WelcomeThis week I am very excited to see our ‘graduating’ students on campus for their photoshoot and certificate ceremony. On Thursday 10 and Friday 11 we invite Year 6 and Year 7 to join us. Of course, we always celebrate the end of the primary school journey with Year 6 but last year we postponed this in the hope that we would be back at school in September 2020. This week they will get their special space to celebrate with family members. The origins of the word graduate are linked to the concept of stages, degrees of movement forward and that is certainly what we will be celebrating this week – another step forward and another year completed. Well done everyone involved for all your hard work in getting to this stage. As we approach the end of this school year, reports are being written, exams are being completed and graded, awards are being nominated and all the usual activities are taking place. Regardless of where we are working or learning, we are making sure that all students are busy, challenged, learning and happy. There will be lots of information begin shared with parents over the remaining weeks and days of the term – please help us to hold successful events by making sure that your diaries are up to date. With part 3 this week we are delighted to welcome our guest writer, Sylvia Harcourt. 3. CLIMATE CHANGE, BIODIVERSITY AND THE FOOD INDUSTRY I know you are all very busy – but I wonder if you had a chance to start putting together and acting on a list of 30 things you can do, during June, to help the Planet. I would love to hear back from anyone about what ideas they have. In particular, did you do something special for World Environment Day on Saturday June 5th? Remember, apart from fossil fuel use and cement making, land use has had one of the biggest effects on climate change – and land use is due to agriculture, to produce our food. June 8th is World Oceans Day. Maybe that day you can make sure you don’t eat tuna – one of the most heavily caught fish in the ocean – and the catching of which causes incredibly high levels of “by-catch”. This is the capture of other species by mistake – the turtles, sharks, sea lions, dolphins, albatrosses, that get caught in the nets or on the longline hooks that are used. If you do eat tuna, then look for the label on the tin that says “dolphin friendly” and this should mean that the fishing techniques try to avoid catching other species, or at least dolphins. Since 1990 there has been a 71% decline in the number of sharks in the sea. This is a terrible number and many of these are caught by mistake while fishing for tuna. Others are caught deliberately to send to countries that want shark fin soup. Ecuador still allows the export of shark fins if they are taken from sharks caught as “by catch”. How can that be proved? It is not easy. To understand more about the ocean, I would like to recommend two documentaries found on Netflix. One is about fishing and is rather hard to watch at times – “Seaspiracy”. The second is called “My Octopus Teacher”. This one makes you realise how we underestimate animals and their emotions. We can’t solve the climate crisis without protecting and restoring the planet, as everything is interconnected. Let’s Heal the Planet Together. NO ONE IS TOO SMALL TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE. Let´s talk about emotions Part of accepting our emotions is recognizing how our body is feeling. For anger we usually could show headache, muscle tension or sweating. As other emotions, anger is necessary and natural, it can be expressed in many different ways. Breathing is our center, also a tool to come back to the present without denying this feeling. Dates for your Diary
Emma Newman Principal Being BSQ – Primary Update This week we invite all of the Year 6 students and their families to visit the school campus and receive their Graduation certificate. This is a wonderful opportunity for a small part of our community to reconnect in person and celebrate the successes of the year. All parents of students in Years 2 up to Year 6 will have now received details of their child’s login details for the upcoming Progress Tests in English (PTE) and Progress Tests in Maths (PTM) assessments which will take place between Monday 14th June and Friday 25th June. The timings of these will be shared by your child’s class teachers and may be at different times that the normal online sessions, so please do watch out for details of these online assessments. These assessments are just a small part of the different ways that we support students in their development – they will give us invaluable information about the skills and knowledge each student has acquired this year and allow us to further tailor our individual provision in the coming year. There is no need to prepare anything for these assessments – each student just needs their unique codes to access the assessment website and follow the instructions, with their teachers available to answer any specific questions. Please do ensure that your child treats these as an important part of their learning – they should try to independently do as many of the questions as possible, without support, so that we get a clear idea of their skills and understanding in each different area of learning. Please do note the following events in your diaries and look out for further details regarding these via email and on Canvas:
Marcus Madden Head of Primary 5A Newsletter For the past term in Year 5, we have been exploring poetry and looking at different poetic structures. Our first lesson started with the QFT – ‘Painting is silent poetry. Poetry is painting that speaks’, which enabled some interesting questions and discussion. We then started the unit by writing Haikus, focusing on specific language choices for effect. We then explored calligrams and used our topic of Guayasamín to create different shapes using the poetry we had written. This created a really interesting effect and showed us the correlation between art and poetry. Our final topic focused on rap as poetry and this allowed us to listen to different artists and also perform our own rap video in the primary assembly! We had a lot of fun with this part of the unit! Throughout the topic the students have been performing poetry using Flipgrid, practicing using their body language and tone to express different emotions. We were inspired by the poet Michael Rosen who is an excellent performance poet. It has been a really interesting topic. Take a look at some of the poetry that has been created by 5A! Ms. Heather Stollery. 5B Newsletter Contribution In Term 5 of this year, Year 5B were investigating the famous Ecuadorian painter Oswaldo Guayasamín who I’m sure many of you are aware of. His life, inspirations, and of course his work were investigated across many curriculum areas – for example in our Topic lessons we studied his travels around South America in the 1950s which inspired his first major series entitled ‘Huacayñan’; in our Literacy lessons we created haikus (short poems which follow strict rules about how many syllables are in each line) that related to specific paintings that Guayasamín had created; and in our Art lessons we developed some skills in taking self-portrait photos inspired by Guayasamín, and then painted our photos. Below you can see a selection of the paintings that were created by 5B – take note of the colour composition used in each painting, and in particular the facial expressions, designed to show fear, suffering, or anger. Mr. Kevin Dobson & Ms. Andrea Figueroa EYFS Update Dear parents, We are quickly approaching the end of the school year, and we have a great deal to celebrate, from your wonderful support to the children´s strive to continue learning new skills past the challenges! During this time, opening conversations about changes and transition with the children is key to making the process manageable. Here are a few steps you can take to make these conversations a breeze.
To parepare the Reception families for the transition to Primary, we invite you to the ‘All about Year 1’ online session, where Ms. Vasilokonstantaki will share information about Year 1 and details on what you and the children can expect next year. This session will take place via canvas on Tuesday, June 15th at 5:00PM on the “EYFS Events and Assemblies course”. We look forward to seeing you all there! Antonella Coronel, Head of Early Years Being BSQ – Secondary Update The whole child! As we approach the end of term my attention is being increasingly drawn to next year and the opportunities the time allows for us to consider the curriculum and wider experience at BSQ. I have had numerous conversations with staff about how we are ensuring their academic curriculum plans being revised and updated. This extends wider for me as one of the biggest hits we have taken this year is to the enrichment programme. This usually takes place on a Wednesday afternoon and for various reasons, whilst online, it has taken a back seat. BSQ prides itself in the rich and wide programme of activities designed to invigorate the experience and skills of our children. I am looking forward to my meeting with the parent representatives on Monday 7th June, and as part of this informal meeting I intend to outline my vision for the curriculum and see how this can be developed further next year. I met with the staff who are responsible for administrating this on Thursday and they are now exploring how we can consult with parents to come up with some ideas about how we can widen even further the activities we currently have planned. We have some wonderful venues locally that our children could visit on a weekly basis with the support of parents and the school regarding supervision. Imagine the children who love climbing or Gymnastics being able to use their enrichment time at the local venue with excellent facilities. Perhaps the expert Tennis players, Swimmers or Horse riders who would benefit from expert coaching and well-resourced facilities at this time. I only hope that once back, we have the support from you as parents and the desire from our children to be part of this initiative. Do please look out for the survey questions as they are sent and ensure that you give voice to our planning considerations. If you have contacts or suggestions, then do please drop me a line. On Friday last week I enjoyed hearing about all the experiences gained by the year 11 students in their work experience presentations. I was enormously impressed with the skill and confidence in their delivery, and of course the depth of consideration in their research tasks and presentation content. As always, I am hugely impressed by our wonderfully talented students. Well done all! You may recall the achievements of Ignacio in year 7 a few weeks ago and the wonderful progress he is making in his Tennis. He was in Guayaquil again last weekend competing at a G1 National Tennis tournament. Once again her performed well and I am pleased to report that he won the doubles and came second in the singles in the 12 years category. We all wish him the very best of luck this week as he is competing in the 14 years category at a much larger South American Tournament at Club el Condado in Quito. This is a tournament organised by Confederación Sudamericana de Tenis (COSAT). Ignacio is clearly a talent to watch in the future. If as parents, you have any similar stores of the wonderful achievements of your children then do please pass them my way so I can share the good news. Ignacio – Year 7 G1 Tennis Doubles Champion (Age 12) and second place singles (Age 12) - Guayaquil Have a wonderful week everyone. Lee Moors Head of Secondary Year 13 Science Communication The Year 13 students have produced some fantastic articles, videos and podcasts as part of their six-week Science Communication course. The science department would love to share a selection of their intelligent and creative ideas. Alisson produced an evocative photo story about cheese production in Loja. This is just one of a series of photographs that wonderfully captures the intricacies of the cheese-making process. Gala created a highly entertaining and informative video about the zebra finch in Quito. The way she edited and presented the piece bodes well for a future career as a presenter. Gala also wrote an insightful article on the damaging effects of invasive species such as the eucalyptus trees that are colonising Parque Metropolitano and Ilalo. Impressively, Gala based her article on three interviews with experts. Gala interviewed Liliana Jaramillo, who works for a project called Nativus, an organisation that strives to increase the population of native plant species in urban environments. Gala’s article ended on a positive note, outlining several solutions to combat the plant invasion. Tomas based his captivating article on an Ecuadorian oncologist called Edwin Cevallos. Cevallos travelled into the Amazon jungle and worked with the Shuar community to explore the “cure all” properties of the plant Solanum dulcamara, also called bittersweet nightshade or woody nightshade. After testing the plant extracts on himself, Cevallos went on to develop a drug called the Biological Immune Response Modulator (BIRM). This article left us with the resounding question: why have we not heard more about BIRM? Nico and Byron created a well-informed and professional podcast episode on Elon Musk’s Neuralink and a monkey playing the video game Pong only with its mind. Neuralink is the name given for several brain-machine interfaces that aim to connect humans and computers. Nico and Byron, whose podcast was mystifyingly called Encebollado Mix, had clearly researched the science behind the project and they delved into the ethics of the contentious issue. Naomi interviewed Burçin Mutlu-Pakdil, a Turkish astrophysicist who discovered the unusual paradigm-challenging Burçin’s galaxy. The article finishes with the line: “This discovery tells us that we still have a lot to learn, and we should keep looking deeper and deeper into space and keep searching for the unknown.” What a well-timed article following the peculiar full moon that passed through the night sky recently! Credit: © Science Friday Anghy produced a beautifully designed article delving into the problems associated with insomnia. She looked into the data and found that the recent lockdowns have had a significant negative impact on Ecuadorians’ sleep. Mathias and Eva made an entertaining podcast episode that explored the negative impact of lockdowns. Both students used current research to suggest that the harmful effects of the Covid lockdowns perhaps outweighed the good. This 40-minutes episode kept my interest because of the independent thinking, unconventional ideas, heart-felt opinions and entertaining teamwork of the podcasters. Mikaela produced a brilliantly creative comic strip - along with a feature article - explaining the great variety of colour seen in birds. We look forward to pitching these articles, photo stories, podcasts and video clips this week! Mr. Nick Kennedy, Science Teacher Y10 student contribution You may be thinking, what is Yaas? Well, Yaas was a very Severe Cyclonic Storm. It was a relatively strong and highly damaging tropical cyclone that made landfall in Odisha and brought significant impacts to West Bengal. It formed on 23 May. The cyclone caused considerable damage. For example, some electric lines fell down and there was no electricity for 2 days, roads were filled with water and broken trees, stores were destroyed, some poorly built roofs flew off, and all the water caused some animals to go inside people's houses for shelter. We experienced a similar cyclone in 2020 so everyone had some time to prepare for it and had a general idea of what it would bring. In preparations for the storm, many electrical companies in West Bengal and Odisha prepared additional generators and transformers.The Health Ministry also prepared to ensure that there was no disruption in vaccine supply and COVID-19 treatment. Evacuations were also ordered on low-lying areas. In Bangladesh, over two million individuals were ordered to be evacuated in coastal areasWhen the cyclone started it generated a wind speed of around 140kmph at the time of landfall. The total damages in West Bengal, the most heavily impacted state from the cyclone, were estimated to be around ₹20 thousand crore (US$2.76 billion). Nonetheless I was very grateful my family members were all safe and sound and it was a good case study for geography as well! Koushiki, Y10 student Worker of the Year! Last week our year 11 students started to think about futures and their potential careers through participating in the worker of the year competition! Students wrote CV's, had interviews, and when successful started on their chosen job! Students chose a wide variety of jobs as can be seen below: The student's all took on a range of tasks linked to their chosen fields. Here are some examples: Singer: Produce a song (write/create/compose) and try to sell it to a production company. Marketing Manager: Create the brand-book of a business to sell your services. Doctor: Research a rare case (in which the patient has a rare disease of some kind) and give the bad news to a family after studying this case. Film yourselves delivering the news. Do not forget to fill in the medical file. Also, you need to prepare a workshop about breastfeeding in the hospital you work now. During the week students took part in discussion on issues surrounding the world of work. We were blown away by their thoughtful and well researched responses. Here are some examples: Recent studies prove that occupational inequality is indeed an issue we face nowadays, for example, the fact that only 5% of CEOs are women, however, many businesses choose not to care about it unless they are directly called out for it. The statement 'occupational inequality is not an issue businesses should care about' is not one I agree with, however, it is one that is heavily demonstrated by companies. Businesses in the fashion industry benefit from occupational inequality since they are constantly selling eurocentric beauty features to fit the beauty standard, because eurocentric beauty features are mainly found in white people this facilitates occupational inequality for businesses & they benefit from this since it sells more. When it comes to models in the fashion industry most of the models picked for high-end brands are musicians or actors since they have large fan bases, but other than that they rarely pick a person of colour to represent them. To me, that demonstrates that companies only challenge occupational inequality for their benefit (since ambassadors give them more impressions) but they never challenge it to benefit the people facing discrimination. To them, occupational inequality can be used as a weapon to make them seem better amongst their competitors for being more 'accepting' which is why many companies update their icons to a rainbow flag in pride month but other than that take no initiative against homophobia. Occupational inequality is something businesses only seem to care about when it can be used against their competitors in order to make themselves more appealing to the public eye. - Samantha B. Parents should definitely have parental leave since they are also part of the child's development and the mother's recovery (If that is the case), they are a great help for both the child and their partner and are part of the preparation for the next stages of their child. This applies for any gender and sexual identity and the role the person has. Of course there are different things to consider corresponding to each baby and the situation each person is at, which is why the time of their leave depends on these things and of course where they work. - Gala F. Here is a selection of some of the student work. We were simply blown away by the creativity, professional standard, and depth of the student's tasks. It was truly inspiring to see what talent we have in this cohort and what a success they will all no doubt be. Video Game - Gael
Ms Carrera, Career Counsellor Ms Sadotra, KS3 Coordinator KS3: Year 9 Spanish The students in year 9 were given the task to help them to see the hidden feelings behind the words of some amazing poets. In groups they analysed poems and then created videos containing their poem and images or representations that conveyed the central sentiment. This final week we have the work of Juan Pablo, Manuela, Mateo, Maria Victoria, and Sofia. Mrs Tufino, Spanish Teacher
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