Whole School Events
1. PD and Early Release
We are so fortunate to have so many resources at XLIS, but our greatest resource is our staff. They led a number of fantastic professional development workshops on these days. Our staff had agency to choose two workshops to attend. A full list of the workshops offered are as follows:
· Whole Book Reading Instruction
· Language Acquisition Practices
· Accurate Assessment
· Daily 5 and the Curriculum
· Enjoy Exit Tickets
· Assessment Principles and Practices
· Approaches to Learning
· Suicide and How to Respond
· Inclusive classroom culture
· Ontario Standards and the IB
· Teaching Elementary Math and Tiered Questioning Strategy
· Nurturing A Culture of Care
2. Professional Development Days
Our school hosted a number of IB workshops in two days. Our primary school was working on agency and action while our secondary school was learning about inclusion. Agency refers to students having choice in where the learning is going, thus engaging them to a greater degree. Inclusion is the process of developing a school where all kinds of learners feel supported and challenged.
3. PTA Core Members Meeting
In November PTA Meeting, we mainly shared and discussed topics as below:
· Introducing The Christmas Season at XLIS
· Free Parent Morning
· PTA Elections
· Barter Trade
4. XLIS Sports Events
November was a month of transition for the sports teams at XLIS. Season one came to a conclusion with a series of major tournaments, and season two has begun with tryout opportunities for new sports followed by the start of friendly games
XLIS Athletics – Season in Review
Primary School Events
1. P1 and P2 Mandarin Workshop
This workshop was led by our two Mandarin Teachers Ms. Faustina and Ms. Winnie. They highlighted Mandarin learning for native speakers through their developmental years of literacy learning. Parents learned strategies they could use at home to help develop their child’s Mandarin skills.
2. The 4th “Blue Dragon Cup” Primary School Swimming Championships
3. Parent Workshop (for PYP4)
This workshop for parents to better understand our assessments that are given three times a year in Reading, Writing and Mathematics (using the IXL platform). Mr. Henry and Mr. Harrison explained how these assessments were done and what their purpose was. Parents gained a deeper understanding of what the data from these assessments was used for, how to use the data to help children at home, and how it helped teachers plan their instruction.
Secondary School Events
1. Open Day
· Wednesday, 15th November
MYP1
· Thursday, 16th November
MYP2
· Wednesday, 22nd November
MYP3-MYP4
In November, we’ve welcomed M1 to M4 parents to the Open Day events. Stepping into the classes enables parents to get more understanding through free observation of the teaching & learning at XLIS, as well as the overall peer relationship and other school life. We are fortunate to continue to listen to parents’ voices in these meaningful ways. These really matters XLIS’s further development and improvement.
2. Parents’Meetings
Wednesday, 15th November (M3 Parents)
Wednesday, 22nd November (M4 Parents)
Wednesday, 29th November (M5 Parents)
Theme: Plan for the further education of your child.
A team of teachers together with the Secondary Principal, the Coordinators addressed all parents’ queries about the plan for their child’s further education. This was an important session during which we addressed the misconceptions that were being spread about the opportunities that students had in foreign countries from High School.
3. Parents / Students Evening – M3 Choices for M4
All M3 parents and students were invited to this evening to hear the presentations from the coordinators and had a chat with the teachers to decide the Science and Arts choices for our current M3 students.
4. Middle School Math Trivia Afternoon
Math Trivia Afternoon is an interdisciplinary quiz event that brings all MYP subjects together and offers an opportunity for students and teachers across the grades and subjects to work together. Similar to a traditional Trivia Night in the west, it’s a competition that asks participants various trivia questions, either from an array of categories or according to a specific theme.
More specifically, Math Trivia Afternoon for middle school consisted of 5 rounds: I&S-Math, PHE-Math, Science-Math, Arts-Math, Pure-Math. Each round consisted of 7-10 math-themed questions and a teacher from a specific subject worked with a designated math teacher to announce questions and collected the results at the end of the round. Each team (15 teams in total) in this trivia event had 9 to 10 players from MYP1 to MYP3 and players designed their own team names and strategies during homeroom time. There was a winner announced at the end of each round and a grand winner for all 5 rounds. This event greatly propelled students to practice Interdisciplinary Learning as MYP required them to apply math in other subjects and to real life situations.
5. Parent Workshop ( For DP1)
Ms. Jasmin and the DP Coordinator, Mr. Shameek led a workshop on CAS- Creativity, Activity and Service. This was an interactive workshop where parents were able to deepen their understanding of CAS and its place in the Diploma Programme.
Click here for more details.
