Primary News - September 20 2021

Dear Parents and Students,

All primary students participated in the Student Council elections this week and will also be voting for the Head Boy and Head Girl representatives from Y6, along with the primary Prefects. Successful candidates for this school year will be announced next week, ready to start their important roles in Block 2. 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.

Along with other school values, student leaders are expected to promote and model excellence. In PSHE this week, students discussed various steps to reaching excellence through following one’s passion, planning short term targets (blueprints) to achieve a long term goal, persisting and building on self-confidence, and learning positive skills and habits from other successful role models in the area of interest.

The GL assessments (Cat 4, PTE, PTM) for students in Y3-Y6 have now concluded. The PTE tests for Y2 classes are organised for next week and the PTM tests at the start of Block 2. GL assessments are used to track progress in English and Maths and help teachers to identify student’s academic strengths and identify areas where a student may need some support, including entry into the EAL programme. If you have any questions regarding the test, please contact your child’s class teacher.

The first primary trip saw the Y3 students go off to an Eco farm today. Students enjoyed exploring life on a farm, learning about plantations and farm animals, and going for a short hike in the beautiful surroundings. We hope that further exciting trips can continue to be planned for the students.

Next Friday, 24th September is the last day of the Block and a dress-down day, when students and staff come dressed in their House colours.

For any important updates, please continue to check the News section and the latest Update from the Principal.

Have a lovely weekend.

Kind regards,

Katarina Železinger

Head of Primary

Early Years

Mummy, Daddy, Sister, Brother, Baby,...

This week we were learning about our family. After being introduced to the book “Owl Babies” written by Martin Waddell, we learned about homes and family members through the eyes of three little baby owls.

The children got creative and made a nest for the owl family using materials found in nature such as sticks, leaves, pinecones, twigs, and grass.

They even made a big owl home together as a team!

Ms Kukovica

Year 1

This week we have been learning how to recognise and say ordinal numbers and we have been counting in 10’s to 100. Our first recounts have been written and we continued our topic about habitats, exploring arctic animals.

We also had some 6th form students come and read with us, and have had our second visit to the new school library.

Ms Miklavec

Year 2

This week in Year 2 we have been writing instructions in English. Year 2 have been using key features of instructions to create their own. We have really enjoyed working together this block to read, give and write instructions for a range of purposes.

In Topic this week, we finished our treasure maps; we have finally labelled them and they are up on display in the corridors. A huge well done to Year 2 for their fantastic Topic work this week.

Ms Harris & Mrs Bradley

Year 3A

The Year 3 enjoyed a lovely trip to the Katarina nad Ljubljano this Friday. Our first stop was the ECO farm in Medvode where the owner Mr Žiga took us on a tour of his farm and show us the animals (goats, cows and bulls, ponies, horses, chickens, pigs, rabbits, mini American piglets and chinchillas.) The trip tied in well with our Topic: Things that make us different and things that make us the same as students were able to identify activities and traditions which are different from but equal to their own.

After a short break for a snack, the students began their ascend to the local hilltop. It wasn't easy but we all managed to reach the top. After the descent, the students had some time to relax and enjoy themselves over lunch at the local restaurant. Despite bad weather the overall feedback from the student was positive and they said that they would recommend this trip to other year groups.

Mr Kokalj and Ms Blundell

Year 4

LIFE AROUND US

One of the tasks in this Topic for Year 4 has been to identify the different parts of a plant and explain what their roles are.

Year 4 loved getting out their colour pencils and drawing beautiful flowering plants and labelling them. Feel free to ask them questions about how plants produce their food, how they reproduce and how they develop.

Mrs Charlesworth

Year 5

Year 5 have worked so hard on their topic work and have completed their model habitats! They have really thought of every single detail and worked well as a team. Ms Thomas is very proud of her class for this amazing end product.

Year 5 have also begun planning and writing their own stories called The Dragon Slayer and have been working on Roman Numerals in Mathematics. It has been a very busy week.

Ms Thomas

Year 6

This week, students have started to create an advertising campaign for a selected country. We are looking at popular campaigns from other countries such as Australia and China to see how images, sounds and words are melded to create a lasting impact on the viewer's memory, tweak their interest, and serve to entice them into travelling to the country to discover more. I am really looking forward to seeing the creativity flow on this project as students have a wide range of media formats to select from!

Primary prefect applications, and Head Girl and Head Boy elections are coming up, and students are busy planning their campaigns to try to win the elections to gain the exclusive titles in the school. Campaign posters have been displayed around the school; videos and live speeches are being prepared by the candidates to convince the voters why they should be elected. I look forward to announcing the winners in the upcoming weeks.

Mr Bishop

PE

During PE this week, we continued with our net and barrier game theme - focusing on the tactical aspects required across a range of sports. Students were introduced to the rules/scoring system(s) used in games such as bound ball and volleyball and worked collectively, in teams, in competitive scenarios. We also focused on the importance of strategic thinking in sport and how moving an opponent around the court can be beneficial when playing net and barrier games.

PE Department

French

This week in French lessons, Primary students learned the French greetings as well as the alphabet! As a learning check activity, they had to colour a "magic drawing" and use the right colours for the right French translation.

Everything went perfectly and everyone was very proud of their work. Overall, students are progressing in French and are more and more able to communicate in their third language. Congratulations!

Ms Tatil

Slovene

Kako si danes? (How are you today?)

Our beloved green crocodile was wondering about our feelings. Years 1 and 2 were extremely happy to share their feelings with him and everyone in our class.

Please see the photos of our green crocodile with students below.

Year 5 and 6 students at Slovene Advanced lessons have done various interesting activities this week. They have learned about "Zamejski Slovenci" - who are they and where they live. Students have also written s dictation on this topic and tackled one entertaining riddle. Good job for Week 4!

Slovene Department

EAL

The EAL programme had a more than successful start these last two weeks, with the students already getting accustomed to the environment, their Tier group work and each other. The in-class support is in full swing either during mainstream classes or reading in the library.

After sweat, toil and hard work of learning new vocabulary about school objects and procedures, we took a short break on Friday, playing a game of snake and ladders. (Pssst: It had a conversation practice twist to it... just don't tell the students).

However, one of the highlights of this week was when each student sang to one student for her birthday in their own language. Have you had a birthday song sang to you in six languages?

Mr Siter, Head of EAL

E-Safety Presentation

The e-safety presentations went ahead this week with Mr Kokalj and Ms Burtrand. This really highlighted the importance of children interacting safely when online. Students, parents and teachers need to actively be aware of certain dangers, ensuring that passwords are protected and kept safe. You will find the link to the presentation here, in case you’d like to review what was covered.

Teacher Feature

For our first Teacher Feature of the academic year, we head into EYFS, for a bouncy interview with our new Head of Early Years, Miss Isla Gillespie.

Read Miss Gillespie’s Teacher Feature here.

Dear Parents,

We finish the week with rain but this has not damped our spirits after a great week at school.

We have our second group of Adventure Days out today (Years 9 and 10), Years 11-13 for next Friday and that ensures all of the secondary students have had at least one trip in the first block. We also have Year 3 out today with Mr Kokalj and Ms Blundell and further trips are planned in the coming weeks.

The trips, activities and extra Saturday mornings provide excellent opportunities for our students to enjoy being with one another, having fun, playing and being active! I am personally very happy with the current provision for this and constantly ask for feedback as we aim to improve. I've included a quick gallery from the House of Illusions in my Update here, our students had a great time - this is an excellent trip to participate in locally as we continue to build strong relationships with centres, museums, galleries, places of interest and other Slovene educational establishments.

Other trips so far this academic year have included Adventure Days to Velenje, visiting the Coal Mining Museum, the House of Minerals and Velenje Castle, as well as the Year 3 trip to Katarina nad Ljubljano and the Ecological Learning Farm.

Last weekend on Saturday, we had our second Enrichment Day of the term and the seventh in the last 12 months with 44 students attending and enjoying a range of activities from a river walk, science activities and then finishing by cooking different burgers outside in the sun. It has been another very enjoyable Saturday morning with the students. Take a look at the Round Up article for an overview and gallery of photos from our Enrichment Days this academic year.

This week, I've spent a lot of time in lessons across the school and have seen a very high level of engagement, interest and fun in classrooms. From Early Years, through to Sixth Form, from PE to Science, it has been a fantastic week to spend with the students and teachers. This is very important to me, to see how our students learn, how they are inspired and the progress they make in class. I am very happy overall with the quality of teaching and learning in the school during this first block and as the relationships strengthen through the year, this fills me with further happiness and belief that our students will have a wonderful academic year.

Please read my full Update from the Principal here.

Wishing you a relaxing weekend.

Kind regards,

Paul Walton

Principal

All upcoming events and details are available on our website.