From the Head of Secondary 27.01.2024
A range of issues was discussed in the Heads of Department meeting this week, including the relative merits of digital and physical copies of textbooks. There are distinct advantages to each format and prior to the meeting I sought opinions from Mrs. Colbeck, our Librarian, History teacher, and Head of Sixth Form. We have been using a specific e-book platform for a few years now, and it seemed appropriate to review how that was going.
Most subject areas are using a combination of digital and physical books. Students download e-books onto their laptops, and this means that they do not have to carry heavy books around school [although they do of course need to make sure that they have their laptops with them in lessons]. E-books are more environmentally friendly [it would be difficult to dispute that]. In terms of cost, it is not so clear-cut. E-books are not necessarily less expensive than hard copies, when you take into account that books cannot be shared in the same way that hard copies can be, and that they have to be paid for every year, whereas sets of physical books can be used over successive years. A distinct advantage of e-books is that the download is instant, whereas paper books can take some months to reach us in Kota Kinabalu as they are ordered from overseas suppliers. E-books are very useful if schools are closed down for any reason as they are instantly available to the student at home. Some students definitely prefer hard copies and this may be particularly true of senior students.
Research into whether using e-books or alternately physical books lead to more efficient learning is somewhat inconclusive and may very well depend upon the individual. This is an interesting area and one which we will continue to talk about so that we can be sure that we are providing the best learning experience for our students.
In other news, our Monitoring Team of Prefects, led by the Duncan Cheng, have responded superbly to my request for assistance in ensuring that Secondary students clear up after themselves at lunchtimes. Quite often food waste and containers are left on the tables when the students seem to forget that are responsible for clearing up after themselves. We can see some reasons [not excuses!] for this…. the call of the basketball court is too great, the chat with friends is too compelling and suddenly it’s time to rush off to lessons, or sometimes it’s just forgetfulness. Occasionally the reason is rather more insidious…..an assumption that it’s not their job to clear up, and that it can simply be left to somebody else to do. With the assistance of the Monitoring Team, we hope that this problem will be permanently solved.
Year 9 Parent / Teacher / Student meetings took place on Thursday and were well attended. Teachers were able to give individual feedback about student progress and I am sure that conversations about IGCSE subject choices also took place. The Year 11 mock exams were disrupted by this week’s power cut with the result that the exams which were due to take place on that day had to be rescheduled. This will have a knock-on effect to the date that the Mock Reports will be issued, and we are aiming for that to happen this week on Thursday.
Next week we are looking forward to SportsNite, a fun event being organized by the Student Council. It is open to all Secondary students and will run from 4pm to 7pm on Thursday and will involve students participating in games in order to win House points. There will be full staff supervision and it promises to be a really enjoyable event. I’m sure we will hear more about this in next week’s newsletter!
Have a wonderful weekend.
Mrs Margaret Renshaw
Deputy Principal / Head of Secondary
