A Message from the Principal, continued.Martin Alderson, a British teacher of Mathematics who arrived from Malawi at short notice due to the late decision of Nick Cramp not to return to Malaysia.I know that students are going to find Martin an enthusiastic addition to the Mathematics Department and an interesting character outside of it - not manypeople I know have cycled from New York to Oregon! <strong>The</strong> second is Christine Yeomans, who arrives fresh from teaching in the UK, to teach some History andalso take over the timetable and examinations co-ordinator roles of both Alan Smith and Tony Webster. Christine has undertaken both these roles in otherschools so, in spite of some particular difficulties described later in this issue, the changeover in these two important areas of the school should be seamless.<strong>The</strong> relatively late notice of Joey Bao’s departure has left us still to recruit a teacher of high level Mandarin and Chinese Literature, a position that has alwaysbeen difficult to fill at Uplands, and I would ask the parents of affected students please to be patient while we go though the proper process of interviews andselection. Sadly this term we are losing Isabel and Sean Davies, who are moving to new positions in the United States, but Isabel’s IB Coordinator position willbe covered internally while Pee Tan See, familiar already to many in the community, will be handling Mr Davis’ class until December. I would also like to recordthanks here to one of our parents, Brian Kosko, for assisting with some of our mathematics classes for the first week.New PositionsWe have managed what I would regard as a flying start to the term with the help of the two new Deputy Principals, John Cadman and PhilNeild, and by the revised Senior Management Team of John and Phil, plus Nigel Whittlestone, Craig Skinner, Isabel Davis, Geoff Newton, andAli Nicholson. <strong>The</strong> start of a new school year is never easy, even worse when changes are being managed, and so the calm, businesslike approachesof John and Phil in dealing with the thousands of issues that necessarily arise is much appreciated. As these new teams work theirway through the organisation of the school I am sure there will be many areas where we will see the benefits of revision and we hope that,through the PTA, parents will continue to work with the <strong>School</strong> to review and implement improved practices. To place an early advert, I willtell you that the first phase of that could be attendance at the PTA-Teachers get together coming soon on Thursday 24 September, when youwill have a chance to talk informally to teachers and managers about any of your concerns or suggestions.TimetablingStart-of-year timetables in schools often do not work at the first turn of the starting handle. Students change electives, staff change over thevacation, co-ordinators revise their staffing allocations, and sometimes the supporting software just doesn’t work as you think it should. Forthese reasons some schools have a shake-down week at the start of the year when the timetable coordinator deals with all these unforseenproblems, one by one, until all the changes are accommodated and each student can find the right teachers, in the right rooms, at the righttimes. In simple schools, getting the timetable right first time is not a difficult problem. For example, some colleges and schools offering theIB force the student to choose between only a small number of ‘streams’ so, for example, if you are intending to study medicine, you will bestudying probably Chemistry, Biology, Mathematics at Higher Level and, if you are lucky, given some choice of your Standard Level subjects.<strong>The</strong> curriculum offered by Uplands in the last few years has been the opposite, with students asked to choose their electives freely and AlanSmith, coordinating the timetable generally, planning the elective ‘blocks’ around those choices where possible. I have written and spokenabout curriculum planning before, so you probably know my views and suffice it to say here that too much choice can lead to a great dealof unnecessary complexity. To give you a pertinent example: the 2009 Year 13 contains forty-three students, and the number of different IBsubject combinations among these forty-three is thirty-eight. In other words, almost all of our graduates will have a unique combination ofsubjects!Start of TermTo cut a long story short, our shake-down period for stable timetable this August has needed to be longer than expected, partly because ofthis complexity and partly because we were making changes in some parts of the school, for example a ten-day cycle and triple practicalperiods in Sciences, that have not been tested before. In addition we had the not inconsiderable problem that our time-table coordinator forthe last four years, Alan Smith, completed the schedules with the information he had in July, just before finishing his contract and returninghome to New Zealand. Discontinuity in the timetable job is something you desperately want to avoid in a school because, as my grandmotherused to say, “It’s always hard to pick up someone else’s knitting”, but that is what Christine Yeomans, our new timetable coordinatorhas had to do, reverse-engineering Alan’s schedules back to a form where she can begin to rebuild a modified finished product on the basisof our latest information. We have given ourselves an internal target of two weeks to get the schedules sorted, and in the meantime we areworking on a provisional schedule, but I am confident that the new timetables are going to deliver innovative and improved schedules forall our students in the secondary school, and I will be interested to receive any feedback from parents and students, one they have experienceda couple of new timetable cycles, at around the time of half-term.New Addition to CurriculumAs some of you may have seen, the school advertised in the national press over the holidays its intention to re-start an A-level programmealongside the sixth form IB programme. <strong>The</strong> reasons for this are quite simple: myself and the Board of Governors believe that no one academicprogramme at sixth form level is appropriate for every student. For some, the IB, with its constrained range of 6 subject areas, is ideal;and for others the A-level system, with its possibilities of specialisation, is the correct choice. As evidenced by this summer’s renovations, the<strong>School</strong> Governors have a vision of an enlarged <strong>School</strong> with improved facilities, and I would like to offer these facilities to the maximum numberof beneficiaries, whichever sixth form system they choose. <strong>The</strong> types of Y12 student we especially hope to attract by this expansion arethe specialists, those who want combinations of subjects disallowed by the IB scheme; for example, those who want three of the sciences,three of the humanities, or three of the creative arts, or those who simply do not want or need to study a language. Obviously other combinationswill be allowed after relevant careers counselling. What is absolutely definite is that, whatever the success of the A-level programme,the <strong>School</strong> will continue with the IB Diploma because, on the arguments above, that scheme is also the best for some Y12 students. As the<strong>School</strong> Board Chairman outlined in his notes to the OGM last academic year, the <strong>School</strong> is undergoing a review of the Junior (Years 1 to 6)curriculum, in order to assess whether that particular scheme in terms of both long term educational aims, and in terms of feeding in to ourSecondary <strong>School</strong> curriculum.Page 6
A Message from the Principal, continued.We will be undertaking that review during this special year of Accreditation so, no doubt, relevant recommendations and suggestions willemerge during that process, not only about our Junior section, but about the entire <strong>School</strong>. We begin that process mid-September,with afour-day pre-inspection visit by two visiting consultants, followed by a more extensive and intensive visit by a larger team later in the year.<strong>The</strong> process covers all areas of the <strong>School</strong>, including Board of Governors and the PTA, and I hope it will be an interesting and creative exercisefor the entire community.Lastly, the <strong>School</strong> is planning to change slightly its programme of regular Newsletters. We intend, in two weeks time, to begin a schedule ofelectronic-only newsletters, so we will end any paper distribution by sons and daughters. We hope that, in addition to reducing our environmentalimpact, the changes will also allow publication of more photos, and other features expensive or impossible to put on paper. We alsointend, after some feedback from the community, to publish a Senior and Junior Newsletter as one document, which seems to me a sensiblemove as so many parents have representatives in both camps.Dr John Horsfall, PrincipalUplands Ski Trip 2010Subject to approval by the Uplands Management Team wewill be running our 3rd annual ski trip to the Japanese Alpsin February 2010. <strong>The</strong> ski trip is open to Years 7-13 regardlessof skiing/snowboard experience, and will cost about7000 RM. An exact figure is not possible until we get thefinal price from the airlines. <strong>The</strong> cost of the trip includesflights, full board, ski and lift pass and all transfers.For further information please see Mr. Sparrow (Maths) inRoom C303 or come along to the ski meeting on Thursday17th September at 6 PM.Adrian Sparrow. Maths Teacher.CHARITY CONCERT ‘MAKING DREAMSCOME TRUE’ ON SUNDAY 11TH OCTOBER2009 AT OPEN UNIVERSITYSoroptomist <strong>International</strong> of <strong>Penang</strong>, in collaboration with <strong>Penang</strong>’scelebrated ‘Dolci Voci’ and Wawasan Open University will present a musicalevening in aid of the Pertubuhan Rumah Kebajikan Sri Cayaha PulauPinang Orphanage Building Fund.Sri Cayaha was started ten years ago by Kaliamma Tandathabani – Kali, adistrict nurse from Batu Maung – who was distressed by the heartbreakingplight of abandoned orphans and destitute single mothers.Kali decided to open her home and heart to these people in need. She wassupported and assisted from the beginning by her colleague Linda. Sincethen the orphanage has grown by leaps and bounds and is now home to75 children of all ages.<strong>The</strong> current premises have become far too expensive to maintain and arecramped. Kali invested the last RM30,000 of her savings to place a depositon a piece of land costing RM110,000 and with the help of Soroptimist, wasable to complete the purchase last year. Plans for the building have nowbeen approved and it is hope to raise RM 800,000 for construction.This concert hopes to raise funds towards achieving this goal.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 - <strong>Penang</strong> 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 <strong>International</strong> of <strong>Penang</strong>Page 7
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