From a school point of view, this means that our students have not yet managed to finish a complete full five days, although they are firmly getting back into the swing of things. My week has most certainly been full of fascinating experiences on a personal and professional level.
As a father of a BIS student I have been privy to the “hit the ground running” attitude that we have at BIS as my son, and all the BIS students, are immediately engaged with learning after their summer holidays. All the students have been involved with choosing their ECA’s and deciding how they can fit so many activities into their daily lives. It has been a lesson for me as well as I have been educated into knowing that it is impossible to combine, say Dumbledore’s Army with School of Rock, or Cricket with Basketball. But, these are life lessons: we have to make choices and prioritize and they are never easy.
This week has had many highlights but I would like to share two with you. The first stand-out has to be the wonderful Milepost Assembly led by Mr Simon in AP1. In what was a fun but fascinating method of engaging in what can only be described as epistemology, students were challenged to answer the question “would they rather have a dinosaur or be a dinosaur?” The students were also actively involved in trust building exercises and rewarded for being confident speakers.
I also had the pleasure of meeting with the Doppler Racing Team who are finalising the process to compete in the F1 in Schools competition held in the USA next month. F1 in Schools is a not-for-profit educational organisation, global competition run by Formula One that incorporates a World-class STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths) education that engages with millions of students across the Globe which makes it the largest competition for high school students in the world. The processes the student teams will follow are the same as those a real Formula One team will follow, from creating their initial business plan, to designing, making and racing their car. Finally, they will race their car on 20 meter F1 in Schools racetrack and compete with other teams from all around the world. The level of complexity, sophistication and commitment of the students involved is truly astounding.
Read more about them at the link below please:
http://dopplerracing.com/the-team/
So, just a quick snapshot of my week. Once again, enjoy the long weekend and get ready for next week.
Tim Deyes, Principal