BISM Newsletter October 2017 (1) by British Schools Foundation

ISSUE 1 SCHOOL NEWSLETTER #21

The British International School of Marbella

NEWSLETTER A Newsletter for Parents, Students and Friends of our School

October 2017

SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Headteacher’s Message Dear Parents and Students, Month two of the new academic year and the curriculum is in full swing. It’s wonderful to see the children so motivated and enthused by their curriculum topics. The children are working hard which is evidenced not only by the amount of house points that have been awarded but also by the many children that have been sent to me to show me their excellent work. Look out for your child coming home donning a gold sticker and a special note in their bag to share their achievement with you. Following the baseline assessments at the beginning of the year I must say we had some very anxious looking teachers as many of the children seemed to forget a great deal of Maths and English learning objectives over the holidays. However, those frowns have certainly been turned upside down as the half term assessments have demonstrated excellent progress with most of the children back on track to where they were in June with many even further ahead; there are many proud teachers striding down the corridors, and rightly so. As you are aware, our whole school focus this year is Writing. The weekly ‘Big Writing’ sessions are certainly having a positive affect; the children have already written some excellent pieces this term - but don’t take my word for it, next time you are in school treat yourself to some quality reading (you’ll find the Big Writer of the Week pieces at the top of the stairs from the hall). Remember, you can support your child’s development in Writing by encouraging them to read (and of course be read to) and discussing the new language they are being exposed to at school. But it hasn’t been all work, work, work - the children had the opportunity to let their hair down

(or pop a wig on) on the last day of the month during the Halloween celebrations. In class their normal lessons took on a spooky tone and the day ended with phase Halloween discos with DJ Bruce and the (Mr) Wheels of Steele. Next month brings us Art Week and the Art Exhibitions, which is always a special time at BISM. With very best wishes, Sian Kirkham Headmistress

Pre-Nursery Numicon Fun In Pre-Nursery

Numicon is a multi-sensory maths resource designed to help your child develop a strong understanding of number even if they do not yet have the vocabulary to explain what they are seeing/doing. In Pre-Nursery, the children have shown a genuine love of Numicon from the very first time in which we added them to their activities. The children have happily added glass beads and chocolate eggs to the Numicon, each representing a different number. This allowed us to really encourage and develop their number vocabulary as well as their fine motor skills when adding small items to a small space. We did notice that some of the chocolate eggs seemed to disappear during the activity though…We wonder where they might have gone! At home you can continue to encourage a love of number by counting things around the house such as steps, clothing and placemats for eating. This will support your child’s number knowledge and encourage their independence! Mrs Rutherford Pre-Nursery Teacher

SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Nursery

Pre-Nursery & Nursery Assembly

Why Was He Sat On The Wall?

The Enormous Turnip

Reception Reception Assembly Reception’s Surprise Penguin’s Attention

In October the children of Reception loved learning through the story of Handa´s Surprise.

Nursery Class loved learning the Nursery Rhyme ´Humpty Dumpty.´They were very keen to show off their knowledge of the story and did so using puppets! They retold the Nursery Rhyme using the finger puppets, remembering what happened and who tried to help.

With Mrs Rutherford and Mrs Toro, the children even got to practise carrying lots of fruit on their heads like Handa does in the story, although not as skilfully! It was “surprising” how difficult it was.

The children used their fantastic imaginations when thinking about why Humpty was sat on the wall and also thought about how he fell off the wall. It was great to hear the children’s imaginative ideas! The class wanted to help put Humpty back together again and thought about all the different materials they could use to do so! They each created their own version of a ´mended´ humpty, covered in plasters!

The children also got to have a fruit feast after practising their cutting skills under close adult supervision. Well done Reception! Mr Holden

Reception Teacher

Miss Nixon Nursery Teacher

The children of Reception had a brilliant time performing their Ourselves Assembly to the whole school and their families. You could feel the energy in the hall as their children excitedly performed the songs, 5 little men in a flying saucer, Heads , Shoulders, Knees and Toes and at the hilarious climax of the assembly The Penguin Song! Lots of the audience were in hysterics as the children and teachers of Reception danced like penguins as Miss “Colonel” Conlan shouted the instructions! The children also demonstrated how they had been learning about themselves, talking about their physical features, such as eye and hair colour and memorably got into height order on the stage. Mr Holden

Reception Teacher

The youngest of our learners took to the stage this month in their assembly all about ‘The Enormous Turnip.’ 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 were fantastic at retelling the story of ´The Enormous Turnip,´ through a very catchy song! With all their strength and plenty of teamwork the children saved the day (and the turnip) by working together! 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

Year 1

Year 2

This month many children in Year one went home

This month, as always, there has been a big push in reading in Year Two. Guided Reading sessions have

saying,

been fun, interactive and full of energy. Some children have even been following instructions from their

Worm Eating in Year 1 ‘Miss Lawrence fed us worms!’.....the

children had a great week in literacy learning a fun

Reading in Year 2

ebooks to perform forward rolls!

poem for our first poetry unit of the year, all about worms.

The children have been reading carefully sounding out their words and listening to each other patiently. Following reading we always have discussions related to the text and even have some quizzes!

The children ‘dug for worms’ (made of jelly) in ‘dirt’ (made from cereal) as a fun way to excite the

I have also noticed that a lot of children are reading often at home, which really helps their learning in

children about the poem.

school. Keep it up!

We looked at rhythm, adjectives used and the layout of poems to enable the children to create

I have been really impressed with their enthusiasm in these Guided Reading sessions and I hope

their own versions of the poem using the same

this increases their passion for reading both at school and at home. The more we read the more

structure, but changing the animals!

knowledgeable we are, it opens up a whole new world!

We had many fantastic versions all about

Mr. Llion Thomas

turtles, zebras, gorillas and many more animals! This related really well to our topic unit, about endangered animals. Miss Lawrence

Year One Teacher

Year Two Teacher/Lower Primary Leader

SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Year 3 Trip To The Bio Park Year Three Assembly

The weather was beautiful as Year Three set off to the

Bio Park in Fuengirola. As the class arrived they were greeted by their guide for the day. The first stop was visiting some rather cheeky animals from Madagascar. The children walked through the lemur enclosure where they saw them sunbathing, eating and leaping from tree to tree. Then the class met the king of the monkey’s; the gorilla and were surprised to find out that even though they are enormous, gorillas only eat fruit and vegetables. Later in the day the children were given the chance to see some animals up close at the birds and mammals show. Birds went swooping overhead and the small mammals showed off as they went on the

Year Three gave an outstanding performance in their assembly all about the Rainforest. The children demonstrated their fantastic singing and physical theatre skills in the song ‘We are Explorers.’ They sang

hunt for food.

clearly and confidently while moving to the words,

The children behaved beautifully throughout the visit

Rainforest.

and represented the school excellently.

Miss Allen Year 3 Teacher

taking the audience on a journey to the Amazon

Year 4

Christophe’s Story

Perfecting Storytelling

During the past few weeks Year 4 have been reading a book called Christophe’s Story during our Literacy lessons. This interesting and thought-provoking tale of a refugee boy from Rwanda touched the hearts of many of the children in the class and evoked some strong emotions.

In Year 5, the children have been learning about the stages needed to go through to become better and more technical writers. The children have been focusing on the power of speech and how knowing a story a story really well will lead to a more successful written account.

As well as his escape from a war-torn country, the story focussed on Christophe’s, and Babi’s, wonderful story telling skills. We used this opportunity to practise our own oral story telling skills and used drama to understand Christophe’s story and different characters’ feelings further.

The process is known as a Word Carpet. The background for this exercise lay in the Michael Morpurgo novel ‘Friend or Foe which is set during World War 2. The children had planned a series of scenes depicting an account of two boys who discover two fallen German airmen, much like in the book itself. Each stage of the plan included key words (verbs, nouns and adjectives) which were then selected as ‘signposts’ for the children’s verbal narrative.

The children’s interest and feelings for the story was a great stimulus for some heartfelt letter writing and emotional written stories as well. The children wrote fantastic letters to Babi, through Christophe’s eyes, and showed an excellent empathy for the main character in the story. This has been a story that has really captured the hearts and imaginations of Year 4.

Once at the Rainforest, the children displayed their acting talents while reenacting the story of The Great Kapok Tree. The children thought carefully about how each rainforest animal would move and along with their fabulous costumes made the assembly hall come alive. They also used their reading skills to record the narration to the story, focussing on reading with fluency and using expression in their voices. The class entertained as well as communicating a very important message about everyone playing a part in looking after the rainforest. Well done Year Three!! Miss Allen

Year 3 Teacher

Year 5

Miss Marseglia Year 4 Teacher

The words were then laid out on the floor in rows reflecting the order of events. The children would then step on the words and use them as integral parts of the story. Their imaginations filled in the word gaps around their key word to make a more cohesive narrative. This activity produced greater fluency and lucidity the more it was repeated. Mr Anthony Middle School Literacy Teacher Mrs Smith Middle School Teaching Assistant

SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Year 6

Year 7

The year 6 children worked on this investigation during maths:

Year 7 have been studying the process of digestion in Science. Whilst this is quite a complex process they have had a lot of fun getting to know how it works. To complement this they have also been looking at what constitutes a healthy, balanced diet.

Chocolate On The Table “If the chocolate on the table I sit at is to be shared out equallywhen I sit down, which would be the best table to sit at?”

What Goes in..... Mr Herron Deputy Head This month we have completed several experiments to have a more complex understanding of digestion and nutrition. We recreated the digestive system using things you can find at home. All of the objects were laid on the table to demonstrate the process. It was fun, for some of us it was a little bit disgusting, however we all got a wider understanding of what happens inside our body every single time we eat. Lucas Hollingshead Y7

This challenge was all about chocolate... and Maths! I placed 1 bar of chocolate on the first table, 2 bars of chocolate on the second table and 3 bars of chocolate on the third table. We counted and established that there were 18 people in the room consisting of both children and adults and everyone lined up ready to go and sit at a table to eat some chocolate. The children had to work out where each of the 18 people would have to sit down, to each be guaranteed to receive the biggest piece of chocolate. A lot of patience was required, not just to avoid eating the merchandise, but to be able to work very systematically and methodically to place each person at the right table. After a brief introduction, some possible suggestions and a few hints and tips, the children went off in their groups to solve the problem. Some children decided to make it very visual and drew the tables and placed each person, one at a time, at each table; ensuring that they would get the biggest piece possible. Some children used a chart to record the steps. Other children decided to mix both methods to support their problem solving process. Of course, the prospect of having to taste the maths resource of the day added to the focus, attention and determination of the children, or was it merely the fact that maths is fun? Needless to say, it was great to see how maths can be used to solve a real life problem and the children put a lot of effort into the lesson. Things we learned: - always double check what you have done to avoid simple errors - do ONE step at a time - don’t try to rush through the problem - if there are 5 or 6 people in the group – work together! It’s all about teamwork. - Every time another person sits at a table, work out the new fraction and compare it with other tables to ensure it’s the biggest part of the whole. - chocolate tastes nice.... Jaco Kuhn Middle School Maths Teacher

We started by looking at what happens in the mouth. We took a bowl that represented the mouth and we put beans and toast in it. First we mixed it with a liquid (saliva) and then we mixed it with a potato masher to make it look as if it has been chewed by the teeth. After we put the food in a tube that we called the oesophagus.Then we put it in a sandwich bag (stomach). The food normally stays in the stomach for 4 to 5 hours. We shook it and mixed it with enzymes and bile. The role of the bile is to neutralise stomach acid and to emulsify fats. The role of enzymes is to help digest food. After absorbing the water, we passed the mixture into some tights (small intestine). Then we put it into another tight (large intestine). In the large intestine,all the water is absorbed so we squeezed the water out. Then it passed through to the rectum and then the anus. After going by the anus, it goes in the toilet so we put the resulting mixture in a bucket (toilet). This is how we reproduced the digestive process. Lina Benkirane Y7 We have also been learning about healthy food so we did some research and found out how many ingredients are in processed chicken nuggets, the most was 70 and only a small percentage was actually chicken! So Mr Herron challenged us to make our own chicken nuggets in groups of 2 / 3 this is how we made them: We first cut up the raw chicken into nugget size, after we did that we then cracked an egg and put it into a plastic sandwich bag and put the raw nuggets in with the egg we took the chicken out and put it in a bag of flour and then put breadcrumbs on and cooked them. We added some lemon when they were cooked and did a taste test. We complemented the dish with a side salad. They were lovely and the good thing was we knew what was in it. Poppy Frost Y7

SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

FS Fairytale Wow Day Once Upon A Time.....

...In a Foundation Stage not so far away and not very long ago, the children and staff received a letter from Vlad the Unicorn asking them to read lots of fairy tales. Vlad needed the children to do this, in order to fix all the fairytales that had been broken by the awful Dennis the Dragon. And so began our topic of Fairy Tales, starting with a fun filled Wow Day which included a visit from all the characters from The Gingerbread Man at the Foundation Stage assembly. Later on in the day the children got to plant magic beans like those in Jack in the Beanstalk, make bear biscuits which hopefully Goldilocks didn´t eat and practise their acting skills by impersonating the characters in The Gingerbread Man. There were some amazing cow noises made by the children. The children were all determined to learn lots about fairytales and so in the process help Vlad the unicorn and start a new adventure of learning in the Foundation Stage! Mr Holden

Foundation Stage Leader

SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Special Events Happy Halloween!

And a happy halloween it certainly was at BISM. Even though it was halloween, learning was still high on the agenda. The children enjoyed a fun filled day, enjoying activities as diverse as halloween yoga in PreNursery! Year One wrote some spooky sentences about their character and for the Middle school it was still business as usual. The quality of pumpkins in the parade was high, with Frankenstein a popular carved character! All the children who entered received a prize. The discos were a huge hit and the introduction of house competitions, such as “Dress your Mummy in a Minute” proved a success, in addition to the time old classics such as musical statues! The Lower and Middle school were also treated (or tricked!) to a live performance by the rock band of “Ghostbusters”. A spooktastic day all round!

SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Spanish Spanish Studies

SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Music So October is here and we are well into the swing of things down in the music department! Our extra curricular activities are progressing well and we are learning and participating in all sorts of musical ensembles. Upper School Our Upper School Choir have started to rehearse and the children are coming diligently every Tuesday lunchtime to practice. They already sound fantastic and I think it will be a great year for them! It is very exciting to be able to introduce a School Orchestra to BISM this year. The orchestra members have been meeting every Wednesday afternoon to learn what it is to be a classical musician; at the moment we are learning how to play a Waltz! The Rock Band have been working hard as usual and I am sure they will live up to their great reputation of last year! So another busy month in and out of the music classroom for the Upper School… Keep up the good work! Miss Stone Upper School Music Teacher Lower School

Spanish Year 2/3 This month has been an eventful one in B.I.S.M. During our Spanish lessons in Year 2/3 we learnt new vocabulary and songs related to autumn and the changes in the weather. The children learnt how to differentiate the four seasons in Spanish. We all agreed on one thing: Autumn comes very late to Marbella! On Halloween Tuesday the school was full of scary creatures, pretty witches, mischievous little devils and many other frightening characters. During our Halloween Spanish lessons we learnt how to express our fears in Spanish. We sang and danced to our funny scary Spanish skeleton song: Cuando el reloj marca la una… The song was an enjoyable way of learning how to tell the time in Spanish. During the Halloween disco we acted out our song. It was a terrific moment! Spanish Reception/Year 1 In Reception and Year 1 during our Spanish lessons we have been very busy learning and revising numbers, colours, days of the week and months of the year. We learnt how to name the parts of our body and talked about our families. All this learning was done through songs, dance and games. Autumn and Halloween kept us busy this last week of October. We made autumn tree collages and sang our autumn song, which helped us remember the colours which surround us in autumn. Needless to say, we had a wonderful time dancing away to our Spanish Halloween songs too! Miss. Moriarty

Spanish Teacher

We have been really busy in the lower school with some inspiring and informative class assemblies covering a wide range of topics from Penguins to Enormous Turnips! Lower school choir are busy preparing their song for the Art Exhibition and year 4 have rehearsed a spooky ukulele tune for the Halloween assembly. As always foundation stage have made incredible musical progress and continue to delight and astonish with their singing and rhythmic development. Year 1 are current champions of Don´t Clap This One Back, reaching level 3 not once but twice! Well done Year 1, amazing listening skills. Miss Conlan Lower School Music Teacher

SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

PSHE Independence “The greatest gifts you can give your children are the roots of responsibility and the wings of independence.” - Denis Waitley This Month’s Charter Value at BISM has been Independence. The children have been encouraged to take responsibility for their own actions and to show that they can do things for themselves. In class they have been given opportunities to take the lead, to give things a try and to have their own ideas. In the playground, the children have been encouraged to make their own choices and to show maturity in their play.

SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Talking Point Is It Right?

Just because something is socially acceptably does it mean it is right? That is the question the Middle School students were posed this month during our assembly focus on ‘independence’. After discussing what used to be socially acceptable in the past such as drugs like opium being available to the Victorians in the local chemist, Ronald Reagan promoting the sale of cigarettes in the 1930’s and the mullet being a 1980’s must have hair do, we then thought about what is socially acceptable now. The students were asked to imagine that Winston Churchill had suddenly appeared and they had to explain the following social norms to him:

The PSHE homework this month was to give the children the opportunity to show us their independence skills out of school. The children in Foundation Stage showed us that they can put on their own shoes, clean their own teeth and can help around the house. The older children in school showed that they can change after swimming, help at home and take care of their own belongings. Please do continue to encourage your children to be independent. It is these important skills that will support them into their adult lives and give them the self confidence in their own abilities. Mrs Rutherford PSHE Coordinator

Interestingly, when the children came to the front to playact being Winston Churchill they could see the flaws in these modern day habits, however when back in the group they were ready to defend them. As teachers and parents we are their role models and how we behave will influence what they determine to be right or wrong. For example, how can you restrict your child’s screen time when your own phone is rarely 20cm away from your own face? According to a recent survey, nearly one-third of children feel unimportant when their parents use their cell phones during mealtimes, conversations, TV watching and playing outside. Maybe, it’s time to put a stop to this social norm by putting your phone down and picking your child up. http://www.parenting.com/news-break/kids-feel-unimportant-to-cell-phone-addicted-parents.