M I D D L E S C H O O L

F R I D A Y
ISSUE # 36
SY1617

BULLETIN
WEEKLY PUBLICATION FOR PARENTS

Issue # 5 week of september 18 22 sy1718

Dear Parents, Speaker: Lynn Kachmarik

Please see the emails from Sam Cook and Paula
Thank you to all parents who attend the MS MAP Parent Cof- Tuason for additional details.
fee on Tuesday. If you were unable to attend the workshop,
you can access the presentation slides here. We hope this Thursday, September 28th and Friday, September
provides a little additional information for our working par- 29th:
ents who were unable to attend the event. We have a busy No School!
week in Middle School so please read on to make sure you September 28th = Faculty In-Service Day
are in the loop regarding upcoming deadlines and events! September 29th = School Holiday

THIS WEEK: COMING UP SOON:

Monday, September 18th Thursday, October 5th and Friday,October 6th:
CWW Permission Slips CWW Week (Classroom Without Walls)
Deadline for permission slips to be returned to Below is a brief overview of the upcoming CWW
school. events. (Please see the Need to Know section for
more details!)
Monday, September 18th - Wednesday, September Grade 5: On Campus - no overnight
27th: Grade 6: Off Campus at Island Cove (Overnight
MS MAP Testing Window: trip)
MAP testing takes place during regular class time Grade 7: Off Campus at Club Balai Isabel
(English, Social Studies and Math) (Overnight trip)
These tests are untimed and are taken on a lap- Grade 8: Off Campus at Caliraya (Overnight trip)
top.
The slides from the recent MAP Parent Coffee
are linked above.

Whats
Thursday, September 21st:
ESL Parent Coffee (MS and HS)

Inside?
Location: Little Theater
Time: 7:45 - 9:00 a.m.
Audience: Parents with students in the ESL pro-
gram

COMING UP NEXT WEEK: Campus Card Corner 2

Tuesday, September 26th: MS Activities 2
Parent Dinner and Seminar:
Location: Lofthouse Athletics & Activities 3
Time:
Registration is at 17:30 Operations & Security 4
Event starts at 18:00
Focus: How to Raise Great Adults Admissions & Advancement 7
ISM Upcoming Events 8
 NEED TO KNOW: NICE TO KNOW:
CWW: Message from the PCA:
Please remember that Monday, September 18th is the desig-
nated deadline for students to return their signed CWW per-
mission slips. If you have yet to do this, please take some
time this weekend to complete this task. Students should
hand in their CWW permission slips to their Advisory teacher
during Mondays scheduled Advisory session from 2:35 -
3:00p.m.

Please note that the CWW program is part of our curriculum

and as such, it is expected that all students attend the CWW
experiences. If you have any concerns about our CWW trips,
please reach out to your childs Grade Level Counselor or
Grade Level Program Leader. (Please see the introductory
letters that were emailed at the end of the first week of
school for their names and contact information.)

ESL Parent Coffee:

On Thursday, Kim Guiry and the MS and HS ESL teams will be
facilitating a Parent Coffee on English as a Second/Other
Language. If you have a child in the ESL program you are
encouraged to attend. Please see the accompanying flyer
for further details!
The PCA would like to thank everyone who came to our Bear-
cat Welcome event on September 6th. We hope you found it
served its purpose -- which was to provide our parent com-
munity with a "living" guide to Manila and all the beauty and
bounty it offers. We hope this helped new parents get a
quick brief on what's available and hope that returning par-
ents found something new about the city and country we live
in.

We all enjoyed the raffle and the PCA thanks its sponsors for
their donations. The funds raised will go to projects ground-
ed in the various schools in the coming year.

We have lots of events in store for this coming school year -

including some new ones! Our next event will be a parent
dinner and seminar held in partnership with ISMs Learning
Center on Sept 26 "How to Raise Great Adults" with guest
speaker Lynn Kachmarik.

Kind regards,
Rachel and Amanda

CAMPUS CARD CORNER MS ACTIVITIES

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campuscard@ismanila.org
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ATHLETICS & ACTIVITIES
The next Rifa festival date is tomorrow Sat Sept 16. Due to
ISM hosting the HS Pre IASAS soccer exchange the festival
venues will be as follows for the E team at CSA 8am start,
for the G teams at Xavier Greenhills 8am start and for MS
girls teams at CSA 1pm start. C1/C2 teams will be at
BSM 8amstart and the ES C3 team at BSM 1pm start. Good
luck to all players.
A big well done to our MS/HS Cross Country runners who
raced at the ISM twilight XC meet last Friday evening. It was
a perfect night for racing and we had 60 MS runners and 90
HS runners compete on the MS racecourse of 3.2km and the
HS 5km racecourse. Thanks to all parents/teachers who
came to watch and support the teams from ISM/Faith/Brent
and BSM race. Results are posted on the blog XC results
page.
Well done also to our HS volleyball teams who played Brent
and Faith last Friday and also to our wallclimbing team who
had their first meet on Saturday and had a great day with 2
gold and 3 bronze medals from a field of 80 climbers from as
far away as Cebu and Iloilo.
Good luck to all our Sailfish swimmers who will compete at
the first meet of the year at Brent tomorrow. Go Sailfish!
This weekend Sept 15-16 is the first pre IASAS exchange
weekend. ISM are hosting the boys and girls soccer tourna-
ment with ISB/TAS flying in along with Ateneo University
mens/womens team joining us for a great weekend of soc-
cer with matches after school today and all day Saturday.
Pre IASAS Soccer Schedule-
ISSUE # 36
SY1617
HS soccer team parents thank you to all who signed up to be
host families for the ISB/TAS teams coming in. This same
weekend our Cross Country team will have flown to Bangkok
for a race weekend and our volleyball teams are inTaipei.
These exchange weekends provide great preparation for the
season ending IASAS tournaments in mid October.
For our year round teams and season 1 sports teams practice
schedules are posted on notice boards around the school and
on the schedules page of the ATAC (Athletics) blog and pro-
vided in links below. Our S1 practice schedule runs from Mon
Aug 14until Oct 13th. See schedule links
1st season 17-18-Practice sched
All season sports sched 17-18.xls 17-18
Please take the time to navigate the ATAC blog as it is our
one stop shop for all information related to the competitive
ISM sports program.
Upcoming Events:
*matches at ISM unless specified as *away venue. Check ATAC
game schedule at the parent portal for all the midweek and
weekend matches upcoming. Please check on a regular basis
as venues and time do change at short notice. Players will
always be informed by their coaches if times/venues change.
Sept 15-17 XC/Volleyball teams at Bangkok and
Taipei/ISM hosting soccer exchange
Sept 16 Rifa festival #2 C teams at
BSM 8am&1pm, E teams and MS girls at CSA 8am
& 1pm, G teams at Xavier Greenhills 8am
Sept 16 JV girls soccer vs DLSL at Faith/MS&HS
Table tennis at Xavier/Swim meet at Brent/JV&
MS Girls Gold Volleyball at ISM
Sept 17 MS A2 soccer vs Lourdes 8am
Sept 18 MS Girls gold soccer vs BSM at BSM 4pm
Sept 20 JVG soccer vs BSM at BSM 3:30/VBoy &
MS A1 soccer vs Ateneo 5pm
Sept 21 VGirls soccer vs BSM at BSM 4pm
Information on our ES/MS Activities program is available on
the ES and MS Activities blogs. Links to these blogs are on the
helpful shortcuts menu on the home page of the ATAC blog
or accessible via the ISM website.
For our Sailfish swim team program please check information
about tryouts at Sailfish blog
or gymnastics team information please check Gymnastics
blog Look for Coach Jas or Coach Ramon at the MS gym
when attending training sessions.
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Please note the practice times for ATAC programs for SY 17-
18 are as follows:
All year round team team training sessions are
3:15-4:30. See schedule for our All year round
teams program here
See Sailfish blog for swim squad start and finish
times after the tryouts period has concluded and
squads have been finalised.
Gymnastics team training is 3:10-4:50pm every
M,W,F
All HS seasonal teams practice from 3:05- 4:50pm.
MS seasonal teams practice 3:15-4:40pm.
In order to clear the campus prior to 5pm all after school
programs will conclude by 4:50pm or earlier. The last bus
is 4:55pm this is due to the ever increasing traffic concerns
in our area.
Parents and students please take some time to peruse the
ISSUE # 36
ATAC blog it has a wide variety of information and links to
our sports and activities program. If you have any questions
SY1617
regarding the competitive program of sports at ISM after
reading the information on the blog please send an email
to pekinm@ismanila.org and I will assist you as best I can.
Bearcat Den- drop by our fantastic spirit store. There is a a
range of new products and items to purchase including items
from our service partners.
Bearcat Den hours of operation- 7am-4pm Mon-Fri.
GO BEARCATSin 2017-18!
Regards,
Mark Pekin
Director of Athletics & Activities
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 ISSUE # 36
SY1617

OPERATIONS AND SECURITY

Dear Parents, Starting school year 2015-16, parents are no longer re-
quired to submit copies of the registration documents of
Access and parking within the campus are important secu- their vehicles. They are instead asked to confirm through
rity and safety issues. For the well-being of all members the applica
of the ISM community, those entering the school campus
are requested to take note of the information and proce-
dures outlined below. tion form that the vehicle has minimum Third (3rd) Party
Insurance, is legally registered and is fully compliant for
Parent IDs operation on the roads under Philippine Laws. For those
The parent IDs issued since SY 2013/14 (black) will contin- vehicles not registered in a parents name a letter of as-
ue to be valid for the new school year. Standard parent signment will still be needed.
cards will be issued free of charge. Parents may, howev-
er, elect to apply for a smartcard ID which will be usable Each ISM family will be issued one vehicle sticker free of
with the cashless payment system introduced into the charge. Any additional stickers will be issued following
school for SY 2013-14. There will be a fee of P250.00 for payment of P100 to the cashiers office.
a smartcard.
In order to facilitate the easy recognition of authorized
Applications for parent IDs can be processed through the cars at the gates, the stickers should be affixed to the top
Security Office. right corner of the windshield. ISM stickers issued in previ-
ous years must be removed.
Student IDs
All students will be issued with new ID cards at the begin- Vehicles not displaying a current car sticker will not be
ning of the new school year. The cards will be compatible allowed regular access from August 31, 2017.
with the cashless payment system. There will be no need
for returning students to visit the Security Office as we Vehicular Access
will be utilizing the photographs taken for the yearbooks. During drop-off and pick-up times, vehicles may enter the
campus through Gates 2 and 3. Those entering through
School Passes Gate 2 should proceed to the drop off area and, once the
School passes issued to parents employees and represent- student has alighted or boarded, they should exit via Gate
atives need to be replaced for this school year. As of Au- 1. Those vehicles entering through Gate 3 must turn into
gust 31, 2017 the light green bordered passes will be inva- the covered parking area and use the designated drop-off
lid. areas. All vehicles must exit through Gate 1.

The security office is now accepting applications for new Please note that Gate 2 may only be used by those drivers
school passes. These passes will not be compatible with and passengers who have an ISM ID card and who are in a
the cashless payment system. vehicle displaying a valid ISM vehicle sticker.

Each family will be given two free school passes. Addi-
tional school passes may be obtained after paying a pro-
cessing fee of Php100.00 each to the Cashiers Office.
Visitors Passes
All visitors must secure a pass from the guardhouse at
Gate 3. Before entry will be allowed, a telephone check
will be made with the relevant office to confirm the visi-
tors business within the school. Visitors will need to sur-
render a photo-ID upon entry to campus.
Car Stickers
The car stickers for school year 2017/2018 are available
from the security office.
Alternatively, vehicles entering through Gate 3 may park
in the covered car park. The spaces reserved for parent-
driven cars should only be used by those vehicles which
are driven by parents themselves. Vehicles in which par-
ents are traveling, but which are driven by a driver,
should not use these spaces. Rather, they should park
elsewhere in the covered car park or make use of the out-
side spaces next to the power center.
Visitors to ISM must enter through Gate 3. There is an
area for short-stay visitor parking near Gate 1.
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 ISSUE # 36
The Pedestrian Gate
The pedestrian gate is located in the perimeter fence mid campus before the scheduled pick-up time. SY1617
-way between Gate 1 and Gate 2. There is a paved area
between the road and the perimeter fence, allowing easy There are designated areas for unaccompanied drivers,
access to the gate. The pedestrian gate is solely for the yayas, helpers and security escorts to wait for parents and
entry of members of the ISM Community at the beginning students. Unless specifically authorized, they may not en-
of the school day. It will only be open between 7:00 am ter any other area. In the interest of security, and to pre-
and 7:45 am (8:00 am to 8:45 am on Wednesdays). vent congestion at the pedestrian entrances to the cov-
ered parking area, parents are requested to emphasize to
Due to parking restrictions, and in the interests of securi- their employees the importance of cooperating with the
ty, it will not be open in the afternoon for pick-ups. Dur- security staff and remaining in the appropriate areas.
ing the time it is open, it will be under the supervision of
members of the ISM Guard Force. Firearms
All members of the ISM community are reminded that it is
Drivers should stop adjacent to the paved area and stu- strictly forbidden for firearms to be brought onto the
dents should alight from the right side of their vehicle. campus. This includes concealed weapons carried by bod-
The driver should then move off, clearing the space for yguards for close protection. Any person arriving at the
other vehicles dropping off students. Under no circum- school with a firearm should inform the gate guard, and
stances should a student be dropped off from the middle arrangements will be made for the weapon to be safely
lane. This is dangerous as the student would need to walk and securely stored during the visitors stay.
in front of another vehicle. Drivers are reminded that
traffic regulations forbid parking on the roads around ISM. Security Staff Directions
Therefore, vehicles should only be stopping for the brief Our security team is endeavoring to make the school as
time it takes for a student to alight. Drivers must not safe and secure an environment as possible for all mem-
wait for anybody to return to the vehicle. bers of our community.

Drop Off/Pick Up Passes
For non-regular drivers without ISM identification who are
entering school to drop off or collect visitors or members
of our community, but who do not intend to park within
the campus, a drop off pass will be issued. Our regular
checks to confirm the identity of a driver and their pur-
pose for entering the campus will continue to be made,
but we will not retain a photo-ID in return for the issued
pass. The use of these new passes will avoid delays at the
Gate 1 exit and reduce traffic congestion at busy times.
Vehicle Checks
The practice of inspecting vehicles will continue. During
off-peak hours, all vehicles will be checked before they
are allowed to enter the campus.
During peak hours (drop off and pick-up times), all vehi-
cles without valid stickers and randomly selected vehicles
with stickers will be asked to undergo an examination.
We ask that everybody cooperate with us in this important
task. In particular, all those entering our campus are re-
quested to comply with any directions given to them by
members of our guard force.
If you are confused or unclear as to the purpose of such
instructions, please seek clarification from the security
office. Please note that it is the parents responsibility to
advise their staff accordingly.
Thank you for your cooperation. We are looking forward
to another great year at International School Manila.
Best wishes,
MIKE FLYNN
Director of Operations And Security

Whether an examination is conducted or not, it is im-

portant that the security staff at the gates are able to
identify the occupants of vehicles entering the campus;
therefore IDs must be clearly displayed. Vehicles with
tinted windows must roll down windows to allow a clear
view of the interior of the vehicle.

Drivers, Helpers and Bodyguards

Drivers, helpers and bodyguards should not wait on cam-
pus for students throughout the school day. After drop-
ping off students they should exit the school grounds and
not return earlier than 30 minutes before dismissal time.
Those who repeatedly fail to comply with the regulation
will have their access privilege suspended.

Only those vehicles carrying parents or other people with

business within the school will be allowed to return to the
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 ISSUE # 36
SY1617

ADMISSIONS & ADVANCEMENT

Instructions for
Demographic Update

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 ISSUE # 36
SY1617

ISM UPCOMING EVENTS

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ISSUE # 36
SY1617

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ISSUE # 36
SY1617

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