Newsletter - Nord Anglia Education

Newsletter
Issue 24
18 March 2016
Be Ambitious
Message from the Principal
I am in Bratislava to support our girls and boys as they
play football and basketball in the Nord Anglia Education
sport tournament for European NAE schools. I am looking
forward to watching two days of competition and cheering
them on!
My hearty congratulations to the cast, band and
backstage crew of the musical Annie. It was a wonderful
show at the Teatr Buffo with great acting and singing.
Of course, special thanks go to Mrs. Porter and Mrs. Coslow on their
exceptional direction.
This production was their ‘swan song’ and they shall be truly missed.
I wish everyone in the school community a blessed Easter and trust that the
children will return refreshed and excited for the start of the Summer Term.
Kind regards,
Dr. John Kennard
Principal
Message from the Head of Early Years Centre
Dear Parents,
We have almost reached the end of our second term and spring is
finally in the air. The buds are on the trees and with luck we have seen
the last of the winter snow.
We have been working hard again this week, with Year 1 busily
preparing for the Animal Showcase, to show off their topic
work to parents and Reception had a visit from another one of our
school ‘People who Help Us’, when the Dabrowskiego doctor spoke to
all of the children about his job and keeping us all healthy, on Wednesday afternoon.
Clubs have now come to an end for this term, so do remember to complete the forms for next
term’s clubs, so that everything will be in order when we return from the holiday.
There was lots of singing in our assembly this week, when Mr. Marc joined us to help the
children sing a new song called Spring is Coming!
This week also saw the Irish celebrating St. Patrick’s Day and Aoife’s mum from
Year 1 came to school to show some of the Year 1 children some Irish dancing. It was great
fun! Aoife also showed us some of her Irish dancing steps in assembly with Mr. Karol. Well
done to both of them!
The children are now all looking forward to the Easter holiday, as are the teachers,
as families begin to head off to many different parts of the world for skiing and sunshine.
As this is the last newsletter of the term I hope you all have a restful time during
the break and we look forward to seeing everyone returned rested and well on
Monday 11th April.
Kind Regards,
Deborah Hopper
Head of Early Years
Dąbrowskiego News
Dąbrowskiego News
Message from the Head of Primary School
Dear Parents,
We have been STEAMing ahead with our learning in the
primary school this week, with many activities and opportunities
to take advantage of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts
and Mathematics based learning. On Tuesday, a number of our
Year 6 students participated in creating a Rube Goldberg
machine. Spanning the entire length of the gym, the machine
the students created solely from recycled and found materials, ran
for an impressive 61 seconds! I would like to take this opportunity
to thank the teachers involved in this workshop, as well as all the
families who donated items to build our machine.
On Thursday many of our students sat the annual Kangaroo Maths
Competition. The International Kangaroo Mathematics Contest originated in France
in 1991 and quickly became very popular with students all over the globe. The contest’s
main purpose is to promote mathematical thinking and stimulate an interest in math
by providing students with an opportunity to broaden their minds and compare their
abilities against the abilities of other students across the world. In 2014 over 6 million
students from 60 countries took part in the Contest world-wide.
Congratulations to all our scholars who sat this test!
Zoe Richardson
Head of Primary
Primary News
PRIMARY STUDENT
COUNCIL NEWS
What a busy term it has been for the
Primary Student Council!
Here are some of the things we have been discussing and establishing:
•
•
•
•
•
•
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set up our suggestion box in the library
Improving the locker rooms
produced a monthly powerpoint to feed back to the rest of the school
sorted lost property
created healthy eating tokens
(we are still experimenting with the best way to use these)
organised egg hunts for each class, thanks to the PTA
discussing a permanent, monthly reading zone
Watch out next term!
•
•
•
May will be the launch month of the annual Student Council Talent Show
We will organise a sponsored silence
We will attend a PTA meeting and share our ideas with them
We look forward to another successful term. Our meetings are now on Thursday at break.
If you have any suggestions, please let the student council know by using the suggestion
box or emailing Lesley.Cooper@thebritishschool.pl
Primary News
Kids for Kids
want to say a massive
THANK YOU!
Thanks to the generosity of all the parents and children
of the British School,Warsaw
the Bunny Bake Sale
was a great success!
The final total is still to be confirmed but this will contribute to
our sponsor child in Cambodia, Nary and the Kids for Kids local
charities that we support in Poland.
Primary & Secondary News
INTERPID INVENTORS
This week we saw a group of intrepid students along with some enthusiastic teachers
working on our school’s entry for the 2016 NAE Global Challenge. This year the
Challenge focus is on STEAM- Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths. Our
student representatives worked together to create the biggest, most exciting and
inventive Rube Goldberg Machine of all time!
Wednesday was the big day and the students and teachers were taken off timetable to
spend time being creative and innovative as well as resilient and tenacious, all in the
pursuit of creating a phenomenal Rube Goldberg machine.
It was a fantastic sight as we watched through the door and from up above as the crew
set about constructing their machine from all the bits and pieces kindly brought in by
parents. Below are some photos of the day ….. and guess what? It worked!
Many thanks to those staff members involved: Mr Grundy, Mr Lennon and Ms Petit as
well as to all those who brought in resources for us AND of course, congratulations to all
those students involved.
I don’t think we could have completed the project without
the year
students who helped:
10
Kacper Komnata
Tom Gleeson
Jan Bachowski
Other secondary students involved are:
Nail Junuzovic
Mert Oruk
Aidan Francis
Alicia Brasoveanu
Jan Ciuhak
Jan Czajka
Ily Rafaeli
Primary & Secondary News
Message from the Head of Secondary School
Dear Parents,
Spring has sprung.. or so we thought until the snow fell on Monday
night as we emerged, bedazzled, from the opening night of Annie.
What a performance that was and what a wonderful experience for
the students involved and audience watching on both nights. I was
so hugely impressed with the quality of the acting and the singing
that it was hard to believe that these were students in our school
and not professional actors, and I know many in the audience felt
the same way.
We have also watched another group of students excel and challenge themselves
during the construction of a Rube Goldberg machine (see separate newsletter article).
A brilliant inventive process which draws on every ounce of their team-work skills,
creativity and perseverance; what a fabulous Global Challenge initiative!
Mid-week saw Years 7 – 9 parents in school for Academic Review Day,
an opportunity for them to meet with teachers to discuss progress and attainment. It
was excellent to see so many parents in school, moving from classroom to classroom,
speaking with teachers and other parents and also seeing first-hand the learning
environment of their children.
At the end of the week we said ‘bon voyage’ to our KS3 sports teams as they headed off
to Bratislava for the Nord Anglia sports tournament and & ‘bonne chance’ to students
involved in the Kangaroo maths competition.
Now, we have the weekend to draw breath before the last few days of term and a
well-earned rest. Our students have achieved amazing things this term; they have
worked hard at exams, assessments and extra-curricular activities, both academic
and sporting, amongst others. Whilst doing all of this they also juggle the everyday
challenges of friendships, adolescence and responsibility. All in all, they do a pretty
good job and we should not forget that.
No doubt over the Easter holidays they will have the opportunity to unwind and
enjoy some unstructured spare time, some call it ‘boredom’.
Taking some time out to ‘get bored’ can be a
force for good. It gives us the opportunity to
fall back on our own resources and can be a
stimulus for change, leading to better ideas;
many achievements are born out of the dread
of boredom.
Alison Fox
Head of Secondary
Secondary News
Last Tuesday in Assembly, Year 10 students hosted a quiz designed to increase
awareness of Economics and in particular how the stock market works.
Questions relating to currencies, companies, wealth, poverty and economic output were
tackled by all students from Years 7-11; congratulations to Olivia Watson(10H) who top scored
on the quiz with 10/11 correct answers. In the bonus round, contestants had to judge what
would happen to the share price of a mining company, Anglo American, during the course of an
afternoon’s trading on the London Stock Market:
In the event, from a published starting price of 576.70 pence at 14:00, the company had a bad
afternoon, with the share price falling to 530.90 pence by the close of trading at 17:00. The
closest prediction was made by Laura Castillo Casado (11 JL) with an estimate of 530.26 pence;
congratulations Laura!
Well done to all who participated in the quiz and thank you to Maja, Sofia, Jan, Bernard, Lesego
and Lea from the Year 10 Economics class for organising and presenting the questions.
The quiz followed the presentation of an award to the members of Best of the Best, one of our
teams of student investors who took part in this year’s Student Investor Challenge,
aiming to turn 100,000 GBP into as much profit as possible over a 4 month period by trading
virtually on the FTSE 100 index. Best of the Best did not win the overall competition, but the
portfolio performance in spite of a tough trading environment was best in the school –
well done to team members Bernard Scott, Kacper Komnata,
Matteo Sbarigia and Rodrigo Rejman Rodriguez.
Tim Clark
Head of Economics and UCAS Coordinator
Music Department Notices
Annie
After six months of hard work it is now all over.
A huge thank you to everyone who came to see Annie this week. We
even had people flying in from around the world to see the show!
The cast and crew would particularly like to thank the
following people whose support throughout was invaluable:
Band
Simon Porter
Robert Żelazko
Piotr Zawadzki
Daniel Duenas
Karina Gorka
Trumpet
Trombone
Clarinet
Saxophone
Piano
Dr John Kennard
Alison Fox
Zoe Richardsonki
Gruffud Jones
Louis Bezodis
Kari Ellis
i
Photographers
Marek Kędzior
Roberto Cura
Marketing Department
Olga Rasiewicz
Joanna Gniewosz
Magdalena Kowalska
and
Rachel Wood
Grazyna Jankowska
Marcin Kukieła
Christopher Pound
Przemyslaw Budzinskiski
Senior Leadership Team
Ticket Sales
Joanna Baryła
Ewa Grela
Violin
Cello
Guitar
Bass
Drums
Michael Waterhouse
Jeremy Buss
Art Department
Paul Grundy
Katarzyna Kordowska
Logistics/Accounts
Rafal Hyb
Jan Epstein
Katarzyna Herubin
Edyta Miazga, Emma Gibb, Monika Bobrowska, Owen Doherty,
Marvin Deahan, Lorraine Bastone, Timothy Allen, Elżbieta Rozalska,
Matthew Lennon, Helen Kleyn, Berenika Kuncewicz
Alison Porter
Head of Music
Music Department Notices
Photos available from Marek Kędzior: marek.kedzior@antiguastudio.pl
News from the Sports Desk
This week I was lucky enough to attend a Head of PE meeting with the other Heads of PE in our
brother and sister schools around Europe. We spent almost two full days discussing everything going
on in our schools and planning for the future and it was great to hear the positive feedback from
others about what a good impression our students make when we travel.
Interestingly, schools are looking to build on the Nord Anglia Sports Competition model and in the
future we could be looking at collaborative sports trips, snow sports trip and events and invitational
events in less mainstream sports. All exciting things for our students to be involved in – so watch this
space!
Here at TBS it’s been another really busy term here in the PE department with so much going on.
This term we have:
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Increased the number of clubs delivered in school
Created a partnership with RK Athletics which while in its infancy is thriving
Prepared and embarked on a KS Nord Anglia Tournament with 20 students
Introduced I.B Sports Exercise Health Science as an option for 2016 onwards
Finalised some of our IGCSE Practical marks
Hosted special events
Played schools matches in both football and basketball
While these are clear improvements we still have a little way to go in terms of developing Physical
Education and Sport in the school. We will not be sitting on our laurels and we have a responsibility to
our students to always be looking to give them the best opportunities that we can.
Next term (as the weather improves) the school enters into its examination phase which unfortunately
takes place in the gym near the cafeteria. Luckily for us we have a brand new sports hall which has
allowed us this year the chance to continue to accommodate all clubs that up to now have been
operating during the week. This has taken a great amount of planning and while some students have
needed to be a little more flexible as we have changed the day of the odd activity, but for the most we
have tried very much to keep everything on the same day.
Nord Anglia Key Stage 2 trip
Next term also sees the Key Stage 2 Under 11 Nord Anglia trip take place.
The tournament dates are the 3rd and 4th June and this year our colleagues in Budapest
will be hosting. The sports for this tournament are as follows:
Boys: Football and Floorball
Girls: Football and Basketball
News from the Sports Desk
Nord Anglia Key Stage 3 Trip
As I write this article the Key Stage 3 team are whizzing their way to Bratislava for their football and
basketball tournaments. I know the students were incredibly excited about the prospect of competing
against other schools and this is such a great opportunity to meet other students from different
schools around Europe. Competition is always fierce but fair and this is a real tangible bonus of being
in the Nord Anglia family of schools.
I am sure everyone wishes them the very best of luck this weekend.
Come on Warsaw!!!
Thanks for all of your continued support and have a good weekend.
Matt Lennon
Matthew.lennon@thebritishschool.pl
Head of PE and Sport, Global Campus Coordinator
School Notices
PARENT SATISFACTION
SURVEY
We are constantly looking for ways to improve our school and your
feedback is vital to this process. Our annual parent satisfaction survey
is now open and we would greatly appreciate if you could take the
time to complete the survey before the closing date of 21st March.
You can access it here:
http://parentsurvey.nordanglia.com/survey/selfserve/5a0/160104?wave=y2016
The Survey helps us better understand how we are performing in key areas - what we are doing
well and opportunities for improvement, so that we can continue to provide the best possible
educational experience to your child. We encourage you to participate in the survey – the results
are used to inform our strategy for continuous improvement and so the more parents we hear
from, the more confident we can be that our action plans respond to your views.
The survey is accessible through a PC, MAC, tablet, iPad, or your smart phones and should take
you no longer than 15 minutes to complete. Each family should respond once on behalf of all
your children. If you wish to share specific feedback, we have provided additional comment
boxes for each section. We want your honest views and so your responses are anonymous and
will be combined with those of other parents at our school.
We will share the results of the survey with you during the summer term.
Thank you for your participation, we look forward to hearing your views.
PTA Notices
THANK YOU LETTER
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School Notices
What is ESB?
English Speaking Board
(ESB) is a national awarding organisation offering
qualifications focused on communication skills at school, in college and throughout life.
The English Speaking Board (ESB) is a UK-based organisation that delivers teaching and
examinations in oral communication and the language arts. Its qualifications are recognised
and mapped to the relevant National Core Curriculum requirements and it works in close
partnership with educational centres across the UK, Europe and the Far East.
Preparing for and taking part in this sort of exam is a unique opportunity for children to develop
their speaking and listening skills as well as grow in confidence. We would like to organise ESB
exams at The British School during the summer term for students in years 3-9. However as it
requires an examiner to travel from the UK and a fee (approximately 250PLN) we would like to
first see how many students would like to be involved.
If you are interested, then please email emily.chaudhri@thebritishschool.pl
or dorota.wadas@thebritishschool.pl adding the subject ESB.
If we have enough willing participants then we will go ahead and make further arrangements.
Thank you!
Dorota Wadas and Emily Chaudhri
School Notices
MFL Literary Competition
FLASH FICTION
Themes
Entries
Categories
Native speakers
Non-native speakers
Delivery date
11th of April
Length
• One day in the wilderness
• My school is in outer space
• The last person on earth
must be in French, German,
Spanish or Polish
Groups
Group I: Year 5 - 6
Group II: Year 7 - 9
Group III: Year 10 - 13
Assessment Criteria
Content: 40%
Creativity: 40%
Grammatical accuracy: 20%
100 - 500 words
How to submit?
By hand: to any MFL teacher
Online: to any MFL teacher’s email
Prizes
First prize: Diploma, cinema voucher
All participants will get a pizza party
during lunch time
The first and second prize winners will be published on a special
MFL magazine issue
FOR FURTHER DETAILS PLEASE CONTACT YOUR MFL TEACHER
FLASH
FICTION
School Notices
LEAP PROGRAM
Thank you to students, parents and staff alike for the enthusiasm shown towards extracurricular clubs and activities this term that conclude this Friday 18th March.
The excitement is really contagious and I myself have been cheered up on many a Tuesday
afternoon by the primary science clubbers
You will have been emailed or will shortly be emailed the schedule and sign up procedure
for next term’s
LEAP Program.
Sign up will be electronic as previously and details of the procedure and deadlines
will be included in the email and on the Moodle LEAP page.
Club lists for both primary and secondary students should be up by end of school
on Thursday 24th March.
Staff have put a great deal of effort into offering clubs that are varied, fun and challenging
and I hope you and your children will take full advantage of the opportunities on offer
and really enjoy our Summer term program.
Kind regards,
Eloise Hoyland
Science Teacher; LEAP Coordinator
School Notices
LOST PROPERTY
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT
Dear Parents,
As we are reaching the end of term, we need to free up some storage space in the Lost Property
Room and we will be handing over any remaining lost property to the PTA on Monday 21 March
for their second hand clothes collection for families in northern Poland.
Please encourage your children to look in the Lost Property Room for any of their lost belongings,
or feel free to come in yourselves at drop-off or collection time. The Lost Property Room is open
all day and is located at the bottom of the steps at the front entrance to the school, next to the
PTA noticeboard.
As well as school uniform and PE kit, there are lots of hats, scarves, lunchboxes, trainers and
non-uniform items of clothing waiting to be claimed! Jackets and coats can be found on the
clothes rail in the opposite alcove.
Please be assured that lost property is being sorted regularly and every effort is being made
to return clearly labelled belongings to their owners. Emails are sent to all class teachers each
week with a list of the students’ names and the belongings that have been found. These items
can be collected from the school office.
Any belongings remaining in the Lost Property Room
on Monday 21 March will be handed over to the PTA.
Summer Performing Arts with Juilliard
Applications open for Summer Performing Arts with Juilliard
with exclusive discounts available to friends and family of
Nord Anglia Education schools.
Calling all young musicians, actors and dancers!
Does your child love music, drama or dance? Summer Performing Arts with Juilliard
is the perfect opportunity for them to explore and cultivate their talents.
We invite children from age 10 – 18 years old to join us at our sister school, College du
Leman in Switzerland, this July for a life-changing experience. Whether a beginner or
more advanced artist, this is a unique opportunity for your child to study performing arts
at the highest level.
Students will follow a transformative programme designed by the world-renowned
Juilliard School, whose alumni include actor Kevin Spacey, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, composer
John Williams and choreographer Lar Lubovitch. They will learn from Juilliard-affiliated
artists in one-to-one lessons, coaching, rehearsals and masterclasses in their chosen
discipline, surrounded by students who share their passion for the performing arts. The
two week programme will inspire and stretch every child’s artistic horizons and will
culminates in a final celebratory performance.
Friends and Family Discount
A 10% discount is exclusively available to all Nord Anglia families, and if you introduce
a friend, they will also benefit from a 10% discount. Both discounts are subject to
availability. Places are limited, so apply now to secure your child’s spot and their turn in
the spotlight.
For more information and to apply, please visit www.naejuilliard.school/summer-arts
Summer Performing Arts with Juilliard
Details at a glance
Dates: 9th – 22nd July 2016
Age: 10 – 18
Disciplines: Music (instrumental and vocal), Drama and Dance
Level: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced
Places: 200
Residential: Day & Boarding options (please note the day option will be at a reduced rate)
Cost: Day CHF 4050 (approx US $4020*) and Boarding CHF 6750 (approx US $6700*) *subject
to exchange rates on day of payment
Other summer opportunities
In addition to Summer Performing Arts with Juilliard and Nord Anglia Summer Leadership
Academy, many Nord Anglia schools around the world offer day and residential summer
school programmes designed to help your child develop new skills, meet new friends
and make the most of their holidays.
Learn more about the wide variety of opportunities you child can enjoy here.