From the Head of Secondary 08.05.2021

It has been wonderful seeing all of our students in school this week and the IGCSE and A Level exams have gone very smoothly. The Cambridge Board regulations that all schools must follow are highly detailed and must be carefully communicated to the students and understood by the staff, especially those who are in charge of the organisation and supervision. I know that the students are thankful that the exams are going ahead and we hope that nothing will get in the way of them proceeding moving forward.

On Monday we were able to celebrate (if that’s the right word!) the final day in lessons for our Year 13 students. It was also their final day at KIS (with the exception of their exams) and a final opportunity for them to be altogether in school.  Cake and soft drinks went down very well and there were short speeches from Mr Gross, Mr Hallas and myself. I detected a few tears….not surprising, when you consider how long some of the students have been at KIS (Leilana…..15 years!). Ms Bernard has been their supportive and dedicated form tutor for the last two years and she was there to take photos to mark the event.

Good luck Leilana, Iffa, James G, Bobby, Koenraad, Jobin, Amar, Ethan, Suraj, Connor, Tazkhi, James T, Pascal, Peter, Jimin and Lauren

In other news, a letter was sent out on Wednesday about the Year 10 Parent / Teacher / Student Meetings which will be happening on Monday 17^th May. The meetings will take place online and the students will go home at lunchtime so that they can hopefully be joined by parents in order to have discussions with teachers via Google Meet. This is an important event for this year group as they move towards the end of the first year of their IGCSEs and the internal exams (2^nd to 9^th June). We hope that all parents will be able to join these meetings, the timings of which will be organised this week.

A huge ‘thank you’ to those who have submitted their bottle design to the Student Council! A month ago, we held a Digital Art Bottle Competition, where we asked students to design artwork based on the school logo for our water bottle which will be distributed to every student in Secondary. A worthy winner emerged from a very competitive field and the Student Council is pleased to announce the winner: Qawiemah Leong Y12

Huge congratulations to Qawiemah! 

Again, we thank everyone for submitting their beautiful designs. All students will receive their water bottles by the end of this academic year, so please do wait patiently!  

We wish every student and our community a safe weekend! 

Grace Lee

Student Council President

The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award otherwise known as ‘DOE’ to many of the participating students is a challenging, yet rewarding and versatile non-academic award which students can undertake from the ages of 14-24.

At KIS we have had increasing success at taking our students through the 3 levels of the Award, from Bronze, Silver and to the final level of the Award program, Gold. Some students choose to progress incrementally through the levels completing the awards and embarking on their Gold when they turn 16 and start the Sixth Form. Other students have been direct entrants at Silver or at Gold. Whatever the level, the participating students have to fulfill a number of requirements including sustained commitments to participating weekly in their chosen skill, physical activity and Community Service Project. Additionally, there is the 4th section, namely the Adventurous Journey; students working in their teams have to plan their route and be self-sufficient as they embark on their planned journey navigating the trails, roads and tracks of an unfamiliar environment.

As the Award has become more popular i have seen participants in the current Yr13 cohort at KIS progress from 20 completing their Bronze Award in Year 10, 12 of who moved on to successfully complete their Silver Award in Year 11 and over their time in the Sixth form, 5 from this year group have continued to log their hours in skills, service and physical activities at Gold Level. This is no mean feat.

Some students choose to go directly to their Gold Award; we have 7 students currently in Year 12 doing this while 3 more progress to Gold as holders of their Bronze and Silver Awards.

In 2016 one such student at this time was Vinay Murthy. He was in the Sixth Form studying Mathematics, ICT and Science A Levels, but wanted to also start working towards his Gold DOE award. Over the two years in the Sixth form under the guidance of the KIS Award leaders he completed 52 weeks of Library service helping our Teacher Librarian Mrs Colbeck to catalogue the books into the new cloud system, he started and completed his eighteen month long weekly commitment to endurance distance swimming, and when he graduated after Year 13 had completed those sections and his Adventurous 4-day 3-night group Journey with 4 other of his peer group.  Although he now moved overseas to attend university in England he remained determined to complete his Award, and has done so, completing his skill section, learning Japanese. Also, during lockdown in England he completed an online collaborative IT project which fulfilled the adapted requirements for the final section of the Gold Award. Vinay, (aged 22) is now the second person, following Kaori Weightman in 2020 to achieve their Gold Award from our KIS Independent Award Centre.

Further successes are to be recognized in our current cohort of Bronze participants. Since April 2020, under the MCO 1.0, a determined group of 14 students from the current Year 10 classes chose to start their DoE Journey. They each embarked on their Award and improving their skills, some using online platforms, they completed the physical activities from their homes and gardens and undertook community service projects from their homes.  This has shown their focus, commitment and determination to continue with ‘normal’ activities as much as is possible.

With online training sessions for their AJ occurring weekly after school over Google meetings, learning how to assemble stoves, to menu planning and first aid and equipment training, the students continued to make progress with their Bronze Award.  By the end of the MCO 2.0 in Feb/March 2021 the students were ready for their actual AJ to take place, and much to their (and our) delight there was an opportunity to undertake this physical challenge within our home district. So 12-13th March saw 11 of the students in their two AJ groups successfully meet all of the assessment criteria and complete their Bronze AJ.  Since then eight of this group have completed their full award.  Congratulations go to Tobias, Dylan, Adriana and Leya as well as to Chan, Marc, Ben and Keith on their tremendous achievement and I hope that the other three students will complete in the very near future.

Their success will I hope motivate the newest cohort of 24 students in Year 9 to strive to log their weekly activities and persevere, as this demonstrates that the Award can be completed even under the challenges of MCO, CMCO, RMCO, MCO 2.0 and all the online learning and SOPs put in place.

Miss McNutt

KIS Duke of Edinburgh Award Leader

The Charity Committee is partnering with the MFL department to run the Rice Donation Appeal again this year.

We are asking for donations of rice (preferably 5kg bags) for local mosques. This is to help during what has been a difficult year and to make the Eid celebrations special during this time of giving. 

We understand that this is short notice, but we would appreciate any donations that you can make. Secondary students from the Charity Committee will be waiting on the benches by the front of the school on Monday and Tuesday morning next week to receive your donations. 

Thank you so much in advance. 

Miss Bater

Charity Committee Teacher Mentor