Uplands has provided over 65 years of excellence in education as a nonprofit organization that prides itself on providing opportunities for all of our learners to flourish and find their success. We are a truly international community that appreciates and values the rich, multicultural diversity within our school and endeavours to celebrate this diversity as we strive towards our mission of “nurturing our students to become globally minded citizens”.
Uplands is a school that exudes a positive atmosphere, giving students as many opportunities to discover and embrace their passions. Our academically challenging and responsive curriculum fosters active learning placing students at the centre of the learning experience encouraging them to think critically about the world around them. Outside of the classroom, we provide a wide range of opportunities for our students in Arts, Sports, Service, Leadership and Cultural activities, promoting our students to be balanced, well-rounded citizens of our local and global community.
Vision: To provide an exemplar international education in a dynamic multi-cultural environment, encouraging all school members to be active learners and engage with the local and wider community.
Mission: To be an international community that upholds the School’s values, nurturing its members to become globally minded citizens.
Motto: Respect for Self. Respect for Others.
On behalf of the Uplands Prefect team, we would like to welcome you to the International School of Penang (Uplands).
As the Head Students for the academic year, we are thankful for the opportunity to represent and lead such a diverse and globally minded group of students. We would like to thank Julieanne and Daniel for their efforts of nurturing the school’s values amongst the student body and developing Uplands into a more sustainable and proactive school.
We believe that now more than ever, our school should continue to develop student welfare; Respecting ourselves and the wider community has never been more important and we wish to continue fostering this through our actions as a prefect team, along within the Uplands and Penang community. In a constantly developing world with increasing global challenges, it is paramount that we as individuals should become more sustainably active, evaluating our actions by considering their direct and indirect consequences on a local, national and global scale, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals. However, for such aims to be achieved, effective collaboration and communication amongst students and school leaders is a requisite for success.
Therefore, we strive to achieve our mission of promoting student welfare, advancing sustainable practices and infrastructure, and streamlining communication channels between leadership parties in Uplands. We look forward to preserving the diverse and holistic Uplands community, while interacting respectfully with the local Penang Community and assisting them.
The founding of Uplands School dates from the period of the Malayan Emergency when a communist insurrection threatened the country’s peace and stability. Attacks by insurgents against rubber estates led the Incorporated Society of Planters – I.S.P to seek a safe location where expatriate planters could send their young children to school while keeping them in Malaya.
Penang Hill was identified as a suitable location and the I.S.P leased the premises of the former Crag Hotel on Penang Hill to open a new Primary Boarding School for approximately 60 children in mid-January 1955. Among its first pupils were children from a small private school called Uplands which had been run from a bungalow on Penang Hill before 1955. This small school was subsequently absorbed into the I.S.P’s new school. It is very likely that because the new School stood for high standards in education and was also at some altitude, it was seen as fitting that the name Uplands also be adopted and its students referred to as Uplanders.
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This school is so good, thank you for letting me study here. The teachers are really nice to (most of them) and so are the students! Uplands so good.
By Elias Mai (Mar, 2026) |