Garden International School

Newsletter

16^th November 2007

Headlines For This Week

News From Principal

- Car Jackers

News From Secondary

- Important Dates

- INSET Day

- Year 8 Camp – Taiping : 24^th – 26^th October 2007

- Careers: Year 10 Camp – Review of Doctor Job Talk

- Careers : Year 11

- Dyslexia Awareness Week 2007

- Cultural Kaleidoscope/ Face-2-Face Paris ‘08

- Multilingual Homework Clubs For Year 5 to Year 11

- Year 7 Trip To Awana Genting

News From Primary

- Year 4 Performances

- Garden Chocolate Selection

- Year 1 Celebrate in Style

- The Primary Environmental Rangers

Parent, Teachers and Friends of GIS

- Coffee Morning

- Mufti Day

- International Culture Show

- Christmas Bazaar

Announcement

- Mufti Day : Green Treasure Hunt & Green Mission

NEWS FROM PRINCIPAL

School has returned with a buzz. The foyer is host to some wonderfully creative work from both Primary and Secondary students. The Year 5 ‘Chocolate’ display is good enough to eat and the Design Technology projects reinforce the quality of work going on in this area of the school. On the sports field, we had strong performances from both senior Football teams at SEASAC and we are hosting the U13 Girls Basketball this weekend – we wish you luck. I hope you all had a wonderful Deepavali break and celebration and are ready for a productive final month of term.

Car Jackers

Please be aware that there is a gang of car jackers operating in the KL area and although we have not had reports in our area, they have taken cars with children inside. We do not wish you undue concern but would urge you to be vigilant at all times.

Simon Mann

Principal

NEWS FROM SECONDARY

Important Dates

Friday, 23^rd November : Mufti Day. This year’s theme is “Crazy Heads” (Please note Crazy Hair for Mufti Day ONLY).

Wednesday, 5^th December : Swimming Gala. Dress code is based on House Colour.

Thursday, 6^th December : Year 7 and New Secondary Parents PTC at 2.45pm. This year, we have decided to open up the Year 7 end of Term 1 PTC to all new parents as well so they can get feedback on their child’s progress.

INSET Day

On Monday, 12^th November Secondary staff worked together looking at way to improve the tracking and mentoring of students. Chris Jones (Deputy Head Curriculum) led discussions on using data to monitor progress and set target grades and looked at quality assurance with Head of Faculty. Michelle Taylor (The Gifted & Talented Coordinator) led a session on Multiple Intelligences and Lesley Cook (Deputy Head Pastoral) led a session on use of data and training for our mentoring team.

Graham Wilson

Head of Secondary

Year 8 Camp - Taiping : 24^th - 26^th October 2007

On the 24^th of October, Year 8 students boarded the buses to Taiping. During the comfortable bus ride, students played cards and sang songs. After two hours, we made our first stop at the Gua Tempurung caves. Upon arrival, we were given a captivating briefing about the caves by Mr. Smith. We were also told to perform some chemical tests with the river water found in the caves. Then, we slowly entered the gaping mouth of the cave. As soon as we took one step inside the caves, we were transported into another world. We were stunned by the colossal size of the caves. While we climbed thousands of steps, we saw amazing natural formations like stalagmites and stalactites. We saw formations of elephants, cats and even monkeys driving cars. Adventurously, we made our way through the cave using only torchlight to navigate. We slid down near-vertical terrain, squeezed through a hole in the floor and used military techniques to make our way through low ceilings. We waded through knee high, chilling cold water. Lastly, we made our way up a series of steep steps and finally saw the light. We took a quick shower in the almost sanitary changing rooms and ate packed lunch. After lunch, we boarded the buses for the long journey to the hotels.

Upon arrival at Taiping, we went to our respective hotels and were assigned our rooms. Thankfully, we had two and a half hours to chill out and relax. Everybody came together for dinner at The Seafood Restaurant. We all enjoyed a wonderful meal and were engrossed in deep conversation and gossip. For the last activity of the day, we grouped at the Legend Inn for some fun-filled games and were informed of the next day’s activities. After that we returned to our hotels, tired but excited for the next day.

On Thursday, the 24^th we woke up full of energy and packed our backpacks for the day. There were three activities lined up for the day. The first of which was the charcoal factory. After enjoying a delicious breakfast of sausages, eggs and a variety of other food, we began our journey to the charcoal factory. As we neared our destination we saw small buildings with straw and aluminum roofs. We had arrived. The manager greeted us and welcomed us with a big smile and told us a little bit about the processing of charcoal. He then led us into the factory and told us the function of the massive kilns that were being used. At the end of the tour, we all got a sweet potato brilliantly roasted on a coal fire. We then departed the factory and arrived at a riverside building. We were here to see a demonstration of fish and cockle cultivation. We donned life jackets and joyfully jumped on to the speed boat and we were off. We first saw fish being bred and fed, the only way to get around the fish was to walk on a grid of thin wooden planks. We scrambled back on to the boat and sped off to a part of the river where cockles were found. A tall and strong man stood on the edge of the boat and used a huge utensil to scrape cockles off the seabed. We then went to lunch at a balcony restaurant, had a wonderful meal with various dishes including a big plate of fresh cockles. After filling our stomachs, we headed off to our last stop of the day: The Mangrove Forest. We trekked on an elevated walk way and noted down creatures we saw. We found extraordinary animals like fiddler crabs and mud skippers. After completing the walk, we tiredly boarded the bus and returned to our hotel. After two hours of relaxing we met up at the same restaurant as the night before and ate ravenously. We went to the Legend hotel to play an exciting game organized by our teachers. We went back to our hotels and slept a pleasant sleep.

We woke up the next morning and took our luggage to breakfast as we had to checkout. We ate the same fulfilling breakfast and left for the Taiping Prison facility. When we settled into our seats in a big hall we were given a brief history of the prison and its happenings. Next a cloth dummy was placed on a tripod, this was to show how convicts were flogged in the prison. A muscular and intimidating man walked to the dummy with a two metre cane. Next, we walked to the nearby museum to gain some knowledge about native Malaysian animals and traditional artifacts which was truly enlightening. We then travelled to the Taiping World War II Cemetery. Upon arrival, Mrs. Cook gave us a solemn speech about the World War, the soldiers and their determination. After sharing a serene minute of silence in memory of the brave soldiers who lost their lives, we walked around the cemetery to complete some research on the origin and ages of soldiers. We made an unexpected visit to the Lake Gardens. There we ran around, bought ice cream and had a bit of fun. We even saw a huge army of monkeys marching across the park. We muddily sat on the bus and went to The Seafood Restaurant for our last meal there. After completing a scrumptious meal, we made tracks to the Taiping Zoo. We rushed in ecstatically and scrambled to the entrance. We paced through the entire zoo observing the huge variety of animals which were housed. At the exit we bought souvenirs from the shop as a memoir of the lovely visit. Finally, with a heavy heart, we walked slowly onto the bus and sadly left Taiping and took the long voyage home.

Maulik, Shaneel and Adrienne

CAREERS: Year 10 Camp - Review of Doctor Job Talk

As of September 2007, we, Year 10’s entered an integral year of our education. We took a massive leap from Key Stage 3 to the first year of our IGCSE course. Suddenly, careers didn’t seem like such an obscure thought but instead became quite a pressing matter. As a result, in continuation from the careers advice we received in Year 9 from school, Doctor Job, a company specialising on this exact topic, were called upon to provide the Year 10 students with a brief talk during our 3 day camp at the Ilham Resort, Port Dickson. 

With a 5 person team, Doctor Job made the short journey to Port Dickson with the objective of helping students attain some idea on suitable career choices or dispelling any lingering doubts we had on our dream career choice. This interactive talk began with students completing a detailed questionnaire which gave an indication on each individual’s personality types. From the results of the questionnaire, the Year 10’s were able to determine which careers their personalities were particularly suited to, which most of us found to be very accurate.

Then, Samantha, one of Doctor Job’s staff, presented a PowerPoint Presentation to us where she gave us more information about careers and qualifications. With the help of this PowerPoint Presentation, we began to look deeper into choosing careers as we were given insight into the trends and outlook of jobs in Malaysia, and also an indication of which jobs are becoming increasingly popular within society today. In addition to that, the presentation also gave us a general criteria for choosing a course and career where unsurprisingly some of us were put off by the number of years required to obtain some qualifications.

Finally, to round it off, Doctor Job very generously gave every student at least one magazine and booklet each for further reading into possible careers. Magazines came in 6 editions: Art, Design & Mass Communications, Health & Sciences, Business, Engineering, IT and Hospitality & Tourism. These magazines were very useful in reinforcing what was said during the talk and also to provide us with more ideas on possible career choices.

Granted, there were a few sleepy students whose memory on the Doctor Job talk are undoubtedly blurry but overall, we found the talk very productive in clarifying some grey areas related to careers and also in bringing up a few topics which before this, we had never even considered. Everyday we get a step closer to making that key decision which will affect the rest of our lives. A daunting realisation indeed!

Zoe Chan, Cho Hyun Joo & Nadia Shakor , 10S

CAREERS :  Year 11

Between November 19^th and 29^th, a representative from the Institute of Advertising Communication Training will be coming into school to talk to our Year 11 students on the following topics:

·         What is Mass Communication?

·         The 5 different majors in Mass Communication

·         Careers in Public Relations & Event Management

·         Careers in Journalism

·         Careers in Creative Writing

·         Careers in Organisation and Business Communication

·         Careers in Broadcasting and Media Production

·         The market demand in the future

I hope the students will find this talk both useful and informative. This talk should also help them to start thinking about their work experience placement. I shall be talking to Year 11’s in more detail about the work experience programme during Term 2. If you would like to talk to our students on any other career fields, please do not hesitate to contact me.

V Sharma

Careers Advisor

Dyslexia Awareness Week 2007

Last week was Dyslexia Awareness Week in the UK, with the aim of raising awareness of dyslexia and other literacy learning issues throughout the country for children and students as well as for adults in the work place.

Up to 10% of the population worldwide is dyslexic, with many people going undiagnosed yet finding literacy (reading, writing, spelling, handling text in any way) a challenge. Dyslexic children can improve their literacy skills with the right support although it is a lifelong difficulty. All schools have students with dyslexia and, at GIS, the Learning Support Department offer teaching and support by qualified and experienced staff from Early Years to Sixth Form.

Many people with dyslexia are highly intelligent and many do achieve at a very high level in all walks of life – including as teachers! Did you know that the following famous people, among many others, are dyslexic?

· Lee Kwan Yew, ex-Singapore premier

· Orlando Bloom, actor

· Sir Steven Redgrave, multiple Olympic and world champion sportsman

· King Karl Gustaf of Sweden

· Tom Cruise, actor and director

· Sir Richard Branson, businessman and entrepreneur

· Ann Bancroft, first female to reach North and South poles

· Robbie Williams, entertainer

· Agatha Christie, author

· Lord Richard Rogers, architect of the European Court of Human Rights

· Jamie Oliver, chef and restaurateur

· Jorn Utzon, architect of the Sydney Opera House

For further information on dyslexia, go to http://www.dyslexiaaction.org.uk/Page.aspx?PageId=6

If you are dyslexic, or your child, or you are a learner of English or another European language, consider downloading the free font Lexia Readable for your PCs/Macs – it is designed to be clear and readable, while being attractive. http://www.k-type.com/fontlexia.html

For information, or with questions, you can contact the Learning Support department at GIS any time.

Lorna Prestage, Head of Learning Support

Prestage.l@gardenschool.edu.my

Cultural Kaleidoscope / Face-2-Face Paris 08

Only 3 places left for Year 9 or 10 students for this AECNet project for 2008! Parents, give your child the experience of hosting a student from one of our participating schools during International Week in late February. Sign them up to visit Paris during the Easter break and spend time there with host families as well. We are running out of time as arrangements have to be made and tickets booked. Past visits to Sweden, Finland, Germany and Italy have been so positive that older students wish they could participate year after year. For more details, please e-mail Ms. Peers at anne.p@gardenschool.edu.my or call 012-382 2060. Your child will thank you for the opportunity to take part in this truly unique experience.

Leonora Anne Peers

International Coordinator

Multilingual Homework Clubs For Years 5 To 11

Dear Parents,

Help your child improve his/her grades in French, Mandarin or Spanish by sending them to the MFL homework club run by Dr Conti and his Sixth Form helpers on Mondays and Wednesdays after school (2.30pm – 3.30pm) in room 506. Please bear in mind that your child does not have to choose it as a CCA to join in and they do not have to stay for the whole hour. Any students attending a full hour will be awarded a merit.

Also note that any parent-helpers proficient in any of the above languages are more than welcome to join in! We would be delighted to have any Malay-speaking parents come forward. Please contact me at the following e-mail address for any queries on the homework clubs and/or on how you can help us out:conti.g@gardenschool.edu.my.

Un grand ‘Merci’!

Dr Gianfranco Conti

Head of French

Year 7 Trip To Awana Genting

Driving rain and fog greeted the Year 7 students as they arrived at Genting Highlands on the 23^rd October. What commenced as a day full of smiling and cheerful students temporarily changed as fear set in that we might make them go out in such terrible conditions!  Fortunately for the worried students, the weather took a turn for the better and by the time the groups had been coordinated, the weather had improved quite considerably. Abseiling, jungle trekking, flying fox, archery and much, much more lay ahead of them and this was just day 1. Through a mixture of activities, both indoor and outdoor with their tutor groups and house groups, the students experienced opportunities to improve their teamwork skills, communication skills and most importantly to make lots of new friends.

The students returned to school on Friday rather elated by the experience as well as a little dirty and tired! A special thank you goes to the Year 7 form tutors, Ms Prestage and Mr Storey who accompanied the trip.

Mrs. Moore

Head of Year 7

NEWS FROM PRIMARY

Reminders for your diary :

Year 5 Parents	19^th November 07	Year 5 Camp Meeting
All Parents	20^th November 07	PTF Coffee Morning
All Parents	23^rd November 07	Mufti Day

Advance Warning for your diary :

Year 5 & 6 Parents	27^th November 07	Year 5 & 6 Sports Day
EYD Parents	3^rd – 7^th December 07	EYD Christmas Assemblies
All Parents	3^rd – 7^th December 07	Last Week of CCAs
Year 1 Parents	7^th December 07	Year 1 Christmas Assembly

First of all, I would like to offer my congratulations to everyone: pupils, teachers and assistant teachers in Year 4 - a huge WELL DONE! Along with some wonderful parent and friend volunteers, the team put on two spectacular Year 4 Performances on Tuesday, 4^th November.

The performances were both memorable for their acting, singing, dancing and music, as well as for the great costumes and stage set. Clearly a tremendous amount of work went into the performance which served to combine a celebration of Deepavali with the IPC exit point for their IPC unit. On the subject of Deepavali, we trust everyone had an enjoyable break and are suitably refreshed for the remainder of the term. 

A word of warning!  For any chocolate lovers please do not visit the main entrance foyer in the administration block! Those who do visit are sure to be overwhelmed with the desire to eat the  fantastic chocolates on display, all of which are the work of pupils in Year 5 and were created in Mr Griffith’s Art and Design classes.

And finally some Congratulations…. Not one, nor two, but three of our staff are expecting babies! Ms Tan - Year 5K, Mrs Wellington - Year 3G and Mrs Munns - Year 4G are all pregnant. Arrangements are well underway to cover for the teachers whilst they take maternity leave and parents are being kept informed of the situation. Mrs Wellington and Mrs Munns hold Year  Co-ordinator positions, therefore we will be appointing temporary replacements to cover these important roles. Congratulations also to another of our teachers who happens to be one of the proud fathers to be.. Mr Paul Wellington, Head of PE at GIS who is married to Mrs Wellington!

Neil Smith

Head of Primary

ON EXHIBITION NOW

Garden Chocolate Selection

All Year 5 students have been working on the IPC theme of Chocolate. Mr. Griffith’s classes learnt the intricacies of mixing various shades of brown, followed by specialised cutting, shaping, forming and finishing the chocolate designs to increase model making skills. Lastly, in teams, they had to present the models in a container, plus label according to the marketing ideas they discussed for their set of chocolates.

These works look good enough to eat but they are all made from plasticine….take a bite at your own risk! The Chocolate Selection can be seen for a few weeks in the entrance area of the Arts Building.

Linda L.

Primary Art/DT Co.

Year 1 Celebrate In Style!

On Monday - 5^th November, Year 1 enjoyed a Deepavali Activity Day. Dressed in Indian costumes and brightly coloured clothes, the classes rotated through five activities. The children decorated diva lamps with Ms Saad; designed festive cards with Ms Boden; painted colourful rangolis with Ms Ramola; performed dandia stick dancing with Mr Richard and made beautiful peacock feathers with Mrs Longman. A great time was had by all the children and teachers as we experienced our second celebration of the term following the exciting Hari Raya Activity Day. We are now looking forward to our next activity day for Chinese New Year!

The Primary Environmental Rangers

1. This Term, the Environmental Rangers have been dedicating their time to helping to reduce the amount of paper wasted here at GIS and we are really noticing a difference!  We would like to thank the students, paper monitors, teachers and assistants for supporting us.                                   

2. Each class in Primary now has two ‘Paper Monitors’. These children are responsible for ensuring that paper is never thrown into the bin. If it is only used on one side, it is to be placed in a REUSE basket and if it is used on both sides, it is to be placed in a RECYCLE basket. Every Thursday, the Paper Monitors will take the recycle basket to the large bins on their corridor and sort the paper into coloured and white. The Environmental Rangers will then wheel these bins to the collection point. Please support your child, by reusing and recycling paper at home too.

3. We are also collecting used wrapping paper, celebration cards, old wildlife magazines, old special interest magazines and comics from children, staff and parents. These may then be distributed to relevant Year Groups for topic activities, the library (LRC) or used in art and craft activities. Could you please ask your child to put them neatly in the boxes opposite the Primary canteen.

4. On Friday 30^th November – The E Rangers will be holding an ORANG UTAN TEA PARTY during lunchtime. Our Rangers (dressed as orang utans) will be selling bananas on sticks, dunked in melted chocolate and home made banana, orange and carrot cake. All money raised will go to help us pay for this year’s sponsorship of Sogo-Sogo and Naru (orphaned orang utans from Sepilok). Any extra money will be used to plant fruit trees in KK’s rainforest. Please allow your child to join in the fun. Our healthy orang utan snacks will be on sale for between RM2 and RM4.

Thanks for all your help,

Sharon Wellington and

the Environmental Rangers

PARENT, TEACHERS AND FRIENDS OF GIS

Coffee Morning

Tuesday, 20th November @ 8.30am at Primary Hall - 1^st Floor Arts Building

Mr Wilson will be giving a talk to help parents keep children safe when using the internet. Please do come along as your children are using the internet more and more for their studies.

Mufti Day

Friday, 23^rd November

The PTF is running a cake stall in school on Mufti Day. We are looking for volunteers to help on the stall and, of course, we need lots of lovely cakes and pastries donating for this very busy stall.

Contact Lys  - 012 2277 688 if you can help or bring your donations on the day.

Our Japanese Ladies are also running a stall and are still looking for your donations of items.

Contact: Masumi  - 019 2820966

International Cultural Show

Calling all Japanese Boys & Girls (All Ages). If you would like to learn a traditional Japanese dance to perform at the culture show, please call Masumi  (019 2820966) by 7^th December latest.

Christmas Bazaar

Friday, 7^th December : 9am - 2pm

A reminder to keep your diaries free on this day

This year, we will be holding a LUCKY RAFFLE DRAW (Tombola) and we need donations of small raffle prizes – New and Unused items such as toiletries, sweets and biscuits, toys, trinkets, ornaments etc. These can be brought to school and left in a specially provided box in the main reception area – last collection day is on 5^th December. Don’t forget we also need donations of cakes and pastries for our Christmas Bazaar cake stall too.

Karen Ho

PTF communications sub-committee

ANNOUNCEMENT

A GREEN MISSION on

MUFTI DAY

The SMART Rangers invite you to make a pledge to help preserve our environment for our future, our children and our survival.

Sign your pledge in our book

Make a pledge online at

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/treadlightly

It’s never too late to make a change, however small.