Message from Paul Sebastian - MSHS Principal

Hello Everyone,

We are quickly coming to the end of what has been an incredibly action packed year.  I’m sure you are all busy wrapping things up at your current school and wondering how on earth you’re going to get everything in place in time – yet somehow it will all fall into place.

I am feeling the same way when I think about how far (or how ‘not far’) along I am on building next year’s timetable.  I’ve now met with all HoDs and we have determined what we’d like to see – now we only have to make it happen.  Thankfully I am well supported by a range of people and in particular our Head of Maths, Mark Bethune who will work with me to sort out all my mistakes.

We have just about cracked the challenge of sorting the DP timetable which will drive the rest.  Carol Williams is meeting with all grade 10s this next week to give them one last counsel on choices and break it to those who have asked for choices that might not be possible.

I’m hoping the timetable will be more or less sorted within the next 2 weeks and at that point we might be able to share a bit with you.

In the meantime, enjoy your final days wherever you are and don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions you might have.

Cheers,

Paul

Principal - MSHS

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Message from Heidi Ashton - JWA Interim Principal

It's all show business at JWA right now! We are busy preparing for our end of the year show - and by show I mean "SHOW" (picture sparkling lights)!!!!! The Grade 1 students wrote the outline for the play, which Richard (one of the teaching staff) then turned into rhyming couplets (he's a genius). The costumes are being made and the children and teachers are building props. Each class is practicing its own song and our actors are memorizing their lines. As with all new events, there are equal parts excitement and terror, but I have no doubt that we'll pull it off. As I was leaving on Friday afternoon, Pinyi was standing on a ladder and she and Arif were putting together an enormous tree. The Indonesian staff painted some lovely backdrops too and Roberta made a giant spider's web out of wire. We also have a student teacher, Rosie, who arrives on Tuesday. With her fine arts background we are thrilled she'll be around to support us! I will post some pictures as soon as possible.

Cannot wait to see you all in a nine weeks!
Heidi Ashton
Interim Principal
Jakarta World Academy

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4 Weeks to Go

4 weeks to the end of school here, and 9 weeks before new teachers arrive in Jakarta!

We have had some feedback re problems with info from Asian Tigers our nominated shipper. This week Ivan and I met with Bill the Operations Manager here in Jakarta, and identified and sorted out the procedural and communications issues that were causing the hold ups. Should be no difficulties going forward form here. If you have any concerns re shipping, or your local Asian Tigers rep, can’t answer your questions, please contact Ivan ivan_setiawan@swa-jkt.com cs John john_mcbryde@swa-jkt.com. 

A reminder that your shipment cannot arrive before your KITAS (stay visa) and Work Permit are finalised usually 6 weeks after arrival. During that time, you will not be able to leave Indonesia. With a KITAS, the government allows your shipment to be considered a personal shipment exempt of customs fees. This only applies for shipments up to 3 months after your KITAS is issued, so generally shipment must arrive between 6 weeks after you arrive and 3 months after that, or customs fees will apply.

Bruce still has one house that will become vacant from one of our leaving teachers, if you would like to explore, please contact Bruce bruce_ashton@swa-jkt.com

Martin our IT Director has been in contact with each of our new teachers to provide you with your new SWA or JWA email accounts, including password information. These accounts are now active. If you didn’t get the email or have any queries, contact Martin at martin_leicht@swa-jkt.com. You will receive your laptop on Monday the 25 July.

Moving and setting up house does require watching your budget. A reminder that your first pay (half month July) gets paid to you on 26 July, shortly after you arrive. This will be paid in cash. After you arrive in Jakarta, you will be able to set up a Rupiah bank account during the New Teacher Orientation Week, and school will assist in this. You can not establish a USD account until after your KITAS has been finalized, and so you may still not have a USD account for the 26 August payroll. In this case you can nominate your salary to be paid into your Rupiah account, or be paid in USD cash in August. Newly arriving teachers usually have a need to spend money in the first month  setting up their housing – this varies greatly on personal needs, and whether the house is fully furnished or not. Even if fully furnished, general common start up items include – water dispensers, cable TV, home internet, linen and cooking and dining utensils, groceries, hiring a maid, ( and maybe buying a TV), so you need to consider this in organizing your arrival expenses and add a bit more for all the things you couldn’t predict! A guide to costs is included in the New Teachers Guide. If you have other specific questions, post a question in the Ning, or drop John, Bruce, Heidi or Paul a line.

Mobile phones are a real must for day to day life, and are a great life line for newly arrived teachers. Pre-paid SIM cards are readily available and school will assist in helping teachers get connected with a SIM on Monday 25 July

Health Insurance will become active from 16 July. Details on the policy will be advised mid June. At the same time the cost of adding non-contracted dependants will become available. If you are considering adding a dependent to the schools health policy, please advise Ivan asap, including names, age, gender, nationality. This is just fyi at this stage.

New teachers may request school to pre-pay costs such as housing above allowance and health and visa costs for non contracted dependants. A Request for School to Pre-pay and Authorization to Deduct from salary, if appropriate needs to be signed and submitted to Ivan before the school can commit to pre-payments. Forms are available through Ivan

That’s about it for now, hope end of the year, including reports, end of school activities and those all to important farewell parties are all going well at your end, and remember to drop us a line if you have any questions or issues. If we don’t get back, apologies, maybe we are swamped and need a gentle reminder – you know how it is! :-)

Best wishes

John

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News Update

Hi, only 6 weeks to go till the end of school here, and everything is very busy busy busy – and am sure it’s crazy where you are as well.

We are in the throws of developing our language policy, working on an IT Vision, on the weekend we hosted a ‘Scholars Cup’ tournament and last Friday students organized a no shoe day, to build sensitivity to poverty with students and staff donating old shoes in good condition to a local charity. And of course there’s lots more, makes my head spin just writing it down! - and exams, reports. PYP Exhibition and MYP Personal Project coming up....

Great to see the New Teacher website, growing and people registering on the Ning (see the Q&A link) - with lots of good questions being asked and lots of great advice and support happening! If you haven’t joined up yet, just go to the link and register – its worth it.

The Ning is also hosting a great  photo gallery of living in Jakarta, our schools and events, holiday destinations and lots more! There’s a new School Tour slide show that is really nice at giving a feel for our  award winning facilities at BSD, and showing to your friends and family.

In the next few days we hope to have some new houses go up on the website, a couple of them from current teachers who are leaving.

Watch out for news coming soon from Martin Leicht, our IT Director about your laptops and IT services at SWA/JWA and some tips to prepare you for transition from our counselor Deb Towner.

Catch you on the site!

Cheers
John

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Welcome message from Mr Bruce Ashton

Dear New Recruits,

Let me start by welcoming you to Sinarmas and Jakarta World Academies. My name is Bruce Ashton I am the Elementary School Principal and as I manage new teacher housing  will be acting as your go to person between now and the time you are settled in your new home here in BSD City or Jakarta central for those of you working at our Thamrin campus.

Our housing database website is operational  at http://podcast.swa-jkt.com/swahousing/ and you can log in and  view available housing. 

We also have 3-4 houses (both for singles and couples) that are currently under  lease to the school. These homes are  coming vacant in late June or early July due to staff departing. All are great places, have had the kinks worked out by expat tenants and ready to be lived in. We will soon have photos etc.... up on the website. Let me know if your interested. 

Housing: 

As I see properties I am contacting individuals to give them an idea of what is available. If you could email me copied to Eva <eva_diana@swa-jkt.com> with your preference, furnished or Unfurnished, 2, 3 or 4 bedrooms, etc... that would be helpful. If you see something you like please let me know and some one on the team will go out on your behalf for extra photos of the property.  

I know sometimes it is hard to choose from a catalogue but my advice to you is if you see something have us follow it up. If you can decide before you come you will save yourself at least a week in the hotel (the rooms are not huge) as it will take this long to complete the contract and have any renovations or fix ups done (most likely longer). If you choose before you come I will ensure that all things necessary are completed on your house the contract is signed and move in will be asap after arrival.

  

Just a reminder, once tickets have been purchased please send  (as a scanned email attachment)  your receipt to Ivan Setiawan    < ivan-setiawan@swa-jkt.com>  so that we will have your reimbursement ready for you upon arrival. If you choose to wait until arriving  before submitting receipts the reimbursement may take up to 2 weeks.

Thats about enough for an intro, I think, if you would like to speak with me my Skype address is bruce.ashton2 and I would be happy to answer any questions.

We are all very excited about you joining us  and look forward to seeing you soon.

Regards

Bruce

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