From the Head of Secondary 30.04.2022
There is a focus on the environment in this week’s newsletter, with articles from Tiggi Mornington Sanford and Julia Aveline-Rabenjoro, together with an account compiled by Mrs Davies about our first beach-clean up for a very long time! In the Key Stage 3 assembly on Wednesday Tiggi and Julia took the virtual floor with detailed descriptions of what they are doing in this area and they must be commended by us all for their passion and initiative. Well done girls!
In other news our Year 9 DofE cohort spent two hours hiking up Bukit Padang and by all accounts it was fun [and tiring!]. This is excellent practice for the Adventurous Journey challenge of the Award. From the 8th to the 10th May our Silver Award students will be taking part in their Adventurous Journey and I am sure we will be hearing more about that in a future newsletter.
In last Friday’s assembly we said a fond farewell to our leaving students, in particular Year 13, who have been an amazing group during their time at KIS. As the longest serving student [12 years], Wilber gave a wonderful speech about his time here and he had the honour of cutting the cake at the break-time party in their honour.
Next week the exams IGCSE and A Level exams will proceed, despite the public holidays, with Geography, History, Business and Chemistry taking place on Wednesday. We wish our students the best of luck in these and in all of their examinations!
Best Regards
Mrs Renshaw
Deputy Principal / Head of Secondary
Friday 22nd April: A Fond Farewell
We bade farewell to our Year 13s on Friday, as well as those Year 11 students who are not returning for Sixth Form. This is always a bittersweet occasion- on the one hand, it’s wonderful to celebrate all their many achievements from their KIS journey, all the leadership roles performed, all the highs and lows, the tremendous academic successes of University applications. And of course the sadness of saying goodbye to them, knowing we won’t see them every day any more.
The Year 13s are so full of potential, and their futures look so promising and exciting! Many teachers expressed a little envy at the adventures that await them as they get ready for the next stage in their academic careers. They have been an excellent Form Group, and we’ve squeezed a lot into the last two years, from Duke of Edinburgh expeditions, preparation for exams and all the paperwork for University, First Aid training, Career Days, all the anxieties of online learning through the pandemic, and of course, huge amounts of cake to remind us all of the good things in life when our stress levels were getting too high!
We had a lovely virtual assembly on Friday morning, with Mrs Renshaw showing a progression of Year 13’s photos from Year 7 to 13, with thoughtful and amusing comments from all the teachers who have taught them over the years- It was quite emotional, and I may have had a small speck of sentiment in my eye by the end! At break time, we invited all the Year 13s and their teachers to come to the library for some exceptionally good cake and fizzy grape juice for one final party and well-wishing for the future exams and onward journeys.
Bittersweet indeed, but much more sweet than bitter- Good Luck Year 13!
Mrs Colbeck
Bubbles of Hope
A few months ago, I came up with the idea to create a group of teens who would dive with a purpose. Because I’m a PADI AmbassaDiver, it went great with their torchbearer initiative. Torchbearers are divers that stand up for the environment and act in conservation programs. However, you have to be at least 18 years old to join.
Because the younger generation are the adults of tomorrow, we need to get into the good habit of cleaning up after ourselves and taking care of the underwater world we depend on so much.
I gathered 4 teen divers who were willing to join in on the action and we set out on 2nd April with DownBelow to do some reef cleanups! We managed to collect quite a few bags of trash on each dive and it was so great to re-watch and see the good time that we had while contributing to saving the planet!
If you are interested and want more information, drop me an email at juliaintotheblue@gmail.com or DM me on instagram at julia_into_the_blue to join the next one!
If you would like to watch what the last one was like, click here!
Julia Aveline-Rabenjoro
