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To all in the Uplands Community,

Next week Mr. Craig

Skinner will be

completing his

contract and leaving

Uplands School after

8 years. Mr. Skinner

has been appointed

to a school in Perth and

will be relocating to Western Australia. It is not possible to list

all Mr. Skinner’s roles, achievements and accomplishments

whilst he has been at Uplands but there will be several

opportunities for us as school to thank him during the next

week. We wish Craig and Mel every success in their careers as

they start a new chapter in Perth.

Today we have also said goodbye to Ms.

Joyce Khoo, 3S’s Class Teaching Assistant.

Ms. Khoo has been with Uplands for over

16 years! Having worked at Kelawei

Road and in Batu Ferringhi she is one of

Uplands longest serving staff members

and has seen firsthand many changes in

Uplands. Ms. Khoo is moving to Kuala

Lumpur. We wish also wish her every success in her move.

Do keep in touch, we will miss you both!

Yours sincerely,

Matthew Bristow

Principal

Contents Message from the Principal Universities & Careers Drama Department ICT Department English Department Primary School News Uplands Roar CAS Action Geography Department DSS UPTA News Upcoming Events Academic Term Dates 2016-2017

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Primary News

Today we said farewell to Ms Joyce Koo. After 16 years at Uplands, Ms Koo will be moving to

KL. Thank you Ms Koo and our best wishes go with you for the future.

This week we welcomed 2 new staff members in Primary – Ms Shobhanambigha Sivaguru,

Assistant in 3s and Ms Razlina Binti Abdul Rahim, Primary Library Assistant.

Congratulations to our Year 5 girls; Zephai Gabo, Karoline Hilkjaer and Vruksha Venkataramana

who represented Uplands in the MSSPP Swim Event on Wednesday.

On Thursday Year 3 children visited the Museum and Fort Cornwallis as part of their current

unit of inquiry.

Today and tomorrow a large number of Primary students have the opportunity to take part in a

multisport event with other International Schools in our area. Have fun and enjoy the event!

Primary Sharing Assembly: Our next sharing assembly will be on Monday 22nd February, hosted

by Year 4. The assembly begins promptly at 2:00pm in the foyer. Parents are invited to attend.

Year 5 KL Residential – There is much excitement amongst the Year 5 students as they prepare

for their KL residential trip next week. Staff attending – Ms Kaur, Ms Dang, Ms Nicholson, Mr.

Naidoo and Mr. Moore. We depart on Wednesday morning and return on Friday afternoon.

Learning Journeys – Today your child should have received a brochure detailing all about

Learning Journeys which are scheduled for Wednesday 9th March. Please return the last page of

the brochure to class teachers as early as possible so we can confirm your child’s Learning

Journey time. Learning Journeys will be held during the school day on Wednesday 9th March.

Please note that regular classes do not happen on this day. Parents will come to school with their

children at the scheduled time for their Learning Journey, which lasts approximately one hour.

Alison Nicholson

Head of Primary

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University Visits

Inviting all parents and students in Year 10 to 13 to seminars from the following universities:

University of St Andrews

Tuesday, February 23, 12:30pm – 1:10pm

F206

University of Dundee

Thursday, February 25, 12:30pm – 1:20pm

B105

Hawaii Pacific University

Thursday, February 25, 12:30pm – 1:20pm

F206

Portland State University

Thu, February 25, 12:30pm – 1:10pm

C101

Arizona State University

Friday, February 26, 12:30pm – 1:20pm

F206

See you there!

Mr. Mitchell

UK University Fair in Penang

The annual British Council University Fair will be taking place at the G Hotel on Tuesday March

1st and is usually host to 30 + institutions.

On February 29th, a dozen of those universities will be available here at Uplands in the MPH for

questions from parents and students.

1200-1:30pm

MPH

See you there,

Bill Mitchell

Head of Pastoral and Universities & Careers

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Parents, can you help us with Hosting?

“The International Schools Theatre Association (ISTA) is an international arts organisation. They are committed to providing high quality experiences that develop creative learning and internationalism through theatre. ISTA value diversity and collaboration, celebration and play, friendship and collegiality.”

Uplands have been chosen to host a Middle School ISTA Festival this coming April. Unlike FOBISIA events, we will be looking for families to host these students, and this is where your support would be greatly appreciated! There will be approximately 85 students arriving from six international schools. We are looking for families to host two overseas students for 3 nights from Wednesday 20th April until Saturday 23rd April. This is a fantastic intercultural opportunity, for your child to make new friends from other international schools within the region.

If you are able to help as a host for this event, please contact Daniel Naidoo, our Uplands ISTA Student Housing/Hosting Coordinator on daniel.naidoo@uplands.org or Alison Hurst, Head of Drama on alison.hurst@uplands.org

Drama Festival at Uplands…coming soon!

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If you love Drama…

We are excited to announce a valuable opportunity for students to participate in the ISTA Middle School Festival here in Penang. There are limited places and the festival has already ‘sold out’ for overseas visitors! We now have 25 spaces available for our Uplands students.

The theme of our festival is ‘The Unknown’ Ernest Z’s Penang street art pops out from unexpected places, surprising you as you walk. From the ordinary to the unusual he brings the grey, worn walls of the streets to life with his quirky work. How can theatre make the ordinary extraordinary? How can we bring a spirit of adventure to the mundane? How do we look again at our lives and see them afresh, making them new through art? This festival will explore how theatre can make an audience think in new ways about things they have taken for granted or never even noticed. The cost of the three day festival is RM 980, which includes an out-and-about trip to Georgetown, festival t-shirt, student disco, all theatre workshops, lunches and snacks during the day, and two workshops with local theatre artists. Please contact Alison Hurst Festival Coordinator for an application letter. Find me in F208 or email alison.hurst@uplands.org

Uplands Junior Excel Expert.

At Uplands school, students are required to learn new academic computing skills every year.

They develop skills in programming, spreadsheets, database management, web-authoring and

software integration.

Many students have demonstrated a high level of self-discipline and independent learning skills

while completing the Spreadsheet unit of work. They have completed all the tasks required for

their year group and beyond, and they have started to work on the spreadsheet features,

functions and formulae required by the Year 10 IGCSE ICT Syllabus. In particular, the following

students have achieved excellent outcomes:

Rishabh Ramesha SUVARNA (Year 7), Michael LIAO (Year 7), Tylor Park (Year 8), Yu Jia Phor

(Year 8), Tae Su KIM (Year 8), Tathagato Mukherjee (Year 9), Faustina Santhana Dass (Year 9),

Kaori Jasmine Weightman (Year 9), Daniel Jun Wei Giam (Year 9), Doris Fang Sin Chew (Year 9),

Dylan Huck Phin Ch’ng (Year 9), Desiree Li Yin Tan (Year 9), Emily Liao (Year 9)

Well done and keep up the good work!

Robin Liao

Head of ICT Department

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Roar Sport

It has been a very busy past couple of weeks, with a huge number of our students representing

the school across a whole range of sport. First, we had the Senior Invitational Football/Basketball

Tournaments with schools from KL and Phuket travelling to Penang. Uplands performed

fantastically well to bring home all 4 trophies!

At the same time our Swimmers were over in Phuket for the FOBISIA Swim Meet, with Uplands

again showing that it is quality that counts and not how big your school is. Full results from both

of these events can be found on the Roar website.

This week our Swimmers took part in the Penang State MSSPP Meet held at the newly

refurbished Spice Arena in Bayan Baru, with Uplands having a great tradition of performing

particularly strongly in the relay events. Full results will follow next week.

Our Primary students have not been left out. 56 of our Year 3 to 6 students have been taking part

in an Inter-School Athletics meet this afternoon involving the other International Schools on the

island as well as the British School from KL. Tomorrow they will take part in Swimming, TBall

and Football, all of which will take place at Uplands.

For more information regarding our Roar Sports Programme please go to:

www.uplandsroarsport.webs.com

And for the most up-to-date information regarding things like pick up times, late cancellations

etc., please use our Roar Sport Twitter page at: @UplandsSport

Weekend Sports Programme

Remaining Term 2 sessions will take place on the following dates:

Sunday 21st & Sunday 28th March

Sunday 6th & Saturday 12th April

Dean Metcalfe

Head of PE Faculty

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What’s up CAS? What is it exactly…? Good question! Let’s start with Creativity. Basically, we learn

and develop skills in the Arts and other areas that we want to know more about (all

the fun and exciting things, thinking outside the box to be creative in lots of different

ways!). For Activity the basic idea is to get physical, so get fit, be fit, and stay fit!

Service is generally composed of finding out what our local and school-based

communities need and working with them to help achieve it.

What’s been happening recently? Well, Term Two has started and CAS activities

are back up and running. Karate? Yoga? Football? Teaching at Laura’s school? Or

even acting in the new Blood Brothers production, our CAS activities cover it all.

So what’s the point? CAS is the part of IB that is the most fun. It may be a step back

from academics, but it’s a step forward to being open-minded, caring, and balanced

(and covers all the other sections of the IB Learner Profile too) outside of our

classrooms!

This Week’s Special

Mural, Deaf School Art Project and teaching at Laura’s School

Let’s start with our mural… One group of the Do Something Society (DSS) decided to bring a

little bit of Penang’s local culture inside our school walls. As international students we can all

agree that being internationally-minded includes knowing about our surroundings. The Penang-

themed mural in the canteen is still a work in progress, but, coming soon, a picture showing the

full potential of our artistic CAS students!

Next up we have the Deaf School… Every Tuesday after school, eight Year 12 students visit the

Deaf School in Tanjung Bungah to work on a joint Art Project with a group of deaf children aged

between 7 and 12 years old. Whilst developing their artistic creativity and learning about outer

space through designing and producing a big mural of the Solar System, the children are also

exposed to young people from different backgrounds who can hear. As boarders, the children

are very used to living in the deaf community, and their Head Teacher, Mr Norhisham, is keen

for them to have new experiences with new people in readiness for when they leave school.

Recent sessions have included making Star Wars – themed bookmarks, origami and learning

how to shade and colour.

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Moving on to Laura’s School… The main objective for the twenty CAS students who are

working with local children four days a week at Laura’s School is to help teach English and

introduce them to the world outside of Batu Ferringi. Demand is high as the children at Laura’s

School love their lessons with Uplands students!

Report by Natalia Prendke and Selina Eshie

+

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To all the dear Year 11 students who are still confused about whether or not to become IB

Geographers, refer to the link below:

http://www.thegeographeronline.net/why-should-i-study-ib-geography.html

Any further clarifications can obviously be sought during the IB information evening…..

See you in our IB Geography Class of 2016-2018! :)

Mr. Andy North Mrs. Ingur Shefalika

Head of Faculty- Humanities Head of Department- Geography

UPLANDS TALENT SHOW – Friday 11th March!

Uplanders!

The DSS will be organising a Talent Show to showcase our school’s rising stars. Do you have a

talent and want to show it off? This is your chance to come and be a star while supporting a

great cause! There are many categories that you can choose from to allow your talents to shine

including dancing, singing, magic, and anything else you can think of! For those who are

interested, sign-ups are available during break and lunch from the 22nd to 26th of February,

in front of the cafeteria, and there'll be an additional sign-up sheet on the DSS board as well.

Auditions will take place at lunch times in the music room and will be announced the following

week.

The Uplands Talent show will take place during Arts Week on the 11th of March 2016, in the

Multi-purpose Hall, from 5pm to 7pm. It will be a brilliant evening filled with surprises and

excitement. You will also be amazed by our selection of panel judges. On top of that,

scrumptious finger foods and thirst-quenching beverages will be sold for you to enjoy the show

at its best.

Parents and friends are welcome to support their loved ones! Tickets will be available in front of

the cafeteria at break and lunch times as well as on the night before walking in. Tickets will be

based on seating arrangements; the front 3 rows will be sold for RM10 while the rest of the seats

are sold for RM7 and funds raised will be donated to Crystal Family Home, a voluntary

organisation that provides residential care for children who need a home. Not only will your

contribution be for a good cause, but we assure you that it will be a memorable evening too!

Kyling Saw, Vanessa Gehrig and Eashan Sharma

DSS Leaders

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Pizza Evening: Our next social gathering is now confirmed for a PIZZA EVENING at SIGI’s Bar and Restaurant@

Golden Sands Hotel on THURSDAY 25th February 6.00-8.00PM. This is more of a social event

compared to our Coffee mornings, and children are also welcomed. This is an open invitation

for Parents, Teachers, School Leadership Team and Governors to attend. There will be free pizza

and soft drinks for all, with access to extended happy hour prices. If you are able to make this

event it would be appreciated if you can RSVP to pizza@upta.my

Clubs: All our Social and Sports clubs are back up and running for this term, as listed below. These clubs are open to all Parents and Staff of UPLANDS School. If you are interested in joining these clubs please email beforehand, to contacts below, to be added to their weekly mailing list. Additional clubs are in the process of being set up for next term. If you are interested in setting up a new club please contact activites@upta.my

Monday Football 8-9pm on the Astro Turf @UPLANDS- football@upta.my

Tuesday Ultimate Frisbee 5.30-6.30pm on the Astro Turf @ UPLANDS- frisbee@upta.my

Wednesday Badminton 5.30pm-7.00pm in the Sport Hall @UPLANDS- badminton@upta.my

Thursday Art & Craft 8.30am-11.30am in School Canteen @UPLANDS- craft@upta.my

Saturday Cycling 9.30am, meet outside UPLANDS- cycle@upta.my

Community Privilege Programme:

Regarding our UPTA Community Privilege Programme list of vendors, please refer to last week’s newsletter or 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 community@upta.my Minutes: Please note all the UPTA Committee meeting’s minutes are available to all its members on request at any point in the year, and will be summarised in an annual report for our AGM which will be made available to all our members. The annual AGM date will be announced for some time in April before the Easter Holidays. If you would like to receive any of our past minutes on request, please email minutes@upta.com

If you are interested in the UPTA, it’s Committee, what we do, and ANY general help about life in PENANG, please email committee@upta.my

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Parent Meeting, Year 5 Residential Trip

2:00pm, Year 5s classroom Friday, 19 February 2016

Primary Multisport Weekend 19 & 20 February 2016

Primary Multisport Weekend Friday, 9 & Saturday, 20 February 2016

Primary Sharing Assembly hosted by Year 4 Monday, 22 February 2016

Year 5 KL Residential Wednesday, 24th – Friday, 26th February

Inter-House Cross Country @ Penang

Botanical Gardens Saturday, 27th February 2016

KTJ Multisport Event in KL Friday 4th to Saturday 5th March 2016

PSAC U13 and O15 Basketball Tournaments Saturday 5th March

Primary Sharing Assembly hosted by Year 5 Monday, 7 March 2016

Primary Learning Journeys Wednesday, 9 March 2016

Year 6 Maths Challenge – KL – Nexus College Thursday, 17 & Friday 18 March 2016

U13 FOBISIA Games Thursday 17th to Sunday 20th March 2016

Primary Sharing Assembly hosted by

Reception and Year 1 Monday, 21 March 2016

Secondary Inter-House Swim Gala Tuesday 22nd March 2016

Primary Swim Gala, Year 4 sleep-over 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

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New Student Orientation Friday, 12th August 2016

Start of Term 1 Monday, 15th August 2016

Mid Term Break Monday-Friday, 17th-21st October

End of Term 1 Friday, 16th December 2016

New Student Orientations Monday, 9th January 2017

Start of Term 2 Tuesday, 10th January 2017

Mid Term Break Monday-Friday, 20th-24th February 2017

End of Term 2 Friday, 31st March 2017

Start of Term 3 Monday, 17th April 2017

End of Term 3 Friday, 23rd June 2017

New Student Orientation Friday, 11th August 2017

Start of Term 1 Monday, 14th August 2017