Secondary News - May 19 2021

Block 6 Week 6

The final week of the block saw some wonderful, albeit carefully planned, events take place. The Science team finished the block with some experiments during break time led by Ms Tušar and Mr Ogrin. The students always enjoy getting involved with the practical element of Science and seeing it in action. Thank you to the Science team for these.

This week the community also celebrated International Week. With over 40 cultures represented here at school, students waved their flags proudly throughout the Opening Ceremony. During lessons, students completed activities related to the international theme, as well as finishing the week with stalls and activities hosted by the PTA. A big thank you to the PTA for their support in organising this event for the school. It was wonderful to be able to host an event safely again.

This week saw the Year 11, 12 and 13 students complete their final round of examinations. Any further have been scheduled for completion next week. This last opportunity with assessments is to ensure that all students have been able to present their best work. We wish all students luck, and congratulations for these cohorts. Thank you to all the teachers and especially Mr Batson for supporting our students throughout this most critical time.

The MEPI students went on an expedition up to Šmarna Gora last weekend, having carefully mapped out their journey prior. Ms Tušar and accompanying staff were able to enjoy the sunshine and see the MEPI students successfully follow their chosen route. Additionally, a small group went on another MEPI initiative on Friday assisting in cleaning up Tivoli Park. Well done to all staff and students involved in MEPI this week.

It certainly has been a big Block 6, as we carefully continue to navigate the pandemic, whilst trying to host small events and provide further opportunities for students. This is all one step to moving closer to normality. With the weather warming up, it is certainly great to be able to enjoy these projects more and more.

I wish everyone a safe and productive block break!

Stephanie Andronikos

To kick start our international week, on Tuesday students took part in a cross school flag parade outside. All the flags were hand made by the students, with every student's nationality being represented. This was a wonderful opportunity for students to showcase their home countries flags and national costume.

To read more about the opening ceremony click here, the link also has a link to watch the recording of the whole ceremony.

Take a look here for more photos from our International Fair!

Friday 14th May saw the last of the final examinations being written by our Year 11, 12 and 13 examination cohort. It has been a long and well-planned process that started in January 2021 with Mock Examinations. Since then our students have completed Further Assessments in February and Final Assessments in May. These assessments have rigorously tested our students on the entire content of their IGCSE, AS or A2 level course.

Now with the three pieces of evidence of substantial assessments, marked and graded by our teachers, moderated by teachers within our school and also by teachers in other Orbital schools around the world to ensure integrity and validity of the results, we are in a position to submit the all important school-assessed grades to the examination boards CAIE and AQA on behalf of our students.

We are now looking forward to some excellent results once again. I would like to express my gratitude to the teachers who created and marked the assessments, the invigilators who ensured that there was a calm and peaceful environment in the examination rooms while the students were completing their assessments under strict invigilated conditions and the students who cooperated with the invigilators, followed the key instructions given to them to ensure that all standards and regulations were upheld throughout the entire process. Each year Cambridge have their own internal checking process and we adhere to their strict regulations. Our processes from June 2020 examination series have been referred to as 'best practice' and have been shared across the Orbital group.

The students final results will be released on the 10th August at 6:00am CET. We very much look forward to them. Well done to all our students.

Mr Batson, Examinations Officer

This week around BISL, to celebrate international week, we organised a whole-school flag scavenger hunt. The flags were not just representing countries, but also of people/ethnic groups such as Aboriginal Australians and Roma. Multiple year groups took part from Year 3 to Year 10, with the challenge being to find a special fact about the people the flag represents. This was especially challenging, and people had to work together to solve the puzzle in under 40 minutes.

Well done to all students who took part and completed the hunt, especially those who went away to research facts about the flags. Did you know both the Isle of Man and Sicily have the ancient symbol, triskelions on their flag?

Year 7: Year 7 have nearly reached the end of the book “Stone Cold” they have been reading throughout the year. The final confrontation is about to take place between our heroes and the evil villain ‘Shelter.’ In addition they took both their PTE exams as well as their Term 3 English assessment so they will certainly enjoy their well earned break next week.

Year 8: As well as taking their PTE exams this week Year 8 looked at a poem from the Native American Navajo Tribe in the form of “House made of Dawn.”

Year 9: Class 9b have continued with Macbeth this week, and read up to act 4, scene 1. Students used props to act out the scene. It is important to bring fun and life to Shakespeare.

To finish off the week students played a kahoot quiz on Macbeth with Aleks and Ema tying in first place, a huge well done to them both, and I was impressed with their knowledge, and their analysis. We look forward to finishing the book next block.

Year 10: This week Year 10 have started learning how to write an interview for IGCSE Language Paper 1. Students practised interviewing each other informally such as interviewing a relative for a school project or a friend, and formally such as interviewing a prime minister or someone for the news. Students transcribed their interviews, and then critiqued it and added stage directions in. It is important for interview writing to read naturally, as it would be spoken.

Year 11: A huge well done to Year 11 who have sat their final English Language and Literature assessments this week. We want to congratulate all our students for working so hard, attending so many revision sessions and emailing us practise answers.

Book of the Week: They Both Die At the End, by Adam Silvera

The title might tell readers what to expect, but there's a heartbreaking, heartwarming journey before the emotional end that will inspire teens to live bigger and better.

Ms. O’Regan, Mr. Kirwan and Mr. Eve - English Department

Year 7 and 8 students have been describing journeys and presenting them as distance-time graphs, as well as learning about other graphs that arise in real-life problems. They investigated different exchange rates between currencies of their choice and formed questions for their peers to solve.

Year 9 learnt how to calculate a missing side in a right-angle triangle by using the Pythagoras' theorem. They worked in groups and applied the theorem to real-life problems.

Year 10 listed outcomes of more than two events in tree diagrams and estimated the probability of simple events.

The answers for the last Maths question of the week is: 4.

Thank you for all submitted answers and congratulations to Mei from 7A who guessed correctly and received 5 house points. Well done!

Maths question of this week is:

In a tournament FC Barcelona scored three goals and conceded one goal. The team won once, lost once and drew once in the tournament. What was the score in the game that FC Barcelona won?

Students who solve the questions send the answer to my email by Wednesday 26th May. Good luck!

Ms Zupanc, Mathematics Department

To finish off the Science Block, we did some fun Science demonstrations during break time with our students.

Our Year 10 have just finished the marketing mix, and will move onto marketing strategies after the break.

A huge well done to AS and A2 Business and Economics classes for finishing their final exams. I am proud of you all.

Mr Dalton, Business & Economics Teacher

Year 9B focused on creating poems last Friday. One of our students who loves writing poetry, wrote both poems in English and shared them with the Slovene class. The students were keen to translate and write down the poems in their own way. They even focused on the design of the poem. Although it was quite challenging, they wrote two wonderful poems (Vprašaj se and Alice) which can be found displayed in our classroom.

Brilliant Year 9B!

Ms Košec, Slovene Teacher

Before the block break, Year 8 students had a verbal assessment as a part of their final grade in the next block. They have been working in pairs to present their first own interview. Preparing for an interview may seem easy, but it takes a lot of time and preparation. The students especially excelled themselves in creativity and confidence. Odlično!

Ms Drofenik, Slovene Teacher

This week in PE, secondary students were introduced to an endurance fitness test called the beep test. This exercise test measures pacing strategies, cardiovascular endurance and the speed in which a student is able to recover from an explosive output. It is an internationally standardized test most professional/ Olympic sports will use in testing at some point in an athletes career. Our students had fantastic results and now have a measurement they can use at home to help set personal fitness, endurance, and wellness goals. The PE department would also like to continue to invite students to sign up for after-school activities relating to health and well-being. This week in Multi-sport, tennis practice was introduced. Other secondary after-school PE-related clubs include the running club and basketball club.

Ms Fairchild-Gojkovič, PE Teacher

Year 7 and Year 8 have been working hard on their computer game music projects and have developed skills in composition and technology.

Year 9 have been continuing to work on their band project, performances due after the block break.

Following our recent MEPI Expedition to Šmarna Gora our MEPI participants share the following report.

Sunday was a beautifully sunny day, and it started really well with good organisation and a well-planned route card. It was very quite an adventure due to the many beautiful views which also left us with a wonderful feeling of relaxation. We found our pace to be perfect. The actual time taken for our hike was the exact same timing that we had estimated. Even better, was the opportunity to practice looking at bearings and how to properly orientate the map. The teamwork is starting to come together, and we look forward to further bonding as a team. Overall, it was a very good experience, with great weather!

Mr Irving, MEPI Coordinator

To register for our Enrichment Days, taking place on consecutive Saturdays, 12th and 19th June, please complete the sign-up form here.

These will include a range of supervised activities for our students to have further opportunities to enjoy learning and having fun together.

With the summer holidays just around the corner, find out how your child can join this two-week summer adventure with the British International School of Ljubljana - details here.

To make up for some of the lost face-to-face interactions with friends due to the period of remote learning, we are happy to be able to offer 5 Days of Free Summer School for BISL students in the first week of the summer, starting Monday 5th July.

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

• 29.04.2021 - Katherine Blundell
• 15.04.2021 - Mr Brad Eve
• 25.03.2021 - Mr Dominic Hulse
• 10.03.2021 - Ms Emina Begić
• 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
• 06.10.2020 - Mr Jason Batson

Due to the rainy weather, the PTA have rescheduled the second Uniform Sale to Tuesday May 25, from 2pm-3:30pm, to give you an opportunity to purchase gently used items of uniform. Don’t miss out! Look out for their tables by the Early Years entrance.

Dear Parents,

It has been an absolutely amazing week to finish another successful block, with our International Days starting with our colourful Opening Ceremony on Tuesday, and culminating in our fantastic International Fair today.

Please read my full Update from the Principal for details and thank-yous, an update on our summer examinations, and more information on what’s coming up in the next block.

I hope you have a restful and relaxing block break, and look forward to seeing you on Monday 24th May for our first day back for Block 7.

Kind regards,

Paul Walton

Principal