IGBIS Newsletter, Issue 225

Message from HoS

Mrs Anne Fowles, Head of School

Dear IGBIS Families,

I hope that your week has gone well. There were no classes for our students today as we had a school holiday for Good Friday. Happy Easter to those who are observing the Easter weekend, and to everyone else, we hope that you are staying safe at home, spending quality time with your family. 

As you may have heard, the update from the Malaysian government on the Movement Control Order was announced today,  Friday, the 10th of April 2020. The MCO will continue until April 28, though there is a strong possibility that schools will be closed for longer. Our distance learning classes will continue for the next few weeks. Please check the COVID-19 Update that is going out to our community soon. 

Also in the ‘update’ is a call to action to support the Zomi Education Center (ZEC) who are in desperate need of food and essential goods for the refugee children at the centre. 

We realise that with the MCO in place, our movements around the city are restricted and we should stay at home, But if you are on your way to Jaya Grocer (Sierramas), or to other points for essential reasons, please drop off your donated goods at school. Our guards will be on standby at the guardhouse to receive your donated goods. They will ask you to complete an entry in the ZEC logbook including your name, contact number, date and time of donation and the list of donated items. We will be collecting donations from Monday (13th April) until Thursday (16th April), between 8.30 am until 4.00 pm. We will then arrange for delivery to ZEC.

Thank you for your support!

Have a wonderful weekend ahead.

Meatless Monday

Heidi Robinson, Grade 5

Thank you to everyone who participated with Meatless Monday this week. Here are some photos of delicious vegetarian / plant-based meals that you have shared with me. You can also view the shared photo album and upload more photos here. 

Please continue to support my PYPX action by not eating meat on Mondays April 13th, 20th, and 27th. If you need more information, please see my video or email me at heidi.robinson027@igbis.edu.my if you have any questions. 

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IGBIS MUN Club Continues Online During Distance Learning

John Moore, IGBIS MUN Club Co-Director

“Last Monday, the Model United Nations (MUN) Club at IGBIS had a conference simulation with 13 students taking part. The conference also helped wrap up the year for the MUN Club. We debated about ways to tackle the global Zika virus epidemic from the perspective of various countries in the United Nations’ World Health Organisation. The mini-conference helped prepare many of us who are new to the MUN circuit about the rules and procedures of MUN”

IGB International School’s Weekly Newsletter – Issue 117. Week 1. June 2017

Almost three years later the whole world is tackling the COVID-19 outbreak which the World Health Organization has classified as a pandemic. Disappointed with the cancellation of NISMUNC 20, our MUNers have resolved to find another opportunity to engage in a conference this year. They are busy preparing for a MUN Crisis Committee. While they hope to further develop their MUN skills in a live setting, contingency plans are being drawn up for this to be our first fully online conference:

Coach’s Corner

Adam Morris, ICT Coordinator

You may have seen in some news reports some concerns being expressed about security measures regarding video conferencing and videos in schools. I’d like to spend a few minutes explaining some security measures IGBIS in its use of GSuite for Education has in place regarding this, and share some additional related information as well. 

GSuite & Google Meet

In order to use Google Meet for classroom instruction or curriculum delivery, each session requires the user to be logged into a Google account. If the Meet is organized by someone in our organization, members of our community can easily join. However, if someone outside of our organization, who is logged into their personal Google or external Google account, attempts to join a Meet created by a member of our community, it needs to be invited and approved by the meet organizer on a case-by-case basis. From Google’s own support page:

“During a video meeting, only the meeting creator can see and approve requests to join the meeting from outside of the school’s G Suite domain.”

So, in our context, it is not possible for someone outside of our community to discover a Meet and join it, without going through some hoops first. 

In addition, please be informed that Google Meet is part of the “Core Services” category of software, which has the highest levels of privacy and security in place. In summary, they do not collect data for ad placements. You may find Google’s statement about privacy and information collection here.

GSuite & YouTube

Probably many of your children are being given YouTube videos to view, as it’s a great learning tool. Videos allow your child to go back and go over the content again, at their own pace, and have it as a reference in case they get stuck. They can also, with a few keystrokes, search and access additional videos on almost any topic.

We do have measures in place which filters search results, and which also automatically moderates comments displayed to the user. For all Elementary students, we have “strict restricted” mode enabled, which will filter out content not suitable for that age group. You can read more about how Google explains this here, but, in brief, it “…works as a filter to screen out many videos based on an automated system, while leaving some videos still available for viewing.”

In secondary, Grade 6 students have “moderate restricted” and the settings for all other students is “unrestricted.” 

As long as your child is logged in with their IGBIS google school account, the above permissions will apply. 

I hope this is clear and provides some additional assurances.