Secondary Newsletter No. 9

Dear Secondary Parents,

Today marks the end of a very busy and productive Term 1. I have been very impressed with the quality of learning opportunities students have experienced in the Secondary School both, within and outside the classroom and we look forward to developing this further for the rest of the school year. This newsletter includes some student reflections and photographs from a very successful EOTC week. I wish you and your families a refreshing break over the next week.

Student-Parent-Teacher Conferences

Thank you to all parents who attended the conferences on Thursday. It was wonderful to see the valuable three-way communication happening with a focus on student learning and strategies for success. A reminder to parents that you are welcome to contact teachers by email and/or make an appointment at any time throughout the year. Please provide any feedback for the conferences in this short survey.

CAS Corner – Khrisna Hague – Bali Bath Bombs (EOTC) / Bath bomb making

The original goal for the Grade 11/12 EOTC Salt farming group was to head to Les Village, help the salt farmers farm salt, purchase some salt from them, leave, come back the next year, and repeat the process. Although this method allowed us to help them financially each time we visited, it was by no means sustainable, and seemed almost like we were purchasing their salt out of sympathy. Last year, I didn’t get to go on the EOTC trip to Les Village due to the Mount Agung eruption incident, which was extremely unfortunate. However, the extra time the Salt group gained as a result of not going EOTC last year has allowed us to re-evaluate and devise a new sustainable method in which used during our visit this year. Myself and my fellow Salt group members demonstrated how to initiate and plan a CAS experience by creating a new method which we could integrate into our salt farming for EOTC, to create bath bombs and teach the salt farmers how to make them.

The idea for bath bombs had actually originated from the Grade 11 business project for our Business Management class. The project tasked us to create a new product to sell at the school fair. As I was one the members of the group that created and sold Bath bombs (Bali Bath Bombs), I had the opportunity of witnessing the overwhelming success of the product. During the school fair, we sold out and made 4.6 million rupiah as profit. I demonstrated that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process when I learned to create bath bombs. The most challenging part of the bath bomb making process is that it is extremely meticulous, requiring special attention to the amount of each ingredient used and their humidity during the production process.

The salt farming group have been meeting every Thursday for the past 4 weeks. I demonstrated the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively when we separated our tasks for what we were going to do in EOTC. Some of us, were tasked to create bath bombs during the EOTC and to teach the farmers how to make them. The others have split their tasks to interviewing the farmers, maintaining our EOTC coastline website and more. The separation of tasks has helped me realise how so much more work can be done with the help of others compared to if you had to do it all by yourself. I did a live demonstration on how to create bath bombs during DP hour, where I demonstrated the process of making them, as well as showing the the rest of the salt farming group the ingredients that were needed.

Grade 9 Student EOTC Reflection – written by Dinda and Ralisha

This year during Grade 9 camp, our class travelled to the north-west of Bali where we stayed for 3 nights. Our camp site was located next to Lake Batur which gave us the privilege to see the beautiful view of Mount Batur and Mount Abang.

One of the first locations we visited on the way to our campsite was the Batur Geopark Museum. In this museum, we had the opportunity to learn about volcanoes and the history of Mount Batur. We were also able to see the Mount Batur control room where we saw the tools used to measure the activity of a volcano (seismograph). Another activity we did on the first day was lava cycling. During this activity many students became risk-takers since we had to cycle on a difficult terrain. Although this was a tough activity, it was very rewarding as we got to see the wonderful scenery of the old lava from Mount Batur. The next day, we had the opportunity to climb Mount Batur which was a fun and exciting experience for many of us. After having climbed Mount Batur as a ‘warm up’, the next day we climbed the ridges of Mount Abang which was very challenging and tiring. Finally on the last day before we returned to school, we were rewarded with a white water rafting experience through the Ayung River near Ubud.

Throughout our trip there were moments where things got really challenging. As a class, we thought that one of the most challenging days during this trip was the third day, where we had to climb the ridges of Mount Abang and visit a traditional burial site. Although this was very challenging, everyone was very caring and helpful towards others that needed help. We also thought that visiting the traditional burial site was emotionally tough, as it brought back several memories for some students.

We had this sense of accomplishment after we climbed to the top of Mount Batur, where we enjoyed the view we worked hard to see. We had a sense of pride as we picked up the trash along roads leading up to Mount Abang. We managed to fill our bags with an astronomical amount of plastic before beginning the tough climb up and down the mountain.

Besides the activities that we found exhausting, we found that the most fun part of the trip was the white water rafting towards the end of our EOTC. Other than the activities, we also found that spending time with friends was the most fun part of the trip since we got to develop friendships that we never thought we could make.

This year’s camp has impacted our class greatly. After camp, both of our classes had become closer as a whole and we have all gotten the opportunity to learn more about each other. Through our evening activities such as the compliment game organized by our fantastic teacher supervisors, we learned how to appreciate one another. During camp we took part in team building activities which helped us build new relationships and helped our classes bond.

To finish everything off, we would like to thank our amazing teacher supervisors; Ms. Alborn, Mr. Collins, Mr. Andrews, and Ms. Naina as they were the ones who made sure our huge and crazy class were safe 24/7 and made a memorable and entertaining EOTC.

Upcoming Events

• Wednesday, October 17 – PTA Monthly Meeting
• Monday, October 22 – Term 2 After School Activities commence
• Tuesday, October 23 – BSSA Senior Football
• Wednesday, October 24 – BSSA Junior Football
• Thursday and Friday, October 25 & 26 – IISSAC Soccer Tournament