Primary News - October 19 2020

Dear Parents and Students,

The learning continues uninterrupted at BISL, despite the difficult circumstances we are facing at the moment, and I could not be more proud of our students and staff across the school. There have been so many displays of our school values of respect, empathy, excellence and challenge, with everyone working together and supporting one another, from older students helping during lessons and breaks in primary, to teachers stepping in to cover their colleague’s absence. The first Student Council meeting took place today and we are excited to find out how students will be involved in developing our school further.

With the current situation in Slovenia, all schools have needed to take further safety measures. At BISL, the Secondary students have now moved to online learning and will continue to work from home. The Year 6 Primary students will join the distance learning programme on Monday 19th October. Class Teachers and Form Tutors have been preparing students for this situation and we are confident that all the hard work from teachers creating courses and sharing resources via Canvas, and checking that students are familiar and confident to use the technology for learning, will ensure continuity of learning for students. Class teachers/Form tutors will be available for support via Zoom conferences and lessons. For parents wishing to contact the teachers, please use email as the first port of call. Please continue to be safe online as well and do a fresh read of the E-safety information on the school website. Students have continued to focus on strategies for Wellbeing this week, all of which they can also apply at home.

Early Years up to and including Year 5 classes will continue to have lessons at school. Further instructions will be sent out to parents and students, as we continue to review the guidance, as per the latest Update from the Principal. Please also look at the After School Provision section below, as there are changes to the supervision in primary from next week.

We are very thankful for all the support from the parents and we endeavour to continue to provide the learning opportunities on-site for our younger students.

Wishing everyone a safe and calm weekend ahead,

Katarina Železinger

Head of Primary

Early Years

In Early Years we have been using junk modelling to make animals as part of our pattern topic. The children have been using cutting techniques to create horns and ears.

Ms Rosa

Year 1

Year 1 made use of the good weather, before the rain arrived, to paint an animal in its habitat.

Mrs Blundell

Year 2A

This week Year 2 has been exploring 'the mind'; we started learning why exercise is so important for the brain and accordingly started our day with yoga.

We have had so much fun and we will continue to start our days in this positive way as the Block continues. Have a lovely weekend Year 2.

Ms Harris

Year 2B

Year 2B has had another fantastic week! This week, we have explored different shapes and went on a shape hunt around the school.

I was extremely impressed when the students managed to find dozens of different shapes. As part of our current topic unit on learning to learn, we have been practising yoga in the morning or afternoon to help us relax.

Ms Miller

Year 3

This week, the students continued their magical discovery of the world of chocolate, by examining the chocolate-making process itself. The students learned about the different steps involved and then presented a ' How is it Made?' radio edition, where they explained what happens to the cocoa beans once they reach the factory and even added a soundscape with musical instruments in the background for effect. Well done to the students for all their contributions.

Mr Mulcahy

Year 4

This week, Year 4 students completed their 2nd poster for the reproduction cycle of animals, with some truly spectacular artwork being presented. A few of the posters are on show alongside this post.

We have also been focusing on performing a ballad this week. A video of Year 4 students retelling the Bogeymen and the Trolls ballad, besides actions matching the story, has been sent to parents, which I have been proud to share with them.

The next big project is a presentation of one of their favourite animals. Students are learning to research and summarise information, prepare a vibrant visual presentation, and make cue cards to help them memorise the information they are going to present to the class.

Mr Bishop

Year 5A

Y5 had an interesting week, we analysed different poems in addition to creating some poetry lines of our own, I was extremely impressed with the classes' poetry writing ability. The revision took precedent in math with children creating their own quizzes to help their friends swat up on addition and subtraction.

We discussed the term globalisation and delved into different examples of this as well as discussing the advantage and disadvantage of globalisation.

Mr Walker

Year 5

GLOBALISATION

As an entry point into the new unit, Year 5 students were asked to think and create a presentation about:

• What it is to be a global citizen?
• How can we be good global citizens?
• Why is being a good global citizen especially important in the year 2020?

The students were quick to understand this concept, many of the students having been a part of Caring for the Community at school and many already making great choices for being an outstanding global citizen in their daily lives. Respecting rules, especially at this time of the Corona Virus came across by several students as a clear message. They broached other subjects, such as the importance of travel as a way to learn from other cultures e.g. about processes that are done well or perhaps not so well in other countries, but also the negative impact of our travel through our carbon footprint. One student said, 'Respecting values of justice, equality and diversity are of the utmost importance, as well as being the ones to take action to make positive change.'

The students concluded that although it seems in some ways that it is very difficult to be a global citizen in the year 2020, it is at the same time that they know that they can be and need to be the ones to make the difference for a healthy, sustainable future.

Year 5B

MAI-LING'S NEW ADVENTURE

The Year 5 students explored story structure, using a Chinese adventure story. The story was about Mai-Ling, a young girl who ends up becoming a dragon slayer and being promoted to the village Elder. The students used this as a model to write their own episode for Mai-Ling, working hard to include:

• An introduction, build-up, dilemma, suspense and a solution
• Descriptive language
• Some interesting details about Chinese customs
• Adverbs and adverbials of time to create pace and drama
• The story being written in the first person

The students followed a rubric to make sure they included these features and then self and peer evaluated against it. Finally, the students rewrote their stories using their identified targets.

These stories were then shared on a display in middle years, with lots of people stopping by to have a read. The students added to the display by creating Chinese lanterns with their own designs and also had their name written in Mandarin by Lucas, a fellow classmate. Here are a few of the opening lines as a taster.....

- The Slayer of Yishan

The beast was ready to pounce on me. I was running for my life.

How had the day changed from me eating at my favourite restaurant and went to me running for my life?

- The nice ogre Family

10 years before I wrote this story, I was the Dragon slayer. After I slayed the Dragon I became a village elder.

I was only 12 and every village in China had a village elder.

So after slaying the dragon a big ogre came, so I decided to see what he was up to.

- Mailing’s New Adventure

Mailing was on her way back to the village. Suddenly it was silent…. she was so surprised, she wanted to investigate so she climbed her way onto the tallest tree in the village.

She saw a beast, a vast creature, it was a capri green but in some places midnight blue. It was very mysterious she climbed off the tree back to the ground. She then came closer and closer.

Mrs Charlesworth

Year 6

Y6 have had another great week studying the Maya as part of their Ancient Civilisations topic and our Prefects have been busy helping teachers around the school. Please remember that from Monday 19 October, Year 6 will move to online learning.

Mr Kokalj

PE News

This week in PE, students in Years 3, 4, 5, and 6 completed several gymnastics skills. They performed a forward roll, backward roll and cartwheel. They also used the trampoline for basic jumps, tuck jumps, split jumps and 180-degree jumps.

Students in Years 1 and 2 worked on their balance, learning a point and patch balance. They also had to invent point and patch partner balances.

PE Department

MFL News

Our beloved crocodile Sydney sent us a puzzle.

Together with our magical powers, we put all the parts of the puzzle together and read the message on it. You won't believe it, he gave us all instructions in Slovene (like raise your hand, open the door, etc).

With a little support from the teacher, we were able to follow instructions and complete each task very well. Even crocodile Sydney visited us at the end. We are always extremely happy to have him around.

Mrs Košec

After School Provision

Please note from Monday 19th October, there will be supervision for the following year groups only:

• Early Years supervision until 16:30
• Y1 supervision until 15:40

All other students (Y2-Y6) must be collected at the end of the school day from 14:50-15:00.

We will continue to review the situation as per recommendations and guidelines from the Ministry and NIJZ.

Teacher Feature

Continuing our Teacher Feature series, this week we focus the spotlight on Mr Nino Kokalj, Year 6 Teacher and Primary ICT Coordinator.

Read Mr Kokalj's Teacher Feature here.

Online PTA Meeting

As mentioned during the recent Coffee with the Principal, the first online PTA Meeting will take place on 21st October from 9:30 on Zoom. Follow this link to join the meeting or add it to your calendars.

In the meantime, if you are interested in being on the BISL PTA Committee for the 2020-21 Academic Year and beyond, please complete this interest form.

Printed Yearbooks

We have been delighted to have received some interest from you to make our 2019-20 Digital BISL Yearbook available for purchase in printed form. As such, we would like to give you the opportunity to express interest by completing this simple form to let us know how many copies you would like to purchase, by Tuesday 20 October at the latest. The price will be €60 per copy.

Once we've collected your requests, we will contact you directly regarding payment and expected timeframe.

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 emails you receive or block the senders address to avoid further contact. We appreciate your support as we work to resolve this matter.

Dear Parents,

First of all, I wanted to thank everyone for the well wishes to the member of staff who tested positive for Covid. During the drop off this morning, it was very much appreciated to have so many parents supporting what we have done in the past 24 hours. This has been a challenging time for everyone involved and at the centre of this, we aim to make the environment as safe as possible for all of our students.

In my update, I have included some useful updates and reminders to support you during this time.

Kind regards,

Paul Walton

Principal

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