Head of Secondary School Message

by Matthew Tansley, Head of Secondary

As I sit and write my introductory piece for the first issue of The International Voice for 2022-23, I must admit I am amazed by just how much we have managed to cram into a sixteen-week term. This is in large part down to the commitment of our teaching staff, and the enthusiasm of our students, who have been fantastic as always.

The main focus of the first few weeks of term, was the ISI inspection, to maintain our BSO accreditation status. This could not have gone better, as we attained the coveted status of being an “Excellent” school both academically and pastorally. As an ISI inspector myself, I know how hard it is to attain this status, and it truly is a reflection of how far we have travelled as a school in the four years since our last compliance inspection in March 2018. The challenge now is not to rest on our laurels, which is never going to be the case at IBSB, as look to the future, toward new goals and benchmarks as set sail toward our next inspection in March 2026.

Prior to our inspection visit, the school year started with our annual parent coffee mornings for KS3, where I had the pleasure of meeting both our returning and new parents, taking the time to explain what our vision for IBSB is and how they can be involved in bringing that vision to fruition. It was also fantastic to see so many of our parents at the parent teacher BBQ a week or so later, which was extremely well attended; in fact, probably the best attended parent-teacher BBQ we have hosted!

Debating continues to be a huge strength of our school. The teams, both at U16 and U18 level have worked hard this term, with IBSB hosting both the Sir Winston Churchill European Debating Championships for the older students, and the U16 European Debating Competition for our younger teams. In both competitions, our students were extremely successful, with our senior debaters going on to win the Sir Winston Churchill Competition, defeating EIC Marbella in the final. The surprise of the U16 Middle School Debate, however, was the IBSB junior team, made up solely of year 7 & 8 students, who reached the final before eventually losing to an excellent team of students from Years 10 & 11 from Rygaards School, Denmark. The results from both events indicate that the future is looking very bright for our debaters, and I am sure that Mr Peet will continue to work hard providing opportunities for our younger students coming through. I am also sure that both teams have a good chance of continuing to excel in the coming months and years.

In the sporting arena, we have again punched above our weight. We have had students competing in the Bucharest Marathon team relay, as well as students participating in various triathlons. Our U16 and U13 boys football teams collected trophies at both AISB and in the Lumina Cup Competitions, before our U13s walked away with a first place at the BSB Autumn Cup Competition, joined by the girls team also collecting a trophy with an excellent result. Over the last few months, we have also seen many of our students begin their preparation for their futures, with the largest group we have ever travelling to the Netherlands on a university trip with Mr Peet, Ms Baker, and Mr Ryan. Over 30 students spent a few days visiting universities in Amsterdam, Maastricht, Utrecht, Leiden, Delft and The Hague, meeting up with some IBSB alumni who showed them a few of the sights. Hopefully they have been inspired and have a clearer idea of where they wish to study. Next term, we will also be running a trip to the largest UCAS fair in London, which again, should help a few of our students with the decisions they need to make about their futures.

Charitable donations and work have been a cornerstone of IBSB work over many years, and this has continued this year with students working with a variety of different charities and organisations through CAS in the sixth form and the CAS club in the lower school. They have done themselves proud with regards to the money raised so far, as well as the hard work that they have put in. This could be easily seen in the effort that went into turning the secondary school into a haunted house for the Halloween Party, as well as with the CAS Winter Fair, which continues to raise a huge amount of money for the NGOs that we work with, and continues to be ably supported by the PTF

For many of the students, the highlight of the term was the ever popular Winter Ball, a fantastic event supported by the PTF, to whom I am extremely grateful, and ably organised by the Events Committee of the Student Executive. It really was fantastic to see the students enjoying themselves in the ballroom, and so I am sure they are all looking forward to the next event in the Spring Term.

Having read back through what I have written, it amazes me sometimes that we have enough time to actually do any teaching!!

The British Romanian Chamber of Commerce is the premier business -led organisation promoting bilateral trade and investment between the United Kingdom and Romania. Our mission is to facilitate and increase the trade between those two countries through business-to-business dialogue.

The British Romanian Chamber of Commerce plays an influential role in creating and sustaining an environment in which free-trade and investment flourishes. Through the facilitation of partnerships, and with an extensive network of influential corporate a nd individual members, the British Romanian Chamber of Commerce provides the resource, knowledge and infrastructure support vita l to UK companies to make the most of emerging opportunities in Romania, and for Romanian companies to do business in the establis hed markets of the UK.

Established in 1998, the BRCC is an independent organisation, owned entirely by its members, with offices in London, Bucharest, Cluj and Sibiu.