Director’s Welcome

Being now on my third year here at the school, it has for me, in many aspects, been a year of consolidation. This has been reflected in implementing the preparatory work from the past two years.

What a wonderful year full of learning our ISB students have had. Our school has continued to grow and this year we were joined by 70 new students and reached an all time high of 250 students by June.

With growth new opportunities arise and this year a few of the many highlights are that we had UN day in a new format, over 20 students participated in National Novel Writing Month, we celebrated EARTH DAY as a school, sent our first group of students to Model United Nations, several of our Grade 9 students completed their Duke of Edinburgh Bronze award for the first time our IDU week celebrated learning at its best.

We upgraded our facilities with new flexible furnishings and every classroom now features an interactive SMART board. When you walk up the road to ISB a wonderful mural graces the entrance which every child contributed a fingerprint to. Having an Orca as our mascot has become highly visible! We have consolidated the implementation of several policies: GDPR, Definition of Learning, Global Citizenship and Child Protection.

Not only our students but our staff too have been learning, with the school not only being part of the NIBS network but now also being a part of the Nordic Network.

Several of our staff have shared their expertise at these conferences and ISB is starting to be a learning hub in Norway, this year hosting conferences in Learning Support and Norwegian. We are very proud of these teacher leaders!

Academically our students continue to thrive and we publish our results transparently on our website where you can enjoy our National Prøve and our ISA results. Additionally we participated in Lego League, Kanguru Mathematics, Unga Abel and chess competitions. In each competition we fared well even on a national level!

For the second year in a row we are performing our school musical at Fyllingsdal Theater where this year, High School Musical is being staged. A group of ISB students has received professional training in sound and lighting technology and are now able to support both in house and at a professional theatre.

The Art Meander has been hosted for the first time since Covid and every student has had several works exhibited. We opened ISB to the public for all to enjoy our artists!

Looking ahead to next year we will be heading into another working on the concept of becoming an even more intentionally inclusive school.

We will be working on our newly developed statement making it come to life. All of our new initiatives will be in their third year and will begin being a part of the ISB fabric. What a wonderful time to be a student at ISB and part of a vibrant and thriving community.

I would like to thank our Board, our staff, our parents and in particular our students for this year being second to none! Go Orcas!

Warmly,

Viki Stiebert ISB Director