Spread your wings and fly away...

Let no-one steal your dreams... This is the time of year where teachers are writing good-bye messages to their leaving pupils. Miss Jenny sends the poem that UP pupils recited during the International Festival with every pupil leaving ISG. It is time to say good-bye to friends. It is never easy to see a dear friend leave and it is difficult not to know when we meet again. Upper Primary pupils take their good-byes seriously and they make sure that everybody leaving our class feels that they will be missed! Next year, Rita, Hanna, Ariadne, Aarshi, Vitor, Luka, Kavya, Ally and Jood are all starting the new school year in new schools. Upper Primary will be a different class then – new pupils will join us. We wish all our friends leaving ISG the very best! To really celebrate our year together, pupils had a great End-of-year fun activity – a very sporty End-of-year fun – during the last week of school. Pupils cycled to Blaarmeersen and there they climbed and challenged themselves on the high ropes course together with Mr Gilles and Mr Peter. Lots of fun! Tired, but happy pupils returned to school after this excursion!

The school year ends with a real heat wave! Pupils and teachers are sweating their way through the last school days of the year. Upper Primary pupils have made sure everything is finished off and wrapped up – pupils have completed end of term tests, published their last writing sample for the year (a traditional tale), typed their highlight of the year and sent it off to the year book preparations etc. There have been days when pupils have sighed and complained – it is not easy to finish off tasks when it is more than 30 degrees outside – but they have shown resilience and they have worked hard. Now they can be proud of the content in their assessment portfolios, the comments in their reports and all the information gathered in their notebooks - with notes from all the different tasks they have finalised throughout the year.

Upper Primary 2019: IPC units, Numeracy, Literacy, Spelling & grammar, Basic facts, different text types in focus, choosing time & students of the week, buddy class and break time fun with friends, problem solving in the class after fights, Personal values in focus, marbles, excursions, swimming, PE, Dutch, music class, choir, Bozar, Chiquita Fun Run, torrential rain, snow and scorching sun, Assembly, break time clubs and after school clubs, birthday parties, whole school activites like Halloween, Carnival and International Festival and lots of other things. Pupils summarised the year with many more words than this...

Upper Primary have also tried to sum up their learning in IPC, even though we ran out of time for a real Exit Point this unit. Pupils have learnt a lot about ancient civilisations far away – the Maya civilisation in South America and the Edo empire in West Africa. One of the lovely last IPC activities in class was an art activity, where pupils picked their favourite part of the Edo creation story about the creator god Osanobua, the wise toucan Owonwon and a snail shell. Curious? Ask one of the UP pupils more questions! Beautiful pieces of art will go home at the end of the school year!

Now there are only a few days left of this school year. We wish all of you a lovely summer! To the ones leaving us - please, stay in touch! To the ones returning in September - welcome back! To all of you, safe travels and don't forget to drink water if it is hot and sunny! See you next school year!