Primary News - Sept 25 2020

Dear Parents and Students,

Health and Safety Updates

For the latest updates and information on safety measures in effect from Monday 21st September, please read the Update from the Principal. We will continue to review the recommendations and guidelines from the NIJZ and the Ministry of Education on a regular basis.

Student Voice

We are very excited about various student elections going on across the school this week, which promote the student voice all the way from early Years, to Primary, Secondary and 6th Form. Students in all Primary classrooms will have the opportunity to apply for positions of a Student Council Class Representative. Even our youngest preschool students will be able to try out their leadership roles in Early Years.

Students in Y6 will have further opportunities to apply for the roles as the Primary Head Boy and Head Girl, Primary Student Council Representative or Prefect. Students and staff will be involved in the voting, the results of which will be announced on the last day of the Block, Friday 25th September. This ties in with this week’s PSHE theme of Excellence- all students are encouraged to participate in these elections, to develop communication, organisation and leadership skills. We look forward to the results coming soon!

As we head into the last week of this first block, we thank parents for all their support and wish everyone a safe and productive week ahead.

Kind wishes,

Katarina Železinger

Head of Primary

Early Years

We have been developing our outdoor learning space and have begun to paint our tyre planters and we created a number line together!

Ms Rosa

Year 1

This week Year 1 made a simple pizza recipe, then learned about how the ingredients are grown, and how they're processed and where they came from.

Ms Blundell

Year 2A

This week Year 2 have continued exploring their topic 'Treasures' and have been practising their class song ready for a special recording next week.

In Literacy, they have been learning about adjectives and have created some fantastic descriptions. It has been another great week for Year 2.

Ms Harris

Year 2B

2B have had an amazing week learning all about adjectives! On Wednesday we went on a nature walk and discovered all of the ways we could describe the things that we saw, smelt, felt and heard.

During maths, we have also focused on addition and subtraction. We were challenged by finding the missing numbers in a sum.

Ms Miller

Year 3

In English this week, the students have been preparing to describe the familiar setting of the beach for their writing task this block. They described how a setting description can change the atmosphere of a piece and then painted the same setting using certain colours to change the mood also. The students are all looking forward to using all they've learned to put their own slant on describing a setting next week and we are really looking forward to reading them too!

Mr Mulcahy

Year 4

Year 4 have started adding components to games this week, including control pads and moving backgrounds. Next week, they will put all their newfound knowledge together to create their own games from scratch, then they will play each other's games and give feedback. In our English unit, students have to decide how our story will end as a twist reveals that the two young runaways, who are the protagonists of our story, are to be sent to Canada as part of an immigration scheme of the British Empire. I look forward to seeing how our young writers will address the challenge.

Mr Bishop

Year 5A

This week Year 5A practised column addition and subtraction, earning well-deserved house points for the challenges set. In Topic, students continued exploring Extreme Survivors and worked hard on designing and creating their own booklets.

Mrs Bradley

Year 5B

FORUM THEATRE

Year 5 loved working in Forum Theatre this week, which involves creating a short play in which a central character encounters an obstacle which they are unable to overcome. The audience uses a stop action to give the character advice and the play is re-run using the new idea. The students used this method in order to develop their investigative skills of how the character's actions are affected by the setting.

We had students become shrubs, a too active volcano, a snoring, sleeping dragon, a young dragon slayer, a magical gong that becomes a teleporter mirror, guards to the imperial emperor and directors. Can you guess what they are from the photos?

Mrs Charlesworth

Year 6

The year 6 candidates have now been photographed to create the all-new 2020-21 BISL ballot.

The BISL Primary students will support the voting of Head Boy and Head Girl of Primary in the following ways:

1. The classes will be shown the 9 individual videos made by the candidates for the positions
2. After that all students will cast their vote for Head Boy and Head Girl
3. All primary staff will also vote

The voting will happen in the Assembly hall in front of the posters of the candidates. Each student will receive one ballot form, with two votes on it (one for Head Boy and for Head Girl). The winning candidates will be announced next Friday.

Mr Kokalj and Mrs Charlesworth

2020-21 Primary Election Leaders

PE News

In PE lessons this week pupils have been practising their forward and backward movement, specifically using the 'Lemon' technique. Pupils used this skill to overcome obstacles in an assault course.

Next week pupils will take part in an assessment at the end of the block to review the skills they have learnt in rollerblading.

PE Department

MFL News

»Dober dan« as students in Year 1 and Year 2 would say. They have already gained so much knowledge about Slovene greetings.

This week we have focused on our introductions. As a starter, they had a mission to do the puzzles and read the crocodile introduction on it. Odlično učenci!

Miss Košec

MFL Department

Secondary students volunteering

On Thursday morning of Week 3, students in Year 12 supported learning in English and Mathematics across Key Stage 1 and 2. Their involvement was greatly appreciated by the students in primary. The experience was also very rewarding and enjoyable for the older students, some of whom will be returning in Block 2 to continue lending a hand!

From Alex, Year 12:

Last Thursday was great! I experienced real generosity from the Year 1s, their eager attitude astonished me into thinking, "I should visit more!". Not only that, but their kindness was something that really made my day!

From Taja, Year 12:

Having spent a lesson with the Year 3s for Maths, I really enjoyed spending time with the younger years, and have found it to be a very positive experience.

I enjoyed everything from the in-class learning activities that we did to the genuine learning curiosity that the children had, which just made everything even more entertaining.

From Emma, Year 12:

I really enjoyed spending time with the Year 2B class. I feel that going downstairs and helping these little children learn to write basic sentences and spell words such as ‘slices’ and ‘bread’ is something that really takes your mind off of the stressful timetable which is the sixth form life. The questions they ask are also just funny and sweet. I had a great time.

From Rosemarijn, Year 12:

Helping out in Year 2A’s reading session was very rewarding. It was fun to talk to them as their imaginations are fun to explore. Their levels of reading and responsibility were really high and made helping out easy and fun.

As we move closer to the end of the first block, I thought it would be a good moment to look back and reflect on the achievements of our students and staff for the academic year of 2019 - 2020. Indeed, it was a year full of challenges and those challenges were felt quite acutely by the students of external examination year groups as well as their teachers.

Firstly the students. I would like to pay tribute to the hard work of the students of our current year 12 and 13 and of course, the students who have graduated. It was a challenging time to stay focused on studies and to participate in and perform on the assessments that were set by your subject teachers. In these difficult circumstances, the students showed their knowledge and ability which allowed their teachers to justify the grades that were submitted to the examination boards.

In particular, I would like to congratulate Iva A., Adrian M.G. and Micky W. who all obtained A grades in all their subjects, the highest achievable grade at the AS level. Also, special congratulations must go to Chloe Zhang and Taja Bregant who both achieved 100% A*/A grades in their subjects at IGCSE, a truly fantastic achievement.

Secondly the teaching staff. The achievements of our students are a product of the hard work done throughout the period of time that they have attended BISL. The teachers, teaching assistants and administration staff all have had a role to play in the success that our students enjoy and I would like to recognise the entire BISL staff who have contributed to our students' journey.

Finally BISL itself. We as a school have progressed so much in the past few years and the end result of our perseverance and diligence is now clear. Not only with the upward trend of the attainment across the school but also with the results of IGCSE and A Level. We can all celebrate the fact that we not only achieved much higher than the UK average in terms of IGCSE and A Level grade attainment but also that we are the highest performing school within the Orbital Educational group in terms of A*/A grade attainment at both IGCSE and A Level. We are proud members of the Orbital Educational group which has schools all over the world and therefore, I feel, this achievement is extremely worthy of recognition.

So congratulations to our students, our staff and our school as a whole and let's look forward to continuing the successful trend.

Mr Batson

Head of Sixth Form

Dear Parents,

As we head into our last week before the block break, we see the number of coronavirus cases increase in the country, reaching a record high this week. As a community, we need to continue working together to ensure that our students, staff and parents are as safe as possible.

Thank you to all parents who have supported the school with our safety and health guidance. As we can see through announcements in the media, government, and other sources, this has been the appropriate course of action due to the increase in cases.

Whilst there may be many opinions and views on the severity of the situation, and I respect everyone may have a different view on the risks involved, the predicted increases and measures taken, as a school, we are responsible for all individuals in our building and therefore take decisive action to place safety at the forefront of everything.

As such, safety decisions have been made and will be followed at school.

I have put together a list of basic guidance for all members of the community at this time and it is important to repeat and underline how important these are for the safety of you, your children and everyone else in the school. Please read them here.

Kind regards,

Paul Walton

Principal