Secondary News - 16 april 2021

Block 6 Week 1

Welcome back to the penultimate block of the year. It was not necessarily the start everyone was aiming for, with the lockdown in place, however, I must commend all students for their flexibility and dedication to their studies. They seamlessly transitioned back to online learning this week, with Years 11-13 students even taking advantage of extra revision sessions after school that have been put in place this block to further support our examination students. We look forward to next week when all students can return to school for face-to-face lessons.

This term we aim to implement further activities after school for all ages should the measures allow, including physical activities, homework support, Art, Language and Music clubs. Further information will be released in due course. We will also continue to fully support examination students as they prepare for the final few weeks prior to examinations beginning. Mr Batson is maintaining constant communication with CAIE and AQA examination boards to be across the very latest of the information they release.

Currently, Year 9 and Year 11 students are making the final subject selection for their studies next year. As always, their preferences are considered very carefully when subject groupings are made, however, of course not every subject combination is possible. As mentioned in the email, these students are required to send through their final selections by Friday, April 16^th.

I wish everyone a lovely weekend. Please ensure that you refer to the latest Update from the Principal for the latest information.

Ms Andronikos

Head of Secondary

We are incredibly proud to announce that, for the first time in the history of the school, the British International School of Ljubljana has been awarded the rating of 'Outstanding in every category' following our recent BSO inspection by PENTA International, accredited by the British Government.

With such fantastic students, a dedicated team of professionals, and continued support from our parents, this achievement is something that our community truly deserves.

Click here to read the official announcement, which includes the full inspection report covering all areas of the school.

We are very proud of how well our students adapted back into the habits of online learning for these few days but are looking forward to being back in the classroom next week. We are proud of their commitment to their studies. Enjoy some snaps from the lessons below.

Career talks in Sixth Form have continued over Zoom this week with two speakers from very different career paths joining us. Firstly we had Mr. Culley, who is a professional freelance musician and translator (Russian, German and English). He spoke about his varied career focusing on the different routes these skills took him including working at the Moscow olympics in the 1980s. He has lived in multiple countries, and travelled extensively for work, but has always come back to teaching local school children. He spoke about the difficulties about being a freelancer regarding healthcare and pension, advising students to think about these aspects sooner rather than later.

Our second speaker this week was Kristina Isakovac who is a particle physicist and PhD student at the University of Ljubljana. She is currently researching ‘Application of particle induced x-ray emission technic on an external beam line setup'. She explained how her job relates to other fields such as archaeology, and when archaeologists find old coins, they send them to the lab she works in for analysis.

Following a successful first week of after school revision, below is a reminder of next week's schedule. We hope to see many students take advantage of these opportunities. We encourage students to contact teachers if they have concerns over specific areas, so teachers can ensure revision sessions are tailored to their needs.

On April 22nd, all students in primary school and in secondary up to Year 10 will take part in the International Kangaroo Maths competition. This is a wonderful opportunity for students to apply their problem solving skills to solve a series of challenging questions. It is organised by the Slovenian Society of Mathematicians, Physicists and Astronomers. The competition will take place at 13:00 in students' year group classrooms. We wish all the students luck in this well established competition and I look forward to sharing some success stories in the near future.

Mr Bishop - Primary Mathematics Coordinator

On Thursday, our Year 12 Mathematician Chloe took part in a Mathematics competition delivered by the Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing based in the University of Waterloo, Canada. This was a gruelling 2.5 hour contest, which required contestants to answer 10 mathematical problems using any method they know. We wish her all the best in this competition and for other Mathematicians interested to see what type of problems she had to solve, here are two (or three) that have already been published by the University of Waterloo. Here are the problems:

Good luck to anyone that wants to try these.

Mr Batson - Head of Mathematics

KS3 and Year 10 students successfully revised some previous topics by playing an online Jeopardy game. The students also worked in groups and brainstormed about the need-to-know facts about their assigned topic using Google Jamboards.

Year 11 and Mechanics 1 students have been busy preparing for their upcoming exams. They have been completing past exam papers, presenting topics as well as identifying their target areas and strengths.

Maths question of this week is:

What number is on the parking space occupied by the car?

Students who solve the questions send the answer to my email by Wednesday 14th April. Good luck!

Ms. Zupanc - Maths Department

For the science block, in addition to all the other photos and updates of competitions we will be releasing a few science riddles. here is the first one:

Q. I am a god, a planet and I can measure heat. What am I?

Mr. Yates - Head of Science

Year 7: Year 7 worked on a piece of fiction about the famous true story of the Christmas Truce of 1914 where German and English soldiers stopped shooting each other for a day and played a game of football instead.

Year 8: Year 8 looked at a story of some young Native American children who were taken from their families to be “educated” and “civilised” by a group of Missionaries in the American MidWest in the 19th Century in the story “The Land of Red Apples”

Year 9: Whilst 9a continued with Macbeth, which they had almost finished, 9b began exploring the Scottish King, and have just completed act one scene two. So they still haven’t met Macbeth, but have consolidated knowledge of literature turns such as pathetic fallacy.

Students have explored the ideas of witches and witchcraft in Shakespearean England, and considered why Shakespeare would start his play with witches. Of course this was common form for Shakespeare, who embraced the supernatural.

Year 10: Jumping from poetry to Language paper 1, year 10 had quite a big week in English. This week students started to explore Language Paper 1, which is reading comprehension, with 3 sources. In the exam it can be any 3 sources, which may or may not be connected on any topic. Purposely the sources use difficult vocabulary and students have to infer meaning of new words through context.

This week specifically students have been looking at explicit and implicit meaning, as well as summarisation. Students are becoming experts at this quickly. Next week we will continue with summary writing, and also move onto letter/speech writing as a response to a source...and of course continue with reading comprehension.

Year 11: Have continued revising this week, in 11b the class took a vote on what they wanted to revise in their double, with some students opting for a teacher led walk through of language paper 1, and some opting for a revision of poetry in pairs. On Thursday and Friday students in 11b practised for language paper 2, with descriptive/narrative writing in exam-like conditions.

Year 12: are revising descriptive writing, evaluating good samples of work and creating their own descriptive pieces with a focus on how to develop tone and atmosphere.

Year 13 Literature: Our fantastic students this week have consolidated their knowledge of The Handmaid’s tale and reviewed academic opinions on the book such as whether the book is a commentary on colonisation and imperial powers. Students finished off the week by writing a mock essay question on the book including references to academics opinions on the book, pushing for that A* grade.

Year 13 Language: are revising English in the World, discussing what historical factors have led to English becoming a global language and how this has sometimes been at the expense of other languages. This week, Year 13 have been discussing case studies of pidgin and creole languages which have developed from a mixture of other languages and cultures.

Book Recommendation of the Week: All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

The compelling and beautiful story of a girl who learns to live from a boy who intends to die.

Ms. O’Regan, Mr. Kirwan and Mr. Eve - English Department

Business Students in Years 10, 12, and 13, have formed combined groups and are completing market research tasks intended to solve problems within school. Each group has a Sixth Form leader and group of 2-3 Year 10s.

Taja’s group is looking at the transition to in person learning, Rosemarjn’s group is reviewing school lunches and how they could be improved to meet students' needs better. Alek’s group is examining feedback on school subjects. Eva J’s group is looking at possible extra curricular activities which could start next year (in a Covid safe environment).

All groups should report findings on/by 21/4/21.

Aside from the combined business project above, Year 12 and 13 have been revising their entire syllabus doing practise questions. A well done to Chloe getting 95% on her last mock paper.

Mr. Dalton - Business and Economics Teacher

This week Year 8 has been discussing traditional food across the world. Firstly, students chose and described one of their favourite Slovene traditional foods such as blejska kremšnita, golaž, prekmurska gibanica, štruklji, potica … Secondly, they chose and described one of their favourite traditional foods from their home country. It was quite interesting to hear the name of their favourite food in their mother tongue. Finally, the task helped us realise we liked food from diverse parts of the world.

Well done Year 8!

Ms Košec - Slovene Teacher

Year 8 Slovene Advanced students are currently learning about the characteristics of an interview- what an interview is like and how to prepare for it. In our next few lessons, students will complete some exercises on this topic, and then they will work in pairs and prepare their own interview. Srečno, učenci!

Ms Drofenik - Slovene Teacher

This week in P.E., secondary students were encouraged to limit screen time and do a student led activity outside relating to their exercise plan and personal fitness goal. Students designed a forty-minute workout including a warm-up, main activities, cool down and an assessment of what went well and what they would modify in the future. An accompanying discussion on the importance of mental health, being outside, and moving away from a screen was additionally had with students. We hope everyone had a recharging block break and are excited to have students return on-site next week.

Ms Fairchild - PE Teacher

If you haven’t had a chance to read our recent Teacher Feature profiles, here’s what you may have missed:

• 25.03.2021 - Mr Dominic Hulse
• 10.03.2021 - Ms Emina Begić
• 24.02.2021 - Mr Chris Bishop
• 27.01.2021 - Ms Mateja Košec
• 13.01.2021 - Mrs Tanya Charlesworth
• 16.12.2020 - Ms Sarah Fairchild
• 09.12.2020 -Ms Polly Tušar
• 25.11.2020 - Mr Tobija Siter
• 04.11.2020 - Mr Gary Bradley
• 28.10.2020 - Ms Laura Harris
• 21.10.2020 - Ms Katarina Miklavec
• 06.10.2020 - Mr Jason Batson

Dear Parents,

I hope you have all had a restful, safe and relaxing block break.

I am delighted to confirm that all students will be able to return on site on Monday 12th April. Please read my full Update from the Principal for details.

I am also proud to share with you that, for the first time in the history of the school, we have been rated ‘Outstanding in every category’ following our recent BSO inspection by PENTA International, accredited by the British Government. You will find more details of this fantastic achievement in my Update from the Principal.

Thank you to those parents who were able to join me this morning for our monthly virtual Coffee with the Principal. Details of what we covered are included in my Update from the Principal as well.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend, and look forward to seeing everyone again on Monday.

Kind regards,

Paul Walton

Principal