A very warm welcome back to TISPC to everyone in our school community. The year has flown by and we are now in the final term of the academic year. I hope you have all had an enjoyable term break; we started this term with an abundance of excitement as the children shared with teachers and friends about their colourful holiday trips and adventures both local and abroad.

In this first week, Early Years, KS1 and KS2 classes prepared and enjoyed amazing activities for their IPC Entry Points to pique their interest and curiosity. Our Early Years children had their ‘Blast Off’ Entry Point activity by making ‘aliens’ feel welcome in their classrooms. The Year 1s started the ‘Freeze It’ unit by exploring their creative minds, making ‘snow’ from flour and mixing cornstarch with water to make some ‘oobleck', squishing it to make solids and transforming it back into liquid state.

In the Year 2 ‘Buildings’ unit, the children got busy with their mums and dads using different recycled materials to make buildings for cities so human settlements are inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable (Sustainable Development Goal 11. Our little Year 3 scientists conducted some brilliant experiments for their ‘Shake It’ Entry Point; they were so immersed and having endless fun mixing different types of milk with vinegar, water and cola to record the various reactions.

Year 4 students started their ‘‘Vanishing Rainforest’ Entry Point; they used recycled materials and branches to create their own little rainforest displays. Year 5s ‘Bake It’ unit began with the children walking around different bread stations to touch and feel, smell and taste different types of bread. They recorded their observations describing the texture, consistency, taste and aroma using their year group word bank to help visualise their ideas. Our Year 6s will have their exciting Entry Point in a few weeks and I will describe their learning to you as soon as it happens.

This week’s RECIPE is integrity and it is most definitely an interesting topic of discussion. According to Edutopia and Lucas Education Research, founded by filmmaker George Lucas in 1991, children are not born with integrity or the behaviours that are associated with it such as honesty, honour, respect, authenticity, social responsibility and the courage to stand up for what they believe is right. These behaviours are derived through a process of cultural socialisation, which consists of influences from all spheres of a child’s life.

Children acquire these values through adult role-models and peers. When children learn integrity in home and classroom settings, they apply similar principles to other aspects of their lives and in adulthood. As important as many other skills and attributes, integrity is one which instils a sense of trustworthiness and responsibility in human beings; it is definitely an attribute that takes one to higher levels in life and makes one an ethical leader in tomorrow’s world.

This term, I would like to announce to you our new members of staff who have just joined us. Ms Geraldine joins the Year 2 team as a co-teacher and Ms Yap Yi Xuan joins our Mandarin Team; please join me in welcoming them both to our school community.