Panaga School Biweekly
Issue 145 15th December 2023
Issue 145 | 15th December 2023
Panaga School Biweekly Panaga School IFM/4, BSP Company Sdn Bhd, Seria, KB, 3534, Negara Brunei Darussalam
Phone: Teraja Office +673 3372139/2232 Rampayoh Office +673 3372694/3971
Principal: Brian Platts Brian.Platts@bsp-shell.bn
Mendaram/Rampayoh Deputy Principal Donna Bonham donnabonham@panagaschool.net
Teraja Deputy Principal: Aimee Boase aimeeboase@panagaschool.net
Melilas Deputy Principal: Mandy Russell amandarussell@panagaschool.net
Business Service Lead: Cyla Ahmad cylaahmad@panagaschool.net
Panaga School Biweekly Editors: Hannah Zakaria & Donovan Dolamit publications@panagaschool.net
Dear Parents, It has been fifteen and and a half weeks since we embarked on the start of the 2023-24 academic year. During that time, I have witnessed, first hand, what a remarkable school community we are all part of. It has been such a privilege to see your children making progress, developing a range of skills and flourishing in a plethora of ways. This BiWeekly provides only a snapshot of their learning and achievements during the past fortnight. The recent reports and PTCs provided you with an individual assessment during the past term. As part of our ongoing development as a school, we would like to elicit your feedback on this first term of reporting. On Monday, you will receive an email asking you to complete a short questionnaire on our reporting thus far (further reports and PTCs will take place in Term 2 and 3, including a final detailed written report at the end of Term 3). Please do take 5 minutes to complete a questionnaire for each child you have at the school. Please enjoy reading this final edition of 2023, containing numerous learning activities, exit points, events and celebrations. It was especially wonderful to see the children enjoying the School Disco last week, organised by our fabulous PTA. The Nativity, this morning, was such a special way to end the term. I am always in awe of children who are prepared to share their efforts and talents to a wide audience, providing such festive cheer and joy. A huge thank you, and congratulations to the P1-P3 children who performed so incredibly well, ably supported by our Teraja Nativity Choir. Thank you also to the staff who led the event and those parents who supported it. As term 1 draws to a close, so does 2023. I would like to wish everyone a restul and joyous holiday, followed by a peaceful New Year. We look forward to welcoming everyone back to school on Monday 8th January, 2024!
Best Wishes, Brian, SLT and all of our staff
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UPCOMING EVENTS School Academic Calendar 2023-2024 School Academic Calendar 2024-2025 Parent Events Calendar Mon 18/12
Tue 19/12
Wed 20/12
Thu 21/12
Fri 22/12
Thu 28/12
Fri 29/12
School Term Break Mon 25/12
Tue 26/12
Christmas Day Mon 1/1 New Year
Wed 27/12
School Term Break Tue 2/1
Wed 3/1
Thu 4/1
Fri 5/1
School Term Break
As the world comes together for International Women's Day (IWD) on March 8, 2024 – Panaga will celebrate the women of our community, honoring our achievements and reinforcing a commitment to women's equality. “When we inspire others to understand and value women's inclusion, we forge a better world. And when women themselves are inspired to be included, there's a sense of belonging, relevance, and empowerment.” (IWD 2024 Campaign) Please save this date in your calendars so that you can help us celebrate and #InspireInclusion.
Issue 145 | 15th December 2023
Animal Rescuers!
Miss Tessa came to Mendaram to collect all the donations that we had collected for our Animals Rescuers Unit and said a big Thank You!
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Animal Boogie! Exit Point
We have been learning about animals from different habitats as well as how to take care of them. We finished the unit by dressing up as our favourite animal and with an Animal Boogie!
Click here for more photos of the event!
Issue 145 | 15th December 2023
Christmas Celebration in Mendaram! What a lovely morning exploring shaving cream snow, making candy cane reindeers and christmas decorations, finished off with a story about Christmas around the world. Thank you to all of the parents who made this a magical morning for the children.
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P1 Library Visit Thank you to Miss Leah for hosting our visit to the Panaga Club Library. We really enjoyed the craft and Lego activities and gained lots of space knowledge from all the wonderful space books.
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P1 Blast Off Exit Point Thank you P7 for your help with our astronaut training. We learnt that to be an astronaut you have to be adaptable as you try new food and do activities in different ways. You need to be resilient as you complete everyday tasks. Wearing special astronaut gloves while cutting chocolate was a great challenge!
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Good communication skills were important as we cooperated to help each other navigate through a black hole. We took the time to reflect on our learning over the unit and looked back at Seesaw to see our learning journey. Now we are all set and ready to Blast Off into the holidays!!
Issue 145 | 15th December 2023
P2 International Games Day
Congkak - South East Asia
As part of our international learning, P2 enjoyed learning and playing games from different countries. We were good communicators, listening carefully to the instructions and rules for each game.
Sjoelbak - Netherlands
Rubber band jumping - Poland
A huge thank you to the parents who took the time to teach us these fun games! Five Stone - South East Asia
Go Fish - International
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P2 trip to Seria Bowling Alley
P2 really enjoyed our trip to the bowling alley in Seria as part of our IPC unit ‘The Magic Toymaker’. We had lots of fun in our teams, taking turns and trying to knock as many skittles down as we could. We also enjoyed playing in the soft play area!
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P2 Performing Arts - ‘The Toy Shop’
During our P2 Performing Arts lessons, we have been working on a short play linked to our IPC unit ‘The Magic Toymaker’. We used our creativity, communication and cooperation skills during our performance. We were very excited to perform for our parents!
Issue 145 | 15th December 2023
P2 Performing Arts - ‘The Toy Shop’
Issue 145 | 15th December 2023
Do you remember the P3E class teddy?
We learnt how to create symmetry. Have a try!
P3 invited P4 to come and see their learning at the end of the term.
P3 Exit Point A Day in the Life
We shared the learning in our Literacy books.
We learnt how to locate places on Google Earth. Let me show you!
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On the 30th November, the Dutch children were told that Sinterklaas might be visiting the school that evening. This meant that the children had to set their shoe. Instead of setting their own shoe, we made one instead. We enjoyed decorating the shoe whilst eating pepernoten. The children also made a drawing for Sinterklaas. Before leaving the classroom, they sang SInterklaas songs in the hope he might hear them, and visit the school. The next morning all the Dutch children from Rampayoh and Mendaram gathered to see if Sinterklaas left something in their shoe. He left the children a chocolate letter as well as a drawing with a poem. The children were delighted.
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P4 have learned so much from our Chocolate unit… We played the roles of Hernan Cortez and Montezuma, showing how chocolate made its way from South America to Europe.
We conducted experiments to see which material prevents melting the best.
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From becoming chocolate connoisseurs, discovering flavours…
To creating our own chocolate bars…
Culminating in our Winter Market, raising awareness of Solar Aid. Along with P5 we raised $1606.
Issue 145 | 15th December 2023
P5 and P4 held their Winter Market this week to raise money for Solar Aid. We raised $1703.35 - thank you to everyone who supported this event and made it a success! The impact of this event can be found below:
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Issue 145 | 15th December 2023
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Mr James told us all about growing up in modern day Benin City and how ancient Benin still impacts the customs and traditions of today.
P6 have learned SO much from all of our fascinating and knowledgeable visitors this term…
Olga (Liam’s mum) told us about the Maya and her related family history. She showed us some very interesting artefacts too.
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More visitors to P6 this term… We met an archaeologist and museum professional, Sally Hurst, who answered our many questions about how we learn about the past.
The children spoke to BBC journalist, Matt Jones to help them in writing their own news reports in Literacy.
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…and even MORE visitors to P6 this term… Daniel Lim, a reporter for The Borneo Bulletin, visited us to give us some tips about what makes a good news report.
And finally Tahira (Samiq’s mum) shared her understanding, experiences and some beautiful artefacts relating to The Golden Age of Islam.
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P7 Go with the Flow exit point The children in P7 enjoyed sharing their learning with their family over during the last week of term. The exit point allowed the children to show off their gallery of learning and their 3D books reviews. The time also allowed the young engineers to constructively build with their families. Well done P7!
Issue 145 | 15th December 2023
P7 Go with the Flow exit point
Issue 145 | 15th December 2023
P6 have been using Conditional Statements in Scratch to program a Two truths and a Lie game.
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Read All About It! The P6 Roving Reporters The children in P6 have been learning how to write newspaper reports in English lessons this half term. The children started the unit by reading a range of newspapers and finding out about the features of a good newspaper article. Following that, they practised how to write headlines and use of different grammatical features in newspaper reports, such as the passive tense and reported speech. The children ended the unit by writing their own article about a local event of their choice. Some of the themes of the children’s reports included the shining lights talent show, a pack of dogs bothering Panaga residents and a spate of local burglaries. Here are two articles written by the P6 roving reporters.
Issue 145 | 15th December 2023
Sand Bubbler Crab investigation P7 had a beach day in Science. Sand Bubbler Crab sampling. There are lots!
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MELILAS M1 have been exploring ‘Forces’, including friction on different surfaces.
M2 have continued to study ‘Energy’, including fuels and renewable energy.
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This half term, the Middle Years English students have been engaging in discussions around inequality and the environment. These Global Goals have ignited their work on persuasive writing and SLAM poetry, and their acquired knowledge, and their passion, has been both commendable and exciting to witness. Students hope to share their presentations with the wider community at Panaga’s Environmental Festival and on International Women’s Day. We will welcome you to witness our aspiring young leaders as they share their message to build a greener, fairer, better world.
Issue 145 | 15th December 2023
On the 5th December, 14 Language Leaders went over to Rampayoh to teach P1 - P3. The classes were taught different languages and subjects. P1 students had Dutch lessons, which tied in nicely with their Language of the month. They were taught numbers 1-5 and names of animals. The P2 students were introduced to Mandarin numbers. P3K students learnt colours in French and P3E learnt Spanish numbers. Many of the LL were quite nervous at the beginning but relaxed soon after. It is simply great to see our older students interact with the younger students. At the end of the lessons, all students were able to repeat some of the words they had learnt in the lesson. The LL were well prepared and had great resources, some of which were differentiated. Well done to all the LL. We cannot wait to see you in action again in Term 2.
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Visit to Merangking School On the 29th November, I was invited as an honorary guest at Merangking School. It was a special day as it was the graduation day for the Reception and the Year 6 students. I felt so honoured to be invited as an honorary guest and I have never felt so special. I was asked to hand out certificates and presents to the Reception students. Every child in the school was celebrated for some sort of academic achievement and received a gift. The students also performed in front of the staff and their parents. The school choir sang two beautiful songs and the Reception children performed a typical Bruneian dance. I have visited Merangking School on many occasions, both as a representative of Panaga School as well as privately as part of the Wildlife Warriors. Last year, our M2 Language Leaders taught at the school and we are looking forward to future visits with the Language Leaders. Merangking School has a special place in my heart. Everyone who visits this school, falls in love with it. Not only do they fall in love with the amazing students and staff, but also with the fantastic location. Congratulations to all the students and good luck to the Year 6 students who are moving on to secondary school.
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More Photos:
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Nativity Assembly More Photos:
Issue 145 | 15th December 2023
Nativity Assembly Choir
The Teraja Choir supported the Rampayoh Nativity with their beautiful and enthusiastic singing. These singers have been using their lunch times to practise all the songs including a mashup of Christmas classics. Well done to all the choir members for their commitment and dedication. Miss Danni and Miss Angela are so proud of you!
Issue 145 | 15th December 2023