Update from the Principal - March 12 2021 | March 2021 | British International School of Ljubljana

Dear Parents,

This has been an excellent week to celebrate International Women's Day in our community and to pause for a moment to recognise the achievements of women around the world. Our students enjoyed this across the school as it was signposted in lessons and linked to the curriculum. A great topic for all students to learn about.

We are excited to announce the dates for our International Days - more details below. This is a fantastic opportunity to bring all families together, face to face and to celebrate internationalism in our community. We are working with our PTA to create a big event and have many projects, performances and fun activities planned for the students to get involved in.

Thank you to all of the parents who attended the Coffee Morning online last week, all of the action points are listed below for your reference.

We were delighted this week to be featured in the news again, please see our article about the topic of laptops for all staff at our school on Total Slovenia News.

As the external building works come closer to completion, the barrier by the entrance to the car park will no longer be raised from next week on, so please remember to use the key code or ring the buzzer to get in during the day.

The number of Covid cases remains high in the country and we must all keep working together to ensure that our community continues to be safe for our students. We have just postponed our first event for students (the Red Cross First Aid course planned for this weekend) due to Covid and one of the organisers having to complete a test. This is an ever changing situation and as a school, I intend to keep our community as safe as possible and to balance this with enabling all students to return. During the pandemic we received an inspection from the Ministry, which we received 100% compliance for and with no future targets. This was an excellent external acknowledgement of the ongoing work and wonderful effort our students, teachers and parents have all contributed to.

We continue to follow the guidance, and review the recommendations daily throughout the week and over weekend, to ensure that we transition back safely at school. We thank all parents in advance for your patience during this time, as this can involve meetings during Saturdays and Sundays to react to updated government guidance and recommendations.

We anticipate all students returning in Years 10, 11 and 12 back into classes following the full schedule at school before the end of next week. It is essential we do this as safely as possible and this week we prioritised seeing all students in Years 10, 11 and 12 to check in with their wellbeing, revision and academic progress. We are happy too have been able to see all of our students this week. A daily review continues to be essential, following this weekly update.

As you can imagine, we have many processes to follow, we are in direct contact with the ministry and wait for confirmation before we proceed.

In keeping with tradition, we celebrate International Women's Day by surprising colleagues with some beautiful flowers, as a small token of our appreciation of the fantastic and inspiring women here at BISL.

One of our biggest family events, organised in partnership with the PTA, this year we're extending our International Day to a week of cultural celebrations, from Tuesday 11 May - Friday 14 May, culminating in a colourful International Fair.

There will be a variety of cultural and educational activities, stalls, traditional dress, flags, international cuisine, games and performances throughout the week for our community to enjoy.

More information to follow. If you have any ideas, or are interested in getting involved, this is an item on the PTA's agenda for their next Virtual PTA Meeting on Friday March 19 from 9am, feel free to join to find out more.

Thank you to everyone who attended my Coffee Morning last week, it was another great event, and lovely to see so many faces on Zoom.

You will find my slides shared with parents here, the main points discussed were as follows:

PTACommunication

We have set up a communication cycle between parents, the PTA Committee and the school on a monthly basis:

The next PTA meeting will be on Friday 19 March from 9am on Zoom, please feel free to join this session. Among the items on the agenda will be ideas for our International Days, which is a fantastic event for everyone to get involved in.

My next Coffee Morning is scheduled for Friday, 9th April.

Extended Supervision

We are now able to offer extended supervision for our students in Early Years through to Year 6 as follows:

Years 2 – 6: until 3:40pm
Early Years – Year 1: until 4:30pm

Uniform

We continue to work with our uniform supplier to find a suitable solution to the post-Brexit challenges. A 10% discount code has been shared with parents, valid until the end of March, to help with your orders for Term 3.

Parent Survey Feedback

Here are some common themes that were raised in your feedback, which we have included in our planning, as we know there is always room for improvement:

After School activities - we are preparing a variety of clubs for students to get involved in once guidance allows. We've conducted a survey to gauge what our students are interested in doing and are planning for clubs to fit these needs. We are also looking at using external coaches, as well as clubs that are not only fun but educational in the sense that students will receive a certificate/qualification at the end to use for their examinations or university applications (ABRSM for example)
Face-to-face events for families when guidance allows and to meet/get to know teachers more - we too can't wait to be able to welcome you back into the building for a school event, such as our upcoming International Days for example.
Develop more English provision clubs and opportunities for students - this is linked to the first point.
Quality of Teaching and Education - this is something we are very proud of here at BISL, and it is something that is continually checked and monitored by Heads of Department, as well as the Leadership Team to ensure we provide the best possible feedback and education for our students.
Use of technology - we have taken into consideration your and our students' feedback after the first wave of online learning and have adapted our provision accordingly, to allow for more structured days online with a blend of zoom lessons, materials available on Canvas, and activities away from the screen.
Promote the use of the Newsletters - 70% of you choose this as the number one source for school news and communication. We endeavour to include as much information in these as possible, and share this with you on a weekly basis.
Language Teaching and further opportunities for clubs, activities and different languages - this again, is linked to point 1.
To further support SEN students, EAL provision and challenge students to achieve - we are part of a new Bell Foundation initiative, together with other Orbital schools. More information about this will follow.
Facilities - this is something that is always mentioned, and we do our best to make the most of our facilities, with exciting plans for our new building, next steps and ideas to further develop at BISL.

Academic Calendar

Thank you for all of your feedback regarding our school calendar. Asking for your input is part of our annual review processes, and no changes have been made or decided as yet.

The calendar, as usual, will be confirmed in Term 3.
There will not be any reduction in the number of school days in the new calendar, nor will the structure of the day change.
We will take your points into consideration and decide on a plan moving forward which will be in the best interest of our students and families here at BISL.

Once again, thank you for joining the Coffee Morning, the next event is scheduled for Friday, 9th April, for now as a virtual event, but should guidance allow, we will look at hosting this face to face when possible.

I am delighted with our initiative for all staff at BISL to get the provision of a new laptop from school. These high-quality devices have arrived on site, have been set up and now are being rolled out to staff. More information about this exciting initiative can be found here.

Do take a moment to read this week’s wonderful Teacher Feature with Ms Emina from our SEN Department.

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 wish you a safe and restful weekend.

Kind regards,

Paul Walton

Principal