Loyalty recognition and rewards for longest attending students

At Horne Learning Services, it's time to give back and recognise our longest attending students. Of students currently registered with us, we have one who will be marking 3 years with us this week, another who will reach 3 years next month, and 3 others who have all been coming for more than 2 years.

Loyalty certificates and rewards are at the ready!

We'll be presenting these 5 children and their parents with certificates, a little reward, and a photo to mark the occasion.

We are grateful for their parents' commitment, their presence in our classes, and are delighted to see each one of them make improvements over the years.

2014 Syllabus

We hope everyone enjoyed the New Year celebrations, wherever in the world you may be.

We are welcoming back students old and new to our classes, which are filling up quickly. Please be aware that Thursday afternoon is the only class remaining for children with available spaces.

During the Christmas and New Year holiday I've been busy preparing the new syllabus for 2014 at Horne Learning Services. A lot of the exercises which our students are accustomed to will remain, but there are some new additions too.

Once every 2 months (Jan, Mar, May, Jul, Sep, Nov) we will be conducting a variety of grammar exercises from The Word Bank, a more fun and flexible way of learning tense work, nouns, verbs and adjectives, synonyms and antonyms, word lists and making sentences.

During the same months we will be continuing Movie Week, essentially a listening test with comprehension questions, but doing so by watching a fun movie.

During the months of February, April, June, August and October there will be a Games Week where we'll be learning English in a fun way by making short stories as a class, doing word searches, and other games.

A new addition for 2014 is Exam Week. There will be five Exam Weeks, held on the 4th week on the same months as Games Week (mentioned just above). Exams will involve vocabulary, speaking, reading, writing and grammar exercises. Results will be recorded and passed to parents. (Exam Week will only be for students who are capable of reading and writing and who can understand and answer grammar questions. Those of a lower standard will continue with simple exercises)

Activities including speaking, creative writing, reading and word games will remain on the syllabus. We are confident our students will enjoy the variety of exercises, a  more fun way of learning, as well as being more accountable to their parents through exams every two months.

Letter to Kuantan Town Council (Majlis Perbandaran Kuantan, MPK)

Dear Kuantan Town Council,

After a week of discussions with children in Kuantan ranging from 7-16 years of age, and presentations from adults in my English classes, I have prepared the following suggestions to help our town of Kuantan make some much-needed improvements. I hope you will take some time to consider the following points.

I realise that not all of these points may fall under your jurisdiction, but I'll include them anyway as an insight into what young citizens of Kuantan are thinking, and how adults living here explain changes they would like to see implemented.

One of the main issues is the change in direction of a number of roads around Kuantan town centre. While many people are now adapting to it, there appears to be a desire for the roads to be returned to usual. There was also a suggestion of expanding some of the main roads to four lanes.

Remaining on the same topic of infrastructure, the majority of my students would like to see the roads in Kuantan re-laid with stronger materials. This is due to numerous pot-holes on various roads, making it difficult to drive.

We are very pleased with the inception of enhanced public transport in the rapidKuantan fleet of buses. However, it would be nice in the future to see these public transport lines expand to residential areas, making it easier for people to locate a bus stop. Perhaps in the future there may also be sufficient funds and plans to create a LRT line similar to that in Kuala Lumpur.

The next point concerns littering. An overwhelming majority of the 100 or so students I teach expressed concerns about rubbish disposal in Kuantan. It would be a welcome addition to enforce punishments on those caught throwing rubbish, and to provide a lot more rubbish bins in all areas to reduce the amount of rubbish ending up on the floor and in drains. We frequently witness the open-air burning of rubbish in Kuantan which we would also like to be halted.

During our discussions, some people brought up the desire to have more trees being planted in Kuantan and were wondering why we see a number of trees being cut down quite regularly. While Kuantan grows and more buildings spring up, we believe there should be an equal opportunity for trees to be planted.

Building more shopping malls featured prominently in our discussions in English class. This was voiced particularly by the younger people who feel that Kuantan is a little boring without a great deal of places to go during holidays and free time. Fun places for children to go like Kidzania or Kizsports were very popular suggestions. One participant who lives in Indera Mahkota also wanted to see more coffee shops opened in this area in hopes that Indera Mahkota can steadily grow and expand like the main Kuantan town area.

To improve children's education and interest in study, it was offered by people young and old that there really should be more public libraries in Kuantan. The ability to loan good books from a library is very low here and this would be a much welcomed addition. In order to obtain more information and history about our home town, we would also like to see an improved information centre which would be a benefit to locals and tourists alike.

Teluk Chempedak beach is one of the most popular places in Kuantan but we fear that it has lost some of its beauty and charm with the addition of so many new shops and stalls along the beach front. These stalls obstruct the view of the beach and sea and diminish the experience somewhat. We wonder if these sort of stalls could be cut down so that visitors can simply enjoy the view of the beach without having things being sold at every step.

Regarding public safety issues, voice was raised in favour of more dynamic lighting along roads and residential areas thereby decreasing the risk of accident and theft. Installation of CCTV cameras in strategic areas could also be something to be considered.

Some of my students would like to see the Kuantan Town Council organise special seasonal festivals. Such festivals could bring the people of Kuantan together, help us learn and appreciate each other's religion and culture, and provide much enjoyment.

Finally, as Kuantan is growing steadily and becoming a more prominent place on the map of Malaysia, we see it fitting to have a certain landmark to distinguish our town and to be symbolic of Kuantan. A Kuantan Tower similar to those in KL and Alor Setar would create a new tourist attraction and be a symbol of pride for the people of Kuantan.

I hope you have found some of our suggestions to be worthwhile. We have certainly had an inspired time thinking about and discussing these possible improvements to the beautiful town of Kuantan. We await your response.




Yours sincerely,

Mr. Duncan D. Horne
Chief English Trainer at Horne Learning Services,
comprising contributions from all the students of Horne Learning Services.

English Workshop @ Vistana Hotel, 10th Nov, 2012

We held our 4th English Workshop of the year at Vistana Hotel on Saturday 10th November, 2012. The English Workshop was attended by 37 children, some of them our English students, some joining one of our activities for the first time.

Group photo of a session of the English Workshop held at Vistana Hotel Kuantan

The children enjoyed a number of exercises including:

• The shoe game
• Word Cloud (Creative writing)
• Map of Malaysia comprehension activity
• (Separate worksheets for the kindergarten children)
• Listening Test
• Pictionary
• Treasure Hunt

Refreshments were provided afterwards, as usual.

Tucking in to the food

9AM SESSION

Leah takes a seat at the back as the children get to work at the Treasure Hunt

Children trying to solve the Treasure Hunt clues and questions:

Treasure Hunt 9AM session:

Treasure Hunt winners

2nd place

3rd place

4th place

Group photo of the 9AM session of the English Workshop at Vistana Hotel, Saturday 10th November, 2012

1PM SESSION

Children participating in the Treasure Hunt:

Treasure Hunt winners from the 1 PM session:

2nd place

3rd place

The 1PM session group photo at English Workshop, Vistana Hotel Kuantan, Saturday 10th November, 2012

4.30PM SESSION

Children doing activities at the English Workshop:

Treasure Hunt winners at the 4.30PM session of the English Workshop

2nd place

3rd place

Group photo of the 4.30PM session of the English Workshop at Vistana Hotel, Saturday 10th November, 2012

Thank you to all those who attended the English Workshop. Hope you had a lot of fun learning English through games and fun exercises. 

Until next time . . .

English Workshop 1st September, 2012

Our 3rd English Workshop of the year was a success and was attended by 32 children over 3 sessions. Vistana Hotel provided the setting for us, with a nice Function Room and some good refreshments.

The agenda for the Workshop included:

• Ice-breaking
• Pictionary
• Boggle
• Speech
• Listening Test
• Treasure Hunt

The children really enjoyed themselves. This time we gave everyone individual points for how well they performed on each task. 

At the end of each Workshop the points were totalled and a winner declared. So here are the three winners:

9am session winner: Karthik

1pm session winner: Jia Qi

4.30pm session winner: Ken Foong

Congratulations to our three winners who scored the most points in word games, writing, listening and speaking exercises!

Here are some photo highlights of each session of the English Workshop:

9AM SESSION

And here are the treasure hunt winners!

2nd place:

3rd place:

4th place:

9am session group photo:

1PM SESSION

Speaking topic - "If I could go to the moon, I would . . . . ."

Speaking topic - "If I was the Vistana Hotel manager, I would . . . ."

1pm session treasure hunt winners:

2nd place:

1pm session group photo:

4.30PM SESSION

Treasure hunt winners:

2nd place:

4.30pm session group photo:

Thanks to all of the children who attended this English Workshop, and for their parents who support us in this event.

The final English Workshop of the year will be held some time in November, 2012.