Secondary News - March 11th

Block 5 Week 4

Students continue to complete assessments for KS3 and Year 10 and their preparations for next week’s mocks examinations for Year 11 and KS5. There is certainly a lot of dedication and commitment currently from students as they have only one and a half months to go to prepare for their final examinations. It is timely, then, that parent interviews have been scheduled over the next two weeks, so that parents can speak directly to teachers regarding their child’s progress. I encourage all parents to please log into theschoolcloud system to book online interviews for their children. An email was sent with all the details. Bookings close this Sunday, 13^th March at 16:00.

Also, this week saw the celebration of International Woman’s Day, with roses being passed out and launch of the Spelling Bee in Secondary as a part of the English block events. It is great to see students engaging in these discussions around English during breaks, in corridors and on the way to lessons.

Looking ahead to the block break, the Year 11 to 13 students already have further booster sessions arranged to focus on target areas raised throughout the upcoming mock examination process. With such a short amount of time left before the main examinations, we want to be sure that students have every opportunity to make progress in these final weeks. Students are encouraged to continue speaking to teachers and Mr Batson for more information.

Have a wonderful weekend, enjoying the slightly warmer weather!

Stephanie Andronikos

Head of Secondary

English Block

English News:

As part of English Block, our Year 8 and Year 9 students recorded readings of various children's books, which are available in our book basket with QR codes for our younger students to listen to while flipping through the book itself, fostering that all-important love of reading. Our Year 1s have already listened to some of the stories read by the Year 9s - and they approve!

Year 7: Year 7 explored various aspects of English writing. Year 7A learned how to identify different elements of a sentence and some general punctuation rules in forming sentences. 7B worked on a piece of creative writing from the perspective of an animal who is suffering some kind of mistreatment.

Year 8: Year 8 enjoyed some creative writing activities such as experiencing a 10 second moment then recreating it using a variety of different atmospheres.

Year 9: Year 9 read and analysed World War I poetry such as Wilfred Owen’s “Dulce et Decorum est”

Year 10: Year 10 looked at describing characters from the perspective of various pieces of art and later explored punctuation with a piece about penguins and alpacapillars!

Year 11: Year 11 continued with their revision on different questions from the Literature paper based on their study of “The Crucible”

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

MFL News

Slovene News

Year 7 have been working in pairs and groups a lot this week. Students discussed their daily free time which is different each day. The main task was to write a dialogue about it. They created and presented a wide range of dialogues. Some of them were pretty funny and made us laugh! They enjoyed the activity as you can see in the photos below. Take a look.

Zelo dobro 7. razred.

This week Year 9 started with reading a book called A Song Only I Can Hear by Barry Jonsberg.

It follows a journey of discovery for thirteen year old Rob Fitzgerald. Rob only has a few people in his life - his friend Andrew, his grandad and his parents. He loves Shakespeare, gets panic attacks, doesn't talk in front of a crowd, and doesn't do sport. All this changes when someone steps into his life. Who? Well, you need to ask Year 9.

French News

After weeks of exams and revision, it is time to learn new things! This week in French, we learnt about the facilities we can have in our cities, as well as the rooms and objects in the house, and also, holidays activities. All of this is always followed by learning games, especially the classic one: touch the board! Congratulations to all Secondary students working so hard in French. Their progress is impressive and their engagement is fantastic.

MFL team

Maths News

Year 7 students learnt how to identify the term-to-term rule of a sequence and refined their overall knowledge of sequences through team work and a game show.

Year 8 students compared their results of an experiment involving a 20-sided die with theoretical probability. They saw that with lots and lots of new trials, the experimental probability is getting closer to the theoretical value.

Year 10 students extended their knowledge of converting metric units by researching the largest and smallest units of length in space, as well as connecting the origins of the metric system with the French revolution idea.

Year 11 students recalled all transformations and learnt about negative enlargement and conditional probability. In preparations for their mocks, the students collected all their knowledge in a chapter summary document.

Year 12 students connected the idea of definite integration with calculating the area bounded by a curve and x-axis and demonstrated solid integration skills.

Maths mistake of the week:

Well done to Dalen from 7B and Tian from 8A who correctly identified the transformation mistake and earned 2 HP each!

Do not miss new mistakes published next week, in front of room 316.

Ms Zupanc, Mathematics Teacher

PE News:

During PE lessons this week, students continued working on their new practical sporting units, developing the fundamental skills required when playing striking and fielding games. Years 7 & 8 continued on their kickball unit, focusing on the key components of kicking the ball into space and running efficiently around the bases. Year 9 began their Danish longball unit, looking at the techniques involved when batting and fielding, whilst Year 10 developed their rounders skills, focusing on finding space when batting, whilst Year 11 were also introduced to Danish Longball.

Mr Hayes, PE Teacher

Science News:

Y7 students used a microscope to carry out their practical lesson. They investigated their own cheek cells. They took a sample of their cells, stained them with methylene blue and viewed them under a microscope. They clearly saw the cell membrane, cytoplasm, and nuclei.

Y8 students started to learn about electromagnets this week, so they decided to make one themselves. They took a copper wire which they then wrapped around an iron nail. They turned the electromagnet on by connecting it to the power supply. With the help of induced magnetic field, they were able to pick up some paper clips.

Year 10 Biology students were learning about structures in the skin that are involved with the process of homeostasis. They could spot some cool patterns through the microscopes. Do you think you would be able to name the components seen in the picture below?

This week’s practical work began with year 12's practicing the practical paper once again to prepare for the practical in the summer. They investigated rates of reaction for the reaction between sodium thiosulphate and hydrochloric acid and investigated unknown cations and anions in a compound.

Science Department

MEPI News:

The students were split into two teams and collected all necessary information for our Škofja Loka trip this Saturday via Jamboard. All participant were aware of exactly what to bring and be prepared for a day's hike, including weather, clothing, food, first aid etc. After, they continued with their route planning for the fast approaching practise expedition and edited their activity logs in the Online Record Book. The students have been displaying motivation and drive to achieve their personal goals and we are looking forward to see their future progress.

Ms Zupanc and the MEPI team

Student Voice: Class Trip to Woop! Arena

Year 8A had a fantastic trip to the Woop! Arena last Friday, which they thoroughly enjoyed. Here's a fun recount of the day's events from two of our students - read it here.

Teacher Feature - Ms Rismondo

This week's Teacher Feature shines the spotlight on our wonderful School Nurse, Ms Teja Rismondo.

Read Ms Rismondo’s Teacher Feature here.

International Days - Mark Your Calendars

One of our biggest family events, organised in partnership with the PTA, this year’s International Days will take place between Thursday May 12 - Friday May 13.

There will be a variety of cultural and educational activities, stalls, traditional dress, flags, international cuisine, games and performances for our community to enjoy.

As many of you potentially head home for the block break, please keep this event in mind, and bring back any traditional items you’d like to display on your country stall.

If you would like to get involved in the event by having a stall at Friday’s fair to represent your country, please contact pta@britishschool.si.

For more details, please click here.

BISL Summer School 2022

With summer just around the corner, registration is now open for BISL Summer School 2022!

Click here for details.

Dear Parents,

With sunshine, no masks and lots going on, it's been a great week at school for our staff and students at BISL!

We look forward to warmer mornings, more outdoor activities and trips over the coming months. Seeing the smiling faces of students in the building, in lessons and enjoying being another step back to normal has been a real treat for us all.

Thank you to all parents for joining the 'Coffee with the new Principal' last Friday, it was a great event and I am very happy that BISL will be in safe hands in the future when I leave in the summer.

We also have celebrated International Women's Day here this week and we have presented all women with a rose and very much appreciate all that they do every day!

This term we finish with another celebration of growth as the school will be the biggest it has ever been next month! This is a remarkable achievement in the current climate and I'd like to thank every member of the community for your ongoing support as we continue to grow stronger as a school. This creates more opportunities for our students with events, sports, teams and fixtures and I am personally very proud and absolutely delighted with this ongoing success!

Thank you to all families for your support with donations and our fundraising projects, it has been amazing to see how the community has come together and the amount of kindness, thought and care shown towards others has been truly overwhelming.

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

Have a lovely weekend!

Kind regards,

Paul Walton

Principal

All upcoming events and details are available on our website.