Newsletter
22nd June
2007
News
From Principal
-
Online Bullies And Abuse
-
Boots & Balls Football
Carnival
News
From Secondary
- Calling Parents To Help A
Design Student
-
GIS Tops In ECIS Maths League 2007
-
Mufti Day Cheque Presentation
News
From Primary
-
Year
2 – Visit
-
Primary Fobissea
2007
-
Parents of current Year 6
student who are transferring to
Parent,
Teacher and Friends of GIS
-
Mum & Tots meeting
Announcement
-
Sports Award Evening
-
Cafeteria Theme Day :
-
Book
NEWS
FROM PRINCIPAL
Many parents have
asked for advice on ways in which they can ensure that their children are not
involved in cyber-bullying or are not exposed to unsavoury content on the Internet. School Principals
around the world are now being asked similar questions as parents come to
grapple with the extent to which their children are exposed to both of these
issues.
In
order to assist parents of children at GIS, I have included the following
helpful advice in this week’s newsletter. You may wish to share this with your
friends to ensure that as many parents as possible are acting responsibly in
monitoring their child’s computer and mobile phone activities.
Online bullies and
abuse
Ensuring your child is not subjected to online bullying
Playground
bullying takes place in school throughout the world and can be a serious
problem for many children and online bullying or abuse can be just as
unbearable.
Bullying
can ruin any child's life. Online bullying or abuse can be just as unbearable
as playground taunting, but harder to spot. Two thirds of bullying is verbal
and those responsible can lurk in unmoderated
chat rooms or can send their abuse through texting or
instant messaging. Bullying can be subtle, but most of the time, if your child
is being bullied, they know who is doing it to them.
You
can put a stop to this type of bullying only if you get involved. Encourage
your children to talk to you about anything that's upsetting them. Get them to
show you any messages they've received (if they've saved them) or to tell you
immediately if anything new happens. Make sure they stick to moderated chat
and, above all, let them know that you take it seriously. Tell them that bullying
usually stops once they tell other people about it.
What you can
do...
·
listen, and react
with sympathy. Don't tell them to ignore it - remember what it was like when
you were their age. In a recent
·
never respond to
an internet bully, this is exactly what they want. It's best to ignore them
·
if bullying or
abuse starts in a chat room, encourage your children to leave. They should then
tell you, the moderator and the site manager/editor. If your child is being
stalked or harassed you should go to the local police
Involving the whole family
in setting out rules for internet use
There
are things you'd rather your children didn't see,
places you don't want them to go and people you need to protect them from. As
parents, we've probably all discovered that just saying 'no' isn't enough to stop
children's natural curiosity. Well, it's exactly the same with the internet.
A family code
is a way of including children in developing a set of rules for using the
internet. Being involved will help them understand the dangers and give them a
sense of responsibility, which they are likely to take with them when they surf at school or at friends' houses.
After all, if your children are old enough to use the internet, they are old
enough to be involved in creating a family code.
What you can do...
·
there is no 'one size fits all' family code - your family
is unique so your code should reflect this
·
your code should cover the following areas: acceptable
use, personal safety, health and safety, and what to do if things go wrong
·
always keep the internet-connected computer in the living
room with the screen facing outward so you can see what's going on
·
print a copy of your family code and place it next to the
computer workstation to remind everyone of the conditions they helped to put in
place
·
remember, the best way to understand what your child
is doing online is to become an internet user yourself and become actively
involved in their surfing sessions
·
decide whether or not the code should extend to visiting
family or friends
Here is an example of a family code:
Acceptable use:
·
no one is allowed to go to pornographic, racist or any
hate-motivated websites - if your child accidentally stumbles upon any they
should tell you and you can then delete it from the 'history' folder
·
it's never OK to use abusive or threatening language in
chat or any other online communication
·
no one should visit the private areas of chat
rooms -only visit moderated chat rooms
·
never be online for more than 20 minutes at a time (this
can be extended according to age)
·
your child shouldn't download unknown files from the
internet without you agreeing - the best bet is to never download unknown files
at all
·
no one is allowed to download, burn to CD and pass on any
music, images or movies downloaded from the intenet
·
your child should only use child-friendly search
engines like Yahooligans [External Site] or Ask Jeeves Kids
[External Site]
Safety:
·
keep all personal
information secret - this includes name, age, sex, home address, landline and
mobile numbers, bank details, PIN numbers, passwords and user names. If it
is necessary to supply details for registration, or to buy something, your
child should always ask for permission and help from you
·
remember, an online
friend is a stranger in the real world so your child should never arrange
to meet someone they have met via the internet without your knowledge and
permission. You will go with your child if they do arrange to meet an
online friend
·
your child should not give any indication of their age or
sex in a personal email address
·
no one should visit private areas of chat rooms
- all chat rooms visited should be moderated and child friendly
·
no one should respond, reply or unsubscribe to unwanted
email or spam
·
if your child receives frightening or bullying
emails, or any spam with unacceptable content, they should tell you - it
is not their fault that they have received them
If things go wrong:
·
your child should always tell you if anything worries or
upsets them
·
you should contact your Internet Safety
Provider (ISP) to find out about any child-safety measures they offer and
complain to them if
your child stumbles upon any inappropriate content or is subjected to any
inappropriate contact while online
·
you should install and regularly update filtering
software to protect against inappropriate internet access
A short cartoon video
on safe Internet use can be downloaded at http://www.parentcentre.gov.uk/flash/safety/main.swf
Boots & Balls Football Carnival
June, 11am to 4pm @ SOULed
OUT
KL Youth Soccer presents
Boots & Balls, a football carnival for the family. Join us for an afternoon
of food, drinks and FUN! (flyer attached). Get
your coupons from any KLYS player, SOULed OUT, bootsnballs@klys.com.my. Or buy them at GIS on the date
below. Coupon sell for RM50/sheet, and this can be broken down into smaller
amounts.
Mon,
25 June 2007
Primary Canteen – 11:40am Primary lunch break
Outside Secondary Office – 12:20pm Secondary lunch break
Pincipal
NEWS
FROM SECONDARY
Last Friday, students in Year 11
celebrated the end of their IGCSE examinations in style with a graduation
dinner at the Ritz-Carlton. It was an excellent and very enjoyable event, many
thanks and congratulations to Mrs.Yeoh (Head of Year
11) and the organising committee.
All Year 11 students are now taking part
in a two week programme of work experience. This is a
valuable educational activity in which students gain experience of the
responsibilities and realities of working life. It is an organised
programme with each student completing assignments
designed by the school in order that there can be maximum benefit from the
experience. Many thanks to our Careers Advisor, Ms.
Vipula Sharma for organising and coordinating the programme.
Work experience ends on Thursday next
week. On Friday, all Year 11 students return to the school for a
“debriefing” on the work experience, followed in the evening by the final major
event of the Year 11 programme – Graduation Awards
Evening. This is a formal occasion to recognise the
achievements of our students completing Year 11 and Year 13. It is an occasion
for everyone associated with our graduating classes, students, teachers and
their parents. It has become a
Head of Secondary
Calling Parents to Help a Design Student
An A2
Design & Technology student is designing a mobile phone holder for a
motorbike, for which the course stipulates the need to work with a client. The
clients role may be to set certain criteria for the specification,
evaluate the design during and at the end of the project or just act as an
external advisor.
To help
this student, I am putting out a general notice to see if any parents of
students at GIS could offer their assistance, especially those that may be
involved in the transport or design industries. It would not be too time consuming as meetings would be few and the student
could easily visit at your convenience.
Please
contact Mr Perry at the school or email perry.m@gardenschool.edu.my
if you are able to help in any way.
Mr Perry
Head of Design and Technology
GIS TOPS IN ECIS MATHS LEAGUE, 2007
It is once again the time of the year to
give the results of the European Council of International Schools (ECIS) Maths league.
The league is organised annually by the British International School of Cairo
on behalf of ECIS. This is the eighth year in which GIS has participated.
Fifty-seven international schools from all over the world took part in the
competition and I am proud to announce that for the second year running GIS
came top in the final overall league table. This is a great credit to our
students and their teachers.
In addition
to our secondary participation, some of our Year 6s also participated in the
primary league. Thanks to
GIS
participated in the 3 leagues: Primary (Aristotle), Novice (Archimedes) and
Junior (Bernoulli). Each had 3 papers lasting 40 minutes. Each paper had 6
questions making it a total of 18 questions that needed to be answered.
Students who scored 12 or more qualified for the ECIS certificate and tie pin.
The competition was held under strict examination conditions in March. Some of
our Years 6, 7, 8 9, 10, and 11 took part in this year’s leagues.
The following students qualified for the
ECIS tie pins and certificates:
Students scoring 12 or more points
Aristotle
|
Year 6 |
|
|
|
CHEAH |
Selina |
12 |
|
BEH |
Sze Yi |
12 |
|
Pothirajan |
Gokul |
12 |
|
Foyston |
Zahara |
12 |
|
Mathew |
Dhanya Rachel |
12 |
|
Isariyatrapiop |
Suphamongkol |
12 |
|
Daim Zainuddin |
Amir |
12 |
|
Lee |
Ji woo |
12 |
|
Mehboob |
Hafeez |
12 |
|
Liu |
Angela |
12 |
|
Rhee |
Jeff |
12 |
|
Chan |
Bernice |
12 |
|
Wang |
Clarissa |
12 |
|
Mohan |
Chiraag |
12 |
|
Dhingra |
Sakshan |
13 |
|
Tsuji |
Risako |
13 |
|
Ang |
Giovitto |
13 |
|
King |
James |
13 |
|
Yu |
So Hyun |
13 |
|
Mah |
Siu Wen |
14 |
|
Wong |
Walter Leon Yuen |
14 |
|
Kang |
Yun Seok |
15 |
|
Lee |
Sonia |
15 |
|
De Bock |
Thomas |
15 |
|
Ahn |
Jae Hui |
15 |
|
Shan |
Corneill Shaapen |
15 |
|
|
|
|
|
Year 7 |
|
|
|
PAVER |
|
12 |
|
TANG |
Ling |
12 |
|
CHONG |
Hon Ken Kenny |
12 |
|
JETHWANI |
Harein Thakurdas |
12 |
|
LIM |
Lian Hing,
Scott |
12 |
|
RIVA |
Shela |
12 |
|
SHAHRAZI |
Jordan Azlan |
12 |
|
SOPHONPANICH |
Angelina Cheok |
12 |
|
WOO |
Shing Tze |
12 |
|
LI |