Welcome (back!)As we start this new term in January, I hope that everyone was able to spend time with family and celebrate such a special time of year – especially this year after such a long time living with a pandemic that has kept so many of us apart for so long. I also hope you all managed to download your Eco-calendar from the parent portal and are now using it to both plan your events AND learn about endangered species. As a community we are committed to developing our role as an eco-school and look forward to continuing with a range of campus-based projects when we return. If you completed the carbon footprint survey shared by our Redmove group, then many thanks from me and them. Our focus this term as always will be on both maintaining and even further developing the quality of our online lessons, activities and learning opportunities. Our goals and values remain in place as we work towards a blended learning model where we are all excited to be welcoming students back to the campus for face-to-face lessons and activities. Please watch this space for updates on dates and next steps. From the Staff and the Students Continuing with our teachers and their stories about e-learning this new period. This week we have Ms. Aditi Sadotra, Mrs. Claire Maudsley and Year 9 students from Secondary and Ms. Antonella Coronel from Primary. End of Term Christmas House Competition On the last day of term, the Secondary school got in the Christmas spirit with some form parties, a Christmas Quiz, and a Christmas decoration competition! It was a really lovely way to finish off a long and productive term for all. Mr. Edwards created a really fun Kahoot with some great rounds involving a number of the teachers in Secondary! Do have a go yourself and see if you can guess the teacher! The eco-friendly Christmas decoration house competition allowed our students to get creative and festive as they wound down for the holidays. You can see the wonderful designs from our winners below! We do hope that you had a wonderful Christmas break and are excited as we are for a new year and returning to our wonderful campus! Ms. Sadotra, Head of KS3 Year 9 Science - Genetic Modification Before the break our year 9 scientists were researching Genetic modification in plants and animals. They have created these incredibly detailed and informative newspaper articles or infographics. They learnt a lot through doing this as did I! Did you know there are goats that give spider silk in the milk?! Well done year 9! Claire Maudsley, Year 9 Science teacher Ms. Antonella Coronel – Head of EYFS Dear parents, It is so nice to be back and starting the new year at BSQ. We are continuing preparations to welcome the children back, both in-school and online. It is important to establish good routines for the children to prepare them for the new modality of blended learning. Setting up a weekly or daily editable calendar is a great way to start a good transition, where each child will be able to visualize and prepare for what is coming next, including snack, lunch, classes, breaks, and sleep. Kind regards. Dates for your Diary
Emma Newman Principal Being BSQ – Primary Update Welcome back to Term 3 here at The British School Quito. We are all hopeful that 2021 will be a productive and safe year for our whole community, where we will all be able to return to the campus and reconnect personally. After spending time with family and friends over the holidays, it is now time to focus on the learning opportunities in the coming weeks, while preparing for our return to school. All further details of the induction process and the starting date for each group of students will be shared with you once these are finalised, with the students in each year group remaining on their Online timetable which they used in Term 2 until they return to school (when they will move over to the new timetable). We also have the Progress Test in English (PTE) and Progress Test in Mathematics (PTM) assessments for all students in Years 2-6 coming soon – these will be administered in school for those students attending face-to-face sessions and online for the rest of the students, with similar instructions and procedures as the NGRT Reading assessment used last year and the CAT4 assessments this year for year 3. These assessments give the teachers invaluable information about the skills the students have already mastered and the ones they are still working on, allowing us to tailor our support more effectively. The Progress Test in English (PTE) is a standardised assessment of students’ technical English skills (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and reading comprehension. The Progress Test in Maths (PTM) is a standardised assessment of students’ mathematical skills and knowledge. PTM assesses two dimensions of mathematical learning, Mathematical content knowledge (Curriculum Content Category) and Understanding and applying mathematical processes through reasoning and problem solving (Process Category). Both are suitable for students from age 6 years upwards, enabling us to establish a clear baseline and to gauge student’s performance and progress over time. They can also help in identifying those in need of extra support, as well as those who are particularly able. I will be sharing more details about these assessments next week, with instructions about how to access them if your child is learning at home when they are administered. All of the teachers are excited about the new term and the learning opportunities they have planned for their students – do please keep reading the communications from school by both email and through Canvas as we look to start the year off with a real sense of purpose. Marcus Madden Head of Primary Being BSQ – Secondary Update Happy New Year to you all Welcome back and I hope you had a wonderful time enjoying a relaxing and peaceful break. It is perhaps important to reflect on the lovely things that happened in the last week of term. The last day of a long term sees us drop the normal timetable for lots of fun and games between staff and students, and of course, the opportunity to celebrate success and achievement. The students had fun quizzing and designing Christmas decorations and we saw some wonderful designs. I also had the pleasure of watching the school choir sings carols online. Well done Ms. Cano and the choir. It was really lovely to see and hear. The end of term is an apt moment for giving thanks and last term was particularly important. Our staff consistently work incredibly hard at BSQ and I am ever impressed by the determination they show in securing as much normality as they can through a screen. For this to happen takes a huge amount of time and ingenuity. The most simple things like quizzes and assemblies take time to create and this often goes unseen. Obvious thanks for the last event must go to Mr. Edwards, Ms. Sadotra and Ms. Todd, but let us not forget the tutors who put these plans into practice. On behalf of our students – thank you for providing a wonderful day and for all the things you do for our students on a daily basis! It is also important that we thank our students for their enthusiasm, hard work, flexibility, trust and determination in their efforts to continue with some form of normality. What a wonderful bunch you are. Our staff celebrated the end of the term by sharing why each of them were appreciated by their colleagues. It really was a lovely opportunity to share such positive thoughts with each member of the team receiving recognition. Now into the new term. This week sees our students in years 10 to 13 embarking on their exams. It really is an important time for them. Students - I hope that you were wise and used your time effectively preparing for this week over the holiday. I could wish you luck, but destiny is in your hands and you control what the outcomes are – if you put the work in over the holiday and on each day as you approach each exam, I assure you that you will be justly rewarded. I wish you all a very happy and prosperous New Year – it will be significant for us all and I look forward to your ongoing support. Have a good week. Lee Moors Head of Secondary From the BSQ Counselling Team This week our school counsellor, Andrea Carrera, talks about the many shades of parenting.
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May 2024
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