NEWSWEEK
North London Collegiate School Jeju
WELCOME TO OUR WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
19 February 2021
NLCS HUB UGC UPDATE STUDENTS AWARDS
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A Letter From The Principal Dear Parents, Students, Staff and Friends of NLCS Jeju It is very encouraging to see our students engaged in debating competitions. We have been focusing on developing the art of rhetoric at NLCS Jeju, over the last year or so. Within both debates and lessons our students study the capacities of writers and speakers needed to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations. According to Aristotle, rhetoric is: “the ability, in each particular case to see the available means of persuasion.” He described three main forms of rhetoric: Ethos, Logos, and Pathos. It always concerns me when a student will focus merely on rote learning and amassing knowledge. Our students must focus on really developing critical thinking skills so that every student develops the capacity to be objective, rational and analytical about subjects, situations and cognitive problems. This begins right from Reception and is essential if students are to achieve the high levels in the Diploma Programme and be successful in applications to elite universities. The mind is not merely an empty vessel which needs filling and an over focus on amassing knowledge without critical thinking and the ability to apply, problem solve and take risks in learning impacts negatively on what our education at NLCS Jeju is all about and damages the prospects of future success. Yours sincerely, Lynne Oldfield Principal
PARENTS
North London Collegiate School Jeju
Thank you so much to our amazing Junior School parents who instigated a Parent Patrol to ensure cars arrive and drop off safely and efficiently every morning.The trial was just before we broke up for Lunar New Year break and we hope that this becomes a regular thing. Parents, we are very grateful to you all for having the safety of every child in your hearts. Mr. Jeremy Freeman, VP - Head of Juniors, says “We are delighted to have our parents working with us on this initiative. This is how I love to see the Junior School - students, parents and teachers in harmony working towards one goal. Safe and happy children.”
North London Collegiate School Jeju
Give Up and Give Hope Parent Delivery Team
North London Collegiate School Jeju
Parents have been supporting the students’ initiative to give up lunch and donate to those in need - the elderly and the vulnerable. Thank you to some of our Chinese Parent community who gave their time over the last few weeks.
LUNAR NEW YEAR CHALLENGE
North London Collegiate School Jeju
Well done to an amazing First School student! Doyun Kim in 1HG challenged himself to read his own height in books over Lunar New Year. His mother shared these pictures of his reading challenge with teacher, Ms Hannah Goddard.This sums up the love of learning we wish for every child as they progress through School. What a wonderful start!
Debate Workshop for Middle School Students Sean Yoon - Year 12 and Warrick Kwon Year 10 are hosting a Debating Workshop on Feb 28, 2.00 - 6.00. Registration is entirely free and this is a great opportunity for students to not only develop skills in debating but also have a fun time! Both Sean and Warrick are passionate about debate and have both been very successful in national, international and in-School debates. Learn from your fellow students! If you are in Years 7-9 and want to meet fellow debaters, learn tips and skills and join in debates, you are invited to attend. Registration is HERE
Warrick Kwon Year 10
Winter Holidays Open Debate Some of our students have been participating far afield! Sean Yoon has taken part in one of the biggest debating contests in the world! 100 teams participated from 29 different countries - many debaters being national or regional representatives. Sean and his team made 5th place and participated in the Octofinals. Sean himself received the 10th Best Speaker award among a group of 450 international debaters.
South African Schools Open Debate It is always a good idea to search as far as you can to find opportunities to stretch yourself. Recently, a competition was staged in South Africa for selecting the South African debating national team. This year, due to COVID-19, the competition was held online and allowed debaters outside South Africa to participate as well. NLCS Jeju was represented by a team including Sean Yoon and Fred Lee - both Year 12. The team came fourth overall and participated in the Quarterfinals. Sean received the 2nd best international speaker award, Senior.
2021 JFN Online Debating Championship We are happy to announce that this year NLCS Jeju is sponsoring the Jeju Forensic Network Online Debating Championship! You might remember we introduced JFNODC last year through the Weekly Newsletter. It is the first online Asian Parliamentary debate contest in Korea founded by students of NLCS jeju! If the student is in Years 7, 8, 9, and 10, then he/she is eligible to compete as a debater; judges have to be in Year 10 or above (at least secondary education level/highschool). The second annual JFNODC will be held from April 3rd to 4th. Regular registration for participants is from February 15th to March 1st, and late registration is from March 2nd to March 14th; the adjudication registration is open from March 8th to 21st. This year's secretariat is the following: Convenor & Tab director - EunJu Seo (NLCS Jeju) Chief Adjudicator & Financial Director- Warrick Kwon (NLCS Jeju) Deputy Chief Adjudicator Erica Kang (Phillips Academy Andover), Douglas Kim (Chadwick International) Communications Director - Jaenney Lee (Chadwick International) Advisor - Angelina Lee (NLCS Jeju) The competition is sponsored by NLCS Jeju as mentioned, and all collected fees will be donated to the following the ‘Miso Finance’ Initiative implemented by the Korea Inclusive Finance Agency (KINFA) with close connection to the Korea Financial Supervisory Service and the National Tax Service (NTS) for the purpose of alleviating individuals’ levels of economic destitute. You can be the winner of this competition! Please find more information through the official website and the facebook page below or contact secretariat.jfnodc@gmail.com https://jfnonlinedebate.weebly.com https://www.facebook.com/JFN-Online-Debating-Championship-111782120519019 We are proud of all the students who have poured a lot of time and effort in this project!
SERVICE
North London Collegiate School Jeju
Mufti Day A message from Clara Kim, Mufti Coordinator of Toweraid “Thank you for participating in last week’s Mufti Day - we raised 1,152,900 KRW in total. Special thanks to Jeoji House for raising 223,100 KRW. A great effort. We would also like to show sincere gratitude to the teaching staff and support staff who also participated. All funds are donated to the Give Up & Give Hope for Jeju residents in need. The donation will be used to buy necessary materials (e.g. plastic lunch boxes and paper delivery bags), and as an alternative method to pay for the donated packed lunches or other support.” Get in touch with Clara or with Angela Seo if you’d like to hear more about all these efforts.
NLCS HUB You may have seen The NLCS Hub mentioned over the last few months - but what is it? The NLCS Hub is a website showcasing and sharing the very best in student work at NLCS Jeju. You can find academic and creative writing, opinion pieces, visuals and even podcasts. Subjects covered range from global statistics to politics to the environment. Its student leaders Sean Yoon and Fred Lee (both Year 12) are working with Mr. James Tuffs to really ensure that our students’ unique talents are shared far and wide - within our immediate community and beyond. Sean Yoon tells us -
NLCS HUB
North London Collegiate School Jeju
“We are the new team for the NLCS Hub, an organization dedicated to publishing outstanding work by our students. With our newly recruited team of passionate members, we aim to publish a wider variety of stories, not only limited to blog posts and articles. These works include academic papers written by students, journals published by societies, Sejong Lecture series, debates, and podcasts. Even more, we will also be publishing some exceptional student essays for IGCSE or IB, which might also help student revision! Every student will have access to the content published, which we believe will foster intellectual curiosity among the student body. Ultimately, we hope that we can encourage more students to produce their own creative and intellectual content. Content updates happen very regularly, so please visit our website and be amazed by the quality of our students' works. Whether you wish to submit your article, collaborate with your society, or contribute in any way, please feel free to email shyoon22@pupils.nlcsjeju.kr or syoonlee22@pupils. nlcsjeju.kr.” You can find the collection of work HERE
Sean Yoon
Fred Lee
UGC UPDATE
North London Collegiate School Jeju
Our Class of 2021 are receiving offers across this term. So far we have Early Acceptance and Early Decision from the US.We also have two offers from the University of Cambridge . Oxford and Cambridge are extremely competitive and we are very proud. We are waiting for regular decisions from the US (by April 15) and UK (by May 20). This year there are more applicants worldwide to the US as universities there are now testoptional. This means students do not have to provide SAT scores. Many universities in the US are also responding to the Black Lives Matter movement and implementing domestic diversity policies. There are 30% more applications both domestic and international to US universities. This is mirrored in the UK where all applications are up by 18-20% at the elite universities generally chosen by our students.We are therefore incredibly proud that in this very difficult climate for our young people, our students have been offered places at the following universities. We have not attached numbers to each one as numbers are coming in, still -
UK Universities King’s College London University of Bath University of Sheffield University of Edinburgh Cardiff University Durham University University of Manchester Cambridge University Imperial College London University of Southampton University of Bristol University of St Andrews INTO City, University of London University of Surrey University College London University of Warwick University of Exeter Queen Mary University of London University of Brighton University of Birmingham Royal Holloway - London Goldsmith’s, University of London City University of London Lancaster University Aston University University of Sussex
North London Collegiate School Jeju
US Universities Bard College New York University Northwestern University Emory University Johns Hopkins University Berklee College of Music Purdue University Case Western Reserve University Boston University Rutgers University-Camden Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Art Institute of Chicago The New School Carnegie Mellon University George Washington University University of Minnesota, Twin Cities University of Chicago
Rest of the World University of Toronto, Canada University of Hong Kong Hong Kong University of Science and Technology University of New South Wales, Australia Monash University, University of Queensland University of Western Ontario Ritsumeikan University, Japan Head of UGC, Ms.Izabella Sloczynska says “We are very proud of the resilience of our students in facing this challenging application cycle. We are looking forward to celebrating more good news in the coming months.” We’ll be bringing you interviews and stories from our Class Of 2021 as they approach their graduation in June.
UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE ACCEPTANCES!
Joongi Joon Park
Joongi Joon Park
NorthLondon London North Collegiate School Collegiate School Jeju Jeju
We are excited that we have had two students accepted to the University of Cambridge for 2021. This week we were able to catch up with Joongi Joon Park who has been offered a place at Trinity Hall, Cambridge to read Mathematics. Joongi explained his application and acceptance process and how this is just the start of his academic ambitions. “I really value the advice that the UGC gave me over the past few months and years. Once I had decided to switch from my initial idea of studying Medicine and change to Mathematics, it all became clearer. Cambridge is respected as the best place in the world for Maths. I had taken part in lots of Maths competitions - I seemed to do quite well and I enjoyed it (that’s important) so I decided to pursue this course. I have been taught by Ms Duygu Bulut, Head of Maths, since I joined the school in Year 10. She inspired and encouraged me - and I have also really enjoyed my lessons with Mr Pettifor. I feel ready for the British culture and environment as so many of my teachers are British!: Joongi explained that a major part of the application is to show that you are not just an academic. “You have to explain your processes - and explain them as you solve the problem. That requires a lot of thought and English language skill as well as Mathsl! They are also looking for well rounded students so my participation in the orchestra and in swim squad certainly helped me. I advise anyone applying to these universities to show that they love their subject - but also that there is more to them than study! “ Our UGC team are very proud of Joongi and will be sharing more stories over the coming weeks. Watch Joongi explain more
STUDENT MAGAZINES
North London Collegiate School Jeju
Armuse Enterprise - Facteur Gina Koo and her team have produced the first issue of a superb culture magazine called Facteur. It’s all about Music, Culture and Art and features student artwork, articles on Vivienne Westwood and the rise of Punk plus playlists, thoughts, ideas and more. Read it HERE
CHEMISTRY OLYMPIAD
North London Collegiate School Jeju
Thank you to Dr. Henry Liu who organised a Chemistry Olympiad with the other GEC schools on Wednesday Feb 3. The sessions were held online in our Science labs. We were delighted to hear that NLCS Jeju emerged victorious!! NLCS Jeju took on KISJ. 11 NLCS Jeju students took part. Dr. Liu says “Well done to all students who worked really hard getting ready for this. Their teamwork and spirit were amazing. I would like to thank Mr. Warrier and Dr. Raj for all their support with the teams.” NLCS Jeju Students who took part Janice (Jiwon)Choi Yoon Sang Kim Lisa (Eun Sung)Ko Seung Jun Joon Shim Joongi (Joon)Park Taehyun (Tony) Son Suin Yang Yeobin (Amy) Han Ki Myoung (Andrew) Cheon Haeun (Olivia) Park Byounghyun (Kevin) Lee
SCIENCE SUPPORT
North London Collegiate School Jeju
Behind every great scientist is a great support team! We are lucky, here at NLCS Jeju, to have an exceptional Science Tech Team. Led by Senior Science Technician, Ms. Karen Holland the team comprises Mr. Daniel Whitney, Mr. Rajnish Nigam, Ms. Yelim Yook in the Senior School and Ms. Erin Scott who supports all Science classes in the Junior School. You may have seen them during Chemistry in Action Week before Half Term, assisting on some of the show stopping experiments and in the practical lessons, lectures and workshops. The team work diligently behind the scenes ensuring that Chemistry, Physics and Biology departments all run smoothly. The role of the science tech is to prep all the experiments and practicals in each class. They ensure that all Health and Safety protocol is followed and assist in trialling experiments before they are staged in class. They liaise on stock and order all the key elements required. Each one of them has a keen interest in science and experience in scientific fields. It’s a job which involves both mental and physical work. The team is in lessons a lot of time and are running around in between to set up the next lessons. They get to know the students as much as possible and they also need to know each teacher well - their personalities and their individualities! They describe the process as “being intuitive to every need. To read a classroom and to understand what’s required. Ultimately we keep everyone safe - the students are secure in the knowledge that everything is set up correctly allowing the teachers to teach without worries or cares. We know the curriculum and we know which units and projects are coming up and when.” They say of the students “They are so keen and hardworking and very highly skilled academically.” They all agree that students of this calibre are not found everywhere in the world.” As with many of our support roles - these are crucial to our community.Thank you all for helping and guiding our students!
Meet The Team Ms. Karen Holland is in her fifth year at NLCS Jeju. She came to us from a role as a Senior Research Tech / Laboratory manager at the University of Sheffield Medical School. Holding a M Phil and a B Eng (in Medical Materials, Science and Engineering ) she is highly experienced - and has worked on several research grants including ones funded by the Wellcome Trust, British Heart Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Mr. Daniel Whitney has a background in ICT and Science Tech. He previously worked in schools in Spain before moving to Korea. He chose the path of a Science Tech rather than remaining in ICT as he finds it so rewarding and varied. Mr. Rajnish Nigam has been in School for less than a year but has been in our community over four years. He was looking for a way to be involved in School and the variety (and the established team) appealed to him. Ms. Erin Scott supports our Junior School scientists. She is in her third year in Korea and previously worked as a Wildlife Conservation Officer in the UK. She has a BSc in Zoology and an MSc in Wildlife Conservation, and for her next adventure aims to become a Science Teacher. She loves the life in the Junior School, helping Mr. John Gilbertson and ensuring the younger children gain a real practical understanding of science. Ms. Yerim Yook has just joined NLCS Jeju from Pukyong National University. She is returning home to her parents in Jeju and was attracted to NLCS Jeju because of its national and worldwide reputation.
Mr. Daniel Whitney
Ms. Erin Scott
Ms. Karen Holland
Ms. Yerim Yook
Mr. Rajnish Nigam
AWARDS
North London Collegiate School Jeju
Korean Second Language Speech Competition Congratulations to all the KSL students for taking part in a recent Speech competition. Students were put in different categories according to their Korean level. They chose to talk about a topic of their own choice and interests and some of them put together some amazing work. Our winners of each category are Sam Hall Mendoza (Beginner level 1) Malo Munier (Beginner level 2) Georgina Downes (Intermediate level) Torin Harker (Advanced level) Georgina commented - ‘Whilst doing the KSL speech competition, I very much enjoyed learning about new aspects of Korean culture. I found this competition very challenging since it took me quite a few weeks to put together my speech. However, I feel that this experience has benefitted my Korean speaking skills since I came across lots of new vocabulary and I find that the actual speaking of a language is one of the most important parts. I would definitely want to participate in a similar event again since I really enjoyed the experience and loved learning new vocabulary to use on other occasions.’
Hallapeno JA Korea-Samsung Entrepreneur’s Playground Festival
North London Collegiate School Jeju
Team Hallapeno consisting of 4 Year 12 NLCS Jeju students (Angelina Lee, Janice Yoo, Claren An and James Bang) won the grand prize at the 2020 JA-Samsung Entrepreneur’s Playground Festival. It is a 7 months-long programme designed for high school students to independently work through the entire process of preparing for business, including devising an item, manufacture, sales, and finance. The programme came to a close on the 12th of last December, with the Pitching Presentations Competition. They came up with the invention called Boardnetic. Angelina explained, “It is a multi use magnetic board that can be applied for your own needs. We started off with a goal to improve several shortcomings of a regular clipboard, and by adding a variety of functions to the item, made it what it is today.”
North London Collegiate School Jeju
She also said that the hardest part was at the beginning of this programme when they had to devise their own item. They thought they had to come up with something grandiose, and this unnecessary pressure resulted in stress and conflict. Still, there is a moment giving you a sense of joy. “It varies a little amongst ourselves, but we came to a consensus on that getting to our feet was the most enjoyable part. We adored the experience of visiting the factory to monitor the manufacturing process ourselves and making additional changes to our prototypes. We also had great fun selling our product in school, directly addressing our customers.” They do not have clear start-up plans yet, but since the majority of the team members intend to major in business, this competition has been a very valuable experience. In particular, we could grow a greater interest in the field of marketing and many of them hope to study it in detail. She also left some advice for younger students who plan to participate in the similar contest. “Be sure to make the right decision about your teammates. For long-term projects, teamwork is much more important than the capacity of individuals. You have to be able to trust and rely on each other in order to be able to work your way through the difficult process of preparing for business and have the ability to recover from those moments when you want to give up.” Finally, she would like to thank you to everyone who has shown interest in their item. “Sorry to those of you who could not make a purchase due to our limited number of products, and thank you for supporting us nonetheless, all the way through the voting in the final round!” Well done Team Hallapeno, can’t wait to hear more on your successful and creative work!
JUNIOR SCHOOL TITANIC A favourite Junior School unit is the Titanic. Students love learning about this doomed luxury liner. Teachers, Mr. James Tipney and Ms. Kerrie Tamlyn have shared some amazing work linked to the unit. Writing, maths and movie making are just some of the ways the children in Year 2 have been learning! Mr. Tipney says “Congratulations to our Year 2 children and teachers who (mostly) survived a journey on the Titanic a few weeks ago. The children worked really hard exploring the historical concept of causation and consequence through a case study of this ill-fated ship. In a blend of online and ‘live’ learning, they accumulated a fantastic understanding of how the catastrophe unfolded, as can be seen in the attached improvised drama session featuring 2KT recorded this week. This, however, is just the tip of the iceberg, as one burning (or should I say freezing?) question remains - who was to blame for the disaster?” Watch the movie HERE and see these great pictures to learn more!
North London Collegiate School Jeju
North London Collegiate School Jeju
MATHS
North London Collegiate School Jeju
Have you ever seen a Trigonometry Love Letter? Well, our students love Maths so much that they have been writing them! Thank you to Ms. Hayeon Park for sharing the work of her Year 9 girls. We are sharing a few but they were all amazing. An ideal exercise to look at in the week of Valentine’s Day! Click Here to see more.
MATHS
North London Collegiate School Jeju
SENIOR SCHOOL ART
North London Collegiate School Jeju
Thank you to Ms. Rachel Donaldson for sharing these exceptional self portraits from her Year 9 classes. Well done to Hayeon Kim, Yejee Hwang, Jin Kim, Daniel Kim, Jun-Ki Kim, Hwan Kim.
BRYANTS
North London Collegiate School Jeju
Toto Baking Toto Baking is just one of our many fun Bryants! Students go to a bakery school in Jeju City. They are put into groups or pairs and are given a mini demonstration for the baked treat they will be making that day.The two bakers assist the students if they see that things are not going well but mostly the students are left on their own to get busy baking and they have lots of FUN! Once they have completed their task the cakes and biscuits go into the ovens and then the tidy up begins. They must clean up their stations and wash all dishes used. When the treats are ready they will be given to students who box them up to take home to enjoy with a delicious steaming cup of hot chocolate or to give to very willing parents! Thank you to Ms.Thena Reddy for sharing these great pictures of girls and boys getting creative and to Mr. Henry Liu - co teacher on this activity.
North London Collegiate School Jeju
ALUMNI STORY
North London Collegiate School Jeju
Yerim Cha / Global Team Secretary / Class of 2018 Yerim Cha graduated from NLCS Jeju as part of the Class of 2018. She chose to go to Hong Kong for further studies and she tells us how it has not all been plain sailing so far! “ I’m majoring in International Business and Chinese Enterprise in Hong Kong. There are only 20 people in my major and I’m the only foreigner in my class - that’s the reason why I chose this major. College life was not as I expected it to be. As soon as I arrived at university in Autumn 2018, I realized that NLCS Jeju has such a great environment. The room I got in Hong Kong was tiny and I had to share a shower-room! However, I loved the night view of Hong Kong - and dimsum of course. I am currently taking online courses due to a couple of reasons. Hong Kong had a severe protest in November 2019, so I have been online since then. I really miss Hong Kong and the school - hopefully I can go back next year. At the moment, I am just enjoying the life of ‘Zoom’; eating and listening to lectures at the same time. On top of the online lectures, I have been learning new languages. At the moment, I can speak Korean, English and Chinese - now I’m learning Japanese. arigatou gozaimasu!
ALUMNI STORY
North London Collegiate School Jeju
Yerim Cha / Global Team Secretary / Class of 2018
I loved my time at NLCS Jeju.The most memorable moments there were definitely in the sports squads. Sports squads are one of the things that I miss in university. I had so much fun playing basketball in Hong Kong but the feelings were not the same as back in NLCS Jeju. The teamwork in NLCS Jeju is unforgettable. COVID-19 has made a big difference to us all. I can’t overcome the virus itself so I have decided to do something new. I am learning flying yoga nowadays - meditation definitely helps!
North London Collegiate School Jeju
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