BIC Sa Porrassa Primary News (10/22/21)

Ms Alison Colwell, Principal

Dear families,

I cannot believe how quickly the term seems to have flown! It feels like only yesterday we were welcoming our students back and now we are sending them off to what I hope is a week of rest, relaxation and fun (although not forgetting work especially for some of our older students!) This term has been another hugely successful and enjoyable one. We have welcomed new staff across the school who have made a fantastic start and further strengthened our outstanding teaching team. Our Activity Afternoon has also been a tremendous success, with the students being able to enjoy and learn a wide range of new and exciting sports, skills and activities. We met with the School Council earlier this month, and were able to hear first hand from the students their main priorities and wish list - which I'm pleased to say chimed exactly with our own plans for the year ahead. Our intrepid Duke of Edinburgh participants experienced an overnight camp, we held our own in the inter-schools debating competition,the inter-House University Challenge quiz brimmed over with enthusiasm and excitement, and over 100 students enjoyed our first Space Night observing stars and planets.

Great progress has been made on further developing our school site, with sterling work being carried out by many parents getting the library ready. In addition, we have several projects well under way or being scoped, including plans for the canteen, vegetable plots and a well-being garden. On this note, a huge thank you again to the fabulous PTA whose momentum and energy seem unstoppable (and we don't want to stop them!), not least with the transformation of the gym earlier this term and the spooky Halloween decorations that are currently adorning the school; and another thank you for the wonderful feast prepared for us on Teacher Appreciation Day.

Staff News

Victoria Fernandez, our bursar, has this week left BIC after 13 years with the school. She plans to take some time out to focus on her family before considering her next challenge. Victoria joined Baleares International College in 2008, the same year the school became part of the Orbital group, and has supported the school through much change since. I know many of us will miss Victoria and will want to join me in wishing her all the very best for the future.

From after half term Liam Somers will be joining us full time and will be teaching PE in the primary school, as well as continuing to work as a Learning Support Assistant with Year 5. We are delighted that he is going to be doing this, and our primary students will benefit greatly from his expertise and experience teaching PE.

Ms Laura Hodgson , Acting Head of Primary

Dear families,

We have reached the end of the first half term and I certainly feel very proud of our school and everyone within it. I would like to take this opportunity to thank our families for continued support through what has been an extremely positive start to the new academic year. It has been wonderful to see all of our pupils returning and they have adapted exceptionally well into their new classes. I have been extremely proud of them, they have been committed, dedicated and have been a credit to you all.

As Ms Colwell has previously mentioned, our school values are excellence, respect, responsibility, integrity and compassion. These values were chosen to support the development of the whole child as a reflective learner, within a calm, caring, happy and purposeful atmosphere. This week, the primary department has focused on compassion, by holding some insightful class discussions on our Wear It Pink event. I felt very emotional and proud, seeing so many of the pupils and staff walk into school wearing pink in support of Breast Cancer Awareness Day.

Showing compassion for such an important issue helps our young pupils to feel good about themselves, it creates positive self esteem and gives them a strong sense of pride. As a parent, there are a number of ways to encourage compassion in your child. You could read them their favourite stories and then prompt a discussion by asking how they think the character felt. Equally, you could explain to them the Golden Rule: treat others how you would wish them to treat you.

Today, ghosts, goblins, vampires and witches were seen all over Baleares International College but there was no need for panic – they were there to celebrate Halloween. Pupils and teachers alike entered into the spirit of the festival and dressed up for the day. There was an array of colourful and scary costumes on show as the whole school threw itself into the traditional Halloween celebration, with themed maths, English, art and even science activities throughout the day. It was a truly fantastic end to a fantastic half term.

I wish all our families a wonderful half term break.

Miss Hodgson

PE Inter-House Competitions

In the final week of each half term we will be having inter-House competitions in a range of different sports throughout the year. This is where the students team up with other members of their House to play competitive sport against each other to score points towards the House championship. This half term the sport students have been competing in is netball. Check out the photos of the competitions below!

Whole School House System news

House Points Totals Update - Term 1

A message from your Heads of House

Early Years news with Mrs Wardle

The children are enjoying running, jumping, balancing, rolling, climbing, throwing and catching as we get into PE this term, using a range of equipment to help to develop balance and coordination skills. Exercise is a prime area in the Early Years Foundation Stage, helping to develop our coordination and balance. Physical Education has the potential to greatly boost children's memories, as well as improving their concentration and mental health. Children are always learning, so having PE is very important to help facilitate this.

Spanish:

“Tumbas por aquí, tumbas por allá…”

This week, EYFS and Year 1 have worked on the Halloween topic.

To finalize the week, a treasure hunt has been organized in the EYFS area where the pupils were expected to hunt and find some “murciélagos”.

Here you have the Halloween song we have been working on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpuw3y3Vmr4

Year 1 news with Mr Fairless

In Year 1 the children created some really fantastic toys using recycled materials. Using their imagination and creativity they came up with everything from robots to octopi and even a caterpillar!

The children have also worked really hard this week in their writing, and completing problem solving and reasoning questions, involving 3D shapes, in maths.

Finally, towards the end of a busy and filled week, the children took part in an Inter House competition which brought together our learning of 2D shapes in maths and the children’s listening and attention skills. The children had great fun!

Year 2 News with Ms Bakes

The children love Thursday’s Activities Afternoon. Half of the class enjoy an afternoon of Relax Kids, which is a special programme designed to promote mindfulness and yoga. The other half have been having lots of fun in drama, and each of them has been learning a part for a play which they will hopefully perform soon!

They thoroughly enjoyed taking part in the inter-House netball competition. The children had the perfect opportunity to put into practice the throwing and catching skills that they have learnt this half term during our PE lessons. Well done to all Houses for their excellent team work!

After a great 2D shape unit in maths - in which the children are now secure in naming and identifying 2D shapes - this week they have been learning about symmetry and what right angles are.

They were pretty in pink on ‘Wear it Pink day! Thank you for all your kind donations for the AECC. This day helped raise the children’s awareness of cancer and how we can help those in need.

The non-Catalán students learnt how to play the tune of ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’ on the glockenspiels. Learning to play a musical instrument has many benefits for children, one of them being that it increases their hand-eye coordination. They are very proud of what they have learnt!

Year 3 News with Mrs West and Miss Xidakis

In Miss Xidakis´ maths group we have been rounding numbers to the nearest 10 and 100. We had a great time playing a rounding 100´s bingo game. Also we moved on to learning about fractions of amounts using fraction strips to help develop our understanding of fractions.

In Mrs West’s maths group, we have been using our knowledge of place value to understand how to regroup with column subtraction.

Year 3 had a wonderful time playing netball in the inter House competition on Wednesday. Congratulations to Parks and Winton, you were the joint winners in Year 3, however everyone who participated showed excellent teamwork and kindness.

As part of our Africa topic, the children have learnt that the Maasai tribe wear symbolic jewellery. They particularly focus on colour and beads to tell individual stories. We had a go at making our own African inspired necklaces.

During Activity Afternoon sessions, 3W have been exploring different musical notes, body percussion and using everyday objects to make music.

Year 4 News with Mrs Alonso McGregor and Mrs Walsh

The last fortnight has seen no let up in the energy that Year 4 have put into their learning or the fun they have had in doing so. Now that the cooler weather has seen an end to Thursday afternoon swimming, we are enjoying our “Activity Afternoons”. 4A have begun their project all about ´Puppet Theatres´ and had a creative first session making some fantastic paper hand puppets. 4W have started 3D modelling and kicked off with some lovely Halloween inspired objects.

Even our grammar lessons have been fun with the children gaining practice at using a range of conjunctions to join sentences through a board game in the style of Monopoly.

The children looked great in their pink clothing on Tuesday and a great opportunity to raise awareness of breast cancer to all of us.

As we have learned about the Rosetta Stone (the key to deciphering Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics) we had the opportunity to write our own names in hieroglyphs on paper cartouches. Don't they look great?

It wasn't all indoor fun this week. We were particularly impressed with the skills the classes showed in our Interhouse Netball Tournament. All children played incredibly well in fast paced and energetic games, but in the end it was a well earned win for Roosevelt. Well done!

Year 5 News with Ms Hodgson, Ms Cortes and Ms Demangeat

In the last few days, before the break for the half term holiday, all the Year 5 students have carried on working and playing hard. Our Activity Afternoon continues to be a change from “normal” lessons and the drama, eco activities and marionettes are beginning to take shape.

The Year 5 inter-House netball competition, which took place this week, was extremely competitive and surprised us with the accuracy of quick passing, shooting goals and action. We have also been playing football during sports lessons. The children have been learning the importance of working as a team and showing sportsmanship even when they have a competitive desire to win. It is wonderful to be able to get outdoors in the autumn sunshine, using all the space available to us.

Pupils have continued to enjoy humanities lessons, learning all about what it meant to ‘go Viking’, drawing Viking warriors and writing amazing facts about the warriors. We really have some amazing artists in Year 5 - our dragons are also completed and full of colour and imagination.

Year 6 News with Mr Darlow and Mrs Von Waberer

Year 6 have been continuing to build on their Greek myth stories by creating detailed and exciting character descriptions as well as captivating introductions. The children are growing their story telling skills by listening to different magical Greek myths. They are also learning about life in Ancient Greece, researching and creating posters. We are all looking forward to seeing the wonderful Greek crafts after the holiday (details on Canvas).

We had a very successful ‘Think Pink’ day raising awareness of cancer and charity work. We had mature talks about the importance of support, research and understanding. We enjoyed thinking about slogans and logos while designing our own charity t-shirts.

Last week we discussed the importance of mental health. The children offered excellent ways of keeping a healthy, happy mind and we all tried some meditative breathing together.

The French Year 6 group is extremely enthusiastic and has enjoyed learning and acting a song about greetings in French

Science department news

Thank you for all of the enthusiasm with World Space Week! Here are some snapshots of our engineers hard at work!