WelcomeWelcome back everyone - I hope you had a wonderful Carnival break. Parent Survey Let’s celebrate – once again the BSQ community has rated the school overall as higher than the Orbital group average. I know that we are a happy community, but knowing that our work is ensuring you believe we are meeting your expectations to such a high level is a wonderful statistic to see. As promised this week I have some more reflections on the survey outcomes. This year for the first time, we were able to respond in person to parents who had any concerns and provide reassurances and personal support. Thank you to those parents for your time and for supporting us with ideas to reflect on and develop. In more general terms the following are areas we will be looking at developing moving forward based on the comments from you about where you would like to see additions:
Over the coming weeks and months, we will keep you updated with our progress against some of these suggestions. To close this part of the newsletter let’s celebrate again with a warm thank you for the time you took to write comments praising the school for:
Thank you. Green Week. What a great experience we all shared as part of our Green Week celebrations. Thank you to everyone who sent resources, organised events and generally supported our drive to reflect on all things environmental. British Sign Language (BSL) This week two of our BSL Enrichment students will be demonstrating a new sign: like me Mathematics using BSL. Please watch this brilliant video: Ms. Hayley Dean, KS2 Lead SSD Article Every month, the SSD will share with you practical suggestions, strategies and the latest research on a topic related to parenting and social and emotional learning. Happy reading! Dates for your Diary As always please check this section carefully and ensure that you have all the details in your calendars.
Mrs. Emma Newman Principal Being BSQ – Primary Update Welcome back to Term 4 here at The British School Quito – we hope you all had a relaxing Carnival break and your child is ready for the next six weeks of exciting learning opportunities before the Easter break, with Term 4 ending on Thursday 14th April. There are some dates for you to be aware of in the coming weeks. Our intention is to host an online Parent Teacher Conference for all primary students and yourselves on Thursday 24th March. On this day, there will be no lessons in school or online and each student and their parents will be invited to an online Parent Teacher Conference – more specific details to follow. Although much of what will be discussed at these Parent Teacher Conferences will be school-based, we will also want to share with you all ways that you can support your child’s development at home. As a parent, you are your child's first and most important teacher. When parents and families are involved in their child's education, that child does better both academically and emotionally and has better feelings about going to school. There are many ways that you can support your child's learning at home and throughout the next school year. To make these really meaningful and useful for your child, spend some time with them before the meeting to find out what they have been learning about, what they enjoy doing and what they find more challenging. Have a pre-prepared list of questions for the teacher and please do ask for translation support if appropriate, in advance. We hope that you will come away from these Parent Teacher Conferences with a clear idea about how your child is doing, what their next steps are and how the school and yourselves can support the development in the coming year. We also plan to host our annual Fun Day on Saturday 9th April, if local conditions allow for this to take place. This will be an opportunity for the school community to reconnect and spend some time together as a group of like-minded people, all concerned with the well-being, happiness and success of our students. I have a large amount of lost property in my office – mostly unnamed sweaters and jackets and water bottles. If your child is missing any items, please ask them to visit my office and have a look for things they might recognise (although this is difficult as they all look similar!). Mr. Marcus Madden Head of Primary Caterpillars Update Nursery have been very busy learning about food and taking care of the environment. We have been developing our counting to 10, colour recognition and fine-motor skills through different activities such as making paper pizzas and weighing vegetables. During Green Week, Caterpillar Class enjoyed crafting using recycled materials and planting seeds in recycled containers. We walked around the school to discuss recycling and trash separation and have been busy taking care of the plants in our new terrarium. We are beginning to recognise numbers and letters and absolutely love sharing stories, particularly when our Year 5 friends come down to read with us on a Monday. Ms. Lilly Lockwood, Nursery Teacher Celebrations We would like to share with our BSQ community that José Tomás, Year 6, won the I Rancho Junior Tournament at Rancho San Francisco, category Under 12. Congratulations José Tomás for this achievement, we look forward to supporting him in future competitions! Being BSQ – Secondary Update A wonderful end to the half-term We all enjoyed a carefully considered and well led event that was driven by Annabella and the sustainability group with Green Week. The highlight for me was the no electricity day. It took me back to the early days of my career where communication was reliant on messages in pigeon holes and a face to face conversation. I remember the hours I spent on my mobile telephone as a young PE teacher arranging sports fixtures. How things have changed. Email and the way that we now manage education on computers with resources and activities has definitely improved the depth of experience for the students and the efficiency with which staff are now able to work. As a school leader the exercise highlighted to me just how much our roles rely on the keyboard and how much of my time is spent on it. What we saw last week was a huge change in pedagogy for staff who had to deliver learning and activity without any electricity. It was very refreshing indeed. There were so many lessons outside of the classroom enjoying the fresh air and a different learning environment. The sessions were more active and perhaps the change was more interesting for the students. In PE students played a game of Frisbee golf with a course set up around the school. The TOK students were on the field preparing mini exhibitions discussing objects ranging from a robotic dog, a pizza box, a David Attenborough DVD, and a modern picture of da Vinci's last supper. The geography and science students were out and about collecting data and samples for further investigation. It really was excellent. For me, the opportunity to put the out of office tool on the email system all day with the knowledge that the rest of the team was doing the same was really refreshing. It allowed me to have time to be out and about more seeing the wonderful and innovative learning taking place around the school. I wonder if this is something we need to do more often!? We also enjoyed paper making which eventually will be painted and sustainability messages will be added for a central display. The last day saw students in forms designing and building a structure which was constructed from plastic bottles to collect recycling. There was a real energy and lots of creativity as seen here with the excellent effort from year 9, and Mr. Edwards and Mrs. Parkinson. Do take a moment to have a look at the wider reporting and pictures of the event and also look out for the results of the meat free Monday menu winner and the winner of the recycling bin design. These will be appearing at school soon. Looking ahead our focus must be on our year 11 and year 13 students. There is absolutely clarity about how they will be assessed in their exams and we have another practice opportunity during March. I know how hard the teachers and students are working and they all deserve our praise and best wishes in this challenging time in their education careers. It is only a couple of months and all will be behind them so sacrifices need to be made. I hope that everyone gets what they deserve. We are also taking a close look at the teaching and learning at school over the next couple of weeks with our second round of observations connected to our commitment to develop teaching Mastery at BSQ. Staff will be looking at each other’s lessons and reflecting on progress from the beginning of the year. We will be looking closely at the learning climate and learning environment, and how marking and feedback is managed. So much of the year is already behind us and before we know it we will be at the Easter break. I wish everyone a good term ahead. Y7 Geometry The best way to gain a deep understanding of a topic is to be able to explain that topic to your peers. This is exactly what we have been doing in mathematics, where students chose their own topic related to geometry and created a presentation to show the rest of the class. Two of the stand out presentations were videos created by André Fernández Castaño, who dedicated his presentation to 3D shapes, and Matías Larrea Villabón, who created a video about lines and angles. If you want to be enlightened on the subjects yourself, please use these links and find out for yourself! Mr. Matthew Bowles, Math Teacher Have a good week everyone.
Mr. Lee Moors Head of Secondary
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