Security

Security staffs are on duty at the main gate at all times. In addition, regular patrols of the school premises are undertaken throughout the day.

Any parents or visitors wishing to come into school between drop-off and pick-up times must sign in at the Main Office Reception and obtain a visitor pass. The pass must be displayed whilst on the school premises.

All school staff can be identified by their security badge bearing their name and photograph.

Staff Car Park

There are no unallocated spaces in the car park; access is for drop-off or pick-up only. Any parent who needs to come into school should park outside on the public highway.

The School Office

The school office is open from 7.00am until 3.00pm from Monday to Thursday and 7.00am to 12.30pm on Friday, during term time and operates on a limited opening system during the school holidays. Times are advised via the Parents' Newsletter.

The School Year

The school year runs from late August to June and is comprised of three terms.

The School Day

The school operates from Monday to Friday.

Monday to Thursday	Friday
School starts	07.25am		07.25am
Pre - Kindergarten finish Kindergarten finish	11.30am 11.30am		11.30am 11.30am
Reception finish	12.45pm		11.45am
Years 1 - 6 finish	1.00pm		11.45am

Start of Day Procedure

Duties

The Primary gate (near the swimming pool) is open from 6.45am. School staffs are on duty at the Primary gate, in the hall and basketball court area from 07.10am.

Pre-Kindergarten Kindergarten Reception

Children may be left in the Kindergarten play area from 07.10am. The Kindergarten gate will be closed at 07.45am. Children may be left in the Reception play area from 07.10am.

Year 1 to Year 6

Children are expected to take their bags to the classroom and to return to the supervised play areas. Children are asked to go straight to their classroom when the bell rings at 7.25am for registration, so that they are ready for their first lesson at 7.30am. Parents are encouraged to ensure that their children arrive at school promptly. If children arrive after registration has taken place they will marked late. Children arriving at school after 7.30am must sign in at the Main Office.

End of Day Procedure

Duties

School staff are on duty at the Main and Primary Gate, as well as the school hall, until 1.15pm. For parents of Reception children the swimming pool gate is open at 12.45pm for pick-up.

Pre-Kindergarten                    Children must be collected from their classroom promptly,

Kindergarten/ Reception         otherwise a charge will be made for use of the school child minding/crèche service in Kindergarten.

Collection in Person	Collection by Car
Year 1 to Year 2	From Class room From Main or Swimming Pool Gate
Year 3 to Year 6	From Main or Swimming Pool Gate From designated point agreed by you and your child. eg. Playground or by Swimming Pool.	From Swimming Pool Gate or Main Gate

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Year 1 to Year 6

Please ensure your child is collected promptly; he/she becomes your responsibility after 1.15pm. The school cannot be held liable for any accidents that occur after 1.15pm if a child has not been collected at the correct time.

Childminding/crèche service (KG - Y2)

This service runs from Monday to Thursday from 11.45am to 3.00pm, Friday from 11.45am to 1.30pm in the Kindergarten. Term fees of $275.00 for up to one hour and $550.00 for up to two hours for this service are invoiced with school fees at the start of each term and are non-refundable (If service is requested.) Alternatively, payment may be made, on a daily or weekly basis, directly to staff on duty in the Kindergarten. The daily charge is B$3.00 per 30 minutes (or any part thereof).

 

Library

The Library is open until 3.00pm (Mon-Thurs) for students wishing to change books, complete homework or read quietly.

Break-time

Monday to Thursday

Reception	10.40-11.10am
KS1 - Year 1 and Year 2	10.40-11.10am
KS2 - Year 3 to Year 6	10.00 - 10.30am

Friday

Reception	9.30 - 10.00am
KS1 - Year 1 and Year 2	9.30 - 10.00am
KS2 - Year 3 to Year 6	9.30 - 10.00am

Children are expected to wear a school hat at break times.

Snack-time

Snack for Reception and KS1 is flexible, depending on the needs of the children. Snack-time in Key Stage 2 is dependent on lesson schedules but is usually taken at 9.00 am.

Food for snack time should be brought to school daily. Please ensure that snacks are healthy and a drink in a plastic bottle is included. Sweets, lollies, chocolate and canned drinks are not suitable snacks. A piece of fruit every day is encouraged.

Food for snack time should not be shared. On occasion, birthday cakes are brought into class for the younger children. If your child has any type of food allergy please inform the nurse.

We have one drinking fountain at school. Please make sure your child has at least 1 (one) litre of water as well as juice or other liquids that you provide for your child. Extra water should be provided on PE days.

Absences

If your child is absent, for whatever reason, please send an explanatory letter, or note in your child's home-link/homework diary, with your child on their return to school.

PTA Shop

Primary children are not allowed to buy food or drink from the PTA shop during school hours but may do so once lessons have finished for the day.

School Events

Parents are warmly invited to a number of school events during the school year. These include Sports Days, Assemblies and special celebrations to which parents are invited to support their child's efforts.

Parents are also invited to Department Concerts and Class Assemblies.

Key Stage 1 assemblies	Friday	9.05 - 9.30am	in the Hall
Key Stage 2 assemblies	Friday	11.00 - 11.30am	in the Hall

Details of all events are published in Year Group Newsletters and in an events list which is distributed to all parents at the beginning of each term.

School Excursions

Children are often taken to visit places of interest or to view exhibitions. Letters are sent home informing parents of any planned visit. For insurance purposes it is vital that the permission slip attached to the letter is filled in, signed and returned to the school.

Parent/teacher communication

It is important that the school and home work in close partnership for your child's education and welfare. If you have any concerns, please come to the school and talk about them. We maintain an 'open door' policy but ask you to bear in mind that as we are a large and busy school, a pre-arranged appointment is recommended.

• For younger children there is informal day-to-day communication with parents.
• From Reception, children have home reader notebooks or home-link diaries. These should be checked regularly for any other messages; they are a useful, informal two-way communication system.
• Parent/teacher interviews are available in Term 1, Term 2 and Term 3. A settling in/target-setting meeting takes place in the middle of Term 1.
• Written reports are issued in the first and third term.
• Year Level Newsletters about the term's topics are usually sent out at the start of each term. These are also available on the school website.
• Newsletters and PTA notices are sent home with the youngest child. These are also available on the school website.

If you have not been receiving newsletters please check with your child's teacher.

Code of Conduct

The International School provides a caring environment where your child can feel secure and happy throughout the day. We offer a complete educational environment introducing each child to a wide range of concepts and skills, providing experiences, which encourage academic and physical development, as well as moral, cultural and aesthetic awareness.

Behaviour is managed by placing an emphasis on praising well-behaved children whilst ensuring that the children are aware that some forms of behaviour are unacceptable. Any unacceptable conduct will be discussed with the child and with the parent.

Key Stage 1 children have a system of reward stickers and certificates whilst Key Stage 2 children earn certificates and team points for individual achievement and for their school team.

An agreed set of year group rules is stuck inside the home-link diary in term one. (applicable from Year 1 to Year 6)

School Teams

There are 3 school teams - Beruang (Yellow) - Sun Bear, Ingkat (Red) - Tarsier and Sangang (Blue) - Hornbill. Children of the same family will be placed in the same team. Throughout the year, points are awarded for a variety of reasons, including academic and sporting achievement, courtesy and co-operation.

Each team has captains and vice-captains elected from the Year 6 children.

School captains are elected each year to represent the primary school and to lead the primary school student council.

Parent-Teacher Association

The school is fortunate in having an active PTA which not only raises money to purchase the many "extras" we enjoy, but also organises regular functions, such as discos for the children, car boot sales and quiz nights. The International School community and the whole community in Bandar Seri Begawan enjoy these functions.

If you would like to become involved in our PTA, please tell your child's class teacher or inquire at the PTA shop.

Extra-Curricular Activities

During the course of the year, a variety of extra-curricular activities are offered by the staff of I.S.B. Some activities are limited to certain age groups and places are strictly limited to ensure adequate supervision. The primary extra-curricular activities co-ordinator informs parents/students of the options available early in term one. Please keep a check on the ECA notice board outside the school office. A charge of B$5.00 per child per club is charged to cover any materials and admin time.

Home-Link/Diary

Children from Year 1 to Year 6 have a home-link book. In these you will find the class timetable. The home-link diary is a useful informal two-way communication system. Please check the diary and sign it at the end of each week.

The book is designed to be used as a home-school link. If you have any queries concerning your child, or school life in general, feel free to write them in the space provided.

The foundations of effective homework practices are established early on and develop progressively across the key stages - homework practices are used to support effective transition links to the secondary school.

Recommended Time for Homework

The National Curriculum recommended time allocation, based on current good practice is:

Years 1 and 2	1 hour per week	Reading, spellings, other literacy work and number work
Years 3 and 4	1.5 hours per week	Literacy and numeracy as for Years 1 and 2, with occasional assignments in other subjects
Years 5 and 6	30 minutes per day	Regular weekly schedule with continued emphasis on literacy and numeracy but other curriculum areas also covered.

The daily recommended reading, which the school encourages for all Primary children, may be done as part of the homework.

In Reception and Year 1, home reading activities should be kept short (10-15 mins.). Children will also bring home phonemes (letter sounds) and sight words to practise and learn. If you feel your child is too tired for that day to sit down and concentrate, don't worry - just write a note to the teacher in the home reader notebook.

Please return the Home Reading folder to school every day.

In Year 1, some children will still need to continue with "Jolly Phonics". In Year 2, only a small number of children will be on the phonics programme.

Homework tasks consolidate and reinforce skills and understanding, particularly in literacy and numeracy. Additionally, for pupils in Years 5 and 6, 'family design technology' challenges are set. These are welcomed, particularly by the more practically orientated pupils and parents.

Homework and the home-link diaries are monitored on a regular basis. The quality of the work is also evaluated and uncompleted or unsatisfactory homework is recorded in the homework diary.

Assessment

Children in Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten undergo ongoing observations and assessment related to their developmental progress. A summary of these observations is included with your child's end of year report.

Children entering Reception undergo a baseline assessment in the first few weeks that highlights targets to develop.

Children are formally (summative assessment) assessed at the end of each unit of work, as appropriate, as well as at the end of the academic year. Informal (formative assessment) assessments take place every day in a variety of ways, these may take the form of teacher observations, independent written tasks, homework projects, presentations, discussions, team work activities or even debating issues in a literacy lesson. Your child's class teacher will then be able to tell you if your child is achieving what is expected for his/her age level and may involve you in setting targets for improvement.

Assessment Levels are included with your child's end of year report.

Children entering ISB at any point other than Kindy or Reception will be assessed to ensure that they can benefit from the educational opportunities that are available.

School Uniform

School uniform is compulsory. Examples and full details are available from the school office (photographs are also on the school website).

It is recommended that children, up to and including Reception, wear shoes that they can fasten themselves (eg. Velcro).

Jewellery

In the interests of health and safety, no jewellery should be worn to school. Studs or sleepers may be worn provided they are removed or covered for PE.

We cannot accept responsibility for any loses eg. watches, gold, jewellery. If it is valuable or precious, please keep it at home.

Physical Education (from Reception)

For PE, children should have the correct kit plus a school hat (available from the school office). They need to bring a change of shoes and uniform to change into after the lesson. Please ensure that all PE kit is named.

Any watches should be removed for P.E. lessons and left with the class teacher.

Footwear:	Sports shoes should be ones that your child can manage on their own.
Hats:	Your child needs a hat to wear at break time every day. The school hat is compulsory and can be used for both PE and break-time.

Swimming (from Kindergarten)

Costumes/trunks.	The school costume/trunks is available from the Main Office and should be brought to school in a plastic bag. Swimwear is to be put on immediately before the lesson. Boys should wear proper trunks and not shorts.
Footwear	Suitable footwear should be provided for walking to and from the pool.
Towels	These must be named. Girls with long hair may need an extra towel to help dry their hair.
Goggles and bathing hats.	The proper use of goggles is encouraged. Swimming hats should be worn by children with long hair. Hats and goggles must be labelled. School swimming hats are available via the school office or from the PE office.

Swimming and P.E. are part of the curriculum and a note is required if your child is unable to participate. Children will only be excused long term if they have a medical certificate.

Change of clothes

Pre-Kindergarten, Kindergarten and Reception children should bring a change of clothes to school every day in case of toileting accidents or enthusiastic water play.

Please make sure that breakable or potentially dangerous or aggressive toys are not brought to school. Try to discourage your child from bringing anything to school which is very valuable or sentimental to him/her or yourself. Teachers do all they can to keep objects from home safe, but cannot accept responsibility for them.

Library

Library books and home reading books should always be carried in a book folder. Lost books are charged for ($15.00 + cost of book), so please keep them safe.

Stationery

The class teacher provides stationery such as exercise books and workbooks directly to your child. Classroom stationery (pencils, crayons) is provided, however Key Stage 2 children are encouraged to provide their own.

Names

Please name all items of uniform and personal belongings. Fabric name tags may be ordered from the following websites: www.jjcash.co.uk or www.minilabels.co.uk.

What not to bring!

Please make sure that breakable or potentially dangerous or aggressive toys are not brought to school. Try to discourage your child from bringing anything to school which is very valuable or sentimental to him/her or yourself. Teachers do all they can to keep objects from home safe, but cannot accept responsibility for them.

Mobile phones, electronic toys, MP3 players etc., should not be used in school time. If a child needs a phone for after school use, it must be stored by the child in their bag and not be used in the day.