Welcome Living It seems impossible that we have arrived at the end of our first term in this academic year. So many wonderful and exciting learning opportunities have taken place that it is hard to know where to start with celebrating. Thank you to all the staff, students and parents who have worked so hard to build and develop our school and our values this term. What an exciting week we had at BSQ. On Friday the secondary students headed out for their first activity day of the year. Thanks to Ms Montenegro we were able to spend a wonderful day on El Tren exploring the countryside and the cultural features of Ibarra, Salinas and the ice-creams of Hoja Blanca. What a privilege it was to be able to travel on the historical train and hear the excellent commentary from the guides. Learning about the salt production of Salinas and enjoying excellent bizcochos on the way back was a great way to spend the day living and learning together. On the same day the primary parents came into school for their first academic conferences of the year. Lots of important meetings took place where successes and areas for further development were discussed and agreed. On Tuesday last week we held our first Open Day of the year. Many thanks to the staff and current parents who helped out with meeting and greeting and special thanks to the students. The new families were very impressed with the confidence of the Year 7 greeters and tour guides and by their obvious love for their school. Well done Year 7. Special thanks to Breck and Doménica in Year 6 who gave the speeches to the parents – not an easy task but they were brilliant. We look forward to welcoming the new families to BSQ later this year and next year. Have a wonderful break and we look forward to seeing you back on November 5th which is Bonfire Night in the UK. We are already making exciting plans for our own celebrations on November 17th. Keep an eye on Facebook for more details. Learning Here at BSQ we have a set of classroom strategies that are designed to support our students to learn effectively and you will see these teaching and learning behaviours happening in all our classrooms across the school. Last week I introduce you to the way in which we use Control the Game to allow all students the opportunity to be involved in the reading processes in the classroom. This week is the seventh of our classroom strategies and it is a crucial way in which we support all our students to be able to develop their understanding of the complex vocabulary required to become an expert in a subject and also the unusual nature of some of the ways in which words might be pronounced – and this is especially important for students learning an additional language. This strategy is called Chorus Response and simply involves the students repeating words after the teacher has clearly said them aloud. This is particularly important for early language learners and is used a lot in our EYFS and KS1 classes. The strategy can also be used to develop definitions too. For example, in our reading we might come across the word bashful, so I would encourage students to find a definition and that might be shy. I would say bashful and the students would repeat shy all together. We also change things around and I would say shy and the students would say bashful. It’s a really great way to develop classwork and confidence and embed new language into memory and we think it makes a positive difference. This week This week we have the second Spirit Week following on from the success of last year. Spirit Week is linked to an IB CAS project and this year it is being run by Martin Gaviria, Andres Chiriboga, Salma Valladares and Santiago Cáceres. The aim is to raise awareness and money for Foundation Sinsoluka – a group we first started working with last year and with whom the students are keen to maintain a developing relationship. See further details in the secondary section below. Exchange Opportunities As part of Orbital Education group of international schools, we are delighted to announce to our community that our students could be part of an interesting exchange opportunities programme in Mallorca, Budapest, Manchester and Ljubljana. Each school trip offers different activities, please see below the options presented and if you have additional questions please do contact us to [email protected] From the Staff and StudentsLast week we heard from Ms Ngwenya and Year 7. This week it is the turn of Ms Alejandra Miranda and Ms Antonella. Ms Alejandra and her Y12 students As part of the English B program of the international baccalaureate, a group of year 12 students has been working with me on topics as interesting as stereotypes and cultural diversity. It is very satisfying to see their analytical skills and feedback on their opinions and experiences. The classes are active and productive not only from the academic side, but also from the human side. In that way, I feel that I am helping to form true global and open minded citizens. Ms Antonella and her Nursery B students New corners to discover and explore, new words to learn, new songs to sing, new experiences to help us grow and new techniques to help us learn. For our children in Nursery B everything they are experiencing is fairly new to them and for some a first time experience. Their minds are so eager to learn; they absorb everything like sponges. As a nursery teacher I find myself looking for new and creative ways to teach them thus keep their enthusiasm for learning going and growing. Our activities are filled with messy play, sensory activities, games, songs, exploring and much more. This past week, they have enjoyed activities that wake up in them an interest for sounds, activities in which they can create sounds and match their voices to them. We went outside with drumsticks and made wonderful music throughout our EYFS play area, we found loud sounds, quiet ones and even objects that made no sounds at all. PLAY is the Highest form of Research. - Albert Einstein. Dates for your Diary October 24th - Football tournament for senior boys and girls away against Johannes Kepler school. October 24th - IGCSE PE trip to Parque Metropolitano October 24th - 26th - CAS Spirit Week Event October 25th - Reception trip to the zoo October 26th - Halloween parade – whole school. October 26th - end of term. School finishes at the usual time Emma Newman Principal Being BSQ – Primary Update This week has been a typical week in Primary, if you use the classic definition of ‘typical’ as having the distinctive qualities of a representative week! It started with our STEM Day, which was an amazing showcase of the skills, knowledge and understanding even the youngest of our students possess. The variety of activities was extremely broad, but what impressed us most was the variety of the solutions to the problems the students were faced with. They was a great deal of ingenuity on display and many students displayed resilience when things did not work out as they expected the first time. Please take some time to look at the photographs to see the stages of development of their projects. Later in the week we welcomed prospective students and parents onto the campus, to find out what makes BSQ unique in Ecuador and the benefits it affords its community of learners. This well attended event also gave our existing students the opportunity to explain what they love about BSQ to others, in particular Breck and Doménca from Year 6. On Wednesday we enjoyed the Year 6 Class Assembly, where the students shared their learning about Native American culture and the changes that have happened over the past three thousand years in North America. They covered some extremely philosophical and challenging themes and made us all think about our own thoughts and opinions. On Thursday Year Two enjoyed one of our first regular educational visits outside of school, to the Botanical Gardens in Quito, where they learnt about the huge variety of different plants there are in Ecuador. The students particularly enjoyed collecting different seeds, climbing the treehouse, acting out the photosynthesis process and, of course, finding out all about the carnivorous plants! Fortunately, all of our students returned to school safely, with no missing fingers, though the same cannot be said for some unfortunate flies and insects! And finally, of course, the teachers hosted the first of our Parent Teacher Conferences on Friday, where they shared the progress, targets and areas for development of each of their students, with the students themselves often leading the conference! It is remarkable the enthusiasm many of them showed towards their learning, the knowledge and understanding they displayed about their next steps and their obvious pride in sharing their many successes. Marcus Madden Head of Primary Being BSQ – Secondary Update PASS At the British School, Quito, we are dedicated to ensuring that not only is each and every individual academically and personally successful, but also that they are happy in their learning and in themselves. The GL PASS - Pupil's Attitudes to School and Self - survey is an annual measure that we take here at BSQ to giver us a better insight into how we can improve every student's experience. Last week all students in Secondary took part in this survey. By answering a number of questions and rating their feelings on a scale from 1 to 5, we are able to understand where there are areas of improvement that will benefit all students, and where there are individual students who need more targeted help. Spirit Week Please do help support your children in being able to make a contribution to Spirit week this week by dressing up. There are three dress-up days: Wednesday is 'twins' day, Thursday 'colour' day and Friday, of course, is Halloween. Dressing up costs $1 each time, and the money raised will be used to fund activities for the children at the excellent Fundacion Sinsoluka in south Quito. Jim Wild Head of Secondary From the BSQ Counselling Team This week our school counsellor, Andrea Carrera, talks about how to talk to your child about difficult topics.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
CategoriesArchives
May 2024
|