FRIDAY NEWSLETTER from Secondary – 10th March 2017
Week 28-Developing Habits
As our students start racing towards the end of the term we are trying to incorporate some time for reflection and the development of habits that will help them with the heavy assessment time that is fast approaching. Our grades 6-8 students are developing their portfolios to share during the Student Led Conferences, this is allowing them the time to reflect on their learning and look to ways to improve as we move forward. Our 10th graders will be receiving their feedback from their Personal Projects and will be asked to reflect on their process, which will help them as they prepare for the rigors of the Diploma Program. Our seniors just finished their Mock Exams and are now using class time to reflect on their results, looking at the areas that need more focus and where they are working from a position of strength. Earlier in the term I used an assembly period to speak with our students about their study and sleep patterns. I shared the clips I used via the Enews earlier in the year. I am re-sharing these clips now. Please take a look at these with your students and help them find the best way to find focused time for their reflection and learning. Thank you.
IB Diploma Course Selection
Our students have had meetings with our counselor, their teachers and the IB coordinator regarding all of the different course we offer and what their choices can do as they start to think about university. On March 10th our DP teachers will present to all of our year ten students about their specific courses and answer any questions in a whole class forum. Students will come home with a full sheet of notes and ideas about all of the choices that lay ahead of them. Please speak with your student about the choices that they will soon be making. Here is a look again at the presentation that Mr. Hjelm put together.
Freedom Day
March 14 is #myFREEDOMday. This is a day promoted by CNN designed to raise awareness about human slavery and trafficking.
It links in nicely to our study of the same topic in 9th grade and the 9th graders have been making a concerted effort to arrange a host of activities throughout the day to highlight its importance to our school community. The full itinerary will be shared with you all once a few minor details have been ironed out.
There will be a march from the MPR to the big field with flags and chants of freedom in varying languages, a last man standing quiz and a secondary school photo of students holding placards and a mosaic created by the grade 9s. All of this will be recorded and later edited to show some of the highlights, which will be sent off to CNN. Taman Bacaan will also be joining us.
The highlights will be uploaded to the grade 9s students against slavery social media sites and shared with CNN. CNN have already uploaded some of our students videos on their webpages so their voices are being heard.
Please ask your students more about this day and what Freedom means to them
Second Semester Conferences
Our second semester Parent/Student/Teacher conferences will be held on the 23rd of March. This will be a non teaching day. We will have a combination of conference types going on that day. Our 6-8 graders will be participating in student led conferences, the rest of the secondary will use the same Student/Parent/Teacher format that we followed in the first semester. It is very important that your student accompanies you for these conferences, this is the best way for us to work together to help them continue to grow and succeed with their learning. The second semester conferences are also a great time to speak with teachers about next years course selection. The online signup format that we used last semester will be used again. Here is the link:
https://www.ptcfast.com/schools/Bali_Island_School
We will also be inviting specific parents/students to sign up for conferences in order to help these students opportunities for growth within the second semester. Sign up information has been sent home and reminders will be coming. Thank you for your continued interest and support or your child’s learning here at BIS.
SEAMC Math Competition
Our students came home from Jakarta super excited about their experience and Maths! They did a fantastic job representing BIS and were very competitive throughout the whole event. A big thank you to Mr. Sareen and Ms. Mathers for traveling with our students and presenting them with this opportunity. Great Job Dragons!
BIS Swim Carnival
Today, was our annual BIS Swim carnival. This was a fantastic community event where our students got to highlight their strengths outside of the classroom. The spirit of competition and enjoyment was felt throughout the whole school. A big thank you to the PTFA for hosting a Sausage Sizzle and for Mr. Sutherland and Mr. Lennan for organizing this event. And finally for our students who competed in a relay against the parents and teachers! What a fantastic day of good nature competition and excitement from our students. Thank you again for being a part of the fun!
IB Art Exhibition
On the 22nd of March we will be hosting our IB Art Exhibition for the year 2017. This event is the culmination of two years of hard work and the creative process. Our IB Visual Art students will be presenting their pieces as well as explaining their process and the relevance of their work. I have been truly amazed at the type of pieces our students are working on and the level of talent and creativity that they exhibit. More details about this event will be forthcoming.
BSSA Basketball Finals
This coming Wednesday and Thursday our Junior and Senior level students will take part in the BSSA Finals for the basketball season. A big thank you to all of the hard work of our students and coaches, in particular to our student coaches. I would also like to thank Mr. Sutherland and Mr. Lennan for all of their work in organizing these events and the transportation issues that go with them. Let’s Go Dragons!
PTFA Meeting
On March 15th at 7:50 am in the library the PTFA will be holding their monthly meeting. Please stop by to hear about all of the fantastic things that the PTFA does for our school and to find out how to become more involved. Thank you again!
Thank you for your continued interest and support of BIS and our students.
Kind Regards,
Justin Walsh
secondaryschoolprincipal@baliis.net
Secondary School Principal
