Secondary News - February 4th 2022

Block 4 Week 5

The final week of Block 4 hosted the last celebrations from the Languages theme. Ms Kotnik and the MFL staff held a ‘Where in the World’ competition which had students guessing where staff had visited from some photographs displayed in the corridor as well the different languages they spoke in those places. Ahead of the 8th of February next week, the MFL staff also shared a presentation to students explaining the significance of the Slovenian Cultural Day: Prešeren Day. A big thank you must go to Ms Kotnik and the entire MFL team for sharing their love of languages this block! Please be sure to read the full Round Up that will be published on the website soon.

This week the Year 11 students had the teachers of all subjects in their class to discuss their A Level Options. Students are to submit their preferences to me by February 18th for them to inform subject groupings. Should students have any further questions regarding their subject options, they are encouraged to speak to their teachers. On Monday 7Th February, booster sessions have been arranged for examination years to work on specific areas with their teachers. As examinations are fast approaching, we are endeavouring to ensure students have as many opportunities as possible to work on the areas they need to improve. Mr Batson also had a number of Year 10 and 11 students working to complete a Mathematics competition this week closely linked to the IGCSE concepts, so this is another great example of how we are working to ensure students have many opportunities to practise concepts and demonstrate their knowledge.

The Year 11 to 13 students were the final cohorts to attend the Winter Trips this week. Thank you to Ms Prohart-Strmcnik and Mr Fordham for attending, and a special thank you to Ms Fairchild for her superb organisation of all of the Winter Trips this block. It was wonderful to see students attend these trips despite the current Covid-19 situation.

I wish all families a restful, but productive break, ready to return fully recharged for Block 5.

Kind regards,

Stephanie Andronikos

Head of Secondary

This week saw the second of our UKMT (United Kingdom Mathematics Trust) International online Mathematics competitions. The first competition, which was for the senior students (year 12 and 13), took place in November 2021. Our students were awarded two bronze, one silver and one gold certificate which was a fantastic achievement. This past Wednesday it was the turn of the year 10 and year 11 students and we wish them all the best of luck while they are waiting for their results. The next competition will happen on April 27th for members of Year 7, 8 and 9. For any students who wish to participate, they should see Mr Batson as soon as possible and join the preparation classes for this competition, which will happen on Mondays after school from 14:55 until 15:40 from February 14th. Well done all those who participated and I hope to see you participate in future competitions.

Mr Batson

Head of Mathematics, Head of Sixth Form

Languages Block

This week we celebrated Cultural Day (also called Prešeren"s Day). It is a public holiday celebrated in Slovenia on the 8th of February. It is marking the anniversary of the death of the Slovene national poet France Prešeren in 1849 and is the celebration of Slovenian culture. In Slovene lessons we reviewed our knowledge about the poet with quizzes, videos and making France Prešeren"s Facebook profile.

If you would like to join in celebrating Cultural Day, you can visit some museums, galleries or castles free of charge.

And lets not forget - understanding languages and other cultures builds bridges and our community can definitely confirm that.

Happy Cultural Day!

As the Language block came to an end we treated the students with some croissants and potica. Bon appetit and dober tek!

MFL team

Maths News:

Key stage 3 students investigated formulae through student led activities and enjoyed a formulae race game and solving a crime mystery.

Year 10 students mastered plotting straight line graphs and solving simultaneous equations graphically.

Year 11 students worked collaboratively to learn about symmetry in 3 dimensions and the difference between similar and congruent shapes.

Year 12 concluded the differentiation chapter by applying it to rates of change.

Maths mistake of the week:

Well done to Valentin from 8B and Ryan from 8A for recognising the mistakes and earning 6 and 2 points respectively.

Do not miss new mistakes after the block break on Monday, in front of room 316.

Ms Zupanc, Mathematics Teacher

PE News:

In our PE lessons this week, we continued to develop our understanding of international games in competitive, gameplay scenarios. Year 7 looked at attacking and defensive shape when playing basketball, whilst Year 8 focused on the importance of moving the ball quickly and accurately when playing handball. Year 9 focused on the technical aspects of floor hockey, with Year 10 developing their tactical appreciation of ultimate frisbee and Year 11 continued working on designing and playing their own tactical games.

Mr Hayes, PE Teacher

English News:

Year 7: Year 7 continued reading “Holes” by Louis Sachar while 7B also looked at a 19th Century poem called “Badger,” as we continued looking at emotive writing.

Year 8: Year 8 did a piece of writing for their Term 2 Assesment based on the book “A Monster Calls”

Year 10: Year 10 prepared some revision guides in the form of a poster, speech, Kahoot quiz, song or rap. Maria and Ema performed their magnificent rap live to the class as they battled against Mr Wilkins and Mr Eve who shared their own pieces.

Year 11: Year 11 continued their revision of the iGSCE English Language paper. They learned the best methods to tackle each question in the exam.

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

Science News:

Year 7s were introduced to neutralisation reactions. They were successful in making a rainbow of different coloured solutions. They achieved that by mixing universal indicator with different volumes of acid and alkali. Universal indicator exhibited a smooth colour change in solutions of different pH values.

Year 8s were experimenting with different coloured light and colour filters, whereas students from science club learned about health and safety in science laboratories.

The last week of the block was again a fairly busy one. During a chemistry lesson, our two Year 12 students investigated the concept of enthalpy. They measured temperature changes for displacement reaction between powdered zinc and aqueous copper sulphate. Y12 physics students also ended up handling thermometers, although during a completely non-related experiment. They tried to determine the specific heat capacity of water using a cooling curve. They approached this task by heating a small amount of water with a resistor while taking down the measurements of how the temperature of water was changing with time. With the help of calorimetry equations, they then managed to calculate the specific heat capacity of water.

MEPI News:

Taja of Year 13 writes here about her involvement in the MEPI programme.

“I enjoyed spending time with the newly joined MEPI participants during this Monday after school.

I was glad to see that the involved students were actively participating in the programme, each already doing activities towards their goal, and that they enjoyed taking part in the activities during the lesson, where we assessed our knowledge on map symbols through an online quiz.

Lastly, we finished off the meeting by completing a questionnaire on the topic of MEPI expeditions - for which the participants are preparing for in June this year.

I am excited to see where their MEPI journey ends up taking them and was happy to help and attend on Monday.

Taja, Y13

MEPI participant

After School Club news

The first BISL “Dungeons and Dragons” (D&D) campaign kicked off this week with our brave group of adventurers venturing into the mining settlement of Phandalin along the Sword Coast in search of gold, fame, revenge and power. In the next session, the party travels to Umbarge Hill, just south of Phandalin, to encourage the local midwife to abandon her windmill home due to increasing sightings of a White dragon. The dragon’s presence has forced other not-so-friendly wildlife out of the Sword Mountains, looking for new dens to call their home…

Mr Bradley

Head of Humanities

Teacher Feature Series

For our final Teacher Feature this block, we shine the spotlight on Mr Chuter, our brilliant Business and Economics teacher.

Read Mr Chuter’s Teacher Feature here.

Dear Parents,

We end the block with another Winter Adventure Trip and our Year 11, 12 and 13 students off to enjoy skiing and other fun activities in the snow. The students have had a great time over the past 3 weeks and the photos look stunning of the excellent conditions and glorious weather they have enjoyed!

Today is House Dress Down Day, as an all-through school we can't wait to celebrate together across the year groups and showcase our House pride!

A highlight of this week has seen our students completing their 'Mangahigh' competitions. We've seen some amazing contributions from all students and I am personally very impressed by the passion and dedication shown by our Primary students engaging in this game-based learning platform. They've had great fun!

Maths is a real strength at BISL and our staff continue to do a great job in encouraging and supporting students. I look forward to the end of year PTM (Progress Test in Maths) results again to recognise and celebrate the progress of every individual at school.

We've had a brilliant Languages block and look forward to our next topic of celebration which is English as we return after the block break. Thank you to our Languages team and everyone involved for celebrating languages, culture and internationalism over the past 5 weeks. I'd also like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a Happy Chinese New Year!

During the past 2 weeks our Secondary staff have completed the IGCSE and A level events for our Secondary School students, visiting classes and sharing information about courses for Year 10 through to Year 13. BISL offers a wide range of IGCSE and A level courses and I'd like to thank the amount of time and effort that everyone has put into this process so far with the personalised help and support for students.

Thank you to all parents who have filled in the Parent Survey, we really appreciate all of your feedback and as always I will pass on your positive comments to staff. Any kind word is gratefully received and makes a huge difference.

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

Have a great block break!

Kind regards,

Paul Walton

Principal

All upcoming events and details are available on our website.