From the Head of Primary 19.08.2023

A huge welcome back to all students, parents and staff in primary and an extra special welcome to our new families who have recently joined KIS. I am incredibly excited to be taking on the leadership of the primary school this year and I am very much looking forward to getting to know all of you over the next few years.

It has been wonderful to see our primary children back in school, working so hard, as well as seeing many of you at the gate and around school. The children have all done a fantastic job of settling back into school life. I am so proud of the super start everyone has made.

Learning for the new school year has begun at a rapid pace, with children across the primary school taking part in a wide range of fun and engaging lessons to start the year in their new classes. Most year groups have kicked off the year with a unit on Growth Mindset. This Brainwave unit is a great way to start the term, helping children to understand more about how they learn and what things they can do to improve their learning. Helping students to think with a growth mindset early on, helps them believe they can succeed from an early age. As a result, these students have more confidence in their work ethic and put forth more effort throughout their educational career. Having a growth mindset also means that they thrive on challenges, and don’t see failures as a way to describe themselves but as a springboard for growth and developing their abilities.

As some of you will have noticed, Class Dojo is up and running for the new school year. Thanks to Mrs Fletcher for implementing another seamless rollover. Mrs Fletcher continues to have lots of ideas for exciting Dojo challenges so please make sure you and your children are connected to Class Dojo so you not only know what is happening in the year group but have access to all these fabulous challenges. (I am sure that if you had an idea for a wonderful Dojo Challenge, Mrs Fletcher would love to hear from you)

This week, as well as our Welcome Back Assembly on Monday, we held our usual Friday Celebration Assembly.  We introduced opportunities for our older children, in Years 5 and 6, to take on positions of responsibility as Prefects and began the build up to all student leadership positions. It was also lovely to see which students received the first Stars of the Week and, in many classes, all the students received the award due to the fabulous start they have all made.

In next week’s assembly we will hear from students who would like to run for Y6 House Captain to lead their House Teams. Once all students have delivered their speeches, there will be an opportunity for every class to vote for the new 23/24 Sapi, Sulug and Gaya House Captains and the results will be announced in a couple of weeks.

Yesterday, myself and the class teachers uploaded to Class Dojo information regarding your child’s curriculum for the year. Following on from this, next week we will be holding our online Curriculum Information Presentations. I will deliver a whole school presentation on Monday 22nd August at 2:10pm in the MPR. This will be an overview of the curriculum, along with information on how we assess and report on the curriculum. Students can wait in the library supervised by Ms Baigu during this time.

Then over the course of the remainder of the week, the year group teachers will deliver a presentation outlining the year; this should last for approximately 20 minutes.  

Students may join the presentation or wait in the other classroom. For anyone unable to attend the meeting, the powerpoint will be available on Class Dojo shortly afterwards.

Finally, I would like to extend a very warm welcome to a number of new students and their families who joined us this week:

Juno Tiffany in F1

Paige Downs in F1

Esme Gipson in F2

Agilan Sivaharan in Year 1

Jia Kim in Year 1

Rea Chen in Year 2

Indigo Tiffany in Year 3

Ryder Lei in Year 4

Arlo Tiffany in Year 5

I hope your children have had a successful first week back in their new classes and please do contact me at mberesford@kis.edu.my if you have any queries about the start of the new academic year.

I very much look forward to leading the primary school during this academic year and supporting your children in continuing on their learning journey.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Take care.

Mr Mark Beresford

Head of Primary