Malawi project update: Making a roof out of biscuits!

Our Primary section pupils and teachers can proudly see the results of their regulary weekly biscuit sales in aid of the Chankhasi School in Malawi. Donations have been used to buy the roof trusses which are now in place and pending the completion of the school roof. The Chankhasi school has made huge advances in the last two years and our continued support will be essential to keep up this pace of development.

Newsletter September 2009.


Dear parents and students,

Firstly I would like to welcome you all back to school and to the start of the academic year 2009/2010. We have thirty-five pupils who are completely new to our school community and I am sure that they will be quickly integrated and made to feel at home.
I want to welcome three new members of our teaching staff: Steve Gallego, who has taken over as physical education teacher and coordinator, Lorraine McFarlane, who returns to Morna as assistant teacher in the nursery class and Vannessa Pearson who has joined us as assistant teacher in Year 2.

Here are a few brief but important news items relating to the start of this academic year and the conclusion of the last one:


Academic performances worth celebrating.

Excellent overall results were achieved by pupils in the Year 11 class who sat their main GCSE examinations last June.
Ten out of the fourteen pupils who completed Year 11 passed between six and nine subjects, four of these passed all nine examinations and one pupil actually achieved grade A or A* in every single subject.
In total 80% of all examinations taken resulted in grades A* to C (the grades that are recognised as passes for access to higher education)
These results confirm that Morna International College is reaching its targets with regards to academic performance and, as the table below clearly demonstrates, there has been very substantial improvement over the last four years.

IGCSE performance for pupils in Year 11
Year 2006 2007 2008 2009
A* to C 54% 60% 68% 80%
A* or A 19% 26% 28% 31%

In addition to this, evidence from SAT’s and internal assessment of pupils throughout the school suggests that these standards will be maintained in future years.
Pupils in Year 12 taking the first half of the ‘A’ level qualification (‘AS’) achieved an overall 82% pass rate, which places them in a good position to successfully complete their ‘A’ levels this year.
We also continue to raise expectations and standards in the Spanish and German examinations where pupils are often entered one or two years earlier than the other subjects. Native speakers are taking ‘AS’ and ‘A’ level examinations in Years 10 and 11 and even non-native speakers are now entering the Spanish IGCSE a year early. Virtually all of their results have been A* or A.


Parent-tutor meetings

The introductory meetings for parents are scheduled as follows:
Monday 21st September: Parents from Years 10, 11, 12 and 13.
Tuesday 22nd September: Parents from Nursery and Reception.
Wednesday 23rd September: Parents from Years 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.
Thursday 24th September: Parents from Years 7, 8 and 9.

The meetings start at 15:45. We hope that you can all attend as they provide an excellent opportunity to meet teachers and tutors and receive information about our plans and objectives for the academic year.



Other events in the first half term.

The annual book fair will be taking place on Monday 28th September. Invitations to all parents will be distributed via the pupils.
Our traditional autumn fund raising event is scheduled for Wednesday 21st October.


Precautions with respect to H1N1 flu.

Morna International College will be following all guidelines issued by the local health and education authorities with regards to the H1N1 flu (‘swine flu’).
At present these consist of the following:
Hygiene measures to avoid infection.
Teachers will explain and reinforce good hygiene habits such as: regularly washing hands (soap and water are available in all the main classrooms as well as the toilets), avoiding sharing cups and utensils, using tissues and not coughing or sneezing into the open air. Parents should also help us to reinforce these habits.
Isolation of individual cases
Pupils should not be sent to school if they have fever or other flu symptoms. Pupils at school who have a fever will be immediately isolated and their parents will be required to take them home.
Information and tracking.
Parents must inform the school if their child is diagnosed as having H1N1 flu so that we can monitor any spread of the illness in particular classes or sections.

At this point in time there is no recommendation for delay to the start of the academic year. We will keep parents informed of any developments or further instructions from the health authorities.

Access to news and information.

The updated version of our Parents Handbook is available for downloading from the school website:

www.mornainternationalcollege.com

The school calendar can also be found there. Alternatively, parents may collect copies from Linda in the school office.
Please remember that regular news items and copies of letters are placed on our school blog:

http://mornainternationalibiza.blogspot.com
All parents should have provided the school with an e-mail address for individual communication. If you have not already done so, please give this address to Linda or send it to

info@mornainternationalcollege.com

or via a note to your child’s tutor.

Finally I would just like to wish all of our students an enjoyable and highly successful school year.

Yours truly,

Adrian Massam.
Headteacher.

Final events to close the year.

The academic year 2008/2009 ended on Friday 26th June with the traditional prize giving ceremony, which was attended by Vicent Mari, Mayor of Santa Eulalia. The week leading up to this was, as always, packed with special events which included sports days, the art show and class excursions.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this being a successful year and we look forward to seeing you all again in September.

Liverpool June 2009

Friday 19th June /Monday 22nd June

Eleven students from years 9 and 10 visited Liverpool last weekend for their end of year trip. The trip included visits to The Beatles Museum, The Tate Gallery, the Liverpool Slavery Museum, the Maritime Museum, Anfield and the Oye live African music festival.

They ate a variety of traditional English food from sweet and sour chicken and seaweed to steak pie.


Students stayed at a youth hostel close to Albert Docks and were accompanied by Philip Dobie and Shelley Taylor.

MIC would like to thank IPAMIC.

After being active for more than four years, the Independent Parents Association of Morna International College (IPAMIC) has announced its dissolution. Our parents do, however, continue to be represented by the recently formed association AMPAMIC, who have adopted a very similar role and enjoy the support of many former IPAMIC members.
Although their foundation as a representative group was initially motivated by concerns, IPAMIC soon established an open working relationship with the school, and a clear mission statement to collaborate with and support the school’s initiatives to improve the quality of education. They organised numerous fund raising events and subsequently dedicated those funds to purchasing specific educational resources, taking into account the school’s recommendations.
IPAMIC provided parent collaborators for many school curricular projects such as theatre productions, art exhibitions and the PSHE (personal, social and health education) programme, for which they offered speakers with specific expertise in areas such as career choices or drug awareness. They also helped with the organisation and production of school yearbooks.
As parents representatives they brought many suggestions and queries to their meetings with the school management. They carried out surveys providing useful and balanced information about parents’ perceptions of the school and these formed part of the schools own internal review processes. They also set up the parent-teacher liaison group so that parental collaboration in educational projects could be discussed directly with teacher representatives.
Their latest project has been to fund and organise the clearing of the forest area at the back of the school grounds so that this can be used for educational activities. The project proposes establishing a fitness trail to enhance the sports programme and in addition to this the forest will offer many educational opportunities for other subjects. This is expected to be in full use by next academic year.
The list of initiatives and activities becomes more noteworthy when we consider that only a relatively small number of parents have been active members of the IPAMIC board and this group have managed to find the time and energy to participate in many projects from which the school has gained benefit. In recognition of this, Morna International College would like to express its appreciation of their efforts and to thank them for working with us in our movement towards the common goal of excellence that we as educators share with you as parents.

-

Adrian Massam

Headteacher.

Events in June:

Dear parents,
As we approach the end of the academic year, I would just like to remind you of the events which will be taking place over the next few weeks and at which we hope to see as many of you as possible.

Primary Sports day.
On Friday 19th June, parents with children in the Primary section are welcome to watch (and even participate in) the inter-house sports day. This will be held on the sports courts starting at 9:30.

Art Show.
This annual event will be taking place on Tuesday 23rd June from 14:30 to 16:00. Art work produced by pupils throughout the school will be on display.

End of year trips.
Details of these will be published separately. Excursions are planned to take place on Wednesday 24th June.

School Yearbook 2009.
We expect this magnificent summary of the school year to be on sale during the last week of term.

Prize giving ceremony.
This will be held on the last day of term (Friday 26th June) at 10:00 in the theatre area. There will be some musical items and several short speeches and refreshments, as well as the traditional presentation of prizes.

I would also like to remind you that reports will be given to all students from Nursery to Year 10 on the last day of term.

Adrian Massam
Headteacher.

UNICEF receive a donation from MIC students.
On Thursday 25th March, representatives from UNICEF in Ibiza attended a brief assembly in order to receive a donation of 502.50€; funds that had been raised by students from the secondary section in the last autumn fair.