Message from the Principal - Nov 27 2019 3

Dear reader,

A very busy block 2 has seen many events, activities and opportunities for students as we head into the final block of the calendar year.

We were very grateful for a fantastic Teacher Appreciation Breakfast in the first week of this block and thank all parents for contributing to this. We have fantastic staff at the British International School of Ljubljana, and it was wonderful to see the positive comments made by the students displayed on the screen for the teachers to enjoy. This was a great moment for everyone to start the day and I look forward to the next appreciation morning!

Congratulations to all the participants in the Ljubljana Marathon weekend. I believe this is an incredibly special event and I was personally so proud of everyone involved, running, supporting and those helping to organise this excellent event. To have the highest ever number of runners involved is testament to the hard work of the PE team, led by Mr. Damjan, parents and staff at BISL. As mentioned in the website article, we strongly encourage a healthy and active lifestyle at BISL to blend with the hard work the students put into their academic studies. Thank you to everyone for supporting this wonderful community event and we hope to see many more involved near year.

Thank you to the staff for providing a rich array of student leadership opportunities this block. With the Head Boy and Girl announcements, we have now added Prefects, House Captains, Student Council and look forward to nominating Librarians and other areas in which students can thrive in leading projects, proposing ideas and driving forward areas of change in school. These opportunities are essential in developing team work, communication and organisational skills and also extremely helpful in the future when applying for university courses and showing areas of real impact for others in our community.

I am proud to continue the tradition of Founder's Day here at BISL. It was a privilege for me to be able to relay a few special words about our Founder, Jeremy Hibbins, from his parents during a very respectful memorial tree planting ceremony, during which one of our students also gave a touching anecdote of the impact Jeremy has had on so many here at BISL. The tree will serve as a meaningful dedication to our Founder and will be a permanent reminder for future staff and students to observe.

I believe the recent Halloween event led by the PTA was the best I have seen celebrated in any school I have been a part of. It was truly inclusive, thoroughly enjoyable and engaged the whole community in the high-quality activities, games and performances throughout the day. Thank you to everyone involved. The students will remember this Halloween for a long time to come!

Our new ‘Theme Block’ moves on from Humanities to Performing Arts in Block 3. During this block, we have seen a huge amount of student displays, projects and assemblies celebrating various aspects of Humanities and inspirational figures in History. Thank you to all staff involved.

Finally, a special note to acknowledge the amount of support and time that parents have put in during this block to help our students at school. It is very much valued and appreciated.

Have a wonderful Block 3, we look forward to our IGCSE/A Level information sessions (4pm Thursday 21st/28th November) open to all parents, and then to our Christmas celebrations!

Kind regards,

Paul Walton