Farewell to our Pn Hjh Nor Hashimi , our headmistress.

Pn Hjh Nor Hashimi, our ex-headmistress retired at the beginning of the 2015 but the farewell ceremony for her was held earlier before the long holidays. Dewan Sri Pauh was beautifully decorated and tables were set fit for a 'wedding' and guests who attended included heads of primary schools in Kamunting Zone and Pn Hjh Nor Hashimi's good friends. There were entertaining performances of the angklung band , choir and mini musical theatre. It was a memorable occasion to show our appreciation and thanks to our headmistress who had contributed a lot to the school. It was her effort and motivation together with good team work that had helped SK Klian Pauh win the Cluster School of Excellence award . Pn Nor Hashimi, we teachers and pupils, staff and parents wish you "Happy Retirement" and many happy and healthy days ahead. We hope Pn Nor Hashimi will drop by to visit us when she is free or when invited to any event in school.

The Mini Musical Theatre - The Magic of the Mangroves - A New Experience

As the mini musical theatre performance is over and it is already the new year and our Headmistress , Pn Noorhasimi has just retired, I am writing in this blog just to reflect and report on this programme. 24 November was a memorable day to all of us involved especially the kids who had a lot of fun. Most of all , I would like to thank everyone who has helped in anyway to make this happen.

In September ,I started selecting the pupils for the performance. Besides those who can speak and sing well,I chose some who were weak in their studies. It was an opportunity to encourage them to study hard. 30 pupils were selected from Year 3 till Yr 5. The other 6 were stage hands from Yr 6 and 5.

It was the first few conversations with Mr Alan Cochlan, Mr Travis and Mr Martin which inspired me to do the best and I was more than confident that it would be successful. Our HM, Pn Hjh Noorhasimi who has just retired was the driving force as this would be the last performance by the pupils and outing with our school. Being a new Cluster School, SK Klian Pauh has to make linkages with other agencies which had contacts with others up to international level . We have to thank our Larut ,Matang & Selama District Education Office for selecting our school. It was the Perak Forestry Department which had offered this opportunity for us to perform a short musical theatre as the main entertainment during the opening ceremony of The Perak Conference On A Century of Mangrove Forest Management " which was held on the 24 November at Casuarina Hotel in Bandar Meru, near Ipoh, Perak. The department sponsored all the costumes and the provided transportation, accommodation and food during the two days in Ipoh. The Music Club of this school accepted this as one of the niche projects for Cluster School and chipped in to help fund the training , food and props. It surely was a costly project as it involved a big group of pupils but nothing is wasted. In fact, there was a lot to gain in knowledge and experience.

The pupils were excited to perform and they practised hard to memorise the lyrics of the songs, steps and dialogues. The English mentors who are actually attached to other schools were eager to help in the training and they became my new friends as well. Our first outdoor excursion was to the Matang Mangrove Eco Park and with Mr Alan explaining the importance of being connected to nature , the pupils realised that they were in for a new natural experience with the beautiful flora and fauna. The trip brought them to the charcoal factory to witness the processing of charcoal from the mangrove tree trunks. The trip was wonderful and back in school , the training began just after the songs were selected. We engaged a good tailor to sew all the costumes for the animals and she finally charged us a huge sum for workmanship too. However, those costumes are for us to keep for future use.

I wrote the whole script helped by Mr Travis who is very creative and is full of ideas. During the meetings in school, Mr Travis and I presented an overview to our headmistress and teachers. Together with the mentors and teachers, we managed to conduct a few training sessions and finally the full presentations were performed during the Annual Speech Day and during the Farewell of our HM, Pn Noorhasimi. Each time, there were some areas to be improved and we worked on them.

A few photos below on the musical activity from the beginning to the end. The rest are presented through a slideshow.
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SK Klian Pauh Taiping - The Magic of the Mangroves