Panaga School Newsletter Welcome back to Panaga School for 2012/2013! What a happy start to the school year; plus welcome to all of our new families and staff! We have such an exciting year ahead! (More on Pages 2 and 3)
Issue 35, September 2012 Panaga School Brunei Darussalam Jalan Utara, Seria, KB3534, Brunei Phone: +673 3372139 Fax: +6733373028 Web: www.panagaschool.com
Welcome
Inside this month’s issue:
back!
Page 2 - Welcome back to the new school year - A trip down memory “jalan”
Message from the Principal As parents we always take an active part in our children’s learning and we always believe that we are offering the right advice and guidance. One of the most difficult things to do is to watch our children struggle when they are engaged in a challenging activity.
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Be a visible learner for your children
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Involve children in adult conversations
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Let them spend time with you while you are doing difficult things
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Involve children in family decisions
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Tell your children stories about your learning difficulties
As parents we always want to get involved and offer our years of experience in solving a particular problem. In reality, ∗ we may be actually hindering the learning process. Some of the advice on the right is based on the work of Carole Dweck, a leading expert in the field of child devel- ∗ opment. It is based on thousands of hours of research, and while the list is not exhaustive, it offers some practical advice ∗ on aiding the learning process. ∗
Perhaps try some of the advice when helping with homework. The learning ∗ process is a complex one and sometimes children become frustrated; this is normal. ∗ Sometimes they really do need to ‘embrace the struggle’. Learning is not always smiles and high fives, sometimes ∗ expect the tears (not too often though). ∗
For some of our children, University life is only 7-8 years away. They will have to resolve may difficult issues using their ∗ own initiative. It is part of our role to ensure that they have that imaginary ∗ ‘learning toolkit’ at their disposal. Good luck with all of your learning en- ∗ deavors. Tim Robinson
Encourage children to spend time with people who have interesting things to share Don’t rush in too quickly to rescue children when they are having difficulties Restrain the impulse to teach Don’t praise too much – use interest rather than approval Acknowledge the effort, not the ability Make clear boundaries and maintain them Don’t over stimulate breeds imagination
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boredom
Choose multi-purpose ended toys
and
Page 3 - Introducing our new teachers for 2012/2013 Page 4 - Panaga School receives a visit from local primary school teachers Page 5 - There’s a lot to learn about oil and gas - Mr Peter shares many stories with other schools Page 6 - P2 competes in the Panaga Olympics - P7 caters for all learners Page 7 - An interview with Mr Peter Anderton, P7 teacher and school board member - P4 and P5’s marvellous mascots Page 8 - Milepost 3 prove there’s an athlete in all of us
open-
Quote for the month:
Encourage different kinds of computer use
“The larger the island of knowledge, the longer the shoreline of wonder.” Talk to children about the process of - Ralph W. Sockman learning Watch and learn from your children’s learning
Newsletter designed and edited by Damian Brady
Panaga School Newsletter Welcome back to Panaga School for 2012/2013!
There were smiles all round and hardly a tear in sight (from the students anyway) as Panaga’s new academic year began on Monday, 3rd of September, 2012. After a well-deserved break, all children settled into their new classes eagerly and easily; including
last year’s P3s who be- have long awaited being gan this year in the “big reacquainted with their school” (Teraja). friends, making new ones and continuing their studPlus, we welcomed many ies. new families and teachers to the school community. There are many wonder(Please see next page.) ful events occurring this year - an exciting schedIt was fantastic to witness ule of school residentials, so many smiles on the concerts, theme days, children’s faces as many Challenge Days, ASAs
and sports competitions – just to name a few. Keep posted to the school website and Parent Information Letters for details. But for now, welcome back! It’s going to be another great school year! By Damian Brady
A trip down memory “jalan” for David On Thursday, September 27 2012, Panaga School was privileged to welcome past student, Mr David Barnard and his wife, Sue. David attended Panaga School between 1959 and 1960.
A 1956 Aerial
shot of F2
For David, much has certainly changed at the school and around Panaga: new buildings, classes, more trees, roads and houses; amongst many other things.
d sister, Judith rnard, David an Mum, Joyce Ba (1958)
“The most interesting development since my time here is the multiculturalism of the school. It’s fantastic to see the diversity of children now attending Panaga,” David said. Although only 5 or 6 years old at the time of his studies here, there is still one memory David has kept. “I can remember standing outside a classroom trying to teach a Dutch child the ‘th’ sound. I am sure the same thing happens in the playground today - Dutch children being helped master their English.” 1957 anaga in F2/14 P
David’s father worked as a civil engineer for Shell and the family lived at F2/14.
Humble beginnin gs at P
Thank you David and Sue for visiting and sharing your Panaga history with us.
anaga S
chool
By Damian Brady
Panaga School Newsletter Introducing our new Panaga School teaching staff for 2012/2013
Tim Robinson, Principal
Nationality: British Arrived from: UK via Syria Am here with: Alison, Ella and Mia Interests: Looking forward to starting sailing and windsurfing again. Hopes for this year: To become settled into Brunei as soon as possible and to start enjoying the rich and diverse opportunities that the country has to offer. Having lived in both Thailand and Indonesia previously we still have a few more places to visit in SE Asia. Professionally, I am looking forward to carrying on all the inspirational learning that has previously taken place a Panaga School.
Nationality: British Arrived from: Malaysia Am here with: Husband, Matt, daughter, Niah, age 3 and son, Daniel, age 6 months. Interests: I enjoy running, reading and spending time with my family. Hopes for this year: I hope to enjoy getting to know and explore this beautiful Louise Ramsden, country. I'm especially looking Pre Nursery forward to some rainforest walks. Teacher
Nationality: British Arrived from: Devon, England Am here with: Wife, Sarah, and daughters, Holly, Lucy and Ella. Interests: Running, cycling, sailing, ukulele.
Dave Salt, ICT Specialist
Hopes for this year: To learn to dive.
Nationality: Canadian Arrived from: The Sultanate of Oman Am here with: My husband, Rorie and 2 daughters: Darian, age 7, and Riley, age 6. Interests: running, skating, reading, traveling and teaching aerobics Hopes for this year: Nicole Ebert, To inspire young minds and learn Nursery Teacher Malay.
Nationality: British
Nationality: British
Nationality: British
Arrived from: Tanzania (deepest darkest Africa!) where I was a Year 2 teacher for the last 3 years.
Arrived from: Manchester, UK
Arrived from: Milan, Italy
Interests: I love travelling, eating different foods, hiking, generally being outdoors, meeting new people and swimming. I have sailed all my life and enjoy being on the water and love music. I have Jenny Ballantyne, recently joined the choir for IP3J Class Teacher the first time and am enjoying learning to sing!
Interests: Swimming, dance, gymnastics and travelling. Hopes for this year: I am looking forward to meeting new people from all over the world, travelling to lots of exciting places and being Christina Fenlon, IP1C part of the Panaga Community.
Class Teacher
Name: Joanne Strange
Nationality: Australian
Nationality: British
Arrived from: The International School of Moscow
Arrived from: UK Interests: Photography, dance and fitness
Joanne Strange, IP6J Class Teacher
Rorie Ebert, SEN Specialist
Nationality: Australian Arrived from: Oman, where I was with my family for 4 years. Am here with: My family, wife Nicole - Nursery teacher, Darian, 7 years old and Riley, nearly 6 years. Interests: Trekking (walking for days on end), Motorbiking, travelling and having amazing new experiences. Hopes for this year: As SEN teacher, to help all the students in my care reach their full potential. Personally, to be able to see the Northern Lights as this year and early 2013 will be one of the best times to see this spectacle.
Rue Smale, IP5R Class Teacher
Nationality: British Arrived from: Shanghai Am here with: My wife, Fang and 7 month old son, Logan Interests: Love sport, particularly cricket, football, tennis and golf. Hopes for this year: To really enjoy teaching at Panaga school with a lovely P5 class. I look forward to making new friends, seeing the wonderful sights of Borneo and trying to become a single figure handicap golfer which is a long way off!
Hopes for this year: To be part of a loving community and enjoy the opportunities that the people and places of Panaga and Brunei offer.
Interests: Art and outdoor activities Hopes for the Year: ∗ To see an orangutan, pigmy elephant and Sumatran rhinoceros in the wild. ∗ I am excited to be teaching the IPC for the first time and Anna Sanderson, am looking forward to lots of IP8AS Class Teacher IPC fun.
Am here with: My husband, Gianfranco, and my two daughters, Elisa Noemi and Eleonora Rose. Interests: Playing the piano and clarinet, Sarah Hutson, swimming and spendMusic Specialist ing time with my family. I worked there as PE Coordinator, teaching students all aspects of the PE Curriculum from Foundation Stage to Year 9. Before this I was a PE teacher at Craiglsea State High School in Brisbane, Australia, specialising in Year 11 and 12 PE. Interests: I enjoy leading an outdoor lifestyle. I love playing basketball, cricket and volleyball as well as a variety of other outdoor activities. My hopes for this year: are varied. I hope to settle in to my new role and make a positive contribution to the PE department. I would love to help Panaga School students broaden their Tim Walsh, PE Specialist PE skills and knowledge and achieve further Nationality: Australian success in a variety of interschool sporting Arrived from: I had been activities. Socially, I’d like to travel in and around working at the International Borneo and beyond in the coming months/year School of Moscow for nearly and play a few games of cricket and basketball 4 years. for the local sporting teams.
Panaga School Newsletter Panaga School
Community Links
Panaga School in the local Press: From the Borneo Bulletin Weekend, Saturday September 22, 2012.
Panaga School receives a visit from local primary school teachers Principal of Panaga School, Mr Tim Robinson (seated front row, 3rd from the right) and Principal of Panaga Primary School, Cg Hjh Norzurina binti Hj Assim (seated front row, 3rd from the left) in a group photo with the visiting entourage. - EFNA ARS
By Efna Ars About 30 teachers from Panaga Primary School in Seria visited Panaga School yesterday morning led by the Principal of Panaga Primary School Hjh Norzurina binti Hj Assim.
According to the Principal, the visit to Panaga School was part of their initiative to improve and upgrade from an ordinary school to the same level as an international school by learning and observing how education was taught in the school. Panaga Primary School was awarded as a 'model school' by the Ministry of Education last May and they are in the process to revamp the school's curriculum to fit into the SPN21 aspirations to motivate their students to further their studies.
pal herself to be more upbeat and able Principal when asked to achieve three core values in the school's curriculum. curriculum; literacy, numeracy and ICT.
about
the
The Principal also added that they wish they can open up possibilities for their students to think beyond the box. The entourage was brought on a guided tour to all three buildings of Panaga School: Teraja building, Mandaram building and Rampayoh buildPanaga School is using the Internaing. tional Primary Curriculum (IPC) which provides flexibility in incorporating children's idea into the learning process. The school also promotes an international view to the students which allows them to see from different perspectives and globally.
According to the Principal of Panaga School, Mr Tim Robinson, the visit enabled them to work closer with the local learning communities and share ideas with them. Tim Robinson also expressed hopes to visit government schools as he believed that it is a two-way process and it is equally important for them to witness how education was taught in government schools.
Currently, Panaga School has about 650 students, ranging from three to 12 years old and from 40 nationalities; whereby the parents of the children are working in the oil and gas industry.
"Learning should be fun and apart The school has 48 expat teachers The visit also served to open the from the curriculum, we also ask the comprising British, Australian, Dutch, minds of the teachers and the Princi- children what they want," said the South African and Canadian.
Panaga School Newsletter Panaga School Community Links A world of (oil and gas) discovery On Thursday 6th September 2012, several lucky children enjoyed a trip to the Oil and Gas Discovery Centre at the request of the Prime Minister’s Office.
further explore the careers available in and around the oil and gas sector. Highlights included the liquid nitrogen demonstration and the shopping trip for oil based products…Everybody came away with Here, they learnt more about the a (toy) Ferrari! manner in which oil and gas are found and used across Brunei. The By Miss Joanne and Mr Peter children also had the opportunity to
Legendary storytellers unite at St Angela’s Storytelling isn’t easy, especially when you are on a brightly lit stage with a large audience! However, as I discovered on Saturday, 8th of September, children at St. Angela’s School in Seria seemed to have mastered this performance style. With brimming confidence and exceptional memories, 21 children from P2 through to P7 wowed the audience with tales and legends, each with a strong moral undercurrent.
I was delighted to have had the chance to once again be a judge for this competition and would like to extend my congratulations to Miss Wann Ching Chea, Principal, her staff and, most of all, the children of St Angela’s. By Mr Peter Anderton
Panaga School Newsletter The P2 Olympics The children spent the week producing several pieces of work based on the Olympics. Over the week they drew their own Olympic Mascot, painted themselves taking part in an Olympic sport and even made their own winning medal. At the end of August it was a case of on your marks for the children to get set, ready to restart school. And what a go it was! The year started with a bang as the children learnt about the Olympics during the first week of term.
Finally, once they had competed, the week could not be finished in any other way than for the children to stand on the podium to receive their own winning medal! It was an exhausting, but exciting start to the year. And, if the rumours are anything to go by, the event was even better than London Having found out about the Olym- 2012! By the IP2 Team pics, the children were ready to compete in Panaga 2012! It started with an Opening Ceremony, where the children proudly paraded around under the flag of their home country. And then the events started!
An Entry Point for all Learning Styles! P7 students and teachers launched ‘Go With The Flow’ in style on Wednesday 19th September! All learning styles were catered for in our multi-activity Entry Point: visual, auditory and kinaesthetic. Children enjoyed travelling the course of a raging river whilst transporting essential objects, before working out the best way to cross the river with a chicken, a fox and some grain and finally, using research skills, to consolidate their new vocabulary. The teachers have already spotted some budding geologists, naturalists and conservationists amongst the cohort and are looking forward to expanding the understanding on our upcoming residential trip. By Team P7
Panaga School Newsletter Sixty seconds with... Panaga School Board Member and IP7P Class Teacher:
Primary 4 and 5’s Marvellous Olympics Mascots ART Learning Target: To be able to explain our work in terms of what we did and why.
The task: To design a mascot for the Panaga Olympics How long have you been or for an Olympics in our home country. at Panaga School? This is my second year. As a part of the P4 and P5 IPC learning about the OlymWhere were you before pic Games, we researched Brunei? mascots from London 2012 Birmingham, in England. and previous Olympics.
Peter Anderton
What is your favourite The children had to think carebook? fully about the purpose of a Birdsong by Sebastian mascot and what it represents. Faulks, a wonderful piece They were also encouraged to of writing. consider the mascot’s features in terms of its colour, shape, Which is your favourite line and pattern. restaurant in Brunei? We gave our mascot characTandoor Hut in Seria. teristics to represent Panaga What is your favourite des- or our home country and the internationalism of the Olymsert? Apple and rhubarb crum- pics. ble with an endless supply The children first sketched of custard. their designs on paper and What is your favourite holiday destination? That's a tricky question! Either St. David's in Wales, or skiing in Lake Louise, Canada. Where do you see yourself in ten years from now? In front of a class of smiling students in an international school somewhere around the world. What do you enjoy doing most in Panaga? When not teaching, I enjoy playing squash and tennis against much better opponents in the hope that my game will improve!
made a list of the materials required to make the mascot. The children were encouraged to talk about their designs explaining what they had done and why. These are just some of the fabulous examples of mascots made by the children and here’s what some children had to say: “It was an enjoyable challenge completed.” (Scott) “We had to plan it before we made it to know what it would look like.” (Nicole) “It was fun! I learned a lot.” (Ibiene) By the P4 and P5 Team
Panaga School Newsletter Milepost 3’s Exit Point – The Athlete t3 pos e l i M es Gam
they were off…Citius, Altius, Fortius!
A key event at any Olympic games is the sprint and the children gathered by the Learning Centre to Weren’t the Olympics show their speed. exciting! I’m not talking about the games that In front of the P7 classhappened on the other rooms, children tested side of the world, but their strength with that our very own version of most familiar of (tropical) the games held between Olympic events, the cocothe children in Milepost nut toss. 3 on Friday 14th SeptemThe most technical of all ber, 2012. the events was the triple All the children in P6, P7 jump and the children and P8 started the year showed what a dramatic with the IPC unit, ‘The improvement they’d made Athlete’, full of learning in their skills with a high activities relating to the percentage of them getpast and present of the ting the hop, step and jump perfectly timed. Olympic Games. Many of the children had actually attended the games in London and contributed to our knowledge harvests with their own experiences in addition to what they had seen on the TV.
Finally, there was the great test of strength from the 1900 – 1920 Olympic games, the Tug of War.
The determination showed by the children as they were spurred on by Miss Barbara showed By the end of the two how resilient our children weeks the children were really are. experts in the who, It was a great event with where, why and what of all the children putting in a the Olympics and had huge amount of effort, been preparing during spurred on by a fantastic P.E. lessons for our main home crowd of parents. event. As with any competition Friday afternoon saw lots though, there is a winner of the parents in atten- at the end and this year dance as the children the gold medal was gathered in their respec- awarded to our Milepost 3 winners: Earth. tive houses. Mr Tim Walsh quickly explained the events and
By Mr Andy Ryan, Milepost Three Leader for Learning
Kind thanks for many of the photos above; courtesy of Carolin Van Vliet
Stop the press! Don’t forget the Panaga Club Beach Shelter Fun Run tonight! The children must register at 5.15pm ready to start the run at 5.30pm. - Clare Fowler