Primary News - June 5 2020

Dear Parents and Students,

Week 3 of this last block has passed very quickly and with classes joining again, we have been able to schedule more time for students to go outside and make the most of the sunny weather. From next week, the playground equipment area (swings, slides and so on) will open again at regulated times and under continuous supervision. Lunches will continue to be served in the home classrooms, as bigger gatherings are still not advisable, but having walked around the classrooms during lunch-times, it has been lovely seeing students enjoying the time with their peers in the calm surroundings, chatting and catching up on their social news.

We are also pleased to be able to open up the after school supervision (until 15:40) to the rest of our Y3-Y6 primary students in week 4. Updated information and the link to register your child is available on the school website in the BISL Reopening Procedures Guidance.

With the experiences of the past few months, we have come to appreciate our surroundings, being able to enjoy time in nature. Friday 5th June marks the World Environment Day, widely celebrated in more than 143 countries. It is a day to reflect on what we can do to take care of the earth and the environment.

"These are exceptional times in which nature is sending us a message: To care for ourselves we must care for nature". - The United Nations

With best wishes for the weekend,

Mrs Železinger

Head of Primary

This week has been a test of stamina for our Nursery children. Walks (sometimes exceeding an hour) in the wilderness have become a daily occurrence, and have been a great opportunity for getting closer to nature.

Running along the woodland paths is now a favourite pastime, and even the very youngest have surprised us with their athletic abilities! It's been a real pleasure to see our children effortlessly adapting as a well-knit group alongside the school community as a whole.

The Reception children have also been spending as much time outside as possible. It has been a joy to watch them play together, invent new games and run happily around the woodland area. As well as some much-needed playtime, the Reception children have also taken a lot of their learning outside. Reading in the sun (or the shade) is now a favourite amongst the children. As soon as I take the "reading mat" outside, I have a swarm of children around me waiting to read books and flashcards. It is fantastic to see such eagerness and enthusiasm for reading. Keep it up Reception!

Ms O'Hara and Mr Irving

It's great to finally have all of Y1 back in the same classroom! This week we have been using our rocket experiment to inspire our creative writing in English.

In Maths, we have been making our own clocks and learning to tell the time. In Topic we have been conducting investigations, based on our water topic, seeing what materials float or sink.

Mr Hughes

Year 2 had a busy week this week and have been making the most of the beautiful weather. We have taken this opportunity to plant our seeds, thinking about the importance of water for the seeds to grow. It has been a fantastic week.

Well done Year 2. I'm looking forward to next week!

Ms Harris

In Topic this week, the students made a presentation on the indigenous people of the rainforest. Working in pairs, they researched various aspects of their lives, like their clothing, housing, food and of rainforest peoples and made a picture collage based on their discoveries.

Mr Mulcahy

Year 4 have continued with their computer programming units, learning about functions, loops and conditions in order to create more complex coding instructions. Students have been enthusiastically assisting one another so everyone has experienced a lot of success thus far. They have also been enjoying creating intricate mathematical patterns using coding and values. We are all looking forward to the end of the week when the final testing session will be over and then we will breathe a sigh of relief and continue with the more enjoyable aspects of the school.

Mr Bishop

Week 3 was a smashing week in Y5, analysing information in texts in addition to building characters were our objectives in English. Maths involved finding diagonals and bisections of shapes while also reviewing fractions with the added difficulty of word problems. Children created their own anemometer in Topic which they used to measure the potential wind energy in BISL grounds. Thanks for all the hard work!!!

Mr Walker

6A MEETS IGRAJ SE Z MANO

It began with Year 6 students explaining to our 'new' students how much fun the festival is; they reminisced about playing basketball in wheelchairs, rock-climbing and eating giant cookies in the centre of town. Rem explained the purpose of the festival - INCLUSION. Year 6A then joined in a quick workshop via Zoom at this year's Igraj se z Mano (Play with me) festival. It was a simple workshop, one which I thought would be too quick and boring for the Year 6's, but instead, they were having a lot of fun creating a sailboat out of a sponge, a kebab stick, a piece of coloured paper, a ruler, some sticky tape and their coloured pencils. They were most impressed that the boats could actually sail and not sink. Of course, the most fun they had was trying to create winds and waves to blow their opponents boats over. So, check out the festival's website to see what you might like to join and HERE is the link to their Youtube channel where you can see two of our secondary students' performances.

Mrs Charlesworth

Early this week the Year 6 students completed their grammar assessments. Their objective was to find their grammar targets in preparation for the end of year assessments.

The photographs show students reviewing their work using Canvas.

We also enjoyed listening to students’ presentations that they have prepared on the topic of endangered animals. Using our success criteria we were able to give good feedback to our presenters.

Mr Kokalj

Year 5 students are finalising their musical topic in French by preparing a mini-theatre play. We are very excited about next week when the students will get to perform in front of their classmates and teacher.

Mrs Poulet

Before digging into writing, Y1 had some fun singing a Slovene song Zajček Zlatko. The teacher's ear can already predict some singing and rhythm talents!

In the picture, you can see quite a few rabbits!

Slovene Department Team

The development of emotional intelligence at an early stage is crucial for the development of children. In addition to children being able to identify and understand their emotions, express their feelings in an appropriate and socially acceptable manner, it also leads to the child's good self-esteem and success. It teaches children how to tackle and resolve conflicts and to understand the patterns that lead to them. These are the skills of a successful adult.

When starting school, students learn about social norms and rules so that they can follow instructions and learn. They associate learning with enjoying themselves and are motivated when experiencing pleasant emotions during activities. It is easy for them to tell how they feel, but find it difficult to explain why or predict the best activity to manage their emotions and behaviour. Parents, the greatest influencers on a child's emotional development should help students to help students identify the most rational decisions. This is just as important in early childhood as it is later in life as teenagers and adults. Young students will behave in a certain way to please (parents, teachers), however being able to recognise personal needs, to self-regulate and control are skills that are needed and developed later in life to maintain long term inter motivation for learning.

When a sudden change of mood occurs, when the child is unsure about how to proceed, when a child does not behave like himself or herself, teachers and parents usually ask what happened. Teachers and parents are suggested to ask if the reason makes them feel a certain way. Suggesting different possibilities strengthens their vocabulary and understanding of emotions. The recognition of emotions is the basis for the continuation.

Students can then think about what they need at this point. They need to think about their options: what do I need and what can I do to make me/ be/ continue...? If identified early, the required action can be insubstantial. Answering the question above, the students start being responsible for their expression and behaviour. They begin to develop an understanding of themselves, self-management and self-control, which is highly important for later life.

Teachers and parents can find such cards online to support their children making choices. A wheel like that is easy to print but could make a significant difference.

SEN Department

The EAL students have become true book worms in the past two months and have been broadening their horizons through reading their favourite books on GetEpic!

Keep it up, everyone!

Mrs Majzelj Kralj

This week the PE Department introduced Floorball, which is a new sport for most of the primary classes. How to handle the stick, how to move, shoot and dribble was the main focus of the lessons.

They also received a challenge to score a goal against their teacher which gave the whole class a task to work as a team with the same team objective.

Play with me festival

The PE Department would like to thank volunteers from Y6a who joined in the Play with me festival and introduced the 3-point sock challengeto many children over a Zoom conference call.

It was a pleasure to see everyone getting involved and cheering for our students while they were trying to beat their best score in the challenge.

PE Department

Reception

Tita... for doing such a great job in Phonics. You have been trying really hard and you have made brilliant progress.

Nursery

Titus... for trying to include others in his play.

Year 2

Leia... for her excellent fantasy story this week in Literacy. Well done Leia!

Year 3

Vladimir... for showing great teamwork in completing your topic project and improving greatly your knowledge of the times tables. Well done and keep up the good work!

Year 5

Simon... for making an amazing effort with his presentation skills as well as finding new ways to solve problems.

Year 6A

Valentin...For applying your mathematical knowledge to question the properties of a triangle.

Year 6B

Michail...For your presentation on an endangered animal, which captivated your audience. You clearly rehearsed your performance and students rewarded you with correct answers to all of the questions at the end of your presentation. Clearly, a job well done!

First place is Sapphire with 87 points!

CoNgRaTuLaTiOnS!

Second place with 81 points... Zircon

Third place with 64 points... Emerald

Fourth place with 62 points...Hessonite

Dear Parents,

During this week we have seen our students continue to settle back into routines and they have been wonderful. I have been particularly impressed by the attendance of our students in Early Years to Year 10, the figure last week matches our highest in the last two terms. This is great news as we all know that excellent attendance is key for good learning.

Updates to Safety Guidance

We will continue to focus on the safety of all members of the community.

1. During the next week, upon careful consideration, we have decided to relax the guidance further on the use of masks in school, this means as of Monday 8th June, masks will be optional for secondary students. Masks for staff continues to be recommended, but will now be optional. This is in accordance with the most recent ministry guidance.
2. Primary after-school provision will be upgraded to include all primary students (up to and including Year 6) who wish to stay back after school until 3.40pm. Early Years provision will continue up until 4.30pm. Further information will be sent out by Mrs Železinger, Head of Primary.

Other aspects of school life (lunches, activities, events, gatherings, etc.) will be reviewed on a daily basis and any changes are to be announced each Friday. This keeps the messages clear and consistent.

As we receive further updates, we will add them to our BISL reopening procedures page and email out any changes to the guidance.

Staff Announcements

Next week we will start to send out letters to parents informing them of the teachers for next year. A letter from a teacher in the year group will be sent to current and new parents to introduce themselves, share information about next year and inform them of key dates to note (Orientation Day, Friday 21st August and the first day of school, Monday 24th August).

Staff profiles, photos and bios of new staff joining BISL will be sent out to all parents to welcome and introduce our new colleagues into our community for August 2020.

I wish all families an enjoyable weekend.

Kind regards,

Mr Walton

Principal