December 2011 Volume 3

Issue 2 SFS SFS SFS TodayTodayToday Details of daily distinction found at Seoul Foreign SchoolDetails of daily distinction found at Seoul Foreign SchoolDetails of daily distinction found at Seoul Foreign School

Seoul Foreign School, centered in Christ, inspires educational excellence & promotes Christian values, Seoul Foreign School, centered in Christ, inspires educational excellence & promotes Christian values, Seoul Foreign School, centered in Christ, inspires educational excellence & promotes Christian values, personal integrity & responsible global citizenship through a dynamic international experience.personal integrity & responsible global citizenship through a dynamic international experience.personal integrity & responsible global citizenship through a dynamic international experience.

www.seoulforeign.org

Outstanding Results for our KAIAC Forensics Team!

On November 11th and 12th, SFS hosted 7 schools for a KAIAC Foren-sics Tournament. During those two days, the SFS Speech & Debate team competed in a wide range of numer-ous events, from Poetry to Public Fo-rum Debate. SFS was able to field multiple entries in all events, and our results were outstanding. SFS stu-dents placed in every single Speech & Debate event (and there are 10 of them)! SFS also had clean sweeps (where we won 1st, 2nd and 3rd place) in Impromptu and Poetry events. It was an unprecedented triumph. We’d like to especially recognize

Austin Lee for placing 1st in the first ever Lincoln-Douglas Debate at KAIAC. Congratulations also go to Justin An and Nina Sabado, who re-ceived two first-place certificates at this event. SFS was able to tally up a total of 17 certificates, earning SFS over half the number of possible plac-es. None of this could have been pos-sible without our passionate mem-bers, dedicated captains, supportive coaches and the help of the SFS High School community who provided their rooms, judges and timekeepers. We’re proud of you, SFS Silver-Tongues!

FORENSICS RESULTS Duo Acting: Andrew Kim and Joel Ben-son (3rd) Extemporaneous: Leon J. Jun (2nd) Impromptu: Nina Sabado (1st), Peter Lee (2nd), Akash Ramanujam (3rd) Lincoln-Douglas Debate: Austin Lee (1st) Original Oratory: Justin An (1st), Junee Kim (3rd) Parliamentary Debate: Peter Lee and Akash Ramanujam (1st), Eunice Lee and Leon J. Jun (2nd) Poetry: Justin An (1st), Christina Hahn (2nd), Jezamine Wee (3rd) Prose: Nina Sabado (1st), Sabrina Sung (2nd) Public Debate: Bryan Kim and Michael Jung (2nd) Solo Acting: Ryan Wade (3rd)

SFS KAIAC Forensics Team

In a community where 20% of our students are transient annually, SFS uses standardised tests such as the GL Assessment to not only maintain high standards but also to better un-derstand the needs of our students coming from diverse backgrounds. SFS uses Progress in Maths (PiM) and Progress in English (PiE) testing in BS Key Stages 1, 2 & 3. We also use the Cognitive Abilities Test (CAT) in an online digital format for students entering the high school (IGCSE and IB Diploma). This program has helped provide teachers with an annual snapshot of student assessments, helping to iden-tify students who are over-performing or under-performing to address needs as appropriate. The assessments are digital which pro-vides instant analysis of the results. According to Damian Prest, BS Dep-uty Headteacher, “the assessment also gives SFBS a comparative standard score for

students in the UK, so SFS can see how their students measure up. It is great to have a baseline comparison with the UK.” Ruth Sanderson, IGCSE Coor-dinator at the HS, has used the CAT test to support decisions made on where to place stu-dents within the grade levels. The test helps affirm teacher expectations about the children in class by giving them additional measures to support their own assessments. In addition, CAT digital data provides the school with extra insight into how students like to learn. “A lot of our students can learn in any way. But there are a few that are weaker in some ways, for ex-ample, they are not so good at au-ditory or visual learning. So we can take that into consideration from the start rather than taking

a couple of months to learn about them” Ruth Sanderson, IGCSE Coor-dinator. These assessments ensure that every student meets their potential, right from the moment they join SFS. The graph below represents the average standardised score for Progress in Maths and in English for the British School (Years 1 to 9). The standard-ised score is 100, meaning that a stu-dent who scores 100 is working at the expected standard.

Identifying Potential in Our Students

(Year 1-9)

Prize winning Cana-dian author, David Poulsen, spoke to Middle School and High School students about the importance of reading and de-scribed how he be-came the unlikely combination of au-thor and cowboy. After telling students about his rodeo days, he read from two of his most recent books, Num-

bers and Last Sam’s Cage. His high energy presen-tations were entertain-ing and funny as he shared strategies that have made him a suc-cessful author with 23 published books. Mr. Poulsen also conducted a Writer’s Workshop for one English class with the goal of making their

writing more believable.

Guest Author David Poulsen Inspires Young Writers

On November 3rd we had James Hooper (the first youngest Briton to climb Mount Everest) visiting SFS to share about his ex-periences to the BS Year 3 – 9 and Middle School students. In 2003, with no climb-ing experience at all, James Hooper and his friend Rob Gauntlett de-cided during their GCSE’s at school that they wanted to climb Mount Ev-erest. And at the age of 19 on May 17th 2006 he successfully reached the summit of Mount Everest. While at SFS, James shared the process of how he and his friend trained themselves, planned the expedition, and solicited sponsorships before the trip. He also shared great visuals of his long chal-lenged journey to strive for his dream and finally his personal experiences and learnings after achieving his goal. Another experience that James shared with our students was his epic

journey of one year, one month and one day from the North Geomagnetic Pole to the South Magnetic Pole us-ing entirely human and natural pow-er in 2007. By sharing his experiences, James inspired many of our students of how important it is to believe in your own abilities. The lesson he shared with our students was “Everything you do involves risks and challenges. However, we should not be scared to achieve it. When you take a challenge, break the problem, learn, prepare your-self step by step and you can al-ways achieve your goal. If you

have a dream/goal to achieve do not be afraid. You can al-ways achieve it!” To find more about James Hooper and his achievements please visit www.180degrees.com “James was able to

achieve his goals despite all the incredible risks he was up against. It makes me think that I can achieve my goals too despite

lifeʹs challenges!”

Rebecca Freeman, MS 6R

“James Hooper had a lot of cour-age to challenge himself to climb Mount Everest. We were so lucky to meet him and hear his amazing

story.”

Benjamin Choi, BS Y6S

James Hooper Inspires SFS BS & MS Students

James Hooper with SFBS students after his presentation

3…2…1...Launch! Around the end of October each year the High School Physical Science

classes investigate, build, and launch bottle rockets to further their under-standing of Newton’s laws of mo-tion. Their team’s objective is to re-search one testable variable i.e. fin size, fin placement, amount of water, etc.. that will allow them to build a pressurized-air powered soda bottle that will go as high as possible. They learn to work collectively in groups, collect, graph and analyze data, as well as make conclusions based on their group’s rockets performance. Everyone had a great time and will remember this lab for many years to come. “It was amazing to see science at work as it soared across the sky. The rocket building was a great experience. Not only did we learn how the scientific method worked, but we also experienced

the three laws of Newton and the importance of teamwork. I would love to do these fun experiments again as a change from tedious lectures and tests. I love Mr. Jen-ney’s science class!

Jeanne Lee, Freshman

Bottle Rocket Adventure

This fall, the SFS Cross Country Cru-saders came out, for what was to be, an amazing running season. The combined boys and girls team ended their season with over 55 runners and two managers. In the final race of the season, the KAIAC Tournament, Var-sity Girls finished second and the Varsity Boys finished first. The boys and girls teams finished 1st and 2nd, respectively, in the seasonal confer-ence standings as well. All- tournament honors went to Daniel S. Kim, Skye Chung, and Julia Aulbach. All-Tournament and All-Conference went

to Julian Aramburi, Henry Valentine-Ramsden, Midas Rhoda, Owen Un-derwood, Maddie Craig and Hannah Madden. Lillian Sheng also made the All-Conference Girls list. Before the KAIAC tournament, the varsity team travelled to Guam for the Asia Pacific Invitational Cross Country meet to compete against teams from all over the Asia Pacific region. Hannah Madden had a per-sonal best race, winning the 5k girls race. The girls team finished 6th overall while the boys team took

home the 3rd place trophy. In the relay, boys and girls combined race, the team took home 3rd. This season was truly one to live up to. Runners of all abilities pushed each other to constantly change our varsity line-up and helped the entire team succeed. The dedication and commitment that every runner had was something to be proud of. Thanks to our two managers, Augene Park and Liah Kim. We hope to see many new and old faces next year!

SFS Cross Country

“The bottle rocket lab took a lot of hard work and extra time to make the rocket. Our results were cool and funny. I learned how to use an-gles to determine the highest point of the rocket. Overall, this was a fun lab to do!”

Eric Kim, Sophomore

Ashton Le Cornu, Freshman

On Nov. 16th – 20th, SFS had the distinction of hosting APAC Dance. The theme “Rock the Floor…Dance is an Attitude” reflected the high energy and creativity of each of the nine participating schools. Brent Interna-tional School of Manila, Canadian Academy, Concordia International School of Shanghai, Hong Kong Internation-al School, International School of Beijing, both Shanghai American Schools- Pudong & Puxi campuses, Seoul Foreign and Western Academy of Beijing were all in attendance. Thursday and Friday involved the immersion of the students into six intense dance workshops. The dance genres taught were contemporary

(Kim Teinchai-ISB), hip hop (David Escoe-HKIS), jazz (Oksana Petrova-SFS); Broadway musical (Nicole Oakes-SFS); Latin (Hillary Marshall-SFS); traditional Korean (Esther Kim-guest of SFS). Students from each school were placed into six mixed groups which then rotated

through each of the workshops. The dance steps learned were then incorpo-rated into a crea- tive fusion piece of the students’ mak-ing. Saturday evening represent-ed the culmination of a lot of hard work, creativity and energy with electrifying perfor-mances by the dancers of both their fusion pieces

as well as their individual school pieces. The audience of over 650 people were mesmerized for over 2 hours by the sound and light specta-cle as the dancers “rocked the floor” and showed that “dance was the atti-tude” that brought us together.

On November 14th, visiting story-teller/author, Tanya Batt, entranced students in the Elementary and Brit-ish Schools with her lively perfor-mance of folktales and fairytales. Based in New Zealand, she has traveled to many schools around the world with this being her first visit to Korea. Using only her voice, Tanya Batt created a variety of sounds and songs to tell her stories. They all began with her “story sack,” a con-cept originating in Korea. Younger

students heard an exciting Mongoli-an tale called Puchika Churita, mid-dle grades enjoyed Why Mosquitos Buzz, an African tale, while the old-er students were treated to The King’s Seed, a Scottish version of a Chinese tale, The Empty Pot. Teach-ers and students alike would be ea-ger to have her back someday. “It was so fun! Tanya Batt was really good in the sound effects! Her stories were very creative and exciting! She was an awe-some storyteller!”

Joseph Kim, ES 4U

Rock the Floor… Dance is an Attitude!

Storyteller/Author Tanya Batt Visits SFS

Pictured Left is Tanya Batt’s Performance at SFS

Combined Group Performance at the APAC Dance Festival

On the weekend of 29th and 30th of October 2011, 21 swimmers from the SFS swim team went to Beijing, China, for the 2011 Inter-national School Beijing Swim In-vitational. At the meet there were 14 schools competing with over 500 swim-mers! It was the biggest swimming event I have ever been to and I was both excited and nervous at the same time. During the events, we were not competing in, we waited in the Gym and it was there that we got to know our teammates better and we made friends in other teams too. We all felt apprehensive when our first events were about to begin, but once you hear the

starter go BEEP!! You know there is no holding back and you have to go for it there and then. For many of us this was our first overseas swim meet and it was a fantastic experience, We all made a great team. Everyone swam with passion and many of us beat our personal bests. The at-mosphere was great as we all cheered each other along and we all had an amazing, although ra-ther tiring, time. After the swimming was over, the team went to a really cool Chinese restaurant. We had a great time and we learned how to say ‘this is delicious’ in Chi-nese. On behalf of the whole team, I would like to say a huge thank you to all the parents and sib-lings who came along to cheer us on. We would also to like to thank ISB & SAS for organising the meet and inviting our school, but mostly we would like to say a huge THANK YOU to Coach Van Galder for his encourage-ment and for putting the trip to-gether.

Rebecca Wood, BS Y5B

SFS Crusaders in Beijing

SFS Swim Team at International School Beijing

Rebecca Wood, BS Year5B

Before I moved to Korea, I thought my life was perfect. I thought that I was living the best life possible, and when my parents told me we were moving, I went into hysterics! I thought I was living a nightmare! On the way to the airport, I cried three times! At least all that crying took away most of my energy, and made it easier to sleep on the plane! When we arrived in Korea, I was still upset, but when we reached our house, I started to think maybe, just maybe, it wouldn’t be that bad. Little did I know that this was the be-ginning of a very enjoyable three years. Two of those years have flown by faster than I would have thought possible, but they have been filled with laughter and fun. Thank you to all my teachers, friends and family for making it so. In second grade, I was overjoyed when I could go home and visit all my friends, but now, when I go to America, I don’t feel like me anymore. I feel like I’m looking through someone else’s eyes. I feel like a very differ-ent person than the little girl who once thought she had the best life possible. No, I’m not that girl anymore. I’m a happy fourth-grader who’s had amazing experienc-es, and looks forward to having more. Be-cause now I know, I truly am living the best life possible.

Isabel Kalb, ES 4K

Experiencing Transitions

Through the Eyes of an

ES Students

Isabel Kalb is center with Connie Kim on the left and Taylor Orban on the right.