From the Principal,     March-June’10

Introduction

Student Activities

The Parent Teacher Meetings for all classes in March 2010 were well attended.

Std. VIII 2009 was asked to demonstrate a scientific principle using a “hands-on” experiment. The project was conceptualized by Ms. Ashar and supervised by Ms. Seervai and Ms. Ashar. The students’ enthusiasm and efforts need a special commendation. The experiments were innovative and well adapted to the situation in our Labs. The project culminated in a demonstration for the parents and some senior classes. Well done! It was in the true spirit of BIS – learning for the joy of discovery, and not for achieving grades.

ICSE was conducted in the Std. X classroom this year, so it enabled all the students to use the multi-purpose fourth floor for all activities. This will not be possible in the future because the number of candidates will be larger and we will have to conduct the exams on the fourth floor.

The Student Government Social was a great hit with Stds. VIII, IX and X, as always.

We honored our students who passed the ICSE Examinations with Awards. This year we also gave prizes to the students who stood second and third in the examination. The performance is commendable. Well done! Do check our website for details of the results.

Our class of 2010 has certainly lived up to everyone’s expectations. Well done!

Assemblies

There was a range of virtuoso and talent exhibited at the Instrumental Assembly this year. By far, the most outstanding contribution was by Std. VI. It was a great pleasure to hear the piano being played in the school hall. Std. X was also remarkable and participated well. Keep up the efforts!

Std. V wrote their own scripts and put up a very thought-provoking assembly on peer pressure. They have given us, teachers and parents, much to reflect upon.

Std. VI had a very ambitious project in which they tried to highlight significant events in the world in 45 minutes. It was an interesting effort and well enacted.

Std. VII planned an excellent assembly with clips on the “granny awards” for the worst performances. They used technology very effectively to get across a message that we

ought not to compromise on our beliefs and values to merely achieve awards. Well done, and kudos for effective time management!

The following are the results of the debates and elocution:

Senior School Quiz: Best House: Gamma House (Namit Mehta, Chaiti Phulwaria and Paritosh Palkivala.

Senior School Hindi Elocution: Best Speaker: Gaurika Rai; 1^st Runner up: Radhika Roy; 2^nd Runner up: Avanti Dalal; Best House: Beta House.

Marathi Elocution: Best Speaker: Anirudh Amersey; Runner up: Shaan Paidhunghat.

Middle School Quiz: Best House: Gamma House (Shiv Makim, Jay Poncha, Anirudh Gandhi)

Senior School English Elocution:

Best Speaker: Rhea Mulani; 1^st Runner up: Mishri Mulani and Sanaya Nanavaty; 2^nd Runner up: Nari Katgara; Best House: Gamma House.

Senior School Hindi Debate:

Reservation is necessary for Women was the topic for the debate.

Best Speaker: Ira Sridhar-Chadha-, Alisha Sonawala; 1^st Runner up: Gaurav Doshi; Best House: Alpha and Beta House.

Sports Update

The Primary Annual Athletic Meet on 22 December 2009 and the Secondary Annual Athletic Meet on 18th January 2010 were both successful events.

Cornell Model United Nations

Teachers’ Workshops

This term as part of the social awareness week, our school organised a collection for Goonj, an organisation that channelizes urban city school waste to the rural and underprivileged sections of society. Thank you,  students and parents, for the generous contributions.

International Links

Two teachers from the Copley School in UK visited us for a week in March. They spent time with the primary and middle school and observed lessons in several classrooms. Our teachers were very happy to interact with them and share ideas for the benefit of our children. Imran Ismailjee visited Copley School in May 2010. He had a very enriching time interacting with the students and teachers and found many similarities between our two schools. We hope to continue this exchange, and perhaps also establish links with other schools.

Pasch Activities

 Four students from Std. X who have appeared for the ICSE in March) have been invited to a German Youth Camp in June. The selected students are Bhumika Shah, Bhakti Parikh, Rishaya Palkhivala and Sanjna Merchant.

Seeds of Peace:After a very rigorous selection process, Priyanka Mariwala and Neel Karpe have been selected to participate in the Seeds of Peace Camp  at Otisfield, Maine, in June/July. They are presently at the camp.

Staff Update

Mr.Jayaprakrash had to leave the admin team, and Mr. Prashanta Prusty has joined us as Facilities Manager. Mrs. Navaz Master left after almost 5 years at BIS to pursue her dream to do Social Service. Ms. Nilufer Nasirabadwala has joined as IT Co-ordinator and Admin Assistant. The nurse is Merlyn Malu. Ms. Knita Row has joined as a Spanish and SS teacher. Ms. Monica Merchant is an additional Art Teacher.

Admin Update

A tremendous effort was put in by our architect Ms. Dhruti Vaidya during our summer break. Our focus this time was in enhancing the look and feel of the building by making simple changes such as removing old pipes and cables, having uniform windows, clearing the central chowk areas and giving the classrooms a neat and open look. This has certainly been achieved, and all of us are able to appreciate the architecture of Gilbert Building even more. We now have whiteboards in the secondary section and screens and projectors in other classrooms. The bio lab and the art room have a completely new look, and there is an extra streaming classroom. Keeping the future in mind we have created office space. The two highlights are the Nurse’s room with a full time nurse and the new look of the playground with grass growing underfoot. The playground has been sponsored by the Student Government Funds. Thank you all, for enabling us to have a new look.

We have now employed a new housekeeping agency, which is responsible for  and round the clock maintenance and cleanliness of the school.

Alumni update

A new Alumni Newsletter, has been circulated. Some Alumni have already started donating to BIS. We thank Ms. Shirin Madon for her donation of  1 lakh and Ms. Meena Doshi for $500. We hope to receive more contributions from the Alumni in the coming years.

IB Update

The very first step in the process of IB Affiliation for the IB has been completed, namely the submission of Form Part A. An educational consultant, Mr. Hugh Pullan who was with the prestigious public School, Sevenoaks, England, visited BIS for a week. Mr. Pullan had been with the Dhirubhai Ambani School in the early years, and he has also been a consultant with Jamnabhai Narsee School, B.D. Somani School and SVKM School. He found that the atmosphere at BIS is very positive, and we are certainly on the right track for administering the IB Programme. Mr. Pullan had several meetings with parents, students, teachers in groups and individually. Of course, he spent a lot of time with me in an individual capacity, Principal to Principal. It was a very useful and enriching visit.

In April we received confirmation that the Form A, namely the first application form has been accepted by the IB Organization. We have been granted “candidate school” status, which means we are well on our way to becoming an IB World School.

We await the next steps in the IB affiliation, namely the pre-authorization visit from a member of the IBO in Singapore.

Following this we shall then submit our Application Form Part B and await guidance on the steps for authorization.

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