Primary Newsletter April English

APR I L- MAY 2 0 1 1

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 The British School of Alicante

EGYPT DAY Mesage from the Head of Primary

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reativity has been the focus of many newsletters this year. By adopting a creative approach we are giving our pupils opportunities to invent, experiment, to grow, to make mistakes and learn from them and have FUN. All this creativity culminated in our Spring term productions and performances.

Years 1, 3 and 4 all performed for their parents, families and friends, Year 5 and 6 completed this years LAMDA programme with the examinations taking place over two days and some Year 6 pupils took part in Oliver. Even our fun charity day on the last day of term provided an opportunity to be creative. All these events certainly developed the skills I mentioned above, but nothing was

more obvious than the enjoyment of taking part and the working together to produce something and the FUN involved.

Albert Einstein said: “That to stimulate creativity, one must develop the childlike inclination for play and the childlike desire for recognition�. Maybe, as adults we can learn from our pupils how important it is to be creative and not to lose our creativity in our busy, everyday lives.

I hope you enjoy reading about these events in this newsletter and viewing the wonderful photographs.

Head of Primary Fiona Thomas

Year 1 Spring Concert

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n Thursday 7th April Year 1 performed their annual Spring Concert. This year the songs were based on the Year 1 Creative Curriculum topic of Jungle, Giants and Minibeasts. The children thoroughly enjoyed practising and performing the songs which consolidated their vocabulary and concepts covered in our topic. They also made their headdresses which looked fantastic. A big thank you to the parents for help with the costumes. It was an event enjoyed by all.

ZOOM

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or all of you who were able to watch ZOOM, the Year 3 and 4 show you will agree that the children did a fabulous job. Zoom retold the famous fable �The Tortoise and the Hare� in an unusual way with a race between fast and slow, big and small, right and wrong!

The children impressed the audience with their super singing and amazing acting, the show was truly outstanding!

ZOOM ZOOM ZOOM

Ambulance Visit

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ear 2 was the lucky year group to have a visit from the Red Cross Ambulance service last month. As well as listening to a talk from the visitors and a question and answer session all the pupils had the opportunity to see inside the ambulance, as well as sitting in the driver’s compartment while the siren was sounding.

The visitors demonstrated the correct technique for bandaging and the pupils were able to practise on one another. They were also shown all the other equipment on board and discussed how it was used day-to-day in saving lives.

LAMDA Examinations

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n Monday 11th and Tuesday 12th April eighty seven primary pupils performed for their LAMDA examinations. The examiner, Mrs. Nichola West visited from the UK for two days and was also examining in other British schools in Spain.

Year 5 performed their poems individually, followed by a short discussion about their chosen pieces. Year 6 performed their scenes in groups and feedback from the examiner was very positive. Mrs. West thought that our pupils “had been beautifully prepared” and was “impressed with their politeness and enthusiasm”.

Results will follow in 4-6 weeks and all pupils will receive a written report and a certificate from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Year 6 also performed for a wider audience. On Friday 15th April they performed in the sports hall for all of

KS2. The younger primary pupils enjoyed watching and it gave them an opportunity to see what they will be able to participate in further up the school.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank both pupils and teachers who worked so hard to prepare for LAMDA.

Paul Cookson Entertainment & Funny Poems

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ll the way from Lancashire came the funny poem writer, Paul Cookson, to our school on 12th May. This famous writer has been on radio and most recently on BBC Children’s Television.

Students from Y3 to Y9 took part in his performances.

His poems with rhythm and his Ukelele made children laugh a lot. At the end of each performance he sold and signed some of his famous books: “Pants on Fire” “Dinosaur Poems”, “Disgusting Poems”, “The Truth About Teachers”, “The Truth About Parents”, “Give Us a Goal” “I’d rather be a Footballer”, “It’s Behind You”……

If you would like to find out more information about the author, you can visit his web site at:

www.paulcooksonpoet.co.uk

News from the Library

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s a way of encouraging children to read, the school held its third book fair of the year, on Friday 1st April. It was a very successful day.

Our students, teachers and parents enjoyed flicking through books and buying many. Thanks to all those who bought a book because with every purchase we earned FREE books for our school. This time we got 863 euros!

A drawing and writing competition also took place on the day of the book fair. Many children from Reception to Y8 participated. The winners were: Inés (Reception F), Soraya (Y1S), Laura (Y2B), Paula (Y3B), Marina (Y4H), Patricia (Y5R), Ademi (Y6L) and Omar (Y7B) . 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.

Bookmarks Fund Raising

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s you all know, the school organized a fund-raising event for “Save the children”, where students had to decorate book marks and then sell them to their families and friends. Because of the amazing support, we raised 1,258.10 €.

The school would like to give special thanks to all parents and children who helped with their donations. We all sent a good message to our students: the importance of solidarity and team work to change the world where w e all live.

Year 6 SATs Tests Our Year 6 pupils will shortly be sitting their SATs in preparation for transfer to Secondary. The children are tested on all of the work they have covered in all year groups throughout key stage 2 in Maths and English.

We will follow the same format as pupils in the UK, which is as follows:

English

Maths

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Writing test (made up of a longer and a shorter task that includes handwriting) Spelling test Reading test

Mental maths (20 minutes) Written paper (45 minutes) Written paper (45 minutes)

Tests Timetable Monday Tuesday

Wednesday Thursday

23rd May 24th May

25th May 26th May

Judo F

riday May 16th we had the pleasure of awarding Judo belts to 96 of our pupils. Sr Valverde, Raul and Sarah have worked tirelessly all year to prepare pupils for their grades and they have all done extremely well.

We are very proud of them.

English Reading Test English Writing test (short task) and spelling test English writing test (longer task) Mental maths test and Mathematics test A Mathematics test B

H ea dte a c h e r´ s B l og I invite all parents to read the Headteacher´s blog which is available on our website. News and information will be posted and updated regularly . I hope this will keep you more informed of school developments.

Dates for May - June •

16th May – Yr 3/4 Sports

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18th May – Yr 6 trip meeting – 4.-45 in Library

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19th May – Yr 5/6 Sports

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W/B 23rd May – SATs testing – Yr 6

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25th May – Yr 5 trip meeting – 4.45 in Library

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26th May – Yr 3P Trip – Traffic Park

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26th May – Yr 1/2 Sports

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27th May – Nursery Open Morning

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27th May – Changeover Day – meeting your new teacher

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30th May – Yr 6 Residential trip

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30th May – Yr 3B and 3O trip – traffic park

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1st June – Early Years Farm Trip

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7th June – Yr 5 Residential trip

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13th June – Yr 4 Residential trip

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17th June – Hogueras

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21st June - Yr 2 and Yr 5 Graduation assemblies

For more dates please see our Parent Calendar on the website.

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