Primary news - 5th November

Dear Parents and Students,

We had a busy last week of the second block, with students celebrating their learning through various Topic exit point activities, including Early Years singing nursery rhymes and the Y1 class venturing on a treasure hunt and making cocoa. While the Y3 class learned about and made chocolate, the Y2 students kept healthy through Yoga and exercise. Our older primary students explored, discussed and presented on various subjects such as climate change, globalisation and the life of ancient civilisations. See the Class Teacher Reports section for more detail and exciting news.

Students from Reception to Y1 joined together for an assembly on Friday, hosted by the Primary Head

Students and the Y5 class. The assembly was devoted to Remembrance Day (with a 2-minute silence across the school to mark this day), along with Founder’s Day on 3rd November to commemorate Mr Jeremy Hibbins and the beginnings of BISL in 2008. Thank you to Y5 and Y6 students for their poem recital and song performances. Primary Student Leaders also received leadership badges to reflect their roles in supporting their peers across the primary.

We would like to wish everyone a lovely break next week and look forward to seeing you back for Block 3 on Monday 14th November.

For the latest Update from the Principal and other upcoming events, please see the News section on our website.

Kind regards, Katarina Železinger Head of Primary

Early years

In Early Year, we are concluding with our topic, Nursery Rhymes. We have been practising vocabulary from the song "Three blind mice" when playing in the mice's natural small world. The children got creative painting and manipulating the homemade playdough to create small brown mice.

We have been learning about time in Maths through the Nursery Rhyme "Hickory Dickory Dock". When playing outside, the children were learning about changes in nature while searching for natural resources to create homes for snails and worms found on the playground.

Ms Gillespie and Ms Kukovica

Year 1

After all our hard work in the toymaker's workshop this block, the Magic Toymaker surprised us with a few ingredients to make a delicious cup of hot chocolate. It was an even more welcome surprise on a cold and rainy day. We also made our own set of dominoes and have truly proven ourselves to be quite skilled at making toys and games. In English lessons, we went on a walk around the school to listen for different sounds, which we wrote about in a poem. In Math, we had an assessment on all our Math knowledge so far and started looking at names and features of various 2D and 3D shapes.

Ms Miklavec

Year 2

We have had a great final few days of block 2. In Topic, we finished off Learning to Learn by using our bodies for yoga and stretching. We thought about different breathing techniques to use to help us to be calm and focused. It was also my (Mrs Fordham’s) final week before I go on maternity leave. I have had a wonderful 2 blocks with the current Y2 and I am so proud of how hard they have worked and how much they have already achieved. I will miss them dearly.

Good luck with the rest of Y2!

Mrs Fordham and Ms Torrington

Year 3

This week, Year 3 put their chocolate expertise into practice by making their own chocolate bar! Students decided their own proportions for their unique recipe, made chocolate box packaging, and last but not least, did a taste test to compare the qualities of their bar.

Ms Spangl and Ms Blundell

Year 4

This week in Year 4 we have come to the end of our topic, the Nature of Life, where we have been learning about living things and life processes. We finished this block sharing what we had learnt and some of the projects that we created. In English we have been writing our own stories based on Victorian Britain, we have some avid writers in our class and the stories were fantastic!

We had another fantastic week and we are looking forward to the coming block and all of the exciting things we have planned.

Ms Harris

Year 5

This week the children have taken part in their very exciting exit point in Topic, where they discussed their own made-up country. The children had to think of a name, locate their country on a map using coordinates, understand the links to other countries nearby, set their own rules and traditions and finally present this to the whole class. They did a great job and showed a lot of enthusiasm toward this activity.

Mrs Thomas-Hayes

Year 6

This week, the Year 6 students started working on their History 5 assignment. They had to research the layout of the Ancient city of Benin. The students were given historical written extracts on which they had to base their understanding of how the city was organised. The students were put in groups to decide how they will present their learning. The students spent their Topic time working together by discussing, researching, asking and answering each other's questions and recording their knowledge in different ways.

Mr Kokalj

Slovene

Year 3 and 4 students have finished this block by making posters about the professions of their parents and relatives. Students have also presented their work and showed their improvement in Slovene.

Odlično, učenci!

Ms Drofenik

This week Y3/4 were working hard during Slovene Advanced lessons. They had to work out some ''rebus'' and some students were fantastic! They also got a new assignment for reading at home (domače branje). Next block they will read Pasji dnevnik by James Patterson.

Ms Kotnik

PE

This week during primary PE, we concluded our tennis unit. Students were tasked with being able to ‘serve, rally & score’ when playing tennis, using groundstrokes and serves. Students also looked at the key movement patterns when on the court and the importance of communication and spatial awareness when playing tennis in teams.

PE Department

EAL

After doing some dreary assessments this week, our EAL groups finished the block with some fun activities, like role playing restaurant conversations, making sentences with the help of pictures, reading and playing our favourite vocabulary building game Apples to Apples.

Mr Siter

Staff Information

Isla Gillespie will be leaving her role as the EY leader and teacher. She has enjoyed working in our school very much and regards herself fortunate to have been part of such a positive and vibrant community. We would like to wish Ms Gillespie for all her contributions to EY and Primary during her time here and wish her all the best in the future.

Mrs Emma Fordham will start her maternity leave this Friday 4th November. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Ms Fordham for all of her hard work with the children during the first part of this term, and to wish her and her husband all the very best as they start on the journey together as new parents.