Welcome Living As we look forward to our break next week there are many successes to celebrate from this term. We have completed our mock exam cycle for our oldest students with many outstanding outcomes and lots of targets to work on. We have taken time to focus on our mental health through INSIDE OUT so that we can continue to raise awareness of how important this issue is. We have completed our readiness for return to campus days with the staff team. We have welcomed prospective new families in webinars. We have maintained excellent attendance at online learning lessons and those lessons have continued to challenge and explore learning at a high level. As always, we are conscious that not being on the school site means that all our students are spending longer online than usual and whilst we work hard to provide a mixture of earning opportunities away from the screen too, it is important that parents are aware of the potential challenges. Tomorrow is Safer Internet Day in the UK and there is a wealth of resources connected to this and aimed at parents knowing how to keep their children (of whatever age) safe whilst online. This video reminds us all about how to be alert and watchful. It is always valuable to have a conversation about this at home. Learning As always there have been a range of exciting learning opportunities for our students to practise and explore skills and knowledge. Here are just a few examples. From the Staff and the Students Continuing with our teachers and their stories about e-learning this new period. This week we have Ms. Ruth Todd, Ms. Sara Avent, Ms. Natalie Moors, Ms. Aditi Sadotra, the Equality and Diversity Committee and the Student Council from Secondary and Ms. Hayley Dean, Primary Student Council and Ms. Antonella Coronel from Primary. Year 10 Explosion Safety Posters This week in Year 10 Chemistry, we have been applying our understanding of collision theory to create safety posters for miners. Explosions in mines are caused by the build of concentration of flammable gas and have devastating consequences. Here are some examples of the work produced by Year 10 explaining this phenomenon and how to avoid it. Ms. Ruth Todd – Chemistry Teacher Year 8 Science Year 8 worked together in small expert groups to complete this table about 8 different types of renewable energy. Each group worked together to gather the information and then shared it with the class in presentations. We collated the information into a useful table which they will use to prepare for a debate on which renewable energy is best next week. Ms. Sara Avent – Science Teacher Year 7 Art During the last unit with year 7 students, we had been exploring the oldest evidence of human art. From pictographs of Altamira in Spain to Chiribiquete in Colombia, students created their own cave art paintings inspired by diverse examples around the world. Students used natural pigments like coffee and charcoal to create their unique masterpieces! I hope you enjoy the works! Ms. Belén Arellano – Art Teacher Year 7 Humanities In Humanities this week, Year 7 moved away from the screen and adopted a ‘hands-on’ approach to show the process of weathering and erosion. Here are some excellent examples of creativity: Lyla Mathias Nina S. Mrs. Natalie Moors Inside Out Day! On Wednesday the 3rd of February we celebrated Inside Out day with all of the students. It is a day to raise awareness of children's mental health issues and give space to students to discuss how they are feeling. Staff and students all wore their clothes inside out for the day to represent that how we feel on the inside is not always reflected on the outside. You can see these outfits in the collages created by the different classes! In addition to the clothing in Secondary we dedicated some time in all lessons to have discussions surrounding mental health. These conversations were really beneficial for all involved and the students came up with some amazing insights. Here is an idea shared during a discussion in a year 8 mathematics lesson: "The loneliest people are the kindest, the saddest people smile the brightest, the most damaged people are the wisest, all because they do not wish to see anyone else suffer the way they do." This is a lovely reminder that we must always be kind to all as we never know what they may be going through. Well done to all the students for sharing wonderful thoughts and ideas throughout the day! Ms Sadotra Equality & Diversity Committee Mental health is a topic that many people struggle with and is often not given the necessary attention. Being part of this project was truly comforting as we had the opportunity to raise awareness and become conscious on how evaluating one's mental health is nothing to be ashamed of but an opportunity to recognize and reflect on your daily actions. We should all know how to take care of ourselves and others, especially during difficult times. Working on this has been an enriching experience because we could come together to create resources to help others. Of course, due to the circumstances and being online, it was a bit more complicated, however, teamwork won and we were able to create a booklet. Mental health is a topic of vital importance. This project helped us understand and better explore different situations and scenarios where problems with mental health are present. This will work as a stepping stone to greater and bigger projects by the E&D committee! Student Council Newsletter Hi Everyone, we have written a Newsletter for you, students and parents, to read with updates and important information about school and other things. We hope you like it and have a laugh or learn something new. Have fun! Fun Time: Memes Human: Isn’t that more of a grumpy face than a I love you face? Cat: Don’t judge me, or I will scratch!! Meoww Human: But aren't you just a picture? Cat: Oh yeah true, fine i will scratch you emotionally, there! Human: Okay…... Around the World: Thousands evacuated in Manchester, Wales and Merseyside to escape Storm Christoph: Torrential rain and floods in England lead to evacuation of Manchester and other cities. All over England there is horrible weather and no sight of sunshine. Former president Donald J trump is the first president of the united states to get impeached twice: It is still to be decided about President Donald Trump's impeachment trial and whether to convict him of "incitement of insurrection" following the deadly attack on the Capitol earlier this month. Student Council Update: Class points: Class points are now being used, make sure to be good in class and engage in lessons and earn class points. Get class reward sessions and be the winning class at the end of the year!! Valentine’s Day: For Valentine’s day the student council are working on a way of giving roses/cards/serenades online and they also are planning on doing different colour roses depending on who is giving it to who. There is also going to be a Valentine class collage competition and the winning class will get 2 class points!! School Updates: Manga high competition 7, 8, 9, KS3: This year we are also using Mangahigh to practice mathematics in a fun way. Manga high is a learning platform that has game-based maths activities from a wide range of topics like algebra, geometry, probability and statistics, angles, etc. As students, we find it very useful to increase our knowledge and use strategies. Besides that, what makes it even more engaging are the points, medals, and ranking, as well as, the house points that the teachers will award us with at the end of the Mangahigh COBIS Maths Challenge 2021. It allows us to compete with our classmates and other students from BSQ. Well done everyone. Inside Out day: Inside Out Day: Inside out day is celebrated on the 3rd of February all around the world to raise awareness for children’s mental health. At BSQ, students were asked to send a photo of them wearing clothing inside out and classes made collages. Also, in most lessons teachers and students got an opportunity to talk about mental health and how it has been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. Here is a class collage from year 13B!: It is important to open up about our feelings and never be scared of what someone might think. This is a very meaningful way for students to show who they are on the inside and raise awareness for mental health. Here is a quote that we should all remember: “How someone looks on the outside doesn’t necessarily reflect how they are truly feeling on the inside, so it is important to always be kind and think of others. “ If you want to read more: https://www.insideoutday.org.uk/ We hope you enjoyed reading the newsletter and we can’t wait to write another one! Stay Safe and Healthy! See you soon, Student Council Team 4B Newsletter Dear the BSQ Community, Welcome to the update of 4B’s learning. In the past couple of weeks, we have been writing diary entries based on the book The Island. The book is about a man that arrives on an island and because he was different he was discriminated against and prejudged. The story did not end well for the man and we learnt to not pre judge people based on our differences. From this we wrote diary entries about this man when he finally arrived at his home island and how he felt after his horrific journey and time on this nightmare filled island inhabited with dangerous and cruel people. In our interesting topic lessons, we learnt about the Civil Right Movement and the Jim Crow laws. We also learnt about the bravery of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. We listen to Martin Luther King Jr’s most famous and thought provoking speech ‘I have a dream’. As a class we then wrote our own ‘I have a dream’ speeches to demonstrate what we are passionate about and want to see changed. Across this term we have been learning about the culture of Hip Hop and its art. We are creating a piece of art step by step, firstly looked at Hip Hop dance, then clothing and colours and in our most recent class we learnt how to create graffiti writing of our names, including a lot of bright and bold colours. Thank you for reading our newsletter article and we hoped you liked reading all about our amazing learning journey's. Written by the Students of 4B Student Council – Primary Year 1 & 2 In Years 1 and 2 we the children have been learning all about Mental Health. Here are some quotes from the student council representatives about what they have learnt: “Feeling that come from us”- Jael “About how we are feeling everyday” - Jael “Emotions can be feelings like surprised and excited.” - Jael “We don’t have the same feelings everyday.” - Eduardo “We did Inside Out Day so we could express our emotions.” - Emilia “Miss Cook taught me about different feelings.” - Emilia “Some days we are not feeling great and that is okay” - Vivi Year 3 & 4 We have been learning about mental health which is all the emotions that we feel. Some examples of these are: anger, fear and happiness. All of these emotions are ok to feel sometimes. In PSHE lessons we have discussed creating a chart to record your emotions for the day. Talking about mental health is important so we can help each with our emotions. We enjoy doing activities in PSHE like guessing the emotion that someone is feeling. We have looked at the wheel of emotions. Now when we are working online it is important that the teachers know how we are feeling so they can help us if we need help. Inside Out Day was when we wore different coloured clothes inside out. This was so we could show how we were feeling inside. We had a class photo. Showing how you are feeling is really important so other people can help you out. If you say nothing, then people can’t help you. If you say you're happy but on the inside, you are sad then people will think everything is okay. Carlos Alberto and Juan Mateo. Year 5 & 6 We have been learning about our emotions and our mental health. We have talked about how we can experience different emotions, both bad and good and that all emotions are normal. We discussed how life can change in serious ways and that we can experience some difficult events in our lives. We also considered different strategies to use when coping with different situations. Having good mental health is when you feel peaceful with your thoughts and this is important because you will feel positive and you’re able to spread this positivity and happiness to others. Inside Out Day is a day where you can express yourself and your feelings. At BSQ we decided to wear our clothes inside out. This was to show that how we feel on the inside isn’t always expressed on the outside. As a school we believe it’s really important to talk about how we feel especially at the moment when some of us might be struggling with our emotions. We have enjoyed learning about our mental health because it prepares us for the future and it enables us to deal with difficult situations. Juanita and Manuela. Ms. Antonella Coronel – Head of EYFS. Dear parents, This week the children in Early Years will be looking into the Chinese New Years celebration. It will be an opportunity for the students to dive into this culture, learn about what makes them different or similar to us, what their costumes are and fun facts about China. On Friday however, we will celebrate Valentine's day in each individual session. Little Kickers will begin on February 23rd for both Nursery and Reception. You will receive a specific schedule regarding this throughout the course of the week. Your class teacher will also share an email with you if changes to your specific 1:1 session time slot will need to be made. We look forward to sharing another great week of online learning before the end of term break. Dates for your Diary
Have a very happy half term break. Emma Newman Principal Being BSQ – Primary Update This week I would like to talk about goals, but not the goals that we hope our favourite team score in a match, the ones that help us improve and accomplish new things. These are often called targets or next steps – they describe the actions we need to take to develop our knowledge, skills and understanding in a specific area of our lives. As adults, we set regular goals for ourselves, sometimes without even thinking about them, often related to tasks that we know we have to do, such as the shopping, exercise, work-related activities and so on. The ability to set goals is a skill that can help your child develop a sense of responsibility and learn time management and priorities. Goal-setting can also build their self-esteem by showing them that they can accomplish what they work hard for. Setting goals can also simply be a way for your child to understand what they want, or what they want to happen. It can even be a way to understand routines and schedules. At this age, they may have a hard time understanding how their current behaviour affects the future. You can think of goals at a very basic level with your young child. For example, simply asking, “What are you going to do after dinner?” is a goal. While it might not feel like one, at this young age that might be all your child understands as a goal.
Next week I will explore this concept further, with some simple structures to help you and your child develop meaningful goals for their development. In the meantime, please do look at your child’s written report, which details their attainment but also gives useful ‘Next Steps’ for them to improve further. As always, do please contact your child’s teachers if you need any support with this. Marcus Madden Head of Primary Being BSQ – Secondary Update DANGER OF EXPLOSION! There seems to have been a period of calm this week in the secondary school which is always welcome. Each week I meet with half of the Secondary staff in a meeting to consider wellbeing and other general monitoring needs. One of the agenda items that I always explore is something in the previous 2 weeks that they would like to celebrate. Almost all staff over the last 2 weeks have mentioned Year 12. These are clearly an extremely talented group of individuals who take their learning super seriously. All staff have reported that they are engaged, thriving in the activities that are shaping learning and that the relationships with the teachers are extremely rewarding. This is so pleasing to hear. Well done year 12. In a similar vein I have heard of some excellent success with our drive to place more autonomy on learning with students opposed to the teacher driving the agenda in each session. We have the need to balance content and how it is imparted, and with the wellbeing considerations for the children at the other end of the screen. We are really concentrating on developing a more project based focus on activity allowing creativity and independent learning skills. This has worked extraordinarily well in KS3 and as an example year 8, in science, where they have been considering ecological issues in Ecuador, presenting their ideas and then fielding questions form their peers. Ms. Avent tells me that the level of questioning and the tone of debate has been excellent. This is now being explored in the older years to drive more engagement and motivation. I hope that you all had some awareness of ‘Inside out day’ which highlighted mental health issues in youngsters. We had some coordinated activity around this with a presentation and focus. It was lovely to see some of our students sharing the moment on screen. Whilst the pictures are not necessarily that clear they do illustrate students turning their cameras on to acknowledge the fact that they were wearing clothes inside out. This was Mrs. Madden’s Theory of Knowledge class in year 12 – well done Mrs. Madden and everyone involved. On another note Ms. Todd has shared some excellent posters from her Year 10 Chemistry class who have been applying understanding of collision theory to create safety posters for miners. I have picked two that are particularly strong visually and in their content. Well done year 10. Looking ahead, we must again consider the Parent teacher conferences on Tuesday 9th February. These are for year 11 and 13 students and parents. All other students will be set work by their teachers to do independently at home. Finally, can I appeal to you all to ensure that where absences are required from lessons that you inform the school. This is so that teachers and pastoral leaders are aware. We are focusing on registers and attendance currently and this would be really helpful. If there is an absence which you are aware of before the event, then do please inform us prior to the event rather than on the first morning of that absence. This prevents any disruption to communication and the lessons. Have a great week everyone. Lee Moors
Head of Secondary
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May 2024
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