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ÌÇÐÄVlog has a very popular sports program that competes in a local league called ISSAPP (International School’s Sports Association of Phnom Penh) and an international conference called MRISA (Mekong River International Schools Association).

Our philosophy is grounded in participation, the spirit of the game, and striving for team and personal excellence. While winning may result from this process, remaining humble and learning from any team defeats is equally important. Social and emotional skill development are just as important as physical skill development.

Secondary Team Sports

We offer three core team sports:Ìýbasketball,Ìýfootball and volleyball. For each sport, there are Junior Boys and Girls teams (Grades 6-8) and Senior Boys and Girls teams (Grades 9-12).Ìý

Season 1: Senior Volleyball & Junior Basketball (Mid August – Early November)
Season 2: Senior Basketball and Junior Football (Mid-November – Mid-February)
Season 3: Senior Football (Mid-February – Late April) and Junior Volleyball (Mid-February – Mid-May)

Ìý

Generally, there are two teams (A & B) for each sport. For example, in season 1, we would have A and B Junior Boys Basketball teams. Both teams would compete in our local league (ISSAPP), and the top 10 players from the A team would be offered the chance to travel to the MRISA tournament. If our sign-up numbers exceed our coaching or court capacity, there will be tryouts.

Six tournaments and an Arts Exchange are shared among the six MRISA schools:

• International School of Phnom Penh (ÌÇÐÄVlog) in Phnom Penh
• (VIS) in Vientiane
• (UNIS) in Hanoi
• (SSIS) in Ho Chi Minh City
• (KIS) in Bangkok
• (HIS) in Hanoi

Cross Country, Badminton and Track & Field are also available. These activities require a 6-week training block within late season 1 and season 2. There will be one local ISSAPP meet for each activity.

Sign-Up Process

For all Secondary sports, students must sign up via our ManageBac system. They should go to the “Groups” section and search for the team titles. There will be well-publicised deadlines for these seasonal sign-ups, which will be communicated through the Student Bulletin and emails via the Parent Group attached to ManageBac.

Training Commitment

For all team sports, there are two training sessions per week. Most sessions take place after school from 3:00pm – 4:30pm. In season 1, there will be one morning session for B teams from 6:10am – 7:10am. This is due to the limited court capacity for our two indoor court sports. Training is compulsory and students who miss two sessions without informing their coach will lose their place in the team. The training schedule will be available in the school’s Weekly Announcements.

Parent Permission

A one-time parent permission form is required for participation in our team sports at the ISSAPP level. If your child is selected for an MRISA team, a separate permission form will be required. These forms are online and will be sent to you via the parent email attached to ManageBac. It is crucial to have a current email address to receive vital information.

Swim Team

We also have a strong Swim Program, led by our Aquatics Director, Zsuzsa Barta. The swim seasons align with the team sports timeframe and usually include two local ISSAPP swim meets on Saturday mornings and one international invitational event per season.

General Information

We offer swimming all year round, from August to May. The Swim Team is open to students in grades 1-12. Elementary (Grades 1-5) and Secondary (Grades 6-12) squads have different schedules. Within the squads, swimmers of the same swimming level swim together, regardless of age group/class.

New students to ÌÇÐÄVlog or returning students who haven’t been on the swim team yet and wish to join must be assessed before the season starts. Sign-up for the assessment is necessary, and students and parents will receive information about it from the coaches at the beginning of the school year. To be eligible for the swim team, swimmers must:

• Be able to swim 25/50/100m front crawl, backstroke, and breaststroke with correct technique (distance depends on the age group) and perform a basic race dive
• Be able to swim 600-1600m in one hour
• Commit to local swim meets in Phnom Penh (6 Saturday mornings in a year)
• Demonstrate excellent behaviour and a “can do” approach

Sign-Up Process

Step 1: All swimmers must join the ManageBac group: MRISA Swim Team 2023-24

Step 2: After joining the ManageBac group, all swimmers must complete the “Swim Practice” Google Form. This form will be emailed to the swimmers’ parents.

Training Commitment

Families must sign up for swimming days in advance. “Pop-ins” to any session are not permitted.

Elementary students: minimum 1 session per week.
Options: Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday 2:45pm – 3:45pm

Secondary students: minimum 2 sessions per week, with no maximum, but it must be balanced with academic performance.
Options for all Secondary: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday 3:00pm – 4:30pm.

By invitation only: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday 6:00am – 7:00am.

International Swim Meets:

Selected swimmers will have the opportunity to travel abroad with the team. Details about these trips are released at the beginning of the school year and later in the seasons. Participation is not compulsory.

Elementary Team Sports

Grade 4 and 5 students can participate in football during Season 1 and in basketball during Season 3. Training takes place once a week for an hour (3:00pm – 4:00pm), and there is a culminating ISSAPP tournament at the end of the season. Separate boys and girls teams are formed, and tryouts may be conducted if the number of participants exceeds our coaching and space capacity.

Please note that this is separate from the After School Programme (ASP). It is a competitive team, and therefore, coaches expect your child to participate in all training sessions, develop the necessary skills, and compete in the culminating tournament. Students who cannot meet these expectations may be asked to leave the team. The sign-up process is through an online form emailed to all parents via the ManageBac Parent Group.

Thank you for your attention. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me at gregorystanton@ispp.edu.kh.

Go Falcons!

Greg Stanton | Activities Director / IB MYP Physical & Health Education

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Digital technology is wonderful. In the past two years, technology has allowed us to remain connected both to our learning and to our loved ones. In short, technology has transformed our lives in many positive ways and for us educators, it has greatly enhanced learning opportunities for all students. However, technology comes with many responsibilities and a large part of our technology education here at ÌÇÐÄVlog aims at helping children navigate not just the positive contributions that it brings to their lives, but also how to use it responsibly to avoid increasingly harmful outcomes.

Teachers often have to deal with upset students who come to us (particularly upper Elementary) because of the results of inappropriate use of technology. As part of our digital citizenship agreement, all the teachers at ÌÇÐÄVlog (with the support of our tech coach Mr Seth) work with children to develop balance in students’ lives and to use technology appropriately to avoid negative effects. We give regular reminders as to safe technology usage but children are developmentally not ready to have open access to devices. We will be holding parent meetings to support families but in the meantime, please ensure that your child is supervised at all times when using technology and that parents regularly check in with their child’s usage.

The regular conversations that I have had with students finding themselves in a negative situation due to their technology usage have made me reflect on my own relationship with it and how we as adults model this behaviour to our children. Technology can be stressful and for many (myself included) is the ever-present digital connection and constant need to keep checking emails, texts, and social media that accounts for a lot of this stress. For many people, being connected and immersed in the digital world is just a part of everyday life but it will help our children if we all separate ourselves from technology from time to time. While it isn’t always possible or even preferable to completely disconnect, setting limits on when these digital connections are allowed to intrude on your time can be good for your mental well-being and a great example to our children.

If you would like to find out more about how to support your child, please contact Mr Seth (sethhendrickson@ispp.edu.kh) or save up your questions for one of our next Digital Safety workshops. In the meantime, we hope to all work together to support our children and model balanced technology usage.

Liz Ford | Elementary Principal

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During the pandemic, and specifically during the online school months, the wellness committee met and shared ideas to better support staff, students, and the broader community at ÌÇÐÄVlog.

We had lots of projects and, as happens quite often, time limitations prevented us from everything we set out to. We say that there is not such a thing as a bad idea and that one idea can help us build on another, better, and perhaps brighter idea. That’s why collaboration is key and as we all know, two heads are better than one.

Online school wasn’t easy and the fact that we had a few weeks of lockdown made it harder for many of us. That’s when the Wellness Committee started putting in place one of the ideas that came from those meetings, the online wellness activities.Ìý

As we all know, after having a whole day teaching online, offering online lessons, one of the last things we want is to add more screen time to our eyes, brain, and body in general. These activities came at the right time, though, when we couldn’t leave our houses to exercise or even go for a walk, swim, or do other physical activities.

We started offering yoga classes for staff and their families, three days per week, having an early session to lift the spirits before a day of online teaching and another one at 4pm to get energized by being active. These sessions were quite popular so we decided to offer other activities that included African dance and fitness classes once a week after school.

All these activities were sponsored by ÌÇÐÄVlog and families, students, and parents were also invited to take part.

We feel that those sessions were beneficial during the lockdown, and as always, we use them in our best interests, to experience joy, motivation, and happiness.

Although there is no clear research that shows that physical health improves mental health, there are studies that show the interrelation between the two. Loneliness has also impacted many during this pandemic and the fact that belonging to a group, joining a team, even being online might have had a positive effect on our staff and the broader community.

The goal of these activities was to offer an alternative to sitting in front of a screen, to learn something new, and develop a range of skills that help us build our confidence, feel better with ourselves and find some time to unwind while being active.

We hope you were able to join at certain times and enjoy the activities. Thanks for your participation and appreciation. We are together on this journey.

What participants had to say:

“Knowing that I have yoga every second morning, made a huge difference to my day. Before I started teaching, I had already exercised, stretched my body and felt good as I knew I’d be sitting all day. My concentration improved and I felt more productive.â€�

“Online yoga was a great way to start a busy day! I really felt energised after completing sessions, even though the level was high for my abilities and his soothing voice helped me to enjoy the moments of calm.�

“I have never done yoga before, but went to all the lessons and really felt a difference with my body. Being online also helped because there was no embarrassment in not being able to do some of the moves. I thoroughly enjoyed Rahul’s classes and as a result, will be looking for more online lessons now when his classes stop.�

“I participated in the majority of yoga lessons and that helped me tremendously in keeping a schedule, a work-balanced life and forced me to spend the time on my wellness, something that probably I wouldn’t do.Ìý

Teaching online was challenging and having these spaces helped me to try to keep strong until the end of the year. The teacher was fantastic and I can feel a difference mentally as well as physically after constant practice.�

“It is fantastic that ÌÇÐÄVlog provided the online wellness. This is a clear sign of the school’s commitment to our well-being.â€�Ìý

“The introduction of the wellness activities towards the end of this semester significantly boosted my energy levels, improved my well-being, and I am sure positively impacted my teaching. It was wonderful having the varied activities spread over the course of the week, with the choice of having them early morning or afternoon. I had not really tried yoga before, I had done some keep fit (but very little!), and I had certainly not done any African dancing! The activities were engaging and seeing other staff members in the virtual activities was really wonderful – they were something to look forward to both physically and social- emotionally.â€�

The Wellness Committee
Leticia Carino | IB PYP Physical Education Teacher, Wellness Committee Leader

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What does wellness mean to you? Have you ever tried to define wellness?
If you google it as I did, this is the first definition you get:

The state of being in good health, especially as an actively pursued goal.
“Measures of a patient’s progress toward wellness.”

Wellness is the act of practising healthy habits on a daily basis to attain better physical and mental health outcomes so that instead of just surviving, you’re thriving. To understand the significance of wellness, it’s important to understand how it’s linked to health. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), health is defined as being “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.â€�

We live in a pandemic, and wellness is something that we prioritise at school, building community, supporting each other, students, teachers and staff, and the broader community. During the COVID-19 pandemic, self-care is more essential than ever to help build and maintain a healthy immune system.

We live fast lives, always running, teaching, being in meetings, planning for the next lesson. It is not often that we stop, take some time and breathe or do a little stretch here and there. We just simply can’t think of losing a minute! There is always something to do.

Research shows that exercise helps boost the brain and the immune system, and if we combine this with a regular healthy food diet and enough sleep, we will start finding some balance. Is this enough? Like we take care of our bodies, we need to take care of our minds. Meditation helps.

So how do we do it at school?
This is a process that takes time, and as with everything, we prefer to start slow.

We are lucky that the administration at ÌÇÐÄVlog understands the importance of wellness for all, students, teachers, and the wider community. As we always say, “You need to put on your oxygen mask first before assisting othersâ€�, self-care helps you care for others.

One of the most successful things that we have been doing for all staff during professional development (PD) days is an hour of wellness. Just in the middle of the day, before our lunch break, staff participate in different activities for 45 minutes or an hour, depending on the activity.

This is possible thanks to the generosity of many teachers, teaching assistants (TAs) and staff who offer a range of activities that include physical and sporty activities, musical, mindfulness, art, cooking, games… We can’t be more thankful to these individuals for offering their time and knowledge to others. At the same time, we recognise that when you give you receive, and most of the time, you feel great by sharing, interacting with others, and especially freeing your mind. This helps us to get through long sessions of meetings or sitting downtime during the PD.

We understand that some people might need space and time for themselves, so some activities are more related to individual pursuits than others. Some people prefer to go to the workout room, swim, walk, and maybe talk to others, or simply dive into a good book for an hour, something they would never contemplate doing during a regular school day.

Allowing time to care for ourselves is not selfish; it’s necessary. There is still a lot to do, but we are slowly starting to understand it and adding it to our busy lives.

We believe that as human beings, we need to interact with others. We don’t have the same opportunities during online school, so we recently have started an idea to connect with others, encourage others, lift each other up, and inspire others by sharing different activities that we are up to during our free time.

Using a platform called Padlet, teachers and staff add an idea that makes them feel good and inspires others to do something similar or possibly get an idea. There is also a possibility to comment on each other and be grateful for what they have shared.

I have personally used social media and the Padlet, with the hashtag #ÌÇÐÄVloginspires, to share a few things that help my body and mind smile and get me through the days and weeks. This has a broader impact, as it can inspire, or not, people that might not be at ÌÇÐÄVlog, or even in Cambodia, but might have to go through the same process of stressed overwhelmed lives.

We understand that everyone has a different story, and we all have our own struggles and happy moments. Reflecting on those experiences, acknowledging them, and being grateful for what we have might help us get through this pandemic and challenging times.

Be Well.

Leticia Cariño | IB PYP Physical Education Teacher

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Alison Stanton | Elementary Counselor

Self-regulation is the ability for us to manage our thoughts, feelings, and actions. It helps us to remain calm and rather than react when facing stress and big feelings.

Self-regulation helps a child to solve a problem without giving up or calm themselves before a big tantrum. Without self-regulation, children struggle with relationships and have difficulties in the classroom.

When we are born we have little ability to self-regulate. Our parents and primary caregivers help us to learn through a process called co-regulation.

Parents and caregivers use their voice, tone, movements and response to help children become calmer and regulate. Parents and carers need to pay close attention to the cues that children send and respond with care and sensitivity. Children need to feel loved and safe. They need to have consistent role models that they trust. These adults use co-regulation to help them learn to learn self-soothing and calming skills.

We continue to learn self-regulation through interactions with others throughout our lives. Parents, teachers, mentors and friends all play an important role.

Caregivers build strong relationships by communicating through their words and actions that they are interested in the child’s world and respect them as an individual. They also structure the environment to ensure the child feels physically and emotionally safe and able to take risks and learn new skills. They also teach self-regulation through modelling, instruction, practice and positive reinforcement.

To successfully do all of this we as parents and caregivers must first manage their own self-regulation. We must pay attention to our own thoughts and beliefs about the behaviours of others. We need to be self-aware and practice calming ourselves when we are stressed.

When we support a child in distress we need to be consistent and calm. We need to speak in a warm soothing voice. We need to acknowledge that the child is upset and have empathy, but not be drawn into the drama. We need to be patient as we help a child to understand big feelings and manage their response.

How we Co-regulate with our children at different stages

Co-regulation – Young babies

• Physical and emotional comfort when a child is distressed
• Structure and routine
• Respond to cue – child’s needs
• Adjust the environment to reduce stress

Co-regulation – Preschool

• Model waiting strategies
• Redirect child attention to regulate behaviour
• Teach appropriate expectations and rules
• Clear, consistent and calm consequences
• Teach words to express emotions
• Coach ways of solving simple problems
• Model and reinforce calming strategies
• Provide a space for calming down

Co-regulation – Elementary students

• A warm, nurturing, supportive relationship
• Model conflict resolution strategies
• Modelling positive self-talk, growth mindset
• Coaching calming strategies, relaxation
• Teach and support organization and planning skills
• Clear consequences while staying calm
• Provide opportunities to make decisions and lead

Co-regulation – Adolescents

• Continue a warm, responsive relationship
• Model, discuss and coach self-regulation skills
• Provide opportunities to make decisions and self-monitor behaviour in less risky situations.
• Give time and space to calm down when upset
• Clear rules, boundaries and consequences
• Provide gentle support and empathy in times of intense emotion
• Monitor organizational skills and task completion

Additional reading / viewing

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