Dear parents,

I hope you have all had an enjoyable Chinese New Year holiday. Unfortunately the Primary Chinese New Year Assembly has been postponed. This is again a measure and a prudent precaution taken in the present climate.

What a tumultuous two weeks it has been. Please let me thank you for your support and cooperation during these trying times. As you have been reading, the school has been taking every precaution possible under the circumstances.

I do have to ask you another favour, something that has been brought to my attention by staff and a number of parents, and that is to please stay in the cafeteria area and not wander around the school. We request that the parent body stay in the cafeteria, which will allow teachers to fulfil their duties and not be distracted by parents. In addition of course, there will mean less mingling which is preferable under the current situation. I have asked staff to gently remind you to move to the cafeteria if you are seen in the atrium and other areas. Thank you ahead of time for your cooperation in this matter.

Elsewhere, the school has been operating as normal. Attendance has been good with a lot of learning, teaching and activities. Last Thursday 23 January our upper Primary students were entertained by a very thought provoking guest speaker, a Malaysian neuroscientist who works in London, Mr Joshua. I am told that the children enjoyed his visit and many pertinent questions were asked. He was impressed with their level of understanding. Afterwards I had the opportunity to hear him in the teachers’ training where he was discussing the workings of the brain. Modern science is uncovering so much about this. I am sure Mr Marco will elucidate further.

In Secondary we had a series of lunchtime CNY activities, culminating in a guest artist Zi Jian who came in drew wonderful and beautiful tableaus of Chinese calligraphy. He had much interest and was painting from start of school to the end.

Also in Secondary the PSHE program is well under way. As a reminder the theme for January and February has been ‘Speak With Good Purpose’ one of the eight Keys of Excellence that we are implementing and instilling in our youngsters. It is about being positive and having a positive focus on the words we use because they can be damaging and limiting to others but also to ourselves. I started the talk with the students talking about the power of words and that indeed they have magical powers. I used the nonsense word ‘Abracadabra’ as an example. However, would you be surprised to find out that this is actually not a nonsense word but indeed one from an ancient language called Aramaic and its meaning I hear you ask? Well, its meaning is “What I speak, I create.” Thus if we speak negatively to others or indeed ourselves (..and how many of us do that…think about the little voice inside your head) we will create limiting patterns and behaviours and if we do the opposite we encourage creativity and bounties in our lives.

Again I need to remind you all to the wearing of school tags at all times and driving carefully in and around the school confines. The safety of our students is paramount and with that in mind I ask you kindly to please respect our rules. I have had a few reports of fast driving and people not wearing their tags and I need your cooperation in this matter.

Thank you.

Kind regards
Stefano Piumatti
Principal of Taylor’s International School Puchong