Upper School

As ever it's been a very busy year in the Upper School with many highlights along the way plus a few goals to tackle for the future.

Upper School has tasted success throughout the year in many ways. Once again two of our grade 10 students have been successful in gaining places for their post 16 education at the prestigious United World College. One of them will study here in Norway at UWC Flekke whilst the other will travel to UWC in Canada. Huge congratulations to both.

As with the other sections of the school, Upper School received very favourable feedback regarding all aspects of its performance in the recent accreditation visit.

One goal for the future, that we were already aware of, was to address some challenges with our written curriculum which had been left somewhat on the backburner during the Covid pandemic. We are determined to bring this up to speed asap and have appointed Jennifer Oelz to be the MYP Coordinator starting August 2023. This is a very positive move for ISB and will ensure that the curriculum now has the full attention it deserves.

Mathematics has been a big focus for ISB this year with participation in the Abel, Unge Abel as well as the Kanguru competitions, where students were placed highly in all competitions. A big thank you to the Maths department and particularly Mr Cook and Ms Pavlin for leading this initiative. We have also gained commendations for our achievements in this year's First Lego League.

The Arts are a big focus at ISB and in Upper School we are in great anticipation of the upcoming production of High School Musical in June, where US students have been key in helping to direct and choreograph the show.

There have been great individual achievements with both Corriveau brothers winning the Norwegian young musician national competition at Ungdommens Musikkmesterskap (umm.no): competitions for violin and cello. Preparations are also well under way for ISB’s participation in the International Shakespeare Festival in London next year.

Grades 6-10

ISB has also made a substantial contribution to the local community via our Eco Committee and the Trash Warriors, who have cleaned up almost a tonne of garbage from the locale. The Duke of Edinburgh International Award inaugural group in Grade 9 are moving swiftly towards the completion of the Bronze Award. They too have made great contributions to our local community by completing weeks of active service hours.

I am sure there are many other achievements that deserved a mention but we haven't the word count here today so apologies to those excluded.

Working at ISB is a real joy with such dedicated staff and motivated students. I hope I have highlighted above some examples of why it is such a pleasure to arrive at work each day . Onward to next year.

Best wishes

Mr Peter Ledger