FRIDAY NEWSLETTER from Secondary – 24th November 2017
Week 16-Balance
It is hard to believe that we are coming closer to the end of the term. Your students have made tremendous progress throughout this semester so far and now comes the time when they have to put all of that learning to use. End of term means a mixture of things; excitement for holidays, anticipation of culminating activities and of course the pressure of assessments. It is important for us to remember that our students feel all of these pulls at the same time and we need to help support them in order to find that balance. DP students in year two will be balancing college applications, Internal IB assessments and their semester exams. Year one DP students will have their first go at the exam period. Our MYP students will be balancing all of the final assessments that will be coming their way.
Year One DP students will have semester exams on the 28th-30th of November. Year Two DP Students will be having exams in specific classes, but not all subjects, most classes are deciding to go with continued course work as the Mock Exams will take place in just a little over a month’s time.
Please help us help your students. Ask them about their upcoming work, ask them about their preparation plan, ask them if they need any support with that plan. Learning how to balance our busy schedules is a lifelong lesson and it is something that we can all help our students see the value of.
End of Semester Reports
The semester reports will be delivered via email once again this year. Reports will go home on Wednesday the 13th of December. These reports will highlight the progress of each student for the entire semester, indicating achievement on the different criteria of each course as well as the progress of each student’s Approaches Towards Learning (ATLs).
The Power of Habits
Today in our assembly we spoke about habits, both positive and negative and they power that they have within our lives. There are some teachers who are looking at this research and seeing how it can be applied in their classrooms. I have just finished reading a book call The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. This books speaks about how we can use habits to help train ourselves towards more positive experiences. Below is a clip that relates to this book and outlines the underlying principle of habits. Please take a look at this clip and speak about it with your children. I would be happy to speak with you further about this topic as well any time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
BIS Reading Comprehension Challenge
Today in our assembly we wrapped up our second session of the BIS Reading Comprehension Challenge. It has been a very close competition thus far, with only 3% points separating 1st from 4th. Our students reading comprehension has steadily increased each week, with a number of students hitting 100% accuracy on the reading questions. The final 3 weeks of the semester we will hold 3 one week competitions, where the winner of each week will receive the free dress day. The final week we will also incorporate the teachers to see how we stack up against our students! Please continue to encourage your children to read at home, ask them questions about what they are reading and engage in conversations around any current events.
Bali Math Competition
This past weekend BIS hosted a Maths competition, where students use their math abilities to problem solve and compete in mathematical computations. This was a student organized event! This weekend was the culmination of a great deal of hard work by some of our math students here at BIS. This competition is also in preparation for the South East Asian Math Competition or SEAMC. I look forward to watching them take on some real life challenging problems and I am thankful that I was not competing against them! Go Dragons!
BSSA Volleyball
This Wednesday we will resume our BSSA Volleyball competition. Our teams have been taking their limited time to practice, teams have met at lunch, after school at the start of their holiday and during breaks. I know that they are excited to have some competition! The BSSA Finals will on the 6th and 7th of December. We will host the seniors finals here at BIS on the 7th. Our PTFA will also be operating a sausage sizzle. I hope to see you there, go Dragons!
PTFA Teacher Appreciation Lunch
This afternoon our PTFA put on a lovely lunch for all of the faculty and staff here at BIS. It was such a lovely event and it really highlights how fortunate we are to have such a supportive partner with the PTFA. The only problem was that it immediately followed American Thanksgiving and I am started to feel a bit over server! Thank you again!
PTFA Monthly Meeting
On December 6th our PTFA will be hosting their monthly meeting at 8am. Please come by to learn about all of the fantastic ways that our PTFA gives back to our school and students and see how you can help this organization.
Thank you for your continued interest and support of BIS and our students.
Kind Regards,
Justin Walsh
secondaryschoolprincipal@
Secondary School Principal
