F R O M T H E C H A I R M A N

Issue No.2—2009/10

Dear Colleagues and Friends in FOBISSEA schools,

We are pleased to be able to send out our second FOBISSEAN and thanks to contributors and Gurmeet Kaur, our full time Administrator based in Kuala Lumpur, for again collating this issue. Since the issue of our first FOBISSEAN at the end of last term, FOBISSEA has again been highly active.

A Choral Festival has been hosted by Alice Smith School in Kuala Lumpur; a Golf Invitational Tournament by Harrow in Bangkok; a Primary Maths Competition for Year 6 students at Alice Smith School; and an U13 Group C Games at The ABC Int. School, Vietnam and U13 Group B Games at BIS, Vietnam . I am also pleased to report that our new mem-bers from China will be hosting the FOBISSEA Invitational Games at Dulwich School Beijing . The U13 Games will be held from 20th to 23rd May and the U11 Games from 10th to 12th June. The China schools will be conducting their own games until 2011-12 when we will be able to accommodate them in a restructured Games format.

On behalf of the Federation I take this opportunity to thank Leighton Edwards (Taipei European School), standing down as chair of HOPE (Heads of PE) committee and Adam Gordon (BIS Jakarta) standing down as chair of the HUMS (Heads of Music) committee. Both have made significant contributions along with their committees to move these areas forward in the life of the Federation. Also thanks to John Jones and Andy Harrison, Heads of two of our schools (St Christopher’s and St Andrews respectively) who have been the representatives of the Heads on the HOPE executive committee for some years and are also standing down although John goes on to work with the Continuing Professional Development Executive Committee.

I am pleased to report that, of the new events we have planned to introduce for our students, the following have either had initial planning meetings or dates set for the first planning meeting: (i) Model United Nations—coordinated by BIS Vietnam, (ii) International Leadership Award Gold—coordinated by Regents Pattaya, (iii) Community Service—coordinated by Regents Pattaya, (iv) Environmental Initiative—coordinated by International School Brunei, (v) Drama—coordinated by BIS Jakarta and (vi) Primary Performing Arts Festival—coordinated by St. Christopher’s International Primary School, Penang.

The Heads of our FOBISSSEA schools met last week in Kuala Lumpur for their Annual Business Meeting. It was an-nounced that Graham Sullivan, formerly Head of Bangkok Pattana School has accepted an invitation to become an Honorary Member. At the meeting, St Andrews International School Bangkok, having previously applied for member-ship of FOBISSEA and been visited by two FOBISSEA Heads, was welcomed into membership.

With the rapid growth of events for students in the Federation it was decided to expand the Executive Committee so that events and professional performance aspects of the work of the Federation can be better supported. The Heads also decided to more regularly review member schools’ commitment to meeting FOBISSEA membership criteria.

We are fortunate to be members of a Federation of schools where fellowship is so highly valued. Enjoy reading about all that is happening in our FOBISSEAN world.

Dr J Mark Hensman,

Chairman, FOBISSEA

T H E F O B I S S E A N P A G E 2

F O B I S S E A E V E N T S

AliceSmith School hosts the AliceSmith School hosts the

FOBISSEA Primary Math's Competition FOBISSEA Primary Math's Competition (5(5——7 February 2010)7 February 2010)

Last weekend, I was extremely lucky to take part in the first ever FOBISSEA Math's Competition. On Fri-day we got together in the hall to welcome all the other 21 teams; the children had come from schools as far afield as Brunei, Taipei and Vietnam. We pre-pared ourselves to go to KLCC Park to start on our first challenge: the math's trail.

After spending 2 boiling hours solving complex prob-lems in the park we ate lunch, played in the paddling pool and paraded up to Petrosains. Everyone mar-veled at the Park Ride and the helicopter flight to the oil platform. With a tasty barbeque awaiting us at JB, the day finished at 7pm as everyone was exhausted.

On the second day everyone was up early, getting prepared for the Individual, Team, Investigation and Problem-Solving rounds. Some of the questions were hard work but by putting our heads together, we managed to figure out answers that we were happy with.

On the last day everyone was eager to find out the results. Mr Lebeau had organised a great marble rol-lercoaster building competition for the Construction Challenge. The hall was covered in toilet rolls and cellophane tape as we made paths for the marbles to roll down.

At last Miss Nelson (the amazing mastermind behind this competition) announced the final results: Bang-kok Patana won the team competition with a very intelligent boy from Garden School winning the indi-vidual round. Everyone else was just glad to have been able to take part in such a successful and fun event; we all got certificates and each school was awarded an amazing participation trophy (take a look in our trophy cabinet at JB).

Thanks to all the teachers who helped to organize the event and well done to the students who worked really hard whilst having so much fun during the com-petition! Raphaelle Tseng (6K)

FOBISSEA INAUGRAL MODEL UNITED NATIONS FOBISSEA INAUGRAL MODEL UNITED NATIONS FOBISSEA INAUGRAL MODEL UNITED NATIONS (MUN) CONFERENCE(MUN) CONFERENCE(MUN) CONFERENCE

November 2010, HCMC, Vietnam

The British International School Vietnam is organising a Model United Nations conference for FOBISSEA schools to take place in the following academic year 2010-2011. FOBISSEA MUN aims to provide delegates of all levels with a broader MUN experience.

The conference will feature participants from FOBISSEA schools and will take place in HCMC, Vietnam over a designated weekend. Each student participant will pay a delegate fee which serves to cover all costs of the conference. Delegates that participate must be in Years 9-13. Students at all levels of experience may attend, and we encourage schools to send both experienced and less ex-perienced delegates in order to ensure a balanced conference.

Students may join the conference as delegates of a country or officers in a particular committee. Please find attached a list of committees and topics chosen for SAIMUN 2010, a conference initiated and hosted by BISV for international schools in the HCMC area. Schools may also send journalists, cartoonists and photogra-phers to cover the conference, as there will also be a daily news-paper publication covering conference highlights.

Pre-Conference MUN coordinator presentation

– Bangkok, Friday, April 30, 2010

We will be arranging a meeting with interested representatives of FOBISSEA schools on Friday, April 30, 2010, in Bangkok where more specific information relating to the running of a Model UN Club and participation in the conference shall be discussed. In the meantime, please visit the SAIMUN 2010 conference link for more specific information about the organisation of a Model UN confer-ence, at http://www.bisvietnam.com/subpages/Saimun2010/Saimun/Home.html

Rena McGregor-Sharples

BISV Model UN Club coordinator and SAIMUN Director

We wish to thank Adam Gordon of The British Interna-tional School Jakarta & Chairman of the Heads of Music

(HUMS) for his leadership and guidance throughout this period. Adam has resigned from the HUMS as he moves on to greener pastures.

Adam was instrumental in putting together the

FOBISSEA Music Conferences

& Festival Handbook and

has been the voice of calm

and reason within a lively

group of music teachers.

“Au revoir” & all the best!!

F O B I S S E A E V E N T S

T H E F O B I S S E A N P A G E 3

The Secondary Campus of the Alice Smith School at

Equine Park played host to 150 visiting students from

eight international schools over the two days of 15th

and 16th January 2010, for the 2nd FOBISSEA CHO-

RAL FESTIVAL.

The event, coordinated by Alistair Hamilton (Head of

Music) and Julie Anderson (Music Teacher), com-

bined the ‘freshly air-flown’ student singers with 60 of

our Alice Smith vocalists to put together an ambitious

programme of SATB music for a concert on Saturday

evening. Schools from Brunei, Vietnam, Penang and

Jakarta flew in, and locally we welcomed Kolej Tu-

anka Ja’afar and Tenby International School.

From Friday morning to Saturday afternoon, the

school was abuzz with music. Singers were put

through their paces over the two 10 hour days –

working intensively through sectionals and tutti re-

hearsals and filling the new music department with

sound.

Visiting vocal specialist Liz Mummery ran a very

physical singing clinic, ASWARA College dance stu-

dents taught choreographed moves based on silat,

the Malay martial art and I myself led a Malay kom-

pang drumming session. Pride of place however

was taken by Malaysian artiste Datin Seri Tiara Jac-

queline, Putri Gunung Ledang co-star Ida Marianna,

who enthralled a packed room with tales about being

a professional performing artist and producer for both

stage and screen.

The festival closed with a Gala Dinner and Disco at

Cititel Hotel Ballroom. ASWARA dancers enter-

tained our singers with a medley of cultural dances

and jazz singer Elvira crooned as the students re-

laxed over dinner.

For the first time in South East Asia, FOBISSEA schools came together to play and celebrate the gam-elan. The Festival, run at BIS Jakarta, was a great opportunity for students to explore and study five dif-ferent gamelans from Indonesia.

So from 8—11 October 2009, students from Bangkok Patana School, Tanglin Trust School and Harrow School, Bangkok, joined students at BIS to play gamel-ans from Java, Sunda, Bali and Sumatra. They even took a workshop in Betawi Dance which provided a break from playing the gongs and learning new styles.

Each group played each gamelan for just two hours with little or no prior experience of the gamelan. They were able to try different instruments in each workshop and some students enjoyed playing the rebab, an In-donesian string instrument which accompanies the gamelan orchestra. The students worked incredibly hard and made new friends in a very short space of time.

To close the Festival, the groups came together to share their work with the rest of the participants in an informal concert. The ability of each group to play a piece all the way through with a good understanding of how the piece was structured was amazing.

The next FOBISSEA Gamelan Festival is planned for January 2011. Do please get in touch with eliza-beth_alwi@bis.or.id if you would like more informa-tion about the up coming Festival.

When the last handful of students left the dance floor at

about midnight, it was obvious that everyone had a tre-

mendously enriching musical experience. Let’s hope that

FOBISSEA Choral becomes another regular event on the

calendar.

By Julie Anderson, Music Department, The Alice Smith School, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

janderson.ep@alice-smith.edu.my

T H E F O B I S S E A N P A G E 4

FOBISSEA EVENTS

C O N T A C T U S

Ms Gurmeet Kaur: sec_fobissea@yahoo.co.uk

VISIT OUR WEBSITE

www.fobissea.org

M I S S I O N A N D G O A L S

To promote excellence, high achievement and good practice through a British-style education for the members of FOBISSEA.

To promote consistent British-style education through shared programmes,

Cooperative initiatives and inter-school enrichment activities.

FOBISSEA DRAMA TEACHERS’ CONFERENCE - Hosted by The British International School Jakarta

From 6 to 7 November 2009, The British International School Jakarta hosted the first FO-BISSEA Drama teachers’ conference, organised by Sinead Smith. The concept behind the meeting was for Drama teachers from around South East Asia to have the opportunity to share ideas and resources and discuss how the FOBISSEA network can support the Per-forming Arts. Yet the main ‘vision’ was to open discussion on the possibility of creating a FOBISSEA Drama festival for students, similar to that of the very successful FOBISSEA Music festival which has been running for a number of years.

The conference took place at the BIS World Theatre, over Friday and Saturday. The event commenced with a welcome from the Head of Secondary, Mr Paul Starkie, followed by a performance of the Saman Hand Dance by the Host National staff. Over the following two days the candidates took part in various workshops, including some very interesting excur-sions! One in particular was a visit to a museum owned by leading Indonesian couture designer Mr Harry Darsono who took them on a tour of his museum personally where they saw many outfits from his collection over the past twenty years. The group were also given a chance to watch a Wayang Kulit Shadow performance. The hour long performance, gave candidates an opportunity to see the workings of a shadow puppet performance. They were also able to talk to the dalang (storyteller) afterwards.

What perhaps was the most successful element of the two days was the chance for the teachers to meet and forge lasting links. Teaching internationally can at times be a lonely voyage. Jo Lee from the Garden International School Kuala Lumpur gave an excellent workshop on raising the profile of Drama in the school, which benefited all significantly.

The hope of having our own Drama Student Festival was also a prospect talked about with much enthu-siasm and although nothing was confirmed, 2011 could bare witness to the first festival, which will be an exciting venture for all involved. What became evident over the two days is that the FOBISSEA Drama teachers’ conference is an essential forum for teachers here in Asia. And I look forward to meet-ing new members at the conference in October this year. For more information, please contact Sinead Smith at Sinead.Smith@bis.or.id at The British International School, Jakarta.

FOBISSEA CPD- Term 2, 2010

Term 2 has been a very dynamic period for CPD activities throughout FOBISSEA. There have been 3 high end courses plus a well attended event in Vietnam facilitated by the Institute of Education (IoE). The 2010 tranche of JAWS (Job Alike WorkShops) has been launched, with the inaugural Maths JAWS being held at the time of writing, ICT coming hard on its heels and Early Years just completed. In addi-tion there have been several high quality events with a language and literacy focus hosted by individual schools in Bangkok. Term 3 will see a further set of JAWS activities, with PSHE and Learning Support holding their first events.

In the first week of February, CPD leaders convened in Penang for a variety of CPD activities. Most importantly, the CPD Executive collaborated with the two CPD Heads’ representatives, John Jones and Simon Mann, to work on a new CPD structure for FOBISSEA following the cessation of the PDC-model contract in August 2010. The annual CPD Leaders’ Meeting followed, which ratified the suggested new CPD structure to propose to Heads, plus worked other issues integral to providing a solid backbone for CPD to operate in the region. The week ended with CPD Leaders from 13 schools attending a very rewarding two day CPD L e a d e r s h i p c o u r s e r u n b y t h e I o E . J ackie Stevens

DATES FOR FOBISSEA HEADS’ CONFERENCE/AGM

&

SENIOR MANAGERS’ CONFERENCE

- NOVEMBER 2010/2011

* Sat, 30th & Sun, 31st October -

EARCOS Conference - open to Heads/Senior

Managers for Professional Development

* Monday, 1st November - EARCOS Con-

ference & Visit to Kinabalu International

School, Sabah

* Tuesday, 2nd November - EARCOS

Conference / FOBISSEA Executive Commit-

tee Meeting/Joint dinner for Heads & SMT

* Wed, 3rd & Thurs 4th November - FOBISSEA

Heads Business Meeting (1 ½ days)

F O B I S S E A E V E N T S

T H E F O B I S S E A N P A G E 5

The inaugural Harrow FOBISSEA Invitational golf tournament was hosted by

Harrow International School at Bangkok Golf Course on the 23rd and 24th of

January 2010. Five FOBISSEA schools including Harrow, Shrewsbury, Jerudong

International School, The British School Nepal and The British School Phuket

took part in a fantastic 2 days of golf.

Thanks to JIS, Brunei, British School, Nepal and the British School, Phuket for

travelling the distance and helping to make the tournament the outstanding

success that it was. Over the 2 day competition Shrewsbury managed to take

the team trophy with an extremely strong and talented team, Phuket came in

second with a spirited effort and amongst the FOBISSEA schools Harrow came

in third place.

There were also individual competitions held for different age groups, these started with 8 year olds and went all the way

up to 18 year olds, and it was truly wonderful to see students of all ages getting out there and having fun in a sporting

manner.

We are planning to make this annual event with Harrow hosting next year, Brunei in 2012 and then in Nepal for 2013. Any

other schools wishing to host it after that will be more than welcome. We are sure that with the great success of this

event it will continue to grow in popularity over the next few years and will be a must in all FOBISSEA

schools’ calendars.

Mr. Trevor Godwin, Harrow International School

U13 FOBISSEA Group B GamesU13 FOBISSEA Group B Games

British International School, Vietnam British International School, Vietnam –– March 2010March 2010

British International School - Vietnam hosted its second U13 FOBISSEA Games earlier this month. The majority of International schools arrived on Thursday 18th March and departed on Monday 21st March. Over 230 students partici-pated in sport during the 3 days of competition. On day 1, students were wel-comed to BIS Vietnam and took part in the swimming heats and boys football or girls basketball. Day 2 was a very long and busy day with the athletics and swimming heats taking place. The evening ended with a BBQ and juggler at the school! On the final day the boys played basketball and girls football.

The U13 FOBISSEA Games culminated with a Gala Dinner, where BISV students performed a number of "International" acts; there were speeches from the Principal - Shaun Williams, Michael Deveney - Head of the Secondary Campus and Phil Drake - Director of Sport/Head of Physical Education. The best was left until last with our own student disco!

I would like to personally thank all schools and their students:

The International School, Brunei, Jerudong International School, Brunei, elc International School, Malaysia, The International School of Penang (Uplands), Malaysia, Taipei European School, Taiwan, Shrewsbury International School, Thailand and The Regent's School, Pattaya, Thailand.

The effort, level of sportsmanship and fairplay by all participants was a credit to all. This was indeed another "friendly Games".

Phil Drake, Director of Sport/Head of Physical Education, BIS Vietnam

ANNOUNCEMENT

FOBISSEA would like to thank John

Jones from St. Christophers’ International

Primary School Penang, Andy Harrison

from St. Andrew’s Rayong, Denis Clarke

from BIS Jakarta and Leighton Edward

from Taipei European School and Chair-

man of the HoPE (Head of PE) Executive

Committee for their dedication in bringing

the Games up to the heights they are now

and making it a great success as they

step down from the FOBISSEA Games

Executive Committee having completed

their term and paving the way for others

to take over! Cheers and all the best from

us in FOBISSEA!!

T H E F O B I S S E A N P A G E 6

FOBISSEA EVENTS

C O N T A C T U S

Ms Gurmeet Kaur: sec_fobissea@yahoo.co.uk

VISIT OUR WEBSITE

www.fobissea.org

M I S S I O N A N D G O A L S

To promote excellence, high achievement and good practice through a British-style education for the members of FOBISSEA.

To promote consistent British-style education through shared programmes,

Cooperative initiatives and inter-school enrichment activities.

The Under 13 Group C Games were hosted by the ABC International School and held in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam from March 11th to March 14th. Some 160 students from 8 schools took part. They came from the following schools: The ABC International School, Vietnam; St Stephens International School, Thailand; British School Kathmandu, Nepal; Garden Interna-tional School, Thailand; St Andrews International School, Thailand; Kellet School, Hong Kong; Kinabalu International School, Malaysia & Seoul Foreign British School, Korea.

The three days of competition proved a great success and all participants, helpers and organiz-ers left with many fantastic memories and even more new friends. Whilst all the events were keenly competitive it was great to see that the ideal of ‘The Friendly Games’ is very much alive. All those that participated should feel very proud of their achievements and the sporting manner in which they took part.

I would like to thank all those involved in the organizing and marshaling of the Games for the incredible atmosphere they helped create, and I wish all those attending next years games the very best of luck! For details of the results please visit www.theabcisfobissea13.com

Dean Metcalfe, Head of Physical Education, The ABC International School, Vietnam.

FOBISSEA CALENDAR OF EVENTS 2009FOBISSEA CALENDAR OF EVENTS 2009--20102010

APRIL 29 April 2010 HoPE Executive Committee Meeting GIS KL Paul Wellington (pjwelly@hotmail.com)

APRIL 30 April & 1 May 2010 HoPE Meeting GIS KL Paul Wellington (pjwelly@hotmail.com)

APRIL 30 April 2010 Pre-Conference MUN Coordinator Presenta-tion

BISV renamcgregor@bisvietnam.com

MAY 6 - 9 May 2010 FOBISSEA U13 Group A Games BPS Steven McArthur- stma@patana.ac.th

MAY 13 May 2010 FOBISSEA Music Executive Committee Meet-ing

Penang Adam Gordon (adam_gordon@bis.or.id)

MAY 20 - 22 May 2010 FOBISSEA Music Teachers' Conference ISP dyleong@uploands.org

MAY 18 - 22 May 2010 FOBISSEA Primary Group D Games KIS

MAY 20 - 23 May 2010 FOBISSEA U13 Games Dulwich Beijing Kwok Chow - kwok.chow@dulwich-beijing.cn

JUNE 03 - 07 June 2010 FOBISSEA Primary Group C Games ISR

JUNE 04, 05 & 06 June 2010 (t.b.c.)

Eco Encounter ISB executive.principal@isb.edu.bn

JUNE 9 - 13 June 2010 FOBISSEA Primary Group A Games TTS david.ingram@tts.edu.sg

JUNE 10 - 12 June 2010 FOBISSEA U11 Games Dulwich Beijing Kwok Chow - kwok.chow@dulwich-beijing.cn