Secondary Newsletter 7 – September 13, 2019
Dear Parents,
There has been plenty happening in the Secondary School this week with twelve of our MYP students returning from the World Scholar’s Cup on Thursday evening carrying many awards and medals in their luggage. They represented the school with distinction and were very well looked after by Mrs. MacDonald and Mrs. Erickson. Many of our students are currently involved in BSSA Football competitions and there a number of Arts department activities and performances being developed. This coming Thursday, students will finish at 12 pm as teachers will be involved in completing the IB Self-Study during the afternoon. A reminder that we will have 3-Way Conferences on Thursday, October 3 after Term 1 Progress Reports are issued on October 2. Details on how to sign up for these conferences will come out shortly.
- Ross Ferris (Secondary Principal)
World Scholars
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, photographers from a new company “Only Mono” will directly assist the school with collecting the completed order forms and payments and will share the link to access your child’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 photo order form has been handed to students today.
Kahoot Kicks Off
Secondary has begun our weekly “Kahoot” (that is the name of the website/app used) reading comprehension/literacy activities. Taking place over approximately 30 weeks throughout the school year in homeroom, the activity pits grade levels against each other in a literacy activity competition focused on critical thinking and inference. Students will read different reading level articles based on their grade level, though all grades will read short articles on the same topic.
Already in its second week, secondary students have already shown marked improvement and success, with six grade levels improving on last week’s score (and one grade, 7B, going from a 100% last week “down” to 95% this week).
We encourage parents to ask their children about the weekly Kahoot articles, as the topics are eclectic and far ranging (and also feature different types of reading materials, from standard text to infographics to monologues, technical directions, famous documents and much, much more). Also please remind your students to re-read the articles ahead of their weekly Thursday quizzes. We hope this activity not only strengthens students’ reading comprehension (it has proven to be helpful in doing so over the last two years via ISA test scores), but exposes them to interesting world events, news and people that could spark further personal exploration. Please see Mr. Marshall in the Library with any questions or to find out more.
- NoahJon Marshall (Head Librarian)
CAS Corner – Sasha Moore Grade 12
28th August 2019 
Our first dive was an observational dive to look at the progress and improvement of last year’s actions. The current was quite strong so we did not dive for too long. We had a look at our previous coral structures and determined whether more coral grew on it. It had successfully done and we plan on discussing how we want to continue this before our next dive. Additionally, we took pictures and videos of all the coral to compare to the pictures to last year.
Before our second dive, Pak Gery gave us a presentation about the science behind corals and gave us an insight on our impact, this is significant because it relates to our subjects of biology and environmental systems and societies. This will help us to create links to our CAS and our school subjects. Working collaboratively with our diving guides on our second dive, we took baby corals and placed them on larger structures amongst other coral. This allowed us to see the effect of a coral reef being rebuilt by our efforts. These dives helped us understand in what ways we could further extend our influence on Les Village sea communities and to rehabilitate this endangered biological ecosystem.
Overall, after doing these first 2 dives we were able to initiate plans and effectively follow through with them. Additionally, we considered the ethics of working with coral as we needed to be extra careful of placing the baby coral onto the structures, just in case we did not break the surrounding coral. Lastly, we demonstrated our collaborative skills by always staying with my buddy and making sure that we stayed in a group. We also communicated effectively with each other even underwater, and able to work together efficiently.
Parent Session BIS Sports 2019/20
Join us this Monday from 8-9 am in the Library for an overview of the BIS Sporting programs and philosophy including information for PE, BSSA and IISSAC Sports.
BIS Music Academy
We are very lucky to have a fantastic after school instrumental and vocal program here at Bali International School. The facilities are magnificent (main room with grand piano and 4 smaller practice studios) and the tutors are excellent musicians and teachers.
Students can take lessons in guitar, bass, drums, piano, singing, violin, flute, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, trombone, and even more. We also have instruments available for hire.
Please click here for information regarding the features of the program and how to access it. Also, feel free to email me (eandrews@baliis.net) to discuss your child’s options.
- Edward Andrews (Secondary Music)