Bina Bangsa School

Bina Bangsa School 培民学校 (BBS) is a chain of schools located in Jakarta, Bandung, Semarang and Malang, Indonesia.

Bina Bangsa School is an international Christian school open to both Indonesian and foreign students. The school's dominant language of instruction is English, along with Chinese (中文) As a Second Language. The phrase "Bina Bangsa" itself means "to build the nation".

Cambridge International

Bina Bangsa School is an authorized Cambridge International Examinations Center. Students attempt the IGCSE examinations during Secondary 4 (Grade 10) before proceeding to the Cambridge A-Levels examinations in Junior College 2 (Grade 12). The A-Levels examinations follow the Option 3 of the assessment options, but students may retake the AS Level examinations during the following year's May/June session and work on them together with the A2 Level examinations if they wish to. The school uses Singaporean schools' curriculum.

The education program in BBS includes Grade 1 to Grade 12. The grades are divided into three groups: primary school level (abbreviated Primary or P; e.g. P5 for Grade 5) which consists of P1 up to P6, secondary school level (abbreviated Secondary or Sec; e.g. Sec4 for Grade 10) that consists of Sec1 up to Sec4 and junior college level (abbreviated JC; e.g. JC2 for Grade 12) which consists of JC1 and JC2 only. Both the secondary school and junior college levels are often assimilated into "Secondary" level. At the end of Primary 6, every student is required to take up the PSLE (Primary School Leaving Examination) before they qualify for the graduation ceremony. This determines which class they will be entering in the secondary later on, either accelerated or express.

Sister schools

Bina Bangsa School was first established in 2001 with its first building in Kebon Jeruk, Jakarta. After a few years, other sister schools were built around the country. BBS Primary Kebon Jeruk (BBS KJ), BBS Malang, BBS Pantai Indah Kapuk (BBS-PIK) (PIK, Jakarta), BBS Bandung and BBS Semarang are all under the same umbrella.

Facilities of BBS-PIK

• Over 300 classrooms.
• Lecture halls. 2 main auditoriums, and 2 mini halls. All 4 halls are multi-purpose and are used for general assemblys, examination, sports and performances.
• Chapel. A small lecture hall used for chapel services, lectures along with staging performances.
• Sports Facilities. The school compound has multiple sport facilities. This includes 2 outdoor football fields, 1 indoor basketball field, 2 outdoor basketball fields, Swimming pool, 2 Table tennis rooms, 2 badminton halls, dojo (for aikido, self-defence, taekwondo ), etc.
• 5 Science laboratories, each capable of supporting 25 students each performing their experiments individually. Contains all required apparatus and material for GCSE and A-Level education.
• 4 computer laboratories, with all the PC equipped with up to date hardware and software.
• Free wifi hotspots
• Car Park
• Air conditioning around the school compound
• Well facilitated restrooms are available one in every story in Building A, B and C of BBS-PIK.
• CCTV cameras are installed throughout the school compound and monitored directly by security guards that are stationed 24 hours a day.
• Cafeteria
• Bookstores
• Libraries
• Musical instruments and equipments for public use

Faculty

The teachers are of mixed cultures and ethnic groups and hail from around 15 countries including Singapore, United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia, China, Philippines, India, Malaysia, Taiwan, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Korea. Graduated students may apply for teaching positions, and paid, and several have been admitted, though their jobs do not usually cover grades over the Secondary 2 level and usually consist of a period of less than half a year due to the late months of that year or January the following year being the beginning of either their first or subsequent university year.

Student body

There are about 1000 students in the main BBS Kebon Jeruk campuses and about 7500 in the other branches. Most of these students are Indonesian but are mainly of Chinese descent. The language of use in the whole school is English but there are also lessons in Mandarin and Indonesian.

Co-curricular activities and non-academic programs

Co-curriculuar activities (CCA) are a part of Bina Bangsa School school program. Each student is required to enroll in at least one CCA. From soccer to golf, photography to drama, the aims are to inculcate discipline, teamwork and pride in students.

Students are encouraged to excel beyond the school walls through:

• Faith Builder Groups
• Music programs (Western and Chinese Instruments, and Choir)
• Sports CCAs/Teams
• Performing Arts and Drama Programs
• Community Service

The school, especially the BBS-PIK campus, is also known for their Prefectorial Board which organises most, if not all of the school activities. The activities range from Interhouse competitions to Sports days to seminars to camps and so on.

School Musicals

Bina Bangsa has been putting on musicals annually, featuring their own students who are either part of the Drama Club (for Secondary level) or Performing Arts CCA (for Primary level), or have auditioned for the musical beforehand.

Early productions done by the KJ primary campus includes the musicals Little Red Riding Hood, The Little Mermaid (musical), an adaptation of the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, and an original play titled "Bits 'n Pieces of Broadway". One of the notable productions done by KJ Primary was their own adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's long-running Broadway musical Cats (musical), stylized as KATZ, which had a very large cast of primary school students.

The PIK Primary campus soon followed, with biannual musicals. The musicals of the PIK campus has all been directed by Jonas Austria, starting with Cinderella (musical). They continued on their journey, performing Music Theatre International-licensed Beauty and the Beast (musical). The musical was successful and well acclaimed, solidifying the campus' Musical program. The campus then followed with their production of The Little Mermaid (musical).

The Kebon Jeruk and PIK secondary campuses usually collaborate together to produce one musical each year, meeting up weekly at either the PIK or KJ campuses for rehearsals, while the Bandung campus also holds annual shows on its own. The musicals are usually held at the Gedung Kesenian Jakarta around March with a relatively small cast and large crew that is made of up students as well. Bina Bangsa's drama department is currently associated with Music Theatre International and puts on licensed shows from MTI's Broadway Junior collection. Bina Bangsa has notably put on the first licensed international staging of High School Musical: One Act Version. Some other musicals that have been previously staged by Bina Bangsa Secondary are West Side Story, Once On This Island Jr., Disney's Mulan Jr., Seussical Jr., among many others. All these licensed productions have been directed by teacher and former principal of the Bandung campus, Mr. Jon Jason M. Yogawin, who has been directing stage musicals for almost 10 years^[1] prior to his work with Bina Bangsa school. In 2013, the campuses performed Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, the first production not to be directed by Mr. Jason due to scheduling conflicts and his tasks as an active principal. Currently the BBS-PIK secondary campus are producing their own musicals, independent of the KJ campus, the most recent being Fame (musical).

Student achievements

Bina Bangsa students have garnered the most number of Cambridge's Brilliance Awards^[2] in Indonesia. CIE has awarded the Top Student in Indonesia and the World for subjects such as English, Chinese, Mathematics, Additional Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and Sociology.

International Competitions and Assessments for Schools (ICAS) placed Bina Bangsa students' English, Mathematics and Science competency levels high above the benchmark of Indonesia, as evidenced by the Gold awards and High Distinctions garnered by the students every year.

Bina Bangsa alumni have won scholarships to Hong Kong University, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Melbourne University, UNSW, University of California, University of Toronto, University of Michigan, University of Waterloo, National University of Singapore, NTU, SMU as well as local top universities such as Universitas Indonesia, Institut Teknologi Bandung, etc. .

External links

• Official site