If you've missed the broadcasting of the episode of Il Senso Della Vita our Grade 8 students recently attended (read more about that here) or you just want to see it again, you can now watch it online. A clip can be found here: Birke Baher on Il Senso Della Vita.

Yesterday evening, we celebrated the end of term with the High School drama production at Teatro Euclide. We were entertained by some brilliant performances from our students in Grades 10, 11, 12 and 13 in the series of humorous sketches about the troubles that face teenagers, entitled The Time Of Your Life.
After the interval Grade 10 performed in the epic comedy The Hysterical History of Troy.
Not only was this a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the talents of our High School students, we also raised 557 for the Japan Earthquake Fund.

There are more photos of this event in the Gallery section of the web site.

Our students in the IB Diploma Programme attended a lecture on J. Rawls' Theory of Justice yesterday. The lecture was given by Professor S. Maffettone, Dean of the Political Science faculty and Full Professor of political philosophy at LUISS.

J. Rawls' theory of distributive justice is a milestone in 20th century political philosophy. It defends and develops a criterion of distribution based on equality of liberties and on the controversial 'difference principle'. Rawls' theory is a sophisticated alternative both to 'desert' theories of justice and to theories based on need or strict egalitarianism. It has renewed the social contract tradition in political philosophy by developing the idea that society is a system of cooperation between individuals aimed at mutual advantage.

With their teacher, Mr Tom Kapantrias, Grade 6 students are busy preparing for their exhibition that will take place on the 11th and 12th of May. Groups are also meeting regularly with their mentors to get feedback on their plans, research and various ideas. On Monday, the class grounds extended to the corridor to allow the students to work on their life size models!

This Thursday afternoon was an afternoon for music at Rome International School. Led by our music teachers Ms. Jones (Elementary School) and Mr. Powell (Middle and High School), the voices of a big number of of our students filled our basketball court. The Elementary School choir, the senior girls vocal group and students from Grade 3 recorders showed the rest of the school what they have been working on  last term. And so we got to listen to a great variety of music, from an old hit like Eye of the Tiger by Survivor (the theme from Rocky) to something more contemporary, like Amy Winehouse’s Valerie. The students from Grades 1 to 9 watched the performance.

The episode of the television show Il Senso Della Vita which our Grade 8 students attended the recording of this week, will be broadcast on Sunday 17th April, at 21.15 on Canale 5. This episode, featuring the the 12 year old self learner student Birke Baher from Atlanta, USA, will focus on the question ‘What’s wrong with our food system, and how can we make a difference?’. Watch for our students in the segment of the programme that starts at 22.45.

Grade 7 have been working on Mime in Drama. They presented their work to their parents who particularly enjoyed the section called "Children's games", in which students prepared a tableau vivant using the stimulus of Breughel's well known picture of the same name, combining it with a poem by William Carlos Williams.

We are happy to let you know that we have hired Dr William Ireland as Principal of the Middle and High School. Dr Ireland will take up the position from the beginning of July 2011. Dr Ireland is currently Principal of the International School of London of Qatar. He has a solid management and teaching experience in IB International schools, in Europe (Vienna, the Hague, Paris) and overseas (Thailand, Qatar), as well as in British schools.

Our eye to the future comes with an awareness of what we owe to those who have contributed to Rome International School’s development until now. First, Mrs Marshall, who has undertaken with dedication and enthusiasm the tasks required by her different roles in different phases.

In the same way, we would like to thank Ms Barker, who has been an authoritative reference point for our High School, and who, looking forward, has worked alongside with Mrs Tabet to help her prepare to take over the DP coordinator role. We would also like to express our gratitude to the other teachers leaving RIS at the end of this scholastic year and to wish them all the best in the life projects that they intend to pursue abroad.

Earth Day is a day that is intended to inspire awareness of and appreciation for the Earth's natural environment. We at Rome International School will be celebrating this day on Wednesday 20th April, the last day of Term 2.

We will be celebrating Earth Day in our basketball court, from 11.10 to 13.10. The students in our Middle School and the members of our tireless Environmental Club are working hard to make this an interesting happening that should also provide you with some food for thought. Expect lots of ‘green’ games, displays and stands! Oh, and in the mean time we can use your help: any ‘clean’ rubbish you can spare, would be greatly appreciated! Please leave it in room B2…

Want to know more about what Rome International School is doing for the environment? Keep an eye on the blog of our Environmental Club, RIS Go Green: http://risgogreen.wordpress.com/

Attention Grade 13 parents! The IB Diploma results will become available to RIS students through their online login (login and PIN have been distributed by Ms Barker) at 0.45 in the night of 6th/7th July. Students are requested to be available to come into school on Thursday 7th April and Friday 8th July to deal with any issues arising from these results.

May we also remind you to confirm to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , if you have not yet done so, whether you wish your child’s official IB Diploma to be legalized, as requested by some countries including Italy at an additional cost of 80 GBP (exact fee in euro to be confirmed at time of legalization). This legalization can be requested immediately after the exams have finished in May. We remind you that for legalization in Italy a photocopy of the student’s passport is required.

On Saturday 2nd April some of the enthusiastic Diploma students, and members of the Environmental Club, gave up their free time to improve our local community. We spent three hours cleaning and then repainting the buildings on Viale Eritrea as they were covered (like much of our city) in terrible graffiti. This outing was organised on the occasion of Earth Day and for the Diploma students to do some real Service for the local community. It was a great day, with everyone feeling an immense amount of satisfaction after all the hard work, especially as so many passers-by continually complimented us on our efforts. More photos of this activity can be found in the ‘Gallery’ section.

We are delighted to invite parents and students to attend our first ever IB Diploma Programme Visual Arts Exhibition on Saturday 16th April 15.00 to 17.00 in the Annex. This exhibition forms a major part of the final assessment for the IB DP Visual Arts course and is a wonderful opportunity for us to celebrate the talents of these students.

Our school choir will be giving a performance on Thursday 14th April at 14.30 in the basketball court. The performers are the Elementary School choir, the senior girls vocal group and Grade 3 recorders. The students will be showcasing some of the work that they have done this term. There will be a variety of music ranging from Maroon 5 and the Glee Cast to The Lion King and Rocky’s Eye of the Tiger by Survivor. The students from Grades 1 to 9 are invited to come watch this performance, and parents are of course welcome as well.

Tickets for the High School production at the Teatro Euclide are now available from the office. No admittance to the show without a ticket! Hurry hurry hurry, while there are still seats left!

A new issue of RIS Report is out! This month's magazine contains some environmental articles for you to think about now that Earth Day is coming up, reports on the celebration of Mardi Gras and Saint Patrick's Day, and loads of coverage on both Book Week and Trip Week!
The latest issue is available in our main hall, or you can find the PDF version here.

Portfolio sessions are well under way. It has been so far a valuable moment for students, teachers and we hope parents! Students were eager to take responsibility for their own learning by sharing their various work, their reflections and their goals.
Teachers’ reflections are yet another evidence of how significant the student led conference is:
“Grade 1V children were delighted to show off their portfolios to their parents. There were lots of smiles and proud parents and children.”
“Parents commented that children were excited about sharing their work.”

31st March was the last day to enroll your child. From this date, RIS will consider all individual requests on a first-come, first-served basis, depending on the places available.
For this reason we suggest you to express your interest as soon as possible, otherwise we can’t guarantee you the enrolment.
Please, remember to collect the approved enrolment forms.