To all in the Uplands Community, It is great to be back in Penang

 To all in the Uplands Community, It is great to be back in Penang! This morning I arrived at USM athletics ground, straight from the airport, just in time to be able to witness Uplands receiving the first of the many medals that they have been winning throughout today. After months of training, preparations and organisation, it was wonderful to see the start of the games and the students from the six different schools competing so enthusiastically. The FOBISIA Under 13 games are one of the highlights of Upland’s sporting calendar and are enjoyed by students, staff and parents alike. As we are all aware, Uplands is an extremely busy school, but this week it has been extraordinarily busy, with students and staff engaged in many different activities in addition to the buildup to and the start of the FOBISIA games; the Primary Students attending the Association of International Malaysian Schools (AIMS) Maths Competition at Nexus International School in Kuala Lumpur; practical and oral examinations in Drama and English; individual and class photograph sittings, and staff attending the IB Workshops and Conference. Do come and support Uplands, at school, over the weekend as we complete the football and basketball sections of the FOBISIA competition. Full results will be in next week's newsletter Yours sincerely, Matthew Bristow Last week at Uplands we celebrated our Secondary Arts Students and their work within the Arts, with the ​
Arts Faculty Week. Student’s Art work was highlighted in the wonderful IB Visual Arts Exhibition displayed in the open­air ground floor arena of F Block. Thank you to everyone who participated in all Arts activities and events during the week, and to Arts Faculty Staff, Mr McGill, Head of Faculty, Ms Hurst, Mrs Martinez, Ms Owens, Ms Adkins, and Ms Sharpe. Well Done, everyone! Uplands continues to excel! This weekend, our students and our school will continue to be the focus during the ​
U13 FOBISIA Games 2016​
. This International sporting event will not only showcase our school, but our hospitality, community and sporting competitiveness. Please do come to school to support Uplands and cheer on The Roar at the Games! Further information can be found by clicking on the link below: http://uplandsroarsport.webs.com/2016­b1­u13­fobisia­games​
. Wishing the best of luck to all participants! Student Progress Reports Last week, our School Information Management System (SIMS) experienced technical difficulties, with a lot of intensive work by teachers, our technical staff and the SIMS support team in the UK, working to fix the technical problems so that we are now able to use SIMS normally again. This delay, however, has caused us to readjust our internal student reporting Page 2 timeline as it was not possible to update the student records and reports during this period as all the data for our reports are stored and managed on SIMS. Parent Teacher Conferences will take place as scheduled on Tuesday 22nd March. All Teachers will have the student progress data available to discuss with you and to inform the conversation about your son/daughter’s progress. Copies of the Student Progress Reports will be sent home on Thursday 24th March 2016. Thank you for your understanding. We look forward to seeing you at your conferences next Tuesday, and giving you the progress reports at the end of next week. Parent Teacher Consultations ­ REMINDER The next Parent Teacher Consultations will take place on Tuesday, 22nd March. It is expected that all students in Years 7, 8, 9, 10 & 12 should attend these consultations with their parents. Please note there will not be student consultations for Year 11 & 13 this day. The schedule of the school day has been changed to allow for our Swim Carnival, classes, and the consultations to take place on the same day. Please note the following: The school timetable will be compressed during this school day, with all periods consisting of 30 minutes duration (instead of 40 minutes). 8:10 – 8:40 Period 1 8:40 – 9:10 Period 2 9:10 – 9:40 Period 3 9:40 – 10:10 Period 4 10:10 – 10:30 Break 10:30 – 11:00 Period 5 11:00 – 11:30 Period 6 11:30 – 12:00 Period 7 12:00 – 12:30 Period 8 Students will be available to be collected from school at 12:30pm. School buses will start to leave from school at 2:40pm Page 3 Parent Teacher Consultations will begin at 1:30pm and finish at 8:30pm. Each consultation will be 5 minutes in length. Elite University Visit Interested parents and students are invited to come to Uplands to meet and talk with the Admissions Representative from New York University (NYU) Abu Dhabi who will be visiting our school on Monday 21 March at 12:30pm in F Block Room F206. Come and learn more about New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD), a highly competitive and selective Liberal Arts university rivalling the Ivy League Universities. We look forward to your attendance! End of Term 2 Term 2 finishes next week on ​
Thursday 24th ​
March 2016 at 12pm. School Buses will depart at 12:15pm. Our Boarding Facilities will close at 12pm on Friday 25th March 2106​
. Bill Mitchell Acting Head of Secondary School Page 4 Dear Parents, I am currently in Hyderabad attending the International Baccalaureate Asia Regional Conference. I have been attending the many workshops and seminars dedicated to the Primary Years Programme as well as looking at how the IB programmes are linked through the Learner Profiles and Attitudes. In next week’s newsletter, I will be feeding back on the many activities that the Primary School has recently been involved in. Have a wonderful weekend! Alison Nicholson Head of Primary School Page 5 Earlier this term we were delighted to hold our Secondary Mid­year Awards Assembly where we celebrated the many successes achieved by the secondary students. Please click on the link below to view the full Mid­year Awards results. http://www.uplands.org/school/wp­content/uploads/2016/03/Awards­Mid­yea
r­with­Letterhead.pdf Page 6 ICT and Digital Learning At Uplands, we believe in using technology to empower our students to learn all subjects. This term, ICT classes are to learn (Year 7), apply (Year 8) and evaluate (Year 9) the most common Powerpoint alternative presentation software applications including: • Clearslide. • prezi. • google slides • slidedog • keynote • slidemagic Students are to make presentation projects and write short essays as their assessment tasks. Whilst ICT teachers will guide students to meet the technicality complexity requirements, the students may choose to present any contents, topics or subjects for their projects, under the guidance of subject teachers. You can have a look at sample student ICT­and­Subject integration projects We value differentiation in teaching and learning. The ICT programme has been set up so that hardworking and talented students are adequately challenged and are able to move ahead of the class. A comparison between Prezi and Haku Deck is an excellent software evaluation student work done by our Year 8 student Jessica Goei who demonstrated an exemplary effort well advanced of what would be expected for Year 8. When I was reading her article I felt I was reading a professional online technology review. Parents and teachers may also find this article informative. Well Done, Jessica! Keep up the good work, you are well on the way to becoming a professional technology writer and software review specialist! Don’t forget to say thank you to and continue to learn more from your your ICT teacher, Mr White. Robin Liao Page 7 Head of ICT UPLANDS STUDENTS FENCING IN EUROPE! European Fencing experience for Julian and Jason Chin​
. Uplands students, brothers, Jason Chin (8i) and Julian Chin (5i) travelled with their mother to Europe this week to take part in a 2 day Fencing Tournament in Germany. There, Jason ranked 6th in individual competition, and was awarded Bronze in the team competition! Meanwhile, brother Julian, won championship, and achieved a Silver medal in the team competition! Well Done to both boys! We are extremely proud of you both!! “The awards are definitely an encouragement for us to continue to work harder to achieve even better results in the future. We learned a great deal from this journey. One of the many things we learnt is that the art of fencing is executed in a different ways throughout the world.” The boys will be following up their current success, with training for the rest of this week at the Fencing­Club Tauberbischofsheim, the most successful fencing club in the world, based on its medal successes in international sporting events, and base of the Olympic team's training camp Tauberbischofsheim for the sport of Fencing in Tauberbischofsheim, Baden­Württemberg ­ before flying off to Poland for another big competition! Good Luck for continued success, Jason and Julian!! Keep up the excellent work! Page 8 Page 9 Uplands visited by PASCH Network PASCH stands for the initiative "Schools: Partners for the Future", an initiative of the Federal Foreign Office in cooperation with the Central Agency for Schools Abroad (ZfA), the Goethe­Institut (GI), the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the Educational Exchange Service of the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder in the Federal Republic of Germany (PAD). The aim of PASCH is to establish a worldwide network of Partner­Schools, which particularly promote learning German as a foreign Language. 1500 Schools in over 110 countries are a part of the PASCH­Network worldwide and are official Partner­Schools of the Federal Republic of Germany. In these schools the teacher of German as a foreign language has a special status and the PASCH students constitute together a worldwide learning community. Today, Uplands had the pleasure of being visited by Tim Fauth, the new representative of the Goethe Institut – the German cultural institute – who supports German as a foreign language programme throughout Malaysia. Mr. Fauth observed two of our classes in action and had a tour of our facilities. He was very impressed by our setting and particularly enjoyed the courtyard garden. He remarked how polite yet lively Uplands students are. He is also impressed by the high language level some of our more advanced students have mastered and by their eagerness to use that language. Our school has been a PASCH/Goethe supported school for a number of years and we have received support in terms of classroom materials, technology, teacher training and scholarships for our students to study in Germany or in regionally organized German language camps. Participants will also be eligible Page 10 for future scholarships to cover their living expenses should they later chose to study at German Universities (which are already free themselves). Mr. Fauth is eager to continue and expand our cooperation and has promised future visits to strengthen our ties. Isabella Nwankwo German Teacher Primary All Term 2 CCA’s have now finished unless otherwise informed by your teacher/coach that they are still operating. Fencing CCA The first fencing session took place last Monday. Can all students who are interested in joining the fencing CCA please make sure you attend this coming Monday’s session from 3:30 pm to 5:00 pm. CCA Sessions still taking place are: Monday 2:40 pm­3:30 pm Reception to Year 2 Gymnastics 3:30 pm­4:30 pm Year 7+ Gymnastics 3:30 pm­5:00 pm Fencing Tuesday 6:30 am­7:30 am Primary Swimming 2:40 pm­3:30 pm Primary FOBISIA Football (Boys & Girls) 2:40 pm­3:30 pm Year 3 to Year 6 Gymnastics Wednesday 6:30 pm­7:30 pm Primary Athletics 2:40 pm­3:30 pm Primary FOBISIA TBall Dean Metcalfe Head of Faculty Physical Education Page 11 As reported in last week’s newsletter, this weekend Uplands is playing host to the U13 FOBISIA Games. The PE department would again like to express their thanks to all the staff, students and parents who have volunteered to help out during this weekend, and of course to the competitors who have worked hard to get here. We look forward to seeing you come to Uplands this weekend to support and cheer our Uplands teams! Current Heat Wave Please rest assured that we are monitoring the weather conditions, and current Heat Wave, and responding accordingly by adapting our curriculum as and when needed. This has meant, and will mean, changing lessons so that they are significantly less aerobic at this time. Can I also take this opportunity to remind everyone of the importance of staying adequately hydrated. Always drink water throughout the day, before you become thirsty. Students need to follow healthy guidelines of drinking little amounts of water at regular intervals throughout their waking hours, ideally with a minimum 2.5 litres to 3 litres consumption per day. Penang Schools Athletics Conference (PSAC) Sports This week the U16A netball team played one of their last games against POWIIS in the PSAC tournament. The teams were both tightly matched in the first half of the game, with scores staying reasonably equal. In the second half of the game, the Uplands girls managed to take the lead and ended the game 16­6. Later, in the U14 B game, the girls set the standard high and again played an excellent game, winning 6­3. Congratulations to all our netball girls throughout the school who have shown commitment and dedication to the netball CCA and the netball fixtures throughout the season. We are extremely impressed with you all! Page 12 For more Roar Sports information, including Uplands sporting calendar, please go to: ​
www.uplandsroarsport.webs.com For the most recent information regarding pick up times, late cancellations etc., please use our Roar Sport Twitter page at: @UplandsSport Dean Metcalfe Head of Faculty Physical Education Page 13 UPTA AGM & COMMITTEE We are pleased to report that the AGM went well and was well attended. ​
All reports and minutes are available on request.​
The UPTA committee for 2016/17 are: ● Kasra Motamedi – Chairperson [email protected] ● Serena Liu – Vice­Chairperson [email protected] ● John Brinsden
– Treasurer [email protected] ● Jennifer Sheppard – Secretary [email protected] ● Roslyn Wirth
– Assistant Secretary [email protected] ● Cassy Trauger [email protected] ● Thomas Moore [email protected] ● Caroline Would [email protected] ● Mahani Hijias [email protected] If you would like to be kept up­to­date with all committee minutes, or the agenda we set for our meetings, please let us know so that we can include you on the mailing list for your possible comment at these meetings. COUNTRY REPRESENTATIVES Country Representatives are a great tradition we have at Uplands, and these wonderful volunteers help ease the transition into both Penang and Uplands for new families, especially for those families who don't speak English. Many of our Country Representatives host lunches where their home­traditions and food is shared and enjoyed. It was largely thanks to our China, Malaysia and Singapore Representatives that our Chinese New Year Celebrations were so successful. We have representatives from countries as diverse as Mexico to Japan, Iran and South Africa ­ and many in between. Page 14 Our country representatives can be contacted on: [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]
[email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] If you are interested in being a Country Representative, especially for countries we have no representation for as yet, or you just wish to find out more about information of what the role involves, please contact us. We are especially seeking representatives for South Korea, Thailand, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Ireland, and Italy. ​
We hope you can help! Last week, we held a welcoming pot­luck lunch for new parents, organised by Cassy. This was very much enjoyed by all those who attended. Thank you, Cassy, for organising this! COMMUNITY PRIVILEGE PROGRAMME AND ​
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A Community Privilege Programme list of vendors, and the social and sports clubs we run, please refer to our Facebook page or our notice board in school. If there are any vendors you would like us to approach to extend our list of community suppliers please email ​
[email protected] For any new activities you would like the UPTA to run, please email [email protected] Page 15 YOGA CLASSES ­ ​
Classical hata yoga classes. WHERE: "Leisure Boat Cafe Inn" (Directions: Head from School towards Teluk Bahang National Park, the Leisure Boat Cafe Inn is located after Bay View Resort, just were the Hard Rock Cafe parking area is. Drive in to the right.) WHEN ​
: Fridays at 8:30am­10am COST: UPTA MEMBERS ­ RM10 CONTACT​
: Selamawit Berhane 016­4899114 ​
[email protected] DONATION TO SCHOOL As a thank you to the school for letting the PTA use all their facilities we are pleased to have donated 5 GoPro Silver edition cameras for year end 2015, to the school library, so the students and staff can enrich their learning journey and sporting/cultural events. The two main fundraisers of the year are Christmas and the Summer fair. All funds raised from these events are donated as a gift to the school. If you have any ideas or suggestions please can you email [email protected] SUMMER FAIR We are pleased to announce the date for this year’s Summer Fair date for Saturday 14 May 2016, from 11am to 3pm. There will be lots of Food, Vendors, Games, and other Entertainment! *Car boot Sale Stand (for old or used items), is RM 30 per table for UPTA members and RM 40 for others. *Art and Craft Stand (for new items), is RM 75 per table for all UPTA members and RM 100 for others. There is limited space available. Stalls will be allocated on a first come­first served basis, subject to nature of product for sale. To reserve and book a stall please contact ​
[email protected] Page 16 For any sponsorship opportunities, please contact ​
[email protected] If you are interested in the UPTA, it’s Committee, what we do or require ANY general help about life in PENANG please email ​
[email protected] Year 6 Maths Challenge – KL – Nexus College Thursday 17 & Friday 18 March 2016 U13 FOBISIA Games Thursday 17 to Sunday 20 March 2016 Primary Sharing Assembly hosted by Reception and Year 1 Monday 21 March 2016 Secondary Inter­House Swim Gala Tuesday 22 March 2016 Primary Inter­House Swim Gala Wednesday 23 March 2016 Year 4 sleep­over at Uplands Wednesday 23 March 2016 Term 2 ends Midday Thursday 24 March 2016 FOR FULL INFORMATION PLEASE SEE SCHOOL CALENDAR http://online.uplands.org/calendar/SitePages/Home.aspx Page 17 New Student Orientation Start of Term 1 Mid Term Break End of Term 1 New Student Orientations Start of Term 2 Mid Term Break End of Term 2 Start of Term 3 End of Term 3 New Student Orientation Start of Term 1 Friday 12 August 2016 Monday 15 August 2016 ​
Monday­Friday, 17­21 ​
October Friday 16 December 2016 Monday 9 January 2017 Tuesday 10 January 2017 ​
Monday­Friday 20­24 ​
February 2017 Friday 31 March 2017 Monday 17 April 2017 Friday 23 June 2017 Friday 11 August 2017 Monday 14 August 2017 Page 18