ISSUE 1 SCHOOL NEWSLETTER #13
The British International School of Marbella
NEWSLETTER A Newsletter for Parents, Students and Friends of our School
November 2016
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SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
Headteacher’s Message A New Year at BISM Dear parents and students, Although it seems to have been a quiet month, behind the scenes things have been actionpacked and fun-filled. Even the rain hasn’t stopped us with class assemblies, trips and another House Quiz competition! Amongst all the events, the Student Council and I have found time to roam the corridors as Learning Detectives and see how the children in the different classes across the school learn. I was impressed by their commitment and observation skills. They were very perceptive. Watch out Miss Kirkham, they may be after your job! IT lessons have been a huge success with children learning how to blog in Year 3 and animation in Year 4 (a firm favourite with the children!) I am also delighted to see children incorporating ICT into their homework projects, with some particularly interesting Y3 projects. This month saw our second Primary House Quiz – The Chase. Children were pitted against a teacher of their choice who “chased” their general knowledge. The children outperformed the teachers this time and won themselves 210 house points to be shared between the houses. Well done, BISM! I was overwhelmed by the generosity of our parents during the Art Exhibition. The children worked hard to create beautiful artwork and the school looked stunning. A new highlight proved to be the teacher’s art auction, where children and parents bid for art created by our very talented BSIM staff. The event raised over 1000€ for The Small Art School, which provides free art education for underprivileged Khmer children in Cambodia. A huge thanks to the ECA for organising refreshments and to Mr Lott for his excellent auctioneering skills! With Christmas nearly here I have enjoyed all the Christmas-based events at the school and
watching the enjoyment on the children’s faces. I hope you all have a wonderful festive season and Iwish you all a Happy New Year. With Best Wishes, Laura Bruce Acting Headteacher
SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
Pre-Nursery
Patterns and Colour Superheroes have landed in Pre-Nursery this month! They enjoyed sharing the story ‘Super Duck’, talking all about being a superhero and helping others. Using the story, the children developed their speaking and listening skills by answering questions based on the pictures and story we were reading. After that, the children made their own superhero capes using a range of materials in a range of colours. Many of the children were able to name the colours they had chosen. In addition to this, they continued the fun by beginning to look at patterns. Using coloured lollipop sticks, the children were able to copy a pattern. To further the exploration, the children put a range of objects into plasticine, pretending to make anything and everything from birthday cakes to crabs! Miss Rutherford Pre-Nursery Teacher
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Pre Nursery - Assembly Who can help you? Pre-Nursery and Nursery can! The youngest of our learners took to the stage this month in their assembly all about ‘People Who Help Us.’ They amazed the audience with their newly found confidence and fantastic singing. When watching their performance you would not have guessed that these wonderful performers were Pre-Nursery and Nursery children doing their first show of the year. They let us know exactly how Doctors, Police Officers and Firefighters help us and accompanied this knowledge with some very catchy songs! I know Miss Green will miss singing these songs with the children; she clearly inspired them to sing their hearts out, thank you Miss Green. The children were dressed to impressed and we have the parents and carers to thank for the brilliant costumes. We had Police Officers, Firefighters, Doctors and Nurses, all on hand to help in their wonderful outfits. Pre-Nursery and Nursery shone like bright stars and it is safe to say they had the whole audience smiling from ear to ear. Well done Pre-Nursery and Nursery. You should be so proud of yourselves! Miss Nixon Nursery Teacher
SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
Nursery Marvelous Maths
The children have loved learning about Superheroes during the month of November. They had many challenges set by the Joker and they all certainly rose to each and every challenge. I was very impressed with the children´s resilience when solving the number challenges set by the Joker. The Joker himself had stolen all of our superheroes and locked them up‌.with real padlocks. In order to rescue them the children had to use their counting skills to count how many dots were on each padlock. They then used their knowledge of numerals to find the corresponding key. Thank goodness for their quick thinking skills and cooperation otherwise I think the superheroes would still be locked up by the Joker! Miss Nixon Nursery Teacher
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SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
Reception B is for bubbles! The Reception children´s learning of the sounds letters from the alphabet make (phonics) is a joy to see. In November after reading the story “Paddington at the Carnival”, where Paddington has to find as many “b” words as possible, the Reception class celebrated their own learning of the “b” sound by bringing into school lots of items beginning with “b”. We had books, bags, balls, babies, bottles, bananas amongst other things. One “b” item caught the imagination more than any of the others though....bubbles! The children had a brilliant time blowing the bubbles during their playtime! Mr Holden Reception Teacher
SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
Reception - Assembly
People Who Help Us Assembly There were a few proud parents following Reception’s “People Who Help Us Assembly”.
The Reception class lit up the school hall with their singing, powerful projection of their lines and of course groovy dancing! They also looked awesome in their People Who Help Us costumes, including a few superheroes. Well done Reception boys and girls! Mr Holden Reception Teacher
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SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
Reception - Trip
Can you tell me where the fire is?
One of the memorable songs from our recent assembly was Can you tell me where the fire is? A week after our assembly and as part of our Topic work on People Who Help Us, Reception went on an exciting trip to the Fire Station. Understandably the children, myself and Mrs Toro were excited ahead of the big day! The children learnt about fire safety from the brave firefighters and got to discover and explore the entire Fire Station. The children loved dressing up in the uniform and squirting water from the hoses (so did I)! All of the children were well behaved and learnt many new things. Mr Holden Reception Teacher
SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
Year 1
Perfect Picasso! This month, Year 1 became amazing artists, learning all about Pablo Picasso and creating their own cubist artwork. The children found out that Picasso was born in Malaga but lived most of his life in France. They also read a story about his dog, Lumpito and found out about his life. They then studied his art, looking particularly at his cubism period. The class then drew portraits of each other and used pastels, before cutting them up and merging them with a friend’s. The children also thought about their topic, Endangered Animals and made their own cubist elephant pictures. They then got to present their work during the Art Exhibition. Well done, Year 1! Miss Armstrong Year 1 Class Teacher
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SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
Year 1 - Assembly
Oh Obee doo… This month, Year 1 took to the stage for their Autumn Assembly, ‘The Jungle Book.’ The children all worked so hard to perfect their lines and sing the songs clearly. I was very impressed with how they were able to add expression and project their voices. A special mention must be made to Trolle for his super solo and to Mateo, Ugne, Daniyar and Sofia C for learning so many lines. Thank you to Miss Portelli, Miss Green and all of the parents for their help. Miss Armstrong Year One Class Teacher
SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
Year 1 - Trip
Animals are Amazing This month, Year 1 visited Castellar Zoo, an animal rescue centre. We were amazed by all of the animals that we met, which included; snakes, lions, tigers, sloths and a very cute honey bear. The zoo even let us touch and feed some of the animals! It was a fantastic day, which was enjoyed by all of the children and the teachers. Miss Armstrong Year One Class Teacher
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SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
Year 2
Excuses in November! During November, the class was reading a book called ‘Dear Teacher’ by Amy Husband, in our Literacy lessons.
This book is about a boy who writes a letter to his school explaining why he won’t be returning to school. It’s a hilarious and creative book that inspires children’s writing. We decided to write our own letters to BISM creating our own excuses why we would be late, or not turn up to school at all. We looked at important features of letter writing, such as how to begin and end letters. We also looked at descriptive and imaginative language to try and include in our letters. The class wrote some fantastic letters and even some postcards, which included all of the features that we had discussed. They all succeeded as writers and feel inspired for more written work in the future. Mr Llion Thomas Year 2 Teacher / Lower School Leader
SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
Year 2 - Trip
Fire Station Visit
As part of their topic work the Year 2 class went on a trip to the Fire Station. The children were looking forward for the trip far in advance, and when the big day arrived they were all excited. The day began with meeting the friendly Firemen. They showed them their fire protection uniform and explained what were the special features. The children even had a go wearing some of the uniform! The Firemen asked if they wanted to spray water from the hoses, it was great fun. The children got to see the Fire Engines and listened attentively as the Firemen explained all of the features and told stories about how they tackled some tricky fires using the equipment. The children got to go for a ride in the Fire Engine and to try out the siren! Afterwards, they went for a tour of the Fire Station itself and learnt all about each area and how they responded to emergencies. Some of the teachers even got to slide down the pole, which was 5 metres high! By the end of the day the children were so impressed with the visit and we all thanked the Firemen for inviting us to their station. The behaviour of the whole class was amazing and all of the staff at the station were impressed. Mr Llion Thomas Year 2 Teacher / Lower School Leader
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SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
Year 3
Art Week
Year 3 demonstrated what an arty bunch they were throughout Art Week. The children studied the famous artist, Kandinsky. They learnt how many of his pieces were inspired by listening to music. The class then had a turn themselves at listening to different styles of music whilst creating pictures with coloured pencils. The children also created some stunning multimedia pieces inspired by Kandinsky’s famous piece ‘Squares with Concentric Circles.’ The children created individual circles using paint, oil pastels, chalk and tissue paper. Once combined altogether, the final products were extremely colourful and the overall effect looked amazing on display. During Art Week, the children also had the opportunity to try their hand at pottery. The children thoroughly enjoyed the chance to use the pottery wheel to shape the clay and to get their hands very messy! Rebecca Allen Year Three Class Teacher
SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
Year 3 - Assembly
Tree-mendous Performance
Year 3 were ‘Singing in the Rainforest’ this month as they performed their long awaited assembly. The children had practiced for weeks and demonstrated a great enthusiasm for learning their lines. The class shared a story with a very important message about looking after our rainforest, the lungs of the Earth. The children are very knowledgeable about how to look after the rainforest and have used the assembly to inspire their very own blogs on the subject. The children gave an outstanding performance which exhibited their many talents in acting, singing and funky dancing. A big thank you to parents and carers for attending and for creating some impressive costumes. Well done Year 3 Miss Allen Year 3 Class Teacher
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SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
Year 4
Art Week - Potty about Pottery
Year 4 absolutely loved their pottery workshop session during Art Week, and it couldn’t have been timed any better. Straight after the workshop the children came back to a classroom set up as their very own pottery workshop, where they each had clay, tools and water to put the skills they had just learnt into practice. The children then set to work to make their own faces of Roman busts, using sketches they had drawn the day before. The children did a great job of portraying the aggressive and stern facial expressions, which were important in Roman busts to show future generations how strong and fierce they ancestors were. The children’s faces, on the other hand, looked quite the opposite. They worked on their projects with big smiles and positivity and were able to peer assess each other’s work fairly, suggesting improvements and praising their classmates efforts. Miss Varty Year 4 Teacher
SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
Year 4 - Trip
Visit to the Roman Mosaics at Rio Verde
To complement Year 4’s work on Roman Mosaics in Art and in-line with their topic of ‘The Romans,’ Year 4 visited the ancient Roman Mosaics at Rio Verde. The children were each awarded five dojos for their exemplary behaviour on their visit. They were attentive, polite and great ambassadors for our school. After a tour of the mosaics the children played a memory and miming game based on what they had learnt on the tour, which demonstrated how well they had listened and how much they had learnt about the mosaics, what they represented and what kind of room they would have been in in a real Roman residence. Miss Varty Year 4 Teacher
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SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
Year 5 Art Week - A picture perfect week in Year 5 Year 5 got their creative juices flowing this month, embracing Art Week. Our chosen artist to study was Charles Rennie Mackintosh, a Scottish architect, designer and water colourist. He was born in Townhead, Glasgow on the 7th of June 1868. Throughout his work, Mackintosh incorporated a red rose into many of his paintings and designs. This was a symbol of nature, the importance of earth and according to some, a symbol of a woman or a mother’s love. In 1899, Mackintosh was commissioned to design the Glasgow School of Art, in which he incorporated his style of strong angles, floral decorations and, of course, his ‘rose motif’ with subtle curves. The School is now considered one of the most famous buildings in Glasgow and was Mackintosh’s masterpiece which gave him international fame. In Year 5, we used this rose motif as our inspiration and enjoyed creating our own masterpieces via a variety of media including painting, oil pastels, embroidery, tissue paper stained glass and glass painting. The results were definitely ‘rosy’! We enjoyed sharing our wonderful creations with you in the Art Exhibition in our ‘mini gallery’ we created in our classroom. Please check out the Powerpoint on the Year 5 portal to see more of our beautiful work. Mrs Williams Year 5 Teacher
SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
Year 5 - Trip
Year 5’s trip and ‘Wow’ day
Last week, Year 5 enjoyed their class trip and ‘Wow’ day. Firstly, we visited the Mijas Monkey Chocolate Factory and what a treat it was! Our session involved a quick, fun introduction to the art of the chocolatier, where the students learned to mould and decorate three delicious bars of chocolate. They could choose from milk, white and dark chocolate, as well as over 20 different topping ingredients. They also learned all about the history of chocolate and how it is thanks to the Mayas (our topic) and spider monkeys that we have chocolate today. At the end of the workshop, once our bars had set, the unique bars were packaged and labelled, just for us to take home and enjoy. Then we returned to school where we spent an afternoon cooking and crafting like the ancient Mayan people. Our first activity was a real life ‘chilli challenge’. Students created hot chocolate drinks, similar to the ancient Mayan ‘xocolatl’ (bitter water). They added cinnamon and chilli powder to hot chocolate powder, then added hot milk. All students met the ‘spicy challenge’ finishing their ancient treat, declaring it ‘delicious’. Then the students worked as ancient Mayans to craft ‘ocarinas’, ancient Mayan instruments from clay. The whistles are often shaped like animals, humans and mythical beings. It was very difficult to create the hollow ball shape of the body of the instrument and to add a working mouthpiece but all students managed it. Some even played a variety of notes when blown. For our final, fun activity the students became cooks from the ancient Mayan era. They followed a traditional maize (corn) flour recipe to make tortillas from scratch. This involved weighing out all the ingredients, mixing the dough, flattening the tortillas and then frying them. We then added chicken and cheese and enjoyed eating the tasty treats. As you can see it was a day ‘choc’ full with ‘a-maize-ing’ activities! Please check out the wonderful movie showing our Mayan adventures on the Year 5 Parent Portal. Mrs Williams Year 5 Teacher
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SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
Year 5/6 - Trip Trip to the Alcazaba and Gibralfaro in Malaga The Alcazaba and Gibralfaro in Malaga presented the children in Year 5/6 with a glorious chance to take a trip back in time to a period very much forgotten about; the Moor’s rule of the Iberian Peninsula around a thousand years ago. As part of their integrated curriculum, the children studied the Al-Andalus period through History, Geography, Literacy, Cultural Studies and Art. The two ancient sites showed the children the distinctive architecture for that period and the museums helped to illustrate more of what life was like during that time. Sketching, note taking and beholding magnificent views were all on the agenda as the children planned their historical story, made initial drawings for their illustrations and perfected their two point perspective skills. They all had a wonderful day and learnt a great deal too. Mr Anthony Year 5/ 6 Class Teacher
SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
Year 5/6
Art Week - A two point perspective Shelley Fowles, the illustrator of our class text ‘The Most Magnificent Mosque’, was the inspiration for our work on sketching with a two point perspective.
Tying in with our Islamic theme, the children learnt how to develop the foreground and background of their compositions by following the rules of perspective. As the week progressed, so did their ability to draw archways commonly seen at the few remaining architectural monuments built by the Moors. We studied images from the Mosque in Cordoba and the Alcazaba in Malaga. Their sketchbooks showed their journey of learning from feedback and honing their skills to culminate in a final masterpiece for auction! Charcoal, acrylic, pastel and colouring pencils were all used to create wonderful examples of two point perspective landscapes.
Mr Anthony Year 5/6 Class Teacher
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SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
Spanish
Geography Project
Over the last couple of weeks, the Year 5 and 5/6 Spanish as an Additional Language class have been getting to know Spain a whole lot better. First of all students were challenged to find cities on a big map, practising their map reading skills and getting familiar with Spain as a physical country. Then they learned vocabulary for the weather and used the future tense to forecast the weather using weather updates on live maps. Finally, students used their maps to pick a city to investigate. The students did a great job investigating information on their Chromebooks and finding out fun facts about their chosen city. They discovered lots of links with their Cultural Studies lessons about the history of Spain and learned about some funny traditions, such as the wood chopping competition in Bilbao! Some students even interviewed teachers who had lived in their chosen region. Their writing will be published on the display board in their Spanish classroom very soon – something to look out for. Miss May Spanish Teacher
SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
Music
Excuses in November! Towards the end of this term, all classes started to prepare for their Christmas performances and this year there was a great lineup of events. We had the Christmas Carol Concert and lighting of the Christmas Tree on Friday 2nd December, where all classes performed a Christmas song they had been hard at work on in their music lessons. On Friday 9th December there were lots of exciting student-led music performances at the winter fair. And finally on Friday 16th December there was a return to Marbella old town to enter both our Junior and Senior choirs in the choir competition. Last year we won the event so there was a reputation to uphold! Speaking of choirs, both the Junior and Senior choirs gave wonderful performances to open the BISM art exhibition and auction on Friday 25th November. It was a great event and lots of money has been raised for charity.
Foundation Stage Foundation Stage have done an amazing job this month with rehearsing and performing for assemblies. Both class assemblies really were amazing to be a part of. Well done to all children involved, particularly those who had a solo part. The children also took part in the Christmas Carol concert and Foundation Stage production of Christmas Cinderella. Lastly, we have also introduced the `Super Singer´award to the Foundation stage for any children who have impressed the teacher with their singing. Well done to Mikhail (Nursery), Paula (Pre-nursery), Arianna (Nursery) and Diana for achieving it this term. Keystage 1 Key stage one have been working extremely hard on different instrumental skills such as keyboards and Samba instruments. Year 2 put on a fantastic show of their Samba skills at the Winter Fair on the 9th December. Keystage 2 Year 3 finally managed to perform their class assembly in November. It was a great success, with lots of rainforest inspired songs for the audience to enjoy. Year 4 have been combining their knowledge of instruments and improvisational skills on keyboards to play some Indian Raga inspired music. Year 5 and 5/6 have been continuing to advance their knowledge of chords, both on keyboard and guitar, with some very impressive results. In IMPs lessons across KS2, students prepared for the winter fair, where they played in a variety of performances. Year 5 have also had an excellent month in their music curriculum lessons creating instruments out of their junk, which they played as part of an orchestra.
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SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
School Council
Biscuits with Miss Bruce
This month, School Council were given the opportunity to have a meeting with Miss Bruce in her office. The children were able to ask her any questions about the school and also able to give their opinions on a variety of issues. They then shared their thoughts about their learning. They also gave Miss Bruce some interesting ideas about how we can improve the school. Miss Armstrong School Council Leader
SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
Assembly
Chase Champions This month saw the second of our House Quiz assemblies, with four brave children representing their house to play ‘The Chase.’ Each representative had one minute to answer as many questions as they could, earning 10 points for each correct answer. They then chose a teacher to be their ‘Chaser.’
The head to head round saw the ‘Chasers’ make offers to the children who could play for the points they earned, more or less. They then had to answer questions against each other to take steps down a board. If the ‘Chaser’ caught up to the children, they would be out and the points lost. All of the children made it through to the final round with 210 points to play for! The final round saw the children work together to answer as many questions as they could in one minute. Miss Bruce then took her place as ‘The Final Chaser’ also having one minute to answer questions, with the children having the chance to take points away when she passed or answered incorrectly. The children proved to be too good for Miss Bruce and she could not catch them, meaning that they won and shared the 210 points! Thank you to everyone for taking part. Miss Armstrong Literacy Coordinator
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