Secondary News - Mar 24 2021

A positive penultimate week of the block, that began with an assembly incorporating the BISL Values with the British Values. Students at BISL are always encouraged to demonstrate respect, empathy, excellence and be challenged. Certainly, in the current pandemic, feeling challenged is an ever-recurring value. Year 11 were enabled to return to school earlier than expected, following further guidance from the Ministry, and it was wonderful to see them back! We also look forward to Year 10 returning soon.

Parent Teacher Virtual Interviews began across the school this week and will be continuing next week. It is the final opportunity to be able to discuss the progress of all students in Secondary. Should parents still wish to make a booking, please contact teachers directly.

Finally, with all the examination years back in the building, staff are doing everything they can to ensure that students are fully ready for their exams next month. Not long to go now, and students are encouraged to take all the feedback on board and commit themselves to the final push before exams.

Please note that on the last day of Term, next Friday 26th March, school finishes at 12.00 noon.

I wish everyone a lovely weekend before the final week of the block!

Ms Andronikos

Head of Secondary

Thank you and well done to everyone who entered the Story Competition. Congratulations to our story competition winners, Maria (Year 9b) and Aidan (Year 10).

You can read their stories here.

Congratulations to Izzy in Year 8 for the best result in round 1 of the Spelling Bee, Ryan in Year 7 for winning the KS3 round 2, and Julia in Year 10 for winning the KS4 round 2.

The final round was between our top 2 teachers, vs our top 2 students so far. Mr. Eve and Ms. Dascalescu vs. Ryan from Year 7 and Julia from Year 10. Julia and Ryan both tied for runner up, while Mr. Eve, who can apparently spell absolutely any word, won.

Congratulations to all.

Our Year 12 and 13 cohorts were presented with their IGCSE and AS Level certificates outside at lunch on Thursday. We are hugely proud of the work our students have put into achieving the grades they deserve.

Congratulations to them all!

Mr Batson, Examinations Officer

Our Year 13 students were treated to a special visit this week from one of our alumni, Ana Milanez, from our Class of 2014, who graduated from BISL 7 years ago. She gave a wonderful presentation of her journey since leaving BISL, which took her to the University of Maribor, where she obtained a Bachelor's degree in Economics before going off to Ghent University in Belgium to obtain her Master's degree in the same field.

Finally she returned to Ljubljana, where she currently works at the Ministry of Economics as a researcher in the department for analysis and fiscal governance.

Along the way, Ana had many moments of self-reflection, particularly during her time in India. In her own words, Ana told the students: "Going to India was the best decision ever. I'm so proud I did it. You always, always have to listen to yourself and follow your dreams!"

Wise words Ana, thanks for stopping by and giving our students a glimpse into life after BISL!

Mr Batson, Head of Sixth Form

As part of their independent student-led Year 12 business project, Rosemarijn and Taja have created a tutoring/mentoring service, open to all students.

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Taja and Rosemarijn - Year 12

As part of our careers initiative in Sixth Form and KS4, we have arranged guest speakers to speak to students via zoom. On Friday we had a trauma psychologist Helen Collins join us from Liverpool. This was particularly useful for our psychology students and those who are considering studying psychology at A-level.

Next week's speakers include:

• PMO from HSBC
• Police officer from the UK
• Entrepreneur from the UK
• Physicist
• Linguist and translator

To be or not to be, that is the question. Nothing comes from nothing. How do I compare thee to a summer's day? Hell is empty and all the devils are here! We know what we are, but not what we may be. Exit, pursued by a bear... Can you think of any other famous quotes from the bard?

This week at BISL it has been Shakespeare week, with students having a cross school challenge to match the quotations and photos put all around the school to the correct play. It was a tricky challenge, but it was fantastic to see so many students take part.

Find out what our students have been up to throughout the week here.

As part of their English Language A level studies, students explore both descriptive and narrative writing. Students write a range of stories, from a variety of genres from romance to suspense and horror. Many students particularly enjoy the creative aspects of horror writing, students feel this allows them to play the most with the characters psychological profiles, and allows for vast character development.

Click here to read an outstanding piece of narrative writing by Lana in Year 13.

We encourage students to read as much as possible outside of class, whatever interests them the most. As part of our English block we have guided students to write reflections of their reading as book reviews. Enjoy the book review of the week by Enja in Year 10 on the book ‘Call me by your name’.

To celebrate St. Patrick’s Day some students in Year 10 dressed up at home in green to join their Zoom lessons while teachers used green filters to join in with the festivities. They also practised saying Happy St. Patrick’s Day in Gaelic, which students considered easier than saying the longest town in Wales on St. David’s Day.

With great pleasure we are welcoming Year 10 and 11 back into the building next week. We look forward to teaching them in person again, and having lots of fun and practical lessons (away from laptops!). We are really proud of how mature our students have been on Zoom, and how hard they have worked from home.

A reminder for all families that next Friday, March 26, the last day of term, is a half day. As such, pick up will be from 12pm.

Year 7 looked at some of the more inhumane practices that mankind has done to animals over the year. We researched and prepared a persuasive and informative pamphlet on a topic such as animals in circuses, cosmetic testing on animals, battery farming, dog and bull fighting and many others. Also to celebrate Shakespeare week we had a taste of his work by doing an exercise and watching a short preview of "The Tempest", which is believed to be the final play he wrote.

Year 8 had an enjoyable week looking at the colourful and exciting world of telling a story through a comic book. We looked at the importance of dialogue and through the use of direct speech and finding the most important details of a plot.

For a class project, we created our own characters with their own backstory and actually made a 4 panel comic. For our celebration of Shakespeare week, we had a look at a modern version of his most famous play "Romeo and Juliet" and tried to recreate the key plot moments through modern eyes.

Year 9: This week 9a have continued to read and explore MacBeth, learning all about Lady MacBeth’s manipulative ways. Whilst 9b are continuing with descriptive writing, and have described numerous things from the atmosphere at football matches to playground, with added challenges of not using ‘the’ more than once to start sentences.

9b also had a team work challenge with numerous literary terms being cut out, and they had to work together as a team to match them.

9b also took part in Shakespeare week by reading Romeo and Juliet (a shortened and more modern version) and acting it out (pictures above under Shakespeare week). I was very proud of their commitment to the drama, and the different voices.

Year 10 have an eventful and poetry filled week, with the class finishing off x3 poems this week from their IGCSE poetry anthology. Originally, Head of English and Foreign. Year 10 wrote IGCSE standard essays on the poem Originally with many students achieving A grades. I look forward to reading the essay on Foreign which students will write next Tuesday.

Whilst exploring the poem originally, as a class we reflected on how immigrants are treated in Slovenia and in our ‘native’ countries. Students pondered what feels like for them, and the different concepts of home i.e. home is where family is, but home is also where your culture is. Many Carol Ann Duffy’s poems tackle the subject of identity and belonging, which has led to multiple interesting and philosophical discussions as a class this block.

To finish off the week students had a Shakespeare lesson via zoom to celebrate Shakespeare week, it was challenging as it was in Shakespearean English. I am proud of how they understood the plot, and the twists. I look forward to doing more Shakespeare with them in the future...maybe a whole class performance next time.

Year 11 have continued with a range of poetry revision via zoom. 11b completed 2 essays this week, practising their essay skills in poems sonnet 43 and sonnet 29. Safe to say there is no doubt what iambic pentameter is in Year 11.

We were very pleased to welcome year 11 back into the school on Thursday and we continued exploring poetry, with more hands on revision such as making mind maps in small groups, and putting the poem stanzas in the correct order.

11b also embraced Shakespeare and read out Romeo and Juliet as a class, the stars were Adrian as our Juliet and Vojko as our Romeo.

Year 12 in English language have been learning how to plan, and structure a critical review on a range of topics. Keep your eye peeled for some of these in the newsletter next week.

Year 13 in literature we have been consolidating our knowledge of critical reviews and critiques of King Lear. Students have made powerpoints and had seminar style discussions. From next week students will be revising Emily Dickinson poetry and all 3 texts.

Whilst in language students have started to revise language change and language change theories.

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

Year 10 Business have been looking at market research, they had special guests Taja and Rosemarijn from year 12 business talk to them about their motivation survey from a few months ago.

Year 12 business are currently revising operations and technology, whilst Year 13 business are looking at strategy and crisis management. We have been looking at cooperation culture and how this impacts strategy.

Year 12 economics are currently revising the entire AS curriculum getting ready for their exams. They also finished an outstanding report on feminist economics, and why it matters today in celebration of international women’s day last week.

Year 13 economics have also written a report on feminist economics and why it matters today, as a response to sexist comments previously made in their form. We hope this has educated the students involved, and they now have a better understanding of this topic. In addition to this, they are also revising for their exams.

Mr. Dalton, Business and Economics Teacher

Slovene as a Second Language News

Year 8 has been practicing to order food via phone. They created their own dialogues between customer and waiter and presented them through the play. Some dialogues were very funny and made us hungry a bit. After they have been focusing on creating their favourite recipes on big posters.

They have put a lot of effort in and investigate the meaning of diverse words which are necessary when you are writing the recipe in Slovene. The posters are still in progress and we can’t wait to display them in our Slovene classroom.

Students are ready to pick some Slovene recipe and follow the directions. Surely, they will be successful in cooking and baking even in Slovene language.

Srečno!

Ms Kosec, Slovene Teacher

Slovene Advanced News

It's been a very inspiring week for Year 9 students at Slovene Advanced lessons! The students worked on their projects about the Enlightenment period. Each student researched an important person of this period and also presented their presentation to the classmates.

We found out lots of interesting information about Žiga Zois, Marko Pohlin, Valentin Vodnik, Anton Tomaž Linhart, Jernej Kopitar and Jurij Japelj.

Ms Drofenik - Slovene Teacher

This week in P.E., secondary students continued to develop their student lead projects validating various aspects of their questions of exploration. Students were additionally challenged to find a current affair in the news that combines their global context and sport to share with the class.

Secondary students also underwent a check-in assignment for sports knowledge to evaluate how their studying methods are developing. Secondary students also selected which of the six methods of training would best align with their individual sports goals and how best to integrate them into their P.E.P. (personal exercise plan).

Our students continued to engage in dynamic teacher-guided workouts performing various circuits, plyometric, and H.I.I.T. exercises from three of our six methods of training we are studying and analyzing, which exercises they might include in their P.E.P. plans.

Ms Fairchild-Gojkovic - PE Department.

KS3 students have successfully completed the 'Escape room' challenge, in which they applied techniques learnt in the topics of probability and statistics.

Year 10 revised converting between units of length, area and volume and year 11 brainstormed different ways to represent statistical data via an online white board.

Mechanics 1 students started a round of student led presentations in order to aid their preparations for external exams.

The answers for the last Math question of the week is: 30.

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:

A triathlon consists of three disciplines swimming, running and cycling. The cycle route is three quarters of the entire distance, the running route is one fifth of the entire distance and the swimming route is 2 km long. How long is the whole distance of the triathlon in km?

Students who solve the questions send the answer to my email by Wednesday 24th March.

Ms. Zupanc - Maths Department

This week, our MEPI participants have been taking stock of their progress within the `Adventurous Journey´ (AJ) section of the Award. They have now fully completed five out of the eleven criteria listed within the `Online Record Book (Appreciating the culture within the journey's environment; Camp craft, including food and cooking; Necessary equipment and how to use it; Team building and leadership training; Understanding the impact of the journey on the environment.), with a few more more criteria very close to completion.

The first aid course has been moved to the weekend after the Easter Break, and a 7.5km hike in Škofja Loka is planned for the following Saturday. The opportunity for our participants to walk together as a group will prove to be invaluable in bringing them even closer together as a team, whilst they hone their practical skills within all aspects of the AJ.

Mr. Irving - MEPI Coordinator

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

• 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
• 6.10.2020 - Mr Jason Batson

Thank you to all of you for joining our PTA Meeting this morning, it was wonderful to see so many of you, and share our plans for upcoming events with everyone!

In partnership with Zveza Prijateljev Mladine Ljubljana Moste-Polje, our PTA are organising an Easter-themed donation drive. In particular, they are looking for:

• Easter-themed sweets and chocolates (easter eggs, bunnies, etc)
• Breakfast foods: cereals, muesli and similar, instant cocoa, Nutella (chocolate) spread and long-life milk.
• Pantry staples: oil, sugar, flour, pasta, rice, pasta sauces, wheat, dry cereal/grits and polenta.
• Hygiene: cleaning products, laundry detergent, shampoo and shower gel.

All items must be suitable for dry storage only (nothing for the fridge). The expiration date on all items must be at least two weeks.

You will see a large donations box by the drop off/pick up area to leave your goodies in before Friday 26 March. Thank you in advance!

PTA Committee

Dear Parents,

A week that started with sunshine, energy and excitement has finished with a calm and tranquil Friday at BISL after a huge effort from students this week. We've had assemblies, visits from Alumni, Shakespeare week as part of our English block and highlights from lessons from learning about angles in Mathematics through to drama in English, and more. As we move into the last week of the block, Spring is well and truly here at school and we are seeing many student projects, building projects and further improvements starting to bloom.

I have had a wonderful opportunity to visit a lot of classes over the past two weeks and to see every single teacher, their planning, marking and quality of the lessons has been first class. I couldn't be more proud to work with such a devoted, committed and enthusiastic group of staff.

We have welcomed back Years 11 and 12 into lessons on site this week and from Monday 22nd, all students will be in classes in the building. Our students have smoothly transitioned back into the classroom and their attitude and continued focus on exam preparation has been excellent.

From a safety point of view, the pick up and drop off procedures have further improved and I would like to thank all parents, students and members of staff on duty for all working together to make this safe and efficient at the start and the end of each day.

Please remember that the last day of Term, next Friday 26th March, is a half day at BISL, with pick up starting from 12.00 noon.

Continue reading my full Update from the Principal here for details of the above.

Kind regards,

Paul Walton

Principal

March

April - May