WelcomeOrbital Conference. As many of you will remember, there is an annual conference hosted by the Orbital Head Office team and attended by all the school Principals alongside the management team from the UK. In 2017, 2018 and 2019 these took place in Manchester, in 2020 there was no conference but last year and this year the meetings have taken place online. Each year the group strategy is reviewed and progress against goals is explored whilst we also look ahead at the key initiatives and areas for development for the coming year. This year we are exploring a critically important focus – on ESG (Environmental Social and Corporate Governance) which can easily be described as a set of guidelines that ensure all work within our schools is ethical. Covering elements as diverse as anti-slavery procurement to diverse company hiring approaches, an ESG focus can really ensure that businesses, NGOs, schools etc are working hard to put people and the environment first. Eventually, the outcome will be that there is an Orbital group approach to ESG that is replicated in every school in the group. Here at BSQ we have already made a good start with the signing of the contract for our solar panel project, with our participation in the Sponsor a School scheme, with our Green Week, with our diversity awareness campaigns and (just last week) with our World Food Project Day in conjunction with the UN. See below for some great images of this and with our thanks to Rebecca and Fernanda for visiting us online and to our own Food Education Team (Sofy, Anna and Paula) for their enthusiasm and commitment. British Sign Language (BSL) This week two of our BSL Enrichment students will be demonstrating our BSQ values using BSL. Please watch this brilliant video: Ms. Hayley Dean, KS2 Lead Join our Yearbook Cover Pages Contest! Our BSQ community members - students, parents, staff - are invited to participate in our Yearbook Cover Page Contest. The theme is A place for every learner, where you create a design. We will choose 3 winners (one for students, one for parents and one for staff members) and their designs will appear on the Yearbook Cover Pages. Please send your proposed designs, considering the following parameters:
If you have any further questions, please contact Andrea Zambrano to: [email protected] 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! From BSQ Food Education Programme 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 We hope you found the Parent Teacher Conferences last week informative. Many parents asked specifically about how they could support their child’s development in terms of their independence and ability to engage with their learning. In school, the teachers are concentrating on improving the independence and resilience of the students, for example by asking the students to work in pairs or small groups to solve a problem, by sharing clear instructions with the students which they must follow, through reducing the level of support available after the activity has been explained and a multitude of other ways. At home, we can support our children by allowing them to make more of their own choices, by not repeating instructions and encouraging them to really focus the first time we share information with them. We can also support this development by progressively encouraging them to organise their learning and organisation of equipment. This may simply involve them packing their school bag and checking it afterwards to see if they have the correct equipment. You may ask them about their home learning and then check afterwards that they have completed it appropriately. And of course, you can ask them specific questions about their learning at school, which demonstrates to them that you have an interest in their development but also helps them organise their own thoughts and understanding. You can also use visual reminders such as charts and timetables and have a particular place for all their things, so they can independently tidy away after themselves. At any age in the Primary School, we hope to see development in this area – from our youngest students filling their own water bottles and washing their hands after using the toilet to our oldest students using planners and success criteria to self-assess their learning and develop their own targets. Thank you to all the students and staff who supported the World Food Programme talks and activities last week, with particular thanks to Ms Vasolikonstantaki, Ms Leon and Ms Valencia for organising all the activities and resources. Working alongside Ferannda and Rebecca from the World Food Programme has given the students a real insight into the importance of eating healthily and making good food choices. Please also be aware about the World Book Day events being organised by Ms Sibone Armas for the end of term - all students will be encouraged to dress up as a favourite character on Thursday April 14th. I still have a large number of unnamed school jumpers and tops in my office to reclaim, plus water bottles and lunch bags. If your child is missing any items like this, please encourage them to visit my office to have a look! Mr. Marcus Madden Head of Primary Library – Learning Centre We would like to introduce you to our new space in the school, the Learning Centre. During these past months we have been adapting and transforming the space in the Library and the Auditorium to promote learning and reading throughout our BSQ community. In primary's library sessions we focus on letting children explore different genres, support the current topics in other lessons and expose them to English and Spanish languages. During this term we have been exploring non-fiction books related to different past cultures like Egyptians, ancient Greeks, Roman empire and so on. Ms. Sibone Armas, Learning Centre Being BSQ – Secondary Update Help and support Many schools in the world are now starting to see the impacts of COVID and the protracted time at home working online. Developmental areas have been missed with children growing, playing, falling out, and having the normal fun together missed. When we consider what our children have been through compared to many in the world they have perhaps found the experience a little better. I recall at the end of last year many discussions about this and how we would safely and carefully introduce the children back to the norms of school with gradual integration, team building activity, and guidance from tutors and wider staff. A couple of months ago I remember reflecting with the secondary leadership team and we all felt that on the whole, this had gone better than we had anticipated. Looking at reports from other countries, what we are experiencing here now is very similar and I am not sure that we are there yet. Recent research by the Nuffield Foundation has found that there has been a significant increase in children with mental health issues such as COVID-related anxiety. There is also the impact of the lost formative years where children who are now in year 7 for example, have started back to school stepping from year 5 straight into year 7. In normal times they would have developed together and transitioned carefully into the demands of secondary accountability and learning approaches. As you can imagine this is a challenge when they are young teenagers trying to navigate our expectations further up the school. We have a fantastic pastoral team at BSQ and on Tuesday at 09.30 Miss. Leon and Ms. Todd are presenting to year 7 parents to discuss this and highlight some of our concerns and ways that you can support us. You will also notice that we are also making some changes to the mobile telephone policy for our youngest students, for the time being at least. We really do appreciate your ongoing support and you have our absolute commitment to ensuring that your son or daughter is happy, healthy, and thriving at school. Together we make a formidable team! We are looking at our ‘gifted and talented’ students as you will remember from my comments a few weeks ago. It is clear that the list of musicians, sports players, singers and academics is steadily growing. We have so much talent in our school. One of our young tennis stars Ignacio has once again won the 14-year-old singles championship of the G2 Nationals at Club Rancho San Francisco. He is certainly progressing well. Well done Ignacio! Year 10A update During Green Week at school, the students carried out various activities, such as creating their own healthy menu, environmental talks, exhibitions, etc. It was also proposed that each student be responsible for the life of a plant, for this, they received seeds and from that they had to create their own pots with recyclable materials; then, look for the necessary land, plant the seeds and daily appreciate the miracle of seeing their little plants grow. In addition to continuing with the development of normal classes, lessons, tasks and everything that concerns the contents of each subject. The BSQ school environment provides students with opportunities to develop social, self-management, communication, research and thinking skills. This can be appreciated in a practical way, in the Spanish classes, since Year 10A are reading the novel The City of the Beasts, by the Chilean author Isabel Allende, published in 2002 and it is the first book for teenage readers. On the other hand, the students organized in pairs have prepared the analysis of a group of poems by the Spanish author Gloria Fuertes, an activity that allows them to put into play skills of reading, writing and speaking in front of an audience, which in this case are their classmates. It will be the opportunity to demonstrate the great capacity and development of their potential. In the tutorial periods, at LLS we have covered topics of great interest such as privacy and social networks, risk situations and prevention of alcohol use, gender roles, and many others. The attitude and good disposition of the students even allows personal ideas to be exposed without any reservations and with a high degree of respect, a situation that as tutors pleases us immensely. We are also looking for all the strategies to support them and help them organize themselves, and in this way guarantee the success and fulfillment of all the challenges they have to face in this school year and beyond. Mrs. Patricia Tufiño, Year 10A tutor | Spanish Teacher Have a good week everyone.
Lee Moors Head of Secondary
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May 2024
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