September 2018

From Mr Walsh: Head of Primary
Dear Parents and Carers,
Time flies when you’re having fun! In that case we
must be having a lot of fun with our learning in
Foundation & Primary because we are approaching
the half term break at astonishing speed.
Every day is jam-packed with learning opportunities;
it’s great to see the students so busy, not just
with their class learning but also with their clubs,
projects, music tuition and social lives!
As well as the talented students visiting Hong
Kong for the International Math Olympiad (see
right), we have a range of other gifted and talented
students at GIS.
HONG KONG MATHS’ MEDALS
Three Primary students visited Hong Kong recently
to take part in the International Math Olympiad.
The students, who have extra tuition with the Singapore
Maths Group, were Tohom, who gained a
silver medal in Primary 2 Maths, Year 4 student
Namo, who gained bronze in Primary 2 Maths
and Namwan from Year 6, who achieved a
bronze medal in Primary 4.
The school noticeboard shows the students who
were elected or chosen to be House captains or
Primary Student Council representatives. These
students have shown natural leadership skills as
well as good speaking and listening skills. At our
recent Student Council meeting they shared some
very good ideas about the development of technology
in Primary.
Mr Walsh
Head of Primary
headpri@gardenrayong.com
STEM projects
The Wednesday afternoon activity in Primary for the past
4 weeks has been STEM (Science Technology Engineering
and Maths). In Years 1-2 this has involved exploring
how different materials behave and thinking of practical
applications. In Years 3-6 the STEM project has been to
work in a team to make a marble run.
Year 1 and 2 had a fantastic (messy!) time during the final
Primary STEM afternoon. We all made Oobleck. Most of
the time it seems liquid, but if you apply force, it becomes
a solid! We thought it could be used to fill a moat, put out
a fire or pack something fragile.