As I am writing this letter, our school is back in operation after what could probably best be described as an ‘interesting’ last week. We had to deal with the smoke from the illegal burning near the school. On Tuesday morning, we decided it was better for the children not to come to school. After that, the cooperation from parents and staff was very collaborative and supportive. The community responded the way I knew we would!

The children who were already dropped off, were picked up very quickly and I would like to thank all staff who took the responsibility to help running that process very smoothly. On Wednesday and Thursday, work was sent home to make sure that learning was continuing despite the children not being in school. If work goes home just to cover a limited time in which we are not in school, we generally try to provide children with exercises that support ‘consolidated’ learning (although this is not always possible). ‘New Learning’ would mean that the instruction would need to be given by the parent, which could be different from our instruction. For that reason, we try to make sure that home learning concentrates on practising to get better at something.

We often talk about learning itself with the children so let me take a moment to explain this terminology further. When ‘new’ learning occurs, children are learning something they don’t know yet, or they are developing a skill they have yet to practise. A new connection is made. In the brain, what we see or hear gets linked to what we already know and have experienced previously. The cells in the brain literally form a new connection.

‘Consolidated learning’, on the other hand is when we are practising something we have already learned. We try to get quicker and more effective in remembering and retrieving what we know. We practise skills so we can get better at them. In the brain we are making the connections stronger and get those connections to be more effective than before.

Back to our return to our normality, well there was of course still the matter of the COVID 19 virus! The school has put in place temperature checks at all entrances. I just want to thank you for your collaboration and flexibility in making this happen. We all hope that this will not be necessary as soon as possible.

I would like to end this newsletter with a lovely reminder of all the great learning that continues to take place in our school.

Year 1 held their Entry-Point for their unit ‘Live and Let Live’.
Special guests from the Free Tree Society gave an inspiring Talk on Habitats. Their presentation was on wildlife habitats and the different animals that can be found in different habitats around the world. A group of children would then tie branches and sticks together into a bundle to make bug motels. They hung their bug motels from trees and bushes. They then made toad abodes using an old pot that they painted and then placed in “strategic” places on the school grounds as safe places for toads, lizards or other little garden critters to shelter in. I hope the Year 1 children told everybody at home about this captivating and meaningful start to their learning!

Parents have kindly been donating old clothes to a charity which has placed the big white donation bins by the main entrance. We had three members of that charity come in today to collect and sort through the donations. We would like to thank all parents that have given some old clothes to the worthy cause and look forward to supporting the charity in the continuing future.



Mr. Marco Damhuis (Head of Primary)
Email Contact : marco.damhuis@pc.tis.edu.my