Vol. XI   •  Issue 14   •  November 14, 2008

From the Middle School Principal

Dear Middle School Parents,

On Tuesday, November 10, we had a Parent–Teacher Association (PTA) meeting in our upper school. Our PTA president, Carol Hevener, welcomed about 50 parents who attended the meeting. Mr. Hammett spent over an hour discussing the current status of the school and other concerns from parents, like buses and the cafeteria. While Brent International School has its problems (we had a long discussion regarding theft of student property), we have a strong school community. As the Middle School Principal, I can tell how fortunate we are to educate our children in this environment.

I would like to share with you some good news that we have recently received about our Middle School band students. At this time, five Brent students have been chosen to participate in The Association for Music in International Schools (AMIS) Asian Middle School Honor Band in February 2009. This is a great honor for our seventh and eighth grade band students to have been selected.

The following five BISM students were chosen:

Daney Kang, tenor saxophone, Grade 8
Jeanie Jung, flute, Grade 8
Mark Que, bari saxophone, Grade 7
John Cho, clarinet, Grade 7
Min Jae Lee, clarinet, Grade 8

AMIS is also looking for more trumpet, french horn, trombone and euphonium players from students who have auditioned. So, we might add more students to this list. For more information about AMIS, you may go to www.amis-online.org.uk.

The following students have been selected to represent our school at the Middle School academic competition. There will be two meetings. One will take place at ISM on Monday, November 17^th. The second will take place at Brent International School Manila later this school year.

Middle School Academic Bowl Team
To ISM Nov. 17

Hag Gi Do — Grade 8
Joseph Kim — Grade 7
Stephanie Kim — Grade 8
Bob Lee — Grade 8
Min Jae Lee — Grade 8
Alberto Montilla — Grade 7
Mark Que — Grade 7
Jeremy Jasper Ting — Grade 8

I realize that it may seem too early for some student to start thinking about final exams, but they will be taking place from December 15 to December 19. The exact times and schedule of exams will be coming out soon. For our Middle School students, final exams will constitute 10% of their grade. While this is not enough to make a huge difference in a student’s final grade in a particular class, it is significant enough that all of our students should prepare well and do the very best they can. It also serves to prepare students for the final exams that they can expect to take once they enter upper school. I hope many of them will start to review sooner rather than later.

Congratulations to all of our students for the hard work that they have been putting into their studies, as well as other opportunities available here at Brent.

Have a great week!

Ron Knapp
Middle School Principal

PTA Announcement

This November, all parents are invited to two events:

PTA General Meeting
Tuesday November 11, 2008
9am at the Upper School Workroom
Guest Speaker will be Mr. Jeffrey Hammett (Deputy Headmaster)

2nd Brent Educational Fair for Active Learning
On Thursday and Friday, November 20-21, 2008
7:30 am – 4:00 pm at the
Brent International School Atrium

Mark you calendars!