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Issue 5 - June 2014

Summer is here!

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Dear Parents & BSB Family Today my first godson is graduating from school, how time flies! Reflecting on how well he has done at school, how handsome he has become and the fine young man he has grown into makes me so proud. However it also caused myself and his mother to remember when he was first born and was really quite sick; he was underweight and a glance at the colour of his skin made us fear the worse. Yet as the months went on he developed steadily and he became our little fighter, our man cub. At the time we hoped that what felt like true grit from this small baby would win the day and it did. Hanging in there, consistent resilience and the ability to keep trying, albeit it in different ways to succeed is being hailed as the new must-have attribute. TED talks have focused on it, books have been written about it, leaders of industry cite it as the reason for their success and in some parts of America class are being taught how to get it: Grit is the new skill. I wonder how it is possible to teach this, and if it is really about personality; but certainly opportunities need to be given to our children to make sure they learn that when something does not come easily to them they need to keep going and not give up. Examples must be shared that highlight how perseverance is the quality that most readily guarantees success; initial failures must be discussed in terms of opportunities to learn and not used as notification that something has come to the end of the road.

â€œPerseverance is the quality that most readily guarantees success.â€?

Reading the end of year school reports is always quite a daunting task as the school has grown so much over the years, but it is great closure on an academic year for me. To learn about how a student has managed to make friends, settle into school without a word of English but have then pushed themselves to conquer this barrier and that they leave for the summer knowing that their return to school in September will be so much easier now they have mastered the language; or how a child with learning difficulties has persevered with their writing to produce a wonderful story that entertained their class; or the pupil afraid of heights committing to the climbing club. The stories behind your childrenâ€™s reports will tell of times when they kept going and achieved progress at a skill they never thought they could do. Encouraging teachers and friends all help create those important moments but self belief and consistent determination play the greatest part, and so when I read of so many great achievements of our students I have to believe they are showing true grit too. It has been another wonderful year at BSB, I wish everyone who has made it so a relaxing and rewarding summer. Jo Puddy-Wells, Principal principal@britishschool.ro

Issue 5

June 2014

Leavers in Spotlight This is my fifth year in BSB. I first moved here in Y7 from a Romanian school. Overall, it has been a great experience. I got to meet people from all over the world, share ideas and experience new cultures. This is especially helpful when studying languages. I believe that the past years spent in BSB where vital in getting me ready for university life in a foreign country. The staff has been extremely helpful in aiding me choose a university course as well as applying for it. In autumn I will be taking a foundation course in Psychology, Social Science, Economics and Politics at Warwick University with a guaranteed progression onto an Undergraduate Psychology course at the same university. My experience at BSB will be one I will never forget, but I am very excited to progress onto university and make new memories. Andreea I joined BSB in Y10, coming from a Greek school and having little experience on life at an international school. Looking back I can say with absolute certainty, that it has been a great four years, in which I learned all I needed in order to be ready for university. All my teachers and Mr. Walters have put a lot of effort and have done their best to help me with my studies and my future career, as I have managed to receive offers from top universities in the UK for the course of Mathematics and Economics. Graduating from this school, I am convinced that I have an advantage compared to most people from other schools and educational systems, not only at an academic level, and therefore I am confident that I will not have any trouble adjusting to life in university and completing the course successfully. Although I am sad to leave BSB, I am looking forward to moving to Edinburgh for four more exciting years. The fact that I will be living in such a beautiful place is making it easier for me to leave all this behind. Evangelos

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When I first came to BSB in Y12, I would have never thought to have the incredible experience I ended up having. Being an International student, you get used to changing schools and building new friendships and it might even get exhausting but, as soon as I set foot in the Y12 form room, I was greeted with a warm welcome from everyone that made me forget how difficult it can be to start over. During these two years, I had the opportunity of selecting the subjects I wanted to study and therefore I enjoyed each lesson I had. Teachers are always encouraging and help and guide you through every issue you might have, which is one of the reasons I really enjoyed studying at this school. Overall, the environment is very friendly and supporting, and I particularly enjoyed all the activities present in school as well as the occasional educational trips. Next year I will be going to Oxford Brookes to study Hospitality Management. This university is highly ranked worldwide for the course I have chosen and I am thrilled to have a chance to study there. Two years ago I wasn’t sure about the path I wanted to take, but with the support of my teachers and the last work experience I did (which was at a hotel here in Bucharest), I realised this subject is perfect for me. I am looking forward to my new life in university. Everybody says these next four years will be the best of my life and that I really have to cherish them. Hopefully the weather won’t be too bad, although I can’t really count on it! The part I’ll enjoy the least will be moving out of my home and having to leave mainly everything behind… When I’ll look back at my experience as a student, inevitably a great amount of memories will come to mind and I can honestly say that these two years unfortunately went by incredibly fast. Federica

I arrived at BSB in November 2010 in Y10. It was a big adjustment for me as I came from a large American International School in Amsterdam and had always studied IB. However, I found I quickly settled and made some excellent friends. Because of the small class sizes, students and teachers work more closely together – this is usually a benefit… The Art Department, especially in my A Level years, has definitely been an inspiring place to be. It has encouraged me to think creatively, work independently and to push the boundaries of art. This has resulted in my decision to continue studying art and design at University level. I will be going to the Minerva Art Academy in Groningen, Netherlands, to study a Fine Art Degree (BA) for 4 years. The most exciting aspect for me is that I will be returning to the place I consider my home and I will be studying the subject that I love the most. Overall, my experience at BSB has been very positive and I would like to thank everyone who has helped me along the way; especially Mr. Philip Walters, Mr. Paul Farrell, Mr. Derek Walker and Mr. Mark Williams Joe

Being part of the BSB “team” was an extremely pleasant experience for me. I do believe that having the help of such dedicated teachers helped me shape my future. It is important to feel that you receive all the support and help that you can get in key moments in your life. I was continually assessed and praised or advised on my work. Why is this so important? Having feedback can make you realise where you are and how much you need to work in order to reach your goal. Even when I felt that I would never get there, I was lucky to be encouraged and pushed onward into reaching a high level of knowledge. It’s always important to remember that without the help of teachers and their support our road would be much harder and complicated. I am at a point when I look back and leave the past behind with sorrow and I turn and try to guess the future with fear but also with anticipation. I still did not decide where to go but my options are opened. I have to choose between Barcelona, Berlin and UK so far. Wherever the road will take you as you are closer one step forward to your dreams, bear in mind that there is nothing more important than listening to your instinct and always choose the harder path even though it is much challenging the reward is going to be equally as great.

I’m in the British School of Bucharest since January 2013 and I can strongly state that the last year and a half have been a life changing experience for me, happily in a very positive way. I have been able to meet a totally new world for me, to meet so many open-minded people and to learn from them. Special thanks to my teachers, who were always next to me and supporting me, regardless how weird I am, and pushing me out of my comfort zone, all the time.

Robert

I came here with a goal to apply to a creative course to university in London, and now I can proudly say it, that I achieved my goal. I am going to the UK, in London to study Art. I have been unconditionally accepted to the Art and Design Foundation Year in Kingston University London. I can’t even express myself how excited I am to start my life there. Kristina

Issue 5

June 2014

Where are they now? Jessica

Pol and Mariam

Congratulations to Jessica, a former student, who has been awarded the Dickson Poon Law Scholarship by King’s College London. Jessica is taking A Levels in Spanish, Government & Politics, Mathematics and Russian. She was offered a conditional place to study law at King’s College and was encouraged to compete for the scholarship by writing a law case study essay. She was delighted to hear that she had been awarded the scholarship, which is worth £18,000. We wish Jessica every success.

We hope you remember us, we are Pol and Mariam. After five happy years in BSB we moved to New Delhi (India) last year. This is very different, very colourful and pretty. We are studying in the British School of Delhi now. We haven’t forgotten our friends and teachers in BSB but we also like it here. Our whole family (including our little sister Laia) invite you to visit this charming country called India. It is definitely worth a visit.

From the Engine Room As we approach the end of another school year it is right and proper that we offer a big thank you to all of the students and staff who have provided support this year in the production of Newsblast. From reports on sporting events, to activities in the classroom and articles from students the endless supply of material has been very gratefully received. Without any of this, the school magazine would be impossible to produce. It is one of the tools at our disposal through which we can demonstrate all of the good things that happen at BSB. But there are other media that you should investigate in order to ensure that you are kept fully informed. Many of you will subscribe to our Facebook page but if you don’t please do so. Twice daily updates are posted throughout the year including the holiday periods. Many of the postings eventually find their way into Newsblast but many do not. Some of the photographs are not high enough quality to print but are fine to publish electronically. The same can be said of the school twitter account @britishschoolro. If you aren’t already subscribed then please try and make that a resolution for the next school year. We will be putting a lot of effort 6 Newsblast

into ensuring that all of the departments are tweeting regularly. Coupled with the informative discussions which come via Mr. Walters (Geogging Head) this will provide an excellent vehicle for the school to disseminate information. You don’t need to tweet to follow us and signing up for an account is free, it only takes a minute or two! As with Facebook, different pictures are posted on twitter so make sure you don’t miss out. Over 800 pictures and videos have been posted on twitter in the last year! There is still time to register for the Summer School if you are staying in Bucharest through July so please get in touch with summerschool@ britishschool.ro if you require further information. We wish you all a great holiday and look forward to welcoming you back in September. Please send some photographs of your holiday destination, selfies of you wearing a BSB baseball cap particularly welcome. The most exotic destinations may well find their way into the next edition of Newsblast! Happy holidays, Simon Lambert

My Favourite Teacher My favourite teacher was Mr Martin Stadler, who in the early 90s worked very briefly at the German Lyceum from Cluj when I was in grade 5. I remember thinking that his name was similar to the brand name written on my eraser but that’s not entirely the reason why Mr Stadler was so memorable to me. He taught us German and was different in every way. With Mr Stadler it suddenly mattered what we thought. We were not so used to this, as in the Romanian schools at that time it was more important to know what other people thought about books. The biggest lesson that he taught me, happened in the winter when Mr Stadler asked us to write a poem about snow. My poem was superb, so I thought, I had spent hours on finding the right rhymes, but Mr Stadler´s favourite poem was the one written by my classmate Nicky Schenker. This was quite remarkable. Now, in order to understand this, you need to picture Nicky Schenker. He was a spotty student who always had a big grin on his face for no reason at all. You would turn to him if you wanted to know exactly the opposite of what the teachers asked you to do, and yet, here he was, reading out his snow poem triumphantly in front of the class and Mr Stadler listened carefully and liked it.

Mr Stadler taught me that Nicky Schenker was an achiever. This was a great life lesson for me as it showed me that believing in people makes them succeed. Dorothea Draser

Mr Stadler happened to visit Bucharest recently and Miss Draser met him at the airport for the first time after he had been her teacher in Grade 5

Me and My Pet Ron is my three-year old Golden Retriever. We decided to name him Rooney, because he came home the same day as the 2011 Final Champions League, and Rooney was a player from one of the teams, but the name was too long and finally it became Ron. When someone comes home, doesn’t matter who, he jumps on top of them, because he likes to be the center of attention. He loves to have a shoe in his mouth, and when we get home he receives us with a shoe. He’s a really active dog, he never stops! He´s a friendly dog and he would never bite someone. Ron is my best friend even though he´s a dog. If a had all day I would play with him. Claudia

Issue 5

June 2014

www.imupro300.ro

8 Newsblast

Getting to know your TA: Bianca Olah Hello, I am Miss Bianca and I started working here in September 2012. I cannot believe that two years have already past! Working at British School Of Bucharest has been an amazing experience both professionally and personally! I met a lot of interesting and captivating people who were ready to share their experience and knowledge to others. Being a Teaching Assistant put me in different exciting and challenging situations that made me realise that I am there to guide, support and help each child become more independent and confident in their own powers and abilities. Alongside the teachers I have worked so far these two years, in my first year with Year 4 and now with Year 5, I tried to bond with the children and to offer them a calm and relaxed environment so that they can evolve and show their true potential. When I am not in school I adore taking long walks in nature and enjoying the beautiful places of this country, I love listening to music, meeting friends and reading detective books.

BSB Congratulates: Jonathan I am excited to let you all know that on Monday 28th April, Joseph Nathan Moore-Crispin entered the world weighing 3.5kg and measuring 51cm. Joseph is a wonderful addition to our family, and Lidia and I are really enjoying these early days of parenthood. I feel extremely grateful for the way that so many BSB staff, parents and children have supported and encouraged us during this new phase of our lives, and so I want to a big â€œthank youâ€? to you all for that. I hope that you get to meet our little guy sometime soon! Jonathan Moore-Crispin

BSB Congratulates: Victor Congratulations to Victor in Y5 who is now a certified diver after he successfully completed a PADI Open Water Course in his Easter Holiday and pass the exam at the end of the course. The marine life with its beautiful corals and fish is now accessible for Victor. His brother Marc, his parents and all at BSB are very proud of him!

Issue 5

June 2014

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Lower School Review Learning outside the classroom A lot of discussion takes place in education about how children learn best. It is believed that children have learning preferences and teachers try to ensure that lessons are prepared in a way that engages all of their different learning styles. When thinking about children’s learning, however, I ask another question, where do children learn best? The obvious answer maybe in a classroom and the image that probably comes to mind is of a rectangular room with a board at the front for the teacher to show what they know through the delivery of the lesson. Children are either sitting in groups or in rows facing the board at the front. Teachers make the classrooms engaging, stimulating and purposeful. At school we have been asking whether ‘classrooms’ have to be like this and are exploring alternative layouts and designs. However, does learning just take place in a classroom? I am a firm believer that a great deal of teaching and learning would be better delivered outside of the classroom. Taking lessons outside the classroom provides opportunities for teachers to nurture creativity and imagination without the restrictions of the four walls. At BSB we are fortunate to have an exciting outdoor learning environment. We have lots of space, a pond area and a safe secure campus in which children can have a creative experience. A few memorable lessons outside this year have included measuring the size of dinosaurs, painting in the snow, art lessons in the pond area, launching rockets, music lessons, survival skills and gardening. The outdoor environment provides a valuable resource and opportunities to develop learning through play and experimentation.

“Taking lessons outside the classroom provides opportunities for teachers to nurture creativity and imagination without the restrictions of the four walls.”

In the Primary school, teachers are encouraged to take their classes on regular trips to places of interest. It is great to see the excitement from children after a trip- science museums, history museums, zoos, printing offices, parks, toy shops to name but a few. These trips provide a link to the learning that is happening in the classroom and seek to extend their thinking and experiences. The children also have the opportunity to travel away from home on residential visits. These again are wonderful occasions for students to learn outside of the classroom. A lot of the benefits of learning outside of the classroom cannot be easily measured, but is clearly evident in the interactions between students, their beaming smiles and a good night’s sleep on their return. As we come to the end of an exciting year at BSB and start to look forward to next year, I will be encouraging primary teachers to think outside of the classroom- to look for further opportunities to bring learning to life. Robert Ford, Head of Lower School

Issue 5

June 2014

Crib Summer Term

Enjoying being outside The children in Crib have enjoyed being outside during the last few weeks. Not only have they enjoyed playing in the sand and water tray but they have been able to enjoy the garden where they can run and climb on apparatus. They have enjoyed investigating the garden area and they like to run up and down the â€œHillâ€? which helps the children to become more firm on their feet. They have all become good friends and have learnt to work and play together. Rachel Gregory

Playing together

The children have become good friends 12 Newsblast

Water play is always fun!

CrĂ¨che In the Garden

Enjoying some of the strawberries that we grew CrĂ¨che have been very busy during the last few weeks planting seeds and fruit in the garden. The children have been learning all about what plants need to grow and how to look after them. While digging in the soil and spending time outside, the children have encountered many different insects. Looking for insects then became a keen interest for the children and reading a selection of stories relating to this was a favourite way to end their days in CrĂ¨che.

Discovering a spider web

Giving the plants a much needed drink

Hard at work planting Issue 5

June 2014

Preschool adventures

The children went outside and carefully sketched the school grounds Preschool have had a very creative and colourful final term. Both classes demonstrated their interest in colour and shape and what better way to explore this than to find out about the world of art and artists? We started our journey by looking at the work of Kandinsky where the children listened to music by Richard Wagner just as the artist used to do whilst creating his masterpieces. We used the outdoors area to enhance and inspire our learning of the arts and learnt how to take the time to observe the world around us, carefully looking at the shapes and colours in nature. The children used the story of Elmer the Elephant to further their knowledge of the way stories are structured. They suggested different ways that the story could end and discussed how Elmer felt at different points in the story. The children then created a friend for Elmer. Priscilla Varban and Katherine Dibble

Vanessa and Tudor are painting a reproduction of Kandinskyâ€™s concentric circles 14 Newsblast

Understanding our World in Reception

Children using the laptop to Skype their friends from another school Understanding of the World is about how children get to know about other people, the place where they live and about all aspects of the environment. At BSB we provide lots of opportunities for the children to explore and investigate how things work. They are encouraged to test out their ideas through open-ended investigations which allow them to apply their prior learning and extend their understanding of a range of concepts. These photographs display a few examples of how we have been scientists and explorers this year. Isobel Ford and Kayleigh Evans

Meeting the school chef to interview him and make cookies!

Exploring ice with our scary ice hands

Children working in small groups to look for the signs of Spring and Summer Issue 5

June 2014

The caterpillars arrive - ready for us to look after

Are green leaves and buds a sign on spring?

We watched them grow and evolve before our eyes

Comparing the different leaves that can be found around the school grounds

Releasing the butterflies into the wild

Watching our beans grow after reading Jack in the Beanstalk. We learnt about the different parts of a plant

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After talking about different planets and the possibility of different life forms. A special alien visited our class to answer some questions we had

Children enjoy listening to stories in other languages when finding out about families and communities

Issue 5

June 2014

Year 1 Fee Fi Fo Fum...

Looking up at the Giant

The Giant was as tall as 3 Y1 children

The theme in Y1 for the summer term has been ‘Growing Vegetable Soup’. During this we have enjoyed reading different versions of the story Jack and the Beanstalk. We then used this to write our own stories, with partners using an iPad and then individually on paper. We have even helped solve a problem for the Giant by using our Maths skills, with a little the help from some Y7 students. We planted our own vegetable seeds and kept a diary of the changes we observed. Our topic was completed by having fun designing and making our own vegetable soup (which didn’t include the blood of an Englishman). Jodie Lewis

Using the Book Creator App - Marcus, Mateo and Maria 18 Newsblast

Working with Y7 students to compare shoe sizes to height

Using watercolour paints

Seed collages

Labelling plant parts

Issue 5

June 2014

Year 2 inside and outside of the classroom

Year 2 meeting and learning about Year 3 The Summer Term has been busy and exciting for year 2. They have had a really productive year and most recently have been enjoying developing their learning both inside and outside of the classroom. The focus has been on bears and habitats. The children have had the opportunity to explore their local environment and to observe the wildlife that resides there.

2C choosing clothes to dress a bear.

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The finished product! All the bears dressed and ready for a day out!

Children observing and recording insects in different habitats.

2C recording their results in the Science Garden.

Gardening

Pond dipping to find out what life exists in the school pond

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June 2014

Mansoor answering a question and sharing his thinking

Sophie creating 2D shapes on Peg Board

Subtraction Picture

Drawing Bears

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Working together on maths puzzles

2P working hard

Y2 learning about a range of instruments

Issue 5

June 2014

Year 3 Mosaic Madness

Y3 chose to spend some of their Bake Sale money on a Mosaic Workshop. The workshop was run by some very nice ladies from a charity called Second Chance. The charity aims to support and strengthen villages in the community of Berceni by equipping local people with key skills to carry forward into working life. The children all made a colourful and unique mosaic memory box and the children wrote lovely messages for each other, to put inside them, to remember our wonderful time together as a class with Mrs. Smith and Mr. Thomas.

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The Mosaic Workshop encouraged creativity, dexterity and helped to remind children of the friendships made throughout the year

Issue 5

June 2014

Year 3 Myths and Legends

Year 3 making the most of the lovely weather This term the Y3 children have had a wonderful time investigating Myths and Legends from their home countries and presenting them to their peers. This has been a wonderful opportunity for children to celebrate their culture and heritage. In our English sessions, we have explored a variety of Greek Myths and Legends through a range of texts and media; we have explored in depth about character, setting and the general structure of a Greek Myth. The children have then skilfully planned and written their own Myths which have been a wonderful evidence of the progress that Y3 have made with their descriptive writing. In our Science topic of Magnets, the children have been enthused to learn many interesting things about magnets, the ways they behave and how they are used in the wider world. They have investigated ways in which magnets influence each other and the effect they have on different materials. The children explored a range of magnets to test their strengths; here they systematically recorded their results and implemented fair testing Over the recent weeks, we have been learning about Light and Shadows. Children have thoroughly enjoyed making their own sun dials and drawing around their own shadows to gain an understanding of how the Earthâ€™s rotation influences shadows. Charlotte Smith and Dan Thomas

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Jassim and his Myths and Legends Project

Investigation into the strength of magnets

Stable Structure Challenge in DT

Talking Partners are extremely important in Y3

Mr Thomas and Jason working hard on Maths challenges

Fun in the Sun â€“ Carmen, Alessia and Eleftheria

Problem solving is used to enhance mathematical development

Issue 5

June 2014

Year 3’s Descriptive Writing Read our exciting story openers which we have worked really hard on! My boat was stuck on an island. The cold brushed my freezing ears. At the sides of the rocky island were huge mountains which reached the sky. In the middle of the island, I could see a gigantic volcano. I could smell the rotten and dead fish. I heard a scream come from inside the volcano. I was safe because I had my mighty sword to protect me. I saw some wood pinned to a rock that said: “Beware Phoenix.” I didn’t know exactly what a phoenix was but I knew it was something deadly! Dimitrios

I opened my eyes and I looked outside. The sun was shining as bright as a million lamps combined together. I could hear the birds. I could smell the fresh air. I felt so happy. I could see the bright, blue sky. I just love the weather on Mount Olympus. It is so calm. I just want to live here forever. Aaron

Athena moved to an island called Crete. The bright, shining sun shone on her face. The blossoms were falling on her hands while Athena was reading a book under the tree. She could hear the beautiful sea waves crashing.

At the centre of a forest, at the beginning of a lake, I heard the swaying of the trees and felt the cold air gently blowing onto me. A wolf was softly howling in the distance while I saw the flowers blossoming. I was filled with a bundle of joy. I saw the blue sky and the smell of nature was gracefully flowing onto my body while I saw an enormous tree. I felt the grass tickling my feet and I felt so happy that I ran around until I got exhausted. I came to the end of the forest and I walked, and walked and walked until I saw the glistening sea. I knew I was on the beach. I saw something jump. It was a dolphin! It was gracefully swimming in the sea and it was free. Free! I closed my eyes and heard the seagulls. But, suddenly I got a shock. Cactuses were popping up fro the ground and surrounded me. I felt terrified. My heart sank into panic. I didn’t know what to do. The beauty was gone and the sky grew dark… Yul

I started my journey at a magical green forest with green tall trees. As I walked, the sun shone brightly. I heard the colourful birds singing their amazing melody. I hopped happily until I reached a shining blue lake, with cold and fresh water. Annie

Alessia

Apollo opened his eyes and found himself in his bed at camp. The camp was swarming with Greek soldiers. They had all come for the same reason: to kill the Red Dragon. Some soldiers were making weapons; others were getting reading to go and try to find food. Apollo came out of his tent and looked up at the cave where the Red Dragon lived. Apollo had once climbed up to the cave to see what was inside. He had peeked over the top of a rocky ledge and saw piles of gold, gems, diamonds as big as lemons and even precious stones. Isabelle

Deep in wet, sticky sawdust there lived an evil, greedy and noisy mouse. He was as fat as a Christmas cake. The mouse was called…Nocky! He was the most horrid mouse in town. He was just about to go to the butchers and steal some food when he heard police alarms so he stopped digging and went outside. Elsie

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Long ago, before the people believed in Zeus, he was a soldier. He was friends with the princess called Hera. Zeus was kind and strong; he had blue eyes like a splendid sapphire. He had a slim nose like a giraffe and beautiful red lips, like a ruby red rose. Hyera

Apollo woke up in a tent; he crept out and saw many soldiers stood beside a cave. Apollo was brave man, so he quickly and secretly peeked inside. There was a big ferocious dragon guarding the door and Apollo was curious to know where it went. He tiptoed to the door and when the dragon wasn’t looking, he quietly opened the door and went inside. Clara

Spring provided the inspiration for poetry written by Eleftheria, Jack and Agnes

The children took inspiration from Van Gogh and the Pop Art movement to produce eye-catching works of art Issue 5

June 2014

Summer Term in Year 4

A lovely visit from Patricia who lives in Brazil It has been such a busy year in Y4 and we are sad that it has come to an end. The children have learnt about Brazil and the World Cup this final term. We have gone â€˜football crazy football madâ€™ whilst on the countdown to the World Cup. We have completed lots of activities relating to Brazil and made the most memorable performance during our summer production â€˜Go for Goal! This took a lengthy amount of time to prepare and the children worked extremely hard throughout. In each class we have been looking at the most memorable moments in Word Cup History and discussed these.

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We had a visitor called Patricia who came to see us and tell us what Brazil is like. She has been living there for a long time and has travelled around lots of different parts of Brazil. We were given the opportunity to ask and answer questions. Patricia brought us homemade Brazilian treats which were delicious! This helped us a lot when we made our own Travel brochure for a tourist visiting Brazil. We studied the work of a Brazilian artist called Lasar Segall and replicated some of his designs. Catherine Passmore and Matthew Scragg

Miguel working hard to complete his tourist brochure about Brazil

The children learning about the history of the World Cup during our production

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June 2014

Year 5 Superhero

David, our resident superhero, power-stomping the bad guys This term has been one filled with ‘Superhero’ fun and frolics. Y5’s kick started their new topic with a morning of superhero tasks and activities including ‘How to fly’, demonstrating sneaking skills and identifying those qualities that make a superhero. The children drew some amazing pop art and allowed their imaginations to go wild when creating their own comic books, with Burgerman superheroes and carrot villains. They have loved looking at different fantasy stories and were able to write descriptive pieces using the knowledge they have developed over the entire year. We have been busy preparing for our production on the Greek Myths and we have been amazed at the enthusiasm the children have displayed. They have loved being in charge of prop making and costume design. It has been an excellent demonstration of the children’s independence and creative thinking. They have also put an equal amount of effort into their dramatic performances, focusing on voice projection, body language and articulation. We are really excited about the final performance. The teachers would like to take this opportunity to thank the children for an amazing year and for all their hard work. Well done Y5’s! Dale Darby, Anne-Marie Hesmondhalgh and Helen Stevens

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Noa avoiding security lasers under the watchful eye of Ms Dana

Jonathan ninja-sneaking towards the villainâ€™s lair

Adi testing his flight capabilities

Iggy scaling skyscrapers searching for a lost, wailing baby

Matt and Victor get their hands mucky with modroc for the medusa headpieces

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June 2014

Year 5 Three! Two! One! Blastoff!

Term 3 saw Y5 launch into the new ‘Space’ topic in which the students were invited to participate in the ‘Young Astronaut Programme’. They had to demonstrate certain competencies that would be used in a journey to space, from Earth to the outside of our solar system! The students have been learning and practicing the mathematical skills necessary for piloting a space shuttle. This began with the design and production of accurate models of their rockets, combining knowledge of measurement and ratio to scale their blueprints, as well as constructing precise nets for each part of the rocket body. The next step was preparing to launch, so Y5 used their skills in measuring angles to launch stomp rockets at varying heights and distances. In preparing for life in outer space, each crew was also tasked with producing a short documentary of a chosen study area of space, ranging from the rings of Saturn and black holes, to the Kuiper belt and the Big Bang! The film needed to demonstrate their communication skills and required a great deal of time and effort using the iPads and Macs to film, produce and edit their documentaries. Dale Darby, Anne-Marie Hesmondhalgh and Helen Stevens

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June 2014

Year 6 Amazing Artists!

Children created original designs and used a variety of stitches to complete each section As well as working hard for their recent SATS Y6 have also produced some creative and precise Art and DT work. They have used their sketching skills to draw reproductions of ships from the era for our end of year production: Pirates of the Curry Bean. They have also used their maths skills to draw themselves to a given ratio and to produce accurate designs for a moving toy involving cams. You can also see some of their original designs for our Eco Tapestry, which will be Y6’s legacy.

Children have learnt how cams work and produced detailed technical drawings of a mechanical toy 36 Newsblast

A keen eye for proportion and depth was needed to produce these impressive drawings for our ‘Pirates of the Currybean’ production

Primary Egg Hunt

Year 5 & 6 have discovered the next location of a hidden egg clue and are off Primary had an Eggs-cellent time using their Geography skills to discover the hidden locations of the eggs. Due to the unpredictable weather we used bright, colourful, plastic cups. Each hidden egg (cup) was shown on a map for the students to find while discovering the answer to the Geography question on their answer sheet. After documenting what the each answer was, all teams raced back to the finish spot.

Students carefully writing down their answers to complete the puzzle

Discovering the location of the Geography answers

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June 2014

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Reception E Visit the Little World of Knowledge - Orăşelul Cunoaşterii

Children enjoyed the dark room, where they made shadow puppets with their hands After Easter Reception E visited the Little World of Knowledge, where they had lots of exciting opportunities to find out about forces, water, lights, movements and even electricity. The most memorable and well talked about part of the day were the water activities, which consisted of the children using various sized water guns to push ping-pong balls around a small track. This was such so fun, and resulted in everyone being splashed.

Children holding hands tightly to conduct electricity through them to light the bulb

Using the force of water to push a ping-pong ball around a course Issue 5

June 2014

Year 4 trip to Poiana Brasov

After the cave adventure Earlier this month Y4 left school and went on an adventure to Poiana Brasov. They said goodbye to their parents, some were shedding tears at the gate, whilst their children were cheering on the bus! As soon as we arrived at Ana Hotel Sport and Spa in Poiana Brasov, the heavens opened and the rain came down… a lot! We ate our lunch, checked into our rooms and then went on a tour of the hotel. We were all feeling a little tired after our long drive to the mountains so we rested before we went for a swim in the pool. We all had lots of fun splashing around and soaking the teachers. There were several races that took place across the length of the pool.

When we exited the caves, the rain had finally stopped and the sun began to shine. We sat and ate lunch by a lake before heading off to Parc Adventura. We all had a safety check and a guide explaining to us what we needed to do in order to complete each game and stay safe. It was lots of fun watching fearless children swing from tree to tree, master the zip wires, crawl through wooden tunnels, clamber across beams of wood and thin wires. At the end of the adventure park we all had a very tasty ice cream and a drink of our choice.

After all the fun we had dinner and then settled down to watch a DVD before lights out.

In the evening we ate dinner and had karaoke performances from children in each of the classed. To end the evening we had a Y4 rendition of ‘Happy’ by Pharrell Williams.

After a good nights’ sleep we woke up Thursday morning ready for a funfilled adventurous day. We ate breakfast and set off to the Valea Cetatii Cave, Râsnov. Unfortunately it was still raining but not enough for us to stop exploring.

On Friday we had a short walk around Poiana Braşov, bought souvenirs for our family and friends and then headed back to Bucharest.

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Catherine Passmore and Matthew Scragg

Antonia and Anya waiting for their turn

Inside the caves

Antonia with a big smile climbing through the trees

Time for a snooze on the way back to Bucharest

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June 2014

Year 6 Trip to England â€“ PGL

PGL was an amazing experience for the children. They tried a wide variety of new activities which challenged them to take risks, overcome their fears and work cooperatively in order to succeed. We were immensely proud of how well

the children behaved and joined in with all aspects of the trip. It was a huge success and all of us enjoyed taking part. Naima Hussain and Paul Curtis

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Enjoying the tree top challenge at PGL

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June 2014

Year 2 Spring Production The Chocolate Shop

At spring time, the Chocolate Shop window is always full of Chocolate Eggs, until one year the Chocolate Maker puts Chocolate Bunnies in the centre of the display instead. The Eggs are furious, thinking it’s their right to have pride of place, while the Bunnies claim it’s their turn. There could be trouble ahead… Y2’s did an amazing job with the singing and expressions. You can tell they were acting sad about fighting before becoming friends. It was a lovely show, well done Y2s!

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June 2014

Year 3 Production The Twits!

Mugglewump monkeys Y3 brought repulsive life to Roald Dahl’s classic story of The Twits! Hugo and Anya did a tremendous job of acting the parts of the revolting Mr. and Mrs. Twit and the rest of Y3 debuted their variety of talents in playing musical instruments, singing and acting. Mr. and Mrs. Twit’s horrible habits and tricks – including a glass eye cocktail and serving worms on spaghetti – earned big wicked laughs from the adults in attendance. The children worked extremely hard for a number of weeks in order to create the perfect comedy show. Well done Y3 for another amazing performance! Charlotte Smith and Dan Thomas

Y3’s talented singers 46 Newsblast

Mr. Twit up to mischief!

Year 4 Summer Production ‘Go for Goal’

Singing and dancing to one of the many great musical numbers in the production To link in with our Summer Term topic on the World Cup and Brazil, the children of Y4 performed an hour long musical spectacle called ‘Go for Goal’. Some of the most important World Cup moments were re-enacted through a series of flashbacks. The audience encountered a series of strange and comical characters on their way including a retired commentator of many past World Cup finals, a hilarious posse of rapping Paparazzi photographers, a group of famous modern players and one of the greatest players of all time. The children learnt a great deal from the production, for example facts about the history of the World Cup, facts about Brazil and how to dance the Samba. They also had great fun along the way. Catherine Passmore and Matthew Scragg

Victoria, Arish and Emilie as the hilarious posse of rapping Paparazzi photographers

Andra playing the part of a WAG with Vlad playing the part of an old man disapprovingly looking on Issue 5

June 2014

Clubs

Ballet and dance are popular, long-running clubs at BSB that give children the chance to express themselves creatively and develop their physical control

Now that the sun is shining, itâ€™s the perfect time for our younger students to get outside and learn about cultivation

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Rounders is a traditional British fielding and batting team game which helps the children to develop a range of useful sports skills

In fencing, accurate position and awareness of space, force and distance is as important as protective clothing for ensuring safe practice

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June 2014

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Universities

Using real forensic tools has been a highlight of the BSB Detectives university course

Specific skills to the sport of rugby are taught in the university course; determination and focus also help to achieve the right outcomes

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June 2014

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Secondary School Review It is absolutely right to emphasise the importance of a healthy lifestyle to all our children. Our two Healthy Schools Weeks this year have focussed on balanced diets, dental care, different forms of exercise and in June, encouraged our students to participate in an aquathlon sporting challenge. We send a consistent message that exercise and a healthy body are vital for a healthy mind via obvious routes such as our sporting co-curricular activities, teams and other Clubs. The value of messages from not allowing fizzy, sugar-filled drinks in school and keeping our after-school activity programme running during examination periods, should also not be underestimated. This latter policy results from the view that exercise, enjoyment and a change of scene, are vital ingredients for the best chance at exam success. Two other events this term have impressed and pleased me significantly. I witnessed and was part of a large staff participation in the Bucharest half marathon, 10km and 5km relay in May and our Y9 students launched their first International Duke of Edinburgh Award expedition. These events caused me to reflect further on both the importance of the messages that we send out and also the habits that we can and should instill in our students. Education intrinsically involves the desire to establish good habits. I am

“Exercise and a healthy body are vital for a healthy mind via obvious routes such as our sporting co-curricular activities, teams and other Clubs.”

grateful to my parents and my school as their guiding hand is evident in many of the good habits in terms of lifestyle that I retain. Running and a love of mountain walking and outdoor adventure became habitual during my childhood. Representing the school cross-country team for many years in countless races and championships was a privilege whilst my parents’ passion for hiking meant that many family holidays were spent trekking the highlands of England and Wales. I enjoyed vastly the majority of such times but there were of course moments when I felt forced, out of duty to the team, to run on a day that I may not have wished or to push myself through pain to finish strongly, or questioned the value of another rain-soaked hike in the mist. The point here is that there is much to be gained by such experiences and commitment aside from physical health benefits. Experiencing the satisfaction of completing an event to the best of one’s ability; seeing the results of personal effort and its impression on those around you; increasing self-value, knowledge and confidence – mental gains which are not to be underestimated. We continue to seek to promote a lifelong understanding of the importance of exercise, camaraderie and determination. In some recent educational research this has been referred to as educating for “grit”. I would see our stance as an attempt, necessarily in conjunction with parents, to educate for healthy lifetime habits based on building committed behaviours and increased self-knowledge. Have a wonderful summer and keep in touch via @philip_w and @britishschoolro on twitter. Philip Walters, Head of Secondary School

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June 2014

Year 7 and 10 students work with Early Years

Pastoral care at BSB is strong and we are often told that you can get a sense of this from the moment you walk through the door. Whether that involves the support from a classroom teacher during a lesson or a quiet conversation with a Form Tutor, student well-being is high on our priority list. Support and pastoral interaction does not always have to come from a member of staff within school. Indeed, at some time over the course of a studentâ€™s school career he or she may discover the need or desire to take care of a younger pupil in the playground or around school to head off a brewing conflict or simply act as a role model. We should not underestimate the value that peer mentoring can bring to a school environment and how it can work alongside an effective programme of structured pastoral care. Within BSB there are many opportunities for student mentoring and leadership, such as the responsibilities and duties prefects take on around the school, the role of the House Captains in coordinating events and competitions, the School Council representatives in effecting change within the school student community or the wider community and initiative work which goes on during CCA time. This is not to mention the student leadership and mentoring opportunities within the House system, the International Award, charity work, sports teams and the list goes on. Over the course of the latter part of this term, during PSHCE lessons, Y7 and Y10 students have been working with pupils from Reception, Y1 and Y3. Both

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Secondary year groups had sessions to prepare them for working with and mentoring younger pupils and talked through different strategies they could use to get the best out of each situation. Y10 have worked with Reception and have supported pupils with creative play, guided reading and have taught them to make friendship bracelets and even to play the guitar. The Y7 students worked with Y1 on a project entitled The Life of a Seed and with Y3 they have been supporting maths and reading. It would be tempting to measure the success of the project solely on how well the pupils had read or how many chords on the guitar they had learnt and if these were our only criteria then the programme could be hailed a success. But there was more to it than that. All students came away from the experience having learnt something about themselves and about others, had gained insights and empathy and had felt buoyed by what they had achieved on a personal level. We should not lose sight of the opportunities for widerlearning, student leadership, empathy and personal development as part of education in its broadest sense. Upholding these values at BSB is important and so I am looking forward to the continuation and development of this and similar projects in the future. Jason Porter

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June 2014

Photography visit by Mike Carroll

Recently we were delighted to welcome the renowned photojournalist and founder of Fundatia Inocenti and Romanian Childrenâ€™s Relief, Mike Carroll to BSB. Mike Carroll has worked for publications such as the Boston Globe, New York Times and the Disney Corporation, but is perhaps best known as being one of the first photographers to travel to Romania after the fall of the communist regime in 1989. His globally published pictures of the then Romanian orphanages opened the eyes of the world to the plight of the orphans and subsequently he set up the charitable organisations with which BSB has worked for many years. Mike Carroll visited the Y10 English class, where he presented a session on creating narrative around images, followed by a workshop with Y8 on the subtle uses of colour and black and white photography. As well as individual sessions with students, Mike finished the day with a fantastic and eye-opening assembly on the topic of empathy. It was an honour to have welcomed Mike to our school for the day and we are very much looking forward to our continued partnership with him.

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Tea-time concert

The tea-time concert on 29th April was another opportunity for BSB students to show the results of their hard work in the performing arts.

had an insight into the workings of the blues as David and Cristian showed us some guitar improvisations well as a classical guitar piece by David.

The performances started with the GCSE Drama class – Iona, Agnese, Andrei and Filipo – giving their first public showing of ‘The White Feather’ before the GCSE Drama coursework assessments. Following the success of our production in March we had the chance to see two songs again from Midsummer Night’s Dream performed by Lena and Irini.

Elena and Letitia are always keen to perform, and again, it was good to see the developments in their musicality over the last six months. The students, parents, teachers and performers all finished the tea-time concert experience with Stefan playing Mendelsohn on the piano. A rare chance to not check devices and just enjoy the moment and Stefan’s playing.

It was a nice chance to hear Clara perform again and see the impressive development in her expressive playing since the October tea-time concert. We

Sally Clark

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June 2014

Why not try something new next term? Trombones, trumpets, clarinets, flutes, saxophones, violins, violas, 'cellos - every student in Years 5, 6 and 7 will have a chance to try these instruments with help from specialist teachers. All students are welcome to the CCA for Instruments of the Orchestra on Thursdays. Individual lessons can be arranged between 3pm and 6pm each day for students and parents. Look out for more information in September.

BSB’s Got Talent This year saw the return of the famous BSB’s Got Talent. As usual, we saw an array of brilliant acts which included music, singing, dancing and comedy. It all started with the auditions, which were judged by a mixture of Student Council and teachers. Then we had the big day of the semi-finals, which was attended by the whole school on the front lawn. The school was treated to a great range of acts from primary and secondary. The judges were made up of Mrs. Wells, Mr. Ford, Mr. Walters and Student Council. The show was hosted by Dilara and Muhammad, who made a great double act. All the acts were amazing and the best acts went through the Summer Fair. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the participants. Also we would like to thank Mr. Darby, Mr. Scragg, Mr. McGowan, the IT department, maintenance and Student Council who made this wonderful day possible. Student Council

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Alexandra plays the Turkish March on the piano

Annie and Irini sing during the talent show

Eleftheria sings Over the Rainbow

Anthony singing Grenade by Bruno Mars

Lena and Miruna singing Part of Me by Katy Perry Issue 5

June 2014

Imaginink Club In early September, five of us were invited to gather in Mrs. Lovelock’s room. We were the five members of BSB’s writing club, which we named Imaginink. We started off barely speaking to one another (the age range was 12 to 17) but as the weeks progressed we slowly started to come up with an idea: the idea to combine our talents to make our own story. After some brainstorming, we had come up with what would become our main character and then we went off to create and develop our own, and wrote our own chapters. When that was done, we brought it all together to create our story Five Fathoms of Pink

sadly, with only four different writers as one of our number defected to the choir. The point of Imaginink is to bring together people in school who are good at and enjoy writing and it’s been a success so far. With our group effort finished, we’re starting to work on our own personal stories set in different historical periods. It’s been a fun year with Imaginink and I think it’s safe to say everyone’s enjoyed their time in the club. Calista

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Five Fathoms of Pink I want to hide, but there is nothing I can do about it. They say it’s easy to dance, I see absolutely nothing easy about it. It’s boiling hot in here and I grow tired moment by moment. The man who I was dancing with spins me around and I trip again. I apologise and return to my seat. One day I will learn how to dance. I’m sure that if I stay here, nothing wrong will happen. I don’t even know why I came here. Probably because it’s my best friend’s wedding, probably because I will never get the chance to attend a wedding again. I promised to come, just because I had no means to tell how much time I had on this realm, and I wanted to make the most of it by making my only friend happy. I’m sure I will miss him once that druid comes again and ruins my life. ‘A drink, miss?’ I hear a voice. A waiter holding a tray full of colourful drinks in my reach appears as soon as I look up. What could I possibly miss, I say to myself. I nod politely and take a glass which looks like a sunset has been poured into a forest. I remember my eyes were blue now, and I decide to turn them green, as the top layer of the drink. It felt nice for a change. The drink didn’t taste so bad either, a little spicy with a hint of mint and citrus. I return to my thoughts, but I am interrupted once again, this time by Scott. He sits next to me and he starts talking, so I immediately forget about the druid. I just want to stay here, I’m sure I can do it all from this world, there’s no need to go back, is there? Scott is laughing, so happy, finally having found the love of his life, and my heart breaks just at the thought of being forced to leave him. I might have fallen for him. Who knows what’s going on in my head anyway? ‘How long did you say you could stay?’ Scott asks me. I’m afraid I cannot answer that, my dear friend. I shrug and take another sip of my drink. I have made a mistake and I know it. I should have not befriended him; I should not have become attached to this puny human being. He makes me weak; my legs start to tremble whenever he talks to me. It has been and will continue to be a long journey but I am ready to endure anything for him. Maybe I could tell him how I feel before going back. ‘Hey, Scott,’ I begin, waiting for a nod or a sign from him. He complies and raises his head to look me in the eyes. ‘Remember about that druid I told you?’ Scott nods and opens his eyes wide open. This scares me a little. ‘When do you think he will be back to take me to another place?’ I continue. ‘Oh, but that’s for me to know and for you to find out, m’dear, a voice thunders and all the windows fly open. The people stop moving and I grow impatient as I realise that the answer to my question lies before me. I look at Scott and I notice he is petrified by the sudden turn of events. There you are, you old nuisance. Take me to a new place, teach me how to love and teach me how to win his love. Rhiannon and the Dwarves *Poof* And within an instant Rhiannon dropped on a glorious armchair in the middle of a great hall. Before she could even blink or think, a flurry of blades and

tips hurried towards her, merely inches from her delicate pink hair. Rhiannon thought, “The druid did warn me they are not the most welcoming fellows.” “It is without devious intentions that I approach thy hall, mighty dwarves of Hrothgar. I am…” “SHUT IT!” a harsh voice bellowed and a face appeared in between two battleaxes. It was a small, plump dwarf that now frowned with great anger at our heroine, his small black eyes seemingly piercing through Rhiannon’s petrified figure. “Speak no more. Our legends foretold of this day but we must know for sure. You must answer three questions and, should you be rightful, we shall let you live another day. Let us begin. Are you ready?” the dwarf spat at her. Rhiannon tried to call out for mercy, help or reason amongst those wicked men for she had not been warned about any questions, answers or dying. “Blasted druid.” she thought. “I take your silence as eagerness, lass. First question…” and the dwarf stopped mid-sentence and hurled another deadly gaze at our heroine. “What is your name?” the dwarf began. Confused, scared and utterly surprised she said, “Rhiannon.” The whole hall went up in a cheer of happiness and joy but was soon silenced by our interrogator. The blades resumed their pointiness at her face. “Correct. Surprising. Alas, the second question,” the dwarf mumbled to himself. It is worth noting that the dwarf was at Rhiannon’s eye level, merely because of the fact that she was lying on an armchair. It is now, before the second session of questioning, that our interrogator picked up a small chair and sat on it. He was now slightly above our heroine’s head, looking down on her. “What is your quest?” soon followed. “To marry the love of my life,” Rhiannon blurted out before even thinking. She wanted to change the answer, knowing that there was no way the dwarves could consider that a proper quest but... to her surprise, the cheer filled the hall even more than before, with our dwarves now dancing, hugging one another and finally letting those blasted blades down away from her face. “SILENCE! Damn your eyes, brothers! There is still one more question.” The dwarf yelled across the great room, and now bending over Rhiannon, he spoke in her ear, “What is your favourite colour?” As baffled as the last two times, our heroine hesitated for a second before blurting out, “The reddish pinkly blue.” To us it might seem odd now, but in those times that was the name for purple. Rather confusing and long, but it got the message across as now all of the dwarves, including our rude interrogator too, danced, laughed and prayed on their knees, thanking the Gods. It was Rhiannon’s chance to say something but a pack of dwarves hurled her onto their helmets, lifted her up and carried her with the wildest of cheers to the mess hall. In there, a feast with everything one could imagine was going on. The dwarves had everything, goose, lamb, beef, pork, all the sort of fish, herbs and not to forget mead. Our little group tossed Rhiannon onto a chair and soon joined the feast. Looking around, trying to map the whole place out, our heroine noticed a massive golden throne sitting on the opposite end of the table. It was a glorious and curious sight for it was a perfect example of dwarfish craftsmanship, carved and painted with dragons and brave warriors.

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June 2014

Yet, it was lying empty which made the whole party seem rather eerie, strange and uncalled for, obviously because there was no room for joy when their king was amiss. This is not how she thought of the brave, courageous and pious Dwarves of Hrothgar. From the whole ruckus of the hall, some dwarf climbed on the table and started his drunken monologue: “It is with great joy that we welcome our saviour! All cheer for Rhiannon!” and the whole of the dwarf assembly went on laughing, drinking and eating. It was just about when half of the food was gone when Rhiannon could simply not handle the pressure building up inside her anymore and yelled at the top of her lungs: “You mindless fools! You sit here celebrating while you king is missing! This is not how the world speaks of you, drunken fools and party men. How come you are not gearing up, marching to war to rescue him?”. The cheery feeling in the hall went out in a second. As you may or may not know, dwarves do not take kindly to criticism. Rhiannon soon found this out because the sharpened steel of their axes was once again pointed at her neck. Our interrogator once again separated from the crowd of tips and spoke. “Let me tell you a story,” the dwarf took a deep breath and sighed before resuming, “Eons ago, our ancestors settled in this mountain looking for a safe haven from the trolls. In here, they found a mine filled with precious stones, gold and mithril.” And his eyes gleamed in the light of the torches when the word “mithril” was spoken. “They dug deep, way too deep as their hunger for riches was unstoppable, but they went on to become rich and skilled. Soon, realizing the impact of their greed, they left a warning for the ones to come: that one day, their mistake of being too hungry for more will be brought upon us and the mountain shall topple over and bury us all. Our king however, when he was merely a hundred years of age, had a vision. In that vision, his people, us, were buried and none was left. From amidst the ashes of the mountain came forth a druid and told him that, one day, when the time was be almost over, a witch would come and save us all from the impending doom. He gave him three questions and three answers that the witch shall know. So, here you are. We do not know more,” our dwarf ended swiftly. “Where is your king?” Rhiannon asked. Oddly enough, our dwarves started pouting and many turned away for it was dishonourable for a dwarfish man to be seen crying. “He was stolen from us. A troll took him to the deep end of our mine just this morning. All of our attempts at saving him have been nothing short of futile.” Our interrogator hesitantly spoke, “No matter how skilled our kind may have been once, hundreds of years of mining have rendered our arms incapable of wielding an axe skillfully enough to slay a troll. And we’d all rather be buried with our king in this mine before we take even one step out of the door. It is why we joyfully welcome you, as your arrival means all of us will be saved, for you know what needs to be done. You must hurry though, lass. The mountain creaks and croaks as if he wanted us gone yesterday. No time to lose!” His last words were spoken swiftly as the crowd spread and the crew of “tossers” grabbed a hold of Rhiannon and took another good hold of her. “Onwards!” our interrogator bellowed and they all hurried out of the mess hall, through the great hall and stopped in front of a mine shaft. There, they threw Rhiannon into a mine cart and ran off, leaving only a handful of small, plump, bearded men to look after the necessary preparations for a travel off into the mine. The dwarf once again approached her, as she was still dazzled after the toss. He whispered: “You shall go now. The way is long and aching but you shall not be lost, the final three of our miners are still in the shaft and know of your arrival. You shall soon meet them.” One of the engineers approached, shared a couple of words and nodded with our dwarf. “Goodbye, Rhiannon. We hope to see you soon.”

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After a batch of deadly turns and bumps, the cart finally crashed into a stone, hurling our heroine upwards, sending her crashing down onto some conveniently placed marble slabs. Sliding on top of them, Rhiannon soon discovered that there was a crater closing in and she was not slowing down or stopping! Her struggle was pointless; her attempts to no avail but… just before meeting the edge of the great hole, two pairs of hands grabbed her and pulled our heroine to safety. Before being able to say a word of thanks, three dwarves sat down in front of her and started to speak. “We are the three brothers who dig oh so skillfully,” the first one began, “Who never stop no matter how dreadfully” the second followed, “Our backs and our hands hurt most painfully.” The last one finished. “Our names are easy to remember, the black-haired, red-eyed Sweven who began our poem.” Sweven gave a small wave. ”The blonde, dusty Swink who never stops jabbering…” Swink threw an angry gaze to the speaker but soon smiled at Rhiannon. “And, finally, me: the red-haired, miner Tather, who didn’t leave this here mine once. You must be Rhiannon, right?” Tather said and then joined the duo of his brothers who were staring rather intensively at our hero. “Yes… it is me.”she spoke hesitantly, still shaken from the fall and bombardment of speech in the last hour. “Good… this is good…” Sweven spoke. “Shouldn’t we be …going, brothers?” Swink blurted. “Yes, yes. Come on, Rihannon. We have a long journey ahead of us…” Tather ended. This time, our heroine stood up herself without being grabbed, a fact for which she thanked her fate. All four of them, now on their toes, ready to go, started marching in a rather odd manner: Tather at the front, trying to make our where the path twisted and turned, Sweven following with his red eyes scouring the pitch black of the surrounding darkness, Swink constantly jabbering about his old stories of finding riches and the losing them in mere minutes at a game of stones with some goblins in a cave hundreds of years before and, ending the little convoy, Rhiannon, who was trying to keep up with the dwarves and at the same time dodge all sorts of rocks and hanging stones, as the tunnels were dug for dwarves not humans. And if that was no enough, hours of constant made-up stories were starting to get on her nerves… To keep her mind off the tons of gold Swink attributed to his discoveries, she tried to look around and observe the true riches of a dwarven mine. As much as she could, that is, for the path was still dangerous and needed great care when travelled by a human. On her right and her left, countless shafts of gold, mithril and diamonds could be seen, gleaming even in the faintest light. Above, veins of riches were smiling down, seemingly inviting the bystander to dig for them. “No wonder these dwarves have lost their minds to greed. Just look at everything around here!” Rhiannon thought. She was about to grab a diamond and keep it for herself, when Tather shouted, “STOP! We’re here.”

They walked together down the hall and soon entered a beautiful room with painted walls and cozy sofas. It seemed to Rhiannon that it was rather strange for a wild troll to have such taste in decorations, but her amazement was far from over as they entered the kitchen. On the table there, the dwarven king was tied flat with an apple in his mouth and books scattered all around him. He was certainly struggling as the ropes that tied him down were creaking, but… he was a prisoner in the cooking room. “What do you want to do with him, if I may ask?” Rhiannon wondered. “I want to cook him that is. I grew tired of rat meat and goblin, so I wanted something special. I picked out the roundest, fattest dwarf in the mine and took him here. It must be something that keeps me satisfied too, for I must soon leave the mountain and I have a great journey in front of me.” Maugre spoke while rubbing his hands at the dwarf.

In front of them, a large wooden door lay. It was wider than all of our heroes put end to end and two times higher than that. “Are we ready, lads?” Tather asked. His brothers hesitantly nodded. Tather turned to Rhiannon, “Are you ready? We know nothing of what this troll can do. You must be prepared for ANYTHING.” Tather insisted on the last word and gazed profoundly at our heroine. She looked him deep in the eyes and nodded. With a sigh, Tather drew his pickaxe and hit the door three times yelling, “Wake up, you blasted troll. We’ve come for ye’! Let us in!” After the echo of the hits slowly faded away, the thumps of heavy boots were heard from the other side of the door. A dull, hard voice spoke, “I shan’t let any blasted, drunken, smelly dwarves in my abode. It is hard enough to smell your king every waking hour. You shall not break down that door, either. Try as you might, it is reinforced with your own mithril. But… I smell the legendary witch amongst you three. Send her in and we’ll see about your fate then. What do you say?” “Aye!” Rhiannon spoke to the amazement of the brothers, as they all gazed in admiration and astonishment. Before any of them could react, the door opened, a hand grabbed Rhiannon and pulled her in, shutting the door with a loud thud which shook the mountain to its core. “Sorry about that. It is with great swiftness and violence that I grabbed you for I knew those three meddling dwarves would once again try to carve me up should I let the door open more than a swift second!“ The troll spoke in a rather calm and courteous voice. “Where are my manners? My name is Maugre. You must be … Rhiannon. Pleased to meet you. Let us see to business now, shall we?” Maugre spoke. “I do not have much of a choice, do I? Lead the way and let us end this,” our heroine replied, “So be it.”

“Then… why is he still alive?” our heroine continued. Interrupted from his train of thought, Maugre paused for a moment in astonishment but soon followed, “Ehm… I have not yet decided on how to… prepare him. I have no books in my home that teach me how to cook dwarf… I actually have no idea how to cook at all… my kind has been eating raw meat for as long as we’ve breathed in this mine.” Rhiannon’s figure lit up as an idea swiftly occurred in her mind, “What do you say for a trade, Maugre? I give you a recipe from my homeland, we both test it out and then, should you like it as much as we all do, you give me the king and those stinky, smelly dwarves can finally leave the mine and let you be.” The troll gazed at her for a good amount of time, all the while rubbing his chin. Ultimately, he blurted out, “Fine. Let us try that creation of yours…” In what seemed more of a dance, Rhiannon darted around the kitchen and grabbed all she needed, threw everything into a bowl, heated a pan, mixed all the ingredients well and made her special dish: Aunt Tabitha’s Pancakes. There was more than enough to satisfy a human stomach, but our heroine threw five onto a plate and presented it to Maugre. The troll smelled the pancakes with caution, but soon dug in and let out groans and cheers of joy and satisfaction, emptying the plate in seconds. There was a general state of joy and fulfillment within the room as our heroine grinned and thanked the gods that our troll was a fan of pancakes, as he was busy patting his tummy and finishing all that was left on the plate or between his teeth and claws. “More!” he demanded. “You can have as many as you want from now on, only if you give me the dwarf.” Rhiannon said as she presented a piece of paper with the killer recipe scribbled onto it. Maugre soon ripped off the ties keeping the king prisoner, grabbed the recipe and threw both our heroine and the dwarven king out of his home, shutting the door with a deafening sound behind them. Cheers and endless cries of joy could be heard from both sides of the door, as the troll finally had his food and the dwarves their king. The trip back to the great halls of the dwarves was swift and cheerful, for the brothers were carrying their king back to his throne and Rhiannon’s adventure was finally over. As they arrived, the dwarves cheered even louder than when our heroine first arrived, tossed their weapons to the ground and started a dance and celebration of the like which had never before been seen across the Nine Worlds. But, from all the general delight and party, the king stood up on a table and bellowed. “SILENCE, my brothers. It is with great joy than I return to you and our quest to find a new land can finally begin. But, we must not forget the one who saved me from being eaten: Rhiannon.”

Issue 5

June 2014

“I’m certainly a lot better than you,” he grinned. “Kick backwards and glide forwards,” he said again. “Didn’t you learn that when you were eighty three?” Huffing, Rhiannon did what he said and, much to her disappointment, it worked. “I was going to try doing that anyway,” Rhiannon muttered. “What are you doing out in the open anyway? You could be killed, or worse, seen,” the merman frowned. “I might ask you the same question,” Rhiannon replied. “Why are you out? What’s going to kill us?” “Where have you been swimming these past few days? Haven’t you seen the dolphin riots and the octopus rebels bombing the waters?” “Dolphin riots!?” Rhiannon exclaimed. “Dolphin riots,” the merman nodded. “Follow me, I’ll bring you to Silverlake.” The King spoke and three cheers echoed across the halls. The dwarf continued, “You have done your part. Now we must do ours. In that vision, the druid told me to forge two rings of mithril, crafted in a manner so simple yet glorious, that only our master jewelers could master. They shall bear the name of our mine for as long as their enchantment lives. Their spell shall keep you and your loved one true for as long as life lasts in the human world. I present you the Rings of Magadan.” The king kneeled and drew out a small box from underneath a stone in the floor. He raised the box and opened it and everybody was blinded by the glare of two suns all at once, trapped in two rings that only dwarves could craft. As soon as Rhiannon took hold of the small box, an old familiar wind came out of nowhere and took her away…

“What’s that?” Rhiannon asked and the look the merman gave her made her feel stupid. “The underwater capital. The most important mercity in the whole underwater world,” the merman said it as if it were obvious. “Oh…I knew that,” Rhiannon nodded.

A mist started covered all that could be seen and Rhiannon suddenly had the feeling of being thrust up in the air. She clenched her fists, wondering what was going on. The druid’s face appeared out of nowhere. “Well done,” he said approvingly, “Now let’s get you to your next destination,” “Wait - next destination?!” Rhiannon exclaimed, “What do you mean?!” “Surely you didn’t think that would be the only task I’d give you,” the Druid smirked. “I hoped,” Rhiannon said glumly. “Enough talk,” the Druid waved one of his arms and Rhiannon could feel water everywhere and heard the sound of waves crashing and thunder rumbling and her legs felt very heavy. She shut her eyes and when it was all over she opened them again, wondering what kind of place the Druid had sent her to. Rhiannon and the Coral Crown Rhiannon’s first thought was that she was sinking. She looked down and instead of her legs she saw an emerald tail glittering. I’m a mermaid…of all the things in the world to become, it had to be a half fish freak, didn’t it? Rhiannon waved her arms around helplessly, trying to swim forward. She kicked out and her tail thrust forward and she moved about five centimeters. Progress. She’d get there eventually. “You might want to try kicking your tail backwards and gliding forwards,” a snooty voice said and a boy with floppy brown hair and blue eyes swam into sight. Except he was a mermaid as well. Merman. “And I suppose you’re an expert at swimming,” Rhiannon snapped. She wasn’t in the mood to be lectured by a half fish freak.

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The two swam along and the merman kept glancing around anxiously as if he were expecting something to jump out at him. There was an awkward moment of silence. Rhiannon didn’t even know why she was following the merman. She had been warned plenty of times about strangers. “My name’s Adrian,” the merman broke the silence. “Yes, the royal merprince before you ask,” “I wasn’t going to,” Rhiannon said coolly. “And I’m Rhiannon,” The merman looked completely shell-shocked. “Rhiannon?” he asked in awed whisper. “Yes,” she said impatiently. “That’s my name,” “My father always talked about how someone with your name would retrieve the royal crown and put an end to the fighting in the water,” Adrian explained. “And I’ve found you!” “What royal crown? I’ve just been down a bloody mine, I’m not going after any crown!” Rhiannon protested. Adrian suddenly stopped swimming and looked at Rhiannon with a weird expression on his face. “A mine? Merfolk can’t go down mines. How did you get down it?”

“I’m not a real mermaid,” Rhiannon chose her words carefully. “I was…sent here. By a crazy man with a beard,” “You’re…you’re human aren’t you?” Adrian narrowed his eyes. “Please, for the love of Poseidon, don’t be another scientist that wants to ‘study our way of life’” “I’m not a scientist,” Rhiannon assured Adrian. “I’m just me.” The two continued to swim until Rhiannon noticed something odd. The water temperature seemed to have dropped. Before it was pleasantly warm but it had suddenly turned chilly and it felt slimy. Adrian noticed it too and soon the two were shivering. “This is never a good sign,” Adrian hugged himself to keep warm. “The legends go that whenever the temperature of the water drops, great danger lies ahead.” “Well, let’s hope that great danger isn’t going to decide to come and get us,” Rhiannon said grimly. Just as she was about to swim forward, Adrian grabbed her arm and pulled her back. “What?” she asked snappily.

“What’s a micro squid?” Rhiannon asked. “A very small squid. Small, but deadly and extremely powerful. Its bite can be fatal... It didn’t bite you did it?” Adrian looked worried. “No,” Rhiannon shook her head. “Let’s continue.” The duo kept on swimming until Adrian stopped mid-stroke. He turned around and looked at Rhiannon sheepishly. “We’re lost,” he announced simply. “And I have no idea how to find our way out.” “Why don’t we go that way?” Rhiannon pointed left. They had reached a fork in the cave tunnels and there was an option: swim left or swim right. “Well we haven’t got a lot of other choices,” Adrian sighed. “Come on then.” They swam down the left corridor and then suddenly came into a wide open space that was lit with an eery dark red light. The water here was murky and in the middle of the room was a small podium and on that podium was a silver crown embedded with sapphires and pearls.

Adrian pointed ahead, terror in his eyes. There were two dolphins swimming in their direction. Adrian and Rhiannon ducked behind a rock. “What’s wrong with dolphins?” she hissed. “They seem pretty harmless,” “They seem pretty harmless,” Adrian muttered. “It’s all an act. They get the humans to believe that they’re all sweet and innocent when in reality they’re more vicious than all the angler fish at the bottom of the ocean. You do not want to come across one of them.” He shuddered. “What’re we going to do?” Rhiannon whispered. “They’re heading in our direction.,” “Hope they make our deaths painless,” Adrian said glumly. Rhiannon didn’t plan on dying any time soon. She was going to go through with this and marry Scott, no matter what it took. Adrian’s eyes suddenly lit up and he gently tapped on the rock they were hiding behind. Then an opening in the rock appeared. “How in the…” “Darling I’m a magical merprince,” Adrian rolled his eyes. “Follow me. You should be able to squeeze through.” Rhiannon did manage to make it through the gap in the rock and it closed just as Rhiannon caught sight of a dolphin tail gliding past. “Where are we?” “One of the many magical underwater caves. They royal palace isn’t too far away.” Adrian led the way but just as Rhiannon was getting comfortable with swimming in the cramped cave, she felt something grab hold of her tail. She let out a tiny shriek and kicked her tail around, trying to dislodge whatever was clinging on to her. “Adrian!” she yelled desperately. Adrian swam towards her and out of nowhere he pulled a sword encrusted with sea-green jewels and he severed whatever had a grip on Rhiannon. “A micro squid,” Rhiannon saw Adrian nod his head in the gloom. “Just as I thought.”

“It’s beautiful,” Rhiannon said in wonder. “Look at it,” “The missing crown!” Adrian said excitedly. “We found it!” Adrian started swimming forward to retrieve it but as he reached out to grab it he was suddenly thrust back and the cave lit up in a blinding bright light. The two of them were surrounded by jelly fish and one sinister-looking brown eel. “Adrian...what do we do now?” Rhiannon looked at the floating blobs and the electric fish. “Don’t provoke them,” Adrian said quietly. “These things are already pretty lethal. But when they’re angry? You don’t stand a chance. Not even the toughest dolphin.” “We’re basically screwed then,” Rhiannon muttered. “No...” Adrian said uncertainly. “Maybe we’re…” “You’re not getting the crown!” the biggest eel said in a wheezy voice that sounded like it belonged to a very old man. “For centuries I have guarded the missing crown. I’m not giving it up now!” “So it was you who took it?” Adrian’s face flushed in anger. “It was you who started the dolphin riots and the octopus rebellions!” “Yes it was,” the eel sneered. “And now when the merking has found out his only son is dead... murdered by me... then there will be a full scale water war!”

Issue 5

June 2014

“Why do you want to start one?” Rhiannon asked desperately. She just wanted to grab the crown and get out.

fashioned furniture and chandeliers. Who lived here? She thought. How could anyone live in a house as depressing as this?

“And who have we here?” the eel glided smoothly towards Rhiannon, “You and your pink hair...you’re not from around these waters, are you?”

As she explored the room, Rhiannon got the uneasy feeling again. She quickened her steps, eager to get out of the place as soon as possible. Suddenly, she felt like something wasn’t right. Something had changed. Or so it seemed... Rhiannon looked around the room and she realised with desperation that she could see no other doors. She was trapped inside this room with nowhere to go. The front door she came in through had disappeared as well. She ran around the room, feeling the walls, looking for the dress, with a burning hope that it might save her, even if she knew it couldn’t. What would she do with a pretty dress, locked up in a room, with an unknown person watching and haunting her? She collapsed on the floor, wishing she had never entered the house. All this for just a dress? A dress wasn’t worth her life. The constant feeling of being watched hung over Rhiannon even more now, making everything seem like a nightmare. She tried to think quickly. Examining the things in the room, she tried to think of a pattern maybe, or find an entrance.

“You haven’t answered my question,” Rhiannon replied, “Why do you want to start a war?!” “Because I would win,” the eel said simply, “The merfolk aren’t as powerful as they once were. Their armies would be defeated in minutes,” “He’s another power-crazed villain,” Adrian murmured, “That’s set on wiping out merfolk and then, eventually, the entire race of creatures above sea level,” “That’s impossible,” Rhiannon scoffed, “He wouldn’t last a minute out of water!” “They don’t know that though,” Adrian grinned. “What are you whispering about?” the eel demanded, “WHY HAVE MY JELLYFISH NOT KILLED YOU YET?!?” The jellyfish slowly started floating towards them. Adrian pulled out his sword again and charged at them. “Get the crown,” he said to Rhiannon on his way past. “What about you?!” she shouted. “Don’t worry...I’m a merman aren’t I?” Adrian grinned. Rhiannon swam over to the crown and picked it up. “NO!” the eel screamed, “NO!” “Yes,” Rhiannon sneered and, as she held the crown in her hands, she felt the familiar feel of the Druid moving her... Rhiannon clutched the crown in her hands as she felt the water rushing around her. The Druid didn’t appear this time and she felt herself being lifted into the air in a whirlwind. Her legs no longer felt heavy as her glorious mermaid tail had suddenly vanished. She felt the wind in her face and her pink hair whipping back and forth. After a few seconds, the wind was over and she was standing in a garden...

It was not until the moment when she looked up that she found what she was looking for. The chandelier was situated on a small square. Rhiannon could not believe her eyes. A trapdoor. She could just about reach it if she climbed on the empty library shelf next to her. She found out she could climb it easily. She was always good at climbing. She reached the square, got a good grip on one of the crystals of the chandelier and pulled as hard as she could. Rhiannon was a bit tiny, and looked rather girlish with her shiny pink hair, but she could be quite strong. The door moved slowly at first, then it started opening faster. Rhiannon could clearly see it hadn’t been used for a long time. She managed to open the trapdoor fully. Pulling herself upwards through the door, she found herself in a tunnel that was just big enough for her to stand up and walk in. Despite her conditions, Rhiannon felt an immense feeling of happiness and her hope returned. She felt like she was actually getting somewhere, even though she still had no idea where she would find her ‘precious’ dress. She was beginning to feel more confident.

Rhiannon and the Witch

Rhiannon started walking to her right. She saw no ends to the tunnel, so she just supposed there would be one. She walked slowly at first, but after a short time of satisfaction, the feeling returned. Who was there? How come she could see no one yet she FELT like there was someone? The druid told her this ‘evil lady’ wasn’t very ordinary, but how come she apparently made herself invisible?

The tall mansion stood before Rhiannon. As she searched it with her eyes, she got an uneasy feeling.

She started running. She could no longer only feel like there was someone coming after her, but she thought she could actually hear the person now.

Despite being an adventurous girl who loved hunting, she could not help feel a bit terrified of this luxurious yet cold, dark place.

Rhiannon ran as fast as she could. She was very tired, her cheeks were flushed and she felt like she was about to collapse now, but she still carried on running. She had to get that dress, no matter what. She sensed she was going in the right direction, and she was beginning to feel a bit confident again. If only she could run faster...

Rhiannon stood there, watching, waiting for something to happen, not quite hoping that something would. She could not waste another moment, she told herself. Better be in and out of this place as fast as possible. She didn’t like the look of this house at all. The druid HAD told her she was to STEAL the dress from someone who deserved to be stolen from, so he had already warned her that this might be trickier than it looked. Rhiannon didn’t need telling. The last thing she wanted to do was to go in the house standing before her. She walked up the stairs slowly. Rhiannon tried the door and was a bit surprised and relieved when she found it open. Things were going easily... Too easily, she thought afterwards, and with that, started panicking again. A second later, she was standing inside, in a tall, spacious room with lots of old

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Suddenly, in the dark tunnel, there was a bright light and an invisible force knocked Rhiannon back. She saw the dress. She knew it was beautiful even though she had no time to look at it. What now? What would happen? She could not just take the dress and run back, she was sure the unknown lady was following her and she was coming closer! Suddenly, Rhiannon felt weird. Different. She looked down at herself and was overwhelmed with surprise when she saw herself dressed in her beautiful wedding dress. How this did happen?

“What is it this time?” Rhiannon asked as she stood up slowly, examining the ruined dress. The rip in the dress immediately disappeared. As the Druid approached her he spoke in a thundering voice. “This is not how you will get him to love you, you reckless idiot!” “I’m listening,” she said, offering him a look full of hatred and impatience. “He loves animals, you fool. He tries to save them whenever they’re in trouble, he feeds them and takes care of them and then? Then you return to your cruel habits and murder every single creature you see without thinking. Do you even know how much damage you have caused to this forest? The fairies are desperate,” the Druid continued to scold Rhiannon. “And how do I stop hunting then? Take me to the peak of a mountain or a hot desert, I don’t know,” she blurted back. The Druid started laughing so hard, he caused a flock of birds to flee from a tree. “Silly, silly creature, you won’t have anything to tempt you there. You’re going to live in a cabin in a forest for the following week, surrounded by all the wild animals in that forest. Kill one of them and he will never love you,” he said.

She didn’t have time to think. Before she knew it , she was away and spinning out of the horrible mansion, finally relieved of the horrible feeling and happy that she had completed her task once again. Once again, Rhiannon saw the familiar mist and wind coming to her. The Druid, yet again, didn’t bother to make an appearance. She was getting used to this way of travelling and it was even becoming a comfort to her. As she felt the whirlwind taking her to her next destination, she began to wonder how many more places the Druid would send her to. Then she thought about the Druid himself. How did she know he could be trusted? Inhumane thoughts ran through her head as she approached the defenseless fawn with a thirst for blood in her eyes. She held a knife close to her chest, as each step brought her closer to the sleeping animal. She kissed the knife as she would kiss a little child that needs encouragement. Her arm extended, ready to throw it. It wasn’t enough for her to see the animals dead, it was crucial that the poor souls were also suffering. It wasn’t fun for Rhiannon to kill the animal at once. It was fun to throw knives at them, then follow them through the forest while they were trying to escape, laughing at their pain and finally settling down next to them as they, exhausted, saw the daylight for the last time. Her hand ran once and for all through the dead animal’s fur and in that moment something made Rhiannon feel liberated. She almost felt the blood dripping from her fingers and that made her grin and throw the knife at the fawn. But she couldn’t do it since a powerful earthquake shook the ground beneath her. Rhiannon lost her balance and fell to her knees, having the knife get caught in the lace of her dress, ripping it. Cursing under her breath, she looked up and sighed. It was the Druid again, trying to ruin her life with yet another quest. But she kept her mouth shut since she was promised Scott’s love if she did what the Druid asked her to do.

A whirlwind surrounded them just as it had done many more times before. It just so happened that this time, both Rhiannon and the Druid were taken to another forest. She swallowed and looked around. The scenery was already changing, the trees were getting taller, and one by one, more and more animals kept gathering around. This forest was indeed different. It was brighter and much more dense. She looked back and behind her there was a small wooden cabin, with flowers around the windows and clean white drapes hanging from the windows on the inside. It was suitable to live a week in, but then she remembered the other part of the agreement. It will be hard, she thought, but it will be worth it. “I will come back in a week,” the Druid said, “Behave.” When he turned his back to leave, Rhiannon stuck her tongue out at him, which resulted in her getting blown over by a strong wind. She thought of ways to disrespect him again, but that meant he would only make it harder for her to accomplish her task. She sighed and made her way inside the cabin. It seemed like the Druid had already made it hard for her. The wall in front of her was decorated with a variety of weapons, shiny knives and daggers, rifles and more guns, specifically placed there to tempt her to break her promise. Before she could make a sound, she noticed the table beside her. On the table there were the rings, the crown and everything she had gathered up to that point. They were there to remind her of the long way she has come. “It’s only for a week, only for a week,” she kept repeating to herself like a mantra. “It will be over soon.” *** It’s only just a week, I shouldn’t complain this much, I keep telling myself. But it’s no use when these beasts keep coming to my windows, chirping and making loud obnoxious noises. I’ve tried pulling the drapes, surrounding myself in darkness until the thoughts pass away, but this didn’t help. I cannot see them but I can still hear them, and this is no way to live. I should maybe try to open a window, what could it possibly do to me? I chose to make myself a nice cup of chamomile tea instead of complaining. While the water was boiling I opened the widow to the small kitchen. Mind you, a bird actually came inside and started singing, practically ignoring me. I was wondering the whole time what was in this creature’s mind that made it come here, but I shook the thought off. It wasn’t half bad to have someone

Issue 5

June 2014

to sing me something. I hummed along to this bird’s song and didn’t feel the time passing at all. Soon, it was noon and I was getting hungry. I just remembered the way the blood of dead animals shone in the sunlight and as I was cleaning a plate I swear I could feel the blood drip from my fingertips. Shivers went down my spine as I realized I definitely shouldn’t have been thinking about that. My glance was drawn to the wall of weapons and I sighed. I was not allowed to hunt so I had to make do. I placed the plate on the table and wandered around the kitchen in search for food. There were surprisingly many things to choose from. The cupboards were filled with fruits and vegetables, fresh cheese and milk, and even warm bread. At least the Druid made sure I was well stocked with food. Good thinking, old man.

I was a bit adventurous on the third day. I actually took more than one step outside of the house. It was maybe the sun shining brighter than before, or the fact that I felt better around animals, but this time I decided to interact with them. A bunny came hopping to me, as if I was a friend. “You don’t realize how dangerous I am, do you?” I asked the animal. I mentally scolded myself. Did I just start talking to animals? What am I, Snow White?

The night fell slowly but surely on the forest and soon the constant noises of the animals were muffled, as they went deeper and deeper into the woods to shelter for the night. After a good while, the bird that accompanied me during the day took off as well and soon the only noises I could hear were the crickets. I approached the fireplace, threw some logs in and set fire to them. It wasn’t as pleasing as playing god with animals, but the sound of wood cracking and the fiery flames that rose were good enough to calm me down. I woke up the next day in the front of the fireplace, the fire long gone. It was cold and I wrapped my blanket more tightly around me. The reason I felt so disgruntled was because I fell asleep with the window open. This was also the reason why another bird was now chirping on the ledge of that window. The wind was blowing, but it was more like a soft breeze that made me think a bit better about what was about to come. I wasn’t as annoyed as before with this task. I thought that the birds didn’t consider me a threat as they willingly came to me. I stood up, reaching for the little creature. It was curious; it hopped until it reached to my hand, then after a brief moment it hopped on my finger. I moved my hand closer to my face, inspecting the bird. It seemed harmless and I probably looked like I was terrified of it. Nevertheless, I let it fly away as I needed to fix myself a breakfast. To my surprise, the Druid had decided to fill my cupboards again overnight. Wonderful, he didn’t want me to starve. Probably not my best idea so far, but I thought I could take my plate outside and eat there. Why was it such a bad idea? Outside was gorgeous, I love forests; the dew was shimmering in the light of the sun that was too shy to come out at once. It wasn’t too cold either and it was silent, so silent that I could hear the leaves rustling in the trees. As soon as I went out, a herd of wild beasts surrounded me. It was the smell of food that attracted them, I’m sure.

But soon I grew to like them. The weapons wall was covered with the tablecloth from the kitchen so I was no longer tempted to kill the poor animals. That’s right, the ‘poor’ animals. I have drastically changed my views on animals. I feel like I’ve grown, like I’ve slowly become more and more compassionate. I was delighted to know at the end of the week that I could be friends with what I used to call wild disgusting beasts. They’re just like humans, except they don’t talk. But they have a way to let you know how they feel. And I knew they weren’t scared of me anymore. Even the fairies were proud of me, and came to congratulate me before the Druid came to take me to my next task. *** In a flash of light and fairy dust, Rhiannon was back from the forest in which she found her love of nature. “That was a really tough nut to crack, druid.” She said. “I can’t believe I lasted that long. Frankly, I enjoyed that…”

As I tried to eat while countless pairs of eyes were set on me, I decided it wouldn’t hurt me to share my food with them. It was pretty obvious they didn’t want it though, so I came to the conclusion that it was my presence that made them gather here. I just sighed and went back inside.

From a corner at the other end of a cave, a calm yet worried voice was heard: “I know, my child. But what is worse has yet to come. You are about to face your biggest challenge since your adventure started.” The druid stood up and started to briskly pace towards our heroine. “I hope you are ready, for this quest can no longer be delayed.”

The sight of the weapons on the wall made me uncomfortable. In a sudden fit of anger I grabbed a knife and threw it at the opposite wall. It was relieving knowing I didn’t need an animal to practice my knife throwing skills on.

“I understand,” Rhiannon sighed, “What must I do now? What else can I possible accomplish to end this endeavour?”

I spent the day sharpening knives and throwing them at walls, trying to avoid different obstacles I set for myself. I got two glasses and made a bet with myself that I would throw a knife right between them. And I won, so I kept on entertaining myself like this for the rest of the day. As the sun set, the animals stayed around the house. I found myself yelling “shut up!” at them, just because I couldn’t close an eye. It was like all the animals in the forest were gathered around this cabin. And that was probably the case, which didn’t appeal too much to me. A second of silence would be much appreciated, thank you fairies of the forest or whatever keeps these animals invading my personal space.

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With a petrified look on his face and a dim gleam in his eye, the druid stared at Rhiannon. Finally, he spoke, “I do not know. The single thing I know is that you shall meet Ymir, The Creator. Now, you must go.” Lifting up his staff, the druid once again mumbled his incantations and opened up another portal that dragged Rhiannon in, with a deafening howl of winds.

from where she landed. Her flight was rather long, for when she started falling down again, the landscape was formidably changed, as if somebody had cut a figure of a man, as tall as a hundred oaks and as wide as a mountain, out of the plains. Fearing what she may have awakened, Rhiannon awaited her plunge to the ground but… two gargantuan fingers grabbed her by the leg and gently placed her on a patch of land.

As the portal closed behind our hero, the druid whispered, “May fate keep you safe, lass. There is no telling what awaits you there…” Dusting himself off, the druid returned to his peaceful corner. Rhiannon and The Creator of Worlds Unlike any other adventures before, Rhiannon slowly floated down onto a plain of endless summer, with flowers, rolling hills and greenery as far as the eye could see. As she landed, a faint smell of ginger was carried by the wind and the bird songs topped off this mesmerising symphony of colour and grace. It was surely an eerie sight to behold, as every tiny blade of grass and every remote tree seemed to bend and twist in the rhythm of the songs, breezes and aromas. Standing up, Rhiannon whispered softly to herself, as if not to disturb the concert around her, “This is nothing short of incredible. Perhaps more wicked than any place I’ve been to so far. What is this place?”

Still dizzy from the fall but sighing with ease as her end was averted, our heroine gazed upwards at the straight wall of dirt in front of her and she gazed upwards, stretching her neck as far as she could. Alas, she could not see the end of this bulwark, but she could study it. It had two massive arms, as thick as stone buildings, and big hands with huge fingers. Without any warning, the figure started shaking and shaking, sending boulders and huge clumps of dirt and clay raining down, on top of Rhiannon and her small patch of land. Dodging and running around, our heroine thankfully managed to evade all but one tiny handful of mud that grazed her dress. Whilst trying to scrub it out, Rhiannon paid little attention to what had happened around her. Her obsession with cleanliness of herself and her own gowns was a quirk that not even the druid’s magic could erase. Still shaking her head, our heroine had to settle with turning a spot into a tiny shade of brown on her dress. Now satisfied, she threw curious gazes all around her, until she looked up and froze. Above her, one could say just a couple of feet away from her bright pink hair, a giant head, with eyebrows made from trees and eyes of dark boulders, cheeks of green hills and lips of dark, wooden bark, smiled down on her. Both of their faces stood like that, measuring one another for a mere minute, before our huge boulder-face moved away and joined the rest of the body that was now sitting down in front of Rhiannon. Still frozen in astonishment, our heroine could see one of the giants of legend... the one who sleeps under the world and rests until another landscape, animal, bird, sound, smell or even man needs to be created. It was…

With that question in mind, Rhiannon began exploring the scene. Climbing up to the top of the nearest hill, she could gaze upon the greatness of the plain in front of her, for hundreds of miles ahead, as the plains stretched across the open land. Behind her, endless barrels of dirt and grass rolled on top of one another, seemingly reaching the horizon with their lively atmosphere and joyful songs. To us, this might seem like a place to settle in and rest, but for Rhiannon it was far different. For our heroine, time was passing by quite fast as her patience faded away hour after hour of waiting in this plain, without no bearded dwarves to toss her around, fairies and witches to aid or battle, mermans to aid or even woodland critters to pet. The land was completely devoid of anything that could disturb peace or happiness. Despite the most relaxing feelings this place emanated, Rhiannon was growing angry. After pacing up and down more than a dozen hills, and still seeing no change in the landscape, feels or smells, she stopped, gathered her strength and bellowed from the depths of her soul, “WHAT IS THIS PLACE? WHY AM I HERE? WHO IS YMIR?” Her shouts interrupted the song and a dead silence set upon the plains. To both her horror and happiness, her shouts managed to achieve something. She was anxiously listening for either an answer or the return of the melodies, but none could be heard. Even the smells and breezes faded away, and now the air was still and odourless. And it was then, that from the complete stillness and silence that an earthquake began. Knocking Rhiannon off her feet, the hills started to rise and the plains to move as she crawled away to safety. It was too late though, as the hills suddenly darted upwards, throwing our heroine up to the clouds

“My name is Ymir, young human,” a deep voice spoke from beneath the wooden lips of the giant, Some may call me the Creator, whilst others claim I am the World-Maker. You are in my resting place, the land of Groeen. Do not bother telling me who you are, for I still remember the time I created you. Now, I have answered two of your questions, I must ask you, “ and the giant’s face once again approached Rhiannon and stared intently at her, as if to see into her soul. The voice once again said, ”Why are you here?” To many of us, such an appearance and speech might seem frightening but there was something special about Rhiannon and all of those humans in the old world, that made them feel comforted by such legendary creatures. Once again, she found no distress in seeing an ancient, legendary creator of worlds. She was just as excited as the time she was battling those sting-rays or cooking pancakes for the troll.

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“I do not know why I am here, old one. The only way I hope to uncover our dilemma is if I tell you my story… and you judge what remains to be done,” Rhiannon said with hope in her voice, “What do you say, great Ymir?” “Tell me, young Rhiannon, for I am a not yet heartless and sense you are in a troublesome time. Tell me and we shall both see what needs to be done,” the giant spoke again. Somehow keeping back a shout of joy, Rhiannon coughed and began her story. She told our giant of her love for Scott, her wishes and the proposition of the druid. When hearing of the druid, Ymir smiled and shook his head, “I remember that old fool. He’s almost as old as me…. But that’s a story for another time, lass. Go on,” the giant softly whispered. She told our giant of the dwarves of Hrothgar and their affairs, of the great deep seas and the forsaken castles of witches, her adventures with fairies and mermen, her struggles with creatures and ultimately… the druid’s promise and the task at hand. With a smile on his face, as wide as those tree trunks could stretch, Ymir spoke, “I see that you have endured many trials and faced a lot of hardships. I believe it is your luck that your final destination should be here. You have come to the right place, Rhiannon. You must not ask though what it will be the result of this quest. ” Struggling to contain her happiness and paying little attention to the last part, Rhiannon merely smiled and said: “What must I do, great one? What must I do for this all to end?” “It is a number of three different tasks, child. I shall reveal them to you as needed. The first one is to search near and far, wide and narrow, for my favourite pebble, Ishmuk. Somehow, in the process of my awakening, I have lost it! You must go and look for it and, please, do bring it back as soon as possible,” Ymir spoke softly. “Where do I begin, Ymir?” Rhiannon anxiously said, “Where do I start?” Without speaking another word, the giant simply pointed down at the ground and smiled. With a sigh, Rhiannon knew that she had to find a pebble across these endless plains, now riddled with canyons and holes. With yet another sigh, she started her quest. Swiftly, her feet carried her across the hills to right until she reached an immense crevice, which seemed unavoidable. To her right and to her left, for as far as Rhiannon could see, the crevice lay. After a swift assessment of dangers and perils, even a brave heroine such as ours deemed the hole impossible to cross. Her road east was brought to an end. Her single options were either to turn back or to stroll along the crevice. Despite the decision that clawed inside her mind, Rhiannon took a look inside the crevice, out of mere curiosity. It seemed as deep as the ocean and as dark as the mines, but… a bright, yet small, shining light caught her eye. Jumping with joy, knowing that she had found the pebble, our heroine enjoyed her swift success until… she realized there was no way a human could reach that. There was no way under the sun in which Rhiannon could pick up the pebble and achieve her goal. For me or you, it might be demoralising, but for our heroine this challenge was another obstacle in her away, another great feat of strength against her fate and the wills of monsters and men. Without hesitating, she quickly fashioned a bow and arrow from a nearby tree, using string from her gown to tie the whole together. Using the thick blades of grass and young roots that came out during the earthquake, Rhiannon even managed to weave a long, strong, sturdy rope. Everything now at hand, bow, arrow and feet of rope, another adventure awaited. The single problem was that our pebble, Ishmuk, was on the wrong side of the crevice, on the opposite side, protruding out of the dry, dirt wall. Quickly tying

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together the end of arrow and of rope, swiftly drawing the bow and skilfully aiming just above the faint dim… the shot flew through the air, wheezing through the dark and burying its tip in the dirt. Happy about that, Rhiannon shoved her bow deep into the ground to serve as a pole for tying the other end of the rope to. After completing her rudimentary zip-line, our heroine seemed confident and proud of herself. She once again checked that everything was in place and that all of the knots were tight … before jumping in. Floating through the dark, both hands gliding across the rope, her feet reached the wall with a loud thud. Right in front of her eyes, Rhiannon could see the pebble, the shiny Ishmuk. She let go with one hand and grasped it, then shoved it into one of her pockets. It was then and there that our heroine realized that the rope was starting to lengthen as the tip of our arrow began to surface …. The rope suddenly bounced back, arrow on end, hitting the opposite end of the wall. Fortunately for Rhiannon, just before the arrow left the wall, she managed to grasp it once again with both hands and was now, relatively safely, hanging from it. In an incredible display of power, she pulled and pulled and growled and sighed, all her way up to the top. In the end, she crashed onto the grass and breathed deeply. Once again, a hand picked her up and … she was back on the piece of land where she began. “I see that you have found Ishmuk. Good, good. This will save me lots of trouble… and also aid you…. Doesn’t matter… but… what are you doing ?” Ymir’s voice trailed off as he saw a Rhiannon bent down, scrubbing her gown with as much force as she could, hoping and praying that the dirt, which was now completely covering her hands, face and dress, would go away. Ymir laughed and a tear dropped on Rhiannon. That tear, as huge as a pond, completely cleaned off the dirt. The giant then bent down and breathed out, as gently as he could. The hurricane Rhiannon felt completely dried her out. The result was a happy, smiling, clean heroine. “Now, lass, are you ready?” Ymir spoke “Yes. What is my next quest?” Rihannon eagerly answered. “You shall go and feed my goats. They are of legend themselves and they only eat the young roots of spongy purple bloots. You may not know what those are, but….they are rather noticeable. The goats awakened at the same time as me, and I do believe their hunger soon needs to be quelled, or they will make short work of all this greenery!” Ymir briskly spat out the last words, as if a great danger was upon them. “Go now, young child. Hurry.” And the giant once again fell in a silence and pointed the way: to the left, to the endless plains. And Rihanon once again started strolling, happy and joyful as her hardships were almost at and end but then remembering the importance of her mission and began running. She ran and she ran, as fast as her feet would take her and as long as her energy lasted. When her breath was finally out and her knees met the ground, Rhiannon knew she could no longer run for miles at a time, as she did as a child. After she could breathe somewhat normally again, her gaze met the one of a huge goat, which was slowly closing in with its mouth wide open on her bright pink hair. Jumping in fright, she stood up, trying to tower over the goat, but only managing to get only one inch above the ears. With a bored, dumb look on its face, our goat simply continued chewing on the grass below, sniffing and snoring, kicking with feet and digging with horns, restlessly searching for something… the young roots of the spongy purple bloots. After discovering one goat, a whole herd of them soon appeared out of the blue, surrounding Rhiannon and intensively searching and digging in the dirt. It was not long before many of the goats noticed our heroine’s pink hair and desired to take a bite. She skilfully fought them off with her swift dodges but more and more were closing in for a taste, their mouths watering at the sight of her oh so delicious hair. Rhiannon was not going to wait for a hair-bite,

she started dashing between the goats, whilst clanks of teeth and clashes of horns were heard alongside, behind and even beneath her! Using up the last of her strength, she managed to escape the herd and dashed wherever her eyes could see and her feet take her. She was running for her hair. As her feet once again felt tired, her breath shortening with every step, the stampede of goats chasing behind her, escape seemed improbable. To everybody’s surprise, the goats’ and Rhiannon’s that is, the plains in front of their hurried march soon turned… purple. The earthquake before had uprooted a whole field of spongy purple bloots and their young roots were now within reach. Our heroine simply crashed to the ground, not before throwing herself to the side in order to avoid the deadly hooves of our goats. The whole herd ran by Rhiannon and her pretty pink hair and began feasting on the roots. Soon enough, some of the goats who had tasted the roots started to float or fly. Gazing upon them, our heroine believed she could even make out smiles on their faces but she could not observe for too long, as the familiar hand picked her up and returned her to the patch of land. “That is two out of three, giant. What is next?” Rihannon said. “Wonderful, girl. Wonderful job. We are almost done. The third and last task will seem much easier, perhaps even foolish,” Ymir hesitantly spoke. “I am ashamed to ask you this, yet… there is a thorn in my side… which I cannot grasp with my butterfingers. Try as I may, it is to no avail. I need your delicate hands to remove it. What do you say?” “Is that it, Ymir? If so, let us hurry for it is almost time,” Rhiannon smiled. “It is … right here…” and Ymir pointed at his side, just a couple of feet up in the air. Climbing his earth-like skin, Rhiannon found a small, pen-sized thorn in his spine. Pulling it at once rendered it loose and a sigh of relief was heard from the giant. “That was soothing, Rhiannon. I thank thee. Do you believe we can get to work now, lass?” Ymir dusted himself off and rose from the ground while speaking. “Aye. Work your magic, World Maker,” Rihannon said and widened her eyes. It is known that not many humans have ever gazed upon the creator, and even fewer saw how a world is made. The great giant grasped a lump of clay with one hand and softly blew on it. Then, he picked up Ishmuk and rubbed it into the clay, until all of the clay was glowing as the pebble. Afterwards, the giant whistled a song and the horde of grinning goats came flying in, like a flock of crows, blocking the sun and blackening the sky. One could even make out stars in this eclipse of goatly proportions. Ymir grunted and mumbled a spell, before he threw the lump of shining clay into the middle of the flight. Pointing upwards through the air, he soon started to shout spells and enchantmentss at the goats, bringing down a thunder and a hurricane which split a path straight up to the stars. The flock started flying towards the stars at a surprising speed, reaching their destination in seconds. After the magic lump of clay had reached the star, an explosion of bright light shone across the Seven Worlds. Next to a star, far away, a new planet was seen. The Eighth World.

And the druid’s whirlwind lifted her up and transported her away… Rhiannon stood as still as a statue, her mind trying to grasp that she could never be together with Scott in her own world, that she had to use the might of the old ones to create her own world, that everything in that land would be both fake… and real at the same time. “Will it be like I pictured it? Will be as good as I want it to be? Will it be true?” Rhiannon flooded the druid with questions. To all of them the druid smiled and never spoke. He waited for the endless stream of words and senseless blabber to end… Then, he spoke: “Let’s go and find out, lass.” And he hit the ground with his staff, summoning another light orb that whitened out the room. No sooner had the druid finished saying the magic words, than a great whirlwind once more lifted our heroine up and sent her away. After a jiffy, the swirl ended and Rhiannon was able to see around her.

It was only after seeing the newly-crafted world with her own eyes that Rhiannon understood what had happened. With her eyes beginning to water and her astonishment beginning to fade and sadness taking over, the druid’s whirlwind started to lift her up. As the flock of goats returned and Ymir, the World-Maker, once again began to stretch across the plains, the giant spoke : “Do not be sad, Rhiannon. As old as I may be, I cannot remember another girl receiving a world only for herself. Take good care of it.”

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June 2014

She was standing in front of a church, precisely in front of its great oaken door, guarded by a stone angel on either side, the sun glaring on their golden scepters. “This day couldn’t be any fitter for a wedding, right?” a voice said. Rhiannon turned and saw an unusual figure standing next to her. The druid had let down his robe, stick and magic book and lifted up what seemed like battledress: a huge wrought iron breastplate decorated with sapphires, lion shaped silver pauldrons, leggings embedded with amethysts and steel shoes that clattered their golden heels. She wasn’t far off with her clothes either: the dress was of a pearly white, cascading down in waves of the finest silk. Her shoes, sprinkled with the most precious opals shimmered in the warm sunlight. She looked down and noticed the waist of the dress was covered in the same sapphires that were embedded in the Druid’s leggings. Her veil was held in place by the silver crown she found for Adrian. A smell of fresh flowers surrounded her. It wasn’t long until she realised it was her bouquet. The flowers were those that grew around the cabin in the woods where she had lived for a week. She looked at the Druid and shot him a suspicious glance. A wide grin appeared on her face when she saw the puzzled look the Druid gave her back. “They are my best clothes, lass. Let us go, now. Shall we?” the druid spoke and grabbed Rhiannon’s arm.

Before she could say anything, the druid whispered two words and the doors opened with the loudest of thuds. Inside the church, stone statues depicted saints and heroes of legend, battles with trolls and fairies, magical sea creatures and even great sorcerer duels. As they were walking down the

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great aisle towards the altar, our heroine was able to see that on either side numerous guests were muffling cheers and tears of joy: dwarves of Hrothgar, creatures of the deep, fairies of the Low Lands and even some penguins; heaven knows where they came from. Instead of a priest, the Dwarven King himself stood on top of three wooden chairs, skillfully balancing his crown, beard and two mithril rings on top of this clumsy construction. All in all, the congregation was a cheerful lot. But soon all of these meager thoughts left her mind as she finally caught a glimpse of a long sought sight: her dearest Scott was smiling at her, waiting for them to be wed. As Rhiannon got closer she could feel her feet sink and heart beat faster. As she stood next to him, she knew that her struggle was finally over. At last, her life could begin. THE END

Issue 5

June 2014

Paris trip As part of the extended curriculum at BSB we offer the opportunity for our Secondary students to take part in a variety of exciting international trips. This year was no exception as a group of students visited the iconic city of Paris. The trip was thoroughly enjoyed by all and received rave reviews from the students. The main focus of the trip was to discover some of the incredible artistic, cultural and historical wonders Paris has to offer. Students attended a variety of excursions, including the Musee D’Orsay, Chateaux des Versailles, Notre Dame Cathedral, Sacre Coeur and of course, the iconic Eiffel Tower. Although there was a major focus on educational excursions, students had plenty of time to relax and have fun, spending a full day at Disneyland Paris Theme Park. As well as the Disney visit students had a fantastic time spending their evenings in authentic French restaurants and cafes, enjoying both the culinary delights on offer and the opportunity to socialise with each other and discuss all of their exciting new Parisian experiences. The comments I received from the hotel owner about the students’ attitude, behaviour and individual personalities were exceptional. This truly is a testament to the quality of young students we have here at BSB. International school trips are an essential element in a student’s academic and social development and I would strongly encourage students to participate in any future trips offered at BSB. Paul Farrell

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Issue 5

June 2014

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Bistrita Trip Education is not always a learning process which takes place within the classroom, but should also be a process of gathering life skills and experiences outside of the school environment. The power of being able to helping others through voluntary charitable work and knowing that you are making a real contribution to your local and wider community should also not be underestimated. BSB has been working with the charity Fundatia Inocenti for many years now and the mutual relationship has gone from strength to strength. Each year Fundatia runs a sporting and activities Olimpiada in the town of Bistrita, near the city of Cluj, where an army of volunteers help orphaned, disabled and disadvantaged children to participate in a range of activities, such as basketball, face painting, skittles, photography, football and an obstacle course. This event has been running for eight years and for the first time this year, on 15th May, BSB sent a group of volunteers accompanied by Miss Straw and Mr Porter to help with the Olimpiada. We were proud to have been able to make a difference to the lives of the children and to see their smiling faces at the end of the day. We are all looking forward to continuing our work next year with Fundatia at the 9th Olimpiada and have started planning for it already! Jason Porter

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Issue 5

June 2014

BSB celebrates success in Cambridge English examinations Earlier this year, three of our students took the Cambridge English Key English Test (KET) and Preliminary English Test (PET). This was the first time BSB had entered students for these examinations and we are delighted that all three students passed with flying colours. Congratulations to Lucas in Y9 on passing KET and to Ioannis in Y7 and Vasile in Y8 on passing PET. As well as giving students a clear indication of their current English level and recognising their achievements in English, Cambridge English examinations are accepted by many leading businesses and educational institutions around the world. We therefore encourage as many EAL students as possible to take the Cambridge English exams and we wish the very best of luck to the five students taking KET and PET tests in late June. Sarah Porter

Ioannis, Lucas and Vasile with their Cambridge English certificates

Work Experience, 20th June-25th June 2014 It has been a very busy month for our Y11 and Y12 students at the British School of Bucharest. After completing their IGCSEs and A-Level examinations they embarked on a one week long work experience placement. This is an important part of the studentâ€™s development as it helps prepare them for future study, gives idea for careers and introduces them to the world of work. They had the opportunity to demonstrate their skills in a variety of practical working environments. This year our students participated in work placements in Architecture, Business, Engineering, Events Management, Law, Marketing, Media, Medicine and Hospitality. The programme has been extremely successfully and we would like to extend our thanks to the community of the British School of Bucharest for making this possible. In particular, we would like to thank all the organisations that supported our students during the programme. It was a valuable learning experience for our students and all have commented on the vast amounts of knowledge and skills that they have managed to developed in such a short time.

Simon Lambert

British School of Bucharest

Cristina Dragan

Marriot Hotel

Bruno Leroy

Leroy Law

Valentina Maghirescu

Fundatia Inocenti

Katherine Dibble

British School of Bucharest

Dr. Cristina Popescu

Pipera Family Clinic

Monica

Blue Vets

Daniel Voicu

Voicu Filipescu

Lavinia Cotlet

Crown Plaza

Bryan Jardine

Wolf Theiss

Tudor Ghiurca

Vodafone

Mircea Sava

Architecture Studio

Ada Palea/Daniela Toader

KPMG

Codrin Matei

Crosspoint Gordon Robertson

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University Leavers May 2014 This year our sixth form students have secured offers of places on some of the most competitive university courses in the UK and in other countries. Several students had the difficult decision of choosing from four or five offers from different universities. The final destination of the Y13 students is, in many cases, dependent upon the final A-Level results which are published in August.

advice regarding individual prospects in light of their predicted grades and prior examination performance, we remain fully committed to supporting them throughout the application process whatever their chosen path. Should you wish to discuss possible routes into Higher Education, please feel free to arrange an appointment with myself or Mr. Walters. The destinations and degree choices for our 2014 cohort are as follows:

We are proud of the quality of advice and support we offer our students about their options after A Levels. Whilst we seek to give accurate and realistic

Destination

Studying

Evangelos

University of Edinburgh

Economics and Mathematics

Federica

Oxford Brookes University

Hospitality and Hotel Management

Kristina

Kingston University London

Art Foundation Degree

Andreea-Bianca

Warwick University

Social Sciences

Robert

Royal Holloway, University of London

Business Management

Joseph

University of Groningen, Netherlands

Art Foundation Degree

Ryan

Further A Level Studies

On behalf of all teachers at BSB I would like to wish this special group of students the very best of luck in their University studies and future careers. Paul Farrell

Leavers Dinner May 2014 Following on from the success of last yearâ€™s event, the eagerly awaited BSB Annual Leavers Dinner was held at SOFA Restaurant on Friday 13th June. The night featured music, a professional photographer, some tear jerking presentations and a three course meal as well as sparkling drinks on arrival. The Leavers Dinner is always the perfect end to a busy year and a way of marking the end of an era for students as they make their next big step in life. Staff and students alike enjoy the chance to let their hair down, relax and say goodbye to good friends. We hope our senior students had a fantastic evening and took the opportunity to fondly reflect upon their life at BSB. Paul Farrell

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June 2014

Petrom Half Marathon

At the finishing line with some members of Team BSB On Sunday the 18th May, members of staff took to the streets of Bucharest to represent BSB in the Petrom Half Marathon. Lots of members of staff and children ran in several races, some of which had only started running a few weeks before. The relay race consisted of 4 team members who each ran 5.27 km and passed the baton to the next person. One relay team was missing 2 team members on the day but thankfully Catherine Passmore and Catalina Maxim stepped up and ran twice for their teams. The races began at 8.30 am in which the sun was already shining and the crowds were gathering. Big congratulations to all of the runners who were: Relay Runners: Catherine Passmore, Charlotte Sloan, Rob Ford, Aurus Marin, Isobel Ford, Derek Walker, Yvonne Williams, Sally Clark, Gordon Robertson, Anamaria Marin, Anthony Oâ€™Brien, Liz Citron, Alex Petraru and Catalina Maxim. 10Km Runners: Paula Istrate, Iulia Pauna and Andreea Chirea. Half Marathon Runners: Helen Stevens, Claire Oâ€™Brien, Mark Monaghan, David Hughes, Katherine Dibble, Andrew Rowlands, Dan Thomas and Philip Walters. A big thank you to all who came to support. Another proud day for Team BSB!

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Charlotte Sloan ready and waiting to run the 4th leg of the relay

Lumina Cup success for U9 Team BSB entered four teams at this yearsâ€™ Lumina Cup and particular success was enjoyed by the U9 boysâ€™ team. The U18 boys finished fourth overall with great spells of play throughout the weekend. The U15 team were up against some physically strong sides and were not able to qualify out of the group stages. The U11 boys finished second in the group stage after wins against the French School and the German School but came unstuck against ISB in very difficult playing conditions. The U9 team played some excellent football throughout the whole tournament and finished second overall. Some excellent saves from Dave Y4, including stopping two penalties ensured that he picked up the goalkeeper of the tournament award for the second year in a row. David Hughes

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Mures Run Supreme on Sports Day With Olt house having won the last three Sports Days it was time for the students from the other academic houses, Arges, Danube and Mures, to put a halt to them making it a record four wins in a row. It was Mures who rose to the challenge and lifted the ‘Ilie Nastase’ trophy on May 1st.

Hosted once again at the Iolanda Balas Soter stadium, the venue proved to be the perfect backdrop for a Sports Day of a very high standard. Our student athletes of all ages battled with and against each other in a fantastic spirit. The total points at the end of the day were as follows:

ARGES

DANUBE

OLT

MURES

EYFS

KS1

YEARS 3 & 4

180

135

133

YEARS 5 & 6

118

151

144

166

SECONDARY

224

205

360

TOTAL POINTS

679

620

636

809

Congratulations to Mures for a deserved victory and well done to every student who took part on the day. A comprehensive breakdown of the results can be found on the school website in the ‘Sport News’ section. A special thank you to our sponsors Le Club, French Bakery, BPTC and ImuPro. Thank you also to every member of staff at BSB who helped to make the day a huge success. David Hughes

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Issue 5

June 2014

Huge Success for Team BSB at COBIS Games

Fantastic facilities for the students in Abu Dhabi Fifteen students from Y5 and Y6 travelled to Abu Dhabi, this term, to take part in the COBIS Games 2014. Competing against 15 other teams from schools around the world competing in basketball, swimming and football, the team produced some excellent results. On day one the team played basketball and managed to finish third in the plate competition. On day two 5 medals were won in the pool with the girls taking silver for medlay relay and Emilee taking bronze for the backstroke. Day three looked promising with an early win against British School in the Nederlands, but after finishing third in the group the team were not able to advance any further than the quarter finals. The biggest success of the team was, in my opinion, the way they played and trained together as one. All the students were wonderfully behaved and were a credit to the school. For all the results, pictures and more form this yearsâ€™ games visit http://cobisgamesbsak.weebly.com/. We are already planning for next yearsâ€™ games in Athens!

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Mr. Hughes delivering the inspirational teamtalk

There were great performances from everyone

Competition was fierce

Parents were able to follow the team on Twitter

Warming up before a key game

Issue 5

June 2014

30TH JUNE TO 25TH JULY 2014 AGES 4 TO 16 YEARS

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42 Erou Iancu Nicolae Street, 077190, Voluntari, Ilfov County, Romania T. +40 21 267 89 19, +40 728 133 432, +40 728 133 433

Gareth Jones visits BSB

A talented author inspiring the next generation of writers This month we were pleased to welcome Gareth P. Jones as our visiting author this year. Gareth Jones has written many interesting books such as: Space Crime, Dinosaur Party, Thornthwaite Inheritance and many more. His Ninja Meerkat books are very funny and interesting and he brought one of his ninja’s to visit us at school! The ninja’s lightning strike was so fast that we didn’t see it! Gareth came up with the idea for his books about the Dragon Detective Agency because he was watching some squirrels jump over his neighbour’s head in London and he turned the squirrels into dragons. Gareth sang lots of funny songs in assembly and we thought it was really entertaining. He then did a creative workshop and we learnt lots of interesting things to make our story writing better, such as how to build up tension with suspects and clues. Everybody had a wonderful time and we loved having Gareth visit us! Eleftheria and Dimitrios

Gareth speaking to Y1 – Y4 about his books

Gareth singing about the ‘Dino Boogie’ Issue 5

June 2014

The Annual COBIS Conference seminars and networking. The COBIS Annual Dinner also provided excellent opportunities to make new contacts in relaxed surroundings. Other Conference highlights included the presentations to new COBIS Member and Accredited Member schools on completion of successful BSO inspections. The awards ceremony for winners of the COBIS Student Poetry Competition, COBIS World Debate Contest and COBIS Young Scientist Film Awards on Sunday night also provided much entertainment. Simon Lambert

COBIS Conference In May, the Principal and I attended the COBIS Annual Conference at Park Plaza Hotel in central London. More than 450 delegates, exhibitors, speakers and guests came together to contribute to this year’s theme of ‘Making an Impact – Leading Excellence in British International Education’. Delegates included Heads, Governors and Senior Leaders from COBIS member and non-member schools worldwide along with representatives from a range of educational organisations. The Conference got off to a fantastic start with an inspirational keynote speech from Sir John Jones who set the tone for an excellent two days of keynotes,

Dylan Wiliam

How to talk so kids can learn can learn” and they have proved to be extremely useful and successful in our day-to-day practice. The course is a practical approach, designated to help parents and teachers deal with conflict in a positive manner, by acknowledging and accepting pupils’ feelings, offering them choices and allowing them to be part of the decision making process. Also, teaching assistants are being offered the correct tools to engage and encourage cooperation between themselves and their students, but also to enable pupil’s sense of autonomy. I have personally enjoyed the workshops a great deal, as they have offered me a better understanding of pupils’ feelings and have guided me in creating an appropriate environment, where positive relationships can be established. At the same time, the workshops have helped me become more aware of the importance of my verbal and non-verbal communication and of the impact this has on pupils’ development. “How parents and teachers talk tells a child how they feel about him. Their statements affect his self-esteem and self-worth. To a large extent, their language determines his destiny” (Haim Ginott) Teaching assistants at BSB have been offered the opportunity to discover the appropriate skills needed to inspire pupils to be self-directed, selfdisciplined, and responsive to the wonders of learning. These communication strategies are being delivered by Dr Mahon through an inhouse course based on Faber & Mazlish’s publication, “How to talk so kids

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Alexandra Petraru

PTA review Another school year is coming to an end and it is time to reflect on what we have experienced, achieved, enjoyed and learned throughout the year. It is also an opportunity to thank all the teachers, children, school staff and parents who have given that extra in order to make BSB much more than a school – to make it a place where we enjoy and belong. Thank you so much! It is my belief that by creating a caring and happy community around school, children feel safe to take risks, to try new things and to achieve to their highest ability. It simply brings out the best in them. That’s why being involved in the PTA has been so rewarding for me personally, and it has been a privilege to get to know so many fantastic people in the BSB community in the process. At the beginning of the year the PTA committee agreed to focus on strengthening the BSB school spirit and to enhance families’ overall experience at school. This year we wanted to be present in welcoming new families and providing more help in settling into our diverse school community. In September we introduced the Parents’ Activities Fair to provide an opportunity for parents to learn about different activities going on, such as photography courses, tennis, bridge, cooking classes, book clubs etc. It was well received and there are plans to expand it for next year with useful information for newly arrived expat families such as doctors, dentists, hairdressers, sport facilities, music lessons etc. As with all PTA activities, it will depend on individual volunteering to make this happen. Our start-of-term coffee mornings provided opportunities after the holidays to meet newly arrived parents and to re-connect with existing ones and school leadership staff. They were well attended and especially appreciated by the new parents. Throughout the year the PTA arranged various outings, cultural tours, flower arranging courses, cooking mornings, concerts and dinners out. We also connected with the AISB PTO in a much appreciated ladies’ salsa night at DonCafé.

to raise funds for the PTA as well as for the school-supported charities. This year we raised funds for the Royal British Legion, Fundatia Inocenti, Light into Europe and Casa Ioana. Thank you for participating in these events and for contributing so generously. 100% of the PTA funds are spent on BSB students to enhance their learning experience at school. The PTA committee together with school decides how to allocate the funds. This year we bought musical instruments for children in primary school to try out an instrument before deciding which one to pursue. We funded Halloween parties, discos and teddy bear picnics to add some fun, as well as author’s visits and “Bug Club” to stimulate reading and interest in literacy. Everything the PTA achieves is based on individuals’ willingness to contribute their time and energy. Again, a big ‘thank you’ to teachers, secondary students, school staff and parents for your special efforts. For me, the greatest reward has been to see the appreciation from the children and to be more involved in their daily school life. I have been impressed by their appetite for learning, their happiness at school and their sense of belonging to BSB, which I believe is a direct result of your efforts. I therefore want to encourage everyone who has a chance to get involved in the PTA. Your contribution counts! A community changes with its participants. BSB has a large portion of international and transient students. Many families are leaving this summer and so there it is always a sting of sadness around this time of year. We will miss our friends who are leaving and wish them all the best in their new adventures. At the same time we look forward to getting to know new families in September and embracing them into our ever-changing community. I wish everyone a relaxing and happy summer holiday. Thank you for another great BSB school year together.

The PTA helped in organising the main school community events such as the quiz night, the artisan fair, the school party and the summer fair. The purpose of these events is to bring parents and school together, have some fun and

Warmest regards, Susanne Fearnhead

Issue 5

June 2014

Summer Fair

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Issue 5

June 2014

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