BIC Sa Porrassa Primary News (9/16/22)

Ms Alison Colwell, Principal

Dear families,

We have had a really wonderful start to the new school year. I hope that in this, our first full newsletter, you will enjoy seeing and reading about all the fun, learning and excitement we have had in the last two weeks.

I mentioned last week about the excellent exam results our young people achieved in the summer, results that were far higher than world wide averages at both GCSE and A'level, but of course exam success is only one (albeit important) element of a great school. We have all I’m sure been affected in different ways by the death of the Queen but a constant theme in all the tributes have been reference to her service and her values. Her sense of duty, her compassion, her virtues and her commitment to her role have all been highlighted as we reflect on a long life and reign. Developing values in our children and young people is as important to us as ensuring they reach their full academic potential. Our school values of compassion, integrity, excellence, respect and responsibility are values we refer to constantly in school, discuss, illustrate, highlight, acknowledge and reward. Being a well rounded, kind, considerate, thoughtful and honest person is, in my mind, the most important thing anyone should aim for. This year as last we will be having lots of events and opportunities whose aim it is to help to develop values, build character and allow our students to give service to others. Yesterday it was lovely to see Sixth Formers helping in the classrooms of primary children during our first Activities Afternoon, and it was heartening to hear of the camaraderie and support shown on the House bonding trips last week. Throughout the year ahead I look forward not only to more academic success but to examples of our values being lived and breathed by our wonderful students.

Wishing you a good weekend

Alison Colwell

Principal

Baleares International College, Sa Porrassa

Ms. Elizabeth Compton, Head of Primary

Dear families,

Welcome back to the new school year. We hope you found the parent curriculum meetings informative, useful and just one of the ways to get to know your child's teaching team and other families within our community. It was also wonderful to see so many attending the first of our PTA social events. I can only reiterate the importance of the home school relationship in your child's education. New parent meetings are scheduled next week and primary parent meetings in October. However, please never hesitate to drop us an email or make an appointment to discuss your child if needed.

Developments continue across the primary department not only with aesthetics shown in our additional colourful graffiti murals, but within the curriculum.

The appointment of Mr Darlow and Ms West to maths and English leaders in Primary ensures that we continue to review, adapt and progress in order to remain at the forefront of educational developments. We look forward to sharing further information on how to help your child with maths and English at home and understanding how we teach these subjects at primary level this year.

My first assemblies focussed on the school value ofexcellence. I shared an example of Austin´s butterfly, which tells the story of a Year 1 student who, following feedback from his teacher and peers, was able to improve his work significantly. Our expectations of your children at BIC are sky high, we want them to progress and produce work to their highest standards. We will expect them to try, try and try again, develop resilience when tasks are challenging and believe in the word ´yet´. Maybe they can't quite do something yet but with our support and teaching, and collaboration from home they can achieve whatever they set their minds to!

I wish you a peaceful weekend,

Ms Elizabeth Compton

Head of Primary

Student Achievement

Well done to our certificate winners in our first primary assemblies.

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 were very happy to be back at school and have had a great week learning, playing and socialising with their old and new friends. We have spent the week getting to know the children and one another and to observe what the children can already do before we start our exciting plans in Reception class. The Rainbow Fish is helping us to talk about the importance of sharing and what it means to be a good friend. We look forward to showing you the Rainbow Fish aquariums we are making.

Year 1 news with Ms Bakes

The children have had a wonderful start to Year 1. They have settled in extremely well to their new classroom, its environment and the new routine; we have seen smiling faces walking into school every morning. They have had fun singing, dancing and playing instruments in our music lessons, and they have learnt an African folk song this week (see the video below). We have been impressed with their phonics knowledge and numberwork, as we have been consolidating phonics sounds by chalking words on the playground and ordering numbers on a numberline. The children have loved our new science topic, in which we have been naming and labelling body parts.

What a polite, hard-working, kind little group the Year 1 children are, and we are all looking forward to the rest of the year’s learning journey together.

Year 2 News with Mrs West

It has been lovely to welcome the children back after the summer and see them excited to start our topics. We have been learning about animal life cycles in science and understanding different animal groups. In mathematics, we have been learning about part whole models and the children have used a variety of resources to help understand place value.

Year 3 News with Mr Fairless and Miss Xidakis

Year 3 have had a great start to the year. We have been impressed by their fantastic attitude and responsibility towards ensuring they are prepared for the school day and learning. We started off the term playing a variety of different games outside focusing on team bonding.

In mixed pairs the students created beautifully collaged art pieces of the Roald Dahl characters as an introduction to our English work.

We also concentrated on writing skills this week and began our daily focussed handwriting sessions which have been fun.

Year 4 News with Mrs Alonso McGregor and Mrs Walsh

The Year 4 children have dived straight in with our learning this term. We immersed ourselves in all things Egypt one morning. Firstly, we tested our knowledge with a fun Ancient Egypt quiz in teams. We were surprised how much we already knew. Then we got creative making canopic jars from clay. These were jars used to store the dead Pharaoh´s organs to take into the afterlife after mummification.

Later on, we had great fun mummifying each other in toilet tissue! The children can’t wait to find out more about this fascinating period in history.

Our science topic of the “Digestive System”, got off to an equally engaging start. The children loved the graphic demonstration of how chocolate cake was transformed as it went through the model digestive system. Firstly, it was mushed up by the “teeth” (a fork) as “saliva” was added (water). Then it was poured into the “stomach” (zip loc bag). Next, “stomach acid” was added (cola) before the cake was poured into the small intestine (an old stocking) . By the time the excess liquid drained from the stocking and the cake had made its way along to the large intestine, the concoction truly looked like our waste product!

Year 5 News with Ms Hodgson and Ms I'Anson

We have had a fantastic start to the new academic year. The children have settled well in their new classes and are quickly adapting to the new routines in Upper Key Stage 2. Following a number of getting to know you activities, we have produced some lovely abstract artwork about our personalities. We have begun to learn about the fascinating lives of The Vikings, which ties in nicely with our exciting book, `How to Train a Dragon` and have produced some amazing sketches of dragons. We cannot wait for next week's trip to La Caixa to see the Apollo 11 exhibition, which compliments our science topic about Earth and Space.

Year 6 News with Mr Darlow and Mrs Von Waberer

What a wonderful first few weeks back! We have enjoyed getting to know each other and reminding ourselves of our school values through games and discussion. We have shown courage in performing in front of our peers and have shown hard work and compassion in our attitude to starting Year 6.

We are delighted to be immersing ourselves in Greek myths and even have some challenging names to learn for homework. We showed empathy and respect in our discussions surrounding the sad news of the passing of Elizabeth II last week and commemorated this important date with some amazing poems and portraits which will be displayed at the entrance to school.

Well done to Year 6 for a fantastic start to the year.

This week our KS2 and KS3 students enjoyed a seminar from Mr Jensen Farquharson who works to lead on environmental protection in the Bahamas. Save the Bays works to lead on community action and education projects that aim to protect the 700 islands of the Bahamian archipelago. Ava Bland in Year 12 will be leading on a project shortly where our students will be able to take action on protecting our islands here in the Balearics.

It was fascinating for our students to learn about the role of sea oats and mangroves and how they provide so many ecosystem services to the Bahamas. Similarly, our students drew parallels as they learned about the ecosystem services provided by our very own Posidoenia oceanica (sea grass) here in Mallorca. Whilst many view the rotting sea grass that is found on our islands as unsightly, our students today changed their perceptions as they learned about just how valuable it is to us and our wonderful beaches. You can read more about this here. Thank you to Mr Barter for all you did in organising this event.

Sports department news

Our primary students have made a fantastic start to a new school year and are beginning to settle back into the routines of school life. We have gone over our rules and expectations and ensured our pupils are used to our weekly PE routines.

Last week our Year 2 students had lots of fun during their PE lesson while practising some basic racket skills.