IGBIS Newsletter | Issue 178

Message from the Head of School

Dear IGBIS Parents and Community Members,

Greetings from a very chilly London hotel room! I am here to meet with prospective teachers as we undertake recruitment for the next school year. It has been very pleasing to see at this recruitment fair, and the previous one in Bangkok, that IGBIS has an excellent reputation and therefore many good teachers interested in our school.

While I am in London I will be hosting an Alumni Dinner with ex-IGBIS students. I am looking forward to the opportunity to catch up with as many students as possible and hear how their university studies are progressing. More on this in the week ahead.

Last weekend IGBIS was again the host for IB Regional Workshops and a meeting of IB Coordinators in Malaysia. We are very privileged to be chosen as the Regional Workshop venue. It was an excellent opportunity to showcase our schools to the teachers and administrators that travelled from across Asia Pacific and further afield. Notably a group of teachers and administrators from South Korea asked if they could spend a day in our school to observe and develop their own practice from the teaching and learning that takes place at IGBIS.

Mrs Anne Fowles | Head of School

News from Secondary School

Dear parents & guardians,

Sport and the Arts were on full display this week, with a variety of activities occurring. Several basketball teams took part in fixtures with some good results, and the male and female varsity teams are looking forward to their KLISS competition this weekend. There was a great feeling pool-side with the Swim competition on Friday, as our swimmers pushed themselves in a fun competition against the other KLISS schools.

This week marked the end of our performing artist residency, students across the school thoroughly enjoyed their time with Ms Anna Brockway, and have become better and more aware performers as a result. On Friday we also sent off our ISTA performers on their trip to Chiang Mai, and look forward to hearing about their experience.

Looking forward, next week we will be getting ready for the ISA testing (for Grades 6-10) in February as well as sharing out information on our Parent-Student-Teacher Conferences, on February 13th & 14th. As well, we welcome parents at our Sports Days on Monday and Tuesday, our Secondary Parent Coffee on Thursday, and Chinese New Year Assembly on Friday.

Sincerely yours,

Michael Arcidiacono | Secondary School Principal

News from Elementary School

This week there has been a hive of activity, the Grade 3 students travelled to the Botanical Gardens as part of their unit of inquiry, we have had KLISS football for our U9 and U11 teams, and we have continued our preparation for the Chinese New Year assembly that will take place on Friday 1st February.

You will by now have received your child’s report card for Semester 1 and you will soon be receiving information about how to sign up to meet your children’s teachers for the parent teacher conference happening on February 13th and 14th.

We welcome Ms. Pei Yee to our staff who will be teaching some Chinese classes in the Elementary school as well as Malay classes in both the Elementary and Secondary schools. She will be working alongside Mr. Rashid, Ms. Meena and Ms. Ada to enhance our Host Nation programme and Malay language offerings in the Elementary school.  

Dates for your diaries

• Monday 28th January: ES sports day
• Thursday 31st January: ES Kopitiam 8.00am – 8.40am
• Friday 1st February: Chinese New Year assembly, Theatre – 1.30pm
• Wednesday 13th and Thursday 14th February: Parent Teacher conferences

Simon Millward | Primary School Principal

IB Asia Pacific Regional Workshop

Over the last weekend, 98 administrators, Heads of Schools, and MYP and DP coordinators from several IB schools in the Asia Pacific region attended professional development workshops at IGBIS. We hosted six Leadership Workshops in our Level 6 classrooms, and our school’s three IB coordinators attended the event as participants, and in Mr Darryl Harding’s case, as a Workshop Leader as well, where he presented “Delivering the MYP Curriculum, Category 2”.

We have not yet completed 5 years, yet this is the third time that IGBIS has hosted an IB Workshop. Current plans involve welcoming another regional workshop in September 2019. It has been our privilege and honour to have been repeatedly chosen as a host school. Thank you to Cezars Kitchen, IT department and Facilities staff members who gave up their long weekend to work during this event. We are fortunate to have such a dedicated team of hardworking staff who contribute to the successes of our events.

Preparations for International Day

Parents and staff members should have received an email survey requesting input regarding attendance and country selection during International Day, which will be held on Saturday, 16 March 2019. Thank you to all who have submitted a response. Next week, those who have responded to the survey will receive another email from me, addressed to all who have selected the same country, with guidelines and instructions for your planning. The next step will be for you to confirm that your country would like to have a booth during International Day. I look forward to receiving your confirmations and hearing about all the exciting developments!

Julie Arcidiacono | Community and Events Coordinator

Grade 3 Field Trip to Perdana Botanical Gardens

After having to postpone their field trip due to poor weather last week, Grade 3 students finally made it to Perdana Botanical Gardens this week to apply what they had learnt about the basic principles of photography. The photographs here, taken by the students, show how applying these principles can turn an ordinary image into a captivating one.

Below is a report by Rafael and Alia:

Grade 3 went to the botanical gardens on 22/01/2019. The original date was 5 days before but, unfortunately it was cancelled because of air pollution and for our safety we stayed inside.

Our unit of inquiry was How We Express Ourselves, and our central idea was: Nature can inspire people to express their creativity.

At the field trip we took plenty of photos following the principles of photography we learned in class: rule of thirds, perspective, backgrounds and detail.

We also did sketches of nature such as flowers, trees, leaves and any other items from nature that caught our eye and inspired us. After photographing, sketching and snacking, we had a little walk around. Not too far though!

We had a great day and learnt a lot.

Anna Brockway – Artist in residence

The school has been very fortunate to host Ms. Anna Brockway, an accomplished actor, to be our theatre artist in residence for the past two weeks. During her time at IGBIS, she worked with drama students in both elementary and secondary schools, fine-tuning skills and bringing a new perspective to how students express themselves theatrically. Everyone seemed to enjoy the classes and the skills learnt will be applied to upcoming performances in both secondary and elementary school.

Special thanks must go to Mr. Jamie Cant, who organised Ms. Brockway’s visit; and to Ms. Brockway herself, for devoting such time and energy to our students.