From the Head of Secondary 23.04.2022
The Cambridge Examinations began this week for some students with language orals and ICT exams. Next week is the official start of Study Leave and I spoke to all of our examination students on Tuesday to ensure that they are clear about how it works. In effect, the normal timetable is suspended and students come into school either to sit an exam, to meet with their teachers at prearranged times for revision session, or to do private study in the Sixth Form Centre of classroom. I emphasised the importance of knowing and understanding their own individual exam times. It is not unheard of for a student to be confused and end up missing, or being late for, an exam. Obviously if that happens it is a very serious matter; students should ensure that they are at school at least 20 minutes before their exam starts.
Yesterday was the final formal day in school for our students and we marked the occasion by saying a fond farewell to our leavers who will not be returning after the exams. There were special mentions for each of our Year 13 students, and Wilber, who has been here at KIS since 2010, made a short speech about his time at the school. Further celebrations took place at break, cake was in evidence in the library and Year 13 teachers came along as well.
In this newsletter read on to be reminded by EcoWarrior Tiggi Mornington-Sanford of the ‘5 Rs’ who also gives us some useful information about the various ways we can do more to play our part in recycling here in KK.
Now that we are all back in school, just a reminder that all secondary students are expected to arrive by 7.30am. Traffic seems to be back to its normal very busy state across the city and we all need to be aware that this can cause some delay to our journey which must be allowed for in our travel time.
Have a lovely weekend, and hope to see you at the Beach Clean-Up this morning!
Mrs Margaret Renshaw
Deputy Principal / Head of Secondary
Are we actually doing the ‘5 Rs’? by Tiggi Mornington Sanford
We are all taught about the five R’s at KIS but do you actually do them?
Recycling is actually the last of the 5R’s that we should start practising in our daily life.
It would be great to know that we are all doing your part in helping the environment by doing things such as refusing plastic bags and straws, reducing water and electricity consumption, reusing our KIS water bottles and recycling and composting!
At home, we separate everything into tins, cardboard/paper, plastic and even left over food for my geese and dogs!
Every couple of weeks we then take the ‘dry’ separated items to the Taiwan Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation recycling centre at Kolombong. Tzu Chi has been in KK since 1998 and their aim is to protect the environment through education and go into schools, universities and government agencies by informing people about zero waste and promoting a greener earth. I learnt that there are three recycling centres in KK: one at Kolombong (open Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday) Jalan Penampang Lama – Suria Penampang (Tuesday and Thursday) and Penampang Baru opposite Servay supermarket (Tuesday and Thursday).
There are also fourteen ‘recycle’ points in and around KK in the housing areas such @ UMS Kg E, Luyang Dewan, King Fisher, Tanah Emas, Towering, Seri Maju, Ecopark and others which are open for collection on every third Sunday of every month from 9am to 12 noon.
I was very lucky to be able to meet and interview Joseph who is one of the volunteers for the recycling centre.
I asked Joseph what type of things we can bring for recycling and he said ‘Anything that can be recycled as the idea of recycling is to extend the life of the item if possible. A lot of the things that are brought to us are still usable and will be placed in our second hand shop to be resold for a token amount so we can extend the life of the product. All the recycled plastic, such as plastic bottles, bags etc are being recycled as they are sold after segregation to other companies who will make plastic pellets from it to go into things such as chairs, buckets, bottles, straws, plastic bags and many other things’.
Not so fun fact – did you know that any of the coloured straws and plastic bags that you use may be made from recycled pellets and the whole process is not very pleasant or hygienic! Hopefully that will put you off ever using them again.
All the money they get goes to the Tzu Chi charity as they do an amazing job such as educating stateless children and helping families all across Sabah.
All the people that work in the recycle centres are volunteers and don’t get paid any money or allowance. Sometimes if they are busy they stay there until 10pm making sure that everything is divided into the correct recycle categories. So when you take your things for recycling then please make sure you segregate them in separate recyclable bags as it would really help.
I then asked Joseph if he gets frustrated about the lack of people who don’t practise the 5R’s in Sabah and just throw things in the bins or sadly even into the ocean. He said “very much so but we can only do so much and we do what we can”.
So let’s all try and pull together to make a dent in the recycling movement in Sabah!
Many thanks to Joseph for his time and his marvellous efforts and also to his team of volunteers.
