Garden International School

Newsletter

1st June 2007

 

 

Headlines For This Week

 

News From Principal

-          Security Drill

 

News From Secondary

-          Examination Period

-          Help From Parents In Industry

 

News From Primary

-          Year 5’s Visit To Sekolah Kebangsaan Bukit Kapar, Klang

-          Primary FOBISSEA Team 2007

 

Parent, Teacher and Friends of GIS

-          Happy Holidays

 

Announcement

-          Soul Income LIVE in Malacca

-          Lead Guitarist Wanted

 

 

NEWS FROM PRINCIPAL

 

Security Drill

As I mentioned in last week’s newsletter, the school security guards have been conducting a drill in which they have taken increased security precautions. The drill has so far gone well and I would like to thank all members of the school community for their cooperation.

 

On Monday 28th May, the first day of the drill, the security guards were a little over zealous, imposing a level of security more appropriate to airports during which they confiscated a number of pairs of scissors from students. Many of these pairs of scissors have been returned to the students concerned, however if your child still has not collected their scissors they are available for collection in both the Primary and Secondary Offices.

 

The higher level of security did reveal that some students are bringing craft knives and box cutters to school. I would like to remind you that for safety and security reasons these knives should not be brought into school. If a classroom activity requires the use of such knives, they will be provided by the teacher.

 

The drill will continue for a little while longer and I would remind you that all identity tags should be shown at the entrance and prominently worn whilst on campus, that the guards will carry out random bag checks and will carry out random vehicle searches.

 

The school will be closed for the whole of next week, 4th – 8th June for mid-term break.

 

Ray Davis

Pincipal

 

 

NEWS FROM SECONDARY

 

The examination period is now nearing its end although, IGCSE and A level examinations will be continuing during the holiday next week and the final week of Year 10 examinations will take place immediately after the holiday.

 

With the end of examinations, students will be returning to a full programme of work. There is still much to be completed before the end of term.  However there are also many special events taking place in the final weeks of the school year – musical concerts, events to mark the graduation of our senior students and sports awards evenings. All these are occasions for celebration and enjoyment.

 

It seems to me however that sometimes the “pleasure of the moment” is sadly being superseded by the vicarious pleasure of watching it on video afterwards.  At dramatic productions earlier this year, some of the audience seemed to miss the enjoyment of watching a live performance in their determination to record it for posterity; assuming that posterity is more than fleetingly interested!

 

May I therefore request that everyone enjoys the occasions of celebration that we have planned, that we rely on the professional photographs of the event and avoid the video recording of events and use extreme discretion in taking photographs. This especially applies to the final musical concerts and the Graduation Awards Evening.  Thank you.

Enjoy the mid-term holiday.

 

Robert Lloyd

Head of Secondary

 

Help From Parents in Industry

For Design & Technology examination groups, and in particular at AS/A2 level, students have to build up a sound              knowledge of production and manufacturing processes. The best teaching aid is actually go and see industry in action.

 

So, if your field of work involves manufacturing with plastics, metals or wood, whether bespoke, batch or mass                         production and you are happy to have a small group of Sixth Form students visit your facility, please contact Mr. Perry at the school or e-mail perry.m@gardenschool.edu.my

 

Mr Perry

Head of Design and Technology

 

 

NEWS FROM THE HEAD OF PRIMARY

 

Reminders for your diary :

All Parents

Monday to Friday 4 – 8 June (inc)

School Closed

Mid-Term Break

All Parents

Monday 11 June

Term Resumes at the usual time

 

 

Advance Warning for your diary :

Year 6 Parents

Monday to Friday 18-22 June

Year 6 Camp

Letter sent out this week

 

This week has seen a lot of sporting activity for our younger students. Both the EYD and KS1 held their Sports Days. These were once again very successful and thanks and congratulations goes to all participants as well as Mr Dale and his colleagues.

 

Meanwhile at the other end of the Primary School, Year 6 have been taking their Cambridge International Primary Achievement Tests. As these are externally moderated by Cambridge, we do not expect to receive the results and student Certificates until the last week of this term.

 

Christopher FitzGerald

Head of Primary

 

Year 5’s Visit to Sekolah Kebangsaan Bukit Kapar, Klang

On Wednesday, 23rd May, students of Year 5 boarded buses bound for the village of Meru in Klang. Our destination was to Sekolah Kebangsaan Bukit Kapar, a great local Malay school for education and fun. This trip was organized by the Primary Malay Department.

 

The school was gigantic – it had over 2,000 students. On our arrival, many students waved and greeted us merrily and the school’s award-winning marchers treated us to one of their elaborate drills. After a lovely breakfast of curry puffs and lepat pisang, our education session began. We moved from stall to stall learning about different aspects of Malay culture ranging from batik painting to cooking. I made a ketupat – a Malay weaving item used for cooking rice. I was proud of it but although I kept it as carefully as possible, it got squashed by accident!

 

Best of all were the games stall. We played ‘Batu Seremban ‘ (‘Five Stones’) and got a rattan ball to play ‘Sepak Raga’. The kite flying and Gasing, top spinning were amazing too. I was surprised at the condition of the kites and gasings as they had been preserved for at least 50 years. The Malay activities and games were from a typical culture that was unfamiliar to many of us, so it was quite an experience and a great deal of learning.

 

When we had finished our Malay lunch, I managed to get some good photos of the mock Malay wedding. The school had obviously put in a lot of effort into decorating the hall and arranging the graceful dancing. After an exchange of gifts between our two schools, it was time to go. A series of cheers erupted from the superb ‘SKBK’ just before our departure and the friendly students waved us on our way.

 

I think it was a most successful trip for GIS and SKBK. We learnt a lot about each other and had a lot of fun. I hope we can visit them again next year.

Yee Jiat Tan (5K)

 

Primary Fobissea Team 2007

Good luck to this year’s Primary FOBISSEA team who will be representing GIS in KL in the games starting June 14th.

After months of preparation the team is ready to compete with the best from other international schools in South East Asia.

 

The team is as follows:

 

Year 6 Girls:                                                              Year 6 Boys:

Shirin Cantillon                                                        Charlie Green

Hannah Jackson                                                    Zach Preston

Hannah Drew                                                         Leeam Nielsen

Zahara Foyston                                                      Zoran Pavlovic

Ji Woo Lee                                                                Saaj Shah                            

Courtney Withers                                                   Corneil Spaapen

                                                     

Year 5 Girls:                                                              Year 5 Boys:

Molly Smith                                                               Liam Cunningham                       

Rojin Torabi                                                              Rohan Gwynn

Roshni Kanayalal                                                    Shivam Sharma

Yasmine Khan                                                         Eric Blackshaw

Bethany Dixon-Cave                                            Zavier Foyston

 Ruheena Tankariwala                                         Harry Gordon

 

Year 4 Girls:                                                              Year 4 Boys

Tanya Kotecha                                                      James Drew

Kulsum Dawoodbhoy                                           Danial Herzhauser

Anabel Suen                                                           Johan Muhamad Jamal

Lauren Bradley                                                        Hayato Murata

 Tara Kanayalal                                                      Mitchell Schofield

 

Well done to all the students for their hard work and commitment and thank you to all the coaches for their valuable skills and effort.

 

Mr. Dale

Primary PE Coordinator

 

 

PARENT, TEACHER & FRIENDS

 

The PTF would like to wish everyone Happy Holidays. Many thanks to everyone who had helped or contributed in one way or another to all the PTF activities to date.

Do not forget to pencil in your diary, our next Coffee Morning will be on the first Thursday (14th June) when school reopens.

 Topic will be 'Vaccines for Cervical Cancer'.

Next Mum & Tots meeting will be on 19th June, usual place and time. Call Therese on 0122163409 for any queries. 

 

Tina & Cheryl

PTF Communications sub-committee

 

 

ANNOUNCEMENT

 

LIVE – In Malacca! Saturday 16th June

Rock ‘n’ Roll Café (34, Jalan Melaka Raya 23)

Fancy a weekend away? Come and support Soul Income on their first (and probably only) tour.

 

WANTED: Lead guitarist

Soul Income are looking for a new lead guitarist to replace the departing Mr Casey.

 

If you are interested, or have any questions about the band and our music, then please feel free to contact me.

 

Adam Briggs

briggs.a@gardenschool.edu.my                      

Or come to see me in my classroom (T12, primary block)