Congratulations to Carlota, Tina, Jackson and Orkax, all in Year 10, after winning a massive $1,000 USD in the Young Founders competition. Over this exciting weekend they participated in focused workshops, and worked with experienced entrepreneurs. Through the development their skills and entrepreneurial mindset the Nexus team excelled and delivered a stunning pitch to the Venture Capitalist, securing the $1,000 USD investment to help make their idea reality. I look forward to the launch of ‘Match’ an innovative work experience business model.

The Nexus team truly deserved to win this competition and worked long hours to perfect their ideas and their pitch over the long weekend. Teams came from all over the island from top local schools such as Raffles Girls and Cedar Girls as well as from international schools such as UWC and Singapore American School.

Congratulations to team Nexus!

Young Founders School will be back in Singapore in the next school year. This free innovative learning experience is something every secondary learner should do at least once! Here are the dates for the rest of 2018 so you can effectively plan which would suit you best!!

• Ideation Day Workshop 4 - 29th August
• YFS Singapore Bootcamp 4 - 8 & 9 Sept
• Ideation Day Workshop 5 - 7th Nov
• YFS Singapore Bootcamp 5 - 17 & 18 Nov

Any questions see Mr Bevan in C3-41.

Jim Bevan, Subject Leader: Business Studies and Economics

On Thursday our Year 6 learners completed their final 'official' task of presenting to the younger learners and their parents: the Year 6 Moving On Assembly. A focus on independence and risk taking was highlighted by a trip down memory lane as we reflected on our year. A huge thank you to the parents, teachers and support staff for helping to make the morning a huge success. We wish the best of luck next academic year to everyone as they depart on a new adventure in Secondary School. For our Nexus families leaving us, we will miss you and wish you well. For everyone staying at Nexus, we will see you next year.

Take care, stay safe and have lots of fun on your break!

Allan Bilney, Phase 4 Leader

On Monday 28th May all learners from Nursery to Year 9 joined together to take part in the Nexus Climbathon, in support of Chora Chori, Nepal. It was a mammoth event climbing and descending the course around school. Spirits were high with older and younger learners working together to get round as many laps as they could.

The support has been fantastic and has raised a total of $12,542.00. A huge thank you to everyone for the enthusiasm and generous donations.

Those at Chora Chori would also like to pass on their enormous thanks. The money is going to make a huge difference to the children at the refuge, as well as others whom Chora Chori support.

The funds will be going towards the following three projects:

• Building a much needed toilet block at the children's refuge, outside Kathmandu. They have been trying to fund this for a while, so are delighted that the funds will cover it completely!
• Provide education for a 4 yr old boy, Piyush, who’s mother is deaf. Chora Chori have recently rescued her from India.
• To help buy 10 computers for the Shree Ganesh school which is attended by children, mostly girls, from the Danuwar ‘untouchable’ community. The aim is to give the 147 pupils a more diverse education, increasing their options in the future.

Last Thursday, Year 12 Business and Economics Learners headed to Jurong Frog Farm. We were itching for some outdoor fun with some learning thrown in.

We were told that Jurong Frog Farm originated from Jurong and they only moved to Lim Chu Kang in 1993. They farm American Bullfrogs and supply frog meat to local eateries - now I know where my favorite frog leg porridge stall gets their meat!

We were surprised by ‘Mr Frog’ (our guide), who took two frogs from the pond. At first, I thought he was preparing the frog legs for us, and maybe give us an inside view of how they humanely slaughter the frog or even give us a try at doing that. However, it turned out that the main reason for catching frogs was to teach us about frogs. The staff explained the different parts of the frog, its life-cycle, as well as why they are called bullfrogs (because of the deep sounds they make!). He took two frogs out from a tank and asked us to differentiate the male and female. Some of my classmates hilariously wanted him to flip the frogs over to have a closer look but it was hard to tell. From what I understood of the animal kingdom, I guessed it was based on the skin colour. The most exciting part of the session was when we were given the opportunity to touch the frogs, and surprisingly they feel like water balloons.

We then moved on to feeding the frogs. The ‘kids’ were given containers with pellets of food to share. It was initially a little unnerving for me to see that they placed ducks beside the frog cage - the ducks smelled awful, which made feeding the frog a painful experience. Unfortunately, the frogs were also slow in getting to the food, they weren’t active at all, I even tried whistling to see if they would react, but alas, nothing happened. It turns out frogs are nocturnal. I feel so cheated by Animal Planet.

We were then brought to the MATING zone (M18 only!) to show us the life-cycle of frogs, from the egg to the frog. However, I didn’t pay much attention as I was too hungry thinking about the frog legs in the near future.

After that, we ended our visit at The Royal Frog Shop where they explained the history of the farm, their struggle for survival and the products they offer to the public. They also shared their marketing strategies on how they managed to penetrate the Singaporean market (which inspires me to open a frog farm one day, and sell it at the bank). After all that talking, the moment we had been waiting for, had finally arrived (mainly Axel and I).The staff finally prepared some fresh fried frog legs for us to try and they were really tasty and the students, especially Axel, devoured them quickly. We were also given hashima (dried fatty tissue found near the fallopian tubes of the frogs) to try. It is a widely known Chinese dessert commonly found in restaurants.

The hashima surprisingly tasted better than the frog legs (in my opinion), but everyone else seemed to dislike it. I ended up drinking most of it. After having the delicious frog and hashima we finally said goodbye to the frog farm and returned to school.

Allyster Loh, Year 12 Business Management Learner

Well, well, well, what a finish to the House Cup events for the year! This annual event which acts as the introduction to the Year 6 Transition (to Secondary School) Days has become a real highlight in the school calendar. The weather tried to have it’s say but we moved the events in side and definitely did not let that dampen our spirits.

The morning was hot and humid but that didn’t slow down our house teams. Each house had two teams representing them, made up of a mix of both Year 6 & 7 learners. There were many different challenges on offer. Some of the highlights were said to be the ‘Caterpillar’, ‘Spider web’, and of course the ‘Toxic Challenge’, although there was much fun and laughter had at all stations.

After the teams had battled it out on the stations, the final positions were decided by the much anticipated Tug ‘o’ War. It was Api and Ayer House who went through to the final which proved to be an absolute cracker! Ayer House managed to just edge them out in the final. Congratulations must go to Angin House for taking top spot in this event, once all the results were in.

This made for a very exciting last run for a couple of houses who were in contention to lift the House Cup for this academic year. While everybody had a lot of fun along the way, there comes a time when we must acknowledge the winners of the House Cup for the 2017/18 academic year. Congratulations to TANAH HOUSE who have claimed the cup for just the second time in our history. Good luck defending it next academic year. Those other houses are hot on your heels...

Graeme Massey, Learning Area Leader: Health and Physical Education

Transition days are certainly a highlight of both the Primary and Secondary calendars. Our wonderful Year 6 learners are always excited to find out what it will be like to go from class to class each day, meet new teachers and show even more independence in their learning and this year was no different. To begin the week they participated in a series of team challenges with the Year 7 learners run by the HPE team and much fun and strategising was to be seen. Then for two days they experienced Maths, Science, English, Digital and Humanities classes and met a wide range of secondary staff. The learners showed their determination and enthusiasm towards the various tasks set, from solving mathematics problems to designing their own countries to creating profile pages of superheroes. They were treated to a performance in the Drama studio by Year 8 learners before heading off to experience the virtual world of Co-Spaces with Mr Ed in which they were able to build exciting new environments. The teaching team enjoyed meeting each of the learners and we all look forward to officially welcoming them into the secondary school in the next academic year.

Ms Libby Ince, Years 7-9 Phase Leader