Opening Message from the Head of School – July 31, 2019
Welcome to School Year 2019-2020 at Bali Island School!
August 5 is just around the corner, and the BIS Leadership team, Administration, New Faculty and Returning Faculty and Staff are all very excited to see you soon.
We have had a busy summer with campus improvements and maintenance efforts. Our seven new faculty have arrived and are settling in well to life in Bali and learning all about BIS. Please welcome them to our community! The Woods have had a new baby and all are healthy and happy! Mr. Blake Ingram will sub for Mrs. Maki Wood until she returns in late September from maternity leave. Ibu Paramitha Dewi, our Kindy ITP has just become a mother and Ibu Putu Mustiari, Bahasa Indonesia teacher, is expecting! Finally, Mr. Josh Field will be having an addition to his family in late August – Congratulations to all!
This is a big year for BIS as we will write our self-study for our accrediting agencies. Your participation really helps to have the process be representative of all stakeholders’ views and insights. Please sign-up to work on a committee over the next few weeks. Your time will be well spent and thoroughly appreciated.
I am excited to pass along our wonderful IB DP results earned by our graduating class.
- 100% pass rate
- 34 point average
- 41 point high score
Congratulations to each of the students, to Mr. Matt Wood our IB DP Coordinator, to Mr. Ross Ferris our Secondary Principal and to our dedicated and caring Faculty Members who provided the conditions for quality learning to occur each and every class!
The BIS Board reinstated a scholarship program last January. We have seven students who are receiving either a BIS Leadership Scholarship, a BIS Academic Scholarship or a Yayasan Scholarship. Congratulations to these students and their families! New scholarship applications for SY20-21 will be due in January of 2020 – please help to spread this program amongst our community.
The Board and I wish to announce the continuation of two Topic Groups: School Governance and School Development. The TGs will meet in early September and continue our work of supporting the school. Please stay tuned to learn how you can assist and be involved.
Thank you for opening your bags for our security officers, being vigilant around campus and always wearing your ID badge. Our security staff underwent a 3-day training this summer which helped us to improve our campus security. Thank you for having the safety of all our community members be your first priority.
In speaking about the importance of safety we know that –
“Without psychological safety our learning is impaired. Trust is critical for high-quality learning.” (Byrk & Schneider, 2002, Tschannen-Moran, 2014)
This quote has stirred our faculty to create a School-Wide Goal this year, to work hard every day to make BIS the safest place for All of our children. While we work on that in our classrooms and fields, we would like to enlist your support for having our greater BIS community become more loving, caring and inclusive. Challenge your child to include all classmates at birthday parties, include new friends on trips to the movies and sleep-overs. Encourage your child to speak about feelings at home with you, the ups and downs of the day, and if an incident happens at school or on the weekend/after school, please share that with the teacher, counselor, and principal so we can take immediate action.
Our goal is to have each child and family walking through our gates feel as if they are walking into their second home–a place of safety, friendship, and high quality learning with high-quality teachers and role models.
See you all soon – Monday at 7:30 a.m. sharp!
Garth