BSG Newsletter - Issue 4, 2014/15

The British School of Guangzhou

Newsletter

Issue 4 - 2014/15

The British School of Guangzhou

Juilliard School, New York, Ballet

“Our new collaboration with The Juilliard School, New York, will bring 100 years of world-renowned expertise in performing arts to our school. This is a very exciting time for music and drama at The British School of Guangzhou.” Jonathan Haslett, Director of Music To download a copy of this newsletter, please visit www.bsg.org.cn

message from the principal

Dear Parents, I hope you all enjoyed a relaxing Chinese New Year and found time to catch up with family and friends. For The British School of Guangzhou, this has been a very exciting time in our development, with the announcement of a number of global initiatives. There is no doubt that being part of a world wide group of 35 international schools is helping us to provide a truly world class education.

Plans are underway to increasingly make the most of our network of schools and provide students with a truly Global Campus. A growing number of our students are now becoming involved in online learning opportunities and taking part in educational forums through Global Classrooms. The recent ‘Make it Right’ campaign raised students’ awareness of children’s right to an education around the world, and created a very impressive response from our students.

As a school, we have always promoted a broad and vibrant curriculum, putting as much emphasis on sport, music and the performing arts as we do on the more academic subjects. Not only are we determined to provide a broad curriculum, we are determined to ensure that we continually improve the quality of our curriculum in line with our vision to be the best international school within China.

With this in mind, the music department has recently implemented an extended practice session for our growing school orchestra. There is no doubt that being part of the school orchestra requires a huge amount of commitment from students and staff, and I am absolutely delighted to see the way they have responded.

Nord Anglia Education share our belief in the value of music. They have recently announced plans for a Global Orchestra to be launched in the summer of 2015, with a summer workshop followed by a combined concert in New York. Musicians from across the Nord Anglia family will be encouraged to audition for a place in the Global Orchestra, and for the successful few, all costs will be covered. For parents and students keen to hear more, details will be provided shortly by Jonathan Haslett, our newly appointed Director of Music.

In edition to this, we are pleased to announce that The British School of Guangzhou has been selected as one of 10 Nord Anglia schools to launch The Juilliard-Nord Anglia Performing Arts Programme. This bespoke programme will bring together more than 100 years of performing arts expertise from the world-renowned conservatory, The Juilliard School, New York, with Nord Anglia Education’s commitment to providing a premium music and performing arts education.

As you can imagine, we are very excited for our students and staff to have the honour of working with such a prestigious organisation as The Juilliard School.

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“There is no doubt in my mind that this will help us become the school of choice for anyone with an interest in music or the performing arts, and will be the perfect way to inspire our fledging orchestra to greater heights.”

We are already planning an evening of music, which will be an opportunity for parents to meet a visiting team from Juilliard School and find out more about this exciting partnership.

Details of this event will be provided as soon as we are able to confirm the date.

CLICK HERE to explore more from The Juilliard School’s website.

As always at this time of year, we are involved in recruiting enough teachers to replace those moving on and to meet our expansion needs. In January, I was in London to represent our school at the Nord Anglia recruitment fair and was impressed to note that on average, Nord Anglia receive 300 applications for every post advertised. This year we have a 15% turnover of staff, which compares favourably with most international schools within FOBISIA.

Juilliard President, Joseph W. Polisi, and Andrew Fitzmaurice, C.E.O. of Nord Anglia Education (Photo by Gil Vaknin)

I am pleased to say that recruitment is now almost complete, and I am particularly pleased to note that we have recruited a very experienced Head of Primary. Edward Pearce joins us from Alice Smith and will be joined by his two young sons and his wife, who also teaches in KL. As a result of our continuous growth, we are now advertising for additional TAs for next year. Any parents interested in a TA position are encouraged to visit the website or speak to one of the Heads of Phase. To be eligible for a working visa, you will need a degree, 2 years work experience, an excellent level of English and a TEFL certificate. More importantly, you will need to understand that fun, laughter and smiles are the essential foundations of our school.

Juilliard School, New York

Important information is often sent via email through school.

If you are not receiving emails, please contact our receptionist, Rainbow Chen, at rainbow@bsg.org.cn

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community

ARE YOU A TEACHER OF LATIN?

Our school is helping to search for someone to provide one-to-one Latin lessons. If you are interested, please contact mark.thomas@bsg.org.cn for more information.

Student Council Easter Treat To celebrate the great work our Primary School Student Council have achieved throughout the year, children were treated to an afternoom at the Westin Hotel.

The Student Council have worked hard together and become a superb team, helping our teachers to make big decisions, including being part of the interview process of our new Head of Primary School.

Children went along to the Westin Hotel to visit their kitchens for a masterclass in cake making.

Learning from a 5-Star chef, the students created their own fabulous Easter cakes to take home.

Mr. Barton who supports the council, travelled with them. and when it comes to baking, he rises to the occasion: “There were easter bunnies, easter chicks, as well as some quite unique creative designs on the cakes. It was lovely!”

A full article will be published in the April edition of Urban Family!

So look out for this to see more from the students’ wonderful afternoon.

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focus

Global Orchestra & New York Summer School Announced By: Jonathan Haslett Global Orchestra is a new and exciting music project that will give some of our students the chance to participate in summer school in New York City from 23rd June to 1st July 2015.

During the week, our young musicians and singers will have the privilege of visiting the world-renowned Juilliard School and learning from Juilliard teaching artists in a day of inspiring workshops. There are 3 student places available on the summer school and students from Year 5 upwards are eligible to audition. The auditions are open to students of approximately grade 5 standard (ABRSM or Trinity Guildhall) or higher on any instrument or voice.

Students have been informed about this exciting project and many are currently preparing for the auditions, which will be held over the next two weeks. The auditions are carried out in school initially and up to 5 students are put forward to an external judging panel.

This project provides an amazing opportunity for 93 students from across the Nord Anglia schools to participate, collaborate and enjoy performing music in a world-class venue, while benefiting from tuition provided by outstanding professional musicians.

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focus

Lunch Survey

Number of Participants (by Year Group) 70.

At The British School of Guangzhou, we realise the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle. To ensure our students are offered a well-balanced diet during the day, we continually seek feedback to find ways of improving our lunch menus.

60.

50.

40.

30.

20.

10.

We recently conducted a survey involving over 400 students from Year 4 and above, plus staff.

Do you like school lunches?

0.

Y4

Y5

Y6

Y7

Y8

Y9

Y10

Y11

Y12

Y13

Staff

How healthy do you think the lunches are?

3% 6% Very Healthy

32%

30%

Healthy

68% Quality 9%

25%

64%

Not Healthy

Taste

Choice Yes

2%

Good Ok Poor Don't Know

No

Quite Healthy

61%

2%

0%

Good

14%

25%

Ok

18%

22%

Poor

59%

How the School’s lunches were rated...

Don't Know

Good Ok

Size of p

Vegetarian Options

Poor 60%

Don't Know 7%

9%

Quality Presentation 2%

2% 9% 8%

25% 23%

64% 67%

Good Good Ok Ok Poor Don't Know Poor

2% 5%

Ok Ok Poor Poor

55% 59%

Don't Know

35%

0%

Good Good

14% 18%

25% 22%

Good

Taste Service

Choice Variety

Don'tKnow Know Don't

8% 18% 22% 14% 45%

Good Good

Ok

31%

Ok Ok

Poor

Poor Poor

33% 60%

Don't Know Know Don't 25%

Quality

Choice Presentation

2% 9%

25%

64%

Good Ok Poor Don't Know

2%

2% 8%

67%

Service

0% 5%

14% 23%

25%

Taste Variety

59%

Good Good OkOk Poor Poor Don't Know Don't Know

Good Good Vegetarian Options 18% 22%

18% 22%

60% 55%

OkOk

Poor Poor Don'tKnow Know Don't

Good

8% 14%

45%

33%

2% 9%

8% 25% 23%

64% 67%

2%

Good OkGood Poor Ok Don't Know Poor

5%

25% 22%

59% 55%

Don't Know

6 Presentation

14% 18%

Variety 5%

Good Good Ok Ok Poor Poor Don't Know Don't Know

18% 8% 22% 14%

45%

60% 33%

25%

Service

Size of portion

Poor Don't Know

4%

Good

Good

Taste 35% Service 0%

Choice Variety 2%

Ok

7%

9%

Quality Presentation 2%

Don't Know

Good 31% Good Ok Ok Poor Poor Don't Know Don't Know

36%

Ok

Poor

Don't Know

53%

Ok

Poor

Don't Know

53%

4%

focus

Young Enterprise Update By: Seung A and Tae Oh The Young Enterprise group put their business skills to the test in a week’s long event of selling.

Over the week, lots of pancakes of different flavours, and smoothies of different fruits, were sold to many customers.

One of such people was Ms. Barrenachea, who to our surprise, bought a pancake with all the different ingredients in it (lemon, banana, and chocolate). Most customers said that delivery was quite fast, and that the food tasted pretty good, so along with earning 1237rmb profit for charity, we feel that the event was largely a success.

One thing that stood out to me as a Young Enterprise member myself, was just how enthusiastic everyone was about the entire project, especially Manzar, our Managing Director, who led the project. He was constantly pushing us and coming up with great ideas - like what kind of smoothies we should make and from where we could get the ingredients. When asked about how he thought the week went, he replied: “I feel that this week has been exceptionally helpful in the enrichment of entrepreneurial skills of all the people who were a part of Young Enterprise.

The combined efforts of everyone from brainstorming ideas, researching products that were cost effective, to selling the product, resulted in making an admirable amount of profit which can be reinvested in setting up an even better venture in the near future.”

Everyone was just very helpful and pitched in when needed. Our accounts manager, Ann ,who looks after all the money and receipts said: “In my opinion, this week was a very valuable experience for us, as the whole process was fun and also challenging. Our members were very engaged and most showed lots of commitment in bringing the amazing business ideas to life, which made this week such a great success.”

I think that this experience has helped everyone in the Young Enterprise group grow as a person and as an entrepreneur, and although it was a fun and successful week, there were still plenty of aspects for us to reflect and improve on in our next ventures. We look forward to your custom!

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focus

Make It Right Campaign: Back To Basics By: Aidan Edmanson Before Christmas, Key Stage 3 and Year 6 worked collaboratively in their houses to promote awareness of the importance of every child’s right to an education. Their projects were extremely successful and were a fantastic start to our school’s entry to the Nord Anglia Education, Oxfamaffiliated competition: ‘Make it Right!’

The challenge in January however was to effectively move the project forward, involving even more of the school body.

Enter ‘Back to Basics’ day…

This day was adopted by both Primary (06/02/15) and Secondary (30/01/15).

At its essence was the concept of stripping the school day bare; removing some of those aspects that we all take for granted. The main aim was to experience and empathise with those children around the world who aren’t as lucky and perhaps do not have the privileges and opportunities that we possess here.

So, what happened?

The Secondary day began with a very early start! Over fifty students and members of staff met at the Sofitel Hotel on Guangzhou Dadao Bei at 5:15am. The Sofitel were good enough to allow us to use their site as a starting point for what would be a long, arduous and sleepy walk to school.

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The students however remained in extremely high spirits throughout and it was so positive to see so many of them wanting to be involved. After a fairly fast pace, we all made it to school two hours later, ready for a full day!

However, it would be a full day with a difference…no technology! All teachers and students were banned from using technology around the school in order to appreciate how so many people around the world do not have the luxury of relying on this. No Macs, PPT presentations, phones or iPads! Believe it or not, our students did survive the hardship and it began to register that actually, we are lucky and should appreciate what we have.

This appreciation stemmed further when it was time for lunch, as over 180 Secondary students and staff opted for a rice only lunch. Yes, it certainly wasn’t the most exciting midday meal, yet it was quite humbling. Even more so, as just under 30 RMB was raised for the Oxfam cause for every person who signed up.

on the issue of every child’s right to an education, to the whole of Year 4.

Yet also, a number of Year 9 Norman students took it upon themselves to do the same in a local Chinese school in the community, delivering their lesson to over sixty Chinese Primary students! Both groups should be extremely proud of their achievements.

All this and more bodes extremely well for an extremely positive wholeschool entry for the NAE project.

Not only have we managed to raise 20,000 RMB, we have also hit our goal of raising awareness (both inside and outside of our school) of a very serious and important issue.

Thanks to all staff and students who have been involved! We truly appreciate your efforts to help ‘Make it Right!’

It was a fantastic and hugely successful day, and one that was echoed as successfully by Primary a week later.

Taking on the rice activity and a day without technology, as well as completing their own slightly shorter walk, the Primary students certainly stepped up to the challenge!

The two days were extremely positive, as were the other activities that were running in the same week.

The Secondary Charity Committee and Learning Reps planned and delivered awareness-themed lessons 9

early years foundation

Best Dressed Student Yaya Li, Reception Robins Music To Early Years’ Ears By: Queenie Xu Welcome to the Early Years Lakefront Campus music team! There are 2 teachers on our team and we are Miss Queenie and Miss Lin, and together we teach all Pre-Nursery, Nursery and Reception children. At the beginning of the year, we were all very excited to open a big box full of surprises; it was a box full of age-appropriate, colourful and beautiful new instruments, all designed for the Early Years children.

What fun all the children have had experimenting with these instruments. The children learnt to identify different instruments by their sounds, they learnt to play the instruments at different speeds and also how to adjust the volume of each instrument. Also this term, we have had the addition of a beautiful magical, musical mat that has inspired many fun and interactive games, with Musical Bumps being the favourite.

To play this game, we play music and ask the children to move around the classroom in time with the music. When the music stops, each child needs to find a musical note on the mat to sit on, and the last child to sit down is out. The game continues until we have a winner! This game has been a big hit across the whole campus and we cannot wait to introduce the next new game we have up our sleeves!

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early years foundation

We Are Brave!

By: Helen Jones This term on the Lakefront Campus, we have introduced our fourth Values, Attitudes and Attributes (VAAs) as part of our High Performance Learning programme.

We are now focusing on being risk-takers with our slogan - “I am brave�. The risktaking element of our VAAs involves children demonstrating confidence, experimenting with novel ideas and effects; speculating willingly, working in unfamiliar contexts; avoiding coming to premature conclusions and tolerating uncertainty.

Our risk-taking VAA was introduced with an assembly. During the assembly we discussed ways we need to be brave in our home and school life, and ways we can take measured risks to try and experiment with something new.

We read a story called Scaredy Squirrel by Melanie Watt to illustrate what life can be life if you never take a risk or move out of your comfort zone and what can happen when you do. Scaredy Squirrel took a risk by leaving his home high up in a nut tree and discovered a whole new wonderful world around him that was not as scary as he thought.

Can your children tell you how they have been brave by taking a risk and trying something new at school?

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early years foundation

Old MacDonald Has A Farm...

By: Prerna Nankani In Pre-Nursery, we learnt about the animals that live on a ‘farm’ and also the sounds they make. The children were engaged in doing lots of sensory activities and dramatic play. An area of the classroom was set up like a barn and children were provided with props such as hats, boots, farming equipment and animal masks. The children pretended to be farmers and raked the straw to feed the horses. Super cute!

For our sensory activity, the children enjoyed the sensory experience of playing with the farm animals mixed in oatmeal. We also let some of our farm animals roll in the mud (made from coffee, glue and water) and stomp their feet on a piece of paper creating different prints. The children had a blast getting all the animals dirty in the muddy paint.

Gross motor activity games, such as the ‘farm animal bowling’ and ‘roll the dice’ action games were exciting and caught the attention of not only the children but the teachers as well.

The children were encouraged to pantomime how each animal moves and also the sound they make. We had children rolling on the carpet pretending to be pigs, galloping like horses and strutting like chickens.

We also read lots of stories and sang songs related to this theme. One of them being our all-time favourite ‘Old Mac Donald Had a Farm’. The corridors were filled with all sorts of clucking, quacking and mooing sounds. What fun!

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The Queen’s Knickers By: Gavin Fleck It has been an extremely busy time in Reception since the start of the second term. The children began their new topic entitled Clothes.

Initially we began by looking at the different types of clothes that children wear on a regular basis.

We had fun learning the different names that clothes had. We even pointed out that English speaking countries have different names for the same clothes. We next had a fashion show at the school, complete with a catwalk and funky music. It was amazing to see the different choices that children made for their favourite clothes. I am not sure who enjoyed strutting up and down the catwalk more, the children or the adults, but it was certainly fun for all and worthy of Milan or Paris!

One of the most exciting activities that the children engaged this term with was centered on a story called ‘The Queen’s Knickers’ by Nicholas Allan. For those of you that have not read the story, its central theme is the different types of underwear that the Queen of England might wear on different occasions! An example of this being a pair of underpants that turn into a parachute, used when travelling by plane. The children designed their own knickers that they thought the Queen would enjoy wearing and decorated them. The next stage was for them to write individual letters to the Queen explaining what knickers they had made; some children even explained when she

could wear them. The teachers will be sending Her Majesty a select few letters and knickers for her to look at. We are hopeful that we might even receive a reply from the palace (as we have in the past!).

The final activity that the children have been eager to start is our trainer activity. The school has purchased a blank pair of trainers for every child in Reception to have. The children have been tasked with decorating them in whatever patterns or designs they choose. Using ICT, children first design their own pair on converses to introduce them to what different parts of a shoe could be decorated.

The teachers were so impressed that they are considering buying some of the children’s designs for themselves. The next stage in the process was for the children to design their shoes using a paper template. The children will finally use their ideas to actually paint and decorate their blank shoes. After Chinese New Year, be sure to have a look at some of the incredible shoes that we are anticipating the children to have made on the Lakefront Early Years campus.

As part of the children’s education in the Early Years, teachers ensure that children have a balance of adult and child directed activities.

The activities mentioned in this article are just a small taste of some of the work that children have planned for them, ensuring that the skills of the Early Years Foundation Stage are delivered.

Eva’s

Haru’s

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early years foundation

Colours & Shapes By: Judith Sanderson From birth, we are attracted to and fascinated by colours and shapes.

Throughout our lives, we make many choices and decisions based on our preferences for particular shapes and colours. Our characters and personalities are defined by the choices we make of shapes and colours for our homes, vehicles, clothes, jewelry and many other aspects of our lives.

The nursery children have been extending their knowledge of basic shape names to include, diamond, oval and crescent. They have enjoyed looking for shapes in the environment; diamonds in the fence, triangles in climbing frames, circles on a clock. This is something you can do at home or on outings; look out for different shapes in buildings or a crescent moon in the night sky.

Exploring colour mixing using the three primary colours, red, blue and yellow, to create the secondary colours orange, purple and green, is a fascinating process for children.

Learning about colour mixing has been facilitated in part through creating a colour wheel, making sun catchers; window prints, putting food colouring in flower water, the making and mixing of play dough in primary colours.

It has been an engaging and exciting experience for our nursery children, as they continue to establish the foundations of their life long relationship with colour and shape.

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early years foundation

Gong Xi Fa Cai! By: Claire Zhou On 12th of February, Lower School welcomed in the Year of the Sheep. All the students performed for parents and teachers, in what was an exciting day.

The dragon dance competition was especially wonderful, with teachers and parents showing their talents with the joyous laughter of the children behind them.

I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to our lovely Lower School team.

The Chinese and EAL teachers worked so hard to make the show enjoyable. Also, a huge thank you to classroom teacher - we could not have done any of it without your help.

We wish all the students and parents a Happy Chinese New Year!

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PRIMARY

Year 1: Chocolate Museum By: Nicola Williams A visit from a crazy, chocolate-loving Belgian lady called Miss Scrumptious started a very exciting semester for Year 1.

Miss Scrumptious, with her face covered in chocolate, came all the way to BSG to ask us to help her create an exhibition for her chocolate museum. Of course, we were very willing to help.

We have had a very busy 5 weeks, finding out where chocolate came from and how it is made, as well as creating our own chocolate products.

We’ve learnt all kinds of weird and wonderful facts about the Mayan and Aztec people, who first discovered chocolate. We made some hot chocolate just like theirs. We made hats and masks, just like they used to wear too.

It’s incredible how many different types of choclate we’ve tasted! Can you think of as many adjectives to describe chocolate as we did? It was crunchy, delicious, fruity, chewy, creamy, and some even crackled in our mouth like stars!

This has been extremely exciting, as all five classes put together their work to create the museum exhibition. Miss Scrumptious came back to check out our work, and she absolutely loved it!

She even offered us jobs at her chocolate factory! We want to finish school first, so for the time being, she has taken some of our work and posters with her to display in her museum.

We are very proud that we managed to help her and we really enjoyed our role as tour guides, showing the Year 2s around.

We hope to see you again some day, Miss Scrumptious!

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Year 2: Maths Day By: Melissa Verdel At the end of January, the Year 2’s celebrated Math’s Day with competitions and challenges.

Children began the day rotating between classrooms, completing a different activity or challenge. For those who love to make paper airplanes, the Turtles’ class was for them!

Each child made an airplane, trying to make it as symmetrical as possible. Once finished, they took them outdoors to see whose airplane could fly the furthest, and then measured the distance with a trundle wheel. When in the Alligators’ class, the children used their knowledge of fractions to make a fraction caterpillar.

Telling time was the theme in the Dragonflys’ class. Who would not love playing bingo for prizes?!

In the Giraffes’, the children had the opportunity to be creative and make some beautiful patterned art. Lastly, a Maths Trail was played in the Monkeys’ class. The children looked around the playground answering questions related to what they have been learning. For example: How many times can you bounce a ball in a minute? How many even numbers are there on the hundred square?

As for competitions, there were many throughout the day, but the biggest was the Mental Maths Challenge. The competitors from the previous week met in the lunch hall for the finals. Everyone was on edge, wondering who would win – the Romans or the Vikings. After three tough rounds of questioning, the Vikings overtook the Romans in points and won the competition. Well done to the Vikings!

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PRIMARY

The Trials & Tribulations Of Banana Bread Making Year 4’s topic this term has been all about the rainforest and we’ve been learning some really interesting facts.

Year 4 wanted to get really creative, so we linked together our topic to maths and English! Firstly, we found out all about the different products that the rainforest provides us with, like bananas and cocoa - yum! Then we carried out a little market research with Years 5 & 6. If we were to make our own banana bread what extra ingredients would be most popular? You guessed it - the out-right winner was of course, chocolate chips. We also did a little market research on what would be popular packaging or advertisement colours for our product.

After that, we collated the data and presented it in graph form during our maths lesson. In English, we created persuasive posters (using the most popular colours), created slogans and brand names for our special banana bread.

Then came the best bit of all, using a bit more maths knowledge to make and bake our very own choc-chip banana bread. We measured and stirred, we chopped and stirred, we mashed and stirred - it looked amazing!

During assembly our bread was cooked and we looked forward to eating our rainforest concoction!

But then disaster struck!

4MM cut into their beautiful banana creation only to find… it wasn’t cooked! Oh no, ten minutes of school left, no cake and no time to re-bake! What a slip up!

No problem at all, 4GT came to the rescue! Theirs was perfectly cooked, and by having a slightly smaller slice, there was plenty to split between us!

4GT were so impressed that they all took the recipe home. Lily and Chloe even made it and brought it in to school on the following Monday. There was one slight alteration to the original recipe though, as Lily had dropped the mashed banana on the floor, so they substituted it with cucumber instead!

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Did You Know?

Rainforests used to cover 12% of the world, but now it is less than 5%.

PRIMARY

Year 4: Save The Rainforests By: Michelle McCarthy In Year 4, we have been applying our topic, ‘The Rainforest’, within our English genre of persuasion.

The children were asked to write a persuasive letter informing people about the dangers of palm oil plantations and how it is affecting our rainforests in a number of ways.

The children were shocked at the rate at which the rainforest is being destroyed and felt very strongly about the subject.

Federica Yee’s writing from 4MM is just one example of how the children managed to produce some really emotive and thought-provoking letters that included persuasive features, such as modal verbs, sentence starters, time words, conjunctions, technical vocabulary and formal language.

I think you’ll agree, the more people know about this topic the better. We’re just planting the seed in your minds, we hope the readers will go and find out more.

Palm Oil Plantations.

I am writing to tell you of the many damages that are happening to the rainforest due to the planting of Oil Palm plantations.

Firstly, we can see from the evidence that animals are declining in their numbers, especially tigers and orangutans. As a result, some animals are close to extinction. They can get lost in Palm Oil plantations while they are trying to search for food and can be killed by the farmers who see them as pests.

Moreover, isn’t it obvious that the rainforests eco-system is starting to break down as a result of deforestation? Added to that, greenhouse gases that are released from burning down the trees, therefore polluting the air and causing global warming.

Furthermore, the Indigenous people are losing the resources needed for them to survive. In addition, the soil is polluted, meaning they can’t farm therefore, they are forced to move away from their territories when Palm Oil plantations are set up.

In conclusion, I would recommend that you investigate this topic further. We need to know what is happening to our rainforests and how we can help.

By Federica Yee

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PRIMARY

5-Star Slam Dunkers By: Alasdair Carr 5AC were given a real treat this month, a free coaching session with Coach Don from Guangzhou 5 Star Basketball! The taster session was provided to give the children of Year 5 the chance to experience the fun and technical side of basketball.

After failing the initial challenge of giving the 6’ 4” Coach Don a high five, the hard work and fun got underway. Pupils were run through their paces to gain ball familiarity, footwork technique and practise their shooting.

After warming up, the class took part in a number of mini-games including relays, karate dribbling and king of the ring (or ‘BOOM, BOUNCE, WATCH-OUT! YOU GOTTA STAY IN THE ZONE!! - as Coach Don called it!)

The session ended with a game of 3-sided basketball which honed their skills and put into practise some of the technique worked on in the session. The pupils all thoroughly enjoyed the experience and were excited to go out into the playground to continue to practise/show-off their new-found skills!

5-Star Basketball takes place on Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays at BSG. Please email info@fivestarsports.cn for more information, or visit http://www. fivestarsports.cn/new_en/index. php

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CLICK HERE for Registration Form

PRIMARY

Year 6: Graffiti - Art or Vandalism?

By: Victoria Brooks When Year 6 pupils were asked whether they had ever argued before, you can imagine what their response was. Although, most of their arguing up to that point, had been based on whether they had cleaned their rooms or completed their homework. This term we introduced them to a whole new type of argument – balanced arguments. Balanced arguments?

You can imagine the puzzled look on their faces!

This term, the children had to learn the difference between informal arguments and formal debates.

They had to think about the kinds of language they could use to express their opinions. The pupils looked at the issue of graffiti and we researched and debated whether it should be considered art or vandalism should be allowed in public places. The children then wrote some amazing discussions into this contentious topic, producing balanced and effective arguments for and against this issue.

Wenxi

Steve

As well as improving our writing skills we also explored the artistic side of graffiti and created our own ‘tags’.

Check out some of the amazing tags the children have created!

Thea

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PRIMARY 24

Mandalas By: Jone Barrenechea All Year 6 students have been working on different ways of representing Mandalas, linked to their classroom topic of “India”. We explored tone, colour blending and detail using oil pastels, made use of new technologies using the iPad app “Mixala”, and also explored composition and form using paper cuts and the laminator.

PRIMARY

Maths Roadshow By: Alexandra Paul On Maths Day, Year 6 participated in an exciting Fun Maths Roadshow, developed by the Liverpool Mathematics Society.

The roadshow consisted of an afternoon of problem solving activities set out on tables in the Dance Studio, so pupils could move around tackling the problems at their own pace.

Year 6 worked in pairs and many completed over 20 different maths puzzles.

Enjoyment and challenge were the most common words used to characterise the roadshow, with pupils already requesting opportunities to complete the rest of the problems.

Excellent problem solving! Well done Year 6!

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PRIMARY

Teeball By: David Mikhail The Year 6 PE unit for this term hit the spot with Tee ball, as the students have all enjoyed learning about the game and getting a chance to practice their skills.

Tee ball is similar to baseball and is a great game to learn the skills of throwing, catching, batting and fielding.

The students spent several sessions honing their throwing and catching skills. The ball is hard, so good catching technique is important. They also had to try and develop a strong over-arm throwing technique, so that the ball can be returned quickly.

Batting is made easier by the ball being placed on a large tee. The skill is getting good contact, so the ball can be placed where it is hard for the fielders to get it back quickly.

Backwards Science!

By: Agnes Golczyk Throughout this term, Year 6 students have had a chance to conduct several experiments in order to discuss a variety of changes occurring in our everyday life. The learning objective of these lessons has been to teach children to distinguish between reversible and irreversible changes.

The Year 6 students particularly enjoyed the heating test, the aim of which was to observe what happens to the materials, such as: egg white, margarine, ice and chocolate when they are heated up. Students then compared the experiment results with their predictions and found some surprising facts.

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The most ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhhs’ though could be heard when it was time to observe the reaction of cement with water. Student seemed very impressed with how quickly the cement powder changed into a hard solid.

PRIMARY

EAL Maths Day By: Piers Hunday Language is a tool that is needed not only for learning about grammar and new vocabulary but is a requirement in order to access all the subjects that are taught within the school.

How are you able to study maths effectively if you cannot comprehend mathematical terms? Therefore, on Maths Day, the EAL team ditched verb tenses and focused on fun-filled, maths-related classes throughout the day. The results were impressive.

In Key Stage 2, students focused on word problems. They were first shown simple mathematical signs such as the minus sign, but were then asked to think about what are all the verb forms of this sign (to minus, to subtract, to take away) and what is the noun form of this sign (subtraction). They then put this knowledge into use by completing some quick-fire sums. Students were put into teams and they had 2 minutes to not only answer 8 questions, but to say the full sentence, for example, four multiplied by twelve equals forty-eight. At the end of the lesson, students played a game of bingo, but this was no ordinary game of bingo! Students had to listen carefully to the word problem and work out whether their number had been called. One example of a clue they had to solve was: ‘I bought 26 bags of crisps and gave one to my daughter every day for two weeks. How many bags were left?’ See if you know the answer!

In Key Stage 1, Mr. Ryan led a visually inspiring class about symmetry. As you can see in the photos, students explored the concept of symmetry in various ways. The students began the process by looking at shapes on the interactive whiteboard and using a mirror to help them to draw the other side of a cloud and a sun. They not only had to draw the other side of the shape, but to say the full sentences, ‘This cloud is symmetrical.

Both sides are the same’, in front of their classmates. This was a fantastic achievement for such young students in only their second term of learning EAL. Once the students had finished drawing their own symmetrical shapes, they were then given pictures that they had to fold according to its line of symmetry.

Finally, the students participated in a pair game, where they shared a grid and had to shade in a block on their side of the grid. Their partner then had to shade in the corresponding block on their own side of the grid. This game required a good understanding of the concept of symmetry, co-operation with their partner and good listening skills.

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PRIMARY

Chinese New Year!

By: Julia Zhang On the last day before our CNY holiday, we had our 2015 Year of the Goat celebrations.

Year 1 to Year 6 children took part in some very interesting Chinese activities in the morning.

Year 1 and Year 2 children enjoyed quite funny chopsticks games after learning how to use them, and they also created spin top designs.

Year 3 children did paper cutting and they ate the dumplings they made by themselves. Year 4 children used shadow puppets, one of the ancient arts in China, to tell their stories. Year 5 had a good experience of Chinese painting and making dumplings. Year 6 learned the Chinese martial arts.

Whole school students and teachers watched two dragon dance shows performed by staff and KS3 students.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all the students and parents a happy Chinese New Year!

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SECONDARY

Holocaust Memorial Day By: Monica Mok, Year 8 Between 1933 and 1945, the Nazis attempted to overpower all of Europe’s Jews. This cruel attempt to murder European Jewry is known as the Holocaust.

From the time they assumed power in 1933, the Nazis used propaganda, persecution and legislation to deny human and civil rights to Jews. By the end of the Holocaust, six million Jewish men, women and children had perished in ghettos, mass-shootings, concentration camps and extermination camps.

What is Holocaust Memorial Day? Holocaust Memorial Day takes place on the 27th January each year, marking the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp. It’s a time for everyone to pause and remember the millions of people who were murdered or whose lives were changed beyond recognition during the Holocaust. One way to honour the victims and survivors is to ‘keep their memory alive’ – which is the theme for this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day.

Karina Chiang

‘Auschwitz was really a factory for killing, and human beings were used as fuel. I survived and promised myself, I will tell the world what happened.’

Lily Ebert, Holocaust survivor On Tuesday, 27th January, BSG secondary students protected and shared the memory. The day began with an assembly run by four sixth form History Department students; Davy Yung, Brenda Lye, Debbie Lee and Yan Zino. They told us a story about Iby Knill, a survivor from the Holocaust who spoke to the school in November. The expressions of all students were serious. The music played in the background filled the silence from the audience.

This set the scene for the day.

Caitlin Yap

To remember the ones who died, all secondary students wrote the name of a victim of the Holocaust on a stone.

We painted the name and other words that represented them on. These was gathered and displayed at the main entrance of our school, where the whole school could see them and remember.

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SECONDARY

The Normans ‘Make It Right’: Local School Visit I enjoyed it a lot! It was a bit challenging to deliver a lesson to over 50 children, across three different year groups, however it turned out to be quite successful! It was incredibly encouraging to see more and more handsups as the lesson moved along, the children were very happy to communicate with us as well. I was particularly fascinated when loads of children volunteered themselves to participate in the final video recording. The whole purpose was to raise their awareness to this issue, and to tell them that any small changes or contributions they make can make a difference. Jojo Guo Education is an important part of our lives, but not some might not have an education: for the lesson, we planned to ask some questions about their feelings towards education to build up to actually information in our ppt about the lack of education, particularly in China, followed by a video of the children that live in areas without education. The aim of our lesson to the local Chinese school was to raise awareness on the lack of education, that their education might be someone else’s dream of a lifetime. Happily, the lesson turned out better than we expected, as the students understood and thought deeply into the matter, learning to appreciate their education as well.

Elif Yolcu During this event, I got the opportunity of being a teacher. We then lead our lesson into a great success. Everyone enjoyed it. From this event.

I understood the difficulties of being a teacher, we should pay more respect and listen to our teachers more. Peter Chong

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The Model United Nations Conference, Malaysia By: Bethany Jayesinghe, Year 10 We had been preparing for this conference for months and months: the preparation, the research, the speech writing. To say we were getting very stressed about it would be an understatement.

Day One: We arrived at the hotel in Kuala Lumpur at around 4:30pm and quickly changed into clothes to match the thirty-three degree heat. With a mall linking to our hotel, its no wonder we already didn’t want to leave Malaysia!

Day Two: The conference started at 3pm, so we were allowed to have a lie in. At 2:30, we had to be in the lobby; by this time we were all extremely nervous. Dressed in our formal suits and skirts we made our way onto the bus. I think that many of us will admit that this was one of the quietest bus rides of our Malaysia trip, we were all so focused on our opening speeches and making sure our timing was right. The opening ceremony commenced, after that we made our way to our committees. After rehearsing our speeches two days before, we made sure our speeches were all under two minutes, however, when we arrived into our committee, we found out that the speech only had to be one minute, which was timed! After the speeches we were given time to “lobby”, or negotiate with other delegates for the rest of the day, where we were allowed to use colloquial language.

Day Three: This was the longest day of the entire trip: 12 hours. For the first half of the day we continued to lobby and work on our resolutions (agreements of how to resolve world problems). However, the second half of the day the debate commenced. Many of us found that we sat back and watched how the debating procedure worked, nonetheless, as we followed the procedure, we found that it was a lot easier than we thought. Many schools commented, amazed at how much research we had done. Sarah Ryan was named best dressed as “The Lady In White”, with her nineteen sixties-esque white crotchet. We arrived back earlier than expected so Mr McDaid tactfully allowed us to use the mall for another half an hour… all of the girls literally ran off the bus and into the hotel.

Day Four: The final day of MUN. According to Bianca Chainani in Year 10: “Day four was an extremely busy day, the hours flew by too fast for my liking, as we all had made friends and it was hard to say bye.”

Not for Tyrek in Year 11 though, as he asked ‘permission to hug my friends goodbye’, and was shocked that the chair actually granted it! I believe it is safe to say that none of us wanted to leave Malaysia or the MUN conference as quickly as we did. Still finding ourselves stuck in the language, many of the teachers will agree that we have been using MUN terminology around school. All in all, this is an experience that none of us will ever forget and we strongly recommend anyone interested to apply for MUN next year!

This delegate yields the floor back to the chair.

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SECONDARY

Online Languages Competition 真棒 / Félicitations! / Gut gemacht! / ¡Qué bien! / Поздравляю! / Well done!

At the end of 2014, students from The British School of Guangzhou took part in an online languages competition against over 25,000 students from all over the world. Having correctly answered almost 250,000 questions, the school had one of the highest average scores amongst other FOBISIA schools, and recently we received individual student awards.

Congratulations must go to all of the students who received certificates for their language skills, but certain students deserve a little more recognition.

Max Siegel, Harsh Verdia and Aditi Telang earned gold Certificates for scores rated in the top 2% of total participants, as did Sonia Blit and Sitara Bhojwani.

However, not only did Sonia and Sitara earn Gold Certificates, but they also received commemorative prizes to recognise outstanding individual scores. Sitara was the 16th highest scorer in the Chinese Language category and Sonia was the 3rd highest scorer in the Russian Language category.

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Sports Competitions Update U19 Basketball Competition Girls and Boys Boys – 3rd Place Girls – 2nd Place The U19 girls team put in an outstanding effort to come 2nd place in the PRC- HS competition held at UISZ. They played 3 matches in the rounds, where they won one and narrowly lost two. They then won their semi final match against UISZ. But lost in the final against TIS. It was a great team effort, with excellent commitment from all. Players were Marcelina, Valerie, Emmelynne, Charlene, Anjelica, Amy and Apple. Well done to all who played!

The U19 Boys team played some very competitive games and the standard was very high. The team were tenacious and never gave up, even when they were losing a game. In the crunch game to make it to the final, it was 15 points all and Yan unfortunately went over on his ankle. The score remained point for point throughout the game, but then the opposition came through and narrowly edged ahead. A 3rd place position overall was a good result, but with more training and tactical awareness the team will go from strength to strength.

U12 Volleyball Tournament Boys – 2nd Place Girls – 3rd Place The U12 PRC Boys and Girls Volleyball Tournament took place at AISG, hosted by BSG. The boys team got to the final where they played AISG A Team. There was great commitment by the whole team, but special mention must go to Sean Lye and Jurek who played exceptionally well. The game went to 3 sets and the BSG boys team just missed out on 1st place. The girls won their first game in 3 sets and then unfortunately lost their 2nd. They just missed out on a final place, but came 3rd overall. Leiah gave a great performance, showing consistent execution of her digging.

Well done to both teams, some great results for their first volleyball tournament! Players were: Boys - Ross, Jurek, Hesed, Andy, Rune, Sean Lee, Sean Lye; Girls - Leiah, Coco, Ericca, Mariana, Lisa, Lydia and Ayisha.

U13 FOBISIA Sport The U13 FOBISIA team have been training hard every morning, noon and night to be at their best for the competition this month.

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SECONDARY

Dino Designers!

By: Mugasha Rutega, Year 8 The Dinosaur project was very exciting because we were actually making the toy designed by a child in Year 2! Sure, it was difficult to make it exactly like the drawing but in the end it was worth it to see the child smile at my work I created for him. I had to first trace the design of the dinosaur using tracing paper then transfer sections of the body on to the correct colour of felt. After I’ve done that, I cut the sections out and started to stich them together. I made it 3D and I stuffed some cotton into it and that’s how I made my dinosaur.

The day we had to give our toys to the designers (Year 2) the look on their faces was adorable. They were so excited to finally see their toys and it made our day. All of them looked pleased to see their toys because they looked exactly like the design.

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SECONDARY

Healthy Lifestyle Day The topic of Year 8 PSHE Day last term was ‘Healthy Lifestyles’. Students took part in a carousel of sports activities, some led by community coaches. They took part in volleyball, football, basketball and cheerleading. The aim of the day was to encourage students to take part in an active lifestyle and to offer something different for them to try. Students took away leaflets for an external cheerleading and basketball club. The feedback from the students was that they really enjoyed taking part in the different activities.

‘Cheerleading was fun!’

– Sonya 8C ‘The Basketball guy was so cool’ – Angel 8C ‘I liked the session’ – David 8C

Basketball

Donyale has started basketball sessions at BSG on Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Please come up to the PE department for more information, or pick up a leaflet from reception.

Please contact See nit yee seenityee@varsity.com.cn for more information about the cheerleading classes.

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This graphic project developed around the idea of Russian Propagandas, which consisted solid, vivid colours, bold geometric shapes and realistic figures We aimed to implement the same visual elements within the Russian propagandas into our own poster for the school’s five Core Values: Commitment, Responsibility, Love of Learning, Integrity and Respect. The tools we used to create these posters were mainly Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. By using these applications, we can introduce photography and typography into our posters. In my original poster design, I used a plastic bag full of books instead of a school bag as I directly followed Banks’s piece. However it seemed inappropriate to do so as the plastic bag made it look like as if the two girls were throwing away the books hence it’s a bit disrespectful for a poster as such to be displayed in school and I decided that a school bag communicates a more positive sense of admiration for school as well as commitment towards education.

Amy Wong

This project was really exciting, interesting and fun. I enjoyed making my own propaganda poster. This is my first time doing graphic project in school. I’ve done it at home before but it was different from this (it was digital anime art) so this was a really great experience for me! I really liked it when we helped each others to take photos in order to introduce images into our Russian propaganda poster.

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HAERIN

Year 10 Art students have been working on a graphic deign project to develop posters that promote the BSG Core Values. The project satisfied all of the iGCSE Assessment objectives with the students exploring a range of ideas and linking their work to established artists Alexander Rodchenko and Shepard Fairy. Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator processes were explored to develop the final outcome, with valuable feedback and advice coming from a multi award winning graphic designer based in Kuala Lumpur.

amy wong

By: Philippe Delmotte

TIM HUANG

SECONDARY

Year 10 Graphic Design

The professional graphic designer told me try to use less yellow so I have changed yellow color to lighter orange and darker red.

It now looks more like propaganda poster and the color scheme is more harmonious, which creates a sense of unity. The hand in the middle stands out more from the poster creating more visual interest.

Charlene Lim

JENNY ANGIE WONG

I initially looked at two posters created by Shepard Fairey to gain inspiration for my own.

The first was a poster showing a hand holding a lipstick, with a red background decorated by white circles; the second was a poster for Obama’s election, showing a posturized image of the future president. My idea was to use a light bulb as the main subject of my poster, which symbolizes idea, inspiration and a passion for learning. I imitated the structure and the circular decorations in the background from the first poster that I looked at; and I tried to use the same color range from Shepard Fairey’s HOPE poster. To create a pattern using the Nord Anglia group logo, I imported an image of the logo and deselected the parts that I didn’t want. I rotated and transformed the image, duplicated the layer and merged it down. I repeated this process until the whole page is filled, then I copied and pasted the pattern on a layer in my poster.

Angie Wong

CHARLENE LIM

My theme was love of learning. I thought an image of a book would communicate ‘learning’. I chose a sketchbook because it was related to arts. I also held up the sketchbook, like a student showing their work to a teacher to communicate that proud they are in their studies. I think that what the Professional graphic designer said was actually similar to Mr. Delmotte so I don’t really think that there is a great difference. However, this is the first for having my word commented by a professional graphic designer so I’m very thankful of Mr. Delmotte’s help by sending them to him.

Jerrine Ng

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The hand have a similar style of the artist Shepard Fariey, separating natural colours to a more graphical presentation--the colours has varied into a smaller range, so that the contrast of tone is very clear and sharp but also remain details.

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with thanks TO Benjamin Chee, our MULTI AWARD WINNING designer, FOR SUPPORTING

MICHELLE SON NAYOUNG SUMYI

SECONDARY

After I got back the comment from the professional graphic designer, I changed where I need to change the colour on the top left hand side. And also, I changed the half and half design to a whole background, and also the spreads from the flag. In my first draft, I tried to include both artists’ characteristic, but after I added the circles which look like spreading from the student’s brain, the half and half background didn’t work. I moved the flag to the middle point where the triangular shapes meet, and this make the flag stands out more. I also changed the colour of my background to red, yellow and black.

The whole poster now has unity and looks like a Russian Style propaganda poster.

Kitty Su

SECONDARY

Year 12 Chemistry

By: Matthew Noyek In October, the Year 12 Chemistry students began individual projects choosing for themselves a theme and conducting several series of research, review and refinement. Their project culminated in a presentation day that took place in January.

Students managed their own projects and were given oversight by their teachers, who they reported to at a small number of checkpoint sessions. There was also a skills session on what makes a good presentation, but ultimately the students were responsible for their own learning and project management from inception to final presentation.

The aims of the projects were for students to appreciate many things. Firstly, there is more to chemistry than just what is in the textbook, and learning about chemistry in the world around us is interesting. Also students appreciated that it is enjoyable to learn and choose what they learn about, creating their own personal learning path. Students were independently responsible and gained insight into managing a project. Lastly, part of the final real exam to take place this summer, students are required to make links to their core chemistry knowledge and apply their understanding to answer questions on a new topic that is not included in the textbook, and it was hoped this task might make the real exam less scary. The creative, flexible and reflective approaches encouraged by the task enhance the thinking skills required by High Performance Learners, and to be successful, students would have to embody three of the school core values of love of learning, responsibility and commitment. ‘‘My project about the issue of ionised water made me realise chemistry was not only about making medicine, but it is actually closely associated with our daily life. More importantly, I realised how media and advertisements could blur and hinder real communication between scientists and people. I wish we can access the scientific truth easily.’ Debbie Lee, Year 12 Chemistry student.

Presentation day was attended by a guest audience of Year 13 Chemistry students, and their teacher and the Year 12 students had 5 minutes each to present, followed by 5 minutes of questions from the invited audience members and class peers. The topics chosen were diverse and included such titles as ‘Fuels of the Future’, ‘Is it safe to drink alkali water?’ and ‘Chemical Weapons’.

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RESIDENTIAL TRIPS 40

Year 12 Borneo From the 31st of January to the 7th of February, Year 12 embarked on a community service & adventure trip to the Borneo jungle. Students flew into Kota Kinabalu and spent 5 and a half hours travelling to the second most remote village in Sabah, called Meligan.

Two hours of this journey was spent in 4x4 vehicles to cope with the terrain, showing how remote the village is from the nearest populated town, Sipitang. Â Over the next 8 days, students built 2 compost tumblers, a 3 layer ecosystem structures, a bamboo raft, learnt first aid, navigation skills & cooked for themselves during their camping experience.

The villagers were very welcoming to BSG and made us feel part of the community for the duration of our stay. I am confident that we will all remember this trip for all the new experiences we had as a group and I hope that the students learnt a great deal about themselves and their peers as part of this trip.

OUR ITINERARY Friday (30/1): We met at Baiyun airport and boarded the midnight flight to Malaysia.

Saturday (31/1): We took a bumpy 2 hour ride through the mountains to Kampung Meligan. There, we received a warm welcome by the villagers and watched traditional dance.

Sunday (1/2): We did traditional Malay exercises in the morning. We were divided into groups of 6 and using tools such as drills, made two compost tumblers.

Monday (2/2): In the morning we learnt traditional Malay martial arts (silat). In groups of 3, we started work on the 3 layer ecosystem. We took turns trying out the blowpipes.

Tuesday (3/2): Finished the 3 layer ecosystem. We played traditional games and football with the villagers. Everyone received a traditional Malay costume (sarung) to take home with them.

Wednesday (4/2): We packed our things and left for Pondok Tagal. There, we pitched tents and cooked spaghetti for dinner. We were split into 3 teams to rotate tasks, prepping, cooking and washing.

Thursday (5/2): We learnt about first aid, tying knots from our instructor, Brandon.

In the afternoon, some students went for a dip in the river.

Friday (6/2): We built rafts using bamboo and tested them in the river. After lunch, we returned to Meligan village. We watched a traditional performance as well as performed for the villagers.

Saturday (7/2): We left the village at 9 in the morning. Had lunch at a seafood restaurant and met with Chelsea, a former student at BSG. We went shopping in KK before taking the flight back to Guangzhou.

The trip was a very new experience for many of the students. Memorable experiences the students had included being able to use blowpipes and having to eat Malaysian food for 8 days, which was a chance to experience a new culture.

Ivy commented that it was interesting to be able to meet people who gave up their original careers to become one with nature. Many students also got to know new things about others, especially the students who just entered BSG last year.

Mun Zheng displayed a talent for dancing, while Ronald surprised everyone by having a fear of bugs, however with some help with the instructors he was able to overcome his fear. He is currently capable of holding bugs and helping the other students vanquish bugs when necessary.

Many students disliked the humidity and amount of bugs there, especially when we were out camping. Through our experiences there, we came to realise how lucky we are and how we should treasure what we have. When asked about what they liked and disliked during the trip, everyone had many things to say about what they liked that they found it hard to choose, whereas some students could not think of anything they disliked at all. Kwezi commented that she enjoyed getting to know the friendly children and professional instructors, taking lots of good photos and being able to bond with people she wouldn’t have bonded with before. Ashish said that to him, the trip was a memorable experience full of responsibility and teamwork.

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EVENTS 42

CNY: South Lake Dragon Dance

British Education A fast track to success

How did The British School of Guangzhou prepare you for life at university?

The British School provided me with the opportunity to reach my academic goals and gave me the guidance I needed to get to my dream university.

Not only did I learn to work independently, but I also gained great interview and essay-writing skills.

Fleur Wang

Graduated 2014 Geography with Economics & Spanish, University of Edinburgh

Once you complete your A-Level courses, there is no doubt that you can survive life at the university you choose and the academic challenges it brings.

What were some of the highlights of your time in Guangzhou?

In what ways did A-Level study kickstart your university education?

Every day at The British School of Guangzhou was a highlight for me! I will never forget the amazing friends I made there and the experiences we had together.

I found the A-Level course to be immersive and rewarding. A-Level courses specialise and therefore go into more depth as advanced study is possible. It also gave me the confidence in knowing that Geography is truly the course for me.

Learning to sail around the islands in Hong Kong, diving for the first time in Thailand, the stress of exam week, the paranoia of opening our exam results and our wonderful week of paradise in the Philippines as part of our graduation trip!

It is now my major, and some topics were covered in more detail during my A-Levels than in my first year at the University of Edinburgh. This really helped me.

The British School of Guangzhou is a really lovely community full of kind and exciting people. I miss it so much.

Fast Facts

Our Results

A-Level qualifications accepted globally at top universities.

A-Level students specialise early, allowing many students to be fast-tracked through the first year of study when they reach university.

The British School of Guangzhou offers 17 specialist subject areas covering Mathematics, computing, the sciences, languages, humanities and the arts.

79% 21%

British School UK National of Guangzhou Average Students

88%

79% of The British School of Guangzhou students achieved A* to B grades at A-Level, compared to the UK national average of 21%.

Top A-Level students are prime targets for American Ivy League universities.

of The British School of Guangzhou graduates were offered places at first choice universities.

Yale University Representative, 2014

The British School Graduates In a recent survey conducted by the Council of British International Schools (COBIS), The British School of Guangzhou came 3rd in the world for A* to B grades at A-Level. With half of all the School’s graduates from 2014 accepted into the world’s top 30 universities and the class of 2015 already securing offers at prestigious institutions, there has never been a better time to celebrate British education in Southern China.

Chris Lin

Graduated 2014 Sports Science, University of Sydney

www.bsg.org.cn

Jennifer Chen

Graduated 2014 Psychology, Durham University

Nick Chien

Graduated 2014 Computer Science, University of Manchester

Talk with us today - contact@bsg.org.cn