Bism newsletter january 2018

ISSUE 1 SCHOOL NEWSLETTER #24

The British International School of Marbella

NEWSLETTER A Newsletter for Parents, Students and Friends of our School

January 2018

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SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Headteacher’s Message Dear Parents, Guardians & Students, A Happy New Year to you all, what an excellent start to the year we’ve had!

The start of a term often coincides with the beginning of new topics. In order to ignite excitement, and establish context, in the new units of learning, many are begun with a Wow Day. You will find details of a number of Wow days within this month’s edition from space missions and mountain building to a quintessential British tea party.

Another way that we bring the children’s learning to life is through educational visits and off site learning. The first language Spanish group in the middle school had a fascinating trip to an olive oil mill in Casabermeja. The Reception class have also been out and about on a shopping trip to Mercadona to buy fruit and vegetables. The teachers throughout the school have been busy planning exciting trips for all the children this term.

In assemblies this month we were treated to the tale of ‘The Very Quiet Cricket’ by the Reception children. This demonstrated some of the children’s learning in their topic on mini beasts and was accompanied by an original composition from our very own Ms Conlan. The newly elected prefects in Middle School also led a very thought provoking assembly this month on the topic of food waste.

They worked together as a team, this month’s charter value focus, to make the children think about this very important subject. They weighed the waste bin in the canteen every day for a week and presented the children with figures of their own actions. They then presented statistics they

had researched on world hunger and gave the children practical suggestions on how they can reduce their waste and contribute more to combat the imbalance that exists.

In this month’s feature on E-Safety we are discussing the phenomenon of click baiting. As this is such a constantly changing and important aspect of the children’s education we have now made this a regular feature in our monthly newsletters. If there other areas that you would like to see appear in the newsletter, please do let us know and we shall try and accommodate your requests.

As I said earlier, this month’s charter value focus has been ‘Teamwork and Leadership’. The month of January ended with an event which showcased both of these values in our students.

On Wednesday, 31st, the children were able to compete in another Inter-house competition. This time the children were able to take part in both football and basketball matches and represent their house in the process. They demonstrated tremendous teamwork and the House Captains were the exemplification of leaders in their roles throughout the afternoon.

Our thanks to Miss Bruce and Mr Steele for organising and running such an exciting and competitive event.

With very best wishes, Brendan Herron, Acting Headteacher

SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Pre-Nursery

What Do You See?

To continue the success of the Foundation Stage Wow day, Pre-Nursery continued to focus their learning around the senses.

Exploring the sense of sight, the children listened to the story ‘Walking through the Jungle’, joining in with the actions and repeated refrains throughout. Following the story, the children were told that they were going to go on their own walk through school to see what they could see.

But just a walk around school would have been boring...that’s why the children made their own binoculars first to focus their looking onto particular objects. The children chose their own colour and made the binoculars with excitement.

Once the binoculars had dried, the children hung them around their necks and off they went to see what they could see. The comments were fantastic! Walking along the corridor, Luca spotted an Octopus “I see a Octopus!” he exclaimed. Once we were outside, Ariana saw some “trees”, Noah pointed to the children he could see and Luca saw an aeroplane in the sky. On their return into school, Luca proudly told Miss Justine (on Reception), “I saw a plane flying in a line”.

It was wonderful to see such enthusiastic, young learners sharing their knowledge around school.

Mrs Rutherford Pre-Nursery Teacher

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SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Nursery Teamwork In the month of January, we have had a strong focus on the BISM Charter Value; Teamwork!

The children have learnt what it means to work as part of a team and have told us how they can work in a team and how they can work and play better together.

Activities and tasks were set up to give the children a chance to demonstrate the skill of working together.

We were so impressed with their cooperation and problem solving skills! Set with the task of using certain shapes to make giant pictures and figuring out how to make a working and practical ´marble run,´ the children rose to the challenge and not only succeeded but did so together and as part of a really great team! It has been lovely to support and encourage the children to do more as a class and we have noticed a difference in their play behaviour. They are seeking each other out much more and rather than playing and learning in pairs with a close friend, they have been playing as a collective!

Well done Nursery Class! Your cooperation skills are something to be very proud of!

Miss Nixon Nursery Teacher

SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Reception

Reception Assembly

Oliver’s Garden

The Very Quiet Cricket The children of the Reception class once again wowed the school and their parents with another super performance on the stage. Fresh from their Nativity performance last month, they looked totally at home in front of an audience singing their lines confidently throughout.

They were telling Eric Carle´s story of The Very Quiet Cricket through a song written by our incredibly talented music teacher Miss Conlan. In the story a quiet cricket, played with great enthusiasm by Janna, keeps approaching lots of different minibeasts, assuredly

The children of Reception loved learning about real vegetables after reading the story of a boy called Oliver, who thought he only liked chips, but found out he actually liked many vegetables!

The children enjoyed, touching them, tasting them, writing their own shopping lists, planting them and going to the class shop to buy them!

They also improved their fine motor skills, using tweezers to pick up peas and then count them.

Like Oliver they found the vegetables to be delicious and very interesting.

Mr Holden Reception Teacher

played by the other Reception children but sadly the cricket is not able to produce a sound until the end, when to great hilarity Janna picks up a recorder and produces the most beautiful sound ever heard! A chorus of recorders then played as the other children all joined in and I had the great pleasure of getting to dance with Mrs Toro as Miss Conland belted out the catchy chorus one last time, which has been going round in my head ever since.

“One warm day, from a tiny egg a little cricket was born Who would she encounter On this her very first morning?* Mr Holden Reception Teacher

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SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Year 1 Once Upon A Time

Great British Tea Party Wow Day

This month Year 1 have been looking at the features of traditional tales and fairy tales.

We looked at Little Red Riding Hood in detail, analysing the characters and looking at the settings in the story.

Following on from this, the children created their own good and bad character, their own setting and introduced a problem and solution in their tales. These fantastic stories have been made into their own ‘mini book’ and are now displayed on our Literacy board in the classroom.

Miss Lawrence

Year One Teacher

This term Year 1 started their new topic, The UK and Spain. We have started by looking at Great Britain this half term!

We have been looking at traditional British food, so what better way to celebrate the UK than by hosting our own Tea Party.

The children made decorations for the event and even put their cooking skills to the test as we decorated cupcakes and baked scones and sausage rolls. Parents were invited to the party and fun was had by all. At the end of the event, the children impressed everyone by performing a British song, both singing and playing the ukulele.

Miss Lawrence

Year One Teacher

SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Year 2

Computer Art

Space Wow Day

This month we have started our unit of work on Computer Art. Every single child has absolutely loved the experience so far! We have been using a programme called Sumo Paint to try and recreate famous art pieces from Mondrian!

The children were curious to find out what was possible to do with the programme such as making shapes, changing colours and effects. I have been very impressed with their creativity and their ability to adapt and learn a new programme.

As the children gain more experience and learn new skills we shall aim to recreate more complicated artworks such as some of Picasso’s pieces!

Look out for their work on the class blogs.

Mr Thomas

Year Two Teacher/Lower Primary Leader

The children came to school wearing fabulous costumes and the tone was set for an outstanding day ahead.

Firstly we began with a space themed Big Write, their creativity really came to fruition and everyone wrote really good pieces of work. The class were looking forward to the afternoon snack all day because we had a space feast planned and there were plenty of attractive looking cakes!

Art was interesting, as the children invented their own aliens from strange shapes that they drew and added some facial features. Look at our class display to enjoy further!

During break time we played some fun interactive games and learning about vocabulary such as orbiting. A fun day was had by all and plenty of excitement had been generated for the learning ahead this term.

Mr Thomas Year Two Teacher/Lower Primary Leader

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SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Year 3

Ready, Set,Bake!!

Year Three Wow Day

The Great British Bake off has nothing on Year Three!

Year Three looked fabulous as they came to school

To help the children write a set of instructions, they

for their Ancient Egyptian Wow Day; there were

first had to follow some. The children were given

pharaohs, kings, queens and even a few mummies

some instructions to make pitta bread (a bread similar

wrapped in bandages!

to that, that the Ancient Egyptians would have eaten.)

The day started with some decoding of Hieroglyphic The month’s charter value of leadership and

messages. The children then used what they had

teamwork definitely came into play as the children

learnt to write their name on a cartouche, as did all

began to set out their ingredients; flour, yeast, water

the rich and powerful of Ancient Egypt. After lunch

and oil. The children read and followed each step,

the class went mummification mad, trying to create

which they noticed always began with a bossy verb.

the best mummy. Luckily no organs were removed

The kneading part took a lot of effort and strength

they were simply given a toilet roll to work with! The

and again the children used teamwork to complete

results varied in success but great fun was had by all.

the tricky task.

The children also created some artwork that turned them all into Egyptian royalty with head dresses and

As the bread was finally baked the best part was to

necklaces!

come‌ the tasting! The children enjoyed this part the most and some even had a side of hummus for

The children were extremely enthusiastic about the

good measure!

topic and it was a great way to kick start their learning.

Well done Year Three for following the instructions

Miss Allen

and demonstrating great teamwork and leadership skills!!

Miss Allen

Year Three Teacher

Year Three Teacher

SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Year 4

Surprising Sounds

Mighty Mountains Wow Day Year 4 kicked off the first week of the Spring term and the beginning of our new topic with a bang!

On the first Wednesday of school, Year 4 had their Mighty Mountains WOW day. We began the day with a fun team building challenge: make the best mountain out of a small selection of materials (paper, blu tack, straws, lolly sticks, glue and 2 paper cups).

Each team only had fifteen minutes to make the best mountain that fulfilled all of the success criteria.

During the day, the children learnt facts about the seven summits and different mountain ranges around the world, using an atlas to locate these. In the afternoon, they created some beautiful mountain inspired artwork using paints or coloured pens.

Our new Science topic, ‘Sound’, started VERY loudly with a lesson experimenting with making different sounds, changing the volume of sounds and how sound is made. There were ukuleles, drums, bells, triangles, plastic pots, elastic bands, balloons filled with glitter and water and much more!

By the end of the lesson we were appreciating some peace and quiet in the room but we had also discovered that all sounds are made by something vibrating (even our voices!). We could feel and identify these vibrations in most of the objects that we were experimenting with.

Later in this Science topic we are going to be learning more about volume, pitch and how to measure these.

We will also be learning about how these sound vibrations travel to the ear, how fast sound travels and how it travels through solids, liquids or gases. I think it is going to be a very interesting topic!

Miss Marseglia Year Four Teacher

The day finished with another bang - by created their own volcanic explosions using the reaction of baking soda, vinegar and washing up liquid in plastic bottles.

Miss Marseglia Year Four Teacher

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SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Year 5

Mayan Maths During the Maya topic, year 5’s were presented with pictures of age old temples and ruins and all of it build to exact measurements. Surely that is very impressive even for modern day terms! The obvious question then was: “How was that possible without any protractors?” At first it seemed to be very easy to figure out as we all know water is always level and hanging a string down with weight could give us perpendicular lines. But on closer inspection we realised that it would be very hard to carry out those measurements practically. The Mayan civilization had a very easy solution to this problem. All they needed was one piece of string. Really?

As a class we had to plan out exactly what we needed to do to ensure we can make an accurate 90 degree angle.

We divide a length of string into seven equal segments with a knot at each end. Then the children had to make three equilateral triangles ensuring that the string is straight at all times. Great teamwork effort was required with clear instructions and excellent awareness. The children were split up into two groups to compete against the clock making an accurate 90 degree angle with just a piece of string. A challenge that was well accepted by both teams.

At first there were, what seemed to be to the untrained eye, organised chaos but that evolved into examples of great communication and teamwork. Both groups were able to construct the 90 degree angle and we were all very impressed that this technique was used a thousand years ago.

Mr Kuhn Maths Teacher

SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Year 6

Genre Dectectives

Year 7

Where In The World?

There are many skills an author-in-making requires to be successful. One such skill is knowing what makes a genre a genre. For without this knowledge, a child may lack a recognised structure which helps tie the plot together.

The Year 6 children have been fine tuning their genre identifying abilities this month through the analysis of a range of short stories covering a broad spectrum of genres.

The lesson in question challenged the children to apply their knowledge of genres’ features to help them identify different extracts from a variety of genres. Through the use of collaborative teamwork skills (cooperative learning structures), the children reasoned and listened to each other’s views before settling on a consensus for which genre the extract fitted into.

This speaking,listening and reading based learning will filter into their writing so the children are then more adept at writing either a fantasy, comedy, adventure or sci-fi.

Well done Year 6, another step step towards becoming accomplished authors.

Mr Anthony Year Six Tutor and English Teacher

This month, as Year 7 have been developing their Geography skills, they have been looking further afield at the continents and countries of the world.

The children began by plotting on an interactive map, all of the countries they have visited. What a well travelled bunch they are!

As a group, the children decided what facts and figures they wanted to find out, about countries they previously knew little about. They decided upon some of the expected categories of the countries: capital, language, currency, population et al but were then challenged to show connections between the different continents and the countries within them. The students researched the connections they had with different continents through: the people they know, the objects they own and even the language(s) they use and its provenance.

The unit culminated in the children creating short films and presentations to promote tourism in the countries they would like to visit.The better pieces included facts and figures about the country as well as showcasing the flora, fauna, landscapes, culture and places of interest.

Mr Herron Middle School Humanities Deputy Head teacher.

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SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Foundation Stage Wow Day Senses Wow Day Foundation Stage had a ‘SENSEsational’ start to the topic, ‘The Magic Garden’. The children were amazed as they attended a series of workshops made to tantalize their senses. The first was an inviting workshop by Miss Nixon all about touch. Children were asked to use their sense of touch to match objects and to guess what a hidden object in a box could be. This proved to be very tricky indeed! The children used their fingers to pat, poke, prod and tap the objects before making their guess.

The second workshop was an array of fragrant delights with Mr Holden. Children used their sense of smell to sniff and match objects to their pictures.

The children took a good whiff of each aromatic scent before making their choice as to which it matched.

Again this proved to be perplexing but a lot of fun!

The third workshop by Mrs Rutherford was an intriguing game of listening bingo in which the children had to match common sounds to their photos. The children worked hard to use their perceptive skills to work out what each sound could be. The winning team were treated to a sticker for their efforts.

The children finished their exciting morning by making a headband showing each of the five senses so that they could go home and share the fun of the day with their families.

We are sure the children will continue to show this level of enthusiasm throughout the topic this term.

Well done, Foundation Stage!

Mrs Rutherford

Pre-Nursery Teacher

SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Special Events

Inter-Sports Or Into Sports?

That´s the question to ask of the children during healthy living week! The Inter-sports House competition was a huge success and the children were so excited to compete against each other. They were amazing team players and the atmosphere was electric.

The afternoon began with Year One and Year Two competing in a football frenzy followed by a brilliant basketball competition. The competition was high with impressive goals scored by the Normans and Vikings! The children had a little help from their House Captains in the basketball competition, helping them to shoot.

Year Three and Four followed, with nail-biting moments in the football and a Saxon hat trick, thanks to Max Holden! The basketball was equally tense and the competition was still close.

Middle School stole the show with impressive performances across all the houses and a plethora of goals and baskets.

The Vikings and Normans stole the glory, with the Normans winning the football competition and the Vikings winning the basketball competition. The overall winners were the Vikings!

Miss Bruce PE Teacher

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SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Spanish

El Molino Del Hortelano An important part of the Spanish curriculum is learning about our culture. For that reason Year 4 to Year 7 students from the Spanish Native group visited a traditional olive oil mill called “El molino del Hortelano” in Casabermeja.

The aim of this trip was to learn the process to make our tasteful olive oil. When we first arrived to the place we were kindly invited to taste two types of olive oil “Hojiblanca” and “Manzanilla”, which they produce at the mill. Children didn’t hesitate for a second to dip their pieces of bread in and discuss which was their favourite one!

After that, they were split into two groups so they could learn better about the facilities and the history of the place. Whilst one group was learning about the traditional methods and tools they used to make this “golden liquid”, the other group had a tour of the machinery they use today. This gave the students a vision of how much progress there has been in producing olive oil over the years.

It was a great lesson for the children to be involved in this process as they know now the hard work that is put into it, and that olive oil doesn’t come straight from the trees!

Miss Escribano Spanish Teacher Una parte importante del programa escolar de español es aprender acerca de nuestra cultura. Por esta razón los alumnos de Year 4 a Year 7 del grupo de nativos de español visitaron un molino de aceite tradicional llamado “El molino del Hortelano” en Casabermeja.

El objetivo de esta excursión era aprender el proceso para hacer nuestro delicioso aceite de oliva.

Cuando llegamos, nos invitaron a probar dos tipo de aceite de oliva: “Hojiblanca” y “Manzanilla” ambas elaboradas en el molino. Los niños no dudaron en mojar sus trozos de pan en el aceite y comentar cual les gustaba mas.

Después dividieron a los niños en grupos para conocer el lugar y la historia del molino. Mientras un grupo aprendía sobre el método utilizado para hacer este “oro líquido” , el otro grupo hizo un tour de la maquinaria que se usa hoy en día. Así los niños se pudieron hacer una idea del progreso de la elaboración de aceite de oliva a lo largo de los años. Fue estupendo involucrar a los niños en este proceso.

Vieron el trabajo duro de la elaboración del aceite de oliva y que no viene directamente de los árboles!

Miss Escribano Profesora de español

SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Music

PSHE Teamwork ‘Unity is strength...when there is teamwork and collaboration wonderful things can be achieved.’Mattie Stepanek This month’s charter value is teamwork and leadership.

Following on from the appointment of Prefects at the end of last term, the whole school will be focusing on the charter value across the curriculum and during noncurricular activities such as clubs and at lunchtime.

We have got straight back into the swing of things after the holidays and are enjoying continuing with the fantastic learning that was happening last term.

Here in the music department we put great emphasis on the importance of our whole class instrumental tuition and amongst other instruments we have been focusing on Ukulele and Guitar.

Learning the Ukulele and Guitar is not easy and all the children have been working really hard to create new chords and strumming patterns each lesson. We really try to focus on the fine motor skills needed to play such instruments and the different techniques needed.

As our class pieces start to come together we have been able to play more complicated music.

Our singing whilst playing has also really improved!

Well done everyone!

We wish you a Happy New Year!

Miss Conlan Lower School Music Teacher Miss Stone Middle School Music Teacher

In the Foundation Stage, the children have been talking a lot about teamwork and how to show leadership.

They know that they must be kind and help each other to complete activities that they may find hard such as building a model or tidying up. Reception Class took this learning further with the challenge of building a model to transport a real life loaf of bread! Even Patrick the class penguin in Reception Class has become part of a team with the introduction of his new friend Patricia the penguin!

In Lower School, the children in Year 4 have been working as a team to design and build some fantastic mountains using limited resources and under a time limit. Some great teamwork skills were showcased by those children. Well done Year 4!

There have also been some fantastic teamwork games going on outside, as well as football and basketball in P.E, two of the most popular teamwork sports there are.

In Middle School, the Prefects have been hard at work, putting their leadership skills together to work as a team, gathering data to present an assembly highlighting the wastage of food in school and to encourage all of the children not to waste food each day. They are also on the lookout for exemplary behaviour across the school.

Mrs Rutherford PSHE Coordinator

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SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

E-Safety

ClickJacking This month the children have been looking at ‘Clickjacking’ or as it is otherwise known ‘Click Baiting’.

Through the Gooseberry Planet platform the children have been looking at how we are often tempted to click on links based on the description used.

On the site, children play along with a character called Taff. This month Taff has been sent a link through social media to click on a video link which reads “Click Here, Wow! You won’t believe what this girl did…”

This led to the exploration of what clicking on these links might lead to. We discussed the possibility of downloading viruses, visiting sites we might not usually visit, being exposed to upsetting images and content. The children were given examples and asked if they thought they were examples of Clickjacking and how to tell. They then how to decide whether to click or not to click.

More and more we are seeing examples of this use of tempting descriptions to direct web traffic. It is important that children are taught to question the validity and truth of what they come across on the Internet.

You can follow your child’s progress on this platform and access useful information and resources by registering as a parent on the Gooseberry Planet site. The platform has five different levels catering to different age groups.

Simply go to https://system.gooseberryplanet.com/parent and click on the register tab. You will then be prompted to fill out the parent registration form. Once you have entered these details you will be asked for your child’s login in ID, which you can obtain from your child’s class teacher. This will give you an overview of your child’s performance and allow you to see which aspects covered they haven’t fully understood. Also available are lots of files specifically for parents with suggestions for conversation starters with your child and profiles of specific apps such as Roblox which is very popular with our children at the moment. You will get an overview of the apps and be told what to look out for as well as practical information about how to ensure your child’s privacy when using them.

Wednesday, 7th of February is Safer Internet Day. Throughout the week we shall be running a number of sessions and special assemblies to raise the children’s awareness of how to keep themselves safe whilst online.

I hope you find this monthly feature useful. If you have any problems with logging on to the Gooseberry parent site, let me know and I will be only too happy help. If you have any comments, suggestions or questions regarding E-Safety and our school’s approach to it, please feel free to speak with me.

Mr Herron

Acting Headteacher

SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

BISM A Charitable School BSF News Last month, the BISM family helped two separate charities, both in Spain and abroad.

The British School Foundation was created in 2004.

The generosity of families at BISM was evident as I filled my car with the incredible amount of presents for children at Hogar Betania. These children had a much better Dia de los tres Reyes Magos because of us as a school. The Student Council will continue to work with this organisation throughout the year.

In that time the Foundation has grown to include more than ten schools around the world. Following recent reorganisation within the group, some of the BSF schools have now joined Nord Anglia.

Not only that, but we have been working with a charity, sending school resources overseas to Tanzania. Collective Calling is working with numerous schools, ensuring that the children get the best possible start in life. The resources sent over will help these children enormously.

Miss Lawrence Student Council Coordinator

BISM would like to take this opportunity to wish our sister schools all the best for the future with their new Nord Anglia family; we are confident they will continue to be successful.

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