Celebrating our Uniqueness!

August 30, 2017August 30, 2017 Head of School

Dear BIS Community,

As you are no doubt aware, we will be celebrating International Day on Monday, September 4th. Why do we do this on a Monday in September? Because September 3rd (Sunday) is our school’s ‘birthday’ and we want to celebrate this day with each other.

We chose to celebrate our birthday with an International Day event so that we can acknowledge our rich history as the school of choice for international students and to celebrate our collective diversity and cultural identities. During Monday afternoon, we will be dressing in national costumes, marching in our BIS parade, sharing national food dishes and playing traditional games. I hope that you will be able to join us!

This event is possible only with the tremendous support of our parent community as led by the PTFA. All the country tables are manned by parents and all preparation for the afternoon is done by parents. Therefore, I would like to acknowledge and thank all of you who have contributed to making our birthday celebration special.

BIS states that we embody the concept of Internationalism through our values. Therefore, I would ask that we all approach this day modelling our values and being risk-takers (try something new!), inquirers (ask people about their countries / food/games!), open-minded (accepting of each others’ culture identities) and caring. Of course, we can also be great communicators and model all of our other values as well, these are just examples of how we can apply our understanding of internationalism to this event.

I am looking forward to seeing you all on Monday after noon (from 12:30). Here is our schedule for the day:

12:30 – The International Parade will begin the march to the covered court (parents, students and teachers will gather on the primary field at around 12:15 dressed in cultural clothes).
12:50 – I will address the whole community on the covered courts.
13:00 – Everyone will be dismissed from the covered court so that they can visit the International Stalls that have been prepared by parents on the main field.
14:30 – All students and teachers will return to homerooms so that we can dismiss as usual.
14:45 – Secondary students and families with primary aged students may return to the International Day celebration if they wish until it officially finishes at 15:30.

I hope that you are able to come and celebrate with us!

Best regards,

Denise Walsh

Head of School