International School Tag

As I look back on the early days of an academic year, I am always amazed at how far we have come. This year is no different. Despite the huge challenges of a pandemic no one was prepared for, my students improvised, adapted and marched on.  Their innate resilience and positive energy is what makes my day as a teacher.

This term, the Year 7’s learned to describe their city, ask about places in town, make and respond to invitations and talk about the weather. The Year 8’s are learning about the city of Barcelona, what there is to see and do there, all types of shops and what can be bought there.

We are now learning to ask and give directions. The Year 9’s are travelling around the world, describing past holidays, and planning future destinations, including making reservations for different types of accommodation.

The Year 11’s have researched the topic of ‘The Environment’ and we are discussing how, as individuals, we can contribute to a more sustainable way of life.

The Year 10’s and Year 13’s are now writing their external IGCSE and A Levels exams. I wish them all the very best and I extend my good wishes to all BIS students for the final exams.

Elena Berger
High School Spanish Teacher

In KS2 we had a Restaurant seating in the class, created a menu.  We went shopping looking for clothes, made hotel reservations and visited a travel agency to prepare our trip to one of the 21 Spanish speaking countries.

The KS1 students introduced their families, describing the clothes that they were wearing, naming the rooms in the house, and increasing their vocabulary in a fun way through the Rockalingua songs and games.

The students have been involved in real life communication situations, by allowing and making sure that their natural strategies for language acquisition are used. This has opened them up to learning and using the language.

As a result, the students, especially in Year 5 and 6, can see that what they are learning is useful.

Setting up different situations that students are likely to encounter in real life, like everyday conversations about the weather, your hobbies or the family, reading comics and telling stories using the vocabulary and topics that we are working on, have allowed them to learn in a more natural way.

I would like to continue working next year trying to increase the responsibility to participate in the lessons using the TPRS methods (Teaching proficiency through reading and storytelling), for the students to gain confidence in using the Spanish language.

Additionally, we also encourage the students to take more responsibility for their own learning, helping us create the appropriate and relaxed atmosphere needed for this second language acquisition process to be more successful.

Javier Vidal
Junior School Spanish Teacher

We gave our Year 4 students a special assignment in art: “If you could see the year 2020 in January through magical glasses…”

The result was captivating! We expected our students to reflect on home schooling, Covid-19, masks, the earthquake, etc. To be honest we expected a very different reflection of 2020, but our students surprised us…

They drew happy pictures, showing family life, ice-cream, games and party hats. Most prominent was rainbows of hope.

Once again, they’ve taught us how resilient children are to change. Our kids are happy and hopeful despite the difficulties we faced this year.

We are incredibly proud of our 2020 Year 4 students.

Marlize Keyser
Year 4 Teacher

Students are taught how to tell time somewhere between the ages of 6 and 8. We teach them how to read the hands of the clock and how to tell the seconds from minutes. They often get so excited to learn about telling the time that they forget the mere value in it.

Without realising it, in teaching time, we are giving them the understanding for a lifelong lesson in the value of composure, stability and patience.

This week our Year 2’s have been learning all about time!

We worked around the clock looking at how to tell which lessons we are in and how long we spend on those lessons, when break times are and how long those go on for.

Our aim is getting our students to become more aware of their surroundings and the various time restraints we live in as well as the value in learning patience.

We also tested our memory by filling in some worksheets in and doing some practical work within the classroom.

Some great ways to practice learning about time at home with your children:

• Look through a calendar.
• Set alarms for homework times.
• Look at a digital clock together.
• Have fun in making a clock together!

Siobhan Hendry
Year 2 Teacher

We focused on various problem-solving skills as the importance of students being able to interpret algorithms to discover what works and what doesn’t, is a valuable skill in all spheres of learning. The discovery of different solutions to various problems encourages and stimulates creativity in students.

Thinking about the 2020 pandemic, we realise how technology has progressed in leaps and bounds to connect us to our everyday tasks. We are mindful of the science involved to get us to this point.

Questions that lead to algorithms ultimately lead to new technological developments. If I look at what was achieved in such a short time span, I can only be excited about future developments.

Who knows, our next major development could be from one of our very own students.

Gemayel  Kroukamp
Computer Science Teacher

Karsten van Zandvoort sadly left our class in June. He has now been enrolled in a school in Ravenstein, Netherlands. His mother contacted me during the September holidays to ask if we would be interested in meeting his class. We arranged for a class-to-class Google meet, for last Friday. To introduce ourselves and our school, the students of Year 4CS made the special videos you can view below.

On Tuesday, we received a picture of Karsten’s class watching one of our videos. His class was very excited. Then on Wednesday, I received an email – due to the spike in Covid cases in the Netherlands, we have to reschedule our meeting to 30 October. In the meantime we sent our well wishes.

We simply can’t wait to share our classroom experiences with our new friends in the Netherlands!

WATCH THE STUDENT COMPILED VIDEOS HERE:

The world today is under constant threat, not only against Covid-19, but also due to the fact that our environment is slowly becoming an unsafe place to live.   The Year 2 classes have been learning about the different types of pollution and how we can each contribute towards lessening the impact of pollution.  They have learned about water, air and land pollution and made posters to describe the different types of pollution with solutions they can help implement. “Pollution is something introduced into the environment that is dirty, unclean or has a harmful effect. Toxic waste dumped into the water is an example of pollution. The contamination of air, water, or soil by substances that are harmful to living organisms.” (Oxford Dictionary)

 

“Pollution should never be the price of prosperity.”  Al Gore

 

Kim Coetzer
Year 2 Teacher

In Reception Year we have been learning all about the farm. This theme is always a favourite as the students have lots of stories about their own personal experiences in visiting different farms, from milking cows to collecting eggs. We asked the students to tell us some of their favourite things about the farm.

This is what they shared:

“I like the horses because whenever I see them I want to ride them. I love it!’ (Daniel Beer)

“My favourite is the cows because they make milk. I like milk” (Muhammad Zaeem Allie)

“My favourite is the pigs because they are funny when they roll around in the mud.” (Olu Mbeki)

“I saw all the different animals but I like the cows because I like milk” (Aubrey Moodley)

“I like the baby goats because they are also kids” (Cayden Floor)

“I like the sheep because they can make t-shirts with their fur’ (Kirby Melvin)

Monique Meyer
Reception Year Teacher