Happy Holiday

Curriculum Performance Night on 28th November

The Music department welcomes you for a Curriculum Performance Night on 28^th November in the MPH starting at 7:00pm. 

A collection of pieces will be performed from year 7-12 showing a wide range of repertoire and styles of music. 

An interesting blend of instruments and singers welcome you on a trip from the cool clean tones of Classical music to some despicably fierce rowdy  Rock!

KLISS PRIMARY SWIMMING MEET 2013

TIS PA’s support during KLISS inter-schools swim meet on 30^th November, 2013. We had Victoria Crest who served their gourmet hot dogs and Coffex with their gourmet coffee.

Invitation from TIS PA:

Tenby's talents in Seussical Musical

SEUSSICAL Jr. MUSICAL

Hey! All you musical enthusiasts, what are your plans from December 12 to 15? Keep those dates free because you may just want to catch two of our very own Tenby International School's young budding talents' star performances in the Seussical Jr. Musical!

Siblings, Summer (Year 4B) and Seth Yew's (Year 6E) involvement in the Seussical musical was purely by luck, sheer lady luck as you would have it...! Their mother, Antonia Lau explains, "On a whim, I called in to Traxx FM and won two boot camp passes for my kids. I was ecstatic! The entire family was...! Well, who wouldn't be?! It is, after all a Tiara Jacquelina production!"

Summer and Seth were first assessed vocally. They were then put through three gruelling weekends of intensive singing, dancing and acting lessons prior to the audition performance. They graduated the bootcamp and passed the auditions, and will be, from now leading up to the performance dates, going for rehearsals five to six days a week, each session lasting no less than two hours! Talk about paying a price for fame! They will join the rest of the Enfinity Academy cast in the Seussical performances which will run from December 12 to 15. I can't wait to catch the Yew siblings' sterling performances at the PJ Live Arts Theatre Jaya One, can you...?

Seth and Summer getting an encouraging hug from Tiara Jacquelina!

IN THEIR OWN WORDS...

Summer:

"I'm having so much fun being in this show. I have made so many new and wonderful friends! I really enjoy it because I love singing, acting and dancing. I'm learning so much about musicals. My roles for the show are: Fish, Who Family 1, The Circus Barker and Jungle Citizen (same as circus animals). I hope you can come and watch the musical and me! See you there!"

Seth:

"I feel really lucky to be in this musical because it is a once in a lifetime opportunity. The triple threat training has made me more confident on stage and I enjoy it tremendously with the new friends I met. Everyone in the cast is so nice. It's always fun at rehearsals and never boring! I really like musicals but I never expected that I would perform in one. This is such an awesome experience!"

THE CAST IN ACTION...

Summer (in fur hat) may be the youngest cast member, but she's expressive!
Seth (extreme right) in a whimsical mood!

Summer (front row, extreme left in fur hat) and Seth (next to Summer) get into their roles!

"We're having great fun! We sure hope you will too!"

THE SHOW

Featuring an all-student under-18 cast, with the youngest member at 8 years old (that's our Summer Yew), and the oldest at 18, this is a fun-filled musical not to be missed! Based on acclaimed writer, poet and cartoonist Dr Seuss' books and characters, the musical will appeal to both young and old. It will incorporate several music genres that will be featured throughout the 75-minute show, from rock-n-roll, to jazz, samba, funk and soul. If you or your children grew up reading Dr Seuss', "The Cat in the Hat", "Horton Hears a Who!", "Green Eggs & Ham" and "The Grinch", etc., this musical will take you down memory lane. It's a professional musical for the public, directed and choreographed by U.K. West-End performer Stephen Rahman-Hughes.

Summer is all smiles as she is photographed with the very engaging actor, singer and
multi-award winning choreographer, Stephen Rahman-Hughes

A personalised flyer...ingenious publicity for media rollout! 

Musicals are, by nature, theatrical, meaning poetic, meaning having to move the audience's imagination and create a suspension of disbelief, by which I mean there's no fourth wall.

Stephen Sondheim

HYPOCRISY

How does a parent explain his or her lack of driving decorum to your child seated in the car? “We are late son, so I’ve to cut queue, but don’t ever do what I’m doing when you’re driving in future.” Or, “Look, if I don’t do this, you will be late.”

At most other times this same parent will be telling the child that it is wrong to break the law. And when someone else does break traffic laws, the very first words that do come out of this same parent’s mouth are, “See that? Lack of proper enforcement.”

Cutting in just to get ahead of someone in that single lane leading towards the school is not only downright dangerous, but it is also setting an example for your child to emulate. You might think it’s just a ‘small’ matter, and it’s nothing to get my underpants in a knot. Well, just so you know: breaking the law is no small matter; and to a child, it’s just a passport for him or her to show disrespect to the rule of law. Do not be shocked when they start being disrespectful to you as a parent in future.

Stick to the lane. Queue up like everyone else. More importantly, set a good example to your child.

Year 6 Parent Workshop (Mock Maths Lesson)

Parents of Year 6 gathered at class 6T after school last Friday to go through the following WALT and WILF

Learning Objective

Classwork for parents...to be completed within a short timeframe!

Personal reflection at the end of the lesson

Secondary Swim Meet at Sunway International School

Today, we bagged 18 medals from the swim meet with Nexus International School and Sunway International School. Keep it up boys and gals... :)

Thanks to coach Kenny for his continuous support to the swim team.

From left: Mahesh Varmen, Hwang Dong Kyu, Janice Yap, Pearl Hong, Christine Wong, Manish Dhadli, Simon Wong and Adrian Sidhu

KLISS Cross Country Meet 2013

KLISS Cross Country meet at Nexus over the weekend (1.5km run) went well. Although we didn't send in a big team, majority of our runners made great progress since the last ISAC Cross Country meet. In general, their individual time has improved, with more making it to the top 10 position. 

Mahnushri U9G 4th,  Jack Kai U11B 3rd, Khairil U11B 9th, Angie U11G 10th, Karlson U13B 9th, Justin U15B 7th, Janice U15G 11th. There were about 40-50 runners in each age group. 

We would like to thank the PE department and parents who rendered strong support to our Cross Country team on Sat.

Our Cross Country team practices on every Tue and/or Wed. Looking forward to the KLISS swim meet on 30/Nov at Tenby ground. 

The next Cross Country meet is at Real International School on 30/Nov as well.

Tenby Schools Parents Survey 2013 - one more week before closing

Dear Parents of Tenby SEP Schools,

You should have received the email from the school notifying you that the survey is ongoing since 11th Nov, 2013 for 2 weeks. By now, you have another week to respond to the survey before it is closed.

If for any reason that you have not received the email which contains the link to the survey, please contact the school's secretary to obtain the link or contact PA at tenbysep.pa@gmail.com

THE LARKS SHALL SING!

Proudly celebrating its 10th anniversary, the Kuala Lumpur Children's Choir (KLCC) is staging a two-day concert production on the 23rd and 24th November 2013, at The Actors Studio @ KuAsh Theatre, TTDI. The production achieved yet another milestone with their concert themed, 'Celebrations!' Featuring all levels of the choir, they will be bringing you Malaysian folk songs and showtunes from the musical theatre. Do catch some of the popular tunes such as Jinkly Nona, songs from Bee Gees, Chicago musical and much more!

The choir was formed in 2003 by Susannah Saw, the choir's Artistic Director, inspired by a passion for singing and music, and to bring international acclaim to local choir performers. The choir comprises more than a hundred young singers, and is extensively travelled, having performed in Australia, Austria, China, Germany, Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore. The choir is certainly no stranger to international competitions, having won a Gold Diploma in the Open Category in the 2010 World Choir Games in Shaoxing, China. They have also been invited to perform at several notable festivals and events overseas, such as the Singapore International Youth Choir Festival and the 20th International Kodaly Symposium in Brisbane, Australia. They have performed and collaborated with many well-known ensembles and choirs including the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra and the All-American Boys Choir on two occasions, amongst others. Several of its alumni members are now award-winning young musicians in their own right, including one who is presently singing with the famed Vienna Boys' Choir.

Having been around for a decade, KLCC nurtures children to sing in a choir to develop teamwork, discipline and leadership. It develops choral and musicianship skills from young, through a systemic and planned programmed based on the Kodaly method, with the aim of building a strong choral culture in Malaysia.

We are immensely proud of Tenby International School's very own singing larks. Show

these kids some support! Catch Alexandria Catherine Chua, Bernadine Jeanne De Witt, Keisha Wee, Sylvia Yew and Naqjib Jaafar and other choir members in their two-day performance at the KuAsh Theatre (map below). The kids find their singing sessions fun and uplifting. If these kids' positive energy is anything to go by, we're pretty sure the concert will be a memorable performance that everybody can enjoy.

COME WATCH US PERFORM!

Front row (from left to right): Keisha Wee (6Y), Sylvia Yew (7E)
Back row (from left to right): Bernadine Jeanne De Witt (6E), Alexandria Catherine Chua (7Y) and Naqjib Jaafar (8E)

More information about the concert

Singing is such an excellent thing, that I wish all people would sing.
--William Byrd

Golden Slumbers's Mindful Musings : Romeo & Juliet

ROMEO AND JULIET

“And all I do is miss you and the way we used to be

All I do is keep the beat, the bad company

And all I do is kiss you through the bars of a rhyme

Juliet I'd do the stars with you any time”

- Mark Knopfler, Romeo and Juliet

Educated in an all-boys school, I went through my early years oblivious to the charms of the opposite sex. Things only began changing when at the age of 13 I started stealing glances at my sister’s collection of Cosmopolitan. With hormones raging, I had no idea on how to talk to a girl, except that I became interested in them. I remember waiting by the lobby of my flat (we are talking about real flats, not the apartments of today) almost every evening, hoping to catch a glimpse of this attractive girl – but without the guts to make that first move. It didn’t help being in an all-boys school as I did not get any practice in dealing with the female gender. So it was all rather abject.

Things got slightly better at 16 when I was made a prefect, and also joined numerous clubs like the Interact Club, Career Club, etc., with the sole purpose of meeting girls from girl schools. I was particularly keen on students from Sri Aman, Sri Petaling, Convent Bukit Nanas and Kuen Cheng. I didn’t think much of the ones from Assunta as I thought they were all rather hoity-toity. Besides, they were only keen on those buffoons from La Salle PJ. As I had some, ahem, talent in singing and I played the guitar (just 4 chords), I had a small ‘troupe of groupies’ particularly keen on my charms. It was then that I realised that one can look like an absolute berk, but if you had some talent, you could, well, score. Trust me when I say that I looked like a toad with a pair of glasses so thick you could hardly see my eyes.

And that brings me to what I really wanted to write about: relationships between our kids. I’m not talking about friendships. I mean real boyfriend-girlfriend thingy. The thing is they’re starting at 12. And don’t you tell me you don’t know that’s actually happening. If you really don’t then I would suggest you start paying close attention to your kids’ moody behaviour. But we can’t stop this though. It’s really all part of growing up. It’s just that they’re growing up that much faster and that they’re starting really young. Miley swinging on a Wrecking Ball does not help very much too.

As a father, I’m not too keen on my daughter having relationships simply because I think it’s a distraction. When they’re so caught up in a relationship, their emotions are bound to play havoc on their focus. Studies in cognitive science have already shown that multi-tasking is absolute hogwash. So, lacking focus isn’t good. Banning my daughter from engaging in a relationship though would be a futile exercise, so I’m handling it in a different way. For me, distraction can either be positive or negative. If one’s all gooey-eyed, unable to focus on school work or just totally spaced out, then that is definitely a negative distraction. A positive distraction would be encouraging one another to accomplish goals, like studying harder, getting better at a musical instrument and so on. Of course it’s all well and good if the relationship continues with little drama because I really wouldn’t know what to do if she suffers a break-up. That would be frightening. Hard enough as it is to get through to a teenager on normal stuff, it would be near impossible to penetrate their psyche when their relationships go sour. Good thing is my girl agrees with me on this, though I’m not sure if she’s just merely humouring me.

As for me, I never got into a relationship in school. I had some moments with the screaming, panting hoard of fans (just my imagination) and that was really it. Besides I was almost always surrounded by boys, and though I didn’t know it then, boys, turning into men, would later in life have a keen interest in me. But that’s another story for another day!

Cheers!

Golden Slumbers's Mindful Musings: INAPPROPRIATENESS

INAPPROPRIATENESS

'Oh! grandmother,' she said, 'what big ears you have!'

'All the better to hear you with, my child,' was the reply.

'But, grandmother, what big eyes you have!' she said.

'All the better to see you with, my dear.'

'But, grandmother, what large hands you have!'

'All the better to hug you with.'

'Oh! but, grandmother, what a terrible big mouth you have!'

'All the better to eat you with!'

And scarcely had the wolf said this, than with one bound he was out of bed and swallowed up Red Riding Hood.

                                                                                                            - From Little Red Riding Hood, Brothers Grimm                                                                                                   

In the recent case of a 23 year old man confessing to murdering a 15 year old girl, I was suddenly struck by a feeling of helplessness regarding the safety of my teenage daughter. Knowing that I cannot protect her forever has been giving me some sleepless nights. As a father who wishes to do the right thing by his daughter, and to always be there for her, I’m fully aware it is practically impossible to fulfil these wishes of mine. I can only keep trying.

Today’s article is all about inappropriate behaviour. When you have a man of, say 25, showering attention on your daughter of 14, you definitely will want to put a stop to it because that is as inappropriate as it can get. Girls of the age group between 11 and 16 are highly impressionable and any form of flattery and attention is bound to generate gushing feelings of young love. And as we know, young love can be pretty reckless. While it was almost impossible in my time to have a relationship of this nature and not be found out, the social media platform of today allows for secrecy and before you know it, things can get out hand. My daughter continues to engage in social media activities in the living room, for which I’m very thankful. She protests not with this arrangement, and I love her deeply for that. I have never once been tempted to sneak a peek in her social media life nor do I plan to in future. She knows that I trust her, err… so long as this social communication is done in the living room. I try very hard to treat her like an adult (I do miss that cute 4 year old though) and explain to her why she shouldn’t do certain things and so on. So if she grows up to be like a princess, then I know I have done right by her. If she grows up to be like Bonnie of Bonnie & Clyde infamy, then I’m screwed.

I don’t know how you as a parent might want to approach this subject of inappropriate behaviour, but I think it’s a subject that’s worth thinking deeply about. There are just far too many disturbed people in the world now.