Parent Portal 

Welcome Back to BISNY – A Place to Belong

Dear BISNY Families,

I hope you are enjoying a wonderful summer and finding time to rest, explore and enjoy being together. As we move closer to the start of the new school year, I wanted to say how much we are looking forward to welcoming you back to BISNY.

There is something very special about the beginning of a school year. New classrooms, new teachers, new friendships, new challenges and, perhaps most importantly, new possibilities.

For some children, returning to school means coming back to familiar faces and friendships. For others, this will be their very first day at BISNY - perhaps even their first experience of school or of living and learning in New York. Wherever your family is beginning from, we want every child to feel the same thing when they walk through our doors:

I belong here.

Belonging matters enormously to us. It is being greeted by name in the morning. Having someone to sit with at lunch. A teacher noticing when something isn't quite right. Finding your place in a House, joining a club, performing on a stage, representing BISNY or simply discovering the people with whom you can completely be yourself.

And belonging doesn't just happen. We create it together.

As an international community, our families arrive at BISNY from different countries, cultures, educational systems and experiences. That diversity is one of the great joys of our school. We want children to feel proud of who they are, curious about one another and confident that they do not need to become the same in order to belong.

Over the summer, we have been incredibly busy preparing for the year ahead. There have been exciting changes across our campus, continued work on our academic programmes and learning spaces, and a great deal of thought about the experience we want every child and every family to have at BISNY. I cannot wait for you to see everything taking shape.

At the heart of it all is one idea:

Being known is where possibility begins.

Our intentionally small size allows us to know our students as individuals - their strengths and interests, when they need support, when they are ready to be challenged and sometimes possibilities they may not yet see for themselves.

Because being known and belonging are deeply connected. When children know they belong, they are more willing to put their hand up, try something unfamiliar, make a mistake, join the team, audition, ask the difficult question or challenge themselves academically.

That is where possibility begins.

This year, you will see an even greater emphasis on academic challenge, purposeful learning and experiences beyond the classroom, from inquiry, robotics and engineering to the arts, music, drama, sport, leadership, service and our House System. We want every student to have opportunities to discover what excites them and develop their individual strengths.

You will also see us being increasingly intentional about protecting the relationships that make our community special. Our new Bell-to-Bell approach to personal mobile phones, for example, is about creating more space for conversation, concentration, friendship and connection. We want our students to look up, join in and be fully present in school life.

There will be plenty more to share over the coming days, including some exciting developments across our campus, dining programme and opportunities for students.

For now, I simply want to say welcome back.

And to our new families: welcome to BISNY. Please don't think of yourselves as joining someone else's community. This is your community now too.

I am enormously excited about the year ahead and about continuing to build a school that is internationally minded, academically ambitious and deeply personal; a school where children are known, where people belong and where every student is encouraged to discover just how much is possible.

Enjoy the remaining days of summer. We cannot wait to open the doors and welcome you back very soon.

Warmly,

Janaquin Clark

Head of School

Dear Lower School Families,

I am very excited to welcome our new and returning families to Lower School for what promises to be another wonderful year of learning! We have many exciting developments underway at school, but at the moment, the hallways and classrooms are far too quiet! I cannot wait to hear the cognitive fizz, joy and laughter filling BISNY again.

As we begin a new school year, we look forward to building new friendships, reconnecting with old ones and immersing ourselves in our new Units of Inquiry. Our staff, pupils and families make BISNY a splendid place to belong. We believe that when children feel known, they discover what is possible. As we look ahead to our coming year, our key philosophy is:

Being known is where possibility begins. 

This year brings an exciting change to our Lower School division, which has been reimagined to include Nursery through Year 6. I am delighted to welcome our Year 5 and Year 6 students into the division and look forward to seeing them embrace their new role as role models for our younger learners. I know they will have an important part to play in helping us build a strong, connected Lower School community.

A fantastic part of our curriculum for Nursery to Year 2 includes our weekly swimming lessons which begin the week commencing September 14th. Reception will be swimming on Thursday afternoons, Year 1 swimming on Wednesday afternoons and Year 2 will be on Tuesday afternoons. Our Nursery learners will begin their swimming journey in January.

We are excited to introduce a new family-style lunch experience in Nursery to Year 1. Each day will feature a delicious entrée, vegetarian option, vegetable side, and accompaniment, alongside familiar favourites such as bagels, sandwiches, fresh fruit and seasonal vegetables. This gives children the opportunity to explore new foods while always having a choice they know and enjoy. This approach will create a communal and joyful lunchtime experience while also reducing food and packaging waste, helping us to make more sustainable choices as a school community. This means that families are no longer expected to order their lunches a week ahead. Our class teachers and teaching assistants will be on hand to support children every lunch time. Beginning this year, we are pleased to share that Year 2 will be joining Year 3 and 4 in the Dining Hall for their lunch. Additionally, Year 5 and 6 will continue enjoying their meals together in the Dining Hall.

I am looking forward to welcoming our staff back to school as we prepare classrooms and learning spaces for your arrival. On Tuesday 8th September, we will open our doors and welcome you back, ready to hear your exciting tales from the Summer Break. Our first day back at school will be rooted in relationships and community as we believe that when every child is known, valued, and supported, possibilities begin to unfold from the very first day!

Wishing you all a wonderful final few weeks of summer break and we look forward to hearing all about your summer adventures!

Best wishes

Ms Stewart-Pond

Head of Lower School

Dear Middle School Families,

I am delighted to welcome our students back for what promises to be a very exciting year.

This is my 12th year at BISNY, and the school has become a very special part of my own story. I have seen it through many chapters, but I can honestly say I have never seen a transformation like this. Over the summer, our school has been reimagined with new spaces and a renewed sense of what BISNY can be.

We are a school where being known is where possibility begins, and my hope for the Middle School this year is to create more purposeful pathways where we recognize who each child is and who they might become, all within an international community that encourages them to encounter different perspectives and look beyond themselves and out into the world.

Middle School is a magical chapter in any young person’s story, and I feel fortunate that I get to be part of writing it with them

The Next Chapter Begins – Tuesday, 8th September

We welcome students back on Tuesday, 8th September. Middle School students should head directly to their mentor rooms, which this year will be based in The Hive, a wing of classrooms to the right of the lobby entrance in Building 20.

Mentors will be on the plaza to welcome students and point everyone in the right direction. Students should be in their mentor rooms by 8.30am, as usual, and wear their PE kits for the day.

We have an exciting orientation planned, with opportunities to reconnect with friends, explore the school’s reimagined spaces, and join our Upper School students for cross-divisional House activities bringing together Years 7–13.

I’ll leave a little mystery around the rest…

Meet the Mentors

We are lucky enough to have a fantastic team of mentors again this year. They bring warmth and experience to their groups and, most importantly, understand that great mentoring begins with really knowing the young people in front of you.

Year 7: Mr Gjokaj and Ms Hobbs (Room: Alcala)

Year 7 will be in excellent hands with Mr Gjokaj and Ms Hobbs. A familiar face to many of our students, Mr Gjokaj is at the heart of Middle School sport, leading our basketball and volleyball teams and accompanying students to fixtures across the city. He moves down from Year 9 this year and is joined by Ms Hobbs, who comes to us from the Upper School mentor team. Warm, thoughtful, and wonderfully supportive of her students, she is a brilliant addition to our Middle School team.

Year 8: Ms Singh and Mr Kolinski (Room: Sorbonne)

Ms Singh and Mr Kolinski will take the reins in Year 8. Ms Singh makes the journey down from Year 9, while Mr Kolinski continues with the students he mentored last year, bringing some welcome continuity to the group. Both know our students incredibly well and bring the perfect combination of warmth, encouragement, and high expectations. I am delighted to have them looking after Year 8 this year.

Year 9: Mr Pooley and Ms Backhouse (Room: McGill)

Having done a fantastic job supporting last year’s Year 8 cohort, Mr Pooley continues to work with the students he mentored, providing valuable continuity as they move into Year 9. He is joined by Ms Backhouse, who arrives at BISNY this year to teach French. Together, they will guide our students through the final chapter of their Middle School journey and prepare them for the move into Upper School.

My Door Is Always Open

My office is also based in The Hive (complete with a bright orange sofa…you can’t miss it), and I plan to be outside most mornings to welcome our Middle Schoolers as they arrive. Most importantly, my door is always open to students. I want them to pop in, share what is going brilliantly and what isn’t, ask for help, offer an idea, or simply have a chat. Being Head of Middle School means being present in their lives and knowing their stories.

And that invitation extends to you, too.

I would love to hear more about your child: their ambitions, successes, challenges, and everything in between. Please don’t hesitate to drop me an email or arrange a time to visit for a coffee and a catch-up. I want you to feel every bit as much a part of our Middle School community as our students do.

A new chapter for BISNY is beginning, and I could not be more excited about the one we are about to write together.

Best wishes,

Mr Bernard

Head of Middle School

Dear Parents,

We’re looking forward to welcoming you and your children to a brand new, brilliant year of high school. At BISNY, being known is where possibility begins, and in the Upper School that takes on a new significance. As students grow in independence and begin making increasingly purposeful choices about their subjects, interests and futures, they do so in an environment that recognises each student’s strengths, ambitions and individuality.

On that note, it is my pleasure to extend a huge congratulations to our returning Upper students for your achievements at IGCSE, AS and A-level this summer. Your hard work, late nights and resilience paid off, providing a wonderful platform from which to build this year, as college and the next step beyond BISNY looms closer.

The summer has seen enormous changes to our physical school spaces and I'm really excited to share these with you during our first day back on Tuesday 8th September. As previously mentioned we will also be moving to vertical mentor groups from Years 10–13. This aims to increase the opportunities for students to socialise and forge new friendships beyond their year group, whilst enhancing the scope of our House system, further strengthening our school community. We also have a wonderful surprise up our sleeves for Year 13 students…!

First day back: Tuesday 8th September

All students should arrive between 8:15–8:30am and head to the following spaces for morning registration:

Year 10: Room 301 in B35

Year 11: Room 302 in B35

Year 12: Cambridge & Kareuein in the HUB

Year 13: Yale and Harvard

During the course of the day there will be a number of House activities and competitions so please encourage your sons and daughters to lean into school spirit by wearing their House colours and a comfy pair of trainers. Returning BISNY students should also bring their access card and lanyard.

New students will have this provided during our orientation day on Friday 4th September.

I look forward to catching up with each of you and hearing about your family’s summer adventures!

Best wishes,

Rhiannon Rees
Head of Upper School