Contents

Page No

Message from The Principal

Secondary News

Uplands Roar

3-9

Primary News

10 11

Art Department

12 13

Science News

14

University News

15

CAS News

16 17

Year 9 News

18

UPTA

19

Logo Competition

20

The school newsletter is becoming a key feature of the

communication from the school to the wider Uplands
Community. We receive comments and replies from all
over the world. It is truly an international newsletter!

Upcoming Events

21 -22

Your sincerely,

To all in the Uplands Community,

This weeks newsletter has something for everyone!

Music, Science, Art, Drama, Community Service and
Sports to mention a few of the articles that have been
included.
Thank you to all who have contributed articles and
photographs to document and illustrate the many ways
children learn and participate in the school.

Matthew Bristow
Principal
Follow us on Twitter: @ispuplands

Welcome back to both the U15 FOBISIA team and the Music FOBISIA group who went Bangkok and Beijing
respectively. In speaking with the students, they all had a fantastic time and an experience they will always
cherish. For more information about these trips please see the related articles in this newsletter.
Two of the past three weekends have also been busy for the English Department, with the Year 13
students completing their Individual Oral Commentaries; HL students on Saturday 1st November and SL
students on Saturday 15th November. Thank you to the English Faculty staff for giving up their Saturdays
to ensure their students had a quiet environment to perform their best with these assessments. I would
also like to take this opportunity to thank the ToK teachers who will be doing similar opportunities over
the next two Saturdays and wish all of the Year 13 students the best of luck for their upcoming Theory of
Knowledge orals.
Next weekend also sees two more trips abroad. We have nineteen students, accompanied by Mrs Hollis
and Mr Davis, attending the FOBISIA Model United Nations Conference at the ABC International School
in HCMC, Vietnam. The other trip involves our U15 Boys Tennis Team, accompanied by Ms Lim and Mr
Scully, travelling to Jakarta to participate in the FOBISIA Tennis Championships. I hope all the participants
in these two events truly appreciate this wonderful experience and I am confident you will represent
Uplands with pride.
Have a great weekend
Craig Skinner
craig.skinner@uplands.org
Follow us on Twitter: @UplandsSecSch

Another incredibly busy past week has seen Uplands competing in:

Bangkok at the U15 FOBISIA Games

U14 & U16 MSSPP Netball
U11 Invitational Football
U18 PSAC Netball
U10 TBall

For detailed results, photos and write ups please go to:

http://uplandsroarsport.webs.com/apps/blog/
U11 Invitational Football
160 Primary footballers took part in last Saturdays 2nd Annual U11 Invitational Tournament with Alice
Smith, SCIPS, Dalat, Straits and Tenby all represented. Through 7 hours of football our Uplands teams
showed great team spirit and fantastic sportsmanship. As always our teams looked to pass the ball and
make the opposition run, this resulted in both A teams achieving great success and the younger B teams
making good progress.
Special congratulations must go to our U11 A Girls for
finishing the day as undefeated CHAMPIONS, having scored 17
goals and conceded just the 1! Lead by their Captain, Sophia
Poulsen, the Girls played some outstanding football and I am
sure this is just the start of what looks like a very promising
year of football.
Thank you to all who helped organise and run the day, this was
a great advert for Uplands and the friendly, positive
atmosphere was a great example of what sport should be
about.

U14 & U16 Netball

Tuesday saw our Girls in action at Westlands in the local MSSPP Kelawai Zone Tournament. The MSSPP
netball tournament was a great experience for all of us! We managed to secure a bronze medal and even
though it wasnt gold we enjoyed the games and gained a good experience. We had a rough start at the
beginning, but as the matches continued we got stronger and worked more efficiently as a team. This
tournament taught us many things about playing as a team and encouraged us to improve our skills, so
that we can strive to be a better team. Overall it was a really fun and competitive tournament that we all
enjoyed participating in.

U15 FOBISIA Games

Well done to all involved in what sounded like a fantastic Games over in Bangkok. Some fantastic
achievements and I am sure many great memories made. As always these trips do not happen without
an awful lot of time and hard work being put in beforehand by both students and coaches:
Mr Driscoll, Mr Mitchell, Ms Teddy & Coach Ben
For more details please read Mr Driscolls page from earlier in the Newsletter.
Penang Bridge Marathon
Congratulations to all our brave runners who dragged themselves out of bed in the early hours of Sunday
morning. I hope you all enjoyed the event and the new course and hope to see you all on 11th January
for the 3rd Race of the Penang Run Series!

As always for all fixture/event write ups, photos, calendar and training information please go to:
www.uplandsroarsport.webs.com
And for more immediate Roar Sport updates you can follow us via Twitter at: @UplandsSport

FOBISIA Swim Meet

Registration is now open for those interested in attending the inaugural FOBISIA Swim Meet being hosted
in Bangkok in January 2015. This will be a highly competitive Meet with Swimmers from across the region
taking part. Please see Coach Ben for more information.
Weekend Sports Programme
We are coming towards the end of the Term 1 Weekends Sessions, with just this coming Sunday and the
following Saturday left. It has been great to see so many of our students showing such impressive
dedication and commitment. With this in mind we have opened registration for Term 2, and again the
focus will be on Football and Swimming. For more information and details of the Term 2 dates please go
to:
http://uplandsroarsport.webs.com/weekend-sports-programme
Monday Night Football
Slow Motion Football continues to grow on Mondays. All ageing Messis are welcome. Just bring along a
pair of trainers and both a light and dark top. Teams are mixed up each week; fun and a little exercise are
very much emphasised! Start time is 8pm, and we play until approx 9pm.
Dean Metcalf
Head of PE Faculty
Follow us on Twitter: @UplandsSport
U15 FOBISIA
On Friday of last week 24 students travelled to Bangkok to participate in the U15 FOBISIA Games. After
months of hard work and preparation, the students were extremely excited about competing against
students from 6 other schools (St Andrews, Bangkok, Dulwich College, Suzhou, Harrow International
School, Beijing, International School of Brunei, Regents School Pattaya and ELC Kuala Lumpur).

After a very early start on Friday, the students spent the afternoon acclimatising with a quick swim
followed by the welcome dinner. As is expected, Uplands students showed fantastic manners and were
the only school to remain quiet and listening to the welcome addresses from the Head of St Andrews.
Saturday morning saw a very early start (5.30am!) in order to get to the athletics track for 7.30. The team
were confident going into the athletics having trained very hard and it came as no surprise that the first
gold medal of the day went to Oliver Rose in the 1500m. This was quickly followed by numerous other
medals in on both the track and field taking our tally to over 20 medals and in doing so, putting us in 3 rd
place overall!

In the afternoon, Coach Ben took control of the proceedings and

got the swimmers fired up for what would be a very intense and
exciting meet. From the off, the students were swimming exceptionally and were medalling in almost
every race. With 12 gold medals (Melina Morach won 3 of them!), 8 silver medals and 9 bronze, our total
tally of 29 is our best ever yet at a FOBISIA Games and secured us a fantastic 2nd place overall. Well done
to you all!
Football and basketball dominated the final two days of the competition and hopes were high for both
teams as they expected to medal. The girls played football
first whilst the boys showed off their skills on the basketball
ball court. The girls got off to a bit of a shaky start winning
1 and drawing two games, before putting together a
fantastic string of results to claim a well deserved 3rd place
The boys set themselves a target of 3 wins in the basketball
and were delighted to achieve this and nearly exceed their
goal as they played out a number of close games. Some
quality shooting from Ong and some great team play from
the rest of the team saw them come 4th which is 2 places
higher than last year!

The final day saw the teams swop sports. The boys got their
football tournament underway with a great goal from Mahon just
8 seconds into their first game and this set the tone for the rest of
the day. Having played some amazing football (and at one point
not allowing the opposition to touch the ball for over 5 minutes!)
the boys took on 2 of the strongest teams (other than us!); St
Andrews and Dulwich. Against St Andrews we controlled the game
for the nearly 20 minutes, but 3 great counter attacks saw STA beat
us 3-0. A win was therefore crucial against Dulwich to ensure a
second place spot and the boys against played magnificent
football. A lucky goal for Dulwich which was against the run of play
put them ahead only for Jens to score a majestic free kick and level
the scores. Despite hitting the woodwork a number of times, we
couldnt score a second and drew the match 1-1. This meant we
would finish third which is a great result and again an improvement
on last year!
The girls basketball team have made significant
progress under the guidance of Mr Mitchell and
they got of to a terrific start again Regents building
up a 5 point lead early on. The curse of the nerves
soon hit the girls and they battled out a very close
finish to the game which saw them lose 11-9. They
went on to play some fantastic basketball and
mirrored the boys results by winning 3 of the
games and securing 4th place over all.

Overall the Games were a great success for Uplands and I would like thank Ms Teddy, Coach Ben and Mr
Mitchell for all their work in the build up to the Games and whilst in Bangkok.

We are now very much looking forward to the U13 Games in March. The trials for these teams start next
week and the schedule is below Please note the change to the boys schedule (highlighted in yellow) from
the initial letter that went out due to fixtures we are playing against a visiting school. My apologies for
any inconvenience that this may cause.

Day / Time
Tuesday 6.30 7.30am
Wednesday 3.30 4.30
Wednesday 4.30 5.30
Thursday 6.30 7.30am
Thursday 3.40 5.00
Thursday 4.30 5.30

Boys
Basketball
Swimming
Athletics
Football

Girls
Athletics
Swimming (until 5pm)

Football
Basketball

U18s Netball Uplands V Tenby V POWIIS

20th November 2014
Last night the new look U18 Netball team hosted both Tenby and POWIIS for the first matches of the
school year. The first match was Uplands V Tenby. Uplands started strong in a very fast paced game and
over the first 3 quarters they worked hard to get in front of the Tenby players to intercept the ball and
kept the score even at 3-3. Unfortunately, Tenby stepped up the pace in the last quarter and the passes
into the Goal Shooter were a bit too much for us to contend with. Final Score: Tenby 14 Uplands 7.
The second Uplands match was versus POWIIS. The girls benefitting from the experience of the first match
and changed their playing style. They slowed down the pace of the game and concentrated more on
making their passes and keeping hold of the ball in pressurised situations. Excellent work from the
defending pair Alice and Alina helped keep POWIIS out of the shooting circle. Strong work from the whole
team meant that we take away many positives and know how we can move forward from here. Final
score: Uplands 4 POWIIS 8.
Miss Regan and Mrs Skinner.
Team:
Vera (C), Jastine, Alice, Logan, Kate, Divya, Karina, Honami, Sophie, Alina, Yu-Jin

Spice Garden visit

This week was another interesting one for Year 1i as we were able to visit the Tropical Spice Garden. The
students were immersed in the 5th Senses walk amidst the lush greenery. They were organised into groups
of 4 for the nature box activity where they had to find 10 items around the garden. The winning group
was awarded prizes by the nature educationist, Ms Jo Leen. There was a definite team effort by the
children in order to accomplish the activity successfully. The students also got to taste the refreshing
nutmeg juice. On the whole, everybody had fun and gained lots of knowledge about plants. Once again,
our appreciation goes to parent helpers, Ms Suzanne Freeman and Mrs. Watson for being our chaperones.
Year 6 Trip to Langkawi
As this newsletter goes to print the Year 6 children are on their way backj from Langkawi. Please read
about our adventures in next weeks newsletter!

Ali Nicholson
Head of Primary
Follow us on Twitter: @UplandsPriSch
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12

Music FOBISIA Festival 2014

From 13th-18th November, 6 students
(Year 13 Alex, Year 10 Alycia, Year 9
Miles, Year 8 YeFun, Year 7 Ryan and
Carson), 2 teachers and 2 parents
went to the Music FOBISIA festival
being hold in Harrow International
School in Beijing. They all performed very well with very intensive rehearsals from morning to evening
everyday as well as various concerts every night. We were very proud of our students excellent musical
progress during the festival. We are sure that they all enjoyed this precious time to share their huge
musical passion with many other students and the excellent music teachers from other schools. Please
look forward to the presentation of the Music FOBISIA in the secondary school assembly next Monday.
-Ms Ogusu and Mr Liao
This Music FOBISIA was great. I had
loads of fun and nervous moments. The
activities that I enjoyed the most were
practicing for the concert and doing the
workshops that we got to pick. I tried my
best in the concert and was extremely
nervous for myself and my other peers. I
learned more about the people
travelling with me and made many new friends along the way. Overall this trip was amazing and I want
to thank Ms. Ogusu and Mr. Liao for all the hard work assembling a team to go and the many other things
needed to get us ready!
-Carson 7s
I had a fantastic experience in Beijing. The weather was cold. I made many
new friends from the other schools. We spent most of the time rehearsing
in the school. We played many pieces. I enjoyed the piece Jesus Christ
Superstar the most. We went to the Forbidden City on the third day. The
only thing that is tiring is travelling back to Penang. Non of us slept that
night because we had a midnight flight. Overall, I had fun. I would like to
join Music FOBISIA again next year.
-YeFun 8p

13

Music FOBISIA was an unforgettable experience. I was never very

musical growing up so having the opportunity to attend an event like this
playing not one but two instruments was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime
event. I very much enjoyed the workshops and the bands I got to play
with. Furthermore, I got to meet some fantastic people who share the
same passion for music as I do. Beijing was very scenic and Harrow
International School was very welcoming. Gala Night was nervewrecking but ultimately very rewarding. If I could, I would not hesitate
to sign up for the next one. A huge thank you to both Ms Ogusu and Mr. Liao for organizing this trip, as
well as everyone else involved.
-Alexan 13i

IB Theatre Arts Performance

There will be a performance next Thursday at 5pm by the Year 12 IB Theatre Arts students. It is a devised
piece of theatre inspired by the recent pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong, created using the
theories of a famous 20th century theatre practitioner. The piece is about 30 minutes in duration and the
students involved would very much appreciate having an audience, so if you are able to come along this
Thursday at 5pm to F208 please come and show your support.

14

A week ago today (on Friday 14th November), Philae, the first spacecraft to ever land on the surface of a
comet, fell back into sleep as its batteries ran out of power. Scientists and engineers from the European
Space Agency (some of whom had worked on this project for 25 years) were jubilant at the success the
whole team is delighted" the manager of the lander announced.
The European-built, washing-machine sized probe had been launched into deep space in 2004 from South
America, attached to the Rosetta craft, both tasked with reaching and then orbiting Comet
67P/ChuryumovGerasimenko, some 700 million km from Earth. To build up enough speed (15 km per
second!), it followed a complicated trajectory through the solar system, flying by the Earth, Mars, the
Earth again, the asteroid Steins and then the Earth for a third time in 2009, followed by the asteroid
Lutetia in 2010. To conserve power both craft entered deep hibernation in June 2011 for two and a half
years. One of the tensest moments was waking the two craft up again in January this year. They arrived
at the comet in August and last Wednesday (12th November) the Philae lander separated from Rosetta
and headed towards the comet. The plan had been to fire anchoring bolts on touchdown but these failed
and Philae bounced off the surface, flying back into space for two hours and to a height of 1 km before
bouncing off a second time. It finally landed at 9 pm Malaysian time.
Philae ended up in shadow near a cliff face on the head of the 4 km-wide comet and was only able to
spend 57 hours investigating the surface with its ten instruments before lack of sunlight sent it into
hibernation. Im feeling a bit tired, did you get my data? I might take a nap was its final tweet.
The hope is that as comet 67P approaches the Earth in 2015, Philae will receive enough solar radiation to
recharge its batteries, awaken once more and continue its study of the comets surface. The Science
faculty at Uplands wishes the craft well and with the Chinese lunar rover also in deep hibernation, as
three American rovers are busy exploring the surface of Mars and as the New Horizons craft is speeding
towards Pluto, we wonder if future alumni of Uplands will be involved in even more exciting space
exploration endeavours.

15

University Visit Korean Information Session

Just a reminder of the upcoming visit from George Mason University, Korea on November 26 from 12:301:20 for students, and a second session for Korean Parents from 1:30 to 2:50. Please let Mr. Mitchell,
Head of Pastoral, know if you would like to attend the parent session. Email: bill.mitchell@uplands.org
As you can see below Ghent University, Korea has also been added to the event to assist Korean parents
and students of the offerings and processes for not only Korea, but the US as well. Please join us in F206.
Time
Topic
Participants
Details Speaker
12:40-1:20
Info session 1
Students
Session during lunch hour
1:20-1:40
Info session 2
Parents
B.Mitchell, Head of Pastoral
1:40-1:50
Ghent Uni Info
Parents
Ghent University, GMU Korea
Mr. Taewan Kim, Ms. June M. Jung
1:50-2:20
1. Ghent University
Parents
Ghent University, GMU Korea
2. George Mason University Korea
Mr. Taewan Kim, Ms. June M. Jung
2:20-2:30
2:30-2:45

Admission to Korean Universities

Q&A

Mr. Taewan Kim

Ghent University, GMU Korea
Mr. Taewan Kim, Ms. June M. Jung

Hope to see you there.

Mr. Bill Mitchell
Head of Pastoral, Universities & Careers

Student Reminder Lockers

For the security of students, school resources and personal effects, each student is required to purchase
a lock for their locker. It is in the interest of the school and student to have a safe and secure place for
items brought to school. This will allow all of us to focus on education and not misplaced items. Please
have a lock on your son/daughters locker by the end of the week. If you have not, one will be provided
and the associated cost billed to the students account. We advise students not to bring expensive items
or large amounts of money to school unless unavoidable. In this case, please have your son/daughter
approach their Head of Year to secure it until the end of the day. Thank you to all of those students and
families that have already seen to this.
Mr. Bill Mitchell,
Head of Pastoral, Universities & Careers

16

IB CAS students and community work with refugee children

For their CAS project, a group of Year 12 students decided to try and address the lack of education for
refugees in Malaysia by running weekly art workshops for refugee children between 4 and 6 years old.
The sessions take place at the Good Start Learning Centre - a newly opened kindergarten in Butterworth
for Rohingya children from Myanmar.
The group started by helping to man an art stall for the Penang Stop Human Trafficking Campaign at
Little Penang Street Market in September. They wanted to get an idea of how to run such an event, and
meet the children from Good Start who were there on the day. They then planned and budgeted their art
sessions, costing in the price of the paint they were going to use to paint the walls of the school. Raising
enough money to cover these expenses involved hard work after school operating a stall selling coke
floats to students. With the help of Mr McGill in the Art Department, they managed to exceed their target
and raised 1600RM for the paint and resources for their classes.
Having spent a weekend up ladders painting and decorating the room themselves, our students began
their first art session with great success. They are now several sessions in, and one of the students,
Malaika Franks, describes a new addition to their schedule:
We decided to expand one of our classes into a greater event involving the public and the parents of the
children an Art Jam. This was to be held at Hin Bus Depot Art Centre as part of a two day Stop Human
Trafficking Event raising awareness and money for the school. The day was a great success and was not
only fun for the children but for us as volunteers. We did simple yet fun activities with the kids like making
pasta necklaces, hand printing and Q-tip art.
The aim of the IB programme is to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help
to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect. These
students - Malaika Franks, Vicky Oh, Amanda Tan and Melika Nabipour embody this ethos and are doing
a fantastic job reaching out to the local community to address global issues that concern them.
The Art Jam was featured in The Star newspaper last Sunday.
Mel Cartlidge
CAS Co-ordinator

17

18

I am delighted to report that Year 9 students have had a busy past fortnight showcasing their talents in
Bangkok, Beijing and Penang! Congratulations to those students who represented Uplands in the U15
FOBISIA Games, hosted by St. Andrews International School Bangkok (please see the sports sections for
further information on this) and to Miles Kelly who played Verdi on trombone at Harrow International
School FOBISIA Music festival in Beijing.
Year 9 students (of Art class 9CBA) have also finalised artwork for a Maths Department exhibition!
Students have created a collection of carved and painted Islamic Designs.The Medieval Arab Muslims
loved geometric designs which have regular or repeating lines and shapes. They made many beautiful
tiles which showed these designs.
The origins of the exhibition designs range from across the Islamic world. It is wonderful to see Year 9
students accessing areas of interaction between subjects. Year 8 Historical study on the Medieval Islamic
Empire is referred to in Year 9 Maths classes which influence lessons in Art and vice versa!
The PSHE focus for Year 9 students in November is the IBDP Learner Profile element Caring. After
working through lessons on the benefits of community service each student pledged to undertake at least
one service activity of their choosing this week. Students have been given autonomy to choose activities
they personally feel are of benefit. Different activities have been assigned different values in points
ranging from 1 10 and students have been given a Service Card on which they can record points
collected. Students must collect at least 1 point but may volunteer for further activities as they wish. It is
encouraging to note that quite a number of our students are more than generous with their time. I believe
I will have no shortage of praise to write in up-coming newsletter articles!
Miss Emma Mc Askie
Head of Year 9

19

A few messages from the UPTA Committee:

This mornings German Country Breakfast was a great success and was well-attended. If
you were there, Im sure youll agree that the good company, delicious food and pleasant
atmosphere made for a very enjoyable morning. Thank you so much to our German
Country Representative Tanja Sigloch and her friends, for leading so skilfully and
enthusiastically this special UPTA event. Your hard work definitely paid off. If anyone else
would like to host a Country Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner or even Afternoon Tea, please
contact the UPTA at uplandspta@yahoo.com to volunteer. Its a wonderful way to
represent your home country and create an opportunity for fellow Uplands parents of all
nationalities to strengthen camaraderie.

We would like to thank all of the parents who volunteered at last Saturdays football
tournament. Everyone did a great job, and we enjoyed ourselves at the same time.
Volunteering to serve refreshments with the UPTA at a sports event is a nice way to meet
and get to know other parents while doing something helpful for the school. Its also our
chance to show guests from visiting schools some Uplands hospitality. If you would like
to represent Uplands at an upcoming event, please email uplandspta@yahoo.com to sign
up for an hour or two of service.

Carols by Candlelight, a much anticipated annual UPTA event, has been scheduled for the
evening of Friday, 5th December. The exact time and other details will be announced next
week, so watch this space. In the meantime, you can start considering which Christmas
carol or holiday song you might like to perform, either in English or your native language.
If you play an instrument even better! Start rehearsing now because its time for you to
show off your skills. We hope that plenty of families and friends will sign up to provide
some festive musical entertainment, all in good fun. Dont be shy, email
uplandspta@yahoo.com to share your idea. We hope everyone can make it.... Santa Claus
will be taking a break from his Christmas Eve preparations to pop in.

The next UPTA Coffee Morning will be held at the PARKROYAL Penang Resort on Tuesday,
2nd December, from 8:30am to 10:30am in Tiffins Restaurant. Please RSVP to
uplandspta@yahoo.com if you are able to join us. This will be our final Coffee Morning of
2014.
Kind Regards,
Roslyn Wirth
UPTA Secretary
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21

Year 6 Langkawi Residential

Tuesday 18 Friday 21 November 2014

Primary TBALL with SCIPS & Straits

Friday 21 November 2014

U16 Netball @ POWIIS

Tuesday 25 November, 2014

U16 & U14 Football vs St Patricks (Singapore)

Wednesday 26 November, 2014

FOBISIA Tennis Invitational hosted by BIS Jakarta

Thursday 27 to Sunday 30th November 2014

U13 Boys Basketball vs Straits

Thursday 27 November 2014

U11/U10 Football vs SCIPS

Friday 28 November 2014

Year 3 Excursion Ipoh Caves

Thursday 27 November

Year 4 Excursion Selangor School

of Hard Knocks

Monday 1 December

UPTA Carols by Candlelight

Tuesday 9 December 2014

Sports Day Years 7 to 12

Tuesday 16 December 2014

Primary & Secondary Christmas Concert

Wednesday 17 December 2014

Term 1 Ends at 12.00 noon

Friday 19 December 2014

Boarding House closes at 12.00 noon

Saturday 20 December 2014

22

Orientation Day for all new students morning

Monday12 January 2015

Boarding House re-opens at 2.30 pm

Monday 12 January 2015

Term 2 Starts

Tuesday 13 January 2015

Mid Term Break at 2.40 pm

Friday 13 February 2015

Boarding House closes at 12.00 noon

Saturday 14 February 2015

Boarding House re-opens at 2.30 pm

Sunday 22 February 2015

School re-opens

Monday 23 February 2015

Term 2 ends at 12.00 noon

Thursday 2 April 2015

Boarding House closes at 12.00 noon

Friday 3 April 2015

Boarding House re-opens at 2.30 pm

Sunday 19 April 2015

Term 3 starts

Monday 20 April 2015

School closed Labour Day

Friday 1 May 2015

Term 3 ends at 12.00 noon

Friday 19 June 2015

Boarding House closes at 12.00 noon

Saturday 20 June 2015

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