From the Head of Secondary 19.08.2023
It’s been wonderful to see all of our students returning to school this week! We were all ready to meet and greet them, and parents and there was a genuine buzz of excitement. There is certainly plenty to get excited about, not just all the events which are scattered throughout the academic year, but just being in lessons, discussing, focussing, sharing, learning. Talking to students throughout the week, they seem really happy to be back with their friends and getting back into their studies.
We welcomed some new students this week: Chloe, Alexa and Ernest in Year 7, Tiffany in Year 8, Amanda and Jihwan in Year 10 and Dong Min and Koon Lim in Year 12. Best wishes and good luck to them!
It’s a very special time of year for our exam classes. They have been waiting with bated breath ever since June to receive their AS, A Level and IGCSE results, and those results were published last and this week.
Yet again our students have excelled and done themselves, their parents and their school proud, with amazing and well-deserved results. Unusually, this year the IGCSE results were published after the school year started, so on Wednesday our Year 12 students gathered in their P5 classrooms to access their results on the Cambridge website, and contact their parents with the news. It was a tense time, and whilst there was plenty of jubilation, there were also a few tears of disappointment. It can be frustrating when you have only just missed a higher grade by one or two points. Nevertheless, the overwhelming feelings were of relief, satisfaction, and happiness. Well done to all of our students for working so hard and getting the results that they deserved.
While statistics can never tell the whole story, they do make interesting [and in this case delightful] reading. Overall, 23% of IGCSE grades were A*, with 48% being A*/A, 69% A* – B and 86% A* – C. 41% of students achieved 2 or more A* grades, with 41% of students achieving A/A* in 5 or more subjects with 3 students achieving seven or more A*s.
Special congratulations must go to Timothy Cheng who achieved 100% A* grades in all his nine subjects! Timothy is now studying for A Levels in Maths, Computer Science, Chemistry and Physics in Year 12. Very well done!
In A Level, 100% of the grades were passing grades, with 44% of those being A / A*. 94% were grades A-C at AS level, with 84% at A2. 60% of students achieved at least 1 A Grade, and three A2 students achieved straight A / A* grades.
Special congratulations must go to Ryan Chen, who gained A*s in Mathematics, Computer Science and Physics, and an A in Further Maths. These are truly remarkable results and very well deserved. Ryan has a confirmed place at King’s College London to study Computer Science.
By any reckoning, these are a very impressive set of results and all credit must go to our wonderful students, their parents, and their teachers. Careful consideration and analysis of these results is the next step. Teachers met on Thursday to share their thoughts, and a deeper analysis is being written by Heads of Departments. These will be compiled and there will be further discussion at school leadership level. A number of our Year 12 students will be receiving academic scholarships partly based on their results, and watch out for new faces to appear on our Honour Boards under the covered walkway.
There was a very special moment in our ‘Welcome Back’ assembly on Tuesday morning when I was delighted to present Grace Lee [Year 12] with her well-deserved trophy for being our ‘Global Citizen 2022 – 2023’. You may recall that earlier last term I asked for nominations for this award from everybody in our community, students, staff and parents. There were many nominations, [we clearly have some very deserving students] and it was close, but overall Grace was the worthy winner, as shown by the huge round of applause as she came up to receive her trophy. Well done Grace!
In other news, read on to find out what miraculous things been happening in Mr Davies’ Chemistry lesson this week, and also to see a very interesting report from Tiggi Mornington-Sanford about a topic that is very close to her heart. On Monday Year 10 had their Induction Day; take a look at what they got up to during the day. Finally, do not forget to look at the Community section of the newsletter, and hear all about the ADEX [Asia Dive Expo] where Julia Aveline-Rabenjoro is presenting on Saturday. Good luck Julia!
Have a lovely weekend!
Mrs Margaret Renshaw
Deputy Principal / Head of Secondary
Molecular Gastronomy arrives at KIS!
Year 10 chemists began the term by exploring the world of particle theory through ice cream making. By cooling down a liquid mixture of cream, milk, vanilla and sugar we made delicious vanilla ice cream. We found that we could lower the temperature of the mixture used to freeze the ice cream by adding salt to the ice. This allowed our ice cream mixture to form a lovely smooth solid product that tasted good. This is an example of freezing point depression in which impurities, in this case salt, lower the freezing temperature of water.
Next we entered the weird and wonderful world of molecular gastronomy by making “hot” ice cream. This ice cream goes from liquid to solid, “freezes”, when heated in the microwave. Then the hot ice cream melted back to a liquid as it cooled down again. That’s the wrong way around! We are looking forward to explaining what happened as we learn more about particles and the bonds between them.
As the activity involved eating, we could not use the laboratories, so a big thank you to the sixth form students and Mrs Colbeck for allowing us to use the common room and the microwave oven.
Mr Davies
Chemistry Teacher
Key Stage 4 Induction
Monday saw the return to school of students in Y10 to complete their induction into a new Key Stage and to begin examination courses.
At the start of the day, time was set aside for students to meet with their new tutors, issued with Planners, homework timetables, lockers and other logistical arrangements.
The day afforded the opportunity to go through sessions on:-
- How to stay ahead: Study Skills
- Getting ahead with IGCSE English
- Maths through IGCSE
- Digital cleanup
- Library orientation
After lunch, the focus shifted to Team building and group dynamics. Two sessions were designed, one for team-building activities with their tutor where students worked on communication skills and problem-solving. The second session was a team Scavenger Hunt using the GooseChase app where students could complete “missions” in teams which were beneficial in bringing individuals together and building relationships with the tutor groups. My favourite mission was undoubtedly the “Rick Roll in Real Life” mission which has produced some very entertaining videos!!
Below are some images from these “missions”:-
Mr Bromley
Head of Key Stage 4
Everybody: Let’s help to Save Sabah’s Wildlife, Especially Turtles!
July signifies the start of the turtle nesting season in Kudat. As a member of the Kudat Turtle Conservation Society (KTCS) I regularly patrol the beaches looking for tracks and nests. It didn’t take long before I found some!
Late evening Monday August 7th.
We reported them to KTCS; it is illegal for a member of the public to try and dig up a nest and it can only be carried out by a certified ranger. Eddy the KTCS ranger duly found and dug up 109 hawksbill turtle eggs! He relocated them to the hatchery at Tanjung Simpang Mengayau and we await their release in a few weeks’ time.
Sadly, later the next evening, whilst patrolling the beach we found a huge green turtle that had died. It appeared that she had come up to lay her eggs but didn’t make it back to the water. We logged the turtle death with KTCS who advised Sabah Wildlife as they hoped to do a post mortem into the cause of her death. She had been tagged, so I took pictures and sent them to UMS. Representative from WWF came to remove the tag.
According to Dr Juanita at UMS the abdominal shell of the turtle was concave due to being starved. It appears that she was sick which is why she could not eat – most probably due to plastic in its digestive system which prevented it from digesting food. Also the barnacles indicated that the turtle had not been active for some time. The tag located the turtle as originating from Sandakan, and Sabah Parks were notified accordingly. Unfortunately they were unable to remove it for a post mortem so we had to bury it.
After the recent tropical storm Talim the beaches are covered in plastic, including a fridge.
Please please think about your single plastic usage, especially water bottles …
There are recycling centers in KK at TAME at Tanjung Aru and also Tzu Chi at Kolombong.
Tiggi Mornington Sanford.
