NLCS Jeju Newsletter 17 March 2023

North London Collegiate School Jeju

PRINCIPAL’S LETTER

Dear Parents, Students, Staff and Friends of NLCS Jeju

We have all had an action packed term which has seen our students excelling in so many areas including their academics. They really are taking up all the wonderful and ever growing opportunities that can be found at NLCS Jeju. It was wonderful to see the youngest and oldest performing in the Orchestral Spring Spectacular and the Choral Recital on Wednesday and Thursday. Their performances are so breathtaking we really need to take them on tour!

Enrichment weeks go from strength to strength and we have had two exciting ones with Physics and Maths. They really did stand your hair up on end! We wish all our students the best of luck as they take part in the World Maths Challenge which is being hosted this weekend at School. Our thanks go to the work of the societies and faculty departments.

We have been pleased to welcome the COBIS accreditation team into School and they too have felt the passion of NLCS Jeju and were very complimentary about our students’ enthusiasm, leadership and love of their school. They have seen all areas of the School and were very pleased and positive about the quality of education here and so subject to final ratification in London we have gained the COBIS Patron Award.

This term will end in the time honoured tradition of NLCS Jeju with our Founder’s Day Service and Ceremonies in commemoration of our founder Frances Mary Buss. Following this tradition, School will break up for our two week Spring holiday and I look forward to welcoming you all back to School (Students in Summer uniform) after a well deserved break on Tuesday 11 April (Boarders back the afternoon/ evening of the 10 April 2023).

Yours sincerely,

Lynne Oldfield Principal

The Main Event

Here are the biggest stories from around the School this week.

THANK YOU BIG 8 2022!

As we celebrate the new Big 8 we must not forget to say a huge thank you to the current Big 8 who are handing over to their successors. The team have worked hard over the past year to be excellent ambassadors for the community and taken each of their roles and responsibilities seriously - there are big shoes to fill but we know they have set the wheels in motion for the new Big 8 to continue the excellent work.

NEW BIG 8

We are delighted to announce that the following students have been appointed as Big 8 members. All the students have already contributed a significant amount to the School and we know that they will have a huge impact on NLCS Jeju in their new positions. Well done to all of you.

• Joon Seok (Aaren) Kang - School Council Chair

• Shona Park - School Council Chair

• Yoonhee (Stella) Han - SEC Chair // Head Girl

• Seoyun (Victoria) Ju - Sports Ambassador

• SeongJoon (Steven) Yang - Cultural Awareness Ambassador

• Brandon Yoon - Student Welfare Ambassador // Head Boy

• Eugene (Yujin) Lee - Service Ambassador

• Jinyeong Oh - Arts Ambassador

Further congratulations to Stella and Brandon who have been selected to be our Head Girl and Head Boy, respectively.

The Big 8 Selection Committee said “There were a significant number of very strong applicants for leadership roles and they too deserve recognition and credit for their participation in this process.”

We wish the new Big 8 (who will take office on 21 March 2023) all the best in their new roles.

The Main Event NEW BIG 8

The Main Event

The Main Event

PHYSICS ENRICHMENT WEEK

A futuristic and fun week was had by all! There was lots of laughter as students took part in the ‘ball pendulum’ and experienced hair raising static electricity, excitement as students were able to use the hovercraft and amazement with the optic marshmallow cooking activity! As well as other informative information stands and lectures on topics such as ‘The search for extraterrestrial intelligence’.

Thank you to the fantastic Physics team and students for another great Enrichment Week.

The Main Event

The Main Event

MATHS ENRICHMENT WEEK

Today is the last day of the wonderful Maths Enrichment Week. As always, so much effort has gone into arranging such interesting activities, which included - a Puzzle Hunt, Code Breaking, String Art and a quiz. Our Year 12 students even had an opportunity to visit Hallim Park. Well done to the Maths department and societies for all their hard work. More pictures

The Main Event

WORLD MATHS CHAMPIONSHIPS

MATHEMATICS

Maths Enrichment Week may be coming to an end, but this weekend we are hosting the World Maths Championship at NLCS Jeju. Schools from South Korea and Singapore are meeting to compete against each other in a range of fun and fast paced quiz rounds. For some students this will be their first visit to South Korea or Jeju and the group will visit Spirited Garden for a treasure hunt and to learn about the use of a millstone, as well as enjoying traditional Korean food in the dining hall. All topped off with a medal ceremony.

We will share photos of the weekend soon. Good luck to all the teams participating!

FOBISIA MATHS COMPETITION

Perfectly timed, our Year 6 students took part in the FOBISIA Maths Competition in Bangkok today and tomorrow. We will share news of the event in the next newsletter.

PI DAY 3.14

We couldn’t have picked a better week if we had tried! Tuesday was Pi Daycoinciding with Maths Enrichment Week. We had some fun with the drone and Ms. Tranmerarranged for Year 9 students to gather on the Astro so we could all celebrate.

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Follow us on our social media pages to never miss out! Our recent posts include:

• Early Offers

• Year 9 Artwork

• Diamond Model of Education

• Study the IDBP with us

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• We Love Maths Video

NLCS Jeju Awards and Achievements

NLCS Jeju Awards and Achievements

National History Day

The following students were awarded prizes at the National History Day Competition at Seoul International School in February. They have all been invited to represent Korea in Washington D.C at the International National History Day in April. Congratulations to all!

Senior Group Exhibit- 2nd Place- “Margaret Sanger: A Pioneer of Contraception, Human’s Fundamental Right to Privacy” - Ernest Lee, Hanjin Lee, Taeyoon (Alvin) Song, Yejun (Derek) Yoo

Senior Group Documentary- 2nd Place- “Tea and Fro Borders: How Tea Played a Significant Role in the Expansion of Both Britain’s Culinary and Geopolitical Frontiers”- Geumbee Ahn, Warrick Kwon (former student)

Junior Individual Documentary- 2nd Place- “Punjab Partitioned”- Peta Oliver

Ernest Lee, Hanjin Lee, Taeyoon (Alvin) Song, Yejun (Derek) Yoo

Geumbee Ahn Peta Oliver

NLCS Jeju Awards and Achievements

COBIS ARCTIC RACE4GOOD

Five NLCS Jeju students are taking part in Race4Good. There are a number of challenges, all with the aim of supporting indigenous people to adapt to the changing climate in the Arctic. Our students won the ‘Health and Wellbeing’ challenge by presenting the idea of an Arts Fair for the Qaanaaq community, taking them to the semi-finals, which took place on 14 March.

Our students then presented to Linda Cruse and a panel of judges, pitching the two ways in which they plan to support the community of Qaanaaq - a plan to open the area to niche tourism of wildlife photographers and enthusiasts, and to take the concept of the Jeju 5 day market to the village to share the culture with visitors but also preserve culture and community in the village.

We are delighted to announce that they are now finalists! The final round will take place on 23 March.

Well done to Brandon Yoon (Y12), Bella Kim (Y11), Alvin Song (Y10), Kevin Do Won (Y10) and Colin Kim (Y7), we wish you all the best in the final. The students will provide a full review for a future newsletter once the challenge has finished.

Find out more about the competition here.

Other News

IB VISUAL ARTS SHOW

A highlight of the NLCS Jeju calendar. Our students are exceptional in whatever they do and this includes art. The PAC lobby and ground floor of our Senior School are transformed every year into what looks like a professional and prestigious art gallery. Here are some photos of the Art Show that opened on 10 March. Well done to our talented artists and to our dedicated Art Department who support and guide all our students. More pictures

CHORAL FOBISIA

NLCS Jeju students took part in the FOBISIA Choral Festival in Bangkok last week. The Festival involved two and half days of intensive rehearsals to form a Secondary choir and a combined Primary and Secondary choir with all of the students from the attending schools.

Our students learnt four new songs during the course of the Festival which they then performed in the Festival concert. Claire Park and Robert Park, Y10, accompanied the Festival Secondary Choir for one of the pieces at short notice and both students were excellent. Our students, who are members of the Glee Bryant, performed ‘Rather Be’ by Clean Bandit as their individual performance in the concert. The students have been very self-sufficient and created choreography as well as a live band for this performance, which was very well received.

Prior to returning the students were able to visit Wat Pho and have a lovely Thai meal overlooking the river and Wat Arun. All of the students were incredible role models and represented the school exceptionally.

Though they were not able to join the group on the trip, special thanks goes to Alyssa Seo (Y10) for her work with the choreography and Ms. Dyer-Jones for her support during the Bryant. More pictures

Other News

JUNIOR SCHOOL PRODUCTION

Forever Treasure Island was another fantastic student performance. Such hard work and commitment was shown by all the students - whether they were on stage or behind the scenes. Well done to everyone involved.

BRAINSTORM

Here are some great photos from the brilliant Senior School production. The production was devised by our students and all aspects were so well thought out and brilliantly executed. So much hard work went into this wonderful show. Well done everyone. More pictures

SPRING ORCHESTRAL SPECTACULAR

What a wonderful treat for us all. The Whole School Orchestral Spectacular featured students from across the Junior and Senior School. We are all so lucky to have so many talented musicians at School who stage such professional events. More pictures. Thanks to Seijun(Sam) Kim for photos.

Other News

CHORAL RECITAL

If we weren’t lucky enough to have the Orchestral Spectacular on Wednesday, we were invited to hear our students perform at the Choral Recital on Thursday. Yet another great event from our Music Department and students. The talent of our students - in all areasseems to be endless. Thanks to Seijun(Sam) Kim for photos.

CELEBRATION ASSEMBLIES

As yet another term comes to an end, we enjoyed the Junior School celebration assembly where we reflected on the busy term and the many, many achievements our students have accomplished. We are always astounded by the level of activity that takes place across the School - on and off campus. Our students truly are exceptional. Well done to everyone who was mentioned in the assemblies. Here’s to another great term when we return after the break. We are looking forward to the Senior School celebration next week.

VIRTUAL CHEMISTRY OLYMPIAD INTERNATIONAL EDITION 2023

This week our students competed with students from three other international schoolstwo from the mainland in the Republic of Korea and one from India in the Virtual Chemistry Olympiad. Students participated in a closely fought contest through the quiz while answering multiple choice questions on the online Kahoot platform from various aspects of Chemistry such as stoichiometry, rates of chemical reactions, organic Chemistry, Electrolysis, Redox processes etc. At the end of the three rounds, our school finished first, followed by Singhania School, India in second position and Dulwich Seoul in third position. It was an enjoyable and invaluable learning experience overall and students thanked the in charge teachers of the other schools and the two teachers-Mr. Mahesh Warrier and Dr. Henry Liu for organising and conducting this online event supported by Mr. Derek Patenaude, the Head of Chemistry.

Well done Ryan Lee, Amy Kim, Joona Kim, Shona Park, Stella Han, Kelly Park, Suwoong Kim, Hannah Jeong and Chandler Ahn.

Other News

YEAR 12 HISTORY DEBATE Was the British policy of appeasement justified?

On Monday 6 March, the Year 12 HL History students debated Mr. Matthews on the merits of appeasement. Eric, Hailey, Shona, Wendy, Catherine, and Regis argued that appeasement was justified. Mr. Matthews argued that the policy was a mistake as it allowed Germany to become stronger.

Eric argued that appeasement bought time for the British to prepare for war against Nazi Germany, and he used aircraft production statistics as evidence for his claims.

Hailey argued that British politicians were fearful of the spread of communism, and that at the time politicians believed that it was necessary to have a strong Germany to contain the spread of Soviet communism.

Shona argued that Britain was not ready for war, due to the economic effects of the great depression, and that politicians were more focused on recovering Britain’s economy than increasing the size of the army.

Wendy argued that the British and French public were not in favour of war, and she explained how the depression resulted in a number of unstable governments being formed in Britain and France. This then prohibited those states from mounting a serious defence to the rise of Germany.

Catherine argued that Britain sought above all else to prevent a repetition of the First World War, and the destruction that was caused. Additionally she claimed that delaying the start of the war gave Britain a greater chance of victory.

Regis concluded the main arguments of the students by claiming that Chamberlain lacked good intelligence of the size of the German army, and that Britain did eventually win the Second World War. She also encouraged the students to look at how we define the word justification, as a policy may indeed fail, but still be ‘justified’.

Ms Sanford’s Year 10 History class were in attendance, and they acted as the judges for the debate, and decided that the stronger argument was made by Mr. Matthews who claimed appeasement was not justified.

RECEPTION ACTIVITIES

For Humanities, our Reception students have been exploring ‘Our Community - People who help us’. Parents were invited to the classroom to support the student’s learning by telling them all about what they do and how it helps the community.

So far the class has been visited by an app manufacturer, a teddy bear museum owner, a semiconductor manufacturer and a doctor (Mr Jeewan Kim, Mr Kwang Su Kim, Mr Yoon and Dr Hoyong Kim respectively). Thank you to them all for giving up their valuable time. Next week a teacher will visit the classes.

JUNIOR SCHOOL DANCE BATTLE

Take a look at these brilliant photos from last week’s Junior School Dance Battle! More pictures

WORLD’S BEST SCHOOL PRIZE - ENTRY

We think the Beyond the Curriculum Team and all the students who participate in Bryants and CCAs that give back to the local community and to Jeju deserve recognition. That is why we have submitted an application within the Community Collaboration category of the World’s Best School Prizes. The hardest part of the entry was to keep within the word limit when the students at NLCS Jeju do so much that we wanted to shout about it all! Shortlisting takes place in June, we will keep you posted!

Shortlist or no shortlist - we think our students and the Beyond the Curriculum team are fantastic and the difference they make to the world is immeasurable! Thanks to all of you.

SPORT

FOBISIA GAMES

Our U13 boys and girls squads went to the FOBISIA Games at the Pattana Sports Resort in Thailand at the beginning of March. The three days included Swimming, Athletics, Basketball and Football, with them competing against 9 other schools in the group.Well done to everyone who participated and to the staff who supported our students. Congratulations on some great results! More pictures

Athletics - 1st

Swimming - 2nd

Girls Basketball - 5th

Girls Football - 4th

Boys Basketball - 7th

Boys Football - 2nd

BOYS BADMINTON

Thanks to Mr. Ng for sharing these photos of the students taking part in their Bryant.

SPORT

JEJU 7S SOCCER

On 4 and 5 March our students took part in the Jeju 7s Soccer tournament at the PSG Academy in Jeju. A number of schools took part, including PSG Seoul, PSG Jeju, Chadwick School, Wind FC, SJA and KIS.

Well done to all five NLCS Jeju teams! More pictures

Year 5 boys - winners - NLCS Jeju

Year 5&6 Girls - winners - NLCS Jeju B team

Year 5&6 Girls - 2nd place - NLCS Jeju A team

Year 6 Boys - 2nd place - NLCS Jeju

Our Year 7 team didn’t make the finals on this occasion but played well!

Boarding News

BOARDING TEAM IN SEOUL

Our Boarding Masters/Mistresses are heading to Seoul - as the majority of our boarding parents live in Seoul - we thought we would be the ones to travel this time. Meeting in carefully selected cafes to meet and chat over coffee, tea and cake. We are looking forward to seeing lots of parents and plan to host more of these events in the future.

PARENT COFFEE MORNING

Today we invited our day parents to join our boarding parents for an informal coffee morning. A great opportunity to hear first hand what it is like to have a child in boarding, perfect for those who are considering boarding for their child. Thank you to those who took the time to join us.

BOARDING QUESTION TIME

A full two hours of excellent questions! Thank you to everyone who attended. If you were not able to join us, you can watch the full recording here.

Boarding News

ACADEMIC ENHANCEMENT

Don’t forget that our boarding students all have access to the brilliant Academic Enhancement Programme in the evenings. Watch the video here.

Last week, our Year 7s boarders gained specialised support from both the Library and Sciences for their STEM projects. What better way to seek help and accurate and informed advice on how to cite and list their references in their STEM investigations! Thank you, Mx Bryom and Mr Kim!

Cultural Awareness Committee news

Here are some key dates from our CAC.

From avoiding playful leprechauns to hosting homecoming for our ancestors, March gives way to April with a melange of interesting cultural holidays.

St. Patrick’s Day (17 March)

St. Patrick’s Day is the celebration of Ireland’s foremost patron saint, Saint Patrick. The colour green features prominently in St. Patrick’s celebrations. The tradition is tied to folklore that says wearing green makes you invisible to leprechauns, which like to pinch anyone they can see. Read more about St. Patrick’s Day here.

Ramadan (22 Mar - 20 April)

Ramadan is a time of fasting and spiritual renewal. According to the Koran, the Prophet Muhammad received the first revelations of the Koran during Ramadan. During the month of Ramadan, Muslims fast from early morning (before dawn) through to sunset. Read more about Ramadan here.

Cultural Awareness Committee news

Qing Ming Jie (April 5)

Qingming Festival, also called Tomb Sweeping Day, is a traditional Chinese festival and an important day for most people to go and sweep ancestral tombs and commemorate their ancestors. Read more about Qing Ming Jie here.

Passover (5 April)

Passover commemorates the escape of the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt. It is also a celebration of spring, and of taking responsibility for yourself, the community, and the world. Read more about Passover here.

We always love to hear from our ONLJ! If you would like to share your news since leaving NLCS Jeju, please email Ms. Shin - alumnioffice@nlcsjeju.kr - your stories always inspire our current students and let them know what is possible after NLCS Jeju.

FOUNDER’S DAY

…and just like that, another year has passed. On Thursday 23 March our students and staff will be taking part in the annual Founder’s Day celebration on campus. Founder’s Day celebrates the founding of NLCS on 4 April 1850 by Frances Mary Buss in the UK. This year the focus of the ceremony will be that of service, something that is very important at NLCS Jeju, as reflected in the number of community service CCA and Bryants our students undertake.

Grow with us. Start here.

As with every year there will be the traditional daffodil procession, singing of the whole school song and music recitals by our talented students. We will all gather to hear messages from the other schools in London, Dubai, Singapore and Vietnam, as well as sharing our message to them all too.

This is always such a lovely occasion, bringing together the entire NLCS global community, and we will look forward to sharing photos with you soon.

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