FRIDAY FLYER-Issue 86
29 Nov 2019
Headmaster’s Review
Dear Parents,
I hope that you are all well.
In this week’s Friday Flyer, I would like to take the opportunity to update you on some exciting recent developments. In late-September the College welcomed two visitors from the Federation of British International Schools in Asia (FOBISIA) to conduct a two-day review and inspection process. In addition to a complete overview of our policy documentation, twinned to our safeguarding and HR practices, they interviewed all key staff over the two days, and toured the College facilities. They also spoke with a number of parents and pupils, and were effusive in their praise of all those they met.
Following their visit, the inspectors then submitted their report to the wider FOBISIA community and we are delighted to record that they were fully supportive of our application, duly receiving us as members into the FOBISIA fold. Gaining admission to FOBISIA’s network (they have 68 other schools under their wing) is an excellent achievement for the College, and we become part of a British Overseas club that offers access to opportunities in sport, drama, music and academia across the area, and a bountiful stream of staff CPD courses. It will be enriching for pupils, parents (who are invited to certain FOBISIA tournaments) and staff. I would like to thank everyone involved in this application process and we look forward to pursuing further international accreditation opportunities.
An important dimension of the FOBISIA community revolves around the opportunities presented in performing arts and this links succinctly to my second theme. As we near the end of Term 1, the traditional school musical and play season triumphantly rises into focus. This year, through the leadership of the Drama and Music departments, we are eagerly anticipating the Senior School production of the ‘Our House’ musical, running on the evenings of Thursday 5th & Friday 6th December, and a sequence of excellent Prep School plays (‘Pied Piper’, ‘Medusa’ and ‘The Little Prince’) all scheduled for Tuesday 10th December. Further details will follow on these events but please do note the dates in your diary; we would be delighted to welcome as many parents as possible.
As always, I hope that you follow the general outline of all key College events on the website calendar – all the pupils certainly have a busy, but hugely enjoyable, last two weeks of this term to look forward to.
With best wishes and thank you for the continued support.
Dr Tod
Headmaster
Carr House
Term 1 is an incredibly busy term and the Carr boys continue to work hard to achieve their academic, sporting and social goals. Hard work can only be sustained when there are also opportunities to unwind and just enjoy being children. Carr House held our traditional Halloween Party on Friday November 1. With plenty of tricks, treats, ghoulish games and freakish fun it was a night to remember and the boys very much enjoyed themselves as you can see from these photos.
The girls of Crawfurd and Rosebery Houses treated us to a social night. We gathered in the Drama Studio for games, snacks and a disco. It was a good opportunity to let off some steam after a busy week of studies and sport. I am just relieved that there is not a House dancing competition based on the ‘moves’ on display that evening.
We, with the help of Propert House, registered our first House Competition win of the year with the recent House Challenge, a tough quiz based on the famous UK quiz show University Challenge. Faizi represented Carr House brilliantly and hopefully it is the first of many victories.
We now have our sights firmly set on the next competition, House Basketball, and have been practicing hard during the weekends.
The success of Carr House is very much underpinned by the hard work and dedication of its team of tutors. This week we had to say goodbye to Ms Townsend as she takes up a new position in Crawfurd House. Not only is Ms Townsend a brilliant teacher of languages but she has a natural talent for pastoral care. She even brought presents for her tutor group on her last day in Carr! We will miss her very much in Carr House but know that she will do a fantastic job in her new role as Assistant Housemistress.
Here are a few of the latest achievements in Carr House.
Carrite of the Week:
Max – excellent effort and attitude to learning resulting in a number of merits being awarded
PeiHu – fantastic report from Science showing your positive attitude to your studies and fast progress”
Geographer of the Month – Lucas Hill
Merits leaderboard:
Youngmok 60 ~ Vash 51 ~ Zakri 44 ~ Nik Imran 41 ~ Lucas 40 ~ Jayden 39
Whilst the boys above deserve commendation for their high number of merits I have been extremely impressed with the number of merits from all boys in the house and am proud to say that Carr House has the most merits per pupil of all the houses in the college.
Mr Mark Loveday
Carr Housemaster
Holman House
Halloween and House Social
Whilst it already seems like a long time ago, the boys of Holman and Carr Houses really enjoyed hosting the recent social event for junior boys and girls. Mr Nichols acted as the DJ with some much needed assistance from Finley, as everyone enjoyed listening to the music, playing pool and having the opportunity to simply sit and chat with their friends. The event was proceeded by a BBQ outside Holman, and with the addition of extra snacks in both houses, there was never any danger of people going hungry! The event was a great success and showed the value of such social occasions. I am certain that this night will be repeated in the near future.
Cinema and Mall Visit
Mr Pedro (AHMM Holman House) was in charge of the recent weekend visit to the cinema and IOI Mall near KL. The boys went to see the movie Maleficent 2 and whilst it was not to everyone’s taste, the general consensus was that it was worth watching. The boys then grabbed a quick bite to eat before descending upon the mall where some serious retail activity took place judging by the number of bags that were brought back to the House.
Weekend Activities
Mr Amir’s weekend was no less busy as he helped to coordinate a successful series of sporting activities across the two days, and even found time to visit the night market in Mercato. The highlight of the weekend was a basketball match between Holman and Carr Houses in which Carr emerged as the ultimate victors. Hopefully, we can seek revenge when it matters in this week’s House Basketball competition. All of the boys will be taking part and it promises to be another opportunity for us to demonstrate the strong sporting culture that is rapidly developing within Holman.
House Badminton Victory
Holman’s boys enjoyed success in the recent House Badminton competition. We defeated some talented players from Carr, Roseberry and Crawfurd Houses to finish joint top of the Key Stage 3 competition. Well done, boys! Keep up the excellent start to house competitions.
Key Stage 3 Assembly: Internet Safety
As part of Holman’s ongoing commitment to educating the boys about the safe and responsible use of their electronic devices, Mr Nichols recently led a Key Stage 3 assembly in the Duke of York Theatre to make all pupils aware of the potential dangers lurking online and helping them to understand where they could find help within the College if they got into any difficulties. With social media forming such an important part of the current generation’s lives it was important to make all pupils aware of their responsibilities and to also highlight the dangers of cyberbullying.
Mr Darren Nichols
Holman Housemaster
Granville House
With just two weeks left of the term it is an important point for the Senior boys to ensure they are organised for the upcoming break, looking forward to some time with family, but it’s also important to have an eye on the next half and the Mock exams.
The Year 12 and 13s led an excellent house assembly last week with a focus on revision. They all gave tips and advice on how they have revised in the past, what has worked well for them and what hasn’t. It was great to see the boys sharing and learning from experiences, but also to see more of the older boys stepping up and showing some great leadership and acting as role models for the Y10 and 11 students. Revision can be such a daunting task, two years worth of material for a wide range of subjects and an exam date that just gets closer and closer. Knowing that others have gone through this, survived and come out the other side well rewarded for their efforts, is always comforting to know. The great thing about a boarding school environment is the support they can offer each other, We often see the younger boys asking for some help with understanding challenging topics and the older boys are always happy to help.
We have also used some family time recently to discuss mobile phone and device usage. The boys had to discuss beneficial ways they use their phones and there were lots of great ideas. Most recognised the powerful tools they now have at their fingertips. I then threw in the question of how can these be a distraction, or the ‘bad’ uses of mobiles. Again there were lots of really good suggestions. When asked what was ‘OK if managed well’ we saw more move from the bad than the good, there weren’t really any new ideas. This helped to demonstrate the dangers of phones if not managed carefully, much of what the boys see as ‘acceptable’ can slip into ‘bad’ if not managed carefully. I have asked them to reflect on their own phone usage and to consider how much time they spend on the ‘OK’ uses and to be honest with themselves if they aren’t managing it effectively.
The last three weeks have seen the “House Challenge’ competition take place in the evening after prep. We saw off some worthy competitors of Crawfurd in the semi final and then were pitted against Propert in the final. The boys put up a very good performance but their reactions just weren’t quick enough and they kept getting beaten to the buzzer. Propert were deserved winners and we know we need to develop a more competitive edge.
Amongst all the competition there has also been some excellent social time between the houses. We had an evening at Crawfurd hosted by the girls. The boys were creative with their gift and took a commemorative board they had designed and made as well as a cake for their hostesses. It was a really fun evening with a quiz, a spicy noodle eating competition, human knots and then music and other games to finish off. All the boys had a great time and they look forward to hosting Rosebery next term.
There have been a few opportunities for giving back to the wider community and those less fortunate than ourselves in the last few weeks through fundraising activities. Just before the Exeat there was a 24 minute run held after CCAs on Wednesday. There was a really good turn out and around 10 Granvillians running. Over 600RM was raised for the 24 hour run foundation which is the largest youth-led movement against human trafficking and slavery. The money collected aids to liberate young children and adults from forced labor, sex trafficking and involuntary servitude. In terms of individual runners, Scott and Drexel had placed first at 7 laps each. Well done to them and all runners and organisers (of which there were several Granvillians led by Mikael) for all the efforts for this worthy cause.
As a school we have also had a focus on men’s health through the Movember foundation. A number of staff (myself included) have put their upper lip on the line by growing a moustache to raise awareness for men’s health and in particular prostate cancer, testicular cancer and mental health issues. This week the College Assembly focussed on this and students were able to wear a stick on moustache for the day if they donated 5 MYR to the selected charities. The Granville boys contributed well to this worthy cause.
Mr John Foden
Granville Housemaster
‘Staying In Is the New Going Out’
Certainly that was the case recently for our boarding community. Six days of school a week is a busy existence, so sometimes having a little down time at home come Saturday / Sunday is good.
However, that is not to say that this means the community becomes dormant and sessile. In fact the College remains a hive of activity and here are just a few examples of what this entails.
Crawfurd invited Granville for dinner, whilst Rosebery invited Propert. The boys successfully navigated the dress code, which was no small feat and appeared showered, in non PE kit or College uniform! The girls did an excellent job of feeding the boys – again a monumental task. We then proceeded to have a range of team games. My favourite, which explains the somewhat strange photo, was eating an Oreo without using your hands – the starting place being the Oreo was the forehead!
Alongside this the Houses have been busy with a House Challenge – this was essentially modelled on the UK based Quiz Show University Challenge. Teams were Rosebery, Crawfurd, Granville, Holman and Propert and Carr. Both boys teams made their way through to the semi-final stage to meet in the final. Propert and Carr came top and as such proven two things. Firstly, boys are full of pointless information. Secondly, the boys from Propert and Carr are particularly clever – this competition was clearly a better indicator of IQ rather than A levels / GCSES.
We also had a 24 minute run, organised by our College prefects. This raised money for the 24 Hour Run that took place on 23 and 24 November and included a number of participants from ECiM. In this race teams run non stop for 24 hours to raise money for anti-child trafficking agencies and to promote awareness of the issue. Our smaller effort, but important nethertheless, was brilliantly supported. It allowed the younger pupils to contribute and raised a significant amount of money that will be added to the final collection.
Looking forward the boarders will have a trip to KL before the end of term. This will be vital as it will allow them to purchase ‘Secret Santa’ presents, prepare outfits for the formal Christmas dinner and partake in some House based Christmas lunches.
With life this busy on site, it may be that “going out” is more relaxing than “staying in”!
Mr Ian Squires
Assistant Head (Boarding)
Meet the New Head of Mathematics – Dr Jonathon Gilkes
Why did you choose to apply for the job here?
I chose to apply for ECiM because of its prestigious reputation and wide reach around South East Asia. Whilst researching the college and the job I wished to apply for, I saw amazing students and a professional work environment. Having two children studying in the college, I thought it would be a brilliant place for them to develop their skills in this tightly knit community. I also saw an opportunity to bring my own skills to the Maths Department and the college as a whole for the betterment of Epsom.
What specific changes would you like to make/ what have you made to the Maths department?
I plan to integrate an internal continual personal development where students will be able to enhance their skills and capabilities through independent, participation-based and interactive based learning. I also believe that it is essential to implement consistent policies amongst staff and students in order to ensure the best outcome possible. I also strive to keep students motivated on Saturdays with my eccentric ‘Sticker Saturdays’.
What is your opinion on ECIM so far?
Epsom has exceeded my expectations since joining the College in September. With their top tier facilities and nurturing environment for students and staff alike. The College has a strong educational system that can provide its students with a plethora of resources whilst giving them the independence to excel on their own.
Why do you think math is an essential subject?
Mathematics is the framework for life and provides the skills necessary to pursue the best careers. I believe it is an integral part of our lives and can change a person’s outlook on the world for the better.
Mr Ben Cory
Deputy Head of College
Eleven+ Programme
At Epsom College in Malaysia, we are always looking to how we can better engage with parents in the Epsom community. One of the recent initiatives has been to invite parents to a series of talks on topics that may be of interest. We call this the Eleven+ programme. The focus is on the options that are available to students after they have competed Year 11 and their GCSEs. We want both our students and parents to be informed of all available options and so we are talking about all of those options, those that we offer here at Epsom College in Malaysia, but also what else is available to them. Each session is concluded with a Question & Answer session with the presenter and then lunch in the Dining Hall.
When we initially started at half-term, the first talk was all about the Sixth Form at the College and what we offer our students. Since then, the talks have focused onto specific aspects, with Mr Pedro delivering the second talk on the Extended Project Qualification EPQ and Mrs Carden-Brown talking about university applications in the third talk.
There are two more talks for this term: What does holistic education mean in the Sixth Form? and 21st Century Careers and Skills. Further talks, including specific advice on universities in different countries, will occur next term. All the titles and dates can be found on the flyer. Upon completion, each talk is translated to Mandarin, Japanese and Korean and made available for parents to watch in their own time.
We hope that parents continue to attend these events, so as to find out even more and discover exactly what it is that we can offer for students’ futures. As always, both Mrs Brown and myself are always available to discuss these options either through email or in person at the College, so we encourage parents to get in touch.
Mr Jon Barker
Assistant Head (Sixth Form)
IELTS
At Epsom College in Malaysia, we believe in supporting our students through every step of their journey to some of the most prestigious universities in the world. One of these steps that can be particularly confusing is meeting the strict English language requirements of the courses and institutions students elect to study. The International English Language Testing System (or IELTS), is designed to assess the language ability of people who want to study or work where English is the language of communication. As each institution, and each course within that institution, is free to set their own requirements, students and parents often need support, guidance and advice as to their need to obtain an IELTS certificate of language proficiency.
To offer this support, I would like to introduce myself as the designated ‘IELTS Coordinator’ at the College. My role is to work with each student in order to ensure they are aware of how their individual circumstances might influence their need to obtain an IELTS certificate. Special IELTS classes and one-to-one tutorials are provided to help students achieve the IELTS score they require. Further to this, I am a point of contact for parents should they have any questions or concerns regarding their child’s English language needs for their university applications.
Over the course of Term 1, we are pleased to have offered our students up to 3 hours per week of IELTS classes and one-to-one tutorials. We are fortunate to have a special relationship with the British Council in Malaysia and we have become an IELTS testing centre. As such, our students will have the exclusive opportunity to take the IELTS examination at ECiM on December 7th & 8th.
I would like to take this opportunity to wish our students the best of luck in taking the IELTS examination next weekend. I would encourage any parents and students who have any questions about IELTS to contact me directly either in person or via email.
Mr Alexander Walsh
IELTS Coordinator
alexander.walsh@epsomcollege.edu.my
University Application
It has been a busy term in the Grayling Centre. Year 13 have been working hard on their university applications. Many pupils have already received offers to study at some of the UK’s highest ranking universities such as UCL, Warwick and Manchester to name but a few. Of our applicants to Cambridge 4 have been interviewed in Malaysia already. The UK interview candidates will hear shortly whether they have been selected. We are extremely proud of these pupils for getting this far and wish them all the very best.
We would like to thank those Oxford and Cambridge graduates and undergraduates for their support of our pupils by providing mock interviews in addition to the academics and medics in the UK who have given so generously of their time over Skype to help prepare our pupils. Their knowledge and expertise is invaluable in presenting candidates with scenarios and problems that stretch and challenge them beyond their comfort zone and really probe their knowledge and understanding beyond the curriculum.
In order to stretch and challenge our pupils, we offer a range of extra and super curricular activities. Pupils have the opportunity to engage in academic discourse through the Epsom Debate Society, which has been relaunched now that the UCAS process is nearing completion. We understand that many pupils find public speaking intimidating and in view of this we are running some informal evening sessions where pupils are given topics to prepare in groups before embarking upon an informal group debate. Many thanks to Cyn Thea in Year 12 for her organisation of these sessions.
In addition to sporting CCAs we run academic enrichment CCAs and this term pupils who have opted for the Elite University sessions undertook research into a topic of particular interest to them. They were then required to write a short academic paper to be presented to Mr Brown, Deputy Head (Academic). The topics researched were fascinating (for example the possibility of human limb regrowth and cognitive behaviour) and are a testament to the academic ability and intellect of our pupils. This research and the breadth of knowledge developed is exactly the kind of engagement that elite universities look for as they interview potential candidates.
If you would like to know more about the work of the Sixth Form and how we support our pupils with their applications and prepare them for Higher Education then please do not hesitate to get in touch.
As always it has been our pleasure and privilege to work with the young people in our care throughout 2019 and we look forward to continuing their academic journey with them in 2020.
Mrs Catherine Carden-Brown
Assistant Head (Staff Development) & Head of Higher Education & Careers
Round Square International Conference – INDORE, India
In October, I accompanied six pupils to Indore in India to participate in the 2019 Round Square International Conference. This year’s theme was Sardovaya – the world we wish to see. The highlights of the conference were community service, inspirational speakers, historical visits and activities.
We arrived at Emerald Heights International School in the afternoon and were welcomed with majestic traditional Indian music played on instruments that we had never ever seen in our lives. As we walked down the hall into the great cafeteria, we were given beautiful necklaces as well as having traditional Kumkum powder on our heads. The next morning everything started with the flag ceremony where representatives from each school would parade their flags around with pride; more than 180 schools were attending the conference from 50 different countries.
Following the ceremony, we had two keynote speakers: Mr. Kailash Satyarthi, a Nobel laureate who has been a tireless advocate of children’s rights and Dr. Shashi Tharoor, an Indian politician, writer and former Diplomat who is currently serving as a Member of Parliament. After a very informative day, the night welcomed us with the “Essence of India” we were delighted with vibrant acrobatic performances and dances expertly organised by the Emerald Height students. To end the night, we were given a taste of what Bollywood parties have to offer with a massive dance party.
On the second day we had two more keynote speakers, one was Sophia the Robot. When the participants had the chance to vote for or against the use of Artificial Intelligence, surprisingly, the majority of people were against. However, halfway through the speech, it was mentioned that Artificial Intelligence would not take over the world like in a Terminator movie; instead they would create more job opportunities and lead our way to a better future. The next keynote speaker was Kiran Gandhi (not related to Mahatma Gandhi). She is an American electronic music producer and a women’s rights activist. The day ended with dinner and more fabulous dance performances.
Day three was the day we went on a field trip to “the great city of Mandu”. The historic attractions offered breath-taking views and were designed with holes through every single wall so the voice of the king could be heard. Also we could visit a “mini Taj Mahal”, they explained to us that this place was built before the Taj Mahal but is exactly the same in structure but not in size. Again we ended the day with a fantastic dinner with blasting Indian melodies in the background. Indians love to dance so at the end of the dinner we start dancing until it was time to go to bed.
The fourth day was our service day, students and teachers were divided into groups and we went to different places: an orphanage, schools for the deaf, hospitals and an organic farm. Xin Jing said: “This service has taught me a lot, for example, to keep an optimistic and positive attitude, even though they’re deaf, but they didn’t give up, they’re having an education, and making life become better and better. Furthermore, we should discover our potential, maybe they can’t sing well since they can’t hear, nevertheless, they get the talent of art, they made some impressive art crafts by themselves, and they can sell them in the school shop if they want. Last but not least, I realised how lucky we are, at least we can use all our senses to experience this beautiful world, so we should appreciate and cherish the life we’ve got.”
On the last day, we woke up at 5:30 am to participate in a cancer run with India’s first Blade Runner, Major D.P. Singh. After the race each school planted a tree. Then the Blade Runner himself gave us the most amazing speech. During the war he suffered many injuries, he lost his right leg and hearing. Although he went through such setbacks, he still pursued his dreams and he told us all of this with a great smile on his face; it was truly inspiring. The closing ceremony was spirited as the host school had prepared a gorgeous performance followed by dinner with the theme “Bollywood Night”.
In summary we had an amazing time in India not only because of the keynote speakers, Indian culture, service activities but also the amount of people that we met that have the same IDEALS (Internationalism, Democracy, Environmental, Adventure, Leadership and Service) as us.
The next International Conference will be in Australia so Year 11 and Year 12, this is your chance for next year! You can have the same or an even better experience than You Cong, Cyn Thea, Tia, Xin Jing, Daniel and Manfred.
Ms Claudia Pinna
Head of Physics & Round Square Coordinator
Sports Update
It has been an action packed few weeks in the Sports Department with pupils representing the College in international tournament in both Football and Tennis.
Football
04:00am Thursday morning saw 40 sleepy pupils and 4 even sleepier staff members leave College for the annual British International School Phuket Soccer 7s Tournament. This is a tournament that ECiM compete in every year and is a real highlight of the sporting calendar. Schools from all over South East Asia meet in Phuket for a tough and extremely competitive two days of football. As a College that offers a wide breadth of sporting opportunities it is always a mammoth task to compete with schools that solely focus on football but, as always, our pupils applied themselves impeccably and demonstrated outstanding heart, grit and determination throughout the tournament with lots of quality football played throughout.
Players of the tournament:
U15 Girls – Nono for her incredible work rate over the two days. Nono played every minute of the tournament and not only organised her team defensively but scored three goals with both her right and left foot!
U18 Girls – Tia for her combative and resolute performances in defence and attacking threat when going forwards. Tia played every minute of every game and is a vital member of the squad.
U15 Boys – Daewon for his immense work ethic over the two days. Daewon was first to track back when ECiM weren’t in possession and first to burst forwards and be an attacking option when ECiM regained possession. Daewon was a constant attacking threat throughout.
U18 Boys – Kit for being a good leader and driving force behind the team. Kit also demonstrated great vision from the middle of the pitch, making important tackles and creative passes throughout. Kit also scored a great, top corner free kick to round off an impressive two days at the tournament.
As well as football, this trip gives pupils the chance to relax and unwind around the pool at their hotel, as well as visiting the local shopping mall for some retail therapy. This is always a popular trip with pupils and we are already looking forward to next November when we will return.
Tennis
Huge congratulations to Aisha (Y8), Daniel (Y10) and Ryan (Y10) who represented the College at the Genting Selangor International Junior Tennis Open Championships 2019. Daniel had been training hard with his coach Shane in preparation for this international event. He was unlucky to be knocked out in the first round after being drawn against the tournament’s top seeded player. This was another good experience for Daniel and he will take a lot of experience from the tournament which will aid his development in the sport.
Aisha joined the College at the start of the academic year and has been a fantastic addition. She has already represented the College in football and touch rugby as well as tennis – her focus sport. Aisha performed well and managed to reach the quarter finals in the singles event in the U14 age category. This is a brilliant achievement, especially considering Aisha is still only 12 years old! Aisha also narrowly missed out in the finals of the doubles tournament. Aisha is already looking forward to future events and I am sure we will be hearing of her successes.
Ryan also joined the College this academic year and has already represented ECiM in tournaments across Malaysia. Ryan is quickly becoming a well-known name on the Malaysian tennis circuit and performed well in this tournament. Ryan swept aside opponents in the early round and progressed all the way to the final of the singles category. Unfortunately, Ryan lost in the final in a close encounter against a very tough opponent but learnt a great deal from the experience which will make him tougher and a stronger player for the future. Ryan and his partner also reached the semi-finals of the doubles tournament which is further evidence of Ryan’s pedigree in the sport.
All three pupils are a credit to the College and we look forward to seeing them perform in future events.
Mr Daniel Jeffries
Director of Sport
House Challenge
Which word is being defined: “An electric generator; or, a hardworking, energetic person”?
Which letter of the Greek alphabet looks like a P in the English alphabet?
If a fair die is tossed 90 times, how many times would it be expected to land on a multiple of 3?
Who was the President of the USA on 1st January 2001?
If A is 1, B is 2, C is 3, and so on, then what three-letter word is represented by the number 817?
Which constituent nation of the United Kingdom is not represented on the Union Jack?
Which small particle is named from the Greek word for “indivisible”?
What is the common two-word name for the temperature of 0 degree Kelvin or -273.15 degrees Celsius?
University Challenge is a popular television show in the UK, in which universities compete against each other to show off their general knowledge. The show was even the inspiration for a star-studded film, entitled Starter for Ten.
The concept began in the USA, in the form of a show called College Bowl. This revelation would probably come as a huge shock to many British people who believe University Challenge to be quintessentially British. The most popular destination for last year’s leavers, University of Manchester, as well as Magdalen College, Oxford both hold the record for the number of victories with four each. Since its initial airing in 1962, the format of the show has changed in a few small ways.
This year, we brought the competition to the College, making our own adaptations to pit our boarding houses against one another. With Key Stage 3 students now in Rosebery and Crawfurd, the senior boys’ houses were paired up with one junior house. The red houses of Granville and Holman were teamed up, while Carr joined Propert. Each team had to have one representative from Key Stage 3, one from Key Stage 4 and then one each from the two year groups of Sixth Form.
At the top are just a sample of some of the questions that the students answered correctly, with a wide range of topics being tackled over the course of the three matches. Overall, the scores were as follows:
Propert & Carr 205 : Crawfurd 90
Granville & Holman 150 : Rosebery 60
Propert & Carr 240 : Granville & Holman 140
The answer of the tournament was widely considered to come from Drexel Loh for Granville & Holman, when he correctly answered: “Multiply the number of musketeers in the title of Alexandre Dumas’ book by the number of American colonies which declared independence in 1776. What number results?”
Congratulations to all who took part, but special congratulations must go to Propert and Carr who, after winning in front of a packed audience in the Grayling Centre, walk away as House Challenge Champions 2019.
Just in case you are struggling with any of those questions above, the answers are: Dynamo; Rho; 30; Bill Clinton; Hag; Wales; Atom; Absolute Zero; 39
Mr Jon Barker
Assistant Head (Sixth Form)
MFL – AIMS Language Competition 2019
On Thursday 28 November we took part in the annual AIMS Storytelling, Speech and Language Competition held this year at the Sri KDU International School. The theme of the competition was Global Goals and included delightful interludes of musical performances.
In total over 200 students from 10 international schools, including ECiM, competed in the French, Spanish, BM and Mandarin language. Judging categories and scores for presentations were marked on content, pronunciation, fluency, performance and expression, stage presence and delivery, confidence, timing and originality.
All of our students from KS1, 2 and 3 worked very hard to prepare their presentations and performed fantastically well. After a wonderful show of knowledge and competencies three of our MFL students were awarded medals:
Erin – French Silver
Juny – French Silver
Diana – Spanish Silver
We congratulate our winners and everyone on their sterling work. It was a great educational experience for our students to participate in.
Epsom College is looking forward to hosting its own international schools’ competition in 2020 which will include singing, acting, poetry, a spelling bee and cultural quizzes.
Mr Phil Pedro
MFL Coordinator