Newsletter
Headlines
For This Week
News
From Secondary
-
THIMUN Singapore 2007
-
Study
Support
-
Vote Today
News
From Primary
-
Year
3 X’mas Assembly
-
Themes
for Next Term
Parent,
Teachers and Friends of GIS
-
International Week Bazaar
-
Chinese New Year
-
“Bring a Book Back”
Project
NEWS FROM
SECONDARY
We
have decided to produce a smaller version of the newsletter this week. Mr. Mann and Mr. Smith have both left for a
recruiting trip to
I
was very proud to watch, both as a parent and member of staff, as the Primary
and Secondary Swim teams competed in the ISAKL Swim meet at Bukit
Jalil National Pool last Saturday. We came a very commendable second overall and special thanks to
all PE staff who attended and parents for their time and support.
I
would just like to take this opportunity to wish all parents and students a
Happy Christmas and all the best for the New Year.
Head of Secondary
THIMUN Singapore 2007
MUN-KEYING AROUND!
Representing
the
The GIS
delegates pronounced THIMUN Singapore, “so much fun”, they made new
friends, gave stirring, often controversial speeches and passed (or failed) resolutions.
Eliza Khor, Ambassador of Lebanon, thought she
wouldn’t make any friends but was proved wrong when she got to “meet all these
people from all over the world”, and even met some of her old schoolmates at
THIMUN.
Memorable
moments included Security Council USA delegate Aren
Yip’s declaration of War on Panama (and the subsequent paper planes), GA2 USA
delegate Florentyna Leow demanding an apology from
France and Natalie Tan of GA6 USA’s speech at the Plenary Session. ECOSOC
delegate Onkar Singh's (
THIMUN Singapore
2007, in short, was a roaring success for all delegates. Here’s looking forward
to more MUN fun next year!
Study Support
After
the Christmas holiday, a new ‘Study Support’ will be running after school in
the Library on Tuesdays and Thursdays from
2.30pm – 3.30pm. It will be run by staff and Sixth Formers who will be able to
assist students with their homework. Even if they do not need any help, they
might like to come along and enjoy learning with others.
Lesley Cook
Head of Pastoral
Vote Today!
Dear parents,
teachers and students,
I
am happy to announce that Cultural Kaleidoscope has been short-listed (one of
six projects) for the AEC Award 2007. I hope that you have taken some time to
view the project as a lot of hard work went into making it an integral part of
our International Week’s activities. Many students from GIS and from our
partner schools have gained much from participating in such a great learning
experience.
Now,
we forge ahead to the second round. This is once again dependant, to a certain
degree (60% to be exact) on online voting. The voting system starts from
scratch in this round so all votes cast in Phase 1 have been discarded.
Phase II of the
online vote commenced on Friday, 7 December 2007 and will run over a
period of one month. All online votes have to be submitted by Sunday,
6 January 2008. Of the six shortlisted
AEC Projects, the AEC Award, each comprising of Euro 2,000 would be conferred
on the three most outstanding AEC projects.
May
I ask that you cast another vote in our direction to help us in achieving a hat
trick for this very successful project? It will be the last time we will be
submitting it for judging. In future years, the project will continue to run
under the auspices of the AECNet but we will not be
submitting it for the award. Other worthy short-listed projects are Mastering
Media and Young Diplomats.
If
you are a student, please use your school e-mail address when you vote. If you
are a parent, please enter the school's name when you vote. Please submit your
votes online at http://202.157.168.74/aec-net/temp/voting/voting.asp
. All votes will be much appreciated.
Thank
you for your time and have a wonderful festive season!
Warm regards,
Leonora
Peers
International
Coordinator
NEWS FROM PRIMARY
Year 3 X’mas
Assembly :
Tuesday, 11 December - On
fête Noël!
Over
the last few weeks, Dr Conti’s Year 7A students and Ms Pelat and Ms Sharma’s
Year 4 classes have been rehearsing French Christmas Carrols,
to perform during Tuesday, 11 December Year 3 assembly. We have been impressed
by their level of commitment to perform with enthusiasm and passion. They
worked hard to get not only the tune but also the pronunciation right. It was a
great opportunity to get Secondary and Primary students to work together and
enjoy each other’s company. After Ms Pelat and Ms Sharma performance of three
beautiful songs (including French version of ‘Silent Night’), Dr Conti’s group
sang ‘Vive le vent d’hiver’ (‘Jingle Bells’)
accompanied by the clapping of the many little hands in the assembly. Then Dr
Conti taught the whole of the Year 3’s the ‘Vive le Vent’ refrain and the whole
audience sang along him. It was great fun!
A
big thanks to the Year 8 and 11 students – Joo-Oh, Celine,
Smriti, Henna and Zaffran,
who gave up their lunch times to help us. An equally big thank you to Mrs Guna
from Primary who gave up on several lunchtimes and who displayed great
enthusiasm, commitment and professionalism .
Un grand merci.
Dr Conti
Ms F Pelat
Ms V Sharma
Themes for Next Term
I am pleased to be able to share with you
the themes to be studied next term. The themes marked with (*) come from our
new curriculum, The International Primary Curriculum. The information below
briefly outlines what will be covered by each theme. If you are in a position
to donate any resources, or will be visiting any country/region and can bring
back any pictures, souvenirs etc that will enhance our delivery of the theme,
please send it in with your child at the beginning of next term. A more
detailed description of the curriculum will be sent to you at the beginning of
Term Two.
NURSERY
Nursery's IPC topic for Term 2
is Plants and Flowers (*). The children will be given the chance to plant seeds,
watch them grow and look after their plants. The children will also learn that
we can grow and eat plants. This will form an integral part of cookery
sessions. We will also learn about different flowers from around the world and
the children will make their own garden in art and craft. In the
classroom, the children will be able to role play in a flower shop where they
will act out being the shop assistants and customers, write shopping lists and
learn to count money.
RECEPTION
Reception will explore a theme of ‘Change’
next term. We will get messy by mixing colours, melting chocolate and making
jelly! Our water trays will never be the same again as we slop about in dry and
wet sand. We will also be looking at life cycles of animals and how animals
change as they grow. We will have a raucous time in music making LOUD
and soft sounds.
YEAR ONE
Year 1 will be hard at work next term
looking at the ‘Jobs People Do’ (*). Everyone divides their life between work
and leisure and we will look at how adults and children spend their time.
Different skills are required for different jobs, some
only require a few skills whilst other jobs require many. The jobs that people
had in the past are different from today and the jobs your children will have
in the future will be different from those we do now. We will look at how jobs
and work are portrayed through art and music. An exciting part of the topic is
developing our drama skills through role play and ‘freeze framing’, in which
children act out a scene and ‘freeze’ as if a photograph had been taken. We
will be looking at the various jobs in our local community- our school and Mont
Kiara. If any parents would like to share with us
their jobs we would love to learn from you.
YEAR TWO
Year 2 will start next term with a spring in
their step as they begin to look at Spring Festivals (*) around the World. Each
class will chose a Spring festival to look at in
detail. The highlight of this topic, of course, will be the opportunity
to present an assembly to the school and the Year 2 parents. This year in
common with the other year groups the assembly will reflect what the children
have been learning for their IPC unit as well as celebrating Chinese New Year
YEAR THREE
The Rainforest – Saving
the World (*).
Tropical rainforests,
often referred to as “nature’s cathedrals”, grow all around our planet in the
humid tropical areas that straddle the equator. They cover vast areas in South
America, Africa, South East Asia and
We will be finding out about the:
Wildlife and Vegetation
Rainforest Products
Rainforest People
Threats and Destruction
and the possible solutions.
YEAR FOUR
Over the next 10 weeks, Year 4 wll be exploring two units of work; “Explorers and
Adventurers” and “Habitats”. Children will be learning about explorers and
adventurers from the past and different people’s viewpoints on these
explorations. They will learn how to locate routes and places on a map and will
study the work of explorer Margaret Mee. Our topic Habitats will include a
visit to FRIM to investigate the habitat there and then children will compare
habitats around the world and the impact humans have on them. Science objectives
will include finding out how animals and plants grow in differing habitats and
how changes to habitats can affect them.
YEAR FIVE
The title of the themed activities for next
term is Community –
YEAR SIX
The themed activities for next term are
based on investigating where people live, 'Settlements'. One of the areas of
study will be the reason for the site of a settlement. They will examine maps
and aerial photographs, the children will consider such things as; water
supply, defensive reasons, availability of building and other raw materials,
fertile farming land, employment and access to services, communication and
accessibility as reasons why a settlement developed. They will also consider
why certain settlements develop and grow and the advantages and disadvantages
of living in different types of settlements. The children will also design
a ‘Settlement Game’ for others to play.
PARENT,
TEACHERS AND FRIENDS OF GIS
This
has been a very busy few weeks for the PTF with so many people involved in fund
raising projects. Thank you to the PTF team for organising
and running these events, to our Japanese and Korean ladies for running their
ever popular specialist stalls and all of you who donated items and spent lots
of lovely money..
THANK YOU VERY MUCH
International Week Bazaar
While
you're on holiday, please start thinking about how you can contribute to your
country's stall during the festival bazaar. Each country will be able to
showcase their country and culture and maybe sell food and small souvenirs from your home
country. The young children love to buy small affordable items. The bazaar
will be on Friday, 29th February.
Chinese New Year
Monday, 25th
February 2008
We are planning a
coffee morning for the Chinese New Year. Anyone interested in contributing,
please call
Please try and help with the “Bring a
Book Back” Project
If
you can find space for a book in your suitcase, please remember our appeal.
The PTF of
Karen Ho
& Helen Wilson
PTF
communications sub-committee