Panaga School Biweekly, Issue 143

Panaga School Biweekly

Issue 143 17th November 2023

Issue 143 | 17th November 2023

Dear Parents,

Panaga School Biweekly Panaga School IFM/4, BSP Company Sdn Bhd, Seria, KB, 3534, Negara Brunei Darussalam

Phone: Teraja Office +673 3372139/2232 Rampayoh Office +673 3372694/3971

Principal: Brian Platts Brian.Platts@bsp-shell.bn

Mendaram/Rampayoh Deputy Principal Donna Bonham donnabonham@panagaschool.net

Teraja Deputy Principal: Aimee Boase aimeeboase@panagaschool.net

Melilas Deputy Principal: Mandy Russell amandarussell@panagaschool.net

Business Service Lead: Cyla Ahmad cylaahmad@panagaschool.net

Panaga School Biweekly Editors: Hannah Zakaria & Donovan Dolamit publications@panagaschool.net

As ever, please find a bumper packed edition of our Bi-Weekly, showcasing your children's numerous achievements and school events.

Thank you to all of the parents and members of our wonderful community that contributed to the success of Creativity Day; the children had a fabulous time having a variety of activities to choose from and exploring their creative talents, capped off by a sterling parent band performance.

A huge thank you to our Indian community who delivered a super assembly helping us to understand and celebrate Diwali; you can see how our Medaram children continued these celebrations during their curriculum time. You will also see, in this edition, some very creative pop art from P5 along with details of their 'adventurers and explorers' exit point. P6 were very fortunate to interview a local journalist and Melilas provided us with a very entertaining and informative assembly on Ancient Greece. Our NTC students also had much fun celebrating Sint Maarten, learning about compassion and sharing.

It was a privilege to witness our Language Leaders deliver a french lesson to SMSA School Year 7 students in KB; they were such great ambassadors for the school and certainly have a career in teaching beckoning!

M2 students spent Monday at JIS as part of their transition to Year 9 and M2 spent the day at Bandar Waterfront practising their art skills and also visiting the Brunei Meteorological Department as part of their Geography curriculum.

Congratulations to all of the students that applied to be members of the Teraja School Council. I look forward to seeing what the Council will propose and implement during this academic year and how they will collaborate with the Melilas Student Council.

There is lots to look forward to over the coming weeks; our Under 13 footballers play at JIS next Wednesday; we have our Shining Lights 'sign ups' next week with auditions thereafter; the beach clean on the 25th November and the school discos on the 7th December. Thank you to the PTA for organising the latter, as well as providing games and equipment for our students to use during break and lunch times.

Wishing everyone an enjoyable and safe weekend.

Issue 143 | 17th November 2023

UPCOMING EVENTS 2023 School Academic Calendar 2023-2024 School Academic Calendar 2024-2025 Parent Events Calendar Mon 20/11

Tue 21/11

Wed 22/11

Thu 23/11

U13 Football @ JIS Mon 27/11

Mon 4/12

Fri 24/11

P4T Assembly

Tue 28/11

Wed 29/11

Thu 30/11

Fri 1/12

BJSL Tee-Ball at ISB Seria

U13 Football vs JIS at Panaga

Last ASA

P2-M2 Reports to Parents

Tue 5/12

Wed 6/12

Thu 7/12

Fri 8/12

PTC PN-P7

PTC MY P6 School Trip

Mon 11/12

Tue 12/12

Wed 13/12

Thu 14/12

Fri 15/12 Last day of Term 1

Issue 143 | 17th November 2023

A big thank-you to the PTA, for providing Lego for the children to play with at break and lunchtimes. This is part of a Teraja/Melilas school council initiative to provide a wider range of fun activities for the children to engage with.

Issue 143 | 17th November 2023

In addition to the lego, a range of new playground equipment has also been purchased for students to use at break and lunch. The students are thoroughly enjoying using the new skipping ropes, hoops, card games, stationary and sandpit toys. Thank you!

Issue 143 | 17th November 2023

CREATIVITY The whole school came together for Creativity Day, to launch the new Personal Quality, the Creative Spider.

2D Zone

Architecture and Civilization Zone

video: More photos here:

Issue 143 | 17th November 2023

DAY

We celebrate creativity at Panaga School as, The ability to think up and design new inventions, produce works of

art, solve problems in new ways or, develop an idea using original, novel or unconventional approaches.

3D Zone

Performance Zone

Lyrical and Literary Zone

Huge thanks to volunteers from our amazing community who made this event possible; Rachel & Rachel, Catherine, Amira, Lidewij & Gre, Kamila, Peder, Job, Emma & Soraya, Lochana, Maree, Evelyn, Stephanie & Roshini, Teacher Susan, Teacher Jun, Chris, Jason, Louie, Sujith and the rest of the TGIT Band.

Issue 143 | 17th November 2023

Diwali in Mendaram

Thank you to the Indian community who organised this special celebration. Everybody came dressed in bright colours and enjoyed learning about rangoli, mehendi, lanterns as well as how our friends celebrate Diwali at home. What a special morning!

Issue 143 | 17th November 2023

Diwali in Mendaram

Issue 143 | 17th November 2023

P5 Pop Art

We learnt about Mary Kingsley, a famous female explorer from the victorian times. Her adventures in West Africa were so amazing and comical we decided to depict them in the Pop Art Style like Roy Lichtenstein, using bright colours, dot effects and comic style onomatopoeia.

Issue 143 | 17th November 2023

Issue 143 | 17th November 2023

P5 Adventurers and Explorers Exit Point P5 had a fantastic Exit Point from our unit Adventurers and Explorers. P5 children became teachers for the afternoon, sharing all their IPC knowledge with mums and dads and testing them on the 6 explorers we have learnt about. P5 were so excited to share their art work, research and STEM learning from the term and they did a superb job!

Welldone P5 and a Massive thank you to all the parents who came to support us.

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Issue 143 | 17th November 2023

P6 Interview With A Local Journalist The children in P6 had the opportunity to meet Daniel Lin, a journalist for the Borneo Bulletin, two weeks ago. Daniel shared his experiences of being a reporter with the children and gave them some useful writing tips for their own newspaper articles.

The children asked Daniel a range of searching questions about his job. They found out that Daniel has been a journalist for six years and has had the opportunity to travel abroad as part of his job. “Telling the truth and demonstrating integrity is the most important part of being a journalist,” Daniel explained to the children. He also told the pupils in P6 that his most memorable moments of being a reporter were related to stories which covered the Sultan of Brunei’s visits to Kuala Belait.

Some of the advice Daniel gave the children about writing a newspaper article included putting the most important information first, making sure all of the information is accurate and grabbing the reader’s interest with a great headline.

The children will be applying Daniel’s tips to their own newspaper articles during the rest of this term. We hope to share some of the children’s work with you in a future edition of this newsletter. We would also encourage the children in P6 to keep abreast of what is happening around the world whilst they are learning how to write newspaper reports. One useful website they could use at home to do this is the BBC’s Newsround site, which has child-friendly versions of the latest topical events.

Issue 143 | 17th November 2023

Language Leaders’ visit to Sekolah Menengah Sayyidina Ali in KB (part 1) This year, 24 new students from M1 joined the Language Leaders (LL)programme. The LL programme has 30 participants, including 6 from last year. In the last academic year, we managed to establish contacts with Sekolah Menengah Sayyidina Ali (SMSA), a secondary school in KB. Some of their teachers came to observe our M2 LL when they taught in a local primary school. They were so impressed with the LL programme and asked us to help set up a similar programme in their school. This academic year, we have started to set up the programme in SMSA. In order for their LL and teachers to get an idea what the programme involved, they invited some of our LL to teach in their school. SMSA is one of the only secondary schools that teaches French in Year 7, a perfect opportunity for our LL. On the 11th November, we took eight LL to the school. Five of them taught a French lesson, whilst the other three observed and then helped to plan a lesson with the SMSA Year 9 students.

Written by Miss Sonia and Miss Steph

Issue 143 | 17th November 2023

After we were welcomed by the principal Mr. Steven Shim. We were then taken to the school’s conference for introductions and a short briefing. Our principal Mr. Brian joined us too. Our students loved the huge conference room. We started with an ‘ice-breaker’ activity. The Bruneian students were given a sheet with facts about our LL. They had to question our students and find out which students belonged to which fact. At the start, the students were a bit shy asking questions. However, after a few minutes they were all talking to each other.

After the ice-breaker, the five LL went upstairs to the French classroom and set up for their lesson. Then it was ‘showtime’.

The LL taught 10 adjectives that describe personality. They only recently learned this in French themselves. They were observed by 10 people, including two principals. We do not know how they managed as both Miss Sonia and Miss Steph would have been frozen on the spot.

Issue 143 | 17th November 2023

Our LL did us really proud and as Mr. Brian said ‘great ambassadors for Panaga School’. They planned a fantastic lesson, including a lot of different games to revise the vocabulary. Before every activity, they demonstrated to the students what they had to do. Our students were also very astute. One student was a bit shy and did not like to join in so they left him alone. He did join in eventually. The students loved the activities and were actively involved in learning.

‘Makan’ time our LL were given a feast.

A great reward after such a great lesson.

Before going home, we gave the students the chance to chat with each other.

It was simply fantastic to see the students socialise with each other. Our M2 students also had the chance to chat with their Year 9 LL from SMSA about their upcoming lesson. They will be coming to P2 on the 17th November to teach Malay.

Issue 143 | 17th November 2023

The Legacy of Ancient Greece The children in M1 shared their learning in history from the first part of this term in an entertaining assembly last Friday. The assembly was divided into three parts. The children from M1B began by going 2,500 years back in time and imagining how the Ancient Greek civilisation would be remembered in the future. M1A then retold a famous Greek myth, which was the story of Odysseus and the Cyclops. The assembly ended with M1C sharing how many aspects of Ancient Greece society are alive in the modern world; the children also performed an Ancient Greek song and dance.

During their Ancient Greek history unit, the M1 children have learned a plethora of ways in which we are indebted to the Ancient Greek civilisation, its discoveries and their inventions. For example, Hippocrates was the father of modern medicine, Athens was the birthplace of democracy and many modern buildings incorporate aspects of Greek architecture (just look around the school and you’ll see lots of Doric columns!). The children also learnt that up to 20% of English words come from Greek, the scientific method was devised by the Ancient Greeks and philosophers such as Socrates developed approaches to questioning ideas which are still used today.

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M2 Trip To JIS The children in M2 and their parents were invited to spend the day at Jerudong International School on Monday as part of their transition to Year 9. Whilst the parents were shown around the school and given the opportunity to ask questions about Year 9 at JIS, the children were given several taster lessons. The M2 children tested a range of metals in salts in a chemistry lesson, used iodine to identify foods containing starch in biology and had fun with a Van de Graaf generator in physics. The tour of the facilities also included being shown around JIS’ 50 million dollar theatre, their state-of-the-art music studios and the modern boarding facilities.

The highlight of the trip for some of the children was meeting up with many of their former Panaga School friends at lunchtime in the canteen. “I’m looking forward to going to JIS next year as all of my friends are going there. It’s good to know I will have friends in Year 10 as well,” said Edward.

“My favourite part of the trip was the teachers. They were so welcoming,” commented Ollie. Safiya was impressed with the quality and range of the food available for children at lunchtime.

If any parents of children in M2 would like their children to attend JIS at the end of this academic year, they are encouraged to complete the online application form. If parents have any questions about their child attending JIS next year, they can contact the head of admissions, Rebecca Dillon, by email (rebecca.dillon@jis.edu.bn).

Issue 143 | 17th November 2023

M1 Trip to the Meteorological Department and the Bandar Waterfront

On Thursday 16th November the M1 students went on a school trip to the Meteorological Department and Bandar Waterfront.

At the MET Office the students were introduced to the different instruments that measure the weather and learned how data become a weather forecast.

Students also learned about the Brunei climate and how it affects our day-to-day life.

Issue 143 | 17th November 2023

Mr Zaim introduced our students to the SOAS Mosque at the Bandar Waterfront before the students took off to practice their sketching skills.

Issue 143 | 17th November 2023

In M2 Maths Lessons this week….

In maths lessons this week M2 have been extending their learning on enlargement, scale, and maps to include bearings. They applied their new knowledge to create maps of the offshore assets of BSP by imagining themselves as helicopter pilots traveling from Anduki. We tested their constructed maps by then asking them to provide a distance and bearing from each platform to RIPAS and compared these to the actual values.

Issue 143 17th November 2023

Teraja School Council We are very excited to introduce our new School Council representatives for Teraja for 2023-2024.

After an introductory assembly, students were invited to read their speech in front of their class. A huge well done to all students who showed courage and resilience and put such thought and effort into your manifesto. This was a great opportunity for students to experience the election process and we can’t wait to share the work of the school council with you across the year.

Issue 143 | 17th November 2023

Celebrating Sint Maarten in NTC

According to the legend, Sint Maarten, while still a soldier, encountered a homeless man in need during a cold winter night. He cut his cloak in half and shared it with the man to provide warmth. In the Netherlands the celebration evolved into a children’s festival of lights and sweets. A Sint Maarten celebration is not complete without lampionnen (lanterns). Every year on the 11th of the 11th, the day Sint Maarten is commemorated, children walk from house to house with their handmade lanterns to sing songs in exchange for sweets.

Sint Maarten is a Dutch celebration in the spirit of sharing, values we treasure in NTC.

We ended the night with a colourful lampion parade and bags full of sweets. c

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WHEN? Event will be on the 1st of December during the Teraja Assembly!

WANT TO SIGN-UP? Simply write your name, chosen act, class and house colour on the sign-on sheet outside Ms. Aimee’s office. Sign-Up sheet will be there from Monday morning 20th November till Tuesday 21st November. For P4s - P7s only.

AUDITIONS? There are different dates for each House colour.

Venue will be in the Dance and Drama Room @ Lunch & Break periods on the following days: 22nd - Red House 23rd - Yellow House 27th - Blue House 28th - Green House Buddies in the same House can come along to cheer!

Issue 143 | 17th November 2023

Issue 143 | 17th November 2023

Click here to sign up for Disco Volunteers