From the Head of Secondary 04.11.2023
Monday: Resounding Welcome Back for our U15 Vipers Team!
We started the week with a powerful ‘Welcome Back’ to our heroic U15 FOBISIA Sport team. They gathered outside the hall at 12.50pm, swathed as they were in an abundance of Gold, Silver and Bronze, bearing impressive team-win trophies and dressed in their team shirts. The whole of the Secondary School, students and staff, gathered within and, to the mighty sound of Queen’s ‘We are the Champions’ [what else could it have been…?] they were greeted by the loudest cheers I have ever heard at KIS as they marched somewhat shyly up onto the stage, where they took their seats as we heard a few short speeches from myself, Mr Gipson and Ms Watt. We congratulated them on their impressive performances, team spirit [which was noticed and commented upon by other coaches at the Games] and their perseverance and determination over many weeks of training. Every student won multiple medals and KIS and their parents and teachers feel incredibly proud of them.
Tuesday: Professional Musicians Come to KIS!
This week has been exciting at KIS with the “Techno Arts” themed Secondary Arts Week. There have been many events and activities including Art drawing, Drama Songologue, and Music composition House competitions, lunch-time buskers and techno music workshops, interactive art display, and drama performances.
One of the highlights was a concert put on for the students. Ms Tretter invited 4 professional musicians of different styles and instruments to perform live. The musicians included Ye Rong, a famous singer performing Chinese Opera with over 20 years’ experience, Mervin Mentol, a classical guitarist,; Kenneth Chia, an American-trained flautist and Raymond Goh, a drummer with 20 years of experience. These musicians dazzled the student audience with stunning performances. Many of the performances included engaging the students by having the audience guess the popular song titles or clapping along. The music included a range of genres starting from very traditional music from China and then Spain, followed by more current popular music, meme music, and Japanese anime music.
It was an exciting event providing an opportunity for students to hear professional quality music and interact in a live music environment. We are honoured to have these exceptional musicians perform for us. The students were a fabulous audience and the Music department is already making plans for future live music events. Enjoy this highlight video from the day!
Tuesday: Scary School Day
Many Secondary students [and staff, and even some parents] responded to the challenge of dressing up in their scariest best for Scary School Day on Tuesday.
As with all such school events this was purely voluntary but even so many made the effort. At lunchtime, we gathered in the hall under the direction of Mr Ghanbari to decide upon the winners of House Points. It looks as though Sulug is possibly the scariest house!
Most Scary Costume: Sebastien James [Sulug]
Most Creative Costume: Shawn Ru [Sulug]
Best Arts Week Themes Costumes: Chloe Chan [Sapi] and Alexa Lau [Sulug]
Special Mention: Ms Yuen [Sulug]
Well done to these special scary winners!
Wednesday: Year 8 Parent / Teacher / Student Meetings
On Wednesday we held one of our PTS Meetings and this time it was the turn of Year 8. For the last few years we have run these events online, and while there were many benefits to this during Covid lockdowns it was generally felt that they couldn’t replicate the interpersonal impact which we can see when we can meet in person, hence the decision was made to return to face-to-face meetings this year. The event was very well attended and discussions were just getting started when power was cut and the hall quickly heated up; it was soon sweltering in there! Not good timing, but we decided to press on regardless, giving ourselves a 4.30 cut-off if the electricity didn’t come back on. A few minutes after that deadline, just as Ms Beresford was about to call it a day, the aircons burst into life!
Thank you to parents who took the opportunity to review their child’s progress with teachers, and we hope that you found it useful. The next such event will be for Year 7, happening on the 16th November. More information will be sent out about that in due course.
Monday to Friday: All things Creative [Music, Art & Drama]
Well done to our Creative and Performing Arts Department for an absolutely fantastic week which really highlighted the Arts at KIS and showcased the amazingly talented students we have here. As mentioned earlier, there has been something happening every day, much enjoyed by staff and students. As I write this on Thursday evening, we look forward to the Drama Songologue activity in the morning, Pop –Up Drama performances, LED light bracelet / card design at lunchtime and last but not least the Variety Show Assembly at 2pm. This promises to be an exciting finale to Arts Week 2023!
What to watch out for:
Next week promises to be another huge week in school, with more opportunities to dress up.
On Tuesday we have Pink Ribbon Day, organised by Ms Beresford. We encourage all to dress in pink to help raise awareness of Breast Cancer, and we will be raising funds for the Kinabalu Pink Ribbon Association, as we have done for several years now.
On Thursday it is one of our major school events: International Day. There is always much excitement around this day, and we look forward to everything that will be happening, including the Parade of Nations, which is an opportunity for all to dress in national costume / colours.
On Friday we mark Remembrance Day, traditionally held on the 11th of the 11th month at 11am. We will be holding a whole school assembly in the hall, with a two-minute silence at 11am.
In the meantime, have a wonderful weekend!
Mrs Margaret Renshaw
Head of Secondary / Deputy Principal
