ISSUE 34 18 JUNE 2010
Eddie the Penguin
Does he save the day?
FS Travelling Secondary Nine Golds for BSB!
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June
21
Sanlitun production Hoodwinked 6pm in Shunyi
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Sanlitun production Hoodwinked 6pm in Shunyi
24
University of Southhampton visit, 10am
25
Secondary End of Year Reports
25
Year 2 Sleepover Shunyi
28
Transition Morning
29- Parent-Teacher 30 Consultation (Primary) 30
Secondary Production: Return of the Forbidden Planet Matinee 2pm
1
Secondary Production: Return of the Forbidden Planet Evening Performance
July
1
End of Term for Foundation Stage
1
Secondary Parent-Teacher Consultations
2
End of Term & Prize Giving
SHUNYI
SANLITUN
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SANLITUN
Secondary Golfing ASA
Inner Mongolia
Green fingers!
Secondary practice their swing at the local golf range as part of their ASA program.
Sanlituns trip to Inner Mongolia is reported within.
Foundation stage plant seeds in their garden!
From the Executive Principal
D
ear Parents
This week we have had the new Head of Secondary School in school for a week. Mr Robert Hewett will be joining us from Gordonstoun school in the UK. As you will know Gordonstoun is perhaps the most famous UK private school renown for educating several members of the Royal family. Mr. Hewett will bring with him a tradition of academic excellence and commitment to educating the whole child. Extracurricular activities, sports, expeditions and some of the areas that he enjoys and is looking forward to expanding further at BSB. Mr. Hewett met with the new parents association and will be meeting with the Parent Advisory Board this evening. The Parent Advisory Board will meet tonight for the last meeting of this school year and will welcome a number of members from Sanlitun campus in the following school year which I think will be a very exciting and welcomed development for the school. FOBISSEA has obviously been a hugely exciting time for the students this year, we look forward to playing host next year. Students have been busily engaged in examinations which are now drawing to a close. This is of course a critical time for them and many students have received additional advice and guidance from teachers. This facility is still available and students are of course welcomed and encouraged to drop in if there is an area of revision which they are finding challenging. Have a lovely weekend Mike Embley
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Don’t miss an opportunity to buy the BSB Year Book. All children are included along with their class photos. It will be a wonderful memory for your child and a great gift for friends and family back home! Order now by returning the form with your child.
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Girl Scout Pre-Registration
Girls from kindergarten (starting at age five) through high school are eligible to join Girl Scouts. USA Girl Scouts Beijing is currently pre-registering girls for the 2010-2011 program. If your daughter would like to join a troop, please E-MAIL the following information in this exact format to girlscoutsbeijing@yahoo.com:
Girl’s name, birth date Citizenship (Chinese law requires foreign citizenship) Grade, school Address Home phone Cell phone, mother/parent’s name Mother/parent’s e-mail address Specify meeting place preference (Shunyi or downtown) The mandatory registration meeting for parents of girls new to Girl Scouts in Beijing will be held on Tuesday, August 31 at 6:00 p.m. at the International School of Beijing cafeteria. Mark your calendars now, and keep up with us at girlscoutsbeijing.shutterfly.com.
http://girlscoutsbeijing.shutterfly.com
Please note that pre-registration does NOT guarantee placement in a troop. Unfortunately, every year we have more girls wishing to join Girl Scouts than we have spaces available. Girl Scouting relies on committed parent volunteers. Please consider volunteering to be a troop leader! Contact girlscoutsbeijing@yahoo.com.
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Muffins with Mums, Sanlitun
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From the Headmaster, Sanlitun
Eddie the Penguin! Dear Parents
I had a wonderful time in Inner Mongolia with our Year 6 children from both campuses and was continually proud to be with them as their behaviour and attitude was second to none. My only disappointment was that I missed our Key Stage One performance of Eddie the Penguin. Everyone who saw it was amazed at the quality of acting, singing and speaking from our 5-7 year olds and I have heard many positive comments on our trialling of tiered seating in the Dining Room for the performance. Staff have been very touched by all the cards and messages they have been receiving from children at the school and we all really appreciated the wine and cheese provided in the staffroom as a thank you for all the hard work each teacher at Sanlitun puts in to the education of every child. We had a lovely time sharing some of the messages and comments children had written. Something for us all to treasure. We held a successful Key Stage 2 Swimming Gala this week and we have some very talented swimmers. The children then went on to hold a rehearsal for our upcoming KS2 production of Hoodwinked that will be held at Shunyi on Monday 21st and Tuesday 22nd June at 6pm. A parent bus will be put on, so please contact Cher if you want to use it. It was great to see so many Mums and ‘Muffin for Mums’ and Ice cream for Mums’ this week and also lovely that some Dads and Grandmas sneaked in! Many Reception parents went on to the meeting led by our Key Stage 1 Co ordinator to help the transition of children from Reception to Year 1. It is the Year 2 sleepover tonight so I can imagine that myself and the year 2 team will be very tired on Saturday morning! Enjoy the weekend, Janet Brock
Music
Last week’s Key Stage One Production, Eddie the Penguin was a very successful show of the Year 1 and 2 children for their parents to enjoy! The benefit of learning all those lovely songs and carrying out a musical without the help of older children has reflected on the children’s attitude to music as well! This week’s music lessons have already shown me how much confidence they have recently gained in singing and how much quicker they can cope with learning new songs and singing them on a very enjoyable way! Thank you Key Stage One teachers for the great idea and the enormous effort that made the show happen and once more, WELL DONE, CHILDREN! I believe we are all looking forward to our next production at Christmas 2010! Vera Mitford
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Foundation Stage, Sanlitun
Green Fingers
Everyone in Reception now has green fingers as we have been planting, watering and watching our plants and flowers grow. We are all hoping that maybe one of them will grow as tall as the beanstalk in ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ one of our favourite growing stories. As well as becoming budding horticulturists, we have been artists and made some lovely ‘Sunflower’ collages just like Vincent Van Gogh. Come along to our classrooms and see our lovely collages and check out our plants. ‘Mary, Mary Quite Contrary How Does Your Garden Grow?’ has been just one of the songs we have been singing in Nursery this week while watching and caring for our very own plants in our classroom. We have enjoyed doing leaf and bark rubbing outside and have marvelled at how many different coloured flowers there are. Our letter of the week has been the letter ‘d’ which we have had great fun painting with water all over the playground. Maisy the mouse and her friends have been helping Pre-Nursery with our learning as we start our 3 week topic- Story Time. After reading about Maisy’s adventures, we have followed suit by going on a pretend camping trip, building a campfire and toasting marshmallows while singing songs. We were also inspired to make lemonade in proper Maisy style and sold them for smiles in the playground. All in all, it was a pretty a-Maisy-ing week!
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Key Stage One, Sanlitun
Harmony’s Dad 2I had a fascinating insight into the work of Harmony’s Dad, who came to visit the class on Wednesday morning. He made a presentation to all the children, with amazing pictures and heaps of facts about his job working as Director of Operations for a huge global company that ‘change the way people think’. Within his role, Harmony’s Dad creates and manages incredible events, shows, spectacles, performances and parties to introduce new ideas and products to the world. Having worked on huge projects across the globe such as the Athens Olympic Games, the children were in awe of the enormity of such events. They all think that they would love to have such a job, and feel confident that they could organize next year’s Christmas Fayre – making it bigger and better than ever, if only they followed in the footsteps of Harmony’s Dad! Esther Irwin
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Key Stage One, Sanlitun
Eddie the Penguin Saves the World!
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Key Stage Two, Sanlitun
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Wulingshan! Last week, Year 3 travelled into the mountains for our annual residential in Wulingshan. Once all our bags were packed onto the coach, we began our journey to the first stop: Intelligence Valley. Tucked away in a beautiful part of the Beijing countryside, we were able to stretch our legs by taking part in a walk and nature trail. Whilst enjoying the scenery we kept our eyes open for various plants and wildlife. The whole group then enjoyed a hearty lunch while sitting under the shady canopy of a forest. We were then asked to close our eyes and use our senses to note down things we could hear and smell.
we were all very pleased to
We arrived at the hotel just in time to check-in and have a delicious meal in the restaurant. Following this, we had a short treasure hunt where we had to find as many things as possible that could fit into a matchbox! After a busy day, be tucked up in our beds.
After a yummy breakfast we began our windy bus journey into the heart of the Wulingshan Nature Reserve. Here we enjoyed a walk amongst trees, waterfalls and mountains while trying to locate key landmarks and compass directions for a mapping activity. Eventually we got to the top of the mountain path where we had a refreshing stop at a large waterfall before returning to the hotel for a dumpling lunch. Next on the agenda was an art activity where we were able to create a nature based design to decorate our residential t-shirts. We then took part in some fun PE games in the courtyard of the hotel. In the evening, some of us took part in a talent show where we were able to show off our singing, dancing, magic and comedy skills. We were all highly entertained especially by the winning Sanlitun group who sang ‘Paparazzi’ by Lady Gaga. It was an early start to the final day as we boarded the coaches for the last time, on route back to Beijing. We had a brief stop in Mutianyu for sketching at the Great Wall, souvenir shopping and lunch before heading home. Although we were all looking forward to seeing our families, it was sad that our wonderful trip had come to an end. Mrs. Young and Mr. Thomas
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Key Stage Two, Sanlitun
Inner Mongolia! Year 6 Residential visit to Inner Mongolia The excitement that had been bubbling under the surface in year 6 for weeks, all through the revision and exams, was about to be released. The absence of school uniforms and the suitcases stacking up near reception showed that Monday was a special day, although it wasn’t until after school had finished that the adventure began. After quickly snacking on pizza and chips in the canteen, BSB Year 6 were off to Beijing Railway Station – and from there, an early morning arrival in Baotou, Inner Mongolia. The staff and passengers on the overnight train were, I think it’s safe to say, pretty shocked to see an entire carriage transformed into a hive of eleven-year-olds hustling and bustling, playing cards and draining the batteries on their PSPs, tucking into Subway sandwiches and scrambling up and down the ladders. However, the teachers were even more shocked by how quickly the children all went to bed after the train was suddenly plunged into darkness at ten o’ clock. Maybe they knew just how much energy they would need for the coming days! We arrived at Tianwaitian Hotel in Baotou sometime around eight, and after a quick breakfast and (hopefully) a little ‘freshening up’, we had the chance to try our hand at Mongolian dancing, and then head out into the desert for an afternoon of activities. The desert stretched out for miles in every direction, dune after dune. A slightly harrowing cable car ride took us to the other side, and face-to-face with a herd of enormous camels, which bucked up underneath you as soon as you got on, springing to their full height with a jolt, leaving you clinging to the reins or to their rock-hard and fairly smelly hides. To be honest, the camel riding was actually very relaxing once you got going, and a great opportunity for photos. The subsequent sand slide was, by contrast, absolutely terrifying, a sledge ride down a sheer cliff, with only the cold embrace of the desert sand for a crash barrier. I would describe it as white-knuckle, were it not for the fact that you had to plunge your whole hands into the ground behind you as a rudimentary form of brakes, so it was impossible to see the colour of anyone’s knuckles. At any rate, some of the (wiser?) children decided to give it a miss. I asked one particular Year 6 student if they wanted to go on the slide, just so they could say they had done it. “I will say I’ve done it,” she replied nonchalantly. So if Chelsea’s parents are reading this, no she didn’t. Back on the bus, and by this point in our journey certain students – and Mrs. Brock – had taken to falling asleep on the bus given the slightest opportunity. Roger’s scrunched-up eyes and wide-open mouth spoke volumes about how much we had packed in so far. After dinner, after a quick swim or shower to wash out the camel smell, we all took the opportunity to get to bed as soon as possible. On Wednesday, we were welcomed into the grasslands by a horseback escort, and the teachers were ‘lucky’ enough to also be welcomed by a shot of Mongolian alcohol. The camp held about forty ‘yurts’, the typical Mongolian nomadic building, a wooden frame wrapped in carpet which, supposedly, can be erected and dismantled with little time and effort. Mr. Johnson had threatened the children that the yurts we were going to be building would also house us that night; thankfully, this turned out to be a joke, and there were many sighs of relief when we discovered we wouldn’t be spending the already icy cold evening in the rickety skeletons of houses we had made in our class groups. The next surprise was the lamb barbecue, which was – let’s be honest – a bit macabre, as a entire roasted lamb was wheeled out on a trolley to a Mongolian musical accompaniment, and then danced around by a couple
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of the teachers in traditional dress. There were more than a few screams when the kids saw where their dinner was coming from – but they all tucked in eventually. This was followed by a campfire and a chilling ghost story from Mr. Johnson, which set nerves jangling on the pitch-black journey back to the yurts. The morning brought archery practice, a horse-riding display from the local staff, and then some bruising encounters between the children in the wrestling arena. Mongolian wrestling involves trying to force the other person onto their back, and Kirsty’s long arm span gave her a big advantage in her matches, but Miya held her own. Afterwards, we travelled to another grassland settlement where we learnt the art of making jiao zi, where the children’s creations ranged from artfully sculpted seashell-like crescents to swollen lumps of pastry spilling filling from both ends. But they all tasted pretty good! At the Hohhot museum, we had a chance to see first-hand much of what has been preserved from the time when the Mongolian Empire stretched from Korea to Poland. In addition, going a tad further back in time than Genghis and Kublai Khan, the museum was also filled with dinosaur skeletons and models of extinct ancient mammals, and many of the students were absolutely blown away by their scale and oddness. After a quick ice cream, we were off to the enormous Genghis Khan memorial statue, to do some drawing and think about his legacy in Mongolia today. By now it was clear who had spent the entire trip chatting – Mateo’s voice had shrunk to a hoarse whisper, Sidney sounded about a hundred years old, and Elena was less Maid Marian and more Janis Joplin. Thursday evening brought the best meal of the trip – hotpot. We all took the opportunity to plunge fresh beef and lamb, plus lots of vegetables and noodles, into the bubbling dish. Chiara took charge of putting in the meat, and Harim concentrated on eating the spiciest food! Later that evening, we headed to a bowling alley for a final-night treat. Showing their hidden talents at bowling were Matthew in the boys’ game, Ji Min in the girls’, and Emma, who had an unconventional but surprisingly effective ‘throw the ball carelessly and then stop watching’ style. Miss Beverley has also asked me to point out that she comfortably won her game, including three consecutive strikes. It was actually quite hard to drag her away from the lanes and back to the hotel. The final morning, we passed a tranquil hour-and-a-bit at the beautiful DaZhao Monastery, admiring the Buddha statues and engraved snakes coiling around pillars, and then relaxing in the sun sketching different parts of the temple’s ornamentation. Before we hit the road, there was a quick chance for some market shopping, and GaEun showed her haggling skills, looking deeply offended whenever offered a too-high price. Hazel also seemed to quickly fill up her bags with bargains, including a stylish hat which we all tried on in the airport queue, in between laughing at each other passport photos. Time had flown by, and soon we were in the air as well, touching down at Beijing Capital Airport around half past two. On the journey back to Sanlitun, Miss Beverley finally got her wish of having a big singalong, and so the exhausted kids summoned up a final reserve of energy to sing ‘Paparazzi’ and ‘It’s Raining Men’. But there was no coaxing needed to get them off the bus as we pulled into school, and they were all beaming at the sight of their parents waiting at the school gates. By Mr Salmon
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A Message from the Head of Primary, Shunyi
KS2: Sports, Arts and Travels
It has been a couple of big weeks for KS2 at Shunyi. Our FOBISSEA games team spent 3 days over the weekend playing football and Tball, and competing in swimming against 5 others schools from around Asia. The children fought hard for every point and they were a credit to the school and themselves and we did especially well in football where the boys’ Y4 team deservedly took first place. Saturday’s heat didn’t faze the Y4 and Y5 competitors who handled the stains of competition like pros. Year 6 returned tired but happy from their expedition to Inner Mongolia. The highlight for many (including Mrs Brock, the Headteacher of Sanlitun campus, who accompanied the trip) was the sand sledging. BBQ lamb, yurt building, the stunning scenery and the train journey were delights for others. KS2 sports continued later in the week; the swimming gala on Thursday went swimmingly – the children swam for their House with great enthusiasm and determination and the result was Saxon in first place. Our Y5 and Y6 ambassadors who went to the Shanghai Expo came back on Tuesday with great tales of the generous hospitality of our sister school there, at Nanxiang. The Expo really captured their imaginations and they were fascinated by the building designs from around the world. Our rehearsals for the KS2 summer performance are continuing – ‘Hookwinked’ is performed in Shunyi next Thursday (24th) at 1.30pm and again at 6pm – we do hope you can come. Have a lovely weekend.
Music
Last week’s Key Stage One Production, Eddie the Penguin was not just a very successful show of the Year 1 and 2 children for their parents to enjoy! The benefit of learning all those lovely songs and carrying out a musical without the help of older children has reflected on the children’s attitude to music as well! This week’s music lessons have already shown me how much confidence they have recently gained in singing and how much quicker they can cope with learning new songs and singing them on a very enjoyable way! Thank you Key Stage One teachers for the great idea and the enormous effort that made the show happen and once more, WELL DONE, CHILDREN! I believe we are all looking forward to our next production at Christmas 2010! Vera Mitford Music teacher
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Foundation Stage, Shunyi
Spot and Jasper
This week in Nursery we have been having lots of seaside fun. We have redecorated our role play areas into beaches and ice cream shops. The children got to have opportunity to be responsible mummy’s and daddy’s and looked after their babies in the sun, they put on sun cream, a hat and took the baby for a walk and when we got too hot we found a nice shady spot-good practice for the up and coming holidays! We have also been getting all arty making ocean collages, rainbow fish and jellyfish, great fun. In Pre Nursery they have been looking at the topic of ‘story time’, with this week focusing on the Spot books by Eric Hill. The children have been exploring the Spot books in the book corner and have been role playing farms in the role play area just as Spot does in “Spot Goes to the Farm”. They have also been playing hide and seek and, after reading “Spot’s Garden”, they all headed out with garden tools in hand and planted some seeds of their own. Reception are coming to the end of their “Growing” topic with this week’s focus being the book “Jasper’s Beanstalk”. All the children have been exploring and thinking about what plants need to grow successfully. They have also been learning all the different parts of the plant names and learning what they actually dolots of new information to remember!
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Foundation Stage, Shunyi
The Drop goes Plop
In Pre-nursery, children have continued the topic of “story time,” with a focus on books by Eric Hill. The children have gone on their own noisy walk around the school grounds to follow up the book, Spot’s Noisy Walk. Also, they have gone on a treasure hunt to find toys on the playground. The children have enjoyed making paper kites and “spot” pictures with many different coloured and sized circles. The children have also played several “Spot” games on the IWB such as colour Spot and meet Spot’s family and friends. Finally, after reading “Spot’s First Picnic,” the children prepared a delicious picnic to eat outside! This week in Nursery, the children have continued the topic of the “seaside.” They have been very busy learning about sea animals that you may find in the ocean and shore animals that you may find on the sand. The classes have continued making their giant murals of the sea, including creating sharks, fish, crabs, octopi and jellyfish. The children also started to talk about boats that float on the water. They have created their own boats using items from the Fascination Station, such as cardboard boxes, egg cartons and plastic containers. The children will race these boats to see if they can float on the water and move fast! The children also talked about safety on the beach, and what they would need to bring along for a beach trip. Lastly, the classes took a trip to Crab Island on Friday. All of the children were very excited to build in the sand, play in the water climbing structures, slide down the water slides and swim in the pool! This was a great treat to culminate the unit on the seaside. In Reception, the children also started to talk about the seaside. They started to explore water, and they have read the story, The Drop Goes Plop. The children were also working hard on learning positional language and how to understand directions. This includes learning vocabulary such as on, in, next to, opposite and beside. The children also made musical instruments by filling the containers with water and blowing in them to hear the sound! They have also made boats from plastercine and learned songs about water. Next week, they will also culminate their unit with an exciting trip to Crab Island! All the classes will enjoy a “splash day” at the end of term to celebrate their knowledge of the seaside and water and conclude a wonderful year!
Key Stage One , Shunyi
Botany and Symmetry
Year 1 had a very busy week! On Tuesday students traveled to the Beijing Botanical Gardens. Students were asked to find and draw various types of flowers and leaves. All of the students applied their art skills and drew excellent plants! They then went on a scavenger hunt to find various sculptures throughout the gardens. Students enjoyed a picnic lunch at the gardens and overall had a lovely day! Year 1 has been continuing our work on informational texts. Students have worked hard to create alliterations using their own names. They have also created a class book using these alliterations! In numeracy students have continued their exploration of symmetry and repeating
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patterns. The students created symmetrical buildings, paint blots and repeating patterns. The students have also been investigating what will happen to plants if they do not have water.
Bean diaries
KS1 worked very hard at learning the songs for their production “Eddie the penguin saves the world’ this week. They were all stars on the night of the show and performed beautifully. Year 1 have been eagerly looking at our plants in the school garden and watering them, as well as recording any updates in their bean diaries about the bean seeds the children planted in class. The children also celebrated their 300 marble reward on Friday which was a very exciting water fight. The children found lots of opportunities to soak Mrs. Ross, Miss Severy, Mr. Jenkins and Mr. Marr! In Year 2 the children have been learning more about habitats and investigating living and non-living things in our playground. They also predicted the animals and plants that they would find in different areas and the reasons why they might be found in these places. They created a map and a key to go with this for our playground which has helped them develop their mapping skills. 2A put the finishing touches to their fantastic rainforest collage, and are all very proud of their team work. The children also enjoyed playing guessing games in numeracy involving 2D and 3D shapes. This helped them think about the various properties they have such as curved or straight edges, faces and corners (vertices).
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Eddie the Penguin Saves the World! Key Stage 1 Production – ‘Eddie the Penguin Saves the World’ Over the past two weeks the Key Stage 1 children have been practising fervently for their debut performance of ‘Eddie the Penguin saves the World’. The children sang their songs with Mrs. Vera Mitford in music, and Miss Tracey Hill helped the children learn their lines and dance moves to the songs. The class teachers have also been rehearsing in any spare moments, whilst the teaching assistants have been busy over the past weeks making props for the show. Tuesday 8th June was the matinee and evening performance of the Key Stage 1 production. This was the first time there had been a show put on by the Year 1 and 2 children and we were all very excited as well as more than a little nervous, wondering how the children would perform in front of an audience. They were marvelous! The children spoke beautifully and clearly and had learned their lines perfectly. All children danced, sang, wiggled and performed wonderfully, as narrators, polar bears, trees, school children, or penguins. Well done to everyone who was involved and especially to the children, true stars of the show! Dawn Ross KS1 coordinator
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Key Stage Two , Shunyi
Young Spielbergs!
It has been suspiciously quiet in upper KS2 this week; Year 6 have been out on their amazing Mongolia residential! We look forward to hearing all their fantastic news on their return from the grasslands. However, In Year 5, it has been the usual hive of activity this week. The Year 5 children have been in a reflective mood this week, as they looked back on their experiences at BSB this year. Continuing with their Film Narrative topic, the children are now using their creative expertise and excellent ICT skills to create a film comprising their favourite memories of Year 5. With so many fun learning activities, school trips, and extracurricular activities having taken place, choosing between them is proving to be a challenging task! As well as their academic studies, Year 5 have also been rehearsing for the upcoming summer performance.
Key Stage Two , Shunyi
Inner Mongolia
It’s been a short but very busy week here in Upper Key Stage 2; Year 6 have just returned from a fantastic week away in Inner Mongolia, supplementing all the work that we have done about Genghis Khan and his empire. We all had a fantastic time; we visited the desert and had a go at sand sliding. We went out into the grasslands and built our own yurt. Mr. Johnson told us all that we had to sleep in the yurt we had built, which wasn’t too stable, luckily he was just joking and in fact we stayed in a very well built, cosy yurt. For some it was a quick turn around, as we arrived back from Inner Mongolia on Friday and then jetted off to Shanghai on Sunday. We were lucky enough to be staying with host families from the British International School Shanghai and so it was not only a great opportunity to visit the expo, but also to make new friends. This week saw the ‘House Swimming Gala’, the children had a great time competing in races such as the noodle and the water polo dribble, as well as the more traditional freestyle, backstroke races. On top of all that we have still been working hard. Year 6 have been looking at Buddhism in more detail after visiting a lamasery on our trip, we have looked at Buddha’s life story and have created storyboards of this. Year 5 have begun designing
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rocket powered cars, which they will be completing over the next couple of weeks. Rehearsals are all now well under way for the Key Stage 2 production of ‘Hoodwinked” next week, which promises to be amazing! We look forward to seeing you all there.
EAL
EAL
Key stage 1 This week key stage 1 has produced some great work. We’ve continued to look at past tense irregular verbs and the children made a great effort during the activities. Alliteration was also a key topic. The children practiced their dictionary skills to find as many words as possible that started with the letter of their name. They then composed a fun sentence alliteration with the best words. Great work! Key stage 2 Key stage 2 has worked very well this week. We’ve looked at plants in science. The children had to label different sections of a plant and they got to grips with the technical vocabulary involved. The EAL children have also focused on self-correction. They composed a story and their goal was to highlight and talk about any grammatical errors or tricky structures they encountered. I’m very pleased with their effort this week. Mr. Jonathan Chatters Primary EAL Teacher.
Charity Fundraising Events
The British School of Beijing has worked very hard in recent months raising money for charity. On Friday 11th June, Leslie Simpson who set up and runs the ‘Roundabout’ charity store, came to Shunyi Campus to receive 5490rmb. This money was raised by the BSB community, staff, students and parents, through events such as non uniform day. Leslie was delighted with this money which will be used to help the recent earthquake victims in Qinghai, and to help pay for the education of a young Chinese boy who cannot pay for the special education which he requires. In recent weeks Leslie also received money raised by the Chatterbox Café. Leslie has recently been quoted. “We were able to go into Ikea and purchase 12 baby cots and all the bedding with money donated from the coffee shop at The British School, Shunyi campus. We have not received enough donations of cots to meet the demand - so it was wonderful that we were able to do this, thank you to everyone who made this possible.” On Friday 18th June, Mrs. Anna Nummela who is a volunteer for ‘Change for Life’ came to Shunyi Campus to receive 3300rmb, which was a third of the money raised by the sporty non uniform day on 18th May 2010. She explained to the children in assembly that this money will pay for a child to receive a hearing aid. Dawn Ross, a teacher at Shunyi Campus, is planning a trip to Spring Bud School in Gansu Province, to hand the school 3300rmb which was raised by the staff, children and parents supporting teachers who ran the Great Wall Marathon in May 2010.
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Secondary Dear Parents, Next week sees our year 7, 8 and 9 students head off on their residential visits to Shanghai, Yangshou and Chengdu. During their week away students will participate in a range of activities designed to enrich the curriculum, promote team work, develop leadership skills and to explore different regions of China. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the trip leaders; Mrs Amelie Azeem, Mr Julian Nelmes and Mr Bourne for their excellent efforts in planning and organising the trips, in order to ensure that all the students have a great week and a fantastic experience. Martyn Steel Head of Secondary
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Another Successful Challenge! British School of Beijing exhibits a legendary performance from our Junior UK Maths challengers. On the 29th April this year, Years 7 and 8 took part in the event that is held once a year for this age group. Of all the students who took part nationally and internationally from over 3700 schools worldwide, 6% received the Gold award, 13 % received silver and 21% received bronze. The British School of Beijing had 9 gold, 8 silver and 12 bronze! This was certainly another huge success for our participating students and for the school. The awards were presented to them in an assembly this week with tremendous applause from the students and from the staff. Big congratulations to our younger mathematical stars! The Results were as follows: Best in the school: Bae KyungKeun (Edward) Gold: Silver: Bae KyungKeun (Edward) Jae Min Woo Leonie Buschmann Jessica Chen Diana Park Andy Chng Zhou Ming Shia Darren Chong Bjorn Shen Michael Koo Steven Qi Solene Duprat Kevin Huang Duncan Watt Chloe Shi Mina Shin Kevin Jo Bronze Jack Kim May MacLeod Natasha Mackerras Newman Gan Jinwook Lee Susie Kwon Mickey Leng Raggittaran Jayakumar Joseph Bradshaw William Wong Jessica Chien Vihtori Jarvinen P. Readdy (Mathematics Dept)
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Secondary
Golfing ASA
What’s been happening down at the Golfing range. It was another fine day for our Golfing fanatics as they fine tune their swing techniques and brush up on their accuracy at hitting specific targets located at various distances. There was certainly an improvement in their performance so far as they have been coming down here every Tuesday since the beginning of this term. Prateek, Duncan and Hannah demonstrate their skills like true professionals and they hope to encourage more people to join their ‘club’ in the near future! By P. Readdy
Mrs Olga Brunel, nutritionist, visits year 7!
Today, Yr7 were very privileged to receive the visit of Mrs. Olga Brunel, nutritionist and parent of 4 at BSB primary. It was really encouraging to see students all very involved and inquisitive about their own eating habits and all were very keen to know how to make their lives healthier. Did you know? - Only 1 in 4 children eat two servings of fruits a day. - Only 1 in 2 eats three servings of vegetables. - Teenagers today drink twice as much soda as milk. - 30% at least of children watch TV 5 hours or more a day! (SOURCES: USDHHS. Healthy People 2010) Mrs. Brunel’s message was clear: children of today don’t exercise enough and don’t eat in the right quantities, which creates an imbalance. As a school and as parents, we have a responsibility to educate. Home-cooked food rather than restaurant, slow food rather than fast-food, greens and orange rather than potatoes…It is all about choices. This is what a balanced diet looks like; it helps our brain and body work better together:
18 JUNE 2010
ISSUE 34
Maths
This week in Mathematics the Year 10 top set have been displaying their creativity and kinesthetic learning skills. The task was to design and create something of interest using polydrons or wooden blocks. Each team consisted of 2 or 3 members with no designated team leader so the students were required to work well as a team. Even after some initial creative blanks all the students managed to produce excellent work, showing that they can relate their high level mathematical knowledge into problem situations. The activity allowed students to display skills including; team work, creativity, design and mathematical application. Mr Brightwell, Key Stage 4 Coordinator
French Breakfast
As a reward for their hard work and commitment this year, Year 10 were treated with a French breakfast this morning: croissant, baguette, petits pains au lait, Nutella et confiture (jam) accompanied by yummy hot chocolate …all this was ready for them to gulp down. Nutella was a first for Prateek, and Ryder loved the petits pains au lait and practiced his buttering skill with elegance. Randy enjoyed his hot chocolate and could hardly finish his croissant. A very healthy way to start the day, indeed! Well done boys for your hard work this year! Madame Azeem
18 JUNE 2010
BSBCC 1st of June is a very important day� it is the International Children day. For this occasion, 4 members of the charity committee (Sophie thomason, Randy Zhang, Andrew So and Valentine Salomon) paid a visit to the little children of Beautiful Harbour, the orphanage that we have actively been supporting for the past 2 years. It was a chance for them to see what their effort goes towards to and make some interesting and heart-warming links with the children there. We could only spend an hour there but it was very heard to leave the orphanage. This week’s assembly was to pay a tribute to the students who put so much effort in helping to raise money for charity, and tell the rest of the school what the BSBCC did, how much it raised and where would the money go. We were very privilege to host a few little faces from Beautiful Harbour as well and the ladies who are in charge of the orphanage. We were very proud to give them a cheque of 3223 rmb that we hope will contribute to the day-to-day care of the little ones. 7000 rmb has been raised through the bake sale and this will go towards buying recreational equipment for children of a school damaged by the earthquake. Some outstanding 12000 rmb have been raised through the Readathon organized by our English department and we are planning to give them to The Yimin Migrant School who is in great need to basic equipment for their school. We are hoping is will also be enough to buy a few instruments and a computer. The BSBCC would like to take this opportunity to thank all of BSB community, without who they would not have been able to do so well! You certainly all lived up to our motto: DARE TO BE DIFFERENT: CARE! Thank you, Amelie Azeem
ISSUE 34
18 JUNE 2010
NORMANS
SAXONS
Sanlitun House Points
VIKINGS
ROMANS
Secondary Merit Awards
Shunyi House Points
Normans
524
Normans
296
Saxons
655
Saxons
281
Vikings
508
Vikings
304
Romans
359
Romans
219
ISSUE 34
Key Stage 3 Mina Shin
328
Diana Park
222
Minori Yariwake
222
SeJin Kim
218
Key Stage 4
Congratulations to the Saxons on earning the highest House Points for the week ending 18th June. Well done, Saxons.
Congratulations to the Vikings on earning the highest House Points for the week ending 18th June. Well done, Vikings.
Oceane Duprat
60
Doris Sun
59
Prateek Pandey
47
Andrea DeMatteis
46
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.
Any 16yrs or older BSB students who would like to earn some money? I’m looking for an occasional child minder for my 6 & 8 year old boys. We live close to Champagne Merlin, Shunyi. If your interested contact Stephanie Baker at stephb4u@mac.com or phone 1355265305
Parent and Teacher inter school football league. We are hoping to organise a mini 7-a-side football league between other schools within Beijing. We would be hoping to have things running at the start of term 1. Those interested contact Gavin Raymond via email on communitysoccer@britishschool. org.cn.
18 JUNE 2010
SHUNYI
SANLITUN
From the Executive Principal
ear members of the British School of Beijing community, I recently had the pleasure of meeting with members of the Parent Society at the San Li Tun campus. They asked me a number of questions which have relevance for the whole community and I felt it would be appropriate to pass on my answers to the whole school via the newsletter. I was asked if, in the coming years, the curriculum of the school would change and the school would no longer be a British School. I replied that this was absolutely not the case and that the British School of Beijing would of course remain exactly what is now; a British school with all the traditions of the very best of British Education. I was then asked if the tradition of having native English speaking teaching assistants would continue next year as some parents had heard that this would change. I was very happy to reassure parents and tell them that this was one of the many things that made the school special and will continue to be so for very many years to come. The British School of Beijing is going from strength to strength. I am proud to be a small part of that process in conjunction with all members of the community. Of course we aim to constantly improve and reflect on what we do. Our aim is always to help our students thrive. In that regard the strengths of the school should be celebrated and acknowledged, and the two areas above, amongst many others, are very great assets in a very good school. Very warm regards Michael Embley Executive Principal
SHUNYI
ISSUE 34