BSB News: Issue 24 19th March 2010
Key Dates
From the Executive Principal
March
Dear Parents,
19
Primary Reports go Home
1519
Yr 5 Residential Trip to Xi‘an
20 – 21
World Scholarship competition
27
Jumble Sale
April 2
Open Day 10.30—11.30 Shunyi
2
Last term
12
1st Day of Summer Term
1216
Music enrolement week
20
ASA begin
23
Sports day
23
Curriculum books sent home
29
day
–
of
Primary BSB idol
Early this week BSB was proud to host a visit from Guy Perricone, CEO of the Associated Boards of the Royal Schools of Music. He was deeply impressed with our programme our facilities but mostly, and more importantly, our students. His praise was warm and genuine and he even mentioned what good manners our students displayed during his visit which pleased me greatly. It gives me great pleasure to confirm that BSB will host the ABRSM graded music exams for the whole of Beijing. The first examination will be in November and I can only imagine how excited our students and the students from other schools (and one or two adults!) will be to head down the path of grade 1, grade 2 all the way to grade 8 and diploma! The ABRSM offer an phenomenal programme and route to a career in music or music for pleasure. They offer scholarships to the most prestigious musical academies in the world. This weekend BSB plays host to the World Scholars Cup. Of course we‘re delighted to host students from across Beijing and the China region. Mr Bourne has done a great job of coordinating a large event. Hosting the World Scholars Cup puts BSB firmly on the academic map. It‘s our first time to enter the competition so I know our teams are nervous…but experience is the best teacher so I say ―dive in and enjoy the event!‖ I will be in the UK for the next few days attending a board meeting and when I return…some big news! All the best.
29
Secondary BSB idol
Mike Embley
Dear Parents, Thank you for the marvelous show of support for the Jumble and Bake Sale to be held on March 27! We‘ve had quite a lot of items coming in from both campuses, as well as the promise of so many delicious cakes and tasty treats! With one more week to go, and in response to requests from a few parents, we‘d like to invite you to make use of the Jumble Sale as a space to sell your own cherished items via our specially located notice board. Just take a picture of the items that you wish to sell and email it to any member of the Sanlitun Parent Society. Alternatively, you can drop a hardcopy off at the school‘s reception, addresses to the PS. Please remember to write your contact details on the page, along with your proposed sale price. There will be a standard charge of RMB10 per page to display your pictures and info on the notice board at our Jumble Sale. If you are interested in selling any of your personal items this way, please be sure and get your ad in to us before the Jumble Sale. And do drop in! The Jumble and Bake Sale can be a fun and relaxing way to spend a Saturday. Have a good rummage while the kids play outside, then grab a snack or drink from: The PS Bake Sale – delicious home baked treats! iF Juice - fresh fruit juices made before your eyes Coffee Art Cafe - Gourmet teas and coffee We thank you again for your fantastic show of support and look forward to seeing you on Saturday 27 March at the Sanlitun campus!
BSB News: Whole School, Shunyi and Sanlitun:
BSB News: Whole School, Shunyi and Sanlitun: es
Notic
day at BSB is Club Football on M onday, sign up t ou e m co ill w ll ba and you need This term s club foot th (Shunyi)? If possibl e, 25 ur Th and Wed 24th (Sanlitun) ! ow kn blurb, let me ! Thanks for your help Regards David --r f Operations Office David Niven - Chie ll Limited China ClubFootba xing.com un david@wanguoq
Benjamin Zephaniah visits BSB! Benjamin gave our students an electrifying performance to our Students this week.
Click here for Sanlitun
Click here for Shunyi
BSB News: News From Sanlitun: From the Headteacher Dear Parents, It was so lovely to see such a big turnout of Mums and Dads at Open Morning and it is always a pleasure to see so many of you wishing you were back at school when you see our teaching methods and the content of our curriculum. You will receive your child‘s report this Friday and a sign up slip to book an appointment with your child‘s teacher to discuss their progress and future targets. This is also an opportunity for you to have a look at your child‘s work and how much they have improved since September. There are lots of exciting things happening over the next few weeks which I want to let you know about so that you can note them in your diary and I hope you will be able to attend many of them. Junior & Chamber Choir and String Ensemble The Key Stage 2 Spring Concerts planned for next week will not be taking place due to overload of commitments for our talented children. However the Junior and Chamber Choirs and the ASA String Ensemble will still be performing at the Expat Fair held at the China World Trade Centre on Saturday 27th March. They are scheduled to perform between 11 and 12 in the morning, and buses will be arranged from both campuses accordingly. Weekend Events On Sunday 21st March from 10am till 4pm, for the third year running the Indian Community will be holding an Indian Bazaar at the Sanlitun Campus. This has proved to be a great day out with delicious food, interesting stalls and talented entertainment. More details can be found on our website. I highly recommend it. On Saturday 27th March from 10am till 3pm the Parent Society are holding a Jumble Sale. Sporting Events There are many fixtures organised for the rest of this term and we have strong U7/U9/U11 teams in football as well as handball teams and a badminton team. House Striking and Fielding Comp - Wednesday 21st April KS1 & 2 Foundation Stage Sports Day - Friday 30th April KS 1 Sports Day - Thursday 6th May KS 2 Sports Day - Friday 7th May Lower KS 2 (Y3&4) Swimming Gala Thursday 3rd June 9:30 - 10:30 Upper KS2(Y5&6) Swimming Gala Thursday 3rd June 10:45 - 11:45 SLT KS 1 Swimming Gala Thursday 3rd June 1:00 - 2:30 In House Events Foundation Open Morning is on Monday 22nd March from 9-9.45am. If you have a child who is considering coming to school next year then this is a great opportunity for you to get a feel for how our Early Years works. Courtney Campbell is spending the day at Sanlitun (more details on our website) on Monday 22nd March and her CDs will be on sale that day at 100RMB. For those Early Years parents who have come to Open Morning, they are very welcome to stay and watch Courtney with their child from 10.45 till 11.30am. Refreshments will be provided. Organised by the school council to raise money for charity, KS1 are having Sponsored Silent Games on Tuesday 24th March and KS2 are holding the Great Raisin Race on Wednesday 25th March Inauguration We are very excited to be holding the Inauguration of our new campus in Shunyi on Friday 26th March. We have a VIP guest from England coming to carry out the ceremony, but due to security issues, we cannot give out any more information. All children from Sanlitun will be involved in the ceremony that afternoon and will be expected to be in full uniform.
So many things going on and you are all always welcome at any of the events. Please do remember though that our main priority is that the children receive the best education for them personally and our teachers continually strive to provide this for every child. They are always happy to discuss anything with you either in person or through email and please feel free to contact me any time by popping in, phoning or sending me an email. janet.brock@britishschool.org.cn Warm regards, Janet Brock Headteacher Sanlitun Campus
BSB News: EAL The EAL students have been learning about all kinds of exciting things this week: Some year one students planned a trip to the South Pole. Year two students learned about scrambled snakes, gruffalo crumble and roasted fox!Year three students carried on with designing their Egyptian tombs. Year 4 students found out how life would be different if the Romans hadn't come to England. As if that's not enough, year 6 students debated the pros and cons of scrapping homework and doing all their work in school instead! Luckily (but strangely!) they decided that they needed homework. I'm sure all of their teachers will be very relieved! Tip for this week: always ask your children what they have been doing in their EAL lessons. If they can't explain it to you in English, they can explain it in their mother tongue. This will help them remember what they learned and also make them feel good about themselves. Kaz Michalak, EAL Teacher
Foundation Stage It is Spring and nature is awakening from its deep slumber. All around Foundation School, little creatures are a-crawling and flowers are a-blooming! Incy Wincy Spider, buzzing bees and bad tempered ladybirds have been the topic of conversation this week in Reception as we have been using our magnifying glasses to take a good look at the mini-beasts hidden in our soil tray. We have enjoyed sharing lots of non-fiction books to find out some amazing facts about mini-beasts. Did you know that ants can lift 20 times their own body weight and that there are more than 800,000 types of insects on earth? We had great fun learning about bees and how they make honey and then we enjoyed making and tasting some yummy honey sandwiches. We also made wiggly worms, scurrying spiders and slow snails with clay. What other mini-beasts can you think of? Nursery has enjoyed a second week of ‗Opposites‘. They have made beautiful symmetrical butterflies and day and night pictures. We have talked about short and tall and made a class line from the shortest to the tallest child. Our letter of the week has been ‗Aa‘. We thought about lots of different things that begin with that letter - astronaut, apple, alligator and asparagus. Can you think of any? Walking into our Pre-Nursery classroom, you would really think that Spring has arrived in full force! Our Spring table is looking lovely with our tie-dye butterflies, hand print trees and little pots of beans that we are watching. When they started sprouting, we got a good look at the tiny roots with our magnifying glasses. We have arranged fresh flowers, made a Spring counting book, collected watermelon seeds and potted flowers in our little soil box. Spring has indeed sprung!
Shanthi Rinaldi, Pre-Nursery Teacher
BSB News: News From Sanlitun: Key Stage One In Year 1 this week, 1S have been very busy practicing their class assembly on ‗Healthy Living‘. The children have had to learn lots of lines, learn a dance and learn to act all in one week. The children have worked really hard and are so excited about performing to the rest of the school. The rest of Year 1 have continued to learn about ‗The Polar Regions‘. This week the children had to think about what it would be like to explore the Antarctica and make a trip to the South Pole. We then learned the story of Robert Scott, the first British person to reach the South Pole. The children in Year 1 absolutely love this topic and can‘t wait to find out what we are learning about next week! In Year 2 the children had already started to write information texts on endangered species. This week the children read the story of the Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson and the children were asked to imagine that the Grufallo was an endangered species. The children then had to start to compose an information text about the character. Alison Spinks, Sanlitun
Key Stage Two Year 4 was very excited this week to be able to perform for the CEO of the Royal College of Music. The children set off in the bus to Shunyi trailing their violins and lugging their cellos. Once there, they had time for a quick rehearsal before the visitors arrived. As Mrs. Mitford gave them the signal, they stood up in unison and began to play. They performed two songs: ‗Psychedelic‘ and ‗French Folk Song‘ Over eighty children performing together was a truly moving sight and the air was filled with music. All the children were impeccably behaved and the visitors‘ were duly impressed.
BSB News: News From Shunyi: Message from Head of Primary Changing and Growing The new Shunyi Primary Student Council had it‘s first full meeting on Friday. The new Reps were elected by their classmates and have taken to their new leadership roles very ably: the children identified the traits that they wished to emulate while in office – patience, honesty, determination and thoughtfulness. What a great start and we know this Council will do a wonderful job of helping the Primary School change and grow - their great ideas are already flowing. Year 5 have had a thrilling week – 5 days in Xi‘an discovering the facts behind the legends of Banpo Neolithic village, Hanyang Mausoleum and, of course, the Terracotta Warriors. They have sketched, questioned, read, listened, wondered and mulled information, facts and opinions, trying to sort one from the other and create their own understanding of the ancient world. But just as important, has been the learning journey they have experienced about themselves – it‘s been during this week some children have had to be more independent and self-reliant than ever before. The staff knew that they would grow as a result and the change in some of our pupils is almost visible; some arrived home looking taller and more confident than ever before. There is nothing like high expectations and challenge to help our pupils change and grow. Have a great weekend. Jane Smith HoP
Movie Making ASA Movie Making ASA has been great fun this term. The children have made their own stop frame animation movies (similar to the Wallace and Grommit sort) based on stories which they made themselves. The children learnt a range of skills to do with animation and movie making and are better placed to make their own animation movies in the future. A resounding success!
Sewing Club ASA; Students in Key Stage 1 sewing club learned how to thread and tie their string as well as sew basic stitches. More importantly, we learned how to sew buttons onto fabric! Students made bookmarks using a straight stitch or cross stitch, and also had the option to add some buttons for decoration! Erin Severy
BSB News: News From Shunyi: Foundation Stage Fun in the Foundation Stage Shunyi This week in Pre-Nursery we have started a new topic of ‗spring‘ as it is now approaching slowly. We have talked about spring which means that flowers are starting to grow and trees are starting to have green leaves. We also talked about mini-beasts such as butterflies and bees, and other animals such as sheep and baby lambs born in springtime. We have also read stories about these animals and explored games on the computer for the children to watch baby birds and nest building. We have been looking at computer images of daffodils and lilies and made our own flowers for our spring display. It has been a very refreshing week after a long period of cold weather! Welcome to the continuing world of ‗opposites‘ in Nursery. This week we have explored opposites in many more different ways. We have been learning about rough and smooth/hard and soft through sorting objects from a feely bag; long and short through cutting straws and rolling plasticine; day and night through looking at a big non-fiction book and painting pictures; black and white through collage; floating and sinking in the water tray; fast and slow with the musical instruments and action games; and finally good and bad through circle time discussion. Our letter of the week has been Aa. We have been practising the correct formation of this tricky letter through a fun multimedia approach. In Reception we continued our ‗Mini-beasts‘ topic in learning about spiders, bees and other creepy crawlies! We have been learning to write a simple fact or information sentence about different minibeasts. We have used magnifying glasses to make careful pictures of mini-beasts and played animals games. We have been practising our letter sounds ‗oo‘ and ‗ar‘ all week and revising the sounds ‗b‘, ‗h‘, ‗f‘ and ‗l‘. In maths we have been discussing pairs and sorting toys and objects into pairs. We have used mini-beasts to sort a set number of spots between 2 animals and made simple addition stories using mini-beasts for fun! It has been another great week in the Foundation Stage! Jade Oak (Pre-Nursery teacher in Shunyi)
BSB News: News From Shunyi: Key Stage One Year 1 continued their unit on ―Materials‖ and their properties, this week exploring magnetism. The children did an investigation, predicting which materials would be attracted to a magnet. They were surprised to find that not all metal objects were attracted to magnets. In art, the children looked at some examples of aboriginal art, in connection with their topic on patterns around the world. They did some amazing aboriginal ―dot‖ patterns of their own to decorate some typical Australian animals. They also had fun sponge painting the bricks and stones for our Great Wall display, which is now nearing completion. Do come and take a look if you are near the Key Stage 1 corridor! Year 2 really enjoyed their visit to the China Science and Technology Museum last Wednesday. On arrival, they had the opportunity to watch a ‗4D‘ film which was lots of fun. After lunch the children had a chance to try lots of different experiments, including encasing themselves in a giant bubble, building an arched bridge and investigating mechanisms to move water or a large metal ball about. They all had a fantastic time!
Key Stage Two Year 3 have had a great week. They have been looking at quest myths in Literacy, identifying the characteristics of the myths and telling the difference between these and fables, parables and traditional stories. They have also created their own mythical heroes, identifying their personal and physical traits. Lastly they created their heroes from modelling clay to bring their characters to life. In maths the children have been studying the different units of measure. They have used different measuring devices to measure capacity, time, distance, mass and temperature. They have also begun recording the temperature each day so they can graph this data. In their topic work they have created new scarab beetles from clay with hieroglyphs on the bottom to use as a stamp. And at last the Year 3 Obelisk is complete! Year 4 have been hard at work this week. In maths they have been looking closely at fractions and time and the connection between them. They have calculated the duration of time given start and end points and used timelines to show their working out. In Literacy the children have continued their explanatory texts on the Roman Army. They have been putting the final touches to these this week and have been publishing them ready for presentation. In topic the children have been studying the Celts, who they were and where they were from. They have also been creating life size Roman Soldiers for display. Look out for the new BSB legion soon.
BSB News: KS2 There was much excitement in the upper key stage 2 corridor on Monday morning of this week as Y5 prepared to leave on their trip to Xian. They all looked great sporting their trip T-shirts. We are looking forward to hearing all about it in next week‘s assembly. Some of the Y6‘s went out to Beijing this week; in their topic work they have been looking at Global Warming. The Y6‘s compiled a questionnaire to take out and about to gauge the public‘s knowledge and views on Global Warming. They have analysed the data that they gathered and are now creating leaflets, posters and flyers to hand out which are based specifically on their findings. Y6 have also been creating a new corridor display, based again on their topic Global Warming. The display is aimed at informing the whole school about the issue and what every ordinary person can do to help. They brainstormed their ideas and have had great fun creating a thoughtful display that lets everyone know just what might happen if we carry on living our lives the way we are!All the Y6 children were lucky to be invited to a very special poetry performance by Benjamin Zephaniah. Not only did he perform some of his poetry but he also gave the children the opportunity ask questions about his life and why he started writing poetry. We particularly liked his poem all about turkeys at Christmas time. Geraldine Thomason
BSB News: News From Shunyi: Secondary From the Head of Secondary BSB students in years 5, 6, 7 and 8 were privileged to have the world renowned poet Benjamin Zephaniah perform for them on Wednesday. Benjamin was very entertaining and he infected our students with bundles of inspiration to go off and write their own poetry ready for submission, into our forthcoming competition as part of World Poetry Day. We teamed this performance with a Y6 transition event which involved the Y6 students joining the secondary school for the morning to experience some secondary lessons. I have heard good things from the teachers who taught the Y6‘s including; very positive attitudes towards the study of new subjects, good manners, enthusiasm and an eagerness to learn. The secondary team are very much looking forward to the students moving up into year 7 and joining the secondary school; thank you to the year 6 team for all your efforts in preparing your students for secondary and for all your help towards ensuring a smooth transition from the primary school. Well done to the U14 boys basketball squad who achieved a convincing win against YCIS this week; unfortunately the girls squad were defeated despite some good tight play. The U19 girls and boys football teams both had fixtures last week; the boys managed to get the goals that have denied them previously to beat TEDA 4-3, well done to all the players who yet again produced solid team performances. Yesterday we welcomed Dr Neil Sewell from the University of Exeter to speak to our upper school students about the University and the programmes offered by the School of Engineering, mathematics and Physical Sciences. Dr Sewell prepared a sample seminar for the students which was very informative and provided a great insight into the role engineers are playing in shaping the future of the manufacturing industry. On Saturday we will be opening our doors to schools from across Asia as hosts of the 2010 World Scholarship Competition. Good luck to the BSB team who have worked hard to prepare themselves for the event under the guidance of Mr Bourne and a team of specialist teachers. Martyn Steel, Head of Secondary
BSB News: Secondary The Beijing International Model United Nations Conference Between Friday 12th to Sunday 14th March, ten Year 10 and Year 12 BSB students attended the 17th annual session of the Beijing International Model United Nations. It was held at the Crown Plaza hotel and was attended by over a thousand students. The students attending came from many international schools from all over the world. At the conference the students represented all the countries of the world and various international organizations. The students from BSB represented Switzerland and Djibouti. After the opening session the students attended various committees to draw up resolutions on current global issues of concern. The resolutions were then discussed and voted upon. It was not all hard work, on the Saturday night there was a party laid on for the students by the hotel. I am sure that our students came away from the conference having learnt much about many world issues and how such a diplomatic organization like the United Nations operates. Mr Nick Bourne and Mr James Hartland
Spanish Cooking ASA Spanish Cooking ASA has been a fantastic way to spend a Thursday afternoon each week. We made extraordinary and mouthwatering Spanish food. Each week Mrs. Molina teaches us how to cook vibrant dishes. The highlight for us was the fajitas, where were ‗superb‘ quoted from Luke. We also made some luscious and lip-smacking prawns. ‗It was Immense! I‘m going to do it again next term‘ says Sebastian Thorbjorn Andersson with a smile J Y11 Tommy, Luke and Oceane
BSB News: Secondary Secondary Library Citizenship Year 7: This week, Year 7 students have learned about teeth hygiene and gum disease: Cavities, Decay, Abscesses, Discolouration and Misplaced teeth. They brought their toothbrush in school and followed a short training on how to brush their teeth best: Brush for at least 2 minutes, twice daily Keep brush head at 45 degree angle Use short, gentle and circular strokes Did you know that potato Starch is the worst enemy of your teeth? It sticks to your teeth and saliva cannot remove it! Did you know that the leading cause of adult tooth loss is gum disease? Did you know that gum disease can be linked to heart disease, diabetes and adverse affects on pregnancies?
Primary House Names & Colours Normans
Saxons
Sanlitun House Points
Vikings
Secondary Merit Awards
Romans
Shunyi House Points
Key Stage 3 Mina Shin
251
Leonie Buschmann
194
Normans
491
Normans
296
Sejin Kim
186
Vikings
340
Vikings
281
Diana Park
170
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
60
Doris Sun
53
Prateek Pandey
47
Silvia Vininyu
43
BSB News: 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. Book donations wanted for Chatterbox Book Shop. NO Children‘s books please. Books in all languages gratefully received. Proceeds from book donations will be given to charity.
Beijing Cultural Heritage Protection Center’s (CHP) crucial public forum on the planned redevelopment of Gulou CHP is organising a special public event for concerned Beijing citizens to exchange and voice their opinions about the planned redevelopment of the historic Drum and Bell Tower neighbourhood. CHP is urging everyone to help fight to protect this unique neighbourhood for future generations to enjoy. The discussion, to be held on Saturday 27 March, will be led by several prominent Beijingers and open to the general public. The event will be of particular interest to media wanting to find out more about this plan and the stance of the only local cultural heritage NGO in China, and gauge the opinions of local residents. The Drum and Bell Tower neighborhood, also known as Gulou among both locals and foreigners living in Beijing, is a vibrant neighborhood that has been a lively area since its establishment in the Ming Dynasty. Despite Gulou‘s cultural importance, multiple sources have indicated that a 5 billion RMB budget has been allocated to convert 12.5 hectares of the area into a ‗Beijing Time Cultural City‘ – putting the neighborhood in serious danger. He Shuzhong, CHP founder and cultural conservationist, said "Such a massive scale development will include large infrastructures like public squares and a museum. As a result, there will be extensive evictions, demolition, and construction in this ancient area, and gone will be the traditional courtyards, hutongs, and local residents." "Once again, Old Beijing is facing another serious threat of demolition," Mr He said. "On one side we have well-established laws and regulations that stand to protect Beijing‘s history and culture. On the other side, however, there is a 5 billion RMB project waiting to commence." At the event there will be opportunities for the media to interview Mr He. For full details on the event and CHP's position, please visit our website. If you are interested in attending (RSVP before the event), or want more informaiton, contact Jeanette Shepherd (jeanetteshepherd@bjchp.org/152 1080 4283) Date: Saturday 27 March, 2010 Time: 2.30-5.30pm Venue: Contempio No.4 Zhangwang Hutong ｜ 北京市东城区旧鼓楼大街张旺胡同4号 Language: Chinese Featuring: He Shuzhong | CHP Founder and Chairman, cultural heritage legal expert Wang Jun | Xinhua Senior Reporter, author of Chengji Bian Lanchun | Architecture professor at Tsinghua University More speakers to be confirmed. This event is free. No pre-registration is required. For all media enquiries contact: Jeanette Shepherd Communications Officer Email: jeanettehshepherd@bjchp.org Telephone: 152 1080 4283