Secondary News - Nov 26 2021

Block 3 Week 2

This week the health and safety of all students continued to be paramount in Secondary, as self-testing procedures continued. This is now conducted in Form time under the guidance of the tutors, who are directed by the school nurse. This also ensures that self-testing does not impact classes in any way. Thank you to all parents for your support in ensuring that students are equipped with their tests every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. We continue to stay in touch with the Ministry and follow the guidance as it is released.

Secondary students have been extremely busy completing assessments in many of their subjects this week, as all cohorts continue to demonstrate their learning from this Term. Ensuring that students have a routine of study and are fully prepared for these assessments are important skills to acquire throughout KS3 to then apply in KS4 and 5. Goodluck to students who have any remaining assessments this block.

The Sixth Form Information evening was hosted this week for KS4 students and parents. Thank you to Mr Batson for organising this presentation, and I truly hope that families have found it to be useful and informative. Options evenings will be arranged in the next term from both IGCSE and A Level students for the next academic year.

Parent, Teacher and Student interviews are now officially open for parents to book. These will be hosted online via thehttps://bisl.schoolcloud.co.uk/ website. I encourage all families, with their children, to attend these meetings, in order to speak with teachers and discuss the progress of students.

Please ensure that you book by Sunday 5^th December, 16:00pm. Should you have any concerns around bookings, please email reception@britishschool.si.

As always, please ensure that you read the latest Update from the Principal, and I wish you a lovely weekend.

Stephanie Andronikos

Head of Secondary

Sixth Form News:

Statistics and Psychology classes are well underway on the top floor of our new building. We have been having lessons in one of the three spacious rooms on the top floor, equipped with a projector, two notices boards and four white boards, which come in very handy when teaching Mathematics. It is wonderful to teach the Statistics class in that room, as Statistics is the only class in secondary which combines two year groups, year 12 and 13. A total of 12 out of 18 Sixth Formers study Statistics and I am even lucky enough to have siblings in my class. The top floor is also a great place to present certificates and so I was very happy to present our GCSE Art and Music students with certificates for their outstanding results.

Mr Batson

Head of Sixth Form

Maths News:

Congratulations to our Year 12 and 13 students who all gained certificates in the recent United Kingdom Mathematics Challenge Senior Mathematics Competition. The international competition was extremely challenging and contained questions that required the students to apply their knowledge in a variety of ways and to use logical and problem solving techniques. Congratulations to our students and I am sure we will see more successes with all the competitions we have planned on the horizon.

Secondary students sat in their Term 1 assessments this week. They were prepared, ready to demonstrate their knowledge and receive feedback. Year 11 students already set their personalised target areas based on their feedback and created an action plan to address them before the Mock examinations in January.
Key Stage 3 students also investigated and compared different methods of solving linear equations, and Year 10 students were manipulating algebraic expressions. By their choice, they worked collaboratively, using mini white boards to aid their learning.
Year 11 students applied the concept of speed to travel graphs and learnt about speed-time graphs and acceleration. They were confident in their skills, as they solved exam-style questions effortlessly.
Year 12 students solved trigonometric equations using two different methods, the unit circle and the graph method.

Maths mistake of the week:

Thank you for all submitted answers, including Valentin from 8B who got 6 House points.
Do not forget to check out new mistakes on Monday in front of room 316.

Ms Zupanc
Mathematics Teacher

PE News:

Students across secondary PE classes were assessed on both their overall fitness level and their sports knowledge this week. All students completed a 15 minute fitness-circuit assessment, focusing on completing a range of movements required when playing net and barrier games. Students were also assessed through answering a range of sport knowledge questions, focusing on the physiological, psychological and theoretical aspects of Physical Education.

Mr Hayes
PE Department

Science News:

Our secondary students used microscopes in Year 10 Biology class to look at microorganisms in standing waters.

In Science, Year 7 Students investigated the conductivity of different metals / alloys.

Ms Tušar

Science Department

English News:

Year 7: Have made “missing persons” posters based on the novel “Stone Cold”, and they have also created police interviews of the evil Shelter. They are all incredibly invested in whether Shelter will face justice!

Year 8: In Year 8's Tuesday lesson (on Zoom) students performed their fantastic radio plays based on key moments from chapter 4 of “Private Peaceful.” They then wrote some brilliant letters to Charlie from Tommo's perspective and considered whether Tommo had any right to be angry about his brother's relationship with Molly (the class decided he doesn't).

Year 9: Year 9 continued to explore the key themes and context surrounding 'Animal Farm'. They worked collaboratively to produce a diagram of the current hierarchy on the farm and then justified their ideas through discussion.

They also carried out some independent research into the life of George Orwell to start making connections between the author's beliefs in life and the message of his writings.

Year 10: Year 10 have just finished writing insightful summaries of the first act of “Crumbs from the Table of Joy.” They have also started to look at the hopes, dreams, and aspirations of the characters, and the sad fact that they seem to be unable to achieve them.

Year 11: Year 11 produced some brilliant monologues applying their learning about Pontius Pilate and poppets in relationship to The Crucible. The sad monologues from the perspective of poppets were particularly enjoyable.

Year 12: Year 12 have continued study of “Petals of Blood” by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o and focussed this week on the legacies of British colonialism, the slave trade in East Africa, the Mau Mau uprising and the developments of characters on the journey to Nairobi.

Mr Fordham, Mr. Wilkins, Mr. Staines, Mr Siter and Mr. Eve

English Department

MFL News

Slovene beginners

Year 9 started one of their lessons with a memory game. They have been learning about medications and other important medical equipment we need sometimes (sirup, tablete, kapljice za oči, pršilo za nos, povoj, obliž, krema ...). They even discussed the purpose of different medications we use when we really need to. Then they were ready to write the words down as a mind map and find a few more medications.

Stay curious and engaged Y9!

Slovene Advanced

Year 10 and 11 students at Slovene Advanced lessons have been discussing advertising this week. They watched various TV commercials and talked about types of advertising. Students also had to complete a task and answer questions based on an advertisement they had seen and / or read. These were not only educational, but also fun lessons.

Ms Drofenik, Ms Kosec , Ms Tatil

MFL Department

MEPI News:

This week we learnt some very valuable lessons. We took a lot of time reflecting on our experiences of the hike on Šmarna Gora. It went pretty well for both groups. (As for a time we split into two.) One group took a wrong turn, but yet they still did a very good job of finding their way back on the right route. (Which is much harder in my opinion, when you get lost or have gone the wrong direction.) As well as this we had to write dares for each other in order to get to know each other a little better, BUT (unbeknown to us) the person who proposed the dare was actually the person who had to perform the dare! Which I think gives a healthier perspective of trying to ask of others only what you would be prepared to do yourself.

Zoja, MEPI Participant

BISL Make a Wish Holiday Project

In partnership with Zveza prijateljev mladine Ljubljana Moste-Polje, we are delighted to be continuing to support this special holiday initiative with the help of our generous community.

Through this holiday project, children from socially disadvantaged backgrounds write a letter with their holiday wish, and in order for every child to get exactly what they wanted, the gifting is done in such a way that, in cooperation with the ZPM Ljubljana Moste-Polje, we distribute these letters from the children across our community.

This year we have distributed 150 letters among our community, and would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for your generosity and compassion towards this worthwhile cause.

The due date for present delivery to BISL is the Monday 13th of December 2021.

For more information please click here.

If you are unable to fulfil your gift for any reason, please let your Class Parent Representative or Form Tutor as soon as possible, so that we can re-distribute the letter.

Book and Barter - The Book Exchange:

Do you happen to have any books at home, which you don't read anymore, enjoy or are taking up a lot of space in your home?

This is your chance to not only replace some of those old books with new ones from your classmates, but also expand the collection of books within our school library by giving back to the community.

On December 3rd, Book and Barter - A book exchange and donation event initiated by the MEPI programme and led by Taja and Chloe from Sixth Form - will be taking place and open for students to pick up new books and enrich their knowledge on new topics, by exchanging and/or donating books

You’ll find more information and details here.

Taja & Chloe, Sixth Form

Dear Parents,

I have emailed out all parents this morning to thank you for your help and support throughout this week, it has been incredible. Thank you. Our Sixth Form students have distributed a quick survey and collected the results to check how everyone has felt after the self-testing. Thank you to Mr. Batson and the Sixth Form students for doing this.

For the first week back, we participated in the global Anti-Bullying Awareness Week culminating in Odd Socks Day today, we held the IGCSE Information Evening and started celebrating 'Creative and Performing Arts' as our theme for this block.

We have an exciting month ahead with both Art and Coding competitions, our Book and Barter event, Christmas activities and much more!

Please check the FAQs in my full Update here for questions that you may have, as well as your email on a regular basis to ensure that you are receiving all of the necessary communication. Thank you to parents for raising questions, we have added them to the FAQs and now have a comprehensive list of areas queried and answered, which really helps.

Finally, we look forward to putting up our Christmas decorations soon and really appreciate the help from parents with this annual tradition as we decorate the school to add excitement and festive cheer to our classrooms and corridors. Similar to the amazing Halloween decorations we had, the whole school becomes filled with wonder and our students thoroughly enjoy the atmosphere!

Please read my full Update from the Principal here.

I hope you have a relaxing weekend.

Kind regards,

Paul Walton

Principal

All upcoming events and details are available on our website.