Update from the Principal - Nov 6 2020 | November 2020 | British International School of Ljubljana

Dear Parents,

As we come to the end of the block, it is a time to reflect upon a very challenging time. It has been extremely difficult for all members of our remarkable community in a range of different ways. Some events are beyond our control and we have all been left reacting, supporting and helping in the best ways we can. We are all very grateful for the encouragement and best wishes from the parents on our distance learning so far. During the drop off in the mornings, I really value the interactions, smiles and well wishes from all of you. They have meant a lot to me personally and to our hard-working and caring staff. Your emails and kind words have been very warmly received and touching, at a time that these small boosts of thought mean so much to everyone involved at school. Thank you.

Together with this feedback, we have also included over 20 wonderful reflections from our students on their online learning experience during the block.

I am very proud of the amazing reactions of our parents, teacher and students during this past block. What we have been in control of are our actions, how we interact with and treat one another. In the face of uncertainty, I feel we have all been very courteous, empathetic and positive. In tough times we use our values as guidelines and I have seen many examples in these past six weeks of Respect, Empathy, Excellence and Challenge.

As of today (Friday 6th November), there are no planned changes for next week. Same operations, same classes online and the same students in school.

We will email out directly to parents if there are any changes to the current classes working online and in the building. This will continue to be reviewed daily and our thoughts continue to be with those who have contracted Covid or have a family member currently recovering.

Our student attendance has been around 75% this week for students on site. This is incredible and obviously the students are thoroughly enjoying their normal classes and timetable. Online, our lessons have continued, following a full, normal timetable, and many images have been shared on our Facebook page for you to see their experiences through Zoom, on Canvas and online. The classes online remain on excellent attendance (over 80%), and we look forward to when we can all safely transition back into the building. We hope this is soon and will make sure, as always, that we prioritise safety at the heart of all of our decisions, taking into consideration the advice and guidance from the Ministry of Health, NIJZ, WHO and for individual cases, the doctors and professionals working with families.

I have been delighted with the response to the Teacher Feature articles and hope these create an interesting insight into our staff, their passions and background. We will continue these throughout the year. I personally look forward to reading through the features each week and feel intrigued, entertained and engaged to find out more. I hope you continue to enjoy them as much as I do.

We have uploaded a wide variety of images and videos showcasing what our students have been up to on our Facebook page, I encourage you to follow our page to stay up to date with school life.

Thank you to all teachers and staff who have contributed to this.

All of the latest school events are listed in our weekly Newsletters and posted in our events calendar on the website where you can click on specific individual events for the upcoming block to find out more.

Friday 30th October was an incredible morning for the students to enjoy and express themselves during our Halloween celebrations at BISL both online and in school. It was fantastic to see the students arrive at school, excited to see each other in their costumes, take part in our outdoor parade and to be able to share this opportunity to celebrate and revel in an exciting atmosphere with their peers who joined the celebrations online - dressing up for their Zoom lessons, sharing photographs of their carved pumpkins and costumes from home.

It has been a very important time to pause and reflect upon Founder's Day, the history of the school and how it has developed and evolved through the years. This morning I was outside the building during drop off and talking to many staff about the progress we have made over the past 3 years (student experiences, examination results, university placements, events, trips, new building progress, English provision, quality of education, communication through newsletters, Facebook images etc.) and I am proud to look back at the continued progress towards Jeremy's original vision.

We are honoured to present the annual Founder's Awards to the following students:

Academic Achievement Award - Micky W., Year 13

Music Award - Ivan L., Year 13

Community Award- Elena C., Year 12

A real strength of the school is our English language provision.

Please take a look at this excellent piece of work from Year 12 shared earlier this week on our Facebook page. It is a short writing task as part of their examination question practice.

We have seen some fantastic pieces of artwork uploaded to our BISLArt Instagram page including abstraction & formal elements inspired by the likes of Henri Matisse, detailed studies of Lauren Marx inspired watercolour techniques, amazing explorations of the human figure as part of IGCSE coursework, and many more. I encourage you to follow the page and have a look at some wonderful examples of our students' work.

As part of our duty as being a 'British' International school, we teach our students about fundamental British values. These have been included in PSHE lessons, assemblies and now are visible around the school.

All urgent updates continue to be sent via email.

Please monitor your emails for future updates as this continues to be the best way to send out clear and consistent communication to all parents. Check that you are receiving emails, have enough space in your email folder, that they do not go to your 'junk' folder and if you are unsure, please contact reception@britishschool.si to check your contact email and phone number on record. If you change any contact details, please inform the school immediately.

If you have any specific questions about the learning in your child's year group, please contact the Class Teacher/Form Tutor first.

I hope you have a relaxing and restful block break. Please stay safe and we look forward to seeing you on Monday 16th November for our 'Odd Socks' Day, raising awareness for Anti-bullying.

Kind regards,

Paul Walton

Principal