From the Head of Primary 14.10.2023
Happy Birthday to KIS this week as we officially reach the 50th anniversary milestone of our school. What a wonderful occasion it was to see children, staff and parents engaging in fun, and sometimes silly, activities throughout the day. It was lovely to see so many of the parents there and taking part. A huge thank you goes to all parent helpers and to staff, for their support of the event and ensuring the children were safe and having fun.
It has been a long but hugely successful half term in Primary and I know that the children have really enjoyed all the opportunities provided to them by our dedicated staff. It is truly inspiring to see the brilliant learning taking place across the school and I look forward to seeing much more in the coming months.
We have a week off school next week and will be returning to learning on Tuesday 24th October. This will kick off our enterprise fortnight, organised and run by Mr Fletcher. It is shaping up to be a brilliant and meaningful event for the children’s learning and their understanding of the wider world.
As usual this Friday we had our celebration assembly, where we celebrated the ‘Stars of the Week’, ‘Trashless Class’, House point winners and House Competition Champions. It is always a highlight of my week to share and celebrate superb effort, attitude and learning across the school.
As with last week I would like to end my newsletter this week with a word from our Year 2 and Year 6 classes, who both went off on wonderful adventures around Sabah this week.
Year 2
This week the children in Year 2 went on their first trip of the year to Cocoa Kingdom, linking in with our Topic this term; Chocolate. When we arrived our tour started off by seeing cacao pobs growing on a cacao tree. The children then got to see the cacao beans that were currently laid out in the sun as part of the drying process. The children then got to listen to our wonderful tour guide Ms Nicole who talked about the process of making chocolate. This was where our children got to amaze Ms Nicole with all the knowledge they have been learning in school. She was very impressed with how much they already knew.
Next was the most exciting part of the tour; making chocolate lollipops! Each child got to make four lollies each. They could choose between milk chocolate or white chocolate. Some children even made lollies with both! The chocolatiers at the factory were extremely impressed with the childrens creativity when making their lollies. Who knows, we may have some future chocolatier chefs in the future!
The children also got to see how chocolate is made in their factory, taste different samples and they thoroughly enjoyed the picture room where they could climb on board a train, pose with animals and show their love for chocolate!
The children behaved beautifully and represented the school and most importantly themselves well. It was a great day, with the bonus of getting to take home our delicious treats!
Well done Year 2!
Enjoy this slideshow video!
Year 6
It was sweltering hot when Year Six got out of the bus into a straight line. Everybody walked to the pavement obediently, following the teachers to the UMS Medical Museum. Excitement filled up the walkway as everybody hurried forwards, chatting about what was going to happen next. When they entered the museum, they were greeted by a kindly staff named Mr Davis. After a short pep-talk, we split up into groups and went to our parts of the Medical Museum. The group I was in went to put their bags in a small room, then had to grab our clipboards and a pencil, plus an eraser (If we wanted to get the eraser). Some of us had clipboards brought from home, such as me. Others had clipboards from school. Each of us was given a question sheet that we had to write down the answers found around the left section of the museum.
Soon, all of us walked around with clipboards in our hands, trying to answer the questions, such as different facts about our body. The left side of the Medical Museum had lots of info, including robot models made by some students. We had to then sketch a body part and write information about it, including ‘I wonder’ questions too. Just about 45 minutes later, we hastily finished our drawings before going back to the rooms our bags were placed in. The teachers instructed us to place our clipboards down under our bags and grab our snacks. Just a few minutes later we sat by the pavement side, overlooking the University buildings in which the classes were taking place. Everybody waved as two young ladies walked out of a ground-level classroom, heftily holding a bagfull of homework. They kindly waved back, grinning. Just about 10 minutes later, we hurried back to the Medical Museum, chatting with our friends, before splitting up again and going to a different section.
The right part of UMS Medical Museum was a little unsettling for some of our classmates, for there were real people’s bodies, skeletons and more! It was very interesting, filling our brains with all the facts, although I couldn’t help feeling a little uncomfortable as the eyes of long-gone people just stared at me as I passed by. “Alright, I really respect whoever had the wits to prepare these, umm, legs, brains, and eyeballs for the museum,” one of our classmates joked. I walked in bravely, but was unnerved to have those beady eyes staring at me. Anyways, we grabbed some pencils and clipboards, then bravely joined our second group. We each received paper to do our realistic scientific sketches about one of our body organs, each of us going around the entire museum, looking for samples to draw about. This was somewhat similar to what we did earlier, except much larger and detailed. I chose the brain, and was clearly very impressed with my work. We put our clipboards away after writing our ‘I wonder’ thoughts and facts (Labels). We had lunch and a lovely, final photo before leaving the amazing UMS Medical Museum. It was fun and educational.
Everybody loved it.
Enjoy this slideshow video!
Have a wonderful half term break this week. We will see you all back in school on Tuesday 24th, excited and ready for even better things to come!
Mr Mark Beresford
Head of Primary
