Welcome![]() This is our last newsletter of the current term and, as always, I am amazed at everything that has happened since January 6th. BSQ is such a busy and vibrant school and that is due to the commitment of our staff, the positivity of our families and the brilliance of our students. Thank you for your support and see you on March 2nd after a well-deserved break with family and friends. Remember that school ends at 12:00 on Friday so that you can make the most of the Carnival weekend. Please ensure that you have made arrangements for the collection of your children if they are not travelling on the school bus Being BSQ at home and in the classroom. Those of you following us on Facebook will have seen our new #BSQ/Parents as we shared images of our Positive Framing workshops. What a great turnout and – as always – great to see parents so interested in what happens at school and keen to be a part of that. As we explored in the workshop, the research around parents and schools working together is strong and conclusive in terms of its impact on student well-being and success. ‘Parent engagement in the educational development of their children improves attainment.’ Bill Lucas at the Centre for Real World Learning. The three top rules for positive framing are that we:
We worked together to frame some examples of how we could address children to support them to understand how to move forward with clear actions and no conflict. If you would like to know more than you can explore the slides we prepared for the workshop and practise some positive framing for yourself. The Sun – I am repeating this advice this week so that everyone has read it We are very fortunate to live in an environment where the weather enables us to spend much of our time outside being active. However, there are also the days when the UV index is extremely high and potentially very dangerous if we do not take enough precautions. Whilst we are looking at how we can provide extra cover for our sports facilities, there is also much we can all do to protect ourselves.
If you need any additional advice and guidance, please contact our doctor Sara Luengo on [email protected] Meet the team – Year 3. In the middle of the primary school we have a brilliantly creative team of staff – always working on a project! After School Clubs. Many thanks to those who have signed up to start our brand new music club after school and to join the BSQ String Band. I am delighted to announce that we will be starting the BSQ music club after the break. Many schools in the UK and around the world have gradually decreased their music provision for students due to a lack of good music teachers, other budget priorities or no interest from the students. As a (semi!) musician I am so pleased that we have the staff, the time and the student interest in music to enable us to really focus on developing the joy and skill at BSQ of learning and loving music. Dear students and parents, Last week we had a demonstration of what will be the extracurricular classes of Strings in BSQ. Now we are very happy to announce that these classes will start on Tuesday, March 3 at 3:20 p.m. Classes will last two hours, from 3pm to 5pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays in the A13 classroom. Payment information will be sent during this week to interested families. If your children are interested and have not yet contacted us, we will be happy to send you information and invite them to be part of what we wish in the future to become the String Ensemble of the BSQ. Please write to [email protected] Best regards, Nicole Camacho TEDx Event 5… 4… 3… 2… 1.. Our TEDxYouth@BSQ is finally coming soon! This February 20th BSQ will be hosting a ground breaking event filled with interesting and motivating talks from key expert speakers and three of our own BSQ students. The theme is Education: Innovation, Diversity, Wellbeing. Stay tuned! Driving Change 2020 – Save the Date and volunteer Our website is up and running and thank you to those of you who have committed to join us at the conference. You can sign up to join us and connect here. After the break we will start releasing details of our wonderful speakers and exhibitors but here is a sneak peek! ![]() Michelle O’Fried Michelle holds a Masters in Nutrition in Public Health from Columbia University, NYC. She is an ecological public health nutritionist, cook, food writer and advocate for nutritional value of traditional foods. She is the nutritionist for a healthy consumer´s movement in Ecuador “Que Rico es” and some of you may have heard her voice in nutritional messages produced by EDUCA, the 8 minute programmes aired on all Ecuadorian radio stations. From the Staff and the Students Continuing with our teachers and their stories about learning in the classroom this period. This week we have Ms. Danielle Parker from Secondary and Ms. Heather Stollery, Mr. Matt Kidd and Ms. Coronel from Primary. Ms. Danielle Parker – Secondary English Teacher The BSQ Festival of Ecuadorian Culture was a huge success thanks largely to the hard work of the Equality & Diversity Committee, Nicole Camacho in Primary, a bunch of amazing Secondary teachers, and our wonderful Parents Association. The day kicked off with a lively bomba dance from the talented Maitress dance group whose balancing of bottles on their heads while they performed their routines was certainly an impressive spectacle. More so perhaps was seeing Ms Madden and a few students doing the moves on stage. Thanks to the year 12 English A students who led an excellent slam poetry workshop in which students like Felipe and Alejandra in year 10 produced some fantastic poems. Many of our students enjoyed the traditional games and were really committed to trying to win. The most popular were the Trompos and the Rayuela. The kids, Ms Maggie and Ms Espinosa had lots of fun. The Mujeres de La Luna delivered lively workshops in ancestral music which both primary and secondary students seemed to love. A number of year 10s, 11s and IB students were an attentive and engaged audience for our expert on the difficult topic of racism in football, Paulo Ayala. Students in the mask workshop enjoyed playing with clay and made some, well, interesting pieces of art. Everyone trying out some Ecuadorian sports was enthusiastic and energetic, despite the fierce sun. Perhaps the highlight of the day though was Masterchef which saw delicious and extravagent entries from Gael and Melany in year 10, Katherine and Kailani in year 7, Lucas in year 9 and Ary in year 12. After an exciting round of tasting and deliberations from the judges, Ms Newman, Mr Madden, Mr Wild and Mr Mercer, third place went to Juan Esteban of year 7, second place to Katherine and the ENORMOUS trophy went to Gianella of year 7 whose original and delicious mango ceviche impressed the most. To finish, Ms Cano and Esteban serenaded us with their romantic pasillos on the deck. We love you too, Ms Cano! And at the end of the day, it was Samantha Baugh's beautifully detailed piece illustrating indigenous people and fabric designs that took the number one spot for the Diversity of Ecuador Art Contest. Thank you to all staff, parents and students for such a wonderful day! Ms. Heather Stollery – Year 2A Teacher In 2A this term, we have been having a very varied learning experience. This week, in particular, has been filled with excitement. In science we have been exploring different materials and we were thinking about objects that ´float´ and ´sink´. We made predictions and then set about experimenting with various objects. In English we have been learning and writing riddles and to start the week off the children took part in a riddle race, where they had to read and answer riddles in groups of 4 and then run to get the next riddle. It was a fantastic learning experience because not only did they have to work together in their teams but it also tested their mental and physical strengths. A real highlight of our week was our class marble party where we got to design and create our own pizzas. The children chose this as their reward so they could learn how to make pizza and of course it was a delicious treat! Mr. Matt Kidd – Year 2B Teacher The Scottish Dance Enrichment Club was very lucky to have a professional Hip Hop dancer visit BSQ this week. Sebastian is a professional dancer from Quito who has featured in many films and videos. The children learned a hip hop routine, participated in a dance off, and showed real 'attitude' throughout the lesson. Thank you to Sebastian for coming in and inspiring the children. Ms. Antonella Coronel – Head of Early Years Happy Valentine’s day! Last week in nursery we celebrated Valentine’s day with a wonderful picnic in the EYFS playground. During the week we worked on making valentine’s day cards for friends and classmates which came out wonderful. They had a blast coloring, painting and sticking. Before the picnic started we gave the children time to hand out the cards they had elaborated to the person they wanted to give it to. They felt so happy giving one to a friend and even more receiving one. They learnt about how to take care of the people we love not only on special occasions like this one but make sure this is a regular occurrence. The children understood that it does not have to be with presents or bought things but with hugs and kisses or even cards made from themselves show a lot to the person we care about. Dates for your Diary February 20th– TEDxYouth@BSQ February 21st– Carnival holiday starts at 12h00 March 20th – 21st– Driving Change 2020 March 25th– EYFS Open Day Emma Newman Principal Being BSQ – Primary Update![]() This being the last week of term before the Carnival break, it is a good time for us all to look back on the previous few weeks and reflect on our personal goals. In school, we discuss goals and targets regularly with the students, relating to both their academic progress and their personal development. Now we are half way through the school year, setting ourselves new goals that we would like to achieve is a great way to reinvigorate our learning and make sure we keep progressing. One area I feel we that most of us could improve upon is our diet, specifically at break time. Those students who have school snack are already eating a balanced and nutritious snack, with fruit, juice and some form of carbohydrate to give us energy. However, many students bring less nutritious snacks to school, including high-energy drinks, crisps and chocolate. While these all have a place in a balanced diet, they do not provide our students with the right balance of ‘brain food’ and can affect their learning and behaviour. If you send lunch and snack from home, please make sure that your child understands the benefits of eating a balanced and healthy diet, with reduced sugar, fat and salt and plenty of fruit and vegetables. We are also hoping to reduce both the use of cartons (sometimes referred to as tetrapaks) and single use plastics across the school, so please support us by using reusable containers for your child’s snack and lunch box and avoid items which are disposed of as soon as they are used. We have several trips out this week: Year 3 will visit the Science Museum on Tuesday, the dancing Enrichment Club will visit a Dance Studio on Wednesday and Year 2 will visit Parque de Armenia on Thursday. Year 5 and 6 are also involved in a Cacao Ceremony on Tuesday. On Friday 21st February school ends at 12pm for the Carnival mid-term break. Please ensure you all out this time in your diaries and enjoy the break, ready to return to school on Monday 2nd March. Star of the Week Marcus Madden Head of Primary Being BSQ – Secondary Update ![]() Year 11 Introduction to IBDP While they are of course already very busy studying, learning and revising for their upcoming IGCSE examinations in May, on Tuesday 18th February the students of Year 11 will be introduced for the first time in any real detail to the IB Diploma Programme. While we try not to put them under any undue extra pressure at this point, it is vital that they understand where all their hard work is leading. In addition, we need to understand where they, as a group and as individuals, need it to lead. And so we use this opportunity to show them what lies ahead, but also to get a sense of what subjects they will want, or need, to study over the next two years in order to reach their goals, so that we can plan our provision accordingly. Year 12 University Guidance A year further on, the Year 12 students are now well into their IB Diploma Programme, and are reaching the stage where they will need to begin thinking about what comes next. Over the next few weeks, in my role as College Counselor, I will be meeting with each of the Year 12 students for a one-to-one discussion of their hopes, dreams, and goals, out of which they will each emerge with a better understanding of the specific actions needed to achieve success. Sunshine In my nine years in Ecuador, I have never known the sun to be as strong as it is now. It is absolutely essential that each and every student comes to school every day with a hat that protects their face and neck from the harsh UV radiation, not just during PE class but also at break, lunch, and when moving between classes. It is also essential that they wear high SPF sun cream whenever they are outside. And it is essential that they remain hydrated, for which they absolutely need to bring to school a water bottle. Please do help us with these things, and with reinforcing the importance of this message. Jim Wild Head of Secondary From the BSQ Counselling Team This week our school counsellor, Andrea Carrera, talks about what parents should know about the Tik Tok App.
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Welcome![]() Being BSQ in Ecuador. What a fantastic time we all had on Saturday as the school came alive in celebration of Ecuadorian culture. With music, dancing, presentations, food and a wonderful sense of the diversity and wealth of spirit in Ecuador, we all left with more knowledge and understanding and a huge smile. With thanks to our Diversity Committee of Silas, Samantha and Mateo for organising, to Ms Parker for her vision and steering and to all the students, staff and parents who participated with such energy and enthusiasm. I personally was very happy to be a judge with Mr Wild, Mr Madden and Mr. Mercer at the BSQ Gastronomy Competition and was impressed by the high standard of food that had been prepared. We also celebrated the fun of sports day in the primary school on Saturday. With equal energy and enthusiasm, the primary students enjoyed different activities prepared by our staff. The Sun We are very fortunate to live in an environment where the weather enables us to spend much of our time outside being active. However, there are also the days when the UV index is extremely high and potentially very dangerous if we do not take enough precautions. Whilst we are looking at how we can provide extra cover for our sports facilities, there is also much we can all do to protect ourselves.
If you need any additional advice and guidance, please contact our doctor Sara Luengo on [email protected] Enrichment – our Co-Curricular provision Once again, this year, the parent survey showed that there was a desire for more co-curricular provision at BSQ. Whilst I understand that this refers to after school activities in the main, it is important to remember that the breadth and choice within our co-curriculum programme on Tuesdays (KS3) and Wednesdays (whole school) is outstanding. A BSQ student can choose from any one of these activities at some point during their school journey. In addition, they can choose to be part of our Equality and Diversity groups, our Climate Change Committee, our students council, our RedMOVE programme, our community projects, our overseas trips, our MUN Committee or our international Duke of Edinburgh programme. Staffing News Many thanks to the parents who worked with us to interview our candidate for the position of Head of Secondary last week. Following a rigorous and successful week here, we are glad to announce that Lee Moors has been appointed as Head of Secondary at BSQ starting in August 2020. Lee will be joining us from the UK with his wife and two children and we will introduce him properly here next term. Meet the team – Mathematics. We are lucky at BSQ to have such a dynamic and passionate maths team. I have worked in many schools where maths is not very popular but that is not the case here! After School Clubs. Many thanks to those who have signed up to start our brand new music club after school and to join the BSQ String Band. On Tuesday February 11th at 3:30pm Dina will be coming into school to give a demonstrative lesson in the Multipurpose room.
TEDx Youth@BSQ Following our expert speakers, BSQ proudly announces our outstanding group of students to share their stories with us about Education: Innovation, Diversity and Wellbeing during our boundary-breaking first for BSQ: TEDxYouth@BSQ: Martín (Y11), Martinna (Y12), and Pablo (Y12). Driving Change 2020 – Save the Date and volunteer Thank you to those parents who have volunteered to help with the conference Women and Leadership: Driving Change. This week we are opening the process for joining us to celebrate strength, leadership and change in the field of driving forward change by and for women in all walks of life. Our website is open, and you can sign up to join us and connect here. From the Staff and the Students Continuing with our teachers and their stories about learning in the classroom this period. This week we have Ms. Ruth Todd from Secondary and Ms. Coronel from Primary. Ms. Ruth Todd – Secondary Science Teacher Saturday was a wonderful day at BSQ. Ecuadorian Culture Day with its many activities as well as Year 11 and 13 workshops for revision for both parents and students displaying the high level of commitment our whole community has to a balanced education. A MASSIVE thankyou to Miss Parker and the Equality and Diversity team, it is an amazing part of our school year and we are lucky to have here it here at BSQ. I would like to explore more the word balance; balancing our study or work with other activities or interests means that we reduce stress levels and can perform much more efficiently when under pressure. In the parent/student workshops we explored the benefits of planning revision or study sessions, thinking as a family about the optimal conditions for each individual student. Even if your son or daughter is not in an exam year, sitting down and talking to them about their study habits is a useful task as it encourages them to develop their organisation and time management skills. In order to aid these conversations, you could consider the following things:
Whilst the first 3 bullet points might seem nothing to do with studying, they are very important for healthy happy people. If you plan your study periods to occur with high frequency over time (each subject is visited once a week), there is no reason why you should have to stop doing the things you love doing. Here you will find a short YouTube video which goes through 9 effective study habits, I recommend you take a look! Ms. Antonella Coronel – Head of EYFS Last week the children got ready for our Saturday Sports/Ecuadorian Culture day. The children did a wonderful job during the sports events in the big football field. The obstacle courses presented a lot of great challenges for the children to do. One of the obstacles had the children pushing the ball with their hands through cones and zigzags. In another course the children had to pass through the hula hoops faster than their opponent. The other had a lot to do with balancing and overhead throwing. The second half of Saturday morning the students had the opportunity to learn a little about Ecuadorian Culture. We set up activities where children had to rotate through. Traditional games were set up in the EYFS corridor, and they learned how hopscotch is played, jump rope games as well and trompos. It was great to see the children connecting and loving the things that we used to play. They also learned a little about traditional art where they made diablo huma masks. Dates for your Diary February 20th– TEDxYouth@BSQ February 21st– Carnival holiday starts at 12h00 March 20th – 21st– Driving Change 2020 March 25th– EYFS Open Day Emma Newman Principal Being BSQ – Primary Update ![]() Last week we enjoyed the Primary Sports Day alongside the Festival of Ecuadorian Culture Day – we hope you all enjoyed sharing these events and appreciated the opportunities available for the students. This initiative also links appropriately to our focus last week on one aspect of our school values, the concept of being welcoming: We live and learn with a happy and welcoming attitude to everyone. Here at BSQ we hope that all the adults who work at school model this attribute on a daily basis, welcoming visitors to the school, alongside being welcoming to our students and parents. However, we actively plan activities that dig deeper into the meaning of this attribute, with the aim of ensuring that our whole community:
On Friday this week, a group of Secondary students are raising money for a charity based in Lago Agrio, as part of their CAS learning. They are encouraging all the students to dress up in red pink and/or white clothes for Valentine’s Day (Friday 14th February), contributing $1 if they choose to wear their own clothes. Here at BSQ we take the welfare of our students very seriously, always looking into any concerns raised and supporting students and their families whenever we can. If you have any concern about the welfare of your child, please do share this with either your child’s class teacher or Mr Madden. We also love celebrating birthdays with our students. Please speak with your child’s class teacher to arrange a suitable time (often best at 2:30/2:45pm) and limit the use of paper plates and cups, with no single use plastics to be used at all, including balloons. Finally, we would like to invite you all to meet the representative from the provider for after-school musical activities on Tuesday 11th February at 3:30pm in the Multipurpose Room (between 2A and Year 5’s classroom), to find out about this exciting opportunity for our students. Star of the WeekMarcus Madden Head of Primary Being BSQ – Secondary Update ![]() Timetable Changes To ensure that all students are able to enjoy outdoor PE classes, it was necessary to completely rewrite the Secondary timetable over the weekend. You have been sent a copy. In preparing and communicating the changes, I was struck by how lucky I am to work with such an amazingly cooperative, understanding, and selfless team of professionals. In no other school that I’ve taught, including this one a few years ago, would it have been possible to completely overhaul the timetable in two days without a single complaint from a teacher. I’m deeply grateful. IBDP Study and Revision Thank you to those of you who came to support your children at our IG and IB exam preparation workshops on Saturday. Ms Todd and Mr Karakashian, with the help of the whole team, have spent weeks preparing study and revision resources and programmes for the Year 11 and Year 13 students respectively. Right now, at school and at home, these students really shouldn't be thinking about or doing much else apart from eating, sleeping, studying, and resting. Please continue to support us by making sure that the right work is being done in the right ways, all the way from now until May, so that everybody has the very best chance of success. Jim Wild Head of Secondary From the BSQ Counselling Team This week our school counsellor, Andrea Carrera, talks about the use of technology at home.
Welcome![]() Being BSQ in the wider world. On Monday January 27, seven BSQ students and five staff members attended the Climate Change event at Casa Guayasamín where Sir Simon McDonald (Head of the British Diplomatic Service), Katherine Ward (British Ambassador in Ecuador) and a number of other influential guests spoke – including our own students from the Climate Change Committee. Anabella de Armas, Daniela Sañaicela and Valeria Correa stood in front of over 150 invited guests and shared their actions linked to climate change, spoke about their vision and challenged those with the power to do so to make a difference. In addition, the BSQ climate day video, shot by Pablo Ganchala, Martinna Roldan, Martin Castaneda and Nico Anhalzer was shown. Nico, who had edited and prepared the video, also spoke on stage and invited Alan Hesse to present a copy of his book The Adventures of Polo the Bear to Sir Simon. Congratulations to these students. Parent Values. As many of you will know, the PA met in December to continue the work started by our students to outline ways to live our values in everyday life here at BSQ. That work has resulted in a set of statements that outline the ways in which parents can support, develop and promote the BSQ ways of being. Thank you for the hard work and I look forward to seeing these actions flooding our work together as we move forward. 1. Welcome At BSQ, parents:
At BSQ, parents:
At BSQ, parents:
At BSQ, parents:
At BSQ parents:
At BSQ parents:
Meet the team – this week we hear from our Year 1 team This week we present the Year 1 team to share with us their thoughts about being part of the BSQ community. Our Year 1 teachers are always committed to the development and growth of their pupils in every possible way. After School Clubs. This is a final call to all parents to sign up for the music clubs. If we cannot have 20 students enrolled, then the club cannot begin which would be a shame as I know it is something that the community have asked for. We have to start small and grow towards bigger and more diverse groups. Final deadline is Friday February 7th. Remember that there are opportunities to learn violin, viola, cello and double bass. TEDxYouth@BSQ As promised, here is a hint about our expert speakers: David Vásquez, Rebeca Carrera and Said López. David is an education consultant looking forward to this event about Education: Innovation, Diversity and Wellbeing, Rebeca is an English teacher with more than 8 years of experience in the rural context, adding value to our TEDxYouth@BSQ, and Said is a Rugby coach who will share a different perspective on education. Stay tuned for more details. Driving Change 2020 – Save the Date and volunteer BSQ Festival of Ecuadorian Culture Building on the success of Climate Emergency Day and last year's Afroecuadorian Day, this Saturday 8th February, BSQ will host its first ever Festival of Ecuadorian Culture, which aims to raise awareness of and celebrate minority cultures in Ecuador, as well as the rich diversity of cultural expression in this incredible country. The event has been organised by the wonderful Equality & Diversity Committee members: Silas Tapia (Y11), Mateo Almendariz (Y11) and Samantha Baugh (Y10) as well as a handful of committed teachers. Primary have been running a poster competition and the winning design will be put up around the school next week to promote the event. Thanks to Mr. Kyle for this! Students across Primary and Secondary will be able to sign up for various activities. Primary teachers will give their students more information about how to do this and Secondary students must do so via a sign-up sheet that will be sent out by email early next week. Ms. Danielle Parker MUN This year Y12 has decided to take some service spaces in our educational community, leading some enrichment activities. Specifically, MUN is one of them, where boys and girls in Years 7 to 13 learn from parliamentary procedure, global issues, debate and participate in models that emulate the United Nations. This weekend 9 students represented this club at Johannes Kepler School with great effort, motivation and enthusiasm. For some of them, this was their first time as members of this group, and for others it was a challenge because they worked as judges or lawyers and others as members of the Security Council. Thank you for trusting Mathias Bustos, Y12 student, as your leader and congratulations to delegates José Gabriel Aguas, Lucas Tapia - UNESCO, Ary Loqvram, Gianna Calderon – International Court of Justice, Belen Chávez, Samantha Baugh, and Martín Rendón - ECOSOC, Mathias Bustos and Yair Gallegos – Security Council. Ms. Paola Montenegro Y7 Residential Last week Year 7 went on a trip to Cayambe and stayed for one night in one of the oldest Haciendas in Ecuador. The programme was carefully planned to be educational and support the students in their personal development. Students took part in many different activities including team building, horse riding, swimming and trekking to the local Inca ruins. Students enjoyed finding out about the different perspectives of the earth with a trip to Quitsato, the first and only Monument of the Middle of the world, which is exactly on the Equatorial Line or Zero Parallel. The students in Year 7 are already excited about planning another Residential trip in Year 8! Mrs. Sally Madden From the Staff and the Students Continuing with our teachers and their stories about learning in the classroom this period. This week we have Ms. María Fernanda Espinosa and Ms. Sara Avent from Secondary and the Reception Team and Ms. Coronel from Primary. Ms. María Fernanda Espinosa – Drama Teacher Music and Drama lessons For a young child, the benefits of being involved in music and drama lessons are incredible. Art, in general, and music exposure does more than only provide a creative outlet for students; they provide mental, emotional, and educational benefits, and more. Having the opportunity to work in the primary section in both these lessons has been a wonderful experience and has shown me the impact that music and theatre can have in a student's life. So far, we have worked in rhythmic patterns using percussion instruments and their own bodies, in order to develop their rhythm notation and in the higher stages they can read, identify and transcribe rhythms. Drama lessons in primary and secondary have allowed the students to be more self confident to show how creative and talented they are. Duke of Edinburgh For the past few months, a group of students from year 11 and year 12 have been involved in the Silver award of the Duke of Edinburgh. The award requires us to complete 6 months of a service, physical and skill activity in order to qualify for the prize. The award also involves a 3-day trip in which we walk around 45 kilometres, sleeping the nights in tents and cooking our own food. We also have to plan ahead of this journey, as we have to make a food plan which includes the calories we will consume in the varied menu of foods. Also as part of the preparation we calculate the total distance we plan to walk and then divide it into shorter sections called legs, we also work out the time it will take us to walk that distance taking into account water breaks, lunch, and also slopes which can increase the time taken to walk the distance. Learning to use the stove and put up a tent is also part of the preparation towards our final qualifying trip. Also, as a part of the expedition we divide ourselves into small groups in which we will walk and share a tent with. These groups need to have an aim for when the expedition takes places, and it can vary from cataloguing flora and fauna in the area we will walk in, to taking soil samples in the various sites we will be staying in and calculating the pH of it. We already took part in a practice expedition to Mindo in November, which was great fun! For our qualifying expedition we will be going to the Quilotoa Lagoon and walking from the lagoon to Sigchos, a town nearby. Currently we are making our food plan and calculating distances for each day. Martín Castañeda - Year 12 student The Reception Team Last week, Reception went on their first out-of-school excursion to The Happy Farm in Puembo! Students in Reception have been investigating animals as part of their core-subject learning in Maths and Literacy. We had the opportunity to see the animals’ close-up and learn about how they are cared for at the farm. We took lots of photographs so we could describe them in our writing when we returned to school this week. Keep an eye on the Tapestry online platform to see examples of your child's writing and their academic and social progress being made here at school. Ms. Antonella Coronel - Head of EYFS As part of our topic “Understanding of the world: How things work” we took the children to the Botanical Garden in Quito. They got to experience an amazing walk through the forest of mist, moorland and the garden of carnivorous plants. During the forest of mist path the children experienced very cool air and a wet environment in comparison to the other areas of the garden. The moor land was mostly low growing fauna and the children were able to touch a lot of the plants from this area. Along this walk the children touched leaves that were bigger than their hands and even their heads! There was also a tree that loved to be hugged so that is exactly what we did. It took a few children wrapped around it to cover the whole tree. In the rose garden we say a variety of butterflies that fee around us. A lot of birds also showed themselves throughout the walk. One flew right next to the group of children. We were quite enough to hear a pair of them playing up in the trees. It was a great experience for the nursery kids and we look forward to our next trip. Dates for your Diary February 11th – IB Open Day February 20th– TEDxYouth@BSQ February 21st– Carnival holiday starts at 12h00 March 20th – 21st– Driving Change 2020 March 25th– EYFS Open Day Emma Newman Principal Being BSQ – Primary Update ![]() All the Primary students are looking forward to the end of the week, when we hold our annual Sport’s Day, in conjunction with the Festival of Ecuadorian Culture Day. This is a chance for the students to demonstrate some of the skills they have learnt this year in PE in a safe setting, with only a small element of competition, plus join in with the Secondary students in a range of activities designed to promote Ecuadorian culture. The timings of the day on Saturday 8thare 9am until 1pm, with a normal bus service and school snack being provided. Drive Through will open at 8:45am in the morning and again at 1pm at the end of the day. Primary students are encouraged to wear their House t-shirts and PE uniform, apply sun screen before arriving plus bring their hat and water bottle. Parents are invited to join with all of the events, as appropriate. Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 will have the sports element of the day between 9am and 10:15am, with Years 3 to 6 having their Sports events between 11:30am and 12:45pm. There is also an opportunity to participate in the Ecuadorian Master Chef competition and Bake Sale between 11am and 11:30am, with more details of this event to follow. In the Early Years, the teachers use Tapestry to share your child’s learning with you and make announcements etc. In Years 1-6, the teachers use Canvas to share the learning and homework, plus make announcements and updates. Please do use the appropriate online resource to keep up to date with your child’s learning and activities. If you have any questions about accessing either of these online platforms, please contact Miss Antonella Coronel in Early Years ([email protected]) or Mr John Ashfield in Years 1-6 ([email protected]). Star of the WeekMarcus Madden Head of Primary Being BSQ – Secondary Update ![]() Rewards and Recognition As a positive community committed to the promotion of hard work and good deeds, we constantly seek for ways to reward and recognise students who are putting in effort to meet our proudly high standards. This recognition takes many forms, from an email home to parents, to a certificate of excellence, and at the end of each Quimestre, students who have met the criteria are rewarded with a trip out of school, usually to the cinema. There are two ways to qualify for this trip. The first is to accrue, over the course of the three preceding Partials, a total of 50 or more House Points. The points are awarded daily by teachers, in and out of class, for students who demonstrate our values of care, respect, kindness, welcome, active determination, and ambition. In practise, this can mean anything from improving their skills and knowledge in maths or essay-writing, to picking up a piece of trash or helping a friend in need. The second way to qualify is to win a certificate of excellence. At the end of each Partial, a Rewards and Recognition Assembly is held, to acknowledge the academic attainment and endeavor in class. In addition, a special award is presented to one student from each of Key Stages 3, 4, and 5, who has best embodied those values across the school during the last Partial. There are two trips in the year. If a student hasn't made it this time, then all the more reason to try a little harder to ensure that next time they do. Jim Wild Head of Secondary From the BSQ Counselling Team This week our school counsellor, Andrea Carrera, talks about 9 small ways to keep kids excited about school all year long.
Welcome![]() Being BSQ in the community One area of our work at BSQ that is both high up on our goals list and close to our heart, is our work in the community. Everyone in the school gets involved at different levels – students, staff and parents. We take this work very seriously and, in fact, have a clear policy that guides us when making decisions and taking actions. Written by Ms Montenegro, our policy ensures that everyone understands that ‘The rationale for service learning is that students learn best by doing, by serving, and by reflecting on the experience.’ Last week I visited one of our partner projects with Ms Carrera and was able to see first-hand the work that our Year 11 students have been undertaking with an orphanage in Quito. Listening to the orphanage staff talking about our students and listening to our students talking about the impact their work has had on them demonstrated perfectly the mutual benefits and respect that have developed. I also want to say thank you to all the families who supported us with our Christmas Campaign organised by the PA. By giving a donation of money rather than goods, the team have been able to purchase a wide range of quality materials and necessary items for our main partners – Beyond Lagartacocha and Hogar para sus Niños. Next week representatives from our Year 4 and Year 6 classes will be visiting the same orphanage to share the gifts from our Christmas Fair and to work on the vegetable garden. I look forward to sharing their reflections with them when they return. Car Safety. After many reminders last year about the importance of safe driving and respect for the users of the Drive Through, I have noticed a significant improvement in the use of the space and the respect shown to other drivers – thank you. However, I remain concerned about three things:
Amazingly, the first road safety campaigns in the UK first started appearing in the early 1950s and since then there have been many projects aimed at developing awareness about the dangers of not wearing a seatbelt, drinking and driving, using phones whilst driving and even how to cross roads safely. As a result, deaths on the road and in cars have fallen consistently from 7,699 in 1977 to 2,222 in 2009. They have continued to fall ever against a rising population. You can see the history of these campaigns here. So, we know that being safety aware can save lives. Please take the time to turn off your phone, put seatbelts on and drive carefully. Thank you. Staffing news. I would like to inform you that Mr Jim Wild our Head of Secondary will be leaving us in July this year to seek new leadership opportunities beyond Ecuador with his family. As a result, we will be welcoming candidates for the position of Head of Secondary from January onwards and the core PA members will be assisting us with the process. Whilst we will celebrate Jim's time with us later in the year, I would just like to take this opportunity to thank him for the significant contributions to the development of BSQ during his time here. I know that many of you will join me in wishing Jim well as he moves forward in the next steps of his career. Music Provision Many thanks to the 10 families who have signed up for music classes at BSQ. After speaking to Dina, who will be providing the classes and String Band, we have added viola, cello and double bass to the offer. We still need at least 10 more families to make this extra-curricular activity viable. Again, please email Santiago on [email protected] if you would like to join our BSQ String Band. Holocaust Memorial On Friday January 24th Ms. Sadotra and I took 8 members of our student council to the National Assembly to share in the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau at the Holocaust Memorial event. This is the third time now I have attended the event and it never fails to remind me of the need for greater compassion, love and understanding in the world. The overriding memories of the words spoken each year are warnings against racism, violence and, of course, anti-Semitism. As always I am reminded of the words of Pastor Niemöller, which exist in many forms but are best captured here. We encourage our students to speak out and I was proud of the way in which they listened to, watched and reflected on what they experienced. Special thanks to Nico Anhalzer who read these words to the assembly. La cuarta vela será encendida para crear conciencia sobre la creciente ola de antisemitismo, racismo y xenofobia en el mundo. Que la llama de esta vela nos permita reflexionar sobre nuestra propia postura y compromiso en combatir cualquier forma de odio y discriminación que se presente ahora y en el futuro. TEDxYouth@BSQ http://bit.ly/TEDxYouthatBSQ_Speakers We have an outstanding group of experts and students to share their stories with us about Education: Innovation, Diversity and Wellbeing during our boundary-breaking first for BSQ: TEDxYouth@BSQ. Stay tuned for more details about our speakers. Driving Change 2020 – Save the Date and volunteer Last week I published an invitation for volunteers to work with us to host the Women and Leadership Conference here at BSQ. Many thanks to those who have stepped forward. From the Staff and the Students Continuing with our teachers and their stories about learning in the classroom this period. This week we have Mr. Nick Kennedy from Secondary and Ms. Lauren Backhouse and Ms. Coronel from Primary. Mr. Nick Kennedy – Biology Secondary Teacher The Year 13s have just hit the Human Physiology unit in Biology, which means that we they will be doing a number of dissections. We kicked off our understanding of the circulatory system with a dissection of a cow’s heart. I am used to dissecting pig’s or lamb’s hearts, but the size of a cow’s heart means it’s great for seeing clearly the four chambers and blood vessels of the heart, though it’s a little tougher to cut into the thicker muscle tissue. It’s always very satisfying to match the precise diagrams you find in textbooks with the blood-clotted complexities of the real thing. Our next dissection will be a pluck - the heart, lungs and liver hanging down from the windpipe and gullet. Inflating the lungs with a foot-pump is very much a rite of passage in a young biologist’s life. And if we’re lucky we’ll have an epiglottis attached too, which closes off the windpipe every time the animal swallows. We also have an eyeball dissection coming up for the year 11s. So lots to look forward to! Ms. Lauren Backhouse – Year 4A Teacher On Saturday's Climate Change Day, Year 4 learned about what climate is and the difference between climate and weather. Children learned about global warming and considered how it is making the planet change. Both myself and Miss Dean were impressed with the amount of knowledge the children had around the issue. We then looked specifically at how coral reefs are being impacted by climate change. Children worked together to produce a mural to represent these changes. By the end of the day, we all agreed that if we all make small changes, we can start to help our planet. Ms. Antonella Coronel – Head of EYFS This week in Nursery we celebrated Chinese New Year! Since Monday the children have been learning about China. They were amazed to learn how they eat with chopsticks. They could not believe that even children as young as them were able to use this utensil to eat. The children gave it a try and found out how difficult it may be at the beginning. The children had a Mandarin lesson where they learnt colors and numbers! Our story focus was “Chinese New Year, The great race” with which the children became familiar with the Chinese calendar and how each animal came to be an important part of it. This is the year of the Rat and we spent some time learning interesting facts about it as well. To finish our Chinese week we invited parents to come in and share a delicious meal with traditional food such as dumplings. Here are the nursery dragons ready for their debut! Dates for your Diary January 27th– 28th– Y10 DofE Expedition January 29th– Nursery trip to Botanical Gardens February 11th – IB Open Day February 20th– TEDxYouth@BSQ February 21st– Carnival holiday starts at 12h00 March 20th – 21st– Driving Change 2020 Emma Newman Principal Being BSQ – Primary Update ![]() Continuing our discussion about how we use the school values as a driver for many of the learning opportunities we undertake here at BSQ, we aim to explicitly refer to them when speaking with the students about their progress and personal development. As part of this process, a group of students spent some time last term to create a set of guidelines for our values, expanding on each statement and suggesting ways we could incorporate them more into our daily lives. This week I would like to explore our second school value and specifically the word ‘happy’: We live and learn with a happy and welcoming attitude to everyone. Our students expanded on this concept of happiness by encouraging us all to:
This concept naturally links to our learning about respect and care – if we as an individual are respectful and caring towards those we come into contact with, it is more likely that they will reciprocate these attitudes and we will be happier and more content. At our weekly Star of the Week assemblies, we make a big point about celebrating each other’s successes and being happy for our friends if they have achieved something they are proud of. We also discuss with the students about the importance of recognising our own achievements, even if we sometimes are tempted to compare these to the achievements of others. Being content, happy and proud of our own achievements is a good starting point for being understanding and compassionate about others; if we are not satisfied with ourselves then we may show signs of jealousy of others. Recognising our own strengths and the things that make us unique is equally as important as knowing our areas for development and things we are not so good at. Continuing our focus on being safe in the sun and outdoors, please can I remind you to make sure that your child has the appropriate clothing and sun protection each day, including a suitable hat and a long-sleeved top for swimming. We will continue to monitor the UV Index each day and make sure that the whole school community follows our guidelines. Star of the WeekMarcus Madden Head of Primary Being BSQ – Secondary Update ![]() Trips One of our very real strengths at BSQ is the number of high quality learning opportunities we are able to provide our students outside of the school. Whether it is a subject-based academic excursion, a service-learning visit, or a team-building exercise, groups of students travel weekly to locations near and far to learn real skills and real knowledge in the real world. Last week, Mrs Madden and Mr Edwards took our Year 7 students on a residential trip to Cayambe. This week, the Year 10 Duke of Edinburgh's International Award students will be hiking the chaquiñan, camping at the school and then scaling Ilaló, while on Friday our IGCSE and IBDP art students will visit a gallery in Quito. And next week, we have four trips out in Secondary: a rewards trip for all our award winners on Tuesday 4th February, a Year 10 Geography research trip to Quito and a Year 11 service trip to Hogar Para Sus Niños on Wednesday, and a Year 12 and 13 IB English and Spanish B excursion on Thursday. Once again, I'd like to thank all the teachers and administrators who put so much effort into planning and accompanying these visits, the students who attend and engage so effectively, and the parents who continue to provide their invaluable support. Jim Wild Head of Secondary From the BSQ Counselling Team This week our school counsellor, Andrea Carrera, talks about how can we nurture children´s mental health.
Welcome![]() Climate Change Day This Saturday, BSQ held its first Climate Emergency Day. We all know about the way in which our actions and behaviours are affecting the world around us and we also know many ways in which to make a difference by changing what we eat, wear, buy, drive and throw away. So, all the BSQ students took part in activities designed to secure some of that knowledge into action. I was absolutely amazed by the knowledge and insight our students of all ages brought to the day. From a puppet show that highlighted the way in which bees are dying but are so important to us, to the creation of a food chain linked to strings that can be cut to show the devastating impact of losing just one link. There were children writing to the mayor about light pollution; children making new clothes out of old, children lighting a house with LED powered by the wind, children watching ice melt around plasticine polar bears, children trying to survive in a plastic-filled pool and we were also visited by Alan Hesse who support students to play his climate change board game. Alan is the guardian of Polo the Bear and author of the book about this character as he journeys around the world to find out about the impact of climate change. Huge thanks to everyone who was part of this day but particularly to the Climate Change Committee and the students who have captured it all on film. We now start our work to find sustainable, tangible ways to further develop our work here at BSQ. Parent Survey Once again, many thanks to all the many parents who took time to respond to the parent survey in December – a very busy time for everybody. I have now had time to read and consider all the feedback, share with the PA and put together a draft plan for our actions moving forward. So, it remains clear that, despite the high levels of satisfaction with our teaching, curriculum, teachers, care for the students, leadership and willingness of parents to recommend BSQ to other families, there are still concerns about the facilities and the lack of a range of after-school activities. Developing our after school provision is certainly something that we have started exploring this year and with four football clubs currently running there is certainly something for everyone there. See below for the next steps. In the parent survey we saw a 1% increase in newsletter reading and a 3% increase in social media use to keep in touch. Every week we share information with parents in a range of ways and I know that there are many families who are concerned about communication but have not always connected with our newsletter or social media pages. Let’s all encourage each other to do that this term! After School Clubs. In response to parent wishes, and with thanks to the social commission of the PA, we have been working to develop an after school music provision whereby students would learn to play the violin and be a part of the BSQ String Band. In order to ascertain whether there are sufficient numbers to support this programme, we need to gather your interest. Terms:
The provision will be hosted by Dina Roque, the Founder and Head of the Escuela Saraswati in Sangolquí, and her team and we are very happy with the proposals she has made. If you would like your child or children to be a part of this provision, then please contact Santiago Salazar on [email protected] to register your intention to attend. We need 20 children to make the project viable and the deadline for registering is Friday January 24. TEDx http://bit.ly/TEDxYouthatBSQ_ Stay tuned to know more about our speakers. Our focus will be on Education, Innovation, Diversity and Wellbeing Driving Change 2020 – Save the Date and volunteer So, you all have the dates of March 20th and 21st saved to attend the Women and Leadership conference here at BSQ. Now is your opportunity to volunteer! We are looking for potential stall holders, entertainers, commission members, sponsors etc for the Friday evening Welcome event. We already have our keynote speaker for the evening and plan to host an inclusive, vibrant, festival-style celebration of making connections that matter. Please email me directly on [email protected] if you would like to be a part of the event. From the PA Dear BSQ Community, This year the Christmas campaign was worked together between the PA and the secondary school CAS project, which has been working with two specific foundations that are "Hogar para sus Niños" and the "Beyond Lagartococha" project. The campaign consisted of donating books to make a reading corner in the "Casa Hogar", clothes used in good condition for "Beyond Lagartococha" and $ 5.00 for each BSQ student to make purchases of a specific list of needs for each foundation. In total, $ 1810.00 was raised and so far $ 601.06 has been invested in various items such as school supplies, personal hygiene and household cleaning, and 2 first aid kits. With the support of all of you, 453 books were achieved. We have a balance in favor to continue helping the Foundations continuously and specifically in the coming months. On Friday, January 17, the delivery was made at the “Casa Hogar” and on February 23, the students in charge of the “Beyond Lagartococha” project will visit the area and deliver the donations. We want to thank the entire BSQ community for all generosity and support during the campaign From the Staff and the Students Continuing with our teachers and their stories about learning in the classroom this period. This week we have Ms. Belén Arellano from Secondary and Ms. Anna Vasilokonstantaki and Ms. Antonella Coronel from Primary. Ms. María Belén Arellano –Art Teacher Cave Art "This term in art we have been looking at Cave art. We have learned about pictographs, petroglyphs and important manifestations of cave art like Lascaux, France. After learning about cave art, we made our own pictograph and petroglyph!" Breck Hoskins, Y7 student. Art is a way of recording history and inhabiting the world. Art gives us a door to understand the human being and our way of life in specific contexts. In the area of art we try to understand the human being through the evidence of artistic manifestations that have remained over time. We take as inspiration those images to communicate our own ideas and intentions. The last months with Year 7 we have worked the unit of Cave Art. In this unit the students answered some questions such as: who created these majestic works on the caves walls? How did early humans get these works to last over time? What was the purpose for doing those drawings and reliefs? Finally, the students made their own rock art with recycled paper and natural pigments such as coffee and coal. Ms. Anna Vasilokonstantaki Nursery ATeacher I could not think of a better, fresher start of the year for Nursery A than the past couple of weeks. Children were able to return to their daily, school routine and adapt again to our busy, exciting though schedule. Thank you to all parents for bringing back students’ water bottles and hats. Starting with a different focus this time, that of the world around us, we are exploring ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’, concentrating on insects and plants, fruits and vegetables as well as our eating habits. We will contribute to the school’s Climate Change day by planting some seeds and observing how they grow day by day. As you can see in the pictures below, we started painting our caterpillars and talking about the parts of their body. Did you know that they are usually green and have a red head? We used our index fingers to paint this time. Balloons we also used in order to ‘build’ the caterpillars’ bodies. This term, we will also focus more on recognising, tracing and then writing independently our names. Children will practice their handwriting and fine motor skills via a range of daily activities. It is going to be a very exciting term for Nursery A with more interactive and multisensory learning happening. January is also the month of our school trip to a beautiful garden, looking for caterpillars, flowers and small plants. More information to follow soon – stay tuned. Ms. Antonella Coronel – Head of EYFS This past week in Reception, children have been looking at Numbers and counting all the way up to 20. For this the children did an activity where they counted the spots on the domino pieces and placed the added amount in a number line. With this wonderful activity the children worked on number-quantity, number recognition, counting and addition. This opened a window for children to learn about how number works and to understand that different quantities can add up to the same amount for example 3+7=10 and 5+5 also equals 10. By working in groups the children gained a lot of experience in controlling emotions, taking turns and sharing. In EYFS we work with ‘continuous provision’ which allows the students to develop a variety of basic skills. These includes social communication and language, managing feelings and behaviors, understanding of the world and physical skills just to name a few. Here is a great example of our reception team teaching students through continuous provision. In the pictures we can observe children with plane tickets that they made themselves waiting for the airplane to land in a whole new country they then explored. This was all achieved by using a great combination of imagination, creativity and recycled materials. Both activities show from the children’s faces the great time they are having learning through play. Burns Night. January 25th Burns night is a traditional Scottish celebration of the life of the national bard (poet) Robert Burns. This year a celebration supper will be held at St. Andrews Gastropub in Cumbaya and you can find the details here. We are in partnership with the St. Andrews management team to support a successful British event and hope to see you there. You can find out all the information on the website here. https://standrewsgastropub.com Dates for your Diary January 21st - Parents information meeting for Duke of Edinburgh's International Award - Bronze Level (Year 10 students) at 3.30pm in the Library. January 25th - Burns Night February 11th – IB Open Day March 20th – 21st– Driving Change 2020 Emma Newman Principal Being BSQ – Primary Update ![]() I hope your child returned from the Climate Change Day on Saturday enthused and eager to make small changes in their day-to-day lives that would reduce their impact on the environment and support the work we are doing in school. As adults we often rely on the younger generation to lead on issues like this, although we obviously also have a large part to play in this matter. As discussed last week, we use our school values as a driver for many of the learning opportunities we undertake here and explicitly refer to them when speaking with the students about their progress and personal development. As part of this, a group of students spent some time last term to create a set of guidelines for our values, expanding on each statement and suggesting ways we could incorporate them more into our daily lives. This week I would like to explore our first school value and specifically the word ‘care’: We live and learn together with respect and care for each other. Our students expanded on this concept of care by encouraging us all to:
This concept obviously relates directly to our learning about caring for our environment, both on a local scale (our school, classroom, home, bedroom etc) to a more global one (not wasting resources, supporting initiatives etc). It also touches on the international nature of our school, with students and adults from all around the world coming together in one caring community. Many of you will have seen the reports about there being a long period of hot, sunny weather here in Quito and the new Ministry of Education guidelines for schools. Please do ensure that your child brings a hat to school every day (preferably leaving it at school all week, to be washed at the weekend) and applies sunscreen in the morning before coming to school. We do also have a supply of sunscreen in each class to reapply during the day. We have a detailed plan in place at school to ensure that all students are protected from the sun, including closing certain areas of the school at break and lunchtimes, moving PE lessons inside when necessary and only allowing students to swim if they have the correct kit (long-sleeved sun top, hat and sunscreen applied). Star of the Week Marcus Madden Head of Primary Being BSQ – Secondary Update ![]() Learning for Living Last Saturday at BSQ was fabulous. Groups of students, led by passionate teachers and guests, worked through activities and projects designed to help develop our collective understanding of the challenges facing this planet we call home so that we might be better positioned to act in an informed and determined manner to secure its long-term health. Days like these are what education is about, and it made me very proud, and hopeful for our future, to see so many students turn out and engage fully. After a week of exams, with a focus on grades, the fact that so many understood the importance of real, active, applied learning reaffirmed my belief that we are getting education right. I was particularly delighted to see so many Year 13 and Year 11 students not just attending, but really applying themselves, getting involved, and helping others. In this important exam year, it would be easy for a student to convince him/herself that subjects, exams, and grades are everything. That so many of our fine young men and women, despite the very real pressures that they are under to 'achieve', clearly understand that the real purpose of an education is learning for life, makes me very happy. Thank you to those students, and to you, their parents, for supporting them. Written Reports Having said all that, Partial 3 and Quimestre 1 grades will be sent home at the end of this coming week. More important than the grades therein, though, are the comments. Each teacher has written a comment for each student, explaining how the grade shown was achieved. Please read these comments. And more importantly still, each report for each subject comes with a target, briefly stating the thing a student needs to focus on the most in order to improve. Please read these carefully, and discuss with your child how they intend to do this, and how you might be able to help. Jim Wild Head of Secondary From the BSQ Counselling Team This week our school counsellor, Andrea Carrera, talks about 10 ways to teach your child the skills to prevent sexual abuse and understand the difference between certain behaviours.
Welcome![]() Climate Change Day This Saturday, BSQ will be holding its first Climate Emergency Day. We all know about the way in which our actions and behaviours are affecting the world around us and we also know many ways in which to make a difference by changing what we eat, wear, buy, drive and throw away. So, all the BSQ students will be taking part in activities designed to secure some of that knowledge into action. Make sure your children are here to be part of our commitment. Here are our Climate Change Committee students with their introduction to our day. Why not have a go at this quiz to see where you can make simple changes at home too. How environmentally friendly am I? The Secondary Climate Change Committee are very excited to announce the first BSQ Climate Emergency Day. We have been busy planning this for many weeks with Mrs Madden and hope it will be educational and fun. There will be eight practical workshops in Secondary and students have already signed up to whatever takes their interest. The eight workshops are: Fast Fashion, Burger Backwards, Wicked Waste, Climate Chaos, World Web, Plastic Problem and Easy Energy and Wild World. In Primary, the teachers have also been busy planning Climate Change themed classes and students will be working in their classes on some exciting projects. The day will start at 8.30 and finish at 12pm. There will be school transport provided on the day and the snack bar will be open as usual. Students will be expected to come in school uniform. CCC students – Mrs. Sally Madden Exciting News On January 27th a special event will be held here in Quito to mark the launch of COP26 which will be held in Glasgow, Scotland, UK in December 2020. Our Climate Change Committee core students and staff members have been invited and will represent the great work being done here at the school to change minds and actions linked to the environment. More news to follow. Enrichment Activities. We are always looking for new ways to extend and develop our enrichment programme and this term we have introduced two new exciting options for our senior students. Enrichment activities started last week and we are very happy to start this period with two new activities led by professional instructors. Francisco Romo - Capoeira and Ricardo Ortiz - Rugby. Capoeira is a martial art of Afro-Brazilian origin, which uses dance, music and acrobatics. The practice of this sport helps the physical development of coordination, agility, strength, speed and flexibility. It contributes to self-knowledge, self-esteem, discipline and the desire to constantly overcome. Classes consist of training and jogo (game in Portuguese) accompanied by a basic musical instruction of instruments such as djembé, tambourine and berimbau. In addition to a familiarization with Portuguese through the songs. Rugby was created almost 200 years ago in England at the school of the same name. In Ecuador it is practiced officially for more than a decade, maintaining the same values, chivalry and nobility of the sport. Classes are structured based on the practice of discipline, respect, integrity, and solidarity. The sport needs strength, endurance and speed, so each game is done aiming at the diversity and inclusion of members. It is a pleasure to give our students the opportunity to learn and have fun every week. Ms. Nicole Camacho TEDx: http://bit.ly/TEDxYouthatBSQ_ Stay tuned to receive more information about our ground-breaking TEDx event. Our focus will be on Education, Innovation, Diversity and Wellbeing. From the Staff and the Students Continuing with our teachers and their stories about learning in the classroom this period. This week we have Mr. Kevin Dobson from Secondary and Ms. Antonella Coronel from Primary. Kevin Dobson - Secondary Geography Teacher At the start of the academic year I had the pleasure of taking over the reins from Mr Taylor as the leader of the International Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme here at BSQ. For those who are unaware, the scheme, often abbreviated to the ‘D of E Award’ was initiated by Prince Philip in the UK in the 1950s and aimed to promote independence, commitment, learning new things, and teamwork as well as ‘outdoor skills’ to teenagers across the country. The Award offers Bronze, Silver and Gold levels, each demanding more commitment from the young people taking part. They must learn a new skill, take part in physical activities, provide a service to the local community, and successfully navigate two separate hiking expeditions. Today, the International Award is delivered in more than 140 countries and BSQ is the only organization to offer the Award in Ecuador. We have delivered the Bronze Award to students in Year 10 for many years now, and although the Silver Award was offered in the past, it was not last year therefore this year I have been working tirelessly to provide the opportunity for students in Years 11 and 12 who have completed their Bronze Award to progress through the Silver Award. Nine students across Years 11 and 12 successfully completed a challenging three-day hike along the ‘Ruta del Quinde’ from Nono to Mindo in November and will be completing their qualifying expedition in Quilotoa in February. I wish them the best of luck in this! Students completing the Bronze Award in Year 10 have their first expedition rapidly approaching at the end of January – a practice walk along the Chaquiñan and then up (and back down) Ilaló. Students who perform well in this expedition will be invited to complete the qualifying expedition to Cotopaxi National Park in March. We are already beginning to look at ways that we can offer the Gold Award in future years, so those who have completed their Silver Award can continue to the ultimate challenge within the DofE Award! Antonella Coronel – Nursery B Teacher Welcome back everyone! For our first term back the nursery team will concentrate on the area of the curriculum “Understanding of the world”. To start this process, we chose to develop an understanding of growth, decay and changes over time. For this we began with the story “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”. This story gave us the opportunity to learn about the life cycle of butterflies, number-quantity, cycle of the days of the week and the process of how plants and fruits grow over time. The children did beautiful caterpillars using pasta and pipe cleaners. Through this activity the children discovered different types of textures and descriptors. Big, small, thin, fat, long, short, hard, soft, fast. Slow, etc. We will also be planting seeds to watch them grow while caring for them during the week. We hope to plant them outside in the garden once they are big enough! Dates for your Diary January 18th– Climate Change Day January 21st - Parents information meeting for Duke of Edinburgh's International Award - Bronze Level (Year 10 students) at 3.30pm in the Library. February 11th– IB Open Day March 20th – 21st– Driving Change 2020 Emma Newman Principal Being BSQ – Primary Update ![]() Our first week back after the Christmas break has seen several new students start at BSQ, with our existing students to be commended for their welcoming and caring attitude and approach. We use our school values as a driver for many of the learning opportunities we undertake here and explicitly refer to them when speaking with the students about their progress and personal development. As part of this, a group of students spent some time last term to create a set of guidelines for our values, expanding on each statement and suggesting ways we could incorporate them more into our daily lives. This week I would like to explore our first school value and specifically the word ‘respect’: We live and learn together with respect and care for each other. Our students felt that this was an extremely important word for all the members of the community, particularly as it guides all of our interactions on a daily basis. They expanded on this concept of respect by encouraging us all to:
As adult members of the school community, we have an important role to play in guiding the students in this area, through actively demonstrating respectful behaviours and attitudes in all our interactions with each other and being good role-models for our children. When we listen to someone else with a positive outlook, always thinking that they have the best intentions, it helps to create a positive atmosphere of respect and demonstrates that we understand other people’s points of view and understand their intentions more clearly. When we disagree with someone, if we use clear, calm and polite language to explain our thoughts, it enables both parties to listen more attentively to each other and helps us to reach a satisfactory agreement quicker. When we actively engage in lessons, meetings or events, rather than appear distracted or disengaged, we demonstrate that we care about both the content of the session and the person delivering it. And finally, when we look after the equipment and resources we have at school, such as the playground equipment, classroom equipment and our waste, we show that we care about our environment and are aware of our role in maintaining it. If you have any suggestions or comments to support us in creating a respectful community, please do let us know – we are always open to new ideas and want to involve the parents as much as possible in the development of the school. We are all looking forward to this Saturday’s learning opportunity at BSQ – Climate Change Day. This will start at 8:30am and finish at 12:00pm, with Drive Through being open as normal between 8:15am and 8:30am and then 12:00pm and 12:15pm. There is a normal school bus service on Saturday, with slightly altered times as we are starting school 30 minutes later than normal. Please note that we will not serve lunch on this day, but we will have snack as normal in the morning. Star of the Week Marcus Madden Head of Primary Being BSQ – Secondary Update ![]() Exam Week Welcome, one and all (well, except for Year 13), to Quimestre 1 exam week here at BSQ. While I've written before, and am sure I'll write again, about the importance of not putting too much importance on the exams, it is absolutely worth sharing a bit more information with you about how they work, and how you can help. Years 7, 8, 9, and 10 Key Stage 3 and Year 10 exams begin on Wednesday, and run for three days. Students have three exams a day, of no more than one hour each, and with at least one hour between exams, as well as the usual break and lunch times. When not sitting an exam, students are free to study for the next paper, or simply relax with a book. Exams will be marked by the end of next Tuesday, when students can expect to receive feedback in their regular classes. Year 12 Exams in Year 12 are longer and fewer. They are all based on IBDP knowledge, skills, and assessment models, but recognise the fact that, at this stage, students have only covered a small portion of the full course. As such, they aren't yet full mocks. Marking will be complete, and feedback will begin, by next Wednesday. Year 11 - IGCSE Mock Exams Year 11 started their exams last week, and those will continue throughout this week. Mock exams are bigger, harder, and more intense, and I wish them all the very best of luck. Your Support In all cases, your support as parents can go a long way to helping ensure success. Make sure that your child gets plenty of uninterrupted sleep, by keeping phones and other devices out of bedrooms after lights-out. Make sure they eat a good, healthy breakfast. Get them to school on time, as lateness creates unnecessary stress. And reassure them that exams are not the purpose of education, nor grades the outcome. Jim Wild Head of Secondary From the BSQ Counselling Team This week our school counsellor, Andrea Carrera, talks about how to raise a child who won´t quit.
Climate Change Day On Saturday January 18th BSQ will be holding its first Climate Emergency Day. We all know about the way in which our actions and behaviours are affecting the world around us and we also know many ways in which to make a difference by changing what we eat, wear, buy, drive and throw away. So, all the BSQ students will be taking part in activities designed to secure some of that knowledge into action. More news about the activities next week from our very own BSQ Climate Change Committee of students. Enrichment. All the students will be starting their new clubs this Wednesday and, as always, there is a huge range to choose from and we look forward to sharing these with you at our next parent invitation event. TEDx BSQ is very excited to host a ground-breaking TEDx event this February, 2020. Our focus will be on Education, Innovation, Diversity and Wellbeing. Stay tuned for more information! #BSQLife Driving Change. Save the Date Our Women and Leadership conference will take place here at BSQ on March 20th and March 21st. There will be eight themes running through the conference alongside opportunities to make connections with others and celebrate the positive changes we can and have made. More information to follow but for now – Save the Date. From the StudentsContinuing with our stories about learning in the classroom this period. This week we have Y8 and Y12 students from Secondary. Year 8’s New Year's Resolutions This year we would like to share with you the great experiences we had this 2019 and what we would like for 2020. Class reflections: The year of 2019 was a really awesome year for me because my grades were really good and I could concentrate better than last year. I feel I have improved a lot in most of my classes by paying more attention and raising my hand to respond with something. Next year I will give my best to improve my grades because I want them to be excellent. Also to get lots of house points so I can get a reward. Luis, Year 8 Year 2019 was a great year because I accomplished many things in school, including being more responsible and getting good grades. My goal for next year is to improve my grades in school. Mia, Year 8 This year was a great year because I did really good in secondary and I have been more responsible. Next year I want to get better in PE. Isabella, Year 8 This year I had a lot of fun, I made new friends, I have learnt to be more responsible and be organized with myself. Also I had a lot of fun with my friends at my ballet classes. My goal is to pass year 8 and do well. I want to get to a higher level to get ballet pointies. Doménica, Year8 2019 was a very productive year for me personally, because I feel like I have gained more confidence in my studies and grades and made more accomplishments throughout this whole year. As for my new year resolutions I would like to continue drawing more throughout my free time at home and read more as well to learn new and more things. Pietro, Year 8 2019 has been a year like all years some things are new, some are not, time went fast or went slow. I learned many things this year since that is what we do in school. For next year I´ll be a bit more organized. Arthur, Year 8 Year 2019 has been a wonderful year for me. I learned a lot of new things and I'm proud of then high notes I achieved and the rewards I got. Also, I had the opportunity to work in community projects, which was enriching. In addition, I learned new skills for revising. For next year, my goal is to improve my PE skills. Besides, when I do tests, I want to organize better the time I spend on each question. María V., Year 8 This year I have got a really nice first experience in secondary, I have learnt how to be responsible, how to make decisions and I had always fun with my friends. Next year I would like to be better at maths. Vicky, Year 8 This 2019 has been a spectacular year for me. I learned a lot of things throughout it and I made a lot of friends. It is my second year in secondary and until now is going great. I have learnt how to be more independent, how to manage things better, etc. Felipe, Year 8 This year has been amazing for me. I have met a lot of new friends, I have changed schools and I’ve had a new experience because of this. Next year I would want to have better grades and dedicate more time to my homework. Rafaella, Year 8 :) This year has been awesome to me. I have changed to a new school and have made new friends, and learn new topics, especially in science. For next year, I want to go to a competition of dance area, and improved my notes. Mikaela S. In this 2019, I had fun :D, I passed my year 7 end of year tests :3, I learnt to be more responsible. My goal for next year is to pass my year 8 end of year exams and do well on them :3 lol. Angela, Year 8 :) This 2019 I learned lots of new things and experiences I gave my first few important tests when I was in year 7 and I was impressed that I did very well on them although I was very worried about it. I also got used to the changes and how secondary works compared to primary. For my new year's resolution, I think I want to organize my time better when studying for tests and avoid easy deconcentrating. Amyra, Year 8 This 2019 has been a good year. I learnt new things and tried new things. I got used to secondary and got high grades. For next year I want to do well the quimester exams and improve in PE. Doménica, Year 8 2019 has been a bit difficult for me because I had some more problems and other conflicts, but although I hadn't worked so hard, I'm trying my best. One successful thing of this year is that I have improved in my tennis skills. Now I am trying to improve my knowledge in all subjects and be a better person and a better student at BSQ. For the following year I would like to make more friends and become a more ambitious and educated person so it would be easy to study more. Alejandro, Year 8 2019 has been an amazing year for me because I passed my first year in secondary and it was a great experience. I learned that: secondary brings more responsibility, how to be more independent and various revision methods. My new year’s resolution this year will be to get on time to school (and outside of school) and do homework not the day before the due date. Juan Pablo, Year 8 In conclusion, this is how everybody went this year and everybody hopes we could improve in all our lessons. We really hope you have enjoyed. Thank you so much for reading! :) Year 8 students Lago Agrio trip Before Christmas we published a wonderful account of the Lago Agrio trip written by our very own Gala Gómez in Year 12. She brilliantly captured the excitement and impact of the trip and we all look forward to reading more of her writing moving forward. Dates for your Diary January 6th – First day back to school January 18th– Climate Change Day February 11th– IB Open Day March 20th – 21st– Driving Change 2020 Emma Newman Principal Being BSQ – Primary Update ![]() Feliz Año Nuevo! I hope you all enjoyed a relaxing and enjoyable Christmas holiday with family and/or friends and are looking forward to the term ahead. Making New Year’s Resolutions is a tradition around the world, though they are often linked to chocolate and exercise! This year, how about encouraging both yourselves and your family to make resolutions (or promises) that affect the wider community, such as reducing your carbon imprint and supporting those less fortunate than yourselves? On Saturday 18thJanuary the whole of the BSQ community will work together to learn about how they can make a difference, on Climate Change Day. This day will be an opportunity for all the students to learn something new about Climate Change and start to make plans for how they can support the school’s aim to be an Eco School in the future. This Friday the students from Years 1-6 will be involved in the next House Competition, our very own Highland Games. Please remind your child to wear their House t-shirt on this day. Hopefully all the students have washed their school hats ready for the new term – please do label all items of school uniform with both your child’s name and their class. Any items that are not named are sent to Mrs Sandy Pazmiño on the front reception desk. Marcus Madden Head of Primary Being BSQ – Secondary Update ![]() Happy New Year to all BSQ families! The success and happiness of students is dependent on many things, but none so much as all the stakeholders - students, teachers, and parents - pulling in the same direction. We think we do a very good job of this at BSQ, and there are a number of strategies we employ in pursuit of this end. Our Values We value respect, care, happiness, welcome, ambition and determination, among other things, and everything we do is informed by these values. This is true of leaders and teachers who make their everyday and long-term decisions with these things in mind; it is true of students, who have developed their own guide to these values exploring and explaining what they look like in practice; and it is true of parents, who are in the process of doing the same. If we all continue to live and learn by these values, then we will all continue pulling in the same direction. Lines of Communication It is important to know who the best person is to help meet our needs, so that any issues that might arise are always dealt with swiftly and effectively. While in most cases, the tutor is the first person a parent should contact with any general concerns or questions, here are a few other simple guidelines:
Positive Assumptions Finally, we all need to believe that we are all pulling in the same direction. That way, when we see something we don't understand, or hear something we find confusing, we will assume that the person responsible is doing whatever they are doing for the right reasons, and with the success and happiness of the students as their primary driver. This helps us avoid pointing fingers, laying blame, and causing upset. After all, we all - students, teachers, and parents - want the same thing, and to get it, we need to work together and respect each other's role in the complicated process of living and learning. Jim Wild Head of Secondary From the BSQ Counselling Team This week our school counsellor, Andrea Carrera, gives us 7 tips to prevent tantrums before they happen.
Welcome![]() Happy Christmas I would like to take this opportunity to wish all our families a very happy Christmas break. As we head into the final week of this term – and this calendar year – there is no slowing down at BSQ. Following our wonderful Christmas Fair at the weekend we now have nativities and end of term celebrations to look forward to. In amongst that, of course, lessons and learning continue as normal. Christmas Fair The Christmas Fair was a great success as always and a great celebration of the creativity and imagination of our staff and students in primary. The stalls looked wonderful and the children have learned a great deal about hard work and entrepreneurship as part of the process. We also enjoyed the stalls of our visitors, some festive entertainment from staff and students and plenty of tasty treats. Christmas Carols This year we have been lucky enough to enjoy a wonderful student choir singing songs and carols at four different events. With thanks to Ms Cano who has spent much time preparing them for their debuts, they have performed at Buena Vista, Plaza del Rancho, BSQ AND Scala shopping this year. Well done to everyone and thank you for your time. We have also launched our staff choir this year and a group of adults sang both with the children and on their own at BSQ and at Buena Vista. With thanks to Mr Kidd and all the singers for getting the choir up and running and we look forward to more events in the New Year. Watch this space... Enrichment Sharing. With thanks to Nicole Camacho for organizing the event and to all the staff for welcoming the parents, we were proud to share our first enrichment afternoon with the community on Wednesday last week. All the wonderful activities that our students have been taking part in and enjoying since September were on display and even – in some cases – open to parent participation. What a great way to spend the afternoon. Parent Survey Thank you to everyone who completed this. Now begins the work of exploring the feedback and constructing an action plan to share with you all next term. Exciting adventures: Lago Agrio By Gala Gómez Field - Y12 student Last week, some students of the Lago Agrio CAS project, alongside Mrs. Parker and Mr. Kennedy, went on our first trip to Sucumbíos (Ecuadorian Amazon) in hopes of learning about the dangers of the oil pits created in the 1970s by Texaco Petroleum Co and how the Cofan community –among others– have tried to overcome them. After a 6-hour bus ride –accompanied by a lunch in a local restaurant– we arrived to Amisacho, a reservoir located in the northeastern part of the Ecuadorian Amazon. There, we learnt about mushroom cultives, reforestation and restoration of the tropical rainforest, the effects of massive livestock, oil and agricultural exploitation in the soil, and the development of natural products and alternative medicine as an environmental source of income for the Lago Agrio communities –like the Cofán. The 4 days we spent in Amisacho were accompanied by an incredible view to the full-of-life tropical rainforest that reminded us of the importance of ecosystem conservation and how reforestation can bring back species that were long gone from their homes. Nevertheless, as we had come to the reservoir to help and learn, and not only see, we compromised to: make our own breakfast (and dinner at one point), help in the garden (as part of the reforestation project), and to listen carefully and ask questions to the talks and presentations given throughout the trip. Sad to leave but intrigued to discover new wonders, we had to say goodbye to Amisacho to begin our new expedition to Belia’s farm. Once we arrived, we were warmly greeted by the loving couple who told us the history of the farm (how they are one of the few Ecuadorians with an Island) and their dreams to let others know about this amazing eco-touristic destination. When we had all finished our glass of guayusa –courtesy of Belia– and the introduction of the farm had ceased, we began our trail around the island’s biodiversity. We looked at big “matapalos” or higuerones, sandes and ceibos, and ate the juicy fruits of various trees but it was once I saw the 3 gallinazos’ eggs finding protection on the inside of one of the trees that something woke up in me. I have never witnessed something so pure and fragile in my life. I saw them vulnerable to me and felt guilty about not sympathising with the amazonian creatures before but it was then when I realised that it was my duty to help them. The last 2 nights were spent with the members of the Cofán community and as we had the pleasure to learn some of their traditions and customs, we also grasped some words and phrases in their language. For example, “kasete” means good morning, “kuse kuse” is good evening and good afternoon, and “na’en” means river. The next day we took part in the Saturday morning activity they prepared, where Cofán women taught us how to produce beautiful bracelets made out of seeds and plant fiber. We later danced with them to the rhythm of their traditional music and prepared ourselves to the second and final trail of our trip. This one ended up being longer and more tiring than the first one, but to our luck, the guide knew of some fruits in the forest containing “water” that will hopefully quench our thirst. Once taking in its liquid, we recovered our strengths and finished the trail. However, the day was far from over for we had yet to swim in the river. The beautiful sunset made the landscape –and the moment– memorable as laughs were heard in the background. As the sun went down with its light, we took a quick break in our cabin to get ready for the bonfire. What a surprise it was to sing along with a Cofan singer in his language and ours. And, just as captivating were the anecdotes our guide shared with us from when he first and last drank ayahuasca. I think I can speak on behalf of everyone involved when I say that we will definitely be carrying this project in the future and that those 6 days in Lago Agrio will always be remembered as a fun yet informational experience. We had learnt a lot from this trip and hopefully other year groups will experience the same in following years. TED Education: Innovation, Diversity and Wellbeing. Stay tuned for more information.. From the Staff and Student Continuing with our teachers and their stories about learning in the classroom this period. This week we have Mrs. Sally Madden from Secondary and Ms. Antonella Coronel from Primary. Sally Madden – Humanities Secondary Teacher Enthusiasm is something I love about the BSQ community! The enthusiasm I see from students getting involved in lessons and completing a task and working with their peers. The enthusiasm of the staff who keep developing new strategies to improve the teaching and learning at BSQ. The enthusiasm of our fantastic Parent Association who run amazing community events at BSQ and the enthusiasm of our parents who support the school and their children. The enthusiasm of the newly formed Secondary Climate Change Committee who are busy organising a Climate Emergency Day on Saturday 18th January 2020 (details coming soon). Everyone who knows me will also know my enthusiasm for Christmas and our family Christmas tree went up in November. The enthusiasm for Christmas at BSQ has meant that many of the active members of our community have taken this as an opportunity to think about people who are less fortunate than we are and organise donations to many worthy charities. With enthusiasm, I would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas! Antonella Coronel- Nursery B Teacher Over the past few weeks the reception children were busy getting ready for the enrichment assembly that took place on Wednesday. Each enrichment group had a short presentation showcasing what the children enjoyed doing most during their chosen club. Each presentation brilliantly presented the amazing job done by each teacher and the extraordinary learning experiences of the children. There was a great performance from the Irish dancing club. The creative builders made boats and cars from recycled materials. The Mandala and Experiments through arts club had a lot of painting and coloring fun. Thank you to the parents that were able to join us, the children had a blast spending time coloring, building, experimenting and dancing with you. The enrichment clubs allow students to shine through their talents and interests in a creative learning experience. We look forward to the new term and the new enrichment clubs that will be available for the students. Dates for your DiaryDecember 17th – Nativity performance. 1:30pm December 18th – Nativity performance. 9am December 19th - Nursery Sing Along December 19th - End of term at 12pm January 6th – First day back to school Emma Newman Principal Being BSQ – Primary Update ![]() As we approach the last few days of this term and look forward to our Christmas break, it is worth reflecting on the progress each and every one of our students has made since the start of this academic year. The words progress and attainment are often used interchangeably, though here at BSQ we measure each one separately and value each one as a separate part of what makes our students successful. Without overcomplicating these two concepts, attainment is a measure of a student’s skills, understanding and knowledge in a particular subject (such as English or Maths) or concept (such as spelling, handwriting or timetables) compared to a standardised level or grade, often related to their age or year group. Meanwhile, progress is a measure of the improvement of a particular student’s skills, understanding or knowledge in a particular subject (such as English or Maths) or concept (such as spelling, handwriting or timetables). This relies on us knowing their prior attainment and then calculating how much this has changed in a certain time frame. All very complicated, I am sure you will agree! This is complicated more because here at BSQ we not only value progress and attainment in the core subjects we teach the students, but also in their personal, social and emotional skills, alongside more complex concepts such as inter-culturalism and global mindfulness. The one thing we as parents can take away from this is that our children are unique and we should value and praise both their strengths and their progress in any areas of their development, whilst recognising that other areas need our support and patience as they overcome difficulties. On Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning, Reception and Years 1 and 2 will perform their Nativity performance of ‘Hay Presto’ before Nursery invite their parents to join their festive Sing-a-long and Activity Day on Thursday. This week many of our students will also be celebrating the festive season with their classmates in class and beyond, before finishing at 12pm on Thursday for the Christmas break. On this final day the students from Primary can wear Christmas/Festive clothes for the day, if they wish. We return to school on Monday 6th January and all the staff here at BSQ wish you and your family a relaxing, healthy and joyful break. Star of the WeekMarcus Madden Head of Primary Being BSQ – Secondary Update ![]() The Importance of Parental Engagement It was great to see so many parents in school on Saturday, either meeting with teachers or attending our exam stress workshops. While sitting in the school library, in between our meetings with the students and parents of Year 13, IBDP Coordinator Mr Karakashian and I engaged in a bit of data analysis. We looked at the variations between the students´ achievements in their December mock examinations and how they eventually fared in the real IB exams in May. The results were interesting. While the average overall score doesn't vary much for the class as a whole, or for most students in that class, there are always students whose attainment improves, and there are always students whose scores fall. And while there can of course be very many factors at play, it was clear that those who continued to improve were also those whose parents played a very active role in their education. Exams and Holidays During the second week back after the Christmas break, all students (apart from Year 13) will sit their Quimestre exams. And while preparing for these exams, and doing one's best, is of course important, I believe that it is much more important to have a restful and relaxing holiday. With that in mind, it's worth revisiting how the school calculates the end of year matriculation grade for each student in each subject. Remember, each of the six partial grades is worth just over 13% of the final grade, while 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. There is a fine line between motivating students and applying too much pressure, and it is the job of both teachers and parents to ensure that we stay on the right side of that line. Stress is not an entirely negative thing, but too much stress is, and if we continuously focus on exams, grades, and consequences, we run the risk of fostering anxiety that has a deleterious effect on both motivation and the ability to learn effectively. Instead, we should focus on what learning is for: gaining knowledge, skills, values and habits that equip us for a successful and happy life. So please, enjoy the break, take it easy, spend time with family, and come back fresh and ready in January. Jim Wild Head of Secondary From the BSQ Counselling TeamThis week our school counsellor, Andrea Carrera, talks about alcohol and teenagers.
This week we look forward to our Christmas Fair on Saturday. This is always a really great event where students and visitors celebrate their creativity by selling gifts they have made. Please remember to bring your money so that you can support the children and get all those presents for family and friends. Christmas is a time to celebrate but this year it is also a time for us to remember and reflect. It was on this day last year that Barney Riley-Dobbin died. Today everyone who knew Barney is invited in to BSQ to leave a card of remembrance at his tree. Please see last week’s newsletter for more details. Parent Survey Please remember that the parent survey closes tomorrow. Many thanks to the fabulous 150+ who have already taken time to share your thoughts – let's try and make it to at least 400! Our Values On Wednesday morning last week 42 parents from the Parent Association met with me to undertake a truly valuable project – the opportunity to work together to create our own BSQ guide to the parent Values. We are lucky here to have such supportive and enthusiastic parents and the early outcomes of the sessions suggest that we will have a fantastic set of advice and guidelines for new and current parents. Thank you. TEDx Youth@BSQ Powerful ideas are worth spreading,. #Staytuned #BSQLife Enrichment – Live session for parents Save the Date: If you would you like to know more about our students' Enrichment activities and how they live and learn together at BSQ, you are invited to attend our Enrichment at BSQ live session this December 11th, 2019 at 2pm for Reception students and 2:30pm for the other Year Groups. #BSQlife Our team- the humanities team This week we welcome our secondary humanities team. From the Staff and Students Continuing with our teachers and their stories about learning in the classroom this period. This week we have Mrs. Paola Montenegro and Year 10 students from Secondary and Mr. Oliver Kyle and Nursery students from Primary. Mrs. Paola Montenegro – Sociales Secondary Teacher Community Projects As we all know, an important axis of our school is learning through service, social assistance and volunteering. This year we started hard and so far we haven’t stopped. In the first round of Community Projects led by Y9 we managed to provide a reading space for Sinsoluka with a foundation that serves 86 children at risk in the Historic Centre, and this Wednesday, December 11, we will work on the adventure that reading brings us and the delivery of school materials to the children, an initiative of Y8. Also, Year 9 collaborated in the previous round with the Am-EN Foundation and enough money was collected after a Bake Sale to deliver much needed cleaning products and maintenance of cribs and therapy spaces was completed. It was a tiring job, but we are very proud. In this round, on the other hand, they will organize a Christmas celebration for the children and young people who attend this place. They will bring their joy, cakes and candy covers that they acquired by having two film showings at school. On the other hand, we continued collaborating with PAE and Year 9 led the delivery of food for both cats and dogs and visited the Hostel in Quito. However, this round Year 8 will work in assistance to farm animals that also suffer a lot of abuse and do not have the necessary care by their owners and will go to Picalqui in Tabacundo to accomplish this work; with the Bake Sale they organized they will buy multivitamins and de-wormers. Finally, and with great enthusiasm we started with a dream that the boys and girls of Y7, Y8 and Y9 had a Reforestation project. They knew about the germination process at the Wildlife Foundation in the previous round and now we will plant 100 trees in the Sector of Mojanda and Picalqui - Tabacundo with the United Brethren Foundation. CAS This week we celebrate VOLUNTEER'S DAY and our students of Year 12 and Year 13 do many types of service to the community, to students directly or indirectly. One of these beautiful projects has been the COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM. The CDP is a mentoring program whose objective is to develop and strengthen certain functions and or skills. Some boys and girls of Year 12 are working with the little ones developing their memory, attention and concentration, vocabulary, academic self-esteem and social skills. Very valuable work not only for them but for the entire educational community. Every year CAS students from Year 12 and Year 13 organize the Quito Festivities, for this year 40 championships have been organized between teachers and students, an Ecua volley tournament and a Jeans day. We all participate with excitement and much happiness. With the proceeds, the boys and girls of Beyond Lagartococha will be able to continue their work for the benefit of the redwood communities of Painkenape and Mañoko and this February 2020 they will work on health, prevention, delivery of first aid kits and training in the same area. It should also be mentioned that the two schools built the previous year were officially recognized by the Ministry of Education of Peru, giving us a budget for maintenance, provision of texts and payment to teachers. But we cannot forget that Christmas is near and CAS together with the PA is working to improve the quality of life of the children of the Hogar for their Children Foundation. Thank you for your donations, for the money collected and do not forget the last two events that are linked to this, Christmas Bake Sale & Jeans Day and Christmas Fair. Year 9 students – Fiestas de Quito Fiestas de Quito celebrates the founding of the capital of Ecuador. On December 6, 1534, the majestic city of San Francisco de Quito was founded. This year 485 years of this event are celebrated. Each person celebrates the holidays in their own way. A very common way to celebrate is in Chiva Quito, a fun and unusual open bus, where people dance to the rhythm of music alluding to the date and celebrate with their friends. Another tradition of the city is the popular 40 game with neighbours / friends and family; four people or two couples are involved in this card game. The Fiestas de Quito are a very clear example of the cultural wealth of the city. In our school this date was celebrated with the decoration of the Quito balconies, a tournament of 40, compliments of compliments and a mini Ecuavolley championship, organized by the CAS group of Lagartococha, to raise funds for your project. Authors: Bernarda Conrrado, María Isabel Perla, Valentina Velasco Mr. Oliver Kyle – Year 5 Teacher It’s been quite a term for Year 5 and the early days of August, when we are all beginning this journey, seems so long ago now, but here we are, all these months on. Year 5 have enjoyed tackling a range of subjects over this term, from learning about the early settlers in Australia, the Dreamtime and much more, to our current exploration of The Rainforest. There´s been plenty of challenge along the way – for both the children as well as myself and Miss Nicole. We are all still learning about each other but it feels like we are more of a unit now; ready to help each other, support each other and celebrate in each other’s successes. We’ve enjoyed some great trips so far; into Centro Histórico but also to Granja Urkuwayku (an organic farm owned and run by The Sherwoods, a family at BSQ), one of many trips that are planned for Ilaló this year. But it is all only just beginning and, as always, there are so many more adventures to come! Nursery This past week in Nursery we have been learning all about Quito and the traditional celebration “Fiestas de Quito”. The children have truly enjoyed learning about the places around their city, it got them asking questions about places they have been to and some that they have not been to before. The Legend of Cantuña” was a big hit amongst the nursery children, they were able to talk about important aspects of the legend and answer simple questions. To keep tradition alive during the celebrations, we made a “Balcón Quiteño” and “nursery singing chiva”. The children also got a taste of our very own homemade “Canelazo”. Dates for your Diary December 10th - Closing date for BSQ Parent Survey 2019 December 10th - KS3 cultural trip December 12th - Christmas Carols 2019 at Buena Vista Tennis Club. 5:30pm December 13th - Christmas Carols at Plaza del Rancho. December 14th - Christmas Fair December 14th - Christmas Carols Scala. 3pm December 19th - End of term at 12pm Emma Newman Principal Being BSQ – Primary Update![]() This week, in our final full week of term before the Christmas break, all of the students are busy preparing their products for the Christmas Bazaar on Saturday. This event is similar to ones you will have seen on TV, like The Apprentice and Dragon’s Den, though hopefully with a little more humility and less competition! The idea is that each class designs and makes a Christmas product to sell at the Bazaar, using their initiative, skills and determination to create something that everyone wants to buy. After subtracting the amount, they spent on raw materials, the profit they make will go to a charity and the kudos of the largest net profit will go to the winning class. Please come and support your child and the school at this Family Event – it is open to everyone, including family and friends, and will feature a range of outside vendors as well as the BSQ Choir and lots of Christmas spirit. The event will start at 10:30am on Saturday 14th and finish around 1:30pm. Last week we experienced quite a few cases of illness across the whole school. If you are in any doubt about your child’s welfare, please do keep them at home and take them to a doctor. Here in school we encourage the students to wash their hands regularly and drink lots of water. The doctor will also check students who are not feeling well and contact you if your child is sick. This week we also have the Year 4 trip to Parque Metropolitan on Wednesday morning, the BSQ Choir performing at the Christmas Carols event jointly organised by BSQ, The British Embassy and the British Chamber of Commerce on Thursday evening, again on Friday evening at Plaza del Rancho and finally at Scala Shopping Mall after the Christmas Bazaar! Please do contact Mr Kidd or Miss Cano if you need directions or further details about these choir events. All BSQ parents will also be invited to visit school on Wednesday afternoon to experience the Enrichment Programmes. You will be sent further details by Miss Nicole Camacho, our Enrichment Coordinator. In the final week of term, we have the two Nativity Performances on Tuesday 17th December at 1:30pm and Wednesday 18th December at 9am, a variety of class parties to celebrate the Christmas season and the Nursery Singalong and Family Picnic on the last day of term, Thursday 19th December. All students will finish at 12pm that day, with no lunch provided by school. We return to school on Monday 6th January, 2020. Marcus Madden Head of Primary Being BSQ – Secondary Update ![]() Education Outside the Classroom One thing BSQ excels at is getting our students out of the classroom and into the real world to learn and grow in our community and beyond. I've already written, in past weeks, about out Year 11s and 12s engaged in Duke of Edinburgh's International Award expeditions, the Year 11 leadership work with Hogar para sus Ninos, and the Model United Nations group's efforts at their most recent conference. But, it seems, these things never stop. Lago Agrio Under the watchful eyes of Ms Danielle Parker and Mr Nicholas Kennedy, a group of Year 12 students returned yesterday from a fact-finding mission in the area of Lago Agrio, where they visited local communities to learn about the issues they are facing, the work they are doing there, and what we can learn from one another. El Centro Histórico De Quito Our Year 7, 8, and 9 students will be exploring their history tomorrow on a trip to 'old town', where they will get to see and experience in real life some of the cultural heritage they have been learning all about with Ms Montenegro in their Ciencias Sociales lessons. Que viva Quito! Community Projects And as if that wasn't enough, they will be out and about again on Wednesday, visiting the various Community Projects they have been engaged with over the past eight weeks, to learn about the issues that matter in our more immediate community, and how we can all help to make things better for one another. Making these things happen takes a great deal of time, energy, and imagination on the part of the teachers involved. But while we may feel stretched at times, we all know how rich and rewarding these experiences are for our young people, and how important to their development as balanced, caring and knowledgeable leaders of the future. Jim Wild Head of Secondary From the BSQ Counselling Team This week our school counsellor, Andrea Carrera, talks about raising emphatic children.
Welcome![]() Now it is December we can really start to think about Christmas, enjoy the festive music, plan time with our families and think about the gifts we will be giving to our friends and relations. But before that we celebrate our own local festival with Fiestas de Quito just around the corner. Here at BSQ we will be setting out our balconies and decorating the school in the traditional colours. It is important that we celebrate and recognize the culture and heritage of all our students and this week we get a chance to celebrate for Ecuador! Look out for our pictures next week and remember that school will be closed on Friday for the long weekend. Remembrance. Many of you will remember that on December 9th 2018, our friend and colleague, Barney Riley-Dobbin, died as he descended from the summit of Chimborazo. We will be remembering Barney with great affection throughout the day on Monday December 9th2019, and I would like to invite you to join us here at the school at a time that suits you to place a memory by Barney’s tree at the swimming pool. The memory cards will be available for parents to collect from Sandy during the day and a table will be placed by the tree for you to write your message, where there will be pens and ribbons. The affection that we hold for Barney remains an important part of our life here at BSQ and whilst we will not be holding a formal memorial, we will be finding our spaces and times to think about Barney and to leave a message of reflection and love. Parent Survey Thank you to all the parents who have already completed the survey – I appreciate the time you have committed to supporting the future of the school. Please remember that the survey closes on December 10th so only one more week to have your voice added to the next steps! Exciting adventures. This week a group of our Year 12 CAS students are venturing out to Lago Agrio where they will be exploring and developing a deep understanding of some of the projects that have developed there amongst the local communities. I know that this expedition will have a lasting and powerful impact on the students and the teachers with them (Ms Parker and Mr Kennedy) and we look forward to hearing all about it on their return. Our CAS projects are outstanding and really allow our students the opportunity to explore, discover, learn and change. Drive-through Firstly, thank you to all the parents who use the drive-through and road outside so carefully and respectfully. Just some reminders, because if we all follow the guidelines then the drive-through will be really effective, smooth and trouble-free.
TEDx Event Fascinating focus on education.. Keep an eye on our social media channels to find out more... #BSQLife Christmas Carols 2019 The British Group is delighted to invite you and your family to a wonderful evening singing along our BSQ Choir celebrating together as a community. The event will take place this December 12th at Buena Vista Tennis Club at 5:30pm. This year the event will have an entry fee $15, and all proceeds will be donated to two foundations in support of gender equality and women empowerment projects. If you would like to attend and contribute for this causes, you can purchase the tickets are: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfVp_XujBYG8Xrr1pCxzK52lA2mi3D5xCXziefauvdT3tR6Vw/viewform PA + CAS Announcement In spirit of the holidays, the PA Social Committee + CAS are leading a donation campaign until December 9th. If you have books in Spanish in good condition that you would like to donate for children between 0 – 8 years old, please contact a PA representative and let them know. Our team- the sports team Today we introduce you to our sports team, they constantly prepare and train daily to give their best and help all their students to develop all their skills better and to put into practice all the good values that the sport teaches. From the Staff and Students Continuing with our teachers and their stories about learning in the classroom this period. This week we have Mrs. Patricia Tufiño and Year 10 students from Secondary and Mr. Matt Kidd from Primary. Patricia Tufiño- Spanish Secondary Teacher In these last two weeks, students of year 10B, in the Language and Literature class have investigated and explored the author Gioconda Belli as part of the preparation of the IGCSE programme. To get a good inquiry, the students had to review and print the information from three bibliographic sources or visit three reliable websites. With the information they collected, the students had to apply the underline technique to classify and rank the information. The next step in this process was to expose in a creative timeline everything learned from the biography and contexts of the author under study. In addition, demonstrate solvency in front of their peers with oral presentation of what they know and explored. We immediately proceeded to read the author's first poem “And God made me a woman” where we could appreciate the deep feelings of pride and courage of being a woman, as well as the themes of life, pride and love. The students valued and appreciated this poem composed of twenty-six verses along which the passionate poetess reflects with pride, pleasure and awareness on her feminine nature. Finally, to get a thorough and insightful analysis of stylistic resources, in the literature class we are working with the characteristics of the lyric genre, the metric, the verses, the stanzas, the rhyme, etc., resources used as tools for Create beauty with the word. In this way we put into practice the literary analysis encouraging the development of critical thinking, as well as creativity MUN: Samantha Baugh, Year 10A Throughout the past few years, the BSQ community has been working to improve its MUN programme. So far the results have been clear demonstrating that all the hard work of the year 12 students, Gala, Bianca, Sofia, and Mathias, Mr. Ashfield, Ms. Espinosa, & Ms. Camacho have not been in vain. With it only being the 3rd month into our school year, we have already been invited to 4 inter-collegial conferences, and we proudly attended Colegio Americano's 25th CAMINU conference. The conference lasted 3 days, with challenging hours that ranged from 8am to 6:30pm in the final day, a Saturday. Every student put effort into researching and understanding their country's political position to ensure their debate skills could be as good as possible. We are all excited to take part in more conferences in the future, and improve so that one day we could win as a school the best delegation. Duke of Edinburgh International Award: Katherine Hoshima, Year 10A In Duke of Edinburgh for the last few weeks we have been doing various sessions to prepare us for our expeditions which will happen after the Christmas break. We had a class with the school doctor to teach us first aid in case something goes wrong during the expedition, we learnt how we should treat the environment around us and more recently we have been focusing on things like what should we take in our rucksacks and planning our routes. I am currently almost half way for all my personal activities which are personal training for physical, Triada for service, and circus skills for skill. The most challenging one for me is personal training because I have a very specific goal which I have been trying to achieve and am very determined to do so. Along with a group of other people from the grade, we are organising an event for Triada to try and have more interaction with the children and their parents as well as giving them a happy Christmas. Matt Kidd - Year 2B Teacher How have natural phenomena shaped the planet?' is the topic question the boys and girls of Year 2B have been asking. This week, the class has been studying rivers and how they move and flow. To support this learning, Year 2B built their very own river using materials from around the school. The children really enjoyed the learning and had lots of fun getting wet and understanding how rivers flow. Dates for your Diary December 3 - 8th - Trip to Lago Agrio Y12 December 10th - Closing date for BSQ Parent Survey 2019 December 10th - KS3 cultural trip December 14th - Christmas Fair December 14th - Christmas Carols 2019 at Buena Vista Tennis Club December 19th - End of term Emma Newman Principal Being BSQ – Primary Update ![]() This week the students in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 will continue practicing for their Nativity performance of ‘Hay Presto’ on Tuesday 17th December and Wednesday 18th December. The benefits of participating in performing to small audiences are valuable and numerous, including emotional, social, physical and even academic. Academic evidence suggests that participation in assemblies and plays is related to various positive personal and academic outcomes, improving child development as a whole, enhancing cognitive, motor and social skills. Various aspects of performing arts classes, from improvisation to performing on stage, will help your child build confidence and self-assurance. They will learn to explore outside of their comfort zone, appraise new situations, think outside the box, express their thoughts and ideas in a safe environment, solve problems, cope with performance and presentation fears and build trust and self-reliance. All of these beneficial tools can be carried through to school, social activities, their future career and will hopefully stay with them throughout their lives. Drama and performing classes help improve communication skills, concentration, and memory. One of the main advantages of taking part in the performing arts in young individuals is the improvement of communication skills. Acting lessons, for example, will help with their presentation skills, vocal projection, tone of speech, and articulation. Listening skills will also get refined by taking stage directions from teachers, by collaborating with peers and working together toward a common goal. From learning new lines, to remembering their acting cues and timing, and rehearsing scenes time and again, your child will improve their focus, memory, concentration and quick-learning skills. The students will also improve their social skills by working as part of a team, listening to others and expressing themselves, sharing and making new friends. They will learn to minimize errors and bounce back, solve problems and improvise, giving them the confidence to manage and perform in new situations that come with everyday life. The participation in these types of events will also help enhance their interpersonal skills because they need to understand their play characters and the different roles, which allows young children to relate better to different situations, people, feelings, and support the ability to be in ‘someone else’s shoes.’ Higher academic achievements. Studies have also found that creative and critical thinking, problem-solving and reasoning increase and improve when performing arts education is experienced by the student. As the Arts Education Partnership Report “Arts Education Has Academic Effect” suggests, arts learning in music, drama and dance is related to high academic achievements in school. Performing arts programs have multiple connections to reading, verbal and maths skills, problem-solving and creative thinking. And finally, it can be great fun! Our students get to express themselves and their emotions and explore and improve their unique talents. Whether students enjoy acting, singing, dancing or a behind-the-scenes role, they will delight in expressing and improving their special talents. On Wednesday this week, related to this article, we have several students from Mr Kidd’s Enrichment Activity visiting a local recording studio, where they will learn about the whole production process and maybe even record their own song! On Thursday some Secondary students will host a Bake Sale as part of their CAS project, so please do send in 50c or $1 if you would like your child to participate. There will be other fund-raising events coming up too from these students – more details to follow. Please remember that school is closed on Friday 6th December. Star of the WeekMarcus Madden Head of Primary Being BSQ – Secondary Update ![]() Saturday 14th December While you are all, of course, invited to attend and enjoy the Christmas Fair taking place on Saturday 14th December, where our Secondary Community Project groups and CAS students will be raising valuable funds for their respective excellent causes, if you are a parent and/or student of Year 11 or 13, then there are two further reasons for you to be at school that day. Year 13 Parent Meetings With the IBDP mock exams fresh in mind, we expect all Year 13 parents and students to attend progress meetings with each of their subject teachers. This will provide an invaluable opportunity to reflect on what is going well, what needs to do better, and how to proceed over the holiday break and beyond to ensure the very best chance of success in the end of year assessments and exams. In these sessions, teachers will be able to drill down into the students' performance in exams and internal assessments, providing specific and rich feedback on each individual, as well as providing guidance for the road ahead tailored to each student's individual needs. Year 11 and 13 Wellbeing Workshop In addition, and of equal importance in ensuring success, we will be running a session for parents and students in Years 11 and 13 on how to manage stress, study, motivation, procrastination and organisation at this busy time for both classes. Everybody with a stake in these classes should attend this. Year 11 Maths Workshop If that wasn't enough, Ms Sadotra will also be curating a workshop for parents and students of Year 11 focused on preparing for the Mathematics IGCSE, including a discussion of which choice of paper would best suit each student. Again, this session is a must for everyone in Year 11. While other students (save those taking part in the Community Project and CAS activities), and parents of other year groups, aren't required on the day, we'd love to see as many of you as possible enjoying the festive fun of the Christmas Fair. Jim Wild 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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