Primary News - April 26 2021

Dear Parents and Students

This week in Primary, students from Y1-Y6 participated in the Kangaroo Maths competition on 22nd April. This was a fantastic opportunity for students to put their mathematical skills to the test, together with students all over the world. Further results will be announced soon.

The PSHE theme of this week centres around the Earth Day 2021 event, focusing on the climate crisis issues linked to pollution, poverty and the pandemic, and promoting discussions on restoring our world’s ecosystems through emerging green technologies and innovative thinking. There has already been a tremendous response to the MEPI led initiative - the assembly hall is filled with donated clothing by the BISL families. A huge thank you to everyone!

We are excited about the International Days coming up, organised by the PTA to take place between 11th-14th May, which will see more than 40 different nationalities of students, parents and staff celebrating together. See the PTA News section below to get involved.

The after-school activities started this week and there is something for everyone to enjoy, from sports and fitness to languages, creative and performing arts and music. There are still places to sign up using the link above. In addition, two Enrichment Days have been planned on the school calendar for students to enjoy with their peers. The BISL Summer School is now open for registration for BISL students, friends and visitors.

Please continue to read the latest Update from the Principal and remember that next Tuesday, 27thApril is a Public holiday commemorating the establishment of the Slovenian Liberation Front in 1941. The school will therefore be closed on this day, but lessons on Monday 26th April continue as normal.

Best wishes,

Katarina Železinger

Head of Primary

Early Years

In Early Years this week, we have continued the theme of animals. We learnt to say the word 'amphibian' and we continued our project on the giant Cheetah!

Can you spot a snake? A turtle? Even a robot!

Ms Rosa

Year 1

This week Year 1 were preparing for the kangaroo Maths competition with teamwork tasks to try and answer various questions from previous years tests. They also got the chance to make their own maths puzzle questions.

In English and Topic, students heard a mythical story of the Egyptian goddess Isis, for which they practised their sequencing and storytelling skills.

Ms Blundell

Year 2

This week in Year 2, we have been studying our block text of 'The day the crayons quit' and 'The day the crayons came home'. We looked at the features that are on both a letter and a postcard. Writing our own postcards from exciting locations was a highlight for this week.

We saw our crayons visit amazing places like the bottom of the ocean and Tokyo. We are looking forward to creating our own fun letters next week. In maths, we have been practising reading and writing time. The students loved the challenge of reading the current time and figuring out how long we have left in each lesson.

Ms Harris & Ms Miller

Year 3

This week in Year 3, the students have been learning about the various forces in the world around them with a particular focus on gravity and upthrust. The students carried out several investigations to measure the weight and gravity of different items found in the classroom using scales and Newton meters to do so. Following on from this investigation, the students then explored how objects float when placed in water and identified the forces at work, including upthrust and again gravity.

The students thoroughly enjoyed exercising their scientific muscles and look forward to more investigations next week as part of their 'Feel the Force' Topic.

Mr Mulcahy

Year 4

Year 4 students have been busy completing their film scripts and preparing storyboards showing all the different camera angles and focus shots for their creations. They also have created their own soundtracks for their films.

Next week, we will begin filming - the most anticipated stage of the project.

You can also view a couple of stop-animation films created by one student on our Facebook page.

Mr Bishop

Year 5A

Year 5A have been enjoying tackling some extremely tricky math problems this week in the run-up to the Kangaroo maths competition. Students have once again outdone themselves with their kindness in helping their classmates explain high-level maths problems. We finally had the competition on Thursdays where the students used their skills to answer questions.

Mr Walker

Year 5B

In preparation for the Kangaroo Maths competition, the Year 5 students have been completing lots of past exam paper questions at home and at school. Sometimes, it is easier for the students to draw the problem or cut it out with paper and create a model if they find it difficult to visualise it in their heads.

The following question was just the case:

Clara wants to construct a big triangle using identical smaller triangular tiles. She has already put some tiles (those coloured in) together as shown in the picture. How many tiles does she need to complete a triangle?

Mrs Charlesworth

Year 6

This week the Year 6 students explored the Earth's biomes. Biomes are ecosystems that share similar characteristics, such as animal and plant life. There are six major biomes: tundra, evergreen forest, deciduous forest, grasslands, rainforest and desert.

The students explored the map of the world, displaying the six major biomes. The class was split into groups and assigned one biome. They were challenged to research their chosen biome to help them create their own nature presentation.

We watched some examples of nature programmes/ documentaries for inspiration.

Mr Kokalj

PE News

This week in primary PE students learned about badminton. They got to know the basic rules of badminton, the correct grip of the racquet, proper technique of forehand, backhand, and volley hit. In the next activity, students got split into pairs and they were challenged with the task of passing a shuttle 10 times. They did it very well and their skills improved a lot.

Year 1 and 2 students warmed up with locomotive skills, and then followed the fitness Tabata workout challenge, which was modified for their age group. After the fitness students followed a cooldown routine with some static and dynamic stretching.

Overall, students were very active and very successful.

PE Department

Slovene News

This week Years 5 and 6 have started revising body parts and creating dialogues in an imaginary hospital. They presented their dialogue through a play, where one of the students was a doctor and the other was a patient.

Then they were ready to learn about various clothes in groups. Each group got a few pictures and then investigated and wrote down the Slovene names for each item as fast as they could.

Well done!

Ms Košec

It has been a challenging week for Year 3 and 4 students in Slovene Advanced lessons. Some of the students participated in an interesting interview with Radio Ekspres. They were asked to explain different Slovene words connected to English. The students were enthusiastic about taking part, as it was a whole new experience for them.

I am proud of their courage and confidence! Don’t forget to listen to Radio Ekspres on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 7:40, 9:15 and 14:40 to hear what they said!

Ms Drofenik

French News

Year 3s are learning about body parts in French and can now sing the French version of "Head, shoulders, knees and toes..."

For practising vocabulary, they drew little monsters (3 eyes, 5 legs,...) and made descriptions in French.

Students from Year 6 learned how to present themselves in French and how to ask for some basic information. Now they know the French questions and answers about age, time, family, colours, animals and dates!

Mrs Berden

EAL News

After learning about landforms through various activities, our EAL students finally got to the fun part and built their own island.

Using our magnificent creativity and imagination, we were able to travel from one coast all the way to the other part of the island, explaining what we see on the way, while others tried to guess what route we took.

We can't wait for the following weeks when we will populate our islands with various animals and plants, imagine stories of the people living there and give it a name.

Mr Siter

New Staff Announcement

We welcome Daša Jakop to the BISL team. Daša is currently completing a Master's study course in Elementary Education. As part of her teacher internship, Daša has been actively involved in different curricular and extracurricular activities at primary schools in Norway and Slovenia. She will now support students across primary as Assistant Teacher and is excited to join our school.

MEPI Clothing Drive

A HUGE amount of donations have already been received in response to our clothing drive - an equally HUGE thank you to everyone for your contributions.

If you haven’t had time to do so yet, you still have the weekend to sort through old clothes, shoes, toys and books and drop them off at school by Tuesday 27th April.

Enrichment Days

Following on from the success of our Enrichment Saturdays at the beginning of the academic year, we are offering a further 2 Days of Free Saturday School (occurring on consecutive Saturdays, 12th and 19th June) for BISL students, which will include a range of supervised activities from a published calendar so that our students can have further opportunities to enjoy learning together.

To register for these Enrichment Days, please complete the sign-up form here.

Summer School

With the summer holidays just around the corner, find out how your child can join this two-week summer adventure with the British International School of Ljubljana - details here.

To make up for some of the lost face-to-face interactions with friends due to the period of remote learning, we are happy to be able to offer 5 Days of Free Summer School for BISL students in the first week of the summer, starting Monday 5th July.

Teacher Feature

If you haven’t had a chance to read our recent Teacher Feature profiles, here’s what you may have missed:

• 15.04.2021 - Mr Brad Eve
• 25.03.2021 - Mr Dominic Hulse
• 10.03.2021 - Ms Emina Begić
• 24.02.2021 - Mr Chris Bishop
• 27.01.2021 - Ms Mateja Košec
• 13.01.2021 - Mrs Tanya Charlesworth
• 16.12.2020 - Ms Sarah Fairchild
• 09.12.2020 -Ms Polly Tušar
• 25.11.2020 - Mr Tobija Siter
• 04.11.2020 - Mr Gary Bradley
• 28.10.2020 - Ms Laura Harris
• 21.10.2020 - Ms Katarina Miklavec
• 14.10.2020 - Mr Nino Kokalj
• 06.10.2020 - Mr Jason Batson

International Days Update

More information about our upcoming International Days can be found here.

BISL PTA Committee

Dear Parents,

It has been yet another busy week here at BISL, and I am delighted to share news of the installation of a public announcement system throughout our current and new building. This opens up many possibilities with safety and student learning, and will give us an excellent opportunity for the following:

• Various 'safety' tones to cover fire drills, lockdown etc.
• Safety announcements and requests.
• Student Radio.
• Student announcements and 'learning' purposes.
• Play various audio files across the buildings, e.g. during events etc.

Personally, I have been looking forward to this new addition, and I cannot wait for us to start using the system soon.

For the first time in the school’s history, a School Nurse will also be joining our staff team in August. They will be based in school every day, and are a welcome addition, as the safety and well-being of our students remains our top priority.

As we plan ahead for the 2021-22 academic year, you will have received an email from me earlier today regarding our Schedule of Fees for next year, and our school calendar is already available online. I hope to see our outstanding school grow further in the coming years and thank you for your continued collaboration and support, which is integral in making BISL the vibrant and inclusive place it is today.

There is still so much for us to look forward to before the summer, please read my full Update from the Principal here for details.

Kind regards,

Paul Walton

Principal