Message from the Head of School – January 13, 2023
I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a healthy New Year for 2023 and give a very warm welcome to our many new parents and students who have joined us this second semester! Welcome to Bali Island School!!
Recall that the holiday that was originally scheduled for Wednesday 18th January, has now been rescheduled to Monday 23rd January. Note that due to this change of holiday, our co-curricular activities (CCAs) will commence on Tuesday 24th January. Sign-up should be by Wednesday 18th January.
Note that our second term assessments and subsequent report cards were adversely affected by absent students. Please be aware that assessments are continually happening during the whole of the academic year, even during the week leading up to holidays and breaks. Therefore, may I kindly ask that the school calendar is respected and that holidays are not extended that encroach into scheduled assessment periods. This applies to all grade levels, but parents should be aware that in Grade 9 upwards, universities require transcripts from Grade 9 to Grade 12. We want the best universities for our students and do not wish that their opportunities are reduced by less than expected grades. We do understand that there are times during the year that absence is required for funerals, weddings, surgery etc. However, in the interests of student attainment, this request of absence for extending holidays is to be discouraged. Thanks for your understanding.
For those parents who have been at BIS for many years, you will recall that we conduct ISA’s (International Schools Assessment) every year for grades 3-10. These assessments allow us to benchmark our learning and progress against other international schools. Previously, the assessments were conducted in May. However, by the time we received the results in June, many parents had left BIS. Therefore, we have opted for the alternative assessment period of February. This means that we will be able to share the assessment data with our community around April, which is much more timely and will allow school reflection and analysis to take place to make changes for the following year. I shall be sending out test dates and procedures etc next week.
As previously stated, we are working on improving the car parking drop off/pick up procedures. We hope to have the trial sticker system up and running shortly and will keep you updated. We shall trial this over a set period of time and gather feedback from parents as to whether or not the system is working and effective or not.
Our wonderful PTA are looking to organize a picnic at our campus next Friday 20th January from 3pm onwards. Exact details will be shared by the PTA themselves shortly. Please remember that the PTA continually requires occasional volunteers to operate. If you can, please volunteer now and again. Together, we can collectively restore our community spirit.
I recently attended a teacher recruitment jobs fair. The recruitment campaign was highly successful and I managed to recruit a further 5 very experienced and well qualified IB teachers. As promised, I shall share with you the details of our new hires around the end of January.
The ‘sails’ that cover the primary play area were damaged recently in the storms. We hope to have these repaired and reinstated next week. Our contractor is currently working on them.
We have purchased a further 60 new desks in the secondary school. This will allow us to replace some older desks, and will give us a surplus to use when it comes to exams and other events.
Future dates for the diary:
- Monday 23rd January: school closed for national/local holiday in lieu of Lunar New Year (which falls on Sunday 22nd January)
- Wednesday 15th February, school half-day for teacher professional development and strategic planning.