Secondary News - 28. feb 2020

This week the Year 9 students led the Secondary assembly, hosting a languages quiz with the entire Secondary school. It became rather competitive, with students having to select answers in teams to questions such as: What is the shortest alphabet in the world? Which country has the most official languages? It was interesting to see the students debating between their options and eventually the correct answers. Well done to the Year 9 students, the supportive languages staff and all the Secondary school for participating so well.

There are only two weeks left for Year 9 and Year 11 students to submit their subject preferences. Students in Year 11 are able to slightly refine options if they wish once IGCSE results are officially released. Please ensure that these forms come back to me so that I can begin considering subject groupings.

Also, this week Year 7 and 8 were the first cohorts to attend the annual winter ski trips. I was very pleased to hear of the great feedback from all the staff involved. Students had a wonderful day and thoroughly enjoyed their time skiing with each other. These times to cooperate, respect and be challenged outside of the classroom, is also critical for their persona development. A big thank you to the staff; Mr Damjan, Ms Maddison, Mr Collop and Ms Poulet, for taking our students.

There is a lot of illness going around, other than taking all the usual precautions, get plenty of rest and stay warm this weekend. Enjoy.

Stephanie Andronikos

Head of Secondary

Dear Parents,

We would like to inform all parents that seasonal flu is now present in Slovenia. The National Institute of Public Health is recording approximately 40% absence in Schools across the country. As from the available information the flu lasts up to a week.

Guidelines:

• Wash your hands regularly and keep your hands away from your face.
• If you see symptoms of flu (fever* or feeling feverish/chills, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, pain in muscles…) stay home from school and other public places until you are feeling better and your fever has been gone for at least 24 hours.
• Ask people living with you to talk to their doctors about preventing the flu.

Our uniform plays an important part in the school’s daily life and the wider community, as it encourages a sense of unity and common purpose; a particularly important consideration as we endeavour to welcome students from a wide variety of countries and provide them with a true sense of belonging.

We are very proud of the students and the way they wear their uniform, as that is often commented on by the visitors who are impressed with the high-quality presentation of our students.

Our uniform is and always will be a very important aspect of our School and our values. We are delighted to share the link to updated stock on our uniform shop.

A reminder that the Winter Ski Days over the next 2 Fridays at the Ski Resort of GROSSECK-SPEIERECK (Mauterndorf & St. Michael) will take place as follows:

• Friday 07.02.2020 (Year 9, Year 10)
• Friday 14.02.2020 (Year 11, Year 12, Year 13)

The first of our Winter Ski Days with Year 7 and 8 students is taking place today and we have just received this photo below via the wonders of technology!

Mr Anže Damjan

Head of PE

Last year, our Secondary students produced fantastic research, work and presentations on Environmental Science. This project was cross curricular and applied throughout year groups. It resulted in some brilliant displays of work, presentations and investigations. BISL students led Science week and invited parents into classes to share investigative findings and research on climate change. Year 9 students presented their work and delivered lessons to Primary students. These events raised awareness on climate change issues and responsible action to our younger students. Students then decided to have a ‘Green Day’ and were also invited to the Mayor’s office to discuss green policy in Ljubljana.

It is therefore great to see that environmental awareness has stayed with our Primary students, who have made this the predominant theme of their ideas put forward for the MyMachine project.

The selected ideas for MyMachine were:

• Carlota Y4 B - The Ocean Cleaner
• Ela Y3 - The Bin that Eats Rubbish
• Artem Y4B - A Circle that Shows Endangered Species (Extinction clock)

In preparation for the MyMachine Project, our Key Stage 3 students are using their Biology curriculum units to gain a deeper understanding of pollution and extinction. This will form the background research for this project. Students are studying how bad the problem of pollution and extinction is, as well as how these issues affect the Earth’s environment, ecosystems and food chains.

Science club and the MyMachine Project will shortly be producing articles for the newsletter and beginning Stage 2 of the project, which is Proof of Concept.

Students wishing to get involved with the MyMachine Project should go to the main lab on Thursdays at 14:45.

As part of this block's theme of Languages, Year 8A have been inspired to find some more fun facts and trivia about languages.

Year 7 have been discussing mental well being in form time and have been looking at different ways of promoting awareness and improving it in general. With this in mind, you may have noticed some encouraging and positive messages posted in various locations around the school to help others and promote well being for the day. Thanks Year 7.