BSB News: Key Dates February 2
Year 6 Transition Evening, Sanlitun
3
Year 6 Transition Evening, Shunyi
4
Year 5 Ski Trip
5
Year 6 Ski Trip
8— 12
House week
10
Secondary Parent Teacher Consultations
28
House week
From the Executive Principal Dear Parents, I have spent the last week in England as a guest at the first managerial development course organised by Nord Anglia in conjunction with the UK National College for School Leadership. Two of our teachers from BSB have been enrolled as fellows of the college and more will follow. I have to say that I felt a genuine sense of honour and privilege to be part of such a momentous event which I believe is unique in the International School world. The sense of purpose and the clear (and sometimes intense!) focus on serving the needs of our pupils through training and development of teachers was inspiring.
Sports
Sports
March 3
Issue 18 29th January 2010
Secondary House Music Competition
8
FS (Sanlitun) Music Workshops
9
FS SY Music Workshops
1415
Last week of Secondary ASA
1617
Last Week of Primary ASA
1519
Yr 5 Residential Trip to Xi‘an
International Day—To Be Confirmed
Christian Bishop and Christine Armstrong are only the first of our teachers to benefit from the possibilities offered by the strength and depth of the Nord Anglia Group. I have several expressions of interest from teachers not just for the National College places but also for other opportunities and focussed courses which are available. I don‘t often talk about the parent group as I prefer in general to be based in the day to day life of our community, but on this occasion I felt it was important to let you know. As some of you will be aware Mr. Webb Mitchell our director of music is on the cusp of possible super stardom in the classical music world and so it is with mixed emotions that we bid him farewell in the next few weeks. I know as a community will miss his verve and enthusiasm and his contribution to the musical life of the school. However he has promised he will not forget BSB and even though we wish him the very best of luck with his compositional career we look forward to hosting him as a famous visitor too! In the meantime I would heartily recommend that you all pester him for his new CD which I have had the pleasure of listening to in depth. I look forward to seeing you all again next week Very best from rainy England! Michael Embley Executive Principal THE BRITISH SCHOOL OF BEIJING
Whole School, Shunyi and Sanlitun: s
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Rem
ddler Shunyi Baby and To BOX Group Trip to FAMILY play centre with BSB in cooperation e to inFamily Box would lik ecial BSB vite you to a very sp ly opened session at the new ntre ce ―Family Box‖ play 10amnext Thursday from bus 12noon. We have y to take transportation read ar-olds you and your 1-3 ye at down to the centre up to 9.30am and back .30pm for Shunyi again at 12 on‘. We this free ‗taster sessi ill be w u do hope that yo and if g able to come alon ease you would like to pl contact Tina on l.org.cn tina.liu@britishschoo on the at to confirm your se bus.
Experienced Nursery Teacher (3/4 year-olds) for maternity leave cover from May 10 2010 until Dec 20 Shunyi
jing, The British School of Bei ellent early exc an s uire req pus Cam dynamic years teacher to join our ly Years teaching team. The Ear is located in Foundation Department Campus, in nyi Shu new ul utif our bea ideal The s. litie faci purpose build eral years candidate will have sev ng children experience teaching you , and will lum ricu Cur l iona in the Nat fessional. be a warm and caring pro cover letter Please send your full CV, to to pho ent and rec ol.org.cn jane.smith@britishscho
UPDATE : Special needs in the real world The program at both BSB and ISB has been a fantastic success so far, and we hope to continue it long into the future. This week we have had a visit from CNN to document the journey and a visit from a local Primary School too see the School and the programme.
Click here for Sanlitun
Click here for Shunyi
News From Sanlitun: From the Headteacher Dear Parents At last the weather is becoming warmer and the sun is peeping out. However the children still need to be wrapped up warmly during playtimes. The snow is nearly all gone now from the playgrounds and the majority of children are choosing to play outside. Due to the severity of the weather, this week we have had all the man hole covers checked to ensure they have not eroded in anyway. Everyone is enjoying looking at the work that is up in the front entrance and each week one of the boards is changed, so keep popping in. From next week we will be putting up some of our older children‘s work in the Foundation Campus as it is lovely to see what the children progress to or an older siblings work. We have lots of new photos on the TV in the main entrance including ‗Cinderella‘ the Y4 trip and 2I‘s assembly. These can also be found on the website. The children have been giving their opinion on the food in the dining room and which is their favourite. This week the lasagna was enormously popular along with the chicken cordon bleu. Year 1 are very vocal at the moment as they are strong advocates of Healthy Eating! After Chinese New Year we would like to invite parents in, to come and join us at lunch times and eat with the children. I will be organising this with the Parent Society and I know the children will be thrilled to see parents in our Dining Room. Class 1K put on a fabulous assembly and we were all so impressed with the quality of reading, singing and dancing from 1K. Miss King was rather good as well. Soon Miss Sophia will be going on Maternity Leave and we welcome Hayley Robinson who will be taking her place in ND. Nurse Vivian is leaving us to join her husband in Australia and we welcome Nurse Hellen who has spent time working alongside Nurse Vivian to ensure a smooth transition. Next week we will invite them to tell us more about themselves through the newsletter. Our teachers have been working hard to prepare Maths workshops for parents to help you understand the content of our curriculum and the teaching methods used. This in turn will help you support your child at home. Here are the dates and times for you to put in your diary; Early Years: Monday 8th February at 8.45am Key Stage 2: Tuesday 9th February at 3.30pm Key Stage 1: Wednesday 10th February at 3.30pm I wish everyone a lovely weekend, Warm regards, Janet Brock
Primary Music, Sanlitun YEAR 5 & 6 CHILDREN TAKE THE BSB MUSIC BASELINE ASSESSMENT This week, Year 5 and 6 students took the BSB Music Baseline Assessment during their music lessons. This innovative form of assessment is unique to our school and accurately assesses the national curriculum level of each child, taking into consideration musical knowledge and experience that your child may have acquired in both curricular and extra-curricular music making. You may be interested to know that the same test is taken by students in Years 5-9. This leads to exciting benefits to BSB students; we are able to identify children with musical ability whose talent may have previously been undiscovered and it enables us to identify students that are working beyond expectations in their respective year group. Musical development is of course not dependant on age and it is quite possible for the strongest musicians to be in younger year groups. There is a great deal of talent in Years 5 and 6 and we anticipate that some of these gifted musicians will be outperforming their counterparts in the senior school! Jennie Grierson and Andrew Webb-Mitchell
BSB News: News From Sanlitun: ASA, Sanlitun It has been fantastic to have some pupils back to Football Club after the New Year and in particular to welcome so many Year 1 children to Football Club. The Year 1 children have been learning lots of new skills in the first few weeks, from passing the ball, heading the ball and shooting. They even played their first little game in training this week and they were absolutely fantastic! I have been incredibly impressed with their listening skills and their determination to get the skills right. Super work Year 1! The Year 2 children have been practicing their passing to become quicker and sharper and more accurate at passing to their team mates whilst on the move. We have also been learning how to control the ball with our chests, head and feet before making a pass. Year 2 also played their first 4 v 4 game in training this week and the quality of the players is incredible! There are a lot of skillful players in Year 2, so Wayne Rooney you better watch out! Year 1 Football players – Merecedes Minford, Connor Yu, Kenneth Hwang, Luis Fernandez Gu, Katie Vause, Davis Beier, Lucas Van Merkestein, Steve Yu Year 2 Football players - Evan Li, Ethan Hou, Sam Kang, Matthew Yeung, Tony Oh, Max Han, Joe Turner (Yr1 ), Miles Garnier (Yr1)
In computer club the children have been exploring the features of PowerPoint. They have been learning how to insert slides, change the background and layout, insert text and images and add simple animation. The children have started to use these skills to produce their own personal PowerPoint, which they will share with the rest of the children, later in the term. The children can choose a presentation on either themselves and their family or a hobby. We look forward to watching each others presentation and observing their new computer skills. Laura Beverly, Sanlitun
EAL All the EAL students have been working really hard. The new grouping system is working really well and all the students are making real progress. It is really wonderful to see students growing in confidence and expressing themselves much more fluently in English. A tip for this week: you can practice English anywhere-why not find people from your group and practice together? Even if you just do this for 10 minutes a day, it will really help you! Remember: the more you practice, the better you will get! Kaz Michalak
Foundation Stage 'Clean up, clean up, everybody, every where...' sang everyone in Pre-nursery as we tidied our toys. Our theme this week - 'Toys and Teddies', had us all excited as we got to bring our favourite toys to school for a show and tell session. We worked together as a class and made a giant 'Jack-in-theBox'. We tried our hand at making home-made toys like balloon paddles and kites. We conducted a Science experiment that got all of us jumping. We added vinegar and baking soda into a glass full of raisins and made them jump up and down! We had our own 'Jumping Raisins' dance session after that and were really good at 'freezing' when the music stopped. All in all, it was a fun week!' The pirates in Nursery continued to sail the seas and this week we were in search of buried treasure! We made some sparkly collage pictures and jewelled pasta necklaces to fill our treasure chest, and then made a big map marked with an X to show where we had buried it. We enjoyed miming burying our treasure, quite a tricky task as we couldn‘t make any noise at all! We ended the week making silver goblets for our treasure hunt and pirate party which was lots of fun. We continued with our new Show and Tell activity and Mrs. Appelbe‘s children proudly showed their friends how we tried elephant riding in Vietnam, how we are getting ready for the Chinese New Year and some eggs that transform into dinosaurs! The children in Miss Dashwood‘s class have also had lots of news to tell! We have had a look at photographs on the interactive white board, lots of favourite stories and super fast racing cars with lightening stripes! ―My name is Kevin and I know number eleven.‖ Reception K ―My name is Peter, I can see a fast cheetah.‖ Reception S My name is Claire, I am a cuddly bear.‖ Reception K My name is Max, I can see lots of animal tracks.‖ Reception S We have been working on even more rhymes and trying to make sentences that rhyme with each other. We have also been looking at our 2D and 3D shapes and what they look like. We made hats in the shape of a cone and cylinder and decorated them with lots of 2D shapes. The Foundation Team, Sanlitun
BSB News: News From Sanlitun: Key Stage One This week in Year 1 we have been reading the story ‗The Magic Paintbrush‘ by Julia Donaldson. We have had great fun acting the story out and writing about our favourite parts. In topic this week we carried out a science experiment. We looked at what effect coke had on egg shells. We made lots of interesting predictions as to what would happen. Some people even guessed that the egg shells might grow! In the end we discovered that the coke turned the egg shells brown. We all agreed that this didn‘t look very nice. Imagine what would happen to our teeth if we drank lots of coke! So, we decided that coke was definitely not good for our teeth. This week also saw 1S celebrate reaching 100 marbles by decorating biscuits. Yum Yum! In Year 2 we have started our new literacy topic ‗superheros‘! We have read some passages from superhero books and started creating our own superhero identities. Beware baddies! Year 2 are on the hunt to catch you! Peter McSweeney, Sanlitun
Key Stage Two In year 3 we have been writing instructions for ancient Egyptian embalmers. They look just like the instructions you would get with your IKEA shelving unit except they include phrases such as ‗Next, force the hook in the nose and use it to mash up the brain‘ and ‗Then, slice a small cut in the torso and remove the major organs‘. These instructions have been carefully constructed using time connectives and imperative verbs, and written on ancient Egyptian ‗Papyrus‘ paper. But now comes the really interesting part… Using the new BSB iflip movie cameras, year 3 students will be turning their written instructions into instructional videos which could be used to train the next generation of embalmers. This activity will not only improve the students‘ speaking and reading, but it will give them a chance to see the practical application of literacy in a real world situation. Students will be split into ‗production crews‘ where it will be up to them to choose a role from the list of camera operator, actor, director or presenter. After filming, these literacy lessons will then filter into our ICT lessons as we use a simple movie making piece of software to edit and add graphics to our videos. Getting to grips with the new hardware and software will be as much a task as adapting our literacy to the new medium, but in a week or two we hope display our instructional videos on the TV in the lobby. If you know anybody who happens to be training as an embalmer, then send them over to BSB, year 3 have got some handy tips for them! Mr. Thomas
BSB News: News From Shunyi: Message from Head of Primary The Primary School is Hopping! Foundation Stage were introduced to the two newest members of the BSB family on Monday – 2 beautiful baby rabbits! At our morning assembly, we patted the rabbits, fed them and learned about rabbit communication (did you know what if a rabbit licks your finger it means it likes you? When they are feeling relaxed they stretch out? Well, FS do!). The rabbits have a large cage for the wintertime and each day they visit a different FS class (Mondays – NursC, Tuesdays – NurseryM, Wednesdays – RecB, Thursdays – RecP, and Fridays – Pre-Nursery). Names were chosen by the classes and a letter was sent to Mrs Smith with the classes‘ suggestions – Nibbles and Snowy were the final choices! The children learned what to feed rabbits and how to hold them, and during the week they have helped clean out, play with, exercise and handle the very tame and sociable bunnies. Pets in class are a great British tradition and a wonderful way to help children understand, respect and care for creatures plus help them develop responsibility and confidence. The rabbits will provide super opportunities for pupils‘ speaking and listening too; even the quietest children have had a lot to say about our new pets and all the children have been enthralled by them. Please do visit Nibbles and Snowy when you drop off your child in the FS and parents wishing to ‗bunny-sit‘ over the weekends and holidays should see the class teacher (training will be provided!). KS2 were treated to a visit by Free The Children, a child empowerment charity which aims to help children help other children. The introductory session was for all of KS2 on Thursday and our pupils heard about how children can help others go to school through student-led charity projects in China and beyond. The classes left buzzing with ideas and the Primary Student Councilors have been asked to discuss our possible role which will be discussed at Tuesday‘s Student Council meeting. Some potential student leaders from Y5 and Y6 then went on to have leadership training from Free The Children to encourage their self-confidence and can-do attitude! Watch this space for their next step! www.freethechildren.com Jane Smith Head of Primary
BSB News: News From Shunyi: Foundation Stage What a fun week we have had in Foundation Stage – especially with our two new friends, Snowy and Nibbles! In Pre-Nursery children have loved learning all about Nursery Rhymes focusing on Humpty Dumpty. They made Humpty Dumpty puppets, made a collage of Humpty and also did experiments with real eggs. Best of all, on Friday the children made yummy egg sandwiches. Nursery classes have been busy learning even more about Pirates! They are still enjoying their pirate role play area and have learnt lots of songs with actions. Also they have been very artistic and made binoculars, spyglasses, parrots and treasure chests. They have written messages in a bottle, and also learnt the number 2. Such a busy, but very fun week! In Reception the focus has been on Rhyme. We read Where‘s my Teddy, The Gruffalo and Hairy Maclary all of which are rhyming stories. The children have loved making their own little rhymes – especially thinking of words which rhyme with their name. We also learnt 2D and 3D shapes and some new sounds - y, z, zz and qu. We enjoyed making big dogs from the Book Hairy Maclary to decorate our classroom. It was a great week! Joanne Pouncey, Nursery Teacher and Foundation Stage Co-ordinator
Key Stage One This week Year 1 has been continuing with their topic on Sound and Hearing. They continued work on their 3D musical instruments which are really beginning to take shape now, much to the delight of the children. In science the children carried out an investigation to find out how sound varies with distance from the source. They planned their investigation using the ―planning house‖, thinking about what they would change, what would stay the same, and making their predictions. They then went into the playground to carry out the investigation. They recorded their observations, and finally used graphing software on the computers to present their findings. Well done Year 1 on being such super young scientists! Year 2 did a terrific job in their assembly! The children had a chance to show their parents all the wonderful work they have been doing in their literacy lessons, based on the Native American myth, ‗The Lord of the Animals‘. They also demonstrated their musical talents, with their singing, and instrument playing. Well done! Susan Anderson, Shunyi
BSB News: News From Shunyi: Key Stage Two In Literacy this week, Year 3 have written and illustrated, ‗How to Make a Mummy‘ instructions. They have also started planning a TV documentary programme based on the process – stay tuned to this channel! In numeracy they have been rounding to 10 and 100 and spotting patterns in the 2, 5, and 10 x tables. In topic they have been learning about Egyptian Gods and pharaohs . They have also been making their own papyrus paper to write their instructions on. In Year 4 this week we have continued reading stories from other cultures and have been exploring the author‘s craft in ‗ Marianna and the Merchild‘, a folk tale from Chile. We have acted out scenes thinking about a character‘s feeling, used karate punctuation moves to punctuate the speech in dialogue between characters and written diary entries. In numeracy we have been looking at the relationship between multiplication and division and different triangles and polygons. In science we have been explaining our solids and liquids investigations. We had an exciting time on Google Earth in ICT – researching the physical geography of the areas we will visit on our residential this term. Julie Ng
Secondary The eight Millenium goals were the main topic on the agenda of the Canadian charity ―Free the Children‖ when they came to the school to give a presentation and take workshops on Thursday. This is part of their Asian tour and the whole of KS2 and KS3 heard the hour long presentation which gave some insight into how the charity operates and the kind of projects that it involves itself with. One of the main areas of involvement is education and, to this end, the charity raises money so that schools can be built in deprived areas. As the charity is supported by the Penguin Club (an offshoot of Disney) it means that every penny raised is matched by that organization – a boost indeed ! I think everyone who heard the presentation agreed how powerful the message was and we hope that this impetus will continue especially as the Humanities Day this term will be on the same theme. For more insight on what the workshops were like to participate in we will have an article by May in year 8 in next weeks newsletter. Jo Parr
Shunyi Library News We started a few new things this week. Due Date Slip Lucky Draw :Each month several students among who returned books by due dates win small prizes from ‗Lucky Draw‘. There are some choices of prizes and this time Pop tarts were the most popular! The best borrower :This prize goes bi-termly to a student who borrows and reads most books. The first prize this term went to Sophie in Y9. She was delighted to receive her prize of a book token! BSB Reading group first choose the winner of The Best Review for who wrote the best review of the books they read. Although there were lots of good reviews, The Star Reviewers this month were Sophie(Y9) and Andrew(Y9). Other reviews will be displayed to help others choosing books. Thank you all the review writers! Tomi Barnsley Secondary Library British School of Beijing
Books, I found, had the power to make time stand still, retreat or fly into the future. ~ Jim Bishop ~
Music YEAR 5 & 6 CHILDREN TAKE THE BSB MUSIC BASELINE ASSESSMENT This week, Year 5 and 6 students took the BSB Music Baseline Assessment during their music lessons. This innovative form of assessment is unique to our school and accurately assesses the national curriculum level of each child, taking into consideration musical knowledge and experience that your child may have acquired in both curricular and extra-curricular music making. You may be interested to know that the same test is taken by students in Years 5-9. This leads to exciting benefits to BSB students; we are able to identify children with musical ability whose talent may have previously been undiscovered and it enables us to identify students that are working beyond expectations in their respective year group. Musical development is of course not dependant on age and it is quite possible for the strongest musicians to be in younger year groups. There is a great deal of talent in Years 5 and 6 and we anticipate that some of these gifted musicians will be outperforming their counterparts in the senior school! Jennie Grierson & Andrew Webb-Mitchell Year 10 and 12 trip to BBC Beijing Bureau On Thursday, January 28th, a group of Year 10 and Year 12 students went to visit the BBC (British Broadcasting Company) bureau in Beijing. The main purpose of the trip was to help prepare the students for the Model United Nations Conference that they will be participating in March. Mr Vivek Rag, the BBC bureau producer, showed the group around the TV and radio studios and explained the technical side of how the bureau operated. Mr Quentin Sommerville, one of the BBC World Service news correspondents, hosted a question and answer session about being a journalist and working in China. Perhaps one of the students will end up being a journalist or a cameraman or producer ? A big thank you to Vivek Raj and Quentin Sommerville for giving up their time to show us around and for making us feel welcome. Mr Nick Bourne
BSB News: News From Shunyi: Sports News Senior Basketball Both boys and girls played in their end of season tournaments. While there was disappointment from both teams for their overall rankings, I was delighted with the way all students performed in their play-off games. Both boys and girls teams were able to 'bow out' with season high score lines. I am pleased with the progress that all players have made and am looking forward to next season already. For the boys: Axel, Philip, Luke, Franklin, Muji, Tommy, Randy, Harry, Prateek coached by Mr Barnsley. For the girls: MinJung, Alice, Puje, Sylvia, Luisa, Cistina, Rebecca, Jenny, Kate, Irene, Amy coached by Mr Hogan. As soon as players have cast their votes the Most Valuable Playerss for both squads will be announced, along with the coaches choice for Most Improved Player. Senior Soccer Try-outs were held this week. The boys look like they will be in reasonable shape for this season and will be led by Mr Hogan, but the girls team still needs players. Please speak to Mr Barnsley. U12 & U14 Boys Basketball Another busy training session took place on Tuesday. The boys are continuing to practice to improve their fundamentals; footwork, shooting, defense. U12 & U14 Girls Basketball Training has started and will continue to take place every Thursday. There are still spaces in the squad, interested players should speak to Mr Barnsle.y U10 & U11 Handball Practices have been going well under the watchful eye of coach Mrs Thomason. Both U10 and U11 teams will be in action on Tuesday and Thrusday after school at BSB during ASA time. The U10 are hoping to build on their practices as they will be playing in a tournament next Saturday at DSP Aqua Bears Another busy week in the pool. The Team have begun preparations for their Tianjin meet in late February. This week a spotlight light on the Ducks, led by Mrs Barnsley. The children spent the week concentrating on core training in the water. The practices and drills this week were planned to help establish the 'streamline' that is so important for an efficient stroke in competitive swimmers. Julian Barnsley Athletic Director & Activities Coordinator
Last Friday ten of our year 6 students, from both Sanlitun and Shunyi campuses took part in an Improvisation workshop. They were integrated with students from other local international schools and given challenges throughout the day to explore this drama convention. Many of the activities involved speaking and listening skills, devising scenes and characters, and developing leadership skills. The main emphasis of the day was to gain an understanding of CROW (character, relationships, objective and where) in order for students to establish relevant and interesting scenes. One of the attending students, Abigail Mikhail wrote this about her experience of one of her favorite activities; ‗The one game I really liked and thought was fun was ‗Subtitles‘. This is a game that is uses CROW. There are two people standing up and doing actions and miming while two other people are trying to figure out what they are saying. We had fun and learnt new things that we didn‘t know before…I had a great time!‘ Ms. Berverley and I were extremely impressed with their work and enthusiasm. All students from The British School were praised for their impeccable behavior and how well mannered they were to staff and peers alike. Tracey Hill, Shunyi
Primary House Names & Colours Normans
Saxons
Sanlitun House Points
Vikings
Secondary Merit Awards
Romans
Shunyi House Points
Key Stage 3 Mina Shin
158
Diana Park
118
Normans
491
Normans
296
Sejin Kim
112
Vikings
340
Vikings
281
Minori Yariwake
111
Romans
357
Romans
304
Saxons
367
Saxons
219
Congratulations to the Normans on earning the highest House Points for the week ending 29th January. Well done, Normans
Congratulations to the Romans on earning the highest House Points for the week ending 29th January. Well done, Romans
Key Stage 4 Oceane Duprat
53
Andrea DeMatteis
37
Doris Sun
36
Silvia Vidinyu
36
Parents’ Page: BSB is pleased to widen the scope of our newsletter by including a parents’ page, items for this page should be in keeping with the ethos of the School and should be submitted to our Publications and Liaison Officer on newsletter@britishschool.org.cn before 4pm Wednesday on the week in which they are to appear. Please note we cannot advertise businesses, the aim is to promote charitable events and personal ads.
Nothing this week, please check back again next week!