Panaga School Biweekly Issue 160

Panaga School Biweekly

160 8th November 2024

Dear Parents,

As always, there are so many fabulous learning experiences happening every day, in and outside of the classroom for your children. Please enjoy reading about them in this edition. It is particularly pleasing to see the levels of cooperation across the school, especially with our youngest children in the mud!

The Panaga School Sprint Race is now in full flow and we are not speaking about athletics, although being nimble and agile are important! Congratulations to our oldest footballers who did exhibit physical athleticism in the BSSL yesterday at JIS. It was great to see us fielding four teams (2 boys and 2 girls) and everyone competing, contributing and conducting themselves in such a sporting way.

There are a plethora of events and competitions for our children to participate in, whether they be organised by the school, Panaga Club or the BSRC - we are so fortunate to be part of such a vibrant and inclusive community. Of course, as we are now members of FOBISIA, the scope has become even wider. I will be writing to parents separately next week outlining what opportunities we have and will be taking with FOBISIA, including the opportunity for our children to compete and perform outside of Brunei. I am aware that with opportunity, there are also costs involved, including financial ones, so in the letter we will outline approximate costs, so families can make informed choices about what opportunities they may take.

We are in the final stages of planning for our Residentials, with meetings held this week for parents of children in Year 6, 7 and 8. Lots of work goes into planning these trips to ensure they are meaningful and enjoyable. The feedback we have received from parents has been very well received and will enable us to make amendments to ensure your children thrive.

As part of our Annual Development Plan, we have been conducting an internal review on our Languages provision this week in school. Thank you to the parents who attended last week's meeting which provided valuable feedback on what excellence and choice looks like with languages. Next Tuesday (8:30 am in Teraja), we will be having a Parents Information Meeting focusing on our 3 way partnership to ensure your children are safe, healthy and making progress in their learning. The session will include:

● Nurse Marie and Sheena sharing some ideas and advice so that your children are healthy and ready for learning each day.

● Opportunities for parents, in small groups, to share ideas and strategies they use, to ensure their children are healthy and ready for learning each day.

● How the school communicates with families and exploring ways we can do this better

Please RSVP to Ms. Yin (meeyinkoo@panagaschool.net) by Next Monday 11th with any questions you have around these themes or areas you would like to be specifically covered.

Our Annual Development plan also includes the implementation of a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) scheme. This will start inAugust 2025 withYear 7 and 8 and further details will be provided to these parents next week.

Thank you to all of the parents that have ordered and collected their IDs both for themselves and their household helpers. Here is a link to the order form again. If you haven't done so already, please do so as soon as possible as we would like all adults on site to have passes by 18th November.

I would also like to inform you that there is a change to the name of Panaga's Standard Chartered Bank account in order to help parents more easily identify the correct school when making payments. The updated bank account name is now: Panaga School - JIS. This change should help minimize any confusion and ensure that parents can easily distinguish between Panaga School and JIS when processing payments..

Finally, Happy Diwali to our incredible Indian community, who do so much to support the school and international mindedness in the community. There was lots of impressive dancing this morning at the Teraja tent and we were treated to a wonderful whole school assembly at the end of the day. It was a beautiful celebration that featured stunning performances, including traditional dances and a captivating catwalk show. The children truly showcased their talents, from dancing to presenting and sharing information with us about the importance of the five days of Diwali, to joining together and singing a Diwali song. The assembly reinforced the values of unity and togetherness. Thank you to all who participated and contributed to making the assembly celebration truly memorable. Wishing our Indian community a joyful and prosperous Diwali.

Wishing everyone a lovely and safe weekend.

Best Wishes, Brian, SLTand all of our staff

UPCOMINGEVENTS

SchoolAcademic Calendar 2024-2025

Parent Events Calendar

EarlyYears

Nursery Rhyme Week Parent Information Meeting

BJSLYear 5 and 6Athletics (JIS)

6:30pm - NTC Sint Maarteen Lantern Music Challenge day

Year 8

GeographyTrip

JIS Musical Year 7 and 8 Visit

Year 3 Persuasive Writing Exit Point

Language Leaders & SMSASchool teachYear 3,4&5

Mud is Good!

We love playing in the mud in Mendaram. It supports the children’s sensory needs, supports emotional development as well as developing fine and gross motor skills. Plus it’s science and maths too! And we’re using all of the personal qualities! Did you know that playing in mud makes you feel happy and is great for developing the immune system?

Early Years Showing their Cooperation

Personal Quality

We learn to play together

Happy Diwali

Mendaram celebrated the “Festival of Lights” on 6th November 2024. The children enjoyed the various activities set up for the day.As a finale, we had a short story and danced to an Indian music. Abig ‘ThankYou’to all the Indian mums. Without your support, this could not have had happened!

Link for more photos:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1aCqbvxwMT3yzudTw6D1L4FI68EisDQt N?usp=drive_link

Diwali Assembly

All things Maths

EndofTermactivity: WhostoletheChromebook(fictional)?

Classes were presented with a series of tasks designed to enhance students critical thinking through mathematical reasoning, problem-solving, and code-breakingskills.Studentsnavigatedthroughvarious clues, culminating in the final challenge of matching handwriting to signatures. Only a select few were able tocrackthecase,andfortunately,myChromebookwas successfullyreturned!

Maths quote of the week:

“Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs who prepares for it today”. Malcolm X

All things Maths

PANAGASCHOOL“SPRINT” RACE 1

On Wednesday, November 6th, all students fromYears 3 to 8 participated in Race 1 of the 100 Questions

Panaga School Sprint Race.The sprint race is a timed, 3-4 minute short-answer test, designed to match each year level’s ability and curriculum. Atotal of 8 races will take place before the end of the school year.

Top 10 Results

This weeks Maths question (come to my classroom and tell me the answer)

9x9=

No answers from last week. However the answer was 5.3m

Legendary Year 7 Geography Learners

The children in Year 7 have been learning a range of map skills this term. These have included learning about the history of maps, identifying Ordinance Survey map symbols, using four- and six-figure grid references and using scale to measure distances. The children completed their map-skills unit by applying what they have learnt to create their own map of a recently formed volcanic island. They certainly have been legends at using legends!

Seminar on Children’s Picture Books

Unlocking wonder and curiosity

On the 21st October, I was invited to a very special event in Brunei as a guest author/speaker to the ‘Seminar on Children’s Picture books’ held at the UBD library. The invitation was such an honour. I was part of a panel of authors where we were asked various questions about the journey of writing our book. The seminar was held in order to inspire future authors in Brunei.

In 2019, I wrote a book together with my father, Redi (an Indonesian comic artist, my husband Alex (the photographer). Miss Salbiah and Miss Nisa helped with the translation as the book is bi-lingual,a humongous task. We also had many editors such as Miss Donna who spent hours checking for mistakes. We wrote the book in order to make the children aware of the beautiful species of flora and fauna found on their doorstep and how important it is to look after them, before it all disappears.

The audience loved the book. Ms Nelle, the president of the Brunei Darussalam Library Association, was so happy that I finally made it. She has been trying for years for me to attend but it was always at the wrong time. She even asked me to sign the book for her. It was also great to meet other authors from Brunei. An unforgettable experience indeed.

Term 1’s Scholastic Book Club was over £680 of parent orders! This generated £136 worth of credit for books for the school. Happy reading… and remember to look out for a Scholastic Book Club inTerm 2.

Books purchased with the credit