WelcomeLiving Today marks the closing of the official period of our self-study for CIS accreditation and I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who has helped out with the journey. Every single member of staff at BSQ has been a part of the process along with groups of parents, Orbital and of course the students. Much of the process has given us cause for celebration as we realise how much we do in the community, how hard our students work to improve their learning, how hard our teachers work to develop the curriculum and how hard the admin team work to support the work in the classroom. There have also been areas we have identified for improvement such as updating policies and re-writing job descriptions – all essential elements of running an excellent organisation. As we approach the CIS team accreditation on May 26th-31st, I will keep you all posted on the progress as we look forward to sharing our wonderful school with the visitors. This week I will be visiting Mexico City as part of the cohort of Principals and Head Teachers from the continent who will be joining together to share best practice and ideas linked to excellence in school practice. As members of the Latin American Heads Conference (LAHC) we are lucky to be able to meet with professionals who share the same triumphs and challenges as we do and, hopefully, to be able to form some partnerships that will provide opportunities for students and teachers back here at BSQ. The Keynote speaker at the conference is David Weston from the Teacher Development Trust in the UK and there will be lots of other exciting ways to share ideas and resources. I will share updates with you next week. Learning As always, our staff and students have been busy getting out and about to enrich their learning in the local and wider community. Since Christmas alone I have received over 20 requests from staff to take students out of school to explore projects and by the end of the year I anticipate about 60 educational visits will have taken place. We start early at BSQ with even our nursery students travelling off-site to experience new opportunities to get hands-on with their learning. Here they are enjoying their visit to the pizza shop. Meanwhile, in the secondary school the students have been out and about in the local community undertaking work as part of their community enrichment projects. It is not possible to track all of our trips here but keep an eye on the Facebook page for more details as we move through the remainder of the year. https://www.facebook.com/BSQuito/ Last week we took delivery of the first of our new classroom learning tools and installed four visualizers in classrooms around the school. Students lucky enough to be taught by Ms. Backhouse, Mr. Newman, Ms. Ngwenya or Mr. Ashfield will find that examples of work undertaken or completed in lessons can be displayed immediately for the purposes of improvement and drafting. The visualisers are also wonderful tools for many other purposes such as displaying small objects in science, modelling live examples of problems in maths or annotating exemplars of exam questions. During the remainder of this year we will be installing these devices in all our classrooms to continue developing our approach to supporting learning and excellent outcomes. Welcome to Mrs. Catherine Farag This week we welcome Mrs. Catherine Farag to BSQ and she will be taking the Reception A class for the remainder of this academic year. Mrs. Farag joins us with a wealth of international experience in Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and China. We all look forward to working with her and welcoming the Reception A families to meet with her on Friday. I would also like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to Mr. Oscar Tabango who has been teaching and caring for the children in Reception A since January. He stepped into the breach when we most needed him and has done a wonderful job. Goodbye to Florence Myszor Many of your children will have benefitted from the warmth, kindness and sporting expertise of our assistant Ms Florence Myszor who has been with us since September last year and has now completed her 6-month placement. She returns to the UK this week but we hope to see her back in Ecuador for a visit before too long. Thank to her for all her hard work. From the Staff and Students Continuing with our teachers and their stories about learning in the classroom this term. This week we hear from Mrs. Alejandra Miranda in Secondary and from Mrs. Helen Dávila and the Year 3B students in Primary. Mrs Alejandra Miranda – Secondary Teacher In the IB English B class with Year 12, we have been analyzing beauty, health and the pressure of the media, social networks and the standards that they impose on young people today. It has been mobilizing to see the students' ability to express their rejection of these impossible norms, and how confident of themselves and their potential in all aspects, they are. These made me think that in these ten years as part of the BSQ staff, I have learned that the greatest treasure we have is the quality of human beings who are our wonderful students, and the ability they show to stand firm in their beliefs and values. Mrs Helen Dávila – Year 3B Teacher Year 3 have started their new topic this term which covers, 'how human rights have changed throughout history'. We are looking at the history of the UN and started off by creating a wonderful display in the class of all 193 flags of those countries who are part of the organisation. We had a QFT lesson where we looked at what would happen if there were no rules during a football match, on the road or at school, all having pretty devastating results. As part of a Global Citizenship topic students in Year 8 have been learning about Human Rights. They watched Emma Watson's inspirational speech to the UN on Women's Rights and started their own independent study to investigate a human rights issue they felt passionate about. After exploring the elements that make a great speech, the Year 8 students devised their own speech and presented them to the Year 3 UN. This was a great way to learn more about human rights and we hope to create our own speech having been inspired by the secondary students. Dates for your Diary March 25th – 29th – Book Week at BSQ March 25th – Book author Rebekah Murray visiting BSQ and reading her promotional book Elroy la / the iguana to KS1 children (1pm at the Library) March 26th – Book author Rebekah Murray visiting BSQ and reading her promotional book El regalo del mar to KS2 children (1pm at the Library) March 27th – Book Fair Primary 8:30am – 3pm March 27th - Dra. Fernanda Solís will talk to the children in Years 1A & 1B about saving the rainforest. 8:45 March 28th – Book Fair Secondary March 29th – Book Character Dress up Day March 29th - Meeting for Reception A families at 08:00 March 29th - Daniela Urresta, an ex-student, visits Years 5&6 as part of her degree project. March 29th – Year 9B Science trip April 4th – Years 1, 2 and 3 Parents: PSHE Workshop. 8 – 9:30am April 4th – Art Sale Years 1A & 1B, parents invited. 1:30pm Library. April 5th – School closes at 12pm for Teachers´ Day April 6th – Family Fun Day April 15th - 19th - Easter Week May 3rd - Labour Day Holiday (note change of day) Emma Newman Principal Being BSQ – Primary Update This week we are celebrating Book Week, with this year’s focus being on ‘Reading around the World’. Each class has chosen a book from another culture and will be reading and exploring this book throughout the week. We will also enjoy two different author visits. KS1 will meet Rebekah Murray, a New Zealand author currently living in Ecuador. KS2 will meet Carmen Helena Pazmiño, an Ecuadorian author. Both sessions will involve the author discussing their writing styles, their motivation and methods and also answering any questions the students have about their books. On Wednesday there will be a primary Book Fair in the Library, giving the students the opportunity to browse a wide selection of books from around the world. Finally, on Friday we will have a Book Character Dress Up Day with the focus being on different book activities and celebrating the diverse nature of books. We have shared in a previous newsletter the benefits of reading regularly with your child, instilling that love of books early on so they can immerse themselves in the lives of others and places they have never visited. Reading together also has the added benefit of allowing you as expert readers to model good reading habits and share together the excitement and enjoyment that goes with reading a good book – in any language! We have a variety of charitable events organised by the Secondary Community Projects students this week and next – please support your child if they wish to participate. We are also still requesting that every student brings in an old t-shirt, top or painting apron to use during art activities. Star of the week Marcus Madden Head of Primary Being BSQ – Secondary Update Sports It's been an emotional roller coaster of a week for the Secondary Football and Basketball teams. They achieved some proud victories, and showed great progress. Both boys; and girls' football teams made it to the semi-finals, with the girls just missing out on a place in the final after a devastatingly tense penalty shoot-out. The basketballers made the final. Congratulations to all our players, and a huge thank you to our amazing coaches: Ms Sofi Molina, Mr Oscar Tabango, Ms Florence Myszor, Mr Juan Licona and Mr Joshua Cannon. Model United Nations Our talented, hard-working, and brave MUN delegates debated for three days last week in an international MUN at Colegio Aleman alongside students from Brazil and Colombia. Though we are small, we are mighty, and Martin Anhalzer, Mathias Bustos, and Victoria Proaño all came away with awards of recognition for their excellence performances. A huge thank you to them and all of the students for representing us so well and making us so proud, and of course a special thank you to Mr John Ashfield, the wise guardian of MUN at BSQ. The Duke of Edinburgh's International Award This week, it's the turn of the D of E to change a few students' lives. During today and tomorrow, the majority of Year 10 will be out navigating their way across vast swathes of Cotopaxi National Park. We'll let you know how that goes next week. Jim Wil Head of Secondary From the BSQ Counselling Team This week our school counsellor, Andrea Carrera, talks about privacy, monitoring and trust.
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May 2024
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