ITEMS: Semester 1 Reports; PTA News.
Principal’s Message
Dear HIS Community
Thank you for your ongoing support of our health guidelines as we navigate the current COVID wave. Also, congratulations to our Gr12 students who have just completed their DP practice exams and will now spend a couple of months completing the last of their internal assessment tasks and preparing for their final exams in May.
As another group of students get set to move out into the world, it is good to give some thought to the nature of the barriers that they may face. As an IB school, we define inclusion as the identification and removal of barriers to learning (or other opportunities) and I think this is a useful definition to look at when we are thinking of inclusive communities and the peaceful cultures that result from this inclusiveness. Looking at gender imbalances in different professions leads to some really important questions. In fact, during the week, I saw the results of some research looking at gender balances among international school principals and there were some interesting results. Among principals who had been in their position for a long time, the principalship had far more men than women but amongst principals who had been in their position for a shorter time (i.e. more recent hiring), the balance was far more even between the genders. Although the statistics can be interpreted in many ways, this did point to a positive shift in the equity of access to the principalship over the past decade which is very good news for us all. International schools are increasingly looking at Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice (DEIJ) in all aspects of school operations and gender is just one of the areas of focus. With this in mind, I thought this TED Talk may be of interest. It’s a great presentation by youth educator and builder Emily Pilloton-Lam and an important message. Enjoy your weekend.
Kind regards
Damian Rentoule
Crane Video
Semester 1 Reports
The Semester 1 reports went home today so this is a great opportunity to sit down with your child to discuss not only what they have been learning but also how they have been learning. You can have this conversation anytime of course, but the assessment information, including the teacher comments provides a great starting point.
PTA News
◆ Important Update Regarding Val-O-Gram Val-O-Gramに関する大切なお知らせ (訂正)
We sent the Val-O-Gram application form via your child/ren on Monday 24 January. But as we let you know by the second email on Wednesday (1/26), there is an important update regarding the form.
We forgot to subtract the “giving” child from the number of all the classmates (③). If you want to give to all your classmates, please apply by subtracting 1 from the number of people listed on the application form.
The correct number of people is listed below. This is the current number of students (-1) as of 2/14.
1月24日月曜日にお子様を通じてVal-O-Gramの申込書をお渡ししました。水曜日(1/26)に追加のメールでお伝えしましたように、このVal-O-Gramの申込書に関して重要なお知らせがあります。③のクラスメート全員分の人数からご自分のお子様分の人数を引くのを忘れておりました。クラスメート全員に贈られる場合、申込書に記載の人数から、１を引いた数をお申し込みください。
正しい人数は下のとおりです。これは、現在わかっている2/14時点での生徒数 (-1) です。
・PYP Class Members / PYPクラス全員
All EC Classmates 全員 (4 with 1 new student) 
・Secondary Class Members / セカンダリー クラス全員
All G6 Classmates 全員 (7) 
For applications that have already been submitted, the excess will be refunded.
Sorry for the confusion.
既に提出されている過剰分の申し込みにつきましては、返金させていただきます。
混乱させてしまい、申し訳ありません。
◆ Applications must be submitted on a paper application form. Online submission is not possible.
申し込みは必ず紙の申込書で提出してください。オンラインでの提出はできません。
◆ Regarding option ② “Take-out”, we will not fill in the addressee / sender names on the Val-O-Gram so please do that yourself after you take them home.
Please do not duplicate the application for options ① and ②.
②の「外部宛て持ち帰り」につきましては、こちらで宛名や差出人の記入をせずに持って帰っていただいてご自分で記入してもらうための、無記名のVal-O-Gram商品のみの持ち帰り分となります。①の申し込みと、②の申し込み分は重複させないでください。
◆ We would appreciate having your orders as soon as possible, before Monday February 7th.
Val-O-Gramの準備に時間を要しますので、出来るだけ早くご注文いただけますと助かります。
最終締切日は2月7日(月) です。
◆ All money raised will go to PTA funds and will be used for school and students. We appreciate your kind support. Thank you 🙂
この全収益はPTAの資金となり、今後、生徒の皆さんや学校のために使われます。皆さんのご理解とご協力に心から感謝いたします。よろしくお願いいたします。
That’s all from us. Have a great weekend! Take care and stay safe!
今週のお知らせは以上です。皆さま、どうぞご自愛のうえ、よい週末をお過ごしくださいね。
From the PTA