Welcome![]() Living Drive-through Thank you for your patience with the work on the road outside the school. As you know, for the last few weeks we have extended some of the drive-through times to ensure all can get to school on time. This does not now seem to be necessary and so from tomorrow (Tuesday April 30th) we will be operating the following opening and closing times. Please read and note: The gates will open at 07:45 each day The gates will open at 12:00 for nursery collection The gates will open at 15:15 for the first collection of students and will remain open until 15:35 Labour Day Following the announcement from the President about the half day for Labour Day on Wednesday May 1st. In order to comply with this instruction we will be taking the following actions: 1. Nursery students will leave at 12:00 as always 2. Secondary students will leave at 12:10 following period 5 3. Primary students will leave at 12:15 - the start of lunchtime 4. Buses will leave at 12:25 5. The drive-through will be open between 12:00 and 12:30pm. I hope that you enjoy this unexpected additional time with your families. Orbital Conference Next week I will be in Manchester for the Orbital annual conference. This is a really good time to celebrate our successes and look to the future and I look forward to sharing the outcomes with you on my return. Learning As a British school in an international setting, we are always excited to establish strong connections with the UK and recently we received some exciting news from Head Office in Manchester. Here is the press release and praise from Orbital Chairman, Kevin McNeany, for our hard work and determination. Orbital Education receives the Queen’s Award for Enterprise: International Trade We are delighted to announce that Orbital Education, the group which BSQ is a part of, has been honoured with a Queen’s Award for Enterprise for International Trade. Orbital Education is one of a select group of companies nationally chosen to receive the prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise. Announced today (Tuesday 23 April), Orbital has been recognised for its excellence and innovation in international trade. The Group, founded in 2008 by Kevin McNeany, a pioneer entrepreneur in education, owns and operates a global group of British international schools. The award has been given for the company’s success in identifying and satisfying the demand for quality British education in many parts of the world. The schools deliver a British-style curriculum adapted for an international mixture of expatriate and local students in its schools. As well as in Quito it also has schools in Hungary, Slovenia, Spain, Russia, Qatar and China, with planned additions in the UAE. Kevin McNeany, chairman of Orbital Education said ‘We are honoured to be receiving the Queen’s Award for Enterprise: International Trade 2019. Our company believes that quality, transparency and accountability leads to success for our students, their families and the company. This award is a result of all the hard work from our team of internationally minded educators, and I would like to take the opportunity on behalf of the Board to thank everyone for their dedication and professionalism’. Now in its 53rd year, the Queens Award for Enterprise are the most prestigious business awards in the country, with winning businesses able to use the esteemed Queen’s Award emblem for the next 5 years. Orbital Education will celebrate its award during a royal reception for Queen’s Award winners in the summer. From the Staff and Students Continuing with our teachers and their stories about learning in the classroom this term. This week we hear from Mr. Nick Kennedy in Secondary and from Ms. Lauren Backhouse and the Year 4 students in Primary. Mr. Nick Kennedy – Biology Secondary Teacher I was planning a flower dissection for a lesson with year 10 when I was reminded of Ode to a Flower by the Nobel-winning physicist Richard Feynman. He says: "I have a friend who’s an artist and has sometimes taken a view which I don’t agree with very well. He’ll hold up a flower and say "look how beautiful it is," and I’ll agree. Then he says, "I as an artist can see how beautiful this is but you as a scientist take this all apart and it becomes a dull thing," and I think that he’s kind of nutty. First of all, the beauty that he sees is available to other people and to me too. Although I might not be quite as refined aesthetically as he is, I can appreciate the beauty of a flower. "At the same time, I see much more about the flower than he sees. I could imagine the cells in there, the complicated actions inside, which also have a beauty. I mean it’s not just beauty at this dimension, at one centimeter; there’s also beauty at smaller dimensions, the inner structure, also the processes. The fact that the colors in the flower evolved in order to attract insects to pollinate it is interesting; it means that insects can see the color. It adds a question: does this aesthetic sense also exist in the lower forms? Why is it aesthetic? All kinds of interesting questions which the science knowledge only adds to the excitement, the mystery and the awe of a flower. It only adds. I don’t understand how it subtracts." This seems particularly relevant early this morning, writing this in Huasquila Lodge, surrounded by the beauty of flowers. Ms. Lauren Backhouse - Year 4 Teacher In Year 4 we have started our topic thinking about 'What influences great artists?' Year 4 are learning all about Keith Haring and what inspired him. We started by looking at a piece of his artwork and discussing the questions we had about it. Then we worked together, using different symbols from his work to create our own class mural. Children also had the opportunity to recreate a piece of artwork using a computer programme. Later on in the term, children will take inspiration from Keith Haring's work to produce their own piece of ar. Dates for your Diary April 29th – Year 6 Graffiti workshop April 30th - Year 3 trip to the Photography studio. April 30th - May 2nd - Year 10 PE trip to Guayaquil May 1st – Year 6 Graffiti workshop May 1st – See above for Labour Day changes. May 3rd - Labour Day Holiday (note change of day) May 24th - Battle of Pichincha Holiday May 26th - 31st CIS Team Visit Emma Newman Principal Being BSQ – Primary Update ![]() It was great to see the school populated again with the sounds of students busy learning last week, sharing their holiday stories and getting back into the routines of school life. The transition from holiday mode to school mode can be difficult and challenging for some of our students, so please be patient with them as they get used to being back at school. Of course, this week is also not a ‘normal’ week, with Friday being a school holiday for our students and staff alike. We also welcome back the Year 5 students who visited Huasquila Amazon Lodge last week - many thanks to all the staff who organised and supported on this trip. These types of trips afford a huge variety of benefits to the students, which we cannot always measure but notice in many ways. Similarly, this week we have a variety of exciting learning opportunities for the students, from graffiti workshops for Year 6 and a trip to the photographers for Year 3, alongside our usual learning opportunities in class. Many of the students have also chosen their next Enrichment activities, starting on Wednesday. Star of the week Marcus Madden Head of Primary Being BSQ – Secondary Update ![]() Afro-Ecuadorian Day A huge thank you to Ms Danielle Parker for organizing the school's first Afro-Ecuadorian awareness day. We enjoyed some amazing music and dance, and learned a great deal more about a number of the deep-seated issues faced daily by this and other minority groups in Ecuador and beyond. IB Science Projects Part of the IB Science programme is the Group 4 project, a cross-disciplinary research and writing activity based on shared data-collection and collaborative analysis. The Year 12 students visited Huasquila Lodge in the Amazon this last week, where they were led by scientists and teachers in observations of a range of natural phenomena. A full report will follow in a later edition of the newsletter. IG and IB Exams This week sees the beginning of the May 2019 IGCSE exam session, and next week sees the beginning of the IB exams. The students have been working very hard to prepare for this important time in their academic lives, and we ask that their parents continue to support them, as we will, through the stress that is inevitable at this time of the year. And while we are sure they won't need it, we wish them the very best of luck. Jim Wild Head of Secondary From the BSQ Counselling Team This week our school counsellor, Andrea Carrera, talks about how to handle and prevent underage drinking.
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Welcome![]() Living Welcome back everyone and I hope you had an excellent break last week and plenty of time to relax with family and friends. It is hard to believe we are now in the final term of this academic year – only a few more weeks and we will be heading into the season of graduations, prize-giving and school plays. In the meantime, though we have as many exciting BSQ activities as ever to enjoy and share. For example, this week we have our Group 4 IB trip to Huasquila Lodge to complete the studies required for the course. At the same time our Year 5 students will also be at the lodge and meanwhile back at BSQ we will be enjoying a rich cultural Afro-Ecuadorian day organised by Ms. Parker for the secondary students with a mixture of activities organised by our own staff and visiting guests. In memory It is important to make the most of every moment we have at school, and on the Tuesday before the end of term we spent some time remembering Barney Dobbin - who did just that. We planted a tree and unveiled a plaque so that now there is a reminder and point of focus each day for anyone who wants to reflect on the way in which Barney made the most of every BSQ moment. Learning Of course, school is about knowledge and skills and relationships and the next steps – but it is also about learning to be a global citizen and to understand the world around you. We are lucky here at BSQ to have staff and students who are determined to make a difference in that world and the number of community projects and student-led, in-house communication that takes place linked to developing a culture of care is astounding. Of course, one of our values is: We live and learn with respect and care for each other We do this in many ways but learning about the lives and circumstances of those around us and doing what we can to make our world a little better is one of the most important. To show you what we mean, just take a look at this list of some of the ways we have cared for others this year already:
From the Staff and Students Welcome back to our teachers and their stories about learning in the classroom this term. This week we hear from Mr. Kevin Dobson and from Mrs. Rocío Rueda in Secondary. Mr. Kevin Dobson – Geography Secondary Teacher As both a Geography teacher and an enrichment club leader I have been keen to embed more technology to facilitate learning amongst the students that I am working with. As a result, I acquired a ‘green screen’ and have been developing activities in which students can try to bring their learning alive through the use of ‘chromakey’ technology. In Year 10 Geography lessons students prepared videos reporting from the scene of an earthquakes in Haiti and Japan to help them learn about the effects and responses of earthquakes in countries with differing levels of development. Whilst in Year 11 students prepared reports about the benefits and problems of a range of renewable energy technologies such as solar and wind. As part of Year 9’s ‘Religion, Philosophy and Ethics’ lessons which take place each Friday morning, they were given the opportunity to prepare sketches that outlined situations in which people might make difficult life choices and after the videos the rest of the class would discuss and then vote on what decisions should be made. In our Tuesday World Explorers enrichment club students research, prepare, rehearse, and then act out travel shows, delivering reports from places around the world. At the moment all of the video editing is carried out by myself but I am hoping that in the future I can enrol some of the students in doing some of this work in order to develop their skills in this technology. Whilst doing activities like this can be a lot of fun, it also develops their abilities in researching and preparing speeches, public speaking, and then listening back to each other’s’ videos to collect information. ![]() Mrs. Rocio Rueda – Spanish Secondary Teacher This week, students Lucas Tapia (Y8), Silas Tapia (Y10), Patricio de la Cruz (Y10) and Ary Loquvam (Y11), members of the BSQ Chess Club, in charge of the students of Y13 Damaris Chávez and Ricardo Calderón, went to the ISM College Chess Tournament. With great surprise and admiration, our Year 1 student, Luciano Aguirre, joined the team. With his short 5 years he decided to enter the competition and he did it with great enthusiasm and courage, which made him deserving a well-deserved recognition. Being the youngest participant of the tournament. The Chess Tournament was held with the presence of several schools in Quito. It was an excellent opportunity for our students and a wonderful experience when formally facing an official tournament. The participants did very well; they won and lost the different games; but his attendance and participation was of immense value for his life both sports and personal. Thanks to Damaris and Ricardo who have dedicated their time and knowledge to share it with their classmates and encouraged them to attend this tournament. Dates for your Diary April 23rd– Year 5 parents meeting at 3:30pm about the new PSHE topic – SRE. April 24th– PSHE / SRE meeting with parents at 3:30pm in classrooms to share resources and plans. April 24thto 26th– Y5 residential visit to Huasquila April 26th - Primary Reports are due. May 3rd– Labour Day Holiday (note change of day) Emma Newman Principal Being BSQ – Primary Update ![]() Welcome back to BSQ after the Easter break – I hope you all enjoyed some time relaxing (and being constructively bored!) with family and friends and you are reenergised for the next ten weeks on school. This final term of learning is crucial for our students’ development and progress, particularly bearing in mind that when they return after the longer break they will be moving up to a new class, a new teacher and lots of new challenges. There is also a great deal to look forward to in the coming weeks, so please keep checking your inboxes for events, meetings and activities. This week we will wave off our intrepid Year 5 students as they head to the jungle for three days of adventures and challenges - I am sure we will welcome back some very tired, happy and perhaps different students on Friday. Marcus Madden Head of Primary Being BSQ – Secondary Update ![]() The Summer Term As we move into the business end of the year for our senior IGCSE and IBDP students, it's easy for these examination sessions to become our sole focus. But while these things are of huge importance to our Year 11 and 13 students and to us, both now and for the future, there's a great deal else going on as well. The first of three big expeditions for our Year 12 CAS groups has just returned from deep in the jungle, and there are two more to go out on service trips before the end of the year. There's a Year 12 combined Science trip heading down to Huasquila Lodge this week, a Year 10 PE trip heading to Guayaquil for sea-level fitness tests, and the small matter of a week exploring culture and history as part of an Orbital group tour to Budapest. There are one-off events too. This Thursday we are digging deep into Ecuadorian history and culture for an Afro-Ecuadorian Day, learning about the lives and the stories of Afro-Ecuadorian communities through a range of fun and educational activities. The Year 11s' post-IG programme will consist of a range of essential and valuable activities, including introductory and preparatory lessons for the IB Diploma Programme, a Work Experience week, a business and enterprise week in school, and a focused course on extended essay research and writing. And in the middle of it all we will have the Secondary school play, Romeo + Juliet, which is beginning to take shape nicely with some creative directing and some fabulous performances. I do hope you'll come along. Ten weeks. Welcome back. Jim Wild Head of Secondary From the BSQ Counselling Team This week our school counsellor, Andrea Carrera, explains 5 reasons why your children will dig an indoor garden and the connection mind - emotions.
Welcome![]() Living What a wonderful day we had on Saturday at the annual Family Funday. A fantastic turnout meant that there were so many people to enjoy the food, entertainment and company. Thank you to everyone who ran stalls, brought food, sang, danced and helped out in so many other ways. Particular thanks to our wonderful team of parents on the Parent Association who, as always, worked tirelessly to ensure the day was such a success. Thank you. We are nearly ready for our Easter break and I hope that you have all planned relaxing and refreshing ways to spend time with family and friends after a very busy term. In the pre-Easter newsletter last year, I wrote about the successful Preparatory visit we had just completed for CIS. As we head into Easter this year, we are busy preparing for the final part of that journey at the end of May with the team visit. The visiting team comes with a wealth of CIS experience and a range of current roles. After the break I will share their details with you all and I look forward to some of you having the opportunity to meet with them. Learning In the same way as many schools around the world, when we return from the Easter break, we are heading into the exam period for our older students with the IGCSE and IB exam schedules starting in early May. With so much publicity now about the stress exams cause, it is easy to lose sight of their value. The process of preparing for exams is valuable in itself, and, with a focused revision approach, learning can be deepened effectively. For example, year 13 students have been looking at a spaced learning approach to revising for their exams where learning is embedded with a programme of regularly returning to key topics. We all know how much easier something is the second time we do it and how easy it can be to give up the first time. Students (and adults!) of all ages can learn from this. There is a well-known phrase in the English language that tells us that ‘If at first you don’t succeed, try try again.’ Apparently, this was first written to encourage American children to do their homework in around 1850 but has become a mantra for not giving up and being resilient all over the world. Here you might say ‘Sigue intentando, no importa si fallas. Del suelo no vas a pasar. Sigue adelante!’ Or if you were French you might say ‘Petit a petit, l’oiseau fait son nid.’ In other words, the bird will build its nest slowly so persevere! Or if you were German you might say ‘Anfangen ist leicht, Beharren eine Kunst’ or starting is easy but perseverance is an art. So, enjoy your holidays and rest your brains and bodies ready for more perseverance, resilience and trying in the classroom next term. From the Staff and Students Continuing with our teachers and their stories about learning in the classroom this term. This week we hear from Mrs. Patricia Tufiño in Secondary, from Mr. Pete Drayton and the Year 2A students + Ms. Laura Stone and the Year 1B students in Primary and from the Y10 and Y12 students. Mrs. Patricia Tufiño – IB Spanish Teacher En estas dos últimas semanas, los alumnos de año 8, en la clase de españolhan trabajado en la expresión escrita, la lectura y la creatividad. Los chicos están leyendo la obra literaria “Lágrimas de ángeles”y están explorando la historia de los niños de la calle. Reflexionando en profundidad los ámbitos de la obra y comparándola con su realidad. A la vez, revisaron el tema de la carta, los tipos y partes que la forman. También, se aclaró que las cartas se envían en un sobre y se reforzó los datos que se escriben en el anverso y reverso del mismo. Luego de todo esto, los alumnos crearon su propio papel de carta y armaron el sobre. Posteriormente, los estudiantes escribieron una carta familiar a la persona más importante de su vida para contarle las vivencias escolares más sobresalientes de este año lectivo en el British School Quito. Se revisó cada una de las redacciones para hacer correcciones y sugerencias. Finalmente, cada alumno pasa su escrito a la hoja preparada para este fin y pueda tener su carta lista. Se llena los datos del sobre y listo. De esta manera ponemos en práctica la creatividad y la imaginación al escribir para que esto contribuya al desarrollo del idioma español en todos los niveles. Mr. Pete Drayton – Year 2A Teacher In Year 2A this week we have been exploring multiplication and division, through strategy games, arrays and word problems. Throughout our PSHE unit this term, we have thought carefully about our emotions, dealing with difficult situations, problem solving and what makes a good friend. Through this work we have developed our ability to work collaboratively and then practiced these skills throughout different subjects. We have looked at a healthy diet and considered what food we need to eat to stay healthy and then developed our perfect lunch box. Over the last four weeks, the children have worked incredibly hard in literacy to write some super diary entries from the perspective of the school cat or a pet. They have been busy publishing these diary entries ready to video blog next week. Ms. Laura Stone – Year 1B Teacher This term the children in year 1 have been learning about the different habitats the animals live in around Ecuador. We are so lucky to have such a range of habitats in one country! When we learnt about the Rainforest and we learnt that it is being cut down at a considerable rate we decided we must do something! The children have all been very busy creating their art for an Art Sale. They made a range of art pieces and then chose one to sell. The money raised went to help plant tree nurseries with local communities in the Amazon. In total we raised $310.50! Well done year 1. International Duke Of Edinburgh’s Bronze Award Maite Peñaherrera and Arianna Maldonado - Y10 students Last week, Monday 25th and Tuesday 26th, 12 students from year 10 set trail to Cotopaxi. A lot of hard work was put into the organisation of this expedition as well as the hard work needed to complete it. A lot of teamwork was to be seen , setting up tents in the campsite ( at Tambopaxi), when cooking our dinner and travelling with the map. We encountered some rain at the beginning setting up the tents which caused us some problems. The cover was blown away but as a team we managed to get it all set. Fortunately it passed , we had no major complications during the preparation of dinner but we were definitely managing our time in case rain fell. The first day we walked from the North Entrance to Tambopaxi , and from Tambopaxi to Manantial and returned to Tambopaxi. We surely walked more than 10 km .There isn't an exact route to follow so we had to figure out using a map and a compass our route, it wasn't easy but we made it. Every member of the team contributed from start to end. We did find struggles along the way , but we managed to pass through them and continue our journey. The views over there were overwhelming, almost unbelievable. It was an unforgettable experience , with lots of memories to carry on. From this we achieved stronger friendships, map skills, teamwork and many more achievements. CERN Masterclass, Universidad San Francisco de Quito - Saturday 30th March Martin Anhalzer and Estefanía Orellana - Y12 students Particle physics is a branch of science that tries to explain the state of our universe in the instants after the big bang. It is concerned with the particles that make up the universe and set out to discover the most fundamental particles, in what they call the standard model. Research in this area is conducted in particle accelerators, which collide common particles at enormous speeds to create new and unseen phenomena. Being an inaccessible, but fascinating and relevant subject, scientists at two of the leading Labs and universities for particle physics created the International Masterclass for Particle Physics. The school was invited to take part in the master class at Universidad San Francisco, and both of us were selected. I was also very glad for participating in this masterclass since I learnt a lot of new things regarding physics particles that I didn’t know before, such as the things already mentioned by Martin. I found this topic very interesting due to the fact that it not only enables us to picture an image of how matter is and how it works but also allows us to address questions such as ‘what is the world made of? During the data analysis phase of the day, where we looked at real experimental data, we identified the elusive Higgs Boson, a very important particle that physicists believe is responsible for the big bang! We were thrilled to have identified such an important particle, especially because it is rare to find collisions that result in it. To end the day, a video conference to discuss data, and other questions was held with other schools and physicists from CERN and Fermilab, where I reported our results to the other members of the event, and got to ask a question on the future of data processing in physics, that amazed one of the physicists! In general, the data analysis process clearly enriched our knowledge regarding physics particles since we had to recognize whether a particle was an electron, a muon, a zoo or as mentioned before a Higgs boson. At first, we only got electrons and muons which was quite repetitive to be honest since we already knew perfectly how to identify them and we wanted to have a bigger challenge. However, when we got to identify the Higgs Boson we were incredibly amazed since as mentioned previously it is very rare to find those kinds of particles. Overall, despite the fact that at first, it was kind of repetitive the particles that we got, it was very useful since we learnt how to identify them perfectly as we got many of them to practice. It was an amazing and very fruitful experience. Dates for your Diary April 9th– Year 4 trip to the Science Museum April 9th– Tree planting ceremony. 4pm April 11th - Years 5 & 6 trip to Ilaló April 11th– Year 1A Reward afternoonfor gaining 50 Marbles and bringing in the most contributions for the PAE charity collection. April 12th - school finishes at 12 for the Easter break. Happy holidays everyone. April 15th - 19th - Easter Week May 3rd - Labour Day Holiday (note change of day) Emma Newman Principal Being BSQ – Primary Update ![]() Thank you to all the parents and students who helped make the BSQ Fun Day such as success. Next week we have Year 4 visiting the Science Museum and Years 5&6 walking up Ilalo, before we finish at 12pm on Friday. As we approach the Easter break, I am sure many of you are planning lots of exciting and engaging activities with your family. In today’s non-stop world, boredom is seen as a bad thing. New research from toymaker Melissa & Doug and analytics and advice firm Gallup shows that fewer than one in five British parents strongly agrees that it is good for children to be bored from time to time. This can lead to us overscheduling their time, and not allowing them enough opportunities for child-led play. Have you ever thought you would be a millionaire if someone gave you a dollar for every time your child complained about being bored? But far from being a bad thing, periods of boredom, where children have to rely on themselves for entertainment, are essential to a healthy childhood. When children are left to their own devices, they are forced to be more creative and imaginative in finding ways to amuse themselves. Giving them opportunities to try things of their own volition builds their sense of discovery and curiosity and helps them explore what brings them joy. Indeed, research has found that people who are given a range of boring tasks to complete show more imagination when they are then asked to take part in a creative thinking activity. Dr Teresa Belton, visiting fellow at the School of Education and Lifelong Learning at the University of East Anglia and author of Happier People Healthier Planet agrees: ‘Children need to learn to take initiative and think of ways to occupy themselves that are not dictated by someone else. ‘It’s a stimulus to imagination and creativity.’ As parents, we need to stop intervening, because being bored will help them develop their problem-solving skills. ‘In a world where children are constantly stimulated, they can feel uncomfortable if they don’t have anything to do,’ explains Teresa. ‘But this encourages initiative and problem-solving, as they have to rely on themselves to tackle the ‘problem’ of being bored.’ Having unstructured time to play with other children will help your child develop interpersonal skills that are becoming lost to this technology obsessed generation. ‘If children are given time and space with nothing to distract them, it helps them to negotiate and collaborate with each other and develop activities jointly,’ Dr Teresa says. Try these techniques for encouraging children to entertain themselves.
Marcus Madden Head of Primary Being BSQ – Secondary Update ![]() Family Funday A huge 'thank you' and many congratulations are due to the Parents' Association for planning and delivering such an excellent and enjoyable Family Funday on Saturday. I was struck immediately upon entry by the scale, the vibrancy and the variety of what was on offer this year. The Mexican, Chinese, Chilean, Brazilian food stands stood out among the many that were beautiful decorated, and the food itself was superb. From the Bolivian folk dancers through the breathtaking Capoeira performers to the Zumba free-for-all at the end, the entertainment was first rate. And of course this is only possible because of we have such a rich and diverse community at BSQ - I counted 16 nationalities in Year 10 alone the other day! - all of whom are willing and keen to get involved, share their culture, and learn about others. Whether it's Oliver Willcox on stage fronting the band, Ms Molina and Ms Carrera strumming and singing, or Carolina Castillo leading the Spanish dance, the smiles and the energy and the passion make events like this a real joy to attend. Attendance I've noticed an increase over the past months of students coming to me with exit slips, telling me they need to leave early. School, and lessons, run from 08:00 to 15:20 Monday to Friday, and the teachers make sure that every minute in class is useful, meaningful and vital to achieving success and happiness. I understand, of course, that some things cannot be avoided. But some can. Please, do try to arrange doctor's, dentist's, or any other appointments outside of school hours wherever possible, as the teachers do. And please don't decide that the first, or last week, day, or even half day of term isn't important: it is. There is no good time to miss school except when school is out. Otherwise, we wouldn't be doing our jobs properly. Jim Wild Head of Secondary From the BSQ Counselling Team This week our school counsellor, Andrea Carrera, talks about walking as tpfect exercise.
Welcome![]() Living As always it was a very busy time at BSQ last week. The main event of course was Book Week which for the most part was organised for the primary school children – with thanks to Ms Backhouse and Ms Novoa. A book week is a wonderful way to introduce children to ideas, stories, characters and language that they might not otherwise encounter and the children have all enjoyed browsing the book fair, listening to stories, meeting authors and dressing up in costumes from their favourite fiction. You will have started to notice the Save the Date posts for our fantastic Family Funday on April 6th. Thanks as always to all the parents and staff who have been working so hard behind the scenes to prepare for this event. Look out for the great prizes and, as always, the wonderful food stalls that celebrate our diverse and rich cultural heritage here at BSQ. Make sure you have the date saved and we look forward to seeing record numbers of families on Saturday. Learning I spent a few days last week learning about the schools in our Latin American Heads Conference group in Mexico City. Before I tell you about that I want to share a quote with you. Dylan Wiliam (an academic who wrote one of the best-known books about school assessment – Inside the Black Box) said that, ‘Every teacher needs to improve, not because they are not good enough, but because they can be even better.’ Well, the same applies to Principals and Headteachers and last week Mr. Wild and I learnt a great deal in Mexico City and were also able to share some of our own work with others. We listened to the inspirational story of Claire Harvey who overcame a broken back to play in the 2012 Olympics as the captain of the British Sitting Volleyball team. Her story of disappointment and triumph taught us all to be more philosophical about our problems, but also to focus on ways to enable our students to be more flexible, empathic and agile in their thinking. You can read about her journey here http://www.womanthology.co.uk/claire-harvey-paralympian-senior-consultant-inclusive-leadership-kpmg/ We also listened to David Weston who talked about building a culture in schools that is focused on staff training and development and it was reassuring to hear that many of his recommendations are already in place at BSQ but we are always looking for ways to improve and so it was interesting to look further into research about what works well and what does not. You can see some of his writing here https://tdtrust.org Whilst there are many benefits in terms of specific learning from others, the actual act of networking is also important. Networks are an increasingly important feature of contemporary life in which organisations understand their importance for innovation and knowledge exchange. Within education it is clearly understood that organisational isolation inhibits learning and, here in Ecuador, as the only British School, we need to ensure that we have strong connections across Latin America and further afield so that we keep ourselves up to date and forward thinking. As we move through the remainder of the year and into next, those connections will become increasingly important and I look forward to sharing potential opportunities with you. From the Staff and Students Continuing with our teachers and their stories about learning in the classroom this term. This week we hear from Mr. Rodrigo Samaniego in Secondary and from Ms. Cecilia Vallejos and the Reception B students + Ms. Laura Stone and the Year 1B students + Ms. Lauren Backhouse in Primary. Mr. Rodrigo Samaniego - Secondary Teacher This week with year 10 we have begun looking at factoring. At first student struggled with the expansion of binomials but afterwards managed to handle it with ease. From this we began the backwards process by factoring the trinomials resulting of the expansion. At the beginning of the process the class felt confused and struggled with the general concept. After a few different explanations they began to manage to solve the exercises, and factor simple case trinomials. Proceeding from the factoring of trinomials the class moved onto factoring the first special case, which is difference of squares. By applying the logic from the previous factoring they managed to identify the way to factor the new case. This week has made me realize the great progress that this year classes are managing in Mathematics, and all the effort they are putting into learning and applying their knowledge. Ms. Cecilia Vallejos - Reception B Teacher Reception B has been studying the cycle of plants, they have learnt the incredible phenomena of birth, that starts with a tiny seed that follows different phases and, in the end, we get the product, flowers and fruits. The kids not only have understood what the cycle of plants is but also that a plant needs water, air, soil, solar light, and love. The plant that the kids have been taking care of is called “Farita”, a name democratically chosen by the kids through an election, what has signed the value of respect. The ages of the kids fluctuate between four and a half and five years, being these the initial phases of learning, we´ve been working on basic and fundamental concepts, like adding and subtracting. Likewise, we have also been working intensely on the phonics area. Of all this baggage of knowledge, we have been harvesting the results day by day. This week Dr Fernanda and Dr Alía came to talk to the Year 1 children all about the animals, plants and communities you can find in the Amazon Rainforest. We learnt a lot. We learnt there are 13 different nationalities in Ecuador and 13 different languages are spoken. They taught us the language of Wao Terero spoken in the Amazon. We learnt to say my name is you need to say Voto imopa. Also to say thank you in Shuar you must say Yuminsajme. They also taught us about the dangers facing many parts of the amazon due to oil companies cutting down the Rainforest. Thank you very much Dr Fernanda and Dr Alía for coming into spend the time with year 1 Ms. Lauren Backhouse - Year 4 Teacher Purple Mash! Years 1 -6 Your child now has access to Purple mash, a resource of exciting learning opportunities. Purple mash is a comprehensive online learning tool designed to be used by Primary aged children in the classroom and at home. You can find out more here: https://2simple.com/purple-mash/purple-mash-parents/ Log on to Purple Mash with your child and see the different ways you can support their classroom learning. Dates for your DiaryApril 4th – Years 1, 2 and 3 Parents: PSHE Workshop. 8 – 9:30am April 4th – Art Sale Years 1A & 1B, parents invited. 1:30pm Library. April 4th - IB Art Exhibition. 5pm April 5th – School closes at 12pm for Teachers´ Day April 6th – Family Fun Day April 11th - Years 5 & 6 trip to Ilaló April 12th - school finishes at 12 for the Easter break. Happy holidays everyone. April 15th - 19th - Easter Week May 3rd - Labour Day Holiday (note change of day) Emma Newman Principal Being BSQ – Primary Update ![]() Last week we held a very successful Book Week, with the students experiencing an author visit in Years 1-6, visiting the Book Fair and ending with our Book Character Dress Up Day. Of course, the main focus for Book Week was to get the students engaged in reading and enjoying a wide variety of books, experiencing different styles of books and thinking about their own reading habits. This week we are holding a PSHE Parent Workshop on Thursday morning at 8am for all parents of students in Years 1, 2 & 3. This session will let you know the content and delivery of the next part of our PSHE (Personal, Social, Health Education) programme. On Thursday afternoon, Year 1 will host an Art Sale in the Library at 1:30pm to raise money for a variety of rainforest charities. On Friday we are celebrating Teacher Appreciation Day – school will finish at 12pm for all students, who will have their lunch at home that day. Star of the weekMarcus Madden Head of Primary Being BSQ – Secondary Update ![]() Latin American Heads Conference Attending the LAHC annual conference last week, one theme that came up time and again in presentations and workshops resonated especially well with our values here at BSQ, and that was the importance of student happiness and well-being as not just an aside or an afterthought to education, but as as one of its central aims. To me this seems natural and obvious, and yet it was clear from speaking with other school leaders that such an approach is not the norm in all school. It makes me proud to be part of a school that is doing do many things right that others have yet to achieve, and while we will always look to improve, we're definitely well ahead of the game in both intention and action. The IB Art Exhibition One of our most anticipated annual events, the IB Art Exhibition, happens this coming Thursday from 5pm. We are very lucky this year to have been granted permission to 'take over' the school's central building for the week, and as such not only are we able to exhibit at school, but the students and Ms Sofi Molina have also been able to get very creative with the unique spaces available. Please do come along and marvel at the students' talent and efforts on Wednesday. Jim Wild Head of Secondary From the BSQ Counselling Team This week our school counsellor, Andrea Carrera, talks about conflict management with teenagers.
Welcome![]() Living Today marks the closing of the official period of our self-study for CIS accreditation and I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who has helped out with the journey. Every single member of staff at BSQ has been a part of the process along with groups of parents, Orbital and of course the students. Much of the process has given us cause for celebration as we realise how much we do in the community, how hard our students work to improve their learning, how hard our teachers work to develop the curriculum and how hard the admin team work to support the work in the classroom. There have also been areas we have identified for improvement such as updating policies and re-writing job descriptions – all essential elements of running an excellent organisation. As we approach the CIS team accreditation on May 26th-31st, I will keep you all posted on the progress as we look forward to sharing our wonderful school with the visitors. This week I will be visiting Mexico City as part of the cohort of Principals and Head Teachers from the continent who will be joining together to share best practice and ideas linked to excellence in school practice. As members of the Latin American Heads Conference (LAHC) we are lucky to be able to meet with professionals who share the same triumphs and challenges as we do and, hopefully, to be able to form some partnerships that will provide opportunities for students and teachers back here at BSQ. The Keynote speaker at the conference is David Weston from the Teacher Development Trust in the UK and there will be lots of other exciting ways to share ideas and resources. I will share updates with you next week. Learning As always, our staff and students have been busy getting out and about to enrich their learning in the local and wider community. Since Christmas alone I have received over 20 requests from staff to take students out of school to explore projects and by the end of the year I anticipate about 60 educational visits will have taken place. We start early at BSQ with even our nursery students travelling off-site to experience new opportunities to get hands-on with their learning. Here they are enjoying their visit to the pizza shop. Meanwhile, in the secondary school the students have been out and about in the local community undertaking work as part of their community enrichment projects. It is not possible to track all of our trips here but keep an eye on the Facebook page for more details as we move through the remainder of the year. https://www.facebook.com/BSQuito/ Last week we took delivery of the first of our new classroom learning tools and installed four visualizers in classrooms around the school. Students lucky enough to be taught by Ms. Backhouse, Mr. Newman, Ms. Ngwenya or Mr. Ashfield will find that examples of work undertaken or completed in lessons can be displayed immediately for the purposes of improvement and drafting. The visualisers are also wonderful tools for many other purposes such as displaying small objects in science, modelling live examples of problems in maths or annotating exemplars of exam questions. During the remainder of this year we will be installing these devices in all our classrooms to continue developing our approach to supporting learning and excellent outcomes. ![]() Welcome to Mrs. Catherine Farag This week we welcome Mrs. Catherine Farag to BSQ and she will be taking the Reception A class for the remainder of this academic year. Mrs. Farag joins us with a wealth of international experience in Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and China. We all look forward to working with her and welcoming the Reception A families to meet with her on Friday. I would also like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to Mr. Oscar Tabango who has been teaching and caring for the children in Reception A since January. He stepped into the breach when we most needed him and has done a wonderful job. ![]() Goodbye to Florence Myszor Many of your children will have benefitted from the warmth, kindness and sporting expertise of our assistant Ms Florence Myszor who has been with us since September last year and has now completed her 6-month placement. She returns to the UK this week but we hope to see her back in Ecuador for a visit before too long. Thank to her for all her hard work. From the Staff and Students Continuing with our teachers and their stories about learning in the classroom this term. This week we hear from Mrs. Alejandra Miranda in Secondary and from Mrs. Helen Dávila and the Year 3B students in Primary. Mrs Alejandra Miranda – Secondary Teacher In the IB English B class with Year 12, we have been analyzing beauty, health and the pressure of the media, social networks and the standards that they impose on young people today. It has been mobilizing to see the students' ability to express their rejection of these impossible norms, and how confident of themselves and their potential in all aspects, they are. These made me think that in these ten years as part of the BSQ staff, I have learned that the greatest treasure we have is the quality of human beings who are our wonderful students, and the ability they show to stand firm in their beliefs and values. Mrs Helen Dávila – Year 3B Teacher Year 3 have started their new topic this term which covers, 'how human rights have changed throughout history'. We are looking at the history of the UN and started off by creating a wonderful display in the class of all 193 flags of those countries who are part of the organisation. We had a QFT lesson where we looked at what would happen if there were no rules during a football match, on the road or at school, all having pretty devastating results. As part of a Global Citizenship topic students in Year 8 have been learning about Human Rights. They watched Emma Watson's inspirational speech to the UN on Women's Rights and started their own independent study to investigate a human rights issue they felt passionate about. After exploring the elements that make a great speech, the Year 8 students devised their own speech and presented them to the Year 3 UN. This was a great way to learn more about human rights and we hope to create our own speech having been inspired by the secondary students. Dates for your Diary March 25th – 29th – Book Week at BSQ March 25th – Book author Rebekah Murray visiting BSQ and reading her promotional book Elroy la / the iguana to KS1 children (1pm at the Library) March 26th – Book author Rebekah Murray visiting BSQ and reading her promotional book El regalo del mar to KS2 children (1pm at the Library) March 27th – Book Fair Primary 8:30am – 3pm March 27th - Dra. Fernanda Solís will talk to the children in Years 1A & 1B about saving the rainforest. 8:45 March 28th – Book Fair Secondary March 29th – Book Character Dress up Day March 29th - Meeting for Reception A families at 08:00 March 29th - Daniela Urresta, an ex-student, visits Years 5&6 as part of her degree project. March 29th – Year 9B Science trip April 4th – Years 1, 2 and 3 Parents: PSHE Workshop. 8 – 9:30am April 4th – Art Sale Years 1A & 1B, parents invited. 1:30pm Library. April 5th – School closes at 12pm for Teachers´ Day April 6th – Family Fun Day April 15th - 19th - Easter Week May 3rd - Labour Day Holiday (note change of day) Emma Newman Principal Being BSQ – Primary Update ![]() This week we are celebrating Book Week, with this year’s focus being on ‘Reading around the World’. Each class has chosen a book from another culture and will be reading and exploring this book throughout the week. We will also enjoy two different author visits. KS1 will meet Rebekah Murray, a New Zealand author currently living in Ecuador. KS2 will meet Carmen Helena Pazmiño, an Ecuadorian author. Both sessions will involve the author discussing their writing styles, their motivation and methods and also answering any questions the students have about their books. On Wednesday there will be a primary Book Fair in the Library, giving the students the opportunity to browse a wide selection of books from around the world. Finally, on Friday we will have a Book Character Dress Up Day with the focus being on different book activities and celebrating the diverse nature of books. We have shared in a previous newsletter the benefits of reading regularly with your child, instilling that love of books early on so they can immerse themselves in the lives of others and places they have never visited. Reading together also has the added benefit of allowing you as expert readers to model good reading habits and share together the excitement and enjoyment that goes with reading a good book – in any language! We have a variety of charitable events organised by the Secondary Community Projects students this week and next – please support your child if they wish to participate. We are also still requesting that every student brings in an old t-shirt, top or painting apron to use during art activities. Star of the week Marcus Madden Head of Primary Being BSQ – Secondary Update ![]() Sports It's been an emotional roller coaster of a week for the Secondary Football and Basketball teams. They achieved some proud victories, and showed great progress. Both boys; and girls' football teams made it to the semi-finals, with the girls just missing out on a place in the final after a devastatingly tense penalty shoot-out. The basketballers made the final. Congratulations to all our players, and a huge thank you to our amazing coaches: Ms Sofi Molina, Mr Oscar Tabango, Ms Florence Myszor, Mr Juan Licona and Mr Joshua Cannon. Model United Nations Our talented, hard-working, and brave MUN delegates debated for three days last week in an international MUN at Colegio Aleman alongside students from Brazil and Colombia. Though we are small, we are mighty, and Martin Anhalzer, Mathias Bustos, and Victoria Proaño all came away with awards of recognition for their excellence performances. A huge thank you to them and all of the students for representing us so well and making us so proud, and of course a special thank you to Mr John Ashfield, the wise guardian of MUN at BSQ. The Duke of Edinburgh's International Award This week, it's the turn of the D of E to change a few students' lives. During today and tomorrow, the majority of Year 10 will be out navigating their way across vast swathes of Cotopaxi National Park. We'll let you know how that goes next week. Jim Wil Head of Secondary From the BSQ Counselling Team This week our school counsellor, Andrea Carrera, talks about privacy, monitoring and trust.
Welcome![]() Living On Friday April 20th 2018, On Friday, April 20th, 2018, hundreds of thousands of students in every state in America walked out of their classrooms. ‘We are walking out for those who lost their lives to gun violence, to talk about the real problems our country is facing, and to find solutions the problems that our leaders have failed to address.’ This was about the failure of the US government to legislate against guns and therefore prevent gun crime in schools. The concept of young people taking action has only gathered strength and direction since and one Swedish student in particular has now focused the attention of the world on an issue that affects us all. On Friday March 15th, the students of the Eco Club at BSQ presented an assembly linked to the International Day of Action for Climate Change. Students watched a video of Greta Thunberg the 16-year-old Swedish activist talking about how she became passionate about campaigning for all of us to stop talking about saving Earth and get on with doing it! In her Ted Talk of August 2018, she expressed her disbelief that ‘everyone keeps saying climate change is an existential threat and the most important issue of all, and yet they just carry on like before.’ As a result, Greta has inspired hundreds of thousands of young people – including here at BSQ. We have started our own work to make a difference and are completing our action to undertake genuine campus recycling. In addition, we are planning a programme of events across the school to mark World Environment Day on June 5th. As Greta Thunberg says, ‘instead of looking for hope, look for action. Then, and only then, hope will come. https://www.ted.com/talks/greta_thunberg_the_disarming_case_to_act_right_now_on_climat Book Week Next week, from March 25th – 29th, BSQ we will have our annual Book Week. Rebekah Murray (New Zealand) and Carmen Helena Pazmiño (Ecuador), book authors, will be visiting BSQ and reading their promotional books to children in KS1 and KS2. The agenda during the week will be the following (additional information will be sent this week): If you’d like to order a copy of the books, please send the money in an envelope addressed with your child’s name and the book title. This can be handed to Sandy in reception on or before March 25th. Also be sure to include a note if you’d like the book dedicated to someone.
Learning Our enrichment programme at BSQ continues to offer a wide range of opportunities for students to polish their skills, learn new ones, explore ideas, be creative, be active and offer service to others. Each week we share information about those activities on Facebook but here is a montage of the some of the different opportunities available this term. Developing enrichment further is something that as parents I know you are keen for us to explore and it is certainly something that we are discussing for the programme for next year. I know that music and the arts are top of your lists and we will certainly ensure that there are more of those types of activities next year. We will also be continuing to develop and expand our community projects and work with the wider community. Please see below for the early closure on April 5th for Teachers´ Day when we celebrate all the hard work our staff undertake every day. From the Staff and Students Continuing with our teachers and their stories about learning in the classroom this term. This week we hear from Ms. Ngwenya in Secondary and from Mr. Mercer and the Year 1B students in Primary. Ms Claire Ngwenya – Secondary Maths Teacher During this partial in maths, the year 9s have been looking at shapes and developing their geometrical and spatial reasoning: plans and elevations of 3D shapes, isometric drawings, reflective symmetry, and constructing lines and polygons using a pair of compasses and ruler. In the week before the holiday, they learnt about a type of angle measurement known as bearings. They started by naming the points on a geographical compass, and then writing each of these as bearings. To practice, they did an activity outside and in pairs. One person in the pair was blindfolded and the other person told them the bearing (angle or direction) and the number of steps to walk to get to a certain point. The class also discussed scale drawings and what they are used for. They each thought of some careers that might utilize scale drawings, such as architects, cartographers, artists, designers, and engineers. The next step was to learn to interpret the scale of a map, which is a key that tells you how a distance on the page represents a larger distance in real life. For example, 1cm represents 1km, written as 1:100,000. The final task in the topic was for each student to create a treasure map. There had to be a start point, an end point, and at least 3 instructions to get from start to finish. The instructions had to include details of the bearing to take, and the distance to travel in real life, which then had to be converted to centimetres on the page using the map scale chosen by the student. Optional extras to include were obstacles such as lakes, mountains, forests, and dangerous monsters. Some students also became creative and aged the maps with techniques such as burning the edges of the paper and staining it with tea. The year 9s have not only created some excellent pieces of display work which show off their understanding of bearings and map scales, but they have also developed their navigational skills and map skills. Bearings and scales will be revisited in the IGCSE and will also be of practical use for any students partaking in the Duke of Edinburgh award as they embark on independent walking and orienteering expeditions. Mr. Teddy Mercer – Year 1A Teacher This Wednesday 20th March, the United Nations will celebrate the 6th annual International Day of Happiness. This year's theme is what we have in common, rather than what divides us. The campaign is coordinated by a group called Action for Happiness. "A profound shift in attitudes is underway all over the world. People are now recognising that 'progress' should be about increasing human happiness and wellbeing, not just growing the economy." The United Nations website lists the 17 Sustainable Development Goals that seek to end poverty, reduce inequality, and protect our planet – three key aspects that lead to well-being and happiness. Other resources include Smiling Mind, a not-for-profit organisation that intends to make mindfulness accessible to all. Their YouTube channel hosts a range of free resources for children and their families. In Year 1A, we have been focusing on the things that make us happy and taking a moment each day to be grateful and mindful. Why is this important? Aside from the obvious benefits for wellbeing, interweaving mindfulness and gratefulness into education has been scientifically proven to boost students' positive emotions and, thus, enhance their academic achievement. We encourage you to take a moment this week to pause and think about what makes you happy, healthy and productive! Dates for your Diary March 21st – Nursery Pizza Trip to Tumbaco March 21st – Year 1 trip to the Zoo May 3rd - Labour Day Holiday (note change of day) April 4th – Years 1, 2 and 3 Parents: PSHE Workshop. 8 – 9:30am April 4th – Art Sale 1:30pm Library. April 5th - School closes at 12pm for Teachers´ Day April 6th – Family Fun Day April 15th - 19th - Easter Week Emma Newman Principal Being BSQ – Primary Update ![]() On Saturday the students from Reception to Year 5 enjoyed a morning of musical discovery and composition, with a wide variety of styles and performances on display. Though many people enjoy the pleasures of music and perhaps understand the intrinsic value of musical education, there are many benefits to exposing our youngest students to music from an early age: 1. It helps to improve their brain power. It has been scientifically proven that music has advantages and health benefits for children. One of these benefits is that it helps to improve their brain power and memory functions. According to this research here, it was discovered that the brain of a musician works differently than that of a non-musician. It was also shown that students who were exposed to music while growing up excelled better in academics than those who were not. Music helps in stimulating the part of the brain that is responsible for reading, math and emotional development. 2. It helps them develop social skills While growing up, many children will face challenges of adapting socially. The best way to help them overcome this is by encouraging them to learn how to play a musical instrument or be part of a singing group. This helps them develop social skills, such as how to relate with people, how to work in a team, leadership and discipline, and how to appreciate rewards and achievement. 3. It helps them build their confidence If you notice that your child is having problems with confidence, then learning how to play a musical instrument may help a lot. When he or she realises that they can develop a skill on their own, it gives them that self-belief and confidence boost that they require. As time goes by, they will become better, and become even more confident in their abilities. 4. It teaches them patience If you have ever observed a choral band playing, then the one thing you notice is how patient each member is. Band members must always wait for the signal from the person in charge before they play, or else there will be no harmony in the song they are playing. This is the same way it is when your children are playing with others in a group; they learn the virtues of patience and how it affects others. They also learn how to work together with others while making something as beautiful as music. 5. It is a great form of expression and inspires creativity What better way for your child to express themselves than through music. Skills such as songwriting, singing and stage performance will help your child develop social skills which will in turn help them express themselves. Whether it is writing the lyrics to a song or practicing a new way to play the guitar, your child is also going to tap into their inner creative spirit. 6. It teaches them discipline. Learning how to play a musical instrument or become a better singer requires discipline and patience. Your child will need a lot of practice. When your child picks up this habit, it teaches them the importance of discipline and following through. They know that in order to get better, they need to put in the time. This helps them become better disciplined and pursue their goals. Now you know the benefits of music for children as they grow up. Here are some simple and fun ways to make it part of your routine:
Star of the week Marcus Madden Head of Primary Being BSQ – Secondary Update ![]() The Future - Part One It's that time of the year when many of our students in Secondary are making choices that may well affect their futures. In Year 9, students are being asked to choose the subjects they will study at IGCSE level. In Year 11, students are choosing their IBDP subjects. My advice, for what it's worth, is to prioritize your choices in the following order:
The Future - Part Two Our students didn't stage a walk-out on Friday, as thousands of other students across the world did, but perhaps they should have. The global protests are a demand for action, a cry for help, a rebuke against their parents' generation and its leaders, who have so far failed to protect their planet and their children's future. They want action, not words, on greenhouse gas emissions, waste, and the extinction of species. They want change, are willing to bring that change about, but are crippled by their age and the vested interests of those in charge of their nations and the world. We have a duty not only to listen, but to act, and now. Jim Wild Head of Secondary From the BSQ Counselling Team This week our school counsellor, Andrea Carrera, talks about how to promote a healthy social-emotional development in your child.
Welcome![]() Living Welcome back everyone and I hope that your Carnival break was both restful and energizing. It is now only a short term before we enjoy our Easter week break but there is still a great deal to fit in. Firstly, there are exciting trips taking place such as to Huasquila Lodge (Years 5 and 12), to the Zoo (Year 1), to the pizza shop (Nursery) to the Museo Interactivo de Ciencias (Year 9) and to the MUN conference at Colegio Alemán (Years 9-12). We encourage staff to plan and lead trips at BSQ because we know that the learning experiences are always rich, rewarding and give the students an opportunity to make sense of the curriculum in a different way. Watch this space for photos. Then of course on April 6th we have our Family Funday and this year it promises to be bigger and better than ever! The PA will soon be releasing the raffle announcement and there are some amazing prizes to be won so don’t forget to get your tickets. Learning On February 28th we celebrated Digital Learning Day across the school when everyone at BSQ and at other Orbital schools captured their activities at 10am so that we can show just how much happens in a minute across the world. Here are some sneak peeks.. Before the break our Year 3 students finished their studies of the Egyptians with an Egyptian day of learning and making all sorts of crafts including necklaces, bracelets, sarcophagi and even mummy wrappings. Thanks to the staff in Year 3 for making all this possible and to the children who worked so hard to complete all their tasks. This week our IB student are due to upload all their work and this signals the end of a period of study and focus that has been challenging but rewarding in terms of the growth and development of their skills. They now enter a period of revision and preparation for the IB exams and the Ser Bachiller at the end of the year. Good luck Year 13. On Saturday we will have classes and there are some very exciting learning opportunities planned for the primary students. See below for more details from Mr Madden. There will also be a healthy eating workshop at 9am and secondary parent-teacher-student conferences for years 8, 9 and 10. Dates for your Diary March 16th – Classes, all staff in school March 16th – Good eating habits workshop for Nursery, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 parents May 3rd - Labour Day Holiday (note change of day) April 4th – Years 1, 2 and 3 Parents: PSHE Workshop. 8 – 9:30am April 6th – Family Funday April 15th - 19th - Easter Week Emma Newman Principal Being BSQ – Primary Update![]() Welcome back to the new term here at BSQ and we hope you and your family enjoyed a relaxing and purposeful break. We now have five weeks before the Easter break, with lots of fantastic learning opportunities for the students. This Saturday we will open the school between 9am and 12pm for our Musical Morning, with the students involved in a variety of musical activities, culminating in a performance just before home time. There will also be a Healthy Eating Workshop at 9am – more details to follow. If your child participated in any of the ‘50 Things to do in the Holidays’ activity sheet, please share them with your child’s class teacher, we would love to hear about your adventures. Marcus Madden Head of Primary Being BSQ – Secondary Update ![]() Welcome back to all Secondary families. I hope you all had an excellent and relaxing break. Classroom Surveys We value the opinions and insights of our students, and we use their feedback to shape make improvements and to shape the way we do things. All teachers in Secondary recently conducted online surveys of their classroom teaching, in which students were invited to respond to 21 questions related to teaching, assessment, feedback, and other aspects of their learning experience. As individual teacher we then take these results, reflect on them, and use them to inform our practice. I learned that the students by-and-large think I have a tremendous amount of subject knowledge, which is great, and that I am persistent in engaging the attention and effort of everybody in the class. They also told me that, while they adapt and learn based on the feedback I provide, I do need to mark their books more often. I will certainly endeavor to do so. Parent Workshops Ms Andrea Carrera, our dedicated school psychologist, regularly invites parents in to school to discuss the social and emotional growth of their children, often with a focus on a particular parental concern. These include the different stages of puberty, stress and motivation, digital safety, and drugs and alcohol awareness. I strongly encourage all parents to attend such events. Your children, our students, depend on us working together to ensure their well-being, happiness, and success. Jim Wild Head of Secondary From the BSQ Counselling Team This week our school counsellor, Andrea Carrera, talks about about parents’ role concerning video games, online games and apps among children and teenagers.
Welcome![]() Living As we are now approaching our Carnival break it is time to reflect on all that has been happening around the school recently. There is always lots going on at BSQ and last week was no exception. On Friday we welcomed Michelle O. Fried into school as the first guest of the new BSQ Ayuda Social and she spoke to 30 parents about how to buy, prepare and eat fresh and healthy local Ecuadorian produce. If you were unable to make the session then you can try out some of her recipes here https://www.michelleofried.com/english#main It was wonderful to be able to share her expertise with parents and we hope to develop the relationship and sessions further moving forward. Following on from the wonderful, informative talk given by Michelle O. Fried on Friday last week I would like to set all families and staff a challenge. At the start of next year we want to publish our own BSQ recipe book called The BSQ Lunchbox. This will be filled with healthy, local recipes and ideas for packed lunches (the first in a series I hope!) So I invite you all to send in your ideas.Of course, with our mission to eat well and local, all recipes must have that focus. Feel free to add drawings or photographs to illustrate your ideas and maybe tell us where the recipe came from - a relative, a home country, your imagination etc The deadline for sending in your recipes is April 13th. Our Key Stage 3 (Years 7-9) students are very busy at the moment with their community projects and this often includes raising money for their chosen foundation or cause. Last week alone we had a PIE the teacher event, a video games tournament and bake sales. Finally, this Friday we will celebrate International Women’s Day with an assembly, a jeans day and (yes) more cakes in aid of the Triada Foundation. Parent Survey. Remember that I am looking for some answers to these two questions following on from the parent survey. Question 1. If the newsletter is read by over 1/3 of the parents, what should we have in it that helps communication to improve. Question 2. Since social media is the most easily accessible form of communication for most people, how can we develop our Facebook page (or other suggestions) to ensure that it is a frontline form of communication. We look forward to your answers because of course communication is a two-way effort. If oy think someone may not have read the newsletter this week – pass it on! Enjoy a well-earned rest with your families next week Learning On February 15th and 16th I was lucky enough to attend and speak at an exciting new conference in Quito called Women and Leadership: Enabling Voices. It was wonderful to see over 100 people giving up their time at the weekend to come together and talk about, listen to and explore the ways in which women have developed their leadership and the ways in which they still plan to – both here in Ecuador and across the world. It was a great way to meet people and share ideas and I know that some of the staff who attended have already invited guest speakers into school to work with students. Perfect timing as we approach International Women’s Day. Last week I came across a group of year 12 students using the microwave during a physics lesson. They appeared to be cooking an egg white. What I learned, thanks to Mr Taylor’s clear explanation, was that they were in fact measuring the speed of light. By finding the distance between the cooked spots of the egg white (half a wave length) the students were able to calculate the speed of light and compare their findings to published figures. Amazing! Just around the corner, Year 5 were making Inca masks as part of the How have important civilizations contributed to our world today? module. They were all beautiful and I learned that the way the Incas viewed the skies was very different to ours – the stars were thought of as eyes looking out of dark figures and watching over every living creature on earth. Tomorrow our Year 3 students will be coming into school dressed as Egyptians as part of their learning module entitled How have important civilizations contributed to our world today? Many thanks to all the parents who have supported with costumes and contributions. From the Staff and Students Continuing with our teachers and their stories about learning in the classroom this term. This week we hear from Mr. Ashfield in Secondary and from Mr. Newman and the Y6 students in Primary. Mr. Ashfield - History Secondary Teacher One of the best things about working here at BSQ is our school community and how everyone comes together to create a broader and more enriching curriculum for our Students. An example of this was the school´s first annual International Day that we had on February 5th. Students worked together from different year groups and really got into the spirit of the day learning about their assigned countries and creating an amazing set of displays on them. At break time we were fortunate to have food brought in by our parents that was representative of a range of nationalities (with the Peruvian stand being a particular favourite of mine!) Then in the afternoon we had a student lead session of the Model United Nations enrichment that we run here in school. The students had to embody their countries and represent new and challenging views that may have clashed with their own but they did this with a degree of skill I was not expecting! A special mention should go to our senior MUN team as well as I was incredibly impressed by our student chairs who lead these committees with skill and maturity and helped create a fantastic day for all of our students. We can sometimes focus almost too much on Quimestre exams and reports but really it is days like these that people remember from their time in school and I feel fortunate to be part of such a supportive community of students, teachers and parents that make these days a reality and I can happily say I am looking forward to the next one we do! Mr. Newman – Y6 Teacher In Year 6, like other classes in the primary phase, we have been focusing on a civilisation from the past in Topic; in our case, it has been the Romans and their occupation of what we now know as the United Kingdom. We have spent a lot of time thinking about the features of civilisations and what the criteria seems to be for a culture from the past to be described in such a way. We have also considered what it means to be civilised and whether the word civilised goes hand in hand with civilisations. Our classroom is also filled with ancient Brittonic shields that the early Britons would have used to try to repel the invading Roman barbarian hordes! We are also deep into rehearsals for the Year 6 end-of-year production. You might already have read that we are preparing an interpretation of one of the greatest Shakespearean tragedies ever written: The Tragedy of Macbeth. Very soon we will be presenting our Year 6 class assembly to the KS2 pupils. We are going to give them a ‘taste’ of a few things from the production that we have ready. Of course, we won’t be giving too much away in the assembly because we want to keep things a surprise and, also, if I am honest, because we are not yet ready! After all, the production isn’t until the final week of school in June. The children in Year 6 have been managing the demands of daily classes with additional pressure now as we work on Macbeth. I am full of admiration for them because the production is another, but exciting, thing to fit into their schedules inside and outside of school. To whet your appetites, take a look at some of the early photos from rehearsals. Dates for your Diary February 25th - Whole Primary Photo + Secondary Photos (year group + individual). February 25th – KS1 Assembly, led by Year 2A, at 1pm. Parents invited February 25th – Parent meeting, host by Mr. Kyle, at 3:45pm about Year 5’s trip to Huasquilla February 26th – Egyptian Day in Year 3 February 26th – Primary School Photos (year group + individual). February 27th - Whole School and Secondary Photos February 27th – KS2 Assembly, led by Year 6, at 9:30am. Parents invited February 28th – Digital Learning Day March 1st – International Women’s Day: Own Clothes Day (white, purple or black colours) and Bake Sale. March 4th - Carnival holiday week April 4th – Years 1, 2 and 3 Parents: PSHE Workshop. 8 – 9:30am Emma Newman Principal Being BSQ – Primary Update ![]() This week’s newsletter focuses on an area of child development that is often the hardest for us adults to understand and facilitate – experiential learning through play. Experiential learning can be defined as children (and adults!) learning through exploring, experiencing, creating, discovering, relating to and interacting with the world around them. This form of learning is unstructured, without rules or time limits, and often involves little adult guidance or input. Experiential learning enables children to pursue their own areas of interest and to work through problems as they arise in real-life situations. Experiential learning can also be important for letting children experience the reality of ‘failure’ and how to overcome setbacks and challenges. They can feel pride when they eventually find a way to do something because they learned to do it themselves, not because someone told them the answer. This approach is often collaborative and enables children to work out their own unique strategy (with some support), rather than following a set formula to arrive at an answer. They will be more likely to think creatively in the future, rather than assuming that all problems have “right” and “wrong” answers and “right” and “wrong” ways of getting there. Play enables children to act out alternative scenarios and to find different ways to express social or emotional difficulties. They can learn assertiveness, social skills, leadership qualities and how to solve group-conflict through role-play and using the play space as a rehearsal for real-life situations. Learning is not just about academic pursuits but also about life skills. When lost in a world of unstructured play, children are free to get to know others and communicate their feelings, thoughts, and needs in a safe environment. My favourite quote about the benefits of play comes from Peter Gray’s article ‘The Value of Play: How Children Confront Life’s Challenges’: “Children do not play to avoid the realities of life, they play at the realities of life. In doing so they come to grips with those realities—physically, intellectually, and emotionally.” Next week the whole BSQ community has the opportunity to enjoy a week of unstructured play. To help facilitate this, I have attached something I shared with the students before the Christmas break – 50 Things to do in the Holiday. Though 50 is probably unrealistic, why not strive to achieve at least one of these types of activities each day of the holiday? We would love to share some of these activities once we are back at school on Monday 11th March On Friday 1st March it is International Women’s Day and some secondary students are organising a Bake Sale and Own Clothes Day to raise money for the Triada Foundation. If your child would like to participate, please send in $1 to wear black, white or purple clothes (these colours represent Women’s rights) and perhaps another $1 to buy cakes or cookies. Star of the week Marcus Madden Head of Primary Being BSQ – Secondary Update![]() House Most Friday mornings, for 45 minutes, the whole of Secondary come together as one in friendly support and competition. The 'House' programme, based on long-established British educational tradition you'll no doubt be familiar with from the Harry Potter books, puts students and teachers, for the duration of their time at BSQ, into one of three teams: Antisana, Cayambe, or Iliniza. It is in these teams and for these teams that they collect House points for hard work and excellence; and on Fridays, it is in these teams and for these teams that they compete in a wide range of sporting activities. The leadership, participation and camaraderie across age-groups is powerful and meaningful, and we would ask parents to encourage their child's full participation in such character building and enriching pursuits. The Secondary Play This week saw the first gathering of the cast and crew of this year's Secondary production, Romeo and Juliet. It will be a long and challenging road between now and the performances in June, but with the talented actors we have, and the organisational skills of the Tiny Piano production team to support them, we're all very excited to see what we can create. Jim Wild Head of Secondary From the BSQ Counselling Team This week our school counsellor, Andrea Carrera, talks about how to deal with your child's bedtime fears
Welcome ![]() Living Open Day. On Wednesday February 6th we held our second Open Day of this year and welcomed 16 more new families into the school to take a tour, meet some students, staff and parents and hear about our wonderful community. As always the BSQ students who hosted and spoke at the event were greatly admired by the visitors for their kind welcome, passion for the school, confidence and maturity. Well done! Another area where our students excel is in the student council and this year the representatives in secondary have really been working hard to listen to the requests and needs of the wider student body. Here the Year 8 reps talk about their achievements and their plans. STUDENT COUNCIL What is the Student Council? Students Council is when students elect representatives to be their voice from each year group. The Student Council demands to the school to do and help in whatever the students require and need. What has the Student Council done through this year? In this new school year, 2018-2019, all the classes worked together to vote for the class representatives of each year. Since the moment the Student Council was chosen, they started to focus on life in our school and how to improve as many things as we can. The Student Council started the year by planning the “cafeteria campaign” that consists in finding new solutions to make the queue more efficient and create ideas to make the operation of the kitchen, the queue, and the system used to serve the food more organized. As the year passed, the Student Council have participated in the Holocaust Memorial (to remember the people that died during the genocide during World War II and the survivors) and have taken part in a collaborative Remembrance service with two other schools (remembering people who have died in wars and conflicts, particularly linked to WW1, which ended exactly 100 years ago). It was a great opportunity for them to learn more about the destruction caused by the wars and to be more aware of how terrible this was. Now, the Student Council is trying to improve the bathrooms. For this to happen, the Student Council created a committee and the girls in year 7, 8, 9, and 10 in the Student Council will take part in this committee. Finally, after voting during the meeting Student Council had, it was decided to make a trip to the cinema as the reward trip. The choices for students with 13 years or over are Glass, Spiderman, and Creed II. For students with 12 or less, the option that is available is Spiderman. Only the people with 50 or more house points Quimestre 1 or a British Reward, as well as you have to get certifícate to be able to have the opportunity of participating in this trip. Gabriela Baquero and Ana Paula Giol - Year 8 students School Photographs On Monday February 25th (Whole School and Secondary) and Tuesday February 26th (Primary) we will be starting the exciting journey towards creating our yearbook for 2018-2019 by taking a whole school photograph followed by class and individual shots. Please ensure that your children come to school in full and correct school uniform on that day. Michelle O.Fried We would like to share with you a brief description of our special guest, Michelle O. Fried, who will be delivering the Healthy Eating Informative Session next Friday February 22nd at 8:15am 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 and 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. For additional information about our special speaker, please find the following links: www.michelleofried.com www.fuegos.com www.quericoes.org Parent Survey. So, following on from the discussion of some areas where you rated us positively, I want to look at some of the areas you said we could improve. Whenever a survey is completed there are always concerns raised about communication and it remains a fact that if even one parent does not receive clear messages and information about events, meetings, curriculum, changes etc then we are not doing an excellent job in that area. In answer to the question, ‘What is the main channel you use to keep updated with events and what is happening at the school?’ you said: So, it seems that the majority of parents rely on the newsletter and talking to each other to find out what is happening. So, in this newsletter I am going to test that and see if we can get some answers to how you would like us to improve the service linked to communication. Answers to Andrea Zambrano our Marketing Lead please on [email protected] Question 1. If the newsletter is read by over 1/3 of the parents, what should we have in it that helps communication to improve. Question 2. Since social media is the most easily accessible form of communication for most people, how can we develop our Facebook page (or other suggestions) to ensure that it is a frontline form of communication. We look forward to your answers because of course communication is a two-way effort. If you think someone may not have read the newsletter this week – pass it on! Learning Last week I visited a guided reading session in Year 3 and worked with some students to help them find examples of verbs, nouns and adjectives in the books they were reading. We had some excellent conversations about why how we can tell them apart and the function of each word in a sentence. Learning about vocabulary is one of the most important learning activities we can undertake – whatever our age – because the richer and deeper our understanding of our language the more effectively we can express ourselves. This is an article I shared with the staff a little while ago to inspire them to spend more time in the classroom looking at language – whatever the subject. There are some useful tips for talking about language at home too and using search engines to find out where words come from. Teaching children to recognise, or even be curious about, a word’s etymology means that they will have the keys to decode many more words. We know that a broad vocabulary can be a key part of how successfully a child can access the curriculum, how far they can articulate meaning in their writing and speaking, and ultimately how well they will go on to do in their exams. 1. Take advantage of history lessons. The national curriculum requires us to teach about the places, civilisations and countries that the English language stems from. Those history lessons about Greek, Roman, Viking, Saxon and Islamic civilisations all provide opportunities to teach about the legacy they have left when it comes to English. Did you know that "window" stems from the Old Norse words for "wind" and "eye"? 2. Encourage and model curiosity. Just as with anything in the classroom, if the adults are excited about it the children are too. Make discovering a word’s origins a regular feature. Model aloud your thoughts: "I wonder where this word comes from?". The standard Google dictionary is a good enough start – type the word plus "etymology" and begin your voyage of discovery. 3. Play word games. Your imagination is the only limiting factor here. From the Staff and Students Continuing with our teachers and their stories about learning in the classroom this term. This week we hear from Miss Todd and Year 11 in Secondary and from Ms. Coronel and the Nursery B students in Primary. Ms. Todd - Chemistry Secondary Teacher This time of year is a particularly crucial time when our exam classes begin their ‘formal’ preparation for their exams. It can often mean a lot of stress and frantic studying and often as educators and parents we ask ourselves - how can I best support my son/daughter/student? Here I offer some tips as to simple ways that we can do this:
It is important for our students to remember that success is not something that many of our idols achieved by accident, when talking about his career Michael Jordan said the following: ‘I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.’ I am obviously not suggesting that we want our students to fail their exams as it will lead to future success, but this quote is relevant to the exam preparation process. Making mistakes is difficult, it’s scary or at least uncomfortable but it is necessary to learn and succeed - our students need to reflect on the mistakes that they make and adjust accordingly...trust me it will be worth it! Ms. Coronel - Nursery B Teacher What a wonderful few weeks we have had here in BSQ. The children from nursery B have shown a great deal of growth since the start of the year. Their personalities shines through every milestone, they continue to show eagerness to live new experiences and explore their surroundings. This past week we have been learning about Chinese New Year, this is the year of the pig. To celebrate, we invited the parents to join us for our very own “Chinese new year party”. The children did a short presentation for their parents and we asked them to join us for the traditional dragon dance at the end. The children were amazed by the traditional dragon dance and the lion dance, they loved all the colors and movements. We eat delicious dumplings and specially made fortune cookies. Dates for your DiaryFebruary 18th – KS1 Assembly, led by Year 2B, at 1pm. Parents invited. February 22nd. - Healthy Eating with Michelle O.Fried February 25th - Whole School and Secondary Photos. February 26th - Primary School Photos. February 28th – Digital Learning Day March 4th - Carnival holiday week Emma Newman Principal Being BSQ – Primary Update ![]() Last week we enjoyed two Class Assemblies, from 1B and 3B. This week it is the turn of 2B and 3A to share their learning with their families. These events give the students the opportunity to practise important presentation skills and develop their confidence in front of a larger audience. These are always recorded and the pictures and videos shared securely with you on the Class Blog – we politely remind you of our policy of not allowing groups of students to be photographed. In a similar way, participating in art activities encourages the development of fine motor skills, neural development and problem-solving abilities. As educators, we know it can be used effectively to teach and understand other key subjects such as reading, writing, maths, and science. Therapists tell us that art is valuable because it allows children to process their world, to deal with sometimes scary emotions in a safe way and because it gives them critical sensory input. Artists tell us that art is important for its own sake—as a source of beauty and expression, as well as simply for the process of creating. Kids tell us that art is fun, an activity they enjoy. Parents tell us that art is vital to their families because it keeps everyone engaged and happy and helps with the sometimes difficult transitions of the day. To support your child’s artistic development, we would like every student to bring in an old painting shirt or apron that they can keep in school to wear during art activities, to help give them a real sense of purpose and ownership over their artwork and let them distinguish between art activities and other activities. This shirt may be too large for them – for instance, their father’s old shirt – but we can adapt them to help protect their school uniform. Star of the week Marcus Madden Head of Primary Being BSQ – Secondary Update ![]() Community Projects We're entering the part of our Community Projects cycle again where students are looking for creative and effective ways to support their respective causes. On Friday, the Secondary staff put themselves in the firing-line, taking pies in the face to raise money for PAE. Next week, we have a video game tournament at lunch times, and the week after that, our International Women's Day celebrations will be organized by the students working with La Triada foundation. It warms the heart to see these projects, and the ethos behind them, evolve and grow, and I thank everybody involved in bringing these rich and meaningful learning opportunities to our students. Jim Wild Head of Secondary From the BSQ Counselling Team This week our school counsellor, Andrea Carrera, talks about children having enough sleep.
Welcome![]() Living Of course, having written about the wonderful sunshine last week it was then chilly and wet! Never mind, it meant that there was perfectly cooler weather for the Year 10 students to head out on their training expeditions for the Duke of Edinburgh Award. Thanks to Mr Taylor and Mrs Madden for organising and to Mr Mercer, Mr Kyle, Mr Kennedy and Mr Dobson for supporting such an important part of our extra-curricular offer for our students. Last week we also had Year 13 off-site taking part in an Escape Room activity with a focus on developing the resilience needed for the coming exams. What a great way to both chill out and gear up – with thanks to Ms Carrera and Ms León for organising and leading. Meanwhile back at school the secondary students were busy celebrating International Day with a day packed full of Model United Nations (MUN) activity and great food from around the world shared by parents and staff. Thank you everyone Parent survey. As promised, I want to continue to share with you some of the outcomes from the parent survey. We have been starting with the celebration of what you all think we do so well, and I want to continue with that theme this week. When asked what the main reasons were for choosing BSQ as your school, the top two answers were the personalised approach to the children and the quality of education. 93% are satisfied or very satisfied with the teaching overall, 88% with the care for the children and 92% with the leadership and management. Of course, I am delighted with these answers because offering an excellent education in a community school that cares for everyone is exactly what we set out to do. By hiring and developing excellent teachers; by creating a curriculum that enables students to learn, explore, question and think; by creating a deep understanding of how children learn and make progress we are able to secure excellent outcomes for the students that will support them to grow – as learners and as human beings. Finally, for this newsletter, I was also very pleased that, despite some of the remaining challenges on campus, only 29% were dissatisfied with the general facilities. Whilst this is still something we will keep as a priority moving forward, this is much lower than last year which suggests that the changes we have made have been positive. Just a quick reminder to send us any achievements – sport, music, robotics, drama etc – that you and your children would like to celebrate. We love to see them and like to share the exciting news on our Facebook page. Learning It is not only the students at BSQ who enjoy learning – we also take time to make sure that we keep learning as teachers too. So, on Monday February 4th at 4pm, four of our teachers led workshops on aspects of the profession that they are experts in. Mr Dobson led a session that shared ideas about how to be efficient – both inside and outside of the classroom. Mr Wild led a session that shared information about Theory of Knowledge in the IB programme. Ms Miranda led a session about how to use both English and Spanish in the classroom to support learning. Finally, Mr Madden led a session about the importance of feedback and the impact it has on student learning. All the workshops were full of teachers and assistants and everybody learnt something new to add to their daily work. Huge thanks to the staff who took the time to prepare and deliver the workshops. From the Staff and Students Continuing with our teachers and their stories about learning in the classroom this term. This week we hear from Ms. Montenegro in Secondary and from Ms Park and the Y2 students in Primary. Ms Montenegro - Secondary Sociales Teacher Every time people ask me what children and young people learn in Social Studies, I feel very proud to respond that they learn about their countries, their history, their traditions and customs relating some Humanities content or related subjects to assess their roots, to be critical about the reality in which we live and, above all, to acquire a general culture that comes from home, but it is further edified and refined at school. Therefore, during these months, we have learnt in KS3 about how our grandparents and our parents lived in the 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s? How has the economy, politics and society changed over these years? What have we inherited from processes such as female right to vote and the period between wars, "May 68", the agrarian reform and the Cuban Revolution? We even had a Historical Chocolatada with the director of the Ecuadorian movie Monos con Gallinas where we had a lot of fun. ![]() Additionally, in KS4, we have been working in crucial topics for our preparation towards the future national exam Ser Bachiller such as the Colony, the Independence and the Republic of Ecuador. We also visited the Historical Centre with the cultural group Mediarte, where we learnt about the importance of Quito and cocoa during the Nueva Granada Viceroyalty and Lima in the colonial economy. For this effect, we use Cuestionarix platform, where students will have 60 mini-simulators, recorded lessons with different exercises and 3 simulators to practice, so they will be ready for the national exam Ser Bachiller. CAS CAS is an important component of the BI where the students leave a moment the academic part to launch themselves to conquer their dreams and ideas. This year a common dream of Year 12, has been to work for the benefit of people who need the most, like the victims of the Earthquake of Esmeraldas 2016 and Chillanes recently. As well as, the Secoyas, an indigenous group of the Amazon that lacks schools or health centres nearby. For this reason, a group has planned to build at least 5 houses in Esmeraldas that cost $ 2,600 each and volunteer in the reconstruction of the Rumipamba in Chillanes, and a second group has planned to build classrooms, health centres and train the Secoya teachers, so that future generations have a better tomorrow. However, these dreams require a lot of effort, hard work and commitment, and they fully trust the BSQ community supports them, helps promoting them and keeps the interest. We hope you will join these dreams and contact them to the following email address [email protected] any donation or suggestion is more than welcome. Ms. Montenegro - CAS Coordinator Ms. Park – Year 2 Teacher This term in topic, our focus has been on answering the question 'How have individuals influenced the world'. Within this, we have been learning about Christopher Columbus and the impact his discoveries have had. We made a timeline of his life and discussed the impacts of his influence. We also learnt how to effectively express our view points. We also spent some time sketching portraits of Columbus using various sketching techniques. Dates for your Diary February 11th - KS 1 Assembly, parents invited at 1pm February 13th - Secondary reward trip February 13th - Year 3B share their learning to their parents at 9:30am. February 14th - Valentine´s Day Dress Up and Cake Sale February 15th and 16th - Women and Leadership: Enabling Voices Conference at Cotopaxi February 22nd. - Healthy Eating with Michelle O.Fried March 4th - Carnival holiday week Emma Newman Principal Being BSQ – Primary Update ![]() On Saturday the Primary students enjoyed their annual Sports Day, with a range of events and activities aimed to both demonstrate their skills and also promote physical activity in all our students. We all know that regular physical activity is good for us, but often do not make it a priority in our busy lives. However, new studies suggest that we do not need to spend hours in the gym doing rigorous activity to be physically active. Both adults and children can enjoy a variety of benefits by performing everyday activities in the home. Every time you and your child throw a ball, swim a lap, climb a flight of stairs, walk to the store or carry packages, your health and fitness levels are improving. The earlier a child is encouraged to enjoy and participate in regular physical activity, the more they will reduce the risk of numerous illnesses. Here are some of the benefits that physical activity offers your child: 1. It strengthens the heart. The heart is a muscle. Like other muscles, its performance improves when it is regularly challenged by exercise. The heart responds to exercise by becoming stronger and more efficient. Strengthening the heart muscle can help ward off heart disease - the leading cause of death in the United States, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services - even in early childhood. 2. It strengthens the lungs. Working hard increases lung capacity and their efficiency in moving air in and out of the body. As a result, more oxygen is drawn into the body and more carbon dioxide and other waste gases are expelled. Regular exercise helps prevent the decline in oxygen intake that occurs naturally with age or as a result of inactivity. 3. It strengthens bones. Just as muscles grow stronger when physically stressed, bones also respond by getting stronger. Exercise increases bone density, which helps prevent osteoporosis, a condition in which bones lose density, weaken, and become porous and fragile. 4. It improves energy levels. Regular exercise often makes people feel more energetic, allows them to be more active and reduces the likelihood that they will tire during the day. 5. It enhances emotional well-being. Most people report that they feel calm and have a sense of well-being after they exercise. On Thursday this week we have the Valentine’s Day Dress Up Day and Cake Sale, organised by Secondary students: more details to follow later this week. Have a great week! Star of the week Marcus Madden Head of Primary Being BSQ – Secondary Update ![]() International Day On Tuesday 5th February we held an International Day in Secondary. Students were divided into mixed-age groups, and each group was assigned a different country. They then research their countries, and a range of pressing global issues, ahead of producing displays, and taking part in a school-wide Model United Nations conference. The conference was a huge success. Organised by Mr John Ashfield, and run by the BSQ MUN team, the students engaged in focused debates on topics as diverse as Syrian refugees, the role of women in STEM careers and education, and the possibility of a zombie apocalypse. It was a fantastic day, with students and staff alike engaged in high level learning and problem solving, displaying excellent public speaking and interpersonal skills, and truly enthusiastic to be involved. Thank you to everybody involved, not least the parents who laid on the most delicious feast of international food at break time. Reward Trip On Wednesday of this week, all students who have received an award this past quimestre - be it for academic excellence, hard work, representation of our BSQ values, or the accumulation of House points, are invited to join the frist of our two Reward Trips of the year. The students will be spending the morning at Paseo San Francisco, where we have booked private screenings of two age-appropriate movies. It is sure to be an enjoyable morning, has been well-earned by those attending, and hopefully even more students will be able to join us when we go again in June. Jim Wild Head of Secondary From the BSQ Counselling Team This week our school counsellor, Andrea Carrera, gives us some steps and tips to solve problems with children.
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May 2024
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