Dear ISB families, staff members, friends & partners,

I hope you all had a wonderful and restful winter holiday. Welcome back to school! I want to wish each of you a successful, peaceful, and joyful 2025. May this year bring new opportunities for growth, learning, and personal fulfillment.

Jan Švihálek, Head of School

Our little swimmers are busy building their self- confidence as they practice their floating which is the first step towards more advanced aquatic skills. Creating a balance between academics and sports supports the social, physical and mental well-being of our students.

Early Years watched The Tales of Peter Rabbit at the Radost Theatre which included music, puppetry, black-light theatre and imagination. Theatre experiences enhance children’s reading and comprehension skills and help develop their creativity for when they return to the classroom.

Our little inquirers celebrated their successful learning journey with their parents. Our students learned about colours, symbols and patterns around the world through a range of inquiry activities and guest speakers who shared knowledge about these symbols in their own culture. Moreover, integrated activities in art took the students on a journey to the stars to learn their Astrological symbols.

Our very own urbanization expert took the initiative to create a presentation for her peers and shared her knowledge about urbanisation and it’s negative effects. Our Year 4 student turned her observational skills into action and she was able to discuss at length what happens when systems are overloaded.

Year 8 students have been sharing and exploring objects of personal and cultural significance in Language and Culture Class.  This subject provides students with a chance to explore and celebrate cultural differences and similarities as well as how one belongs to different cultures.

In December, we saw our secondary students face off for a full day of team sports: dodgeball, football, basketball and capture the flag. After a tie-breaking tug-o-war match, Alvin’s Gang were crowned champions of our first ISB Sports Day of the year, led by High School students on the ISB Sports Committee. The Peacocks were also recognized for their outstanding team spirit. We are already looking forward to the High School edition in the new year!

Back in December, our High School students took on a most important job - they went around the primary classes dressed as Mikuláš and his group of angels and devils. The angels and devils did their jobs very well.

At the beginning of December, the Year 12 class planned and pulled off a trip to Berlin. They took care of the planning, budgeting and communication and did an excellent job on each. One of the highlights was renting bikes and retracing the steps of Churchill, Truman and Stalin in Potsdam. Although not the exact mode of transport used by the historic world leaders, they did find the exact spot where Churchill, Truman and Stalin posed for a photo-shoot in August 1945.

We are excited to continue our well-being journey with the students, and this term, our main focus in Primary Years is on the IB Learner Profile attribute of being Balanced. We will be exploring what it means to apply balance in our daily lives, particularly in developing healthy habits, practicing cyber safety, mindful screen time and encouraging students to try new things and engage in a variety of activities. Through discussions, hands-on experiences, and reflection, we aim to help students build a well-rounded approach to their well-being. We look forward to another great term of learning, growth, and fun!

In secondary our Mind Matters Wellbeing club focused on seasonal depression. They provided the student body with activities that they can do to stay active during the winter months such as visiting the markets or planning a family movie night. They focused on physical health as well which can suffer during this time. They highlighted the fact that we need sunlight for vitamin D and stressed the importance of getting outside for physical activity even in the cold. All of this will hopefully provide our student body with the tools to stay healthy both physically and mentally these winter months.

• End of term 1 reports
  

• Czech Testing