End of term message from Principal, Janet Brock

End of term message from Principal, Janet Brock Dear Parents, I can’t believe the Christmas break is upon us. It has been an extremely busy first term full of activities, events and competitions (some of which I have highlighted below) and we already have so much to congratulate ourselves on.

Dear Parents,

I can’t believe the Christmas break is upon us. It has been an extremely busy first term full of activities, events and competitions (some of which I have highlighted below) and we already have so much to congratulate ourselves on.  

The academic year got off to a great start as we heard just how well our students had done in their IGCSEs and A Levels. 75% of our IGCSE students achieved A* - A and 93% achieved A* - B, beating 55 other Nord Anglia Education (NAE) international schools across the world. These fantastic results meant I had the pleasure of receiving the ‘Best IGCSE Results’ award at this year’s Be Ambitious Awards in Switzerland - a proud moment as Principal of BSKL.

We were also very impressed with our first cohort of A Level students, many of whom achieved places at prestigious universities around the world. We have certainly enjoyed hearing about their adventures beyond BSKL and are very pleased with the great university offers coming in for our present Year 13 students. On top of this, we are immensely proud of our 2018 Outstanding Cambridge Learner Award winners, Ruby Aklotsoe, who came top in Malaysia for IGCSE Spanish, and Emeline Yong Wen Qi, who came top in the world for Mandarin Chinese.

As well as pursuing academic excellence, we continually strive to give back as can be seen through the charity work already carried out this term. Now in its fourth year, the Pink Breakfast raised almost RM23,000 for the Children’s Home of Hope & National Cancer Council. Also in its fourth year is the Christmas Bag project, led by the Year 7 and Year 9 students taking the BSKL award. 50 students from two local refugee schools spent the day in school participating in activities, games and carols, and went home with a Christmas bag of goodies. It was also a packed house for the Christmas bazaar and concert this week which raised 23,000RM for Haptate school in Nepal and local charities.

Our students continue to challenge themselves as can be seen in the many competitions they excel in. We performed strongly at the KLISS Primary swim meet; we are the U15 FOBISIA and the ISAC U15 Boys football champions; and we we came 1st in the U13 Boys and 2nd in the U13 Girls cross country tournament. At the Year 6 AIMS Maths competition we achieved 2nd place and in the online Language Perfect Competition we came 1st place amongst 8 other international schools in Malaysia. Special mention goes to Connor Casey in Year 11 who, in a rather different type of competition, took first place in the Warhammer Schools Alliance Brigade on Parade contest.

Students have demonstrated incredible talent in a number of performances including The Wind in the Willows (Year 4), The Bossy King (Early Years) and the IGCSE Senior Production, and I was wowed with some impressive artwork shown during Primary Art Week. We have also welcomed a number of inspiring guest visitors to BSKL this term. Among others we have welcomed author Ian Whybrow, well known for his Harry and the Dinosaur books, as well as the Little Wolf Series. All ages enjoyed the Gardner & Wife Theatre Visit performing Aliens Love Underpants and hearing Ross Jennings play the bagpipes as part of his world record attempt to play in every country in the world.

I am delighted to announce that we launched the NAE Global Campus this term. This is an online learning platform which connects our students with approximately 50,000 students from other NAE schools around the world. Our students have already taken part in worldwide activities and celebrations including UNICEF World Children’s Day and the Global Challenge, and we look forward to more future collaborations with NAE.

Finally, I would like to remind you to complete our Parent Satisfaction Survey which is open until the 20th January. Your feedback is essential in helping us better understand how we are performing so we encourage you to take part. Our aim is to continue to provide the best possible education and learning experience for your child, and the more parents we hear from, the more confident we can be that our action plans respond to your views.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas break and a happy New Year and I look forward to welcoming you back in 2019.

Best wishes,
Janet Brock