FEBRUARY 2020 Dear families, The beginning of the term has been somewhat complicated, Filomena arrived and left everything dyed in white, paralyzing the Community of Madrid and did not allow us to start on the scheduled day. Mirabal and his team of teachers responded quickly and professionally, starting online classes immediately at their regular hours. Students and teachers continued with their classes and scheduled tasks in a non-contact format. Neither the Covid nor Filomena have stopped the progress and learning of our students. The Covid incidence data is not good. We all have to keep taking care of each other meticulously. From the school we can ensure that our protocols are working, our rate of cases has been very low and we hope and wish to continue like this.
Thanks to your help we have successfully overcome the previous term and we will surely overcome this one that we have just started as well. From the school we are committed to guarantee the safety and health of the entire educational community. The school has to be exemplary in shaping a teaching model in a hybrid context and we also have to anticipate the assessment of possible circumstances and make the necessary provisions for times to come. We continue working with enthusiasm and contributing all our effort to reflection, analysis, planning and action to guarantee the training of our students in these turbulent times.
Welcome message from the Headteacher Rosario de la Cruz General Headteacher
Key Dates
19th and 22nd February there will be no class at Mirabal International School, however the Infant School will remain open although there will be no bus service. 12th February we will celebrate the Carnival party in both centers. All Infant and Primary students may come dressed up with the costume they have chosen for the occasion.
SCHOOL NEWS
Your ďŹ nances, your future Third year E.S.O students have participated in the “Your finances, your futureâ€? program organized by the Junior Achievement Foundation. During three sessions, students consider on making financial decisions wisely. They also learn to make a balanced budget, become aware of the importance of saving and know how to plan their finances, in the face of possible unforeseen events that may arise. In this way they discover planning as an effective method of non-impulsive decision making and the way to become responsible consumers. Likewise, they work on the concept of digital banking and cybersecurity, as well as some of the most common forms of cyber financial fraud in order to promote its detection and prevention. The objectives of this program are: 1. Design a balanced personal budget and become aware of the importance of saving. 2. Manage the financial decision-making process and promote responsible consumption in all areas of life. 3. Apply personal finance planning as a non-impulsive and informed decision-making method. 4. Reflect on the possible consequences of our unsafe actions on the internet. The program "Your finances, your future" is a learning opportunity for our students because it aims to activate in them reflection on the importance of financial education in their lives and continuous training in this area for correct decision-making.
Art Class Primary Wassiily Kandinsky is the great artist who has inspired some lovely creative work in 5th year
NURSERY NEWS
Mirabal Online Due to the Filomena storm and following the indications of the Community of Madrid, we were not able to join the School in person on the scheduled date. However, our students enjoyed all their online activities full time. This photograph illustrates the psychomotor activities guided by our team of swimming teachers. The students enjoyed different exercises at home that allowed them to continue developing their knowledge and acquire a spatio-temporal organization and develop cognitive functions such as memory, attention and concentration. Through technology, we manage to guarantee the complete development of our students in case of not being able to maintain regular schooling. Likewise, we managed to get the families to collaborate by sending various images of their children in this great snowfall and thus, we were able to continue discussing the Winter unit of inquiry in our assemblies, as we had programmed. Back to the usual face-to-face activity, we remain prepared to confront any challenge, and this is how our students live and experience it, increasingly improving their ability to adapt to new circumstances.
Christmas Festivals At this stage of childhood, language development in children brings incredible experiences and we have been able to enjoy their progress in our Christmas Festivals. Being aware of the importance that students learn and share these dramatisations, all the pupils did their representation in all the languages to which they are exposed in their school routine: English, Spanish, French and German. Dramatisation in school is a great instrument that allows us to better understand the diversity of the students. It enhances the ability to express feelings, being able to know and identify the different emotions that children have at this age. This dramatisation has great educational intentionality with which they learn to interpret a story that was only alive in their imagination. Although this year we missed the opportunity of inviting public at the Christmas festivals, all families have been able to enjoy thanks to the videos that the teachers recorded.
PRIMARY NEWS
Dinosaurs At P4E, we've been researching and investigating information about our favorite dinosaurs. The students have made fantastic presentations which included a documented poster. P3E students have been developing their writing skills. To do this, each student wrote a letter inviting one of their classmates to a fun activity
Finnish Tuhattaituri Method In the area of Mathematics we are gradually implementing the Finnish Tuhattaituri Method. This method develops interaction with mathematics in a dynamic and manipulative way, by developing creative problem solving based on: logic, precision, creativity and proximity to the student's reality in order to create meaningful learning. It also consolidates basic operations through number relationships and the decomposition of numbers, as well as flexibility and the possibility of reaching the diversity of the students.
SECONDARY NEWS
Programa Emprende Por el Clima VI Edición In the 2019-20 academic year, four students of the first year E.S.O, Emma Wang, Lino Vinciguerra, Hugo Castelló and Carlota Blanco, achieved to be classified, during another consecutive year, within the TOP 20 among 465 teams participating in the Entrepreneurs for the Climate Program (Emprende Por el Clima) of the Junior Achievement Foundation. This program, aimed at 12 and 15 year old students, with the purpose of introducing them to entrepreneurship from the commitment to take care of the environment. The name of the finalist team's project was ‘El Lech 2019’ and you can remember their idea in this video. Despite they did not reach first place in the final, the contest organizers considered their idea as one of the best, taking into account the knowledge they had demonstrated in their work, the originality of the idea and the age of the participants. For this reason, last Thursday, January 21, our students were selected to attend an online event that the Foundation did with the company Bnp Paripas, where they had to expose their project to the rest of the guests. From an educational point of view, this initiative enables students to detect environmental problems and propose solutions by designing the way to carry them out in their environment. In addition, they have the support of professional volunteers from companies, who accompany them in the process of preparing a Business Plan. In short, a great opportunity for the training of our students. This course we will return one more year, thanks to their innovative ideas.
SECONDARY NEWS
Academic- professional orientation programme Mirabal, aware of the constant evolution of the socio-laboral market and the demands that it entails in the preparation of skills and knowledge of ESO and Baccalaureate students, develops a quality academic-professional orientation programme that facilitates the knowledge of the new ways of working and the development of skills, competencies and qualities that are being demanded. During the month of January there have been several actions developed within this plan. Within the framework of the Inicia Programme by the Foundation Rafael del Pino, meetings have been held with businessmen and 3rd and 4th year E.S.O. and high school students. This programme aims to bring the business world closer to young people, awakening in them the illusion of starting an entrepreneurial project, as well as helping to improve the perception of business activity in society. The participating entrepreneurs described their business experiences and shared the skills needed to carry out their tasks, in order to promote fundamental values for the exercise of their professional future, such as creativity, innovation, effort and leadership. In the meetings held with high school students, business leaders, those responsible for the area of Corporate Social Responsibility, propose situations in which, emulating companies, they must make decisions related to the values of business sustainability promoted by the Global Compact of Nations United. Another of the activities carried out has been the celebration of a professional academic orientation session in which the students of the 2nd year of Baccalaureate and the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme had the opportunity to learn about the university educational offer of the Universidad Pontificia Comillas and the criteria that you have to consider when choosing a university center. The session was presented in a very organized and systematic manner, which facilitated the communication of a large volume of information. Among the new features of the offer there is the degree in Mathematical Engineering and the double degree in Law and Business Administration. Both offerings are related to the outstanding importance of Mathematics in professional development that is already being observed and that will probably grow in the coming years. The 1st year high Baccalaureate students participated in another session led by the head of the school's guidance department in which the EvAU test and the structure of university studies were explained in detail. The Francisco de Vitoria University has also held two workshops with our 1st year high school students, “Proyecta tu futuro” and 4th year E.S.O., “Motívate”. The last meeting held was with the Rey Juan Carlos University, in which it presented its training offer to students in the 2nd year of Baccalaureate.
PHYSICAL EDUCATION NEWS
Virtual Interscholar Racing Competition This year we have participated, from January 20 to 29, in a virtual race among all the Inspired Group schools. It was a competition in which all students who were willing to (from 6th grade to 2nd year of Baccalaureate), as well as parents and school staff, where invited. To participate, you had to use an app that allowed you to measure the route taken with GPS, so that the time taken to run 3km could be timed, the unique distance that all categories must do. Once the term has ended and we know the results, we will share them with you. We are sure that there will be many Mirabal students, parents and teachers who will have participated and with excellent results. Here you can check the current status of the competition.
Swimming lessons in the academic year 2021-2022 In the swimming lessons we are following and complying with all the protocols established by the Community of Madrid so that swimming is a safe activity, making the aquatic environment fun and at the same time one of the most complete activities at a sporting level. Every day, more students are willing to participate in the extracurricular swimming club, and as always, we invite you to come and enjoy the wonderful aquatic environment, taking advantage of the fantastic facilities, with unbeatable teachers, and with the security that comes from having a protocol that guarantees that it is a minimum risk activity while Covid-19 is still an issue.
NOTICIAS DE MÚSICA
Elementary Music Degree The Mirabal authorized music centre recognizes the efforts of teachers, families and students who completed their elementary music degree studies during the 2019-2020 academic year. Soon, the audiovisual material of the Concert of graduates Santa Cecilia 2020 will be available for the entire school community. Congratulations!
Students that have finished their elementary music degree during the academic year 2019-2020:
África Valderrey Varas (violín) Alma Rodríguez Pardo (piano) Almudena García Jiménez (piano) Bruno Olmedo Mochales (violín) Emma Wang Ko (guitarra) Iria de Magallanes-Ribeiro Madamé (flauta) Jaime de Haro Manteiga (viola) Miguel Burgos Vimbela (viola) Sandra Tortras Vertedor (piano) Yurika Guo Lin (piano)
INSPIRED NEWS BOARDING NEWS We are delighted to welcome two further schools to the Inspired global family, European International School Ho-Chi-Minh City, Vietnam, and Kensington School, Madrid, Spain. European International School (EIS) Ho-Chi-Minh City, Vietnam, is one of the few authorised International Baccalaureate (IB) Continuum Schools in Vietnam, offering studies for children aged 2-18. Set amidst lush gardens, the campus provides a tranquil village atmosphere where students of all ages and nationalities learn and grow together. EIS's philosophy and values are perfectly aligned to Inspired's forward-thinking educational ethos, continually encouraging children to be genuinely resilient independent learners. The school emphasises the importance of learning to collaborate, caring for others, asking great questions, researching thoroughly and reflecting on personal actions. With more than 25 IB schools in the Inspired Group, EIS joins an IB network second to none. Kensington School, Madrid, Spain, is one of the pioneer centres of a British education in Spain. Providing a truly multilingual education, students start at Kensington School at the age of 3 and learn English by immersion, reinforced by some subjects in Spanish and beginning French in Year 7. In later years, from Year 10 and up to Year 13, students study the official Spanish curriculum, reinforced by intensive preparation in English and French for official external examinations. The school offers students an excellent human and academic education so that they leave the school as fine young adults, fluent in English, Spanish and French with internationally recognised qualifications. We pride ourselves on the depth of excellence in British curriculum achievement across our Inspired schools, and now on the mutual benefits of Kensington School joining such an exceptional partnership. As part of the Inspired network of schools, both European International School Ho-Chi-Minh City and Kensington School will add to the depth of knowledge and experience that already exists within our schools. They will also benefit from world-leading educational expert support, and gain access to Inspired's state of the art learning platforms. Nicholas Wergan, Global Education Director commented, “We welcome families from both schools to our unique group, spanning 5 continents and 20 countries, and to the exciting opportunities for collaboration, global connectedness and shared best practice that this provides for all our teachers and students to achieve their absolutely best potential. “
School Meal
www.colegiomirabal.com
Infant School
Managebac
Alexia
Copyright © 2020 Mirabal International School, All rights reserved.
School Calendar