TOUCHB A S E TOUCHB A S E - The International School Of Penang

CIS & NEASC Accreditation Visit: Mr. Ray Davis conducting the ‘self study’ workshop with Uplands staffBOARD BOARD Talk TalkAs mentioned in our previous column, during the week ofSeptember 15th – 18th, Uplands was host to two visitors, StephenMacDougall, representing the New England Associationof Schools and Colleges (NEASC), and Mr Ray Daviesrepresenting the Council of International Schools (CIS). MrDavies was previously the Principal of Garden School, KualaLumpur, and is therefore well-known to one of our ownformer Principals, Mr Ian Kerr. Mr MacDougall, on the otherhand, had not visited Malaysia previously but was ‘enchanted’ (hiswords) by the people, the food, and the lovely weather. Over the courseof four days, the accreditation team met with students, parents, staffand Governors of the school in the preliminary phase of the School’ssecond 10-year cycle of appraisal.The schedule for the visit was initially determined by the two visitors,but continuously modified in the light of their experiences and in thelight of feedback from staff. Realising, for example, that the Schooltimetable was now running smoothly, they decided there was no pressingneed to delve further. Understanding that Health & Safety concernsin Malaysia are not quite the same as those in either the UK or the USA,they decided to leave most of that topic for a larger team to tackle. Stephenand Ray met with Mr Chandran (Chairman of the Board), severalBoard members, the entire SMT, and the Principal on several occasionsand, on the final day of their visit, Mr Davies conducted a trainingworkshop, designed to give attendees an idea of what to expect oncea school begins a period of self-study. This workshop was attended byUSC representatives, prefects, staff and the Governors, and we verymuch appreciate that participants gave up part of their half-term breakin order to attend. At this point, the Governors would like to join withthe School staff in thanking Mr Geoff Newton who, in consultationwith the School management Team, had the job of ensuring that alldocumentary information was ready for the accreditation team.At a recent Board meeting, the Board unanimously accepted the TrusteeCommittee recommendation to appoint 2 new governors to theISP Board, Tan Sri Dato Professor Dhanarajan, and Mr Patrick BaskettMBE.Tan Sri Dato’ Emeritus Professor Gajaraj Dhanarajan Ph.Djoins us as a Patron member. He is a highly respected andexperienced educationalist, who is acknowledged as one ofthe world’s leading advocates and experts on Open and DistanceLearning. He has participated in establishing distanceeducation systems in many countries. Amongst his previouspositions, Professor Dhanarajan was the CEO of the OpenLearning Institute in Hong Kong, and served as the secondPresident and CEO of the Commonwealth of Learning (COL).Based in Vancouver, Canada, COL is an intergovernmentalagency of the Commonwealth of Nations, with a mandate to support,enhance and promote open learning in the 54 member states of the commonwealth.Currently, he is the Vice Chancellor of The Wawasan OpenUniversity, Malaysia’s newest university. As well as his daughter havingbeen educated at Uplands, his wife also previously taught at theschool.John Patrick Cyprian Baskett MBE joins us as a Parent member. He hasextensive experience in business, largely in plantation management.Having worked in the Asian region for close to 50 years, he is thereforevery familiar with the environment in which Uplands operates. Heserved as the Honorary British Consul in Medan for 13 years and as theBelgian Consul for 10 years. While based in Indonesia, he was a Boardmember and Chairman of Medan International School for 4 years. Hehas had 3 children educated at Uplands, and his youngest son is currentlyin Year 13.We would like to extend a very warm welcome to both ProfessorDhanarajan and Pat Baskett, both of whom bring valuable skills andexperience to the ISP Board.Feedback on this column is welcome. Queries/suggestions can be sentto boardtalk9@gmail.com.Susan Lee, for and on behalf of the ISP Board of Governors.Hello all,I would like to inform all readers that TouchBase will be changing into a monthly publication from this issue onwards. We aim to producean even better quality newsletter with a wider range of articles from more members of the School community. Changing to a monthlypublication will allow more time for contributors to send in material. I hope you will continue to enjoy reading it.TOUCHB A S TOUCHB A S EEBram Tan, Editorial TeamPage 2

Year Seven ResidentialThe finest thing about the class trip wasthe kayaking activity because I alwayswanted to kayak in the open sea and thiswas my moment. Prem 7ZI felt overjoyed, happy and excited whenI danced at the disco with my friends. Welaughed and sang and enjoyed ourselves.Nicola 7ZWhat I learned about one of my classmates,Hyun Woo was that he can getvery scared but can be a real dare devilas well. Nick B 7ZWhat I learned about myself was that I’m notalways afraid of heights and I now have theconfidence to go up to high places (at a certainheight.)Clarence 7ZI felt proud of myself when I finally did rappelling.It was very scary when I went up but friends saidthat I can do it. So, I did it and I went down! YuJin 7ZThe best thing about the trip was swimmingat the beach with a lifejacket on.Shuxian 7ZThe best thing about the trip was that I metnew people, made new friends and did things Ithough I would never do. Claudia M. 7ZThe best thing about the class trip was the activities;they were amusing and thrilling becausepeople were willing to take a challenge and to trusteach other. Brittany 7ZI became more confident when we left.Nick W 7ZThe best thing about the class trip was rappellingbecause I faced my fears of goingdown and ended up having a lot of fun. Lexi7ZA few weeks ago I was away from my family on the Y7 residential trip. It was great! I was away with all of year 7 and a few teachers.We were there for 3 days. All there was to do was eat, sleep and play. How much better could it get. We did an obstacle course, a ropecourse, kayaking and rappelling.The rope course and obstacle course are really similar. For the obstacle course we climbed up ropes, swung on ropes and climbed over alog about 5 feet over my head. For the rope course we wore a harness and walked on ropes. Kayaking was my favourite. It was so fun outin the sea, but also very tiring. You need to paddle a lot. Sometimes mine got stuck in the water and it took a great deal of effort to pull itout.Lastly for rappelling; it was so scary! I thought leaning back was so scary. I started going down real slow. Near the bottom I slipped and Istarted to panic. I didn’t see anyone fall except me. Eventually, I calmed down and got back on my feet. When I finished I felt so relievedbeing on solid ground again. When we were leaving it was difficult to clean up. The mess we made, made our room look like we wereliving in a pig sty!Ryan Liao7ZTop - Left toRight:7Z Kayaking,Amit Atwal,Don Hendriks,Su Jin Hwang.Bottom - Left toRight: JohannaDroegsler, DanielCho, Will Maurillo,Niklas Halm.Page 3

UplandsSchoolOn Saturday the 26th of September thewhole school was involved in the annualhouse cross country hosted at the BotanicGardens. Each year group were contestingInter-HouseCrossCountryPage 4

Year 5’s Space Odyssey to MarsYear 5 are currently studying space exploration, here are some of the stories that they have written about travel to Mars!The Special MissionOne day, I found an official letter in my mailbox. It was sent by Special Space Mission Headquarters.When I opened the letter I learned that I was chosen for a special mission to go to Marsand investigate if there is life on Mars and I was ordered to go to the nearest spaceport on Earthas soon as possible. When I went to the spaceport I was guided to a spaceship which looked tobe built for long journeys in the solar system. I went into the spaceship then entered the controlroom and made the necessary adjustments for my journey to Mars. I sat back and relaxed and hitthe red button. Then I heard the spaceship’s powerful engines. Then the spaceship blasted throughthe earth’s atmosphere. After one week I found myself over Mars and then landed on Mars’ reddishsurface. Then I opened the door after that I went out of the spaceship. I saw many interesting thingsand I heard noises coming from a cave. I went inside the cave and there were drawings on the wall, Isearched the cave but then I heard noise of the volcano on Mars. I ran, then jumped out of the cave,then ran to the spaceship, pressed the launch button then blasted away fromMars to Earth.It was a long journey but I was safe- lyhome and I proved that there was no lifeon Mars but there was liquid water.The EndBy: Sarp 5KOur Trip to MarsIt all started when we were blasting off to space. We flewoff past the moon and we saw another spaceship. Insideour spaceship we heard a voice; “greetings earthlings” saidthe mysterious voice. “May we speak to your leader?” askedthe mysterious voice. We didn’t have a leader yet and somepeople were yelling to be the leader. Then we had to vote.Astronaut Sam was picked as the leader. “Have you decidedon your leader?” asked the mysterious voice. “Yes, we haveit’s Ast. Sam”. Said one of us, “what do you want?” asked Ast.Sam. The voice said that they needed everyone’s oxygen sowe all panicked. We asked the aliens if we could discuss thisproblem. We were discussing it and our leader Ast. Sam cameup with an idea to give the aliens our oxygenand then escape by the escape pod. Our leader went to thealiens and told them that she would give them some oxygen. The aliens said that they will suck up our oxygen in five minutes.After our leader came back from the conversation we quickly ran to the escape pod to escape with enough oxygen to breathe,unfortunately Ast. Henry couldn’t reach the escape pod in time and died. We left him in Mars but the others came back toearth.The EndBy: Samantha, Tracy and Gabin.Dedicated to Mrs. Marshal and our class teacher Ms. KaurI Made This,Ria Jasmine Wee made this fantastic space helmet at home withthe help of her dad. Ria is also learning about space explorationin Year 5 as part of a PYP Unit of Enquiry.Page 5

UplandsSchoolInter-HouseCross.CountryIB NEWSThe most pressing task confronting Year 13 students at the moment is the mammoth task of writing and rewriting the Extended Essay. Inthe next couple of weeks the second draft will be submitted to the EE supervisor. As the essay is taking shape the students need to pay attentionto the academic conventions and ensure that correct citations are being used. The IB Organisation is placing more importance onthe Extended Essay and ToK and a failure on these tasks may mean that a diploma will not be awarded.Geoff Harley, IB CoordinatorPage 6

the event which made a great spectacle, as it was a full school participation event which is great to see.The day was started by the parent’s race followed by the primary school. After the primary student finished,it was the Secondary school’s turn to show their running prowess.It was fantastic to see so much parent support at the event. I also would like to thank the UPTA for theirservices of soft drinks and water on the day and also Sunquick for the services of isotonic drinks. Withoutthis involvement from parents events like this wouldn’t run as smoothly, so thank you for that.The day was enjoyed by both parents and students; we look forward to next year’s event.Daniel Condon , Head of Physical EducationU15 FOBISSEA UPDATEThe U15 FOBISSEA (Federation Of British International Schools in South East Asia) willbe held from the 19th to 22nd November 2009 at Shrewsbury International Schoolin Bangkok. The students will be competing in athletics, swimming, basketball, andfootball. The schools participating are:-The International School of Penang (Uplands), British International School of Vietnam,Brunei International School, ELC International School, Regents InternationalSchool, Pattaya, Taipei European School, Shrewsbury International School.“I just want the students to have fun while winning medals for the school,” saidMr.Condon, Head of Uplands P.E., “It’s too early to say things about winning, but I amexpecting the team to train hard and just have a great time,” he added.U15 FOBISSEA GamesTeam 2009Johannes LundOscar YapMark AllisonRei KonoIndianna DonlevyLai Ming YiZi Yang LeeHsu Shao Chin (Alex)Jee Hun KimAditya RajagopalFenly JoCahal FranksRobin WagenbrennerAaron Loh Ming JeAllison GrayKitty ManleySian CoganKanae SugimotoLayla KuijperAlexandra MaurilloKristi Ong Jun LingJacqueline AshkinGeorgia WyrdemanSharla MorganCourtney PrimmerShannon MartinJesseline Vanny WongKotone NakamatsuTaylor ChristmanBy Honami Kawamura (8W)Page 7

Japanese Tea CeremonyBefore we were filmed, we practisedwith a former tea ceremony teacher,Sumiishi-sensei (Mrs. Sumiishi), alongwith some help (Ms. Sato, Ms.Klar, Ms.Kono, Ms.Takagi, Ms.Yoshiyama, andMs.Uchida), to make this event successful.Even though we were just practisingat the start, I was still quite nervousbecause I wasn’t sure what to do.On Wednesday 16thSeptember, we (Y8Japanese class) had atraditional Japanesetea ceremony! What’sbetter, we werefilmed by the nationalJapanese TV crew!It was a very specialopportunity for us toexperience such anexciting event.During the real thing, I was the main guest (Shoukyaku) and had to do everything first. When the TV crewcame, the whole room was suddenly quiet, everyone was as nervous as I was. We had to do everythingperfectly and try not to mess up. I made tiny mistakes but they didn’t really stand out. The tea (ocha) wasvery soothing and the sweets (okashi) were delicious. We tried three different kind of sweets like Mochi,chocolate and Rakugan (Japanese traditional cake). I think the Rakugan was the best because it hada unique taste to it. We had to say ‘osakini’ before we drank / ate to the person next to us and ‘otemaechoudai itashimasu’ to the person making tea (Ms.Uchida). The person who made tea was very skilful yetdelicate. We eventually got to try making tea and it was really hard even though it looks easy. And we alsofolded the napkins - which I remembered quite easily. Finally, thanks to Mrs. Sumiishi and everyone!Arigatou gozaimashita!Jaime Ooi (Year 8)F1 Singapore Night Race 2009September 27th 2009 was the running of the second Singapore F1 Night Raceand I was lucky to be able to go. There are F1 races throughout the year all overthe world but Singapore is the only night race. The Sunday night event was setto start at 8:00 p.m. but we arrived early so we could see all of the tents of foodand drinks and souvenirs, and also we saw a parade of vintage cars carrying thedrivers that would race later on. After looking at a few different spots, we found agood place to watch.There are different places around the race course where you are allowed towatch. Our tickets were for Zone 4. We could walk all around in this zone. It wascrowded and there were people everywhere. We found a spot on top of a buildingright near the Fullerton Hotel – which used to be theold Singapore Post Office. From up there we could see asharp turn and a straight-away over a bridge. The noisewas unbelievable. Earplugs were a MUST. I was rootingfor Lewis Hamilton, the driver of the Vodafone car. Hewon the race!I recommend this race to anyone who can go. I reallyhope to be able to go again next year.Will Maurillo, 7YPage 8

Another reflection:Japanese Tea CeremonyThe Japanese tea ceremony was very different; we had to be gentle, and focused. We had to be serious about everything for we hadto serve tea to teachers and students. We were to say a phrase when we handed the tea over and the Japanese sweets over and thenwe had to bow. The tea bowls were beautiful and they were expensive too!We were told that we had to handle them with care and that they were from Japan. The room was set up very nicely and theumbrella and table was very beautiful. The umbrella had very nice flower patterns on it. We had to fold the Japanese napkin in a veryimportant way; if you mess it up you have to start all again. It was very difficult to learn how to fold it.We also got taught how to make the tea. You had to pick up the Japanese tea spoon and gently wipe it in a careful way threetimes but on the last time you must wipe and pull in an upward movement at the end of the spoon.Then you must then place it gently down, then take out the stirrer put it on the side. Then pick up the spoon and take the tea powderpot lid off, take two spoonsful of tea and put it in the tea bowl, then fill it with a quarter full of hot boiling water.Pick the stirrer and in a quick motion move your wrist up and down. Place it back down, then a server will come to get it. The teabowl should have a picture or pattern and it should be facing the person and before placing it on the table but you must turn it twotimes so the picture is facing the drinker. Then step back and bow.By Emilie 9Q and Sharla 9SFrom the TouchBaseWritingECA Club...Movie review: The time traveller’s wifeBased on a best-selling novel, the movie of the same name, “The time traveller’s wife” tellsus the terrific story of Henry (Eric Bana) who since his mother’s death in a car crash has timetravelledwhenever he is under extreme duress due to a genetic disorder. He has no controlover his “trips”, vanishing at exceedingly frequent and lengthy intervals. However, Henryattempts to build a stable future with the beautiful young Clare (Rachel McAdams) who hehas known since he was 6.Clare has been in love with Henry her whole life and despite the fact that she never knowswhen they will be separated, she believes they are destined to be together and desperatelytries to build a life with her one true love.Critics point that the movie as usual, is not nearly as good as the wonderfully writtenAudrey Niffenegger’s novel. However, it gives a different perspective from the novel. Forexample, in the novel one sees Henry’s condition as a sort of epilepsy, whereas the movieportrays it as a terminal illness as the signs of an impending tragedy appear.Furthermore, viewers have pointed out that Bana does a good job in a role where he is notgiven much personality beyond earnestness. On the other hand, McAdams really capturesClare’s quiet pain, enriching the movie with a breath of fresh air.It becomes obvious that the film is edited down from a more detailed and richer novel.However, Robert Schweitzer, the producer does remarkable work tying together the loosethreads and missing scenes. In the end, the film explores the nature of relationships, leavingthose who view it deeply touched. A must watch.By Lidia VieiraY13Page 9

faces of UplandsRuby Lim has been preparing food and serving students their meals forover 10 years. She is a Kitchen Helper at Uplands School.WallInfoPhotosBoxesActivities: I like to travel a little around Malaysia during the long Schoolholidays, going to KL and sometimes Genting Highlands.Interests: I like to go shopping mainly.About me: I am originally from Penang. I like working at Uplands because itkeeps me busy and active. It’s interesting work preparing the meals for the daypupils as well as the boarders’ breakfasts, lunches and dinners.Last Chance tobuy ticketsCHARITY CONCERT ‘MAKING DREAMS COMETRUE’ ON SUNDAY 11TH OCTOBER 2009 AT OPENUNIVERSITYSoroptomist International of Penang, in collaboration with Penang’s celebrated ‘DolciVoci’ and Wawasan Open University will present a musical evening in aid of the PertubuhanRumah Kebajikan Sri Cayaha Pulau Pinang Orphanage Building Fund.Tickets: Regular Ticket - RM50, VIP Ticket - RM100, Donor Ticket - RM500Contact for tickets and information:Puan Sri Sue Dhanarajan - 019 417 5081, sue.g.dhan@gmail.comKoh Tze Yin - Penang Passions - 012 488 7662, tze2218@gmail.comJudith Ellidge - 017 578 3965, judithellidge@yahoo.comMalicca Ratne - 016 490 3814, malicca@gmail.comPaulina Png - 012 409 0608, paulinapng@hotmail.comPuan Sri Sue DhanarajanOrganising Chairperson, Soroptomist International of PenangClosing thought...“Never let your head hang down. Never give up and sit down and grieve. Find another way.”~ Satchel Paige,American Major League Baseball Player, 1906 - 1982The International School Of Penang(Uplands)Jalan Sungai Satu, Batu Feringgi, 11100 Penang,MalaysiaTel: 04 881 9777 Fax: 04 881 9778Email: info@uplands.orgwww.uplands.org• TouchBase is a monthly publication and comes out onthe second Friday of each month during the Schoolyear, as a service to the Uplands community.• A full colour PDF version can be downloaded from theSchool website: www.uplands.org - Go to ‘Events/ News’and then click on ‘TouchBase Newsletter’.• A printed version of TouchBase is also distributed inSchool to each family by way of youngest enrolled childof each family.• Contributions that benefit the School community arewelcome, send your material to bram@uplands.org• TouchBase encourages members of the Uplands Schoolcommunity to contribute to the publication. However,we reserve the right to edit articles submitted for clarityand content.• For advertising enquiries, please contact the School.