BSB School Magazine - February 2009

Issue 2 - Febraury 2009 Visit the BSB website at www.britishschool.ro

The British School of Bucharest Magazine

BSB Students Deliver Christmas Cheer

On Pages 10 & 11

Christmas is traditionally a time for giving and with this in mind the BSB Charity Committee organised several events to give students at BSB the opportunity to do something to help those less fortunate.

This year the BSB Shoe Box Appeal collected 120 shoe boxes full of presents to go to Fundatia Inocenti, based in Bucharest and the Children’s Farm from Aricesti-Rahtivani, bringing the spirit of Christmas into the lives of 90 boys and girls living in a children’s home and another 15 children and 15 toddlers long term in the Pediatrics Section of the Hospital IOMC “Alfred Rusescu”.

On Page 24 & 25

On Pages 12, 20 & 21

On Pages 22 & 23

BSB Winter Productions 1, 2, 3, 4 What are DT Days?

Artisan Fair Biggest Bazaar ever!

Theatrically speaking, the run up to the winter break was a very busy time at BSB, as students prepared to put on not one, but four separate winter productions.

This year the BSB Artisan Fair was bigger and brighter than ever, filling three halls to capacity with a wide variety of student and artisan stalls raising money for St Stelian’s’, one of many charities supported by BSB.

BSB students have the opportunity each term to get involved in something related to Design and Technology. Visiting museums, cooking, building bivouac shelters were just a few of the activities that went on this term.

Contents · A word from the Editor · Charity Committee Update · Principal’s Report · School Reports · New Appointments · We would like to welcome 2 new teachers to BSB · Where are they now? · Student in the Spotlight · Student Council · Madrid, June 2009 · Year Six Halloween Party enjoyed by all

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· Piano plays a key role in the BSB Music Curriculum · The BSB Shoe Box Appeal 2008 · Thank you BSB! · ‘A Christmas Cracker’ · A busy night at the inn · Primary School Handwriting Competition · What did you do over the Christmas Holiday? · Our Planet Needs You · Eco Christmas Tree Decorating Competition

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· Charity action and Spanish lesson in one · El mundo del español · Healthy Schools Week · Physical Education · Secondary School Fixture Reports And Results · House Competitions · Key Stage 1 Christmas Production · Secondary School Music Recital · Your Feet Are Too Big · DT Days

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· Spanakopita and Curry · The BSB Artisan Fair · BSB Students receive certification from Oxford Language Program · Masterpiece Reproductions · Primary Art Competition · Art, Art, Art · Mr Ciaran McGowan · Winter Art · Year 2 Winter Display · University Courses · Primary School Maths Day

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· Class Pages · BSB Clubs · An important part of the School Curriculum · Continuing Professional Development · Teacher ICT Training · New Laptops · The Parent Teacher Association · A warm welcome to the new students joining BSB · Important Dates on the BSB Calendar

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A word from the Editor

Mr Kendall Peet

As Issue 2 goes to print it is hard to believe that it is already 2009 and that we are knocking on the door of another decade. Sometimes I have to stop and ask myself if life is speeding up or if it is just my life that is speeding up. However, looking at the changes going on around me within BSB, and taking this as a measure of life in general, it is evident that the world is moving at a quickening pace. It was only eight weeks ago that the last issue of Newsblast came outwith three weeks of that time being holiday- and yet here we are with another issue of Newsblast and this time 40 pages long, crammed from cover to cover with the many events and activities that the students at BSB have been involved in since the start of December.

As you read through this issue I’m sure, like me, two things in particular will stand out to you; firstly, that there is an incredible amount of charity work going on here at BSB; and two, the fact that creativity is alive and well on campus. In the last few months, students

across the school have had the opportunity to visit community hospitals and orphanages, to reach out and connect with people less fortunate and in so doing to help those in need, whether it be through the provision of food or clothing, or simply by extending a hand of friendship. At BSB we consider such community liaison work to be an essential part of your children’s education and so we would like to thank you for your help and generosity over the past few months.

Thank you also to all those of you who contributed to this issue. I am especially indebted to Mr Brad Hamacher and Mrs Helen Calthrop for all their help with the various articles and class pages from both the Primary and Secondary school. A big thank you also to my Year 10 students for all their help- I’m sure all your hard work will pay off when it comes to IGCSE English exam time at the end of the year.

I hope you all enjoy Issue 2 and look forward to Issue 3.

Happy reading.

Charity Committee Update The Charity committee has had a very eventful and highly successful start to the academic year. Two major events were at the top of our agenda and we are pleased to say that both the Artisan Fair and the Christmas Shoe Box Appeal have exceeded our expectations.

Mrs Cathryn Henderson. They have done a wonderful job organising the Fair and raising the standards for similar events in the future. We very much appreciate their effort and enthusiasm as it is the result of all their hard work that we are able to raise so much money to support charity organisations like St Stelian’s.

As for the Shoe Box Appeal, it has demonstrated once again that our pupils have a big heart and a real concern for children who are less privileged. They have been very generous giving to Romanian children with very little and were eager to fulfil their Christmas wishes where possible. Some pupils made up to 3 shoe boxes! Well done!

The Artisan Fair or BSB Christmas Bazaar is one of the “can’t be missed” events on our school calendar. It was organised by the Parent Teacher Association in collaboration with the Charity Committee.

Our special thanks go to the PTA headed by

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us was just as valuable as the material gifts we delivered. We enjoyed watching the Christmas performance that they put on especially for us. Knowing after our own Christmas production, how much effort it takes to put on such a show, we were able to fully appreciate their hard work.

We also want to thank the donors of clothes, shoes and toys who have contributed to fill the two green bins at the gate. This appeal will continue throughout the year and the Charity Committee and the Eco Committee will join forces to make sure that these items will get to people who will find them useful.

For the future we are planning a sponsored whole school keep fit session and a Quiz Night for parents, hopefully accompanied by a pool side BBQ as soon as the weather gets warmer.

On the last week of school in Term 1 a small delegation of secondary students took the shoe boxes to the Children’s Farm in Aricesti, Prahova County. The trip was a Thank you for your generous contribution great opportunity to meet the children and to the charity work at BSB and may 2009 to learn more about the life conditions in an be generous to you. orphanage. We were all impressed by the Ms Dorothea Draser, warm welcome we received there. We are Head of BSB Charity Committee sure that the attention they received from

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Principal’s Report Dear Parents and Friends of BSB,

Jo Wells

will be spending two days with us in March. Prior to his arrival we are required Firstly may I wish all our families a Happy to send out a Parent Questionnaire, and New Year and I hope you all had a restful he will be reviewing these confidential holiday. responses during his March visit. To give you advance notice, these will be sent Since our last Newsblast was published from school at the end of February. we have received news that following our visit from Mr David Rose, an ECIS The last term finished with a wealth of inspector, we have been invited to join successful events ranging from class the European Council of International parties, Key Stage performances, Schools. Mr Rose, Head of an deliveries of Charity shoebox parcels and international school in London, is also an our Artisan Fair. Thank you to everyone inspector for ISI (Independent Schools who was involved, as it all amounted to a Inspectorate) so it was very encouraging wonderful set of winter celebrations, to hear his comments about how friendly albeit with a great deal of work by our school is and how happy and settled everyone involved in our school the students are. He also remarked on community. We hope you enjoyed all of how polite they were during his visit, and these events as much as we did. how well they spoke about their learning when he asked them questions about As ever a busy winter/spring term their work. We are obviously very proud beckons and we look forward to 2009of them all. we are sure it will be another terrific year for all our students at BSB. As mentioned at the beginning of the year we are due to have our ISI Jo Wells principal@britishschool.ro inspection in May, this will involve a team of four inspectors, who will visit every department in the school and then write a report, which will be published following their visit. To organise this visit, the lead inspector, Mr Martin Bradley,

The Front Desk If you need any information or help in regard to your child’s education and support at BSB, please do not hesitate to contact our office team during normal working hours, 8.00am - 5.00pm, Monday - Friday.

For general enquires or issues relating to clubs or sports, please contact:

For specific help relating to school transport, student lunches please contact: Cristiana Patru Email: services@britishschool.ro Mob: 0728 133 432/3 Tel: 021 267 8919 Fax: 021 267 8969

Tanya Biryukova, Office Manager Email: office@britishschool.ro Tel: 021 267 8919 Fax: 021 267 8969

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School Reports Head of Foundation for Newsblast

As you will see from the photographs printed later in this publication our Christmas productions were highly successfully, enjoyed by all and a few tears were shed.

Ahhh!

Ms Angela Harvey

By the time you read this edition of ‘Newsblast’ the largest part of winter will be behind us and we will all be looking forward to the arrival of spring. All Foundation Stage classes will be preparing to turn their classrooms into veritable jungles by planting all kinds of seeds and cuttings and bulbs. Can we predict already which of our charges will be interested in physically planting? Who will enjoy looking closely with magnifying glasses and drawing what they see? Who will get creative and put together

musical pieces, or a dance to represent growth? There is no way to be absolutely sure in advance but it is a treat to watch as the story of these children unfolds. By observing your child growing, changing and developing, we are better able to know when it is appropriate to step in to offer support, encouragement, resources and challenge.

We will continue to keep you informed of our plans, observations and events through our blog so that we can all be part of the team supporting your child’s educational journey.

Ms Angela Harvey, Head of Foundation

Head of Primary

Like everyone else I was amazed by the musical and acting talent shown by all our pupils in their Christmas productions. They all seemed so confident and obviously enjoyed the thrill of being on a stage. It was wonderful to see all their hard work pay off when the audiences laughed and clapped in all the right places.

Ms Naima Hussain

One of the things we are very proud of at BSB is that we work hard to highlight creativity and fun in learning. The university courses have been a great part of this and the children have all being very quick to pick up new skills. As all subjects are interlinked it’s great to see children learning speaking and listening skills or honing their writing skills in a ‘real life’ context. Another exciting aspect of last term was the increased use of technology with the introduction of a set of lap tops and greater use of video recorders around the school. We have already seen

the children becoming very rapidly skilled in using the interactive whiteboards and the blogs so it has been great to see them working with another medium.

A fun aspect of school life is being part of a team and it was great to see House matches and interschool tournaments swing into full gear. Well done to all those who took part but a special mention has to be given to the Year 3 & 4 football team for their well earned victory.

So from the arts to mastering new skills, and from technology to sport, the BSB children have proved themselves to be a very talented bunch and as always it is them and their enjoyment of learning that will make this next busy term so exciting.

Ms Naima Hussain, Head of Primary

Key Stage 1 Update

We would like to wish you all a very happy half term break.

We have already been involved with many exciting events in KS1 this term...

• 1H and 2W have performed their parent assemblies which were superb • Years 1 and 2 have been on a trip which they very much enjoyed. If you have any ideas for good places to visit with the children please let us know as we are always interested in expanding our list of possible venues.

Ms Lindsey Banks

Each class takes it in turn to have a class assembly where parents are invited. It’s a chance for you to see what we

1J practise their songs for the Christmas show

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Daria, Christian, Lena and Charlie practise their lines!

have been learning this term. Years 2B and 2W have already had their assemblies. Bravo Year 2 they were a great success. The KS1 team would like to say a big THANK YOU to all the parents for their help with the Christmas production costumes, the children looked fantastic. Your support is most appreciated.

We’ve included some photos from events last year and we look forward to more exciting activities this year.

Thank you Mr Williams, Mr Harrison and Miss Jezeph for all the hard work you have put in last term.

2B create a Winter Display for the Primary building

Ms Lindsey Banks, Key Stage 1 Coordinator

Mathieu from 2B works on his design for the Winter Display

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Key Stage 2 Update

The New Year has brought us a new set of challenges, two new teachers, new students and even more new laptops.

Key Stage 2 welcomes all these new additions and I know we are all excited about the second term. Our successful Christmas performance Cinderella / Rockafella seems a distant, but very happy memory.

Mr Patrick Kennedy

Coming up this term there will be more class trips, university courses, after school clubs, sporting events and assemblies. Later this term is ‘World Maths Day’ which I am personally very excited about. This school wide event was very successful last year. It is on Wednesday 4 March

and I am hoping we can do even better than we did last year with the global maths challenge.

Term two is always a very important term and in many ways it is when the children make the most progress. As the term progresses and the weather slowly starts to become warmer and sunnier, we look forward to another glorious summer in our wonderful school. But for now it’s still a case of wrapping up warmly and bearing the brunt of winter.

Mr Patrick Kennedy, Key Stage 2 Coordinator

Secondary School Update

Ms Jane Greenwood

The first term in Crawford House was a busy one for teachers and students alike. During November students were involved in Design Technology days, and this gave everyone the opportunity to use the new Design Technology suite. Students were involved in cooking world cuisine where parents, teachers and a renowned chef from Barka Saffron, taught students to prepare Greek, Lebanese, Indian, Japanese and Italian food. If the temptation of overeating was not enough, students were also involved in wire art, printing, 3D design and shelter construction, as well as visiting the Village Museum to study the art of construction.

Our PE teachers, Ms Kemp and Mr O’Brien, have been busy organising football and basketball tournaments with other international schools in Bucharest and the senior school enjoyed their first sporting successes, the boys football team beating the rival team 3 goals to 2 and the girls basketball team taking a close fought match 24 to 20 against ISB. IN the coming months Ms Kemp will be hosting further meets with Sports Coordinators from a number of international schools, and will be organising more inter-school sporting events.

The EAL department have been working with students to help them integrate into the school environment and to enable each student to actively participate in all lessons.

It has been a pleasure to see students develop their speaking and listening skills. Sacha Marinescu and Alizee Billaud have impressed the EAL team with the progress they have made so far. Sahir Al-Borayashi has demonstrated a real commitment to improve his level of English and this has resulted in a noticeable improvement in the level of his work, which has been commented on by his teachers. Congratulations to all students on their hard work and determination.

In the second and third week of January (12th-22nd) our Year 11 and 12 students sat their mock examinations in preparation for the finals in May/June. The IGCSE examinations are intended to help prepare students for their advanced studies, which in turn, will take them on to higher education. With this in mind, our two guest speakers in Term 1 gave clear expectations and focus to the students. Our first visitor was Stefan Uhlig, a Professor from Cambridge University, UK, and the second speaker was Judd Sanders, a visiting lecturer from North Carolina University, Pembroke, USA. In April Year 11 and 12 students will be invited to a University Fair where they will have the opportunity to find out more about different universities, courses and countries for future study.

Key Stage 3 students will also be taking part in musical events, Design Technology days and House events.

Towards the end of the Term 2 students will be given the opportunity to take part in the ‘Take a Student to Work’ programme. This scheme mirrors the one offered to all students in the UK. It encourages students to experience a short work placement with a family member or friend, and thus ensuring a safe environment for them.

The British School offered the scheme to students 2 years ago and it was delighted at the 100% participation by students and parents. Discussions held with companies after the placements indicated that they were delighted by the venture and the awareness by the students of the business world. The school is certainly looking forward to all students participating again this year.

I am looking forward to a productive and exciting term with many activities and educational challenges for our students in the coming weeks, and I hope you will be able to join us on some of the focus days and events.

Ms Jane Greenwood, Head of Secondary

New Appointments I am delighted to be able to announce several new appointments within the Secondary School. Firstly, I would like to welcome two new members of staff: Ms Houette who will be teaching Secondary Mathematics, and Mr Kelly

who will be taking the Drama classes throughout the whole school from Foundation right through to Secondary. Ms Draser is now responsible for Modern Foreign Languages throughout the school, and Miss Kemp has been appointed as

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Assistant Head Teacher of Secondary School.

I would like to extend my welcome to the new teachers, and my congratulations to both Ms Draser and Miss Kemp.

Ms Jane Greenwood, Head of Secondary

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We would like to welcome 2 new teachers to BSB Ms Houette, Secondary Maths teacher A. In England I taught in two schools in Gloucestershire.

Q. What do you think about this school?

A. I like the school very much, and enjoy getting to know everybody. My two sons are in Key Stage 1 Q. How long have you lived in Romania? and 2 and they love to come to school in the A. Since last summer. morning.

Q. Do you like Bucharest?

Q. What can you tell me about your family?

A. Yes. I think people are very friendly here. The A. I am married and have two children. My husband countryside is very beautiful.

Olivier is from France and my two boys Louis and Q. Where did you live before coming here?

Charlie were born in the US. A. I lived in Germany until 10 years ago in the south of Q. Do you have any hobbies or interest?

Berlin, and since then in the US, Moscow and A. In my spare time I like running and swimming, as England. well as going for walks. I also enjoy reading a good Q. Where else did you teach? book and cooking with my family.

Our roving reporter, Alex, Year 10, took some time out of his busy lunchtime schedule to interview Ms Houette in order to get the inside scoop on the when, the where, the what, and the why.

Ms Houette

Alex, Year 10

Mr Kelly, Our new Head of Drama

Mr Kelly

Mr Kelly, our new drama teacher, has recently joined us from Scotland. He told me that has 4 sisters and that he is the oldest and the only boy. When I asked Mr Kelly about his life growing up in Scotland, he talked about one of their national symbols- the kiltand told me how he had to wear it for special occasions. When I asked him what he thought about Bucharest, he told me that he visited Bucharest 20 years ago and liked it very much, which is why he decided to return here to see how much it has changed. Before teaching at BSB, he taught in Madrid for 5 years, which is where he says he learnt to speak

a little Spanish. He has also taught in Albania and Greece. He is well seasoned traveler and has now visited six out of seven continents, with only South America left to do. The continent he liked the most and would like to revisit is Africa, especially the safari parks, as he is disappointed that he did not get to see the big cats when he was there.

On behalf of all the students I would like to wish Ms Houette and Mr Kelly an enjoyable stay here in Romania.

Andreea, Year 10

Where are they now? & co at BSB. “ ToJustJoaWells quick note to accompany this photo of me in my newest disguise.

Rather than rejoin the workforce, I have landed a job as a Bridge Climb Leader on the Sydney Harbour Bridge and now get to enjoy this view each and every day! If anyone from BSB is heading to Sydney in the coming year, I would be delighted to take you on a personally guided tour.

Just another day at the office

Maree, Thomas and Charlie are all doing well. They join me in wishing you all an enjoyable winter, and all the best for the remainder of the school year.

Warm Regards,

Jon

Ps. If anyone would like to drop me a line, you can do so at the following address: jonathon.brian@hotmail.com

�

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Student in the Spotlight

This is Jarod he comes from Belgium and his favourite holiday destination is also Belgium! His favourite food is pizza and his favourite sport is basketball. He is in 5B and has two siblings one is

Klara who is in 3L and Luka who is in crèche. His hobby is playing with his friends and his favourite book is Spy Dog.

◄ Jarod 5B

This is Lewis he comes from Ireland and his favourite holiday destination is Disneyland. His favourite food is pizza and his hobby is playing tag. He has two siblings one is Casey who is in 6D

and Zach who does not come to school yet. He is in 3P and his favourite book is Horrid Henry. His favourite sport is football.

◄ Lewis 3P

This is Isabella and she comes from England. Her is Eva who is in 1H and Oscar and Finn who are not favourite holiday destinations are all the Islands of at BSB yet. Her favourite sport is swimming and the world. She is in 2B and has three siblings; one her hobby is reading. Her favourite book is Fairies. ◄ Isabella 2B Gurbani, 4H

Cristina, Year 10

Albert, Year 10

Noa, Year 8

Sacha, Year 9

Usman, Year 7

Cristina, Year 11, was born on 16 December, 1992 in Bucharest. This is her second year in BSB. Her favourite subjects are German and English- she speaks English, German and Romanian. Her hobbies include horse riding, shopping, surfing the internet, dancing, having fun with friends and chatting. She loves burgers, spaghetti,

pizza, and ice-cream. Her favourite fruits are oranges, strawberries, and cherries. Her aim in life is to become a psychologist. She has 2 cats, a dog and a parrot. She likes watching movies.

Her favourite colours are pink, purple, black and white. Her school House is Danube.

Albert, Year 10, is one of the newest additions to Year 10. Albert, originally from Mizil, Romania, has an older brother named Silviu, who is 20 years old and currently studying Business at university.

Before BSB, Albert attended Liceu Grigorescu Tocilescu, in Ploiesti, Romania, where he studied for 7 years! Albert says that he moved to BSB because he intends to attend university abroad

and thinks that BSB will help him to prepare for this better than a Romanian high school. His favourite things to do are snowboarding and riding his Aprillia 50 RS motor bike. Albert’s favourite food is seafood. He likes listening to house/ electro music. Albert says that he would one day like to own and manage his own bank.

Noa, Year 8, was born in Israel, near Tel Aviv. Her favorite subject is humanities (and so consequently her favorite teacher is Mr McGowan); she is taking German as her MFL subject. She likes listening to music and singing, and plays on-line virtual video games in her free time. When I asked her to describe herself, she admitted that she is sometimes annoying but also funny. However, her

friends Vanessa, Alizee, and Shani said that she is not at all annoying and that she is a really nice person to have around as she is often quite hyper and laughs almost all the time. Just in case you wanna give her a present or b-day card, her birthday is on the 22nd of July. Oh! And by the way! She’s in Danube!

Sacha, Year 9, is from Romania. He transferred to BSB from Mark Twain this year. He said that he likes to play videogames in his free time, especially World of Warcraft. He also really enjoys listening to music, including rock and house genres. His favourite food is pizza and he also likes typical Italian dishes. He enjoys sport; in

particular, he likes to play and watch football. He also likes to watch movies and to go to the cinema with friends; his favourite movies are horror movies: he likes a series of movies called “Saw”.

His favourite pets are cats.

Usman, Year 7, comes from Pakistan and has an older brother and sister. This is his 5th year in Romania. He describes himself as being a happy, lively person with an active imagination. He likes climbing, football, basketball and cricket. He hates staying around doing nothing because he thinks it’s a waste of time. When he’s not doing something outside, he usually spends his time in

front of the computer chatting and playing games.

His favourite lessons are Maths and P.E. His favourite creatures are dragons and the phoenix.

He likes sad songs, and movies with a sad ending.

He also enjoys a good comedy or horror movie. As far as music is concerned, he enjoys hip hop- he hates rock.

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Nour, Year 8

Maria, Year 10

Senia, Year 10

Edoardo, Year 10

Alexandra, Year 10

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Student Council Primary School Student Council Update This term School Council has been very busy. Early on, we agreed with a vote that we would help to fundraise for BSB’s new sensory garden. For those of you who don’t know what the sensory garden is, it is a garden that you use your senses in. So there will be a section where you feel things for touch, and areas where you can taste, smell and listen. Some of the ideas for fundraising

included having a carwash or selling hot chocolate and snacks in the play ground at break. Also, we had a visit from the Debating University Club who came to demonstrate what an effective discussion looks like. We learned to firstly listen before speaking and we also learned how to use ‘I know’ statements like, I know what you are saying , but…

Ms Barclay and the Debating Club visit the Primary Student Council for a lesson on listening skills

Rhys, 6D

Student Council Initiatives Over the last couple of months the Student Council have been discussing options for improving or perfecting the school or for organising more exciting after school events.

The Primary school wanted a garden area or a pond to study, touch and have fun with. The Secondary school on the other hand preferred to organise a winter party. In the end, both suggestions went ahead, with date agreed on for the senior party being Wednesday the 17th of December (3.30-6.00 pm).

soon came to realise that arranging the party would take up a lot of time and so for this reason we chose to split the tasks amongst the class reps. and their classes. Each class was put in charge of certain responsibilities.

Year 7 Year 8 Year 9

A few of the Year 7 & 8 students enjoying the party

Nour, Year 12, with something to smile about

However, to organise the party several things were needed and the senior school students

their parents!), a huge choice of music, thanks to lots of people bringing in music, and a great sound system, thanks to Mr Stefan Jipa from IT (and Senia and Mr Pantella’s DJ-ing!). All in all, the night was enjoyed by all, and we hope to have more, and even better social events in the future.

Class reps next went round the school doing questionnaires on what music, food, and activities students wanted. After a lot of organising, the party was finally ready to go ahead.

On the night we had a great choice of food thanks to the work of all the classes (and

food advertising decoration/ drinks

Year 10 music Year 11 activities

While the Secondary students were busy with their party, the Primary got the planning for their garden underway. Building a garden requires plants, seeds, etc, so the primary reps looked for ways to raise money. They did this by organising Bake Sales and selling hot drinks at the Artisan Fair. So far, it has proven efficient and the Primary school council are well on their way to achieving their goal. Good work primary! We all can’ t wait to see your finished garden.

Louisa, Year 9

Madrid, June 2009 From the 13th to the 20th of June, secondary students will have the opportunity to explore one of the most fascinating capitals of Europe: Madrid! It will be a week with vibrant cultural activities, sports, adventure and outdoor challenges.

Segovia Aquaduct, Madrid

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Here is a selection of the week’s highlights: • visit the main attractions of Madrid: Royal Palace, Retiro Park, Plaza Mayor • see Picasso’s Guernica at The Museum Reina Sofía

• guided tour of the Barnabeu Stadium • do Archery, Kayaking and Orientieering • trip to neighbouring town Segovia • visit the Parque de Atracciones • go to Faunia - a Wildlife Park The cost will be 1100 Euros maximum, and covers the flight, accommodation, food, and all the activities.

For more information, please contract Ms Kemp, Assistant Head of Secondary: jen.kemp@britishschool.ro

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Year Six Halloween Party enjoyed by all

4H does a spooky dance in the Halloween Room

The Year 6 Halloween Party was on the 31st of October, in the Parent’s Room. Lots of people came all dressed up. One of the most popular activities of the evening was wrapping Mr Jonathan Crispin-Moore up as a mummy! One of the best songs in Tatum’s opinion was ‘Time Warp.’ There was tons of food and I feel that the coconut macaroons were the greatest macaroons ever! We voted

Hannah and Zain having a balloon race in the scary room

Calista, Gurbani and Lea chopping for marshmellows

When we entered the dark room we were in for a surprise as the room had been transformed into a spooky dungeon. It was a great party as we got to play games and dance and in general have a lot of fun. We Rhys, 6D had to stick our hands into a gross mess to find candies. It was a bit spooky but we were really happy.

On Halloween Day at BSB some volunteer Louis, 4H parents made a special Halloween room.

for best costumes and Harry won for the boys and Anna took the gold for the girls.

The disco would not have been a success without the help of Ms Henderson and Ms Rouf. A big thank you for all your help!

Piano plays a key role in the BSB Music Curriculum Everyone can enjoy making music and listening to it. Music allows people to express their feelings- happy , sad ,playful, or solemn.

Others play just for pleasure in their spare time. Best of all, music brings people together- at classical, pop and rock concerts, in the concert hall, or playing with friends.

Francois, Year 4

Mr Mulvany always ready to lend a helping hand

Why play the piano or keyboard?

The piano can be used in many different ways. People can play keyboards in a pop band. Others play jazz piano. The piano can be a solo instrument, or it can accompany singers or other players. People who can play the piano may also learn to play similar instruments such as the organ, harpsichord, or synthesizer.

Edoardo, Alex, Senia, Andreea, Alexandra, Maria, Year 10

Ever since early humans made simple instruments from pieces of wood or bone, people have loved to make musical noises.

Music is a universal language.

All the students BSB learn to play basic keyboard and the necessary musical Ana, Year 7 notation. We have after school clubs for People learn to play musical instruments for piano and the students can currently study different reasons. Some want to learn a new Grade 1 and 2 for the Associated Board of skill. Some want to join with other players. A the Royal School of Music. few people are able to make a living from Mr Des Mulvany playing or teaching.

Head of Music

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The BSB Shoe Box Appeal 2008

A BSB shoe box in very happy hands

A BSB shoe box being delivered by Santa

who eventually received our gifts. This idea emerged when I approached Irina Zaharia of the Children’s Farm and offered to support her with our BSB shoe box appeal. She told me that her childrenhad only recently written letters with their Christmas wishes to Santa and so she passed the information on to me.

Thus I was able to give out to our pupils the name, age and Christmas wish of a girl or boy for whom they chose to make a shoe box. Little did the orphan children know that many of their wishes would come true thanks to our donors from BSB who proved to be very generous little Santas. Some of our pupils even asked if they could make shoe boxes for more than one child and went to great lengths to make their Romanian friends truly happy with their gifts.

Sometimes they attached a personal Christmas wish in English or Romanian.

Santa´s shoe box helpers Year 7 students with some of their presents under the tree

Our Shoe Box Appeal has been a tremendous success this year and we received more than the 120 shoe boxes we were hoping for. We also collected many useful items for toddlers such as toys, clothes and shoes. Our special thanks go to Mr and Mrs Bonito for their generous donation of Cadbury chocolate.

Who are they for?

With all these gifts we have been able to support two charity organizations: Fundatia Inocenti, based in Bucharest and the Children’s Farm from Aricesti-Rahtivani, a

Year 7 students talking about their experience in assembly

village 60km north of Bucharest in the Prahova county.

Our presents have brought the spirit of Christmas to 90 needy boys and girls living in a children’s home and to another 15 children and 15 toddlers who have been hospitalized for a long time in the Pediatrics Section from the Hospital IOMC “Alfred Rusescu”.

Shoe Box Appeal with a personal touch The novelty of this year’s Shoe Box Appeal was that we were able to give out personalised information about the children

When the shoe boxes started coming in and piled up high under the large Christmas tree in Crawford House, the second challenge of the shoe box appeal started. We had to make sure that all the presents (especially those without an explicit recipient) matched the children on our lists, their ages and their approximate wishes. Ana, Usman, Mesar, Danial, Sabina, Andreea, Naomi, Natalie, Jennea, and Matthias from Year 7 worked hard to sort out the shoe boxes and get them ready for delivery. I am impressed by the empathy with which they prepared the shoe boxes and decided on the right recipient for each of them.

Ms. Dorothea Draser, Head of the BSB Charity Committee

Thank you BSB! On Wednesday, December 17th, Valentina Maghirescu of Fundatia Inocenti came to pick up all the toddler gifts and an additional 15 shoe boxes for older children. She expressed her gratitude in an email directed to me and Mrs Tracy Nolan, to whom we owe this contact:

Valentina collecting some of the BSB shoe boxes for the orphanage

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Dear Dorothea and Tracy, Happy 2009! On behalf of Fundatia Inocenti, I would like to say thank you for all your help and support!

When I came over to pick up Christmas

presents for our party, I was so impressed to see my car full with presents...I felt like Santa Claus! I really appreciate the fact that, thanks to you, some children had the chance to open a real Christmas box!

I wanted to express my gratitude to our wonderful volunteer and “ambassador”, Tracy Nolan. Also, I would like to thank the British School and all the children/adults involved in the “shoe box” project.

Best regards, Valentina

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The BSB Shoe Box Appeal 2008 The remaining 90 shoe boxes were for the Children’s Farm in Aricesti.

Since it is close to Bucharest, we decided to take them there ourselves and meet the children personally. On the last day of school, 18th December, Naomi, Usman, Danial, Andreea, Ana, Polen (Year 7), Alvaro BSB students outside braving the cool weather and Cristina (Year 11) joined Miss She then took us to the workshops where Rocío and myself on the trip.

the children learnt how to cut and carve wood. I thought this was quite interesting because I never really learnt that apart from in D.T. lessons where we made cars and boats with motors. There was another workshop, but for older, teenage children.

They made proper things that you could use in real life, such as wardrobes, drawers, ladders, etc. Some of the older orphans there made their living by making these Some of the presents given things for other people. After that she took us to the Tiger Shop were the children get to buy things for themselves. Tigers are the equivalent of Lei/Ron. The children earn these if they are good during the week (a bit like pocket money). Then, the bit we were waiting for, seeing the children! There were ten little houses. Seeing as there were around ninety orphans and ten dormitories, there were about eight to ten orphans in each one. The specific one we went to had ten children in it: four boys, six girls. All the children were very smiley and happy, they laughed a lot and sang a few songs for us.

There was one particular girl who had a very nice voice; she sang a solo for us.

Pelin, Cristina and friends with some children

BSB students in the Charity Farm Bakery

“At the Children’s Farm we visited one of the houses called Carolina. As we entered the place, the children immediately came up and shook hands with us. We entered a room and we sat around the table. The children were very polite and kind.

Our Trip to the Concordia Orphanage

from the orphanage

I had never been to an orphanage before. I didn’t know what to expect. I wasn’t sure about anything, I just guessed, but it was completely different to what I had expected.

One of the many ladies that ran the place showed us around. There were lots of cobbled paths leading to dormitories and halls. I couldn’t see any type of garden or playground, but the children that were playing outside together seemed to be having fun anyway. First, we went to the bakery and we met the chefs there. The kitchen was clean and tidy, and the chefs working there gave us some type of bread ring that the children made - yum!

Concordia students waiting to receive their presents

One of the girls sang a very nice Romanian song and she had a great voice. Afterwards the children showed us their rooms. They had made Christmas decorations and hung them on the ceiling. There were 5 girls sleeping in 4 beds. I thought then that life was unfair.”

Polen, Year 7

Bus trip to the Farm

Then we went to their big assembly/P.E. hall to watch the children’s Christmas play. I didn’t understand any of it of course; but that didn’t matter because the children were obviously enjoying themselves and had a really good time! I really enjoyed it there and really hope that the orphans enjoyed the presents we gave them and had a nice Christmas.

BSB students enjoyed a play put on by the orphanage

“The trip was a success and everyone got their present. In my opinion, the trip was a great chance to make some new friends.”

Andreea, Year 7 Ms Dorothea Draser, Charity Committee

Naomi, Year 7

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‘A Christmas Cracker’ ‘A Christmas Cracker’ was performed by a very excited group of Creche, Preschool and Reception children at our Gafencu site.

The many rehearsals and all the hard work paid off on the day as all the children were clearly having fun dressing up and performing to a room full of smiling adults with cameras in hand. The story was told by seven different Christmas crackers who all went ‘BANG!’ and then told us something that they thought Christmas was about e.g. snow, stars, food, presents, Santa and mistletoe, until finally the seventh cracker reminds us that Christmas Day is Jesus’ birthday. Each cracker also gave the children an opportunity to sing a song or recite a poem. The show finished with the Creche children performing ‘Santa’s on his way’ with tinkling bells… that was all Santa needed to decide to pay Gafencu a visit and surprise the children.

A busy night at the inn Were you there? Or did you unfortunately miss the event of the year?

The Preschool nativity scene

The children of Foundation Stage performed with a resounding flourish their Christmas show.

The show was written and produced by the staff of Foundation, which was an event in its self!

We wanted the show to reflect the development and progress that the children had made in this first term of the year, for many children it has been their first term at school. So the obvious theme was a journey.

The children sang songs that they were familiar with. All the children regardless of home language knew “Wheels on a bus”. A good starting point!

The snow boys and girls in our production

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We then began a journey, which reflected all commitments of the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum, the way children and staff

worked and supported each other, the way the children were involved in speaking and listening, the way children learnt something of another culture through the nativity story, and lastly but not least, singing a song about Santa Claus!

Thank you to the primary children as they had to take their lunches in a different room.

Thank you also to the cleaners, who seemed to have to continually follow the snowmen around picking up pieces of “snow”.

And of course, a huge thank you to the parents who attended and supported the children in their performances! The children are very young and could so easily have been put off by a disorganized audience. The audience , however, was very sensitive, providing a fantastic support, and as the snow continued to fall, it became obvious to all in the hall that the children, parents and staff were all working together as a team.

Mrs Kath Homer Pre-school Teacher

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Primary School Handwriting Competition In Term 1, The Primary School had its annual Handwriting Competition. All the children wrote in their best hand writing and the teachers then selected the best examples from each year.

Well done to all the children for producing such neat and careful work for the Primary Handwriting Competition. All the children made a wonderful effort to form their letters correctly, join their writing and develop an individual style. Special congratulations to the winning students listed below.

6D 6U 5B 5T 4K 4H 3L 3P Y2 Y2 Y1 Y1

Tatum Rouf Johann Dascalescu Lucie Skopkova Bianca Lucini Ana-Maria Gogoasca Tudor Popescu Hithu Kadam Clara Radu Erin Petrescu Irini Georgakopoulos Claudia Perez Cristina Dima

overall winner runner up overall winner runner up overall winner runner up overall winner runner up overall winner runner up overall winner runner up

Jarod 5B ▲

What did you do over the Christmas Holiday?

For his Christmas break, Antoine, 4K, went back home to Belgium with his family and stayed with his grandfather. He comes from Antwerpen, located on the right bank of the river Scheldt.

Antoine, 4K

Did you know that the city of Antwerpen got its name from a legend involving a mythical giant called Antigoon, who lived near the river Scheldt. He exacted a toll from those crossing the river, and for those who refused, he severed one of their hands and threw it into the river. Eventually, the giant was slain by a young hero named Brabo, who cut off the giant’s own hand and flung it into the river. Hence the name Antwerpen, from Dutch hand werpen-wearpan (= to throw).

He tells me that Antwerpen is the most important city in Flanders- maybe because it’s the world diamond centre? He also told me that his favourite day in the holiday was New Year’s Eve, but that his favourite part of his holiday was playing on the DS. His favourite present was the Kung Fu Panda DS game.

The British School of Bucharest Magazine

Elena, 4K

Veronika, 3L

For my holiday I went to France to visit my family. We also stayed in the Carpathian Mountains, in a lovely cottage in Azuga, where we went skiing every day and sometimes we went skating. One of the things I liked most was returning to our hotel each afternoon and having a sauna and Jacuzzi. It was great! Here is a picture of me in the Jacuzzi. It was a lot of fun!

Veronika, 3L

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Our Planet Needs You I am sure you are familiar with terms like global warming and recycling; but what do they mean for us? Bucharest is not the easiest city to keep green! It is not so simple to decide to walk or use public transport to get to work and school; it is not as easy to recycle effectively as it can be in other towns where recycling bins are provided for each house! Does this mean we can just ignore these issues? Are they really that important to us?

At BSB we take our planet seriously. We are keen that all children are taught not only how to make full use of available local resources, but also to be careful and ensure that others can benefit from them in the future. There are some key ways in which we seek to do this.

Geography encourages students to ‘Think Green’ All subjects are important for children to study, however we believe that if we are to provide the best for the future of your children we cannot neglect teaching about

how to preserve what resources we have left. All members of staff are keen to train children within geography lessons on the need to ‘think green’. This issue appears in many of the geography topics we cover in the extensive curriculum we provide. In Year 1, for example, children learn about how to make our local area a better and safer place. In Year 3, weather is studied; including how human influence has the potential to harm or improve the climate in which we live. In Year 5, the importance of water is closely examined and children are encouraged to think about how they can minimise waste of water and ensure minimal pollution to our world’s natural water supplies. In Secondary all these issues are taken further still and the students are encouraged to examine and adapt their own actions to make a positive difference.

ECO Committee!

The ECO committee at BSB is committed to making the school a ‘greener’ place to learn. We are keen to educate the children

in a variety of ways in which they can make a difference to our ecological world, and enthuse them to ‘think green’ outside of their school experience. We have already organised a superb ECO Christmas Tree Decorating competition across the school that encouraged all pupils to think about using bio-degradable materials and recycling ‘waste’ to create an attractive, festive tree. In the near future we will also be organising other challenges and sharing other ideas that promote the importance of ‘green’ within the school!

“In December each class chose a tree for the Christmas Tree Decorating Contest, which was organized by the Eco Committee. Each class chose their own tree to decorate and put recycled or environmentally friendly decorations on their tree. The Eco Committee judged the trees based on how they looked and what materials were used. In KS2, Year 5B had the winning tree, so they received a small, potted tree that they have to take care of until another competition begins.”

Ege, 6U

Eco Christmas Tree Decorating Competition How can you help at home?

Year 7’s winning tree

The Criteria: 1. No harm to the tree!

2. Completely biodegradable.

3. Aesthetically pleasing 4. Recycled material

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You too can help to educate your children as to the need to care for our planet.

Perhaps you can consider ways to save energy and water at home or ways to reduce pollution by sharing lifts to school and work. Encourage your children to research on the internet as to where you can take recyclable waste. There are other practical ways that you can help: the staff at BSB are always committed to using physical objects and reference materials in our children’s learning. Maybe you have tour guides at home that have been finished with - recycle them by sending them in to school - we would love to use them as a teaching aid!

There are many other items you may have that could be useful: (please send them in, clearly labelled ‘Primary Geography Co-ordinator’) • postcards • maps from other towns / countries • transport timetables • travel tickets • rock samples • newspaper articles

The future’s bright; the future’s GREEN!

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Charity action and Spanish lesson in one Does this sign look familiar?

María José Pérez Verdugo, mother of Claudia and Benjamin from our school, approached us on behalf of the Spanish owned charity organisation Remar for which these donations come in handy. She came with a colleague to pick them up on the last week before Christmas and met some secondary students who enquired about the initiatives run by Remar in Romania.

Ms Rocio, Eda and Andreea delivering the BSB clothes donated by parents

Surely you have seen it on the two green bins outside the Parents´ Room, where we have been collecting clothes, shoes and toys donations over the past 3 months.

We have received many useful things in good condition and were able to find a charity organisation that works with homeless children and adults through one of our parents.

Andreea and Eda who take Spanish for MFL with Miss Rocío had a chance to use their Spanish skills to communicate with the two guests who are native speakers of Spanish.

Ms Dorothea Draser

El mundo del español

The Secondary Assembly about Spanish speaking countries around the world On the 9th of December we, Sabina Y7, Eda Y7, Andreea Y7, Polen Y7, Alvaro Y11, and Suzana Y12 arranged an assembly about all the countries where Spanish is spoken around the world. We wanted to show people how useful and easy it is to learn Spanish. The first part was about the family of Latin languages like Italian, French, Spanish, Romanian and Portuguese.

While Sabina was a character who would rather stay at home and watch TV, Eda was the enthusiastic one who wanted to go everywhere.

The second part was a sketch about a Spanish family trying to decide where to go on holiday. La madre and el padre (alias Suzana and Alvaro) suggested various Spanish speaking countries, but the four daughters kept arguing about their best holiday destination.

The last part of the assembly was a house team competition: Arges, Mures, Olt and Danube had to write as many countries as they could remember from the slide show in the sketch. The winner was Arges… Well done everyone!

Also there was Polen who couldn’t decide where to go. Last but not least there was Andreea who wanted to go to Spain ONLY. The final decision was to stay home.

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Andreea and Eda Year 7

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Healthy Schools Week 24Th November – 28Th November Healthy Schools week found Pipera Foundation stage making a Giant Fruit Salad! Children from each of the five classes brought in some fruit to share and throughout the day on Thursday the children took turns cutting up fruit, with support, to add to the salad. Of course before any cutting took place each of the classes discussed why it was so important to wash hands, especially at this time of year when germs could be everywhere.

youtube.com search and you too will be able to sing and learn about dental care for yourself.

Along side the visiting dentist, House matches and the PE Primary Assembly were also prominent features of the week.

we had bench ball matches between the House Teams. They were really fun!

Rhys, 6D

4H’s Assembly This year 4H’s assembly went very well.

Since it was Healthy School’s week 4H performed skits about healthy living. We started with a ‘get fit’ scene where we got everybody up moving and exercising. Next we had 3 students pretend to be doctors, who then introduced a system where you can score your meals.

Oscar hanging his healthy oath on the Tree of Life

Arish is peeling an orange and Oskar a banana

This term another Healthy Schools Week is being planned for both Primary and Secondary.

Furthermore the school council headed by the very responsible Alex Prodan, Yr 12 have also acquired a juicer! Their plan is to sell healthy freshly squeezed fruit juices to raise money for further school council Ms Deanna Beggs events! Good luck guys! Any students who are willing to help out with this should ask Alex Prodan, Mr Ellis or Mr Hamacher for further details.

When all was said and done there was plenty of fruit salad to go around. To quote one of the Reception children ‘This fruit salad is yum, yum, yummy!’

Ms Kemp, Healthy Schools Committee

Secondary Students helping the Primary to warm-up

They used a display board which can still be used in the dining hall. Next… we all visited a dentist, and we taught everyone a song about brushing your teeth!

Healthy Schools Week It was Healthy Schools week a couple of weeks ago and we focused on three goals, keeping fit, eating well and brushing our teeth. It all started in an assembly on Mr O’Brien awards the Benchball Trophy to Olt! Monday with Ms. Marianna and the BSB dance troupe, who demonstrated active Healthy Schools Week was a very living with some nifty dance moves. Then, successful event for both Primary and we all had check-ups with a dentist and Secondary. A visiting dentist gave our pupils a brief analysis of their teeth to date some of us got some bad news. 4H also held an exciting and interactive assembly, and both Healthy School Coordinators for where they introduced the ‘Tree of Life’, Primary and Secondary followed this up which we stuck our healthy living oaths on. with supporting assemblies about dental hygiene and dental care. Secondary pupils For lots of people during the week this were given a challenge of learning a song in meant a big change in lifestyle. their assembly to gain house points for the Some people decided not to play as much house. on the computer and others decided to eat more fruit and vegetables. But all of these Olt sang the most convincing rendition to take the maximum points! To hear the song things have something in common, they all keep you healthy! Lastly, during the week in full type “My Shiny Teeth” into a

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Tudor gets a check-up with the dentist

At the end of the assembly everyone gave out their health living oaths and hung it on the tree of life, which is kept in the lunch room, so all the students from BSB can write their own and hang it on the tree. One good thing about our assembly was that the audience did not get bored because we involved them and let them participate.

Gurbani, 4H

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Physical Education In the Senior sector of school Year 8 and 9’s have also been concentrating on their hockey skill level at the same time as Key Stage 4 and 5 have seriously started working for their IGCSE PE which they will hopefully complete this year.

IGCSE PE candidates hard at work!

The Physical Education department has had another successful term. Swimming has been the main focus for the Year 6’s and 7’s while Year 3’s and Year 4’s have been working on their hockey skills with a brief introduction of some tag rugby by Mr O’Brien to give a little insight into what is in store for the future.

This terms area of activity is Health Related Fitness, lessons will be taught mostly inside to accommodate for our minus temperatures! The knowledge of Health and Fitness in PE is very important especially if pupils are considering the IGCSE on offer at school as they progress into Secondary.

Pupils will be looking at the importance of warming up and stretching, a variety of components of general fitness such as cardiovascular fitness, muscular strength, muscular endurance and flexibility and also looking at specific fitness performing tests relating to agility, reaction time, co-ordination, power, speed and balance.

The pupils will then be able to relate this knowledge to the units of work they have completed and the units of work to come.

Ms Kemp and Mr O’Brien BSB Physical Education Department

Secondary School Fixture Reports And Results After a meeting with the Bucharest International Schools on the 3rd December 2008 held at BSB to discuss PE fixtures and the creation of links with our neighbouring schools we are pleased the say that more fixtures are planned for the rest of year.

The first on the agenda is a Swimming Gala to be hosted by the French School at the end of January. Further information will follow.

Boys basketball players. However they warm-up lay-ups began to add up they took bounced back from that with a very confidence from this. Their defending convincing win at ISB playing, possibly throughout the game was superb. their favoured activity, football. The final score was BSB 3 - ISB 2! Well done boys you deserved the win. Mr Murchison was particularly impressed with Flavius Stupcanu, Yr 11 who scored a hat-trick and Mahmoud Chehab, Yr 11 who was impressive in goal. Excellent performances all round.

Senior Girls Basketball Team 2009

The victorious Senior Boys Football

In addition links have been made with local schools for more friendly fixtures and tournaments! Again more information will follow especially for Key Stage 3 who are eagerly awaiting their first and well deserved fixtures of the year. You will not have to wait too long! Keep working hard.

The term started off a little shaky after a defeat at the hands of ISB for our Senior

Alexandra Prodan, Yr 10 was particularly outstanding. She read the opposition well and was very quick to track back when she was out of position to defend attacking shots. Baskets were mainly scored by Susana Peseiro, Yr 12, Andreea Prasacu, Yr Nour Year 12 shielding the ball, Andrea Yr 11 calling 10 and Maria Lemne, Yr 10. In addition, there were also solid performances from for the pass Senia Menadi, Yr 10 and Nour Chehab, Yr On the same day the Senior Girls were also 12. When the final whistle went the girls on top form with a very convincing win over were so involved in the game they didn’t the ISB Senior Girls Basketball team. This even realize they had won! I was very was the first time the girls had played proud of them. They continue to impress together against another school. They me with their outstanding effort. were very nervous when we arrived when Ms Kemp they saw the size of their opponents who Head of Physical Education appeared very organised but once their

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House Competitions Primary Inter School Football Matches

Alex preparing to score for Mures

Olt get themseves into scoring position

Good pressure from the Year 6 boys Basil, Andrei and Cezar

On Wednesday 5th November last term the Primary School played two football matches away to ISB. This was the first fixture in a long time and the teams were eager to prove themselves on the field. First up were the Years 3s and 4s with Alex Gogos from 4K acting as Captain. The boys, under difficult conditions from a noisy partisan crowd, soon found their feet and it was not long before they scored the first of their 9 unanswered goals. Although everyone in the team played exceptionally well a special mention must go to Patrick Reynolds, again from 4K, who scored so many goals I gave up counting. With the noise dying down it was the turn of the Year 5 and 6 boys and they did not disappoint with their enthusiasm for the game. Although the match was high on skill and entertainment unfortunately the boys lost 1 – 0 with Basil Chemais from 6U being unlucky in having his goal disallowed. However, the boys stuck to their tasks and, having several chances to score an equalizer, played with great team work to the end. A big well done to all the pupils involved and we know look forward to playing the return match later on this year at BSB.

Results: Primary Tournament:

Secondary Tournament:

Mures Olt Danube Arges

Danube Mures Arges Olt

27 25 25 22

15 13 11 9

A thanks also goes out to Mr Murchison and Mr Perrett for helping out with the refereeing and to Mr Pantella for running the scoreboard. We look forward to seeing KS 3 and 4 later this term for their second tournament.

Primary Benchball

Secondary School Basketball 3v3

The Primary pupils also had their own House tournament that followed the same format as their older counterparts and this time it was the turn of that old British classic – benchball.

Each year group had its own separate tournament with Years 5 and 6 playing one day and Years 3 and 4 the next. Again a big well done to all of the students for not only showing such great enthusiasm but for many of the skills that were on display.

A special bravo must go to the Years 5 and 6 pupils who were unlucky enough to play in probably the worst weather conditions of the whole term, I know that it was wet and cold but it was good to see you striving under such dire conditions.

It was decided that last term’s Secondary House Competition would be turned into a tournament that could be played in one afternoon. In the end there were two round robin tournaments, Years 7, 8 and 9 in one and Years 9-12 playing in the other. Both tournaments were run side by side with each House playing against the other three.

Three points were awarded for winning, 2 points for drawing and a consolation point for losing.

As for the winners, first there was the Year 5 and 6 competition and congratulations to Mures and Arges for drawing in first place. Again congratulations to Mures for winning the Years 3 and 4 tournament.

When the results of both tournaments were put together Mures came out on top as the overall KS 2 House champions for the first term. The PE Department also looks forward to seeing you later on this term for the second installment.

This term in House Teams we have continued with our House Team competitions and alternated between Football and Bench Ball. We also started a new system where Years 3 and 4 compete against each other and Years 5 and 6

compete against each other. This has made all of the games a bit more evenly matched and exciting. Also designed and created House Team Shields with all of our pictures and words that describe our team like, hard working, honest, strong, and fair.

House Competition Events 4Ks Alex scores the frst goal against ISB

It was evident from the start that our Secondary students were going all out in order to claim the trophy for their house and it was pleasing to see the effort and enthusiasm they put in all afternoon.

However, in the end the eventual winner was uncovered when the results of the two tournaments were added together, congratulations to Danube for being the year’s first sports champions

Primary House Teams

Harry and Egor helping Mures to make their House Shield

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Idan 6U

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Secondary House Captain Reports Arges Firstly, I want to wish Susana, our Vice House Captain, all the best in Portugal. You will be sadly missed. I also want to wish Luoisa, Year 9 well I her new position as Vice Captain. Arges started the year well, winning the Language Day Competition, some of the DT day games, the Spanish Quiz, and we were second at the Tooth Dance Marathon, which held us in top position.

However, as the year

passed we seemed to run out of steam, and are now in 3rd place. In spite of slipping back, I would still like to thank some people who gave their all to get house points: Usman in year 7 and Luisa in year 9. A new year has started and I wish you the best- let’s shake things up a bit and make our way back up to the top. GO ARGES!!!

The first term has been both very educational and fun.

Term 1 brought a mixture of success and unfortunately disappointment. In the Language Day Competition, though not winning, Olt still won 3 prizes!! Then a few weeks before the end of term we had an Inter House basketball competition in which all of the students

took part, which was very exciting for all involved, and although Olt came last, we still managed to collect 9 pts, and so well done to those who took part. It is only the start of Term 2, and so there is a long way to go still, so come Olt, let’s go. GO OLT!!!

This term we have all worked very hard and as a result were placed first at the end of Term 1- so congratulations Danube on a job well done. We performed well in the Language Day Competition, and Spanish Assembly and although we didn’t come first we did well and everyone enjoyed themselves. We did however win the

Secondary School House Tournamanet and so well done to everyone for their big effort.I hope you all enjoyed the non-uniform day. Good luck collect house points this term. I feel confident that we can win again.

I big congratulations to everyone in Mures for the great effort and support over the past term because we are in the lead by over 100 points. I would like to particularly thank Alex, Edoardo, and Senia from Year 10 for all their effort getting house points. And to all the other Mures

members, keep up the good work. Danube won the Term 1 prize, and so this time let’s make sure it’s Mures.

Andreea, Arges House Captain

Olt

Vanessa, Olt Vice Captain

Danube

Polen, Danube House Captain

Mures

Secondary House Competition Update

Denis, Mures House Captain

Secondary School House Points Chart

It has been a busy couple of weeks and the House Point scores are looking impressive. Danube are still leading the competition after gaining lots more house points throughout the term. However, in the last few weeks Mures have been working hard to catch up with Arges and Olt and are slowly closing the gap.

Denis, Mures House Captain, receiving the Weekly House trophy for the first week of Term 2

It is clear though now as we approach the half way mark that Murs, Olt and Arges are going to have to work very hard to turn things around as Danube seem to be running away with the competition. So well done Danube! I am sure there will be more twists and turns in the house point saga in the following months.

Watch this space!

Mr Pantella House Competition Committee

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Key Stage 1 Christmas Production Years 1 and 2 put on a great show for their Christmas Production. It was called The Fairyland Nativity Show.

It was an all singing, all acting show with a big bang at the end (thank you to Mr Harrison for the poppers)!

The children worked so hard and made all their teachers very proud. Year 1 learnt all their songs and performed a dance. Year 2 sang songs and many of the children performed all of their lines, without any prompts from the teachers! Bravo!

A special thank you to Mrs Donaldson for her help with the music and of course to the teachers and TA’s for their hard work. Thank you to you all for making the performance such a success.

Ms Lindsey Banks

Secondary School Music Recital and Poetry Reading The BSB Winter production officially got under way with hosts Jennea, Alizee, and Shani offering a warm welcome to the many attending parents and guests. The first act of the night, was ‘God Bless ye Merry Gentlemen’ performed with a fine touch on flute by Bethan, Year 9. This was followed up by a selection of poems and popular Christmas carols performed by a number of Key Stage 3 and 4 students. Ayesha, Mihnea, and May read the poem ‘St. Stephen was a Clerk’, Eda, Naomiu and Polen read ‘Christmas Bells’, and Alex Furnica offered up a heart felt rendition of ‘The Night Before Christmas’. It was a wonderful start to the evening complete with all the old time Christmas carol classics, such as ‘Christmas Bells’ and ‘Silent Night’, led by our very own music maestro, Mr Mulvaney. Special thanks go out to May, Year 9, who saved the day by standing in at the last minute for a late arrival, and to Bethan, for both her performance on flute, and her reading of her poem ‘Bells’.

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Bethan performing a flute solo

Guest appearance by Frank Sinatra

Keystage 3 & 4 students singing ’Silent Night’

Secondary students host the evening

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Your Feet Are Too Big This year’s Key Stage 2 Winter Production was an example of how quickly things can be achieved when a team works together. We had less than three weeks at our disposal, but the prospect of the whole Key Stage performing on a stage in a theatre was an immense motivation and the children were absolutely wonderful at learning their lines in record time; those of them playing the main parts had a double task: they had to learn the lyrics of the songs as well. The teachers worked together to stick to the tight timetable, and everyone had a precise task, regarding props, costumes and make up.

The text was the best possible choice – written by Mark and Helen Johnson, “Cinderella and Rockerfella” is a contemporary version of Cinderella’s story, told in panto style, and accompanied by 10 wonderful songs. One of the tunes was particularly memorable: ‘Your Feet Are Too

Big’, which was sung to Johann Strauss’ ‘The Blue Danube’. Before we knew it, everyone was singing – ‘Your feet are too big, too big, too big! You have to admit, you must admit!’

The final rehearsals and the presentation took place at “Tandarica” Theatre, one of Bucharest children’s theatres. Just as it happened at, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, the costumes, the lights, the makeup and the magic of the stage made all the difference. The performance was very much enjoyed by all who attended This is what some of the students had to say about the night: “The night of the performance was excellent but I was so nervous I wanted my solo part to end.” (Maria, 5B) “The rehearsals were very challenging. We had an incredibly short time for that kind of

thing. I’m happy everything went well. The show made me very nervous, my tummy kept rumbling.” (Suparnan, 5B) “The rehearsals went really really well. On the night I was really nervous. I think everyone enjoyed it. It was great.“ (Rhys, 6D) “My role was a pig. I said my line loud and clear.” (Elad, 3P) “The rehearsals were very interesting, but I didn’t like the backstage. My role was a hiphop dancer. On the night I was scared, but it ran away when we sang “Tonight’s the Night”.

(Yasemin, 5T) “The rehearsals were a bit boring to start with but by the end, they became more fun. On the night I was a bit nervous and after the play I was relieved that I had done it.” (Oscar, 4H) Ms Doina Antohi, Drama Teacher

Rhys as Rocky Prince Charming, holding the shoe

Roberto as Monsieur Bunn le Baker and The Bakers

Teaser the Dog and Naughty Kitty

Basil and Filippo as The Ugly Sisters

Bianca, Mena and Sarah (Y4 & Y5) as The Dancers

Egor as Dan Deeny and his entourage

Maria as The Fairy Godmother

Key Stage 2 having a blast singing the final song

Idan as Buttons

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DT Days Two Dizzying Days Of Design & Technology

Students building a Bivouac

On November 11th and 12th BSB held its Design & Technology Days, in which Secondary students and teachers, along with some extremely talented and helpful parents, participated in all sorts of activities in the realm of Design. Design Technology focuses on three main areas: Food , Textiles and Resistant Materials; the two day workshop was timetabled to ensure all students had a hands on experience in each area, along with a trip out to the open air museum to experience the idea of design within the environment.

BSB Students visit the Village Museum On the 11th of November the secondary school students had an interesting trip to the Village Museum. The museum exhibited a diverse range houses used in different parts of Romania throughout history. Upon arrival at the museum, the students were split into four different groups, with each group being supervised by a teacher. Each student was required to complete all the questions by searching for information around the museum. The houses were all different and were all built with natural resources. They had different characteristics because theywere adapted to their different environments and environmental conditions, including varying weather patterns and temperature. For example, a steep roof was used in zones where it rained a lot, so that the water could flow down faster.

Through DT the students had the chance to explore various cultures through cooking from sushi to Lebanese cuisine and produced three display boards full of wonderful wire drawing. Activities ranged from a specialized field trip to creating Peet’s Perfect Pizza with Mr Peet, of course.

Though the students were off their normal timetable, they were enrolled in two vigorous days of learning activities. Other activities included: wire construction with Mrs Lavery; string art and cooking with Mr Murchison; T-shirt and graphic design with Mr Pantella!

On the first day Group 2B had its cooking/ baking lessons with Mr Peet, who taught us how to make pizza and chocolate cupcakes.

First off we started with the pizza. We got into groups of two, and decided what kind of pizza we wanted to make. Andreea and I made Hawaiian pizza while the rest of the groups’ selections ranged from simple margarita to more complex kinds. Mr Peet taught us how to cut the ingredients, how to make the dough, and how to make it look presentable.

Suzana, Y 12 and Maria, Year 10 having fun in the kitchen

A trip to the Village Museum Yr 7 and Yr 12 students Mihea, Year 9, showing us his wire rabbit

Cooking with Mr Peet

It was a great trip but by around 12 o’clock we had to stop at a café because every one was freezing! This trip was worthwhile because everyone learned a bit of something about Romanian history.

While we were waiting for the pizza to cook we started on the cupcakes. For the cupcakes we had to get the ingredients together and start making the batter.

Some groups had a hard time measuring the ingredients while the groups that were waiting were “tasting” the mix (rather than eating it). After making the mix and putting the tray into the oven came the hardest part: waiting for the cupcakes to bake.

Edoardo, Year 10

Year 7 students proudly displaying their pizzas

Yr 10 teamwork at the Village Museum!

While waiting for the cupcakes to bake we had to clean up, and boy was there a big mess to clean up and a lot of dishes to wash. But we finished and our reward was eating the pizza and chocolate cupcakes.

All in all, we had a lot of fun cooking and baking and we hope to do it again soon!

Maria, Year 10

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Spanakopita and Curry

Senia Yr 10, Isabella Yr 11, and Alvaro Yr 11, cooking Indian curry

The New DT Cooking Room

Students recording their recipes with care

Sahir and Sacha clealy enjoying themselves in the kitchen

On the second DT Day, Wed 12th November, we had two periods of Mediterranean cooking sessions. We were split into two groups: Sabyna, Mesar, Sacha, Sahir, Usman and I were to learn Greek cooking while the other group did Lebanese food.

spinach. The Buggasta is also a similar pie with puff pastry and cream filling. (And they both looked delicious eventually!). We were split into two groups, some of us doing the Spanakopita and some of us working on the Bougatsa. Mrs Elektra Grammatikoudi guided us through the steps and taught us a few tips. While we were cooking, each of us did a little job and retained it well for when it came for writing it all down. When we finally finished both dishes and put them in the oven, Mrs Elektra Grammatikoudi took out a book for us to read about Greek food and its specialties. I went through it and learnt that the Greek cuisine has a large variety of pies with different exotic fillings. She also explained to us the importance of olive oil

Mrs Elektra Grammatikoudi was there for the session as she had quite a lot of experience with Greek cuisine being Greek herself, and we were also assisted by Ms. Draser who surprisingly speaks Greek! There were two main traditional Greek recipes we were going to cook called: Spanakopita (as the main course) and Bougatsa (as the dessert).

Spanakopita is a type of spinach pie made of puff pastry filled with cottage cheese and

Mesar, Sabina, and May taking an active interest in Greek Cooking

in Mediterranean cooking. In our groups we then wrote down the recipes and methods.

Finally, we got to enjoy the food we made which I must say turned out to be divine, but a lot of hungry teachers kept coming in!

Overall I really enjoyed the lesson and found it extremely interesting just to know about Greek cuisine as I had no idea what it was like. And I also had a lot of fun making it and of course eating the Spanakopita and Bougatsa. So I am thankful to Mrs. Elektra Grammatikoudi and Ms. Draser for their impressive skills and patience, as it taught us a lot.

May, Year 9

Cooking Curry, Indian Style One of the highlights of DT Day was the Curry cooking session with Amarjit Sidhu, a professional chef at the Barka Saffron restaurant situated in downtown Bucharest, whoi was invited to school to share his tips and advice on cooking Indian cuisine. Key Stage 4/5 students listened carefully to his instructions and inside tips regarding

preparing the base for a traditional Indian curry, learning what spices to use and how much. The students particularly enjoyed the tasting session at the very end, as did many members of staff, who were extremely impressed with the students cooking. A Big thank you Mr Sidhu, we hope to see you again at the next DT Day. Ms Kemp

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The BSB Artisan Fair December 2008 The Artisan Fair, held on 12th December, was undeniably one of the highlights of this school year. As a social event it has been an outright success, providing parents, children, guests and staff with an opportunity to get together in a delightful ambiance imbibed with the spirit of the winter celebrations. The event was also successful in terms of fundraising and the outcome for our charity initiatives was highly satisfactory- the money raised was

donated to St Stelian’s’, one of the charity organisations we are supporting.

I would like to say a big thank you to The Parent Teacher Association (PTA) ladies for all their effort and hard work- they were definitely the driving force behind this event. Special thanks also to Cathryn Henderson, the head organiser, for her dedication and commitment to making this night an unforgettable event. The PTA

spent many coffee mornings organising the fair, filling the room with their contagious enthusiasm. They invested so much time working behind the scenes, ringing up guests, decorating the school, setting up stalls and making delicious mince pies and other goodies for the night- You all made this happen and we really appreciate that!

Ms Dorothea Draser, Charity Committee

Organising the Artisan fair, The Where, The What , The How, and the Who? in the reception hall was mesmerised following the announcement of the lucky winners of the 22 hampers.

The PTA started preparing for the Artisan Fair at the end of October, as soon as we had finished organising the Halloween activities.

Over 30 local artisans were contacted with a hope that maybe 50 % would accept our invitation. In the end well over 50% of the artisans contacted attended and so we were naturally delighted with the massive response. They sold traditional food, ceramics, jewellery, decorative items, etc., and helped to make the event the success it was- so I would like to say thank you for attending on behalf of the PTA.

To raise funds, we decided to organise a raffle with hampers being donated by each class. First each class had to agree on a theme for their hamper and then each child contributed an item related to that theme.

The class representatives then filled and wrapped the baskets ready to be raffled off.

The baskets looked fantastic and were a massive success thanks to the generosity of our parents and the hard work of our teachers and class reps.

Usman, Maria and Alexandra at the BSB Calendar and card stand

Louisa, May and Bethan selling tickets

Preschool C, Pipera, students with their class hamper

Father Christmas took time out of his busy schedule to visit the Artisan Fair

Maria and Senia, Year 10, keeping everyone in good spirits

Primary School Hall full with Artisan stands

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The Artisan Fair finished off with Mr Peet leading the raffle draw and the audience

It took a lot of organising and a lot of hard work, but it was a great and rewarding event. The musical recitals and singing from our BSB students made it into a festive occasion, so thank you to Mr Mulvany for organising that- we enjoyed the carols very much.

Cathryn Henderson, PTA

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Romanian handpainted Easter egg stand

The cheese stand was one of the more popular stands

Year 5T students with their class hamper

The BSB Choir

The Italian food and beverage stand was also very busy

Year 8 Students with their class Hamper

The official BSB Artisan Fair reporters Hi! We are the Artisan Fair reporters, Danial and Usman from Year 7. We want to give you an idea of what the Artisan Fair was like this year, so we interviewed three artisans, three guests, three teachers and three students. .

We really liked this job because we were like staff. To find out who we interviewed and what they said, visit the BSB website and click on the charity link.

Artisan Fair reporters

BSB Students receive certification from Oxford Language Program The Oxford Royal Academy summer course is a great course to attend. I was really impressed by how good the teachers were there and how much they had to teach us!

Ana and Alex proudly holding their Oxford course certificates

During our stay we had the chance to perform a play called “Macbeth” by Shakespeare, which was a lot of fun. We also had a graduation party, which I liked very much! Something else I liked was the Last year, Alex and I represented BSB there movie and snack night! We watched a movie and this year I hope there will be more! and ate ice-cream. We also went on several We were split in two classes. We usually had outings to explore and learn about various maths/science in the mornings, a short half locations close to and around Oxford- my an hour pause before history/geography / favourite outing was going ice-skating! drama next. Then later on we had different afternoon activities planned. Our planner It was a fun summer for us and as I said before, “I hope we will do it again this year!” and leader was a lady named Jessica unfortunately her second name escapes me But if you are planning to come, it would be for the moment! She was very fun and not at better for you to come with a lot of warm clothes because England can be very cold! all too strict.

Ana, 6D

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Masterpiece Reproductions The Foundation Stage held a creative workshop entitled ‘Masterpiece reproductions’. The children had a chance to paint their own version of ‘Vase with Irises’

by Vincent van Gogh under the guidance

Display of our students’ work

of artist and cartoonist M. Curelaru. An art studio was set up for this occasion where the young artists were able to create their masterpiece reproductions. The workshop was held in the run up to other activities

Children engaged in displaying their skills

scheduled to take place in 2009 for The European Year of Creativity and Innovation.

Mrs Priscilla Varban FS Creative Development Coordinator

Lots of fun exploring paint

Primary Art Competition Festivals of Fire and Light

Term 1 was a time of creativity in the art department as the Primary School held its annual Primary School Art Competition. The entries this year were of a very high standard, which made the job of judging particularly difficult. In end, however, decision had to be.

The winners and runners up this year are as follows:

Aniela, 2B Jackson, 1J Manuela, 6U Angela, 4K Sandra, 6D

Winner Key Stage 1 Runner up Key Stage 1 Winner Key Stage 2 Runner up Key Stage 2 Runner up Key Stage 2

Aniela, 2B

Jackson, KS1 Runner up

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Manuela, 6U

KS2 Runners up

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Art, Art, Art The Art Department has been a hive of creativity, with Key Stage 3, 4, and 5 all busily producing works of Art in their own right.

Year 7 have been exploring lettering, colour, symbols and pattern inspired by the book of kells and sharing their likes and dislikes in the process now their developing their own self portraits. Year 8 are getting a lit bit messy with their 3d project based on

Greek Pots whilst the Year 9’s having been studying perspective through Architecture and developing their architectural ideas into a print design with some fantastic results.

In the upper school the Year 10 and Year 12 GCSE students have been doing some lovely observational work on natural forms exploring and experimenting with lots or different materials and our one Year 11 student has been doing amazing work on Still Life and Cubism.

Its busy, busy ,busy but the pressure is building for Year 11 and Year 12 as their externally set assignment is coming soon and all course work needs to completed , so you will soon see the steam coming out of the Crawford building and you’ll know why.

Mrs Barbara Lavery, Head of Art

Natural Forms by Alexandra Yr 10

Ana Maria Yr 8 and her pot

Ana & Natalie Yr 7

Ayesha & Jasmina Yr 9

Shell by Andreea Yr 10

Yr 8 hard at work

Naomi & Jennea Yr 7

Daniel & Matthias Yr 7

Mr Ciaran McGowan

Head of Humanities (History and Geography) MrCiaran McGowan, the Head of Humanities, has been at the British School of Bucharest (BSB) since 2006. He was born on May 28th, 1977 in Derry, Northern Ireland and has 3 brothers and 2 sisters- he is the youngest (and apparently best looking). His hobbies include reading, going for long walks (aimlessly), and watching movies.

Mr Ciaran McGowan

His favourite sports are Football and Tennis (but not at the same time). He has lived and taught in many other countries, such as England, Egypt, Wales and the Ukraine (and wasn’t deported from any of them). He likes visiting unique historical places, such as museums and McDonalds. He likes Dogs and Dolphins (but not for dinner) but

does not have any pets because he doesn’t know where to buy Dolphins in Bucharest. He likes to watch comedy, action and dramatic movies.

The Dark Knight is one of his favourite movies and he says that one of his ambitions is to actually become Batman. He likes to read Non-Fiction and Travel books. His favourite food is Chicken Wings, his favourite colour black. While interviewing him he also confessed that in his childhood he used to play PS2 (brilliantly). His opinion about the school is that it is a wonderful mixture of international students who are a pleasure to teach. He thoroughly enjoys setting homework as well.

Nour, Year 8

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Winter Art At the end of Term 1, Key Stage 2 were given the challenge of creating some winter art.

Each year group was given a sense (sight, sound, taste, touch and smell) and had to make a piece of winter art focusing on that sense.

Mr Williams’ Winter Art Display focusing on the 5 senses

Year 4 was given taste, so we decided to draw a winter landscape and then decorate it using only things that you can eat.

Year 2 Winter Display

One of the beautiful Primary School Winter displays created

These pictures are of Year 2 students working on their display artwork ‘Touch’ for the Winter Display in the Primary building.

The children designed good and bad characters and had to then construct their figures using a range of materials.

The class discussed rough and sharp materials to represent the ‘bad’ characters and soft and smooth materials to represent the ‘good’ characters. The display is up in the primary building. This was part of 2B’s DT project for the term.

Well done!

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We used cinnamon sticks, bay leaves, coloured coconut shards, chocolate sprinkles, gummi-bears, sugar and crushed up biscuits. After we had made our piece, we gave it to Mr Williams who put it together with all the other sense art as a display. It looks great!

Tasos, 4K

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University Courses

Chess University

PE University, KS1

Chess University is a very good university because we learn new things relating to chess, like the castle move. The castle move is my favourite move. My favourite game was with Brian. My favourite thing about Chess University is simply that we do nothing but play chess. I liked Chess University because we learnt lots of new moves.

Fanni, 3L

Math Games

I really like PE University because I get to play lots of different games. My favourite is football.

Bram, 2B

I like to go in the hoola hoops where we practise jumping.

Alexander, 2B

I like the Maths Games University Course because it’s a lot of fun. We play many games with cards, dice, and numbers, but my favourite is clock games. I would like to do join the Maths Games University Course again next term.

Tae Min, 1H

I like to do everything. The best thing is the balancing!

Lena, 2B

Logical Thinking & Puzzle Solving

Chinese Calligraphy Chinese Calligraphy was fun because we could write words in Chinese script, which were composed of seven basic strokes. First we wrote in pencil, then in charcoal, and then we used black paint. We learned the characters for fire, tree, mountain, child, woman, volcano, heart and the numbers up to ten.

The easiest one to write was fire, which had four strokes, and the hardest was forest, which had twelve strokes. It felt free and relaxed when we were painting. The best thing about the course was trying to do one of the characters in our best script and Ms Barclay made a display of them.

Puppet Making Course

This, in my opinion, is the most interesting university there is. On this course we’ve learned about slicing and dicing in Sudouku, addition used in Kakaru, and the frustration you experience when you can’t solve word logic puzzles. I would highly recommend this university for the fun you have and the thinking going on. So I want to thank Mr Harrison for making this the best University Course in the whole school!

“My name is Aoife and I’m from Ireland. I like puppet making because it is a part of art and art is my favourite hobby, and we made lots of different kinds of puppets like finger puppets and hand puppets. It’s fun here at puppet club, so why don’t you try it?”

Aoife, 2W

Thomas, 5T

Sacha, 5B

University 3 Course Options Key Stage 1

Key Stage 2

• Learn to play the recorder • Cooking • Beginners Sewing and Cross Stitch • Spanish for Beginners • Origami • Football Skills • Design and Make your own book • Learn to play card games

• Improvisation Theatre • Survival Skills • Ballet • ‘Japan mania’ - An art course exploring Japanese art and culture • Blog University • Mysteries of Mars and Earth • Puppets and Puppetry • BSB Newsblast • Learn to play the Recorder

The British School of Bucharest Magazine

• BSB TV • Rowing • Codes and Code Breaking • Cartoons - The history of and how to make them • I.Q. Games • Planning a Children’s Party • Indian Arts and Culture • Cooking for Boys • Toys and Games made from everyday materials - an Art and Design based course.

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Primary School Maths Day Foundation Maths Day On Wednesday 19th November we celebrated Maths Day. At the Gafencu site we focused on size. We read various versions of the book “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” and learned about ‘big,’

Benjamin and Panayiotis painting the medium sized chair

‘medium’ and ‘small.’ The Crèche class made bowls in the three sizes, Preschool made chairs and Reception made beds.

The Pipera site focused on shape. They read “Pass the Parcel” by Annie Kubler and

Preschool Gafencu class doing a Three Bears sorting activity

Sue Baker and spent the afternoon doing a variety of activities involving 2D and 3D shape.

Painting with different shaped rollers and brushes

Mrs Gina Fourny, Foundation Mathematical Development Coordinator

Pattern printing

Key Stage 1 Mathematics Day Key Stage 1 had a great time on November 19th with their pirate themed Maths Day. The children all made pirate hats the day before and staff dressed up as BSB pirate crew! Years 1 and 2 were engaged in themed maths activities all day which included: 1H doing treasure map grids with Ms Banks

More grids

• Grid references on a pirate treasure map • Construction 3D shelters using shapes

• Breaking codes to get off the deserted island • Constructing 3D escape rafts whilst solving maths problems The children all had a wonderful time and thoroughly enjoyed the pirate theme! Thank you to teachers and pupils for making it such a memorable day.

Ms Lindsey Banks

Key Stage 2 Mathematics Day

Applying Maths skills

The Nature Room

Math’s Day was held on 16 November 2008. It was a fantastic day. Ms Barclay, the Primary Maths Coordinator, organised the day. All of the teachers participated by having an activity in their room that had something to do with Maths. The students were split into eight groups and rotated through each activity for twenty minutes each. The most popular

activity was Treasure, which was held by Miss Tyler. At the end of each activity the groups were given a clue to find a letter hidden in the room. Then, at the end of the day, they had to figure out what word the letters made. Each group also had to make a cheer representing their groups. The cheers were wonderful. Maths Day was an entertaining day.

Mariam, 6U

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Class Pages Creche Gafencu

Jason, Alex and Greta cooking outdoors

This half term we have had a wonderful time learning about food. The children enjoyed pretend-cooking in our Crèche restaurant, creating their own menus, finger painting with a variety of things such as ketchup, mustard and chocolate pudding, and making our own coloured pasta necklaces. We extended our learning by cooking some real cupcakes, and by making our own fruit salad during Healthy Schools Week, when we had the chance to smell and taste many different types of fruits such as

coconut, papaya, pineapple and mango. The children really had a lot of fun getting messy making pizza. We counted our olives and pieces of green peppers and each of us chose if we prefer our pizza with more or less cheese. The part we enjoyed the most, as you might expect, was actually eating our pizza after all the hard work of counting the ingredients.

Students at the Pipera Crèche have been taking an interest in all things creative recently; everything from singing, dancing to creating fantastic pieces of art! When the leaves were falling, our walks around the school grounds became our great leaf hunts. All the children were keen to collect as many as they could, and they used them to create pictures and dances

that involved swaying and swinging the leaves around. The highlight of Crèche’s Creativity so far though, has to be their roles as Stars in the Christmas production. For this they worked extremely hard on learning their songs, and even got involved in designing and making parts of their costumes. You can read more about the Foundation Production in this issue.

Mrs Priscilla Varban, Class Teacher

Creche Pipera

Mrs Claire O’Brien, Class teacher

Look at our hats!

Preschool C, Pipera

Reindeers getting ready for our play, but who forgot our antlers?

By now Christmas may seem a distant memory to many, but I will never forget sharing this past Christmas Countdown with my Preschool class as the children led us on a journey of excitement and discovery all around the Christmas theme.

We started with a small Christmas tree in the role play corner, but finished with a whole Christmas room. The children re-decorated the tree every day and created their own

decorations from paper, dough and lots of glitter. And the party mood never let up when the children discovered a CD of Christmas music- I can honestly say that hardly an hour passed without the sound of jingle bells coming out of our room. We danced, we sung, we laughed and we spent lots of time talking about Santa and what toys he might bring.

This half-tern at Preschool Gafencu we have enjoyed three learning journeys centred on the topics of Pumpkins, Celebrations, and Baking.

Learning about pumpkins started while we were cleaning out our garden and discovered some small green pumpkins. Some of the students explored the pumpkins very closely with tweezers and magnifying glasses. We read some books about pumpkins, designed our own pumpkins, and painted pumpkins. We also learned about the lifecycle of a pumpkin. For Baking we made cakes out of sand, shapes, and play dough. We also role-played making cakes and cookies in our class bakery. We baked and decorated our own cupcakes, and also made a gingerbread man, but he escaped from the oven and we had to follow clues and chase him around the school. When we finally found him,

we ate him! Our ‘Celebrations’ journey began when we had a Halloween costume party. We danced and collected candy treats. Some of the students made birthday cakes out of playdough and coloured sticks and sang “Happy Birthday” to each other. We made a list of things we need for a party, counted candles on cakes, and sorted party masks. The students role-played their own birthday party in the play house and then we had a whole class birthday party with cake, presents and decorations. Our learning continued as we tried foods from various cultural celebrations and had a Christmas party.

Mrs Helen Calthrop, Class teacher

Preschool Gafencu

Designing our own pumpkins

Making cupcakes

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It’s been a very busy time for everyone.

Mrs Gina Fourny, Class teacher

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Pre school H Pipera Cornflower, jelly and shaving foam: Where will it all lead?

Filipa investigating the green cornflower

This term Preschool H have had a wonderful, if not to say an extremely messy time exploring and investigating different textures and materials. Each child has been encouraged to follow their own individual line of investigation but common features have prevailed: we have used cornflower, shaving foam and even strawberry jelly, which was a difficult one not to sample! The children were encouraged to describe what they could feel and see.

Cornflower is particularly intriguing as if it is not moved around then it solidifies and then when moved becomes liquid again, it can be a very soothing and calming activity; not surprising many of the staff also enjoyed playing with it!

From these ingredients we have done work on colours. We have identified various colours and then extended this by adding ready mixed and powder paint to see the effect of mixing colours.

Sebastian at the paint easel

Introducing paint has encouraged the children to produce some fantastic patterns many comprising of lines and circles this is evidence of an early interest in handwriting, so we know what we are going to develop next term!

Alongside this, the children have all taken a keen interest in recognising their own name and the names of the other children, again an indication of where we go next term. This is the most rewarding part of working in the Foundation stage through play we follow the children’s interests and turn them into learning opportunities… even though some times we know not where we are being led!

Sometimes, I realize that I am returning your children to you in the messiest state possible, and so thank you for your understanding and be reassured that there is usually a direct correlation between the mess and the child’s learning!

Ms Kath Homer, Class teacher

Reception B In Reception B we had a fantastic Term 1 and have had a very busy start to Term 2. We have really learned not only to work together as classmates, but also to be a more independent at school. We are now Superstars at zipping and using the whiteboard on our own. We

were inspired as builders this term - perhaps because of our Bob the Builder performance!

The highlight of Term 1 came after our winter show, when we had some visitors to our class, including Reindeer, Mary, Kings, and a few others! We all had great fun.

Ms Deanna Beggs, Class teacher

Robert, Patrick and Marcel are very busy building a multi-storey parking garage for their cars.

Reception Gafencu

Victor and Luca deliver their party invitation to David.

In Reception Gafencu, one of our themes this Term was Celebrations, which saw the children planning, setting up and attending many birthday parties. It was all very professional as invitations were written, placed inside a hand crafted envelope and delivered. The home corner was decorated, food prepared, and birthday cakes were improvised from paper plates full of beans or different sized biscuit

tins. Many ‘presents’ were wrapped and lovingly given and received with great delight – even though everyone knew they were just empty boxes. It was a great time for all and I think the teachers and teaching assistants had as much fun as the children.

Ms Angela Harvey, Class Teacher Head of Foundation Stage

Reception H Fun and learning in Reception!

the properties of ice- how cold and hard it is, and how it melts in our hands because they are The children in Reception H love sharing warm; the children also experimented painting activities! On one particular occasion there were with ice, swirling them around in blobs of paint several groups making jigsaw puzzles together. to create lovely winter pictures! I think we all They shared pieces, took turns, and helped each enjoyed that. other out. Then just before the holidays, we explored Ms Jess Bremer, Sara, Matilde & Letitia.

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Class teacher

Visit the BSB website at www.britishschool.ro

Class 1H 1H have had a great winter term exploring and discovering all sort of exciting facts! In science we have been focussing our learning on making and understanding sound. We have made loud and quiet shakers and experimented blowing over different lengths of straws to make high and low pitched sounds. Some of the children were extremely creative and made their own panpipes - very tuneful! We have also enjoyed learning about toys our parents used to enjoy

when they were small and noting the similarities and differences with toys we like to play with today. 1H have also made the most of the changing weather to think about autumn and winter, the colours we can see and the textures and emotions we feel. We are glad spring is nearly on the way and are looking forward to discovering more amazing things about our world from the past and the present, both near and far away.

Mr Stuart Harrison, Class Teacher

Just look at our wonderful display!!

Class 1J

1J students hard at work on their map

In the second half of Term 1, 1J learnt about Toys from the Past. We looked at pictures of clockwork aeroplanes and tin soldiers, and compared them to modern day toys like Nintendos. It was really interesting to look at the differences in what they were made from and how they are used. Our assembly was about old toys and the children brought in their parents’ old toys from their childhood. Daniel M brought in a lovely rocking horse and Miriam brought in a charming musical box. In Art we used modroc (similar to Plaster of Paris) to make some

santas, snowmen, sleigh and winter cottages for a winter display and in Literacy we looked at how repetitive language can be used to tell a story, like ‘The Gigantic Turnip’ and ‘Crocodiles don’t brush their teeth’. We each wrote a part of a story so we could put all the pieces together to read out a whole class story. Claudia and Darius were particularly expressive with this. We had a lot of fun making pop-up Christmas cards with 3D trees and pop-up santas. We all look forward to some more exciting work this term.

2B performed a superb assembly on Chinese New Year on 15th January. Parents were invited and the disco room in the primary building was decorated with hand made lanterns, posters and pictures that 2B had made especially. We learnt some fascinating facts about the Chinese New Year which we incorporated into some of our Literacy lessons. Did you know that the drum beats in a dragon dance represent the beating heart of the dragon? 2B’s next parent assembly will be on June 4th so watch this space!

This term we will continue learning about famous people from the past in our History topic and in particular, we are investigating King Henry VIII. We were shocked to find out that King Henry beheaded some of his wives!!! Do you know how many wives he had?

In Maths we are learning about time. We learned about half past, quarter to and quarter past, and that’s all we know for now, but we want to learn more! In our lesson we played a game where we needed to put out our right hand as the minute hand and the left hand as the hour hand and

then we had to show the time with our bodies.

We also learnt about some of the famous clocks in the world. Do you know about Big Ben, the grand old clock in Westminster London? Our favourite time is 4 o’clock. What’s yours?

Ms Helen Jezeph, Class teacher

Class 2B

2B students on the new entance to Key Stage 1

As always 2B continue to learn and have fun and we look forward to sharing more fascinating facts with you next time.

Ms Lindsey Banks & 2B

Class 2W

Aoife & Anna, 2W

Learning about time

The British School of Bucharest Magazine

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Visit the BSB website at www.britishschool.ro

Year 3 Trip to the Natural History Museum

Year 3 Natural History Museum

On Wednesday 10th December Year 3 went to the Natural History Museum of Bucharest. First we all went on the bus, then we arrived at the museum. We were in pairs and when we went inside the museum we met a lady named Diana who was very kind. She was our guide and talked about all the animals. She told us about her favourite animal - the desert fox. We had to do some work in the museum. We also drew the outside of the museum. We walked through the whole museum and saw some real animals.

We saw snakes! We saw a reptile with a blue tongue! We saw a huge crab which lives near

Japan. There was a snake called a python and it was the longest snake in the museum. The museum had the biggest collection of butterflies in Romania. There was a huge Mastodon (an ancient Elephant) - the only whole Skelton in the world. Our guide told us how the world started and showed us a big volcano and a cave. We even saw some shrunken heads and mummies!

We saw how different civilisations dressed in the past, including a Samurai, who had no Kantana (Japanese sword) because it had been stolen. We had a great time at the museum.

more effective non-fiction writers. We have been using the schools new laptops to help with our research and report writing. In the first week we were set a challenge of researching a city. We needed to find out facts about our chosen city including famous people who were born there, interesting landmarks and important pieces of history. Some chosen cities included Moscow, Rio de Janeiro, Bangkok and Soweto. We also researched the British International schools that are located in these cities. Later this term

we will contact some Year 4 children in these schools and ask questions about what life and school is like for them. This is part of our on-going Geography unit; connecting ourselves with our world. Mr Kennedy has registered us all with Epals, an online website that hosts chats between students overseas. It’s all very exciting and we are rising to the challenge.

In Year 4 we have been learning about moving and growing. We started off by tracing our bodies and then labelling our skeletons.

We also learned about vertebrates and invertebrates. A vertebrate is an animal with a back bone/spine, and an invertebrate is an animal without a back bone/spine. Then, we did

an investigation to measure our length of jump verses foot length. The investigation was about if people with long feet or short feet could jump further. We found that people with smaller feet could jump further then people with bigger feet.

By the students in Year 3

4K Update It‘s been a busy few months in 4K. We are all working very hard. We had many highlights last term including our trip to the Natural History Museum, Christmas Production and Maths Day. This term we are already enjoying a very refreshing weekly dip at Atlantis during our PE lessons, learning about how to keep warm (especially good to know right now!) and studying the ancient civilisation of Egypt.

After several units focusing on narrative writing in the first term, we are now learning how to be

Mr Patrick Kennedy, Class teacher Key Stage 2 Coordinator

Year 4 Science

Daniel & Kayla, 4K

Mariana traces Hassan...

Year 4 Visit Museum On December 3rd Year 4 went on a class trip to the Antipa museum. First we saw some animal habitats including a volcano and the globe.

In the history section we saw Native Indians, Vikings and Mummies.

Our favourite section was the cave that everybody liked because it was the most real looking. When we were at the birds section we saw hawks, eagles and even kiwis.

The most exciting part was the live reptile section because the snakes were looking directly at us, but the chameleons were really freaky with their weird eyes.

We had a really good time.

A huge skeleton at the Museum of natural History

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Mr Kennedy and students heading to the Museum

Stefanos, 4H

Visit the BSB website at www.britishschool.ro

Self-Portraits by 5B Last term we went to the Art Studio and we painted portraits of ourselves. We had to look in the mirror first to see what we looked like and then we drew ourselves in pencil. It was hard to get eyes and mouth in the right places and not squash them together, but Ms Barclay showed us how to divide our face up and then put them in the right position. Then we had to paint,

which was hard. Sometimes when you paint, it ruins your picture! But everyone did their best to get the eye colour and hair colour just right.

We cut the portraits out and put them on the notice board in our room and they look great grouped together. It makes the classroom look interesting, we think. Ms Barclay says we are all very good looking.

By students in 5B

Lucie

Using laptops in Year 5T

Amy working on her graph

Year 5 have been enjoying using the laptops this term. We did loads of Science and Geography work on them. We made graphs, wrote myths, and made diagrams of the water cycle. The class really enjoyed making the graphs as we learnt how to change the lines, background and use other different effects.

When we made the water usage pie chart, we first had to keep a record of how much water we used at home over a 3 day period. Then we entered the data onto Microsoft Excel.

Afterwards we used the data handling program within Excel. The graph where we compared two cities in a wet area and dry area of the world was more difficult. We had to do a line graph, but had to have two lines to show the comparison.

It was really fun and the class plans on using the laptops more often.

Autumn term was a very busy one for Year 6D and this one will be no different, as in the first week back the students have already presented their historical research projects in class. This work was begun in school but had to be finished over the holidays. The projects demonstrated some excellent and varied presentation styles and also well-researched information about a different famous person which the pupils themselves were interested in. Our

assessments results in Literacy and Numeracy at the end of last term showed that the students are making good progress, not only in these subject areas, but also in the other curricular areas as well. I look forward to a very hard working and busy second term.

Ilinca, Year 5

Class 6D

6D with their history presentations

Mr Iain Davidson, Class teacher

6U Working Together

6U working together

One of the things we often do in 6U is work together in groups. We work in groups for Literacy, Maths and Science.

Christmas Tree Decorating Contest Y6U

It’s funny, because we might be working on different tasks where we come up with one idea.

Sometimes we are right and sometimes we are

The British School of Bucharest Magazine

wrong, but Miss Ullman helps us to talk through the task so we can figure out the answer.

Sometimes we choose who we want to be in our group, like everyone is thinking differently, but at the end when we were working on our science projects, and sometimes Miss Ullman puts us in groups, like in Maths and Literacy. Sometimes (when the weather is nice) for Science, we go outside to collect data for our Science projects.

For Maths there’s usually a lot of talking when we work on math starters and tasks for the day.

Literacy, on the other hand, is really quiet, because we are reading and writing about our books and then discussing them. I think that working in groups is the best part of the term.

Sandra, 6U

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Visit the BSB website at www.britishschool.ro

BSB Clubs

An important part of the School Curriculum Although Literacy, Numeracy, Maths, Science, English, and other core curriculum subjects are considered by many to be the most important parts of a Primary and Secondary education, there are other areas relating to sports, music, and a variety of character and team building activities that are also very important. It is also important to offer students an opportunity to have a say in their education. Important area where

this is possible is in regard to the BSB clubs that run each day from 3-4pm. In total, BSB offer a choice of over 50 clubs, ranging from language clubs, such as French, German, Spanish, Greek, and Romanian, to a variety of music and art clubs, including percussion, guitar, fine arts, jewellery making, etc., to the rather more athletic clubs, such as gymnastics, touch rugby, basketball, football and fencing. We are

also unique in Bucharest in that we are able to offer options such as the Duke of Edinburgh Award, which you can read about more in the Issue 3 of Newsblast along with a detailed student report on some of the clubs on offer.

Here are a few sample photos from last term’s clubs:

Sara, Gabi, and Matilde constructing robots in Foundation’s Puzzles and Constructions

Indoor Rowing

Shani, Year 8, and Isabel, Year 11, practicing their kicks in Karate

Working on a script in Drama

Greek Beginners

Jewellery Making

KS2 Science

German for Native Speakers

Monday Touch Rugby Ballet Percussion Romanian for native speakers Computers Games, Games, Games!

Fencing beginners Beginners Karate Puzzles and Construction Football Advanced French for non-native speakers Duke of Edinburgh/ International Award Computer Hardware Club

Y6 + KS3-5 KS1-Y3 all KS2 KS1 Rec-Y1 KS2 Beg KS1 KS3/4/5 KS2-5 KS3-5 Y6+KS3-5

Tuesday Science club Beginners keyboards French for native speakers Bruce Lee Fitness club

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KS2 KS2 KS2-5 Y5/6+KS3-5

Cooking Fine art Epals Art club Guitars Advanced karate Drama Aerobics

KS2 KS2 Y5 and Y6 KS1 Int Adv KS1 All

Wednesday Football Table tennis club Computer club Fencing advanced Beginners Karate Spanish for native speakers Beginners Spanish Art Club Comic book club Computer animation club Construction and puzzles club Homework/book club

KS2 KS2-5 KS2 KS2 Beg all Y5-KS5 KS3/4/5 Y2 and Y3 KS3/4/5 KS1 KS2

Dance beginners Drama

KS1+REC KS2-KS5

Thursday Gymnastics Jewelry making club Chess Advanced karate Photography and Journalism basketball French for native speakers German for native Speakers Greek for native speakers Card making club Guitar Beginners Spanish

Y5-KS5 KS2 all Adv KS2/3/4/5 KS2/3/4/5 all all KS2 Rec/Y1 beginners KS1

Friday Drama KS2 Dance Advanced KS2/3/4/5 Romanian for native speakers KS1 Romanian for non native speakers KS2

Visit the BSB website at www.britishschool.ro

Continuing Professional Development Teaching is a little bit like using the computer, you think you’ve mastered it and then something changes again; whether it is a new front page on your email account, an updated program, a new virus check or the latest technical language - ROM, RAM, ADSL, GIF, ISP, WAN, it is still a constant battle to keep up with everything. Being a teacher is no different. Having taught in the UK for 20 years I am aware of the constantly changing educational environment; new ideas, methods, policies and the constant battle with acronyms - DCSF, PHSCE, EYFS, AfL, ELLI and the list goes on. Thankfully there is no examination in education abbreviations otherwise I would be retaking it.

Trying to keep ahead of the game, to be

aware of the new strategies and implement best practice and to do what we are actually here for - teach the students - is an art in juggling. To achieve the best from each and every one of us, BSB has put in place a programme of continuous professional development (CPD – another one to add to the list). CPD is relevant to all teachers, no matter how many years experience they have.

It is about making progress in the teaching profession - increasing teachers’ skills, knowledge and understanding of education and to keep abreast of new practices. It is central to school improvement, involves people at all levels whether teachers or managers, and creates a positive climate for staff and students.

At BSB teachers review their previous year in teaching and set themselves clear objectives for the coming year; what they would like to introduce, reviewing new courses, and updating their current skills. It is the teacher’s version of homework - and students thought they were the only ones. We all work towards our objectives; developing new teaching techniques, knowledge and resources. We constantly teach our students that education is a life-long process, yet this applies to teachers as well. We each believe in, and strive towards our own school motto ‘Artes Serviant Vitae’.

Ms Jane Greenwood, Head of Secondary

Teacher ICT Training

ICT Staff training in the Primary ICT room

It’s not only the children who need to keep up with the ever changing world of ICT – teachers face this challenge too! At BSB we endeavour to keep our teachers up to date with the new methods of education and learning through continuous professional development in ICT. Be it new software, the latest hardware or great opportunities on the web, our teachers are prepared and ready to offer the highest level of education for the children. Recent training sessions have focused on the new class blogs and how we can use them to further the children’s learning and increase

communication. The blogs have now been extended to include the Gafencu and Pipera Foundation Stages and the PTA. You can access these new blogs at the following addresses:

BSB have been using a new set of laptops to be used in addition to our three ICT suites.

The brand new, state of the art laptops come fully loaded with the various school software packages and have wireless internet access in school and around the school grounds. This means that not only can the children have more opportunities to access ICT in class but also they will be able to record information from trips and outdoor investigations

instantly. The reaction from the children so far has been great:

Gafencu www.gafencubsb.edublogs.org Pipera www.bsbpipera.edublogs.org PTA www.bsbpta.edublogs.org Mr Sonny Leese, Head of ICT Primary

New Laptops ‘It’s really nice to have the laptops because we can do lots of work and I like going on the internet.’

Rodney, 3L

‘It’s great that you can just bring the laptops into the class. We wrote stories on them and saved them straight onto the server.’

Antoine, 4K

3L using the new laptops in their classroom

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Visit the BSB website at www.britishschool.ro

The Parent Teacher Association The British School of Bucharest is particularly proud of our PTA organisation, as it is traditionally a great link between our families and school and here at BSB it is particularly proactive. Most schools have some form of home school liaison group and so you have perhaps encountered something similar under a different name, maybe a social group or Friends of the school.

The purpose of the PTA is to uphold the general aims of BSB by encouraging communication and a strong working relationship between the parents, and staff at BSB that furthers the educational goals of BSB students. This may be achieved by organising volunteers to support the work of the school, promoting a welcoming and caring community throughout the school and parent body, raising funds to support the goals of the school and to additionally support projects as agreed by the PTA in conjunction with the school. As part of the PTA there are parent representatives for each class, these volunteers help organise individual events for classes, pass on information from class teachers to the other parents where necessary and organise phone trees. A PTA coffee morning is held once a month and this is a great opportunity to welcome new families and for other parents to catch up with one another. In addition a monthly meal is organised, sometimes a luncheon or evening meal, which gives more opportunities for parents and staff to come together. There are some specific events throughout the year that the PTA organises, principally the Artisan Fair/ Christmas Bazaar in December, a School Ball in the Spring and the Summer Fair. If you have ideas for other events these will of course be welcomed.

organised the Artisan Fair. It is particularly notable that alongside a very generous donation to charities supported by the school the PTA raised around 2000 Euro.

Currently teachers are compiling a wish list of possible items that will be presented to the PTA for a decision.

For the in-house school performances, guests were treated to mince pies courtesy of Mums who gave up many mornings to prepare and bake the pies in the Technology room at school, these were presented along with delicious home made cookies made by the German ladies and scrumptious biscuits made by the French ladies.

In the next two terms we will be forming committees to organise the School Ball and the Summer Fair, if you feel these are areas you would like to get involved with please drop us an email and we will get back to you. We are also organising some cooking mornings which will take place in the At a recent meeting it was agreed that Technology room at school so if you would as another way of communicating useful like to learn some new recipes this could information between parents would be be a golden opportunity. Information about to have a blog. We are in the throes of these events will be sent with our Friday establishing this and will let you know when Flyer from the school office when the dates this is active. Mrs Janie Bland has agreed to and times have been confirmed. take responsibility for setting this up with Cathryn Henderson can be contacted on Mr Leese and she will monitor it for us. In the Parent Room at school there is a board cathryn.henderson@btinternet.com for the PTA and if anyone would like to post We look forward to seeing all of you notices concerning selling household items, involved with the PTA, there is always a role or looking for drivers or babysitters then this for our parents and staff even if you have would be an ideal place. If you do not come very limited time. to school it is possible to send this to the The PTA is a vital part of school life and we office and we can post it for you. encourage you to get as involved as much Another PTA incentive has been to set up as you feel able. Looking forward to seeing a second hand magazine stall where for a you all at our next event. small donation you can take home a

Currently our PTA committee is led by Mrs Cathryn Henderson and she is supported by Mrs Cass Hearn (Vice Chair) Mrs Annemarie Spackman (Secretary) and Mrs Wendy Russell (Social).

Our PTA have been very busy in the Autumn term organising a day of events for Halloween that culminated in a fantastic fancy dress party for Year 6, The Parents room was turned in to a haunted house and a few screams were heard between much laughter.. Then working together with the school’s charity committee the PTA

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magazine to enjoy, donations of magazines and books can be left at the front school office for the attention of Wendy Russell.

We would like to extend this to children’s books or comics as they have shown a lot of interest in the stall so perhaps your family may find some they would like to send in.

The sale happens at the front gate on a Friday afternoon.

▲ The Ladies Lunch before Christmas

Visit the BSB website at www.britishschool.ro

A warm welcome to the new students joining BSB We would like to introduce and extend a warm welcome to the new families who have joined our school either at the Pipera or Gafencu sites after the Winter Holidays.

I would also like to take this opportunity to invite new families to join any of the monthly Coffee Mornings, or Ladies Luncheons organised by our wonderful PTA. In addition you may want to join Romanian Lessons or English lessons, Pilates classes, or Adult Art lessons. Our office staff will be more than happy to provide you with all the information.

Thank you for considering BSB the most suitable school for your children; I know our teaching staff will ensure the children gain all the excitement of learning and constantly discover something else about themselves and the world around them.

Welcome to our BSB family Mihnea Amelie Filip Cameron William Jan Adam & Bianca John Anya Mete Thomas Isabella

Creche, Gafencu Creche, Gafencu Preschool, Gafencu Preschool, Gafencu Reception, Gafencu Reception Gafencu Creche, Pipera Preschool C Preschool H Reception H Reception H Reception H

Jan Sara Theodor Lukas Angelica Ethan Stanislav Jakob Olivia Megan Anna Elizabeth

Reception H Year 1J Year 1H Year 2B Year 2W Year 4H Year 4H Year 4H Year 6D Year 6U Year 7 Year 8

Many thanks go to one of our parents, Mr Atanasiu who made a generous donation to the library.

With the money we are buying some reference books for the Secondary collection.

Thank you so much!

Ms Madalina Cioc, Director of Admissions

Important Dates on the BSB Calendar Feb 12th Y11/12 Reports to go out Feb 16th-20th Half Term - School closed Feb 23rd In-service Day for Teachers - School Closed Feb 24th Start of School Feb 25th Year 11/12 Consultation Evening Feb 26th Parent’s Workshop Feb 27th KS4 Bake Sale Mar 1st IGCSE Practical’s and Orals begin Mar 4th World Book Day Mar 10th Open Day Mar 11th Year 6 Transition Parents Evenings Mar 13th KS1 Bake Sale

Mar 18th/19th Mar 23rd-27th Mar 26th Mar 26th Apr 2nd-3rd Apr 8th Apr 9th

KS2 Parent’s Evening Year 10 Exams Parent’s Workshop 1J’s Parent Assembly KS3/4 DT Days KS1 Easter Bonnet Parade Foundation Easter Egg Hunt Last Day of Term - School closes 3 pm Apr 10th-24th End of Term Break - School closed Apr 27th Start of School May 1st National Holiday- School closed May 6th Year 10 Reports and letters to parents May 11th-15th KS3 exams

May 12th May 14th May 20th May 28th Jun 2nd Jun 9th Jun 10th June 25th Jun 26th

Year 10 Parent’s Evening Parent’s Workshop Science Fair Day Year 10 Option Evening for Year 9 students Transition Day Year 6 Transition Day KS3 parent’s Evening Year 7 KS3 parent’s Evening Year 8 & 9 Secondary awards ceremony Primary leavers and awards ceremony End of Year- School closes 12pm

“Anthony Frost” English Bookshop, first of its kind in Bucharest, is dedicated exclusively to English books and is opened in 45 Calea Victoriei - Kretzulescu Galleries, next to the National Gallery.

Art, photography, fiction, non-fiction, children, travel, comics, fantasy, psychology, philosophy, poetry - all these subjects will be offered to books’ lovers of all ages.

The books are coming from the most prestigious UK and US publishing houses such as Penguin, Random House, Phaidon, Thames and Hudson, Macmillan, Harper Collins, Taylor and Francis, Sage, Cambridge, Yale, Princeton, etc.

A NTHONY FROST ABOUT BOOKS ...

English BookShop Calea Victoriei 45, telefon 021.311.51.38, www.librariaengleza.ro.

The British School of Bucharest Magazine

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Parent Volunteers Tasty treats with Mrs Henderson & Mrs Rouf

Mrs Henderson and Mrs Rouf are parents who volunteered to lead a cooking class for the BSB University. Why you may ask? They felt that the school has given so much to their children, that they wanted to give something back in return. Why cooking? They didn’t pick cooking as a University Course, Cooking picked them. So far they have prepared brownies, cookies and ice- cream sundaes. Sounds yummy! Would they do it again?

“Definitely, and they would also encourage other parents to volunteer to get to know how wonderful the kids and BSB are.”

42, Erou Iancu Nicolae Street, 077190 Voluntari, Ilfov County, Romania T. +40 21 267 89 19 F. +40 21 267 89 69 E. office@britishschool.ro www.britishschool.ro