TOUCHB A S ETOUCHB A S EA fortnightly newsletter for the Uplands School community - Friday Sept 11th 2009, Term 1

Download your colour copy of TOUCH B A S E - www.uplands.org

‘Merdeka!’‘Merdeka!’‘Merdeka!’

2009 MERDEKA ASSEMBLY AT UPLANDS (1 MALAYSIA!)The Uplands Multi-purpose Hall may not be as spacious and grand as Stadium Merdeka where on 31st August 1957 Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj declared his country’s independence from British rule. Nevertheless, the resounding cries of “Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka” which filled the School Hall on Friday 4th September 2009 were a lively reminder that the Independence spirit is still going strong.

Our Merdeka Assembly was attended by the whole School: students, teachers and – always nice to see – some of our parents. It soon became something of a flag-waving and happily celebrating extravaganza. More inside...

To what? Find out on page 7

Commencing with all present standing as a show of respect while the National Anthem was sung, the assembly was an en-tertaining variety of history, song and dance.

Students Zachary Iqbal, Nicole Tan and Tan Hui Min told us some interest-ing facts about the history of Malaysia and the impact of Merdeka up to the present day. In 2009 the chosen theme for independence celebrations is “1 Malaysia, Rakyat Didahulukan, Pencapaian Diutamakan”(1 Malaysia, People First, Performance Now).

After we viewed a video clip of a spirited performance of the “Satu Malaysia” song, all present were treated to a feast of dancing. The Malay Zapin was organized by Sharifah Katreena Syed Faizuddin Putra Jamalullail, while for

the Chinese Fan Dance we have to thank Ms Fay Cheng and her six girl students. Finally two of our young Indian students, dressed attractively in traditional greens and purples, performed their dance thanks to the organization of Bindiya Lakshmi Ragunath Reddy. It was a great way to enjoy the splendour and richness of the country’s multi-cultural heritage.

ANOTHER VERY SUCCESSFUL EXAMINATION YEAR FOR UPLANDSWhen the global statistics are released, Uplands is confident that its examination results will be, once again, well above the world average.

In the International Baccalaureate (IB) over 89% of candidates obtained the full Diploma. The average grade obtained was 5.47 out of a maximum 7, while the average points score was 34. A total of six students scored over 40 points, the highest score being 44 from a possible maximum of 45. One of these six happy IB students visited the Campus last week to tell her teachers that she had succeeded in obtaining a place at St Edmund Hall Oxford to read Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry. We wish her, Jasryn Ng Sui Wei, and all our Class of 2009, congratulations and good fortune wherever they go in the future.

The Cambridge International GCSE/Edexcel examinations produced equally pleasing results: 88.1% of candidates scored Grades A*- C, the subjects with the biggest number of entries, Mathematics (68 candidates) and English 1st Language (65 candidates), enjoying success rates of 94.1% and 87.7% re-spectively. Ten subjects, with a combined total of 82 candidates, including History, Foreign Language French and Chinese, enjoyed 100% A*- C. Congratulations are especially due to the ten students with straight A*’s or A’s across all their subjects at IGCSE!

Hello all,

Welcome back to School! I hope you have all had a great break. You may have noticed that TouchBase has a new cover and page design. I hope this new look presents you with a more streamlined and easier to read newsletter. TouchBase will continue as a ‘window into the School’ through which all readers can share stories and experiences of life at Uplands. Contributions from the whole School community are welcome, especially write-ups on whole School events, experiences on School trips and Residentials, special projects and charity work; tell us or show us your group or individual achievements outside School; charity or comminity work and initiatives; even classified advertisments are given some space on the last page. Please send your words and pictures to me at: bram@uplands.org

Incidentally, I was really happy to see that there is now a ‘TouchBase Writing’ ECA on offer this term by Ms. MacKinnon once again, fantastic! I hope it is a great success and I look forward to publishing stories by these budding writers over the coming School term.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy reading Bram Tan, Editor

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TOUCHB A S ETOUCHB A S E

Jasryn receiving her graduation certificate from Dr Horsfall. Her 42 IB points take her to study Biochemistry at one of the UK’s top universities.

It was then the turn of Enna Chow, a young lady with a confident singing voice, to give us a rousing rendi-tion of her “Gemilang”. A presentation of prizes for our Merdeka competition winners (for details see below) preceded the sing-ing of “Malaysia Gemilang” with the whole School singing and waving flags and, as a finale, the Head Boy and Head Girl of Uplands in National Dress leading us all with those ever famous cries of Merdeka.

Thanks go to all who contributed to making this assembly such a success. To the parents who expressed their interest to be involved or invited we express our gratitude for their help and much appreciated moral support for the students who performed so well.

At the end of our celebrations a lady approached the writer of this article and said that she thought she may have been the only person in the School Hall who had witnessed first hand the 1957 Merdeka in Malaysia while at school here. Can you guess who this was? (A clue – she is one of Uplands teachers).

Poster prize-winners: Aisyah (Year 10); Sha Ling (Year 8); Justina (Year 10).Essay competition winners: Genevieve (Year 13); Regina (Year 10); Zi Koon (Year 9).

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It seems no time at all since it was the end of year assem-bly, and everyone was saying their “goodbyes” before em-barking on their holidays. Whether you travelled overseas for all or part of that time, or stayed here in Penang, we hope everyone had an enjoyable holiday and would like to extend a warm welcome to new families and staff, and an equally warm “welcome back” to all returning families and staff members.

Traditionally, the end of year holiday is a quieter time for school Gov-ernors, and like parents and staff, some Governors take the opportu-nity to travel overseas to visit family and friends, or simply enjoy a bit of a break.

School holidays do not, however, mean that everything comes to a standstill for six or seven weeks. On the contrary, during the ‘holi-day’, the school campus becomes a hive of activity as there is a rush to get work done which cannot reasonably be carried out during the regular school year. An example would be work carried out in the recent holiday period to improve science facilities – both in terms of space and fittings. It would be impossible to have done this in normal term time. In spite of promises from contractors, and the greatest effort from school staff and Governors alike, deadlines are not always met. We are aware that not everything was in place as it was expected to be at the start of term. We apologise for this and hope you will bear with us. We can report that everyone involved is doing everything in their power to ensure that any outstanding work is completed as soon as possible. This has been, and continues to be, a very busy time for the Governors who sit on the Building and Development Committee.

The Trustee Committee (TC) has also been very active. Several po-tential new Governors have been recommended for their expertise in education and business. TC members followed up by contacting these individuals and determining that they have both the interest/desire to sit on the ISP Board and of great importance, the time to be an active, committed Governor. Subsequently, the candidates were called for interview. At this juncture, we cannot comment further as TC recommendations need to be presented to the full Board for ap-proval before the outcome is made public. We will therefore keep you updated on our progress in the next Boardtalk column.

TC members are also busy working on upgrading guidelines and policies which relate to the governing body. This work will be ongoing, and one of the areas currently receiving at-tention is the updating/drafting of Terms of Reference for the Management Committee and its sub-committees. For clarification, the TC does not make decisions for the Board. The TC operates on the basis of consensus decision-making within the committee, and will ultimately make recommen-dations to the Board. It is the full Board that will have the final say.

The new academic year has only just started, and as always, is a bit of a hectic time. This is particularly true for families and teachers new to the Uplands community and perhaps to Penang as well, as they strive to become familiar with, and comfortable in, a new environment. The next couple of weeks will be even busier than usual, particularly for Dr Horsfall, staff and Governors, with the CIS re-accreditation team due in mid-September. Again, we ask that you please bear with us as it does take a bit of time for people to “settle in” and to iron out any procedural hiccups.

A final note: as is standard practice, the Trustee Committee, the Man-agement Committee and associated sub-committees were re-elected at the Board meeting immediately after the OGM on July 1st 2009. Anyone interested in knowing who sits on the various committees and sub-committees of the ISP Board can check the school website for details, under the heading “Governance”. Additionally, it should also be noted that both the Staff Forum Representative and the PTA Chair address the Management Committee immediately before the monthly meeting. This allows the Management Committee to receive valuable feedback from both the teaching and parent bodies.

Feedback on this column is welcome. Comments/suggestions can be sent to our email address boardtalk9@gmail.com

Susan Leefor and on behalf of the ISP Board of Governors.

BOARD TalkBOARD Talk

You’re Talented! ZACHARY IQBAL - Year 11Zac is a well liked student at Uplands. A vibrant personality as well as an enjoyment of studying marks him out as a Student of Talent. He has been passionate about computers since he was little. He loved computer games and

used computers to help him with his school work.

In Year 6, Zac’s parents found out about Informatics, a computer course that ran twice weekly for 2 hours. Zac was a little hesitant at first as he was still young but once he started, there was no stopping him. “I knew that I really liked computers so much that I would eventually choose that as my field, my occupation.”

In November 2006, Zac completed his Diploma in IT which covered program-ming, theory and computer business. He then commenced his advanced Diploma in IT but unfortunately Informatics closed down. Despite this, Zac con-tinues to be passionate about computers. While doing the course Zac also did his open water diving and during the holidays he got his black belt in Aikido. In addition Zac is a Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH).

His IT teacher, Mr Towers says, “Zac excels at all IT activities. He gives 100% of his time and effort when working on an assignment and usually presents a piece of

work that supersedes the requirement by a significant margin. His knowledge is deep and wide ranging. He is a model student, and his work is always of an exemplary quality, to which other students aspire.”Uplands is happy to be able to celebrate our students’ achievements and successes. Zac, congratulations for being a Student of Talent!

Zac and his mother, Rosie were interviewed by Mrs Nield. If you or your child has done something to be proud of please email Mrs Neild so that we can share and celebrate our students’ successes at: sneild@uplands.org

On the Thursday, a special ‘green day’ was declared and students were encouraged to come to School in any clothes they wanted as long as they were green!

With help from Golden Sands which runs their own Environmental Program too, students of all years were able to get their hands dirty making ‘Effective Microorganisms Mudballs – EM’. After mak-ing into balls, the mud is dried till hard and then thrown into a nearby river at the end of the week.

Confused? Here is an explanation, EM Mudballs are specially made with treated mud that contains live bacte-rial (good bacteria) cultures mixed in with a source of food for the bacteria such as sugar, when made into balls and dried the bacteria grow and multiply inside the ball a bit like mould does on bread, when thrown into a river the bacteria is carried to the bottom and is slowly released by the mud, like a pill releases its medicine after being swallowed, then the bacteria, by organic re-actions, break down harmful chemicals in the river water and help to reverse the effects of water pollution, it may sound incredible but it really does work! Special thanks go to Mr Balan and co. from Golden Sands, Mr & Mrs Nishioka and Rose Ng from Globiz Techno-log, not forgetting all other students and staff who took part in the EM Mudballs project.

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Late last term Uplands held its Environment Week from Monday 15th June to Friday 19th June. As it is every year, Environment Week was organized by the Uplands Environmental Society – UES. The group, headed by Design Technology Teacher Mr. Weatherly, organized various Green activities to raise awareness on the urgent situation on the environment facing us all.

‘Green’ activities and initiatives were run every day of the week which started with a full assembly dedicated to a pre-sentation on the damage humans cause to this planet and what the UES

have been doing over the previous year.

UES members also sold small plants potted in recycled drinks bottles and special water retaining gel granules. They were quite good as desktop plants and many were sold. Students created a complete wall hanging covered in their own coloured hand prints that when finished became a piece of art and a symbol of their participation in Environment Week.

Higher Education News

Several changes are afoot this year for Uplands students looking toward higher education. For the first time this year there will be a SAT preparation class run in the school by a group of enthusiastic parents. Uplands will also host for the first time the PSAT (Practice SAT) on October 14th. Registrations closed for both on September 1st but there will be further opportunity in following terms to join. A new university and careers space is being created on the first floor where students will be able to drop in, ask questions and research through the variety of materials available. September and October are busy with our first university school visits for the year - HKUST (9 Sept), UBC (14 Sept), Regents College Lon-don (16 Sept) Le Cordon Bleu (29 Sept) and Temple University Japan (9 Oct). We encourage students and parents to keep their options open by attending as many of these presentations as possible. With some shuffling in positions Mr. Klar will this year take on responsibility for all college applications as well as aspects of careers. He can be contacted via reception or email at nklar@uplands.org Mr Cadman will continue to advise students where possible. December 1st is the new deadline for both UK and US general applications so we encourage our Year 13 cohort to get on the application path as quickly as possible.

Nic Klar, Careers Advisor

Environment Week 2009

Uplands Environmental Society and EM Mudball consultants

Pictures.Left: Selling potted plants.

Above Right: Get-ting stuck in, mak-ing mudballs.

Right: The mudballs drying before being thrown into river.

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A Message from the Principal Many teachers, parents and students arrived back to Uplands in August to find a campus they did not recognise due to the attachment of ten temporary ‘portacabins’ dominating that part of the car park adjacent to the Art and Technology areas. They are not pretty, as many have already observed, but they have fulfilled two needs that the School has felt for some time, namely better Science facilities and more classrooms. In the last academic year there were several times in the secondary timetable when there were simply no classrooms free, giving the time-tabler and the teachers no flexibility and allowing no room for what has been a steadily-growing school.

Provisions for Science

As a teacher of sciences I am acutely aware that they are an expensive activity, at least when taught through the desirable route of real empirical science rather than those of ‘white-board’ science. Any school with at least some British origins should be firmly committed to to the proper teaching of sciences through real experimentation, but the facilities we had last year (one excellent ‘large’ lab, two reasonable ‘medium labs, and two unacceptable ‘small’ labs) did not allow the proper operation of all our practical classes. I have already spoken, and written, about the increased importance we have given science in the middle school curriculum, with more time and a balanced curriculum where all students will continue all three sciences until their sixth-form choices. But these changes would be of lowered value without equally improved facilities across the sciences so, during the last term of last year, the Board of Governors carefully considered and accepted my proposal to improve our science facilities. As the short-term possibilities of our compact site are quite limited, the only option available over the summer break was to hire the portacabins as extra space for the Senior Library and IT Room 1, and to convert these two rooms, as the only sufficiently large rooms we possess, into new science rooms. At this point I need to acknowledge the flexibility and tolerance of all those who have consequently moved their rooms, namely Mikk Towers, Rosie Sebastian, and Sharlotte Bernard, without whose sacrifice this greater good would not have

been possible. I also must acknowledge all the work, over the ‘vacation’, of the Buildings and De-velopment Committee (Leigh Pratt and Bibi VanGemert), the entire Management Committee, and of course Kingsley Charles and his entire team in Administration. Although some terrible weather and a few unforseen problems have, as always, delayed completion I do think it is remarkable that Leigh, Bibi, Kingsley, and our contractors have managed to squeeze so many improvements into just a few weeks!

And the improvements are not only in the sciences. Although one might think moving the Senior Library to temporary classrooms was a downgrade, we took the opportunity to reorganise our available resources to consolidate our library space into one large, dedicated reading room complete with a handful of workstations for internet access plus a large ‘Media Room”, controlled by the Librarian, which is bookable by classroom teachers to support their subjects. Although the campus has had two IT rooms, mainly for the formal teaching of IT, the times when these were bookable by, say, a biologist or economist have been limited, so this is the first time we have a room of workstations dedicated to support work in other subjects.

Reorganisation of Office Space

Outside of direct teaching resources, we took the opportunity to revise and rationalise some of our office accommodation. The re-modelled end of Block B now houses six newly-created rooms, in three of which you will find pastoral heads (Craig Skinner, Nigel Whittlestone, and John Cadman, along with two parental meeting-rooms, space for secretarial support and space for archiving files. It may look the same as you approach from the bus-stop but, inside, you will find it very different. On the academic administration side we also made changes, enlarging the offices below the Principal’s area to house key curriculum staff (Phil Neild, Isabel Davis, and Geoff Newton, plus secretarial help). Visitors to the school will now also find Alexis Kerr in that same geographical area, Alexis having moved from last year’s administra-tive/teaching role in the Junior School to a similar role in the Senior. Alexis has been appointed as Academic Administrator and, in addition to her classes, she will be helping to organise many of our internal events, as well as assisting the SMT with calendar issues, supervising all ECA’s in the school, and coordinating the CAS activities for our IB students. So, for visiting parents the choices are now simpler and the walk-ing shorter: for curriculum matters plus all ECAs visit the Academic Offices, while for non-curriculum matters you hardly have to leave the car-park: in both areas you should find the help you need without trekking around the School.

Boarding

Our other main area of building and decoration work was among the Boarding Houses. We have 20 boarding students as we go to press and those Houses accommodating this group were updated and decorated to make life even more pleasant for those long-term guests. On the human-resources side of Boarding we sadly lost Anna and Miguel as Houseparents, Anna deciding to concentrate on her pastoral duties in the School by taking on the Head of Year 7, but Miguel maintains his links with his work last year as Boarding Assistant. Miguel will be super-vising most of the day-time activities that need to occur in the Houses when Carol Marshall is away teaching, and also helping with many administrative tasks, such as visas and weekend activities for the boarding students. Carol and Rohan therefore remain our only house-par-ents, but the School has already begun recruitment for the vacant Heads of Boarding, a position that will not necessarily entail academic teaching activities but will, we hope, allow the greater development and promotion of our boarding facilities.

New Staff

As described in the last issue of Touchbase, we were very eager to welcome the latest batch of recruits to the teaching staff in August, not least because they seemed to be a tremendously well-qualified and interesting group of people. I think I would be universally supported by existing staff if I said that we have not been disappointed: from their initial dramatic performances, co-ordinated by Randy Moss dur-ing their induction week, to their performances during a dramatic first week of school, they have taken all the novelty and uncertainty of a new job in their stride with extreme good humour and professional-ism. I certainly look forward to seeing the impact their presence will have in the School, both in their formal roles and as part of the wider community of teachers, parents and students. In addition to the list of new teachers described in the last issue of Touchbase, we have some late arrivals, partly due to staff leavers, and partly due to changing elective and timetable requirements. The first is that we welcome

A Message from the Principal, continued. A Message from the Principal, continued.

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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 many people I know have cycled from New York to Oregon! The second is Christine Yeomans, who arrives fresh from teaching in the UK, to teach some History and also take over the timetable and examinations co-ordinator roles of both Alan Smith and Tony Webster. Christine has undertaken both these roles in other schools 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. The 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 always been 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 and selection. 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 will be 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 record thanks here to one of our parents, Brian Kosko, for assisting with some of our mathematics classes for the first week.

New Positions

We 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 Phil Neild, and by the revised Senior Management Team of John and Phil, plus Nigel Whittlestone, Craig Skinner, Isabel Davis, Geoff Newton, and Ali Nicholson. The start of a new school year is never easy, even worse when changes are being managed, and so the calm, businesslike ap-proaches of John and Phil in dealing with the thousands of issues that necessarily arise is much appreciated. As these new teams work their way 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 School to review and implement improved practices. To place an early advert, I will tell you that the first phase of that could be attendance at the PTA-Teachers get together coming soon on Thursday 24 September, when you will have a chance to talk informally to teachers and managers about any of your concerns or suggestions.

Timetabling

Start-of-year timetables in schools often do not work at the first turn of the starting handle. Students change electives, staff change over the vacation, co-ordinators revise their staffing allocations, and sometimes the supporting software just doesn’t work as you think it should. For these reasons some schools have a shake-down week at the start of the year when the timetable coordinator deals with all these unforseen problems, one by one, until all the changes are accommodated and each student can find the right teachers, in the right rooms, at the right times. In simple schools, getting the timetable right first time is not a difficult problem. For example, some colleges and schools offering the IB force the student to choose between only a small number of ‘streams’ so, for example, if you are intending to study medicine, you will be studying probably Chemistry, Biology, Mathematics at Higher Level and, if you are lucky, given some choice of your Standard Level subjects. The curriculum offered by Uplands in the last few years has been the opposite, with students asked to choose their electives freely and Alan Smith, coordinating the timetable generally, planning the elective ‘blocks’ around those choices where possible. I have written and spoken about curriculum planning before, so you probably know my views and suffice it to say here that too much choice can lead to a great deal of unnecessary complexity. To give you a pertinent example: the 2009 Year 13 contains forty-three students, and the number of different IB subject combinations among these forty-three is thirty-eight. In other words, almost all of our graduates will have a unique combination of subjects!

Start of Term

To cut a long story short, our shake-down period for stable timetable this August has needed to be longer than expected, partly because of this complexity and partly because we were making changes in some parts of the school, for example a ten-day cycle and triple practical periods in Sciences, that have not been tested before. In addition we had the not inconsiderable problem that our time-table coordinator for the last four years, Alan Smith, completed the schedules with the information he had in July, just before finishing his contract and returning home to New Zealand. Discontinuity in the timetable job is something you desperately want to avoid in a school because, as my grand-mother used to say, “It’s always hard to pick up someone else’s knitting”, but that is what Christine Yeomans, our new timetable coordinator has had to do, reverse-engineering Alan’s schedules back to a form where she can begin to rebuild a modified finished product on the basis of our latest information. We have given ourselves an internal target of two weeks to get the schedules sorted, and in the meantime we are working on a provisional schedule, but I am confident that the new timetables are going to deliver innovative and improved schedules for all our students in the secondary school, and I will be interested to receive any feedback from parents and students, one they have experi-enced a couple of new timetable cycles, at around the time of half-term.

New Addition to Curriculum

As some of you may have seen, the school advertised in the national press over the holidays its intention to re-start an A-level programme alongside the sixth form IB programme. The reasons for this are quite simple: myself and the Board of Governors believe that no one aca-demic programme 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 School Governors have a vision of an enlarged School with improved facilities, and I would like to offer these facilities to the maximum num-ber of beneficiaries, whichever sixth form system they choose. The types of Y12 student we especially hope to attract by this expansion are the 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 combi-nations will be allowed after relevant careers counselling. What is absolutely definite is that, whatever the success of the A-level programme, the School will continue with the IB Diploma because, on the arguments above, that scheme is also the best for some Y12 students. As the School Board Chairman outlined in his notes to the OGM last academic year, the School 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 our Secondary School curriculum.

Uplands Ski Trip 2010Subject to approval by the Uplands Management Team we will be running our 3rd annual ski trip to the Japanese Alps in February 2010. The ski trip is open to Years 7-13 regard-less of skiing/snowboard experience, and will cost about 7000 RM. An exact figure is not possible until we get the final price from the airlines. The cost of the trip includes flights, full board, ski and lift pass and all transfers.For further information please see Mr. Sparrow (Maths) in Room C303 or come along to the ski meeting on Thursday 17th September at 6 PM.

Adrian Sparrow. Maths Teacher.

A Message from the Principal, continued.

CHARITY CONCERT ‘MAKING DREAMS COME TRUE’ ON SUNDAY 11TH OCTOBER 2009 AT OPEN UNIVERSITYSoroptomist International of Penang, in collaboration with Penang’s celebrated ‘Dolci Voci’ and Wawasan Open University will present a musi-cal evening in aid of the Pertubuhan Rumah Kebajikan Sri Cayaha Pulau Pinang Orphanage Building Fund.

Sri Cayaha was started ten years ago by Kaliamma Tandathabani – Kali, a district nurse from Batu Maung – who was distressed by the heartbreaking plight of abandoned orphans and destitute single mothers.

Kali decided to open her home and heart to these people in need. She was supported and assisted from the beginning by her colleague Linda. Since then the orphanage has grown by leaps and bounds and is now home to 75 children of all ages.

The current premises have become far too expensive to maintain and are cramped. Kali invested the last RM30,000 of her savings to place a deposit on a piece of land costing RM110,000 and with the help of Soroptimist, was able to complete the purchase last year. Plans for the building have now been 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 - RM500

Contact 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.com

Puan Sri Sue DhanarajanOrganising Chairperson, Soroptomist International of Penang

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We will be undertaking that review during this special year of Accreditation so, no doubt, relevant recommendations and suggestions will emerge during that process, not only about our Junior section, but about the entire School. We begin that process mid-September,with a four-day pre-inspection visit by two visiting consultants, followed by a more extensive and intensive visit by a larger team later in the year. The process covers all areas of the School, including Board of Governors and the PTA, and I hope it will be an interesting and creative exer-cise for the entire community.

Lastly, the School is planning to change slightly its programme of regular Newsletters. We intend, in two weeks time, to begin a schedule of electronic-only newsletters, so we will end any paper distribution by sons and daughters. We hope that, in addition to reducing our environ-mental impact, the changes will also allow publication of more photos, and other features expensive or impossible to put on paper. We also intend, after some feedback from the community, to publish a Senior and Junior Newsletter as one document, which seems to me a sensible move as so many parents have representatives in both camps.

Dr John Horsfall, Principal

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On the 22nd of August all staff at Uplands celebrated another year in style, the Uplands Staff Annual Dinner and Lucky Draw was recently held at the beautiful Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion aka The ‘Blue Mansion’, which was built by the Chinese tycoon in the 1800’s.

The famous venue was just perfect for a night of good food, music, dancing and fantastic prizes. Entertainment was provided by the Leon-ard De Silva Band with guest singer Darsha. What’s more, additional Bollywood dances were performed by our own School electrician Mr Ramachandran accompanied by his colleagues and eventually joined by a partially disguised Dr. John Horsfall..

The Staff Annual Dinner is usually timed to occur during the holidays so that all staff including those at boarding, etc. are free to attend. It is also a great opportunity to welcome new teachers who have arrived in Penang one or two weeks earlier during the Summer holidays,

it is a chance for all staff from every department to come together to meet the incoming teachers and also to touchbase with each other, especially before the term begins and everyone becomes busy with their duties.

My thanks go out to fellow Staff Annual Dinner Organis-ing Committee members, namely Ravita Kaur, Lim Chin Teong, Randy Moss, Geoff Harley and Sarah Neild for all the help, support and smiles. Further thanks goes to Mary, Kartini and Diane for helping out on the night too. Special thanks to UPTA for setting up and running the bar. To all our suppliers who generously sponsored the 50 plus number of gifts! we really appreciate it. Congratulations must go to Ms. Mary Charles for winning the Grand Prize - A special ‘Surf Cruiser’ bicycle, generously donated by the same sponsor of the recent

Upland Round Island Charity Bike Ride, CCI Bicycles.

Bram Tan, Marketing and Events

Uplands’ Staff Annual Dinner 2009 at the ‘Blue Mansion’

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HALF-TERM CAMP, 17-20 OCTOBER 2009,

UPLANDS INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL

Our Approach: Our mission is to provide the highest quality soccer lessons to boys and

girls of all ages at an affordable price. At our holiday soccer camps we use only the best

coaches and facilities and empahsise personal improvement, teamwork and having fun!

Soccer Camp Features

*Credit cards accepted on the day only. No American Express

The timetable is 9am – 12noon each day. Please arrive by 8.45am

For more information please call Andy on 019 212 3533

………….. Cut here and return this slip with payment to the below address……….……

Applicants Name: Applicants Age: Male/Female

Applicants Address:

Telephone Number: Fax/Email:

Has your child attended Little League before? Yes No

How did you hear about us? Poster Leaflet Advert

Internet Friends Teacher Our Staff (Please Name)

Other (Please explain) Name of Participant:……………………………………..Name of Parent:…………………………………..

Signature of Participant:…………………………………Signature of parent/guardian:………….………….

• Boys and Girls aged 5-18

• Expert Coaching of soccer

skills by professional

coaches

• Personal skills, teamwork,

fun games and skills

competition

• Free football gift for all

participants

• RM 380 per applicant with

family and group booking

discounts available. RM350 for

Uplands students

• We accept cheques, cash and

*credit cards

• To book your place please fill in

the form below and return to

your teacher

Cheques payable to: Little League Soccer Sdn Bhd

Please send return slip and payment to your teacher or post to:

Little League Soccer Sdn Bhd, 116B, Jalan Burhanuddin Helmi, Taman Tun Dr Ismail, 60000 Kuala

Lumpur

The International School Of Penang (Uplands)

address below

Applicant’s Applicant’sApplicant’s

Cyril Jagadasan has recently left the School after 8 years of service. His last post at Uplands was Transport Coordinator. This is a special ‘faces of Uplands’ to say goodbye and all the best to him.

Activities: Usually too busy ferrying students around to have a leisure pastime!Interests: I like singing and enjoyed performing as part of a band in earlier days.About me: I have thoughly enjoyed my years at Uplands and particularly ap-preciated the time as Transport Coordinator because it allowed me to get to know teachers, students and their parents well; to serve and help them as different problems arose regarding their transport needs. I hope to continue to develop my skills further after leaving Uplands and may go back into the Food and Beverage business, continue with transport or per-haps something else.

The International School Of Penang (Uplands)

Jalan Sungai Satu, Batu Feringgi, 11100 Penang, Malaysia

Tel: 04 881 9777 Fax: 04 881 9778Email: info@uplands.orgwww.uplands.org

faces of UplandsWall Info

TouchBase is published every Friday fortnightly during the school year as a service to the Uplands community. A colour PDF version can be downloaded from the School website: www.uplands.org - Go to ‘Events/ News’ and then click on ‘TouchBase Newsletter’. It is produced by the School, and is meant only for internal circulation.TouchBase is distributed to each family by way of youngest enrolled child of each family.Contributions that benefit the Scool community are welcome, Send your material via email to bram@uplands.org TouchBase encourages any member of the Uplands School community to contribute to the publication. However, we reserve the right to edit or reject any article or information.For advertising enquiries, please contact the School.

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Closing thought...“Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors.”

~ African Proverb

Photos Boxes

Uplands Fundraising Cookbook - by UPTAUPTA would like to publish a fundraising cookbook to raise funds for the Up-lands community, but we need YOUR help!

In order to make the book a success we need as many recipes as possible, be it an appetizer, main meal, dessert, baked goods, confectionery, or even your fa-vourite juice or cocktail! We are very lucky to have many different nationalities within the Uplands community, that this cookbook has the potential to be full of interesting recipes from all over the world! Ideally we would like each family, teacher and member of staff to contribute a recipe so that the community as a whole is involved. As an acknowledgement of your contribution, your name/s will be printed next to your recipe. Please also feel free to write a short note of the origins of your recipe to be printed in the book.

Your contribution will be greatly appreciated with the funds raised going to the benefit of the children at Uplands. To make it easier to collate the recipes for publishing, please submit your contribution by email to PrimaryPR@Upland-spta.org As we have a deadline for printing , only submissions received on or before 30 September can be included in the publication, so please send your recipe as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

Thanking you all in advance for your support! UPTA