Newsletter King’s College Alicante
PRIMARY
JANUARY 2014 / SECOND TERM
Eco-Warriors
Message from the Head of Primary In the next few weeks we will be holding meetings for parents to learn about our plans for residential visits in Years 4, 5 and 6. It therefore seems a good idea to look at just why we take children out of school for overnight visits. As I started writing this article I did a quick count of how many visits I have been involved with as a teacher and head teacher. I gave up counting when I got past the number thirty! Hundreds of children took part and all enjoyed experiences that built on their learning and enriched their personal development in many ways. Well-planned educational visits provide our children with valuable experiences which enhance their learning at school. Indeed such visits are an essential element of good primary practice. They provide stimulus and support to work being covered as part of the school curriculum. They allow the children to use skills and test out knowledge that they have learned at school. These trips, however, are not just about taking learning from the classroom into a different environment, useful as that is. Residential visits challenge children to learn about
themselves, to work as a team, to build confidence and develop independence. They are lots of fun too! At King’s we are fortunate that we have a member of staff who is responsible for co-ordinating all Primary School visits. Sñr. Fernando Bellot ensures that our visits are safe, well planned, and relevant to classroom learning and give an extra dimension to our children’s school year. I do hope that you will join us at our forthcoming meetings to find out what will be on offer for your children this school year. . Best wishes
Mr. P.B. Sloan Head of Primary
Early Year
NEWS
In Early Years Foundation Stage we are learning our colours and experimenting with patterns. We have learnt about primary colours and investigated what happens when you mix them. Here you can enjoy some displays to show what we can do using primary, secondary and tertiary colours.
In Year 3 our topic has been Patterns We learnt about the artist Andy Goldsworthy, who produces natural patterns and sculptures. He makes his artwork using natural materials such as flowers, leaves, twigs, pebbles, grass and pine cones. Year 3 collected natural materials at home for their own art work. They had lots of fun in class creating their own patterns and sculptures!
>> PAGE 3
YEAR 3 FABULOUS PATTERNED CLOTHES
On Friday 24th January, Year 3 celebrated the final day of our topic ´Patterns´, by swopping parts of their uniform for another patterned item. There were a colourful assortment of children who were sporting patterned tights, socks, shirts, jumpers and some children were wearing very groovy, looking trousers with patterns! Not only did the children model some fabulous patterned clothes, but they designed their own patterned pants. Come down to the Year 3 corridor and see them swinging splendidly on the washing-line!
>> PAGE 5
AS BUSY AS BEES What a busy time it’s been for the Primary Council. Over the last few months the council has launched a number of high profile environmental initiatives:
WRAPPER FREE FRIDAY Did you know that it takes thousands of years for wrappers, which are made from cellophane or plastic, to decompose? The growth in the use of products which are packaged with cellophane and plastic has a major detrimental effect on the environment. For this reason, the Council has decided to encourage everyone to reduce their use of products with wrappers. Every Friday is now a Wrapper Free Friday and children are bringing their snacks into school in alternatives ways for example pieces of fruit and others are using Tupperware containers which can be reused. Last Friday was the start of the initiative and it was a great success – congratulations to 2F, 100% of the class brought in wrapper free snacks and there were many other classes that had high percentages of wrapper free items. “We hope that this is an opportunity for children to learn about the environment and what they can do to make a difference,” said Mr Sloan, Head of Primary. Mrs Gandhi, Primary Council Coordinator, added, “It would be great to see more and more classes with 100% wrapper free snacks... let´s hope the weekly results and rewards will encourage others.” Carlos (5H) said that they were looking at making posters to encourage children to bring their snacks in Tupperware containers, which are reusable.
POSTER COMPETITION
Deadline 21st february 2014 Poster should promote wrapper free friday - using tupperware containers and not snacks with wrappers or keep our patio litter free. Judges: members of the school council
LOOK OUT LOOK OUT THE ECO WARRIORS ARE ABOUT!!! YEAR 2 JOSE 2F RAQUEL 2F YEAR 3 ALEJANDRO 3D YOLANDA 3D YEAR 4 PAZ 4B GUILLERMO 4S YEAR 5 CARLOS 5H LAURA 5R YEAR 6 ISMAEL 6F ELENA 6G IRENE (ECO REP) 6F
The warriors inspect all the classes and check to see if the classes are being eco friendly. Classes that meet all the criteria are given thumbs up. And sadly those that don´t are told why and given a thumbs down.
temperature, windows shut and evidence of recycling.
Mr Laidlaw, Headteacher, joined the first Eco Walk of the New Year and said, “I am hugely impressed by the enthusiasm of all the Eco Irene (6F), one of the warriors said that it was warriors and have thoroughly enjoyed my walk really good to be involved in the walks and with them...Keep up the good work!” making sure everyone was checking if lights and projectors had been switched off, taps The next walk will take place on Friday 31st shut, radiators closed or kept at a reasonable January 2014!
ALL ZONED OUT!
Finally, the Council have been working on improving their lunch time activities in Key Stage 2. The patio area has been zoned with specific areas for playing with hoops, stilts, river stones, football and basket ball. There is also a quiet area for children to sit and chat. Here´s what some of the children think: “We love the new basket balls!” said Altea (4J). “We love the hoops – they´re fun!” said Hodei (3W) “We love the river stones... and hope we can get more!” said Ines (3S). “It´s good to have so many different zones and zone activities,” Elena (6G) added. >> PAGE 7
SOUNDING IT OUT Teaching Phonics at King’s Without an understanding of the relationship between letters and sounds, reading cannot occur. This is why the teaching of phonics, one of the primary building blocks of reading, is so important. Put simply, phonics is the connection between graphemes (letter symbols) and sounds. Understanding phonics provides our children with the tools for discovering new written words.
YEAR 1 Here the children are learning how to create words from the ‘oa’ and ‘or’ sounds.
This term the children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 are increasing their understanding of phonics through the programme, Letters and Sounds. They are beginning to learn their letter sounds at a speedier pace that will aim to build their speaking and listening skills and in turn develop their reading skills. The Letters and Sounds Programme sets out a detailed and systematic programme for teaching phonic skills for children starting in Reception, with the aim of them becoming fluent readers by the age of seven. Of course this is through lots of games, songs and practical activities where the children are having lots fun while developing their phonic skills.
RECEPTION In reception the children learn to read and say the letter sounds and the letter names and practise writing these in lots and lots of ways.
YEAR 2 By the age of seven most of the children have developed their reading skills and are able to spell, read, comprehend and answer questions relating to the text.
HOT& COLD Year 2 have been looking at the topic of Hot and Cold. Firstly they learned about hot and cold colours and then created their own cold Winter scenes. Here are some pictures from 2M, we hope you like them.
BRAIN TEASERS 1. Emily loves cats and she keeps some as pets. All but two of them are completely black. All but two of them are completely white. All but two of them are completely ginger.
SOLUTIONS
How many cats does she have in total ?
1. She has three cats.
4.Emma was running in a 5 mile marathon. With the end in sight she sprinted past Chloe who was in second place and triumphantly crossed the finish line.
2. It was the spare tyre.
3.Try to re-arrange the letters of NEW DOOR to make one word.
3. NEW DOOR re-arranges to make ONE WORD.
How come nobody noticed?
SOLUTIONS 4. She was still in second place
2. A family of five people drove in a car for 300 miles at an average speed of 50 miles per hour. For the whole journey nobody noticed that the car had a flat tyre.
Why didn’t Emma win the marathon? >> PAGE 9
New 6 th Form Common Room We are delighted to inform you that our new 6th Form Common room has now been opened. This area is designed to provide our Y12 and Y13 students with a suitable relaxation area at patio and lunchtime as well as a bistro area for eating. In time we will add to these resources to further recognise and support our most senior students. This new facility enhances our new Independent Study Centre, opened last September, and is part of our new developments and on-going investment from King´s Group to accommodate our increasing student numbers in 6th Form.
News From the Library A drawing and writing competition took place on the day of our Christmas book fair. The winners were: • • • • • • • • • •
Manuela (Nursery P) Nara (Reception P) Jimena (1W) Germán (2M) Miguel (3S) Raia (4B) María (5S) Marcos (6G) Justina (7B) Sara (8G)
They all got a free book of their choice from the book fair. Congratulations to all of them and thanks to all the students who participated.
Strategy Meeting During August 2013, senior staff from our school took part in the King´s Group strategy meeting held in Ávila. The purpose of the meeting was to establish the future direction of the group as a whole, and to review and develop the Vision and Mission. Also present at the strategy meeting were the Chairman, CEO, Head teachers, Admissions officers and senior staff from all the King´s Group schools as well as the Directors of the support services from Head Office. The outcome of several very successful ´brainstorming´ sessions is that the group now has an updated, shared and very clear direction which will allow each of the schools to develop and improve within the structure of the group. I am pleased to be able to share with you, our renewed Vision and Mission along with a statement from our Chairman, Sir Roger Fry. I will keep parents informed of strategic developments throughout the course of the academic year.
Mr D Laidlaw Headteacher
Our vision is to be at the forefront of British education internationally OUR MISSION is to provide high quality British education that delivers a transformative learning experience to all our pupils. Engaging and effective teaching based on our core values and the best, most up-to-date UK educational practice enables children at our schools to achieve their academic ambitions and lifetime careers. At the same time we nurture their individual talents and emphasise the importance of educating the whole child with attention to their physical, emotional and social development. We are determined to make a positive difference to the future of our pupils and their families, the careers of our staff, as well as contributing to the wider community. “King’s Group has a long and distinguised history of educational leadership. Our company vision and mission are not “beautiful dreams” but a very significant and positive reality that we can all build up.” Sir Roger Fry CBE DLitt Chairman and Founder
School Uniform Shop We are delighted to have been able to donate to the charity Nazaret Fundacion last Christmas. Ms Charlotte Hayne, from the school Uniform shop, presented a cheque for €419. >> PAGE 11
Interview with the King’s Group CEO, Elena Benito To read the full interview which featured in ‘La Razón’ Newspaper please click on the image on th right.
Grease
Important Dates FEBRUARY 2014
6th February
Y6 Parents Residential Visit Meeting
1 1 t h F e b r u a r y
Parenting Class - Eating Habits
28th
Public Holiday
February
3 r d M a r c h t o 7 t h
Literacy Festival
12th March World
Maths Day
2 7 t h M a r c h
Year 4 Production
2 8 t h M a r c h
Book Fair
2 n d A p r i l
Grease
3 r d A p r i l
Grease
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