27Th September, 2019 Issue 18

Day BASKETBALL CAMP THIS ISSUE 6th September, 2014 Issue No. 13- 1 2014– 2015 Term 1 Week 1 2 IN THIS BULLETIN THIS ISSUE Page 2 – Message from Headteacher; Art Competition 27th September, 2019 Page 3 – Message Executive Headteacher; Music Notices; Page 4 – Junior School Issue 18 – 2 Page 5 – Sixth Form ; Hillcrest Hikers Page 6 – Inspiration from Learning Support Term 1 Page 7 – Boys’ Sports; Calendar Page 8 – Football Poster Page 9 – Girls’ Sports Week 4 Mr. John Eveson Headteacher 0786 888 890 [email protected] Mrs. Razwana Kimutai Deputy Headteacher 0710 540 079 [email protected] Ms. Tiffaney Algar Deputy Headteacher 0717 041 506 [email protected] Mr. Maurice Otieno Head of Senior School 0722 740 795 [email protected] Ms. Jane Akelola Head of Middle School 0733 714 579 [email protected] Mrs. Kira Channa Head of Junior School 0723 688 666 [email protected] MESSAGE FROM THE HEADTEACHER Joining two schools into one is no small challenge. On Friday 13th September our Year 9 students departed for a successful bonding trip together with their Head of Year, Mrs Kira Channa and their form teachers. Last Friday 20th September the Year 10 students also departed for their bonding weekend. They all apparently “had a blast”, enjoyed each other’s company and established friendships which will last long after they leave Hillcrest. My thanks go to all the staff who gave up their weekends to make lasting memories and begin the process of building one school so well. A major new staffing appointment is that of Mr Kodeck Mose as the new Deputy Head (curriculum) for the school. He has already begun to review our curriculum, both academic and extra-curricular, to ensure that it remains relevant to the needs of the 21st century. Mr Mose has extensive experience of working with Pearson the awarding authority for BTECs, so we are already expanding our range with the addition of the full Diploma in Hospitality, which is the equivalent of 2 A levels. He will also be looking for ways to expand the opportunities using the GEMS links with other schools, establishing links with universities and scholarship opportunities. As ever we are looking forward to creating an even better Hillcrest and the opportunities we can offer. The sporting and extra-curricular events programmes are also driving forward. Both EA and MS MUN training programmes, under the expert guidance of Mr Erick Huma, have started as well as the new season of President’s Award, under the experienced guidance of Mr Muteshi. This weekend the Year 12 Biology trip departs for the coast, whilst at Hillcrest on Saturday, we have a full programme of sports with the U15 Basketball tournament and U15 and U17 Boys’ Football tournaments. Meanwhile, our girls are at Brookhouse in their U17 Basketball tournament, whilst there are meetings at ISK for athletics and volleyball. Our tennis teams too began the season well on Friday. Let me also offer an advance invitation is for the Year 11 Information Evening to be held at Hillcrest at on Tuesday 8th October. This will be an opportunity to investigate the Sixth Form options here, but also possible choices if you are planning to study elsewhere. Subject teachers will be on hand to discuss individual options, whilst our Careers Team will also be available to guide the process of subject choices related to career paths. You will have noticed the format of this Bulletin has changed, I hope it is even more useful and effective. Do contact us with feedback on this especially. I wish you all a most enjoyable weekend. John Eveson Headteacher [email protected] ART COMPETITION This year the theme of the Kenya Orchid show will be:- “Vintage Collection Orchids” The aim is to encourage students of all ages to learn more about Orchids, and show off their own artistic talent. This competition is open to schools in Nairobi and the environs, in the groups applicable to us; 11 – 13 years; 14 – 16 years;and 17 – 19 years. For each age group there will be first, second and third prizes for the individual winners, as well as prizes for the school with the most winning entries. Submission of entries is Wednesday 9th October, 2019. Hillcrest has won this competition many times. I hope there will be lots of entries this year. Stephanie Hooper Head of Art [email protected] 2 . PANTIES WITH A PURPOSE ‘Panties With A Purpose’ is an informal initiative spearheaded by Aaliyah Webber to create awareness of the plight of underprivileged girls in Kenya, who miss up to forty days of school a year because they lack access to menstrual products. The campaign aims also to provide girls with menstrual health hygiene education, underpants and menstrual products. So far over 10,000 girls have been helped with over 40,000 pairs of underpants and menstrual products in over 100 locations across Kenya. With your help, on International Day of the Girl Child on 5thOctober, it wishes to support 2000 girls in Busia. Please donate any amount you can, large or small. This money will entirely be used to buy menstrual products at a wholesale price and nothing will be deducted for any admin or transport costs. Donations in kind (new, cotton underpants in any size) are welcome. Please help turn Hillcrest into a 'period friendly school.' Scott Webber Executive Headmaster [email protected] MUSIC NOTICES Orchestra and choir rehearsals have begun! Our orchestra will be run on Mondays after school by the outstanding trumpeter Mr Mukundi, currently training at the Kenya Conservatoire of Music. The choir will be run on Wednesday after school by our new music teacher Mr Oni Abayomi, who brings with him over a decade of experience running choirs at his previous schools. Both activities will be a great benefit to our students with an interest in music. Please note students must already be learning their instrument to join the orchestra, but all are welcome at the choir. Both ensembles will be rehearsing material to be performed regularly throughout the year, with our first major event scheduled at the winter concert at the end of this term. Scott Hughes Head of Music [email protected] MARKETING NEWS As part of our endeavour to streamline all our forms and to ease the process for parents, of completing them, we have recently subscribed to an online and mobile-friendly interface, ‘OpenApply’ which provides a seamless experience for parents. You will shortly receive (Year 9 have already received) an invitation to login. Please use the email that Hillcrest has on record for you, and create your own password. Any forms that need to be completed will be listed in your checklist. When new forms are added, you will be notified. Christina Lacey Marketing Department [email protected] 3 JUNIOR SCHOOL Week four is nearly finished and I can safely say that the Year 9 students are all settling in quite well so far. The Year 9 students all managed to give me some written feedback on their Transition process. The bonding trip was a good experience to bring everyone together and there has been a happy dynamic between the students in their classes so far. All the Year 9 students have now had their timetables on ISAMS finalised and the only gaps should be Friday afternoon ECA and any student who selected Learning Support. With regard to the teaching and learning, in Year 9, the subjects that are set, taught according to ability, are Mathematics, French, Spanish and Swahili. For the Mathematics, if your child sat a CE paper, the Maths set your son or daughter is in has been made according to that performance. If your child did not sit a CE paper, then we look at the End of Year 8 examinations to guide us. There will be a setting test for all Year 9 students held in Week 6 which will now allow the Head of Faculty; Mrs Njiru to put your child in the correct set for the year. For the French, Spanish and Swahili sets, all the students who had selected French as one of their languages sat a language setting test in week one and these sets have been done on ISAMS. We have three sets for French, two for Spanish and four for Swahili. All the tutors have held nominations within their form groups for Student Parliament representatives and these are the following candidates that were selected; Manahil Sulaiman (9SHU), Shiru Maina (9AOD), Abigail Tora (9KBR), Suhani Kotecha (9KBI), Suhana Varsani (9HBE) and Melissa Kaunda (9STB). Big congratulations to these six students and I hope to meet them very soon to discuss some interesting matters that they may then feedback to their colleagues during their form time. All the Year 9 students should be now receiving the dates for their half term assessments. These are known as End of Topic assessments and will be the basis for the half term grades. Of course, homework assignments and class work assessments will also be considered. For the Science subjects, all the students are advised to do some active Q and A as part of their revision to actually see if they are able to apply the knowledge learnt. A wonderful online resource they can use to access topic based multiple choice questions is Save My Exams. For the structured questions, they can get some practice from the end of chapter questions from their text books. With regards to homework, a lot of the students in my Biology and Chemistry classes have agreed that the simple analogy of 'do it when you get it' is working for them.

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