Panaga School Biweekly, Issue 154

Panaga School Biweekly

154 14th June 2024

Panaga School Biweekly

Panaga School

IFM/4,

BSPCompany 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: CylaAhmad cylaahmad@panagaschool.net

Panaga School Biweekly

Editors: Hannah Zakaria & Donovan Dolamit publications@panagaschool.net

Dear Parents,

There are so many highlights from the last fortnight, I don't know where to begin!

I'll therefore begin with the most recent event, which was the M2 graduation yesterday. What a wonderful celebration for a very special group of young people. Our M2 children have demonstrated and developed so many positive qualities in their time at school, but what is really special about them is the bond that they share and how they have supported each other throughout the year. Thank you so much to the M2 parents for organising such a marvellous event, our Melilas teachers, Mr. Michel for being our guest speaker and Ms. Mandy for pulling everybody and everything together. If you read to the end of this edition, you will be able to see and read about two alumni who visited us this year and is a reminder of how special our school is.

Our school is special because of the children. It is also special because of the teachers and staff that inspire our students on a daily basis, giving so much of their time and energy. We will sadly be saying goodbye to a number of colleagues when the academic year ends in three weeks. Ms. Duck, Ms, Sonia, Ms. Sarah, Ms. Kailene, Ms. Gina, Mr. Paul, Ms. Mia, Ms. Danni, Mr. Nathan, Mr. Simon, Ms. Cyla, Ms. Jalinah and Mr. Donovan - thank you for your significant contributions to the school and we wish you the very best with your next adventure. In the next edition, I will provide details on the new colleagues that will be joining us inAugust.

Science dominated the start of this week with so many exciting and fun experiments, demonstrations, presentations and activities. Thank you so much to the many parents who volunteered their time, enthusiasm and expertise in helping our children develop their science skills. Thank you also to all of teachers and LSAs, especially the Science Team, led by Ms. Shelagh and Mr. Stephen.

Congratulations to our budding netball and rugby tag players who represented the school so well in the final BJSL games at JIS. What a fabulous year of sport, with so many children getting involved, experiencing winning and losing, but more importantly, making many friends along the way. Ahuge thank you to all of the teachers that have coached and supported these teams throughout the year, including our PE team of Ms. Melissa and Mr. Nathan. Unfortunately, Mr. Nathan and Ms. Tania will be on compassionate leave for the remainder of this term; our thoughts are with them at this difficult time.

Can I remind parents that if you child/children will be not be with us for the next academic year, commencing in August, to complete the Final Departure Form and hand it into Reception; this will allow us to ensure all transition arrangements can be made with your new school and we can make appropriate arrangements to celebrate and say goodbye to your child/children.

Thank you to all of those parents that were able to join us for the meeting on Wednesday focusing on the transition, our strategic vision and next year's arrangements. Please do contact me directly on brianplatts@panagaschool.net if you have any feedback. We emailed materials from the meeting yesterday but many emails were 'rebounded' due to mailboxes being full. If you did not eceive the email, you can access the materials here.

Have a lovely long weekend and we look forward to welcoming everybody back to school on Tuesday.

Best Wishes,

Brian, SLT and all of our staff

Dear Parents,

Thank you to those who were able to attend last wednesday’s meeting; I hope you found it useful; I really appreciated hearing your questions and thoughts, to help us move forward in the most effective way.

I know some parents were unable to attend due to work and other commitments; If you, or indeed any parent would like a separate meeting on the transition and what next year will look like, please contact me directly.

I have attached a copy of the presentation from this morning, a draft copy of the School Strategic Plan (please email me directly with any feedback on this), and a copy of our Lockdown Policy.

The safety of your child and all children in our school, as well as the safety of the staff, is our highest priority. As part of this ongoing commitment to safety and security preparedness at Panaga School, we will be conducting a lockdown drill. This is now common practice in schools worldwide. The drill will take place this Friday, 14th June 2024.

The purpose of this drill is to keep the students safe from any danger outside or inside the school campus (further details can be found in the aforementioned and attached, Lockdown Policy).

Lockdown drills can be a little worrying, especially for younger students. Before the drill, teachers will talk to their classes. When speaking to students about lockdown drills, teachers will talk in general terms, stating that "just like we practice fire drills and have to leave the building, we also need to practice for emergencies that will keep us in the building." Talking about the drill with your children at home may also help alleviate unnecessary anxiety. We ask that you maintain our approach to avoid creating more anxiety among students.

Please remember that these emergency and lockdown practice drills are undertaken to help maintain our school as a safe place to learn and work. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me directly.

Part of next year's exciting developments will be the possibility of Panaga School becoming a member school of FOBISIA (Federation of British International Schools in Asia). Membership will provide innumerable opportunities for student enrichment and staff professional development. As part of the membership application process, parents are asked to complete the following, short questionnaire:

School Membership Application Survey (Parents)

The new edition of FOBISIA's newsletter was published on wednesday, so please use this link to access the latest edition of The FOBISIAN, which highlights their most recent events.

Links to :

Parent Meeting Slides 12/6/2024

Strategic Vision Lockdown Policy

Best Wishes, Brian Platts

UPCOMINGEVENTS

SchoolAcademic Calendar 2023-2024

SchoolAcademic Calendar 2024-2025

Parent Events Calendar

Public Holiday P3 Parent Information Meeting at Teraja Teraja/MelilasMaths Challenge Day M2 Joining JIS inY9 sleepover

P3 students visit P4 M2 Dance Performance Mon

Rampayoh End ofYear Performance

U13 Netball @ ISB Rampayoh Parents Performance

EntryPoint!

IEYC The World Around Us

Pre-Nursery children explored a different area of the school and were encouraged to look and listen at the new environment. We asked what could they see and hear? They collected natural items and made a journey stick, tying all the natural items on a stick.

The World Around Us EntryPoint!

We went on a JungleAdventure for our Entry Point. We set off with a map to find the secret location. The Garden Fairies sent us a message with five challenges including finding lost bears, making a bear from nature, a scavenger hunt and a tug of war against the teachers! What a fun morning…the highlight was the picnic for snack time!

The World Around Us EntryPoint!

SCIENCE DAY 2024

Mendaram & Rampayoh

What an amazing morning of enquiry and communication.

The Pre-Nursery to P3 children moved between 4 zones exploring, experimenting and investigating.

Thank you to the parent volunteers and visitors who shared their expertise and organise activities to help make the day successful.

DIGITALEDUCATION

P6 are creating their own Stop Frame

Animations based on pollution and climate change.

P4 Residential

OnThursday 6th June, P4 children said “Goodbye” and “Goodnight” to their parents as it was time for the long anticipated ‘sleepover’at school. AfterASA’s were over, the children had great fun setting up their sleeping areas. Once this was complete the activities began. We started with a big water fight and slippy slide.Then we enjoyed different art activities.

We enjoyed a delicious meal of pizza and ice-cream and finished the evening with a movie and popcorn.

All the children slept very well. We headed to the Club in our Team Shirts for a wonderful breakfast followed by a celebratory playtime! We are so proud of you P4!

On Wednesday 22nd May, P5 children returned to school in the evening to begin their survival training. Our residential was kick started with theAmazing Gurkha Soldiers who shared their knowledge and expertise in jungle survival as well as creating a delicious Nepalese curry and performing their famous Kukri dance.

How to collect water

Kukri experience

Fire starting

How to build traps

Ration packs

Blowpipes

Day 2 (after a night sleeping in the hall and library) we fueled up on breakfast at the club before heading to the Tutong Jungle. Here we learnt more survival skills as well as how the rainforest can provide plants that help us.After lunch at Eco Ponies we returned to school for much needed showers and a pizza and movie night.

The jungle hike

Rope

Lunch

Day 3 - after a relaxing nights sleep we enjoyed a pancake and roti breakfast at the club before embarking on our final challenge… Survival Swimming!

Amazing effort P5. We could not be prouder of all you achieved in the 3 days of SURVIVALSKILLS!

BJSL Tag Rugby and Netball tournament

Our students performed exceptionally well at JIS on Tuesday at the BJSL Netball and Tag Rugby tournament. Highlight of the tournament was 1st place of the P6Tag RugbyTeam, 2nd for the P5Tag RugbyTeam, and also in 2nd place was the Netball teams of P5, P6 and P7. The students performed with skill and confidence whilst also using their personal qualities to drive them forward to success. Well done to the coaches who havepreparedthembothonthedayandinthelead-uptotheevent.

SCIENCE DAY 2024

Teraja & Melilas

World Ocean Day 2024 provided a great theme for Science Day in Teraja & Melilas.

Awide range of activities took place offering excellent opportunities to learn ocean science. Including a scientific illustration workshop, which produced these beautiful paintings of coral.

SCIENCE DAY 2024

Teraja & Melilas

Ghost nets hunt

Ocean acidification experiment

Bio-rocket science

“Flying squid”

Laminated materials

Scientific coral illustration workshop

SCIENCE DAY 2024

Teraja & Melilas

Ocean floor exploration -Scratch

Testing agility, strength and flexibility

Message from Michael Otto

Hello Panaga School,

After more than 40 years, I visited Panaga School again, this time with my wife. What wonderful to see the school still being more or less the same. The memories I have were great of that time. The visit brought me back to that time. Me and my sister were part of the Dutch stream, we were students from 1977 until 1982.

I remember the activities, the sports and the assemblies every Friday afternoon in the gym. During those assemblies the younger kids were sitting in the front on the floor and the older kids were sitting at the back on the benches. Is this still the same? I actually didn’t like sitting on the floor. Your gym is exactly what is was then. Fantastic to see. Nostalgia.

The big old trees are still there, the soccer field also, where we played during the breaks. The swings from then are gone, but replaced with new fun play equipment. The bicycle shed however hasn’t been replaced, it looks exactly the same, except for the bikes in it, I guess 40 year younger bikes now ;-) .

Thank you for showing me around, I enjoyed every minute! Kids enjoy your stay in Panaga School, I had a fun time there, learning is very important, but don’t forget to have fun together!!

Warm regards,

Michael Otto

(Student from 1977-1982)

Message from Utkarsh and Olivia

I visited Panaga school back in December with my friend Dylan.

My friend Olivia and I started at panaga school at the same time in P4 more than 10 years ago.

As we near the end of our A-level studies, we are filled with nostalgia and a desire to revisit our primary school where our educational journey began over a decade ago. We kindly request permission to visit our old classrooms and take photographs in our graduation attire. This opportunity would mean the world to us.

Warm Regards, Utkarsh Pandey

Olivia Testa