1

In last weeks newsletter I mentioned about the start

of our preparations for our 60
th
Anniversary
Celebrations. Since the newsletter was published and
we opened our Uplands Alumni Registration the
amount of electronic communication has increased
dramatically!

150 people registered online for the Alumni in the 1
st

24 hours, 2,200 people viewed our Facebook pages
and we received contact details of 587 Alumni via
email. There are many, many people who are
passionate about Uplands, are part of its unique
history and want to be part of its continuing growth.

We now have an Anniversary Committee. Thank
you to all who volunteered, including an Ex-Uplander
who was at the school in 1957 and now lives in
America! We will keep you updated as the plans for
the celebrations develop.

The first two Celebration Events to be announced
are The Alumni Dinner Saturday 14
th
March 2014
and Uplands Birthday Party Sunday 15
th
March
2015. Please put these dates in your diary. They are
going to be two fantastic occasions!

Your sincerely,

Matthew Bristow
Principal
@ispuplands
https://twitter.com/ispuplands








Contents Page No
Message from the Principal 1

Secondary News 2 & 3

Primary News 4, 5, 6 & 7

Baseline Testing 8

The Good Start Learning Centre 8

UPTA News 9

School Calendar 10




















2



I was browsing the BBC News Website yesterday evening and came across an article titled, "Young people
lack workplace skills, firms say in survey". The headline really caught my attention and as a result, I read
on. The article refers to a survey that the British Chambers of Commerce did with 3000 firms in regards to
the skills possessed by both school leavers and also university graduates. I was astonished by some of the
results, which I have quoted below:

Nine out of ten firms thought school leavers were not ready for employment
More than half of the firms thought graduates were also not ready for employment
50% of the firms also stated that young people did not have even basic skills such as
communication
Firms need young people that are resilient, good communicators and understand how to work as
part of a team.

In last weeks newsletter I spoke about being involved in Extra Curricular Activities (ECAs) and the benefits
students gain in doing so. It is quite ironic that I came across this article a week later. Here at Uplands we
are very lucky to have such talented students, who demonstrate all the qualities I believe a firm would be
looking for.

This was clearly evident on Monday during our first Secondary Assembly, where we had students in every
year level take the stage and confidently speak about their adventures of Retreat Week. We also had
three very good musical pieces performed by Oliver Rose (Year 10) and Kelvin Yeoh (Year 11) both on the
piano and by Patrick Lee (Year 11) playing the violin.

Two of our students also received awards as part of the Monash University (Australia) Essay Competition:
Jackson Carroll (Year 12) was runner up and Emmanuuel Tan was awarded an iPad for his winning entry.

Another highlight saw our Year 13 student, Katherine Bowden-Brown, winning a scholarship worth USD
75,000 attend Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York.


Katherine Bowden-Brown receiving her scholarship
with our Careers Counsellor, Mr Bill Mitchell.

A big congratulations to all of the students involved in the assembly on Monday
and thank you to Mr. Driscoll for organising it.




3

Progress Reports:

The Secondary School Progress Reports will be distributed next Friday at the end of the School day. These
reports will be addressed to parents and therefore students should be handing their parents / guardians
a sealed envelope containing these grade sheets. Please note that these are a progress report and
therefore only contain an attainment grade and an effort grade. A full comprehensive report, inclusive of
written comments, are distributed to all students in Years 7 - 10 and also Year 12 on the last day of Term
1 Friday, 19
th
December 2014. Years 11 & 13 students will receive their full report after their Mock Exams
on Tuesday 10 February 2015.

Have a great weekend

Craig Skinner
Head of Secondary School

craig.skinner@uplands.org
http://blogs.uplands.org/hos/
Follow us on Twitter: @UplandsSecSch












4



With only two weeks to go until mid-term break students in Primary are hard at work completing their
first units of inquiry and still manage to find the energy to participate in a variety of musical, sporting and
extra-curricular activities at the end of the school day.

This week I had the pleasure of watching our swimmers take part in a swim meet with Dalat, SCIPS and
Straits International Schools. The effort put in by all children was outstanding and I am sure some new
Uplands swimming records were set. As our team travels to KL this afternoon to participate in a larger
swim meet with other schools in the region, we wish them an enjoyable and successful competition.

Year Six have just completed their first unit of
inquiry: A persons behaviour and how they
choose to present themselves project aspects of
their identity. As part of their summative
assessment, the students designed and created
T-shirts to reflect how they want people to
perceive who they really are. On Thursday they
staged a fashion show that included video
interviews, iMovies and poems. It was clearly
evident the students thoroughly enjoyed the
learning process.

















Wushu:

Congratulations to Lea Seidel, Maya Yamashita (Year 5) and Diamond Lee (Year 8) who represented
Uplands at a recent Wushu competition. Lea was placed 4
th
overall gaining two 3
rd
placings and 1
st
in
another. Maya was placed 1
st
in the Martial Spirit event. Diamond was 2
nd
overall in the secondary division
receiving two 3
rd
placings and three 1
st
placings in the event. Overall our Uplands team was placed 3
rd
in
the competition. Well done!


5

2015 Calendar Art Competition:

Children in Years 3 to 6 were given the opportunity
to Create a piece of art to show what you love
about living in Malaysia. Allied Pickfords Malaysia is
creating a 2015 desktop calendar whereby
international schools in Kuala Lumpur and Penang
were invited to submit entries. One piece of art
from each participating school will be selected by
the judging panel to be represented on the
calendar. The quality of artwork submitted by our
students was very creative and within our school
we selected the work of two students from each
class to be displayed on our notice-board (scanned
and printed the originals have been
sent to KL along with all other entries from
Uplands). Congratulations to Sophie El
Masry, Takeru Koji (Year 3i), Jessica Saxon,
Izeral Marican

(Year 3s), Jaemi Lee, Zephai Gabo (Year 4s),
Maya Yamashita, Ritsuko Yoshida (Year 5i),
Lily Chiu, Izdya Marican (Year 5s), Chelsea
Choo, (Fern) Chadaporn Sunsirikul (Year 6i),
Charlize Choo, Oliver Hojbjerb (Year 6s)
whose pieces are on display!




An Introduction to the IB PYP:

For those parents who are new to the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme, an
introductory information session will be presented by Ms Zeynep Dincer, our PYP Coordinator, on the
evening of Wednesday, 8 October. This will begin at 7:00pm in the Primary Drama on the first floor E101.
The session will last approximately one hour and be followed by light refreshments. We hope that parents
who are new to Uplands will join us to learn more about our Primary Programme.

Primary Curriculum Evening:

On Wednesday, 5 November all parents are invited to school to learn more about our programme and
curriculum in your childs class. Class teachers will plan these sessions beginning at 7:00pm. More detailed
information will be sent to parents closer to the event.



Chelsea Choo
Maya Yamashita
6

Primary Halloween Party:

On Thursday, 30 October between 5:30pm and 7:30pm all Primary children and their parents are invited
to our Halloween Party. Children are to come dressed in a Halloween theme or favourite character for
the costume parade. Many children choose to design and create their own costumes, so if you have no
plans for half-term break, this is a great opportunity to keep your children busy! Please join us for games,
dancing, food and fun!

Qualified Primary Teachers:

If there are any experienced, qualified Primary teachers out there, we would love to hear from you. Please
send your resume to alison.nicholson@uplands.org

Year 6 Visit:

The Year 6s went on a trip to the Batik Factory in Teluk Bahang. The visit related to our inquiry: Fashion
as a form of expression. We learnt how Malaysian culture is expressed through designs on fabric. We also
created our own Batik. We had lots of fun and it was a great experience.

Chelsea 6i and Charlize 6s
















Have a great weekend!

Ali Nicholson
Head of Primary










7


8

Baseline Testing

All Year 7 students have completed the MidYis CEM (Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring) computer
adaptive baseline test. The results of these external tests represent one extremely valid assessment
method of informing predicted grades for our students as they move through their Middle Years
education. Students from each of the four Year 7 registration group quite enjoyed the challenge of
completing skill-based questions in the areas of language and comprehension, mathematics and general
understanding across a range of other disciplines. Results are presented to Uplands against national
standards, providing meaningful insight into how students at our school compare to other students from
other schools globally. More importantly, the data assists teachers in establishing baseline values for
students in their classes to Key Stage 3 level, in part directing the teaching and learning that then will
contribute to individual student improvement for subject-specific skills. That said, this sort of data
informs, it does not replace the internal formative and summative assessment that continues to work
concurrently with the subject-based learning objectives. In the coming weeks, our Year 8-11 students
who do not currently have any baseline data recorded will be completing the MidYis (Yr7-9) and Yellis
(Yr10-11) tests. The Yellis test is useful for informing IGCSE levels. Finally, all of our Year 12 students will
be completing the ALIS test which informs IB Diploma scores. As a parent, if you have any questions about
the nature of the CEM external testing conducted here at Uplands, please feel free to contact Mr Paul
Rose in the Curriculum Office.



Can you help us ? Art Supply Donations for Start-up Refugee School Needed.

We are four dedicated, considerate and keen IB students who plan to commence an Art class for Rohingya
refugee children who are situated in 'The Good Start Learning Centre'. The Rohingya are an ethnic group
of people who have had to flee from their home country of Myanmar. They are not recognised by the
Malaysian government, they aren't allowed to work and their children arent entitled to receive formal
education in Malaysia. Good Start will provide them with more opportunities in life.

The art classes are a way for us to provide them with a creative outlet and in the process help them to
improve their comprehension of English, in a fun and light way. As we intend to teach them, we need to
provide supplies (e.g. coloured paper, paint brushes, paint, pens etc.), which is difficult as there are a large
number of students. We have received some donations thanks to Mr McGill and other teachers at the
school but we need your help to support us.

We plan to organise a root-beer/coke float booth with the addition of cakes every Wednesday for two
weeks. If you have any art equipment that you do not need anymore, it would be much appreciated. A
donations box will also be set up during the coke/root-beer float event if you would like to donate money.

Please support us - every donation counts, whether big or small. You will make a big difference to the lives
of these children.

Melika Nabipour
Year 12
9


























10



School Closed Hari Riya Monday 6
th
October

Mid-term break School is closed Monday 19 23 October.

Classes resume - Monday, 27 October.

Primary Sharing Assembly Monday, 13 October, hosted by Year 5

Year 5 Excursion to Georgetown Tuesday, 14 October (am)

Year 6 Langkawi Residential Saturday, 18 Tuesday, 21 November

Primary Christmas Concert Wednesday, 17 December