From the Head of PE and Sports 06.07.2019
KS2 / Secondary Swimming Gala
Early on Tuesday morning, almost 300 enthusiastic KIS students from Year 3 up to Year 10 gathered together to compete in the KIS Swimming Gala 2019!
This year the gala was held at the Penampang Sports complex 25m pool. The primary students had been allocated to their events varying from 25m Noodle and Kickboard races to the challenging 100m Freestyle and Individual Medley races, not to forget the exciting 25m and 50m Relay races. Secondary students had been given the opportunity to choose which of these races they wanted to compete in.
The atmosphere was full of excitement with all the students trying their best to win points for their respective houses and cheering for their favourite swimmers, together with a large parent contingent who had come along to support all the children in the competition.
This year various new school records were made, as it was the first time the KIS Swimming Gala had been held in a 25m pool. Numerous old school records were also broken by two Gaya girls, Destinee and Freya, who both broke two old school records, giving their House valuable points during the day. Freya started the day in great fashion setting a new record for the 100m freestyle with a time of 1.11,08. Destinee followed her lead and broke her own record from last year in the 50m breaststroke, with a new time 40.62. The 50m backstroke record was first broken by Destinee, but broken again in the very next race by Freya with a time of 34.59. In the 50m butterfly we were treated to a very exciting and close competition between Freya and Destinee, where Destinee managed to edge out Freya by a very small margin and setting another new school record with a time of 34.41.
Gaya took the lead straight from the beginning of the competition and after an impressive day of races were never overtaken and were justly crowned the winners of the KIS KS2/Secondary Swimming Gala, 2019.
A huge thank you needs to go to a lot of people for making this year’s Swimming Gala as successful as it was. Firstly, the PTA, who not only helped with the medals and provision of delicious snacks, but had also arranged two sponsors, Milo and Tritonic, to add an extra touch to this wonderful day. Thank you to all the staff, who gave up their time and worked non-stop throughout the day and to all the parents who came along and cheered for their children. Not to forget, all of the students, who competed in various races, assisted their teachers and cheered for their friends and houses throughout the day, making the 2019 KS2/Secondary Swimming Gala such a fantastic and truly memorable day!
Mrs. Tytti Beltran
Head of Aquatics
KIS students challenging for Sabah Floorball Championship
One of the aims of the KIS PE curriculum is to provide students with the opportunity to experience a broad range of different
physical activities and sports. From these experiences we hope that students, in addition to developing their movement skills, health and fitness, will also discover new sports and activities that they enjoy and have an aptitude for. Encouraging and motivating them to seek out opportunities to take part in physical activities and sports outside the class room and foster a love of life-long physical activity.
The success of this philosophy has recently been evident with 5 students in the secondary school. For the past two years students in secondary have been learning floorball as part of their PE curriculum under the expert tuition of 2 Malaysian National players. Students who demonstrated an enjoyment and aptitude for the sport were offered the opportunity to attend additional Sunday skills sessions to further develop their skills and knowledge of the sport. Following on from this, 5 students were invited to join the ‘Rabbit Commandos Floorball Club’ and have been participating in the Sabah Floorball Championship.
Elias and Jatin from 7K, Ian from 8K and Janush and Hanson both from 9K have not only been participating in this Open Age tournament, but also contributing to the goal tally and winning success of their team. From their first 4 matches the boys have won 3 and lost 1. The final two rounds of the competition occur this weekend and so we wish the boys the very best of luck and hope to hear about a possible Championship Victory after the summer holidays.
Sport Education Winners flying high and having fun in final end of year trip.
On Thursday, 26 students from Years 7-10 travelled to Zip Borneo for a day of fun filled adventure. They had the opportunity to challenge themselves on the climbing wall, the high ropes course and then the thrill of flying across the Kiulu River on the zip line.
It was wonderful to see some of the attributes that were such a focus of the Sport Education Unit still coming through in the student’s behavior during the day. They demonstrated outstanding team work and positive communication as they encouraged one and other to complete tasks. For some it was a real personal challenge to reach the top of the climbing wall and ring the bell or pass across the swinging ropes suspended 20m up in the air. However, these accomplishments were certainly made easier with the supportive and encouraging words of advice from those on the ground in their teams.
I think it is fair to say that Mr. Richie, Mrs Beltran, Miss Watt and Miss Dobson who accompanied the students on the trip also enjoyed the opportunity to get out of school and tackle the challenges alongside the students.
Thank you and farewell!
As you would all be aware, the PE Department are sad to say goodbye to two of our members at the end of the year. Both Mr. Walker and Mrs. Beltran have contributed so much to not only the development of PE, Sport and Swimming across the whole school, but in many other additional areas of school life at KIS. Their dedication to the students and the wider KIS community has been greatly appreciated by staff, students and parents. As they both move on to new and exciting professional challenges, I’d like to thank them for their past 2 years of service and wish them every success at their new schools in China!
Miss Catriona Watt
Head of PE and Sport
