Secondary Newsletter No. 12

Dear Secondary Parents,

Spirit Week has brought many smiles to the faces of the BIS community and I thank the parents who joined in and supported the themes and activities throughout the week. There are many things happening at the moment with staff busily preparing for the Indonesian evaluation visit which will occur on Wednesday 7th and Thursday 8th of November.

Model United Nations (MUN)

BIS had 24 students participating in the 7th Annual Model United Nations (MUN) Conference on Friday November 2nd and Saturday, November 3rd at the Sanur Prime Plaza Hotel. MUN is a simulation of an actual session of the United Nations General Assembly. Each delegate is assigned a country that he or she will represent. Each delegate makes an opening speech. They then collaborate with delegates from countries who share similar positions on a given issue in writing a resolution. A resolution is a proposed solution to an issue of international concern, such as human trafficking or rising sea levels. Most of the conference is devoted to debating the merits and practicalities of the resolutions that are being put forward. With the exception of the Security Council, passage of the resolution requires a majority of the countries to vote in favour of it. Thank you to Mr. Marshall and Mr. Knudson for assisting the students in this very rewarding experience.

IISSAC Football

BIS students performed extremely well in the IISSAC tournament last weekend. The girls team showed great teamwork and were undefeated before finishing runners up in the final. The boys team were very well-drilled and showed great skill and teamwork throughout the tournament which they deservedly won with a great showing in the final. These student did BIS proud in the way they conducted themselves and sportsmanship and humility they demonstrated throughout. Thank you to the many parents who supported the teams and a huge thank you to the parents who worked tirelessly cooking food and preparing refreshments to keep us all well-nourished throughout the weekend. Thank you to the coaches and to Mr. Sutherland for his wonderful organisation of such a big event which ran extremely smoothly.

Extended Essay

The extended essay (EE) is an independent, self-directed piece of research, finishing with a 4,000-word paper. The EE provides a very rich learning experience for the students, not just in the content they choose to explore, but also in the development of ATL skills which will prepare them very well for university/college. This component is one which separates IB students from students from other educational systems. The Grade 12 students submitted their final Extended Essay on Thursday afternoon and did a short presentation on what their topic was, what they enjoyed, what they struggled with and, finally, they gave one piece of advice each to the Grade 11 students. This is a major milestone for Grade 12 and they now can fully focus on the other components of the programme. Congratulations, Grade 12!

Mathematics Update

BIS will host the Bali Mathematics Competition on Saturday, November 10. This is an annual event that our DP students organise as a CAS experience. This year, there are 120 participants from 8 schools. This is 50 more than last year and the biggest number of participants ever. The BIS SEAMC team (nine students) is going to Ho Chi Minh City on March 1 – 3, 2019. This is an International Mathematics Competition in South East Asia. This week, there were approximately 25 students who accessed the after school Mathematics support being offered by our Maths teachers. It is great to see students taking up this opportunity and I appreciate parents also supporting this initiative.

Teacher Professional Development Days

There will be no school for students on November 8 and 9 as teachers will be involved in some professional development work. Below is a list of what will be covered during these very busy two days:

• MYP Developing Interdisciplinary Units
• Work on Mathematics, Science, Individuals and Societies, Physical and Health Education, Arts and Design Scope and Sequence documents.
• Standardising assessment and developing authentic tasks
• Introducing new BIS Assessment Policy
• DevelopingLanguage and SEN academic policies.

MYP Service as Action Update

This is the MYP Service as Action Handbook. Teachers had a workshop with the MYP Coordinator on Tuesday, October 30 and students had a presentation and sign up on Thursday, November 2 during MYP Hour. Mr. Brown (CAS) and Ms. McLay are working hard to put together an impressive array of opportunities for students to be involved in.

CAS Corner

Taman Bacaan Reading Buddies – Putri Arthana Grade 12

CAS Learning Outcome – Working collaboratively with others

Taman Bacaan Reading Buddies is an after school activity where we improve upon the teaching material from previous English teaching groups by working together. We make the learning as interactive and engaging as possible and we decided that it was best that we split up into two groups so everyone would be able to be a part of the activity. We had people who could speak fluent Indonesian in each group and we shared some ideas on how the lessons could be as creative and engaging as possible. The people who couldn’t speak Indonesian were still able to help by being involved in the activities or coming up with some games that we could teach. Additionally, we also worked collaboratively with Garri and our supervisor in order to organise these lessons for the local people. We planned everyone’s roles and what was going to happen on that day of teaching.

Upcoming Events

November 5 – Secondary Classroom Parent Representatives Coffee with Secondary Principal
November 6 – BSSA Boys Football Finals
November 7&8 – Indonesian Evaluation Visit for Grades 10-12
November 8&9 – Teacher Professional Development Days – No school for students
November 15 – Fine Arts Exhibition