Message from the Principal - 27 nov 2019 1

Dear reader,

As we have finished Block 1, I would like to thank all parents for your support and encouragement into this new academic year. It has been a very active, interesting and fun-packed start for the students here at BISL.

During this first 5 weeks, we have welcomed new, enthusiastic teachers to complement our existing strong group of staff. The start of school has been packed with energy, great opportunities for students and a wide range of experiences shared through our weekly newsletters and social media platforms. I am delighted for the start that we have made and excited for this term ahead. The students have all been amazing.

We have started by sharing all our curriculum plans out to parents via our website to show the courses and topics that will be covered throughout the year. These were presented at the curriculum evenings and available to anyone at any time through the curriculum plans page on our website. We have shared photographs throughout a range of lessons and tutor groups through Facebook and Instagram, showing how the students have settled into their lessons this block, engaged in their learning and creating new friendships.

I would like to thank all parents and members of the community for the way in which everyone handled the school closure day on Thursday 19th September. A decision was made to close the school as the local area was without water. Without the use of toilets, water to wash hands or clean, and for basic health and safety reasons, the decision was made early to close the school for the day. It was swiftly communicated out to all parents via Facebook, iSAMS, Classlist and SMS text message.

Our Adventure Days have been a huge success during this block, and I am extremely happy that our students have enjoyed such a wide variety of opportunities in the wonderful locations of Osilnica and Bovec. This is a fantastic opportunity for students to develop their communication, teambuilding and problem-solving skills along with having fun and growing further relationships with fellow students and teachers.

Our new ‘Theme Blocks’ have started with Maths and now move on to Humanities next. During the Maths block, our students have been involved in many activities including maths trails, cooking, art classes, number puzzles and competitions. Our Primary students had a morning of challenges led by Mr. Bishop and Mrs. Charlesworth and in the Secondary School, Mr. Batson produced a wall of questions and problems together with the Maths team for the students to try through week 4. Thank you to all staff, parents and students involved.

We are also celebrating a wonderful project that has started at school involving the MyMachine challenge, which will enable our students to work together with creativity and innovation to convert dreams into reality.

During this block break we have had new painting, science equipment and resources completed to further invest in our school. 9 new LED projectors in classrooms, 30 new display boards for student work and 20 new additional whiteboards around the school. Our new seating arrived for the Assembly Hall, with new movable tables and I am also delighted with the extra provision for Early Years care up to 4.30pm each day which was introduced through this block, enabling parents to pick up their children later.

Finally, all of this could not be possible without your reassuring help, time and dedication in what we do at school. It makes a huge difference for the students and I am personally appreciative to the families in our community for the excellent start to this year that we have had.

I hope you have a great Block 2!

Kind regards,

Paul Walton

Principal