Yogyakarta International School

YIS was reborn into its new campus only four months ago. When I arrived here in July the school was a dust bowl. Bill Gamble and Yy Parker from our School Board were feverishly managing both the renovation of the new site and the old site and were always confident it would be done in time. They were right. With a team of more than 90 contractors, Ibu Lany, Bapaks Supri and Singgih in the office, Paks John, Warrukan and Suparman, Ibus Sukida, Suki and Budi and the guys in the security team, the transition to the new site was relatively seamless. My thanks go to all those people. It was a mammoth effort, remarkable not only for its complexity, but for the speed it was done.
School started on time with 59 bright eyed and bushy tailed students. Word is out and we’re already growing. From 59 last semester we’ll start next semester with a possible 64 students. At this growth rate we could have more than 80 students in a couple of years.
This is great for the school, and the new site helps, but schools are more than buildings. The teaching teams, both teachers and assistant teachers are an integral part of the school and building it’s reputation. The teachers: Ibu Cate, Ibu Wiwin, Ibu Anggar, Ibu Candra and Pak Ino and the assistants; Ibu Susi, Ibu Weni, Ibu Dewi now combine to have many years of experience at YIS and have helped develop and maintain the character and culture of the school retaining the good things from the old site and bringing them to the new. My thanks to them for their continued professionalism, the care they show our students and the great effort they put into the school.
The old staff were joined by us newcomers this year. Ibu Amber and Ibu Diah now teach the grade 1-2 class and Ibu Colette teaches the grade ¾ class. These three have smoothly joined the team and I am proud to be working with them at YIS. Thanks to this team we have an excellent school where education is a happening event. All teachers at YIS set high goals for the kids, and the kids respond well by reaching them.
I must also thank the YIS Board for their help and support this semester. Firstly those who are no longer members – Pak Matthias and Ibu Yy . Yy particularly because she made our arrival here so easy in July. Then the current board members – Bill Gamble, Ibu Lona, Pak Rik and Ibu Leontine who have responsibilities and roles that are extremely important to the school. They have sometimes onerous duties and much of what they do goes unheralded, but without them the school would be a very different place. A big thanks to them for everything they have done and will continue to do for us.
I mustn’t forget to mention that large group of people we call The Parents. Through YISPA and individual contributions, for example the Christmas Fairy and Christmas Elf we’ve seen tonight our school community really comes alive. Most learning the kids do will be absorbed into their very being, but it’s the memories of events and experiences like tonight that will define their school experience. So thank you the parents for everything you do.
Lastly we can’t get away from, in any school, the importance of the students. You kids are why we’re all here tonight. You are the reason YIS exists. It’s your involvement in the school, your learning, the successes and challenges you have along the way, which make for a wonderful school. So thanks to all the kids. I hope you have a wonderful holiday and are well prepared to continue in the excellent way you have started this semester when you get back from your holidays. Well done everybody, Happy Christmas.
 

Greetings, The YIS blog has been having some problems - the power went off here when I was uploading a few weeks ago, and now my computer crashes when I try more. I am working on the problem.

Please view this website now as a temporary site. We need an updated, modern and more representative website for our community. It will happen soon I hope.

School finishes for the term on December 18th at 12 noon. There are a few things happening before then:

Student Progress Reports go home to you on Tuesday 16th. Parents are welcome to make appointments to speak with a teacher any time. If you won’t be here on Tuesday contact me for your report early.

After School Activities stop this Thursday 11th. Next Monday and Tuesday the after school activity will be a rehearsal for the Christmas concert.

The YIS Christmas party is on Wednesday 17th evening, you will have received notification of time and place by now. Please be on time as the kids want to put on their show - and it’s on before we eat.

School resumes on January 12th. I hope everyone has a great Christmas and new year holiday.

Derek Pugh

Because in Yogyakarta we are always at risk of volcanic eruption, earthquakes or possible security problems parents need to be sure that we at the school are well prepared. Safety of our students is paramount and each staff member needs to be trained and ready for any eventuality regarding the welfare of your children. 

To this end you will be noticing, or hearing about, changes to our operating procedures as the policies for our new school site become fine tuned. Your children may tell you about evacuation drills, and we also have telephone tree trials. Parents need to make sure if their contact details change they record them at the office. 

Each classroom in the school has emergency bags containing masks, safety equipment and first aid equipment. We have evacuation plans in place if necessary, plus fire fighting equipment and quick contact telephone connections to emergency services. 

Our security staff have been receiving training lately and their manuals are being updated. All school staff joined them for a two hour training session about security with the police. 

The School Board has a Security Committee containing myself, Ibu Lona and Pak Rizal. You can send letters or notes to us through the Board’s mailbox near the office door. 

I have written a new pamphlet, called “Security Guidelines for Parents” available at the front office if parents want a copy. If you have any questions about security at the school please contact me or a member of the committee directly. 

Derek Pugh 

Principal 

18^th November 2008 

Security: Parents will notice the school has an increased security presence currently. You can help by never leaving a bag unattended, or sending an unknown driver or other person to pick up your son – the satpams will be vigilant.

Halloween: The party was a great success. Many thanks to YISPA for their organisation and everyone who sent in the excellent food. Next school party is at Christmas time.

The EARCOS CONFERENCE

Recently I attended the EARCOS School Leaders Conference in Kota Kinabalu. Nearly 100 schools from across Asia were there. I found the networking with other schools, particularly other small Indonesian International Schools was valuable and I attended workshops on how kids learn, how other schools operate and on leadership of International Schools. There was much on modern theories of how the brain learns that will have direct affect on my teaching and mentoring for other teachers. I bought two books  - “Introduction to Brain Compatible Learning “ (Jensen) and “Brainy Parents, Brainy Kids” (Joseph) which parents can borrow from the front office.

I learned about the importance of sleep for learning, the effect of blue light, diet etc for the kids. Eg the blue light emitted by computers and video games has a direct influence on the pineal gland in the brain and it inhibits the production of hormones that lead to sleep. This is why you can play them all night and discos have blue lights. Night lights for kids sleeping need to be yellow rather than white (which contains blue) and everyone should refrain from using computers just before bed. Flashing lights such as on-standby lights or phone chargers etc can interrupt sleep patterns without us realising it. Sound can be used to block out distracting sounds – ie music without words can be good for memory retention. The Mozart Effect may be coming back into fashion.

Halloween greetings, 

On Friday the 31^st October, prepare for the party of the year. 

YIS and YISPA are hosting the YIS Halloween Party from 5-30 till 8.30 on Friday night. 

There are prizes for the best costumes and a marvellous pot-luck dinner provided by the parents. There’ll be shows and costumes and a bit of trick’n’treating. 

In order to prepare the school and not give anything away, YISPA have requested the kids go home at 12 pm, lunchtime. Everyone is asked to arrange to pick up their children at 12 pm, and return at 5.30. 

Parents are requested to drop off candy in the box at the front of the school to help feed the masses of ghouls and goblins expected to haunt the school on the night. 

YISPA parents and Ibu Wiwin have already put an enormous effort into this party so hold onto your hats and get ready to be scared….. 

See you there, and remember the school should be kid-free between 12 and 5.30. 

Pak Derek 

Thanks to everyone involved, it worked! Text messages were sent out at 10:45 with follow up phone calls starting 10 minutes later for those who had not replied. We had to go to a secondary phone number only once, and one parent was hard to contact because she was having a facial, but in the end all parents were contacted within an hour. More than half the parents had replied or been contacted within 20 minutes. In an emergency situation when we really had to contact parents it would be quicker because we’d have more people manning the phones. 

Note that in a real situation, if you yourself cannot pick up your child and you arrange for another parent or driver to do so, you must let us know. We will not allow children to leave the school with strangers.

Our next emergency drill will be for building evacuation. The kids need to know where to go for a roll call.

Derek Pugh 21/10/08

 All YIS parents have been placed on our telephone tree. This is designed to be a rapid way to contact all parents in an emergency situation.
It works like this:
·    1. In the case of an emergency the Principal may decide that all children need to leave the school so all parents need to be contacted as quickly as possible.
·    2. The Principal telephones or text messages those people directly in line on the telephone tree to inform them of the emergency situation.
·    3. Those people then contact the next people on the line and, if the message was by text, you need to contact the principal or the sender to say you have received the message.
Number 3 above is very important because we will then know that the telephone tree has worked and everyone has the message.
PRACTICE
We will have a practice run of this phone tree on Monday 20^th October.
When you receive a message please pass it on promptly and we’ll time how quickly the process takes.
Parents should have the numbers of the people they need to contact stored on their telephones.

Welcome back to school for the second term of the year.

This term is 11 weeks long and finishes on December 18th.

Please remember school fees are due on October 31st. Many thanks to everyone who paid so promptly last term, it saves many an administration headache.

A few things are worth reporting to you about.

The sports oval is now open. We’ve kept everybody off the grass for nearly a month now so that it can be well established before the onslaught of 60 pairs of running feet. Ibu Anggar will be pleased not to have to take her classes as far away as last term. YIS is a member of the East Asian Regional Council of Schools, EARCOS, and we have a supportive network of International Schools and their Principals from across the region and access to a number of professional development activities for the staff. I will be attending their annual leaders conference in Kota Kinabalu on the weekend of 1st November and am looking forward to garnering ideas from everyone there. It is my intention that YIS remains as up to date as possible in educational and management practices.

As the wet season starts we want to plant more trees – both shade trees and fruit trees, or better yet, trees that will do both. If you have any cashew trees, avocados or similar we could plant in the yard please let us know.

We’ll be running a couple of emergency drills in the next few weeks. If your kids come home with horror stories and you haven’t felt the earth shake and nor are they singed, then it was just practice. We’ll have a telephone tree trial also.

I hope everyone has a great term. I am looking forward to it.

See you in the school yard,

Derek Pugh

7th October 2008

Week 4, term 1

Open night this week – Tuesday 16^th.

Parents are invited to visit the school between  3.30 and 5:30 pm to talk to teachers and tour the classrooms. Staff will be available to answer any questions you have about your child’s program and their teaching philosophy.

This should be a general talk only, but if you want to have more specific indications of your child’s progress please make a personal appointment with the teacher. This term is only five weeks long so there will be no formal written report.