Secondary News - Sept 8 2021

Block 1 Week 2

This week in Secondary, students have been able to fully get into the routine of school life. Classes have settled into the new year, preparing their resources, organising their schedules, and ensuring that they have all parts of their uniforms sorted.

This week further events for parents and students were held; however, they were hosted in the building for the first time since before the pandemic. It was wonderful to be able to prepare for and host these events face to face. Thank you to Mr Siter and Mr Eve for the Primary and Secondary EAL sessions, as well as Mr Irving and team for the MEPI presentation. We look forward to these programs getting up and running soon.

Additionally, this week, all Year 7, Year 10 and new students to BISL sat the CAT4 tests. This is a Cognitive Ability Test which provides a snapshot of a student’s academic potential at that time. This information will inform teachers and their planning moving forward. Thank you to Ms Begic for coordinating these CAT 4 tests.

Mr Walton had the pleasure of hosting his Coffee Morning in the building this week, which included parents enjoying a tour around the new building. It has been wonderful to see some of the Primary classes starting some reading lessons in the new library, and soon Ms Burtrand is looking forward to having some Secondary lessons in the Technology Hub! These spaces will be a wonderful addition to the BISL community.

Lastly, tomorrow is the first of two Enrichment Saturdays, and it is looking to be the biggest we have ever had! It will focus on PE and the Creative Arts, and the staff have been busy planning in preparation for it. I look forward to seeing students at our Enrichment Day tomorrow - keep an eye out for the photos!

As always, please be sure to read the latest Update from the Principal, and I wish everyone a lovely weekend.

Stephanie Andronikos

Head of Secondary

Mr Graeme Chuter has joined the BISL teaching team as Business and Economics teacher. We warmly welcome him.

PE News

During PE this week, we developed our topic of net and barrier games and looked at the necessary fitness components across a range of sports. All students completed a fitness circuit, focusing on gaining a greater understanding of the movements required when playing net and barrier games.

We also introduced traditional games such as volleyball, badminton and tennis as well as less established sports such as Danish Longball.

Ms Fairchild, PE Department

English News

Year 7: Year 7A have spent this week looking at ghost stories, and creating vivid descriptions. Their descriptions of a picture of the enigmatic Gerald Puckey were particularly amusing to read.

Year 8: You'll be glad to hear Year 8 have begun looking at how to argue and persuade effectively. They started with a mature and sophisticated debate about the death penalty, and are now creating speeches and posters to persuade people of their stance.

Year 9: Year 9 worked on a unit which contained a review of the famous 1960 film “Spartacus”. Then after examining reviews of their own chosen historical films they proceeded to write a proper review of their own. Well done Year 9.

Year 10: Year 10 have started this term looking at non-fiction writing, and they gave a range of superb speeches. It was amazing to see the passion with which the students spoke about a myriad of issues from global warming to gender rights.

Mr. Wilkins, Mr. Staines, Mr Siter and Mr. Eve - English Department

Maths News

In the past week, Year 7 students discovered prime numbers with a little help from the sieve of Eratosthenes.

Year 8 were comparing square roots and cube roots and creating prime factor trees.

Some Year 10 students were tasked to review recent concepts by creating a Kahoot quiz for a lesson starter, while others were tasked to create a vocabulary page.

Year 11 students have shown real dedication to converting recurring decimals to fractions in a game of matching cards, and Year 12 debated which form of a quadratic equation is the easiest to plot the graph from.

Here we have Year 12 working on solving some Quadratic Equations.

Maths mistake of the week:

Well done to the students who identified the mistakes correctly! So many of you have approached me in the corridor, I cannot even list you all, but you all received 2 points per the mistake you showed me.

New mistakes are already published, so do not miss an opportunity to gain 2 House points per mistake. Good luck!

Ms Zupanc, Mathematics Teacher

Slovene Advanced News

It is only our second week back to school and Year 9 students at Slovene Advanced lessons have already been very productive. They have been learning how to describe a person and in this way they got to know Sara Isaković, a former Slovenian swimmer and a winner of the silver medal at the Olympics in 2008. I believe the students will continue to be as enthusiastic as they started!

Ms Drofenik, Slovene Teacher

Slovene as a Second Language News

"Dober jutro, dober dan, zdravo, živijo, nasvidenje, adijo, dober večer ..." Year 7 was revising Slovene greetings through wide range of activities such as memory game, dialogues, ball game ... They wrote some of them on board correctly and won a few house points. Zelo dobro Y7!

Ms Košec, Slovene Teacher

MEPI News

As we come to the end of our second week of the year, it is with great excitement that we enter the weekend knowing that Monday brings the first official MEPI meeting of the new school year. We already have some amazing students continuing the MEPI experience from last year, and new talent already signing up for the year to come. Secondary students (Y9+) should come along to room 310 at 15:00 on Monday to find out more about this special after school programme!

Mr Irving, MEPI Coordinator

After School Activities

After school activities start in week 3 on Mondays Thursdays and Fridays as well as supervision for years 2-6 on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Please see the website here for the full list of activities.

For those who have already signed up to some activities please follow the guidance included in the letter from the lead teacher for that activity.

Ms Kenealy, Head of Performing Arts

Dear Parents,

The new building is in use! - an amazing feeling. As I drove in this morning, I stopped at the barrier, took a picture out of the car window and included it in my Update from the Principal. It was an amazing feeling to see the new building, the illuminated sign and the start of the day. It made me feel very proud of what we have all achieved together and excited for the future.

Thank you to all parents who attended the coffee morning, it was great to see everyone and share with you updates about our school. Details are in my Update from the Principal. The next coffee morning is on Friday 8th October from 7.45am. A great way to meet other families, listen to school updates and I am free to talk to individuals after the event if convenient. As mentioned during the coffee morning, it is a great feeling to finally see everyone again in person!

On Monday 6th September, we start:

1. After school activities, this will add further opportunities for our students to get involved in, have fun and learn new skills in a wide range of clubs at BISL.
2. School trips - Adventure Days, House of Illusions, Science Museum etc.

Please note, we have events on site next week, details are in my Update from the Principal. This will be reviewed weekly.

Finally, thank you to all parents for your positive comments/feedback about teachers at drop off, the coffee morning and also via email. I pass these on to our staff and it makes such a huge difference and is very much appreciated.

Please read my full Update from the Principal for more details and upcoming events.

Have a lovely weekend.

Kind regards,

Paul Walton

Principal

All upcoming events and details are available on our website.