Bsg newsletter term dec 2013

Newsletter

Issue 3 - Term 1 - 2013/2014

A Newsletter for The British School of Guangzhou

To download a copy of this newsletter, please visit: www.bsg.org.cn

Head’s Message Dear Parents, With International Day one week behind I thought it fitting to write and thank everyone for their efforts in making this such a wonderful day. Since it was introduced 6 years ago, this event has become a permanent fixture in the BSG calendar, and it has been fascinating to see the way it has developed.

Our very first International Day was held on a school day in classrooms, with an International food hall filled with dishes donated entirely by our parents.

From these humble beginnings it grew quickly with costumes, games, parades and performances soon becoming a feature.

Three years on, it was moved to the weekend originally to allow more fathers to get involved, but was still a relatively small event as shown in this photo from days gone by (note Miss Kathy’s costume).

These days International day is an event that appeals to the whole expat community within Guangzhou with outside vendors and stalls providing all manner of goods. For me this is one of the most enjoyable days of the year; a true celebration of the cultural differences that makes an International School such a wonderful place.

I am truly grateful to our parent body for the way they contribute their time and efforts to create stalls that not only entertain visitors but also give them an insight into your own culture. Living the life of an expat certainly has its advantages, but for me, days like this are important to hold onto our own cultures and promote understanding within our international community. I for one will never forget this year’s bubble blowing Japanese caterpillar, the dances of our Philippine community or the sight of our Korean children, singing and dancing in crash helmets. I am so impressed at the number of parents who are willing to set up food stalls and spend the day working hard to create food from their home country to tempt the hungry visitors. It truly was a mouth-watering spectacle.

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When groups began arriving on Saturday morning to set up stalls there was a wonderful sense of excitement about the day. Once the children and visitors arrived in their costumes, a dimension of colour was added, and by the time Mr. Doug blew into his bagpipes and led the procession of Y2 students to the stage, a carnival atmosphere was upon us.

There is no doubt that International Day creates a lot of work for many people. I am eternally grateful to the likes of Paul Corr, Melody, Gemma and the EFC for all the preparations they make behind the scenes. The school security staff and ayis deserve a special mention for the often-overlooked task of setting up stalls the night before, and the unenviable task of clearing away during and after the event.

My thanks to everyone including our sponsors for a truly memorable day!

Hot on the heels of our CIS visit we have recently been visited by a team of UK inspectors on behalf of Nord Anglia Education. This visit was very useful for us all and I am pleased to say that they were extremely impressed with standards at the school. I will be publishing parts of their report on the website for your information but for now would like to pick out some of the strengths that they highlighted: The academic achievement of students

· Standards are generally above UK, global and Nord Anglia Education averages.

The quality of teaching and learning · All the teaching observed was consistently good and in many cases outstanding.

The quality of the curriculum · An academically strong curriculum, especially in reading, mathematics, music and ICT. The behaviour of pupils and the procedures to secure their health and safety · Students have a very positive work ethic, respond well to high expectations and want to succeed. · Behaviour is excellent Leadership and management · Senior leadership teams work well together and are hardworking and committed to providing the very best for the students. · Middle leaders have a pivotal role in developing teaching and learning in their subjects and phases.

As you can imagine, we are very pleased to receive this level of praise and will look forward to working with the Nord Anglia Education team on addressing any areas for development.

I hope parents and children have found time to check out the blog from Suah Hong and Maolin Huang, which details the activities of the students visiting the school in Tiandeng County, Guangxi Province. I personally feel an immense sense of pride reading about their efforts to help this community school improve the education of its students. A huge thank you to Miss Amanda for organising this trip and for the students for showing such impressive community spirit.

Finally, we should note the 20th November as a very special day in the life of our school. On this day, Chris Lin celebrated his 18th birthday, becoming the first ever 18 year old student at the British School of Guangzhou.

When I came to Guangzhou 6 years ago, we made a commitment to our parents to create a Secondary school that will prepare their children for universities around the world. Very soon, Chris and the other Sixth Form students will make this commitment a reality when they become our first ever graduates. I hope you enjoyed your birthday Chris and that you achieve your predicted grades and go onto the university of your choice next year.

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COMMUNITY NEWS 4

Christmas Choir Concerts Monday 2nd December: ISMAG Primary Carol Concert – Lower & Upper Primary Choirs - 6:30pm The International Schools Music Associations of Guangzhou (ISMAG) is organising a Christmas Carol concert at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Huangshi Dong Road. The performance will involve choirs from BSG, Utahloy and Clifford Schools. Students from these choirs will also join forces to create the joint ISMAG Primary Choir.

Friday 6th December: Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony – Garden Hotel – 6pm In keeping with tradition the Upper Primary Choir will again be performing at the Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony at the Garden Hotel in support of local charities.

Come and experience the beautiful acoustics and listen from a high vantage point from the gallery above the singers. This is truly a wonderful opportunity not to be missed. This event starts at 6pm and entrance is free.

Saturday 14th December : Christmas Performances - Upper Primary & Secondary Choirs – Tai Koo Hui Mall This year both the Primary and Secondary choirs have been invited to return for one performance at Tai Koo Hui Shopping Mall. The Upper Primary Choir performance will begin at 2pm in the main atrium on the ground floor. Choir members will be expected to arrive to the mall at 1pm and meet at the Christmas Tree. This will be a highly publicised event, with students being filmed for local and national news programs. Please note the performance times for Upper Primary Choir are 2:00 – 2:30pm, and 5:00 – 5:30pm.

nae NEWS

The British School of Dubai Opening The school will extend the NAE family, welcoming students from September 2014. For more information, including a message from the Principal, Mike Embley, please go to;

THE SOURC THE SOURCE THE SOURCE Autumn 2013

www.nainternationalschool.ae Autumn 2013 www.facebook.com/nainternationalschooldubai

Autumn 2013

OUR OUTSTANDING STUDENTS OUR OUTSTAND NDING STUDENTS OUR OUTSTANDING STUDENTS TEMPLE 2 TEMPLE CHARITY

TEMPLE 2 TEMPLE CHARITY CHALLENGE TEMPLE 2BIKE TEMPLE CHARITY BIKE CHALLENGE This year, 12 year-old Poppy Mulford, a student at Re BIKE CHALLENGE This year, 12 year-old Poppy Mulford, a student at Regents International School Pattaya, set herself an extraordin

This year, 12 year-old Poppy Mulford, a student at Regents International School Pattaya, set herself an extraordinary challenge; to cycle 418km from Thailand to Cambodia International Pattaya, set herself anhearing extraordinary challenge; to cycle 418km from Thailand to Cambodia to raise School money for a young girl with difficulties. money for a young girl with hearing difficulties. challenge; to cycle 418km from Thailand to Cambodia to raise money for a young girl with hearing difficulties.

On 19th October, Poppy together with her father and On 19th October, Poppy together with her father and several teachers from Regent International School Pattaya se Onset 19th Poppy together her father several They teachers from Regent International School Pattaya off October, from Ayutthaya, thewith ancient capitaland of Thailand. teachers from Regent International School set offto Angkor W from Ayutthaya, the ancient capital of Thailand. They cycled over 80km on average eachPattaya day to reach from Ayutthaya, the ancient capital of Thailand. cycled over 80km on average each day to reach to Angkor Wat, the ancient capital of Cambodia, justThey five days later. ancient capital of Cambodia, just five days later. over 80km on average each day to reach to Angkor Wat, the ancient of Cambodia, just five days later. School for the Deaf, Poppy undertook this arduous journey to raise money forcapital her friend Yok, a student at the Pattaya o raise money for her friend Yok,ana operation student atto the Pattaya forPoppy the Deaf, needs correct herSchool hearing. firstwho met eight year old Yok when she was taking part in Round Squa Poppy undertook thisfor arduous to rais undertook this arduous journey to raise money forRound hertofriend Yok, a student at the School the Deaf, who ng. PoppyPoppy first met eight year old Yokofwhen she was taking part in Square week, one the school’s activities designed help students develop intoPattaya global citizens and make ajourney positive impact needs an operation to correct her hearing.

Po needs an operation to correct her hearing.

Poppy first met eight year old Yok when she was taking part in Round Square gned to help students develop into global citizens and make a positive impact on the world. The two girls formed a special friendship which inspired and motivated Poppy to challenge herself. week, one of theaschool’s activities designed week,inspired one of the activities to help students develop into global citizens and make positive impact on the endship which andschool’s motivated Poppy designed to challenge herself. world. The two girls a special inspired motivatedshe Poppy to challenge herself. world.

The two girls formed a special friendsh Longformed distance cycling friendship was a newwhich skill for Poppy.and To prepare, enthusiastically commenced a rigorous training regim or Poppy. To prepare, shedramatically enthusiastically commenced a rigorous training regime and improved her stamina and speed over increasingly long distances. She is also organised much of the log Long distance cycling was a new skill fordaily Poppy.

To prepare, she commenced a rigorous training regime andalmost speed over increasingly long distances.

She is also organised much the enthusiastically logistics of Longfordistance cycling was new skill for Pop the trip herself, planning distances andofovernight accommodation the group.

So far, she a has raised £4 dramatically improved her stamina and speed over increasingly long distances.

She is also organised much of the logistics of speed s and overnight accommodation for the group. So far, she has raised almost £4,600. dramatically improved her stamina and the trip herself, Paul planning daily Head distances and overnight accommodation for the group.

So she raised Ialmost £4,600.

Madden, of PE and one of the teachers accompanying Poppy said “Ashas a planning teacher seek the tripfar, herself, dailyinspiration distancesevery and do he teachers accompanying Poppy said “As a teacher I seek inspiration every day and often find it in this amazing career of teaching. In Poppy Mulford, we have all been blown away by someone so inspiri Madden, of PEalland one of theaway accompanying Poppy said “Asinaneed teacher seekhelp.” inspiration every day and aching. In Paul Poppy Mulford,Head we have been and committed.

She is blown giving a teachers partby of someone her life to so thatinspiring of someone else of aI little Paul Madden, Head of PE and one of the tea often find it in thisinamazing of teaching. In Poppy Mulford, we have all been blown away by someone so inspiring and fe to that of someone else need of acareer little help.” often find it in this amazing career of teaching committed. She is giving a part of her life to that of someone else in need of a little help.”

MY FIRST PUBLISHED ARTICLE

committed. She is giving a part of her life to th

MY FIRST PUBLISHED ARTICLE

By Anjelica Polychronopoulos, Year 13, MY FIRSTthe PUBLISHED ARTICLE

By Anjelica Polychronopoulos, Year 13, British School of Guangzhou

Nurse’s Corner

By Anjelica Polychronopoulos, Year 13, Being published and having the honour to have writte the British School of Guangzhou Being published and having theNurse honour to have article for ‘In the Red’ Magazine is something I never By: Lynn Li written an Being publishedwould and having to applying have written article for ‘In the Red’ Magazine is something I never thought happenthe to honour me. After and an being accept article for ‘In the Red’ Magazine is something I never thought would happen to me. After applying and being accepted for a week long work experience programme at In the Red is alreadyatwinter season in Guangzhou.

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I was asked interview allabout the models ask them five p who were willing toa let their hair to down foras one night. I was occurs.

November to January the best take Flu You asked interview of allmy thechoice. models and ask them party relatedtoquestions This gave me afive real chance toisget feel oftime what working a Vaccine. journalist is like. Confid asked to interview all the models and ask them five party ve me a real chance to get a feel of what working as a journalist is like.

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Not long after I wasthe onmodels to another mission, I had just arrived work fall theonto nextthe day and water the Editor in charge gave me an your work and communicating well is the key ion, I had just arrived at work the next day Editor in charge gave me an any article to recover quickly from ofIthese symptoms. assignment.

Nowand thisthe is more like it, writing is my passion as love exploring words on the page and seeing everythin meet.

Sitting around, interviewing the models Not long after I was on to another mission, I had just arrived at work the next day and the Editor in charge gave me an article iting is my passion as I love exploring words to onpresent the page seeing everything come to life.

I was asked anand article on Thailand Full Moon parties, however this article had to be writing as thoug assignment.

Now this is more like it, writing is my passion as I love exploring words on the page and seeing everything come on Thailand Full Moon parties, however thisit article had The to beplanning writing as though I was there, experience first-hand. started and the research was underway. I had figured out all my bearings 5 long after I was on to another mission, to life. wasresearch asked towas present an article Thailand Moon parties, article be writing ason though I was nning started and Ithe underway.

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Now thismyisbearings more like the British School of Guangzhou

lower school news Lower School Activity Room & Coffee Shop Available for Parties

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We’re offering the chance to use our wonderful facilities on the lower campus for birthdays or other special celebrations that may come along.

The Activity Room is available to hire for either a morning (9:00am-1:00pm) or an afternoon (2:00-6:00pm) with a fee of 1000RMB per session. The Coffee Shop will be open and a variety of hot drinks and delicious snacks will be available for purchase.

Alternatively you can arrange your own catering for your party.

Due to the nature of the equipment in the Activity Room, we must limit the ages of children using it, therefore all children must be 8 years old or below.

If you would like to celebrate your child’s birthday party in our exciting and very spacious Activity Room, then please contact Miss Kathy (Head of Lower School) for further details Katherine.weir@bsg.org.cn.

lower school news

A Creche of its Own: A Glimpse into International Day By: Monica Daryani Each year we all await one of the most anticipated events at BSG and without a doubt that truly has to be ‘International Day’! Having witnessed this event for the past couple of years, I can confidently say that each year supersedes the previous one. This year with sunny skies, aromas of authentic food, traditional costumes and colourful stalls galore, we truly created an ‘international’ and ‘festive’ ambiance on that day. With a cheerful buzz of chatter and laughter filtering the outside premises of our Upper Campus, there was another area inside of school that had its own ambiance. A part of our Lower School team try to cater to our little ones by setting up an ‘Indoor Crèche’ in our gymnasium. The children, aged from 2 to 5 years old, had an open space to build on their imagination and creativity through ‘play’. This year, our Pre-Nursery and Nursery teachers represented ‘China’ and we even had an ‘arts and crafts’ stall within this area, where the children either made Chinese flags, coloured national themed pictures or made ‘play-dough jiaozis’! If you were not able to take a glimpse into our ‘little world’ this time round, I am sure we will be there next year too! It was indeed a memorable event for all.

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lower school news 8

Snow, Ice & All Things Nice In nursery we have been ‘gearing up’ for Christmas with the last topic of the term – Winter!

It might not be snowy outside here in Guangzhou but that hasn’t stopped us having lots of fun! We began by learning about winter colours and looking at chilly winter scenes that we then used as inspiration for some wonderful winter collages and marble paintings.

On ‘Ice day’, the children had a surprise when 4 huge blocks of ice were delivered to our playground! We watched with amazement as the ice melted slowly each day and had great fun making our own ice-cubes.

Polar bears, penguins and Inuits came next! We made model penguins from clay and listened to a fantastic song called ‘Penguins Attention!’ which made us waddle like penguins! We learned about the types of food that an Inuit eats and the houses that they live in. We recreated igloos with the help of some upside-down cups and mini marshmellows!

Along with all the exciting things happening in the classroom we have also been busy preparing for our Christmas performances….. look out for us singing beautifully in our elf, donkey, Christmas tree and Santa costumes!!

Merry Christmas everyone, from all the Nursery team J

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lower school news 10

Food, Glorious Food!

By: Judith Sanderson To start our new topic ‘Food glorious Food,’ the children and grown-ups, all had a wonderful time trying delicious and exciting foods from around the world at our International Food Fayre. It was an absolute feast with foods such as kimbap from Korea, roti from Malaysia, steak from Austria, mango sticky rice from Thailand, red bean cakes and fried rice from China. There was even a very special Russian birthday cake for me to share.

Thank you so much to all the parents who contributed such culinary delights, making it an exciting and memorable event.

We will continue our food topic discussing healthy eating. It is evident from the children’s snack boxes, filled with fruit and healthy option snacks, that we all want our children to enjoy a healthy diet and the benefits it brings.

The children will also start to learn about different food categories, such as protein, carbohydrates, dairy and vitamins. Hopefully this will develop their understanding of the importance of a lifelong need for a balanced diet and the effect of food on their body.

Food has inspired artists throughout the ages; the children will be introduced to the work of the Italian painter Guiseppe Arcimboldo (1526 - 1593) who was best known best known for creating imaginative portrait heads made entirely of fruits, vegetables and flowers.

Having said all that, as this will be the last newsletter before Christmas, I hope you all have a wonderful holiday time with your super healthy children and enjoy lots of naughty goodies.

lower school news

Healthy Eating in Chinese Class We have been learning health eating this week. And the children learned the chant “little white rabbit”. It says the rabbit likes to eat carrots and vegetables. They love this chant and some of them are able to present it. It’s one of their favorite chants.

Before they can present it, we have been practicing it. It was fun doing this chant with the whole class. This chant is short and really easy to remember. We do the rabbit jumping to imitate how rabbits move. They love it. Every time when we place two hands on our head, they start saying the chant: little white rabbit, white and white…

And we also colored carrots and other vegetables that rabbits will eat. And they are all healthy food. They learn what healthy food is and be able to recognize them.

After that they are going to learn the very hungry caterpillar. It’s about food. I’m sure they will love it, too.

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lower school news

Year 1: International Week By: Janine Campbell In the week leading up to International Day, the children in Year 1 had lots of fun celebrating International Week within their classrooms. Each class focused on a country, with the Puffins learning about South Korea, the Bumble Bees Mexico, the Zebras learning about India and the Elephants focusing on Canada. The children learnt lots of interesting facts about their chosen country and had the opportunity to immerse themselves in the culture.

Anyong haseyo! In the Puffin’s class the children were taught how to speak some Korean phrases by 3 little Korean teachers. They listened to Korean music, made Korean fans and designed special Korean clothes. During the week they made a little book about Korea. At the end of the week they sampled some delicious Korean cuisine!

The Bumble Bees had so much fun learning about Mexico. They cut beautiful papel picados to decorate their classroom with, learnt some Spanish, created jaguar masks and performed a special jaguar dance. They created day of the dead skulls using clay and brightly coloured paint. They learnt all about Mexico and wrote facts on giant cacti. They even made their own pinatas and smashed them too!

In the Zebra’s class the children created rangoli patterns, mehndi designs, listened to Indian music and learnt how to write their names in Hindi. They sampled local Indian cuisine, courtesy of Kyra and Hrithik’s mums, and created Peacock and Tiger crafts; the national bird and animal of India.

In the Elephant’s class we learnt the colours, numbers and greetings in French. The children also made Inukshuk drawings, dream catchers, and some First Nations animal art. Finally, the children learnt about Canadian animals and created polar bears out of clay.

The week culminated with a celebration of the children’s work. The children had the opportunity to look at each other’s work and parents were also invited in. What a great way to learn about different countries around the world!

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lower school news

Halloween By: Graeme Hopkinson The end of October saw our school hall transformed into the perfect place to host a Halloween disco, after being beautifully decorated by our Parent Volunteers and the decorations being provided by the EFC. So a BIG thank you to those you helped.

As with our traditional Halloween Party at the Lower School, we held our annual Pumpkin Contest! This year’s entrants for the competition were outstanding and, as quoted from Miss Kathy, “…it was really hard to decide on the winner of 1st, 2nd and 3rd”. However, after taking into consideration the rules of pumpkin carving, the winners were finalised and the results were: 3rd place – Piggy Bank – Pre-Nursery Butterflies 2nd place – Cinderella’s magical Pumpkin Coach – Reception Seahorses 1st place – The Queen – Reception Raccoons Big congratulations to all the children for their hard work and ideas to create the best pumpkin they could for the Halloween competition.

Finally, before the party commenced, we held our annual parade of Costumes.

This parade gives every child the opportunity to flash their costumes. We saw a wonderful array of costumes, we had Super Heroes and Super Villains, Princesses, Fairies, Witches and Wizards and the scary creatures of animals. All the children looked absolutely amazing in their costumes.

The day was a brilliant success and all the children enjoyed themselves, getting to scare each other, take part in Halloween Activities in the classroom and have a good dance with their friends.

Pre-Nursery Butterflies: Halloween Piggy bank, Pre-Nursery Teddy Bears: CreepyCrawley, Nursery Fishes: Blow Fish, Nursery Stars: Peter the Star Pumpkin, Nursery ladybirds: Ladybird, Nursery Dragonflies: Nuts ‘n’ Bolts, Reception Seahorses: Cinderella’s Magical Pumpkin Coach, Reception Rabbits: The Mummy, Reception Raccoons: The Queen, Reception Dragons: Dragon in a Cave, Year 1 Puffins: Sally, Year 1 Busy Bees: Mouth, Year 1 Zebras: Spider, Year 1 Elephants Nemo and the Whale.

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UPPER school news 16

Year 2: Cretaceous Fun During this 2nd half term, Y2 have been studying about the past- more specifically dinosaurs. We have thoroughly enjoyed this topic- it really has captured everyone’s imaginations and even teachers have been learning facts and information!

Did you know, when dinosaurs first appeared on Earth 250 million years ago, the earth was completely different to what it looks like today. During this period- the Triassic period- the earth was one and the continents were all stuck together. That is why we can find dinosaur fossils all over the planet- the earth no longer looks like this!

We learnt about Mary Anning the fossil hunter from England and we become paleontologists ourselves using water and soil to erode dinosaurs. We all agreed being a paleontologist would be a cool job.

During our final week, we looked at why the dinosaurs became extinct. We examined the asteroid that landed and we discussed whether it was the volcanoes that made them extinct for the final time. Our encapsulating ending was a trip to the Guangdong Science Centre to look at dinosaur exhibitions, which was thoroughly enjoyable and gave us the opportunity to look at how big these dinosaurs really were. HUGE. Fun Fact- the film Jurasic Park should not have been called Jurassic Park because the T-rex was not around during this period. The film should have been called Cretaceous Park!

UPPER school news

Year 3: Environment Study In Year 3 we have be learning all about what it is like to live in different environments.

As part of our new unit we will be looking at the different life experiences of people living in the Arctic, the tropics and the various deserts of the world. As an “intriguing introduction” to our topic we had lots of fun making a huge piece of artwork. 3DB painted a cool Arctic scene, 3TM created an arid desert, whilst 3CH were busy creating their very own jungle. To make our pictures, we used our knowledge of the colour wheel to mix the colours we needed. Then we very carefully used our hands to paint the various parts of our jungle.

We all worked together as a team and created something rather special. We have displayed the pictures in our classrooms and used them as our topic word banks.

We think the classrooms in Year 3 look brilliant. Why not pop in for a look at our hard work?

Interesting facts about the places we have been studying. · More than 20% of the worlds’ oxygen is produced in the Amazon rainforest. · Every 2 seconds and area of rainforest, the size of a football pitch, is destroyed. · The coldest recorded temperature in the Arctic is around −68 °C. · The Atacama Desert in South America is the driest place in the world.

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UPPER school news

Year 4: Emotional Poetry By: Alexandra Paul Year 4 have produced excellent poems about different emotions. We have been focussing on descriptive language and using the senses to build an image in the readers mind. Our weekly Target Writing sessions allow us to apply the skills we have been learning and write in different forms. Here are some examples of the amazing work Year 4 produced; Embarrassment by Leo Whitehouse 4NT Embarrassment is bright red, the colour of your own cheeks.

It looks like the golden zipper on your trousers, accidentally undone.

It feels like the raging anger you are trying to control.

It smells like grotesque milk.

It tastes like sour breath inside your mouth.

It sounds like your best friend laughing at you‌ and your pink barbie doll.

Excitement by King Fu Chiang 4AP Excitement is the colours of a rainbow, It sounds like laughter and cheer, It tastes like sweet sherbet popping inside your mouth, It smells like fresh lemonade, It looks like children jumping around in the beautiful garden, It feels like riding on a big roller coaster.

Sadness by Mila Carpano 4AC Dark sadness is grey and never seen, Dark sadness tastes like mouldy rotten blue cheese that has been left outside the fridge.

Dark sadness looks like a tear drifting down your grey cheek and hitting the floor, Dark sadness sounds like happiness is about to disappear.

Dark sadness feels like your heart is sinking into bitterness.

Happiness by Jerry Wu 4MM Happiness is bright gold, It tastes like a golden mango icre-cream, It smells like a great banana split, It looks like a very colourful football, It sounds like someone singing on top of the tallest tower in the city, It feels like you are sleeping on a soft and fluffy cushion.

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UPPER school news

Design Technology: Textiles As part of our Mongolian studies in Topic this term, Year Four have made small Mongolian pouches. Firstly we evaluated different bags and purses and then designed our own pouches, which would be suitable to hold fox’s lungs – the eagle’s reward for a successful hunt. Year 4 learnt how to use a needle and thread and demonstrated excellent sewing skills. They have all created pouches of different shapes and sizes with interesting designs and button fastenings.

App of the Month: Xmas Booth

By Alasdair Carr This is a first for ‘Free App of the month’ as we have a nomination from a pupil.

Benjamin Morath won the 4AC competition of ‘recommend an app to a friend’.

He had to find a free app that was fun and convince his classmates to download it in just 60 seconds!

Xmas Booth is a fun photography app which allows you to take photos of yourself or of your friends and customise them with festive decorations! This can be anything from antlers, tinsel and even Santa’s own beard! These photos can be shared with friends or saved to your camera roll.

Get into the festive mood and download Xmas Booth today!

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International Week Year 4 had a great time during International week making, baking and learning all about 4 different cultures and countries.

The children learned about Scotland where they baked some delicious banana flapjacks and created their own tartans. For Japan they created some colourful Japanese windsocks.

They went looking deep into the Australia’s history where they learned about the Aborigines and their art form where they then proceeded to create their own versions. Finally for Mexico, the children either wove Mexican God Eye’s, danced a Mexican hat dance or made personalized sombreros! The children thoroughly enjoyed their learning over the course of the week and were fully involved in the fun and diversity of other cultures.

UPPER school news

Year 5: Green Screen In 5BS we have been preparing for our class assembly. To begin, we brainstormed for ideas that would make our assembly stand out. One of the ideas was to use Mr. Carr’s new toy, the Green Screen. He unveiled this to us a few weeks ago in his class assembly and we thought that we could take it to the next level and learn about something new in the process.

First, we had to move the giant contraption into our class, which requires two adults to move. Then we had to set up a ‘stage’ area and adjust the fancy studio lighting. After that Mr. Schroeder filmed us on his iPad while we did the acting in front of the Green Screen. Finally, using iMovie Mr. Schroeder edited out the green and put in a cool news background.

Overall it was a new experience for us and Mr. Schroeder and who knows… … maybe one of us will be a Director or Producer one day and put this knowledge to good use.

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UPPER school news 22

Year 6: Democracy By: Matthew Champness We kicked off our new Ancient Greece topic with ‘Democracy Day’. Our ‘intriguing introduction’ began with an exploration of the origins of democracy, after which we let the children make some of the important decisions of the day.

Obviously ‘going home early’ was off the table, but the children were able to decide on (some of ) their lessons and the order in which to have them. They also held class votes on things like ‘not tucking shirts in’ (most were against this) and ‘delaying the spelling test until tomorrow’ (most, for).

Interestingly, there are lots of things we do at school that the children did not want to change. We were able to discuss the importance of considering the implications of each decision and this has since led to our having class debates on quite lofty issues, such as free education and legally requiring people to recycle.

We have since discovered that the democracy practised in 4th century BC Athens was not quite as democratic as we would like it to have been. (The girls, in particular, were unimpressed with the Athenian model.) Democracy, however, is just one of the many important ideas the Ancient Greeks have given us.

We certainly won’t have time to examine all their contributions to language, maths, drama, science and philosophy but, if your child does start acting ‘Socratically’ and continually questions your actions and assumptions, just remember: it’s all in the

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Second-Hand Uniform Sales: International Day By: Cindy Lin On the 9th November the BSG Charity Committee braced the scorching sunshine on International Day, to help reach their fundraising targets for this year. About 12 members of the Charity Committee, including myself, were helping to sell second hand uniform and our homemade postcards to raise money for our two chosen charities, which are ActionAid and GETCH. On the day we were delighted to be joined by Catherine and some of the students from GETCH, who helped man the stall. This was particularly nice as it gave us the opportunity to strengthen the link with the local charity we have decided to support this year in addition to ActionAid. Although it was a very hot day, everyone did their bit to muck in and make it a successful day. The Charity Committee raised RMB 3541 for Action Aid and GETCH at this event, which mostly came from the second hand uniform sales. We would like to thank the parents and Miss Boby for their continued support in helping us to make a difference to people’s lives.

We will be continuing to sell second hand uniform throughout the year, both within school and at BSG events, so any donations of unwanted uniform will be gratefully accepted. Please pass any items to Miss Boby or Nanhu reception.

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GIVES Fair: BSG Charity Community On the 3rd November, countless people gathered in Zhujiang New Town to enjoy the GIVES Fair. GIVES is the Guangdong International Voluntary Expat Service; this event was focused on helping people suffering from autism.

The event was as lively as ever - there was music, food, games, booths and everyone had a great time, getting into the spirit of giving to the community.

For entertainment, we had one of our own student bands (Dalbert, Ryan, Chris and Caleb) perform in front of the mass of people who had turned out.

It was an event that we will not forget. As a whole, the event raised a considerable amount of money for an autism charity. As a subset, BSG raised over 1000RMB. We couldn’t have done this without the help of staff (Mr Edmanson, Ms Rowan, Ms Welch and Ms Boby) and students from the Charity Committee. We strive to help people; we succeeded in this event. Hopefully next year, even more people will attend.

Thank you for supporting the Charity Committee.

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iGCSE Geography Field Trip: Hong Kong By: Hannah Watson At the start of November, Year 11 Geographers set off on a 2-day fieldtrip to Hong Kong. The aim of the trip was for students to gain practical experience by carrying out a range of geographical data collection techniques.

From the moment we left BSG, they enthusiastically rose to all of the challenges set. The first was to get through immigration at Shenzhen. Although this was a painfully slow process, we eventually all made it to the other side of the border to continue our bus journey into Hong Kong. Once checked in at the hotel, students were briefed on their first method of data collection…questionnaires.

Each group was allocated a site and spent an hour talking to the general public about their shopping preferences. Despite rejections from some people, our students were determined to complete the task. As a reward for their first days hard work we spent the evening Ice Skating at Tai Koo. The following day, after a big breakfast at the hotel, we set off for Repulse Bay to carry out fieldwork techniques on the beach. A typhoon was reported to be heading towards Hong Kong that day, however it was weak and therefore we only had to cope with windier weather conditions which I am pleased to say didn’t affect the student’s motivation. They successfully took a range of beach profile measurements to measure the changes in the shape of the beach and although some pieces of equipment were taken by the waves, students were safe, albeit a bit wet. We had lunch and then moved onto Stanley to carry out our last method of data collection, which involved talking to people living and working in the area about the impact of tourism.

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After a final group photo, we headed back to the bus ready for the return trip back to Guangzhou. The students were hard working, motivated and enthusiastic throughout the 2-days. They were a delight to take away to Hong Kong and I hope that they can apply the knowledge and skills developed on the trip to their examinations next year.

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Book Drive By: Serena Liu On November 1st students and teachers from Secondary took part in the ‘bring and buy a book’ event at BSG arranged by Miss Hardwicke. A good amount of books were donated, with Year 7 donating the most, 50 books. By selling the donated books over the course of the day we were able to raise an amazing, 1,201RMB, which went to ‘Room to Read’ (www.roomtoread.org). The charity ‘Room to Read’ works to allow primary aged children around the world to access education and is an extremely worthwhile cause. The book sale was held in the library with many primary students coming along to buy book drive, which helped to raise the large amount that we did.

There will be another event for the book drive later on in the year where we hope more books will be donated and bought. Many thanks to all those that supported the event, we hope to see you again next time.

Literacy Leaders By: Emily Hardwicke Literacy Leaders, an initiative started last year, has been reintroduced to support students in Year 6 to Year 8 with improving their English skills.

Students in Year 9 and 10 have been recruited to support younger students one morning a week during their form time and this week the students met each other for the first time!

The Literacy Leaders will work through 10 sessions including helping students with their reading, spelling, punctuation and grammar.

It was especially impressive to see the students in Year 9 work so well with their students and be so professional with the way they approached the role.

Well done to Lynuelle, Bianca, Lisa, Bethany, Keisha, Jackson Justin from Year 9 and Valerie, Emmelyne, Jan and Justin from Year 10.

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Bringing Shakespeare to Life By: Emily Hardwicke Miss Hardwicke’s Year 7 English class have spent the last couple of weeks exploring Shakepeare’s famous comedy ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream.’ They have performed parts of the play, learnt how to insult each other in Shakespearian English (thou art a flubber-footed snot-grass!) and started work on a stop motion animation project.

In groups, students were given parts of the play and had to design and create a set, clay characters and animate the scene with a voice over and special effects.

Using their iPads, they have created impressive animations which will be put together to create the final play.

Sebbe Munis said he really enjoyed the project because it was fun and it’s helped him to understand Shakespeare a lot better. “Before I just thought he was some kind of romance guy….now I know a lot more!”

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ACAMIS Mathematics Competition By: Nicola Welch On Saturday 23rd November we took three teams of budding mathematicians to The International School of Nanshan, Shenzhen, to compete in the ACAMIS Maths Olympiad event. It was the first time we have entered teams into an external Maths competition and we were excited to see how our teams from Key Stage 3 would fare against some of the best mathematicians in the area. The day consisted of five team events: a warm up, brainteasers, complex problems, short answer questions and a logic problem. All the events were engineered to challenge pupils mathematically as well as promoting good team communication.

I am delighted to report that our teams did extremely well especially considering this was their first time at such an event. Out of the six schools competing both the Year 7’s and 8’s came 3rd in their groups and our Year 9’s managed to hold off the Chinese International School of Hong Kong by one point in the tie breaker to win their group.

The Maths department would like to thank all the pupils who gave up their Saturday to attend the event and a special well done to Tae Oh Kim, Lucas Bachmann, Ellen Kim and Yanly Ying for coming in first place.

We look forward to winning more competitions such as this in the future.

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Chinese Games ASA By: Dan Wang Except Chinese language ASAs, our Chinese teachers have also offered two interesting ASAs for secondary students: Mahjong club and Chinese board games club. These ASAs will give students an interesting insight into another culture and are excellent way of extending their studies on China.

In China, board games have long played in peoples’ recreational life. Along with zither playing, calligraphy and painting, board games constitute one of the four major forms of traditional Chinese art. In link with the Chinese tradition of rational culture, board games combine military strategies with philosophy, poetry and arts. They nurture wisdom, grace, generosity and a sense of indifference to the fame of winning or loss.

Mahjong A set of 144 Mahjong tiles consists of 36 tiles in the Bamboo suit, 36 in the Circle suit, 36 in the Character suit, 16 Wind tiles, 12 Dragon tiles and 8 bonus tiles (4 Flowers and 4 Seasons). Mahjong is commonly played by four players and is a game of skill, strategy and calculation and involves a certain degree of chance.

Chinese Chess (Xiang Qi) The Xiang Qi pieces are simple disks with Chinese characters on them to differentiate and are played on the points of the board rather than within the squares.

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Chinese Checkers (Tiao Qi) Chinese Checkers game is the most popular game in the Chinese board games ASA. In Chinese Checkers, which can be played by 2, 3, 4 or 6 people, each person starts with a set of uniquely coloured pieces in the point of one of the stars. The objective is simply to be the first to move all the pieces across the board and into the star point opposite.

Five stones chess Five stones chess is also called Gobang. It is traditionally played with Go (Wei Qi) pieces (black and white stones) on a go board with 19x19 intersections. To win the game, you simply need to form five pieces in a row vertically, horizontally or diagonally.

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School Captains Leadership Weekend By: Marc Santos During the weekend, a handful of enthusiastic students left the comforts of home to expand their insight on leadership. The student House Captains and School Captains left for Nine Dragons Lake to meet with our Insight Adventure instructors Mike and Bessy. We were greeted with warm welcomes from the duo. Most of us had no idea what we were going to come across during the two days and mixed feelings emanated from the bus, excitement, jitteriness and hunger for knowledge (and food).

The first thing Mike wanted to get out in the open was respect. He wanted us to treat everyone equally and listen to the ideas of others, some of the traits that make a great leader. We also shared our current knowledge and understanding on “leadership” and came up with more than plenty to overwhelm Mike. Mike then enlightened us on different types of leadership, for instance, spontaneous motivators, architects and analysts, drivers and relationship masters.

We all show many traits from each of the leadership types; it’s just that one may seem more dominant than the others. What Mike taught us was that the best leadership type to use depends on the situation for example at times you may need to be a spontaneous motivator to get others passionate about an activity you are undertaking or other to be a relationship master to get the group to work together on a challenge.

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A lot of the activities we did taught us how to work well within a team and respect those taking the lead.

In one of the activities we had to build a bridge which turned out to be very difficult as each team only had six sticks of bamboo and three barrels. We had to come together and find the most efficient way to cross the marked out river. To add to the difficulty, ideas were being fired constantly but we slowly learned to listen to and respect each others ideas and suggestions. We eventually made the bamboo bridge and crossed the river.

On the evening we roasted marshmallows and enjoyed a “5-star” dinner. We shared our experiences about what we had learnt during the trip and discussed our final lesson…. empathy. To be a great leader we learnt that we must put ourselves “in other people’s shoes” to really connect with them.

The leadership weekend was a great trip and our eyes were certainly opened to the characteristics we already have that make us strong leaders and what we can do to become even better. These valuable lessons will not only help as leaders in the school, but in the wide world.

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U12 Football Boys Visit Guangzhou R&F The U12 boys football team and senior boys from the football academy were treated

by Guangzhou R&F to watch their last game of the season against Shanghai Shenhua.

The students were able to watch the exiting game unfold from the sidelines and happily saw Guangzhou R&F win their opponents 4-2.

The students received free scarfs, met the player, Yakubu and even the manager, Sven Goran Eriksson.

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University Corner By: Rachel Ellis Year 13 University Applications

What a journey it has been! In January this year the then Year 12 students began to research universities and receive talks from a wide range of university representatives. Looking back through the notes of our bi-weekly meetings it has truly been a voyage of discovery. As the year has progressed and work experience taken place, their ideas and plans for their futures have became ever more real.

Now in Year 13 our first ever cohort of university applicants have settled into the year and following meetings with them and their parents to discuss choices, we sent off their UK UCAS applications on Friday 18th October. With great excitement the first offer was received within 24hrs closely followed by other offers from universities such as Brighton, Derby, Oxford Brookes, Coventry, Essex, Surrey and Reading as well as Russell Group Universities such as Exeter, Queen Mary, Bristol, Edinburgh, Leeds and Manchester. The wait is not yet over and each new day brings news of more offers, which is very satisfying for the staff and motivating for the Year 13’s. We believe that the Personal Statements produced this year, which include things such as Outward Bound, Habitat for Humanity and leadership skills have played a large part in this early success. Students are currently finalising their applications for other destinations such as New Zealand, Australia, the USA and Hong Kong and we are very hopeful that they will follow similar success. The only thing left for the Year 13 students to do to do now is to knuckle down and ensure the required A level results are achieved!

University Speakers and Career Specialists

The Year 12 University talks have got off to a flying start with a visit from Mr Greg Grauman of The American University of Washington DC on October 10th. He is their international admissions officer and talked to students over a “working lunch” about the application process. On October 24th Exeter University came to speak to our Year 12 students, also present was their international admissions officer for STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) closely followed

by Melbourne University who, spoke to those students who have expressed an interest in attending University in Australia. Finally on 31st October we welcomed Matt Horn, a local journalist, who spoke to the students about options for a career in the media.

We are approached by many institutions wishing to talk to our students but we are unable to accommodate them all. We carefully choose those speakers who we believe will appeal to the majority and represent the largest variety as possible. In the coming weeks we are excited to welcome Hong Kong University, University College London and a representative from The American Consulate who will advise students on Visas, SATS and how to use the Common Application system for American Universities. To round up 2013 we have Adrian New, of Chelsea Football Club, coming to give students, from Year 10 upwards, a motivational talk on his time at Warwick University and his journey to becoming the managing director of one of the biggest football clubs in the world. Watch this space to see what 2014 holds in store for our sixth form!

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Common Room Official Opening By: Anjelica Polychronopoulos On Friday 1st November, Sixth Form cut the ribbons to their new and improved Common Room. This also happened to be a dress up day for Halloween which may excuse the photos!

A divine new space that provides myself and my fellow Sixth Former’s the perfect surroundings to focus on our studies and partake in good-nurtured banter during break times. Comfy egg-chairs, inspiring quotes covering the walls, couches to the right and a sectioned off quiet study-room to the left…there is no other place in school that we can all ours.

Through working our way up the year levels and putting in the effort to get to Sixth Form, the staff and school wanted to kindly reward us with our very own personalised Common Room. The space allows us to giggle during break, complete work during ‘study periods’ and expresses ourselves through individual inputs in and around the room.

There is no doubt, that the moment you step in to the Common Room a rush of warmth comes your way… it must be the bright green carpets that brings a nature vibe. During times of stress and feeling overwhelmed by our work, there is nothing more comforting than coming to the Common Room, grabbing a cup of tea with a classmate, and settling our nerves and thoughts.

The quiet study room is widely used. It is a place of hard work for all the achievers and those who use their time wisely for extra studies. Life in Sixth Form is very busy and any time not spent in class means more time for revision and independent learning.

With the Common Room come rules. Rules that we all have accepted and agreed to follow. We feel honored to be so highly respected buy our school that we were given a space to call our own. We aim to return that respect and show we deserve the privilege of our very own Common Room. Through our hard work and outstanding effort, both in our subjects and also in our extra curricular activities we earn the right to enter the Common Room.

Thank you to all the teachers who have given up their free time to put together the Common Room. It has brought us together as Sixth Formers and given us the opportunity to further our studies knowing that at the end of the day we have our own space that will bring us closer together as a year group.

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ActionAid Trip Blog: Lasting Impressions By: Amanda Boby and John Joyce Friday morning started slowly, but we soon woke up as we set off on an adventurous hike to a pagoda sat on the top of a limestone karst. Interestingly while en-route Avinash compared the shape of these unique geological formations to “an umbrella made of concrete�.

Climbing the steep and plentiful steps to the peak proved arduous and cries of joy were heard from those that first reached the summit. The rest of us made their way up more gradually, especially after an encounter with a bee (no names mentioned).

The hike to the pagoda allowed for reflective thinking about our trip to Jiean Primary School (just one of the schools that BSG has been supporting through ActionAid for the last few years). Taking the time to visit the school was an extremely worthwhile exercise and one that will surely be repeated, if not immediately with a school trip, but in the spare time of some. During our visit it became apparent that the funds that are raised through our school assist in not only improving the school, but benefiting the wider community. We could all see the impact of being present in the school, it gave the students chance to practise their English and interact with others from outside their own community.

In the future we feel that we could make an impact upon Jiean Primary School through English Language teaching and working with their students in small groups, carrying out activities such as guided reading and writing as well as basic conversation practice.

Over the past few years BSG has been committed to focusing on one charity, ActionAid, so we can see a project develop over the years to allow communities to become more sustainable in the future. It is therefore important for us to be consistent when fundraising and working with Jiean Primary School and ActionAid. The trip has exceeded our expectations and created a life long friendship between BSG and Jiean Primary School that will continue to grow, along with the relationship with ActionAid. It has also given us a sense of achievement in the action we have been taking within the community, whether this is locally or further afield.

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Sven’s Visit By: Chris Lin On the 26th of November, renowned football team managers Sven-Göran Eriksson and Roger Lennart Palmgren came to BSG to participate in an interview hosted by our (position) Mr. Laird. It was clear that both staff and students were excited about the visit, as our guests are well-respected figures in the world of football.

We grasped at this opportunity to ask the two managers about their experiences and opinions. They were enthusiastic and humorous in their approaches to answering our many questions, as we attentively listened.

Shortly after the interview session, Sven and Roger queued for the school lunches and dined with everyone else. Staff members who were still eager to meet our visitors sat with them and spoke over their meals.

The most interesting part of day for our football players was when Roger gave them a world-class coaching session. The players were put through a set of challenging drills; despite strenuous activities our students were able to complete them with maximum effort. During this time, teachers from our PE department observed precisely and noted down aspects of Roger’s leadership that would benefit their coaching techniques.

With the end of the training session, Sven put forward some motivating words to encourage our students and took photos with each football player; he also signed a few cards as a memorabilia for each student to take home.

It was a shame to see an end to a day like that but it undoubtedly a rewarding one for the school.

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Illusionist Visit

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International Day

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Secondary Sports Day

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Sven Goran Eriksson Visit

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