How does missing school affect your child's grades?

Globally over the last few years there has been a number of occasions when our children have been forced to miss school or move to online learning due to the Covid-19 pandemic or more local issues such as poor air quality or unusual weather patterns. These instances are unavoidable, and beyond our control as parents, but it has produced a number of findings that illustrate why..

Everything You Need to Know About International Schools

The number of international schools offering education to students of all ages around the world, like the Alice Smith School in Malaysia, is constantly growing. They are an important part of an expat community and families in many countries.

But if you’ve not heard of international schools and you don’t know how they work, here is our beginner’s guide to international..

Starting school confidently

Starting school is an exciting time for young children and their parents. It can be a daunting time, too. Chat with your child about starting school. What do they think it will be like? What are they most looking forward to? Is there anything they’re unsure or worried about? Be sure to listen to their concerns and help them to overcome them.

Here are a few ways parents can..

Learning in the Garden: Cultivating Young Minds in an Early Years Setting

In today's fast-paced world, where technology often dominates our lives, it is essential to create spaces where young children can reconnect with nature and learn through hands-on experiences. At the Alice Smith School, our commitment to holistic education encourages learning both indoors and outdoors in our Reception Early Years setting. In this blog post, we will explore the..

Primary Weekly Highlight: Connecting Our Learning to the Natural World

The outdoor provision at Alice Smith provides children with a range of opportunities to explore the natural world, follow their interests and challenge them to take risks within their play. However, despite the children in early years thoroughly enjoying their outdoor area, the educators within the setting noticed that many of the children were using the outdoor space as a..

Primary Weekly Highlight: Learning About Romans in Year 3

The ‘big idea’ that children in Year 3 have been exploring recently within History is “The Roman Empire and its impact”. Children were encouraged to think as historians and build their learning around the concepts of civilisation, invasion and power.

Early Years at Alice Smith

A recently updated publication from UNESCO; Why is Early Childhood Care and Education Important?, highlights a range of areas critical to the life success of a child. The period from birth to eight years old is one of remarkable brain development for children and represents a crucial window of opportunity for education. When children are healthy, safe and learning well in..

Primary Weekly Highlight: Writing in Year 6

Our Year 6 students have been really impressing everyone with their enthusiasm for writing and this has been very evident in their most recent unit; First Person Stories with a Moral.

Primary Weekly Highlight: Poet Sara Hirsch visits Alice Smith

We had the great pleasure of welcoming poet Sara Hirsch to our school last week. Sara is a British-born poet, director and educator and international Poetry Slam champion. She travelled all the way from her home in New Zealand to come and meet our students.

Year 5 and 6 were treated to poetry writing workshops with Sara. After starting off with a poetry performance, Sara then..

Secondary Weekly Highlight: Model United Nations - SEASAC 2023

Model United Nations is a role play debate forum simulating the debate procedures of the United Nations, following either Harvard (HMUN) or The Hague (MUN) rules of procedure. On 23rd March, 13 students from the Model United Nations Club set off to Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, for the SEASAC 2023 MUN Conference. The three day event was hosted by Saigon South International School and..

Primary Weekly Highlight: Amazing Art in Year 2

Our Year 2 students have been thoroughly enjoying learning within their Art curriculum this year. Our team of Year 2 teachers and teaching assistants have been really impressed with the skills and creativity demonstrated by the students too.

The students learning this term has centred around textiles and collage, challenging them to learn and apply skills and techniques whilst..

Secondary Weekly Highlight: Experiment As Learning - Inaugural Science Fair

Hypothesising, exploring, experimenting, designing, researching and evaluating are all important aspects of learning and thinking. They can lead to discovery, understanding, growth and innovation. As we prepare for our inaugural EP Science Fair, which will take place on Tuesday 28th February, Science Prefects Wei Er Loke (Year 12) and Yvaine Ziling Low (Year 9), describe the..

Primary Weekly Highlight: Our Eco Team

We are talking about all things eco! It is an exciting time at our JB campus as we set out to focus upon all things eco! Our school’s enthusiastic Eco-Warriors have started working hard to create positive, sustainable changes to our campus and make our school a much more environmentally friendly place to be. 

Primary Weekly Highlight: Learning about ‘Animals including Humans’

Learning here at the Primary Campus is in full swing as our students dig deep into a whole range of learning across the school. Recently I have been inspired by so many Year 4 students visiting my office to share with me their learning about Animals including Humans. 

Secondary Weekly Highlight: Restorative Approaches at EP

Learning is a multi-layered experience: through immersion in a learning environment, our own experiences and interactions we acquire knowledge and skills, which develop into competencies and dispositions. Some of this learning relates to specific ‘subject’ areas, some - arguably the most important - relates to our growth of self and how we understand and navigate the world. We..

Primary Weekly Highlight: Learning Displays

The Reggio Emilia approach suggests there are three teachers involved in the child’s learning; the teacher, their parents and the learning environment. Often the learning environment is referred to as the third teacher. The work of Helen Street also emphasises the importance of the physical and social environment in supporting wellbeing. Here at JB we are very intentional..

Primary Weekly Highlight: We are Scientists!

In Year 3, the students have been working hard as scientists this term. The children started the year learning about rocks and more recently have moved on to a biology focus studying animals including humans. The first lesson taught the children that humans are not plants because we cannot make our own food! The children were then fascinated to learn that humans are animals..

Primary Weekly Highlight: The Beauty of Poetry in Year 4

Learning about poetry has so many benefits. Firstly it widens children’s reading horizons. It also gives them an opportunity to explore vocabulary and language, encourages them to create and can inspire them to write. The creativity gives our students space to experiment with words and performing poetry allows them to learn about voice, pitch and volume.

Recently our Year 4..

Primary Weekly Highlight: Learning About Food and Nutrition

This term in Years 5 and 6, students have been learning about food and nutrition and have really enjoyed it! They have been exploring nutrition as well as foods and diets from different cultures. They have learned new culinary skills and techniques and whilst applying them have been evaluating, modifying and improving their work.

Year 5 students are currently in the midst of..

Primary Weekly Highlights: Our Multilingual Learners

Diversity is a major strength of our school community and can be seen in so many different ways. One of these is the range of languages spoken by parents, students and staff. At JB we feel fortunate to have so many multilingual members of our community and in particular our aim is to nurture our multilingual students.

Hamish Chalmers, a leading researcher in the field of..

Developing 21st Century Skills

Part 1: Questions to ask when choosing an international school

As a parent searching for schooling, considering an international school for your child is a good idea. With rising demand for international schooling, particularly in East and South-East Asia, according to ISC Research, forecasts suggest that international schools will host almost 7m pupils by 2023. This can make your job of picking a school difficult and you may not know..

Primary Weekly Highlights: Primary Art

It has certainly been a busy year in the KLASS Primary Art Room! You need only walk along the JB Campus where the Diamond Jubilee Art Celebration is currently being exhibited to see the wide range of artistic skills that our talented JB artists have on display. 

The students have enjoyed learning a variety of print-making techniques – ranging from monoprints in Year 3 to..

Primary Weekly Highlights: Reading Developments at JB

Here at JB we are committed to being an evidence informed school. This means that we examine the best available research and evidence, we consider our context including our students and setting and we reflect using our own experience and expertise when making decisions around learning. 

We have spent the last 18 months reviewing our curriculum with a view to becoming more..

Primary Weekly Highlights: How strong is a piece of spaghetti?

Our Year 6 students have just completed a brilliant Design and Technology unit focused on structures. The aim of this unit was for students to know that;

• Structures can be supported with guy lines and flying buttresses
• The shorter the piece of spaghetti, the stronger it will be

They would be able to:

• Construct a flying buttress to support a tower 
• Use appropriate lengths of..

Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee Celebrations at JB

We always encourage our students to learn about important events in history and this week we have dedicated time and focus to the incredible reign of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom.

Several events have taken place across the week and today this historic occasion. These have included the most brilliant timeline display dating back to the date of her..

Primary Weekly Highlights: Learning through play in Year 1

Play is an extremely important part of every child’s early development. When children play, they learn. Here at JB, we consider our Year 1 to be an extension of our Early Years. In this week's blog Alexis Farrell, our Year 1 Leader tells us more about how this happens in practice.

Play is an extremely important part of every child’s early development. When children play, they..

Celebrating student success in the Bronze Medallion Lifesaving Award

Since the start of Term 2, our Year 9 Sports Leaders have been focusing on lifesaving, working towards achieving their Bronze Medallion Lifesaving Award.  In this week’s Secondary Blog, Alice Curwood (Head of Curriculum PE) and Mark Atkinson (PE Teacher and Lead teacher of the Sports Leaders Elective) share their insights into this valuable student learning pathway.

The..

Sustainability at EP: What have we been up to?

The two KLASS values that resonate most with our Eco Club are kindness and respect - to ourselves and to our planet Earth. In this week’s Secondary Blog, our student Eco Club members, Meeraam, Alexa, Letty, Noshin and Risa share how KLASS and the Eco Club are working towards a more sustainable future and how you can get involved too.

The increasing amount of non-recycled..

Secondary Weekly Highlights: STEM Week ‘22: Ready, aim, FIRE!🧑‍🔬🚀

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) week at Equine Park was a colourful and explosive affair this year, starting on Monday 14th March 2022. Our Head of Faculty for Science and DT, Aaron Bridges, and the STEM team can’t wait to tell you more in this week’s Secondary Blog. Enjoy!In Physics, students were dazzled by the bright lights of various cathode ray tubes,..

Secondary Weekly Highlights: Mindful versus Mind Full 🧐🧠📝

At a time when young people are being over-stimulated by screens, the process of examinations and just being a teenager, they are in danger of being overloaded satiated and stressed out! Mindfulness can be a tool that helps young people - all people - find calm in the present, regulate their emotions, self regulate their thoughts and actions and develop compassion for..

Primary Weekly Highlights: Term 2 Music 🎼🎶

Music is alive and well in Term 2, and our JB students are relishing the opportunity to make music together once again. Some of the term highlights include:Peripatetic Music LessonsBack in full swing, it’s lovely to hear the Music Department filled with the sound of instrumental music lessons once again. Learning a musical instrument improves brain function, spatial awareness,..

Secondary Weekly Highlights: Reaching Across Borders 🌎 - Tackling global issues through Model United Nations 🇺🇳

Last weekend, our MUN students took part in the SEASAC virtual MUN Conference, working through global issues with students from a range of schools and countries. In this week’s Secondary Blog, ourHead of Enrichment, David Morris, andYear 8 student, Caitlyn, share more about the experience of being part of the MUN community. Despite the challenges of the pandemic, our Model..

Primary Weekly Highlights: Learning About Forces in Year 6 🧲🧐

Year 6 is determined to bring learning to life safely for every one of our students. The science topic, Forces, was the perfect way to develop the children’s understanding of the scientific process through a variety of hands-on experiments. 

Hands-on science encourages the children to DO something – observe, ask questions, touch, experiment. Allowing children to really get..

Primary Weekly Highlights: Learning in MFL at JB

At Alice Smith, students develop their intercultural understanding as they learn to value their own cultures, languages and beliefs, and those of others. In our MFL lessons, we ensure that students engage with diverse cultures, creating connections and cultivating mutual respect. We believe that understanding each other’s cultures is an essential part of living with others in..

Primary Weekly Highlights:  PE & Swimming at JB ⛹🏻‍♀️🏊🏼‍♂️

Physical Education at JB

What a week of learning we have had in PE; kicking off with a brand new unit of work for our Key Stage 2 students using the game of spikeball. This game will challenge the students to deepen their understanding of some key physical education skills, concepts and strategies. Students will be learning transferable movement skills including sending and..

Secondary Weekly Highlights: Immerse-d in Education 📚🧑‍🏫

‘What is history's most significant invention?’ ‘Is stealing a loaf of bread to feed a starving family a crime?’ ‘Should all vaccines for all diseases be mandatory?’

These are just a selection of the interesting questions that some of our students at EP found themselves researching and debating in their entries for the prestigious Immerse Education Essay Competition in..

Primary Weekly Highlights: Post Covid - Impact on Learning 📆

This week we began our series of parent workshops. Parents joined us in the session both online and face to face. To have parents back onsite was amazing!The focus of this first session was sharing our observations on trends and patterns we are identifying within our students. Has Covid, lockdown and numerous school closures and disruptions had an impact?

Our general findings

..

Primary Weekly Highlights: Year 6 New Skill Presentation 🗣🎙

Year 6 New Skill PresentationThis week, as part of the Year 6 Challenge award, some of our Year 6 children have taken part in the New Skill Presentation event. This aspect of the Challenge asked our children to learn a new skill and evince their progress through a live presentation.With many parents watching eagerly online via a live Youtube link, the children seriously..

Primary Weekly Highlights: Learning through Poetry 📖🎙

Our students get numerous opportunities to participate in academic events throughout the school year. Here at JB, our teachers often see this as more than a competition or event and will look to plan a unit of learning around the event theme or topic. 

Over the last few weeks, our Year 4 and 5 students have been learning about Poetry in connection with an upcoming COBIS Poetry..

Primary Weekly Highlights: Upcoming Academic Competitions 🥇🥈🥉

Alice Smith School is a member of many prestigious regional and international learning communities. These groups offer us opportunities to celebrate learning with other schools in Malaysia and around the world. This week in school, many of our students are preparing for competitions hosted by some of our linked organisations.

Primary Weekly Highlights: Music Moments 🎶

Music Moments has been a much loved staple in the JB Music calendar for a number of years. The event provides an exciting and high profile, yet low stakes performance opportunity, allowing students of all ages and skill levels to experience the joy of performing and share their learning and their progress with their peers and the school community. Performance is vital in the..

Primary Weekly Highlights: The Highwayman

Over the last three weeks, our Year 6 students have been exploring Alfred Noyes’ classic narrative poem The Highwayman. The poem is about a highwayman - a robber, who steals from travellers and his lover, Bess. The poem focuses on the lives of these two main characters, their love for one another and their deaths. From this work, the children have learned the language features..

Primary Weekly Highlights: Learning through Block Play

Play is an important feature of learning here at JB. From Preschool to Year 2, our students' learning is supported by providing opportunities to play. We consider Preschool, Reception and Year 1 to be our kindergarten years and we adopt a very play-based approach to learning. 

A significant focus for us in these years is on the personal and physical development of children..

Secondary Weekly Highlights: A Sustainable Future at EP 🌏💚

We are delighted to announce that we have recently been awarded the Eco-Schools Bronze Award, in partnership with WWF Malaysia. This is our first big step in our journey towards becoming a Green Flag School and is truly a testament to our students’ hard work, resilience and determination. In this week’s KLASS Blog, our Eco-Coordinator, Hannah Richardson, tells us more about..

Primary Weekly Highlights: Planning by Backward Design

Here at the Primary Campus, we use a curriculum planning approach called understanding by design or backward design. This was a concept developed by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe. A ‘traditional’ approach to lesson design involves content being identified, along with a sequence of lessons and finally an assessment. In a backward design approach, what students should know and..

Hook with a Book: The Great Chocoplot

At the beginning of term we heard from Mr. McCarthy, our Primary Principal, about the ‘Hook from a Book’ units which brought great excitement and interest amongst our Year 1 to 6 students.

In Year 4 Ms. Ferguson's class (4I) read 'The Great Chocoplot' by Chris Callaghan. It's the story of young Jelly and her family who live in the chocolate factory town of Chompton-on-de-Lyte...

Primary Weekly Highlights: We are back! 🤩

Welcoming more students back on campus this week has brought such happy and positive emotions. Our students have amazed us in how they have readjusted to face to face learning. Visiting classrooms has been an absolute pleasure and the JB campus has been the most wonderful place this week.A big focus in our assemblies and PSHE lessons has been friendship and the character..

KLASS Library Publishes Student EPQs

The Alice Smith School has offered the EPQ to Sixth Form students since 2009. It was initially a compulsory component for Sixth Form students but has more recently become optional. With universities now giving greater recognition of this qualification in entry offers, we are seeing a strong take up by our students.

Our results for EPQ have risen to a very high level with 54%..

Primary Weekly Highlights: Launch of New and Exciting Units of Learning 📖

Recently the students have begun some new learning units at JB. This is always an exciting time for students as they discover what they will learn about through the steps of learning within their unit and the end goal.

Year 5 teachers have launched a brilliant unit focused on learning all about the Aztec Civilisation. The students had to develop their teamwork skills on..