AISM News Letter No 2/2/2008 Date : 16^th May 2008

Principal’s Comment

‘Imagination, Inspiration and Innovation’ was the theme of the Australian College of Educators Conference in Hobart that Mr. Wagner and I attended during the holidays. The conference theme is even more relevant now than in the past as students not only need ability and application but also creativity to be successful in their studies and in the world of work. One of the key note speakers was Professor Guy Paxton whose address was titled Cultivating Powerful Imaginations: Designing Schools for Innovators”. He spoke about the importance of the imagination as an equal partner to the intellect and stressed the need for quiet time when you are not fully stretched and stressed and when the brain is at a lower level of arousal as using the imagination activates up to 80% of the brain. In the early years pretend play lays the foundation for ‘learning to learn’ and build the skills and disposition of the imagination. Just as the world class golfer, Jack Nicklaus, used to prepare for each shot by ‘going to the movies in his head’; students can imagine their revision and replay that in their head before they put it into action.

By encouraging and valuing the imagination we will develop the qualities of the innovative mind: being imaginative, curious, questioning, observant, reflective, processing, analytical and evaluative. To bring a creative project to fruition requires not only imagination and inspiration but also application and tenacity as well as resiliency and resourcefulness i.e. learning how to ‘fail’ so that each so-called failure is an important step towards innovation and success. Professor Claxton pointed out that imagination, inspiration and innovation should not only be the domain of arts based activities but should be an essential ingredient of all challenging learning environments where students take calculated risks, become braver, explore, experiment and innovate.

One of the highlights of the three day program was Li Cunxin, author of “Mao’s Last Dancer”. He enthralled the conference delegates when he spoke of his extraordinary and unimaginable journey from a rural childhood of poverty in Mao’s China in 1950’s to the arduous regime of the Beijing Ballet School then, a cultural exchange and defection in the United States in 1960’s, to becoming a dancer of international renown and principal dancer with the Australian Ballet and, recently, a stockbroker residing in Melbourne with his Australian family.

One of the most important points that Li stressed was that his world would have been entirely different if his teachers had not had the imagination to recognize his potential, his raw talent and ability and if he had not had the application and passion to succeed as well as the resiliency to survive the changing world that he experienced.

The Parent’s Association first Mother’s Day stall last week was very successful with the students enjoying the access to some wonderfully inspired, creative gifts that were either made or packaged by out parents. Congratulations to Mrs. Estelle Dean and her extensive band of helpers who provided this special opportunity for children in Junior and Middle School to buy beautifully crafted gifts for Mother’s Day.

This week our Junior and Middle school students went to camp while the Senior School students were having their Half Yearly examination week. Next week our Term 3 Parent Information Evening and Year 12 Parent Teacher evening will be held on Thursday 22^nd May.

Anne-Maree Armstrong, Principal

Assistant Principal’s Comment

Mrs. Armstrong has mentioned in her comments that she and I attended the Australian College of Educators Conference in Hobart during the last vacation. One of the speakers was Saul Eslake, who is Chief Economist for the ANZ Bank. His topic was “Education, Innovation and Australia’s Economic Future”. He spoke about the relationship between education and the workforce, pointing out that those who finished school had better employment opportunities than those who didn’t and that those who did tertiary study had still better employment opportunities. He also pointed out the same pattern seems to apply to wages and salaries. He saw education as not only increasing the skills and abilities of individual workers but also allowing the creation and implementation of new ideas as a key to productivity growth – what used to be called developing the “clever country”. He was absolutely clear of the value of education as an investment for Australia, not only for individual Australians but the country as a whole. In particular he discussed the need to provide a more comprehensive education at pre-school level as evidence suggests that this will reduce the gaps in standards that occur amongst students by upper primary and so allow students to complete schooling, complete it with greater success and have greater access to tertiary education. As successful school completion is a key to economic growth it was an argument of great value to all and particularly to those of us involved in schools.

This is a relatively unusual approach, at least for someone who is trained in economics. The President of the ACE commented after his speech that she was excited to hear the speech and found it a refreshing change from what many people come to expect from economists. (She is the former Vice Chancellor of the University of South Australia.) It impressed me sufficiently that his speech is now the centerpiece of the HSC assessment task being undertaken by my Year 12 Economics class.

Often we focus most on the activities of the students or the students and staff together. Sometimes there is the opportunity for the staff to do things together. Taylor’s Education Group has a series of annual sporting events for staff. These events are held after school or on weekends starting from the 7^th May and going through to the 28^th June. AISM is paired with Sri Garden against Garden International School/Nexus World School and Taylor’s University College in a three way battle for the Loy Teik Hok Challenge Trophy. AISM is being represented by 21 members of staff from administration, support and teaching. So far members of our staff have been successful as runners-up in both the Men’s and Women’s Volleyball competitions. Congratulations to the staff Volleyball players and to all of our staff who have competed or will compete.

Wayne Wagner, Assistant Principal

NEWS FROM SENIOR SCHOOL

Family Fun Day was a huge success again! Thank you to all of the parents involved in organising that. Once again we had a lot of support for this event from Senior School students; it’s fantastic to see so many of our young adult students feeling connected to the AISM community. We finished our first Year 12 Study Retreat and it was a wonderful success. The students had the opportunity to bond with each other and with their teachers. Several Year 12 Teachers battled the KL traffic to come into the city to join us for dinner on Friday night and we had a delicious meal on Jalan Alor. The feedback from the students was very positive and they all enjoyed our study skills sessions. We talked about (among other things), managing time effectively, personal reflection, transition into University and we finished with an interactive session on Building Positive Relationships. A huge thank you to Fiona Sayner, Marilyn Grimes and Rob Slider for an excellent retreat! Thanks too, go to the Prince Hotel – the hospitality was fabulous. And we all loved the food. Also, well done to the students who remained engaged and worked hard throughout. Good work! We will be running our Years 9 – 11 Parent/Teacher interviews a little differently this year. The reports will be distributed at the end of this term, as usual, but we will be holding the parent teacher interviews very early in term 3. The date is to be confirmed. This is so that you have an opportunity to digest the information in the report before you sit down to talk with us. Any feedback now regarding this proposed change is most welcome. While on the subject of Parent/Teacher interviews, I would like to take this opportunity to reiterate the fact that this evening is by no means your only time to discuss your child’s progress with their teachers. You are not only welcome but encouraged to contact teachers any time with any questions or worries you may have. I have – as a classroom teacher, not as Head of School – already had four meetings with parents about their child’s progress in my class. Some of these meetings were instigated by me and some by the parents. I have also had multiple email conversations and several phone calls. We welcome your interest in your child’s education. When students are adolescent, there is so much teachers can do and so much parents can do. When we join forces, we can be a mighty force indeed!

Emma Oliver, Head of Senior School

SENIOR SCHOOL CURRICULUM COORDINATOR

Over this week the Yr 9, 10 and 11 students have been completing their mid-year exams. I would especially like to commend Yr 9 who have experienced their first ‘Exam Week’. They have approached the week in a planned and prepared fashion and have been using the study time provided diligently. The exams will be marked over the next couple of weeks and results reported back to students. Upon receiving the exams back, students should take the opportunity to reflect on their learning, revision program and exam techniques and seek advice from their teachers as to how to make improvements for their final exams later in the year.

I would like to take the opportunity to thank Mrs Marilyn Grimes, Mr Rob Slider, Ms Emma Oliver, Mrs Denise Miller-Foote and Ms Teresa Choong for their assistance with the planning of the first AISM Yr 12 Study Retreat on May 2^nd – 3^rd at the Prince Hotel. We had a fantastic time and the students enjoyed the opportunity to discuss issues relating to study habits, relationships, habits of effective people and university life, while enjoying the company of their peers, great food and the opportunity to practice some Yoga and Meditation. It was also an occasion for us to work closely, personally and informally with our senior students and build on our strengths as facilitators and learners in a dynamic environment.

Next week we have our Parent Information evening, Thursday May 22^nd. A focus for the Senior School will be the University Admissions Index and its application to HSC results. I encourage you to attend with your son / daughter so you can make informed choices about university admissions and options in Australia.

Finally I would like to thanks Mrs Marilyn Peters, Mrs Cathy Shaw, Mrs Michelle Anson and Mrs Kerrie-Lee Maconaghie for their offer of assistance to work with our Yr 10 and Yr 12 students later in the year with the running of the Board of Studies HSC and SC exams in October and November. The HSC and SC exam timetable is available from the Board of Studies site. I have placed the address below.

www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au

Fiona Sayner, Senior School Curriculum Coordinator

WEBSITE UPDATES

This fortnight’s newsletter will be online this evening, weather permitting, in both .html and .pdf formats. www.aism.edu.my.

SCHOOL PHOTOS

Don’t forget that school photos (Class, Individual & Special Interest groups) will be taken on the Tuesday and Wednesday of Week 9. Mark it in your diary!

PHOTOS round SCHOOL

If you have photos you’ve taken at community / across school events (e.g. Cross Country, Family Fun Day) that we can use in the Yearbook or website, please contact Lesley Lee. All photos used will be acknowledged.

Library and Information Resource Centre News

The library continues to be a very busy centre during class times as well as before school and at lunchtime.

This term a Read and Research (R & R) session has been introduced for Middle and Senior students. The idea is to encourage this age group to read books for information and also leisure. Homeroom on Friday afternoon has been allocated for this.

Children are often keen to read books and magazines relating to upcoming or recent movie releases. Examples of these are The Kite Runner, The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis and the graphic novel; The Iron Man. Boys are particularly drawn to graphic novels.

The new monitors from Year 7 and Year 8 are a wonderful help in our library.

Books Donations

Thank you to Joshua and Cory O’ Regan for all the excellent D.K books on creativity activities for young children.

Denise Miller, Librarian

New home needed for turtles

We have two turtles in the Prep room that have outgrown their plastic tub. They need a new home – a pond would be ideal.

If you know of someone who would like to have them and can give them a good home please contact Debbie or Bushra. Thanks.

Drama Report

The Drama students in Year 9 and 10, a number of staff and parents attended a performance of “The Swamp Dwellers” at Panggung Bandaraya on Sunday 11^th May. It was an interesting and cultural way to spend Mother’s Day for some of our parents. Although the production was disappointing, the excursion has provided many opportunities for discussion and reflection on performance techniques and production elements and how they can be employed to produce quality drama in our own school. I would like to particularly thank Mr Alan Evans and Ms Emma Oliver for giving up their Sunday to assist with this excursion.

Student who are doing the Senior Production ECA are working hard to develop their performance of “Living with Lady Macbeth” by Rob John. The ensemble will soon be attending some additional rehearsals to help bring the production to it potential. I would like to invite parents who are interested in contributing their assistance to contact me at the school.

The Middle School Production will soon get under way. Auditions will be held before the end of Term 2 for the speaking roles and each class will be involved in a section of the production. Students will need to check the daily notices in coming weeks to find out when the auditions are to be held.

Watch this space for more information on this and other upcoming school productions.

Jon Suffolk, Drama Teacher

UNIVERSITY OF NSW COMPETITION DATES FOR THE REMAINDER OF 2008

The remaining three competitions are in term 3. Please note for your diaries:

THURSDAY JULY 24^TH : MATHEMATICS

TUESDAY AUGUST 5^th : ENGLISH

TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 2^nd : COMPUTING SKILLS.

Martin Peters, UNSW Coordinator

Junior School Awards

In the Junior School congratulations are due to the following people for achieving a Positive Referral in the last two weeks. Well done!

Kinder: Flynn Catterall, Nathan Hughes

Year 1: Yoong Sung Jo, Chae Hyun Kim, Alexandra Lim, Nabila Mahathir, Anisah Norman, Myra Mohamed, Valentyn Santhara, Jayden Keelan, Tamika Baynes, Brodie Jensen, Fareed Arashaf Mohammad, Amir Dzulkarnain.

Year 3: Bailey Anson, Francis Kalukal.

Year 4: Renee Lim.

The following people have achieved a Silver Award.

Debbie Fitch, Junior School Welfare Representative

Sports Report

1. Biathlon at Japanese School

A reminder that entries were due this week however due to the MS camps, entries will be accepted up to Tuesday morning 20^th May at 9am. Hand into the office or directly to Mr Agg.

2. MS/Senior Swimming Carnival

Next Friday we will be conducting house meetings in preparation for the swim carnival in week 7. In additional to the traditional races there will be a series of novelty events with Beijing Olympics as the theme. Start preparing yourself for what should be a fun day of house competition and novelties.

3. Junior School Athletics Carnival

Information will be sent home soon regarding the Junior School Athletics Carnival to be held in week 9. Lots of fun activities are planned for the morning program.

4. Staff Volleyball Team

Congratulations to our staff volleyball team on their recent success at the Taylor’s Annual Sports Challenge. In a tight competition, they came home with the runner up trophy. Well done!!

5. Semester 2 Sport Update

Starting in term 3, MS and Senior school sport will be conducted using a seasonal format with volleyball and soccer to be offered in Term 3. MS sport training will be conducted on Monday and Wednesday and Senior sport training will be conducted on Tuesday and Thursday. Games have been scheduled against other international schools to compliment the season. Further information will be available soon.

Gary Agg, PDHPE Teacher /Sports Coordinator

Study Year 12 Retreat Feedback

· High level of energy. Loved that totally!!!

Danial

· Nice to get all Year 12s involved in one goal and lots of time of bonding but wish it was longer.

Amy

· It’s great to have all the Year 12s and the teachers sitting down together sharing ideas and feelings. It was different.

Wan Xin

· It was fantastic! The programs were nice and wonderful!! And we learnt lots of things! Thanks a lot to the teachers!

Mikhala

· I didn’t want to go back. Even I have stayed only a day, I had a great time! We should get another opportunity.

Chie Koga

· Something I never thought I would have in my schooling time. Incredibly fun, fantastic, productive and just plain great. Way better than what I had in mind. Nice to have everyone to share their views in the same room.

Chin Joe Yang

· The yoga was fantastic!

Jiro Ishida

· Study retreat was fun and it was such a new experience.

Steven Do

· It was a great gathering for a great cause. Learnt and a few new skills that will be good for later.

Edward Cheng

“Happy Wesak Day”

next Monday

to all Buddhists

AISM TERM 2 Calendar, 2008

19^th May	Monday	Wesak Day – school closed
23^rd May	Friday	Middle/ Senior House Meeting
6^th June	Friday	Middle/ Senior Swimming Carnival
7^th June	Saturday	S.P.B. Yang Di Pertuan Agong Birthday
9^th June	Monday	Class Parent Meeting
13^th June	Friday	Parent Association Meeting

Next Newsletter is on Friday 30^th May…