Dear BISI Community, I have now had time to relax and unwind after

Dear BISI Community,
I have now had time to relax and unwind after the inaugural COBIS Secondary Games and it is really only now that
things are sinking in… we actually did this!
Pleasingly there have been amazing compliments from COBIS board members as well as Heads of participating
schools, schools staff and parents flooding in ever since. A few have been copied below which show the
appreciation that all parties have for the efforts that were put in by the whole BISI community and the awesome
benefits and opportunities gained by the 168 participating students.
‘Thank you for an amazing games. Our students got so much out of the trip, it was incredible. The format was
excellent, allowing lots of activity time. I wish the primary games allowed for this. Your team were great and I
enjoyed meeting them. I think the school should be very proud of what it has achieved! I am still buzzing from the
trip! Well done Istanbul!!’ – Adam Hoult, HOD PE, IS Moscow
‘I would just like to take this time to say ‘Thank You’ for hosting us in Istanbul for the COBIS Games, I thought you
did an absolutely outstanding job! Our students are still talking about their experiences! I too had an amazing
time! So thank you for all your hard work & effort to ensure the success of the games!’ – Emily Maguire, HOD PE,
BS Berlin
‘Thank you so much for all your kindness, attention to detail and the hard work put into the COBIS Games. We had
a ball! You must be feeling exhausted, but rest assured this was one of the best organized events to date and the
additional cultural highlights made for a memorable weekend. The feedback from our own parents once students
returned home is very complimentary. You and the school can be very proud’. – Anne Howells, Head of School,
BIS Stavanger
‘Congratulations for this weekend, our team is delighted, as well as the parents. A huge thanks from all the St
George’s parents who were waiting for the results back in Luxembourg. Hope to see you next year in Greece’ –
Caroll Sarago, Parent, St. George’s
‘This month also saw the first ever COBIS Secondary Games, held at the British International School Istanbul and
won by St Catherine's British School in Athens. This event will now be a firm fixture in the growing COBIS
competitions calendar. Our thanks to Carolynne Bell at BISI for her tireless work organising this excellent event,
and to staff at the school for helping to make the inaugural COBIS Secondary Games a resounding success.’ – Colin
Bell, COBIS Executive
The school has also made it in to two COBIS publications this month so we are definitely being recognised for our
initiative, hard work, sweat and at times, tears! This recognition extends far beyond that of the 11 visiting schools to
almost all the 85,000 strong COBIS family members that spread across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. To read
these you can follow the links:
http://www.cobis.org.uk/page.cfm?p=430&newsid=123
http://www.cobis.org.uk/cf_enotify/view.cfm?n=297
The success of the games was down to contributions made by the whole community at BISI. At this point, I would
like to offer my thanks to them.
 Jenny Norden (and the PTA through newsletters) connected us with a variety of sponsors who donated the
following items:
 Backpacks – Jatomi Pure Fitness, Nina & Jason Tubbs
 Soft drinks – Coca Cola, Catherine Gammell
 Ice cream and toiletries – Unilever, Angelo & Ivar Blanken
 Tents, goody packs, medals & trophies – Kinder Sport, Renato & Chiara Danna (Ferrero)
 Water – Nestle Pure Life, Neil & Debbie Edwards
 Lunches – Banvit, Ilgi Gorener
We also sourced additional sponsorship from:
 Gala Dinner – Mr. & Mrs. Sezen
 Transport and hotels for parents – XPRSolutions, Tulin Cesmeli
 Snacks – Real Supermarket, Olivier Langlet
 T-shirts – Kukri, Neil Latimer
The generosity and support from all sponsors greatly added to the prestige of the games and without them, we could
not have provided our visiting students, staff and parents with the wonderful image and presentation that we
achieved.
Thanks must also go to the Kilyos hotels – Kale, Erzurumlu, Kilya and Yuva – who looked after the competitors
during their stay and provided a tremendously safe setting in which the students were able to meet life-long friends.
The parents of participating students deserve an award – Debbie Edwards, Sandra Watson, Lynn Cooper, Sandy
Wiercherdink, Judith Kuper and Angelika Heidt – as they worked tirelessly to help train children, paint facilities,
create materials (flags and posters), book trips and put together the equipment and gift packs. They gave up their
free time and for many, roped in their visiting family members to help at times! I must also mention Mr. Ibrahim
Dereboy who joined us for three days and did a magnificent job as our official first aider.
Our COBIS PR students – Ryan Bosman, Tommaso Danna, Murad Kanafani and Umit Abdulkasim – did an
amazing job creating signs and posters, select teams for the schedules and prepare advertising and marketing
materials. The professional approach that they adopted tells me that we have some budding future leaders here!
Watch this space….
Our CAS, Year 10 students and PR students - Sophie Schmitz, Elena Vivaldi, Sheida Kiran, Hannah Watson, Arda
Oguz, Mina Dolay, Fuad Kerinov, Georgi Averladze, Caroline Findikliev, Chiara Vivaldi, Claire McCormack,
Julide Yanikomeroglu, Mingyu Park, Ramon Klomp, Pinar Oguz, Leike Blanken, Mare Blanken, Ann Blanken,
Ashutosh Bhadouria, Vasudev Bhadouria, Zev Meerdink, Raad Momani and Vishwesh Shah – did the most fantastic
job of officiating the athletics, football and swim events as well as being fully available to help with all aspects of
the games; without question or fuss. All student helpers were well mannered and professional at all times,
exceeding any expectations we had of them and showing the International community just how FABULOUS our
students are. They were an absolute credit to the school.
The BISI staff (too many to mention!) supported the games in a variety of ways. Some by scoring and officiating,
some with prior organisation and others by covering classes and being flexible with last minute changes to
timetable. Ms. Ozlem and her auxiliary staff were as usual, on time and on point and worked behind the scenes to
ensure the flawless running of the event from start to finish.
If I may mention one staff member in particular for their help and support, it would be Miss Scotland. This is
mainly for her patience as she, on top of the incredible organisational work, had to keep me calm. For those who
know me, this is not the easiest of jobs…in fact, it was probably the toughest job!
Overall, the contributions made by many resulted in the event being meticulously ran and the praise and attention
that we are all receiving is truly well deserved. Personally, I wish there was more that I could do to say ‘thank you’
as words don’t often seem enough, but please be assured that I will be eternally grateful for all that the community
did for their part in the games.
Please visit the BISI Flickr account for all photos of the event on:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/britishschoolistanbul/
The overall results of each activity within the games can be seen in the tables below.
Athletics:
St. George's
Netherlands
St. Catherine's
Kings
Rainbow
Moscow
Cairo
BISI
Stavanger
Astana
Berlin
Almaty
Football:
120
St. Catherine's
120
110
Kings
110
100
Moscow
110
90
St. George's
90
80
Rainbow
80
70
Cairo
70
60
Netherlands
60
50
Stavanger
50
40
Astana
40
30
Istanbul
30
20
Berlin
20
10
Almaty
10
Swimming:
Overall:
Points
Place
St Catherine's
120
St Catherine's
340
1
Netherlands
110
Netherlands
280
2
BISI
100
Kings
270
3
Moscow
90
St George's
270
3
Cairo
80
Moscow
270
3
Kings
70
Cairo
210
6
St George's
60
Rainbow
190
7
Almaty
50
BISI
180
8
Stavanger
40
Stavanger
130
9
Rainbow
30
Astana
90
10
Astana
20
Almaty
70
11
Berlin
10
Berlin
50
12
As you can see, next year we go to St. Catherine’s as they won the games but I would like to start preparing for this
NOW! If you have a child who is committed to working hard, can put in the time and effort, both in and out of
school hours to train, and who wants to be part of this magnificent event then get them fit over the summer and send
them to trials in the new academic year. The improvement in performance and attitude of our BISI students this
year as a result of the games was outstanding. They did themselves and their coaches (Mr. Jones and Ms.
McNaughton) proud.
Again, my sincere thanks to all involved for making this an event to remember.
Carolynne Bell

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