BISM Newsletter March 2017

ISSUE 1 SCHOOL NEWSLETTER #16

The British International School of Marbella

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

March 2017

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SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Headteacher’s Message Dear Parents & Guardians, Spring has certainly sprung at BISM with various seasonal themes being celebrated across the school. The term began with the the Hindu festival of Holi and Ram Pam Shami. The House Captains led an assembly teaching the children of this Hindu Spring Festival, sharing a video and then running a Kahoot quiz. Four houses then became two when the Saxons and Romans, and the Vikings and Normans worked together to create collaborative art pieces.

UK Mother’s Day was also recognised across the school with the children making cards for their hard working mothers. The Foundation Stage, as always, took it to another level where they invited their mothers in for ‘Milkshakes for Mummies’.

There weren’t many dry eyes in the hall (including my own) after watching the video clips of the children saying why they loved their mums. One of the mums sent a lovely email after thanking the staff and saying that it was an extremely special occasion that she will never forget.

Not an international spring event (yet), but certainly a BISM Spring event, was the Lower School Pantomime. This year the children certainly went the extra mile and put on a fantastic show. The acting, singing, dancing and jokes were delivered with flare - the talents of these children were impressive, particularly for children so young. Well done, children, you made us very proud and a special thank you to all the staff, it was a stellar performance.

Again not a worldwide event, but certainly close, was the BSF Music festival. This year hosted in Moscow, 13 of our children travelled to Russia to sing with the BSF Choir and compete in the Battle of the Bands. The children performed

brilliantly and behaved impeccably; they truly were excellent ambassadors for our school and we are extremely proud of them all. Thank you to Miss Green and Mr. Pattison for taking such good care of them and helping organise such a great week of learning and cultural experiences.

The term ended with our annual Easter Bonnet Parade. The hats on show were super; we have some very creative children and parents at the school. Thank you to all those who took part.

With very best wishes, Ms. Kirkham Headteacher

SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Pre-Nursery

Asssembly

Tortoise Fun in PreNursery

What a surprise the children had when four real tortoises were in a tank in the classroom as they arrived to school one Friday morning. They could not believe that our class mascot ‘Hamley’ had arranged for his friends to come and stay with us for a whole week.

Pre-Nursery and Nursery wowed their audience once again in their class assembly. Showing everyone their knowledge of transport, the children performed songs, starred in iMovies and even read everyone a story! It was a delight from start to finish.

The youngest children in the school showed a great amount of confidence. It started with a first class introduction by two of the children singing the first verse of ‘The Wheels on the Bus’. The amazing performances continued as the rest of the children made their grand entrance onto the stage. After that, the Nursery children each said a line about what they have learnt about transport, they sang a song about riding a bike to the swimming pool and introduced one of our most popular stories of the topic ‘That’s not my plane!’

The Pre-Nursery children showed a huge growth in confidence, with each child attempting to say a line or word from the story. They were fantastic. The assembly finished with the children not only singing, but they each played an instrument during the instrumental part of their song ‘I drive in my car’. There was such an array of talent on show.

Who knows what delights await the lucky audience in their next assembly...perhaps a Broadway musical?!

Mrs Rutherford Pre-Nursery Teacher

This prompted a LOT of discussion in class. The quietest children turned into chatterboxes, observing and commenting on everything that the tortoises were doing. We talked all about how to take care of our guests; the children learned that tortoises like to drink water, that they have a very healthy diet of lettuce and berries (now they know what to give Hamley when he visits their homes) and that they like to have some exercise each day. The children were very excited when we got the tortoises out for a closer look. Sitting on their spots, the children watched with awe and wonder as the tortoises walked around the carpet and one even ate his lunch in front of everyone.

As the children were so excited by the tortoises, activities were planned to continue to inspire the children. They made giant tortoise sponge prints and drew pictures of the tortoises to put on the wall around the Hamley display in the classroom. We also talked all about how big tortoises can get and where else in the world they live.

We cannot wait to see if our special guests come back to visit again!

Mrs Rutherford Pre-Nursery Teacher and The Pre-Nursery Team

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SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Nursery

Outdoor Adventures Spring is finally here and Nursery Class really do have a spring in their step when exploring our new outdoor space.

The children have been showing incredible sharing and turn-taking skills when playing with the new small world tyres. Each tyre has a different theme. We have a ´Fairy Garden,´ ´Dinosaur Land´ and ´Excavation Site.´ It has been wonderful to see the children taking hold of their knowledge of the English language and create funny and imaginative stories whilst sitting sensibly around the tyres of wonder. It really does add so much value to their outdoor experience.

Alongside the tyres, we have a new sand pit. Once again, when children have been engaged in play with their peers in the sand pit, they have been using amazing communication skills and some have been practicing forming letters and numbers in the sand too.

The children have enjoyed looking after our new flower garden, taking real responsibility when it comes to planting and watering. Watching the growth of their flowers and plants is contributing to their understanding of the world; learning about growth and decay and of course what plants need to live.

Finally we have our ´Mud Kitchen!´ You would be amazed by the delicious treats Ms Robles and I have sampled! The children’s imagination and teamwork cease to amaze me when learning alongside each other in the ´Mud Kitchen.´ This new area has contributed to brilliant language opportunities and of course is helping to develop the children’s social and emotional development when working together in the kitchen. Lots of negotiating, problem solving, sharing and teamwork.

I can’t wait to sample April’s treats!

Best wishes, Miss Nixon

SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Reception

A Journey

Pancake Fun The children of Reception enjoyed learning about the traditions of Pancake Day in Britain.

They made pancakes and then gobbled them up with their friends from across the Foundation Stage. They also enjoyed improving their fine motor skills shaping the different ingredients with playdough and role playing washing up in the kitchen.

In the playground they experienced pancake racing and flipping, with many children able to toss the pancake and catch it again. The children of Reception wrote about what they would choose as their next pancake topping and learnt about acrostic poems with some children writing their own.

Mr Holden Reception Teacher

In March the children of the Reception class performed a wonderful assembly all about their topic of ‘Transport.’

They told the audience how they had been learning about a variety of modes of transport, such as land, sea, air, rail and space! They sang enthusiastically to ‘The Big Ship Sails on the ally-ally-oh’, ‘Row, Row, Row Your Boat’ and most memorably of all (to the children at least, as many wrote about it later being their favourite part) ‘Horsey Horsey Don’t You Stop.’

There was an important message too about road safety, for both the children and adults in the audience.

The assembly climaxed with the children blasting off into space on an intergalactic journey!

Mr Holden Reception Teacher

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SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Year 1

Terrific Time This month in Numeracy, we investigated time.

We found out about different units of time and completed some different challenges to investigate what they mean. We measured how long it took us to complete different activities using stopwatches, and used a minute timer to find out what we could achieve in just a minute. We also used analogue and digital clocks to tell the time to o’clock and half past. Terrific time telling, Year 1!

Miss Armstrong Year 1 Class Teacher

SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Year 2 Simon Says…

During March, the Year 2 class have been writing and following instructions in Literacy lessons. They enjoyed following commands firstly to an unfamiliar sports game, listening carefully and following commands bit by bit until they could play the full game. As you could imagine, they had a great time.

The class loved having ‘Simon’ in the class listening carefully to his instructions and they even had the chance to give commands themselves.

After following instructions they started to write their own commands about how to make their friends laugh. It was so much fun! They learnt about bossy verbs, time connectives and different kinds of punctuation. They came up with some original and hilarious bossy verbs of their own and everyone had a giggle.

I wonder if you noticed at home if the children have been following commands well? I hope so!

Llion Thomas Lower Primary Leader/Year 2 Teacher

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SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Year 3 Persuading Pharaoh Kirkpatum

Egyptian Gods have Talent!

Year 3 went back in time. Way, way back to Ancient Egypt.

The children found out what the Ancient Egyptians used the river Nile for, through reading information texts. They discovered just how many uses they had for it, such as growing crops, using papyrus to make paper, using the river for transport and using flaxseed grown by the river to make clothes.

The children were then shocked and horrified when they received a message from Pharaoh Kirkpatum, discussing his plans to block up the river and build pyramids on top.

Outraged by the Pharaoh’s foolish plans they decided to write a letter to him, persuading him to change his mind.

The letters were full of amazing techniques to try and persuade him. The children used: rhetorical questions to make the pharaoh think; powerful sentence openers to grab his attention; and three very powerful reasons why the Nile was so essential to life.

The letters clearly did the trick as the very next day the class received another video message from the Pharaoh explaining that he had changed his mind.

Well done for your amazing, powerful and persuasive writing!

Rebecca Allen Year 3 Teacher

Year 3 have been tirelessly researching some of the many ancient Egyptian Gods and Goddesses. The children discovered that each God or Goddess represents something to do with the natural world, for example, Ra was the God of the Sun. The children also learned that many of the Gods and Goddesses had the head of an animal, which they all found fairly amusing.

Once armed with their research, the children had to present the information in a creative way, persuading the glamorous judges (Miss Allen and Miss Griffiths) that their God or Goddess was the best. There were dramatic sketches, songs, dances and even a rap!

The judges were wowed and consequently, all contestants went through to the next round.

Miss Allen Year 3 Teacher

SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Year 4

Mountains

Hindu Highlights

The children loved performing in what has been described as a ‘mountain themed variety show,’ in their class assembly this month. The children were a driving force in the writing and production of the show, with the script finding its roots from the children’s ideas and the children directing several parts of the show themselves.

Four children were given the parts of their teachers and the task of guiding the parents’ through a lesson all about mountains. The assembly started with an interactive quiz, the ‘teachers’ assessment for learning, which highlighted some weak areas in the parents’ knowledge! The children then did an excellent job of teaching the key information about mountain climates, the seven summits and the dangers associated with mountain climbing.

The show then ended with a rap all about mountains mashed up with the classic ‘Ain’t no mountain high enough,’ with the children playing the piano and percussion.

A great show that was enjoyed by all!

Miss Varty Year 4 Teacher

Year 4 really enjoyed their Cultural Studies block this month, where they learnt all about Hinduism. The topic was kicked started by a celebration of ‘Holi,’ the Hindu Festival of Colours.

The children enjoyed learning about the messages behind the festival, of acceptance and equality. They then created beautiful cherry blossom scenes using tissue paper, to mark the beginning of the festival in Indian Spring time.

The week progressed with learning about Polytheism and the several different Hindu Gods. The children found the story of Rama and Sita exciting and enjoyed acting out scenes, as well as recreating a story map to retell the tale.

When learning about Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, the children loved designing their own Rangoli patterns. These simulated those which are created in coloured flour at the entrance of people’s houses to signify the welcome of Rama and Sita back to the safety of the village after several years in exile.

The unit culminated with a big writing session, where the children wowed their teachers with their knowledge all about several aspects of the religion. It is great to see the children’s minds so open to different cultures and ways of life.

Miss Varty Year 4 Teacher

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SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Year 5 BSF Art Competition Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot BSF (British Schools Foundation) has set up an art competition for all the schools within the group.

in Science

In our class, we began our project. Firstly, we tried to draw a self portrait. We found this tricky and had some funny faces as a result!

So, in the next lesson, Miss Williams arranged us into partners and gave us a ruler. Mrs Williams and Ms Flanagan told us all about the proportions of the face and introduced us to the idea of Phi/Golden Ratio. After that we looked at examples of how to break up the face and draw the features in proportion. Then we had some fun measuring each other’s heads and checking the real life proportions, before we set off on our second attempt. Let’s hope we can ‘face’ the challenge head on.

Ella Mansour Year 5 Student Art joke…

Why was the artist afraid he might go to jail?

– Because he’d been framed!

In Science we have been investigating the properties of materials. Most recently, we looked at insulation.

We did a class experiment as a whole group and each student tested for the insulation properties of a different material.

The first thing we did was discuss insulation. Insulation means that you can keep things hot or cold. Then we carried out our experiment. Firstly, Mrs Williams gave all of us a plastic cup. We then added the insulators, these included tin foil, cotton wool, cling film, a woolly sock and paper. After that, Miss Flanagan came and put hot chocolate powder in the plastic cup. Then Miss Williams came and gave us some hot water. We stirred it together and it made delicious hot chocolate! We put a glass thermometer inside the cup and checked the starting temperature and recorded the results. We waited one minute and recorded the drop in temperature and what impact the insulators had on the temperature.

Then we waited another minute, then another, aach time recording our results. The best insulator was the wooly sock because the starting temperature was very hot and so was its final temperature. The least effective was the cotton wool. At the end of the experiment we were allowed to drink the yummy hot chocolate!!

Ella Mansour & Eva Kelly Year 5 Students

SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Year 5/6

Making Periscopes

Light is our new scientific topic and the children in Year 5/6 have been investigating the scientific rules which govern it.

We began by looking at the biology of the eye and how it works in tandem with a light source to enable us to see. The children noted how light only travels in straight lines and then used this knowledge to make the next step in understanding how light can be manipulated to help us see around corners.

Understanding the laws of reflection, including the angle of incidence and the angle of reflection, helped the children to build their own periscopes.

Initial thoughts and ideas were recorded through diagrams of how they thought the mirrors and light would behave inside the periscope.

After they were built, it allowed the children to ‘reflect’ on their working devices and then amend their diagrams with improved knowledge and understanding. The children were thrilled to actually make working periscopes. Well done class!

Mr Anthony Year 5&6 Class Teacher Ms Worsfold Year 5&6 Teaching Assistant

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SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Spanish A Special Visitor The children in Nursery and Reception had a great time on Thursday 23rd March. A professional storyteller came to tell a popular Spanish tale about ‘Sebastiana la rana’ (Sebastiana the frog) using Kamishibai, a Japanese storytelling technique.

The children listened as the storyteller narrated the story, changing the pictures within a display box. This not only activated the children’s listening skills, but really allowed them to use their imaginations.

The children thoroughly enjoyed themselves and displayed fantastic active listening. They learned how Sebastiana lost her ‘croak’ because she was sad and how she became happy again. The children were eager to sing along to the songs in the story, and afterwards they participated in activities and a dance with the storyteller. Everyone was interacting well and were very welcoming towards our guest. Well done, Nursery and Reception!

Miss May

SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Special Event - Easter Bonnet Parade The term ended with two Easter Bonnet Parades this year; first the Foundation Stage displayed their talents and creations, before the Primary showed theirs later on in the morning. The hats were fantastic, well done to everyone who took part.

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SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Foundation Stage Ships Ahoy!

This Month, Pre-Nursery, Nursery and Reception Class gained their sea legs. They took part in a fantastic trip from Marbella Port to Puerto Banus.

This term the children have been learning all about transport, and a great way to learn is through real life experiences.

The journey begun from school to port on a big private bus and a few bus related songs were sung along the way.

Children then practiced all they had learnt about road safety by carefully holding their adult’s hand when exiting the bus and walking to the ferry terminal.

There she stood, our ride for the day, ´Fly Blue!´ The children buzzed with excitement about taking a boat trip with their best friends and family; what an amazing start to their week at school. When everyone had boarded the boat, we were off sailing across the mighty ocean, the wind blowing through our hair and seeing impressive sights along the way. All the time the children took in the sights, sounds and smells and happily discussed them with their adult. Like all good things in life, the boat trip ended too quickly. Before we knew it, we had reached Puerto Banus and we were boarding the magic bus back to school for a filling lunch.

The boat experience gave the children so many new learning opportunities and the teachers were able to use this experience to promote speaking and listening, art and writing activities back in the classroom.

A huge thank you to all of those involved with the wonderful trip. We really appreciate your help.

Miss Nixon Nursery Teacher

SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Special Event Holi and Ram Pam Shami On Monday 13th March the children came together for a special assembly about Holi and Ram Pam Shami, the Hindu festivals of colour. Lead by the House Captains, the children worked in mixed houses to take part in a quiz before collaborating on a piece of artwork together.

Well done house captains for organising, preparing and leading a successful assembly. The children continued the celebrations at lunch time where they enjoyed a Hindu meal of curry, mushroom rice and roti bread.

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SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Special Events Joketastic Joke Books This month, children from all over the school were asked to find their funny side and write jokes. The funniest jokes were then made into a very special BISM Joke Book. They were a great success, completely selling out and helping to raise 824.50 Euros for Comic Relief.

Miss Armstrong Literacy Leader

Milkshakes For Mummies There wasn’t a dry eye in the school hall for our annual ‘Milkshake For Mummies.’ It was a beautiful event, where the children expressed their gratitude for all the amazing things mummies do.

The children spent lots of time in the lead up to this event, learning songs, actions and making hand crafted gifts and cards. The children serenaded their mummies with The Spice Girls’ classic, ‘Mama’ and a cute song titled, ´Happy Mother’s Day.’ The children in Reception Class showed off their poetic flair and read some beautiful poems they had learnt especially for the occasion. Once the tissues had been passed round after a video montage of secret messages from the children to their mothers, everyone proceeded to the canteen to drink milkshakes served up by the children on a carefully crafted placemat!

It was beautiful to see all the children having quality time with their mummies during this special event! In true BISM style, the children then surprised them with a ‘Flash Mob’ dance in aid of Comic Relief! It was brilliant to see lots of the mums joining in with the dancing.

A huge thank you to all the marvelous mummies who were able to attend this event. The children worked hard to make it as special as they could for you. We really appreciate your continued support.

Miss Nixon Nursery Teacher

SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Special Event

Oh Yes We did

Do you believe in magic? I certainly do after seeing the Lower Primary Pantomime! Wonderland came to Year 1, 2 and 3 this month and the children were suddenly transformed into dancing rabbits, magical trees and a whole range of talking animals. We were amazed to also be visited by the Spice Girls, Alice Cooper and Rick Astley! (Oh yes we were!) The children really did put in a magical performance, telling a slightly alternative version of Alice in Wonderland. All of the staff in the Lower Primary are so proud of everyone and the various skills they were able to showcase; from dancing and singing, to gymnastics and acting, we had it all.

Tickets from the pantomime helped to raise 824.50 Euros for Comic Relief. Well done to everyone involved in the show and a huge thank you to all of the staff and parents who helped to make it such a success.

Miss Armstrong Year 1 Class Teacher

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SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Special Event

Red Nose Day Bake Sales

Red Nose Day for Comic Relief was a real success. With the red noses, cakes and the red nose stickers, the school earned lots of money.

Years 4, 5 and 5/6 ran the cake stalls, one on Thursday and one on Friday. Many of the cakes were homemade! If you asked Felix what people told him about his cake, he would say, very good stuff.

By Emma Gabarron Year Five Student For Red Nose Day we had to bring in money to buy a red nose. All of the noses sold out very quickly!

We listened to Comic Relief’s charity Red Nose Day songs as we worked throughout the day.

Lots of people brought homemade cakes to sell at the bake sales. Firstly, we sold the cakes to the parents after the pantomime.

They bought a lot of different cakes! Later the remaining cakes were sold to the children. Almost every slice or cake sold out and lots of money was raised for charity - over 800 euros in total! Well done everyone!

Mustie and Nastia Year 5 Students

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SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Talking Point: Embracing Cultural Diversity 3 Ways to Help Your Child Embrace Diversity

As an international school, one of your major goals is to help students become respectful of all the cultures and people that they’ll interact with once they leave class. I admit this can be daunting, given that the world at large is infinitely more complex and diverse than the microcosmic environment that the students inhabit.

In typical educational and social settings, students tend to show classic in-group/out-group behaviours.

In general, most students are comfortable interacting with people, behaviours and ideas that they are familiar with, and react with fear and apprehension when faced with the unfamiliar. Culturally responsive instruction that is supported at home can help show our students that differences in viewpoint and culture are meant to be cherished and appreciated, not judged and feared.

How can we overcome human natures fear of the unknown and help students become more respectful of cultures with different ideas? Fortunately, we have a few tips to make this a lot easier for you.

1. Provide students with evidence that people who don’t look or act like them are still people just like them.

We teach this viewpoint by building a culture of learning from one another rather than a culture of passing judgment on differences in values and beliefs. We use a wide range classroom activities that help students recognise the essential humanity and value of different types of people. For instance, providing students with opportunities to share stories of their home life, such as family holiday practices, provides fellow students with a window into their peer’s cultural traditions.

At home, you could show your child everyday photographs of people of different ethnicities, shapes, sizes, and clothing. This gives students the opportunity to see people that look very different from themselves and their family engaging in the same types of activities that they and their family participate in. This can help humanise types of people that your children have never had an opportunity to meet.

2. Talk to your child about multicultural role models.

This demonstrates that people of all genders, ethnicities, and appearances can have a positive influence on the world and deserve to be respected and emulated.

3. Teach students to embrace their own culture and heritage.

Another important goal of culturally responsive education is to teach students to respect and appreciate their own culture and heritage. Even though the children attend a British school we do not want the children to dispose of their cultural norms.

SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Special Event

Moscow Music Trip

On Saturday 25th March, 13 excitable children met at Malaga airport ready to board the plane to Moscow in Russia with Miss Green, Mr Pattison and Mr Holden. Children have been preparing since January and were ready for the BSF Music Festival.

Monday 27th March On the first day of the festival, we split into rehearsals for the Battle of the Bands and the Choirs. We then split into workshop groups where we learnt about the Russian culture including russian tea and lollipops, folk musical instruments and dance. After a busy day, children went back to their homestays and accommodation all tired out.

Tuesday 28th March The snow was falling hard in Russia and it was the day we went on our excursion. We had a sightseeing tour around Moscow where we saw famous sights such as Victory Park, Red Square and the University from the warmth of our tour bus. In the evening, Teachers and Secondary children had the privilege of seeing the Kremlin ballet’s version of `Swan Lake´.

Wednesday 29th March This was another busy day where children were rehearsing for the concert. In the afternoon, the Primary children went to see the Russian play called `The Flying Ship´. The whole play was spoken in Russian which was very impressive to hear and the music and dance was very entertaining.

Thursday 30th March On Thursday, we spent the day rehearsing at the theatre ready for the performance day. It was a great opportunity for the students to experience rehearsing on stage, with choirs and orchestras practising together for the first time, and understanding what is involved in a tech rehearsal. All the bands rehearsed on a rotation system, ensuring they got to practice their songs for a final time before the competition on Friday.

Friday 31st March - performance day!

Children arrived, bright eyed ready to perform in the theatre. The morning’s concert consisted of Junior Choir songs (one of them sung fully in Russian), Senior Choir songs and Orchestral numbers including the finale `Make a New Tomorrow´ which was spectacular to listen to.

After lunch, it was the Battle of the Bands competition between all the different schools. Marbella was the third band to take place and did a confident and strong performance of Muse’s Feeling Good and Stevie Wonder´s Superstition.

Although we didn´t come in the top three, we were so proud of the achievement, confidence and maturity of the youngest band in the competition.

Well done to all students who came to Moscow - you were a credit to the school and it was great to see so much talent in the week.

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