From the Head of Secondary 22.06.2019
KIS Secondary School Prom 2019
On Friday 14th June, Year 11, Year 12 and Year 13 students put their very best outfits on, gave their hair a good comb, splashed on a bit of aftershave, donned their fanciest jewellery and arrived in style for the KIS School Prom!
The Marriott Hotel in Kota Kinabalu was the venue for the evening’s celebrations, and a spectacular room with lovely views out to Gaya Island was made even more spectacular by the presence of our students, all of whom have recently completed their final iGCSE, AS Level and A2 Level examinations.
Some students arrived with good friends, others with proud family members, and some with their partners, but all came to celebrate the end of the school year, and for some, the end of their time at KIS.
The food on offer from the Marriott Hotel was a wonderful selection of buffet cuisine to cater for all guests, and after tucking into a good meal, a number of awards were handed out to certain students: ‘Most likely to become President’, ‘Class Clown’ and ‘Best Dressed’ are just some examples.
The Prom King and Queen were also crowned, which gave all attendees the chance to vote for their favourites to be presented with a crown and tiara. These prizes must have been very hard to choose, as I think all of our students looked very happy, glamourous and wonderful!
During the course of the evening, the Year 11 Rock Band also performed a number of diverse songs, but a special mention must go to Tazkhiya Suharto in Year 11, who gave a heartfelt vocal delivery of Grover Washington Jr’s ‘Just the Two of Us’. A song about remembering, making the most of friendships and being there for those closest to you – a lovely sentiment.
The rest of the evening was comprised of dancing, talking with friends and generally enjoying the company of friends, classmates and teachers, some of whom may not be in Kota Kinabalu for much longer. Then, before everybody knew it, the evening had come to an end and it was time to say goodbye.
Thank you must be extended in particular to a number of our Year 13 students, who did a large amount of the organisational work, along with Mr Withers for assisting with this. A special mention must also go to Ella Anning for taking the lead with a lot of the communication and organisation.
A large number of staff also attended in support of our students, and this shows the dedication our community has towards our hardworking Year 11, 12 and 13’s. It was lovely to see so many teachers there to wish them all well.
At the end of the evening, as I sat in the Hotel Lobby and watched our more senior students leave through the big glass doors in their gowns, dresses and suits, step into their cars and zoom off into the night, it was hard not to think about the future. Students come to us at various ages and stages of their development, but on evenings like this, when you get the chance to see the young adults we have spent many hours with in classrooms truly flourishing and moving towards their next adventure, it really hits home – if our next generation of adults is made up of these young men and women, everything will be fine really.
Mr Withers
Exam Week 17th to 21st June
Mrs Colbeck collecting the exam papers from the Secondary Office
This week students from Year 7 to Year 10 have been doing their end of year exams. We do take the exams seriously and ask that the students do also. Mr Barker [Examination Officer] organises the exam and invigilation schedule and weeks ago teachers were asked to prepare their papers, photocopy them, and put the papers into a large brown envelope with a cover sheet attached which gave all the essential organisational details. The exam papers were kept in the Secondary office under lock and key until the day of the exam, and the invigilator for that exam then came and collected it before heading off to the classroom to distribute the test papers and start the exams, which were all carefully timed and which took place under strict conditions. Students had study periods between exams and Years 7 to 9 were completed by Thursday, with Year 10 going on until Friday midday.
In carrying out the exams in this kind of way our students are well trained, and when it comes to external exams in Years 11, 12 and 13 they understand what the exam board and the school’s expectations are.
Next week teachers will be marking the exams and writing reports, which will be distributed at the end of term.
Humanities Enterprise Day – Thursday 27th June
Students and staff are getting very excited about a new event for Secondary which is taking place next Thursday.
Humanities Enterprise Day is an opportunity for students to work in mixed house teams to develop their business and enterprise skills. We are asking them to be environmentally conscious by UPCYCLING products and materials that they have at home which otherwise may be thrown away.
The challenge is to create a minimum of four saleable quality items from recycled materials.
The items should ideally fit into one of three categories:
- Useful classroom items
- Useful or decorative household items
- Decorations and other items for any type of celebration or event
There is a 4th category for some groups:
- Miscellaneous
These saleable quality items will be displayed for ‘sale’ to staff and parents on a stall. The stall must be ready by 2:15 in the afternoon.
We ask parents and students to bring recyclable materials into school for this event:
- Cardboard boxes – cereal boxes / pizza boxes etc
- Plastic bottles (washed out)
- Drinks cans (washed out)
- Tin/Aluminium cans (washed out)
- Glass jars
- Plastic food tubs / containers
- Old clothes / material – such as old ties, tops, trousers, tee-shirts.
Additionally if you have at home any zips / poppers / wool / string / buttons / laces / cotton / old jewellery beads / lollypop sticks / old pegs ( wooden) / old artificial flowers etc – please collect to bring into school on this day.
Please support this event by bringing these items into school to store in Humanities 1 classroom from MONDAY 24th JUNE –they should be in clearly labelled bag with the student’s name and House, or you can just bring them in on the day.
Students can come to school on Thursday wearing their House PE shirt and will be allowed to have their laptop/tablet devices at school to help in the research phase They can also bring stationary to make marketing materials as well as lights portable Bluetooth speakers and music or indeed anything to make their display stands attractive!
Ms McNutt
Head of Humanities
