From the Head of Secondary 15.6.2019
Goodbye to Leavers
It is in the nature of international schools that every now and again we have to sadly say goodbye to some of our students. Such was the case recently when Yvonne Balladori from Year 7 said a fond farewell to her many friends and to her teachers as her family leave KIS to start a new life in a new country. Yvonne had been at KIS since December 2014 and was well known in the school, particularly for her love of drama and singing. She contributed to the hugely successful Secondary production of Romeo and Juliet in May and during her time with us had also been a keen supporter of the Eco-Warrior team [recently teaching fellow students how to recycle a bag from an old tee shirt] had been a House Captain and a Library Cadet. We will miss Yvonne at KIS, not least for her cheerful demeanour and her determination to contribute to our community.
Yesterday at the Prom we also said farewell to some of our Year 11 students who are heading off to pastures new, and also to our Year 13 students who will be starting a brand new educational chapter of their lives at universities around the world later on this year. All of our leavers go with our very best wishes and our thanks for their contribution to our school during their time with us.
Mrs. Margaret Renshaw
Head of Secondary
Sportnite!
On Friday 24th May the Secondary Student Council, with much needed support and help from KS3 House Captains, held Sportnite! This was an opportunity for students in Years 7 – 10 to compete in basketball, football and dodgeball and for students to socialise with their peers.
John Sathyamurthi also donated his PlayStation to the cause – FIFA gave a welcome break from the heat and intensity of completion, and Tobias Lo created and oversaw an obstacle course allowing students to compete individually for house points. Well done to Logan Forsyth, Howard Wong and Travis Lim for showing great agility and perseverance in this!
As this was an evening of House competitions, it was very exciting when we realised that the final event – dodgeball – would be the deciding factor as to which house made it to first place. In the end, Sulug came out victorious, earning 237 house points! In second place was Gaya with 227 house points, and in a respectable third place was Sapi on 197. These points have all gone towards the end of year totals.
There were some fantastic displays of effort and sportsmanship from individual students during the football and basketball matches: Victor Chang, Elias Espey, Amos Yeap, Darrell Tsen, Margot Gouy and Toby Garrick all went away with medals for their participation in, or for their help in refereeing events.
A big ‘thank you’ goes to the staff who gave up their Friday evening to supervise this event, and for the PE Department in assisting with all equipment. Without staff putting in the extra time outside of school hours events like this could not happen, so it really is greatly appreciated.
Special mention must also go to John Sathyamaruthi who took on the role of President for the Secondary Student Council this term. Not only did he organise the event, working out the logistics and setting up on the night, but he was an excellent MC for the mini award-giving ceremony at the end of the evening.
Finally, thank you to all who attended Sportnite. It was great to see so many students competing, supporting and socialising and I know that the Secondary Student Council are looking forward to running this event again.
Ms Dobson
Secondary Student Council Mentor
Hari Raya Rice Collection
Many thanks to all who donated bags of rice for the Hari Raya Rice Collection. The response to this was fantastic! With the help of the Masjid Nurul Hikmah Mosque, these were distributed to local communities in time for celebrations last week.
We would also like to say a big thank you to Mrs Suhaibul for liasing with the mosque and arranging the logistics for this collection to happen, and to Mrs Walker for transporting the many heavy bags of rice to the Mosque in her truck.
Once again, thank you to all in the KIS community for your ongoing generosity and support
The Secondary Student Council
T-shirt to Bag Workshop
On the 27th of May, 2019 one Eco-warrior showed a group of people how to turn an unloved shirt into a useful bag. At lunchtime, eight people showed an interest on recycling and a bit of sympathy for the earth.
These 8 people now know the way of recycling a shirt without sewing. If you are one of those 8 people, you now hold the responsibility to show and teach 8 other people (daisy chain) how to be Up-cyclers and Eco-warriors !
Yvonne Balladori 7k
7K History Term 3
This term we have been learning about prehistoric medicine, embalming mummies and how ancient Egyptians treated some things such as indigestion and burns.
We learned about how prehistoric people believed that evils spirits could live in a person’s head and cause them pain (headache). When someone had a headache, the prehistoric people needed to remove a piece of their skull using a sharp piece of flint or a basic drill in order to release the evil spirits.
Next we learned that ancient Egyptians believed they would continue to live after death. However, if the body wasn’t in perfect condition they wouldn’t be able to enter the afterlife. To keep the bodies in perfect condition, the ancient Egyptians preserved them by turning them into mummies. The people who mummified and preserved the dead bodies were called embalmers.
( Top photo : Ancient Egypt – when food gets blocked in the bowels, the patient is ill Bottom photo : Ancient Greece and the Four Humours – when the humours are balanced, the patient is happy)
When learning about how the ancient Egyptians believed that an angry god or evil spirits caused death and disease, most of the class were shocked and disgusted about how they treated some things. The ancient Egyptians treated eye problems by mashing up a pig’s ear with honey and pouring it down their patient’s ear.
Until now, our lessons have been an exciting and wonderful experience for us. We hope we have an awesome term and that we will do well in the exams.
Shotaro Asada 7K
UKMT Junior Maths Challenge – Results are in!
A few weeks ago I wrote about how our Year 7 and 8 students sat the 2019 UKMT Junior Maths Challenge exam in late April. We received the results just before the half-term break and they are excellent.
Overall, we achieved 1 gold, 9 silver awards and 12 bronze awards – a significant improvement on last year’s results, which were already very good. There were many creditable performances, and all students will receive a certificate of participation, but for now I would highlight:
In Year 7 Bronze for Jianing, Jonathan, Isaac, Zack, Calista and Diego.
Silver for Shotaro, Debbie, Jatin, Timothy and Thomas.
In Year 8 Bronze for Chanameth, Ervin, Arjuna, Tania, Leya and Ricky.
Silver for Mingyu, Minjae, Alexis and Benedict.
Gold for Jed.
Congratulations to all of the students, especially those mentioned above.
Mr Davis
Head of Secondary Maths
