Secondary Newsletter 21 – January 10, 2020
Welcome Back 
It was great to see everyone again after our break. A reminder to parents to please book holidays around the school calendar so students can return for the start of each term. Congratulations to the Grade 7 students who presented their I&S anthropology unit in the Library on Wednesday. This was a great exhibition of student inquiry and the approaches to learning skills of research, communication and transfer.
Ross Ferris – Secondary Principal
Lunar New Year Celebration
The Kepada Youth Dance Troupe will be performing a Lunar New Year Dragon & Lion Dance from 11:15 – 12:00pm on Thursday 23rd January on the covered court. All members of the school community are invited to join us for this celebration. Students are encouraged to wear traditional dress (Chinese, Taiwanese, Hong Kong, Singaporean, Korean, Vietnamese) or something red which is a colour traditionally associated with Lunar New Year.
Connecting Parents and teens
You might find this helpful, a website I discovered whilst researching Social Emotional Learning this week https://www.parenteenconnect.org/.
CAS Corner
by Malikha Aryatantra
Student Council STUCO
On the 1st of November, STUCO has organized its second spirit day for this year called “Spooky Day.” The central idea of this activity was to promote school spirit and encourage students to bring out their creative side. We held lunch activities such as dodgeball in costumes, musical chairs, and face painting, where we also involved the primary students.
We also encouraged the secondary to dress up with a homeroom competition, and this time the winner was Grade 10B.
This spirit day was a success, we were really happy seeing everyone dressed up and compare to our previous spirit day “Literacy Day”, for sure we would able to see some increase in school spirit.
During the planning stage, I faced a few challenges. Individually, I was able to find areas for growth. When organizing an event, decision-making skills were needed in every single moment. Since I am the president, although we listened to others’ ideas. in the end, in many situations, I had to make the final decision. This was really tough for me to do because I am very indecisive. Especially because in past years, I was never in a position where I have to be the one who is responsible to make the final decision, it was really new for me, becoming the “lead” of the group. Risk-taking was needed, I really had to be a thinker to not make a decision that is not efficient and that satisfies the group. Not only taking the lead of the group, but I also reassured that the president really has to know what we want to achieve clear, think through all the processes, in order to be on the right track.
I am really satisfied with the result and reaction we got from Spooky day. Since one of our main goals for this year was to build up school spirit, it was really nice to see people being enthusiastic to be involved in the activities we have prepared. We are hoping to organize more variety of events in the future that can entertain the students and also the teachers in order to create a positive atmosphere.
1st Issue of the BIS Primary Newspaper “Small Talk”
We are happy to announce the publication of the inaugural issue of Small Talk, the first BIS Primary school newspaper. Even if you are not a student or parent in the Primary school itself, we invite you to learn about some of the comings and goings occurring down with the younger learners in our school community. We absolutely promise it’s not boring.
Highlights of our first 27-page issue include….
-a behind the scenes look at the upcoming Primary school theatrical production “Thank You for the Music” including why it has been delayed ’till 2020
-a passionate and persuasive plea to start school later in the day
-the hi$tory of Minecraft through the eyes of James Eddy, Grade 5 tech expert
-what our primary journalists believe was the most important word of 2019
-why Mr. Marshall disappointed 2nd grader Oscar on Halloween
-who was forced to join Small Talk against their free will
-what are the best things to protest and why
And much more! Small Talk is a new ASA in the Primary school and is advised by Mr. Marshall and Ms. Wighton.
BIS Music Academy
Individual music lessons will commence for semester 2 next week.
For those who may not be familiar with the BIS Music Academy, please click here to view the various features the has to offer.
Also, feel free to email me (eandrews@baliis.net) to discuss your child’s options.