SecNewsletter

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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

Reco r ds Tu m ble in Ann u al Sw i mm i n g Gala The annual BSA Swimming Gala took place on Thursday 21st October amongst the usual cacophony of cheering and colour. Students from Years 7 – 13 competed against each other to see which house would come out on top.

Honours were spread amongst the Four Houses of Columbus, Darwin, Gaudi and Orwell

showing the hard work from all the competitors, paying off with some more impressive swimming. Ms. Goode remarked “it’s great to see the swimmers enjoying the event. It’s very evident that they have all been working hard on starts, turns and their stroke techniques are improving year after year”. This was clearly the case with several school records broken this year.

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So How Much Time Do We Have?

by S t e p h e n G r e e n

Every year of our lives, we use up an average of 8,766 hours. In Secondary school, which is seven years of your life, that adds up to 61,362 hours. If our lives extend only to age 50, we’ll still have 438,300 hours to achieve whatever goals we´ve set ourselves. If we make it to 60, we’ve got a total of 525,960 hours at our disposal - to handle priorities, fulfil obligations, meet interesting people, pursue personal interests, travel to exotic lands, contribute to the lives of others, pass exams... Should we last till 70, we’ll have no fewer than 613,620 hours to work with.

Age 80 will bring our temporal supply up to 701,280 hours - surely a sufficient amount of time to enable us to realise our most cherished hopes and dreams.

Why then do we often hear others (and admit it, ourselves) say ´I don´t have enough time´?

True, we´re obliged to subtract about a third from the different totals above to make allowances for sleeping, eating and all the other things that ´get in the way´.

These other things could be referred to as ´procrastination´. Put simply, finding other things to do in order to avoid the task at hand. Psychologists would explain such behaviour as being both needless and counterproductive. Indeed, it could even result in stress, or a sense of guilt coupled with a severe loss of personal achieve-

ment. The key point here is that we should have more than enough time to achieve anything half way realistic we might aspire to. So if we always seem to be falling behind in our various pursuits – or abandoning them altogether – we must examine how well we´ve been using this most plentiful (but hardly inexhaustible) temporal resource.

For the vast majority of us, the key reason we ´don´t have enough time’ is that we never adequately clarify how much time we should be devoting to the different things we most value. The solution should be plain enough. At some point, we simply need to reflect seriously about what we care about, what we aspire to, what we believe is possible and what we can commit ourselves to.

When setting ourselves goals and targets in our work and in our play we should always remember to be SMART. The targets we set ourselves should be Specific; they should be Measurable; they should be Achievable and Realistic. The element we should never forget is that they should be Time based.

So, in the end, the choice is ours. We can either set ourselves up for potential failure and unhappiness by using that (excuse the pun) time honoured excuse ´I haven´t enough time’ or we can be happier and more successful

Stephen Green Head of Secondary

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ECO SCHOOL

The School Council has voted to adopt the environmental management system Eco-schools in a move to make the British School of Alicante a cleaner, greener environment. Eco-schools is a major project that has been adopted by thousands of schools over the UK and many link partners abroad. It is a democratic and participatory programme that provides an excellent opportunity for pupils to experience active citizenship in their school. It benefits both the schools and the wider community such as: • • • • • •

an improved school environment involvement of the local community increased environmental awareness pupil empowerment financial savings international contacts

The first step is to achieve our bronze award and in order to do this we are conducting an environmental audit to find out how green we are now. Pupils will be researching the energy use, water consumption, travel arrangements and school grounds amongst others and we aim to produce a full environmental audit of the school. The next step will be to set goals and to write an action plan to achieve them.

It is an exciting, pupil lead project for the school council and gives them the opportunity to make a real difference to the school community. If any parents have the skills to help and support us in our move to sustainability, please contact the head of the school council, Alejandra Garcia Ten, or email katherine.turton@kingsgroup.org. For more information on the project, check out the Eco-schools website http://www.eco-schools.org/index.php Kat Turton

THE N O RT H S OUT H D IV I D E IN T H E UK In Geography we have been researching the North-South divide in the UK and in England in particular. This is in the unit we are studying, “Unequal Spaces.” Our aim was to find out the social, economic and cultural differences between the North and South of England and if the North-South divide line still exists. We carried out a questionnaire with a few of the teachers to find out their perceptions on the North-South divide line. Furthermore, we found various statistics on websites and the National Census. Our results show that, economically, the South is better off. This is shown by the questionnaire and the graph showing the average household income is significantly higher in London and the South-East. Teachers’ perception about the disparity in the South agrees with National Statistics. Teachers perception about higher priced housing in the South agrees with estate agent statistics. Teachers perceive that there is a greater sense of community within the North than there is in the South, this idea was supported within national newspapers. Overall, teachers perceptions agreed with secondary data that there is a social and economic difference between the North and the South.

Kiefer Port, Mia Craig, Joe Bembridge, Maria Klockner

Average Household Income by region Source: Office for National Statistics Source: UK census, 2001.

The south is about high house prices and unfriendly public transport… Sunday TImes

Andrew Lepreux hates southerners: the beer tastes a bit funny and they bath oddly…

Observer

The North South divide line still often separates red from blue… (Labour from Conservative voters) Sunday Times.

The northerners are a bit more friendly; a bit more down to earth than southerners…

Observer

GEOGRAP H Y TRIP TO CARAB ASS I SAND DUN E S

One Thursday in September, the year 11 geographers gathered up a collection of strange looking equipment, grabbed a pack lunch and their sandals and headed out to the sand dunes at Carabassi beach. What’s this?

Picnicking on the beach on a school day? Shouldn’t year 11 be chained to their revision guides? Well, learning doesn’t just happen in the classroom you know. As part of their Edexcel GCSE Geography, year 11 pupils complete a controlled assessment: a project based on fieldwork.

The pupils planned the work to investigate the factors that affect the shape and form of the sand dunes and last Thursday, they went out to the dunes to complete the fieldwork. Drawing a transect line through the dunes and using compasses, clinometers, ranging poles and tape measures the pupils worked in teams to create a dune profile that shows the cross section of the sand dunes. Quadrats were employed by Ana and Roque to check out the vegetation cover and Kat and Sandra used a digital anemometer measured wind speed. Julia, Marta and Juan counted pedestrians and measured the environmental quality and Moresche with her photography skills captured all the action.

On return to school, the data has been collected and shared and the class are using the new school laptops to analyse the evidence and to draw conclusions from it. Pupils are using skills learnt during the Isle of Wight fieldtrip last year and IT tools such as GIS and Excel

to analyse their evidence and relate it to their original question. They have a couple more lessons of teamwork but then will have to work in exam conditions to complete their own controlled assessment that will form part of their final GCSE Geography grade.

Ashford, Aaron, Liam and Sandra showed great teamwork skills during the trip; Claudia, Craig and Verena demonstrated their ability to lead; Maria was determined to get her results and Candela really got the hang of using the clinometers. Moresche carefully documented the evidence for use in our projects and captured a few moments of fun too.

Y7 Art Trip The year 7 students went on a trip on Wednesday 20th October. They visited a Spanish pop art exhibition. They had a talk about the art work and discussed traits of pop art and why the artists created art work like this. The trip was very interesting and they learnt about a famous painting known as LAS MENINAS. After the trip the students returned to school to create some meninas for display. The students worked in groups and experimented with lots of different techniques; printing, painting, collage, textiles and colouring.

The meninas had to be made entirely from circles to link with the pop art theme.

YEA R 7 E L PLANTIO VISIT The aim of the visit was to study how El Plantio have changed the landscape of their golf course from an area that was arid and dry, to one that is green and lush. We also wanted to consider the effect of the golf course on the local habitats for the animals and the use of water and electricity on the course.

We were treated to an excellent presentation by Jose Ferry, who spoke about the wildlife in the area and various aspects unique to the course. Sr. Ferry led us on a walk along the main course pointing out man-made lakes, swans, tortoises and other animals and flora. At the practice area we were put through our paces with several excellent instructors.

It was a wonderful morning exploring changing environments and habitats and everyone really enjoyed the opportunity to play golf, which very few had attempted before.

Dan Butcher

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Y EA R 7 T U R R O N FACTORY A N D C ASTLE VIS I T On Monday 25th of October, Year 7 pupils, along with Ms. Wood and Srta. Guia visited the 1880-El Lobo Turron factory and afterwards the town of Jijona – the centre of Turron situated 25km north of Alicante.

We enjoyed the opportunity to speak Valencian with Jijona’s inhabitant - the vast majority speak this language – and ask them questions like “NO IDEA”, when they celebrate fiestas, what is the most famous statue in the town etc. The pupils later copied up the answers in their exercise books.

Slowly we walked up the steep slope towards the esplanade where we found the ruins of the castle, and where we ate, relaxed and eventually the pupils did some historical research about the castle itself.

As part of their studies of medieval castles Year 7 visited Jijona castle. After dragging all the turron they had bought from the factory up the big hill, we arrived at the castle. Unfortunately there is not much of the castle left to see as most of it is in ruins. However with the help of a diagram and lots of imagination we set about thinking about the defensive features of the castle. We were particularly impressed with the view for miles around (although this made some of the students with vertigo feel a bit sick). We then thought of the different ways that we would attack the castle.

YE A R 9 G E T I N VO LV ED IN P RIMARY C R E AT I VE ARTS W E E K The successful Creative Arts Week which ran from the 10th to the 15th October culminated in talent showcases organized and performed by year 9 pupils.

All year 9 pupils practised a performance or creative talent they could demonstrate to primary children on the final afternoon of primary’s busy week creating sculptures, working with new media, writing poetry, short stories, and learning new skills.

The secondary pupils had chosen their groups and selected a suitable talent to show; Then they braced themselves for the bombarding of ‘customers’ to watch and learn what they could do that sunny October afternoon. Pupils enjoyed the experience immensely and found it very rewarding to captivate the attention of their younger peers. All primary children were very eager to have a go at all the exciting activities on offer and after a brief demonstration and explanation by the Year 9s, they had the opportunity to learn a new skill to impress their friends.

The playground had become a buzz of creative energy and exchanging of ideas, and many primary children, particularly little girls, were open mouthed and in awe of the fantastic dance display put on by Year 9 girls. The audience then learnt part of the dance they had seen, but only after a thorough warm up as instructed by Year 9s!

Mrs. Castro

NICKY FINISHES THIRD IN TOURNAMENT FINAL On the 16th of October 2010 I played in the final of the circuito match quality golf at Club de Golf Rio Real in Marbella. I travelled down to Marbella on Thursday and got there Thursday night and just had a look around. The next day I went for a practice day from 7am till 6 pm. I started off at the range just to loosen myself up for a couple of hours then hit the chipping and putting green for a good 4 hours. It was time for a lunch break just to get my energy levels back up. It was coming up to 2 o clock and I decided to hit the course. I just went out to get a feel of the course, and to know what types of shots to play on certain holes. Unfortunately I played absolutely amazing on the practice round shooting 3 under par, I set my standards too high for the actual tournament. It was tournament day and I was up bright and early rearing to go. I was teeing off at 9 o clock and I hit the range about 8.10am to get warmed up and then it was time to

get it underway. After a complete mess of the front nine carding 5 over, then after nine my dad and my caddie both spoke to me and told me to get my act together, the back nine I played impressively to hit a 1 under on the back nine to give me a total of 4 over par, not my best by a long way but It was respectable. After the round when I had the interviews with the journalists. They asked me one last question, and it was if I was coming back next year, and all I answered was, I won’t only be back, I’ll be back to win. (I finally just want to say that all this would not have been possible without the help of my coach, my family, and my caddy Dave).

FORMER PUPIL SUCCESS Anton Farber, who graduated from BSA in the summer, has been awarded 100% scholarship to ESADE (Barcelona), one of Europe's finest Business schools. Anton achieved a 'perfect 10' score via his outstanding A Level results which qualified him to apply for the scholarship.

Naturally, we are all delighted for Anton and wish him well in his future studies and career.

Sixth Form Enrichment The Tuesday Speeches E

very other Tuesday, the sixth form students are fortunate in being visited by an individual from outside of the school. They have come from a diversity of backgrounds and professions but they share a passion for their careers and have all been successful in a number of different ways. First, students listen to the speaker’s exposition, are provided with an opportunity to question the speaker and then enjoy a more informal discussion over some coffee and biscuits. The aim of this has been to provide us all with a sense of purpose, to learn and benefit from successful people’s experiences and of course in helping us on the path to possible future careers. So far, three people have contributed coming to talk to the sixth form students: The first man who came to talk to the students was Jose Luis Campillo Alhama, a lawyer who owns JLCA & As Lawyers. Next, it was Juan Manuel Martinez Martineztercero, a financial advisor who is the director of Martinez Tercero Asesores S.L. And finally, we had an engineer, Manuel Prada, who is involved with several organisations including a Business Consultancy, IT Consultancy and a Professional Services organisation.

Hem Aprovat el Mitja a la Primera!

José Luis Campillo Alhama JLCA & As Lawyers

It was a pleasure to meet, to listen to and talk with our visiting speakers and to benefit from the wisdom and experience each has been able to bring to us all. We are all agreed, that the initiative has been a huge success and most enjoyable.

If you are someone who feels they could support this initiative, please contact the school. We would only be too pleased to meet you and listen to your advice.

Marta Gonzalez Chairperson to the Sixth Form Committee

PER QUÈ VAM FER VALENCIÀ?

MARTA: Vaig fer Valencià perquè sempre m’ha paregut interessant parlar uns altres idiomas i volia obtindre el títol del Mitjà.

MANOLO: Vaig fer-lo perquè m’agraden els idiomas i les classes amb la Srta. Guio són una bona elecció per a practicar l’idioma i traure’m el Mitjà.

QUÈ VAU FER PER A TRAURE EL TÍTOL A LA PRIMERA VEGADA? MANOLO i MARTA: Marta i jo vam assistir a totes les classes extra amb la Srta. Guio i, a més, vam repassar

molt, i, gràcies a tots els exàmens orals que vam fer, quan vam arribar a l’examen oficial no ens vam posar nerviosos.

PER QUÈ EM SERVIRÀ EL TÍTOL? MARTA i MANOLO: Si volem treballar ací, a la Comunitat Valenciana o a Catalunya o a les Illes Balears, en llocs públics, necessitem un títol de Valencià, i traure’l tan prompte és un avantatge molt gran. A més, ens facilitarà l’entrada a la universitat i a qualsevol treball en qualsevol lloc, ja que és un títol més.

SP O N S O R S H IP OP P ORT UNIT IE S PA RT N E R - IN - E D UCAT ION We are excited to offer local companies and individuals the opportunity to support King´s College, The British School of Alicante by becoming a BSA partner-in-education.

Becoming one of our partners-in-education is an ideal way to capture the attention of your potential consumers and clients, whilst, at the same time, helping to support the students in our renowned school. Our sponsorship opportunities include school events, sporting teams and Inter-School Sports Competitions. In positioning your company as a partner with one of the region’s most successful and highly regarded schools, you will receive tangible marketing benefits while supporting our dedication to community integration and global citizenship.

The school relies on the support from members of its community to sustain and enhance the school’s reputation for excellence. It is with your support that the school can continue to thrive and provide our students with the best in education – both inside and outside of the classroom.

To get involved please contact Inmaculada on info@bsalicante.com

PA R K I NG Thank you for your cooperation with our request not to park in front of the main school entrance, it is creating a much safer environment for our children and the public traffic flow is being maintained.

We enclose a diagram of the red zones which we would ask that you continue to keep clear at the beginning and end of the school day.

S C HOO L B U S EN TRY O N LY

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 website. News and information will be posted and updated regularly . I hope this will keep you more informed of school developments.

Dates for November 1st November – school closed 11th November – Year 9 Parents Evening 18th November – Year 11 Parents Evening 25th November – Year 12-13 Parents Evening For more dates please see our Parent Calendar on the website. w w w. b s a l i c a n t e. c o m

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