WelcomeLiving Last week Mr Ashfield and I were really excited to host a meeting about our first Orbital joint overseas trip. 26 families joined us to hear about some of the elements of the historical and cultural trip taking place in June this year. This is a very exciting development in terms of our relationships with the other Orbital schools and I am looking forward to seeing our first group of students head out to meet new friends and discover new places. We also held our PA meeting for class representatives last week and spent time exploring the outcomes of the Bonfire Night, the results of the PA survey, plans for Family Funday and the role of the class representatives alongside the proposals for a new framework for the school and the PA to work together with continued success in the years to come. Feedback will come to you all through the class representatives over the coming week. With thanks as always to the parent team for their ongoing support and enthusiasm for the school. Learning Every day students all around BSQ are working hard to develop their skills in all areas of the curriculum and their efforts are recognised in several ways. In the primary school students can collect house points which are celebrated in assemblies. They can also collect marbles as a class and this contributes to a group reward which the students are able to help choose. So far Year 5 have celebrated their teamwork and support for each other with a non-uniform day and other classes are busy talking about how to celebrate theirs. Of course, as you can see below each week, primary students are also rewarded with Star of the Week Certificates for excellent work or support of our school values. In the secondary school students also gain house points for excellent effort, work or demonstrating our school values. After each partial they are also awarded certificates by the subject teachers for excellence and endeavour and the BSQ Values award is given to someone who has demonstrated a welcoming attitude, care for others and high ambitions throughout the term. A reward trip twice a year also recognises those students who consistently do well in all these areas. Rewards are important but it is also important to have an intrinsic motivation to do well- to do better than you did last time. One of the things that can create this personal motivation is when your efforts are recognised in small ways such as a well done or a comment in a book about improvement. Parents can also play a part in this be taking to children about what they have been working on and how they feel they have improved. As always, school and home, working together, support the development of all students as they face the challenges of new learning and new skills. From the Staff and Students Continuing with our teachers and their stories about learning in the classroom this term. This week we hear from Mr Taylor and Year 13 in Secondary and from Ms Mitchell and the nursery students in Early Years. Mr. Rob Taylor – Secondary English Teacher Over the last couple of weeks, some students in year 9 have had the chance to get out of the classroom during English lessons, and spend time creating their own mini-films of scenes adapted from the novela, Of Mice and Men. Whilst it is quite a fun, creative way of showing their learning about the plot and the characters of the novela, the students are also showing off their analytical skills as they think critically about how their film will look on screen, making use of props, costume, camera angles, facial expressions, settings, and so much more. It is always a pleasure to teach this group of students, and it has been wonderful to see them flexing their creative muscles with so much focus and enthusiasm. Keep up the hard work! Ms. Tracey & Mr. Alejandro – Nursery A In Nursery we have been focusing on one to one correspondence during number time. This is teaching your children the skill of basic counting. Over the last few weeks we have played a variety of games to encourage this in a fun way. We made snakes out of pasta, used coloured pins to match numbers and have sang a variety of number songs. You can bring counting into everything you do. For example: How many socks do you have? ¨ ¨How many pieces of apple? ¨ ¨How many blue cars can you see? ¨ By bringing counting into your everyday language, you can support your children with their early Mathematical skills and make it fun! Dates for your Diary January 24th - Year 5 trip to Pintag Eco Farm January 25th - Student Council Bake Sale, 1pm-2:30pm. January 25th - Secondary Student Council Holocaust Victims Memorial trip to Einstein School. January 30th - Parent CIS meeting. 8am in the library January 30th - 31st - Year 10 DofE trip to Chaquiñan Emma Newman Principal Being BSQ – Primary Update On Saturday the Primary students enjoyed participating in our Art activities, learning new artistic techniques and practising their art skills. It is evident that there are lots of budding artists out there, developing the hand-eye coordination and making informed choices about colours, styles and tone. As part of our Behaviour Policy here at BSQ, we often use the word choice, particularly with the younger students. We focus on their actions, not the person, perhaps using words like ‘You made a poor choice’ or ‘You chose to … rather than …’ This then leads into a discussion about making better, more informed choices in the future, linked to the consequences of their actions on themselves and others. This strategy is also useful when you want to encourage your child to make positive choices at home. According to many specialists, giving children choices is more effective than making demands, particularly if you explain the reasons for the choices. For instance, you might offer two choices, both acceptable to you, for the vegetable they eat at dinner, or allow them to decide when to do their homework, between now or in fifteen minutes. Of course, it is advisable never to give choices that might cause you a problem and if they are unable to make a choice, you may make it for them, explaining why. Linked to this, we have introduced ‘Canteen Star’ rewards to celebrate when students make informed choices in the Canteen and display our school values. These rewards have been introduced in our assemblies to the students, with the students discussing and explaining how using good manners improves the lunchtime experience for all our community. Please ask your child about this new initiative and see if they have been awarded a Canteen Star. Star of the weekMarcus Madden Head of Primary Being BSQ – Secondary UpdateOn Saturday, we had a workshop for, and meetings with, the parents and students of Year 13. Some of these families have been a part of this community for a short time, and yet engage enthusiastically as though they have been part of it for years, and there are other who have been with this school for many years, and continue to show their complete support. In the cases of Gaby Trillo, Yosmari García and Miguel Ángel Durán, they are families who have seen two of their children graduate already from BSQ, and are this year experiencing this for the third and final time. Parents like these, who have been with us so long, and have been so involved over so many years, could be forgiven for thinking they know it all by now. But still they come, still they ask the question: how can we help? It was terrific to see so many parents here on Saturday. I don't think I've seen a bigger turn-out for a single year group in my time at BSQ. With parents like you in the community, committed to supporting the growth, success and happiness of our students, your children, I feel a great sense of hope that we can continue to achieve great things. Jim Wild Head of Secondary From the BSQ Counselling TeamThis week our school counsellor, Andrea Carrera, talks about how to handle biting, bullies and other bad behaviours.
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May 2024
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