Monday, July 4, 2011

My School in The News













Prof Dr Azlan Abdul Rahman (left) and Assoc Prof Noraiza 
Che Awang (right) with the signed MoU


























































































































































































A religious school is engaging a training centre to provide additional English language coaching for students

HIDAYAH Islamic School started out in 1989 as Sekolah Rendah Islam Hidayah (SRIH), a primary school with only 12 students and four teachers.

Its secondary school, Sekolah Menengah Islam Hidayah (SMIH), was established in 1995 on the campus located along KM26, Jalan Johor Baru, Kg Sinaran Baru in Skudai, Johor.


This religious school is registered under the Education Ministry and Johor Islamic Council as a non-profit private learning institution with an emphasis on academic excellence, co-curriculum achievement and moral integrity in a supportive school and family environment.


It values holistic Islamic education and offers an integrated education that combines academic and religious subjects.

While Hidayah is a religious school, students are encouraged not only to pursue academic success but also to excel in extra-curricular activities.


Kamaliah Noordin, who was SMIH principal from 1995 to March 2011, put in place several initiatives to encourage students to move out of their comfort zone and compete with mainstream schools.

She wanted the public to change its mindset about this religious school as they witness how its students also excelled in extra-curricular activities like sports and debates.

With the slogan “Standing tall over the world”, she motivated teachers and students to take pride in their skills and abilities to compete, often as underdogs, but with much success.


Students excel in sports like football, netball, table-tennis and archery at district and state levels. They have also won several national level competitions in debate and bridge model designing.

The school’s debating teams in Malay, English and Arabic categories emerged as champions in inter-school, national and international debates.

Every year the school continues to achieve high academic performance in all the national examinations at primary and secondary levels.

In 2003, the Department of Private Education of the Ministry of Education recognised Hidayah Islamic School as the Best Private School in Johor and SRIH and SMIH were accorded the third and fourth places as top private schools in the country, respectively.

Today, SRIH has 1,047 pupils with a total of 30 classes and is supported by 67 teachers. SMIH has 645 students from Forms One to Five with 43 teaching staff.

While most of the students are from Peninsular Malaysia, there are a number of students from Sabah and Sarawak as well as some from Brunei, Indonesia and Singapore.

In an effort to provide global perspective to the students through international experience, the school organised post-SPM programmes that involved them in community service activities in Sabah and Indonesia, including the disaster-hit areas in Aceh.

The school also received visits from international school
delegations from Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore and Japan.

In April 2011, their English debating team participated in an Open Debate organised by Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, as the only secondary school from Malaysia among teams from universities and colleges.

It was an ambitious effort to pit Form Three and Form Five students against law undergrads, but a worthwhile outing for the team to earn some valuable experience and exposure.

The team’s next challenge is at the Asian School Debate championship held in Seoul, South Korea.

School principal, Fauziah Abd Salam, realised that while many students have a good command of written English, there is still room for improvement in the area of verbal skills.

In line with the school’s objectives, Hidayah Islamic School recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Al-Ikhlas Cambridge Sdn Bhd, a language-training centre that will provide English language coaching to complement the students’ formal learning in school.

Associate Prof Noraiza Che Awang, executive director and group principal, signed the MOU on behalf of Al-Ikhlas while

Professor Dr Azlan Ab Rahman and Ahmadon Bakri signed for the Hidayah Centre of Education.

Under this MoU, students will learn English under the Cambridge English system with a focus on grammar, the foundation of language and literacy skills of reading and writing.

The study approach will draw students into lively discussion on how to correct “broken English” and equip them with the skills to further access knowledge from materials that are available in English.

These skills are based on the unique Cambridge syllabus that focuses on all four language-learning skills involving reading, writing, listening and speaking.

Established in Shah Alam Section 13 Al-Ikhlas has grown to become a diversified language school with four centres in Shah Alam and one in Johor Baru. The latest centre is at Shah Alam City Centre Mall.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Mangrove Tour in Langkawi

This activity was done during my family holiday in Langkawi in 2009

 This tour is part of the many acitvities found in Langkawi for tourists. This is a river cruise - a journey by speedboat along a river that runs trough the mangrove swamp. For me this is an educational aktivity because it brings nature close to us. Besides enjoying the boat ride, it allowed me to see and touched things that I've never seen or touched before. Along the journey we stopped at a few places to let us see nature at close range. Among the activities that we did during the trip were:
1. Entering  the Crocodile Cave (without the crocodile) with the boat.
2. A stop at the HOLE IN THE WALL - Fish Show and Wildlife Watch
3. A visit to the Bat Cave - bats hanging to the ceiling of the cave
4. Feeding the red eagles and watching them diving for the food
5. Leasure walk in the mangrove forest
At the end of the day it was a very interesting and enjoyable aktivity. I really recommend it to those holydaying with families because it can bring a family closer  together while enjoying the beauty of nature.

   My siblings tried to put the king crab on my head ...... my first encounter with a king crab


             Look how close I am to my beloved mum

For more stories and pictures klick here.


Friday, May 6, 2011

Sightseeing in Alexandria

This article is taken from my mum's blog saramsa "Kenangan:Pusing-pusing di Kota Alex" . It is about her visit to Egypt right after the Hari Raya break in 2008, and one of her destination is Alexandria. This was the time when I had to stay with my aunt in Ipoh for nearly 10 days and had to "ponteng sekolah". Was I happy then, coz I don't have to go to school? ..........Nooow!.....not without my mum!
Anyway, if you are interested in wanting to know what to see or where to go if you do ever visit Alex or Egypt, do visit my mum's blog. Here is another article of her recount of her visit to Egypt

                     Giza pyramids......synonym with Egypt