Primary News - February 22 2021

All Primary classes returning on site is definitely the highlight of this first-week ABC after the break. Speaking with students on how they felt about coming back to school, there have been many positive comments. These have included everything from the opportunity to see friends again and having a teacher there to support, to being able to go on a swing outside. Whatever the reasons, the benefits and the effects on the student wellbeing are very evident in the relaxed and positive learning atmosphere.

On Tuesday 16th February, students and staff dressed in their favourite costumes for the Pust celebration. With so many different and innovative costume ideas, the Student Council and Prefects had quite a difficult job in selecting the best for the competition. Well done to all the winners and to everyone for taking part! A special thanks to the PTA for bringing us doughnuts to enjoy.

The attendance this week has increased to an excellent 87% across the school. This will continue to increase as more families return after a long distance learning period. We will continue to talk to students about health and safety and to practice certain routines to help with settling back into school life again. Please continue to talk about safety at home and follow the updates on the school website.

I wish everyone a lovely weekend ahead,

Katarina Železinger

Head of Primary

Early Years

In Early Years this week the children celebrated Pust, they dressed up and made decorations with Elena!

As we introduced our topic ‘Shopping’ the children have used their mathematical skills to count objects to put in the correct bags, the children have enjoyed learning about different types of shops such as bakeries and groceries.

Ms Rosa

Year 1

This week in Maths we looked at division through fractions of half and quarter shapes, and numbers.

Not forgetting Pust! There were some fabulous costumes in Year 1!

And have you seen our Dragon Tale video?

Ms Blundell

Year 2

Year 2 has had a very busy week back at school. In Literacy, we have been practising our comprehension skills and have really enjoyed our special reading time.

In Maths this week we have started our new data unit, we have created a range of graphs and have been learning how to read the data.

We have had so much fun! In Year 2, we have loved being back at school after the block break, especially as we were able to celebrate PUST on Tuesday! We had such a great day!

Ms Harris & Ms Miller

Year 3

This week in Year 3, the students were working on creating their own puppet show based on Aesop's fable 'The Lion and the Mouse'. The students were busy rehearsing their lines and also making their own paper puppets for the play and are all excited to record their performance for the whole school to see.

As it was Pust this week, the students dressed up in some amazing costumes. We had everything from spacemen to Harry Potter characters, and knights and police officers. A big well done to all the students for the amazing effort made in putting together their costumes.

The students also celebrated the day by playing games, eating Krof doughnuts, and even wrote some shape poems about these favourites of sweet treats.

Thanks again to all involved in making it such a special day and indeed a great week too.

Mr Mulcahy

Year 4

The Year 4 students came in with amazing Pust costumes this week, and I was really impressed by the amount of work some students and families had put into their home-made costumes. We all had our fair share of doughnuts on the day, thanks to the PTA and the catering company (I had to take an extra run this week to avoid looking like one).

Students have been studying properties of shape in maths this week, drawing circles and polygons. In our art class, we studied cubism which was an ideal way to practise what they had been learning in class. Students photographed their houses and their neighbours and created a cubism artwork of their own. In English, we are resuming our poetry unit and in Topic, we are donning our geography hats and learning about a variety of natural disasters.

Mr Bishop

Year 5A

What an amazing week!! It was lovely to have the students back this week in school after a long period away. I could see the excitement on everyone's face as they entered the classroom on Monday morning.

In Maths, the students excelled in revising our Maths topic "measurement and data". Students became the teachers while helping their teams complete all the questions. It was lovely to see the children interacting as if they had never been away.

Mr Walker

Year 5B

Year 5 back in the building!

It's great to be back in school together. As well as working hard, we've been enjoying each other's company, playing together and enjoying the sunshine.

Mrs Charlesworth

Year 6

To celebrate our new topic, the students worked together to create a class graffiti gallery. Sometimes graffiti is associated with unwanted markings, however just as you can find designated graffiti sites all over the world, the classroom display became the designated graffiti area in Year 6.

The students selected their favourite word and then, using a range of different materials, created an individual piece of graffiti art. Lastly, the students answered prompt questions to create an exhibit tag - label for their art piece.

Mr Kokalj

PE News

The PE Department welcomed back students after their well-deserved break. Block 5 for primary students is volleyball as the block sport, and they will also be focusing on fitness, wellbeing skills and challenges.

Students will be challenged with some different workouts and styles of training, balance and coordination skills, which will all link to volleyball precision and volleyball-specific skills. Students are using the assembly hall for PE currently which accommodates them comfortably, class by class.

The PE Department is very excited to have all primary students back in the school, so we can do PE in person. It was great to see all students back!

PE Department

Slovene News

Yuppiii, Years 5 and 6 are back in the building! It was an interesting week, full of new memories we created together.

Students have focused on the Slovene Quiz which took place this week. They have put lots of effort into it and I bet the results will be great!

Well done everyone!

Ms Košec

Year 2 at Slovene Advanced lessons have been practising their writing skills. They had to write down certain words based on pictures.

Students are making such wonderful progress. Great job!

Ms Drofenik

Pust Gallery

A full collection of photos from our Pust Celebrations can be found here.

Primary School Spelling Bee

Have you got what it takes to buzz your way to the BISL spelling bee? All you need to do is follow the pollen trail that we will leave behind in the newsletters and in the building to get you ready. Make sure you practice each of the spelling lists that you receive each week from your teachers so that you can do your best and make it to the final round in week 6.

Mrs Charlesworth

After School Provision reminder

Supervision after school until 15:40 continues to be open for EY and Y1 students.

No other activities are currently running. This will be reviewed on a weekly basis.

Parent Survey Results 2020

We are delighted to share with you the results from our 2020 Parent Survey and would like to take this opportunity to thank you once again for taking the time to share your opinions and feedback with us, it is very much appreciated, valued and useful for us as a school. Don’t forget to join our next Coffee with the Principal, where Mr Walton will talk through the main areas of the findings and discuss these further with you in more detail.

Teacher Feature

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

• 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
• 6.10.2020 - Mr Jason Batson

Dear Parents,

It has been amazing this week to welcome so many of our students back into the building to see their teachers and each other after this online learning period. From the moment they arrived in the morning, the joy, excitement and energy from the students has been incredible and a delight to hear echoing through the corridors. During this week we have also been fortunate to celebrate Pust together, our students and staff produced a wonderful range of costumes and I would like to thank all parents for your support in this first event back at school. It added a wonderful moment to this busy week for our students.

I would like to also recognise the families supporting the students who are still away on online learning and look forward to more guidance changing over the coming weeks to hopefully enable us to transition the final year groups back into the school building. The attendance this week has been excellent on site and it has been fantastic to see everyone come together during this challenging time. We must continue to balance the safety of our community, following all of the guidelines and health advice while also enjoying this significant step forward in seeing the children together again.

Read my full Update from the Principal here for more details.

Kind regards,

Paul Walton

Principal