Newsletter
1st
February 2008
Headlines
For This Week
News
From Principal
-
Jeremy Strong Visits to GIS
News
From Secondary
-
Year
11 Parent-Teacher Conference
-
Arrangements For Year 9
Options & PTC Meeting – Thursday, 21st February
-
Year 11/12/13 Exam Report
-
South African Mathematics
Olympiad 2007
News
From Primary
-
Head
Lice
-
British
Author, Jeremy Strong Visited Years 3-7
-
Year
4: Design Exhibition
Co-Curricular
Activities
-
Study
Support
-
Best
Of Luck
Parent,
Teachers and Friends of GIS
-
International Week
Exhibition
-
Special Coffee Morning – Chinese New Year
-
Parents’ Forum
-
Mum & Tots Group
NEWS FROM
PRINCIPAL
It has been a
short but eventful week. On Monday and Tuesday, we were honoured by the
presence of Jeremy Strong, a famous and critically acclaimed children’s author
who has written such classics as ‘My Brother’s Famous Bottom’. Jeremy spent two
days inspiring and informing our Year 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 students in the art of
story writing. All who attended these workshops were hugely impressed by the
quality of the presentations. This fabulous opportunity was made possible through
a partnership between the school library and the PTF. We hope that Jeremy is
the first of many such visitors that we can use to enrich the learning of our
students.
I hope you all
have a great break.
Kong
Hee Fatt Choy
Simon Mann
Principal
NEWS FROM SECONDARY
Year 11 Parent-Teacher Conference
This
takes place on Thursday, 14th February from 2.45pm - 5.45pm (Grand
Hall). All Year 11 students and their parents
should attend. This is an important opportunity to discuss with teachers the final important steps which are needed
to ensure success in the IGCSE examinations.
Arrangements
for Year 9 Options & PTC Meeting – Thursday, 21st February
This year we are piloting a new
approach, combining the Year 9 Options Evening and the Year 9 PTC in one afternoon.
This will allow you to discuss progress and suitability of your child for
further study with teachers at the same time, with subject information
available.
Head of Secondary
Year 11/12/13 Exam Report
Year 11 students were given their mock
exam reports and Year 12 &13 were given grade report today, Thursday, 31st January. By now you should have seen
these and discussed the reports with your son/daughter. Please complete the
reply slip to show that you have seen the reports and
return the form to your son/daughter’s Form Tutor by Friday, 15th
February.
Year 11 PTC takes place on Thursday, 14th February which provides you with the
opportunity to discuss your son/daughter’s performance in their mock exams with
their subject teachers.
Chris Jones
Deputy Head
Curriculum
SOUTH AFRICAN MATHEMATICS OLYMPIAD 2007
At the end of last term, Year 7 &
Year 8 students took part in the Annual S.A. Maths
Olympiad. They were faced with a series of 25 multiple choice maths problems. These are designed to encourage higher
order thinking skills (HOTS), rather than the usual “more of the same” (MOTS)
examples found in so many maths textbooks. The level
of achievement was terrific and the following students were top scorers in
their respective classes:-
Year
7
Year 8
Cavan Ang
7L Alexander
Boden 8L
Justin Liaw
7K
Taras Selekoglu 8G
Laurens Bork
7S
Simon Kwon 8I
David Natarajan7S Brandon
Cheong 8S
Grace
Tan7L Nazlin Amirudin 8L
Kelly Lei
7S
Dayna
George Tan
7W Nicholas
Lim 8K
Gyeongmo Kim
7G Sarah
Knight 8K
Manpreet Kaur
7L Yuri
Matsui 8M
Terry Lee 7S
Titus Mak 7M
(Prizes and certificates were given out during maths lessons this week)
Well done to the prize winners and to all the students
who took part………..brilliant effort!!
L. Wilson
Secondary Maths
NEWS FROM PRIMARY
Reminders for your
diary :
|
All Parents |
11th
February 2008 |
School Reopens |
Advance Warning
for your diary :
|
Year 4 Parents |
18th
February 2008 |
Year 4 Camp
Meeting |
|
Year 3 & 4
Parents |
19th
February 2008 |
Year 3 and 4
Sports Day |
|
All Parents |
25th
– 29th February 2008 |
International
Week |
|
All Parents |
29th
February 2008 |
International
Bazaar |
Gong Xi
Fa Cai to all of our
Chinese families! The Chinese New Year celebration is always one of the year’s
highlights, especially for those witnessing the celebration for the first time.
Here at
Many congratulations to our Year 5 teachers and students for
their wonderful residential camp in
Year 1 children this week have also been
out of school, visiting the local fire station! I understand from the teachers
that the children were great ambassadors for the school and enjoyed their trip
immensely.
Currently, we are extremely busy with
our recruitment process to hire staff for the next academic year. This will be
finalized in late February when we look forward to updating you on our plans.
We do hope that you all enjoy the
Chinese New Year break.
Neil Smith
Head of Primary
Head
Lice
The school nurse has identified several
cases of head lice in the school. Head lice are common and are nothing to be
concerned about. However, they do need to be treated quickly and removed. We
would request that you take a few minutes to check your own child’s hair, over
the Chinese New Year holiday. If possible, this should be repeated every week.
Various treatments are available from the pharmacy. Treatments include shampoo,
lotions and fine toothed combs. Please take the time to consult a pharmacist
for up to date information. Many websites exist giving a variety of treatments
and remedies these include:
http://pediatrics.about.com/od/weeklyquestion/a/05_head_lice.htm
May we politely remind all parents that
pupils with head lice should not attend school until they have been treated and
removed.
News from the Primary LRC
This week, the children from Years 3 -
7 had the pleasure of a visit from British author, Jeremy Strong. Jeremy's
books are loved by many of the children in the school, so much so that all the
library copies of his stories have been checked out for weeks and it was also
difficult to get hold of copies of his books in local bookshops. Jeremy
entertained, educated and hopefully inspired the children to be more
enthusiastic in their reading and writing activities. This is the first of many
authors and illustrators that we hope to bring to GIS. Big thanks to
the PTF for their support!
Here are comments from some of the children:
Jeremy Strong was
very funny and he has written lots of different books. He has inspired me to
write stories and I enjoyed his visit a lot. Mira (6S)
Jeremy Strong
inspired me a lot. He is very funny and entertaining. He makes reading fun. I
have read many of his books and I want to read more! Clio (6S)
I thought Jeremy
Strong was awesome. He is really funny and he has inspired me to write stories.
I liked him visiting because I have never met an author before. I want to thank
him a lot for coming and inspiring us. Liam
(6S)
Ms Siobhan
Teacher Librarian
Year 4
Design exhibition in the entry hall of the
Arts building
Mr. Griffith and Ms. Linda set a design
challenge for their young designers.
To…….
Create visual
marketing for a new product with the working name of “Blobby”.
This new modeling material is a fun and
exciting media that can be formed into many different shapes, then painted and
decorated in vibrant colours.
Each student had to
design a logo, trademark, packaging and paper to match as well as a small
sculpture from the Blobby” product. All the components needed
to fit together to be presented as a graphic storyboard to impress a
(fictional) client.
Every student in Year 4 has their work
on display.
Primary Art/DT Coordinator
CO-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
Study Support
Did you know that there is a new CCA
called STUDY SUPPORT running this term? Every Tuesday and
Thursday, students can go to the Library and get help from 6th
Formers and staff with their homework and
coursework. The staff and 6th Form will not do the homework but they
are there to help and give advice. Do encourage your sons and daughters to take
advantage of this.
Mrs Lesley Cook
Deputy Head Pastoral
Best Of Luck !
Best of luck goes to our Basketball
teams (
Head of Physical
Education
PARENT,
TEACHERS AND FRIENDS OF GIS
International
Week Exhibition
Friday,
29th February : 9am – 2pm
Our International Week is held every
year to celebrate the opportunity that our children have been given to study
and live alongside people from different parts of the world. The finale to this
week is the International Week Exhibition. The purpose of this event is to
enable representatives to provide a stand which represents their home country.
The stand can display factual information, involve fun games and trivia, flags,
badges and balloons for the children to take away and anything else that
encourages the children to learn more about our every-changing global society
they live in. We also welcome representatives to delight our taste buds with
some delicious foods from around the globe.
We have already received requests for
the following countries :
Dutch,
For Japanese Ladies who would like to
assist, please contact Masumi.
If you have some spare time and would
like to take part in this special event, please send an email, detailing what
country you will be representing, to:
Karen Bradley, PTF Social Committee,
email address: karen.106bradley@btinternet.com
phone: 017 257 1405
Special
Coffee Morning – Chinese New Year
Monday,
25th February
The Chinese New Year coffee morning will
be held during International Week. Immediately after the Parade of Nations on
Monday morning, the activities will begin in the Grand Hall. The organisers have been working with Ms. Peers and the
international visiting students will be attending. They have some very exciting
presentations. Donations of Mandarins and Cookies would be greatly appreciated.
Please call
Parents’
Forum
gisptf_forum@gardenschool.edu.my
This email address is manned by parents
on the PTF committee. The forum is for parents to raise issues of concern, make
complaints of a general nature, give praise, make comment etc. Instead of just
discussing or moaning with friends about what bothers you, put it in an email.
Then, we can gather the concrete information and the school will then know for
certain how the parents feel. Also feel free to send us a copy of your formal
complaints to the school and as a PTF group, we can monitor and assist if
necessary.
Mum
& Tots Group
This group is back and running for all
mums with children under school going age. They meet every Wednesday from 9.40am - 10.55am in
the EYD hall. Call Marie on 012-610 3431 or 017-2763524 for any
queries or e-mail her at carolinalubienska.r@gardenschool.edu.my.
Karen Ho
PTF communications
sub-committee