Primary News - January 14th 2022

Dear Parents and Students,

This week, students enjoyed further exciting activities related to the Language theme of this block. Whether online or in school, students read poems, stories and traditional tales in their own languages to their peers. See sections below for the highlights of this week’s events in primary classes.

The Y2B, Y4 and Y5 classes working online this week will be returning on Monday 17th January. Please read the information below to help ensure that students safely return to school and minimise further disruptions to learning, as we manoeuvre through the current challenging situations.

Guidelines and measures for students returning to school after quarantine/isolation:

All students must bring to school/forward by email a valid certificate of negative test results (HAG or PCR) on their first day back after quarantine/isolation.

Students that have tested positive at school or during isolation period (which may be different from the quarantine time) and inform the class teacher of the date they are able to return to school, as per the doctor’s guidelines. They should not be returning to school before the end of the isolation period.

Please note that if the class has been quarantined, students should avoid attending out of school activities unless they are exempt from this. We have seen a rapid increase in cases of Covid-19 and subsequently more classes having to transit to online learning. Please also keep students at home if they have any symptoms, and continue to be safe outside of school as well.

Thank you to all parents for respecting the guidelines and measures, and thus helping to keep everyone as safe as possible. For any additional questions and updates, please see the latest Update from the Principal and the BISL COVID Measure FAQs section.

The Student Appreciation Day is coming up next week on Friday 21st January. We hope to have all of our students onsite to celebrate together so do keep safe!

Last, but not least, if you are looking for an inspiring read over the weekend, see the Y6 excellent article in which they voice their opinions on why animals should take over the ruling of our planet. Food for thought.

I wish you all a lovely weekend,

Katarina Železinger

Head of Primary

Early Years

In Early Years this week, we have been learning the story of The Enormous Turnip. To explore the story about a farmer who needs help with pulling out the enormous turnip from his field, the children worked as a team and engaged in the age-old playing the game of tug of war.

Alongside exploring the pull motion, the Early Years have been learning the art of paper mache, with the task, to create a giant turnip.

The Reception children have been developing their storytelling using visual story maps to complete the story worksheet, while Nursery have been practising vocabulary from the book and later acting out the story using masks of a story character.

Ms Kukovica

Year 1

In Year 1 we have been looking at the traditional tale Goldilocks and the three bears. We haven’t only been describing the characters but also acting out the story. In Maths, we have been counting in 10’s and have started a new topic learning about fractions.

In Topic lessons we continue to speak about clothing, this week we focused on traditional clothing from around the world and we spoke about different materials clothes are made from.

Ms Miklavec

Year 2A

This week in Year 2 we have been learning about Living Things and what this means. We have been discovering the 7 characteristics and have been identifying different objects using our keywords - living, non-living, alive and once alive.

In Literacy, we have been reading many different traditional tales and exploring the features of the stories that we have read. We have had a fantastic week in Year 2, a huge well done to our class for working as a team!

Ms Harris

Year 2B

Year 2 students have had a busy week exploring living things and their habitats. This week, our young scientists started planning their end of unit project. Next week, we will research how plants and animals adapt to survive in their habitats.

Learning fractions online has been proven to be quite a challenge, so we look forward to being back in our classroom to practise our maths skills with real-life objects. We wish all the families to stay safe and healthy.

Mrs Bradley

Year 3

In BISL we pride ourselves on our provision of Maths resources which are used in every lesson to support students.

We are using concrete materials in lessons to explain word problems or different calculations to students.

Ms Blundell and Mr Kokalj

Year 4

A Moment to Remember

The Year 4 students wrote poems in free verse about a small, unexpected event.

These poems aim to:

● Describe one particular moment in great detail.

● Create strong feelings and make vivid pictures in the readers’ minds.

Use poetic features, e.g. alliteration, simile and personification.

Here are some phrases from their poems that captured these moments for the reader:

● The snow was going in my face, which made the walk seem like a race.

● The shadow took me down INTO THE DEEP

● The clouds were crying just like me.

● My teacher stared at me with eyes like empty holes.

● Let's go! I was feeling like a champion going to the finals.

● Bubblegum as blue as the sky or ocean

● With mysterious black eyes as brown as a gingerbread man

● All of these things make a puppy dog, mess and a muddle, sometimes in a puddle

● Twirl with every windy gust, throw off silver dust.

● And the night roared in fury and the trees rejoiced.

● The feeling of freedom, which allows for escape

● Christmas flew by, it flew stronger until…

● As the sky is quiet, everything is quiet

● Deafened the sand flies by, the ocean waves jump to help.

Mrs Charlesworth

Year 5

I am very proud of Year 5 for working incredibly hard during online learning. Everyone worked together and tried their best. In English this week the children planned, researched and wrote a biography about a Greek God or Goddess.

It was exciting to find out so many interesting facts about them. In maths, the children focussed on time and learnt how to convert analogue and digital time as well as learning how to use a timetable. This was incredibly handy for online learning.

In Topic, the children worked in groups to research different Greek Gods and Goddesses and collectively presented their information. Well done for all of your hard work.

Mrs Thomas

Year 6

This week, Year 6 students have been working in groups to create short plays focusing on different genres, based loosely on the historical short story we are studying in class, Brasham's Tortoise. Students wrote the scripts and had to decide how they would emphasise their genre in the play, which the other students then had to guess. In Topics students prepared posters highlighting the dangers of a variety of legal and illicit drugs, to be displayed in the senior school.

Mr Bishop

PE

This week during PE we continued to develop our gymnastics block, focusing on technique and routine structure. All students worked on the basic movement patterns required when taking part in gymnastics, developing their technique when moving the body and the importance of strength and agility. Students improved their jumping, rolling and moving skills - across a range of different group scenarios and were then tasked with creating a gymnastics sequence to perform to the rest of their class.

PE Department

Slovene

It's only the 2nd week of our Language Block and we are already having lots of fun! Our Early Years have finished their flags and represented them proudly as you can see in the picture below.

Can you guess the countries where students come from? Give it a try.

Our Primary students were thoughtful this week. They shared their favourite Slovene words as they wrote them on the whiteboard. We were surprised by the fact that they put on such a wide spectrum of words. Students are totally ready to collaborate on the display we have in mind for next week.

Meanwhile, Years 5 and 6 are already working on an ice cream languages display. We can't wait to see all of them in the corridors.

Slovene Department

French

Since the beginning of the Block, our language learners have reviewed what they already know, in order to learn new things easily and quickly.

For some of them, this week was about telling the time in French. One of the activities was to make a giant domino, where they had to listen to each other to find where they needed to be. A good way to work as a team while learning new things!

Ms Tatil

French Teacher

MEPI News

The MEPI team at BISL has organised a first aid course with the Red Cross (Rdeči Križ), to be held at school on Saturday 29th January, starting at 8:30, and finishing at 13:00. ALL are welcome!

This is a mandatory course for our MEPI participants (and the price is already covered in their MEPI Annual Fee), but there are extra places that we need to fill. So, staff, parents, secondary students, family etc. are all invited to sign-up for this invaluable experience, which will give you the skills that could save a life one day!

The cost is €30.50, and I urge anyone who doesn't have first aid training to attend. The course will be in English, although the medical professional is a native Slovene speaker, so a little translation will not be an issue if you have Slovene as your first language.

Please confirm your attendance, and/or direct any questions to simon.irving@britishschool.si.

We very much look forward to seeing you there.

Mr Irving

MEPI Coordinator

Gifted & Talented Presentation

Join this informative webinar, led by Ms Begić, to find out more about our Gifted & Talented provision here at BISL.

Join here.

Student Voice: BISL Road Safety

As we launch our BISL Road Safety campaign this Term, some of our Secondary students have also been working on encouraging our community to stay safe on the roads.

Here's a thought-provoking piece from one of our Year 9s.

IGCSE Subject Evening

This event is an ideal opportunity for students and parents in Key Stage 3 and particularly in Year 9 to find out some key information about the IGCSE programme in Years 10 - 11, hearing from your subject teachers about the curriculum, subject options, expectations, and more, allowing you to make an informed decision regarding your IGCSE subject choices as you enter Key Stage 4.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Sixth Form Subject Evening

This event is an ideal opportunity for students and parents in Key Stage 4 and particularly in Year 11 to find out some key information about the A Level programme in Years 12 - 13, hearing from your subject teachers about the curriculum, subject options, expectations, and more, allowing you to make an informed decision regarding your A Level subject choices as you enter Sixth Form.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Dear Parents,

This week we've seen our Road Safety campaign start with student voice articles, competitions and a new sign for our car park entrance. Thank you to all parents who have supported this and for driving safely and slowly at drop off and pick up.

It is very much appreciated and is only the start as we hope to continue throughout the spring and summer time with more projects for the environment such as cycling/walking to school, reducing our waste and saving energy. Lots going on and lots to look forward to!

Coming up in this block we have Winter Trips for Secondary school students, Primary class trips planned, Story Time for EY, our IGCSE and Sixth Form Evenings, as well as the very special Student Appreciation Day on Friday 21st January!

I have to save a lot of praise for our Year 11-13 students who have completed their mock exams this week in our new building. This has been very important as they sit papers in exam conditions as excellent preparation for summer 2022. Thank you to all students involved, they have been exemplary with their conduct, behaviour and focus on a very important week. On behalf of the staff, we are very happy with our students, as for many of the BISL students, this is the first time they have been through an exams window and experienced these conditions. It is wonderful to see them using the new facilities, larger rooms and areas to help them have the space to focus on these examination papers. Thank you to Mr Batson and teachers for organising a very smooth and worthwhile mock examination series.

Finally, as we continue to navigate through the increase in daily covid cases, all of our students have been superb as they dealt with all challenges in their stride from self-testing, online learning and quarantine without disruption to their learning. A huge thank you to parents for your support, encouragement and your time dedicated towards this, it is very much appreciated. Please also read questions 24-29 below in the FAQ section for our most popular areas of discussion at the moment. Thank you to all of the families who have children doing Covid self-testing at school. This is for the benefit of everyone and we really appreciate your support.

Please read my full Update from the Principal here for details.

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Kind regards,

Paul Walton

Principal

All upcoming events and details are available on our website.