Primary News - December 10th 2021

Dear Parents and Students,

This has been another busy week at BISL, with students finalising their topics for the end of term. Festive activities have continued with parents joining to read a Christmas story and help with decorations of classrooms. Students have been recording the end of term performances and we look forward to seeing these!

We had the first snowfall and it was fantastic seeing students play outside. We encourage students to go out in all weather, so please remember to bring your waterproof clothing to school.

Parent-Teacher Interviews continue next week. If parents have missed the booking deadline, please contact your child’s class teacher to make an appointment. Term 1 reports will be distributed to parents on the last day of school.

Next Friday 17th December is the last day of school and will finish at 12:00. Students will be taking home all of their personal belongings. Any lost and found items will be available to look through at the pick-up area. Remember to return any home readers or school library books before the end of the week.

Please continue to check the News section on our school website and read the latest Update from the Principal.

With best wishes for the weekend,

Katarina Železinger

Head of Primary

Early Years

This week our lovely parents supported us in our Christmas celebrations and organised a Christmas art afternoon activity for our Early Years students. To decorate our Christmas tree, the children created handprints of reindeer and Christmas wreath ornaments. Children found the utmost joy in experimenting with colours and glitter, whilst decorating popsicle sticks and snowflake ornaments. We didn’t forget about classic Christmas crafts either, as we made colourful paper chains too!

We were very lucky to have some parents join us to read a Christmas story that reminded us of the true meaning of Christmas. Do you know what is it?

Ms Kukovica

Year 1

We have had another very busy festive week!

At the beginning of the week, we wrote Christmas wishes for our friends and family, we made Christmas cards and salt dough ornaments. In Maths we have started learning about money coins and in English lessons, we have been writing instructions.

We have written the steps for making a jam sandwich and which winter clothes we should put on first when we go outside.

Ms Miklavec

Year 2

This week in Year 2 we have been creating our own celebrations. We have created some fantastic celebrations and we have begun to create booklets to showcase our work. It has been a fun week with lots of activities and festive creations. We are looking forward to the last week of the term to share with you what we have been learning in Topic this block.

Ms Harris & Mrs Bradley

Year 3

Historic clues in Art

This week the Year 3 students learnt how to use knowledge and understanding of art to answer simple questions about the past.

They were offered different portraits and landscape paintings from established artists to choose from. Once they decided on their paintings, the students needed to describe them in great detail and use powerful vocabulary. The students also needed to think about why the artist decided to create this particular piece of art. We completed the assignment by asking the students to use their research skills to establish the name of the artist, the title of the art piece, and the year it was made.

Ms Blundell & Mr Kokalj

Year 4

OUR ACTIVE PLANET

Year 4 loved the opportunity to be trained in first aid by our very own school nurse, Miss Teja Rismondo.

Knowing what to do in an emergency is very important for any individual, but when learning about natural disasters, it makes one feel extra safe.

Year 4 practised: which number to call in an emergency and which information to tell the emergency responders, how to tell if a person needs to be put into a recovery position and how to do it, how to perform basic CPR and what song to sing to help them with the rhythm.

Mrs Charlesworth

Year 5

This week the children have had a lovely week! The children have practised their multiplication and division skills and used these important skills to complete word problems.

In Topic, the children focused on shading and light in landscape pieces and produced outstanding pieces of artwork. In English, the children wrote their own diary entries of a dilemma they have had. These were shared and everyone enjoyed using their acting skills.

Year 5 are working on their final art pieces with a focus on shading and light. We all cannot wait to see the finished product!

Ms Thomas

Year 6

In a busy lead up to Christmas, Year 6 students have moved onto their new Topic unit: Being Human and Drugs Education. They will be studying the systems of the human body and seeing how legal and illegal drugs impact these systems. They are also soon to perform their Christmas musical performance which the teachers and parents are greatly looking forward to viewing.

Year 6 also performed extremely well in the Bebras logic competition, with over half of the class obtaining certificates of merit or above for their performance in the challenge, and 2 students finishing in the top 10% of the country. Daniil attained the top score in the school, edging out his classmate in Year 6 by a couple of points. A big congratulations go out to all the students. Finally, they also completed coding tasks on Code.org as part of the international Hour of Code this week.

Mr Bishop

PE

Continuing the theme of net and barrier games was the key focus during primary PE this week. Years 3 & 5 looked at serving fundamentals when playing tennis and the importance of being able to serve and return effectively. Year 4 & 6 developed their teamwork skills when playing badminton and completed some conditioned doubles games, adding a competitive aspect to the lesson(s).

PE Department

Slovene

The year 2021 will be over soon, so Years 5 and 6 decided to create Christmas cards for students from one of the local Slovene schools. They really enjoyed their Zoom session with them last time, as it was a wonderful experience to improve Slovene and English language skills through conversation.

We are still keeping in touch, so students decided to improve their Slovene and English writing skills, express their creativity on paper and send it to each other. Of course, they included a few phrases in their mother tongue while they arranged a text in both languages and drawings. Christmas cards with a few snowflakes are ready to be sent out.

We can't wait to get several Christmas cards back from our new friends as well!

Odlično 5. in 6. razred. Ostanite še naprej tako kreativni in entuziastični!

Ms Košec

Slovene Advanced

Year 5 and 6 students in Slovene Advanced lessons are finishing this block with an interesting topic about Slovene customs and habits. All students successfully presented a custom they had chosen, and their oral presentations were truly amazing and instructive. The students also solved some more grammar tasks on this topic. Of course, there were also fun quizzes.

Ms Drofenik

Student Council

This week, Primary Student Council Representatives received their badges.

They proudly wear their badges on their uniforms, taking on their responsibility as Student Council members.

Ms Miklavec

MEPI News

On Monday this week, we were developing new skills which we will need for our expedition, as we do every week.

This time we were introduced more to the equipment we need for cooking, and also cooking itself! Mostly we were made aware of the hazards we have to look out for. We were talked through the equipment and what it does, as well as how to use it. Then we had a go ourselves to see how well we could do it. We were split into two groups.

One of the groups made Carbonara (pasta) and the other group made soup out of mushrooms. It was more like prepared food because it only took a few minutes. (This was provided by the school.)

I think everyone got the general idea of how to use it. (Of course, we had some difficulties, but otherwise, I think it went pretty smoothly.) In the end, we could try what we made, and the teachers joined in too. (To approve of our cooking skills.) Overall, just another great and useful experience!

Zoja, MEPI Participant

Year 7-10 Art Exhibition

Our Year 7-10 Art Exhibition is now open for viewing!

If you haven't already done so, click on the link below to take a walk around our virtual exhibition to look at some of the excellent art work produced this term from Y7-Y10. Be sure to look outside in the garden too!

Take me to the exhibition

Ms Hawkins

Secondary Art Teacher

BISL Make a Wish Holiday Project

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

In partnership with Zveza prijateljev mladine Ljubljana Moste-Polje, 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.

For more information please click here.

Teacher Feature

This week's Teacher Feature takes us inside the Science team, for an interview with Mr MacNeill!

Read Mr MacNeill’s Teacher Feature here.

Fun in the Snow at BISL

Our students across the school have taken advantage of the wonderful weather this week - take a look at all the fun had in the snow here.

Newspaper Club

The Newspaper Club has been learning about famous artists and we have some information pieces, pictures and puzzles to share with you. It has been a great block in the Newspaper club focusing on artists. We look forward to sharing our work from the Newspaper club in the newsletter next term.

Ms Harris

Dear Parents,

The snow has arrived!

We have had a wonderful time this week - the students have really enjoyed playing in the snow and we encourage everyone to get outside as much as possible to take advantage of the fresh air and beautiful conditions. I arrived at 5.40am yesterday morning and the snow looked amazing. Please check out the images below to see how wonderful the school grounds look and how much fun our students have been having these past 48 hours! Slovenia is truly a wonderful place to enjoy this winter season.

We are delighted to have been awarded the BELL Foundation Accreditation. This is an award for the provision of English and EAL (English as an Additional Language) across the school and we are delighted with being the first international school to achieve this. All schools in the Orbital Education group and many across the world are going for this award to gain recognition for their EAL provision, to follow a framework to improve what they offer and to have a worldwide benchmark. A special thank you to Mr. Siter who has organised this accreditation and also to all staff at school for their support towards developing the English level of all BISL students each and every day. We will receive the full report, award and certificate in the next 4-5 weeks. A great way to finish the year!

Thank you to all families who have donated to the BISL Make a Wish Holiday project. This has been a very worthwhile initiative and a great reminder to everyone to show how fortunate we are every single day. Reading the letters from the children has been very touching, and in some cases heartbreaking. It fills me with immense pride to see how our families rally together with a strong sense of kindness, to think of others first at this very important time of year for many children who have very little. The way in which our families have approached this has been incredible and we have a very thoughtful and caring community. Thank you.

I hope that everyone can enjoy a balance this weekend between being outside with friends and family enjoying the snow and also being inside, warm beside the fireplace!

A 'heads up', the BISL Christmas song with staff and students is coming soon...

Please read my full Update from the Principal here.

Kind regards,

Paul Walton

Principal

All upcoming events and details are available on our website.