Update from the Principal - May 14 2021 | May 2021 | British International School of Ljubljana

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.

The theme for the final block of the academic year is Physical Education. I know that the PE team have a number of fantastic activities and challenges planned already, promoting the importance of a healthy lifestyle, teamwork and everything sports.

We kickstarted our International Days with a wonderfully colourful flag parade to celebrate over 40 different nationalities represented here at BISL. It is a lovely feeling to be able to celebrate these events together once again.

Please do take a moment to read this roundup article about the Opening Ceremony - it includes a gallery of many photos and a link to the recording of the live event that was streamed via Zoom.

Thank you to those parent volunteers who gave up their time to come into school to do a cultural activity with their child's class during the week - we had everything from Belgian comics to stories in Slovene and it was a fantastic experience for our students.

I have to say, I have been very much looking forward to our International Fair, as it was our first big event of the year, and one that we were finally able to celebrate together, with only a few restrictions. Despite the weather, the assembly hall was transformed into a room filled with vibrant culture, with 14 country stalls from Nicaragua all the way to Japan! The stalls had some great activities set up for the students to enjoy, and the food, as always, was delicious.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the PTA and our parents who have put so much effort into organising this amazing event for our community, thank you. It is a privilege to have such a supportive group of parents here at BISL.

Keep an eye out for photos and videos from our International Fair on Facebook and on the website over the block break, I'm sure there will be many!

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.

All of our upcoming events are listed on the school website here.

Following on from the success of our Enrichment Saturdays at the beginning of the academic year, we are offering a further 2 Days of FreeSaturday Schooloccurring on consecutive Saturdays, 12thand 19thJune, for BISL students, which will include a range of supervised activities from a published calendar so that our students can have further opportunities to enjoy learning together. To register for these Enrichment Days, please complete the registration form here.

This year’s BISL Summer School will run for two weeks between 5^th-16^th July.

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 5^th July.

Our popular summer school operates from Monday to Friday, 8.00am through to 3.00pm and incorporates a range of fun activities and learning English through immersion with our BISL staff.

To register for one or both weeks of Summer School, please complete the form by clicking on the button below. Week 1 will be free for all BISL students who wish to attend.

Our school calendar for the 2021-22 academic year is available here.

All urgent updates continue to be sent via email.

Please monitor your emails for future updates as this continues to be the best way to send out clear and consistent communication to all parents. Check that you are receiving emails, have enough space in your email folder, that they do not go to your 'junk' folder and if you are unsure, please contact reception@britishschool.si to check your contact email and phone number on record. If you change any contact details, please inform the school immediately.

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

May

Mon-Fri, May 17-21	Block Break
Tue, May 25	PTA Second Hand Uniform Sale
Thu, May 27	Playtime in Early Years

June

Fri, June 4	Coffee with the Principal - on site
Fri, June 4	Student Appreciation Day
Sat, June 12	Enrichment Day 1
Thu, June 17	Year 6 Transition Day
Fri, June 18	Parent Appreciation Day
Sat, June 19	Enrichment Day 2