Message from the Head of School – March 22, 2019

I have been reflecting on the tragic events which occured in Christchurch NZ last week. I have been following the amazing demonstration of leadership by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern as she, and her country, have wrestled with the aftermath of the event. Prime Minister Ardern is a wonderful example to all leaders of how to react with passion, compassion, respect and determination. An admirable role model for our young girls and women; for all of us. Students in NZ have also demonstrated their grief through the Haka and candle light vigils, a courageous display of solidarity.

The importance of International Schools has not been lost on me as I have read about the different perspectives shared in response to this event. A line from our new school video encaptures my thinking, it says something along these lines – BIS students learn from their diverse peer group and teachers each day, in classrooms, at the lunch tables and in their after school activities. This daily celebration of diversity is a beautiful thing to observe, to take part in and quite frankly is the reason why I love my life’s work so much.

As parents, you have made a decision to choose BIS for your child. Thank you for that trust. We, and I include myself as a parent of three whose children have been educated at international schools, understand the importance of diversity, respect and of living a compassionate life. The values are so important to us, that we have chosen BIS to be the guardian of those values. We, at BIS, take this role seriously and regard incidents of exclusion, of unkind remarks and feelings of superiority to be actionable events. At BIS we charge our teachers and students to own this first: to report, to speak out, to stand up.

I spoke to the whole school today about the importance of advocacy. Our children learn daily how to advocate for their own learning and how to develop passions that will lead to a life of learning. Just this week there were many examples of this: our Grade 10 students presenting their Personal Projects, the Grade 5 students presenting their learning on different ecosystems. Our programme is strong in this area. Today I challenged our student body to advocate for themselves and for their classmates. It is not OK to be a bystander or to allow poor behaviors to continue. In the wake of the Christchurch incident we renewed our commitment to be a caring, respectful, empathetic and compassionate community.

Today we celebrate all that is brilliant about a Bali Island School education. We celebrate our students, our faculty, our community and our commitment to our mission – To engage and empower globally-minded, confident learners to reach their utmost potential in an active, creative and respectful learning community.