From the Head of Primary 18.03.2023
What a fabulous week we have had. We celebrated our Marvellous Maths Day on Tuesday! One student left school asking “Can we have Maths Day every day?” That sounds like a successful day to me.
The day started with an assembly led by Miss Siddall during which the children discussed how maths is everywhere! Afterwards, there was a whole range of activities from Fibonacci Spiral Art, Tangrams, Tessellation, Pendulum Art, Algebra and Codebreaking. At the end of the day, we held a parade to show off all the fabulous costumes; the winners were announced in Friday’s assembly:
- EYFS – Lyon
- Year 1/2 – Idris
- Year 3/4 – Chloe
- Year 5/6 – Eden
A huge thank you to all the students and staff who made this day so great, especially Miss Siddall who organised the whole day.
Year 5 Residential to Kiulu!
A huge thank you to Mr Shaw, Miss Antoni and Miss Bagiu for kick starting our return to residential school trips. They took the Year 5s to Zip Borneo in Kiulu and it looked like they had an amazing time. They took part in many activities from team building activities and jungle trekking and survival. The students were great ambassadors for KIS. Well done to them.
Year 3 are out next week on their residential trip to Outward Bound Sabah and I can’t wait to hear all about what they do.
Year 2 & Year 3 Showcases
The Year 2s and Year 3s shared their learning from this term with their parents…..
On Friday the Year 2s had their class assembly and showcase. They were given the opportunity to share their knowledge and understanding about habitats, food chains and what we can do to help protect these exquisite ecosystems from human harm. In the weeks before the showcase, the Year 2s collaborated in small groups to research and prepare Google Slide presentations about specific habitats. Well done, Year 2! You did an amazing job! Mr Hayward, Ms Joseph, Ms Chow and myself are all very proud of you!
Mrs Adams
Year 3 put a lot of effort into preparing to impress their parents at this term’s showcase. Beginning with a rendition of a rewrite of Imagine Dragons’ ‘Believer’, they grabbed the attention of their audience with their beautiful singing before moving onto small group presentations. In these, they taught their parents what they had learnt from research in their independent lines of enquiry, which we called ‘being the boss of our learning’. Following this, the children re-grouped to give mini-workshops to their parents on how to support and improve their mental health. Well done, year 3 – you all did a wonderful job of presenting, explaining and impressing!
Mrs Fulat
Assembly
In our assembly we talked about children’s rights and respecting these rights. We announced this week’s winners of the Stars of the Week and the Bronze, Silver and Gold awards! We even had our first Headteacher’s Award; well done to Linden in Y3! The Trashless Class winner was 4K for their fantastic efforts in using sustainable materials for the 3D printer. They also had the aircon turned off. Congratulations to all these students.
A number of our students have been working on reviewing scientific journals for children supported by one of our parents Milena and our Science Lead, Sharon Fulat. Read on to find out more…
How can we trust what scientists say? This is a question that was often heard during the COVID-19 pandemic times. Part of the job of a scientist is to communicate the results obtained from research. This is initially done through a process called “Peer review”. As its name implies, the peers (other scientists) check the results that are intended to be published in scientific journals are valid, accurate and easy to understand. These journals were (still are in some cases) often inaccessible to the general public, both because of their cost and also because of the language used. Reviewing a scientific paper (as we call the articles) may be a daunting task for any scientist and yet, our Y6 students have stepped up to the task.
In 2022 we started participating as Young Reviewers for the scientific journal “Frontiers for Young Minds” (https://kids.frontiersin.org/). This is an online non-profit, open access (free to read) academic journal that publishes STEM articles “edited by kids for kids.” The job of the Young Reviewers is to read the paper before it is published online, making sure it is understandable for other children their age. The students have been mentored by Dr Milena Salgado Lynn from Danau Girang Field Centre – who we thank hugely for volunteering with us – and Ms Fulat, our Primary Science Coordinator.
On the 24th of February, the first paper reviewed by our children went online; you can read it on the site mentioned above soon – it is awaiting publication. In November 2022 the kids submitted their second reviewed paper, which has been provisionally accepted for publication. Last week, they have been working on a third article and we hope to have it submitted for the 16th of March deadline.
Congratulations to our Young Scientists:
1st paper: Helena, Fion, Janesse, Madison, Elliot, Ada Eshaana
2nd paper: Chency, Kayla, Serene, Devon, Rafael, Hei Ket
3rd paper: Tapaysha, Mabel, Chevonne, Ashlyn, Charlotte, Naollin, Varshal
We hope that their effort inspires other kids (and adults!) to read science!
Milena
Finally, after the holiday we will be launching this competition. All children will take part, as this year it will be completed during lesson time. The teachers have asked for a number of resources to support this competition, please take a look at Class Dojo and donate if you can.
Next week on Monday, the Early Years classes are off on their school trip to TAME and the rest of the Primary school will be at BSA for our Sports Day. As mentioned previously, Y3 are out on a residential trip, Y4 are off to Rasa Ria to become Rainforest Rangers, Y6 will be holding a Showcase of their learning and Friday will be our final day of term, when we will hold our usual House Events Morning followed by the end of term assembly. It is going to be another busy one! Don’t forget on Friday the Primary school finishes at 11:30am for the day.
I look forward to seeing you all at Family Fun Day later today!
Have a wonderful weekend.
Take care.
Ms Karen Hitchen
Head of Primary
