Bonn International School

"Help! My child only wants to read graphic novels."

Thoughts from our Teacher Librarians:

This is a message we hear often in the library, so we would like to share some common solutions to this dilemma.
But before we look at how to move children beyond graphic novels, let's take just a moment to celebrate that your child IS reading. 🥳

While comic and graphic novels may not seem like serious reading material, they do have value.
These types of books can be helpful for children who have difficulty visualizing a story in their head (aphantasia) or for those who may find reading a difficult task.

Keep in mind also that as messages in our modern society become more and more visual, it is only natural that text with images is more appealing than text alone.

Graphic novels build reading skills, which can include:

📗 using of multiple intelligences: linguistic, spatial, interpersonal
📘 analysing media-driven messages
📗 inferring - as seen in body language, symbolism, and other nuances
📘 building higher level vocabulary

One of the best ways to help your child move to less visual texts is to read with them.

Find a favourite chapter book - such as Geronimo Stilton, The Terrible Two, or DragonBreath - and take turns reading. Sometimes reading the first chapter or two together creates enough interest and desire to finish a story independently. It is also ok to read the whole book together.

Instead of books, try magazines. Borrow some from the BIS Media Centre or buy a subscription and get a surprise in the mail each month!

With more words and fewer images, this is a natural step toward longer texts. Magazines (as well as books) can even be accessed electronically using the Sora reading app from BIS.

📍 Attention older readers: Let us know your favourite graphic novels - past or present in the comments

Beethoven Fest Bonn: Our music students performed on the stages of Bonn city 🎻🎶

Last weekend, our students brightened the streets of Bonn with their music. Led by our co-curricular strings teacher Herr Aisawa, they performed at Bonn’s annual Beethoven Festival.

With Beethoven’s legendary music echoing through the city centre, our young musicians put on great performances that had passers by enchanted.

Huge congratulations to them for all their hard work, dedication and performances!

📚✨ Reflecting on Our Back to School Evenings

In the last weeks we welcomed both primary and secondary school families for our annual Back to School Evenings.

For both events, the evening was filled with productive conversations, shared aspirations, and a collective commitment to fostering a strong partnership between school and home. 💬👨‍👩‍👧‍👦

🔹 Primary School:
Parents were introduced to the nurturing environment that shapes our youngest learners, with teachers sharing curricular overviews for the year ahead.
It was a wonderful opportunity to set the foundation for each student’s academic and emotional growth.

🔹 Secondary School:
We engaged in meaningful discussions on academic pathways, opportunities, and the skills students will need as they continue to grow into responsible, confident young adults. The exchange of ideas and feedback was invaluable in aligning our goals for the school year.

A huge thank you to all the families who took the time to attend, ask questions, and build connections with our teachers. Your involvement is the cornerstone of our students' success.

Together, we can create a supportive and empowering environment for every student. Together, we are stronger and can make this another memorable and successful school year. 🌟💡

🌧️ Playtime in the Rain - The Opening of our NEW Early Learning Playground 🛝

Not even the pouring rain could keep us away from enjoying our new Early Learning playground! 😄
Children (and some of our staff!) were quick to dive into the many play elements, making the most of the occasion.

While we moved the official ceremony indoors, we still had a blast with bubbles, great coffee thanks to , and delicious pastries! ☕🥐

Thank you to everyone for your sense of adventure and fun in the wet.
Here’s to many more adventures on the playground! 🌈🌟

**Kickoff to Community Event Time: Building Connections!**

Last Friday marked the first Community Event Time (CET) for Grade 7 and Grade 8 students—aimed at fostering connection and social-emotional learning.

👉 What’s CET?
CET happens every two weeks, providing a safe space for students across Grades 6-8 to:
✔ Get to know each other
✔ Build relationships
✔ Support one another
✔ Enhance their social-emotional learning through shared experiences

👉 The First Challenge:
Students were tasked with collaboratively creating a map of the world from memory using paper, pencils, and tape. The activity fostered teamwork and leadership, with students showing impressive attention to detail.

👉 Learning Continues:
Once the map was completed, they were quizzed with questions related to various countries. For each answer, students stood in the corresponding country on the map, sharing personal information like their birthplace, favourite vacation spots, and preferred types of food.

This interactive approach allowed students to both express themselves and learn more about their peers.

While this time Grade 6 students were busy receiving their iPads, they will be joining the fun next time.

A big thank you to all the teachers who supported CET and to Mr. Fortuna for leading the activity!

Welcome BBQ - a day to celebrate our BIS community and 10 years of our BISSV Sports & Activities club 🥳

Our Welcome BBQ was a wonderful celebration of community, marked by dry, and perhaps a little too hot 🥵, weather and the warmth of coming together.

The sun shone brightly as we commemorated 10 years of our BISSV Sports and Activities club, a milestone that gave us plenty to be grateful for and reflect upon.

A day filled with laughter, good food, and shared memories, making it a truly special occasion for all.

Our thanks to everyone who helped and supported us in making it another lovely BIS Community event.

International Voices Choir

Empowering Growth Through Values 🌟

Ms. McKenzie's Grade 4 class explored what makes us unique and united by discussing core family values; based on the central idea - understanding who we are as individuals and as a community empowers us to grow.

Students had heartwarming conversations at home, identifying the most important values in their families. Back in class, they created Venn diagrams to compare and contrast these values, revealing both similarities and differences.

By embracing the richness of each other's values, we gain deeper insights into who we are and what drives us. Recognizing shared values helps us find common ground and strengthens our community. 💫

Board Retreat - a time to reflect, strategize and focus

Last Saturday, our Board of Trustees and Leadership Team came together to determine our strategic objectives for the coming year.

The focus was on reviewing the accreditation report and refining our strategic intents. With these insights, they developed goals and priorities for the year ahead. Once these are formalized, we will share them with our BIS Community in the Newsflash.

As a school, we are committed to enhancing our school's strong ethos and ensuring an enriching experience for every student.

We thank our Board of Trustees (all volunteers!) for their commitment and Dragon spirit.

Grade 6 students began their Secondary School experience with a "Transition Week."

Over the first three days, they had the chance to:

✔️ Meet the dedicated staff who will guide them through Grade 6
✔️ Get to know each other and start building new friendships
✔️ Learn how to read their timetables and navigate their way to classes
✔️ Understand the expectations for success in Secondary School
✔️ Be introduced to the Middle Years Programme
✔️ And much more Dragon fun! 🐉

These few days were filled with activities to help them settle in and feel prepared for what's ahead.
Since last Friday, they began following their full schedule and dove into their regular classes.

Wishing our Grade 6 and all BIS Dragons a great year.

...and a few snaps from our first days in Secondary School

It's great to reconnect with friends and discover new ones.

Lots to get done this year, but knowing our community, we'll support each other through the challenges and tough demands.

What a great start to our New School Year!

The buzz of children's voices filling school hallways connects to so much joy, hope and raw energy.

Particularly exciting is the very first - first day of school - just ask Grade 1.
We celebrated this milestone with the local German tradition of 'Schultüte' and a parade cheered on by all of our Primary School.

We are delighted to welcome 800 students on campus from 80 nations; 120 new to BIS.

We wish all our BIS Dragons a year of meaningful learning, growth, and fun together. 🐉

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School Starts Tomorrow - Tuesday, 20 August 2024 🐉🌈✨
Even Beethoven is excited!

We look forward to a great 2024-2025 school year.

Our new Early Learning playground is very nearly ready for new adventures and so are we.

Go Dragons!

Congratulations to our 2024 Graduates 🎓🐉⭐️

Dear Class of 2024,

We knew that you had been working hard to prepare for your International Baccalaureate exams. But wow --- we really have to hand it to you for rocking them.
In the words of our Diploma Programme Coordinator Tyler Hafen:
"You did great and have so much to celebrate! I sincerely thank our students for the tremendous energy they put into their exams and their teachers for their hard work to make these amazing results possible. We are very proud."

We applaud
👏🏼 95% pass rate (world average 80%)
👏🏼 Average score: 34 (world average 30)
👏🏼 Highest points achieved: 44 out of 45
👏🏼 61 students receiving the IB diploma
👏🏼 17 of those received a bilingual diploma

With these excellent results in your pockets, we wish you all the best as you advance in your studies and life paths.

Dream big, work hard, take care of yourselves, and remember you are always a Dragon.

Your fans at BIS

Welcome new BIS Dragons 🐉

Meet our new teachers and support staff who spend this week:

✅ Learning about our BIS culture
✅ Orienting themselves to our school campus
✅ Decoding our IT systems, and getting setup with the necessary tech
✅ Meeting with Principals and Director to focus on more BIS details
✅ Meeting our Admin staff
✅ Getting to know Bonn and German culture (some are already pros 😉)

Next week:
Our faculty returns from summer break to prepare for the year ahead.

On the horizon:
🗓 New Student & Family Orientation - Monday, 19 August
🗓 Official first day of school - Tuesday, 20 August.

Portrait of a school during summer break

While students and teachers are off, a dedicated crew stays on and uses this time to:

✅create new spaces
✅organize and re-organize classrooms
✅paint
✅deep clean
✅sort through materials and order supplies

In addition to normal maintenance, this summer's BIG project is an exciting complete redo of the Early Learning playground.

Thanks to our team who works hard over summer to make sure we are ready to welcome students and teachers back on campus later on this month.

**** New faculty join us this coming Monday. We can't wait to meet you and welcome you into the BIS community.

Advanced Coding Club Completes PiKON Telescope! 🔭🚀

In a marathon final session, our Advanced Coding Club proudly completed this year's project—a PiKON telescope—on the day of the summer solstice (the shortest night of the year, ironically!).

The telescope features a spherical mirror and a camera attached to a Raspberry Pi. After some initial trials, we managed to capture focused images of our neighbour's roof.
Next up, we'll be setting up at night to observe celestial objects! 🌌✨

A huge thank you to all the students who persevered through the challenges and dedicated their time to this success! The picture below shows just a few of the students who participated.

Special thanks to Mr. Koch for leading this Co-Curricular activity.

Secondary School Summer Concert 2024! ✨🎶

Last week, our students impressed the audience with their performances at the Secondary School Summer Concert 2024.

The event featured captivating pieces from Grades 6-9, including our Grade 9 students performing their own unique compositions, a lively rendition of "Happy" by the Concert Masters, dynamic performances from our Rock Band "The Whatevers," and the String Orchestra. The Choir delivered a moving performance, and the evening concluded with a vibrant finale from our combined bands Option Bands and BIS Band.

Every student in Grades 6 - 8 learns to play a music instrument at our school. For those with a deeper interest in music, there are elective option classes and various Co-Curricular bands and activities.

We extend our gratitude to the teachers and support community for providing our students with this opportunity. Thank you to everyone who attended and supported our students. 🎤🎻🥁

✨ Show Your Scales, Find Your Pride! ✨

With the message "Show Your Scales, Find Your Pride," it's easy for every Dragon to find their own way to celebrate this month. Happy Pride! 🐉🌈

Last week, we highlighted and celebrated Pride Month at BIS.
Our students learned about influential LGBTQI+ figures, crafted vibrant bracelets, added scales to a school mural, and even helped create a bright BIS Rainbow! 🌈

Grade 7 Students Merge Art and Math in Innovative Project 🎨 🧮

Grade 7 students recently engaged in an exciting interdisciplinary project that combined Visual Arts and Mathematics. Utilizing the Desmos graphing tool, students created intricate mathematical models to design visually appealing patterns. These designs were then carefully hand-printed onto tote bags.

This innovative approach provided a tangible example of how mathematical concepts can be applied creatively. This approach allowed students to see the practical application of mathematical concepts in a creative context.

The end result was a collection of unique, custom-designed tote bags that beautifully showcased the students' artistic and analytical skills.

Thanks to our Parent Volunteers 🎉🎉🎉

What a year it has been for our Parent Volunteers, and for BIS because of them!

Our PV is responsible for many memorable events like International Day 🌏 and Trunk-or-Treat 🎃, but they do so much more: welcoming new families, providing a broad range of services like language lessons and workshops, treating (and feeding) students and staff, running the Dragon's Cafe and funding special projects to name just a few areas of their support. All of this as volunteers ❤️

At their Annual General Meeting Tuesday, PV Chair Rebecca gave an overview of what the PV did this year for students, parents, staff and the community as a whole, while Treasurer Annalena reviewed finances and presented our Co-Curricular Team with a 3500 Euro donation 👏

Our BIS Dragons community cannot thank the PV enough for their creativity, sense of fun, commitment, and outreach. We see what you do, and appreciate how fortunate we are to have you shaping and infusing school life. Thank you! ⭐💖🐉

🏏 **BIS Cricket Squad Triumphs Again!** 🏆

Our BIS cricket squad wrapped up our competitive season a few weeks back, by clinching the West German Cricket Challenge for the third consecutive year! 🥇

This victory marks the end of another stellar season, during which the team successfully defended their U16 German Schools Championship title and retained the annual Challenge Shield against St George's. 🏅

Over the past two years, the squad has achieved an incredible feat by winning all seven trophies they competed for! 🎉

A special shoutout to Josh T and Leon E, who are concluding their competitive cricket careers at BIS after seven remarkable years in the squad. Thank you both for your dedication and contributions! 🙌

We'd also like to congratulate Rajveer S, who has earned a spot in the German National squad at the U15 level. 🇩🇪👏

And a special shout out to Coach Johnson for his commitment and dedication over all these years. A huge thank you 🙏

Although the competitive season has ended, we have one friendly match left: against the Parents/Guardians on Saturday, 22 June.
Let's continue the celebrations and enjoy these upcoming games! 🏏

Well done, team! 🥳

Class of 2024 Graduation Ceremony 🎓🐉

And they're off - What a great weekend celebrating our 76 students in our BIS Class of 2024. Congratulations on reaching this milestone!

As you leave school and spread your wings: We wish you all the best! ⭐️

In the words of our keynote speaker, ESA astronaut, Samantha Cristoforetti:

📌 Never underestimate the power of your dreams
📌 Embrace uncertainty
📌 Always stay humble
📌 Seek out the challenges (take the road less travelled)
📌 Celebrate others (everything meaningful in life is a team effort)

And "may your journey in life be filled with wonder, discovery and fulfillment".

Friday's bittersweet ceremony celebrated this stage in the educational and personal journeys of this special cohort.

A special thank you to the families and friends of our graduates for your unwavering support throughout the years (some all 14!). You have played an essential role in their success. Our gratitude also extends to our dedicated teachers and staff, who continue to give each individual the support they need.

No matter where life takes you, Class of 2024, remember you always have a home in Bonn and remain a part of our worldwide BIS community.

Once a Dragon, always a Dragon!

Grade 10 students take centre stage at Career Week!

Building on their recent work experience, our soon-to-be Diploma students continue to build their professional skills and understanding, explore their interests and passions and make tangible connections between their academic work and future professional goals.

We are grateful to our keynote speaker, AgnesCserhati, Executive and Performance Coach, Leadership Trainer and Author, who volunteered her time to facilitate a portion of the workshop and encouraged students to think deeply about their career choices, to make a positive contribution to future generations and to develop their employability skills. Bina Shah and Robert Pagliarello from our Secondary School Team also volunteered their time and shared their career journeys with our Grade 10 students - our hats off to them as well.

As the Career Week concluded, time was spent with students reflecting on the aims for the week of the week, the events offered and the insights they personally gained. Students achievement and contributions were also celebrated with an awards ceremony.

From guest speaker sessions and interactive workshops, Career Week offered students an excellent opportunity to consider the unpredictable nature of career journeys, gain practical skills and consider their priorities for the future. We hope they feel ready to pursue their passions with determination and resilience.

The success of this event sets a high bar for future editions, inspiring our organizers to continue expanding and enhancing the offerings to better serve the needs of our students.

🌍✨ International Day at BIS - a celebration of flavours, smells, sounds, and vibes from nations across the globe!

This highlight event on our calendar is a mini utopia. It showcases our individual cultures and how they each contribute to enrich our togetherness on our planet. or campus 😉. We become nourished by our diversity and enriched through our common love of family and the joy of belonging, contributing to something bigger than self.

Our alumni, many of whom return every year, can also attest to this.

A huge thank you to everyone who contributed to the planning, organizing, preparing, decorating, performing, and supporting. Your efforts have allowed us all to benefit and enjoy this extraordinary day.

A special shoutout to our amazing parent volunteer team, the backbone of this event, for making it possible for everyone to take part. 🌟

Enjoy a small snippet of this joyous day in this sprinkling of photos.

🎉 Honouring Dedication and Service! 🎉

On Tuesday, we celebrated with a special ceremony honouring the incredible staff members who have dedicated over 20 years of service to our school and since retired. Their unwavering commitment has shaped countless lives and enriched our community in ways words can hardly express.

A heartfelt thank you to our amazing student, Leon E, for delivering a moving speech that highlighted how truly fortunate we are. Leon's words captured the essence of our gratitude, not just for those who were honoured, but for all our dedicated teachers who tirelessly support and inspire each student every day.

Let's continue to cherish and appreciate the outstanding educators and support staff who make our school a wonderful place to learn and grow.

🐉 Spring Arts Celebration EL5 - Grade 2 🎨🎤🎬🎶

Wow what an afternoon - We celebrated the diversity and creativity of the arts at BIS last Wednesday.

Our students in Early Learning 5 through to Grade 2 entertained us with instrumental pieces, singing, dance, and showcased a variety of drawings, paintings and sculptural pieces.

Thank you to our teachers who create these opportunities for our students to express themselves and learn through so many different avenues.

Track & Field NECIS - we are mighty proud Dragons! 🐉🔥⭐️

BIS hosted the annual NECIS Track & Field Tournament last weekend. This means 400 athletes and coaches from 9 schools united and competed for their glory. 🏆

We are incredibly grateful to the ca 150 volunteers (staff, students, parents, alumni, friends) supporting the event on and off the track and in our BIS Dragon's Cafe.

Our BIS team brought home some awesome results:

45 medals in total - 12 Gold 🥇, 20 Silver 🥈, 13 Bronze 🥉
with countless Personal Best performances

Coach's highlights are many but a few stood out:

🐉 Yan: 1st High Jump pb, 1st 3000m pb, 2nd 1500m, 3rd Long Jump pb (After he had just run the 3000m)
🐉 Selma: 2nd 400m pb, 800m pb,1500m pb and 4th Long Jump pb
🐉 Giulia 1st 800m pb, 3rd 400m pb, 7th 200m pb
🐉 Megan's bronze medal for hurdles - wow!
🐉 Thomas's 400m run pb
🐉 Rubin, competing in what was probably the hardest field, he ran a pb in all 4 of his individual events for 3 silvers and a gold.
🐉 Martin and Robert standing on the podium together!!
🐉 Ben running 4th in an incredibly fast 100m final
🐉 Linnea turning up on Sunday with no events to do but supporting her team all day and then running the U16 girls 4 x 400m so that Izzy got to run a relay.

🐉 Last, but not least, having our whole team at the finish line to give Donald a well deserved send off as a winner. It really reinforced why Track & Field is a great community building sport.

For a full list of names who stood on podium, check out our Dragon's App latest post: https://www.bonn-is.de/community/co-curricular-news/~board/co-curricular-news/post/cc-sports-results-track-field-necis-2024-1716895207860

Photo credit: & anonymous contributors

🌱🍓 Exciting News from Our Gardening Club! 🍓🌱

Today was a special day for us: our first fruits were ready to harvest!

After months of weeding, watering and waiting, we have the first fruits of our hard work. We've got strawberries and golden raspberries.

Seeing our garden come to life and produce such beautiful bounty has been so rewarding. We hope to have many more harvests and garden adventures!

Gardening club meets every Thursday after school.

Welcome home, Bonn American High School 🎓🎓🎓!

There may have been torrential rains ⛈on Friday, but the mood was sunny ☀️and fun-filled when 80 BAHS alumni from around the world came back to their beloved campus.

As part of a whole weekend of festivities, these friends visited the very grounds where they had once sat in classrooms, swam in the club pool and hit tennis balls. There was plenty of time for nostalgia, reminiscing and Q & A with Director Robert Sims as well as Jana and Rosemary from our Admissions & Alumni Team.

We greatly value this visit from those who loved our predecessor school so much, and contributed so significantly to the founding of BIS in 1997. We are reminded that the sense of community so characteristic of BIS has deep, deep roots 🌱.

BAHS and BIS alumni, the door is always open for you to visit and catch up. Once a Dragon (or Crusader), always a Dragon.

Next up: International Day 🌍🌏🌎. Stop by the Alumni Table 13:00 - 14:00 for a cool drink and the latest news from school.