FRIDAY NEWSLETTER from Secondary – 5th May 2017
Week 34-Keep Moving Forward
As I walk around the Secondary Campus I am very impressed by the amount of energy I see-and not all of it is during Break! Even as the year is coming towards its end our students are continuing to push themselves and look for new challenges. Whether it is with their summative exams, BSSA Athletics, a Drama Production, IB Exams or a field trip our students have maintained their focus and positive outlook towards their learning. I am very proud of them.
IB Exams
Our seniors have now completed their first week of the IB Exams. The first week is always the hardest, the anticipation, recognition of how much I need to prepare and the mental scheduling of the back to back exams. Our students have gone in and left each exam session in a positive frame of mind, this is extremely important. Making sure that they are here well before their exams, having enough sleep the night before, sticking with their study schedule while maintaining breaks for balance are so important as they help alleviate stress and allow the students the ability to remain positive and focused. I want to reiterate how impressed I am in all that they have accomplished, while reminding our students that they are prepared and ready to show all that they have learned. Please make sure to help your student take some down time and get outside to rejuvenate their mind, body and spirit.
National Exams
This past week a number of our Indonesian students have been participating in the National Exam testing session for Indonesia. These exams help Indonesia benchmark and monitor the educational progress of their country and citizens. We recognize the value of this for Indonesia as a school and are happy to provide our students with this opportunity. The exams are a bit different than what our students are accustomed to here at BIS, where their language of instruction is English all day except for their Language Classes. All of the testing will be in Indonesian. The Math, Science, Writing and Reading tests are all in Indonesian. This is a great way for these students to test their level of Indonesian as well as their subject specific learning.
Parent Session-ISA Testing Results
The parent session this coming Monday will be postponed until we have received our ISA Testing results. We are still waiting on these results from ISA. As soon as we have those results we will hold an information session to explain how to interpret these results, what we use them for as a school and how we plan to use this test in the future.
IISSAC Swimming
This past weekend we hosted the IISSAC Swimming competition. Coming off our BSSA Swim Championship victory we were very excited to compete against other athletes off the island. Mr. Lennan and Mr. Sutherland put in a great deal of work to organize this event, and it was a fantastic highlight of the BIS School year. Our PTFA did a wonderful job providing refreshments and concessions throughout the event and also being a part of the scoring and marshaling of students. A big thank you to Paul Jones for all of his work with the scoring system. This was a tremendously successful event with a great number of Personal Bests, IISSAC Records and both our Girls and Boys coming in first! IISSAC Events are a great way to establish long term friendships with different students and when we host it allows us to be ambassadors for BIS and Bali. Our kids did a great job and it was wonderful to see the interaction between our older and younger students. Great Job Dragons!
8th Grade Field Trip
Yesterday our grade 8 students traveled to north Bali to work with the planting cycle of rice. The students had been working within Humanities about how ancient civilizations developed agriculture and what tools they used to help with production. The students brought their models of an ancient tool to see how effective it was. A great hands on learning experience.
PTFA Potluck Dinner
This coming Wednesday, May 10th, at 6pm the PTFA will be hosting the PTFA Potluck dinner. This is a nice community event where parents, teachers and community members are able to get together for a nice meal and some socializing. I hope to see you then.
Celebrating Success
It is nearing the end of the school year. At this time of the year we want to pause,reflect and honor all of the hard work and accomplishments of our students. We know that our students shine in many different areas and we want to ensure that we recognize and honor all of our student’s varying skills. The way we honor our students should reflect what we value as a school and a community. We will acknowledge the success of our students in each academic area as well as their Approaches to Learning and willingness to engage and give back to their community. Each subject specific class will give two awards-1 for academic achievement, 1 for growth/improvement. Each grade level will have 1 IB Learner profile award-student who best exemplifies the traits that make up a well rounded and engaged learner. We will also honor our students for their engagement with the community; 2 Community and Action awards for MYP-1 lower MYP, 1 upper MYP- for the student(s) who have best exemplified the spirit of Community Engagement as well as 1 Creativity 1 Action and 1 Service award for grade 11class. These awards highlight what we value as a school, academic growth, engaged learning and a positive and active role within the community. These awards will be given during a school day assembly on the 30th of May.
End of Year Sports Banquet
We will be celebrating our students athletic accomplishments and acknowledging what we have accomplished as a school throughout the whole year. The banquet will take place on the 31st of May. More details will be forthcoming. I look forward to seeing you there.
BSSA Cross Country
On the 17th of May our Cross Country students will competing against the other BSSA schools. This is an opportunity for our runners to showcase all of their hard work and training. It should be a great event.
Thursday Holiday
This coming Thursday is a National Holiday and there will be no school. Enjoy the day.
Thank you for your continued interest and support of BIS and our students.
Kind Regards,
Justin Walsh
secondaryschoolprincipal@
Secondary School Principal
Justin Walsh
Secondary Principal
