International Award Scheme (IAS) Gold Awardees
In December 2006 the school received notification from the International Secretariat (the administrative body of the IAS) in London that three former students of IST had fulfilled all requirements to receive their IAS Gold Awards. The three students are: Bansi Sagar, Erum Mussa and Fatema Abdallah. The three students joined IAS in August 2002 and over the next four years completed all sections of the scheme to obtain their Bronze, Silver and finally Gold awards. For those unfamiliar with IAS, it is a scheme that challenges young people from all over the world. The Award is a balanced programme with a framework of four Sections; it encourages young people to develop a chosen Skill over a period of time, participate in a Community Service programme on a regular basis, partake in a Physical Recreation activity at least once a week and complete demanding Expeditions on foot in unfamiliar countryside over several days.
For example, to complete her Gold Award, Bansi chose song writing and singing as her Skill, and worked on developing this skill over a period of 12 months. Fatema was a committed member of Make a Difference, a Community Service group, for a period of 18 months. As a Physical Recreation activity, Erum played floor hockey every week for a year. For their qualifying Expedition, all three girls had to complete a five day/four night expedition in the Selous, carrying all camping equipment, camping wild every night and avoiding buffalo during the day! Moreover, the girls also had to complete a Residential Project, unique to the Gold Award. So for five days in September 2004 the students stayed in the village of Kindwitwi, helping the local residents with various activities such as painting and farming.
So, on behalf of the IAS co-coordinators at IST, I would like to congratulate the girls wholeheartedly on their outstanding achievement. Well done girls!! And many thanks must go to all the staff at IST who give up a lot of their time and many weekends in planning and supervising the expeditions and other related activities.
Paul Murphy IAS-coordinator
ESP week 