Secondary News - Nov 2 2020

Another successful week of online learning for students and teachers. The week began with a Virtual Assembly on Leadership, outlining the qualities that make someone a good leader. We have recently appointed Student Council members, Head Boy and Girl, Prefects and House Captains who are busy exercising their leadership skills, coming up with varying ways to continue to reach and motivate students in their roles. It is so important that even from a distance, the community continues to work together to feel connected to one another. The Head Boy and Girl, Daniel and Micky, are endeavouring this week and next week to get into all Form Classes to motivate and stay connected with their peers in Secondary.

On Friday, students and teachers were invited to take part in our blended Halloween celebrations by wearing costumes or black on Zoom lessons. A wonderful way to continue to celebrate a school wide event together.

Thank you to all families for the kind feedback during this time of distance learning. All teachers are working hard to continue to provide a full and varied education for all students and having the support of families to encourage and enable their children from home to do this helps us greatly. Whilst it is an adjustment, students are managing the change exceptionally well which will enable a smooth transition back into the building when the time comes. We are certainly looking forward to it.

Please continue to monitor emails closely and read the latest updates that are released.

Have a lovely weekend,

Stephanie Andronikos

Head of Secondary

“This week Daniel (Head Boy) and I managed to talk to some students of Y7 during their Form Time. It was great to listen to their solutions on how to deal with online school, and I was impressed by the alternatives they had found to still enjoy spending some time with their friends.

Even though school work is very important, I would like to encourage everyone to go outside every day, even if it is only for a short period of time, and continue talking to their friends and family for support. Congratulations on finishing the second week of online school, and try to stay healthy.”

Micky W., Head Girl

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

Week 4 has been another fantastic week in PE. It has been incredible to see students engaging in physical activities at home and competing against their peers to complete as many physical challenges as possible. A special congratulations to Team 1 in Year 7, including Emma, Valentin, Anastasiya, and Arthur; Team 2 in Year 8 including Sara, Ema, Abdulla and Izzie; and Team 3 in Year 9 including Tin, Arthur, Mairi and Nanako, who are currently ranked in 1^st place for their team efforts. The competition is still ongoing for Year 10 and Year 11, so we’ll see by the end of the week who manages to make it to the top of the Virtual PE Challenge leaderboard.

Here I am sharing some wonderful pictures of our students still enjoying their PE Lessons over distance learning.

Miss Sharpe, PE department

This week, Year 8 historians have taken on the challenge of evaluating how well Queen Elizabeth I dealt with attacks coming from the Counter-Reformation. During Friday’s lesson, Year 8 studied the fate of the Spanish Armada, sent by Philip II of Spain.

Year 8 historians demonstrated real excellence in our game of causal bingo by uncovering far more than eight reasons for the defeat of the Spanish Armada. Well done to Izzie, Ema, Elise, Sara, Julia and Alex who won first and second place, and an honourable mention to Jon, Abdulla, Luka and Visnja, who were able to explain in detail additional reasons worth knowing.

Miss Dascalescu, History teacher

We stay with Primary school for this week’s Teacher Feature, introducing the lovely Ms Laura Harris, Year 2A Class Teacher and Primary Literacy Coordinator.

Read Ms Harris’ Teacher Feature here.

Years 10 and 11 have been working in breakout rooms during block hour of Slovene. They were supporting each other studying the new topic “Moja najlljubša žival” (My favourite animal). It was interesting to hear which pets they have at home or pets they would like to have in future. Well done students!

Miss Košec, MFL Department

Year 8 have started reading the novel “A Brother's Secret” by Emiel de Wild. Before reading, they were assigned to, research the life of the author in groups, write their feedback on a paragraph we read from the novel and research the success of the novel.

Miss Begič Slovene teacher

KS3 have been refining their knowledge of decimals and fractions the past week. Find a picture of 7A playing a Kahoot quiz on decimals in the attachment.

Last week's answer for the Math question of the week is: 24 different ways.

Thank you for all submitted answers and congratulations to Aleksander (9B), Divyansh (9B) and Stavr (10) who guessed correctly and received 5 house points each. Well done!

Maths question of this week is:

Five positive whole numbers, which are not necessarily all different, are written on five cards.

Peter calculates the sum of each pair of cards. He obtains only three different results, namely 57, 70 and 83. What is the biggest number that is written on one of the cards?

Students who solve the question send their answer to my email by Thursday 5th November.

Miss Zupanc - Maths department

In recognition of Humanities block Year 7 looked at one of the most famous speeches of the 20th century: Martin Luther King jr’s “I have a dream” speech. The students also wrote about their own dreams for the future in some wonderful compositions.

I have a dream by Ryan - Year 7

I have a dream that one day I will one day become a world wide famous inventor. That I will be a trillionaire and that I will live in a huge mansion. I have a dream that I will invent things that will help people with problems, help people win wars, and to stop wars. I have a dream that I will have half the day to play with my dogs, and that I will never have to worry again.

I have a dream that I will invent highly sensitive cameras that will keep people safe, and to help them sleep at night. I have a dream that my inventions will save peoples lives, and cure people's worst fears and illnesses. That I will create high tech televisions, holograms and a bunch of things that will change the world. I have a dream that I will live a long and happy life, with no problems.

I have a dream that my house will have a huge garden, with huge bedrooms, and rooms. That the backdoor will lead into a heated room with fans that will clean my dogs feet straight away after it has been raining. I have a dream that my bed will have a ramp so that a bunch of puppies can run onto it, and that they will be the most cuddly things in the world. I have a dream that my house will be in the English countryside, but close enough to a city for shopping and work. I have a dream that my family will come and visit and so will my friends and that they will love my house and dogs.

I have a dream that if I want to get married I will have a nice marriage and family and if I don’t want to I won’t. I have a dream that I will be able to do all the things I like, like video games, watching TV and sport, and relaxing when I retire. I have a dream that I will be able to relax the rest of my life. I also have a dream that one day all diseases will be cured and all the problems in the world will be gone.

Year 8 continued reading “A monster calls” and learnt a little more about the main characters and some of the secrets they kept.

They also did a comprehension exercise on a Science Fiction Story by Ray Bradbury about living on Mars.

Year 9b have just finished reading Blood Brothers.

Year 10 are exploring Winston and Julia's relationship in the novel “1984”.

Year 11b are learning about the accusations made in “The Crucible.”

Miss O’Regan, Mr Kirwan and Mr Eve, English Department

At BISL, we model our school values of Respect, Empathy, Excellence and Challenge every day in the way we learn, behave and make decisions. In addition to this, as a British international school, we embody characteristics based on the fundamental British values of Democracy, Fair Play, Tolerance and Civic Duty by being respectful towards others and their opinions, treating each other fairly, looking after each other and the environment, being united and contributing to our wider community. These characteristics are evidenced through the work of our Student Leaders and Student Council, our uniform, C4C Caring for the Community initiatives, regular Student Surveys, and colourful school performances for example.

This display is a wonderful addition to our top floor hallway - we look forward to having our students back on site to enjoy it soon!

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.

The role of the Parent Teacher Association is invaluable at school, and although at the moment your involvement on the school site may be limited, we continue to believe in the importance of bringing our parents together in enhancing the opportunities for our students, your children.

If you are interested in becoming a member of the BISL PTA Committee, as a Class Rep or a Volunteer, if you haven’t already done so, please complete this interest form.

Dear Parents,

Thank you for such amazing support during the past few weeks, I really appreciate it. I try to see as many parents as possible during drop off and pass on my gratitude for the way in which you have encouraged our school during this very difficult time. We have collected some of the Positive Feedback together in an article here.

As of today (Friday 30th October), there are no planned changes for next week. Same operations, same classes online and the same students in school.

This is reviewed daily as there are no positive cases of students currently on site or with Primary classroom teachers in the building. If this changes, parents will be notified immediately. Anyone tested positive is currently at home resting or engaging with online learning.

Please refer to my Update from the Principal for more general updates and information.

Kind regards,

Paul Walton

Principal