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As part of the Sultan’s Jubilee Celebration, the Earl of Wessex visited our school to see how we offer the Duke of Edinbrugh programme. A sort of circuit was set up, where he could walk around the school and observe some of the activities students take part in as part of the DoE. I was asked to come in a play netball for the afternoon.

The actual afternoon just consisted of a lot of waiting around, practicing drills, and then about 1 minute of meeting the Earl. But it was nice to be a part of the event. It was pretty cool, and actually quite nerve wracking! The atmosphere was really intense, which made it really exciting.

Whats more is that it made me think about my involvement in netball. I’ve been playing netball consistantly since I was about 10, and it’s one of the only things I’ve stuck with for that long! I really enjoy the challenge of a tough match, but enjoy knowing it is something that I am good at. Of course I still have to put in the effort to improve, but it’s nice to know that it’s a sport I can fall back on and rely on. When I’m older, I can join a friendly netball team or just play in friendly matches, and know that I have a good baseline. It’s reassuring to know that I will always have that option.

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As part of finishing the International Award, we were required to give some form of presentation about our trip to India and what we have learnt from it. A few of my friends and I volunteered to do the Lunchtime Lecture presentation as our reflection. Just last year, this would have terrified me, but I felt so comfortable about it. I used to really hate public speaking, but I’ve pushed myself to do it so many times this past year that I actually felt quite excited to speak! I also think that the fact that I was talking about something close to my heart made it much easier, and it came naturally.

It took forever to create the presentation because we all wanted it to be as good as it could be, so that we could convey to our audience just how good the trip was. We all spent hours adding photos to the slides, choosing what was important to include and what needed to be left out, and practicing so that we could fit all our information into 40 max! It was a really nice way to reflect on the trip, and sort of bring it to an end. Looking through photos together made us all really nostalgic but happy, and talking about our personal experiences and challenges in our presentation showed us all just how lucky we were.

It was nice to see all the other people who came on the trip sitting in the front rows, laughing at the photos, and remembering all the little inside jokes. And it was also nice to see the accompanying teachers smiling as we spoke about the highlights of the trip. We made sure that the presentation really reflected how grateful we were for the experience, and wanted to use it to show our appreciation. But it was also nice to see people who DIDN’T go on the trip enjoy hearing about it. We tried to include lots of tips and advice for the Year 12s going next year, so hopefully the presentation was also useful!

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I know that this post seemingly contradicts my last post in which I say that I suck at football. But I assure you I do. Nonetheless, I always enjoy being a part of Football Funday because no one really cares that I’m awful at football. This year (being Year 13) was the last year we could participate! And so my team just tried to have as much fun as possible. We ended up coming 3rd - which is higher than I had gone in expecting to be! And another win for me was realising that I actually have - slowly - become slightly better at football! This year I could actually successfully move WITH the ball, which is an improvement upon my first Football Funday 4 years ago.

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Every few weeks, the school runs an inter-House sports event. It’s friendly competition, but recently more of an emphasis has been placed on performance and participation in these House Sports. I think this is great, because it will definitely create more team spirit and identity, and make the events much more exciting.

This week was House Football. I absolutely suck at football and would rather do any other sport. But Heron’s downfall when it comes to House events is participation! It’s been an issue for quite a while, and it’s something I’d really like to improve as House Captain! Therefore, I didn’t just go to support the team, I actually joined the team in the hopes of leading by example.I’m going to try and do this all year, and hopefully more and more people will follow. But, as a council, we’re not just hoping everyone participates - we are also going to implement new ways to MAKE as many people as possible participate. Small things - like going round to each tutor room to personally ask people to sign up, and bringing free drinks to the sports events, for example - should all add up to increase participation.

Our team lost all 3 matches we played, and ended up in the position to play for 7th place. But no one was bothered by this. We always end up having fun at these House Sports, and winning would just be an added bonus.

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Every year, JIS competes in the Zone Netball Tournament, and this year was no different! However, what was different about this year was that we had had 0 training sessions before it! The tournament fell in the third week of school, and so while we had played netball once during the team trials, most of us hadn’t done netball training for a good 3 months! So we were definitely a bit rusty, but it felt SO good to play again! It was such as fun tournament. The games were friendly, and I think we were all just excited to be playing again.

As with every year, the teams had changed slightly as the Year 13s graduate and Year 10s become Year 11s. So not only were we pretty unfit, but it was the first time playing in this team. I could definitely tell the difference. When you get used to playing with the same people, it’s really weird when things switch up! It’s a bit bittersweet, because the old team worked so well together (and that needs to be built over time) but at the same time I’m excited about this new group - I think it will also be really good.

Despite the odds against us in this competition, we still came out with gold, further adding to the excitement of being back at netball!

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At the beginning of this year, I was given the oppurtunity to be a Chair for a small Model United Nations confernece. While I have been a delegate before, I had NEVER tried Chairing before this day...so was quite intimidated by the ask. But it was such a nice experience and I finished feeling acomplished. The conference was for middle years students, so there was no pressure on me to be absolutely perfectly professional, and it was a really casual conference so it was a good chance for me to practice.

Not only did I feel good because I had done something new, but also because I actually really enjoyed spending the day with the delegates and seeing them improve in skill and confidence. I vividly remember being a delgate in a similar conference when I was in year 9. I was terrified, and probably said about 10 words throughout the whole thing. So I knew how a lot of these students were probably feeling. Therefore, I made sure to individually help everyone, be really relaxed and friendly about giving advice, encouraged everyone to say something, and tried my best to make the day as fun as possible. At first, everyone was very shy, but by the end of the day they were laughing and making jokes and really getting into the debates. At the end of the day, many of them stayed back to thank me, which was so heart warming and really rewarding. I hope I have helped some of them become more confident in their public speaking ability, and have sparked their interest in MUN. 

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Peace Day was my second big job as House Captain. But this time it wasn’t organising a House event, it was organising a stall for a whole school event. However, again, I was struck by just how much time needs to be put into these things! Every year, I enjoy visiting all the stalls but don’t think about the effort put behind them. Running one has shown me that it is not an easy task!

I worked in a group with 3 other House Captains. Collectively, we decided to run a juice bar - keeping with this year’s theme; Health and Well Being. We started planning at the end of last year, but did most of the preparation the weeks before Peace Day. This was probably a mistake...as it made things much more stressful than they should have been. In all the rush, we kept forgetting the small details, and then would be surprised when we realised we still needed to buy cups, or cut up the fruit before hand, or plug in the juicers somehow. However, on the day itself when it actually came down to it, everyone really pulled together to make everything work. It was actually - surprisingly - smooth sailing, and we had so many people come back for seconds!

What I have learnt from this is that pushing things to the back of my mind is completely counterproductive. While I might be able to push it away for a while, the nitty gritty work has to be done at some point. And so in the future I will remember this lesson, and force myself to get tedious, organisational stuff done before it becomes a burden.

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This year, I’ve taken on the role of Heron House Captain. The position involves organising activities and events for the house, collaboratinng with the ‘brother house’, working with the other members of the council to improve aspects of the house, as well as taking on an organisational role in some whole school events. It’s quite a big job, but something I’m looking forward to.

My first job as House Captain was to organise activities for the first day of school. In order to do this, the council met up a few weeks before the end of last year to start brainstroming ideas. We then met up and shared ideas with our brother house, and started to plan the day. Initially, we had so many ideas...but not all of them were very practical. So we spent several meetings narrowing down our options and figuring out how to actually carry out the activities. I started to relaise just how much planning goes into these sorts of things that I had taken for granted every other year! By the end of the term, we hadn’t finished planning so we needed to meet up several times during the holiday. We all met up at coffee shops to work on the details of the activities; where to buy the materials needed, who would do what, come up with clues for the big treasure hunt, buy prizes etc. I’ll admit, there were times when I really didn’t want to think about this during my holiday, but I knew that this is what I had commited to, and a team requires team effort and perseverance from everyone. I also found that I was getting quite stressed about the first day back, but everytime we met up at a coffee shop and organised ourselves I felt much better. By the time the day actually came around, I felt like we couldn’t have been more prepared.

And the day was a success! There were a few hiccups, but the council was able to quickly overcome them, and - honestly - everything ran more smoothly than I had expected it to! I was surprised at how well it went. I really, really enjoyed seeing all the hard work finally pay off. It felt really good to see people enjoying themselves. My goal as House Captain is to make people feel as comfortable as possible within the House, and create a fun, easy-going environement at school. And so I had really wanted the day to be good - to make a good first impression as House Captain. I feel like that’s what I did. But the day wasn’t just important as a good introduction, the build up to the day was important because it was the first time I had had to work with this group of people. It’s great that we had to collaborate so much to make this work, because we will need to do the same all throughout this coming year.

Overall, I’m happy with this experience and looking forward to doing more leadership!

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The Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award has been something that I have been working towards since I moved to this school 3 years ago. In year 10 I did Bronze – packed way too many cans of spaghetti sauce, thought I would be okay with a measly pair of cotton socks, and made sure my outfits for each day looked good. In year 11 I did Silver – was far more prepared, yet still forgot to cut my toenails and man did I pay for it on the downhills. This year I did Gold – had to get 1236942 vaccines, went through the painful process of getting a new passport, and had to turn back on the way to the airport to fetch my forgotten plane ticket. But my Gold Expedition to the Spiti Valley, India was the most magical thing I think I’ve ever experienced. Possibly the most challenging thing I’ve ever done, but by far the most memorable.

Spiti is located in North-East India, in the state of Himachal Pradesh. It’s a cold desert right in the middle of the Himalayas, with temperatures ranging from -30°C to 30°C. It’s roughly 7,500 square kilometres in total, with 10,000 people living in 64 villages and small towns. Because it boarders Tibet, the whole region was actually closed off from the rest of India until the late 1990s, just in case China decided to invade. Because it is so isolated, getting there is an expedition in itself! It includes 2 flights, a 2 hour drive to the bus stop, a 18hr bus ride (which isn’t complete until the aircon stops working and you break down twice),  and finally a 14hr jeep journey (16hrs if you get caught in traffic like we did). It took us 4 days…and then we did it all over again on the way back.

The trip was split into two sections – the Residential Project and the Trek. For our Residential, we were divided into two groups to build two greenhouses that the local people will be able to use to grow vegetables in winter. I found this part of the trip very difficult, but extremely rewarding. The first day was fun - learning how to make bricks, chatting with others working on the site, being brought tea and biscuits while we worked - but once the novelty of it wore off, it became both physically and mentally draining. The higher altitude made the work very tiring, and the tasks were quite repetitive so the hours sometimes seemed to drag on. The weather alternated between super cold and ridiculously hot, both of which had their advantages and disadvantages, but made the days very difficult to prepare for. Needless to say, there were some pretty sunburnt noses and weird tan lines.  However, despite these difficulties to overcome, I did really enjoy the experience. I lived for the 5:30pm return back to the campsite and the feeling of completing a hard day’s work. I really liked getting to know the others working with me, and I feel we worked really well as a team. We divided up the jobs fairly, rotated tasks, and people were able to find their niche. While everyone had times were their motivation was lacking, everyone stayed positive throughout and we were able to talk while we worked pretty much the whole time. I feel like we all really bonded.  I also loved seeing the final product. It was such a great feeling to see all our hard work as an actual greenhouse! I had never done anything like this before - the biggest thing I had ever constructed was a keychain in yr 9 DT class. So seeing an actual functional greenhouse that I had helped build was pretty amazing. I really hope it proves to be useful! I feel proud of our work.

Another thing that this project made me think about was how lucky I am to live a life were I'm not, in a way, forced to do manual labour. I was exhausted after a week of manual work; imagine a lifetime of that. But I know that a lot of people need to do this as a means of making any income. And while some people sign up for this job, others may have no other option. This project has definitely given me a new appreciation for the people who build our roads, our houses, our schools, our shopping centres, our everything! It's NOT an easy job, and these people need to be so physically and mentally strong!  

After the Residential, we set off on our 4 day trek. The trek was my favourite part of the whole trip. I loved the views, loved the places we stopped at along the way, loved the homestay and village experiences, and loved the excitement of reaching the peak! I was actually quite sad when it was over.  The first, and most obvious, thing I noticed on the trek was the effect of the altitude. It shocked me how slowly we had to walk, and how even the slightest of inclines could make me out of breath. It actually really bothered me at first, not being able to power up the hills. But I quickly got used to it and found my own pace. I'd usually consider myself quite a fit person and normally can walk towards the front. But on this trip I just couldn't. This also bugged me a bit initially, but I was able to let it go and just walk in the middle of the pack.  Reaching the 4900m peak is something I’ll never forget. It was such a special moment, a big achievement for me, and I felt on top of the world.

Another thing that this trip really made me reflect on is the impact of tourism and globalisation in areas like Spiti, and how this is changing the traditions and way of life. I had a conversation with one of our guides one night about how people in Spiti live and how visitors to the region are changing things. He explained aspects of the culture and religion to me. I found it all very fascinating! He then also told me that they now teach English in schools because there are more and more English speaking tourists, and how he has now spoken so much English that he is forgetting some of his Spitian! I think this is quite sad and I really hope Spiti doesn't become a tourist destination, losing its culture in the process. But he raved about tourism and it's benefits! He talked about how everyone is now much more educated because the visitors teach them, he talked about how everyone is much healthier now that they have access to more commercial medicine, and how he loves talking to visitors and learning about THEIR countries. It really made me think about how there really needs to be a balance between tourism and development, and the preservation of culture and tradition. It is absolutely ESSENTIAL, as to see the beautiful Spitian way of life change too drastically would be devastating.

This trip was far from easy. It was riddled with personal challenges that could have so easily thrown me. But I surprised myself and I feel like I handled every little difficulty with a positive attitude. If someone had told me in Bronze what I would be able to do now in Gold I probably just would have laughed. But this experience has taught me that stepping way out of my comfort zone is important, and the world won’t explode when I do. I’ve learnt that I’m mentally stronger than I thought I was, and the whole trip has given me the confidence to get out there. Plus I think I caught the travel bug.  

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The FOBISIA Primary Games are a big deal for International Schools in South East Asia. Each year, one school hosts the games, and the athletes from other schools come to visit for a weekend, competing in a series of sports events. It’s something I was involved in several times when I was in primary, and have very positive memories of. Obviously I was too old to compete this year! But I decided to volonteer at the event for a day. Hosting the games requires massive amounts of effort from massive numbers of people, so I was happy to help out.

My job included helping parents get around the school, pointing out key areas (like the bathrooms), selling 100+, and a whole lot of running ice buckets from one side of the school to the other to fill the chest freezers. At first I felt like I wasn’t actually of much help. But things quickly picked up, and my presence at the help station meant that the other ‘parent helpers’ (the ones that are actually parents) could go and watch their children competing in their events. And while it wasn’t the most thrilling of services, I was pleased that I could make this little difference.

I think that the event was a huge success. The one day I was there had great positive vibes, and I can only assume that the other days would have too. It was so nice to see all the kids having fun, and made me feel quite nostalgic! I’m glad I ended up volonteering.   

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I have been playing with this team - the Lightnings - for over 2 years now. So we play really well together and know exactly what works well, and we definitely have come a long way from the first time we played as a team. So much so that today, at a school netball tournament, we took first place!

It was a small tournament, with just 4 other teams, but it was still a big acheivement for us. We worked really hard, and played some of the best netball I feel we had ever played. It felt really good to have everything running so smoothly. Some of our games were really tight and really intense, forcing us to be on our game the ENTIRE time. Our most nerve wracking game was against the other team from our school - a team we have never won against in any official game. We started out 3 points behind, but quickly caught up. It was then one point in it, until we tied in the last minute; 10 points to both teams. This meant that the gold was taken at goal difference, with our team JUST coming out first. It felt great. But obviously winning isn’t the only thing. I was pleased with my gold medal when we went home, but honestly the best feeling was feeling as if I had really played well.

I also felt good realising how much I have progressed. I felt really fortunate to have such a good team and coach that works so hard, and felt really proud of us all!

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As part of Earth Week, 6 of us worked together to give a Lunchtime Lecture about food sustainability, this year’s theme of the week. Lunchtime Lectures are an opportunity for students to give a presentation about anything they want, and they’re something I have wanted to do for a while but didn’t have the courage. So when the chance came to present one as a group, I thought I would push myself out of my comfort zone and join in. Public speaking isn’t something I really enjoy, but wish I did. It’s something that I terrified me when I was younger, but I have gradually worked towards overcoming. Now, while it is still extremely nerve wracking, I get a sort of thrill out of it. So doing this lunchtime lecture was another opportunity to challenge this fear. I feel like it went really well. I had prepared and practiced my part, and was able to say it calmly and slowly...despite my hands shaking like crazy! However, I would have liked to have not had to read off my paper...something to do next time. After the lecture, several people came up to me to tell me how confident I looked! Which is surprising because I certainly didn’t feel it. I’m looking forward to doing more of this and turning public speaking into a skill.

I aso enjoyed researching for this licture. My section was about food waste - the ‘ugly’ food. It’s something I was quite interested in to begin with, but am even more so now after finding out more about it. A lot of the things I discovered relate to my own life, and so I now am much more conscious about the food I waste and how I can prevent it. I think that food sustainability is an essential area that needs to be more focused on, and I would like to get more involved in it. 

Overall, I think this Lunchtime Lecture was a great starting point that I hope to advance from. While I did get to speak in front of an audience, it was only for about 5 minutes. So one day I would like to give my own lunchtime lecture or speech. It also showed me a new found interest that I would like to look into and possibly do something with.

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This past weekend, a group of us went to Temburong to learn about the indigenous Iban people, their culture, and how they live. We stayed in a small ‘eco-village’ run almost entirely by an Iban family, and styled like a traditional longhouse and old fashioned Bruneian kampong. The eco-village, as the name suggests, was completely eco friendly. They had their own farm, bought eggs and meat and rice from local farms surrounding them, used minimal hot water, minimal electricity, and had a full recycling system. So during our stay, we also learnt a lot about sustainable farming methods and the importance of buying local.  

The first day consisted of a long hike through the jungle, led by a guide who could tell us everything about anything! Within the first 20 minutes, we had already come across a leaf that acts as an insect repelent, a root that provides pain relief, a plant that can kill monkeys, and a bark that provides skin moisturiser. The guide knew a crazy amount of stuff, and could tell us things about the jungle that I had never even considered before. It was fascinating to hear his stories as we walked, and a really interesting experience. I was left wondering how the Iban people could discover this stuff that so many others would just neglect. The guide, and the other Iban people we were walking with, felt so comfortable in the jungle, and it made me think about how different their traditional lifestyle would have been to ours.

Tired after the hike, we spent the afternoon learning about traditional tattoos and tried the traditional fishing method; bamboo stick and a piece of string. I didn’t catch anything. That evening, we then went to visit a 103 year old Iban lady; quite possibly the highlight of the weekend for me. As we walked up to her house, I saw a lady running towards it. I assumed this must have been her daughter; she looked maybe 70? As it turns out, this was the 103 year old woman we were visiting. It was amazing. She told us all about her childhood and adult life, and showed us an EXTREMELY impressive woven carpet she was making. She then brought out all her handmade traditional clothes and showed us how to dance. I left her house feeling amazed and positive; her cheerfulness was contagious.

Another highlight of the trip was definitely waking up to see the sunrise from the top of a hill the next morning...despite the very early wake up and practically being eaten alive by mosquitoes. The photo doesn’t do the view justice.

What I have taken from the weekend is a reminder that our way isn’t the only way, nor is it always the right way. Just because we live a certain way doesn’t mean others should too. The people I met over the weekend showed that the Iban way of life reaped huge benefits and provided huge knowledge, despite being so drastically different to our way of life.

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For the past 10 weeks, the sports department at school has been running a mini netball league that has included people of all abilities and from year 10 to year 13. The teams were made randomly by drawing names out of a hat, and so my team was made up of a complete range of people. This meant that I got to work with people I had never met. That’s one of my favourite things about this sort of activity; making friends with people you would otheriwse alost never see.

This photo is from after we played in the finals! And we came 3rd! I’m extremely pleased, because obviously our team had never played together before this league, and we were against some really tough teams. Throughout all 10 weeks, my team played consistantly well, and we were all so pleased with 3rd. My team was such a friednly team, and I hope everyone had a great time.

This was the first time I had taken on the team captain position, and I think that I handled my team well. I feel that I kept things well organised and the team running smoothly, but I also think that I kept motivated and made sure it was a fun experience for everyone. I’d love to take this role again next time, or in other areas, and work on these leadership skils more, as I do feel as if it’s an area I can work on.

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The Borneo Global Issues Conference is an annual event run by the other international school here. It’s a 4 day conference that takes the form of a Model United Nations, but also includes speeches and presentation from special guest speakers, and question panels with these speakers too. The theme of this years BGIC was sustainable production and consumption, and so each student was allocated a country and had to debate certain sustainability issues from the point of view of that country. My country was Spain. Overall, the 4 days were enjoyable and I’m really glad I went.

The speakers were amazing! Listening to their presentations, and having the oppurtunity to ask questions, was probably the highlight of the conference for me. They were all really inspirational, but one stood out in particular; a 19 year old UN representative who has just been put on Forbes ‘30 under 30′ list. When he was 17 (my age!!) he invented a device to sustainably clean up oil spills. Now he is at University while ALSO persuing this device, representing the UN at conferences like these, and working on various other small projects. It was really nice to listen and talk to such a young speaker because a lot of what he was saying was relatable to us! He showed that he is a completely normal person, but is also persuing something that means a lot to him. His main message to us was that you are never too young to use your voice, and he definitely got that message across.

As for the actual debate, it wasn’t what I had expected. I - and all other students going from my school - had been attending an after school CCA in preparation for BGIC. From this, I honestly felt underprepared going in to these 4 days, and was quite intimidated at first. But one we got there, I think we all realised that we were all way TOO prepared! For this reason, it all felt a bit too easy at first. However, while the debate was slower, I enjoyed taking on a bigger role, feeling confident in what I was doing, and speaking up a lot more than I had expected myself to. I also tried my best to help others who didn’t have the same confidence, and hope that I helped to make others feel more comfortable. My ‘resolution’ passed, and made it to the General Assembly for everyone to debate. This meant that I presented in front of the entire conference; something that was prettyy nerve-wracking and out of my comfort zone, but rewarding. I think I spoke well, and handled all the questions appropriately. Overall, I’m very pleased with my performance. 

Plus, I got to meet the princess which was an added bonus.

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Every year, my school hosts a small inter-school netball tournament called Netball Funday. Anyone can make a team, and so you end up with a range of abilities and lots of competition. I think that this year had the most competition so far.

The day started well, but it actually ended on quite a bad note. Our team was predicted to come second overall...but we came fifth! It was really, really disappointing and honestly such a horrible feeling. We arrived expecting to leave with a medal, so it was a shock when we didn’t make it to the semi finals. However, we played really well, and you can’t always win. While I won’t go so far as to say I’m glad we didn’t get a medal, I do think it’s important to lose sometimes. We came to the competition too complacent, so the loss was a good wake up call.

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This was the final practice Duke of Ed weekend before the big trip to India! Reflecting on it it now, I’m quite sad it’s over! I have gone on so many of these weekends since I started Bronze in year 10, that it will be quite weird not having them anymore.

Before this weekend, my group did intensive planning. We thought about an aim for the trip, planned every route detail, created our own food and kit lists, and thought about any possible risks and how to avoid them. The planning proccess was a collaborative one, and we all took individual roles to produce the overall outcome.

Each day consisted of a roughly 18km hike. It definitely was difficult, but my fitness surprised me and I didn’t find it too physically exhausting. The toughest part BY FAR was the mental aspect of the walk. We walked from our school to the hiking trail in the morning, did our big jungle hike by about 2pm, and then had to walk the 4km all the way back to school afterwards. The walk back to school is almost completely exposed to the sun. It’s a long, flat road and so isn’t physically hard to deal with. But after you have already walked 14km with a full backpack, the road feels like it absolutely never ends. There’s nothing new to look at, and you eventually run out of things to talk about, and so you end up just focussing on your feet, the weight of your backpack, and the intense heat. It was mentally draining, but it felt SO good when it was over, and I definitely felt proud of myself and my group for staying so positive and strong throughout. The group dynamic was great. We talked while we were walking, helped each other, divided responsabilities, and laughed a lot. Overall, I really enjoyed the weekend, despite the exhaustion at the end of it.

I’m super excited for our trip to India for our final Gold Expedition! I’m really looking forward to the cultural experiances in particular. However, I am almost equally nervous as I am excited. I would NEVER have pictured myself doing something like this a few years ago, and it’s going to be a massive challenge - physically and emotionally.