IGBIS Newsletter, Issue 277

From the Head of School

By Jason McBride, Head of School

As we get to know each other, you’ll soon find out that I’m easily excitable when it comes to learning, school and all-things educational. It has been wonderful to have the DP students on campus to join our Early Years’ students and as you’ll read in the Secondary School News below from Mrs Sandy, they were busy celebrating a huge part of what makes the DP and CP programme special today with Phoenix Talks. Kudos to them and the Secondary Team that supported their journeys along the way.

Looking ahead, I am very excited (a theme as you can start to see!) for my first Open Day tomorrow where we have a chance to tell prospective families all about the people, philosophy and programme that make IGBIS a great place to be. From celebrating our Mission, Vision and Motto, to helping families understand the School and the IB, to celebrating the Five Pillars that make IGBIS truly unique, it would be a shame to not share the same information with our current families so that’s what I will do next week! Look for a copy of the slides we use tomorrow for our Open Day in the newsletter so you too can see why I already believe that this is a pretty special place to be.

Have a great weekend and to those celebrating Happy Halloween!

Jason

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ES News

By Simon Millward, Elementary School Principal

I do hope that you had a restful week last week during our school holiday and that you returned to distance learning a little more rested. This week started with a wonderful reminder in our ES school assembly of how creative our young learners are as they celebrated the week of play that happened before the holiday. 

This week has been all about putting the final touches on our return to face to face learning. The teachers have been coming into school to create a welcoming environment for our students. I have included a sneak peek into our physical set-up. Can you guess which grade level areas are featured?

On Friday 29^th October, our House Captains organised their first House event. A house dress-up day. As I was in school there were quite a few EY and KG students all dressed up. I look forward to seeing more pictures from this community-building event. 

I know Ms Meena has been working with our KG students in preparation for our Deepavali assembly that is happening on Wednesday 3rd November at 2.15 pm. The assembly link will be sent closer to the time, so check your emails or Toddle announcements for that.

Dates for your diaries:

• 30^th October: Open Day
• 1^st November: Grades 1, 2 and 3 students are invited to return to face to face learning.
• 3^rd November: Virtual Deepavali assembly 2.15 pm
• 8^th November: Grades 4 and 5 students are invited to return to face to face learning.

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SS News

By Sandy van Nooten, Secondary School Principal

Wow… it is hard to believe how much we’ve packed into this week.

We are over the moon to have our Grade 11 and 12 students back. They have settled well and I’m sure they are happy to socialise with their peers and enjoy the banter and the natural too and fro that always happens in a face-to-face classroom.

Entering school is a minor obstacle course. Students need to…

• Scan their temperature,
• Use their student ID to get through the turnstiles,
• Receive a ‘welcome spritz’ of hand sanitiser, and now additionally, students with phones must also
• Check-in with MySejahtera

On Tuesday, we had ~20 Grade10 and 11 students sit their PSATs here at school. Tim Howe (our HS and University counsellor) organised and ran the whole thing. He even managed to alter the schedule to allow lots of students to go for their 2nd vaccination straight after their final paper. 

During this whole week, our fabulous StuCo and House Captains have been running special events for Spirit Week. Today, Most of the teachers and students came dressed in their house colours for Full House Friday. Once everyone is back, I’m sure we’ll do another in-person spirit celebration.

Today we held our inaugural Phoenix Talks and it was one of my happiest days in school ever. Towards the end of last year, Mr Drechsler (IBDP/CP coordinator) had a brainwave and a vision for a way to showcase students’ work on the IB CORE. That kernel of an idea grew into today’s extravaganza. All Grade 12s presented in at least 2 of the 3 sessions and Grade 10 and 11 were invited as an active audience.

• Session 1: Short (5 to 10 min) talks by Gr.12s on their Extended Essay or CAS/SL. 
• Session 2: TOK Exhibition (this is the first cohort to do this new requirement … and they nailed it)
• Session 3: 20 minute student-led workshops.
• Q&A Session: An expert panel of Grade 12 students answered questions from the Grade 10s and 11s.

I was blown away by the quality, poise, and eloquence of our Seniors. How they managed to pull this off given all the unknowns, changed dates, evolving SOPs, …  is mind-boggling. The Grade 10s and 11s were an amazing, attentive, appreciative and engaged audience. Huge kudos to Magnus Drechsler who made this happen. Thanks also to the EE/RP project supervisors, the TOK/PPS teachers, Allison Parratt for her tireless work with CAS and Service Learning… the list goes on. Honestly, I can’t wipe the smile off my face. I couldn’t be more humbled and proud to be part of this community. 

Here’s a summary of the next few weeks as we ramp up to a full return to school.

Week 12 (Mon 1^st to Wed 3^rd Nov)

• Grade 9 to 12 in school, Grade 6 to 8 online.
• Following the Online Schedule
• No Cezars this week
• 1^st half lunch – all students eat, spread between cafeteria and cafe
• 2^nd half lunch – all students rest and recreation

Week 13 (Mon 8^th to Fri 12^th Nov)

• Gr.6 to 12 in school (some students may still need to be online)
• Following the Face-to-Face schedule
• Cezar’s should be back in action
• 1st half lunch – half of the students eat, half r&r
• 2nd half lunch – students swap

Have a fabulous weekend. 

Sandy

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Final Results: AIMS Virtual Olympic

By Ruth Spracklan, Athletics Director

Congratulations to all students who took part, you were wonderful ambassadors for IGBIS! These students reached the final leaderboards.

Speed Bounce

• Girls (Age 14-15): 2^nd Place – Ruofei (70)

Jump Rope

• Boys (Age 12-13): 1^st Place – Ryo (210)
• Girls (Age 12-13): 3^rd Place – Aveesha (163)

Keepy Uppys

• Boys (Age 10-11): 1^st Place – Landon (130)
• Boys (Age 12-13): 2^nd Place – Ilyas (80)
• Boys (Age 14-15): 1^st Place – Zak (117)

Results: ISKL International Cross Country 

There were 117 entries from 17 schools worldwide that took part in this event.

Our Middle school Girls made the final leaderboard in 8th place with a total of 154 points! HUGE congratulations to the Phoenix athletes who took part and represented IGBIS. 

To all athletes, WELL DONE! Keep an eye out in the newsletter for future competitions to take part in.