TENBY SCHOOLS IPOH

TENBY SCHOOLS IPOH
Newsletter #88 - September 2015
Highlights in this newsletter:
An Education Journey With Tenby
Global Perspectives Debates II
Memory Walk in Conjunction with
World Alzheimers’ Day
From the Campus Principal
This week, the haze has improved, thank
goodness and the School continues to be a very
busy place. We have been hard at work behind
the scenes planning ahead. Next week we will
introduce a Parent/Students’ Handbook to the
community. We will send this out via e-mail where
a link will be given for parents to download it from
the website. In addition to this, we will be sending
home a Community Code of Conduct that shares
the Tenby expectations with students and parents.
These will be sent to children from Year 3/KSSR2
upwards. Please take a moment to read through it
and sign it. The Community Code of Conduct will
be stuck into the Student Planner.
As mentioned in last week’s Newsletter, we would
like to build community spirit and provide more
opportunities for parents/staff to get to know one
another. Please join us and the Parents
Association for a Coffee Morning on Thursday 1st
October at 08:30hrs – 09:30hrs in the School
Auditorium. This has been arranged by the
Parents’ Association who have invited a guest
speaker to talk on Cyber Safety and how to keep
your kids safe online. This session will be
repeated at the TEYCI on Monday 5th October
from 08:30hrs – 09:30hrs in the School Hall.
As I walk around the campus in the mornings, I
noticed there are a number of parents without ID
tags. I hope parents will make an effort to wear
their ID tags prominently when in the school
compound.
Open Days
As part of Tenby School’s commitment to promote
more interest within the Ipoh community in our
schools, we aim to conduct an Open Day every
term. Last term we held our first Open Day at
Meru Campus on Saturday 11th July and the
response was very encouraging with over 150
families attending this Open Day.
Tenby Early Years Centre Ipoh (TEYCI) will have
its Open day on Saturday 24th October and Meru
Campus will have its Open Day on Saturday 31st
October. The Open Days will run from 10:00hrs –
15:00hrs. There will be a range of activities on
show for visitors who wish to see what the school
has to offer. We welcome parents to come along
with their friends to the Open Days. We will notify
parents whose children need to come back for
these events.
Jane Kuok
Payment School Fees
The school has sent out final
reminders via AR Registered Mail
for outstanding school fees. We
hope that you will ensure timely
payment to avoid your child(ren) from being
suspended from School. This week we
unfortunately had to send two students home for
non-payment of fees.
Sekolah Tenby Corporate Review
Sekolah Tenby will undergo a Corporate Review
next month from Tuesday 6th October to Friday
9th October. The review is to provide feedback to
the School for the purposes of continuous
improvement.
Special Talents
We are looking for students with special talents,
be it in art, music, language or have any wonderful
skills, please let me know so that we can share
with the community, It would be wonderful to chart
their progress and celebrate any awards,
competitions etc. that they have won.
Lost Property
As with any school, the storage of lost property is
always an issue. Often items that are lost are
dirty/used and keeping the items breeds germs.
Therefore, in a bid to keep lost property to the
minimum, we would like to ask parents to ensure
that all items belonging to students are labelled
with their child’s name and class. In this way,
named items can be returned. Items that are not
labelled will either be recycled or disposed of on a
weekly basis. Any valuables (not encouraged) that
are found will be kept in the Reception.
Upcoming Events
The Kelab Roadrunners Ipoh (KRI) Run 2015 will
be having its trial run this Sunday 27th September
here at Meru Raya. If you have registered for the
KRI Run 2015 which is scheduled for Sunday 18th
October, please feel free come this Sunday to test
out your stamina and the 5 km route.
On the homefront, the Secondary Road Run (5
km) is an annual event and this year it will be held
on Friday 2nd October, at 09:00hrs. All secondary
students have to participate in the run as it will
contribute to their house points. Students are
reminded to wear hats and sunblock as protection
from the sun as well as appropriate running
footwear.
News from Sekolah Tenby
KBSR 6 Post UPSR Activities
“Hooray! UPSR is over!” cries a group of elated
KBSR 6 students upon completing their last paper
on the 10th September 2015. Now it is time for
them to enjoy their post-UPSR activities under the
guidance of their teachers, Ms Ramani Samugam,
Mrs Bavvanii Ganesan, Ms Thiba Krishnan and
Mrs Ling. The students initiated the project of
designing the invitation card for their upcoming
Graduation Nite ’15, which is scheduled for
November. They are divided into 6 groups and
are challenged to work as a team so as to collect
Let's google the dance steps!!
Creativity is highly needed in making a ‘kuda kepang’
for the traditional dance..
points to win the best card design competition.
Such activities help to boost students’ confidence,
teamwork and also attendance at school. Besides
this, the students are also preparing the props
which will be used during their graduation dinner’s
performance. The students have been very
enthusiastic when completing these tasks. They
are also given the opportunity to show their
leadership qualities. During this time after the
exams, some of the teachers will introduce the
KSSM 1 (Form 1) syllabus to the students as well.
Well..well..how to make a glittering card?
Enthusiasm in working out the steps for ‘zapin’
– a famous Malay traditional dance
Teacher professional development makes teacher
commitment reveal itself as a real driving force
behind student success and Tenby Group is
committed to continuous Professional
Development.
As a History teacher in the National Curriculum, I
find that in the secondary level it is particularly
crucial to develop the ability of students to
complete basic skills as well as stimulate their
interest to pursue their studies further. I would like
to make History come to life and fire the
imagination of students in the subject. The
Postgraduate Certificate in Education International
(PGCEi) equipped me to develop my own ability to
plan meaningful historical
experiences for students, to
teach effectively and to assess
students' achievements. The
PGCEi comprises a
subject-specific pedagogy that
helps me to examine and
explore key concepts that
underpin the teaching of
History and school-based
learning which encourages me to apply their
theoretic understanding to practical situations.
By taking the PGCEi, I involved myself with a
great deal of research and reading throughout the
course and guided by experienced lecturers and
mentors to develop analytical and evaluation skills
that were very helpful in my teaching. The PGCEi
opened my eyes to the demands put on teachers
inside and outside the classrooms such as
pressures on time management and dealing with
other teachers or parent relationship whilst still
maintaining effectiveness within the classroom.
My views on learning styles have been influenced
by the work of Howard Gardner. He believes that
we have multiple intelligences and that every child
has the potential to be gifted, but that this can
present itself in many different ways. Progression
of each student’s needs to be planned for and I
also believe that differentiation and meeting varied
learning styles are key to effective teaching and
learning.
Queen’s University Belfast has a great reputation
throughout UK and beyond and is also a member
of the prestigious Russell Group, I am very proud
to gain my professional qualification from this
reputable institution and at the same time being
the Top Performing Student for the Post-Primary
in this batch of PGCEi 2014/2015. No doubt the
period of 2014/2015 was
intense and difficult, but it
was a fantastic experience I
had with my PGCEi History
tutor, Dr. Lee Jerome, has
been a helpful tutor who has
given me extraordinary
lesson ideas and valuable
feedbacks. I am also very
grateful to Mr. Loh Ghee
Juan and Mdm. Lee Yam Sei (Mrs. Lai) for their
mentoring and guidance at all times. I also would
like to thank Mdm. Soot Mooy Ching and Mr.
Choong Chee Kong for their continued support
and confidence that they have placed in me.
A big THANK YOU to the Tenby Group and the
School of Education, Queen’s University Belfast. I
hope Tenby continues to support and plan for the
continuing professional development of the
teachers so that the teachers will constantly to be
ever growing learning individuals.
Written by,
Mr. Wong Kin Tung
News from Tenby Early Years Centre Ipoh
We started this week at Tenby Early Years Centre, Ipoh, with a Fire Drill practice which took place
on Tuesday 22nd September. The evacuation went smoothly without any mishap. Well done to
the little Toddlers who did this well considering it was their first practice. Everyone was out of the
building quickly.
The Mid-Autumn festival which falls on 27th September this year, is a harvest
celebration, observed on the 15th day of the eight month in the Chinese
calendar. Being an important part of the Chinese cultural heritage, the
festival is also known in Malaysia as the Mooncake Festival due to the
popular practice of buying and eating mooncakes.
In conjunction with this, we had an assembly on Friday 25th September in
the school hall followed by a Lantern Walk. Children brought school
lanterns of different designs and walked around the school compound
joined by their parents. Our walk was unique in the sense that lantern walk
usually takes place at night during full moon but we had ours on broad day
light. It was a beautiful sight watching them with their many different
lanterns. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all our
parents who treated us
with
mooncakes
of
various flavours.
There will be a dental care session for the children by the Health Ministry Ipoh on Tuesday 29 th
September at the Kindergarten. Details of the sessions will be sent home through your child on
Friday 25th September. Kindly ensure your child brings in the items requested for the said session.
Our stars of the week
Natalie from Little Dolphins , Yan Teng from Little Nemos, Mei Yan from Little Tulip, Hazel
from Little Daffodils, Jaslene from Little Da Vinci’s , Jodie from Little Einstein’s , Adelede from
Year 1A, En Howe from Year 1B.
Puvanes Mahendran
Classroom News
Toddlers – Little Dolphins & Little Nemos
Singing song about parts of the body during
circle time.
Little Nemos feeling the texture of the sand.
Nursery - Little Tulips & Little Daffodils
Here comes the Tulips with their activities as
as they stepped into the Phonics Land.
Daffodils busy with their
collage work on shapes.
Receptions - Little Da Vinci’s
It was fun planting our bean seeds using water and cotton in a bottle.
Reception - Little Einstein’s
The Little Einstein’s are identifying the different types of leaves through shapes and sizes. They
also learned to classify their potted plants.
Year 1A
Children doing write up on the
books they read.
Group activity on Numeracy lesson.
Year 1B
"Children are having group discussion on the function of a brain".
News from Tenby Early Years Meru
Learning Journals
Each child in Nursery and Reception has a special learning journal folder. This will be located in your
child’s class. We are currently in the process of showing these to the children. Over time, learning will be
added to these folders by the children, the teachers and by you the parents. We would like to ask you to
share a special learning moment you have had with your child at home. This could be learning to ride
their bike, a visit to a special place, learning to do something new e.g. attending swimming class, cooking at home etc. Please send in a simple handwritten note or photo with information about a special
learning moment, and we can add these to your child’s learning journal. We thank you in advance for
your help and support.
Gentle Reminder
Please check the home/school communication books daily.
Classes this week
In Nursery this week the children learnt the ‘a’ phoneme.
Stars of the Week
Little Fish: Gia
Busy Bees: Abhelasha
Dragonflies: Dila
The Reception classes spent some time outside, preparing their gardening plots, for seeds and plants.
One of the phonemes we
covered this week was ‘c’. We
made some wax rubbings of
leaves and used our toes to
make c-c-c-caterpillars.
News from International Secondary
Shakespeare Demystified
Students from both Tenby International School and other schools, were in for a treat when Shakespeare
Demystified presented their production of ‘Othello’ at the Auditorium in Tenby Schools Ipoh last week.
The company specialise in making Shakespeare accessible to all by condensing plots and providing
some narration to explain some hard to understand speeches. I was very fortunate to be able to attend
their production and do urge students and parents to support them should they visit again. The standard
of performance was very high and proved an inspiration to all those who attended. Thanks to the Perak
Society of Performing Arts for helping bring this to Tenby.
by Stephanie Jukes (Drama Teacher)
I really enjoyed watching the play Othello! The actors and actresses portrayed the characters from the
play very well, not to mention how good –looking some of them were. Especially the actor who portrayed
Cassio, who made the play even more enjoyable to “watch”! This was not like any ordinary Shakespeare
play, it was not very long nor was it very difficult to understand. Even if English was not my First
Language I would not find this play hard to understand at all. The actors used Shakespeare’s early
English but also gave us some narration in modern English to help us understand better and despite the
play being relatively shorter than the original play, I could easily enjoy and comprehend it. The
performers in the play showed that you do not need fancy costumes to portray a character and that you
do not need to have a very complicated set, or a lot of big props for a play to be effective. Overall it was
an amazing performance and experience for me. I will be sure to book tickets for the next play under the
Shakespeare Demystified series.
by Emily (Year 11 Blue)
“Iron sharpens iron; one debater sharpens another.”
The Global Perspectives (GP) Debates 2/2015 held at Tenby Schools Ipoh on 18-19th September
brought together more than 200 young debate enthusiasts from schools in Perak. It was very much a
gathering in the spirit of a state-level convention where students had a formal platform to express their
views on issues of global concern today.
The GP debates have become a bi-annual
tradition in the Kinta Valley and are
sponsored by Tenby Schools Ipoh with the
Tenby Sixth Form serving as the event
management team.
“The GP debates not only provide a
platform for school debaters to hone their
debating skills,” declared Bryan Yong, of
Cohort 11 in the Tenby Sixth Form who was
the principal convenor of GP 2/2015. “It is
also a recurrent event management
challenge for our Sixth Form Council which
provides the manpower support for the
2-day debating convention.”
The debates have been held at Tenby Schools Ipoh since the inception of the Sixth Form CIE A Level
Programme here in 2010. They have become a strong and much-respected tradition as the debates
have done much to raise the standards of public speaking among schools in Perak. The GP Debates are
held with the following objectives in mind:
(a)
To promote a greater awareness of global issues of wide concern to humanity.
(b)
To encourage reading and discussion of issues of global concern to mankind.
(c)
To encourage a spirit of voluntarism and civic action for the creation of a better world.
(d)
To foster a personal commitment towards collaborative action for the creation of a better world.
(e)
To foster the growth of ideas for better global governance and global citizenship amongst our
students.
A total of 24 school debating teams were arrayed against each other in the British Parliamentary
Debating Format wherein each debate is a four-cornered verbal duel.
“This makes a huge difference to the quality of debating,” comments Mr Louis Rozario Doss, Head of the
Tenby Sixth Form and Senior Advisor to the Sixth Form Council. “The verbal cross-fire in the
four-cornered debates is the apotheosis of the debating tradition in the state of Perak. The audience
engagement is far greater in this type of debate than in the conventional two-cornered debates.”
The teams which participated this round are the following:
1
Tenby Schools Ipoh ( 10 teams)
2
SMK Ave Maria Convent,Ipoh ( 3 teams)
3
The Malay College, Kuala Kangsar (4 teams)
4
SMK Sam Tet, Ipoh ( 3 teams)
5
SMK Gunung Rapat, Ipoh ( 1 team)
6
Poi Lam Private School, Ipoh ( 3 teams)
7
SMK Methodist (ACS), Kampar
Day 1 of the debates was from 15:00hrs on Friday 18th September till 18:00hrs. Day 2 commenced at
08:00hrs and ended at 18:00hrs on Saturday 19th September. The debates sessions were held in the
Tenby Schools Auditorium and in the Sixth Form classrooms. Transport was provided to and from Tenby
Schools Ipoh to pick-up/drop-off points at SMK St Michael, Ipoh and SMK Sam Tet, Ipoh.
The topics debated were the following:
1
“The pen is mightier than the sword” (Round 1)
2
“There should be quotas for women in every sector.” (Round 2)
3
“People today have less regard for decency.” (Round 3)
4
5
6
“Social media networks should be more tightly regulated.” (Round 4)
Semi-final: “Capital punishment should be abolished in Malaysia”
The final: “Refugees should be repatriated.”
Commenting on why the GP Debates are a unique facet of the debating landscape, Overall Best
Speaker Danesh Ram Aggarwal of SMK Methodist (ACS), Kampar, had this to say: “I have participated
in the GP Debates since 2014. They are truly unique in the sense that teams are not knocked out in the
first round and have to go home after one debate as happens in other Perak and Ipoh state
competitions. Under the Tenby GP debates, each team has the assurance of debating at least four times
over the two-day period.This is one of the best arrangements especially for teams which come here not
just to be champions but also to learn the art of debating.”
Another illuminating observation comes from the teacher-advisor of the four teams from the Malay
College, Kuala Kangsar, Puan Sharifah Nor Azam. “I must make special mention of the provision made
for teams which do not make it to the semifinals. In most other competitions, they either go home or are
left to kill time idly. Here at Tenby Schools Ipoh, I attended brainstorming sessions for the “ousted “
teams wherein they explored the topics for the semifinal and final topics. Thus, the “ousted” teams were
fully engaged till the final hour of the competition.”
The winning teams of Global Perspectives 2/2015 were formally announced by Chief Adjudicator, Mr
Arthur Yeong, a prominent Ipoh lawyer and Rotarian. His co-judges were fellow barristers Mr Shan
Thevin and Dato’ Hajjah Shamsuriah binti Sulaiman. Here are the results at a quick glance:
Champions: SMK Sam Tet, Ipoh (Foo Yew Cheng & Jonathan Foo)
Second Placing: SMK Methodist (ACS), Kampar (Anjana Aggarwal & Danesh Ram Aggarwal)
Third Placing: SMK Ave Maria Convent, Ipoh (Liew Yan Fei & Ho Shu Lin)
Fourth Placing: Tenby Schools Ipoh (Balasubramaniam Ravishankar & Brian Sim)
Best Speaker in the final: Foo Yew Cheng (SMK Sam Tet, Ipoh)
Overall Best Speaker in the competition: Danesh Ram Aggarwal (SMK Methodist (ACS) Kampar)
“A Fraternity of Debaters, for Debaters, by Debaters”
Join us in our next series of GP Debates in March 2016.
Memory Walk in Conjunction with World Alzheimers’ Day Organised by Dementia Society of
Perak and UniKL Royal College of Medicine Perak (RCMP)
On Sunday, 20th September, some 30 members of the Interact Club of Tenby Schools Ipoh joined the
Memory Walk organised as above. We gathered in school at 06:15hrs and were on our bus to RCMP.
Everyone seemed invigorated on that day with the aerobic warming up session starting off the morning
activities. Half an hour later, at the whistle of the organisers, the walk began. Participants lined up the
streets of Ipoh for some 200 metres. Everyone strode in line and reached 6.6 kms within an hour and a
half. It was a thoroughly enjoyable walk for everyone involved. What used to be roads that we travelled
on by cars looked resplendent in all its nature and beauty as we walked along these roads.
After we finished the walk, we were all tired but happy as it was for a good cause. There were many
stalls selling snacks, clothes and ice cream so we were very glad that we had something to eat after the
walk. There was also a booth set up for Health Screening and many signed up for it. A Lucky Draw
ensued with many gifts lined up for winners.
Also commemorating World Alzheimers’ Day, we remember all those suffering this deliberating sickness.
Many suffering from this illness are lonely and shunned by their family as they do not know how to cope
with this illness. Alzheimer's is a progressive mental deterioration that can occur in middle or old age,
due to generalized degeneration of the brain. It is the most common cause of premature senility. Studies
have shown that patients suffer emotional stress and usually need a lot of help to cope with the disease.
As part of our community service to the people around us, and with our participation in this event, we are
happy to have contributed to the Dementia Society of Perak in their fundraising efforts to help patients
suffering from Alzheimer’s.
We wish to thank our Campus Principal, Ms Kuok, for giving us this opportunity and to our Teacher
Advisors, Mrs Bernie Victor and Pn Siti Mariam for coordinating this event for us. It was indeed a
wonderful Sunday well spent.
Reported by,
Dhanya and Joie (Year 9 Green)