Secondary Newsletter No. 19
Dear Parents,
The first week back has ran smoothly with students and teachers being productive and engaged in learning. All Grade 6-8 (and some G9&10) students have been using their new Student Planners to organise their homework and assessment tasks. Please ensure you sign these planners each week and check in with your child to see if they have completed set tasks on time. Please feel free to communicate with teachers with a short note at any stage. Our students already appear to be managing their time more effectively and this will be an ongoing focus. We spoke with Homeroom teachers this week about increasing their role as mentors for students in their homerooms. Each week, homeroom teachers will be checking with individual students about their holistic welfare. They will be discussing areas such as academic progress, relationships, coping with stress and their general well-being. We are hopeful this will provide another layer of support for your child/ren.
– Ross Ferris (Secondary Principal)
Mobile Phones
A reminder that Secondary students are allowed to bring their phones to school but these should be switched off before the start of the school day and turned back on after the last class. Please ensure your child is clear about this expectation as outlined in the Student-Parent Handbook, p.10.
Counselor’s Corner
Grade 11 Parent Session
College Applications-Getting Started: Monday, January 14th, 8-9am in Library.
College Counselor, Rachael Gerbic will host a Grade 11 parent session covering the university selection and application process and the timeline for completing each part of the application depending on the country system. We will also look at the features of BridgeU, our university search and application platform.
BIS Career Day– January 24th
We will host our annual Career Day at BIS on Thursday, January 24th from 7:45-10:00. We are excited to welcome over 20 professionals to our campus on eight different career cluster panels. The day will begin with a keynote address by speaker, author, and human rights advocate, Christine Bader. Students in Grades 6-12 will attend and are asked to come in professional attire on that day (slacks and collared shirts for girls and boys).
As a lead up to the day, students will complete a survey to rank the two career panels they would like to attend. Priority will be given to the older students, starting with Grade 12.
Students are also asked to access the Careers Tool on our university and career search platform, BridgeU (students have received an email for this and can log in using their ManageBac passwords) to research three careers that interest them and save these as a PDF. Career research results will be discussed in homerooms during the week leading up to Career Day.
We look forward to a successful and educational event for our students and the opportunity to inspire our young leaders of tomorrow!
– Rachael Gerbic (Counselor)
MYP Corner
A big welcome back to all MYP students from break. For any students that return from the holiday late, it is their responsibility to catch up on any missed work. Homework can usually be found on Google Classroom.
Student Planners
All students from Grades 6-8 have been issued with mandatory diaries which must be bought to all classes (Grades 9-10 students can also request one). The purpose of the diaries is to help students organise and manage their work. All homework has to be recorded by the student in the appropriate spaces including stating the due date. Parents are requested to be active in their child’s learning by checking and signing the diary each week to ensure that not only homework is recorded and completed but to also look for any comments written by subject teachers. Parents and homeroom teachers are requested to sign S weekly will do the same. This i student’s time management.
Service as Action
This will start up again next Thursday and will continue each week thereafter. This week all students will be asked to sign up to an activity for the semester. The purpose of this program is for students to be more proactive in reaching out and helping the community in a variety of direct and indirect ways. There are many wonderful initiatives being undertaken, many started by students themselves. Our hope is for this program to snowball as we add more and more initiatives over time. If parents would like to become involved please see myself, Gary Brown (CAS coordinator) or speak to Samantha (Head of the PTA) for any ideas you may have. Please see the list of activities being run this semester.
– Michele McLay (MYP Coordinator)
Library News
This week the BIS Library received our first new book order of 2019. There are about 50 books in this shipment (from a supplier in Jakarta) covering most genres; fiction, nonfiction, graphic novels/comics, primary, secondary and even some adult. This was only 50% of the total order, as the supplier has been dealing with shortages and out of stocks from their supplier. This is a relatively common occurrence in purchasing/supplying however, and this is a reliable partner of ours who has assured me the rest will be coming in short order.
This BIS Library is always open to requests for specific titles; we keep a running list of such things, and when we go to make an order, we transfer those titles to our “ask” list to our supplier (either by specific title or general subject), and about 85% of the time they can procure exactly what we are looking for. We generally use two suppliers; one has very large catalog offerings from the top publishers in the world and can get both recent bestsellers and classics. However, this publisher generally does not do specific requests; they have good education offerings but it is picking from their list of tens of thousands of books. The other partner we have is more for specific titles we want. So, using both sources, we can cover both what we want for leisure reading and what we need to support the curriculum. Both have their main hub of operations domestically, which takes a lot of the stress and uncertainty relating to customs out of the equation.
The biggest challenge (besides budgetary constraints, which is always an issue no matter what continent a school of any size is on) is to balance the requirements and needs of the content and curriculum with what students (and teachers/parents) prefer as far as “fun” reading. Last year the library staff went through every grade in ManageBac and recorded every topic that is taught at BIS (this comprehensive yet not necessarily aesthetically-pleasing document is available to anyone who would like to see it). Then, we cross-referenced those topics with what we currently have on campus, both in print and what can be found in our digital databases. The next step was to decide which topics were lacking and would learning be “enhanced” through new purchases. This process has to be divided by school years, since it is not realistic to procure all of these needs in one year. Last year we focused on the PYP and some of the MYP grades; this year we are focusing on DP and the other MYPs with some supplemental PYP materials too. Once those curriculum topics have been identified, we “splice in” the best leisure reading offerings of the year (plus older books that we know are needed in a library) to come up with a fair mix. And then we start all over again.
– Mr. Marshall (Head Librarian)
CAS Corner
By Lanang Tarkan Bilen (Muay Thai)
I was able to continue with my training again, Muay Thai and boxing. Today’s training mainly focused on combo skills and in-game fights such as padding work with a set timer. This was to allow myself to adapt to the conditions faced inside the ring.
Today’s training highlighted my strengths as a Muay Thai and boxing athlete. I showed progress and growth as an individual to both sports since the first time I joined. With today’s padded work I showed strengths in my technique as a boxer, being able to punch straight using my hip and body momentum to hit jabs and strike. I was also able to apply this to my Muay Thai, however, with Muay Thai I mainly developed my kick, where my kick is one of the best traits I have from Muay Thai.
However, I was able to ask questions from my coach, my feedback was to add more spin into the kick by planting the first foot near and twisted outwards which will then set my body frame to naturally twist my hips and allow for a stronger kick. These were my areas of strength and growth during today’s training workout.
– Lanang Tarkan Bilen (Grade 11)
Music News
The BIS Music Academy (individual lessons after school) is essentially a private tuition program where students meet with highly qualified instructors in the soundproof studios attached to the secondary music room.
Options for lessons include study in flute, clarinet, trumpet, trombone, violin, viola, cello, guitar, piano, bass, drums, and singing.
The studios are equipped with drum kits, amplifiers and electric pianos and one upright and a baby grand are located in the main rooms. Above all, the most valuable resource of the BIS Music Academy is the group of talented and dedicated tutors.
Click here for more information and/or email me (eandrews@baliis.net) for any further assistance in contacting tutors and setting up lessons.
– Edward Andrews – Secondary Music