Primary News - November 26 2021

Dear Parents and Students,

The school corridors are sparkling with Christmas decorations, as we approach the December festivities. A huge thank you to all parents involved in organising this with the PTA. There are various events planned in the final weeks of this term, including a Santa Visit on the 1st of December and two Dress-Down Days for everyone to enjoy as part of Christmas celebrations at BISL.

Bookings for the online Parent Teacher Interviews are now open until Sunday, December 5th at 16:00 For more information, please see the email sent out on 22nd November, together with instructions and a guide for parents. Interviews are an opportunity to discuss your child’s achievements, progress and further targets for Term 2. Primary Reports for core subjects (English/EAL, Mathematics and Topic) will be issued on the last day of term, Friday 17th December.

We are participating in the BISL Make a Wish Holiday Project, in partnership with ZPM Ljubljana Moste-Polje Association of Friends of Youth, which helps children and youth from socially disadvantaged families from all over Slovenia. The BISL community successfully supported this wonderful initiative in the past years and will try to fulfil as many wishes as possible again this year. More information about this project and how to take part can be found here.

Please continue to check the News section and read the latest Update from the Principal.

Stay safe and have a lovely weekend,

Kind Regards,

Katarina Železinger

Head of Primary

Early Years

This week our shopping topic made the Early Years department smell like freshly baked cakes and cupcakes. Our Early Years students can easily tell you how to make a cupcake, as they practised baking actions such as stirring, scooping, sprinkling, and spreading in our very own Early Years Bakery role-play area.

It turned out that our students are natural-born bakers, who make the most delicious cupcakes! Like they weren’t tempting enough by themself already. The children didn’t hold themselves back whilst decorating them either.

How would you decorate your cupcake?

Ms Kukovica

Year 1

This week we continued our trip around the world and travelled to the United States of America to celebrate Thanksgiving and later on to Brazil for Carnival. We learnt a few Portuguese words and practised some samba moves. After an eventful two weeks of travelling, we wrote our very first postcards with our impressions from the destinations.

In Maths, we practised doubling numbers and in English, we read the story ‘Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain', through which we discovered descriptive writing and patterns found in books.

Ms Miklavec

Year 2

This week in Year 2 we have been learning about Poetry. We have listened to and read a range of new poems and we have even created our own front covers. We have been working hard toward writing our own in the coming weeks. In Topic, we have been learning about Cinco de Mayo and other traditions. It has been an exciting week and we look forward to the new week ahead.

Ms Harris & Mrs Bradley

Year 4

LIVING THINGS
At the beginning of the year, Year 4 students studied Living Things. As part of this wonderful topic, students looked at the similarities and differences between animal and plant cells. This week Year 4 had the opportunity to go to the secondary lab and learn how to use the microscopes correctly under the wonderful direction of Miss Tušar and Mr Ogrin.

Once there, the students peered at varying animal cell slides and their favourite was the lung. The most exciting part for the students was when they got to prepare their own plant cell slide using an onion. The students were amazed to be able to see the cell wall and the nucleus.

A huge thank you to Miss Tušar and Mr Ogrin for preparing an awesome lesson for us.

Mrs Charlesworth

Year 5

In maths, the focus of this week is to multiply and divide confidently. The children created a board game that involved the children using exactly these skills. They learned a lot making the board games and most of all had fun. In Topic, the children focused on modern art and in particular the artist Craig Muderlak.

They worked as a group to create a puzzle picture inspired by this artist. In English, the children discussed dilemmas in different stories and the ones they face every day.... chocolate or vanilla ice cream?

Ms Thomas

Year 6

Year 6 students have had a very exciting week baking their own bread and doing some science experiments about changing states of matter.

We tried a dutch oven baking recipe (warning: risk of destroying dutch oven so not recommended, even though bread is delicious!) then switched to a more traditional method involving steaming the bread as it baked in the oven. Next week, we will try our hand at baking muffins.

Mr Bishop

Slovene Basic

Years 3 and 4 have been working on their dream school project for several lessons. They have so many wonderful ideas to contribute as an individual in a group. Their mission was to form full sentences about their dream school and design a map of all school premises they would like it to contain.

They have started from scratch in a notebook which moved to a poster design. Now the posters are finished and ready to be displayed along the corridors. We can't wait to see it! Everyone will admire our attitude and the enthusiasm we have put in for sure.

Zelo dobro 3. in 4. razred. Še naprej uspešno v projektnem delu!

Ms Košec

Slovene Advanced

Year 2 Slovene Advanced students continued with their Slovene reading badges this week! One of the students proudly presented the book she read, titled "Čas za svetega Miklavža". This is a wonderful story about St. Nicholas and his generosity.

In Slovene, we continue to encourage students to read regularly, as they will enrich their vocabulary very early on and get used to how to perform in front of their classmates.

Odlično, učenci!

Ms Drofenik

EAL

This was a busy week for the EAL department, with the end of Term assessments starting and still, much learning to be done.

Students realised that playing vocabulary board games is almost as fun as playing vocabulary games on their iPads.

However, when talking about fun activities, nothing beats practising spelling words on their school table.

Mr Siter

Head of EAL

PE

This week we continued to develop our tennis and badminton skills, focusing on the fundamentals of both sports. Year 3 & Year 5 developed their understanding of forehand, backhand and serving technique(s) across a range of small group activities.
Year 4 & Year 6 focused on improving their badminton forehand smash technique, as well as the importance of maintaining a strong court position when playing both singles and doubles.

PE Department

BISL Make a Wish Holiday Project

In partnership with Zveza prijateljev mladine Ljubljana Moste-Polje, we are delighted to be continuing to support this special holiday initiative with the help of our generous community.

Through this holiday project, children from socially disadvantaged backgrounds write a letter with their holiday wish, and in order for every child to get exactly what they wanted, the gifting is done in such a way that, in cooperation with the ZPM Ljubljana Moste-Polje, we distribute these letters from the children across our community.

This year we have distributed 150 letters among our community, and would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for your generosity and compassion towards this worthwhile cause.

The due date for present delivery to BISL is Monday 13th of December 2021.

For more information please click here.

If you are unable to fulfil your gift for any reason, please let your Class Parent Representative or Form Tutor as soon as possible, so that we can re-distribute the letter.

Book & Barter - The Book Exchange

Do you happen to have any books at home, which you don't read anymore, enjoy or are taking up a lot of space in your home?

This is your chance to not only replace some of those old books with new ones from your classmates, but also expand the collection of books within our school library by giving back to the community.

On December 3rd, Book and Barter - A book exchange and donation event initiated by the MEPI programme and led by Taja and Chloe from Sixth Form - will be taking place and open for students to pick up new books and enrich their knowledge on new topics, by exchanging and/or donating books

You’ll find more information and details here.

Taja & Chloe, Sixth Form

MEPI News

This week we learnt some very valuable lessons. We took a lot of time reflecting on our experiences of the hike on Šmarna Gora. It went pretty well for both groups. (As for a time we split into two.) One group took a wrong turn, but yet they still did a very good job of finding their way back on the right route. (Which is much harder in my opinion, when you get lost or have gone the wrong direction.) As well as this we had to write dares for each other in order to get to know each other a little better, BUT (unbeknown to us) the person who proposed the dare was actually the person who had to perform the dare! Which I think gives a healthier perspective of trying to ask of others only what you would be prepared to do yourself.

Zoja, MEPI Participant

Dear Parents,

It has been a very busy week with the self-testing for students. They have been incredible and I wanted to start off by recognising how well our students from the youngest through to the Sixth Form have all approached this self-testing window.

Our testing is scheduled to continue next week (Monday, Wednesday and Friday) and I also want to highlight the staff at school who have been amazing under the guidance of our full-time school nurse Teja Rismondo. I feel we are very lucky to have such expertise on site and this reassures all of us that we are as safe as possible. The welfare of our students is very important to everyone at school, especially to the teachers who see their students each morning, and I thank both the staff and parents for swift and productive communication this week to fine tune the self-testing process. Overall, I am satisfied with how it has all proceeded, but like with everything, we can always improve.

I am very proud of our growing number of high-school aged students who have already chosen to receive their double vaccinations, those students taking responsibility for bringing in self-tests, organising quick tests and following guidance from the ministry. We have fantastic students who are fully committed to being caring and empathetic global citizens, always putting the needs of others first!

As we head into the holiday season, thank you to all parents who have given up their time to decorate the school corridors with colourful Christmas items including snowmen, tinsel, Santas and beautiful Christmas trees. The school looks very festive, fun and inviting. Thank you for creating this wonderful atmosphere for our students to enjoy as we gather momentum towards Christmas at BISL!

Also, a huge thank you to families for your involvement in the BISL Make a Wish Holiday Project, this is a wonderful initiative to get involved in and I have already brought my present in after reading such a heartfelt and touching letter. We really appreciate all your gifts and this is a very worthwhile cause, making such a difference to children in need.

Mr Batson hosted a Sixth Form Information Evening this week, giving families more information about the opportunities at BISL, the successes of our students and the structure of the A Level courses. Thank you to everyone who attended online.

Hopefully, we will enjoy the first snowfall at BISL soon and encourage all students to continue to play and learn outside in our woodland area and playground as much as possible. Thank you for making sure they have a warm coat and suitable outerwear accessories as the temperature drops, their enthusiasm certainly does not and it will be even better when it snows!

Don't forget - next Wednesday, December 1st, is a Festive Dress Down Day as part of the Christmas Market - students are encouraged to come to school wearing something festive, or the colours red and green to join in the celebration.

Please read my full Update from the Principal here for more details and information.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Kind regards,

Paul Walton

Principal

All upcoming events and details are available on our website.