PRINCIPALLY SPEAKING

Simon Brooks, Principal

‘If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader’ - John Quincy Adams

Student Leadership is a core value at the heart of an Australian education, and a key goal for us here at AISM. In everything we do, we strive to grow confident and articulate young people with an innovation-mindset, keen to be of service to others and to make a difference in their world.

In the last fortnight, I have been delighted to witness many examples of outstanding leadership in our school community. Not least amongst these was our Honours and Leadership Induction Ceremony in the MSS, where we were delighted to recognize so many of our students for their outstanding achievements and leadership: our Distinguished Achievers for 2021, our scholarship recipients for 2022, our House Captains, our Prefects, and our Captains and Vice Captains in both the Middle and Senior School. It was a joy to see so many of our students honored for their achievements to date, and wonderful to hear some of their plans for leadership going forward into 2022.

One of the places where student leadership has been on clear display recently was in the magnificent efforts of our community prefects for Valentine’s day, which turned into Valentine’s week! It was lovely to see these lovely messages of goodwill being delivered by these prefects in the form of song and dance to students and staff at the school. In my experience, the delivery of Valentine’s ‘messages’ in this way is a phenomenon quite unique to Australian schools and is a great example of our culture here where we focus on building relationships and a community of caring people.

In the Junior School, I was excited to participate in the Think Tank presentations delivered by our students in Years 4 and 5, who presented a series of innovative and creative ideas on ways that life and learning at AISM might be even further enriched. The confidence with which they spoke was impressive, particularly in the way they responded insightfully to a series of fairly challenging questions offered by the teacher panel.

My thanks go to Mr. Tristan Johns and the Junior School team for putting together this amazing opportunity for our young learners.

There is no doubt at all that AISM is a school where student leadership is right at the heart of everything we do. I look forward to sharing many more examples of our leaders’ initiatives and activities in future editions.

 

AISM COVID-19 SOPs and Quarantine Guide

 

At AISM we are committed to ensuring that our school is a safe place for all of our students to come together as a learning community.

 

To this end, we have prepared our COVID-19 SOPs and Quarantine Guide to ensure that everyone in our community is in receipt of the most recent guidance about what to do should any of our students test positive, or be identified as a close or casual contact.

 

To access this guide, please click here to download the document. You’ll be directed to our AISM Parents’ Site, where you will be required to sign in using your parent account. On the Parents’ Site page, please access the final Quick Link, ‘AISM COVID-19 SOPs and Quarantine Guide’. From here, you can download the document containing all of the information you need about testing and quarantining procedures.

 

This guide will be updated whenever we are in receipt of new information from the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health which is relevant to our school community.

 

In the event of your child testing positive, please let us know as soon as possible so we can take whatever steps are necessary to ensure the safety of everyone in our community.

 

For further information and support, do not hesitate to contact us directly at the school through the deputy heads of school:

 

Junior School: Leigh Janett (dep.hos.js@aism.edu.my)

MSS School: James Unsworth (dep.hos.mss@aism.edu.my)

 

Parent Teachers Community (PTC) Committee

We would like to call for nominations for parent representation in our new Parent Teacher Community (PTC) Committee for 2022.

In doing so, on behalf of our school community, I would first like to express my thanks to those hard-working parents who have made such a positive contribution to running the PTC last year.

At this stage, we are calling for nominations for parent representation on the PTC.

If you are interested in taking on one of the following roles

  • Vice Chairperson - (parent head of the PTC)

  • Treasurer

  • Secretary

  • Committee Member (open to all and many)

Please complete this form by 4 March 2022

The timing for the election will be as follows:

  • 25 February - open call for nominations

  • 4 March, 4pm-close call for nominations

  • 7 March - open confidential/anonymous voting

  • 10 March, 4pm-close confidential/anonymous voting

  • 14 March - successful candidates notified

  • 16 March - an announcement of, and handover to, the 2022 PTC committee

If you are an enthusiastic person with ideas, interests, and skills and a team player with some time to spare to benefit our community, then please consider nominating for a role this year to make a difference in the education, health and welfare of our children.