From the Head of Secondary 22.04.2023
It has been a hugely productive and busy week in school for our Eco Warriors, inspired and ably led by Ms McPherson and many congratulations must go to them for making us all reflect upon what we can do to support our planet. From Meat Free Monday to Thrifty Thursday we should have been thinking about our own personal responsibility, not just in ‘joining in’ and taking action for this one week, but also how we can change our behaviours and be more clear-minded every time we think about going shopping, for example. Do we really need that new item of clothing? Can we repurpose something we already have? Have we got a reusable shopping bag to hand when we go into the supermarket for our weekly food shop? Do we really need to accept a plastic bag from the shop assistant?
Earth Week has been a new initiative for our school and I look forward to seeing this becoming not just a yearly tradition, but an all-year way of thinking as a school and for us all as individuals.
On the same theme, read on to learn more about the Eco Warriors visit to the Tzu Chi Foundation, and many thanks to Benson in Year 8 for putting this report together.
On Tuesday afternoon we held an assembly with Years 11, 12 and 13 to talk about Study Leave, which begins next Tuesday for these year groups. Examinations have already started, with Language Orals and IGCSE ICT happening this week, but the main exam period is in May and June. During these weeks the students will be coming to school to sit their exams, and also for pre-arranged study sessions with their teachers. The policy and protocols were clearly explained to the students, and a letter, with a copy of my assembly presentation was sent out to parents on Wednesday, so that they could also understand what would be happening during this very important time in their child’s educational journey.
In the second half of the gathering, we paid tribute to our Year 13s as they come close to the end of their time as KIS students; this will be officially recognised at their Graduation on June 16th. To great merriment we all viewed a few past school photos of them (not looking very different now to when they were in Years 6, 7, 8, 9……). Courtney Thornton holds the crown for being the longest serving Year 13 student. She received a round of applause in recognition of her 13 years’ attendance! To round off the event, there was a meaningful speech from Dr Gross as he gave advice based on his own experiences as a GCE and A Level student, followed by cake for all.
They have also applied to universities around the world, including Japan and South Africa.
What’s Been Happening in Year 13 Geography?
Last week, on Friday 14th, Professor Benoit Goossens, Director of the DGFC spent some time in school answering the year 13 Geography students’ questions about the extent of and types of degradation in Sabah, especially in the lower Kinabatangan river basin.
He shared updates on the Regrow Borneo project which DGFC set up in 2019 in collaboration with Cardiff University and the KOPEL community cooperative.
This was a highly informative and useful session to help our Geography A level class of students, Richie. Janush, Angelina and Freya, to plan and prepare their final case study and essays for their Human Geography examinaton on May 22nd.
Miss McNutt
Head of Humanities
All you need to know about…….The Tzu Chi Foundation
By Benson Year 8
Last Saturday Isabelle, Ada, Fion, Tiggi, Sabrina, myself and Ms. McPherson went to the Tzu Chi Foundation. It is one of the recycling points, located in Inanam.
We all volunteered to help out by sorting plastics, items/materials, and other substances into different categories. The interesting part was segregating the different types of paper, such as A4 papers and book covers, into the boxes to be recycled.
It is so good to see that people donate clothing, furniture and accessories, in good condition, to their second-hand store. The Tzu Chi Foundation sells them to make funds to donate to charity, to help to reduce poverty around the world.
People might wonder what the word “Recycle” means. It means you convert an object into reusable materials that can be used again by your family/relatives or someone else.
From the information provided by Mr. Joseph and Uncle. CK, we earned that a lot of pollution is happening locally and globally. This means that we want to learn more about how we can improve conditions around the world and reduce the problems of global warming, pollution, plastic & chemical waste, and solve problems everywhere.
Mr. Joseph also mentioned the 5 R’s: Refuse, Reduce, Re-use, Repurpose, and Recycle, in that order. The best you can do to an item is Refuse it and the worst situation is Recycle, which is the lowest R. Unless you have an emergency where you need to buy mineral water to drink, you will still need to think of a way to reuse the water bottle itself.
We want to spread awareness to people, especially the younger generation around us to tell them that we need to change before it’s too late!
This is the slogan from the Tzu Chi Foundation: “Think before you Throw”
