IGBIS Newsletter, Issue 248

Message from the Head of School

Mrs Anne Fowles

I hope that you were able to view our Christmas Assembly on Friday afternoon. Thank you to the student council who organised the assembly and to everyone who performed or participated in some way. It is amazing to see how we can all share our sense of community even in these difficult times and have a few laughs along the way.

Heartfelt thanks are also extended to our CAS CoordinatorAllison Parratt and everyone who contributed to the Zomi Education Center appeal. There are many generous school families who have given food, money and shoeboxes of gifts for the ZEC children and their families to enjoy. 

While most of our teachers have been working from home, our administration team have been working on rotation to keep the school running smoothly. We all dressed up on Friday for the assembly and our socially distanced Friday briefing with the rest of the staff on a Google Meet. 

In the spirit of Christmas, of peace and goodwill to all men, love, joy and hope, we look forward to the festive season ahead with thanksgiving and gladness that there is some light at the end of the tunnel. Hopefully we will all be back in school in January. 

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy and healthy New Year!

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From the Elementary School Principal

Simon Millward

And so ends semester 1 of this academic year. It has certainly been an eventful semester, preparing for face to face teaching based on the new normal, returning to school face to face with the students responding in admirable fashion to the new procedures, then to return to a distance learning format with more live teaching components. Throughout all of these challenges, I have been impressed with the resilience you have all shown, students, parents and teachers. We are a team and we have to work together so that students’ learning can continue. Of course, we all enjoy face to face teaching and learning and it is our belief that in January the CMCO will be lifted so that we can return to our new normal face to face. We are certainly looking forward to that.

The generosity of our community never ceases to amaze me. The ZEC (Zomi Education Centre) shoebox and necessity drive has been hugely supported by our community. All 52 students at Zomi will be receiving a shoebox Christmas gift and the community itself will be receiving some much-needed items to help them through these challenging times. As I stopped by the tables at 9.30 on Thursday morning items were being received in abundance. Thank you, these items will be truly appreciated.

On Friday 18th we held our virtual Christmas assembly and many thanks to all of those people who contributed to its success, in particular, I would like to thank the performing arts team, ES Music: Mr Alex and Ms Kui, SS Music Ms Hadewych and SS Drama Mr Jamie and of course the amazing work of our Secondary student council for initiating and organising it.

We received notification from the TeachSDG’s ambassador programme coordinator that two of our Elementary teachers had been accepted as Sustainable Development Goal Teach Ambassadors. Our congratulations go to Ms Aga, our PYP Coordinator and Ms Natasha, our ES Science and Social Studies Coordinator. This is a prestigious honour and they will be introduced along with the other accepted Ambassadors this year to the organization members and with the Office of the President of the United Nations General Assembly.

The role of the Ambassadors is to promote and teach about the UN Sustainable Development Goals they have pledged to further:

• demonstrate working knowledge of the SDGs via past and present initiatives, projects, and/or connections
• outline a plan to elevate their involvement with the TeachSDGs via this Ambassador role
• maintain a positive presence on Twitter and social media, especially in relation to the philosophy, mission, and ‘tasks’ of TeachSDGs
• through a leadership ethic, affirm and foster in others the value of service, global citizenship, and commitment to the SDGs and goodwill of people and planet.

This role complements the vision and mission of IGB International School as we look to have a positive impact on our community through our focus on International Mindedness – Global Citizens, Caring and Wellbeing and Empowerment; Igniting and Impacting.

Unfortunately, this is a time of year when we also have to say farewell to some families as they are often relocating either back to their home of origin or to new adventures further afield. We wish all those students who are leaving us the best of luck on your new journey and we hope IGBIS will always be close to your heart- as they say ‘Once a Phoenix, always a Phoenix’.

For those who celebrate, I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Dates for Your Diaries

• 19th Dec- 10th Jan: School holidays.
• 11th January: 1^st day of semester 2.

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Rhythm & Action

Hadewych Dujardin, Music Teacher

Hello IGBIS community from the secondary music department!

We are nearing the end of semester 1 and what a semester it has been! What a year! Even though we’ve been online since October, music students have continued to perform and create. 

Here are some of the highlights:

Asian Music Research by Grade 6

Grade 6 finished their trimester with beautiful research presentations about the music of an Asian country of their choice. Most chose to research about their own country. John Kim even discovered that his mum can play the Janggu! 

“In the Mood” – A Blues Performance by Grade 7

Grade 7 finished with their blues performance of ‘In the Mood’. Notice the Erhu can even play the Blues!

“When We Are Together” by Grade 10

But this lot had to do it online! They couldn’t play together, they started with the lyrics written by Song Qi. She had a melody in mind and recorded this. Keu added the piano part, then changed it and added on to it. Next came the vocals, then back to the piano again for some adjustments.

We decided on a structure and once we had a good piano part everyone added their own instruments: drums, cello, bass guitar etc. I can’t recall how many videos we shared back and forth until the final ones but there were many! 

Song title: ‘When we are together’

For this song, I am portraying our relationship with our teammates. We have different interests in music and musical instruments, however when we all perform as one. We show our talents altogether, which gave me the idea to write this song”). It ended up being more Pop-Rock than alternative rock due to the lockdown circumstances. 

Song Qi

Grade 8 Samba

Usually, we do this easily in class. However now most of the students don’t have an instrument at home so for this task they had to find items that could replace the samba instruments sounds.

African Drumming Piece by Grade 7

Grade 7 performed an African drumming piece, again usually in class we do this very easily once students understand the grid notation. However online, students worked collaboratively to learn the different rhythms, decide the tempo they were going to follow for their recordings, and finally synchronise it all on Garageband. A big thank you to Brinda and Sarah for coordinating this for their group! 

IGBIS Orchestra, the Lockdown Performance

And then finally the IGBIS Orchestra has worked extremely hard this semester! They never had a chance to perform live! Our first online performance was for the Deepavali assembly ‘Atishbaji’ and the second performance we prepared was for the Christmas assembly: “Highlights from the Greatest Showman”. A big thank you to all our musicians!! A huge thank you to Ben Koh, Marvin Chong and Alyce De Yee for helping us with almost all of the voices for this Christmas assembly!

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Scientists’ CHRISTMAS Curiosity

John Moore, Science Subject Leader

It’s that time of year again! Except this year things are a little bit different:

“Will Santa be able to get here during a pandemic?” 

“What if Santa gets the virus?” 

“Will Christmas be cancelled?” 

These are some of the questions being asked by all the good boys and girls waiting eagerly for their presents. Rest assured, Santa has everything under control. In a normal year his team of scientists is busy calculating the shortest path between all the homes around the world, and organising healthy nutritional snacks to keep him and his team of reindeer energized while making their deliveries. A couple of years ago, with the global population approaching 8 billion, a ninth reindeer (Einstein) was employed to distort time and space so that Santa could meet the demands of an ever increasing list of customers. This year another member, Franklin has been added to the team. Franklin’s role is to take care of all the testing and SOPs needed to ensure that each and every reindeer can do their job as normal.

Inspired by Santa and unperturbed by Covid-19, our Grade 12 students have been working together on their Group 4 Project. This is a collaborative project where students of Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Design Technology and Physics apply their skills and knowledge to address an issue or solve a problem. Usually a practical project, this year it was theoretical with each team tasked with coming up with a proposal for the colonization of Mars. They worked together to propose solutions to overcome the challenges posed by the harsh Martian environment and limited resources. Their knowledge and skills, combined with creative and critical thinking enabled them to develop further their understanding of the relationship between scientific disciplines and their connections with other areas of knowledge.

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Leading On! (DP & CP)

Magnus Drechsler, DP & CP Coordinator

Dear IGBIS community, 

Happy Holiday, Merry Christmas and “guten Rutsch ins neue Jahr”. Grade 11 and 12 students have certainly showed amazing resilience till the end. We have made it and they truly deserve their break. Teachers certainly are already spreading the Christmas spirit. 

Grade 11 and 10 StuCo executives have shown amazing initiative leading this year’s amazing virtual Christmas assembly, which certainly brought everyone in holiday mood (if they have not been a week ago) :). 

This Semester, Grade 12 students completed one IB Internal Assessment (IA) after another and will continue to complete their remaining IAs next semester. The Grade 11 have completed their plans for their Creativity, Activity, Service and Service Learning projects. Their plans look brilliant and I am truly excited to see the results. In addition, Grade 11 are in the thick of their research on their Extended Essay or Reflective Project research questions. Again I cannot wait to see the end products. Certainly lots to look forward to next semester. Watch the space. 

Something else for parents to look forward to after the holidays are more upcoming parent workshops:

• 12/01/20 – 8:15 – 9:15 am – Language pathways + DP language courses (G9-10)
• 19/01/20 – 8:15 – 9:15 am – Preparing for exam success (G11-12)

For more info on parent workshops alongside many other key pieces of information, please check out the DP/CP info site. 

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Movement Club Poetry

“In Movement Club over the past few weeks, we have exercised and discovered new writing media, poems, one-sentence stories, and fast fictions. Our amazing writers, Megan Nava (G10), Marie Tan (G10,) Batrisyia Hannah Yusri (G10), Gabriel Corbetta (G9), and Brinda Gunalan (G7). With Isabelle and I from (G11) being the admins, we each have written a 3-stanza poem based on what happiness means to us, it could be fragrance, a city, a video game, or someone. We are extremely happy to share our happiness poems with both the IGBIS community (parents, teachers & students) through IGBIS News page and the world by publishing our works in Quotev by the name of Movement Club.” 

International Baccalaureate: Movement Club

Art of Poetry

‘Happiness’ 

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“Kairosclerosis”

There’s laughter ringing out in the warm summer breeze,
Shining like the sun, chasing clouds, pleased.
The water is glistening and oh can it be?
All that it is I can no longer see,
The ghosts of the days staring back at me.

Fear not my child,
For you are safe now.
In this glittering night wild,
Where no monsters haunt you, I vow.
Fear no more, for it is here.
This fleeting moment of gold, my dear,
so tenderly brushing against your ear.
What is it? That short, everlasting second,
At only a moment’s glance, it has disappeared.
Should I be worried, should I be scared?
Why, when it’s done nothing to harm me yet?
So what is this feeling blooming in my chest?
My moment of happiness,
Laying me sweetly down to rest.

Isabelle Monteiro, G11

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“Airstairs”

Tiny stars that illuminate the night sky,
That mix with the mustard taxi,
The road that takes me to my Immortality,
Limitless sky, that is now a Twilight. 

Whistles a thin air, and nothing but a cold breeze,
A not glacial breath of wind,
But every cell is numb,
This is a ceremony,
For me.

Voices choir and echo to every ounce of the air,
The unforgettable sounds of my own steps stalk me, by every stair,
Opening a lifeline divided into two,
The home of the lands, and the lands of the home,
Where do I belong?
That’s treasuring,
Yet a reality I cherish,
And I’m begging not to wake,
I love the leaving, and the returning.

Turku Dunyam Adiguzel, G11

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“Warm Embrace”

I awoke, the sound of thunder fills my ears
My heart feels heavy.
Heavy with the blues,
The grey sky cries with me.

Ringings of my phone shattered the silence,
My heart starts to swell,
At the sight of you, at the sound of your voice,
Laced with your love and care 
That’s when I knew,
How my heart fills with joy,
At the feel of your warm embrace.

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“Some Things”

it’s the pencil on the paper,
graphite scratching on the white,
and when you pause and look at it
you smile, satisfied.

it’s that song that comes on shuffle
once in a blue moon,
it fills your ears
and you can’t help but sing along to the tune.
some things are jokes and comic books,
pillow fights and comfortable shoes,
but most of all, what makes me happy
is the sight of you.

Marie Tan, G10

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“The Bravery” 

Although I can’t see
In the mist I call home
I can’t classify my happy
I watch as the clouds clear

People I see around the room
These people I call home
Her beauty like a warm fire
His presence, a gentle geyser
Drifting through space
Although I can’t see
Can be a fun place
I’m in the clear

Megan Nava, G10 

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“Unexplainable Warmth”

The clouds loafed high in the heavens, rain dotted the sky
The red soil circled a perfect patch of malachite grass
The cold air lingered, and so did a sense of unexplainable warmth 

Our hair was wet, our shoes damp, but laughter began to multiply
Four friends and a lover, playing breathlessly in the vast landmass
Nothing was louder than our youthful cries, not even the wind that drifted north

Those moments are buried in the past, only visible through my third eye
But the joy still shines like brass, and the memory is as clear as glass
Dazzling happiness from a game of frisbee, that I have held close from that day forth

Gabriel Corbetta, G9

“A Moment to Cherish”

Busyness always filled our house
But this was never a moment to grab away
Everyone seated on the chair comfortably
Eagerly waiting to eat and share

Laughter and joy filling the room
With the sound of rumbling
Without any mumbling
Wasn’t this a moment to cherish?
As more stories were told more time flew by
With everyone happily filled with energy
We all started to head into our different paths
Hearing all of this was a moment to cherish

Brinda Gunalan, G7

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What’s Coming Up Next?

Marketing Department

Parent Referral

Just a reminder, our Parent Referral scheme is ongoing. If you have friends or relatives who may be interested in having their child(ren) join IGBIS, you can always refer them to our Admissions Team by emailing them at admissions@igbis.edu.my. Every successful sign up will reward the referrer with a RM2,000 credit note which may be used to offset your child(ren)’s school tuition fees, top up e-purses, purchase uniforms, etc. We hope to hear from you soon!

Scholarship Application Open Now!

It is that time of year again, where we call out for scholarship applications. These scholarships are open to anyone who are in Grade 10 (or equivalent). Up to 50% scholarships are up for grabs! Express your interest by sending an email to admissions@igbis.edu.my with the title “Scholarship 2021 – 2023”.