Message from the Head of School – August 12, 2022

Dear parents,
Another week is over already!

1. As perhaps you may be aware from our school calendar, next Wednesday 17th August is a public holiday in recognition of Indonesian Independence Day and our campus will be closed. In line with our mission of nurturing global-mindedness, our whole community will hold a day of festivities and celebrations in honour of this historic day.

To this end, we cordially invite parents and family members to come to our campus at 1330 in the covered court area ON TUESDAY 16TH (NOT Wednesday 17th )to enjoy and participate in our celebrations. Please note that as there will be more than 100 people, this will be an occasion where masks should be worn.

2. Safeguarding; please be aware that the purpose of requesting parents to wear lanyards/ID on campus is to protect your children. Over the last two weeks, some parents may have forgotten to wear them or not fully understood the purpose of wearing a lanyard/ID. Please do make sure that when you visit our campus, your children feel safe when they see a ‘stranger’. We expect to have the yellow lanyards shortly and will ask you to exchange your blue lanyard for a yellow one soon.

3. We will have a series of parent support sessions during the course of this academic year covering areas such as online addition, parenting styles, bullying etc. We shall share the dates and order of these support sessions soon. Where possible, we will advise you of when you may also invite your friends and family to attend to receive support.

4. Fun-Bites cafe; perhaps you may not be aware that we have a courtyard cafe opposite our campus for serving coffees, teas, croissants and other small snacks? This is only open to the BIS community, not the public, and is a wonderful place to chill out, chat with other parents, and on occasion, engage in conversations with me regarding your experience with BIS. Please stop by soon and for a coffee and chat. I shall shortly be placing more signs near the entrance to make our community more aware of its presence.

5. How many times will our students hear the question, “How was your day?” To which you as parents will hear the response, “Fine…..”
To engage more, hear our mission in action and appreciate the importance of our core values, perhaps you may want to try the following dinner table questions;

  1. “What was the most interesting thing you did today?”
  2. “I know you’ve been working on _______. what’s the next step?”
  3. “Did you get to solve any problems/make anything cool/help anybody today?”
  4. “Is your school work still challenging/rewarding to you?”
  5. “If you could change one thing about your day, what would it be?”
  6. “I thought of you today when…”
  7. “How are you feeling about….?”
  8. “What were the best and worst parts of your day?”
  9. “What’s something you wish we could do together?”
  10. “What was the most exciting thing you learned today?”

Have a lovely weekend and look forward to seeing you on our campus at 1330 on TUESDAY 16TH August at the covered court area to celebrate Indonesian Independence Day.