26th January 2019

Catered Lunches

February Menu February Order Form

Dates For Your Diary

Dear Parents & Guardians,

I look forward to seeing you all on Monday. My time in the UK has allowed a wonderful opportunity to meet with other profes-

sionals in education from around the globe. Much of the discussions were focussed on international education, global aware-

ness and the future of international schools. From the talks with other school leaders, it is supportive to know that the steps

we are taking at KIS to develop global citizens are being replicated in other elite institutions around the world. I use the word

"elite" deliberately. This is how children in international schools are now being portrayed, as a global elite that share many

characteristics that may well be used to network and support them in their future lives. I would be happy to discuss further

with anyone who may be interested. Perhaps a topic for a future coffee morning?

Thank you to all the parents who were able to attend our recent coffee morning, I understand it was a very well received

presentation from the Ministry of Health, as well as giving our parents an opportunity for further discussions. We will of course

let you know about our next Drop-Off & Drop-In, which will be after the half term holiday.

Our MUN students returned safely earlier in the week and my thanks to Mr O’Kane for arranging and to Ms De Sa for sup-

porting. It was a wonderful experience for our students and another facet of international schooling that allows for critical

thinking, public speaking and networking. If you are unsure of what the MUN in Shanghai involved, have a look at a video

CISMUN produced to mark the event: https://youtu.be/ByYMhREQO5k and you there is a link to a report from one of our

attending students in the Secondary section below.

Finally, our Teaching and Learning Assistants (TLAs) have been presenting a professional development event this weekend at

school. The TA JAWS is an opportunity for other TLAs from other FOBISIA schools to come together to share ideas and gain

invaluable learning experiences from each other. Thank you to Mrs Russell for organising and hosting these past two days.

I wish you all a wonderful weekend,

Yours faithfully,

Ian Gross

Principal

Friday 25th & Saturday 26th January: FOBISA JAWS Workshop for TLAs

Monday 28th January - Friday 1st Febru-ary:

Book Week

Tuesday 29th January: Board Meeting

Wednesday 30th January: Year 11 Mock Reports published

Friday 1st February: Chinese New Year Assembly, 10:30am

Primary News

This has been a busy week for Primary! Our older students have been very excited about going to the Primary FOBISIA Games in May, having had their backpacks and t-shirts delivered. Some were even seen wearing them at training later in the week! We have also had a group of ten Year 5 and 6 boys out of school on Thursday with Ms Watt at the MSSD U12 Basketball competition. They battled really well through their first round games, but sadly they were knocked out by very stiff competition from other local KK schools. I would like to congratulate all the boys for their excel-lent sportsmanship and determination throughout the day. They represented KIS very well and made both Ms Watt and their parents very proud! Book Week fever has been increasing. Books were brought in to school for the Big Book Swap on Monday and whispers and mumbles about costumes for the parade on Friday are being heard all around school. Please do not forget our Harry Potter inspired feast on Friday. Please send in to school a small treat to share with the rest of Primary and reusable plates and cutlery, as detailed in the letter sent out from Mrs Walker earlier this week. Finally we have been very busy in school preparing to host our first ever FOBISIA JAWS event. Yesterday and today 30 delegates from around the region are in school for the Job Alike Workshops covering topics like Supporting EAL Students, Strategies to Support Sequential Memory Through Play, How to be an Effectual TA, to name but a few. The Mandarin Department has also been preparing for their Chinese New Year Assembly. If you are free at 10.30am on Friday 1st February, please do join us to begin our celebrations.

Spare Clothes If you have any old clothes that your children have grown out of, and you would be willing to donate them to school to be used as spare clothes for the younger children to use after they have had an 'accident' or have got dirty at school, please can you drop these off at the Pri-mary Office? Many thanks. Mrs Nicky Russell Head of Primary

Weekly Housepoint Totals Another week has gone and with it come the new totals for our Houses. The hard work has continued and this week a combined Year 3 and Year 6 PE lesson has helped each House earn some extra housepoints. Are they enough to tip your child's House into the 1st place position? Let’s find out! Our weekly total across the school is a grand 845 points. Well done to all the students who have helped to make this total! It gives us our House totals as follows: In 3rd place with 257 housepoints is GAYA! In 2nd place with 279 housepoints is SULUG! In 1st place with 309 housepoints is SAPI! Sadly, Gaya have been knocked off the top spot after holding it so convincingly since the start of this term. Congratulations to Sapi who have regained their pole position but can they maintain it? Will Sulug manage to reach the top spot this half term. Lots of housepoints are on offer next week as we celebrate Book Week so let’s see who will be the champion as we finish this half term. GO GAYA! GO SAPI! GO SULUG!!

Housepoint Awards This week again sees our youngest students appearing on the honor roll as we presented 2 more F1 pupils with their Bronze certificates! This week, congratulations go to:

F1 Y1K Y1S

Jade, June Ann Sophia, Angela, Aydan, Azib, Edward, Gas-pard, Janelle, Sean, Luthfi

Hayley, Calvert

I’m excited to see if we can award our very first Gold certificate for 120 housepoints soon. Whose name do you think will appear on that cer-tificate for the very first time? Mrs Sarah Fletcher Year 5 Class Teacher

Secondary News

Year 11 mock examinations finished on Wednesday and the students will have received some of their results by the time this newsletter is published. The Mock Reports will be sent home next week, and the Year 11 Parents afternoon is on Monday 11th February, starting at 3.10pm in the hall. This is a very important event and we hope that all parents will attend. In the interim we will be looking carefully at how well students have performed in the exams and all Secondary teachers have been discussing support/revision strategies that they will employ between now and the actual exams in May/June. In the Heads of Department meeting we have been discussing study leave for Years 11, 12 and 13 and how to students can benefit from it. We will be sending out more information about that to parents closer to the time.

Drop Off and Drop In I would like to thank those parents who attended the ‘Drop Off and Drop In’ coffee morning in the multi-purpose room on Wednesday morning. We were fortunate in that Doctor Nionella Stephen from the Ministry of Health was able to come along and give us a highly informative talk on Hand, Food and Mouth Disease. KIS takes its responsibilities very serious-ly in the area of student health and it was pleasing that Dr Stephen was able to confirm that the actions that we had taken as a school during the outbreak last term were highly appropri-ate. As part of her presentation, Dr Stephen showed us all the correct way to wash our hands, which we all mimed as she showed us the actions that we should take! In addition to

Over-Tired Students We are aware that there are a significant number of students who are arriving at school in the morning visibly tired and definitely not ready for a day’s study. I frequently see boys and girls in lessons who are unable to participate or even listen properly as they are exhausted and spend their time yawning, stretching and putting their heads down on the desk and closing their eyes. Clearly this is disruptive to the learning not only of those particular students but also of others in the class who are distracted by this behaviour. In many cases children are not getting enough sleep because they are spending too much time in the late evening and even well into the early hours of the night on their phones. It makes sense for all such devices [mobiles, tablets, laptops] to be left outside the bedroom once it is time for sleep, a time that is set and adhered to by parents. I will be writing to parents of individual students should this be an issue with their child as I know that they will wish to work together with the school to solve this problem. Parents will of course use their own common sense to establish how much sleep their child needs, but quick research reveals that the National Sleep Foundation states that children aged 6 to 13 need between nine and eleven hours of sleep each night and teenagers aged 14 to 17 should have between eight and ten hours.

Extra Curricular Activities Can all parents [Primary and Secondary] ensure that their child has all the correct equipment with them for the ECA that they have signed up for. It can cause some disruption if children do not have the right kit as it can mean that they cannot join in the activity and need supervision until pick-up time.

Year 7 Trip to HMS Argyll On Friday last week our Year 7 students boarded HMS Argyll, a Royal Navy Type 23 frigate visiting Kota Kinabalu for a few days as she nears the end of a nine-month tour of duty. HMS Argyll is actually quite an old ship, recently refurbished, so there was quite a blend of “old” hi-tech rubbing shoulders with new, cutting edge technology. Students were split into four groups, each guided by HMS Argyll personnel, and treated to a very informative tour of the ship, taking in the Bridge, the Control Centre, the engine control room, the various gun placements on the deck, as well as the ship’s helicopter. Access to these areas was gained through a bewildering array of cramped corridors and steep ladders, so it was quite a phys-ical workout for our students. Year 7 students had no shortage of questions to ask, from the scientific to the so-cial, and they were particularly interested to hear about how the helicopter is used to combat modern-day piracy. Our students were excellent ambassadors for KIS, and were fulsome in their appreciation of the kindness of our hosts. Royal Navy ships are fairly frequent visitors to Sabah and we have asked, in no uncertain terms, to be invited along for the next visit.

Secondary Maths Challenge

The Secondary Weekly Maths Challenge can be found here: http://kismaths.pbworks.com/w/page/125944556/Weekly%20Maths%20Challenge

CISSMUN Conference 16th to 21st January Dania, one of the KIS delegates to the recent Model United Nations conference in Shanghai has written an inspirational account of the visit. This is now on our website and can be accessed here. The students were outstanding ambassadors for our school and it is clear that they have gained a lot from this amazing opportunity to really experience what it is to be a global citizen. Many thanks again for the support of parents, the energy of students and the guidance of Mr O’ Kane and Ms De Sa, the teacher mentors for the trip. Mrs Margaret Renshaw Deputy Principal/Head of Secondary

PE & Sports News

Sport Education in Secondary In Year Seven through to Year Ten, all PE classes have started an intense competition that will last the whole duration of the term. Introduced last year, the students are participating in a Sport Education unit of work. Sport Education is a tool that aims to create real life sporting situa-tions and competitions through core PE lessons. The students will be competing in seasons of Tchoukball, Ultimate Frisbee, Basketball, Vol-leyball and Rounders. The students have been allocated to their teams, they have their own nicknames and have been given important roles such as Team Manag-er, Fitness Coach, Skills Coach, Equipment Manager and Journalist, alongside many more. They have a responsibility for their team and have been doing everything in their power to ensure their team win their respected leagues. Some of the teams have come up with Team Names, Team Logos and Team Chants. Furthermore, some of the teams have even bought their own Team Kit, some use a particular song to warm up to and some have even started their own page on Social Media. Week by week, the teams gain points by competing against other teams in their class. However, points aren’t only awarded by winning games. Teams can generate points through Teamwork, Organisation and Fair Play as well as bonus points for going above and beyond. I have received some fantastic newspaper style match reports and I have seen some fantastic footage of gameplay, which all add points to their team’s total. It’s fantastic to see the students so committed, engaged and competitive in PE lessons whilst understanding the importance of teamwork, communication, problem-solving and sportsmanship. All of the classes are looking forward to the mid-season transfer window and the end of season presentation which will be a huge celebration of their personal and team achievements. Some of the students have told me they would like to wear a tuxedo when collecting their awards, which they have guaranteed me they are going to win. Keep up the hard work and may the best team win. Mr Nathan Walker Teacher of PE

MSSD Update Over the course of the week KIS students have taken part in the first of a series of MSSD events in district wide sports events against other from around Kota Kinabalu.

Three students from Secondary have enjoyed a very successful Badminton tournament. The event, held from Wednesday to Friday at Kom-pleks Likas, involved students from over 12 schools. The standard of competition was incredibly high as you would expect across the board. Heng was unfortunate to lose in the first round of the boys U15 competition in a very close 3 set match. Kon Yi had a strong start his competi-tion winning his first 2 rounds taking him into the Semi-Finals where he unfortunately drew the competition's top seeded player. Unfortu-nately, Kon Yi was eliminated in that match where his opponent was described by Mr. Walker as being “insanely good”. Both boys teamed up in the U15 Doubles competition making it through to the quarter finals. Kon Han was always going to have a tough time of it at only 13 years of age playing in the U15 age group against girls as much as 2 years old-er than her. After a comfortable win in the first round she looked to be sailing but in the quarter final she was drawn against a 15 years old Sabah rep. Despite her best efforts, she was sadly unable to win through to the semi finals. Congratulations to all three students on their efforts and wonderful representation of KIS during the competition. At SJK (C) Shan Tao on the other side of town, 10 boys from Year 5 and Year 6 arrived early in the morning to take part in the U12 Basketball competition. It was a wonderful experience for the team who had not previously played together in any other basketball competitions. The level of play was most impressive from the 12 schools in attendance. Taking to the court in the first game of the day KIS faced up against a bigger and more experienced Yick Nam side. It was a heavily defensive affair for KIS against a very classy opposition with a strong passing and fast dribbling attack. In spite of this, the team threw themselves into the game and demonstrated remarkable resiliency and positivity. In the second game against Simon Fung, it was wonderful to see the boys already showing an increased understanding of the game as well as a continued enthusiastic and never give up attitude. The whole bench was jumping for joy with every basket that was scored! It may have been a day of defeats, but sometimes taking part and doing your best is an even bigger win in competitive sports. In speaking to all the boys, they said they had thoroughly enjoyed the experience and were able to acknowledge the skill and talent of the other teams. They were never without smiles and are already talking about taking part again next year and are keen to work hard in the mean time to improve their skills. Congratulations to the following students: Aaron, Ken Zi, Joshua, Amiel, Tony, Thilal, Victor, Dany, Leroy and Caleb. I’m looking forward to reporting on future news and results from MSSD events over the next couple of months. Please also keep an eye out for notifications of upcoming events. Ms Catriona Watt Head of PE and Sport

Staff Matters

We are very sorry to formally announce that Mrs Sarah Burns, our Head of Admissions and Marketing, will be leaving us in March. Sarah is leaving to taking up a position on the Leadership Team of a British Boarding School in the UK, continuing her work in Marketing and Admis-sions. When I spoke to Sarah she said “It has been a hard decision to make, as we love our life in KK and are thankful for the excellent education the children receive here. But we are looking forward to being closer to our families. My husband, James, will continue to run and develop our tourism businesses remotely, which means we will visit often. So this is not "good bye", but "jumpa lagi"! Sarah has been at KIS since January 2011 and during her time with us has radically transformed and improved our marketing strategy in addi-tion to developing our website, about which we often receive compliments. She has also worked tirelessly with Ms Tina Koroh to keep our admissions protocols current and relevant to local, national and international applicants. Sarah also manages our weekly newsletter and our annual Year Book as well as the many other jobs that inevitably crop up in the course of her day. She is a wonderful and supportive colleague to us all and we are going to miss her. However, this new position is a fantastic opportunity for Sarah and we wish her all the best for her and her family in England. Mrs Margaret Renshaw Deputy Principal/Head of Secondary