Secondary News - Oct 26 2020

Block 2 Week 3

It has been a highly successful week overall, fully transitioning with all Secondary year groups online. It is crucial that by now, students have their daily routine set up including waking up in time for breakfast, having meals in the allocated morning and lunch breaks and ensuring that they stay hydrated throughout the day. Monitoring their emails and Canvas courses is a must to be able to receive all the relevant correspondence from teachers over the day.

Canvas is a fantastic platform where the teachers have placed a lot of resources for students to be able to follow on with their courses. Therefore, if in doubt, always look for any new updates there and email the teachers directly if there are any questions.

Online learning relies very heavily on trust, communication, and independence. The teachers need to be able to trust that all students are working just as hard as they would be at school, both parties need to be clear and regular with communication and progress, and of course, students need to have the motivation to be able to work without being constantly monitored. All of these areas are critical to continue progressing throughout this time. Support from families is also very much appreciated.

Lastly, all students are encouraged to consider their workspace carefully - is it conducive to getting work done? Please ensure that all online classes are approached professionally and with a positive, ready to learn attitude. This is when all students will be able to get the most out of online learning.

Have a safe and well-deserved weekend.

Stephanie Andronikos, Head of Secondary

"As you might know I am going through quarantine just like you. I know distance learning can be frustrating at times, waking up early, dealing with assignments, and confusions with zoom. However it is what it is; so to avoid getting frustrated with the workload and staying at home, I suggest you organise your day through checklists and other means in order to contain efficiency and performance to the max. Give yourself enough breaks to stay focused, try your hand at certain things you enjoy like hobbies, sports, board games, etc. So far you have done a great job, stay healthy and keep things positive, except the Covid test that is. Be safe!"

Daniel K., Head Boy

Here are some fun photos taken during online lessons this week:

It has been an incredible week in PE as students have really shown how they can adapt to new challenges. In the face of adversity, our Secondary students have shown great enthusiasm, creativity and not least engagement in a variety of PE activities. Year 7 and Year 8 have continued to learn about badminton, and they have put their research skills to the test to understand the social and cultural factors that influence sports participation in Slovenia versus participation in England. Year 9 have taken part in activities to improve their reaction time in badminton in the hope that they can respond to the shuttlecock with increased speed and accuracy. The PE department were specifically impressed by how Year 10 and Year 11 put their leadership skills to the test this week and produced video footage of themselves leading activities at home for younger peers to participate in. We even caught Miss Sharpe on camera during one of the live PE lessons this week.

Year 13 Physics has seen us finish Chapter 23, and we're far ahead of the schedule, with the goal of finishing all the content by Block 4, to have the rest of the time for revision, practical work, etc. There is a smiling picture of us earlier in the newsletter.

Year 10s also had a practical lesson, by using this simulator and asking them to treat it as a normal practical, following all the relevant steps and obtaining data, producing a graph with a line of best fit, etc. It was actually really good to realise how practical work can also be conducted during distance learning, giving the students the opportunity to experience the theories with approachable models and obtaining results from the application of those theories. In this case, they were looking at determining the spring constant, and were able to conduct a practical in a single, that would have otherwise taken a double to set up and obtain the results!

Mr Malo de molina Herrera - Science department

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.

We tried to work in Breakout rooms in Year 8. There, in Slovene, students were discussing their likes and places where they are taken. It was very interesting to jump from one Breakout room to another and hear their discussions. We will definitely use the Breakout rooms again soon! Well done Year 8!

Miss Košec, MFL Department

KS3 students created their own rap songs to help them remember some key techniques to calculate decimals and fractions.

Math is like a piece of cake

But sometimes I still get a stomach ache

Adding fractions is one of them

Especially when I have no slem

And I always finish ashamed

So you make the denominators the same

You add the numerators with the other one

And you have finished in less time then to say “done”

Valentin, Badr, Daria 7A

Times by point is like dividing by ten,

you need to move the decimal one to the right yeah

it’s as simple as holding a pen

you really don’t see how easy this can be

unless you do it correctly

Dividing by point is like timesing by ten

you move the point to the left and then…

you see the solution

and your life turns to high resolution

your teacher gives you an A

and then you go play all-day

Jon, Nikola, Luka - Year 8

KS4 students were busy exploring and presenting ratios, inequalities and quadratic equations.

Maths question of the week is:

Petra has three different dictionaries and two different novels on her bookshelf. In how many different ways can she arrange the books, if all the dictionaries should stay together and likewise the novels as well?

Submit your answers to me before next Thursday 29th October. The students with the correct answer will receive house points!

Miss Zupanc - Maths department

Year 7 have begun working on their class literature. We started reading the book Stone Cold by Robert Swindell We would also like to share a wonderful piece of work by Valentin of 7A who chose the writing task “Write about a fictional town where everybody has one surprising thing in common”

The copied town - 23/10/2020

Ever heard of my town? It is called the “copied town”. You would rather never come here. Everyone that comes becomes crazy. Do you know why? It is a secret so don’t tell anyone but in my town everyone is identical except for the size. We all have the appearance of a monster. We have venom faces. A ghost coloured body and silver hair. Why? That is a very good question. We were all born like this. But the ancient people say that it is because of a witch.

Apparently in 1975 a witch came to our town. At that time it was called “Goterus”. The witch asked for hospitality but our leader Pomelus refused. The witch got a bit of food but had to sleep outside.

The next morning the witch was dead. Her ghost came out of her body and asked a villager. What are you most scared about? The poor man replied. Werewolves miss. Then she asked another villager: Who is your favorite story character as a bad guy? He replied that it was venom. And finally she asked the third villager: What am I? The person answered with a shaking voice that she was a ghost.

The witch shouted out. Thank you noble people you have helped me a lot. Now I can take my revenge. Everyone will now look like a werewolf, venom and a ghost. Slowly the people transformed. First hair appeared on their head. Then their teeths became longer and their face turned like venoms and finally their body became transparent and their hands went through it. Everyone felt horror and since then no one in my village has been real human. So if you ever see a were-venomous ghost, it is not a dream. Turn around and never come back.

Valentin Year 7A

Year 8 also selected and completed a piece of original writing and we began our study of the much loved and thought-provoking modern novel “A monster calls” by Patrick Ness.

Year 9B continued to work on their study of the play “Blood Brothers”, comparing and contrasting the main characters, while Year 9A performed some drama of their own over Zoom. The task was to take on the persona of “Animal Farm” characters and join an online talk show. Pupils needed to demonstrate an understanding of the characters and properly and appropriately convey that character's thoughts and feelings.

Year 10 have been exploring the themes present in George Orwell’s “1984” The students were invited to make their own Power Point presentation on themes from the novel.

Year 10’s own Jerry accepted the extra challenge of creating a YouTube video which really brought out some of his truly unique creativity and I invite you all to enjoy his work at this link.

Year 11 have continued their study of the Crucible and have just completed Act 1.

Year 13 are still working on ” The handmaid’s tale.”

As a school, the health and safety of our students is always foremost in our minds, which is why we felt it pertinent not to meet as a group outside of school at this time. This was a shame for our latest cohort of MEPI participants, as we had to postpone a simple yet fun activity that was planned for last Sunday morning at Tivoli Park. Designed as an introduction to map reading (including coordinates and bearings), the idea was for the participants to plot the coordinates on a map, plan their route, and answer some 'cryptic' questions along the way. Nonetheless, the details of the task were emailed to our participants so that they still had the opportunity to undertake the challenge on their own or with their families. I am delighted to say that one of our Year 9 participants did decide to take advantage of the glorious weather, and went to Tivoli with their family. Congratulations are also due, as the coordinates were plotted well, and many of the questions were answered correctly.

I would be happy if you would like to use the map and question sheet. (Often the landscape will change a little over time, and the map can no longer be totally trusted - The information you require to answer question 9 has moved about 50 metres, so you will need to look around a bit. Also, the information for question 6 changes from time to time!)

Many thanks,

Mr Irving, International Award Coordinator

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.

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.

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,

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