To all in the Uplands Community, Welcome to the 2016 2107

­ To all in the Uplands Community, Welcome to the 2016 ­ 2107 Academic Year! To those of us who were here in June ­ Welcome Back. To the students and parents who have just joined the Uplands Community ­ Welcome to Uplands and Penang! We start the new academic year with approximately 710 students (500 in Secondary and 210 in Primary). It is an approximate figure because it is still increasing as we continue to receive applications for students to join the school. Many year groups are now full and it is especially pleasing to be able to report that there are 95 Year 10 students and 65 Year 12 students starting the IGCSE and IB courses respectively. These are the largest number of students we have had start these exam courses to date. There has been a lot of work and preparation in the school during the holiday period as the Ancillary Staff have prepared the campus for the new academic year. This has included building a chemical storage and preparation room for the Science Department, partitioning two of the large teaching spaces in F Block to create up to 4 flexible teaching spaces, and modifying access to the astroturf field to help with evacuation in case of a fire. We start the new academic year with the publication of the revised Guiding Statements for Uplands School (see next page). Thank you to all in the school community for your input to their creation. The staff and students will begin the year exploring how these can now be embedded into the curriculum, the co curriculum and the fabric of Uplands life. Yours sincerely, Matthew Bristow Principal Page 2 Welcome message from the new Head of Secondary Dear Parents, A month ago I landed in Malaysia. My family and I were all feeling a mixture of excitement and trepidation. Since arriving here I can’t begin to tell you where that time has gone! Earlier this week I stood in front of the whole school and was introduced to the students by Mr Bristow as their new Head of School. What an exciting moment! They welcomed me warmly and then just sat there – looking at me. Were they waiting for me to say something ‘profound’ or inspirational? I managed a brief ‘hello’ and then gave a very simplified version of what, I hope, they’ve all heard before… I want the students at Uplands to not only work hard ​(whatever that means), but to work smart. I told them to not just wait to have knowledge poured into them, but ​take control of their learning, seek new ideas and concepts, test theories and most importantly, ask good questions. I want this year for all our learners to be one of great progress and huge success – academically, socially and personally. I want all our learners to grab every single opportunity that passes their way with both hands. Our students are a privileged bunch of young adults. They live in a world of extremes. Our children need to understand this world and growing up in an international community could not better prepare our children for ‘what’s really out there’. I wish all our Uplands community a fantastic year, filled full of challenge, success and happiness. I will write to parents again in due course to outline my priorities for the year and to update you on key achievements. I will also be holding a series of ‘Clinics’ where I hope to meet with as many parents, old and new, as I can to hear your thoughts on the way forward for Uplands. Please do pop in and say hi to me, if and when you get a chance. For now, have a fantastic year. Giles Mongare Head of Secondary Page 3 The Curriculum Office, on behalf of all Secondary Staff, would like to congratulate Ms. Dawn Easton on her new appointment as Head of Assessment. Please contact Ms Easton (e­mail: [email protected]​) as soon as possible if your son or daughter wishes to be registered for any exams in the November 2016 session; this includes retake examinations as well as early exams approved by the subject teacher and Head of Department (i.e. Extended Mathematics, Mandarin). IB Diploma certificates are generally available mid­September, with IGCSE certificates arriving later in early October. The Curriculum Office will be in touch with families once certificates arrive at the school from the respective Exam Boards. As you will no doubt be aware, Cambridge (CIE) IGCSE results have been released; results for Japanese and PE (Edexcel), as well as Media Studies (OCR) will be released late next week. Students will be notified and asked to come to the Curriculum Office to retrieve their results in confidence ­ we do not currently subscribe to the direct student log­in service (pin and password) as for CIE results. In the next newsletter, Ms Easton will provide a summary of the IGCSE and IB Diploma results from May/June 2016 ­ we look forward to sharing our wonderful results with the Uplands community! Please be advised that Year 10 and Year 12 students are able to make subject changes until Friday 26th August at 12pm. Students are required to collect a form from the Curriculum Office which must be signed by staff and parents. IB Diploma students are able to make changes to their Higher Level and Standard Level selections past this date and well into their programme, in consultation with the IB Diploma Coordinator, Head of Curriculum and University Careers Counsellor. If your son or daughter has any questions about their academic programme, or indeed if you have any questions or concerns at this early stage in the year, please do not hesitate to contact me: 048819777 ext.123 [email protected] Paul Rose Head of Curriculum Page 4 For returning students, and their families, entering Year 12 & 13: welcome back!!! For students new to Uplands, entering Year 12: welcome to our community here at Uplands!!! Dear Parents and Students, As we start a new academic year, we have lots to look forward to in the IB Diploma Programme! One of our first highlights is the IB Retreat for the Year 12s. The ​IB Retreat will now take place from 1st­3rd September 2016​. It is an important opportunity for forging stronger friendships, adventure, getting a deeper understanding of the IB’s underlying philosophy, creating a strong sense of belonging, and let us not forget, the chances for personal growth! As an educator, I'm a strong proponent of experiential learning as it offers the students the opportunity to learn through experience and reflect upon that experience. This is exactly the opportunity we want to create for Uplands' students. Please keep in mind that an important function of education, alongside the academic aspect, at any level, is to develop the personality of the individual. I sincerely hope that this year's IB Retreat will be a firm step in that direction. The travel details for the Year 12 IB Retreat to Murni Camp Gopeng are: 01 SEPTEMBER​ ​PENANG​ Gopeng ​16h30​ 19h00 03 SEPTEMBER ​ Gopeng ​PENANG​ 16h30 ​19h00 On 1 September, we will leave school from Gate A at 4:30pm. Gate A is also where you can pick up your child on our return to school on 3 September. Please pick your children up at 7pm in a timely manner. The itinerary on site will be as follows: Day 01 1800 hrs Arrive at Gua Tempurung and transfer to Resort 1930 hrs Buffet Dinner 2100 hrs Campfire night Day 02 0730 hrs Buffet Breakfast 0900 hrs Introductions / team formation / briefing 1000 hrs White water rafting 1300 hrs Buffet Lunch 1400 hrs Treasure Hunt / Explorace with with factor Page 5 1900 hrs BBQ Dinner 2100 hrs Campfire night Day 03 0800 hrs Buffet Breakfast 0900 hrs Internal session in function room 1300 hrs Buffet Lunch 1400 hrs Continue internal session 1600 hrs Closing and evaluation Check out If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me: ​[email protected] Kim Derudder IB Diploma Coordinator Page 6 Love Drama? Then this is for you! The Drama Department will be travelling with a group of students to the exciting ISTA Middle School Theatre Festival on 9​th November until 14th November 2016. The festival is being hosted by the Overseas School of Colombo, Sri Lanka. We are inviting ​any students in Year 6, 7, 8 or 9​ with a keen interest in performing! The cost of the festival is approximately RM 2900 ​(tbc), which includes flights, one night hotel accommodation on arrival, airport transfers, ISTA T­Shirt, a visit to Kelaniya Royal Temple, ISTA festival registration fee, all meals and insurance. Students will stay in homestay accommodation, with families from the host school. This is a fantastic intercultural opportunity for your child to make new friends from other international schools within the region, and learn more about acting and performance. For more details and an application letter, please email Alison Hurst,​ ​Head of Drama at [email protected] Alison Hurst Head of Drama Page 7 Page 8 Welcome back to Uplands CCA Programme for 2016 It is with great excitement that I introduce the theme of ‘Creativity, Cooperation and Accomplishment’ for this year’s Co­Curricular Programme at Uplands. This Term we have over 45 options for Primary school and 80 options for Secondary school, so every student’s personal interests can be catered for. We also have many outside providers that will kindly be coming in to help our students in interests that go above and beyond the classroom. This year we are also developing the teachers, parents and Y13 activities, with current options of Football & Volleyball on Monday evening, Ultimate Frisbee on Tuesday evening and Badminton on Wednesday evening. If you’re interested in taking part, then please contact the relevant person on the CCA timetable, however a sign up is not required, just show up on the night, most sessions begin around 5.30pm. The CCA sign up can be accessed on the Uplands website at ​www.uplands.org and will be available until Sunday 21st August at midnight. I will then collate the data and ensure your son or daughter knows which CCA’s they are taking by Thursday 25th August, in time for CCA’s to begin on Monday 29th August. The CCA’s will then run from August 29th ­ October 7th, with a break for half­term, then again from 31st October ­ 9th December. In Term 2 and 3 there will be a choice of different options in order for students to get the most of their co­curricular time at Uplands. If you have any questions then please let me know, Ruby Marshall Co­Curricular Coordinator [email protected] Page 9 United Kingdom Mathematics Trust Challenges The UKMT Challenges are lively, intriguing multiple choice question papers, which are designed to stimulate interest in Maths. The Challenges are for students aged 11­18, and together they attract over 600,000 entries from over 4,000 schools and colleges. We have just received the certificates of the Junior Challenge. Last term, 43 of our Year 7 & 8 students participated, and 37 students came away with certificates: 11 Gold, 12 Silver and 14 Bronze. Students have done very well, with a special mention to: a) Jin Tao Best in school award Best in Year 8 award Gold Certificate b) Brian Yeoh Hao Jun Best in Year 7 award Gold Certificate Congratulations to all the students who participated. The Senior Challenge for Year 12 & 13 students will be held on 8th November 2016. Please email Ms Tan, the Head of Maths at ​[email protected] if you are interested in taking part. Further information can be found on ​www.ukmt.org.uk Julie Tan Head of Mathematics Page 10 School Uniform Welcome back to the 2016­2017 School Year at Uplands. We hope that you had a relaxing and enjoyable Summer. The start of the new academic year heralded a great deal of excitement on campus as the halls filled with students rushing off to classes and to see their friends, old and new. Please note changes to the Uplands School Uniform guidelines. The uniform itself has not changed, but the way we are asking students to wear it has. Please see below, and also the 2016­2017 Diary for the guidelines. The biggest change is our insistence that all students, from Year 7 to 13, wear their shirt tucked in to their trousers. In line with this, our boys must wear a solid black leather belt. We would like students to demonstrate pride in their appearance, and wear their uniform in a way that embodies the outstanding efforts they themselves put into being excellent. The concept of, “Dress for Success” is something we want to impart. Page 11 Bus Behaviour A reminder to all students who take the bus to/from school that you are expected to adhere to our School Behavioural expectations. We expect your behaviour to reflect our school motto, “Respect for Self. Respect for Others”. ● Be seated at all times when bus is in motion. ● Seat belt must be fastened. ● Quiet voices and respectful conversation. ● Listen to the Bus Monitors. We have installed CCTVs on all the buses to ensure the safety and security of our students to and from school. Bill Mitchell Head of Pastoral To our American Students PSAT & SAT Testing This year we will offering ​PSAT 10​ testing instead of the ​PSAT/NMSQT​ tests. For Year 11 & 12 The PSAT 10 will be hosted at Uplands on Wednesday 2 November 2016. The goal of undertaking the PSAT at Uplands is to aid in college and career readiness. With this in mind,the PSAT test will be open to those students in Year 11 and 12 in October. The benefits for those students as they engage in career and college research are: On average those that take the PSAT score higher on the SAT Student Search Service – receive information from schools. My College QuickStart ­ customized college and career online service. For Year 9 & 10 The PSAT 8/9 will be hosted at Uplands on Tuesday 25 October 2016 The PSAT 8/9 is taken in Year 9 and 10. It establishes a standard against which to gauge student progress. Page 12 Free Practice Powered by Khan Academy Students who take any exam in the SAT Suite of Assessments will receive personalized SAT study resources based on their results. Their Khan Academy practice experience will be adaptive and tailored to meet each student’s individual needs. Please register your student’s interest, or request information with Mr. Bill Mitchell, Head of Pastoral, University & Careers Counselor at Uplands. DEADLINE AUGUST 26, 2016. Email Mr. Mitchell at ​[email protected] First of all I would like to welcome Mr Eduardo Cary to the department. He is the new Head of Primary PE and joins us from SEK in Qatar. Mr Cary has been teaching internationally for 14 years in 5 different countries and specialises in football, athletics and basketball. Similarly, I would like to thank Mr. Metcalfe for all he did for Uplands during his time here. He will be missed. All students in secondary school are busy undergoing various fitness testing in Years 7, 8 and 9 which will help the staff allocate students into appropriate sets. Please note that these sets are not fixed and students will be able to change set accordingly as the term progresses. The fitness tests allow the students to have some baseline results which will allow them to have a snap picture of where they are and what aspects of fitness they have to work on in order to improve. Term 1 will be a very busy term with a number of overseas trips taking place. See below for some more information regarding these. ROAR NEWS BISP U19 Basketball Tournament (Phuket) The inaugural basketball tournament will be hosted by BISP from 4th and 5th November and we are hoping to participate with both a boys and girls team. Basketball has been growing within the school and the interest from both staff and students is outstanding. A big thank you has to go to both Miss Marshall and Mr Mitchell who have worked extremely hard on raising the profile. Trials are currently on­going and if you are interested then please come and collect a letter of interest with details, from the PE department, as soon as possible. Page 13 U15 FOBISIA (Beijing, China) For new members of the Uplands community, we participate in a FOBISIA games every year. FOBISIA stands for Federation Of British International Schools In Asia. There are different age groups, ranging from primary, U13 and U15. Both boys and girls compete in a variety of sports over 3 days. For secondary the sports are: swimming, Athletics, Basketball and Football. This year, the U15 FOBISIA games will be hosted by Harrow International School, Beijing from 10 ­ 14 November 2016. A series of trials will be happening next week (Tuesday ­ Thursday) where the team will be selected afterwards. A team usually consists of 12 boys and 12 girls. Again, if you are interested in participating in this year's U15 FOBISIA games, then collect a letter from the PE department. BISP 7­a­side Football tournament (Phuket) This is the 14th annual football tournament, and again we will be participating in the tournament. We are hoping to send the following teams: Under 13 boys and girls, Over 15 boys and girls. This will be held at The British International School, Phuket, on 25th and 26th of November. Trials will be held when CCAs start and the teams will be selected accordingly. If you are interested in this event, then please collect a letter of interest from the PE department, which gives more information. If you have any questions regarding any of the above or anything else PE­related, please feel free to contact me at ​[email protected] Bob Pearson Head of PE Faculty Weekend Sports A reminder that our weekend Sports programme starts on Saturday 27 August. It is open to all children in Year three upwards. This term there will be football, swimming and badminton on offer. You can choose, one, two or three sports. If your son or daughter is interested, please collect a form from Mr Double or email me directly on ​[email protected]​ for further details. Andre Double PE Teacher Page 14 Even during the holidays, many of our students continue to train to improve their performances in their sports. Aqira Clark of Year 7 joins Uplands with some early good news. Over the summer break, she competed in the LTAM Junior Tour 2016, Leg 6 in Sabah. She is a semi­finalist in the Under­12 Girls singles, losing to the subsequent champion. In the U12 Girls doubles event, Aqira together with a Sabahan girl earned 2nd placing. Last academic year, Omar Amir Khir qualified to represent Penang in the MSSM Tennis Tournament which was recently held in Selangor from 13­17 August, 2016. He brought home a bronze medal in the U18 Boys category. Omar is also the captain for the Penang Team. Congratulations to our Uplanders! This academic year, we are looking forward to competing in the FOBISIA Tennis event in Bangkok (December) and MSSPP Tennis Tournament (April). For more information on tennis CCAs and events, please contact ​[email protected] Page 15 Welcome back to another exciting year at Uplands. At the end of the last academic year I was pleased to be offered a role as Digital Learning Coordinator at the school, and was tasked with supporting the school community as we integrate more technology into our teaching and learning programmes. I strongly believe that students need to have access to the same technologies in the classroom that they are exposed to outside the classroom, so that they can be taught how to leverage the power of these tools and avoid the pitfalls. At Uplands this will soon involve us opening the doors to more students bringing in their own devices to school (stay tuned). We are also in the process of moving our main teaching and learning platforms into the cloud using SEQTA and the Google Apps for Education suite of tools. As well as improving the security of our network, this move allows students to access their learning on any device with very little effort. To keep the school community updated on the many technology initiatives underway I will be contributing regular updates to this newsletter. Here is update number one: Education Technology Update ­ August 2016 The 2016­17 school year has been a busy time in regards to technology. ​SEQTA has arrived and once it is fully implemented it will be a powerful communication tool for our school community. The teachers continue to work on upgrading their skills with Google Apps. Three staff members at the school are now ​Level 1 Google Certified Teachers​, and many more have joined an after school study group, aiming to take the exam before the Christmas holidays. Google Classroom has also been adopted by many teachers as their online teaching and learning platform. Later in the year I hope to run parent information sessions about how we are using these tools, but for now I encourage you to ask your child to log into the school Google Apps account and show you around. Finally, this year Uplands has invested in laptops for all the teachers. The IT staff put in long hours during the week before school started getting the laptops set up, and were able to distribute them before school started. The laptops provide teachers with a reliable device they can use for planning and teaching, and pave the way for more technology integration in our classes. That is all the news for now, but there will be much more to come. Please feel free to contact me with ideas, questions or concerns you might have regarding Education Technology at Uplands. Phil Macoun Digital Learning Coordinator If we teach today’s students as we taught yesterday’s, we rob them of tomorrow.” John Dewey Page 16 The Secondary School will once again embark upon our Experiential Learning Week throughout Malaysia and South East Asia as we lead into Half­Term Break. Heads of Year will be following this information with further details, deadlines and meetings to be scheduled. Year 7 Orang Asli Homestay Gopeng/ Ipoh Cost: 1600­1700 RM(TBC) Students to be immersed in an Orang Asli Homestay, challenging themselves physically with rafting and caving, developing self and group awareness in team­building activities, and investigating camera trapping as a way of monitoring conservation efforts of endangered species in the rainforest. Year 8 Rainforest Awakening Merapoh – Taman Negara Cost: 1650­1750 RM(TBC) Students to camp in the 130 million­year­old forest. During jungle treks, students will assist MyCat and Fuze­Ecoteer to collect data by searching and identifying animal tracks and signs. Students will spend time with the local Batek tribe and deliver an environmental lesson plan to young adults. Students will venture into the local caves and experience abseiling with the experienced Ecoteer Staff. Year 9
Ecological Preserve Perhentian Island Cost:1700­1800RM(TBC) Students will embark upon this ecological service project at one of the top beaches in Malaysia. Year 9 students will assist PhD researchers to collect marine research data using the Reef Check Method and Photo ID of Turtles, culminating in efforts to increase the environmental awareness of the local community and tourists. Year 10 EcoAction @ Loola Bintan, Indonesia Cost: 2300­2400 RM(TBC) At Loola Adventure Resort in Bintan, students will experience one of the top rated adventure, culture and community engaged programmes in South East Asia. Adventure opportunities such as: experiencing a zip­line, building their own rafts, having a dragon boat race, the challenge of the climbing wall or trying their hand at archery. Service opportunities of all scales available from the individual to community impact of building infrastructure. Page 17 Year 11 Magical Cliffs ­ Krabi, Thailand Cost: 2650­2750 RM(TBC) Students will be stationed at Railay Beach in Krabi. This is one of the premier rock climbing destinations in the area. Access to sea kayaking, rock climbing and service learning. Students will be able to access the hotel kitchen and will cook with supervision for their peers. Uplands students to build relationship with local school and their students in developing literacy. Year 12 Northern Thailand
Cost: 2800­2950 RM(TBC) This is the trip the students have been preparing for since Year 7. Destined for a beautiful site In Northern Thailand, the students will get fully immersed in the aspects of the IBDP CAS core component. There will be activities covering Creativity, Activity and Service along the Maekok River near Chiang Rai.. They will have opportunity to serve not only the individuals of the area, but also to impact the larger community in programming and development of service projects. Page 18 On behalf of the Primary Team, I wish to welcome everyone back to school, and extend a very warm welcome to all new students and their families. With over 40 new students joining us in Primary, our upper primary classes have reached full capacity. We have had a smooth start and the year ahead promises to be busy, exciting and memorable! To our Primary Team we also welcome Mrs Zita Joyce ­ PYP Coordinator, Mr. Eduardo Cary ­ Head of Primary PE, Mrs Mara Cary ­ Year 3 classroom teacher, and Ms Jothee and Ms May as class assistants. Along with teaching in Year 6, Mrs Jackie North takes on a new role as Assistant Head of Primary. With our committed and enthusiastic team we are looking forward to the year ahead. Uniforms and School Belongings​: Please ensure that your child/children are wearing the correct Uplands uniform to school, PE and swimming. If your child finds the classroom temperature too cold, a black Uplands jacket is available to purchase from the uniform shop. Non­uniform jackets and jumpers should not be worn as we want our students to be neatly presented in correct school uniform. Each item of clothing and piece of equipment should be labeled with your child’s name and year group, so it can easily be returned should anything go missing. Custom stickers can be made at Gurney Plaza from a first floor kiosk (100 stickers for RM30). Timetables​: class timetables will be placed in the students’ homework diaries. Your child should know when their PE, swimming times and other specialist lessons are so they can come to school prepared. Primary Co­Curricular Activities​: This term all CCA sign­ups will be done electronically through links on the school website in conjunction with Survey Monkey. In order to sign up please follow the instructions below: 1. Go to ​www.uplands.org 2. Mouse over to the Co­Curricular tab 3. Scroll down and select ​CCA 4. To view the full daily timetable, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the link “CCA Timetable Term 1: 2016­2017”. 5. To sign up and register for CCAs click on the links under “CCA Registration Links” Page 19 CCA signup will open at 5pm on Wednesday 17th August and will remain open until midnight Sunday 21st August. Your child will then be informed of their CCAs by Thursday 25th August, in time to commence CCA’s on Monday 29th September. Please ensure that you fill in a separate sign­up for each child if you have more than one participating in the CCA programme, and also that you only sign­up once for each of your children. Class Parent Reps​: We encourage each class to have a parent representative. Class parent reps assist teachers to keep parents informed of class happenings, promote involvement of parents in class activities, gain parental support for class activities, increase parent knowledge of the school, and be part of an informal representative group. Class teachers will choose class reps from the pool of volunteers and invite them to be the class rep for that class. If you wish to volunteer please email Ms Intan ​[email protected] with your name and name/names of children, and their Year group, in Primary. Drama Production: ​Excitement is in the air for our next production, ​‘The Amazing Adventures of Superstan.​’ The Year 6s have already been given the music and lyrics to get their creative juices flowing for the next few weeks (to be precise­ 40 school days before opening night!) In light of this, there will be rehearsals next week for ALL YEAR 6 students only. DATES​: 23rd August (Tuesday) until the 26th August (Friday) TIME​: 2:40pm ­ 3:30pm. Further details will follow regarding rehearsals for the following weeks. Daniel Naidoo (Primary Drama Coordinator) ​[email protected] Finally, we ask that children are collected promptly at the end of each school day. For safety reasons and as our senior classes are still in progress it is important that Primary students are only on the campus at the end of the school day if they are attending CCAs. On behalf of the entire Primary Team, welcome to another fun and educational year at Uplands! Alison Nicholson Head of Primary LADIES BOOTCAMP​: Calling all female teachers, staff, mum's and senior girls. Join Gillian Gray (ACE Certified Trainer) for a calorie torching Tabata style indoor ladies bootcamp on Tuesday and Thursday's at 7pm in the Primary Sports Hall. Contact Gillian for more details: 0126170376. Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 As the student numbers continue to grow at Uplands, so do the number of cars coming to drop off and pick up the students. Please can you continue to use Gate A (The Main Gate) to drop off your children, following the traffic flow routes shown below. Thank you. Page 24 Mid Term Break Monday­Friday, 17­21 October End of Term 1 Friday 16 December 2016 New Student Orientations Monday 9 January 2017 Start of Term 2 Tuesday 10 January 2017 Mid Term Break Monday­Friday 20­24 February 2017 End of Term 2 Friday 31 March 2017 Start of Term 3 Monday 17 April 2017 End of Term 3 Friday 23 June 2017 New Student Orientation Friday 11 August 2017 Start of Term 1 Monday 14 August 2017 Please note we have upgraded our online calendar to allow you to view different aspects of the calendar. Please click on the relevant tabs. http://www.uplands.org/school/?page_id=15142 Page 25 Page 26