The International School Of Penang (Uplands)

TOUCHBASEONLINEThe International SchoolOf Penang (Uplands) SINCE 1955THE I.S.P. SCHOOLS ASSOCIATION (No.2597-V)Monthly News and Features for the Uplands Community and Beyond | March 2011Come On Uplands! We’re off toThe State Championships.pg 2Languages Festivalpg 3Amazing Asia!pg 4-5A Change for the Better:Four Uplanders DuringExperiential Weekpg 6Getting intothe Swim of Things pg 7Trip to the PenangState Public Library pg 8A Rush of Bloodto the Headpg 9A Star in the Star!pg 9World Maths Daypg 10School HouseDoes It Again!pg11

Come On Uplands!We re off toMSSPPNetballTournament23rd and 24thFeb 2011The State ChampionshipsU15 netball game.U18 team.The U18 and U15 teams from Uplands both competed in the MSSPPtournament at Westlands, with superb results.The U18 team played over two days and won all four matchesconvincingly. The team played extremely well together and topdefending from Lise Holmberg and Morgan Nicholson meant thatthe opposition was prevented from scoring on many occasions, withthe team only conceding two goals throughout the entire tournament!Consistent shooting from Shannon Martin and Eliene Vonk allowedUplands to keep their lead in all their matches and the U18 s werewell-deserved champions.The U15 team played all their four matches in one day. The heatand playing on grass courts caught us off guard and this meant thatthe first match was a tight loss, 3-6 to the opposition. We weredisappointed with the loss and with the encouragement from MsGain we were determined to stay focused and play to our maximumeffort.This paid off as our next match was against Tenby and we won bya strong lead, 11-0. Chris Schanz and Nadia Holden were in topshooting form, with Chris making a great goal from the edge of theD . The next match against the Chinese School saw us working reallywell as a team, despite the heavy rain! Mirei Iida played a fantasticgame in the centre position, allowing the team to successfully linkbetween attack and defence. Helena Tan worked tirelessly defendingthe ball, which meant the score line was another convincing win10-1, we are all ecstatic.The final game was a must win situation and the pressure was on,especially as the opposition had not lost a match so far! We supportedeach other throughout the match, and despite some tough umpiringfrom the head umpire, we managed to secure a final win, 6-2. Thisresult meant that there were three teams who had all won threematches and lost one. We weren t sure if we had won at this pointand the umpires had to work out the winners through the goalsscored. It was a tense time and as Ms Gain was explaining the resultsto us we were all really nervous. When we were told we had wonthe tournament we were so happy and all the hard work had paidoff. We were the U15 MSSPP netball champions of 2011!Both teams winning the tournament means we have both qualifiedfor the state championships on 9 April.Come on Uplands!pg2Back to Top

Languages FestivalThe Festival of Languages had the aim of celebratingthe diversity of languages spoken in Malaysia and thepurpose of creating an atmosphere of mutualunderstanding and respect. It was, for Uplands, anopportunity to showcase the languages that we offerand to apply fairly our motto to the very purpose ofthe event. According to the organizers a journey inthe world of languages is endless and every oneventuring into it will meet a great number of doorsto the neighbor worlds outside their nativelanguage.Uplands - A Multilingual Community.Be part of our multilingual communityWe teach 7 languages and speak about 20 more!FrenchrespecterChinese—(zun zhæng)GermanrespektierenSpanishrespetarMalaymenghormatiJapanese(toutobimasu)EnglishrespectBack to Toppg3

Amazing Asia!A trishaw stop......at Fort Cornwallis.The happy Uplands musicians.The Inaugural FOBISSEAPrimary Performing Arts Carnival 2011:Music, Dance and Drama.In October 2009 in Tanjong Bungah, Penang, I had the pleasure ofmeeting fourteen primary music teachers from schools in South EastAsia, to discuss the possibility of a festival of performing arts,spearheaded by Mr. John Jones, Principal of St Christopher sInternational Primary School (SCIPS), Penang. We named it TheFOBISSEA Primary Performing Arts Carnival (FPPAC).For a number of years, the FOBISSEA Music Festival has taken placein November (in Brunei, Singapore, Manila and Hong Kong to namethe most recent venues). This main music festival of the year is achallenging and demanding but highly successful event for advancedmusic students (choral and instrumental) from Year 7 and above,but including some very capable Y6 students. Uplands School hasbeen represented by many students over the years.However, it was felt that there was a need for a similar kind offestival for younger students and recently the goals and aims of ourfirst meeting in 2009 were realized.From 1- 5 March 2011, SCIPS hosted the first FOBISSEA PrimaryPerforming Arts Carnival. This was an exciting event for all concerned.The Carnival was held at Wawasan Open University and we stayedat the Traders Hotel, Georgetown.For the students there were four focus groups: Orchestra; Choir;Dance; Drama: each group led and assisted by experienced musicteachers. The theme of the Carnival was Amazing Asia . Thereforeeach focus group / workshop focused on Asian music, songs ordance.During the three days of the Carnival, each student chose to specializein one focus group and could choose 4 music / dance / drama relatedworkshops. Among the exciting fifteen workshops on offer were:Tinikling (a traditional Philippino dance) led by Mrs Bristow andMartial Arts Choreography led by Mr Ian Johnston. Other workshopsincluded Sumatran and Tabla drumming; Composing Asian stylemusic; Puppetry; Bollywood Dancing.pg4Back to Top

172 students. 16 schools. 9 countries.Each day started with breakfast at 7.30am. After a challenging dayrehearsing and participating in workshops up to 3.30pm, otheractivities included a trishaw ride through Georgetown with a policeescort , (visiting Fort Cornwallis and Khoo Khongsi Clan Houses),beach games, swimming, dinner and entertainment at the HardRock Caf in Batu Feringgi.On the last day we had more rehearsals culminating in The CarnivalCelebration when all four focus groups performed to each other.The standard of performance was excellent. All the teachers wereextremely proud of the students. More celebrations followed in theevening at the Traders Hotel with a Farewell Dinner, presentationsand disco from which it was very difficult to tear away our Uplandsstudents!!As usual at these music festivals the daily schedule is long andintense, but the final concert was outstanding and very professional.It was an extremely tiring but very rewarding week which was enjoyedimmensely by students and teachers. Miss Thomas and I were veryproud teachers, and congratulate the Uplands students for beinghappy, well-behaved, enthusiastic and excellent ambassadors forUplands School. Our congratulations and thanks go to the organisersat the host school, SCIPS, especially Rachael Caine.Mrs Kathleen BristowPrimary Music SpecialistRepresenting Uplands School were: Yu Tong Gan, Hui Ling Teo,Jenny Kim, Hanna Kim, Ria Wee, Maxime van Crombrugge (Y6),David Kim, Oscar Goefron, Jia Ying Ku and Amelie Streller (Y5).Approximately 172 students took part, from 16 schools in 9 countries.For a small fee, if you are interested to see morepictures and hear the students at the Carnival,please contact me for a copy of the DVD.Back to Toppg5

A Change For the Better:Four Uplanders DuringExperiential WeekErnst Wong describes the experiences of his group workingat St. Nicholas HomeExperiential Week for me turned out to be both fun and exciting.During this time my group (Arvin Arumainathan, Andr Cheong,Zack Dang [Zhong]) learnt many things - like how to be more efficientat finishing jobs. Arvin came up with a quote which we found outhe stole from St. Nicholas We walk by faith, not sight .During our time at St. Nicholas Home for the Blind we did manydifferent types of jobs including office work, painting staircases andalso working with the children. Everyone thought that working withthe children was the most worthwhile and exciting job because,although the children were multi-handicapped, they knew how tohave fun and we actually saw a partially blind kid play catch witha teacher there.I can say that our experiences in St. Nicholas have made us changefor the better - like Arvin has finally been able to overcome his feararound handicapped children. In the four day period, we managedto paint two whole staircases, arrange 600+ cassettes, stuck Braillewords on them and we also got to work with the kids and teachthem a bit about music.We thought this experience was beneficial for both us and the kids:we got to learn more about how handicapped people live their livesand the kids there got exposure to more of the outside world.Most worthwhile -working with the kids.pg6Back to Top

Getting into the Swim of ThingsThe take over from Bella to Chelsea.Nawaal swims Butterfly.Swimmers waitingto take the plunge.Ms Amy Hawkins writes about Uplands venture into the challengingworld of MSSPP SwimmingMr Bossler and I took seven Primary students and 25 Secondarystudents to Permata Sports Complex in Air Itam for three days tocompete in the MSSPP Swimming. The students had been traininghard leading up to this event with practices held twice a week from6:30am to 7:30am! There were 82 schools from Penang represented.However most schools only took a few swimmers while we wereproud to take our whole swim squad!The competition was tough, especially when you are against nationalswimmers. The Uplands swimmers showed a positive attitudenevertheless, and swam to their best. On the 2nd afternoon ourU12 Girls won a Gold medal for their Freestyle Relay and again onFriday afternoon they won Gold in their Medley Relay. A great swimby these girls; Ria Wee (Year 6), Dayana Tan, Chelsea Marcombeand Bella Cristol (Year 7). The U12 boys also received a Bronze medalfor their Medley Relay. Their team included: Tillman Kloss (Year 6),Koki Takano, Kai Brand and Henri Wagenbrenner (Year 7). We alsohad an individual medallist, Dayana Tan, who received a Bronzemedal in her 100m Butterfly.It was a great experience for everyone who participated and I hopethey continue to practise hard for our up and coming swim meets.I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the parents whosupported us at this challenging event.Back to Toppg7

Library visit.Trip to thePenang State Public LibraryOn Thursday 13 January, Year 6 went to visit the Penang State Publiclibrary. Mrs Allison, Mrs Teese, Mrs Bernard, Tillman s mom andDorothy s mom came with us to help.Next, Ms Ragini and Ms Fazrizah performed a puppet show abouta mouse and a lion. Then Ms Fazrizah, the woman with the squeakyvoice, told us the story of the mouse and the tiger.The bus was late, so while we were waiting for it to arrive, MrsAllison read us a book. Finally, the bus arrived. We jumped up,scooped up our bags and as quick as lightning, hopped on the bus.I sat next to Nina who was hilarious telling me stories.When we reached the library, we followed Ms Ragini to the storytelling room. She told us about the general organisation, runningand layout of the library. She informed us that there were 44 librariesof different sizes in Penang.We were then shown around the library. We saw the children ssection, which was very impressive, and there was a small cinemaroom upstairs. We had a quick look at the adult selection.We then ate our lunch at a cafeteria. We said our Thank yous andleft the library. When we reached Uplands, I thought I should tellmy parents about the library so that I can hopefully join the locallibrary on Scotland Road in Georgetown.By Hey Gin (6i)pg8Back to Top

A Rush of Blood to Clarence’s Head...A Rush of Bloodto the HeadMusic Reviews > Alt. Rock > ColdplayTouchBase does not normally feature students’ academic work, butthis piece was submitted by Clarence’s Year 8 English teacher as asample of work which today’s students enjoy and which gets themwriting…In 2002, Coldplay released A Rush of Blood to the Head as afollow-up to their debut album - Parachutes. A.R.O.B.T.T.H wasconsidered a commercial success and was what brought Coldplayto stardom. In 2003, it was ranked the 473 in the Rolling StonesMagazine s The 500 greatest albums of all time . Not a bad rankto get, because hardly any modern album got into the list!The album starts off with a gloomy and hard edged piece - Politik ,with magnificent guitar and piano playing. It s then followed by InMy Place , a sad broken-hearted lover s sort of song with a simpleguitar riff, smashing drums and sad-singing . Proceeding In MyPlace is God Put A Smile Upon Your Face , a rather catchy, yetmysterious song.Then we get to a point in the album which most rock-lovers wouldprobably hate - The Scientist . It s a slow ballad (which mostfemales would probably like), but gets catchy at the ending. Trulya masterpiece which can t covered by anyone else except Coldplay!After crying your heart-out with such a beautiful song is Clocks ,an up-beat piano driven song. Another landmark song! It s drivenby a quick piano riff, simple atmospheric guitar riffs in the background,a heavy bass and up-beat drumming. All about time again -A Star in the Star!Jessica is Best in the World at English!Daylight . Daylight starts off with a nice riff (all using the slideguitartechnic). It then proceeds to something too complicated toexplain Moving on, Green Eyes is a simple acoustic/pop piece,which sounds completely off Coldplay s standard style. I d haveto say it s my favourite song in the album, so I would leavethe explanation to you, the reader, to listen to the song and thinkabout it.Yet, another ballad, Warning Sign . It features a slow tempo withsimple guitar riffs and licks (backing guitar playing) and rather sadsoundinglyrics. Suddenly, the album bursts into a raw rock Celticstylepiece - A Whisper with atmospheric synths in the backgroundand smashing cymbals. Then we get back to a slow, gloomy,atmospheric story about revolutions, war, and a A Rush of Bloodto The Head . The echoing guitars and simple piano playing givesan emotional feeling to the listener. Simply an epic song which shard to explain. Then the end WAIT! There s another song!Amsterdam . The song mysteriously named after the capital ofthe Netherlands, which has nothing related to the song itself. It sa slow ballad about someone in troublesome times. Sounds boring?Every song?Just you wait and listen to the entire thing and you ll get what I mtalking about!In my opinion this album deserves a strong five stars because it ssuch a masterpiece which should only be carefully listened to onceto make you impressed.On 22 February, Year 13 student Jessica Quah visited the HolidayVillage in KL for the Cambridge International Outstanding LearnersAwards ceremony.Jessica has been studying for GCE A-Levels in English, Music,Mathematics and Economics since January 2010. Having taken herAS Level examinations in November 2010, Jessica learned recentlythat not only had she scored 100% in her English languageexamination but that this made her number one in the world!“I was really surprised,” commented Jessica, “and delighted, ofcourse.”Such was Jessica s achievement that it drew the attention of TheStar newspaper a few days ago. A photograph of Jessica appearedunder the headline Feeling on Top of the World.Jessica hopes to go to the USA or the UK when she graduatesUplands in June this year in order to take a combined degree inMusic and English with creative writing.Uplands is proud of Jessica and takes this opportunity tocongratulate her.Jessica, best in the world...Back to Toppg 9

World Maths, World Costumes.Year 1 guessing how many beads...World Maths DayWorld Maths Day takes place for students all around the worldcompeting against each other with mental maths problems on aprogram called Mathletics. This year it took place on Tuesday,01 March. The Primary students were very excited as they arrived toSchool in a traditional costume from their country or clothes torepresent the colours of their flag. Each class was allocated a timein the ICT room for children to log onto Mathletics and competeagainst other students worldwide. At the end of the day each classhad a certificate to award the student with the highest percentageof accuracy played throughout their games.Alongside the Mathletics there was a competition for each yeargroup. Years 1-3 had to guess the amount of objects in a jar. Theclosest estimation from Year 1 went to Azeez. In Year 2, Subin hadthe closest guess of the number of cubes in the jar. In Year 3 HoongLee estimated the most accurately with the amount of units in a jar.Well done to all the students who were risk takers and took part inthis competition!The students in Years 4-6 had a maths trail to complete during theirlunch break. Many students participated and enjoyed the problemsolving. The trail took them around the School and worked togetherin a team of four.Different activities were also taking place throughout the day duringtheir maths lessons. The Year 4 s were learning about Estimation.Mrs Sparks had prepared many jars for the students to use differentmethods to estimate how many objects were in each jar. The masterof estimation from their class was Noah.It was a fun-filled mathematical day for everyone in Primary and welook forward to celebrating again next year.Ms HawkinsAnd SecondaryOur Secondary students also competed against other˚students fromaround the world. Over the competition˚we managed to answer animpressive 109,531 questions correctly. Congratulations should goto 32 students who managed to answer over 1000 questions each.Congratulations to the following students for their excellent results:˚NameTotal answersQi Yun (Kelvin) Yeoh 4701Yi De Fong 3438Chika Kalam 3289Boon Kiat Teo 3151Brandon Chong 2987Maayez Iman 2707Shihori Kawamura 2638Regina Ng 2347Yoon A Kim 2143NameAnswers in 1 minuteQi Yun (Kelvin) Yeoh 70Fahim Mohammad 68Kohei Maruyama 66Dylan McBurney 64Yi De Fong 61Nicholas Ng 60Thomas Hofmann 60Jastine Saguisa 59Maayez Iman 57˚Hopefully next year it will be bigger, better and maybe one of ourstudents can make the top 100 students from around the world fortheir age category.Mr ElsegoodBack to Toppg10

School House Captainscelebrate back to backCross Country wins.Reesha readyto prove that she isindeed Superwoman!Colourful Cragcompetitors get extramarks in the stylestakes.Primary students put inextra effort near the endof their race.1st Nawaal Imam,2nd Victoria Kessler and3rd Sandrine Guillou posewith their medals onthe podium.School House Does It Again!Cross Country 2011Primary and Secondary students gathered at the Botanical Gardenslast month to compete in the annual Cross Country. Reigningchampion School House was determined to see off the challengeagain from Crag and Hill Houses. As with the secondary sports day,students came expertly decorated in their house colours of red, greenand blue. The start and finish area had changed from the bandstandarea, to conserve the grassy areas of the gardens. This meant thatstudents would need to sprint, run, jog or maybe crawl uphill tocomplete the race, which may determine whether students wouldgain or miss out on a medal, or, more importantly, the trophy fortheir team.The day began with Years 1, 2 and 3 leading the way in the 1kmfun run. Teachers and parents ran alongside to spur on those withlittle legs , with what may have seemed a marathon to some. Years4, 5 and 6 completed the same 1km loop, although certain studentswent off piste . Nevertheless, all those students who gained a place,regardless of the route they ran, were issued with a medal.to be a lot of blue winners, yet the red and green of Crag and Hillwere still giving their best to wrestle the trophy from School House.Mr Mueller, representing Crag house, stormed home to take theparents race, leaving many students with an image of his footprintsbehind.After all the points were allocated and medals distributed, it wasagain to be School House s year. Secondary house captains LewisChai and Vidushi Bhargava (in the absence of Sashi Chiesa) andprimary house captains Masayuki Sugimoto and Alicia Saxon happilycollected the trophy from Dr Horsfall.Many thanks to all those teachers, parents and students who assisted,supported or took part in this year s event and to Sunquick forsponsoring the drinks.Mr Bossler – Head of Faculty for Physical EducationSecondary students in Years 7, 8 and 9 and Years 10, 11, 12 and13 (plus parents!)ran 3km and 4km respectively. There appearedBack to Toppg11

All houses come togetherto celebrate their achievements at theCross Country 2011.The International SchoolOf Penang (Uplands)THE I.S.P. SCHOOLS ASSOCIATION (No.2597-V)www.uplands.orgJalan Sungai Satu, Batu Feringgi, 11100 Penang, Malaysia.Tel: (6)04-881 9777 Fax: (6)04-881 9778 E-mail: info@uplands.orgBack to TopAccredited by the Council of International Schools and the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. An examination centrefor Cambridge International Examinations, Edexcel International and the International Baccalaureate. Member of The Federationof British International in South and East Asia & British International Schools Worldwide. Member of AIMS. Member of the BoardingSchools Association.R