The Yearbooks Finally Available!

After a year long’s wait, your yearbook will be awaiting you from Friday 23rd of May. The ISH Yearbook team has been working extremely hard this year to create the 2014 ISH Yearbook, and it is finally time for you to see all of their hard work!

The yearbooks will be handed out on Friday the 23rd after school in the Hall of Flags.

If you have ordered a yearbook

For those of you who ordered a yearbook, your parents should have received by email the invoice from finance office and hopefully paid it. If your parents did not to do that, make sure that they pay the invoice as soon as they can, in order to get your yearbook. You can come to us after school, tell us your last name and we will give you your yearbooks if paid only or against payment in cash.

If you forgot to order a yearbook

If you did not see the announcements we spread around the school and forgot to order a yearbook, do not panic! We ordered a lot of spare yearbooks for all of the students who did not send in orders, so all you have to do is bring in 26€ to pay for your yearbook and you will still get one!

Note that we will continue the distribution on Monday after school.

8th to 11th graders, make sure you get you yearbooks before the camping trip because you will not have time after that! 

By Garance

 

Final Words

It’s that time of the year: where students finally complete all of their exams, teachers start to pack up their classrooms for the summer, parents start booking tickets to warmer destinations, and EVERYONE desperately waits for the school year to be over.

The ISH Student NewsClub is just as thrilled to finally end the school year, but first, lets look at some highlights of the year.

1. Working with the YLE News Channel

Our NewsClub had the privilege of working with the local news channel throughout the second part of the  year. Starting off with news classes from Denise Wall, a reporter from the English YLE News, than a BBC Radio link up with three of the students from the News Club, and ending with students creating their own broadcasts, one of which was shown live on the Yle News channel. Working with the local news station was very exciting and allowed for the students to have a real experience in journalism.

2. CEESA Success

Our school has had yet another successful year in the world of sports and tournaments. Our school has exceeded in every sport and every tournament, and has shown amazing results such as:

MS Boys Football – 3rd Place

MS Girls Football – 2nd Place

HS Girls Football – 3rd Place

MS Boys Basketball – 3rd Place

HS Boys Basketball – Sportsmanship

HS Boys Basketball – Sportsmanship

Friendly Olympics – Sportsmanship

HS Girls Volleyball – 3rd Place

Overall, all of the teams had amazing success throughout the three seasons and I know that many are excited to come back next year to take part in the next years’ CEESA events.

        3. Computer Programme

This year the High School student body had that chance to experience the 1:1 Laptop Programme by receiving MacBook Airs which were in their use throughout the whole school year. Personally I found that the laptop programme was pretty successful because it allowed for all students to have the ability to exceed in their learning capabilities. Many students feel the same way such as:

The laptop programme was very successful because it has enhanced our learning capabilities.  – Timothy McDonald

The computer programme was a great asset to our education and hopefully it will help ISH to take the next step forward in the world of technology.

These are just some of the highlights of the school year 2013 – 2014. I think we all can agree that this was a very successful school year.

On behalf of the News Club, we would like to thank Mrs. Eude for starting the club, leading throughout the year and giving us the opportunity to work with YLE. She will be greatly missed and we wish her all the best of luck in the future!

Next year, the club will be run by Stephen Stokes, and so we urge as many students to join next year and contribute to this newspaper!

The ISH News Club would like to wish everyone a pleasant and relaxing summer and we hope to see you all next year!

By: Inga

Rivalries and long lasting friendships in sports

Everybody has their own opinion about what their rival sport team is. But sports are also not just about winning and can create long lasting relationships. What do the International School of Helsinki students think sports is really about; is it about winning? Is it about making friends? Is it about being a part of the team?

This video was created by Gabi Davis, Ludivine Eude and Arina Machine as part of the YLE channel News Class program.

Bottles For Bucks

Sommer and Garance are two sixteen year old students from the International School of Helsinki. For the past ten months, they have been using Finland’s plastic bottle deposit system to exchange bottles and cans for 20 to 40 cents each. They collect empty bottles around their school and convert them into cash at their local K-market. It has been a community wide project. But what exactly  makes this project stand out?

This news broadcast was made by Arianna and Nandi for the Yle channel “News Class” program.

Teens perception of xenophobic Finland

There is a recurring debate about the Finns being xenophobic. As foreign citizens living in Finland the lack of connection between foreigners and Finns strike many adults. But do foreign teenagers have the same perception? While there is always a language barrier foreign teenagers do not feel as excluded as their parents.

This video has been made by Garance, Varun and Ilya for the Yle channel “News Class” program they have participated in last week.

Advocate of the International Court of Justice

Last week our school attended the HELIMUN conference of 2014. We had a large amount of students travel as delegates, student officers, one judge and myself, an advocate. I was appointed the advocate of Ecuador two weeks before the conference due to last minute changes, and was thrown into a case other students spent months preparing for.

Now the advocate is one of the lawyers of a case which is on a trial at the International Court of Justice. The cases judged in this court are usually between two countries who have a dispute over international law, violations of human rights etc. which is what happened at HELIMUN 2014. The ICJ case was Ecuador vs. Columbia on the Aerial Spraying of Herbicide, brought forward by Ecuadorian government because they sighted Colombian planes crossing the border shared by Colombia and Ecuador, and spraying herbicide which is meant to eradicate illicit crops. The spraying of herbicide on Colombian soil is part of Plan Colombia, a term used to describe the support from the U.S.towards Colombia in order to combat drug trafficking in Latin America. But Ecuador was never part of this plan, causing outrage when they realised that they were being affected by the chemical within the herbicide. They found traces of a major chemical, Glyphosate, in their crops which completely eradicated them and also noticed trends of health issues amongst the citizens living next to the border, causing them to stand in front of the International Court of Justice in order to resolve the issue.

My co-advocate was Sera, a girl from the Kulosaaren Yhteiskoulu school where the conference was held. She had previous experience with ICJ which helped me a lot in terms of understanding the procedure since it is a fairly different committee from all the other ones at any conference. And so I made the opening speech in order to present the court with the evidence we would provide and why exactly we were bringing this case to ICJ. I also presented a plea, so what we wanted to result from the trial, which was:

a) Respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ecuador;

b) Take all steps necessary to prevent the use of any toxic herbicides in such a way that they could be deposited onto the territory of Ecuador;

c) Prohibit the use, by means of aerial dispersion, of such herbicides on or near any part of its border with Ecuador;

d) Compensate Ecuador for any loss or damage caused by its internationally unlawful acts.

Our whole case was very strong and during questioning it was obvious that the judges were already seeing that Colombia was at fault. So after both my partner and I made closing statements, we were sent out of the room for 4 hours in order for the judges to deliberate, look over all of the evidence and to submit a verdict. And so it was announced at the closing ceremony, that Colombia needs to keep at 12km safe zone from the border, which evidently answered our whole plea, except for the last point, but overall, it was a very successful case for the Ecuadorian side.

Being an advocate of ICJ was a very interesting challenge and allowed for me to experience a whole different side of MUN. No one really knows what goes on in ICJ during the conference, and I finally had the opportunity to understand the concept of the International Court of Justice. Overall, it was a very enjoyable trial.

The MS Annual Ball is on!

After a week of, is it cancelled and is it happening? The final decision about the Middle School Annual Ball has been made, the Ball will be held this Friday as planned.

For those of you in the middle school who have bought tickets but are still unsure about some of the details this article will get everything cleared up. The ball is being held this Friday, 16th of May at 6:30 to 8:30 in the evening. The ball consists of a dinner and dancing, so don’t come on a full stomach.

The ball will be held on the fourth floor Big Room so make sure to be there for the beginning of the ball. The theme is Oscars, so come in your most dazzling dress to show off in the red carpet, or just any suit or dress. The great thing about the Oscars is that there is not one style, so we hope to see everyone show off their own styles of formal outfits on the red carpet.

It will be a fun night for all and don’t forget to bring your tickets to the ball. Quick reminder if it slipped your mind, the ball is this Friday. We hope everyone has fun!

By Arina

 

An amazing news experience!

Students from the ISH Student News Club made their own news broadcast from scratch!

The ISH Student News club had a two day workshop on essentially making news. This workshop took place on monday and tuesday this week and to guide us we had journalist Denise Wall and producer Mikko Laine both from Yle. Three groups of students each had a topic they chose to broadcast. Ludivine was one of them and talks about her experience.

Ludivine you were a part of the two day workshop, how did you like it?

I thought that is was really cool. It was a great experience as well as a fun one. I loved going around the school with the camera and microphone.

What exactly did you do in your workshop on the first day?

We learnt how to use technical equipment and see how to film close-ups and interviews as well as wide and long shots. We started to prepare everything for the second day, scheduled our interviews, thought of our footage shots, so that all our information for our topics was improved and ready. We got to learn what happens behind the scene in a news broadcast.

What did you do in your second day?

On our second day we conducted our interviews and we basically filmed our whole broadcast. We filmed some shots, we did some voice overs and we edited our own news report about our topic.

What topic did you cover?

My group was composed of Arina, Gabi and myself.  Our topic was about CEESA team rivalry but also about the way the tournaments give us the opportunity for great friendships. It is easier to understand once you have seen the report next Wednesday.

How does the final piece look?

I think it looks pretty neat because our broadcast has a really cool flow that is meant to intrigue people. Also it is a straight to the point report.

Thank you Ludivine. All the students had a really good time and I think it was a really good experience. I would really like to thank Denise and Mikko for their time and help, as without them and their expertise, we wouldn’t have learnt how to make real news!

Nandi

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Join the Student News and Yearbook Club next year

My experience at the News Club has been great. I’ve had a lot of fun and I also got to know what was going on around the school.

I’ve had a great experience even if I only joined for the second semester. The club gave me something do in my free time which I had loads of. However, when the exams and projects came in at the end of year, it was quite difficult to keep up with all of this work.

I would like to encourage more students to join the club and have a great time with us.  There is a lot to write about – new students, CEESA activities, the Tallinn Friendly Olympics and much more! And you can choose to write, be a photographer or edit videos. The News Club also had in charge the yearbook and some of the students worked on its design and layout. A lot of work, but so rewarding to see the final result when they arrive next week!

People who join next year are going to have a really great time!

Don’t miss it!

By Abhishek

6Degrees Magazine here in ISH?

ISH has recently been added as another location where 6 Degrees, an english language magazine, is distributed.

 

SixDegrees is a free English language magazine distributed in Finland monthly. The content of the magazine focuses on the multicultural scene of today with most of the topics being linked with Finland and current events happening here. The magazine distributes approximately 50,000 copies annually.

SixDegrees provides information on interesting multicultural topics, events and people. SixDegrees is a stimulating meeting point for Finns and foreigners, creating a positive arena for the interaction of different cultures.

Personally, I have only read the last 5 copies of Six Degrees. The content of the magazine appealed to me as I was very interested in the multicultural scene and its events in Finland. I found it quite hard to search for information about this scene. As an english speaker in Finland, I was pleasantly surprised when I came across the newspaper/magazine SixDegrees stand next to a Finnkino cinema. Interested, I contacted the editor-in-chief of the magazine Mr. James O’Sullivan. Below is the email I sent to him.

As expats in Helsinki, I felt every highschool students in ISH could gain from picking up a copy and reading the magazine. The magazine always features fresh, interesting stories that one might relate with. Personally, I found it useful to learn about Finland whilst reading about multicultural topics, events and people. Whilst reading about ‘International Solidarity’, ‘The Surreal World of Nokia’ or ‘Helsinki’s Animatricks Animation Festival (Title: Helsinki, prepare to get animated!), you learn about Helsinki today in little tid-bits of information.

After sending my email, I was pleasantly surprised when their Editor-in-chief replied! About a month of emailing and discussing the logistics of ISH being a distribution point until the magazine (and its stand) arrived at ISH.

The stand is located in the reception area, opposite the main office. Feel free to pick up a copy anytime! If you forget to pick up a copy, don’t worry you can read the current and previous issues of 6Degrees by clicking this link.

 

 

Arianna

 

ISH <3's Reading

‘I ❤ Reading Week’ organised by our librarians Ms. McPharlin and Ms. Vento was a success at ISH last week.

I ❤ Reading Week is a school event for all; students, teachers, staff and parents. It is a week of fun, organised events related to books. This week was a chance for the whole school to bond over a good book.

This was ISH’s very first I ❤ Reading Week. This week-long event was organised by our librarians, Ms. McPahralin and Ms. Vento.  In a nutshell, I ❤ Reading Week’s purpose is to celebrate books. There were a variety of activities linked to reading and books for Lower and Upper school.

On Monday, Lower school had a chance to decorate their classroom doors in the theme of their chosen author. Additionally, high school student volunteers read story books to little ones in lower school. On Tuesday Ms. Artz, a parent volunteer organised a Write-a-thon (a writing marathon) in the library. On Wednesday, two illustrators paid a visit to ISH and held workshops in the library all day long. The week came to an end with a whole school DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) event. All students, teachers and staff inside the ISH building shared 15 minutes of solely reading!

This event was a success and on behalf of the News Team we would like to thank everyone who participated for joining in the fun! Perhaps next year more students will participate in this celebratory event!! We sure hope that  I ❤ Reading Week becomes an annual tradition at ISH!

Arianna

End of Semester Stress

Everyone hates the end of a semester because projects load up one on top of the other.

The end of the semester is the time for every teacher to assess their students. They can’t assess the students in the middle of the semester because the students haven’t learnt everything. This causes all the projects to be given to the students in the last two weeks of school.

Student Under Pressure

That puts pressure on the students. This has its own benefits such as helping the students learn how to work their way out of stressful periods of work. However, it also has its disadvantages. Sometimes, it can cause students to crack under the pressure and break down.

The grouping up of projects can be prevented if the teachers communicate with each other and fix the project due dates accordingly so as not to put pressure on the students.

I definitely do not like when projects group up together. Let’s see my situation – I have 8 different projects to finish before the 17th of May, 2014!! See, that’s just how hard it is…

 

By Abhishek