Garden International School

Newsletter

18th January 2008

The GIS Newsletter can be downloaded from www.gardenschool.edu.my

 

Headlines For This Week

 

News From Principal

-          Inter-House Competitions

-          Congratulations to senior boys Rugby team and 4 GIS Sixth Formers

-          “Jarum Halus”

-          Security

 

News From Secondary

-          List Of Major Events And Activities For  Term 2

-          French Speaking World Project: Exhibition by Miss Sharma’s 9A

 

News From Primary

-          EYD Play Area

-          Lost Property

-          Dress Up Day: 31st January 2008

-          Year 1

-          Year 2 & Year 6 Art

 

Notice

-          Recycling in Garden international School

-          How Your Children Can Improve Their French And Their French Reading Skills At Home (without a tutor)

 

Co-Curricular Activities

-          CCA Notice

-          ISAKL Swimming Championship 2007-2008

-          Year 4 Trials

-          Big 4 Swim Meet (ISKL, MKIS, KLASS & GIS)

 

Parent, Teachers and Friends of GIS

-          PTF Calendar

-          Coffee Morning

-          Special Coffee Morning

-          Parents’ Forum

-          International Week

 

NEWS FROM PRINCIPAL

 

It has been wonderful to see so many students competing in the interhouse competitions and trailing for the Primary sports teams over this last week and great to see so many teachers and parents supporting these students. Also on the sporting front, I would like to congratulate the senior boys Rugby team on their first win of the season last weekend. Congratulations also need to be extended to our four Sixth Formers who have been accepted into Oxford University this coming year, a wonderful confirmation of their talents. Finally, could I remind you the film “Jarum Halus” has opened in KL this week. This film was directed by an ex-student of GIS, Mark Tan and I would encourage you all to attend a screening and support such a talented young man.

 

Security:

We would like to remind all families that the school takes issues of security very seriously and consults with the relevant authorities when necessary. Can we take this opportunity to assure you that in a situation where we believe there is a risk to your children, we would respond appropriately.

 

 

Simon Mann

Principal

 

NEWS FROM SECONDARY

 

Dear Parents,

 

A list of the major events and activities taking place this term is given below. Please note the changes and additions made to the school calendar.

 

Date

Event

7-23.1.08

IGCSE Mock Exam

2-3.2.08

SEASAC Rugby/Basketball/Tennis

12.2.08

UK Intermediate Maths Challenge

13.2.08

KS4 Individual Music Performance

14.2.08

Y11 PTC

15-17.2.08

International Award Expedition (Cameron Highlands/Frasers Hill)

19.2.08

Computer Projects Evening

21.2.08

Y9 Options and PTC

25-29.2.08

International Week

28.2 - 2.3.08

SEAMC 2008 (KL)

28.2-1.3.08

FOBISSEA U15 Sports (Phuket)

4-5.3.08

A2 Drama Performance

6.3.08

Y8GISW Geography Field Trip

7.3.08

Y8KLMP Geography Field Trip

7.3.08

Interact Disco / Dance

8.3.08

SEASAC Swimming

7-8.3.08

KLASSMUN (Alice Smith)

14-15.3.08

SEASAC Badminton

18-19.3.08

A2 Drama Performance (Actors’ Studio)

20-23.3.08

SEASAC MUN (Bangkok)

24.3-5.4.08

Face-to-face trip to Paris

1.4.08

ICAS Computer Skills Competition

2.4.08

INSET (Secondary)

2-11.4.08

Mock A2/AS Exams

 

 

Graham Wilson

Head of Secondary

 

French Speaking World Project:

Exhibition by Miss Sharma’s 9A

The following Year 9 students in Mrs Sharma’s French class are to be congratulated for their highly informative and colourful display on the topic of ‘Francophonie’ (French speaking world). Their hard work can be viewed in the foyer of the Arts Block and we hope you will find the time to come and take a look at what they have done. They have created an excellent celebration of the geographical historical, social and cultural richness of the French speaking world. With International Week approaching, it is hoped other students will be inspired by this work and create some more amazing displays for us to enjoy and learn from.

 

                    Miss Sharma’s 9A class

 

  Dowlani, Puja                      Isato, Toshiyuki              Napoletano, Daniele    

     Ellis, Maya                            Jones, Katy Lee              Narayanan, Krupa               

     Fan, Yuen Yan Melody    Kad, Ridhima                  Nickl, Natasha              

     George, Natasha              Lai, Fu Yuen Ian             Sharma, Mallika

     Hyde, Louise                        Lee, John                          Soosay, Brian

     Yoshida, Natsuno              Augustine, Joylin

 

I would like to congratulate Miss Sharma on setting up this initiative, which not only has enhanced the students’ language and research skills, but also and maybe more importantly, has expanded their cultural horizons by raising their awareness of the customs as well as the social and economic issues of far away countries often ignored or barely touched upon in textbooks. This initiative is also to be commended as far too often people identify French with France and forget that 22 countries around the world (in Africa, Asia, America) have French as their official or second language. In this sense, the project helps bring a much needed global dimension to the study of French.

 

Dr Gianfranco Conti

Head of French

 

NEWS FROM PRIMARY

 

Dear Parents, Guardians and Friends

 

The year is moving along very rapidly and we are already in the process of making arrangements for the next academic year. These include staffing, resources and all importantly preparing the new Early Years Centre for occupation next August.

 

The Early Years Centre, in Desa Sri Hartamas, is close to completion. What remains to be done is the furnishing and equipping of the centre. Shortly, we will begin to look at some much needed renovations in the Primary School, these will include increasing a number of facilities for our children. We look forward to keeping you abreast of such developments as the year progresses.

 

Next week, our Year 5 children will take part in their residential trip to Malacca. This will be a great opportunity for the children and I would like to thank Mrs Kirby and the Year 5 team for all of their efforts in putting the trip together. We look forward to seeing and hearing about the trip on their return.

 

Have a great week.

 

Neil Smith

Head of Primary

 

Reminders for your diary :

All Parents

22nd January 2008

PTF Coffee Morning

Year 5 Parents

23rd – 25th January 2008

Year 5 Malacca Trip

Year 6 Parents

24th January 2008

Year 6 Camp Meeting

All Parents

24th January 2008

Parent Info Night (DT)

 

Advance Warning for your diary :

All Parents

30th January 2008

Parent Info Night (DT)

Year 2 Parents

31st January 2008

Chinese New Year Assembly

All Parents

1st – 8th February 2008

MID TERM BREAK

 

EYD Play Area

It has been brought to our attention, again, that the EYD play area is being used after school hours and then being left in a terrible mess. Play equipment is going missing and being broken due to inappropriate and rough use. The EYD teachers work hard to set this area up ready for the next working day and it is frustrating for them to come in and have to sort out the mess. We appreciate that parents may wish to use this area while waiting for their older children to finish school and/or a CCA. If you do use this play area, we ask that it be left in the condition it was found. We also ask that your child be supervised by an adult at all times when in this area. We thank you in advance for your support and cooperation.

 

Lost Property

We have a considerable amount of lost property sitting in the Primary Office from last term. If your child has lost anything since the beginning of the year, please come to the office to look through the items. By the end of next week (25.1.08), any unclaimed items will be disposed of or donated to a good cause. Thank you.

 

Dress Up Day : 31st January 2008

On Thursday, 31st January your child may come to school dressed in traditional Chinese clothes or in red or gold coloured clothing in celebration of the upcoming festival, Chinese New Year. On this day, the Year 2 children will be performing their assembly on Spring festivals from around the world to the school in the morning and to the parents of Year 2 in the afternoon. 

 

YEAR 1  

Our new IPC Topic - ‘Jobs People Do’, has taken us on a walk through to Mont Kiara Plaza to look at jobs people do in our locality. They visited the Post Office, Travel Agents, Marmalade Café and a Hairdresser. The children drew pictures of people doing their jobs and learnt lots of new vocabulary. We found that it was a very useful exercise in developing their understanding of this topic. Do encourage the children to think about the places you might visit and the people who work there when you are out and about this weekend. A big ‘Thank you’ to the parents who helped on this excursion.

 

In Maths, the children are learning to compare weights using balance scales. Please encourage your child to talk about objects that are ‘heavier than’ and lighter than’ whenever possible e.g. cooking, playing on the see-saw.

 

Ranji Longman

 

Year 2 & Year 6 ART

 

While it lasts, on exhibition, on Level One in the Arts Building.

 

Transport pictures by Year 2 students

Fresh, lively and delightfully unselfconscious.  View many yachts, rockets, helicopters and buses outside Primary Studio One. Scale and proportion were just for starters, then layers of water colour pencils, crayon or graphite combined. The children turned pencil into transparent layers of paint, by brushing with water, to create new colours and textures in the finished image.

 

Landscape pictures by Year 6 students

As Mr. Griffith quoted William Henry 1871 - 1940

What is this life if full of care?

We have no time to stand and stare?

 

Take a trip to level one to admire your child (if they are in Year 6) or someone else’s child’s art. The students grew their technical ability and knowledge by building layers and creating natural, more sophisticated colour schemes in their work. The preliminary exercises are near the school entrance with the final "beautiful" outcomes are outside Primary Art/DT Studio Two.

 

Linda Landers

Primary Art/DT Coordinator

 

NOTICE

 

Recycling In Garden International School

What do used plastic bottles, milk cartons, tins and books have in common? The landfill is often the end of the road for these items but they can be given a new lease of life if brought it in to be recycled.

 

At Garden, we want your ‘waste’! Apart from taking up the ever-diminishing space in landfills, the money brought in from recycling goes towards the environment.

 

Last year, we contributed towards the turtles of the East Coast of Malaysia, where the endangered species, Green, Leatherback, Hawksbill and Blue Ridley are cared for and released to the wild. We are hoping to do so again and rely on the support of parents and students.

 

Please help us. Bring in your rinsed or washed recyclables and paper on Tuesdays or Fridays. Collection points are in the Secondary Cafeteria and the concourse area near the 6th Form Lounge.

 

                           Re-New, Re-Use, Respect

 

Start Managing All Resources Today

 

 The Rangers

 

How Your Children Can Improve Their French And

Their French Reading Skills At Home (without a tutor)

 

Dear Parents of GIS students of French,

 

In addition to sending your children to the French Reading Club run at lunch time on Wednesdays in the Secondary library at 12.30pm, you can encourage them to use the following websites where they can find a great selection of animated / illustrated stories read aloud by native speakers in very clear French accent. The stories are fun and simple and even our younger readers (Year 3-4) would not need to use the dictionaries that much to understand the basic gist of the texts.

 

                                           Stories read aloud by native speakers 

 

http://www.edu365.cat/primaria/contes/contesfrances/cleo_la_vache/index.htm

http://www.conte-moi.net/conte.php?id=40

http://www.fictions.ch/presentation_textes/Enfants2.htm

http://www.brementownmusicians.com/flash/story/fr

http://www.edu365.cat/primaria/contes/contesfrances/soleil_et_lune/index.htm

http://www.tfo.org/jeux/deuxfois/pierre/index.html

 

For the more creative readers, I also advise the following links to interactive stories.

 

Interactive stories

 

http://www.pour-enfants.fr/histoires-interactives/fete-foraine/poule11.htm

http://www.pour-enfants.fr/histoires-interactives/au-zoo/zoo0.htm

http://etrange.voyage.free.fr/

http://www.pour-enfants.fr/histoires-interactives/piscine/pisc0.htm

http://pujol.club.fr/exercices/liberator/liberator.html

http://www.clicksouris.com/solargilan/index.htm

http://www.pour-enfants.fr/halloween-2/sorciere-2.htm

 

Reading the stories with them and helping them out in the process (e.g. looking words up in the dictionaries, inferring meaning from the pictures) can make the reading more motivating and stimulating for the children, especially the young ones. For any help on how to use the above online resources effectively, do not hesitate to contact myself or any members of the French Department.

 

Dr Gianfranco Conti

Head of French

 

CO-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES

 

CCA Notice

Due to unforeseen circumstances, Year 3 and 4 Art Attack is now taking place on Thursday, not on Wednesday as originally planned. Sorry for any inconvenience caused. If a refund is required, please see Ms. Devi.

 

Thank you.

 

Regards,

 

Ms. Randy.

 

ISAKL Swimming Championship 2007-2008

Congratulations to all the Dragon Swimmers who participated in the ISAKL Swimming Championship on 8th December, 2007. They all did very well, unfortunately we lost out on the championship cup by 208 points but in the overall medal tally we won the  most gold medals (33). The biggest effort came from Adam Lim (9m) who got 4 individual golds and broke 4 records and Annabel Suen 3 gold, 1 silver and broke 1 record. Other medal winners are below:

 

 

Individual Events

 

Relays Events

 

 

                   Name

Class

Gold

Silver

Bronze

Remarks

Gold

Silver

Bronze

1

Lim

Adam, LianHwee

9M

4

 

 

4 Record

 

2

 

2

Suen

Annabel

5I

3

1

 

1 Record

1

1

 

3

Mccombie

Chloe Jane Theresia

5K

3

 

 

 

1

 

 

4

Chim

Andrew, Kah Hoe

11L

3

 

 

 

 

2

 

5

Lee

Su Ann

13P

2

1

1