KTJ Connect - Secondary School - Term 1 2016

KTJ

Connect

Learning and Growing Together

KEEP IN TOUCH Phone: 06-758 2995 Fax: 06-758 2953 Website: www.ktj.edu.my Email: Principal@ktj.edu.my Annetteharvey@ktj.edu.my Annafournier@ktj.edu.my Sureshnaidu@ktj.edu.my registrar@ktj.edu.my Twitter: @KTJSchool @KTJPrimarySchool @KTJMiddleSchool @KTJSeniorSchool Facebook: KolejTuankuJaafar

Update From the Principal Dear Parents, As we reach the end of the first term, it is worth noting that the school's 25th anniversary year has passed with KTJ's reputation, as one of the leading schools in Malaysia, being firmly cemented in the minds of Malaysian families. Further recognition of the school's progress and standing came in November when I was elected Chair of FOBISIA for the next two years.

It has been a busy and productive term with much happening in and out of the classrooms. In the primary school we have been reviewing the Mathematics Curriculum and are now implementing a more challenging program for the students. We are also in the process of reviewing the Literacy programme in the Primary School, too. The Secondary school has seen much academic success over the past few years, and we are really focussing our attention on improving the success of the IGCSE students.

There have been so many sporting achievements in the past term. Secondary school squash is very strong, with the likes of Sivisangari, Vasudef and Vasundra, all participating at national and international levels. An amazing accomplishment recently by Sivisanagari is to be selected to represent Malaysia in the world series playing alongside Nicole David. As well as the senior squash success, it is very pleasing to note the emerging success of the younger students compiled in the table below, for the Negeri Sembilan squash tournament held in Seremban.

Golf continues to flourish with Winnie Ng playing in the LGPA recently and her brother, Victor Ng, participating in the pro-am tournament immediately before the LGPA. Izzat represented Malaysian Junior golf in India and came away with a clutch of prizes.

At this time of year teachers are thinking about their next assignment and whether they will remain at KTJ or explore new challenges elsewhere. As is usually the case in international schools there will be some movement of teachers. Additional information about which teachers are leaving and who will be replacing them will be shared next term.

For now, I wish you all the very best for the Christmas holidays and look forward to the new year ahead with all its anticipated excitement.

Best wishes, Simon Watson

Senior School Update Dear Parents, Term 1 has been very successful for the Senior School. The Form Four and Lower Six students have had a good start in their respective courses. The Form Five students are gearing to face their trial examination at the beginning of next term and the Upper Six students have been busy with their university applications and preparation for their examination. In fact, quite a number of Upper Six students have received their university offers.

Our Alumni members are playing an instrumental role in helping our current Upper Six students prepare their university applications. Mock interviews via Skype are ongoing between last year’s Upper Six students and current ones.

It is also great to see another two of our Alumni members, Khairul Arifin and Foo Hui Yin, working together to produce a movie called "My Lor Bak", the only Malaysian film to be picked for the Raindance Film Festival 2016. This festival is the Academy Awards (Oscars) and British Academy of Film and Television Arts Film Awards (Bafta) nominee qualifier.

Some important dates to remember for our students who are taking external examinations: • 12 January 2017 - Form 5 trial examination starts • 6 March 2017 - Lower Six and Upper Six trial examination start • 2 May 2017 - IGCSE and AS/A level examination start

We are extremely proud of CJ Ong (standing left in the photo), an alumnus of KTJ who is now studying at Cambridge University. CJ's team won a gold medal, as well as the best plant synthetic biology prize, for their entry into the International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition 2016.

I wish all our Upper Six students a great trip to Outward Bound, Lumut. I am sure they will benefit much from this trip and come back with many positive experiences. I wish all our students a good holiday.

Best wishes, Suresh Naidu

Middle School Update Positive conversations of this nature will help your daughter or son return to school Education breeds confidence. Confi- in January with more determination and a dence breeds hope. Hope breeds concrete plan for their next steps in their education. peace. - Confucius.

Dear Parents,

For me, this time of year is a time when I particularly think about peace: on both an individual and a world scale. The news continues to bring us many reports of situations that are far from peaceful and with the access that all our students have to technology, they will also be aware of continuing turmoil and lack of peace in the world. I remember as a child coming to the realisation that no one person, or no group of people, had the right answer to everything. This was a pivotal moment in my childhood and one that helped me start to understand the importance of learning as a lifelong process, so that as an adult I would be better informed to help make better decisions about ‘grown up’ matters.

Learning new things, reaching new understandings and acquiring as well as improving on skills is what education is all about. You will soon receive a report that defines what progress your child has made in these areas across their different subjects and also the grade at which they are currently performing, according to the KTJ grade descriptors for that subject.

The grades do not mean anything if they are not viewed with the grade descriptors. Talk with your child about what they can do and use the information given to discuss what they need to work on in order to progress further.

Our sportsmen and women have certainly worked on their confidence and skills lately. Since my last newsletter, our Middle School squash players performed well in the Negeri Sembilan Closed Squash tournament. Congratulations to Anura (6th in the girls U15s), Nervena (11th in the girls U13s), Vasudef (3rd in the boys U17s), Vasundhara (3rd in the girls U15s), Hirreshwar (2nd in the boys U13) and Daneshwar (1st in the boys U15s). Congratulations also to the U13 girls football team, who recently won the KLISS competition, which has been taking place throughout this term. In our final inter-house event of the term, cross country, Naquiyuddin won the Junior boys category and Irinah the junior girls.

In term two, the Form 3 students will choose which subjects they will study for IGCSE in Form 4. There is a meeting about this on Saturday 25 February, which I hope all Form 3 parents are able to attend. Also next term, Form 2 students will go on their expedition, to Mersing from Wednesday 8 to Saturday 11 March. Information and permission slips will be sent out about this trip early next term.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all families a very peaceful break. Rest well and enjoy the company of your children.

Best wishes, Anna Fournier

Form 4 Trip to Mersing Last week over 100 of our Form 4 students took up the opportunity to attend a Marine Adventure Expedition just north of Mersing, Johor. This exciting development to our curriculum was designed to complement our students’ academic work and give them greater opportunities to develop leadership and team working skills, push students to extend their comfort zones physically and mentally, promote independence and develop an understanding of the environment.

Students took part in a range of activities, on day 1 they learnt about survival skills and how to build a fire and shelter using only basic equipment. Day one was rounded off with a particularly memorable Night walk through the rainforest, rain being the key word as the heavens opened half way through the walk leaving a very soggy looking Form 4.

Nevertheless this added to the excitement of the walk with lots of students even asking if we could finish off the walk on day 2 or 3!

Over the next couple of days Form 4 undertook a range of adventure activities including abseiling, kayaking and raft building. What was most pleasing was every student’s willingness to push themselves to complete each activity with some students conquering their fear of heights or open water in the process.

The final day of the expedition involved students engaging in community service to give back to the local community in which they had stayed in. Students took part in a beach clean-up of a local beach and surrounding forest area. Some pupils also volunteered to spend some time in a local school, with Ms Ruaida. In the school 15 students from Form 4 donated English resource books, redeveloped one of the Mathematics classrooms and even found time to teach the pupils some lessons.

Again, the students represented KTJ impeccably and showed a commitment to helping others. Each student who attended upheld the standards expected of KTJ students and were a credit to the school. The teamwork, commitment and leadership skills shown were nothing short of outstanding. Well done Form 4!

Form 3 Trip to Hulu Langat On the 21st of October, the form 3 students embarked on a four-day outdoor adventure.

The first day was a long, early day. The first activity after the 3 hour long was ice breaking with our new groups, followed by rock climbing. Rock Climbing was quite difficult for some of us, but a really fun experience. Through rock climbing, we learned to climb, be a belayer, rope manager and supporter for the climber. After Rock Climbing, we went caving. Caving was really fun, yet tiring because we had to buckle and unbuckle our harnesses every five steps. In the cave, we saw century old crystals.

Our second day was water day where we went abseiling. The day started with a tiring 2-hour hike to the waterfall that we’d abseil down. The hike was mostly uphill and was exhausting but it meant that the hike down would be much easier. When we reached the waterfall, most of us went into the freezing cold water to cool off. Two by two we went off to abseil The third day was a day spent on our site. We learned to build shelter, make fires and bread. We made fires using one fire starter, logs and leaves. Three people from each group made bread while we set up the fire and we cooked the bread using the fire we made. After that, we were given a sheet, a mallet, pegs, two sticks and some rope to build our own shelter!

After lunch, we were brought back for a first aid course. There, we learned how to perform first aid in the jungle using things we’d find in the jungle.

We also learned how to stop major bleeding and we even had a hands-on demo where some of us were taken out and came back in with either broken fingers or major bleeding and were treated.

On the fourth and final day, we had The Amazing Race as a competition between the teams. We had to run loads and there were little stations every few kilometres where we had to complete an activity. The activities included passing a rubberband through straws, trying to get a ping pong ball out of a tube using only water-most of us did get wet, a scavenger hunt through the jungle, knot tying and a shape puzzle. The aim of the race was to work as a team, where my team did in fact win.

Overall, the trip was great fun and truly challenged us physically and mentally and strengthened the bonds between all of us!

Form 1 Trip to Gopeng

Form 1 Gopeng Adventure.

Written by Aidan Disney Form 1

When: Tuesday, 28 September to Friday, 1 October Where: Nomad Adventure camp, Gopeng, Perak The bus left KTJ at 7:30 am, but no one was sleepy because we were all so excited. After a three-hour drive, including a short stop to stretch our legs and visit the tandas, the bus arrived in Gopeng. The camp was remote so we needed trucks to complete the journey.

First, we settled in and had makan and then the councilors gave a brief lesson about the history of the tin mines in Gopeng. The rest of the day was filled with fun and games, exploring the area, and most exiting of all, catching fish and foraging for spices that would be part of our evening meal. We all slept like logs that night.

There were too many activities to describe, but some of the most fun included: white water rafting, abseiling, zip lining, and of course, the Leap of Faith at the Mountain School. On the final day we put all our new skills to the test in the Quest for the Magic Fire.

Four teams competed against each other, just like the Amazing Race Asia, except in this case there were no losers, because every one was a winner. Or as our instructors told us: “Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn.� It was a great experience, I learned so much, and if I had the choice, I would definitely go again next year.

Trip to Susan’s Dog Shelter - Broga On the 16th of September, a group of 28 Interactors went to Susan’s dog shelter in Semenyih. It was our first community service of the term and it was a really great way to start the new term. When we reached the shelter, we immediately got to work (after a moment of aww-ing at all the adorable dogs and puppies).

Brooms, washing powder, white wall paint and dog shampoo were distributed to the assigned groups and we all worked as a team to better the living conditions of our lovely four legged friends in the shelter.

We scrubbed the cement floors, painted the walls and bathed the dogs (and also took lots and lots of pictures with the dogs while cooing at them).

With our work there now done, we spent some time relaxing our souls by cuddling with the fresh, nice smelling dogs (after our awesome job of bathing them) and also took a lot of amazing photos which graced our snapchat feeds!

We then returned to KTJ with a contented feeling in our hearts after a therapeutic day with the dogs and a productive day of community service.

Fobisia English Teaching

English Teachers from across South East Asia gathered at KTJ, on Friday and Saturday, the 11th and 12th November for a Job Alike WorkShop (JAWS). The two days were spent peeling onions, stealing grammar, and comparing world leaders to the Macbeths.

The event was organised by Jasmine Gillman, our Head of English, and consisted of a number of one hour presentations by English teachers from across the region, including three from our own department. The range of expertise across a small portion of FOBISEA teachers was striking, and underlined the potential of such collaboration. From classroom literacy projects that reached out to under-privileged communities in Cambodia, to teaching strategies that encouraged pupils to copy from the greats in order to improve their own creative output, the two-day’s worth of sessions were both informative and inspiring. Indeed, seeing how one department, having been given two days off teaching duties, had collaboratively re-written their entire KS3 curriculum, was a lesson to all in the importance of shared visions and goals.

The sessions featured a mix of practical methods that can be used in the English classroom, as well as discussions on some of the more abstract challenges that teachers of language and literature are faced with, such as the importance of context and culture to understanding. Mark Disney’s presentation on teaching Shakespeare made us realise how fortunate we are to have such a plethora of Shakespearean performance on our doorstep at KLPac. A key theme that emerged throughout the workshops was literacy, reflecting the growing importance of our EAL learners in the classroom and how best curricula can engage with their specific needs while also aiming to develop a passion and value for reading and writing, an important feature of the transitions at KTJ from Primary to Secondary, and from middle to senior school.

The KTJ English teachers have already incorporated a number of JAWS inspired ideas into their teaching and are looking forward to two-days off curriculum to revise KS3 planning!

Job Alike Workshop

Chinese Club’s Mid Autumn Festival Mid Autumn Festival Parade In order to celebrate the festival of Mid Autumn, KTJ Chinese Club organised a Mid Autumn festival parade on 16th September 2016. All KTJ students, together with KTJ's staffs were present for this fun-filled parade. Our club's committee and members alike, who had looking forward for this event, were delightfully enjoying the 1 hour event.

The parade started at 7pm after everyone had got their lanterns which are sponsored by school. Everyone had a whale of a time walking from art centre to Naquiah house. Some decided to take a photograph as remembrance while others sang some Mid Autumn festival songs. At half past 8, the parade squad headed to the admin block for some refreshment. School had sponsored around 50 mooncakes, pomelo and Chinese tea to celebrate this festival. The event is followed by a flashmob performed by our club's juniors. At 7.45pm, the event was draw to the end and everyone were over the moon to celebrate the Mid Autumn festival in KTJ.

Nothing is Impossible IGCSE Awards “Nothing is impossible” an excellent inspirational quote by Audrey Hepburn and interestingly, the word ‘impossible’ itself says 'I'm possible'! On 17 November 2016, five Kolej Tuanku Jaafar (KTJ) students made it possible to be awarded as the top in Malaysia in the recent IGCSE, while one of them was nominated top in Malaysia for AS Level. Making us proud are Rachel Lim for Economics, scoring 98/100, Chai Eu Xuen for Accounting scoring 97/100, Kho Jia Wei for French, scoring 97/100 and Tan Mae Leen (ex-Sri KDU International School) for English Literature scoring 98/100 and Athan Siah Zen Hann was awarded top in History for AS Level scoring 94/100.

As Theodore Roosevelt says it “Believe you can and you're halfway there”. This achievement does not stop here, to all the students of KTJ, start believing because your first step as an achiever has just begun. Kudos!

To parents, teachers and friends, you have made it possible for setting the right environment for them!

Alumni Visitor!

One of our recentl alumni, Gerald, came to visit us at KTJ! While he was here, he spoke to

our students about his time in the U.K. and his experience of university life.

We had a chance to catch up with him too, and got to ask him a few questions.

What are the challenges you have faced at University?

Learning how to prioritise, learning whose advice to take, discovering my career interest, learning when and how to socialise.

Did you learn anything at KTJ that has been useful at University?

Learning and respecting people's wide variety of interests, learning that academics are not the most important thing and learning to take opportunities to learn something new.

How did your time in KTJ affect your future?

My KTJ experience was very memorable and positive. The most important thing I learned was non-academic: interpersonal relationships. Also, the blend of the British boarding school experience and Malaysian culture provided a very good gradual transition to studying and living in the UK. What have been your highlights since leaving KTJ? Tennis played a very big part of my university life; playing competitive tennis in nice venues in the UK and captaining the Cambridge tennis team has been a highlight. Also, achieving commendable results in my degree was also very rewarding. Becoming the sports editor of the university student newspaper was an eye-opening experience because I had the opportunity to interview sports personalities in a professional capacity.

What will you do after this?

I hope to become a successful economist and hopefully make a positive difference to people's lives.