US dollar Checks from Citibank NA - Philippine Branch
In accordance with the recent advisory made by Citibank N.A. Philippines, please be informed that starting January 01,2014 , CITIBANK US Dollar Account checks drawn from Citibank N.A. Philippine Branch will no longer be cleared through Citibank N.A. Agana Guam. In effect, CITIBANK checks deposited to a local bank or bank abroad will be treated as collection checks with clearing period of not less than 45 days. The said checks will no longer be acceptable for outright credit to both foreign currency deposit unit (FCDU) and PESO account until the receipt of credit advice from Citibank NA Philippines. A collection fee will also be imposed by depository banks (please see charges from BPI and HSBC below). BPI charges 1/4 of 1% for every Php 1.00 or a fraction thereof plus a fixed postage fee of Php 6.50 and minimum charge for outward bills for collection is Php 100.00 excluding postage fee.
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HSBC charges USD$3 for credit to USD account and Php100 for credit to Peso plus other additional processing fee that maybe charged by the receiving bank. Furthermore, the student's account paid by the Citibank check will not be considered as settled / paid for until such time the check is advised to have been cleared by Citibank. Additional surcharge maybe computed at the time that the check has not yet cleared and already falls after the due date. In this regard, we would like to advise our parents to deposit CITIBANK checks directly to the ISM CITIBANK account. Please DO NOT DEPOSIT CITIBANK Checks toother ISM local banks such as HSBC and BPI to prevent above-mentioned problems. Also remember to use your new set of dollar checks as advised by Citibank to you. As per Citibank, they have previously issued notification letters to their account holders regarding this change. For any query on your payment , please contact our Treasury Department - Cashiers ( Elmer Esguerra and Nerissa Felipe) 840-85-12, for billing ( Rhoda Villa 840-85-22 ) or Marissa Dulay at 840-8506 USD Check Clearing Services Please be advised that effective January 01,2014, US Dollar checks issued from your Citibank, N.A Philippine Branch Dollar Checking Account can no longer be presented and cleared through Citibank, N.A. Agana, Guam, U.S.A. under US Federal Reserve System. All US Dollar Account checks drawn from Citibank N.A. Philippine Branch, which are deposited in a local bank or in a bank abroad, will be treated as a collection item by presenting bank. The clearing period will thus change from 15 days to estimated 45 days depending on the process of the presenting bank on collection items. in addition, beginning December 15, 2013, please refrain from issuing any unused existing US Dollar Checks to your payees. We encourage you to order a new set of US Dollar check books for future use. Should you have any questions please contact Citi Service at 802-6000.

Important Advisory : HSBC Bank Charge for HSBC Check Deposits

Please be informed that starting January 01,2014 , HSBC has imposed a $4.00 bank charge for each HSBC check deposit . Over the counter HSBC check deposits from parents and company sponsors are also covered and charged by the same amount. In this regard, we would like to remind all our parents and sponsoring companies to please add $4.00 when paying HSBC check(s) or demand draft to ISM Cashier's Office or for direct deposits, to HSBC. For your reference and guidance.
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Re-enrollment: SY14-15 Returning Students Medical Update

Dear Parents: As you may know, for a number of years we have had required medical check-ups for students at different stages in their school lives: G1; G5; G9. In recognition of the increasing concern about heart health, especially in conjunction with physical exercise in a tropical climate, we shall be introducing a mandatory Electro-Cardiogram (ECG) test for older students. Sudden Cardiac Death in Adolescents, especially during sporting activity, is a recognized syndrome and well over 100 children a year die of this in the USA. Medical advice is that it makes sense to test only students who are 12 years old and beyond. In light of this, we shall now have two thresholds for medical examinations instead of the present three. These will be in Grade 1 and Grade 6. At Grade 1, there will be a physical examination performed by a duly accredited doctor as is the case at present. At Grade 6, there will be a similar physical examination but with the added component of an ECG. All new students between G1 and G5 will have a physical examination; all new students from G6 onward will have a physical examination and the ECG. In order to "grandfather out" our present cohort of students, please note: Incoming G6 students will have an ECG, but will not need a physical examination, since this was done when they entered G5 Incoming G9 students will have the full medical examination and an ECG. Incoming G7 and G8 will have the full medical examination and an ECG when they enter G9. We shall continue to encourage very strongly all athletes participating in Varsity sports to take an ECG. Over the course of the next years, this will mean that all ISM students from G6 onwards will have had a basic heart check-up. The ECG is not definitive, and there is a more sophisticated check that the doctor will recommend if anything in the ECG causes concern. The test itself is very reasonably priced and is readily available at St Lukes and Makati Medical Center as well as other hospitals. Please take a moment to review our re-enrollment time-line and procedures for all students returning for school year 2014-2015: RE-ENROLLMENT I do understand that adding this requirement of an ECG may be seen as an additional chore for parents and students at the time of re-enrollment, but if such a test saves even one life then it will be well worth the extra effort. Sincerely, David Toze Superintendent
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Dear Parents, It is that time of year again to recruit companies for our annual Bearcat Career Experience...a one week "internship -like" program (June 9 to 13) to help our high school sophomores and juniors gain valuable insight into the world of careers outside of the academic classroom. Currently in its fourth year, the program has been very successful, mainly in part to the incredible participation of the ISM community in providing these worthwhile placements. We annually placed between 120 and 160 students each June with numerous reputable companies in the Metro Manila area. For a some basic information on what the Bearcat Career Experience is all about, please see our website. http://bearcat-careers.ism-online.org/ If you or someone you know is willing to HOST some of our students for a one week placement in June, the next step is to FILL OUT the application. Please see this link below http://bearcat-careers.ism-online.org/how-to-apply/ Keep in mind, when you go to this "how to apply" link, there are TWO forms to fill out. One is the Company Application and then also further down the page is a Company/School Partnership agreement...essentially these are the same two forms as last year. We would like these TWO forms completed by April 21, 2014 at the absolute latest...however, the earlier, the better :) Please let me know if you have any questions in the meantime. Best Regards, Doug McQueen HS Grade 9/10 Guidance Counselor (632) 840-8664 6

MS Saturday Service Dates

March 15 March 22 March 29 April 5 Chosen Childrens Village (CCV) Philippine Community Fund (PCF) Philippine Animal Welfare Society Tzu Chi Foundation Recycling Center

To sign up, get a Permission Slip in the MS Office and prepare to [Get awesome!]

Congratulations to the Middle School Academic Bowl team for WINNING at the semester two Academic Bowl competition held at Faith Academy on Tuesday 4th March 2014.
The ISM team members were: Abhinav Bathula: gd 8 Kaiwen (Calvin) Zhang: gd 8 Ilham Thomson: gd 8 David Yuanwei Zhang : gd 7 Nicole Nair : gd 7 Johann Singh : gd 7 Elizabeth Strang : gd 7 Ashwin Banwari : gd 7 Ratul Mangal: gd 6 Sydney Wuu : gd 6 Alexander Strang : gd 5 Irfan Thomson : gd 5
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3rd season practice schedule for MS/HS students is posted on the schedules pages of the (ATAC Each Monday, I will post the weeks happenings blog) and on notice boards around school. and highlight important events for students and parents information on the ATAC blog and in the Saturday Community Tennis has resumed and regular Friday parent bulletins. will run through until the end of May. see the flyer on the blog for exact dates and details. This GAME SCHEDULE PDF: (access to game schedule is open to ISM community members only, outside information): Information about all mid-week/ guests are not allowed. Contact Coach Czarina to weekend fixtures for ISM teams can be found via book lessons with our ISM Tennis Academy the ATAC blog. Please note the game schedule coaches (http://atac.ism-online.org/atac/ does change often due to involvement with many saturday-community-tennis/). local schools so please check the page regularly to find out the latest information of where and Well done to all our MS/HS track athletes who when the Bearcats teams are playing. Click on competed at the 2nd track meet for the season schedules tab or the Bearcat logo to be directed last Saturday at Brent. Meet results can be found to the power school secure site (http:// here: http://atac.ism-online.org/atac/3rdpowerschool.ismanila.org/public/) You will need season/track-meet-results/ your power school user name and password to access the game schedule pdf. The next meet is today Friday, March 7 for our annual twilight meet. Meet starts at 4:00 P.M. The Bearcat Den (http://atac.ism-online.org/ and should finish around 7:45 P.M. If any parents bearcat-den/) is open for business, please drop wish to volunteer to help at this meet it would be by to check out the range of Bearcat products. much appreciated. Please We have a great team of volunteers who run the email pekinm@ismanila.org or turn up at 3:45 den and are always looking for more people to P.M. to see me and we can give you a job on the help out. If you are interested in joining a fantasevening to assist. tic group please contact any of our den members during den opening hours or please contact CarWell done to our HS Academic Bowl team who olyn Ching for details carcame 3rd last Friday at the semester 2 event at olynqching@yahoo.com. We are always looking Brent. Our MS team traveled to Faith this past for new volunteers and encourage parents from Tuesday Mar 4 to compete vs Faith and Brent and ES/MS to join our group. The Bearcat den is now came home champions with a massive 320pt vic- calling for volunteers to take on POR's (positions tory. Congrats to all team members and faculty of responsibility) for next school year '14-15) as advisors Valerie and David Birchenall. secretary, treasurer, volunteer coordinator, inventory/merchandise and snacks purchasing. If New families please take some time to peruse you are interested drop an email the ATAC blog as this will help orientate you with to pekinm@ismanila.org the wide variety of co-curricular programs ISM offers. Have a great year at the Home of the Bearcats! 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). Regards, Mark Pekin Director of Athletics/Activities
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UPDATE YOUR CONTACT DETAILS THROUGH THE ISM PARENT PORTAL

Dear Parents, We are pleased to inform you that your childs PowerSchool account may be accessed through the ISM Parent Portal. Aside from being a gateway to PowerSchool, the Parent Portal also provides information on school events, useful links, as well as child-specific academic blogs and student portfolios. Should you need to make any changes to your contact information, visit the Parent Portal and follow the steps below:

Leaving ISM?
For those students that will be withdrawing from International School Manila this school year (SY 13 -14), the following procedure applies: Parents are obliged to officially inform the Admissions Office in writing through a Withdrawal Notification Form at least fifteen (15) days prior to your childs last day of school.

For those leaving at the end of the school year, you MUST submit a Withdrawal Notification Form on or before May 09, 2014.
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 downloaded from the ISM website here. We hope that your child has had an enriching stay at ISM and wish you and your family the very best in the future.
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