Secondary Newsletter 22 – January 17, 2020
Principal’s message
ISA Testing
CAS Corner
MYP Corner
Indonesian Studies – Balinese Ceremony Offerings
Principal’s Message
We have had a number of new students and parents arrive into the Secondary School in recent times and it pleases me to see them embraced and welcomed by our community. We are receiving interest from further families and hope to continue to add to our enrolment throughout the school moving forward.
A reminder that Careers Day is next Monday, January 20 commencing at 745 and concluding at 10 am. Ibu Rachael and Ibu Indra have done a great job in assembling a really interesting and diverse group of panelists to share their professional journeys. Please see the College and Career Counselor’s Corner for more information.
A reminder that The Kepada Youth Dance Troupe will be performing a Lunar New Year Dragon & Lion Dance from 11:15 – 12:00 pm 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. Students will leave school at 12pm on this day as the teachers will be continuing with the Self-Study for IB/CIS/WASC evaluation. January 24 is a Lunar New Year Holiday.
Ross Ferris – Secondary Principal
International Schools’ Assessment (ISA) Testing
ISA testing will take place for Grade 3-10 students on the mornings of February 11 and 12. These tests include Writing, Reading, Mathematical literacy and Scientific literacy(Grades 7-10 only). Please ensure your child/ren attend on these days as this data provides us with specific information which is used to evaluate many aspects of our curriculum and of how our students are performing compared to students in other ‘like schools’ around the world. You will receive a report once the results have been shared with the school. Secondary students will do a morning of trial testing on Wednesday, February 5 to ensure they are clear on the process and the types of questions they will be asked. A letter will be sent out to parents with more detail about this before the end of January.
CAS Corner by Anastasia Basuki
Reflecting on 2019
Pet Guardians was well-received by the BIS community and are off to a brilliant start. The arrangement of a bake-sale as a fundraising event for one of our goals which entails the fulfillment of local animal-welfare organization BAWA’s wishlist, proved a success – an endeavour that have worked otherwise without the assistance and cooperation of our MYP members. The bake-sale, hosted on 10 December, 2019, raised a total of IDR 1,156,000. We will hopefully discuss and create a formal purchasing list in our next meeting (16 Jan. 2020).
To further reflect on the overall execution of the fundraising event, I would like to acknowledge the main challenges faced. First, on the first break time bake-sale session, we found ourselves lacking small change and this greatly hindered our ability to accept larger notes, thus our temporary fix was to create a billing list – those who did not have small money are allowed to purchase items, but will be listed and billed when we have accrued enough change. The second challenge would be the minor blips in establishing the prices of our products; we had collectively created a price-list prior to the event, however, it seemed that there were a number of our members who were not up to date with what we set, which led to a few moments of confusion on the day of the bake-sale. Regardless, after a short briefing following the closing of our first session, the group managed to handle the next sales well.
Presently, I have contacted BAWA representatives for specific items that are urgently needed and would make for a meaningful donation. They replied with the following list:
- XS and S sized collars
- Whiskas Jr. brand food pouches
- Canned dog food
- Blankets
- Dog mattresses
- Cat toys & cat tree/scratching post
- Rope toys & plush toys
In regards to our additional goal of organizing trips for BIS students to visit and directly engage with animals in local rescue communities, I received word that our arranged trip to Villa Kitty, was thoroughly enjoyed by the members of Pet Guardians who had joined the trip. This is certainly wonderful news, and looking back at its success, I hope to plan more excursions that are of similar nature.
Grade 10 Personal Project
This is almost over! Students have worked hard all year and it’s almost complete.
See the Timeline below:
20 January: DRAFT of Criterion D (Reflection) is due.
Teachers will provide feedback before Jan 27.
3 February: Whole report DRAFT due, including journal extracts.
20 February: FINAL deadline for report and process journal.
EXHIBITION: 12 March
Please put this date on your calendars. All parents/friends/family are welcome to attend. They will be showcasing their product and process in the MPR room during the day. More information to follow.
Indonesian Studies
On the 16th January 2020, we were having another session of Indonesian Studies with the theme :
“Balinese Ceremony Offerings”. All secondary students were engaged in getting to know more and also learning to create Balinese offerings used in ceremonies and celebrations. Here are some reflections and pictures of yesterday’s session.
Sasha Moore (Grade 12)
I strongly believe that this experience was interesting in regards to understanding and knowing the method in creating the offering. Additionally, knowing the purpose of each of the different offerings was also interesting. Lastly, it was a good experience overall to learn more about my home culture.
Kevin Sunarya (Grade 9)
I learned that these offerings would be important for the Hindu and Balinese culture. I learned that if people are used to doing these offerings it would be much faster and quicker to do. I also learned that looking at people doing it seems very easy but once we do it, it feels very challenging.
Nathan Turner (Grade 12)
I believe this experience was something new and unique that brought some joy to the end of my school day. It was pretty difficult to weave all the leaves together since my hands were not used to it but I am happy I had the opportunity to learn how to create the Balinese offerings I see almost everyday.
Natasha Klee (Grade 12)
My experience was very, very amazing as I have learned to appreciate the Indonesian culture around me. I feel that I have gained insight into what it means to be Indonesian, even if it is a small part.
Alba Romero (Grade 12)
It was a great occasion to learn about the local culture and get crafty. I challenged myself and collaborate with others, as they helped me create the offerings. I like how the teachers also got directly involved and were interested in completing the activity with us. Overall, it was nice to engage with Balinese culture.
Kristopher Park (Grade 7)
This was a very unique and eye opening experience since this was the first time I was able to make these sort of things, they were all very hard to make and very time-consuming. Since there were other offerings that were way bigger and more complex I now have a new found respect towards offerings for the streets and festivals that require large quantities of offerings.
Tata Isaji (Grade 7)
During this Indonesian Studies, I had a great time learning about how to make offerings and how they are crucial to the religion of Balinese Hindu. I also learned that most offerings take a lot of time to make and so that it is prepared earlier to the date. Overall I think the process of making other ones is hard but I had a great time.
Emil Patria (Grade 9)
It was challenging at first but with the help of my friends and teachers, I was able to figure out how to make the different patterns. The experience also gave me a deeper understanding of Balinese culture.
