WelcomeA very warm welcome back to the first BSQ newsletter of 2022 to everyone in the community. A new year brings with it new opportunities for everyone to make a resolution. What will yours be? The most popular resolutions each year are linked to exercise, diet or giving up something that is bad for you. It would be great this year if our resolution focus was on someone else or something else. For example, becoming a volunteer, recycling your rubbish, growing some vegetables or planting a tree, smile more often (good for you and others!). Resolutions are easy to make and hard to keep but we should all try – I am going to step away from my computer more often and spend more time in the community (until the next wave of emails arrive that is!). Good luck with your resolutions and keep us posted with your successes. PA The BSQ Parents Association has delivered Christmas baskets to the maintenance team. We are very grateful for all their work, effort and excellent attitude when carrying out their work. Happy Holidays. Dates for your Diary As always please check this section carefully and ensure that you have all the details in your calendars.
Emma Newman Principal Being BSQ – Primary Update Happy New Year to all of our BSQ Community! We also welcome new students and their families to Primary and look forward to meeting you all soon. As we continue to learn online for the next few days, we want to thank you all for your resilience and participation in our Canvas conferences, including turning your cameras on, using the public chat to share your ideas and sharing your learning with your teachers. Thank you to all the students and parents who attend the extremely successful Christmas Bazaar just before the Christmas break. The students managed to raise $989.60 for the various charities we are supporting - a massive effort considering they only used recycled materials! All Primary students will remain online for this week and the beginning of next week, with a planned return to the campus on Tuesday 18th January. Please note that there will be no online sessions at 8am on Monday 17th January. From Wednesday 19th January, it is planned that we will have Enrichment at school, with each Wednesday from then being the same as the other days, with a finish time of 3:10pm (until the roadworks are completed). This gives us the opportunity for the students to join in with Enrichment activities on campus each Wednesday afternoon, experiencing a wide variety of activities to develop their skills and understanding. We look forward to lots of exciting learning in Term 3 across the whole Primary School and wish you and your families a rewarding 2022. Marcus Madden Head of Primary Y2A We have only been back at school for a few days, but the children in 2A have been working hard! In our science lessons, we have started to explore materials. We discussed the different materials that can be found in our homes and their uses, and the children went on a hunt to find as many different materials as possible. The children have also conducted an experiment to find out which materials absorb the most water. We will be doing a lot of experiments this term as we continue to explore the properties of materials. In literacy, we are learning about diaries. We have read some diary entries and the children discussed the language used in diaries, such as adjectives and time connectives. The children have written their own diary entries to tell you about what they did on our first day back at school. Well done, 2A, and keep up the good work! Ms Polly Hall, Y2A Teacher. Being BSQ – Secondary Update What a great shame that the end of term was scuppered, not by the obvious danger of COVID but the road chaos outside of the school. We are so lucky that we were able to enjoy the Christmas Bazaar and welcome parents onto the site finally and share some of the festivities before the deluge came. What a wonderful job the community projects did in raising so much money. Thank you also to the staff behind the organisation which was well led by Miss. Todd who coordinated it all to ensure that alongside the usual Christmassy fun there were some activities for the Secondary school to get involved in. Everyone was incredibly generous with their money and their time. If you did manage to attend, thank you so much for the support. It was a wonderful experience for all. Year 9 What an amazing second term we had at school, with the Bonfire and then the Christmas Bazaar and celebrations for 'Festivales De Quito' . It was a short but very busy term. It was lovely to welcome parents back on site this term and it was fun to see parents joining in with Ecuavolley and purchasing Christmas ornaments made by the students. Y9 and Brad and I would really like to thank the parents of the students for organizing our beautiful personalized Christmas decorations and cookies for everyone in the form. I am sure these ornaments were the pride of place on all of our Christmas Trees. I know mine was: This term was great as we were all back in school every day and able to move away from online learning. We were very happy to have welcomed a new student, Stefano, to our class as well. The students have also been allowed to play football at lunchtime (masked of course), and it was amazing to see such talent in the students as they play, while the other students are supporting them from the side lines. As form tutors, Mr Edwards and I are so proud of the effort the form is putting into their learning. They have been working hard to achieve as many house points as possible. Well done to Julian and Maya for scoring over 100 house points so far, and as a group, we have achieved over 1400 positive house points which really is a fantastic achievement. Especially as nearly 400 of them were earnt in the last few weeks of term! In form time, we have been reflecting on the year gone by, appreciating each other and what we have while looking forward to 2022. A few of the students have written some words about their experiences. I have been really proud of myself for how I did not give up during my two years of online learning due to coronavirus, but during the quarantine, I had lost a lot of my learning skills. I was being so aware of trying to pass my final exams and the year, and the only thing I just said I'm really proud of myself because during the two tears of online learning I really tried hard thinking about my future, thinking about my family especially my parents how they are going to be so proud of me knowing that I work really hard for my future. Probably I can't be the best student, not having great grades, studying all night and day but even though not getting the grade that you were expecting, but for me, it's not everything about the grades, it's about my attitude, my enthusiasm, my effort in school. I'm really proud that I developed my English in this school. I'm really proud that everything that happens, no matter what, will not make me give up. (Naomi, Y9) I am proud of the work and grade that I got in Maths. My resolution would be to improve at every other subject as much as possible (Ivan, Y9) This term I enjoyed playing sports during break and lunch and having fun with my friends, as a new year's resolution is that if hopefully there's a football team I must be in the team. (Elias, Y9) This whole covid situation has been confusing but we have learned to live with it. Going back to school has been a great decision in a way because people including myself can concentrate better than online classes and can get more help. It has also helped us reconnect with our classmates. My new year's resolution is to achieve all that I can, challenge myself, and just to have fun and live the life I want because these past months I've realized how time passes so quickly and we have to enjoy it. (Kat, Y9) Mrs. Rachael Parkinson, Y9 Tutor First week back update from Mr Moors It is lovely to be back and welcoming students into lessons albeit online for the first few days. This is an important safety net as we have all been traveling and mixing with wider families and friends. It really does seem to be a challenge out there in the world. I have been really pleased with the attendance and involvement in lessons this week as it would be very easy to defer to a delayed return. It is clear that students are keen to get back to normal and embrace learning with their teachers. Year 11 students have their mocks exams starting soon. Year 10 and 12 will also sit Quimestre exams. It is an important time for revision and preparation as these grades not only set a level of attainment for students but also act as a catalyst that drives intervention over the coming months. Year 11 have had their timetable collapsed for the fortnight to allow the exams to take place. This means that when not sitting their exams they should be revising independently or taking the opportunity to catch up on a few things. Their teachers of course are delivering the invigilation at this time. Once exams are finished and we have the data outcomes for each subject, parents of students in years 11 and 13 will be invited in to meet teachers in a conference to discuss exam performance in each subject and also look at what we need to do to improve progress towards the main event in May. I will write to you all next week to inform you about this process and when (and possibly where) it will be taking place. This week sees the launch of the new values program being led by Miss Todd. The main focus is designed to develop the 6 BSQ values which are welcome, care, happiness, determination, ambition, and respect, whilst also developing general skills such as the ability to be reflective. Leadership develops confidence and maturity and the process can quickly develop wider positive attributes for adult life. Miss Todd and I will be looking at developing opportunities for students in the next academic year. This will be an exciting addition to our wider curriculum and also present our older students with opportunities to stand out, accept responsibility, and accountability for younger students and processes, and in the process act as role models for younger children to aspire to be like them in the future. Year 12 will have their metal tested towards the end of this academic year and from this and other factors we will decide upon key school leaders in 2022/2023. Finally, I would like to thank you again for the support, flexibility and understanding with all that we are trying to achieve under the current circumstances. It has perhaps been less consistent with the road issues but we have to roll with the challenges and do the best we can. We have an extremely talented set of staff who always go the extra distance to get done what is needed. This is often with trust and without question. Put this with our super students and your support we will surely look forward to a very prosperous few months ahead. Have a wonderful week everyone. Lee Moors
Head of Secondary
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