Primary eNews – September 20, 2019
Parents are asked to view upcoming events on the BIS Events Calendar
Parent Information Session on Supporting Your Child with Reading and Writing at Home
Jackie Wyncol, our Learning Support and EAL Teacher will lead a parent information session on Supporting Your Child with Reading and Writing at Home from 8:00 – 8:45am on Monday 23rd February in the Library. This will be a great chance for parents to get some ideas, ask questions and also share things that work for them with other families.
Three Way Conferences
We will host Primary Three Way Conferences (teacher, student and parents) on Thursday 3rd October 2019. This will be a regular school day for the primary students with our Indonesian Teaching Partners (ITPs) leading lessons when the homeroom teachers are involved with the Three Way Conferences. We arrange for all parents to meet with homeroom teachers on this day and also have limited appointments scheduled for parents who want to speak with Indonesian language, music and PE teachers.
Please see the information letter that was emailed to all families yesterday for further information and also details of how to book using our online booking system, PTC Fast.
What’s Been Happening in the Primary School Recently
Below is a summary of some of the fantastic learning that has been taking place across the school in recent weeks. Teachers post many of these things on their class blogs but by sharing them on the eNews, it gives families a chance to see what is happening in other grade levels.
Grade 3’s Artistic Journey!
As part of our Unit of Inquiry about How We Express Ourselves, the Grade 3 students visited Kevala Ceramics Studio and Sanur Jewellery Studio to experience hands-on the creative process. The students split into two smaller groups and swapped half way during the day, after sharing lunch together at SJS. Here are our top 5 favourite experiences of the day!
- Using the pottery wheel to create our own bowl.
- Mixing resin colours and pouring it into moulds.
- Admiring the beauty of the resin after it hardened and seeing how it had changed.
- Painting ceramic bowls and trying ‘scgraffito’ for the first time!
- POPCORN! To snack on at Kevala and to pat at SJS (Popcorn is a doggy).
Grade 3 Students highly recommend having a go at these great studios and express yourself through the arts!
Grade 4 Camp
One of the benefits of participating in the Grade 4 camp is service as action: learning by doing and experience that students engage in over the two days. This year’s camp focussed on self-awareness, team building and developing a deeper understanding of the attributes of the Learner Profile. Their experience began with a range of team games and activities, identifying tasks and assuming roles and responsibilities within a group. Tents were assembled, quickly morphing into personal spaces for quiet time, snacks and of course sleeping.
Students engaged in a rainforest trek, trudging, not too quietly, among the new undergrowth of the Bedugul area. The trek sparked curiosity as students learnt how to identify trees and shrubs that could help and harm us.
Transporting seeds on our clothing fascinated most of Grade 4 and was a perfect prompt for our inquiry into hydroponics. Students found out about different types of hydroponic systems, visited the nursery, fish farm and worked in small groups to construct their own seedling pots. Grade 4 is excited to consider ways in which we can take action by sharing our knowledge with the community in the future.
A highlight of any camping trip is the campfire and marshmallows, which we indulged in happily before retiring for the night. Early and not so bright (the moon was still up) on the morning of Day 2, campers began to rise. Tents were disassembled and our belongings gathered before making our way to Treetops Adventure Park: ropes and climbing course. Students demonstrated commitment and perseverance as they were personally challenged.
Some takeaways from students as they reflected on their experiences. We:
- Developed strategies to solve problems
- Followed instructions to assemble tents
- Inquired into hydroponic gardening
- Overcame challenges when bushwalking and climbing
- Were open-minded when discovering new foods
- Enjoyed the company of others
- Discovered the importance of working as a group
Enthusiasm and involvement over the two days by the students was boundless, needless to say, it was a quiet bus ride back to school at the end of camp! Well done, Campers!
BSSA Soccer
Last week, The 9 – 10 and 11 – 12 boys teams their games at Dyatmika. It was great to see all players respecting one another and showing excellent sportsmanship. The mini soccer stars took to the field on Thursday and played 4-5 games per team, with each game lasting 6 minutes. Well done to all players.
A Special mention goes out to the boys B team in the 9-10 age group who went on to play in the final at CCS on Wednesday the 18th of September. The game was a thriller, ending in 0-0 tie. The result was a penalty shoot out, which also resulted in a tie at 2 a piece. Both teams then allowed all players to each take a penalty shot, which went the way of CCS, who blocked our final attempt to score. Congratulations to: James Woods, Lael, Ronan, Alex, Jun, Kai and Angus who played exceptionally well on a much bigger field in the heat of the day.
The 9 – 10 Girls Soccer Team participated in the finals at Dyatmika on Wednesday afternoon. Our team played very well but lost their semi final to Canggu Community School on a penalty shootout after drawing the main game 1 – 1. The girls showed enthusiasm and wonderful team work throughout the game with our goal being scored by Sienna. The full team is Cristina, Seo Yeon, Tahlia, Ella, Olivia, Sienna and Milagro.
CIS / WASC / IB Self Study
Thank you to the parents for supporting our Council of International School (CIS) /Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) / International Baccalaureate (IB) self study work by joining the self study groups and by collecting your children early once per month. We have made very good use of the long blocks available as we have been looking critically at the IB Standards and Practices related to the Primary Years Programme (PYP) Curriculum. Our focus for our first two session has been collaborative planning which is an integral part of the PYP and our written curriculum. Our work includes identifying strengths in our curriculum and practice, selecting evidence that we will share with the school evaluators when they visit next year and also identifying actions that will further strengthen our programmes.
One action that we have already put in place after our first Self Study meeting was to restructure our collaborative planning so all teachers who work on a grade level – homeroom teacher, Music, Indonesian, PE, Student Support and me, in my role as PYP Coordinator can have additional quality time to work together to plan our units of inquiry with the aim of increasing student learning and engagement.
