Secondary News - Oct 12 2020

Block 2 Week 1

Welcome back for Block Two! It began with a virtual assembly focused on excellence and the introduction of the Humanities block. It is important to constantly strive to achieve excellence in academic studies, sporting endeavours and behaviours. Students should try to achieve excellence in anything they do.

This week, the Year 7 Historians braved the wet weather to head to the Ljubljana castle to learn about its rich history. A big thank you to Ms Zupanc, Ms Ross and Mr Rogers for accompanying students on this trip, Mr Rogers especially for his superb organisation.

Also, this week, I have had the wonderful opportunity to spend more time in classes with students and teachers. Seeing the students engaging in many varied and exciting tasks has been wonderful to see across the school. From practical, hands on activities, to student-led tasks, to thought provoking discussions, students are working at an incredible pace as the Term starts to build towards assessments. I encourage families to continue to refer to the assessment calendars to be sure about when assessments are due. If unsure, please do not hesitate to contact the class teachers directly to confirm.

Lastly, we welcomed Ms. Berden into the Languages department. It is wonderful to have her at BISL!

I wish everyone a lovely and restful weekend. Please stay safe in these uncertain times.

Stephanie Andronikos

Head of Secondary

Humanities Block News

This week marks the beginning of the Humanities theme for Block 2 and the students have started to think about the role Humanities subjects play in the world around them and within other subjects.

Students from across the Secondary school have been investigating the history of their subjects and the people that helped them develop such as Year 9s looking at the history and future of Computer Science through some key pioneers. Students have looked at how their subjects can aid in understanding human behaviour and the Humanities as a whole such as Year 13 chemistry students looking at the uses of chromatography for restoration and dating purposes, a key technique in the disciplines of archaeology and art history.

Students have also been researching in tutor time “Heroes of Humanity”, women and men who studied Humanities subjects and contributed to their respective fields. I’m really looking forward to seeing the amazing people students have been investigating and sharing them with you on displays on the Secondary floor next week.

We have several more exciting events coming up to celebrate the Humanities this block, including the Humanities Quiz House Competition and other surprises. If you would like to get involved in any way, please get in touch!

Mr Bradley - Head of Humanities

Staffing Update

We would like to extend a very warm welcome to Ms Berden, who has joined the school as a French teacher, and to Ms Zver who will be joining us next week in the role of Slovene teacher. We look forward to working with both of them during our lessons.

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.

6th Form News

On Monday and Wednesday, Anna K and Chloe Z will be taking their AS Level Mathematics examinations of Pure 1 and Statistics 1. They have both worked incredibly hard to get prepared for these examinations, participating in both AS and A2 Pure Mathematics lessons, as well as Statistics classes after school and extra Mathematics classes each week since the start of September this year. We would like to wish them all the best in their examinations.

Mr Batson, Head of Sixth Form

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.

MFL News

Slovene

Year 8 has been very creative this week. Firstly, we were discussing our likes and dislikes in Slovene. Secondly, we were creating comic books about our likes and dislikes. Finally, we still need to put some effort in our products. Then they will be ready for display. Odlično učenci!

Miss Košec, MFL Department

History News

On Wednesday Year 7 were taken on a guided tour around Ljubljana Castle as part of their History unit of work "Castles". They learned about the colourful and varied history of the castle and how the castle has played a huge part in the development of the city of Ljubljana. The tour took them through from the very start of the castle to the modern day and they met many colourful characters along the way such as a Roman soldier, Saint George and Emperor Frederick III of Habsburg and his wife Eleonor Helena of Portugal.

English News

Year 7 continued looking at mythical creatures and this week saw them examine stories about Werewolves.

Year 8 looked at the famous Shakespeare play Hamlet and created a scene of their own where Hamlet would have to convince a detective in modern times that his uncle had murdered his father and his ghost had appeared to tell him to avenge his death.

Year 9 are now reading Blood Brothers and exploring and discovering the British class system.

Year 10 have begun working on George Orwell’s dystopian classic 1984. To begin with they worked on making some posters about the book.

Year 11s are reading The Crucible and Year 13s are just about to start The Handmaid's Tale...so a cheery time in English!

Geography News

This block students in Year 7 have been learning about Map skills and developing their ability to read grid references, give directions and measure distances and heights. I have been particularly impressed by the hard work and effort of several students in both 7A and 7B who, after completing their set work, challenged themselves further by completing an IGCSE exam question on Map skills! Well done to Valentin, Tian, Maša, Aleks, Teodora, Peter, Mei, Connor, Mikhail and Ryan for testing their skills at one of the highest levels! They all managed to perform exceptionally well!

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.