BISM Newsletter - March 2018

ISSUE 1 SCHOOL NEWSLETTER #26

The British International School of Marbella

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

March 2018

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SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Headteacher’s Message Dear Parents, Guardians and Students, Despite the weather, healthy signs of spring have sprung this month at BISM with various seasonal themes being celebrated across the school. This month the children celebrated the Hindu festival of Holi. Various assemblies throughout the week explained the background of the festival. In classes the children designed mehndi patterns for hands which were put together to make a whole school piece of art, currently on display in the hall. They also worked together as classes to create rangoli patterns with coloured sand and candles which made for a beautiful installation.

The role that mothers play in a child’s upbringing cannot be overstated and so, UK Mother’s Day was marked across the school with the children creating tokens to represent their gratitude. The Foundation Stage, in what is now an eagerly anticipated annual event, invited their mothers to ‘Milkshakes for Mummies’ once more. Poetry, singing and plenty of dancing all featured in an emotional morning.

The Lower School production served as another opportunity to showcase our children’s performing abilities. This year’s production ‘A Glint of Gold’, made good links with our History curriculum. The children came together, over two performances, to give us a fun and fact filled overview of the ancient Egyptian customs and accomplishments.

During assessment week, just before the holidays, the children concerned themselves

further with their own education. Their presentations, to their own parents, in the pupilled consultations showed their awareness of where they are currently, what they need to work on in the summer term and allowed them to share work, and achievements, they are proud of.

We finished the month with our Easter bonnet parade, which this year was accompanied by a maths themed Easter egg hunt. The children showcased some original creations and put their maths skills to good use to find themselves a few treats.

With very best wishes, Brendan Herron Acting Headteacher

SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Pre-Nursery No Cramping Pre-Nursery’s Stamping!

Easter got well underway in the Pre-Nursery class with a fun filled stamping session.

The children had to use their fantastic fine motor skills to be able to stamp using some Easter themed stamps. For some children, the trickiest part was removing the lids!

Once they had mastered that, they had to make sure that they pushed down hard to leave a ‘good’ stamp.

Some of the children, chose to use the traditional rubber stamps that they had to press on the ink first. They made especially good stamps!

It proved to be so popular that the children returned to it time after time, there was no cramping their stamping!

Mrs Rutherford Pre-Nursery Teacher

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SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Nursery Brilliant Bunnies

The children in Nursery used lots of key skills when making Easter cards this term! They very carefully cut out a grassy background for their bunny and added a beautiful sun in the sky. It was amazing to see how much the children’s cutting skills have developed; the children showed lots of control and accuracy when showing off their scissor skills.

The children then got crafty and arranged the front of their card with lots of flair and imagination.

They absolutely loved their bunny pictures and got lots of enjoyment from talking about them with their friends.

Finally the children wrote their Easter cards to their family, this is another skill we have been very impressed with! The children have been working so hard to carefully form their name and the results are amazing.

The children had a wonderful week learning about Easter and taking part in lots of Easter activities! They especially enjoyed the Easter Egg Hunt, Bonnet Parade and Egg and Spoon Race!

Happy Easter Everyone!

Miss Nixon Nursery Teacher

SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Reception Stop, Look, Listen and Think!

As the term drew to a close in March the Reception children enjoyed learning about ‘Road Safety’ and its importance.

The children engaged in a variety of tasks designed to challenge their understanding of the importance of road safety. They sorted images into good and bad examples of attempts to cross the road. They practised crossing a road in the playground, with help from Hugo the lollipop man.

The children also learnt about the need to “Be Bright” and ”Be Seen” when on foot or on bicycles, and created a mosaic of a character, named Jimmy who was ready for the recent uncharacteristic gloomy weather. Jimmy was wearing bright clothes so that he could be seen easily by all and was also wrapped up to stay warm and dry.

The children also wrote super letters to another teacher who had asked for help in finding out more about Road Safety before they took their final challenge of the week; which was crossing roads outside the school safely. They all passed with flying colours!

Mr Holden Reception Teacher

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SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Year 1 All About Elephants This month in literacy, Year 1 have been looking at a non-fiction unit, researching features and facts in our wordsmith book, ‘All About Elephants’.

This book showcases many of the main elements of a non-fiction text, including a contents page, headings, subheadings, captions and labelled diagrams/photographs.

Although the title suggests otherwise, Year One have been researching many different animals in the books and writing their own texts, using headings and subheadings.

An example of this would be a text the children wrote about echolocation. Not only this, but we learnt a little rap to help us remember what echolocation is. You can see this if you scan the QR code on this page.

Miss Lawrence Year One Teacher

SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Year 2

Poetry in Year Two During the month of March the children in Year Two have been learning all about Spring and Easter during literacy lessons. We went on a senses walk to observe the changes that Spring brings.

They took photos using ipads of their favourite plants and other interesting things that caught their eye of changes of Spring. From these photos they described them using powerful adjectives and amazing comparisons.

The work that each child produced was truly great. From all of this hard work they produced inspirational Spring poems that will be put on display in the class.

As parents you should be extremely proud of your wonderful children as they always strive for their best and are showing an increasing amount of independence in their learning.

Mr Thomas

Year Two Teacher/ Lower School Leader

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SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Year 3

Exquisite Egyptian Hats

Race Against the Clock

Year Three have been extremely busy this term exploring the fascinating period of the Ancient Egyptians. They learnt all about the discovery of the young Pharaoh Tutankhamun and what Howard Carter found in his tomb.

During Art lessons Year Three tried to recreate the death mask made for Tutankhamun.

Learning to tell the time is never an easy thing to do, but Year Three gave it all they had!! The class had been practising reading analogue clocks to the nearest five minutes. They also learnt when they should use the terms quarter past, half past and quarter to.

First, the children attached a head dress to a plain mask. Next came the fun and extremely messy part… paper mache! A delightful mix of water and PVA glue is applied to strips of newspaper and placed over the mask. Once dry this becomes extremely hard. The next step, and slightly less messy, was to paint the mask using blue and one of the Egyptians favourite colours, gold!

Armed with this new knowledge the class went head to head in a time challenge against the clock. The children had a board full of analogue clocks. They had to read these times and then find the matching time in words from a multitude of options spread across the carpet in the classroom.

The finished products were fantastic and definitely worthy of use by the great Tutankhamun. Well done Year Three!

Miss Allen Year Three Teacher

It was great fun and the class became dab “hands” at telling the time.

Miss Allen Year Three Teacher

SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Year 4 Let’s Dance

Mighty Mountain

As well as working very hard in Maths and Literacy classes, Year 4 children put all their efforts into every curriculum subject lesson in school, including Music, Sports and Dance. It is always a pleasure to see them excelling in other subjects outside of the classroom, and they certainly do! We have a lot of talented athletes, musicians and dancers in Year 4.

This term, the children have been learning to perform synchronised dance routines, keeping to the rhythm of the music and have even made up some group routines of their own. This week, on Monday, they got to opportunity to perform these routines to the Year 3 class and watched the Year 3 class perform to them. They did a fantastic job of peer assessing each other’s routines fairly and learning from each other.

Thank you to Miss Condliffe for always inspiring the Year 4 class in their Drama and Dance lessons throughout the year!

Miss Marseglia Year Four Teacher

On the last Thursday of term, Year 4 went on a school trip to La Concha to celebrate the end of our topic: Mighty Mountains!

After leaving school at 10am, we travelled by bus to Refugio to Juanar, where we took a leisurely walk to a viewpoint over Marbella. Along the way, the children noticed features of mountains, the landscape and nature that they had learnt about during the course of this topic. At the viewpoint they drew pictures of their favourite mountain view.

After a windy walk back and a fun packed lunch, we headed back to school for a busy afternoon of lessons and Pupil Lead Consultations! Thank you to Miss Flanagan and Max’s dad for helping us on our trip.

Miss Marseglia Year Four Teacher

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SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Year 5

BSF Art Competition 2018 During the Spring term BISM had the opportunity to be involved in a number of different art activities, in particular the British School Foundation art competition 2018.

The competition spanned across the school, requiring entries from KS1 and KS2. The desired theme for the competition was Abstract insects and animals, giving the students freedom to explore the theme and experiment with colour and shape.

Year 5 worked incredibly hard to produce work for the competition. They learned about the various styles and techniques used in Abstraction, the artists involved and the importance of the art movement itself. They focused predominantly on Fauvism, a branch of abstraction that uses realistic images such as portraits and landscapes with an incorporation of unrealistic and somewhat random colour schemes.

The students of Year 5 were able to create some very elaborate and interesting abstract art, ranging from multi coloured giraffes to sombrero wearing squirrels! Two pieces were chosen as entries: Daria Izatova and Peter Pomfrett completed two excellent works of art, and truly incorporated the importance and significance of abstraction.

So far this year, Year 5 have expanded their artistic knowledge and gained vital skills and techniques which aid them in their journey to form their own artistic style. They all should be incredibly proud!

Miss Flanagan Middle School Art

SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Year 6

Human Rights in Cambodia Year 6 Algebra Year 6 spent two weeks in March looking at the structure and purpose of monologues in conjunction with an ongoing fight for Human rights in Cambodia.

The children were introduced to the topic of illegal land grabbing by property developers in Phnom Penh which has displaced thousands of people. The children learnt that these people are often left without any compensation or help to be housed elsewhere and receive brutal treatment if they protest or oppose their evictions.

Using research to obtain factual information including statistics, the children formed arguments using persuasive techniques (alliteration, triples, rhetorical questions etc.) to say why this practice should be stopped.

Once the children had an understanding of the background to the current situation in Cambodia, they then used their acquired knowledge to write monologues based on the perspective of those who are directly affected by the land grabbing - the evicted people of Phnom Penh and those who are involved in carrying out the evictions.

We rehearsed these monologues with an emphasis on tone and pause to engage with the audience. The children performed with true maturity and conviction as they shared their widening understanding of the world we live in, and the problems that people face who are not on the front pages of our newspapers or TV screens.

The children were warmly applauded for their efforts and were clearly touched by the events of the topic. I’m sure it will stay with them for years to come.

Mr Anthony Year Six Tutor

When you hear the word ‘Algebra’ does it send shockwaves through your body? Does it remind you of the stress and panic and sweaty palms just before a maths exam? Not for the year 6s!

First we looked at the true meaning of Algebra and came to the realisation that it is something we have been doing for years and years.

The blank box in an equation (that we are used to since way back in year 1) has disappeared and being replaced with a letter of the alphabet. So not much different, really. After this eureka moment, the rest of the unit on Algebra was as easy as a+b+c. We looked at what a balanced equation is and how each side of the equal sign has the exact same value. We then delved straight into patterns and sequences and calculated what the nth term would be. As a class we came up with a formula that helped us to recognise and extend any numerical or pictorial pattern.

So if your child spots a pattern on a random trip to the town centre and they come up with: “Multiply the first Term with the Term To Term Rule and then Add or Subtract to get the Value” you know they are just applying their knowledge to a real life situation to find the nth term rule. Easy!

Mr Kuhn Middle School Maths Teacher

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SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Year 7

Music

Year 7 are coming to the end of their study of Romeo

In music we really value a broad curriculum of depth and variety. It is important to not only give the children the opportunity to sing and perform on a selection of instruments but also to gain a deeper understanding of music theory and how music works the way it does.

Romeo and Juliet and Juliet and have been focusing on the themes of masculinity and honour in various acts and scenes After analysing Act 3 scene 1, in which a blood is shed between the warring families in a street brawl, the children assumed the roles of arrested delinquents and police officers. Through verbal interrogation and physical intimidation, the children in the role of police officers asked questions to expose the aggression in the characters under arrest and highlight the underlying theme of masculinity.

Using dramatic techniques like this has helped the children to develop various other literary skills such as answering in greater depth when it comes to using PEE (Point Evidence & Explain). The children in the role of the detainees fought fire with fire and showed their aggressive nature and loyalty to their respective houses.

Well done Year 7! You showed that you can explore these themes and deepen your understanding of shakespeare’s intent.

Mr Anthony

Middle School English Teacher

The Beat Marches On!

We feel that throughout the school from the youngest children right up to our oldest children it is vital to learn these skills and we have been focusing on rhythm in our music classes.

The children have been learning all about beat, pulse and rhythm. How to clap to a pulse, and how to clap and perform different rhythms while keeping to that given pulse.

The children have also been writing their own rhythmic pieces and have been exploring all the different note values and rests they find in their favorite songs.

Giving the children this knowledge and theoretical understanding they will become more confident and capable musicians.

Miss Conlan Lower School Music Teacher Miss Stone

Middle School Music Teacher

SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Spanish

PSHE

On Thursday 21 st March Reception and Year 1 went to the Farm in Coin (Granja Escuela Hacienda Albuqueria). The aim of the trip was to complete the topic La Granja (The Farm) which we were working on in Spanish class.

Holi is a Hindu festival that celebrates the beginning of spring and the value of good. It is a colourful spectacle that is usually celebrated with the throwing of powder paint at each other in the street.

Trip to La Granja

We arrived there at 10 am. The first thing we did was have breakfast, juice and healthy biscuits.

Once recharged with energy we were ready for the busy day ahead. Our friendly farm monitors took us to a special garden where we made little herbal perfume bags. We learnt all about the different plants and how good they can be for us.

The next activity was observing the peacocks with their splendid colourful tails, the peculiar turkey, hens and other interesting birds.

After bird watching our next activity was riding Platero, the friendly donkey. The children thoroughly enjoyed their ride! The farm lunch was a great success. Empty plates, full tummies and happy children were the proof! We also saw sheep and pigs, fed the donkeys, played with the rabbits...It was such a busy and brilliant day. But there was still more to come! We made little sheep with real wool from the farm sheep. After such an exhilarating day we relaxed in the orchard. There we found orange and lemon trees with which we made natural lemonade with the freshly picked lemons.

By 3pm the children were happily exhausted‌ definitely a day to remember.

Miss Moriarty Spanish teacher

Holi

Here at BISM a powder paint celebration was not possible, yet there was indeed a colourful spectacle in school. Throughout the week, the children learnt about the customs and traditions of this Hindu festival. They also created intricate Mehndi hand designs that were put together to create a whole school circle of hands in the hall. Each class came up with their own Rangoli pattern which they carefully made using coloured sand in class teams. In Lower School art club, Miss Portelli and Miss Frost encouraged the children to explore colours using powder paint.

Once again, the catering team came up with a delightful meal to honour the celebration, a delicious chicken korma with handmade onion bhajis. It was delicious!

When all classes had made their art, they took turns to go and observe the colourful array complete with lit candles and traditional Indian music, it was very relaxing!

To complete the week, the children in Years 1 and 3 were given the opportunity to attend a yoga session kindly taught by Luz (a parent in school), they stretched and moved in a variety of poses surrounded by the Rangoli patterns.

Let’s hope the colours of Holi can help spread the message of peace and happiness!

Best wishes, Mrs Rutherford PSHE Coordinator

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SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Special Event

Milkshake for Mummies

There were few dry eyes in the school hall when the children of the Foundation Stage serenaded their mothers and grandmothers at the start of March, to coincide with British Mothering Sunday.

The children, with the wonderfully creative Miss Conlan, even made up their own song in honour of their Mums. A poem was read by Reception children and a surprise video montage showing the children saying why their Mummy was awesome or why they loved their Mummy was played.

The children and their Mum´s then enjoyed a milkshake and cake they had decorated in the dining hall, whilst also giving their Mum´s the gifts they had worked so hard in school that week.

There was an encore of the song they had created…”I love my Mummy because” and a dance at the end to bring the celebration to a conclusion.

The Mummies are fabulous and so are the children of the Foundation Stage at BISM! Mr Holden Foundation Stage Leader

SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Special Events

Lower School Production of ‘A Glint of Gold’

Over the past few days, children at BISM’s Lower School impressed the audience with their mesmerizing production, ‘A Glint of Gold’. When you’re watching it, you travel back in time to 1922 when Howard Carter, Lord Carnarvon and Lady Evelyn discover the tomb of Tutankhamun!

You learn the story with comedy and amazing facts.

The children worked very hard for three weeks by practising their lines, preparing costumes and learning lots of songs. “They’ve worked very hard on their production,” said Miss Marseglia, a teacher in Lower School. The audience laughed to tears at the jokes and at the mummification scene.

This was truly an amazing show and I think it’s impossible to make it any better. The last show was on Friday 16th March at BISM. I hope you enjoyed it!

Sacha Ortiz Year Four Student

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SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

E-Safety

Photo Sharing

We are all budding photographers these days, with the majority of us having access to a decent camera in our pockets or bags almost all of the time. Taking pictures is a fantastic way to capture memories and document your child’s growth and achievements. As always, our children mimic our behaviour and many of them want to share pictures of themselves without a thought.

Part of the content we cover in school, in trying to educate children about keeping themselves safe online, goes over the dangers of posting photos or videos of themselves and the resulting digital footprint they add to by doing so. Below is some information on the topic from GooseberryPlanet, one of the resources we use to teach the children about how to conduct themselves online:

As always, if you have any concerns, queries or suggestions on this topic, please do come and share them.

Best regards, Mr Herron Acting Headteacher

SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Picture News This month I wanted to share with you a resource used in school during the children’s Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) lessons.

Picture News produce a weekly pack based on topical current events and offer suggestions for how these might be tackled in class and in assemblies. They have recently added to their weekly offering a section entitled Picture News at Home.

This is a brief summary of something happening in the news and some suggested ways to discuss this at home with your children.

I hope this is of some use and interest to you. If you have any suggestions for items to include in our monthly newsletter then please let us know.

Best regards, Mr Herron Acting Headteacher

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EARLY YEARS

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PRIMARY

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SECONDARY

+34 952 779 264

www.bsm.org.es - info@bsm.org.es