Newsfrom the health, security, safety and environment (hsse)

Primary School News
Safety
For everyone who uses the drop-off zone, please remember to
pull all the way forward rather than stop right in front of the
door. Students can then walk along the sidewalk safely into the
building. It will mean 20 extra steps, but when you stop early, it
makes the situation more dangerous. We have instructed those
staff on duty to ask for your names of any driver not following
this safety rule.
We have many parents of children in Pre-School 3 and Pre-
School 4. When parking in this area, please drive very slowly,
and assume a family is walking near your car. Please don’t park
next to the gate as this makes it harder for others to enter and
exit the car park safely.
I also want to remind parents and students that school rules apply
outside school hours. Running in the hallway is as dangerous in
the evening and on weekends as during the school day. One
potential area to focus is the steps leading to the theatre. No
jumping is allowed on these steps; the steps are meant for access
to the theatre, not as a play area.
Primary School Roundtable Discussion
Thank you to the eight parents who came to the roundtable
discussion on 3 February. We discussed the following topics:
safety regarding parking, safety regarding the drop-off zone,
options for milk purchase, weekly newsletters via email versus
a hard copy, playground rules and supervision, bus safety and
rules for students on the bus, the positive aspects of Spirit Week
and activity offerings such as dance and gymnastics that might
be more suited for girls. I appreciate the feedback so we can
continue to improve our offerings at ISS.
Student-Led Conferences
Thank you to students, parents and teachers who took time to
take part in student-led conferences. I hope you were able to
review progress made and set learning goals for the future.
International Schools’ Assessment
You should have received your child’s results on the International
School’s Assessment. Teachers are using the results of the
assessment to inform our instruction and make learning more
effective for your children. At the same time, we look for
trends over time so we can review our curricular offerings and
determine the best methods and topics for gaining knowledge,
learning skills and building understanding.
Ski Day for Families of Students in Grades 4-5
A bus has been reserved for 29 March for families of children
in Grades 4 and 5 to enjoy a day of skiing together in Sirdal. A
letter will be sent from Mr. David Tremblay who will offer some
skiing lessons and make arrangements for the trip.
Inge and Inge
We have a special treat coming to ISS in April for students in
Grades 1, 2, 6 and our Dutch classes. You will find a separate
article in this issue of The Informer in Dutch that tells more
about the authors. We will pass this detailed information to
students in English when the authors visit in April.
Inge Bergh and Inge Misschaert are from Belgium and have
presented to children in schools and libraries in Flanders. This
year they were invited to Antwerp to perform it to the children
on the Antwerp Book Fair, which is Flanders largest book fair.
They will not sit and tell things. They get the children to move
around, sing and write. They hope to show the children how it
feels to look for inspiration, how stressful it often is when one
faces a deadline, how exciting it is to bring your story and have
others reading or hearing it, and how even more exciting it is
when an editor selects a story to be turned into a book. Then
they get to the work with the editor, the illustrator, the printer,
the warehouse and the sales company. All this is done without
explaining, but actually doing it.
These grades have been chosen as they did not have as much
interaction with last year’s author.
Thank you to the NTC Stavanger Board for helping sponsor
their visit and to Mr. and Mrs. De Coster for hosting the authors
in their home.
Learning by doing—that sounds like fun!
Len Duevel, PhD
Primary School Principal
12 · The In f o r m e r 18 fe b r u a ry 2009 www.isstavanger.no
Pre-Schoolers in their element