WELCOME

By: Justin Alexander HS Principal

‘Welcome back’ is the message that we share with our students and teachers at the start of each school year, but this year that message contained a lot more promise, hope, and excitement than usual as we began the school year with restrictions easing and school becoming more ‘normal’. As the 202223 school year has unfolded we have been able to welcome back some of the traditions and events that have sadly been missing over the past few years.

Rather than dwell on the challenges of COVID and the restrictions that it brought onto schools and our children, I wanted to share with you the exciting and welcome return of these traditions and community-building events that make ISB a special place. At the High School level, some of these traditions and events include IASAS events, where we join with our partner schools in this region (Taipei American School, Singapore American School, International School of Kuala Lumpur, International School Manila, and Jakarta Intercultural School) to compete and come together at IASAS athletic tournaments (Volleyball, Football and Cross Country) and Cultural Conventions such as MUN, Arts and Film.

You can see from the photos taken at the IASAS Season 1 opening ceremony how excited ISB students and their newfound friends from the other schools really were about being back together again.

Friendship, camaraderie, and pride to be an ISB Panther took priority as our gyms were filled with spectators and students enjoying fun and fierce yet friendly competition on the volleyball court and on the cross-country track during season one.

We hosted band, choir and strings festivals and our first live performance of a HS play ‘Museum’ for some time (although we did sneak in an upbeat version of ‘High School Musical’ last school year). The Junior Special Olympics took place (in person) on campus in November and the ‘Operation Smile’ trip to Mae Sot took place in semester one

Of course, in-person learning returned, and teachers and students were thrilled to be able to do their work and engage with one another in a classroom, around a desk or on a board, or sharing a laptop instead of being on zoom again. The optionality of masks also helped a great deal as our students could now see our teachers’ mouths and expressions as they explained the vagaries of 2nd order differential equations in calculus classes.

Our faculty were thrilled to be able to share food, coffee, and a laugh or two on campus for the first time in nearly three years as we finally came together again for faculty meetings, social gatherings, and faculty breakfasts to start the day.

We look forward to semester two with similar hope and optimism as the situation improves and travel restrictions ease even further. We are excited about being able to engage more fully in our service projects and service learning and provide direct service to those in need that are in our community and region.

Thank you parents, students and faculty for your efforts over the past few years in managing the various lockdowns, online learning, masks and social distancing restrictions with a smile on your face.