Arendal
International
School

As we reach the end of the current school year our attention shifts to the year still to come! 2009-2010 was a big year in the permanent establishment of AIS; we moved to the present buildings at His and were authorised by the IB to run the PYP.

As is the nature of international schools, every year some teachers will move on, whilst others arrive.  This year Mr Jonathan and Ms Sarah are leaving us, as they move to an international school in Thailand, Ms Gunn is taking up a full time position at Arendal High School as the IB diploma coordinator for the coming year, and Mr Fred is leaving so that he is able to concentrate more fully on his business.

We are very lucky to have Ms Mataji Sharma joining us from an established IB world school in India as our new MYP coordinator.  Ms Candice, who you will know from her excellent work with Grades 1 & 2 and as our support teacher, will be joining us as a full time PYP teacher.

Also there will be some internal changes in the staffing at the school, with Mr Ken stepping down as PYP coordinator to be ably replaced in that role by Ms Antonia. 

The contact teacher for all students and parents remains the homeroom teachers, and from August these will be:

Grades 1 & 2 – Mr Ken

Grades 3 & 4 – Ms Antonia

Grades 5 & 6 – Ms Candice

Grade 7 – Mr Geir

Grade 8 – Ms Jenny

Grade 9 – Ms Ruth

Grade 10 – Mr Alex

You will be pleased to hear that Ms Yvonne is not leaving us, but will be teaching science in grades 7, 8 and 9 and also taking over from Ms Sarah as our Teacher Librarian.

Arendal International School had the honour in taking the leading line at the Children's Parade through the street of Arendal. Two students from AIS grade 7 were also selected to give the Speech of the Day beside the Mayor at the main event in town.

Our school teacher-librarian, Ms Sarah, is the winner of the global School Library Technology Innovation Award 2010 for the work done this year on promoting the use of internet tools and technologies to enhance learning throughout the school at AIS!

 

The award is given by the International Association of School Librarians and will be presented in Brisbane, Australia later this year. This award is in recognition of the work Ms Sarah has done with PYP, MYP and the teachers at AIS, and is a genuine achievement, particularly when one considers how the school library began this time last year, and the huge range of big, established and often wealthy international schools all around the world she was competing against.  
I am sure you will join with us in congratulating Sarah for this amazing achievement!

The PYP of AIS part of the Global IB Community!
Great news for AIS and all those who worked hard to attain the IB official certification.

The wonderful news came this morning (5th May 2010) in a form of a letter accompanied by a certificate that authorizes AIS to offer PYP. The letter, signed by the IB Director General, Jeffrey R. Beard, among others states:

"I am pleased to inform you that your school has been authorized to teach the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme starting with immediate effect. May I take this opportunity to congratulate you on this significant accomplishment and welcome you to our growing IB community."

"We look forward to working with you in the future and, again, warmly welcome you to the IB community".

 
One down, one to go. Next in line, is the MYP that will undergo certification early next year.

We congratulate our hard working teams.