12th January 2007
MESSAGE
FROM THE PRESIDENT
Dear Parents and
Friends,
As many of you are
already aware, at the end of this academic year, Mr Ray Davis will be leaving
us. After eight years of dedicated service, Mr Davis will be moving on to take
on the coveted position of Accreditation Officer at The Council of International
School (CIS) for the Asia Pacific region commencing August 2007. I would like
to personally congratulate him on his new appointment and I am certain that
many of you will also be joining me in wishing him well for his career
advancement.
It is under his
headship that we have seen
It is also with a
sense of sadness that we accept Mr. Robert Lloyd’s retirement. Having been with
us for six years, Mr. Lloyd will also be leaving us at the end of this academic
year to pursue his other passions in life.
His tireless
contribution towards the growth and development of the Secondary School has
been outstanding and he has certainly gained tremendous respect and support
from the entire school community. His invaluable knowledge and expertise in
curricular and pastoral matters has led to positive changes in the school
resulting in new levels of unsurpassed academic achievements.
You can be assured
that both Mr. Davis and Mr. Lloyd will continue to put their best forward in
the months ahead as the school continues to push ahead to be the school of
choice for students, parents and staff.
We have already begun
the recruitment exercise for both positions internationally in December. We are
very pleased to inform you that to date we have received a good and solid field
of applicants. We would continue to keep you informed of the progress of our
recruitment.
I would like to take
this opportunity to wish you all a Happy New Year.
Thank you.
Yours sincerely,
B K Gan
President
School Division
Taylor’s Education Bhd
NEWS
FROM THE PRINCIPAL
May I wish all
parents a very Happy New Year and give a special warm welcome to all students
and families joining the GIS community this term.
Renovations
& Upgrades
As usual the holiday
period was a busy time for our facilities team who oversaw a number of
renovations to the school campus.
In order to improve safety in the car park, a fence has been erected which
only allows pedestrians to cross the traffic lanes at the designated pedestrian
crossing points and an additional raised crossing has been installed.
One of our Secondary IT labs has been fully refurbished and upgraded providing
up to the minute computing facilities for students. The new upgraded PCs and
servers are housed in specially designed furniture and provide an impressive
level of computing power.
Many areas of the school have been re-painted and improved and additional landscaping
has been carried out. I would like to thank our facilities team for the
impressive work that has been carried out in such a short space of time.
We are all looking forward to an exciting and productive term filled with
many exciting learning activities.
Ray
Davis
Principal
NEWS
FROM THE HEAD OF SECONDARY
Dear
parents,
A very Happy New Year to
all secondary parents and students and a very warm welcome to the new students
who have joined the secondary school at the start of this term.
New Teachers
I am also very pleased to welcome three new members of the teaching
staff.
Mrs Rosemarie de Vries joined GIS at the very end of last term as teacher of Chinese and moved
to KL with her family during the holiday. Mrs de Vries
is an Australian who has joined us from
Mr Gavin Bradshaw joins the PE
faculty from the
Mr Meboob Parkar joins the Business Education faculty, also from the
We hope that all three new teachers and their families enjoy the new
challenges of living in
Year 11
Year
11 students are now fully involved in the IGCSE mock examinations. These will
continue for the next two weeks. The “Mocks” provide important practice
for the final examinations in May as well as enabling teachers to identify
areas which need to be improved and gaps in knowledge which need to be
addressed over the term ahead. The results of the mock examinations are
reported to parents of Year 11 students in grade reports which are issued on 7th February. This is
followed by an important parent teacher conference specifically for Year 11
students and their parents on the afternoon of 14th February. Please
make a note of this date in your diaries, it is a
final opportunity to discuss the work that needs to be done in order for
students to achieve the best possible results in the final examinations.
The Prom
The annual Prom took place at the Sheraton Imperial Hotel on the final
day of last term. It was once again a very successful event attended by very
many students from Years 9 to 13. I am sure that all those who attended enjoyed
the evening. Many thanks and congratulations go to the organising committee of
Year 11 students and Mrs Yeoh, Head of Year 11 for all their hard work and
efforts in arranging such an excellent occasion.
Student
Bulletin
Care of Personal
Possessions
In a large school with 1800 students nearly 300 staff and many visitors and
contractors on site at any one time; items of personal property will
occasionally ‘go missing’.
Please ensure therefore that:
•All personal possessions are clearly marked with the student’s name and
class/form.
•Items of value should not be brought into school. Please
remember that the school cannot take responsibility for valuable items (eg. hand phones, ipods, cameras
which go missing).
•All secondary students have the use of secure locker, possessions should be kept on the person stored in
the locker.
If everyone acts with care and responsibility then the school becomes a
more secure place for us all.
Robert Lloyd
Head of
Secondary
Un très très grand ‘Merci’….
The French Department would like to thank the following people and
institutions for their contribution to a number of successful
extra-curricular activities and events which took place last term at GIS.
Firstly, we would like to thank Mrs Maryline Frot (see photo), mother of Year 9 GIS student Mathilde,
for her valuable (ongoing) support as a native speaker of French.
Mrs Frot had helped our Sixth Formers Luwita (Year 13) and Owen (Year 12) with their oral exam
preparation, contributing valuable ideas as well as moral support. She has also
been helping Mrs Gruberska boost her Year 11 students’ spoken proficiency in
preparation for their IGCSE exam. Both students and teachers are very grateful
for her commitment and enthusiasm for learning.
Secondly, we would like to thank the lovely Sixth Formers Lakshmi, Gunjan, Aishwarya, Owen (Year
12), Suzen, Aorti, Wei Jean, Vivian, Zi Wen, Serena and Elonie (Year 13)
for helping out with the French Department’s Primary Children Mentoring Programme. A special thanks to Wei
Jean (Year 13) and Lakshmi (Year 12) for their pivotal role in liaising with the Head
of French and in the general organization of the mentoring.
The Programme started last academic year with
three or four Year 13 tutoring a handful of Year 6 students once a week. This
year, we built on that experience by involving around 45 Year 6 students.
Many thanks to the Head of Sixth Form, Mr Ellis, for allowing us to make use of his
students during registration time.
Still on the theme of Sixth Form helpers, the Head of French (Dr Conti)
would like to thank Lakshmi
Adapa, Gunjan Kad and Aishwarya Menon for helping him out one hour every Monday afternoon with the
French and Spanish Homework Club looking after Year 5 to 10 students!
They have been a delight to work with and impressively dedicated and
hard-working. Parents, please note: the Homework Club is on every Monday and
Wednesday, it is not a CCA and the children can come for free tuition in French
and Spanish on ad hoc basis (in other words, whenever they need it and for as
long as they need – not for the whole hour!)
We would also like to thank the Director of the French Chamber of Commerce of
Kuala Lumpur for
taking valuable time out of his very busy working schedule to come to GIS to
give Mrs Gruberska’s Year 11 French class a talk
about the benefits of studying French to A-Levels for anyone wanting to pursue
a career in business.
Last but definitely
not least,
the French Department wishes to thank Mrs Jenny Lafossey,
proud mother of Rohan, Year 12 and a highly committed
teacher of EAL at LFKL. (Lycée Français
de Kuala Lumpur)
Thanks to her commitment and hard work, the French breakfast which took
place last term (1st December) was a huge success. 60 Year 3
and 4 GIS students met their French-speaking pen-pals from LFKL learnt French,
had breakfast, played and sang together on that day.
We also wish to thank all the GIS staff who helped out and attended the
event: Mr
FitzGerald (Head of Primary). Mr Gorman (Deputy Head of Primary), Miss
Wellington (Year 3 Co-ordinator) Mr Hannah (Year 4
Co-ordinator). A special thanks also to Owen Samuel-Bendor (Year 12) for his hard work during the event!
Photos of the event can be seen on the notice board by the MFL Department
(5th floor).
Both the letter exchange and the event have been instrumental in enhancing
the motivation of our students - in a couple of cases, even succeeding in
‘turning around’ the attitude of students towards ‘French’.
Thank You!
Dr Conti
Head of French
NEWS
FROM PRIMARY
Reminders
for your diary:
|
Parents
of RI |
Wednesday 17/1 |
Trip to a Pet Shop at The Curve Letter sent out this week |
|
Parents of RG |
Thursday 18/1 |
Trip to a Pet Shop at The Curve Letter sent out this week |
|
Parents of RS |
Friday 19/1 |
Trip to a Pet Shop at The Curve Letter sent out this week |
Advance Warning for your diary:
|
Year
5 Parents |
Tuesday 23/1 – Thursday 25/1 |
Year 5 Malacca Trip Details from Class Teachers |
|
All parents |
Thursday 1/2 |
School Closed for City Day |
|
All Parents |
Friday 2/2 |
School Closed for Staff Training |
WELCOME BACK and a belated Happy New
Year to everyone. The children have all
settled back into routine very quickly at the start of another busy term.
ARCHEALOGICAL
DIG BY YEAR 2
Year 2 have had an exciting week because they have
been looking for buried treasure in the new sandpit in Playground 1. Like proper archaeologists they have been carefully brushing away the
sand from the artefacts they discover, cataloguing them and recording where
they are found. Eventually they will create a ‘museum’ in their classroom of
these artefacts and act as guides. Of course this is all about providing an
interesting and exciting stimulus in a cross-curricular (ie.
linking many different subject areas) way for the start of their work this
term.
YEAR 3 CLASS
ASSEMBLIES
These are taking place next week and Parents of children in Year 3 have
received invitations telling when their child’s class is performing.
WHO TO
CONTACT IF THERE’S A PROBLEM . . .
At the start of a new calendar year I thought it might be useful to
repeat this information which can be found in the Primary Parents’ Handbook. If
you have not received a copy, please contact the Primary Office.
Normally your first contact should be the Class Teacher because s/he
will know your child best and can usually sort out problems and
misunderstandings more quickly than anyone else. However,
we also understand that there may be occasions when a parent might prefer to
speak to someone else. The next best person to see is the Year Coordinator or
the Head of Key Stage.
All this can be summarised thus:
Class Teacher
↓
Year Coordinator
|
Reception/EYD |
Philippa Clarke |
|
|
Year 1 |
Ranjana
Longman |
|
|
Year
2 |
Janet
Atkinson |
|
|
Year
3 |
Sharon
Wellington |
|
|
Year
4 |
Kevin
Hannah |
|
|
Year
5 |
Siobhan
Roulston |
|
|
Year
6 |
Steve
Brown |
↓
Deputy
Head - David Gorman (gorman.d@gardenschool.edu.my)
↓
Head of Primary - Christopher FitzGerald (fitzgerald.c@gardenschool.edu.my)
Christopher FitzGerald
Head of Primary
Primary
Athletics
Primary Athletics trials Year 4-6 will be held on Tuesday 16th or Wednesday 17th
January at 2.30-3.30pm on the school field. Students should attend one
session only and then the selection list will be put up on the athletics notice
board by Friday 19th January.
Training will start on Wednesday 24th at 2.30-3.30pm. We hope
to see lots of keen athletes both old and new attend, see you on the field!
Alison Moore
P.E Teacher
Rock Cake
This week we have been learning about rocks, so, we made a “No Bake Rock
Cake” in class. These were the ingredients; plain chocolate, jelly sweets,
raisins, cornflakes and biscuits. The steps are as follows:-
∞Melt
chocolate.
∞Crush biscuits and
cut up jelly sweets.
∞Place all ingredients
into a bowl and mix them up.
∞After putting on gloves, grab a portion of the mixture and form it into a
shape of a rock.
∞Place it into a
plastic bag, tie it up and put it in a freezer.
When the ‘rock’ has harden, we cut it open, then we look inside. You will
see many treasures!
Yee Jen &
CO-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
NEW - GIS
BADMINTON CLUB
GIS is happy to announce that it will be starting a Badminton Club for
students. The club will be headed by experienced coach Alvin Lai and will be
the perfect opportunity to refine Badminton skills. The cost for 2 sessions a
week, per term is RM350. Sessions will take place in the Sports Hall from
4.30pm – 6.00pm (Monday) & 5.00pm – 6.30pm (Wednesday).
The club is limited to 16 players to ensure quality of coaching. The first
session will be on Monday 15th January. Payments to Miss. Devi in the school office.
Mr. Wellington
Head of PE
Primary Dragons
Trials
Trials for T-Ball,
Football & Swimming will start week beginning 15th January. Trials will be
at the same time as their CCA slots. Please check sports notice boards for
details.
A
reminder that the Year 5 & 6 FOBISSEA teams will be picked from these
Dragon teams.
Mr.
Wellington
Head
of PE
ISAKL Dragons Swimming
One result left out from the newsletter a few weeks ago was Yan Teh who won silver in the girls 100m butterfly.
GIS Swim Club
Places are still available for the GIS Swim Club, Monday -Thursday, 4.00 to
5.30pm. Please see Mr. Ong if you are new to the school and would like your
child to attend. The cost is RM350 per term. Payment to Miss.
Devi in the school office.
MSSKL
Swimming
Dates for this year’s competition are, 6th-8th February. This will be
thorough selection. Please see Mr. Ong for details.
PRAKL
Dates for this year’s competition are, 2nd - 4th March.
This is open to anyone who is interested in competing. Please see Mr. Ong
for details.
Paul
Wellington
Head
of PE
PARENT, TEACHER & FRIENDS
Calendar Term 2
16th January – Mother & Toddler Group, 9.45-11.15am, EYD
Hall
25th January – PTF Coffee Morning, Topic-
Preventing Cancer through Detoxification by Dr. Rajen
26th January – Quiz night
5th – 9th March – International
Week
9th March – International
bazaar
Mother
& Toddler Group (Tuesday 16th January, EYD Hall, 9.45-11.15am)
Come and have a natter and a cuppa with
Therese. I’m sure there are lots to talk about especially after the festive
break. She will look forward to see all of you.
PTF
Coffee Morning (Thursday
25th January, Primary Assembly Hall, between 8.30-10.00am)
By popular demand, Dr. Rajen will be back to
give us another interesting and useful talk. Topic for this next Coffee Morning
is ‘Preventing Cancer through Detoxification’. All parents are encouraged to
attend and as usual, breakfast will be provided for, compliments of the PTF.
Quiz Night
(Friday 26th January, Grand Hall, 7pm)
Posters and flyers will be out next week with details of this Quiz Night.
Cost per head is RM10. Soft drinks and finger foods will be available. Anyone
wishing to have that extra stimulation can BYO drinks! You can organise a team of 10 yourselves and book your table with
All participants must have an entrance ticket. All tickets must be
purchased by Friday 19th January, available in
the Arts Center's Foyer everyday between 7.15 to 8.30am and 2.00 to 3.30pm.
Going by last year’s response, it will be a great night, so come and join in
the fun. There will also be lots of prizes to be won!
PTF
Lending Library & Second-hand Uniforms
A reminder for everyone that both of the above will be open as usual on
Wednesdays between 2.30 – 3.30pm in the Arts Centre's Foyer. Any donations of
books or second-hand uniforms will be welcome.
On-line
Forum
For anyone who may not be aware, there is an on-line forum for all
parents to mail to with any issues which they would like to bring forward for
the school’s attention. Every mail received will be dealt with confidentially
and will be forwarded to the party concerned for their response. Positive
comments are welcome too. The address is
gisptf_forum@gardenschool.edu.my
ASEAN
LADIES CIRCLE CHARITY BAZAAR 2007
Kelab Darul Ehsan (KDE) AMPANG
4th February 10am - 4pm.
ALL WELCOME!
Tina & Cheryl
PTF
Communications sub-committee
