Secondary Newsletter 6 – September 6th, 2019
Dear Parents,
This week saw twelve students and two teachers travel to Manilla for the World Scholar’s Cup. We had BSSA football being played and on Friday we celebrated International Literacy Day with all of our students, teachers and plenty of parents meeting on the Primary Field for 30 minutes of quiet reading.
School Photographs
Please note that our annual school photographs for SY 2019/20 will be taken on September 16-17th. The Secondary School will have the photos taken on Monday 16th, and Primary on Tuesday 17th for all individual photos. All class group photos will be held on January 30th, 2020. Please ensure that your children are in a clean uniform with the BIS white polo shirt for MYP and a collared shirt for DP.
The printed products of a child’s individual, group or sibling photos can only be ordered on the days of the photoshoot. This year a new company and photographers from “Only Mono” will directly assist the school with collecting the completed order forms and payments and will share the link to access your children’s soft copy files. During the days when photos are taken, there will be Only Mono staff at the Library to collect orders and money. If parents want to see the sample and quality of the products, please see Ibu Indira at Reception. The order form will be handed to students next week.
Music in Classes
I understand there was some concern raised at the parent information session regarding students listening to music whilst learning in classes in the Secondary School. The school does not have an official policy regarding this but below are the expectations which were reiterated with teachers during a meeting this week:
- Teachers will use their professional judgment to decide if and when listening to music is allowed in their class and whether that will support or impede students’ ability to achieve the desired learning outcomes of the lesson.
- Teachers are expected to actively monitor student engagement in learning activities during classes. It is not acceptable for students to be performing searches for music on sites such as YouTube during class time.
- If a parent is concerned about their child listening to music in class they are encouraged to email the relevant teachers directly to request that this does not happen.
Mr. Ferris
International Literacy Day 
The following is from https://www.un.org/en/events/literacyday/.
International Literacy Day, celebrated annually on 8 September, is an opportunity for Governments, civil society and stakeholders to highlight improvements in world literacy rates, and reflect on the world’s remaining literacy challenges. The issue of literacy is a key component of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, adopted by world leaders in September 2015, promotes, as part of its agenda, universal access to quality education and learning opportunities throughout people’s lives. Sustainable Development Goal 4 has as one of its targets ensuring all young people achieve literacy and numeracy and that adults who lack these skills are given the opportunity to acquire them.
World Scholar’s Cup
Our 12 students have embarked on an adventure Wednesday night! We are travelling to Manila, Philippines for the Global Round of World Scholar’s Cup. Students will experience scavenger hunts, keynote speeches, panel discussions, the Scholar’s Ball, and, of course, all the competitive and community-building events that students competed in the Bali Regional World Scholar’s Cup: Debates, Collaborative Writing, Scholars Bowl, Scholar’s Challenge. It’s going to be an amazing experience!
CAS Corner
by Tarkan Bilen (Grade 12)
EOTC Day 1; 27th, August 2019
Introduction:
First started with orientation with the local community. We engaged with the locals by speaking the native language (Indonesian). Followed through we discussed our roles and tasks for the next 4 days. Today was broken down into debris collection and a climate change project to increase our awareness. I am part of the salt farming group and will be working with the locals to make the salt and I am also apart of the waste management group which is in charge of collecting plastic waste around the local village. My aim for today is to engage with the locals and to demonstrate an awareness of global significance whilst considering my ethics of actions.
Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions:
There were lots of programs and activities today which allowed me to demonstrate my ethical choices of action. An example is through engaging with the local community and discussing the issue of plastic waste and the negative impacts on the local community. Moreover, my salt farming group briefly discussed the business projects our previous school year has come up with, during their business class. We hope to encourage and influence the locals and help sustain a long-lasting cycle to improve the local community. Another example of ethical actions is by physically picking up trash from the seashore. This task was set to collect data for a university that is currently investigating plastic consumptions. The trash and especially plastic is reused and turned into art or sold to gain profit.
Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance:
One main activity which highlighted the aspect of issues regarding global significance is the research to further develop my understandings of climate change. This activity allowed me to engage with my peers and discuss the following topic. We discussed all the impacts climate change has contributed towards our local society (mainly Bali and Indonesia). From here we also developed our understanding of the global issue by finding solutions that we could incorporate into our daily lives; eg. School; transitioning to soft copies, home; reduce energy or revert to renewable energy and lastly our community; reducing carbon emissions by cycling or walking. This was developing my main understanding of issues regarding global significance. An example of physical activity would be collecting debris around the seashore and reusing and selling the debris to gain profit for the local community.
