WelcomeDear parents, As you know our school community is struggling to work today following the news of the tragic death of Barney Dobbin yesterday. The following newsletter continues to share the life of BSQ in honour of the joy Barney brought to our lives here. With my thanks for all your messages and kind words of support. Living I hope you all enjoyed the long weekend and the festivities of Fiestas de Quito. There were lots of exciting events going on at BSQ with balcony decorations, cuarenta tournaments, ecuavolley, empanadas de morocho, and the Bake Sale. As you can see from the Dates for your Diary section, there is still a great deal going on at BSQ before the final day on Friday. Please note that school will close at 12:00 for all students so please ensure that your pick-up arrangements are adjusted. The drive-through will be open until 12:20. Thank you to everyone for making this term such a great success. I have really enjoyed my time working with the PA this term and without their excellent support, many of the key events held at the school would not have been so successful or so enjoyable. Your support for the CAS projects, the Yearbook and the opportunities to celebrate together have been very much appreciated and I look forward to continuing to develop the activities and processes in the New Year. In January we will be sharing some outcomes and actions from the parent PA survey with the representatives but in the meantime: This week we celebrate Christmas with our youngest students in their nativity plays. Here is a sneak peek at rehearsals. With thanks to Ms. Stone and all the teachers who have worked hard in Early Years and KS1 to prepare the children for their big show. On the final day there will also be a Christmas dress-up day for secondary students and Learning You can see from all the trips that are still going out that our staff are still busy looking for exciting opportunities to enhance and enrich the learning experience for all our students. Organising a trip takes a great deal of extra time and work for the staff, so I am always grateful for their commitment and energy in this area. Learning from doing is a crucial part of development and last week our eco-friendly staff and students enjoyed collecting our waste and categorising it in preparation for our recycling programme. Well done to all the staff and students who supported and participated. From the Staff and Students Last week we heard from Ms Rueda and Mr Drayton. This final week of term it is the turn of Mrs Madden and her Year 7 students and Ms Stone and her Year 1 class. Humanities In Humanities, students from Year 8 have been learning about Child Labour in Victorian times as part of a topic on The History of Britain. The students were then surprised to find out that Child Labour is still happening worldwide today and started to investigate further as part of a unit of work on Global Citizenship. Students from Year 8 share their learning experience below: Year 8 students created posters to raise awareness of Child Labour and wrote a letter to the Palm Oil Company explaining why they should stop Child Labour. As global citizens, the students, gained an understanding of the wider world and the issues that exist and how to help take action. Today, on International Human Rights day, they would like to ask you to do the same. Mrs Madden Humanities Teacher – Secondary Nativity Play Over the last 5 weeks the children from Reception to Year 2 have been very busy practising for the end of term Christmas Nativity. They have done a super jobs practising lines, words for the songs and even dance moves. Thank you so much to all the parents who have not only helped them practise their lines and songs home but also make and purchased the costumes to ensure they are ready for the stage. Drama is an important part of the British Curriculum and there are many benefits of drama at a young age, including confidence building, helping concentration levels as well as developing language and communication skills. We are very much looking forward to welcoming you the two performances on Tuesday 11th December at 2pm and Wednesday 12th December at 9.15am. Ms. Laura Stone Year 1 Teacher Dates for your Diary December 10th - Year 5 trip to Pintag Eco Farm December 11th - Year 11 Sociales trip to Centro Histórico December 11th and 12th - Nativity Play December 13th - Year 8 trip to the Science Museum December 13th - Reception Event (2:15 - 3pm) December 14th - Christmas Singalong - Nursery students December 14th - Primary Christmas Assembly December 14th - End of term. School closes at 12 for everyone January 3rd - Term starts at the usual time Emma Newman Director Being BSQ – Primary Update I am extremely pleased to announce that the total for our Christmas Bazaar has now reached over $1000, which is a tremendous achievement for the Primary school, amounting to about $5 per student! Last week we continued in the Christmas theme, with Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 continuing to practise their Nativity performance and many other students completing Christmas themed learning. This final week is an extremely busy one, with a variety of events planned throughout the week, including the Nativity performances to parents, class parties and our Enrichment celebration. Throughout this term I have been amazed by the students we have here at BSQ – their dedication, resilience, good-humour and willingness to learn are to be commended and they ball deserve both congratulations for their efforts and a ling break to reenergise for the next term. This also goes for the teachers, who have worked alongside the students, providing rich learning opportunities and guidance to all our students. Enjoy the festive break and see you all on Thursday 3rd December. Star of the week Marcus Madden Head of Primary Being BSQ – Secondary Update Year 13 Science Trip to Huasquila This week the Science teachers and Year 13 were given a fantastic opportunity to get out into the field and work with Biologists Melinda Hofman and Jose Tinajero from Universidad de Católica at Huasquila Lodge in a project where we looked into the ways that different habitats affect bat diversity and eating habits. The Group 4 Project is part of the IB science courses and is great preparation for the students individual projects or internal assessments. However the opportunity to learn outside the classroom provides lessons in lots of ways other than just academic, our students see the applications of what can seem ‘pointless’ curriculum and they learn to face challenges and pull together as a team. For example did you know that bats are pollinators and dispensers of seeds? They are a crucial part of many ecosystems and without them we would not have such diverse jungle in the oriente. They are not just ‘blood sucking flying rats’ which if you talk to Year 13 was probably their opinion of them before we arrived. Please do talk to them about this project, they asked lots of questions and learnt a lot about bats during our time at Huasquila. Our students faced their fears when Dr Melinda Hofman showed them how to handle a tarantula. The students did themselves and us proud with their calm attitude and bravery in this session and again I think our students (and teachers) found a new respect for a otherwise quite misunderstood and feared animal. I don’t want to ruin too much of what our students will tell you in the next newsletter so I will stop here but I would like to say on behalf of the science team at BSQ that the 3 days we spent in the jungle with our students was a fantastic experience to share with them. They made us extremely proud and we look forward to seeing the outcomes of their projects, the biologists from Católica University told us numerous times how impressed they were with the attitude of our students and were keen to work with us again as a result. From an exhausted but inspired Science Team thankyou Year 13. Mr Kennedy, Mr Taylor and Miss Todd From the BSQ Counselling Team This week our school counsellor, Andrea Carrera, reminds us of some ways to support our children with grief.
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May 2024
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