FRIDAY NEWSLETTER from Secondary – 29th Sept 2017
Week 8-Giving Back
It has been lovely to see so many students willing to give back and help out during Bali’s time of need. There has been a tremendous amount of support provided by each homeroom within the Secondary School. Mr. Delhommeau has set up collection points and volunteering activities for the camps located around Sanur. He has provided our students with many varied ways to give back to their community. I encourage you to ask your student how they are getting involved.
Parent/Teacher Conferences
Parent/Teacher Conferences are a perfect opportunity to work as a team towards the educational growth of our students. The more that we are able to share information, provide feedback and support the better able we are to help our students reach their potential.
We will be having Parent/Teacher Conferences on Thursday, October 5th from 1pm-6pm in the Multi Purpose Room. Students will be dismissed from school at 12:30 on that day and any Secondary ASA will not be able to run as our teachers will be meeting with you, the parents. Please make sure that your student has been picked up from school as there will be no way to supervise the students and our library is undergoing construction. Students are welcomed to come to their conferences, but they must arrive with their parent. To help facilitate our sign-up process, parents have been given the ability to electronically set-up a conference time instead of having to come in, line up, and see if a teacher will be available to meet. We ask that parents and students prioritize the teachers they would like to meet with, as schedules will fill very quickly.
We have just finished our first month of our Reading Comprehension challenge. Our students have been given different reading selections each Thursday and have been answering comprehension questions via a Kahoot Quiz. Each grade level has seen tremendous growth from the beginning of the month up till now. Next week we will announce our winner and celebrate some individual student growth as well. This is an ongoing initiative designed to help our students engage with a variety of text types and improve their ability to decipher meaning from those texts. Keep Reading!
Student Safety
Wednesday afternoon I sent an email outlining our procedure should we be forced to evacuate campus for any reason. Below is the text from that email as well as the Google Form that we are using to collect parent contact details to help with pickup in case of an evacuation
- PA Announcement asking all students to return to homeroom
- Campus is closed by guards
- Teachers take attendance and relay attention to the Secondary Office
- Parents are informed via SMS/Email
- Parents need to come to homeroom to pick up their student/teachers mark off students as they leave campus
- Designated adult(with written confirmation beforehand) can also pick up a student
- Head of school will send confirmation SMS/Email stating reopening of campus procedure
- Teachers will have materials/procedure ready for continuation of learning outside of school
- School Administration will reconvene to determine next steps and communicate with staff and school community
Thank you for your continued support of BIS. I am including a Google Form that will help up with parent pick up in the case of evacuation. Please take a few minutes to complete this form, this information will help us ensure a smooth exit from campus in case of an emergency. Contact details will only be shared within the school offices.
Contact Details for Evacuation Form
Focus on Learning
As we come to the end of the term our students are putting a great deal of effort into their culminating activities. This is a time of the year when we are able to really get a good look at where our students are, what they still need to do and how we can help them. Please take some time this weekend to ask your student what things they have coming up in school. I think you will be surprised at all they are doing and I know that they will appreciate the support and encouragement.
Communicating Learning
At the end of our term parents will be sent the end of term reports. It is our hope that there is nothing in these reports that comes as a surprise. The more we communicate the better we can support. It is also important to remember that these reports are simply a progress report. This is an indication of where your student is right now, not who they are forever. We continue to foster growth and these reports, with the emphasis on work habits and developmental comments, are a reminder of that growth mindset we are looking to develop for all of our students. Thank you again for your continued interest and support of your students growth and learning here at BIS
PTFA Meeting This Wednesday at 7:50
This Wednesday there will be a PTFA Meeting on Campus. I encourage you to attend to learn about all of the wonderful things that our PTFA is doing to support BIS and our students. This is a great way to get involved with our school community.
Thank you for your continued interest and support of BIS and our students.
Kind Regards,
Justin Walsh
secondaryschoolprincipal@balii
Secondary School Principal
