ISB Newsletter March 2012

ISB NEWSLETTER Issue 3 / March 2012

NEW GYM

W in t e r A c t i v i t i e s

A rt e x i b i t i o n

Pa g e 2

Pa g e 9

Pa g e 1 4

Academic Calendar 2012-2013 1st TERM : 27 August - 21 December 2012 Term starts for staff

Monday 27 August

New Students’ Orientation Day

Friday 31 August

First Day of School

Monday 3 September

Half-term holiday

Monday 22 October through Monday 29 October

Professional Development for Teachers

Monday 29 October

Classes resume

Tuesday 30 October

Classes end

Friday 21 December (at 12 noon)

Winter break

Friday 21 December through Friday 4 January

2nd TERM: 7 JANUARY – 26 April 2013 Professional Development for Teachers

Monday 7 January 2013

Classes resume

Tuesday 8 January

Half-term holiday

Monday 25 February through Friday 1 March

Classes resume

Monday 4 March

Classes end

Friday 26 April

Spring break

Monday 29 April through Monday 6 May

3rd TERM: 7 May - 14 JUNE 2013 Classes resume

Tuesday 7 May 2013

Classes end

Friday 14 June (at 12 noon)

Upcoming Events 7 March

Year 4 production

12-16 March

Math &ICT Week

15 March

Open afternoon for parents

19-23 March

Science Week

23 March

Science Fair

27 March

Parents Evening (KS 1, 4&5)

28 March

Parents Evening (EYFS, KS 1&3)

30 March

Primary school Rollerblading day

30 March

Secondary school talent show

2-5 April

Year 5 Residential Trip

3 April

EYFS Production

5 April

Last day of Spring term

6-20 April

Holiday

The International School of Bucharest Sos Gara Catelu, Nr.1R Sector 3 032991Bucharest, Romania

Tel:+4 (0) 21 306 9530 Fax: +4 (0) 21 306 9534 www.isb.ro

ISB GYM

We are proud to inform you that our GYM construction is progressing very well. We have been given the permissions that we require and the construction will start as soon as the weather conditions are ready.

We will start a campaign to raise funds to complete the building.

We would appreciate any contributions from parents; money or resources are all acceptable.

Our target is to collect 100,000 Euro Please contact the school to offer your help.

PTA Breakfast The Parent-Teacher Association would like to organize starting with next Tuesday, 7th of February, at 8.15am, a morning breakfast in the school cafeteria, where parents sit and share experiences of their children, discuss their parent - child relationship. The places are limited: 10 parents/each session.

If you would like to attend next Tuesday meeting, please email Ms Cristina Sirbu, cristina.sirbu@isb.ro, by 6th of February or use the following form. If you cannot join next Tuesday’s meeting, you may register for future meetings.

Book Appeal

We Love Reading!

During our February Book Appeal, Primary School pupils brought in a total of over 350 books for our library. Many of the books are in languages other than English so that children will have the opportunity to enjoy books in a variety of languages when they visit the library. Thank you to everyone that brought books in! If you still have a book at home that you would like to donate, please send it into school tomorrow.

Throughout March children are being encouraged to read (even more than usual)! At the end of the month, one child from each class (Reception - Year 6) will be awarded a prize for the best reading effort/pro-

gress. Class teachers will be keeping a scoreboard and children can gain points by completing their reading tasks at home, school and in the library as set by the class teacher. Please encourage your child to read lots and keep their reading record (in the Home-School books) up to date. The prize is a 50 lei voucher for the Carturesti bookshop. A trip will be orgainsed by ISB to take all the prizewinners to the bookshop, where they can spend their voucher as they wish.

Happy Reading to you all!

Sarah Ssengendo, Primary Literacy Coordinator.

Nursery News The children in Nursery have been learning all about transport: Land, Sea and Air for the first half of this term. The children learnt some new songs along the way as well as being very busy beavers in class participating in the many and varied transport activities along the way. Our new topic for the upcoming weeks is: The People Who Help Us. We will be looking at all the people in our community that help us and how they do this and the important role communities play in our everyday lives. Our lessons and circle time activities will be focused on this topic and we will be engaging in role play games as well.

We also had some fun playing in the snow at school as the pictures show. It was great to be outside in the cold air for a short time, as the children were very excited to be outside and enjoy climbing up the snow banks as well as riding on the sleds. A very big thank you to all our families for providing the appropriate clothing for their children so they could enjoy the snow, without getting too cold or wet.

Staff and children are busy getting ready for the Early Years Performance coming up on April 3rd. The classes are busy practicing their songs and dances for this performance and as we get closer to the date I am sure the children will become more excited to put on their show for their parents.

100 days of school

Year 1 students celebrated their 100th day of school on Monday 27th February. We have been busy counting each day since the first day in September. We put a coin in the jar each day, plink, plink, plink, until finally the 100th day was here.

Everyone was so excited in the morning about all the activities we would do to celebrate. Each child brought in a bag of 100 sweets that they counted at home. We enjoyed sharing these while we watched ‘101 Dalmations’ after lunch. In the morning we made glasses with the number 100 on them and a necklace made of 100 Cheerios. It took us a long time to count them all! We also had a maths challenge to see if we could answer 100 addition problems. Wow! We know a lot about the number 100! Look at the photos of our celebrations.

Year 1 Trip To The Art Museum Year 1A went on a trip to the Art Museum where it has opened a children’s program ‘The Bird Hidden in the Stone’, designed by Pompidou Centre in Paris.Children were free to play, explore different materials: wood, stone, metal, sculpt with light, pile geometrical blocks into a column, look into magic mirrors. Then we visited the Modern Art Gallery where sculptures made by the famous Romanian artist Constantin Brancusi are exhibited. Children looked at each sculpture, talked about the material it was made from and gave it a name. It was great!

Year 2 Trip to Peasant Museum On Friday 20th January, Year 2 went to the Peasants Museum. We were looking at traditional Romanian clothes and how they were made as part of our “Dressing up” topic.

We studied the materials that were used like wool, cotton and silk. There was lots to see including, costumes, blankets, carpets and bed linen.

We learned about clothes for different times and places.

Let’s support our sport teams!

At the beginning of this year, the Cheerleaders Club set a goal. We promised to help our basketball and football teams to win all their matches!

At the Cheerleaders Club, we learn how to synchronize our body moves on the latest house, techno and dubstep rhythms.

The Cheerleaders Club is a new school project, so we need all your encouragement, especially for our surprise trick, the mighty human pyramid!

Dance is the root of all joy!

Practice makes perfect. This term we have continued the dancing courses with the KS1 and Reception children - Dancing Butterflies 2.

From scarf to umbrella dance, on house or rock and roll rhythms, with slow or paced moves, in groups or in pairs…it doesn’t matter! We will definitely entertain you!

Year 3 News

Year 3 have had a busy month! We all worked hard on our production and everyone did a great job! Thank you very much for coming to watch it, we hope you enjoyed it. After we finished the production we were focusing on our new topic of work: Chocolate. In Literacy we liked reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and in Topic we learnt all about different types of food and how to keep healthy. We learnt that it is important to keep our teeth clean and healthy by brushing twice a day and making sure we eat the correct types of food. We even went to visit the dentist who checked our teeth and showed us exactly how to look after them. The trip was really interesting and we had a great day! Also, 3F were busy preparing an excellent assembly about teeth. Thank you for coming to watch the show! All of key stage 2 now

know the importance of looking after our teeth!

We have also kept healthy by being active; last week we went ice skating in Cismigiu Park. Everyone had a go; for some children it was their first time and they tried very hard and never gave up which was great to see. We all liked this trip a lot and we’re already looking forward to going again next year!

This half term our new topic is Paintings, Pictures and Photographs. We will be learning about many different artists and creating our own artwork throughout this topic. In Science we will link this to the use of light in art by exploring light and shadows through different scientific investigations. If you have any paintings, pictures or photographs that you would like to bring in to share with your class that would be fantastic!

ISB Primary Troupe This year 13 of our Primary students will participate at The International Mark Twain Festival. We are going to perform ‘Alice in Wonderland’, a rewritten musical. The children will get to act, sing and dance, each one of them having an important solo in this play. Our dedicated students already started to practice and they are doing this sacrificing their lunch breaks on Tuesdays and Fridays.

This will be our second time attending this festival. Last year we won the prize for creativity, best performance and the most original script. Our students are extremely talented and we are sure we’ll win a prize again!

Second performance on a Big Theatre Stage !

Year 5 Theme Day On Thursday 16th February year 5 celebrated the end of their ‘Myths, Legends and Beliefs’ topic with a ‘Gods and Goddesses’ theme day. Many of the students had beautiful costumes which they showed off during the costume parade and some students even won prizes!

On this day year 5 took part in a number of activities. During their Literacy lesson they watched Hercules and designed a Poster to advertise him as a great hero. They also had lots of messy fun making their own Greek pottery and as a special treat they sampled some Greek food (made by one of our wonderful parents!).

Finally we went to watch the year 2 show. It was a fantastic day for all involved. Even the teachers joined in!

Mothers Day Invitation!

Dear mothers,

We all know that on 8th of March we celebrate your day! That is why our School Choir prepared a short special moment for you. This will take place on Thursday, 8th of March at 2.30pm in our Theatre.

We hope you can make it!

Winter Activities Key Stage 2 ski trips to Azuga took place between 3-5 February and 10-12 February.

The snow was great and the weather was warmer than Bucharest!

Children had a very well organised programme made by Ms. Laura & Ms. Adriana including skiing, snow tubing, parties, talent show, story writing and playing lots of games. All children received their ski certificate and prizes for their courage and performance on the slopes.

The ski trip has been running for many years now and has become a tradition at ISB part of winter sports programme and we would like to thank parents, Ms. Laura, Ms. Adriana and Mr. Faruk for their support in making this event a success.

During the half term break, a group of students from year 7 and 8, along with Mr.Murat Agce and Mr.Omer Celik went to Poiana Brasov for 4 days camp.

Two days with a strained visibility and two sunny days gave the students the opportunity to ski or snowboard on the new slopes, relaxing and enjoying every single moment. They all managed to improve their technique during the lessons offered by the professional instructors and they all wanted to stay longer on the ski resort.

The whole atmosphere made the camp a great success!

Ice Skating

PREP and Key Stage 3 students had some beautiful days on the ice skating rink in Cismigiu Park at the end of half term 2. The weather, the music on the rink and skating together with their whole year group made the atmosphere great and brought lots of smiles on the students’ faces.

Trophies were awarded for the Best Skater and Most Eager to Learn!

Well Done, Leila – year 10, Mihaela – year 9, Tudor -year 8 and Jiang Ying – PREP!

Model United Nations The second edition of ISB MUN, hosted by the ISB together with BISMUN and the Travel & Tourism team, as well as volunteers for the press team and the Executive Coordinators, took place on 23-26 February. We hosted around 120 participants from 20 different high schools. ISB MUN brought intense debates and an environment that is both educational and sociable, but also kept you motivated to be the best delegate.

We simulated four different committees, all with challenging topics ranging from “the establishment of a common EU energy policy” to “use of nuclear power in outer space”. At evening, we had two awesome social events that entertained our guests, and made them mingle with the others, breaking the barriers between the Secretariat and all the delegates.

Public Debating Competition The Third Annual International British School of Bucharest Sir Winston Churchill ‘Future Leaders’ Public Debating Competition To be held at the International School of Bucharest on Tuesday, 13th March 1912 This year the International Schools Debating Competition will be held, from 08:00 until 16:00, on 13th March, at The International School of Bucharest. All six international schools will be sending teams: The American School of Bucharest, The British School of Bucharest, The Cambridge School of Bucharest, The International British School of Bucharest, The International School of Bucharest and The Mark Twain International School. Debaters will be aged between eleven and eighteen. The judging panel for the final will be The British Ambassador to Romania, HMA Martin Harris, The Head of the British Council in Romania, Mr Nigel Townson and

The Director of UNICEF Romania, Mr Edmund McLoughney. The motions for debate in the preliminary rounds are: this house believes that: • individual rights may be transgressed by the state in order to protect society from terrorism • the European Union is a worthwhile institution • marriage is a dead institution • the stray dog population should be culled in Bucharest • a free press is not a fair press The motion for the final will be kept secret until the day of the competition. Several Bucharest-based businesses have already agreed to sponsor the event, by donating prizes.

Comenius International Project

A short movie from the viewpoint of young europeans.

The second workshop from the Comenius international project, A Short Movie from the Viewpoint of Young European, took place in Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic, from 5 to 10 February 2012.

Students and members of the staff involved in this workshop met their colleagues from the other partner schools from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Greece and Turkey. The topic was A day in our school. Our students from year 10 prepared a movie about a day in ISB. They filmed different lessons, free time activities, and interviews with students and teachers. Alexandru Constantinescu was in charge with the editing of the movie. In Hradec Kralove we shared our school life experience with our partners who became our new friends. Each team presented a short movie about the educational system and the school life in general. Our hosts, the students from

from Art Nouveau to Baroque, Renaissance, Cubist, Gothic, Neo-Classical and ultra-modern. Lucie Koblizkova was our guide and after showing us the most important cultural and touristic places, she took us to her favorite cake shop where we had the opportunity to taste ones of the best cakes ever, all in a bohemian environment.

We believed this experience enhanced us and we are looking forward for the next meeting that will take place in Naples, Italy, in April 2012.

Hradec Kralove workshop team:

• Eugenio Graziani • Alexandru Constantinescu • Rashid Aktaa • Maria Sumeroglu • Barbora Tomasova • Lucie Koblizkova Vyšší odborná škola zdravotnická a Střední zdravot• Narmin Sharbek nická škola (this is the name of our host school from • Andreea Iordache Hradec Kralove), taught us some basic things about • Majdah Mohd Fareed first aid, as they study in a Medical School and these first aid actions are part of their school activities. We and teachers: organized a one day trip to Prague and we’ve been • Carmen Zaharia all impressed by its varied collections of architecture • Daiana Mavlea

Clubs

Basketball Club

Chemistry Experiments Club

Chess Club

Climbing Club

Cooking Club

Gymnastics Club

2nd club session started on 16th of January giving the students the opportunity to choose from the wide variety of activities which include art, sport, music, science, modern languages and math.

Although the harsh winter did not let us run the activities for 2 weeks, now the students are enjoying not only the indoor activities but the winter outdoor sports as well. They are taking ice skating lessons in order to improve their skills and to be able to win one of the trophies that will be offered at the end of the session.

In chess club the students are very serious with their games. They are all looking forward to the up coming competition, which will bring together players from other international schools.

Piano Club

Table Tennis Club

Violin Club

Football Club

The Lego activity is getting very popular among the younger students and very soon they will be able to display their constructions and organize a competition for the most creative project.

ISB basketball and football teams are continuing their training every week, despite the lack of space and the chances to compete against other teams. The players and their coaches are waiting for the spring to come in order to get outside and prepare their games for the summer competitions.

An intensive program of extra lessons in math, science, art, humanities and ICT was prepared for secondary students in order to help them with their exams preparation. We wish them good luck!

The drama department is preparing a show, called “The CanterDancing Butterflies bury’s Tales” in which more then 20 students will perform on 2 days event. They have rehearsals 3 days per week and the theater costume club is helping designing the costumes and the scenary.

Lego Club

ICT for Contest Club

Art Exibition Despite the unpleasant weather the art exhibition that took place with some delay on the 31st January welcomed parents and students at its 2nd edition. The artwork presented was related to the topic ‘Wings’, encouraging students to evolve to a higher level of creativity and skill. Wings, feathers, peacocks, cages, angels, dragons were only a few of the ideas that dressed the walls of the ISB showroom giving parents the opportunity not only to admire but also purchase certain pieces. Certificates were given out to the students who were awarded, as well as to those who participated. The warm atmosphere between parents, teachers and students ( along with the buffet ) made the night a successful event that should be repeated as it helped raise money for the art department. We would like to thank all the participants, the teachers that held the roles of judges as well the ISB staff for kindly helping with the catering and maintenance.

Angeliki Katevaini

UK University Trip Just as in every year our school is organizing a trip for Year 12 students to UK from 28 March to 1 April, 2012.

The aim of this outward bound activity is to visit a few prestigious universities in London, Manchester or York and to give support to our students in order to help them become more familiar with university studies, admittance procedures and conditions.

We believe that this is particularly important for our students who are aiming to study abroad since this trip will give them the chance to obtain detailed information and first hand experience of UK universities. They will visit locations and facilities prior to applying. As an added bonus, there will be time in the afternoons for visiting museums, shopping and leisure.