Secondary News- Nov 27 2020

Welcome back to Block 3! This block we celebrate the Creative Arts, and the staff are busy initiating some exciting new events for students to be involved in. Watch this space for the collaborations that will occur across the school for these events.

This week all students continued their lessons and assessments online. Busy preparing for and sitting their assessments this week and next week, students have not lost any momentum over the block break, hitting the ground running this block. It is wonderful to sense their high energy over their virtual lessons, and their keenness to be back online and engaging with their peers. All teachers and students should be commended for their hard work thus far.

Reports are currently being written by staff across the school and will be released to families at the end of Week 3. In the meantime, Parent/Teacher Interviews will be open for families to book on Tuesday 24^th November. These will be held virtually with booking instructions sent to all on Friday 20^th November. Please consider the instructions carefully and ensure that teachers are secured early. Interviews will take place during Weeks 4 and 5 of this block and are a brilliant opportunity to discuss the progress of all students.

Please continue to read the latest Update from the Principal and I wish all students well for their upcoming assessments.

Stephanie Andronikos

Head of Secondary

Here are some fun photos taken during online lessons this week featuring Odd Socks to celebrate what makes us all unique, raising awareness against bullying.

Block 2's theme has focused on the Humanities subjects and students and teachers throughout the school have been learning about the importance of our subjects in different ways - continue reading for details.

Humanities Department

Students have begun to focus on the sport of football this week and have been exploring the different roles that exist in football additionally to the role of the player. Students have commented on the importance of coaches, nutritionists, psychologists, physiotherapists, sports media and sports analysts. With these roles in mind, students have formed their own team of specialists as part of a football league and shall be going forward to plan and run football-related activities for their peers. We have managed to capture some students at work this week as they have used their imaginations to conduct activities and practice these using the space and resources available to them at home.

We kindly ask that all Secondary students have access to a football during their PE lessons this Block. They may find an alternative at home if they do not have specific access to a football by using another kind of sports ball, such as a volleyball, beach ball, or foam ball. We look forward to seeing students progress in their football-related roles as the Block continues.

Our PE staff shall be setting some extra challenges for the BISL community this Block as we continue with online learning. If you’re up for the challenge, please take a look at the Facebook post hereand send your videos to Miss Sharpe.

Miss Sharpe, PE Department

In your inboxes this week there have been many exciting new challenges launched by the PE department to keep everyone, fit, healthy and united from a distance! Please check these challenges out and we encourage everyone to get involved. These initiatives include:

• "Keep up with the teacher" the first videos will be shared on Monday 23rd November and will continue throughout Block 3.

• "Pillow passing compilation" which gives the opportunity for everyone to participate (students, parents, staff...)! You have time to film yourself until the 30th of November.

• "Fun with the PE teacher (part 1)" The challenge is to THROW an EGG in the air, CLAP as many times you can in the meantime and CATCH it. (without breaking it).

You can also try to pass the egg to each other and see how many passes you can get in 60 seconds.

• "Deskercise" as per these instructions:

For more information on challenges, please don't hesitate to contact the PE Team.

PE Department

Slovene

Year 8 have been learning about clothing and what to wear on different occasions. Firstly, we practiced Slovene words for clothing. Secondly, we described our favourite clothing with diverse adjectives. Well done!

Miss Košec, MFL Department

For an update on what our Secondary students have been up to during Mathematics over Block 2 - click here!

In the first week of Block 3, Years 7, 8, and 9 were exploring our metric system, discovering some other units used for measurements in different countries and creating converting units diagrams.

Year 10 started this Block with simplifying expressions and year 11 learnt with quadratic sequences and proportion.

Year 12 and 13 Mechanics 1 students are learning about combined force diagrams and connected particles.

All year groups have been busy preparing for our upcoming mathematics and mechanics assessments - as per the assessment calendar.

The answer for the last Math question of the week is: 250.

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

Math question of this week is a battle between Mathematics and English:

One rabbit saw six elephants while going to the river. Every elephant saw two monkeys going towards the river. Each monkey holds one parrot in their hands. How many animals are going towards the river?

Students who solve the question send their answer to my email by Wednesday 25th November.

Miss Zupanc, Maths department

Year 7 were introduced to an extract from a book from 1974 by a very pessimistic writer, Robert Cormier. The story is called The Chocolate War and the students read about the physical battering the main character took on the American Football field.

Year 8 had the opportunity to study the lyrics of a song by the extremely popular artist “David Bowie”. We examined the song and enjoyed another famous version of the song “Space Oddity” by International Space Station Astronaut Chris Hadfield.

Year 9B are currently doing war poetry including “In Flanders field.”

Year 10 are about to join Winston in room 101 in the novel 1984 by George Orwell.

Year 11 classes are finishing off the last parts of the play “The Crucible”.

Year 12 are debating whether or not Offred in Handmaid's tale is a feminist.

Year 13 English Language students have been creating posters summarising the key theories of Child Language Acquisition which they have been studying in the past few weeks as part of their A-level studies. These theories seek to explain the process of how children learn a language and create links between a child's language and thoughts.

Next week there will be a competition held by both the Art and English Department. Don’t forget to check for details then.

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

Student Leadership is an important part of school life at BISL, giving our students from Early Years through to Sixth Form additional roles and responsibilities, enabling them to develop their abilities to make a difference within our school and in our wider community. Our Student Leaders are keen to share their enthusiasm and words of encouragement for their peers: click here to find out what they've said.

OUR GOAL IS TO BRING JOY TO over 100 CHILDREN

Over the last few years that we have been involved in this wonderful project, we have seen our enthusiasm grow. Each year, we have made more and more children happy, last year with an incredible 120 gifts. This year, we are aiming for the same enthusiasm, kindness and empathy from our BISL community. Due to the current unusual circumstances, there are some slight changes to the process.

Steps:

1. Choose a letter or more from - PRIMARY, your class parent representative or - SECONDARY, your (child’s) form tutor. STAFF - see Mrs. Charlesworth.

This letter package will contain 3 things, 1 is the letter written by an under-privileged child, the next has the instructions on how to go about the process (in Slovene and English, where necessary), the third gives a few details about the child's home situation as well as some necessary details for the child e.g. shoe number size, jacket size etc.

2. Buy the gift, wrap it very well. Then stick the bar code (which is on top of one of the papers you will get) onto the present, so that it stays on well.

3. Please deliver this present directly to Zveza Prijateljev Mladine Ljubljana Moste-Polje, Proletarska Cesta 1, 1000 Ljubljana .

The due date is the 15th of December 2020.

To see more about the C4C & PTA Christmas Action please visit the following link.

It's fantastic to see MEPI truly in action this week. During our Monday meeting, as well as catching up on individual progress, we tested our navigation knowledge with a live Kahoot quiz! (Please feel free to challenge yourself by clicking here ) With 16 'true or false' and 'multiple choice' questions against the clock, it was a really fun way to check the amount of information gleaned from the various short video clips dealing with map features, compass use, and general information pertinent to the 'Adventurous Journey' section of the Award. The quiz report has definitely helped identify our strong points, and where we need to do a bit more work! It has also been a pleasure to log into the Online Record Book (ORB) this week in order to authorise activity requests from both of the MEPI teams here at BISL. We look forward to seeing how the singing, running, and helping others to develop their skills in the English language progress over the coming months. (There are also other activity goals that are being set-up for the near future). One section of the Award is 'Service / Volunteering', and this is proving (as often does) to be a bit of a challenge. We would like to ask YOU, dear reader, if you might have any knowledge of volunteering opportunities, please? Our participants need to provide some sort of service to the community over a period of perhaps 3 - 6 months, and be actively involved for a minimum of 1 hour each week. This could involve community action, working with the environment or animals, helping a charity or community organisation, helping the young, helping the elderly, teaching (numerous possibilities), translating, etc. Any suggestions at all would be welcome, so please email Mr. Irving ( simon.irving@britishschool.si ).

Mr Irving, MEPI Coordinator

A warm welcome to our new PTA Committee members:

Chair

Siu-May Gruber

Treasurer

Maliha Walker

Communications

Petra Satler

Contact

The PTA can be contacted at any time via email at pta@britishschool.si.

Facebook Community

Please join the BISL Parent Community Facebook Group page - this closed group provides another means of engagement and interaction for BISL parents to communicate with each other about BISL related topics, events or any other advice, recommendations, and fun things to do around Ljubljana, or simply to say hello.

Class Representatives

If you haven't already done so, reach out to the PTA if you would like to become a Class Rep to support the Committee's work within your child's class.

Volunteers

The PTA are always looking for volunteers for various projects throughout the year - be it an event or a reading session or subject-specific presentation with students. If you have any ideas or are open to volunteering, contact the PTA and join their Facebook group for regular updates.

Uniform Sale

Our PTA are collecting gently used uniform items, so if you have uniform items that your child is not wearing anymore, this is your chance to donate them to the PTA! They will then arrange a second-hand uniform sale and use the funds for various PTA initiatives to benefit our students. Just pack your donations in a bag and leave them in the designated box outside the Early Years entrance under the bike stall. The collection ends December 1.

They have already received a number of fantastic second hand and never worn items - details of these can be found here. Head over to the link so you don't miss out!

Dear Parents,

Welcome to a new block and lots of events and projects happening across the school. First of all, thank you for your ongoing support. I hope you have had a chance to enjoy at least some of the block break with your families. We have returned to school to see further improvements with the new building, the impressive new Ludus Sports Park dome which now features our school logo, and a display of some wonderful student artwork around the building.

Please click here to continue reading my full update this week.

Kind regards,

Paul Walton

Principal

Please note that Class Photo day will be rescheduled for a time when all of our students are back in the building.