Welcome Living The mental health and wellbeing of young people has been of great concern and international focus during the last year, and rightly so. As adults now, we all remember a carefree (mostly) and untroubled (generally) school life where the expectation of getting up each morning, going to school and seeing our friends was taken for granted. Sports matches, musical events, birthday parties, holidays – all a part of the life we grew up with that have become limited or even non-existent for many of our children now. Whilst there is a lot of advice and guidance available for families linked to securing happiness and well-being at home, not all of it is practical, useful or helpful. The Young Minds organization in the UK has a great deal of useful resources such as this poster that shares ways to respond when family members and young people in particular are not feeling as positive as usual. Of course, the staff team at BSQ are always ready to listen to any anxieties or worries you might have and we encourage you to take every opportunity to approach us to talk about your experiences learning at home together, to share thoughts and to seek support and advice. Learning As you know we have a range of strategies we use in the classroom to support effective learning and you probably hear some of them on a regular basis through your computers at home. One of the most regularly used is what schools call ‘Cold Call.’ In this situation we make sure that all students are asked questions on a regular basis and this is used for a number of reasons. We might use it to ensure that no brains are truant from thinking, we might use it to ensure that all students have a chance to speak in every learning session and we definitely use it to check for understanding and ensure that everyone is ready to move on. In some schools, classrooms are dominated by a few students who jump in to answer the questions but at BSQ we aim to ensure that everyone has a voice and everyone can be heard in the learning process. If you want to know more about this technique – just ask your class or subject teacher. In the meantime, take a look at some of the wonderful learning happening across our school last week. Confirmation of places 2021 - 2022 Dear Parents, This is a kind reminder for families who have not had the opportunity to fill out the confirmation of places 2021-2022 survey. We would greatly appreciate it if you could share your intentions with us by March 5th in advance of the opening of our admissions process. Thank you very much for your cooperation and prompt response. From the Staff and the Students Continuing with our teachers and their stories about e-learning this new period. This week we have Ms. Valeria Cano and Ms. Aditi Sadotra from Secondary and Mr. Teddy Mercer and Ms. Antonella Coronel from Primary. Mathematics Toolkit Just before the holidays, our Year 12 mathematicians were all working hard on solving a very famous mathematical problem that you may be aware of called 'The Towers of Hanoi'. You can try the problem yourself using this link! The students used a variety of high level mathematical skills to observe patterns and describe this age old problem using different types of formulae. They also then had to write about their mathematics and how they came to their answers. You can see some examples of their work below which demonstrate their ability to think mathematically and make their own interesting discoveries! Well done to our year 12 mathematicians! KS3 Music In our Key Stage 3 music lessons the students have been working on creating beats and songs using different online apps. They built on the skills developed in their ear training lessons to come up with their own compositions in year 7 using beats. Year 9 have been working on re-creating the song "Never gonna give you up". Here are some examples from these groups: Ignacio, Year 7 https://www.incredibox.com/mix/d3d6e6f8c83f5b82db00-v2 Vicky B. and Isabella A, Year 9 https://musiclab.chromeexperiments.com/Song-Maker/song/6598096469884928 Ms Cano, Music Teacher Mr. Teddy Mercer – Reception B Teacher Students in Reception B returned from the Carnival break filled with renewed energy and ready to put their Mathematics strategies to the test! Now that we have become experts at counting on and counting back, we are learning about the number ten and how important it is. In Weeks 1 and 2, we are discovering more about ten frames and how we can use them to show number bonds. We are also making bundles of ten and showing how to show tens and one on a place value chart. Whew! Ms. Antonella Coronel – Head of EYFS Dear parents, In a week’s time we will be celebrating International Women’s Day, where the children will have the opportunity to learn about important women throughout history that have impacted the life of us all, such as Rosa Parks, Amelia Earhart, Frida Kahlo and many more. In addition to this, we would like to present to them the women in their own personal lives as well as within their BSQ community. For this we would like to ask all the mothers in the Early Years Foundation Stage to please send to their class teacher a picture of themselves celebrating something you are proud of as a woman. Below is the term 4 calendar and the dates to save. We look forward to celebrating these events with the children of Early Years! Dates for your Diary
Emma Newman Principal Being BSQ – Primary Update This week I would like to focus on two areas of the Primary School, our Spanish department and our EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage) department. Both are integral to what we aim to achieve with our students while they are with us, ensuring our students live and learn according to our school values and become internationally minded life-long learners. In our Spanish department, our students learn about the vocabulary, grammar and structure of the Spanish language alongside developing an understanding of Ecuador and its varied geography and culture. For instance, in Key Stage One the students are learning to read more complex texts in Spanish, learning words with the syllables al, el, il, ol, ul, as, es , is, os and us in Year 1 and locked syllables (pra, pre, pri, pro, pru, pla, ple, pli, plo and plu ) in Year 2, leading to being able to recognise them in texts. In Sociales in Year One, the students have been learning about means of communication and transportation, writing secret messages using lemon juice and a flashlight. In Year 5 Sociales, the students have been studying Jerarquías durante la época colonial (Hierarchies during colonial times), an interesting topic that has led to many in-depth discussions about power and influence during this period. In upper Key Stage Two Spanish, the students have been reading classic books such as George’s Marvellous Medicine and Tornado. Through reading these books aloud, the students have given life and meaning to a written text through intonation, pronunciation, fluency, rhythm or volume of the voice. Through listening, we hope they can dream, imagine or express their emotions. In addition, they have been developing their correct use of vocabulary and linguistic structures related to the texts, to help improve their writing. On Tuesday, new parents thinking about sending their child to the Early Years section of the school are invited to a webinar (details in the previous Newsletter) to find out what many existing parents already know – that Nursery and Reception provide the foundations for success in later learning and are essential in providing opportunities for our youngest students to develop their social, emotional and academic skills in a safe and secure environment. Although many of our EYFS students have not attended school in person, they are still learning about the core skills they would do at school, with the support of their teachers. We would like to ask you all to collect any of the following to use in our outdoor area, ready to bring to school when we return:
Marcus Madden Head of Primary Being BSQ – Secondary Update How would you spend $5 Million on health and wellbeing in the Valley? We have a busy time ahead thinking about our curriculum, how we manage assessment, and of course those students who are moving between phases. There are various key moments when students and parents negotiate where choices need to be made that impact study over the following two years and it is important to consider how these decisions contribute towards future aspirations. I am looking forward to key presentations over the next week or so. The first is for our year 12 students who are starting the process of considering what comes after graduating from BSQ. My task will be to engage thought and action towards this and hopefully, by May, each one will know what comes next. My aim is to secure the written first drafts of entry essays for the US Universities and UCAS references for the UK, and a good recommendation from their chosen teacher. This will relieve some of the pressure that inevitably arises as year 13 unfolds and course work deadlines clash with the demands from their subject teachers. On Saturday 20th March Ms. Todd and I will be leading presentations for our year 9 students and parents on everything that we think you need to know about IGCSE study at BSQ. This will enable some thought about future aspirations and choices that link to IB and onwards, and to what happens when they eventually leave here. Our year 11 students have had an extremely challenging year and have really stepped up to the challenge to secure the best possible outcomes. They now face choices for IB study in 6th form and the realization that they are really stepping up to face the challenges and rewards that the IB Diploma curriculum offers. These are all times that require great reflection and consideration before making those important choices. By now you are aware that we are submitting teacher assessed grades for IGCSE and IB, and we are looking at this as an opportunity. Teachers and students will be working hard to ensure that the correct supporting evidence is in place for everyone to secure the best grades possible. There will be additional test questions, essays and of course the coursework that needs to be finished. BSQ has been working hard to prepare for this from the beginning of this year, and we learned much from the same task last year. Please be reassured that we have the determination and experience to ensure that everyone gets what they deserve. Sport. In PE lessons currently there is a focus on a 10-week fitness training programme. As always there are occasions where not all can participate due to illness or injury and so a task was set for two students over the last few weeks who could not complete practical work, and I would like to share some of the amazing work done by Shira in Year 9. The task was to use a $5 million dollar grant to develop a health and wellness facility in the valley that can be accessed by all. She has had some amazing ideas and went into super detail, really embracing the challenge I set her. Here are some of the images from her work and you can find the full presentation and rationale for the design here. I think we should put our very bright and innovative children in charge! Well done Shira. Hillside design layout
This is just a taste of what she achieved and I invite you to take a moment to go and take a closer look at her work.
Have a great week everyone. Lee Moors Head of Secondary
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
CategoriesArchives
May 2024
|