Secondary News - Block 5

This block has seen many firsts for BISL, beginning as normal with PUST celebrations and a celebration of the English theme this block. However, as the world threat of Covid-19 grew, measures were inevitably taken under the guidance of the Slovenian Government, Ministry of Health and Orbital Education. For the first time ever, BISL moved completely to distance learning, which was an incredible team effort. Everyone introduced the use of various virtual learning environments including Zoom, Google hangouts, Google classrooms, Microsoft Teams and Canvas just to name a few. Both teachers and students had to organise themselves like never before to overcome the challenges of working from afar. Everyone has done a fine job though, knowing that students have over 100 virtual learning spaces created for them!! It isn’t easy for students to be 100% in control of one’s schedule, however, with support from teachers, family, and a bit of practice, each day students are going from strength to strength and partaking in the work provided for them. I continue to encourage a wealth of communication via the various platforms between students and teachers in these strange times- it is so important to still feel connected, despite the social distancing measures.

This block break, I do hope that families find a way to recharge and connect with each other, whilst looking out for further communication for Term 3. I wish families health and safety in these unprecedented times.

Miss Andronikos

Head of Secondary

Dear Parents,

Following on from the announcement from CAIE (Cambridge Assessment International Education) on Monday 23rd March 2020, there will be no official examination window held at the British International School of Ljubljana.

Students will receive grades and recognition for completing the courses of the subjects that they have studied. The grades will be determined and announced at a later date during this academic year. These grades will be awarded by the school. We are working very closely with our exam board to ensure that the grades will be accredited by Cambridge and accepted by universities.

To award the individual grades, the examination centres such as ours will require us to submit these in due course. As a school, we will award appropriate grades to the students following a structured, fair and robust evidence-based system that will be quality assured and moderated in line with CAIE guidance.

This system will rely upon a range of key data points that are identified to reflect an accurate assessment of each and every students’ progress and attainment at the end of the course.

We have the data collected from our CAT 4 testing, reports and ongoing teacher assessment of student work which will hopefully be taken into consideration. This system of assessment will also be based upon the students past performance in their mock examinations alongside their submitted estimated grades will be used to ascertain the grades that they will be awarded. It is therefore extremely important that they do ensure that they complete the work set to the best of their ability as if samples of their work are called for by the examinations boards then we will have the best examples to submit.

I would also like to use this occasion to remind the students that their end of year reports will now be very important for them as evidence of their school achievement. So I strongly advise that they ensure that they continue to fully engage with their teachers so that they can ensure that their efforts are reflected in these reports.

These are unprecedented times indeed and it will be the first occasion that grades have been awarded without students having to sit an externally set examination. It is therefore crucial that they are prepared for either sitting the examination or for any other form of assessment that will be reverted to.

We will announce further updates via email to keep you informed (latest news announced Thursday 26th March), once final guidance has been sent out by CAIE. Regardless of the outcome, what is of highest importance is the continuity and progression of learning for all our students.

Kind regards,

Mr Walton

Principal

Dear Students, Parents and Colleagues,

The PE Department will send out many videos during these testing times to give you workout ideas and to challenge and motivate you as well.

We would kindly ask you to take a video or photo while doing any of the exercises that will be published in DAILY/WEEKLY EXERCISES and share them with us in the DAILY WORKOUT (STUDENT UPLOADS).

Simply find the folder and upload a video/photo of the workout you have done.

Thank you for all of the contributions and wishing you good luck in all of the workout exercises/challenges.

3 Minute Workout

As we are coming to the end of block five all students are creating a presentation on Volleyball based on which they will be assessed.

Mr Damjan

PE Department

During those challenging times, Year 7 students stayed united. They continued helping and supporting each other exchanging messages on Google Classroom as well as on our common From chat and during our video conference. They showed great solidarity and have been demonstrating an exemplary commitment to their learning over these two weeks of distance learning. The students have been handed in high-quality work and kept being active and communicative with their teachers. I am very proud of their attitude, as they should be too.

Mrs Poulet, Year 7 Form Tutor

This week 8A have been working hard in English tackling reading comprehension and descriptive writing. We have also had interesting discussions on what books we are currently reading, as well as short term goals they we have set for ourselves

Mr Kirwan

Year 8A form tutor

Year 8B came together with Miss Clayton and Miss Maddison in a video conference to discuss how distance learning has been going so far. They shared positive experiences, saying that the online systems have been easy to use and the work set has kept them challenged. The form will continue to meet as a group multiple times a week to discuss progress in subjects and to help each other with classwork. As an 8B tradition, 'fact day' has continued and here is a truly fascinating entry this week from Maria: Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia is the phobia of long words.

Miss Clayton and Miss Maddison

Year 8B Form Tutors

Year 9 have had a challenging but productive two weeks. Using our form classroom space, Year 9 have submitted a daily update on work completed during Week 1. We kicked off Week 2 of distance learning with a video conference, where Year 9 raised their questions, suggestions and concerns before continuing with their favourite book presentations. Well done to Maks N, Mark, Uma and Filip for their outstanding contributions! We will have a second conference on Friday (27th March) to give Sasha, Jennifer and Maks the opportunity to present their books, offer a platform for Year 9 to raise further questions before Term ends, and last but not least, wish Felix a very happy birthday.

Miss Dascalescu, Yr 9 Form tutor

Under trying circumstances Year 10A have performed admirably. There have been excellent levels of engagement across all subjects and much of the work that has been produced has been of a very high standard. It has been a great first week of distance learning for 10A and it is important that we keep the momentum going. Mr Bradley sent an email to 10A last week explaining in detail how to engage in distance learning, what is expected of them and how we will continue to support them throughout this period. If any students or parents have any questions or concerns, then please email me (Mr Rogers) or Mr Bradley at any time. It’s been a fantastic start for 10A, let’s keep up the good work.

Mr Bradley and Mr Rogers

Over the past two weeks, year 10B have been brilliant in their organisation and shown excellent independence and hard work in completing their subject deadlines. 10B have been communicating every day with myself through emails and on google classroom. Mr Eve and I have emailed 10B by checking in on how they are doing and offering any support if they need it. Year 10B have shown progress in their online work, showing evidence of some brilliant class notes, answers and projects across their classes. Keep up the good work 10B and stay healthy!

Ms Ross, Year 10B Form tutor

Students of Y11 gave feedback about the first two weeks of Distance learning. They are fully aware that as students they now have more responsibilities to complete their work to the best of their ability.

They believe that as a student to be successful in distance learning, you have to have a certain level of discipline, organisation and an efficient time management system that enables you to get done tasks quickly and correctly.

Miss Kotnik

Year 11 Form Tutor

Well done to all Year 12 students who have continued to work well and have stepped up to the challenges of distance learning at this unprecedented time. It is a credit to these students' work ethic and determination that they have continued to produce fantastic work whilst studying from home. I will be speaking to all in my form group over the next week to ensure all are well-prepared for upcoming assessments. Keep up the good work!

Mr Newsham

Year 12 Form Tutor

Year 13 have been continuing their preparations towards finishing their A level education and gathering information regarding their entry into higher education. It has certainly been a busy time for them, receiving assignments and feedback from their teachers as well as participation in online lessons. Staying busy and focused on their work has been helping them get through this difficult time.

Mr Batson

Yr 13 Form Tutor

Year 7 learnt about generating terms of a number and pattern sequence as well as discussed concepts of describing probability with words, numbers or through experimental probability. And soon they will learn how to operate a function machine.

Year 8 learnt all about drawing straight-line graphs with the help of forming a table of values and finding the equation of the straight-line from its graph. They will move on to solving problems involving fractions, decimals and percentages.

Year 9 has been really hard working lately, they revised topics like concepts of Presenting and interpreting data, learnt how to construct perpendicular lines, find bearings as well as getting a head start on finding the area and perimeter of 2D shapes. They will continue to work on finding the volume and surface area of 3D solids.

For the last 2 weeks, Year 10 have been looking at Angle facts: in parallel lines, triangles, quadrilaterals, polygons and circles as well as Geometrical terms and relationships including angles, nets, congruent and similar shapes. They will continue to explore Geometrical constructions.

IGCSE Extended Mathematics

For the last 2 weeks, Year 11 have been practising past examination papers, answering questions on all the topics covered across the whole IGCSE course. Students have been asked to evaluate their mistakes and log them in a shared document and to seek guidance online with their teacher also through the use of a shared document.

IGCSE Additional Mathematics

The additional group have been learning about and practising questions on differentiation, specifically the chain rule, the product rule, rates of change, second derivatives, stationary derivatives, stationary points and practical problems.

Year 12: Pure 1 Mathematics

Year 12 have been practising past examination papers, answering questions on all the topics covered across the whole Pure 1 Mathematics course. Students have been asked to evaluate their mistakes and log them in a shared document and to seek guidance online with their teacher also through the use of a shared document. They have also had focused tasks to complete regarding the topics of Quadratics and Coordinate Geometry.

Year 12/13: Statistics

Statisticians have been practising past examination papers, answering questions on all the topics covered across the whole Statistics course. Students have been asked to evaluate their mistakes and log them in a shared document and to seek guidance online with their teacher also through the use of a shared document.

Year 13: Pure 3 Mathematics

Students have been practising past examination papers, answering questions on all the topics covered across the whole Pure 2 and 3 course. Students have been asked to evaluate their mistakes and log them in a shared document and to seek guidance online with their teacher also through the use of a shared document. They have also had focused tasks to complete regarding the topics of Complex Numbers and Trigonometry.

Year 7

In the past two weeks Year 7 students have been studying rocks. They were learning about different types of rocks and investigating how they form and what properties each type has. This week they started looking into how mountains are formed and how volcanoes work. Some of the students took on the challenge of performing practical work at home. They tested the rocks to determine the type of rock and made erupting volcanoes. From videos they sent me it looked like they had a lot of fun :).

Year 8

Year 8 students have been learning about different chemical reactions and how to recognise them. They have also been practicing how to write up word and symbol equations and were introduced to the importance of preventing corrosion. Some students have also investigated chemical reactions by doing practicals at home. This week student started looking at the tests that we can perform to identify chemicals.

Year 9

In the past two weeks year 9 students have been thinking about why different reactions happen at different speeds - rates as we call it in science. They have also, theoretically and practically (some) , investigated how we can affect the reaction rate by changing the concentration, temperature, surface area and by adding a catalyst. At last, they will research why being able to change the rate of reaction is important in the chemical industry world.

Year 10

Year 10 students have studied different types of chemical reactions such as precipitation, neutralisation and displacement. It is important to develop understanding about these reactions to know how new chemicals are obtained and how metals are extracted from their ores. Moreover, students started learning about redox reactions which are an important basis for electrolysis which they will study in the next few weeks. Students have shown excellent engagement despite studying from their homes.

Year 11, 12 and 13

Students in years 11, 12 and 13 have been working really hard knowing that their exams are just around the corner. They have been practicing exam papers, worked on their exam technique and studied the chapters that they still need to polish. The big news also came this week - their exams have been cancelled. I have to say that despite them feeling stressed and worried about this uncertain situation, they have shown great levels of resilience and are continuing to work hard. We are all proud to see how far they came.

Miss Tušar

Chemistry teacher

Year 7 have been learning about living things and their environment. Students have been analysing ways in which we can change the way we live to prevent extinctions and slow down climate change.

Year 8 this block have been learning about the lungs and the importance of respiration. Students have looked at the difference between breathing and respiration and related this to animals and plants.

Year 9 have completed blogs this block on pollution and the causes of extinction. Students have applied information learnt and then applied this to creating a blog which informs the reader of shocking facts and pictures.

Year 10 have been learning about the wonderful world inside our body. Specifically, about excretion and homeostasis. Looking closely at specific functions of the urinary and nervous system. Students have learnt about key organs and glands and their functions.

Year 11 have just finished learning about reproduction and have now completed the whole IGCSE Biology syllabus. Keep up the good work year 11 and continue to revise paper 6.

Year 12 have been learning about immunity and the important of being able to fight a disease. We had multiple discussions about COVID-19 and applied this to how our bodies will react to the virus and the processes it will go through.

Year 13 are now revising with paper 4 and paper 5 after finishing all content for A2 Biology. It has been a pleasure working with you all this year. Now it’s the last push with revision.

Ms Ross

Biology teacher

Year 7

In the past two weeks Year 7 students have been studying the solar system. They were learning about the night sky, different heavenly bodies and what they are. They have researched what causes day, night, seasons and years. Extending this they have looked at the effect of the earth's axis on the constellations seen from each hemisphere and the temperature variation during a year.

Year 8

Year 8 students have been learning about different light and finishing consolidation of this unit. They have reinforced their learning on the effects of light and its properties. This has especially focussed on reflection, refraction and dispersion of light as well as colours and filters. Finally, they have extended enquiry into lasers and their uses.

Year 9

In the past two weeks year 9 students have been finishing their work on temperature and how energy is transferred by conduction, convection and radiation. (Unit 10.1-10.4) Students have then extended this work into the effects of cooling by evaporation. In the second week they have examined and researched the World’s energy demands and needs, where does our energy come from, the use of fossil fuels and how electricity is generated. (Unit 10.5-10.8)

Year 10

Year 10 students researched temperature and temperature scales and the effect this has on expansion of solids, liquids and gases. (Unit 5.01-5.05) In the second week, students have then extended this work into how energy is transferred by conduction, convection and radiation. (Unit 5.06 -5.08) Finally they have analysed how liquids and vapours behave through evaporation and condensation (Unit 5.09)

Additionally, over half term, students can revise or extend this enquiry into the World’s energy demands and needs, where does our energy come from, the use of fossil fuels and how electricity is generated from the previous units work (Unit 4).

Mr Cox

Physics teacher, Head of Science

For physics Year 11-13 we were preparing for the external exams. The method we chose is very similar to the one proven well for Math, just that we needed to adapt it to distant learning circumstances so we used google classroom. We have been going through the past papers, evaluating our work and knowledge. For certain topics we needed deeper clarification referencing the syllabus and the book.

Mr Ljubin

Physics teacher

This week Year 7 have been exploring the narrative poem "My mother saw a dancing bear" by Charles Causley and been exploring the issues of animal cruelty included in it. They have also been busy submitting some wonderful pieces of writing and showing their powers of description and imagination.

Year 8 have been learning about the transition of the books "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit" into Hollywood films. They too have been set a weekly writing task and have truly excelled in their responses. Both classes have also been engaging in daily class discussions on Google Classroom on a topic of the day and we have shared some fascinating answers and opinions. Keep up the great work everyone.

In the past week, Year 9 have been continuing their study of Macbeth. This is proving to be an interesting experience as it is the first time that many pupils have read a Shakespearean text, and they are managing this new challenge very well. We are trying to make our activities as varied as possible for the lessons and are now well into Act 2 of the play.

Year 10 have been working on Directed Writing. This is a question that will be in their examinations next year and so far they are performing admirably with the work that they are being assigned. Over the past few days, the Year 10 pupils have been creating a wonderful collection of letters, interviews and diary entries which have been enjoyable to read and written at a very high standard. I have no doubt that this is a question that each Year 10 pupil can do well in, if they continue to put in the required work and effort.

Year 11 are continuing their study in Literature and have been working on the unseen section of their exam. In this paper, pupils will encounter an unfamiliar piece of prose and poetry, analyse them, and then answer questions on them. The work that the pupils in Year 11 have been producing has been very impressive and I am confident that this will continue in the same vein.

Year 12 Language students have been completing linguistic analysis in addition to writing utopian and dystopian descriptive pieces. Literature students in Year 12 have been analysing the two plays we have studied this year: All my sons and Death and the King's Horseman. They have also completed examination papers on poetry and prose.

In Year 13, language students have been applying research and theories on spoken language and social groups, as well as child language acquisition, into extended essay responses. Literature students have been researching critical interpretations of Shakespeare's Richard IIand Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey in addition to submitting A level essays.

Mr Newsham, Mr Kirwan and Mr Eve

English department

Our EAL students have been busy completing some reading comprehensions on a range of subjects as varied as the Football World Cup to Shakespeare meets the movie Avatar and completing a variety of writing tasks. All students have continued being diligent and delivered some high quality work.

Mr Eve

EAL Department

All sixth form Business and Economics students are continuing to complete essays studying economy and microeconomy, macro economy and practising past papers. These are all being prepared and submitted for marking.

Mr Greening-Jackson

Business and Economics teacher

History Year 7

Year 7 have been continuing their work on castles and looked at different ways to attack a castle. They found the advantages and disadvantages of each attacking method and drew a picture of a caste attack to demonstrate the methods in action. There was some excellent work submitted! This week we have moved on to defending a castle and I’m looking forward to seeing some more high quality work from Year 7.

History Year 8

In history, Year 8 have been looking further into the causes of the French Revolution. We have studied the enlightenment movement in Europe, how this influenced people in France in the 18th Century and the parallels with the American Revolution. We have also started to investigate the economic problems in France at the time.

Year 9 History

In Year 9 have been researching their chosen historical figure for Women's History Month. Historical figures chosen range from Ancient History through to today! Year 9 have steadily built reports on their subject for their History Exhibit.

Year 10 History

Year 10 have been studying in detail the media and public response to the Vietnam War in the United States. Well done to Noah, Max, Wilson, Charlotte and Camie whose emotive anti-Vietnam War posters really capture the key criticisms at the time!

History Year 11

Year 11 have continued studying their Depth Study topic, Nazi Germany. Year 11 have carefully considered and revised how Nazi leadership controlled Germany through the use of propaganda, encouragement (the carrot) as well as intimidation, violence and terror (the stick).

Year 13 History

In History, Year 13 have begun honing their Paper 3 writing skills through practice papers. They've consolidated their knowledge and notes on Paper 3 and Paper 4 topics in preparation for upcoming exams and assessments.

Miss Dascalescu

History teacher

For distance learning Year 7 have been completing a Continent Report for Geography. The students originally picked a continent to study in Week 3 and I adapted the task to be suitable for independent, online research. I’m excited to share what they’ve done, some fantastic reports so far!

Mr Bradley

Geography teacher, Head of Humanities

Year 8 have been continuing their work on global warming. We studied the Maldives and looked at why it was at a high risk from sea level rise. We also investigated the economic, social and environmental impacts of climate change as well as the possible solutions for the country. Students created newspaper articles and some fantastic work was produced. Here we can see some great examples of work from Begum and Mihai from Year 8.

The Maldives Suffering from Global Warming

The Maldives is a small island country in the south of Asia. It is very beautiful and has many tourists there every year. The Maldives is only 2 meters above sea level making it very easy to go to the beach but also at a very high risk. Global warming is more drastic than ever right now. The polar ice caps are melting 6 times faster right now than in 1990. Consequently, Global warming could have a very serious impact on the Maldives. There could be a loss of tourism which is a major source of income. If there are too many floods or the water begins to rise too much and the main International Airport can’t function then international tourists won’t be able to visit. Coastal flooding can damage fish processing plants. This will reduce the export causing the country’s income to drop even more. This will also affect fishers and their families who rely on fish as a main source of food. The soil in the Maldives is mostly shallow (20cm deep or less) which means that the soil layer could easily be washed away by coastal flooding so plants and crops won't be able to grow.

Coral reefs will also get affected if Global Warming continues. The ocean getting warmer causes thermal stress that will contribute to coral bleaching. If sea levels rise then sedimentation may increase for reefs close to land. Sedimentation runoff can lead to coral smothering. Without coral reefs, many sea creatures would suffer especially the ones which live in the reefs. Fish numbers will drastically go down and millions will lose a significant food source which they depend on. The Maldives will suffer due to less fish to export again. If Global Warming continues like this then scientists say that in 50-100 years the Maldives will be completely submerged.

While it is very hard to stop Global Warming there are some solutions that could save the Maldives and its people. The easiest solution is to buy some land from India or somewhere else and take the people there. This means that the islands will eventually sink. Another solution is building the islands upward. Of course, this will require a lot of working and of resources but it would allow the islands the take storage capacity for groundwater and not change the characteristics of the islands. A third solution is to build sea walls and reclaim the land. The sea walls would hold back the waves so then some of the land could be used again. This is a very good idea but also has some downfalls. One is that if it gets to a point where the sea level has increased past the sea walls height there will be nothing to do. Another is that they are really expensive, in fact, the Maldives Government had to ask the Japanese Government to give them $60 million to construct a 3m high wall that protects the capital city, Mane.

Every country should stop using fossil fuels. When burned they release a lot of CO2 emissions that contribute to Global Warming. The Maldives have already decided to be carbon neutral and it encourages other countries to do the same.

Mr Rogers

Humanities teacher

Year 9 have zoomed into the world a bit closer than Year 7 and are instead looking at regions within and between continents. Year 9 have been consolidating their Geography learning over KS3 and started to produce some great reports.

Year 10 have continued studying rivers for distance learning, completing their annotated diagrams of how different river landforms are formed before looking at the hazards and opportunities rivers pose to people around the world.

Year 11 have been wrapping up their IGCSE Geography by learning about the final units, Energy, Water and Pollution.

Year 12 has finished off the last of the Physical Geography units, Rocks and Weathering by looking at different types of mass movements and the human impact on slope stability.

Mr Bradley

Head of Humanities

Year 10 Global Perspectives students have been looking at reflection, different methods of reflecting and why it is important for them to be reflective learners. They have also started work on evaluation, another high level skill which will be essential when they come to writing their individual reports in Year 11.

Mr Rogers

Humanities teacher

For Year 11, this block has been dedicated to writing their Individual Report, a key component of the IGCSE Global Perspectives course. I’m pleased to see that these are almost complete and showcase some brilliant independent research and writing.

Mr Bradley

Head of Humanities

Year 7 Computer Science we are covering the topic of Graphics, design and copyright. Students were working on their magazine cover designs using Sketchup and Create magazine cover wireframe and preprocessed some images that we are going to be putting together today.

A socrative assessment will also be introduced.

Year 8 used the Zoom classroom in order to cover the last topic from the block Data representation chapter (sound). We also organized an additional class where students from both groups (A and B) who missed their class could catch up. We did some practical sound processing (recorded voice, guitar sounds, zoomed into the sygnal on the screen to understand the sampling rate and the resolution).

Students were encouraged to do some digital signal processing on their own. A socrative assessment was introduced.

Year 9 finished the theory and students were working on their AI related Presentations and Workbooks covering this topic. Students were challenged to reset their chatbots or modify the software in such a way that it can have multiple different "personalities" (databases).

Year 10 started building their IGCSE knowledge base by summarising our work on the three chapters (Data representation, Communications and Internet Technologies and Computer Architecture, languages and Operating Systems) covered so far.

The same method was used with Year 11 and Year 12 with the exception that with yr11 we also focused on certain theoretical aspects from the book.

Mr Ljubin

Computer Science teacher

Year 7 - Over the past 2 weeks, students have responded to the artist Ruth Allen by using continuous line to draw iconic features of the urban environment. This technique means that the pencil cannot be lifted from the paper until the whole object is drawn!

Year 8 - This week students have been taking inspiration from William Morris, Jan Van Kessel and Henri Rousseau to produce an original pattern based on nature. Techniques involving symmetry, tessellation and repetition have been used to draw patterned animals and plant life in creative ways.

Year 9 - Students have been researching Art Deco travel posters by collecting a range of examples to produce an inspiration page. They have selected their favourite poster to analyse, commenting on the techniques that have been used to effectively advertise the city or country. Following this, students will decide on the place they want to base their own poster design on and start considering what features to include in the style of Art Deco.

Year 10 - For their coursework project 'Natural World', students were provided a selection of portrait artists to research and respond to; Kate Powell, Ana Santos and Lee K Illust. So far students have produced a research page and have started a study of the artist's work to gain an insight into new techniques, processes and materials.

Year 11 - Currently working on the externally set exam, students have been researching relevant artists and taking inspiration from these to inform their photography and observational studies. Aleks is considering the growth of nature on ruined buildings for the question 'Construction', whilst Rosemarijn is exploring depth in woodland for the question 'Growth'.

Year 12 - For the externally set exam, students have been researching artists and producing studies of their work to develop personal ideas. Iza is exploring the title 'Above and Below' through the work of Isabel Emrich; Lana is studying Holly Warburton's focus on public spaces for the title 'Movement'; also in response to this theme is Daniil's exploration of transient elements such as water, and Eva is studying the movement of hands.

Miss Clayton

Art teacher

French

Year 7 - Students have been describing their favourite hobbies and giving their opinions. They are also expanding their sport vocabulary and played Kahoot through a video conference on Zoom.

Year 8 - Students have been focusing on recipes. They have learned how to make a list of ingredients and how to use imperative verbs to create a recipe. The end project for them is to cook French pancakes.

Year 9 - Students have been learning how to write about an eventful holiday using past, present, and future tenses.

Year 10- Students have been talking about what they do in their spare time, giving opinions and justifications. They also recorded dialogues.

Year 11- Students have been diligently working on their speaking skills, performing role plays and having conversations over video conferences.

German

Students from Years 11 and 12 have been practising their speaking skills participating in scheduled video conferences with the teacher.

Ms Osolnik-Kunc

German teacher

Slovene Natives

KS3 students started every day with some interactive games, continuing with longer tasks:

Year 7 were working on a description of a person (opis in oznaka osebe) and wrote a summary of the book.

Year 8 students finished with their book reading and analysis following essay writing.

Year 9 just finished reading their book and will now focus on the questions of identity in the book.

KS4

Year 10 Wrote an essay about the book Štoparski vodnik po galaksiji. (The Hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy)

Year 11 - The first group focused on the oral exam: Students recorded themselves in order to work on pronunciation. The second group was working on the past tense in Slovene language.

Year 12 was working on the drama text Čakajoč Godota (Waiting for Godot) by Samuel Beckett.

Slovene - Non-natives

In Slovene non natives KS3 and KS4 groups students were working on different tasks, according to their level of knowledge. They were sending evidence of their work on a regular basis. Here are some examples:

Ms Kotnik

MFL Coordinator

KS3 students are learning about African drumming, which, as you may know, is an important influence on Western popular music. Y8 are learning to solo in an ensemble and Y9 are learning to perform a polyrhythm in an ensemble

African polyrhythms became an important source of inspiration for a group American minimalist composers led by Steve Reich, La Monte Young, Philip Glass and John Adams et al. They are often collectively known as the 'Monotonous School'. This form of art music has found its way into popular music in Mike Oldfield's ground breaking Tubular Bells and looped-based, repetitive electronic dance music of the 1990s. Y11 and 12 continue with their GCSE and AS exam preparations.

Mr Austin

Head of Music

Welcome back everyone! This week is the second week of distance-learning, as you already know. I hope everyone is safe and healthy at home, and is working efficiently and effectively during these strenuous and tumultuous circumstances.

As many of you know, due to the outbreak, GCSEs and A-level exams in the UK were cancelled a few days ago due to alarming concerns of the outbreak. However, many were under the impression that the international gradation of these exams, IGCSEs and International CIE A-levels were to go on as normal.

The Cambridge International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) examinations would not be held in May and June, exam board Cambridge Assessment International Education confirmed in a reply to the Post, yesterday. The assurance echoes Cambridge International’s statement: “We will be working with schools to assess students’ achievements using the best available evidence. Students will receive a grade and a certificate from Cambridge International, given the knowledge and skills they have acquired in their programmes of study.” “We will provide guidance to schools on how students will receive those grades. We are talking to universities worldwide, and they are factoring these unprecedented circumstances into admissions decisions, so students can continue with their education journeys as soon as possible.”

Despite the unfortunate circumstances, exam boards have assured students, teachers, and schools that there are more factors that will go into play regarding the use of predicted grades to deem results, such as assessed work, and improvements made by students after a certain mock and or predicted result. Although the circumstances may be unfortunate, our school will be committed to ensuring and comprehending students and parents about the next step regarding examination results.

Max

Year 10

Dear students and parents!

We are very happy to announce that we have updated our Uniform shop with some new and exciting items that are now ready to order.

We have some changes in existing items:

1. Long/Short-sleeved shirts and blouses for Secondary students are now embroidered with the school logo.

2. Secondary Short Sleeve Polo Shirts are now also available in L and XL sizes.

Additional Spirit Wear items:

Please note that these additional items are not part of school uniform. These items may be worn to showcase school pride on trips, non-uniform days and outside of school.

1. Junior and Senior Hoodies

2. Umbrellas, baseball caps and water bottles

Order Today in 4 easy and convenient steps:

1. Visit our Uniform shopat theschooluniformspecialists.com with the school password: LJU976
2. Select one or more of our branded uniform items.
3. Make sure to check the size guides for further information.
4. Have your order delivered directly to the school.

Further details on our uniform requirements and how to order online can be found HERE.