dunia earth world universe

MICA (P) 169/03/2009 December 2009

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earthworlduniverse

UNITED WORLDCOLLEGES

MusicPages 4-5

DramaPages 9-10

SportsPages 14-21

Infant SchoolPages 22-25

Junior School Pages 26-29

Middle SchoolPages 30-31

High SchoolPages 32-35

Parents AssociationPage 36

SEALinksPage 37

AlumniPages 38-39

The CalendarPage 40

Hahnian ConnectionsRound Square is a world-wide association of more than 70 schools on five continents sharing a com-mitment to the educa-tional principles of Dr Kurt Hahn. Their fundamental objective is the full individual develop-ment of each student beyond academic excellence, to personal development and responsibility. It also embraces the im-portance of service to others, adventure and leadership training, responsibility and international understanding, within the supportive school community. All these are essential in preparing young people to meet the challenges of the future with confidence and compassion.

Membership offers the opportunity for collaboration between schools in regional conferences, student exchanges, scholar-ships and Gap Year programmes and, importantly, international service projects. The service projects follow Hahn’s belief that bringing young people from differ-ent backgrounds and cultures together in service work is a valuable step towards international understanding. Round Square schools are also committed to working closely with “Partner Schools” that are economically disadvantaged.

This year’s international Round Square Conference took place during the Octo-ber break and was co-hosted by Mayo College and Mayo College Girls’ School, in Rajasthan, India. The conference was attended by 650 delegates from over 70 schools in 28 different countries across six continents. UWCSEA’s delegation included eight High School students.

The theme of the conference was based upon an Indian mantra: ‘Lead me from the darkness of ignorance to the light of knowledge’. Many of the keynote speak-ers, who ranged from social activists to politicians to motivational speakers, addressed a need for empowerment, particularly in line with democracy and leadership (two of the Round Square IDEALS). In particular, Democracy was a heated topic of debate, with many speakers voicing differing opinions on the process of India’s democratisation.

Delegates often broke up into 32 smaller discussion groups, named ‘Barazas’, a Swahili word for meeting or forum, where much debate took place, giving partici-pants a forum to voice opinions on issues raised.

The conference served to diffuse a politi-cal conscience among the students and allowed them to engage with others of various backgrounds and principles over pressing social issues, with a centralized focus on India’s existing problems.

“The first thing that comes to mind when I think of the Round Square Conference is the immense diversity in the people I met,

and no matter the differences, I was al-ways able to outweigh those differences

with similarities”Shaan Varia (10NCo)

“The Round Square Conference, through close contact with the impassioned

speakers such as Aruna Roy and Mallika Sarabha, their messages made me

feel empowered. It is this unparalleled sensation from which I have derived a compulsion to one day instill the same

feeling in other human beings”Daniel O’Connor (12HSa)

(From left to right) Duncan Young, Aliya Khan, Shaan Varia, Monica Sharma, Maharaja K.R. Rai Rajpal Singh, Jose Luis Gallegos, Silpa Reddy, Enzo Vasquez Toral and Daniel O"Connor.

Dunia

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Dunia, December 2009

Dunia is published by United World College of South East Asia. Reproduction in any manner in English or any other language is prohibited without written consent. Please send feedback

to [email protected]

Editor Joy Stevenson Sub Editor Kate Woodford Layout Lenca Yew

www.uwcsea.edu.sg

Letter from the head

Muchas Gracias, Chicos!Thank you very much María and

Benjamín!

It was a pleasure to have a couple of extra hands to help us organize our Spanish classes, especially at the beginning of the school year when

there is so much to do to get started. I am very sure both the children and

us, teachers, will miss the “Latin Blood” in our future lessons. We

hope you have found the experience useful and we wish you the best in

your future careers. Good Luck!

Susana and Gloria

As part of the Round Square organiza-tion, several schools worldwide offer Gap Year programmes of varying lengths. Many students take this opportunity to gain experience of a new culture and or a new language. The work involved de-pends on the school, but this may range from being a teacher assistant, assist-ing in boarding house duties, providing individual support to students, working in outdoor adventure programmes and in service projects.

Ben and Maria are our first incoming Gap Year students. They both completed their IB Diploma last year at Colegio Anglo Colombiano in Bogota, Colombia. After this GAP experience, Ben plans to study at Boston University, USA and Maria will return to Colombia to study medicine at Los Andes University.

As a reciprocal exchange programme, Colegio Anglo Colombiano have extend-ed an invitation to our students to go on a GAP programme at their school which teaches both in English and Spanish. Working with the Spanish Department as teacher assistants in the Junior School of UWCSEA has been an astounding expe-rience in a variety of ways. We were able to view the learning process and perceive how it takes place in a classroom, in ad-dition to learning about child psychology and the crucial components of teaching.

Upon arrival, the high number of kids who are learning Spanish was flabbergasting. Considering it’s not widely spoken in the region and that minimal practice is avail-able, the number of students surpassed our expectations. We were impressed by their willingness to learn and the love they had towards learning a different language.

After spending time with Spanish teach-ers, witnessing their dedication, we came close to understanding what teaching a language is like; and the effort and patience teachers put forth to teach a lan-guage to children living in a non-Spanish speaking society.

María and Benjamín

The philosophy of Round Square is en-capsulated in the acronym, IDEALS: In-ternationalism, Democracy, Environment, Adventure, Leadership and Service.

Given the close alignment of the UWC and Round Square philosophies, it only seemed natural for the College to become a member of the Round Square. Since joining three years ago, students from Grade 7 upwards have attended both international and regional confer-ences and been on exchange visits to other Round Square schools. We have hosted a regional conference at the College and another is scheduled for next June. In addition, the two Gap Year students who are helping with Spanish at different levels within the College come from a Round Square school in Colombia - opportunities exist for our students to be involved in a similar way in other Round Square schools.

Looking to the future, like the UWC movement, the Round Square has plans to expand its membership to include regions of the world in which it is under-represented, including large parts of Asia. Allied to this expansion to include schools that share a similar philosophy is an aspiration to develop ‘partner schools’. Current members of the Round Square are being encouraged to develop relation-ships with schools from disadvantaged communities and support them in their development and programmes, an area we are considering. They also intend to extend the membership so that Junior School students can become involved, a move we wholeheartedly support.

Julian Whiteley

Round Square Gap Year Programme

Dunia, December 2009 3

“The best day of the year!” ….” It shows our true com-munity spirit”... These were comments made during our ninth Primary School Food Festival which was held in November. It has become an event that the whole community looks forward to, which was made clear as I stood at the door trying the hold back the wave of senior students who had raced from their lessons to make sure they did not miss out on the wonderful food that was on offer. This event only happens because of the goodwill and generosity of over 300 parents who come from all parts of the College. We also have a number of parents whose children have long since left the Primary School but they are still supporting this event. As well as the parent coordinators and helpers, there is also a large team of UWCSEA administra-tive and support staff who ensure that everything runs smoothly. In particular Margaret, assisted by Hani and Lousia, Sebastian and his estates team and Rafi’ee and his electricians, Boon Chye and Alan. A total of $3,612 was collected from staff and non-Pri-mary School students and this will be shared equally amongst the Primary School Global Concerns.

Chris Fensom

Dover UN Food Festival - not just for Primary School

On Saturday, 21 November UWCSEA Dover hosted over 300 teachers from 11 different international schools in Singapore for the biennial TeachIT training day. During the day the teachers attended over 60 workshops dedicated to improving their IT skills to support teaching and learning. Over 40 presenters, the majority teachers themselves, provided the sessions on a diverse range of topics.

(Far right) Wendy Liao demonstrating use of iPods in the classroom. (Near right) Wayne Burnett (GESS) conducting a session on virtual Lego.

UWCSEA hosts TeachIT 2009

Photos by Joseph Tan and Chris Fensom

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The Chamber Concert in early Novem-ber featured many truly magnificent

performances. The evening began with a vivid and thoroughly engaging perform-ance of Mendelssohn’s Piano Quartet No.3 in B minor which had been prepared under the direction of Roos Seeger. Of the many notable solos heard, one must give special mention to John Park’s mellifluous clarinet tone which was perfect for his presentation of Debussy’s ‘Premiere Rhapsodie’. Minsu Byun’s perceptive reading of Liszt’s ‘Un Sospiro’ drew an enthusiastic response from the knowledgeable audience who clearly ap-preciated the subtle nuances and details of both the playing and the music. After the interval, Ward Seeger gave an as-sured performance of one of my personal favourites, Cesar Franck’s Violin Sonata, and we were also treated to an original song by Andrea Vazquez Zuckermann which she performed herself. To end the concert, piano prodigy Aileen Gozali gave an outstanding performance of Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 4 leaving the audience in awe of the extraordinary talent on show. The concert was coordi-nated by Helen Rhodes and beautifully hosted by Aliena Haig.

The Jazz Band under the direction of Miles Tranter represented UWCSEA at the World-in-Singapore Concert 2009. They played two numbers; ‘Splanky’ with improvisations by Ward Seeger (tenor saxophone), Rajeev Sanjeev (trombone) and ‘Pecking Order’ which featured Ken Yoneda (alto saxophone) and Kyle Astill

(bass guitar). As followers of UWCSEA’s Jazz Band have come to expect, the band played with great style and panache thrilling the large audience with their musical artistry.

On the following Monday the Music Department staged the first of two concerts in the Main Hall. ‘Prelude’ began by focusing on the College’s young string players. The Camerata, led by Ros Lillywhite with the assistance of Helen Leeming played the familiar, and appropriately seasonal, ‘Troika’ from Prokofiev’s Lieutenant Kijé Suite and then an exquisite set of variations based on Thomas Moore’s ‘The Min-strel Boy’. Concert Strings, directed by Roos Seeger, presented two demand-ing canonic pieces by Mozart before heightening passions with the attractive Tango D’Amour. The depth of musical talent in our community is truly astonish-ing and was, once again, highlighted by the Orchestra’s performance of Bizet’s L’Arlésienne Suite and Percy Grainger’s epic arrangement of the traditional tune ‘Shepherd’s Hey’. The second half of the concert was no less spectacular both in terms of quality and quantity as the spot-light turned to our woodwind, brass and percussion instrumentalists. The Band, conducted first by Carl Jenkins and then by Miles Tranter, presented two evoca-tive programmatic pieces, ‘Desert Voices’ and ‘Ghost Riders’ by Roland Barrett. The concert was brought to a close by the Symphonic Band who after present-ing Stuart Johnson’s Sinfonietta for Wind

Orchestra, ended with ‘Saxophonia’ highlighting the talents of the Symphonic Band’s saxophone section.

The ‘Fugue’ concert, held the next evening, opened with Stefan Merchant’s Guitar Ensemble in good form as they presented a range of pieces, includ-ing Sting’s ‘Fields of Gold’ and a lively Baroque dance piece by Bach. The In-termediate Jazz Ensemble established an upbeat feel to the concert with two well-known tunes, the Latin Jazz tune ‘Cubano Chant’ and ‘The Preacher’. The Jazz Band repeated their excellent performance of the proceeding week with the addition of a fun shuffle piece, ‘Out of the Doghouse’ which featured solos

November MusicNovember proved to be a busy month for our musicians.


November Music

The evening ended with a performance by Cantabile led by Karen Niedermeyer. They gave a first performance of student composer Tasha Stoltz’s setting of the ‘Kyrie Eleison’. Tasha’s composition was inspired by the vocal writing of Palestrina and Gabrieli.

Our musicians are already busily prepar-ing for the OPUS 2010 concert to be held on Tuesday, 9 March, 7.30pm at the Esplanade Concert Hall. Tickets for this event will go on sale in January.

Adrian Hill

by the irrepressible Ken Yoneda on alto saxophone and George Ames on guitar.

The second part of the evening focused on the choral groups. Arioso, paid tribute to Michael Jackson’s musical legacy as they presented two songs arranged especially for the ‘Fugue’ concert by the choir’s director, Michel Fox. ‘She’s Out of My Life’ featured Maya Davidov as the soloist and the second song, ‘I just Can’t Stop Loving You’ was stylishly sung as a duet by Ginger Mayo and Jessica Ng. The Singers, directed by Helen Rhodes and Michel Fox, presented an eclectic mix of songs including the Korean folk song ‘Ahrirang’ featuring the beautiful Korean flute playing of Kwon Hong-Gu.

Photos by Henry Chang

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China Cultural Immersion TripI’ve been to many places and seen unforgettable things, and many of these were on a recent school trip to Southeast China, when around 30 students went to China in the first week of the October break.

Hangzhou was a beautiful place to start our trip. The Chinese have a quote that says “In the sky there is heaven, and on earth there is Hangzhou and Suzhou.” One of the teachers was originally from Hangzhou, and she helped me under-stand a lot about the Chinese culture in Hangzhou. We spent a day on “West Lake” and on a nearby hill stood the big-gest pagoda of Hangzhou. Many legends are told about this very pagoda, and some say it crumbled in 2006 because the citizens of Hangzhou did not like the structure and each took a brick after their prayers. Slowly, they say, it started to break until it could stand no longer and fell.

That night, we watched a show per-formed on the lake itself and it was really quite amazing. I’m not quite sure how they did it, but the actors gave the illusion that they were walking on the surface of the lake. I believe there was a big plat-form right underneath the lake, because in the middle of the performance, a big building emerged from the water.

Every day during our stay in Hangzhou, we visited a local Chinese school and interacted with the pupils. Each day we attended different classes such as Maths or Art and the last day we went to a pot-tery museum. The principal explained this was like a second campus; students came once a week as part of the art programme. I especially liked talking to my buddy Tina, whom I spent the most time; we talked about family, school, and things we liked to do. She taught me things in Chinese, and I taught her things in English. I really appreciated that even though we didn’t speak the same language, we could still have a conversa-tion like I would with someone I just met who spoke English. On the third day, we did some activities together like making dumplings and the talent show was the

main highlight of the day for everyone. Our performances were so different from theirs, but it all fitted together perfectly. I really enjoyed my experiences in this school. It taught me so much about Chi-nese culture, and I am proud to say that Tina and I are still in touch even after we left Hangzhou.

Shanghai was our last stop. We visited a really crowded night market, and went up the Shanghai TV tower. When we got to the top, we got to this room that was surrounded by a big corridor. There were holes in the ceiling and walls so wind was blowing in and it felt like we were outside in the cold. The floor and the walls were transparent so we laid on the floor for hours looking through and watching all the lights flash and all the cars go by. That was our last night, and the next day we went to the airport and came back to Singapore.

I was really proud to be a part of this trip and I feel like I learnt a lot. I am excited about going on next year’s trip and I hope everyone had as much fun as I did.

Saphia Petard, (7MSi)Tiger WatchAfter the Round Square conference, a group of students travelled to Rantham-bhore National Park to meet the found-ers of Tiger Watch. Started to help save tigers from poachers, their work focuses on a number of projects, including train-ing the men of the Moghiya tribe, who are expert trackers, to become nature guides for tourists visiting the park. Another is the growing of Guggal, a medicinal plant used in Ayurveda.

The women are also involved in an em-powerment programme that encourages them to produce handicrafts for selling

in the markets. We bought back as many as we could fit into our luggage, includ-ing many beau-tiful hand sewn and embroidered quilts.

Tiger Watch GC will sell these at the Community Fair. Don’t miss out!


In the October school break, 42 East Campus staff members and their families visited the Widhya Asih Orphanage in Blimbingsari, about five hours from Kuta, Bali. The trip was organised by Craig Coutts who set up the initiative ‘Bali Bridges’ that contributes to the running of the orphanage. Our plan was to paint a mural on the walls of the orphanage – a three-day project undertaken in collaboration with the resident children.

On arrival, we were treated to a welcome “Frog Prince” dance and a Gamelan recital. We spent the first few hours getting to know the children by playing board games, doing craft and drawings, and playing ball games with them (they are extremely good at soccer) while Hamish Betts (Grade 2 teacher and muralist) was busy sketching the mural outline. Later, the children showed us around the village pointing out their school, church, and the nearby cocoa plantations.

The next two days were spent painting vivid scenes - jungles, mountains, waterfalls, birds and animals. The atmosphere was buzzing with activity with everyone enthusi-astically getting involved in one way or the other. People took turns painting, mixing paint, washing brushes and running errands! We also visited the Melaya orphanage to inaugurate their-newly built kitchen, which was sponsored by DFS Galleria.

Late on the final day, the mural was completed with the help of jeep light, and we all felt we had accomplished something wonderful together. Our departure was extremely emotional and we promised to return soon. We gave the orphanage a new vibrancy, and the experience gave us colourful memories that we will all cherish.

Poonam Thapar

Photos by Wendy Liao, Haidee Betts and Hamish Betts

East Campus staff brighten Bali

For some, going to work in an orphanage during your half term break would be somewhat of a

chore. But when you have visited and played, worked, and most

importantly met the kids, you can really say it is the opposite of a

chore. Just to see the smiles you can bring to them within four days

is extraordinary.

I know lots of people say that “if you do small things, greater

things will lead” but in this case it is really true. Everyone put their heart and soul into helping these children. Seeing the smiles as we

came and the tears as we left, shows that people really appreci-

ate all the help we gave these children.

Kyla van der Heijden(Grade 7, Dover Campus)

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The Tsunami Education Fund (TEF) is nearly half way through its mandate of helping school-aged children maintain their education despite being orphaned by the Tsunami of December 2004. Pres-ently 268 students are attending school in Banda Aceh with the help of money that was raised by parents, students, teachers and businesses.

How does it sustain its goal of ensuring every dollar raised will reach the recipi-ents, the children who need it?

It is through the effort, time and physi-cal presence of those that strive to meet a need. They realise that through their efforts, a small group of children fatefully linked on the same day by a common loss have been guaranteed the opportu-nity of an education.

Success breeds successProjects only work when those involved are committed. The commitment of the team working on the TEF is truly extraordinary. The half term break for our UWCSEA Acehnese scholars was anything but. The synergy of their ef-

forts in conjunction with the energy of a UWCSEA alumni mother is inspiring. The team worked on each other’s strengths. The UWCSEA students have felt the desire to give back, to foster relation-ships with youngsters of their own age. They have started to realise some of the opportunities they have been given and it has encouraged them to help facilitate those the TEF have identified. But what was truly inspiring is that the students from UWCSEA, the mum, the recipients and Ai, a true philanthropist from Banda Aceh, collectively benefited each other. It was the dynamic, the common goal to facilitate the education of the orphans that fostered the most positive and con-structive energy from which all involved gained inspiration.

Yes, 195 orphans were “interviewed”; yes, 90 schools and orphanages were visited and yes, 10-hour days were spent by the Singapore team. The statistics, the funding, whilst significant, seem less important than the personal growth experienced by all. It is fantastic to know that approximately half the TEF students who have graduated have moved onto

Motivation and mutual respect drives the Tsunami Education Fund

tertiary education. That one TEF gradu-ate is now in medical school, others are training to be nurses, engineers and teachers…But for us, what has made the TEF work is that students from UWC-SEA have realised a passion. They have offered language, energy, and integrity; built upon their skills and so developed as young persons. The mum is as inspired as she is inspirational; she has developed a bond not of compassion or benevo-lence but offered a sincere hand to 488 youngsters that lost so much nearly five years ago.

Wayne Fozzard Photo by Pat Meyer

Mark Woodforde, a retired professional tennis player from Australia, is most famously remembered as one half of “The Woodies”, a world-class doubles partnership with Todd Woodbridge in the 90s. Together they won 12 Grand Slam doubles titles in their career, and Woodforde won the 1989 US Open doubles with John McEnroe.

Mark visited Dover Campus on 26 November to conduct a tennis clinic for wheelchair athletes and UWCSEA Grade 10 Sports Stud-ies students. He was brought to UWCSEA with the support of Barclays Capital representative Kevin Burke. Barclays Capital sponsor the Wheelchair Basketball Association program which is based at UWCSEA.

During the tennis clinic, Woodforde was greatly impressed by the level of skill and mobility demonstrated by the handicapped ath-letes on the court. UWCSEA students gained insight into playing sports in a wheelchair by joining the drills and games. The morning clinic provided a memorable and valuable experience for all involved.

Ulli Niedermeyer Photos by Henry Chang

Aussie tennis champ inspires wheelchair athletes

Rudhian Putra, a Grade 11 Acehnese scholar updating information on TEF students.


The Spirit of Commedia dell’ArteIn October, Artist in Residence and Commedia dell’Arte artist Marco Luly, from Rome, worked with a group of High School students in a series of intense workshops that culminated in two performances in early November. These students worked very hard to bring what is a very challenging theatrical form to fruition. Commedia is a form of improvised Italian street theatre that requires physical ability and energy. It also exemplifies all that is valuable about live theatre performance; teamwork, trust, courage and communication with an audience. The students had the opportunity to work with a world-class expert who is committed to passing on his skills in a mentor-ing and teaching capacity.

Despite the short rehearsal time ,the skill level acquired by the stu-dent performers was outstanding. Audiences were also treated to a performance by Marco himself whose mastery of the tradition very clearly demonstrated the ease with which theatre is able to cross language and cultural boundaries.

Lynne Arrol

‘Private Lives’It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience working with the cast and crew of Private Lives. Even though the rehearsal sched-ule was hectic, we had great fun impro-vising around Noël Coward’s observance of middle class behaviour. As we became immersed in the world of 1930s English high life, we came that little bit closer to understanding and appreciating Noël Coward’s perspective on society through which he, at times, meandered, slunk, slithered, critiqued and often set behav-ioural and sartorial standards.

What was particularly satisfying was watching both the actors and our musi-cians coming to terms with Coward’s brand of humour and laughing a little, then out loud at the observations (both silly and serious) he makes. Some of the era-specific vocabulary was challenging, and the accents to which the words are set, like musical accompaniment. There is effervescence, romance and daring inherent in Coward’s writing that is well suited to the high-energy, emotional sensitivity and sense of playfulness of the young cast. Audiences clearly enjoyed the cut and thrust of the ‘sport’ of Noël Coward.Jamie Cant

“Over the course of putting together ‘Pri-vate Lives’, I have not only developed as an actor, but also have had the privilege of experiencing Noel Coward’s theatre. I was truly amazed at the timeless-ness of the wit and intention conveyed in Coward’s dialogue along with his unconventional ability to give the simplest characters an extremely complex and in-timate importance. Performing this piece of Coward’s work has been a thoroughly enjoyable experience, particularly the fun of embracing and being exposed to characters not quite like my own. The opportunity to work with a very supportive and friendly cast and crew, from whom I have learnt enormous amounts, and often having a good laugh with, has really made this journey all the more memora-ble.” Nishad More (Actor - Victor Prynne)

“’Private Lives’ has been a very unique experience for me. Twentieth century music has never been my specialty, and especially the style of Noel Coward. Towards the end of the production, I was saturated with mixed feelings deep inside me – not only thrilled by the success of the production, but also happy for all the

friendly members of the cast and the crew, seeing all their hard work being paid off. My transformation into a pre-senter of Coward’s songs is after all, very interesting. I look forward to any similar opportunities in the future.” Jimmy Wu (Vocalist)

Having a small cast of only four, and per-forming in such an intimate space, was a very new experience and one that only became really apparent when performing to a full studio. Being able to see the face of every member of the audience, while practically sitting on the laps of the front row, brought on a whole new meaning to the idea of an ‘intimate comedy’. Playing Amanda was like emptying a “nasty little bottle” of all my bad traits, qualities and emotions, and playing around with them - I loved it.” Georgia Simmonds (Actor - Amanda Prynne)

“’Private Lives’ was such an amazing experience! I really liked the play and the music in it. At first, the music was chal-lenging to me as it was difficult to accom-pany because Noel Coward’s songs are very free in tempo. Gradually, I could see the improvement. In the performance, the music came together nicely, and it made me forget all the tiredness from the re-hearsals. I really enjoyed the experience, and I will never forget it!” Seung Hyun Suh (Pianist)

I can barely imagine a week without a gruelling rehearsal stuffed to the top with witty insults, sarcasm and Noël Coward, who is in a category all by himself. If there’s one thing this play has taught me, it’s the wonder of finally falling into char-acter, and the difficulty of falling out of it.” Nikhil Mahapatra (Elyot Chase)

Aussie tennis champ inspires wheelchair athletes

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There is something primeval about want-ing to scare and be scared. How many of us - with friends, with family – have at least once in our lives turned the lights down low to tell of ghosts? As long as there are people who are alarmed by the dark and who fear the sound of unfamiliar footsteps in the night, there is always room for a good old-fashioned ghost story. It is this central premise that has made The Woman in Black so popular since it first opened in London’s West End in 1987.

Stephen Mallatratt’s adaptation of Susan Hill’s novel is one of the world’s most successful plays. Unanimously acclaimed by the critics, it combines the power and intensity of live theatre with a cinematic quality inspired by the world of film noir. More than three million people in more than 40 countries have seen it. For three nights in November, audiences of all ages were able to watch a production of the play in the Roy Bennett Theatre.

The play tells the story of Young Arthur Kipps who is ordered to travel up from London to attend the funeral of a mysteri-ous widow and then sort out her papers. While there, he glimpses a young woman with a wasted face, dressed all in black.

The play is told using just two actors to play all the parts while all the sets - the pony trap, the grand country house, the graveyard - are recreated using little more than a trunk and a couple of chairs. This minimalist approach is extremely successful in creating a sense of unease and fear as the audience is lead in-exorably towards the woman in black’s terrible secret. It is an incredible chal-lenge for any actor and both Lodewijk Vriens and Nikhil Sambamurthy rose to that challenge with astonishing maturity and success. They were brilliantly and atmospherically helped by the technical virtuosity of the lighting and sound effects teams (led by Nic Cater and Kate Jewitt respectively) who created a nightmare world of shadows, darkness, strange noises and terrifying revelations. Audi-ences were held in breath-kept silence and on the edge of their seats until they were jolted dramatically into loud screams and audible gasps

The Woman in Black was a memorable and hugely enjoyable production. As over 800 people who saw the produc-tion can testify, there is something unbeatable and unashamedly entertain-ing about being really scared.

Text and photos by Jonathan Carter

Written and directed by Grade 12 student Shloka Grover, student production “From Six Feet Under” was an enjoyable watch. The story is told by a dead character, Jason Milligia, played with flair and con-fidence by Jacopo di Marco, who shows the audience what happens to the people

The Woman in Black

that are left behind after his death. It revolves around Jake Milligia, played by Callum Wilson, who defiantly strikes out at everyone close to him, having been deprived of attention when he needed it most. The actor portrayed his feelings of loneliness and underlying guilt effectively, making the audience sympathetic with his suffering and shocked with his sudden changes in attitude.

Fraser Barton did a fine job as Detective McCormick, bringing in the comic relief as he interrogated wary suspects and tried to solve the mystery. His stage voice was unique and brought charm to his on-stage persona. Andrea Petitcollin delivered an intense and smouldering representation of the play’s ‘femme fatale’, Angela, while Oliver Mangham’s understated menace, as the unexpected villain of the piece formed an effective contrast with Shai-

yra Devi’s sensitive interpretation of the bereaved Milligia mother and Lara van der Heijden’s natural and sympathetic portrayal of Jake’s long suffering wife.

Able support was provided by a techni-cal crew of Grade 11 and 12 Theatre students, whose strong backstage work brought the play together. All in all, ‘From Six Feet Under’ was a slick, well execut-ed piece of theatre and particular credit must go to the writer/director Shloka Grover for bringing the show from page to stage so effectively.

Arshiya Goel Grade 11

From Six Feet Under

Angela (Andrea Petitcollin) is interrogated by Detective McCormick (Fraser Barton) as Jason (Jacopo di Marco) looks on.

Photo by Avanti Narayanan


School-wide action Following a visit from Kate Griffin of the Indochina Starfish Foundation (ISF) in early November a number of grades on the East Campus began projects to support their programmes, which include education in English and Khmer, as well as a weekend football programme that attracts up to 1,000 children. While Grade 5 students (pictured at right) decided to take action to help Cambodian children through a collection drive to provide basic educational materials, the Student Coun-cil organised a clothing drive, and 2MGo began coordinating collection of football gear. Grade 5 students were encour-aged to think about the ways they could contribute at home to earn the contents of the stationary packs, which were then donated to children.

Photos by Andrea Naylor, Rob O’Toole, Louise Phinney and Kate Woodford

K2 (pictured top left), who had also had a visit from parent Irene Rommen to talk about her work in Cambodia with the Nor-wegian Association for Private Enterprise, also decided to help out – their idea was to put together packets of basic provi-sions such as toothpaste and brush, soap and pencils and other stationary items.

The materials collected by the students were distributed in Cambodia the trip by the East Campus staff. It is planned that the ISF will become the Grade 6 GC next year, when the current Grade 5 students move up to become the first-ever Grade 6 cohort on the East Campus.

Margot Marks and Kate Woodford

Four East Campus staff - Margot Marks, Rob O’Toole, Mario Saez and Andrea Naylor - recently visited several NGO’s in and around Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The group travelled to investigate ways the East Campus Primary School can provide support for the organisations in a coordinated effort as part of the Global Concerns programme.

Friday’s visits were to a maternity hospital and village schools run by Norwegian As-sociation for Private Enterprise in Cam-bodia, escorted by parent Irene Rommen who is involved in the organisation. They

Connecting with Cambodiaalso spent time at the offices of the BSDA (Buddhism and Society Development Association) in Kampong Cham, which supports education and social awareness programmes focused on reaching the poorest of the poor by offering language and computer training, and other educa-tional opportunities, as well as assistance for urgent social and community projects.

On Saturday, the staff visited the All For One Foundation shelter which assists girls rescued from the sex trade, as well as the New Future for Children orphan-age. This facility provides care, education

and vocational training for older orphans – one of whom is ap-plying for a UWCSEA scholar-ship.

The group spent their final day with Kate Griffin from the Indochina Starfish Founda-tion (ISF). Grade 6 on the East Campus will adopt ISF as their GC next year and in a precursor to establishing the GC, Kate recently visited the East Campus. On this return visit, the staff managed to visit

both the school established by ISF as

well as the dump where the children live. The team also spent the afternoon at the football clinics sponsored by ISF, enjoy-ing the games and meeting the children in the programme.

12


Movember - the month formerly known as NovemberThe East Campus community em-braced the idea of growing moustaches on Monday, 30 November all in the name of a good cause – men’s health. While many male staff members took the month long challenge to cultivate a moustache in a design of their choos-ing, female staff and students joined in on the last day of the month for a token donation. A special thank you to Grade 1 parent Felipe Monassi Kedia who raised nearly $1,000 through sponsor-ship of his own moustache.

Staff on Dover Campus also got behind Movember, with teachers cultivating a moustache of their own design the month. Barry Daniels was crowned ‘Mo Bro of the Year’.

In all nearly $3,000 was raised and donated to assist in research and devel-opment work into men’s health issues. More information can be found on the website - www.movember.com.

On Monday, 30 November, the ABT was packed with talent…four singers, six guitarists, two drummers, one pianist, seven dancers, four cross-dressers, one DJ, one magician and one Bollywood yo-yo-ist, from Grades 6 to 12…all there to entertain an audience of almost 200

UWC’s Got Talent…bags of it!students, parents and teachers and to compete for the title of ‘UWC’s Got Talent 2009’.

Once the audi-ence votes were counted, Grade 6 band Linus & the Lunchbuddies was declared the winning act, with band members Linus Lester-Hodges, Nicolas Vandenborre and Isabella Williams

taking home the title, trophy, and a big basket of Hershey’s sponsored goodies. “I thought the show had great people with great talents. But I’m really happy that we won the first UWC’s Got Talent” said bass guitarist, Nicolas, whilst back up vocalist, Georgia Stannard, exclaimed,

Text by Karl Wilcox and Andy Carter; photos by Wendy Liao, George Peak and Marius Smits, and Henry Chang

“I was in shock, because all the other contestants were amazing. It was a cool experience.”

Kate Levy

Introducing Linus & the Lunchbuddies.

Photos by Meghna Chand (12SLu)


Three toothbrushes, seven countries ago, my Gap Year was indisputably the best year ever. I started off in Phnom Penh working with the NGO, Bridges Across Borders South East Asia, on a project organised through UWCSEA. I was with eight other graduates and together we taught in seven schools

and orphanages and I also worked one night a week in a small bar, where I

met some incredibly interesting people. I think I can speak for all of us when I say that it was an incredible four months. Teaching was difficult but

rewarding; the kids were tiring but so much fun, and exploring the city and

the Khmer lifestyle was thrilling.

I couldn’t have asked for a better way to spend a year and even I’m

impressed that it all worked out and I managed to organise everything in time and with so few problems, something I would never have thought I could have

done a year ago. Sophie Geoghegan (2008 - 2009)

“You won’t regret it”

I too was in Phnom Penh working with the NGO, Bridges Across Bor-ders South East Asia. I kept saying

that four months was the perfect amount of time since it was long

enough for me to make a difference for my students, yet not too long.

In the end, four months was far too short. Leaving the children was ter-

rible and I managed to keep my emo-tions under control until it was time for our final goodbyes. Some of my

children started crying as we hugged which really touched me and opened

the floodgates.

I feel like I am the luckiest 18 year old alive, having the opportunity to

make a difference as well as meeting the most adorable children ever. If I

had the opportunity, I would adopt all 86 of them. I might still be young and ignorant but it never hurts to dream

and wish for the impossible.Gustav Wessman (2008-2009)

You’d be hard pressed to find a place friendlier than the Philippines. When I first arrived here in early 2009, I was treated

like a long lost brother, something I really was not used to. Total strangers would come up to in the street and ask you

personal questions for no reason other than they saw you and were interested.

People here treat each other as brothers and sisters and it seems like everyone knows everyone. Another thing I have

noticed about the Cebuano people is that they are friendly and welcoming and not at all shy to sing and dance whenever

they feel like it.

However, they are shy when it comes to academics. It took me nearly a week to get the students I was teaching to be

confident enough to talk to me about their work and to answer questions in class. I was caught completely off-guard by this. I had trouble getting some students to show me their written work and nearly

all of them hid it from me until they were finished.

As a result of the Gap Year I have been accepted to study Human Rights and Law at University in UK. I would really recom-mend coming here to any Grade 12 who wants to do something really worthwhile

before university. You won’t regret it.Jamie Jewitt (2009)

Applications are now open for the 2010 Gap Year Programme. The application form can be downloaded from the GapYear website page where there are also details of all our exciting projects. For more information please contact [email protected].

14


ACSISThis is a very exciting time for the development of boys’ football for the International Schools of Singapore. The introduction of the ACSIS leagues has expanded the number of schools involved in competitive football to 23. The 19&U league had three divisions with UWCSEA Dover competing in divisions 1 and 2.

The 19&U A team were confident of success following last year’s victory and two very successful warm up games. The team put together some excellent performances including victories over Overseas Family School 8-0 and Tanglin Trust 7-1. In fact, UWCSEA Dover topped the table winning all of the games scoring a total of 30 goals and conceding only 8. It was a whole team performance with 10 players scoring. Notable performances came from Rajorshi Maitra and Benjamin Price who were voted as “Most Valuable Player” (MVP) and Jamie Roberts who took the award for MVP in the league.

The 19&U B team were placed in a very competitive division 2 against most of the other schools A teams. They had some very tight games and were always in with a chance of victory until the final whistle. A very creditable final place of 5th saw them winning one game and tying two. Well done to Sakdinont Nonthivetpong who was voted MVP for division 2.

The 16&U A team were looking to defend the title they had earned since the incep-tion of the leagues in 2005. The team looked strong on paper and they proved too strong for all the opposing teams winning all of their six games scoring a total of 34 goals and conceding only 4. Notable performances came from Jack Ryan and Gal Benami who were voted as MVP’s by the league coaches.

The 16&U B team also competed in division 1 against all the large schools A teams. The team proved to be more than capable of holding their own in this league and scored 19 goals in total. The team finished the season in 6th place, winning two games. Peter Thomas, Joon Ho and Jack Webster were voted MVP’s.

The 16&U C team competed in division 2 and ended the season in 6th place scoring 21 goals. Congratulations to Nelson Htoo who was voted MVP for division 2.

Mike Little

SEASACThis year’s tournament was held at BIS Jakarta. With both the UWCSEA girls’ and boys’ teams going into the tourna-ment as joint holders the pressure was on as the teams everyone was looking to beat. The boys team was confident com-ing into the tournament off the back of a very successful domestic season, and it showed with a sterling 6-0 win in the first game over MKIS, the pick of the bunch being a lofted cross-field pass from Riju to Sahand at the back post who chested and volleyed home expertly.

The second game followed much the same pattern with a 4-0 victory over CDNIS. However a shock 3-0 defeat to a competitive NIST in the third game of the day served as a reminder to the lads that winning SEASAC was going to be a bat-tle. In the penultimate group game vs. the

hosts in a ‘winner goes through’ match, under torrential rain and amid the tense atmosphere, UWCSEA triumphed 1-0. Special mention must go to Kyle Morris for some superb goalkeeping, mak-ing countless saves from pointblank range.

The second day began with a 2-0 win over GIS to secure our through to the semi-final, with an en-counter against the highly skilful RIS next. We pulled

off a gritty 2-1 win after a tense last couple of minutes. The final was set for a UWCSEA – Bangkok Patana classic, with the two teams waiting a whole year for this game to be played; there was no chance of either team not being up for it. We began the match brilliantly, outplay-ing Patana in every department, before Benjamin Price stepped up with a classy strike into the top corner. Marc-Kevin Seigfried sealed the victory late on for a deserved championship for UWCSEA. Well done to the squad: Jamie Roberts (MVP), Marc-Kevin Seigfried (MVP), Kyle Morris (MVP), Sahand Bagheri (MVP), Ben Price, Alexander Cox, Rajorshi Mai-tra, Pierre Chalon, Zal Udwadia, Louis Speelmans, Ross Robertson and Sondre Knutsen.

Jamie Roberts (Captain)

UWCSEA teams triumph at SEASAC


Girls Football determined to bring back the SEASAC trophyThis has been one of the most success-ful seasons ever for U16 and U19 Girls’ Football at the College, with the girls’ teams winning virtually every tournament they have entered. It is a just reward for the commitment to training and playing our students have demonstrated from day one of the season. All of the 6:30am fitness sessions really paid off!

Two teams played at U16 level in the ACSIS Football League. After an out-standing season in Division One, the A team, coached by Gabriel Esswood, won silver behind a very strong SAS side. The U16 B team, coached by Kim Brumby, won every game in Division Two becom-ing champions in superb fashion. MVPs in this team were Amrita Deol, Nathalie Soo and Sabrina Wilson. The U16s also triumphed in Phuket at the British Inter-national School‘s Invitational Tournament with a 100% winning record.

The U19 B team, coached by Neil Tett, played in the ACSIS League. This com-petition is populated by A teams from other schools, and is one that our A team played in previously. It was, therefore, a fantastic achievement for our girls to win this league. They lost only one game on route to the title, clinching it in dramatic style with a late equalizer against Tanglin Trust School in the final match.

Our U19 A team, coached by Steve Webster, was unbeaten all season, winning both the FAS Young Womens’ League and the SEASAC tournament at the British International School in Jakarta. The FAS competition is for U23s, so the UWCSEA girls were playing against op-ponents sometimes as much as six years older than them. We won nine games and drew one to become FAS Young Wom-ens’ League champions for 2009, scoring 59 goals and conceding only four, thanks to a very strong defence and our out-standing goalkeeper, Natasha Pedersen. Grace Rapp and Emily Webster finished right up with the league’s top goalscorers with 19 and 15 goals respectively from the 10 league games, which is some achievement in an U23 league. However, our overall success was founded on fantastic team spirit and a great willing-ness to work for each other shown by the whole squad of 17 players. The season’s highlight was probably our win against second-placed NTU, but the girls may well have enjoyed the 4-1 victory at the Singapore American School even more!

Buoyed by this success, the Senior A girls travelled to Jakarta determined to bring back the SEASAC trophy. SEASAC Football is a 7-a-side event,and the team performed superbly throughout the tour-nament, winning all seven matches and defeating a very strong NIST team from Bangkok 3-1 in the final. Siri Storeng, Alanna Murphy, Grace Rapp and Emily Webster all received MVP awards for their performances at SEASAC, with Grace and Emily scoring eight goals apiece. Once again, the tournament victory was founded on wonderful group solidarity, and it was lovely for us to have coaches from opposing teams making such positive comments about our girls’ performances and general attitude.

The SEASAC weekend was made even more special by the fact the UWCSEA boys won their tournament on the same pitch straight after our final. The scenes of joint celebration by the two UWCSEA teams who had trained so hard, com-peted so well and supported each other so enthusiastically will stay in everyone’s memories for a very long time.

Well done to all the girls who have contributed to football this season, and a special thanks to all those parents who came to league matches and SEASAC to support the teams.

Steve Webster

ACSIS TouchThe 12U touch team made great progress within this season. As season one com-menced, the majority of the players on the team had never played touch before, let alone touched a rugby ball. However, as the weeks went on, the growth that could be seen within the team was considerable, especially given the short amount of time they had to develop their

skills.

This was an ACSIS tournament. The team found the tournament a challenge at the beginning, as they faced far more experienced teams than themselves, such as Tanglin SAS, AIS and OFS. Therefore, throughout the first weeks of these games, their strength as a team was tested. They lost all their games in the first week. However, determined not to give up so quickly, they worked harder at training, and came out with either vic-tories or ties in the weeks that followed. The week after ACSIS, they entered into another tournament - this time they would face the French School as well. In the finals for this tournament, they won 5-4 against OFS. The finals seemed to highlight the strengths of all our players, be it their speed, agility, knowledge of the game or their teamwork in general. It was amazing to see how they had grown; it is easy to envision many of the team going

on to play touch at a higher level.

Naherika Goyal and Hanayo Hasegawa

UWCSEA teams triumph at SEASAC

16


Volleyball starts againUWCSEA’s volleyball players had no time to sit back at the beginning of this school year. They were quickly immersed in practices and games commencing the second week back from the long summer break. The commitment of the players and their hard work paid off as they had many successful games. Most of all, each player’s skill level, from U14 to U18 improved dramatically. This year the volleyball programme had five teams involved: A and B team for Senior Girls, two boys team as well as one for 14U girls. The coaches were Andrea Mc-Donald (14U), Julia Matheson (Girls B), Matthew Taylor(Boys A and B), Pascale Rangoni (Girls A) and Hugh Richards (Boys A).

19&U BoysAfter a good turn-out at try-outs it was de-cided to enter two teams in to the ACSIS boys Volleyball league. Although many of the players had never played competitive volleyball before, they went from strength to strength during their eight weeks of training and playing. The highlight for the Boys 19&U B was beating SAS C team during the ACSIS league. The A team worked hard to get into competitive shape as most players were coming in for their first season in this sport. They made so much progress that they went into the ACSIS finals seeded #1 after being unbeaten in the seven seasonal games.

On finals day the team was shocked when Mateusz Dubaniowsk went down early with a rolled ankle - on reflection an omen for what was to come. However, al-though they progressed to the final fairly comfortably, Waseda proved just too powerful for the seven remaining players and we had to settle for silver after a tense 1-3 game.

Mateusz did not recover from his injury before SEASAC and Kevin was also injured so we took the decision to travel with just the starting six players and Shiven as libero. Unfortunately, we took another two injuries on Day 1 in Bang-kok. With tough games against the two eventual finalists, RIS and NIST, the boys eventually wound up missing out on the play-offs and came in 6th of the 10 teams. Sylvan was voted a tournament All-Star for his massive presence at the net, teams went a long way to avoid hitting the ball through the middle when he was there!

Considering that this was the first vol-leyball season for most of the players on the team; that UWCSEA boys haven’t travelled to SEASAC for around 10 years; and the carnage we endured through the season, it was a good result.

19&U GirlsMany of this year’s 19&U A and B team had never played before as volleyball is not taught in our PE programme. Considering the squad was entirely new to the routines and techniques, they all did tremendously well. By the end of ACSIS, the B team reached a 3rd place finish, confidently lead by captain Bronte Jong and our A team got a 2nd placed in a strong battle against University of Waseda.

In the SEASAC tournament, the U18 girls led from start to finish in the first games of their pool play. The first two games against MKI and Tanglin Trust were won and Co-captains Eryn Tett and Natalie Walker lead the team in a fantastic and energetic way.

Eryn Harayda and Dalma Foldesi had the honor of finishing the set with a series of stunning serves. Wins against Tan-glin school and ISY which gave rookie players Sophie Warrens, Tasha Hun, Stephanie Ng a chance to shine. In the semis, the early exchanges against NIST were close, with UWCSEA getting good serves from new incredible recruits, Mal-lika Miglianai and Stephanie Merchant and the valuable defense of libero Maria Da Silva.

We were not inclined to go down without a fight for the bronze and they kept plug-ging away at Patana and defending vigor-ously. Coaches Rangoni and Matheson decided to bring on 14-year-old Alex Hansen midway through the second set and she had an immediate effect on the team. We started the last set and crept into the lead following massive serves by Stephanie Merchant and ended three points ahead. Unfortunately, they couldn’t convert the lead into a win.

14&U GirlsThis is the first year for 14&U volleyball and the girls had an incredible season. Many of the girls were new to the game but with determination and practice they developed into very competent players. In fact, they were so skilled that in their first game in the final ACSIS tourna-ment, they beat SAS 25-17 for the first set. Even though SAS came back, the girls played outstandingly well and set up some hits! More than half the team was in Chiang Mai which made the result more impressive. In the concluding ACSIS tournament, the team played OFS in the Bronze medallion match and won convincingly 25-18 and 25-15. The play-ers made coach Andrea and her excel-lent assistants - Steph, Stef, Eryn and Monica - very proud. Bravo girls!


14&U netball A teamCongratulations for the 14&U A team girls for having a great season. Having won all their games convincingly in round one of the ACSIS league, they went safely through to play their toughest matches in a semi-final and final on the same day at Tanglin Trust School (TTS). A closely contested game in the semi-finals against TTS A saw them lose by two goals. At the end of the third quarter, they were down five goals and although they put in a huge effort to fight back, it was not enough by the time the final whistle blew. Their final match against AIS B resulted in an 11-2 win, which meant they ended up 3rd overall in the Cup Division of the 14&U ACSIS League.

The week before their ACSIS finals, the team played in a tournament hosted by Netops Singapore at the Dover Campus. Thirteen teams in all, one from the AIS and the remainder from local Singapore schools, played in the 14&U division. The girls played nine games in total, winning all of them to become the champions of the 14&U division. It was a great chance for the players to mix with students from other schools and experience many dif-ferent playing styles. It was a fantastic day and the girls should be very proud of their achievement.

B teamFor the ACSIS League, the 14&U B team were placed in a pool along with AIS B, CIS A and St Josephs. With a convinc-ing win over CIS A, their second match against AIS B proved to be a lot tougher. Even though the girls gave their best effort, their opposition made fewer errors and won on the day. A loss against St Josephs, a well-drilled and somewhat taller team, placed the girls 3rd in the pool and qualifiers for the plate final. With wins in both the quarter and semis they went through to the final to defeat AIS C 24-1. A convincing win and a fantastic victory! The players improved so much during the season and it was great to see their camaraderie and love for the game develop.

Climbing to the topCongratulations to the UWCSEA Climbing Team for a year of spectacular perform-ances at competitions! Each year, there are many exciting nation-wide climbing competitions which are open to schools, and the UWCSEA team has been actively participating since 2002. From this year’s competition circuit alone, the College team bagged three gold medals, four silver med-als and three bronze medals, the team’s strongest showing thus far! Congratula-tions especially to Zoe Petard, Ines Petard, Saphia Petard and Ian Magee, who have all worked very hard and contributed greatly the medal tally.

Kelly Lim

C teamThe 14&U C team comprised of girls with a range of experience, however, they all had the vital traits of a successful team - great enthusiasm, determination and a desire to win. The result being they finished 2nd in their group, beating CIS B and AIS C and losing to TTS A (although they did give them a scare in the third quarter, scoring four goals without reply). The final stages of the league were disappointing, as we were given byes for two of our three matches, just when we’d really got going. This team’s final placing of 5th in the cup (and 5th overall out of 16 teams), was well earned. An outstanding achievement, of which they should all be very proud!

D teamCongratulations to the D team for their 3rd place in the 14&U ACSIS League Plate finals. It was an outstanding achieve-ment for the girls who were the team least likely to accomplish great results in this tournament, but after their second win, they were the team to watch and the team to talk about! They narrowly missed (by one point) in the quarter-finals to play-off for first and second position, but were happy with the way they played. In their final match against the OFS their strong win was the result of the solid commitment and dedication they put into their last training sessions.

Sharon Tett, Mandy Neil, Natalie Tett and Karen Morris

18


Cross CountryACSISThroughout the season this Junior School Cross Country team have been training hard and working towards the ACSIS event, which was held at MacRitchie Reservoir in October. On a hot morning, the teams were very excited and raring to go. Their hard work paid off and they achieved the following outstanding team results:

Overall UWCSEA finished 1st in the boys and girls 10&U category, 1st in the 12&U girls and 2nd in the 12&U boys.

Special congratulations go to the following students who achieved top three individual placings in their races:Kyra Van Den Muyzenberg (3rd), Jazmin Zastera (2nd), Emma Day (1st), Harrison Hay (2nd), Ally Fisher (1st), Kimiko Raheem (1st), Hugo Nippress (3rd), Phoebe Hutchinson (1st), Harry Scott (3rd)

14&U and 19&UThis year’s 14&U and 19&U ACSIS Cross Country was hosted and held at the Singapore American School (SAS). The teams had all been training hard during early morning sessions and were in good shape. They were ready to put up a strong fight against their opposition but unfortu-nately SAS yet again provided some tough competition.

In the 19&U boys event, Jamie Roberts had a strong run and with less than a kilometre to go looked like he was closing in on the lead runner. Unfortunately the SAS runner pulled away and Jamie finished in a com-mendable 2nd place. Congratulations to the whole team (Tsuyoshi Yoneda, Maru Mallee, Jan Hejl, Jonathan Quin, Ross Rob-ertson, Allen Navasero, Derek Li, Benjamin Holz and Yansun Lim) for finishing 2nd.

Our 19&U Girls (Melanie Flury, Amy Fisher, Zoe Petard, Prerna Bakshi, Emma Fisher and Pippa Carter) have shown commitment to training this season and their perform-ances have improved. They all ran hard on the day but SAS were a force to be reckoned with, and the team finished up in a well-deserved 2nd place.

The 14&U boys and girls teams delivered pleasing performances. Charlie Quin and Livia Mueller set the pace for their races, both finishing in an outstanding 1st place. With Tayla Murphy, Phoebe Hutchinson and Natalie Ng all finishing in the top 10 and Elizabeth Widder and MacKenzie Murphy finishing strong, it led the girls team to finish in overall 1st place. The boys also had some good performances from Pascal Flury (5th place), Jake Home, Dylan O’Toole, Jerome Neale, Lester Hung, Tyler Harvey and Max McGrath. Unfortunately on the day, Tanglin Trust School out ran us, resulting in the team finishing in 2nd place.

In November, six UWCSEA Dover students took part in the inaugural SEASAC Golf tournament at Sawang Resort, Thailand. Six teams competed in the SEASAC event which was part of a larger invitational tourna-ment hosting 12 schools from across South East Asia.

UWCSEA Dover placed 4th in the SEASAC team event which was won by a very strong team from New International School Thailand of Bangkok. The standard of golf was very high and UWCSEA’s strongest golfer was Charlotte Thomas who shot 78 and 82 and finished just out of the top three in the individual event.

This was the first international golfing tournament that UWCSEA Dover has entered and the enthusiasm of the students will ensure it is not the last. They have an eye on a top three finish next year!

UWCSEA Dover team: Akshat Sawhney, Aseem Mangaokar, Aarthi Sridhar, Charlotte Thomas, Pandit Dres and Chris Underwood.

UWCSEA tees off in inaugural SEASAC Golf tournament

UWCSEA Halloween RunThis year UWCSEA decided to host their first Cross Country event at Bukit Ba-tok Nature Park, to conclude the Cross Country season for this year. Many of the International Schools took part, as well as the Singapore Sports School and the Ca-nadian School of Hong Kong in some age categories. Over 300 participants took part from 10&U through to 19&U. It was the first time many of the students had run this hilly course and the UWCSEA teams finished the season on a high. Special congratula-tions to Tsuyoshi Yoneda, Livia Mueller and Charlie Quin who were all champions in their age group.

The team results of the competition were as follows:10&U Boys 2nd place10&U Girls 2nd place12&U Boys 3rd place14&U Boys 2nd place14&U Girls 1st place19&U Boys 1st place

Text and photo by John Bush

The Junior School ACSIS Cross Country team Text and photo by Vicki Hill


RugbyThe U12 rugby squad had a fine season. Highlights from a coaching point of view were undoubtedly the style and man-ner of play which the boys produced week in and week out and also the way newcomers to the game were supported and included into an established squad of experienced players. The running and handling game of this group of players made for attractive viewing and we had the potential to score from all corners of the field.

The statistics of the U12 International Schools’ League also showed we conceded fewer tries than anyone else; a great defensive effort all round. If the players were asked to name the most memorable occasion of the season, the tight, three tries-apiece tie with OFS in the final game of the season to clinch the

U14 Over 30 players from Grade 7 and 8 at-tended trials at the beginning of the U14 rugby season, which is evidence of the growing strength of UWCSEA rugby at this level. The final squad of 20 were very well led by Ben Watson (Captain) and the other Grade 8 students: Thibault, Ryan, Ian, Billy and Patrick.

The season was full of highlights - a dra-matic comeback from 0-22 down against Overseas Family School (OFS) to win 26-22; an emphatic 47-20 victory over the Australian International School (AIS); per-formances in the return matches against both OFS and AIS which we narrowly lost. Tanglin Trust School and Lycee Francaise de Singapour were strong this season and so we were very pleased with our 3rd place in the ACSIS League. The end of season tournament pitched us against OFS in the 3rd - 4th place playoff, which was a thrilling match, eventually won by OFS.

The future is bright - at least ten Grade 7 players played in each match, and they all made significant progress. I am looking forward to Season 4 pre-season training!

Matt Singer

league title would definitely come out on top! The overall results show the qualities of this group of boys: Played 12, Won 10, Lost 0, Drew 2, Tries for 49, Tries against 7.

A core of Grade 6 students deserves particular praise for their leadership, commitment and sportsmanship. They are Harrison Barkham, Cai Devine, Chris Lund, Andrew Meaney and Matt Grun-dlingh, all of whom proved influential both during training and in matches. However, the entire squad should be proud of their efforts this season. It is important never to lose sight of the fact that the beginners of today could become the stars of tomor-row! Well done all.

Hugh Pollard

East Campus 10&U debut in ACSIS RugbyIn a fantastic performance the UWCSEA East Campus 10&U team bagged a silver medal in their first tournament in November. The first game against Tanglin Trust School was a great team performance, not producing many chances in the first half. Neither team gave anything away, and the score remained 0-0 at half-time. In the second half UWCSEA took the lead only for Tanglin to claw their way back into the game with a try before clinch-ing the win with a last second try.

The second game against UWCSEA Dover was a lot more open with a really good team performance as well as some good individual tries. UWCSEA East finished comfortable winners allowing them to claim the silver.

Great performance boys!

Text and photo by David Smith

20


16&U ‘A’ TeamThe A team had a very good season losing only two games - both of these when play-ers were away sick or injured. We faced Presbyterian High in the semi final at the ACSIS tournament and they jumped off to a good start before UWCSEA, through pa-

The 16&U ‘A’ girls team (pictured at right) gave a typically stellar perform-ance through season one; and for the third year running, coached by Dr Dale Fisher, won the 16&U Division One League. They went into the finals having won all their home and away games by mercy rule (30 points ahead). Never one to underestimate their opponents, they ‘stepped up’ a gear on the ACSIS finals day which was held at UWCSEA Dover. The contenders were Tanglin, but the second best team in the league were sent packing in the final, highlighting the vast gap between us and the rest of the schools. It took just 12 minutes to end the game by mercy rule with TTS scoring just six points. Captain Amy Fisher went a step further and claimed the Most Valu-

Basketball..... Its Gold and more Gold for the U16 boys and girls teamsable Player (MVP) award for the league. The core players through the season showed the benefits of working together and how commit-ment over the years breeds success. All players have devel-oped a special sense of awareness; with Emma Fisher’s ‘out-side’ shot and Emily Webster’s ‘speed’ and ‘accurate’ feeds being particular keys to our success. New guards Thida Sachathep and

Jenny Huzell have worked hard to earn their place in the team, and particularly in defence. Bianca Letele has had a great season, and along with Emma Fisher, was rewarded with an All Star MVP award.

Our 16&U Girls ‘B’ team (pictured at left) coached by Chris Huke came a long way this season, developing not just their core skills acquiring a deeper understanding of the game. The athletic team developed on a weekly ba-

tience and perseverance finally hit the front to secure a great win of only four points. We went into the final against Catholic High who play a disciplined game and are always a very tough opposition. They jumped away to a great start while our boys, as in the semi final, took a while to get their

game going. Down by 12 points at one stage the boys dug deep to overcome a determined opposition and snatch a well earned victory. The team worked extremely well together all year with several players being chosen to try out for SEASAC selection, showing how hard they worked all season.

16&U ‘B’ TeamThe B team experienced a challenging year in terms of wins and losses. How-ever, disappointment was replaced with optimism as the team reflected

on its youth (nearly every member of the team was 14 years old) and began to look forward to next year when nearly everyone returns. Improvement was seen in many aspects of the game, especially concern-ing teamwork and hustle. Most importantly, enthusiasm for the game remained at a high level. The future looks bright for this group of players!

16&U ‘C’ TeamThe C team improved many areas of their game over the season. The boys went with-out a win but remain very positive, as they had some close matches towards the end of the season against some strong opposi-tion. The boys train well and really started to work well as a team. It will be good to see many of the boys return next year.

Andrew Sharpe

sis, making coaching an easy job. They were unlucky not to secure a place in the final after losing in extra time in the semi-final against Overseas Family School ‘A’ team. However, they beat the Australian International School and picked up the bronze. There is still have plenty to work on, but the team can be very happy with their progress and results.

The 16&U Girls ‘C’ team coached by Carrie Macdonald had a tough time of it, and learnt the hard way that in order to succeed it takes hard work, determination and commitment.

Denise Stevenson

And the boys....


Emaar swimming friendly

In October, the UWCSEA East Swim Team competed in the Emaar Swim-ming Friendly Carnival at the Emaar International School. Our team of 23 swimmers had an enjoyable afternoon and swam to the best of their ability on each event that they participated in. Congratulations to some of our indi-vidual and relay teams who either won or placed in their events:Abhiraj Rana - 1st 8yrs 50m Butterfly, Jean-Luc Lefebvre - 1st 10yrs 50m But-terfly and 2nd 10yrs Backstroke, Antara Verma - 3rd 10yrs 50m Butterfly, Shayan Contractor - 2nd 8yrs Backstroke, Chloe Tallentire - 3rd 8yrs Backstroke, Christo-pher Kelly - 3rd 10yrs Backstroke, Rob-bie (Robert Daly) - 3rd 8yrs Backstroke, Sarah Daly - 2nd 8yrs Backstroke, Antara Verma, Alexandra Roger and Elizabeth Brown - 2nd 10yrs Freestyle Relay with only three swimmers (Antara swam twice), Shayan Contractor, Abhiraj Rana, Jackson Emerson and Robbie (Robert Daly) - 1st 8yrs Freestyle Relay, Jean-Luc Lefebvre, Shashank Aggar-wal, Jack Parker and Christopher Kelly - 1st 10yrs Freestyle Relay.

Congratulations again to all the swim-mers and we look forward to hearing more great results.

Jackson English

ACSIS Swimming 2009College swimmers hit the water for the ACSIS Swimming Championships held at home. This was the first year that different age groups were introduced in the meet, proving an excellent opportunity for swimmers of all ages to compete in a top level swim meet. Over 800 swimmers from 11 international schools all over Singapore were at the event.

High School DivisionFirst place finishes were achieved by Jan Hejl (50 Back), Mayumi Raheem (200 IM, 50 Breast) and Constance Tan (400 Free). Our 15 and over girls (Mayumi, Constance, Bethany Lane and Kalyani Basu) also won the 400 Free relay. Both girls and boys teams were runner ups behind the Singapore American School.

Middle School DivisionTop swimmers who won their events were: Machiko Raheem (100 Fly, 50 Free), Lukas Ming Menkhoff (50 Free, 50 Breast), Francesca Ngu (100 Back, 50 Back), Christine O’Donnell (50 Fly), Nicholas Lewis (100 Fly), Lukas Ming Menkhoff (50 Back, 50 Breast), Christine O’Donnell (50 Fly), Charlie Quin (200 IM, 400 Free). This age group did very well in the relays with the girls (Christine, Machiko, Francesca, and Lea Groe-bli) winning the 200 Medley and the 400 Free relay. The 13-14 boys (Lukas, Charlie, Nicholas Lewis and Constantin Wedekind) won the 200 Medley and the 400 Free relay (Charlie, Bryan Lee, Nicholas, and Lukas).

Winners in the 11-12 age group were: Kimberley Alabaster (50 Back, 100 IM) and Bradley Butler (50 Fly, 100 Free). Both the girls (Kimiko, Josephine Lefrancq, Frances Darlow, and Kimberly) and boys (Matthew Day, Harry Scott, Bradley and Shaurya Atal) won the 200 Free relay. The girls won the overall point score with the boys runner up.

Junior School Division Winners in this division were: Raj Jaisinghani (100 IM), Alessandro Nanni (50 Free), Kimiko Raheem (50 Breast, 100 Free). The combined score for both boys and girls placed them in 3rd place at the meet.

Congratulations to all swimmers and thanks very much to the swim coaches and the parents who helped organize the competition.

Jason Bell

Inauguiral ACSIS Swimming Championships for East Campus

Twenty two excited swimmers from UWC-SEA East arrived at Dover Campus to compete in the 2009 ACSIS Swimming Championships. All our swimmers had a great time, swimming their hardes and supporting each other.

Throughout the five hours of non-stop races our swimmers were an asset to the school, swimming well and learning from their ex-periences. Our parents were tremendous - all pulling together to support the team. Particular mention should go to Nicky Tal-lentire who oversaw the organization of the swimmers making sure they were at the marshalling area for their races and keeping them from straying too far. Also special thanks must go to the parents - Helen Brown, Manic Jacques Lefebvre,

Linda Meli-Lefebvre and Andreas Kohn who gave up watching their own children to act as timekeepers for the morning.

Although we were a very novice team many of our swimmers were placed well in their heats and congratulations must go to Cherie Kwong who achieved 3rd place in the 8&U 50m Breaststroke and Alexandra Roger for placing3rd in the girls 10&U 100m Freestyle.

Well done UWCSEA East swim team!

Denise Richards

Photo by Linda Meli-Lefebvre

Photo by Henry Chang


Primary School INFANTS

UN Day CelebrationsThe Infant UN Day celebrations involved a mix of classroom based activities, a parade of nations and a grand finale of songs from all thirteen Infant classes. Grade 1 focused on peace and harmony between nations and what the United Nations stands for. The K2 teachers se-lected Mexico, Italy, Great Britain and the Philippines as their focus countries and various activities enabled the children to discover more about the art and customs of these lands. Variety was the key in K1 and the activities on offer reflected some of the nationalities of children within each class. After enjoying the classroom activities parents joined their children in the Main Hall to celebrate in song the 45 different nationalities represented in the Infant School. The morning was a great success thanks to the support and hard work of many parents, teachers and teacher assistants, Infant music specialist Susanne Khalek, videographer Joseph Tan and technical assistants Nicholas and Anuar.

Text and photographs by Chris Fensom

Despite the setback of heavy monsoon rain and a last minute change of venue, the Dover K2 and Grade 1 Morning of Sport were once again a great success. The PE staff, led by Karen Morris, had put together an exciting programme of events and races to challenge the students and extend their skills. The children thoroughly enjoyed the tabloid events but, as always, it was the races that were the highlight of the morning. The support that the children and parents gave to the runners was fantastic. Thank you to the parents who came along to support their children, Infant PE teachers, particularly Karen Morris, who did the behind the scenes organisation, Henry Chang for taking photographs, PE support staff for getting all the equipment ready and finally a big thank you to all the class teachers and teacher assistants who helped in so many ways to make the morning a huge success.

Chris Fensom

K2 and Grade 1 show off their PE skills



Hat Day in K1 K1 East had a Hat Day in November to celebrate the letter ‘h’. This was a fun day where children wore funny hats and put on a hat parade for parents. We danced in our hats and the teachers even joined in!

Beth Saez

K2 on the East Campus conducted a unit of inquiry with the following Central Idea: Each of us has a unique personal history that in a group, contributes to a shared understanding of our world. The K2 team decided to use Google Earth to enhance the unit, and give the students an appre-ciation of the wonderful diversity that our world contains.

The great thing about using Google Earth was that it gave students practice with logging onto computers, keyboard familiarisation and mouse-control skills in a thoroughly engaging context.

The students really enjoyed experiment-ing with zooming, going to locations where they had been on holiday, and finding our school. They used task cards created by the teachers to ‘travel’ to a number of famous places throughout the world to get a stamp in their ‘passports’.

The task cards were an enormous suc-cess, as they helped build the learning process for the students. The text they had to type was on each task card, and a picture of the place they had to find was also included. When their screen showed what they could see on the task card, they then got a stamp in their passport.

Some locations were more challenging to find than others, requiring a bit of search-ing, zooming and clicking-and-dragging. This helped reinforce the technology operations and concepts we wanted to address in the unit.

It also gave us an opportunity to talk about conventions of literacy, including the use of commas and spaces, as both were needed when typing in locations.

We had very positive feedback from a number of parents saying how their children are showing them how to use Google Earth. It’s lovely to hear of the home-school connections that this type of lesson is creating.

Louise Phinney and Keri-Lee Beasley

K1 Challenge Themselves at Jurong Lake Park

Exploring how the Dover K1 children have grown and changed

is central to our year long unit “Me, Myself, I”. A visit to Jurong Lake Park allowed the children

to discover what they can do and what they are still learning to do

on the playground. The three different play areas in the park

were a perfect opportunity for the children to challenge themselves

on new equipment as well as simply enjoy themselves on more familiar apparatus. They are all very proud of the clever things that they can achieve now they

are in K1.

Tiara Lesslar

Photos by K1 teachers

K2 travel the world with Google Earth

Photos by K1 teachers


K2 Explore Their Local Environment

To learn more about the surrounding areas of the Dover Campus, the K2 chil-dren walked down the drive, crossed over Dover Road to visit the HDB area op-posite the entrance to the campus. This short trip was an important component of the Unit of Inquiry “Our World”, which has the Central Idea “Going on a journey helps us understand the world we live in”. Many of the children had never crossed over Dover Road and consequently had no idea what was there. They discovered a whole new world of homes, shops, eat-ing places, a dental surgery, a doctor’s surgery, a hairdresser, a playground and more.

On a cloudy, breezy morning in mid-November, all the K2 classes set off for another journey, this time to West Coast Park. The weather was about as cool as you can experience in Singapore! The children followed a map and explored and investigated various areas of the park to discover new things about themselves and their surroundings. The children posed lots of questions; “How do I get down from here?” “Do leaves float?” “Why is the grass wet down there and dry up here?” The volunteer parents and teach-ers did their best to answer their inquiries and the children came back to school having had a real sense of adventure and excitement.

Helen Webster

Henderson Centre visits K2The Henderson Centre came to spend part of the day with K2 on the East Campus on Wednesday, 11 November. All of K2 gathered together in the canteen to greet them with a song, “In My Room,” which had the guests smiling and clapping. The children then had a chance to say hello to their new friends individually and welcome them to the school.

The students invited the guests into the classrooms to join a language lessons; it was a fantastic opportunity for the children to practice their Mandarin skills. Children sang songs and played games that helped them to remember how to introduce themselves and make new friends. Other groups of students worked with the visitors to create ‘3-D writing’, making the Chinese characters jump right off the page!

The children then invited their special friends to join in their first experience working with clay. It was lovely to see the children learning from the experience of the visitors and observing their techniques when working with this material.

Finally, the children had the opportunity to show off their reading skills, and share some books together.

It was lovely to see how quickly the children developed relationships with the visitors from the Henderson Centre. When it came time to say goodbye, the first questions asked were, “When will we see them again? Are they coming back tomorrow?”

It was a very special day.

K2 team

Photos by K2 teachers and Mariam Doyle Photos by Louise Phinney


Grade 1 East Campus students support elderly residents at ‘Happy Lodge’ based in Tampines, as part of their social serv-ice. The visits benefit both the residents and our children - watching the connec-tions that our six and seven year olds make with the residents is quite remark-able. Some may think that language could be a big barrier as many of this older generation only speak Mandarin or Hokkien, but nobody seems to find this a problem. Actions really do speak louder than words!

The children are already excited about starting their ‘Shoebox Appeal’, early in Term 2. This annual event sees UWC-SEA Infant students and families filling shoeboxes with everyday essentials and goodies which the Grade One children personally deliver to the residents of Happy Lodge at Chinese New Year. The children are already talking about how they would like to decorate their boxes, and what they might put in them!

After their first visit to Happy Lodge, the children of 1CTh reflected on their service:

“When we go to Happy Lodge we go there to be kind to the old people. We want to make their day more interest-ing. It is fun talking to the old people. Sometimes they don’t understand us or hear us very well, but we can still talk to them. We sing songs in Man-

darin and English, and one man sings us Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. We

take them a book that we can read to them and show them photos of things

that we do at school.”

The smiles that we have seen on our visits make this a truly worthwhile service.

Cinders Thomas

Here are some other reflections:

We make the old people glad by showing them pictures and stories

that are interesting.

It is a time for us to learn about somebody else and to meet some-

body else.

We go there so that they get to know new people, and that will make them

happy.

It is nice to make friends with people. We bring them joy.

We go there because they are old and we want to be respectful.

When we go there we give them company and stop them from being

lonely.

Dover Grade 1 has been using cel-ebrations as the catalyst to explore the transdisciplinary theme of “Who We Are.” This is an inquiry into the nature of the self; beliefs and values; personal, physi-cal, mental, social and spiritual health; human relationships including family, friends, communities and cultures; rights and responsibilities; what it means to be a human. Children in Grade 1 listened to presentations from their classmates about family celebrations that were important to them. They also visited local places of worship to gain insight into how and why families celebrate and factors that connect celebrations across all faiths and cultures.

Karen Masee

Grade 1 Students explore “Who they Are”

Photos by Grade 1 teachers

Visiting Happy Lodge

Photos by Casey Ranson, Cinders Thomas


Primary School JUNIORS

“All together now“ for Dover JuniorsThe Dover Junior School celebrated friendship and togetherness in their UN performances. Each grade sang songs from around the world with readings from students on the themes of the UN and togetherness.

Not your usual swimming meet Junior School students on the East Campus enjoyed a series of aquatic challenges on their annual Aquatics Day of Sport. Students were engaged in high energy adventure activities, team problem solving challenges and games, which saw participants spend-ing maximum time in the water, rather than watching from the sidelines between races. The event was well received by all participants, as it allowed each student, regardless of ability, to enjoy their morning at the pool in a non-competitive environment.

Ben Hart

Photos by Oliver Ferry and Grade 2 staff

Photos by Joseph Tan


Students in East Grade 4 recently completed the ‘Location’ Unit of Inquiry - based on the central idea ‘Countries have a unique past, significant location and definite character.’ The unit was an ideal opportunity for the students to explore Singapore via a series of field trips that included a Singapore River walk and a visit to the Chinatown Heritage Museum.

These first hand experiences were used as a basis for work which allowed the students to use their observations and re-search skills to present information about Singapore’s history, culture and geogra-phy. This included inventing legends on the beginnings of Singapore, painting wa-tercolours of the colourful buildings seen on the Chinatown trip and writing letters home ‘from a recently arrived Chinese immigrant in the 1870s’.

Grade 2 Work Sharing In November the East Campus Grade 2 students completed a Work Sharing morning where they were given the opportunity to share with their parents some of the work they have been completing since the mid-term break in October. The students were able to show their parents the process they go through when com-pleting in-class learning activities.

Text and photos by Jackson English

The legend of the Merlion and how it came to be

Once in the Savanna there was a very hungry lion. He hadn’t eaten a decent meal in months. He had sticks, leaves and twigs which wasn’t appropriate for the king of the jungle. He walked up to the seashore

and bathed. Suddenly a big fish jumped up in the air. The lions eyes widened; he licked his

chops!

The lion leaped desperately! He missed and ended up with a belly flop. The lion swan after

the fish with all high might. As he swam he passed billions of fish, but only a sixteenth of

the size of the fish he was chasing after.

The lion was just near the coast of Singapore. The lion was tired. He wasn’t scared about

not having a decent meal any more…he was scared about drowning!

The lion prayed that had had a tail…then he would be able to use his last bit of energy to swim up and take a breath. Amazingly, out of some pink smoke the God of Singapore ap-peared, the lion couldn’t believe his eyes! He granted the lion’s wish. With all his power the lion swam up and took a breath, or was he a

mer…lion?

To show his thanks, the merlion stayed in Singapore. After 100 year the merlion got so

old he turned to stone. Tibor Heskett (RoW)

Learning about ‘Location’

Photos by Karen

Maheshwary, Roxanne

Walker and Bruce Home


East Campus giving studentsDaniel in 4KrM donated his 10th birthday money to PACE charities. His donation will go towards building a toilet block in a school in Nokor Klork village in Cambodia, as well as to help pay for a year’s education for a PACE scholar in Cebu in the Philippines.

Emma in 2HBe also gifted her birthday money, to the Blue Dragons in Vietnam. This will help fund the equivalent of nearly six scholarships for children to attend school under a programme sponsored by the Underprivileged Children of Vietnam (UCOV) Global Concern. Emma said she was motivated to donate her money as she was keen to help the children who had to live on the streets.

Text and photos by Kate Woodford

Grade 3’s Amazing AdventureRecently, the East Campus Grade 3s enjoyed the Amazing Adventure around Singapore, where they needed to make their way to five different ‘road blocks’ all over the island, using different forms of public transport. The road blocks incorporated Changi Airport, Tanglin Mall and Sentosa, and students needed to read maps and timetables to plan each section of the journey. At each stop, the teams also had to complete a challenge, in order to have their passports stamped and be able to move on to the next leg of their journey. Road block five saw the teams involved in a Chinese language challenge. The students needed to ask for, receive and write down information on telephone numbers in Chinese. Those students studying Spanish videoed their peers, although one group, who were all taking Spanish, managed to improvise enough to get through the challenge! Well done to all the Grade 3s, and many thanks to the parents and patient shopkeepers who helped the students get the most from their day out and about.

‘The Amazing Adventure was very exciting. I liked it a lot! I think it was the best thing I did in Singapore! I really want everyone to try it.’ – Hanna 3DGo

‘I think the Amazing Adventure was meant to teach us how to use public transport, deal money and to cooperate with our group. It was very fun.’ – Dylan 3DGo

‘I liked the Amazing Adventure because I think it was a fantastic adventure and I learned about reading maps.’ – Ryan 3DGo

Text Deborah Gordon, photos Wendy Liao

Global Voices and Kids Aloud! performances The East Campus choirs - Grade 2 Kids Aloud! and the Grade 3 to 5 Global Voices - performed in the Kurt Hahn Hall on Thursday, 5 November. The performance was a wonderful opportunity for families to enjoy and record some great musical moments. There are around 130 students participating in the East Campus choral programme, enthusiastically supported by their parents on the evening.

Thanks to the parent helpers on the evening, and especially to the children for their wonderful performances.

Margaret Hess

Photo by Naoko Tan


In October, Dover Grade 4s took part in a sponsored Dance-a-thon to raise money for our Global Concern, Bali Bridges. It was a great experience for all of us because we got to learn some very interesting dance styles from France, Ireland, and India as well as a cool hip hop routine.

The French Can-Can dance: fun and energetic dance involving high kicks and twirls on set counts. Originally performed by women in flowing dresses in a chorus line manipulating their skirts while danc-ing, we had a fantastic time doing it!

Irish Dancing with Ms Forrow: by far my favorite because of the vigorous tempo, precise and rapid leg/feet movements. Irish line dancing was made famous by the world famous show ‘Riverdance’. At one point during the dance the whole grade was dancing in rows together.

The Indian Bollywood dance: coordinated movements involving the whole body to

East Campus squats for World Toilet DayStudents on the East Campus joined the big squat on Thursday, 19 November, as part of World Toilet Day. The Big Squat - ‘a move-ment for the toilet-less’ - helps to raise awareness for the 2.5 billion people who don’t have access to adequate sanitation.

Grade 5 students were also visited by parent Nikki Shaw, who works for the World Toilet Organisation. Nikki explained the importance of sanitation to the students, highlighting the need for sanitation to improve health, restore dignity, and reduce the effects of diseases brought about by lack of adequate sanitation, which some studies suggest is the world’s largest source of infection.

World Toilet Day is an initiative of the World Toilet Organisation, a Singapore-founded, global non-profit organisation committed to improving toilet and sanitation conditions worldwide. Founded in 2001 it has 203 member organizations in 56 countries working towards eliminating the toilet taboo and delivering sustainable sanitation. More information is available on www.worldtoiletday.com.

mesmerizing beat of Oscar winning song ‘Jai Ho’, was a big hit with all of us. Bombay plus Hollywood makes Bollywood and symbolizes the danc-ing style associated with Indian films. It is now a popular aerobic workout worldwide!

Hip-hop: In sync with the coolest new hip-hop moves, our very own TA taught us this routine. We danced to the beat of some catchy hip-hop mu-sic. This involved a lot of ‘attitude’ and was ‘free style’ despite the choreo-graphed routine.

The Dance-a-thon was a great suc-cess and we raised over $12,000 for Bali Bridges. We were also able to take a peek into world culture through dance styles. A special thanks to the Grade 4 teachers and the wonderful dance instructors who helped make this Dance-a-thon a memorable one!

Arinjay Singhai (4SSf/4NKu)

The Grade Four Dance-a-thon

Text and photo by Kate Woodford

Dunia, December 200930 Middle School

United World College of South East Asia

Grade 8 Chiang Mai adventure

In November and December the Grade 8 students have participated in the Chiang Mai excursion in northern Thailand. The trip involves a week of

experiential learning at the Prem Centre and an Adventure Week, where students do white water rafting, trekking and camping. The activities are designed to develop independence and for many students, the Chiang Mai trip is the highlight of their Middle School experience at UWCSEA.

Chiang Mai was a great opportunity to discover different sides of other stu-

dents in new situations. In school you are only able to see one side of people as education is the main focus, while in Chiang Mai you have an insight into the real person and see what they are like in daily life. Adventure week also helps you

to learn more about yourself and how you cope in certain situations.

Zoe Carter

I’ve definitely learnt to appreciate my life more, especially during Adventure Week.

It’s the small things that we take for granted and when we don’t have them, we figure out how significant they are. For example warm showers and home cooked food. Although

I missed so many items and people, I enjoyed my time there. I gained many new friends during the trip and strangely, being together for only two weeks made us feel

like a group, a family.Tara Davis

Chiang Mai takes you out of your seat and out of your classroom and lets you see and experience what you learn. Chi-ang Mai is not about imagining things; it is about getting up on your feet and

learning the real way. Maya Filmeridis

It is more than just having fun, you re-ally learn more about yourself and others and create memories that you’ll probably

remember for the rest of your life. The elephants were one of my favourite parts. I never really gave much thought to the plight elephants are facing until we got up close and personal with them and learned about

them as part of the Prem programme.Juen-Wei Ding

My experience at Prem was a very en-riching one where I learnt about board-ing school life and at the same time, got to experience learning in the outdoors rather than just within the classroom.

Our experience at Adventure Week was entirely different but equally enriching. Our tough hikes definitely built a sense of teamwork; we had to learn to encour-age each other when needed. I think we

all took a lot out of this unforgettable experience.

Sarah Wong


In early October, UWCSEA Middle School students could be found around and in the College pool. The storm clouds were kept at bay as the swim-mers churned up the water. Each student swam a minimum of three races with many swimming more. The relays are always a highlight; swimming in those big rugby shirts was a challenging task!

The sportsmanship among the students was excellent as many cheers could be heard around the pool area. It was another successful and fun day for all the Middle School students. Thanks to all the staff and parent support during the day and most of all congratulations to all the swimmers.

Jason Bell

A week in VietnamDuring the October holidays, 15 students and three teachers went on the inaugu-ral Middle School trip to Vietnam. What made the trip unique for many was the opportunity to interact with underprivi-leged kids and make them smile.

After waking up for the first time in Ho Chi Minh City, we departed on a city tour be-fore travelling to the Cu Chi tunnels which are located amongst idyllic greenery and silence. A world away from life in Ho Chi Minh City, the area of Cu Chi was the perfect setting for an attack on the Ameri-can stronghold in Vietnam and arguably, this is what won the Viet Cong right to control Vietnam. The tunnels themselves are an immense system which spans hundreds of kilometres. A highlight was the opportunity to move around under-ground ourselves.

After several days in Ho Chi Minh City we took a flight to the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi. We had a great city tour before travelling to the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Halong Bay, where we spent the day cruising. Halong Bay is recognised the world over for its impeccable beauty and limestone caves, which are truly amazing. Stepping inside one of these vast, hollow structures brought us into a totally different and mystical environment. For many of us, one of our most unforget-table experiences was the opportunity to jump in and swim around in the clear water of this natural wonder.

Being one of the main components of the trip and of our lives as students of UWC-SEA, service was something we couldn’t forget about. We had the opportunity, as members of the Underprivileged Children of Vietnam Global Concern, to take a role in deciding how to raise funds for our visits to the Christina Noble Children’s Foundation (CNCF) in Ho Chi Minh City and the Blue Dragon Children’s Founda-tion (BDCF) in Hanoi. During our visit we were fortunate enough to see where

our money was actually going.

Our experience at both organisations was unfor-gettable, as we spent a day bowling and mak-ing merry! What I loved about these excursions was that we didn’t need to be able to converse with each other to have a great time. Facial expressions and the joy of be-ing together was enough for us and our buddies from the CNCF and BDCF to develop a strong bond. I feel unbeliev-ably lucky to have spent two days bowling with a great group of people my age and never once did I think of any difference between us. We were all kids at the end of the day, competition was strong and the bowling was great! Time truly did fly when we were having fun and this is my personal highlight of the trip, to be able to make friends without being able to con-verse. This really shows the power of interaction and is something that makes me feel truly happy.

I left Vietnam with a tinge of sad-ness to be leaving such a great country, but came back to Singa-pore with 14 new friends and a new understanding of the culture and history of a great nation.

Ishaan Srivastava (8AVa)

Grade 6 Grade 7 Grade 81st MGa MSi PRa2nd CMa FMe MLi3rd ChM PGa RWa

Middle School Day of Sport - swimming

Results

Photo by Henry Chang

Dunia, December 200932 High School

United World College of South East Asia

“A career is not a single decision you make - it’s a long journey”…“Study what

you’re passionate about”…“Try new things!”…“Have a plan but be prepared

to change it”…“Embrace uncertainty and risk, learn to love them both!”… “You will

hit speed bumps...what’s important is how you pick yourself up and get on with

life”… “You don’t have to go to a prestigious university to succeed in life.”

These were key ideas that a panel of seven speakers, whose careers ranged from business and medicine to journalism and documentary film-making, shared at “University Introduction Day.” This event, organized by the University Counselling team, launched the start of the advising program for Grade 11 students. Pan-elists emphasized that adaptability and resourcefulness were more important than the degree subject they had studied. Students asked probing questions and appreciated the advice to seize oppor-tunities to discover and develop their passions.

The day continued with presentations by university counsellors. Students were introduced to different university systems worldwide and advised on how to become strong applicants. Videos by UWC gradu-ates gave everyone a “tangible perspec-tive,” as one Grade 11 put it, enabling current students to visualize themselves at university and reflect on their ideal learning environment. The next session got students thinking about their interests and what they want from university, both academically and beyond the classroom. Counsellors outlined various resources to help students gain insights into their interests and aptitudes, course and career choices, as well as data on gradu-ates’ application outcomes. University Day ended with an open Q & A session that touched on SATs, scholarships, and advice for gap year and National Service students. Students were then given their ‘University Handbook’ to get them started on their research.

The guidance program continues throughout Grades 11 and 12, with country-specific information sessions, es-say workshops, and individual meetings with students. Many universities also visit our campus each year - stay tuned to the weekly University Bulletin for details.

University Day for Grade 11

Clockwise from top left• Students said: “This was more than worth the six periods it took up!”• Grade 11s informally interacting with the panelists • Panelists, from left to right - Risa Okamoto, Rashmy Chatterjee, Cynthia Owens, Julian Whiteley, Declan MacFadden and Dale Fisher (at lectern). Moderators: Di Smart and Gary Seston.

Canon EOS Academy at Dover Campus Canon’s EOS Academy trainer Russell Koh and professional freelance photographer Jino Lee introduced twenty Grade 11 students to the difference between picture taking and photography. Through the informative three-hour theory and practical session the students quickly learnt that photography means to draw or paint with light, which involves far more creativity and technical skill than taking pictures. The course aim was to cover basic photography in a nutshell and tips on how to excel in photography - both of which it achieved. The theory session covered practical details to encourage creativ-ity in seeing, visualising, conceptualizing and expressing. Then, with loaned DSLR in hand, they practiced skills of capturing and controlling light, seeing the campus in a new way as they clicked away.

Soon these Grade 11s, along with the rest of their class, will be going on their Project Week. We look forward to seeing the photos of their adventures when they return.

Kate Lewis and Gabriel AbadPhotos by Gabriel Abad



Indonesia, the world’s largest archipela-go, the world’s largest Muslim popula-tion and also the destination for our

IB Dutch A1 school trip. Early Saturday morning during our half-term break, the eight of us flew to the nation’s capital on the island of Java for a week of travel and cultural study, in an effort to fully under-stand the scope of influence our home country, The Netherlands, has had on the former colony. For the seven days that we were there we experienced a great variety of activities ranging from a visit to Asia’s biggest mosque to sleeping in the guesthouse of a tea plantation which has been operational since colonial times.

Which leads onto the primary goal of our trip, to study the links between the novels analysed in class and the situations expe-rienced by the authors Hella S. Haasse, F. Springer and Pramoedya Ananta Toer, and the characters of their literary works, during the time frame of their novels. This meant visiting various destinations, such as Batavia, the former capital of the Dutch East Indies and now Jakarta, the more rural areas of the island, and also the country’s cultural capital, Jogjakarta.

During our two-day stay in Jakarta we vis-ited various sides of the city that I seldom saw during my six-year stay there. The old tower and warehouse at the port used by the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Com-pagnie (V.O.C.) to store spices before shipping them to Europe were first on the list. The former plaza of Batavia was also extremely interesting, especially the various old colonial buildings transformed into museums. Perhaps the most ben-eficial activity in Jakarta was the visit to possibly Indonesia’s greatest writer’s resi-dence. Although Ananta Toer has already passed away we were able to learn from the family that he suffered constantly at the hand of Indonesia’s previous govern-ments for his work to be published.

Next on the agenda was the trip to the Malabar tea plantation, a neighbour to the plantation of our other novel, by Hella S. Haasse. Here we were able to experience some of the loneliness that the former residents must have experienced, before the arrival of mobile transport. Another aspect of our visit to Malabar, and without a doubt the most rewarding, was to teach English and basic hygiene at a primary school in the plantation. From our first visit to the school we were shocked at

Model United Nations - Conference Singapore 20091,061 students was the official count for the number of delegates attending this year’s THIMUN conference in Singapore at the Hwa Chong Institute. From South Korea to Burma and even the United Arab Emirates, students came from just about everywhere around the region and beyond, capturing the spirit of the United Nations, present throughout the four days.

After weeks of preparation involving in-depth research on issues of global importance and nations’ policies, students finally had their chance to apply their knowledge through discussions and formal debating. As a simulation of the United Nations, students were eager to immerse themselves in diplomacy mindset and follow, as best they could, the policies of their respective governments. There was still time however, for students to meet people with similar educational backgrounds and for some it was also an opportu-nity to meet friends made at past conferences. The experience on the whole was truly rewarding and one that is highly recommended for students who have any particular interest in the world of international relations and politics.

Pierre Chalon (12GAb)

the state it was in (having recently been struck by an earthquake) and the general lack of standard supplies. Despite this the children were extremely active and cheer-ful during our day of teaching.

Finally during the last few days we stayed in Jogjakarta and visited world-famous sites such as the Buddhist Borobudur and the Hindu Prambanan temples. We were also given an eventful tour (in Dutch!) of the Kraton, the Sultan’s palace, and were able to see just how much the Sultan’s influence has decreased since Indonesia gained independence. The class trip to Singapore’s large neighbour was highly enjoyable and tremendously educational, and we now all have a deeper insight into the influence of The Netherlands on Indonesia.

Lodewijk Vriens (11RGe)

Dutch Cultural Trip to Java

Photos by Simone Goetschalckx and Louise Koortens

UWCSEA THIMUN delegates: Meghana Puri, Megan Jensen, Rachita Jain, Pierre Chalonm Manavi Sachdeva, Chris Kwan, Ishan Dutt, Akshata Suresh, Kenny Lee, Yae Woon Moon, Diwa Cody, Avanti Narayanan, Priyanka Hariharan, Ji Soo Kim, Lee Young-Sang and Chirag Soni.


MUN IASAS Conference

Resolutions passing in and out of committee rooms, delegates

carefully picking diction to match their nation’s diplomatic aims and lots of adrenaline are what MUN conferences are all about. The

IASAS MUN conference of 2009 was held in Bangkok at the United

Nations Convention Centre and included about 258 delegates from 11 schools across South East Asia.

Students from the college were home staying with other students

from the International School of Bangkok. The host families

extended warm hospitality towards us and made the stay more than

comfortable. The quality of debate, and the intensity of the General As-sembly, was what made this MUN conference special. All delegates

that raised issues from differ-ent committees spoke extremely well and defended their country’s foreign policy until the end. The

other special part about this MUN conference was the guest speaker who told us about the impact of the UN on today’s society, and how the UN is the United Nations and not

the United Nothing. Listening to this speaker was a good learning expe-rience for us as it relates to Theory

of Knowledge and teaches us about how the United Nations helps society. Other plus points about the conference were the opportunity to stay in a home away from home,

extending friendships with different people from various schools and, last but not least, trying to ensure diplomacy is in tomorrow’s future.

Rohan Arora (11SeJ)

UWCSEA hosts SISMC

The Singapore International School Mathematics Competition, or SISMC, brought together students in Grades 8 and 9 from seven Singapore international schools

as well as Alice Smith, an international school that came all the way from Malaysia. Held in November, students came together with their love for Mathematics and in the spirit of some friendly competition. Our school team was chosen through the weekly Mathematics Competition Club, organized by Mr. Lumb. Having already done a few competitions, the top nine students with the highest scores were chosen to participate and formed three teams to compete in the various events.

The schedule consisted of an icebreaker, three team competitions (including a relay) and an individual competition, all of which were held in the Exam Hall. The day dawned in good spirits with a paper plane making competition that allowed the students to get to know each other. Teams with students from all the different schools tried to make a paper airplane that would fly the furthest. The winning team constructed an airplane that flew an amazing 29 metres. Next was the Energiser team round, which is similar to the competitions that the Mathematics department organizes for the whole of Grades 7 and 8. After solving a problem, a team member ran to the front where a teacher was seated. The teacher would tell them if they had the correct answer and, if they did, they received the next question and ran back to their group. If not, they could either try to answer the question again or pass and go on to the next one.

After lunch, the day continued with an individual competition followed by a relay where the answer to a question solved by a previous teammate would be a part of the ques-tion for the next team member. The final event was another team competition, the Lion Round, where one of our teams, with Jae Ryoung Koo, Akari Mikita, and Sameen Boparai ranked 3rd place. The full day of competitions was tough, however our school did well, ranking 5th place overall. Eugene Choe and Justin Lee both received awards for their joint 6th place finish in the individual round.

SISMC made for a fun and challenging day that transformed Mathematics into an excit-ing experience.

Sameen Boparai (9MNe)

UWCSEA MUN IASIS delegates: Rohan Arora, Melita Eustacia Bintoro, Shi Heng Michelle Yaw, Derek Yan Ting Li, Christine Athieno Odegi, Eun Jin Koh, Rohith Desikan, Alf Shen Lim, Radhika Todi and Tanushree Sahai.


From 11-16 October, a group of 26 students participating in the NYAA (Na-tional Youth Achievement Award) went to Perth for a four-day trekking expedi-tion in South Western Australia. Those reaching for the gold award trekked 75 kilometers while 40 kilometers was the goal for the silver award seekers.

During this half-term break, when you were shopping at the mall… or maybe sitting in front of your television set… perhaps even spending some quality time with our dear “friend” Facebook - we 12 adventurers lived an authentic NYAA experience.

During the course of four days, we trekked from Cape Naturaliste to Prevelley, West-ern Australia. We were virtually homeless - tents stuffed in bulky bags, which weighed around 20 kilograms each. The amount of water and food we carried was astonishing.

At Cape Naturaliste the view of the bays was simply breathtaking, too astonishing to be true - which led us to look forward to the next couple of days. We were to trek south along the coast after overcoming all the cliffs and beaches along our way. On the first day the terrain was relatively easy - mainly flat ground and sand. In the after-noon it started raining and we realized how

Lessons learnedFirst and foremost, the expedition allowed us to push ourselves out of the comfort

zones we have within civilization and especially during school breaks. Whether it be simply waking up at eight in the morning instead of noon, or hiking well

over a dozen Ks instead of strolling from the front door of your house to the cab outside it. The trip drastically altered our (or at least my) holiday lifestyle. Such

experiences may seem horrifying to others, but these drastic changes allow us to experience a new lifestyle and, more importantly, make us appreciate the one we

have bake at home.

Secondly, the trip tested our social behaviour and nerves. Being assigned to groups with other students, several of whom hadn’t met, we were forced to work

and plan with one another before onset of the trip towards a common goal. During the trip itself, these new relationships, and those between well-established

friends, were weathered with arguments over route decisions and rest periods. I believe such experiences are beneficial since they strengthen friendships and also prepare us for the future, where we will most probably be required to work and cooperate with new people we have yet to befriend. Merely overcoming the

trip without debasing to simple grunts and huffs was astounding to me.

Lastly, the trip was fun. Such as hiking along pristine beachfront with old and new friends, while engaging in varying conversations ranging from the latest blockbuster film release to the meaning of life, the universe and everything.

Lewis Okashimo (11TSh)

cold it was. We camped at a cozy campsite at Yallingup - yes, campsites can be cozy.On the second day, our dream of a nice, smooth trek was soon shattered when we arrived at an everlastingly long beach with thick sand layers, taking twice the energy to negotiate. If it were not for the gorgeous sea next to us, it would have been no differ-ent than walking across the Sahara Desert.

On Wednesday we were looking forward to seeing some civilization in Gracetown after a gruelling Tuesday. We arrived at Whaleback Rock, which was too danger-ous to climb but we were hoping that the rocks were strong enough to withstand our weight… until one of our team members fell and injured her ankle. This was the moment that revealed our team spirit. Some carried her bag, while others comforted and assisted her with first aid.

When we approached our final destination, the trek was shorter than the other days but the terrain was really difficult and exhausting. At the end we found ourselves at mouth of the Margaret River where we had to cross its strong currents to reach the other side. The cur-rents were vigorous and it was

From Cape Naturaliste to Prevelleytoo risky to cross individually. So, two by two, we crossed the river hand in hand, like animals in Noah’s ark.

The trip was amazingly fulfilling. Besides the enjoyment and sense of personal achievement gained, one has to admit that this journey saw how individualism gave way to team spirit. We discovered the natural beauty of Western Australia. It opened our hearts to treasures - of sensory imagery beyond the description of human words and the portrayal of pictures. What will you discover next time?

Jimmy Wu (11ASC) and Joshua Kan (11SGo)


Dear Parents,

As I prepare for the December edition of Dunia, it’s good to look back on another exciting term for our children and for the Parents’ Association. Many of your children may have gone on their first expedition in their school careers this term. I hope they had enjoyable and memorable experiences and you parents survived it too.

The PA has had a busy first term with plenty of UN Day activities and other meeting and organising to keep us busy.

The High School UN Food Festivals before the holidays and the Infants and Junior Food Fest in November couldn’t have taken place without the generous donations by hundreds of parents of all nationalities.A big thank you to all parents who took part. There was a great friendly atmosphere of camaraderie amongst the parents at the Junior Food Festival. I have always found these events to be a popular volunteering opportunity for parents and I am sure the food tasting opportunities have nothing to do with it!

Our recent Holiday Shopping Fair was a huge success for the vendors and the shoppers. With a clear sky (perhaps the only one for a while) shoppers from inside and outside our community beat a steady path to the Main Hall.Outside a few GC’s and stall holders provided the sustenance while the shoppers got on with their business. Since then there has been plenty of interest in our next vendor fair which will coincide with the Community Fair.

Thanks to the great organising work of Sudha Natrajan, Indira Pant and Vinita Parambi the Holiday Fair raised over $4000 which will be donated to the Initiative for Peace Program - our selected charity. Great work ladies - once again!

Yes, don’t forget to take note of the date for the upcoming Community Fair. This ‘all in’ event will take place on February 6th and the various GC’s are already starting to organise their fundraising stalls. With plenty of sponsors, vendors, parental and community involvement, this Fair looks set to be as successful as the last.

Before I head off for the holiday season, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the many parents who have contacted the PA lately offering their words of support, thanks and encouragement. The committee are very pleased to know that you appreciate our efforts and that we are able to serve you with what you need. If you have any questions about the PA or its activities or would like to help out, please contact us. We would be happy to hear from you if you have any ideas for events or parents’ activities.

I hope you and yours have a happy and safe festive season, enjoy your break and recharge in time for an exciting term two.

Happy Christmas and Happy Holidays.

Lydia AstillChair - PA Dover Campus

Parents’ Association

Dover Parents’ Association

Dear parents,

You’d be forgiven for thinking that the PA East has been very quiet since the AGM in Sep-tember, but

behind the scenes there has been much work on building the founda-tions of our Parents Association. The process of registering our society is taking a little longer than we expected in spite of the online facility available in Singapore.

Members of the Managing Committee have volunteered for various roles:• Transport - Tracey Pickford• Health and Safety – Viv Carter• Uniform and Canteen – Kelly

Hauber and Belinda Sircombe• Website – Ewan Makepeace• Nationalities – Maija Burtmanis

(Co-ordinator), Preeti Khande-wal, Peggy Wang, Nila Gibb and Aarti Lohia

• Social sub-committee – Viv Carter (Chair), Sheetal Joshi (Treasurer), Jennifer Chadam, Miranda Peak, Janet Chenery

• Activities – Preeti Khandewal

A brainstorming session produced a long list of suggestions for social events, and from this list 6-8 events have been targeted for this year. Our first official event in December is a Holiday Sock Hop for the students to celebrate the upcoming holidays, school and friendship.

If you have any suggestions or ques-tions for the PA, please contact us at [email protected].

May I wish you all a safe and happy holidays!

Lydia AbbeyChair - PA East Campus

East Parents’ Association


37

The number of attendees at HCA Hospice Day Care are growing thanks to the love and painstaking efforts of the volunteers. This year they were challenged to take on a session in small groups and come up with interesting themes be it games, craftwork, celebrating festivals, organ-izing outings or exercises. Key element is creativity and fun for all. When we started in May 2008, typically had about 20 attendees and they would straggle in after 10.30am.These days the average is around 35 enthusiatic participants - PACE Fridays have become very popular and quite often they beat the volunteers, who arrive at 10am!

SEALinks

This year’s PACE Deepavali Dawat was a fun and fabulous event, full of colour and flavours of India that raised over $7,000 for PACE charities.

Held at the British Club, 150 people were entertained by the energetic Bol-lywood dance led by Sonali Mehta and the beautiful Lavani Folk Dance led by Suvidha Bala. These were followed by a fashion show by Mantra boutique and our very own gorgeous UWCSEA model mothers, Angela Comer, Andrea Zinser, Lakshmi Raju, Liz Vogtle, Midori Isozaki, Neeta Vithlani, Susan Xanthopoulos and Susana Zilliacus.

Throughout the whole event we had stalls selling unique and beautiful products thanks to Furnstyles and Indu Sudhakar, Evam Natually Yours and Crisy Vasan, Homelinens and Manisha Gattani, Kala Jayaraj and her lovely beaded bags and jewels.

There was an outstanding group of volunteers that helped with this event, the organizing committee, the decora-tions group led by Revati Suresh and all the ladies taking part in the dancing and modelling.

We are also very grateful to our spon-sors for their generous support; The Regent Singapore, Hershey’s, Casey’s Hair and Beauty, Mantra for the beautiful clothes and fashion show, Make-up For-ever and Beauty Lane.

Last, but not least, The British Club did a wonderful job of feeding us and accom-modating us in every possible way.

To everyone that helped with and sup-ported this event we send a heartfelt thanks.

Photos by Ulla Gratton

When hands reach out in friendship, hearts are touched with joy

In October we celebrated Deepavali. Thank you to all the Indian volunteers who shared their Festival of Light with us so generously and joyously through food, art and dance. The food was delicious, the Rangolis beautiful and the dancing energetic.

This was followed by a Sari wrapping demonstration modeled by three sport-ing HCA volunteers and a hilarious photo opportunity when models found it challenging to walk in the saris wrapped in three different regional styles. Every-one sported a red bindi on their forehead whether male or female.

The PACE Bollywood Dancers hit the floor with the energetic “Daisy Girl” cho-reographed by Sonali and the HCA folk and volunteers needed little persuasion to join in for a few encores. This was fol-lowed with the graceful traditional Lavni Dance.

In November we had a Christmas craft-work session led by Susan (Christmas tree and bauble) and Andrea (German Papierstern/double-sided Paper Christ-mas Star). Each person made three exquisite Christmas tree ornaments in a scant hour! There was a lot of attention to detail which required challenging manual dexterity to fold paper, paint, string up beads and bells and tie ribbons and bows but the old folk were game and took much pride in their craft.

Afterwards there was a procession to dress the Christmas tree and the resi-dents were beaming with delight admiring their handiwork.

To volunteer please contact me via [email protected]

Leng Holz

PACE Deepavali Lunch


Alumni Newsbites

Hal Quinn, Class of 2009, competed in the Ironman 70.3 championships in November 2009 in Florida, USA, completing a 1.9 kilometre swim, 90 kilometre bike ride and 21 kilometre run, in that order, coming 13th in the ’24 and under’ age group category. Hal was one of the two youngest competitors.

Michelle Cheung, Class of 2001, along with a friend founded a web project called The Discarded. The website is a visual archive of old business cards of people made redundant due to recession and a collage of their personal stories. The aim is to humanise the effect of the recession which until now has been circulated as mere statistics - http://www.thediscarded.org.

Paul Foster, Class of 1999, stars as Adrian in Polo Boys, a local television drama series which airs on Thursdays at 8:00pm on Channel 5.

Lucy Davis, Class of 1988, Artist and Assistant Professor, NTU’s School of Art Design and Media, she recently conducted an art show titled Together Again (Wood Cut) at the Substation Gallery in Singapore. Her artwork and shows carry an ecological message.

Patrick Rouxel, Class of 1984, makes films about rainforest conservation. His latest film, Green is available for download from www.greenthefilm.com.

Alumni

Upcoming Reunions2009 21 December Singapore alumni get-together 2010 22 January London alumni get-together 23 January New York alumni get-together 29 January San Francisco alumni get-together 25-28 February Western Australia, Class of ‘78 27 - 30 August Reunion 2010!

Recent ReunionsSecond UWCSEA ‘80s Reunion in LondonAlumni from the ‘80s met up once again in London, UK over a weekend in September 2009, thanks to Tim Foulkes (Class of 1986). There is talk of another one in March 2010 so stay tuned!

Class of 1979 Mini Reunion in London After the Reunion 2009 weekend in August, a few members of the Class of 1979 got together for another celebration of their 30th anniversary at a lunch gathering in London, UK in September. Some who had been unable to attend the reunion weekend in Singapore took this opportunity to meet up and celebrate. Thanks to Yuli Toh for organising the get-together!

Auckland Alumni ReunionCatriona Hitchman, Class of 1985, organised a UWCSEA alumni get-together in Auck-land, New Zealand in October 2009 for members of all classes. The group met up for dinner at Mutiara Malaysian Restaurant and shared stories and memories about their time in Singapore.

Dunia, June 2007Dunia, December 2009 39

Hawk Ostby UWCSEA 1983-1985

Hawk Ostby from Oslo, Norway, came to UWC-

SEA as a boarder in 1983. After graduating in 1985, Hawk moved to the United States where he pursued a degree in film. When asked to describe the impact on him of his time at UWCSEA and the direction of his life and career since leaving Singapore, he says: “I really loved my years at UWC-SEA, and I credit the programme, the excellent teachers and my brilliant peers for making learning fun, and for showing me the value of a solid work ethic. What I took away from my two years there is an invaluable lesson that I use every day: with hard work, anything is possible. And let’s face it, once you’ve stared down the IB exam, everything else in life - like writer’s block, child birth and death - is pretty much a cakewalk!” Here is his story in his own words.

When I left Singapore I was pretty clue-less about what I wanted to do with my life. By chance I got stuck in the Com-munications School at Boston University (which is where they stowed all the ‘weir-dos’ back in the day), and I happened to take a course in film. I just loved it.

Four years later I proudly strutted into the workforce with a film degree, which I quickly realised is like trying to cross the Atlantic in a leaky dinghy while afflicted with dysentery and a broken right arm. In other words, my prospects of ever eating were less than enormous.

My mother’s hints, delivered with the sweet, gentle nudging of a sledgeham-mer, that ‘accountants make a great living’ were starting to take hold. In 1990 however, I managed to con myself into menial employment at Showtime Net-works in New York City. In my spare time I started writing screenplays ‘on spec,’ and was introduced to another ‘loser’ there who was also trying to starve himself to death by writing. His name was Mark Fergus, and we’ve been collaborat-ing for 12 years since.

I was always enamoured with the idea of making a living wielding a pen, but had no pedigree or confidence in that area.

It wasn’t until Boston University when I worked up the courage to combine my love for escapism with my mild allergy to reality. I just picked up a book on film writing, (Syd Field’s Screenwriting, I be-lieve), and started hacking away, thinking success was crouched just around the corner.

In retrospect it was a crazy thing to embark on, and if someone had warned me about all the sweaty heartache I’d have to expend to get a piece sold, I may have balked right then and there. I don’t recommend self-delusion to anyone, but it’s really worked for me. Ultimately, the awesome thing about being a writer is that you get to play God of your own little make-believe world. You get to decide who lives and dies, what sins get pun-ished and what virtues get rewarded. It’s enormously satisfying and it feels stupid to call it ‘work’ because, really, it’s more like play.

In 1996 we managed to jam our bony feet in the door by selling a thriller script to HBO; what would later become the ‘unremarkable’ movie Consequence. We started making the rounds in Hollywood with a script that we had written and intended to film ourselves, called First Snow. We didn’t get financing for quite awhile, but in the meantime we fed our-selves by adapting books and re-writing

scripts for studios. Among these were Children of Men, which would ultimately score us a pair of tickets to the Kodak Theatre on Oscar night.

In 2007 we had the great privilege of writ-ing Iron Man for the amazing director Jon Favreau, and spent four months weav-ing through Southern California, blowing things up with the production. The movie opened 2 May 2008 and starred Rob-ert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges and Terence Howard.”

Hawk currently lives in Vermont with his wife Monica and their three children, Aidan, Oliver and Elsa, along with what he describes as his four-legged assistant and foot warmer of the canine variety, Koda.

Iron Man was #1 at the box office over its opening weekend, taking $201 mil-lion world-wide, the second highest US grossing film for 2008. It was nominated for two Academy Awards and nine Saturn Awards, winning three Saturns.

Hawk and his writing partner recently co-wrote a Sci-fi Western called Cowboys & Aliens for Dreamworks and Imagine Entertainment, which is currently in the production stages and set for release in 2011. They are also presently working on adapting a popular Japanese anime, Akira, into a live-action feature film.”

Academy Award-Nominated Screenwriter

Dover Campus

JANUARY1 PUBLIC HOLIDAY: NEW YEAR’S DAY11 Start of Term 2 Term 2 CEP Activities start Principal’s Forum (Middle School) Grade 9 Global Perspectives Exhibition starts Grade 10 Mock Exams start13 Grade 8 into Grade 9 Options Evening 18 Principal’s Forum (Infant School) Grade 10 Mock Exams continue Grade 12 Mock Exams start19 TOK Mini Week starts20 Season 3 Activities signup opens22 Grade 9 Global Perspectives Exhibition ends Grade 9/FIB Day of Sport TOK Mini Week ends23 ACSIS Basketball 19U/Rugby 16U, 19U/Touch 16U, 19U/Tennis 19U/Volleyball 16U SAT25 Primary Bully Busters/Cyber Week Principal’s Forum (Junior School) Grade 12 Mock Exams continue27 Season 3 Activities signup closes Kindergarten 1 Morning of Sport28 Theatre Sports Festival29 Theatre Sports Festival Grade 9/10/FIB Dutch Trip to Java departs31 Grade 9/10/FIB Dutch Trip to Java returns

FEBRUARY1 Principal’s Forum (Upper School)2 Junior Pastoral INSET for Parents Grade 11 Parents’ Evening 4 SEASAC Basketball/Rugby/Touch/Tennis start Grade 11 Parents’ Evening5 Primary School Student Led Conferences 6 PA Dover Community Fair ACSIS Basketball 14U/Netball 12U/ Football 10U Grade 9 SIS Maths Competition7 SEASAC Basetball/Rugby/Touch/Tennis end Chamber Concert 8 Drug Awareness Week Season 3 Activities start Season 3 Sports Trials this week Grade 1 Art Exhibition this week High School Art Exhibition starts Grade 11 MEDSOC week9 Grade 8 Parents’ Evening 10 High School AMC Maths Competition11 Grade 8 Parents’ Evening 12 Infant CNY Dress Up Day14 - 16 PUBLIC HOLIDAY: CHINESE NEW YEAR17 - 19 Chinese New Year school holiday22 Principal’s Forum (Senior School) CAS Check this week 23 Grade 12 Parents’ Evening 24 Grade 10 SOEs25 Grade 9 SEAMC Hong Kong starts Grade 12 Parents’ Evening 26 Grade 9 Options Forms due High School Art Exhibition ends 28 Grade 9 SEAMC Hong Kong ends

East Campus

JANUARY1 PUBLIC HOLIDAY: NEW YEAR’S DAY11 Start of Term 2 Term 2 CEP Activities start 20 Season 3 Activities signup opens27 Season 3 Activities signup closes28 Kids Aloud! and Global Voices Choir perfromance29 Family Breakfast Parents Forum

FEBRUARY8 Season 3 Activities start12 Student Led Conferences 14 - 16 PUBLIC HOLIDAY: CHINESE NEW YEAR17 - 19 Chinese New Year school holiday26 Family Breakfast

Printed on 100% recycled paper.

Come and enjoy the romantic tones of the UWCSEA musicians whilst sipping champagne on the decks of the Marina. This will be followed by a sumptuous four-course dinner, served on the upstairs deck with spec-tacular views of the sea.

There will be plenty of fabulous prizes: live auction, silent auction and bal-loon raffle. Come and enjoy this relaxed evening. Book a table and bring your friends. All are welcome.

Tickets will be on sale from January. Watch for an eFlyer in the New Year.

Benefit Dinner for Tabitha Ladies House Building

Saturday, 6 March Republic of Singapore Yacht Club

smart casual

dunia earth world universe

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