IGBIS Newsletter, Issue 259.

Message from the HoS

Elementary School Updates

Secondary School Updates

MYP Graduating Class, 2020

Equality – Driving Social, Racial and Gender Justice

I & S – The Renaissance

Walk the World with IGBIS: Final Results!

Athletics & Activities

Anne Fowles, Head of School

It’s been a busy fun-filled week in school with the Secondary School Student Council initiated Spirit Week. Staff and students alike got into the spirit of all of the themes whether it was Mystery Monday, Tired Tuesday, Who is that Wednesday or some other theme. It certainly made for some interesting moments while I was in the car park in the morning.

On Thursday this week we hosted the second Board of Governors meeting for 2020-21. Our Board Chair, Tan Sri Abu Talib bin Othman, previous Attorney General of Malaysia, presided over the meeting and was impressed by the school’s ability to continue with high quality teaching and learning taking place despite the numerous challenges of the year.

We were very happy to at last hold our MYP Awards so that the students who completed their MYP Certificate in 2020 were presented with the certificate from the IB. This was the second year that students were able to complete the assessments for the MYP Certificate which is equivalent to IGCSE.

Simon Millward, ES Principal

It has been another positive week that started with a great ES assembly sharing on Monday with contributions from our single-subject teachers. It is wonderful to see all of the learning that is happening in the school, not only from these assemblies but whilst I am walking around school.

As the Secondary students have embarked on their ‘Spirit/Community building’ week it has been wonderful to feel the togetherness of students and teachers as they have dressed up. This was supported by our Elementary students on Friday as each class chose their own theme.

EY: PJ’s with crazy hats
KG: PJ’s
G1: PJ’s with crazy hats/hair
G2: Animals
G3T: Sports
G3M: What do you want to be when you grow up?
G3B: Casual and quirky
G4N: PJ’s
G4K: Favourite characters (books, movies, TV, video games etc)
G5H: Famous People
G5T: PJ’s

You will have received notifications through Seesaw about the AIMS Science competition to create your own Rube Goldberg machine. If your children are interested this is a fun activity that they can get involved in during the holiday. All they have to do is create their Rube Goldberg machine and video it in action. All of the details are in the information previously sent to you.

We are working on our organisation of the upcoming Student-Led Conferences, so please watch out for further communication about this.

Lastly, I hope you all have a safe and enjoyable Spring Break holiday. I look forward to seeing all of our students smiling faces on Monday 5th April.

Dates for your diaries

29th- 4th April: Spring Break holiday
Tuesday 6th and Wednesday 7th: Individual student photos.
21st – 23rd April: Gr5 PYP Exhibition (More details to follow)

Sandy van Nooten, SS Principal

Week 11 of semester 2! What a week! Huge thanks to StuCo for organising spirit week. Each day was a different theme and as you can see from the photos below… our community took to it with gusto.

Rob Pendlebury (Head of the Arts) is busy finalising plans for the IB2 Art Exhibition that opens after the break. The exhibition space is being transformed as I type. There will be incredible art to see, and the best part is getting the opportunity to talk to the artists themselves about their inspiration, challenges, and process.

Visitors will also be treated to some recorded pieces from the IB2 Theatre and Music students.

And because Rob and his team do nothing by half, we will also have live music and a drama performance for your enjoyment. The music students are from Gr.11 and 12, the drama performance will be from Gr.9.

Yearbook photos for secondary will be taken on Thursday 8th and Friday 9th April (which is the first week back after the holiday). A detailed schedule will be shared after the break.

On Saturday April 24th, we’ll run our Student Led Conferences. Every student from Gr.6 to 10 will have a teacher mentor who will help prepare them for the day. MYP students are already building their learning portfolios which will be used for part of the conference. The event will be virtual, and each conference will be ~20 minutes long. More information to follow. Please mark your calendar so that you are available to learn from your amazing MYP child.

Hope you have a lovely holiday.

Stay safe.

Lennan MacDonald, MYP Coordinator

We finally had the opportunity to celebrate our MYP Graduating Class of2020 today. This event had been planned and replanned, scheduled and rescheduled due to COVID and SOP’s and the comfort of students being onsite. While a little out of time, the celebration was thoughtful and meaningful and maybe even at times inspirational as our amazing group of 11’s were bid a formal farewell by the MYP and a formal welcome to the DP. The event included an opening address by Mrs Fowles, a surprise, be it an online address from former MYP coordinator Darryl Harding, a borrowed, but most amazing address by David Foster Wallace, called ‘This Is Water’, that you all should youtube and watch right now. It is on the shortlist of smartest things ever said out of a human face – and the following word from yours truly. I hope you enjoy it.

Graduation and Commencement. The terms are interchangeable – yet contain opposite meanings. Two sides to the same coin. The same street – looking off in different directions.

Graduation – is an ending – your MYP story has been written. That journey is over.

Commencement – a beginning – your DP story is still being told – and you hold that pen. Much of that road lies in front of you.

One of my favourite writers, John Irving introduced me to the wonderful idea of being the hero of your own story. He borrowed the idea from Charles Dickens, who, In his novel, David Copperfield said, “Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.”

Well some of your pages have been written, your MYP story has been told – but much of your story lies in front of you – I hope the MYP has helped you to both hold the pen, as well as guide it thoughtfully across the page, so as you author the rest of your story, you can indeed be the hero. I hope the DP is already adding the skills and knowledge to equip you to continue that journey of becoming the best version of yourself you can be.

Turning yourself into who you want to be is the most exciting, worthwhile, rewarding journey of your life. So go a be the hero of your story…

Bon voyage.

Allison Parratt, CAS/Service Learning Coordinator

As we continue to work with the disruption of COVID-19 this academic year, we are constantly on the lookout for exciting new ways to engage our students with Service Learning and intercultural collaboration opportunities.

On the weekend of March 13 – 14, 2021, IGBIS students from grades 10 and 11 participated in the Virtual CAS Conference organized by CAS Trips. The conference brought together a few hundred students from international schools around the world, and featured keynote speakers from leading global organizations, tackling the theme of Equality – Driving Social, Racial and Gender Justice. Keynote speakers included psychologist and gender specialist Anthony Keedi of Abaad and PHD Student and Co-Founder of Physically Active Youth Namibia, Marie-Jeanne Ndimbira. Together, they inspired students from around the world to come together and discuss equality issues, turning ideas into real-life projects to make a change.

In addition to providing a platform to compare and challenge ideas, the conference enabled students to work together in a ‘Charity Hackathon’ format. The aim was for students to develop a long-term solution-focused Service project in response to Rajasthan Samgrah Kalyan Sansthan RSKS India’s urgent and authentic need. While students from IGBIS were competitive in the Hackathon, they fell short of the 1000USD top prize. They have been commended for their knowledge, communication, collaboration and active engagement throughout the conference.

Well done Rahul Kumar, Denny Seo, Fatemah Muneeb Iqbal, Amir Izzat Zahirul, Jaewan Park, Anthony Laurens Veldkamp and Mari Tan! Your willingness to be actively involved in an issue of global importance such as equality is awesome!

Adam Gagan, Subject Leader (Individual & Societies)

Grade 8 finished their Renaissance unit with a bang. We decided to give them a different kind of assessment task to end the topic, one in which they had to apply for the position of the official artist for Lorenzo de’ Medici (he was a famous patron of the arts in Florence during the fifteenth century). The students have learned some of the histories from the Renaissance period and we wanted them to make practical use of it to demonstrate more effective learning. We felt that the job application was the vehicle to do this, particularly because the students had to understand what Lorenzo was looking for in a potential artist. At the same time, the students began to learn about job applications, writing CV’s and cover letters, and delivering a sales pitch to an audience. These are all important skills for both university and career applications.

Cover Letter by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (aka Sacha Legeay van Baars)

A CV/ Resume by Hieronymus Bosch (aka Sophie Vergeer)

Part of Dieric Bout’s portfolio (aka Yuxi Yan)

And finally, a presentation by Jan van Eyck (aka Hannah Wood)

A sample of the Grade 8 assessments was put on display for other students to learn from too. Well done Grade 8, you did an excellent job.

Ruth Spracklan, Athletics Director

First and foremost, well done to everybody for all the steps achieved throughout March! It has been great to see the distances rolling in and seeing the achievements of so many people within our community. I wish we could congratulate everyone who took part but there are just too many of you!

Without further ado, our winning House is…… IGNIS!!

Completing a fantastic 12 out of 16 stops on their way, the reds have stomped their way to victory, hurrah!!

Ignis – 572km

Aer – 533km

Terra – 388km

Aqua – 194km

Overall the IGBIS community walked 1687km! That’s a huge distance, and as a community we should be so proud of our little legs! Make sure to keep moving though, just because the challenge is over does not mean we need to stop 🙂

We hope to make this a yearly challenge, so next time let’s see if we can go even further!

Please continue to keep an eye on the splash page for more House events and points updates!

https://sites.google.com/igbis.edu.my/igbhouses/home

Thank you all for the prompt sign ups! The form is now closed so please ensure to email Mr Ngatai or Miss Spracklan if you have any further requests. Alternatively, come and see us up on level 7 PHE office!!!

We need to spend some time sorting the registers, unless you hear from us then you have all got the clubs which you requested. Information will be uploaded to the Splash page over the break.

Clubs start the first Monday back, 5th April.