Issue 3 - March 2010 Visit the BSB website at www.britishschool.ro
The British School of Bucharest Magazine
BSB Shoe Box Appeal Tops 190 The run up to Christmas is always a very busy time for both the PTA and the BSB Charity Committee, with numerous charity events and activities being organised. This year saw another wonderful turnout at the
BSB Students win regional ESU Public Speaking Competition This was the first year that BSB students were entered into the Romanian English Speaking Union Public Speaking Competition. All six students entered progressed through the Bucharest district round on to the regional finals, with Thomas, 6U eventually going on to win the 8-11 age group and Jennea, Year 8 winning the 12-15 aged group- both scoring a perfect 100.
Annual Artisan Fair, which you can read all about in this issue, and our best ever collection of Christmas Shoe Boxes, which were delivered in time for Christmas to children at the Children’s hospital and to
Human Rights Awareness Week An important part of student education at BSB is celebrating cultural and ethnic diversity, and equality between all humans. In this regard the most important date on the BSB calendar is Human Rights Awareness Week, celebrated this year December 7-12. During this week Secondary School Students received a visit from the UN and wore orange bands to show support for Human Rights.
various underprivileged children living in remote areas and villages throughout the Prahova Valley region.
Countdown to IGCSE/A Level Summer Exams With just eight weeks to go until the start of the summer exam season, the classroom focus has slowly been shifting toward exam preparation with Mock exams, class speaking exam practice for the language subjects, and extra afterschool revision classes up and running. All signs at this early stage indicate that we can expect very good results across the board.
Visit the BSB website at www.britishschool.ro Contents · Editor’s Note · Annual BSB Shoebox
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Appeal reaches 190
2 3 3 4 4 4 5 5 5 6 7 7 8 8 9
· Principals letter · The Front Desk · EYFS Gafencu Report · EYFS Pipera Report · Key Stage 1 Report · Primary School Report · Secondary School Report · Key Stage 2 Update · Student Spotlight · Where are they now? · Staff Spotlight · Primary House Team Competition · Primary House Captain Reports · Secondary House Captain’s Reports · Secondary House
Competition Update 9 · Primary house point chart 9 · Secondary house point chart 9 · What are E-Pals? 10 · What’s up with the Primary Student Council? 10 · Secondary School Council Update 10 · Eco Report 11 · International Links 11 · Able, Gifted and Talented Students Celebrate ‘Dog Day’ 12 · Work Experience – Part 2 12 · Craze of the Week 13 · Textiles Technology Design Technology 13 · IGCSE DRAMA: the story so far. 14 · Science in Year 8 14 · Surviving the German Speaking Exam 15 · Revise for success 15 · Plastic Models and Animation Club 16 · Afterschool Football Club 16 · BSB Debating Club Wins Interschool Debate 16 · British Ambassador to Judge International School Debate 17 · BSB Clubs for Winter 17 · Santa kept very busy at the BSB Artisan Fair 18 · BSB 10 Year Anniversary Displays 18 · Regional ESU English Public Speaking Competition 19 EYFS Pipera Festive Production, “O’ Christmas Tree” 20 · Key Stage 1 Christmas Production: ‘Rosie the Reindeer’ 20 · Audience ‘Hoodwinked’ by Key Stage 2 Students 21 · The Secondary Christmas Concert 21 · BSB Works to Counteract CYBER-BULLYING 22 · PHCSE - Human Rights · Awareness Week 22 · Inter School Football Matches 23 · Winter Time Library Busyness 24 · 4H Trip to Baneasa Mall 24 · BSB Students Shine at World Expo 24 · EYFS PE: Rolling and Aiming Skills 25 · It’s been a Winter Themed term in the EYFS 25 · Crèche Gafencu 26 · Creche in Outer Space! 26 · Gafencu Preschool enjoy the snow 26 · Preschool M, Reception C 27 · Reception E: A Winter Wonderland 27 · Reception Gafencu: Let It Snow... 28 · 1C, Year 1T 28 · 1W, 2P, 2S, Year 3T 29 · 3W, 4D Class work 30 · 4H: Are you sitting comfortably? 30 · Year 5 made and played their own musical instruments 30 · 6H, 6U: Let’s Talk About It! 31 · Old Dog, New Tricks 32 · Learning the Nuts and Bolts of English: Letters and Sounds 32 · Crazy Hair Day 33 · Gafencu adult English classes up and running 34 · BSB PTA donates money for meningitis vaccines 34 · Artisan fair 34 · Christmas Art Exhibition 35 · The BSB Calendar 35
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Editor’s Note
This has once again been a very busy time for everyone at BSB. The standout events on the school calendar in the run up to the Winter break included the four winter productions, including an EYFS, Key Stage 1, Key Stage 2, and Secondary productions (Pages 20 & 21), the Annual Shoebox Appeal,
organised by the Charity Committee which collected an amazing 190 shoeboxes (below), and the PTA organised Artisan Fair, complete with class basket raffles (page 18) which donated a large portion of the money raised to the Fundatia Inocenti to fund meningitis vaccinations for children (page 34). In addition to this Ms Kemp was as busy as ever running around organising a number of events in the Secondary school, including Human Rights Awareness Week (page 22) and Ms Fisher organized AGT Day (page 12). And while all this was going on, many of the classes were busy enjoying and making good use of the winter weather in a variety of ways as a valuable teaching resource, as you will be able to discover for yourself in this issue (pages 26-31). For me personally, however, the most rewarding aspect of the past few months has been working with the students to help prepare them for both the Romanian ESU Public Speaking Competition and the upand-coming Bucharest International School Debating Competition. This is the first year that BSB has entered students in the ESU Public Speaking Competition and a lot of work went into preparing the students and so it was particularly gratifying to see
all our students making the regional finals and two of our own students going on to win the 8-11 and 12-15 age groups (page 19). It was also very exciting to see the BSB Debating Club in their first interschool friendly debate with IBSB and to see them perform so well, winning the debate 286-270 (page 17): I sincerely hope that our early success in these areas will lead to an increase of interest in both public speaking and debating, as these are extremely worthwhile skills for young people to develop. Thank you to everyone who contributed to this issue in one way or another. In particular, I would like to thank Ms Hussain and Ms Greenwood for their help. I would also like to thank Alvaro, Alexandra, Louisa, and the various other students who wrote for this issue of Newsblast. I hope you all enjoy reading this Issue and as always, would like to encourage students, parents and teachers alike to contribute articles to Issue 4, due out late April. Mr Kendall Peet, kendall.peet@britishschool.ro
Annual BSB Shoebox Appeal reaches 190 Thank you to all those who helped to make the Annual BSB Shoe Box Appeal 2009 such a success! As a result of your wonderful generosity we were able to collect a total of 190 shoe boxes for Christmas. 30 toddler shoe boxes and lots of useful items for babies were given to the Children’s Hospital receiving support from Fundatia Inocenti. In addition to that, we were able to give 110 shoe boxes to children across the county of Prahova, who are enrolled in social programmes run by Asociatia Vasiliada. Another 50 shoe boxes
went to children from remote areas and villages. For some of them, this was the first time they received such a generous present from Santa. “Your support has brought joy to many children and made easier our mission in helping the children from this part of Romania (Prahova County). May God repay you for all your kindness!” Sorin Boboc, Vasiliada Association Ms Dorothea Draser, BSB Charity Committee
Children waiting patiently to receive their Christmas Shoebox
Chilren opening their Shoe boxes
Santa giving out the BSB Shoe boxes
More children receiving their BSB Shoe Boxes
Several children with their BSB Shoe Boxes
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Principals letter Dear Parents & Friends of BSB, It seems particularly fitting that in the year of our tenth anniversary we have been able to fully extend our curriculum provision at the school to offer a comprehensive programme of A’ Level study for our 16-18 year old students. It is with great pleasure that I am able to include our booklets with this newsletter which detail study pathways for all our students from aged 14 and above. Hopefully they will be of interest not only to parents of Secondary aged children but to those who are coming through the school. Traditionally the British school education system has been supported by universities to prepare students for their degree study, which is why the exam boards for 16-18 year old study were based at universities such as Cambridge and London and the courses at A’ Level were designed to develop students to be able to address the challenges of more academic study post-18. Due to their ability to most appropriately prepare pupils for university education we are very proud to begin to offer the A’ Level courses to BSB students. If you have any questions about our courses please do drop by and see us.
We are also pleased to announce that this month we gained our COBIS accreditation, (Council of British International Schools), and I would urge you to access our website and the School memberships section to see the full list of our school accreditations. Such organisations are useful in supporting the school and can also serve to be of value to our parent body to be aware of standards and expectations in international schools. As ever our Newsblast is full of exciting reports about work ongoing in the school, although I also notice lots of moans about the weather, I guess like most British people it seems to be a constant focus for us! Let’s hope the sun is just around the corner. Jo Puddy-Wells principal@britishschool.ro
The Front Desk
If you need any in formation 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 sports and clubs please contact: Sandra Cristea, Office Manager Diana Udor, Office &Student Services Assistant 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
Office staff
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EYFS Gafencu Report This term we have been able to increase the number of visitors to Gafencu. Previously our only regular visitors were the specialist teachers Mr Jonathan Crispin-Moore and Mr Mugur Mateescu, but this term with the reorganisation of the office we have been able to raise quite substantially the number of our visitors. During the autumn term there was a lot of work done to convert the office on the first floor into two distinct areas: one is a resource area, the other has become a multipurpose meeting space. With this additional space we are now able to offer new opportunities for the parents to become more involved in Gafencu. We are now able to offer parents coffee mornings, parent class representatives meetings, parent workshops, and adult English classes twice a week.
EYFS Pipera Report After a well-earned break we are as busy as ever at EYFS Pipera. The classes have been full of interesting and exciting activities and we have been making full use of the snow outside. A big thank you must go out to the parents for sending the children to school in suitable clothes and making sure they also have spare, named clothes – just in case! For many children this will be the most snow they have ever seen or can remember, so to see the delight on their faces as they explore it is wonderful to behold. We are now half way through the school year and all the children are noticeably gaining in confidence, especially in the way they link up together for support and guidance.
Key Stage 1 Report Key Stage 1 has been enjoying a Winter Wonderland! The excitement in their eyes as they head out at break and lunch can not be contained and they have been very busy. Some children have been industriously clearing pathways, whilst others have been moving snow to the sand pit in order to create a ‘snow pit’. We also had a group making an igloo, “like the ones we learned about in our Homes unit”, I was told. The children will certainly be sad to see the snow go. We had a spectacular production in
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The coffee mornings are held once a month, usually on the last Thursday of the month, and every one is welcome- the coffee is available from when parents drop their child at school and lasts until 10 am. Parent class representative meetings are termly. Our parent class representatives at the end of the Christmas term very successfully extended their Christmas shopping to include the purchase, the wrapping and labelling of Santa’s pressies for the children at the end of two performances! This was after organizing and raising money at the autumn bake sale. Thank you ladies!! We have also been able to offer parent workshops, information sessions based around the EYFS, which are always very well attended. So far we have covered EYFS curriculum guidance, Letters and Sounds, and Assessment in the EYFS. We do plan to repeat for new parents or indeed anyone who would just like further clarification on how we support the development of our
This happens across the age range and is an important part of personal, social and emotional development. I recently attended an Early Years group meeting at ISB. This is a fantastic opportunity for Early Years practitioners to get together and share ideas. The main focus was educational visits, so hopefully I will be able to use some of the ideas within EYFS in the forthcoming months. As you will read in Reception B’s report Ms Claire Cowlishaw has settled in quickly and is already a valuable asset to our EYFS team. You also may have heard that Ms Deanna gave birth to a bouncing baby boy, Callum. All the EYFS staff and children would like to congratulate Deanna and Sonny and we hope baby Callum can come and visit us soon.
Key Stage 1 at the end of December. The narrators did a superb job remembering and delivering their lines; especially the ones that filled in for others at the last minute. The reindeer and elves learned their dances well and remembered their cues. All the children were smiling and having fun, which we love to see. We would like to give a special thank you to Mrs Dearman for her hard work on the production, as well as the parents who helped the children learn their lines and assisted with the costumes. Another success to report is the Key Stage 1 Parent’s Workshop on ‘Supporting Reading and Writing at Home’ in January. There was a great turnout of parents with lots
students. The increasingly popular English classes, offered by Mr Kendall Peet, are held on a Wednesday and Friday morning and all parents are welcome to attend these classes. They are a good way to improve your English to help you communicate more confidently in English with your children, their teachers, and other parents. The children have easily accepted seeing parents around school, if not with some amazement as one child was heard innocently asking, “Is that the mummy classroom?” To have parents around the building is excellent and we look forward to seeing more of you on a regular basis. Ms Kath Homer EYFS Coordinator, Gafencu
As I write we are busily preparing for our Friendship Week, when the classes all join together for some friendly activities. We hope to involve our twin classes in this – check out the blog to find out how it all went. Finally, we would like to wish our lovely cleaner Ms Marianna a speedy recovery from her broken arm- we hope to see her back in school really soon. Ms Tiffany Moorcroft EYFS Coordinator, Pipera
of positive feedback and ideas for future workshops. If you would like to contribute any ideas or requests for workshops, please let me know. Remember we are always around to answer any questions, ideas, suggestions or concerns. Please don’t hesitate to catch us in the afternoons at the gate or send us a message via the homework diaries. Ms Justine Tyler Key Stage 1 Coordinator
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Key Stage 2 Update Although we are well into the start of our spring term, I would like to take this opportunity to wish all the parents and friends, who I have not seen, a Happy New Year. Although our wonderful winter production of Robin Hood seems a distant memory to some, I am sure our star pupil performers as well as the primary music and drama departments are still enjoying memories of their
Primary School Report
Looking through the class articles, I am always impressed by how hard the children have been working and by the breadth of the work they have
Secondary School Report
Winter seems to have taken hold this year. I would normally be watching students outdoors playing football or chatting in groups. This year, however, they are indoors looking out, watching and waiting for the snow to disappear. And although we are spending more time indoors, I can say that the weather has in no way lessened the usual flurry of activity in Crawford House. I would like to begin by first welcoming the new arrivals. Mrs Jenny Leay, who has joined the Secondary Team this term, has
completed. There is a huge variety of work being covered and as always the children have tackled it with enthusiasm and dedication. The KS1 children have been having a lot of fun with their topics at the moment and visiting the classes this term I was rather taken by how enthusiastically they showed me their work- I have certainly learned a lot about Houses and Vehicles recently. One of the other highlights so far this term has been the maturity shown in the children’s writing, particularly by the older Key Stage 2 members of the school. The speeches especially, that many children wrote and delivered in assembly, showed imagination, strong structure and good use of persuasive language. The delivery was also confident and engaging. In addition to this, I have also been replaced Mrs Houette as the Secondary Mathematics teacher and is also helping with Business Studies. Ms Diana Petrianu has also recently joined our team and is responsible for running the Secondary Resource Centre and carrying out a number of administrative tasks. We are also delighted to welcome several new students to the Secondary School: Matei (Yr 7) joined the school just before the winter vacation; Max (Yr 7) and Emma (Yr 10), and Diana (Yr 8) joined the school in January. We extend a warm welcome to all. I would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate both Alexandru and Alexandra for passing the English as a Second Language IGCSE examination, which they sat in November. Both students worked extremely hard and deserve to be congratulated; Alexandra in particular as she passed with an A*. As we have just reached the half way point of the year, our thoughts begin to turn toward the May/June IGCSE and A Level exams and as always our Year 11 students attended the Key Stage 5 options evening where they met with teachers to discuss their transition onto Post 16 AS/A2 qualifications. The school is currently offering 15 subjects at A Level and
The British School of Bucharest Magazine
success on the big stage. It was lovely to see all the pupils return safe and sound after the winter holiday, refreshed, relaxed and ready to go. Some time after our return to school in January we had a Key Stage 2 assembly which focused on new beginnings and resolutions. At this assembly the pupils were asked to list things which they would like to improve upon, both at the start of the New Year and also in the forthcoming terms. This provided many of the usual suggestions, although when we shared ideas, two
very impressed by the quality of journalistic writing by some of our students contributing articles to Newsblast. I look forward to reading their future articles in the coming issues of Newsblast. The commitment shown by members of the Student Council, the Tech Crew, House Members and Play Pals has also been a pleasure to see. These students have frequently given up free time to complete work for the community. I particularly liked the interview process for the Play Pals. This was a wonderful example of students being both leaders and participants. Leadership is something the whole school has looked at recently. During assemblies we have been discussing what makes a good leader and what qualities they should have. KS1 and 2 both proved themselves teachers will be working closely with students to ensure that the courses match their aspirations and requirements for higher education. More details of our programme can be found in the booklet included with the newsletter, there will also be a meeting for our Year 9 students in preparation for entry into the Key Stage 4 IGCSE programme of study. It has been several weeks since the secondary students performed in the winter production but this is the first opportunity I have had to congratulate them, along with Mr Kelly and Mr Mulvany, for putting on an entertaining evening for students, parents and staff alike. The Drama groups performed short sketches and the audience were entertained by musicians, singers and our Year 11 band. Secondary students have been working closely with Mr Peet in preparation for the Public Debating competition which will be held at BSB on March 25th. The school will host the event and students from the other 5 international schools will compete in the first Bucharest International School Debate, which is proudly being sponsored by both LG and the British Council this year. I would like to wish good luck to all the schools taking part, but naturally
of them really stood out. I thought that the resolutions of ‘beating our own weaknesses’ and to ‘make the school a better place’ summed up perfectly what we personally and collectively in Key Stage 2 can strive for in the future. Although quite a challenge, I know that the staff and pupils will do all that they can to achieve these two targets and with this in mind, I look forward with great enthusiasm to our spring and summer terms. Mr Iain Davidson Key Stage 2 Coordinator
to be well aware of qualities worth striving for and I have seen many children developing these skills. Our youngest children had particularly strong feelings about the value of kindness, as well as intelligence. We used a story called “The King of the Birds” to illustrate the values of being a good leader and the children shared mature thoughts and opinions of the issues the story raised. I am looking forward to seeing these skills developing over the coming term and to seeing how the students tackle the wide variety of work still to come in the second half of the BSB year. Ms Naima Hussain, Head of Primary
put a little more emphasis on this for our students! Finally I would like to mention that this year the Secondary team are offering 2 school trips abroad in June: the first is the Year 7 trip to Madrid; the second is the Yr 8-12 trip to Berlin to partake in the 10 year celebration of the reuniting of East and West Berlin. Both trips will involve cultural sightseeing excursions and a variety of activities, including sports, outdoor pursuits and social and recreational events and should be both educational and fun; I hope our students will seize on this opportunity to broaden their horizons through the experience of enjoying other cultures firsthand. As always, the Secondary School is offering a very busy programme in the term ahead, and so I am sure that both teachers and students are looking forward to the various events planned. Ms Jane Greenwood Head of Secondary
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Student Spotlight
What is your favorite movie? Tom and Jerry What is your favorite type of Music? Hip Hop What is your favorite game on the computer? Miniclap Interview by Bram, 3W
Egor, Year 7, comes from Paris, France. He has lived in Romania for 3 years now and says that unfortunately this is his last year here as his family will return to France at the end of the year. He has also lived in Milano, Italy for 4 years, and he has also lived in Thailand for 1 year. Egor has one sister and one brother, Anastassia in 3T and Sacha in 6H. Finally, Egor’s favourite style of food is Italian, and his favourite subject at school is drama.
Sebastianos, 4D
1. What’s your favourite food? Pizza. 2. What’s your favourite subject and why? PE because he likes to play tennis and run.
Benedetta, 6H
3. How long have you lived in Romania? Two months.
Where do you come from? Italy.
4. Did you have a good holiday? No, because I was sick.
What is your favourite food in Romania? Papanasi.
5. Where do you come from? Italy.
What is your favourite lesson at BSB? Literacy.
6. What university do you go to and do you enjoy it? Touch Typing and yes Ienjoy it. 7. Which clubs do you go to? Football Club. 8. What do you want to be when you grow up? A tennis player. 9. When is your birthday and how old are you? I am nine years old and my birthday is on December 30th. 10. What’s your favourite sport? Tennis. Interview by Viktorija, 3T
Why do you like at BSB? I like Craze of the Month What is your favourite song? ‘Billie Jean’, by Michael Jackson. What is your favorite sport? Fencing. What do you do for spare time? I usually go to Italy. Do you have any talents? I play the piano. Interview by Irini, 3W
Vanessa, Year 9, comes from Bucharest, Romania. Her favourite subject at this school is Hstory, and she says she loves our school because you get to know everyone very well, including all the teachers. Vanessa has 4 dogs, Leonardo named after Leonardo Davinci, Vega, Heppy, because when she was young she couldn’t hay Happy properly, and Mozart, named after the famous composer. Vanessa´s favourite food is sushi.
Stanislav, 5L
Where do you come from? The Czech Republic Do you like this school and why? Yes, because I am learning English. What is your favorite food? Pizza. What is your favorite lesson and why? Music class because I love to dance. What is your favorite sport? All sports!
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Danial, Year 8, comes from Pakistan. He has lived in Romania for 2 and a half years now. He has also lived in the United Emirates for 4 years. He has two brothers, named Zain and Omar. Danial also has two dogs, named Kiara and Sausage- both female. Danial´s favourite subject at BSB is Science, and he says that when he grows up he wants to be both a Scientist and very rich. Danial also likes the playground areas in this school.
Matei, Year 7, comes from Bucharest, Romania. His favourite subject at school is music, and he says that when he grows up he wants to become a drummer. He has one sister called Anisia and unfortunately no pets. Matei´s favourite food is ice-cream. Interviews by Alvaro, Year 12
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Where are they now? We recently heard from the Day family who left Bucharest in June 2009:
Staff Spotlight
lilies and in her free time she likes to paint. Ms Camelia Ion´s favourite food is pizza and her favourite sport is football- she likes to play in the position of goalkeeper. She said that she loves to work with children, which is why she is a nurse and why she is currently studying Child Psychology. Interview by Alvaro, Year 12
Ms Kayleigh Evans, comes from Southport, England. This is her second year teaching- before coming to Romania she taught in Moscow. She told me that she prefers Romania to Moscow as it is much warmer and particularly likes Brasov. She enjoys teaching at BSB as gets along well with all her colleagues. She also and really likes the area where she lives. Her hobby is travelling and the country that she likes the most of those she has so far visited is Thailand. Eva and Isabella on the morning of their first day at their new school
Interview by Edoardo, Year 11
Hello everyone at BSB, we are missing you! But we are very happy at our new school St Hugh’s of Lincoln, in Surrey, England. We have both made lot’s of new friends and enjoy being back in our home that we had lived in before we went to Romania. It is also nice to be near our Grandma and Granddad and our aunties, uncles and cousins. Our little brothers, Oscar and Finn, are both growing up very fast. Oscar is at a Nursery school and Finn is now running all over the place and getting up to mischief! Love from Eva and Isabella
If you would like to keep in touch, our email address is fourdaysathome@btinternet.com
This month we also heard from the Lassmans: The last six months have been very busy settling back into Austria. Matthias is doing well at school and is working really hard. In his English class he is his teacher’s favourite because whatever she asks he always can answer because his English is now so good. Matthias is also attending the upcoming Skischool Week in early March which will give him an opportunity to make friends as the whole class is going because it is part of the sports curriculum. He is enrolled for cross country skiing as there is no snowboarding or skiing beginners course for his age group. Kind regards to everyone at BSB.
Mrs Penny Dearman arrived in Bucharest in August and is the new Drama and Music teacher for Primary. She has enjoyed her time in Bucharest and has already visited many places, such as the old town and has attended various shows such as plays, opera, live music, jazz or ballet. She says that Romanians are very sociable and therefore she hasn’t found it difficult to make friends here. She has had a long career in teaching and has mainly taught music at primary schools or has been a support teacher. She has three children of her own. Before coming to Bucharest she taught in London at Goldsmiths College. We hope you enjoy your time here at BSB. Interview by Alexandra, Year 11
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Mrs Jenny Leay is the new secondary school mathematics and business teacher. She was born in Ipswich, during the early ‘60s. To those unfamiliar with British Geography, she explained that, Ipswich is a safe, remote county town in the east of England. Mrs Leay described her childhood as wonderful- a fantastic time. She enjoyed the wildlife in her area and had a pony. When she started her schooling the teachers realized she had a natural ability for Maths and she liked the subject very much. She also excelled at Geography. As a child she says she was reserved, quiet and independent. When she entered her adult life she traveled around the world a great deal. She has lived in Malawi, New Zealand and has just arrived in Romania. In Malawi she did a lot of charity work; she helped build a church and provided resources for a local school. She taught in an international boarding school for 2 and half years. Mrs. Leay and her husband were involved with wildlife conservation, making the locals more self-sufficient and building roads for elephants. She went out there to do something useful and to help out in anyway she could. In Malawi, she found that people were kind and they were also very determined about getting an education. Since arriving in Romania she has not had enough time to get to know the place very well, but she is eager to throw herself into school life and to explore Romania. Interview by Isabel, Year 11
Ms Camelia Ion, School Nurse, comes from Bucharest and says that she was born in Sector 3. She loves flowers, especially
Ms Diana Petrianu, joined the secondary school in November as the new TA, having worked as a TA in the primary school since 2005. She is primarily responsible for running the Secondary Resource Centre. “I facilitate the efficient use of the resources so that the students feel they can use the Centre, not only to research and complete work, but also to select from our ever-growing reading section.” Interview by Alvaro, Year 12
Ms Kristen Swanson is currently the 2S teacher. She comes from Toronto in Canada. She studied during her college years there and later at NY University. She has been teaching for 3 years now and taught 1 year in Canada, one in Korea and has finished her first year in Romania. She likes teaching in the primary school at BSB and enjoys her life in Romania. Her favourite hobbies during her free time are gardening, volley ball and reading. Her future dreams include teaching in a warm, exotic place, such as Costa Rico and travelling the world. She says she likes to travel and has just returned from Norway where she spent her February holiday on a Nordic cross country ski adventure. Interview by Louisa, Year 10
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Primary House Team Competition As the House Team Competition enters the half way mark, Olt are in the lead with 2859 points, closely followed by Mures on 2804 points.
Danube are doing well with 2677 points and Arges have a little catching up to do with 2634 points. Will last year’s champions be able to stay on
top or will there be a new winner? There will be lots of chances to gain extra points with the House Games continuing and teacher’s giving house
points out when they feel they are deserved. Have a look below to see what some of the teachers especially like to give house points for:
Mr Brad Hamacher: ‘If I ever hear students giving each other words of encouragement, I give them house points.’
Ms Billie Jones: ‘I give house points to children who help me set up and tidy equipment as well as putting lots of effort into their PE lessons’
Mr Mark Williams: ‘When I see children being polite and friendly with each other I give house points.’
Ms Penny Dearman: ‘I give house points to children who are supportive and co-operative with each other.’
Mures
Olt
Primary House Captain Reports Danube
Arges
Jarod House Captain Arges
This half term we have been working really hard and we have managed to pass Mures and Danube in terms of points, but unfortunately Olt is still in the lead. The good thing is that they haven’t passed us by far. Now if we want to be in 1st place we will have to get more house points. There are many ways that students can get House Points but helping other students and working hard is the best. By doing all these things we will be on our way to the top. If you need an idea about how to get house points please come and see me or Lucie the Vice Captain- you are always welcome. So come on Arges! We will fight and we won’t give up because we want to win and we will win at the end if we really try. Last term we finished in last place, but I was still proud of our team because we tried our best and didn’t give up.
Dilara House Captain Danube
We have been working so hard that our brains have almost popped out in order to gain as many house points as we can. Danube is still trying their best to get to first place. There have been a lot of house team competitions which gave out house points which we successfully won. There are so many ways you can get points. We shouldn’t give up. For example, most people get house points by doing something good like holding the door or answering a question in assembly. These are very easy ways to obtain them. There are some hard ways, too. Sports Day is a great way to get house points. Every time you do an exercise you can get 5 house points for it and there are more than 7 exercises. COOL! I hope Danube will be the winner this year!
Thomas House Captain Mures
Eleanor House Captain Olt
We are now moving on into March and Mures is pushing more than ever. I have seen great improvement and even though we are currently in third place for house points, I believe in my house 100%. Also, we are very well behaved and quiet at assemblies. Mures has all we need to win. But not thinking about the House Cup, we are good friends and enjoy having each other around. We are having fun this year and that is what really counts. Everybody is good friends, so we can make this year one to remember, so that in itself makes us number one.
Hello, I am the House Captain of Olt. This term Olt has been working hard to collect the maximum house points. My new Vice Captain and I have been trying to separate the girls from the girls and the boys from the boys, so that the boys and girls will sit with each other during assembly. We’re hoping this will help us to earn more house points. Olt always tries their hardest. I would also like to congratulate Jesus, our new Vice Captain. Well done Olt! Eleanor, 6U
Thomas, 6U
Dilara 6H
Jarod, 6H
Arges vs Danube
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House teams
Mures Vs Olt
The girls in action in the house team end ball competition
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MUREŞ
DANUBE
ARGEŞ
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Secondary house point chart
Primary house point chart
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Secondary House Captain’s Reports Arges
Danube
Mures
Olt
Louisa, Arges House Captain
Alex, Danube House Captain
Denis, Mures House Captain
Mahmoud, Olt House Captain
During the last term Arges performed well. I was really happy with the effort put in by every member in our team. Our numbers are few but we are doing well. During the House Competition Day Arges came second overall, which was an excellent achievement considering there were only 8 of us. I would like to especially thank Jennea in Year 8 for her constant dedication in earning house points and Chi in Year 10 for the large amount of house points he earned during PE class. We as a team look forward to future success.
During this term Danube has started to recover from our unlucky loss last term as we were only 50 points behind the leaders Mures. Isabel and I are thinking of starting a monthly house meeting to discuss how we can earn more house points and make up a plan. We plan to start the meetings after the February break and will propose a day and time. I would especially like to congratulate Mihnea (Year 10) who earned a lot of house points in the first half of Term 2- this brought us closer to winning . We should all take him as a positive example because if we can earn enough house points like Mihnea we could easily take the lead and also earn enough so we can finally win at the end of the year.
Hello to everyone in Mures!! I would firstly like to congratulate everyone by informing you all that Mures is currently still in the lead! We have been in the lead for past 20 weeks and have not yet lost one week. We are now leading by more than 300 house points. I am very confident that we will win this year’s House Cup! This term we have several sport competitions that will he happing in school in which I am sure that Mures will outperform the rest of the houses! If we put in as much effort as I’ve seen in the past 20 weeks I am sure we will win these events. At this early stage I can almost guarantee you that Mures will WIN this year!
Hello to everyone in Olt. I would like to thank you all for the great effort you have made so far this term and for all the changes that we all have made. We have successfully moved up from fourth place to second place and have made real progress since the beginning of the year, from week one up to week twenty. Our target now is to try our hardest to reach first place. Good job Olt. Keep up the great effort and work.
Louisa, Year 10, Arges House Captain
Mahmoud, Year 12, Olt House Captain
Denis, Year 11, Mures House Captain
Alex, Year 13, Danube House Captain
Secondary House Competition Update The race to win the Secondary House Champion Trophy has certainly started hotting up with lots of movement on the house point table. Mures were clearly leading the race by Week 12 and only just held on to first position at the end of Term 1, and were rewarded with a House Trip to the local ice-skating ring. Well done Mures!
the other three houses have been working extra hard and were starting to close the gap, getting to within 100 points of the leaders. Unfortunately, in the last few weeks Mures have obviously noticed their lead slowly disappearing and so have changed up a gear and are now slowly pulling away again, with a 300 lead at the end of the 2nd half term.
The good news is that since Week 12
Last year’s champions Danube are
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currently in last place and will need to work a lot harder in the rest of Term 2 and Term 3 if they are to have any chance of winning this year. Luckily, there are still four months left and plenty of time for the 3 trailing houses to claim victory, so come on Olt, Danube, and Arges- you can do it! Keep watching this space. Mr Bodhan Pantella, Secondary House Competition Coordinator
Mures enjoying their House Trip to the ice skating park
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What are E-Pals? Using e-mail is an important skill to learn in today’s world. To ensure that this is taught in a safe and protected manner we use E-Pals at BSB. E-Pals is an e-mail system set up solely for children, though it works in the same way as other regular e-mail systems, such as Hotmail and Google. Spam or unwanted email is blocked and the safety level is set to prevent the children receiving or sending unsuitable mail. E-Pals is also a great way for children and classes to connect with other schools around the globe. ‘I like E-Pals because I can send e-mails to children in the school and even to people who have left the school like Rosie.’ Diana 4H ‘I like E-Pals because I can send messages to my friends. I use it almost everyday.’ Clara 4H E-Pal users - Clara and Diana (4H)
What’s up with the Primary Student Council? What has been happening in the Primary Student Council? What will happen next? The Student Council have been working very hard this term with the interviews for Playpals and organising the Craze of the Month. We have selected the best candidates for the Playpals and now we have a proud team of Playpals helping KS2 and soon they will go to KS1 to help at breaks. The Craze of the Month is also going very well and you can read more about this in this issue. The Student Council was also in charge of an assembly about ‘helping others’, where Aaron, Sacha and Hithu presented a power point presentation detailing the catastrophe that happened in Haiti and the ways we could help. We also had each student write down one sentence about what they can do to help people, which will end up on the Primary School Tree of Life! We also celebrated Friendship Day on the 12th of February, selling candy grams like last year and organised a variety of fun activities. Unfortunately, on the 22nd of January it was supposed to be student council’s bake sale but the school was closed so we changed the date of the bake sale to Friendship Day. You can read more about Friendship Day and the bake sale in the next issue of Newsblast. One of our trusted Play Pals, Aaron from 6H who is always on duty, ready to lend Bram a helping hand!
Maria (6), President of the Primary School Student Council
Secondary School Council Update This academic year, BSB’s Secondary Student Council have been enthusiastic and active about present and future plans to improve our school and have more fun within the school. In Term 1, the Student Council planned, organized and put on a winter disco which was a massive success. Jobs were distributed to the class equally and everything went as planned. Also in Term 1 we also organized a Healthy Schools Week during which healthy snacks were on sale at break-time and lunch –time. So we feel that Term 1 was a success for the Student Council One of the things we do at the student council meetings is discuss areas that we would like to change or improve within the school. The issue that has arisen in Term 2 is the desire for some improvement in regard to school lunches and so we are presently trying to look at possible changes that can be made in this area. A survey was carried out in December and the majority of the students completed it and so the results and recommendations have now been presented to the school management committee for consideration- their response is still pending The Student Council also organized a bake sale in Term 2 on Friday the 12th February, the last day of the half term before midterm break. We also organized a Friendship Day in which students each received an anonymous present from another student and this tied in with our annual Valentine’s Day celebrations which again saw student council reps selling some tempting delights around the school. However, seeing as we are a healthy school, the amount sold was in moderation. You will be able to read more about these days in Issue 4 of Newsblast. If there are any requests or future wishes please feel free to contact the student council, either your class rep. or the head of our committee Senia in Year 11. We are open to ideas and look forward to being useful. Louisa, Y10
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Student Council representative Louisa
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Eco Report Eco-Christmas Tree Competition Colours Campus Before the holiday season the Eco-Committee organised an Eco Christmas Tree competition throughout the school, from EYFS right up to Key Stage 5. The idea was to create awareness of the environment during the holiday season. The rules were simple: to decorate one of the many lovely trees found here on campus with environmentally friendly items and to make the tree as aesthetically pleasing as possible. All classes in the school created imaginative, eco friendly Christmas decorations using a variety of materials. These ranged from decorated fir cones, eggs, dried fruit and an array of decorations made
from recycled or recyclable materials. These decorations were then put on trees to bring some festive cheer to the school grounds. Each class chose their own tree to decorate and these were judged by key stage. Many lovely trees adorned the school grounds, however, in the end there could only be one winner per Key Stage. Eco-Christmas Tree Competition Winners Preschool M won the EYFS competition as their tree was environmentally friendly and the children did a particularly lovely job of placing the decorations on nicely. 2P won the Key Stage 1 Competition because their tree was pleasing to the eye, and also
EYFS winning tree
KS1 winning tree
7P students receiving their certificates
provided nutrition for the birds in the school grounds, with its bird feeders and lovely decorated eggs. 4D won the Key Stage 2 Competition with a colour-coordinated tree using natural resources and neutral tones. 7P won the Key Stage 3-5 Competition. A special congratulations also to Ege, 7P, for receiving the certificate for the most effort in the competition for the extra work he put into his class eco tree. Well done Ege. Finally, a BIG thank you, to everyone for their involvement in the competition, and congratulations to the winners! Ms Theresa Collins and Ms Kayleigh Evans, Eco-Committee Members
KS2 winning tree
Ege receiving his Eco certificate for his work on the his class eco tree
International Links Continuing with our plans to create links with other schools around the world, Year 3 children have been able to talk to a class at the M C Knoll School in Saskatchewan, Canada using Skype. Many of the children in 3W and 3T were able to speak with their partner students and introduce themselves. It was particularly special for Jenisa in 3T who was able to see her grandfather – the principal of the Canadian school. The event proved very popular and another internet chat has already been scheduled for the near future. Here’s what some of the students had to say about the experience: ‘I was interested to know other children’s ages and where they were from. I also enjoyed introducing myself to children on the other side of the world and talking to children who were born in the same country as me because I am also Canadian.’ Oskar, 3W ‘It was fun to see and find out about the children in Canada.’ Irini, 3W International ’Skypers’ Irini and Oskar (3W)
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Able, Gifted and Talented Students Celebrate ‘Dog Day’ On the 11th of February BSB will be organising an AG&T(Able, Gifted and Talented) Day. On this day the AG&T group decided to teach students about the stray dogs that inhabit our streets. AG&T day last year was dedicated to Space and was a great success. For Dog Day we hope to repeat this success by alerting people about stray dogs and what they can do to help the situation. There will be groups of four working together on; making a video, a PowerPoint presentation and a brochure. The focus points of the presentation will be: 1. What are stray dogs? 2. Why are they a problem? 3. What can we do to help? They will show this and more in the projects. At the end of the sessions they will present their work to AG&T members and the winners from each group will go on to the final in an assembly. They will need neat writing since the brochures will all be hand-made. Also, the videos and power point presentations will have to be interesting, entertaining and factual. Thomas 6U and Daniel 5M tell us about A, G & T’s Dog Day
We have arranged for a guest speaker and each group will present their work after the guest speaker has spoken. The winners of this competition will have a party in the Disco room with the AG&T group, who will supply food, games, videos etc. That is why they should try their hardest. We also plan to raise money from the two Barkin’ Bake Sales and the Second-hand Shop. The money will go to Romanian Animal Rescue (RAR). The RAR will spend the money on sterilizing the dogs and finding them good homes. This will be a challenge because there are 300,000 stray dogs in Bucharest. In preparation for Dog Day, some of the people involved had to say: “At the rate we are producing now, Dog Day will be a success,” Daniel from the A’G’N’T group. “I am looking forward to people learning more about stray dogs and what they can do to help them,” Ms Nicole Fisher, AG&T Coordinator Look for a full report of Dog Day in Issue 4 of Newsblast. Thomas, 6U
Work Experience – Part 2
Year 11 receiving their certificates for Work Experience
Following on from the Year 11 work experience article in Issue 2, I caught up with Albert (Yr11) who went on work experience to the Ministry of Communication. Albert said that he was very impressed that he had to
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wear formal attire to work and even more impressed to discover that when he arrived he was given his own office and his own receptionist. He said he found this a little intimating at first because it was very difficult
being only 15 and having to give somebody older instructions. He said he had to have a meeting with the receptionist who kept on calling him ‘Sir’ to explain that his name was Albert. After this was cleared
up, he went on to have a fine work experience transferring his school based skills to the work place particularly in regard to his ICT skills. Ms Jen Kemp, Work Experience Coordinator
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Craze of the Week Craze of the week is back in full action at BSB, but has been changed to Craze of the Month! In order to keep the Craze alive, each class in KS2 will have one month to choose, organise and run a craze. Following 5L, the January craze was run by 6H and they taught us the game Octopus, which shocked all of KS2 with its tenacles wiggling all over the place! No one could resist playing Octopus during playtimes. For the first time this year football was out and everyone was participating together with two games going on at once. Octopus was in fact so popular that we continued it an extra week before 6U started the second week of Febuary with some exciting Bench Ball. From now on, Craze of the Month will not stop, not even for one minute. Every playtime from Monday to Wednesday the Craze of the Week will be out there, ready to rock out KS2. The Craze of the Month schedule is on the left hand side of the door going into the lunch room, where every class will need to write their Craze of the Week (Month). While, Octopus was played in the dome to avoid feezing outside in the winter months, we hope that some other crazes will be outside in the coming, warmer spring and summer months. Sacha, 6H (Craze Leader)
Enzo, Lucas, Mathew and Bram ready to run and race past the Octopus and it’s crazy tentacles for the Craze!
Textiles Technology – Design Technology
Hyo-Min and Miriam Yr 8 working together
Andrea Yr8 completed an online game about renewable textiles
To follow on from our DT days in December and the very popular Fashion Show, Key Stage 3 have begun their work on Textiles Technology by looking at renewable textiles, fair-trade, sustainability and biodegradability. Their task is divided into two sections. Firstly, they have to present work on renewable textiles to a manufacturer on which is ‘best’ renewable textile in terms of cost, availability and its effect on the environment. Then after half term their design brief is to design and make an ‘Eco Friendly Shopping Bag’ to celebrate the 10th anniversary of BSB and in the hope BSB will also move towards a sustainable future for future school generations to come. All of Key Stage 3 are very busy at the moment discussing their bag designs and designing logos. Ms Jen Kemp, Secondary DT Coordinator
Year 9 using Eco Bags from supermarkets to brainstorm their ideas for their own bags
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IGCSE DRAMA: the story so far. We are into the second term of the new IGCSE in Drama and the pace of the course has started to dawn on the students. A lot of the work has to be based around the school requirements, of concerts and productions so the curriculum has to be very flexible and we have to work on many things at the same time. “That sounds like real life”, I hear you say and you would therefore be correct because Drama at IGCSE level does study people and their real emotions and situations. Some of the time we are provided with a script; at the moment we are studying Arthur Miller’s ‘The Crucible’, but most of the time we have to look at general situations and decide which characters we need to explore. All of the characters have to be realistic or believable,
even in a fantastical setting, so a great deal of psychology is included in the curriculum. Performance is, of course, a fundamental part of the curriculum and will make up 40% of the student’s final assessment grade so it is necessary to study the skill of acting too. We will endeavour to take a trip to London next academic year to see a production of our exam piece, ‘Blood Brothers’ and we will visit and take part in other theatrical events. More information will be available in the future about the trip. The students have to be involved in the School Summer Production, whether as actors or technicians in order to gain the experience of producing theatre so that they can do well in their course work. The first official assessment for the coursework and 30% of the overall mark will take place either in June 2010 or September 2010, depending on the readiness of the group. The second assessment,
Mihnea and Jasmina, Year 10 performing a dialogue
Science in Year 8 Ever since the beginning of the year, Science has been one of Year 8’s favourite subjects. Our first topic was light and we found out how rainbows occur, what the different light wavelengths are and why a pencil appears bent when in a cup of water. We did lots of fun experiments which included us making a rainbow out of a beam of white light and some shapes! Even before we learnt about it, sound sounded like another extremely fun topic. And we were right. If you don’t know how sound reaches your ear and what happens after it does, be sure to ask one of the Year 8s! Did you know that sound travels faster in solids? Or that light has energy AND mass? Neither did we-but we found out soon enough!
After that, we learned about eco-systems. We did lots of 3D diagrams and models where we were the producers, primary consumers and the secondary and tertiary consumers! We had a lot of fun researching the lemming population too-did you know that if the numbers of these hamster-like creatures goes too high, some of them drown on purpose the next time they migrate? “We are currently focused on Atoms and moleculeswhich is no small topic! The new chapter in science
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So far I am confident that the students have coped well and that they are on target for success, but it is important that the students realise that it is their input which will determine the grade and that hard work in an enjoyable environment is what is required. There will be a IGCSE showcase at some point in the future so please look out for information. Hopefully some of the Year 9 students will join us next year. If anyone has any questions about the programme of study or the use of Drama IGCSE in the modern world, you should not hesitate to contact me at school. Mr Kevin Kelly, Head of Drama
Year 10 students Louisa, Tudor, Sahir and May entertaining the audience
has proven to be a remarkably fascinating one that sparked numerous questions and a lot of interest throughout the classroom. We have been informed as to what an atom is made up of (sub atomic particles by the name of protons neutrons and electrons); had an in depth look at the periodic table of elements and many of the symbols; we have acted out the molecules of a solid, liquid and gas and watched several informative videos on the subject. It is clearly visible that this topic is greatly interesting to our class as the whirring of our brains is clearly visible as we exit the classroom!” Jennéa, Year 8
Amidst all this hard work, we ended up going to the pond one day. We recorded the temperature in different areas and we took some samples which we looked at under a microscope. We also found a lot of interesting organisms and bacteria! Next came the digestive system and healthy eating. One of the most fun projects that we did was to research what would happen if a vitamin or other substance was lacked in our system. Everyone made a presentation about something different and we all enjoyed listening to our classmates!
also 30% of the overall mark will be in February 2011. The final and externally assessed exam will be sometime in April 2011, depending on the availability of examiners from the UK, and this part is worth 40% overall.
educational. In other classes, we might do a practical lesson. When we were learning about light and spectrums, we used different glass shapes, or concave and convex mirrors and reflect the light, find the focus point, or make our own spectrums of light. I won’t list all of the lessons and what we did, but I will say that it has been very educational and a lot of fun! Naomi, Year 8
Jennea making the cut with Polen, Miriam, Ioana and Nikita looking on
Eda and Benjamin dissecting with Ana, Andreea and Mr Power looking on
At the end of each lesson, Mr Power always asks us “Have you learnt something today?” and every time, I think, “Yes, I have.” It may be a whole new topic that I’ve learned, or it may just be a small helpful hint or something. Usually in our lessons we read our textbooks as a class and talk about certain areas so that they are clear in our heads about what we are reading. Whenever we have a question, Mr Power always answers it for us, and, sometimes, shares his own experiences. Maybe afterwards, perhaps, we would watch BrainPop (videos about specific science subjects designed for schools) on the projector, which can be funny but which are also extremely
Naomi with scapal at the ready with Sophie, Daniel and Hyo-Min up next
Overall, it has been an extremely eventful year, so far, and we have definitely covered a lot- and still have more to go! Thank you Mr Power form all of us in Year 8! Year 8 Students
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Surviving the German Speaking Exam The German mock exam consists of several parts: Listening, Reading and Writing and, the trickiest of them all - Speaking. For the first two exams you simply need practice. However, for the latter a greater amount of work is required. Here are some tips: First of all, you need to choose an appropriate topic. The topic has to be one that you feel comfortable with, that you enjoy and that you can talk about in greater detail. For example, I (Alex) chose my Work Experience Week as my topic. I mainly chose it because it was a recent event that I enjoyed very much. This gave me an opportunity to mention my passion for music, as I had the chance to work in a music store. But besides knowing your topic very well, being able to actually discuss it fluently is also important. In order to prepare yourself for this, you can watch a German movie (with English subtitles, perhaps) or listen to German podcasts, which can be found for example on the DW website (www.deutschewelle.de. Some examples of podcasts are “Langsamer Gesprochene Nachrichten” or “Deutsch im Alltag”. Even with all this studying, exam pressure can take its toll on you. You might find yourself stumbling over a very easy word/phrase. Don’t worry, this is very common and - believe it or not - has happened to the best of us. The most effective way to overcome this problem would be to try to relax and paraphrase the word. For instance, if you want to say the word for “schoolbag” but can’t remember, then you can either try to describe its use or its appearance as a way of avoiding saying the word: I lost my ? ummm bag that I take to school every day.
Alex taking his mock German speaking exam
We hope that this is going to prove itself helpful and keep in mind that, even though the Speaking exam is not compulsory, it is perhaps the most important out of the three in terms of preparing you to use the language in real life situations. Senia and Alexander, Year 11
Revise for success The French class tell you how to go about it Mock examinations not only allow students to become familiar with the final examination, they also give them the opportunity to understand better, and reflect on how to prepare and revise. Students in Year 11 French have a variety of approaches to revision. Here are some of the techniques they used in preparation for the January mock examination: 1. revising grammar points and verb endings using the notebook 2. using internet revision websites 3. revising vocabulary using the course book Discussion on study skills and learning strategies highlighted the fact that we all learn differently and that the key to effective revision is to try a variety of strategies in order to find those that work best for us. The French class has been looking at some of these strategies, for example by colour-coding (using traffic-lights) topics to identify areas to focus on and by designing mind-maps to organise core vocabulary and expressions for each topic. Bonne révision! Ms Manon Vollaire, French teacher
Year11 Students Denis, Edoardo, Andreea, and Alexandra with their mindmaps
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Plastic Models and Animation Club For the past month, I have noticed that Mondays have started feeling brighter than usual, and that I was actually looking forward to coming to school on Monday’s. The reason for this is Mr Pantella. As some of you might be aware, a new club has been introduced this term - the models and animation club. If you happened to find yourself on the ground floor on a Monday, from 3.00 to 4.00 pm, you might have noticed a group of studnets carefully cutting, painting and assembling their Airfix models brought by Mr Pantella from England. Right now, we are halfway through the process, which has so far been extremely enjoyable and quite relaxing. After we finish our models, the most exciting part to come is creating an animation using our models.
Miriam, Year 8
BSB Debating Club Wins Interschool Debate
Senia Yr 11 and Andreea Yr 11 busy painting and looking for pieces.
Max (7P): “I like the club because there is lots of choice choosing a model to make and then deciding what to do with the models and little soldiers- it’s really fun. More info about our projects will be in the next issue of Newsblast. Until then, happy modelling! Senia, Year 11
Afterschool Football Club
The BSB Debating Club is a club where students meet once a week after school and learn how to debate. This club is well suited to students who have strong opinions about the world and how it works. It is a club where you get to argue your opinion and think ideas through in an intelligent, clear, coherent and logical way. Debating is arguing as such- it is about using you knowledge and wit in a controlled and focused way to win an argument. Debating is not a skill that people are usually born with but rather it is a skill that takes time to develop and once developed it will help you to get better grades in any subject that requires essay writing. It will also help you to get into a good University and to succeed in areas where you need to speak publically, such as in areas relating to business, politics, and the law.
Andreea Yr11 and Nikita Yr 8 hard at work
Louisa opening as the 1st speaker for the proposition
Mariam Yr8 welcomes us to the Secondary Football Club Ege Yr7 sticking his tank together
Mr Chambers helping IBSB students to debate as the opposition
Megan Yr 7 sticking her Jeep together The Football Club making good use of the BSB Dome
Hello, I’m Miriam and I’m in the Secondary School Football Club. Our teacher is Mr McGowan and he lets us play football the whole hour. The Football Club is good for people who like playing sport and being active. After playing I am really tired and I am happy to go home. There are currently 7 students in the Football Club and it is a lot of fun. Sometimes Mr McGowan plays with us and we try to get goals past him. So I definitely think that the Football Club is fun, cool and as you are active and moving a lot you keep very fit and healthy, which is very important!!!! Noor Yr9 working on her Churchill Tank
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Polen, Louisa, and Ana preparing to debate as the proposition
The most important thing is the debating club is to practice debating. We organise debates each week and have started to organise debates between
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BSB and other international schools. On Monday the 12th of March we had our very first school debate with IBSB. The whole debating team travelled to IBSB to watch the debate between 3 of our club members and 3 students from IBSB. Debating for BSB was Louisa (Y10) our team captain, Ana (Y8), and Polen also (Y8). The motion to be debated was “The house believes that the future of Romania is bright.” It was a good debate and both schools debated well considering this was the first formal debate for all the students involved. However, in the end it was BSB who prevailed 286 to 270. Congratulations Louisa, Ana and Polen. Look to Issue 4 to learn the result of the return debate when IBSB visit BSB in the 2nd week of March to debate the motion: “The house believes that the media has had a positive effect on society.” The BSB team for this debate will include Louisa, Senia (Y11) and Basil (Y7).
BSB Clubs for Winter, Term 2.1 (24/02/10 - 26/03/10) Reception/Key Stage 1 Fencing – Beginners Beginners Karate Spanish Ballet Computer Club - Year 2
British Ambassador to Judge International School Debate On Thursday March the 25th the first Bucharest International School debate is due to take place involving all six of the international schools: BSB, AISB, ISB, IBSB, Mark Twain and the Cambridge School. This year LG have very graciously agreed to sponsor the event offering a new LG phone to each member of the winning team and a 110cm LG Flat Screen TV to the winning school. The British Council will also be contributing to he event sponsoring the trophy, which will remain with the winning school for a period of one year, and library membership to both the members of the winning team and the runners up, along with other prizes. There will also be spot prises organised for the best young debater and best individual debater. On the Day The schools will arrive at BSB at 9am and be divided into two groups of three. Each team will debate twice in the morning session, with the winning team from each group going on to debate the final after the luncheon put on by BSB. Attending the event and judging the final round will be the British Ambassador Mr Robin Barnett and Mr Jonathan Gayther from the British Council, along with one other guest judge yet to
be confirmed. The Prize giving ceremony is scheduled to take place from 3.15-.3.30. We would like to wish all teams the best of luck. Motions for the morning session: This house believes... • that the future of Romania is bright • that it is acceptable to limit the rights of individuals in the interest of public safety • that the media has had a positive effect on society • that man is by nature evil • that in today’s world, money equals happiness • that military service should be mandatory • that population growth is the biggest problem facing the world today • that the family is no longer the centre nucleus of society • that marriage is a dead institution • that life is better today than 100 years ago • that animals should be given the same rights as humans • that private schools should be closed in order to improve the quality of public school education Look out for a full review of the competition in Issue 4 of Newsblast.
Key Stage 2 Monday Fencing – Beginners Karate Beginners Year 3 Card making Turkish Club Sewing -Years 5 & 6 German- Native Speakers Ballet - Year 3 Turkish Club
Tuesday Football - Year 1 Karate Advanced Keeping fit climbing frame Computer Club - Year 3 Romanian-Native Speakers Cricket - Year s 5-12 Fitness Club Year 3 Gymnastics Rec – Year 3 Arts & Crafts Romanian- Native Speakers Years 3 - 4 Wednesday Karate Beginners Karate Beginners Nordic Club - Years 1- 9 Nordic Club - Years 1- 9 Arts and Crafts Year 1 Art and Crafts Year 3 Dance Beginners - Rec -Yr 6 Computer Club Dance Beginners - Rec -Yr 6 Fencing Advanced French- Native Speakers
Spanish for Native Drama Fun Fun Fitness Rec/ Year 1
Dance Advanced -Year s 1-11
Stretch Yoga Homework Club Solve the Mystery - Years 4 -6 Sudoku Thursday Spanish for Native Karate Advanced Gymnastics Year 4 - 12 Gifted and Talented Athletics Football Club Girls Football Romanian- Native Speakers Years 5-6 Friday
Key Stages 3-5 Fencing - Beginners Karate Beginners DOE/ International Award Football German - Native Speakers Plastic Models & Animation Art EAL Upper intermedaite Literature Basketball Plastic Models & Animation Art French Karate Advanced Cricket - Years 5-12 Kung Fu - Years 6-12 EAL Intermediate
Karate Beginners Nordic Club - Years 1- 9 Drama - Years 7-12 EAL Upper intermediate EAL Intermediate Fencing Advanced French- Native Speakers Yr 7 - 9 German Art Spanish
Spanish for Native Karate Advanced Gymnastics Year 4 - 12 Gifted and Talented Art Club Years 7-9 Drama - Years 7-12 Debating Club EAL Intermediate French German Karaoke
Dance Advanced -Year s 1-11 Dance Advanced -Year s 1-11 Fencing Private Club Street Surfing Club Turkish Club - Year 6 - 8
Fencing Private Club Street Surfing Club
Teachers from BSB, AISB, ISB, and IBSB meeting to discuss the up-and-coming International School Debating Competition
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Santa kept very busy at the BSB Artisan Fair
Anthony Frost Books was there to tempt reading enthusiasts
Santa took time out of his busy schedule to stop by
The Crawford foyer very busy
Just one of the many wondrful stalls on offer
The Cheese stall was one of the most popular stalls
The Primary Hall stalls also busy with visitors
The annual Artisan Fair was yet again a superbly organised and enjoyable event. All three rooms were full to capacity, with students, parents, and teachers alike walking about from room to room chatting and laughing, sipping a hot mug of freshly made Glühwein wine. Thankfully, Mother Nature also did her part, providing a fresh dusting of snow to truly imbue everyone present with a warm sense of the festive season. The buzz of a winter market was completed by the sound of Christmas carols filling the air and was really the perfect way to end the term and send everyone off with a warm Christmassy feeling to enjoy the Winter break.
This year there was again another great selection of stalls, including the Foundation lucky dip, Tombola, and Christmas decorations stall with handmade decorations sold by the children from EYFS Pipera. The top prize at the Tombola was a wonderful gingerbread house that was kindly donated by Christina Reis, going to our lucky winner Kate van Schuijlenburg. The lucky dip was as ever extremely popular with the children making sure every last prize was found. There were also a number of wonderful art and craft stalls provided by outside guests, including a wide variety of things for people to buy, jewellery, wonderful selections of cheeses,
and various hand made items. The highlight, however, had to be Santa’s grotto. Eager children of all ages queued patiently for their turn to enter the grotto, where they were met by a very friendly elf who invited them to sit next to Santa for a little chat and a special gift. The faces on some of the children when they saw Santa in the grotto was priceless. Thank you to all the staff that helped in any way. We managed to raise a lot of money for charity and could not have done it without you all. We hope to see you all at next year’s Artisan Fair. Ms Tiffany Moorcroft , Artisan enthusiast
BSB 10 Year Anniversary Displays If you did not already know, this year is the 10th Anniversary of The British School of Bucharest and as a way of celebrating this anniversary a team of teachers, including Ms Taylor, Ms Moorcroft and Mr McGowan will be coordinating the setting up of a permanent display museum in Crawford foyer as a commemoration. The display will be multimedia, with a mixture of poster boards and power point presentations on offer showing a variety of topics including a BSB time-line, events and publications over the years, and memories of past teachers and pupils. This is only one element to the celebrations, as the BSB PTA has also been planning a number of other interesting events. Be sure to read the weekly BSB emails informing of you of up-and-coming BSB events. Ms Jane Taylor, History Coordinator, Primary
Checking out the display Boards. Mr Mc Gowan and Ms Taylor setting them up.
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BSB students take 1st prize in Regional ESU English Public Speaking Competition Over the past few years BSB has been focusing on developing public speaking skills within the school by encouraging students to give presentations in class and in assembly across the school years. We have also organised intra school public speaking competitions and this year our students were granted permission to enter the Romanian National ESU (English Speaking Union) Public Speaking Competition.
• To give young people practical experience in the fundamental skills of public speaking. • To provide a focus for the learning of effective English and communication skills among young people in countries where English is not the first language. • To give students from a variety of countries and backgrounds a chance to meet, exchange views and form friendships.
THE ESU (www.esu.org)
There are 3 age groups in the competition
The English-Speaking Union is an international charity founded by Sir Evelyn Wrench in 1918 to promote “international understanding and friendship through the use of the English language.” One of its first Chairmen was Sir Winston Churchill and since then it has grown into a world wide organisation operating in more than 50 countries creating international understanding through the use of the English language.
8-11 years progress on to the district round 12-15 years progress on to the regional round 16-20 years progress on to the national round with the 2 best speakers going on to represent Romania in the world finals
The ESU Public Speaking Competition is run annually by the English-Speaking Union and is one of the ESU’s most successful and far-reaching international programmes. It has three overall objectives:
The Theme for 2010: “Speculation on our future” The BSB public speaking competition was run mid January-mid February, with the students writing their speeches and giving their speeches in class. Three students progressed on from the class round to the semi-finals, with the best students progressing on to the final round in both the Primary and Secondary assemblies.
In the Primary school the first three students Dilara 1st, Thomas 2nd, Stefanos 3rd went on to contest the ESU District Round against other primary schools in Bucharest and all received a first prize certificate, with Thomas receiving the award for overall Favourite Speaker. In the 12-15 age group Jennea, Year 8 and Mihnea, Year 10, represented BSB, passing through the Bucharest District Round to the Regional Round, where Jennea took 1st place overall, scoring the only perfect 100 in the entire competition, and was also awarded Favourite Speaker in the 12-15 age group. Mihnea came in a close 2nd scoring 99/100. Joint 3rd place with 97/100 went to a Radu Tasca from Jean Monnet School and Andra Dinu from School Nr. 150. Senia, Year 11 also entered the 16-20 age group, even though she was only 15, and made it to the Regional Round, but was unable to attend. In all, over 100 students from schools throughout the Bucharest and Ilfov region participated in the District and Regional competition and so our students can be very proud of their results. Well done to you all!
‘Secondary Finalists: Tatum 2nd, Olivia 3rd, Alvaro, Louisa, Noor, Jennea 1st (Bethan made the final but was unfortunately absent)
Stefanos, Thomas, and Dilara holding their ‘Bucharest District 1st Prize Certificates’
Early arrivals Stefanos, Thomas, and Dilara preparing for their speeches
Jennea and Mihnea holding their 1st prize certificates in the Regionals
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EYFS Pipera Festive Key Stage 1 Christmas Production, “O’ Christmas Tree” Production: ‘Rosie the Reindeer’ The fantastic 2009 KS1 Christmas Production, ‘Rosie the Reindeer’, was put together with the brilliant efforts of the students, staff and parents, who worked together to produce a really successful show. ‘Rosie the Reindeer’ tells a story of how things can go wrong when a very important member of the team is unable to play their part at a very busy time. Of course, everything turns out alright in the end! Narrators from 2P and 2S performed seamlessly to set the scene and tell the story, whilst Classes 1T, 1W and 1C acted as the elves and reindeer.
Pre School and the reindeers
The Basic story line:
Reception B with their christmas tree facts
Santa’s Elves, played by 1T, worked night and day to make toys for the children. They are so clever though, that they managed to sing and dance as well! Things were going smoothly until Santa call for Rudolph. The reindeer, played by 1W, told Santa that Rudolph has a cold. They danced and sang telling Santa that Rudolph needed a rest. Rudolph, played by Matthias from 2P, climbed into Santa’s big blue bed, shivering with a bad cold. What could Santa do, who would deliver the presents? Rosie the Reindeer, played by Claudia from 2S, came to the rescue. She is accompanied by a group of reindeer, played by 1C. They sang and danced telling Santa that Rosie is a Pop Star and that she could do anything. Rosie offered to help Santa and pull the sleigh to deliver the presents, but in her enthusiasm she forgot something! Rosie’s friends helped her and she remembered that she can sing! Rosie began a solo ‘I’ll Sing You a Song to Make You Smile’ and everyone joined
in to wish Rudolph got well again. The song did the trick and Rudolph felt much better. Everyone helped Rudolph teach Rosie how to fly and together Rudolph and Rosie flew off into the sky pulling Santa and the presents in the sleigh. Santa was able to deliver all the presents after all! Comments from 2S: “Everyone really liked the play. We all enjoyed being in it.” Tudor “I really like singing, especially the song ‘Number 10’” Natalia “My favourite part of the play was when I got to do the speaking.” Pol “I was really impressed with how well the children memorized their lines. I also liked how enthusiastic they were in their singing.” Ms Swanson Many songs from the show will now be very familiar to KS1 parents as, with the excitement of Christmas, they soon became firm favourites with the children. The colourful set was made by the children in Set Design Club; the club did an excellent job with Ms Greaney, Mr Williams and Ms Dearman. The children learnt several different techniques, transforming ordinary cardboard boxes into a beautiful magic sleigh, Santa’s favourite yellow chair and his big blue bed! Parents also made beautiful hats for the elves and also found very successful ready made reindeer antlers. Thank you to everyone in the team, children, staff and parents, who helped to make this production so enjoyable. The Key Stage 1 Team
Creche and Reception E singing beautifuly on stage
Tuesday 15th of December was the day of the fantastic EYFS Pipera festive production, “O’ Christmas Tree” in which all of the EYFS classes took to the stage to perform a variety of acts. There were festive songs, poems and dances, which included Pre School’s own version of “5 little Monkeys” which was changed to “5 Little Reindeers”, Reception E sang “Frosty the Snowman”, Reception B told some interesting Christmas tree facts and Creche preformed a magical festive dance. And for a little added festive atmosphere, part way through the production it started to snow outside! It was a magical occasion, enjoyed by all. All of the children worked very hard to learn their lines, and songs which built the confidence to get on the stage to perform in front of all the
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Mums and Dads, and they did this brilliantly. The children were also involved in almost all of the designing that went with the production, including costumes, props and most importantly, the front cover for the program. This was a whole EYFS department effort where each child in every class decorated a small paper Christmas tree. All of these small trees were joined together to make one very impressive larger Christmas tree. This design was also used to become one of the school Christmas cards. Thank you to all the parents who came along to support the students. We look forward to seeing you all again at our next production. Ms Tiffany Moorcroft, EYFS Pipera Coordinator
Key Stage 1 students in mid performance
Rosies’ reindeer
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Audience ‘Hoodwinked’ by Key Stage 2 Students To end the year the Music and Drama Departments, along with all the teachers and assistants brought you another successful production. This time we decided to go with English traditional folklore and presented a version of the Robin Hood story called ‘Hood Winked’. The children all knew the story, so they were well-versed when it came to talking about the characters. Their main preoccupation in Year 5 and 6 was whether or not Maid Marian and her beau, Robin, would have to kiss at the end of the play. They were relieved when told that this was not necessary because we were not doing the cartoon version.
After looking at the classes and hearing them sing, we decided upon the cast and, although there were a few disappointments, most of the children were extremely excited to do the part they had been given and so the rehearsals began with a sense of excitement. The songs, as always were our first priority because without them we would have no play. All of the children learnt all of the songs so they were very supportive of the soloists when they had to go it alone. After weeks of singing and improvisational work based on the theme of status and inequality, we tackled the script and started to
act. A lot of the work involved with this kind of play involves ‘prancing’try trying to explain what that means without a demonstration! I am still recovering. The children however, pranced very well and it is memorable the way Robin (Daniel) leaped from the wings of the theatre to the centre of the stage to confront the wicked Sheriff (David). As you might expect, Good always wins in the end and Marion (Lucie) who was a very romantic type of character, though propped up by her strong entourage of dominant ladies, saved the day by conspiring with Friar Tuck (Engin).
The costumes were also important to the production and all the parents of the children in the production had to lend a hand there. Thank you all for you support in this area. All in all the production was another great success and for me, my favourite aspect of the play was the merging of styles from rap to ballad to pop. We all now look forward to the Summer Production of ‘Wind in the Willows”. Watch this space!” Mr Kevin Kelly, Head of Drama
The Key Stage 2 ensemble
David 4H as the Sheriff of Nottingham with his soldiers, Louis 5L, and Alex 5M
The narrators-there were 10 in all
Lucie, 6U, as Maid Marian takes centre stage
The Secondary Christmas Concert The Christmas concert before the Christmas School Break included every child in Key Stage 3 and many from Key Stage 4. All classes had to prepare and present a piece of music and a piece of drama. The work was all based on script or improvisation and followed the guidelines of the English National Curriculum. Although the work was educational and part of their course it was also a great deal of fun. It ranged from a piece of ‘Theatre of the Absurd’ to adaptations of Fairy Tales. It ranged from small etudes on the piano to a Beethoven Concerto. The children had to adapt their work, even on the night because of the large turnout. The audience actually took up half the stage and gave new meaning to the phrase, ‘in your face theatre’! It was lovely to see the young and more mature together laughing at the funny bits, concentrating on the profound and paying their very best attention to one and all. It was also lovely to use the entrance hall with its very decorative background and wonderful acoustics as the setting for many pieces of work. The next production will be in the more dramatic setting of the Tantrica Theatre in Bucharest, where you will be able to see the students sing and dance, act and play on March 30th. A club is already running for the lead parts and the vast majority of rehearsals will take place in those hours, but the less theatrical children will still have the opportunity to take part on the stage with their friends because
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they will learn the songs and dances as part of our Music and Drama curriculum. We look forward to your support for all of our events and would like to take the opportunity of thanking you for the assistance you give us, whether it be help with costumes or providing the talented children we work with. We look forward to seeing you at the show! Mr Kevin Kelly, Head of Drama. Santas little helpers
Mr Kelly kicking the evening off
Santa making a delivery
Soo-Min plays Beethoven
The entire cast sing a final Carol
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BSB Works to Counteract CYBER-BULLYING The ‘Every Child Matters’ theme for this term is ‘Being Safe’ so with this in mind Year 7 have been looking at ‘Personal Safety’ and Year 8 have been looking at ‘Bullying’. In the light of recent statistics, which show a raise in cases of ‘Cyber-bullying’, we have been looking at cyber bullying in both year groups and linking this with Safer Internet Day which was celebrated this year on Tuesday 9th February to promote safer and more
responsible use of online technology and mobile phones, amongst children and young people across the world. The slogan for 2010 is “Think B4 U post!” So when you are online and you are about to press return or send, have a think about what you are doing before you do it. Will your actions affect others? Will it affect you? Take care using the internet!
Ms Jen Kemp, PHCSE Secondary Coordinator
PHCSE - Human Rights Awareness Week Human Rights Awareness Week was headlined by Year 10 and 11 who planned the presentations, advertised the event with posters and sold orange bands to raise awareness and arranged for the UN to visit school to talk about Women’s Rights. During the week there were presentations held at break and lunch times; powerpoints prepared by Year 10 and 11 students were very topical and lead to some very interesting debates. Andreea and Alex (Yr11) gave an outstanding presentation about the rights of women and domestic/spousal violence. They showed and discussed some very powerful video clips which highlighted this issue and related closely with the topic discussed by the UN. Louisa (Yr10) opened the break presentations with a talk about the right to freedom of speech, followed by Bethan (Yr10) who gave a talk about the governing bodies who protect human rights. Mihnea and Tudor (Yr10) gave a presentation on gender discrimination. Alex and Eduoardo (Yr11) gave a very interactive presentation on racial inequality which was followed by Rida and Iulia (Yr10) who spoke about nationality discrimination and linked this to racial discrimination. Soo-Min and Senia (Yr11) gave a very moving presentation with lots of poignant images of the rights and breaches of rights of children and this was followed by May and Jasmina (Yr10) who closed the week with a superb presentation on disability discrimination. They linked their work very well to an assembly which was given about Downs Syndrome and highlighted their thoughts with very touching video clips.
Human Rights Awareness Week poster designed by Maria Yr 10 Alex and Andreea Yr 11 giving their presentation on domestic violence
Human Rights timetable of events collated by Bethan Yr 10
Bethan and May listening attentively to our visitors from the UN
As a follow up to the week Year 10 were given a survey to give their thoughts about how the week was run and if they would like the week to run again. Year 10 gave an overwhelming ‘Yes!’ to running the week again, gave positive feedback to all speakers involved in the week and suggested that we should involve other schools to support the work of the UN and highlight these very important topics to heighten awareness. Ms Jen Kemp, PSCHE Coordinator
Key Stage 4 and 5 discussing the UN topic during Human Rights Awareness Week
Human Rights awareness in schools
Louisa Yr 10 giving her presentation on freedom of speech
7P celebrating Human Rights Awareness
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Human Rights Awareness Week leaflets were distributed by Year 10 and 11
Mihnea and Tudor Yr 10 giving their presentation on gender discrimination
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Inter School Football Matches During November three of our football teams were in action against the International School of Bucharest. First off our Senior Boy’s traveled down to Pantelimon to play in their first game of the season. . Even though space was difficult to find and we were a bit rusty, the boy’s managed to come away with a 1-0 victory. Alex from 11G got his name on the score sheet and so well done to him. Credit also goes to Panayiotis from 9M for his great defensive work and also to Tudor in 10C for his outstanding display of skill in goal. Next up it was the turn of our younger pupils from Years 5 and 6. This time we were playing at home in our fantastic new Dome facility and again BSB won their game 1 – 0. This time Louis (5L) was the goal scorer. I think the BSB domination of the game was best summed up by our goal keeper, Antoine (5M), who said after the match that he had only touched the ball twice. The last match in the series was the Years 3 and 4 boys and again the game took place at home in the Dome. The boys demonstrated great all round skills and ended the match with a convincing 4 – 0 victory. Ilias (4H) bagged 2 goals whilst Vlad and David (both 4D) scored one each. Well done lads. A special mention also goes to Philip (4D) for an outstanding display of effort and technique.
Senior Boys in action against ISB
Congratulations from the PE department to all of those students for taking part.
Kwik Cricket I’m pleased to announce that our primary pupils will have the opportunity to improve their cricketing skills with Mr Keith Dawkins, the Cricket Development Manager for Romania. After an assembly presentation the children will be able to pick Kwik Cricket as one of their forth coming after school clubs. The long term intension is for BSB to enter a team into a large inter school tournament some time later in the year. The staff will also be given the chance to brush up on their coaching skills, or in some cases learn them from scratch, as we hope to organise some training for those that are keen sometime later this year. PE Department
Years 3 and 4 Boys Football Team
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BSB Senior Boys Team
Year 5 and 6 Boys Football Team
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Winter Time Library “Busyness” With so much snow out there, favourite reads for Foundation Stage classes during library time were Snow Friends, Penguin Post, Snowchild, Ice Bear and Snow Poems. We have also looked at nonfiction books about animals and people living in very cold places. Some of the titles chosen to be taken home were Winnie in Winter, Snow Queen, Snow Dragon, or Ice Trap! Readers from KS1 enjoyed a wide selection of traditional stories, to help with the topic they also studied in class. We all had a good laugh reading a few non-traditional re-telling of these stories, like Shampoozel, Ghostyshocks or Red Riding Hood Takes Charge. Years 3 and 4 students have listened to Jenny Nimmo’s Dog Star and looked for books about stars and constellations. Years 5 and 6 students have found out about Christian the Lion and his amazing journey back in the 1970s from a Harrod’s shopping window to the wilderness where he belonged. The children tried to imagine how
his story might have ended differently in other circumstances and wrote alternative endings to the book. We have also looked at non-fiction books on lions to find out more about them and picture books that have lions as main characters. The main display area in the library, whose theme is currently materials, tried to keep us warm and concentrated on wool this term, presenting books like The Clothes We Wear, Why Were Mammoths Wooly?, and How Big is Your Clothing Footprint?. Wool in different stages, from a sheep’s skin to a thick cardigan or tools used in handling wool, are also displayed. If you would like to see what gave Sleeping Beauty such a hard time, come and give our very old spindle a few spins. The next material planned for the display is metal; any interesting objects you might want to show are very welcome. And for those of you who have asked at least every day since the beginning of term: yes, the brochures for the Spring Red House book order are here and they will be out on the 26th of February. I had a quick look and I can tell you I am sure we will break our previous record, which was £914 in free books for the school! Enjoy your reading! Ms Ana-Maria Marin, Librarian
Esperanza, John and Carmen, very absorbed in their reading
Finn trying to see if he can figure out how to use this very old wooden wool tool
4H Trip to Baneasa Mall Mr Harrison organised a trip for us to Baneasa Mall. He wrote and sent some letters to our parents mentioning in them what it all was about, and asking for their permission to go on this trip. Next day we came to school and left for the mall in two buses. At the mall When we arrived at the mall we spent some time looking around. Some of my colleagues were amazed at what was actually inside the mall. We weren’t allowed to buy anything; our main purpose was to ask people about how they spend their leisure time at the mall and in general. Before we began asking people questions we had to write a list of questions and we also had a questionnaire of our own to answer, like a quiz, made by Mr Harrison. We were split into four groups and we had the opportunity of wandering anywhere inside the mall, except for the stores. After answering the quiz and asking people a couple of questions about their leisure time, we had lunch. Every child that didn’t have a school lunch had a packed one from home. After lunch we had a toilet break, and some of the groups needed to finish a couple more questions from their questionnaires. After finishing our questionnaires we got back on the buses and went back to school. Filip, 4H
Engin and Matei rehearse their interviewing skills
BSB Students Shine at World Expo On Sunday the 14th of December 2009, 9 Year 5 and 6 BSB students from the BSB School Choir took the stage at the Bucharest World Expo to sing a compilation of Christmas carols from around the globe. BSB were one of a number of schools invited to perform at the World Cultural Expo, which had stands from many countries around the world offering samples of their native cuisine and tourist information. In total the Year 5 and 6 students were on stage for approximately 30 minutes, singing 9 different carols, including the very popular “All around the world- Let’s join hands together”, which is a melody combining many Christmas carols from around the world into a single carol. I would like to say a special thank you to all the students in the BSB choir who took part, and a thank you also to the parents for organising their transport to and from the event. Mr Desmond Mulvany, Head of Music
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Year 5 & 6 students singing at the World Expo Centre
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EYFS PE: Rolling and Aiming Skills It is great to be back after the Christmas break and to see the children so animated about P.E. This term we have been working on our throwing and aiming skills. This is
done through playing many different games in a circuit style set up, where the children are split into groups of two or three and have approximately five minutes per game before moving
onto the next one. This keeps them interested and motivated. It is also designed to give them maximum exposure to as many different forms of throwing rolling and aiming as
possible, whilst having lots of fun at the same time. Mr Clayton Burt, EYFS PE teacher
I will knock them all down!
We also practice our counting skills to see how many we have knocked down and how many are left
Sam decided he would rather throw the ball than roll it
The children were very patient and cooperative at taking turns
It’s been a Winter Themed term in the EYFS This winter we have definitely been making the most of the snowy weather! The children have been enjoying playing outside making igloos, building snowmen, and making snow angels. This has provided the children with many learning opportunities, as the language and vocabulary that has been used during outside play has enhanced learning within the classroom. Reception E have been busy building igloos inside by thinking about what igloos are and how we can make big blocks of snow and ice cubes. We decided that we could make an igloo out of small boxes and sponge painted them in various shades of blue and white to make our igloo look chilly. Whilst the children are in the igloo role-play area they have been demonstrating their creativity, imagining that they are in the Arctic, and seeing
Bringing the outside - inside!!
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what different animals they can see by reading books and pretending to be explorers going out on expeditions. We have also been playing with snow inside using our arctic animal toys. The children have been acting, and demonstrating what they have been learning. Oskar A, was the Mother Polar bear and had dug a snow den for Arina and Anya who were acting as the Baby Polar Bears. In Preschool M we have been learning about animals that live in the Arctic and Antarctic. The children demonstrated their ever increasing vocabulary by expressing preferences for the different animals and explaining why. We turned our role play area into a winter wonderland complete with icicles, icebergs and an igloo. In our water tray
we had the animals and lots of ice; one day we even added snow. We also used sugar cubes and created a small world using our animals, and we used this activity as an opportunity for counting. The children also explored texture and colour by deciding the best materials to use to complete our giant penguin. All in all, the outdoors provided us with a wonderful learning opportunity due to all the snow, we have been digging, transporting and exploring in the snow. Due to the fact that the students have all been wearing the warm and waterproof clothes required for playing in the snow, changing in and out of their outdoor clothing, all the children are showing increasing control over their use of clothing and fastenings. The EYFS Team
Anya, Oskar A and Arina playing with the Arctic Animals in the snow
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Class pages Crèche Gafencu A fitting end to last year was our Christmas show. All the children rose to the occasion marvellously, and delivered impressive performances. We obviously have some twinkling stars in our midst.
Crèche in Outer Space! Over the last couple of weeks Crèche have been climbing into rockets, whooshing off into space, discovering new and exciting places and even meeting up with some friendly dancing aliens! And what a learning journey it has been.
Gafencu Preschool enjoy the snow It is almost impossible to believe that we are at the end of the first half of the spring term, let alone half way through the school year. In Preschool this term our interest, play and work has been centered around the theme of snow. Initially all the children went out to play as frequently as possible, but towards the end of January the majority of children began to exercise their right to choose if they wanted to play out, and only a hardy few persisted and it was interesting to note that their play had changed into “work”. They had been watching the maintenance men clearing the snow from the garden paths using real tools and for several days afterwards Alex and Ben requested that they could have the adult brushes and shovels and under supervision continued to clear the snow enthusiastically.
Do you know who this is... Albert, Maria, Nicolas and Eliot painting twigs
Claudia and Amelie investigate the properties of snow in the comfort and warmth of the classroom.
Philip, Marguerite, Maria and Jemima enjoying snow time
Some friendly aliens in front of their planets
Once again thank you parents! The children have been able to enjoy the inclement weather because parents have supported us by supplying the appropriate outdoor clothing and several changes of indoor clothing. Each morning as the children and parents arrive, we have begun to notice a very interesting phenomenon. We watched in amazement as the children who normally, throughout the school day independently change their clothes, suddenly become immobile little statues and expect their parents to do everything for them. Occasionally the child catches our eye and gives us what seems to be a knowing smile and then continues to stand there…
Albert, Nicolas, Marguerite, Eliot, Philip and Robert the ‘stars’ of the Christmas show
It’s now a new term at Crèche Gafencu, and we have welcomed two new faces, Aleksandra and Jemima (Mimi). It’s has been a snowy start to the year, and we’ve been out enjoying sledging, making snow-castles and other snow-based fun. We’ve also used the chilly climes to learn about ice and extend our vocabulary with some new winter words. Still on the frosty theme, we’ve been decorating the nursery with our own pictures of glittery gloves, winter hand prints, a group snow collage and snowy scenes using shaving foam. Meanwhile, we’ve welcomed back Mr Jonathan Moore-Crispin, who is teaching us some lively new songs, and Mr Mugur Mateescu, who has been getting us back into shape after all the Christmas fare! We’ve also been exercising our creative sides by dressing up and are delighted to see that the seeds we planted last term are beginning to grow, thanks to our loving care! After our long holiday we were all glad to be back having fun with our friends again and are looking forward to the rest of the term. Ms Chris Stowe, Crèche Teacher
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Max starts the countdown
This unusual theme all began with the story Roaring Rockets and from there so much has been learnt and enjoyed. The children made and designed their own planets by painting with a new method. They dipped small balls into florescent paint and rolled them across paper to create some spectacular looking planets, as well as creating some interesting alien masks. We also turned our role play corner into a real space rocket with glow in the dark stars hanging from the ceiling and a selection of alien masks in the dressing up box. A lot of language development came from the children playing in there. Here are some of the comments our students made: “Lets go to the moon”,“Whoosh”, “We are at the moon now”, “Aliens dancing”, “Oh no another alien”, “come back to the rocket”, “3,4,5, whoosh we go” Mrs Claire O’Brien, Class teacher
Alex and Ben have turned the climbing frame into the snow plough, they are the drivers with the large steering wheels made from hula hoops!
The Physical Development objective of children gaining control over fasteners has certainly been met. For the children who have chosen to stay inside we have given them the experience of snow by filling the water tray with snow and on several occasions the children have themselves brought chunks of ice and set up their own investigation. For us it was very interesting when the children put the dinosaurs in the snow tray they selected
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and added paint and then began a story about the dinosaurs changing colour, they did not worry that their hands were cold or that the snow and ice were slowly disappearing. They just collected more snow from the garden and if the dinosaur was the wrong colour, they went and washed them in the bathroom. The classroom was extremely messy but the buzz of children totally engrossed in their play was incredible. At this point I need to acknowledge and thank our maintenance staff, Ms Rodica, and for a while Ms Mariana, for their patience and humor as they repeatedly cleaned up after us! Ms Kath Homer, Class teacher
Preschool M Since returning to school for the new term I have been amazed by the progress the Preschool children have been making. A lot of the children are choosing to ‘write’ at our new writing table. The table has a collection of fancy pens and notepads, paper of different colours and sizes and clipboards. Carmen has been making tickets for getting on our class bus and Mariam made some birthday cards.
Recently we have peeled and chopped carrots; Ayesha showed how much she had improved at this. We then made winter and transport shaped biscuits; John made magic meringues and Samuel had a wonderful time making bread for all his friends. It is amazing what the children can do!! Preschool M team
Reception C After a warm welcome from the EYFS team and all at BSB, I got straight in to a very busy half term with my new class. It was a lot of fun getting to know all the children, learning about their favourite things, and their likes and dislikes. Coming from North West England, I was another new face and accent for them and they seemed to enjoy asking me questions and liked the way I said certain words differently to them, finding some of my local sayings funny.
Some of the children even helped assemble a table. This was a fantastic opportunity to do some ‘real life’ construction. Esperanza and Samuel unpacked the table carefully, and then John counted out all the pieces. We all then followed the picture instructions carefully. The fact they constructed the table themselves certainly encourages the children to use it more often. At the moment we are all very interested in transport. We have a bus and a ticket office in our classroom. Tibor likes to answer the telephone in the office and Jan works on the computer booking the bus journeys.
Reception C had fun building ’Happy’ ‘The Snowman’
the book, dancing to the film soundtrack ‘Walking in the Air’ and learning about sequencing using events from the story. We have done a lot of wintry crafts this half term and learned all about freezing and melting, so we have kept extremely busy, not least building our ‘ice palace’ in the classroom. The children, Ms Cristina and I have really enjoyed making the classroom a bright, stimulating and vibrant environment. The children are all really proud to display their work and it is a joy to work with such an enthusiastic, eager and motivated group of young learners here at BSB. I look forward to getting to know the students and parents more over the coming months Ms Claire Cowlishaw, Class teacher
Reception E: A Winter Wonderland We have had a busy and exciting start to 2010 in Reception E. We have been having lots of fun on our learning journey all about winter! We have enjoyed turning our class into a winter wonderland, with plenty of snowflakes, snowmen, igloos, polar bears, penguins, snowy pictures and ice cubes. Every time the children go outside they have been encouraged to change into their outdoor clothes and snowsuits by themselves. The EYFS states that children should be able to, “Dress and undress independently and manage their own personal hygiene.” To make this learning process more enjoyable we have enjoyed using the winter clothes dressing up basket and have been exploring different ways that we can wear the hats and scarves. We also made huge posters to remind ourselves what clothes we need to wear when we go outside.
In Preschool we have a cooking session and also make our own snack once a week. The learning and development opportunities from this are endless. These include measuring and introducing mathematical vocabulary, (e.g. bigger, smaller, more, less) taking turns, sharing, talking about what we are doing, understanding that cooking something causes it to change, using one handed tools, understanding safety and hygiene related to cooking. Reception C Sabina enjoyed exploring in the snow
Preschool picture Ayesha carefully cutting her carrot
Preschool picture preparing our biscuits
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One of the things we discovered when getting to know each other was that one of their favourite story characters is Bob the Builder, so we linked some of our activities to him, counting with building blocks, making towers and buildings from construction, and being creative with small bricks and cement. We also used the Internet to find pictures of his digger. Then the children used the computers in the ICT suite to draw their own diggers, which we used on our number and sequencing display. The children are still enjoying wearing hard hats and building in the construction area, counting bricks and using instructional sequences to make particular buildings. Our main theme to begin the term was a focus on winter and the children have been very busy finding out new and interesting things about winter weather, animals, and habitats, learning lots of ‘winter’ words and having lots of fun turning the classroom into a winter wonderland. We took advantage of the snowy weather and went on winter walks listening to the snow crunch under our feet working as a team to roll snow to build a snowman. This fitted well with our learning about The Snowman by Raymond Briggs, which we acted out and had lots of fun making up our own versions of
Stephanie and Oskar H exploring the winter clothes basket
We have spent a lot of time looking at various animals that live in the Arctic and Antarctic, and whether they are on land or in the sea, then labelled our globe showing where they live. We were also able to locate Romania and the north and south poles. After reading several books we had a little talk about icebergs which led us onto floating and sinking- and we talked about items around the classroom saying if we thought they would float or sink.
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wood cuttings she would be creating a menagerie. Suddenly, the children were creating cages and enclosures with ribbons which led to the role-play and talks about length and caring for animals. Tudor S even brought in photographs of his chinchilla for us to look at.
Moritz and Emile experimenting with things that can float or sink
Benji and Cameron enjoying the snow
Year 1T Giulia and Joost making snowball number lines
When it has been sunny (and it’s been rare), the children have been enjoying talking about reflections and why the sun and soapy bubbles in the water tray make “rainbow bubbles”. Sasha was able to explain to Martina and Niya that if the sun is here and the water is there, that it makes the rainbow bubbles. We hope to see more of this absent stranger, the sun… Ms Kellyanne Feeney Reception Teacher Gafencu
Ms Kayleigh Evans, Class teacher
Reception Gafencu: Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow “Brr it’s cold!” Giulia was not joking when she shouted out these words at the Christmas production. Thankfully, Irina was nearby to help Giulia to warm up when her hands got too cold to play outside, kindly rubbing her hands together to warm them up. While the adults at Gafencu have wrapped up like bugs in a rug, the children have been relishing the chance to run around and be mischievous in the snow. Cameron, Alex C, Benji, Calin and Tudor M have taken every opportunity to go outside to try and beat Ms Nicoleta in a snow ball fight. The jury is out on who actually wins… This has been an interesting time for the Reception class to discuss weather and the seasons and we have been learning about hibernation, nocturnal animals, winter and weather. Joost and Alex M had great fun making snow ball number lines with cotton wool, making a mess with the glue and covering themselves with it in the process. The cold weather has also got us thinking about time and we have been enjoying trying to work out in the morning what the day, date and month is. Numeracy has also involved making lots of patterns as we continued to follow our interest in symmetrical leaves from autumn into snowflakes in the winter. Sanziana spent a whole afternoon making different colours and shapes of patterns to show Ms Feeney what she had learned. We have also been looking at money as we are building our new Pet Shop role-play area after we decided that we liked animals. Ambra and Alma have been playing in the shop, selling the animals and looking at the globe to see where the animals come from. Ms Feeney had no idea that by putting out
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In History and DT, we have been looking at different types of houses and planning how we could create our own model of a house using an assortment of different materials. We enjoyed using our imagination to create a variety of beautiful houses, all of which were fit for a fairytale princess! Ms Theresa Collins and Ms Valentina Nitu
Denis and Arish exploring what happens when we mix paint and snow together
Since we enjoy playing outside in the snow so much, Emile suggested that we could bring it inside and put it in our water tray. We were able to experiment and found out how fast the snow would melt next to the radiator and what happened if we added ice cubes to the snow. We then mixed water with paint and left this outside overnight and found that we could make ice cubes as it was so chilly outside. We then experimented by mixing different colours with snow and were amazed at the colour we made!
Smruti, William and David carrying out an investigation of sounds
It has been another busy term for 1T. We have been learning about ‘Fairy Tales’ in Literacy and ‘Homes’ in History and DT. In Science we have been looking at how we hear ‘Sounds’. In Maths we have been hard at work learning how to count, add, subtract and measure. This term we have also been learning more about Handling Data. We had previously learned how to find information and present it in a pictogram. This term we are leaning to present the same information in a bar chart.
1C 1C have been busy learning about ‘Fairy Tales’ in Literacy this term. We have enjoyed reading our favourite stories and thinking about how we could create our own versions of classic tales. We worked together to create a beautiful display in our classroom which shows all the bravest characters from an assortment of traditional tales. There are also some ‘bad’ characters lurking in our display if you hard long enough! In addition, we have been using ‘VCOP’ (Vocabulary-Connectives-OpenersPunctuation) to help us write some fantastic sentences about our favourite stories.
Paloma creating her bar chart in ICT
We have been working with data handling in Numeracy and have learned to draw pictograms and block graphs to represent information that we are given. We have also been learning to use rulers to measure in centimetres. We carried out a survey to find out which is our favourite type of transport and what our favourite subjects are. In ICT sessions, we used the ‘2Simple’ software to create a block graph on the computers to show this information. Our Science lessons have been very noisy this term as we have been investigating different sounds. We have learned to put sounds into groups and can even identify lots of sounds without even looking! Tudor counting how many counters he has of each colour
In our Maths lesson we picked counters from a bag. We then counted them to see how many we had of each colour. We took a tally of these and made a pictogram of the results. Then during our ICT lesson we used the program 2simple to make a bar chart of the information. Year 1T clearly enjoyed creating their bar charts. 1C standing by the fantastic display on Fairytales which we created
Ms Justine Tyler, Class teacher
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1W For 1W the spring term has been very exciting. Our main focus of learning has been ’Houses’ in DT and History crossed-linked with ‘Shapes’ in Maths. It has been very interesting to look at all sorts of designs and to discover how many shapes appear in buildings. In class we have had lots of fun using a material called ‘mod rock’, which is very similar to the plaster used to set broken limbs, and constructed different types of houses. With all the snow perhaps we should have made an igloo!
family. In that family there’s Daddy ‘ai’, Mummy ‘ay. Grandma ‘ey’ and our favourite the Naughty twins ‘a-e’. They are so naughty they need somebody to split them up, so when you spell a word with the naughty twins you must always put a letter in between them! We are really becoming very good at spelling now that we think about it in terms of word families.
Year 3T
It was an interesting end to last term with our class assembly on ‘Teeth and Healthy Eating’ and our first exchange lesson with Preschool children. Our assembly went very well with everyone playing an active role of some sort; the children especially enjoyed the experience of helping the little ones learn whilst playing.
Cristina and her raft
Our House in 1W
In Science we have been investigating how different sounds are made, which could be plucking, blowing or banging. We can also tell the difference between a musical sound and noise! All in all, we are having a fun spring term, but looking forward to some warmer weather. Mr James Ward, Class teacher
2P 2P have had lots of fun learning about The Great Fire of London this half of term. We are even able to sing a song about it! We also ‘won’ a million pounds in our Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? quiz about it. We have also been really busy making vehicles in DT- everything from rockets to cars. Our teacher encouraged us to design them ourselves so they are all very different- some are even protected against the snow by material over the body work! We think we are very good at making vehicles.
It does float !
This term seems to have gone very fast and it will soon be time for us to learn about new topics...we wonder what they will be!
Andrew and Alessandro and their Volcano 3T
Year 2P students
2S 2S has started the new term off with a lot of stretching, twisting and rolling in our exploration of Forces in Science. By constructing and testing our own ramps, we have discovered how to create small and large forces to control objects. Did you know that weight is measured in Newtons, not kilograms? Assembly Practice 3T
Darius, Ali, Jackson and Pol from 2S showing off their DT puppets
Tudor and his car
Our science topic is all about Forces and Motion so we use our cars and knowledge from DT to help us with that. We know all about push and pull forces and can give you a demonstration on how materials will react depending on whether you push or pull them. Of course, some materials like big stones will not change at all; they are too hard for us to change the shape of them! We have also had fun learning about different families in our phonics work. There is the ‘ai’
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We have also been having a lot of fun in DT designing our own vehicles. We have invented some fabulous new vehicles in the process, including the Rocket Ice Cream Truck. Speaking of inventions, we made up a new sport called ‘Moon Football’ in Literacy class and have written detailed instructions so you can play along with us. Finally, in History we have been investigating a more serious topic- the Great Fire of London. Thanks to Samuel Pepys and his diary, we can imagine what it must have been like to live in London in 1666. We have been keeping our own detailed diaries so that we can go down in history, too!
Sara and Erin and their Volcano 3T
In Art this term we are studying ‘Can we change places?’ and this together with our Geography topic ‘The view from the window’, involves looking at sculptures and improvements we can make to our local environment. So, the snowy start to the term was great because we spent a lesson making snow and ice sculptures in the grounds of the school. We hope soon, to take a trip to Herastrau Park in order to see the range of sculptures that are sited there. Ms Jane Taylor, Class teacher
Ms Kristen Swanson, Class teacher
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3W 3W have been studying sculpture in the environment. We saw an inspiring video about the sculpture walk at Bondi Beach in Australia. We learned how sculptures can improve the look of locations and make them more interesting. We then designed our own sculptures for a seaside town. Daria worked with textures, patterns and colours: “My Sculpture is called Jelly-Shell. I was inspired to make this sculpture by the curly shapes of a Jelly fish and a shell. My sculpture will be made of actual seashells and also metal and plastic to make it strong.”
In Science we have done an experiment. We had to plan an experiment and we also had to say if it was a fair test. It was a challenge because we had to do this by ourselves. The experiment was to see if a beaker of ice will melt quicker at Vlad’s table than somewhere else. \In Maths we have looked at tessellating shapes. We made tessellating posters. Tessellating shapes are more like patterns and shapes that are stuck together.
David and Filip use clay and wood to construct their model
Ioana, Hithu, Vlad, Philip, Hyun-Ji and Sasa busy baking in the DT room
Daria’s Jelly-Shell
Lena wanted to convey an important message about street dogs: “My idea comes from the poor stray dogs. I hoped this sculpture would remind people that dogs that are dying on the street, and that we should do something to help them.”
In Literacy we have been looking at comparative and superlative adjectives. It was fun because for homework we had to make a poster with 3 examples of comparative and superlative adjectives. Ioana, 4D
4H: Are you sitting comfortably? Are you sitting comfortably? 4H are here for all your sitting needs. Whether you need a new set of dining chairs, a new sofa, or want to make a statement in your home with a flamboyant or minimalistic pew – we are here for you! We have been studying chairs and considering the materials, structures, and designs that are most practical. We have also let our creativity run wild and developed some zany designs for our prestigious clients such as Shrek, Lady Gaga and Ms Hussain. We have considered their comfort needs and balanced those with a personalised and unique twist of style to create the perfect chair for each individual. We are now experimenting with materials to construct strong and decorative models of some of our designs in preparations for final production!
Lena’s Dying Dogs
Lukas got his idea from something he saw in the sand: “My sculpture is called Hand-Feet. I was inspired by the hand prints and foot prints you can make in the sand. My sculpture is 2 metres long and 2 metres high because I want the people to see it from far away. I want people to enjoy the colours and to be reminded of how to play in the sand.”
Astrid and Sophie get messy creating a papier mache ball as a base for their models
We have also been studying the Indian village of Chembakolli. We have looked at many similarities such as shops, schools and public services as well as the many differences between Bucharest and this small, isolated place. We have been imagining what it would be like to live there for a short period of time and-although some aspects would be funwe are glad to have homes with running water and an ‘easy to access’ range of food to enjoy. 4H students
Year 5 made and played their own musical instruments This past term has been a very busy one for the Year 5 classes at BSB. It has be an exciting term as they have been studying sound and have created their own musical instruments. The classes looked at how sound travels and how ears work and what parts of the instruments make the sound. They used all this knowledge to create their own instruments and played them in front of the class.
Mr Mark Williams, Class teacher
4D Class work Year 4 had a bake sale this term. We all baked cookies, cakes and we also brought some other cakes from home. We baked all sorts of things in our Numeracy and Literacy lesson. Year 4H did the posters and also baked. It was fun to bake because we had to find the ingredients and to measure them out in the right order. On Wednesday we used the lap-tops to find recipes and then baked on Thursday and Friday.
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Hard Work! Anda has carefully measured and cut wood to give her structure strength
5L sound display
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Chi Bin, Daniel, Jorge and Haris investigating the structure of a guitar
The students of Year 5 have also been looking at persuasive writing and speeches. There were some very persuasive arguments presented. Antoine and Clotilde from 5M and Stefanos from 5L competed in the school speech competition ‘Speculation on the Future’. Well done to those three and extra congratulations to Stefanos who was selected to compete against children from other schools in the Romanian National English Public Speaking Competition.
The 6H classroom has never been so quiet: Jarod, Finn, Jesus, Aliss, Maria and Dilara stitching and cutting
In the first term our history project was to make a timeline about the world and our family since 1948. Aaron was the first one to finish his timeline and everybody else finished right on time. In literacy we have been studying journalistic writing and also had to write a 2 minute speech about the topic, “Speculation on our Future’ for an international speech contest. The winners of each class got to deliver their speeches at our Key Stage 2 assembly and Aaron, Roberto, Dilara and Finn made it from 6H. In the end Dilara and Thomas (6U) won and are off with Stefanos from 5L to the Bucharest contest on February 12th. In maths we have been focusing on angles, grids and coordinates. With angles we have been learning how to use protractors to find the amount of degrees of angles. With grids we have been learning about the Y-Axis, X-Axis, and negative and positive numbers on a grid. Lastly, in DT we had the exciting challenge of designing and creating a pair of slippers. Everybody found this task enjoyable as the cutting and stitching turned out to be a surprisingly peaceful and creative project.
Amy, Isabel and Ilinca giving the history of Valentine’s Day
Roberto and Finn, 6H 5M working on their traffic presentaions.
Both classes have investigated the problems within Bucharest’s transport system. They used maps and videos to help research possible solutions to the problems and gave a presentation explaining what they had discovered. Mr Dan Madsen and Mr Sonny Leese
6H
6U: Let’s Talk About It! 6U’s assembly this term was a show called Let’s Talk About It! The hosts, Bianca and Calin, discussed with guests about current events happening throughout the world, such as the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti, the history of Valentine’s Day, how to be prepared for cold weather and an introduction to the February Craze of the Month…HOT POTATO.
Eleanor on location in Haiti during 6U assembly
It seems like 6H is the best and busiest class at BSB. Everybody in 6H has had a fun and exciting term. It is tonnes of hard work, but it pays off in the end of each half term because we get house points, smiley stickers and the table team with the most silver coins earns a pizza party!
“Lets Talk About It” hosts Bianca and Calin
6U Waiting to Present
Jarod and Finn busy turning their slipper designs into a reality!
Bianca and Calin also taught Key Stage 2 about the five W’s commonly found in newspaper articles. The five W’s include: Who? What? When? Where? Why? The hosts also explained the difference between a biased and a balanced article. They explained that a biased article only shows one point of view and might try to sway the reader’s opinion, while a balanced article shows all points of view. 6U worked extremely hard to prepare for the assembly. It was based entirely on original ideas and was completely written by the class. It was quite easy coming up with the ideas, but it was difficult planning everything. Daniel and Thomas, 6U
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Old Dog, New Tricks At BSB our staff undertake continuous professional development (CPD) at our INSET (In Service Training) Days which are organised at regular intervals throughout the year. In December, all the staff assembled to discuss our next target on the longterm BSB whole school development plan–forging stronger links across the different areas of the school through group planning and peer observations. In December, BSB addressed this issue and set all the teaching staff the objective of planning with colleagues from different sections of the school and then observing them in action. The programme was received positively by the staff. The staff organised into groups of three for this exercise. For me, personally, I was given the opportunity to observe Mr Kelly teaching Secondary Drama and Mr Williams teaching in Key Stage 2. It was a very worthwhile and refreshing experience to see other teachers in action. to observe their approach and the mix of skills they used in their lessons. I was able to take away a lot from these observations, as they provided food for thought and ideas and techniques which could then be transferred into my teaching as a Key Stage 1 practioner. I also found it extremely rewarding to see the development of children in different areas of the school and at different stages of their education. In our everyday lives we easily get set in our ways, so it was really worth going the extra mile. One of the important aspects of teaching is to always be developing in your
Mr Ward and 1W
teaching, evolving, and improving. There are continual developments in the field of education and so it is important for teachers to keep
abreast of these changes and one of the best ways to do this is through peer observations. I’m sure I speak for everyone when I say that I look
forward to the next INSET session. Mr James Ward, Year 1 Teacher & Maths Coordinator
Learning the Nuts and Bolts of English: Letters and Sounds So what do we mean when we refer to ‘Letters and Sounds’? As the name suggests Letters and Sounds is a phonics programme developed by the DCSF to support teachers in Primary schools and enable them to deliver systematic, high quality phonics teaching and work. Letters and Sounds is divided into six phases, with each phase building on the skills and knowledge of previous learning. There are no big leaps in learning. Children must have time to practise and rapidly expand their ability to read and spell words. They are also taught to read and spell ’tricky words’, which are words with spellings that are unusual or that children have not yet met. From a very early stage, children develop awareness of different sounds in spoken language. They develop understanding that spoken words are made up of different sounds (phonemes) and they learn to match these phonemes to letters (graphemes). Phonics is about children knowing how letters link to sounds (graphemes to phonemes), for example, c as in ‘cat’, ll as in ‘fell’, ee as in ‘sheep’. Children use this phonic knowledge when they are reading and writing. This approach has been shown to provide a quick and efficient way for most young children to learn to read words on the page, fluently
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and accurately. We want children to develop this skill so that it becomes automatic. This also greatly helps them with their spelling.
Phase 1 This paves the way for systematic learning of phonics and can start in crèche. Teachers plan activities that will help children to listen attentively to sounds around them, such as the sounds of their toys and to sounds in spoken language. Teachers teach a wide range of nursery rhymes and songs. They read good books to and with the children. This helps to increase the number of words they know – their vocabulary – and helps them talk confidently about books.
Phase 2 In this phase children will continue practising what they have learned from phase 1, including ‘sound-talk’. They will also be taught the phonemes (sounds) for a number of letters (graphemes), which phoneme is represented by which grapheme and that a phoneme can be represented by more than one letter, for example, /ll/ as in b-e-ll. They may be using pictures or hand movements to help them remember these.
Phase 3 The purpose of this phase is to: Teach more graphemes, most of which are made of two letters, for example, ‘oa’ as in boat Practise blending and segmenting a wider set of CVC words, for example, fizz, chip, sheep, light Learn all letter names and begin to form them correctly Read more tricky words and begin to spell some of them Read and write words in phrases and sentences.
Phase 4 Children continue to practise previously learned graphemes and phonemes and learn how to read and write: CVCC words: tent, damp, toast, chimp For example, in the word ‘toast’, t = consonant, oa = vowel, s = consonant, t = consonant. and CCVC words: swim, plum, sport, cream, spoon For example, in the word ‘cream’, c = consonant, r = consonant, ea = vowel, m = consonant. They will be learning more tricky words and continuing to read and write sentences together
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Phase 5 Main purpose: To teach children to recognise and use alternative ways of pronouncing and spelling the graphemes already taught. Outcome: Children will use alternative ways of pronouncing and spelling the graphemes corresponding to long vowel phonemes. Children will identify the constituent parts of two- and three-syllable words and be able to read and spell phonically decodable two- and three-syllable words. They will recognise an increasing number of high frequency words automatically. Phonic knowledge and skills will be applied as the prime approach in reading and spelling when the words are unfamiliar and not completely decodable.
Phase 6 By the beginning of Phase Six, children should know most of the common grapheme– phoneme correspondences (GPCs). They should be able to read hundreds of words, doing this in three ways:
Theodor and Taemin doing ‘Letters and Sounds’ work
reading the words automatically if they are very familiar; decoding them quickly and silently because their sounding and blending routine is now well established; decoding them aloud Children’s spelling should be phonemically accurate, although it may still be a little unconventional at times. Spelling usually lags behind reading, as it is harder. During this phase, children become fluent readers and increasingly accurate spellers. The Teachers in Foundation Stage and Key Stage One are working hard to deliver Letters and Sounds in a fun, lively and systematic way through the daily teaching of phonics. This coupled with regular assessment of each child’s progress is a vital way of ensuring that we are giving your children the best possible start to developing their reading and writing skills. Ms French-Paris, Primary Literacy Coordinator.
Class Letters and Sound Work
Crazy Hair Day
Crazy Hair Day
On Friday the 12th of February the Student Council organised Crazy Hair Day. The reason for the day was to raise money to help those affected by the terrible earthquake that struck Haiti earlier this year. Everyone who participated was asked to bring in at least 5 Ron and lots of students
participated with the result being that there were some wonderful, crazy hair styles to be seen around the BSB campus. Even Mr Murchison participated! The Student Council organised this event intending for everyone to have fun whilst at the time improving the lives of those
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Ms Catalina Maxim and Marcel, 4H, enjoying Crazy Hair Day
affected by the disaster. I’m sure that everyone had a lot of fun with Crazy Hair Day and so on behalf of all the students at BSB, I would like to thank the Student Council for organising this wonderful event for all of us. I would also like to thank the students who kindly donated 5 Ron or more
towards this charity event. I’m sure we helped to make a real difference in the lives of those less fortunate then ourselves. Rhea, Year 7, Student Council Rep
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Gafencu adult English classes up and running Term 2 saw the start of Adult English classes at Gafencu. Classes were originally offered to see if there was any interest, and the response has been very good with both a pre-intermediate and intermediate class up and running. There are currently 4 students in each class so there is still room if you are interested in joining one of these classes to improve or just use your English. We also have English classes running each week at Pipera if this location is more convenient. Adult Learning English Programme GAFENCU Pre-intermediate: Intermediate:
Wednesday/Friday 8.30-9.30 Wednesday/Friday 9.30-10.30
PIPERA Elementary: Pre-intermediate: Intermediate: Advanced:
Wednesday 2.10-3.00 Tuesday 9.30-10.20 Thursday 9.00-10.20 Friday 2.10-3.00 Adult English classes at Gafencu
BSB PTA donates money for meningitis vaccines With your help and support at the Artisan Fair in December, the PTA was able to make a donation of 2,970 Ron to Fundatia Inocenti, a partner of Romanian Children’s Relief. This contribution was used to help purchase a number of meningitis vaccines (Prevenar) for babies in Rusescu Paediatric Hospital. The photograph shows a baby receiving his inoculation. The baby has been in the hospital for 5 months and comes for an extremely poor family. Without your support, he would have not been vaccinated with this vaccine. Unfortunately, the parents will not take the baby home, so with the help of Child Protection he will go in foster care very soon. In the mean time, he spends time in the baby playroom where the staff and volunteers of Fundatia Inocenti help him to develop as normal as possible. Every day, he has individual attention, care and love while he is in our program. Like this baby, another 26 will be vaccinated, thanks to you and to other donors that contribute to purchase the vaccine for them. Fundatia Inocenti’s first program “Child Life program” was started in the Institute of Mother and Child Care, Dr. A. Rusescu, paediatric department in 1990. Today the foundation supports 6 staff
people and 100 volunteers working with children throughout the hospital. Special programs include: Daily preschool, infant and older children programs; Interaction with babies in the play room, bedside activities for children unable to come to the play room; early literacy training; and nutrition training for parents. Abandoned children are also brought to outpatients clinics for PT and Speech as needed, with ongoing exercises overseen by Fundatia Inocenti’s staff. Fundatia Inocenti/Romanian Children’s Relief (RCR) mission is to support Romanian children and families in order to prevent abandonment and to improve their lives. RCR has been working in Romania since 1990. In that time there have been some dramatic changes in the way abandoned children are cared for. RCR are one of those charities in helping make those changes happen- one child at a time. In 1998, with the support from RCR, Fundatia Inocenti was incorporated as a Romanian charitable foundation; all the services are provided in Romania with only Romanian paid staff, trained nationally and internationally.
PTA funds vaccinations
There are a number of ways you can help Fundatia Inocenti by becoming a volunteer, donating clothes and toys and sponsoring a child or just sponsor the programs that we run in order to help children and families in need. Thank you!
For more information please see www.inocenti.ro or you can contact Valentina Maghirescu, Director of Development at vmaghirescu@yahoo.com Tel: 0751.242.282
Artisan fair What a delight it was to end an exciting first year in Romania with the school’s Artisans’ Fair! It was a privilege to meet and to support so many talented craftspeople from all over Romania, each selling wonderful handmade goodies – and just in time for Christmas too! A fabulous range of stalls made our last minute Christmas shopping
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special and fun and we were able to take home to Scotland some very special gifts for family and friends – delicious jams from the Nuns at Manestreia; individually designed clothes by KihiKiha; multicoloured candy sticks from ‘the Dutch Cheese Man’; wonderful maps and books from Fundatia Adept on the Saxon Villages of Transylvania; handmade
chocolates from Dragos Petrescu (superb!); jewellery by Touched Romania, NoniBam, Rosa Lopez and more; superb mosaics from Second Chance. Everything at the fair was designed and produced in Romania, many by charitable organisations, and this added to the fun and happy atmosphere of the day. There were excited children running to and fro,
enterprising pupils selling snacks and drinks, and PTA members offering hot mulled wine! The Christmas Artisans’ Fair is one of the highlights of the BSB school calendar and was a great way to end the first term.’ Janie, Mum of Megan (7P), Isabella (1T) and Alexander (Creche)
Visit the BSB website at www.britishschool.ro
Christmas Art Exhibition On Monday 14th December BSB artists exhibited their work in the Crawford building. The foyer displayed photographs and canvases from the set of the school productions ‘Rosie the Reindeer’ and ‘Hoodwinked’ as well as costumes and designs from DT day and the Fashion Show. Paintings and sketchbooks by pupils in Key Stage 3 and 4 were presented
and parents from the adult art class proudly displayed their canvases and prints also. “It was interesting to see the different styles and techniques used by students and also to see work from a range of age groups” Andreea, Year 11 remarked “…when I saw all the artwork I realised how many talented people there are in the school”
“The art exhibition was successful and very well presented” Jasmina, Year 10 said “…the students put a lot of effort into their artwork. I think we should organise more art exhibitions as well in the future.”
Some of the Adult work on display
Parents and students enjoying the exhibition
Some of the student portraits on exhibit
Selection of Art
Mrs Monica Ussia in front of her artwork on display
View of the art exhibition from the balcony
Mrs Adriana Vrestova displaying her work
Andreea, Naomi, and Jennea, Year 8 holding their Art Card Design Awards
The BSB Calendar March Mon 1st -Fri, 5th Thursday 4th Friday 5th Mon 8th-Fri 12th Friday 12th Saturday 13th Mon 15th-Fri 19th Wednesday 17th Wed/Thurs 17th/18th Thursday 18th Friday 19th Thursday 25th Monday 29th Tuesday 30th Wednesday 31st April Thursday 1st Monday 19th Monday 26th Mon 19th-Fri 23rd Thus 23rd-Friday 24th Thursday 29th
World Book Week Oxford University Book Sale World Book Day (EYFS/Primary students wear costumes to school) BSB Open Day BSB Haut-Lac Ski Trip Year 7 Bake Sale BSB Ball Eco Week Green Day (students wear green to school) Primary Parent’s Evening (some clubs cancelled) Year 6 Primary to Secondary Transition Day 1 Eco Day Bake Sale Bucharest International Schools Debating Competition EYFS Pipera parents workshop on Outdoor Learning at 2pm Launch of Primary ICT Competition Secondary Production EYFS & KS1 Easter Celebration Easter Bonnet Parade Earth Day Term 2 ends Term 3 starts Healthy Schools Week Close of Primary ICT competition Year 10 Mock Exams International Award Bronze walk- Baneasa Forest EYFS/Primary Science Day
The British School of Bucharest Magazine
The first term has been a very productive time in the art department with pupils and parents busy
producing wonderfully creative and exciting works of art. I would like to thank all of those who contributed to its success and everyone who came along to celebrate the occasion. I look forward to the next exhibition in March. Ms Martina Greaney, Art teacher
May Monday 3rd Friday 7th Monday 10th Wednesday 19th Wed 19th-Sun 23rd Thursday 20th Friday 21st Monday 24th Thursday 27th Friday 28th Mon 31st-Wed 3rd June Mon 31st-Fri 4th June
IGCSE External Exams start (Finish June 15th) AG&T Bake Sale INSET- School closed Year 6 Primary to Secondary Transition Day 2 International Award Silver Expedition: Zarneati National Park Year 10 Parent’s Evening Student Council Bake Sale National Holiday (school closed) IGCSE Exams still on this day Parents Transition Night Reception to Y1 Sports Day Year 3/Year 4 Trips Year 6 Liddington Trip
June Saturday 5th Mon- Fri, 7th-11th Friday 11th Tues 8th-Wed 9th Wednesday 16th Thursday 17th Mon 21st-Fri 25th Wednesday 23rd Thursday 24th Wednesday 23rd Friday 25th Monday 28th Tuesday 29th End of June Wednesday 30th
Summer Fair Year 5 Trip Year 6 Primary to Secondary Transition Day 3 Gafencu Reception children transition day to Pipera Key Stage 3 Parent’s Evening KS1 Production Year 7 Trip to Madrid/ Year 8-13 Trip to Berlin Theatre Day KS2 KS2 Theatre Day and Production Pipera End of Year Production Barnaby Bear’s Picnic Secondary School BBQ Secondary School Awards Presentation Primary Reports out Primary Leavers/ Awards Assembly – school finishes at 12.00
Please note that some of these dates could change.
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The Friars from the Key Stage 2 Winter Production “Hoodwinked” 42, Erou Iancu Nicolae Street, 077190 Voluntari, Ilfov County, Romania T. +40 21 267 89 19 F. +40 21 267 89 69 E. office@britishschool.ro www.britishschool.ro