WelcomeBeing BSQ in the community One area of our work at BSQ that is both high up on our goals list and close to our heart, is our work in the community. Everyone in the school gets involved at different levels – students, staff and parents. We take this work very seriously and, in fact, have a clear policy that guides us when making decisions and taking actions. Written by Ms Montenegro, our policy ensures that everyone understands that ‘The rationale for service learning is that students learn best by doing, by serving, and by reflecting on the experience.’ Last week I visited one of our partner projects with Ms Carrera and was able to see first-hand the work that our Year 11 students have been undertaking with an orphanage in Quito. Listening to the orphanage staff talking about our students and listening to our students talking about the impact their work has had on them demonstrated perfectly the mutual benefits and respect that have developed. I also want to say thank you to all the families who supported us with our Christmas Campaign organised by the PA. By giving a donation of money rather than goods, the team have been able to purchase a wide range of quality materials and necessary items for our main partners – Beyond Lagartacocha and Hogar para sus Niños. Next week representatives from our Year 4 and Year 6 classes will be visiting the same orphanage to share the gifts from our Christmas Fair and to work on the vegetable garden. I look forward to sharing their reflections with them when they return. Car Safety. After many reminders last year about the importance of safe driving and respect for the users of the Drive Through, I have noticed a significant improvement in the use of the space and the respect shown to other drivers – thank you. However, I remain concerned about three things:
Amazingly, the first road safety campaigns in the UK first started appearing in the early 1950s and since then there have been many projects aimed at developing awareness about the dangers of not wearing a seatbelt, drinking and driving, using phones whilst driving and even how to cross roads safely. As a result, deaths on the road and in cars have fallen consistently from 7,699 in 1977 to 2,222 in 2009. They have continued to fall ever against a rising population. You can see the history of these campaigns here. So, we know that being safety aware can save lives. Please take the time to turn off your phone, put seatbelts on and drive carefully. Thank you. Staffing news. I would like to inform you that Mr Jim Wild our Head of Secondary will be leaving us in July this year to seek new leadership opportunities beyond Ecuador with his family. As a result, we will be welcoming candidates for the position of Head of Secondary from January onwards and the core PA members will be assisting us with the process. Whilst we will celebrate Jim's time with us later in the year, I would just like to take this opportunity to thank him for the significant contributions to the development of BSQ during his time here. I know that many of you will join me in wishing Jim well as he moves forward in the next steps of his career. Music Provision Many thanks to the 10 families who have signed up for music classes at BSQ. After speaking to Dina, who will be providing the classes and String Band, we have added viola, cello and double bass to the offer. We still need at least 10 more families to make this extra-curricular activity viable. Again, please email Santiago on [email protected] if you would like to join our BSQ String Band. Holocaust Memorial On Friday January 24th Ms. Sadotra and I took 8 members of our student council to the National Assembly to share in the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau at the Holocaust Memorial event. This is the third time now I have attended the event and it never fails to remind me of the need for greater compassion, love and understanding in the world. The overriding memories of the words spoken each year are warnings against racism, violence and, of course, anti-Semitism. As always I am reminded of the words of Pastor Niemöller, which exist in many forms but are best captured here. We encourage our students to speak out and I was proud of the way in which they listened to, watched and reflected on what they experienced. Special thanks to Nico Anhalzer who read these words to the assembly. La cuarta vela será encendida para crear conciencia sobre la creciente ola de antisemitismo, racismo y xenofobia en el mundo. Que la llama de esta vela nos permita reflexionar sobre nuestra propia postura y compromiso en combatir cualquier forma de odio y discriminación que se presente ahora y en el futuro. TEDxYouth@BSQ http://bit.ly/TEDxYouthatBSQ_Speakers We have an outstanding group of experts and students to share their stories with us about Education: Innovation, Diversity and Wellbeing during our boundary-breaking first for BSQ: TEDxYouth@BSQ. Stay tuned for more details about our speakers. Driving Change 2020 – Save the Date and volunteer Last week I published an invitation for volunteers to work with us to host the Women and Leadership Conference here at BSQ. Many thanks to those who have stepped forward. From the Staff and the Students Continuing with our teachers and their stories about learning in the classroom this period. This week we have Mr. Nick Kennedy from Secondary and Ms. Lauren Backhouse and Ms. Coronel from Primary. Mr. Nick Kennedy – Biology Secondary Teacher The Year 13s have just hit the Human Physiology unit in Biology, which means that we they will be doing a number of dissections. We kicked off our understanding of the circulatory system with a dissection of a cow’s heart. I am used to dissecting pig’s or lamb’s hearts, but the size of a cow’s heart means it’s great for seeing clearly the four chambers and blood vessels of the heart, though it’s a little tougher to cut into the thicker muscle tissue. It’s always very satisfying to match the precise diagrams you find in textbooks with the blood-clotted complexities of the real thing. Our next dissection will be a pluck - the heart, lungs and liver hanging down from the windpipe and gullet. Inflating the lungs with a foot-pump is very much a rite of passage in a young biologist’s life. And if we’re lucky we’ll have an epiglottis attached too, which closes off the windpipe every time the animal swallows. We also have an eyeball dissection coming up for the year 11s. So lots to look forward to! Ms. Lauren Backhouse – Year 4A Teacher On Saturday's Climate Change Day, Year 4 learned about what climate is and the difference between climate and weather. Children learned about global warming and considered how it is making the planet change. Both myself and Miss Dean were impressed with the amount of knowledge the children had around the issue. We then looked specifically at how coral reefs are being impacted by climate change. Children worked together to produce a mural to represent these changes. By the end of the day, we all agreed that if we all make small changes, we can start to help our planet. Ms. Antonella Coronel – Head of EYFS This week in Nursery we celebrated Chinese New Year! Since Monday the children have been learning about China. They were amazed to learn how they eat with chopsticks. They could not believe that even children as young as them were able to use this utensil to eat. The children gave it a try and found out how difficult it may be at the beginning. The children had a Mandarin lesson where they learnt colors and numbers! Our story focus was “Chinese New Year, The great race” with which the children became familiar with the Chinese calendar and how each animal came to be an important part of it. This is the year of the Rat and we spent some time learning interesting facts about it as well. To finish our Chinese week we invited parents to come in and share a delicious meal with traditional food such as dumplings. Here are the nursery dragons ready for their debut! Dates for your Diary January 27th– 28th– Y10 DofE Expedition January 29th– Nursery trip to Botanical Gardens February 11th – IB Open Day February 20th– TEDxYouth@BSQ February 21st– Carnival holiday starts at 12h00 March 20th – 21st– Driving Change 2020 Emma Newman Principal Being BSQ – Primary Update Continuing our discussion about how we use the school values as a driver for many of the learning opportunities we undertake here at BSQ, we aim to explicitly refer to them when speaking with the students about their progress and personal development. As part of this process, a group of students spent some time last term to create a set of guidelines for our values, expanding on each statement and suggesting ways we could incorporate them more into our daily lives. This week I would like to explore our second school value and specifically the word ‘happy’: We live and learn with a happy and welcoming attitude to everyone. Our students expanded on this concept of happiness by encouraging us all to:
This concept naturally links to our learning about respect and care – if we as an individual are respectful and caring towards those we come into contact with, it is more likely that they will reciprocate these attitudes and we will be happier and more content. At our weekly Star of the Week assemblies, we make a big point about celebrating each other’s successes and being happy for our friends if they have achieved something they are proud of. We also discuss with the students about the importance of recognising our own achievements, even if we sometimes are tempted to compare these to the achievements of others. Being content, happy and proud of our own achievements is a good starting point for being understanding and compassionate about others; if we are not satisfied with ourselves then we may show signs of jealousy of others. Recognising our own strengths and the things that make us unique is equally as important as knowing our areas for development and things we are not so good at. Continuing our focus on being safe in the sun and outdoors, please can I remind you to make sure that your child has the appropriate clothing and sun protection each day, including a suitable hat and a long-sleeved top for swimming. We will continue to monitor the UV Index each day and make sure that the whole school community follows our guidelines. Star of the WeekMarcus Madden Head of Primary Being BSQ – Secondary Update Trips One of our very real strengths at BSQ is the number of high quality learning opportunities we are able to provide our students outside of the school. Whether it is a subject-based academic excursion, a service-learning visit, or a team-building exercise, groups of students travel weekly to locations near and far to learn real skills and real knowledge in the real world. Last week, Mrs Madden and Mr Edwards took our Year 7 students on a residential trip to Cayambe. This week, the Year 10 Duke of Edinburgh's International Award students will be hiking the chaquiñan, camping at the school and then scaling Ilaló, while on Friday our IGCSE and IBDP art students will visit a gallery in Quito. And next week, we have four trips out in Secondary: a rewards trip for all our award winners on Tuesday 4th February, a Year 10 Geography research trip to Quito and a Year 11 service trip to Hogar Para Sus Niños on Wednesday, and a Year 12 and 13 IB English and Spanish B excursion on Thursday. Once again, I'd like to thank all the teachers and administrators who put so much effort into planning and accompanying these visits, the students who attend and engage so effectively, and the parents who continue to provide their invaluable support. Jim Wild Head of Secondary From the BSQ Counselling Team This week our school counsellor, Andrea Carrera, talks about how can we nurture children´s mental health.
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May 2024
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