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HEADLINES by Craig Halsall
Dear all,

Spring Holiday IGCSE & A Level Revision
Programmes
An important letter has been sent home with
Year 10, 11, 12 and 13 pupils. Parents will also have received a copy of the letter via email and notification of the same via my official school
Twitter feed, @CRHalsall.
The letter explains an opportunity that we are considering offering to pupils taking IGCSE, AS or
A2 examinations this summer. The importance of effective revision in helping pupils achieve their best possible grade is well documented. Effective revision can often make the difference and help pupils achieve higher grades. We also believe that pupils find it difficult to revise at home, which can be stressful for parents too.
We are therefore considering offering an intensive revision programme during the last major school holiday before the summer exams.
Full details of the programme are set out in the letter. There is also a link to an online survey that will take a maximum of two minutes to complete.
The purpose of the survey is to understand the level of interest in the revision programme. A large number of pupils have expressed an interest in attending the programme, but it can only run should there be sufficient demand.
Please complete the online survey by
Monday 2nd February to express an interest in learning more about the intensive revision programme.
Key Stage 1 Open Forum
The Key Stage 1 Parents’ Open Forum was held last week. The issue of the recent emergency fire evacuation was raised as children had to leave the building when it was cold outdoors. This was not a planned evacuation drill; we only plan these at warmer times of the year. It appears that some younger pupils returned home and passed on incorrect messages to parents as to what had happened. As a result, I will in future, use my official school daily Twitter feed (@CRHalsall) to

update parents on such events. On this occasion, it was a false alarm, and children returned to the school building within 7 minutes of the evacuation. Blankets and other provisions are available should we ever need to permanently evacuate the building in cold weather conditions.
Friends of Haileybury Almaty
The next meeting will take place in my office on
Monday 2nd February, between 3.30pm and
4.45pm. The team is making great progress with plans for the next Friends of HAL events, but we are still looking for four or five further new parents to join us. If you have a positive outlook on improving community events in school for your children, please come along on Monday. You will be most welcome, and you do not need to have attended any previous meetings!
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
Monday 2nd February
Deadline for parents of pupils in Year 10, 11, 12 &
13 to complete Spring Term Revision Survey
Year 1 Winter Games, 12.45pm-1.45pm
Friends of HAL Meeting
3.30pm – 4.45pm, Headmaster’s Office
Tuesday 3rd February
Year 2 Winter Games, 8.30am-9.30am
Secondary Open Forum with Headmaster
1.30pm-2.15pm, Headmaster’s Office
Parents of children in secondary school are welcome.
Year 11 Parents’ Evening (Mock results issued)
4.00pm-6.00pm, Atrium
Wednesday 4th February
Year 7 House Basketball Competition
3.45pm-5.00pm, Sports Hall
Parents of Year 7 pupils are welcome.
Thursday 5th February
Year 12 and 13 Parents’ Evening (Mock results issued): 4.00pm-6.00pm, Atrium
Have an enjoyable weekend!
Craig Halsall, Headmaster

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OUR SCHOOL NEWS
Technology Today
Last
week, it was reported that 1,800 Minecraft accounts have been compromised and leaked online, but Minecraft developer Mojang explained that it wasn't hacked. Writing on the company's official website, Mojang's Owen Hill explained that the compromised accounts were fooled into giving up their information with a phishing scam.
Basically, some "bad people," as Hill said, pretended to be Mojang in order to obtain private details.
Never give any personal details over email. Also ensure that you have a robust but memorable password. Using numbers, symbols and a mix of upper and lower case letters in your password makes it harder for someone to guess. For example, an eight-character password with numbers, symbols and mixed-case letters is harder to guess because it has 30,000 times as many possible combinations compared to an eight-character password with only lower case letters. Do not use these!

Hearing With Your Tongue
Approximately 70 million people in our world are deaf, and only a fraction of them can afford cochlear implants, which can cost up to
$100,000. Fortunately, thanks to researchers at
Colorado State University, people with hearing disabilities will be able to “hear” with their tongues, and it will be as cheap as $2000.
The device is still being developed, but the basic explanation is that it transforms sounds into vibrations that are felt by the tongue and are relayed to your brain, which in turn, recognizes those vibrations as words.
“Some people suggest it feels like the sensation of having champagne bubbles on their tongue,” said engineer and project leader John Williams.

qwerty

Since the mechanism does not actually stimulate auditory nerves, it takes a while for the brain and the tongue to work together. It can take up to a couple of months for a person to adjust and use the devise freely. However, after frequent training, the person will learn to “hear” with their tongue. abc123

Nikol Chen 12PM

123456 password 12345678

Try to convert a well-known saying. For example,
"Mary had a little lamb, its fleece was white as snow” could become Mh@lL1fwW@5 - but remember the rules you made for yourself!
Don Scott
ICT and Computing Teacher

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Primary Science Day 2015
Our second-ever Science Day took place last week. All year groups in Primary did a carousel of three experiments. All the children who showed the qualities of a Mad Scientist were given a certificate. Here are some children’s thoughts on
Science Day:
“This year Science Day was better and more organised. I loved the experiments because they were very interesting. My favourite one was the rocket blast-off experiment because I got to make my own and see it BLAST OFF!” - Ece

“I loved the rocket and food colouring experiment. I saw a hurricane in the milk due to a chemical reaction in the fat of the milk and the
Fairy Liquid on the cotton swab. It was like I was real scientist in Science Day.”

“My favourite experiment was making the lemonade.” – Daniel

“I liked the Spaghetti Challenge because it was difficult. We had to stick spaghetti together and balance a Kinder Egg on the top. We really needed to focus and work well in a team.” - Joon

“It was a great Science Day!” – Ilya

“I loved Science Day.” – Arda

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SATs ECA for applying to US Universities
Every Tuesday from 17th February there will be a lunchtime ECA to prepare students for Scholastic
Aptitude Tests (SATs). The ECA will be run by Miss
Kathleen Boylan, from the English Faculty. She is a US citizen who has experience of preparing students for SATs.
Taking this test successfully is an entry requirement for many US universities. SATs consist of three exams: Writing, Critical
Reasoning and Mathematics. SAT subject tests may also be required. These are offered seven times annually, and were sat by 1.67 million students in 2014. Preparation is beneficial, although you can retake the exams with the best score in each part counting. The first attempt at
SATs should be at the end of Year 12. The ECA will be open to those Year 12 students who are seriously considering applying to US universities.
Year 11 students may also attend if they are seriously considering applying to US universities.
To succeed in the SATs students need to be prepared, organised, committed and hardworking. General information about SATs can be found at www.collegeboard.org. Contact
Stephen Avis, the Head of Sixth Form for further details about the SAT ECA.

The Internationalisation of Universities
Two recent articles have illustrated how higher education is a global market and an important sector for national and international economies.
A joint graduate school is to be established in the
Chinese city of Tianjin by the University of
Glasgow and Nankai University. Meanwhile the
French government is planning to develop a
‘mega elite university’ outside Paris. These articles can be read at http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/gl asgow-and-nankai-to-set-up-joint-graduateschool/2018147.article and http://www.bbc.com/news/business-30347441 .
Year 12 students are continuing to do detailed research on what they want to study, and where.
It is very satisfying to see that they are hoping to study in the UK, US, Europe and South East Asia.
A good starting point for students and parents is
The Times Higher Education World University
Rankings:
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/worlduniversity-rankings/.
As the students go through the process of research, making decisions and applying to universities, it is very important that there is a dialogue with parents and teachers about the opportunities available and their aspirations.
Parents are welcome to arrange meetings with me to discuss higher education options.

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Sixth Form Parents’ Meeting

London College of Music Exams

This will take place in the Main Atrium on
Thursday 5th February, from 3.30pm to 6.00pm.
Letters have been given to students and appointments can be made on the VLE. It is very important that parents attend this to discuss the mock examination results.

We have twelve students entered to take their
London College of Music exams this term. An examiner will be flown to Almaty to examine our students in March/April, and we hope to find out their results by the summer.

Stephen Avis, Head of Sixth Form

Performance at Esentai Mall

Good luck to all those taking a music exam this term – it takes a lot of courage and hard work to prepare for this event, and the positive outcome will really help with future plans and eventually university applications!

On Friday 30th January, students from Haileybury
Almaty School performed at Esentai Mall! We hope some of you were able to come and support us.
Concerts this term
As always, we have a very busy term coming up with many music concerts on the horizon. Our concerts will run as follows:
KS1: Friday 20th February
Drama Studio, 1.15pm
Only 30 children will be able to perform in this concert due to time constraints. Please let us know as soon as possible if you would like to hear your child perform. Performance slots will be given on a ‘first come, first served’ basis, and only one piece per child can be accommodated.
Secondary pupils: Monday 23rd February
Drama Studio, 8.10am
Year 3: Tuesday 24th February, Atrium, 1pm
Year 4: Tuesday 3rd March, Atrium, 1pm
Year 5: Tuesday 10th March, Atrium, 12.35pm
Year 6: Tuesday 17th March, Atrium, 12.35pm
Secondary Pupils: Informal Canteen Concerts:
Tuesday 20th January, Canteen, 1.45pm
Tuesday 3rd February, Canteen, 1.45pm
Tuesday 3rd March, Canteen, 1.45pm
Tuesday 17rd March, Canteen, 1.45pm

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PRIMARY NEWSLETTER

Year 2 News

Year 1 News

English

English
This week we have introduced instructions, learning about using imperative verbs to tell someone what to do, reordering instructions, and writing our own set of instructions. Next week we will continue to write instructions.
Mathematics
This week we have continued with our weight topic, and also moved on to position. We have learnt the vocabulary above, below, beside, left and right. Can you describe the position of some objects in your house compared to you?

Stories with familiar settings will be the focus of the next few weeks! We will begin by drawing and describing the perfect park. What do you think would make the perfect park?
Mathematics
We are moving onto the properties of 3D shapes.
Do you know the names of any 3D shapes? How can you describe a 3D shape? What words would you use?
Website: 3D Shape
Science

We have continued our Materials topic and sorted a variety of materials in to groups by their characteristics. How many materials can you find in your home?

In Science this week we looked at the different habitats that animals and plants live in. What do plants and animals need to survive? Do you know any habitats near your house? Next week we will be starting to grow our plants to find out what helps a plant grow. Website: Habitats

Humanities

Humanities

Barnaby Bear is going to Italy. We have helped him pack his suitcase by deciding what clothes he should take for Winter and Summer holidays.
What can Barnaby do in Italy?

After looking at Amelia Earhart and what motivated her to challenge herself, we are looking at Manshuk Mametova and Aliya
Moldagulova and how brave they were. We will compare them with our mothers to find out the similarities and differences between them.

Science

Other Information
Please remember to send your child with appropriate clothing for the weather. Please also make sure all items of clothing are named.

Other Information
Please ensure your child brings appropriate clothing for the cold weather – especially hats and gloves!

Pupils of the Week:
1RS – Ivan Dolgopolov
1SC – Yegemen Zharkynbek
1FM – Estel Shatveryan

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Year 3 News

Year 4 News

English

English

This week we have looked at figurative language use in adventure stories and how similes, metaphors and personification make writing very interesting. Next week, the children will start writing their own adventure stories. Can they tell you what sort of information they need to include in story beginnings?

In English we started learning about ‘The
Snowman’. We watched the movie and have been re-telling the story and writing it down.
Next week we will be learning about using similes and descriptive text.

Mathematics
This week we have looked at properties of 3D shapes and symmetrical patterns. Next week, we will continue to look at symmetry and towards the end of the week we will re-introduce fractions. Have a look at this website to get a heads start. http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks2/maths/numb er/fractions_basic/play/
Science
This week we have tested the permeability of different rocks. Next week, we will be answering the question ‘Are all rocks the same strength?’
Can the children talk about permeability and what permeable means?

Mathematics
This week in Maths we have been measuring different objects and learning the relationship between grams and kilograms. Next week we will be learning about 3D shape properties, how to make the shapes with nets, and real-life objects with these shapes. The children can go on this here to revise the properties.
Science
We are continuing with our topic on ‘Keeping
Warm’.
We have been looking at how temperature changes over time. Next week we will be learning about thermal insulators and how important they are in keeping us warm.
Website:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks2/science/mate rials/keeping_warm/read/2/ Humanities

Humanities

In Humanities this week, we continued looking at the reasons why explorers and adventurers wanted to explore. Next week, we will be learning about different explorers who sailed to faraway lands. Can the children talk about these explorers? We have been learning about India. Next week we will be finding out how we could travel to
India, and what activities we could do while we are there.

Other Information

4AB – Saveliy Kananykhin
4SD – Aisha Dossayeva
4GN – Darin Tungushbayeva

The Swimming Gala was a great success. The children really enjoyed it. The next event will be
Sports Day in the summer term!

Pupils of the Week:

Pupils of the Week:
3ZKW – Tomiris Bazarbai
3MS – Evelina Ibatullina

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Year 5 News

Year 6 News

English

English

In English we shall be continuing our study of film, focusing especially on storyboarding, sound tracks and sound effects. Watch this video of radio sound effects from the past!

Year 6 will start this week by looking at the layout and content of the Spelling, Punctuation and
Grammar SATs paper. We will then look at the different genres of fiction writing. We will focus on science fiction stories over the next few weeks and identify how this genre uses specific character types, settings and plot ideas.

Mathematics
This week, DMC and DK groups have been looking at area and coordinates, whilst BT group has been practising multiplication using the grid method. Next week, the roles are reversed! Area and Perimeter, Grid Method.
Science
Our work on gases is coming to an end. This week we looked in detail at some of the properties and uses of common gases, and we also built small ships powered by a carbon dioxide. Next week we shall be asking the question: How do worms survive underground?
Humanities
Having explored the history of earthquakes in
Central Asia, our attention now turns to tsunamis and the devastation they can cause.
Other Information
All children should log in to the VLE to complete the Kazakh Language questionnaire.

Mathematics
This week, we have looked at another SATs paper and Miss Watson’s group have practised working through a Level 6 paper. Our topics over this week and next are area and averages. This BBC website has excellent reading, quiz and games sections on calculating averages.
Science
Well done to all the children who received a Mad
Scientist Award for Science Week! We really appreciated your enthusiasm, questions and hard work. Our work on micro-organisms continues this week as we look at yeasts and bread making.
Humanities
In our Climate Change topic, we will set up a small experiment to show pupils how greenhouse gases are formed and build up. This will show the pupils why Climate Change is sometimes known as global warming.

Please make sure all clothing is labelled, especially winter wear.

Other Information

Pupils of the Week:

IN PHSE, all 3 classes have discussed how we can increase the use of English within the classroom.
We have also discussed the new homework grade system, and how pupils can access AtL grades 4 and 5 .

5BT – Xiang Tao Chen
5DK – Nuraly Sargaskayev
5DMC – Alua Maratova

Pupils of the Week:
6RB – Alua Atamkulova
6NS – Vlada Bartosh
6JW – Aliya Bekshenova

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HOUSE roundup....

Also well done to the year 8s and 9s for showing such great sportsmanship in the basketball tournaments!

t ne nso do
Em

Basketball and
Swimming
champions
Well done to Attlee who came first in the year 8&9 Basketball house competitions, the year 5&6 swimming gala and second in the year
3&4 Swimming
Gala.

Kipling capers…
Bartle
Frere

Well Done years 3 and 4 1st place in the swimming gala! Well done year 9 – second place in basketball!
Thank you – Mr IVAN!
A GREAT START TO THE
MUSIC COMPETITION
REHEARSALS! May the best house win…

Do you sing or play an instrument, do you like to take part in competitions for your house.
Last year Attlee won both the individual group song and the whole house song in the
House Music
Competition.
If you want to take park in this
EE
annual
TL
competition please come and see me!
S
IM

A

PL

TH

ST

I would like to say a massive well done to all
Edmonstone students who took part in the Swimming
Galas and the basketball competitions! The Swimming
Galas were great fun and it was great to hear our students in full voice singing, chanting and cheering our House on!

House
Music
Competitio n BE

Inter-House Competitions

The Attlee
Times

E

Edmonstone News

AT

The

Y

EAL Department

January 30, 2015

YELP CORNER!
Young English Learners and their Parents' Corner

Fifth Annual Junior Spelling Bee

Honeybury, our beloved mascot, is glad to be back for yet another exciting spelling competition at Haileybury Almaty. What is a spelling bee, we hear you ask? Well, historically the word "bee" was not only used as the name of an insect that produces delicious honey, which all of us came to love and respect, but was also used to denote any gathering (like a school assembly), especially when a competition was taking place. So in this respect, a spelling bee is a competition where children compete against one another for the title of the best speller in their year group.
How cool is that!?

Idiom of the Week

strike it lucky
British English

to be very lucky, especially when you were not expecting to
We struck it lucky in
B a n g k o k , w h e re w e were told there were some extra seats on the plane that night.

Source: Longman DOCE

YELP Corner!

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EAL Department

January 30, 2015

So… how do you take part? First of all, log onto the VLE1 and browse to the EIP6 section under
My Classes. Download the booklet for your year group. For instance, if you are a Year 3 pupil, you only download a copy of the Year 3 booklet.
Read the booklet carefully — it is very important!
Ask your parents or class teacher if you do not understand something. Then go through the spelling list learning the correct spelling of every single word by heart, unless you already know it, that is!

Before you can enter the final which will happen on 19th February 2015 for Years 3/4 and on 26th
February 2015 for Years 5/6, you need to make it through the heats2 which take place in your class. There can only be two finalists per class, so get ready to meet some serious competition!

And finally, have fun! Although any one of us would like to strike it lucky with a massive win, there can only be one winner per year group! So if you do not make it through to one of the finals, do not get upset — you can always support your fellow students by cheering and clapping.
And remember, there is always next year!

Hi, I am Honeybury!

Quote of the Week
“I really like grammar.
And spelling. I was a spelling-bee kid.”
— EMMA STONE

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www.haileyburyalmaty.co.uk/courses

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a part of a competition whose winners then compete against each other in the next part

YELP Corner!

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