BSM Newsletter

The British School of Marbella

ISSUE 1 School Newsletter #10

NEWSLETTER A Newsletter for Parents, Students and Friends of our School June 2016

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School Newsletter

Headteacher’s Message Mystery At Magpie Manor The Highlight In Final Month Of Year Dear Parents and Students, I can’t quite believe that this is the last newsletter of the year. This year has flown by so quickly, but it’s true what they say, time flies when you are having fun and this year we have certainly had lots of that with the month of June being no exception.

The month started with competitive water sports during the Primary Swimming Gala and the FS Splash Day. The Primary children impressed us all with the progress they have made in swimming this year, their technique and stamina were super. During the Splash Day, the FS children had lots of fun squirting water at each other and the teachers while earning points for their house. Well done children, once again you made us proud with your determination and sportsmanship.

FS Daddies had a special morning when they were invited into school for the children to say ‘thank you’ for all they do in celebration of UK Father’s Day. Armed with doughnuts and juice, the children presented cards and presents after singing Bony-M’s ‘Daddy Cool’. It was great to see so many Dads taking time out of their busy day to make the event such a success.

The highlight of the month, however, was the KS2/3 Production, ‘Mystery at Magpie Manor’. It was wonderful to see all the children playing to their strengths. The acting, singing and dancing were amazing but I was particularly impressed with the music. The children provided most of the music – every time I looked up a different child was on the piano or drums and the Year Three rock band did an amazing rendition of ‘Shake Your Tail Feather’ that Ray Charles himself would have been proud of. It was a great show that was both funny and entertaining. Well done, children and congratulations to Mr. Rumsey and his team for organising such a successful production.

The production was our last fund raising event of the year. I am extremely proud to inform you that this year we have raised 4936.27€ for The Palmira Association, supporting the Syrian refugee crisis.

Thank you so much for your generosity all year round for such a worthy cause.

As always, the year ended with our annual Speech Day. The Reception graduated into Primary and the Year Six children graduated into Secondary. As always, it was a very special occasion with a few laughs and a few tears but lots of smiles and well wishes for the summer. Congratulations to all the children that earned a prize; a Speech Day prize is a very prestigious award, you should be very proud of yourself.

Wishing you all a safe, relaxing summer break and I look forward to welcoming you back in September.

With very best wishes, Sian Kirkham - Head Teacher

School Newsletter

Pre-Nursery Terrific Transport!

The children in Pre-Nursery have been looking at different modes of transport. They have all joined in with discussions about which ones they have used and what their favourite is. The children have helped sort the different types of transport into whether it moves on the water, in the air, or on the road.

The children had lots of fun pretending to go to many different places in our pretend car. They took it in turns to role-play driving and say where they were going. The children then helped to create their own aeroplane. The passengers had to hand over their tickets before boarding the plane. An air steward offered refreshments to the thirsty and hungry passengers, while the pilot had lots of fun making announcements, asking the passengers to put on their seat belts.

Mrs Franks Pre-Nursery Teacher

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Pre-Nursery

Pre Nursery Speech day

The children in Pre-Nursery had a fantastic time celebrating their achievements from throughout the year with their families and they received their certificates with pride. Their parents could not stop smiling with joy and happiness, as they watched a short clip of the children growing and progressing throughout the year. Everyone was surprised at how much the children had grown and changed, they all looked so much more grown up now than at the start of the year.

The children performed ‘Hop Little Bunny’, where they showed their parents their dancing and singing skills, as well as demonstrating how their confidence and stage presence has grown.

A fantastic way to end the year!

Mrs Franks Pre-Nursery Teacher

School Newsletter

Nursery

Public speaking in Nursery

Step aside Martin Luther King, Winston Churchill and Frank Roosevelt - we have a new generation of public speakers here at BSM! The children have presented their holiday plans to the class in a clear and confident manner and made all of the teachers very proud in the Nursery Class.

Since September, we have had a strong focus on communication and language. The children’s progress has been excellent, with some children starting without speaking much or without having had any previous knowledge of English language, to now having an increasing vocabulary, understanding of tense and confidence to express themselves to an audience. We were especially impressed to see how confident the children were when standing in front of their classmates and teachers and how attentively they listened to each other. The children even participated in a ‘question and answer’ session after their speech. Well done Nursery children, you are ready for an exciting year in Reception. We cannot wait to see you go from strength to strength next year!

Miss Varty -Nursery Teacher

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Reception

Reception Graduation I want to be a goalkeeper when I grow up. I want to be a taekwondo teacher. I want to be a doctor.

I want to be a police officer.

These are just some of the occupations the wonderful children of the Reception class graduating from Foundation Stage into Primary School want to do when they are older, as they so brilliantly demonstrated as part of our Speech Day on Thursday 30th June.

Following their excellent efforts using the technique of call and response to the song “I can”, each Reception child told the suitably impressed parents about their dream job when they are older. Obviously some of the children´s dreams and desires might change in the years ahead, as the children grow and develop, but as the call and response goes, we know they can be whatever they want to be if they work hard at it!

Mr Holden Reception Teacher

School Newsletter

FS Splash Day

Going Out With A Splash!

The Foundation Stage children loved making a splash this June in a fun, active and very soggy Splash Day! The children participated in a variety of water based activities, including hitting targets and ducks, playing with sea creatures in small pools, splashing around in a larger pool and, of course, making sure their friends were soaking wet! The Foundation Stage staff were very impressed with how sensibly the children played; they were respectful of their friends if they did not want to be splashed and they were careful when getting dry to walk to the classroom safely. Each class had a different approach to using water to have fun.

The Reception children loved using the pistols to work on their precision skills to hit the targets for points, the Nursery children loved splashing around in the pool and singing and dancing in the water and the Pre-Nursery class were a little unsure at first, but once they became more comfortable, they loved playing with the sea creatures. One thing each class enjoyed as much as the other was chasing and splashing their teachers! The morning was a great success and it was fantastic to see all of the children having so much fun. Now it´s time to dive into the Summer holidays!

Miss Varty Nursery Teacher

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Transition Morning The children had the opportunity this month to have a glimpse into what school life will be like next year when they move up a year. Where possible, the children spent a couple of hours in their new classroom with their new teacher. The teachers and assistants that are not yet here sent presentations to share with the children, as well as introduction letters to share with parents. The children enjoyed their look into the future and are excited about next year.

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Y1 Lovely London

This month in Year One, we have had lots of fun learning about our topic, the United Kingdom. We enjoyed finding out about the different countries of the United Kingdom and about the Royal Family. We were also very interested to learn about the capital of England, London. We found out about some of the landmarks of London through a story, ‘Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat,’ based on a rhyme from the 16th Century. We then used the story as inspiration to create an image of London at sunset. We used watercolours to create our sunset backgrounds and then made our own silhouettes of different London landmarks and, of course, the cat from the story! The finished result looks beautiful!

We’ve had an amazing year, with too many highlights to name. Thank you to all of the parents for all of your support this year. Have a great summer and I look forward to seeing you all in September. Good luck to all of the children as they go up into Year 2!

Miss Armstrong Year One Class Teacher

School Newsletter

Y2

It´s a Puppet!

Year Two have loved making their nocturnal animal puppets! Over several weeks they have diligently learned to sew and carefully added detail to their individual designs. They then decided whether to keep it as a puppet or make it into a soft toy to play with. I was impressed with their resilience and some of them even learned a trick to thread their needle! I hope they have fun with them at home!

Miss Bruce Year Two Teacher

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Y3

Going Back In Time On 24th June 2016, Year 3 opened the time capsules we sealed way back in September 2015. We were quite surprised with some of our September facts and opinions!

Felicity and Jasmine had each grown 9cm, as in September they measured 1.29m and now they measure 1.38m. David just pipped them at the post, having sprouted 10 cm in 10 months, now measuring a whopping 1.47cm!

We thought that our spellings have improved a LOT. The children who joined the school with little English in September were amazed at how much their English has improved. Some of the children´s favourite foods have changed completely. Baran listed salmon as a favourite in September but now prefers anything but!

And everyone agreed that our self-portraits are much better these days, following our portraiture classes with Ms Kirkham! I wonder how much will change in Year 4!

Mrs Ower Year 3 Teacher

School Newsletter

Y4

A Final ‘Hair-Raising’ Month The final month of Year 4 has been packed with different events, which have demonstrated just how much the children have grown and developed this year.

Their swimming skills in the Swimming Gala showed just how competent they are in the pool and how much their skills have progressed since September.

They worked together well to raise over 80 Euros in the Summer Fair and had a ‘hair-raising’ and ‘shocking’ time when a group of educational scientists came to the classroom to teach them about static electricity.

I have also been pleased to see how well the children have learnt their words, dances and songs for the end of year production. We definitely have a lot of artistic talent in this year group.

Mr Rumsey Year Four Teacher

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Y4/5 Pizza Perfection Year 4b5 and Year 6/ 7 have been working hard and improving their behavior towards the end of this term and as a result have earned over 1500 class dojos!

For their final Dojo treat Miss Fry, Mr Palmentieri and Mrs Toro surprised the class by taking them to an Italian Pizza restaurant for lunch.

The children had a selection of pizzas to choose from and a drink of their choice. They were very happy and excited to be there but also incredibly well behaved. Well done children, you deserved this lovely prize. Thank you for trying your best!

Miss Fry Year 4b5 Teacher

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Y6/7 Potty about Greek Pots As part of their topic on Ancient Greece, the children made Greek style pots using paper mache during Art. First, they had to shape pieces of card and stick them to an inflated balloon to create the correct shape. Then, they layered paper over a period of three weeks. Once dried, they printed them using Greek patterns. Well done children, super job!

Ms. Kirkham Head Teacher

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Splash Day Games The Primary school children had a great last full day at school with half of it spent getting soaking wet! The Year 6/7 children did a great job of leading the event. First they split the each class into 2 teams. Then they led several different games.

Game 1 was the Bucket Race. The children ran with a bucket full of water around a cone and passed it back to their next team member. The teams with the most water left in their buckets at the end were the winners.

Game 2 was called shoot the ducks. Teams took turns to pass the water gun amongst themselves and try and shoot the ducks off the table as many times as possible in 2 minutes. The team that shot the most ducks off in 2 minutes were the winners and won 2 buckets of water for their team during water fight!

In Game, the children had to race to the cone carrying a water balloon on a spoon and drop it in a bucket. The more balloons the team earned the more they had to use in the water fight at the end.

Game 4 was called High and Low. Children stood in a line and passed a bucket of water over their heads to the next person, they then ran to the front. Next the person that received the bucket then passed it through their legs and ran to front of the line. The team that made it to the other side of the playground the quickest won.

In the Final Game, the children finally got to have a WATER FIGHT! The children needed to remain in their teams on their directed side of the barrier. They could then throw balloons and shoot their pistols at the opposing team for 5 minutes. And the soggiest team were the losers!

It was a great event and a huge success thank you so much to Claudia, Eric, Lana and Nikoleta for excellent organisation.

Miss Fry Year 4b5 Teacher

Swimming Gala 2016 On Wednesday 1st June, children from Y1 to Year 7 took part in our annual Swimming Gala.

Competing in their houses, the children swam in a variety of races to include front crawl, backstroke, breaststroke and relays.

The children’s swimming skills and stamina have improved greatly since last year, although their diving skills still need a little more work. Well done everyone, a super effort was made by all.

Congratulations to the Saxons who came first overall followed by the Romans in second, the Vikings in third and the Normans in fourth place. A big thank you to all the staff, it was a great team effort that allowed the event to run smoothly and successfully.

School Newsletter

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KS2-3 Production Mystery At Magpie Manor

This year the KS2 and 3 production contained a mix of everything - acting, singing, dancing and live musical performances. All of the children were involved in a myriad of ways to bring the story of Magpie Manor to life.

The owners of Magpie Manor, the Pica family, had hit hard times and were under threat of having to auction off a family heirloom.

Lord and Lady Pica (played confidently by Andrey Berzin and Lana Sizova) gathered their extended family together to tell them the devastating news. Mr Fortune (Eric Karpets) from the bank, was at hand with his two clownish assistants Scribble and Blot (Lola Martin and Sienna Boylan) and a plan was devised in which a ball would be held and the famous ‘Pica Pica Solid Silver Pitcher with the Magpie Pitcher’ would be auctioned off to the highest bidder.

Inspector Spector (Lucas Hollingshead) was employed to monitor the security and take care of the pitcher. However, during the ball, attended by the likes of David Beckham, Donald Trump and the Queen of England, the pitcher was stolen from the safe.

During the investigation that ensued J.K. Rowling (Baran Moshrefzadeh) was able to deduce that Inspector Spector was an imposter and was actually Percy Pica who had returned to steal the pitcher and claim Magpie Manor for himself. Grandmama Pica (comically played by Emma Gabarron) had had her suspicions about the inspector from the beginning!

Luckily though, Magpie Mac (Leo Farfan) announced the return of the magpies to the manor, recalling an ancient myth guaranteeing

a happy ending for the Pica family.

All of the children worked really hard on the production, demonstrating the wealth of artistic and creative talent that is evident at BSM. With acting, dancing, singing and playing musical instruments, it truly was an ensemble production.

Whilst all of the children were stars, there were two in particular who shone very brightly! Lola Martin and Sienna Boylan revealed their great dramatic and singing talents and had fantastic comic timing as a duo. Future stars for the West End of London? Watch this space!

Mr Rumsey Year Four Teacher

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School Newsletter

Music Doughnuts for Daddies Well done to all the children who sang a wonderful version of `Daddy Cool´ in the celebration of Father’s Day on Friday 17th June. It was great to see so many children singing and dancing for their Daddies - and accompanied by staff members. Excellent work done by all the Foundation Stage. Well done!

Speech Day Preparations The rehearsals have been in full swing for BSM´s Speech Day on Thursday 30th June. The performances consisted of this year’s highlights and a celebration of the wonderful singing that the children have been involved in. We hope you enjoyed it!

KS2 Musical Production Wow, what a production! All the hard work paid off, with a dress rehearsal for KS1 and FS, followed by two amazing performances with great support from the parents. There were 7 songs performed in the production, which included whole group, solo and duet performances.

It was great to see such a combination of talent, with every student taking part with either acting, singing, dancing or playing instruments. Some children even multi-tasked by combining two or three different skills in the same production.

Well done!

Finally, we would just like to say a BIG well done to all students for their efforts in Music this year.

All children have progressed and developed with either their singing, instrumental work or both and we look forward to a very successful and musical year next year. See you in September!

Music Department

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Music Record Amount Raised For Charity

This year, BSM raised a staggering 4936.37€ for Palmira Association, supporting Syrian refugees. All of our events this year have contributed to this staggering amount to include the Peace Festival, Art Exhibition, Concerts, Productions and Fairs, to name but a few.

Thank you to our staff and parents for their efforts and generosity; you should be very proud of yourselves raising such a huge amount for a people in a desperate situation.

Doughnuts for Daddies At BSM we know what an important role fathers play in children’s lives and so on Friday 17th June, we invited the Dads in to school so that we could to celebrate with them. All the children in the Foundation Stage performed Boney M´s 1976 hit “Daddy Cool” before presenting their Dads with gifts they had made in the classroom and enjoying a juice and doughnut together!

The lovely morning finished with a much requested encore of Daddy Cool and our Daddies Cool headed out into the Marbella sunshine full of pride in their little ones!

Mr Holden Reception Teacher

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House Cup Winners The children have worked hard all year, earning house points for their efforts along the way. Please find below the total house points earned this year: • • • •

Saxons - 10018 points Romans - 9198 points Vikings - 9024 points Normans- 8890 points

Congratulations to the Saxons, a fantastic score that you should all be very proud of!

School Newsletter

Speech Day The academic year came to a very special end with Speech Day. Firstly, the Foundation Stage came together to review the highlights of the year and award children who achieved exceptionally well in various areas of the curriculum. The Reception children then graduated into the Primary school. There were a few tears in the audience as the children said ‘goodbye’ to the Foundation Stage as they continue their journey into the Primary years.

This was followed by the Primary Speech Day, where again children were awarded certificates for outstanding achievements. The music throughout both events was very impressive, particularly the performance by the choir which led to many parents commenting on how impressed they were.

It was a wonderful event to end another great year at The British School of Marbella.

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Back To School Next year, we will be starting the new term slightly differently. Please be aware that on Wednesday 31st August at 3pm there will be a Curriculum Evening as normal. Then on Thursday 1st September, rather than the children starting school, there will be Parent Teacher Consultations (PTC) where parents and children are invited to meet with their new teacher individually. Please sign up for your PTC while in school for the Curriculum Evening on the Wednesday. All children will then start school on Friday the 2nd September for a settling in day before launching into the curriculum on Monday 5th September.

BSM Highlights

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