The Crane, 14 January 2022

ITEMS: Introduction from James Steward (incoming Principal); HIS Alumni Presentations; HIS News.

Message from James Steward (HIS Principal from August 2022)

Dear Hiroshima International School Community

I wanted to take this time to wish you a Happy New Year!

I am presently still at Ridley College in Ontario, Canada where we are in the midst of a significant winter cold spell. Temperatures have dipped to -20’C recently. There are many people skating on the local frozen lakes and ponds in the region. I suspect that it is much warmer in Hiroshima!

I have been meeting with Damian Rentoule regularly over the past couple of months. He has been keeping me up to speed with developments on the HIS front.

I am truly looking forward to coming to Hiroshima next school year and have appreciated all of the support HIS has offered me to date.

For reference, my wife, Alana, is of Japanese-Canadian descent, and we previously spent 11 years together at Tohoku International School in Sendai. We have three children. Mika, who is a professional figure skater with Disney on Ice (Moana), and presently touring the USA. Taia, who is also a professional skater, presently studying and skating at Brock University in Canada. And finally, Kiyo, who is a hockey player presently pursuing his favourite sport here in Canada!

I am looking very forward to joining the HIS team very soon.

Our family is often difficult to find in one place these days, therefore, I am sharing a picture taken a couple of years ago!

Sincerely,

James Steward

Principal’s Message

Dear HIS Community

Thank you to James for the welcome message. As James mentioned, we have been communicating regularly as part of the transition. James and I have known each other since his time in Tohoku and I am confident that this will be a very smooth transition and I am sure that you are all looking forward to welcoming James and his family into the HIS community. In case you were wondering, I am moving to Tokyo to join Aoba International School as principal for a new campus they are opening in Bunkyo Ward so that will be a new challenge which I am looking forward to after six very enjoyable years at HIS.

For today’s message, I wanted to talk about Science at HIS. We had a wonderful Alumni event on Wednesday this week and although we did not plan it this way, all five of the participating HIS graduates had gone into science fields after graduating from HIS. For this reason, it is a good example to explore today. I am sometimes asked by parents if HIS prepares students for science at university. This question is often based on a certain uneasiness that comes from the inquiry-based approach to science in MYP being a bit different to what some of us may have experienced in our schooling with more traditional (i.e. content-focused, text-based) approaches.

The answer is, of course, ‘Yes, most definitely. Our students are ready.’ We can look at our consistently excellent Diploma Program (DP) results over the years as one indication that our inquiry-based approach to teaching and learning is working. However, the success of your child is not determined by DP results, but rather their readiness for independent life after their schooling is complete. Do they have the skills to be successful at university and beyond? In order to see this, we need to look beyond our graduation. This is how success needs to be judged.

In today’s Crane Video, you will hear from five of our recent graduates from classes between 2021 to 2016. All of these students have been out in the world for just a short time. These are our graduates who have been through our IB programs at HIS and, as you will see, were more than ready for everything they encountered in their world after graduation. Many thanks to Monica, Yuya, Sho, Leela, and Leah who joined us from all around the world to share their stories. We are proud of you all. As a HIS parent, this is a series of presentations that you do not want to miss.

Enjoy your weekend.

Regards

Damian Rentoule

Crane Video

PTA News

Happy New Year Everyone! We look forward to working with you all again this year.

Right from the beginning of the year, infections of the new Omicron corona strain have been spreading rapidly, and the school re-started while priority measures to reduce spread were applied in Hiroshima City. Let’s take all possible infection control measures to protect each other and manage to work through this period 😊

On the first day of school reopening (1/11), many people helped clean up the Christmas decorations. Thank you very much.

Regarding the PTA meeting that we mentioned in the Crane at the end of last year, we plan to hold it at a later time, so please wait for a while. If the corona measures are prolonged, we will hold it on Zoom only.

That’s all for the announcement from this week’s PTA.

皆さま、明けましておめでとうございます。皆さま、今年もどうぞよろしくお願い申し上げます。

年明けから新しいオミクロン株の感染が急激に広がり、広島市にまん延防止等重点措置が適用される中での学校開始となってしまいました。私たち皆がお互いを守るつもりで可能な限りの感染対策を行い、この時期をどうにか乗り越えていきましょう😊

また学校再開初日(1/11)から、たくさんの皆さまがクリスマス・デコレーションの片付けを快くお手伝いくださいました。ありがとうございました。

年末のCraneで少しお話したPTAミーティングについてですが、少し時期を見て開催したいと思いますので、しばらくお待ちください。コロナの感染状況が長引くようであれば、Zoom のみで開催しようと思います。

今週のPTAからのお知らせは以上です。