FRIDAY NEWSLETTER from Secondary – February 2nd 2018
Week 24-In Full Swing
This is the time of year when it feels like everything is on the go. Our students have many different balls in the air and are pushing their learning in all of their courses and outside endeavors. Personal Projects are wrapping up, Internal Assessments are coming due and the Extended Essay process is starting up for grade 11. Couple that with students taking on fund raising for Bali life, IISAAC Basketball and a talent show! Please ask your student all of the things that they are involved in and remind them to take one task on at a time!
Community Involvement
This past Thursday BIS was fortunate enough to have members from our community come to speak to our students about their chosen careers, how they got there and the preparation needed to be successful. We had a wide range of occupations, from jewelry making to working in the music industry. It is a big ask of these professionals to give up their valuable time and sharing their passions and expertise with our students. I would also like to thank our counselor Karin Holley for organizing this engaging event. We are so fortunate to live and work in a place with members of our community who have so much expertise and such a willingness to share.
ISA Testing
This semester BIS will be conducting our ISA testing for this academic year. The ISA Test is:
-
Chosen because it is in line with BIS’s mission, vision, and student aims
-
The ISA is not based on any one curriculum but tests core skills in mathematical literacy, reading, writing (narrative and expository.)
-
An assessment with a broad cultural base (ie. no dollar or pounds)
-
A combination of multiple-choice and open-ended questions and prompts. The open-ended questions require students to generate meaning, explain their reasoning, find evidence and justify their opinions.
-
based on the internationally endorsed reading, mathematical literacy and scientific literacy frameworks of the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).
We will be conducting this test on the 12th-13th of February and the test will be administered to grades 6-10. We have just completed a practice test for the online science test on the 1st of February. It is extremely important that all students are present during these testing dates. We recognize the loss of instructional time as we look to gather this important data about the learning progress of our students. Administering make-up tests takes away from your child’s access to the learning that will be going on in their class rooms. Thank you for your help through this testing session.
Below is a link to some informational slides about this test, how we use it and how scores can be interpreted to better inform our teaching. Please take a few moments to go through this information. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me.
https://docs.google.com/
BSSA and Transportation procedure
We are in full swing with this term’s BSSA-basketball. In order to ensure the safety of our students BIS will be busing all BSSA participants for away games. All students will go on the bus together with their team and coach. The coach will be taking attendance as kids get on the bus at BIS and as they get off at their destination. If a parent would like to take their child home after watching the contest they must inform the coach. Students will not be allowed to get into any vehicle other than their parents or their parents designee. A form will be coming home with your child where you will be able to state whether or not your student will return back to BIS on the bus or will be picked up at the away game destination. Please help us ensure the safety of our students by keeping the school informed of your child’s travel arrangements.
IB Mock Exams
Mock Exams will begin on the week of February 12th. These exams are used to help with the review cycle prior to the real IB exams. These assessments provide students and teachers with a direct, concrete insight into their learning; highlighting the areas that still need polish. This is a stressful week for our seniors as they pile all of their IB assessments into one week. The regular exam schedule takes place over a whole month. Please help us remind them the purpose of these exams, to inform and guide our practice as we get closer to the finish line!
Second Semester Conferences
Our second semester Parent/Student/Teacher conferences will be held on the 22nd of March. This will be a non teaching day. Our conferences will use the same Student/Parent/Teacher format that we followed in the first semester. We will most likely be in both the MPR and the Music Room as we will be accommodating the IB Visual Arts Exhibition. It is very important that your student accompanies you for these conferences, this is the best way for us to work together to help them continue to grow and succeed with their learning. The second semester conferences are also a great time to speak with teachers about next year course selection. The online signup format that we used last semester will be used again. This information will be coming out shortly. Parents with siblings in either the Primary or the Secondary will be given a window to sign up before the rest of our parent community. Thank you for your continued interest and support or your child’s learning here at BIS.
Valentine’s Day STUCO Dance
Our STUCO will be hosting the Valentine’s Day dance on the 15th of February. Ticket information and timings will be in the daily bulletin for students and the event will be chaperoned by BIS staff. It is always a very nice event, we look forward to a wonderful turnout!
Personal Project Exhibition
Our 10th grade students are working towards the completion of their Personal Projects. This year long self directed learning experience is highlighted in an exhibition that celebrates all of the hard work and self directed learning that our 10th grade students have gone through this year. Information about this event will be forth coming. I want to congratulate them all on such creative and thought provoking ideas. I also want to thank Ms. McClay and the individual supervisors for their help and guidance throughout this process.
Thank you for your continued interest and support of BIS and our students.
Kind Regards,
Justin Walsh
secondaryschoolprincipal@
Secondary School Principal
