​What I’m excited about…
 
Welcome Back! Welcome back to our second semester. I hope that you had a wonderful holiday season. We are off to a great start on another exciting semester. If you haven’t already done so, please make it a habit to read the Leopard’s Tale each week so you can stay abreast of the wide range of activities at AISL.
 
Cognitive Coaching Workshop! From Friday, 18 January through Monday, 21 January, AISL will be hosting a four-day professional development workshop for teachers and school leaders in the Palm Tree Pavilion. The workshop’s focus is on the use of professional coaching conversations to improve performance and resolve conflicts using the Cognitive Coaching model. Beyond some of our own staff members, we will be hosting eleven participants from nine different international schools from around the world. This is another great example of AISL showing leadership in professional development.
 
Security Company Change! As of 1 February, you will notice new uniforms on the guards at the gate. After our tendering process concluded in December, we decided to change our security services contractor to Pre-Secure. Since the new company will take on many of our current guards, we are confident that the transition will be a smooth one. Nevertheless, I appreciate your patience with any snags that may occur as we make this change.
 
Save the Date – ISSEA Basketball! Please plan to come and cheer on our basketball teams while they compete in the annual International Schools of Southern and Eastern Africa (ISSEA) Basketball tournament from 31 January through 2 February here at AISL. Hosting this event is a great honor since it is one of the oldest and largest ISSEA tournaments. We will host 140 scholar-athletes and more than thirty coaches from seven other international schools in the region for an exciting few days of great sport and camaraderie. We would love to have as many parents and students as possible coming to the games to cheer on our Leopards as we go for the gold!
 

Envision Global Young Leaders Conference, DC
Zelio, in grade 11, has been accepted to attend the Envision Global Young Leaders Conference, in Washington D.C., designed for high school students. This is a 10-day leadership journey providing an out-of-classroom learning experience and rigorous curriculum that equips students from across the United States and more than 145 countries with the confidence, independence, skills, and global competitiveness required of the next generation of leaders.


Students develop into true global citizens, acquire in-demand leadership skills, and get the travel experience of a lifetime. They will have the opportunity to visit international embassies, participate in Global Issues workshops – during which leading authorities present various 21st century challenges impacting our world – and hone the communication, decision-making, and negotiation skills needed to be a 21st century world leader. By completing this program, students are eligible to receive college credit from George Mason University. www.envisionexperience.com ​

Dear Families,

We are looking forward to an exciting second semester. To our returning families, welcome back! We hope that all of you had a wonderful holiday with plenty of time for friends and family. This month, we welcome eight new students: Yannick, Ewnet and Lealem (ELC); Kathy, Tristan and Henry (G1); Damien (G2) and Gabriel (G3). All of our students are off to a great start meeting and reconnecting with friends and teachers.

University of Bath, UK
Recently Mohamed opened his first acceptance message. This was from the University of Bath to study for the Bachelor of Science with Honours in Architecture with Placement. The University of Bath was established on Claverton Down in Bath in 1966. It is a campus university in the South West of England and only 1 hour and 25 minutes away from London by train.


The Architecture with Placement course at Bath gives students the practical and creative skills needed to explore, analyse and communicate architectural proposals. Students combine project work in design studios with a grounding in the historic and cultural theory of architecture. Through integrating science, mathematics, and art students learn how to control, manipulate, and compose internal spaces and external forms.


On the Architecture course at Bath, there is a focus around studio work from the beginning. This is where students work collaboratively to produce integrated design solutions. More importantly, they develop the practical skills to realise their creative potential. ​

Do you have goals for 2019?

We hope that nurturing your creativity is one of the many things you are looking forward to in the year ahead.  If you are looking for ideas to spur you to action, try checking out some of the links below.  They are filled with great suggestions for students, parents, and friends to get creative!  Why not check them out?

Make it a great year!  ~ The Creative Arts Team

Ideas to Fuel Your Creativity - from the BBC:  "Nurture a creative skill or learn a new one."

17 Ways to Develop Your Creativity: "Creativity is all about finding new ways to solve problems and approach situations. This isn't a skill restricted to artists, musicians, or writers; it is a useful skill for people from all walks of life."

A Guide to Developing Your Creativity: "Creativity is a muscle that can and should be trained... being able to apply a creative lens is a key success factor in all careers."

Developing Your Creativity in 8 Practical Ways: "One of the areas that really distinguishes human intelligence from artificial intelligence is creativity...the creative element is something that lies within every human being."

More from the BBC:
iWonder: How Can I Be More Creative?
ARTS: Get Creative

One of the things I've heard both teachers and students saying around campus is that they want to challenge themselves to read more. For those of you who haven't heard of GoodReads, it's a great on-line site where you can set reading goals for yourself, find recommendations, explore interviews with favorite authors, and follow friends & their reading (and more!). The majority of our high school students already have accounts on GoodReads and are using it to keep track of their reading. You can set a reading goal challenge for yourself on GoodReads (a number of books you'd like to read across 2019, for instance)- but if that's not your style perhaps a different goal is in order: trying a new genre, reading the entire body of a favorite author's work, exploring reads set in this region, or taking a deep dive into a subject that captivates you. You can follow our Primary Librarian, Ms. Jill Daley, or our Secondary Librarian, Ms. Terry Maguire, on Goodreads to see what they're reading and recommending.

Modelling reading is a powerful way to make a statement about its importance. Even if that means reading for only 15 minutes as a family a night, that still amounts to nearly 2 hours of reading across a week! On long road-trips, families might want to select an audio book to listen to as a family & discuss - or take turns reading a book aloud as a family. Our library staff is always ready to provide recommendations!

This semester we are excited to launch two new book awards at AISL: The Leopard's Paw Award for best book for middle school (Gr6-8), and The Leopard's Eye for best book for high school (Gr9-12). Two student groups polled their peers to generate a short-list of books, and then whittled that list down to the top four reads for each division (books had to be published within the past 2 years and available in the AISL library).  Secondary students will have until May to read at least two of the books on the list for their division, and then will vote on the best read for the awards in May. This initiative is one way to promote more reading and to show how excited our students are about books.

Whether you are returning to AISL this semester or are joining us as a new family, remember that the library is a welcoming gathering place for all members of our community! Parents are encouraged to open accounts, too, as we have an excellent range of fiction & non-fiction for adults in addition to our offerings for students. Our library is a space where everyone is free to relax, read, explore, create, and collaborate. Please visit us!

AISL will host ISSEA Basketball from Wednesday, 30 January, to Sunday, 3 February, 2019.  
Visiting athletes will come from seven other international schools around our region and we need AISL host families to open their homes to host these students.
The students will arrive Wednesday, 30 January, and depart Sunday, 3 February, 2019.

AISL has had the privilege of sending students to different parts of the world.
Our students have been graciously hosted by families of ISSEA schools.
It is now our privilege to reciprocate and open our homes to visiting ISSEA students.

Any AISL family qualifies as a host family.  
We are looking for host families to extend our warmest AISL welcome to house the 140 visiting athletes.

Host Expectations:

• Each host family must provide a safe, supportive, and comfortable living environment.
• Host families provide breakfast as well as a clean sleeping space (camping cot, sleeping bag, sofa, bed, etc.).
• All lunches are covered by the school. However, evening meals may be required occasionally to be covered by the host family.
• Host families provide transportation after the games finish in the evenings.
• Host families should help manage communication and e-mails with the families of the hosted students.

If you are interested in supporting student athletes visiting our school by being a host family, please fill out the form via the link below:
ISSEA Hosting Form
Once you have committed to hosting, you will receive more details on times and dates.

Please contact Paula Phiri at isseahosting@aislusaka.org if you have any further questions.

​Thanks for your support!

Dear Parents and Students
Compliments of the Season ! Welcome to After School Activities Session 2.
AISL has new and exciting ASA 's for this term and we hope you will enjoy them .
The website is : mychq.net/aislusaka

After School Activities: Second Session Deadlines
Thursday, 17 January: ASA descriptions and schedules available for viewing
Friday, 18 January: ASA registration opens 08:00
Sunday, 20 January: ASA registration closes at midnight
Tuesday, 22 January: ASAs Begin
Friday, 29 March: End of ASAs for this session

If you are interested in paid private lessons in horseback riding, karate, or music, click on this link.  
You can also search the AISL website under "After School Activities” or access the list of private teachers through the mychq portal;
your username is your e-mail address.  
You can contact teachers directly if you would like private lessons.

If you need to make any changes or additions to your child’s ASA schedule, contact the Sports and Activities office directly by 12 February. You can reach the Sports and Activities team at activities@aislusaka.org.

For new parents and students, here is a guide on how to sign up for activities:

1. Go to http://mychq.net/aislusaka
2. Enter your username and password
   The username is your child's school email address e.g 2017ebrown@aislusaka.org.
   If you forgot the password, e-mail activities@aislusaka.org for support.

     3. In the members area, fill in the details, follow the instructions, and move through the registration                   process.
    4. Click on "My Activities” Tab to view the activities available to your child.
    5. To select an activity, put "1" in the box and click submit.  Do not enter any other numbers (e.g. 2, 3).     

When an activity has filled up, it will disappear from the ASA offerings.
Once the sign up session has closed, the After School Activity administration team will close the portal and prepare the class list for each activity.
If you require any further assistance with any of the stages above please contact us at activities@aislusaka.org.  Be sure to include your child’s full name and grade with your inquiry.

We hope you will enjoy the program!

Welcome back to all of our families.  We sincerely hope that you had a great break and were able to get some quality family time together.  We are thrilled to be starting the Second Semester of the school year.  It is hard to believe that we are already half way through this school year.  We are looking forward to building upon the great momentum that we created in the first half and finish the year strong.  It has been great getting our kids back in the classroom and filling the campus with energy and laughter.  It is such a pleasure to watch our students come back to school with a positive attitude and excited to get back into student life.  We are truly fortunate to have a school community were this happens.  As always, we look forward to forging even more positive relationships with all of our parents and connecting in a formal or social setting.  

We are excited about many of the things we have going on this semester.  We will have an ASA assembly on Friday to introduce students to the new list of activities.  Students will be able to sign up after the assembly.  The new ASA session will begin next Tuesday, 22 January.  While we are thrilled that nearly all of our students take advantage of our strong ASA program, please remember that we also have teachers hosting tutoring and academic support sessions on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.  If your child one benefit from one or more of these, please help them ensure that they do not enroll in other ASAs during this time.

We are looking forward to hosting the ISSEA basketball tournament on 31 January 31 - 2 February.  We hope to see as many of our community members out to support the participants in the newly remodeled gymnasium. 

Let us not forget that this will be the last semester for our seniors.  And what a semester it will be!  They will experience mock IB exams in February, revision sessions following the mocks, and then the real thing in May.  We would once again love to see as many of our community members come out to celebrate the culmination of the Grade 12 students' Secondary education careers at graduation on June 1.  

Finally, for all of our students, the final day of school is on Thursday, 13 June.  As you make your vacation plans, we kindly ask that all families plan to have their children in attendance through this date.

These are only a sprinkling of the many, many, many activities we have going in the Second Semester.  Please keep an eye on the school website/Leopard's Tale to ensure your are up to date on all that is happening on campus.  

We hope to see all of you on campus at some point.  If you find yourself here, please stop by the Secondary office for a cup of coffee and to simply say "Hi".

Secondary Leadership Team