Newsletter
11th April 2008
Headlines For This Week
News From Principal
-
Productive Term
News From Secondary
-
Dates Of Examinations
-
Year 11 and Year 13
Graduation Awards Evening
-
Examination Results
(IGCSE and A Level)
-
Poetry and Art Anthology
2008
News From Primary
-
Regrouping Classes
Notice
-
Borders Appreciation Day
Co-Curricular Activities
-
44th National Age
Group Swimming Championship
-
Parent, Teachers and Friends of GIS
-
Coffee Morning
-
Parents’
Forum
-
Mum
& Tots Group
-
2nd
Hand Uniforms/Book Library
NEWS FROM
PRINCIPAL
Term 3 is now up and running, Dragon
sports have commenced and we are looking forward to a very busy and productive
term. For our Year 11, 12 and 13 students the focus will be their exams, a
structured and balanced revision programme will be central to success. Students
should be liaising with their teachers to support the planning of revision
programmes.
Can I
please take this opportunity to check that you have received a letter from the
school outlining the increases in school fees for 2008/9 and the reasons for
these increases.
Simon Mann
Principal
NEWS FROM
SECONDARY
Dear Parents,
This is an especially important term in
which all secondary students will be taking examinations. Details are given below so please make a
note of these. It is the responsibility of students to know exactly when and
where their examinations take place. Please ensure that other appointments or
family commitments do not cut across examinations or the important periods of
preparation for them.
Year 11 students should have completed
all of the coursework requirements and have started the final examinations with
IGCSE Art, Music, ICT and language oral examinations taking place this week.
Dates
of Examinations
Please note the times and arrangements
for secondary school and external examinations below. It is essential that all
students attend examinations. Please do not make medical, dental or other
appointments for your children at these times.
IMPORTANT DATES For This Term
Year 7 to 9
Year 9
English and Science external exams: 7th & 8th May (no
study leave)
Year
7, 8 & 9 exams 12th
to 18th June
Year 10
Exams and study
leave 9th
June to 20th June
Year 11
All Year 11 students to attend school
following normal timetable to 9th May.
IGCSE exams start on 7th May and continue until 19th
June (Study leave starts on 12th May.)
Year 12 and 13
Year 12 and 13 to attend school
following normal timetable to 16th May
Year
12 & 13 AS/A2 exams start on 14th May (study leave
from 19th May).
Year
12 return to normal A2 lessons on 16th June
Please note that students in Years 10 to
13 have leave when not timetabled for examinations during the periods indicated
above. However, teachers will sometimes arrange extra revision lessons at these
times which students are expected
to attend.
Except for the designated periods of
examination leave, students should be in full attendance at school at all
times.
The Year 11 work experience programmes takes place in the two weeks beginning 17th June.
Year 11
and Year 13 Graduation Awards Evening
All students in Year 11 and their
parents will receive invitations to this important occasion, marking
their graduation. The ceremony will take place at 7.15pm on Friday, 27th June in the Grand Hall. Please note that
due to the pressure of space, guests are limited to two per student.
Examination
Results (IGCSE and A Level)
Please note that -
CIE IGCSE results will be available from
10.00 am on Thursday,
14th August.
New arrangements have been introduced by
Edexcel which will enable students to access their
own results directly from the examination board for Edexcel
entries (
Edexcel GCSE available
from 20th August 2008
Candidates will receive log-in details
in due course.
Poetry and Art Anthology 2008
During the next week, all secondary
students will receive a copy of the GIS “Poetry and Art Anthology 2008”. This year’s edition is, in my view the
best yet! Congratulations to all our students who have contributed poetry and
art work and especially to the winners of the poetry competition.
First
Jonathan Yee
Second
Florentyna
Leow
Third
Jessica Lim
Many thanks also to the staff of the
English and Art Faculties who supported and encouraged students to participate
and especially to Ms.
Head of Secondary
NEWS FROM
PRIMARY
Dear Parents, Guardians and Friends,
The third term is now well underway and
it clearly won’t be long until the end of the academic year.
The CCA programme
will commence next week. Once again, please do ensure you check your child’s bag
each day for any messages from school and to ensure they have packed the
essential items for the next day’s lessons.
This term, we will be looking carefully
at class groupings for the new academic year starting in September 2008. In a
change to the existing structure, we will be rearranging classes this year, in
other words they won’t go up into the next year in the same groupings.
The key reasons for regrouping classes
are:
·
To ensure children have a wider group of friends within
the year group
·
To achieve balanced mixed ability classes across the year
group
·
To allow children with similar needs can be grouped where
it is deemed necessary and separated where it is felt that will be beneficial
· To even up
gender balances within the year group
The process
of regrouping the students is a complex one and is not an exact science. It
will of course be impossible to ensure all children are with all of their
friends. The teachers will go
through a process of talking to their class and asking them to select 2-3 friends
that they would like to be grouped with. We will then attempt to ensure that at
least one, and hopefully more of those requests will be met. However, there
will be times when the school may decide that a pairing or grouping will not be
wise or practical. In this instance, we will of course ensure that at least
another good friend is grouped with that particular child.
How can you help with
the process?
The school will send home with your
child a small slip asking each child to fill in their name and current class.
They will also be asked to specify three people they would like to be grouped
with. There will be a section on the slip for any general comments that they
(or you as a family) would like the school to consider when grouping them.
These slips should be returned by the date specified. Final groupings will be
trialed before the end of the year, to ensure the balance is appropriate and so
that the school can iron out any unforeseen problems.
Which teacher will my
child get?
First and foremost, we are very
fortunate to have such a group of dedicated and experienced teachers at GIS. We
would therefore hope that, given time to adjust and settle in, your child will
be happy with whoever is their new teacher. At the conclusion of the regrouping
exercise, the Primary Leadership Team will decide which group will go with each
teacher. Whilst it would be wonderful to accommodate every request for a child
to be with a particular teacher it is simply not possible to achieve this. The
PLT will use their professional judgement to assign
teachers to each class. We
would ask you not to place members of the teaching staff in the embarrassing
situation of having to turn down requests from parents.
Class groupings will be announced in the
penultimate week of the term, once again this will allow us to identify any
problems or concerns that may have arisen from the groupings.
We hope you all have an enjoyable
weekend.
Neil Smith
Head of Primary
NOTICE
Borders Appreciation Day
Do you love reading? Do you enjoy
listening to music and watching movies? Well, to coincide with the visit by
author/illustrator Yangsook Choi,
Borders bookstore is generously offering all staff and students of GIS great
discounts on books (15% off) and CD/VCD/DVD items (10% off). If you wish to
take advantage of these discounts, just present your GIS ID pass at Borders at
The Curve, The Gardens or Berjaya Times Square
anytime from Friday, 18th
April to 20th April .
Happy
Teacher
Librarian
CO-CURRICULAR
ACTIVITIES
44th National Age Group Swimming
Championship
Adam Lim (9M), Cluadine
Low (8W) and Annabel Suen (5I) were selected to
represent Selangor for 44th National Age Group
Swimming Championship
held in Seremban, Negeri Sembilan at State Aquatic Centre, Paroi,
Seremban, Negeri Sembilan from 3rd - 5th April 2008.
Congratulations to Adam Lim who took home 2 silver and 1 bronze and Claudine
Low who won 3 bronze.
Swim Coach
Day
: Wednesdays
Years
: Years 3 to 6
Staff : K.
Jethwani
Cost
: RM 100
Venue : Room
No. F3, Year 2S
Places : 15
children
Description:
Explore
To join, please fill in your details on the Junior
Volunteer Museum Club form outside the CCA office or contact Mrs. Jethwani at
PARENT,
TEACHERS AND FRIENDS OF GIS
Diary Dates
Coffee Morning – tentative (will be
confirmed next week)
Tuesday 22nd April, 8.30am - 10am Primary Hall
A Korean-American
children’s author will be coming to the school. In conjunction with her visit,
she will give us a short presentation at our coffee morning.
Parents’ Forum
Email address is gisptf_forum@gardenschool.edu.my
Mum & Tots Group
This group is 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.
2nd Hand Uniforms/Book Library
Second
Hand Uniforms/Book Library will open on Thursday, 8th May from
2.30pm – 3.30pm. Thereafter, it will be opened on the first Thursday of each
month at the Arts Block Foyer.
Karen Ho
PTF communications
sub-committee