Primary Newsletter January 2010

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

BSA with Haiti

The “Big idea”

Primary Book Review

The British School of Alicante Monthly Update

Newsletter PRIMARY NUMBER 13 JANUARY 2009

Message from the Head of Primary We have a lot of big ideas in Primary. This year we have a plan to grow and improve the language skills of all our pupils. It is our Speaking and Listening Project. An important part of any plan is to review the progress that is being made towards the goal. To monitor the progress of our plan to improve language skills we are going to interview children who actively enjoy reading and encourage them to communicate their love of reading to their classmates; these children will, in turn, become more enthusiasic readers who will go on to enthuse others. After a while we hope to have created a virtuous circle of positive reinforcement. In this way we can create a culture where books and reading are valued by childen and understood as the keys to all sorts of future learning and progress.

We need the whole school community to support the Speaking and Listening project. If you have any questions about how to encourage your child to communicate, read, write, speak and listen we have a whole team of experts - our teachers - who can help and advise you.

You can read more about the monitoring process on the next pages.

I am looking forward to the first round of meetings and interviews. I expect to learn a lot from what I hear from the children.

Fiona Thomas Head of Primary School

A Helping Hand Last month just after the terrible Earthquake in Haiti the Primary School of King’s College, Alicante raised money to help the unfortunate people who were suffering.

The

BIG idea

This month we start a programme of pupil interviews in the Primary School.

A number of pupils from Year 5 and Year 6 will be invited to meet with the Head of Primary and other teachers to discuss how reading fits into thir lives. This is part of our commitment to raising standards in language and communication by paying close attention to the progress being made by individual children. The emphasis this year is on Speaking and Listening.

The idea is to equip all our children with the skills and knowledge not only to read well and to enjoy reading from a whole range of sources but to activly encourage these children to pass their enthusiasm for reading to other children.

The "big idea" is to create a virtuous circle of more and better reading in the school. We believe that if the children who actively enjoy reading are encouraged to communicate their love of reading to their friends; these children will, in turn, become enthusiasic readers who will, in turn, enthuse others. In this way we can create a culture where books and reading are valued and understood as

a key that unlocks learning across the curriculum.

All the primary school staff are focusing on improving the basic language skills of our childen.

Carefully monitoring the progress of this project allows us to keep track of how the initiative is working and will help us to understand what works well and what doesn't work so well. The importance we place on the interviews sends an important message - not just to the children being interviewed but to the wider school community, including staff, siblings and parents - about the great value King's College places on reading. As well as providing an important forum where staff can listen to what our children have to say about reading the meetings will enable them to evaluate their own reading. The pupils will be given the opportunity to use their initiative and ask questions about the connections between reading, learning and having fun. We hope that the conversations in the interviews will also help more generally to improve the children's critical awarenes of their learning skills.

The monitoring project will be extended next term to include more year groups and different curriculum areas. More opportunities will be given to children to express their ideas and feelings about their academic progress. Dialogue with senior teachers will help our pupils build their self-esteem and develop the confidence to become more active learners as they move up through the school.

Remember

Four things you can do at home

"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go" Dr Seuss

• read infront of your children, books, newspapers and magazines you are their best role model • visit bookshops when you are in town. Fnac, El Corte Ingles and El Casa Del Libro all have sections for children • regularly buy books and magazines. Encourage your child to visit the school library and borrow books • Read to your child and talk to your child about books, show them that you are interested in books

Primary library book reviews The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett "A spoiled orphan named Mary returns to England from India when her parents die. She is sent to live in Yorkshire with her uncle in his mansion, and there becomes embroiled in family problems. She meets her crippled cousin Colin and a local called Dick who begins to cure her selfishness. Mary becomes interested in a secret garden that the uncle doesn't allow the children into, and is determined to clear it out and bring it back to life..."

Moby Dick

by Herman Melville

"If anyone reads this book & thinks it's about a mad sailor (Ahab) chasing whales, he or she has totally missed the point. It is about man's struggle against a universe that he doesn't understand....a milieu which is bigger than he is. Perhaps all that mankind can do is put up a heroic struggle against it. This is an extraordinary book about man's condemnation to the realm of mortality and relative powerlessness."

Chinese Cinderella

by Adeline Yen Mah

"This is a woman's memoir of her childhood in China in the 1940s and 1950s. Her family was very wealthy and privileged, but the girl and her siblings were abused and neglected by her stepmother and sometimes her father. There was a great deal of favoritism in the family; the stepmother's children were treated much better than the father's children. The girl spent many years in various boarding schools, ignored by her family, but succeeded in life through making good grades in school."

L

ast month just after the terrible Earthquake in Haiti the Primary School of King’s College, Alicante raised money to help the unfortunate people who were suffering. The whole school was involved in fundraising. Children, their families, staff and teachers all helped by giving donations from different fund raising activities. The biggest and most memorable was making a big map and a Haitian flag out of coins and paper money.

There was also a bring-and-buy cake sale, a very successful non-uniform day and the teachers also sold their old books to each other. Altogether €4,114 was raised. "A magnificent effort by primary to help the plight of the Haiti people."

Said Fiona Thomas the Head of the Primary School. "I’m very pleased with all of our children and teachers who worked so hard to organize so many exiting activities last month. I’m proud that our school is such a caring community." Said Elaine Blaus, Head Teacher. Thanks to the help of this fantastic school, all of the money will be going to the Spanish Red Cross to help the people of Haiti in this terrible time.

By Iria, Lillie and Sergio M

February Dates

Dates for your Diary 19th Feb - Year 4 trip - Chocolate Factory 26th Feb - Nursery Trip - Happy City 12th March - Primary Reports sent out 22nd March - Reception C and Year 1R - visit to a Fire Station 26th March - Reception S and Year 1P - visit to a Fire Station 30th March - Year 1 Performance 31st March - Years 3 and 4 Performance

Carnival 2010

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