News from the Executive Principal’s desk

Dear Parents, Teachers and Staff,

Congratulations to the students and staff involved in the school production. The two performances were played in front of packed and appreciative audiences. This was a wonderful collaboration between many different parts of the school. Thank you very much to everyone who participated in, contributed to or supported Jaka Tarub. Check out the photos in the gallery on this website.

Next Friday we have the Continuum Arts Festival. This is a combination of the annual Visual Arts Festival, which cumulates with the Director’s Choice Award as well as Indonesia kaya, our performing arts festival in the evening. We look forward to your participation in this event.

Next weekend sees the school host nearly 600 teachers from schools all around Java (and Madura) in our annual School to School teacher’s conference. This has the theme, “Learner Agency.”  Keynotes and workshops will be delivered by over 100 presenters, predominantly from Sekolah Ciputra. Thank you to the staff for giving so freely of their time to support this event.

The Coronavirus (Covid-19) is still dominating headlines around the world. As stated previously, the school is liaising closely with both the Ministries of Health and Education and has consistently maintained the need to remain calm yet alert. This has not changed.

Please also note that with the holiday period coming up, some families will travel to different places around the world. People need to be aware that the Government could place travel restrictions on certain countries which may impact upon your ability to return to Indonesia and back to school.

We are aware that as a community of two thousand people there are literally tens of thousands of interactions occurring on a daily basis between members of our school, their friends and extended families as well as random interactions in shopping malls and the like. We will continue to monitor the health of our staff and students. We will report any unusual phenomena to the Ministry of Health and we maintain our recommendation that if you or your children are sick you/they stay home until they are well. We also recommend that you stress the importance of basic levels of hygiene such as hand washing, and covering the nose and mouth when coughing and sneezing. In some cases the school will reserve the right to insist that a student or staff member receives a clear Covid-19 test before returning to school.

Finally, please note what I wrote in my last message. If and when our community is impacted, it could be from a wide variety of sources.  Events like this have the capacity to test the mettle of a community. The onus is upon us to remain calm, supportive and positive in the face of a potential challenge.

Virus Corona (Covid-19) masih mendominasi berita utama di seluruh dunia. Seperti yang telah berulang kali disampaikan sebelumnya, sekolah senantiasa melakukan komunikasi denganKementerian Kesehatan dan Pendidikan dan secara konsisten menjaga kondisi tetap tenang namun selalu waspada. Hal ini masih belum berubah.

Namun kami menyadari bahwa ada kemungkinan penutupan sekolah ke depannya. Harapan kami adalah bahwa jika sekolah ditutup, staf akademik akan tetap berkomunikasi dengan siswa melalui ManageBac dan Seesaw. Setiap unit akademik akan melakukan pengaturan terkait dengan proses tersebut. Harap dicatat bahwa ini masih kemungkinan dan status peringatan kami tidak berubah sampai saat ini.

Harap diperhatikan juga bahwa di masa liburan yang akan segera tiba, beberapa keluarga akan bepergian ke berbagai tempat di seluruh dunia. Penting untuk disadari bahwa Pemerintah dapat membatasi perjalanan ke negara-negara tertentu yang dapat berdampak pada kembalinya Bapak/Ibu ke Indonesia apalagi bagi anak-anak ke sekolah.

Kami menyadari bahwa sebagai komunitas sekolah yang berjumlah dua ribu orang, ada puluhan ribu interaksi yang terjadi setiap hari antar anggota sekolah, teman-teman dan keluarga besar mereka, serta interaksi acak di mal-mal dan sejenisnya. Kami akan terus memantau kesehatan staf dan siswa kami. Kami akan melaporkan setiap fenomena yang tidak wajar ke Kementerian Kesehatan dan kami tetap merekomendasikan bahwa apabila Bapak/Ibu atau anak-anak sakit, Bapak/Ibu /anak-anak  tetap tinggal di rumah sampai kondisi kesehatan membaik. Kami juga merekomendasikan Bapak/Ibu untuk menekankan pentingnya pola hidup bersih dan sehat seperti mencuci tangan, menutup hidung dan mulut saat batuk dan bersin. Dalam beberapa kasus, sekolah akan berhak untuk meminta dengan tegas bahwa seorang siswa atau anggota staf perlu melakukan tes Covid-19 sebelum kembali ke sekolah.

Akhirnya, mohon untuk diperhatikan terhadap apa yang saya tulis di akhir pesan saya. Jika dan ketika komunitas kita terkena dampaknya, hal itu bisa terjadi dari berbagai sumber. Kejadian seperti ini memiliki kapasitas untuk menguji kegigihan/ketabahan komunitas. Tanggung jawab ada pada kita untuk tetap tenang, memberikan dukungan dan positif dalam menghadapi potensi terhadap tantangan ini.

Have a great week.

Martin Blackburn

Executive Principal