WelcomeLast week, along with 9 BSQ colleagues I started my training as a British Sign Language communicator. I now remember what it feels like to sit in an exam room under pressure. For four hours we studied the signs and took assessments to see what we could recall. Now when I log onto my account, I see my name greeting me – like this - which encourages me to return and complete my training Learning a new language is always challenging but we are all committed to sharing this new way of communicating so that we can embrace the diversity in the world around us. If you want to have a go at learning finger signing and beat the top scores then here is the full list of letter signs for both right handed and left handed signers. Now, here is a link to your test game. See how well you can do and let us know. British Sign Language Game. Good luck! Important news. Following much reflection, Marcus Madden our head of Primary, has decided that he will leaving BSQ at the end of this academic year. This was not an easy decision for Marcus following what will be four very happy and successful years with us but, along with his family, he feels it is time for the next step. Marcus joined BSQ in August 2018 and has had an enormous impact on the culture of the primary school in many ways but, in particular, in terms of wellbeing, parent relationships and student happiness. His work as our Dedicated Safeguarding Lead has been professional and meticulous in keeping our children safe – one of the most important elements of our work. I have enjoyed the warm and collaborative working relationship with Marcus and will miss him, both on a personal and professional level. I am sure you will all join me in wishing Marcus (and Sally, Lyla and Indie) the best of wishes as they consider their next steps. Of course, there will be many opportunities to continue living and learning together with the family throughout this year. BSL This week 4 of our Y8 students will be demonstrating two new signs, help and question, using BSL. Please watch this brilliant video: Ms. Hayley Dean, KS2 Lead Y8 Community Project We would like to share with you what Y8 students have been up to in their community project. All learnt themselves and video last week. Amazing job! Mrs. Rachael Parkinson, Science Teacher Video Competition: Years 1 – Year 6 Only As a COBIS school we are going to be sharing our stories of our love of Ecuador with students in Mexico, Bermuda and beyond. For a chance to win one of 10 spaces on our Why should you move here?! Video, please send the video with the specifications below to Andrea Zambrano on [email protected] by Wednesday November 10th at 3pm. You can include costumes, colours, flags, food - anything that shows ECUADOR. Second Chance project, second generation. The project Second Chance has come back this year to continue the mission that the last generation left. This year we are still collecting used exercise books with blank pages to recycle them and create new notebooks to donate them to different foundations who can benefit from them. However, we are adding one more thing to our mission and that is to recycle toys that are still in good condition. For this event, which will last from Tuesday 9 to Friday 12 of November, we are collaborating with the PA team of community service to collect donations those days. These can include used notebooks, school supplies and toys, all in good condition and sanitized due to COVID conditions. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us or your PA representative. Thank you for helping us make a change and protect our environment. PA and Second Chance project members Dates for your Diary As always please check this section carefully and ensure that you have all the details in your calendars.
Emma Newman Principal Being BSQ – Primary Update As we approach the holiday and prepare for Term 2, I want to reflect on a style of learning that we actively engage in here at BSQ – inquiry-based learning. This open-ended approach requires the students to investigate, question, research and be curious about anything and everything that interests them, often focusing on the students’ interests and encouraging them to find their path when it comes to learning. The teachers here at BSQ use a wide variety of teaching styles to ensure our students learn new skills and develop their knowledge and understanding – so why do we often choose this type of learning? Below are five benefits of inquiry-based learning for your child:
Our role as adults is to facilitate this process, not lead it, allowing them the time to formulate their own ideas, questions and solutions. The outcomes will be many and varied, but, most importantly, they will be their own! This holiday is a chance for our children to choose their own topic or theme and have the time to develop their knowledge and understanding independently. School finishes on Thursday 28th October, with most students returning on Monday 8th November. Provisionally, Year 1 students (aged between 5 and 5 years and 11 months) will be receiving their first vaccination dose on Monday 8th November, alongside Year 8-13 students aged 12 and above, so for these students there will be no school on Monday 8th November. These details will be shared with you when they are confirmed by the Ministry of Health. We wish you and your family a fun and relaxing break and look forward to seeing you all soon. Please also be aware of the provisional date for the Parent Teacher Conferences, which will be held online on Thursday 18th November, for details to follow. Marcus Madden Head of Primary Y4B In Year 4B we have been looking at persuasive writing including using imperative verbs, rhetorical questions and powerful adjectives. We created our own towns and cities with lots of different fantastic places to visit and see. Look below at our amazing writing and illustrations. Won’t you like to visit our towns? Miss Dean and Miss Martinez Y6 Worry Boxes and BSL signs For our recent Art Morning, on Saturday 16th October, Year 6 was set the challenge of creating something to help foster a welcoming and healthy classroom environment. We decided to create worry boxes to gift to each classroom in Primary. A worry box is somewhere children can post their worries anonymously, and then the problem can be discussed with the whole group and a solution found. Some children also created BSL signs to post around the school to help remind people of some basic emotions. Thanks for your efforts Year 6! Mr. Oliver Kyle, Y6 Teacher Being BSQ – Secondary Update Celebrating important Values It is great to report on the success seen last Saturday when we were all involved with some excellent activities as a whole school. I would like to thank you all for your support in ensuring that the students were involved and working towards the outcomes over the morning. Attendance was excellent and some of the work really was wonderful. We were all extremely pleased with the engagement and the quality of what was submitted. Well done also to year 7 who bravely attended for their missing booster jabs in preparation for the COVID vaccination programme due in early November. Whilst we are suffering some disruption, of course there is a great deal of value in this for everyone’s safety. You may have noticed in the news this week that numbers are rising in some European countries and it is argued that this is attributed to a proliferation of COVID transmission amongst youngsters in schools. Things are different here at BSQ where we insist on the wearing of masks at all times, and hygiene and safe systems are a constant focus. I appreciate the sensible approach of our students and the fact that they never need to be challenged for not wearing a mask. Mrs Newman and I received a presentation from Miss Todd on Thursday for the initial plans for a new values recognition initiative. This is a really exciting development and something that will enhance even further the school ethos around our values and the promotion of positive attributes. We pride ourselves on how well we prepare young adults when they leave BSQ and we want to frame this even further. From a young age I would like to see students reflecting on their strengths and what they need to develop going forward. Talking with confidence for example is not easy for all. The programme will start in year 7 and 8 in January as a pilot and this will then be extended into wider year groups in August. It will involve an achievement portfolio and regular targeted and focused activity. This will be to not only recognise ‘value’ acts, but also for students to reflect on their personal journeys. D of E has gathered pace this week with a number of expedition groups starting the process of training with cooking under the supervision of Mr Dobson and his team. It really was interesting to see the food that was brought in and how students perceived the practicalities of expedition cooking. I imagine that there will be a change to the menus once they get to the real thing and they experience the limitations on equipment and the environment in the great outdoors. Gone will be the vegetable selections and the whole boxes of breakfast cereal. We are now considering enrichment and the staged return to normality in this important area. Miss Martinez spoke to all staff in Secondary and Primary on Wednesday to set out the next couple of months and the developments going forward. Wednesday Enrichment activities will be returning after half term but online until Christmas. Students who join clubs will be set a challenge each week to complete independently at home. In January if all goes well we hope to be doing enrichment at school again. More to follow on this. Looking ahead, Spirit Week will be postponed to November 13th when we look forward to the bonfire spirit night which will also have games, a talent show, Halloween parade and other fun events which are being organised by the CAS groups. More on this to follow. Finally, Mr Edwards set up a wonderful house event on Friday seeing the upper secondary school playing a 3-way football match and key stage 3 playing Kwik Cricket. Lots of fun was had by all in this important community event. He also planned an additional Cricket event on Monday for those students at home so they do not miss out. Well done Mr Edwards, the competitors and of course the staff who were helping. Working Saturday reports Key Stage 3 Halloween Poetry Competition On Saturday 16th October the students in KS3 were set the challenge of either writing a poem or recording themselves reading out a poem on the theme of Halloween! They had to make it as scary as possible using their words, designs or acting. It was a great challenge enjoyed by all. The students demonstrated happiness and determination in this task and despite it being a Saturday really gave it their all! There were some excellent submissions that were judged by an expert panel - they had a very difficult job picking their top three! Here are the KS3 winners who won the following points for their house: First place: 50 points Naomi Y9 Well done to all of the students who took part, the submissions were fantastic and a real credit to them all! All participants received 2 house points for their efforts. Ms Sadotra, Senior Leader Learning Key Stage 4 In their Saturday classes KS4 looked into the environmental impact of some of their favourite foods and made news or radio reports to raise awareness. Did you know that:
They learnt that it is important to consider the origin of food, distance travelled and farming techniques used to produce it. Ask them to tell you some of the information that they discovered. Are you aware of your foodprint, try the survey here to find out how your eating and shopping habits check out! Ms. Ruth Todd, Science Teacher Key Stage 5 Last Saturday was really productive and impressive, all IB students participated in different activities, showing their commitment, ambition, and determination. Y13 started their journey through the TOK essays with the support of Mrs. Madden - great topics and ideas were discussed. Y12 worked with their tutors and Mrs. Newman on their extended essay research questions - great start of ideas there too, and we also had a catch up session of ESS. All the students were awarded house points. Well done IB students!!! Mrs. Paola Montenegro, IB Coordinator Year 12 As Year 12 tutors our goal during this time has been the wellbeing of the students. We want to achieve this by giving them tools to organise the academic part and improve their academic performance. We also want the students to feel comfortable sharing their emotions and challenges with each other, and with the tutors. We wanted to know how the Year 12 students evaluate the support they have received from their tutors and the SSD, here are some of their testimonies: “How the student support department along with our tutors have helped us to create and safe and aware environment in our classroom about the social issues that teenagers usually face alone. This has helped all of us to have someone to trust in the school and be able to safely open up to someone.” “I feel that the classes we are having in LLS are very helpful this year, we are looking into new topics we have never seen before and I feel that our class and tutors create a safe space for us to speak and talk about our feelings. I feel that our tutors are amazing and help us all the time in a way we feel understood.” “I want to thank my tutors; they have been extremely helpful in the going-back process. They are great teachers and awesome mentors, willing to help us in any situations and helping us create a second family in school.” “I feel safe with Ms. Leon because she does everything in her power to make students feel comfortable and happy. She also puts effort into listening to us and showing us support when it’s needed. Not everyone is capable of being as kind as Ms. Leon so I’m very happy we have her as our counsellor.” Mr. Rodrigo Samaniego, Ms. Alejandra Miranda – Y12 Tutors BSQ Idol Talent Show This year Y12 and Y13 students join together to support 3 CAS projects: Operación Sonrisa, Second Chance, & Beyond Lagartococha and they are very eager to share with you that WE will be hosting the bonfire night on Saturday, November 13th, 2021. On that night WE will offer a vast number of opportunities to play games & experience events, that have been postponed due to COVID 19, more detailed guides & protocols regarding the Bonfire Night will be shared by the newsletter and the school social media next week, however, at the moment Y12 and Y13 would like to bring your attention to the BSQ Idol Show. Like previous years, there will be the opportunity for students of all-year groups to showcase their respective talents with the rest of the community on this night. To participate, the following steps must be completed:
We look forward to your participation. Mrs Montenegro - Samanta, Felipe, Aitana, Oliver, Anton and Alez y12 Y7 Science For the last two weeks Year 7 have been learning about the structure and function of cells in Science. They were tasked with making a model cell as part of their homework. They could have chosen to do a plant or animal cell. They were instructed to use as many materials as they could, and label their cells. As you can see from these pictures, some students got very imaginative with their choice of materials, including using food, and made some excellent model cells. They also went above and beyond what they were taught in class, and researched other organelles to add to their models. I was extremely impressed when they came running into class with their models. The dedication they showed to this task was excellent! Ms. Nadine Parker, Science Teacher Have a wonderful week everyone.
Lee Moors Head of Secondary
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