Secondary School - 13th January 2020

Dear Parents,

First of all, I would like to wish all of you a fruitful year 2020! I hope you had a wonderful winter break and are starting this new calendar year with energy and positivity. Mrs Lamb spoke about New Year’s resolutions last week. One of ours, at NAISAK, is to keep being ambitious for ourselves, our students, our school and our community.

As your children enjoyed a long weekend, our teachers spent the day yesterday in training. You will know by now that Key Stage 3 (Years 7, 8 and 9) is moving towards an in-house concept-based curriculum. The objective of such a bespoke curriculum is to enhance opportunities to sharpen the skills of transferability and independence in our students. With this in mind, our team of teachers quality-assured their work so far on concept-based curriculum and planned a unit of work to be delivered in Year 7 after the February break. Those small yet fundamental steps are helping us pave the way towards the implementation of our own NAISAK curriculum at Key Stage 3 next academic year.

I am sure many of you will have followed the Tanzanian adventure of our students before the winter break. The article below highlights what our students learned from the experience and how being ambitious for oneself has an impact on others. Thank you to Ms Leah and Mr Coppenhall for leading that incredible expedition.
 

Lydie Gonzalès
Head of Secondary

Hello Tanzania!

During December, a small group of students had the opportunity to travel to Tanzania to participate in the NAE Permaculture expedition. This gave the students an opportunity to work with local communities in the Arusha district of Tanzania. Our students completed community service at the Nazareti School, whilst learning about sustainable development and permaculture. Read the students experience of the expedition below.

“Tanzania was such an eye-opening journey for my peers and me. We had the chance to meet and talk to local people, as well as learn some Swahili phrases. It was an honour to be able to contribute in giving them a better life in a multitude of ways (education and food).”

- Cinta Nijland (10N)
 

“Traveling to Tanzania was the greatest decision I ever made. It felt like being an adult. The people there had fewer resources due to the government, but they were ambitious enough to find ways to cope with it. I appreciated my lifestyle much more.”

- Tun Syakila Balqish Binti Mohd Yasir (9A)
 

“My expectations of going to the expedition were completely different from what we actually did do. We planted so many trees and constructed so many fences… This made me realise the Tanzanian citizens do these jobs on a daily basis, I was glad to experience the same thing they do.”

- Ellyca Miguel (10A)
 

“My experience in Tanzania was extraordinary, I had a spectacular time there. We all got to know other students from other regions and got to understand their culture. We did the permaculture project. We built a takeaway garden and we improved the water system. It was terrific entertainment and I can't wait to go again in the future.”

- Muneera Abdulaziz AlMuhannadi (9N)
 

“I have definitely cherished a lot of memories in Tanzania. The experience of being able to go out and explore the African life was phenomenal. If you are thinking about going on the expedition, I would encourage you to go because this is a once in a lifetime experience and it will also get you out of your comfort level to develop new and useful skills that will benefit you in the future. I would say that I would love to go again if I could!”

- Nurin Binti Mohd Faizal (10A)
 

“I was exhilarated by the fact that I got the chance to participate in an overseas school trip. The entirety of our trip enthralled me, as it has given me remarkable memories and expanded my knowledge of foreign society.”

- Yyan Francis Saguinsin (10N)
 

This trip has helped students broaden their horizons and see how things which we sometimes take for granted, such as clean water or being given a bunch of bananas, can mean so much to people less fortunate than ourselves. As Nurin said: ‘If you are thinking about going on the expedition, I would encourage you to go because this is a once in a lifetime experience’.