ISSUE 1 SCHOOL NEWSLETTER #38
The British International School of Marbella
NEWSLETTER A Newsletter for Parents, Students and Friends of our School
May 2019
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SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
Headteacher’s Message Dear Parents and Students, The month of May has been an exciting one for our students with something for everyone. The sports department have been extremely busy with Swimming Galas, Sports Days and inter-school competitions. All events were extremely successful, offering our children the opportunity to not only display the amazing skills they have developed over the year but also a sense of camaraderie and sportsmanship. Well done to all that participated and a special congratulations to all our winners. Well done to Miss Bruce and Mr Allen, thank you for your hard work. For those who are more academically minded, Maths Week offered a great deal of fun and excitement. With the theme ‘Maths all around Us’, the children participated in a variety of activities across the school competing in their houses. The week ended with a final assembly where all shared what they had learned while picking up even more Maths knowledge all the children’s faces lit up in amazement when introduced to a google plex, as well as my own! Well done children, you demonstrated excellent maths skills throughout the week. Congratulations to Mr Kuhn for making Maths so much fun! For the more creative types, the EYFS children entertained us all with the end of year show ‘Lucy the Ladybird’. It was amazing to see children so young acting, singing and dancing with such confidence and charm. Even some of the Pre-Nursery had lines to delivery, which they did like
true professionals, well done to all the children and the EYFS staff, next stop Broadway! Finally, for the party people of BISM we held the annual Summer Fair. As always, there was plenty of fun games and activities to keep all entertained for an excellent cause. The atmosphere was fantastic. Thank you to all who helped and attended, you made it a wonderful afternoon. So as you can see, there truly was something for everyone in the month of May. Next month takes a different tone with assessment week, report writing and a NABSS inspection. But for the children there’ll still be plenty to look forward to with FS ‘Doughnuts for Daddies’, LS ‘Splash Day’ and the MS annual residential. Please keep checking the portal for updates. With very best wishes, Sian Kirkham Headmistress
SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
Pre-Nursery How is the Weather Today?
The children in Pre-Nursery have been learning all about the weather. They looked at a range of weather symbols and described what they could see. Amelia said the image of the man who was sweating on a hot day was her “Papa”! Arianna was able to tell us that the lady wearing a hat was cold, we all practiced shivering and pretending to be cold. Advik was very interested in the weather symbols, he spread them out on the carpet and looked at them closely. We talked about what we do when it is a sunny day, Amelia said “put cream on”. Olivia said “sunglasses”, we all agreed we like to go to the beach on a lovely sunny day. The children were all interested in the symbol representing snow. They were asked if they had seen snow, they shook their heads and said “no”. We decided to look at some different weather on the Interactive Whiteboard. The children were asked to point at various types of weather when prompted. They all managed to do this correctly. The children enjoyed singing a weather song and matching the weather symbols to the images on the screen. When this activity was finished the children chose to paint some weather pictures at the easel. Interestingly they chose sunny colours such as; blue and yellow. Pre-Nursery decided their favourite weather is sunshine! Mrs Pottinger Pre-Nursery Teacher
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Nursery Stickman, Ohh Stickman Beware of the Dog
There are many loved and treasured stories in Nursery but ‘Stickman’ is one of those stories that both children and adults never tire of. That is why we dedicated two weeks to looking at it in detail. We did lots of activities including making maps, looking at seasons, creating lost posters and thinking up imaginative ways to use a stick at beach school. One of our first activities with the story though was to create a story map. This is a map which we use to plot the storyline. The children retold the story using the book and drew in the characters Stickman met and places he visited during the story. The children then worked together to draw these onto the map. They worked really hard and carefully added in lots of extra detail and made sure that they followed the story carefully. They debated the order of the story and used the book to check, they used the rhymes to help them know where he travelled next. The story map was then left out for the week and the children used Stickman puppets to help retell the story using rich and descriptive story inspired language. At the end of the week all the children could retell the story using the story map as a prompt. Great storytelling Nursery! Mrs Riddell Nursery Teacher
SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
Reception
We’re Going on a Stick Hunt
We’re going on a stick hunt, we’re going to catch a big one! Oh wait...wrong story! Stick Man was the popular Julia Donaldson story the children in Reception have been learning about. In preparation for beach school, we needed lots of sticks, so what better to do than to go on a stick hunt? The children were tasked with the challenge of finding a range of sticks of different sizes and textures. In small teams, off we went across the road to the park opposite school. The children had to find every stick on their chart. Once they had found more than one, they had to mark it on their table using a tally. The children were fantastic! Describing their sticks and they took their counting and recording very seriously! Well done, Reception! Mrs Rutherford Reception Teacher
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Special Event
Foundation Stage Wow Day
We’re all going on a Summer Holiday….first stop BISM! To kick off our topic of ‘Holidays’ the children went on holiday at school. They arrived in the morning with their suitcases packed ready for take off. As soon as the plane was loaded and passports has been checked we flew into Marbella. Here the children soaked up the sun in the paddling pools, made their own ice-creams, wrote passports home and learnt about holidays all over the world. The children entered into the spirit of things and really had a special day. Mrs Riddell Foundation Stage Leader
SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
Special Event
Foundation Stage Production - Lucy the Ladybird
Lucy the Ladybird is the story of a ladybird that is unhappy with her spots and asks all her friends to help her get rid of them. It turns out all her friends love her spots and love her just the way she was. What a great message for the youngest members of our school to learn and how beautifully did they tell the story. The children delivered their lines with confidence and clarity, making sure this message was conveyed to the waiting audience. The time spent in rehearsals with Ms Conlan on the music and singing was very clear as the children sung expertly some very tricky songs, remembering the words and feeling confident in their performance. The wonderful orchestra played their instruments independently following the play and confidently knowing when was their cue to play. It was an absolute joy to see these very young children get on the stage and perform with confidence and enthusiasm. They managed to combine everything together so beautifully and the play could not help but leave the audience with a very large feel good factor. This was a huge team effort between the children, music team, foundation team and the parents who rehearsed lines at home and provided magnificent costumes. Well done on a marvellous show Foundation Stage. Mrs Riddell Foundation Stage Leader
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Year 1
Money, Money, Money
Travel and Transport Wow Day
Maybe you have noticed at home this month that your children have suddenly become interested in coins. Well, it might be because we have worked hard to identify and add different coins. Since we are a British school we learn about money that we have in the U.K., the pound sterling.
Our new topic for the third and final term of the school year is Travel and Transport. To enthuse the pupils about their learning we held a Wow Day full of games and fun activities.
I can confidently say that the class knows all of the coins by now, which is very impressive indeed. We have worked extensively on adding equivalent money using different coins and even working towards mastering using the least amount of coins possible to make a total less than one pound! Money is not the most important aspect of life but it is certainly necessary to have an understanding of. Learning to work with money from such a young age will give them a good grounding for years to come. Mr Thomas Year One Teacher
It is such an interesting subject that pupils will learn a lot about important people from the past, how transport has developed over the years and looking further at timelines. The class have already learnt about the history of cars and even learnt about Viking transport from over a thousand years ago! For our Wow day, we celebrated mindfulness by creating lovely patterns in transport themed pictures. The pupils were even treated by using our laptops for a quick game of Mario Karts. Some children were very impressive with their quickness on the keyboard! At the end of the day, we pretended we were sitting in an aeroplane watching an inflight show about cars and had some tasty treats that you all so kindly provided. The pupils had a wonderful day and it certainly captured their imagination of what learning lay ahead for them. Mr Thomas Year One Teacher
SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
Year 2
Owl Art
Trip to Lobo Park
Inspired by their topic on nocturnal animals, Year Two created some striking pieces of art based on owls.
One early morning on the 10th May Year Two arrived at school at 8:30am. After we had done the register and gone to the toilet we made our way to the green, red, yellow and orange coach. Once we had put on our seatbelts we drove off to Lobo Park.
Firstly, like all good artists, Year Two practised sketching the outline of their owls, under the guidance of Miss Portelli. They looked carefully at the shapes that they needed to create and showed great perseverance whilst practising to get them as accurate as possible. Once they had mastered the shapes it was time to use charcoal, a new medium to Year Two, to sketch the outline of their owls. Once the outlines were complete the details could be added using a mixture of small strokes and some blending, which created shade and depth. To make their owls even more eye catching, Year Two gave them a modern twist by designing and creating some fluorescent accessories for their owls to wear. Year Two got creative and there were heart-shaped glasses, striped ties, funky headphones and glamorous necklaces for their owls. The finished products look fantastic! Well done Year Two for your hard work!! Miss Allen Year Two Teacher
When we arrived at the wolf center we met the trainer Daniel. He told us lots of interesting facts about wolves. He actually got into the pen as he was one of the pack and the wolves were howling with excitement. The center has 46 wolves in total and we went around the park learning about them all. We all had a brilliant time and lots of fun!! Benjamin Andersen Year Two Student
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Year 3 Chart Toppers
Viking Wow Day
The children of Year Three have been learning how to interpret information from different tables during recent maths lessons. They have focused on pictograms and bar graphs.
The children in Year Three have had a great time whilst starting their new topic of The Vikings. Already the children are brimming with information about the seafaring warriors who raided and then settled in Britain over a 1000 years ago.
Across different areas of the curriculum they have also been learning about making predictions and estimates and had a go at estimating the weight of some density cubes, which were all the same size but made of different materials. Before making their estimates the children all held the different cubes in their hands and they all made sensible efforts at stating which they thought were the heaviest and lightest. Maximilien correctly estimated that the lead cube was the heaviest, which all the children were able to confirm by weighing the cubes on weighing scales. The children then recorded this information on a chart which highlighted that there was a huge range between the lightest and heaviest. Year Three children, you are off the scale! Mr Holden Year Three Teacher
There were some great costumes on display on our Wow Day, the less said about mine the better, but hopefully on effort alone I have earned a throne in Valhalla! The children enjoyed making Viking shields, drawing Vikings, writing using runes and making their own longships. Mr Holden Year Three Teacher
SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
Year 4
European Art
Eco Reserve Trip
Our topic this term is Modern Europe and in our Art lessons we have been learning about some famous European artists, including Joan Miro and Van Gogh, and creating art in their style.
What an amazing place the Eco Reserve in Ojen is! This is a natural shelter for wildlife with preservation intentions and environmental education (and only 15 minutes outside of Marbella).
Miro was a Spanish sculptor, painter and ceramist, born in Barcelona. Miro liked art created by children and much of his work is created in a childlike style. Year Four ‘took a line for a walk’, making random shapes and patterns. They then creatively turned these shapes into works of art and filled them with block colours. Van Gogh was a Dutch artist who painted portraits and landscapes using watercolours and oil paints. Sadly, he only became so famous after his death. The children carefully created selfportraits in his style, using bold brush strokes, bright colours and many different shades of colour. Can you guess why painted the selfportraits in the photos attached to this article? I think you’ll agree, we have our own incredibly talented artists in Year Four! Miss Marseglia Year Four Teacher
Recently, Year Four have been learning about Dangers to Living Things in Science. The Eco Reserve Ojen tries to ensure the wellbeing of animals (and plants) at risk. The children enjoyed a four hour guided tour of the reserve, where they learnt about different species of plants and animals, how the reserve is protecting them and how changes to the local environment can have many knock-on consequences to living things. It was inspiring to see so many beautiful wild animals, such as deer, boar and goats, roaming free in a protected environment and unafraid to come up to humans for some food and stroke. Amazing! Thank you to Nataliya (David’s mother) for recommending this incredible place to us. Miss Marseglia Year Four Teacher
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Year 5
The Piano As part of their narrative unit, Year Five studied the short film The Piano by Aidan Gibbons. The piano tells the story of an old man idly playing beautiful music on a piano in an empty hall. The film follows flashbacks of the man’s life; being visited by his late wife, to his time spent as a soldier fighting during the war and when he was a young boy. Year Five studied the plot, setting and characters of the film throughout the week and completed a written narrative as part of their big write. As there is no dialogue, the children had to use their imagination and create the story from their own perspective. Year Five also studied the features of narrative writing and how to create complexity to their stories: cohesive devices, powerful vocabulary and how to use speech marks in conversational texts. The children were able to understand character motivation and emotion and worked to their best ability. Amirlan produced an excellent piece of writing about the piano which won him big writer of the week! His piece on ‘The Piano’ was emotive, thought-provoking and incorporated a true representation of Amirlan’s thoughts of the story. Well done Amirlan! Miss Flanngan Junior Teacher
SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
Year 5
Stupa Trip The Enlightenment Stupa of Benalmádena is a vivid monument to the enlightened mind, a Buddhist monument for peace, prosperity, harmony of the world and an ideal place to learn, reflect, and meditate. The Stupa and its activities are directed and administered by the cultural association Asociación Cultural Karma Kagyu de Benalmádena and its spiritual guide is H.H. the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa Trinley Thaye Dorje. The Enlightenment Stupa was inaugurated on October 5th, 2003. Their actual shapes and symbolism developed for more than 2,550 years from a simple earth reliquary, once built for heroes and kings, to a high complex building expressing a profound knowledge. Stupas became a multi-purpose symbol, a real treasure of knowledge about outer and inner phenomena, the universe, the nature of our mind and the path leading to the state of full development or enli According to the Buddhist teachings there are eight different types of Tibetan Stupas. Each of them represents an important event of the historical Buddha Shakyamuni’s life story. The Enlightenment Stupa (Chang Chub Chorten in Tibetan) symbolizes the achievement of Buddha’s enlightenment, the nature of a fully awakened mind. Each of the eight different Stupa types is built according to very precise instructions where both the exact design and proportions have to be correctly followed. The Year Five pupils explored the Stupa and here is an extract from Amirlan about the trip: This week we went on a trip to the Benalmádena Stupa which is a sacred monumental building which houses things related to the religion of Buddhism and even contains Buddha’s ashes.The whole school had been learning about Buddhism and the Buddha and his enlightenment and Y5 were lucky to have this trip as an end of year treat. Firstly, after getting there we looked at the view from the cliff we were on. The views were breathtaking! We then walked around the Stupa clockwise because it is a sacred building and must always be on your right. We then entered the Stupa and the guide explained what all the drawings were on the wall and told us many facts about Buddhism, the Buddha and the Stupa. Some include:the Benalmádena Stupa is 33 metres tall and 25 metres wide, Buddhism started about 2,500 years ago and that the Buddha had not been exposed to any of life’s sins when he was growing up so he had a perfect life up until one day he went out of the city and saw the sins for the first time. He meditated under the tree of life until he was enlightened, he then taught his disciples to carry on his work and pass on his teachings and this is how we still have Buddhism today. Mrs Ladds Year Five Tutor
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Year 5
Year 5 Assembly This year there are many excited scientists in the world! The United Nations has designated 2019 as the International Year of the Periodic Table to celebrate one of the most significant achievements in science. March marked 150 years since the Russian scientist, Dmitri Mendeleev, took all of the known elements and arranged them into a table. Most of his ideas have stood the test of time, despite being conceived long before we knew much about the stuff that makes up matter. This month the Year Five pupils told the story of the development of the periodic table. Some pupils took on the role of one of the famous scientists, they explained the rule of octaves and how certain elements were given their names. We then heard from a selection of elements that make up part of the periodic table. They explained how they were discovered, some of their chemical properties and what they are used for. We then had a Chemistry show, which showcased how the beautiful colours in fireworks are created by demonstrating the colourful metal ions present in some of the elements on the periodic table. The pupils enjoyed learning about the periodic table and learnt the words to the famous song by Tom Lehrer which was very impressive! Happy 150th birthday to our beloved periodic table, long may your legacy live on and help us learn even more about the magnificent world we live in!! Mrs Ladds Year Five Tutor
SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
Year 6
Friendship Assembly Last week Year Six performed their assembly about friendship, and the difficulties that can often arise between friends and groups of friends. The week before we talked a lot about this subject. We decided that the most important skills friends need are: patience, tolerance, empathy, being aware of your feelings (however nasty they seem) and thinking before you act. Here‘s what the class thought about their assembly afterwards: Niko: Our class had an assembly a few weeks a go where everybody in the class had a role. There were four narrators and the rest had to act out a scene the had written a couple of days before the actual assembly. In the end it turned out pretty well and we were congratulated for how good it was. Paddy: I think we all acted well and we improvised when we got something wrong. Also we all spoke loud and fluently. Ella: I found it a bit hard to learn my lines in one day but I did it. I also had to be a boy which was a bit embarrassing but it was fine in the end because we had fun and that’s all that mattered. Olympia: I think It went well and I had a lot of fun and that’s all that matters and the play was funny and I spoke loud and clear so everyone could hear me! Sasha B: I remember that I had to be a mean girl and it was a bit embarrassing since I’ve never been a mean girl in the class… But everything went well and most importantly we had fun.
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Year 7
Digestion During our Algebra topic, Year Seven students learned about straight line graphs. Straight line graphs follow the equation y = mx + c where m represents the gradient and c is the y-intercept. First, the children made a table to represent the x- and y- axes and then completed this using a given equation, for example y = 3x + 4. The children picked up quickly how to substitute the x value into this equation that would give you a numerical value for the y- coordinate. For example if x = 1, that would be 3 times 1 add 4, which is 7. So, if x=1, then y=7. Therefore the coordinate would be (1, 7) which can be plotted onto a grid. This is by far the most advanced algebra the children have completed and I was very pleased with the way the children showed resilience to draw each straight line graph with precision. Well done to everyone! Here is an easy question for you to try at home: y = x + 1 x
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Remember to plot the coordinates first, then connect them with a straight line. Challenge: Complete the coordinates for quadrant 3. (All negative numbers) Mr Kuhn Middle School Maths Teacher
SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
Year 7/8 Ecology
The Key Stage 3 pupils have been working hard, learning about Ecology this term. They have researched the importance of bees for pollination, and investigated why the bee population is decreasing and ways in which we can help them. Without pollination, there are no plants, without plants, there are no producers to start the food chain. So without bees we have no food, we also looked at how toxins and pesticides, that farmers use on plants, build up within the food chain. This is called bioacculumation as toxins are not broken down, but stored in fat tissue, thus the larger the animal and the further up the food chain, the more toxins it will contain. The work of Rachel Carson, who published her book; Silent Spring in the 1962 was a pioneer for her time for the environmental movement. She informed the world of the dangers of using DDT and other insecticides on the global food chain, thus leading to the banning of DDT in many countries. As part of the topic we also visited a local rocky shoreline exploring rock pools in Mijas Costa. We measured the length of periwinkles and limpets, we measured the abiotic (nonliving) factors such as temperature and pH. We also collected the organisms that live on the rocky shore and talked about the food chains that may exist in the rock pools and how the organisms depend on each other to survive. The children respected the species that we were studying, we carefully returned all of the organisms to their natural habitat. We also picked up some litter and plastics that were left in the rock pools from previous beach users. Mrs Ladds Middle School Science Teacher
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Middle School Beach School
This month we had our first Middle School Beach School, we took the pupils to a local beach to participate in a range of academic subject areas, a new outdoor learning initiative! Pupils in Year Eight created giant models of cells, impossible to see with the naked eye using stones and shells from the beach to represent the cell organelles, they then created a range of specialised cells and explained their function in preparation for their examinations. The Year Seven students conducted an investigation into calculating speed using a formula equation. In Spanish, the children researched tourism in Marbella. They were able to interact and interview both, natives and non-natives speakers, and gathered information in Spanish using questionnaires on the paseo. The children will create a graph with the data they have gathered during their ICT lessons. In addition, Miss Aburuza’s class created a poster about the vocabulary related to the “paseo marítimo”. They annotated a panoramic photo with words in English and Spanish and they asked the public around the meaning for such places they identified. In English the pupils began a piece of creative writing, they completed a booklet of emotions and descriptions of the area in which we were studying; being able to hear and smell the sea helped stimulate their senses and really made their learning come to life. In Maths, to celebrate the end of a fantastic Maths week Mr Kuhn created a fabulous Maths maze where children had to use vocabulary associated with geometrical transformations. They guided their blind folded teammates through the maze and used key vocabulary like: 90 degrees, anti clockwise and turn. Year Five created beautiful sand jars using a variety of sand, pebbles and shells. They coloured sea water to create vibrancy and decorated their jars with a range of materials. Year Six focused on the impact of pollution to the environment by creating effective slogans using sand. Overall, the artwork produced was to a very high standard and the children thoroughly enjoyed the day! The older students had the opportunity to practise their sketching skills as year Seven & Eight produced landscapes of the sea and the beautiful surroundings of Marbella. The children practised using light and tone and depicting realistic proportions of natural objects. They used their creativity and imagination to add detail to their work, and the results were fantastic! The children enjoyed using their outdoor environment to learn and worked well in teams to complete each activity. We were commended by passers by for using our local community to teach the pupils rather than the more traditional indoor classrooms methods used all too frequently.
SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
We are lucky to have this on our doorstep and hope that this is the start of further exciting, new initiatives. Middle School Teachers
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Sport
Marvellous May This month has been a busy one for the sports department, with an athletics competition, swimming galas and a friendly football competition at Laude. Not to mention, preparations for sports day, a final basketball competition and the final Alevin game! The children have been working really hard! Benjamin Team The Benjamin team are currently in fourth place with a game in hand and the last few games to play so it is nail-biting! May has seen them win games against Las Chapas 10-3, ECOS B 4-1, Aloha 8-3 and San Pedro A 5-2! Unfortunately there was also one defeat in May which was at the hands of the San Pedro B team. So… four games to go and third place definitely up for grabs- let’s hope for a strong finish to the season! Alevin Team The Alevin team signed off their season with a brilliant, hard fought win against Costa Unida. We won the game 5-2 with the goals coming from Charlie O’Brien (2) and Adam (3), these two boys have been prolific scorers for the team this season. Well done to the whole squad for your attitude and your efforts in our first year as a team and let’s see what next year brings! Basketball Team The Basketball Team had their final games on 25th May and it was a great effort. The team has improved so much and even though the older children are mostly girls playing an established boys team, they put up a valiant effort! The younger tem played two games back to back and did a fantastic job! Miss Bruce and Mr Allen Sports Teachers
SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
Sport
Football Friendly Frenzy On Wednesday 29th May Laude School invited 21 Year Three and Four children to compete in a friendly competition. Two boys teams and one girls team competed against Laude in a fun-filled event. The girls were extremely impressive, beating two Laude girl`s teams! It was so lovely for the girls to get the chance to demonstrate their talents. Ava J was an amazing captain, organizing and motivating her team. David and Sam also led their teams well through the warm ups and games. We are so pleased to be invited to these friendly competition and are looking forward to more in the future. Miss Bruce PE Teacher
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Special Event
St Anthony’s Athletics Competition On 2nd May, 20 children from Year Three to Year Six were selected to represent their school in an athletics competition at St Anthony`s school. The children had a fantastic day and were a credit to the school. It was particularly pleasing to see the older children supporting the younger members of the team. Most impressive was Jude Brockie`s performance on the 10 x 10 shuttle race, where his time of 28 seconds was the second fastest in the whole tournament (out of 120 children!). A huge thank you to all the children who represented the school, we are extremely proud of you all. Kind Regards, Miss Bruce and Mr Allen Sports Teachers
SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
Special Event
Swimming Gala 2019 Once again the swimming gala turned out to be a competitive, fun event. Children from Year One to Year Eight swam for their house and accrued as many points as they could. Each gala had a different winner making the overall placements very interesting! Having taught the children for two years I am amazed at how they have progressed. They are dedicated to improving and beating their personal best times. This was demonstrated when 19 Middle School children recorded a personal best time for their swim! In Marbella, where the children spend so much time in the sea and their swimming pools I am always reassured that our children can swim well and understand water safety. This is the first gala I have attended where no children needed the use of a swimming aid to complete 20m, which is a huge achievement for the children in Year One and Year Two. The results of the gala are as follows: the winners of the Middle school gala were the Romans, the winners of the Year Three and Year Four gala were the Saxons and the Year One and Two winners were the Normans! The overall winners were the Normans with 121 points. The Vikings came in second with 113 points, the Romans were in third position with 90 points and the Saxons in fourth with 85 points. A huge well done to all the children who participated! Miss Bruce PE Teacher
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Spanish
Eat Right, Be Bright
This month, children in Year One & Year Two Spanish natives class started learning a new topic about “Healthy eating”. I took this opportunity not only to teach them new language and grammar structures but also to spread the importance of having a healthy balanced diet. This way, I made them aware that they must get all the essential vitamins, minerals and other nutrients for their own healthy growth and development. Therefore, children have learnt to identify where their daily food comes from, whether it is from an animal, vegetable (plants, trees, etc.) or mineral! For that, they created a collage using pictures from magazines which they cut and discussed with their partners. Amongst that, children practiced their oral skills by interviewing each other about their healthy eating habits. In class, they carried out a survey to find out if they had a healthy and balanced diet or not. Afterwards, they transferred that information into a short written report and they acted as nutritionists, giving advice to each other on how to improve or keep their diet. Finally, on the last week, they became analysts and they scrutinized labels and packaging of both healthy and unhealthy food and snacks. This way, children were able to identify the main ingredients as well as the expiry date, deciding then whether they could be eaten or not. They also recognised that despite some food being classified as “healthy”, their ingredients weren’t as healthy as they looked. All in all, I very pleased with the amount of thinking, self-disciple and engagement that children have put into every lesson of this unit. I look forward for them to apply this new learning into their everyday lifestyle. Miss Escribano Spanish Teacher
SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
Music
Friday Afternoon Musical Performance This term has seen a new initiative in the form of al fresco musical performances on Friday afternoons. With over 80 children at BISM learning an instrument at school, it has been lovely to be able to showcase some of them who have finished learning a piece and feel confident enough to perform. Felix kicked off things with some truly dynamic and complex drumming – playing Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ and Snarky Puppy’s ‘Shofukan’, and Emma and Aggie played a sensitive rendition of ‘Scarborough Fair’ on the clarinet and Saxophone. David in Year Four – our winner of the Lower School Talent Show last term – blasted his guitar out to Metallica’s ‘Unforgiven’ It’s been a great experience for our students to perform in a familiar and informal environment, and parents and children together have really enjoyed being able to share the enjoyment clearly displayed by the musicians themselves! There’ll be more performances in the future! Miss Conlan Lower School Music Teacher Mr Everist Middle School Music Teacher
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Special Event
Non-Core Opening Morning
This past month we held our annual Lower School and Middle School non-core subjects open morning. It is the third time this year we have held an open morning focussing on different aspects of the curriculum. It was amazing to see such an impressive turnout, proving the care that you have for your children’s education. We believe here at BISM we deliver an unrivalled outstanding level of education promoting fundamental values that children can take with them for the rest of their lives. This is why we love to invite you, the parents, to school to witness in person what your children are exposed to every day. Not only is the quality of the education very important but our relationship that we have formed and harnessed as a school together with you, the parent body. We believe that we are very inclusive and enjoy inviting you to school as often as possible. The children also enjoy seeing you in the classroom, sharing their learning and the progress that they make. They are very proud of their work and want to make that connection from school to home with you. Working closely together we can achieve great things with your children. Mr Thomas Lower School Leader
SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
Special Event Maths Week
Maths Week is primarily about changing attitudes towards maths. This is most effectively achieved through participation in fun, interesting and challenging maths activities. The aim of this week was to show that Maths is all around us. All teachers have made sure that in all subjects throughout the week, there is somewhere a Mathematical link. So even subjects like Art, Music & Spanish, had links to an area or topic in Maths. Maths Week promotes “Maths for All” by encouraging all pupils to work harder at maths and creating awareness of the importance of maths in society. All too often we hear people say “I can’t do maths” and this leads to the mistaken belief that you have to be hardwired for maths. Or that you have a certain Maths gene that you are born with. Of course, not everyone will become a top mathematician but everyone can do better than they do and many could learn to enjoy maths if we can break the “cycle of fear” associated with the subject. The events of Maths Week are designed to present maths as interesting, challenging and rewarding – even fun! At the end of the week we all gathered in assembly to showcase the wonderful work we have done. There were truly some fantastic examples of Maths from different subjects. Here are just a few examples from each year group: -Foundation stage: The story Spinderella is all about spiders with lots of counting and different arrays of numbers in. - Year 1 conducted a survey around the school on the type of pets we have at home. They placed all their data onto Pictograms. - Year 2 have use Bar Charts to discover the different habitats of animals in Science. - Year 3 had to use Maths to decode ancient scripts in History. - Year 4 used Kandinsky’s techniques to create wonderful pieces of Art. - Year 5 have made their very own Maths Kahoot Quiz in I.T. and used measuring equipment to find out the best material to use for insulating their lunch boxes in Science. - Year 6 read the book “El Diablo De Los Numeros” and needed to unpick all the maths inside the book. - Year 7 read the book “Boy” by Roald Dahl. They investigated timelines and all the different dates that form a key part of this story. - Year 8 used Poetry to count beats/syllables and form an iambic pentameter. As you can see - Maths Really Is Everywhere! Mr Kuhn Middle School Maths Teacher
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SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
Special Event
Summer Fair 2019
This year’s summer fair literally started with a bang! The Year One samba band got proceedings underway with a brilliant performance of `I can play the samba (oh no you can´t)`. They all played a solo that they had composed themselves and played the three rhythms together simultaneously, following samba signals for start, stop, swap and break. The Year One´s were a hard act to follow, but the Year Four ukulele orchestra played in two parts and sang ´Safari´ and finished with them singing a rousing version of La Bamba while accompanying themselves on the ukulele. Not to be outdone by the lower school musicians, Year Five played Salsa Verde and Hear That Train a Comin´. They memorized these two complicated pieces and played with their ´walking fingers´. Following on from our fantastically talented musicians, Adam the Magic Man thrilled and enthralled the audience, both young and old, with a mix of tricks old and new. Stalls were abuzz with games and activities from darts to the lucky dip and glitter tattoos a plenty. Mr Holden showed off his football skills in the hugely popular Beat the Goalkeeper Shootout and Year Seven brought back their classic Beer Pong game. Polina in Year Four had a lucky streak winning more than her fair share of prizes at the raffle and fun and games were had by all. A big thank you as usual to our EFC especially Mel on the bar and Ana on the cake stall. All in all it was a very summery start to a very summery fair raising 1555€ for our chosen charity Hogar Betania. The proceeds raised will be put towards renovating the kitchen facilities at the hogar. Thank you for your help and support as usual. Emma Watkins Head of Administration Victoria Conlan Lower School Music Teacher
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SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
E-Safety
Internet Safety with a Key Stage 1 Focus Uses: There are lots of interesting activities you can do online. Some websites help you learn new things. Some websites have exciting games to play.This month I wanted to share some tips for staying safe while using the Internet for some of our younger children. The following is an excerpt from an article you can read and discuss with your child at home. It comes from the Espresso website, which is a site for schools for which we have a subscription. Questions you can ask your child: Do you enjoy playing games on a computer? Do you use a computer to find out information? You can use your computer for lots of fun things. Some of the things you do will be on the internet. You can email or chat to your family and friends. Staying safe: But not everything on the internet is for children. Some websites are just for grown-ups. Ask an adult if you want to visit a website. They will be able to check if it’s suitable for you. Advice: It’s important to keep yourself safe when you use the internet. There are rules you can follow to help you remember what to do. School rules help keep you safe when you’re at school. These rules will help keep you safe on the computer.
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SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
Rules: Always ask a grown-up before you use the internet. Don’t chat or send pictures to people you don’t know. Don’t tell anyone your address, school or phone number. Tell a grown-up if you feel scared or unhappy about anything. Should you wish to discuss anything salient that arises from these discussions, please feel free to speak with myself or your child’s class teacher. Mr Herron Deputy Headteacher
SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
Picture News
Who Fancies a Happy Meal? We’ve all been there, some of us more often than we’d care to admit. Love them or loathe them, McDonalds are a huge multinational and this month’s story concerns a new initiative they have introduced in a bid to reduce plastic. As you know, here at BISM, we have become much more aware of our impact on the environment and introduced a number of measures to reduce the waste we create. Read through the story with your child, there are questions for you to consider and discuss afterwards. McDonald’s is being called on to stop its introduction of paper straws in the UK, amidst claims that they dissolve in drinks. The restaurant is switching from plastic to paper straws at all of their 1,361 restaurants after customer pressure. An online petition calling for a return to plastic straws has so far gathered more than 40,000 signatures. McDonald’s have said they are “doing the right thing” while some customers feel that their needs should be considered. Petition creator Martin Reed started it a week ago, complaining the new paper straws dissolve as you drink through them. Many social media users agree, with some claiming paper straws are “horrible” while one says it is like “drinking a milkshake through an empty toilet roll tube”.
Should McDonald’s have banned plastic straws?
Read through the information and talk about our own experiences of plastic and paper straws. Do we notice the difference? Do we think it’s a big inconvenience to use paper over plastic? We use an estimated 8.5 billion plastic straws every year in the UK. They’re among the top 10 items found in beach clean-ups and it’s estimated that they take up to 500 years to decompose as most straws are made from plastics called polypropylene and polystyrene. Do you think more needs to be done to reduce this excessive use? Do you think we should try other kinds of straws i.e. papaya leaf stems, bamboo, wheat (a straw straw!), biodegradable straws. Some people argue that silicone straws could be an alternative because they produce 9 times less greenhouse gases, so they are a more sustainable choice. What about stainless- steel straws? Discuss the pros and cons of each. Can there ever be something to suit everyone and satisfy environmental concerns. Do you think we need to use straws when we buy takeaway drinks? Can you think of any alternatives to this disposable culture? E.g. should we carry around reusable containers to use when purchasing drinks?
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SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
Some people have taken to online selling sites such as eBay to sell plastic straws collected before they were banned at a very high premium. What do you think of this idea and would you ever consider buying these straws? Why might people choose to buy them? The petition website 38 Degrees host the petition entitled “Bring back McDonald’s Straws’. Below the petition, 38 degrees have posted the following statement, ‘This petition has been started by a member of the public and not 38 Degrees. Single use “throw away” plastic items like straws, cups and bottles have a huge impact on our environment, they clog up our oceans and polluting our countryside. If you disagree with this petition and you’d like to sign the petition calling for an end to plastic straws, you can do so here (link to another petition).’ Why do you think they have felt the need to write this? What do you think McDonald’s motive was in changing their straws from plastic to paper? Do you think people will adapt to the paper straws or do you think there’s a chance McDonald’s will revert to the plastic straws? Please do share with us, or encourage your child to do so,any interesting conversations you have regarding this story. Mr Herron Deputy Headteacher
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