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ASA go!
BSB After School Activities in full swing KS1 Gingerbread men Secondary Upcoming trip information
17 SEPTEMBER 2010
17 SEPTEMBER 2010
September 19
Yr 10 and new Year 11 to 13 hike on the silver Pagoda loop
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International Day and United Nations Day of Peace
24
Friday Fuzz goes Go-Karting!
28
Secondary Muffins with Mums
30
Secondary Mid Term Reports
30
Shunyi Primary House Music (pm)
October 1
Friday Fuzz Club
13
Shunyi Pancakes with Parents
15
BSB Secondary Idol
20
Secondary Residential Visits
21- KS2 Activity Days 22 (all KS2 children and staff) 25- Last week of After29 School / ExtraCurricular Activity Programme, Season 1
SHUNYI
SANLITUN
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SANLITUN
Equestrian ASA
Sanlitun PE
Toothy!
Over at our Shunyi Campus, children got the chance to go horseriding this week.
Sanlitun students bought in toys from home for their marble awards.
Year 3 SLT have been looking at lots of things to do with teeth and healthy diets.
From the Executive Principal
D
ear Parents
On Sunday the 3rd of October the British School of Beijing would like to invite you to our first family picnic/day out of the new school year. This is an event to allow parents and children to get out of central Beijing and the suburbs and see a little more of China. The first trip will be to the Silver Pagodas which are about 1 hour outside of Beijing. Your child will shortly be bringing home a letter with further details. Buses will run from both Sanlitun and Shunyi campuses at a small cost and food can also be provided. It promises to be a lovely day out and I look forward to seeing many of our families there. Whilst this is an event with BSB I should emphasise that teachers are not “on duty” as such so please don’t send your children along alone! Sports-wise I was happy to watch our boys team defeat ISB and continue their unbeaten record in ISAC so far, excellent result gentlemen. The girls were hampered slightly by a depleted squad on the day but I’m sure they will bounce back next week. BSB joins Club Football fixtures starting this Sunday. This weekend league is a great way for really keen footballers to get involved. Finally I have begun a process with the local government and our own security team to look at traffic issues around the Shunyi campus. Our growing popularity has meant that sometimes the road outside the school is too busy. I will publish the result of this review and update you in full on changes to our procedures and parking arrangements within two weeks. Have a lovely weekend Mike Embley Executive Principal
17 SEPTEMBER 2010
passport change edit jr
An important reminder from the British Embassy
30/6/10
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If you live abroad the way you obtain a passport, and where you need to apply, will change over the next three years. This leaflet explains what’s happening and why. After more than 20 years of running separate passport services, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and the Home Office have agreed that from April 2011, the Identity & Passport Service (IPS - an agency of the Home Office) will become the single provider of full validity passports for British nationals at home and overseas.
Why is this happening? > By taking this action now, customers overseas will still have access to a passport service > In October 2010 IPS will introduce new style passports containing more sophisticated security features. They are required to do this to continue to meet international quality and security standards. It is not affordable to print these new passports overseas
theft and passport fraud; protecting you and international borders > Integrating the two passports services into IPS will reduce the cost of maintaining a passport operation overseas, allowing us to continue to offer secure passports to overseas customers
So what’s changing? > A new emergency travel document available in most British Embassies by November 2010. If you don’t have a valid passport and need to travel urgently, this will provide a fast, secure and readily available way to do so > Regional Passport Processing Centres in place by the end of 2010 > All passport printing centralised in the UK in 2011 > In the longer term all passport application processing will also be moved back to the UK
> The UK remains one of the few countries still printing passports in Embassies, High Commissions and Consulates overseas. This is expensive to do and transferring blank passports around the world presents a greater security risk
By the end of 2010 we will have created 7 Regional Passport Processing Centres, based in Düsseldorf, Hong Kong, Madrid, Paris, Pretoria, Washington, and Wellington. These Centres will process all the passport applications for customers overseas until that work is centralised in the UK.
> New designs and new processes are being introduced to reduce the likelihood of identity
The majority of overseas passport applicants will be able to send their passport applications direct to a
passport change edit jr
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Regional Passport Processing Centre. In a few countries, however, customers will still have the option to submit their application via their nearest Embassy, High Commission or Consulate reflecting specific local circumstances. You can find out where and how to submit your application by visiting your local British Embassy/High Commission website. In 2011, all passport printing will be sent to a central production facility in the UK, shared with IPS. Most customers will receive their new passport directly from the UK, but some will need to collect their new passport from their nearest Embassy, High Commission, Consulate or courier depot. British Embassy/High Commission websites will contain clear guidance on local delivery and collection options. There are longer term plans to move all passport application processing back to the UK. We will inform customers as soon as we know when and how this will affect the service.
What will this mean for me? As a British national living overseas you will still have the ability to apply for your passport overseas whether it is a renewal or you are applying for the first time. When making your application you will need to allow time for the passport to be returned. In line with the service in the UK, for customers renewing a passport we aim to return your new passport within four weeks from receipt of correct
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documentation and fee. If you are applying for a passport for the first time you should allow at least six weeks. For more information see the FCO website www.fco.gov.uk
Will there be any additional cost? Yes. You will need to pay to send your application (and any supporting documents) to the Regional Passport Processing Centre and for the return of your new passport and supporting documents. We will keep our customers informed of any future price changes.
What should I do now? > Continue to look after your passport. Identity theft, passport fraud and related crime are on the increase. This is a precious document > Check when your passport expires and plan ahead > When you need a new passport allow plenty of time to renew: Did you know you can renew your passport up to 9 months before it expires? The extra time will be added to the validity of your next passport > Check the local British Embassy/ High Commission/ Consulate website for details on how and where to apply
What if I need a new passport urgently? Should you need to travel urgently and you do not
Changes to Overseas Passport Services
have a full validity passport (including if you have applied for a new one and have not yet received it) the local British Embassy/High Commission/ Consulate will be able to provide you with an emergency travel document to allow you to travel.
What if I lose my passport? You should contact your local British Embassy/High Commission/Consulate for assistance. If you need to travel urgently the Embassy/Consulate will be able to provide an emergency travel document and advise you on the new process of applying for a new full validity passport.
What other options are there? If you travel frequently to the UK and have a UK residential address, you can also apply to renew your passport by post or at your nearest IPS Regional Office. Details about how to apply while resident in the UK can be found at www.direct.gov.uk. Alternatively if you travel frequently you can apply for a second passport. For details please check your local British Embassy/High Commission/ Consulate website.
Where can I find more information now? www.fco.gov.uk The Identity and Passport Service are working with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to ensure that these changes are introduced seamlessly. We look forward to welcoming our overseas customers.
www.fco.gov.uk
17 SEPTEMBER 2010
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From the Headteacher, Sanlitun
Clean air & Parent Society Dear Parents, I would like to welcome on board our newly formed Parent Society who are as full of ideas and energy as last year’s. A very big thank you to Denise, karen,Renate & Shakira for putting in the foundations and ensuring the Parent Society will go from strength to strength. Everyone of you is welcome to play a part in our society and we understand that some can give more time and effort than others, but welcome any participation. We are still looking for class reps for some of our classes, so please let your child’s teacher know if you are willing to take on this role. There has been a lot of pollution this week and I would like to inform you of how we deal with this. Each morning and continually throughout the day we check the pollution levels using the following website. www.toranacleanair. com We have clear guidelines as to when children should be kept in and PE to be held indoors. We display the print out from the website so that everyone can see what the levels are. Tuesday 21st September we are holding our first breakfast session where parents with children in the Foundation Campus are welcome to come at 8.15am and stay till 9am enjoying a pastry and coffee with their child. Wednesday 29th September parents with children in Y1-Y6 are welcome to come at 8.15am and stay till 9am and enjoy a pastry and coffee with their child. Please remember it is a national holiday on Wednesday 22nd September and school will be closed. Fingers crossed the weather improves this weekend. Janet Brock Headteacher, Sanlitun Campus
17 SEPTEMBER 2010
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17 SEPTEMBER 2010
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Foundation Stage, Sanlitun
Ourselves! Foundation Sanlitun This week the Foundation Stage children have been very busy and have been working very hard on their topics. They are continuing to settle in and explore their new surroundings. In Reception we have been pretending to be at the Circus. We have a new role play area where the children can dress up as the ring master and the animals at the circus. On Friday we made popcorn and performed our circus show to our friends, showing off our balancing skills, magic tricks and acting skills. We have also been practising ordering our numbers and using ordinal numbers up to 10. We have applied our new knowledge in games and in our play. Nursery Continuing our theme about “Ourselves”, Nursery has been looking at our families and where we live. We made beautiful painted pasta frames for our family portraits and found that we all live in tall apartment buildings - not like the family of the 3 Bears who lived in a lovely cottage in the woods. We had fun counting all the things they had in their cottage and compared the different sizes; everything was in threes, big, small and tiny! Pre Nursery Pre-Nursery have been so busy this week with their new theme all about Clothes. They have made some brightly painted t-shirts and have stuck their first initial letter on the front of them. They have also been learning a new song “Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush” whilst pretending to put on their clothes.
Foundation Music
This week has really been action packed in Foundation music. In Reception we have been experimenting with fast and slow music, sound effects and actions. We listened to a number of extracts from “The Carnival of the Animals” composed by Camille Saint-Saens and used our imaginations to think about which animals these excerpts reminded us of. It was so much fun to slide around like a ssslow sssnake whilst making a hissing noise in time to the music. We thought of so many animals that we considered to be either fast or slow, and with each animal and piece we moved in the same way that these animals move. We flapped like a butterfly, buzzed like a bumble bee, crawled like a snail, and stomped like an elephant! This made us all rather tired so we then relaxed a little whilst listening to the story of “The Hare and the Tortoise” and made our own sound effects using various body parts to represent the ‘slow Tortoise’ - dib, dob, dib, dob and the ‘fast Hare’ thumpa, thumpa, thumpa! We all had lots of fun and laughter together! Miss Kelly Music teacher
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Music
“This week the primary choir started rehearsals with Ms Chaplin at both Shunyi and Sanlitun campuses. We have 75 singers in our combined choir so you can look forward to some stunning performances throughout the year!” Ms. Chapman Music teacher
Key Stage One, Sanlitun
The seaside! We’re pleased to say that it’s been another great week in KS1. There is a great atmosphere in our corridor as pupils are engaged in the exciting activities going on. Year 1 have continued on their bear hunt and have become authors of their own books. They chose what kind of hunt they would like to go on and discussed settings and descriptive language before having a go at writing and illustrating their own books. We are really pleased with the results and soon you will be able to see some of the books displayed around our corridor.
Cyrus and Tara from 1SB chose to play outside with toys from home for their marble reward.
Year 2 have been busy acting out stories and they have been learning lots about the seaside. Pupils have worked together to create some beautiful seaside collages and have looked at different types of seaside habitats and the animals that live there. All classes enjoyed watching the Year 5 assembly last week and it really helped make everyone aware of the importance of good manners. Many KS1 pupils have already demonstrated excellent manners; always saying please and thank you, looking out for friends, holding doors open, and some “Star Citizens” were identified at the assembly. Well done to Cody (2K), Annabelle (1J), Joeline (1B) and Clara (1S) .Remember to be a Well Mannered Wilma (and not a Rudy Rude!)
Janaine, Christina and Christina in Year 1 enjoyed bringing toys in from home for their marble reward.
Classes have also been working to earn marbles and house points and this week everyone enjoyed receiving their 100 marble reward. Some classes chose extra playtime, some chose ICT time and some brought in toys from home. Well done everyone! Keep listening well, trying hard and being polite and we’ll soon reach our 200 target! The halls are alive with the sound of music…. House music rehearsals are underway and pupils have begun learning a song to perform to earn points for their house. Pupils have also been enthusiastically taking part in PIPS lessons and Year 1 have been playing recorder to some really cool backing tracks. Sharon Black Year 1SB Teacher
17 SEPTEMBER 2010
Toothy Topics
In our Topic lessons this week, year 3 SLT have been looking at lots of things to do with teeth and healthy diets. This unit contains a fantastic success criteria which allows us to qualify as toothpaste researchers, dentist’s assistants or an actual dentist, depending on how hard we work and how much information we remember and understand. One of the best parts of this topic was trying to work out which type of tooth did what job when we are eating. To work out this problem we watched a partner eating a slice of apple and chewing it with their mouth open! This was fun but gross and taught us about incisors, canines and molars, and the jobs that they do when we eat. This led to us into studying the different teeth and diets of animals. We can also answer tricky questions like ‘would a herbivore have big, sharp canines?’ and ‘why are cows teeth so big and flat?’ We also used mirrors to check our own teeth. We carefully recorded any gaps or fillings before completing a diagram which informs us which specific teeth are damaged or missing. We then completed an experiment about tooth decay. Mr. Thomas gave us a sweet that turned all of the bacteria on our teeth bright pink! There was so much plaque! It took a lot of toothpaste and brushing to make our teeth shiny and white again. You have to make sure that you eat the right kinds of foods and always brush your teeth at least 2 times a day. Using everything we learnt in the unit we created a poster to help other students in the school look after their teeth and gums, and to make sure they eat a healthy, balanced diet. We sure did have a FANGTASTIC time this week in year 3! Mr. Thomas
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EAL
The EAL students have settled in nicely to their EAL lessons and are all making real progress. Year one students and some year two students are learning essential english for communicating with their peers and teachers. They are studying this intensively to ensure that they can access the curriculum in the classroom as quickly as possible. The intensive course is already showing great results-well done everyone! Other EAL students have been receiving in-class support, to help them access particular lessons and curriculum areas. This is to make sure that they get support, but do not miss any important curriculum lessons at the same time. It is fantastic to see the rapid progress many EAL students are making. They key to rapid progress is practice,practice and more practice! Kaz Michalak
Chinese
All groups of students have experienced another busy and dynamic week in SLT Chinese classrooms. In the heritage group, students all started to take Chinese reading material home to help them widen their view of Chinese, and we also held a mini Lantern festival for Y2 in accordance with the topic they were learning. In Group A and B, students tried various activities to make Chinese learning fun. In group A, children played Chinese character puzzle games to practice their characters, while in groups B, children played a role play game in which they interviewed their classmates and wrote a report about them.
Hapkido at Sanlitun Next Wednesday at 7:30pm, Yong Song Lee, Grand Master of Hapkido and Instructor for the FBI academy Virginia, will be coming to school to talk about philosophy and Hapkido. He will a give a lecture and demonstration. All are welcome to come along and listen and watch. This will follow from the ASA and Hapkido club.
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Key Stage Two, Sanlitun
Hunting for Treasure at Panjiayuan!
No sooner had we settled into Year 5 and we were off on our first adventure; a trip to Panjiayuan market to find treasure for our Art project. As intrepid explorers we set off from school on our bus and immediately got stuck due to a very inconveniently parked car! Once we had managed to find the car owner and got the car moved we were once again on our adventure! Our mission was to find weird and wonderful objects to use when we make our Yupik Masks, which are grotesque masks made by Inuit people to represent some of their scary myths. We all had a budget of RMB 50 and needed to use our best haggling skills to maximize our purchases. What an important life skill – we are sure we can help our Mums and Dads whenever we go to the market now! We found some amazing treasure to use on our masks: feathers, beads, spears, old coins, hair, stones, crystals, hairpins, teeth and much, much more. We learnt that by buying the items for the whole group, for example buying 20 coins, instead of buying just for our self meant we could get our items even cheaper. We had to work as a team to do this. We also learnt there are many different techniques for haggling as children. 1. Look cute. 2. Look like you might cry. 3. Keep saying the price you want to pay over and over again. 4. As a group keep saying the price you want to pay over and over again. 5. Be friendly and make the seller laugh. 6. Keep saying ‘PLEASE’. 7. Begin to walk away. 8. Be firm but fair. 9. Know when it is time to move on and try somewhere else. 10. Enjoy yourself! After our tiring morning of intense negotiations, we went for lunch and shared our market stories. Now we are back at school, we can’t wait to start using clay and mod-roc to make our masks, and use our treasure on them. Christine Armstrong - Year 5 Teacher
17 SEPTEMBER 2010
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ASA
The After-School Activities at BSB Sanlitun got off to a flying start this week with a huge array of clubs taking place. Here were just a few of them. Cooking Club First week at the BSB cooking club went down a storm with the children making chocolate crispie cakes. More food ended up in their mouths than in the cake trays though!! Even the teachers managed to get their hands on some. Everyone had a great time and can’t wait to find out what they’ll be cooking next week! (Photos attached) Tennis Club Move over Rafael Nadal and Venus Williams - the next Tennis superstars are coming out of Sanlitun! This week excellent numbers of pupils across the Key Stages turned up in force to attend the BSB Tennis club, ran by 6th Sense Tennis - Justine Henins’ very own academy. Professional coaches gave our pupils expert advice on how to hit a top-spin forehand, slice a backhand and generally look like a tennis player on court! Coaches will be here for the next 8 academic weeks. (Photos attached) Also, the following fixtures have been arranged for the BSB Sanlitun Football teams: Wed 29th September U10 & U12 Boys @ BCIS (Exchange Tournament, during school time) Tue 12th October U12 Boys @CIS (16.00pm) Mon 18th October U10 Boys & Girls (KS2) @ BSB SY (16.00pm) Thur 28th October U12 Boys & Girls (KS2) @ BCIS (16.00pm) Mon 1st November U10 Boys v BCIS (HOME 16.00pm) Sat 6th November U12 Boys, U10 Boys, KS2 Girls @ DCB (ISAC Tournament, 9.00am) Sat 16th October
Primary Cross-Country
@ HISB
There may be more dates to follow so please listen out for more information from school. Thanks Mr. Hubbard PE Sanlitun
17 SEPTEMBER 2010
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A Message from the Head of Primary, Shunyi
Rainy Days and Sunny Moments The Primary School has been a hive of activity this week for both parents and children alike. For our pupils there were new topics to begin, new songs to learn for BSB House Music Competitions, new teams to sign up for and our new guinea pigs to visit and feed. For our parents, we had 2 new meetings this week. On Monday, our mum volunteers came in to school to learn about how we teach reading to our youngest pupils. They heard about our banded reading programme and about how to support our youngest learners. The mums also heard about how best to work with children at BSB and now all are ready to begin helping in classes and with reading in FS and KS1. Huge thanks to those energetic ladies! There’s another meeting on Tuesday 21st September at 8.30am for any other parents who have some time to volunteer. Our second parent meeting of the week was on Friday when the parents met with Fred Barron (Eurest Manager) and myself to hear about our school lunch service. The lunch routines, choices, menus, staffing and healthy eating choices were all discussed and parents asked any questions they had. All parents are invited into lunch at school to experience it for themselves and to help us with a feedback questionnaire too. Contact me directly if you would like to do so. Our next parent meeting will be on Friday 24th September and it will focus on how parents can best support their children with homework. Mr. Christian Bishop will lead the workshop from 2.30-3.30pm. All are warmly invited to attend. Have a lovely weekend. Jane Smith HoP
k in Spotted this wee tion the BSB Explora area!
17 SEPTEMBER 2010
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Dear parents, Parent Workshop: Phonics at BSB Each year we invite our parents of Foundation Stage and Key Stage pupils to a Phonics Workshop. The talk from our FS and KS1 staff will focus on how BSB develops children’s auditory discrimination, awareness and knowledge of the sounds of the alphabet to help them read and write independently. Parents will hear about both the “Letters and Sounds” curriculum, related teaching methods and our expectations for pupils of different ages and stages of development. The Phonics Workshop will be on Thursday 30th September at 9am at Shunyi Campus. All parents of children in Teddies to Y2 are invited. Refreshments will be served. Please confirm your attendance with Yvonne Quan on Yvonne.quan@britishschool.org.cn We do hope you are able to attend. Kind regards, Jane Smith
17 SEPTEMBER 2010
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Foundation Stage, Shunyi
Families and songs
This week Teddies 1 have been enjoying the beautiful weather and looking at some of the changes starting to happen around them. They have been getting messy in the paint and using different body parts to create their artworks. What great fun they have had singing and dancing to body songs. Teddies 2 have been learning all about themselves. They have been drawing, painting amazing artworks. They looking carefully at labels around their room especially their names. The playground is a big and scary place but they are having time to explore the space without the big children. Teddies 2 have also been singing body songs and using body language. Nursery have been talking about their families. Making paintings and collages. They have talked about things that they like, favorite toys, colours, food and animals. Children have bought things to school to “show and tell� to develop their speaking and listening skills. Reception children have been pretending to be people who help us, they have been whizzing round in ambulances, directing the traffic and putting out fires. The shape of the week was squares and they have made lots of things using squares including patterns based on the artist Kandinsky, and picture frames. All the children have been to the computer room to work on the computers.
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Key Stage One , Shunyi
Blankets and Gingerbread men
This week, Year 1 have been reading the lovely animated story called ‘The Blanket’ about a boy and his favourite toy. The children brought in their favourite toys from home to share with the class during circle time. They wrote beautiful pieces describing their toys, and remembered to use wow words and punctuation! In science the children have been learning about what we like to look at and what we like to hear. The children in Year 1 like to look at flowers and butterflies. They like to listen to birds singing and laughing! In Year 2 the children have had lots of fun acting out their own version of ‘The Gingerbread Man’ tale for the rest of the class and also typed up parts of their story in ICT. In numeracy they have been focussing on partitioning numbers into tens and units and learning about greater and lesser (<>) using a story about a crocodile who eats large numbers! In their Seaside topic the children have been asking and answering questions about the past and learning about the reasons why seaside holidays started to become popular.
Family Library Session
Thursdays 3:30---5:00 PM Dear parents, BSB is inviting you to read books with your children in a new after school ‘parents in school’ programme. Please notice following points and complete the family sign up form when you arrive. • Every parent can borrow 2 books for their child. • The maximum loan period is two weeks. • If borrowed books are lost or badly damaged, please donate 100 RMB per title to the library fund so we can replace the lost books. • Please do not bring any food or drink into the library. • Pupils must be accompanied by a parent/carer at all times while in the library. • All books must be checked out by Mrs. Zhang (librarian). Welcome to our library. BSB primary library
17 SEPTEMBER 2010
Key Stage Two , Shunyi
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Roald Dahl and Pirate treasure maps It has been a very productive week in Years 3 and 4 this week. There have been many things produced, reviewed, discussed and written about.
In Year 3 we have been enjoying the World of Roald Dahl. We have read extracts from his books and learnt all about how feelings and emotions are evoked in writing. We have also been acting like film directors and have studied closely the use of lighting and music in films to evoke moods. We celebrated Roald Dahl day on the Monday by sharing lots of Dahl texts and discussing our favourites. In maths we have been doing lots of calculations. We have been partitioning, adding, subtracting and solving problems, we have also had our first batch of certificate winners for completing their times tables, we hope for even more next week. In topic we have looked at old fashioned Pirate treasure maps and compared common features. We have then tried to create our own maps, plotting landmarks and, of course, our hidden treasure. We are aiming to peer assess our maps and create finished display versions, watch the wall space outside our classrooms! In Year 4 the children have been writing Poetry, based around the topic of wind. They have drafted. edited and published their poems and these are now proudly on display in the classrooms. In maths the children have been rounding larger numbers to the nearest hundred and thousand and have been dealing with some very complex numbers. They have aloso branched into negative numbers and have shown great proficiency in plotting these on a number line and ordering sets of negative numbers. In art the children have been experimenting with water colours and have used these to create shields, both Roman and Celtic. This has helped the children to get a better understanding of their topic work on settlements. The children have discussed the term settlement and justified why people move to new areas. They have also discussed why the Romans would have invaded and settled into other countries. If you are around the classrooms please drop in to see our fantastic skeletons that are hanging in the classrooms. Have a great weekend, Mr. Bishop Deputy Head of Primary
17 SEPTEMBER 2010
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Team building and School Jungle
In Year 5 this week, the children have been investigating what makes a healthy balanced diet. We had discussions about the different food group and what benefits foods from each group brings to our bodies. We then discussed how much of each food group we should be eating. They children were all dismayed about the fact that the most delicious food – chips, pizza, chocolate, etc – are exactly the ones we shouldn’t be eating all the time. After gathering all this information, they had great fun designing a healthy balanced meal. In English work, we continued our reading of George’s Marvellous Medicine and have been playing with complex and simple sentences. We put simple sentences together into complex sentences; we took complex sentences apart and made simple sentences with them; we talked about and identified the main clause in a sentence; we re-wrote complex sentences with the sub-ordinate clause first. They children are slowly becoming clause experts! In maths this week, we have been consolidating our use or written methods of addition and subtraction, and reinforcing our knowledge of place value. Topic work this week has seen the children start their designs for sea serpents and monsters to decorate old-style world maps. It has been another busy week in Year 6 and the pupils have all been working incredibly hard, having now settled into life at BSB. It has been particularly impressive how quickly both new and existing pupils have made friends and are working together beautifully in all classes. In Literacy we have been looking at imagery and how to use this as a literary device in our own poems. The pupils have taken inspiration from the school environment and have penned their very own poems entitled “School Jungle” which they have performed for their peers. It is very clear that we have some great performers in Y6! To link in with our World War Two topic, the pupils have examined pictures from the period and are experimenting with vocabulary and appropriate imagery, in preparation for their own pieces of war-based writing. In Numeracy we have been looking at place value and decimal notation, with an emphasis on ordering decimals and rounding. The exercises the pupils have completed consolidated their knowledge and allowed them to use their new skills ‘in practice’. We have also looked at different ways in which we can approach Mental Maths, using different strategies like rounding and doubling. In Science we are continuing to looking at different types of forces and we have been having some fun conducting our own scientific experiments using newton meters. The children are also very excited about their World War Two topic and, this week, we have been looking at different factors that caused the war, including the impact The Treaty of Versailles had on the world stage. In Art this week the students are continuing creating a wax scratch painting of the skyline of London during the blitz and, in ICT, the students are continuing to create a cover for their Excellent Work folders using publisher and will begin learning about using PowerPoint. Jason Oak, Year 5 Teacher
17 SEPTEMBER 2010
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Eco-Group ASA Eco Group is a great place to learn about the environment and what we can do to protect and sustain it for future generations. The first topic we are examining is The Amazon, under the branch of global sustainability, and the children have found out about the types of animals that live there and some information about their natural habitat. Subsequent weeks will look at preservation of the rainforest and the effects of deforestation. Other themes that the Eco Group will deal with are litter, waste minimisation and water.
EAL
EAL
Key stage 1 Key stage 1 has had a strong focus on sounds this week. The children have been getting to grips with the alphabet and the different sounds produced when various letters are combined. The children have also started learning new verbs and putting them in to context using fun word based games. Key Stage 1 is also enriching their core vocabulary each week. This week they mainly concentrated on classroom objects. A great week for all the students! Key stage 2 This week key stage 2 has had a productive week. The children wrote some very interesting fictional stories. Our aim was to self correct the stories. This had allowed the children to learn better from their grammatical errors. We’ve also focused on the past simple tense, especially irregular verbs. This is what the children seem to find most challenging. They have done very well in getting to grips with all the different irregular verb endings. Well done Key Stage 2! Mr. Jonathan Chatters & Miss. Shelley Simpson.
Chinese
It’s been an It’s been a busy and productive week. Children from different year groups have started learning the first topics of the term and did utterly well. Also we started Chinese ASAs, which our young students enjoyed a lot: “Chinese stories” enriches their Chinese cultural and historical knowledge; “Chinese checkers” is aimed at enhancing checker learners’ skills and confidence; and “Chinese art, music and dance” allows children to indulge themselves in elegant Chinese singing and dancing. Summer Liu, Primary Chinese.
17 SEPTEMBER 2010
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Secondary Dear Parents, Another week has gone by in the Secondary School with an assembly and the whole Secondary School starting the day with some singing. This was followed by praise from Julian Barnsley and team sports and then finished by Rob Hewett with a brief talk about himself and continuing to promote a nice learning environment for all. The sixth form have received a briefing on the UCAS system and some insight into pre university work experiences from out Teaching Assistants. Year 10 to 13 have been given the opportunity to attend an Duke of Edinburghâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Award expedition training day to the Silver Mountain and Pagoda park. Robert Hewett, Head of Secondary
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BSBCC
The BSBCC is back in action again this year and we are very happy to announce the birth of the primary charity council too. Together, we hope to build upon the great sense of share and care that the BSB community has already shown in the previous years. We are received great news from Beautiful Harbour, the orphanage that we have been supporting for the past 2 years, and as you can see, your effort and donations have meant a lot to all the little orphans that B.H takes care of. In order to raise more funds this year, we are starting our Bake sale again in secondary…and my little finger tells me it is on its way in primary too. Watch this
space! In secondary, we will be selling huge cinnamon rolls, big muffins and yummy chocolate chip cookies for 10 rmb. We will update you about where the money will be going when the new committee has made their decision. This year we have a brand new committee and here are the honorable members: Sophie Thomason Yr10, Chair Freeda Abdurahman Yr10, deputy Chair, Abigail Michail Yr7, link with primary Charity committee Benjamin Sy, yr12 and senior member, reporter to the newsletter Valentine Salomon, Yr8 Bake sale coordinator Julia Mannes, Yr8 Bake sale assistant Jin Lee, yr8, Marketing officer Andrew So, yr10 Marketing Officer Tiffany Raab, Marketing officer Lucy Baxtrem, Marketing officer
They are full of ideas, and you will be hearing from us regularly. Our first big event is called the “HOLIDAY PICTURES COMPETITION”. We are hoping that children from both primary and secondary will want to take part. How? Very easy! - Bring a print of your favourite holiday picture (no actual recognizable persons please, ie.e no mummies, dadies, brohers or sisters), - A5 size, Pay 5 rmb per picture submitted (you must be able to provide the digital format of each picture you enter), - Write your name and your form at the back of the picture, with a simple caption) - Put your picture(s) and money in an envelope in the big photo competition box at the main reception. At the end of October, Mr. Embley, Mr. Hewett, Mrs. Smith and Sophie Thomason will be judging all entries. The winner will receive his picture enlarged on a canvas to be displayed at home + a Kodak voucher too ! Some of the photos will also be selected and entered into a competition in the ‘World of China’ magazine. So look out after the competition to see if your featured in there! Check your pictures, summer, winer, landscape, sunsets, Chinese settings, meals… and enter the competiton!!! In the meantime, if you have any suggestions, any comment, don’t hesitate to contact me, Mrs. Amelie Azeem. On: amelie.azeem@britishschool.org.cn
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The charity Bake Sale is back!!
Every Tuesday, at Lunchtime, the Charity Committee in the secondary school will be selling healthy cakes for the benefit of good causes. We will sell cinnamon rolls, chocolate chip cookies and blueberry muffins for 10 rmb only. This menu might change and increase depending on the studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; demands. We are always open to suggestions! We will of course update the BSB community on where the committee decide to give the money we raise from this sale. Please let you child take part and help those in need! Many thanks, Amelie Azeem BSBCC coordinator
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Dear parents, Today, your child should bring a pack of letters about the fantastic ski trip opportunity offered to all secondary students and year 6 pupils at BSB. Please read through the pack carefully. All the documents can also be found and are downloadable from our website. It is a chance not to be missed as we go to one of the most famous ski resort of the world. In the pack your child will bring home, there is an invitation to a presentation talk led by Mr. Julien Goetz, a representative from les Elfes (the trip company) who is flying straight out from Switzerland to answer all your questions, should you have any. Please fill in the reply slip and send it back to me, Mrs. Azeem, as soon as possible, so that we can plan for refreshments on the evening. It is also crucial we know numbers in order to plan for transportations back to Beijing downtown. Attached is another copy of this invitation for your reference. I look forward to seeing you next Thursday. Kind regards, Amelie Azeem Trip coordinator and Key Stage 3 coordinator
17 SEPTEMBER 2010
Horse riding ASA
This term secondary students have the chance to acquire â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Equestrianâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; skills. Every Tuesday we are going to the ASGUARD stables here in Shunyi to horse ride. Some of our riders are complete beginners and some more advanced. But all did really well for their first time! I look forward to seeing all of the students off the lunge reign soon. Charlotte Yearn
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Sports Bears Business Another busy week in sport for the Bears! Soccer U14 Soccer vs ISB The boys produced another comprehensive performance and we able to secure a rather comfortable 8-0 victory. Man of the Match: Xin. Coach: Ian Phillipson The girls struggled for players again but the three that were there were able to show just how far their soccer skills have developed. Valentine, Charity and Lucy should be congratulated for their efforts and for their perseverance. Girl of the Game: Charity Coach: Daniel Marr U14 Division 1 Soccer Exchange This weekend BSB plays host to boys exchange and welcomes teams from DCB, DSP, HISB, ISB, IST and WAB. Games start at 10.00am Primary Soccer On Monday next week BSB will host U11 teams from BCIS. The matches are being played as part of the newly formed â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Junior ISACâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; league. Volleyball U19 Boys and Girls practiced this week aiming to develop some shape to their team play. Next week boys will play BCIS, TIS and CISB. Girls will play BCIS and TIS. Swimming The Aquabears are in their second week of training. Lanes are busy with almost 40 swimmers in the water. Children are working hard to develop a good aerobic base for the upcoming season. Training has been well supported with several parent helps offering their time to help to manage the squad. The first event of the year is the BSB Open on Tuesday September 28th (please see the flyer in this Newsletter). All swimmers that attend BSB have been invited to register for races, each swimmer may enter up to five events. Registrations close next Monday. Coach: Tomi Barnsley
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Volleyball This past week the U19 Boys and Girls Volleyball teams began a new chapter in athletics at the British School, Beijing (BSB) by fielding Volleyball teams for the first time in the International Schools Athletic Conference (ISAC) competition. The girls played matches on Wednesday and Saturday against the Canadian International School Beijing (CISB) and the International School of Tianjin (IST). The match on Wednesday saw them come up short 3 sets to 2 sets (8-25, 25, 23, 18-25, 25-21, 8-15), taking it to the final set to decide the match. This final set was incredible entertaining and could have went either way but in the end CISB were too much for our BSB girls. Then on Saturday the girls faced another tough challenge in IST, playing well and much improved but on the short end (21-25, 12-25, 17-25). The boys, on the other hand, started things off strong in their first match on Saturday beating IST 3 sets to 0 (25-22, 25-20, 25-14). This again was a complete team effort and demonstrated that our boys with some practice and hard work should be extremely competitive in ISAC play this season. Please note almost all of the participants on this years U19 Boys and Girls Volleyball teams are playing competitive Volleyball for the first time. This again is a testament to their attitude and flexibility in trying new and unfamiliar things as well as working to spread a positive and competitive BSB school spirit to other institutions within the ISAC as well as within BSB. Furthermore, it is our desire as coaches as well as members of the BSB faculty through all athletic and After School Activities (ASA) to encourage, develop, and establish our own unique BSB attitude as it relates to school spirit. Ultimately this will have positive impacts on all facets of the BSB community. If you see and or speak to any member of the U19 Volleyball teams please congratulate them on a very successful first week of training and matches. If you have any questions or would like to attend any matches please feel free to contact me directly. Travis Washko Travis.Washko@BritishSchool.org.cn U19 Boys Volleyball Coach
17 SEPTEMBER 2010
NORMANS
SAXONS
Sanlitun House Points
VIKINGS
ROMANS
Secondary Merit Awards
Shunyi House Points
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Key Stage 3 Amelie Auvray
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Erik Melander
11
Mina Shin
10
Joseph Bradshaw
9
Key Stage 4
House points begin next week! Announcement in Assembly on Monday
House points begin next week!
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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. English Classes for Parents at BSB Introductory meeting Tuesday 14th September. Come any time from 8.30am to 12 noon. Classes start after October break. Email belindaprince@gmail.com for more information.
Halloween is quickly approaching--have costumes for your children? Shop from the world’s largest online Halloween store--HalloweenExpress.com--and have Dong-Xi.com ship it to you. Even better, to save on shipping costs, Dong-Xi.com is organizing a special GroupShip for the costumes, to save on shipping costs for British School families.” Three easy steps:1. Send the link of the costume/items you want to order@dong-xi.com 2. Pay through Dong-Xi.com 3. Receive costumes one week before Halloween William Heathershaw
17 SEPTEMBER 2010
PARENT EFFECTIVENESS TRAINING All I want is some peace and quiet!
Mum, can I have …
Help!
I’m very confused!
Lookout! They’re arguing again!!
Hassles over issues like bedtimes, chores, rules, TV & TV programs, homework; tantrums, scenes etc. Are these situations familiar? P.E.T. offers skills to resolve these problems together with your child.
P.E.T. is an 8-session course specially designed for families to learn a time-tested model of communication that offers skills, which gives you
Better two-way communication Establish successful discipline Children who become self-disciplined, more responsible and solve their own problems Children who are more self-reliant, resilient, independent, and selfmotivated Children who are more open to parent’s ideas Warmer feelings, closer relationships and more FUN in the family
Course starts: Wednesday 13th October, 9am- 12pm at BSB Shunyi For More Information or a course outline contact: Susie Havas: susiehavas@hotmail.com or 13910024146
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