JA NU A R Y 20 1 1
T H E S E C O N D A RY N E W S L E T T E R Secondary News from the Pupils and Teachers of The British School of Alicante
Swimming Gala
2010
Rugby Trip Helping the Community As part of our ongoing commitment to the wider community, Kings College, the British School of Alicante has, as in previous years, been collecting donations of food, toys and clothes for less fortunate children and families in Alicante. Parents, students and staff have generously donated an enormous amount of gifts, which have all been wrapped. The gift’s were donated to the Asociación
Humanitaria whose ongoing work here in Alicante is an ongoing source of great help for under privileged families, especially at this time of year. The collection of gifts is just a small part of the fundraising activities of the school this year and we have so far, this year, donated over 2000 euros to charities both locally and worldwide.
Reading is Important by S t e p h e n G r e e n
As a young boy growing up in the North West of England, my father had a saying which will stay with me my entire life: ´A book is like a friend; it´s always there when you need it most.´ Over the years I´ve read such sentiments in a number of places. Noble Peace Prize winner and former President of Israel - Shimon Peres very wisely said: ´To read books is like going to swim in a sea of wisdom, endlessly fascinating. And there are so many wise people all over the world, throughout history, and you can have it free, for nothing. And reading must become a daily habit. It’s not that you can read once a week. I read day in and day out, and you make acquaintances with books. After a few pages, you know with whom you are dealing. Serious, unserious, far-sighted, repetitive.´ For me the best books, as in life, become friends and allow you, if only for a brief moment, to escape. The fact that we all reap great benefits from reading cannot be doubted or questioned. It is for this reason that as a school we are constantly looking to instill in our students a real love for reading and groom them into becoming lifelong readers. Getting young people to read today is an increasing source of difficulty. Getting them to read books just for the sheer pleasure of reading is especially harder since young people today have so many other distractions. Gone are the days when children curled up with a nice little book when it was too hot to play outside. Today, students spend any free time they have watching TV, going to the mall, tweeting, messaging or playing on their games console.
We have over the past year introduced a number of initiatives in the school; Books at Breakfast, World Book Day, book exhibitions to name a few. All of these encourage us to become more avid readers. We should also remember that reading itself brings numerous benefits. For example, it is observed that children and teenagers who love reading have comparatively higher IQs. They are more creative and do better in school. Reading also helps in mental development and is known to stimulate the muscles of the eyes. Reading is an activity that involves greater levels of concentration and adds to the conversational skills of the reader. It is an indulgence that enhances the knowledge acquired, consistently. The habit of reading also helps readers to decipher new words and phrases that they come across in everyday conversations. The habit can become a healthy addiction and adds to the information available on various topics. It helps us to stay in-touch with contemporary writers as well as those from the days of yore and makes us sensitive to global issues. Everyone knows how important it is to be knowledgeable to succeed in any area of life that you choose. It will perhaps be less surprising to learn that the most successful people in many walks of life would be the persons who are the most well read. An old teacher of mine once said “Today a reader, tomorrow a leader”. This may well be true, but I would prefer to leave you with one last quote from the great author, Dr. Seuss: “The more you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” How very true.
Stephen Green Head of Secondary
Miguel Gregori New Science Teacher
My passion is science. I studied physics because I had to choose something, but I am also very interested in biology, especially molecular biology, genetics, and neuroscience (though I am just starting to read about it properly). Recently I have also developed an interest in history, sociology politics and economics, after reading a book on the emerging field of social-physics (Critical Mass by Philip Ball - highly recommended!). My aim is to help students see the value and relevance of the scientific method and to make physics fun and interesting for them. Outside school my main hobbies are music and cinema in the arts department and rock climbing is my sport. I also love chess very much, I really think it is the best game ever created, but sadly I don’t have what it takes to be a good player, so I don’t play much. I have two children, Nacho (4) and Elsa (1.66), and I am married to Elena, who just finished her studies to become a primary school teacher.
Academic Mentoring for Year 11s So, how did you do in your mocks? Are you proud of your results? Are they a mixed bag or do they leave you tearing your hair out and running for the text books / hills? Most importantly, where do you go from here and HOW do you do it? If you’re on a D for History and your target is a B HOW do you improve that grade? This is where year 11 mentors come in. It is their job to support their mentees, make sure you understand the grades that you’ve have got, create realistic targets and help you to develop the skills to reach their goals.
So how can your mentor help you? • • • • • • • • • •
Writing a revision timetable together Learning command words in exams Improving you essay writing in English Practicing PEE paragraphs Working out timing on tricky exams Testing you on key word lists Showing you how to use resources properly in exams Helping you to set targets Planning catch-up work with you Learning how NOT to panic in exams
This term Ms Cook, Mr. Wicks, Miss Turton, Ms Davies, Mr. Panter and Mr. Green are going to be your mentors. You may have swapped group so have a look. Mentoring sessions will be advertised on the Key Stage Four section of the Pastoral Office board. Be there!
Good Luck, Jaime! Congratulations to Jaime Sánchez-Ferragut, Year 13, who has been offered places at all of his chosen universities to study Aeronautical and Motor Sport Engineering. Jamie has offers from the University of Bath, Brunel University, City University, Oxford Brookes University and the University of Surrey. Jaime now has the unenviable task of choosing which offer to accept – good luck with the decision, Jaime!
Congratulations to Irene Irene Nicolas Zapata of Year 9 achieved Women’s International Master status at the First International Tournament the Gran Hotel Bali that has taken place at this hotel in Benidorm (Alicante). Congratulation to Irene on this wonderful achievement. The tournament has been played with the sponsorship of the Women and Sport Sports Council.
Athletic Success Written by Yongmin Cho Y8T
Congratulations to Héctor Chapela Lamas(Y8T) for his outstanding performances in the recent provincial athletics meeting of Alicante held in Denia last weekend. With a new Provincial Long Jump record of 4m 31cm Hector’s magnificent achievement has made us proud of him. He is now the junior provincial champion. He also won the bronze medal in the 60 metre final sprint with a terrific time of 9:04 seconds. He will now be heading to the “Autonomics“ which is the regional championship to be held in Valencia. We wish him every success. Go Hector go!
What does mean? By Verena Oetzmann Y11
During the last century and our present century there has been such a fast technological progress in which words like Coca Cola or iPod are very common. Some brand names have become proper words we constantly use. Some words are made up of the first letters of the technical name for the product. “Laser” actually means: light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation. And I’m sure you didn’t know that AIDS means acquired immune deficiency syndrome.
But what is “google” then? The whole project started in the 1990s in Stanford University in California, where two students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin worked on a way of linking other web pages to one large searching machine. At first they wanted to call their new invention “googolplex” but then decided it was too complex and renamed it, using the word “googol”, the name given to the logarithm 10100, since they had based the system on logarithms.
Google Headquarters
Rugby Trip to La Vila By Alex Barrenechea Y8T
On Friday 21st 15 pupils from years 6, 7 & 8 went on a rugby trip to the home ground of La Vila who are currently leading the Spanish National League. Once there we met with three of the leading professional players at the club, namely Bob, Neil and Ryan who gave us a great training session on all the basic skills. It was a bright and sunny day but we needed to be kept warm because of the cold wind. We started by doing some running and passing drills where we needed to avoid each other just like in a proper game. We were then introduced to some tackling and this was great fun once we were shown the technique. We practised using large tackling bags where we just charged up to the bags hit them with our shoulders and put our arms around the bags. We then did a drill of hitting a shield bag and making sure we didn´t let the ball go. After that we were ready to tackle each other. The secret was to make sure you landed on top of your opponent so you got up first – easy. We were put into two teams and then we got to play a proper game on the rugby field where we scored plenty of tries and put all our skills to the test. The running and passing was spectacular but some of us had forgotten how to tackle. To finish off a great morning we had a kicking competition at the posts – kicking the ball off a tee on the ground just like they do for a penalty or conversion. If you didn´t get the ball over the cross bar you were out. Soon only four were left then only two – Luis Blaso and the professional player Ryan. To make it more difficult the ball was taken further back and away from the posts. Unbelievably the experienced Ryan narrowly missed the posts leaving Luis with a difficult kick to win. Calmly, Luis ran up to the ball and smoothly and expertly kicked the
ball through the middle of the posts – a fantastic kick from Luis who had kicked plenty of footballs but never before an oddly shaped rugby ball. Afterwards we were invited into the club house where we had something to eat and watched videos of actual rugby games of La Vila playing. We thanked the players for their expert coaching and for giving us such a great time and a memorable experience. We then got on the bus thanked Mr Thomas (who told us he used to play rugby years ago) for coming with us and we were back in school ready for lesson 6 and then lunch.
Haiti Relief Fund Mrs. Pilkington and Sr. Mora recently attended an event hosted by the Red Cross in Alicante. On behalf of BSA they collected a certificate in recognition of our donation last year towards the Haiti Relief Fund.
Animal Charity SPAP BSA students were delighted to donate 100 euros to the Socidad Protectora de Animales y Plantas last week. The money was raised last term and some of our Year 3 students were treated to a Q & A session by a charity representative and meet one of the abandoned puppies SPAP was currently caring for.
Former Pupil News We are delighted to announce that Krisha Gandhi has been offered an unconditional place at London University’s School of Oriental and African Studies to read Chinese and History from September 2011. Congratulations to Krisha who is currently on a gap year, working at the British School of Beijing.
A Beijing Blurg 20th December 2010
There are very few words I can think of to summarise just how much both mine and Jacks’ lives have changed over the past few months. It’s hard to believe that it was over half a year ago since our China dream first began. Writing our very first CVs and heading to Liverpool – just happy to have reached the interviews stages – seems a world away. I’m sure Jack will agree by saying that China is far from what we both expected but better in a million and more ways. Though the city itself is at first far from pleasing to the eye we seen to find a little magic down every street we pass. Whether it be because of the deep red sky, manic driving of all vehicles from luxurious cars to tin shed rickshaws or the scent of fresh street food – Beijing really had opened our eyes to the rest of the world. With Jack having already discovered the likes of Inner Mongolia and as I write this blurb in Chengdu Airport waiting to start my Christmas Travels through Indonesia, I cannot help but think that we are both, most definitely, living a dream!
What’s perhaps more amazing is that we get just as much excitement from our day to day lives. Working as Teaching Assistants in the British School of Beijing is in our opinion the best job in the world! As TAs Jack and myself experience both the challenging and rewarding side of teaching. From working with children who can barely speak a word of English and seeing their development and growth within just a few months into cheeky little chatterboxes to having cream pies smothered over your face for class assemblies – this job really never can get boring! And of course seeing Mrs. Brock’s face everyday makes Beijing feel even more like home! 2010 has definitely been a year to remember and I´m sure there will be just as much excitement for the few months ahead. We wish all at King’s College Alicante the very best for the New Year.
With Love from China Krisha Gandhi
Hea 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 new website. News and information will be posted and updated regularly . I hope this will keep you more informed of school developments.
Dates for February •
Friday 4th February (Provisional) Year 8 Trip to Aspe
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Saturday 12th February – Thursday 17th February Y10 Trip to France
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Monday 21st February – Friday 25th Feb CIE A Level Mock Exams
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Thursday 24th February Y9 Options Meeting
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