Secondary News - June 24th

Block 7 Week 5

An event-filled final week for everyone at BISL and what a wonderful week it was! The students and staff worked tirelessly on the Wizard of Oz Performance, and they did a superb job! The fantastic newly decorated Performance Theatre and lighting really set the scene and the students were brilliant. A special thank you must go to the entire Creative Arts team; Ms Hawkins, Mr Hulse and Ms Predan for preparing, motivating, and supporting the students throughout this show.

The PTE and PTM results have been published- please see this article on the website for details. The students who made outstanding progress over the year and achievement were awarded with their certificates this week. Congratulations to these students and to all the students who demonstrated their progress this year.

The PE staff completed the PE block with a bang this week, hosting a staff vs students round robin at Ludus on Wednesday afternoon. All the Secondary students as well as the Year 6 students attended the event, and whilst there were some close matches, the staff only just took out the competition overall. A big congratulations and thank you to the staff and students who participated. You all did a great job!

Finally, as this will be my final newsletter to the BISL community, I wanted to thank all students and families for their support over the last four years. I have had the privilege of seeing BISL grow and achieve ‘Outstanding in every category’ in that time, and it certainly has been a wonderful journey. It has also been my pleasure teaching many students all throughout that time as it is my absolute passion. I know that BISL will continue to go from strength to strength moving forward and I wish the school all the very best. For now, I wish everyone a wonderful and relaxing well-earned break over the summer, and every success returning next year.

Kind regards,

Stephanie Andronikos, Head of Secondary

Ms Prohart-Strmčnik will be leaving the British International School of Ljubljana this year. A welcomed addition to the Science team, Ms Prohart-Strmčnik loved sharing her passion for Biology. We would like to thank her for her contribution to the Secondary school and wish her the best for the future.

Mr. Staines will be leaving the British International School of Ljubljana this year. Mr Staines was always happy to lend a hand, get involved and support students through the SEN programme. We would like to thank him for his contribution to the whole school and wish him the best for the future.

We are delighted to announce our outstanding results from the recent PTE and PTM assessments at school once again, which have been consistently above the UK average.

Take a look at the results and analysis here.

What a wonderful way to finish the academic year with our school production, The Wizard of Oz, which was a huge success on Thursday afternoon!

Thank you to all parents for coming along, and a special thank you to our students who worked extremely hard on this performance, not only on stage but behind the scenes too, as well as to our Creative Arts team for putting together such a fantastic show!

Take a look at our Wizard Of Oz photo gallery here.

PE Block

Block 7, Week 4

This week we completed our BISL Olympics events, across secondary school PE lessons and Sports Day.

Last Thursday, we held our Secondary Sports Day and here are the results from the respective events:

YEAR 7

Sprint

• 3rd: Katarina - 6.28 seconds
• 2nd: Haruki - 6.26 seconds
• 1st: Romina - 6.04 seconds

Relay Winners

• Filip
• Shaun
• John David
• Elizaveta
• Romina

Long Jump

• 3rd: Haruki - 3.20m
• 2nd: Romina - 3.42m
• 1st: Dalen - 3.46m

YEAR 8

Sprint

• 3rd: Tikhon - 6.39 seconds
• 2nd: Adrian - 6.01 seconds
• 1st: Peter N - 5.93 seconds

Long Jump

• 3rd: Domen - 2.91m
• T=2nd: Aleksander & Tian - 2.93m
• 1st: Adrian - 3.16m

Relay Winners

• Tian
• Adrian
• Maša
• Taj
• Emma

YEAR 9 & 10

Y9 Long Jump

• 3rd: Filip - 2.91m
• 2nd: Dominik - 3.01m
• 1st: Nikola - 3.09m

Y10 Long Jump

• 3rd: Aleksander - 3.58m
• 2nd: Andraž - 3.68m
• 1st: Georgi - 3.90m

Y9 Sprint

• 3rd: Abdulla - 5.75 secs
• 2nd: Filip - 5.62 secs
• 1st: Dominik - 5.60 secs

Y10 Sprint

• 3rd: Petr - 5.76 secs
• T=2nd: Aleksander & Jon - 5.50 secs
• T=1st: Andraž & Georgi - 5.40 secs

Y9 & Y10 Combined Relay Winners

• Jon
• Martin
• Nikolas
• Dominik
• Višnja

Here are the current BISL Olympics scores - across the whole school (correct as of 22/06/22):

• Zircon: 602
• Sapphire: 655
• Emerald: 661
• Hessonite: 712

A huge thank you to all students for their effort and application across PE lessons this year!

PE Team

English News

Year 7: While Year 7B worked on writing ballads, Year Year 7A held the trial of Matthew Weeks, who was accused of murdering his lover Charlotte Dymond.

Year 8: Year 8 concluded their reading of Willy Russell's 'Blood Brothers'. They reflected on what they had learnt from the play and considered whether the themes of inequality and social responsibility were still relevant to us today. As a reward for their hard work throughout the year (and prompted by a discussion on British cuisine which took place during an English lesson), 8A got the chance to bake and sample a British classic - the scone. It was hot work in the kitchen but based on student feedback it seems fair to say that British food isn't all bad.

Year 9: Year 9 reached the heartbreaking conclusion of the literary classic 'Of Mice and Men'. Together they explored the themes of isolation and disappointment that run through the novel and connected these with Steinbeck's overall attitude towards the idea of the American Dream. They also carried out a mock trial for Lennie in which every student had a role to play. The process was competently overseen by a student judge, witnesses were grilled by lawyers and a select jury returned the verdict at the end of the day.

Year 10: Year 10 have now reached the end of an academically challenging year. They concluded their poetry unit having read, discussed, analysed and annotated fifteen very different poems. This week was spent wrapping things up and revisiting some poems in greater depth. Students prepared presentations for their peers to expand upon our earlier ideas and to fill in any gaps that had been missed. They are now well prepared and well equipped for further study in Year 11. Hopefully students are looking forward to some relaxed summer reading with Adichie's 'Purple Hibiscus'.

Mr Fordham, Mr. Wilkins, Mr. Staines, Mr Siter and Mr. Eve - English Department

Maths News

Years 7, 8 and 10 students concluded with the end of year maths projects - becoming a teacher for one day. We have seen amazing, creative, and detailed lessons that were nothing short of outstanding.

The students also engaged in an activity called Escape room - where the objective was to find and connect relevant clues, solve the mystery and escape the room. Excellent team work was displayed, as all classes successfully escaped. Well done!

For their final maths lesson, they played a round of Mathonopoly, a fun activity where you 'buy' and solve equations, instead of real-estate properties.

In Mathematics this week, the Year 9 students were proud to demonstrate their understanding of Pythagoras and Trigonometry through their Mathematics projects. The students found examples in the Woodland area and proved all of the measurements. It was great to see their Mathematics used practically and the presentations were excellent! Well done Year 9!

The Maths department wishes the students a fun and relaxing summer break. We will see you again in August, with new maths themed challenges.

Mathematics Department

MFL News

Our Secondary students have been revising topics we have done in this school year. Students became teachers for a day. They presented their favourite topics to others in class. It was nice to see their eagerness and willingness to teach others and share any wonderful ideas they might have had. It was quite challenging to prepare everything, but they did a fantastic job.

Well done Secondary students! Zdaj pa na počitnice.

In Y7 Slovene Advanced lessons the students are working on a radio drama text “Zakaj avto zjutraj noče vžgati?” by Alenka Goljevšček. The aim is to use their voices and sound effects (made by the students) to replace the visual side of drama. We are looking forward to their final pieces!

Ms Kotnik, MFL Coordinator

We look forward to seeing all of our returning and incoming families at Orientation Day on Friday August 19 ahead of the start of the academic year!

We look forward to seeing all of our returning and incoming families at Orientation Day on Friday August 19 ahead of the start of the academic year!

Dear Parents,

My last update as Principal...

We've enjoyed an excellent finish to the year and I'd like to thank everyone for your continued support throughout this year. It has been amazing to see our students during the last week with so much excitement and really enjoying being at school. They are happy, joyful and still full of so much energy!

Congratulations to everyone involved in the Wizard of Oz production, this was superb. An amazing event of the highest-quality and a great way in which to finish the academic year! Thank you to Ms Hawkins, Mr Hulse, Ms Predan, Ms Blundell, all staff involved, Mr Kravanja for his work on the stage/props and everyone who supported the show. Parents have been brilliant, thank you to those that attended and a special, final thank you and well done to the students! You were fantastic!!!

I am very proud to see so many opportunities for the students performing together and enjoying using the Performance Theatre, it has made a huge positive difference to our community.

Another congratulations to all students for doing so well in the PTE/PTM tests. We have presented over 70 awards for progress and attainment this week and the students have excelled again. These standardised tests are assessed outside of the school and the trends are clear to see, our students in BISL are performing significantly above the UK and international thresholds. This is a real testament to the hard work from the teachers and students from Early Years through to Year 9.

This week we have enjoyed our Primary Sports Day, EY Transition Day, Staff vs Students Volleyball and the finale of the BISL Olympics. A great way to finish the transition presentation series and our PE block.

The main picture in my update is the annual tradition of placing the plaque of graduates on our Alumni wall. Something I look forward to with Mr Batson each year as we reminisce and talk through our graduates from BISL, we are proud of each and every one of them.

A quick reminder regarding our Summer School, please look out for the upcoming photos to be shared on our social media from Monday 4th July to Friday 15th July.

Please click here for the events coming up in August and save the date for Friday 19th of August for the Orientation Day for the 2022/23 Academic Year.

Finally, a personal thank you to all parents for everything you have done over the past 4 years, I really appreciate it.

I am sad to finally leave but very happy as I have thoroughly enjoyed working at BISL and the school is in a very strong position moving forward. We have such caring, professional teachers, wonderful supportive parents and amazing, talented students. We've developed our facilities, the quality of education provided and now have even more events for students to get involved in. Looking back, I feel a sense of pride of what we have all achieved together, it has all been worthwhile and I leave with fond memories, great moments from our students, with a smile on my face…

Please read my full Update from the Principal here for details, photos and links.

Have a wonderful summer and I wish you all the very best for the future!

Kind regards,

Paul Walton

Principal

All upcoming events and details are available on our website.