What Does "SWAG" stand for? Well-being is attained by little and little , and nevertheless is no little thing itself. - Citium Zeno
Let us introduce the 'SWAG' of 2018 - 2019. The Student Welfare Awareness Group (SWAG) is a school committee formed in 2017. The overall aim for this very special group, SWAG, is to look after the NLCS Jeju students’ welfare overseen by Ms Powell, Assistant Head (Pastoral). Following the footsteps of the former SWAG team, this year's SWAG is made up of seven students responsible for various areas including peer mentoring, Day/Boarding, mental health, safe guarding, academics, global awareness and student welfare ambassador. This year’s Student Welfare Ambassador is Yuna Kim (Yr12). “As a leader of the SWAG, I will try to make our school a place where physical and mental health will be guaranteed. Furthermore, I will be working with other groups such as Student Council and Global Awareness to make sure all students’ welfare is being looked after across the board.” - Yuna Kim
Safeguarding is crucial everywhere in every school but especially in boarding schools like NLCS, which Asher Park (Yr12) will be overseeing. “My duty is to work with the team and our Designated Safeguarding Lead to make sure all the places in our school are safe. I believe that we can make this school a beautiful place where students feel safe and protected and live free from abuse, harm, and neglect.” - Asher Park “Hello, I am Lily Lee (Yr12), the new Mental Health Ambassador. Mental health is something that is being discussed more and more by society but still has many taboos associated with it. I would like to make an environment where talking about this topic, mental health is not a taboo.”-Lily Hyojeong Lee Hello! I’m Seoyoon Kim (Yr12), and I'm responsible for making sure that you enjoy learning and that you get adequate academic support. I will be devising academic support sessions with my team of advisors. WHAT IS SWAG? //01
Yuna Kim and Mirjam Roberts (Yr12) are the two new Peer Mentoring Ambassadors. “We will be developing the current Peer Mentoring system to broaden out into the other year groups in the school not just our current Year 7s. Furthermore, we will be promoting the hangout zone which is located in S213 as a space for all of us in NLCS." - Yuna Kim, Mirjam Roberts Brian Ha (Yr12) is allocated as the new Boarding and Day Ambassador. “As the idiom “A home from home” suggests, I will ensure a safe and comforting environment for both day/ boarding students. And I will try my best to resolve any problems & carry forward with the suggestions with regard to day and boarding systems” - Brian Ha
Bonjour, hola, ni hao, hello! I’m Hyena (Yr 11), the new Global Awareness Ambassador of the SWAG. I am responsible for diminishing cultural barriers that may exist between students coming from different backgrounds. I’d be also updating you on global issues to help you gain a wider insight into global affairs. If you have any suggestions or inquiries regarding student welfare, please feel free to express your thoughts via official SWAG email, swag@nlcsjeju.kr.
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SNAPSHOTS FROM WELLBEING WEDNESDAY Our first Well-being Wednesday activity, held on January 23rd, was a great success with students being involved in writing positive quotes and drawing happy images, as well as some relaxing shoulder massages being offered.
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2018 DECEMBER HIGHLIGHTS
Hip Hip, Hooray! Hip Hip, Hooray!
Christmas in NLCS Jeju Nothing shouts wellbeing more than Christmas. As we change our cardigans into thick woollen coats, NLCS Jeju starts looking forward to all things Christmas. We are keen to celebrate not only the holiday itself but all the hard work we have gone through the year. Christmas for us is like a warm “well done” reward -- in this time of the year, we take care of our own wellbeing by indulging in the festivity and taking a breath from our busy lives. From the Christmas Bazaar, concerts, theatre and busking, here is a little taste of how we celebrated Christmas in 2018.
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THE CHRISTMAS BAZAAR The pop-up market bustled with students, staff, local vendors, parents and even students from our neighbouring schools. From homemade clementine preserves to the hipster denim purses, the vendors sold handmade goodies that were perfect for Christmas gifts. Parents came in to cook up Tteokbokki (spicy rice cake) and fruit punch, attracting hungry students and creating a warm bustling in the market. Students sold Dalgona (Korean honeycomb toffee) and face painted to raise funds for donation. With good food, unique antiques and good people, the bazaar was an absolute pleasure to be in.
THE CHRISTMAS CAROL It’s always nice to spend a cold winter night watching quality theatre, especially if it is a haunting rendition of the “Christmas Carol.” Directed by Mr Ian Peirson, the play featured the story of a miser realising the importance of Christmas and benevolence through the series of nightmares that reprimanded his selfishness. With a delicate choice of lighting and creative manipulation of soundtracks, the audience was spellbound by the dark, haunting air of the play.
CHRISTMAS BUSKING & CONCERT Christmas would not be complete without festive music. For five days, students from the Sonitas music society performed their own renditions of carols. Each day showcased different musical genres (e.g. Jazz Monday, Hip Hop Friday, etc) so students could enjoy a variety of musical styles during the school day. The Christmas Concert showcased a dynamic spectrum of musical genres as well, from lighthearted pop songs to blaring trumpet solos and complex orchestral music. Sitting back in the plush seats of the dark PAC and listening to high-quality Christmas music was definitely an enjoyable experience.
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World AIDS Day On December 1st, genders sexualities alliance and gender studies (GSA) society, has successfully held various events to raise awareness of LGBTQ+ and celebrate the ‘World AIDS day.’ They gave hand-paintings of the red ribbon, which symbolises the solidarity of people living with HIV/AIDS and had a societies enrichment afternoon session, where students discussed the implications of pseudoscience and myths surrounding HIV/AIDS being used as a tool for oppression.
After the event, Ellie Baek, the chair of the GSA society commented "organising events for HIV/AIDS awareness was an extremely meaningful opportunity since it is a condition that heavily affects the LGBTQ+ community, and there is still so much stigma and misinformation about it. I felt happy that I was able to contribute to breaking down this stigma, and seeing students who were not members of our society actively participating in the discussion made us all feel proud, after all the hard work we had done in preparation for it.” The SWAG believes that this event allowed our school community to be more tolerant towards the diversity present in the world. We look forward to further events promoting tolerance and openmindedness.
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NLCS ACHIEVEMENTS We want to acknowledge the achievements that the students have reached and accomplished at NLCS Jeju. In last semester, students were awarded gifts and certificates for excellent performance in a variety of areas, as well as for sport, academics, and language stickers.
ACAMIS 2018
From the countless number of sports achievements that were achieved, we wanted to specially recognize the ACAMIS 2018 in Shanghai meet that happened last semester. Well done to our schools sports teams. Every term, students receive language stickers for speaking english and students who receive the most language stickers receive a prize. The prizes are awarded to individuals, as a tutor group, as a year group, or as a whole house. All houses and year groups received the reward of having a mufti-day, congratulations. We want to acknowledge the students who received the most language stickers from each year group in last term, Nancy Gao in year 7, Taehee Kim in year 8, Shine Ryu in year 9, Chris Park in year 10, Bella Kim in year 11, Jennifer Cho in year 12, and Matthew Kang in year 13. Lastly, the year 11 and 13 students have finished their mock exams on the second week back from winter vacation. They have worked so hard for the past months, so we want to deliver the message “congratulations” for finishing their mock exams.
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SUPERMAN/SUPERWOMAN OF JANUARY For each SWAG newsletter that is sent out, we would like to recognise someone in the school who has made a difference and contributed to the happiness of others around them. This person can be a student or a member of staff, just someone who was important to others this term.
Staff: NLCS cleaners This week our Staff supermen and women were our very own cleaning staff. We have selected the cleaning staff from other staff members since we believe that they don’t get enough recognition. As said by the nominator; ‘The school is always clean! They are not always appreciated enough but they always say hello and do a fab job!’ We can’t help but agree! If you see NLCS cleaning staff around the school, please remember to greet them and thank them for their hard work.
Student: Melanie Kang Our student superwoman selected by the SWAG was Melanie Kang in year 10, Mulchat. the nominator said "She is a new student but is always so warm, kind and welcoming to others .... she always checks in on others and asks how they are - as well as this, is always calm and gives a calming presence to others." On behalf of everyone, thank you Melanie for your kindness!
EVENTS FOR JANUARY & FEBRUARY 26-27th of January Junior & Senior world scholar's cup
29th, 30th of January Whole school production
2nd - 10th of February Lunar New Year break “Seollal”
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