On Friday morning, Secondary School students had the opportunity to sit in on a presentation on ‘balancing life and elite-level training with academic responsibilities’ with Matthew Lawrence.  Matthew is an AISM Alumnus and Olympian who understands exactly what it means to represent your school and compete in ISSEA. During his school career, he won over 12 ISSEA gold medals and still holds 6 ISSEA individual records that stand today.

On the international stage, Matthew has secured multiple medals at CANA Zone 4 and a Silver medal at the Junior African Championships. Most notably, he competed at the recent Paris Olympics. He is currently studying a BSC in Management at Nova SB in Portugal. Matthew is a Buffalo for life and has a wealth of knowledge who understands the demands on our student athletes and how to best balance those competing demands. AISM is certainly proud of all that Matthew has accomplished and students thoroughly enjoyed his presentation!

The PYP Exhibition is a milestone event that marks the culmination of our students’ journey through the Primary Years Programme. It’s a powerful opportunity for students to delve deeply into a real-world issue that matters to them personally, engage in meaningful inquiry, and showcase their learning. Through this process, students embody the attributes of the IB Learner Profile and demonstrate essential Approaches to Learning (ATL) skills.

After weeks of brainstorming, researching, questioning, creating, taking action, and reflecting, our students concluded this unit with the PYP Exhibition Gala. We invite you to take a look back at their journey — one filled with curiosity, courage, and collaboration.

The exhibition journey began with thoughtful conversations and collaborative discussions. Students engaged in presentations to build background knowledge and even had the chance to connect with Grade 6 students, asking questions and gathering insights from those who’ve been through the experience. Parents joined us online to learn more about the process and how they could support their children at home.
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With excitement building, students crafted their central ideas, developed lines of inquiry, and posed key questions to guide their research. Using a variety of sources, they honed their research skills — paraphrasing, organizing their thinking, and developing systems for note-taking and synthesis.

Throughout the journey, students worked closely with mentor teachers who offered support in everything from conducting interviews to time management and organizing ideas. These mentors were vital sounding boards and encouraged students to dig deeper.
A highlight of the process was the connection to our broader community. Students conducted interviews with individuals in Maputo and across the globe, gaining first hand perspectives on their topics. Many also ventured into the community for field experiences that enriched their understanding. With your help — especially parent volunteers — students made real-world connections that elevated their inquiries. Thank you to the many people that supported these experiences. 

Before the big night, students shared their learning with peers, younger grades, and even students from Aga Khan Academy. These rehearsals were not just practice; they were a chance to reflect, receive feedback, and build confidence. The exchange of ideas sparked engaging conversations and gave our students the chance to truly own their learning journey.

And then came the grand finale — the PYPx Gala. If there's one word to capture the evening, it's magical. The joy, the pride, the meaningful conversations, and the radiant smiles from students and families alike made the night unforgettable. It was a celebration not just of the projects, but of the process — the growth, the courage, and the dedication each student showed.

To our incredible teachers and parents — thank you. Your unwavering support, encouragement, and willingness to walk alongside our learners made this experience meaningful and memorable.
The PYP Exhibition is about so much more than the gala or even the topics themselves. The true magic lies in the skills our students have developed: confidence, resilience, perseverance, cooperation, and the courage to take risks. These are the qualities that will carry them far beyond Grade 5.

Kristen Prideaux
PYP Coordinator

We had a decent turn-out at the DigCit Parent Session on Tuesday morning with 21 primary and secondary parents attending - some great initial discussions! 

This was the first of several sessions where our focus was to share tech challenges and successes, AISM's approach to Digital Citizenship, the importance of home/school partnerships especially in this area & sharing parent-friendly practical suggestions and resources. One of the main aims was to involve parents in deciding other possible foci for future sessions.

This truly is an area where community involvement - students, teachers and parents -  is needed in order for us to navigate successfully! Here are the resources, presentation and handouts that we included - looking forward to sharing further in future sessions - more information to come!

The focus of AISM is always focused on achieving our mission to pursue excellence by empowering learners to achieve mastery of self, advance their communities, and flourish in an ever-changing world while living out our core values to: Celebrate Humanity, Cultivate Grit, Inspire Curiosity, and Embody Integrity. The spirit of our mission and core values are intertwined with our new strategic priorities:

• AISM will implement educational practices and technologies that challenge and enable all students to fulfill their academic potential.
• AISM will integrate effective social-emotional learning and support to enhance student and staff well-being.
• AISM will cultivate opportunities for students to collaborate with diverse communities in Mozambique to create positive outcomes.

In short, our priorities are to ensure that we have school programs that are CHALLENGING, CARING, and CONNECTED! I look forward to using this space to share details about the steps we are taking to support our strategic priorities.

We are excited to launch a new journalism initiative at the school, where a team of student journalists are creating and curating news stories from around our community, both inside and outside the school gates.  We have titled our online magazine 'The Buffalo Blog' and our first AISM core journalism team is made up of this exceptional group of students from grades 7-10: 

• Tendai
• Alexandre 
• Atharv 
• Shailee 
• Danae 
• Gaia 
• Cora 
• Felix 

I am heading up the project on the teacher’s side, meeting with the student journalists on Mondays and liaising with them throughout the week. As we move forward, we are also excited about other students using this opportunity to express themselves and develop valuable communication skills, be it a focus on journalistic writing, photography, or video editing to name a few.  Estelle and Ryan from Grade 6 will be adding a music story soon, whilst Grade 9 students Laia and Polly are also planning on getting involved to bring in travel tales and health warnings! 

In the meantime, check out the latest stories about our new MUN leadership (Felix), our volleyball teams (Alex), a unique Grade 8 Shakespeare project (Ashton and Connie), and a Grade 6 creative ATL project (Mr Rui). 

Heating up on the press are further exciting articles on our scuba diving ASA (Cora), the effects of music on the brain while studying (Atharv), Mozambique’s first professional surfer (Tendai), and bullying in school environments (Gaia). 

Do you have any ideas for other exciting content for the site? If so, please get in touch with me at [email protected] or the PTA representatives. 

Rui da Silva

RULER Approach
At AISM, we employ the RULER Approach, developed by the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, to guide our teaching and learning in Advisory classes. Additionally, we adhere to the SHAPE standards to guide instruction on essential topics such as Puberty and Adolescent Sexual Development, Gender Identity & Expression, Sexual Orientation & Identity, Sexual Health, Consent & Healthy Relationships, and Interpersonal Violence. Click here for the Middle School and High School RULER Unit Overviews.

Advisory
Advisory is a regularly scheduled class within our Secondary School, aimed at facilitating regular meetings for small groups of students. These sessions foster relationships beyond the academic realm and provide a platform for learning directly related to their well-being. Advisors, who are responsible for planning and facilitating these classes, collaborate with the Social Emotional Counselor to offer targeted workshops on health and well-being topics. Advisory is a weekly fixture in all Secondary School grades, spanning from Grades 6 to 12.

Please see presentation below.