Primary News - March 8 2021

Dear Parents and Students,

This week we celebrated World Book Day on Thursday 4th March. Students engaged in a variety of activities suggested by teachers and the student council, including sharing stories, role-playing, making their favourite book characters, and playing quizzes and games.

As part of this Block’s English theme, the Spelling Bee competition is underway for all students and staff to get involved. Putting that extra effort into spelling challenges this week will definitely benefit all. Congratulations also to those that made it to the next round.

A reminder that Specialist Subject reports will be issued Next Friday, 12th March. Parents/Teacher Virtual interviews have been opened for parents to book in Weeks 5 and 6, 15th-26th March, as per guidance sent out. Bookings close on the 14th of March. Please be reminded that these interviews are for Primary Specialist teachers only (French, Slovene Foundation, PE and Performing Arts only). Should you wish for any further teachers, please contact them directly.

As always, safety is our main priority and we urge parents to review the pick-up and drop-off procedures in the section below and check the Update from the Principal. We are delighted to welcome the Y10, Y11 and Y12 students, as they transition back to school.

With the coming up of International Women’s Day on Monday 8th March, I wish all families a lovely weekend.

Kind wishes,

Katarina Železinger

Head of Primary

Early Years

In EY we have been focusing on World Book Day this week. We have been making caterpillars to celebrate The Hungry Caterpillar.

We have continued our exploration of using clay to make storybook representations of characters for our EY garden!

Ms Rosa

Year 1

As part of World Book Day, Year one presented their books to the class. Can you guess what these books are?

In topic year one enjoyed getting messy and painted their ceramic character toys.

Learning about festivals, year one learned about the Welsh celebration of At David's Day and made daffodil flower collages.

Ms Blundell

Year 2

We had a fantastic week in Year 2 with exciting celebrations and lots of hard work. On Monday we celebrated St David's day where we made Daffodils to brighten up our classrooms.

On Thursday we celebrated World Book Day and all things books! In Year 2 we love reading and learning through stories, transporting ourselves to other worlds. This year we brought in props and had a 'guess who' game. We also became illustrators and authors for the day! We had so much fun!

Ms Harris & Ms Miller

Year 3

With World Book Day happening this week, Year 3 celebrated by discussing many of their favourites all-time reads and also designed a recommendation booklet complete with theme tags to help their friends choose which of those books they might like to read too. Some of the books recommended ranged from the evergreen 'Cat in the Hat' to more contemporary gems like 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid', and it was great to see the students showing their enthusiasm and passion for books.

Also, as part of their rainforest theme, the students read the story 'The Great Kapok Tree', by Lyne Cherry and reviewed the story by recreating freeze frame vignettes of various scenes from the book. The students are pictured enjoying their remaking of the story.

Mr Mulcahy

Year 4

Year 4s have been working hard on their natural disaster poster presentations this week.

We have continued to update the natural disasters map also and were awed at how many earthquakes occur on a daily basis and how many active volcanoes are erupting across the globe at present. We also wrapped up our study of shapes and were bamboozled by the variety of conflicting shape names and definitions out there. Trapeziums, trapezoids, parallel vs non-parallel, parallelograms and rhomboids and the fact that squares are rectangles, parallelograms and rectangles all at the same time!

For World Book Day, students brought in a prop related to their favourite characters. they had the opportunity to tell the class why they liked the book so much and gave a quick synopsis of the story.

Mr Bishop

Year 5A

In English this week Y5A have been playing the character of Ria (In our fathers day script). Dropping themselves at the point of the story where Ria and Cameron are arguing they have been drafting a letter to Ria's best friend about the tricky situation she finds herself in. I look forward to hearing the final versions!

Mr Walker

Year 5B

ENGLISH: PLAY SCRIPTS GENRE

Learning Objective: to think more deeply about characters in the script and to record their ideas.

TASK : Turn to your partner (TTYP) and together complete at least one other role on the wall together, for Steve, Ria or Cameron.

Discuss similarities and differences between the finished bodies on the wall for the different characters.

Mrs Charlesworth

Year 6

This week the Year 6 students were busy planning their End of unit writeup.

They worked in pairs using dramatic reconstructions, to tease out meaningful phrases they can use to describe the setting and detail emotions of their character.

Mr Kokalj

PE News

This week in PE, primary students were challenged with locomotor skills and student-led exercise warm-up, where students had to show and perform various exercises in front of the class and the rest were following their lead. Students also learned the difference between static and dynamic warm-up routines. After the warm-up, the next activity was to perform various coordination and balance drills on the agility ladder (single leg hop, both feet jumping, lateral hopping, jumping jacks, skiers, lateral hand coordination walking). After the agility ladder, the last activity was a circuit based fitness exercise, where they were challenged with bodyweight exercises (squats, pushups, burpees, high knees, plank, wall sits, squat pulses).

Overall, students had a very productive week in PE this week, and all students performed very well with the challenge.

PE Department

Slovene News

Years 3 and 4 have been learning about rooms in the house. First, we drew the house on the whiteboard and put the photos on. Second, students tried to name the various rooms of our house together like kuhinja, podstrešje, dnevna soba, kopalnica, soba, garaža … Finally, we created our house mind maps. They were quite engaged during the lesson.

Can you guess the rooms in the photos in Slovene? Srečno!

Ms Košec

Year 3 and 4 at Slovene Advanced lessons have been discussing the difference between "čestitati" and "voščiti". Their understanding of the difference was excellent. They were very excited when they were able to be creative. Pupils made and wrote their own greeting cards!

Take a look at some of the masterpieces they created!

Ms Drofenik

Performing Arts News

Year 2 have been learning how to play songs on the boom whackers this week, while Year 3 have started to learn the recorders.

Year 1 are doing drama skills and Year 6 are creating their own modern take on Cinderella.

Year 5 and 4 have been working on their music theory and creating music theory kahoots.

Ms Kenealy

MEPI News

We wouldn't be a British school if we didn't discuss the weather from time to time, and even MEPI participants are bound to get dragged into it at some stage! Although, when planning and executing an Adventurous Journey, anticipating the weather can literally be a real life-saver. Participants receive training which should prepare them for practically any weather conditions that they are likely to encounter at each level of challenge. Part of this is knowing what equipment (eg. waterproof clothing) they might require, and how to use it. Being able to source information regarding the weather conditions is another. Old sayings like 'Red sky at night - Shepherds delight!' aren't really sufficient. Internet websites, webcams, weather apps, media, and making local enquiries, are all far more reliable ways to obtain a forecast. Just being observant, watching the sky change colour, noticing slight changes in temperature, and the shape and movement of the clouds, are other useful indicators.

An interesting flow-chart for forecasting the weather can be found here. If anybody would like to test this, then we would love to hear if it worked for you.

Our participants also considered how we should conduct ourselves in a rural setting. Essentially, we should try not to make any negative impact on the countryside, leaving everything exactly as we found it. You might think that you are doing a farmer a favour by closing a gate, but it was most probably left open to allow animals to reach food or water! We would also like to direct you to a copy of the Countryside Code. (It is for the UK, but the sentiment rings true for Slovenia also.)

Mr Irving, MEPI Coordinator

Drop off and Pick up Reminders

• Drop off is from 7.15am and pick up starts at 2.45pm.
• Use the normal drop off zone outside the main entrance.
• Stay in your car as staff will assist to keep this as safe, efficient and quick as possible.
• If collecting students on foot, please use the walkways indicated by the cones.
• Name signs have been distributed for parents to display inside the windscreen to help staff with pick up of students at the end of the day.
• Please avoid parking up and reversing into traffic. The drop off procedure is there for the safety of all students.
• The area directly in front of the main entrance should be kept clear at all times.

New Teaching and Learning Resource for Staff

We are delighted to announce that all staff at BISL will get the provision of a new laptop from school. These high-quality devices have arrived on site, have been set up and now are being rolled out to staff. More information about this exciting initiative can be found here.

Uniform News

We have been working together closely with our uniform supplier, ISU, to provide you with a concrete solution to the challenges we have faced with deliveries from the UK post Brexit. We are delighted to confirm that through careful negotiations, our providers are able to offer a reasonable solution for our families during this time:

1. Until March 31^st, 2021, place your uniform orders online through the ISU webshop using the discount code below, entitling you to 10% off your purchases throughout the month of March.
2. Ensure that your order total does not exceed 150 euros, so that custom duties will not have to be paid upon arrival.
3. Deliveries will be made directly to your preferred address as usual.

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PLACE AN ORDER

PTA News

Our first PTA Meeting has been scheduled for Friday 19th March, online on Zoom until guidance allows us to meet face to face at school.

Details of the meeting are available here - we look forward to seeing you virtually soon.

BISL PTA Committee

Student Council News

Primary Student Council very proudly received their Student Council badges last Friday during their latest meeting. They should be congratulated on taking their roles so seriously.

Spelling Bee

Thank you Primary students for your enthusiasm about the spelling bee! Well done to all those that practised and made extra efforts with this week’s spelling challenge.

Congratulations to those that have made it through from the preliminary round to the final round.

Teacher Feature

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

• 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
• 6.10.2020 - Mr Jason Batson

Red Cross First Aid Course

The much anticipated Red Cross first aid course will be held at the school on Saturday 13th March. It is a six hour course that covers all the basics, plus a few bits that will be useful when hiking and camping (sprains, burns, snake bite...). Our Red Cross medical professional is a native Slovene, but the course will be delivered in English (a rare opportunity in Slovenia!).

A few places are still available on this essential course, so if a parent, student, member of staff, friend, or relative would like to know what to do in a medical emergency, please email Mr Irving to book a place. The course costs €30.50 (invoiced by the school), and participants will receive an official Red Cross certificate.

Dear Parents,

We are delighted to announce that our Year 10 - 12 students will start to return to school from Monday 8th March following the latest guidance.

As always, here at the British International School of Ljubljana, we will begin safely with a staggered start, the details of which are included in the latest Update from the Principal. Please read this carefully.

We are also happy to announce that extended supervision will be available from Monday 8th March as follows:

• Years 2 - 6: until 3:40pm
• Early Years - Year 1: until 4:30pm

We look forward to having all of our students safely back in the building soon.

As always, please read the Update from the Principal for details.

Kind regards,

Paul Walton

Principal

March

April