And just like that, Term 1 is over.
It is always interesting to reach the end of a term and pause for a moment to consider what has happened. Ten weeks can seem like a long time when we are starting a new school year, and looking back, it is remarkable just how much has taken place across Nusa Alam. We head off for a well-earned two-week holiday, and I think we can all look back on the first term with a real sense of pride.
One of the things I love about schools is that they are never still. Every day brings something new. Children arrive at the beginning of a term with one set of experiences, relationships and expectations, and by the end of it they have changed in ways that are sometimes obvious and sometimes much more subtle. They have learned new things, developed new skills, made new friendships, overcome difficulties, discovered interests and, hopefully, become a little more confident in who they are.
At Nusa Alam, we have certainly seen plenty of this over the past ten weeks.
There have been classrooms buzzing with activity, children absorbed in projects, getting involved in sport, experimenting, creating, questioning and, occasionally, making a rather spectacular mess along the way! There have been assemblies, trips, activities, celebrations and countless smaller moments that probably won’t make it into any formal record of the term but are every bit as important.
This is the beauty of a thriving school. It is not simply about what happens in lessons, although learning is at the heart of everything we do. It is about the whole life of the community. It is the sound of children talking excitedly about something they have discovered or a teacher seeing a student finally understand something that they have been struggling with. It is friends supporting one another, children taking risks, adults learning alongside them and everyone gradually becoming part of the rhythm of school life.
There is also something wonderfully developmental about schools. We are working with young people who are, quite literally, becoming the people they will eventually be. That makes our work both challenging and enormously rewarding. Progress is not always measured by a test or a grade. Sometimes it is a student who is a little more independent than they were at the beginning of the term, a child who is willing to try something they previously avoided, or a young person who has learned to listen to somebody else’s point of view.
These things take time. They require patience, encouragement and plenty of opportunities to try, fail, reflect and try again.
Perhaps what has struck me most this term is the passion that exists within our community. It is visible in so many different ways: in the enthusiasm of our students, in the creativity of our teachers, in the energy of our activities and in the willingness of people to contribute to school life. That passion gives a school its character.
When you walk around Nusa Alam, there is rarely a moment when nothing is happening. Sometimes it is loud, sometimes it is chaotic, and sometimes it is wonderfully quiet. But the school is alive.
That, to me, is one of the great privileges of working in a school.
So, as we finish Term 1, I hope everyone takes the opportunity over the next two weeks to rest, spend time with family and friends, explore a little, and simply enjoy having a break from the routines of school. We still have three terms ahead of us, with plenty more learning, challenges, adventures and opportunities to come.
For now, though, it is worth pausing to appreciate what has already been created together…
On 5th September, a group of our students and staff headed down to Loang Balok Beach for a beach clean-up with one of our partner schools. It was a simple idea: spend a Saturday morning together, clean up part of our coastline and hopefully leave the beach a little better than we found it.
But, as is often the case with these things, the value of the experience went well beyond picking up rubbish.
There is something quite powerful about taking learning outside the classroom and putting it into practice. Our students could see immediately that the choices people make about waste have consequences. A piece of plastic that might seem insignificant when dropped on the ground becomes part of a much bigger problem when multiplied across a community and carried by wind, rain and the sea.
Working alongside IT Nurul Qu’ran, our partner school, also added something special to the morning. Schools can sometimes exist in their own little worlds, so opportunities for our students to meet and work alongside students from another school are valuable. They remind us that many of the challenges facing our community are shared challenges, and that meaningful change is rarely something that one person, or one school, can achieve alone.
There was, of course, plenty of hard work involved. Bags were filled, rubbish was sorted and some rather unexpected things were discovered along the way. But there was also plenty of energy and enthusiasm. The students were able to see the immediate difference their efforts made, which is a particularly useful lesson for young people. Environmental issues can sometimes feel enormous and distant, but caring for our local environment gives us a very real place to start.
This connects closely with the kind of learning we want to encourage at Nusa Alam. We want our students to understand the world around them, to recognise that they have a role within their community and to develop the confidence to do something about the things they care about.
A beach clean-up will not solve the world’s environmental problems. But that isn’t really the point. The point is that our students are beginning to understand that they are not simply observers of the world around them. They are members of a community, and their choices and actions matter.
And perhaps there is an even simpler lesson in it: if we want to care for the places we live, we have to be willing to get our hands dirty.
I am very grateful to everyone who gave up part of their Saturday to take part, and particularly to our partner school for joining us. It was a wonderful example of schools coming together, students learning through experience and a community working collectively to care for a small but important part of our beautiful island.
One of the things I very much enjoy about working in a school is seeing what children can create when they are given a challenge and a pile of unwanted materials that, at first glance, don’t seem to have much use.
In Term 2, we are introducing a new initiative during the second half of lunchtimes: Inquiry Stations. The idea is simple. Students will have the opportunity to work on a series of mini-projects using everyday items that might otherwise be thrown away — old bottles, cardboard boxes, toilet and towel rolls, straws and all sorts of other seemingly useless bits and pieces from home.
The programme will be overseen by our Visual Art teacher, Pak Anky. He will set the projects and guide students towards a particular outcome, giving them the opportunity to work with different materials and find creative ways to participate in the challenges presented to them.
It is also a particularly nice way to develop some of the learner attributes we value at Nusa Alam. Students have opportunities to be innovative in how they approach a challenge, confident in trying out their ideas, reflective when something doesn’t work as planned and responsible in thinking about how we use and reuse the materials around us.
And there is another important lesson here: learning to make use of what we already have.
Pak Anky sent a letter home last week inviting families to contribute materials for the Inquiry Stations. So far, we haven’t received very much, so before throwing things away, please consider bringing them in for us to use.
Thank you!
Our Sports Day this term was a little different from previous years. While competition remains an important and enjoyable part of sport, this year we placed a greater emphasis on participation, enjoyment and giving everyone the opportunity to get involved.
This meant making some changes to the types of activities on offer. Alongside the more traditional events, we included activities that allowed students with different interests and abilities to participate, try something new and enjoy being active with their friends.
That certainly didn’t mean we lost the competitive spirit between the school Houses! There were still plenty of individual and team events, with students working hard for their teams, cheering one another and, of course, trying to beat the opposition. The cheering from the sidelines was sometimes almost as impressive as what was happening on the field!
What I particularly enjoyed was seeing students celebrating one another’s efforts, whether they were competing for first place, trying something for the first time or simply giving their best. Sport provides a wonderful opportunity for students to develop confidence, teamwork, resilience and a healthy attitude towards both winning and losing.
Ultimately, Sports Day is about much more than finding out who is fastest or strongest. It is about bringing our community together, being active and creating memories with friends. This year’s approach reminded us that competition and participation can happily sit alongside one another, and that there is plenty of room for both achievement and fun at Nusa Alam.
Thank you to the sports day committee and everyone involved in making this a fun celebration!
Following on from the connections we began building last school year, our students recently took part in Sabtu Budaya, spending quality time with our partner school, IT Nurul Qu’ran. The visit was led by Ibu Erma and Ibu Neni, accompanied by members of our Student Council.
This meeting provided another opportunity for the Student Councils of both schools to spend time together, build friendships and strengthen the relationship between our two schools. The aim is not simply to arrange occasional visits, but to develop a genuine connection between our students and to find opportunities for our schools to work together around shared interests and goals.
This is a valuable opportunity for our students to build these relationships themselves. They have to communicate with people they may not know well, listen to different ideas, find common ground and think about what they might be able to achieve together. These are important experiences that cannot always be replicated within the classroom.
It also reminds us that our community extends beyond the Nusa Alam campus. We are part of a much wider community here in Lombok, and our students have much to learn from meeting people, sharing experiences and building fruitful relationships.
I am grateful to Ibu Erma, Ibu Neni and our Student Council members for representing Nusa Alam, and to our friends at IT Nurul Qu’ran for warmly welcoming us. I hope this is the beginning of many more opportunities for our students to learn, connect and grow together.
You will have no doubt noticed a small but important change around campus this term: we have been introducing school identification cards for students and staff.
It may seem like a relatively minor change, but there is a good reason behind it. As Nusa Alam continues to grow, it is increasingly important that we can easily recognise the people who belong on our campus. A school should feel welcoming and open, but it should also be a safe and secure environment for everyone.
Our IDs are one simple part of this. They allow us to identify students, staff and other members of our school community more easily, particularly when we have visitors, events or activities taking place on campus.
There is also a sense of belonging that comes with wearing a school ID. It is a small reminder that we are part of a community and that being part of that community comes with responsibilities. We look after ourselves, we look after one another and we help to create an environment in which everyone feels safe and respected.
As we move into the changeable weather of the coming months, we are seeing the usual increase in coughs, colds and other respiratory illnesses. There is no cause for alarm, but it is a useful time to remind ourselves of the importance of keeping illness from spreading around our school community.
The simplest guide is this: if your child is well enough to participate normally in the school day, they can come to school. If they are clearly unwell, please keep them at home.
In particular, children with a fever, significant cough, vomiting or diarrhoea, or who are unusually tired or not themselves, should have time to recover at home. Sending a child to school when they are struggling to get through the day is unlikely to help them recover and can also pass the illness on to others.
Once your child is feeling well and is able to take part in a normal school day, they can return. A mild lingering cough or runny nose does not necessarily mean that they need to stay at home; a mask can help to keep everyone else safe.
Please keep your child’s homeroom teacher informed if they are unwell, particularly if they are returning to school while still experiencing some symptoms. This allows us to keep an eye on them during the day and contact you if they become unwell again.
Thank you for helping us look after one another.
Our Early Years Parent-Teacher Conferences took place in the last week of term, giving families and teachers an important opportunity to talk about the children, their development and their experiences at Nusa Alam.
I deliberately don’t interrupt these conversations. They are an important space for parents and teachers to speak openly about their children, and I think it is important that those conversations belong to them. I do, however, follow up with our Early Years team afterwards to hear how the meetings have gone and what we can learn from them as a department and as a school.
While there are, naturally, conversations about the challenges that are part of every child’s development, I have been particularly pleased to hear about the many positive conversations and the recognition of the changes that continue to strengthen our Early Years programme.
Improvement in a school is rarely about one big change. It comes through many small adjustments, thoughtful conversations, reflection and a willingness to ask ourselves what we can do better. This is particularly important in Early Years, where children are developing at different rates and where understanding each individual child is such an important part of good teaching.
The conversations between our families and teachers are therefore an important part of that process. When we listen to one another, share what we are seeing and work together, we are better able to support our children.
There is something very fitting about this. Our children are learning and growing every day, and so are we as the adults around them. If we can maintain a community where we are willing to listen, reflect, learn and improve together, then everyone benefits.
I would like to thank our Early Years families for the constructive and positive conversations this week, and our Early Years team for the care and commitment they continue to bring to their work. There is still plenty for us to learn, but that is part of what makes working in a school so rewarding.
Starting next term, we are introducing something that I hope will become a regular and enjoyable part of life at Nusa Alam: Community Wellness Sessions.
We want to create more opportunities for our parents, teachers and staff to spend time together, be active and look after our wellbeing. School communities are built not only through meetings, lessons and events, but also through the informal opportunities we have to connect with one another.
Each week, there will be a choice of activities: Simple Fitness with Pak Yusaf on Tuesdays, Yoga with Pak Marwan on Thursdays, and Pilates with Ibu Diany and Futsal on Fridays. The sessions are open to our wider SNA community, so there is no need to be an expert or particularly fit to take part. Come along, have a go and enjoy being active together.
So, when we return after the holiday, I hope you will consider joining us. Bring your trainers, your yoga mat or simply yourself, and come and be part of something new at Nusa Alam.
Please sign up at the front office, if you wish to join any of the sessions. We look forward to seeing you there!
