Volume No: 2004-05/27

Date: 27 May 2005

The big event of the week was obviously the return of our FOBISSEA team from a highly successful trip to Thailand . KK airport was a riot of colour and noise on Tuesday evening and there were some very excited parents waiting to greet some very weary children (or was it the other way around?). I will not pre-empt Mrs Wickham’s account below, except to say that there was nothing but positive feedback about the experience that the children had gained from participating in the Games. That they could do so was entirely due to the support of parents and staff. Mrs Wickham deserves all our thanks for making it happen.  

Collecting Children in the Rain

The rainy season seems to be upon us again and perhaps I can take this opportunity to remind you of our guidelines for wet weather. Essentially, cars and playgrounds do not mix, so we want cars in the playground as infrequently as possible. In heavy rain, obviously, the gates will be open and you can drive straight in. If it is lightly drizzling and the gates are closed, please only ask the guard to open the gates if it is really necessary. But most importantly of all, please DRIVE WITH EXTREME CARE in the playground. Many of our parents have large four-wheel drive vehicles and it is genuinely difficult to see a small child, especially if the child is behind you. A serious accident would be unthinkable so please take every precaution, especially when visibility is poor. If you send a driver to collect your children, please deliver the same message to them.

  Primary Basketball

The primary swimming programme is now suspended until the end of term, except for Foundation 2 who will have a programme of their own. In place of the swimming will be a series of basketball sessions run by outside coaches. We are hopeful that this will prove an exciting and enjoyable opportunity for our children to gain exposure to a different sport and will enable them to develop the skills that go with it. Ball skills and hand-eye co-ordination are central to many sporting activities and these sessions should improve both.

Environment Week

Plans for Environment Week are advancing nicely and 6 June - 10 June already features some world-class experts talking about their specialist areas. Primary and Secondary students will attend different sessions so that the level of the talks can be appropriately pitched. The week will finish with a beach clean-up programme on the morning of Saturday 11 June, probably at Likas Bay, and we hope to see as many parents and children there as possible.  Plastic sacks and rubber gloves will be provided and DBKK have agreed to take away the bags of garbage.

Book Club

Accompanying this newsletter are details of the Baker Book Club for schools. Parents who wish to order books should place their orders with the Office by 10 June.

PTA

Lily Walker has now resigned from the PTA and I would like to thank her on behalf of the school for all her hard work as Chair. All of our children have benefited from the enhanced facilities which the successful fundraising of the PTA has made possible.

FOBISSEA Games

I started this newsletter by referring to the FOBISSEA Games. Here Julie Wickham writes about the experience for her and the children:

The children that I took to Thailand were very excited about going.  They knew it wasn’t just for a holiday but to compete against other children from International schools.  Amongst them, of course, there were exceptional athletes, footballers and swimmers.  Some of them were very talented children. But generally the competitors were just ordinary children trying their very best and being “good sports”.

It was rather over-whelming when we arrived as the school is on a large campus and there were nearly 200 excited children buzzing around. Lots of the other children were familiar with the school and knew where the toilets, water stations and dining hall were located. We had a very small team compared to other teams and that meant we had to enter lots of events. It was a busy time and the children were competing from morning until late afternoon. 

The Headteacher of Regents, the host school, gave the children three objectives: make a friend, enjoy yourself and do your best. It was good to see our children achieving these – they all made friends from other schools; some were smiling more than others, (if they were not smiling it was because they were concentrating or feeling nervous) and all the children from KIS certainly did their very best as the number of medals they received clearly shows.

There were 8 different athletics events on the first day and we all entered at least 5 of them. From these events, we won 23 medals:

Sam won gold for throwing, Sirad silver for throwing, Elie silver for high jump and Isabelle silver for high jump, which was a very exciting finish between her and Stephany a girl from the Regents School. Francine won a bronze for 60m, Fenny won a silver for 450m and a bronze for high jump. The Y4 girls won gold for relay and the team won a bronze medal for the whole team relay.  The final relays provided lots of excitement for myself and Cigku Mutang, I screamed on behalf of the whole of KIS as all the team members were actually running.

Lots of children came 4^th in events and missed the bronze medals by a fraction of a second. But they should all be very pleased with themselves. Sam ran a fantastic 300 metres and overtook 4 runners but they were timed heats and he just missed the bronze by a fraction of a second. Emily for the girls, and Aiman for the boys, ran a speedy 60m but again just missed the medals by a whisker. There were upto 24 children taking part in each of these events so for the children to receive a medal, they had to beat lots of other children. 

The swimming events took place on Sunday.  There were over 50 events with 6 children taking part in each of these. We won a total of 10 medals.  The Year 6 girls provided us with great entertainment and much nail biting!  They won the medley relay and the freestyle relay with the help of a couple of Bangkok Regents girls. Francine received a gold for her outstanding style of backstroke and returned to the podium for another gold for her 25m freestyle. In another race, Isabelle deserved her gold for an effortless 25m freestyle victory and received a bronze for the 50m.freestyle. The competition was great, with many of the children in Years 5 & 6 swimming at club level.  Sirad won a silver for his speedy 25 m race with only 1 breath! 

The evening was a time for relaxation and mixing with the other teams at a poolside barbeque. The children of KIS were friendly, polite and well mannered, and entered into the beach games with gusto.  The Y4 boys won the water balloon race and the girls beat the boys in the great Tug ‘o War.  

By the time Monday arrived we were exhausted.  But we had another full day of events.  The morning was taken up with football.  The Y4 boys were the runners up and received a silver medal; they lost the first game 2-0, with Sirad popping one into our own goal, but they soon recovered and went on to win the next 3 games. Akram was a valiant keeper who proved difficult to beat. The girls gave an outstanding performance, with Ayshea raiding from the wings and Fenny and Hye Ri proving  intimidating strikers.  They won  4 games out of 4, not only picking up a gold medal each but winning the Y4 girls trophy.  After a quick lunch it was onto the t-ball events.  Again we surprised ourselves. The Year 6’s joined forces with Bangkok Regents to make a full team but the Year 4’s were the stars of the show. Elie and Sam were a winning team as first base and bowler and the fielding prevented the opposition from scoring. We went on to win a silver medal and also beat the favourites, Regents, on home turf. 

Many people made this trip possible. In the Office, Elis and Elsie sorted out costing, tickets, passports, visas and dealt with the travel agent. A number of teachers helped with the training, especially Mr Leak who took the children to the Futsal stadium, Cikgu Mutang who worked on the athletics, Mrs Spice who helped me with the t-ball and Eva and Rachel at Likas who provided extra swimming. I would like to thank all the parents for supporting the children and taking them to the extra training sessions out of school, making trips to the tailors and sourcing equipment.  May Chang did lots of running around for me, doing shopping and getting to the printers while I was at school. Jenny Roosma liaised with other parents and kept them informed of what was happening Nyo and Mr Chan assisted me in Thailand with a local sim card and generally doing errands for us. Gary Roosma supported the children at the games and took lots of photos. Laynee Dobson relayed the messages sent from Thailand to all the parents and also organised the great welcome we received when we arrived in KK. To all of you, my thanks – especially the thirteen children!

Next week is just a three day week and I am not planning to write a newsletter unless there are urgent items that need to be mentioned. The next newsletter, therefore, will be on Friday, 10 June.

Enjoy your long weekend.

Best wishes,