From the Head of Secondary 29.06.2019

Year 7 Geography Trips

On the 24th (7S) and 26th (7K), Year 7 students visited Gaya Street and then City Mall. Their task was to map the land use at both locations. Students had studied retail geography and knew the differences between convenience and comparison goods and services, this was their opportunity to classify these in real-life. Students collaborated in groups and discussed whether the enterprise in front of them fitted either category – often they found it fitted both. There was strong emphasis on independence, students had tasks to complete while negotiating snack and lunchtimes between them. Teachers were impressed with their work ethic on both days. Back at school, groups were able to graph their data and decide whether the data allowed them to accept or reject hypotheses. Thank you to City Mall Management, Ms McNutt, Mrs Davis, Mr Colbeck, Mr Witthers and Ms Dobson for making these trips possible.

WORK EXPERIENCE REPORT

Chemsains

Polished shoes treading across the rich brown wooden floor. Briefcases bulging with papers. The scent of coffee wafting around in the air. The aroma waking everyone up from their morning doze. Crisp voices echoing down the corridors. Is this not how the world of work is stereotyped to be?

I had various expectations of how my work would be. The realities I faced were not similar to what I expected. At all. I thought we would be kept on a tight leash but I had more liberty than I thought. Yes the experience was intimidating but not necessarily in a bad way. It was just that I was in a place that I was not familiar with and I was surrounded by people I did not know. To say out of my comfort zone was not a lie. But what I learnt in the past, is taking that step into the unknown could enable you to achieve things that you would have deemed impossible.

I worked for a company called Chemsain’s who dealt with the environment in general terms. Since I was working in the consultancy division I know a bit about this part. The consultants would help write reports such as environmental impact assessment reports. There were numerous more but this is the one I was introduced too. I attended two briefings: a health, safety and education briefing and a briefing on what the consultancy department did.

Since I could not help write reports as it was too complicated and a lot of knowledge that I had no idea of would need to be implemented I was assigned to do other tasks that required a different set of skills.

I was asked to use my English skills to help edit and enhance the reports that my ‘colleagues’ had written. Sometimes there would be a punctuation error or there would be that occasional word that needed to be replaced to deliver the meaning to the reader with more ease.

I also went on a site visit to Kimanis to get water samples but we were unable to do this as the water was stagnant. But it was not a waste of a trip, because we could survey the site and take photos. Also the report writers could also collect other pieces of information like the land use around the site. All this information would allow them to write an eloquent report.

Some of the qualities I needed to display was being meticulous to detail, perseverance and passion. Perseverance in the sense that I would be able to carry out a task for a couple of hours so that I could produce the best results possible. I think I succeeded in doing this as the editing of the reports took me a very long time.

In my opinion work experience was wonderful and gave me a clear insight to what people are imposed with at work every day.

Chittudevi Year 10

Breeze Magazine

For the past 4 days, I’ve been working for Breeze Magazine. Throughout the week, I did plenty of fun and thrilling things, I certainly learned a lot from the girls in the office, they were all so welcoming and incredibly nice. They were always encouraging me to do my best in everything I do.  I wrote articles for the magazine based on Malaysia Day, did some food reviews and helped out with events.

Monday was the first day of work and I was assigned to write an article for the magazine issue coming out in September. Be sure to grab a copy and read it! I was also given another task to find expats to interview and write follow-ups that would be published in the  magazine.

During Tuesday’s lunch, we took a Grab to a store located at Inanam which sold authentic Malaysian cuisine. We interviewed the owner and were given free food for tasting. We had to do a food review based on the food we had just tried which was by far the best meal I have ever eaten. It was an eye opener as I never knew that there was such a place with such food.

On Wednesday, I attended an event at Hyatt called the ‘US Fries Fiesta’. I helped out with setting up the events and I was also given the opportunity to meet US ambassadors and ministers. It was such a great pleasure as I was also able to witness press conferences and media interviews which was super chaotic. After all the conference and hard work of setting up, me and my team were allowed to eat from a buffet of various different types of fries cooked by different restaurants. This experience was extremely enjoyable and entertaining.

Here are some of the pictures I’ve taken from the Fries Fiesta. There was a long row of different types of potatoes cooked in different ways.

Overall, the experience has been such a fun thing and has really opened my mind.

Celeste Chung Year 10

Gleneagles

In one word, this work experience for me was enlightening.

I did my work experience in Gleneagles Hospital, in the health screening unit. I was given opportunities and knowledge that I didn’t expect to receive. Some of my favourite and fascinating moments during this experience was seeing a hearing test and seeing the components that go in to assessing someone’s hearing. My favourite was seeing an echocardiogram that revealed the interior of the heart on a monitor through sound waves. It was unbelievable, I was awestruck!

This echocardiogram shows whether the heart has regular and proper contractions. This test is done to see if there are any abnormalities in the contractions in the left ventricle which pumps the blood to the body and if an abnormality is found the doctors can visually see what and where the problems is.

Overall, this opportunity has opened my eyes to this amazing field of health, helping me with my future. Thanks to Gleneagles for having me, and the school for creating opportunities and encouraging the students to undergo work experience.

John Nigil, Year 10K

Syarikat Meditek Supplies

I had an enjoyable work experience at Syarikat Meditek Supplies, because I had the opportunity to try different types of tasks including filing records, stamping new order booklets and learning how to check stock and get invoices ready for distribution to hospitals.

Evan Teo (10S)

High Court of Sabah and Sarawak

This week, there was work experience, and I was at the High Court of Sabah and Sarawak.

I was lucky enough to watch many cases at the open courts. These ranged from civil to criminal. I also got to see the criminals who applied for their trials. This was quite intimidating.

I learned quite a bit on how the justice system works in Sabah. The criminal one is divided into two courts: low and high. The lower court cases are the ones that finish in jail sentences. The high ones, however, finish with the death penalty. The civil cases are the same. They are divided into lower and higher court. The high court cases are the ones involving RM1000000+, bankruptcy and are between companies, and the lower court cases are the loan repayments, or smaller sums of money. They will end up with a fine or in the worst case, jail.

I’ve enjoyed the experience and understand more about the justice system in Malaysia thanks to the employees at the High Court that I have had the opportunity to work with.

Vaidm Audey (10K)

Queen Elizabeth II Hospital

Work experience has been an opening door to reality for me as being at Queen Elizabeth II Hospital, there are so many new things tosee and people to learn from. This is especially true in the Orthopaedic Department, where I have been on placement. It involves a huge amount of practical surgical work, and I was fortunate enough to stand there next to the surgeon in an operating theatre.

Jolin Ng (10K)

Kinabalu International School, PE Department

For my work experience, I decided to work in the PE Department at KIS, along with Cherise, in order to find out how it feels to teach other students to be better sportsmen and sportswomen. Overall, work experience have been very interesting and fun along the way – even despite having a long and tiring first two days of work! From here I hope to gain better leadership skills and know how to encourage other students to try harder.

Ai Yung Shim (10S)

Mechanic

This week, I have worked as a mechanic: servicing cars and replacing parts. I found it great, as it really does put a perspective on how working on engines is quite a hard, yet satisfying experience. Sometimes, parts will be holding on tightly to the car like its holding on for dear life, but with the appropriate tools, it will eventually come out, completing one of the few tasks assigned by the customer. And of course, be ready to get dirty; try and get some gloves if you can!

Wilber Wong (10S)