Welcome Living Well, we have now entered the final month of the students’ academic year here at BSQ and this is always a time when we start to look back at everything we have achieved during the year. This week we are all celebrating the success of our CIS accreditation visit. It was wonderful to have a team of experts from around the world joining us to explore our classroom provision, our campus and our processes and I am delighted to say that they were very impressed with what they saw – in particular the quality of the teachers, the attitudes and characters of our students, the support they receive, the way in which we keep them safe and secure and Orbital for their support of the school. Whilst we will not receive the full report for another couple of months, early feedback suggests that we will receive many commendations for our work and our community. I will share the findings with you when they are sent to me, but in the meantime, I am extremely grateful for the support and help given by parents during this time and we look forward to the next five years of development! It is also interesting to note a number of universities in the UK, USA and around the world have recently joined CIS too so there are plenty of great global partnerships continuing to develop. Learning. As promised, I am delighted to introduce you to the new staff who will be joining us in August this year to begin their BSQ learning journey to support, educate and develop your children. This week we will start with the secondary school. With the arrival of our first two-form entry into the IB programme and our second two-form entry starting their IGCSE courses this coming year, we have made some additional appointments in the maths and science teams so I will start there this week. Whilst we are sorry to say goodbye to Ms Ngwenya and Mr Taylor (and of course we will thank them properly at the end of the year) we are equally excited to be welcoming the following team members. Maths: Mr Stefan Karakashian Mr Karakashian is currently teaching in Malawi where he is responsible for the MYP Service as Action programme whilst also working as Country Director for the Mlambe Project working with local students. A graduate of Cambridge University with 6 years of teaching experience, Mr Karakashian will not only be expertly teaching our students maths, but he will also be taking on the role of IB Coordinator at BSQ Maths: Ms Aditi Sadotra Ms Sadotra is currently teaching in Bangkok, Thailand where she is leading a department of 8 staff members and developing numeracy across the curriculum. She has also been Head of Mathematics and a school improvement leader in London schools. A graduate of Bristol University and London Metropolitan University, Ms Sadotra will be sharing her rich experience as a GCSE exam marker and school leader in our own community. Science: Mrs Claire Maudsley Mrs Maudsley is currently teaching in Spain having previously worked in UK schools in Essex and Lancashire as a lead teacher of physics. In her role at the moment Mrs Maudsley is leading the KS4 science team and teaching physics to students from ages 11-18. Arriving with her husband and young daughter, she is looking forward to continuing her Spanish speaking and exploring Ecuador. Science: Ms Sara Avent Ms Avent is currently working in Chengdu, China where she is responsible for the Environmental Systems and Societies IB course, the science extended essay and the CAS science programme. Born in the UK, Ms Avent studied in Canada and holds dual nationality. She has gathered experience over 11 years teaching in Europe, Canada, Vietnam and China but is very much looking forward to coming to Ecuador in August with her husband. More to follow next week... 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. Paola Montenegro in Secondary and from Mr. Teddy Mercer, Mrs. Laura Stone and their Year 1A and 1B students in Primary. Mrs. Paola Montenegro – Sociales Secondary Teacher Two weeks ago we went to a lecture with César Bona one of the fifty finalist teachers in 2014 for the Global Teacher Prize Awards or the Nobel Prize for Education, and while I was listening to his speech a part of it kept rumbling in my head "the society that we want, is in the school that we have" In other words, what he said is that today more than ever there is the importance of involving the school in the community and weaving networks where the problems that afflict us can be reflected in the classrooms to find solutions for the present. Immediately, I related it to our work in community projects in high school where the students of y7, y8, y9 for 9 weeks work in a service area, following a cycle of research, planning, financing and execution and learn about social responsibility, empathy, solidarity and respect in order to analyze from their perspective how to solve problems that our community presents. So in this academic year, we have achieved significant changes and empower students to lead significant activities for them. However, the key fact of all of this is to share and replicate these experiences too to reach more people. Here is a list of the activities carried out:
Finally, in the area of Inclusion of children at risk, we discussed about the importance of education to improve the quality of life that those kids need, and resources have been delivered so the children can go to school and complete it without complications. Mr. Teddy Mercer – Year 1A Teacher In Year 1A the students have become fashion designers, using their knowledge of artist Wassily Kandinsky to replicate his art work on to some amazing t-shirts! The students designed a variety of stencils, spray painted them on to t-shirts and then used fabric markers to add a dash of colour. We finished the last week of the Summer 1 term with a gigantic banana split! The bomba de calorias was exactly what we needed to finish the week with some energy! Mrs. Laura Stone – Year 1B Teacher On Tuesday 28th May 1B learnt about the different jobs which different people do around the school day in, day out. The children carried out some work experiences with different people. They worked with Mr Andres the director of the school, they worked with Dr Sara to find out how to be a doctor, some worked with Julio from the Maintenance team and others worked with Eliosa from the cleaning team. We concluded that each and every job is vital and the school would not open without each of these people's hard work every day to BSQ. Dates for your Diary June 3rd – Assembly led by Year 2B, parents invited. 1pm June 4th – Parent Conferences all day for Reception A. Reception B has normal lessons. June 4th & 5th – Year 6 are starting their transition process to secondary, following a secondary timetable for the two days. June 5th – Assembly led by Year 3A, parents invited. 9:30am June 5th – Year 5 Museum trip into Quito all day June 6th – Year 6 transition meeting for parents in the library at 8am. June 6th – Reception A visit to a local fire station June 7th – Reception B visit to a local fire station June 7th – Reception A Fine Motor Skill Workshop at 8am in their classroom June 7th – Safe Internet Parent Workshop at 8am in the Library, hosted by Mr. Norton and Ms. Andrea Carrera. June 11th – 13th – Secondary Production: Romeo & Juliet June 15th - 21st – Budapest trip June 20th – Primary Consultation meeting day. (Parent – Teacher Conferences. Parents only.) June 25th & 26th – Primary Production: Macbeth June 27th – Awards Ceremony and Y6 Graduation June 28th – Year 13 Graduation Emma Newman Principal Being BSQ – Primary Update Last week in Primary we enjoyed two very different Class Assemblies, by 2A and 3B, but both demonstrated the learning that has been happening in each class, the skills the students have developed and also the enthusiasm and enjoyment the students obviously have for their learning. This area is often overlooked in schools and I am proud that our students really engage with their learning and also outwardly gain so much from sharing this with their parents and peers. This week we look forward to 2B and 3A sharing their learning with us. We also welcomed in the visitors from CIS (Council of International Schools) who spent the week sharing our daily experiences and activities and getting to know what makes BSQ such a special place to live and learn. The Primary students really enjoyed having new people coming into their lessons and asking them about themselves and their approaches to learning, as we did as teachers. This week we are also hosting the Reception A Parent Conferences, the Year 6 Transition Days, trips out of school for both Year 5 and Reception and Parent Workshops for both Fine Motor Skills in Reception A and Online Safety for all parents. Star of the WeekMarcus Madden Head of Primary Being BSQ – Secondary Update End of Year Exams With the Quimestre 2 exam session for Years 7-10 starting in two weeks' time, it's worth revisiting how the school calculates the end of year matriculation grade for each student in each subject. Each of the six partial grades is worth just over 13% of the final grade. The end of Quimestre exams are each worth 10%. The end of Quimestre exams serve as an excellent way of testing each student's ability to learn and retain knowledge and skills over the longer term, and we strongly encourage study and revision to re-learn and embed previous learning. They are, however, only one small part of the overall course to success. Please try to use them as a tool for learning, and not allow them to become a source of too much stress. Romeo + Juliet Please buy your Romeo + Juliet tickets as soon as possible to avoid disappointment. Last year all shows were sold out, and some people were left disappointed. Work Experience This week the Year 11 students will be out on work experience. They will be working with businesses and NGOs in a range of roles in order to experience first-hand the world of work outside of school. This is all part of the careers counselling process which helps them learn about who they are and what they want to be and do, so that they might pick the right IB classes to put them on the road to success. Jim Wild Head of Secondary From the BSQ Counselling Team This week our school counsellor, Andrea Carrera, talks about active listening.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
CategoriesArchives
May 2024
|