Shrewsbury School

Assalamu’alaikum and hello dear readers!

It’s finally time to introduce you to SHREWSBURY SCHOOL! YAY!

This is just about a quarter of the school ground. Maybe less.

First things first: 'Sh-rou-wsbury,' not 'Shrewsbury' and definitely not 'Strawberry'.

Honestly it doesn't matter, but posh people are, well, posh.

There are only 4 Bruneian students that are currently studying in this school; there’s Amalina (Maths, Chemistry, Biology, Physics (AS)) and Sylvia (Maths, Futher Maths, Biology, Chemistry, English (AS)) in the Upper Sixth and  Raudhah (Maths, Biology, Geography, Chemistry) and Farhanah (Maths, Further Maths, Physics, Chemistry) in the Lower Sixth.

THE SCHOOL

Main School Building

Soo a little bit of the history...

Shrewsbury School has been around for c e n t u r i e s. It was originally a boarding school for boys only until 2008 when they decided to introduce girls into their Sixth Form and it’s not until this September that the school became fully co-educational i.e. we finally have girls too in the Lower School!

But even so, the school still has way more boys than girls...

What does the school offer then?

Sylvia: It's a highly sporty school, but it doesn't miss out on musically and academically talented students either. The classrooms are bright and highly conducive (the lack of drawers though), and most of the teachers are quite good (albeit a little weird). Here, the students constantly argue with teachers in class (in a positive way), so you're bound to develop your critical thinking and especially debating skills. We've also  had our most successful School Play ('Cyrano de Bergerac') so far with the introduction of Miss Brown as Director, so hopefully the Drama department is gonna flourish even more in the future as well.

Nope, still not the whole school yet.

This school does often try to bring out the full potential in students. Students are constantly encouraged to participate in various sports events (ugh), and if you're even the least bit good at singing, don't be surprised by people randomly jumping on your back to scout you into Chapel Choir. As a student who took 5 subjects at AS, I had a lot of support and teachers were very understandable and appreciative of my timetable, so I never broke down (too badly) under the academic pressure.

The school's also really useful when you want to arrange community service/work experience in a local nursing home/hospice; you can even request what type of experience you'd prefer. We have Medic Malawi (which I joined last summer) where we students volunteer and help out at an orphanage in Malawi. Admittedly, the trip was costly, but the experience was definitely worth it.

Most importantly, we have HALAL FOOD EVERYDAY! (oh and our bedrooms are pretty).

BOARDING LIFE

How does it like?

Emma Darwin Hall

Amalina: The school has 13 houses altogether; only 3 for girls and the other 10 for boys. Sylvia, Farhanah and I live in Emma Darwin Hall (EDH) - a relatively new house with a more modern design compared to the boys' houses. Raudhah, meanwhile, is the only Bruneian living in Mary Sidney Hall (MSH) which is slightly far away from EDH and the main school site.

Lower Sixth pupils have to share their rooms between two and change their rooms and roommate every term. Some people might be lucky enough to get the same room twice consecutively (like Farhanah had last time). They don't have to suffer the agony of having to pack ALL their stuffs, move into a new room AND unpack everything again like the others do (which, I think, is unfair bwahaha). Whereas, the Upper Sixth pupils get the privilege of having single rooms (mostly) on the top floor where the corridor is quiet and peaceful most of the time.

EDH common room

We have callover at certain times of the day where everyone in the house has to gather in the common room, our attendance taken in and the housemistress will inform us about upcoming events or mention any house's achievements or sing 'Happy Birthday' together to whoever has their birthday on that particular day!

Unlike breakfast and supper, going to lunch is compulsory. If you're missing for no reason, just wait for it... Matron will definitely hunt you down! *plays scary music background* In the evening, we are expected to be at our desk doing Top Schools (or homework/prep as you probably call it) from 7.30pm to 9pm. Around this time, the house tutor in charge for the evening will go around the house to check up on us. Then at around 10pm, the housemistress or matron will come round to make sure that we are all in our respective rooms, getting ready for bed (*coughs* or pretending to get ready).

Being a boarder is not so bad after all. Other than the fact that we can't cook in EDH, we don't have nutella in our kitchen and we don't have en-suite rooms like those in MSH, everything else is great. Alhamdulillah.

SHREWSBURY AND THE TOWN

Shrewsbury is just a small, pretty and peaceful county town in Shropshire, situated on the River Severn.

Shrewsbury Town surrounded by the river

From Shrewsbury to London, there is unfortunately no direct railway to Paddington Station (which is the nearest station to Brunei Hall) so we have to go from Shrewsbury station to London Euston station with at least one change and finally, by taxi or bus to Brunei Hall. The journey can be a bit tedious sometimes but what to do. :(

Shrewsbury Town

Eventhough Shrewsbury is small and looks a bit old, they do have quite plenty of shops (eg. H&M, New Look, Next, etc), convenient stores (eg. Poundland, Home Bargains), cafes (eg. Starbucks, Costa, Cafe Nero), a few halal restaurants (but you have to ask first as they don't usually show it on their doors) and there's also a cinema just out of town. Shrewsbury is of course not as exciting as London but it's surely a pleasant place to live in.

Is there anything special about Shrewsbury?

Darwin's statue in front of the library

The locals seem to be very proud of the fact that Charles Darwin was born and raised here in Shrewsbury (and he went to Shrewsbury School too when the school was still in town - the building has now become the town's library) hence the reason why you will see the name Darwin or Charles Darwin statue in every corner of the town (and especially in our school). Darwin Shopping Centre. Darwin Society. Darwin building. Darwin room. Blablabla.

I'm sorry, Darwin. No hard feelings. :*





Alright. That's all for now. Thank you for reading! :D

Headington School Oxford Survival Tips

Assalamualaikum and a very peaceful greeting to all~

TIPS on how to SURVIVE your years at Headington School Oxford! (This sincere(chewah) post is made specifically for my two granddaughters who are currently studying at Headington School Oxford (Won’t say the names, because I don’t want to sell their precious names just to anyone).

Warning: there are a lot of jokes and sarcasm used so please do not misunderstand… Although people usually misunderstand me anyway so I guess it’s fine. I don’t really mind what you think of me…. maybe.

As far as I’m concerned, ranting on the internet isn’t a good choice for a healthy living so I’m going to keep it to myself… Or not.

Firstly, WHY didn’t they send you girls a Bruneian senior like myself? I’m sorry that you have to go through a totally new world without a caring and loving person as myself who would totally dig the ground to the opposite side of Earth if you told me you were going to plant a flower (this is so useless. Where would the flower go if you dropped it? I bet you would want to learn the Physics behind this because I guarantee you the answer is too interesting.).

Okay, back to my rant. It’s bad enough you don’t have any experience studying in a land far away from home, they leave you without any guide who can clearly understand how you feel the first time you got there? They probably couldn’t find someone as awesome as me to be your Bruneian senior there. I’m kidding. I don’t even know how to be a senior. They didn’t send me a junior when I was in Upper Sixth. No kids, no experience, right? True… or do I really not have any experience taking care of kids? *smirk*

I really do hope you fit into the peer-pressured, everyone’s-intelligent-and-you-have-to-keep-up-with-everything-yourself-because-it’s-a-bloody-independent-school sixth form college. It’s not that hard fitting in…because you don’t have to. Sure, everyone there loves to be involved in every single event but that’s just because they’ve been in the school since ages ago and they’re already adapted to the system. You don’t have to sign up to every thing if you don’t want to because I know it’s difficult at first trying to self-study because the teacher was a fast-speaking Australian with a super strong accent and the British teachers sound like they’re actors from Harry Potter. Yes, I had a few teachers who totally encourages independent learning who’re like “Make your own notes, research what you don’t know and ask me if you don’t understand  and I’ll explain a totally different area which I know the answer to so that you think I’m answering your question but I'm not.” And yes, I dropped that subject when I advanced to Upper Sixth.

ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS check the notice board in the Sixth Form Common Room(Costa Area) for updates. It’s the least you can do to catch up with what’s going on and trust me, they’re really proud of that whiteboard, because I see the teachers writing not just once a week but every single morning just to update the students with the latest events. Maybe troublesome for them but it’s good for you. Don't go to school wearing something opposite to what's written there in the case of a dress-code event coming up. People stare at you weirdly.

Follow the school rules(No school doesn't rule, a metre rule rules): No phones/electronic gadgets in school (in other words don’t let them find out you have your phone in your bag/pocket). They get really annoyed by it. I know this by experience. Haha, yes, I used to check my phone before the teachers start teaching and you wouldn't want that American teacher to say “Put that away” in her extreme American accent and poker face when she catches you texting. I still have the chills thinking about it. I hate these types of flashbacks.

No toasts in your room! Unless you know how to sneak them in. This goes to any other type of food. If you want to cook in your room, make sure to fan the aroma away (tip: use a small electric fan and point the smell towards your opened window) and be aware of the smoke detector. I  believe you are smart enough to not set it off. I say this because my friends usually set it off using excessive heat on their hair-dryers and believe me when I say… I guarantee you would not like to go outside in the cold weather in your comfortable house clothing just to line up as a safety measure due to fire alarms. Imagine you were just giving your salam in your prayer and you had to rush downstairs because you heard the alarm. Thank goodness for my fast reflex. Otherwise I would’ve went with my white telekong. Picture the boarder’s faces when they see me then. *evil face* I recommend you to prepare a jubah and express shoes by your door in case this happens.

There will be visitors in the middle of the day starting 11 am and they come with staffs with keys(jeng jeng) and some of the staffs just don’t knock on your door and think it’s okay to unlock your room to show the parents of girls wanting to enroll themselves into Headington the next academic year. This was how I dealt with the problem:

Always lock your door and have your tudung express by your chair or the door in case someone tries to barge in when you’re in your comfortable state. Try to beat my record of jumping out of my bed and putting on my tudung in 1 second when someone suddenly knocks on my door or hearing the staff(with their chains of powerful clanking keys) trying to unlock my door. In this case, always wear long sleeved shirts or a jacket and long pants because it would take longer for you to grab one and your tudung, hence, you get caught with your aurat and you can’t beat my record. heheh

In terms of academic, I know you girls are responsible for your studies and would do your best when it comes to scoring your tests and exams, right? So I can skip this one out, because different people study differently. Just don’t neglect it :) D.U.I.T. (Do’a Usaha Ikhtiar Tawakal)

If you have time (especially on weekends) video call with your family. I’m sure they would want to hear from you <3 When you miss your friends, technology can help! You can chat with them and tell them you miss them and don’t leave them hanging and wondering if you still remember them.

In the end, life is about choices. Take care of your attitudes as they reflect on our nation. Be nice to people, but don’t get stepped on. Btw, the boarders in our house(your seniors) are friendly people, so, don’t be afraid to approach them if you have questions. Also, you have my number ;)

Reminders to myself and you : 

"Verily, Allah does not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves" (Al-Quran Al-Karim 13:11)
 
“Verily, in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find rest” (Al-Quran Al-Karim 13:28)

Winter Break

Assalamualaikum,

This is a super late one-year-later post but better late than never, right? Maybe.

Easter break is coming. But we haven't told you anything about our winter break yet! So.... here it is!

Our winter break started mid December 2013. While some of us went back home, meeting their families and friends, we in Brunei Hall didn't miss the fun too! We did so much together.

Minggu Ta'aruf aka Orientation Week

This was one of the best things that happened during our winter break. We got to know much more about each other through the games and activities carried out throughout the programme such as the '2 Truths 1 Lie', the 'Post-it Game' (idea from Running Man, where you have to draw to describe the word given and the next person need to draw what you have drawn). The latter was just HILARIOUS! Fish and Chips became Nasi Ikan, Stone Henge became cemetery, the warden became Doraemon and even Mr Bean became The Beatles! Hahahaha!

Minggu Ta'aruf has been really successful in creating stronger bonds between us all. :') Eating together, solat jemaah sama-sama. Everything was memorable.

 

 

 

 

Junjung Ziarah

Another big event that has occured during our winter break is 'Majlis Junjung Ziarah' where we had the chance to meet our beloved Sultan of Brunei! Wohooooooooooooo!

Alhamdulillah, BruALS has been given a golden opportunity to perform the National Anthem in front of our Sultan and Raja Isteri as the year's choir group. We spent a lot of time rehearsing a week before the event and those moments spent were precious. Lots of things happened. Highlight: A great talent has been discovered. BruALs has its own Ning Baizura. Yes Ning, you know who you are :P 

 

Everyone was colourful in the event with baju kurung, cara Melayu and some even wore suits. Everyone looked happy (maybe it's because of the amazing food served to us). Hahaha. I'm kidding, maybe this was an event the internet would describe as "priceless" because moments spent together like these is not bought by money. (How ironic because in the end we were actually given... never mind.)

Conducted by Uncle Eddy, we gave our best on the real day and Alhamdulillah, we did great!!! No broken keys (at least not obvious), nada sumbang, nada suara tenggelam. Tenor, bass, soprano and alto: All da bomb!

ANDDDDDDDDDD! Guess who the Sultan approached first as he stepped down the stage? USSSSSSSSSS! Hahaha. We were lucky enough to be very, very near the stage so the Sultan came to us first. Teeheeee. Our feelings? Hand tremors, heart about to burst of nervousness, feet shaking, minds going crazy running around finding the right words to say in front of our beloved king and to sum it up, we felt quite special to have probably the most conversation with the sultan amongst the crowds. 

(Source: Media Permata)

All in all, it was an uh-ma-zinggggggggggg winter break. It was so sad to see everyone left to go back to school. :'( Sending them off at the train station was hard. Sikit lagi drama Hindustan bubut train. Hahaha. Luan clingy bah. Nevertheless, we are going to have our Easter Break soon! Fun times coming!!!!!  

Warm regards,
BruALs xx