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