Up Hill... All The W ay! - The International School Of Penang

Up Hill... All The Way!
T O U C H
B A S E
A F O R T N I G H T L Y N E W S L E T T E R F O R T H E S C H O O L C O M M U N I T Y
FRIDAY,
October 17th, 2008
TERM 1
The International School
Of Penang (Uplands)
In this TouchBase:
- 2008 School Cross Country
- Y7 Records of Achievement
- Y8 Residential
Y7 Records of
Achievement
- Uplands School Photos 2008
Get TouchBase in colour at www.uplands.org

Year 7
Recording Achievement at The International School Of Penang
(Uplands)
Uplands is currently trialling “Records of Achievement” with pupils in Year 7. This leads on from
the work the PYP team have already established in areas of pupil self assessment in the Primary
School.
Y7 Records of
Achievement
1. What Is a Record of Achievement?
It is a summary of a student’s achievements and experiences inside and outside school, which
The following information provides more detail about this important educational initiative and
why the senior management of the School consider it important.
(a) is for all pupils;
(b) describes successes (through positive statements);
(c) gives a rounded, broader view of the student than examination results or our present reporting
system can provide.
2. If the School follows the initiative through to Year 11, what will the final ROA summary document contain?
(i) personal details, for example, curriculum vitae, courses followed;
(ii) a curriculum statement of achievement written by the student;
(iii) a statement of personal qualities and achievements, written by the student;
(iv) a record of other experiences, activities and achievements (work experience, residentials, extra-curricular activities etc) as recorded by the student,
throughout their time at Uplands.
This document will form part of a portfolio, which may also include certificates, examples of work, cross-curricular achievements, other detailed
examples of achievement, and anything which the school and the student feel is appropriate to be included in the record.
3. Formative Processes leading to the compilation of the ROA
As children are taught to assess their own strengths and weaknesses in curriculum areas, set targets for improvement, and write meaningful reports
about their own achievement, this will hopefully enhance pupil motivation and personal development. Recording achievement at Uplands will:
(i) be an integral part of the learning process and will arise directly from interaction between teachers and pupils, in and out of the classroom;
(ii) be for all students and provide for all levels of attainment, within and across traditional subject areas;
(iii) involve the students in regular discussion with teachers and in jointly agreeing future learning targets;
(iv) develop students’ skills of self-assessment and recording;
(v) encourage students’ greater responsibility for their own learning;
(vi) concentrate on positive aspects of a student’s abilities, experiences, achievements and personal qualities, both in and out of school;
(vii)provide statements which are meaningful to users and written in language which can be readily understood by students, staff, parents, employers,
trainers and further education;
(viii) facilitate the life-long joy of learning and transfer between education and adult life;
(ix) ensure that the final document of record becomes the property of the student.
If you require any further information about this important initiative, please do not hesitate to contact me at School.
Geoff Newton
Head of Secondary Curriculum
PAGE 2

Residential
Year Eight Residential Trip to Lumut
We Year Eights went to Lumut for a residential trip to challenge ourselves and to improve our team-building
skills. We left on the morning of Wednesday the 24th of September to spend three days and two nights of funfilled
activities. We did reppelling, kayaking, ropes and an obstacle course, all great experiences.
These are some thoughts. Kayaking is fun but tiring, especially when turning against a wave; kayaking is really
fun but it takes a lot of energy; kayaking is lots of teamwork.
Repelling is hard while going up but easy while coming down; repelling is scary while I’m doing it, but when I
finished it, it was great! It was awesome, though it was fun both ways: up and down.
On the obstacle course I am proud I did everything first go; I overcame my fear of heights.The teamwork was
awesome!
Aktiviti ini sangat seronok tetapi sangat susah juga. Saya sangat gembira kerana telah menghadapi cabaran
ini!!!
The higher ropes were more challenging because you have to think where to put your foot. The rope course was
fun but nerve-wracking at the same time. I couldn’t do the higher ropes course because I couldn’t reach.
What was the purpose of all this? … Teamwork, trust, independence, making friends and of course having fun!!!
And the result ….. everything mentioned above …. and …. lots of mosquito bites! Itch! Itch! Itch!
We wouldn’t have succeeded without the help of our teachers and instructors and so we thank them!
Thank you.
Terima kasih!
What is cookie bake ECA?
Cookie Bake ECA is a fun after school activity for years 3 and 4. We learn to make cookies and other healthy snacks. We can make
the cookies and snacks that we learned from Cookie Bake at home. For students who do not participate they can get the recipe from
the student folders under ‘ \\Uplandsdsk1\students\Primary ECA-recipes 08-09 ‘
My favourite are Chocolate Balls. My Mom and I went to Giant Mart to get the ingredients to make chocolate balls. The secret ingredient
is condensed milk. It helps to stick the crushed cookies, dried coconut and cocoa powder together. The best part is there is
no baking. I love going to Cookie Bake ECA!
By Emanuel Tan, Year 3
Chocolate Balls
Ingredients:
¼ cup Marie digestive biscuits
¼ cup coconut
2 tsp. cocoa
3 Tbsp sweetened condensed milk
Extra coconut to roll balls in
What to do:
1. Crush biscuits finely.
2. Add coconut and cocoa. Mix well.
3. Stir in condensed milk until well blended.
4. Roll into balls and roll in coconut.
No need to bake but they keep best in the fridge.
YUMMY!!!
Mmm...I love to
eat ‘Coookie Bake
ECA’
PAGE 3

Uplands Cross Country 2008
The last Saturday in September usually means the Australian Rules Grand Final for me, however, for the first time it meant something different – my
very first Uplands Cross Country event held at the Penang Botanical Gardens. What a great morning this ended up being!
It was an early start with the students arriving by 7:45am, registering and receiving their official running number. The house spirit was well and truly
alive with Crag, Hill and School Houses all chanting and singing, trying to gain motivation for the upcoming races.
The first race of the day was the Uplands Community Fun Run which was open to all parents and friends of Uplands School. This was more of a
sprint for some runners with Mr Ch’ng winning the 1 km race on his first ever attempt and Mrs Poulsen winning the ladies run. Congratulations to
both of them and everyone else who took part in this fun event.
8:30am saw the beginning of the student races which saw the following schedule take place:
• Reception – Year 3 – one lap of the small loop (approx 1km) • Year 4 – Year 6 – one lap of the small loop (approx 1km)
• Year 7 – Year 8 – one lap of the big loop (approx 2km) • Year 9 – Year 10 – two laps of the big loop (approx 4 km)
• Year 11 – two laps of the big loop (approx 4km) • Year 12 – Year 13 – two laps of the big loop (approx 4km)
As the day the went on the heat started to be a major factor in who was going to cross the line first and win points for their team. However, after the
last event there had to be a winning House. Below are all the results from a wonderful Cross Country:
1st Hill 657 points
2nd School 646 points
3rd Crag 536 points
• Reception – Year 1:
Boys: 1st Callum Fraser, 2nd Hoong Lee Gan, 3rd Arthur Tan
Girls: 1st Melinda Chung 2nd Cailin Brennan 3rd Mimi Kim
• Year 2:
Boys: 1st Umar Rizal Faris 2nd Xander Johnson 3rd Ricky Chang
Girls: 1st Jessica Goei 2nd Faustina Dass 3rd Gaveraa Charles
• Year 3:
Boys: 1st Faiq Mohammad 2nd Rikitada Araki 3rd Carlson Z Whang
Girls: 1st Rahma Inuwa 2nd Celestine Png 3rd Amelie Streller
• Year 4:
Boys: 1st Shion Fraser 2nd Masayuki Sugimoto 3rd Dong Joo Kim
Girls: 1st Ana Fraser 2nd Ria Jasmine Wee 3rd Tracy Lee
Up Hill... All The Way!
• Year 5:
Boys: 1st Oliver Mueller 2nd Naoya Shigeta 3rd Tim Streller
Girls: 1st Nur Dayana Tan 2nd Shihori Kawamura 3rd Vanessa Gehrig
• Year 6:
Boys: 1st Sean Donovan 2nd Omar Inuwa 3rd Wataru Araki
Many thanks to Adrian Sparrow,
Joey Bao and parent contributor,
Jennifer Heal, for these amazing
photos!
Girls: 1st Wen Ju Liew 2nd Sandrine Thompson 3rd Victoria Kesseler
A lot of hard work went into making this event successful with many thanks owed to the Physical Education
staff, maintenance staff, the UPTA, the Uplands community, the academic staff and most importantly,
the students. Congratulations to everyone who participated and received points for their Houses, and
especially for those who gained a top three position. It was a very close finish with Hill House awarded the
winning cup, finishing 11 points ahead of School House. Well done all!
Craig Skinner, PE Teacher.
= Start/Finish
Small Dots = Small Loop
Dash Line = Big Loop
Runners Run Anti-clockwis
PAGE 4

• Year 7:
Boys: 1st Oscar Yap 2nd Lukas Weggartner 3rd Mark Allison
Girls: 1st Kitty Manley 2nd Lily Watts 3rd Vera Mueller
• Year 8:
Boys: 1st Kyle Young 2nd Jee Hun Kim 3rd Jake Jeong
2008 Winners,
Hill House!
Girls: 1st Chloe Rimington 2nd Layla Kuijper 3rd Kanae
Sugimoto
• Year 9:
Boys: 1st Harry Bowden-Brown 2nd Gabriel Kesseler 3rd Dexter Seow
Girls: 1st Kwan Maneein 2nd Kishori Pattni 3rd Hasinah
Mohammad
• Year 10:
Boys: 1st Matthew Young 2nd Oliver Hopkins 3rd Louis Chai
Girls: 1st Eliene Vonk 2nd Sayuri Kakiuchi 3rd Aiko Shigeta
• Year 11:
Boys: 1st Dominic Hoey 2nd Fim Maneein 3rd Kenzie Wong
Girls: 1st Lena Weggartner 2nd Vidushi Bhargava 3rd Lauren Case
• Year 12:
Boys: 1st Nicholas Young 2nd Ivan DeWolf 3rd Ryu
Nakamatsu
Girls: 1st Midori Nishioka 2nd Cheryl Ng 3rd Lidia Vieira
• Year 13:
Boys: 1st Patrick Hoey 2nd Timmons Wong 3rd Lachlan Kerr
e
Girls: 1st Sarah Sulaiman Ch’ng 2nd Chellapriya Vythinathan 3rd Allison Chiu
PAGE 5

‘Knowing me knowing you’ (ah haa)
The students in Y4 are practising how to do an interview and learning what kind of questions to ask to get information.
They are doing this as practise before interveiwing members of staff for the PYP unit of inquiry on ‘Who We
Are At Uplands’.
Jenny’s (right) story
By Hey Gin Kim Y4M
Her name is Jenny but her Korean name is Ji Hyon and she is a student in year 4M. Her family lives with her in Malaysia.
She is from South Korea but can speak English and Korean. She has lived in Malaysia for 6 months. She is nine
years old and has been to a Malaysian school called Sri Pelita. In Korea they don’t have swimming and they do not
have ECA’s or PYP either. She says after school in Korea they play until their mom comes to fetch them. In Malaysia
she has lots of friends. She likes to eat Uplands food and she has been to some other
countries called Australia, New Zealand and China. She likes swimming and PE. Jenny
says Uplands is a good school and she is going to live here for four years. We have
become friends together.
Story about Jan Marco (left)
By Devika Kejriwal Y4M
Jan Marco is in year 4M and he has one sister who is in year 8. His old school was in India. He comes from Denmark
and speaks Danish, Spanish and English. He is 8 years old and was born in 1999. He loves Uplands because there are
so many activities. His favourite subject is sports and he also loves art. He is new to Uplands.
Note: You will
have to download
the PDF or go to
the ‘Uplands In
The News’ noticeboard
to see this
article in colour.
In English this term, Year 8 students have been studying the much loved play, A Midsummer
Night’s Dream, by William Shakespeare. They have really enjoyed studying
Shakespeare’s old English language and reading through the play, scene by scene. I’m very
Students were asked to draw a scene from the play and produced some brilliant proud.
work! Here are some examples... can you figure out which scenes they have depicted?
Shakespeare In
Ms Wheelahan,
Colour
English Teacher
PAGE 6

How we celebrate Eid-Alfitr
By Zakaria Omar Y4S
After fasting for one whole month, early in the
morning on Eid day everyone wakes up early
and dresses in new clothes and parents go to
the mosque and pray. Children also wear their new
clothes and have breakfast and sweets. When the parents
come from the mosque they also eat sweets and breakfast. Then
they give money to their children and the children of their neighbours.
At midday parents go to the market and buy goat and
make lunch as traditional rice, roasted goat, coloured chips
and traditional coloured rice.
Later in the afternoon, people go to each
other’s house and have sweets like cookies, coconut sweets (with different
colours), sesame sweets, Halwa, cake, lollipops, ice-cream, grape
fruit juice and black coffee. The next day people do the same except
buying the goat. The third day they also do the same. That’s how
people celebrate Eid in my country, Somalia.
Eid Mubarak to all Muslims around the world, and to all
Somalians, too! (Translated this means ‘Happy eat.’)
Zakaria is a year 4 student who hails from Somalia and is a new
student at Uplands.
E i d -
A l f i t r
in Somalia
Don’t miss the FOBISSEA U13 Secondary Games - ‘The Friendly Games’ this
November 13th, 14th and 15th. Our Althletes, Swimmers, Footballers and Basketball Players will be going up against U13 squads
from Thailand, Vietnam and Brunei. Events will be held at USM, PISA, Penang Sports Club and Dalat. Excitement, Food and drink
available at all venues.
Thursday 13th Nov
Opening Ceremony 8am - 8:30am Open to all ,USM Athletics Stadium
Athletics 8:30am -
Approx 12:30pm
Open to all as spectators, USM Athletics Stadium
Friday 14th Nov
Swimming 1:00pm 5:00pm Open to all as spectators, PISA Swimming Pool
Basketball- Girls 9:00am 4:00pm Open to all spectators, Dalat School
Football-Boys 9:00am 4:00pm Open to all spectators, Penang Sports Club
Saturday 15th Nov
Basketball-Boys 9:00am 4:00pm Open to all spectators, Dalat School
Football-Girls 9:00am 4:00pm Open to all spectators, Penang Sports Club
Gala Dinner 7:00pm 10:00pm Teams only, Hydro-Majestic Hotel
Learning Support Department
See
you there!
The Uplands Learning Support Department Website is now up and running. This is a workin-progress,
so your input is valuable in making this resource a success! Here are 3 easy steps
to access the site:
1. Website: www.sarahneild.com or you can go through the Uplands Website Link.
2. Create an ACCOUNT with your own username and password .
3. Once your account has been accepted, go into either Student Support and enter the enrolment
key uplandsstudents for each course,
or enter the Parent Support section and enter the enrolment key uplandsparents. Once you
have entered these codes, you will automatically be enrolled each time you log in.
Please send us any resources that you want to see on the site.
Students - email in any notes or resources that you have created or come across that will be
useful to others.
Parents - please email us if you have new and useful information you want to share - there
are RSS feeds linking to Learning Difficulties so click on these to keep updated with any new
developments!
email Mrs Neild directly through the website link, or at sneild@uplands.org
Thank you to all our FOBISSEA
2008 sponsors:
Gold Sponsors:
Golden Sands Resort
HSBC Bank
Seri Tanjung Pinang
Silver Sponsors:
Park Royal, Sam’s Batik House, E&O
Hotel, Schott Glass and Suntonic.
Bronze Sponsors:
MSL Travel, Bayview Beach Resort,
Allied Pickfords, Crown Relocations
and Pen Ads.
Marketing & Events
PAGE 7

The 2008 Uplands School Photos, When? Weds 22nd to Fri 24th Oct, Where? The
Foyer, Why? For the memories...
Please refer to the published schedule of class photo times. Your class tutors have a copy of this and a large copy will be posted on notice boards
as you come in to the Foyer.
Some IMPORTANT things to remember:
• Make sure you are clear about when your class photo is due to be taken- arrive 5 minutes before the published time,
(in most cases this will involve missing some lesson time).
• Please do not touch any equipment that the photographers have set up.
• When the class photo has been taken, go straight to the booth nearby to have your individual photo taken.
• After your individual photo has been taken, go to the lesson that you should be at that time.
• Take your bag with you when you go for the photo as you may not be returning to the same lesson after the photo.
For the students, a specially designed hard cover photo album comprising of 1 copy of a 5R Class Photo, 1 copy of a 4R Portrait and 8 copies
passport size portraits. This album will be passed to each student for them to look at; you should return it to the School if you do not want it
and no charge will be made. If you would like to keep the album, it will be chargeable at RM50.00 per set. There is no obligation to purchase
the photo album.
For Boarders, Prefects & USC group photos, extra prints are chargeable at RM3.00 per copy for 5R and RM2.00 per copy for 4R.
Note: All group and individual photos will be taken of students and staff, including new portraits for staff; however there will be no whole
school photo this year.
Finally, please don’t be late and remember to wear correct School uniform. Follow the School rules on the use of jewellery, look presentable and
don’t forget to smile!
Marketing & Events
Where is Burnley Bear?!? A troubling
Email sent to Mr. Whittlestone recently
with a worrying picture of Burnley
at the Thai border! -
‘Dear Nigel,
WE WANT THE BURNLEY AREA RE-
NAMED: YOU MUST ANNOUNCE IN
NEXT MONDAY’S STAFF BRIEF-
ING THAT YOU WOULD LIKE IT
TO BE KNOWN AS THE BLACKBURN
AREA!’
For Sale:
Teacher selling HAIER dishwasher
(1000MYR) and TOSHIBA washing machine
(500MYR) for sale. Both less than 2
years old. Mobile: 019 463 5084
Kick me...
At Fat Boys Football,
8pm Monday nights at the MPH,
Uplands School
Closing thought...
“ - Memory... is the diary that we all carry about with us.”
~Oscar Wilde, “The Importance of Being Earnest”
TOUCH BASE - General Information
The International School of Penang
(Uplands)
Jalan Sungai Satu, Batu Feringgi, 11100 Penang, Malaysia.
Tel: 04 881 9777 Fax: 04 881 9778
www.uplands.org
• TouchBase is published every Friday fortnightly
during the school year as a service to the Uplands
community. A colour PDF version can be
downloaded from the School website: www.
uplands.org - Go to ‘Events/ News’ and then click
on ‘TouchBase Newsletter’.
• It is produced by the School, and is meant only for
internal circulation.
• TouchBase is distributed to each family by way of
youngest enrolled child of each Uplands family.
• All information must be e-mailed (bram@uplands.
org) to reach the School by 10am on the Monday
prior to the following week’s publication.
• TouchBase encourages every member of the
Uplands community to contribute to the publication.
However, we reserve the right to edit or reject any
article or information.
• For advertising enquiries, please contact the School.