PRINCIPALLY SPEAKING
Aaron Wise, Principal
-NIL
JUNIOR SCHOOL
Michelle Chaplin, Head of Junior School
-NIL
Year 5 Highlights!
Mr. Ryan Mclntyre and Ms. Jaeshinthaa Kaur, Year 5 Homeroom Teacher
It's been a fantastic start to the term for us here in Year 5, and we're excited to share some of the highlights with you.
Our term began with a bang with our Australia Day celebrations. It was wonderful to see everyone getting involved, learning about the culture and significance of the day through a variety of activities. It's these moments that bring us all closer together and it's been a pleasure to see your children embracing these experiences.
One of the joys of the early term has been watching the children get to know each other better, creating new friendships along the way. The classroom is buzzing with energy and enthusiasm, making every day a new adventure.
In our creative writing unit, we've been learning all about descriptive and figurative language, and how changing up the kinds of sentences we use can make our writing even better. We've seen some amazing progress, and here are some of our favourite examples:
The Dark Night of Terror
Tom was walking home from a super fun party. He glanced down at his watch - 11:43pm. He realised he needed to get home fast. Suddenly, he took a wrong turn and ended up in a dark, eerie dead-end. That's when he spotted a mysterious, black shadow creeping closer. Fear flashed in Tom's eyes. The next morning, the news spread that Tom was missing, confirmed by the police…
- By Haruto Inuishi
Dinosaur Jungle Dream!
“Aaaaaah” cried Max, somehow there was a dinosaur in a scary jungle. “I thought dinosaurs were extinct!?” screamed Max. He couldn’t take it anymore. He took his huge water bottle out of his enormous bag and splashed the water on the dinosaur (he did a splendid splash to be honest). The dinosaur fell down on the grass because it was just a controlled robot! Max was full of madness and relief. He was so tired he slept on the grass that was as green as a frog. A few minutes later when Max was asleep there was another dinosaur. Max then woke up and saw the dinosaur and he was going to scream but then he remembered about what happened earlier and so he continued sleeping as if he thought it was another prank. I guess Max had a very short life since he was only 10 years old…
- By Azumi Monolbaev
A highlight on our calendar is the upcoming Leadership Assembly in Week 4, where we'll celebrate our student leaders as they receive their badges. It's a proud moment for us all and a great opportunity to recognise the wonderful qualities of our young leaders.
Looking ahead, we're all buzzing with excitement for our camp at Taman Negara in Week 7. It promises to be an unforgettable experience, packed with learning and adventure. We'll be sending out more details soon, so please stay tuned.
We also took a moment to ask the children about their favourite part of AISM. The answers are below
"My highlight is seeing new friends and new people joining our school!" -Davinah
"My highlight was the fro yo machine and the Chocolate rolls!" - Halle
"My highlight is playing with friends and learning more English." - Ruohan
MIDDLE & SENIOR SCHOOL
Junior School Music
Nicki Taylor, Music teacher
Junior School Music
Nicki Taylor, Music teacher
Why do we teach Music?
Fortunately at AISM, Music education is valued and our department is well resourced with lots of instruments and equipment for all learners. I have been reflecting on the place of music education lately as my colleagues in Australia and the UK continue to fight for specialist teachers, funding and allocation of time for this subject in their schools.
Music is literacy! Fingerplays, chants and action songs are important tools to help children develop fluency and rhythm in language. Children learn new vocabulary, comprehension and fine motor skills as they show with their hands what the words mean. Children who can keep the beat have improved fluency in language. Our learners in ELC-Year 2 practice beat, rhythm, singing and musical literacy through games, songs, rhymes and playing percussion instruments.
Research suggests children who play instruments have better resilience, better memory and better academic skills. At AISM, our instrumental programmes begin in Year 3 with recorder and progress through a range of string and wind instruments between Years 4 to 7.
Students who study music and arts learn how to think creatively and use ‘outside of the box’ thinking to problem solve in unique ways. Finally, music helps to ease anxiety and improve confidence and self esteem.
Our Music Academy offers private instrumental lessons during school time on most instruments and voice. For more information on this programme, please contact Mr Ervin at ervinrezzan@aism.edu.my
Click here for more photos.
Fortunately at AISM, Music education is valued and our department is well resourced with lots of instruments and equipment for all learners. I have been reflecting on the place of music education lately as my colleagues in Australia and the UK continue to fight for specialist teachers, funding and allocation of time for this subject in their schools.
Music is literacy! Fingerplays, chants and action songs are important tools to help children develop fluency and rhythm in language. Children learn new vocabulary, comprehension and fine motor skills as they show with their hands what the words mean. Children who can keep the beat have improved fluency in language. Our learners in ELC-Year 2 practice beat, rhythm, singing and musical literacy through games, songs, rhymes and playing percussion instruments.
Research suggests children who play instruments have better resilience, better memory and better academic skills. At AISM, our instrumental programmes begin in Year 3 with recorder and progress through a range of string and wind instruments between Years 4 to 7.
Students who study music and arts learn how to think creatively and use ‘outside of the box’ thinking to problem solve in unique ways. Finally, music helps to ease anxiety and improve confidence and self esteem.
Our Music Academy offers private instrumental lessons during school time on most instruments and voice. For more information on this programme, please contact Mr Ervin at ervinrezzan@aism.edu.my
Click here for more photos.
WHOLE SCHOOL
Junior Karate Competition
Ivan Yoong, Whole School CCA & Sports Coordinator
At the beginning of the year, three AISM students from the Junior School participated in a Karate Competition. It was an event to promote Karate Sparring to young Karate-ka. Well done Rachelle Roy Raja, Yi Hong Lum and Caleb Lai on their achievements in this competition.
| Age Group | Name | Position |
|---|---|---|
| Under 9 | Rachelle Roy Raja | 2nd Place |
| Yi Hong Lum | 3rd Place | |
| Caleb Lai | 3rd Place |
AIMS Fixtures
Ivan Yoong, Whole School CCA & Sports Coordinator
It was an action packed start of the year for our sporting teams. Three highly competitive fixtures were played in the past 2 weeks. We hosted both the O15 and U15 Boys basketball matches here at AISM whilst the Junior Soccer teams travelled to Sunway International School for their games. Well done to all players, especially the O15 Boys Basketball Team for making it to the final. Kudos AISM!
Coaching Team
Boys Basketball Coach Dale Wells & Ivan Yoong
Soccer Coach Hussein Yusoff
O15 Boys Basketball Team
| Boys | Toby Taylor, Lap Yin Lam, Max Wong, Anson Cai, Flynn Ritchie, Ethan Selvindoss, Arif Muhammad Fairuz, Kenichi Yang, Damian Koegelenberg & Manaaki McFarland |
|---|
U15 Boys Basketball Team
| Boys | Toby Taylor, Lap Yin Lam, Max Wong, Anson Cai, Flynn Ritchie, Ethan Selvindoss, Arif Muhammad Fairuz, Kenichi Yang, Damian Koegelenberg & Manaaki McFarland |
|---|
U9 & U11 Boys Soccer Team
| U9 Boys | Hugo Tay, Declan McDevitt, Ethan Ng, Haruto Inuishi, Mikhail Thanabalan, Jian Zi Neoh, Harvey Yeoh, Mikhail Alilekov & Belvan Lee |
|---|---|
| U11 Boys | Fergus Yong, Giovanni Vespignani, Edwin Ng, Xingyu Pan, Bailin Liu, Yi Chen Chua, Corwin Chua & Edward Broadbent |
Semester 1 CCA Update
CCAs commence - Tuesday, 13 February
CCAs conclude - Thursday, 20 June
Note: Creche & Sibling Games CCA is unavailable on Mondays.
IOU Terms Update
Vircle
Important notice on IOU:
- The following key changes will be implemented effective 15 February:
IOU Auto deduction and Collection :
The Vircle system will implement an auto collection mechanism for outstanding food purchases without balance on Card. An attempt to collect all outstanding student payments which are due more than 7 days old automatically from available funds of Child or Parent accounts will be implemented. The automated collection will happen daily any time after 7.oopm each day. Parents are encouraged to keep sufficient available balance, top up to Parent balance or transfer funds to child accounts for facilitation of full deduction of any aging payments due.
Any disputes on payments due arising from child purchasing food without funds on card MUST be resolved by parents with merchant within 7 calendar days of transaction after which no cancellations will be allowed. Parents who do not wish their children to be given meals in the event they have no funds on card SHOULD go to the Vircle app -> Child Page -> Settings -> Update Card User Profile -> Turn off "Allow Food Purchase on Credit''
Important note: Auto deduction of payments due will NOT impact school or merchant invoices sent to parents for payment collection, only Food purchases consumed on credit when child has no funds on card will be included in auto deductions.
- The following key changes will be implemented effective Vircle App version 2.3.11 (due in March 2024)
Transfer of funds function between parent and child accounts will automatically be disabled in the event the parent account has outstanding IOU balances older than 7 days. In such cases, an alert pop up will be shown and parents must top up and pay up outstanding IOU’s before transfer function is enabled again. Do take note, this will be implemented at least 1 month after auto deduction is activated as such we do believe most parents with long overdue payments should have their outstanding due’s auto deducted as long their parent wallet is funded.
