Secondary Newsletter 38 – May 22, 2020

Dear Parents,

The end of the year is approaching quickly and there are still many things happening in Secondary. Please see below for a summary of upcoming events.

Upcoming Events

Grade 8/9 and Diploma Music Composition Sharing

Catriona Leys composed two contrasting pieces for her Internal Assessment for Standard Level Music. Both compositions were created on Ableton, which is a brand of music producing software. She drew inspiration from Balinese spa and meditation music for the track named ‘Pitter Patter’ and ‘A Special One’ (featuring Laura Delgado) is a tribute to the legendary EDM producer AVICII. The tracks have been uploaded to youTube, feel free to have a listen and leave a comment to show your appreciation. Congratulations Iona on creating these beautiful compositions.

Pitter Patter      A Special One (featuring Laura Delgado)

Grade 8/9 music class has been studying famous musicals and the concept of musicals touching upon serious issues in life. They then embarked on a creative task, writing a brief plot of a musical relating to the current situation along with an original song to be performed in a pivotal moment in their story. Here are the lyrics to Amieca’s song. Whilst the lyrics are quite sad to read, they are a beautiful example of how emotions can be expressed through Art. Thanks for sharing this with us Amieca, hopefully, there will be a recording to come.

Corona Virus Stuck Home by Amieca Joustra

DP Corner 

This week marked the end of the Grade 12 alternative schedule. From a teachers’ point of view it was fantastic to see great participation and to continue to interact with our seniors in areas that would not normally feature in the DP, pancake making; German slang; yoga and mindfulness; personal finance skills…the list goes on. From the students’ perspective it left them with “real life skills that will definitely make our transition to university and life beyond BIS much smoother.” – Natasha Klee. 

Next week will see the Grade 12 Farewell Video released, in lieu of the usual assembly, as well as the Grade 12 online graduation. The Farewell Video will be released on Wednesday May 27 both via an email to all DP Parents and students as well as on our social media platforms. A link to our Graduation Live Stream, which will take place on Friday May 29 at 17:00, will be sent out to all parents on Thursday at 15:00. 

The Grade 11s are currently preparing for their end of year exams which will take place via exam.net. This is the first time for our school to administer and invigilate exams remotely and has been a great opportunity to build our online tech and teaching skills. I am confident that the exams will run smoothly, provide the students with a valuable experience and highlight to them their current depth of understanding of the topics covered so far in their DP subjects.