Garden International School

Newsletter

26th October 2007

 

Headlines For This Week

 

News From Principal

-          Cambridge “ Brilliance In Malaysia 2007” Awards

 

News From Secondary

-          First Edition Of Newspaper Published

-          Celebration Of Examination Successes & International Award Presentation

 

News From Primary

-          Parent Teacher Conferences

-          Year 1 Party Into A New Topic

-          Year 2 Go Wild

 

News From Primary Learning Resources Centre (Library)

-          Good News

-          Scholastic Book Club

 

Co-Curricular Activities

-          Aerospace Exhibition

-          Ski Trip 2008

-          U13 Fobissea Team

 

Parent, Teachers and Friends of GIS

-          Coffee Morning cum Parents Forum

-          Christmas Bazaar

 

Announcement

-          Jansen Chow Art Demo

 

NEWS FROM PRINCIPAL

 

Cambridge “Brilliance in Malaysia 2007” Awards

This week, we had the pleasure to attending the Cambridge ‘Brilliance in Malaysia 2007’ awards. As you are aware, we had a large number of students receiving awards. It was a wonderful afternoon of celebration and great to see the students and families honoured for their achievements.

 

‘The Squid’ Newspaper

Back at school the first addition of ‘The Squid’, our student produced newspaper was published. The students, with some help from the English department have done a remarkable job. The articles are well written and informative and the layout is very professional – we look forward to the next edition.

 

To our secondary school families, many of you will be enjoying a quieter house than normal this week with so many students on camp. I would like to express how pleasing it is to see the large number of students involved in such an important aspect of their education. I hope they return exhausted and full of stories from the week.

 

Simon Mann

Principal

 

NEWS FROM SECONDARY

 

The Annual Remembrance Service

The event organised by the British High Commission will take place at the Cenotaph in the Lake Gardens on Sunday, 11th November 2007 at 7.45 a.m. Students from Garden International School will be laying a wreath of remembrance. All parents and students are invited to attend. You may make a donation for a poppy at the Art Centre Reception from today till 11th November in support for the “Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal Fund”.

 

First Edition Of Newspaper Published

The secondary students produced the first edition of the new GIS student newspaper – ‘GIS Perspective’ last week. A huge amount of effort went into the production of this and if you are interested, there are some spare copies available at the front desk in Secondary.

 

A special thank you to all the students involved and to Andrew McConchie, one of our new staff in the English faculty, who helped them with this first production.

 

Celebration of Examination Successes and International Award Presentation

A special evening has been organised to celebrate the successes of GIS students on 30th October (Tuesday) at 7.15pm in the Grand Hall. We have sent out letters of invitation to all the award recipients and their parents. Please ensure that you RSVP to Ms. Aileen Oon in the Secondary Office by Monday at the latest.

 

Graham Wilson

Head of Secondary

 

NEWS FROM PRIMARY

 

Reminders for your diary :

All Parents

22nd – 25th October 07

Parent Teacher Conference

 

Advance Warning for your diary :

Year 4 Parents

6th November 07

Year 4 Deepavali Assembly

 

Thank you to all of the Parents and Guardians for attending Parent Teacher Conferences this week. We are attempting to ensure we have 100% turnout at the PTCs and will endeavour to contact any parents who have not yet attended a PTC. As previously mentioned, parental involvement is of paramount importance in your child’s education, hence our desire to meet with you.

 

Lots of fun activities are taking place throughout the Primary School, several are detailed in this newsletter. Please remember that we are very happy to have parent helpers in our school, do let us know if you would like to offer any support.

 

Neil Smith

Head of Primary

 

Year 1 Party Into A New Topic

Year 1 started their new topic of ‘Celebrations’ with a rollicking party last Thursday. An army of parents volunteered their skills and enthusiasm to arrange activities including face painting, henna tattooing and enough games to entertain us for a week! We played games outside and inside, group games and individual games. The children stuck tails on donkeys, balanced limes on spoons and ate cake without using their hands! It was a superb event that has given the children a wonderful ‘entry point’ to their topic. Of course, this would not have been possible without the help of so many eager and keen parents. Year 1 offers a huge thank you to all those who helped.

 

Year 2 Go Wild!

Year 2 have been as busy as bees this half term as they started their new topic ‘Flowers and Insects’. First, they searched the school locality, exploring different habitats such as compost and ponds. They found that flowers and insects adapt to their surroundings, creeping up walls and burrowing under stones. This week, Year 2 visited the fabulous Butterfly Park in the Lake Gardens. “We saw some chrysalis. When it was inside, it was metamorphosing” (Andie). “I saw beautiful butterflies. We didn’t see ugly ones” (Shreya). “I saw a Rajah Brooke and it was black, green and huge!” (Robin). The whole of Year 2 is ‘abuzz’ with excitement! Year 2 would also like to give special thanks to Ms Sahmalah and Ms Annie for putting in a little extra to make a super start to the topic.

 

Richard Stevens

Y1/2 IPC Coordinator

 

NEWS FROM PRIMARY LEARNING RESOURCES CENTRE (LIBRARY)

 

Dear Parents,

 

I am delighted to be able to share some good news with you. Starting now, parents may borrow up to three books from the Primary Learning Resources Centre. All you need to do is register your name with Mr Ganesh or Ms Sharifah, our LRC assistants and then you are free to borrow as often as you wish.

 

All books have a two-week checking out period, but you are welcome to return them early and take fresh ones. We would ask that you ensure your books are returned on time. Please be aware however if any books are lost, a RM40 fee is payable. This will be used to replace the lost book and should be paid before you are allowed to borrow again.

 

We look forward to seeing you in the LRC soon.

 

Ms Siobhan

 

Scholastic Book Club

The book club is an excellent way for your children to access fantastic books at reasonable prices, giving them an even greater love of books. Every purchase earns points for the school which can redeemed for books and other items.  These again benefit all of the children as they have access to them in our LRC. 


Please return all forms with the correct money in a sealed, named envelope before next Friday, 2nd November. Parent volunteers along with LRC staff and our organizer Ms Ranji will process the orders before sending them to Scholastic. If you are interested in helping with this process, please contact Ms Ranji in Year 1G or leave a message with the LRC.

 

CO-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES

 

AEROSPACE EXHIBITION

The sky is not the limit!

Over the next two weeks, the Aerospace CCA will be holding an exhibition in the New Block Auditorium. The centerpiece of the exhibition will be an 8 metre long Soyuz rocket. As well as information about the International Space Station, which is particularly topical at this time, we shall also show some of the brilliant work done by the GIS International Space Settlement Design Competition team which reached the semi-finals of this NASA based competition in New Delhi last January. Please come along if you can and encourage your child to take a good look at the exhibition. Secondary students might like to consider joining the Aerospace CCA which meets in L10 after school every Tuesday. Activities in the CCA include using flight simulators, building and launching rockets, flying radio-controlled planes, trying on genuine cosmonaut suits which have been used in space, astronomy, taking a virtual tour of NASA headquarters in Houston, Texas and many, many more exciting events. We are also anxious to enter another team in the ISSDC competition with the aim of reaching the finals in Houston.

 

Remember the children of today are the astronauts of tomorrow !

 

Dennis Christley

Head of Science Faculty

 

SKI TRIP 2008

Brienz, Switzerland – 31 January to 9 February 2008

We will be taking a group of students to beautiful Switzerland for what will be the 13th GIS Ski Trip on the above dates. This has proved to be a very popular and successful trip ever since its inception over a decade ago. This is a tremendous opportunity for students not only to learn to ski (or improve their existing ability) but to experience the breathtaking scenery and interesting culture of the Swiss Alps.

 

The trip includes return flights to Geneva/Zurich, transfer to and from the airport/resort and comfortable full board accommodation. Also included are 5 hours of ski lessons per day (for 6 days) with experienced instructors, lift passes, skis, boots, poles, insurance and great fun!

 

We try to keep the costs down as much as possible - in fact the cost of the Swiss part of the trip has not increased significantly for several years – however, we are of course dependent upon the airlines for the cost of the flights. We anticipate that the trip will cost somewhere in the region of RM7000-RM7500, part of which will be payable in pounds sterling. The final figure will be confirmed nearer the time and is subject to flight prices and the exchange rate. The trip is very good value for a ski trip to Switzerland, given the overall package offered.

 

If you wish to book a place for your son or daughter, please collect and return the form, along with a deposit for RM500 as soon as possible.

 

Please feel free to contact me at the school if you have any queries about this trip by telephone or email (ng.sally@gardenschool.edu.my)

 

Sally

 

U13 Fobissea Team

Congratulations to the following 18 boys and 18 girls who have made this years Fobissea team. All students will compete in at least two sports this year to be held at Singapore Sports School, 28th November to 2nd December.

BOYS

 

GIRLS

 

Ang

Giovitto

Cantillon

Shirin

Azlan

Zharif

Chin

Thalia

Barton

Fraser

Drew

Hannah

Chow

Calvin

Farish

Fariza

Gordon

Freddy

Fong

Robyn

Jamal

Anwar

Foyston

Zahara

Lim

Sean

Jackson

Hannah

Lim

Scott

Klok

Nicole

Murata

Masaya

Lim

Nicola

Preston

Zach

Lim

Rebecca

Shahid

Namaan

Low

Claudine

Simoneit

Adam

Matsui

Yuri

Smith

Stuart

Popescu

Alexandra

Somasundram

Khevan

Slater-Brooks

Danielle

Spaapen

Corneil

Tai-Boardman

Helen

Liew

Tien Wei

Tan

Nicole

Wong

Jeremy

Van der Drift

Nadja

Yeoh

Yeen

Withers

Courtney

 

Mr. Dale

Physical Education Faculty

 

PARENT, TEACHERS AND FRIENDS OF GIS

 

Hi everyone, we hope you all had a lovely break whatever your activities, over the midterm holiday. There are two things we need to inform you of this week.

 

Coffee Morning cum Parents Forum

Tuesday, 30th October @ 8.30am at Grand Hall

Mr Mann will conduct a “World Café” which will give us parents the opportunity to discuss the direction of our children’s education. It’s important that Mr. Mann knows our thoughts, feelings and aspirations as he guides the school.

 

Christmas Bazaar

Friday, 7th December : 9am - 2pm

Parents who wish to have a stall at the bazaar, please call Jessie on 016-3952507 or Misumi on 019-2820966. Don’t delay as the offer is open to parents first and then outside vendors will be able to book their tables.

 

Karen Ho

PTF communications sub-committee

 

ANNOUNCEMENT

 

JANSEN CHOW ART DEMO

There will be a demonstration by a local artist, Jansen Chow on Sunday, 28th October at 4.30pm in Art Salon @ Seni, Mon’t Kiara. If anyone is interested in going, please see the attachment and reply to SENI gallery. I would encourage any students taking art & design IGCSE, AS or A2 to go along for interest and inspiration! 

 

Cherielene Smithyman

Head of Art Faculty