BSB School Magazine - October 2010

The British School of Bucharest Magazine

Issue 1 - October 2010 Visit the BSB website at www.britishschool.ro

The latest addition to the BSB Campus Students returning from their summer break in September were met with the sight of a newly transformed campus. The new Science and Art extensions to the Secondary School were complete.

The new classroom extensions to Ringwoods for EYFS and KS1 were finished. Most importantly the new climbing frame was now in place and ready to go, which means that Outdoor Climbing is now on the afterschool club list.

West End Bound

September Sun enjoyed by all

BSB Hosts Audi A1 Launch

We are less than two months into the school term and already a group of students have tripped off abroad on the first of many school trips planned for this year. This time it was the IGCSE Drama students, accompanied by the King of school theatre, Mr Kevin Kelly and Mrs Wells, off on a whirlwind tour of the West End and the tantalising sights and sounds of London.

With the hot summer pushing on through into September, the students took advantage of the weather and maximised their pool time during their weekly PE lessons. For the younger students it was the ABC of swimming, for the older students it was all about speed and style. Here, Hyun-Ji, Klara, Hannah, Dora, 5M work on their back kick, assisted by flotation tubes.

On Saturday the 18th of September the flood lights turned on and through the mist the new about town AUDI A1 emerged, 1, 2, 3 in a variety of colours. This was the first public appearance of the Audi A1 in Romania, and to mark the occasion Audi wined and dined its guests into the late hours.

Visit the BSB website at www.britishschool.ro Contents • Editor’s Note • The BSB Calendar • Artisan Fair • Bake Sale Dates • Principal’s Report • The Front Desk • EYFS Gafencu Report • EYFS Pipera Report • Key Stage 1 Report • Key Stage 2 Report • Secondary Report • Student in the Spotlight • Who are the People in your Neighbourhood?

• New Teacher Spotlight • Where are they now?

• A Word from the President of the Secondary Student Council • Time to make a Splash with the Swimming Report • Primary Student Council • Welcome to the new Creative Faculty • The Art Departments New Home • BSB Students Enjoy Mini Olympics • Language Week Debate • BSB Clubs • After school clubs and our link with the Calea Victoria Foundation • Club Choices for Autumn Term 1.2.

Beginning Monday 1st November, 2010 • Where DT and Science Meet • Jeans for Genes Day - Dress Making and Sewing Club • Jeans for Genes • Primary House Competition • Secondary House Point Competition Update • First Impressions of Life in the Sixth Form • Eco Committee 2010/11 • ICT at BSB • Mr Murchison’s Marvellous Magnet Board • Cambridge Tops World University List • Year 11 GCSE Drama Students Head West • KS1 Art • Year 4 and 6 Students enjoy Japanese Workshop • Wales wins Ping-pong World Cup • Englisch ist ein Muss, Deutsch ist ein Plus • BSB International Cinema • The BSB Language Café is now Open for Business • Language Week 2010 puts the tongue to good use • Fun and Games for MFL • Welcome to Geography • History with Year 9 • Learning about Banking in PSHCE • BSB Spelling Bee Competition • How parents can help their children focus and succeed in life • Star of the Week • Home visits in EYFS • Midnight Update • EYFS Bake Sale • Settling into EYFS • EYFS Open Morning • EYFS Parents Workshops • Class Pages 33 • Crèche Pipera • Preschool Gafencu • ‘All About Me’ in Preschool C • Exploring the Jungle in Preschool E • Reception Gafencu • Reception B: Help Humpty • 1M, 1P, 1S(S=Super) • 2B, Buenos Dias from 2F, 2S, 3M • World War Two in 3T, 4D • 4H – Journeying Into the Unknown • 5L Class report • 5M, 6B: Fun with Science • 6H in PSCHE • The BSB Charity Committee Report • Dear Parents • A Leadership Course • Staff Social at Le Club • Attention all Skiers!

• Who is Terry Fox? • Preparing for the Bucharest Marathon • Inter School Sports • PTA Update • Letter from the DSAB • Stationary donations for Second Chance • BSB Hosts Audi A1 Launch

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Editor’s Note

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I would like to begin by offering a warm welcome to students, parents, and teachers returning and newly arrived to BSB. We have got a busy year ahead with a calendar full to brimming with something for everyone. For the students there is something fun and interesting planned for every week of the term, whether it be Language Week with the hugely successful Language Café and the ever popular KS2 Japanese Workshop, or one of the many Bake Sales going on at the front gate, or perhaps one of the many schools trips planned, such

as the GCSE Drama Trip to London.

All this you can read about in this issue.

For the parents and teachers we also have a lot on the cards, starting with the already very popular coffee mornings and staff socials. The PTA have again been busy helping to organise the parents’ calendar with trips to Second Chance and various parent workshops organized. A big thank you to Sarah Waterfield, Em Rowlands, Christina Reis, Kerstin Neuhauser, and Wendy Russell for all their hard work this term in helping to make the coffee mornings such a success and for all your efforts organizing coming school events, such as the Artisan Fairs, which I’m sure will be better than ever.

For the parents we also have the Adult English and Romanian classes running again this year, with more parents than ever coming along and not just from BSB, but also many of the other international schools. These classes are one of the highlights of my week, as the classes are full with parents from such a varying array of countries and backgrounds

that the classroom conversations which develop are always so rich and interesting. It’s also really nice to see so many friendships made though these classes, which I think is the main reason for learning a language in the first place. So if you want to use or improve your English, you might like to sign up for one of the classes available next term I would like to finish by thanking everyone who has contributed to this issue. I especially would like to thank Louisa, 11D, and Ana, 9M, for your many contributions, and the MFL Department for their articles on Language Week. Thank you also to the Humanities Department for their articles, Ms Kemp for her DT articles, and the class teachers from EYFS and Primary for their class articles. Finally, a big thank you to Mrs Varban, Ms Cowlishaw, Ms Moorcroft, Mr Davidson and Ms Kemp for coordinating the articles coming in from the various Key Stages and to Mr Mugur for his many wonderful photos. This is another colourful issue due to the efforts of everyone at BSB and so I hope you all enjoy the read.

Mr Kendall Peet kendall.peet@britishschool.ro

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The BSB Calendar November Monday 1st Tuesday, 2nd

Wednesday 3rd Thursday 4th Friday 5th Monday 8th Wednesday 10th Thursday 11th

Friday 12th Fri 12th- Sun 14th Monday 15th Tuesday 16th Wednesday 17th Thursday 18th Friday 19th Monday 22nd Tuesday 23rd Tuesday 23rd Wednesday 24th Mon 22nd / Fri 26th Friday 26th

School Clubs begin Baby Massage Course Starts (Parent’s Room every Tuesday at 11am) Pipera/Gafencu Parent’s Workshop: Literacy- 8.30am-9.30am BSB Debating Club to visit/debate AISB PTA Event: Parents Social Coffee Morning PTA Event: Second Chance Visit Primary Parents’ Evening / 4D class assembly EYFS Pipera/Gafencu Parents’ evenings Primary Parents’ Evening / 2S class assembly Year 7 Bake Sale 3pm CEESA Middle School Debating/Public Speaking Competition Secondary Reports Out PTA event: Cooking Demonstration 3T Class Assembly 1P Class Assembly Year 5 Bake Sale 3pm Secondary Parents’ Evening Secondary Parents’ Evening PTA Event: Flower Arranging PTA Committee Meeting Year 11 Work Experience Gafencu Open Morning/Parent Coffee Morning Year 3 Bake Sale, 3pm

December Wednesday 1st Friday 3rd

Monday 6th Wed 8th- Thurs 9th Wed 8th- Fri 10th Thursday 9th Mon 6th- Fri 10th Tues 14th –Wed 15th Thursday 16th

School closed for National Holiday Reception Bake Sale Clubs and University Courses end for Term 1 PTA Event: Artisan Fair 1:30 - 4:30pm Secondary Art Exhibition EYFS Pipera & KS1 Festive Production BSB Festive Book Sale EYFS Gafencu Festive Production Human Rights Awareness Week KS2 Theatre Days and Production Gafencu Open Morning/Parent Coffee Morning Primary Class parties School closes at 12pm

Please note that these dates are subject to change.

Artisan Fair Friday 3rd December, 2010, 1:30 - 4.30pm There will be artisan stalls, food, and entertainment All parents and friends of BSB are invited to attend

The Cheese stall was one of the most popular stalls

Bake Sale Dates Friday 12th Year 7 Friday 19th Year 5 Friday 26th Year 3 Friday 3rd Reception Pipera All parents and friends are invited to attend

Bake Sale

Visit the BSB website at www.britishschool.ro

Principal’s Report

Dear Parents & Friends of BSB Welcome back to another academic year at BSB, so far we have had an extremely smooth start to our year even though our student body has grown considerably, we now have over 400 students registered and of course we also welcomed 13 new teachers to help with that growth.

On reflection about the speed at which the calendar of events has been implemented and extended this year, I feel strongly that it is mainly due to the strong commitment of the staff that there are so many events that are part of the tradition and fabric of our school. Events like Language Week, Healthy Schools and Jeans for Genes are very much a regular part of BSB life and help to shape the year for our students.

The familiarity of the events and their careful organisation means that each year they can be improved upon and extended. Already this year with the support of the PTA we have established coffee mornings for individual teachers to meet parents and discuss class events, these new social occasions have been a major success and will certainly appear on our calendar for next year. Mr Kelly organised the first overseas Drama trip to London as part of the IGCSE course, and has started to organise the KS3 trip to Geneva to take part in the ISTA Drama Festival. As part of the Language Week at school Ms Draser included a Language Café which you can read about in Newsblast this month, it was a wonderful celebration of our diversity as a student body and the children were so proud to speak their native language or practice a new language in a real life experience. Our Healthy Schools

Committee has offered eye testing as part of the events of this essential week. In just one month these new events have become part of our school experience which will be repeated.

Traditional events are a very important part of school life, they give students something to look forward to as they progress through the school year, and they very much carve the character of the school. This is why we are so passionate about creating a life for our students beyond the standard curriculum. As part of our development plan this year we want to raise the profile of student voice, and hopefully through some initiatives connected with this we will see more new events become part of the school’s calendar. Today we have children as young as 18 months and as old as 18 years in BSB’s family and their strength of ownership of their school is imperative for their success and progress, we are committed to listening to them about their school. I hope to be able to report at the end of the year on some of the changes we have been able to make to respond to our student voice here at BSB. Jo Puddy-Wells Principal principal@britishschool.ro

The Front Desk

Pipera Office

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

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

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For admissions please contact Ms Madalina Cioc either by e-mail at: Email: admissions@britishschool.ro Phone: 021 267 8919 Fax: 021 267 8969

Gafencu Mrs. Camelia Stoian Email: camelia.stoian@britishschool.ro Mobile: 0731 300 804

Mrs. Camelia Stoian, Gafencu

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Visit the BSB website at www.britishschool.ro

EYFS Gafencu Report The children in Gafencu have been extremely busy over the first half term. We celebrated National Working Parents Day on the 16th September as a follow up to learning about community helpers.

We talked about what they would like to become when they grow up and found out that most of the boys want to be firemen and the girls want to be dancers or mums.

We invited two of our mums, Mrs Leitner and Mrs Koska, to come and talk to the children about where they work and which things they use to help them in the jobs they do, such as a mobile phone, a laptop, and medicine, etc. The children had a wonderful time taking part in the interactive presentations our mums held. Our Working Parents Day ended with all of the children adding their favourite community helper to the jobs collage we had made.

Another fun activity took place when we celebrated the Autumn Equinox by working together to make an

EYFS Pipera Report I was delighted to take up the position of EYFS coordinator at Pipera this year as this is something I have been working towards for many years, and what a great start to the year it has been. We welcome all the new children and their parents to BSB and would also like to say how well all the children have settled in to their new classes.

I would also like to welcome back Ms Deanna who returns to the EYFS team this year after maternity leave following the birth of her lovely son Callum, and also the rest of our hard working dynamic team of EYFS staff.

It has been a busy half term in EYFS, with new classrooms to arrange following the building extension

Key Stage 1 Report A warm welcome to all new and returning parents, pupils and staff. I hope everyone had a great summer break and are looking forward to another busy school year. All the children have settled into their new classes and are getting used to new routines. I would like to take this opportunity to extend a special welcome to Ms Stevens (1S) and Ms Beitz (2P), who have joined the KS1 team, and to Ms Feeney who has

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autumn collage with all of the things we gathered on our nature walk. We took turns describing the way acorns, pinecones, leaves, and chestnuts look, feel, or even smell. The children found this quite interesting so we decided to set up our own sensory area, with all sorts of things to wake up our senses, from feathers to cinnamon sticks to flashlights. As you know children learn through their five senses. The senses of touch, sight, smell, taste, and hearing are how young children explore the world around them. As educators, it is our job to help them explore their senses by providing appropriate activities for sensory play and learning.

On the 24th of September for our British Food Fortnight celebration the children learned what foods are typically British and enjoyed making a yummy desert called apple crumble with help from another guest mum Mrs Brasher. They had fun mixing, measuring, weighing, counting, and practicing their numeric vocabulary, getting messy and in the end tasting what they had baked. We all agreed our apple crumble was absolutely DELICIOUS!!

work in Ringwood, new children and families to welcome, and lots of busy activities going on.

The highlights of the term for me so far have been meeting all the fantastic children and seeing how they have already developed and made so much progress through their structured play and learning activities; seeing how excited the children have been about exploring their new classrooms and the outdoor environment, and how well they have settled in to their routines; and leading our first parents workshops of the year.

It was also very exciting for the EYFS team to hold the first Bake Sale of the year, which was run by crèche and the two Preschool classes, with the help of our very supportive parents. I would like to thank all our parents for their continued support in this and across school life, and

joined us from our Gafencu site and her TA Ms Daniela Tamas who has joined us from KS2.

We have already had some exciting events - Jeans for Genes, 2F class assembly, Year 1 Bake Sale and a house assembly. More details about these activities can be found in the KS1 Blogs, each class has its own Blog full of information and photographs of the classes.

I would also like to welcome our new parent reps; it really helps to have this link between the teachers and parents and ensures all our events are as successful as possible.

A big thank you to our Gafencu parents- we greatly appreciate your efforts and look forward to your continued support in organising such events throughout the year.

We believe that when parents and practitioners work together in Early Years settings, the results have a positive impact on children’s learning and development. Effective communication means there is a two-way flow of information, knowledge and expertise between parents and practitioners.

At Gafencu, we are working towards encouraging all of our parents to take part in our special events. As a result, this year’s first Gafencu Family Night Out was held at Mica Elvetie restaurant and we were pleased to see so many of you there. Our next Family Night Out will take place in December. If you would like to join us, please confirm this in advance. Many thanks to Mrs Silvia Schernthaner-Leitner for helping to organise this event for our Gafencu parents.

Mrs Priscilla Varban, Gafencu Coordinator

look forward to working closely with you all for future events. The Bake Sale was a huge success and you can read more about this, the workshops and other recent events in other articles within this issue of Newsblast.

As always life in EYFS continues to be busy, inspiring and full of surprises, with staff enjoying getting to know all the children and being constantly amazed by the progress they are all making so quickly. I look forward to sharing with you many more events, highlights, learning adventures and much more, including seeing the children continue to make such fantastic development and progress.

Ms Claire Cowlishaw, EYFS Coordinator Pipera

I look forward to keeping you all updated with the latest KS1 news throughout the year.

Ms Tiffany Moorcroft, KS1 Coordinator

Visit the BSB website at www.britishschool.ro

Key Stage 2 Report Without a doubt the start of a new school year is always my favourite time as, after the long summer holiday, it is lovely to see the returning pupils and parents again and also to welcome new students, parents and teachers to our school.

Now that the weather has a definite autumnal feel to it, the start of school may seem like it was a long time ago, but the excited chatter of pupils, parents and teachers is

Secondary Report We firstly would like to welcome back all students and staff who returned to school this year with a particularly warm welcome to our Year 7 students, the new students who have joined us, and our Year 12 students who are embarking on their Post 16 study. We would also like to welcome the new members of our staff, including Mrs Patricia Lovelock (English), Mr Steve Sykes (Geography), Ms Claire Sugdon (Science), Mr Robert Alabaster (Maths/ICT), Ms Sally Murch (Music) and Mr Justin Nichols (Science).

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the students who sat exams last year. 79% of our GCSE results were graded A*-C, compared to the UK average of 60%, with 42% graded A to A*. Our Year 9 student’s also achieved good SAT results with 86% at or above the National Curriculum levels. These results reflect a strong partnership between students and staff; and one of the focuses this year will be on further strengthening this team work by developing our approaches to formative assessment or assessment for learning with staff and students working closely together to monitor progress through self assessment, peer assessment and the use of traffic lighting. We hope all our students will draw inspiration from those who were successful last year and

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still fresh in my memory. There is no doubt that the extremely busy start to the year along with the ease which our pupils have settled back into the school routine has undoubtedly contributed to the feeling that time is passing quickly.

As always it is going to be another exciting year and this term alone we have already had our Jeans for Genes Day, Healthy Schools Week, Spelling Bee competition and music recital. As well as our Friday afternoon university which continues to provide real life learning opportunities for our

apply themselves with enthusiasm and consistent commitment in the year ahead. In this way, we can hopefully ‘raise the bar’ again next year.

From a pastoral perspective we will be speaking to all students in assemblies over the next few weeks outlining some new developments and challenges. ‘Study Skills’ in particular is a key area and Mr Justin Nichols will be working with Form Tutors to help students improve their approach to learning. In our first assembly we looked at ‘working memory’ and ‘long term memory’ and how training the working memory is crucial to retaining vital information and to recalling this information during stressful times such as examination periods. In this assembly Mr Nichols emphasised the importance of sleep and how difficult it is to focus on studying with 21st century distractions such as 4G iPhones, Blackberries, and the internet.

We have also made a good start to the year with the Student Council.

Congratulations to Louisa from Year 11 who was elected as the President of the School Council. Louisa will be attending whole school senior management meetings this to ensure that the students’ voice is heard and already the students have brought several good ideas to the table.

pupils, whilst our after school clubs programme has been extended through the partnership that we have developed with the ‘Calea Victori Foundation.’ Taking everything into consideration it has again been a smooth and promising start to another year both in Key Stage 2 and BSB. Mr Iain Davidson, a.i. Head of Primary

teacher-parent ‘Coffee Mornings’ to enable parents to talk with teachers in relaxed, social setting, so parents can better keep up with changes t the national curriculum and as such will feel more empowered to advise their children about the British Curriculum and their future options.

Finally, we would like to introduce ourselves and our roles this year.

Mr Anthony O’Brien will be the Assistant Head of Secondary in charge of Assessment and Curriculum, whilst I will continue as Assistant Head in charge of Pastoral Care; Mrs Wells is Acting Head of Secondary. We look forward to the year ahead and want to see Newsblast filled with the smiling faces of our secondary students taking hold of the opportunities available to them and getting involved in all aspects of BSB’s community life. Like Mrs Wells pointed out in her Secondary School address, the opportunities are here at BSB if you are motivated and prepared to take them.

Ms Jen Kemp Assistant Head of Secondary

We will also be looking for ways to make it easer for parents to speak with teachers and so this year we have scheduled a number of

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Visit the BSB website at www.britishschool.ro

Student in the Spotlight

Who are the People in your Neighbourhood?

“Who are the people in your neighbourhood, in your neighbourhood, in your neighbourhood, in your neighbourhood, yes, who are the people in your neighbourhood, and they’re the people that you meet each day.”

Dora, 5M

Hi what is your name?

Dora (6H) What school were you at before you came to BSB? American School of Bucharest Have you lived in any other countries?

No What languages can you speak?

Greek, English and a bit of Spanish and German What do you do in your spare time?

Read a book or play with friends What do you like most about your new school?

Everything!

Luca, 6H

Hi what is your name?

Luca (5M) What school were you at before you came to BSB? Mark Twain Have you lived in any other countries?

Yes, Switzerland What languages can you speak?

French, English, Spanish, German and Romanian What do you do in your spare time?

Play football What do you like most about your new school?

My friends and teachers

Interviewed by Sasa, 5M

For the third edition of “Who are the people in your neighbourhood” I am proud to introduce Mr Mateescu Mugur, who I’m sure we have all seen around the school with his camera and who is responsible for the majority of the excellent pictures taken for Newsblast.

Mr Mugur was in fact, a professional athlete and has taken part in many international and worldwide contests. He graduated from the “Academia Nationala de Sport” which directly translates into the National Sports Academy and remained a performing athlete for 25 years afterwards. In 1996, he took park in the Atlanta Summer Olympics and raced in the 400meter hurdles. Unfortunately, he did not win but his wife, Mateescu Rodica, came 7th in the triple jumps. He travelled a lot during this period and visited many countries. His favourite he confessed was Japan.

When I asked him why, he told me that the people there are the most amiable in the world and he admired their culture very much.

Interviewed by Vlad, 5M Iona, 8M

Iona, 8M, is originally from Scunthorpe, England has spent her last three years in Jordan. Iona is 12 years old going on thirteen; she is excited about finally becoming a teenager! she has one brother named Ryan, currently in Year 10. Iona is very musical, enjoying her piano lessons and very much likes guitar. She also likes to surf the web during her free time. This is Iona’s first year at BSB and she says she finds it is very green. She likes that it is easy to make friends here. We wish Iona the best of luck this year.

By Louisa, 11D

Samantha, 5L

Hi what is your name?

Samantha (5L) What school were you at before you came to BSB? British School of The Netherlands Have you lived in any other countries?

Yes, Malaysia, Dubai (UAE), Perth (Austraila) and Holland What languages can you speak?

English What do you do in your spare time?

Read, swim, play at home What do you like most about your new school?

Teachers and students Interviewed by Hannah, 5M

Akis, 10D

Akis, 10G, 15 years old, is from Athens, Greece, where he says he has until now lived all his life. He thinks Romania is definitely different from Greece in terms of temperature; and although he hasn’t quite summed up his thoughts on Romania, he did say that schools in Greece are very different from BSB. His hobbies include playing football, swimming, and photography. He also likes to go out with his friends and to play on the PS3.

By Louisa, 11D

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Following the Olympics he became an athletic trainer for tennis players, who now rank amongst the best players nationally. In 2004, Ms Corda asked him if he would like to be a PE teacher for BSB, and after accepted and is still an assistant PE teacher for Primary School now. When he is not assisting in PE he dedicates much of his time to his hobby, photography- he even has a photography studio in Bucharest which he shares with a friend.

In his free time, he said he still likes to do sports and to keep in shape, saying, “Sport for me was and is a way of life; it’s a mean of control over our body and disciplines the mind.”

So If you happen to see him about the school, why not ask him a question or two about being an Olympic athlete, as I can guarantee you will not regret doing so. Thank you Mr Mugur.

Louisa, 11D

Visit the BSB website at www.britishschool.ro

New Teacher Spotlight

North of Glasgow. This is her 10th year teaching, and she says she has taught all classes from Reception up to Year 6. She has had 2 dogs and also a horse called Velvet. When she first came to BSB she felt very welcomed by the staff and all the children. Mrs Milligan is also looking forward to making new friends, and basically having an adventure here in Bucharest. She enjoys drinking coffee with her friends, and singing and playing the guitar. Her favourite colour is green. Welcome Mrs Milligan.

on arrival but says it is much cooler now. He enjoys being with friends in his spare time, has no pets and if he could be an animal he would be a cat because cats can do whatever they want.

Betham, 11D

Where are they now?

Laura, Mena, Emma 6B

Ms Vanessa Broadbent

Ms Broadbent, the new teacher for 6B, is from Bedford, England, has arrived to us after 2 years in Dubai, and before that 4 years in England.

She moved to Romania because she wanted to see Eastern Europe. She likes Romania from what she’s seen so far and says she likes teaching at BSB. Her favourite children’s author is Roald Dahl. She likes teaching Science and Art. Her favourite colour is red. Her favourite animal is the killer whale and she has a cat back in England. Her favourite food is Indian food. Year 6B thinks she is wonderful!

Mr Justin Nichols

Mrs Patricia Lovelock

Mrs Lovelock is from Glasgow, Scotland and has taught in two schools in Dover, England and a school in Qatar. She chose to teach English and English literature because she loves to read Shakespeare’s works and other poetry. Her first impression of Romania was that it was extremely hot. Coming from the Middle East she was hoping to enjoy cooler weather, however when she arrived it was 36 degrees. On arriving she says that Romania reminded her of France in the sixties. She enjoys cooking in her spare time, and would like to go to Italy in the future. Finally, she has two cats, one called Aisha and the other Peter, and if she could be an animal she would be a dolphin because they are free and have fun all day every day.

Alessandro, Tudor, Hannah, Michael

Ms Emily Thomas

Ms Thomas, the new teacher for 3T, worked at BSB for two years before leaving to teach in Venezuela for two years and then in England for a couple of years before returning to teach at BSB this year. She says she came back because she likes working at BSB and likes Romania.

She is in Arges and likes pasta. Her favorite color is purple. Her favourite children’s book is Harry Potter.

Mr Robert Alabaster

Mrs Milligan, currently teaching 3M, was born in Dumfries in the South West of Scotland. For the last 13 years Mrs Milligan has lived in Loch Land

Mr Alabaster is from London, England and has previously taught in Switzerland, Italy, Spain, and Sweden, and one day would like to travel to America. He became a teacher because he feels that we need to pass on knowledge to the next generation and that we should benefit from that knowledge. He was very impressed with the students at BSB and thinks that they are well behaved and polite. He, like Mrs Lovelock, found Romania very hot

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Patrick and Lindsey’s wedding on 27th July

We would like to extend our very best wishes to Patrick and Lindsey Kennedy, who were married on July 24 They met at BSB three years ago in Sept 2007 and are currently living and working in Malaysia. We wish them all the very best in their new marriage.

Betham, 11D

Ms Claire Sugdon

Hassan, Arif and Calista, 6B

Mrs Tracy Milligan

Mr Nichols teaches Secondary School science and IGCSE and A Level biology. Before coming to BSB, he worked in England and Qatar. He likes Romania a lot and was surprised by the amount of trees here. In his opinion, Romania looks a lot like Slovakia. Mr Nichols really likes BSB and finds the students nice and hard working- he gives special credit to Year 12 who very kindly make him coffee each day. In his free time he likes to read and play with his cat, Giblet. In the future, Mr Nichols would really love to visit Russia. In addition to this, he wishes he was a Turntopsis nutricula (a jellyfish) because they never die of old age. We welcome Mr Nichols.

Ms Sugdon, our new Chemistry teacher in Secondary, is from Yorkshire and has previously worked in the UK and Egypt. Her first impression of Romania was very positive. In her free time she likes to read and go on holidays. She finds the students at BSB a lovely group.

She especially enjoys teaching when students understand a difficult science concept and their whole expressions light up, which she described as ‘Lightbolt Moments’. In the future she would like to work in an exotic country such as Indonesia.

Ms Sugdon also wishes to visit India and South America. We welcome Ms Sugdon.

Naima and Leopold taking their first flight together

This summer Ms Hussain left to have her baby son Leopold.

Here they are taking his first flight. Fortunately for us Ms Hussain is not staying away for long, and will be back after half term in her role as Head of Primary. We hope that it won’t be too long before we have Leo the lion cub in a BSB school uniform!

Betham, 11D

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Visit the BSB website at www.britishschool.ro

A Word from the President of the Secondary Student Council On behalf of Student Council, hello and welcome back to the new academic year. For 2010/11 the new class representatives are Eleanor and Chira for 7S, Dilara and Finn for 7M, Sandra and Max for 8V, Rhys for 8M, Ana for 9M, Noor for 10G and myself for 11D.

For those of you who are new to our school, or simply cannot remember what the Student Council is for, let me enlighten you. The Student Council is…a council run by the students for the students.

We discuss and organise important issues and events such as the Christmas Disco last year and the Summer Party.

So far, issues that have been brought up, include separate Music Recitals for Primary and Secondary (this will be in effect starting after the winter holidays), improving school lunches (surveys have been conducted) and, most importantly, the Halloween Party. This is currently being organised so ask your class representative for more information.

Louisa

Student Council have already begun addressing issues and requests from the students at BSB, which Ana will mention briefly below. Throughout this year, Student Council also hope to organise a Writer’s Day, and towards the end of the year an end of year disco, as well as to enable Secondary to have lunch outside. Apart from this, we shall see what comes our way. If you need any of us, or have something to bring up, you know who to speak to.

Louisa, Y11

Student Council Update The BSB Secondary School Student council is back again this year, and we’ve already elected our President (Louisa, Year 11), Vice-President (Rhys, Year 8), Secretary (Noor, Year 10) and our Treasurers (Chira and Eleanor, Year 7).

The Secondary School Student Council

As always, we welcome your suggestions and they can be posted on the Student Council notice board (opposite the library) or you can speak directly to your Student Council Rep.

Primary Student Council

Primary School Student Council

Hi, Chi Bin and I are the Student Council representatives for 6H. This year we are very excited because we are going to organise all different kinds of special days. The Primary School Student Council has already organised Friendship Day, which is when you buy a card and write a nice message to your friends. We have also organised BSB’s Got Talent show that will definitely be a huge hit again. We will also be recruiting volunteers to be Play Pals, who will be our helping friends during playtime. Also, we will hopefully have Crazy Hair Day again this year…my favourite! Lastly, we will be organising the Craze of the Month, which will be starting in November. All in all, the Student Council are the voice of the kids in the school. So, if you have any great ideas for making BSB even better, feel free to speak with your class representatives.

Alina, 6H

Ana, Year 9

Time to make a Splash with the Swimming Report A new school year sees the start of the Swimming Programme in Primary for Years 4, 5 and 6, which has been met with great excitement and enthusiasm from the students who could not wait to get in to the school pool to have some fun!

This term we have been working on several different swimming strokes. Firstly ‘Freestyle’ or ‘Front Crawl’, which is normally the easiest and the first stroke most beginners learn. We have been fortunate enough that over the summer months we have received some new teaching equipment to help us with both beginners and improvers. For the more advanced students we have been looking at stroke improvement whether it is working on the ‘Flutter Kick’ leg action, breathing technique, arm action and body shape techniques. We have also been working on ‘Breaststroke’, which some of the students find quite challenging and difficult to coordinate, whilst with others it just seems to come very naturally. We have also worked on ‘Backstroke’ or ‘Back Crawl’ and of course the children’s favourite activities – swimming underwater and diving.

4D boys Body Position, Leg Action, Arm Action, Breathing, Timing

4H girls practising their kicking leg action

4H Boys receiving instructions

5L Girls

The most rewarding thing about the swimming this year is that all the students are very supportive of each other, confident in the water, and are very keen and willing to learn. This is fantastic for us as a PE Department because we feel that learning to swim is one of the most important life skills that every child should learn. Toward the end of the school year, when the weather warms up a bit, we will start swimming lessons for EYFS, KS1 and Year 3.

Mr Clayton Burt, PE Dept

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5L Mr O’Brien, Alexy, David K, David D, Marcel

6H Antoine, Jorge, Francois

5M Hyun-Ji, Klara, Hannah, Dora

6H Diving for Rings Kayla, Alina, Angela, Hyun Jung

6B Front Crawl Raluca, Laura, Hannah S

6H Freestyle or Front Crawl Kayla and Alina

6B girls making a splash and kicking from the hip with Mr Burt

6H Kick from the hip Angela, Alina, Kayla

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Welcome to the new Creative Faculty There have been some exciting changes this year at BSB. Secondary has introduced faculties into Crawford House. Departments sharing a common theme have joined forces to share ideas, good practice and take part in cross curricular activities.

The faculties include MFL, English and Drama, Humanities, ICT and Business, Science, Maths and last but by no means least the Creative Faculty!

the school and the new staff as it helps them communicate more easily. It’s a very exciting time for PE, Music, and Art. Each department has been given the opportunity to form creative links with other practical and active subjects. Students will benefit from the collaborative work and ideas shared within this new learning environment” says Ms Greaney.

Year 8 are full of energy and vitality during PE lesson

PE, Music and Art are within the Creative Faculty.

Here is what a few of the teachers had to say abot the new Faculty System: “The faculties are a combination of practical subjects where students can be creative and show off their talent. It’s an artistic way through Music, Art and P.E.”, Ms Jones from the PE department explains.

“Yes, I do like the concept of faculties”, Ms Murch our new music teacher remarked “I think it is good because there is support from the other teachers.

Everybody is very friendly and polite. We share ideas and are also planning to do some combined lessons, which I think are going to be fun.”

“I think that the new system is beneficial to

Year 8 develop their skills in self-portraiture

Watch this space for feedback on fun cross curricular activities that will take place within this faculty!

Noor, Year 10

Year 9 show their individuality through musical composition

The Art Departments New Home As many of you now know, the art room has found a new home on the ground floor. The old room on the top floor of the Crawford House is now the new home of Drama, where you can find Mr Kelly plying his trade and passing on many years of experience to BSB’s would be budding actresses and actors.

The newly built Art Room is in my mind a perfect setting for creative learning with light spilling in through the skylights and wooden beams available for young aspiring artists to display their work.

The students seem to like their new abode and have settled in very well already producing some wonderful artwork this term.

This is a very exciting year for Art at BSB as we have introduced A Level for the first time. This is probably a good time to say ‘Congratulations’ to our 2009/10 IGCSE students who produced such wonderful work last year and are now developing their knowledge and skill further by taking the next step forward to AS level. In class this term the girls have been exploring and investigating the style and techniques used by a range of 19th century and contemporary artists with inspiring results.

Year 8 use a range of technqiues to define ’Expressionism’

All of the artwork produced during this term will be included in the Christmas exhibition on December 6th in the foyer of the Crawford House. Your support and celebration of the students’ hard work and dedication is welcomed. I look forward to seeing you there!

Ms Greaney, Creative Faculty

Vanessa researches the work of her favourite artist Raphael

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Andreea explores impressionistic art

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BSB Students Enjoy Mini Olympics At the end of last term on Friday the 4th of June, the PE Department took 14 students from classes in KS1 & KS2 to compete in a Mini Olympics day at INS to compete against other international schools from the area. Our students got a lot of enjoyment out of the day and represented BSB with a massive amount of pride and passion.

The BSB competitors were Anisia 1C, Paloma 1T, Thomas V. 1T, Patrick 1W, Cristina 2P, Matthias 2P, Andrei 2P, Jackson 2S, Karin 2S, Philip 4D, Clara P. 4D, Sebastiano 4D, Arina and Alexy both from 4H. All of the athletes made a flag of their home country and walked in for the opening ceremony carrying their hand crafted masterpiece. We had competitors from every part of the world. They participated in a variety of modified activities which included high jump, long jump, throw the welly, football skills, relay racing, running and a 3-legged race.

Alexy & Philip Year 4 vs IBSB in the football skills final

Holding our flags…

Back Row – Clara, Arina, Jackson, Alexy, Philip, Sebastiano, Matthias, Andrei, Front Row – Karin, Paloma, Thomas, Patrick, Cristina, Anisi

Our students were outstanding and brought home a number of medals and top 4 finishes in each event throughout the day. Every student received a certificate for their participation at the Mini Olympics as well as individual medals if they came in a top 3 position. We are looking forward to partaking in this event again with 20 students from BSB at the end of this school year in June 2011.

BSB Mini Olympics Medal Table Gold 6

Silver 7

Bronze 5

Anisia 1C a great welly throw Patrick 1W a great leap in long jump

Ms Billie Jones, PE Dept

Arina 4H & Philip 4D at the start line ready to race A massive leap by Clara 4D to take out the long jump competition

Sebastiano 4D & Alexy 4H working as a team to win the 3-legged race

A very high jump from Jackson 2S

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Great Jump Paloma 1T

Thomas 1T & Patrick 1W gearing up for the 3-legged race

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Language Week Debate

On Monday 27th September, BSB Secondary had a language week assembly, which started with the European anthem “Ode to Joy” sung by Emma and May, from Year 11.

A debate then followed on the motion “Whether Multilingualism in the European Union is a viable model in times of Economic Crisis?” In the proposition’s team was Mihnea and Louisa from Year 11, Basil from Year 8. The proposition team consisted of Ana Year 9, Emma Year 11 and Senia Year 12. The debate itself was rather heated with arguments such as ‘the European Union needs translation and interpretation in order to ensure communication between the delegates’, which was counter-argued with arguments such as ‘the EU cannot afford the cost of translation during an economic crisis.’

Ms Draser introduces the Language Debate

BSB Clubs Clubs have been in full swing for the first half term offering a wide range of extra activities to all pupils who want to participate. The clubs on offer have ranged from the physical, such as Karate and sport, such as Cricket and

The translation and interpretation services cost each citizen 2 Euros per year. This is not a very high price and the benefit gained from having it is

Fielding Skills, to the more academic, such as Astronomy and German. I hope the comments from pupils and the photos below will inspire you to make the most of these fantastic opportunities available at BSB. ‘I think computer club is very good for doing whatever you want on the

evident. EU delegates gather in order to discuss very important issues which affect the lives of millions of citizens. If their decisions were based on misunderstandings, stemming from the fact that they were not able to understand each other properly in a foreign language, the consequences for the whole of the EU would be dire. Therefore, it is preferable to allow everyone within EU institutions the ability to use their own language.

After all, the EU’s motto is “United in diversity”, and its language policy exemplifies it quite well.

At the end of assembly everyone in the audience got a coloured piece of paper to vote: green for proposition, and purple for opposition.

Considering it was Language Week, the proposition thankfully won arguing convincingly that multilingualism in the European Union is a viable model in times of economic crisis. As Shakespeare once said, “Variety is the spice of life.”

Louisa, 11D

computer. You can play games on the computer or experiment with Microsoft Word. It also lets you do anything on Education City that you think you may need to work on. I would recommend this club to people who don’t get a lot of free choice on the computer or to anyone who likes it.’ Aniela 4H

‘In football club sometimes we can choose the teams we play with. We have to work as a team and be very skillful to win. We have to shoot with our right foot and it has to be sideways. If you kick with the front it will be a high kick and will hurt more.

The best thing about football club is that I always win’ Louis 4H

Backgammoners concentrating hard on their tactical moves in the Backgammon Club

Dance Club

Welcome to beginner’s Karate Club

Football Club

Karate Club students receiving their assessment certificates

Pupils ‘GO LONG’ in the catching and fielding club

Climbing Club

Swim Club

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After school clubs and our link with the Calea Victoria Foundation Prior to our after school clubs starting this year, different teachers from the Calea Victoria Foundation came and spent some time with the Key Stage 2 pupils. The children were given an opportunity to try out some of the activities that would be offered to them by the foundation as part of our after school clubs. The photos show some of the pupils having fun during the demonstration day. Through-out the year a number of clubs will be offered by the foundation including Astronomy, Photography, Clay

moulding, Bricolage techniques, Antropology, Interior Design, Fashion History for Children, Origami, Creative Writing. The foundation regularly runs workshops through out the year for children and parents. Thier aim is to help children and adults discover more about Romanian culture and civilization as well as the history of Bucharest. More information can be found though their website: http://www.fcv.ro/en/ Mr Iain Davidson, After school club coordinator

Darius, Daniel, Theo and Alex with the astrology teacher

Club Choices for Autumn Term 1.2. Beginning Monday 1st November, 2010 Reception - Key Stage 1 Monday Arts & Crafts - Mask making Rec - KS1 Computer Club Rec - KS1 Games and Puzzles KS1 Simple Sewing KS1 Spanish for Beginners KS1 Tuesday Art & Crafts - Felt club KS1 Romanian - Native Speakers KS1 Wednesday Clay Moulding KS1 Art - Drawing KS1 A.G & T KS2 Thursday Painting and Creativity KS1 Friday Photography KS1 Key Stage 2 Monday Sewing Years 5/6 Alto Recorder Years 5/6 Backgammon KS2 Playground Games KS2 Cricket KS2 Tuesday Football KS2 Card Games KS2 Art & Crafts - Felt club KS2 Rowing KS2 German for Native Speakers KS2 French for Native Speakers KS2 Wednesday Clay Moulding KS2 Famous Artists – create your own work in similar styles KS2 Origami KS2 A.G & T KS2 Homework Club KS2 Thursday Creative Writing in Spanish KS2 Card Games Years 4/5/6 Touch Typing KS2 Painting and Creativity KS2 Solve the Mystery KS2 Art & Craft Papier Machie Years 3/4 Friday Photography KS2 Key Stages 3-5 Monday Debating KS3/4/5 Alto Recorder KS3/4/5 Tuesday

Ms Evans Ms Beggs Ms Feeney Ms Cowlishaw Ms Dalila Ms Raluca Ms Dalila Ms Maria P. Ms Beitz Mr Hammacher Ms Maria N Mr Serban Ms O’Brien Mr Green Mr Harrison Ms Milligan Mr Dawkins Mr Jonathan Ms Lidia Ms Raluca Mr Burt Ms Draser Ms Vollaire Ms Maria P. Ms Thomas Ms Broadbent Mr Hamacher Mr Davidson Ms Rocio Mr Madsen Ms Swanson Ms Maria N Ms Paris Ms Stevens Mr Serban Mr Peet Mr Green

Battle Royal Dodgeball

KS3/4/5

German for Native Speakers Table tennis Chess Wednesday Drama Set Design Basketball Glee Club – Show Choir Dress Making & Sewing Thursday Creative Writing in Spanish Card Games French for Advanced Learners

KS3 KS3/4/5 KS3/4/5

Mr Murchison/Mr McGowan Ms Draser Mr Sykes Mr Morris

KS3/4/5 KS3/4/5 KS3/4/5 KS3/4/5 KS3/4/5

Mr Kelly Ms Greaney Mr O’Brien Ms Murch Ms Kemp

KS3/4 KS3/4 KS3/4

Ms Rocio Mr Madsen Ms Vollaire

Sarah, Angelica, Jenisa, Finlay, Vaselina and Salaar looking at one of the art & craft demonstrations

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Where DT and Science Meet

foods, like smoothies. In Science we also look at how many of the ingredients we use in DT grow and the variety of processes involved. There are lots of other topics which cross over during the year; some of them even more thought-they-couldn’t-bemore-unlike-each-other subjects.

One part of DT every year is cooking.

Year 9s are currently investigating bread. It is a well-known fact that one

way of making bread rise is to use yeast. But what a lot of people don’t know or haven’t thought about is that in order for this to happen, a chemical reaction needs to take place. This is just one of many ways in which DT and Science cross over. Another is in regard to Health and Fitness in Science and Healthy Eating in DT. In Science, we look at how to live a healthier lifestyle and what affects our lifestyle, etc., whereas in DT we look at different recipes for healthy

Naomi Sophie and Miriam with the final product

Jan and Robert very pleased with the results so far

Eda safety conscious with protective oven gloves

At BSB, a lot of subject topics relate to other subjects. This is called Cross Curriculum. An example of one of these lessons, in which a lot of topics cross with other subjects, is DT.

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Who knew that there are so many links between two at-first-glancetotally-different subjects?

Ana, Yr 9

Bread topped with cheese

Miss Catalina & Caroline putting the first layout of the cake

Year 9 celebrating sucess in the kitchen

Diana with attention to detail before the rolls go in the oven

Take 1 the first batch

Year 9 the new Pauls Bakery

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Jeans for Genes Day – Dress Making and Sewing Club On Friday the 1st of October we all walked through the school gates in a pair of jeans ready to start another day, although this wasn’t just “another” day, it was Jeans for Genes Day! On this specific day, everyone arrives to school in a pair of jeans and donates the minimum amount of 10 Ron, which then goes to the Jeans for Genes Organisation which helps

children with genetic disorders.

Though Jeans for Genes day was an ordinary school day for most people, it wasn’t for some. At break time, when Ms Kemp called some of us to her office that day, we were mildly surprised and somewhat scared that we were in some sort of trouble. It turns out we weren’t (What a relief!).

We were actually requested to make

handbags out of old pairs of jeans for the next few lessons; as the dressmaking and sewing club of BSB. Ms Kemp explained what we had to do whilst we watched a couple of videos on how to make the bags, and then we headed straight to the DT room and got going. As we got caught up in chatter, singing and poking ourselves with a few needles, before

we knew it, we were finished. As a result of all out hard work, we had seven beautiful jean bags.

I would like to say special thanks to Ms Kemp for organising this for us and I’m sure everyone enjoyed it, because I know I did.

Eda, Year 9

After all the hard work sewing Naomi was asked if she would like any pasta made

by Year 8

Megan Yr 8

EYFS Enjoying Jeans for Genes Day

Megan modelling her final design

Eda Year 9 marketing her own clothes line

The Dress-making and Sewing team working hard

Megan making adjustments

Students enjoying Jeans for Genes Day

Jeans for Genes October 1st was a very special day at the British School of Bucharest because it was Jeans for Genes Day. As a school we helped to raise 3510 RON (820 Euros) to help children with genetic disorders. It

was a great day because we got to wear jeans, and we had many great activities throughout the school like decorating jeans and making jean purses.

However, we also were able to learn about some of

Danube add some great words to their jeans

Olt working together to decorate their jeans

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the hardships that children with genetic disorders have, which made us all want to help.

Francois and Luka 6H

Working together to decorate jeans to help children with genetic disorders

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Primary House Competition

The new Key Stage 2 House Captains and Vice Captains

The House Competition continues this year with more activities planned than ever before. Successful events such as the house tug o war and the water challenge will be repeated but there will also be new challenges and opportunities to earn points for your house. The first house assembly was held to choose the captains and vice captains. Well done to all the children who took part – they were all strong speeches. The results were as follows: Arges House Captain - Matteo Vice Captain - Kayla Olt House Captain - Patrick Vice Captain - Antoine Mures House Captain - Gaya Vice Captain - Francois Danube House Captain - Alex Vice Captain - Thanos Key Stage 2 House Reports Olt Hello, my name is Patrick and I am House Captain this year for Olt. Together with my vice-captain Antoine our goal is to work as a team, even if Olt is good individually. Olt has to try its hardest to win, while still respecting the other teams. I am very proud to be your House Captain and chosen leader. Hopefully, together,

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we will get the maximum house points for our team and will win the overall competition. We already have a good head start, but we need to keep it up! Patrick, 6H Arges Hi, I’m Kayla of 6H and I am the Vice Captain of Arges. Matteo, the House Captain couldn’t be here to write this report so I’m filling in for him. I deeply hope that all the house teams will have fun together by playing games and learning new things as well. I am very proud to be the Vice Captain of Arges. Arges will have to work hard, and never give up and keep trying, even though our house points are behind at the moment. Arges is a unique, friendly, and helpful team.

We are full of positive vibes! Keep trying hard and be the best you can be! Kayla, 6H

Danube Hello, my name is Alex and I am the House Captain for Danube for KS2.

I am very excited to be the House Captain because I think that I will be a very good House Captain. It is my wish to help Danube to be first in House Points Race, first on Sports Day and hopefully, first overall. I want to assure everyone that my Vice House Captain, Thanos and I will be polite and helpful leaders. Danube is the best! Let’s go Danube, Lets Go! Alex, 6H

Being a Vice Captain Hi, my name Thanos and I am in 6B. Two weeks ago I was elected as

Vice Captain for Danube. One of the best and most exciting things about being a Vice Captain is that you can help take charge of your House and show everyone where to sit during assembly. It’s fun to help put out the mats for assembly and to pick them up after assembly. I like particularly working with Alex, our House Captain, because we cooperate and work peacefully together. We believe we can build a strong team that will lead us to winning the House Cup!!

Thank you for voting for me Danube. I promise to do everything I can to help you win the House Cup this year!!

Thanos, 6B

Mures Hello, my name is Gaya Tzur and I am the House Captain of Mures.

Our Vice Captain is Francois! I am extremely proud to have been chosen to represent Mures! And I know Mures is going to be first in every single event this year! With my help, Mures is going to have to work hard on everything and push themselves in every possible way! I know that this year I am going to be truly proud of you! So GO GO GO MURES! Be the BEST! Gaya, 6H Primary House Chart

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Secondary House Point Competition Update Welcome back House Point fans! It has been a very busy start at BSB with lots of teaching and activities providing lots of house points for the students. The last two competitions have been won by two different houses, so is this the year for Arges or maybe Olt?

Isabel-, they are the ones who decide the teams who will play in the Inter House Competitions and on Sports Day. I hope we all make great effort each week and win the House Cup this year.

Mohammed, 8V

In the first few weeks that the competition has been up and running, we already have an upset.

Arges has won the weekly cup since the beginning of term, which is truly amazing, due to the fact that they only ever won the weekly cup once last year and that was in December 09. This means that Arges are currently in the lead with 388 points, followed by Olt with 328, Danube with 261 and last year’s winner Mures with 221. The race is on! Who will be leading in the next Newsblast Edition?

Until then dear readers…

Arges House Captain- Eda, 9M Vice Captain- Louisa, 11D Olt House Captain- May, 11D Vice Captain -Bethan, 11D Mures House Captain- Deniz, 12L Vice Captain- Alex, 12L Danube House Captain- Mohummad, 8V Vice Captain- Csenge, 8M House Captain Reports Olt Olt got off to a rocky start this year, when we came last in the first house point totals. It wasn’t looking good but we’ve pulled it out of the bag and managed to come first in this week’s totals. Thanks especially to the Year 8 boys who I know have been working particularly hard to raise house points. I have seen Olt fail to win for a couple of years now, and know that this year will be our year. Keep up the good work! Bethan, 11D

trophies, but by winning the trust of others, by being the best in every possible way. Even though we might not win the first place trophy in every event this year, we will always be the best in our hearts, because of our outstanding teamwork, cooperation, talent, and the way we support each other in everything. I give you my word, fellow associates of Arges, that I will stand by you through whatever and represent you in the best way to the best of my ability.

Eda, 9M

Csenge, 8M

Muhammad, Year 8V

Mures I would firstly like to thank all members of Mures for choosing us for your House and Vice Captains. I’m your House Captain, Alex, 12L, is your Vice Captain. Our Sport Captains for this year. For the boys, the captain is Tudor Year 11, and for the girls the Captain is Alexandra, Year 12. This year we hope to win for the second year in a row and maintain our reputation as the best house at BSB. So Mures, Go get those house points and lead your house to VICTORY!!!

Edda, Year 9M Louisa, 11D

Denis, 12L

Bethan, 11D

Alex, 12L

Denis, 12L

Arges

May, 11D

Danube Hi, my name is Mohammed and I’m the new House Captain for Danube the Vice Captain is Csenge this year.

The sports Captains are Nikita and

I’d like to thank all of you for electing me as your House Captain and assure you that you’ve made the right choice.

I promise to never disappoint you and do my best as your House Captain. I promise to be loyal, trustworthy and a person you can turn to if you have any problems, questions or any requests.

I feel this year that we should act as a family and help and encourage one another and build each other up to be the best house BSB has ever seen; not only by winning the house

The British School of Bucharest Magazine

Secondary House Chart

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First Impressions of Life in the Sixth Form It has now been a while since we, the year 12s, started our final two years of secondary education here at BSB. As you are soon to find out, sixth form brings with it a number of privileges, as well as responsibilities.

Sixth Form Privileges The common room makes the top of our list of privileges: the reason being that it offers us our own space for study and recreation. To our great joy, we have been given the freedom of decorating it at our own will, within limits (of course). We are expected to use this privilege wisely, and it is our responsibility to keep it clean and use it sensibly.

As members of the sixth form, we have also been given the freedom of wearing our own clothes, providing they are appropriate for school and business-like.

Furthermore, we have been given the possibility of going to the Snack Attack shop near the gate whenever

we want to (again, within rational limits), and can actually eat our lunches or snacks there. This can be done either during breaks, or any study periods we might have.

The last privilege that comes to mind at this present moment is the manner in which teachers treat us.

They look upon us as young adults, and in many ways our sixth form privileges derive from here.

and also much more important in determining one’s choices for university.

However, in spite of all the so called ‘drawbacks’ of being a sixth former, I think I speak for everyone when I say that we are totally enjoying the benefits and privileges it brings

and we wish the students progress toward Year 12 all the best in your ascent to your final years of education.

Year 12, Sixth Form: Alex, Denis, Alexandra, Andreea, Senia, Soo-Min and Isabel.

Alexandra, Year 12

Extra responsibilities On the other side of the coin, as with most things in life, sixth form also brings with it a lot of responsibilities. Firstly, we have to set a good example to the younger students, by behaving maturely and sensibly. We are also given a lot more assignments and independent work, as well as longer school days – unlike Key Stage 3 and lower, our school days finish at 4pm (without clubs). And of course, there is the pressure of A Levels which are by far more difficult than the IGCSE exams

Year 12 relaxing in their common room

Eco Committee 2010/11 The Eco Committee is starting off the year with the election of Eco Reps from Key Stages 1 2 and 3, and for the first time ever, Reception too! Eco Reps meet regularly to discuss ways of saving energy both at school and at home. They are even assigned a useful amount of power and influence this year as they will be awarding Eco Points to students for doing things which benefit the environment. These include turning off the lights when going out to break, or even asking a teacher to do so!

will take place before the winter break, a perennial favourite.

Later in the year we will be holding the much loved Eco Week in all parts of the school, during which lessons and assemblies have a certain eco ‘theme’, and Key stage 1 and 2 students get involved in activities like making sculptures, or posters about the environment out of recycled materials. And let’s not forget the tree decorating competition which

• We turn off lights and taps that are not being used

Last but not least, this term marks the launch of ‘Planet BSB’, a world where staff and students put the needs of the planet first at all times. This exciting new project encompasses the Eco Point system, Eco Week and a code of conduct for all students and staff: • We put litter in the bin

• We consider the environment when deciding whether or not to print something • We ask ourselves if materials can safely be used again

Eco Committee Staff for 2010-11

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The Eco Committee are currently looking for new additions for the code, so when you come up with any we would be grateful if you could pass them on to your nearest Eco Rep. Setting up Planet BSB is the first step of working towards Eco Schools status, a grand project for which the Eco Committee will be working closely with the Eco Reps. Their work and support is vital!

We look forward to passing on information about these plans, and all the good work of the Eco Reps and Eco Committee throughout the year.

Mr Bill Ellis, Eco Committee member

Visit the BSB website at www.britishschool.ro

ICT at BSB

Here are the addresses of each blog:

The Primary School ICT curriculum will get a boost this year from the big increase in the amount of resources available for the staff and children. These include a green screen tent and a Mac Pro laptop for BSB TV, and animation characters, studios and software for our very own versions of Wallace and Gromit. The children will be able to create their own musical pieces using Mixcraft 5, develop their own comic books using Comic Life and hopefully film some nesting taking place in the gardens with our new CCTV bird house. The robotics aspect of the curriculum has also been expanded with the arrival of several Lego Mindstorms kits, which are already proving to be very popular with the children.

Pipera Creche www.piperacreche.edublogs.org

EYFS

All classes continue to be furnished with Interactive Whiteboards, two sets of classroom laptops for the Primary children, another set for Secondary, and a wealth of other online and offline resources. We have also renewed our subscription to Education City – an online educational tool full of great teacher tools and activities linked to the Literacy, Maths, Science and MFL curricula for the children to enjoy.

The blogs will also continue again this year. These are used by all teachers in Primary to communicate with parents and children. Each week you will be able to see on the blog what homework has been set, the topics being studied in class and also some links to activities for children to complete at home.

Newlands ICT Suite

Mr Murchison’s Marvellous Magnet Board If you’ve been to Mr Murchison’s classroom anytime lately…or anytime for the past, well, however long he’s been at this school, you my have noticed the magnet board at the back of his classroom… And most of you, like me when I first saw it, will probably have thought ‘Why on earth is there a board with magnets standing at the back of Mr Murchison’s classroom?’ The wait is over! Keep reading and you’ll find out all about it!

I’m sure you probably all collect something, whether it’s postcards or badges or even those little packets of sugar you get at restaurants and hotels! Well, Mr Murchison collects magnets, but not just any old magnets! He specifically only collects magnets from his or other people’s travels! Talk about picky!

On closer inspection, one sees magnets from all over the world-from countries in Europe, North and South America, Asia, Africa, the list goes on!

According to the collector himself, these magnets

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Pipera Preschool (Ms Kayleigh Evans) www.piperapreschool.edublogs.org Pipera Preschool (Ms Claire Cowlishaw) www.piperapreschool2.edublogs.org Pipera Reception www.piperareception.edublogs.org KS1 1S - www.1sbsb.edublogs.org 1M - www.bsb1m.edublogs.org 1P - www.1pbsb.edublogs.org 2S - www.2sbsb.edublogs.org 2F - www.2fbsb.edublogs.org 2B - www.bsb2b.edublogs.org KS2 Year 3 - www.year3blog.edublogs.org Year 4 - www.yearfourblog.edublogs.org Year 5 - www.year5blogbsb.edublogs.org Year 6 - www.yearsixblog.edublogs.org Mr Sonny Leese, Primary ICT Coordinator

David and Alexy programming one of the completed Lego Mindstorms robots

Marcel adding the finishing touches to his robot

have been acquired from various students when they return from their holidays to various places over the past 7 years.

When asked about how he started collecting magnets, Mr Murchison replied, ‘It all started in my first year at BSB, when I brought a magnet from one of my travels. It just so happened that one of my students had also brought a magnet and the tradition grew. Now, all my students bring magnets back when they go on holiday!’

He estimates about 10% of the board to be just from last year, and says his favourite magnet is a handmade magnet made from a rock in Pompei.

So next time you return from your holiday and Mr Murchison welcomes you with his usual warm greeting: ‘Did you bring any magnets?’, don’t look completely baffled, ‘cause now you’ll know exactly what he’s talking about!

And that’s the story of the famous magnet board.

Although the veil of mystery and enigma have been removed, the interesting magnetic specimens on Mr Murchison’s board still remain as interesting as ever, so why not check them the out next time your happen to find yourself in Mr Murchison’s room?

Ana, Year 9

Everyone has to admit that magnets are really cool - you can make all kinds of marvellous things happen- with magnets! From maglev trainsmagnetic (not magic) levitation trains that hover about 10-15cm off the railway tracks to small fridge magnets, magnets have been a source of inspiration and motivation (at least to Mr Murchison) for a really long time! I mean really longarchaeologists have recently discovered Ancient Greek statues that were made to hover above their allocated place-just like the maglev trains that I was telling you about!

Mr Murchison and his big collection

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Cambridge Tops World University List The University of Cambridge has been ranked the world’s top university, in the 2010 university rankings league table. The league table takes a number of factors into account to assign a ranking and then gives each factor a weighting: 40% academic reputation, 10% employability of graduates, 20% citations, 20% staff-student ratio and 10% to how international the make-up of the faculty and student body is. It is also worth noting that Cambridge has also produced the highest number of Nobel Prize winners for science.

John O’Leary, executive member of the QS Academic Advisory Board, said: ‘UK universities have had an exceptionally good year, improving on their best ever results. Not only does Cambridge top the ranking for the first time, but there are more UK institutions than ever before in the top 100.’ http://www.topuniversities.com/universityrankings/world-university-rankings/home

World University Rankings 2010 1. University of Cambridge United Kingdom 2. Harvard university America 3. Yale University America 4. UCL United Kingdom 5. Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT America 6. Oxford University United Kingdom 7. Imperial College London United Kingdom

Cambridge University

UCL has one of the best staff-student ratios in the UK and places a strong emphasis on small group teaching with outstanding results achieved across the subjects, ranging from Biomedicine, Science and Engineering, and the Built Environment to Laws, Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities. The university is located on a compact site in the very heart of London and is surrounded by the greatest concentration of libraries, museums, archives, cultural institutions and professional bodies in Europe. www.ucl.ac.uk

Oxford Arms

University of Cambridge is one of the oldest universities in the world and one of the largest in the United Kingdom. There are 31 Colleges in Cambridge. Each College is an independent institution with its own property and income. The Colleges appoint their own staff and are responsible for selecting students, in accordance with University regulations. The teaching of students is shared between the Colleges and University departments.

Degrees are awarded by the University. www.cam.ac.uk

UCL Main Building

Oxford University is the oldest university in the English-speaking world with 39 self-governing colleges related to the University in a type of federal system. There is no clear date of foundation, but teaching existed at Oxford in some form in 1096 and developed rapidly from 1167, when Henry II banned English students from attending the University of Paris. Each year, Oxford welcomes students with great potential, at both undergraduate and graduate level, from all over the globe, with more than 130 nationalities are represented among a student population of over 18,000. www.ox.ac.uk

Imperial College London is a university of world class scholarship, education and research in science, engineering and medicine, with particular regard to their application in industry, commerce and healthcare. Established in 1907, it is located in the heart of London. Its reputation for excellence in teaching and research in science, engineering, medicine and business attracts students and staff of the highest international calibre. www.imperial.ac.uk .

King’s College Cambridge

Cambridge University Colleges Coat of Arms

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Oxford University

Imperial College London Main Building

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Year 11 GCSE Drama Students Head West On the 16th of September, not very long after we had arrived back to school, the Drama Departments GCSE Year 11 group headed west. Not just into the west but to the ‘West End’ of London, mother and capital of theatre. As only ‘Broadway’ can boast, the ‘West End’ houses the same number of theatres, 40 in all. This does not include the many fringe show venues that also exist.

We met at the airport, excited and raring to go, not knowing what we would see apart from the examination play, ‘Blood Brothers’, by Willy Russell.

We arrived at Heathrow safe and well and hungry, so we jumped into two black Hackney cabs and headed towards the centre. We were staying in a hotel suitable for young travellers and in an area of the city which had easy access to all the sites, including the theatres. We quickly unpacked and headed out to lunch: being of different ages and tastes we decided to eat in separate groups. Some

of the students opted for fast American style food from across the pond, whilst others for the more slightly exotic sushi from the East- Mrs Wells and I went for the typical English fayre chicken and fish’n chips.

After sustenance we went to the ticket booth in Leicester Square to debate as to what play to see that evening, with the Kader and Webb smash hit, ‘Chicago’ winning the vote. It was fabulous and used many of the dramatic conventions necessary for the drama exam.

Before and after the play the students watched all sorts of street theatre provided by multi-talented performers in London’s Covent Garden.

On the second day we went on a walking and tube tour of London where we saw the ‘Wheel’ and lunched on the South Bank: home of the Royal National Theatre and Royal Festival Hall, Tate

Gallery, and Queen Elizabeth Hall, etc. We saw our prescribed play in the evening, which surpassed the student expectation and gave them many ideas which they are using now for the exam.

Our final play came straight from the Edinburgh International Festival where it had its world premiere; ‘Beautiful burnout’, by Bryony Lavery, is a thrilling new piece of highly physical theatre that will immerse the audience in the explosively visceral world of boxing. If you get a chance to see it, do!

The next trip will be for the lower school to Geneva for a theatre festival. Places will be limited so if your child is interested please reply to the invitation letter as soon as you get it.

We will publish the list of events for the year in the next issue.

Mr Kevin Kelly, Coordinator of English and Drama

Enthralled by street performers in Covent Garden

Louisa and May caught in a light shower in London

Six go mad in London

May finds a new friend

KS1 Art As Pablo Picasso once said, “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.” Watching students participate in Art throughout Primary, it is evident that as children grow older, they become more self-conscious about their artistic abilities. They are often less willing to take risks and to persevere if they do not have a natural talent in the area. For me, it is such a pleasure to watch the students in KS1 painting and drawing with their sense of wonder, confidence and enthusiasm in tact.

As Art Co-ordinator this year, I hope to keep this spirit of artistic adventure alive throughout Primary

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by taking the focus off competition. Instead, I hope to place emphasis on appreciating diversity in art and enjoying the process. This will be accomplished by encouraging teachers to have ‘Working Walls’ which display students’ works in progress, rather than just their finished products. Furthermore, classes will be balancing their Art education by studying Art History. In this way, students can make connections between Art and other subjects, including Numeracy, Science, History, Geography and Literacy. Finally, I intend to hold an Art Gallery Night where students’ work will be displayed for parents, staff, and students to come and show community support and appreciation for the arts.

Ms Kristen Swanson, Primary Art Coordinator

Kyumin and Alex from 1P work together on an Art project

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Year 4 and 6 Students enjoy Japanese Workshop Again this year we have been fortunate to have Sensei Akira Yamaguchi and Sensei Mirai Fukawa from Japan and Sensei Anca Focseneanu from Romania come from the University of Bucharest to run a Japanese workshop for Year 4 and Year 6 students.

This year, they initiated us in the complexity of the Japanese alphabet and also taught us some Japanese games. For this we counted with the help of two Romanian students from

the last year of their studies (Denisa Potocianu and Andreea Suciu).

Did you know that there are three alphabets mixed in the Japanese language? They are Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji. Or the fact that by the age of 11Japanese students learn more than one thousand symbols?

It was very exciting watching BSB students analysing the shape of the Japanese characters to try to identify

the alphabet. The challenge just took them a couple of rounds before they started getting all the right answers.

Straight after this, the Year 4 and the Year 6 students began to write in Japanese. The messages had very difficult characters and Sensei Mirai and Sensei Akira taught us the order for every symbol, and I would like to say to all of our readers that that was very difficult.

that it means ‘Rock, Paper, Scissors’.

We had a very funny time playing this game that has different rules in Japan. If you are curious, ask some of the students and they will, for sure, be happy to introduce you to this new game.

Arigato dear friends! Which, by the way, does not mean ‘alligator’ like some of the Year 4 students thought…

Have you ever played ‘Guu, Choki, Paa’? I am sure you have, if I tell you

Gaya and Jorge, 6H playing ’Guu, Choki, Paa’

Year 4 writing in Japanese

Year 4 class with our guests

Year 6 writing in Japanese

Wales wins Ping-pong World Cup It may sound like an unusual headline, but on Friday October 1st, Wales, proudly represented,

by Andrei 8M and Matei from 8V secured a win against Slovakia, whose colours were flown by Lola in Year 9. The Welsh victory was the culmination of a week long competition. Secondary students were assigned to national teams and got a chance to show off their sporting skills at Speed-pong, a game requiring participants to score five points for a win.

The MFL team would like to thank Mr Murchison, sport and games organiser extraordinaire, who kindly ran and refereed the competition.

Ms Manon Vollaire, French Teacher

Emma, Year 11 participating in Speedpong

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Cezar and Antonio, Year 8

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Englisch ist ein Muss, Deutsch ist ein Plus This is the message that German A level students Andreea and Senia, Year 12 passed on to lower year groups during Language Week. The motto states that English language skills are essential nowadays, but being able to speak German is a clear advantage in many respects.

German widens your employment opportunities and it gives you access to a large number of internet websites in German. Furthermore, you can communicate with more than 100 million people in Europe, since German is the language with the largest number of native speakers in Europe.

With German you can impress your friends with long words such as: Fußballweltmeisterschaftsendrundenteilnehmer (Football World Cup Finalist) or Überschallgeschwindigkeitsflugzeug (Supersonic airplane).

Year 7 enjoying their lesson

Senia and Andreea visited Year 7, Year 8 and Year 11. Students were very good at answering questions about the presentation in a quiz and were rewarded with house points.

German Language Ambassadors

BSB International Cinema Watching foreign language films gives us an insight in another culture, so once again, we turned the primary lunch hall into a truly international cinema. Students in primary kindly brought a vast array of films in their native languages to share with their fellow pupils. The programme this year gave students

the chance to see films in German, Korean, and Spanish. Here are some of the comments made by the audience: “Last week, in language week I watched Shrek in Spanish, I liked it because it was very funny and it has so many characters that I like.”

Mr Walter setting up the next film

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Salaar, 4D

“I like the first German film because it was funny when the owl shot out of the window” Viktorija, 4D

“I like the films because they helped me with my language, I could understand a little bit.” Lewis, 4H Ms Manon Vollaire, French Teacher

“The films were good because I liked the languages and the films were funny.”

Luca, 4H

Students enjoying a film in Korean

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The BSB Language Café is now Open for Business Qué te gusta comer? Was sind deine Hobbys?

Comment t-appelles tu?

Speaking French, German or Spanish is a very enjoyable experience in itself, but having lots of delicious food at the same time definitely stimulates the conversation. At the BSB Language Café held on Thursday, 30th September in the Foyer in Newlands, the excitement of the students was visible and audible. Almost all the students from Year 3 to Year 12 visited the Language Café and had a chance to practice their French, Spanish, and German language skills, talking to native speakers of these languages, either mothers and PTA members or other students.

Whilst at he café, students had a Language Passport and received a stamp for each conversation held in any of the three languages. It was a pleasure to see the smiles of students who were surprised to hear themselves speak French or another language for the first time in their lives.

Congratulations to everyone for their courage and enthusiasm!

We would especially like to thank all the mothers who organised and ran the three language stalls.

Their valuable contribution has made it possible for our students to have this wonderful experience.

Ms Draser, Head of MFL

Gracias por organizar un día estupendo tanto para los alumnos como para las madres. Gracias por motivarlos constantemente y llevarlos siempre a atraverse con un reto nuevo. Nos ha impresionado mucho que todos los alumnos se lanzaran sin miedo a probar con un idioma que desconocen totalmente, la rapidez con la que enhebran los elementos de una frase y también que a todos, todos les guste la pizza.

Sin duda este día ha servido para que sean conscientes de la utilidad de los idiomas y disfruten de nuestra diversidad cultural y gastronómica. Para los alumnos nativos que enseñaban a sus amiguitos, ha significado compartir su lengua materna y sentirse orgullosos de ella. El aprendizaje de idiomas permite a los niños entender otras culturas y tradiciones y les acerca a nuestro patrimonio literario, una riqueza creada por tantas mentes, cuyas ideas y mentalidades están forjadas también - no lo olvidemos - por el idioma que sienten más propio.

Without a doubt this day has made sure that they are aware of the utility of languages and gave them an opportunity to enjoy our cultural and gastronomic diversity. For the students who are native speakers and who were teaching their pals, it has meant sharing their mother tongue and feeling proud of it. The learning of languages allows the children to understand other cultures and traditions and they familiarise themselves with our literary heritage, a richness that was created by so many minds, whose ideas and thoughts – this is essential to bare in mind - were molded by the language that they feel is most their own.

Qué sepáis que apreciamos y agradecemos el esfuerzo que hacéis por nuestros hijos.

I hope you know that we appreciate and thank the effort that is put into our children.

Un abrazo Cristina, PTA

Translation

The following is a message from Ms Cristina Reis of the PTA, who is one of the main organizers of the Language Café.

Dear MFL department, Thank you for organising such a fantastic day for the students and the mothers alike. Thanks

Language Week 2010 puts the tongue to good use

were filmed and we had a chance to watch the films in class, and there again, it was laughter all around.

To celebrate language and cultural diversity, Year 5 and Year 6 students were asked to bring to class tongue twisters from their native languages. The aim of the activity was for students to teach each other these tongue twisters. Tongue twisters are a challenge in themselves, but the task becomes even more arduous when attempted in another language.

However, this did not stop any of our students and I was amazed by the dexterity and ease with which students could roll out and pronounce a previously never-heard tongue twister in a foreign language.

The hardest part of the activity proved to be keeping a straight face.

I was also delighted to see how the variety of languages represented truly reflects the international dimension of our school, as we tried our hand, or should I say tongue, at Czech, Georgian, Arabic or Afrikaans. The tongue twisters

for constantly motivating them and for always encouraging them to face a new challenge. We were very impressed that all the students went for it without fear to try a language that they were not at all familiar with. It was amazing to see how fast they managed to string together the essential parts of a sentence and that absolutely everyone likes pizza.

Best regards, Cristina Reis, PTA Letter translated from Spanish to English by Isabel, Year 12

Try these at home: Romanian: Bucura-te cum s-a bucurat Bucuroaia de bucuria lui Bucurel care s-a intors bucuros de la Bucuresti.

English: If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, Where’s the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?

Ms Manon Vollaire, French Teacher

Tongue Twisters Artwork The theme of tongue twisters was also taken up in the Secondary School as students designed lovely posters illustrating tongue twisters from around the globe.

Thank you to Ms Greaney for including the language theme into her lessons.

Ahn Seo Tongue Twister Poster

Fun and Games for MFL Thanks to the money raised at the Language Café, we were able to buy a collection of games. Games are very useful tools to bring language learning to life, so once again many thanks to our nativespeaking mothers who so generously gave of their time and to our students for taking part in the activity so enthusiastically.

Vielen Dank ! Gracias! Merci!

Joanna and Clara playing Guess Who in French

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Games for MFL 1

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Big picture

Ms Simone Brand talking to students from Year 6H

Ms Vollaire and Year 10 students

Isabel, Y12 working with pupils from Year 3M

Parent Helpers

Eda, Naomi and Ana practicing their French with Sophie

Ms Maria Martinez talking to Raluca, Y6

Lena, Year 4H with her Language Passport

Ms Marie Helene Reynolds

Ms Senia and Ms Draser, Ms Lucia Zancanella on the right

Mrs Cristina Reis, Gaya Year 6H

Hannah and Laura, Y6B

Ms Alice Grasser talking to Raphaelle and Dilara, Year7C

Ms Ulrike Werner talking to Ilias. 5L

Mrs Reis, Emma, Bethan, Louisa, Y11

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Welcome to Geography

On this occasion I would like to briefly look at what each of the year groups are studying:

I must first introduce myself. I am Mr Sykes, the latest addition to the expanding Geography Department.

Having only been here a short time I am already very impressed by the enthusiasm and commitment of the students at BSB and look forward to seeing the results of their efforts over the coming year.

In Year 7 we have been looking at maps-which are a hard copy of a GPS that does not need batteriesand how we find our way around the world. They have used co-ordinates to find places on a map and contours lines to find out how high things are without using a tape measure.

In Year 8 we have been looking at the Geography of Crime. This has involved looking at patterns of crime, some of the causes of crime, and how designers and planners (professional

Year 7 Map work

History with Year 9 It’s a new year at BSB but some things remain the same. Thus, as Autumn sets in, leaves fall of the trees and the evenings gets darker, the History department (specifically it’s teacher ie: me) has returned to bring back that warm glow of summer into the student’s hearts!

Geographers) might be able to reduce crime by the way places are built. It did not, however, in spite of a few suggestions from students, involve planning and executing the perfect crime.

In Year 9 we have been studying tourism and how the tourist trade has changed and will change in the future. This did involve designing the perfect holiday, but sadly not actually being able to go to the places they chose. Perhaps next term!

Mr Sykes, Teacher of Geography

Year 7

Other topics studied include weapons, (for those who are weaponry inclined), and propaganda ‘Mr McGowan is the best teacher in the world and he makes our lives better’ is NOT an example of propaganda but the truth and opinion of all that I come into contact with.

For my first article of the year I will focus on Year 9, who also happen to be my form class aka: the luckiest class in the world! Year 9 have been studying the First World War this term and they have been absolutely riveted by the topic and the quality of my teaching.

We have looked at various aspects of the First World War. Our first topic was how the First World War started. I can assure you that it was not, as the great Baldrick said, ‘when a bloke called Archie Duke shot an ostrich because he was hungry?’ We then progressed onto life during the war. A major focus has been the conditions in the Trenches in France and Belgium. Due to popular demand, (and I am not a man who frequently succumbs to pressure from 13 year olds), I allowed them to make a trench for homework. Robert was hugely disappointed when I told him that he would not be allowed to make a real size trench… dug in a forest!

We have also looked at other topics such as the role of women during WWI. We saw how women ended up doing a lot of the men’s jobs but afterwards many went back to their traditional lifestyle when the men returned. One writer compared women before the war to a bird in a cage and that the war left the cage open. However after the war, many decided to stay inside the cage but that others stayed outside the cage opening the way for women’s liberation.

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Year 9 Students with their trenches, Anna, Miriam and Lola

Thanks for reading this article, (and you must read this because I will be testing you at the next parents evening!). I hope that you had as much fun reading it that I had writing it! Till the next time, may the historical force be with you!

Mr McGowan, Head of Humanities

Year 9 Trenches Naomi, Robert and Hyo Min

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Learning about Banking in PSHCE In PSHCE this year we have been learning about banking. In other words we have been learning about money, bank accounts, the different services offered, and why we need banks. We also had to prepare and give a PPT Presentation to show what we had learnt. One presentation for example was on: Why Do We Need Banks?

Having a bank account comes with a number of advantages.

1. Safety – You can deposit your money in a safe place.

2. Interest – You can earn interest on your money.

3. Spending Control – You have your money in a place where you are to an extent resricted in spending (e.g. Having it in a savings account.)

I also happened to make a connection between two completly different subjects. In Geography we have been learning about crime. Fraud and theft are two very common crimes. If you look an No. 1 in the examples list you would start to think – What if I lost

Antonio 8M explaining the advantges of having a bank account

my credit/debit card? Then you would also think – What if the bank got robbed? Well in Geography we learned something called Target Hardening. It’s basically when you design something to make it as crime proof as possible (e.g. CCTV). If you combine two sources you may end up with some invaluable info about how to combat each other’s problems.

Hristos, 8M

Rhea 8M explaining how to open an account

BSB Spelling Bee Competition What is the ‘Spelling Bee Competition’? Well, the clue is in the name, although you might not have heard of such a thing before. It is a thrilling event in which children compete against each other and are asked to spell words until mistakes are made and only one finalist is left.

The finalist is the overall winner and champion speller of the event.

The concept is thought to have originated in the United States.

Today, National Spelling Bee Competitions for English are held in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Indonesia, and India among others.

Similar institutions are also found in numerous other countries such as France’s “La dictée” and Poland’s “Dyktando”. The first winner of an official Spelling Bee was Andrew Smith in 1925.

Historically the word ‘Bee’ has been

Cambridge Dictionary

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Longman’s Dictionary

used to describe a get-together where a specific action is being carried out, like a husking bee, a quilting bee, or an apple bee. Its etymology is unclear but possibly derived from the Old English word ‘ben’ for prayer.

In BSB the Spelling Bee started on the week of the 4th October. Teachers in KS2 ran in-class spelling competitions in order to generate a finalist for that class. On the 20th October all the finalists from the different classes,

Oxford Dictionary

will come together for the official competition. Each child will be asked to spell words from a list appropriate for their particular age group. Each child will have 2 lives to use before they are eliminated. The last child remaining in the competition will be declared this year’s overall winner.

Well done to all previous winners and good luck everyone!

Ms Tiffanie French-Paris.

Literacy Coordinator

Spelling-bee

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How parents can help their children focus and succeed in life Getting children to sit down, focus and study at home is an age-old problem, especially today, when parents face the added challenge of cell phones, portable music devices like iPods, and the many distractions of the World Wide Web. There are so many things that can distract your children from school work and doing what needs to get done for school. The question is, therefore: How can you help them focus and succeed?

flashcards or quizzes—than when they simply read or sit through a lecture. “It’s called the ‘generation effect.’ Children learn best when they generate answers for themselves,” says Metcalfe, a professor at Columbia University. “You may be tempted to give children the answers, but be patient. Wait for them to come up with something on their own, even if it takes a while.” She adds that hints are OK if children are really stuck.

Scientists funded by NIH and other federal agencies are trying to find answers to this question by studying how children learn, remember, and think.

Not surprisingly their research has revealed that children are more likely to become successful learners when their families actively support them. Reading with your children, talking with their teachers, participating in school-related activities and helping them with homework can give them a tremendous advantage in life.

If children have study sheets with both questions and answers, cover up the answers so they have to come up with solutions on their own. “Otherwise, they can fall into the illusion that they know the material when they really don’t,” Metcalfe says.

Flashcards can also help children learn as research shows that most people remember better when they come up with answers themselves—as with

Another effective study technique involves waiting for a few days or weeks between study sessions.

Relatively short review sessions that are spaced apart can significantly improve memory and test scores compared to a single, longer review session, many research teams have shown. “You’re much better off in the long run to study for about 20 minutes a day for several days than to spend an hour-and-a-half on the last day before the test,” says Metcalfe.

Another way parents can help is to remove distractions during study time. Children may think they can learn and write papers while texting friends, listening to music, Twittering and playing video games. But the research says otherwise.

“Many studies have shown that as you multitask, doing 2 or more tasks, the greater the number of errors you make and the slower you work,” says Dr. Jordan Grafman, a neuroscientist at NIH. Grafman and his colleagues used MRI to pinpoint the brain regions important for multitasking which include the frontal lobes which are “one of the last areas to mature in people—often not until they’re in their 20s.” This means that many of the distracting devices favoured by students because they provide instant enjoyment may ultimately stunt attention span and focused thinking.

“It’s important to have children engage in activities where they are forced to turn off their devices and interact with each other, to actually have quiet time,” says Grafman. “Sit by a river or walk in the woods, but leave the devices at home. This pushes children to learn how to think about things, and they become engaged. It may be difficult— especially with teenagers—but it’s worth the effort.”

Parents should therefore encourage their children to study in smaller doses and not to wait until the last minute.

Star of the Week

The first winners for this academic year were (from left to right): Natalia (3M), Finlay (3M), Philip (5M), Julia (6B), Francois (6H), Victorija (4D), Sophie (5L), Andrei (3T), Leonie (4H), Anouk (3T)

Every week the children’s achievements and efforts are rewarded in the Key Stage 1 and 2 assemblies. On Mondays each teacher chooses one child who they believe has made a special

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contribution in class or school during the previous week. That child receives his or her certificate in front of the rest of the students. Teachers can choose their ‘Star of the Week’ based on academic

work, successes in specialist subjects, general politeness and good manners in school or any other accomplishment they have witnessed or been informed of.

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Home visits in EYFS Before the start of the school year Crèche and Pre School offer all parents the choice of a home visit.

This is a good way of starting to form relations between the teachers and teaching assistants with the children and their parents in a familiar and comfortable environment. Parents and children often feel more relaxed at home and appreciate having the time to talk to the teachers on a one to one basis. We use this opportunity to gain knowledge about the individual child’s background and home life. For example, we may find out what their favourite book or toy is, if they have any other relatives living with them or even if they have a family pet. This is all valuable information that can be used and is sometimes helpful to explain a child’s behaviour patterns or interests when they start in a new setting.

Some parents may find the idea of a home visit a little daunting and may worry that the teachers will be coming to ask lots of questions or to look around their home, but it is just a short visit to get to know both the child and parents a little better in a familiar environment, so there is nothing to worry about. At BSB we believe home visits are a very valuable tool in both gaining more information about a child before they start, and also in helping the child settle when they arrive at school because they will have a familiar face to recognise on their first day.

Finding out children’s interests helps us get to know them better before they start school

Mrs Claire O’Brien, Crèche Teacher

Midnight Update My dog Midnight is special. She is special in many ways but the thing that is most special about her is that she will become the second guide dog in Romania. But nobody would believe it just now because she is a lovely, silly, naughty puppy.

She nibbles on you and jumps on you, but she’s only playing and doesn’t want to hurt you. She is

also hilarious and adorable! She has glossy black eyes and pitch black fur, and you can’t see her at midnight (I mean the hour). That’s why we called her Midnight. I have to say that at the beginning I was a bit scared but after Mircea helped me I was confident.

To teach her how to behave she has training at our home for about an hour at a time. Her personal trainer is called Mircea. He was also training us how

Our sponsored guide dog, Midnight

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to make Midnight conduct herself. Can you believe it?!

She has been a great part of our family, but sadly she will have to leave us in June 2011. We hope she’ll be the best guide dog ever! I can’t wait to see her puppies…

Midnight will soon be heplping a blind person

Veronika, 5L

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EYFS Bake Sale Friday the 24th of September was the first Bake Sale of the year, and was hosted by Crèche, Preschool C and Preschool E. It was a busy day and all of the children got involved in the morning baking various cakes, cookies and other goods, ready for the afternoon. Many parents from the different classes did a great job too, baking lots of goodies

both savoury and sweet and helped make the Bake Sale a great success due to the many tasty treats on offer.

By the end of the afternoon, and after great custom from children, parents and staff alike, there was not very much left and this is evident from the enormous 837Lei that was raised! The money has been split between the three classes and the staff are still currently deciding the best way to spend

Parents and Staff worked hard to make the first Bake Sale of the year a great success

Settling into EYFS In EYFS, we place significant emphasis on the importance of children settling in and enjoying their first years at school. To ease the transition between year groups the children visited their new class and teacher at the end of the previous year to reduce the anxiety they may have felt.

To begin this transition, the children attend school for half days at the beginning of the year to help them adapt to their new surroundings and to aid the transition from home. Key Stage 1 and 1 children are met by their teachers in the mornings at the school gates and are brought to their class by the teachers. However, in EYFS children are brought by their parents/carers, directly to their teacher at the Ringwood Building.

During these first days, the children were encouraged to explore both the indoor and outdoor environments following the ‘continuous provision’ and ‘free flow approach’. Once the children were settled into their new classrooms, the usual routines of carpet times and specialist lessons were slowly introduced. For example, for the first week at school specialist teachers came

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The EYFS team would like to thank all the parents who contributed towards, supported, and helped out at the Bake Sale.

Mrs Claire O’Brien, Crèche Class Teacher

Some of the students enjoying goodies from the Bake Sale

to the classroom to interact with the children in their familiar environment. This helps the children to become familiar with the teacher and gain confidence in their presence, before leaving the classroom to go to an unknown room or building.

The organisation of the daily routines within EYFS reflects the importance of settling in at an early stage. In Crèche, shorter sessions are available for the children to attend, as some children will find whole days at the beginning of the year a little challenging.

In EYFS we understand the anxieties that both children and parents may have when beginning school. In order to overcome these we have an open door policy where parents are encouraged to visit the class teacher on a regular basis. This may be to simply discuss a minor concern or to talk about their child’s progress. Another way in which parents can communicate with teachers is via the Home-School Communication Book and the Class Blogs, where class learning and photographs are recorded.

Saying ‘goodbyes’ at the beginning of a school day is sometimes distressing for both parents and children, however, most children are able to

Creche children making friends and taking turns on the slide

the well raised funds, but so far the children’s ideas include cuddly toys for the classrooms and children’s songs CD’s for singing and dancing, something all the EYFS children particularly enjoy.

calm down very quickly once the day has started.

Therefore, in the majority of circumstances parents are urged to say a quick goodbye, and can feel assured that the class teacher will be in contact if there are any problems or the child does not settle and becomes distressed; however, this is very unusual.

Once the children are settled, parents are urged to leave the children outside of Ringwood Building for supervised outdoor morning play. This is organised as many children will settle quicker and feel more at ease when they enter the classroom in a whole group at the same time as their peers. This also encourages development of communication and social skills as they will often talk about their interests to one another whilst hanging their coats and bags. Doing so encourages children to become independent as they are taking responsibility for their personal belongings and ensuring they hang their own coats and bags on their pegs. Being independent like this enables the children to take pride in their achievements.

Ms Kayleigh Evans, EYFS Teacher

Faaiz hanging up his bag and coat independently in the morning

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EYFS Open Morning On Friday October 8th EYFS held an Open Morning.

It was a very successful morning and the children were very excited to welcome their parents into their classrooms. On the day parents had the opportunity to observe and participate in many exciting learning experiences in the Crèche, Preschool and Reception classes and in our

outdoor environment, and we were very happy to welcome so many visotors to the school.

On Fridays the specialist lesson is Library with Ms Ana Maria, where the children listen to stories and choose new library books to take home for the week, so some parents also had the opportunity to attend this session with their children.

The typical daily routine in the EYFS involves developing independence by trying to do things such as hanging up school bags and changing shoes, the children participate in teacher planned

carpet times, take part in focus activities and they choose various activities to extend learning both indoors and outdoors. Parents were welcomed to the classes from 10am until 11:45am and were able to join in many of these activities and see our routine in action.

There will be more EYFS Open Mornings throughout the school year and we look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at these future events Ms Deanna Beggs, EYFS Teacher

EYFS Parents Workshops At BSB we want to involve parents as much as possible in their children’s learning. We want to ensure you feel involved and help you understand more about what we do here in the Early Years Foundation Stage. For this reason we have organised a number of Parent Workshops.

So far this year we have already held two Parents Workshops at our Pipera and Gafencu sites, covering information about EYFS and assessment.

We are also rescheduling our workshops on outdoor learning and hope to see as many of you there as possible. Workshops such as these are designed to provide an insight into the things we do and why. They demonstrate how we work, in line with EYFS documents and legislation, and demonstrate how this is put in to practice in both teaching and learning. These meetings and workshops also provide the perfect opportunity for you to ask any questions you may have about the areas covered, and so we encourage as many parents as possible to attend if you are keen to find out more about certain aspects of the curriculum.

Why not join us at some of our upcoming workshops: Letters and Sounds Workshop: Wednesday 3rd November 2010 at 8:40am

Workshops are a useful way to see our learning in action and find out some of the things we do in EYFS

Numeracy Workshop: Wednesday 19th January 2010 at 8:40am An Outdoor Workshop will also be rescheduled and the new dates for this will be sent home in a letter in the children’s communication books and also advertised on the EYFS notice board in the Parents Room and around the Ringwood building, and at

Gafencu We are eager to make Parent Workshops as practical and useful as possible and appreciate your attendance and feedback. We are also keen to hear your ideas for future workshops and are happy to run more if interest is raised.

10% discount to all BSB students until November 31st, 2010 32

Ms Claire Cowlishaw, EYFS Coordinator Pipera

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Class Pages

learning all the time about shapes, colours, science, rhythm and much more.

Crèche Pipera

We’ve also been lucky enough to have had visits from Mrs Leitner and Mrs Koska, who talked to us about jobs involving cars, (which was in keeping with our transport learning journey), and medicine.

Mrs Brasher also gave us an insight into British culinary culture when she led a cookery lesson on making apple crumble, a classic UK pudding, which was yummy!

We have only been in school for a short time, but already the children in Creche are becoming settled and enjoying exploring their new surroundings, especially playing outside where there are so many exciting things to look at and do. There has been a lot of driving around the garden on the cars and bikes as well as going down the big slide!

discussed our likes and dislikes, our family and friends, things we find fun and things that scare us, our favourite food, our favourite toys, and much much more.

All of the children are very keen on getting messy and creative so we have made the most of this with various activities going on; from painting and making collaged self portraits, to making hand and foot prints. We have also talked about different parts of the body and how the body works, and learnt lots of songs. One of the favourites is ‘Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes’, which we also tried in French during Language Week! However, the most loved song in Preschool C at the moment is ‘Ten in the Bed’, which the children are fanatic about and love to sing, both as a whole class and to themselves during play. In fact, there is a big love for lots of our number rhymes at the moment and we are going number crazy, counting, playing number games, making number pictures and even decorating ladybirds with different number spots.

Gafencu Preschool are good friends!

Painting is great

But the fun doesn’t stop there, inside there has been a lot going on too. Painting has been very popular, especially painting our hands different colours, we now have a very bright hand painting display in our classroom.

Getting creative and making friends in Preschool C

Gafencu Preschool playing with balloons

Look at Me, I’m in Preschool C

Making playdough

The children love to end their day with a story. Our favourite at the moment is Hooray for Fish- a very funny story about a little fish and all his different fishy friends.

Mrs Claire O’Brien, Crèche Class Teacher

Preschool Gafencu After our long summer break we are looking forward to the year ahead in Preschool and making new friends. We have started our first learning journey by looking at transport. We’ve been exploring the theme by using our diggers to transport sand and gravel – which we’ve discovered is quite hard work!

It’s been interesting learning about the emergency services and we’re keen to expand our knowledge in the weeks to come.

On the creative side, we’ve made autumnal pictures and enjoyed music sessions with Mr Jonathan.

There has been plenty of exercise too, as we’ve played with balloons and welcomed Mr Mugur for PE. Not only has this been fun, but through it we are

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Gafencu Preschool

We’re certainly looking forward to more fun and learning throughout the rest of the term.

Ms Chris Stowe, Preschool Class Teacher

‘All About Me’ in Preschool C After a long, hot summer which saw many changes to the Ringwood building, it was great to be back at BSB and welcoming all the new children and parents to the school. The children in Preschool C have settled in extremely well as newcomers to the school and are becoming more and more confident in their school routine every day.

It has been a very busy first half term in Preschool as we have based a lot of our learning around the topic of ‘Ourselves’ or ‘All About Me’, finding out new things about each other each day. We

We have also been very busy mark making and finding out about rainbows. The children discovered that rainbows need both rain and sunshine and learnt all the colours of the rainbow, painting individual rainbows, designing rainbow pictures on the computers in the ICT suite, and making a large class rainbow from different coloured handprints.

This has certainly added a lot of colour to our classroom!

It has been lovely for Cristina, Gabriela and I to get to know all the children and we have enjoyed working with them to create a bright and stimulating learning environment in our classroom.

The children are becoming very proud of their work and achievements and are eager to display this around the class, so we look forward to the next half term for another fun filled learning adventure!

Ms Claire Cowlishaw, Preschool C Class Teacher

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Exploring the Jungle in Preschool E What a lovely start to the year in Preschool E! The children have settled in amazingly well and have adapted to their new surroundings.

The children have also explored their exciting imaginations, by pretending we are Jungle explorers wearing our special listening ears. We took a trip around Crawford House and the school grounds to listen to the scary animals. On our way round, Lucy heard snakes in the trees, and Faaiz saw a tiger hiding in the bushes and even squeaky monkeys.

Since starting Preschool at the beginning of September, the children have shown a great interest in animals and their habitats. This started when Max and Timothee built a Lego house for our class monkey, Pepsi! As a class we then looked at Jungle books and found out more about where monkey’s live and their characteristics. We then embarked on our Jungle theme carrying out many exciting activities.

Continuing with our Jungle learning journey the children have constructed their own “Jungle Jeep” with Ms Ani. Max and Maria were able to recognise the important things that we would need on our car, including wheels, a steering wheel, windows and even a door, as it was tricky to get in and out of without a well thought out door. When building the Jeep the children were able to express their ideas clearly and work together as a group.

We have also been demonstrating our ICT skills by playing simple games on the interactive whiteboard which involved the children creating their own jungle scene and deciding where to put each of the animals. Creating our own jungles gave us many ideas. Damian began to walk around the classroom wearing a plastic bowl on his head to protect himself from falling trees in the jungle.

We look forward to seeing where our Jungle Learning Journey will take us next and have definitely got an exciting year ahead of us! All of our learning so far is recorded on our blog. Please check this on a regular basis for our news and photographs.

Ms Kayleigh Evans, Preschool E Class Teacher

A big welcome to all children in Preschool E!

Jungle dancing encouraged us to explore our creative sides by moving in all different ways and pretending to be jungle animals. Lena was brilliant at dancing like an elephant whilst Stefan pretended to be a tiger. Julia and Maria have enjoyed listening to Jungle stories using their imaginations by predicting the endings. Aleksandra and David had a good giggle at the “funny” words that rhymed!

The children have enjoyed baking some Jungle goodies with Ms Daniela including a Zebra Wicky Wacky Cake, Lion Biscuits, Play-dough and Salt dough ornaments. Alexander painted a very scary crocodile! These activities involved the children listening to simple instructions and following them carefully. They also demonstrated hand-eye coordination and the effective use of simple tools and kitchen equipment like wooden spoons and rolling pins.

Reception Gafencu

using binoculars and pantomiming the actions.

The children were absolutely delighted to find this friendly furry creature hiding behind the bushes.

The preschool children decided to join us and also dressed up, so our bear hunt turned into a dress up picnic with both classes having a wonderful time.

As a treat we decided to also do some face painting which is always a big hit with the children.

Alex S, Jason and Alex A. drawing maps to our hidden treasure

After our bear hunt the children all drew maps, including maps to Herastrau Park, Austria, China, and treasure maps. We also looked at different types of bears, polar bears, brown bears, black bears, and panda bears; where they live, what they eat, and what the weather is like in those countries.

We brought in maps from Austria, Romania and France for the children to look at and linked our interest towards countries to our weather, the seasons, and months. After traveling around the world with our class we are looking forward to seeing where our next learning journey will take us.

Ms Priscilla Varban, Reception Class Teacher

Reception B: Help Humpty

The bear we found while going on our bear hunt

The Reception children very proud of their Humpty’s Wall

Dress up picnic in Gafencu

Preschool E children searching for signs of jungle animals around school

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Reception Gafencu began this term by ‘Going on a bear hunt’. Our learning journey started when we decided to read the book We’re going on a bear hunt by Helen Oxenbury. After painting bears and watching the movie we decided to go on our own bear hunt. Much to all of our surprise we encountered a ‘real bear’ covered in fur and with a cute bear mask (many thanks to Mrs Rodica for dressing up). We encouraged the children to follow our leads as they looked for the bear by

What a start we have had! We are very lucky in Reception to have so many new friends and we have focused a lot on getting to know one another and learning about our different backgrounds. We have worked hard in the EYFS to make it a smooth transition from Preschool to Reception; for many children it has been a big change. Thankfully we are now all settled in to our daily routines and are discovering all the things we like to do at school.

Our theme this half-term is Nursery-rhymes.

‘Humpty Dumpty’ has been a class favourite and when we talked about the ways in which we could help poor Humpty the children came up with these ideas: Laura: We can take him to the doctor.

Mariam: We can give Humpty Dumpty a plaster and a sticker Tibor: We can build him a bigger and a thicker wall.

Hugo: We can tell Humpty to sit on a chair.

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Samuel: We can tell him to hold on with two hands.

Amelie: We can build a stronger wall with concrete.

Thomas: We can tell Humpty to hold on.

We incorporated these ideas into our planning and one of the activities we did was build a new wall for Humpty Dumpty. When we built the wall as a class we focused on taking turns and sharing, and the end result was a strong wall built with great care by all the children in Reception.

Ms Deanna Beggs, Reception Class Teacher

1M 1M have settled well into their new classroom and welcomed Benedict, Nakyeong, Joseph, Melissa and Asal to the class. It has been wonderful to see the class making sure everyone is made to feel welcome, including myself and Ms Anca.

what we might like to be when we grow up. This was a great activity as it combined learning about portrait techniques and also engaged the imagaination of the children.

We look forward to having many more opportunities to share our work during the year.

1M team Ms Tiffany Moorcroft and Ms Anca Grigoras

1P 1P have been enjoying finding their way around the Pipera site this term, enjoying the space available to explore and play and the amount of trees that are fascinating and fun to discover. We must admit, at first, it did seem a long walk to the front gate, but we are really good at it now and we often sing as we go along. Singing is something we love doing and we usually start our mornings with a few of our favourite songs. Of course we have learnt many new ones as well, such as the ‘Pumpkin’ song and ‘A Monster Came to Visit You’.

Our topic this half term is ‘This Is Me’, and we have had lots of fun drawing round each other to make our body outlines which we painted and made labels for. We have been writing sentences about ourselves and are getting really good at remembering to use full stops and capital letters.

We are doing lots of little jobs such as drawing ourselves and writing about our houses, and we are also working hard to make a book about ourselves: a whole book each! You can see that we are Year One children now.

We have been counting lots of different objects and have practised writing our numbers to ten and twenty as well as learning to add and subtract.

We all love to use the various areas in our classroom when we have free time. Our favourite areas seem to be the listening centre, the art corner, the building blocks and the maths table where we can pretend to be shopkeepers and give out money!

We love to pretend and dress up in the roleplay corner as well.

We have learnt so much already and can’t wait to see what the rest of the year brings.

Ms Tiffanie French Paris, Class Teacher

1S(S=Super)

We enjoy working with numbers

At the time of writing 1M were busy practising for their class assembly, which was our chance to showcase some of the fantastic work we have done so far in Year 1. Our theme this term has been ‘This is me’ and this has brought together many different learning opportunities and activities.

1P students ready to start the new school year

It has been a fantastic start to the new school year and so 1S have been renamed 1Super because of it. The first few weeks have been spent getting to know our new classroom and the fun activities that we can choose to do in it. Oskar A., Arish and Omar have enjoyed the Lego, especially building some amazing structures. We have also all shown Ms Stevens how well we listen to each other, respect our classroom, and try our best to make sure 1S is a happy place. I think if you came to visit us, you would have to agree just how Super it is.

Alma doing Numeracy work Looking after School Bear You can visit the doctor in 1M

Our Science aspect has focused on labelling the body and learning about whether height is related to age. We drew around some members of the class then painted them; the children found it really amusing to try and make the face look like the person they had drawn around. They were surprised to find out that even though Miki, Lennie and Vlad are the tallest in the class, they are not the oldest.

We have also used our ICT and Numeracy skills to make graphs of our favourite colours, and the children have also asked if we can make graphs of our heights and favourite pets so next time we visit the ICT room this is our task.

In 1M we have been enjoyng writing and have written about our familes and homes and have even written our own assembly invitations to parents.

We have a ‘Dont Forget’ board in the classroom and the children have independently written reminders for birthdays, clubs and even that their mum is returning home from a trip.

We have also been enjoying Art. One of our Art activities has been drawing a self portrait showing

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Irina and Cameron writing sentences

We also enjoy doing our daily meditations which help us to understand how to use our own minds to imagine situations and to stay cheerful, focused, and energetic. We have even been teaching some of our mummies how to do these mediations while we eat breakfast!

Of course we also still love listening to the stories our teacher shares with us and have been reading lots of books ourselves, with our teachers and our friends.

Making the ambulance

This half term we have been learning all about the topic ‘Ourselves’. We worked in our groups to draw around one person and then had to paint them. We could paint them any colour we liked and some of them were very colourful indeed. We then worked with Ms Andreea, our super class teaching assistant, to think of as many different parts of the body and wrote labels for our display. As part of the

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topic we have been thinking about medicines and how they can help us when we feel ill. In our role play corner we have a doctor’s surgery, a pharmacy, and in an emergency we even have an ambulance: we worked hard to change a cardboard box into a modern ambulance for any 1S emergencies.

Efe, Remi, Zsuzsanna and Stephanie worked well together to make the ambulance. Emile has made a superb doctor and treated many of our ill patients whilst Natalie and Filomena have enjoyed writing lots of prescriptions for everyone. Anya and Arina looked after School Bear when he had a bump on the head and Oskar H. made a very convincing ambulance driver with a very effective (and loud), siren.

In Science we have been learning about our senses and thinking about what makes each one of us special and unique. In Numeracy we have been counting and ordering numbers to 20 and beyond.

We were given a challenge last week to order numbers 0-20 with only a little bit of help from Ms Stevens. We had to work as a team to get the task finished which Thea and Moritz really enjoyed.

We hope the rest of the year for 1Super will be as fantastic as the start and we look forward to seeing you all in our class.

Buenos Dias from 2F Hello and welcome back to the new school year.

Ms Feeney and Ms Daniela have enjoyed getting to know their new class.

We have already had our class assembly which the children worked very hard for. Tudor did some very good singing and the children did a great job of dancing to Mexican music and telling their audience about comparisons we will be making between Tocuaro village and our own lifestyles. Sara enjoyed doing her own research for her part in the assembly, talking about the history of Serbia. Paloma was great at doing her lines, talking about the homes that Mexican people live in and introducing the Czech Republic to the audience.

Honzik has enjoyed using the tape measure to measure the length and height of things and he has also been watching Tom who has mastered the art of puzzles. Meanwhile, Mete has been asking Ms Feeney if he can please do some Letters and Sounds as he loves it so much.

The children have been bringing in their toys and magazines from home to share and Kristian has enjoyed showing us his Dr Who and Gormiti. He and Thomas have enjoyed playing together with these and demonstrating how nicely they can share and work together.

Ms Feeney, Year 2 Class Teacher

2S In 2S we have started the term off in a healthy way, creating balanced meals and learning how to fight off germs as part of our Science Unit, ‘Healthy Bodies’. As an exciting end to this unit we participated in various Healthy Schools Week activities from October 11-15. We hope you all got to see our Healthy Food Train, which we displayed in the parent’s room.

Ms Helen Stevens, Year 1 Class Teacher

2B 2B is off to an exciting start this year! In Art we have been looking at puppets and what they are used for.

The students are very excited to design and create their own unique puppets. The students started out by drawing what their puppet would look like and what features it would have. They then cut out and sewed their puppets mostly by themselves with help by Valentina our TA and myself when needed.

After finishing the puppets the students were then able to write little plays and perform them for their classmates.

2F Mexico Assembly

Duncan, Martin, David S., David R. and Chloe practise the running stitch

Isabella and Thomas writing their numbers

Additionally, in Design and Technology we have been learning how to sew and have designed our own puppets. The finished products will include everything from ninjas to mermaids. Once they are completed, we will be able to put on puppet shows for the other KS1 students and for our friends and families at home!

Ms Swanson 2S, Class Teacher

3M The boys and girls in 3M have started the new school year in a positive and hard working manner. We have been settling into our new room and routines and getting to know our new class members, Theo and Alex.

Year 2B class enjoying the autumn weather

In Geography this term we have been exploring the country of Mexico and contrasting their culture to life here in Romania. The students enjoy seeing the different pictures and being able to find items that are similar to their lives here.

In Science we have been exploring healthy habits, learning how to wash our hands, eating properly and knowing the importance of medicine and why we have to take them only when the doctor or parents allows it. The children were very engaged in the activities about living healthy and safe.

Last but not least the students have been doing an amazing job working on their reading every night.

The progress they are making is excellent and I know that they will continue working so hard for the rest of the school year. I am looking forward to many more creative and healthy months ahead with 2B. Ms Brianna Beitz, Class teacher

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Nicolas and Rares doing Letters and Sounds

We have also been working hard in the classroom and learning how to use our new classroom setup.

Gregory has been very helpful at tidying up and working hard. Isabella has been making Ms Feeney some wonderful crafts as gifts and Sophie and Letitia can always be found working together either at the arts and crafts area or the writing area.

While the girls are busy making fantastic and fancy designs in the craft area, the boys are enjoying using the construction and talking about shapes.

Daniel loves making towers and problem solving and Rares and Nicolas enjoy combining their construction with the role-play where they play very fairly and follow the rules.

In Literacy so far, we have been focusing on improving our listening skills, writing in sentences and using adjectives. Maths has involved addition, subtraction, doubling, halving, place value, partitioning and shape. We have been enjoying ‘Active Maths’ lessons also where we work in small groups and get hands on experience to solve problems.

Our Science topic is Light and Shadows. We are learning how shadows are formed and using the sun to help us carry out lots of exciting experiments.

Do you know that our shadows change size and direction throughout the day?

In Geography our focus is, ‘Weather around the World,’ and we are exploring different climate zones as well as thinking about how the weather influences our lives.

Art and Drama have been linked so far and we have been investigating ‘Relationships’. We took

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part in a Drama session using mime and freezeframe to communicate our relationships and the way we interact with our friends and our family.

We used photographs of our freeze-frames to create a Matisse-style collage, portraying different relationships. We had to create two bodies from various sized pieces of sugar paper then play around with the limbs to re-create our photographs.

You’ll be able to view our amazing art display the next time you visit our classroom!

As you can see, 3M have had a busy start to Year 3.

We hope we can continue to do our best and share our achievements with you as the year unfolds.

Ms Tracy Milligan, Year 3 Class Teacher

4H – Journeying Into the Unknown

World War Two in 3T

Asking questions about life in Mettupalayam, India

Claudia and Natalia driving to school

Gas masks on... into the air-raid shelter!

In history lessons this half term 3T have been learning about the lives of children during World War Two. Although this can be a very sensitive subject, I have been impressed with how maturely the children have approached it, demonstrating empathy and understanding to produce a wide range of related work. In the photo you can see the gas masks we made, ready for any emergency that might arise! We had a lot of fun making them and the children helped each other with the more difficult parts. We even practised hiding in our ‘airraid shelters’ when we heard the siren and had to wait for the all-clear to come out!

Ms Emily Thomas, Year 3 Class Teacher

Karin and Emaan sharing a meal

4D

Finlay and Ilayda walking the dog

In class we have being doing lots of different things including learning to play the recorder in Music, looking at a village in India during Geography and also creating our own graphs in ICT. In Numeracy we have done a lot of fun things including measuring, which was linked to our Science work on ‘Moving and Growing’. In Literacy we have been improving our story writing and have been writing stories about dragons. We have tried to use better describing phrases. Here are sentences that we wrote for our stories: ‘A door slammed loudly’ and ‘on a warm summer evening in Africa a piercing roar rang out’.

Welcome to the all new 4H where we are all striving to learn loads of fascinating facts about a whole range of topics. So far we have been focusing on the movement and growth of our bodies, taking journeys with our imagination and representing these on paper and we have taken a journey of discovery to India and a small village called Mettupalayam. We are delighted to be making friends with Lakshmi, a girl from this village; writing and receiving letters and emails as we find out more about everyday life. We are amazed to find out how different habits and daily routines can be in other countries but also, how many aspects of life can be much the same. Maybe you could learn about a new country by having a pen-pal and asking all sorts of captivating questions.

4H students

5L Class report It has been a busy start to the year in 5L and everyone has been working hard.

In Maths we have focused on written addition and subtraction together with improving our multiplication skills and understanding of place value. We have also investigated types of lines and triangles in shape lessons. In Literacy lessons we have been studying the author Michael Morpugo; and we have explored the digestive and circulatory systems in Science lessons.

Samantha disguising a teaching assistant using drawing tools on PowerPoint

We have also been looking at four different parts to stories – the beginning, the build up, the climax and the resolution.

Daniel and Pol playing the Wii

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In ICT the 5L students have been the first at BSB to try out the new Lego Mindstorms robots and we have also been studying how to create drawings and designs using a variety of programs on the computers. We started this by using the basic draw tools on Microsoft Word and PowerPoint and then moved on to more specialist design programs such as Google Sketchup. There may be some graphic designers and architects of the future in our class!

Mr Sonny Leese, Class Teacher

By Victorija and Jenisa 4D

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5M During Numeracy lessons this first month in 5M the class has been dusting off the cobwebs from summer and focusing on our targets for this year.

We have begun by looking at multiplying and dividing by 10, 100 and 1000 and some of us have been solving equations involving decimal numbers.

experiment: one plant was without sunlight, one without water, one without warmth, and with everything. The one without sunlight grew the most but it was a sick yellowish colour. The control was the healthiest, but it wasn’t as tall as the one without sunlight. But at least it had a green healthy colour and lots of leaves. The one without sunlight grew the most because it was trying to reach the sunlight (It was in a box).

Now we are starting the second part of the unit: we are sorting living things into categories according to their appearance. Did you know that a turtle is a reptile because it’s cold blooded or that a blue whale is a mammal because it doesn’t lay eggs, but rather has babies? This is what we do in science in 6B!

By Stefanie and Stanislav

The BSB Charity Committee Report The BSB Charity Committee welcomes its new members: Ms Tiffanie French-Paris, Ms Kayleigh Evans and Ms Tracy Milligan. Ms Rocío Martí and myself will continue our work from last year. The bonds with the charities that we are supporting are growing stronger.

For us and for our students it is very rewarding to be able to help people in need. With your help we will continue to support charities such as

6H in PSCHE 5M students

BSB Charity Committee for 2010-11

Second Chance Fundatia Inocenti The Children´s Hospital The Down Syndrome Association

Aryan, Chi Bin and Gaya pumping up the audience with their exercising skills 5M students

Ms Dorothea Draser, Charity Committee member

We are also investigating 2 Dimensional and 3 Dimensional shapes, outlining the properties that each shape may have. While investigating 3 dimensional shapes we drew and constructed nets out of paper and card- these can be seen outside 5M’s classroom.

Dear Parents The Second Hand Clothes Drive is on going throughout the school year. All your donations are welcome. If possible, write on the bag the age group they are for before you deposit them any time in the 2 green bins at the gate marked with this sign. The donations will go to the charities we support, such as Fundatia Inocenti, Remar, and the Down Syndrome Association.

Lastly, we have had some cross-curricular lessons where we have been finding the average rainfall of cities and we have graphed this data. We have also calculated our heart rates, finding averages, identifying trends and making comparisons.

Mr Dan Madsen, Class Teacher

6B: Fun with Science

6B class photo

In 6B we have had fun with science. We conducted experiments with Cress plants to see what plants need to grow. We used four plants for the

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The next major event that we are preparing for is the Shoe Box Appeal, a tradition that we would like to continue. Our students get the chance to make a Christmas gift for a needy child. You will hear more about that in November.

Gaya showing off her excellent dancing skills while the rest of 6H watch

This year in 6H we have been super busy in all subject areas. However, we have enjoyed our PSHCE lessons the most! We have been discussing ways to ‘Challenge Ourselves’ and it has been a challenge.

We started by learning about all the different people in the world who challenge themselves daily. Whether it is a famous athlete, a world leader, or a parent, people take risks to be the best that they can be. In literacy we found many different motivational quotes and discussed their meanings and then we wrote some of our own. In art we learned how to draw moving characters and then made motivational posters with our quotes. Lastly, we finished the topic with an outstanding assembly showcasing all of our talents which demonstrate our willingness to challenge ourselves. Can’t wait to see what’s next in 6H.

By Ana-Maria and Angela

Clothes, Shoes, Toys DONATIONS

Please use the two bins at the gate.

Many thanks from the BSB Charity Committee

Visit the BSB website at www.britishschool.ro

A Leadership Course This past summer I had the opportunity to take part in a 16 day training workshop for teachers who want to gain experience in leadership and management. Working with teachers and principals from all over Canada at the University of Toronto, I learned some amazing strategies for

communicating and collaborating with parents, staff, and students. In addition to this, I was able to meet some prominent leaders in education who were eager to share current management methods and techniques. Throughout the course we discussed everything from planning and facilitating insets to mediating conflicts. In the end, I really enjoyed the course and I am looking forward to taking the next course on this topic.

Mr Hamacher, Year 6H Class Teacher

University of Toronto

Staff Social at Le Club On Saturday the 2nd of October, the British School of Bucharest staff gathered at “Le Club” for a friendly little weekend get together. The turnout was great and everybody present thoroughly enjoyed themselves, with Le Club putting on a great buffet spread and providing enough drinks to keep its patrons refreshed. It was all too good to be true.

Little did we know what was to come… for the powers that be had arranged a number of team building games for us. We went left, we went right, we climbed through a spider nest, and acted out a variety of scenes, and in the end had a great time laughing our way through the afternoon into the early evening. It was the perfect way to end the week and a wonderful way to build relationships with our colleagues. So thank you to the BSB Management team for organising this outing and to Le Club for offering us such a wonderful venue.

Adina and Anca at the ready

Enjoying the facilities at Le Club

All dressed up and...

My kingdom for a taco

Best friends

Mada in her happy place

Alexandra Panait, Front Office

Staff enjoying a short performance

A day of fun and laughter BSB Staff contemplate the next challenge

Ms Kemp showing off her certificate of participation

The British School of Bucharest Magazine

I believe I can fly

Mr O’brien after a long day at work, ready to end it all

Mr Hamacher decided he’s had enough too

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Visit the BSB website at www.britishschool.ro

Attention all Skiers!

We are happy to announce that BSB will be returning to the Haut-Lac Ski Centre in Switzerland for the 3rd year in a row! Haut-Lac is an international ski center that provides ski lessons for students from around the world. We will be flying Swiss Air to Zurich, where we’ll be picked up by the staff at Haut-Lac. The trip includes 6 days of skiing in the Gstaad super ski region with daily lessons by qualified, experienced instructors. The trip will run during school time from March 6th – 13th. We only have spots for 20 students from Year 4 and up. For more information, please speak to Mr Murchison or Mr Hamacher.

Just in case you forget where you are

Heading off on a perfect run

Welcome to ski school

Who is Terry Fox? Great question and it was the question in mind when Ms Swanson and Mr Hamacher were talking about a run for charity that they were intending to do on Saturday 11th September.

I was quite taken back with the story when they first talked to me about the fun run and so I went on to do some research of my own. This is what I found out: “Terry Fox never gave up on his dream”, was the first quote which came up after my Google search.

Terry Fox was born on July 28, 1958 in Canada. He was a very athletic young man at school, involved in many sports activities. At the age of 18 Terry was diagnosed with bone cancer, which eventually required the amputation of his right leg. While in hospital with other cancer sufferers, many of them children, he decided he was going to attempt the seemingly impossible- a run across Canada to raise money for cancer research. He decided his journey would be called ‘The Marathon of Hope’.

Terry trained for 18 months and ran over 3000 miles in preparation for his journey. Then on 12 April 1980 he began his journey by dipping his foot

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The winners podium

in the Atlantic Ocean in St Johns in Newfoundland. There was very little support or spectators at the time but this would change over the next 143 days! Terry ran and ran, running an average of 26 miles per day, which is more or less a full marathon per day! A full ‘Marathon of Hope’ per day for 143 days on one leg and one prosthesis. Sadness unfortunately struck on the 1st September the same year, when after 3339 miles and two thirds of the way across Canada, Terry was forced to stop, as cancer had appeared in his lungs. Over the course of the next few months Terry battled with cancer with the same strength and determination he had shown through his running, but on June 21st 1981 he passed away. He was 22 years old.

Now Terry’s dream still lives on with thousands of people of all ages running the ‘Terry Fox Run’ each year to raise money for cancer research and this year myself, Ms Rocio, Ms Draser, Mr Murchison, Mr Hamacher and Ms Swanson joined in. The event is organised each year, so maybe next year you would like to participate?

Ms Jen Kemp, Assistant Head of Secondary

Visit the BSB website at www.britishschool.ro

Preparing for the Bucharest Marathon On Sunday the 17th of October the Bucharest Marathon takes place in the city centre. This is a great event where competitors have the option of the full marathon, half marathon or to run as part of a relay, each competitor running just over 10km.

BSB have entered 2 teams for the relay and all runners are training hard. Due to being injured I promoted myself to the role of coach. Here are a few of the updates from staff

The training is going well and I’m trying to run several times a week though I still haven’t run a full 10k yet! I’m glad the weather has cooled down a little as this makes running a lot easier.

Mr Sonny Leese

Deanna and I have been running around Herastrau Lake together for several weeks in preparation for the marathon. We are both a little nervous about the big day, but we are confident that the brunch afterwards will motivate us to run faster than we’ve ever run.

Ms Kristen Swanson and Ms Deanna Beggs

My training is not really up and going yet, but I’m hoping to do a bit of a crash course. I’m excited about running through the streets of Bucharest and getting to see the city with a little less traffic. I did a 10km run when I was living in Vancouver, Canada.

It is a great memory and one I hope to recreate running through Bucharest.

Ms Helen Stevens

Fall time has made training for the Marathon an exciting time with cool temperatures and the changing leaves to keep a smile on my face. Training for a marathon is new to me and to be honest, I much prefer team sports to solitary jogging, so I have been busy playing Ultimate Frisbee, football and floor hockey....with a few jogs here and there.

In addition, Kristen and I ran the Terry Fox Run at the American School of Bucharest a few weeks ago. So, hopefully, I’ll be good to go come the big day.

As Miss Jones is a P.E. teacher she is a supreme athlete. Pure endurance, requiring no training whatsoever. 10km is a warm-up run for her. Mr Madsen however has been keeping to a rigorous training schedule. 10km for him is the longest he will ever run in his life. He is enjoying the training and after eating too much over summer it is a great way to get some fitness back.

The starting line this year

Mr Dan Madsen and Ms Billie Jones

Training programme...hmm. Not really the right words to describe my preparation. At this late stage in the day I think I am better off shifting over to the praying programme as I figure I will need al the help I can muster.

Mr Kendall Peet

Good luck to all the runners, a full report of the race will appear in the next edition of Newsblast Ms Tiffany Moorcroft, Team coach

Mr Brad Hamacher

On your marks, set...

Inter School Sports During the first week of October two teams from the secondary school had the opportunity to represent the British School of Bucharest on the sports pitch.

First up was the Year 8 Boys Football Team. They travelled down to ISB on a cold and wet Wednesday morning to take on their counter parts. With a lively match and a partisan crowd the boys struggled to get to grips with the start of the game and went into half time trailing 4-1. After a few tweaks and a chance to recover the boys showed a lot more composure in the second half. We finished the game losing 6-3 however, credit must go to all of the players for their never say die attitude. A special mention goes to Filippo for his fantastic performance in goals and to Alex P for his howitzer goal.

In the second match the Year 9/10 girls travelled down again to ISB to play Basketball. There was no sign of the crowd this time and the girls soon took control of the game. This was their first time playing together but you would never be able tell that from their crisp passing and intelligent use of tactics.

The girls were totally dominant and ended the game winning 24 – 4. It would be unfair to single any one player out as they all played extremely well for each other. Well done to both teams, PE Department was proud of you.

Alex P, Alex V, Cezar, Filippo, Mohammed, Basil, Antonio, Johann, Matei, Robert

Johann has it covered

Marina, Sophie, Lola, Naomi, Miriam, Eda, Anna

Lola passes the ball

PE Department

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The British School of Bucharest Magazine

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Visit the BSB website at www.britishschool.ro

PTA Update

The new school year is only 4 weeks in and we have managed to arrange and attend 10 coffee mornings!

The PTA’s new dependency on a cup of caffeine or two, first thing in the morning will take some weeks to break. It has been a pleasure having the opportunity to meet so many parents, both new and old, who we would not normally get the chance to talk to, due to the rush of drop-off, as well as parents who don’t usually bring their children to school.

The class coffee mornings were a great opportunity to hear the differing views, interests and needs of the parents. So, we hope that over the coming year we are able to meet some of the needs and provide support, opportunities to get involved with school events and social activities that give you a little bit of escape from the normal routine.

The main aim first and foremost of the PTA is to provide an informal support network for parents.

In addition, we also want to utilise the skills of the parent body towards organising events that our children will enjoy outside of the curriculum. To this end throughout the year the PTA will organise a series of events some of which will raise funds to be spent on class/year group activities. These events will include trips, dinners, lunches, cookery

Sarah Waterfield

Letter from the DSAB

At the end of last year the PTA donated 3000 RON to our friends from the Down Syndrome Association of Bucharest. Ms Em Rowlands, Ms Wendy Russell and Ms Tamara Matvisin along with some other members of the PTA visited the DSA to hand over the donation in June. The DSA managed to raise the rest of the money necessary to fund a trip to the Black Sea for two groups of young people. The trip made a dream come true and they have sent us the following letter to thank us for our contribution. Thank you to Louisa, Year 11, for translating the letter from Romanian.

and flower demonstrations and will culminate in the Summer Fair in June 2011.

The PTA also raises money for charity through two specific channels, one being Second Chance, a charity based in Berceni, where we organise a trip each month to their mosaic workshop and the second being the annual Artisan Fair this year on the 3rd of December. Local artisans are invited to attend the fair and sell their products at our Christmas Market, and the variety of products on offer is usually wide and so the fair always provides an ideal opportunity to purchase gifts for Christmas.

So, without trying to wish the year away, we hope you have an enjoyable half term, and we look forward to seeing you again on the 5th November when we will have our first whole school, all classes, everyone welcome coffee morning.

Dates to put into your calendar up to Christmas break: Social Coffee Morning: Friday 5th November Second Chance Trip: Monday 8th November Cooking Demonstration: Monday 15th November Flower Arranging: Monday 29th November ARTISAN FAIR: Friday 3rd December Sarah Waterfield, PTA President

Letter from the Down Syndrome Association of Bucharest, translated from Romanian by Louisa, Year 11 Dear Friends, Autumn has come and school has once again started but our thoughts are still on the summer that just past and in particular, the camp by the beach. We send you the greatest of regards for your help, because thanks to you we were able to have such a wonderful week. We left in two groups: The first group (14 of us) from the 12-17th July to North Eforie and the second group (10 of us) from the 16-21st August to South Eforie.

We had fun, played, bathed in the sea and went to the disco! Elena (a psychologist) also came with us and we became close friends with her, we participated at local games, danced and went swimming. The water and the weather were perfect, and we all came home longing it would have lasted longer.

DSA trip to the seaside

Again, we thank you for supporting us. Without your understanding and help, our dream of going to the sea would have remained, merely a dream.

We embrace you dearly, Your friends from ASDB

Down Synrome Association trip to the Black Sea

Stationary donations for Second Chance At the beginning of the Romanian school year, several parents decided to support Second Chance in their efforts to help the kids from the 5 villages, by donating school supplies for their benefit.

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Between the 6th and the 10th of September BSB collected stationary donations.

Thank you very much for all the generous donations.

Thanks to your donations the children of the 5

villages supported by Second Chance have been able to start the school year well equipped for their studies.

Ms Annie France Charbonneau

Visit the BSB website at www.britishschool.ro

BSB Hosts Audi A1 Launch BSB Campus was the venue for the Audi A1 Launch at BSB on Saturday September 18th. For those in attendance, the night was certainly a night to remember as Audi wined and dined us in the lead up to the grand unveiling of the Audi A1. We were treated to a three course buffet, followed up by a lavish after dinner selection of deserts and cheeses.

With the bar well stocked with champagne, beers, wine and spirits, its little surprise those present were delivered up in fine form to the start of the main event- the unveiling of the new ‘about town’, Audi 1.

Mr Kendall Peet, One of those lucky enough to attend the event

The Club with a difference. With so many health clubs in town deciding which one is right for you and your family is a challenge. Le Club will take the difficulty out of that decision. We guarantee our support for you to live the harmonious healthy life style we all crave.

Starting this Summer you have the chance to become a member of our community, and a state of the art facility awaits you. If you have decided that this is the year you unveil a new year, then come along and let us talk about how we can help you accomplish your dreams.

A new future awaits you.

Contact: 0314329002; office@le-club.ro The British School of Bucharest Magazine

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www.britishschool.ro

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

BSB: The only place to be!