Secondary News - January 21st 2022

Block 4 Week 2

A rapidly changing week this week with the Covid-19 cases on the rise and the measures changing quite a lot. The students have been very calm, understanding the situation and remaining grateful for every day, staying focused on their studies. The students should be commended for their efforts at the moment, with the Year 11 to 13 students receiving extensive feedback after their mock examinations as well as the Years 7 to 10 preparing busily for their Term 2 assessments.

Unfortunately, we were unable to host the IGCSE and A Level evenings as planned, however, information went out regarding the adapted format, and teachers will go into the Year 9 and 11 classes to fully talk through their subject options over the coming weeks. Students have the opportunity to peruse their options beforehand and prepare any questions that they would like to bring along for teachers. They are encouraged to fully talk through their options with their teachers to make the best choices for their future.

Student Appreciation Day was a lovely way to finish a busy week with the PTA bringing in cupcakes for the entire school. It was a lovely gesture from the PTA and greatly appreciated. The Year 7 and 8 students continued to go on their Winter Trip with Ms Fairchild, Ms Hawkins and Ms Tusar. A big thank you for these staff for attending this trip and hosting this day for our students.

Lastly, please ensure that the Update from the Principal is read carefully, as any updates from the school are communicated through here and via Form Tutors. We appreciate your patience, support, and flexibility at this time, as we navigate through these changes to try to ensure the safety of all above all.

Have a lovely weekend.

Stephanie Andronikos

Head of Secondary

Languages Block

In line with the celebration of Language block Y10 Slovene Adv. explored the topic Where can languages take me? They made posters with many interesting facts e.g. importance of languages in economy, which language is good to know and why and how it affects our brain.

This week Y9 Slovene Advanced and Foundation had some fun with the "Chocolate milk" activity. While drinking chocolate milk they had to prepare a dialogue in Slovene and act it out in front of the class.

It turned out that not only we have some great teachers in our class but great learners as well.

Slovene department

French News

Another week of brand new opportunities! This wee, students were learning about music styles, the imperfect tense, and the weather. To help them remember, we have installed a new display in the corridor where students can change the weather daily. So.... “Quel temps fait-il aujourd'hui?” Well done to all language learners for being engaged and motivated to give their best!

We also wish all the luck to our Year 11 students, who worked very hard to achieve good grades for their Mock examinations. Courage!

Ms Tatil

French teacher

Maths News:

Key stage 3 students learnt how to calculate the area and perimeter of various shapes. Year 7 students calculated how many tins of paint would be needed to paint our classroom and challenged their classmates by creating questions about compound shapes made out of rectangles, squares and right angle triangles.

Year 8 students designed detailed strategy posters for calculating the area and perimeter of shapes, and worked collaboratively to practise the use of formulae.

Year 10 students successfully recalled key concepts of straight line graphs through brainstorming activites, Quizziz and worksheets.

Year 11 and 12 students continue to approach upcoming examinations with determination and drive, as they received positive feedback from mock exams. They retained so many concepts from the past two years and they are commended for it.

Maths mistake of the week:

Well done to several year 7 and 8 students who correctly identified the mistake involving the circumference of a circle: The diameter is twice the length of a radius and cannot be used in the formula for area directly.

Make sure you find new mistakes being published next week, in front of room 316.

Ms Zupanc

Mathematics Teacher

PE News:

This week we continued to develop our understanding of the theoretical aspects of PE, completing some sports knowledge tasks, before moving on to our new sporting units. Year 7 began their basketball block by learning the fundamental skills of passing, dribbling and shooting, whilst Year 8 began their handball unit. Year 9’s were introduced to the basic rules and practices when playing floor hockey, with Year 10 beginning their ultimate frisbee unit and Year 11’s focusing on designing and playing their own tactical games.

Also, Year 7s & 8s were off on their Winter Adventure Day!

Mr Hayes

PE Teacher

Science News:

This week, Year 8B students completed a practical on investigating light dispersion using a light box and a prism. They saw white light disperse into a whole spectrum of colours – rainbow. Valentin from Year 8 also managed to create a rainbow – this time in a completely different manner, as part of the science experiments club, creating a palette of colours by altering how acidic or alkaline a solution is with the help of hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide.

Ms Tušar, Mr MacNeill, Mr Stanič, Ms Prohart Strmčnik

Science Department

English News:

Year 7: Year 7B were introduced to Emotive language as they began a Unit of work on poetry and articles focusing on making us feel angry and sad about some examples of cruelty to animals. This week we highlighted the plight of Dancing Bears.

Year 8: Year 8 worked on creating interviews with Connor and the Monster from the story “A monster calls” about Connor’s emotions and how he felt about the situation with his mother.

Year 9: Year 9 looked at the way writers used emotions in the presentation of characters. Students needed to find ways to describe the body language and semiotics of a hero from a poster.

Year 10: Year 10 worked on learning language paper 1 skills such as skimming and scanning summary writing.

Year 11: Year 11 continued their revision of Mock Exams in English Language and also in English Literature. The wrote a report on the increasing use of AI in education.

Year 12: Year 12 drew colourful pictures to illustrate the meaning of Owen Shears’s memorial poem “On going.”

Mr Fordham, Mr. Wilkins, Mr. Staines, Mr Siter and Mr. Eve 

English Department

MEPI News:

Last week our MEPI participants showed their community spirit by utilizing the time normally spent on our regular meetings to volunteer their services in the school library. This week, however, was ‘back to business’ as far as Expedition Training goes. A 7.5 km walk in Škofja Loka is on the MEPI (and School) Calendar for Saturday 12th March this year. Instead of producing a route card for the journey, the process was ‘reversed engineered’ this time. Our participants were given a very detailed route plan, and had to plot the route onto the map. They will use these resources on the day!

Also a reminder that 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

Teacher Feature

We are continuing our Teacher Feature series this week with Ms Rachel Burtrand, our Computer Science Teacher.

Read Ms Burtrand’s Teacher Feature here.

Computational Thinking, Problem Solving and Fun! - Computer Science at BISL

Our students have the opportunity to learn vital skills with the new Computer Science curriculum that promotes problem-solving, critical thinking and collaboration. It is exciting, challenging and more importantly, Fun!

Take a look at what our students have been up to here.

Student Voice: Road Safety Statistics

Continuing our Road Safety Series, here's another informative piece from one of our responsible Year 8 students, encouraging everyone to stay safe on the roads.

Read it here.

Dear Parents,

Happy Student Appreciation Day!

We finish the week on a positive note with a celebration of our wonderful students at the British International School of Ljubljana. Thank you to parents for your support with this event and also to the PTA parent volunteers who have helped out with giving our students fantastic cupcakes today!

The purpose of the day is to appreciate and value every single student in the school and we do this by writing a personal note, presenting this to everyone, celebrating their successes and highlighting what makes everyone uniquely special. We have amazing students here at BISL!

Today, we also wish our Secondary Students a fantastic trip to Vogel as they will enjoy a great day of skiing, snowboarding, ice skating and snowshoeing, fingers crossed the weather is excellent and conditions are fabulous for everyone involved. Thank you to Miss Fairchild and the team for organising this event and to the staff on the trip. I can't wait to see the fantastic pictures on Facebook of our students enjoying the slopes!

We've had some excellent opportunities for students to develop their programming and problem-solving skills and I have included an article below showing what our students have been involved in and the new Computer Science curriculum they are following. The new skills they have experienced are vital and we look forward to more exciting LEGO projects!

This week we've had a lot of changes to the Covid guidance from the ministry and we are doing our very best to keep up with everything. I would like to personally apologise to the community for the amount of changes and confirmations we have had to communicate via email, it is something that can be improved. It is incredibly difficult for all schools at the moment and I can reassure you that we are trying our very best as a team to provide the safest environment possible. The whole staff have been amazing with their flexibility, patience and care for students during this time and often go above and beyond. This week I am very grateful for the help of parents who have personally contacted me to help with changes as they have been announced, communicated and implemented in real time, it is very much appreciated. The timing of the changes have been tough for everyone to prepare for and we have to wait until guidance is confirmed before we adopt this in our school.

We follow the ministry guidance and try to prepare as many links and explanations for everyone to see the reasons and rationale behind this in our FAQ section in my full Update here. We all want the same thing - for the children to be safely in school, enjoying lessons and learning with one another. Thank you to everyone for helping us through a very difficult and challenging week.

I hope the number of daily positive cases will decrease soon and we can return to many events being held on site. My thoughts are with the families affected during this time and we send our best wishes to them for a swift and complete recovery.

Your support to our staff is very important and I thank you again for this. It makes a huge difference and I am very thankful for the great team we have here at BISL.

Please read the full Update from the Principal here.

Have a great weekend!

Kind regards,

Paul Walton

Principal

All upcoming events and details are available on our website.