Secondary News - Jan 21 2021

This week began with an assembly on the benefits of learning Languages. Ms Kosec and the MFL team encouraged students to broaden their horizons and embrace the opportunity to improve their language skills at BISL. Our French students in Year 11 have sat their first Mock Exam for IGCSE French and are working hard to improve their language skills as we enter the second half of the academic year.

Year 11 resumed their online lessons after an intense first week of Mock Examinations for all subjects. They are eagerly awaiting their results to know the areas upon which to continue to work. I encourage them to speak to their teachers about these areas to ensure that they know what to do to improve for the next round of Mock Examinations. Years 12 and 13 have also completed their Mock Examinations this week and will be working to do the same. It certainly is a busy time for these students to acquire the last concepts for their courses over the next blocks and continue their revision and preparations.

As we enter the tenth week of online learning, it can be difficult to continue finding the motivation and excitement whilst behind a computer for much of the day. It will never compare to sitting in the classroom and interacting face to face with teachers and peers. It is timely to remind all students and parents to ensure that children maintain a regular routine when working from home. Timetables need to be in a prominent position so that students are not late, regular wake up times, break times and bedtimes should also be maintained. It is imperative that students continue their daily routines to stay organised and across all the work that is due. When in doubt, please do not hesitate to email teachers directly to confirm. I know some students are appreciating the extra guidance and support to maintain these routines. We are all in this together and to continue supporting each other communicate clearly and in a timely manner.

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all students who have prepared and sat examinations throughout the last two weeks. I wish everyone a restful and well-deserved weekend.

Stephanie Andronikos

Head of Secondary

We would like your support in completing our 2020/21 Parent Survey, which has been emailed to all parents this week, and will provide us with important feedback for us to continue to improve your child’s experience at our school.

Thank you in advance for taking the time to complete this survey, it is very much appreciated. The deadline to do so is Friday 29th January.

As week 10 of online learning finishes, we bring you some new snaps of the week. Teachers consistently bring a range of different activities to Zoom lessons such as kahoot quizzes, group tasks and presentations.

Learning how to present and work in groups is an important life skill which we do across the curriculum at BISL, which our students have done a range of this week.

This week in PE, students are continuing to learn about sports education through dynamic teacher-led workouts. Due to online learning, students are examining the relationship between body movements and the fitness components in our circuit workouts and what advantages they would create for players in floorball.

Students have also been proactive in learning about sports education through exploration, research and designed student-led lessons.

This week features the Yellow team as our first guest professors of the Block. Students have been designing and running a lesson involving knowledge for health and wellbeing, the rules and gameplay of floorball, and fitness components related to strength and flexibility needs in floorball.

Weekly Challenges:

Don’t forget to send your videos to the PE department to be featured on our next video compilation.

Click here to watch the challenge

Healthy Recipe: Zucchini Lattice Lasagna

You can see the recipe here! Don’t forget to send the PE department your attempts at this delicious recipe. Let us know if you have any healthy recipes you’d like to be featured.

PE Department

Slovene Advanced

Who doesn't like chocolate! But do you know how chocolate is made? Year 8s in Slovene Advanced lessons are learning about a description of the procedure. It is very important to follow the series of steps in a regular definite order. The students are doing a great job!

Slovene as a Second Language

Year 7 have been discussing their likes and dislikes using the terms Rad/rada and Ne rad/Ne rada or Ne maram. They wrote a few sentences about it. As you imagine, boys like playing games and sports such as football, while our two lovely girls like diverse things from sport to food.

If you ask them about their likes and dislikes, I am pretty sure they will try to answer in Slovene.

Zelo dobro Y7!

Let’s look at our favourite likes or maybe some dislikes in the photo.

French as a Second Language

Y9 is learning what we have to do / can do / want to do: Modal verbs in French: pouvoir, devoir, vouloir. They are learning about jobs and what qualities are needed for specific jobs: professeur, journaliste, diplomat, astronaut, pilote, docteur, homme/femme d'affaire etc.

They will be soon able to tell you about their future jobs!

Year 7 are going to practice a lot of sports in French. As in English, there are sports that you play and you do also in French: Je joue au foot (I play football) / Je fais de la gymnastique (I do gymnastics).

Year 11 had their "reading and listening" Mock in French. They did an excellent job! Félicitations!

Miss Košec, Miss Struna & Miss Drofenik - MFL Department

Over the past week, Key stage 3 students discovered different ways of presenting collected data, as well as learnt about the conversion rates between units of length, area and volume.

Year 10 explored linear, quadratic, and cubic sequences and learnt how to interpret conversion and travel graphs.

Year 11 sat in the Mock exams (well done to all!) and played a round of 'Linear graph Jeopardy' to finish off this week.

Years 12 and 13 also sat in the Mock exams (well done!) and will continue covering the topics listed in the curriculum starting next week.

The answers for the last Maths question of the week are: 15 and 2% - well done to those who answered it!

Thank you for all submitted answers and congratulations to Aleksander from 9B, who guessed correctly and received 5 house points. Well done!

Maths question of this week is:

If a hen and a half lay an egg and a half in a day and a half, how many eggs will half a dozen hens lay in half a dozen days?

Students who solve the question should send their answer to my email by Wednesday 20th January.

Ms Zupanc, Maths Department

English Provision at BISL

All students should have the opportunity to succeed, fulfil their potential and be able to access the curriculum fully. In a school like BISL, with such a culturally rich student body and a naturally high number of students with English as an additional language, the need for ensuring no one is left behind becomes even more vital.

Find out more about the success of our English provision here at BISL.

English Department News

Year 7 Have continued to look at persuasive devices and created wonderful persuasive advertisements and presentations about BISL, and why BISL is the best school in Ljubljana. We couldn’t be prouder of how quickly they’ve grasped so many persuasive devices such as rhetorical questions, alliteration, direct address and so on.

Next week we will go onto persuasive speech/letter writing, and we will explore persuasive speeches by powerful speakers such as Martin Luther King and Greta Thunberg.

Year 9b This week 9b have continued to read and explore Orwell’s Animal Farm; they have looked at the language devices used in Old Major’s speech, and have just finished reading chapter 3. Getting to grips with the notion that all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.

As a class they firmly believe all humans are equal regardless of gender, sexuality or religion. I wonder which students will identify with Snowball?

Year 10 After last week's democratic vote in the class to study Carol Ann Duffy poetry, we jumped straight into analysing the poem War Photographer.

Firstly this week, Year 10s have thoroughly explored the poem, as well as going through the poem as a class students were challenged to find images to match the meaning of each stanza then explain the poem to the class.

Every student has a different learning style so in English we often try to embrace cross-curricular subjects and learning, incorporating art, business and history into our learning.

Year 11 Firstly the English department wants to give a huge congratulations to all the students who sat their mocks this week, and we know they worked tirelessly.

11b this week had a relaxing start to the week with watching the film 1984, to make sure all students remember the context of the book. Before jumping into looking at language paper 1 and writing an interview/reports and summarisation.

At BISL we value giving students the choice, especially after a stressful 2 weeks. On Friday's lesson students got to choose which activity they would like to do, and asked them to consider their weakest area, as each choice was targeted at a different part of the English IGCSE.

Year 12 & 13 have been sitting mock examinations this week, and we want to say a huge well done to all students this week for attending and working so hard.

We look forward to sharing the results with you soon, and working forward to the real exam to ensure everyone gets the grade they deserve.

Next week in year 13 literature, students will go on to study King Lear by Shakespeare, we are very excited to be starting our final book for this course!

Other English News

We continue to wish Mr Eve well who is recovering well at home. Mr Siter who has jumped into Mr Eve’s role temporarily has thoroughly enjoyed his first two weeks teaching year 7 and 8 so far and is very impressed with the students ability all round.

Poetry Competition

The Never such innocence poetry competition is now open, any students who are interested in entering should speak to their English teacher for guidance.

English Riddle of the week

I sound so cool and people all over the world come again and again to see me. Most people spend years with me but you can’t be too old or young to come see me, unless you decide to make me part of your career? I am able to make you smarter and wealthier too. What am I?

All correct answers sent to Ms O’Regan will receive a house point! Please send in your answers by Wednesday 20th.

Miss O’Regan, Mr Kirwan, Mr Siter and Mr Eve, English Department

Year 10: Year 10 are currently developing their knowledge on recruitment, which included making their own practice CV. They got to unleash their creative side in making up jobs they might have had such as working in a cafe over summer.

They have written job descriptions and person specifications for a scenario where BISL would be offering a new subject, see one below.

A huge well done to Year 12 and 13 completing their mocks this week, I know we are going to have some top grades being announced next week - stay tuned for our results!

Mr Dalton - Business and Economics teacher

Physics

A huge well done to the Year 10 cohort on their last physics assessment; Chapter 4 - Work, energy, and power. The overall average was 73%, which is two percentage points below an A! Also, not a single student failed it, so incredible results.

Biology

Some great enthusiasm shown (still) from the Year 10 Biology group. Here they are working through the topic of blood in the human circulation unit.

In music, Year 9 and 8 have been finding out about world music and researching covers from around the world.

Year 7 has been finding out about different music careers and will present their findings to the rest of the class next week.

Mrs Kenealy and Mr Hulse - Performing arts department

It has been great to witness our MEPI participants springing straight back into action after the break. It was also very gratifying to see all of the 'regulars' turn up and bring their respect, empathy, and excellence with them, as they take on the MEPI challenge.

Even though the 'challenge' seems more pronounced during these times, our participants have persisted with their activities, and new activities have been arranged for the Physical and Volunteering sections, only this week!

We look forward to our participants setting goals in horse riding, and also embracing the opportunity to work with younger equestrians as they hone their more basic skills in the near future. Our Zoom session wasn't all talk and admin though. Participants were invited to use the 'chat' option, and nominate (dare) another to perform something for us all. Once the 'dares' were all collected, the participants were then informed that THEY were to perform the dare that they intended for someone else!

Everyone was brave enough to complete their dare, and so (as well as some slightly embarrassed looks) we were rewarded with song, dance, and low-level acrobatics. The moral of this story (and a valuable lesson in teamwork) is 'don't expect your team-mate to do something that you wouldn't be prepared to do yourself!'

Mr Irving, MEPI Coordinator

Following on from the success of their recent "How Physically Active Are You" article, Kevin and Julia from Year 10 bring us another fun article as part of a Global Perspectives project they've been working on:

The importance of physical activity presented in an entertaining way.

For our first Teacher Feature of the New Year, we bring you a delightful interview with our beloved Year 5 Teacher, Mrs Charlesworth.

Read Mrs Charlesworth’s Teacher Feature here.

At the British International School of Ljubljana, we celebrate excellence on a regular basis. When students complete their academic journey at our school, we always make sure that they have the opportunities to leave us with strong values, outstanding academic results and high-quality learning experiences.

Read more about our graduates and their successes at university entry here.

Dear Parents,

Thank you for your ongoing support and encouragement, it means a lot to the staff and I am personally very grateful for this.

It has been an exciting week as we see the work produced by students, activities they have been involved in and planning ahead for events during this term. We hope that many of these can be on site but also have to consider how we continue to deliver information, discussions and further personalised support through online video and presentations. Your continued cooperation with this is very much a strength of our community - thank you.

Please read my full Update from the Principal here.

Kind regards,

Paul Walton

Principal