INSIDE THIS ISSUE:
World Book Day
Animal Show
Fire Station Visit
The British School of Alicante Monthly Update
Newsletter PRIMARY Message from the Head of Primary With one final term to go, as we approach the end of another academic year talk of attainment and levels are once again uppermost in our minds. Our Year 6 pupils are currently being prepared to take the KS2 SATs. (Statutory Assessment Tests). The children will be assessed towards the end of May in English and Mathematics. (No science tests this year). Pupils are naturally anxious about these tests and parents often ask how they can help and support their children at home. However, the way in which the school now assesses our pupils means that both pupils and parents are given as much information as possible on attainment and progress not only in the months leading up to the SATs but in all the years of the Primary phase. Children are not only assessed each term by their teacher and given a level of attainment which informs our reports, but teachers also assess children’s work informally almost every time they teach a class. Knowing how children are doing in class helps teachers to plan what the children should learn next. This is called teacher assessment which is supported by tasks. This method of regular assessment helps to strengthen the link between teaching and learning. It also helps to identify children who need help because they are under-achieving or move or re-group children who have made accelerated progress. These assessments ensure that National Curriculum attainment levels are being covered and now that
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teachers are basing their planning on the Primary Framework, coverage of the National Curriculum is ensured, as well as helping to tailor planning to children’s achievements. Both tests and teacher assessment measure your child’s achievement in different ways. The tests measure what all children can do when they are set the same questions and help teachers identify strengths and weaknesses in children’s understanding. Teacher assessment judges your child’s performance across the whole subject over time. Tests and teacher assessment both play a part, however the test seldom surprises the class teacher as the information collected over time that they already have at hand on the individual pupil is detailed and informed. So as our Year 6 pupils get ready to take their last formal assessment in Primary we can be confident and reassured that not only their final year but all the previous years and teachers in Primary have played a large part in their overall attainment. I hope also that this has given you, as parents a clearer understanding of how we assess and measure attainment.
Fiona Thomas Head of Primary
WORLD BOOK DAY! On Thursday 4th March, the school celebrated World Book Day. Many group or individual reading activities took place in the class, the library and the playground. Y6 students came to the library to read books to Reception children. Some groups chose their favorite titles from the library and read them for 10 minutes. As the weather was lovely, many teachers decided to take the students to read outside the classrooms. All students were given a token for their effort to exchange for an English book in “80 Mundos” bookshop, which we are sure had a pretty busy weekend! We would like to give special thanks to those parents and children who donated so many books for the children in South America. We sent five full boxes to the charity “Interlibro”!
HERE ARE SOME PHOTOS OF THE EVENT
KEY STAGE 1 ANIMAL SHOW
As part of our topics Animal Fever in Year 1 and Into the Unknown in Year 2 we had a visit from the Guacamole Pet Shop. They brought all sorts of different animals for us to see including a parrot, a 40kg tortoise, some puppies and a snake. We learned all about how to look after each animal, what they ate and some interesting facts. We were very excited to touch the animals and learned how to treat them with care and respect. It was the perfect way to finish our topic and we would like to thank the pet shop for coming.
KEY STAGE PATIO
1
You will notice when you return to school after the Easter holidays that a few improvements will have been carried out on the Key Stage 1 patio. Over the holidays the climbing frame will be encompassed within a fenced area and an additional gate will be added near the entrance to the Key Stage 1 building. Both these improvements are safety and security measures and we would appreciate your co-operation. The fence is aimed to prevent pre-school and younger children as well as our own pupils from using the climbing frame when it is not supervised by members of staff or out of school hours. The size of the climbing frame means that it is unsuitable for younger children and it should only be used by Year 1 and 2 pupils at official Patio times. Thank you for your support in this matter.
Fire Station Visit Reception and Year1 recently visited the Fire Station. All had a wonderful time and one group even witnessed a call-out during their visit. How exciting!
YEAR 6 SPORTS DAY For the first time Year 6 joined secondary for their Sports Day earlier in March at the Athletics Track. Activities and events like this will certainly help to develop transition to Year 7 and all Year 6 pupils were in agreement that that this change should remain for future years.
VISIT FROM A POET Primary and secondary are looking forward to a visit from Paul Cookson on Friday 7th May. The UK poet will be talking to and performing for pupils from Year 1 to Year 9. Paul has 40 published titles to his name and has sold over 865,000 books. He has worked in schools all over the world, including Uganda, Beijing and Singapore. He is currently Poet-in-Residence for The Literacy Times and has performed his poetry many times on radio. We are very honoured to have such a visitor.
SCHOOL COUNCIL The school council have continued with their meetings this term and now have a very strong and established voice in the school. This term they have dealt with issues that have arisen with the Playground Zones. The responsibility of the equipment at lunchtime falls to the school council and they have issued instructions regarding how it should be stored and cared for. Next term they will be concentrating on plans for September and new developments. We will keep you updated!
YEARS 5 AND 6 The top floor of Primary has been thriving with a variety of work throughout March. From modelling and debate to crime investigations!
YEAR 5 5F have been looking at the human figure in movement, using drawings, figures with moving arms and legs and finally, as part of their 3D work, they made sculptures of the human body with elongated arms and legs ( inspired by a man called Giacometti) using wire, sticks, Mod Roc and clay. Mod Roc is a kind of bandage with Plaster of Paris (or escayola in it). It is used for making sculptures and you use it like clay, as it is easily shaped when wet. It can be a bit messy but it is fun to work with. Hope you enjoy looking at our sculptures! 5M have been involved in solving crimes! They arrived one morning to discover their classroom in disarray with evidence that a crime had been committed. The classroom was a crime scene with areas taped to avoid contamination of evidence. Evidence even included blood samples! Solving of the crime proved difficult with children taking on the roles of detectives and analysing the evidence presented, such as CCTV footage. If you want to discover more about this mystery, crime reports are displayed on the top floor of Primary.
YEAR 6 Year 6 has been the forum for debate recently with pupils discussing the merits of homework. Once again their ideas and thoughts are displayed outside 6H.
SCHOOL PERFORMANCES The highlight of March has to be the Year 1 and the Year 3/4 productions at the end of term. The year groups involved performed to packed audiences and gave performances that were confident and well spoken. The singing was superb in both shows and it seems as though we have many budding actors and actresses at BSA. Year 3/4 told the story of “SPLASH” a great musical comedy version of Noah's Ark - told from the animals’ point of view! Preston Parrot was on a mission to save his animal friends from the greatest flood in history. But when no one believed his news, he resorted to a little deception and arranged a luxury cruise on board “The Ark!” Aboard, there was a crew of colourful comic characters, including a band of brutal pirate rats and a love-sick French cat! The journey was overflowing with surprises - a rock and roll party, a kidnap, a storm and a rescue were just some of the twists and turns that made the show an adventure we’ll never forget. Likewise Year 1´s theme was “Animals” linked to this terms topic. They performed some fabulous action songs and even Parents and Grandparents in the audience were joining in. I am sure all were so proud to see such confident and enthusiastic Year 1 pupils.