Category Archives: Parents-Teachers Group

Newsletter on 8th March 2012

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Dear Parents,

FIRST TERM BREAK

The first term break will begin next week 12 March. We hope that students will use this time wisely to look into their studies.

FUND RAISER / YOUNG ENTERPRENUER’S DAY

There will be a fund raiser next term on Saturday, 14th April here at the school grounds. The idea was mooted last year by the teachers and is aimed at encouraging our students to take part in raising funds as an ongoing project. Part of the funds will go to a charitable fund that the SRC normally will contribute to at the end of the year.

Some of the parents have offered to chip in and help, we are happy to say through the Sri Ara Schools Parent Group.

The SASP have a dedicated e-mail at saspgroup[at]gmail.com. Please contact them and support our project and make this a success.

Further information on the event will be disseminated after the holidays.

Fatimah Osman, Administration

Ara Schools – Food & Fun Fair / Jumble Sale for Japanese Earthquake & Tsunami Victims

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Dear Parents & Students

JAPANESE DISASTER FUND

We are very pleased and proud that the students of the school have, from the smallest to the biggest, exhibited compassion for those struck by the disaster and devastation that hit Japan recently. The Students have come up with marvellous ideas to help and we would like to do our best to encourage their compassion and desire to come to the aid of others in times of such despair.

As mentioned in our earlier newsletter, the Sri Ara Students (“Araians”) through “Mufti Week” have raised just over RM600/-.

The main event, however for the charity drive for the Japan Disaster Fund will be the Food, Fun Fair and Jumble Sale, this Saturday, 9th April.

We are very positive of a very healthy turnout as several hundred ‘flyers’ have been distributed and posters posted in condominiums, restaurants, cafeterias, clinics, petrol stations and shops. Your help as the supportive and proud parents you all are would be very much appreciated!

We urgently need parents and students to help us make this event successful. We really need :-

  • Donations of clothes, books, toys or anything else you have lying around that you do not need that we can sell. It will not be much of a sale if there is nothing to buy or sell! Cash donations also, would be more than welcome!
  • Volunteer parents who can help in running some of the events on the day. Please advise the school office about your availability as soon as possible.

Please also note the following :-

Coupons

For safe and easy collection of funds, coupons will be issued for this event and sold on site. If you would like to pre-book these please call the office or send Steve Cowan a note by Friday morning.

Tax Exemption for Contributors

All contributions to this charity will be exempted from tax as arrangements have been made for proceeds to be handed to the Malaysian Red Crescent’s Johor Branch and they have assured me that these will then be given directly to the International Red Cross Association, one of the few Associations recognised by the Japanese Government to handle donations for this cause.

Yours truly,

Nooraini Mohd Yasin

Newsletter on 5th April 2011

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Dear Parents & Students

Charity Drive

We are proud to announce that the students collected about RM612.60 from the ‘Mufti’ held last week.  This included donations by some of our parents.

The main event for the charity drive for the Japan disaster fund will be the Food & Funfair and Jumble Sale, this Saturday 9 April.  It will be a replacement day for the school so attendance is compulsory.  Students will have to be in school by 8 am and go home at 3 pm.

We urgently need parents and students to help with this event. More specifically:

  • We need donations of clothes, books, toys or anything else you have lying around that we can sell. It won’t be much of a sale if there is nothing to buy or sell. Cash donations would be more than welcome too of course!
  • We need volunteers, parents who can help running the event on the day. Whatever you can do, we really need your help. Please advise the school office about your availability as soon as possible.

We are hopeful of a very healthy turnout as several hundred ‘flyers’ have been distributed and posted in restaurants, cafeterias and shops. Your help would therefore be very gratefully accepted!

Coupons

For safe and easy collection of funds, coupons will be issued for this event.

Tax Exemption for Contributors

Proceeds will go to the Malaysian Red Crescent Johor Branch’s fund and will be given directly to the International Red Cross for the Japanese Tsunami Victims.  All donations to this charity will be exempted from tax under this fund.

Motivation Camp

We have just got word from the Endau Rompin Park authorities that a bridge had collapsed and is undergoing repairs.  We will not postpone the camp as yet since the authorities had assured us that the bridge will be ready by then.

Parent-teachers group meeting

In case anyone has forgotten, the next parent-teachers group meeting is due to take place this Friday morning, the 8th April at 0830 at the school. Please do your best to attend because this is your group.

Good Friday

We would like to inform you that Friday, 22 April is Good Friday and it will be a school holiday.

UNSW Science Assessment

The first assessment by the UNSW which is Science will take place on Tuesday, 26 April at building No. 23, after break.  Ms. Mirandah is the teacher in charge and she will be arranging your sitting positions, so please move quietly to No. 23 for your assessment tests.

SPM examination results

Congratulations and Well done, to our students who sat for the SPM examination last year. Shamine had scored 4As and 4Bs, Rhina 2As, 2Bs, Zaimah 2As, 2Bs, Wee Chong 1A, 2Bs and Panca 1A, 2Cs.

Thank you.

Newsletter on 10th March 2011

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Dear Parents,

Traffic Movement

Traffic flow during peak drop off and pick up times at building No. 23 has not been smooth lately due to limited space.  Therefore, we have cleared the parking area to make it easier for parents to park and pick up or drop your children off. Please adhere to this traffic flow diagram at all times (noting the advised left turn out of the gate for your own safety):

traffic flow diagram

To ease traffic flow, secondary school students should be picked up or dropped off at building No. 13 during and shortly before or after normal school hours. At any other time, please use No.23.

First Term Break 12 – 20 March

The first term break starts on Friday, 12 March until Sunday, 20 March.  Sri Araians, go have a good break, and come back fresh to start a new term. Please be on time for Assembly, Monday 21st, 0800 sharp!

Fund raising ideas…

One of the matters raised during the last Parents’ Group meeting was the idea of Parents piloting school fundraising efforts.

The school’s projector was amongst the items stolen during the Chinese New Year break in.

Efforts to raise money towards replacing these items have already begun and for this, hearty thanks and congratulations to the pupils. They raised RM460/- for the projector through their car washing efforts and by selling cakes and flowers on Valentines’ Day, What a tremendous effort. Well done everyone!!

For now, money for the new projector is the first priority. We welcome your input (ideally by the next meeting!) as to how future funds are to be collected should there be any.

Secondly, we need ideas from parents and pupils about how we actually raise funds. We have ideas of our own but what kind of events would you like to see and be involved in?

All ideas and suggestions are very welcome. It is time to get your thinking caps on.

International Festival Day

One fund raiser that was agreed on is an ‘International Festival Day’ to be held on May 7th. This will be a festival to celebrate the diversity of cultures of the pupils in the school and is open to everyone.

We sincerely hope that all parents will be involved and be able to contribute to the success and fun of the day.

It has been suggested that parents could run food stalls serving favorite dishes from ‘back home’ or just food that they happen to be good at!

Once again, your ideas and your participation in the event are both vital if it is to be as successful and enjoyable as it should be. Please, feel free to invite family, friends and neighbours.

School information online

It seems that a few parents are unaware that the school has a very active website. To stay abreast with what is going on, check it out regularly:

http://araschools.com

Please also refer friends who are interested in an international school in JB to the site.

Secondly, we have e-mail addresses from some parents but not all. It would be very helpful to have an address for every pupil so that we can get news and information to you in a timely manner.

For those parents who have not supplied one, please send a contact e-mail address to admin@araschools.com, not forgetting to add a note of your name.

UNSW – ICAS 2011

The due date for the 2011 International Competitions and Assessments for Schools (ICAS) was 10th March.  For those who would like to participate but have not submitted their forms yet, we have extended the FINAL deadline to Monday, 21 March. For details, please read here!

Prophet Muhammad’s birthday celebration

The Muslim teachers and students will be celebrating the Prophet’s birthday on Friday, 11 March from 2 pm to 3 pm.  The rest of the students will be having their own activities with their teachers.

IGCSE Results 2010

In October last year Pretasheeny sat for the IGCSE examination and passed with flying colours.  She scored Distinction for Principles of Accounts, Bs for English, Mathematics, Chemistry and Physics, and strong Credits for Additional Mathematics and Biology.

Congratulations to Preta and her teachers on the excellent effort and to Mr. and Mrs. Subramaniam for their support.  We wish her all the very best!

Annual motivation camp

The annual motivational camp is to be held in the Endau Rompin National Park from April 14-16 inclusive. Further information will be available very soon. Keep an eye on the site for details.

No smoking policy

Finally, we must remind everyone that there is a strict NO SMOKING policy on the school premises at any time. This is the welfare of your children.

Special Thanks

Special thanks to YAM Tunku Maimunah ibni Almarhum Sultan Iskandar & YB Dato’ Mizan Yahya for the donation for some chairs and Rocky’s Café and Bistro, for giving us a fan for the canteen area.

Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

THE MANAGEMENT OF SRI ARA SCHOOLS

Parent-Teachers’ Group Info – March 2011(AMENDED)

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As mentioned in an earlier post, the second Parents-Teachers group meeting took place on the 3rd March.

Thanks to those parents who made an effort to turn up.

There were enough attendees to elect a committee (although we still want MORE PARENTS to attend because it’s YOUR group, people) but we’re definitely moving in the right direction.

The full minutes of the meeting – assiduously collated by Puan Fatimah (for which, thanks are due) – will be published in due course.

In the meantime, please be aware that a newsletter will be on the way to all parents later this week (i.e. between 7-11 March).

This will contain a short précis of the meeting covering the major points that parents need to be aware of.

We need your feedback on some of these issues to ensure that the decisions we take are agreed by the majority. I would therefore ask you to look out for this newsletter (every child will have a copy, so please ask them!) and to respond accordingly.

Also, just to let everyone know that because the motivation camp is scheduled for the first week of April, the next meeting will be at 08.30 on Friday, 15th April 2011. We’d love to see your smiling physog there…

AMENDED

the next meeting will be at 08.30 on Friday, 8th April 2011 and download a copy of ‘Minutes of Meeting (PT group meeting – Mar 2011)’ at here!

Note for a Parent Teachers group meeting

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Just a quick note for all Ara Schools parents.

You may be aware (assuming that the ‘darling’ offspring brought the notice home) that we are planning to get a Parent Teachers group together.
If you’re not aware, well, we are.

To get the ball rolling, the first meeting will be Friday 11th February at 5.30pm at the school, and we’d love to see as many parents as possible.

Just one thing though.

If you’re planning on coming, please let the school know so that we can make sure that we’re not all sitting on each other’s knee!
Thanks, and if you can make it, I look forward to seeing or meeting you there.

Steve Cowan

Parent-Teachers’ Group Info

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Dear Parents

We would like to take the school forward and in order to do this, it is important to involve parents as well as children. We are therefore planning to put together a Parent-Teachers’ Group, an informal once-a-month gathering where everyone can give their views on improving the school.

However, this will only work if parents want it to. Therefore, if you are interested in being involved in such a group, could you please provide us with your name and contact number and available day and time to meet on the form provided and hand this to the administration office as soon as possible.

Newsletter on 14th January 2011

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Dear Parents & Students,

Welcome back to school!

School Calendar

Attached please find the school calendar for 2011. Please note that some of the dates are tentative and may be subject to change. Please take note of school activities added in as these will be considered extra school days to replace extra days given at certain religious festivals.

ECA’s

This year’s ECA list is also attached. Please fill these in accordingly and return them to the school office. Kindly note the days your child/children will be taking an ECA and the respective times that your child/children will be released and inform the respective transporters. All children should have been picked up by 5pm as the office will close and cannot be held responsible for the children after this time. The exception is for badminton days, which will finish at 5pm and the children to be picked up by 5.20pm.

Public Holidays – Thaipusam & Prophet Muhammad’s birthday

Kindly note the following public holidays for January and February:-

Thursday, 20th January, 2011 is a public holiday and school will be closed for Thaipusam. Friday, 21st January, however will be a normal school day.

Tuesday, 15th February is also a public holiday for the celebration of the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday. Monday, 14th and Wednesday, 16th are school days.

Chinese New Year Break

This year the Chinese Lunar New Year will fall on 3rd and 4th February. School will be closed from Wednesday, 2nd February to Tuesday, 8th February (both dates inclusive). School will resume on Wednesday, 9th February. We would like to wish those who will be celebrating the start of the year of the Rabbit, a Happy & Prosperous New Year, Gong Xi Fa Chai!

Primary School Trip

The Primary School Trip is scheduled for Saturday, 26th February, this year. The trip will be a day’s visit to the Singapore Zoo. Please ensure your child’s/childrens’ passports are in order should your child/children be interested to join in. Forms for this will go out next week and should be returned to the office before the Chinese New Year break. So please look out for these if you wish your child to go as space may be limited and it will be on a first come first served basis.

There have been some parents who have approached our new vice principal, Mr. Steve Cowan offering to help the school. I have agreed on principle to a formation of this informal group provided it is strictly to help the school improve where possible. Mr. Cowan has been asked to look into this and a letter is attached.