Weekly Newsletter 8 October 2021 by North London Collegiate School Jeju

NEWSWEEK

WELCOME TO OUR WEEKLY NEWSLETTER

8 October 2021

LIBRARY WEEK BIOLOGY WEEK JUNIOR SCHOOL CLASSES WAR POEMS ALUMNI STORIES

A Letter From The Principal Dear Parents, Students, Staff and Friends of NLCS Jeju This week it has been good to see our community of students and faculty actively involved in another Subject Enrichment week - Biology as well as the main activities in place for Library Week. This has provided them with lectures on the importance of the honey bee from Ms Kym Pritchard and Florian Ledoux, albeit virtually, a polar nature photographer. The students have always, through societies been leading these events and have engaged with a large number of our community. All societies also have publications which we are very proud of and are testament to their high levels of engagement. With a little easing of the COVID-19 precautionary measures we have been able to have a small number of visitors on campus this week and so with a blended approach we were able to communicate with our Parent Representatives for the termly meeting. As usual this was a great opportunity for parents to ask questions of the Senior Team and find out more about the school. However I would remind parents that they should always contact faculty and staff through normal channels such as the class teacher or form tutor if they have any questions or concerns so that we can address these at the time. Yours sincerely, Lynne Oldfield Principal

North London Collegiate School Jeju

BREAKING NEWS

We are delighted and very proud to share that North London Collegiate School Jeju has been awarded Best British International School of the Year at the Independent Schools of the Year 2021 Awards. This is a reflection of the hard work and dedication of our students, parents, teaching staff, support staff, alumni and friends. Every single one of you makes us what we are - the best in the world! We'll be sharing our official rosette and more details very soon but if you would like to know more then please contact jforster@nlcsjeju.kr

LIBRARY WEEK Library Week has been a great success this week with many events organised by Head of Libraries, Hager Braham and her team. Events have included a guest lecture by Polar Explorer, Florian Ledoux, a Poetry In Your Pocket event with readings by teachers and the Human Library.

Thank you to everyone who has participated and attended.

LIBRARY WEEK

Ms Hager Braham

BIOLOGY WEEK There have been some great events on in support of Biology Week this week. All of the Biology societies have been involved and Ms Kym Prichard and her team have been so happy with the student driven activities involving botany, dissection, beekeeping and much more! We love the work of Lucida Enterprise who have created a guide to what all the Biology teachers are reading. Take a look and be inspired by what Year 12 students Yoonseo (Elin) Cha and Hyunsuh (Jamie) Koh have found out! Hello, we are the Lucida Enterprise, a student-led book club of NLCS Jeju. We aim to read books in any genre or language and share ideas about them. For this Biology Enrichment week, we decided to take a look at what the biology department teachers are reading. Click HERE to see the whole interview - and highlights below -

What Teachers are Reading These are a glimpse of what the Biology department teachers are currently reading! • Ms Kym Prichard: ‘Anarchy Evolution’ by Greg Graffin and Steve Olson • Dr Julie Cocker: ‘Where the Crawdads’ Sing by Delia Owens • Mr Adam Yates: ‘Moon Over Soho’ by Ben Aaronovitch

BIOLOGY WEEK Bio related book recommendations Interviewing Biology Teachers, we couldn’t leave out this question! We asked three Biology teachers about a biology book they would recommend to the students. • Ms Prichard: ‘My Family and Other Animals’ by Gerald Durrell • Mr Yates: ‘The Selfish Gene’ by Richard Dawkins • Dr Cocker: 1. Why Don’t Penguins’ Feet Freeze? And 114 Other Questions 2. Does Anything Eat Wasps? 3. Do Polar Bears Get Lonely? And 101 Other Intriguing Science Questions

Bonus: Favorite choices All readers must have their favourite choices. These are some favourites from the teachers! Ms Prichard: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

‘The Master and the Margarita’ by Mikhail Bulgakov ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’ by John Le Carre ‘The Goshawk’ by T. H. White ‘I’ Claudius’ by Robert Graves ‘My Brilliant Career’ by Miles Franklin

Mr Yates: ‘Cloud Atlas’ by David Mitchell Dr Cocker: ‘Tess of the d’Urbervilles’ by Thomas Hardy

What’s more? It’s never a bad idea to try some of the books your teachers recommend. All the author details are in this article, so feel free to start reading. If you want to know more about what Biology teachers are reading, please check out the poster at the Biology department corridor!

Ms Kym Prichard

BIOLOGY WEEK

North London Collegiate School Jeju

My first year of school will definitely remain as one of the most fortunate years of my life because I met Reuben and Archie. With them, I spent most of my childhood riding bikes, surfing, and playing.

MORE TEN YEAR PICS We have all loved celebrating our Ten Year Anniversary and have been wearing our badges and pins with pride. Here some of our lovely Support staff model the specially designed masks. Take a bow - Anna Kim (Admissions), Eunjin Kim (Senior School Office) Eunjeong Jo (CCA Office) Muzi Li (Senior School Office)Yu Ah Yang (Student Records)Jihye Pak (Translation) Kyungran (Kelly) Kim (Admissions) DongEun Lee (Parent Relations) Ellie Yang (Translation).

PODCASTS! Shona Park - Episode 5 - Spatium We have featured Shona Park’s podcast Spatium in previous issues and we are always impressed by the variety of her ideas. This time Shona focuses on multi-lingualism. She says “A lot of NLCS students are fluent in numerous languages, and although this is a colossal significance in our school, some students feel conflicted in terms of their academics and their identity in being multilingual students. Therefore this episode gathers three students each from different backgrounds which have enabled them to speak fluently in 3-4 languages Arabic, Spanish, French and more! Along with Jihoon Kim and Fred Lee, we have created an episode, which once again proves that distance doesn’t confine us.” Have a listen HERE

BOARDING Thank you to Mr Dan Long who has shared some lovely pictures of the fun that our Junior Boarders have! There is so much going on all the time in Darangswi. We’ll keep you updated on taster sessions and lots more developments!

SUPER STUDENTS Busan Mayor’s award for community service - Olive Park - Year 11 Year 11 Olive (Dajeong) Park has received a certificate from the Mayor of Busan at the ceremony held on September 9 to mark Organ Donation Day.The award was for her active participation in youth organ donation promotion and volunteer work. Olive participated in the Busan Organ Donation Symposium in June to guide visitors and to observe various activities in person. She said “After participating in the symposium, I became more interested in organ donation. I have learned that Korea’s complicated system and Confucian ideas make organ donation in Korea difficult, and I would like to inform more people about its benefits. September 9 is Organ Donation Day because the donation of one brain-dead person can save up to nine new lives. I hope we can all pay more attention to this small donation because it can save many lives.”

ONLINE INFORMATION SESSIONS NEXT WEEK As you know our School is extremely popular and enquiries about joining keep our Admissions team busy all day. We run regular sessions to let prospective parents know what’s going on and we have two coming up next week. If you have friends and family who are interested or if any of our current students have younger siblings then you may be interested. You can sign up HERE

SENIOR SCHOOL ENGLISH CLASS Mr Kevin Hill has shared brilliant pictures from his Year 7 Boys English class. The lesson was based around Tennyson’s Charge of the Light Brigade. He tells us “This week in year 7 students explored primary sources from WW1 and were able to see real propaganda and how people were persuaded by it. They created group dramatic reenactments of Tennysons’s famous poem The Charge of the Light Brigade. Students are reading Michael Morpurgo’s War Horse. If you like books where the narrator is an animal - you should check him out in our super school library. English class in Senior School is always epic!”

Mr Kevin Hill

JUNIOR SCHOOL CLASSES Krista Merrill - Visual Arts Thank you to Ms Krista Merrill for sharing a little video tour of Year 3 class 3JV doing some printmaking on Gelli plates. We love how engaged the students are in their art! Engagement and inspiration from such a young age must be one of the reasons that we get such incredible results in the Visual Arts IGCSE and IBDP exams as our students reach Senior School! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ufJxB38d8Q

James Lilleywhite - Science Science lessons are great fun at NLCS Jeju - whatever your age. Mr James Lilleywhite shared these great pictures from a recent Year 2 Science Class. He says “In Year 2 we are investigating materials and their properties. Using different size balls, we measured how they bounced on variable surfaces to understand which materials are able to bounce the highest. It was fantastic fun and we are happy to announce rubber balls are the bounciest balls around! “

JUNIOR SCHOOL CLASSES Justine Whitney - Year 5 English Thank you to Ms Justine Whitney who shared these pictures of her Year 5 class learning the value of giving clear instructions! They had to help their blindfolded partners negotiate an obstacle course by giving concise instructions. As you can see, it was a useful learning exercise, but lots of fun too!

HOUSE COMPETITION A Message from EunSoo (Eunice) Lee - Geomun House Captain 2020 - 21 House Competition is fierce every year and last year Geomun was a worthy winner! House Captain, EunSoo Lee wrote this lovely speech to the Geomun students about what Geomun means to her “First of all, I want to thank Geomun for all the enthusiasm and participation that made last year possible. We couldn’t have even got through the year packed with house competitions if it weren’t for all your dedication and affection towards Geomun. All of you deserve to be in first place and I want you to be super proud of yourselves. Thank you so much for making my last year in Geomun be the best year it could ever be with so much pride, joy, and honour. I thought we had an amazing year and I hope every single one of you felt the same way as I did. I will miss everything from the blue walls and the weird coloured sofas to the Christmas decorations that stayed till the summer and the occasional summer water fights. I will never forget the day when the Year 9s were overjoyed at their first place in football after they had practised all day in the rain.To see the happy smiles on each one of their faces was priceless. A special thanks to Ms Taylor, Ms Braddell, Mr Perry and Mr Cronin for all the support and for staying with us until the very end. I will really miss living with you. Lastly, I would just like to call out to all the house captains from last year. I know that they cared more about their houses more than you could ever imagine from all the house competitions and from the way they speak about their houses. Every single one of them did their best to create the best opportunities and memories for everyone, and the time and effort that they spent on their houses deserve to be appreciated. Every moment was special for me, and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. “

WAR POEMS It’s always fabulous to see whole class collaborations. Mr James Munday, Senior School English teacher, has shared this amazing writing from his Class 10R and 10S classes. Their creativity really conjures up the idea of war torn climates and the feeling of being a soldier. The quality of the creative Academic English here is superb. What amazing use of idioms, adjectives, and dramatic language.

Class 10S/Hi_M War Poem Johnnie, get your gun, Fix your gun, We’re heading to the land of kings and Kaisers to save a fire called freedom Although William has lost an eye and one arm by Huns, We advance towards the enemy. Left and right friends and companions fall They go out in a snap The ones who get out will never be the same Scarred for life the things we’ve felt. How thin and sharp the knives are How big and large the tanks are It’s all the weapons in the war. Menacing canons inched closer and closer Sluggishly, intimidatingly, Trampling what laid beyond Towering above a man’s head. Ear-splitting sound smashed into us Machine rattles Resounding noise make soldiers hopeless and shudder Silently but heavily Deafening sound, Overwhelmed and dismantled us Piercing of sound engulf us all Coldly and eerily Sound of the guns flying from all directions Heartbeat that is only heard after my fall

Sound fades with my consciousness. Boom! Boom! Boom! The sound of war equals The sound of death. You can hear the sound of the guns passing through soldiers’ bodies You can hear the sound of arrows hitting soldiers’ skin. You can hear soldiers screaming in pain Everyone wants to stop the fight But it goes forever and ever… The sea of yellow evil silently arrived No one had noticed, not even a fly. Gas! Vapour! As soldiers fell on their knees It’s a nightmare, or a never-ending disease. A small fleeting voice tries to warn me, of my nightmares that have just begun. Gas stalked across the trench Followed by blood gargling from froth filled lungs Fear of dark grey clouds loomed over Soldiers with trench foot caught in the sharp cold metal of barbed wire Shell holes littered the horizon. My fear becomes heightened I’m scared every day My death becomes certain I can’t run away At Flanders field, I sweat The rusty, brown guns flashing shiny bullets towards me Under the Trenches, I bleed Red, shiny blood spurting and when I look up the sky I see only the grey foggy sky and man-made birds throwing up black shadows The fears swallow me as it structed my body And I think about what is left for me, what I should do Picking up the rusty cold gun I repeat the word The true will is never defeated. I’m living like today is the last day of my life As Flanders field a green sprout grew in the middle emitting azure bloom At Flanders field the green sprout was crushed down the evening of the twilight.

Inevitable war zone My teeth, hands legs shivering Booms everywhere nowhere to hide That Last war furious of fear One day the war will cease, All will sing with harmony, With our loved ones all in peace, We’ll bring home the victory. In Flanders Fields. Death blooms, Like a flower in the dawn The cries of the rattlesnakes Causing countless valiant soldiers To drop; Like the leaves That inevitably fall, And the snow That fills the fields. The birds chirping lively in the harsh wind, Probably means there’s peace in the disarray, The rise of the stars in the pitch dark sea, Probably means there’s light in the dark. One day soon, the war will end, We’ll grab all the booze that we contend, Our country would be in peace, And the great war will ever cease. Like the lifeless decoration on a tree A Halabong tree stood solitary When it was perfectly ripe one fell then another into the wild Crushed by the soldier passing by The warmth of my hands. The lights in my eyes The blazing smile And the wave of iron rain When a fire dies, only ashes remain.

Class 10R/ Hi B War Poem Downpour of periwinkle and silver Black and white coexist in the twilight Gusts of fumes freeze shadows And ill-lit calamity resumes One’s grumbling, one’s crumbling One’s shooting, one’s screeching I wish one’s despair becomes wisdom When one’s screeching comes as silence; Roars of firearms and trumpets blowing Swish as the bullets cut through the sky Fathomless wail from those bottomless trenches, breaking into my holy grail of tranquillity Sounds like the end of the Earth, Feels like everything is getting destroyed Sounds like small planes flying around me, And I can hear screaming fading There lies shadows of life once lived In the middle of chaos Hesitant to reach up high I wander around for light. A world with no end in sight Perilous and squandered might Reveries of a miraculous firmament All gold is but a fool’s gold Where we shower with lotus seeds When the Roscoes went silent Machine guns rattle, Comrades fly, sprint, fall Sounds of rain, stampede, and thunder Lines made of copper, carrying messages Voices far away tell fatigue and sorrow Rings around and become an echo

Machine guns spitting toxic pellets Tanks approaching with boisterous noise Grenades shouting inaudible languests Gas, I can still hear their voice A huff sends one to where he came from Burns mouth, nose and eyes Burning, but moist Iron boats sliding under, Crashing, colliding But waiting for, blindly Remember only this of us We’re a pawn on the chessboard with feelings An insect’s night is brighter and beautiful than any other night The insect fly towards the flame of fire The fire is dangerous yet attractive in its sound and appearance It flames red and has a hot popping sound It’s a way for the insect to prove himself His braveness and masculinity needs evidence This makes the insect curious and impatient to go towards the fire The fire is full of fear, but it can’t stop the insect from going into the light The fragile bug dies in a short second as it enters the fire It is marvellous, yet in jeopardy The insect passes away without much to do Its journey is done and so is the life. During the time of noise and explosion, the man couldn’t go blind out There were his peers falling down, without any reaction: He couldn’t step forward He wanted to stop, but there was no way to escape. Wherever I stepped on the battlefield was pulpy, As the whole layer of soil was from the dead men I covered myself on the flesh of these men Just so I don’t end up just like one of them

Joy Siwon Hwang

As I lied down and wetting tears, All I saw was lying bodies of my fellow mates, My mates I’ve known for so long back in war Ended up falling down to the trench ground

Shot through bullets just like bowling pins fall I could hear them suffocating to death Looking for their mums till very end A man was sitting alone in a cage, his body is cold and wet Beside him, he could see his friends, his companions, locked in other cages The cages are floating on the ocean His cage slowly and steadily descended, he shivered. but did not say a word Muzzle flashes from the trenches Machine gun bullets rain from the sky Blood splatters everywhere As they shattered into pieces I was shattered too Every day my ears ring with guns and screams. I got shot and I can’t even stand up straight. I can’t fight but watch my friends die and suffer. This pain of mine tells me that I would rather fight. The clamour stalk the land Pigeons whirl through the wind Red flowers bloom on the road But the dead men tell no tales For the Hod, For the Netzach, For the Geburah, Those who unintentionally became the Golachabs are becoming Thagirions Was it because the spear penetrates their bodies Or is it because they yearn for the time when they were enjoying at the Tree Perhaps it won’t happen The last wish before tragedy encounters Millions of hearts getting filthy One more, just one more to be pure.

JEJU ENGLISH EDUCATION CENTRE ONE MINUTE VIDEO CONTEST There is a good opportunity for everyone to participate! Jeju English Education Centre is holding a One Minute Video contest.This year’s theme is carbon neutral. Express your own ideas or activities to reduce carbon in a one-minute video.You can check more information on the poster and homepage below. https://jejueec.moe.go.kr/news/notice.php?ptype=view&idx=2007&category=

MUSIC CORNER Trial Instrumental Lessons - Deadline November 1 We would like to give your son/daughter the chance to sign up for a short block of lessons (either 30 minute or 1 hour) starting 15 November and lasting for 4 weeks. Perhaps you missed the sign up deadline in August or your son/daughter would like to try studying a new instrument or take up an old hobby. Now is the perfect chance! KOREAN CHINESE ENGLISH

ABRSM News Please read here for the latest updates on ABRSM. We are still offering support for online examinations and accompaniment rehearsals. You can sign up for accompaniment sessions via the link in the letter. The letter includes English, Korean and Chinese translations.

Trinity Rock and Pop We are pleased to announce we are the first centre in South Korea to offer these International examinations which credit our Rock and Pop musicians with a qualification equal in value to our ABRSM candidates. If you are interested please sign up (via the TRIAL LESSONS link above) for lessons with Ms.Kwon (Keyboard/Piano), Mr.Cho (Electric Guitar/ Bass Guitar), Ms.Joo (Voice), Ms.Jeong (Electric Guitar) and Mr.Song (Drum Kit). This is an exciting new development and we will share more information with you soon.

ALUMNI STORIES

Taejoon Kim Thank you to alumni, Taejoon Kim from our Class of 2019 - currently studying at Cornell. He tells us of a special golf tournament that he participated in representing NLCS Jeju. “On September 14, Thomas Park and I took part in <OK 금융그룹배 럭비 고교동창 노사이드 채리티 매치> representing NLCS Jeju. The event was a friendly golf tournament hosted by the Korea Rugby Union(KRU) where graduates of high schools with rugby teams were able to compete. Participation itself guaranteed charitable donations to NLCS Jeju’s rugby team, so we were extremely excited about this opportunity. The results were not ideal, but the experience itself was unforgettable. The golf course settings were pristine with perfect weather, so it was definitely an amazing day. On top of that, we were able to recognize the love we have for NLCS Jeju. After graduating in 2019, there were not many occasions during which we were able to give back to the school and the students. While preparing and participating in this event, motivation was very high as we were reminded of the beautiful time NLCS Jeju gave us, and recognized the opportunity to give back. We were very thankful towards KRU for hosting this wonderful event

Looking back at this experience, we realized that NLCS Jeju will always have a special place in our hearts. “ Why not share your stories, NLCS Jeju alumni. We’d love to hear from you!

Thomas Park

ALUMNI STORY (2) We are so happy to have an update from one of our newest alumni - Helen Joung of our Class Of 2021. Helen was our Head Girl and set a wonderful example to the students in School and those who follow in her footsteps now. She tells us about the last few months! “As all the sixth formers would agree, I haven’t had this much time for myself in a long time since the start of IB! Although a little lost about finding things to do at first, I was able to keep myself busy - in a relaxing and pleasant way. I’ve been focusing on myself and am on my way to becoming a Yogi - I can now do a perfect headstand - I’m climbing mountains all over Korea every weekend, reading books for pleasure, watching random documentaries which turn out to be very interesting and eye-opening and studying for DALF so that I don’t completely forget French.

Also, now I am getting ready for University which for me is University College London. Reading books related to my major - Architecture, learning skills on design software and entering some minor design competitions, pre-enrolling at uni and attending online orientations, initiating a small research project on religious buildings (an area of interest extended from my Extended Essay topic) and studying some specific cases in Korea. I already miss all the people and special memories from NLCS Jeju, especially the sports squad training sessions, stressful yet enjoyable midnight prep sessions in Halla, and lunchless break-times full of meetings. Yet, I feel confident and excited about studying at university - my years in NLCS Jeju have equipped me with a willing mindset to face challenges and give my best. I am already benefiting from my IB organisation skills for getting ready for university! “ We wish Helen the best of luck as she starts her next chapter, following her passion. She truly embodies “Start here. Go anywhere.”

Helen Joung

North London Collegiate School Jeju