Primary News - June 21 2021

Dear Parents and Students,

At the end of this school year, we say goodbye to our oldest Primary students in Year 6. To give students a taste of what is to come, Transition Day was organised for them to spend with Secondary students and teachers. On Friday 18th June, the Y6 ended their week with a Graduation event to celebrate their successes this year.

Results from the PTE and PTM standardised assessments, taken across Year 2 - Year 9 were shared out and we are extremely proud of the students’ academic achievements this year, as they continue to exceed the expectations. We are very proud of our amazing teachers who have worked extremely hard this year. Throughout the year they have supported and encouraged the students to achieve the best results possible and we can see that BISL attains significantly above UK and other international schools. We are very proud of this achievement. The staff monitor, track and intervene with the students throughout the year and we have excellent systems in place to ensure that all students progress extremely well. These systems, routines and being very organised mean that all staff are aware of the strengths and areas to improve for individual students. Furthermore, they all have clear examples and strategies to help every student with their progress in Maths and English. As a team, our staff are all fully qualified and work together on a daily basis with intervention meetings, planning, sharing ideas and attending training sessions to further professionally develop. To view our updated staff profiles, click here.

Thursday 24th June is the last day of school. Please note that the day finishes at 12:00. Students can come dressed in their House colours on the day. Please remember to return any borrowed school books and to take home all of your belongings over the summer break.

To finish off this week, we look forward to having a fantastic time at the second Enrichment Day on Saturday 19th June.

Enjoy the sunshine and have a lovely weekend,

Katarina Železinger

Head of Primary

Early Years

In Early Years we have been practicing for our performance with Mr Hulse and Miss Kenealy. We made raincloud hats and big sunshines. Can you guess which song we will be singing? We have also been painting outside this week and using nature to inspire our artwork!

Ms Rosa

Year 1

This week in English we have looked at written forms of communication: postcards, thank you cards, and personal letters. The students worked very hard on their thank you cards this week, we hope you enjoy the thoughtful comments they wrote for you!

In Topic students continued to research their countries and used google maps to help locate them on their picture maps.

Ms Blundell

Year 3

This week in Year 3, the students have been continuing with their studies of fashion, exploring the different fashion requirements of various sports around the world, and comparing the kinds of clothes worn by athletes when competing. The students presented their findings to the class, which compared the kits of the Euro 2020 teams to the fashion in another sport of their choosing.

Also, in Mathematics this week, the students have been exploring geometry, covering the properties of 2D and 3D shapes. The students eventually made some 3D shapes from various everyday objects, including a particularly sweet combo, of marshmallows and straws!

Mr Mulcahy

Year 4

This week, Year 4 students have been presenting science experiments to their classmates. We have already seen lava lamps, volcanic eruptions, gravity defying tricks and gaseous reactions. We are all looking forward to seeing what is in store for us in the next few days.

Mr Bishop

Year 5A

This week students came down with the European Championships fever!!. We had a Year 5 draw where every student and teacher involved in Year 5 was given a team to support during the competition. Each student then researched their team to find more information about them. A wall chart was stuck up in the classroom and will be filled out every day before class starts. Good luck to all the teams involved.

Mr Walker

Year 5B

MAKING THINGS GO

This week in Topic has seen the students submit a letter to the public about using renewable energy (solar and wind). They included: how it works, disadvantages, advantages, cost and some photographs/diagrams to explain how the energy is created/collected and travels to where it needs to go. There were some convincing arguments.

Mrs Charlesworth

Year 6

This week the Year 6 students spend time learning about Geometrical constructions. Their task was to learn how to create specific 2D shapes with given dimensions. The students had to use their previously acquired knowledge about shapes to successfully complete their constructions. The students learned that in order to complete the "perfect" design they need to be very precise in their measurements. Everyone really enjoyed using the geometry equipment, particularly the set square and the compass.

Mr Kokalj

PE News

This week in primary PE, students focused on their skills learnt throughout the year. It was great to see the progress students have made this school year in all areas.

This week the PE Department is organising the cross country running race, where the whole school is competing in their houses. The distance is altered depending on their year level and all the results will be calculated after everyone completed the cross country run.

The PE department would like to continue to invite students and their family members to participate in our Walk Around the World challenge. All you need to do is count your daily steps, add them up, and enter them HERE. We are currently walking through Patagonia in Argentina.

This week, the PE Department was also running a competition for the Healthiest dish as a part of the PE Block. We are proud to announce that the Primary school winner is Paskal from Year 1! Paskal also shared the recipe, so you can recreate his healthy spaghetti this weekend.

Paskal's Recipe:

• 3 persons/2 adults 1 child
• 230 g Whole grain spaghetti
• 10 ml cooking cream
• 30 ml Tomato sauce – Mutti
• Some parmesan and fresh basil

Well done Paskal and congratulations!

PE Department

Year 6 Transition Day

Each year I have the honour of leading the Year 6 transition, introducing and welcoming the Year 6 students into the Secondary school. It is wonderful to meet the incoming Year 7 students who are all bright eyed and full of nervous excitement. It can be quite daunting entering the Secondary school, with changes to the uniform, the timetable, and many teachers to keep track of. In the induction session this week, the students were attentive and asked very mature questions, eager to find out more about Secondary school life.

The Year 6 students then joined the Science staff and had the opportunity to work within the Labs. They utilised microscopes participating in an experiment whilst learning about all the safety aspects of this specific learning space. They were able to gain an insight into Secondary Science, with a focus on Biology.

During the morning break, the Year 6 students joined the Secondary students during the Secondary morning break time. They were able to socialise and engage in the games and activities of the students from Secondary, specifically playing four square, football and simply enjoying the sunshine together.

The last activity for the Year 6 transition was an Art activity in the specialised Art room. They were given an insight into the subject and what to expect for next year. They learnt how to use this space as well as the fundamental techniques to prepare them for what is to come in Year 7 Art. Once this activity was complete, the students went back to their regular timetable, finishing the day with PE and topic lessons.

Overall, the students were really excited to experience this day, and to have their nerves somewhat calmed. It was a wonderful opportunity for the students to be made fully aware of what is to come and as a through school, BISL has the best opportunity to make this transition a small step as opposed to a big leap. The Year 6 students are to be commended for their fantastic behaviour and attitude during their transition day and I look forward to welcoming them again on Orientation Day on the 20th of August. In the meantime, they have been encouraged to go through the Secondary Student Handbook carefully with parents to be aware of all the varying aspects of Secondary school life. I know I speak for all teachers in saying that we can not wait to work with them.

Ms Andronikos, Head of Secondary

MEPI News

Adventurous Journey Expedition

As our intrepid MEPI Bronze Award team met in Šendvit early on Sunday morning, full of anticipation at the challenging hike ahead of them, no one could predict the glorious day that lay ahead. The group set off just a little later than planned and the first leg was slightly slower than the route card might indicate, but the initial stage was a fairly steep ascent, and the team were still finding their bearings. The sky was slightly overcast which kept our participants cool as they made their way uphill. A beautiful wooded path, in dappled shade, stretched onwards and upwards towards Toško Čelo. By this time a new pace had been set, and the time taken for the second leg was exactly as the route card had predicted. Our team continued west, pausing occasionally to take a sip of water, adjust a rucksack strap, or nibble a biscuit or two. Turning North, the fairly level woodland path began to ascend once more towards Sveta Katarina in the village of Topol. A leafy lane gave way to an open hilltop road, as they emerged into brilliant sunshine just below the old chapel. Coniferous forest with an occasional patch of grassland lay undulating below and around. Our participants took a well-earned break, and time to absorb their surroundings from the grassy hillside, before making the final little push up to the church itself. Lunch taken on benches just outside of the small churchyard, led to the final leg of the journey. Descending once more along greenwood paths into the valley, they headed towards the small settlement of Hrastenice. The denouement of their 17.5km Adventurous Journey lay between the road from Ljubljana to Polhov Gradec, and the Gradaščica River.

"I came and told my dad, 'Dad, I am exhausted but I am happy and proud to be part of MEPI!”

"We walked 17.5 km in total and the weather was amazing. What went well is that we were good at reading the map and checking the direction. We should have checked the map a little more, to make sure we were heading in the right direction, but we had good teamwork during the hike: One person held the map, another person held the route card and another person held the compass to see the directions. At first we didn't start the hike on time and to reach the first point we were a bit too slow and lost some time. But we started to catch up, and we made it!"

Award Presentation

This past week has certainly been an eventful one for our MEPI participants at the school. After this year's 'Bronze Award' cohort completing a challenging day's hiking on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday saw the presentation of certificates and pins to participants who had already completed their Bronze Award in its entirety.

They say that the Award is more like a marathon than a sprint, and it does seem like this was the case for our participants from Year 11 and Year 12 (Maybe even more so than the Award organisation might have intended?!) So it was with great pleasure and pride that these awards were handed over. Both girls have been with the school for quite some time, and so we have literally seen them grow into the people they are today. It has been a privilege to spend time with our Year 11 student, and see her bend her strong will to the task in hand, and succeed when times were challenging both on the Practice Expedition on the coast, and the Qualifying Adventurous Journey (AJ) which finished near Polhov Gradec. Our Year 12 student completed her Qualifying AJ with a different cohort in Slovenia's coastal region. Quiet and conscientious, our Year 12 student has now enhanced these qualities with a confidence and determination which has given her so much success in MEPI, and all that she does.

The event unfolded under the shade of the trees in the Woodland Area. This year's cohort were invited to the presentation, and we're sure that they would have found some inspiration there. It was an opportunity for our Award holders to pass on their experience to the others, and it was really interesting to hear the knowledge they'd accrued. Numerous questions were asked, and some great advice was dispensed. (Pack enough food. Don't rely on sugary snacks. Too many energy drinks just make you feel sick etc.) It was a very positive and enjoyable experience, not least for the delicious pizza that the school procured from a local eatery!

Mr Irving, MEPI Coordinator

Outstanding PTM and PTE Results

We are delighted to announce our outstanding results from the recent PTE and PTM assessments at school. These standardised international tests provide a rigorous and high-quality assessment for all students around the world. Our students at BISL achieve significantly above expectations over time and this has continued to improve. They have once again produced outstanding academic outcomes, raising the standards and setting the bar higher for the next cohort. This is particularly impressive when you take into account the fact that many of our students are not native English speakers.

Find out more about our PTM and PTE results here.

C4C News

Ma Petite Planete Challenge

We've only got a few days to go until our 3 week challenge competition ends. There have been some extremely active competitors (Green Leaf and Ecological Lion), who have scored 144 and 90 points respectively. This is no easy feat and they deserve special recognition for their hard efforts to support our planet. Every one of our team mates has supported the competition and every point counts towards the win, which will be announced next week. For the moment, Team Greta Thunberg is winning by over 100 points. One more challenge was completed in school:

Let's protect our flying friends!

Do any action in favour of birds or insects.

We made a butterfly and bee drinking station.

Veggie Day

In celebration of our planet Earth and its animals, most students and staff at BISL tried to eat only vegetarian food on Wednesday the 16th of June. Everyone loved the catered option of margarita pizza and vegan bolognese and didn't even realise it was a vegetarian meal. Vegetarian lunches were also brought in which included some yummy looking dumplings, mini pizzas and pasta dishes, to name a few. Thank you to all those who participated at home and to those that went the extra mile and ate only vegetarian food for the WHOLE day. Everything we do makes a difference, and if we can do that together, even better.

Thank you from the C4C Team

Teacher Feature Series

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

• 02.06.2021 - Ms Karla Kukovica
• 29.04.2021 - Ms Katherine Blundell
• 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

Uniform Donations

As we approach the end of the school year, we welcome any donations of gently used school uniform.

The PTA will host a Second Hand Uniform Sale during Orientation Day on Friday August 20th.

You are welcome to drop off your donations in the designated box by reception until the last day of school.

Dear Parents,

We have now completed our third Appreciation Day of the academic year, Happy Parent Appreciation Day! This was a wonderful opportunity to recognise and value the support, kindness and encouragement that we get from our parents in the community. Photos are available in my full Update here. Thank you for everything you do!

Over the past week, we have sent out the welcome letters from the lead teachers of all our classes for next year, as well as the staff profiles of the new incoming teachers to BISL. Our Orientation Day on Friday 20th August will be a chance for you to meet our new teachers, new families and find out more information about the school for the academic year ahead.

Last weekend, I had a very enjoyable Enrichment Day on Saturday with the students as they played dodgeball, capture the flag and other fun team building games, then I met our adventurous MEPI students at the end of their Sunday hike. Huge congratulations to everyone involved, as it was a fantastic achievement of 17.5km in total during a sunny day and some steep climbs. I look forward to our Enrichment Day tomorrow for more fun, sports and games with the students!

Our final day of term is Thursday 24th June and this will, as always, be a 12.00pm pick up for all students. It will also be a House colour dress down day for students and staff as it is the last day of the year.

Please read my full Update from the Principal here for further details.

Have a lovely weekend.

Kind regards,

Paul Walton

Principal