‘Conferencing’
Dear Parents,
Once again, I am pleased to be able to congratulate our musicians for their participation in the Bangkok Strings Festival taking place at ISB today and tomorrow. Although we cannot host a ‘live’ concert on campus, you can join online at 2pm Saturday and watch their performance by registering at this LINK.
Simultaneously we are also hosting a volleyball and soccer tournament with a number of Bangkok schools joining us here for an invitational tournament on Friday afternoon and Saturday. Once again, we are unable to welcome all parents and students on campus to watch these games but we are excited that our students have this chance to play and to compete against other teams. All the best to our student athletes and musicians over the weekend.
Next week is a short week of school with Student Parent Teacher conferences taking place on Thursday and Friday in the Rajendra and ES Gyms. The session times are
Thursday
Session 1 8.00-10.00am
Session 2 10.30-12.30pm
Session 3 1.30-3.30pm
Friday
Session 4 8.00-10.00am
Session 5 10.30-12.30pm
Session 6 1.30-3.00pm
In order to attend the conferences parents MUST sign up as per the instructions sent out via email on Tuesday. We are required to limit the number of families in the Rajendra and ES Gyms during conferences so in order to attend you must register in advance. Sign ups close on Tuesday morning at 2pm. Students are required to attend with you (they do not need to wear their school uniform).
If you have not yet made an appointment please follow this link to make an appointment. You can also access this sign up through PowerSchool. Full instructions on the sign up process can be found here.
If you have any problems regarding the sign-in process or registering for a time, please contact Khun Arisa: arisap@isb.ac.th
Regards
Justin Alexander
High School Principal
Overall Grade-to-date
Justyna McMillan
justynam@isb.ac.th
Teachers will update PowerSchool on Friday September 25 with a Grade-to-date and HAL performance, for all students. This Grade-to-date is on the 7-1 scale and is based on the ‘body of evidence’ of student work completed so far, with teachers using Grade Descriptors and their professional judgement. For your reference, the Grade Descriptors can be found inside the back cover of the Student Daily Planner. Please note that this is the first assessment of the academic year, and is a ‘snapshot’ of achievement and may be based solely on 1 or 2 assessments. The next grade update will occur on November 20th with mid-semester comments on November 2nd.
News from the College Office
Sonya Ohlsson
sonyao@isb.ac.th
JUNIORS:
The majority of Juniors have pre-registered for the PSAT. All juniors are expected to take the PSAT11 unless they Opt Out, with parent’s permission. Students who came to their pre-registration meeting were offered the Opt-Out Form to take home and return to us. If a student has not yet registered or if they wish to Opt-Out, they need to come to the College Office by September 30.
The PSAT is not required to take the SAT, but it offers the student a chance to practice and get valuable feedback on their testing so they can better prepare for a “real” SAT. We, along with the College Board strongly discourage students who are below grade 11 from taking an SAT. Many colleges and universities will not accept scores from 10th grade (or earlier) and they are often not valid (have expired) by the time the student actually applies to university. Colleges do not want “professional test takers”.
The PSAT is the morning of Wednesday, October 14. Please check back for more information as the date draws near.
SENIORS:
Please schedule your family check-in. It is very important that you meet with your College Counselor to share what your plans are so we can support your applications. Even if you are not applying until the spring, it is helpful to have that chat now so we can also plan when and how we support students.
You can schedule, via email with your college counselor, a time for that check-in on Thursday, October 1 and the morning of Friday, October 2, the days of the Parent/Student/Teacher Conferences.
SAT Saturday September 26:
All students must bring their school ID to get on campus. ALL STUDENTS must bring their Passport or Thai National ID and Admissions Ticket to gain entrance to the test rooms. No student will be admitted without a government issued ID and Admissions Ticket. There can be no exceptions–College Board makes these rules, not us. All phones will be turned off for the entire testing time and students may not access them until the tests are completed. We will let students in at 7:30am.
Some of next week’s Virtual University Visits:
Sept. 28: Pace, Creighton, Butler & University of Redlands 11am
Sept. 29: University of Edinburgh–taster lecture on engineering
Sept. 29: All about Australian Universities
Sept. 29-Oct. 29: Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Sept. 30 University of British Columbia 11am
Sept. 30 Emory, University of Notre Dame, Tufts & Washington Univ.-St. Louis
Please check tinyurl.com/isbcollege for link and registration details for all virtual visits!!!
News from School Counselors
Kevin Callahan
kevinc@isb.ac.th
Dear Parents,
We’re looking forward to seeing you and your student at the Student-Parent-Teacher conferences this coming Thursday/Friday October 1/2. Talk to your student and see what they have to say about their counselor; we’ve spent some time with all of our 9th graders and new students. Now we’re checking in with our “veteran” students as the year winds into full swing. Lots of summatives and projects going on, it’s a stressful time for students and teachers. We hope that your students can get out of the house this weekend and get some of that (surprisingly!) fresh Bangkok air!
CASables
Hello everyone,
We are working on creating a newsletter CASables. Where we will announce service activities that our HS students and adults can get involved in. Also, it can be part of their CAS experiences!
We will send out a CASables email every third week of the month. By doing so, we need your help in providing us with any service work that you need volunteers for.
We always want our clubs to be generated by students, but sometimes they might not be aware of our interests. This will hopefully bridge that gap.
The deadline to send in your news to Khun Pat (patarinb@isb.ac.th) and Peter Assimakopoulos (petera@isb.ac.th) will be by the 22nd of every month.
The information required is as follows:
- A quick blurb. A description of the event/idea, job description for all volunteers, etc.
- Contact information for your events/projects and other details. Clearly add the contact person. Who do volunteers need to contact in order to participate in the event?
- Clearly state a due date of when you need to hear from prospective volunteers.
- Any pictures or links you may have. A picture/poster can help draw the students’ eye to your event/plan/idea.
EXTRAS: Please state if there is a cost or materials required for volunteers.
This is one of the examples from our September issue:
Please let us know if you have any questions.
Thank you,
Pat & Peter A.
Spirit Night CANCELLED
Chris Mott
chrism@isb.ac.th
Due to current COVID-19 restrictions, we are not able to run our traditional ISB Spirit Night. Campus will be closed from 5:10 for everyone except students who are taking part in a scheduled ISB or Panther Activities.
Panther Run #3, October 3rd
Chris Mott
chrism@isb.ac.th
Please join us and register for the next Panther Fun Run Series. This charity race will benefit Operation Smile. You only need to register once HERE!
U13-U15 Basketball Friendship tournament, October 3rd
Chris Mott
chrism@isb.ac.th
On Saturday October 3rd, we are hosting a friendship tournament for our U13 & U15 Boys and Girls Basketball teams. Families of participating athletes are invited to support our teams.
High School Principal’s Forum
Selma Benmoussa & Dhooleka Raj
hsppforum@isb.ac.th
High School Principal’s Forum – Term 1 – Call for questions
The HS Principal’s Forum is a channel of communication between HS parents and the HS administration. It is a platform to allow all HS parents to bring forward any questions, suggestions, or concerns to the Forum’s parent committee. The PF committee is composed of parents of 9th/10th/11th &12th grade students.
There is one HS Forum each semester, with a total of two per academic year. All HS parents are welcome to attend. The first meeting is scheduled for 9am on October 29th. (Location and format TBA by the school administration). The meeting will be led by Justin Alexander (HS Principal), Andy Vaughan (HS Dean of Students), Justyna McMillan (HS Dean of Academics), and other HS Team members.
All questions are shared with the Administration anonymously: only the content is presented. The topics are addressed and discussed in an open meeting between administration and HS parents. All HS Parents are invited to send their questions/suggestions/concerns to us before October 11th via:
HS Principal’s Forum- Questions from Parents– Intake Form. Or, by copying and pasting this URL into your browser
https://forms.gle/ajSPd5p3hm5xnnr3A
As always, if there are time sensitive questions and individual concerns, please reach out directly to the teachers, The HS principal’s office, counsellors and admin team. They are always your first port of call and will be happy to assist and support you.
Please feel free to be in touch with us if you have any questions, or would like to understand more about the HS PF process.
With kind regards,
Selma Benmoussa & Dhooleka Raj
On behalf of the HS’s PF Parent Committee
hsppforum@isb.ac.th
Panther Baseball and Softball Academy
Anthony Giles
anthonyg@isb.ac.th
Join us this Saturday for FREE Academy Baseball practice! During Academy Baseball sessions, we focus on advanced skill development and team concepts with a professional coach to help take your game to the next level. The Academy Baseball program will continue the following weekend and throughout the month of October free of charge. Interested? Contact PantherBaseballandSoftball@isb.ac.th or show up at Reinsch Field on September 26 ready to play ball. U12 and younger players meet from 10:00am to 12:00pm. U13 and older players meet from 12:00pm to 2:00pm.
Bangkok International String Festival – September 25-26, 2020
Anthony Giles
anthonyg@isb.ac.th
ISB will host its annual Bangkok International String Festival September 25-26, welcoming nearly 150 string musicians from international schools around Bangkok. Tune into the live streamed Gala Concert featuring the festival orchestra at 2 pm on Saturday, September 26, 2020. Register in advance for this webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_SrWa4_NaS1exLSZDh56StQ. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
Bangkok International Choir Festival – October 2-3, 2020
Anthony Giles
anthonyg@isb.ac.th
ISB will host its annual Bangkok International Choir Festival October 2-3, welcoming singers from international schools around Bangkok. Tune into the live streamed Gala Concert featuring the MS and HS Honor Choirs at 2 pm on Saturday, October 3, 2020. Link to be shared next week.
New Panther Activities Offerings and October Break Camps
Anthony Giles
anthonyg@isb.ac.th
Registration on CHQ for Season 2 Athletics and Panther Activities, as well as October Break camps will open at the end of next week. Details including sign up deadlines and instructions will be sent out before the registration window opens on Friday, October 2.
Call for Volunteers!
Booster Club – Secretary
booster-secretary@isb.ac.th
Season 1 Invitational- Volunteer at Booster Spirit Tent!
We are so excited that our teams are able to participate in games against other schools again…it’s been too long! Even though we are not able to have our normal Spirit night yet, we still will have the Booster Spirit tent at the games and we need your help! Come out and join the fun September 25 and 26! We are looking for volunteers in the Booster Spirit Tent to work a 1-hour shift … or more if you like. Sign up with a friend or come out and meet some new friends working in the Spirit Tent. All are welcome!
To access the sign-up form, please click on this link: Volunteer sign-up
GO PANTHERS!
Stacey Smith & Wayne Skaggs