Primary News - October 26 2020

Dear Parents and Students,

Week three has been ‘business as usual’, as some classes continued on the school premises and others moved to the online learning. While Year 6 students have been tapping into Canvas (our virtual learning platform) and interacting via live Zoom sessions, our younger cohorts have been lucky enough to enjoy the good weather outdoors and carry on lessons with their peers in the classroom. Teachers have ensured a positive atmosphere in both on-site and virtual classrooms, with fun and inventive activities, and by providing ongoing support to students.

As per today’s Important COVID Measures Update email sent out to parents and the Update from the Principal on our website, more of the primary classes will transition to online learning from Monday 26th October. The Year 3 - Year 5 classes will join other year groups already on distance learning. More information will follow from the Class Teachers in their weekly email. Should parents have any questions or concerns regarding this transition for their child, please contact the Class Teachers directly, as they will be best able to support your child through this process. Students will follow the normal timetables from home, which will help to sustain the routines they would normally have in school and support their learning. All teachers will continue to monitor student progress and inform parents of any concerns. Through PSHE topics and daily Zoom sessions, the general wellbeing of students and E-safety will be addressed. Please refer to our E-Safety page for more information.

For students attending the Early Years, Year 1 and Year 2 classes, the school will operate as normal on Monday 26th October. We will continue to provide the After-School Supervision for students in Early Years and Year 1. Please see the After-School Provision section for more information. Please note that there may be further updates, as we continue to review this on a daily basis, and we, therefore, ask parents to check school emails regularly.

We thank all parents for their ongoing support as we navigate through this challenging period. We wish all families to stay safe and well.

Katarina Železinger

Head of Primary

Early Years

We have been enjoying the beautiful autumn weather so much these days! To make the most of what autumn has to offer, we have even been practising our fine motor skills with colourful leaves and different autumnal nuts.

Can you name all the different nuts and fruits that grow in autumn?

Ms Miklavec

Year 1

This week in Topic Year 1 we have been making bird feeders out of recycled water bottles, combining our science knowledge with art and design. So far, we haven't seen any birds but we will continue to go on nature walks to check.

In English, we have continued to develop reading through phonics, handwriting and have started to develop drama-based skills by acting out some of our favourite books.

Finally, in Maths, we have continued to develop confidence with numbers from 0 through to 100, including addition and number bonds by completing learning carousels, online games and other fun activities.

Well done to our star of the week, Izabella for being such a positive member of Year 1 and trying her best across all subjects.

"What a busy week, It's great to be back in the classroom with Year 1, Miss Katharine has done a fantastic job!"

Mr Hughes

Year 2

This week in Year 2, we have been continuing to learn about the properties of 2D shapes. Next week we will be exploring the properties of 3D shapes. We have continued to start our days with Yoga, and it has been a calming practice for the start of the day. Friday afternoons, Year 2 have been hopping onto an aeroplane to explore the world.

This week, we were able to explore Ms Harris' home country - England. We had so much fun, and we wonder where we will fly to next. Have a wonderful weekend!

Ms Harris

Year 3

This week in Topic the students followed the trail of cocoa plant growing countries around the globe, to discover what the necessary conditions were for growing such trees, as well as investigating the reasons why these equatorial countries have warmer climates year-round.

The students then received some exciting news; Willy Wonka had written to them personally to request their help in designing a chocolate bar wrapper! The class was only too happy to help Mr Wonka out and used some great Aztec designs to honour the ancient peoples who first consumed chocolate. Congratulations to Leia who came up with the winning design seen above.

Mr Mulcahy

Year 4

This week the Year 4 students have been wonderful, getting started on their new habitat project and preparing for the writing of their Bogeymen and the Trolls story.

To celebrate the lovely Autumn weather, we also took the chance to go outside and design some games and competitions which can be played around the playground.

I look forward to sharing some photos of the habitat dioramas the children are creating in the coming weeks.

Mr Bishop

Year 5A

I have been so impressed with my class this week, the quality of work has gone above and beyond Y5 level. In our poetry topic, we have been identifying and using poetic features to create our own stanza of a poem. Children had some very interesting and important advantages and disadvantages for Globalisation. In Maths, we plotted different decimal numbers on a number line.

Mr Walker

Year 5B

Year 5 is exploring poetry, in particular deeply analysing the poem 'I saw the city breathing' by Andrew Fusek Peters. It is full of imagery made with the use of personification, simile, metaphor, rhyme, rhythm and repetition. Each stanza looks at the city through personification, e.g. the city dancing, the city laughing, the city crying, the city sleeping, the city starving. The students were given 15 minutes to write a new stanza for the line 'I saw the city dreaming' and here is what one of the Year 5B students came up with! We certainly have some young poets in the making.

Mrs Charlesworth

Last night I saw the city dreaming

(By Liam Kim)

The smoking factory’s breathing out gusts of smoke.

The buildings danced with the trees in the breeze.

Last night I saw the city sleeping under a garment.

The city visualizing the hustling men and the smell of petrol as the skyscrapers double up on each other and the stadiums light the night sky.

Last night I saw the city burn. Last night I saw the city moaning in pain but there is no need to worry for it was just a dream. Today I saw the glistening white snow falling on the ground.

Year 6

This week the Year 6 students started with their distance learning, which means that they are joining their lessons from the comfort of their own homes. They had to rethink their morning routine as they no longer have to commute to school, however, this doesn’t mean they can sleep in and not do their work! They still get up early, like the rest of Primary, wear their uniform and follow the school timetable consistently.

The students report that, so far, they have been enjoying staying at home and working online but that this brings an extra set of challenges to the table. For example, they have to set alarms for when their lessons start, they have to submit their work online, they have to deal with internet issues sometimes, as well as paying a lot of attention during lessons to make sure they are organised and that they don’t miss any deadlines for their work in different subjects.

I am so proud of the way Year 6 have risen to the occasion and are working hard via remote learning.

Mr Kokalj

Performing Arts

Year 6 have been doing an excellent job with their online learning, using garage band and other music technology apps for the first time.

They are currently starting a special Covid project that will get them thinking outside the box and give them the opportunity to use their creativity and show their unique style.

Mrs Kenealy

EAL

This week, the EAL groups delved into various topics, learning about actions and how to express them in lower KS2, while the basic group in upper KS2 discovered how to describe their homes using prepositions with furniture and house vocabulary.

Some of the other EAL groups examined how to make their writing spectacular with powerful adjectives and how to gather information from various sources. It was a busy week, with a blend of learning done in school, as well as through online lessons.

Mr Siter

MFL

We made it through a challenging week. Year 6 were on online learning, while Year 5 continued their work in school at the same time.

They were keen and worked hard on various tasks. We created a weather forecast in our own ways and discussed the four seasons in breakout rooms online. Have a look at some wonderful products.

Super učenci in učenke!

Miss Košec, MFL Department

After-School Provision

Please note from Monday 26th October, there will be supervision for the following year groups only:

• Early Years supervision until 16:30
• Y1 supervision until 15:40
• Y2 students 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.

Primary Student Council Meeting

It was wonderful to be able to meet with the Primary Student Council today. Our Primary Head of Student Council, Shaun, joined us via Zoom and led a collaborative meeting with input from all the year groups with some great ideas they are hoping to initiate.

We look forward to seeing some of their ideas in action very soon.

Mrs Charlesworth

Halloween Dress Down Day

The hugely anticipated Halloween Dress Down Day is coming up next Friday 30th October. Despite the current circumstances, we would like to make this a fully inclusive event for all of our students, so similar to last year:

• Whether online or on-site, students and staff are encouraged to wear a Halloween themed fancy dress costume or the colour black.
• Food and Snacks: At this point, for health & safety, the sharing of food is not allowed, therefore, unfortunately, we cannot accept any delicious Halloween snacks to be brought in by parents for sharing on the day unless it is arranged through a professional catering company who follow stringent hygiene guidelines. Liaise with your class teacher to arrange this.
• Pumpkin Carving was a huge success last year, so we’d like to encourage all parents to take a photograph of or send in your home creations to school between October 26-30, either with your child in the morning or by dropping them off with Security during the day for our students to enjoy.
• Decorations: on Wednesday 28th October between 3pm - 5pm, if you would like to bring in any Halloween decorations, please email Mr Walton for an appointment and further instructions to allow you to adhere to our health & safety measures as we collaborate to make this event as fun as possible for our students.

Halloween Costume Contest

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 sender’s address to avoid further contact. We appreciate your support as we work to resolve this matter.

Teacher Feature

We turn our attention to Early Years for this week's Teacher Feature, introducing our forever positive and enthusiastic Early Years Teacher, Ms Katarina Miklavec.

Read Ms Miklavec’s Teacher Feature here.

Dear Parents,

Following the announcement yesterday regarding the changes in general guidance and Kindergartens, we are moving to the next stage of our planning, which will mean the school building will be at less than 10% capacity for health & safety.

You will have received a detailed Important COVID Measures Update email from me this morning about this, and please refer to my Update from the Principal for more general information.

Kind regards,

Paul Walton

Principal