Primary News - December 21 2020

As we end the first term at BISL, we can look back and be extremely proud of all that we have achieved as a community. The sheer hard work, perseverance and support from students, staff and parents have been extraordinary, and it is with this in mind that we should remember these very challenging times, along with memories of those that we may have lost on the way. Our thoughts remain with all the families.

The Creative Arts block has brought to fruition a palette of colourful performances and artworks from students across the school, including the BISL Virtual Art Exhibition and fantastic COBIS Art competition entries, the EY Christmas Play, the Y1 Performance and the Y2 Christmas video. Let’s not forget the BISL Compilation Video, the BISL Band Aid video and the BISL wishes you a Merry Christmas video using sign language, and many more performances from classes on the school website. All of these were a great success, with so many students and staff contributing their talents in setting the mood for the coming festive season. We were very fortunate to have Santa visit BISL and answer some questions from students.

A huge thank you to the Primary Student Council for organising the Christmas Story Day for students in school and at home to enjoy and share their favourite winter and celebration tales. Do not miss the new BISL Student Magazine, fully student led, it’s packed with informative articles and a fantastic read for over the holidays.

For some of our families, the end of the year 2020 marks the end of their journey at BISL. We wish them all the best in the future. We also look forward to welcoming new families joining us in January for the start of Term 2. We thank all of our community for their continued and wonderful support.

We hope that students will be able to return to school in the new year. As always, parents should continue to follow the updates on our website. Any changes to the current arrangements will be communicated via email, please check these regularly.

May you have a peaceful and joyful Christmas and New Year 2021!

Kind wishes,

Katarina Železinger

Head of Primary

Early Years

The children in Early Years have been using their cutting and sticking skills to cut out snowflakes as well as wrapping presents for Santa!

On Monday we watched the Early Years Prefect, Sasha, read The Very Hungry Caterpillar for Story Day!

Ms Rosa

Year 1

It's been a wonderful 1st term for Year 1!

This week we have been very festive, making Christmas pancakes, singing carols and using our phonics knowledge to write Christmas cards.

Well done to Y1 and for all their hard work this week as we have been having the end of term exams. Y1 have informed me I'm a Grinch for doing so.

To celebrate the end of term 1 and going into the new year, Y1 have been making rockets and using chemical reactions to launch them. It's been a blast!

Thank you to all parents for your support and positivity during term 1 and the lovely portrait Christmas tree you put together for our classroom.

Mr Hughes

Year 2

Year 2 have had a fantastic week finishing our units of work for this block. In topic, we completed our Christmas production of 'A very zoomy Christmas' be sure to check it out on the school Facebook page! The Year 2's have also worked very hard on kennings in literacy this block. See if you can figure out the animals for the kennings below:

Have a safe and fantastic break, we look forward to seeing Year 2 in the new year!

Ms Harris & Ms Miller

Year 3

This week marked the conclusion of the students' study of habitats, which saw them focus on birds and their features, before examining some wild European birds and their traits. Over the Christmas break, the students will turn ´bird watchers´ as they make bird feeders and observe the birds that arrive for their Christmas dinner.

In English, the students wrote their final episode of a ´Tale of Two Robots´, which saw the pair, Robert and Nita, take a trip to the local swimming pool to try their hand at various sporting activities and push their boundaries as robots. Well done to all the students for completing the science fiction unit and for writing such entertaining stories.

Also in English this week, the students have been studying a story called "The Snowman", a magical tale of Christmas wonder and adventure. It was great to hear the students thoughts and insights on the story and to hear them relate this to their own Christmas experience.

And finally, in Maths, the students have been enjoying a Winter activity week, solving problems based around the topics covered so far this term as part of a snowflake and snowman themed unit.

From everyone in the Year 3 community, we wish you and your families a wonderful Christmas and a happy new year.

Mr Mulcahy

Year 4

Tests, tests, tests, tests, tests. What a wonderful way to end the term! Students have definitely earned their upcoming holiday break and I can assure Santa that everyone in Year 4 have been extremely good boys and girls this term, and deserve all the wonderful gifts they have requested from our jolly bearded gift bearer.

I wish everyone a wonderful, peaceful and relaxing Christmas and let's hope for a much Happier New Year than this turbulent one has been.

Mr Bishop

Year 5A

This week, Y5A has been getting into the Christmas spirit by completing long division questions by following the carefully thought out steps. On a more artistic note, in Topic the comic book strips of the Persian war have been a chance for the children to show their creative side in addition to their carefully researched knowledge of the battles between Persia and Greece. I have felt privileged to teach the class during this term, have a lovely Christmas break.

Mr Walker

Year 5B

END OF THE BLOCK READING PROJECT

This week, the Year 5B classroom has seen many students share the latest book that they have been reading through puppet shows or plays.

It has been wonderful to see families joining in: with younger siblings from Year 1 playing parents, older siblings from secondary 'driving' a car and on the spot one-man shows performing ALL the characters from the book. Meanwhile, the puppets have been created from homemade materials and toys. The books we have seen are:

The Diary of a Wimpy Kid - The Long Haul, Charlotte's Web, Merry Christmas Geronimo, Out of the Box, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, and The Demon Dentist.

Mrs Charlesworth

Year 6

Once BISL students enter Year 6, they have the ability of becoming class prefects. Their job enables them to create special events and share ideas enhancing student learning. This year, the role of the Year 6 class prefect fell on Denis Y. For the end of term class party, he organised a holiday poetry competition. In the picture below you can see his instructions for this task - detailing the success criteria.

Congratulations to Shaun for the winning poem and to Denis for preparing this wonderful activity.

Mr Kokalj

French News

It has been a festive week in French! On Christmas Story Day, Year 6 listened to a story from the Nutcracker and Ebenezer Scrooge in French.

Year 5s have been working on wishing you: Joyeux Noël et Bonne année!

Year 4 has been learning, singing, and drawing to gain confidence in using new Christmas vocabulary.

And Year 3 made nice Christmas cards and sang Christmas songs.

Mrs Berden

PE News

Heading into the final week of this block, students continued to learn about Fitness benefits. Year 1 students did a PE lesson in the Sixth Form area, where they were challenged with a series of fitness activities. They learnt about different styles of training and body movements.

Year 2 continued daily lessons with some Christmas related activities and had a great week of improving their fitness.

Year 3 and 4 were also continuing their daily lessons with various activities, including tabata training which students led by themselves, yoga and stretching and football skills.

Year 5 and 6 continued improving their football skills and knowledge, working hard through various activities and challenges regarding football.

Overall, all the PE lessons were challenging, but all students were enjoying themselves and were doing all the activities with a smile and an amazing effort.

The PE department is excited to share some other activities happening throughout the week:

PE Certificates

We would like to congratulate all the students that received a special PE Certificate for their excellent work in PE lessons. The students will receive the certificate via e-mail. Congratulations again from the PE Department!

House Competition overall winners.

Congratulations!!

Keep up with the teacher challenges:

Click here

Click here

Mr Damjan’s weekly challenge:

Click here

Deskercise - some more ideas to ensure that you stay fit and keep moving despite having to sit and work.

The PE department is wishing you a Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and active New Year!

PE Department

Slovene News

Year 3 and 4 at Slovene Advanced have played a Kahoot quiz for their last Slovene lesson this year. A fun way for students to learn and repeat a subject matter.

Ms Drofenik

Years 3 and 4 have been learning about weather through diverse activities. One of the activities was to show the weather conditions based on the photo. Can you guess what's the weather in the photo below? They really enjoyed the second weather conditions, even though we couldn't do the angels in the snow.

Super učenci!

Ms Košec

EAL News

This Term has been an intensive ride for our EAL students and I would like to congratulate each and everyone on the amazing progress they've made. We've worked hard and had fun doing it. We've read books and wrote stories; learned about language through basic survival knowledge like classroom objects and useful phrases, up to complex grammatical structures.

In this term, our Primary EAL students have read for more than 100 hours on get Epic and in this time read more than 800 books.

Well done!

Mr Siter

Staff Update

Miss Hannah Sharpe has tended her resignation. We thank her for her energy and enthusiasm for PE and wish her well.

We are delighted to announce that Ms Sarah Fairchild will be taking over the PE position from Term 2. Ms Fairchild is a very experienced SEN and PE specialist who has already been working with BISL students. With experience competing at a professional level, Ms Fairchild was on the US Olympic team for speed skating. After this, she went into teaching, developing specific sporting skills among students who were training for a range of different sports. Ms Fairchild is extremely excited to be able to work within the PE department and will be an excellent addition to that team.

Ms Drofenik has been currently assisting with 7A Form Class, getting to know students throughout Block 3. She will continue as their Form tutor for the remainder of the year. She is very happy to be working with these students.

We welcome Mrs Esther Yates to the Learning Support Team from January. Mrs Yates is a qualified SEN Specialist and Assistant Teacher, with vast experience as a Learning Support Coordinator and SEN and EAL in a number of international schools. Mrs Yates is an accomplished team worker with a proven track record of producing first-class support and in-house training and innovative practices within the school community. She joins BISL with her husband Mr Yates, who is already working with the Science Department, teaching Biology throughout the Secondary school. Both of them are thrilled about this new opportunity to work with the BISL community.

MEPI News

As well as dealing with the maintenance of the Online Record Book, and striving to organise appropriate activities for their individual Award sections, our participants have been focussed on mapwork, and the art of completing a route card. Two different maps have been provided (One for the Šmarna Gora area, and one for the more central Tivoli/Rožnik area).

Each map comes with two grid references (a starting point and a finishing point) between which they need to plot a route, and accurately input the details into a route card. The challenge for this week culminates in the completion of the planned route on foot. We look forward to seeing some photographs of this event. A great way to develop some essential navigational skills, and enjoy a little fresh air and exercise in the greener bits around Ljubljana!

Teacher Feature

This week's Teacher Feature acquaints us with Ms Sarah Fairchild, our acclaimed professional Team USA athlete, who has extensive experience in developing specific sporting skills within students who train in a variety of sports.

Read Ms Fairchild’s full Teacher Feature here.

COBIS Art Competition

Thank you to all students that took part in the competition so far. All students whose work was received before Monday 14th December has now been transformed into a digital exhibition of art in the following videos:

KS1

KS2

Please be aware that some artwork may go into another video in January, before the BISL competition entries will be decided for who will go through to the world COBIS competition.

Ms Blundell

During the Creative Arts Block there were a lot of performances made both live in school, and digitally as montage videos. Feel free to watch them again at home, here's a highlight:

House Points

House Points Winner for this block is:

Sapphire 552 points

Hessonite 509

Zircon 499

Emerald 532

Congratulations!

Christmas Story Day

It was lovely to see so many excited readers out there, sharing their love of books and Christmas wonder with their classes on Monday. Thanks to the Primary Student Council for organising this event, beginning with the idea coming from the Year 2 representatives and blossoming into cheering from all of the Primary Student Council representatives to getting their classes involved. Shaun's poster encouraged students and staff to bring snuggly blankets and toys to the reading sessions, as well as wonderful books. Thank you to all of those that read on Monday and to those that enjoyed listening to the stories.

Read more about the Christmas Story Day here.

Dear Parents,

We have had a wonderful time during the last few weeks of term, working with the students both in school and through Zoom to create some very special projects, productions and activities.

I'd like to note that we have amazing students and it is a real pleasure to see their confidence grow through their participation in competitions, projects, music videos and events this term. Seeing how engaged and inspired they have been has made me incredibly proud of the hard work from the entire community.

Please read my full Holiday Update from the Principal here.

I wish you, your family and friends a wonderful Christmas and a very happy New Year!

Have a restful, relaxing and recharging break.

Kind regards,

Paul Walton

Principal