Update from the Principal - Oct 22 2021 | October 2021 | British International School of Ljubljana

Dear Parents,

Halloween is approaching!

Thank you to parents who have volunteered to come in for various days during next week for Halloween, we have some fantastic and fun activities arranged such as pumpkin carving, Halloween story time, decoration making with art activities, etc. We look forward to continuing this great buzz of excitement as we build towards our Halloween Dress Down Day on Friday 29th October for all staff and students! I still haven't decided on my costume...

Coming up we have a brilliant opportunity for families to visit BISL, to see lessons, pop into classrooms and see how the students learn. This will be on Wednesday 27th October as part of our school Open Day from 9-11am. If you are free, this is an ideal time to come in and see what the students experience each day! Please register in advance here.

Thank you to parents and students for attending the University Guidance evening on Wednesday, we had over 25 people at the presentation to find out more about the process at BISL, scholarships, successes of our Alumni and next steps in applying to universities. Mr Malden and Mr Batson did a great job in taking us through the guidance we offer.

I have also been delighted to see our students develop their problem solving and programming skills in Computer Science. In our new technology suite, we have a full class set of LEGO Spike Prime robots with the extra expansion sets for students to further stretch and challenge their thinking - take a look at what our students have been doing here.

Friday 5th November will be a time to mark Remembrance Day at BISL, poppies are available at reception, we will have students and staff reading poetry, short stories and other activities to mark this important event. If you wish to donate, a link online can be found here.

Finally, as winter approaches I get excited about the weather and then the potential of snow. Each year this looks amazing in Slovenia and is great fun for the students. At school we encourage all students and staff to interact and be outside in the fresh air as much as possible, as this is part of an active healthy lifestyle. We are very fortunate to be in a beautiful country with clean air, fantastic nature and wonderful seasons so we will absolutely take every opportunity to take advantage of this. To support this, we have purchased a range of hats, scarves, coats, snoods and gloves for staff so everyone can be warm and enjoy being outside. Let's hope for lots of days without heavy rain so we can enjoy and have fun learning and being outdoors!

Have a wonderful weekend.

Kind regards,

Paul Walton

Principal

We have very much been looking forward to having lunch in our new canteen and as you can see from our Year 5s and Year 7s, we're excited to be enjoying our healthy lunches together again since Monday.

It was wonderful to see so many of you at the University Guidance Evening this week. Lots of useful information shared and a great opportunity for both students and parents to find out more about the path to higher education.

For those of you that were not able to make it, the presentation slides have been shared out to all parents by Mr Batson via email, and please feel free to ask for further guidance if you are interested.

On Wednesday October 27, from 9 - 11am we have a great opportunity as part of our Open Day for families to come into the school, to see how our students learn, pop into lessons and tour our facilities. If you are free, please register here to come along to the event, and feel free to share it with any friends that you think might be interested to come along as well.

We have arranged extra days for IGCSE/A Level students to come in for booster sessions, more details will be sent out to students as this is a great opportunity for:

Extra 1 to 1 help from subject teachers
Booster sessions on Topics
To sit past papers (and to have them marked by staff)
Revision and support

More information will be sent out regarding this in the next week from our Secondary team. Additional booster sessions and extra classes will be available in Term 2 as normal, as we plan ahead for the exams in Summer 2022.

If you have children aged 3-6 and are looking to make new friends in a fun international setting, if they love stories and are interested in learning English, join our Story Time sessions, and feel free to share with friends too!

Available sessions include:

Thursday, November 4 | 9:00 - 10:30
Thursday, November 25 | 15:00 - 16:30
Thursday, December 9 | 15:00 - 16:30

Registration is required as places are limited.

More details here.

Our school is open, lessons run as normal and our After School Provision is in full swing, with a range of clubs on offer for BISL students.

Lunches is served in our new Canteen, following the NIJZ and health & safety guidelines closely.

There is no change regarding masks, cough/hand hygiene.

I have included the guidance for masks below:

BISL Health & Safety Guidelines

We are following the rules and guidance by the ministry, WHO and NIJZ regarding the use of masks, distancing and hygiene.
A part of this guidance is to stay away from school if you show any symptoms and consult your doctor accordingly. As we enter the 'flu season', many of our staff, students and parents will have flu symptoms, and we ask everyone to stay away until you are tested if you show any signs.
If you are tested positive, stay home and isolate accordingly, following further guidance from your doctor.
Students and staff continue to get tested prior to returning to school to be sure.
Over 95% of our staff are now fully vaccinated, or have recovered / still immune.
We also ask the community to stay away from friends and family who have tested positive or those that have symptoms and are awaiting a test.
If any staff or students are tested positive after contact at school, the whole class will transition to online learning.
We also want to be as safe as possible and ensure that the privacy of families is respected during this tough time.

This month we have the following events coming up:

Wednesday, October 27 - Open Day at BISL for prospective families
Thursday, October 28 - EY Pumpkin Carving Workshop
Friday, October 29 - Halloween Celebrations - dress down day
Monday, November 1 - Public Holiday - School Closed
Thursday, November 4 - Story Time at BISL
Friday, November 5 - Remembrance Day Commemoration
Friday, November 5 - Block 2 Ends

All of our upcoming events, and more details, are listed on the school website 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.