From the Principal - Kinabalu International School · 2016-09-30 · Jolly Phonics Talk Next Thursday an informative talk for Foundation Two parents will be held at 8am in the Primary

30th September 2016

From the Principal

International Day

This year KIS has students from some 33 different nationalities, making us

a wonderfully diverse international community. To recognise this

diversity, we will be celebrating International Day at school on Friday 14

October. This is a PTA initiative involving students, teachers and parents

working together. On the day everyone is encouraged to wear their own

national dress or colours with pride. To kick off the celebrations the festivities will start with a student parade at 8am. This will be followed

from 11.20am onward with lunchtime stalls providing culinary delights from around the world, along with some fun activity stalls run by

students or parents.

Last Friday a letter from the PTA was distributed to all KIS families asking for your support. To help make the day a success we are asking all

parents to contribute in some way to the celebration. It would be fantastic if every nationality was represented through a food stall, a hamper

for the silent auction or an activity. Please complete the Return Form (on the letter) and return it to the school office and commit to

contributing to this special celebration!

Appointment of new Community Liaison Officer

I am very pleased to announce the appointment of Laura Davies as our new Community Liaison

Officer for the school. In her new role Laura will work closely with the Student Charity Committee and

the Student Council. This week she has already been very busy working with students in preparation

for our International Day celebrations. As part of the festivities the Secondary Student Council are

organizing a plethora of fun activities for the Primary and Secondary students to enjoy. These

activities will include bowling, penalty shoot outs, egg and spoon races, electric races and even

throwing wet sponges at teachers! What more could students want! I wish Laura every success in her

new role.

Rebranding Presentation Today

A reminder that Sarah Burns, Marketing Officer, will be hosting a presentation this morning at 8am in the Primary Multi Purpose Room, which

will outline the work that has been conducted over the last 15 months, reviewing the existing school brand and looking at some alternatives

for a new KIS visual identity. For those who are unable to attend, a survey will be sent to the KIS community early in the week commencing

the 3rd October to gather feedback on your preferences for a new logo.

Meet & Greet Pot Luck Evening

I would like to thank everyone who come along to the Meet and Greet Pot Luck Evening last Friday. It was a very pleasant evening and

provided an excellent opportunity for parents and staff to mingle and chat informally. I would also like to extend my sincere thanks to the PTA

for organising the event. Moving forward, I hope that this event will become part of our regular annual school calendar.

Wishing you a pleasant long weekend.

Alan Connah, Principal

Primary Library Monday saw an excited buzz of anticipation around the Primary Department, the Primary Library was ready to be opened. Year 3W were the lucky class to be the first students to receive library lessons in the new space and get to look at all the new books.

Tapestry Talk Thursday morning saw many of our Foundation and Key Stage One parents attend a talk about our Online Learning Journals run by Tapestry. After a highly successful trial last year in the Early Years Foundation Stage, this year the Learning Journals are being extended to cover Years One and Two with a view to extending it to Key Stage Two by the end of the year. Parents will receive an email before half term with their login details and password. Please contact me via email ([email protected]) if you do not receive your login by the end of half term. Once you have received this email, you will have 24 hours to activate your personal account. If you would like additional access to Tapestry for Grandparents please email me their details and I can set that up. If you were unable to attend the Tapestry talk on Thursday and would like further information, please let me know. For those of you who have already got Tapestry accounts the website address is moving to https://tapestryjournal.com

Photographs Kinabalu International School takes the safety and well being of all of our children very seriously. Many of our parents do not like people outside of their families and close friends taking photographs of their children. We respectfully ask while on the school campus or attending school events that parents and their visitors refrain from taking photographs of children, other than their family members. If your child is engaged in a lesson outside of their classroom it can be distracting to have people taking photographs of them.

Jolly Phonics Talk Next Thursday an informative talk for Foundation Two parents will be held at 8am in the Primary Multi-Purpose Room by Mrs Hyndman and Mrs Eland. They will be giving more information about our Jolly Phonics programme and sharing ideas on how you can help your child. If you are attending this talk please email your child's teacher to let them know.

Primary PE and Swimming It has been brought to my attention by the PE Department that recently a number of children have been arriving to school late on swimming days. On the morning that your child has swimming, please make sure that they arrive in school on time, by the latest at 7.50am. If your child is not well enough to swim then please only bring them to school at 10.00am, as we have no facility to look after them.

Healthy Eating At KIS we always promote healthy eating. We ask that all parents support us in this by sending in healthy snacks and lunches and ensuring that all children have had breakfast before coming to school. Many thanks. Nicky Russell Acting Head of Primary

Fri 30th Sept: Year 4 Trip

Fri 30th Sept: KIS Rebranding Talk for parents, 8am Primary

Multi Purpose Room

Fri 30th Sept: PTASC Meeting, 8.45am

Mon 2nd Oct: Public Holiday, School Closed

Thurs 6th Oct: Foundation 2 Jolly Phonics Talk, 8am

Fri 7th Oct: University Application Day for Year 13 Students

Fri 7th Oct: Leadership Assembly

Over the coming weeks Secondary Departments will be reporting news of what is happening within their classrooms: What has been happening in English lessons? A report from Ms Tully, Head of English Year 7 classes have risen to the challenges of a new curriculum with confidence and enthusiasm. We have started the term by looking at extracts from Roald Dahl's autobiography 'Boy' which has helped to inspire the students to begin compiling their own collection of short sto-ries about their childhoods. They have enjoyed expressing themselves through this creative exercise, and the development of their writing with each new piece of work reflects their progress with regards to key skills. They will continue to build these skills throughout Key Stage 3. Year 8 are currently studying the World War One novel, ‘Private Peaceful’ written by Michael Morpurgo. When asked if they are enjoying it, all of 8B exclaimed simultaneously, “Yes!” Their comments ranged from, “It’s great!” to “I can relate to the characters,” and “It’s a page-turner.” Currently, we are working on language analysis skills in order to fully appreciate Morpurgo’s craft. Year 9 have responded thoughtfully and maturely to their study of 'Lord of the Flies' with its challenging themes about conflict, identity, sav-agery and war. We have linked our learning to the hope for 'Peace One Day' and created an interactive display board to help with further analysis, essay writing and insights into the text. Year 12 AS Level Literature students have this to report: Throughout these past 4 weeks, we have been introduced to Elizabeth Jennings’ poetry, exploring the complexities of relationships, love, death and maturity which are necessary for a fulfilled life experience through her subtle style and traditional poetic technique. We have en-joyed comparing multiple poems and discovering the poet’s own reflections evident in the links between them. In analysis, Ms Tully has helped us improve on formal essay form and writing skills, encouraging us to acquaint ourselves with the poet herself and her perceptions. Our Essay extracts: “For ‘Poem In Winter,’ enjambment is used to create many facets of tone: reflecting the ‘drifting’ bliss of innocence “watch the children press// Their image upon the drifts”, the sense of contemplation and mirroring the slow fall of snow.” – Charlotte Y “Jennings comprehends that she needs to choose between having her childhood insouciance back and writing about her deeper understand-ing of the world, which she uses to ‘heal’ herself: ‘I need to stuff with my own meaning’. This verse depicts the author’s realization of her ne-cessity to articulate her most profound thoughts and reflections through poetry.” –Clemence

Elsewhere in Secondary We were impressed with the number of Secondary students who responded to the call to wear white for Peace One Day last Friday, and a number of teachers ensured that they included some aspect of the theme in their classes on that day. In the space of only 1 hour, Mr. Bryant’s Year 7 class produced a moving ensemble piece of physical theatre. The below image comes from near the end anddepicts rec-onciliation and sorrow.

Secondary School Latecomers We ask that all students are at school by 7.45 am and in their classrooms to register by 7.50am. We do understand that occasionally your child may be late for school; traffic and other unavoidable obstacles sometimes get in the way. However, a number of students are repeated latecomers and this is not a good start to the day for them. It also causes disruption in the main office as latecomers gather there to register, and some students fail to register at all, meaning that we may have inaccurate attendance registers, which is, of course, unacceptable. We do ask for your co-operation in this matter. Margaret Renshaw

As-

FOBISIA Heads of PE Conference In mid-September I attended the FOBISIA Heads of PE conference which was hosted by Shrewsbury International School, Bangkok. It was a busy and informative 2 days and I have come away inspired and determined to develop the PE curriculum even further throughout 2016-17. On the first day there was a keynote presentation by Andy Barrow, who is a British Paralympic athlete. He was an inspirational person and I urge you all to watch some YouTube clips of wheelchair rugby, a truly amazing sport! We then continued with the FOBISIA Games confer-ence, where we discussed events that we attend each year for the U15, U13 and Primary Games. It has now been confirmed that Year 4 stu-dents will no longer be able to attend the Games, as the event will be a U10 and U11 competition only. Also, the Games will no longer be hosted by schools from September 2017, but will be hosted by an external company in one hub location. I will share more information on this when the details are confirmed. On day two, I attended some professional development sessions including Pilates, Primary Dance and Basketball. These were very useful and gave me some new ideas and tips for refining some of the work we do already in PE.

House Captains The students attended an assembly about House Captains last week and the final decisions will be made today about the leaders for each House. In addition, new students will be added to the Sports Council to work with the PE department this year. The results will be published on Tuesday next week. Ms Natasha Hale Head of PE

Class Ambassadors Many thanks to all the parents who have kindly volunteered to be Class Ambassadors for 2016-2017. Your commitment and involvement is greatly appreciated by the PTASC and the KIS staff. We look forward to getting to know you during the course of the year and working to-gether for the benefit of all the KIS students. We almost have a full compliment of Primary Class Ambassadors for 2016-17! We are appealing to parents in Year 5W to volunteer to be the Class Ambassador. The following Secondary year groups currently do not have Class Ambassadors. Years: 7C; 7I; 9C; 10C; 13B If you would like to volunteer to be a Class Ambassador for your child's class, please contact Amanda Garside via WhatsApp (0198881180.) (A copy of the PTA Class Ambassador Guidelines document is available on the KIS website: http://www.kis.edu.my/wp content/uploads/2016/09/CA Guidelines_2016_09_20.pdf)

International Day At KIS we have over 30 different nationalities! On Friday 14 October, we will be celebrating our diverse community with our International Day. A letter was sent home last Friday detailing this very exciting day. If you did not receive a hard copy, please download a copy from the school website Our International Day celebration will be a joint event that includes students, parents and teachers. Please complete the Return Form (on the letter) and return it to the school office or sign up on the International Day Sign-Up Form on the PTA notice board by latest TODAY and com-mit to contributing to this special celebration. If you have any questions, please contact any member of the Steering Committee or email us on:[email protected]

Pot Luck Meet & Greet Evening

Last Friday evening the KIS school hall was transformed into a social gathering venue for parents and teachers. We have received so much positive feedback from parents and teachers who attended the event.

We would like to thank our Principal, Alan Connah for suggesting that the PTASC host this fantastic opportunity for parents and teachers to meet socially. We would also like to give a shout out to our KIS teachers who returned to work after school hours on a Friday evening to sup-port the event. We were very happy and grateful to be assisted by two of our Teachers Assistants, Anne and CJ. We would also like to say a special thank you to all the parents who attended and contributed delicious potluck dishes.

Cooking Classes

We are glad to inform you that the New Friends Team (NFT) have decided to start a new initiative. We have such a diverse community in KIS that we thought it would be fun to learn favourite dishes from one another. Our idea is more about sharing ideas with one another in a fun and relaxed way; rather than necessarily learning fancy or complicated dishes. The plan is to get a small group of parents together at someone’s home to learn how to make a particular dish. If you are willing to share your knowledge with others, perhaps you could demonstrate how to make a dish? This could be a quick tasty dish or something for a special occasion, or a traditional dish from your country, or perhaps something you have found to be popular with oth-ers. Maybe you have always wanted to learn how to bake a cake or pastries or a particular curry dish or perhaps want to learn some healthier dishes? We would love to hear from you!

Details are as follows: • Parents interested in participating please forward me your contact details via email or WhatsApp. • Those interested in demonstrating should let me know what dish/es you would be prepared to show parents how to make. • You may still participate even if you are only interested in learning a new dish, and never want to have to show others how to cook something! So do let us know which type of cuisine or techniques you are interested in learning. • We are planning to hold these classes monthly at 10am or perhaps more frequently if we find many parents interested. The location/s are still to be decided, but will possibly be at the demonstrator’s house. • One of the 2 organisers from the NFT will get in contact with you once we are ready to proceed. Please note, this is open to all parents in KIS, not just those new this term. Please do feel free to make any suggestions, so we can be sure to make this of interest to as many parents as possible. Naree Blackie / Tel: 012 811 3147 / Email: [email protected]

Scholastic Book Orders

We have once again had a wonderful response from parents for the Scholastic Book drive. A total of RM 8,380 books were ordered last week!

We would like to thank Jenny Hoffman, Mary Chong and Adeline Benjamin who assisted our Scholastic Book Coordinator Evelyn Diabo. We would like to highlight that Evelyn has voluntarily served the school in this role for over 5 years for which we are most grateful!

Thank you for your support!

PTA Dates for your Calendar:

Friday 30 September 2016 - PTASC Meeting, 8.45am Friday 14 October 2016 - International Day Wednesday 2nd November 2016 - PTA Annual General Meeting

PTA Steering Committee

Our International Day celebration will be a joint event that includes students, parents and teachers. Please complete the Return Form (on the letter) and return it to the school office and commit to contributing to this special celebration!

If you have any questions, please contact any member of the Steering Committee or email us on:[email protected]

Thank you for your continued support!

PTA Dates for your Calendar:

Friday 23 September 2016 - Meet & Greet Pot Luck Evening Friday 23 September 2016 - Final day for Scholastic orders, further information to follow next week Friday 30 September 2016 - PTASC Meeting, 8.45am Friday 14 October 2016 - International Day Wednesday 2nd November 2016 - PTA Annual General Meeting

A Story Sack is a large cloth bag that contains a children's book with supporting materials to make reading a memorable and enjoyable experience. A parent-led group was established last year to create the item to go in these sacks. We meet every Tuesday and work on a 'Story Sack' for a book suggested by the Primary Staff. Every member of the team brings a special tal-ent - some sew, some knit, some bring their imagination and some have the ability to transform the most unlikely materials into something amazing. Many people bring their enthusiasm and search You Tube or Pinterest to solve a tricky prob-lem. Coffee, tea and cakes are enjoyed throughout the sessions and many new friendships have been forged. Several parents new to KIS have found this a great way to become part of the KIS community. We would love new members to join in the fun. WHEN: Tuesday Mornings (8am to 10.15am) WHERE: Multi Purpose Room If you are interested in finding more information about story sacks and would like to join the group please contact Mary or Liz (see contact details below) or pop into one of the sessions to see what we are doing. Mary: [email protected] 019 808 6895