Dear Parents (and Students),
Welcome to the 2020-21 school year at ISB. We are so pleased and very excited to be able to start school in person on Monday August 10th and to see our returning students and of course welcome new students to ISB as well.
It has been and continues to be a challenging and uncertain time for everyone in the world at the moment, but in many ways we are blessed and fortunate to be in Thailand at this time. With no local transmission cases and with strict regulations in place for people entering Thailand, we are well placed to be able to start school in a safe and welcoming way. You will have seen previous communications regarding safety protocols, school reopening plans etc, so I will not revisit them here. If you do wish to look at them again, please visit our website HERE to see updated plans.
Starting School
You will see more details from Mr. Vaughan later in the E News about the procedures for Monday August 10th and the Day ‘0’ schedule. Ms McMillan will also share information about our excellent DP results from last year and how and when students can access their schedules.
Welcome
We extend a warm welcome to our new ISB students who are joining us this academic year. There are nearly 80 new students joining the HS this year and we anticipate about 40 of these students will physically be here on Monday with the remainder starting school virtually. Please join us in welcoming our new students and parents to ISB.
New ISB Teachers
As you will appreciate we have been working extremely hard to get all of our new teachers into Thailand and ready to start school on Monday. Of course given the challenges of gaining entry to Thailand, some of our new faculty will have a delayed start to the school year. We are fortunate to have a dedicated and committed faculty here on site already, who will be taking on extra classes and working with our new teachers on zoom to conduct lessons and support the learning of students. We have a number of experienced substitute teachers who will also be helping us until all of our new teachers arrive.
Once schedules are finalised and shared, students will know which (if any) of their teachers will be in this situation and how their classes will be conducted. For the most part, students will move to their assigned classrooms where another teacher will greet them and either teach the lesson or facilitate with the ‘regular’ teacher a zoom lesson. In all cases students will be able to connect with their teacher and be supported in their learning. More details will be shared on Monday with students during our day ‘0’ schedule.
Students attending ISB Virtually
Currently, we anticipate that we will have approximately 40 of our new ISB students and perhaps 20-30 other ISB students that are not able to physically join us on campus on Monday. All ISB students will have received a survey recently from Mr. Vaughan that requires students to inform us whether they are able to attend ISB in person or will be starting the school year virtually. Please do let us know if you will be attending ISB virtually.
Virtual Learning Plan:
All ISB teachers who have students in their class that have informed us that they are not able to join us on campus this week will provide virtual learning for these students. The virtual learning will not look the same as our virtual school learning experience in March – June, but will enable students to be connected, stay up to date and to continue with their learning until they can join their classmates in person.
Teachers will use zoom to livestream/record their taught lesson and instruction during their normally scheduled class times. Teachers will communicate through Powerlearning and or google classroom instructions and share resources with students at home or in the classroom. If students attending ISB virtually are in the BKK time zone (or one close by) then they would be expected to zoom into their classes and join in ‘realtime’. Students currently in Europe, North or South America and in a different time zone will have the choice to join the classes in real time or to watch the zoom lesson the next day. The zoom lessons will be recorded and shared with students at the end of each day. Teachers will be in direct communication with their students and provide additional information about how their lessons will take place and how work will be submitted etc.
Once again, we are very much looking forward to seeing your students on Monday morning – either via zoom or in person.
Have a great weekend.
Justin Alexander
High School Principal