Welcome
Here at BSQ it is not just the students that keep learning – our staff do too - and we are currently all working on exploring a book called ‘Making Kids Cleverer’ by David Didau. One of the questions we have been examining as research is linked to this quotation: 'But teachers? They just, well, teach, don't they?' Our job was to consider what else we do and what actually constitutes teaching. Of course, we have lots of responses linked to all the other work of our teachers – pastoral care, planning, assessment, rewards, exploration, parent meetings, staff development, listening and so much more.. The most wonderful thing about our own learning as teachers is exploring how passionate the team are about education and your children’s learning. e-Learning at BSQ BSQ 25th Anniversary Scholars We are very proud to share with our community that one of our BSQ 25th Anniversary Scholars, Anabella, participated and applied to the Immerse Education Essay Competition obtaining a Scholarship. Congratulations Anabella! From the Staff and the Students Continuing with our teachers and their stories about e-learning this new period. This week we have Mr. Simon Newman, Mrs. Moors and Mr. Bradley Edwards from Secondary and Ms. Polly Hall and Ms. Antonella Coronel from Primary. Mr. Simon Newman and Mrs. Natalie Moors – Secondary English Teachers and Y7 tutors We are really proud of the way our Year 7 class has settled into senior school. The children took the virtual transition in their stride and are managing the many more Canvas pages really well in secondary. Gonzalo tells us that, “Getting used to online classes was a very easy process, however I struggled a bit with google drive, apart from that, I was fine!” Lyla mentioned that, “I like the first couple of weeks at school but it was a bit tiring at first. I like how we weren’t set homework and we only needed to do work in the lesson.” We have welcomed four new students into the class: Antonella, Natalia, Rossy and Tomas. These new friends are great classmates and we are all looking forward to a time when we can be with them in person. Tomas said of the new start that, “The first day was very hard but when I got my Gmail ready all went better and I now I am used to working this way.” Natalia mentioned that, “All the teachers are very nice. I need help on how to use google drive, because I am struggling on that and it is a bit confusing when to use the DW.” It’s not only case of new students in Year 7: we also have a new form tutor – Mrs. Moors. In fact, the truth is we are all new in Year 7 to the secondary school, what with Mr. Newman also joining us as form tutor and teaching the seniors as well. Like all classes at BSQ, we have had to reset some things to take into account our online situation. One of those is the Year 6 production of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, which would have been staged last June. We currently have that marked down on the calendar for early December; rehearsals start again this week and we are committed to bringing our work to the stage for the BSQ community, no matter how long it takes. Passing our days online with kindness to one another pretty sums up how Year 7 has been working during these early weeks of the new school year – as shown below in the kindness cards to other classmates, from Anna, Isabella Sisa, Lyla, Nicole and Tomas. Secondary - House Captains Last Friday morning the voting took place for this year's House Captains. It was incredible to see the quality of candidates and the videos. All those candidates have received house points. Well-deserved for the courage, dedication and passion you demonstrated for each of your house's! I must say I am very excited to see all the exciting events unfold this year. Please see your winners and your new Heads of Houses! Mr. Bradley Edwards. Ms. Polly Hall – Year 1A Teacher The children of 1A have made a great start to the school year. The children have approached the transition from reception to Year 1 with enthusiasm and positive attitudes. We have some students in our class who are new to BSQ, and it has been great to see them joining in with our lessons and settling into our class. Our topic for this term is Ecuador. The children have enjoyed telling me about some of their favourite landmarks in Quito and suggesting places for our new classmates to visit. This week they have also been preparing food from some of the different regions of Ecuador – with some help from an adult of course! In science we have been learning about plants. We discussed what a plant needs to grow, and this week the children started an experiment. They are going to grow a plant at home and observe its progress. Plants are also present in our art lessons, as the children have been created potato prints. They have used different shapes and colours to make potato print patterns. Ms. Antonella Coronel – Head of EYFS Dear parents, Welcome to week 4 of online and home learning. The children continue to show great progress and enthusiasm during both the live sessions and home learning opportunities. Here in BSQ we offer support to our families because we understand the impact a family has on the development of each child. One way we do this is through workshops. We have prepared two excellent parent workshops that will take place on Canvas through the “BSQ parent portal” and we would like to extend this invitation to all of our EYFS families. It is important that you are enrolled on this course to participate in these; follow the link "Parent portal" and enroll. Workshop dates:
Any questions or concerns, feel free to contact me, Kind regards, Ms Coronel Dates for your Diary
Emma Newman Principal Being BSQ – Primary Update ![]() This week I am focusing on feedback and how to support your child’s development and progress. The teachers here at The British School Quito are highly trained in using feedback to help their students improve both their understanding and their skills in specific areas. Our teachers closely monitor each student’s achievements, related to the task or concept being explored, providing them with timely and specific feedback on their learning. This feedback can be verbal, written or a combination of the two, often highlighting areas in which the student is successful and next steps for how they can improve in the future. As parents, we must not only focus on the improvement cycle but make sure we positively reinforce the areas in which our children are already successful, to encourage them to continue doing the things they are good at, while gradually supporting them to make small changes to help improve their learning. As I have said before, learning is not a linear, sequential process in many cases – we often have to fail a few times before we grasp a new concept or skill. We can support our students in this process by being positive, showing them different ways to solve a problem and find examples of the skill or concept that we are trying to master. The teachers at BSQ will give suggestions and advice to their students on how to improve their skills and understanding in the future, often revisiting concepts to make sure that all their students are ready to move onto the next phase of their development. This week Miss Cook is leading the Key Stage One Assembly on Thursday at 2:30pm and Miss Stollery is leading the Key Stage Two assembly at 2:30pm on Friday. Please join them to celebrate the achievements of our students and to hear about the end of our Kindness Challenge. Many of our students have already shared their acts of kindness – please do continue to share these with your child’s class teachers and remember to encourage them to continue their kindness. Marcus Madden Head of Primary Being BSQ – Secondary Update ![]() Once again I am reflecting on the challenges we were all facing two weeks ago, and the progress we have made in securing success. At the start of any academic year we focus initially on welcoming, giving information, developing relationships and settling teaching and learning. I have had many positive reports from teachers, students and parents about all of these things across the school. Whether you are a parent, a student, or a teacher, you have all played your part in settling the start of the year. Success is always delivered as a combined approach. Well done and thank you! We are constantly considering the way that our students learn, and research published in the British journal of Educational Psychology, (Topping and Trickey, 2007) examined the impact that thinking skills, honed through collaborative interactive dialogue, led to gains in cognitive ability, verbal dialogue and reasoning. Put more simply, group involvement and activity through engagement and more personalised contact, led to greater engagement, commitment and outcomes. The staff in the Secondary school are looking at ways we can get students to turn their cameras and microphones on so that they interact more with their peers and the staff. We really do feel that there are not only obvious benefits to wellbeing, but in time outcomes as well. Please help us by encouraging your son or daughter to take the plunge, be brave, and turn their cameras on. You may recall last week my thanks for the feedback from parents regarding the start to this year. We really do appreciate your input and ideas. It is rich information indeed and we will do what we can to facilitate actions that may arise from this where possible or appropriate. We are very aware that the start for year 7 has required the need for speedy training to facilitate access to the demands of some Secondary subjects. We have had a number of activities to upskill students so that they can cope. There are still sessions planned and each teacher is slowly guiding students toward understanding. Teachers of Year 7 are now considering this more in the activities they are planning and I have asked that they will spend time ensuring that children know exactly what is asked of them in each lesson. Following a request from some parents we are running a session this week to train students on note taking. We think that this will be a great help in Secondary subjects. Socialization has been noted as an area of opportunity by some parents and as a result we are responding by offering after school sessions to allow students to simply hang out and chat with each other. This will be supervised by staff and we hope that this will have a positive impact on wellbeing. We are also increasing the amount of feedback this year from twice a partial to once every 2 weeks. This will give students information on what went well and what could be better. Students will be invited to contribute to the feedback and also respond to a task linked to the missed knowledge so that the learning loop can be closed. I hope that these things help and I always welcome feedback in due course. I am confident that these interventions will make a difference where they impact the most. Have a great week. Lee Moors Head of Secondary From the BSQ Counselling Team This week our school counsellor, Andrea Carrera, talks about parental burn out.
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Welcome![]() What a wonderful week we enjoyed last week at BSQ. With all our students back at school a number of key events took place. We welcomed our Year 7 students to their secondary school life with our traditional tie ceremony. We missed being on the deck at BSQ but were still able to share this special moment with the tie delivered in our student packs! We welcomed parents to meet the tutors in the secondary school and there was a great turn out as you were able to hear about the school programmes and ask questions about how we move forward with living and learning this year. Many thanks to our secondary team for facilitating. We also started our parent information session in the primary school. This is a new weekly event where parents can hear about the learning for the following week and so have a deep understanding of what is being taught and learned with the opportunity to ask questions. Many thanks to our primary team for facilitating. e-Learning at BSQ From the Staff and the Students Continuing with our teachers and their stories about e-learning this new period. This week we have Ms. Aditi Sadotra, SSD team, Mr. Nick Kennedy, Ms. Fernanda Espinoza and Year 10 students from Secondary and Mr. Oliver Kyle and Ms. Antonella Coronel from Primary. Ms. Aditi Sadotra – KS3 Lead Tie Ceremony 2020 On Friday 11th September we formally welcomed the new year 7 students into the Secondary School during the tie ceremony. Usually this takes place face to face with the ties being presented to the students in school. We adapted things for the online environment and I am sure everyone in attendance would agree it was a really lovely event that demonstrated that despite these current challenges what a fantastic system of support we have in place for year 7. Our new year 7 cohort have themselves adapted quickly to the challenges they have faced in starting a new school system online and so it was lovely to recognise this during the ceremony. We were able to see the students proudly wearing their new ties with their parents by their side on camera while they were warmly welcomed by Mrs Newman and Mr Moors. The excitement, happiness and pride was palpable in the virtual room! In next week's newsletter we will hear from some of the year 7 students and how they found the experience! Year 7, we are all so excited to have you here with us in the Secondary School and are looking forward to seeing what you go on to achieve during your time here with us at BSQ! Welcome to all of our lovely year 7 cohort! Student Council Last Friday the voting took place for the BSQ Secondary Student Council 2020-21. This year there was an overwhelming response from the students and we had a record number of 35 applications! This really demonstrates how much our students value the Student Council itself but also a growing desire to want to make a difference within our school community. Well done to everyone that took the brave step of putting themselves forward! The successful applicants created a video this year to demonstrate to their classmates why they deserved their votes. There were some really amazing videos that demonstrate the outstanding leadership qualities of our students across all year groups. There are definitely some future politicians in our midst! Here are a few examples to show the quality of this year's candidates.
To the students who didn't make it this year, you should be incredibly proud, the quality of your ideas and videos were exceptional. It was very close in all tutor rooms as the quality of candidates was so high! Here are some live images of the voting that took place and below you can see the finalised list for the Secondary Student Council 2020-21! I am sure you will join me in wishing them a massive congratulations and we are all looking forward to seeing the positive changes you will make for the student body and wider community! Ms Sadotra SSD Team – Life Skills Because of the many different cognitive, physical, communication, and social needs of our students, there is no one set of traits shared by all. Each student is an individual. However, there are general issues around which educational instruction should be based in order for each student to reach his/her full potential: Life Skills. The Life Skills curriculum has been created by the Student Support Department and is taught by the school’s psychologists, the school’s doctor and tutors/teachers every Monday. Each topic has been developed around the three fundamental skills on which all other skills can be built: communication, decision making, and goal setting. Through lessons, activities, and role-playing, students will learn valuable skills and discover how they are relevant to their lives. Because of its flexible format, the curriculum’s topics are selected according to what best meets the needs of our students. Encourage your children to share what they have learned and reach out to the SSD if you have any questions or suggestions. Mr. Nick Kennedy and Ms. Fernanda Espinosa – Secondary Teachers With education moving online more and more, teachers and students are becoming increasingly experienced at balancing school work with time off-screen. So we want to share a couple of tips for working at home that may help make this period more enjoyable for us all. Set Up an Adequate Working Environment Working remotely (in general) is a challenge. Without the perfect environment and self-discipline, a stay-at-home-job can become a nightmare. With a little planning, this can be avoided. Firstly, set up a clearly defined workspace. If possible, this space should be intended for work only. You want this space to be friendly and inviting. Keep your work environment free of distractions like television, other family members or household chores. Natural lighting, a comfortable chair, music and a hot drink can go a long way in setting up your ideal work environment. Communicate Regularly and “Be present” Communication is essential in the online workplace. Keeping in touch helps bring humanity and warmth into the workplace and the classroom. As teachers and teaching assistants, we try to ease anxiety and stress by asking questions and listening carefully to answers and providing valuable feedback that can help move your class forward. Just because we are online, it is important to be entirely present. Overall, online education is a wonderful opportunity. The potential flexibility is an undeniable benefit. Online teaching is relatively new, so there really isn’t one set way to do it. With some research and preparation, all of us teachers and teaching assistants could find ourselves on the forefront of the online educational movement. Education is a ‘sharing’ field, we hope these simple recommendations will be invaluable to your online development. Year 10 students 1.Prepare the workbooks and canvas meeting for tomorrow. 2.Log in always 5 minutes before meetings. 3.Always try your best to participate with MICROPHONE. 4.Keep MOTIVATED. Try new experiences, keep your communication with teachers and classmates. The Struggle of Online Learning From technical issues to head aches from the screen, we have all by now in some point have struggled with online learning. It is difficult to keep up with school when you continuously struggle and most importantly can keep MOTIVATED because the key to overcoming challenges is motivation. A main concern when we are in our classes is connection problems which, by experience, are very difficult to control. The best thing you can do is prepare yourself for the class always before, have your timetable to hand, log to conference 7 to 5 minutes before the time set in the timetable and prepare your workbooks, mail and school materials the night before. Time management is crucial to prevent your computer from restarting, freezing or having a spinning circle in the middle of your screen when you try to log in to your class. The big picture is; how can you keep yourself motivated? For me is giving myself a goal. Having a goal gives you a purpose and a challenge to focus on. If you give yourself a educational goal it will be easier to keep yourself interested in classes since you will try to achieve your goal this way. Moreover, it is difficult to keep yourself out of the screen when it is mostly what we do all day. Having activities and experiences outside school is also important to keep motivated and to keep happy and energetic. Try a new sport, an art or even a new language. Keeping extracurricular activities not only helps you stay motivated but according to Johns Hopkins University “school-life balance is important for optimal academic functioning. Students often prioritize academics at the expense of personal factors, including relationships and exercise”. Finally, keep yourself in contact with your friends and family. Just like extracurricular activities social-academic balance is important to keep your school work properly and your mentality positive. Online school can sometimes be a struggle but struggles and challenges are what define us; what makes us stronger. So next time that you start to get crazy because your classmate left their microphone open and start singing a song remember: “difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations”. Ana Paula Giol – Y10 student Mr. Oliver Kyle – Year 6 Teacher Year 6 – Welcoming in a new academic year The new normal is here and although we would have all rather started the year in school, our Year 6 have begun the new term with an inspiring positive attitude and I am grateful to have them back in my life. I am also grateful to have my friend and colleague, Alejandro Burbano, standing beside me in Year 6 this year. Alejandro has shown great skills in Nursery and across the school over the last two years, and we are happy to welcome him to our Year 6 family. We are also happy to welcome Martine, Sofia and Paz, who have joined BSQ this year and we look forward to meeting them in person when we (hopefully) return to our home on the BSQ campus. A warm bienvenidos to the girls and their families! We have a lot on this year but our immediate focus is on North America, specifically Native American Indians but also investigations into the geography of the continent and its artists. We are currently studying the work of Alma Thomas and the children have produced some inspiring first drafts, which you can see below: Juliette - Y6
We are making some encouraging ground in our study of Native American myths, and using this platform to refamiliarise ourselves with the conventions for writing - Mr Newman would be proud! We are hoping to produce our own myths in the coming weeks, so watch this space. With all the changes happening, it is a great feeling to be back with the children again. We are looking forward to an enjoyable and enriching new year. Best wishes to all, from all of us in Year 6. Ms. Antonella Coronel – Head of EYFS Dear parents, We are now beginning week 3 of online learning, we want to extend a massive “thank you” for your fabulous support! In Early Years the children have been through an adaptation process during the past two weeks, they have shown great progress and enthusiasm. We have begun to host the 1:1 sessions with the children. These sessions will be hosted once a week per child. They are meant to support or challenge students in specific areas of learning. For the first 2 weeks however, we will use these sessions to assess where each child is in regards to strengths and areas of improvement. This will allow us to create an effective planning document to meet the needs and abilities of each child. Continue to share with us your child’s home learning activities on Fridays through Tapestry. We have seen brilliant work so far and we would love to continue supporting this through our feedback on the weekly summary posts. These posts are also used to assess and track each child’s progress through home and online learning. Thank you, Kind regards Dates for your Diary
Emma Newman Principal Being BSQ – Primary Update ![]() Now that most of the students have been back for two full weeks, it is time to reflect on the progress they have already made in their learning, their skills and their adaptation to the online learning timetable in their class. It would be easy to forget that our students display resilience, enthusiasm and determination each and every day while we remain at home, adapting to this new way of learning and connecting with the outside world. As adults, although we have our own activities to perform, often outside of the home environment, we need to be mindful of their needs and making sure that everything is in place to support them as best as we can. That means ensuring they eat and hydrate appropriately between sessions, have a suitable work station with a minimum of distractions and that they have a clear plan for the day ahead, however young they are. These ‘constants’ in their daily life will help to build routines and allow them to concentrate on their learning, knowing that you are there to support them when necessary. Even with our youngest students in Nursery and Reception, who often require adult supervision for their sessions, we can start to build their independence skills by allowing them to perform some of the tasks on their own, with our guidance, slowly encouraging them to take more responsibility for their own learning and development. I have been extremely pleased with the commitment of our students to our Kindness Challenge, having received a great many examples of the different ways that our students are being kind in their homes and wider afield. Although we are all apart at the moment, our students continue to demonstrate their kindness and caring natures through their actions and words and should be congratulated for taking the time to make someone’s day memorable. This week also sees the beginning of our Enrichment programme, led by Miss Nicole Camacho. With her support, our teachers have spent a great deal of time designing and sharing a range of activities that your child can participate in, so do please look at the details when they are sent to you and encourage your child to widen their skill base and try something new and exciting. This programme will continue once we return to school so it is good to get them started on developing new interests and skills. Marcus Madden Head of Primary Being BSQ – Secondary Update ![]() I write today whilst reflecting on the wonderful ´Meet the Tutor´ event that took place on Wednesday. I was particularly taken by the number of our parents who supported the event and took time to listen and offer valuable feedback and suggestions. The is really rich information for me and my team, as what we implement at school can be often be driven by logistical and educational needs. Your feedback and ideas really helps us reflect and consider the impact of our actions and policies on students at home, and you as parents. The Secondary school stage leaders are in the process of collating your thoughts and suggestions so that we can respond accordingly. I hope next week to be able to summarise some of this for you. If you were a parent who gave us something to think about, may I offer my sincere thanks. It really is helpful and well received. As a new school leader at BSQ, it is really important that you as a parent body have the opportunity to share a moment with me over some coffee to generally discuss how things are in our community. I am looking at how we can do that online with the hard working representatives of the parent body. If you were previously involved with this group and plan to be again this year, I really do look forward to meeting you soon so that we can develop a really positive working relationship. I will communicate this soon following the confirmation of membership of this important body of parents for this academic year. I have really enjoyed my classes this last week as the students have been super positive and engaged. I teach year 9, 10 and 11 and slowly relationships are developing. I have the luxury of meeting with my colleagues on a 1:1 basis regularly and this seems to be the theme being reported across the school in all subjects. This is fantastic feedback and something that should be celebrated and secured. Do say well done at home this weekend – your son or daughter deserves the recognition! We are focusing this week on student engagement and we are encouraging the use of cameras so that we can see faces in our communication. As humans eye contact and the ability to read facial expressions is a critical element in positive communication. It aids our relationships and contributes to our wellbeing. Please support us by encourage this at home. Finally, I am really excited about tomorrow as it is the formal occasion where year 7 are welcomed into the Secondary School. It is a great shame that we cannot enjoy the normal ceremony, but we have innovated somewhat to facilitate this important event online. I would like to welcome a wonderful group of students into the school who all have so much promise. I would like to join with the Secondary team in wishing them our very best as they progress into secondary education and hope that they enjoy the opportunities presented. Good luck to you all! Have a great week. Lee Moors Head of Secondary From the BSQ Counselling Team This week our school counsellor, Andrea Carrera, gives some advice on what to do if your child struggles with online learning.
Welcome ![]() What a fantastic start to the school year at BSQ! Whilst we all understand and anticipate the challenges of online learning, I have been absolutely delighted by the energy, enthusiasm and sheer love of learning from all our students and staff. Forming new relationships through Canvas takes a little more time and patience than being face to face in the classroom but this has certainly been no barrier so far. From treasure hunts in Year 1 to deep understanding of distillation in Year 11 there is certainly some wonderful living and learning together happening across the school. 25th Anniversary scholarships. In July this year we received over 60 applications for scholarships at BSQ and selected 30 of those for interview at stage 2. Spending 3 days interviewing candidates reminded the committee what an outstanding group of students we have at the school. After some incredibly difficult decisions and a very long period of reflection, the following students were awarded scholarships to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the school opening. Our warm congratulations to the following students who I know will go on to represent BSQ in the most brilliant ways and we will hear more from them in following newsletter. Parent Association. As a result of only half a year in position, missing a number of key events and with thanks for the outstanding relationships with the school, I have asked the current PA representatives to continue in their roles for this academic year. In terms of the class representatives, you too are invited to remain in position during this year with our thanks for your hard work. If you do not wish to continue in the role, please let Rafaela Rojas know and we will arrange to select a replacement. With best wishes. From the Staff and the Students Welcome back to our teachers and their stories about e-learning this term. This week we hear from Ms. Antonella Coronel and the Nursery students. ![]() Week one has come to an end and the Early Years students are adapting to the new learning format fantastically. We have been surprised by the energy and enthusiasm the children as well as the parents are bringing to every session, both in the morning and afternoon. This is very new to a lot of the children, your support, patience and love is important during this process. To support your child during this transition, we suggest the following:
We are looking forward to starting week 2 and transitioning to the complete Nursery, Reception A and Reception B timetables, including all home learning activities and specialist sessions. The children have a few exciting sessions to look forward to! To support parents during the home learning process we will host Parent Meeting sessions on Canvas at 3:30pm every Thursday. During these sessions we will discuss the planning documents, resources, links, the learning opportunities and objectives. Enjoy a lovely week. Kind regards, Antonella Coronel Dates for your Diary
Emma Newman Principal Being BSQ – Primary Update ![]() Now that all the students in Nursery up to Year 6 have returned to school and online learning, with some sort of normality returning to our students’ learning, I wanted to introduce you all to the Student Support Department and our other support structures we have in school. Alongside your child’s class teachers, you are able to access a wealth of advice, support and guidance from both Andrea Carrera and Sofía Leon, together with Marisabel Nájera, Dra. Sara Luengo, Antonella Coronel, Anna Vasilokonstantaki, Hayley Dean and myself in a wide varieties of areas. In these challenging times, the welfare and happiness of our students is at the forefront of our provision here at BSQ and we do everything we can to make sure that each student feels safe and secure in their online environment. Please do watch out for the invitations you have received to attend a series of Parent Workshops hosted by different colleagues, all focused on areas that you as parents have highlighted as important to you. I have been extremely impressed by the participation and engagement of our students in their sessions, particularly in terms of them using the Public Chat and microphones to share their ideas and thoughts. This way of communicating does not come naturally to some students, so if your child is struggling to share their ideas, encourage them to say it to you so you can write it in the public chat or get them to practise what they would like to say first to you with the microphone on mute and then say it out loud. Do also let your child’s teachers know about any concerns like this and they will support your child to participate more and engage with their learning. Your child’s class teachers will be introducing the concept of Kindness this week, encouraging them to record their acts of kindness over a two-week period and then sharing these, in any form they want, with their classmates at the end of the two weeks. We have given the students some ideas in their assemblies and sessions and look forward to hearing about their acts of kindness in the coming weeks. Finally, I know that you receive a great deal of information from the school about the different events and activities that are on offer. One way to consolidate your understanding is to attend the weekly Parent Meetings hosted by your child’s class teachers, usually on Thursday afternoons. These are an opportunity to find out what the learning will be for the week ahead, any resources or equipment that might be needed and also an opportunity to ask any questions about things you are unsure of. If the question is specific to your child’s learning, please contact your child’s teacher and make an appointment to speak with them or share your question by email. Have a great week! With warmest regards, Marcus Madden Head of Primary Being BSQ – Secondary Update ![]() This time of year can be a busy time for parents and students alike – and in the Secondary school we are doing what we can to support you as much as possible with some important events. 1. On Wednesday next week at 3.30 pm, all parents are invited to a meet their son/daughters respective tutors. They will be welcoming you and giving information about supporting home/online learning and also giving you the opportunity to ask general operational questions. This will hopefully be an opportunity for you to solve any issues you might have encountered so far. 2. Also, this week much needed resources are arriving at home to support the learning activities. We listened to feedback from families and all staff will be planning activities that reduce the amount of screen time. 3. On Friday next week we have the extremely important ´Tie Ceremony´ for the year 7 students who are entering the Secondary school for the first time. They will be welcomed by myself and Mrs. Newman and ´virtually´ each student will be presented with their new school tie. This is a really important event, and something that adds to the transition process to ensure that they feel welcomed and quickly settled in the Secondary school. The main difference with online learning is that contact is limited and this is so important for teenagers and their developmental journey. I now offer some thoughts to help us understand signs and also how we can all help. Stress is normal and we all face it on a regular basis. If it not managed well it can impact the level of effort a student gives and their performance. We as adults, in school and at home, need to help in this process and try to recognize the signs and give support. One of the key factors at the moment is the isolation students all over the world are facing and the way that their learning is managed. Students need a support system, they need to look after themselves, they need to switch off occasionally and relax, and also adhere to set boundaries. Without this you might see an increase in irritability, occasional anger and frustration; they may present as fatigued; there may be a decline in work and school performance; they may demonstrate a lack of interest in things that they used to be interested in, and they may worry excessively or find it hard to concentrate. So what can we do?
In the learning process, it is clear that happy children and young adults do well, meet their potential, and fully embrace the whole process of learning. But remember - you don't have to do this alone. We are a team working together to provide that support and encouragement. Meet your tutors next week and engage with your phase leaders, as these professionals are there to give you the link to school side. Our doors are open and purposeful dialogue is encouraged to drive support and success. Have a great week. Lee Moors Head of Secondary From the BSQ Counselling Team This week our school counsellor, Andrea Carrera, talks about discussing difficult situations with your children.
Welcome ![]() A very warm welcome back to all our BSQ families for the start of this new academic year. This is always such an exciting time of year in schools where students, teachers and parents return to the campus and share stories of summer holidays, make new friends, greet old friends and rediscover a love of learning. This year is a little different and whilst we may not have enjoyed the most exciting summers, we can still rediscover our love of learning and work as hard as we can to make the most of every opportunity that is presented to us. We will continue to face challenges as we start this new school year but the staff at BSQ will continue to work to support your learning, your wellbeing and your aspirations as we move forward. Have a great year. New community members. We have a fantastic group of new staff to welcome to the team and whilst I introduced them to you last term through a letter, here they are again with some words of hello to you all. Successful BSQ students. Despite all the challenges our students faced last year, we were delighted that our Year 11 and Year 13 students completed their IGCSE and IB courses with great success. With the highest IB average, a 100% pass rate and some outstanding personal results we are extremely proud of our graduating group. With incredible numbers of top grades at IGCSE and more personal successes, we are also very much looking forward to working with our new year 12 students as they begin their IB courses. Dates for your Diary
Emma Newman Principal Being BSQ – Primary Update ![]() Welcome back to the new academic year here at The British School Quito (BSQ) and a particular warm welcome to all our new students and parents who will be joining us this year. Although we will not be able to meet in person for a while, I hope that you are all safe and well and looking forward to the coming year of living and learning together. This year is an unusual start to a new academic year, with all of our meetings, assemblies and instructions being shared online, although the staff here at BSQ are confident that they can deliver quality education and support for all of our community in the coming weeks. I would also like to introduce four new members of staff to you all: Miss Isobel Anderson who will be teaching in Nursery, Mr Tim Graves who will be teaching in Year 3, Mr Tom Prosser who will be teaching in Year 4 and Mr Kevin Dobson who will be teaching in Year 5. Together with our existing staff, some of whom have moved roles, we are looking forward to reconnecting with our students and the wider community. We will continue to use Canvas to deliver our Online Learning, with several different courses for you to connect with us and your child’s learning. Please do make sure you have accepted the invitations on Canvas to join the relevant courses, through which all communications and conferences will be shared. If you have any problems whatsoever with Canvas, please contact Miss Sandy Pazmiño ([email protected]) or myself. This week we also see the return of our youngest students in Nursery, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2, with a variety of Class Meetings happening over the week for you to meet with your child’s teacher, learn about the specific procedures and arrangements in each class and also to ask any questions you have about the curriculum, the timetable and the learning in each class. I cannot stress enough the importance of developing a strong and healthy relationship with your child’s teachers. Research shows that when students feel supported from home and school, both academically and emotionally, their achievement and satisfaction with learning increases. Do please keep in contact with your child’s teachers and ask about anything you are unsure of. To support this process, we have also changed the structure of the Primary School, in part to reflect the growing need to have a clear support system for students and parents. This means that in each stage of the whole school, we have designated section leaders who can support you and your child. These are:
We all look forward to meeting you all soon and sharing your child’s development with you in the year ahead. With warmest regards, Being BSQ – Secondary Update ![]() Well, what a busy week it has been for everyone! I would like to say a huge thank you and well done to you all for being on time and engaging so positively with staff in your first lessons back online. The start of a new academic year is stressful for everyone concerned with staff needing to be ready to welcome you, and you needing to get yourself in the right place at the right time. You have done this well and great first impressions have been secured quickly. Well done! We are all reacquainting ourselves with teachers and friends. I have been touched by just how welcoming you are to the new staff, helping them negotiate the new systems when they may have been unsure and really working hard to show them just how committed you are with their tasks. I for one have enjoyed forging excellent new relationships with my colleagues and this is something I am really looking forward to with students and parents over the next few weeks. It is much easier when you feel supported and part of the BSQ community. From what I see, the new students have been made particularly welcome. Well done again. We all need to work hard and quickly to show enthusiasm and energy, as this can forge outstanding personal relationships with your teachers and also make you feel positive about your studies. If you start strong and set your targets high, using the opportunity for a fresh start, you will be rewarded in many ways. Have a great week Lee Moors Head of Secondary From the BSQ Counselling Team This week our school counsellor, Andrea Carrera, talks about 5 things parents can do to support students learning online.
Welcome and Farewell![]() This is the final newsletter of the year and there is much to celebrate as we head into the last few days of term. I want to take this opportunity to thank all the parents who have supported their children, who have taken the time to thank the teachers for their professionalism and commitment, offered their expertise to others and just quietly got on with the business of becoming a key part of the learning experience at BSQ. I wish you all a very happy holiday and look forward to seeing you as we move forward into the new school year. Student Voice: We have so many talented students at BSQ and, in particular, they have demonstrated an extraordinary talent for expressing themselves in writing during the last term. Last week we read about the Ocean School adventure written by Anabella in Year 10. This week I welcome the first in a new slot on the newsletter where are our student council will explore school and other matters each month next year. We start at the end though with a joyful recap from one of Year 12 students – Sofia. Another year comes and another year goes… BSQ closes yet another cycle, saying goodbye to some of our lifetime students while welcoming new ones with open arms. The already hectic nature of a conventional school year became almost like a fantasy to us, after being forced to re-evaluate and reconstruct our educational system whilst watching a global pandemic unfold before our eyes. The intense period of adaptation to online learning brought multiple challenges, relative to each student, a true character-building experience, imploring us to truly appreciate our seemingly mundane quotidian lives. The graduating class especially, have been faced with unimaginable challenges as they advance into adulthood through an unstable world stage. In the uncertainty of recent times, the former year 13 students have nonetheless managed to gracefully and successfully finish their IB Diplomas from home, while at the same time, assuring their plans for September remain as concrete as possible. The unpredictability of the last few months, however, does not take away from their consistent hard work and determination of the entire school year that has allowed them to achieve some of their utmost goals, including university enrolment. From the Netherlands, to the United Kingdom, to the United States, our BSQ students begin to scatter around the globe, in the pursuit of their dreams, their lives may begin. Taking a step back, our year 12 students, knee deep into the IB, have been making the absolute most of this year by completing and expanding their CAS projects. Our two main groups; Beyond Lagartococha and Lago Agrio, have both completed trips into the heart of their projects, interacting and connecting with the communities in question. As a second generation of Beyond Lagartococha in BSQ, students have managed to continue the legacy, while at the same time initiating their own foundation in bringing health and education to the Secoya community on the Peruvian border; a place where countries seem to be merely a construct as we all become subjects to the same trees, river and sun. Meanwhile, in Lago Agrio, the leader Mathias Bustos, explains the insight they got when visiting the community, something that has allowed them to “establish our goals by establishing connections; we plan to go back with an umbrella project in an attempt to expand their tourism income and increase their access to safe drinking water”. As the new cycle starts, year 12s look forward to handing the baton over to the current year 11 students, as they emerge from their IGCSEs into the world of the IB, and we look forward to seeing these projects grow in their hands. Along those lines, one of the most anticipated student accomplishments of every year is the Duke of Edinburgh award, one led by geography teacher Mr Dobson. Year 10s have come tantalizing close to the official completion of the Bronze award, after twelve months filled with active new experiences and skills, with only the Cotopaxi qualifying expedition left to complete once the waters settle in September. Meanwhile, a few lucky students managed to complete their Silver award after their expedition in February; Nicolas Anhalzer, Martin Castañeda, Maite Peñaherrera and Tomas Rodriguez are all proud holders of the Silver Duke of Edinburgh Award; the first group to achieve this level since the introduction of the certificate three years ago. Back in KS3, students have been working furiously throughout the entire year, an effort materialized thanks to our values and subject awards. Some of our most consistent students have managed to achieve multiple subject awards throughout the partials, the most collected being an outstanding total of five, by no other than year 7 student Kailani Minster. Kailani bursts into secondary with a committed streak of achievements, having also won a House Points Silver Award. In the same realm, Isabela Albuja of year 8 is also a proud holder of the Silver Award, as well as having won an amazing total of four subject awards. Meanwhile, one of our year 9 students, Lucas Tapia, has kept busy in his accomplishment of his multiple subject awards, all the while also being a true exemplar of our values at school, an achievement rightly merited by our BSQ Values Award. Amidst the COVID-19 crisis, it becomes even more important to value the mental health of students, an important issue thoroughly discussed by year 12 students Gala Gomez, Martina Sierra, Bianca Burbano and Ana Marquez. In their presentations to the KS3 and KS4 students, they addressed various ways for students to maintain their mental health at home and ways to deal with their struggles, as they attempt to simultaneously juggle their school lives with their domestic lives. As our sombre farewells morph into excited greetings once more, we look forward to the closing of this eventful school year and the inevitable welcoming of a new one, promising many more wonderful achievements and new faces in the constant development of our cherished BSQ community. Sofia F. B. - Year 12 student Year 4 poems Following on from our exploration of anti-racist texts and stories earlier this term, our Year 4 students' imaginations were captured by the need for a deeper understanding and empathy towards everyone. As a result, and with thanks to the support of Ms Backhouse, Ms Dean and Ms Martinez, they have written two class poems that you can read here. 4A We are all different The things that make me, me, You may never see, If you judge me by the way that I look, Just you ask me a question, I am an open book. I am from a faraway place, but you cannot tell by looking at my face, if you start to talk to me, there is much more you will see. I am from the middle of the world, The name of my country is Ecuador, My home is a beautiful land, The animals and plants are grand. I come from the land of smiles, To get there you travel for miles, I remember a little of Thai, But it was complex to say hi. I come from a land in the middle of the world, Enjoying jungle, mountains and islands where eagles swirled, My favourite is the beach were I bump into waves in the ocean, Swimming like a shark fills me with emotion. I come from a place full of sausage and beer, When I think of it, I give a cheer, if you look beyond my skin, You will see where I have been. I am from Colombia you see, and nobody can be like me, and if you want to know something just ask, because it is not a complicated task. Do you know where I was born? It’s not where you may think, I warn! It was in Argentina of course, Where eating lots of meat is what they enforce! I live in a great continent with my family, I like to drink hot tea naturally, You can find me anywhere, just beware, the continent is shiny; you can’t help but stare. I come from Quito, it is a very beautiful place, with 4 regions that you can discover if adventure is what you chase, We have beautiful beaches and one incredible jungle, You will never be bored so come with your uncle. I am from a world full of hills, Just thinking about it gives me chills, If you judge me because of my skin, You will never hear the story of where I’ve been. It doesn’t matter if I come from Ecuador, Palestine or Spain, Because all of us have blood in our veins, All places have beautiful things, And that is what happiness brings. We are all different and that is ok, It makes the world an interesting place to play, Be sure not to judge and do not assume, Take the time to find out so we can all bloom. 4B We are all different The things that make me, me You may never see If judge me by the way that I look Just you ask me a question, I am an open book Don’t judge me by the colour of my skin Or where I’ve been It's better to be judged by what you think Or your personality or friends which you interlink I can be black, or white or a blend, What really matters is I can be a good friend There is one thing for sure I can say, I will be here if you want to play. I come from a country near the sea You might assume we have lots of trees We like to eat figs But we also eat pigs I come from the country of Samba and football And I will be there when you give me a call My skin tone is white and I have a heart like everyone was dealt Making new friends makes my heart just melt. I come from a big country The food is so delicious it will make you hungry San Martin was our liberator And Simon Bolivar was his co-operator I am from Mexico, a country with a lot of wildlife I left that country when I was 3 months and went back when I was five. Tacos, Chilaquiles and Pozole are my favourite food I like the colour of the beach; the pyramids and nice places make me feel so good. I came from a place surrounded by beauty It has lots of animals that are such cuties You might think that I like seafood But what I really like to be clearly viewed I come from a country that’s not far away And there everyone is happy and likes to play Colombia is the country where I come from In my family was born there my dad, my granny and even my mom I live in a country surrounded by sea You might assume I don’t like fleas Don’t judge the skin that I am in Otherwise you would never see the places I have been I am a boy who likes maths and science. I am always looking for defiance. I like animals and to play football and the world goes around like a ball. We are all different and that is ok It makes the world an interesting place to play Be sure not to judge and do not assume Take the time to find out so we can all bloom Diary Dates are often lost in the busy world of life so please make sure you are fully aware of the events taking place towards the end of term by reading emails and checking the Dates for your Diary and reading the messages from your Heads of School below. e-Learning at BSQ School Year 2020-2021 You will have received a Parent Portal message about the enrolment information for 2020-2021. Please ensure that you have completed this very short survey by the end of Tuesday June 23rd. This is to support us to prepare for our new school year. Michelle O. Fried recipes. ![]() Here is our final recipe published in conjunction with Michelle with huge thanks to her for her support over the last few weeks to keep us all cooking and eating with great ingredients. You may find this and other healthy recipes in Michelle´s book Un Mundo de Comida con los Ingredientes del Ecuador, available at all bookstores in the country. Also you can find more information by visiting her blog and website. BSQ 25th Anniversary Scholarship We are delighted to announce that #BSQ25thAnniversaryScholarship opportunities are available for current and potential families! If you are an outstanding student and would like to become part of our vibrant community, please send your scholarship application by June 30th. More information about the application process, terms and conditions here. Important Announcement - time HAS run out. If you are reading this newsletter, then you have accessed it through the Canvas Parent Portal – thank you for signing up. With almost all the BSQ families now using this tool we are reaching a wide audience but not one that is quite complete. Please remind your friends and fellow class parents to make sure they are on Canvas. All letters with important information will also be placed there if they are for the whole school community. From the Staff and the Students Continuing with our teachers and their stories about e-learning this new period. This week we have Mrs. Helen Dávila, Ms. Nicole Camacho and Ms. Antonella Coronel from Primary. Mrs. Helen Dávila - Y3 Teacher This week year 3B took a look at some recent news about a diesel spill in the Arctic circle. We discussed the effects this might have on the surrounding landscape and wildlife. The class then carried out an experiment to see how oil affects wildlife with an oil spill in a jar. Their investigation led them to researching what happens when oil is spilt into the water. Does it mix or float and do they think it is heavier or lighter than the water? We looked at what happened to the wildlife, how to clean them up and what with. We had some interesting discussions and experimental ways to remove the oil from the water. The year 3s could relate to real life events and even carried on their research by looking up solutions online. We also have very talented artists at BSQ and you will have already been enjoying the fabulous IB art exhibition pieces through our social media channels and on our e-learning video this week. Here the Y6 class show how they have taken inspiration from those older students and with the guiding hand of Ms Camacho, have produced their own art show here. Year 6 Abstract Art Exhibition. - Bomomo Paradise Bomomo Paradise is a compilation of digital Abstract Art created by the Year 6 students during their Art Online Lessons. The pieces are based on exploring the emotions that the students felt, and had no objective but simply the expression of their feelings. Link: https://www.artsteps.com/view/5ee79bf8b714752eb788c889 Ms. Nicole Camacho Ms. Antonella Coronel - Head of EYFS Wow what great energy from the students and parents during the 14th week of online learning! This week in early years the children have all been learning about measuring and telling time. The first step in this activity was learning about what is a clock and the different parts it has. What is the long and short hand used for when telling time. The children were very quick at grasping this. In nursery the children have been familiarizing with telling the hour while the Reception children have been rehearsing half past. The children rehearsed this information through a fun online game, then they moved onto making their own clocks! The children used this throughout their day in the different moments of their daily routines. Fantastic job everyone! During literacy lessons, the reception students have been very busy bees learning about the different elements that make a story great, such as the setting and characters. The children now understand that these are the first steps to creating any great piece of literature. Here are some good examples of settings made by the children ![]() This week we want to say thank you to Ms. Thompson, our Reception B teacher. She is a teacher that brightens every room and knows just how to support the children. Her positive attitude and great energy keeps her children motivated. Well done Ms. Thompson and thank you! I hope all dad’s had a marvelous father’s day! Enjoy the rest of the week. Kind regards. Dates for your Diary
Emma Newman Principal Being BSQ – Primary Update ![]() Welcome to our final newsletter of what has been a unique year at BSQ, for a great many reasons. In August last year, we welcomed a group of new teachers to the school and you quickly welcomed them into our community, demonstrating your caring nature. We also welcomed lots of new students to BSQ, both at the beginning of the year and throughout the year – and with a tinge of sadness, we have also had to say goodbye to students as they moved away from our school. Although we talk a great deal about our school values and share real-life examples with the students, it is quite hard to describe in words the feeling of being part of such a wonderful community, which deeply cares about each other and looks after them, particularly when facing adversity. In the second half of this academic year, we have all experienced a massive challenge, both in terms of changes to our normal ways of living and learning, but also in our outlook and looking to the future. The way that you have all supported each other in this period of home learning and living has been a testament to the strength and character of our community and I am proud to be a part of that. We will have a few more opportunities to come together as part of that community, both to celebrate our achievements and to formally say goodbye to both students and teachers who are leaving the Primary School this year. On Thursday 25th June at 10am, we will host our Year 6 Leaver’s Assembly on the Parent Portal section of Canvas (please share this link with anyone who has not managed to join this yet). Throughout the week, your child’s class teachers will be organising opportunities for our students to celebrate the end of the year, including the opportunity to turn on their cameras in selected sessions, following the guidelines and supervision of their teachers. On Monday 29th June, we will hold the three BSQ Award Ceremonies: 8:30am for Years 1-6, 10am for Secondary and 11:30am for Early Years students, all on the Parent Portal. Finally, on Tuesday 30th June at 11am, all students are invited to our End of Year Goodbye Assembly, on the Parent Portal. If you have joined this area of the canvas portal and have not yet received an invite for these events, please do contact Mr Madden ([email protected]). I would like to formally thank you all for your continuing support throughout this year and I hope that you are all able to spend some time over the long break relaxing with family and friends. I look forward to welcoming you back to school in the new year and reconnecting this fantastic community of learners. Please do find the time to thank your child’s class and subject teachers personally for all their efforts and dedication this year. Marcus Madden Head of Primary Being BSQ – Secondary Update ![]() Antiracism Activity Days True to our values of respect and care, we believe that to remain neutral in situations of injustice is to choose the side of the oppressor. And as a school, and as teachers, we believe strongly that the best way to engage with bigotry, hate, and inhumanity in the world is to educate our students about why and how these problems exist, provide them with the critical thinking skills necessary to dissect and discuss these issues, and ensure that they have the platform to do so. This week, Years 7, 8, and 9 will join together to learn about the history and the present reality of issues surrounding race, colour, and culture, both in Ecuador and elsewhere, that they may better understand the world they live in today and be better equipped to navigate and participate in discussion and action as the agents of change we aim for them to be. Goodbye And finally, goodbye. This will be my last contribution to the weekly newsletter, as I hand over the role of Head of Secondary to Mr Lee Moors, who will be joining you in August. Thank you all for your support over the years in our attempts to ensure success and happiness for every student, and I wish you all the very best in the future. Jim Wild Head of Secondary From the BSQ Counselling Team This week our school counsellor, Andrea Carrera, talks about everyday ways to be kind to yourself as a parent.
Welcome ![]() This week we have lessons on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before our second short break of the term. This provides us with a time to recharge and prepare for the end of term events and ceremonies planned to celebrate our year. Despite the new and significant challenges, we have continued to try and maintain as many BSQ approaches as possible. Earlier this year, our Parent Association worked to develop a set of BSQ Parent Values which were shared in the newsletter at that time and are attached again this week. As a result of lockdown, we were not able to continue and develop a shared approach to exploring those values, but I want to thank you all for the way in which you have adopted the ideas and lived them though the last 3 months. Last week our Equality and Diversity Committee also drew our attention to our Student Values (also attached here) as a guiding factor in the way we respond as a community to the need for a clear anti-racist stance and they guided us towards two of our student values in particular:
The concept of treating absolutely everyone ‘with respect, empathy and understanding’ and ‘without discrimination.’ should be at the core of our humanity. These words imply an action; they do not say we should think about this or reflect on it – they clearly state that we should act. Last week all of our secondary students explored some of the context linked to racism and anti-racism and came up with a rich body of questions to explore further. For example; Does being silent make one complicit? What would a non-racist society look like? Why can't we just accept everyone as they are? How can racism still be a problem in 2020? I am proud of these questions as they demonstrate a group of students who want to think deeply about issues and who have the ability to pose meaningful responses. Student Voice: As a new section in our newsletter, from now on we will have a monthly student voice article written by Sofia Ferrari-Bravo in conjunction with the Student Council. Next week Sofia will start us off with a round-up of the BSQ year. I look forward to sharing it with you. Ocean School: As you will know BSQ is a member of the LAHC group comprising 47 schools across Latin America. This provides us with opportunities to share knowledge and experience and, sometimes, to give our students wonderful opportunities. Last weekend, Mr. Kennedy supported 4 of our secondary students to take part in an Ocean School event organised by LAHC and here they tell us about it. This Saturday 6th of June, 3 classmates and I attended the Ocean School class that started at 3pm and ended at 6pm! We learned about sharks and their cool adaptations! For example, did you know that sharks don't have bones? They are made out of cartilage! They also have 5 rows of teeth and can lose up to 100 teeth a day! These were some of my favorite facts I learned during our session! We also got the chance to talk and do a Q&A with Sergio Madrigal, a shark expert! I learned a lot about the marine biology lifestyle, sharks, the ocean and the environment! It was very interesting to hear what he had to say and I believe we all benefited from it as we all got the chance to learn something new! My favourite thing about the Ocean School’s event was probably the chance to meet new people! There were almost 80 people (students, teachers and Ocean School staff included) logged into the zoom meeting with a very large variety of ethnicities and nationalities! It was incredible to interact and work with these people! Around the end of the session I was not only talking with my group about our task, but about our likes, dislikes and hobbies! I definitely made a lot of new friends! Overall, I really enjoyed this activity and I am super grateful for the school (especially Mr. Kennedy) for giving us this incredible opportunity! So thank you! And I hope we have more events like this with the ocean school because I will definitely sign up again! Anabella De Armas – Y10 student Diary Dates are often lost in the busy world of life so please make sure you are fully aware of the events taking place towards the end of term by reading emails and checking the Dates for your Diary and reading the messages from your Heads of School below. e-Learning at BSQ BSQ 25th Anniversary Scholarship We are delighted to announce that #BSQ25thAnniversaryScholarship opportunities are available for current and potential families! If you are an outstanding student and would like to become part of our vibrant community, please send your scholarship application by June 30th. More information about the application process, terms and conditions here. Michelle O. Fried recipes. Here is our fourth recipe published in conjunction with Michelle. ![]() Have you noticed that some children will eat anything as long as it's covered (hidden) with ketchup? Well, let me share a simple, fool-proof way of making ketchup that you can trust and that the kids can enjoy in quantities. What I appreciate about this recipe is that I can choose to use healthy tomatoes, with no toxic residuals. Unfortunately, the results of laboratory studies made by an agency of the government of Ecuador showed that tomatoes bought in Pichincha had much, much more than double the amount of toxic residuals permitted by international standards. Are you in a rush and noodles/pasta will be the solution. If you really need something quick and more or less well-balanced, you can cook up the pasta with the veggie of your choice. Get the pasta half-cooked then add green beans, broccoli, cauliflower and when it's just cooked “al dente” mix with this ketchup and lots of crunchy chochos. Imagine, a quick, satisfying vegan recipe, because you already have the ketchup made up and waiting in the refrigerator. (I personally would prefer using the Salsa Italiana de Tomate recipe on page 184 Un Mundo de Comida con los Ingredientes del Ecuador.) You may find this and other healthy recipes in Michelle´s book Un Mundo de Comida con los Ingredientes del Ecuador, available at all bookstores in the country. Also you can find more information by visiting her blog and website. Workshop Receive kind regards, I would like to take this opportunity to extend you an invitation to a Virtual Workshop that will take place on June 16, 2020 at 5:00 p.m. It will be a space to enrich ourselves with knowledge to learn how to generate solutions in your organizations, exploiting their creative and innovative potential. The only requirement for you to join us is that you are willing to challenge your limits. In this workshop we will explore:
Join us in this incredible experience! Register at no cost and get valuable tools for the management you do in your organization. We count on your participation! Important Announcement - time HAS run out. If you are reading this newsletter, then you have accessed it through the Canvas Parent Portal – thank you for signing up. With over half of the families now using this tool we are reaching a wide audience but not one that is big enough yet. Please remind your friends and fellow class parents to make sure they are on Canvas. All letters with important information will also be placed there if they are for the whole school community. From the Staff and the Students Continuing with our teachers and their stories about e-learning this new period. This week we have Ms. Aditi Sadotra and Y12 students leading the Mental Health Awareness Project from Secondary and Ms. Sofía León, Mr. Fernando Ruiz and Ms. Antonella Coronel from Primary. Rewards and recognition Awards – Partial 6 As we have reached the end of partial 6 it is time to celebrate the amazing achievements of our students in all their subjects. Listed here are all the subject winners for excellence and endeavour. All certificates will be emailed out to parents and students very soon. Well done to all the winners! Ms Sadotra Ms. Aditi Sadotra - Year 6 to 7 Transition Over the last two weeks the year 6 students who will be moving up to secondary next academic year have been preparing themselves for this big step! They were lucky enough to meet all of their new teachers to get an idea of what their lessons will be like next year. Having been in the lessons myself I could see the students got so much out of them. They had lots of questions for their new teachers and really got to know them as people as well as subject specialists! Here’s what the teachers had to say! “It was so great to have so many students within the group share their ideas for hypotheses. They demonstrated excellent scientific thinking. With so many curious and engaged students in this class, I am excited to teach next year's young scientists!” Ms Avent, Science “It was fantastic to meet the new stars of BSQ. It's safe to say the sporting future of BSQ is safe in their hands. They seem to be a fun group and eager to get involved with the new challenges in secondary. I can't wait to start working with these pupils next year.” Mr Edwards, PE Year 6 are keen to learn about the history of Ecuador and the world, they were pleased to tell me their expectations about the subject and give me suggestions to consider for my planning. I am looking forward to meeting them next year. Mrs Montenegro, Sociales I had lots of fun teaching year 6, they are an amazing group full of charisma and willing to learn. I am so excited and happy to be able to teach them next year as well, they are amazing people who will be a great contribution to secondary! Ms Cano, Music It was amazing to meet with the upcoming year 7’s, they are very proactive and seem like a very fun class to teach! Mr Samaniego, Maths Last week I had the opportunity to get to know the new senior school artists. From the first beginning I could feel their knowledge, interest and enthusiasm towards arts. I don’t have any doubt that next year we are going to learn, explore and create a lot of fabulous artworks together. I cannot wait for it! Ms Arellano, Art Mi experiencia con los alumnos de año 6 fue maravillosa porque los niños se entregaron por completo y colaboraron con las actividades. Este primer encuentro me deja muy feliz, ya que ahora sé que trabajar con ellos va a ser una tarea enriquecedora en donde juntos haremos de la clase de español una aventura del saber con mucha imaginación y creatividad. Mrs Tufiño, Spanish The students also let us know what they thought! I liked meeting our new teachers — their ways of teaching were engaging, and made me want to learn more. I’m looking forward to moving into secondary so far! Aahna Bharti, Year 6 I really liked to know all the teachers that I will be working with and socialising for the next few years. I really liked the way they introduced themselves and the way they showed us how our curriculum will be. I am pleased to know all the teachers because each of them have their own attitude and the way of teaching. Isabella Sisa, Year 6 I liked the meetings and they were very helpful and educational to me. They gave information and were not too dull. All the teachers seemed kind. I am looking forward to working with the teachers and going into year 7. Lyla Madden, Year 6 As you can see it was a really successful transition introduction and I wanted to say a massive thank you to the year 6 students, the new year 7 teachers and Mr Newman and Ms Camacho for all their hard work in making it such a wonderful experience for all! Mental Health Awareness Project Gala Gomez, Bianca Burbano, Anna Marquez & Martina Sierra students from year 12. This week we were able to share with the BSQ community a very important topic for us, Mental Health. We started this as a CAS project but it turned out to be so much more than that. We created awareness in the form of presentations during Assembly. We had two parts to our presentations, one was for the younger years (Year 7, 8 and 9) and the other was for the older years (10, 11, and 12). Bianca & Anna. The project of mental health was something that Anna and I had been discussing for a long time but knew we didn’t want to do it alone. Mental health and stability are some of the most important things and topics that we felt not many people had awareness of. The project started in February after having a conversation with Miss Leon. During the conversation is had expressed my concern about the discussions that we were having in class during Life Skills and Learning Lessons, and how it seemed that most people didn’t pay much attention to them. I wanted to start this project because when growing up I was always lucky enough to have a safe environment with my parents and family to discuss mental health and why it is important, so I wanted to give a safe space to anyone who needs it by raising awareness. After having multiple meetings with Ms. Leon and Ms. Carrera we decided to turn our discussions into the amazing project we have today. After talking with both Anna and Gala about the project it was time to choose our topics. Each one of us decided upon an issue or situation that was important to talk about. Mental Health is such a broad topic with many issues and conversations that are worth having, however, being just three of us we couldn't do them all in just one day. After a long discussion of topics and their relevance with students we came to the agreement of three:
I chose to talk about anxiety and stress and how they are different from having an anxiety disorder. Anxiety and Mental Health have always been topics that my parents have encouraged me to talk about when I needed to or when I felt like something wasn’t always right. Because of quarantine and not being able to deliver our project the way we wanted to, we were set back for a few weeks and we needed to do a whole new plan. Thankfully, Ms. Leon, Ms, Carrera, and Ms, Sadotra gave us plenty of ideas and resources as to how we could continue with this project rather than postpone it until next year. After many meetings and emails, we came to the conclusion that an assembly would be the best option. However, having just one assembly with every student and teacher didn't sound like a good idea because we knew that we were not going to have everyone’s attention. This is why we decided to split up into topics and year groups. Anna and I chose to be with years 10,11, and 12 because our topics were a bit more mature and for an older audience. We felt that Depression and Anxiety were topics that should really concern us as older teenagers to know how to help someone and how to help yourself. Knowing that mental illness can sometimes be a complex topic we made sure that the presentation was both appropriate for everyone but also interactive. The psychologist helped us a lot with the language we had to use and the way we phrase On the day of the assembly, we were excited but also a little bit nervous because we didn't know what the reaction of everyone that was at the conference would be like. To start with, we decided to do a few true or false statements to release little by little the tension that some may have when talking about mental health. Anna started of the discussion with the topic of depression. She explained what it was, how a person can seek help, and how we as a community and friends can help someone who suffers from the disorder. She also gave a few tips on how to avoid feeling hopeless during the quarantine. Then it was my turn to explain what the difference between anxiety and stress is linked with a few ideas to manage or reduce them. After doing some questions we talked about the difference between anxiety and having an anxiety disorder. I listed a few anxiety disorders that may be more common like Social phobia or Generalized Anxiety Disorder. In the end, we gave a few ideas on how they can take care of themselves and the people around them. Our presentation was successful because of the incredible amount of participation and support we received from the teachers and the students, as well as their willingness to speak about something as important and ‘taboo’ as Mental Illnesses and Mental Health. It’s truly gratifying knowing how open-minded the students and teachers are and how respectful everyone was. We are incredibly grateful for the support of Ms, Leon, Ms, Carrera and Ms, Sadotra throughout this journey and this incredible project. We can’t wait till next year where we will develop this project and so many others. We want to encourage everyone in promoting mental health and always making sure you are okay, have conversations about what mental health means, and why it is important. We hope to keep sharing so many ideas and events for the future with our BSQ community. Gala and Martina When the proposal of the idea reached our ears, we didn’t hesitate in taking part. For both of us, mental health is of the utmost importance to talk about – especially in the teenage years. So this passion was crucial in keeping us motivated in completing the months-long project. It was truly a journey. First, in the early stages of the project, we decided on the topics. Each theme had to be of personal interest for the end result to reach its goals: to raise awareness of mental health stigmas, to teach how to effectively approach someone in need (of mental health care) and to encourage students to keep the wellbeing of their mental health in times of quarantine. So, I chose the stigmas of mental health as my focus. Now, before the project, I didn’t have much awareness of the importance of taking care of one’s mental health. For instance, I was never encouraged to go and talk to a professional, instead, I would hear the words: “other people have it worse” and “it is selfish to think that way”. Nevertheless, while growing up, I was made aware of how harmful that was, not only to me but to others. I was repeating the same harmful advice I was given. Thus, I chose this topic because what better way to improve this behaviour than by learning, and teaching what I had learned to others. While researching the harmful effects of mental health stigma on people who need care, I was made more aware of the weight of my words and why it is important to put oneself in the shoes of the other. Although this made my presentation more complete, I had the feeling that I was missing something; I needed help to convey my message to the younger years. So, I let Martina know about the project as she had always been sensitive to topics related to mental health and had always maintained a positive attitude when helping. She helped me link the stigmas of mental health to the COVID 19 quarantine – how they can both lead to discrimination – and how to keep the wellbeing of our mental health during these times – what type of tips the students can follow. Then, we changed the vocabulary and syntax of our sentences (by recommendation of the school psychologists) to ensure understanding from the students – it was a presentation after all, not a spoken essay. By the end, we included a Kahoot as a fun medium to create questions and see how well we had conveyed our message. After all the planning and the addition of final touches, Friday came and at 8:10 we began presenting. Martina began with an introduction stating why we chose to present this topic while I was getting ready for my part. I explained, she explained, and even though some of the late fixes (like the addition of new slides) were not presented until later than originally planned, the overall experience was terrific. The quality of our presentation, however, was mainly due to the students from years 7, 8, and 9. I must confess that I had high expectations from these year groups because of their high energy that could be used in group discussions and in the Kahoot. But I was not expecting to have my expectations exceeded by such original (yet professional) responses in the group discussion nor by the positive attitude over the Kahoot – so many of you joined that I lost track of the numbers. So I have nothing else to say but thank you to all the students (and teachers) who participated in our session. It really meant a lot to Martina and I. Now, we are keener in continuing these types of projects because of how well it was received. I also think that we – year 12 – can learn a lot from your enthusiasm in class, so thanks for that too! SSD – Dorapy Since November 2019, 5 primary students have been working on strengthening their reading skills. They have been having reading sessions under the close supervision of Dora, our therapy dog, and Sofia Leon, our SenCo. They completed around 600 minutes of uninterrupted reading! These interventions supported them with their fluency, pronunciation and overall confidence. Congratulations Super Readers! We are all very proud of you. Mr. Fernando Ruiz – PE Teacher Physical education at early ages is of fundamental importance in the development of motor, cognitive and affective skills. Through Physical Education, our students acquire knowledge and learn to develop forms of movement; as well as to express their spontaneity and encourage their creativity. At BSQ, students have performed new and fun movement actions with the help of different recreational and sports forms of play. Inclusion is one of the fundamental values of our institution and we practice it daily respecting, sharing and enjoying the progress that each child makes. In conclusion: physical exercise is essential for the harmonious development of children, the practice of sports and physical activities provides great developments in motor activity, as well as the development of healthy habits. We must promote the practice of physical activity in childhood, adolescence and must continue into adulthood, one of our objectives as an educational institution is to motivate children and young people to stay active for all the benefits that sport provides to the physical, mental and emotional health of people. Ms. Antonella Coronel – Head of EYFS Dear parents, Our children have been working in their mathematics, especially in measuring and ordering by size this entire week, from the younger ones in Nursery to the older children in Reception. We have made measuring so much fun by extending the learning to everyday objects found in the children’s home, from kitchen utensils to beds and guitars. This motivates the children to explore measuring and mathematics in an active and fun way. Measuring and ordering takes a few skills to get it just right, like comparing, counting and number-recognition. In Nursery this week the children have been learning about space and how new adventures can be a little frightening at first but once you are there it can lead to magnificent new discoveries. Through the story “Back to earth with a bump” the children flew through space and came back in just a few minutes. To stretch this learning some children made their own solar system! ![]() This week we will like to say a huge thank you to our Reception B teacher Ms. Cook for her continuous hard work and dedication. Her great input is always positive and constructive. The work in her live sessions show her love for teaching. Dates for your Diary
Emma Newman Principal Being BSQ – Primary Update ![]() As we move into the final weeks of this academic year, with all of its successes and challenges, it is time to look back and celebrate the positives that we have experienced and also to make plans for the future. We asked the students in their respective assemblies about the changes that have happened to them over the past year. This is often a difficult question to answer – how have I changed and what effect have those changes had on me. As parents and teachers, we often see the physical changes first in our students, such as getting taller, their hair growing or their face subtly changing shape. But these are only skin-deep – the changes in their thinking, feelings, knowledge, understanding and skills are much harder to measure or describe, but happen nevertheless. We should be extremely proud of their achievements this year, particularly in the circumstances since March, recognising the challenges they have surmounted and the new skills they have mastered. Next week is a shorter week, with online sessions on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday only, followed by two days’ holiday. The following week we will host a Leavers’ Assembly on Thursday 25th June on the Parent Portal (link here to join this section of the Canvas website), with the final two days of term being on Monday 29th and Tuesday 30th June. On these two days, there will be no teacher-led conferences, with the focus being on the Awards Ceremonies on Monday 29th June (KS1 & KS2 at 8:30am, Secondary at 10am and EYFS at 11:30am) and a Whole Primary Farewell Assembly on Tuesday 30th June at 11am. Marcus Madden Head of Primary Being BSQ – Secondary Update ![]() Your Teachers As we approach the end of what has been a very challenging year for everybody, everywhere, I would like to take this opportunity to draw your attention to how amazing your teachers are, and how lucky you are to have them. In normal circumstances, they give everything they have for the students in their care, working long hours and making sacrifices in order to strive to ensure the success and well-being of every single learner. But this year, they have given so much more. Over the last three months, teachers have had to learn a new trade, on the job, and from scratch, a craft very different from the one they trained for and love. They have had to do so in conditions of lockdown, often alone, and in many cases, many miles from friends or family. And despite all of this they have continued, day after day, to focus all of their care and attention on their students at BSQ. They have learned new technologies and new pedagogical techniques. They have re-written curricula and designed whole new ways of approaching the teaching of their subjects. They have responded to every single learner's needs, looked out for their health and happiness, and done everything they can to minimise the disruption in their academic and personal lives. If you haven't yet thanked your teachers, please find some time to do so as we approach the end of the year. Jim Wild Head of Secondary From the BSQ Counselling Team This week our school counsellor, Andrea Carrera, talks about ways to get your children through the end of the school year.
Welcome![]() This week we find ourselves enjoying some small freedoms here in Quito and this gives us hope that we will soon be able to see an end to the time that we have spent apart as a community. This week there are lots of activities taking place including the IB Year 12 mock exams, the Year 13 leavers’ assembly and art show and in primary the Year 6 transition lessons continue. In Year 6 last week Ms. Avent, Mr. Samaniego , Ms Sadotra, Ms Cano and Mr. Edwards all joined the Y6 classes to give the students a taste of secondary life! With thanks to the team of staff who have organized and supported this process – a little differently this year. From our Equality and Diversity Committee. Normally I would introduce a contribution from students but these words from our fabulous secondary Equality and Diversity Committee are entirely self-explanatory. Congratulations to them for their thoughtful and sensitive reflections and guidance. The resources can be explored together as a family and there is clear guidance about the age-related links and videos. Dear Students and Parents, In the BSQ community, we put our values first, and events in the world right now remind us of two in particular: - Respect: We treat every single person in our community equally, showing respect, empathy, and understanding. - Care: We have a responsibility to care for ourselves, each other, and our wider community. We consider and support the feelings and well-being of others without discrimination. As a school that strives for equal treatment for all, by all, we must educate ourselves to understand the past and present situation so that we can appreciate why people are standing up, now, and telling the world that Black Lives Matter. We must look to history, both recent and distant, to understand where this comes from, and we have a responsibility, each and every one of us, to ensure that we acknowledge how the past has impacted the present in order that the future is a better, safer and kinder place for everyone. It is not enough to be neutral and not racist. We all must be antiracist. What does this mean? It means educating ourselves and taking action. Here’s how: ● Learn more about racism and antiracism work here ● Join the Equality & Diversity Committee - now open to all year groups - to make a difference in and out of school ● Challenge any and all racist language and behaviour you might see or hear We are committed to antiracism work at BSQ. With love from The Equality & Diversity Committee. Transition is always an important time for students, staff and parents and this year we will all be sharing the challenges and excitement of transition back to the campus. As part of that process we will be sharing our pre-enrolment letter with all our current families this week. Please ensure that you respond to the request for confirmation of your place as part of the BSQ community next year. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us. Diary Dates are often lost in the busy world of life so please make sure you are fully aware of the events taking place towards the end of term by reading emails and checking the Dates for your Diary and reading the messages from your Heads of School below. e-Learning at BSQ BSQ Parents Quotes Thanks to our staff and community for your hard work and support, here are more comments from our BSQ parents about e-learning at BSQ Michelle O. Fried recipes. Here is our third recipe published in conjunction with Michelle. ![]() Now that we may be leaving our homes, little by little, I offer a quick recipe that everyone will love. Using smaller quantities of animal protein, we are being friendly to the environment, since meat production produces huge quantities of greenhouse gases. I have recently learned that raising pigs produces one-seventh the amount of greenhouse gases as raising beef, so if you can, use a small amount of ground pork in the recipe rather than ground beef. Everybody, especially children, loves noodles and even though they are a processed product, they are quick and “una vez al año, no hacen daño”. However, if you prefer (as I do) serve this superb stir-fry with brown rice. Remember to use all of the Chinese cabbage, cutting the white, crunchy parts on diagonal and adding the chopped, green leaves at the very end to conserve their vitamins. You may find this and other healthy recipes in Michelle´s book Un Mundo de Comida con los Ingredientes del Ecuador, available at all bookstores in the country. Also you can find more information by visiting her blog and website. PA announcement BSQ community, For the PA it is very important to support each other among the families of the British School Quito, even more at times like the one we are experiencing. For this reason, we have created a business directory with businesses of the Parents of our Community. We hope that you can first consider the options for goods and services that our BSQ Directory offers and thus move forward together. Workshop Receive kind regards, I would like to take this opportunity to extend you an invitation to a Virtual Workshop that will take place on June 16, 2020 at 5:00 p.m. It will be a space to enrich ourselves with knowledge to learn how to generate solutions in your organizations, exploiting their creative and innovative potential. The only requirement for you to join us is that you are willing to challenge your limits. In this workshop we will explore:
Join us in this incredible experience! Register at no cost and get valuable tools for the management you do in your organization. We count on your participation! Important Announcement - time HAS run out. If you are reading this newsletter, then you have accessed it through the Canvas Parent Portal – thank you for signing up. With over half of the families now using this tool we are reaching a wide audience but not one that is quite big enough yet. Please remind your friends and fellow class parents to make sure they are on Canvas. All letters with important information will also be placed there if they are for the whole school community. From the Staff and the Students Continuing with our teachers and their stories about e-learning this new period. This week we have Mr. Rodrigo Samaniego from Secondary and Mr. Simon Newman and Ms. Antonella Coronel from Primary. Mr. Rodrigo Samaniego – Secondary Maths Teacher During the past few weeks we have worked with the Year 12s with their toolkits. This is an activity which helps them develop the tools needed to approach complex problems. They have done a great job at understanding the problem and solving it using the simple information given to them by their teachers. With year 8s we have worked on finding equations of straight lines. After a slow start and difficulty, the year 8s have shown great effort and a great understanding of at least one process to find the equation of a line either from a graph or from a table. They have put in a lot of effort to understand a topic completely new to them, in a difficult scenario. Mr. Simon Newman – Year 6 Teacher The children in Year 6 have been ramping up their work on William Shakespeare in recent weeks. There has been some close study and appreciation of the UK performance poet, Kate Tempest. After being wowed by Kate Tempest's own performances of her poetry, the Year 6 children used her work as the inspiration to write their own poems titled My Shakespeare - and they are great. Here's an example by Lyla to whet your appetites: You'll have the chance to read many more of these poems if you come along to the Year 6 production where the poems will be on display, along with the Year 6 children's own Shakespearian sonnets. By the way, in case you were wondering, Year 6's production of Shakespeare's play The Tempest is now scheduled for performance at BSQ in early December...so it will now be a Year 7 production! Due to the lockdown, we have had to put a few things on hold that would normally form part of the summer term for Year 6 at BSQ. However, the opportunity for Year 6 pupils to meet all of the Year 7 teachers has still gone ahead, albeit in a virtual way using the Canvas conferences. We are also working on a final assembly for the Year 6s too so that we can come together for one last time as a KS2 class and team. I am sure you will have seen the lovely interpretations of famous works of art done by the children in Year 6. Our latest project, led by Ms. Camacho, has been all about family trees and we are looking forward to creating a virtual exhibition of this work using software demonstrated to us by Mrs. Davila and Mr. Madden. Ms. Antonella Coronel – Head of EYFS What another great week of online learning! This week was very special because it was children’s day. Despite not being able to celebrate this wonderful day in person we made sure we did something special for the children. We decided to do a ‘Throwback challenge’ and invite the parents to send us a picture of their child as a baby and one of them now. From the pictures we receive we made a compilation video that turned out wonderful. It was such a good experience to listen to the children’s reaction as they saw their transformation from then to how they are now! ![]() Another great reason why this week was extra special was because we have officially begun the transition process with the EYFS children. With the pictures of the ‘Throwback challenge’ we will discuss growth and changes over time. On Thursday June 11th at 2:30 the Reception students and their parents are invited to join the KS1 assembly, we hope to see you all there! Have a wonderful week! Dates for your Diary
Emma Newman Principal Being BSQ – Primary Update ![]() We are now in Week 13 of our Online Learning programme, with only fifteen days of this school year remaining. This may sound either exciting or daunting, depending on your point of view, though I do need to remind you of the famous quite that ‘not all learning happens in the classroom’. This has been even more important during this extended time at home, with a huge variety of learning happening each and every day at home that has not been initiated by the teachers at BSQ. Many of you have been sharing these experiences with the teachers, from making dens, baking cakes and bread, creating fantasy worlds using construction materials, drawing and painting, writing your own stories and a multitude of other activities. These activities are extremely important in your child’s ongoing development, especially when they have more time at home to explore their imagination and create their own entertainment and relaxation. As parents, we should view our role in this process as a mixture of facilitator, teacher and participant, making sure that we allow them time to explore this imaginative side of their personality but also ensuring they have a clear structure for their formal learning. With many of you continuing to work from home, this can be difficult to achieve each day, but please do make time each day to share your child’s learning, give guidance and support as necessary and of course some valuable positive feedback about their achievements. As we approach the end of the year, many of the traditional events we hold in school are being moved to an online platform, such as the End of Year Assemblies, transition activities, class parties and BSQ Award ceremonies. Year 6 are continuing their transition meetings with Secondary teachers, with a Parent Session on Canvas planned for 3:15 on Tuesday 9th June. Please do sign up for the Parent Portal, where we intend to send all announcements and information to you. This week we will welcome the Reception students again to the Key Stage One Star of the Week Assembly on Thursday at 2:30pm, using this invitation link. Marcus Madden Head of Primary Being BSQ – Secondary Update ![]() Last week and into this one, the Year 6 students have been getting a taste of life and learning in Secondary at BSQ. The lessons have been a huge success. Thank you to all those involved. On Tuesday 9th June, Year 6 parents are invited to join Ms Sadotra and myself for an online workshop to hear more about how things will change for the students next year, and how you can help them with transition from Primary to Secondary. After the Exams While the exam session serves as a way to mark the end of the academic year at BSQ, there are still a few things on the schedule before we are done for the summer. After the exams finish, Years 10 and 12 will return to class to receive feedback, and make plans for next year. Meanwhile, Years 7, 8, and 9 will take part in a special topic project. Year 13 will celebrate their graduation on Friday 26th June. Then on the final two days of school - Monday 29th, and Tuesday 30th - there are no regular classes. Instead we invite everybody to join us for the two traditional closing events of the school year: the Awards Ceremony, and the Farewell Assembly. More details to follow. Jim Wild Head of Secondary From the BSQ Counselling Team This week our school counsellor, Andrea Carrera, talks about how to help children manage fears.
Welcome ![]() I hope you are all reading this now that we have migrated to the Parent Portal. I hope you all enjoyed the short week last week and found plenty of opportunities to spend some time with family and friends away from your devices. As I write this, I am also reading news from two of our Orbital schools who are already back on their campus sites – Shanghai and Ljubljana. We wish them good luck and happy learning. I know that we can take comfort from the fact that many schools around the world are returning to their physical classrooms and celebrating the fact that they are together again – as will we. We are now in the final month of our school year with all activities due to end on June 30 2020, we will be making changes to many of the traditional end of year events such as awards ceremonies, class parties and graduations. More news will follow. Today is Children’s Day. For many children, this year brings little to celebrate as they are unable to see their friends, they miss their family members, they miss sports or music or playing in the park together and many children around the world will have had to experience death and sickness as a result of COVID-19. Today we should find some time to think about those children and send them a wish of hope and happiness. For this year, we should all be proud of what our children at BSQ have achieved since the middle of March. Well done to all the students of BSQ for leading the way as learners. Happy Children’s Day! e-Learning at BSQ BSQ Parents Quotes Thanks to our staff and community for your hard work and support, here are more comments from our BSQ parents about e-learning at BSQ Positive thinking. Just as the families receive support and advice from the school Student Support Department, so the staff also receive daily thoughts and last week it was this that caught my eye with thanks to Sofy Leon. It shares the message of hope that after COVID-19 has run its course, we will return to BSQ ‘more vibrant’ than ever before. When trees are pruned, when they are down to their bare essence, they enter a period of apparent dormancy. In time, the trees stand tall again, lusher and more beautiful, in the morning light. During these difficult circumstances, we have also had to hit pause on many things. Let’s hope and trust that when this period ends, we, too, will emerge from our global seclusion more vibrant and beautiful than before. E-learning survey. Last month I reported the overwhelmingly positive response to the e-learning survey. This week I would like to share that many families were asking for additional support with emotional states. Currently we offer many ways to support families with this including our weekly publications from the SSD team, our parent workshops run in the early evening by our SSD team, well-being sessions at the end of the day for primary students, 1-1 sessions for EYFS students, tutor time and assemblies in secondary and primary and, of course, easy access to our school doctor and counselling team members at any time during the school week. To add further support please do let us know when you need our help as we understand the one size does not necessarily fit all and you may need some personal advice and guidance. Our computer doors are always open – get in touch Michelle O. Fried recipes. Here is our second recipe published in conjunction with Michelle. ![]() How much fun to make crunchy, crunchy cookies!! Children love putting their hands in this dough as they form the logs and we all get to indulge in a healthy treat, made with local flours. Enriching both white and whole wheat flour with flours of quinoa, amaranto, haba, arveja creates products with a wide spectrum of micronutrients and lots of fiber, so often lacking in modern, processed diets. The recipe as I invented it preCOVID uses some ingredients which may not be in your pantry. I have been noticing that many recipes can be simplified with whatever I have on hand. As long as you use 3 and a half cups or 650 grams of flours, these indestructible cookies will come out perfectly. For example, I left out the polenta and the almond extract and never missed them. I had “panela molida” and no raw sugar and that worked well also. I´m learning to be flexible and less picky and seeing how I can create delicious food without everything I thought was necessary. Cocina Emergente features cooking in times of COVID-19; I´m on every Saturday at 15:00pm, answering questions and having fun with food. Listen, if you´d like, to some of the past programmes. #CocinaEmergente #QuedateEnCasaNoEnSilencio ¿No sabe qué cocinar? Hoy vamos a hablar de las leguminosas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38gXURG-mE4 #QuedateEnCasaNoEnSilencio ¿Qué alimentos no deben faltar en un hogar con niños y adolescentes? En estos días de confinamiento, con menos actividad física que alimentos preferir y cuáles evitar https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Md-57DTau70 #QuedateEnCasaNoEnSilencio ¿Ha encontrado algún alimento desconocido en su canasta agroecológica? ¿No sabe cómo preparar ciertos alimentos? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cPRJoayUZ Yearbook Whilst we have to postpone some of our traditional end of year activities, there is one that is going ahead as usual – our Yearbook! It will be online for the time being but will be just as glossy and professional as always. Andrea Zambrano may contact you to request a photograph to include. Please respond to make sure that everyone appears in the Yearbook of 2020. This year we are opening the design of the front cover to competition and entries are welcome from anyone in the community – parents, students or staff - by this Friday June 5th. Workshop Receive kind regards, I would like to take this opportunity to extend you an invitation to a Virtual Workshop that will take place on June 16, 2020 at 5:00 p.m. It will be a space to enrich ourselves with knowledge to learn how to generate solutions in your organizations, exploiting their creative and innovative potential. The only requirement for you to join us is that you are willing to challenge your limits. In this workshop we will explore:
Join us in this incredible experience! Register at no cost and get valuable tools for the management you do in your organization. We count on your participation! Important Announcement - time HAS run out. If you are reading this newsletter, then you have accessed it through the Canvas Parent Portal – thank you for signing up. With over half of the families now using this tool we are reaching a wide audience but not one that is big enough yet. Please remind your friends and fellow class parents to make sure they are on Canvas. All letters with important information will also be placed there if they are for the whole school community From the Staff and the Students Continuing with our teachers and their stories about e-learning this new period. This week we have Ms. Fernanda Espinosa, Ms. Valeria Cano, the Year 1 Team, and Ms. Antonella Coronel from Primary. Ms. Fernanda Espinosa – Drama Teacher During the actual context that we are living, we have seen many people singing on their balconies, or dancing, or playing musical instruments to entertain themselves or their neighbours. Music has become an important tool to bring people together in an impressive scale. Some of the activities that we’ve done during the lessons, in Years 1, 2 and 3, are:
During this online learning, children have been very motivated to follow the songs and games, as well as the activities using all the tools that the platform offers. Music is a “very powerful” tool in a quarantine, because when we make music communally, or even dancing a children’s song with your family, it creates bonds and unforgettable memories. Ms. Valeria Cano – Music Teacher In Music, students of Year 4 have been learning how to sing, keep a good posture and proper breathing. Meanwhile in Year 5, students have been learning about pop music and its evolution throughout the years, they have listened to a lot of music they have liked, from Michael Jackson, Madonna, and The Backstreet Boys to Ariana Grande and Bruno Mars. They have been able to tell the differences between the decades. Finally, Year 6 analysed the Harry Potter Suite and their instruments, as well as recognising how important it is for movies to have composed music that expresses emotions. Year 1 Team The students in Year 1 have been working hard to learn about Wassily Kandinsky. We have learnt about Kandinsky’s life and created lots of artwork inspired by his paintings. We have used shapes and colours to make beautiful pieces of abstract art, and tried Kandinsky’s method of listening to music and letting it inspire our painting. As part of this topic, we have learnt about Russia, where Kandinsky lived. We tried out some Russian recipes that Kandinsky might have eaten and created our own Fabergé eggs. In literacy we have been learning to write informal letters. We have written letters from the points of view of characters from Goldilocks and the Three Bears and The Three Little Pigs – we have even written letters from the Big Bad Wolf to apologise for trying to eat the Little Pigs! In science we have learnt about materials. We have experimented to see which materials are strong enough to make a house to protect the Little Pigs from the Big Bad Wolf, and tested materials in our homes to find out if they are waterproof. Ms. Antonella Coronel – Head of EYFS Wow, the children have truly been so busy over the last week both in Nursery and Reception. We are fully enrolled in our 1:1 sessions and the children are showing a lot of independence during the live session and self-awareness when on camera! In Reception the superhero topic is still going strong, so strong that the children made their very own comics strips! Each child used their creativity to come up with a story of a superhero named ‘Supertato’. Each story included a villain and supporting characters that Supertato saved from falling in his evil plans. Through this fantastic activity the children worked on building short sentences and creating a few of them to narrate a coherent story. In Nursery we have been learning about life in a zoo through the story ‘Dear Zoo’. We encouraged the children to select their favourite animal and explain why to their parents, then the children went on to create their very own animal mask. Conversations and activities like these are a great opportunity for children to rehearse vocabulary and increase their love for research and investigating. We also asked children to make a zoo and think about what type of environment they would need to make for each animal in their zoo. The children in Early years have also been learning about money. We suggested to the parents making a piggy bank and allow the children to earn coins throughout the upcoming weeks. This teaches the children the value of saving up and it is a great first step to learning maths through money. By the end, how much will each child save up, will it be enough for a lollipop or an ice cream? We will soon find out! Enjoy a wonderful week. Kind regards, Ms. Coronel Dates for your Diary
Emma Newman Principal Being BSQ – Primary Update ![]() With only just under five weeks of this academic year remaining, the teachers are in the process of writing the formal written reports for each student, highlighting their key strengths, skills, knowledge and understanding while also suggesting suitable next steps for them as they move onto the next phase of their education. Moving onto a new year group can always be stressful, and perhaps more so this year as we are unable to complete the full transition process that usually takes place in school. Nevertheless, each teacher will be spending more and more time over the coming weeks to make sure that every student has the relevant information to help them feel prepared for the move to their new year groups and also to feel happy in their personal progress and attainment in their current year group. As part of this process, the Year 6 students are meeting their new tutors and teachers online over the coming week and a half, discovering many of the differences that being a student in Secondary will bring and the chance to ask some questions about all of these changes. Next week we will also welcome the Reception students to the Key Stage One Assembly at 2:30pm on Thursday 4th June – please click on this link to access this assembly page on Canvas. Marcus Madden Head of Primary Being BSQ – Secondary Update ![]() Quimestre 2 Exams The only way to be sure that knowledge and skills have been learned in the long term, and not just in the lesson, is to come back to them later. That is why in Secondary at BSQ we close out each Quimestre with summative tests of skills and knowledge: so that we can reliably ascertain what has and hasn't been learned. This, in turn, helps us provide targeted feedback on next steps for each and every individual, as well as allowing us to plan the next round of teaching and learning knowing what gaps remain to be filled. This year, our Quimestre 2 tests will take place online. Students can be tested on anything they've studied over the past year. The grades should be of no concern to you, them, and they certainly are of no concern to us. All we are interested in, in any internal examination at BSQ, is getting a clear picture of what has been learned. Exams begin on 11th June for Year 12, and the next day for everybody else (apart from Years and 11 and 13, who have already completed their testing for the year). Full timetables will be published later this week. In the meantime, students should look over what they have learned this year, and address any gaps they identify in their own understanding. Jim Wild Head of Secondary From the BSQ Counselling Team This week our school counsellor, Andrea Carrera, talks about things that mentally strong parents do.
Welcome ![]() One of the greatest challenges for all of us since March has been keeping our routines and traditions in place when the barriers sometimes seem insurmountable. At BSQ we have been working hard to ensure that students get the opportunities to celebrate, be rewarded and be recognized. We still hold our Star of the Week assemblies, our Reward and Recognition assemblies, our tutor programme, our support services continue as do our communications with families through social media and newsletters amongst many other parts of school life. Of course, for some of our students there are significant milestones that will be physically missed by not being able to attend school and so we are working to ensure that these events are still celebrated. For example, in June our Year 6 graduates will enjoy some visits from secondary teachers, they are still rehearsing for a performance of their Year 6 play and their end of year residential will take place during year 7. It is important that we have things to look forward to and that we continue to live and learn together as a community to provide support, care and comfort in line with our values. e-Learning at BSQ Opportunities for all. As mentioned in the original letter linked to discounts, we will continue to work through this period to find ways to support you to enjoy activities, benefits and opportunities that would normally be easily accessible to us during normal days. Michelle O’Fried recipes. Here is our first article published in conjunction with Michelle. How much fun it is to cook together; the kids love the activity and in this soup, they also love the colourful rainbow veggies. And it´s amazing, a miracle how when they cook, they eat things they´d probably never want to try. (The same holds for when they grow the ingredients, and this lockdown time gives us the opportunity to plant a kitchen garden!) For older children they can hone their knife skills; for younger ones they can stir, and stir some more the “refrito”. And just look at the list of ingredients in this soup!! A huge variety and the nutritionists´ rule is VARIETY: EAT THE RAINBOW. To ensure that you get all the micronutrients and fibre in the veggies and no toxic residues, do please either grow or buy agro-ecologically. Steve and Myriam’s basket is a community find!!! (Next week I´ll send you a cookie recipe made with Andean flours.) Music classes Remember that there are opportunities for discounted music lessons with Dina’s music school.
Dina also supports three foundations which will certainly benefit from her work during this time.
If you want to contact Dina, she is on this email address [email protected] or you can go directly to the chat on her website at https://www.escuelademusicasaraswati.com/contacto/ Remember to mention that you are a BSQ family. Annual Storytelling Marathon in Quito This traditional annual Storytelling Marathon in Quito will happen virtually this year on May 29th, 30th and 31st. There will be conferences, workshops on Friday 29th and storytelling, songs and poetry for children on Saturday and Sunday. The world around us. It seems like such a long time since we were able to travel freely to the places we love and to explore new destinations. I know it is something that many of us are looking forward to when the lockdown is over and the world is a safer place. Last week Sir David Attenborough celebrated his 94th birthday and the BBC put together 94 seconds of memories of his remarkable life in the natural world. Enjoy it here. Important Announcement - time is running out. By the end of May, we are aiming to have all our parents signed up to the Canvas Parent Portal and to STOP USING EMAIL AS A MEANS OF COMMUNICATING WITH YOU. PLEASE make sure that you are logged onto this platform using the invites you have had from school. We do now have over 100 families signed up – but we have 239 families at BSQ so still quite a way to go! From the Staff and the StudentsContinuing with our teachers and their stories about e-learning this new period. This week we have Mrs. Paola Montenegro, Ms. Belén Arellano from Secondary and Mr. Oliver Kyle and Ms. Antonella Coronel from Primary. Mrs. Paola Montenegro – Secondary Sociales Teacher Sociales During these months we have worked with year 8, year 9 and 10 on many topics related to the economy, the productive sectors, the development and evolution of our cities and it is impressive to learn about the ideas of all students with plans for economic recovery, fair trade and sustainability, proposal of education and work for the "ninis" as well as the design of their own city as if they were great urban planners. Congratulations and Congratulations!! With year 7 instead, we are working in the 50s, the students have done some research projects on how society has been changing since the Second World War, they learned about the colonization projects of the Amazon and the insular region in Ecuador, the role of women and how it is it was incorporated into work and the incorporation of children's rights into daily habits. I invite you to listen to this diary of a colonizer of Elias Narvaez and see his posters. ![]()
Community Projects: We cannot look aside and feel concerned about what our organizations that we love and help so much are going through, we know that for our safety and theirs they cannot receive us, but we are working on ideas from home for when we meet again, our help is more effective. Thus, we are making gardens, each garden has 5 plants (including vegetables, fruits and vegetables) that will be donated to each of the 86 families in Sinsoluka, we will also start making toys with recycled material and cat flaps for the rescued dogs and cats from PAE and we are supporting an event that you are sure to love to help other children in Guayaquil from the Karla Karla Morales Foundation. More information will be given by Mr. Edwards. We also want to thank the year2 representatives who very kindly collaborated in the acquisition of food baskets for Sinsoluka and several families who have written to us in order to continue collaborating with us. CAS: During these months year 12 students have been working hard from home, many have participated in the service and volunteer initiatives of GIVING A HAND WITHOUT GIVING YOUR HAND and FOR EVERYONE. BEYOND LAGARTOCOCHA has also been collecting funds for the SIEKOPAI or Secoya communities in the Amazon in order to continuously deliver food and buy rapid tests, to prevent this vulnerable group from being contagious. And others have become very creative, they are learning to play new instruments, illustration, photography, animation, drawing, singing and languages in a virtual way. We really don't stop!! On the other hand, the formal presentation has been made so that the y11 students can be part of the emblematic CAS projects such as Beyond Lagartococha and Jofani, so during these weeks the leaders of these two groups are reviewing the applications and very soon. We can introduce you to the 3rd Generation BSQ BEYOND LAGARTOCOCHA and the 2nd Generation JOFANI. Finally, year13 has ended with CAS and there have been unique moments that we have shared these two years. Thank you for all your ideas, your creativity, your ideas and the number of quality projects and experiences that you were the mentors; as you knew how to manifest in the last interviews we had - many of these projects will continue from their university life, we will be waiting for you with open arms. Ms. Belén Arellano – Secondary Visual Art Teacher During the past unit, year 10 Visual Arts students had been exploring Abstract Art and how to get away from reality to create unique compositions. Some artworks are neo abstractions which were based on a Still life composition they created at home and some others are pure abstractions based on a song they chose. The results were fantastic and you can see some of them here! Drama newsletter In our Drama lessons, held every other week, KS3 has been working on some exercises and games that allow all members of the family to have a wonderful time away from screens, relaxing, having fun and creating unforgettable memories. Last week students work and reflect on the questions: what is a pride? What values do we share as a pride (family)? What is the most important character trait your pride shares? Students reflected, with their families, on these questions to create a logo that represents their prides. Answers and opinions shared by the students show how valuable families are in our community. Some of the values families share are: “intelligence, visionary and fierce leaders, with clear objectives and strong personalities”, “friendship, responsibility, honesty, respect, independence, thoughtfulness”, “dynamic characters full of aspirations and goals, hardworking people who do not give up easily”. Values that have strengthened during the quarantine. Even though the activity was optional, some students went the extra mile to complete the task, involving their families to represent themselves and their values in very creative logos. Thanks to all the families that collaborate in this activity and thanks for the excellent teamwork during this time. Mr. Oliver Kyle – Year 5 Teacher Year 5 have been enjoying some engaging online learning these last few weeks, particularly in our Topic lesson where we have been focusing on the art of Oswaldo Guayasamín. We have been investigating his three main series of works: The Huacaynan, The Age of Anger and The Age of Tenderness. The children have been sketching studies of different paintings within these series as well as discussing the different styles. They will use these ideas to form the basis for their own piece of Guyasamín – inspired art in a few weeks’ time. We have also been looking at the life cycles of Humans and getting our heads around the different stages of human development. We are just in the early stages of our investigations but look forward to some interesting discussions in the future. There have been some steps of progress in our Maths work lately, which has mainly been focussing on our understanding of Fractions – particularly converting them. Many children having been making steps towards the abstract form (just using numbers) and this has been really encouraging to see. We would like to congratulate all the children for the way they have been dealing with these extraordinary times that we are leaving in, we are very proud of them. Ms. Antonella Coronel – Head of EYFS Another fantastic week of online learning in EYFS! This past week the children in early years have been learning about money. In nursery we began with coin sorting and teaching the children the name of each coin as well as its value. For the Reception students they have not only been learning about dollar bills but making their own as well. One of the students invented the 4-dollar bill with his face on it! The reception children have also been keeping very busy with their writing, forming short sentences applying the conjunction word ‘and’. They have also been rehearsing this skill during the live sessions by creating sentences with the focus on superheroes. The children were encouraged to transform themselves into superheroes, come up with a name and give themselves powers. During the live sessions, each child also explained who was a superhero to them. The responses were based a lot on their parents and siblings and with the use of adjectives they expressed why they were their superheroes. Well done everyone! ![]() We also want to congratulate Mr. Mercer, our Reception teacher for his great online teaching practice. He continuously works towards keeping the children motivated and learning actively. He brings excellent ICT knowledge, activities and games to the planning documents. Thank you for you Mr. Mercer! Dates for your Diary
Emma Newman Principal Being BSQ – Primary Update ![]() This week we are looking forward to even more creativity and enthusiasm from our students, which you may feel is hard to encourage now we have all been at home for so long. As parents, you are now taking even more of the responsibility for teaching your children and you have a vital role in supporting them through this period of learning. As teachers, we fully understand that this can be a stressful experience for our students, without the social element of school and the contact with their friends and teachers. As parents, you can help support your child by helping to reduce this anxiety by following some simple tips to turn your child’s home learning into a positive, stress-free experience:
After this full week of learning, we then will all enjoy a mini-break of three days off school to recharge our batteries ready for the final five weeks of term. We intend to use a short online reading and comprehension assessment with all students in Years 2 to 6 on the two days following this short break to gather information about your child’s learning and progress. This assessment will only take 30 minutes and will be easy for you to support at home, with only technical assistance required from you to ensure your child has access to the online assessment. More guidance for this assessment will be sent later this week, though in the meantime do not worry about this – your child will find it fun and engaging and it will give both the teachers a great deal of information about their progress in these important areas of learning. Marcus Madden Head of Primary Being BSQ – Secondary Update ![]() Year 11 IB Preparation Programme From Thursday 28th May, Year 11 students will begin working towards their IB Diplomas. Having chosen their courses, they will spend the next four weeks checking that they have sufficient prior knowledge and skills to succeed, filling any gaps that might exist, and further developing any skills they will need to excel. In this way, they will be ready to hit the ground running when we return to school in August. Jim Wild Head of Secondary From the BSQ Counselling Team This week our school counsellor, Andrea Carrera, talks about how communication is the glue that keeps families strong.
Welcome![]() I hope that you all enjoyed Mother’s Day. It has been a difficult year where many people have been unable to spend time with their mothers or grandmothers and as we move into our 9th week of home learning these relationships and support networks are crucial. Here is a great montage of your photos of activities of love with mums across our community. One of most important things we can do during this time is to be kind to each other, to think of our friends and families and the Red Cross have shared a set of home activities for children linked to that. One really great family activity is this Kindness calendar where – although it is meant for children – anyone can add their commitment to kindness for specific days of the week. Whether you are being kind to others or to yourself, there are lots of ideas on the Red Cross site to get you started. e-Learning at BSQ BSQ Parents Quotes Thanks to our staff and community for your hard work and support, here are more comments from our BSQ parents about e-learning at BSQ Survey outcomes. Many thanks to all who completed the online learning survey last week. The key highlights were that most of our children are coping well with the learning at home – and so are you the parents! Thank you. We will also be working on ways to develop our support systems linked ot motivation and using time effectively at home. More details to follow. Opportunities for all. As mentioned in the original letter linked to discounts, we will continue to work through this period to find ways to support you to enjoy activities, benefits and opportunities that would normally be easily accessible to us during normal days. Michelle O’Fried recipes. Some of you will have attended our practical workshops with Michelle last year where she talked to us about healthy eating and many of us bought copies of her fantastic recipe book. We have teamed up with Michelle to bring you some free tips and advice about happy and healthy eating as a family during lockdown. With thanks to Michelle and I hope you enjoy these ideas from next week. Music Announcement Remember that there are opportunities for discounted music lessons with Dina’s music school.
Dina also supports three foundations which will certainly benefit from her work during this time.
If you want to contact Dina, she is on this email address [email protected] or you can go directly to the chat on her website at https://www.escuelademusicasaraswati.com/contacto/ Remember to mention that you are a BSQ family Important Announcement - time is running out. By the end of May, we are aiming to have all our parents signed up to the Canvas Parent Portal and to STOP USING EMAIL AS A MEANS OF COMMUNICATING WITH YOU. PLEASE make sure that you are logged onto this platform using the invites you have had from school. We do now have over 100 families signed up – but we have 239 families at BSQ so still quite a way to go! From the Staff and the Students Continuing with our teachers and their stories about e-learning this new period. This week we have Mrs. Patricia Tufiño from Secondary, the Reception team and Ms. Antonella Coronel from Primary. Mrs. Patricia Tufiño – Secondary Spanish Teacher Literature, and specifically poetry, is a means of liberation for the deepest emotions of the heart. Poets like Benedetti, Borges, Neruda and many more, manage to transport the reader to an endless world, where the word is the owner of dreams, where the pencil and paper dance to the son of the chords of each one of the verses, stanzas and rhymes. With this preamble, where poetry governs the inner world of being, the students of year 12 of the Language A: Literature subject are working with this literary genre. For a few weeks everything related to the structures of poetry has been reviewed, so that the work of Argentine singer-author León Gieco can be understood and considered in depth. In the Spanish class hours, the students have researched and explored the author's trajectory, the biographical data, the sociocultural contexts, we have also enjoyed listening and singing some of the songs composed by him, in such a way that the students connect with this analysis process. The first poem with which we began this journey is titled "I only ask God." After a careful and comprehensive reading, we explored the content of each word, each verse and each stanza. The expected effect on the readers was immediate, the students appropriated the poem, releasing critical contributions and comments about what the poet says. The students valued and appreciated this text made up of twenty-four verses along which the passionate singer-author reflects with melancholy on the horror of war, the pain of injustice and the terrible of fate. To obtain a detailed and insightful analysis of stylistic resources, in the Literature class you will have the characteristics of the lyrical genre, the metric, the verses, the stanzas, the rhyme, etc., resources used as tools to create beauty with the word. In this way we put literary analysis into practice, promoting the development of critical thinking, as well as communication and self-management skills. Finally, it is a great satisfaction for me to work with children so dedicated to responsible and creative work, in each hour of class I enjoy teaching my students and I feel that this is the greatest reward in this adventure of sharing through a virtual environment. Reception Team The face to face online learning sessions are now truly underway and they have been received well by both children and parents alike. They are now well settled into the routine of the sessions. We also celebrated our first assembly via canvas, where we talked about resilience. The children were very excited for the star of the week to start again and are all looking forward to their turn. In literacy, the children have been learning about adjectives and verbs, learning how to put it in a sentence structure. They have all been receptive to the session. They are able to start writing their own sentences after each session. In Numeracy, we have been discovering money, learning to recognize dollars and cents, as well as designing their own money for their role play stores in the home. The children have been working hard as usual with many extra activities. This week in the build-up to Mother's Day celebration they are making cards and gifts at home to say ‘thank you’ to their mothers and grandmothers for helping them to develop new skills such as cooking, gardening and other skills outside of the planning timetable. Ms. Antonella Coronel – Head of EYFS Dear parents, Welcome to a new week of online learning. This will be our first full week of 1:1 online sessions using a 2-way live video session on Canvas. The scheduled timetables are available in the shared google drive folder. Over the past few weeks we have been working to build the children’s independence when accessing the live sessions by asking them to work with their parents turning their microphones on/off, drawing on the screen and answering polls. It has been a great learning journey for us all, and the Early Years students have been eager to participate and learn. Little by little they are learning to use the computer mouse, the mouse pad or the touch screen device. The students are now able to access a wide variety of games, learning opportunities, activities and resources through the planning documents shared by the teachers. Little Kickers has proven to be a great addition to the planning document. The children are staying active, practising balancing skills and concentration in front of their coach Julian. Great work Nursery and Reception students ![]() We also want to congratulate Ms. Anna Vasilokonstantaki, our Nursery A teacher, for her exceptional work through our transition to online learning. She shows her love and passion for teaching through the learning opportunities and experiences planned every week. She is dedicated to teaching children to become active learners. Thank you Ms. Vasilokonstantaki for everything you do! Dates for your Diary
Emma Newman Principal Being BSQ – Primary Update ![]() This week’s newsletter is dedicated to your child’s resilience, determination and courage, all attributes that will have served them well during their time learning and developing at home for the past weeks. Throughout their time at home, our students (and your children) have been faced with challenges that are unprecedented and extraordinary, yet they have overcome these trials with the support of their family, friends and teachers and have adapted to their new circumstances admirably. This journey will not have been without its ups and downs, as we all find ways to live and learn together with patience, understanding and flexibility, but the growing maturity and resilience has been really demonstrated by the quality of the learning your child has shared with us. In our assemblies last week, we discussed the British aviator Amy Johnson. Amy Johnson CBE (1903-1941) was one of the most influential and inspirational women of the twentieth century. She was the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia in 1930 and set a string of other records throughout her career. From a humble background, she defied the conventions of the era and demonstrated that it is possible to achieve your ambitions if you are determined, dedicated and focused on your dreams. Our children may only be starting to think about their personal dreams and ambitions for the future, but this current experience and the skills they are developing will support this process and open their eyes to the unlimited opportunities that they will undoubtedly have. We are extremely pleased to announce the latest developments in our online learning provision, with the addition of 1-1 sessions in Early Years to highlight key learning opportunities and the addition of video sessions each afternoon in Years 1-6 for the older students. These modifications will help our students connect more with their teachers and allow the teachers to demonstrate key learning points. Have a great week of learning and development and remember we are here to support you through this challenging time. Marcus Madden Head of Primary Being BSQ – Secondary Update ![]() IG to IB In the absence of the customary official, externally assessed summative examinations from Cambridge this year for our Year 11 students, it has been hard for some to find closure. As stressful as such exams inevitably are, they offer an important cathartic release as well as very real recognition of all the hard work done. Hopefully, the online exam process we have put in place will help fill this gap. Last week and this, all Year 11 students have been and are engaged in a new system of online examination, using the exam.net platform, which allows us to remotely administer and monitor live tests. These exams will constitute their Quimestre 2 exam grades, as well as contributing to the 'predicted' grades that we send to Cambridge, and as such carry weight, and, hopefully, provide that much needed closure. We'll have an 'end of IG' celebration assembly on Friday 29th May. From Monday 18th May, these same students will begin a week-long 'tour' of the IB Diploma Programme subject options. Each student will attend one lesson of each of the classes we offer at IBDP level, with the hope that having done so, and armed with the insights about their aptitude gleaned from these summative IG assessments, they will be in an even stronger position to make informed and wise decisions about their next steps at BSQ. Jim Wild Head of Secondary From the BSQ Counselling Team This week our school counsellor, Andrea Carrera, talks about teaching empathy.
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May 2024
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