Secondary Newsletter May 2012 English

M AY 201 2

T H E S E C O N D A RY N E W S L E T T E R Secondary News from the Pupils and Teachers of The British School of Alicante

Race Against Hunger

He ad o f S e c on d ary Me s s a g e The end of a school year is characterised by examinations, but as I write this, I am reminded that education must never be confused with examination. Kings College, Alicante should not be measured in A or A* grades. Our education is all about drawing the best out of individuals; about the provision of opportunity and the setting of challenges to seize those opportunities.

Make no mistake; this College is a special community. With only a short time left before I leave and take up my new position in Dubai, I am conscious of the support and goodwill that comes from so many of our extended family both in and

beyond the College, and I am grateful beyond expression. I therefore leave with a word of thanks to you all: the pupils, the parents and staff of Kings College. You are the reason that I continue to enjoy coming to work every morning - the reason that I feel proud and privileged to have been a teacher of this outstanding College.

Stephen Green Head of Secondary

HEAD GIRL & HEAD BOY Congratulations to Verena Oetzmann and Craig Laidlaw who have been elected to the posts of Head Girl and Head Boy for session 2012 - 2013.

The election process involved all secondary staff and Year 12 pupils voting for their nominations, followed by an interview for the 4 girls and 4 boys who received most votes. Mr Green, Mr Wicks and Sr Esteban conducted the interviews and made the appointments including the following 6th Form Committee posts : Claudia Pastor (Deputy Head Girl), Juan Sirvent (Deputy Head Boy) , Maria Molina, Marta Signes and Victor DÁmore. We will be inviting further nominations for the remaining Committee posts in September. I would like to thank all the students who put their name forward for posts of responsibility and look forward to working with them to develop their leadership skills and their contributions to school life. These posts play an important role in the personal development of students towards Further Education and life after school and also afford the opportunity to contribute meaningfully to the school community as role models. I wish them well in their new posts.

DOUBLE FIRST FOR ALEX AND EMMA On Saturday May 19th, brother and sister Alex(Y9) and Emma (Y5) played in the final of the Tennis Table “Juegos Escolares Municipales”. This competition, which takes place over 10 Saturdays from November to May, involves children from all schools in Alicante. Alex finished first in his category (“Infantil” 13-14 years old) and Emma also finished first in her Category(“Girls”).

We are delighted for both Alex and Emma and congratulate them on their wonderful achievements.

INTER SCHOOL

COMPETITION During May, we sent almost 60 pupils to our sister school in Murcia to play a series of football matches against them. Girls and boys, primary and secondary teams all competed well and as we await confirmation of results it looks like we won more than we lost! Thank you to Mr Dexter, Mrs Rose and Mr Green for helping with the teams.

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RACE AGAINST HUNGER Primary and Secondary pupils are taking part in our 2nd day of Race against Hunger. Thank you to all pupils and staff who took part and to parents and staff who supported this worthwhile event, particularly Mr Roberts and Miss Parry. Congratulations to Takuma and Miss Wood who completed 21 and 18 circuits respectively.

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TRIP TO

CARTAGENA

Year 9 Historians have been on a visit to Cartagena as part of their work in History and Sociales. This city has a wealth of history and gives students an overview from the Romanic period to the era of the Civil War. Firstly we visited the Roman Theatre to learn how the theatre was for everyone and even food and drink were free. We were also taught that every time there was a new Emperor they simply changed the head on the Emperor´s statue. The girls also gave an interesting dance performance on the stage. We then headed to the castle to get an aerial view of Cartagena and to learn about its development. Finally we vistited the Civil War air raid shelter to learn about life during this period. We were told an interesting recipe for a tortilla involving orange pith and water, due to potato and egg shortages.

Back in the classroom we will be following this up with oral history projects and further work on Cartagena. The students were excellent and did an amazing job of noting down the huge amount of information the guide gave us.

INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS INSPECTORATE (ISI) We have now received our report from ISI following our recent 6 day inspection.

You should also have received a copy by e mail. I am immensely proud of the pupils and staff and the many excellent comments and plaudits in the report are well deserved. I am also very grateful for the continued support we receive from parents. As a school community we can be very proud of what we have achieved.

Our formal recognition from ISI as an ´Excellent´ school is further enhanced by the many congratulations I have received from distinguished educationalists around the globe who have described our report as ´One of the best I have ever read´, ´Without doubt it is amongst the best school reports written´ and ´Outstanding success´. This clearly puts us amongst the very top British Schools Overseas and Independent UK Schools and constitutes a marvellous accolade for our school and for King´s Group in general. I hope you will enjoy reading it as much as I did!

DOWNLOAD ISI REPORT

Important Dates International Award Adventure Days – 4/5/8/9 June Diamond Jubilee Celebrations in School – 5th June Year 11 Trip to Murcia – 6th June Year 8 Granada Trip 11th – 15th June Year 10 Activity Trip: Snorkel Safari – 19th June Prize Giving Ceremony 2012 - 19th June Last Day of Term - 22nd June Open Day: Parent Meetings - 26th June First Day of Term - 5th September

Glorieta del Reino Unido 5 Alicante 03008 Spain www.bsalicante.com info@kingsgroup.org