1

BELVEDERE NEWSLETTER 23 March 2017 – Edition (131)

News and Events

Diary Dates

Week 11 Spring Term

Summer Term begins

Sunday 9 April

ECP begins Sunday 16 April and

Tuesday 18 April (Forms to be handed out at the start of next term and returned

by Wednesday 12 April)

Primary Parents’ Evening Wednesday 12 April

Year 5 and 6G visit to

Little World Science Centre Wednesday 19 April

IGCSE exams begin

Monday 15 May

Last days for Clubs Sunday 21 May and

Tuesday 23 May

IGCSE exams end Thursday 22 June

End of Summer Term

Thursday 22 June

The end of Term 2 indicates that we are two thirds of the way through our 2016-2017 Academic Year. It has been a fantastic term of teaching and learning. Much progress has been made, innovative ideas have been fostered and many opportunities to learn have been offered. Our weekly newsletters provide an avenue to celebrate learning, inform parents, share events and prepare for up-coming events. Ensure you share the newsletter with your child, family and friends. The Board of Governors’ Parent Forum enabled a healthy discussion of school

issues and solutions. Some points raised included: more guidance for parents to be able to support the learning, exam timetables, homework and resources. We look forward to the Term 3

forums. Remember to contribute any suggestions and solutions to the box at Reception. CELEBRATION DAYS: Our HAPPINESS celebration at Belvedere British School was a fun day of happy faces, colourful clothes and favourite songs. MOTHERS DAY was celebrated by giving our Mothers a flower to acknowledge all the support and care they

give to our students. THANK YOU to our BBS Mothers.

Welcome: the school would like to welcome Ms Eman Abdelrahim Ali to our Student Support Team as a Social Worker. She comes with many years’ experience and is working across the whole school. Our teachers have shared what they were most proud of this term: “the progress of my Year 7 history revision song and projects”, “having sports competitions with other schools”, “the progress of my students” “memorable UK celebration days” “students on target to complete iGCSE specifications” . Our teachers and students and staff have all worked very hard this term. Have a safe and happy SPRING BREAK. See you all back on Sunday 9th April.

Mrs Kellie Jepsen Principal

2

IMPORTANT SCHOOL DATES

Start of Summer Term: Sunday 9th April

Clubs Forms returned by: Wednesday 12th April

Primary Parents’ Evening: Wednesday 12th April

First appointment 3pm

Last appointment 7.20pm

IGCSE start date: Monday 15th May exams begin

Controlled Assessments: Sunday 21st May through to

Thursday 25th May

IGCSE finish date: Thursday 22nd June

(A complete IGCSE exam timetable will be

published shortly. DO NOT TAKE YOUR

CHILD OUT OF SCHOOL DURING IGCSE

EXAM MONTH.)

End of Summer Term: Thursday 22nd June

3

Mr Nick Garrett Head of Primary England Day in Year 5: Year 5 pupils enjoyed the last of their UK themed days this week when they spent Wednesday learning all about England and its traditions. The children have learnt so much during these special educational days and many thanks to Miss Keara, Mr Franco and Mr Eoin for giving the children such interesting opportunities to experience other cultures and traditions whilst comparing them to UAE culture. Assessments: I would like to congratulate the pupils for working so hard at preparing for their assessments. Many of you put a great deal of time and effort into making sure you had remembered what you had learnt during the term. Attendance at School: I would also like to thank the pupils who attended school regularly during the term, espe-cially during the assessments and for the last week of term. BBS continues your child’s education for the whole term and children who are absent at the end will miss important learning time. Please remember this next term as Ramadan approaches. School continues as normal with proper lessons being taught all through the school term until the last day on Thursday, 22nd June. If your child is absent, they will fall behind the other children in their year group and it will not be easy for them to catch up. If a child is regularly absent their education will suffer and so will their grades. Please make sure your child is in school every day unless they are ill. Thank you for your co-operation with this. Reports and Primary Parents’ Evening: As I mentioned last week, your child’s report will be available to collect from Reception from Sunday 9th April, the first day of Summer term. Those reports which are not collected will be available to collect from the class teacher at the next Primary Parents’ Evening which will take place on Wednesday, 12th April, starting at 3pm with the last appointment at 7.20pm. Please make sure you have signed up for a time slot for Parents’ Evening. Your child’s report will look very similar to previous reports; however, there are slight differences in the information that will be provided. Each report will have a grade for ‘Attainment’ which is the standard your child has achieved in relation to the expectations of the English National Curriculum. There will also be a grade for ‘Effort’, which is the teacher’s view on how hard the children have tried in their lessons for the subject. A new addition to the Primary report is an ‘Attendance’ percentage. Your child’s attendance in school is recorded from the start of the term up until 5th March. This percentage will show you the time your child has spent at school and give you the opportunity to review it, particularly if the attendance percentage is low. It is important that parents are aware that attendance at school and punctuality play a very important role in a child’s progress. Reading during the Spring Break: Please make sure your child reads to you every day during the holiday, particularly those children who find English difficult. Reading an English book or magazine to you will help your child’s language skills as well as their reading skills and it is fun. You can also help your child by asking them to read any signs or notices that you see when you are out.

Enjoy the Spring Break and I look forward to welcoming you all back in school on Sunday 9th April.

4

House Team Competition

Our House Team Competition has been running well this term and well

done to the Red Foxes for coming first last week with 326 points.

Last week’s places were:

2nd place: Gazelles with 317 points

3rd place: Leopards with 316 points

4th place: Wild Cats with 303 points

Postponement of Vaccinations

The school has been informed by SEHA/HAAD that the vaccinations that were

due to take place on Wednesday, 22nd March have had to be postponed. They

will reschedule these vaccinations for another time and date.

5

Stone Age Day for Year 3

On Tuesday Year 3 pupils had their Stone Age Day. We made Stone Age jewellery out of clay, did some cave paintings (rock art) and ended off the day with a Stone Age movie and party. We all had great fun and have learnt so much about this era.

6

Slippery Threes

This week in English the Year 3 children have continued to learn about explanation texts. We put all we had learnt into practice and for two days worked on writing our own 'Explanation Text' about how to play 'Snakes and Ladders'. The Year 3's had to write the rules and instructions, make their own dice and create their own board. On Tuesday morning, we invited the Year 1 children to come and join us. The Year 3 children had a chance to teach the Year 1s the game and then they had time to play together.

7

Year 5

Assessment Week Well done to all the studnents for all the hard work, revision and concentration

that went into your March Assessments. Children in Year 5 showed great

maturity and ownership of their learning over the past two weeks and I am sure

that their results will be an accurate reflection of the hard work they put in.

Parents’ Evening Please look on your child’s Class Dojo to sign up for Parents’ Evening on

Wednesday 12th

April 2017. This will be an opportunity to discuss your child’s

Spring Term report. Please note, meetings are for 10 minutes only due to the

volume of parents we must see. Please arrange a time with your child’s class

teacher. If you require a longer meeting, please arrange this for another time at

the start of the new term. Thank you.

Topic The Year 5 team has really enjoyed our United Kingdom Days and celebrations over the past

few weeks. This was an interesting and exciting Topic where children looked at the

similarities and differences between the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom. I am

pleased to say that children have not only looked at the cultural and social aspects of the

United Kingdom but have also gained geographical skills as shown in their March

Assessments.

On the next page are some pictures of the IRELAND DAY and ENGLAND DAY celebrations

that Year 5 has enjoyed over the past two weeks. I would like to say a special THANK YOU to

all of the teachers who contributed to these days as it has made such a difference to the

learning experience of our children.

8

IRELAND DAY – Thursday 16th

March 2017

To start the morning, the children had a wonderful, short, energetic lesson with Mr Ciaran where he

covered Irish language with the children. The children were introduced to the language with a few

conversation starters and he even volunteered to speak in front of the rest of the class. Thank you

Mr Ciaran, this was a brilliant start to Ireland Day.

9

THANK YOU to Mr Conor (Secondary, English)

and Miss Ruth (Secondary, English) for their live

musical performances in 5C! The Irish teachers

told stories of Irish history through songs that had

the children clapping along. It was a wonderful

morning and the children showed great interest

and respect in learning about Ireland.

10

After break time, Mr Eoin and Mr Franco took

the boys outside to learn about GAELIC

FOOTBALL, a sport many of the teachers at

Belvedere play.

They also learnt about

H u r l i n g , a n o t h e r

common Irish sport.

11

The girls of Year 5 were spoilt with even more

visitors to our Year Group! Miss Aoife (FS2)

and Miss Aoife (Secondary, Humanities)

taught the girls some specific moves and

techniques of Irish Dancing.

12

England Day

Wednesday 8th

March 2017

We spent the morning learning about famous English landmarks, such as

Stonehenge, the Roman Baths and Hadrian’s Wall. The children were able to talk

about lots of famous English people and then re-enacted the story of George

and the Dragon.

13

Some of the activities today included: Designing an English flag

Writing about Shakespeare

Describing famous English

landmarks

Role playing and creating a

comic strip of George and the

Dragon

Researching the history of the

Six Nations Rugby tournament

Some of the Year 5 children were

born in England and showed us on

a map where they are from.

Letters and invitations went out last week

for children to attend our England Day

Tea Party. All children who attended the

Tea Party received a placemat with their

name on.

14

The table is set...

GO!

15

Thank you for the generous donations of food and drink from children and staff. Year 6 ladies, who celebrated England Day with us this time last year, helped the Year 5 children with their Tea Party Celebration. Thank you Miss Rosie and the 6G girls, Rowdha, Razan, Aisha, Hafsa, Jenna, Hamdah, Pamela, Haya, Maria, Israa and Taif who made the soft cheese and jam sandwiches. Mr Franco saved the day – preparing warm tea! Shahad and Maya also had tea prepared for the Year 5 children. This was a wonderful day and the last of our United Kingdom celebrations this term. Please ask your children about what they learned and the activities they participated in. These days are for the benefit of the children and we hope they have enjoyed them all as much as we have. Once again, a huge thank you to all of the staff who have given their free time to make these UK celebration days a memorable experience for our children.

16

Science Your children can take home their Bean Plans!

A big Thank You to Mr Franco who has been very attentive looking after these plans over

the past six weeks.

Year 5 Trip

The Year 5 Trip to Little World Discovery Centre will be on Wednesday 19th

April 2017. All

letters and money should have been collected in by now and reminders will be sent out in

the first week of the new term.

Learning in Term 3 In English, children will be reading The Demon Headmaster by Gillian Cross. I do recommend children buy a copy of these books (cheaply bought second hand online) to support them with their school and

homework tasks and reading.

However, PLEASE DO NOT LET YOUR CHILDREN READ THIS BEFORE THEY RETURN TO SCHOOL. We plan tasks based on class reading, so do

not read ahead.

As mentioned at the beginning of the year, it would be hugely beneficial for your children to have their own dictionaries and thesauruses (which they can keep in school in their

trays) for class use. Thank you.

Finally, enjoy the Spring Break!

17

Mr Phil Harwood Secondary School Co-ordinator Please be aware that the iGCSE exams this year continue into Ramadan. Ofqual (our exams regulator) has publically stated that exams will not be moved for Ramadan. We would therefore ask you to consider this when making your plans.

Parent Exam Invigilators Needed for IGCSE Exams

We would like to invite any interested parents to act as exam invigilators for the IGCSE exams in May and June. BBS staff are not permitted to oversee these external exams and so we need parents to help with this (although members of the BBS team will be on site during the exams). Any parent who wishes to act as an invigilator will receive training and a small fee for their help. However, parents who are related in any way to students sitting the IGCSE exams will not be allowed to invigilate. Please only apply if you are not related to the students.

The first exam is on Monday 15th May and the last exam is on Thursday 22nd June, but a full timetable will be available shortly. Some of these exams will begin promptly at 12noon and some will begin promptly at 4.30pm. Exams are between one and a half hours long to three hours long, so please make sure you are able to stay for this length of time before you apply. These exams are extremely important.

If you would like to apply, please contact Mr Paul Davies:

p.f.davies@belvederebritishschool.com

18

19

Celebrate and Congratulate

At BBS we are always delighted to hear about our students’ successes outside of school and this week we have heard fantastic news about our very own Casey Aurin in Year 11. Casey has been continuing with his successful competitive tennis this year and, despite working for and taking all his school exams, is still on track to go far. In the Abu Dhabi Wilson Tennis Cup (ADWTC), Casey made the quarter finals in the Doubles Cup category, and the quarter finals in the Singles Cup category. Casey is in the top 5 tennis players of his age group in the United Arab Emirates.

Not only is Casey progressing well in his current competitions, he has also just been nominated for the prestigious Daman Future Champion title. This award is open to athletes in all areas of sport across the entire Gulf region, not just tennis, and Daman are looking for the top 10 young athletes (16-18 years) of this region to award this title to. Just to be nominated is a huge honour and if Casey becomes one of the talented top 10, he will follow an intensive 10 week programme which will include training on: Leadership skills Media Training Nutrition and Diet Press training Brand dealing Promoting Healthy Living Brand respresentation BBS wish Casey all the best of luck and is very proud of his achievements so far. A great example of what can be accomplished with talent, determination and perseverance.

20

ART The Year 7 girls are currently busy with their Picasso-inspired portraits using oil pastels. These are some of the final artworks.

Pablo Picasso was born more than 120 years ago (1881) in Malaga, Spain. He is famous for being the co-founder of Cubism, which is a style of painting where objects of the painting subject are broken up and re-painted in an abstract form.

21

MORE ART Year 9 students had to create a Pop Art inspired self portrait. Here are some of the final designs.

22

Poems of the Week The weather has been a little unusual for the UAE these past few weeks so for the last ‘Poem of the Week’

section for this term, here are two poems about the coming of Spring and better weather.

Spring

by Brendan Behan

Wild wicked winter

Your harsh face I hate.

The North wind blows in

Trembling, tormented, tough,

Without growth or goodness,

Loveliness or love,

Till the white feast of Brigid

And the resurrection of joy.

Then comes the South wind,

Promise of heat for my limbs

Life leaping in me,

Awakening of the blood.

Winter, you wastrel,

Old age is your season.

Welcome and a thousand more to you,

O Spring of my youth.

(Brendan Behan 1923-1964)

Translated by Ulick O'Connor

Daffodils By William Wordsworth

I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. Continuous as the stars that shine And twinkle on the milky way, They stretched in never-ending line Along the margin of a bay: Ten thousand saw I at a glance, Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. The waves beside them danced; but they Outdid the sparkling waves in glee: A poet could not but be gay, In such a jocund company: I gazed-and gazed-but little thought What wealth the show to me had brought: For oft, when on my couch I lie In vacant or in pensive mood, They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude; And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils. (William Wordsworth 1770-1850)