BSB.CONNECTFriday 14th March 2014ISSUE 20www.britishschool.org.cn

INSIDE: Creative fun in Foundation Stage and secondary students enjoy some

“portable magic”.

A FINE MESS!

From the PrincipaL

Dear Parents and Friends,

Just a short message from me this week (you may be pleased to hear!) as I am sending a separate email to all our parents with some major news about school facilities and staffing for the coming year.

However, I do want to commend some of the achievements of our students that have been highlights of the week.

On Monday, we had the first of our ‘whole school assemblies’ in Secondary – we can’t quite manage the whole school but we are having longer assemblies for Years 7-9 together and Years 10-13 together. These are for one purpose and that is to celebrate the many achievements of our students in so many fields, and this week we started with a moving and awe-inspiring presentation from our very committed Tanzania group.

And now, it is the turn of Primary students to amaze us as the Foyer is filled a blaze of colour and talent as the artwork they have prepared for the PA Ball now greets us every morning. I feel sure that there will be some highly competitive bidding and, of course, all the proceeds go to very worth charities.

In Secondary School, we have just undertaken our second Academic Tracking process of the year, and I am very pleased to report further improvements. Our expected GCSE achievement is now a full 19% up on what is was predicted at the start of the year, which is great testament to the hard work of teachers and students; as you know, ensuring our academic achievement is the best in Beijing was the target we set ourselves and we are definitely now on track to achieve that. My sincere thanks go to you for your support.

May I also finally thank you for your support in completing the recent questionnaire sent out by Nord Anglia Education. This is now being analysed and will certainly inform our planning in the future.

With best wishes,

Andy PuttockPrincipal

FRONT COVER PHOTO... Reception classes visited Happyland Pottery this week for a field trip of creative fun. Pictured is Jorik Stringa from Mr Gallington’s Reception class concentrating on his very own pottery masterpiece!

raffle tickets now on sale

5 tickets for 100rmb

BSB community NewsFANTASTIC PRIZES COMING IN FOR THE RAFFLE

Fancy a 1000 RMB voucher on spa treatments? Or how about a weekend retreat? There are just some of the fabulous prizes on offer in raffle as part of the Parents’ Association Annual Charity Ball on Saturday 29th March at The Regent Hotel in downtown Beijing.

All parents and friends are invited to Ball, which this year is raising money for two charities vital to women and children in China, the Surmang Foundation and the Jing Chai Migrant School.

Tickets are 900 RMB each and are on sale each day at school, next to Chatterbox Cafe, as are the raffle tickets which are a big part of the fundraising efforts on the night.

You can purchase 5 tickets for 100 RMB.

The Parents’ Association thanks the event sponsors for their generosity. The sponsors so far include:

Hummingbird Spa and Salon, Mercurius World Travel, BMW, Beijing Sailing, Dragonfly Therapeutic Retreat, Insight Adventures, OASIS, The Opposite House, The Westin, Santa Fe, EAST Beijing, i spa, HEPA, Cashmere Crush, Clicia’s Designs, Element Fresh, Michael ‘s Place, Mandarin Express, Pavilion Restaurant, Equelleus, Beijing United, The Page One, Pinotage, Jessie Tailors, Malacca Legend, The Orchard, China Club Football, Loft Eatalicious, Lily’s Antiques, Red Gate Gallery, Cindy Yoga, JVK Movers ..... with more being added.

From the Head of SECONDARY Dear Parents,

Portable Magic – the BSB Festival of Books and Big Ideas has certainly been a fantastic event. On Monday we were treated to a talk from Paul Ham, who writes popular History books. His chosen theme is war, and he takes the perspective of the common man. His work creates an intimacy and understanding of experience that history text books are rarely able to communicate. On Wednesday we were visited by Gabrielle Wang, the author/illustrator. She worked with our students and shared her enthusiasm for both writing and drawing. This was an experience we will not forget, and for some of our more artistic students it was nothing short of inspirational. Next week we are delighted to welcome the Scottish national poet (or Makar) to BSB. Liz Lochhead is a successful playwright and poet, and became the Makar in 2011. To read more about Liz, follow this link en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liz_Lochhead

Another important even this week was the participation of our team in the Model United Nations Conference here in Beijing. Our MUN Co-ordinator Ms Edwards took a group of 12 students to represent us, and we look forward to more news on this when the conference ends.

Next Monday morning we are hosting a delegation from Francis Parker High School, California. They are here to talk to our students about US Colleges applications, preparation tips, counselling and their visits programme to US colleges in California. BSB students attending are year 10 and 11 students who have an interest in studying at university in the US, and as always interested parents are welcome to attend.

Best wishes,

Steve Lewis

SECONDARY

“PORTABLE MAGIC - The BSB Festival of Books and Big ideas” continues for another week in Secondary school, celebrating reading and innovative thought.

Last week’s events included visits from two authors and the very fun “Drop Everything and Read”. Twice a day during the past week, special announcements by the Head of Secondary Mr Lewis were made during lessons signalling the start of 10 minutes of silent reading.

Students also enjoyed impromtu performances from fellow students, reciting famous works such as Romeo and Juliet and Alice in Wonderland.

A big highlight during the second week of the festival will be the visit from Scottish National Poet Liz Lochhead.

See the next page for a photo gallery of this week’s special presenters.

The Francis Parker Summer Program is for international students serious about attending college oruniversity in the United States. MAIN TOPICSUnderstanding the American University and CollegeApplication Process- Selecting the right college or university- Preparing for and managing the application process- Preparing for life at an American college or university- Campus visits to nine of America’s top colleges and universities, including:

University of Southern California (USC), University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), Claremont McKenna College, Pomona College, Harvey Mudd College, Pitzer College, Scripps College, University of California at San Diego (UCSD), San Diego State University The Parker Summer Program: Enrichment and Learning- "As far as the mind can see"- experiential learning in a wide variety of elective courses taught by Francis Parker’s own teachers - Why do American colleges and universities prize students who participate in enrichment programs Why Francis Parker? Francis Parker School, a highly selective, university-preparatory, independent day school, is located inSan Diego, California. The school’s excellent reputation is re�ected in the fact that among its 2010, 2011and 2012 graduating classes, 23% of students who applied to an Ivy League school gained acceptance.

What Next- Eligibility- How to apply

Monday 17th March 8.40amOld Drama Studio, C308

A SUMMER in CALIFORNIAHosted by The Francis Parker School

SECONDARY

photos from “portable magic”bsb’s festival of books and big ideas

PORTABLE MAGIC.... Paul Ham, author and historian, presented his insights on story-telling to a captivated audience on Monday, while on Wednesday, author and illustrator Gabrielle Wang inspired students with her ability to bring a story to life in pictures.

SECONDARY

year8 science Eggsperiment!From Miss Nicola Parsonage, Science Teacher

This week in our science class 8Sc3 have started a new unit that looks at forces. We have focused specifically at friction, in particular air resistance. To demonstrate their understanding of the forces involved students were set the challenge to design and make a parachute using any materials they could that would allow an egg to land safely when thrown off the school roof!

The students had great fun making the parachutes and there were some brilliant designs. This task gave students the opportunity to show some of their HPL skills such as creativity, problem solving as well as thinking and reflecting. After we threw the parachutes students discussed what was good about them and how they would improve their designs if they were to repeat the experiment.

SCRAMBLED EGGS ANYONE?...... Year 8 tested out their designs this week in the egg drop experiment. Don’t let the egg break!

SECONDARY

taking IGCSE Mathematics to the highest levelFrom Mr Andrew Davies, Maths Teacher

We are really proud of the high quality Mathematicians that we produce at BSB.

Our Year 11 Further Mathematics class sat their first Mathematics IGCSE last year, with an abundance of A and A* grades. They are working towards a second IGCSE in Mathematics, which is both challenging and rewarding. It offers an excellent basis to study Mathematics further , and at a higher level.

The content includes a formal coverage of Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry and other aspects of Pure Mathematics. The class includes a strong team that will compete with other schools in the Math Olympiad.

Aileen is up to the challenge of Quadratic Equations.

The Math Olympiad team in preparation for the competition with other schools, on Friday 21st March. (Pictured from left to right are Sara, Sumin, Jane and Diana.)

James and Tornado sure know that Mathematics is awesome!

SECONDARY

art exam students get inspiration from 798 spaceFrom Charlotte Yearn, Art Teacher

Last Tuesday the senior art students from years 10, 11, 12 and 13 all spent the day at the celebrated 798 Space art district.

This is an incredibly important aspect of their art curriculum and is even more important now that their externally set assignment is only 4 weeks away!

As part of their research and preparation for their upcoming examination, they must find inspiration from an artist, craftsperson or designer that they can skilfully link to their own personal visual studies.

We were not disappointed, the current exhibition at the UCCA featured some outstanding, interesting and thought provoking pieces of art, by the Chinese contemporary artist, Xu Zhen.

Students are now busily creating their artist pages in their sketchbooks and working towards their final ten hour examinations!

Senior art students visited the 798 Space Art District recently as part of their research and preparation for examinations coming up in four weeks time. Also pictured is an amazing piece of contemporary art at one of the exhibitions.

artists of the weekThis week’s artists of the week are Anniina Nummela (10C) and Kirsty MacLeod (10B)

After a great trip out to 798 last week, Year 10 Art students have been working on pages in their sketchbook at home and paintings inspired by the artist Cindy Towers. This all supports their coursework theme on Decay.

Anniina and Kirsty both produced a fantastic double page homework on their trip that included a range of photos and drawings in different media linked to urban decay. In lessons this led to these incredible expressive paintings where both students showed great confidence and skill to manipulate the paint in the style of the artist given.

SECONDARY

Anniina Nummela (10C) - 798 Study

artists of the week

SECONDARY

Kirsty MacLeod (10B) -798 Study

From the Head of Primary Dear Parents,

This week has truly flown by and in a flash there has been, yet again, an incredible amount happen in such a short time.

This week has been marking and moderation week where the year teams collaborate to review the assessments completed by the children to agree and moderate the levels achieved. This is to ensure we have a consistent and measured approach to assessment that provides data that is reliable and can be used to set realistic targets and goals for the children.

This will be followed by a pupil progress week where all year teams will sit down, with the results of all the children in the year group, and discuss their achievements and the strategies we need to put in place to push them onto the next level and where we need to support them further to ensure they do this. This focus on personalised learning has helped us achieve great things in the past two years and seen our academic levels continue to rise year on year.

This week has also seen the arrival of the Parents Association art work in the foyer area. This has to be described as awesome. The variety of the work is phenomenal and as a parent, I even want to bid on classes without my children in! Huge thanks to the PA for displaying this in such an attractive manner and ensuring the children’s hard work is celebrated in such a supportive and visible fashion and an even bigger thanks to the class teachers and children for creating such masterpieces, you are truly gifted with gifted teachers.

Have a lovely weekend,

Christian Bishop

PRIMARY

SPONSORSHIP

A BRILLIANT DISPLAY..... Pictured is some of the amazing classroom artwork on display ready to be auctioned at the PA Red Carpet Charity Ball. Start your bidding now......

CREATIVE FUN IN FOUNDATION STAGE..... included a field trip to Happyland Pottery this week (top two photos).

creative fun in Foundation StageTeddiesThis week in teddies 1, we have continued with nursery rhyme “Old MacDonald Had a Farm”. We talked about where animals live and what they eat. All week long, we will be singing ‘Old Macdonald Had a Farm’ and ‘Baa Baa Black Sheep’ and ‘Five Little Ducks’.

In Teddies 2 we have been reading, dancing and acting out the story of We’re Going on a Bear Hunt. We have completed a display with all the different scenes from the story and the children are able to retell the story in sequence using actions and familiar phrases from the text.

NurseryThe Nursery children have been learning all about the traditional tale The Gingerbread Man. We have been baking (of course), making our own gingerbread men, like the baker in the story. We have also practised our maths skills through sequencing the story.

ReceptionThis week Reception have been learning all about time, looking at the days of the week, months of the year, and using vocabulary of time such as yesterday, today and tomorrow. We also read the story of the gingerbread man and talked about stranger danger. The gingerbread man trusted the fox but he gobbled him up. Finally, some of the children have been on their class trip this week to Happyland Pottery where they had a great time manipulating the clay to make pots and vases and then painting them.

On Friday, Foundation Stage celebrated the colours Black and White with a variety of activities, including colour mixing, decorating cakes, making silhouette pictures and looking at different black and white animals.

PRIMARY

PRIMARY

Solid or liquid?from Year 4 teacher, Ms Nikki Wallis

In Year 4 the children have been taking a closer look at the properties of solids and liquids during science lessons.

The first lesson caused much debate when the children were asked to classify substances as solid or liquid. Sounds easy? There was little doubt in their minds about pebbles, bottle tops or water but what about lava, jelly and shaving foam? More investigation and clear definitions were needed.

In the pictures below 4NW can be seen exploring how liquids behave when they are transferred into different containers. They discovered that when poured liquids will flow to create a level surface. Even solids that can be poured like flour, sand and sugar did not flow. The children discovered that these formed piles instead. To round off this lesson the children were able to see the small solid particles of flour, sand and sugar using a microscope. The investigations will continue…

A lot of experimentation happened this week in Year 4 with students discovering more about solids and liquids.

BSB’s spring hike Join us for BSB’s annual Spring Hike on Saturday 22nd March. We are walking through the lovely “Intelligence Valley”, which is located 80 minutes north of the school.

Buses will be leaving from the Shunyi campus at 9am and from the Sanlitun campus at 8.30am. The cost is 70RMB per person or 250RMB for a family ticket (2 adults, 2 children).

Sign up finishes on Monday 18th March. To register, please send in the form that was emailed last week (click here for another copy) with the money in an envelope marked “Spring Hike”.

PRIMARY

Healthy Eating in German PrimaryAs part of Klasse 1 topic lessons, we were thinking about keeping our body healthy and in good condition. The children recognized that there are many facts to combine, like in a jigsaw. At the moment

Thinking about the food pyramid, telling which food we like and don’t like, touching and tasting fruit and vegetable, acquainting names of fruits and vegetables, planning a good meal with the blocks of the pyramid, getting familiar with appropriate portions (“take 5 of fruits/vegetables a day”) by measuring with their hands…

The important message is: There is no unhealthy food, healthy or not simply depends on the amount of food you eat or how you combine ingredients. Have a quick visit and a look at our display!

Food pyramids and five-a-day..... students from German Primary Klasse 1 discussed the topic of Healthy Eating this week.

Message from the Head of German Primary, Christine Riedl

Your food choices each day affect your health — how you feel today, tomorrow, and in the future. Good nutrition is an important part of leading a healthy lifestyle. Combined with physical activity, your diet can help you to reach and maintain a healthy weight, reduce your risk of chronic diseases (like heart disease and cancer), and promote your overall health. We all know that.

For our children to be and to stay healthy, it is important to eat a balanced breakfast every morning before coming to school. But not only the right choice of food keeps our children healthy; also a well-balanced environment plays an important role for their well-being.

This was one of the main reasons the German Primary School started a big survey among students, teachers and parents, which results will be open to you shortly. I also met with parents of each class to get even more information about your suggestions, ideas and concerns. A big thank you to everyone who helped us with their input! All your efforts and your time are truly appreciated. If you feel you missed something, please let us know! Have a great and healthy weekend!

PRIMARY

english and ict collide in year 6from Year 6 teacher, Ms Vicki Smith

Year 6 have been composing their own poems using figurative language.

We have been looking at the structure poetry and have been able to combine our English and ICT skills in order to make a ‘movie’ of our poem.

We selected appropriate images, timings and music to create effect.

We thoroughly enjoyed making these and viewing each other’s hard work.

Pictured are students from Year 6 using their ICT skills to edit the filming of the poems they created in English classes.

using paper craft to order up snacks. From the Primary Chinese team

The Chinese department had a productive week.Y6 beginners class used the paper craft to design their 3D models of snacks; they showed their high performance learning skill by creativity and connection finding. Their teachers were very proud of their ideas and the projects.

Pictured are students with the design models of the snacks they have been learning how to say in Mandarin.

Sport

personal bests achieved at all-stars swim meetFrom Mr Ali Armstrong, Aquabears Head Coach

The BSB Aquabears swimming team has competed in the very first Asian All-Stars swimming meet, held last weekend at ISB, with some of the top swimmers around Asia competing.

This was a very competitive swimming meet with qualifying times needed to enter.

BSB entered 15 students with two students coming away with medals Annie Huang bronze medal (3rd) Girls 13-14 50m Breaststroke and Cole Rothman silver (2nd) Boys 11-12 50m Backstroke.

Also the boys 11-12 200m Medley Relay coming second swimmers were Joseph Chew, Cole Rothman, Chen Yu Huang and Frederic Li.

All-in-all this was a fantastic swimming meet for BSB Aqua Bears with all students gaining personal best times and finishing in the top 10 from a very competitive swimming field.

Action from BSB’s first ever competitive softball game, held last week at ISB.

bears do well in first ever softball matchFrom Travis Washko, Head of PE

In its first ever softball game, the BSB Bears Softball team lost to the ISB JV team 11-6. It was a great effort for their first competitive outing.

Kate Ferrier pitched amazingly well and provided some key batting. Lina Boby and Juanita Eben also provided some very solid play in the field. The BSB Bears Softball team can’t wait for its next scheduled match.

OTHER RESULTSFootball U19 Dragon Cup @ISB last Friday and Saturday U16 Tiger Cup Football @WAB last Friday and SaturdayBoys: 3rd Boys: 4th & Sportsmanship AwardGirls: 4th Girls: 3rd

Basketball U14 Girls and Boys teams vs. Harrow on Thursday: Boys 14 – 43 HISB (Lost)Girls 14 – 4 HISB (Won)

Sport

u13 fobisia team off to seoulBSB’s U13 FOBISIA teams departs for South Korea on Sunday to participate in the FOBISIA Games at the Seoul Foreign British School.

BSB is taking 27 students and after three days of competition they will return to Beijing on Wednesday in the afternoon.

We wish them a great competition. Go Bears! The team is:

Girls: - Jules Boering, Nina Dabrowska, Nicole Kee, Julia Kobiolka, Gennie Liu, Danielle Moore, Dorean Moyo, Jule Nestler, Laura Otero, Claire S Vermillion, Deborah Zand, Tomris Zand, Banu Zand

Boys: - Joseph Chew, Challey Choi, Warren Eben, Joonas Hannula, Chien Yu Huang, Andy Kim, Adam Lejhanec, Daniel Palmgren, Mikkel Schwarz, Jimmy Standing, Saku Vintola, Josh Warwick, Daito Watanabe, Mortiz Wendt

photos from the dragon cupHere’s some action from the recent Dragon Cup Football competition held at ISB, featuring our U19 Girls and Boys Football teams.