Panaga School Magazine October 2014

Panaga

School

Magazine Issue 47

October 2014

Issue 47 Panaga School Magazine October 2014

Panaga School Magazine

Issue 47 October 2014

Panaga School HRF/4

Brunei Shell Petroleum Sdn Bhd Jalan Utara

Seria, KB 3534 Negara Brunei Darussalam

(+673) 3375728/3372138 (Teraja) (+673) 3372694 (Rampayoh & Mendaram)

Principal:

Tim Robinson [email protected]

Head Teacher, Teraja:

Andy Ryan [email protected]

Head Teacher, Rampayoh & Mendaram:

Cindy Bin Tahal [email protected]

Senior Admin: Jalinah Bte Ali

[email protected]

Admin Support, Rampayoh & Mendaram:

Zurimah Bte Jumat [email protected]

Admin Support, Teraja: Hasmah Bte Hj Salleh:

[email protected]

Panaga School Magazine Editor and Layout:

Damian Brady [email protected]

3. Message from the Principal

4. Welcome Back!

5, 6 & 7. Our new teachers for 2014/15

8. Authors from here and abroad

9. P2, Peter and the Wolf

10. News from our neighbours - St John’s School

11. P7 attend the Panaga Health Centre Open Day

12. Something smells good...Mini Chefs ASA

13. IP5 & DP5/6 Rainforest Fruits & Saving the Planet

14. Exit Point blad: All in one rhythm

15. Milepost 3 Football Fun Day

16. Next stop: the World of Rugby for two Panaga LSAs

Contents:

In next half term’s issue:

Highlights of P7’s

exciting trip to Temburong

Issue 47 Panaga School Magazine October 2014

Welcome to the first Panaga School Magazine of the year. With the new expansion almost complete, we feel the school is in a very positive position to develop and further extend children’s learning. We now have over 800 pupils, 70 teaching staff and over 50 LSAs.

Some of our new staff include more EAL and SEN teachers, assigned across the school to provide learning support for children, both individually and in small groups. We now have nine teachers who directly support or challenge students with their learning.

Over this term, we intend to present several workshops where we aim to help parents support a home-school educa-tional process. I intend to cover an area that I find interesting and always thought-provoking, ‘Learning in the 21st Century’. I recently attended an event at a local Bruneian school where the same subject was being discussed. Clearly, preparing chil-dren for the future is a matter that is close to all of us.

We are fortunate that the IPC is a progressive curriculum, based on the research of several academics. The most promi-nent of these is Howard Gardner, Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Har-vard University. He is the Senior Director of Harvard Project Zero. During the development of IPC learning units, Howard Gardner’s work is always utilised to remind teachers of the core principles of the IPC. Gardner's work on multiple intelli-gences is a thread evident across the IPC topics.

So what can we do as parents? Clearly, offering the same ed-ucation that we were exposed to will not guarantee success for our children. You would not expect doctors or engineers to be operating as they did in the 1970 and 80s; the same is true of education. The world our children will face as adults will be a very different world. So what are some of the key components as parents we should focus on?

Children will need to think in different ways; they will need to be more creative and innovative problem solvers and deci-

sion makers. To do this, they require opportunities to be im-mersed in new ways of thinking. We need to give children opportunities to solve problems, real life problems; these are all valuable experiences. Children should be seen and heard.

Communication will be a key skill and children will need to be able to convey a message succinctly. They will also need to work more collaboratively. Exposure to sport and school resi-dential trips are areas where children are given full exposure to working as part of a team.

Children will also require the tools for working and most of these will be based on competency with information technol-ogy. The ability to ‘code’ will be a powerful tool of the future. Encourage children to engage with technology, lead by exam-ple. Our DE (Digital Education) teachers provide ample oppor-tunities at school, but these need to be encouraged at home.

And finally, we all need to develop as responsible citizens. We need to think of our personal and social responsibility and establish a strong cultural awareness. Thankfully, we live in an international community where children are exposed to different cultures on a daily basis. This needs to be nurtured and developed in conversations at home. It will not just hap-pen because of exposure.

This is not an exhaustive list, and as a parent myself, I need to work on some of these!

I will finish as I started this section. Please think very carefully about your interactions with your children and the experienc-es you give them. What world are you preparing them for? You may need to develop interactions that take place.

Finally, one of my favourite quotes from Eric Hoffer to finish with:

‘In times of change, learners inherit the earth; while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a

world that no longer exists.’

- Tim Robinson

Message from the Principal

Issue 47 Panaga School Magazine October 2014

There were smiles all round and hardly a tear in sight (from the students anyway) as Panaga School’s new academic year began on Monday, 1st September, 2014.

After a well-deserved break, all children settled into their new classes eagerly and easily; including last year’s P3s who began this year in the “big school” (Teraja). Plus, we welcomed many new families and teachers to the school com-munity. (Please see pages 5, 6 and 7.)

It was fantastic to witness so many smiles on the children’s faces as many have long awaited being reacquainted with their friends, making new ones and continuing their learning. There are many wonderful events occurring this year - an exciting schedule of school residentials, concerts, theme days, Challenge Days, ASAs and sports competitions - to name a few.

Keep posted to each Thursday’s Parent Information Letters for details. But for now, welcome back! It’s going to be another great school year! By Damian Brady

Welcome back! This year’s going to be great!

Issue 47 Panaga School Magazine October 2014

Welcome, new teachers for 2014-2015

AIZAZ (IZZY) KHAN Nationality: British Arrived from: Kent, England Am here with: On my own. My family is in the UK this year. Interests: Sport, watching movies, going to the gym and I love animals. Hopes for this year: To continue to be a better teacher is the main. Outside of school, I aim to improve my Arabic, learn some Malay and be a lot fitter.

JULIE VELJIC

Nationality: British Arrived from: Shanghai Am here with: Husband and two boys Interests: Hiking, cycling, reading, learning about different cultures and countries. Hopes for this year: To settle in to Brunei and the Panaga community with my family. To be involved in continuing to develop the excellent learning and teaching in Rampayoh classrooms.

STEPHANIE STRAATMAN Nationality: Dutch Arrived from: The UK Am here: Soon to be with my husband as waiting to get married. Interests: Kitesurfing, travelling, learning new languages, tennis and squash. Hopes for this year: To settle in and start a new life in Brunei. Also, build fantastic relationships with my colleagues, parents and pupils. To do well as an EAL teacher. To explore Brunei and its neighbouring countries.

CINDY BIN TAHAL

Nationality: Australian Arrived from: Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia Am here with: Husband Tobias, daughter Marley (P8) and son PK (P1). Interests: Travel, fire twirling, paddle boarding, yoga, visual arts and theatre. Hopes for this year: To have a happy and healthy family who practise being grateful. To establish genuine relationships and make positive contributions through my work within all of Panaga School community, BSP family and the wider Brunei community.

MARTIN DOWN Nationality: British Arrived from: Ferring, on the south coast of England Am here with: Rachel, Liliana (P6), Eloise (P5), Bart and Gigi the cats. Interests: Writing and Illustrating children's picture books (titles include: The Princess and the Pirate and The Three Billy Goats Bob and the Bizarre Building Competition), Tropical Fish, Music and Travel. Hopes for this year: Just enjoying living and working in Brunei and spending time with my wonderful family!

ERICA ZEVENBERGEN Nationality: Dutch Arrived from: Brunei Am here with: My husband Rick Zevenbergen and two sons Freek (11) and Jelle (8). Interests: I love to read, cook, run, dance, sing and do some gardening. Hopes for this year: A nice year with all of the lovely DP1/2/3 children and par-ents. I hope we can all make a lot of friends whilst working with the children of the international stream and their teachers.

Issue 47 Panaga School Magazine October 2014

SHELAGH GREEN Nationality: British Arrived from: UK this summer...before that I had been teaching in Hong Kong. Am here with: My husband and 2 boys. Interests: Playing tennis, yoga and hill walking. Hopes for this year: To develop my teaching and enjoy what Brunei and its neighbours has to offer me and my family.

CAROLYN STENNARD Nationality: New Zealander (Kiwi) Arrived from: Auckland, New Zealand Am here with: Myself Interests: Diving, Hiking, Netball, Rugby, Cycling - sports in general. Hopes for this year: To remember everyone's name, have fun, learn about the IPC.

JO MARSHALL Nationality: British Arrived from: Qatar Am here with: My husband Tom Interests: Rugby, cycling, golf, swimming, bird watching, photography, travel, studying and spending time with my husband. Hopes for this year: For my husband and I to settle in to life in Brunei and learn more about the people, culture, countryside and language. To build good relationships with my colleagues, parents and children and make a positive contribution to Panaga School.

ANDREW VELE Nationality: Papua New Guinean Arrived from: Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates Am here with: My wife Alice Vele, who is teaching in Pre-Nursery (Mendaram), and our two daughters, Isabel in P6 and Layla in P2. Interests: Playing a variety of sports such as Rugby, Volleyball and Scuba diving. Hopes for this year: I hope to continue to meet different people from different parts of the world as well as experience the culture that living in Brunei has to offer. At school, I hope to encourage and inspire students to participate in physical activity and lead active lifestyles.

KATH MORGAN Nationality: British Arrived from: Wales in the UK Am here with: My husband and 3 children Interests: I enjoy wildlife, different types of music and eating nice food! Hopes for this year: To enjoy learning and having fun with the pupils and parents of Panaga School in this beautiful part of the world.

GEORGINA HUNTER

Nationality: British Arrived from: Almaty, Kazakhstan Am here with: My husband, Colin, son Gabe in P3 and daughter Mimie in Nursery Interests: Reading, Spanish Hopes for this year: Out of school, I would like to see an orangutan.

ALICE VELE

Nationality: British Arrived from: Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates Am here with: My husband Andrew Vele, who is teaching PE on Rampoyah, and my two daughters Isabel and Layla, who are also attending Panaga School. Interests: Touch rugby, camping and animals Hopes for this year: To learn Bahasa Melayu.

Issue 47 Panaga School Magazine October 2014

SARAH SARGISON Nationality: English Arrived from: Newark, Nottinghamshire, UK Am here with: On my own! Interests: Really enjoy the cinema, singing, taking part in Yoga and dancing! Hopes for this year: To have a great time here in Brunei, getting to know lots of new people, seeing my class grow into independent learners and do lots of traveling!

AMANDA BLAND

Nationality: British Arrived from: Glasgow, Scotland Am here with: 10 year old son Angus Interests: Swimming, golf, tennis and cooking Hopes for the year: To do the best for my class and the wider school, be enriched by the cultural experience and not get sunburnt!

JAYNE TANT Nationality: British Arrived from: UK Am here with: My husband Jon and daughter Ruby Interests: Love gardening and walking up mountains! Hopes for this year: To experience all that Brunei and SE Asia has to offer! And make lots of new and long-lasting friends.

JACKIE CAMPLING Nationality: British Arrived from: North West, England Am here with: Husband and daughter aged 1 year old Interests: Swimming, walking, cooking, reading and watching movies. Hopes for this year: To enjoy working and living in Brunei, to meet new people and to see many parts of the world that I have never visited before.

RACHEL MARSDEN Nationality: British/Canadian Arrived from: UK Am here with: My husband, Dushant and son, Nikhil Interests: Languages, reading, cooking, running, travelling, new ideas Hopes for this year: To enjoy the challenge of living in a new country and the opportunities that new challenges bring, to meet new people, find out new things, have a greater understanding of this part of the world. And I really hope that Nikhil keeps loving Panaga School as much as he has done so far.

Issue 47 Panaga School Magazine October 2014

Last week, the children on Teraja were fortunate enough to work with our visiting author, Rob Parkinson. Join-

ing us on Tuesday morning, Mileposts 2 and 3 were greeted with tales and songs from a remarkable storyteller!

This kicked off a week of workshops focusing upon story development, generating imaginative ideas and how to

piece the two together. Rob shared a fabulous example with his song ‘Winston and the Wolves’, which captured

the imagination of many of the children across Teraja.

Throughout the week, the children worked on their own versions of a familiar tale, using Rob’s guidance to lift

their writing to new levels. Rob was so impressed with their writing, he used it as the central theme of his assem-

bly on Friday and read out some fabulous examples.

We would like to thank Rob for all of his hard work; we know he truly inspired some children who have before felt

nervous when approaching imaginative writing. Mendaram and Rampayoh look forward to welcoming Sally Crab-

tree, a children’s author from the UK, in November.

By Miss Sarah Sargison and Mr Peter Anderton, Literacy Leaders for Learning

Rob Parkinson inspires our budding Teraja authors

Our own published author, Mr Martin D, reads from one of his books as a part of Authors Abroad week

Rampayoh children and staff were fortunate at last Friday’s assembly to have our very own published author, Mr Martin Down, read from one of his books, The Three Billy Goats Bob and the Bizarre Building Competition. The children were inspired at how Mr Martin combined many familiar characters into one “crazy, mixed up, tongue-twisting” fairytale. They also enjoyed hearing how Mr Martin wears many hats (literally and figuratively) in life - as a husband and father, a teacher and an author; among others. Thank you for sharing your love of writing with us, Mr Martin!

By Damian Brady

Issue 47 Panaga School Magazine October 2014

Peter and the Wolf! Narrative - Defeating a Monster -

Writing in P2

We have enjoyed our first Talk for Writing Literacy text in P2. At the beginning of the term, we dis-covered that Miss Nicci had received an email from Mr Wolf! Unfortunately, Mr Wolf was behind bars but we did not know why. Then something very exciting happened… Mr Wolf appeared in Miss Nicci’s classroom; he had escaped from the zoo and caught a bus to Panaga School! We had the opportunity to ask Mr Wolf what had happened and why he felt so sad. He explained his story and claimed that he hadn’t meant to eat the duck!

After that, Mr Wolf gave us a text map and we were able to imitate the sto-ry of Peter and the Wolf. This gave us lots of great ideas and we then in-novated the text to create our own amazing stories. Finally, we invented our own story - defeating the monster using our text plans. Unfortunately, the wolf had escaped from the zoo during our next Non-Fiction Literacy unit! Fortunately, Grumpy Granddad rushed as fast as his old legs could carry him to Panaga School to give us a Warning Poster, describing Mr Wolf. The poster also described what to do if we were to see the wolf. Luckily, Mr Wolf is misunderstood and he is actually a good wolf who is very kind. Hopefully, we can help Mr Wolf and Grumpy Granddad to make our own Non-Fiction warning posters. By Miss Nicci

Issue 47 Panaga School Magazine October 2014

It was an honour for our school, es-pecially for the three students, who participated in the 5th Private Schools English Language Oratory Competition 2014, on 26th April 2014, held in Sekolah Menengah Yayasan Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah; the host and organiser. St John’s School emerged the overall champion. The speaker of our school, Jared Singh Sekhon emerged as the cham-pion with his topic on “Appeal and

Value of Fantasy Stories and Films” and walked away with the Challenge Trophy donated by Pehin Orang Kaya Seri Kerna Dato Seri Setia (Dr) Haji Awang Abu Bakar bin Haji Apong, Minister of Education. Ailyn Tinaja, also from our school, who delivered the topic “Mathematics Instills More Than Number Sense”, came second runner-up. Gowri Sunil was the reserve speaker. The competition, themed “21st Century: Thinking Intellectuals”

required all speakers to deliver a speech in line with the theme.

News from our Neighbours: St John’s School, K.B. English Department activity: The Long Road to Success

The Champion and winner of the 5th Sec-ondary Private School English Oratory Com-

petition 2014—Jared and Ailyn

St John’s School KG Open Day-2014

KG1 and KG2 with their song, “I Believe”.

KG1 performed the Nursery Rhyme

The Art and Craft work of the children

The various activ-ities performed by the band ranged from Pi-ano Solo, Ukelele Solo, Guitar Solo, Singing Perfor-mances, Drum exhibition, Violin Solo and String ensemble. The Children Chorus with their music teacher, Mr Abraham pre-

senting the “Song of Peace”.

St. John’s School String Band

String Band performs in the school Hall

All articles courtesy of Jack Ding Jok, Head of School Media, St John’s School

St John’s School, Kuala Belait held KG Open Day, recently. The event was held in the school multi-purpose hall. It started with the National Anthem and school song followed by the reciting of Al-Fatihah by Ustaz Nol. Thereafter, the welcoming speech of the school Principal and opening speech which was delivered in English and Baha-sa Melayu by four KG3 children. There were many activities performed by children to showcase their talents in front of their teachers and parents. “The boy who cried Wolf”, “Mari bercerita”, “Incy Wincy Spider” were among a few that was performed by KG3, KG2 and KG1 children. To conclude the event, teachers and parents were invited to witness the chil-dren’s Art and Craft work exhibition.

Issue 47 Panaga School Magazine October 2014

By Miss Shelagh, IP7SG

A trip to the doctors’ might not be everyone’s idea of fun but the Pa-naga Health Centre Open Day pro-vided plenty of it when P7 visited. The Centre, which recently received accreditation from the Malaysian So-ciety for Quality in Health (a first for a private health institution in Brunei), threw open its doors to curious stu-dents and other visitors on 12th Sep-tember. Each department hosted col-ourful, informative and at times hu-morous displays and activities – from a Halloween theme in Pathology, to a spitting cobra in Pest Control to sirens and lights in Emergency Response.

On the visit, students were divided into groups from different classes, allowing for integration and feedback of the different sections. Each group had a different starting point and back at school, the students were all ‘buzzing’ about the sections they had seen. We all agreed it was good to know how to wash your hands proper-ly and, as a class, decided to take community action and put up the ‘8 steps to wash your hands’ posters above all the sinks in P7 classrooms and toilets. The students all thorough-ly enjoyed the visit and came away with a reconfirmed respect for the work of the health care providers in The Panaga Health Centre. Here is a sample of some of the re-sponses from my class about the trip: Prasidh’s favourite part was to see bacteria up close in the laboratory microscope as he had not seen it be-fore. He was surprised to see a “mini zoo” run by the Pest Control section and if he was to work there he’d like to be one of the doctors. Phine enjoyed doing the CPR on the dummies because it felt very real-istic. She learnt new things like what a mosquito looks like close up, as nor-mally they are just buzzing around in the sky. If she were to work there it would be in the pharmacy. Rizqi was interested to find out all about the steps to take before calling an ambulance. He was surprised to see a Halloween theme in the blood laboratory, even if it was just for the Open Day.

Panaga Health Centre P7 trip

Issue 47 Panaga School Magazine October 2014

Something smells good……

Mini Chefs After School Activity Club

Here at Mini Chefs ASA, we have been enjoying making a variety of different

food and learning skills such as cutting fruit and cracking eggs; including sepa-

rating the yolk from the egg white for some of our recipes. Each week, we prac-

tice our maths skills in weighing and measuring the ingredients. We also read

the recipes very carefully and follow the instructions in the correct order.

Sometimes we work with a partner, or as part of a small group, which requires

skills such as communication and cooperation. We have been learning about

healthy eating and some of our foods include pasta and fruit salad. We have also

been learning about where food originates from. Each week, our recipes are ac-

companied by a story relating to what we have made and the children have really

enjoyed listening to these. We will also be reading non-fiction books and learning

about the history of chocolate in a future session.

The children’s favourite recipe so far this term have been honey biscuits

and waffles. We were told they were “yummy and delicious”. They are

looking forward to making the chocolate cake which is cooked in just a

mug. It’s true that you cannot eat it alone and it’s best when shared!

One of our favourite parts - tasting what we have made.

Here we are enjoying our banana milkshake whilst listening to ‘Oliver’s Milkshake’ →

By Miss Zoe

Issue 47 Panaga School Magazine October 2014

DP5/6 and IP5 IPC - Comparing, contrasting and tasting rainforest

On Tuesday 30th September, we had Miss Lili in and two

capable assistants/parent helpers (Miss Heny and Miss

Pickles), plus of course, our own Miss Rose and Miss

Rainah...preparing Miss Lili's selection of rainforest fruits

for all IP5 & DP5/6 children to learn about, compare and

contrast...and later devour!

While the jackfruit and durian tested the outer limits of almost

everyone's tolerance for 'robust' smells and aromas - almost every-

one's - the children enjoyed a terrific learning experience!

By Mr Dermot

On Thursday 2nd October, Geophysicist, Mr Axel Geisslinger - Tristan’s father - visited Teraja to sup-port IP5 and DP5/6 in their IPC Rainforests – Saving the Planet unit. Axel has a deep and abiding interest in the rainforest. He and Tristan explore the rainforest frequently and have all kinds of interesting samples and experiences which Axel shared with us on the day. He even showed us a photo of a baby crocodile he and Tristan had found - holding it in their hands! Great! By Mr Dermot

Saving the Planet visit from Geophysicist, Mr Axel… and Tristan!

Issue 47 Panaga School Magazine October 2014

In het exit point

Waren er veel verschillende

gebeurtenissen.

Natuurlijk ging de unit over

voetbal dus er werd natuurlijk

voetbal gespeeld. Maar er

waren ook facepainters/hand-

Painters. ook journalisten, ca-

mara mensen commentators,

mensen die fruit uit deelden,

mensen met zonnebrand en

mensen met

drinken.

Over het voetbal

Het voetbal was verdeeld in twee

groepen een jongens groep en

een meisjes groep. Ook waren er

referees. Die hadden zwarte

kleren aan. Als je voetbalden

speelde je in je house color. Elke

wedstrijd duurde 7 minuten daar

tussen zaten 2 minuten pauze. In

de finale speelde:

Jongens: groen tegen geel.

Meisjes: groen tegen rood.

De Uitslag.

De jongens: groen!

De meisjes: groen!

By Teuntje Suk (DP7/B)

Issue 47 Panaga School Magazine October 2014

All of MP3 recently studied a topic called ‘All In One Rhythm’, based on the 2014 FIFA WORLD CUP held in Brazil. We learnt about Brazil’s history and geography as well as the positive change that football can help to bring about, even in the poorest areas of the world. The P8s came up with an idea of how to celebrate by holding a football tournament giving every-body a responsibility in its organi-zation. The P8s had lots of ideas themselves but also were able to use or adapt other ideas from the rest of the Mile-post, eg: to design a logo and a tro-phy. We hope that the P6s and P7s recognised some of their ideas in our final plan! The winner of the logo competition was Malaak from IP8A, whose logo included the four teams and the con-cept of ‘unity’. Our peers helped us by preparing and bringing in healthy snacks, forming camera crews, acting as sun police, face painters, journal-ists, commentators, managers, musi-cians, crowd, referees and, of course, players! The event took place on Friday 26th September in the Panaga School playground area. All of the P6s and P7s as well as the P8s and parents participated in one way or another to make it a successful day. First, we all met in the hall to have an opening ceremony to get in the mood. Here we performed our MP3 piece of music, inspired by Shakira’s “La La La”. It was a fantastic musical achievement. Then, we sorted our-selves out into our groups. We had two separate games schedules: for boys and girls. For both sets of matches, Green dominated Red, Yel-low and Blue! We had a great time playing and as well as using our Personal Goals: Resilience was the most im-

portant personal goal because everyone needed to keep trying— even if their side was not winning.

Respect was also necessary because if there was no respect

the tournament wouldn't have been possible. We had to respect the rules of the game and the de-cisions of the referees.

Cooperation is important in or-der to create teamwork. The suc-cessful teams worked well togeth-er building on their learning in PE lessons this term.

Communication is also a big part because the day was nothing without communication between the players and their teammates, between the monitors and their helpers and between all of the organisers.

Adaptability was an important goal because we all needed to improvise our understandings and techniques to respond to the needs of the tournament.

Everyone had a great time on such a memorable day thanks to our Panaga spirit!

By Shreya & Syasya IP8L

Milepost 3 Football Fun Day

Issue 47 Panaga School Magazine October 2014

Next stop: the World of Rugby for two Panaga LSAs

Two Learning Support Assistants from BSP’s Panaga School in Seria have just reached the cusp of national selection for the Brunei Wom-en’s Rugby team. Nuranisah (Nisah) Hj Lamat and Hilal Kamis, have both been shortlisted as Top 12 Candidates for the Rugby 7s at next year’s South East Asian Games in Singapore. Under the selection trials, candidates next need to pass two fitness tests. One being able to run 2.4km in under 15 minutes, the other a 30m sprint in under 4.6 seconds. To gain selection, both women (keen All Blacks sup-porters) also believe they will need to show a com-mitment daily to their own training and fitness. “To make it our lifestyle.” Nisah (who plays Hooker) and Hilal (who can play either Centre or Fly Half) represent the Panaga Py-thons WRFU, which was the first ever female con-tact Rugby club in Brunei. The club, formed over a year ago, consists of play-ers who are students, housewives, teachers and Ar-my staff. All share a passion to play Rugby at the highest level. Panaga Pythons WRFU have occasional matches between Bandar Ladies and Miri Rhinos, but as it is a very new sport for women in Brunei, organising games has been difficult. “We need the support of the Brunei Government. Al-so on a local level too. We play at the Panaga Club and are grateful for the facilities, but we do not re-ceive any funding from anywhere as we are quite new,” Hilal informed.

“Especially in a country like Brunei, people just think Rugby should be played by men only. This is com-pletely false as it is an established worldwide game for women already. When I say I play Rugby, some people look down and frown,” Nisah highlighted. “We want more women to be involved in contact or aggressive sports. In society, women are progress-ing in terms of equality, however, we are still being left behind on the sporting field,” Hilal continued. Both women played in an exhibition match against Bandar Ladies on Saturday 13th September and alt-hough it was a tough game, they came out on top, winning 20 points to 5. They will next play in the Baram Cup in Miri later this month. Why Rugby? Nisah: “It just came to us, like a sign. Our captain, Helen, introduced Rugby to us and gave us the chance to be one of the first women to play Rugby in this country.” Hilal: “Rugby is in my soul, my heart and my blood. My whole family play Rugby. My brothers have played in the national team for 4 years. My father was also a Brunei national player. My mother also played Rugby.” It is Nisah’s and Hilal’s dream to represent Brunei in the next Women’s Rugby World Cup.

By Jo Marshall and Damian Brady

Above: Nisah and Hilal dream, under their flag, of national Rugby selection and success.

This article was also published in The Borneo Bulletin. See: http://borneobulletin.com.bn/panaga-school-staff-shortlisted-womens-national-rugby-team/