WelcomeTo all our families new and old, to all our students and to all our staff, a very warm welcome back to the start of the new school year at BSQ. As you will see we have been working hard all summer to prepare the school for the return of the students and I am sure you will agree that it is looking excellent. Our numbers have grown – both students and staff – and we are very excited about everything the year ahead holds for us. There are so many wise words published and spoken about education that it can be all too easy to find a relevant quote or saying. However, there is one phrase I come back to time and time again to describe how important the years spent at school are. It was Nelson Mandela who said that ‘Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.’ and he was right of course. Whether you are making a small change to your daily habits, reviewing your ambitions or setting out a clear goal for the next steps in your life, we can all change the world a little bit by using our time at school to learn how to help others, make a difference to communities and champion the causes that are important to us. Let’s make this year at BSQ one where we really make a difference – both to our own achievements but also to the world around us. Last week we held our orientation afternoon for the new families and I was delighted to be able to work with the members of the Parent Association to introduce our new parents to the great work and support that happens here at BSQ. In the school, already our IB students have been hard at work planning their learning and revision schedules and setting the goals high for achievement at the end of this year and tomorrow we welcome back our Year 7 students to start their first year in Secondary. By September 4th our youngest students will also have joined us in nursery and the year will well and truly have begun. I am delighted to be able to introduce you to some of our new staff over the next couple of weeks. Starting with our new primary teaching team. New staff:
We also have four new assistant teachers in the primary school this year. This week I introduce you to two of them.
And finally from me - some reminders and resetsThe school gates will open at 07:45 in the morning for the drive-through and drop-off. Please respect the drive-through processes and do not turn left if you are coming up from the Ruta Viva – enter the car park first. The school gates will open at 3:15 in the afternoon so that the first cars can enter but please do not automatically expect students to be ready at this time as school does not officially finish until 3:20pm. Please ensure that your children arrive at school in the correct uniform and with the correct equipment for each day’s activities. Primary parents please check the blog carefully and secondary parents please ensure that you read all communications. A new parent handbook has been sent out to you this week so please do take some time to read the contents and ask any questions you may have. Have a wonderful term. Dates for your Diary August 28th - Year 7 students return to school August 28th - Tie Ceremony Year 7 August 28th - Meet the teacher - Year 7 and IB classes. (3:30pm) August 29th - Year 3 - 11 students return to school August 30th - Year 1 –2 students return to school August 30th - Meet the teacher – Years 1-11.3:30pm September 3rd - Reception students return to school September 4th - Nursery students return to school September 5th - Meet the EYFS team. 3:30pm September 22nd - WELCOME BACK PICNIC – save the date Emma Newman Principal Being BSQ – Primary UpdateWelcome to the new academic year here in Primary at The British School Quito – I hope you and your family had a fun-packed and relaxing break and are all ready for the year ahead. This year promises to be another exciting and rewarding year for both the students and the staff here at BSQ, with a wide variety of activities and events planned to further enrich the students’ learning and experiences. Over the holiday, the maintenance team have worked tirelessly to further enhance the school campus, including adding two new classrooms and fitting new doors to all primary classrooms. Another development that will benefit the students is the new Primary Curriculum that has been tailored to our unique setting and circumstances here at BSQ – more details of this will follow shortly. We have a number of new students whom will start later this week and next – BSQ would formally like to welcome them all to our community and look forward to them becoming an integral part of BSQ. I would also like to welcome several new members of staff who have recently joined BSQ. They have all been in school for more than a week, learning about what makes BSQ so special, our policies and procedures and not least, finding out about our wonderful students. I hope you will get to meet and greet them all personally over the next few weeks. You do all have the opportunity to meet your child’s new teachers on Thursday 30thAugust at 3:30pm. This is a great opportunity to find out about your child’s new classroom, the routines and procedures within each class and also to start to form those vital professional relationships with your child’s new teachers. We will share a great deal of information with you over the coming weeks and months – please remember to access both the Class Blogs and the Weekly Newsletter to find out about everything we are doing to provide the foundations for a love of learning and success for all. I look forward to meeting you all soon. With warmest regards, Marcus Madden Head of Primary Being BSQ – Secondary Update A warm welcome back to BSQ. The teachers in Secondary, old and new, have been working tirelessly once again to ensure that each and every one of our fabulous students enjoys another year of personal and academic fulfilment and success. We haven't changed too much this year, but we believe that the changes we have made will make a strong contribution to that success Community Projects We are extremely pleased to be able to announce the return of Community Projects to our weekly schedule. Ms Paola Montenegro has created a programme to ensure that, over the course of the year, every student in Year 7, 8 and 9 will have the opportunity to work on a range of local community projects connecting the school with outside agencies that work with environmental concerns, animal welfare, and social issues. Students will research, plan, deliver and reflect upon their work in a range of creative ways, building as they do so valuable social and study skills such as teamwork and self-evaluation. Study Skills We are also excited to be able to roll out our new Study Skills programme. In order to succeed in school and in life, we strongly believe that students need to be actively taught how to learn. While this has always been part of our subject teaching in Secondary, Ms Ruth Todd has designed a bespoke programme which will be both taught as a class and embedded into subject teaching, using an evidence-based approach that builds on research about how we learn most effectively, and what we need to do to retain the knowledge and skills we learn every day. Jim Wild
Head of Secondary
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May 2024
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