Welcome I can hardly believe that it is October already and that we are heading towards our first short holiday of the year – October 9 brings us to the celebration of the Independence of Guayaquil. But holidays aside, there is so much happening at BSQ this term (as usual) that we could almost believe nothing has changed. Last week and this week we have been planning and completing our CAT4 tests that all children in Years 3, 7 and 10 take every year. This is not a test of knowledge but a way to set goals for future successes, as data can be compared against students all over the world. Our CAS students are busy planning their projects with energy and enthusiasm and including a new project that enables learners of all ages to work together. There is also Spirit Week to look forward to – always a fun few day of fund-raising, great organization and raising of awareness about a local foundation. Our kindness project with students was a great success and we are now looking at ways to extend that across the community, out of school and into the homes of staff, parents and friends. After all, ‘in a world where you can be anything, be kind.’ The new cohort of Duke of Edinburgh International Award students have been invited to join this great organization and participate in learning new skills, challenging themselves physically, volunteering and exploring. Mr. Beazley is leading this year and will be supported as always by a team of enthusiastic and qualified staff. For students in Year 9 and older this is a great opportunity. Further on in the newsletter you will be able to read about all the exiting learning opportunities students are involved in with their teachers and classmates. e-learning at BSQ Parent Survey Responses Many thanks to all the parents who responded to our two-part survey whereby we asked you about online learning now and return to school in the future. This week I will address the comments raised about online learning. Thank you as always for your support and positivity linked to online learning. Although many parents had suggestions for developments all those comments were very similar and can be summarised as follows: - increased use of cameras in learning sessions for students - increased opportunities for 1-1 sessions with teachers and support staff - increased opportunities for progress reports on learning and knowledge We are now working on developments in these key areas and more information will follow from your Heads of School PA News Uniform Campaign Welcome gifts As a welcoming gesture for our new families and staff members, the Parent Association organised the delivery of these beautiful gifts as a warm welcome to our BSQ community. From the Staff and the Students Continuing with our teachers and their stories about e-learning this new period. This week we have Mr. Bradley Edwards and the Equality & Diversity Committee from Secondary and Dr. Sara Luengo, Mr. Matt Kidd and Ms. Antonella Coronel from Primary. Mr. Bradley Edwards - PE Secondary Teacher Last week, Friday 25th saw the first House competition of the year called BSQ's got talent! Students entered their video auditions to which were narrowed down to 8 contestants to win house points for their houses Antisana, Cayambe or Illiniza. The whole of secondary logged in virtually to see the spectacle unfold and support their fellow housemates. With help from our expert judges Mr Moors, Mr Karakashan and Ms Cano who had the hard decision in deciding who our winners were going to be. They were completely blown away by the quality of the contestants and the variety of talents. From horse jumping, karate, art, singing, dancing and physical challenges, it was truly a fantastic event to witness. It was incredible to see these students perform in front of the whole school and amazing to see talents extended outside of school. A big congratulation to all our contestants and our winners of the morning: 1st Valeria R. 2nd Anastasiia S. 3rd Julieta D. And to our runners up: Isa Chavéz, Kailani, Gianella, Pietro, Elisa, Mateo A. BSQ Equality & Diversity Committee The Equality & Diversity Committee was created by students for students last year. We joined because we saw the committee as an opportunity to be part of a group that addresses issues that are not often looked at. It has been amazing to collaborate with other students who also want to make a positive impact. We have participated in several projects, from presentations to community wide awareness events. This year’s first project was all about the effects of the pandemic in our communities and the world. We all talk about the statistics, however, we have not addressed the impacts that discrimination and racism can have on minorities and people with disabilities during a global pandemic. Our committee strives to make people aware that positive changes are everyone’s responsibility! We cannot beat issues like discrimination and racism alone. We are very excited to continue working and to discover the potential we have as a group to make great things. Dr. Sara Luengo - School Doctor Eye health in times of online learning The current global health crisis has led us to undertake lots of life changes in a short amount of time, and we have had to adapt to each and every one of them as things have progressed. One of those has been the online working and learning environment. Screen time has increase significantly, especially for students at any level of academia: primary, secondary, university, postgraduate, etc. Classrooms have been substituted by the online settings and even though we have been able to adapt, it is not without some consequences. Our eye health has been affected and it has become one of the primary causes for patients to seek the help of general practitioners and institutional doctors. At BSQ we want to give you some recommendations to improve eye health and to prevent symptoms, these are good for both kids and adults. Some practical advices that we all can incorporate to our daily lives and even keep doing after going back to our pre-quarantine routines.
Mr. Matt Kidd - Year 2 Teacher Year 2B has been working so hard since starting back the school year online. The class has been learning all about the African Savannah and the beautiful country of Zimbabwe. Miss Isabel is the Year 2 art teacher and the children have created their very own African artwork as well as designing camouflage for their animals. The boys and girls have studied African artwork and used their knowledge to recreate their own African designs. It has been a lot of fun and the class have shown how talented they all are. Ms. Antonella Coronel - Head of EYFS Dear parents, For the past few weeks in EYFS, we have been working on emotions and behaviour during story time sessions and whole class sessions. To finish this topic off with a bang, we hosted a workshop with the support of Ms. León and Ms. Carrera from the BSQ psychologist department, where we shared excellent information and strategies to support you and your family at home. This workshop took place on the Canvas “BSQ Parent portal” course. The recording will be available for you to access for the next 15 days. The children have been working on “All about me” projects, and here we have one of our Early Year students showing off her work proudly! Well done! Kind regards, Ms. Coronel Dates for your Diary
Emma Newman Principal Being BSQ – Primary Update This week, the Student Support Department are hosting a series of parent workshops on the theme of ‘The use of technology and devices in this current time’. On Monday 5th the session is for Year 1-3 parents and then on Wednesday 7th the session is for Year 4-6 parents, both at 5pm on the Parent Portal page of Canvas. This will be a valuable addition to our series of parent workshops and offer you the opportunity to discuss this theme with the SSD team. While our provision remains online, it is important to be aware of the additional access our students have to online resources and content and make sure that we have the appropriate filters and blocks in place to protect our students. Alongside these protections, we can model safe and appropriate use of technology by ensuring that we limit our time on our devices, spending time away from technology and connecting with nature and the outdoors. For the coming academic year, the Ministry of Education has given every school in Ecuador extra advice and guidance about the collation of evidence and the reporting procedures for students in Years 1 to 13. This guidance includes the change to four partials of ten weeks each (previously we had six partials) and continues to include an element of parent involvement in the grade given. For the first partial, each parent will be asked to rate their child's participation in online learning according to a rubric which has been devised by the Ministry of Education (and shared with you by email). To submit this parental grade, we have created a simple form for you to complete. You need to access this link and fill in your child's full name, class and the grade you feel best reflects their participation (from 0 to 1). This grade must be submitted before Friday 16th October - any students without a grade submitted by their parents will be automatically allocated a grade of 0.5. You must submit a different form for each of your children - when you have submitted one form, it will give you an option to submit another form or you can press on the link above again. With the changes in protocols from the government starting to mean that more organisations and systems are returning to normal, it is more important than ever to make sure that you share any changes in circumstances with your child’s teachers, such as if they are being supervised by different members of your household or in a different location than normal. This allows the teachers to then be aware of each student’s circumstances and make the appropriate provision. Marcus Madden Head of Primary Being BSQ – Secondary Update I cannot believe that it is October already! Time has absolutely flown by. Looking back over the last month it is remarkable what we have achieved in such a short space of time. When time flies so quickly there is usually a reason. For me, it is not just the work that I am doing, it is also how much I am enjoying the process. I do feel that I have been here much longer than I have. The welcome and support I have received and the hard work that everyone in the secondary school is doing is very rewarding. Students are really focusing hard on their studies and the staff are doing absolutely everything they can to facilitate this. Well done all! Our staff in key stage 4 and 5 are now embarking on an important time of action planning for IGCSE and IB subjects. This is to ensure that students arrive at the end of the year with absolutely everything they need to do as well as possible during the exam season. This is an important task and something that brings out other strategies to help students and parents understand more clearly the pressures faced by all. This year particularly will inevitably promote some anxiety from staff, parents and students alike. This is due to the learning experience of the last 6 months of school time – who thought at the start that it would last this long? We are extremely lucky at BSQ that we have created a viable learning platform to deliver a quality education fully and safely for all involved. There are many schools around the world that would be envious at what our students and staff have achieved here through these challenging times. What impresses me more is that we are not resting but continually developing what we do. For us in Secondary, we now turn our attention to supervision, safeguarding and methods to identify misunderstanding or misconceptions through the use of imagery and cameras during lessons. There will be more to follow on this next week, but we will be expecting students to use cameras as the term unfolds further. It may be a good time to look at this at home and ensure that all is working. Examination boards are now starting to look to the May/June 2021 examination series. There are stories in the UK hinting at further adaptations to the assessment procedures next year. What we can be sure of is that our students at BSQ will not be inconvenienced in any way by whatever adaptations are made to the assessment strategies expected of us. We are working hard to secure coursework early on, and staff are preparing clear timelines in each subject so that parents and students are very aware of what is expected of them and when. Having this information allows planning and awareness of where there may be pinch points which may lead to stress. We will also be able to relax in confidence that everything will be considered and prepared. As a school we are continually reflecting on the quality of our teaching and how this promotes student learning. Over the next couple of weeks, we will be spending time observing lessons more formally so that staff can identify how we can innovate further and develop the student learning experience. We shall be looking at how this is done online, looking at the quality of what students are presenting in their online workbooks, and the quality of the feedback that staff are giving to this. This is a rewarding experience for all at BSQ as we are all committed to developing as a team towards Mastery in our practice. Students in years 12 and 13 are now working hard on their university applications and there are various things that staff are asking them to do. I attended a webinar yesterday presented by the UK application service (UCAS). They were keen to point out that students as part of their application statements outline the benefits they have gained from the experience of online learning, such as resilience, flexibility and the increased understanding of technology. These are definitely strengths going forward as many students who have started university this year are also in an online medium. They also wanted to reassure students that they are very aware of the disruption everyone has faced with their education to this point – Do not worry! They understand. They are there to listen and they will be flexible. Almost all applicants around the world are in the same situation. If you are in year 12 or 13 it is time to focus on your applications, references and all of the other connected tasks. This 3-month window is an extremely important time and you need to be as prepared and researched as you can be. If you are excited about your destinations, you have a real aim. This will help you as you strive towards this over the remainder of the year. What an exciting time ahead! Have a great week everyone. Lee Moors Head of Secondary From the BSQ Counselling Team This week our school counsellor, Andrea Carrera, talks about promoting self-esteem in teens.
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