SES Blog

SES Assembly Y5: 13 February 2018

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.

Year 4 Field Trip

The Year 4 children enjoyed their IPC Entry Point Habitats walk to the Pakuwon pond. They excitedly observed and sketched living things on the land and in the pond and  sky. We were lucky to see shrimps, fish, lilies, lotus flowers and a frog in the pond. Many dragonflies and birds flew above their heads and they managed to avoid the resident flock of geese. They observed and sketched the different shapes of the trees around the pond. All the children were very inquisitive and asked a lot of questions, showing a lot of the IPC Personal Goal, Enquiry. These questions will be used to enhance their learning throughout the unit Land, Sea and Sky. The children also demonstrated a very caring attitude towards their environment, as they enthusiastically identified rubbish on the side of the road and in the pond. It was collected and disposed off properly leaving the area leading up to and around the Pakuwon pond a more attractive, safer and litter free environment. 

SES Assembly Y6: 19 January 2018

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.

Year 6 Field Trip

As the exit point to the IPC unit Making the News, Year 6 students went on a field trip that took them to a radio station and newspaper office. The trip began at the radio station EBS 105.9 FM, where students experienced what it would be like to work as a radio announcer. They were excited to see how much fun people have at work! After the radio station, students enjoyed a lovely lunch break at The Goods Diner. Students’ next stop was at Jawa Pos, where they saw the life cycle of one newspaper. (Photos were taken and students were featured in the paper the next day!) Within the same floor as the newspaper offices, students were able to visit DBL, where they were greeted warmly upon their arrival. They enjoyed seeing amazing basketball gear and hearing all about DBL. It was a fabulous day that the students will remember! 

Assembly Y7: 13 December 2017

Our final assembly of 2017 was a celebration of various achievements. Year 7 students gave informative and impressive presentations about Citizen Science and Galaxy Zoo projects they had been working on in Science lessons. We also congratulated the swim team who collected numerous prizes from the meet at SIS on Saturday, 9 December. They were excellent ambassadors for the school and should be commended for their sporting achievements and impeccable conduct. Miss Shovi prepared an iMovie presentation with some highlights from the Cultural-Christmas Show. Faizan, gave an update on the Volleyball competition at SIS where we were victorious. Well done!

We announced the winner and runners up for the Mascot Competition and awardee certificates and prizes. Tammia’s design was the winning entry. Judy was congratulated for participating in the ScalaMUN in Alphen aan den Rijn, Netherlands. She did very well in the conference and was the youngest student there and the only overseas student. We saw some highlights from her visit. James in Year 9 received a CD with some memories from his time at SES. He is going to Perth to start school there in January, and we wished him all the best. It was a busy but pleasurable final gathering before the holiday.

Volleyball Friendly Match

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.

Montessori Christmas Performance

What an amazing show, the teachers are so proud of the children. Talents like singing, dancing and acting were featured in the show and the children did a good job. This year the show included a hip hop dance to the Jingle Bells song followed by group singing and solo singers. The older children performed a musical titled ‘Frosty the Snowman’  and we finished it off with the song Feliz Navidad.

Cultural-Christmas Show: 8 December 2017

We had a range of singing, music, drama and dance as part of the festive fun. It was an enjoyable evening attended by guests from the Ministry of Education, local schools as well as our fabulous parents. The primary and secondary students did a great job and should be proud of the acts that were showcased. After the show, we enjoyed some delicious festive foods and had a chance to socialise. 

Swimming Competition

On Saturday, 9th 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.

Cross Country

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.

Water Polo

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.

A-7-Side Soccer Tournament: 11 November 2017

On Saturday, 11th 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.

National Heroes’ Day (Hari Pahlawan) & (Remembrance Day (Armistice Day)

We commemorated all those who lost their lives in both World Wars and subsequent wars across the globe on Friday 10 November. At 11.00 we will had a one-minute silence to remember those who died in conflicts. This year the poppies were brought from British Legion in England and were available for a donation. All monies were transferred to the British Legion and go towards supporting ex-servicemen and veterans. Wristbands were also available in a variety of bright and fun colours. Our thanks to Gemma Cook for organising this. The sale of poppies and wristbands raised Rp 3.5 million. The school appreciated the support given by staff, students and parent to this cause.

Halloween & Trick or Treat: 3 November 2017

Students enjoyed dressing up and the seasonal snacks generously provided by the parents! Our gratitude to everyone who kindly donated foods and the team of Mums who decorated the lobby making it look so beautiful. The children enjoyed the Trick or Treat on Friday afternoon on 3 November. Parents, teachers, and children visited a number of houses in Graha Famili Block-O and collected some healthy snacks on their walk. Around 60 people participated including the Montessori children. Our gratitude to all the parents and staff for making this such a fun event. It was a fantastic and a fun end to the week!

SES Assembly Y9: 24 October 2017

We had a busy and very enjoyable assembly this morning which was led by Year 9 students. They gave impressive and informative presentations on some topics studied in Global Perspectives classes. We learned about poverty, education for girls and habitat destruction when making dams. Many thanks to Miss Allana and all the students!

Mr Mike and Miss Rini awarded medals to our winners from the Athletics Day. All of the students showed determination and gave their best efforts. Mr Mike commented that we had been impressed by the atmosphere and sportsmanship shown by all the students. 

As usual, several teachers gave out certificates to students for their good work, attitude, progress and other positive matters. Our next assembly will be on Tuesday, 14 November which will be headed by the Year 8 students. 

Athletics Day 2017

SES Athletics Day was held on Friday, October 13th, during the last week of the first term. The weather was perfect and as a result, new records were achieved. Some of the events that the children took part in were the following: high jump, long jump, discuss, javelin, hurdles and shot put. The day concluded with relay races including a race between the house team captains/vice captains, teachers and parents. The students won the race by a fair distance.

Overall it was a very close run affair with all four houses competing closely in the track and field events. The eventual winners were Garuda, with Komodo coming a close second. The trophy and medals will be awarded by Mr. Mike and Ms. Rini during a whole school assembly at the start of the second term.

World Teachers’ Day 2017

We celebrated the importance and the role played by teachers all over the world. The responsibility for educating future generations is not a light one by any means, and we thank you for your help and appreciation not just on World Teachers’ Day, but throughout the whole year.

The theme for World Teachers’ Day 2017 is “Teaching in Freedom, Empowering Teachers”, which echoes the 2015 theme that followed the adoption of the new Sustainable Development Goals, where teacher empowerment was reaffirmed as a top priority in all education and development strategies. Many thanks to our thoughtful and generous parents who gave a rose and some snacks to all staff. In addition, we had a beautiful display of roses and lilies in the lobby. Our students succeed throughout their learning journeys as they are supported by an effective partnership between home and school. On behalf of all the staff, please accept our sincere thanks.

Drama Workshop: 2 October 2017

To the following welcome a British theatre company, Performance Exchange, to the school to deliver performances and workshops to our students. Three actors spent the day showing our students some of the skills they need to perform on stage.

The day began with a performance of ‘The Gentlest Giant’ for our primary students, followed by movement workshops and an opportunity for the students to interview the actors about acting.

In the afternoon, Daniel Foley, a seasoned actor, gave the Secondary students an Introduction to Shakespeare and a Shakespeare workshop where he focused on some key features of The Bard’s plays and the importance of his language.

Overall, the day was very entertaining and informative, and good fun was had by all.

Science Week, 25th – 29th September 2017

This year the theme for Science Week was Light. This actually covered many different interesting branches of Science. How light behaves (reflection, refraction and colour), the human eye and optical illusions, cameras and photography, solar power, and ultra-violet light.

Throughout the week each Primary class focussed on an aspect of light that was relevant to their curriculum.

Then for one lesson they came to the science lab to see some experiments and demonstrations of light. We made some photographic paper by painting silver nitrate solution onto paper and then we put stencils over the paper while exposing it to uv light. This gave us silhouettes of the objects on the paper. We also looked at how different objects glow (fluoresce is the scientific word) under uv light, including our fingernails and teeth. Even scorpions glow under uv light!

We also looked at how we can make glass objects appear invisible if we put them in the right liquid, in this case vegetable oil. Because both substances bend light in similar ways (a property called refraction), the glass will be invisible in the oil.

There were several other cool experiments that showed different properties of light, but I always like to go out with a bang so I used a laser to burst a balloon. The science here is interesting because a white balloon won’t burst as the light is reflected off the surface, but if you paint a black spot on the balloon and aim the laser at that, then it absorbs the light, heats up, and BANG! The balloon explodes.

I really look forward to Science Week each year as I get to play with cool new science toys and discover new experiments to show the students. It’s a great way to get them interested in Science and to feed their curiosity about the world around them.

SES Assembly Y9 & Y10: 22 September 2017

Our Year 9 and 10 students gave an overview of their HIV/AIDS Awareness Campaign which supports our local charity Yayasan Abdi Asih. This shelter supports children and women affected by HIV/AIDS. Ibu Vera is the person who has been in charge of this shelter, and she currently needs money for renovation of the shelter, medical treatment for the kids and women, and essential items like food and clothes. Their first priority is renovating the house because they cannot live in it anymore without changing the conditions. During heavy rain, their house is vulnerable to flooding.

This project is for part of their IGCSE coursework for Global Perspectives and English, and also a part of our community service. We are trying raise money for the children’s medical support and food by having bake sales and other school events. They also plan on doing food and clothes drive at the end of the year and would like your support.

Last December, we were able to donate food, essential items and gifts to a large community of children and mothers. The Student Council also organized an auction in March to raise money to support the charity, and  succeeded in raising 70 million Rupiah thanks to the amazing generosity of SES families and friends!