ISSUE SCHOOL NEWSLETTER #111
T h e Br it ish I n te r n a ti o n a l S ch o o l o f N av a r r a
NEWSLETTER A newsletter for parents, students and friends of our school
2017 - 2018
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SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
Headmaster’s Message Dear Readers, I trust you and your family had a good break and that 2017 is a prosperous year. December saw Early Years and KS1 performing Christmas plays and KS3 & 4 singing carols through the streets of Pamplona’s old town. There were visits to nativity and Human Body exhibitions and the House competition was a general knowledge quiz. Due to the wonderful generosity of the parents and the wider BSN community, we had a spectacular Charity Christmas Fair that raised 1700€ for Xilema, bringing the total we have donated to over 2200€ this academic year. At the beginning of January a pharmacist spoke to the Secondary children regarding medical careers, how medicines work and studying at the University of Navarra. We also held two very well attended parent-teacher consultation evenings and the younger children visited the famous Navarre Giants and Big Heads. For photos and more detail please see the articles below. James Batten Headmaster
SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
Pre-Nursery The Pre-Nursery foxes had a wonderful build up to Christmas with lots of exciting arts and crafts, dressing up, singing and to top it off an amazing early years Christmas play. The Play was called ‘The Smallest Christmas Tree’ and it was a big hit. The children practiced hard and put on a great show on for their families. To finish off Christmas, the children were visited by someone very special...Santa! The Pre-Nursery Foxes were delighted to be back in January. They told us about all the presents they received from Santa. Our first topic to start the New Year was ‘winter’. The children sang winter songs and enjoyed doing winter activities such as making penguins, polar bears and owls using paints and different materials. What a great start to the New Year. Mr Nathan and Ms Caroline
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Nursery December was a very exciting month. We worked very hard practising nearly everyday for our Christmas Production, ‘The littlest Christmas Tree’. The children did an amazing job in the play and we could not be more proud of them. On the last day of school we had a very special surprise, Santa came to visit us and he gave us a present! We started January full of energy and willing to learn a lot. This month we have been learning all about winter: what to wear in a cold day, hibernation and arctic animals. We learned a very long winter song and we sang it for everyone in assembly. The children used their big voices and amazed everyone with their performance. We have also made winter crafts and learned about patterns. To understand what a pattern is we used ourselves to create human patterns, which the children loved it and got the concept quickly.
SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
Reception December and January brought on lots of new and exciting activities for the Reception Dolphins. In December, we spent a lot of time practicing for our Christmas Production The Littlest Christmas Tree, which was an excellent production and effort put in by the children! We also had a visit from Santa and wrapped presents, like Santa´s elves, in the role play area. In January we continued to learn new sounds and started to use the sounds we know to write words, for example “z-i-p”. We also focused on ordering different sizes, measuring, number recognition and began addition of single digit numbers. We have been learning about winter and about how ice melts and freezes. We have started climbing, balancing and jumping during p.e., which involves completing a circuit using the gymnastics equipment. We also went to the Belenes and Gigantes and learnt all about the Giants, kilikis and the Cabezudos!
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SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
Year 1
Lots of Fun in Year 1!
December and January brought lots of new and exciting activities for the Reception Dolphins. In December, we spent a lot of time practicing for our Christmas production, ‘The Littlest Christmas Tree’, which was excellent and a great effort by the children. We also had a visit from Santa and wrapped presents like Santa’s elves in the role play area. In January we continued to learn new sounds and started to use the sounds we know to write words, for example “z-i-p”. We also focused on ordering different sizes, measuring, number recognition and began addition of single digit numbers. We have been learning about winter and about how ice melts and freezes. We have started climbing, balancing and jumping during p.e., which involves completing a circuit using the gymnastics equipment. We also went to the Belenes and Gigantes and learnt all about the Giants, kilikis and the Cabezudos.
SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
Year 2 I hope you all had an enjoyable and peaceful holiday. As you would expect in December, we performed the story of the first Christmas to an enthusiastic audience of parents and extended families. All the children in Year 2 had a speaking part and spoke loudly and clearly so everyone could enjoy the show. In the classroom we decorated a tree together and made cards, envelopes, wrapping paper and, of course, a present for the parents. December is always very busy for the teachers and very exciting for the children. The children in Year 2 have recently got very enthusiastic about Maths because they have been able to calculate with numbers beyond one hundred, using practical apparatus. Some children came into school and asked to do ‘some more of that fun Maths’. Children that have only just been able to recognise and order numbers to 50 could suddenly add, multiply, subtract and even divide. It was great to watch and I hope that the unexpected visitor (the inspector) to the classroom was equally impressed.
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SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
Year 3
Happy New Year We hope everyone had a lovely winter break and has had a great start back to 2017 so far! We had a busy December and one highlight for Year 3 was making a shadow puppet theatre and show as part of our Science topic ´Light & Shadows´. We had good fun making shadows on a white screen and learned how to make shadows bigger or smaller. We also wrote interesting letters to Santa Claus, learning how to layout a letter correctly. We enjoyed carol singing around the streets of Pamplona and finally had a lovely day making Christmas crafts and having a Key Stage 2 cinema afternoon. Returning to school in January we got straight back down to work. We read Fantastic Mr Fox by Roald Dahl and wrote our own stories using this one as our inspiration. We started our new Integrated Curriculum topic of the Anglo-Saxons and created an Anglo-Saxon village, complete with a river, mountain, houses and animals! In Science we have started to explore forces and magnets and in Maths we have worked on addition and subtraction as well as measuring using millimetres, centimetres and metres. In English we are currently studying a book called ´The Ink Garden of Brother Theophane´. It is very interesting to see how dyes used to be made using different plants. We are hopefully going to make our own dyes and colour a piece of cloth, fingers crossed it´s only the cloth that gets stained with the dye!
SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
Year 4
Holiday Greetings from Year 4! We are full of the seasonal spirit this month in Year 4 and we have had lots of opportunities to celebrate the upcoming holidays. We started off the festivities with a special visit from ‘Mozart’, giving a very entertaining explanation about opera. Next we had a huge glass of hot chocolate to warm our cockles before we ventured out into the chilly city for some wonderful carol singing. We have many talented singers in the class; ‘Jingle Bells’ has never sounded better. The next day was the Christmas Fair and Year 4 showed their increasing maturity levels by helping the Secondary students to run the games stalls and supporting the younger students taking part. The children had a fun day battling it out for the Christmas House Trivia Competition. A few questions were real puzzlers and the students had fun working in their teams to figure out the correct answers. Finally, in class we had a crafting day where we were able to choose from a variety of activities and make lovely decorations to take home and hang on the tree. It’s been a great start to the year for Year 4. Here’s looking forward to next term!
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SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
Year 5
Year 7
The Christmas season was packed with fun and events and the children were really excited. We began December with Carol singing around Pamplona which was a great success and the children sang beautifully with many residents of Pamplona stopping their busy Christmas shopping to come and hear the singers. We painted a bare branch in white and decorated it with baubles made of string which we coated in glitter, before we finished it off with fairy lights. It turned out beautifully and we had our very own class Christmas tree. We then made miniature paper trees, which we decorated and placed at the base. We had secret Santa and the children swapped presents, both homemade and bought. ‘The Chestnut man’ came and the children queued up to enjoy roasted chestnuts handed out in paper cones in the playground. Finally we had festive films and there was a choice of the Grinch or Home Alone to watch while munching popcorn. The children picked Home Alone and I was entertained watching the children’s reactions as the robbers got creatively thwarted time after time! The children thoroughly enjoyed the Christmas season and we are looking forward to another great term this New Year.
Year 7 had a very busy and productive December and January. We had two very successful and thought provoking excursions. Firstly we went to the Human bodies expedition, which gave the students a real life insight into the workings of the human body. We then walked through Pamplona signing Christmas Carols which the students and public really enjoyed. We had some interesting activities within the school. We did a craft day where the students created Christmas decorations and the parents donated money to bring some decorations home. Moreover the Year 7 students created games for the Christmas fair which also raised money for charity. Lastly we have had some students who received their first accommodation award. Well done to all the students involved. It is great to see their dedication and hard work throughout the year. Well done Year 7!
SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
Year 8
Year 9 Year 9 enjoyed an exciting end to the term in December, with trips to the Human Bodies exhibition and carol singing around the city. In addition they took on responsibility for the Christmas Fair where they worked together in their houses to successfully create and organise games and activities for the younger children of the Primary school. They all put in a lot of effort to make sure fun was had by everyone. They in turn enjoyed a morning making Christmas crafts in order to raise money for charity.
It has been a busy December for Year 8. Firstly some of the students participated in a concert by playing the keyboard as we switched
on the Christmas tree lights. We visited the Human Bodies exhibition in Pamplona - the children were amazed at the workings of the human
body and just how fantastically it all fits together. We have played house football, performed an
assembly, watched a guest opera company, understood about adolescence with a guest
speaker, eaten chestnuts, been carol singing and demonstrated leadership in bringing togeth-
er the stalls for the Christmas fair. Finally, as part of the community service within the BSF award,
they organised and made crafts to raise money
for charity. I am sure you will appreciate if they say they are tired over Christmas. Well done for working so hard in such a demanding first term!
January has been somewhat quieter so far. We have had visiting pharmacists to speak to the
students about the routes they can take in University if they wish to study medicine further. More news about this term’s activities will be in the next newsletter.
January has seen the Year 9 students get back to some hard work, and broaden their abilities and experiences. They have been busy completing tasks as part of the British Schools Foundation Award in areas of Endeavour, Community Service and Global Literature, and received a talk from a guest speaker about careers in science and studying at the University of Navarra.
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SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
Music
Singing Assembly
Spanish
Poetry
Every week this year, students from Year 3 to Year 5 meet up for singing. We sing different kind of songs and we usually sing them in front of whole school on Fridays. During December we trained very hard for for singing our best Christmas Carols in the streets of Pamplona.
December was the month of poetry for Year 3 and Year 4. The famous writer from Pamplona, Ana MartĂnez, came to BSN to show us how to write poems and share with us her experience and her knowledge. The students were very excited and learnt how to compose a good poem. The talk was very interesting and they asked the writer many questions. Year 3 prepared the Haikus and Year 5 made a drawing with words. It was a pleasure for all of us to share this amazing experience with the writer.
SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
The British School of Navarra www.bsn.org.es info@bsn.org.es
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