Newsletter Primary February 2010

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

LAMDA News

The “Big idea”

Primary Book Review

The British School of Alicante Monthly Update

Newsletter PRIMARY NUMBER 14 FEBRUARY 2009

Message from the Head of Primary Curriculum Changes As you are aware, we have been working hard to adapt and change our curriculum this year. This is to keep up to date and inline with new educational initiatives in the UK and to be ready for the New Primary Curriculum which becomes statutory in 2011.

Pupils from Reception to Year 1 have been experiencing a topic-based creative curriculum with links between subjects, but at the same time maintaining literacy and numeracy as a priority.

In the new literacy curriculum drama is a strong focus which will help to enhance the language and personal development of our pupils.

These revisions to the curriculum will strengthen considerably the continuity in learning between Early Years and Key Stage 1. This allows more opportunities for extending and building on “Active Learning” across the two stages.

As part of this initiative, we have been reviewing and adapting the way we assess the children and record their progress. This has led to changes in our report format for Year 1. Parents of Year 1 pupils will now be able to see more clearly the actual objectives their child working towards each term and will also see where and when further support is needed.

We think that the new reports will be much more informative and will help you to understand your child’s achievements more clearly.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank our Year 1 parents for attending the report meeting and supporting us in the implementation of these changes.

Fiona Thomas Head of Primary School

Carnival 2010

The

BIG idea

Reading Interviews Last month we reported on the “Big Idea” in Primary for the improvement of language skills. We told you how we were planning to conduct pupil reading interviews to “create a virtuous circle of more and better reading”.

Twelve pupils from Year 5 and 6 were selected for this project, which involved meeting with teachers (not their class teachers) to discuss their reading. These interviews provided us with some valuable information on how we teach reading at school, how our pupils learn as well as their views on progress.

A very big thank-you to the following pupils for taking part:

Some of the questions asked were: Do you enjoy reading? Why/Why not?

Do you recommend books to your friends?

Do you have a favourite author? If yes, who?

Does your teacher like reading? How do you know?

In what ways do you think you have got better at reading this year?

Do you know what you need to do next to make progress?

More interviews will be carried out next term and we let you know how the pupils get on.

Sergi 6L, Cesar 6L, Paloma 5F, Ines 5F, Africa 5M, Teresa 5F, Martina 5M, Jemel 5M, Martin 6L, Yvanna 6H, Pablo 6H, Laura 6H.

More Tips for Helping Your Child to Read You can have a profound effect on your child’s reading habits by encouraging daily literacy activities such as these: • • • • • •

Listen to a story CD in the car Write an e-mail to relatives Check out books from the library to learn more about topics that interest your family Build things or follow recipes that require reading instructions Read signs and street names aloud Rereading stories helps build fluency

LAMDA News Our Year 5 and 6 LAMDA pupils have now been entered for their examinations, which will take place towards the end of April. We are so proud to be entering over 50 children who have been following the Spoken English and Devised Performance programme.

The Curriculum changes I mentioned in the introduction recognises that communication is at the heart of a child’s education. By giving children the ability to speak and communicate effectively, they are also given the ability to imagine, understand and create. Such skills can be learned during preparation for LAMDA. Reading skills are developed as well as presenting ideas and the skills relating to rehearsing and refining performance.

LAMDA continues to expand across the globe with children in the Guangdong Province of Southern China taking their first examinations, and now pupils at

BSA will be added to the growing list.

Our pupils are working extremely hard in preparation for their examination, however, they will benefit from additional support and practice. It is important that the children rehearse each day for ten minutes at home,

reading over their book telling or lines and also be given the opportunity to present their piece to an audience (their family).

Thank-you for your support!

Fiona Thomas

Primary library book reviews Black Angels by Rita Murphy (Age Level: 9 yrs+) In the summer of 1961, Celli is worried when her black babysitter, Sophie, becomes active in the Civil Rights movement.

Ever since Sophie started speaking out, three black angels that no one else can see have been appearing to Celli. As the long hot summer progresses, Celli's grandmother comes to visit and she learns of a secret that makes her see her family, Sophie and race relations in a whole new light.

“A short but important insight into the rally for black rights.

A good story to understand the continuing inequalities that people of other cultures face and the everyday people who stand up to fight for a better future.

An unforgettable story about discovering who you are- and standing up for what you believe in”.

Black Angels by Rita Murphy (Age Level: 9 yrs+) In the summer of 1961, Celli is worried when her black babysitter, Sophie, becomes active in the Civil Rights movement.

Ever since Sophie started speaking out, three black angels that no one else can see have been appearing to Celli. As the long hot summer progresses, Celli’s grandmother comes to visit and she learns of a secret that makes her see her family,

Seriously Silly Stories by Laurence Anholt (Age Level: 6 yrs+) This collection features ten hilarious stories that take well known and loved fairy tales, and twist them on their head, giving a great contemporary twist. The pictures are truly brilliant.

In “Little Red Riding Wolf”, the villain of the story is NOT the wolf, but it’s the big bad girl. She's terrible, spending her days annoying the gentle animals of the forest, and she loves nothing better than picking on our hero - Wolfie...

In "Ghostyshocks and the three scares" the little girl ghostyshocks is afraid of everything, especially of the vampire bears that live up in the woods and apparently have big bowls of vampire blood for breakfast. One day she creeps in, but all is not what it seems in the house and she realizes that these bears are nothing like she expected.

In "Daft Jack and the Bean stack" Jack is sent out to the shops but comes back with baked bean tins. He uses them to build a giant stack of cans and explores the giants world at the top of the stack. This story ends very happily for Jack’s mum. There are seven more stories, A must have for all children of primary age and a definite laugh for adults too!

World Book Day The Primary school celebrated World Book Day on Thursday 7th March.

From Nursery to Year 6 pupils were involved in various reading activities, one of which was a set reading time of ten minutes, either in a group or individually. Some classes visited the library to choose their fiction read whilst others completed the task in class.

World Maths Day Wednesday March 6th was World Maths Day and several Primary classes took part in activities to celebrate it. One of the key events was an online maths challenge where our Year 6 children tested their mental maths skills against children from all over the world.

Congratulations to Pablo, HĂŠctor, Lucia, Roberto, Rory and Alejandro, Carlos, Chloe, Harry, Leonora and MartĂ­n who competed successfully against children distant countries as Singapore, India, Pakistan, the UK and Thailand.

Marta from 6H, and to from 6L, from such Sweden,

Carnival 2010 As always Carnival proved a BIG event at BSA. All of Primary, from Nursery to Year 6 were involved in the celebrations.

This year the theme was “Board Games” and pupils made their own costumes the days leading up to the Parade.

Some classes represented the “chess board”, while others were darts, noughts and crosses and ludo. Once again the sun shone for us and we all paraded around the footbaall pitch to see one another’s costumes.

Primary ART

March Dates

Dates for your Diary 12th March – Primary Reports Week Beginning 15TH March Primary Parent Meetings 18th March – Visit to Fire Station – YR 1D AND Reception P 22ND March – Visit to Fire Station – Reception C and YR 1R 26th March – Visit to Fire Station – Reception S and YR 1P 30th March – Yr 1 Performance (9.30a.m.)

30th March – YR 3/4 Performance (2.30p.m.)

31st March – Last Day Term 2

Carnival 2010

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