By: Maxine Duminy, Kyla Uy and Sandy Agustines, Year 12

What is it that makes you happy? Is it collapsing onto your bed after a long day at school? Playing your favourite sport? That first bite into your favourite meal?

At Habitat For Humanity, it is the act of giving back that rewards us. It is lending our hands and building together as one that satisfies us. It is making an impact – helping our community – that humbles us every time.

Habitat for Humanity is a volunteer-based ASA that strives to make a positive change within the local community. Through regular visits and provision of building assistance, the team lends their services to help build or rebuild homes, bringing communities closer together and promoting a sense of hope. Our builds are often held in rural areas across the Metro, where we spend our Saturday mornings constructing and painting houses, as well as interacting with the area’s community. During these sessions, they voice their needs and concerns to us and in turn, we decide on feasible solutions to help. In BSM, our team organises fundraisers to finance these builds and other Habitat-sponsored projects, such as Cookies for Humanity and the Coin Bank programme that was launched in term one.

So far, we have accomplished the following:  

1. Our first build at Bistekville 4, Quezon City: the team spent the day painting houses, partaking in manual labour by carrying cement blocks to help build the foundations of a new building at the site. Following our building session, the team had discussions with many of the residents, regarding their standards of living and the problems that they wished to be solved, e.g. lack of water and electricity.

2. Cookies for Humanity: In order to raise funds, Habitat sold and delivered cookies to the student body. Over the duration of this week, this fundraiser enabled the team to supply and prepare for builds.

3. Coin Bank Initiative: the coin bank initiative started in early November and lasted until the end of term 1. Every student was given a habitat coin bank, which he/she was to fill in due time. The funds that were raised were to sent back to Habitat to continue home development in areas in Quezon City.

The future of Habitat is a promising one. With an educational programme coming up this February, we hope to encourage more students to come and support our mission.

Habitat For Humanity has evolved into more than just an ASA. It is the exuberance of the Filipino culture that influences our capacity to willingly help those in need. Despite having so little, the infectious, kind-hearted nature of our people is admirable.

BSM’s partnership with Habitat for Humanity has enabled us to spread a sense of renewed hope within these communities and make them, and us, feel whole again.

Join Habitat for Humanity! We will be having occasional meetings, which will take place every Thursday (Week B) from 2:40 - 3:30 in Ms. Seed’s room. Get in touch with us via kyla.uy@britishschoolmanila.org or allegra.dom@britishschoolmanila.org!

by Junwen Tham and Xuanlin Tham, Year 10 and Year 12

On Sunday 2nd of October, BSM held its second annual Fun Run in Urdaneta Village. Everyone woke up early to get ready for a morning of fun, dancing, and of course, lots of running.

We started off our busy morning with a warm-up Zumba session. BSM students, teachers, and parents all showed inspiring energy, with the primary school students at the front displaying truly admirable excitement. At 7:00, runners set off on either the 1K Fun Dash, the 3K run, or the 6K run, and it was a wonderfully unifying experience to see so many members of the BSM family take off running together at the sound of the starter pistol.

Runners showed amazing perseverance and enthusiasm throughout the event, with many choosing to take part in the fancy-dress challenge and run the course in magnificent get-ups such as wetsuits or cardboard cars. Volunteers were stationed around the course, providing water for the runners or directing them towards their destination, but most importantly, cheering them on with encouragement and positive energy. When the runners crossed the finish line they were greeted by other runners, cold drinks, food and prizes.

The Fun Run had brought together the BSM community outside of school for a fun-filled Sunday morning and was an astounding success. A huge thank you goes to parents, students, staff, and sponsors for making such a brilliant morning possible! We’re looking forward to next year’s Fun Run and hoping to see such a great turnout again!

by Mehar Hora, Year 12

“Because every child has the right to learn, play and grow.”

ONLY FOR upcoming year 10s - 13s

Last year our school joined hands with the Kythe Foundation, and since then students of the BSM community have fostered an unbreakable bond with the children at the hospital.

What is Kythe? 

Kythe is an organisation that allows volunteers to visit hospitalised children, who are suffering from chronic illnesses, in order to help ameliorate some of their suffering through fun activities. Essentially, as a Kythe member, you are a harbinger of hope and positivity for these children. In fact, as an avid member myself, I have witnessed the smile that embraces a child’s face as you hang the paper spider on his hospital bed or when you sing them Christmas carols. 

Why Kythe? 

Kythe demolishes our ignorance towards the world and immerses us into the lives of our fellow Filipinos by giving us direct and frequent contact with these people. For me, it is a platform for putting myself aside, putting my stress aside, and concentrating on something much more meaningful. 

You might walk in thinking “Hey! this is a great way for me to give back to the community” and even though you will do exactly that, there is much more attached to a Kythe experience. You will develop your social skills and feel more content and happy with yourself. One of my favorite Kythe quotes is: “there is healing through simply sharing and togetherness”

What’s next? 

To be an official Kythe Volunteer, you must go through an orientation stage. In it, Ms. Karen (the Kythe Organiser) will go through some guidelines for the volunteer work we do. 

This Orientation will be held in school on the 4^th of May at 3:00pm.

You cannot volunteer if you don’t attend this orientation. 

I strongly urge you guys to grab this opportunity. For the upcoming Year 12s, this is an amazing way to add to your CAS because weekly volunteering shows dedication to universities and displays your affinity towards helping society. 

More details:

Saturday Volunteering Sessions are from 9 - 11 (and the school offers transportation too! So for that we leave at 8)

Anyone that is interested or has any questions feel free to drop me an email at mehar.hora@britishschoolmanila.org

The Kythe Website:

http://kythe.org/site

 

 

 

By Fred Mann, Mica Lagman and Alessandra Sy, Year 12

Being the student heads of the visual and performing arts department isn’t easy. From the day we were appointed, we already had events for which prefects had to be assigned.. Our job is to be responsible for all of the upcoming VPA events, to represent the creative arts enthusiasts within the BSM community, and to aid in the process of turning their ideas into a reality. This means delegating both the staff and the student body, as well as going to a lot of meetings… but the reward is always worth it. Currently, we’re working on bringing the concept of “Live Lounge” to life.

Live Lounge is an event that had already existed in BSM for many years, but when Ms Quigley, the teacher in charge of Live Lounge left BSM, she took the event with it. The concert had been discontinued; however, this year we wanted to bring it back. It started off as a fundraiser idea for three different CAS groups, and the profit was to go to the Mango Tree Foundation and Jose Fabella Hospital. But seeing as it’s a VPA event, the three of us were assigned to help set everything up.

In order to do the event justice, we spend countless study breaks in meetings with operations, VPA prefects, and teachers in order to line up some unbelievably exciting performances that we are dying to share with everyone. We can’t give anything away just yet, but we can say this: there may be some celebrity appearances at some point during the show. Along with this, the three of us have done the best we possibly can in assigning a lineup full of students that is going to astonish everyone. We cannot stress enough how much you would be missing out on if you’re unable to go the event.

It wouldn’t be a surprise if we spend our lunch working with our marketing team, where we run  through some of the video and poster editing of , and brainstorm new ideas for more videos and posters of the acts. These will be posted on our VPA Instagram account some time later in the week (@vpa.events). We hope that these may just add that little bit more incentive for people to buy a ticket! Each ticket will be 300 pesos and we are really looking forward to seeing a bunker full of students and adults watching!

So much effort has been put into this year’s Live Lounge and it would be incredible if you guys could go along! 

 

 

 

By Gabbi Gane, Year 12

Everyone has a spectrum of ideas to share and discuss, and one event that ties all the colours together is TEDx. I’m sure we’ve all heard of TED Talks, some famous examples include: Do Schools Kill Creativity? (by Sir Ken Robinson) and Pamela Meyer’s talk on How To Spot A Liar. TEDx holds a similar concept; it’s a self-organised, independent event that brings people together in one multi-coloured discussion.

The British School Manila is hosting its very own TEDx Conference on March 12th 2016, with Head Girl Aurora Guild as TEDxBritishSchoolManila’s President. The conference is organised by a group of talented Year 12 students who have planned, designed, and outlined this event since 2015. This year’s theme is Express Yourself: a suitable title that encapsulates the progression that the human race has seen in the past century. The world is transforming into something that is more understanding and perceptive, and TEDx elicits this passion by expressing different insights from its community into one 5 hour function. The word of mouth is a significant form of connection long forgotten, and the word “share” instinctively associates with Facebook, Instagram, or other forms of social networking. TEDx connects communities when we’re not connecting our phones to battery chargers, and it makes us look around instead of looking down towards our screens. TEDxBritishSchoolManila’s conference is one not to miss; a perspicacious discussion about expressing yourself and being confident with who you are. Led by the year 12 TEDx Team, TEDxBritishSchoolManila will be held in the bunker at 12:30pm on March 12th 2016. As applications have recently been closed, we can't wait to see those of you who have successfully filled in their application forms. See you all on the 12th!

For more information, head to: https://www.ted.com/tedx/events/13919

By: Anita Peri and Liezl Bitas, Year 12

Last 21st to 23rd of January, while we were all cooped up in our classrooms, pondering about the more eventful happenings out on the field or on the court, the Boys' Football and Girls' Basketball teams were representing our school in the International Schools Activities Conference (ISAC) sports competition.

We may have heard the final results, but what really went down?

Winston asked a couple of athletes who represented our school to tell us a little more about what we missed. Here's what they had to say:

"The boys group were tremendously excited and confident going into their first ISAC game. We admit to having had a shaky start, but our confidence slowly built up as the tournament progressed, and we comfortably played into the semi-finals versus Brent Baguio. It was smooth sailing until then, when the finals became extremely intense and the challenge magnified significantly. The fierce last minute of the game led to CIS scoring an equaliser, making the score 1 to 1. After a nerve-wracking penalty shootout, we earned second place in ISAC 2016. We agree to having learned a lot and we truly enjoyed the experience. Although some of the players will be leaving this year, the team will continue BSM’s ISAC legacy."

    - A member of the Boys' Football team


"The first day of ISAC Girls Basketball undoubtedly could not have gone any better! Our first game was against Faith Academy Davao, the champions of ISAC 2015 Girls Basketball. Knowing that they were an extremely talented team, one that  we knew was highly competitive, we were all extremely intimidated by their team. Yet, we entered the game with our heads held high, determined to fight for victory. The outcome of the game was completely unpredictable; the oscillating score caused everyone on the court to be on the edge of their seats. In the last few minutes of the game, Arianne Winter made a successful penalty shot, leaving the BSM Girls Basketball team with a win against Faith with a narrow score of 21-19. This was undisputedly the most intense, nail-biting game we played throughout the tournament. Despite being ecstatic over our success, we still had to face our last game of the day against Brent International School Manila. The team continued to work successfully together, leaving us with our second win of the tournament with the final score of 26-15.

"Due to our successful first day, we began the second day with high levels of motivation and our utmost confidence. Our first game was against Southville, one of the underdogs of this year's competition. We absolutely dominated throughout this game as we effectively carried out our offensive plays leading to a total score of 55, and we worked tremendously on defense - resulting in our team only conceding 5 points. Our second game of the day was against Cebu International School, a team that had proven to be relatively strong throughout the competition by then. Regardless of this, we continued to work collaboratively, and throughout the game we proved to have the greatest amount of chemistry on court. This therefore allowed us to dominate CIS with an end score of 30-8. However, even with the sequence of victories we earned throughout the competition, we had yet to face Brent Subic, a team we knew would put up a fight - our rival team. Despite knowing that they were previously beaten by FIA, a team we defeated the day before, we knew this would be our toughest game yet. They proved us right, finishing with a score of 27-10. "

    - A member of the Girls' Basketball team


"Although we did not win our final game, ISAC was a great experience 

and we did truly learn a lot."