Primary News - Oct 12 2020

Dear Parents and Students,

A warm welcome back to all of our students. We hope that during the break, you have all had a chance to recharge your batteries, to relax and spend time outdoors. All this being important for the healthy living and wellbeing, students will be talking about various related topics in their PSHE lessons throughout Block 2.

This week, they have discussed questions such as ‘What makes a healthy lifestyle?’ and ‘How can I make my own healthy choices about food and balanced lifestyle?’. The Year 5B students took advantage of the good weather and tried out some strategies to support their physical and mental wellbeing.

The Year 6 students have also thought about how they can responsibly use social media, computers and phones, without damaging their health. Lots of interesting questions to reflect on and talk about at home.

Two webinars for parents were organised this week with a focus on our Early Years, starting with a Phonics Presentation on Wednesday 7th October hosted by the Early Years staff Ms Rosa and Ms Miklavec. A Virtual Open Day on Thursday 8th October introduced the Early Years programme to prospective families and other professionals outside of school, as well as our current BISL families. Both webinars with the information will be shared for those unable to attend.

After last block’s student elections, our Prefects have gone straight into action. A huge thank you to our Year 6 Prefects, who have been monitoring the Reception area this week to ensure that their younger peers in Early Years get plenty of much-needed rest and quiet time after lunch.

Please see the sections below for further information and continue to check the News section on our school website for any updates.

This week we also celebrate World Teachers’ Day. To show their appreciation, the Year 2 students have put together a video to show why they appreciate their teachers, which has put a huge smile on everyone’s faces.

Wishing you a good weekend,

Katarina Železinger

Head of Primary

Early Years

In Early Years, we have been looking at patterns and have started to look at how water freezes and melts. The children have been using paint to interact creatively with the frozen balloons!

Ms Rosa

Year 1

During Topic discussion, animal yoga, acting and woodland walks, students identified vital necessities, and how each animal’s habitat differs.

From food and how they get it, shelter and what it looks like, to how each animal physically adapted. Not to mention searching for signs of 'homes' in the local woodland.

Mrs Blundell

Year 2A

Year 2A has had a wonderful week starting their new topic 'Learning to Learn' where they have been thinking about what makes us good learners. Over the holiday, our class has also produced some fantastic posters about people who inspire them. They presented their work confidently and clearly to the rest of the class, it was fantastic!

Well done Year 2 on a great start to Block 2.

Ms Harris

Year 2B

Year 2B had a fantastic start back to Block 2. This week, we have learnt all about multiples of 2, 5 and 10 and how we can double numbers. In literacy, we discussed different ways we can identify a fiction text. For Topic in the coming weeks, we will be focusing on having a healthy mind and how to maintain a growth mindset. For teacher appreciation day, we made a video with 2a about why we are grateful for the teachers at our school. Watch out for it on facebook soon!

Ms Miller

Year 3

In Topic, this week the students began learning about the history of chocolate; about the ancient Mayan civilisation, as well as how they prepared the beans for drinking.

The students studied this preparation process in-depth and produced a storyboard of the steps involved in making their favourite drink; 'Chocol haa!'.

Mr Mulcahy

Year 4

Year 4 students have come back from their break filled with enthusiasm and energy for the new block ahead. This block, we are studying the Living World, where students will be learning about habitats, life cycles, food chains and food webs. I have already been very impressed by their posters detailing the life cycle of various plants, insects and amphibians. In English, we are learning how rhymes are used to create ballads, and our anti-heroes are the Bogeys and the Trolls who enter a neighbourly war in the Bogey Bog.

Mr Bishop

Year 5A

Beginning our new Poetry topic has been exciting for 5A this week, we are already excited to be articulate poets of the new generation. In Topic, we have been exploring how we can be responsible global citizens which is very important in the current climate. Students have become the teachers this week in Math with their extensive knowledge of different subtraction methods which they have used to solve word problems.

Mr Walker

Year 5 & 6 Shoebox Dioramas

To encourage a love of reading year 5 and 6 have a different end of block book report to do each block. Last week's block was to create a scene from a book in a shoebox, making the scene as close to the action as possible.

As well as presenting this to the class, the students also wrote a summary of the scene and described the main characters and the theme of the book. So far, we have listened excitedly to: The Urban Whale, The Hedgehog's House and The curse of the cheesy pyramid. We look forward to hearing about more books every day.

Mrs Charlesworth

Year 5B

Year 5B took the opportunity to enjoy the brief sunshine on Monday and went outside during the PSHE lesson. This week's theme is "Maintaining a healthy lifestyle". Can you guess from the students' actions what they believe is important to keep healthy?

Mrs Charlesworth

Year 6

In this block, the Year 6 students will study 3 different Ancient Civilisations. We are starting with the famous Maya. The ancient Maya lived in a region that today includes Guatemala, Belize, the Yucatán peninsula (Mexico) and the western portions of Honduras and El Salvador.

The students’ challenge in History task 1, is to find out what archaeological evidence has survived in the location of their biggest cities – such as pyramids, temples, ball courts, plazas, stelae and so on. The groups were able to choose the following methods of recording and presenting their learning.

• A map/plan of the ruins with labels and facts to highlight places of interest.
• An imaginary sight-seeing tour which guides someone around the site. This could combine an oral presentation with props, such as images and models.
• An interactive multimedia display, using iMovie to combine images, text and voice-over.

We are looking forward to their presentations soon.

Mr Kokalj

PE News

The new block in PE will be all about gymnastics. This week, pupils were introduced to different sorts of balance (single and in pairs). Pupils enjoyed discovering what their bodies can do with the right technique and the acquired skills. Year 4, 5 and 6 also used the trampoline and a gym vaulting box for an additional challenge. Year 1, 2 and 3 worked on their balance with animal pose and tried to hold it for at least 5 seconds.

Overall, it was a great week to introduce the skills needed for gymnastics.

PE Department

MFL

Years 3 and 4 have been discussing professions in many creative ways. They were keen to participate in the game ACTIVITY where they had the option to choose between pantomime, drawing and describing a particular profession. Many students chose a drawing option and showed their hidden talent. It wasn’t hard to guess because the drawings were very good!

Zelo dobro učenci!

Mrs Košec

Teacher Feature

In celebration of World Teacher’s Day, this week we focus our new Teacher Feature spotlight on our Head of Sixth Form, Mr Jason Batson, a longstanding member of the BISL teaching team, who is forever approachable, always enthusiastic about instilling a great passion for learning in his students, igniting their curiosity and supporting them every step of the way as they complete the final challenges of their secondary school education.

Read Mr Batson's Teacher Feature here.

Mathematics Block Roundup

As the Mathematics team hand over to Humanities for our Theme in Block 2, here's a roundup of what happened during the brain-teasing Maths Block.

Spam Emails

We apologise for any inconvenience caused by 'spam' emails that have been received by parents from a previous employee at our school. This is already being handled by our legal team. Please continue to disregard any such emailsyou receive or block the senders address to avoid further contact. We appreciate your support as we work to resolve this matter.

Dear Parents,

It has been a very busy week at school with lots to discuss, share and celebrate. Thank you to all of the parents who attended the virtual 'Coffee with the Principal'. Although it was unusual to host this event online, it was very worthwhile to have a chance to give you some detailed updates and plans about upcoming announcements, school events and some of the areas that we are focusing on as a school at the moment form a pedagogical point of view. Of course, these coffee mornings are best when we see each other in person and although video conferencing and webinars are great tools, nothing will replace the feeling of those parent interactions when you visit the school safely and to experience the buzz from our students working as you make your way to the Assembly Hall for the coffee mornings. I do hope we can revert back to this soon once the guidance allows us to do so safely.

In case you couldn't make it, here is a summary of what was discussed, and my slides are also available here for more detail.

Kind regards,

Paul Walton

Principal

Please note that the Teacher Appreciation Breakfast has been moved to Friday May 7th.