Issue 4 - June 2009 Visit the BSB website at www.britishschool.ro
The British School of Bucharest Magazine
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IGCSE Art Exhibition
Mama Mia performances exemplify comic parody
BSB Sports Day a success despite poor weather
The end of the year is always a very busy time and this was certainly true for the IGCSE Art students as they rushed and readied themselves for their annual IGCSE Art Exhibition. This year it was Alex, Nour (Year 12) and Isabella (Year 11) offering their work up to the BSB public eye.
The Secondary School this year was a particularly memorable affair as the series of short skits, connected in some way by the common theme of Abba, evoked a plethora of emotions from the captivated audience.
Each year BSB students don their house colours and head out onto the athletic field to do battle and this year was no exception, despite the poor weather. On Monday June 8th students entered a variety of track and field events over the course of the morning before rain finally interrupted proceedings, forcing the final events to be run over the proceeding days.
read more on page 24
Students make a big splash at the BSB Summer Fair The Summer Fair this year was a bustle of activity as blue skies and warm weather ensured a record turnout to enjoy the many food and novelty stalls and wide range of fun activities. One of the highlights of the Fair was undoubtedly the Pool Climb, where
students pitted themselves against a vertical incline suspended above the BSB pool, before eventually dropping into the pool beneath to cool off on what was a very hot day. In the picture above Anthime, Year 6, contemplates his final few moves to the top.
Contents · Editor’s Note 2 · BSB Charity work Review 2 · The Front Desk 2 · Principal’s Report 3 · Secondary School Update 4 · KS1 End of Year Report 4 · Head of Primary 5 · Foundation Update 5 · KS2 End of Year Report 5 · Maths Activities for the Foundation Stage Child 6 · Foundation Parent Workshops 6 · The Learning Community 6 · Easter Bonnet Parade 7 · Foundation Stage Swimming Lessons 7 · Preschool and Crèche put on Giant Bake Sale 7
· The Monster Munchkins Toddler Group 8 · School Inspector Gives Final Okay 9 · Ringwood’s Secret Garden 9 · Student in the Spotlight 10 · Where Are They Now 10 · Primary Student Council End of Year Report 11 · Secondary Student Council End of Year Report 11 · International Award Students Camp out 12 · Healthy Schools Week 13 · BSB Clubs 14 · BBS Students Enjoy Science Day, 2009 16 · G&T Students Teach Key Stage 2 17
· Willkommen zu BSB! 18 · MFL Spanish Assessment 19 · Chole the Guide Dog Puppy Visits the Primary School 19 · Junior Library Students Experience the Joy of Reading 20 · Craze of the Week 20 · Author John Malam visits BSB 21 · Anthony Frost Book Token Prize 21 · Year 3 Sinaia Trip 22 · Year 4’s Trip to Poiana Brasov 22 · Year 5 trip to Moeciu de Sus 23 · Year 6 Sojourn to Italy 23 · The 2009 BSB Summer Fair 24
· BSB Radio Show Update · 3P Perform ‘Brush’ in Key Stage 2 Assembly · Story in Four · Drama Students Perform Monologues at School Assembly · Mamma Mia had the crowd in hysterics · The History of the Orchestra · Private Piano lessons · DT from a Year 7 Point of View · Year 10 Art Students look to National Military Museum for inspiration · IGCSE Art Exhibition · Adult Art Classes
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· BSB Students attend International Conference on Higher Education 32 · Adult English Classes 32 · BSB Work Experience 33 · Reception Transition to Year 1 34 · Year 7 help Year 6 Students prepare for the jump to Secondary 35 · Garden Design university course 36 · IQ University Course 36 · Day 5 Report from Madrid 37 · PE Dept. Review 38 · BSB are runners-up in ISB Lumina Cup Football Tournament 38 · Swoosh! 39 · BSB Sports Day, 2009 40
· Key Stage 2 House Captain review · Primary House Competition Update · Secondary House Captain review · Danube has Victory in its sights · Class pages · BSB teachers receive ‘International Award’ Training · Teachers Celebrate Successful ISI Inspection · BSB TAs win International Open Air Cooking Competition · PTA 2008-2009
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Editor’s Note
I can hardly believe that we are at the end of the year already. Year 10, 11, and 12 have now finished their IGCSE exams and I am about to head off on the Madrid Trip with
Ms Kemp and KS 3&4 students. This busy end to the year is reflective of the entire year as it has been go go since September 2008. I really can’t remember having had a year where everyone at school worked so hard, and this is evident in the fact that we have achieved so much in one year. The ISI inspectors could not believe that this is only our second year in Pipera. Indeed, the mind boggles when I look to the future and ponder what we might achieve in the end of next year ahead. Mr Mulvany and Mr Kelly did a fantastic job with the school productions. Ms Kemp and Mr O’Brien did a wonderful job improving the PE department. Ms Kemp also did an incredible job developing the DT curriculum organising the DT Days and the
BSB Charity work 2009 Review
The Charity Committee would like to thank everyone at BSB for their fantastic support and the many contributions made during the academic year 2008-2009. Thanks to the combined efforts of the students, staff, and parents, we have been able to make a difference to the lives of many less privileged people around us. Our charity drives this year have included Jeans for Genes Day in support of children with genetic disorders, the Shoe Box Appeal, to help the orphaned children from the Concordia Children’s
weekly DT classes. Add to this the fact that we have a new DT room, a new set of classroom laptops, a new climbing frame and play area for Foundation, thousands of new books for the schools libraries, a set of 20 or more new keyboards and a host of other instruments, the new Adult Classes, and the list goes on, and it is clear that it has been a very good year for everyone here at BSB. It is therefore fitting that with such a busy and successful year that we should finish on a high note. In the last month we have had the School Fair -a huge success, the School Productions, times five, Sports Day, a host of school trips, the SAT and IGCSE exams, Science Day, Space Day, and many other events, all of which you can read about in
Farm, the Christmas Bazaar and last but certainly no least, the BSB Summer Fair. We were able to raise money for various charity organisations like St Stelian’s and Leslie Hawkes. The success of the two fairs was, to a great extent, due to the outstanding organisational skills of the PTA which has been headed this year by Cathryn Henderson. Thank you once more for your commitment to this task! Students have also played a very important role in ensuring the success of all these initiatives; they have even organised and run their own fundraising events. Natalie and Naomi (Year 7) have sold second hand books to raise money for J K Rowling’s Children High Level Group and Tudor and Mihnea (Year 9) have sold self made sushi and waffles to raise money for the Children’s Hospital.
this issue, the first Newblast issue to exceed 40 pages! This in itself is evidence of the incredible amount going on at BSB. To end, I would once again like to thank all those who helped to make this Issue the great read that it is. In particular, I would like to thank Mr Brad Hamacher for his many contributions to this issue. A big thank you also to Mrs Calthrop, Ms Kemp, Mr Leese, Mr O’Brien, Ms Hussain, Ms Greenwood, and Mrs Wells for your help. And last but not least, thank you to all the students who contributed to this issue, especially Ana Year 7, Noor, Year 9, and Senia and Andreea, Year 10. Have a great summer break and see you all in September. Happy reading Mr Kendall Peet
Parents have generously donated clothes, toys and shoes throughout the year. These items went to Remar, an organisation that works with homeless people. Thank you for all your donations. I would also like to thank my lovely and energetic colleagues from the Charity Committee, Ms Kath Homer and Ms Rocio Marti! Our work has taught us that there is nothing as rewarding as being able to inspire a smile of gratitude on someone’s face. We look forward to making a difference to the lives of those in need next. We hope you will join us in this task. Ms Dorothea Draser, Charity Committee
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 about sports and clubs please contact: Tanya Biryukova, Office Manager or Adina Suciu, Office Assistant Email: office@britishschool.ro Tel: 021 267 8919 Fax: 021 267 8969 For specific help relating to school transport and student lunches, please contact: Diana Udor Email: services@britishschool.ro Mob: 0728 133 432/3 Tel: 021 267 8919 Fax: 021 267 8969
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Principal’s Report
we underwent our “Recently first ISI (Independent Schools
Inspectorate) inspection. It is an undeniably daunting task putting together all the correct paperwork that the inspectors require, and then there is the obvious stress of the visit to follow.
Jo Wells
However I actually felt very honoured to present our school, it’s teachers, teaching assistants, maintenance personnel, administration staff and mostly importantly the students to the inspectors. During the visit I was asked what I felt was the school’s biggest accomplishment. It would be easy to quote grades and SATs results, and looking at our ongoing assessments it would be simple to show the great academic progress the children have been made. Yet education is not simply about exams and being able to recite information that is forgotten by the end of the summer, it is far more about creating citizens who hold true to their values and have a moral purpose. At
a presentation on Open Day I witnessed a new student to our school, step forward in front of parents, teachers and his peers and take part in a small play the students had written that day. The boy had little to no English, his time at BSB could be measured in minutes and hours yet supported by his new friends, who had written a part for him that would allow him to speak in his native language, he held the floor delivered his speech and joined in. In those few minutes, for that student, challenges had been met, problems had been solved and self-confidence and selfesteem had been heightened.
have time to catch up with family and friends, and for our returning families, that you come back safely to us, rejuvenated to tackle the exciting challenges of a new academic year which always holds such magic and promise. For our students who are moving on this year, we obviously wish you all the very best in your new schools and hope that you have many warm memories of your time at BSB, you will always be part of the fabric that makes up our school’s history and we thank you and your family for the valued contribution you have made to our community.
Later, he was to tell me that he felt he had finally come home that day, after experiencing some tough times at his previous school. As I am sure you can imagine I could not have been more proud of this young student and what he had achieved that day, but also of the other students who had shown such a great degree of empathy for him and the way he must have been feeling on his first day at a new school. This is what I told the inspector in answer to his question.
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Jo Puddy-Wells
I wish you all, teachers, children, staff and parents, the most relaxing of summers where you
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We have enjoyed our time at BSB very much. It has been most interesting to see the school and all the hard work which has gone into it. We would like to thank the students, staff and parents for all the help and information which we have been given and wish you all the very best for the future.
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Dr Martin Bradley &the ISI inspection team
BSB Management Team with ISI Inspection Team, May 2009
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Secondary School Up-date
It is hard to believe that I am once again writing my final message for the year. Time has flown by and so much has been achieved by our students during this time. The last few weeks have been hectic and fun, and teachers and students alike feel exhausted by all the activities, trips, productions and event days. As always, the end of the year has made all of us aware of the international nature of the school, and there have been sad farewells to students who are leaving the British School to study elsewhere. We wish success and happiness to all those who are moving on.
Key Stage 1 End of Year Report
Well it has been another great term in Key Stage 1. I can’t believe the summer holidays are here already! We have all worked extremely hard this term and the children should be proud of their achievements. Well done! There has been some fantastic learning going on and it’s wonderful to see the children so enthusiastic to learn more. We are lucky to have a great team who put together such creative and inspiring activities and even luckier to have such receptive pupils. The children had fun exploring a range of different activities on Science Day and were particularly energetic on the Forces Assault Course.
This term the Secondary School has hosted transition days, sports events, participated in the Summer Fair, had fun during activity week, with our students finishing this term with the Awards Assembly and a BBQ during the last week of term. A group of students enjoyed a week touring the many famous sites of Madrid and have returned with many photographs and stories of their adventures. Alongside all these activities, the students have also been working extremely hard with their studies. Our current Year 11 and 12 students have taken their external IGCSE examinations and now have to wait patiently for the results which will be announced during August. Our Key Stage 3 students have taken their end of year examinations and the Year 9 students have made their subject choices for the IGCSE courses next year. This year they have been able to choose from additional subjects in Separate Sciences, Drama and English Literature, which have been added to the Key Stage 4 curriculum.
The whole school has recently undergone the Independent Schools’ Inspection (ISI) and as I eavesdropped on conversations, I was delighted to hear the inspectors comment on the delightful behaviour and manners of the students in the secondary school. They were equally impressed with the eagerness and willingness of the students to learn and participate in classroom activities. Prior to this, I requested that an independent secondary OFSTED inspector visit Crawford House. She too had only praise for the students. This is a fine testament to what we, as teachers in secondary, already know. As parents you can be very proud of what your children have achieved.
They were all very enthusiastic on Sports Day and I was pleased to see some improved sportsmanship skills between teams.
Finally it’s a goodbye from me as this is my last term at BSB. I have had a wonderful 2 years here and will take many happy memories with me to my new school in Malaysia. I have thoroughly enjoyed working with Mark, Stuart, Helen, Livia, Dalila, Andrada and Valentina and would like to thank them for all their hard work over the last year. I have been fortunate enough to teach many wonderful children here at BSB and I hope that both the spies from ‘Spy Club’ and the survivors from ‘Survival Skills’ will remember the skills learnt and use them at some point in the future (watch out)! My biggest thank you goes to the present 2B who remain, by far, the most energetic and enthusiastic class I’ve ever taught!
The Key Stage 1 team and I hope you all enjoyed the End of Year Celebration on the 17th. Staff and children had a blast performing the songs and dances and it was great to see so many of you joining in! We all enjoyed our Barnaby Bear’s Picnic too and the best bit was making our own tasty lunch. The sound of happy munching could be heard across the lawn (bears are very noisy eaters)! After our picnic lunch we played party games together including pass the parcel and musical statues. What a gggggggrreat day! I would like to thank all our parents for their support throughout the year, many thanks for helping out with costumes and sets for our show. Your help is always very much appreciated.
In ending, I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy and relaxing summer vacation and I look forward to seeing our returning BSB students on Wednesday, September 2nd. Ms Jane Greenwood Head of Secondary
I wish you all a very happy, safe and restful summer and wish you all the best for continued success at BSB. Thank you for the memories. Ms Lindsey Banks, Key Stage 1 Coordinator
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Key Stage 2 End of Year Report
It is with a sense of regret that I write this update as it will be my last for the Newsblast. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time here at BSB and look back on this year with a feeling of pride. In each of these updates through out the year I have taken time to comment on all of the wonderful things the children in Key Stage 2 have done: Cinderella Rockerfella, Oliver, Sports Day, Mathematics and Science Days, residential trips and
Head of Primary
As the final Newsblast is about ‘Achievement’ there are obviously an awful lot of things that I could talk about. This year has been packed with achievements for individual students, classes, teachers and the school itself. At our Awards and Leavers Assembly on the last day of school we will be celebrating some of the many achievements made by the children by giving certificates and trophies to honour all the hard work of the year. This year has also seen two inspections, as well as numerous assemblies, productions and special days which could all be referred to as our ‘achievements’. In addition to these, we could look back at all the things children have
Foundation Update
As the 2008/2009 school year comes to a close I am happily reflecting on a very successful year. The entire Foundation Stage
team has faced the challenge of putting into place the new EYFS curriculum and we have not just managed this successfully, but I believe we have excelled. How do these changes manifest themselves? Foundation Stage students now have much more input into their educational journey. In essence they are designing their own curriculum (at least a large proportion of it), which in turn demands that they have an individual education plan. As we all know, every child is different. They have different needs, interests, motivations, and learning styles (could this list be endless?). The Foundation Stage staff are now expert at observing those individual differences and plan to meet their student’s diverse needs. We are all able to recognize those powerful ‘teachable moments’ and understand that, even though we have made an incredibly detailed
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House Competitions are just some of the many accomplishments the children have been apart of this year. In Term 3 each year group went on a residential trip, with Year 6 spending a week in Italy! We all participated in a very successful Science Day and also a very wet Sports Day! Along with all these enjoyable events the children also had their end of year assessments, achieving some outstanding results! Without naming any individuals, we have children in every year group far exceeding the national average for UK schools. In this final update, I’d like to thank my teaching staff who have made this year a true success. The accomplishments of Key Stage
2 are a result of the hard work these teachers have put in each and every day. We have worked very well as a team and have supported each other throughout the year. Our Teaching Assistants also deserve acknowledgement. Their hard work and dedication is integral to the success of Key Stage 2 and so a thank you to all the TAs. Finally, I would like to thank the children. I will remember many of you. Good luck for next year. Kia Kaha tamariki, ke marohi akoranga, o taringa! Ka kite ano. Be strong children, study hard, listen carefully! I will see you again. Mr Patrick Kennedy, Key Stage 2 Coordinator
done to be ‘stars of the week’ or to earn House Points and Smiley Faces on an almost daily basis. These too are achievements that should be celebrated. Not least because they highlight what I feel is our biggest achievement as a Primary School. The best way I can describe this is as the ‘atmosphere’ of the school; the sense that the children are working hard, that they care for each other, that they are happy to be at school and that they want to do the best they can. For me, this is the biggest achievement of any year and I am happy to say that children, staff, parents and the wider community can all share in this success, as without everyone’s contribution, this would not be possible.
So thank you to everyone. For the children for being such amazing students, for the staff for doing such a wonderful job and for all the parents and community members who help out whenever they can and support us in everything we are doing. I feel like this has been a wonderful year and reading through the contributions from this, and every previous Newsblast, highlights just how much has been achieved.
plan, if the children are interested in something entirely different, then their interests are more important than the need to stick to our plan.
plant out of the pot, clear away the soil, examine the roots and finally cut open the bulb to see what was inside. It was a perfect ‘teachable moment’ – no matter how experienced we are we just cannot plan for these things – but we can learn to identify them and use them to support children’s learning. I know for sure that every Foundation Stage teacher and teaching assistant at BSB will have their own similar stories.
A personal anecdote: I brought a budding Amaryllis plant into the classroom for the children to draw if they wished, not expecting this activity to take off as it did. Many children chose to draw this plant over a week or so, noticing and sharing the changes as the flower opened. They were particularly interested in the pollen and lots of new vocabulary was learnt. The flower began to decay and many children continued to be interested in this process. Then, as it was Inspection Day, I had very carefully planned what the students in my class would be doing (very, very carefully planned!) and none of this planning included the dead Amaryllis. However, I had to drop everything as the children decided that they wanted to take the
Have a wonderful summer, all the best to those who are leaving Romania and I look forward to seeing everyone else in the Autumn so we can go forward and achieve even more. Ms Naima Hussain, Head of Primary
It has been wonderful sharing this learning journey with a great team of dedicated professionals. Thanks to all of you for working so tirelessly this year to provide the best possible start to our students’ education. I know we all wish all of our BSB families a safe and enjoyable summer holiday and we look forward to working with you again next year. Ms Angela Harvey, Head of Foundation
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Maths Activities for the Foundation Stage Child
Many parents ask what they can do at home to help their child with maths. The answer is simpler than you might think. Foundation aged children respond best when learning is embedded in their play. Just like at school taking a play-based approach to teaching your child mathematics at home will make their learning fun and much more effective than more static approaches. Here are some activities you might want to try:
• Count cars, animals, houses, people, signs while driving or walking • Identify numerals in the everyday world: on license plates, food packages, etc. • Provide opportunities for one-to-one correspondence: setting the table, matching socks • Identify shapes in the everyday world: an ice cream cone is a sphere and a cone, a yield sign is a triangle • Practice a variety of counting rhymes that are available on the internet • Use vocabulary related to quantity, size, shape, measurement • Allow opportunities for students to explore capacity: provide various sized containers to fill and empty in the bathtub; allow your child to measure ingredients when you are cooking
• Talk about things that are heavy and light: show how a scale is used when measuring body weight or buying produce at the market • Talk about future events, create a countdown on the calendar, discuss past events: what came first, next, last • Provide opportunities to order objects by size, length, height, weight • Provide shape & space resources such as puzzles, blocks, shape matching games, etc. • Point out patterns in the everyday world: on animals, fabrics • Create patterns together using materials found around the house: buttons, coins • Use positional terms such as on top, under, below, behind, beside, left, right • Identify symmetry in the everyday world like body parts Ms Gina d’Entremont, Foundation Stage Maths Coordinator
Foundation Parent Workshops:
The Learning Community
Parents join our learning community by participating in the Foundation Stage workshop.
Foundation Stage teachers shared some of their great ideas for learning activities that parents can do at home during a parents’ workshop held on the morning of Thursday 21st May. There was a great turnout but we also understand that not everyone can attend a morning session so handouts from the workshop were emailed to all Foundation Stage families. During the workshop Deanna Beggs (Reception Teacher Pipera Site) guided parents through the understanding of how important listening and speaking skills are to later reading and writing, whilst Gina d’Entremont (Preschool Teacher Gafencu Site) helped parents to understand the importance of sorting their washing with their
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child, and other great mathematics activities. We laughed during the workshop, listened intently and tried to remember when we learnt to read and write. Most of us can remember handwriting practice but not truly learning to read or write. Please do share with us some of your memories of this. Since the workshop, I have remembered being taken to my brother’s class (two year’s older than me) and shown his handwriting with the question ‘Why can’t you write like this?’ Oh the effects of early labeling – ‘Angela the girl with bad handwriting’, although I also remember the health visitor telling me that my feet would win a ‘foot beauty competition’ if such a thing existed – so I
Deanna Beggs shares her ideas on Communication, Language and Literacy at Foundation Stage Parents Workshop.
became ‘Angela with the lovely feet and the bad handwriting’. I am definitely digressing here…. I would like to thank you all for inviting us to be partners with you in your child’s education and to draw your attention to a quote that was shared at the workshop “A parent’s qualifications or job are less of a factor in the child’s progress than the parent’s desire to help the child interpret their environment.” Kathy Sylva, Professor of Educational Psychology and member of the EPPE team (Effective Provision of Pre-School Education Project). Angela Harvey Head of Foundation Stage
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Easter Bonnet Parade
Foundation Stage Pipera and Key Stage 1 all enjoyed wearing their Easter finery for the annual Easter Bonnet Parade. The children made beautiful Easter hats at school or at home and showed them off to a wonderful turnout of parents in the playground behind Ringwood.
Preschool and Crèche put on Giant Bake Sale
In the end the Bake Sale was a great success and so Rocket is now enjoying life in a very fancy new cage, Preschool H have brought things for their classroom, and Crèche have added some new toys to their garden. We would like to say a big thank you to all the parents who baked and helped run the stall. However, they were not the only ones cooking this time, as the Crèche students baked some delicious cookies, and had great fun doing it, and Preschool C students also combined counting practice with baking and produced some very tasty ‘Number 4 cookies’.
Bianca, Ayesha and Samuel about to put the biscuits in the oven Searching for hidden eggs
The children paraded through the playground before sharing some Easter songs and stories, as well as taking it in turns to show off their wonderfully creative hats. There were plenty of bunny ears, chicks and eggs on show and the children all enjoyed coming together to celebrate Spring and to mark the start of this important holiday.
Crèche and Preschool C and H agreed to join together for their Term 3 bake sale with each class having its own wish list. Top priority for Preschool C was a new home for their Pet Hamster, Rocket, as his current accommodation was in serious need of upgrading.
Cakes going fast!
Thank you to everyone for their support. Mrs Claire O’Brien, Class Teacher
Ms Naima Hussain, Head of Primary
The Sooner the better:
Foundation Stage Swimming Lessons
The sun was shining and the excitement was high: the day had finally come for Foundation Stage to start their swimming lessons. It had been proceeded by lots of excited conversations about which swim suit the girls were planning to wear and
who exactly owned spider man swimming trunks, but the planning was over and now Reception B were ready to show off their water skills. Ms Tinneke Janssens, who is a trained swimming instructor, joined BSB staff to lead the swimming lessons, as the class teachers had volunteered to be in the water: a member of staff is also always present at the side of the pool and TA’s were ready to help children change. Classes are split into groups with a maximum of 8 children in the water at any one time. The swimming sessions are designed to be both safe and fun, increasing the children’s confidence in the water while allowing them to gain
Foundation Stage students learning to swim
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new skills. Reception B certainly enjoyed their lesson, especially a game called flip the pancake where the children had a chance to be a human pancake. They also worked on activities to achieve a horizontal position while moving through the water and putting their faces in the water. The first lesson was a great success and I was very proud of the effort the children made and I am looking forward to seeing all the Pre-School and Reception children take to the water very soon. Mrs Helen Calthrop, Foundation Stage Co-Coordinator
Using the safety tubes
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Activity
Timothee
Leo
David
Callum
Playing outside 2
Lilly
Emma with a montage of pics from other mothers
Water play
Making hats
Group photo
Tibor
setting than they might experience at home. In preparation for school and with the active involvement of all mums, the aims are to develop motor skills though a variety of craft activities, encourage imagination and communication, and further social interaction (particularly promoting sharing), and our sessions follow a structure that the children have come to know and enjoy. The day starts with something creative, with a different craft activity each week. These usually involve sticking, painting or cutting. In the past, we have painted rocks, created collages, made musical instruments and a whole variety of other things too! Creativity and imaginative play are core themes, and playdough and drawing are available as an option at every session. Toys provide the opportunity to
improve manual dexterity as well as encouraging imaginative play. Mid-way through the morning, we tidy up together and all sit in a circle to share a snack. This encourages self discipline, together with good manners, healthy eating and appropriate eating habits. After snack we go outside to the crèche playground to enjoy cycling, sand, water and climbing activities. Finally, the session is brought to a close when we go back inside to enjoy a story together and to sing fun action rhymes. These photos show some of the things we do. If you are interested in joining us in September, please email monstermunchkins@hotmail.com.
The Monster Munchkins Toddler Group
The Monster Munchkins toddler group was set up by a group of parents in October 2008 after a need was identified to provide early development opportunities for children aged 1-3 years. Well subscribed now with 30 members and two sessions a week, the purpose of the group is to introduce toddlers to a slightly more structured, formal
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Mrs Alison Power, Parent
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Ringwood’s Secret Garden
Do you recognise the children but not the place? I am not surprised because the photo is taken in Ringwood’s very own secret garden. If you toured the school last year you might have seen an overgrown vacant space behind our Foundation/Key Stage 1 building. Survival club had ventured into it several times and Year 4 had undertaken an archaeological dig in it, but the Foundation Stage, never happy to waste any thing, soon came up with a plan to turn it into something very special. Never one to say no, Mrs Wells asked for a little time and soon the skills and hard work of Mr Lupu’s maintenance team undertook the transformation.
A wonderful place for a snack
School Inspector Gives Final Okay
Between the 27th and 30th of April, BSB was visited by Ms Joyce Taylor, our independent school inspector, to help us in our final preparations for the official ISI Inspection. Ms Taylor has been visiting BSB annually for the past four years, providing support to the teachers and helping BSB to formulate an effective development plan. She says that it has been very enjoyable visiting BSB over the years and she has seen the school evolve in so many areas. On her visit this time, she said that she was particularly impressed by the beautiful campus, with the two impressive buildings and the well-maintained gardens, and even more impressed with the current staff and incredible amount of work everybody is doing, “from the Crèche and Foundation Stage, right through Primary and Secondary.” When I asked Ms Taylor about her background, she told me that she was born 10 days before Christmas, in the north of England. When she was very young, she moved with her family across to the East coast. Along the years, she has worked he way around the world, but recently decided to return to the East Coast, where she enjoys living in her house close to the sea. She has three dogs –a situation that she considers a bit mad– two that are hers, and another greyhound that she is fostering; they all love playing on the beach. She considers the sea to be important, because “when you get there, and you see an expansive coast and the sky, it makes you feel good inside”.
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When I asked her about her work, she said that she started her career in education about 30 years ago, teaching secondary students Art and Design and being a specialist for foundation and primary students – she considers teaching has changed a lot since then. One of the most important changes, in her opinion, was the implementation of the National Curriculum in the UK, which she feels made learning a lot easier for students.
In May the garden was ready for the children who now have a lovely grassy area, complete with a hill and tunnel. Two new wooden houses are already popular spots for role play or having a snack during break time. We have lots of space to dig, and finding worms is a very popular activity. Preschool C have already been busy planting, and so fingers crossed we will soon be enjoying home grown tomatoes before the end of term.
She taught in a number of parts of the UK, moved to Africa to teach for a couple of years, and then eventually returned to the UK, where she developed her career as a teacher, becoming a Deputy Head Teacher and then a Head Mistress of a school, before eventually going on to become a school inspector. In order to do this, she moved to another area and became a self-employed inspector and has been working as an independent school inspector for the last 15 years, inspecting schools all over the UK and a number of schools in Europe. In her opinion, one of the advantages of being an independent school inspector is that you can decide when you want to work and this means she has more time to keep up with her friends and hobbies. One of her hobbies is gardening, as she really enjoys planting and growing her own vegetables, and of course eating what she grows. She also enjoys reading and writing. She reads a lot, as she finds reading very relaxing. She has also just recently written some short horror stories for teenagers.
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Pre School C planting flowers
Do feel free to come and visit the garden when you are next in school as we would be very happy to share our secret garden with you… it’s through the wardrobe at the very back of the school. Helen Calthrop, Foundation stage Co-ordinator Pipera
I would like to wish you all a fun-filled summer holiday. See you in September! Ms Taylor.
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Senia, Year 10
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Visit the BSB website at www.britishschool.ro
Student in the Spotlight
says that his favourite bands are Blink 182 and Green Day. He also likes to watch movies, especially comedies, such as Borat and Mall Cop. His favourite colour is white and he likes tigers. If he could go anywhere in the world, he would go to New York because he likes big cities as you can find everything you like there. Maria, Year 10
Engin, from 3P, is 8 years old and works very hard in school. Engin’s favourite sport is Tennis. His favourite food is yummy Pizza and his favourite drink is fizzy Coca-Cola. I am his best friend and his favourite game is Club Penguin. He likes music a lot, especially Rock and Roll.
Ioana, also from 3L, is 7 years old. She was born in Bucharest and has lived in Romania her whole life. Her favourite sport is football, her favourite food spaghetti, and her favourite movie High School Musical. She is a very nice person and a great friend.
Can, 3P
Rosie, from 3L, is 8 years old and comes from England. She has been at BSB for 2 years. She was born on November, 28th 2000. She hates fish, however she loves fish fingers. Her best friend is Hannah from Year 3L. She is very good at art and her favourite food is ice lollies. Unfortunately, she has just moved back to England and she will be missed by everyone. Fanni 3L
Matei, 3P
Anna, Year 7, has just turned 12, on the 24th of May, and joined the BSB family in May. She was born in Macedonia and moved to Bucharest from Switzerland. She has 1 brother. She likes to listen to Pop music and loves eating Sushi. Her favourite movie is High School Musical, her favourite sport swimming. She says that if she won a million dollars she would buy an expensive Sports Car a ticket to Miley Cyrus’s Concert. She speaks Macedonian, English, and German. Her favourite subject is Mathematics.
Jonathan, Year 8, known to his friends as Jojo, joined BSB in March 2009. He moved here from Germany with his family, including two sisters. He was born on 12 May, 1996, in Germany. He speaks 2 languages, including German and English and can read Latin. His favourite movie is XXX ( triple X ). His dream country is America, saying that he would love to live there someday. He likes to play Basketball in his free time. His best friend is Mesar; his favourite food is Spätzle with sauce (a German dish).
Edoardo, Year 10, known to his friends as Eddy, is 15 years old, was born in Milano, Italy, but currently lives in Romania. He has been attending BSB for 2 years and says he is enjoying it. He also has a little sister named Bianca, who is 10 years old and is currently in year 5T. Eddy likes to music, plays the guitar, and
Chi Bum, Year 9, joined BSB in late February. He is 14 years old and comes from Korea. He has lived in Austria for 5 years. He likes playing basketball and football. His favourite football player is David Beckham and favourite basketball player is LeBron James. His hobbies include watching movies and exercising. He also likes listening to pop music and watching movies; his favourite movie is School Of Rock. His favourite subject at school is P.E. He says he likes living in Romania because it has many beautiful parks, loads of greenery and the weather here is cooler than in Korea. He also likes the teachers and students very much as they are all very kind. He loves eating Spaghetti and Pizza. Noor Faisal, Year 9
Where Are They Now
“I’m currently working at The English School for Girls in Salwa, Kuwait, which has 450 children and
32 teachers. The school is only for girls and there are no male teachers, technicians or cleaners. The only man is the gate man for security. I’m the Head of Primary and so my days are spent supporting the teachers, interviewing new children, supporting the Principal and working with all the children in my care. I get to do all the assemblies, and I have already taught the girls some of my games, like Miss S Says!
My first day at school was also the same day as the Childrens’ Festival they have here, so I was given about 40 bags of sweets!! I am really enjoying school and love the variety that each day brings. I am also lucky enough to live only a ten minute walk away from school and my apartment has a gym and a swimming pool in the complex, so there is little to complain about. Even the weather is great! I do miss my old class, teachers and friends at BSB though, but am also enjoying the new experiences that being in the Gulf area provide me. I am even learning Arabic again! Have a great summer everyone.
” Ms Sara Snocken
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Visit the BSB website at www.britishschool.ro
Primary Student Council End of Year Report
Student Council has had a very busy year. Here is a list of the things that we have accomplished: a vegetarian menu for school lunches, fundraising for School Garden, Friendship Day with Candy Grams, Craze of the Week, Summer Fair Sing Star, and Summer Fun Day. We have also made zones for the playground and have devised a way to select ‘Playground Helpers’, which will both start next year. It has been hard work, but we feel that we have made BSB a better place. Oscar, 4H
Scott, Anna, Oscar watch on as Ms Doina and Ms Catalina compete in a game of ‘Singstar’ during the Summer Fair
Secondary Student Council End of Year Report
Over this school year the student council has achieved a lot. From juice sales to winter parties the Student Council (SC) have made a difference to BSB. From the second week in the new school year the SC held elections for a chairman and vice-chairman and decided that the SC should meet once every two weeks. We also set up a notice board with the meeting dates and other information directed toward the SC and students. Throughout the year the student council have dealt with the needs of their class, the school and other miscellaneous requests, raising money (for charity or for the school) and in general making BSB a better and more enjoyable place to study. Here are some examples of what we have achieved this year:
Winter party Several classes brought up the idea of a winter party towards the end of Term 1. The main points the SC had to deal with were getting permission, finding a location and funding. Once we had received permission, it was decided that the location should be in the school to reduce costs and take advantage of the facilities we have in the school. We then proceeded to carry out numerous surveys on what students would like at the party. The year groups were in charge of the following: Year 7 food Year 8 advertising Year 9 decoration/drinks Year 10 music Year 11 activities Most of the work was voluntary and thanks to hard work from students, parents and staff alike the party was a success. Everyone enjoyed themselves and the secondary school look forward to another such party.
Ellis Hannah and BSB
Friendship day/ Valentine’s Day gift sale The council prepared small gifts to sell on the day before Valentine’s Day. This proved very successful indeed, and we are looking forward to a repeat performance next year. As with the school party, any money raised will be put towards a permanent gift for the school from the Student council of 2008/2009.
Fruit juice sale The SC and classes considered a fruit juice sale would fit in nicely with our healthy school policy. A juice machine was kindly donated by Ms Wells, and there was nothing left to stop us.
The fruit sale was to be at lunchtime one week on, one week off. Two different people were nominated each week to buy the fruit and each was given a certain sum. Overall, it was very successful, the students enjoyed the juice and some money was raised too!
Current projects at the time of writing this article, the Student Council were currently working on four different projects including a stall for the Summer Fair (Team twister), the end of year party, ‘Green’ letters (using emails rather than paper), the distribution of the playground during breaks. Mr Ellis would like to thank the members of the Secondary School Council for all their hard work, and all the students, parents, and staff who contributed to school council events this year. Louisa, Year 9, Vice-chairperson
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Group shot before the walk
On the walk
Returning from the walk
Alizee glad to have made it home
International Award Students Camp out For our IA Bronze Certificate we were obliged to go on a camping expedition. We all thought this would be an educational, exhilarating, exciting opportunity, but knew there was a lot to organise, including: • the date and times • the route we would take • the necessary equipment • the food we would need • the announcements to parents This done, we met on Friday the 8th May, divided our group up into 3 sub groups each with a different route and accompanying teachers and set off for our overnight adventure.
The hike We were dropped off at Mega Image and headed immediately into the woods. All the groups had a lot of fun and luckily no one got lost, though one of
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the groups was temporarily misplaced toward the end of the hike whilst trying to find Casa Alba and as a result missed out on eating ice cream with the other two groups!
Overnight at school
Saturday Our morning alarm clock was Mr Power, who proceeded to wake us up with his lovely morning songs, which I think we would all say did a good job waking us, but didn’t leave 15 sleepy teenage kids very happy. It was 7 in the morning!!
Back at school, we started putting up the tents, deciding that it would be better to get it done before it got dark. Afterward we all got to enjoy 45 minutes of free time on the climbing frame or just relaxing.
After a quick breakfast we took down the tents, dried those that needed drying, and packed our bags, having 45 minutes free time to talk and sort the last things out like brushing teeth.
Over the next hour or so everyone took a shower and got started on preparing our dinner. The students and teachers prepared their meals separately, with most of the students ending up eating pasta, whilst the teachers appeared to be feasting in style on steak, chicken, salad, baked potatoes, and Greek Kazani, which they thankfully shared with us hungry students. After we had cleared up, stored our food and got changed into our pyjamas, we all thought of a story or put together a short skit or play and entertained each other for the rest of the night until lights out at 11; though many of us continued to laugh hysterically in the tents for some time before sleep eventually took hold of us all.
At 12 our parents arrived to pick us up and so we said our last farewells. I think everyone on the trip would say it was a lot of fun, educational, and really good because we all got to know each other even better, so a big thank you to all the teachers who made this experience possible! We hope there will be many more trips like this to come.
The final activities we did included Star Wars (dodgier never-the-less a cooler version of oddball) and other team building activities like Make a bridge!
IA Team
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Our House Team Tug-o-War contest!
Healthy Schools Week
March 30th - April 3rd
Healthy School Week was yet again a successful event. Healthy Smoothies were sold throughout Primary and Secondary all week, house matches were organised on top of scheduled PE lesson and Key Stage 3 ran emotional well-being workshops with Early Years and Foundation and Primary. During PHCSE Key Stage 3 had been looking at emotional well-being and the power of self massage to help improve focus and concentration and to improve their ability of remaining calm during periods of stress. Key Stage 3 became emotional well-being trainees during Healthy Schools Week and passed on the knowledge they had gained with Early Years and Primary with special self hand massage cards. In Early Years Miss Kath explained to the Year 7 boys that very young children really respond to these types of activities in order for them to gain your trust. The Year 7 boys were amazed by this! Thank you to Early Years and Primary! Ms Jen Kemp, Healthy Schools Committee
Alex from 4K winds up for a huge shot for Danube against Olt.
The Girls of Mures hold their trophy high after winning the Primary House Team Football Tournament!
Antoine playing for Olt and Alessandro for Mures race to the ball, while Patrick watches helplessly.
Hannahand Amelia give a big CHEERS for healthy fruit smoothies.
Bsb house matches results time healthy schools week
Year 7 Emotional Wellbeing Traniees
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During Healthy Schools Week we had lots to do! The secondary students sold fruit smoothies and taught us how to give hand and face massages. There was also exciting activities at lunch time including a Tug-o-War contest and lots of different games. Tuesday was the best day because there was a football tournament. At the tournament Mures won the competition between the Year 3’s and 4’s and Olt won the Year 5’s and 6’s. I loved Healthy Schools Week!
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Fanni, 3L
The British School of Bucharest Magazine
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BSB Clubs
Each term the students at BSB are given opportunity to join one or more of the many BSB clubs that run Monday to Friday, 3pm-4pm. Each term we offer as many as 50 clubs, ranging from sport clubs, such as Football, Swimming and Table Tennis, to language clubs, such as Greek, Italian, and Spanish, to a wide range of other general interest clubs like Chess, Gymnastics, Fencing, Music, and many, many more. Club participation is an important part of the BSB curriculum and students are encouraged to join more than one club. Here is a quick review of just a few of the clubs offered at BSB.
BSB Drama Clubs
Drama Clubs take activities that are discussed and performed in class to a superior level. This means that in Drama Club children still play the games, only the more complicated variations of them.
May and Bethan (Year 9) working on a script in Drama Club
The younger children in Key Stage 1 play more complicated focus, attention and concentration games as warm up activities, games that involve the whole group rather than just two children at a time.
Football Club Reception and Pre-school
Football club for the youngest of our dedicated football fans last term saw a huge improvement in the player’s skills. Miss Deanna and Miss Helen kept the boys very busy with practice skills that helped them to become more in control of the ball. Harry from 6U came to be help us and we practiced scoring goals. All the boys were delighted to sneak a goal in passed Harry, though it wasn’t easy. Every week we had a mini game, to put our new skills to the test, what ever the score we all finished Mondays happy if a little exhausted.
The older children in Key Stage 2 also play more complicated games. Sometimes, Improvisational Theatre games are added to the KS2 club activities list, as they are a lot of fun and the children request them. All Drama games, Improvisational or regular, build on the same skills (focus, teamwork, listening) but in different ways. Regardless of the approach, they are always fun to play.
Tae Min tries to get a goal past Miss Beggs
Football club
The Girl’s football has been great fun and we have learnt lots of different things. We have learnt how to dribble the ball, to pass the ball to another person and to shoot at the goal. We have also played lots of real games. We really like this club - it is one of our favourites.
Hannah, Pelin, and Amelia in fierce competition during Girls Football Eda and Natalie (Year 7) reading a script in Drama Club
Key Stage 3 kids go on to the next level and act in an actual play, creating characters and conflict, stepping into the parallel reality of the script. This term we are working on an old script I wrote some time ago, and we will have the play ready for a KS3 & 4 assembly. Doina Antohi Drama Teacher
‘It has been really learn how to play and now we can join in with the boys.’ Amelia Spackman, Pelin Turkmen, Hannah Berry and Mariana Bonito
Key Stage 1 Homework Club
Puzzles and Construction Club Daniel (5T), Rhea (6D) and Scott (6U) playing a Drama game
These games require, in general, a bigger effort. After warm up, children are involved in activities that are based on a script; the plot is explained and the children engage in the game, having to find a suitable ending to the story in progress and to act it out; problem solving is the skill brought into the spotlight.
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The children had a lot of fun this half-term! They built train tracks, aeroplanes, rockets, and race cars. Puzzles were also a big hit. There was a lot of consideration and making friends going on as well.
Miruna, Irini, Oskar, Alexander and Ester from 2B
The younger children enjoyed showing the older ones the toys available in Foundation Stage. And the older children were eager to help the smaller ones. Good job, everyone!
In the Key Stage 1 Homework Club we met once a week to go over our spellings and times tables and catch up on any of the work covered during the week It is a very clam relaxed club intended to give students a little extra help where they need it.
Ms Bremer, Reception Class teacher
Ms Lindsey Banks
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Key Stage 2 Science Club
Science Club is a fascinating club where we do fun and exciting experiments! Each time we come to club we start we do a different experiment. Then we continue with other projects that we designed ourselves. The first week of club we planned which group to be in and what project we wanted to do. Then we began working on our projects. Some of the themes of the projects are underwater, rocks and minerals, phases of the moon, and the planets. We all have fun in this amazing club and have accomplished our mission to learn about and discover wonderful earth shattering science. Aliss, 5B
The PS and Debating club
Street Art Club
The PS and Debating club has a mixed age range, year 3 to year 9. So far we have debated a variety of topics including the pros and cons of junk food and school dinners. In term 2 we heard speeches prepared in the year 7 lessons to give the younger members and idea and we have looked at some winning school debaters from India and Australia. We have reached the stage of writing in teams now and the younger members are teamed with an older student in order to train through peer example. There are 12 in the club and they are enthusiastic and energetic. It is mixed in gender and the girls and boys happily work with each other. We plan to participate in debates and public speaking competitions in Bucharest next year.
Romanian for native Speakers Club
This term’s Street Art club was run by Mr. Williams. Mr. Williams showed us lots of interesting street art, from doodles to character designs, from sticker designs to stenciling and from huge murals to video art. We learned how artists use the environment to inspire their work such as the Bucharest street artist Irlo who uses paint to change windows into eyes and brick work into teeth!
Mr Kelly, Head of Drama
Hello! We are 6 children during this Club and the teacher’s name is Miss Dalila. We are learning how to write properly the Romanian words. We do a lot of funny things like playing games by counting until 100 and back. We are writing interesting things to practice our handwriting and to learn how to say correctly all the Romanian words. Sometimes, we read Romanian stories which have a lot of neologism words and remind us that this language is very rich and beautiful and we are happy because we choose this club.
Putting on the final touches
Swimming Club
Hello! My name is Seoyoung and I am year 4k. I do three clubs. One of my favourite clubs is swimming.
We studied the work of Keith Haring and other famous artists and this helped us in our final work. We learned that street artists work quickly and often use bold colour and dynamic images to catch the public’s eye. We learned how to use a range of mark making, pattern and character design to create our final collaborative ‘doodle’ artwork. We used our knowledge of street art and the techniques we had learned to create the art without planning what it would look like. It was fun to work in this very free way. We were happy with the final result and now feel even more inspired and ready to make our next piece! Street Art Students Inc.
Table Tennis Club
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The Key Stage 1 Romanian Club
Seoyoung just before her swimming lesson in the BSB swimming pool
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I like Romanian Club because it helps me how to write correctly the Romanian words and I have a lot of fun when we are playing the funny games with the numbers and the days of the weeks.
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Alek, 2B
The swimming club is next to music room. We do swimming with Mr Kennedy and Miss Valentina. The side is two meter and the height is 2.7 metres deep. It was very deep and cold.
In Table Tennis Club we have all improved playing the game and have learnt how to serve. Every week we have tried to get our highest score in a rally, and we have also played matches together. Table Tennis Club has been a lot of fun, and we have all really enjoyed it.
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Sophie 3P & Eleanor 5T
Some of the most popular clubs this year were:
The Gymnastics Club
The British School of Bucharest Magazine
The Key Stage 1 Spanish Club
The Fencing Club
The Karate Club
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Here’s what a few students had to say about the day:
KS2 Exploring Minibeasts
BBS Students Enjoy Science Day, 2009 Wednesday, the 20th of May, (one of the best days for BSB in 2009), was KS1 and KS2 Science Day. The weather was gorgeous as students visited different science activities run by KS1 and KS2 teachers. In the morning, students rotated through four stations. Some of the stations that students went to were Colours and Colour Dye, Reaction Time, Forces Adventure, Water Filters, Minibeast Hunt, How Hot Are You?, Water Circus and Let’s Make Ice Cream! A Science Symposium was also held in the afternoon, where students presented science projects that they had been working on independently. The day was brought to a close as each house team worked with physics, by using only one piece of paper and a meter of tape to make the tallest tower possible that could stand on its own. Mures won! We would all like to thank Ms Ullman for the hard work she put in planning Science Day.
Mariam, 6U
KS1 Mixing Colours
I liked mixing colours in the colour laboratory. We learnt what a spectrum is. Ilayda, 1J I enjoyed most the cleaning cola because it was fun to collect sand and stones to put in the bottle. I also enjoyed experimenting with food colouring to make new colours. Boris, 1H My favourite part of Science Day was the Forces races, even though my team didn't always win! Isabella, 2B My favourite thing on Science Day was ice cream making because we made ice cream. Mine was too salty, but I still liked it. Next time I’m going to be more careful how I make it so it doesn’t taste like salt. Pelin, 3L I really enjoyed Science Day. My favourite event was the ‘Mini-Beast Hunt’ because my friend and I found interesting bugs. We also got to use the digital microscope to take photos and see the mini-beasts up-close. I also liked when Gaya and Anna-Illinca from 4K taught us that cats sleep 18 hours a day. Year 6 Eating Ice Cream
Jakob, 4H
Year 4 Science
Science in Year 4 has been very exciting. We have had to design experiments to test the melting points of solids, which material is the best thermal insulator and which materials are electrical conductors.
KS1 Making Water Filters
I enjoyed making ice-cream in a bag. I learned that when you put salt onto ice, the ice freezes at a lower temperature. Sasha, 5B Mena, Calista, Ethan and Alessandro from 4H work together to design an experiment that will test whether or not certain materials are electrical conductors.
It has been a challenge to make sure that all of our scientific investigations are fair tests. In the end we usually have to record and graph our conclusions and discuss whether our predictions were correct. Calista, 4H
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Stefanos testing different liquids to see if they will conduct electricity. Lime juice worked, while cooking oil did not.
I liked Science Day. My favourite activity was making ice cream with Mr Davidson and Ms Ullman. We learned that rock salt will bring down the freezing temperature of ice so it is cold enough to freeze the ingredients to make ice cream. At the end we got to eat the ice cream! Mohammad, 6U
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4K students working vey hard at space station ‘Impact Craters’
G&T Students Teach Key Stage 2
The Gifted and Talented (G&T) students at BSB are a group of learners who have aptitudes in a wide array of fields such as drama, music, art, literacy, numeracy and science. In order to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to express their gift or talent, these students undertake group projects which are intended to extend each in the group. Their most recent project was “Space Day” which they planned and taught Key Stage 2 students about space. Each student was responsible for running a space station: • Tatum (6D) ran the space station “Space Race” giving a power-point presentation with facts about space.
Ilias is hard at work at space station ‘Mission to Space’
• Thomas (5T) ran the space station “Life in Space” in which he taught students about the lives that astronauts live in space. He also helped them to build their own balloon-powered nano rovers.
Here’s what some of the G&T members had to say about ‘Space Day’:
• Alexandra (5B) ran the space station “Video Earth” showing students a video about earth and had them answer a short questionnaire to see how much they learned.
“I liked ‘Space Day’ very much and I hope we will have something similar next year. I would like to have a language day where the G&T members teach other children languages they know.” Sandra, 6U
• Basil and Filippo (6U) ran the space station “Star Wars” teaching the students about the different stars in our galaxy. They then had the students go outside and find the “hidden stars” for points.
“I showed the students a video about Earth and they had to fill in a questionnaire. I liked it at break and lunch the most. I hope we will do chocolate day, yum, yum!” Alexandra, 5B
• Finn (5B) ran the space station “Mission Space” where he briefly introduced students to rockets (history and how they work) and then had them create their own. • Suparnan and Sascha (5B) ran the space station “Gaseous Planets”. They taught students about the gases on each planet and then had them paint a realistic interpretation of a planet of their choice. • Daniel (4K) ran the space station “Our Solar System”. Daniel taught Key Stage 2 about planets, stars and asteroids through a powerpoint presentation. He also had a quiz at the end to test their knowledge.
“I enjoyed ‘Space Day’ a lot and I would like to do it again. My favourite class to teach was 4H.” Gaya, 4K
“I enjoyed “Space Day” and wouldn’t mind organising a history day and a global warming day to teach students more about day-to-day life. My favourite classes to teach were 3L and 6D.” Daniel, 4K & Thomas, 5T
The G&T members created a questionnaire to be handed out, with students replying that they would like to see G&T members plan some other days, including History Day, Geography Day, Animal Day, etc. Great job G&T members! Ms Nicole Fisher, G & T Coordinator
• Sandra (6D) and Gaya (4K) ran the space station “Impact Craters” teaching students about craters.
The British School of Bucharest Magazine
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Willkommen zu BSB!
Two special guests, Greta Hoheisel and Norbert Lang, German university students, paid a visit to students of MFL-German from Primary and Secondary School on the 2nd April. Year 6 and Year 9 gave them a tour of the school and presented the many special features of our school. They also found out more about the differences and similarities between British and German schools. Guests and hosts had a lot to learn from each other. Well done to all the students involved, for making our guests feel welcome and for speaking German all the time! The guests were impressed with you and with BSB! Gut gemacht! Ms Dorothea Draser, Head of MFL
Andrei A, Johann, Basil and Tatum, Year 6 taking Norbert and Greta on a guided tour of the school
Der Besuch von Greta und Norbert
Am 2. April hatten wir zwei Gäste im Deutschuntericht. Es waren zwei deutsche Studenten, Norbert und Greta. Wir haben uns getroffen, um ihnen unsere Schule vorzustellen und über die Unterschiede zwischen britischen und deutschen Schulen zu sprechen. Ich habe eine Präsentation über unsere Lehrerinnen und Lehrer gehalten. Ich habe Fotos gezeigt und gesagt, welche Fächer sie unterrichten. Danach hat Mihnea das HauspunkteSystem von BSB präsentiert. May hat über die Geschichte von BSB seit 2000 gesprochen. Tudor hat etwas über die Klassenfahrten der letzten Jahre nach Österreich und England erzählt.
…showing off the Primary School trophies in the Newlands’s hall
German visitors and Year 9
Iulia hat den Stundenplan präsentiert. Sacha hat zugehört. Wir haben viel gelacht und es hat Spaß gemacht. Es war toll. Wir haben imGespräch mit den Gästen herausgefunden, dass man in Deutschland keine Uniform trägt. Das ist schön für sie und unfair für uns. Die Schule beginnt auch viel früher in Deutschland, manchmal schon um 7. Norbert hat gefragt, ob wir viel Musik machen und wir haben gesagt, was für Instrumente wir spielen. Er war beeindruckt. Die Gäste waren sehr freundlich und sie fanden unsere Schule super! Louisa, Year 9
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The guests enjoyed joining in a Quartett game of cards created by Year 6. The pupils did a great job explaining all the rules in German!
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Sandra and Scott Y6 showing the assessment for MFL spanish
MFL Spanish Assessment
Hola a todos, we are looking back on a successful first year of Spanish at BSB. I strongly believe that my students will become independent language learners if they play the main role in their learning process. For that, the assessment that we use provides an opportunity for the students to see clearly what is expected of them as well as their strengths and weaknesses. In this article, Sandra and Scott explain this assessment process for Year 5 and Year 6. “The type of assessment that we have for Spanish has several steps. First of all we get a check list with the content that we need to learn with the terms I CAN … and we have more or less two weeks to prepare it. After that, during lessons, we peer assess each other, ticking what
Year 3 class showing their certificates MFL spanish
we can do (based on the check list) and someone in the class will test us in that. They will tick what we can do. The last part of the assessment is the self assessment where we colour each statement in green, amber or yellow depending on how confident we feel about our knowledge. Lastly, Ms Rocio checks both reviews (peer and self assessment) and makes a chart with all the results from the class. We thought it was a good way to know what we need to learn and also to check how we are improving.” Scott, 6U & Sandra, 6U
The Year 3 and Year 4 students have a different assessment system. They have check lists as well, and when they can show their knowledge (to the other students and teacher) they will get a certificate for that specific task. It has been a very prolific year for the Years 3s and 4s. These are some comments from the Year 3 students when asked about their first year
Mircea, Chloe and Andrei visit BSB
Chole the Guide Dog Puppy Visits the Primary School
On 1st June the children, Reception up to Year 6, got to meet Romania’s first Guide Dog in training. The children were visited in their assemblies by Chloe, her trainer Mircea and her possible new owner Andrei, who also works with the charity Light into Europe.
The British School of Bucharest Magazine
of Spanish: Ilias (Year 3) “I liked it all this year and my favourite thing was when we earned the certificates”, Filip “The best thing I liked this year was that we were getting certificates. The thing that I didn’t like was that we had homework!”, Amelia, Hannah and Rodney think that Spanish is not a difficult language because it is similar to English, whereas David, Engin, Pelin and Filip think that is very similar to Romanian. I am very pleased and proud of the achievement that all my classes have reached. I wish everyone “BUEN VERANO” and hope you can all practice all the languages you have been learning this year! In this picture the Year 3 class with their Spanish notebooks and certificates. If you have the chance, ask them for the time, about school material, or food in Spanish, you will be very impressed. Ms Rocio Marti, Spanish teacher
BSB students listening attentively
Chloe is the first dog in Romania to receive the specialist training needed in order to become a Guide Dog for the Blind. She has been training for 10 months so far; her complete program can take up to two years.
Part of the money from the Summer Fair is going towards paying for Chloe and all the children were thrilled to meet her in person and learn about the important work that she and all her colleagues are trying to do.
The children were all part of Chloe’s training process as it is very important that she is exposed to new experiences and people so that she can learn to ignore all possible distractions. The children were all amazingly supportive during both assemblies and showed their understanding of this cause by asking lots of questions about Chloe and her work.
We would like to thank Mircea, Andrei and Stan Platt from Light into Europe for their wonderful work and for letting everyone at BSB become involved with such an important cause…and Chloe too! Ms Naima Hussain, Head of Primary
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Junior Library Students Experience the Joy of Reading
One thing I’ve learned since being the librarian is that all children have something in common: they are curious and their interest is boundless. To meet their needs for information, the Library is trying to offer a well-balanced collection of both printed and electronic materials. These lending and reference items include books, audio materials, children’s magazines and newspapers on a wide range of topics and subjects. Our stock receives new items continuously, be it from orders we place, free books received with the Red House orders, or donations. Apart from our popular periodicals from Bayard (Story Box, Adventure Box and Discovery Box), we have now new arrivals in the Library and they proved to be an attraction from the first issue. It is the First News children’s weekly newspaper.
Mohammad reading aloud for his colleagues in 6U
I would like to say how proud I am with our Red House Book Club this year. We have received free books for the Library in the amount of £3095, which represents 20 % of our orders throughout the school year. For this last order, children from Year 2 to Year 6 helped me choose the books they wanted to see in the Library. When the order arrived, 6U helped with stamping and registering the books so they were quickly ready to be taken home by eager readers in Foundation and Primary. Some of the very popular books are already reserved for the remaining weeks of the school year. It is a privilege for me to experience on a daily level the joy of sharing reading with students in so many forms. It starts with the reading-and-bouncing sessions for the Creche, with lots of rhymes, stories and fun. Then, there are the storytelling sessions in each library lesson for the younger children-reading aloud to children helps them learn listening skills, vocabulary and language skills, as well as develop imagination and creativity. As children get older and become more experienced readers, we use the library lesson for developing various fundamental reading skills, such as reading for context, reading for patterns, and literary analysis. This is done through individual reading and pair or group reading.
We are proud to show the new books that arrived with the Red House Book Club order
Craze of the Week
4-Square was probably the most popular; bringing together secondary students and primary students to compete for King spot. What was most interesting was watching the game evolve as the students changed and adapted the rules.
Before starting to read a book, 1H likes checking the inside cover for clues on what it might be about
With the holiday soon approaching, I know this will carry on in the good habit of reading within the family. I wish you all a relaxing holiday and don’t forget to put that book in the suitcase; there is a space right there next to the sun cream. Mrs Ana-Maria Marin, Librarian
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The ‘Craze of the Week’ has been an exciting addition to playtimes at BSB. Games like Pokemon successfully swept the schoolyard and have yet to go away, while skipping came and went.
Andrew, Jakob, Stanislav and Antoine compete in a game of 4-Square to see who will hold the spot of King
It went from 4-Square to 4-Circle, from hands only to feet only and juggling has even come into play. I am looking forward to see what Crazes will come next year! Mr Brad Hamacher, Craze of the Week Coordinator
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Author John Malam visits BSB
It was an exciting time for BSB children when children’s author John Malam- author of over 200 fiction and non-fiction books- came to visit. Many of John Malam’s books are about History, especially topics taught in schools such as the Ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Roman and Vikings. Some of his titles include ‘You Wouldn’t Want to be a Victorian Schoolchild’, ‘How to be a Pirate’ and ‘100 facts about Mummies.’ He once used to be an archaeologist, I wonder if that is where he got his love of history? During his visit, John Malam read to the Reception classes and Year 1 from his book ‘The Very Sleepy Pig’. Afterwards the children made storyboards of the story. In Year 2, he read biographies of famous people and gave a talk about the ‘Journey of a Non-fiction book’ to KS2 and the Year 7 and 8s. With the Year 5 and 6 he did a workshop where the children made a nonfiction book.
And in Year 7 he talked about the process of writing a story and book. We got a lot of positive feedback from the children and teachers: “His books were very good, they were feely. The story was good because at the end the pig was very not tired.” Tabitha and Maddie RB “He was nice to us, I liked the biography he read. We asked him a lot of questions.” Andrew Y2 “I like the way the books are typed on a big piece of paper (A1). It was interesting to know that an author needs to communicate with people all around the world to complete a book.” Hristos 6D
Basil, Andrei and Cezer working on their non-fiction book
“The children really enjoyed the workshop and have a better understanding of the process a book goes through in order to be published. I liked how each child in the group took on the role of either the author, illustrator, editor or designer.” Miss Ullman, Class Teacher 6U
The children really enjoyed the two days that the author was here and we would like to thank the PTA for sponsoring one of the days. Ms Justine Tyler, Event Organiser Reception class feeling the pictures in the story
Anthony Frost Book Token Prize
Alex, Year 12, asked a guest to help him make a mask for his IGCSE Art exam. Can you guess who the mystery guest is for the ‘Anthony Frost 200 Ron Book Token’?
“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.
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Year 3 Sinaia Trip
On the big day we arrived at school and saw a gigantic, red bus that was waiting to take us to Sinaia. When we reached the beautiful New Montana Hotel we were really excited and went to get ready in our rooms. Then we took the bus to Cota 1400 and climbed the grassy hill. When we reached Cota 1500 we stopped and our teachers asked us interesting questions. We even saw some bears on the way back! After that we went to the clear swimming pool to swim. We then went to the conference rooms to write our postcards and finally we went to the marvelous restaurant to eat glorious food. After all of that we slept very well in our comfortable beds. The next day we prepared to go to Peles Castle but first we went to see a monastery. After Peles Castle we went shopping and ate our packed lunch in the park. We had a great time but when we finally reached school we were excited to see our parents again. Elad, 3P
Students and Teachers in front of Peles Castle
Year 4’s Trip to Poiana Brasov
In the morning we took the bus to Poiana Brasov. On our way we watched the movie, ‘Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull’. When we were only one hour from the destination we stopped at a park to eat our lunch and play some games. When we got to the Hotel Alpin we got settled and we went for a swim. After that, we ate a delicious dinner and watched ‘Kung-Fu Panda’ on a huge screen. Oh, it was Louis’ Birthday, so we had some sweets and celebrated!
Lea, Joana and Hannah looking good in the mountains
Lea got all dressed up for our dinner, and was rewarded with a tasty Banana Split!
The next day we took the cable car up the mountain and had an ‘Adventure Race’. We had to solve clues and riddles, and search all over the mountain for special letters. After we ate our lunches, we hiked all the way down the mountain, which took us 2 hours. It was hard work, but everyone loved it! We also helped the environment by picking up 10 bags of rubbish that was left on the mountain. When we arrived at the hotel we went for another swim, ate dinner and headed off for a campfire. It was the best part of the trip. We read jokes, scary stories, played games and we sang songs. We also roasted marshmallows. On the last day we came back to Bucharest and stopped only to buy some souvenirs at the local shops along the road. Overall, we spent three days on the trip and it was great! I enjoyed it a lot! Alessandro, 4H
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Year 4 enjoying the Hot Tub at The Hotel Alpin in Poiana Brasov. Even Joana could enjoy the soothing water with her broken arm!
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Aaron enjoying the archery
Year 5 trip to Moeciu de Sus
On June 1st, in the morning, we left BSB and headed to Moeciu de Sus. There was lot’s of hills and beautiful views on the way there. As we got there we went straight to lunch, because we were starving after the long road. After filling out tummies we unpacked and went to a relaxing walk in the village. At night we watched a good movie, which we didn’t finished because we were too tired. Lights off!
Year 5 students at their hotel
On Tuesday we did three activities: archery, sculpture and painting pottery. At the end we could keep the sculptures and the pots that we painted. It was enjoyed by all and everyone liked the people who taught us. All the teachers tried the archery and Ms Catalina was clown face painted by Daniel and Thomas! After that we went to Bran Castle and bought lots of souvenirs (we didn’t enter the castle). Then the girls paraded in different coloured wigs. The boys did tricks on everyone with shock gum or shock buttons. Tuesday night there was a disco party that everyone really enjoyed. On Wednesday we walked up a big hill to visit an old village in Rasnov Citadel. There were shops,
a buried skeleton, a 360 view of Rasnov and the other green mountains around us. Everyone went to have a look at the telescopes! After we got back we had a refreshing horse and cart ride. That night we had a movie night. On Thursday we went for a walk. Our dinner that night was a barbeque. After the barbeque we had a Talent Show … Finn won!!! On Friday after having breakfast, we packed up and headed up to BSB! We arrived sometime around 2 o’clock. Our parents were waiting anxiously for us. We all enjoyed the trip to Moeciu de Sus! Isabel, 5T and Sacha, 5B
Year 6 Sojourn to Italy
The Year 6 Italy trip was a life changing experience. We had a really good time. We went to the beach, swam and built the biggest sandcastle Kingdom ever imaginable! Our Italian teacher, Mrs Grass, taught us loads of useful Italian words and phrases like ‘Posso,chi,di chi’.
Robert giving us a history lesson in St. Marks Square Venice
Year 6 enjoying Italian lessons in the sun!
We bought very nice gifts for our families when we visited Venice and Lignano and they liked them a lot. Venice was very nice, but really hot. The best part by far was the theme park. We all had an amazing time there. In the ‘DEATH COURSE’ we ran along a strip of wood while dodging (more like walking through) big swinging hammers. After that we went to watch a show where a clown was walked on by a “real” zebra – which looked very similar to two people dressed up as a zebra. The zebra also did other tricks. Over all we had a very interesting time, but were really tired when we got home.
Year 6 students enjoying ‘downtown’ Venice
Harry and Hristos, Year 6
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The 2009 BSB Summer Fair
BSB Summer Fair Hits Perfect Weather Jackpot
On June 6th 2009, BSB hosted its annual Summer Fair, and the event was a huge success thanks to the effort of students, teachers, parents, PTA, sponsors, and of course, the weather, which was absolutely fantastic. From the relaxing sounds of classical music that were emerging from the Crawford Hall music recital, to the adrenalin rush of those daring enough to attempt the “over the pool” climbing wall, this day had something for everyone. Here are some of the highlights from the day. First, the stalls; a summer fair would not be complete without the presence of various stalls, and this year there were many to choose from. With staff from different year groups running various activities, many of the children (and big kids) enjoyed the fun of guessing the number of sweets in a jar, naming a teddy, having their face painted, playing video games, soaking various members of staff in the infamous “Wet the Teacher” competition (I am still plotting my revenge on the year 6s who took such pleasure at throwing sponges at me!), purchasing raffle tickets (with amazing prizes such as a laptop, ipod, and
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gym membership) and much more. In addition to all of this, there were stalls where local artisans were selling their impressive creations, and also stalls where we could taste dishes from around the world as parents kindly brought in delicious home-made delicacies. Then there was the stage; this year we were fortunate enough to have a stage that was even bigger, better, and louder than last year, and was the perfect set-up for us to watch some of the vast array of talent that exists at BSB. The E.A.D. Band (Eduardo, Alex, and Denis) kicked the day off with some rocking tunes; they were followed by: an electric guitar solo from the hugely talented Mihnea, outstanding performances from the Karate and Dance clubs, the vocal talents of the KS2 and KS3 school choirs, the drumming genius of Mr Mulvany, and the funky sounds of The Okey Dokey Jazz Band (who showed us that the talent at BSB does not only exist amongst the students, as we also have some very talented parents in our midst!). Special mention must go to the amazing Miss Kemp, and her sister Sarah, who not only wowed us with their voices, but also entertained us as the MCs throughout the day. As I hope you will see from this brief article, the 2009 Summer Fair was a great day, and this success was due to the fact that many people
freely gave their time and talents. While it is impossible to thank everyone for their efforts, I would like to mention Cathryn Henderson and the PTA who have spent months putting the event together, the parents that prepared the wonderful food for the day, the maintenance staff who helped with set up and cleaning, the companies that very generously sponsored the event, all the BSB staff, all those who performed, and last, but by no means least, everyone who attended the event and helped make this such a special day. “The Summer Fair is something we all look forward to, and at the 2009 Fair it was wonderful to see everybody smiling and having fun.” Ms Diana, 5B TA “My favourite part of the day was the ‘Wet the Teacher’ stall.” Megan, 6U “It was fun. My favourite stall was Sing-Star.” Calista, 4H
“The stage performance led by Ms Kemp and her sister gave the day a great atmosphere.” Alex, Year 12
“The 2009 Summer Fair was very well organised, and it was great to be able to walk around and see all that was going on.” Mr Pantella (Head of ICT)
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Johann, Year 8, Winner of the Under 14 Boys Event
Raphaela, 5T, Winner of the Under 14 Girls Event
Francois, 4K, 3rd place
Ms Hussain in firing range
Face painting
Students enjoying the bouncing castle
Students look on as putt just missing the centre hole
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3P Perform ‘Brush’ in Key Stage 2 Assembly
The script of ‘Brush’ was written with the thought of illustrating the importance of school. It is the story of a little boy whose artistic talent, though inside himself from the moment he is born, can only be nourished within school, through learning. The boy is suggestively named Brush, as that’s the artistic area that he is gifted in.
BSB Radio Show Update
The Radio show has been running smoothly during the last weeks of spring term and the team has now recorded for four weeks in a row since the summer term started. During this time the students have got better and better at writing the script and recording; they can now capture the essential details within a piece of international news and can write news about events happening in school entirely by themselves. New topics have been added, such as ‘A Famous Person’ and ‘A Place on Earth’; one of the radio team members writes and records a short description of a famous person or place on Earth in order for the listeners to guess who or what it is. The latest addition to our topics was ‘Poem of the Day’, chosen and read by one of the students recording the show; for the future, the team is looking at the possibility of recording poems written by students.
The greatest achievement however was being able to record an interview while speaking freely, without depending on a script at all, asking questions and analyzing answers; the last interview turned into a real debate, which was recorded, much to the students’ delight, as they were not aware that the microphone was on. The process of creating the show is still monitored by the teacher, but the students now have a much bigger input into the show. The editing mechanism is still something to be experienced and learnt; until then, we have Mr Stefan to thank for his patience and help. Very soon, all the recorded shows, edited and sound improved, will be available on the school server for everyone; the shows will also be played during lunch for the other children to listen to their colleagues, now radio professionals, and enjoy the Top Three Tunes of different weeks. Last but not least, the members of the radio team, Tatum, Rhys, Basil, Megan and Johann (Years 6D and 6U) deserve to be congratulated for their hard work, patience, drive, and significant progress. “You had your time, you had your power You’ve yet to have your finest hour Radio… All we hear is radio ga-ga, radio gu-gu, radio ga-ga Radio, what’s new? Someone still loves you… “ Ms Doina Antohi, Drama Teacher
Year 3P rehearsing the ‘Brush’ play
Year 3P was very patient and did a wonderful job learning their lines. I have always thought that the rehearsals process can become dull for young children and it can therefore keep them from learning; it is sometimes difficult for professional actors, let alone for Year 3 students! However, the class managed to sit through rehearsals quietly, to learn the lines and act, and convey not only a story, but also its meaning. They learned to be a team. The most enjoyable part was the final song, a classic – ‘Swinging on a Star’. The lyrics made this song an excellent choice for the finishing part of the play, and the show ended in everyone’s excited applause. And by the way, if you hate to go to school You may grow up to be a mule! Or would you like to swing on a star Carry moonbeams home in a jar And be better off than you are Or would you rather be a pig? Ms Doina Antohi, Drama Teacher
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Story in Four
(An Improvisational Theatre Assembly) The Key Stage 2 Improv Assembly happened on March the 30th; involving all students who had participated in the Improv University Course as well as many who hadn’t, within an assembly that turned out to be a lot of fun. Activities such as Story in Four, the (Crazy) Hands Story, the Interpreter (the Translator), 5 Minutes to 5 Seconds, were acted out in front of a audience that was highly entertained throughout the performances. The great thing about Improv theatre is that it actively involves the audience – those watching the performers give them suggestions such as where the scene should take place, who the characters should be, and what the conflict could be. As everyone is involved, Improv creates a lively crowd that dynamically influences the course of the story in progress. The ‘Story in Four’ involving students from one of the University courses (there were four courses J) is essentially about children having fun while developing a story through dramatic conflict and characters. They also develop confidence, vocabulary, and listening skills. They learn to stand, listen and respond in front of a crowd, and most of all, to they get to enjoy themselves. Hearing the whole of Key Stage 2 laugh genuinely – that was the best part of it all.
Sacha, Tasos, Johann and Suparnan performing Story in Four in front of the KS2 Assembly
Ms Doina Antohi, Drama Teacher
Drama Students Perform Monologues at School Assembly
A monologue is one of the most difficult types of dramatic text an actor can perform. The actor has to stand in front of an audience and give a solo performance, moving around, making use of props, and, most importantly, going through a wide range of emotions; all without the support of a stage partner, and all directed to the audience. However, the Year 7, 8 and 9 students who attended the Drama Club did an excellent job. The monologues were chosen by the teacher, according to the children’s personalities, from a book of contemporary American and English monologues from various plays, which the students studied in preparation for assembly. During the assembly, on the last day of the spring term, April the 9th, each one of the 9 students gave a 5 minute solitary performance. It was great to see students who used to be less confident in English speak out aloud in front of the teachers and Key Stage 2, 3 and 4 students. It was also great to see some funny and quite entertaining performances. But, most importantly, it was great to watch these students take one more big step toward becoming students with a lot of self-confidence and high selfesteem. The KS3 Monologue Show was a fun and interesting way to end the spring term.
Sacha, Tasos, Johann and Suparnan performing Story in Four in front of the KS2 Assembly
Ms Doina Antohi, Drama Teacher
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Noa pleads her case as Year 8 students Vanessa, Alizee, Shanni and Johann listen on in attendance
Mamma Mia had the crowd in hysterics
The secondary summer production, called Mamma Mia, consisted of a group of short plays written and acted by the students. They were all inspired in some way by an ABBA song, which was performed at the end of each play. This process
Beth gives costar Louisa knowing look as Mystic May plies her trade
combined both the Performing Arts and English; it also gave the students a chance to briefly review the history of 1970’s modern music. Throughout term 3 the students worked very hard and could be heard singing or humming the songs of ABBA at break and lunch times and they were extremely supportive of each other throughout the rehearsal process. Some of the plays were well-written children’s theatre pieces, which entertained the Year 1’s through Year 6’s in the rehearsals as a lead up to the big night. The laughter of the youngsters inspired the acting of their older brothers,
On the spot reporter Danial interviews Sam (played by Matthias), as cameraman Nikita zooms in
Polen, Year 7, offer a solo performance of Fernando
Usman as news presenter
Ana, Naomi, Jennea, and Natalie contemplate escape from tropical captivity
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sisters and friends. It was a joy for a teacher of the Expressive Arts to see children entertaining children and then adults too, at the Tandarica Theatre in Bucharest. In the end a great night was had by all. I would like very briefly to say a big thank you to the parents, teachers and children who attended. I look forward to seeing you all at the next show. Look out in the next issue for a full review of the Key Stage 2 adaptation of Oliver Twist. Mr Kevin Kelly, Head of Drama
Mr Kelly instructs the audience to turn off their mobile phones
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Mr Mulvany and Mr Kelly in Key Stage 2 Production, Oliver rehearsal
Louisa and May performing at the BSB Music Recital
Private Piano lessons
Earlier in the year a new lesson began at BSB, it was the newest addition to BSB and it was called Private Music lessons. Some people joined piano, some joined in violin and some did other instruments as well. I joined in the piano lessons as well as my friend Alina.
Mr Mulvany performing at the BSB Summer Fair
The History of the Orchestra
An orchestra is an instrumental ensemble, usually fairly large, with strings, brass, woodwind and a percussion section. The term orchestra derives from the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus. The size of the orchestra grew steadily throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but changed very little in composition during the course of the twentieth century. A smaller size orchestra (of about fifty players or fewer) is called a Chamber orchestra. A full size orchestra (about 100 players) may sometimes
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be called a Symphony Orchestra or Philharmonic Orchestra; these prefixes do not necessarily indicate any strict difference in either the instrumental constitution or role of the orchestra, but can be useful in distinguishing between different ensembles based in the same city (for instance, the London Symphony Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Orchestra). A symphony orchestra will usually have eighty musicians on its roster, in some cases over a hundred, but the actual number of musicians employed in a particular performance may vary according to the work being played and the size of the venue. A leading chamber orchestra might employ as many as fifty musicians; some are much smaller than that. Look out for the news of the new BSB orchestra in a future issue of BSB.
Ana at one of BSB pianos
I learned how to draw the notes and play different songs on the piano and a lot more things. I chose piano because I already knew how to play the piano but I learned more and more everyday. Ana, 4K
Mr Desmond Mulvany, Head of Music
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Ana giving her mix a stir
DT from a Year 7 Point of View
Just in case you don’t know or haven’t heard, students at BSB are, as of this year, having weekly D.T lessons (Design Technology) with Ms Kemp.
Ms Kemp leading the way
Naomi looking like the master chef
In Year 7, we are doing Food Technology or in other words: cooking. This may sound boring at first, however, once you get to know what it is, you may change your mind.
different skills. Have you ever heard of the claw or bridge grips? Well, we’ve mastered them both! We are currently looking at sauces and different ways to describe a food we have tasted.
We have made several different dishes this year, all ranging from sweet to sour to savoury. We have made smoothies, cheese and courgette muffins, apple and sultana crumble and lots more. In all these different foods we are learning all kinds of
Overall, these lessons have been very fun (and tasty!) and I look forward to seeing what we’re making next week.
Year 10 Art Students look to National Military Museum for inspiration Year 10 Art Students look to the National Military Museum for inspiration Having almost finished our last art unit for this year and with the vacation almost upon us, Mrs Lavery took the opportunity to us take on a field trip to the National Military Museum. Once at the museum we took our time to walk around and we looked at the different mechanical forms, such as planes, tanks, clocks, weapons, and many more. As part of our class work we had to draw small sketches of different sections from a mechanical form chosen by ourselves. The most interesting part of the trip for me was the airplane exhibition where we saw a diverse range of airplane models, both old and new, as well as an astronaut costume and some parachutes. “It was very unusual and interesting” said Senia from Year 10. Maria said that she also really enjoyed the trip and found the background music particularly relaxing and conducive to sketching. The outside exhibition containing the tanks and shoot guns were very exciting for all of us, especially the train engine, which was huge and very detailed. All in all, the trip was a great success; we all enjoyed it and had fun as we learned from our past. Andreea, Year 10
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Ana, Year 7
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IGCSE Art Exhibition
On Wednesday May 13, in the reception area of the secondary Crawford House, from 3pm until 7pm, we were all able to admire the artwork carefully drawn, sketched or moulded by our IGCSE Art and Design students, Isabella, Alex, and Nour, from Year 11 and 12. The work was done either as part of the coursework, in preparation for the exam and, perhaps most importantly, as part of their exam. Their work experimented with techniques and materials such as oil pastels, acrylics, charcoal, sketching, and so on. Apart from their parents, classmates and teachers, the visitors to the exhibition included the children and parents from both the Primary and Secondary School, with accompanying friends from outside school. The nervousness could easily be read on Isabella, Alex and Nour’s faces as the first guests started to arrive and wander around the exhibition hall – however, they did a great job showing everybody around, talking with the guests or even sharing a small/funny story about the artworks’ “creative process”.
Visitors looking through Isabella’s work folders
All in all, it was obvious that the exhibition was a great success, with everybody seeming to enjoy themselves, and Isabella, Alex and Nour having a taste of what it feels like to be an artist, reaping the fruits of their hard labour. Congratulations to our three young artists, Isabella, Alex and Nour, for all the hard work you have put into this exhibition! As for me, and the rest of the Year 10 art class, we are already eagerly looking forward to the Year11 exhibition next year and hope you will all be able to make it. Senia, Year 10
Alex proudly displaying his work
Nour, Year 12, exhibiting her work
Year 7 students making their mould for a face mask in Year 7 Art
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Adult Art Classes
‘Barbara, I neeeed you!’, ‘Barbara, can I see you next please?’ Not BSB students, but a group of anxious mothers trying to free their creative genius which was, for the moment, out of town.
putative Renoirs (or Rolf Harris), and fighting the urge to don a beret, Barbara somehow managed to coax out of us respectable still life paintings, using a subject of our choice (and nobody chose a tea pot or sugar cubes). We learned that much of painting is about technique and experience, and that you do not need to know everything before you start! In the morning craft group, some are making lino cut prints, some papier mache sculptures and some are producing the most exquisite silk paintings. This class is quite easy going, if there is a craft you want to pursue, it can usually be accommodated with good humour and expert guidance. We then moved to figure drawing and painting, starting with a very pregnant mum as our first model, gradually growing in confidence as Barbara taught us about light and shade, primary and complementary colours, and that you got told off if you leave your brushes in the water. This term we are doing abstract landscape, again using a subject of our choice and painting it in the style of another artist, which helps to focus us and give Barbara an idea of what style we are trying to achieve.
Adult English Classes End of Year Review
This was the first year offering Adult English classes to parents and we were not sure how much demand there would be for the classes. In the end we had approximately 30 parents attend the classes, which were divided into four levels: elementary, pre-intermediate, intermediate, and upper-intermediate. Classes had 8 students or less each, which is ideal as this gives the teacher time to spend with each student individually and also makes for a close friendly learning environment where everyone in the group has the chance to get to know each other a lot better. You are able to improve your English, and also very importantly, speak with other parents in a very relaxed setting. Many new friendships were formed and this is very important as living abroad is much easier and more enjoyable when you have a good network of friends to spend time with. Next year we plan to offer Adult English classes again and hope to see many of you back: classes will start Monday, September 14th. For those of you who are moving away, Bill and I would like to say thank you for the many enjoyable conversations and to wish you all the best in your future location and studies.
Monica, Anne Marie and Isabel working on their prints
Every Thursday we meet in the Art Room for either craft (in the morning) or painting with acrylics. We are a diverse group, both in nationality, but also in talent and experience. Most of us have no background in art at all, and in our first lesson most of us looked with trepidation at a still life arrangement of cup, saucer, tea pot, sugar cubes and flowers which we were expected to transfer onto a huge sheet of paper with nothing more than a stick of messy charcoal and our non-existent ability.
Mr Kendall Peet, Head of EAL Diane Worth decorating her pot
I would recommend this group to anyone. It’s fun, the biscuits and the company are both good, and you end up with artwork you can be proud of.
Slowly, slowly, we progressed onto a real canvas with proper paints and an easel! Feeling like
Diane Worth, Aspiring Artist
BSB Students attend International Conference on Higher Education On Friday 22nd May Louisa, Mihnea and I went to a conference held at the People’s Palace. There were many ambassadors and important delegates from different countries, and it was extremely exciting.
At the conference they discussed Higher Education (Universities and Colleges). It was interesting to hear how education had improved in the past decade and how it can improve further in the future. This experience has given me a better idea about Higher Education, because I knew next to nothing about it before! The speeches were all very enlightening and it was wonderful to listen to
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people who knew their subject so well. I particularly liked Emil Constantinescu’s speech on Education in the 21st Century, in which he described how globalisation has opened a boarders-free market in the educational system. Afterwards he was kind enough to speak to us and we had a photo taken together. That was definitely the highlight of my day. Finally, it was fascinating to see and talk to all the politicians, ambassadors and educational professionals. It was a wonderful day, which we all very much enjoyed. Bethan, Year 9
Beth, Louisa, and Mihnea standing with Emil Constantinescu
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Vanessa, Alizee, Ana and Elizabeth on Work experience at Bacci Restaurant
BSB Work Experience
Work Experience for Year’s 8 and 9 took place this year from Wednesday 25th March – Friday 27th March. Pupils were involved in a programme whereby they were asked to search for a placement with a parent or family member. For the placement they were given a work experience booklet to complete which highlighted six important ‘Key Skills’ communication, application of number, problem solving, information technology, improving their own learning performance and working with others. Pupils were asked to complete tasks relating to the key skills and assess their improvement in the key skills at the end of the placement. The booklets were particularly impressive and some pupils even made power point presentations of their experiences. They also recorded their experiences, views and impressions and on a DVD. Ms Jen Kemp, Work Experience Coordinator
“I went for work experience to PETROM Oil and Gas Company. I visited many different departments such as Tax department, HR (Human Resources) department, Financial and Marketing department, Treasury department and many more. It improved a lot of things such as my
confidence. It was a great experience, I found out what it is like to work, have a manager and work with colleagues. The experience also helped me decide if this is the right career for me. I learned loads of new things such as what kind of skills do we need for each department , what happens in each area, there are two kinds of taxes and they are named Corporate tax and Personal Tax, Tax department is related to many different things like benefits , salaries, social security, and that PETROM covers offshore and onshore assets. I even got to know when the first asset was acquired in 1857 and all the wells extended after World War II.” Noor Yr 8
“On Work Experience, I found out many interesting things about how to run a restaurant. I went to Bacci restaurant with my some of my friends in Year 8. We worked in the kitchen, and around the restaurant itself. A few things I wanted to learn how to do, or how to improve in were, ‘how to use the skills and knowledge I have’ and ‘how different jobs in an organisation fitted together. Whilst at work experience, we each were ‘assigned’ a task to complete, mine was first waitressing. I shadowed the waiters and/or other people, such as chefs. I learned that in the restaurant, they use more than one refrigerator for keeping food separate and that they have freezers and fridges for certain foods and also for freezing and thawing food for the next day. My work related learning project consisted of negotiating with my employer on advertising skills. The menu, as I noticed, was in only one language. If it could be converted into more than one (as it is now) then they might have more customers. The menu is now in Italian, Romanian, and English.
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with a boss! I even got to make my own yogurt! I also learnt loads of things which will help me in the future: I learnt which skills I need to use for this job and improved my ability to communicate with adults!” Noa Yr 8
I also believed that many of my skills improved during this set period of time. At first, I didn’t feel very confident at the restaurant. They were all very nice of course, but I just wasn’t in my comfort zone. After a day or two, I started to talk more and more to the other workers and actually played a game of football with one waiter and chef. During this, we all used the key skills to create success in our groups. We (sometimes) worked as a team, I, myself, improved my own performance, and we all achieved maximum in communication. All in all, this work experience was a blast and I hope to do it again.” Elizabeth Yr 8
“I went for the work experience mission to a company called TNUVE Romania with my Mum who works there. I improved in lots of ways while working there. On the first day I was really shy, scared and I wasn’t confident at all! But when I got to know people better it was much easier communicating with them. It was a really nice and interesting and off course fun experience, working
“For my work experience I went to a restaurant called Bacci. During my work experience I gained some skills in doing basic things that are done at restaurants by staff. For example I have learnt how to prepare a proper drink at a bar in a restaurant (I really enjoyed this part of my work experience). I may have improved my cleaning skills and of course preparing drinks and making them look tasty. We also went through the kitchen where we have helped a bit and learned how to make pizza in an Italian restaurant. My time keeping was good and I felt quite confident and completed all tasks that I was asked to do. The people on my work experience also went through all the health and safety procedures at the beginning of the work experience program. I worked as part of the team with Vanessa, Alizee and Liz even though we had different jobs to do. Overall we all had fun together especially when we were testing the food ourselves.” Ana-Maria Yr 8
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Reception Transition to Year 1
Moving onto a new class can be a frightening prospect for many children. This is no different for my reception class at Gafencu – they are not only moving to a new class in September but a whole new school ‘the BIG school’ at Pipera. We were all getting ready for our trip to see John Malam at Pipera, an author, who was coming to share the books he had written. Some children appeared a little uneasy about trips to the big school, asking questions like “how long will we be gone?” It’s a big change for these children who are so familiar with our cosy surroundings. On the big day, the bus arrived to take us all to Pipera. We buckled up and mentioned how important seatbelts are to keep us all safe. On the way we helped the children to relax by looking at the trucks and trying to guess what the trucks were carrying (ice cream?); the children also noticed landmarks, and made comments such as “Look there’s IKEA”. When we got off the bus the children noticed a familiar face, their own PE teacher Mr Mugur and gave him a big wave hello. We all need friends in unfamiliar environments and our class proved to be very good friends as Meea said “I’m holding hands with Claudia my friend”, and Sai said “I am going to hold Andreea’s hand” while Andreea beamed with delight and said “ I am holding hands with Sai and Smruti”. It was wonderful to see them being very supportive to one another in the strange and new environment.
Reception students enjoying listening to visiting author, John Malam
Back Row: Andreea, Patricia, Meea, Jan, Theodore, Francesco, Claudia Front Row; Smruti, Sai, Victor, Luca
all get a chance to see on our next transition day. All the children enjoyed making new friends and also meeting up with old friends whilst playing in the great space in the garden and comments were made “It’s much bigger here”, “More space to play” although some children were a little over whelmed they still managed to enjoy themselves.
Space to run
Some children got very excited when they saw the running track “this is for racing” said one child and immediately began to run down it. Victor saw the wooden staircase and asked the teacher “What’s up there?” The teacher answered “Up there is going to be your classroom next year”. Victor with delight shouted to his classmates “Hey, that’s our classroom, that’s our classroom”, which they will
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It was time then to meet the author in the library. As the children walked in, you could hear many of them saying “WOW”, most of them had never seen or been in the Primary building before and were impressed by the décor and size. They all sat down to listen to the author who was very good. It is very rare to find a visitor who is able to talk to such young children. They were so comfortable that they asked him questions about his book such as how long it takes him to write. They joined in with reading the book and used words to describe the feel of the pictures in the book such as ‘prickly’ and ‘soft’. At the end of his talk, the children got the
chance to draw their own picture story board and even make up their own ending to the story. When we got back to class, we asked the children to reflect upon their trip. Some said they liked it because they saw their friends and talked about how they enjoyed running in the garden and playing ‘chasing’ games because there is so much more space. Some children commented that they were not looking forward to going to the big school next year because it is so far from their house and other children said they preferred Gafencu School. I think these trips between Gafencu and Pipera are excellent they help to ease the children’s anxiety as the more visits they make the more familiar they become. I would like to take this opportunity to wish them all the very best for the next year. Patricia Pantella, Reception Teaching Assistant, Gafencu
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Year 7 help Year 6 Students prepare for the jump to Secondary
One Year On Everybody knows the transition from Year 6 to Year 7 can be a big move! But, as the Year 6’s found out, it is definitely NOT as bad as it is made out to be! On the 12th of May 6U and 6D gathered in the Yellow Building’s ICT room, quietly waiting for us (Year 7) to burst into the room (accompanied by Ms Kemp) equipped with our school-made presentations. During PCSHE, we had been working in pairs on power point presentations in order to give Year 6 a sneak preview into Year 7. Our Presentations included information about the Building, the School Day, the Teachers, Advice for the ‘next generation of Year7’s’! Altogether, there were seven presentations. You may believe that seven power points on the same subject could lead to seven tonnes of boredom; however, we managed to make each presentation very individual with different opinions shared about different aspects of life in the Secondary school.
Natalie and Jennea Year 7 giving their presenation
All the Year 6’s were very attentive and asked a lot of good questions. A few of the things that they were interested in were: detentions, homework and break times. They made a very good audience and laughed and groaned in all the right places (these included a moan when they heard that our break times were shorter and a sigh at the fact that we can get detentions!). A few of the messages that we sent out to the Year 6-s were: don’t worry, be yourself, have fun, do your homework on time and be respectful towards teachers and peers. We would like to thank Ms Kemp, Mr Davidson and Ms Ullman for allowing Year 7 to be an important part of the Year 6 Transition Day.
Sabina and Miriam pointing out the teachers to the year 6’s!
Ana and Jennea, Yr 7
Year 6 Impressions The Year 7 students talked to us about the transition from Year 6 to Year 7 and what they thought about it. Most of them said that it may seem big and scary, but that it wasn’t. They also told us about the work, uniform, the changing of classes and what their opinion of the high school was. As a result of Year 7 presenting what they wanted us to know, the pupils in Year 6 went home knowing much more about what was ahead, even if they were moving on to a different school. Olivia, 6D
Year 6 listening carefully during the Year 7’s presentations
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Garden Design university course
The Garden Design University Course is wonderful. We have learned how to measure the area of an outdoor space and plot the location of existing fixed objects. We were told that we had to draw in scale. Mr Harrison was our university course teacher, he is talented. We have practiced sketching drawings of gardens. If we had university courses in Year 7 I would choose garden design but unfortunately we don’t. All of the university course would like to thank Mr Harrison for all the things he taught us and the wonderful time we spent with him. I would advise you to choose garden design as your university course next year. Mariam 6U
University Course End of Year Review
A wide variety of courses available to the pupils – over 60 different ones! C ourses provided a vast range of new skills to be learned. H uge amount of application letters were written by the ‘applicants’. I n Key Stage 1 the pupil’s were offered Spanish for the first time. E xpert volunteers running courses increased significantly from last year. V acancies available for course leaders for next academic year E ffort levels from the pupils were consistently high throughout all the courses. M ost popular courses included Cooking and Cartoon Designs. E xcitable pupils reflected the popularity of the university courses. N ew courses for Key Stage 2 pupils included calligraphy and I.Q. games T u-tu’s and pirouettes were on show with Miss Hussain’s ballet courses S o all-in-all quite a year of achievements for our university programme! Mr Iain Davidson, University Course Coordinator
Calin completing a difficult task during IQ games
IQ University Course
IQ Games is a course with different, interesting activities involving thinking. It includes an interesting collection of math, logic, language puzzles and memory games so students can have fun and learn as well! In this course we played a memory game with letters and solved number sequence exercises, we found the meaning or the opposite of words, we classified pictures and words and talked about the human brain.
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The game that we liked most was “The Tower of Hanoi”, which is a mathematical game or puzzle and the objective is to move the disks from the first column to the third one obeying some rules: only one disk can be moved at a time and no disk may be placed on top of a smaller one. We also learnt some Albert’s Einstein quotes and tried to understand what they mean: “Try not to become a man of success but rather try to be a man of value”. IQ Team “I liked this course because we played many games and I was really challenged.” Alexandra, 5B “It is one of best university courses that I have been to.” Calin, 5T “We learned many things” Elad, 3L
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Day 5 Report from Madrid, June 2009
The general consensus seems to be that this is the Best Day so far. Ms Kemp and I both smile as this is now the third day running that the students have said this. Everything is going very well. The group is a buzz with talk of Plaza Mayor, a visual feast, like Hemmingway’s A Moveable Feast, as we are all excited by the hive of activity around us; restaurants packed, lights, music, and laughter. Street performers in every direction- Tudor impressed by the guy wearing dark glasses standing on a surf board frozen in time; there’s a man in costume as the scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz, a guy dressed up as a goat- the girls scream when one of the heads on a table, motionless, suddenly springs to life catching the tourists off guard; Mihnea and Sacha give a Romanian street performer some money; in every direction something to hold one’s attention. We decide to sit down in a group and listen to a guy playing a guitar; a little further off a group of school children perform the flamenco to a growing crowd of onlookers. It’s lovely sitting on
the warm paving stones, everybody smiling, the thought of dinner, the movie, and the Fun Park, Parque de Atracciones, still fresh in our minds. Another long, busy day, with only a quick trip to the Ice Cream Parlour before home, bed, and sleep. Tomorrow, Real Madrid Stadium, The Royal Place, and Plaza de Oriente. I ask the students what the highlight of the trip for them has been so far. Everyone replies the Fun Park. May, Mihnea, Vanessa, Beth, Alizee, and Iulia all say they also enjoyed the trip to Segovia, walking the windy, narrow, old cobble-stoned streets. Jojo, Polen, Tudor, and Naomi talk about the Quasar (Laser Strike), and Tudor regales the group of the story about the shopping basket- everybody laughs. Andreea says she enjoyed the climbing most, Sacha the kayaking, then everyone joins in and starts talking about the trip to the Outdoor Adventure Centre, agreeing that Naomi was the best shot at Archery. Sabina talks about the Jonas Brothers Concert, which she attended with her mother and Andreea, while Louisa smiles and says the little double-decker bus; Mihnea smiles also, no doubt thinking of his ride on the horse. Mr Peet says he thinks that the food at The Wok was amazing, with unlimited shrimp and fresh asparagus cooked right
in front of you, and all the sushi, salmon, chicken, rice, noodles, and salad you can eat. Everybody starts talking about the food, with half the group agreeing that Foster’s Holly-wood after the bowling, was best- Jennea topped the board scoring 89, followed closely by Tudor on 85- the other half saying they liked the Italian Restaurant because it was such a fun night, with the laughter from our table filling the restaurant. Ms Kemp and I smile again thinking about our surprise treat on Friday night- a trip to the Madrid Hardrock Café. It has been a wonderful trip so far and the time has passed quickly. In just 3 days we will be boarding the flight bound for Bucharest, returning to our homes and families, and I know that this trip will be with us all forever and that makes me smile. We’ve all got to know each other better and for Ms Kemp and I that is the best part of the trip. Many of these students I will have for English in Year 10 and so I am already looking forward to next year as it has been a great trip and the children have all been amazing. With this said, Ms Kemp and I would like to say a big THANK YOU to all the students on this trip for helping to make it the fun trip it has been. Mr Kendall Peet, on behalf of everyone on the Madrid Trip
Day 2 the Great Outdoors!
Day 3 on the high wire!
Day 3 Kayaking the the lake!
Day 4 the aquaduct in Segovia!
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PE Dept. Review
Physical Education continues to thrive at the British School of Bucharest with the GCSE PE candidates completing their course work and sitting their GCSE Short Course paper in May.
The pupils have been really pleased with the progress they have made and as their PE teacher I have witnessed this not only in their progress during school lessons but in their commitment to activities outside of school, which has been excellent. Isabella Werner and Cristina Anghel especially, both of them are very committed to their sports outside school, karate and horse riding respectively and as part of the GCSE course as the assigned moderating teacher I had to observe them performing their skills. In Foundation and Key Stage 1, 2, 3 pupils have been preparing for our annual Sports Day. They have experienced a variety of running, throwing and jumping events as this years Sports Day will have a traditional feel. The pupils will compete for their houses in events of their choice and earn valuable points for their house as they go. Mr Anthony O’Brien, Head of PE
3P getting ready for Sports Day
BSB are runnersup in ISB Lumina Cup Football Tournament This picture is from the ISB Lumina Football Cup Tournament, played on Saturday, May 16th.
BSB sent several teams to play in the various age groups. In the under 10 team there was Ilias, Fanni, Eldan, Elad, Csaba, Alex, Antoine, Patrick, Philip, Can and our coach, Mr O’Brien. The BSB under 10 team finished in 2nd place. We played 4 matches and won them all, but lost in the finals to Spectrum 2-1. I had a great day and worked really hard to score 2 goals. Next time we will win for sure! Fanni. 3L
Below are a few photos taken of some of the BSB teams entered.
The U 10s with their medals and trophy
Reception races
The U 12s getting ready to attack
YR 1 warming up
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The U 14s in action
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The BSB Ski Team, Sacha, Iulia, Jennea, Johann, Mr Hamacher, Foivos, Cristiana, Andreea, and Mr Murchison
Swoosh!
On the 11th of April, 7 students from BSB took off on an airplane and began their adventure to the world famous Swiss Alps. After saying goodbye to our parents, we experienced a surprisingly easy journey through passport control and security checks and a fairly quick and relatively uneventful flight to Switzerland. Hooray! We have arrived! On arrival in Switzerland we were greeted immediately by a very friendly Ms Regina, who escorted us to the bus and would later assist us with all our never-ending questions in Haut – Lac. The bus journey to our final destination was a lengthy process, but we were more than happy to socialise amongst each other and be amazed with the abounding beauty of Switzerland surrounding us. At Haut-Lac we were informed about rules and routines and then kindly shown our rooms and left to settle in. On the day of arrival we did not get the opportunity to go skiing but we were OK with this because it meant that we were allowed to have tonnes of fun with the wonderfully, friendly ladies and gentlemen at Haut-Lac. We had a ball playing Lacrosse, trying to retrieve a ball from a towering tree, hurling and catching Frisbees and climbing the wonders of a majestic tree. BEDTIME! Besides the 4 days that we went swooshing down the snowy slopes of the super Swiss Alps, we got to
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visit some amazing places around Switzerland. This included the time of our lives in a glorious water park and visiting a tummy-swirling, finger-licking, dream-filling CHOCOLATE FACTORY! We also had the amazing opportunity to visit an historic Swiss castle that had a mind-blowing art exhibition and garden. We had lunch here and admired the lovely landscape spread out beneath us like a magnificent carpet. The indoor water park was amazing, fantastic, wonderful, and we had a blast making a splash in Switzerland. The highlight of the waterpark was the 2 fabulous slides: one of them was red and the average time to reach the bottom was 3 seconds; the other one was orange, and the average time was 7 seconds! We thoroughly enjoyed the exhilarating trip and have to admit that everyone made tremendous progress in their skiing skills! Lastly, we would like to distribute a HUGE thank you to everyone at Haut – Lac and our out-of-this-world teachers, Mr Hamacher and Mr Murchison! If you are interested in joining the next BSB ski trip in March, 2010, please contact the school office for information, office@britishschool.ro or speak directly with Mr Hamacher or Mr Murchison Andreea and Jennéa, Year 7
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BSB Sports Day, 2009
Obviously the first thing to mention about this year’s Sports Day is the weather... It has been kind to us on many occasions this year, however our luck was due to run out and down it came. Before the rain we did manage to get through about half of the programme. To the uninitiated there were 3 different competitions all running together at one time. Foundation and KS 1 entertained us with their performances on their eight stations – each one representing some of the work the children have been doing in PE this year. KS 2’s Sports Day itself comprised of two elements – Individual Competitions (where they had the choice between picking Sprinting, the High Jump or the Cricket ball Throw) and House Team Activities. All of the KS 2 sports were based around the three traditional Athletics events of running, jumping and throwing. The Secondary School pupils had to choose at least three out of four events in which to take part – the 100m, the 400m, the High Jump and the Shot Putt and it was great to see from a PE perspective how many actually chose to compete in all four events.
Back at BSB we had some unfinished business to complete. First off was the Secondary events, luckily there was no problem accommodating the remaining competitions although the 4x100m Relays took some working out. A special mention must go out to Year 10s Eduardo who ended the day winning 4 individual Gold Medals plus another one in the Secondary Boys 4x100m race, great effort. Foundation and KS 1 were next , while all children love to race I think it is especially true of our younger pupils so much so that after the serious race had been run they all stayed behind to race again for sheer enjoyment. Years 3 and 4 completed their House Team Activities on the front grass the following day meanwhile Years 5 and 6 got on with their Individual running, throwing or jumping events. Afterwards came the Years 3 and 4 8x50m Mixed Relay Race and the Years 5 and 6 8x50m Mixed Relay Race. From a personal point of view it was a shame that the team relay races were not run at the stadium. It’s a great Finale to Sports Day when we see each team work to get the baton all the way around the track, but as they say there’s always next year. Well done to all those who took part, even if you did not go home with a medal you should at least be proud of representing and contributing to your House team on the day and also a huge thank you from the PE department for the support from our maintence staff we couldn’t have done it without you!
All rounder! Eduardo Year 10 Five Gold Medals
Keep your eyes peeled for the new school records which will be on display soon. Ms J Kemp and Mr A O’Brien, PE Department
Sports Day Results
Arges
Danube
Olt
Foundation/KS1
68
59
86
Mures 91
Years 3/4
100
121
66
89
Years 5/6
104
116
61
100
Secondary
178
123
198
359
Total
450
419
411
619
Final Placing
2nd
3rd
4th
1st
“I would like to take this opportunity on behalf of the students, parents, and teachers, to formally thank Unicredit Tiriac Bank for kindly sponsoring the BSB Sports Day. Without your support this day would not have been possible.”
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Olt Key Stage 1 Charlie waiting his turn
Mures Key Stage 1
Denis representing Mures
Year 3 and 4 Girls Race Hannah in the lead
Alex Yr 10 in the High Jump
Foundation and Key Stage 1 races
Gafencu Sports Day
Lightening storms were forecast but the weather was kind to us. We had a cool, grey start that finally turned into a hot and sunny day just as we completed our events. The children thoroughly enjoyed themselves and they have repeatedly said how much they enjoyed it since returning to school. No more words... it’s best told in pictures...
Preschool’s budding athletes.
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Francesco leaps over the last hurdle.
Gina helps Ana to squeeze every last drop of water.
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Key Stage 2 House Captain review
Danube Danube has achieved many things and are improving all the time. In particular I would like to say thank you to Alex and Philip for all the hard work they have done this year. In fact, everyone in Danube worked really hard, especially the girls!!! (Trust me the girls in Danube are seriously smart e.g. Isabel, Bianca, etc., everybody). On Sports Day Danube performed particularly well winning many of the events, especially in the running. I think Danube is the best team in the school and I really hope we win the trophy this year.
Primary House Competition Update
Antonio, 6D Danube house captain
Arges I think that Arges has tried its best this year and has collected lots of house points; I think we are in 2nd or 3rd place at the moment. This year we managed to beat Mures 1-0, in the Inter House Football Competition, but then lost to the other houses. I hope that we will start playing well again. We have also behaved really well in the school assemblies, so we got the Good Behaviour Cup more than any other house, which I think is a real achievement. I hope that we will keep up the good work and hopefully do better and achieve our goal of winning the house point trophy this year, and if not, definitely next year. Andrei, 6D
Arges House Captain
Mures
The House Competition continues to be tightly fought with Mures still in the lead with 5778 points. Do not start your victory dances yet though Mures! There is still time for the three trailing houses to snatch victory in the final week.
During this year Mures have achieved many things, and as a result is leading the House Point Competition. We won the competition designing some jeans for Jeans for Genes Day and Mures also made a massive improvement in their behaviour and are now much better at working together. Here we are now at the end of the year working much closer together than at the beginning of the year. I am very proud that I am the captain of Mures and of everything that we have achieved this year. Harry, 6U
Mures House Captain
Olt
Andrei, 6D, Receivng the weekly Good Beviour Cup for Arges
Olt in my opinion has done very well and I think they are constantly improving. One of Olt’s best achievements this year was that in the house games we never lost a single match. I think that in Sports Day we did very well. This year Olt got loads of house points. Olt also won the prize for the Best House Cheer. I hope we will continue to be successful in our endeavours.
With Danube less than 200 points behind and Olt and Arges neck and neck for third place, the lead up to the end of the year promises to be an exciting one. Good luck to you all - may the best house win! Mr Sonny Leese, House Competition Committe
Filippo, 6U Olt house captain
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Secondary House Captain review
Arges Another year is about to come to an end and as the Captain of Arges, I would like to wish you all a great vacation and lots of fun. The year started brilliantly, with Arges in the lead for several weeks, but we lost momentum after the midterm break and from then on went downwards. However, it doesn’t really matter who wins, as it is the effort you put in gathering points for your house that matters.
Obviously Danube put a huge effort in and are now the clear leaders and I would like to take this occasion to congratulate them …great job Danube. I would also like to thank the ones who literally fought for house points on Sports Day: Alizee, Jennea, Chi Bum and Eda…THANK YOU very much and WELL DONE! I’d also like to thank Louisa for her contribution to the house. GREAT JOB! Even though we didn’t quite make it to the top it was an excellent year and I’m sure we’ll do our best next year as well. GO ARGES !!!! Andreea, Arges House Captain
Mures I would like firstly to thank everyone in Mures for all your participation and hard work this year; it has been a pleasure being your House Captain and I’m looking forward to being your Captain again next year.
Secondly, a big Congratulations to everyone and especially those who have worked so hard in the last few weeks! We are currently second behind Danube, however, recently we have been winning the weekly competiton and we did an excellent job on Sports Day and with only 2 weeks of school remaining, I believe that we can still win this! If by any chance we don’t catch up with Danube this year, then I’m sure the House Cup will be ours in 2010! Thank you all again for nominating me this year as your House Captain and I wish you all a splendid summer vacation and I’ll be looking forward to leading Mures to success next year. Go Mures!
Olt Firstly, I would like to say that I am very proud of everyone in Olt for all the hard work you have put in throughout the year. I know this year wasn’t our best year, however I think we all did a great job competing and had fun along the way and this is important. Olt did an excellent job and I am sorry that we lost; it is disappointing, but this should not dissuade us from trying to win next year!
Unfortunately, this is my last year at BSB as I will be graduating and going on to university. It has been a real pleasure leading you for the 3rd year in a row- I’m sure next year you all will vote in an outstanding captain and win. Thank you everyone for all your help and effort. I would also like to thank the Olt teachers who contributed this year and worked hard alongside the Olt students. GREAT JOB OLT! and lets win it next year! Polen, Olt House Captain, 2007-9
Danube This term has been mega-busy for everyone, and the end of year and victory is in sight. Danube have worked extremely hard from the very start of the year and have lead the House Competition for most of the year. We all worked hard in the Spanish Assembly Quiz, on the Paper Cranes, in the interhouse Basketball Tournament and Football Tournament, at Sports Day, and many more... Now, it’s almost the end of the year, and hopefully we’ve done enough for victory to take The Cup! In the last few weeks we need to all work together and do whatever it takes to ensure that Danube win. WE CAN DO IT!!!!!
I want to thank everyone and all the other house captains and vice captains and of course everyone in Olt, Mures and Arges this year. In my team I would like to thank very much to Maria for being the ultra-amazing Vice Captain. In Year 7, I would like to thank Ana, Danial, Nikita...in Year 8 Anamaria, Shani, and Noa...In Year 9, Sacha and Mihnea...In Year 10 Maria again...in Year 11 Flavius and Cristina and in Year 12 Alex...and anyone I missed out; a huge thank you for all your help and support this year! I am sure we’ll make it to the finish line with a huge smile and a cup in hand! GO DANUBE!
Danube has Victory in its sights
The end of term is in sight and so is the end of the House Competition. The House Competition will end on the last day of term, so there is still time for points to be given and leads shortened. At the moment I am pleased to announce that Danube is still in the lead with a whopping 1651 points.
Andreea receiving the House Cup for Arges, Week 34
Tudor, Mures Vice Captain, receiving the Weekly House Cup from Mr Pantella in Week 33
A few weeks ago Mures and Olt trailed Danube by a colossal 300 points so both teams have lots of work to do if they want to challenge Danube for the shield. Do not forget to read the next issue to find out who the House Winners are! GO DANUBE! Mr Pantella, House Competition Committee
Nour, Danube House Captain
Denis, Mures House Captain
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Class pages
Under the Sea
Shells and sand take center stage in the Gafencu Crèche Class The Crèche children in Gafencu discovered that there is ‘a serious commotion at the bottom of the ocean’; this is how our Under the Sea Learning Journey all began with what is now our favourite book: Commotion in the Ocean, by Giles Andreae and David Wojtowycz.
fine motor skills such as cutting, pasting, and drawing. Certain themes, such as the ocean and the creatures that live in it, lend themselves perfectly to art projects. Ocean life is full of fun shapes and colours which are replicated in these activities. In the classroom we set up our role play area with umbrellas, beach balls, inflatable beach toys, shovels, pails, towels, and a paddle pool filled with fish and seashells and enjoyed having a pretend day at the beach. In our Mathematics Centre we had a shell counting and matching game children chose a card and counted out the same number of shells as the number listed on the card. When they had counted out the correct number of shells they then placed the shells on the number card.
Jason, Amelie, Ana, Anna, Sofia, and Agata are enjoying having lunch in the garden after participating in our beach ball relay
Outside with preschool The Foundation classes follow the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) curriculum. As part of the provision of the EYFS, the children at BSB have access to both the outdoors and indoors as a learning environment, which is wonderful as we are lucky enough to have two excellent gardens: one at the front and one at the back of the building, which can be accessed from the preschool rooms. The outside space has allowed us to add old tyres, tree logs and tree stumps. We have four tree stumps which the children use as stepping stones. It has been very interesting to watch how each child has tackled these obstacles and to see the huge sense of achievement as they develop the skills necessary to complete the circuit. These outdoor play objects encourage the children to develop their physical skills while experiencing a little adventure. The children learn how to play safely while developing a variety of skills like climbing objects and balancing. The fantastic sunshine that we have had has meant that we have had opportunity to develop lots of different activities.
These past few weeks we have examined the differences in texture and colour between the sands of various beaches, discovered what happens when you run a magnet through sand, put a shell up to our ear and rediscovered the simple pleasure of playing in sand and pouring it through a sieve to reveal its secrets.
Scrambling and balancing on logs.
Jakub, Anna Sofia and Greta searching for sea shells
Amelie, Jakub, Greta, Anna Sofia, Jason and Ana having ice-cream and enjoying a day at the beach in our role play area
We had a wonderful time sand painting and creating ‘under the sea’ art. Arts and crafts give children a method of expressing themselves creatively, as well as allowing them to develop
Creche Pipera It is hard to believe that the school year is almost over; the time has gone by very fast! So much has been achieved throughout the year in Crèche and there have been many highlights. All of the children are now communicating in English and do so very confidently, considering at the start of the year very few spoke English. Well done! They have all tried so hard.
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During circle time we used our touch and feel bag, where we placed various objects that are found in or near the ocean such as a star fish, a sea sponge, seashells, and a seahorse, which was a big hit. We also had an ‘under the sea’ wall where we glued pictures of sea creatures to a piece of poster board during circle time and practiced naming the animals on the poster. Mrs Varban, Gafencu Creche Class Teacher
In the EYFS curriculum Physical Development is considered to be the second most important Area of Learning, and it has so much to do with building self esteem and confidence which of course then influences the rest of a child’s learning and achievement. For this reason access to the outside is a free flow process, so, if for example a child is building a house with the small construction sets inside, they might decide that they require real grass for the garden and so can go to cut some grass and place it around their model. A very important aspect of free flow indoor/outdoor policy is that the children can decide to be indoors or outside. Ms Kath Homer, Preschool H Teacher
One of our big projects was our garden. All of the children got involved in planting seeds and bulbs, watering them and helping out with the weeding. There was a great sense of accomplishment when everything started to grow. Dana, Dana (we have 2 TAs called Dana), and I would like to wish everybody a great holiday, and to say that we will miss the children so much next year, but I know they are all very excited about starting their new school year in Preschool. We wish them well. Mrs Claire O’Brien, Class teacher
Matthew, Mariam, Ioana and Ayesha have Green fingers!
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Preschool Gafencu As the year draws to a close we are left to reflect on the wonderful progress and achievements of our Preschool class. Nearly all of our students arrived with little or no English at the beginning of the year and preferred to play alone. Now while we sit amongst the playing children we hear English conversation in all directions and see children not only playing alongside each other, but interacting and role-playing together.
one another, and to enjoy a variety of activities that demonstrate the skills they have learned. We can see Niya writing letters and numbers on a notepad in our ‘doctor’s office’ and hear Alexandru C. counting playdough cookies. We observe Martina combining various colours, shapes and textures in her painting.
construction zone where Tudor, Serban and Calin are building towers and vehicles with record speed. We see Joost persevere in completing our most challenging puzzle, while Benjamin uses the interactive whiteboard to write his name. We sit back to enjoy a dance recital put on by Irina, Ambra and Sanziana. But now it’s time to tidy up and everyone works together to put the toys back in their places until next time…
Cameron and Joost drawing
Alex, Martina and Tudor playing with finger puppets
Whilst in preschool they have learned to share and take turns, to be patient and caring towards
Pre School C Mad about Animals
We are coming to the end of the year and as I look at my pre school class I see that they are almost ready to move on to reception. I am so proud of all my children because over the year I have seen them grow in confidence and skills. The days of struggling to get some of them to talk are well over, and I am now more likely to find it difficult to get a word in. They have learnt to take care of themselves and just as importantly they show concern for each other. They have seized every opportunity to explore new activities and ideas and I know Ms Daniela, Ms Lydia and I have all enjoyed the journey. This Term Pre School H has truly been mad about animals. It started with us turning our home corner into a veterinary clinic; little did I know
We sit not far from a train yard where Sasha has managed to independently set-up an entire train set complete with overpasses, bridges and t-junctions. It’s a jungle in here when Cameron, Filip and Alexandru M. are playing with the wild animal sets. We are in the middle of a
the range of animals that would come visiting. We had lots of fun reading about animals and engaged in lots of role play, but as there is nothing better than first hand experience, we decided it was time to meet some real animals. So far the children have enjoyed visits by Bollinger the cat, Joey the Rabbit, and Speedy the tortoise. We got 3 goldfish as pets to keep at school, and when Calista from 4H kindly offered us a Hamster we couldn’t resist. Rocket, a Chinese Hamster, is the latest member of our class, and we have all had to learn how to take care of him. Always keen to learn more, the children have been asking to meet more animals, including a lion and a snake, but don’t worry, they won’t be coming to school as we have planned a class trip to the zoo. Mrs Helen Calthrop, Class Teacher
Filip and Sasha helping Martina with her lunch
We would like to thank all of our students for a great year, and wish them all the best in Reception. Ms Gina d’Entremont, Preschool Teacher
Lennie and John pretending to be dogs in their home made cage
Bear hunt anyone? The children from Reception H were joined by four brave mums and a little brother to venture into the Pipera forest opposite the zoo. We quickly noticed how quiet it is in the woods, compared to the school or the road, and how nicely the birds were singing. The fresh air made everyone hungry and we enjoyed our picnic. Then the children had ample opportunity to explore the forest, independently and in a small guided walk led by the mums. Each group then shared what they had seen and found. We talked about what kind of animals live in the forest and all agreed that we were glad not to meet bears or wolves! At the end, we read ‘Going on a Bear Hunt’ before embarking on the short journey back to the school. A big thank you to the mums for their help! The children had a lot of fun and kept talking about the trip.
Reception H Class Photo
Walking through the forest
Ms Jess Bremer, Reception class teacher
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There has been a pirate in Reception B This term we have had a pirate sneaking around our school and sending us letters. He has made us write messages in bottles, make maps of our school and make them look old by dying them with tea. One afternoon we received a letter from the pirate telling us he had lost his treasure. Our first thought was – what a silly pirate, but we went searching for it anyway. We followed a map all over our school grounds and finally found the treasure in front of the Secondary building. We have really enjoyed having a pirate around; he has helped us apply many skills we have already learnt and learn new skills as well, especially in Mathematical Development, Communication, Language and Literacy and Social Development.
Reception Gafencu
Marcel, Haruna, Manuela, Tabi, Enya, Patrick, Chloe and Maddie found the treasure but Marcel heard a noise in the distance and all the students are looking for the pirate, wondering where he could be
All of the children have achieved so much this year and they should be extremely proud of all their accomplishments. All sixteen children in Reception B have been in the foundation stage since preschool and many of them since crèche. Their learning journeys have been vast, ranging from offices, supermarkets, growing, journeys and of course the pirate. They have worked very hard to achieve the Early Learning goals this year and they are all very excited for their big move to Year 1. The children in this class are certainly not the same children who started here in September; they have all grown into independent and confident children all with very individual, bright personalities and I feel confident that next year they will continue to thrive and grow in Year 1.
The Reception class at Gafencu is a diverse community of learners from all over the world. As the year closes I am so proud of every child for many reasons – but particularly because we are all now speaking English with confidence. Many of the children joined the class with little or no experience of English and they all had their own learning styles. Some took their time to listen, wanting the English they spoke to be accurate, whilst others were happy to ‘have a go’ and make mistakes.
Front row: Anisia, Meea, Smruti, David and Francesco, Front: Victor, Theodore, Sai, Jan, Claudia, Luca
Martin, Maia and Svenja have found a clue from the pirate - a message in a bottle. It was a question. What kind of pet does a pirate have?
Ms Deanna Beggs, Reception B Teacher
Sam making friends with her classmates
1H Doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun!! This school year has flown by for 1H.
wonderful to see an array of creative art and to get a taste of life in traditional Romanian homes from around the country. Another memorable event was our Easter Egg Hunt where we worked in our house teams to unearth a plethora of egg tokens cunningly disguised in random places. With all that we have learnt we are now well equipped to be of service to you this summer; no job too big, no job too small.
I have been informed by a number of families that the children are now correcting their parent’s English! Well done all. It’s been a lovely year and we have enjoyed sharing this learning journey together. Take care and we wish you continued success in your future learning experiences. Ms Angela Harvey, Class Teacher
• Need a story? We can write it and then read it to you • Need a new house? We can build it • Need a garden makeover? We can grow you some stunning plants • Need a holiday? We can pack suitable luggage for you • Need a healthy snack? We can prepare a scrumptious fruit salad for you Whatever you need help with this summer - we’re the class to call on.
Mert and Emi concentrate hard on their maths
We have learnt such an abundance of fascinating facts and engaged in a multitude of amazing activities that it’s hard to know where to start. Some of the highlights have to include our trips to the Art and the Village Museums. It was
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We wish you a very happy summer with safe travelling and restful holidays and look forward to seeing you again very soon. Look what fantastic wigwams and spider webs we’ve made!
Mr Stuart Harrison, Class Teacher
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Reception H: Animals and water Reception H has a new edition to the classroomtadpoles! The children are learning about their lifecycle and habitat. They enjoy watching them in their little aquarium, drawing pictures or journaling about them. We also had ‘toad mummy’ and ‘toad daddy’ visit for one day! The children quickly understood that water is vital for tadpoles and frogs, and are now investigating that plants and people also need water. This lead to some interesting science experiments on sinking and floating, weight and capacity, and properties of water and ice.
Paloma, Isabella, Mallika, and Gregory fill the tadpole tank with stones and water
Ms Jess Bremer, Reception Class Teacher
1J 1J have had a really successful year, celebrating and learning in lots of different ways. They had a lot of fun learning how to do batik, dripping wax and using dyes. We also experimented with how to press flowers and leaves, and they decided how to arrange these together. It was great using coloured sand and beads to decorate their own photo frames, and also learning about houses from around the world painting igloos, wigwams, yurts, caves and mud-huts. I hope they all have a relaxing holiday and wish them all the best for Year 2. Ms Helen Jezeph, 1J Class teacher 1J in the Foundation, Keystage 1 play area
2W 2W have enjoyed a very busy and active year. Aside from all our studies this year we have had the opportunity to take part in all kinds of events and trips. We had a wonderful time working together to create our final parent assembly and discovered in the process that we have some very fine actors and actresses with powerful speaking voices! Science Day was particularly enjoyable and we can’t wait to see what we’ll be investigating next year in Year 3! Despite the pouring rain we also still had fun on our zoo trip and made friends with the cheetah who followed our steps as we walked up and down outside her cage. More recently, we decided that it was time to get serious when it was time to train for Sports Day and now we’re all definitely feeling a lot stronger and fitter after several rounds of circuit training, balancing games and lots of pull ups and press ups! Mr Williams, Ms Dalila and all the children want to say a big thank you to the parents who have supported us and helped us along the way by ensuring the homework was done, costumes were made, cakes were baked and extra hands were on deck in times of need! 2W Students
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Ethan saying hello to an Iguana
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Ms Banks reading Mrs Mog’s Cats to Alexander, Louis, Daria, and Alexandra
Year 2 studnets in front of lions’ den
Year 2 Geography & Zoo Trip
Year 2b ALC lessons with Ms Rocio
2B It’s been another GREAT term for 2B. We have been working hard (as always) but enjoying ourselves at the same time! We had a super trip to the zoo and even though it poured down with rain, it didn’t dampen our spirits! Whilst munching on our tasty sandwiches we listened to the loud roars of the resident lion and saw up to 60 different types of animals. WOW!
In History we have been investigating facts about the Great Fire of London and we used this information to present an assembly about it. Isabella and Louis did a super job of playing the parts of Mr and Mrs Pepys and Salman was a very convincing baker. Some of the rats were a little bit snappy, but the Londoners did a great job of putting out the fire!
It’s sad to think that this is our last term together, but we have lots of wonderful memories to take with us. I shall miss all of 2B- they have been a very energetic and fun bunch.
3P, Final thoughts
Sophie: I learned how to write correct sentences. Elad: In mathematics I learned how to multiply and divide and I think I am very good at it now. Engin: I learned how to make models out of clay: I made a trophy for BSB. Michal: I learned to make a paper cup in Origami Club. Samma: In music lessons I learned how to play the violin. I like playing my violin. Raluca: When we went to Sinaia, it was our first time away from home. I felt a little bit scared, but I liked it a lot. Matei: At Sports Day I won a medal for jumping and the relay race. Next year I hope Danube wins and I get first place in the running events.
Cristina: My first year at BSB was spectacular! I really enjoyed making clay models. I have more friends now and next year I hope I will make even more friends. Arina: I am much better at writing now. I can write a story all by myself. Stephanie: I improved my writing a lot this year. I wrote a wonderful story about our Sinaia Trip. Marcel: I am very good at mathematics. I can do times tables in my head and I can add big numbers. Anda: I think I can concentrate better now. I am very good at literacy also, because I love writing stories.
Veronika: In Year 3 we learned a lot of new and interesting things. Bridget: We learned about Romans. We learned about their clothes and we had a Roman Feast! David: We also learned about Queen Boudica and how she fought the Romans. Clara: We made Roman sundials. I can make my own sundial now. Ilias: We learned about teeth and eating. I know that if I drink too much Coca-Cola my teeth will go black. Eldan: I learned about the Vikings and how they travelled on their ships. I know that they could go from island to island on their longboats.
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Ms Lindsey Banks, Class Teacher
We hope we have a lot of fun in Year 4 and learn even more.
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3L It has been a busy and challenging year for us all in 3L and we have had lots of fun along the way. There have been many highlights throughout the year and I am immensely proud of the children and their achievements. I would like to give huge congratulations to Radu, Klara, David, Ioana and Diana for their improvements in English – well done to the EAL team and thank you for your efforts. It has also been great to see some of the children competing in sporting events against other schools this year – good job Fanni, Csaba and Philip. We have also had some wonderful writers this year – I have really enjoyed reading everyone’s work, in particular Amelia, Brian, Clara and Rodney’s pieces. Well done to Pelin and Hannah for their good efforts in football clubs – watch out Wayne Rooney! 3L also did extremely well in World Maths Day, coming 50th in the world – a special thanks to Hithu and Vlad for their contributions here. We have spent lots of time on DT and Art with wonderful efforts from Rosie, Gabi and our very own human chainsaw – Gui! Sasa continues to amaze me with his geographical skills and knowledge – I think he may have an entire atlas memorised! In fact, big congratulations to all the students in 3L - you have a lot to be proud of.
Vlad, Sasa and Pelin working together during a Maths lesson
Mr Sonny Leese, Class teacher
Year 4 (4H & 4K)
Year 4 has produced some outstanding work this year, but in the last term we have really outdone ourselves. Year 4 has produced some outstanding work this year, but in the last term we have really outdone ourselves. There are two units of work that particularly standout as examples of how much the children have learnt: Literacy and ICT. In Literacy the children formed and expressed opinions about the stray dogs in Bucharest. We were most impressed with their mature and thoughtful ideas regarding the topic. We used our Epals accounts and set up a chatroom discussion in one of our PSHE sessions. The children thoroughly enjoyed this unit and showed some impressive reasoning and persuasive writing techniques. In ICT this term the children worked with Logo program. All of them enjoyed this, and showed very clear understanding of how to control and manipulate the onscreen turtle. Many exceeded the expectations of the unit and showed they could write instructions that would help to create drawings of a wide range of objects, as Daniel’s house illustrates.
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Hands up who likes Year 4
When we look back at all the amazing achievements Year 4 have accomplished this year it is hard to believe that it’s all happened in only three terms. While the recent assessments have shown fantastic progress in writing, reading and mathematics, it is the more latent achievements that we are most impressed with. The children have matured so much.
They have become more independent, more responsible, more opinionated, and more aware of their school, friends and their learning. And it is this growth that we as teachers feel most satisfied with. Thanks for a fantastic year kids, have a relaxing and enjoyable break. Mr Patrick Kennedy, 4K Class Teacher, & Mr Brad Hamacher, 4H Class Teacher
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Fun Times for 5B! What a fabulous year this has been for all of us in Year 5B. We have enjoyed participating in lots of days – Maths Day, Science Day, Space Day, Language Day, a Spelling Bee, Halloween antics and an Easter Egg Hunt. We have visited the Village Museum, the Art and History Museum and the Railway Museum. We’ve helped others through our Jeans for Genes activities, our Christmas Shoe Box Appeal and our Harvest Festival contributions. We’ve worked hard for our House Team points in sporting competitions and with our behaviour and work. Our class responded to a challenge to decorate a tree with eco-friendly Christmas decorations and we won our little tree called Benny who sits proudly at the back of the classroom. And with all of these great activities, we have found lots of time to learn and increase our skills and knowledge. Lucie, Sacha and Alexandra contributed poetry for the school calendar, with Lucie showing her beautiful writing skills and winning the Year Five handwriting competition. Maria and Dilara represented the opinions of the class to the Student Council and both sang beautifully during our Winter Production. Alexandra represented the class on the Eco Committee and presented exciting facts during the Space Day. On that day, we also were informed and entertained by Finn, Suparnan and Sacha. The sportsmen showed their prowess as well, with Aaron, Jarod, Sacha, Finn, Roberto and Suparnan enjoying football and handball without seeming to tire at all.
Fabulous 5B
Our artists were hard at work this year, with Joo-Yun, Sanya and Lucie producing some fine pieces. Sanya also presented at the Science Symposium, as did Alexandra. Ms Ullman’s Weekly Science Challenges were always taken up by Alexandra, and we congratulate her on her keenness to search for new and interesting information. Aliss, Liria, Lucie and Aaron helped the Key Stage One children with their games. Elena and Ms Diana have created some fine art works, with Ms Diana designing beautiful displays to help with our learning. Liria and
Roberto have kept us entertained with witty comments that helped to keep us smiling. It has been a truly wonderful year with a truly wonderful class. The various backgrounds, gifts and abilities of each of these children have blended together into a group where talent and creativity and achievement are valued and celebrated. It has been an honour to be the teacher of Fabulous Five ‘B’ this year. Chris Barclay, Class teacher
5T looks back over the year As the year draws to a close, I like to take the time to reflect back over the school year. The class has achieved a great deal and I am very proud of 5T. I have seen the children grow in confidence, ability and maturity. A particular strength this class has as a whole is that they are good at solving problems and finding solutions whether academic or part of their daily life. They are also a very creative class. Miss Tyler, class teacher
“In 5Tmy biggest achievement was in Maths. I think I have improved a lot with fractions and divisions. I have learned more about the times tables. I have to admit it is not my best subject, but I think a have learned a lot more. I hope we can learn even more next year.” Calin 5T “I improved myself by not being so shy anymore because I was really shy the year before. I have also improved my writing in Literacy and am doing better in Maths. I feel like I improved in almost every subject at least a little bit.” Ilinca O. 5T
“I feel like I have learned more. I have improved in my Drama and I am better in Maths. I communicate with others better and have made more friends.” Chira 5T
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Year 5T
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Year 6D The end of a school year is always a time of mixed emotions for me; there is the anticipation of the long summer holiday and the opportunity to spend time with family and friends back home, but also a time of sadness as I say goodbye to my class. The theme of this edition is ‘achievements’ and I asked my class to write a short overview of what they felt they had achieved this year. As I read through my class’ work, three pieces of writing stood out for three very different reasons. Mr Davidson, Class Teacher
“At the start of September I didn’t know English and much of the words the teacher said I didn’t understand. Now I know English very well. Not so well, but now I understand what people say. Before I could not write a sentence, but now I can write a whole paragraph or more. I’ve almost finished EAL.” Martin, 6D “In Year 6 I achieved a lot! I got new friends, good marks in tests, became responsible, got to be the oldest in KS 2 and most importantly improved my skills.” Andrei, 6D
Year 6 Group Photo
The final piece of work belongs to Olivia and it sums up beautifully aspects of teaching and learning that are often not highlighted. The sincerity and thought provoking evaluation of what she feels she has achieved this year is one that I personally will remember for a long time. “I have achieved many things this year; I have
6U Experimenting with Science
Looking Back at 6U Year 6 has been a time of learning and growing, during which all of the students have made many achievements both as a class and as individuals. As the school year comes to a close, we would like to celebrate these achievements, which range from learning English, to becoming a House Captain, to obtaining the lead role in the KS2 production to improving our Maths skills. We have reflected on the past, relished in the present, and now we look forward to the future. Have a wonderful summer 6U and good luck in Year 7! Miss Ullman, Class Teacher
Below are some of the accomplishments that Year 6U achieved this school year… Throughout the year 6U has had many fun experiences and lessons where we have learned. One of the class achievements of the year was our assemblies. For our first assembly we decided to do a Kids TV quiz show. We also included adverts
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worked independently and learnt to take risks responsibly, fight for my rights and most importantly I have learnt to respect everything around me. I have learnt that no matter how far apart I am from the people, places and the pets I love, they are always there for me. I have learned to become a better person.” Olivia, 6D
6U Reading with 3P
as a part of the program. It was so successful that we did another Kids Fortune episode about health and healthy eating for our second class assembly. Scott and Harry, 6U This year I think, (I am sure), that finishing EAL was my biggest achievement. I also achieved several certificates in Assembly this year. I’m sure that the class learned lots of things too, including fractions in Maths, powerful speech in Literacy, jumping, running and throwing in P.E., Tudor exploration in History, connecting ourselves to the world in Geography, forces in Science, Oliver Twist songs in Music, tableaux in Drama, as well as Spanish, French, and German. I look forward to what I will learn in Year 7 And I’d like to say “Thanks!” to Ms Ullman, Mr Crispin, Mr Davidson, and Ms Maria for all the things they taught us this year. Helene, 6U Our class achievements: We all know the difference between physical change and chemical change. We all know how to multiply, divide, add, and subtract with different strategies. We have all achieved completing the SATs. I have become much better in every single subject I have
discovered the knowledge of Roanoke, the first British colony to settle in America. I have achieved lots of knowledge from Space Day and Science Day. We have also achieved having lots of fun throughout the year. Robert, 6U I have learned many things since the first day of school. I have learned some key things about dealing with stress and how to answer questions. For example, if you can understand a question you are already half way there to answering it correctly. Cinar, 6U My achievements of Year 6 include doing the Radio Show. It is really fun to go to the staff room every Tuesday to work. We have really improved what we say and how we say it! Another great achievement was working toward the SATs. We practiced enough so that the actual SATs seemed like any other test. I have also achieved learning a Latin based language, Spanish! Also, since I did Fine Art as a club, I have learned exactly where and how to shade my drawings. Megan, 6U
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Mr O'Brien and Mr Power at the IA Training Course in London
BSB teachers receive ‘International Award’ Training On Wednesday April 1st Mr Power and I boarded a plane bound for London to participate in a 2 day International Award Instructor Training Programme. This programme is necessary for any school wishing to offer its students the chance to gain an International (Duke of Edinburgh) Award. This is a highly respected award which can be very helpful when applying for university, and so with this in mind, Mr Power and I set off to complete the BSB accreditation process.
Our plane departed Otopeni at 5.30pm, touched down at Heathorw 6.30pm local time, after which we took the tube to Gloucester Road, a few minutes from the Park International Hotel, our home for the next few days.
The IA training took place at the famous BadenPowell House in South Kensington, opposite The Natural History Museum, just 10 mins walk from our Hotel. Each day ran from 9.00am to 4.00pm, with each day broken into 2 parts. On Day 1 we got to meet the other 15 people from International schools in Dubai, Spain, Malaysia and Romania, before focusing on our topics for the day: Community Service and Physical Recreation. On Day 2, we focused on the Skills needed to complete an IA and for the Adventurous journey that students must undertake, covering topics such as, teamwork, training, preparation, self sufficiency and selfreliance.
Mr Hamacher looking to pass to Ms Doina, while Mr Harrison tries to prevent the pass.
Ultimate Frisbee
The BSB Ultimate Frisbee Team is still going strong in our second season in Bucharest. With a solid squad of 10 we have been growing in numbers and
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All in all, it was a very worthwhile trip and both Mr Power and I got a lot out of it. It was also a very busy trip and so by the time we boarded our plane for Bucharest at 6.30pm, we were both pretty tired. For me personally, the best part about the IA training was finding out about the huge impact it can have on young lives. 700,000 young people around the world take part in the International Award each year precisely because it really is a wonderful self-development programme. It aims to equip young people with life skills to make a difference to themselves, their communities and the world and I am very happy to be a part of this process. Mr O'Brien, International Award Instructor
Mr Leese, Mr Murchison and Ms Beggs getting a great work-out during a friendly game of Ultimate Frisbee.
progressing in skills. While Ultimate Frisbee has yet to catch on in Romania, our games are becoming quite competitive and with each new season word is spreading. It is an easy game to learn, an amazing work-out and an opportunity to meet new people for both men and women.
So, anyone interested in playing next September should get in touch with Mr Leese or Ms Beggs. Mr Brad Hamacher, Ultimate Frisbee Organiser
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Mr Mulvany , Ms Cristiana and Mr Kelly
Ms Draser and Ms Rocio partying on into the night
Mr Power unwinding after a hard week
Ms Kemp and Mr Kennedy performing a duet
Teachers Celebrate Successful ISI Inspection
After a much needed Easter break, the BSB team returned to face the pressure of a full ISI inspection; complete with lessons observations, 1-2-1 interviews, and unannounced appearances at school assemblies and staff meetings and training sessions.
The British School of Bucharest Magazine
We were well prepared for the visit, but none-theless still nervous as it is always a little nerveracking being assessed and interviewed. Happily though, the week of inspection passed quickly and smoothly, with the school passing the inspection with flying colours, and so it was with a sense of relief that staff arrived poolside to enjoy the end of inspection BBQ party. The school put on a lavish spread with a full menu of BBQ treats, salads, desserts, and enough beer and wine to sink Her Majesty’s navy; the sun was out- summer had finally arrived- DJ Des was in the house, and the spirit of celebration was in the air, ensuring that it would be a night to remember. The afternoon BBQ extended into an evening of dining and a night of karaoke and dancing, against an undulating backdrop of friendly banter, intermittently abbreviated by a cacophony of heartfelt laughter. In accompaniment to the singers, both younger and older members of staff alike took to the patio dance floor as a mixture of
knee trembling 70’s disco, sobering waltzing, and romantic salsa filled the airways. There were even a few who dared an early summer dip in the school pool. It was a great afternoon and an even better night and really the perfect way to unwind from what for some was a rather stressful week. The evening pushed on into the night, alight with festivities, revitalizing staff, who now looked forward to the rest of Term 3 and the piles of paperwork waiting our attention. We would like to say a big thank you to Mrs Wells and Corina for organising this party- I know everyone really appreciated it. It was the perfect way to end the week and it was also a great chance for staff to socialise together and get to know each other a little better. We are all very much looking forward to the next staff social. Mr Kevin Kelly, of behalf of the BSB Social Committee
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Alex and Catalina discussing their various dishes
The Judging Panel
Alex and Catalina preparing their stall
The winning cuisine
BSB TAs win International Open Air Cooking Competition
100 year old Romanian pottery, wooden spoons and baskets, traditional scarves and table cloths, antiques, vegetables and herbs, vintage wine, and pictures with dishes that we had cooked in the past. To be honest, we couldn’t match the fancy and expensive designs from the other individual chefs or restaurants, but our stall had a simple charm about it.
It all started with a flyer given out at Piata Unirii advertising the International Open Air Cooking Competition scheduled to take place at Izvor Park. To tell you the truth we don’t normally read flyers, but this one triggered our interest and after reading through it and mulling over the idea of entering for a couple of days, we finally decided to enter. We read the additional information on the website, considering the various categories, and in the end decided to sign up for the Creative Category. We knew it was going to be hard competing against famous chefs from all over the world, but let’s face it, what’s not hard in life? If you don’t get out there and give it a go you’ll never know what you’re capable of achieving, right!
With the stand all set up, we moved on to cooking our spicy fish dish with salsa sauce, grilled mushrooms, and chicken liver covered in smoky bacon, garnished with sweet potatoes, broiled in tin foil with a Tsatsiki sauce made from sour cream, garlic, garlic powder, cucumbers, and mint, and a traditional Romanian bread made with egg, garlic, spices, cream cheese, olive oil and dill- something that came close to the Italian Bruschetta. We arrived at this combination after some intense research looking through various famous Romanian cookbooks, eventually combining a couple of recipes and fancying the dish up with a selection of ingredients from both Greek and Spanish cuisine; the spicy fish and salsa sauce was served with a dry, white Romanian wine, the second course with a semi-sweet, red Romanian wine. The food ready, we waited for the judging panel to arrive.
The Day of the Competition
The judging panel
The competition started on the 9th of May at 11a.m. We arrived at the competition venue at 9a.m. and spent the next 2 hours dressing our stall up in a traditional rustic Romanian style, complete with
We watched apprehensively as the judging panel moved from stall to stall tasting the various dishes and felt a sense of relief when finally at our stall they commented on how impressed they were with
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the way everything looked (including our uniforms) and tasted. They congratulated us and said they were very surprised to learn that we were amateurs. After the judging session we gave an interview to the press and had our picture taken with several world famous chefs, such as Jacob Hausmanconsidered to be number 1 chef in the world- Robert Rainford, the star of the Canadian show “License to Grill”, the famous Italian chef Antonio Pasarelli, and the best Romanian chefs: Horia Vârlan, Petrisor Tanase, Stefan Bercea and Cornelia Ghisoi.
A surprising result We never believed that we would win, or even get a participation diploma, and so when the judges finally announced the Best Chefs Prize, saying the name of our team, Hop Top!, we were completely stunned. It took a few moments standing there with the cup in our hand and medals around our necks before we realised what had happened and burst into cheers. The judges all congratulated us and said that we are expected in Cluj in September for the next stage of the Competition. The following day we brought the cup and the medals to BSB and shared out story with both the teachers and students, using our story to show the students that anything is possible if you set your mind to it. Mr Alexandru Cirtu & Ms Catalina Maxim, BSB TAs
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Sushi making session in progress
PTA 2008-2009
We started the year in September by organising a coffee morning at school a chance to sample home- baked cake, catch up with friends and welcome newcomers to BSB In October we had more fun than the children organising Halloween activities. We decorated the parents room, dressed as witches and played Halloween games like, Bin of horror and Pumpkin catch ! Year 6 also enjoyed their own Halloween disco. As November arrived we started to plan the Christmas Bazaar. The children along with teachers and class representatives chose a theme for a class Hamper then thanks to the generosity of parents collected items and produced fantastic baskets to raffle ,which along with name the Harrods bear , over 4500 Ron was raised for school charities and PTA funds . The Christmas Bazaar was a fantastic success, there was a wide variety of Artisans selling
their goods, delicious home-baked traditional food and mulled wine to complement stunning musical recitals and seasonal songs performed by our children. In between organising events this year of course we found time to socialise. Lunch of the month began and the 2nd Tuesday of the month the ladies met and enjoyed some delicious meals in restaurants such as Caru cu bere Restaurant and Kumars Agra Palace. There was also an organised trip to the Peoples Palace and to a Mosaic Workshop run by the 2nd Chance charity in Berceni. Friday afternoons at school have become a buzz of activity , alongside the hugely popular class bake sales, we have a 2nd hand magazine and book sale, a great exercise in recycling, and as a result of generous donations, hard work and dedication over 1300 Ron has been raised enabling the PTA to sponsor one of the days the school has arranged a famous Author to read to children. There is also a DVD club where children can rent a DVD for 1 week. On the last Friday of the month the ladies have met in the fabulously
PTA sushi making event
equipped cookery room at school for international cookery demonstrations . In January we learned Italian cuisine, in February cookery from Pakistan , April Portuguese cuisine and our last cookery lesson was in the art of sushi and the best part for everyone was eating the lunch we made together afterwards. All of the events we organised have appeared in the Friday flyer and on the PTA notice board in the Parents room, where you will also find the newly set up community notice board which posts everything from items for sale or wanted, recommendations, to business opportunities. So all in all it has been a very busy year , culminating in the tremendously successful Summer Fair on Saturday 6th June – a day that will be in the memories of many for years to come. Thank you to everyone that made the day possible. As this newsletter goes to print we are on the eve of our Midsummer Party which we know will be a delightful way to say goodbye to friends for the summer. Finally I would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who has worked so hard in making this year so successful and really good fun !
Soft play from PTA
The British School of Bucharest Magazine
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