Near completion: Mundy (right) together with the school’s director of parent engagement Jesse Rinkenberger showing the progress of the construction work on the school at Bandar Tasek Mutiara in Simpang Ampat, Penang.

Construction of Phase One of the GEMS International School of Pearl City, Penang, is now 60% complete and the school is set for intake in September as scheduled this year.

School principal Glen Mundy said the RM55mil international school in Bandar Tasek Mutiara in Simpang Ampat near Bukit Mertajam, Penang, had the groundbreaking ceremony in June last year.

GEMS International School of Pearl City is a project undertaken by GEMS Education and its local partner Maju Holdings Sdn Bhd via its subsidiary GEMS Maju Sdn Bhd.

This is GEMS Education’s first international school in Malaysia.

Mundy said the international school would be a K-12 (kindergarten to 12th grade) school, for children aged three to 18, that would adopt the National Curriculum for England and Wales, leading to the IGCSE and A-level qualifications.

“We will be following the guidelines of the Education Ministry and will be teaching Bahasa Malaysia, Mandarin, Malaysia Social Studies, Islamic Studies and Moral Studies.

“It’s a way to adapt to the local culture, environment and more importantly the community.

“The advantage of the British curriculum is that it is structured, flexible and at the same time, we can use it to help the Malaysian students,” he said at the GEMS Enrolment Centre in Jalan Tasek Mutiara 2, Simpang Ampat, recently.

Mundy has over 30 years’ experience as an international educator across Europe, Africa and Asia.

He has worked in senior leadership positions in schools in Spain, Vietnam and Malawi; and taught Humanities in the UK, Denmark and the Seychelles.

He joined GEMS Education in 2010 as principal of the International School Tripoli in Libya.

With the onset of the revolution there in February 2011, Mundy evacuated the school and carried on as ambassador and administrator until September 2011.

Subsequently, he worked for GEMS Management Solutions as a senior project manager, assisting in the development of schools in Egypt and the Middle East.

He was also an accreditation inspector for the European Council of International Schools (ECIS) and an IB Diploma authorisation inspector.

Mundy holds a BEd (Hons) degree from Exeter University and an MSc (Geography) degree from the University of London and a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.

To find out more, visit its website at www.gemsinternationalschool-pearl.com or contact 04-5040639.

Source: StarProperty.my