Newsletter King’s College Alicante
GENERAL
APRIL 2014 / THIRD TERM
Grease What a show! Message from the Headteacher Welcome back, I hope you have had an enjoyable and relaxing Easter break. I was delighted to see so many happy, smiling faces today as I visited our classrooms to welcome our children and staff. I was also pleased to see our pupils looking very bright and seasonal in their summer uniforms. I am very pleased to inform you that we started work on the final phase of our secondary building plan during the Easter break. In order to accommodate our growth in secondary pupil numbers, the King´s Group Board of Governors has sanctioned an additional 4 new classrooms and a new Art Studio which will be ready to open for the new academic year in September. This is a substantial investment and one which will afford us the opportunity to consolidate and expand our secondary curriculum to meet our current and future needs. Over the past eight years, King´s Group has approved and invested significantly in expanding and enhancing our school facilities including a new Infant wing consisting of 6 classrooms , 4 secondary classrooms, an artificial grass football pitch, a futbal sala pitch, a Multi-Purpose Hall, a study centre and most recently, our new Sixth Form Common Room. As we now approach the limit of our build capacity on the current site, we are looking at future plans to enhance the remaining outdoor spaces. Another significant development this year has been the implementation of a pilot scheme in primary using iPad technology. This has been very successful and we hope to be able to build upon this in September by greatly expanding our programme in primary and at the same time initiating a similar pilot scheme in secondary. Once again, the King´s Group Board and our CEO have been instrumental in supporting, encouraging and facilitating these advancements. This term will be a very important and busy time for our pupils, none more so than our Y6, Y11 and sixth formers who will take external examinations.
Our A Level examinations started on the first day back after Easter and will continue now until the end of June. GCSE examinations and SATs are only a few weeks away and it is vital that our pupils have access to their teachers for as many days as possible before they take their exams. It is equally important for Y11 and sixth formers, that you support and encourage your children through these examination periods by helping them to follow regular and effective study times at home balanced with some ´down time´ to relax and re-charge their batteries. Something which often goes overlooked at this time is the importance of healthy eating and getting plenty of sleep; it is not advisable for pupils to study late into the night and it is beneficial for them to eat healthily and to re-hydrate especially in the warm weather. I urge you to work with the teachers to ensure these good habits are followed by pupils at home as well as in school in order for them to perform at their highest level in their examinations. This term, once again, King´s College Alicante will be a hive of activity both academically and non-academically with many exciting events, trips and activities planned. As teachers, we are indeed privileged to be part of such happy and rewarding times with our pupils and I look forward to sharing these with you over the coming weeks.
Mr D Laidlaw MA NPQH DipTMus Head teacher
Action Against Hunger runs life-saving programmes in over 45 countries which benefit seven million people each year. On Friday 4th April we raced to raise money for this charity. Secondary school took part in “The Race for Hunger� a sponsored run. It was a real success were children and teachers had great fun running laps and raising money for such a good cause.
DROP EVERYTHING & READ Congratulations to the proud winners of our Drop Everything & Read Competition that took place throughout the month of March. Pupils were encouraged to read as many books, in English, as they could in one month. They also had to produce an illustrated postcard to recommend the book to a friend, parent or teacher. The winners not only produced a vast quantity of reviews but demonstrated a real passion for the books they had read and wrote exciting reviews to convince other people to read their books! The winner, Patricia from Year 8, was presented with her e-Reader by Mr. Wicks. The second and third place runners-up got very paperback books, signed by the author. Well done to everybody who took part!
COBIS POETRY COMPETITION Every year COBIS hold a poetry competition. This year it was on the theme of Daydreams. We opened the competitionup to both our year 5s and 6s and 8 children entered the internal competition. From these eight the following three budding poets were chosen: Halile 5H, Lucy 6C and Lucy 6G All three poems have been submitted to COBIS and they will be competing with hundreds of other budding poets from COBIS schools around the world. Good luck girls! Mr. Sloan Head of Primary said, "All the poems were so fantastic that we are going to publish them in a King’s College special book which will be kept in the Primary Library." Mrs Gandhi, Literacy >> PAGE 3
Chamber Music Festival Concert
Wednesday 23rd April at 5pm
We would like to congratulate Sarah Righton for a very successful Chamber Music Festival on Wednesday 23rd April. The secondary pupils involved all thoroughly enjoyed the evening and it was great to see so many children confidently performing in front of a public. It’s only the first year we’ve had such a evening but it was a great start to what hopefully will become an annual event for us.
Summer Concert 2014 Friday 2 of May in the Quad nd
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GREASE
MUSICAL SPECTACULAR
Congratulations to all staff and students who put on the Grease production. It was an absolutely fabulous show and a real triumph. I'm sure that you could tell that parents, pupils and colleagues in the audience were absolutely swept away by the show. Singing, dancing, acting, set and production were all top quality and this has to rate as the best Secondary school show that I've ever seen. Mr. Peter Sloan Head of Primary Performance video will be available soon.
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KCA‘S GOT TALENT! The whole Secondary School and Year 6 gathered to watch the music acts on stage. Performers from all year groups participated, judged by a group of pupils, Mr Glover and Mr Turner. All pupils in the audience were incredibly supportive and thoroughly enjoyed watching their classmates. At the end of the event we were amazed by a final act from Grease, where all the cast of the musical received a warm applause from of the classmates and teachers. The winner this year was Ann from Year 12, what an amazing voice! Congratulations to everybody who took part!
DOWN LOAD VIDEO >> PAGE 3 9
CHOCOLATE FACTORY TRIP As part of Year´s 6 topic of Chocolate, the children visited two factories on Monday 17th March. This year, we decided to visit not only the world famous Valor Chocolate factory but we also visited the Perez Chocolate Factory in Villa Joillosa, a more traditional family run business. Both factories provided the children with an opportunity to not only see how chocolate is manufactured but also they were able to look at some of the original tools, used manually by workers to grind cocoa beans, separate the beans from their husks and eventually turning them into edible chocolate. At the Valor factory, the children were able to see an excellent film about Valor and how it developed from a small family run business to a multinational which exports chocolate all over the world. "The best part of the day was when we got to try lots of chocolate at Valor, it was delicious!" said Irene (6G) "I am really impressed by the machinery at Valor and it is great to have an international company in Alicante," commented Carlota (6C) " I loved Perez because it was traditional and the chocolate is excellent," added Jimena (6F). Both factories were very impressed by our children´s understanding of chocolate, its history and how it is manufactured. Thanks to Sr. Bellot for organising the trip.
HUERTO DEL CURA TRIP Year 5 are learning about the life cycle of plants in their science topic this term. On the 29th of April the year group went to the beautiful Huerto del Cura botanical gardens in Elche. They saw the largest palm tree in Europe together with an amazing variety of cacti and other plant life. They learned about the history of the gardens and how they were created. Afterwards the children took a 2km walk through the palm parks and learned how to identify male and female palm trees as well as how they pollinate and fertilise. The trip concluded with an afternoon in the municipal park investigating and identifying the parts flowers. The children had a wonderful day. “The Huerto del Cura (The Priest’s Garden)”, declared an National Artistic Garden in 1943.
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What is it? Education City is an interactive web based e-learning resource. It provides bright, fun interactive resources linked to the Early Learning Goals and the National Curriculum. Currently we have access to English, Maths, Science and themed resources for Early Years and for KS1 and KS2 we can access Literacy, Maths, Science, Spanish and TEFL resources. Within each subject area you can select some of the following
• Topic Tools
- which are often used on the Interactive Whiteboard with the whole class, they can be used to teach or reinforce learning objective, or in a plenary to assess pupil progress
• Activities
– which often include a short animation explaining or demonstrating a concept, followed by a fun online activity, maybe a drag and drop activity, a timed challenge, a question and answer game, these are sometimes used as part of the introduction to sessions or on the netbooks/ ipads as a small group activity.
• Play Live (Maths and KS2 Literacy) – where pupils can compete online against other users who are logged in, either from the same class/school or against pupils from across the world who are logged on. These activities are timed e.g spelling competitions or answering maths sums.
• Letters and Sounds
(EYFS and Year1) – phonic and sound activities which are used as whole class activities to introduce and reinforce the sounds taught that lesson/week.
How are we using it? Like any resource we are using Education City in a variety of ways in the classroom, maybe to introduce or reinforce a concept we are working on as a class, or as a revision tool, or with small groups as part of a learning activity. Teachers can set activities for homework; these can be linked to objectives taught in class and can be differentiated to suit the needs of the pupils. Each pupil in Primary has an individual password, and teachers can monitor which pupils have completed homework and how they have got on. There are also assessments activities for some year groups, Year 6 for example have been working through some past SATs questions in preparation for SATs.
Reviews Feedback from pupils and parents has been very positive, activities capture the pupils, are age appropriate and varied, pupils can also earn certificates which they can print or save. Many activities have an option for instructions to be read this is very useful for our parents who do not have much English and is also useful for demonstrating correct pronunciation of English sounds and words. Details if you want to take a look www.educationcity.com/login School Login Name: 357BritishSchoolofAlicante Login Password: 796222 Select International as your region.
SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE KING’S COLLEGE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION Earlier this month the King’s College Marketing team from central services in Madrid visited the school to speak to both pupils and staff about social media and the King’s College Alumni Association. At King’s College we are dedicated to supporting our pupils through the entire academic journey. Therefore, the focus of the sessions was to engage with Year 12 and 13 pupils about getting the most out of social media in a professional context for life after education, as well as to share some advice and information about the importance of networking. Lauren Taylor, Marketing Manager and Jake Pittman, Alumni Association and Social Media Coordinator, led the sessions and took questions from pupils about how they can effectively engage on social media platforms. LinkedIn was the hot topic of information to help pupils understand the importance of creating a professional image on the internet. This is especially crucial when applying for work placements, UCAS and eventually entering the wider world of work; so that they have a professional and complete profile to showcase their achievements and interests.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE LINKEDIN VIDEO “TOP 5 TIPS FOR STUDENTS” Sessions also included practical advice such as: • Think before you post • Keep professional social media accounts updated to accurately reflect your CV • Use separate email addresses for social and professional contexts online and offline • Be honest with what you post • Focus on your unique selling points to help you stand out from the crowd • Build a professional network and retain contacts from every professional experience
KEEPING IN TOUCH...
In addition to the social media workshop, pupils were also informed about the King’s College Alumni Association, and how they can stay in touch once they leave the school. The “King's College Alumni” group was created to allow former King's College pupils from schools across the King’s Group locations to stay connected online. The group is based on professional social networking site LinkedIn and allows members to contact one another, share ideas, news and also be made aware of planned events and alumni reunions which are held each year. If you are interested in joining our network, you must be a King's College pupil or ex-pupil. Employees of the company or people wishing to follow the activity of the school and/or King’s Group, such as parents or co-workers, are encouraged to follow the “King’s Group” company page, also available on LinkedIn.
For Everyone: Keep updated with news and goings on for all elements of King’s Group, centralised in just one place. http://tinyurl.com/KingsGroupPage FOR EVERYONE
FOR EVERYONE
FOR ALUMNI
For Everyone: Up to the minute information about our schools in short digestible snapshots. King’s College Alicante: @KCAlicante, King’s College Murcia: @KC_Murcia or King’s Group: @KingsGroupSL For Alumni: We like to keep in touch with all of our pupils once they leave the school, so you are encouraged to keep in touch with us online: http://tinyurl.com/ KCAlumniAssoc or by email: http://eepurl.com/zuaDj For Alumni: Up to the minute information about the alumni association Events and news. Follow us now: @KingsColAlumni
For Pupils You can now add your school to your LinkedIn profile, see our Education Page: http://tinyurl.com/ SotoSchoolPage http://tinyurl.com/ AlicanteSchoolPage http://tinyurl.com/ MurciaSchoolPage
FOR ALUMNI >> PAGE 13
the
art corner
A Level
Work
The standard of art work produced this year in response to the CIE A level syllabus has been outstanding. Two of the students, Julia and Sasha have been accepted for study at Leeds College of Art , one of the most prestigious art schools in the UK (its alumni include world famous artists such as Henry Moore, Damien Hirst and Glen Baxter). The talent and commitment of the A level students this year has been phenomenal.
Suzanne Manners Pro
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Important Dates MAY 2014 SECONDARY 1 M a y
Public Holiday
2 6 M a y
Y8 Examinations Begin
3 0 M a y
Y10 Examinations Begin
3 0 M a y S i x t h F o r m G r a d u a t i o n C e r e m o n y ( B y I n v i t a t i o n O n l y ) 2 J u n e
Study Leave for Year 13 begins
5 J u n e
Book Fair in the Library
9 J u n e
Y8 Residential Trip to Sevilla and Córdoba
1 7 J u n e
Prize Giving (By Invitation Only)
2 0 J u n e
Last Day of Term
2 5 J u n e
Parent Open Day
3 S e p t
Start Day Term One 2014-2015
MAY 2014 PRIMARY 1 M a y
Public Holiday
9 M a y
Author Visit – Sarah McIntyre
3 0 M a y
Transition Day
Wb 2 June
SAT Week
5 J u n e
Book Fair in the Library
9 J u n e
Year 5 Residential Trip to Alborache
1 6 J u n e
Year 6 Residential Trip to Venta del Moro
2 0 J u n e
Reports Out
2 0 J u n e
Last Day of Term
3 S e p t
Start Day Term One 2014-2015
King’s College Alicante Glorieta del Reino Unido 5 Alicante 03008 Spain Tlf: 965 106 351 Fax: 965 108 096 info.kca@kingsgroup.org www.bsalicante.com