Secondary News - Dec 3 2021

Block 3 Week 3

It is beginning to feel a lot like Christmas at BISL with our parent volunteers having done a wonderful job of decorating the building. A big thank you to them for making the building feel so festive, ready for a special visitor this week. On Wednesday Santa came into BISL visiting all the students across the school. Also, on the day the students enjoyed dressing down in their Christmas colours and jumpers, with everyone getting involved to celebrate together. The feeling in the building was so joyful and we look forward to the next dress down day of the same festive theme on the last day of the term.

On Friday this week, Sixth Form students Taja and Chloe hosted a very successful ‘Book and Barter’ event, which saw students donating books to the school library and potentially swapping them for new ones. It was great to see how the community got involved and supported the event. Thank you to Taja and Chloe for organising, and to Ms Tušar for facilitating students.

Parent, Teacher, Student interviews start next week via the site:https://bisl.schoolcloud.co.uk/. Please ensure that you book to see teachers before they close at 4pm Sunday. It is a wonderful way to be able to check in with teachers and discuss the progress of all students.

Currently, Year 11 to 13 students are preparing for Mock exams in Week 2 of next block. At that time, students will come off their regular timetable to experience examinations as they would in May on a smaller scale. This is an important part of the process for students to experience and they are encouraged to ensure that they have a study schedule organised from now until Mocks.

I wish everyone a wonderful weekend, and please ensure that you have read the latest Principal’s Update.

Stephanie Andronikos

Head of Secondary

Maths News:

Key Stage 3 students shared various methods to solve linear equations. Year 7 students were solving one and two step equations, and even challenged themselves to solve three and four step equations. Well done!

Year 8 students learnt a new technique to solve equations with the variable on both sides. They demonstrated their skills in various activities, including solving jigsaw puzzles.

Year 10 students manipulated algebraic expressions and showed they were able to successfully recall algebraic concepts from Year 9. By the students' choice, the activities were of a competitive nature, as the time pressure motivates them to be precise and fast.

Year 11 students sketched quadratic, cubic, exponential and reciprocal graphs. They were introduced to software and websites that help them check the accuracy of their work.

Year 12 students were solving trigonometric equations, from simple to more complicated involving multiple trigonometric functions in one and quadratics.

Ms Zupanc

Mathematics Teacher

PE News:

Following on from their fitness and sports knowledge assessments last week, all students completed the beep test during the first lesson of their new sporting unit. Through their second lesson of the week, each year group were introduced to a different sport that they will be focusing on through block 3 and 4. Year 7 began their football unit, whilst Year 8 commenced their basketball block. Year 9 students started their handball lessons, with year 10 working on their floorball unit and Year 11 beginning their rugby sessions.

Mr Hayes

PE Department

Science News:

Year 7 students on the other hand were learning about polymers and decided to have fun and to make one for themselves. A complete mess and utter chaos that they created in the process of making a slime was but a small price to pay.

Year 8 were learning about the law of refraction. They used the light box to draw incident rays and reflected rays. Then they measured the angle and figured out that the angle of incidence is always the same as the angle of reflection.

Year 9 students were investigating the reactivity of different metals with oxygen. With the help of a flame metals react and produce sparks and flames of different colours.

Year 10 students had a heart dissection practical. They learnt about parts of the cow's heart and what functions these parts carry out. Some students showed a lot of talent - they can maybe enrol into Medical School soon and start practicing surgery?

Year 10 also enjoyed performing electrolysis on a solution of copper sulphate. That's a topic that many of Mr. MacNeill students have struggled with in the past. However, when they see it in person it brings the topic to life and it makes it much more engaging and understandable!

Ms Tušar

Science Department

English News:

Year 7: Year 7 looked at the importance of writing detailed instructions to share information and looked at some instructions on what to do when a child is experiencing nightmares and how to prevent them form occuring.

Year 8: Year 8 are currently finishing their reading of the novel “Private Peaceful” and are learning to use “show / don’t tell” techniques to describe life in World War I trench warfare..

Year 9: Year 9 have been looking at propaganda in their study of ‘Animal Farm.’ They produced a poster to promote Napoleon’s new regime and wrote a speech from the perspective of Squealer to inspire the animals to work harder in pursuit of their goals

Year 10: Year 10 are continuing their study “Crumbs from the Table of Joy.” They have looked at the terms “Whitesplaining” “White privilege” “Exoticism” and “Orientalism”. The students showed a great deal of maturity and engagement with the topic and were able to successfully apply this to their study of the play.

Year 11: Among other fascinating topics this week, Year 11 looked at how Arthur Miller introduced Nietzschean allegory into the character of Proctor and worked on writing an essay on how Miller creates tension in Act 3 of “The Crucible.”

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

English Department

MFL News

Slovene beginners

This week, Year 9 were both very eager and enthusiastic to use role-playing to make an appointment for the dentist. Their main mission was to create a dialogue which would take place in a dentist's surgery. Each group prepared one dialogue in their own way, which was either humorous or more serious. They were also given some time to practice their acting skills and Slovene pronunciation. They even gave short feedback to each other.

They did an amazing job!

Slovene Advanced

Year 9 students in Slovene Advanced lessons have been practicing spelling this week. Upper and lower case letters and commas can be sometimes a bit tricky in Slovene, but students are more and more confident in using it correctly. Odlično, učenci!

Ms Drofenik, Ms Kosec , Ms Tatil

MFL Department

MEPI News:

This Monday we attempted to make our own list of what we need when we go on our expedition. We were in groups discussing and then sharing and collaborating with the teachers at the end.

We also had the ability to see the equipment and talk about for example taking as few things as possible but yet still have enough. A good example is food - little of it but with high calories. The same with clothes - take what you need and no more, but not too little either.

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.vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

Dear Parents,

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

We've had a lovely week to start celebrating the lead up to Christmas with a Dress Down Day of staff and students in Christmas jumpers, colours and festive attire! Thank you to all parents for helping out with this event, the students looked great and we have a fantastic selection of photos of this in my full update for you to look at. In the final two weeks we aim to continue to build the 'Christmas atmosphere' as our students have had so much fun this week and it's been a real treat seeing how much they have enjoyed themselves!

A reminder as we plan forward, we have our next Dress Down Day on the final day of the term on Friday 17th December, this is also a half day for students, finishing at 12 noon.

We've also had a visit from Santa who gave out presents on Wednesday to all students and wished everyone a very Merry Christmas! He assured me that everyone has been 'good' this year, everything is fine on the North Pole and he is looking forward to the upcoming holidays!

During these final two weeks of term, we have many events, plays and musical projects coming up, with many of them to be emailed out and shared online. We look forward to making the most of this time and really creating an exciting holiday experience for everyone.

Finally, thank you to all parents and staff for your support with our students through this self-testing window, it is running very smoothly at school and I am very grateful for all of the hard work that everyone has put in to ensure our students are as safe as possible.

Please read my full Update from the Principal here.

Have a relaxing weekend!

Kind regards,

Paul Walton

Principal

All upcoming events and details are available on our website.