WelcomeBeing BSQ in the wider world. On Monday January 27, seven BSQ students and five staff members attended the Climate Change event at Casa Guayasamín where Sir Simon McDonald (Head of the British Diplomatic Service), Katherine Ward (British Ambassador in Ecuador) and a number of other influential guests spoke – including our own students from the Climate Change Committee. Anabella de Armas, Daniela Sañaicela and Valeria Correa stood in front of over 150 invited guests and shared their actions linked to climate change, spoke about their vision and challenged those with the power to do so to make a difference. In addition, the BSQ climate day video, shot by Pablo Ganchala, Martinna Roldan, Martin Castaneda and Nico Anhalzer was shown. Nico, who had edited and prepared the video, also spoke on stage and invited Alan Hesse to present a copy of his book The Adventures of Polo the Bear to Sir Simon. Congratulations to these students. Parent Values. As many of you will know, the PA met in December to continue the work started by our students to outline ways to live our values in everyday life here at BSQ. That work has resulted in a set of statements that outline the ways in which parents can support, develop and promote the BSQ ways of being. Thank you for the hard work and I look forward to seeing these actions flooding our work together as we move forward. 1. Welcome At BSQ, parents:
At BSQ, parents:
At BSQ, parents:
At BSQ, parents:
At BSQ parents:
At BSQ parents:
Meet the team – this week we hear from our Year 1 team This week we present the Year 1 team to share with us their thoughts about being part of the BSQ community. Our Year 1 teachers are always committed to the development and growth of their pupils in every possible way. After School Clubs. This is a final call to all parents to sign up for the music clubs. If we cannot have 20 students enrolled, then the club cannot begin which would be a shame as I know it is something that the community have asked for. We have to start small and grow towards bigger and more diverse groups. Final deadline is Friday February 7th. Remember that there are opportunities to learn violin, viola, cello and double bass. TEDxYouth@BSQ As promised, here is a hint about our expert speakers: David Vásquez, Rebeca Carrera and Said López. David is an education consultant looking forward to this event about Education: Innovation, Diversity and Wellbeing, Rebeca is an English teacher with more than 8 years of experience in the rural context, adding value to our TEDxYouth@BSQ, and Said is a Rugby coach who will share a different perspective on education. Stay tuned for more details. Driving Change 2020 – Save the Date and volunteer BSQ Festival of Ecuadorian Culture Building on the success of Climate Emergency Day and last year's Afroecuadorian Day, this Saturday 8th February, BSQ will host its first ever Festival of Ecuadorian Culture, which aims to raise awareness of and celebrate minority cultures in Ecuador, as well as the rich diversity of cultural expression in this incredible country. The event has been organised by the wonderful Equality & Diversity Committee members: Silas Tapia (Y11), Mateo Almendariz (Y11) and Samantha Baugh (Y10) as well as a handful of committed teachers. Primary have been running a poster competition and the winning design will be put up around the school next week to promote the event. Thanks to Mr. Kyle for this! Students across Primary and Secondary will be able to sign up for various activities. Primary teachers will give their students more information about how to do this and Secondary students must do so via a sign-up sheet that will be sent out by email early next week. Ms. Danielle Parker MUN This year Y12 has decided to take some service spaces in our educational community, leading some enrichment activities. Specifically, MUN is one of them, where boys and girls in Years 7 to 13 learn from parliamentary procedure, global issues, debate and participate in models that emulate the United Nations. This weekend 9 students represented this club at Johannes Kepler School with great effort, motivation and enthusiasm. For some of them, this was their first time as members of this group, and for others it was a challenge because they worked as judges or lawyers and others as members of the Security Council. Thank you for trusting Mathias Bustos, Y12 student, as your leader and congratulations to delegates José Gabriel Aguas, Lucas Tapia - UNESCO, Ary Loqvram, Gianna Calderon – International Court of Justice, Belen Chávez, Samantha Baugh, and Martín Rendón - ECOSOC, Mathias Bustos and Yair Gallegos – Security Council. Ms. Paola Montenegro Y7 Residential Last week Year 7 went on a trip to Cayambe and stayed for one night in one of the oldest Haciendas in Ecuador. The programme was carefully planned to be educational and support the students in their personal development. Students took part in many different activities including team building, horse riding, swimming and trekking to the local Inca ruins. Students enjoyed finding out about the different perspectives of the earth with a trip to Quitsato, the first and only Monument of the Middle of the world, which is exactly on the Equatorial Line or Zero Parallel. The students in Year 7 are already excited about planning another Residential trip in Year 8! Mrs. Sally Madden From the Staff and the Students Continuing with our teachers and their stories about learning in the classroom this period. This week we have Ms. María Fernanda Espinosa and Ms. Sara Avent from Secondary and the Reception Team and Ms. Coronel from Primary. Ms. María Fernanda Espinosa – Drama Teacher Music and Drama lessons For a young child, the benefits of being involved in music and drama lessons are incredible. Art, in general, and music exposure does more than only provide a creative outlet for students; they provide mental, emotional, and educational benefits, and more. Having the opportunity to work in the primary section in both these lessons has been a wonderful experience and has shown me the impact that music and theatre can have in a student's life. So far, we have worked in rhythmic patterns using percussion instruments and their own bodies, in order to develop their rhythm notation and in the higher stages they can read, identify and transcribe rhythms. Drama lessons in primary and secondary have allowed the students to be more self confident to show how creative and talented they are. Duke of Edinburgh For the past few months, a group of students from year 11 and year 12 have been involved in the Silver award of the Duke of Edinburgh. The award requires us to complete 6 months of a service, physical and skill activity in order to qualify for the prize. The award also involves a 3-day trip in which we walk around 45 kilometres, sleeping the nights in tents and cooking our own food. We also have to plan ahead of this journey, as we have to make a food plan which includes the calories we will consume in the varied menu of foods. Also as part of the preparation we calculate the total distance we plan to walk and then divide it into shorter sections called legs, we also work out the time it will take us to walk that distance taking into account water breaks, lunch, and also slopes which can increase the time taken to walk the distance. Learning to use the stove and put up a tent is also part of the preparation towards our final qualifying trip. Also, as a part of the expedition we divide ourselves into small groups in which we will walk and share a tent with. These groups need to have an aim for when the expedition takes places, and it can vary from cataloguing flora and fauna in the area we will walk in, to taking soil samples in the various sites we will be staying in and calculating the pH of it. We already took part in a practice expedition to Mindo in November, which was great fun! For our qualifying expedition we will be going to the Quilotoa Lagoon and walking from the lagoon to Sigchos, a town nearby. Currently we are making our food plan and calculating distances for each day. Martín Castañeda - Year 12 student The Reception Team Last week, Reception went on their first out-of-school excursion to The Happy Farm in Puembo! Students in Reception have been investigating animals as part of their core-subject learning in Maths and Literacy. We had the opportunity to see the animals’ close-up and learn about how they are cared for at the farm. We took lots of photographs so we could describe them in our writing when we returned to school this week. Keep an eye on the Tapestry online platform to see examples of your child's writing and their academic and social progress being made here at school. Ms. Antonella Coronel - Head of EYFS As part of our topic “Understanding of the world: How things work” we took the children to the Botanical Garden in Quito. They got to experience an amazing walk through the forest of mist, moorland and the garden of carnivorous plants. During the forest of mist path the children experienced very cool air and a wet environment in comparison to the other areas of the garden. The moor land was mostly low growing fauna and the children were able to touch a lot of the plants from this area. Along this walk the children touched leaves that were bigger than their hands and even their heads! There was also a tree that loved to be hugged so that is exactly what we did. It took a few children wrapped around it to cover the whole tree. In the rose garden we say a variety of butterflies that fee around us. A lot of birds also showed themselves throughout the walk. One flew right next to the group of children. We were quite enough to hear a pair of them playing up in the trees. It was a great experience for the nursery kids and we look forward to our next trip. Dates for your Diary February 11th – IB Open Day February 20th– TEDxYouth@BSQ February 21st– Carnival holiday starts at 12h00 March 20th – 21st– Driving Change 2020 March 25th– EYFS Open Day Emma Newman Principal Being BSQ – Primary Update All the Primary students are looking forward to the end of the week, when we hold our annual Sport’s Day, in conjunction with the Festival of Ecuadorian Culture Day. This is a chance for the students to demonstrate some of the skills they have learnt this year in PE in a safe setting, with only a small element of competition, plus join in with the Secondary students in a range of activities designed to promote Ecuadorian culture. The timings of the day on Saturday 8thare 9am until 1pm, with a normal bus service and school snack being provided. Drive Through will open at 8:45am in the morning and again at 1pm at the end of the day. Primary students are encouraged to wear their House t-shirts and PE uniform, apply sun screen before arriving plus bring their hat and water bottle. Parents are invited to join with all of the events, as appropriate. Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 will have the sports element of the day between 9am and 10:15am, with Years 3 to 6 having their Sports events between 11:30am and 12:45pm. There is also an opportunity to participate in the Ecuadorian Master Chef competition and Bake Sale between 11am and 11:30am, with more details of this event to follow. In the Early Years, the teachers use Tapestry to share your child’s learning with you and make announcements etc. In Years 1-6, the teachers use Canvas to share the learning and homework, plus make announcements and updates. Please do use the appropriate online resource to keep up to date with your child’s learning and activities. If you have any questions about accessing either of these online platforms, please contact Miss Antonella Coronel in Early Years ([email protected]) or Mr John Ashfield in Years 1-6 ([email protected]). Star of the WeekMarcus Madden Head of Primary Being BSQ – Secondary Update Rewards and Recognition As a positive community committed to the promotion of hard work and good deeds, we constantly seek for ways to reward and recognise students who are putting in effort to meet our proudly high standards. This recognition takes many forms, from an email home to parents, to a certificate of excellence, and at the end of each Quimestre, students who have met the criteria are rewarded with a trip out of school, usually to the cinema. There are two ways to qualify for this trip. The first is to accrue, over the course of the three preceding Partials, a total of 50 or more House Points. The points are awarded daily by teachers, in and out of class, for students who demonstrate our values of care, respect, kindness, welcome, active determination, and ambition. In practise, this can mean anything from improving their skills and knowledge in maths or essay-writing, to picking up a piece of trash or helping a friend in need. The second way to qualify is to win a certificate of excellence. At the end of each Partial, a Rewards and Recognition Assembly is held, to acknowledge the academic attainment and endeavor in class. In addition, a special award is presented to one student from each of Key Stages 3, 4, and 5, who has best embodied those values across the school during the last Partial. There are two trips in the year. If a student hasn't made it this time, then all the more reason to try a little harder to ensure that next time they do. Jim Wild Head of Secondary From the BSQ Counselling Team This week our school counsellor, Andrea Carrera, talks about 9 small ways to keep kids excited about school all year long.
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May 2024
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