Secondary News - February 18th 2022

Block 5 Week 1

Welcome to Block 5, the first of the two six-week blocks in the year. The Year 11 to 13 students have been very busy studying and preparing also over the block break, very aware that there are only around two months left before examinations are upon them. Mr Batson has emailed out this week regarding their preparation and another round of Mocks that will be held in the usual class times at the end of this block to continue to prepare students for these examinations. Teachers are doing everything they can to ensure that students are fully prepared for these this block.

Subject preferences are continuing to be confirmed by the Year 9 and Year 11 students. At BISL we have always designed the timetable every year around the preferences that these students submit and continue to do so currently. It isn’t always possible to accommodate every request, but we do appreciate your feedback and patience with this process. Choosing subjects can be quite a process for students and we aim to finalise them all by the end of this block.

Finally, I would like to announce to the community that this current school year will be my last as the Head of Secondary at BISL. I have accepted a leadership opportunity at another school. It has been a wonderful four years at BISL, having had the opportunity to teach all students from Years 7 to 11 in Mathematics before taking on my leadership role. I feel very fortunate to have had the privilege of working at BISL with the wonderful staff and students here, and I wish everyone all the very best for the future. Thank you for all the support over the years and I look forward to hearing of BISL going from strength to strength in years to come.

I wish everyone a restful weekend.

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 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 to all those who participated and I hope to see you participate in future competitions.

Mr Batson, Head of Mathematics, Head of Sixth Form

In an effort to provide sustainable and high-quality school uniform, we have partnered with Trutex as our School Uniform provider, with warehouses within the EU to make your uniform shopping experience all the more convenient.

For uniform requirements, our school code and to start shopping, please click here.

Our academic calendar for the next academic year 2022-2023 is now available on our website here.

The academic year will commence on Monday August 22, with Orientation Day taking place on Friday August 19.

English Block

English News:

Block 5 sees the start of the English block. We will be spending the next 6 weeks exploring the many reasons why English is such an important subject and reflecting on why we love it here at BISL.

A number of different events will take place including a spelling bee, a short story competition and some readings which will be played over the school tannoy. More will be announced over the coming weeks so be sure to keep an eye on the newsletter.

During week 2 students will have the opportunity to hear some book readings from their favourite teachers. This will take a virtual form and will require a device capable of reading QR codes and a pair of headphones. All will be explained next week!

BISL Flash Fiction Competition

What lies on this page is freedom, it is freefall from a mountain, and landing on warm marshmallows, it is a biological, neurological investigation: let your words tumble from your brain. It is your chance to be published. It is your chance to stand tall. It is your chance to write. Take only 100 words, select them carefully; they are precious grains of rice that together can form gold. Take only 100 words and give us a story, create a world, a universe, give us love and joy, sadness and despair, give us truth surrounded by illusion. May the best story win.

We are delighted to announce that in celebration of world book day BISL is running a flash fiction competition. The rules are simple: You have 100 words exactly (no more, no less) to write the best story you possibly can. You must use one of the words from the BISL values (Excellence · Respect · Responsibility · Integrity · Compassion) somewhere in your story, however, it is up to you how you use the word.

Entry closes: March 3rd 2022 at 3:40PM

Enter via the following google form:BISL Flash Fiction Competition

The 15 best will be published in the BISL flash fiction anthology that will be placed up in the library. And the best story from secondary and primary will receive a book token.

Year 7: Year 7B prepared speeches for a debate from the points of view of characters in the novel “Holes”, while 7A enjoyed some hilarious creative writing exercises, where they came up with some very surreal ideas indeed.

Year 8: Year 8 worked on creating a story containing exactly 100 words for the upcoming English block short story competition.

Year 9: Year 9 worked on their preparation for their upcoming assessment by looking at how to do an in-depth description from a movie poster including the significance of elements such as body language, colours and costume.

Year 10: Year 10 pracriced a paper from the iGSCE Language paper, both as a class and as an individual activity.

Year 11: Year 11 prepared for their assessment next week by working on a variety of tasks involving descriptive or narrative writing. They practiced writing narratives on a number of tasks including a story set on a Sunday Morning, in a shopping centre or in 2 different times.

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

English Department

In KS3 we started the block with new topics.

Y7 are learning about pronouns.

Y8 started working on the use of commas. Slovene use of commas is different to English; therefore, students are researching how commas affect Slovene texts and the meaning of sentences.

Y9 is exploring the period of Enlightenment and how it influences Slovenian texts.

Great start, everyone!

MFL team

Maths News:

Year 7 and 8 students investigated rotation and reflection through online transformation simulations. They used tracing paper to accurately rotate 2D objects about a given centre of rotation and direction.

Year 10 students shared study strategies and engaged in team building activities to solve problems involving similar shapes. They also created a detailed geometrical vocabulary booklet, a poster displaying the technique of constructing triangles, and a worksheet on maps and scales as a challenge their peers.

Year 11 students discovered trigonometric graphs through student led activities and learnt how to solve trigonometric equations using their graphs.

Year 12 students set up a Maths revision corner in the new building, displaying their study strategies and tips. They will have covered the final chapter of the syllabus, Integration, after their upcoming Term 2 assessment.

Math mistake of the week:

Well done to Naomi from 8B and Haruki from 7B for identifying the multiplication mistake and earning 2 house points each.

Do not forget to check out new mistakes next week, 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.

Take a look at our Winter Adventure Days recount from before the block break here!

Mr Hayes, PE Teacher

Science News:

During the first week back, students were occupied with revising and taking assessments, however that didn’t stop them from having some fun with experiments!

Year 9 students were learning about ways in which we can make salts. They further investigated the reaction between copper oxide and sulfuric acid to make dry copper sulphate crystals. They managed to get some beautifully shaped crystals - take a look!

Year 12s were trying to determine the acceleration of free fall using the motion of two connected masses.

The students have determined the free fall by attaching 2 masses connected by a string on a smooth pulley. In the end they also prepared a report and calculated the free fall by implementing the error analysis and propagation techniques like in real scientific research.

During chemistry lessons two of our Year 12s also performed an iodine clock reaction, which displays chemical kinetics in action. Two colourless solutions are mixed and at first there is no visible reaction. After a short time delay, the liquid suddenly turns to a shade of dark blue due to the formation of a triiodide–starch complex. Fascinating stuff indeed!

MEPI News:

This MEPI offering comes in two parts. The first is an account of a fantastic presentation from our Silver participant, Taja, to our Bronze level participants, and the second part is from the Bronze participants’ perspective, written by Zoja. Many thanks to both of you for your time and effort!

Mr Irving

MEPI Coordinator

“On Monday the 14th of February, I gave a presentation on the topic of setting the expedition goal to the current MEPI participants in order to help them with the process of determining their own goals. (As this can be quite a tricky task.)

During the presentation, we covered topics such as why we need an expedition goal in the first place, what is the structure of setting a goal. I provided some goal examples and talked more about how to present their expedition findings after the ‘Adventurous Journey’. We concluded the presentation by asking the students to come up with their own goal ideas together in smaller groups, in order to put the theory into practice.

I wish everyone a lot of luck in their future expeditions.”

Taja, MEPI Silver Participant

“This week we looked at what our goals could be for the expedition so that we would not just cross the finish line but also have a purpose for the expedition.

This goal could be to collect flowers along the way on our expedition and then make tea with them at the end, or possibly look at the architecture of the buildings, and take photos along the way.

We had an amazing presentation delivered to us by our year 11 participants, and we learned how to develop our goals. Later on, we were split into groups to brainstorm our ideas for goals that we would actually enjoy doing. The expedition would take 2 days, so our goal should be something that we all find fun in order to keep us interested!”

Zoja, Bronze MEPI Participant

Safer Internet Day at BISL

Safer Internet day at BISL in the secondary school this year was focused more on our mental & intellectual health. Students discussed what we mean by digital distraction and the disadvantages of this. They then took part in an experiment which showed that multitasking slows down our productivity rate significantly. In this case students were 5 times slower on average when multitasking than when they concentrated on one task at a time. Many students were then able to reflect on their own work practices concerning digital technology and multitasking.

Year 7 students have also just finished a unit of work on e-safety which saw them discussing digital dramas and thinking about how they can respond and communicate safely and respectfully online.

In all, Safer Internet Day is a good reminder about being safe and healthy with digital technology that we should be mindful of throughout the year.

For more tips on staying safe online, and how parents can support their children with this, take a look at the e-safety page on our website here.

Ms Burtrand, Computer Science Teacher

Coffee with the New Principal

During next month's online Coffee Morning, on Friday March 4 at 9am via Zoom, our parents will have the wonderful opportunity to hear from our incoming Principal, Mr Matthew Cox, who will be joining us on Zoom for a chat over coffee.

Join Coffee Morning

Save the above link in your calendars to join us!

Parent Appreciation Day - New Date

Please note that the date for Parent Appreciation Day has been moved to Friday April 8, to allow us to be able to host you all for a lovely breakfast together in the woodland area and celebrate our wonderful parents here at BISL - mark your calendars!

Pust Celebration

On Tuesday March 1 we’ll be celebrating Pust, where we do our part to help chase winter away with a colourful carnival of masks, fancy dress, and of course KROF (doughnuts)!

Ms Stephanie Andronikos has tendered her resignation from the Head of Secondary Position. She has accepted a leadership position elsewhere and we congratulate and thank her for her wonderful contribution to the development of BISL.

Dear Parents,

We have started a new block with a new theme - English - and are very excited to see the activities, competitions and projects ahead for our students to enjoy! This week we also celebrated Safer Internet Day across the school - look out for details in this Newsletter.

In my full Update I have included a link to the Block 4 Languages block round up. This was a fantastic celebration of languages across our first block of the Spring term with so many wonderful opportunities for our students to have fun, learn and work with one another. Thank you to all of the staff involved, especially our Head of Languages Ms Kotnik!

A date to note please is Friday 4th March, as this will be the first chance to speak to our new incoming Principal, Mr Matthew Cox. The format is planned for an online coffee morning and the link is included in my full Update. Mr Cox will also be speaking to our Student Council on Monday 28th February.

I would also like to thank parents for driving more carefully now during the morning drop off and afternoon pick up. We still need to continue working hard to ensure that all families are safe as we arrive at school. Thank you for supporting our Road Safety campaign, we've seen a range of wonderful articles from students, more awareness of driving slowly and an improved entry and exit of the car park.

Due to the current covid guidance, we have moved our Parent Appreciation Day to the first Friday of next term, Friday 8th April. This should enable a face to face gathering and a better opportunity for us to celebrate our fantastic parents and share the personal appreciation messages from our students.

Our uniform shop is now live, we have been eagerly awaiting this and it is fantastic news. More information about this can be found in my full Update.

Lastly, thank you to all parents for completing the Parent Survey, I will collate the results during the next week and share as normal the findings with you. I will also extract all positive comments for teachers and share these with the staff. Thank you again for taking your time to complete this. As a school, we always want to improve and this survey is one of the great tools to enable us to do that.

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

Have a great weekend!

Kind regards,

Paul Walton

Principal

All upcoming events and details are available on our website.