Newsletter Primary October 2012 English

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T H E P R I M A RY N E W S L E T T E R Primary News from the Pupils and Teachers of King’s College, Alicante

Book Character Day

Head of Primary Message I am delighted to see that during this special Literacy month that children are reading, eating and sleeping books! Books have been shared in the library, in reading corners, in classrooms and on the patio. The children have had opportunities to read and enjoy many styles of books and hear many different adults reading to them. There has also been a great buzz of excitement about our new reading scheme books and I know that children are thoroughly enjoying the many books on offer. Great reading everyone! Keep up the enthusiasm for reading!

Also in Literacy month a special poetry competition was introduced

by Mrs Gandhi. The children were asked to write a poem on the subject of Stars. Many children entered the competition and the standard of poetry writing was very high.

As part of our special Book Character day on 31 October the staff read their favourite poems to the children in assembly. This was a lovely way to end our special Literacy month. A moment enjoyed by all the school community.

Congratulations to our poetry winners:

Happy reading!

Year 3 – Izan G Year 3 – Martina M Year 5 – Sofia G.B Year 6 – Carla N

Miss Lubaczewska Head of Primary Pag e 1

New Roles Deputy Head of Primary Mrs Sarah Phillips I studied teaching in my home city of Bristol, and graduated In 2000. My first teaching job was in a charming, small village school in the South of England.

In 2004 my husband and I decided that we would like to live in Spain and we moved to Alicante where I began teaching at King's College Alicante. I subsequently joined the Middle Management Team, coordinating Science and later ICT across the Primary Department.

More recently, I have had the responsibility of Key Stage 2 Coordinator; supporting and overseeing Years 3 to 6.

At the beginning of this academic year, I have changed roles again, and am pleased to support Miss Lubaczewska as the Deputy Head of Primary. My key responsibilities include; interviewing new applicants for primary, coordinating events in the Primary Department, monitoring pupil progress and attainment, supporting teachers and teaching assistants.

Two months into the first term and I can say that being Deputy Head is everything I had hoped for; I have had the opportunity to work in several classes across Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2, I have worked with many enthusiastic teachers and I have met lots of parents.

Ms Cathy Plant Induction English

As a T.E.F.L. (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) teacher I have been tutoring children in the local area for three years. I started at the King’s Group in 2009. My role was to assist KS1 with reading. I am currently working two days a week in Early Years as a Teaching Assistant which I love as I am able to see first hand the rapid educational development of such young children. It´s also incredible to see how fast young children absorb a second language.

This September I have started a new post, Induction English for Primary. Already I have seen progress with the children´s comprehension of English. My main aim is to provide the necessary basics of the English language in order to help children access the full curriculum. It´s a joy to work with children from many different cultural backgrounds who are all so enthusiastic to learn.

National Literacy Month “Books are a uniquely portable magic.� (Stephen King) October is National Literacy Month and throughout the month there have been a number of high profile initiatives in Primary. On October 1st we celebrated International School Library Day, encouraging children to use the fantastic library that we have.

Throughout the course of the month, children have heard stories read to them by teachers from other parts of the school and also by Mr Laidlaw and Miss Lubaczewska. The stories have mainly been on the theme of heroes and heroines. Children have really enjoyed listening to the stories which have either been read in the library or in our new colourful and comfy cushion-filled corner in Key Stage 2.

Another major initiative is our poem competition which has been on the theme of stars. Children from all year groups, throughout primary have written and entered their poems into the competition. In Early Years, children have painted glittery stars as a way of participating. There will be one winner per year group who will receive a prize and certificate and runners up will receive certificates.

On October 24th, the school will also celebrate National Spanish Library Day where children will have a chance to listen to stories of by the well- known classic writers Andersen, Grimm and Perrault.

Finally to mark the end of National Literacy Month, there will be a no pencil day on October 31st 2012, where children and teachers will have lots of reading related activities and will come dressed as their favourite Book Character. Teachers will read their favourite poems to children in a special assembly to mark the end of what has been a wonderful Literacy month.

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Nursery Colour Days This month the Nursery children have been having fun learning their colours in English. We have celebrated 3 special colour days including red and yellow, green and blue and pink and purple day. The children looked very smart in their brightly coloured clothes and participated in lots of exciting activities.

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Nursery Investigation Week

Celebrating Hallowe’en

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People who help us in Reception The Reception children have been thinking about people who help us. We invited Ana the Cleaner and Ana the Nurse to talk to us about their important roles in school and the children had lots of questions for them. The children went on a walk around the school and took photos of all the people who help us in school. In the classrooms we have made a role play doctors surgery and on the playground we have made a role play fire station.

All the Reception children and staff would like to thank all the special people in school who help us and especially the two Ana´s for taking time to come and talk to us all.

YEAR 6

Reception Superheroes

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Primary Council Ready for Action!

Zone Sweet Zone

Every Year, here in Primary, we set up a School Council with a new set of members. There are thirty members in total, two members for each class in every year group from Year 2 to Year 6. Children from each class hold their own election process to identify their representatives for the year.

This year we have another thirty fantastic School Council members who are bursting with enthusiasm to carry out some important and essential work aimed at improving our school community.

This year the thirty new members are: Year 2

Year 3

Year 4

Year 5

Year 6

Julia and Felipe (2D) Zachary and Sara (2T) Joe and Jimena (2S) Isabel and Eduardo(3M) Víctor and Alba (3P) Enrique and Aitana (3S) Nemo and Julia (4J) Julio and Lourdes (4O ) Cristina and Mateo (4P) Gerardo and Sofía (5C) Cristina and Manuel (5R) Sofia and Jorge (5S) Carla and Alex (6F) Lorena and Arnau (6G) Adrián and Emma (6H)

At their first meeting in September, the Council members identified Zone helpers. These members take responsibility for setting up zone games and toys on the patio every lunch time and they make sure these are put away correctly. Zone Helper Lorena said, “Making sure we have skipping ropes, bean bags and balls ready to play with during our lunch is very important. It is essential that we encourage children to play safely and look after the zone equipment.”

At their second meeting the Council identified the three subgroups for this year: • Healthy Me • Health and Safety • Eco Friendly In the next newsletter we will feature more about the work of the subgroups.

The Primary Council works closely with the following teachers: Mrs Gandhi, Mrs Pilkington, Miss Pyner, Miss Sanghera and Miss Snook. In addition the Council has already had support from Head Boy, Craig and Head Girl, Verena. This year we hope to work closely with the Secondary School Council to promote environmentally friendly projects.

SENSES’ DAY IN YEAR 1

Year 1 have had a fantastic start to the year so far, and I have been very impressed with their levels of English, both in understanding and speaking.

This term we have been learning all about ‘Ourselves’ and on Monday 8th October we held a ‘Senses’ day. During this day the children participated in lots of exciting, practical activities in which they had to explore using their different senses.

The children had the opportunity to use their noses to smell a variety of fragrances – some were lovely smells others were not so nice. You can see by the children´s faces in the photographs, which were the nasty smells.

They used their fingers to explore their sense of touch by feeling lots of different textures inside feely boxes.

They played team games, where they had to identify different animal noises using their sense of hearing.

They used their sense of sight to explore dark areas in the classroom using torches. In the outdoor area, they used magnifying glasses to make things appear bigger and coloured paddles to see different effects with colour. They also had the opportunity to use electronic microscopes to magnify different objects onto the computer and the Interactive Whiteboard. It was very funny seeing a close up of a banana on the big screen!

One of their favourite activities, was tasting different foods to explore sweet, salty, bitter and sour foods.

The highlight was the chocolate!

As well as resulting in a fun filled day, the children also learned a great amount of new vocabulary, which they have continued to use and develop in subsequent lessons.

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Well done to the Year 1 children and teachers for such a successful day!

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STUDYING CASTLES IN YEAR 3

At the moment Year 3 are studying Castles. As part of this topic they visited Santa Barbara castle in Alicante.

This castle was chosen as a very good example, especially of its 360˚ view all around, and meant that the children were able to see in reality what they had been learning about in the classroom. They visited a Pirate Exhibition, which was very interesting and exciting, where they saw life-like models of pirates, including women and children, and also saw a lot of pirate models and artefacts. Afterwards they walked around the castle to observe all the features that they had learned about during the topic. Both the castle, and The Pirate Exhibition, captured their imagination, and prompted some thoughtful comments, observations and questions. The Santa Barbara castle is a good site in terms of enhancing, consolidating and reinforcing the children’s learning, and, back in school they produced some super castle models, which were influenced by what they had seen and learned on the trip.

WWII

IN YEAR 4

In Year 4 we have been learning about World War II and what life was like for Evacuees. The children have learned to empathise with these WWII children through role play in Drama, research projects in ICT, and making their own gas masks! They have written fantastic stories to show how these children must have felt and included lots of historical evidence. Work is now beginning on creating “Blitz” pictures and “shelter” pictures in the style of Henry Moore.

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INVESTIGATING

SHADOWS IN YEAR5

As part of their topic, Earth and Space, Year 5 investigated how shadows change during the day. The children enjoyed measuring the length and direction of their shadows and recording their results. Luckily, the sun shone most of the day!

SMURF FAMILY

YEAR 6 SUPER HELPERS

Mrs Hughes would like to say a big THANK YOU to all of Year 6 for doing such a fantastic job as Year 6 Super Helpers! They have embraced their position at the top of the school and set a perfect example to their peers.

As well as helping in the dining room, they enjoy preparing the siesta hall at lunch time and help the assistants put the nursery children to sleep. They also do a fantastic job in Key Stage 1 helping the teachers prepare materials for lessons.

Here is a snapshot of a few of the year 6 children carrying out their duties:

COMMENTS FROM SOME PUPILS “Being a helper in Year 6 is fun. When I started I was very excited and a little nervous, but then you get used to it. At first I thought it would be boring, but not now. I´m being a good person and sometimes I don´t want to stop!!” said Sara (6H) “Being a helper makes me feel really responsible because I have 3 jobs: putting the siesta beds out, helping in the dining room and helping the teachers in KS1. I think you would enjoy being a helper too!” said Mireia (6H) “In Year 6 I have the responsibility of being a helper. The nice thing about it is that I feel good about myself and happy after helping the teachers.

We do many jobs like putting out the siesta beds and helping in the dining room,” said Alex (6H)

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BOOK CHARACTER DAY ASSEMBLY

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SOME OF THE IMPROVEMENTS MADE OVER THE SUMMER ….

NEW ADMISSIONS OFFICE

MULTI-PURPOSE HALL

NEW CLASSROOM FURNITURE

SHADING FOR NEW KS 1 PATIO AREA

SECURITY ACCESS DOOR TO NEW PATIO AREA

NEW LOCKERS FOR KS3 PUPILS

Every month we will be featuring information and news regarding the Governance and Management of the school. This will, I hope, make parents, staff and pupils more aware of the strategic leadership and management of our own school and the King´s Group in general. This month we are featuring an introduction to Mr Trevor Rowell who is our named link Governor.

Mr Trevor Rowell is a Consultant in British international education with recent work in the UEA, Spain, Turkey, France, The Netherlands as well as the UK. He is the Director of the UK Independent Schools Council, a Board member of the Kings Group and the Chairman of COBIS (Council of British International Schools). Mr Rowell previously held the post of Chief Executive of the BSN Group (´The British School in The Netherlands´) from 1999 until 2008 and was Headteacher at Saltus Grammar School in the Bahamas, Principal of Havant Further Education College UK, Deputy Head then Acting Head of Deer Park Comprehensive School in the UK

Mr.Trevor Rowell MA (Oxon) BPhil PGCE FIoD and an International member of HMC (Headmasters ´& Headmistresses´Conference). Mr Rowell graduated from Oxford University, Christ Church College where he read History and from Cambridge University, Trinity College with a double Distinction PGCE in History and Music.

He also has a BPhil in Organisation & Administration of Education from Hull University and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 1994. Mr Rowell visits the school every year and meets with the Headteacher on a regular basis to discuss progress and development issues. He will be visiting us in November when he will meet with staff and pupils.

Important Dates 6 November • Winter Uniform begins. Dark blue and black coats only.

• Nursery and Reception Parenting classes.

(Topic - Behaviour) at 9.15am in the Library 12 November - Nursery Open day for new families 15-16 November - School Photographer 20 November - Nursery and Reception Parenting classes.

(Topic - Toilet Training and Hygiene) at 9.15am in the Library 21 November - Nursery Open day for new families 22 November - Book Fair

Glorieta del Reino Unido 5 Alicante 03008 Spain www.bsalicante.com email: carlos.lazaro@kingsgroup.org