From the Head of PE and Sport 22.02.2020

Primary & Secondary Offsite Lessons: Week beginning Monday 24th February

U13 FOBISIA Games: 23rd-27th February in Phuket, Thailand 

Tomorrow, there will be no lazy Sunday morning lie-in for our U13 FOBISIA Team as they meet at the airport at 7:30am to take off to Phuket for the FOBISIA Games. The team are extremely excited  and perhaps also a little nervous about the 3 days of competitions, taking part in swimming, athletics, football and basketball. We are confident that the team will be wonderful representatives for the school and compete with pride and passion. 

Some of the girls have created an exciting new cheer that is sure to motivate the team while maybe also intimidating the opposition a little as well. 

“Vipers, vipers hissing loud.

Always fighting, makes us proud.

Gooooo VIPERS!!!” 

You’ll see a full report of the competition in next week’s newsletter. Let’s go VIPERS!!! 

Football and Basketball Gala Day: Saturday 15th February

It was as expected, a very hot and sweaty day of sporting action at KIS on Saturday as around 60 students from KIS were joined by 50 students from the Indonesian International School for a Primary Football Gala and U13 Basketball tournament. 

We welcomed the students from SIKK in the morning and it was a real pleasure to greet them at the gate and see their excited smiles. They were extremely happy to be there and when asked if they were looking forward to the day of football and basketball I was met with a deafening “YES” cheer. 

Football Tournament

The football tournament had been set up so that our Primary Vipers who will travel to Phuket in May could have an opportunity to play some practice matches as part of their training preparations. 

The competition was a 3 team round-robin consisting of the FOBISIA Vipers, SIKK and also another KIS team comprised of students in years 4-6.  

The girls’ competition started first and in the opening match the Vipers tooks on the Indonesian School of KK. SIKK were a strong football team and they dribbled and passed the ball well. Initially a little intimidated by their taller opponents, the Vipers went down 2 quick goals in the first half. The second half saw them begin to get a better understanding of the game and put more pressure on their opponents but the game finished with SIKK winning 3-0.  

In the second game, the KIS team took on the Indonesian School and despite only coming together for the first time with no prior training, the KIS girls fought hard and whilst they weren’t able to score a goal themselves, kept SIKK to 1-0. 

The girls’ competition’s last game was friend vs friend with Vipers vs Non-FOBISIA. Both teams had opportunities to score as the ball travelled from end to end. However, some more shooting practice and working on finishing with a killer instinct might be needed as neither team could find the last touch to send the ball into the back of the net. 

A lot of promise though shown by the FOBISIA girls and I am quietly confident that Mr. Burrows will continue to work hard to transform them into an even greater side come May.

There was a great deal of excitement amongst the boys, many of whom had been there since the start of the day eagerly awaiting their turn to step onto the pitch and play. 

The Vipers looking every bit the part in their kit lined up against the Indonesian School for game one. The opposition had some skillful players and it was clear that they perhaps had a bit more experience than the Vipers. However, the Vipers led by Jaxon in defence and then moving forward into attack as well made their own impression on the game. Caleb Wong put a lot of pressure on the opposition and combined well with Caleb Wu for one of the goals. In a close match, it ended with a narrow defeat with the Vipers losing 3-2. 

The KIS team made up mostly of Year 4’s and 5’s put on an impressive effort against the Indonesian school in the 2nd round fixture. Nicholas showed a high level of skill with his dribbling and great teamwork making some well timed passes in attack. Nathan and Thilal also combined well, the benefit of lots of lunch time matches together. Despite their best efforts it was another 1-0 victory to SIKK making it a run of victories in the football for the Indonesion school. 

Lastly, Vipers faced off against the KIS team with each side keen to finish the tournament with a win. The match and score line see-sawed  throughout with first the KIS side taking the lead before the Vipers drew level. Ian made some good saves in goal and Tony made sure to keep the ball away from danger as much as possible with some far reaching clearances. In the end ot was the Vipers that managed to get the lead and hold onto to win the match 3-2. 

Both the students from the Indonesian School and KIS thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to spend the money playing football and the only complaint that reached my ears was, “why aren’t there more games?”  

Basketball Tournament

Running concurrently with the football, it was basketball for our U13 FOBISIA team taking place on the court. 

Again it was the girls on court first who despite missing a player in the 1st game, showed great team spirit and determination against a very strong SIKK team. They passed the ball well but struggled initially to come to grips with their defense. A loss in the opening game but a lot learnt and they certainly showed how much they have learnt under the guidance of Mr. Baxter in just 5 short weeks. 

SIKK played the KIS non-FOBISIA team in round 2 and again it was the Indonesian school who proved to be the stronger side. Unfortunately, losing Alexis to a sprained ankle did not help the KIS team but they put up a good fight. 

The final round was FOBISIA vs KIS and it was a close contest. Ombeline was superb on defense making many a steal and intercept for the KIS team. The Vipers, strengthened by the arrival of Isabella were far more organised and stronger in their defensive structure. Offensively they were also becoming more confident in shooting for which Maxine was awarded with a few good baskets. It was the KIS team however that came away as the victors over the FOBISIA team. Win or lose though it was a valuable learning experience for the team and they are bound to go into the Basketball tournament next week with far more confidence. 

With some keen and confident ‘ballers, the boys were very keen to get on the court in their mini tournament. The Vipers had a very good opening match against the Indonesian School with Logan strong offensively making some great passes and driving into the key for lay ups. The team were organised defensively but at times lacked movement around the court to get the ball when attacking. Overall though, a positive performance in their first competitive match as they beat SIKK. 

The second match was the KIS non-FOBISIA team against SIKK. The visitors, despite playing back to back games in the rising heat managed to get the better of the KIS team, although it was a very close match. 

All were around the court for the highly anticipated ‘Vipers vs KIS’ in the final match of the competition and day. The game started quite closely with the non-FOBISIA KIS team initially putting the pressure on the Vipers. The team then steadied, moving the ball around the court well and working together to get a 2nd win of the day. A successful day and hopefully they will be able to carry on with the performance at FOBISIA next week. 

A big round of applause and sincere thanks to our sensational KS3 and KS5 student volunteers who did a superb job of keeping the players in line while officiating the football and basketball matches. They were confident and in control at all times and ensured that games were safe and fair. It was wonderful to see some of our older students making such a positive contribution to KIS sport. 

Making sure that the players were kept hydrated and free from hunger, Miss Tooley together with some of the Secondary Student Council members and many fantastic volunteers from the PTA, were present selling food and drinks. The PE department is truly fortunate to have such supportive and community-minded groups assisting at these and all of our events. Thank you to everyone who gave up some of their Saturday to help out! 

Finally, praise for the parents who stuck it out during the morning sun as the shade progressively retreated on the field or sat by the basketball courts to cheer on all the athletes taking part.

It was a wonderful day and our second successful such event this academic year hosting other schools at KIS. Our ability to run these events would not be possible if it weren’t for the enthusiastic teaching staff who were there to assist with coaching and organisation as well as our great ground and ancillary staff for setting everything up. 

Congratulations to all the students who took part in the event. We hope to be able to run another similar event in Term 3, so watch this space!

Miss Catriona Watt

Head of PE and Sport