Secondary Newsletter on Friday, 30th Sept 2016
Week 10-Finishing Strong
As we enter the final week of the term and the last five days of school before a well deserved break it is important to remember that sometimes the last 100m of a race can be the most challenging. Students will have quite a number of assessments that they will be finishing up this week and will need to balance the excitement of holiday with the stress of submissions. Please continue to encourage your students to keep that positive attitude going. As a school we will continue to promote balance, but as a term ends there are always some long term projects that will need to be completed. Thank you for a terrific start to another eventful school year here at BIS. We look forward to all of the exciting and challenging things that our students will engage with in the upcoming term.
Parent/Teacher/Student Conferences & Reports
I want to thank all of the parents that were able to attend our Parent/Teacher/Student conferences this past week. These are a great opportunity for all of us to work together to determine the best way to support your student as we move through the school year. The more that we are able to keep our lines of communication open, the better we are at encouraging, supporting and heading off any missteps along the way. The next component in this line of communication and support is the distribution of are term one reports. These reports will come out at the end of this coming week. It is our hope that there is nothing in these reports that comes as a surprise. The more we communicate the better we can support. It is also important to remember that these reports are simply a progress report. This is an indication of where your student is right now, not who they are forever. We continue to foster growth and these reports, with the emphasis on work habits and developmental comments, are a reminder of that growth mindset we are looking to develop for all of our students. Thank you again for your continued interest and support of your students growth and learning here at BIS
College Fair Tuesday at BIS
We are very fortunate to have over 25 colleges and universities from around the world visiting our campus this Tuesday. Our grade 10, 11, and 12 students will have a chance to speak with recruiters and attend workshops about college life, the application process and the transition period for international students. Please speak to your student about this opportunity and encourage them to ask as many questions and gather as much information as the can from the variety of schools that will be on our campus. This opportunity is taking place on a Tuesday, which means any 10, 11, or 12 student that is currently enrolled in religion classes will be exempted from religious studies on that day.
EOTC Presentations
This week in our MYP and DP hour the different grade level teams will be sharing out what they learned and took away from their EOTC experience. We will focus on the community engagement component of these trips and look at ways to make these connections more sustainable throughout the year. We have a number of groups who are working on long term projects that have started as a result of the connections they made during their EOTC week. This is a wonderful way to reflect and celebrate on a different component of our learning here at BIS.
Spirit Week at BIS
This coming week will be Spirit Week here at BIS. This is a student led week long celebration of community here at BIS. We work closely with the primary school to ensure common themes as our secondary students act as role models in the development of school spirit here at BIS. There will also be a PTFA Sausage Sizzle on Thursday the 6th at lunch time here on campus. Below is a schedule of the activity/themes for the week. A great way to end the term and show some BIS Spirit!
MYP Parent Session-Reporting and Assessing
On Monday, October 3rd our MYP coordinator will be hosting an informational session discussing reporting and assessing in the MYP program. These sessions allow us to share what the school is attempting to promote to our students, while also understanding how are students are engaging with their studies at home. Again, the more that we are able to share, the better we are able to support and prepare our students.
Thank you for your continued interest and support of BIS and our students.
Justin Walsh
secondaryschoolprincipal@
Secondary School Principal
