Panaga School June-July Newsletter

Panaga School Newsletter Featuring this issue:

Issue 41, June - July 2013

International Community Day

Panaga School Brunei Darussalam Jalan Utara, Seria, KB3534, Brunei Phone: +673 3372139 Fax: +6733373028 Web: www.panagaschool.com

Showcasing Panaga School’s rich multicultural diversity

Message from the Principal As I was flicking through the Yearbook last weekend, I was staggered by the amount of learning that has taken place this year. The children here certainly receive a rich and stimulating environment in which to flourish and grow. There are so many warm moments in the Yearbook that it is difficult to isolate just one event that epitomises and encapsulates all that we believe to be important in educating children. Instead, the whole book reminds us of the role we play and the rich, challenging diet that all of our students receive. And, the important role we all provide in developing our children.

As this school year closes, we have several staff and students leaving. It is clearly an emotional time as members of our community move on to fresh challenges. We are positive that the learning experiences at Panaga will have prepared the students for the challenges that will inevitably lie ahead. We have 10 staff departing this year, a typical number in a school of this size. Last year we had 12 new staff arrive at the beginning of term one, which later increased to 15.

The teachers departing at the end of this year are: Stephanie Heaton, Sarah Josefsen, Sam Egan, Yvette Muysson, Anita De Wilde, Jenny Dunlop, Kathryn Carter, Paul Deelen, Julie Bonner and Craig Heaton. They all go with our best wishes and we hope to hear exciting stories about their new schools and locations.

At the current time, we have 18 new staff arriving next school year. We also have a new management structure in place that will enable us as a school to continue developing our focus on learning; ensuring that staff are able to engage in the learning process with even more focus. With the new expansion due to come on line in term one, we have a busy few months ahead of us. We will keep providing you with updates as events occur.

I would like to close by thanking several people for their unstinting support over this year. The Panaga School Board, led by Hj Kamaludin, have been instrumental in making several changes to the school’s structure and increased personnel. These changes will all result in moving the school forward. Thank you to all members of the We bid a fond farewell to our leaving Board. teachers, all of whom have made key contributions to the school in their time I would also like to thank the PTA for here. I would like to thank them for the their support. Over the last year, they dedication and commitment they have have successfully orchestrated sevgiven to the school. Teachers at eral key events taking place in school.

Panaga School always give a little bit I am looking forward to September extra and I believe our leaving teach- and making the move into the new exers have all played their part in adding pansion. Until then, I wish you all a an extra dimension to what we offer. safe and relaxing break.

Not just working with the children, but through their role in the wider commu- Best wishes, nity.

Tim Robinson

Inside this month’s issue: Page 2 International Community Day - a kaleidoscope of colour and entertainment Page 3 Pre-Nursery Celebrates International Community Day Page 4 IP5’s Survival Night Page 5 ♦ P6 Kota Kinabalu Residential Trip ♦ The last Remote Control Friday of the year!

Page 6 PTA – Review of the Year’s Events and Activities Page 7 Books Alive!

Page 8 HSE Day Page 9 Special curriculum feature: The how and why of making iPod/iPhone apps Page 10 ♦ Primary 1 - Treasure ♦ Yi Jing is crowned the winner Page 11 Peer Scaffolding - P4 and P7 Page 12 A Neon Night to Remember Page 13 Farewell Teacher Leavers

Quote for the month: "Goodbyes are not forever." Goodbyes are not the end. They simply mean I'll miss you, until we meet again!" - by Author Unknown

Newsletter designed and edited by Damian Brady

Panaga School Newsletter International Community Day - a kaleidoscope of colour and entertainment On Friday 28th of June 2013, Panaga School held its annual International Community Day. Sincere thanks for the huge commitment and support of parents, teachers, children and the wider community for providing fabulous food, music, dancing, costumes and activities; which all made International Community Day again so memorable.

The event was a ‘roundthe-world’ adventure as each participating nationality group ran their own stalls/activity area. Also from time to time, stirring sounds of backpipes and angklungs filled the air, fusing with enticing aromas from a variety of home countries’ food on offer.

To conclude the day’s festivities, assembly performances from the following nationality groups once again proved engaging and very entertaining: Brunei, Malaysia, India, ‘International Band‘, ‘Former USSR’, Indonesia, Philippines and Scotland.

Special thanks goes to the Bruneian theatre group, Kumpulan Putra Seni, many of whom travelled from Bandar to perform a captivating local dramatic piece.

The day proved we certainly are a world united in learning....and fun!

By Damian Brady on behalf of the International Community Day Committee

Panaga School Newsletter

Pre-Nursery Celebrates International Community Day On Friday 28th June, Pre-Nursery celebrated International Community Day, along with the rest of the school. The parents did the most amazing job of transforming the Pre-Nursery into an 'Around the World' feast for the senses.

The children made Malaysian kites, Indonesian decorations, Indian Rangoli patterns, Scottish kilts, Australian dot paintings, coloured and played with Russian Matryoshka dolls, had their hair braided in African style, played a Dutch game eating biscuits, dressed in beautiful Indian clothes and looked at some Brunei ancient treasures.

They then watched an amazing dance performed by the Pre-Nursery children from the Indian community, supported by their parents and to end the celebration, shared a delicious banquet of foods from all over the globe.

It was a truly International morning that was enjoyed by everybody involved.

By the Pre-Nursery team

Panaga School Newsletter P5’s

On the evening of the 20th June 2013, the children of IP5 stepped into the unknown world of the deepest, darkest jungle not knowing what strange encounters they would have, leaving many wondering: would they survive to see their parents again!?

At 2:45pm, the children of P5 started the long march into the jungle, carrying only the most basic survival equipment of sleeping bags, a change of clothes and teddy bears. Led by their intrepid teachers, they eventually arrived at their destination, Number 49’s back garden.

The children looked around in awe at the campsite as they were welcomed by Sergeant Basanta of the Gurkha Battalion.

All around the campsite, the Gurkhas had set up a variety of jungle survival activities to help teach the children survival skills. Before the activities, Sergeant Basanta insisted that we all applied our camouflage paint to our faces, much to the delight to the children and some teachers! We all then split into our groups and navigated our way to each of the activities.

The children had great fun learning how to make jungle shelters, how to start fires, how to collect water; as well as navigation skills, jungle food and the equipment that the Gurkhas use.

into ‘boys’ and ‘girls’ groups and headed to our large 40man tents and climbed under our mosquito nets. We were in for a long, hot and sweaty night as it was very humid.

Many of the children fell asleep quickly but a few struggled to sleep until the early hours of the morning.

The excitement really increased when the Gurkhas demonstrated the various methods of how they trap animals in the jungle. The star of the show was the chicken that was used as bait in one of the traps. At one point we all thought that it had died, but we were all very relieved to find out that it had only fainted when it came back to life after five minutes. We are unsure of the condition of the brave teddy bear though.

At 6:00am, the teachers woke us and we quickly washed, changed and packed up or sleeping bags, ready for breakfast and our morning survival swimming training.

We thanked and waved goodbye to the Gurkhas and the Marnochs and marched our way to the Panaga Club, where we all enjoyed a breakfast of cereals and pancakes.

After breakfast, Mr Paul and his team taught us life saving techniques in the water and how to swim with blacked out goggles under the water.

After swimming, we all tiredly marched back to school. Survival night was over and we When we had completed the all ..............SURVIVED! activities, we all had a rest, Quotes sat round the campfire and Aoife – “My favourite part listened to the Gurkhas singwas the camp fire and food; it ing traditional songs and perwas so delicious.” form a traditional knife comElla – “My favourite part was bat display, as the sun went cuddling up in Mansi’s bed.” down. We then all shared our Owen – “I liked the Night Vievening meal, prepared by sion goggles the best.” the soldiers, of vegetable Aryan – “The best part of surcurry and rice. After such a vival night was when we went long day, it tasted delicious. on the jungle safari in the When it was pitch black we night with the night vision gathered into our groups goggles.” again to embark on our night Selby - ”The food was more safari. Everyone was so keen delicious than we expected.” to use the night vision mo- Sakshi – “It was fun sleeping nocular, which illuminated the next to Miss Jenny!” darkness to a strange green Mia – “The campfire was colour, but made it possible to really welcoming.” see objects hidden in the jun- Hridyansh – “The Ghurkas gle very clearly. We all also took us on a fascinating adenjoyed the night observation venture!” competition to see which Priya – “I loved learning how group could use the night vi- to save people’s lives in the sion equipment the best. pool.”

We returned back to camp, Daniel – “I’d never seen guided by a glow stick path, someone attack a chicken tired and ready for bed. After before. I was fascinated.” a quick wash, we separated

By Mr Rue

Panaga School Newsletter P6 Kota Kinabalu Residential Trip 10-13 June 2013

By Mr Dermot

Ah, yes, sleeping on hammocks under the Sabah stars in the Great Outdoors – how much better can it get?

Highlights (in the eyes of the children): Hammocks, Open Space, Activities & Games, Mari Mari Culture ViIlage, Wetlands Centre, Lok Kawi Wildlife Park, Talent Night, Visit to Local School and the Cable Suspension Bridge.

The last Remote Control Friday of the year! that reflect the latest innovations and developments in the ‘real world’ of aviation and technology. See below, their miniature Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey look-alike:

On Friday 28th June, we put the ‘chocks back on’ our Remote Control Friday Fests for this academic year.

Since we first got together a number of children acquired remote control gadgets for the first time; some ‘upgraded’, while others, like Syasya (P6) and brother Alif (P7), went all out to find the latest in remote control toy technology; flying machines

While helicopters, more challenging to operate, appear to outnumber cars in this group of children, among our earthier 4wheeled road-going category however the Lamborghini definitely retains poll position - our Driver’s Car of Choice!

By Mr Dermot

Panaga School Newsletter PTA News Newcomers’ Coffee Morning

PTA – REVIEW OF THE YEAR’S EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES

Social Night Around 150 parents and teachers took up the invitation to mingle and chat at this informal event, hosted at No. 49.

Mellow music played and tasty homemade snacks were served.

Parents of children who joined Panaga School mid-way through the academic year were invited to a ’Welcome Coffee & Chat’ in January, hosted by Principal, Tim Robinson and some members of the PTA.

Disco A sell-out event!

Around 300 children from P1-P8 bopped and ‘danced-off’ from 4.308pm in Teraja hall.

Raised: $1,081

Raised: $555

Logo Competition

Busking for Books

To raise awareness of the PTA and to create an image for tickets/ posters etc, P1-P8 were invited to design a logo incorporating the words, ‘Supporting our school community’. There were 61 entries and the children voted for their favourite logo; the winning illustrator: Nathan Leuranguer. Congratulations Nathan!

Teraja turned into the place to see human statues and juggling acts, to have your portrait painted or nails done and to hear up-and-coming musicians – and lots more! It was a fabulous morning of entertainment, thanks to the talents of P4-P8.

Panaga School Tea Towel

School Fair

This was an initiative involving all school pupils from Pre-Nursery to P8 and their class teachers – many thanks for your help. Each child’s self-portrait was printed onto a tea towel (four designs in total). When the tea towels went on sale, they proved very popular.

Raised: $3,866

Raised: $2,518

There were over 20 stalls and activities run by parents, teachers and pupils at this family event. It was a great team effort. Food stalls, sporty stalls, raffles, lucky draw, face painting, live entertainment and much more.

Raised: $3,402

Allocation of Funds Teraja site $1,500 – to buy equipment for ‘In the Zone’ playtime activities at Teraja. The activities, which are split into zones (Sports, Get Fit, Multi-Game, Chill-Out), are run by P8 pupils.

Rampayoh site $1,500 – pledged for Rampayoh; items to be confirmed once the building works are completed.

Busking for Books $2,518 – being given in kind (in books) to four local schools. Miss Teresa Lenihan, Literacy Leader for Learning, liaised with the schools’ teachers to ensure that the books suitably contribute to the learning in all four schools.

Library Project $3,000 – to give the reading area in the Teraja library a makeover.

New cushions for the chairs, which have been painted, a new carpet and a mural for the wall – all coming soon. Once the new library at Rampayoh is completed, funds will be committed.

School Yearbook $3,075 (50% of the full cost) to give each family a Panaga School Yearbook.

Panaga School Newsletter Books Alive!

Where’s Wally? I’m not sure, but he was definitely spotted at Panaga School on Wednesday July 3rd (look closely at the P8 photo)!

Wally, along with The Cat in the Hat, Pippi Longstocking, Katniss Everdeen, Skulduggery Pleasant, the kids from Hogwarts and a whole host of equally famous storybook characters turned up to school to celebrate the Student Council’s final theme day of the year: ‘Books Alive.’

‘Books Alive’ was all about celebrating the joy of reading and advertising the PTA’s planned makeover of the Teraja library reading area.

The PTA are set to give the weary looking reading area a fresh lease on life with funky ‘upcycled’ chairs (thanks to the Student Council and the Cubs for their ‘elbow grease’), beanbags and new carpet.

Talented parent, Novi Dols, will also be painting a wall mural, which will see the books really come to life!

So Teraja students, get ready to settle in and get your read on in Term One 2013/14!

By Miss Anna

Panaga School Newsletter Health, Safety and Environment Day HSE Day took place on Wednesday 18th June 2013. A variety of activities were organised on both sites which focused on ‘Travelling to School Safely’, ‘Bicycle Safety’, ‘Healthy Bodies’ and ‘Healthy Eating’.

Children in P1 – P3 started the day by travelling to school on their bikes and scooters and were involved in a very active, safetyfocused assembly.

The children then rotated around four activities over the course of the day and focused on different health or safety activities at each station.

By Miss Donna and Miss Teresa

Our temporary bike parking for the day!

We ensured we had cycle helmets fitted properly.

We now know how to be safer on our bikes.

We talked about crossing the road safely.

Which foods are healthy for our bodies?

Exercise keeps us healthy.

We recorded what fruits and vegetables we could eat each day.

We stretch our muscles to warm-up before exercising.

Panaga School Newsletter The how and why of making iPod/iPhone apps

This term, the children in P7 and P8 have been learning how to make apps for a set of school iPods. It has been a bit of an experimental project.

Once I’d researched and figured our how we could make them, I was never certain that by the end of term the children would know how to construct an app or that we would have made some worthwhile apps. What I was certain of though was that along the way we would all do some great learning.

There is something almost magical about the word ‘app’.

No matter what feelings the word stirs in yourself, it is likely to both excite and inspire children. Four weeks into an ICT topic during a technical lesson on coding style sheets, children still made muffled whoops of “Yes!” when they were told that we were making iPod apps. And when an iPod screen was projected on to the Interactive Whiteboard, there were still generous gasps of amazement.

The How There are a number of different ways to go about making an app. Using the software development kit (SDK) provided for each platform to make ‘native’ apps is well beyond what we might reasonably achieve. Online templates could quickly produce a simple information app, but without true control of design and without a great deal of learn-

ing benefit. I’ve previously made a test app for Android devices using ‘App Inventor’, developed by Google and now maintained by MiT, who also developed the excellent Scratch programming language for children. Like Scratch, ‘App Inventor’ uses coloured blocks of code that are snapped together. It has the great advantage that it is possible to upload apps to the android Play Store and watch as they are downloaded all over the world. (My app, ‘Fast Ukulele Tuner’, although thoroughly mediocre to some, has had over 10,000 downloads!)

But ‘App Inventor’ is possibly just a little too technical for us to fully benefit from it.

and the ultra-fun: www.codeavengers.com.

Children also need to be able to edit images to make their own icons and splash screens. With these skills, the children can make a simple working website which they can then edit by adding a few special lines of code that will make it function as an app when loaded onto the school iPods or iPads and iPhones at home. We used a tiny bit of javascript to make some interactive currency converters.

We found the perfect method for our needs with ‘Web apps’. ‘Web apps’ appear on devices just like native apps.

They are launched on iPods/ iPhones by tapping an icon like any other app and appear like any other app, but are actually web pages running in the internet browser without displaying any of the tools or navigation bars. Making web apps has a number of advan- The children in P6 have been learning to use the excellent, tages. free ‘Construct 2 software’ so They can be made to work on that next year they should be all platforms and devices and able to integrate professional can easily be installed on looking games made this way those devices. But most im- into apps they make. There portantly, they are reasonably are links to some of the apps straight forward to make, us- the children have made at: ing skills that are increasingly www.primary-apps.com, from where they can be important and transferable. downloaded.

The process of building a web app from scratch is built upon The Why two main skill sets. First, the As an ICT teacher, it is natuchildren need to learn to de- ral to teach children skills that sign a simple web page by we are confident with ourcoding it with html, and then selves. Rather, we should need to learn how to style it explore possibilities alongside using css. These skills are the children and encourage well within the reach of our them to think of technology as children and there are lots of a tool for expressing their own super online resources avail- creativity. able to help, such as: In the TED speech ‘Let’s www.codeacademy.com

teach kids to code’, by Mitch Resnick, a co-founder of the Scratch programming language for children, Mitch builds a powerful argument of why we should teach children to code from an early age, based on the comparison with being able to read but not write. I think it would be great if we could help children make their own apps such as their personal learning toolkits (100 squares, key words etc) to support themselves in numeracy and literacy lessons and thereby take more ownership of their own learning.

As well as the general logic and problem solving development that coding helps, the specific skills of using html and css to build and style web pages is likely to become increasingly important. By being makers as well as users of technology, children are learning to be more adaptable. I was particularly amused to be asked by a pupil when demonstrating a fancy styling trick with css if I had learned to do this when I was at school. I’m in my forties. My honest answer was that I’d learned to do it that morning. And so, experimenting with app making technology allows us to share and model an enthusiasm for ICT learning.

Of course, the real attraction of making apps is that they are cool, fun and therefore tremendously motivating.

One pupil asked me in a lesson if he needed to learn what we were doing to use in a job when he was older. Well, yes, he might. But that is not the point really. The most compelling reasons to be making apps in school are because we can, and mostly, just for the sheer love of learning how to.

By Mr Dave Salt, ICT Specialist

Panaga School Newsletter Primary 1 - Treasure

Our IPC learning unit this half term was Treasure.

Our Entry Point for Treasure involved everyone coming to school dressed as a Pirate.

We had a pirate parade to show off our wonderful costumes. We played pirate games – Pass the cannon ball and Treasure Island.

We sang and danced around, just like pirates.

Everyone had lots of fun……except for when we had to walk the plank!

By Primary 1 Teachers

Yi Jing is crowned the winner the world do not have Yi Jing received a crown all the way from Buckingham enough food to survive.

Yi Jing spent more than one Palace, England, as the week gluing all the beans prize. It was presented to Her idea of making her and red dates onto the her by the British High Comcrown out of beans was be- structure of the crown, mission. cause of the increase in the which is made out of magaWell done Yi Jing!

There were more than 700 world’s population and that zine pages.

By Miss Jenny Winder entries for the competition more than 1/3 of people in

Children of Panaga School entered a Crown Competition in conjunction with the 60th Anniversary of the Coronation of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II.

from school children across Brunei. Yi Jing, Yeoh won 1st place for with her ‘Bean Crown’.

Panaga School Newsletter Peer Scaffolding - P4 and P7 “Learning processes are designed to promote deeper levels of learning. Scaffolding is the support given during the learning process, tailored to the needs of the students with the intention of helping the student achieve his/her own learning goals.� (Sawyer, 2006).

This year, our P4s have been involved in a buddy system with the P7s. Each week, the students get together and take part in buddy reading and/or writing. The P7s began reading to the P4s first in order to develop relationships and make everyone feel comfortable.

The P7s even supported the P4s with running their fundraising bake sale, which was a lot of fun, even for the teachers.

The P7s then helped the P4s with their myths and legends quest maps, story boards and finally, the various stages of the story writing process.

The P7s even shared their adventure stories with the P4s which was very inspirational.

Once the P4s completed their stories, they proudly shared them with the P7s.

P7 helped their P4 friends edit them by using their skills in V.C.O.P to up-level their writing.

It has been really nice for both year groups to work together this term. The P4s have especially benefited from working with the older students and it has been rewarding watching them actively engaged in peer learning. We have been focusing on the importance of being a role model for younger students and the P4s wanted to implement the same system for Rampayoh children.

The P4s then went to P2 classes and did some buddy reading for the younger students.

I feel that all children involved benefited from this valuable peer scaffolding experience in many ways, as sharing knowledge within the school is an essential part of learning.

By Nicole Ebert, P4 teacher

Panaga School Newsletter A Neon Night to Remember mums and dads. One P8 parent, Jeanette Verkaik said, “I wondered what was happening; it was a After weeks of budding true surprise!” excitement, the night of the P8 graduation finally Next, it was time for the arrived. The dazzling meal, which was gobbled event, held on Thursday down quickly by the hunJuly 4th, took place in the gry P8s. After dinner, the Teraja Hall and the Jam P8 teachers spoke in turn Factory. The evening about everyone in P8 and kicked off at 6.00pm and Principal, Mr Tim Robincame to an end at 9.30 son, handed over the graduation certificates. pm.

By Student Reporters Saskia Verkaik and Mark Brocklebank

The theme was ‘neon’.

Everyone was dressed in flashy neon outfits and, with the help of the P8 parents, the hall was decorated in neon colours. Neon-painted water bottles hung from the ceiling, bright flowers and neon tablecloths decorated the tables and helium balloons tied to chairs floated in the air.

The night started off in the hall. Between 6.00pm and 7.00pm, the paparazzi were all over the P8s taking lots of pictures. After that, Miss Barbara, the DP7/8 teacher, introduced the evening but was interrupted by an unexpected flash mob of singing P8 students.

They sang One Day More from the film, Les Misérables, but cleverly changed the words to One Week More.

There were solos and duets by the students and the performance was greatly enjoyed by the

After the speeches were done, everyone found out that One Day More wasn’t the only song to be performed that night. The teachers had another surprise up their sleeve.

All three of them took to the stage and sung their o w n L e s Misérables tribute: We Taught Them. “The teachers sung really well and it was a good way to end the speeches,” said Holly Salt, a student of P8.

With dinner and the speeches over, the night was still young. All members of P8, including the teachers, headed off to the Jam Factory, leaving the parents behind to chat. At the Jam Factory the games began. Soft drinks and snacks were also available but all too soon the parents arrived to collect their children and the P8 graduation party was over. For all the P8s it will always be a neon night to remember!

Panaga School Newsletter