Head of Secondary School Message

This year has been a little different, and also a little frustrating, as we began school face to face, with all of the required safety measures in place, but have had to deliver the whole of Term 1b online, due to the worsening situation within Bucharest. I am extremely proud of both the teaching staff and students, with how they have coped with the uncertainty regarding their schooling, as well as demonstrating great flexibility with dealing with concurrent learning.

The school year started with our annual Parent Coffee Mornings for KS3, which took place online this year for obvious reasons. They were a great success and communication continues to be a strength of our school, with no reduction in opportunities for our parents to meet with teaching staff, despite the social distancing measures that we all have to take. There were further parent meetings at the start of term 1b, which, one member of staff was overheard to say, resembled “Speed Dating”, and although the amount of time available was for each meeting was short, the conversations that took place were rich in terms of the level of feedback and support. This year, we have obviously not been able to participate in any face-to-face events, but this has not stopped out students, with a sizeable number participating in an online MUN, as organised by Campion School in Athens. This was a resounding success for many of our students, and whilst it may have been a slightly surreal experience, it is one that they are very used to by now. Several of our older students will be participating in another online MUN in early spring, organised by LSE (London School of Economics), and I look forward to hearing the feedback from this prestigious event. The main community event of each week has been our online assemblies, which started by being live streamed, but soon moved to being pre-recorded by yours truly in my office, with a script and further contributions from teaching staff and students allowing for a smoother flowing event. HPL has begun to be a big focus in these assemblies as we continue on our journey toward becoming a world class school, with all pupils being capable of high performance, no matter their starting point. HPL has truly been the major focus of this term, and despite everything else that has been happening in the world, we have continued to make progress on this journey. Teachers have started to work within their Professional Learning Communities (PLC) as work together to support and encourage each other to try ideas out and develop strategies for embedding the language and ethos of HPL. We will see more changes as we continue through this academic year, I am sure. I hope that you enjoy what we have included in this first edition of the TIV- it is a perfect snapshot showing the outsider what we, in the secondary school already know, that IBSB has some of the most talented, and hardworking pupils of any international school in the world. Mr Matthew Tansley