Message from Mr. TJ Lee

Dear Students,

Welcome to another exciting new academic year. I want to especially welcome the Secondary 1 and Junior College 1 students who are new to the school. I hope all of you will settle in nicely and enjoy your studies, your new friends, and the fun activities BBS KJ has prepared for you.

To all my students and staff members, I hope you all have a fruitful year ahead. You will see that the school is undergoing some renovation. The library and front porch will have a new look by the end of the August.

The school is embarking on some bold new initiatives. The first is the adopting of technology in teaching and learning, which I will elaborate further in this address. Next is the use of Authentic Assessment to evaluate the students’ understanding of their lessons.

The Role of Technology in Teaching and Learning

With robots getting increasingly affordable, smarter and more efficient, why do we still send humans to space?

Neil DeGrasse Tyson, a renowned astrophysicist, believes that “human exploration of space has no substitute”. He points out that there is “value in human inspiration”. While robots do garner some curiosity, astronauts are the ones whom people look up to and more importantly, they inspire scientific interest and endeavor in others, especially children.

At BBS, we believe that each student has the potential to be someone else’s inspiration in his or her own field of interest. This is why we have created numerous opportunities for our students to explore and develop their interests. Moreover, we encourage them to share their experiences with their peers. For example, a group of our students were given the opportunity to gain global exposure and demonstrate their aptitude for the sciences by representing the school in the 2017 UTS International Technology Innovation Competition (SEA) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. After clinching 1^st Runner-up in the competition, the team shared their experience with the rest of the school. This does not only allow the team to reflect on their achievements, but also inspire other students to following their passions. We hope to create a culture of mutual inspiration amongst students, which will spur them to greater heights.

The new edition of the E Newsletter, BBS Connect, provides opportunities for students to share and highlight their experiences and stories in BBS KJ. We hope to inspire our students to follow their passions and their dreams. It also provides a platform to connect the students to the community and the world.

At the staff level, we continue to provide opportunities for professional development. BBS regularly sends its staff to international and local conferences to acquire the best practices and develop a better learning environment for the students. For instance, a group of teachers visited the Jakarta International School (JIS) and local universities to study about a technology-led learning environment. Upon returning, the teachers shared their experiences and insights with the rest of the teaching team. Some of these ideas were then integrated into a broad vision for the school. With this, BBS KJS will move into a new phase of technology-inspired curriculum for the next academic year.

As Dr. Tyson once said, “not only do we live among the stars, but the stars live within us”. BBS believes that all students have the potential to be stars in their own right. We hope that by inspiring one another, BBS students will reach their fullest potential and continue to be an inspiration for others in the future.

Sincerely,

Mr. TJ