Head of School Corner

Dear GJS Families,

With the closing of November, I have enjoyed my most fruitful month while here at Global Jaya School. We have been planning and organizing diligently for a number of events and initiatives that have come to fruition this month.

I was most pleased to be asked to join our World Scholar’s Cup Tournament of Champions as they embarked on their journey to Yale University. The culmination of years worth of local, regional, global qualifying lead to 21 Global Jaya School students earning their way this most prestigious of events, held on one of the most storied Ivy League campuses in the United States. I speak with extreme pride when I look at how our students represented their families, their classmates, our school and our community. They put forth a tremendous effort in being not only competitive but also in being social and friendly with the other competitors. I look forward to my next opportunity to support with this wonderful group of students as the qualifying for the coming year World Scholar’s Cup will begin in early 2020 with the Jakarta rounds being held in April 2020. Global Jaya School is proud to be hosting the Jakarta Skittles Round on April 26 - 27, 2020. Please see Hanif’s article for further details on the WCS Tournament of Champions adventure.

This past week we have undergone an important step with our National Accreditation. From Monday, November 25 through Thursday, November 28, we hosted Dr. Aman Tarwidi and Dr. Zaki Ghufron, who served as our accreditation assessors. The process involved a verification of school provided documentation that detailed our operations as a school. Through interviews with students, parents, and faculty, along with visitations to classrooms, the assessors sought to verify that we were meeting the 15 national standards for SPK accreditation. I am very proud to state that our efforts earned a strong positive response. Our students, faculty, and parents were positive and strong-voiced advocates on behalf of our school and community. While we wait for confirmation from the Accreditation Commission regarding our final result, all indicators based on our exit meeting point to a robust positive outcome. I wish to thank Ibu Dewi, Pak Edi, the accreditation teams formed at both Primary and Secondary levels for their hard work, dedication, and perseverance as we navigated the process. We were one of the first schools in the whole of Indonesia to undergo this process. I believe we have set the “bar” very high on the whole, and we should be very proud of our efforts taken to achieve this.

Simultaneous to the above accreditation visitation, 31 Global Jaya Curriculum Leaders, Programme Coordinators, as well as members of our Pedagogical and Leadership teams participated in a workshop designed to further enhance the creation, maintenance, and improvement of the varying teams within Global Jaya School. We welcomed former IB Asia Pacific Head of School Services and current Reshaping Schools consultant Mr. Nigel Forbes-Harper to conduct our workshop. Teambuilding, role-playing, along with developing a shared understanding of the complexity of leadership, regardless of the level at which you serve as a leader were the main elements of the program. While we have taken a very positive first step with this effort, the ongoing school-based activity will help further the process and define the next steps as we seek to nurture the leadership potential and skill of our faculty and leadership team members. Please see Pak James’ article for further details.