SIS students learn to take the wheel

SIS students learn to take the wheel

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Singapore International School (SIS), located in the Bona Vista apartment complex in Lebak Bulus, South Jakarta, is a sprawling structure of unusual design.

While it is not built sideways, as in Louis Sachar's Sideways Stories from Wayside School, it is a top-down facility: The students descend from the entrance hall down a spiral staircase to reach their classes, and the canteen and sports field is at the very bottom -- truly on the ground floor.

Airy, white corridors wind through circular hallways lined with classrooms behind red or blue doors. Its interior -- accented with primary and secondary colors on window frames, pillars, air ducts and the like, and its walls covered with posters, paintings and educational messages drawn by the students' own hands -- exudes a spirit of positive activity, or active positivity.

SIS first opened its doors in 1997 in Pantai Mutiara, North Jakarta. Expanding rapidly and continuously since then, the educational foundation now has seven branches across the archipelago, with a Semarang school set to open this year.

Run by a board of governors, SIS follows the Singapore national curriculum while also offering the Cambridge university- accredited IGCSC external examination system for secondary school students. The primary school covers six years and the secondary, three at present, with a fourth year to be offered in 2006. It also has a preschool and two kindergarten levels, with an emphasis on building confidence and personal development.

Presently, the combined student body of SIS represents 35 nationalities -- of which 20 to 30 percent are Indonesian students, as permitted by government regulation -- and boasts 1,700 students in total, with almost 400 students at Bona Vista alone.

As SIS Bona Vista principal Jyoti Mayall said, "Our schools are located mostly in residential areas as part of our vision to bring quality Singapore education to the suburbs."

Classes are taught in both English and Mandarin Chinese, with teachers hailing from Singapore, Australia, Canada, China, India, the Philippines and the United Kingdom. English as a foreign language is available for non-native speakers, and Mandarin is also taught as a language course.

Aside from regular foundation courses in the humanities, modern languages, social and life sciences and mathematics, SIS also offers contemporary subjects such as information technology, or IT, economics and business management, as well as robotics.

One of the school's special focuses is its interdisciplinary program, which incorporates at least two, and as much as four, different subject areas within a life-skill application. Past projects have included organizing field trips and creating advertisements.

This year, SIS students have proposed that the school hold an overnight camp and a dance -- and have submitted a formal proposal, complete with an itinerary, agenda and supporting fund-raising activities. There is even talk of an "SIS Idol" in the pipeline, also a student initiative.

Community service is an emphasis also, with students reaching out to their less privileged peers, "adopting" an orphanage and donating uniforms to the Kartini toll-road school.

But all work and no play make students dull children, and fun educational activities are provided after school as part of the Core Curriculum Activities program, much like extracurricular clubs.

Students are required to join at least one activity, choosing from modern dance, Chinese traditional dance, choir, team and individual sports, tae kwon do, the eco-garden -- designed and maintained by students under teacher supervision -- and even the international Cub Scouts, which run a school-wide recycling service.

Toddlers are not left out of the fun, either, and they may participate in focused activities such as arts and crafts and storytelling.

The SIS academic year runs commences in January, with a one-month summer holiday in June and a six-week Christmas holiday to close the year. For more information, visit www.sisjakarta.com.