Primary News - January 21 2021

This week, I would like to draw attention to the students' attendance during this continued period of distance learning. Not only do we have high attendance for students on-site, but it has been impressive to hear that students are accessing the learning online from various corners of the world. With the majority of students on distance learning, relying on the use of technology more than ever, teachers are developing various strategies to help students through long hours of screen time, balancing the advantages and disadvantages of technology, while maintaining a daily routine, access to peer social networks and the teacher guidance, which students need to feel safe and motivated to learn.

Some of the strategies already incorporated include:

• Regular physical activities (P.E. sessions) to ensure that students move around, keep fit and stay healthy.
• Tasks and activities that go ‘beyond the screen’ (practical, creative activities and games at home and outdoors, hands-on projects and so on).
• Access to resources that can be tapped into at any time - flexible time for learning opportunities (e.g. teacher videos / recordings)
• Incorporating shorter breaks throughout the day, especially during double-lessons, for a 5min off-screen activity to help students refocus on their task.
• Independent learning ‘off screen’ - students that are old enough to learn independently / in smaller groups are given the opportunity to do so during the day, but the teacher remains available for questions and support.
• Room for discussions: students can express their feelings and talk about what troubles them in a familiar environment. Opportunities for this are the PSHE and Assembly sessions in particular, but students can also reach out to their class teachers for help.

We will continue to work with parents in providing the best online learning for our students and thank everyone for their suggestions and ideas. As always, if parents have any particular concerns about their child, please contact your teacher for a consultation. Keep checking our website news section for any updates.

With best wishes for the weekend,

Katarina Železinger

Head of Primary

Early Years

In Early Years this week, we have been learning the story of the Gingerbread Man. We have been acting out the story learning to tell the story and starting to draw story maps.

We traced Ariane’s body and painted it brown to make it look like a gigantic gingerbread man! We have also been using the enormous gingerbread man to practice learning body parts during our Slovene lessons.

Ms Rosa and Ms Miklavec

Year 1

This week in Maths Year 1 have been practising how to draw, construct, and identify names and parts of 2D shapes. Can you name the shapes we're making?

Ms Blundell

Year 2

Year 2 has had another exciting week online. This week in Year 2 we have been learning all about traditional tales. Our focus has been on the story 'Beauty and the Beast'. In the coming weeks, students will create their own traditional tales. In Topic, year 2's have been discovering what makes something living. We all went on a nature walk from home and discovered many different living things like snails and plants. We are looking forward to sharing with you all of the different living things that we discover.

Ms Harris & Ms Miller

Year 3

Another week of distance learning and many more highlights and excellent work from Year 3.

In English, the students continued their study of playscripts by examining some fables written by the famed Greek writer Aesop. ´The Monkey as King´ was the feature story earlier in the week, before the focus shifted to ´The Emperor's New Clothes´. The students then wrote their very own fables using these as inspiration. Well done to the students for producing many stories full of imagination and valuable lessons for the reader.

In Topic, the students further explored the story of the Ancient Egyptians by studying commonly used terminology, unique to this civilisation, as well as examining the importance of the Nile river in their prolonged success across millennia.

And finally, in Maths the students continued their study of formal multiplication methods, multiplying 2 digits by 1 digit with and without exchange. Next week, they will expand on this by working on similar problems, except this time with division.

Thank you again to the wider Year 3 community for your continued support throughout the week and we wish everyone a great weekend ahead.

Mr Mulcahy

Year 4

This week, Year 4 students have been taking on the role of famous explorers and adventurers. They researched their selected character and gave a presentation about their life, family and achievements. Some students went the extra mile and dressed up as their subject, such as Year 4's own Nellie Bly. Others included the famed crocodile hunters and animal enthusiasts, Dr Brady Bar and the crocodile hunter himself, Steve Irwin. Also, a then 14yo Laura Dekker who completed an amazing and inspirational solo sailing trip circumnavigating the world. Possibly some of her inspirations, Captain James Cook and Christopher Columbus also made an appearance, alongside Marco Polo and Ferdinand Magellan, another captain who circumnavigated the globe.

Mr Bishop

Year 5A

Year 5A started a new maths topic this week and enjoyed converting different measurements using measurement keys created as a class. Interestingly, the class performance of our Robert Burns poem is improving day by day with the class using all their presentation skills to deliver a tricky poem.

Have a lovely weekend!

Mr Walker

Year 5B

Year 5 are very grateful to Mrs Gabrielle Kim for joining our virtual classroom on Wednesday to give us a presentation on the United States of America’s Government system; the oldest modern democracy. She modelled for the students how to answer the questions that they will be needing to answer about their home country’s Government and political leaders. As a US citizen and a political scientist, she has an absolute wealth of knowledge and shared this with our classes in fun, informative ways. The students asked challenging, thought-provoking questions which showed their excellent listening skills and feelings of empathy. Here are a few things that stood out in her discussions for the students:

• That the two symbols for the Democrats and the Republicans are donkeys and elephants.
• A Bill has to go back and forth before it becomes a Law.
• Protests are made on the streets where there are lots of people and usually the police are there so there’s no kind of fight and no-one gets hurt. The USA encourages free speech and protests, so long as they are peaceful.

• Different monuments and buildings such as the White House, Capitol Building and the Lincoln Memorial.
• The inauguration will happen on the 20th of January where Joe Biden will swear on the Lincoln Bible and become the newest president of the United States of America.

Mrs Charlesworth

Year 6

This week the Year 6 would like to report about our endeavours to complete the Computing assignment no. 3. The students have been busy creating a Geometry dash game. It is a single-button jumper game, which includes moving obstacles, drawing a background and animation.

Although the class really enjoyed creating this game, it did not go without painstaking search for bugs in our codes. The students were developing persistence and confidence whilst fixing their bugs and verifying that their game runs correctly and smoothly.

We would like to share a couple of fun versions of the finished games:

From Milena: https://c.gethopscotch.com/p/11etfpos23

From Akim: https://c.gethopscotch.com/p/11erqi5kwe

From Saurabh: https://c.gethopscotch.com/p/11ew23134x

Mr Kokalj

Slovene News

Students in Year 5 and 6 Slovene Advanced lessons have been discussing one of the most familiar and popular Slovenian youth films called Sreča na vrvici. We will first watch the film together, and then we will read a part of a story as well. We really enjoy getting to know the main characters better and the wonderful Newfoundland dog named Jakob.

Mrs Drofenik

This week we were learning about diverse toys in our Slovene classes. Especially focusing on Slovene prepositions, practiced through the game Kje je medved? – Where is the bear?

V, na, za, pred… Afterwards, students have expressed their creativity on papers. Zelo dobro Y2!

Let's show our favourite toys!

Mrs Košec

PE News

In PE this week, Year 1 were focusing on their ball coordination skills. Students started their lesson with a 'lava game' warm-up activity. Next, they did a tabata training focussing on their fitness and flexibility. The next activity was ball coordination and they refined their underarm throw, bowling and overarm throw. Lots of new activities for Year 1 and a lot of new skills learned this week!

Year 2 continued their daily PE lessons and have done lots of different activities throughout the week. They enjoyed various styles of dance, practising basketball, flexibility, yoga and tabata.

Years 3 and 4 also continued their daily PE lessons with various activities and tasks focussing on fitness and flexibility with fitness tests. Students were challenged with leading the activities themselves. A big congratulations to all of them for producing challenging workout routines.

Years 5 and 6 started their PE lessons three times a week in this block and were also focussing on their fitness with tabata training and flexibility activities. They too had to come up with their own workout including warm-up, main activity and cool-down. They did an amazing job, and they have all enjoyed it!

For all Primary PE lessons, it was great to see a lot of effort from students and the new skills learned.

The PE department would also like to share new challenges and a healthy recipe for this week.

For Mr Damjan’s challenge CLICK HERE

Healthy recipe CLICK HERE.

PE Department

Music News

Year 6 have been making their own African Djembe drums and shakers.

Years 4 and 5 have been looking at traditional dances.

Years 2 and 3 have been learning new rhythms.

Year 1 have started to learn a new dance that will hopefully see everyone get involved with - watch this space.

Mrs Kenealy

Parent Survey

We would like your support in completing our 2020/21 Parent Survey, which has been emailed to all parents this week, and will provide us with important feedback for us to continue to improve your child’s experience at our school.

Thank you in advance for taking the time to complete this survey, it is very much appreciated. The deadline to do so is Friday 29th January.

Teacher Feature

For our first Teacher Feature of the New Year, we bring you a delightful interview with our beloved Year 5 Teacher, Mrs Charlesworth.

Read Mrs Charlesworth’s Teacher Feature here.

MEPI News

It has been great to witness our MEPI participants springing straight back into action after the break. It was also very gratifying to see all of the 'regulars' turn up and bring their respect, empathy, and excellence with them, as they take on the MEPI challenge. Even though the 'challenge' seems more pronounced during these times, our participants have persisted with their activities, and new activities have been arranged for the Physical and Volunteering sections, only this week! We look forward to our participants setting goals in horse riding, and also embracing the opportunity to work with younger equestrians as they hone their more basic skills in the near future.

Our Zoom session wasn't all talk and admin though. Participants were invited to use the 'chat' option, and nominate (dare) another to perform something for us all. Once the 'dares' were all collected in, the participants were then informed that THEY were to perform the dare that they intended for someone else! Everyone was brave enough to complete their dare and so (as well as some slightly embarrassed looks) we were rewarded with song, dance, and low-level acrobatics. The moral of this story (and a valuable lesson in teamwork) is 'don't expect your team-mate to do something that you wouldn't be prepared to do yourself!'

Mr Irving, MEPI Coordinator

English Provision at BISL

All students should have the opportunity to succeed, fulfil their potential and be able to access the curriculum fully. In a school like BISL, with such a culturally rich student body and a naturally high number of students with English as an additional language, the need for ensuring no one is left behind becomes even more vital.

Find out more about the success of our English provision here at BISL.

Student Voice

Following on from the success of their recent "How Physically Active Are You" article, Kevin and Julia from Year 10 bring us another fun article as part of a Global Perspectives project they've been working on:

The importance of physical activity presented in an entertaining way.

University Destinations of BISL Graduates

At the British International School of Ljubljana, we celebrate excellence on a regular basis. When students complete their academic journey at our school, we always make sure that they have the opportunities to leave us with strong values, outstanding academic results and high-quality learning experiences.

Read more about our graduates and their successes at university entry here.

Dear Parents,

Thank you for your ongoing support and encouragement, it means a lot to the staff and I am personally very grateful for this.

It has been an exciting week as we see the work produced by students, activities they have been involved in and planning ahead for events during this term. We hope that many of these can be on site but also have to consider how we continue to deliver information, discussions and further personalised support through online video and presentations. Your continued cooperation with this is very much a strength of our community - thank you.

Please read my full Update from the Principal here.

Kind regards,

Paul Walton

Principal

January

February