Channel Chatsworth Weekly Webcast #13 - Digital Media Team

Thoughts from the Chatsworth Primary Hallway

The aim of all IB programmes is to develop internationally minded people who, recognizing their common humanity and shared guardianship of the planet, help to create a better and more peaceful world. IBO 2013

At Chatsworth, we try to live out the  IB learner profile as we espouse the importance of the attributes in the classroom. We believe that by focusing on the IB learner profile and supporting our students to be caring, responsible, inquirers, thinks, communicators, principled, open-minded, risk-takers, balanced and reflective they will truly be internationally mind, accepting that others with their differences can also be right.

Here a number of examples of the IB learner profile in action in the primary school:

During the "Action Jackson" painting in K1 they created a messy floor. They could have left it for our cleaners to clean, however, they decided to use this to reinforce the concept of being principled and doing the right thing. Mr. Gopal, our maintenance head appreciated K1's consideration for the cleaners. 

The Year 1 children in Ms Gupta's class decided to make signs to "care for the plants" when they realised that the plants were being destroyed or even pulled out!  

Miss Williams' K2 class were illustrating aspects of the learner profile in class this week as a way to reinforce the students' understanding of the attributes.  They gave many examples...

Mario Gauci

Head of Primary

Week 24 of the Weekly Primary Correspondance

Primary	Parent Survey Help us fill in the Parent Survey here so we can understand how you feel about the school and assists us in areas of strength and areas needing particular attention. Report Survey Help us answer a few questions about the effectiveness of the new reporting system and the information you were able to gain about your child. Click here for the survey. Lost & Found Items Please kindly note that Lost and Found is cleared on the first Friday of the month. Kindly check for lost items before this day. Phoenix Times Our Phoenix Times are now available on our school website. Click here for the quick link.
CCA / ECA	CCA / ECA SEASON 2 - CCA confirmation emails will go out to parents later today and Saturday. - CCA Session 2 will start at the on the 1st of February 2016, please refer to past blogs in regards of date with noCCAs/ECAs - All ECA fees must be paid to providers before the beginning of the first session at your convenience. Please note that Whizzkids ECAs can be paid via their website. For more detail contact Jini at info@whizzkidz.com.sg. - Please contact Ms Hebert for any changes in your child's CCA schedule. As we have a lot of students on the waiting lists, please inform her if you need to cancel a confirmed CCA. CCA - Caring Bags This semester we are driving the CCA Caring Bags initiative whereby we will be using used t-shirts and transforming them into bags! Once they have been made, we will be selling them to the school community and all proceeds will be donated to our school’s charity, Blue Dragon. We need your help! If you have any old, large t-shirts that you would like to donate to this cause, please bring them to Room 3P (Miss Heard’s Class) where you will find a large cardboard box named with “Caring for Bags”. The collection of t-shirt will begin on Monday 25th of January onwards. Kind regards Carla Heard
Primary Parent Event	Library Parent Session The next library parent session will be on Tues Jan 26 at 9:45am in the library at the Orchard Campus. We will academic honesty and plagiarism.  You do NOT need a laptop or tablet for this the session. Y4 & Y5 Residential Camp Information Night Year 4: 28th January 2016, 6.00pm Year 5: 26th January 2016, 6.00pm Y6 Residential Camp and Exhibition Information Night Date: 25th January 2016, 6.00pm Introduction to Secondary (MYP) for Year 6 Parents and Students Date: 4th February 2016 Time: 6.00pm Venue: Main Hall

Hazwani Hassim (Wani)

Primary Administrative Assistant

Perspectives from the PYP Coordinator

22 January

Professional development is a teacher’s way of challenging themselves and maintaining their lifelong learning. I spent this past week in Adelaide learning more about the role of the Primary Years Programme Coordinator (PYPC).  In this workshop there were PYP coordinators from all over the Asia Pacific region.  This workshop not only gave me ideas about improving my practice with the teachers, it also gave me a larger network of colleagues as resources. We spent from 8:30 - 4:30 every day as well as evenings and lunches, discussing our practices. There are so many things that I feel that we do well at Chatsworth in providing an inquiry based learning environment for our students. There are other areas that I feel we can improve. Just as we challenge our students to learn and grow in a supportive environment, my job is to provide that same environment for the teachers.  This professional development gave me ways forward for our programme. As we move forward, Mr. Gauci and I will continue to work closely together ensuring that we are always challenging and supporting our community. I feel lucky to be at Chatsworth, a school that values learning and supports its staff to attend professional development and grow their personal practice.

Channel Chatsworth Weekly Webcast #12 - By the Digital Media Team

Thoughts from the Chatsworth Primary Hallway

The teacher as learners is an important part of our daily life in the Primary School.  Working groups have been established in different curriculum and social areas to research and collect data on best practice for the primary school to keep developing and growing in our understanding of what is best for our students. This research and development is carried out after school throughout the year. There are five working groups right now, the Spirit Group - working on developing school-wide positive spirit. The Mathematics Group is focusing on developing further the inquiry methodology in the teaching and learning programme. The Language Group is addressing the way forward in spelling and phonics. The Inquiry & Learning Group is investigating visible thinking strategies, the Reggio Emila approach, play based learning, and inquiry.  The Assessment Group is focusing on further developing our digital portfolios. The teachers lead these groups themselves and seek out professional development, experts in the field as well as other schools in Singapore to further their research. In this way, the students benefit from the very best.

Have a great weekend.

Mario Gauci

Head of Primary

Perspectives from the PYP Coordinator

15 January

On House days, you can see how everyone in our school shows their spirit by wearing their colors. The House captains and class representatives design interactive games and activities to extend this spirit further with cheering on your House. The EY gathered on the astroturf for games but were quickly running for cover as the rain came pouring. The JY answered jokes in the hall for points. Congratulations to Changi. It is so much fun to see everyone having fun in such an enthusiastic way.