AISM students have created history by winning six Gold medals in the International Competitions and Assessments for Schools (ICAS) in 2016 alone. In Malaysia, there were a total of 385 Malaysian schools who participated with most of the students from public, private and international schools.
The ICAS is an independent, skills-based comprehensive suite of academic assessments for primary and secondary school students and is administered by the University of New South Wales (UNSW). Over 6,300 schools from 20 countries participate in ICAS each year.
The winners from AISM this year came from different categories which stands to show the varied academic strength of students. The awards were granted to the student with the highest score in Science, English, English Writing, Digital Technologies and Mathematics, all of which are core subjects. One of the students, Megan Yap from Year 6, managed to win two medals in Digital Technologies and English, an amazing double accomplishment! With hard work and commitment, all students received top scores in the Asia Pacific region, a remarkable achievement by a talented group of young learners.
“The assessment helped me identify where I stand in terms of my progress in the subject and I’m really glad I went through with it,’ said Nichole Ong, Year 6, who has been doing the ICAS Assessments since Year 3. To assist the students to prepare for the ICAS, past Questions Booklets were available in the AISM Library. These booklets provide a good indication of the types of questions used and their level of difficulty.
Kylie Booker, Director of Curriculum and Innovation at AISM, says that from a curriculum perspective, ICAS comprehensive reporting results and also gives parents information regarding their child’s performance. Through the ICAS, AISM is able to further triangulate data to identify gifted students and those who may need extra help in their learning spaces.
