From the Head of Secondary 10.12.2022
Well, we were all very excited about Book Week for weeks in advance of the event, and with good reason. As I write this on Friday morning we still have the Book Week Final Assembly where prize-winners will be announced, the Cake Contest, and the Book Door judgements. It’s also book Character Dress-up Day, and I’m looking forward to seeing where our students’ imaginations have taken them! Any visitor to the school yesterday might have wondered what kind of alternative universe they had stumbled into, with nearly all students and many staff wearing their pajamas, clutching pillows and teddies, and with slippers on their feet for Pajama Day!
Behind all the fun there is a serious message and that is to do with the benefits of reading:
- It helps to develop critical thinking skills
- Mental stimulation for the brain
- It’s a good habit for stress reduction….there is nothing as relaxing of settling down with a good book
- Reading extends your vocabulary; you are constantly learning new words
- It improves your memory…..let’s face it, when you’re reading a novel you have to remember names of all the different characters, who they are, where they belong in the story; so, you’re exercising your brain muscle……
And there are many many other good reasons why we should all be reading every day, as a regular habit.
One of the Book Week initiatives, together with the school’s 50th anniversary next year, is the Read 50 Books for 50 Years Challenge. I’ve taken on this challenge and I hope many others do likewise. My first book of the 50 is ‘Lessons’ by Ian McEwan, which I can thoroughly recommend.
Many thanks and congratulations to Mrs Colbeck for all of her hard work in planning and executing Book Week 2022. It has been another tremendous success!
As you read this on Saturday morning, I imagine that many of you are planning to come to school for the annual Christmas Fair, another fun-filled school event. I have it on good authority that Santa will put in an appearance, even though he is very busy up in Lapland, working with his elves to make sure that everything is ready for the big day, 25th December. There’s a lot to do there, including making sure that that the reindeer are doing their exercises and eating properly so that they are fit and strong, ready for pulling Santa’s sleigh all around the world.
A reminder to all from the EcoWarriors:
For those coming to the KISMAS fair today, the Costume Swap Shop run by the Secondary Eco Warriors will be stationed in the hall where you are welcome to swap / buy donated clothes. Why not consider donating your Book Week costume if you know you won’t be using it again!
Finally from me and the Charity Committee, many thanks to those in the KIS community who have donated gifts for the clients of the Sabah Cheshire Home. It only took three days for the Angels to disappear off the tree! The gifts will be delivered to the excited recipients next week.
Read on to find out what a Geography Teacher does in just one day of her life!
Have a wonderful weekend
Mrs Margaret Renshaw
Deputy Principal / Head of Secondary
Tuesday 6th December = Day in the life of Miss McNutt , Geography teacher.
Fieldwork morning for Geography students in Year 10, followed by a Pd5 7S Geographical investigation lesson
6.45am and I was already in the classroom in school, printing out the final location maps in colour which the 4 groups of students would need in the CBD area of KK for our Human Geography fieldwork methodologies morning.
7.40am and I was waiting at the gate for the final 3 students to assemble and register with me and then we were onto the coach and heading to the first of our land use zones, the CBD. (Central Business District)
The yr10 Geo students were having the opportunity to learn how to conduct a variety of Human Geography data collection methods and techniques which will be required for their Exam Paper 4 in May 2024.
After some observation and counting of building heights tallied into a table, the 4 groups were dispatched to undertake a pedestrian count and then a traffic survey, using several contrasting methods from a tally to using clickers. Following this an Environment Survey was conducted independently using a scoring system and then we reviewed how the results varied massively due to the subjective nature of our personal views and opinions. Students understood what a pilot study meant, and why prior to any primary fieldwork these needs to be conducted to standardise results collected. Land use was then classified for the varying businesses from services like banks and hotels to pharmacy and restaurants, and differences between low and high order was reviewed.
All of this was completed by 9.30am, but we were not finished. Driving to our next location at Sutera Avenue beyond the edge of the Central Business, the students learnt about questionnaire sampling as well as about where to choose to undertake a survey of this nation, rephrasing and reviewing questions to obtain the most useful geographical information.
By 10.10am we were ready to moving onto the 2nd focus for the morning – comparing the housing and residential areas using Bi-polar scoring to rate the environment and other features of 3 contrasting KK areas. So the housing area of shanties directly behind Sutera Avenue provided our first observation location, followed by a drive out to Taman Foh Sang and then to complete the morning we drove past the housing area close to school behind Sabah Golf Club as an area of very different residential accommodation.
Interspersed with all of this we drove through Damai, Likas and out to the Rural Urban Fringe to observe and record all of the businesses and land uses from commercial, industrial to leisure and recreation and education. All of this was completed in a very successful morning returning to school for 12.30pm.
This was however, not the end of my fieldwork and investigation skills day as my period 5 class was 7S. They have been learning about planning and undertaking a Geographical investigation and their class after lunch was their second day of primary data collection at 4 sampled school site locations. They were all highly efficient at collecting their data, returning to class promptly to then display their results into a digital tabulation, they then all calculating their data averages and also reviewed the data display techniques which they can now use to show their results.
This was however, not the end of my fieldwork and investigation skills day as my period 5 class was 7S. They have been learning about planning and undertaking a Geographical investigation and their class after lunch was their second day of primary data collection at 4 sampled school site locations. They were all highly efficient at collecting their data, returning to class promptly to then display their results into a digital tabulation, they then all calculating their data averages and also reviewed the data display techniques which they can now use to show their results.
