Welcome Living It is lovely to be back at BSQ after my week in the UK. It was also good to spend time with the Orbital team and the other Principals from around the world. Whilst our schools are all very different, there is a great deal we can learn from each other and I particularly enjoyed working with the Shanghai school on their marketing strategies and their language development programmes. I also enjoyed sharing the successes of our BSQ teacher development programmes and strong classroom strategies with other schools – some of which they will all be adopting moving forward. Do you know that there are now over 3000 Orbital students around the world and the sense of community is growing stronger as we undertake projects that allow students and staff to learn together. Announcement from the PA It's been two years already, that CAS and the PA have joined forces to work and support the Sinsoluka Foundation. This foundation provides a warm environment and school support to 285 children. This second year we are going to celebrate their day, on June 3rd, at the facilities of the foundation in the Historic Centre and we will make the delivery of your generous donations. But, in order to do so, we need the collaboration of the entire BSQ community and the active participation of everyone in the bake sale this Thursday, May 23. Also, please keep an eye for the information the PA will share and let´s work together to give a wonderful day of love to the children. Learning. Further to all the news last week about the exciting opportunities for our students this term, the secondary team are also gearing up for the annual Year 11 Work Experience Programme – this year begin organised by Mr Rob Taylor. Last year the students (now in Year 12) were supported to spend a week at places like the UN, interior designers, vets and flower companies – amongst many other adventures. Despite the fact that work Experience is important for so many reasons, lots of school simply don’t bother any more in the UK because of the challenges involved in organisation. Here at BSQ, of course, we absolutely feel that the benefits outweigh any challenges. So, what are the benefits?
Good luck to all our work experience students as they start to contact prospective employers. 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. Sally Madden and Year 9 students in Secondary and from Mr. Simon Newman and Year 6 students in Primary. Mrs. Sally Madden - TOK and Humanities Secondary Teacher This year, together with Mr. Dobson, I have been busy creating a new and exciting KS3 Humanities curriculum. Whilst we believe that it is important for students to learn about History and Geography, we are keen to add some new topics to help enhance the students learning experience, improve their personal development skills and engage them in the wider world. This will empower them to become more Internationally minded and understand what it means to be a Global Citizen. An example of some of the new topics we have introduced are Human Rights (Child Labour, gender equality and discrimination). Other topics include Life after Death, Religious Beliefs, Ethics and Philosophy. So, what is Global Citizenship all about? It is the idea that people have responsibilities that come with being a member of the world community. It is about connecting and understanding people from all backgrounds, religions and cultures. I was pleased to recently hear my daughter quote Malala Yousafzai during a conversation about education we had at dinner the other night. She has been studying Human Rights in Year 3 and said she could not stop thinking about how Malala had said this very important thing. “Education is education. We should learn everything and then choose which path to follow, education is neither Eastern nor Western. It is human.” This week as part of the Humanities curriculum Year 8 have been delivering presentations to their class. Their task was to make a comparison between a rich and a poor country, indicating the impact of environmental, social, cultural, institutional, geographical and economic factors. I have been so impressed with how they have approached this task and the in-depth research they have conducted as a group. It has been such a rich and valuable learning experience for everyone. Well done Year 8! Year 9 students - Afro-Ecuadorian Awareness Day Mr. Simon Newman - Year 6 Teacher Our Topic focus in Year 6 this term has given us the opportunity to study the work of the British street artist known as Banksy. We were fortunate enough to have workshops with two local graffiti artists from Quito: Heins and Danna. They showed us that producing stencils for street art is not an easy task and it requires a lot of time and precision. We’ve been maintaining a ‘street’ theme with our work in Year 6 Literacy too through our study of the British poet, rapper and songwriter, Kate Tempest. We have studied the poem that she wrote for the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). Its title is My Shakespeare and we have used it as the inspiration for our own My Shakespeare poems. We’ll be publishing these poems (and our own versions of Shakespearian sonnets) at the Year 6 play in June… which you might remember is also linked to Shakespeare! Dates for your DiaryMay 13th - KS1 Assembly, led by Year 1B - parents invited. 1pm May 17th - Language Workshop for Nursery to Year 4 parents. 8am at the Library. May 24th – Battle of Pichincha Holiday May 26th – 31st – CIS Team Visit June 11th - 13th - Secondary Production: Romeo & Juliet June 25th & 26th - Primary Production: Macbeth Emma Newman Principal Being BSQ – Primary Update Last week we enjoyed a full week of learning across the Primary School, ending in the Student Council arranging an Own Clothes Day to help raise funds for new playground equipment. This is part of their continual efforts to make BSQ the best it possibly can be, in consultation with their peers. The Student Council continues to meet regularly, sharing the ideas they collect from their classmates and coming up with creative ways to improve the school environment and provision. Once they have collected all the proceeds from the Own Clothes Day they will then look at what types of playground equipment the students would like and also start to plan the next phase of their ideas to improve break times in Primary. These include having Playground Buddies who help to supervise the new equipment and also support the teachers on duty. On Friday this week we are hosting the latest in our Parent Workshops at 8am in the Library. This workshop will be led by Miss Sofia Leon and is aimed at Nursery to Year 4 parents, with the title ‘How does learning in a different language impact students' brains and how to support your child at home.’ Star of the Week Marcus Madden Head of Primary Being BSQ – Secondary Update Enrichment To ensure that every single student has the chance to explore extra-curricular opportunities, we integrate the enrichment programme of creative, active and academic activities into the timetable school week. This last week saw the start of the third and final cycle of clubs and initiatives for this year. On offer are a wide range of options from athletics and circuit training, to writing and cinema, to science and philosophy. We do hope that everyone has found something to enjoy and exercise their minds and/or bodies! Year 12 IB Mock Exams Our current Year 12 cohort are the first class to have gone through the full IGCSE experience, and as such are well placed for success in their IB programme. In two weeks' time they will sit their first IB mock exams, which will be the first real test of how far they've come since, and how far they have yet to go. Mock exams serve a range of purposes. These at the end of Year 12 exist, primarily, as a first taste of what to expect when the real exams come around this time next year. We hope, of course, that they study hard and they achieve excellent results. More than that though, we hope that they take the experience of this exam session and learn from it to develop their own revision and exam strategies that they can use in the future. Jim Wild Head of Secondary From the BSQ Counselling Team This week our school counsellor, Andrea Carrera, talks about digital wellbeing.
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May 2024
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