With the year well and truly underway, Surabaya European School had its annual School Swimming Carnival on Friday, May 27th. With glorious weather upon us, staff and students made their way to the Pakuwon Family Golf Club pool to get ready for the competition. Students participated throughout the day for the trophy of Swimming House Champion. This battle saw students participate in swimming races using all four strokes: freestyle, breaststroke, backstroke and buttefly. The day was highlighted by the relay races at the end with the students competing against the lifeguards, teachers and parents. The students team finished well out in front. Throughout the day the energy was high and the competition was fierce. The overall House Team winner was the Sura team with Garuda finishing second, Baya third and Komodo fourth.

Today has been amazing!  Early in the morning, the children arrived in a variety of costumes and dashed off to their classes to check what their friends were wearing.  After a great deal of excited chatter, the children all made their way to the hall for the catwalk parade.

Starting with Montessori, the children took to the red carpet to show off their bookish fashion statements. They twirled, walked and strutted to music and rapturous applause, delighting parents, staff and children. The joy everyone was experiencing made apparent by the sea of happy, beaming faces.

Later on after break, the Primary department used a ‘reading bell’ as a signal to the children to stop whatever they were doing and read their pre-chosen book for a period of time. Once the bell was rung again, the students would continue with their learning.  This was very successful and it was a joy to see all the Primary children reading at the same time.

Lunchtime was followed by a ‘Reading around the Classes Carousel’.  Children from Year 7 read to 6, 5 and 4, Year 5 and 6 read to Year 3, Year 4 read to Year 2 and Year 3 and 2 read to children in Montessori.  The event was a great confidence builder for the readers. The children who were being read to were enthralled by the stories told by the older students.

SES World Book Day 2018 was a great success and made possible with the full cooperation of all of the staff, children and parents.  This is testament to the great team spirit we have here at Surabaya European School. We are all looking forward to the next reading event which will be part of Literacy Week in the next academic year.

The year 3 assembly was a great success last Friday as the children demonstrated how talented they actually are.  Their costumes, smiling faces, dance moves and expressive words showed the whole school how much they have developed over the last year. The sweetness of the opening number ‘All Words Bright and Beautiful’, the teacher exasperation poem of the ‘Assembly Welcome’,  to the energy of the ‘Schoolkids Rap’, the drama of ‘Noise is All Around’ and the subtlety of the ‘Sound Collectors’.

The event was wrapped up by a montage of all our favourite moments of the year (so far), prepared by Ms Enya.  Tears were shed by children and adults alike when we shared our wonderful moments.

Unfortunately, a student of ours, Denis was absent from the proceedings due to family circumstance.  His involvement in the planning, practise and performing in the assembly was full of enthusiasm and excitement.  He was missed and we are all looking forward to his return for next time.

Congratulations to: Alyssa, Audrey, Denis, Evan, Hanifah, Hiro, Juliette, Jessie, Keira, Kyul, Max, Neilson, Nidhi, Rania, Regan, Ji On  and last but not least Ms Enya for a job well done!

We were recently joined by Ibu Janti Wignjopranoto (IG @alterjiwo), an ayurvedic and 5Rhythms Dance practitioner from Yogyakarta. She came to Surabaya to share her ‘Conscious Dances’ with all the primary students during the afternoon on Thursday, 5 April. Following this, she did a special dance session for all the staff.  

The rise of moving meditation and self-expression is based on the belief that the body, mind and spirit are interconnected. ‘Conscious Dance’ is a psychotherapeutic use of movement to promote the integration of a person’s emotional, mental, physical and spiritual well-being.

Students really enjoyed the dancing and many said it was fun, exciting, calming, peaceful and relaxing. Some of the comments were: ‘I had fun dancing, using my imagination’, ‘The dance made me feel happy and calm’, ‘What I enjoyed best was the meditation’,  ‘It made me feel calm, relaxed and cleared my mind from bad things’ and ‘The dance made me enjoy myself. It felt like a meditation and it was cool’.

Photos and videos from the sessions can be found the school portal.

On March 23rd the annual House Softball Tournament took place. All four houses had been practicing hard during PE lessons. The children were split into two groups, primary and secondary. Each house team played each other with each game lasting 20 minutes. After some close fought games the final results were as follows:

Overall Scores

Tie 1st Sura and Baya

3rd Garuda

4th Komodo

The Year 4 Saving the World: Habitats and Recycling assembly was a great success. The children enjoyed linking their IPC and English learning and were very keen to learn their lines from the scripts. They were happy to invite EcoMan back to help them to share the important messages about saving the tropical rainforests, the home of so many amazing animal species, and about how important it is for us to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, to help reduce the amount of waste that has to be disposed of. Hopefully, through their assembly, the Year 4 children have helped the SES community to live in a greener and more environmentally friendly way.

MUN (Model United Nations) is an extracurricular activity in which students debate and create solutions about world problems. In SESMUN 2018, (Surabaya European School Model United Nations) there were two councils: United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), which focused on child labour; and General Assembly (GA), which focused on cyber warfare. In SESMUN, we encouraged students to speak publically, socialize and learn skills in debating.

Surabaya European School students have been participating in Model United Nations (MUN) conferences for the past three years. We especially wanted to introduce this programme to inexperienced and younger students as there are very limited opportunities for students to participate in conferences especially in Surabaya and Indonesia in general. Through this initiative, we wished to continue to develop relationships with other schools, as well as create an opportunity to share what we have learnt and be able to debate with students from different schools, and encourage young students from as young as eleven to socialise and broaden their perspectives and views on our world.

We provided a memorable experience to fellow students, not only to speak up on their own, but to solve problems and improvise for the future. We believe that through MUN, students not only gain skills and recognition important decisions such as applying to schools in the future.

On March 10^th, the SES Aqua Tigers entered a Friendly Swim Meet held at Surabaya Intercultural School. The students had been training very hard for months prior to the meet and everyone did very well, smashing their personal bests. For some students, this was their first swim meet and the experience of taking part and representing their school team is something that they will remember for a long time. Special mention goes to the following students who finished one or more of their races in the top 3: Michelle, Oliver, Regan, Aiko, Evan, Langit, Juliette, Kyul, Jessie, Erwin, Zian and Viggo.

On Friday, March 2nd, the swim team took part in a Swimathon to raise money for the SES Aqua Tigers Swim Team. In total the swimmers swam more than 2000 laps all together and raised around Rp 100 million for the team, which has gone towards purchasing swimsuits for the whole team and new swimming equipment.  A special thank you to all the parents that helped to support this event and make it a real success. We hope to hold another Swimathon at the beginning of the next academic year.

We had another enjoyable time celebrating the ‘Festival of Colour’ on Friday afternoon following the Swimathon, which was also very successful. Holi is primarily observed in South Asia but has spread across the world in celebration of love and the changing of the seasons. It is an ancient Hindu festival that marks the end of winter and the start of spring, with the first mentions of it dating back to a 4th century poem. It was even described in detail in a 7th century Sanskrit play called “Ratnavali,” written by the Indian emperor Harsha. The festival also symbolises a new beginning for Hindus to end conflicts and let go of emotional impurities from the past.

Many of our community participated and both students and adults alike enjoyed throwing the coloured powders! It was a memorable occasion for all. Being global citizens I think it is important for us to celebrate and enjoy a range of cultural events throughout the year, helping to further develop our international-mindedness.

The Year 5s gave us an entertaining and educational presentation of myths and legends using an ‘Asia’s Got Talent’ format. They did a great job and all the students should be proud of their performances.

We learned more about the ‘Felita’ Waste Management system with a brief talk given by staff from Komunitas Sahabat Bumi. Students and parents were able to ask questions about how organic waste is transformed into liquid and solid fertilizer.

Mr Phil showed us how anki software can help supplement learning and revision by creating flash cards to help you remember vocabulary or facts about any topic you wish. Anki is available for free for PC, Mac and Linux operating systems, and for android phones and iPhones. https://apps.ankiweb.net/

Our Community Service projects and IGCSE Global Perspectives work was celebrated by the Year 10/11 students in two short video clips. It was amazing to see the good work that we have done and are continuing to do with SD Negeri Sambikerep 1, a local primary school, and various charities. We have bought and donated sports equipment and stationery to SD Negeri Sambikerep 1, provided Food and Clothing for Yayasan Abdi Asih (AIDS) and Yayasan Alit (Street Children).

As usual, many children received certificates and awards for their achievements across the curriculum. This included several of our primary students who participated in the spelling Bee at SNA, Surabaya and achieved second place overall. There was strong competition and they should be commended for their efforts. Miss Liza and Mr Coffey accompanied the children to both meetings at Singapore National Academy.

We were entertained and informed by the Year 6 students who gave an impressive presentation concerning the sources and uses of water and related matters. This was the exit point from their IPC unit ‘Water for Everyone’. It was an action-packed performance which included drama, music and a video presentation which covered the following topics: Water Conservation – Ecoman Play, The Water Cycle – The Water Cycle Song, Water and Human Health – Facts about the importance of clean water for human health. Water Pollution – The problem of water pollution and ways we can contribute to solving this problem.

Water Purification – They completed two experiments related to water purification: Using a still to purify water and using a water filter made of gravel, sand, activated carbon and a filter paper in order to filter the water. Waterborne Diseases – Students explained about various waterborne diseases and the problems that occur when people live far away from a water source. They also studied the world-wide problems caused by droughts and floods. They used maps to draw water-stress zones.

Miss Shovi’s computer animation club members shared some of their latest projects with us. This was enjoyed by the audience and it clearly showed the skills learnt during the ASA. During the assembly we also awarded certificates and gave an update regarding the House Point totals. Another enjoyable assembly! We look forward to the next one.

A group of 10 SES secondary students played a friendly volleyball match against students from Surabaya Intercultural School. The students, led by Faizan and Tammia, had been practicing rigorously weeks before the match. The match was close in the first set which SES narrowly won 26-24. The second set was dominated by SES. More friendly matches between SIS and SES will be arranged in the future.

On Saturday, 9^th December 2017 SES’s newly formed Swim Team entered a Friendly Swim Meet held at Surabaya Intercultural School. The students had been training very hard for the two weeks prior to the meet and everyone did very well, smashing the personal bests. Special mention goes to the following students who finished one or more of their races in the top 3: Alex, Langit, Evan, Regan, Kyul, Jessie, Erwin, Zian, Kelly, Kathleen, Morgan, Michelle, Ollie, Chan Kyu, Viggo, Madalena and Matthieu.

A team of 30 SES children from years 2 to 6 took part in a Cross Country competition held at Sekolah Ciputra. There were over 200 children racing on the day. Everyone did their best and some of the SES students even came home with a medal. Special congratulations to: Langit, Mischa, Rachel, Regan, Vicky,Ji In, Daniel, Ollie.

On Tuesday, 17th November 2017 children from years 5 to 11 took part in a friendly Water Polo competition at the Pakuwon Family Golf swimming pool. The competition was fierce with each house team looking to gain some valuable points towards the overall score. In the end Baya claimed first prize.

On Saturday, 11^th November, Surabaya European School hosted a Seven-a-Side Soccer Tournament. The tournament comprised of round robin matches, a third and fourth playoff and a final, with trophies for the winners and runners up in each age group. In total we had 15 teams entered from 8 different schools. The day was a great success and very enjoyable for the parents and students involved.

SES had a team entered in both the Under 9 and Under 11 age group and a mixed team with SIS in the Under 13 age group. The Under 9 SES team took home first place whilst the Under 13 team finished second. The Under 11 team also did very well against some tough opposition. Each of SES’s teams had a large number of girls involved, which was also positive to see. We look forward to hosting next years competition again.

Special thanks to our generous sponsors Darmo Hill Apartments, Hotel Tunjungan, Evian, Bara Coaching, Avian Paints, Kopi Kapal Api and Lentera Media.