Secondary News - 24. marec 2020 drugi del

This week began with the final assembly for the Term led by Mr Newsham, discussing World Book Day and the many classic pieces of literature in history that are a ‘must read’. Books such as To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck or Hamlet by William Shakespeare are among some of the most significant pieces of literature that made a profound impact. He also shared some of the most favourite books of students and teachers, demonstrating that everyone, depending on their preference of genre, enjoys books in various ways. He urges students to contribute their own piece of writing this block, by competing in the writing competition- due week 5.

This week as emailed to families, there have been many updates regarding the Coronavirus. The latest arriving on Thursday this week from the Principal, stating that the school will suspend the access to the premises for students from Monday 16^th March. Currently, all classes have prepared and communicated about ‘distance learning’ at BISL. Links to the digital diary have been sent to all families, as well as teachers emailing work directly to students and parents. All teachers will be working to provide students with set activities to continue their education and provide them with feedback. Click here to see just a few of the benefits of distance learning.

I hope that all families stay healthy and safe during this time, and I urge students to make direct contact with teachers via email should they require any assistance or clarification with their work.

Mrs Stephanie Andronikos

Head of Secondary

Dear Parents,

Thank you for your support, patience and understanding this week as we have all faced a very difficult time. I hope all families are safe and well. 4 updates have been sent out during this week on 'Reduction of Large School Events', 'Guidance on Health Advice/Communication' and also the actions we have taken in 'Stage 2' of our 3 stage plan. Last night, we have sent out a fourth update confirming the suspension of access to the premises for students for 14 days starting Monday 16th March.

Our distance learning is also now up and running and all parents and students have received work set and provision for learning continues for our students. The school will continue to provide education via email from class teachers to parents during any absence and students can contact teachers directly if they have any questions about what they have to do.

The school continues to monitor the COVID-19 situation daily and updates will be sent out through email in the first instance. General or optional updates will be available on our Facebook and Website platforms. During this time please read through the BISL Health Advice pagewhich includes information about the virus, symptoms and links and advice.

Any parent, staff member or child showing symptoms should stay at home, contact the numbers provided and follow the information online.

The National Institute of Public Health (NIPH) has set up a contact phone number, 080 14 04, which the public can call daily from 8.00 am to 8.00 pm to obtain all available information and advice in the event of any suspicion of infection with the coronavirus. More information is available here.

Please check your email on a regular basis and also check that school messages are arriving and that your inbox has enough space.

Kind regards,

Mr Paul Walton

Principal

This week we would like to share pieces written by Asia and Ole of Year 9 and congratulate Jasmina in Yr 9 for her winning the Science student of the week certificate in recognition of her great work this term.

This Thursday was world book day and, as part of our ongoing English theme block, BISL are encouraging all students to develop their love of reading over the next few weeks. Mr. Newsham spoke to secondary students and teachers to ask them to identify books that have been important to them. Ivan in Year 12 chose Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, saying: 'the novel explores the ideas of conscience and gives the reader an extremely deep insight into Raskolnikov's mind.' Meanwhile, Caterina, in Year 13 chose Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury: a novel which deals with a dystopian society in which books are banned and any which are found are burnt.

The teachers too shared a diverse range of favourite books. Ms. Dascalescu chose Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Mr. Batson chose Heresy by S.J. Paris, and Mr. Eve identified A Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.

Over the next few weeks, students are encouraged to read as many new books as possible. These can be novels, collections of poetry or short stories, or even nonfiction. The more that students read, the better!

Mr Newsham

Head of English

Year 7 while exploring the concept of "thinking outside the box" this block, have found a cause they would like to share with everyone.

As we all know, deforestation and plastic pollution are really big problems in today's society.

If you are a Google Chrome user and you want to contribute to helping in a simple yet effective way you can download chrome extensions, called Oceanhero and Ecosia. Oceanhero is a organisation which pulls out a pound of plastic out of the ocean every 5 searches you make.Ecosia is an organisation that plants a tree every 45 searches. Please help our environment by downloading these two extensions. Best of all it's free.

By Leeloo and Ema

on behalf of Yr 7

The secondary artwork representing the 4 school values has been collected and it's clear a lot of hard work went into the ideas execution of these designs. These designs will be displayed on the school values wall in the hallway by the music department.Thank you to all those who took part.

The big question is... which images will Primary students and staff choose to represent these values? Primary students will get the chance to vote digitally. Stand by for the winners to be announced!

We are very excited as our new building moves into its next stage of development.

In this stage, the steel structure will be completed, concrete will be poured and the Woodland area extension will be cleared.

As a community, we are delighted about this building as it will transform the learning experience that our students and staff will have. The new building will be the central focal point of our campus and has been designed as a student hub to impress and reflect our value of ‘Excellence’ at school.

Read the whole article HERE.

Mr Paul Walton

Principal

Welcome back everyone!

The third week- we are right in the middle of the block, but don’t worry! We are almost there. This week, many students and parents alike have been rather distressed and apprehensive as to what will happen if the school has decided to close due the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. I urge you not to fear, as the school in addition to all members of staff have thoroughly structured and implemented a form of ‘distance learning’, utilising using web platforms and services such as Google Classroom, which enable both students and teachers to create, distribute, and learn situated in the comfort of your own homes, therefore ensuring that having the school close down will not exacerbate any students’ performance and or comprehension of any subjects or topics. Many of you may be wondering or still be incredulous to ‘distance learning’ and if it can truly be executed in a manner that will most efficiently support students. Distance education or distance learning is the education of students who may not always be physically present at a school.

Traditionally, this usually involved correspondence courses in which the student corresponds with the school via post. Today, it involves online education. It is imperative to take this rather unfortunate circumstance if it does happen to materialise, and turn it into as much of a benefit as possible. Hence, my inclusion for tips on how to effectuate distance learning; Creating a timetable is quite evidently essential, as it makes sure you understand how and where you want to allocate your time. Thankfully, you will most likely still be on the same school timetable if you are to study at home, and teachers will inform you of when you should complete tasks. Asking your teachers for help via email is also very important as it ensures you understand each topic. And most importantly, use this time to get some rest! A goodnight’s rest will ensure you are able to efficiently and effectively study the next day!

Max

Y10

Extinction - How we cause it

What is extinction?

In biology, extinction is the disappearance of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds, usually a species. Extinction occurs when a species has not been seen or sighted for a specific period of time. The moment a species becomes extinct is usually thought of as the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point.

What are the main current causes of extinction?

The top three reasons for extinction are:

1. Destruction of Habitat
2. Pollution
3. Over Hunting

So what does this show us?

Out of the top 3 current causes of extinction, all three of them are caused by humans. This shows us that extinction is the legacy we are leaving behind, as humans. The carelessness we show when it comes to the subject of protecting our Earth and its fellow inhabitants.

Deforestation

Deforestation is currently the biggest cause of extinction. It has killed off more species than we can count. Whole ecosystems live in our forests. It is predicted that all our rainforest can disappear in the next 100 years if we cannot stop deforestation. Again, deforestation is driven by the need for human comfort and the overpowering effect it has on the comfort of other creatures with whom we share the Earth.

Overhunting

The ivory of elephants, the fur and organs of tigers, the deliciousness of tuna and the medicinal effect of shark's fin are some examples of why we have over hunted these animals to the point of extinction. And we keep falling to belief that these things will bring us some sort of material happiness, but in the end it brings danger to our home, our Earth. A lot of people might consider that the threat of overhunting only relates to exotic animals like the ones I listed above (elephants, tigers, etc.), but in fact overhunting/fishing is far more widespread than we believe. Overfishing occurs when more fish are being caught, than the population can replace. This affects food webs leading to the degradation of ecosystems. The scariest part is that currently, overhunting might be affecting only animals, but in the future its effects might spread onto humans as well.

Overhunting/fishing will cause inconsistent levels of animals in ecosystems, which means that produce levels will go down, ultimately meaning a loss of jobs for people. Which means that not only are we directly hurting animals to the point of extinction, but we also indirectly hurt ourselves and our future generations.

Pollution

Finally, probably the most known cause of extinction is pollution. When we introduce unnatural chemicals that contaminate our air, soil and seas, it interferes with the metabolism of animals and they are unable to survive. The most common toxins which contribute to pollution are: mercury, lead, sulphur dioxide, pesticides and herbicides, arsenic and chromium. In 1975, the National Academy of Sciences estimated that over 1 million seabirds and 100,000 sea mammals are killed by pollution every year, but keep in mind that this was 45 years ago, in which these numbers have grown to be quite terrifying. We all talk about pollution and we're all aware of it, but we CHOOSE to ignore it, we CHOOSE to put our needs, the human needs, over those of other living creatures. It is our choice to be egocentric. We are egocentric.

Asia, Year 9

Extinction - Causes

Air pollution is starting to get a major problem, according to scientists, it is worse than ever. People pollute the air everyday, the causes of air pollution can range from cars all the way to cows. Rising at such an uncontrollable rate it destroys everything in its path, according to AAAS, the carbon dioxide emissions from 2019 were 36.8 billion metric tons only from the industrial side and another 6.3 metric tons from agriculture and other human activities, these emissions clearly smashed the record set in 2018. Air pollution doesn’t stop there, as MassDEP mentioned in their article, it can affect the environment in many different ways including things such as acid rain, haze and eutrophication.

Land pollution is the probably most obvious form of pollution to the human eye, as we can literally see it everywhere, a great example would be littering. Mainly caused by either direct or indirect effects of human activities, or so at least stated by Conserve Energy Future. As causes of land pollution they expressed their concerns mainly to Deforestation, soil erosion and agricultural activities, but also other causes such as Nuclear waste and Sewage treatment are highlighted. As the Conservation Institute already makes quite clear, land pollution has drastic effects on the environment and the organisms living in it. Examples of these are likely to include effects such as ground water poisoning, water nutrient enrichment or even an increasing risk of wildfires.

Water pollution is the entering of unfamiliar substance to a water body, states WWF. The causes of water pollution are often quite clear, according to National Geographics in their article by Christina Nunez, causes of water pollution can range from legal to illegal disposal of factory waste. Accidental pollution such as wind or floods, that take plastic or any other everyday waste into the nearest bodies of water can also occur. The effects of water pollution can be drastic, this is also highlighted by Fair Planet. As 70% of the planet's surface is covered in water, pollution can destroy everything from contamination of drinking water, disruption of food chains and even destruction of aquatic life.

Ole, Year 9

As announced earlier, BISL is now accepting registrations for Summer Club 2020. Register here for securing your child’s place in our Summer Club programme.

This year's Summer Club at BISL will take place between 6th and 31st July.

Children aged 3 to 11 are invited to experience BISL during the summer, having great fun learning a variety of new skills through play, team-building activities, sports, and arts and crafts, all in an English-speaking environment.

Your child will enjoy their amazing summer adventure with children from various parts of the world, between 7:45 and 15:30 each day, under the watchful eye of our highly experienced mentors. Children are not required to have a high level of English proficiency as our mentors are qualified EAL teachers and will encourage and support your child to develop their English language skills throughout their time at Summer Club.

Summer Club is the perfect opportunity for your child to enhance their level of English the natural way, through total immersion, whilst socialising with their peers and having fun!

More information can be found HERE.

Registration is simple!

All you need to do is complete the registration form (below). You do have the option to add up to 3 children under the same registration, just follow the instructions in the form. You also have the option to apply for the full 4-week programme or individual weeks only. We are accepting registrations until 26th June.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at summer@britishschool.si or call +386 (0) 40 618 356, we will be happy to assist you.

Places are filling up quickly, so don’t delay!

When evaluating MEPI and The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award in general, many students might believe that it is merely an expendable hobby one does solely to increase their chances of getting into a good university, as it ‘looks good on my application.’ Although that may be true, if you truly scrutinise and appreciate what the programme stands for and aims to achieve, you will undoubtedly become conspicuous to MEPI’s benefits.

Read the whole article HERE.

Max, Year 10

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 present the link to the updated stock on our uniform shop.

Any information, as well as uniform samples (for sizing), are available in the admissions office.

Take a look at some previews of our updated items:

We are also happy to announce that new outfits will be introduced to the existing uniform, and more information on this will be shared shortly (hoodies, water bottles etc.)