Throughout the Infant School children take great delight in, and learn much, from role play. For three year olds, role play at the 'doctor's surgery' or 'beauty salon' is a great way for children to develop and practise new vocabulary in a safe enviroment.

Role playing superheroes, unicorns, dinosaurs and princessess can help children to develop empathy and identify good from bad. There is also no doubt that a superhero cape can encourage bravery!

As well as being fun, using imagination in role play improves creativity and original thought.

As ever, teachers and assistants led the way by modelling role play for Year 2 Explorers Day. Children roleplayed Christopher Columbus, Jacques Cousteau, Valentina Tereshkova and many more.

I hope you enjoy the selection of video submissions as much as we did! Many thanks to all families who supported children's creativity on the costume front.

Today is my birthday. I shall, of course, mark the occasion with a low key, socially distanced, family celebration this year. As I always do, I will think of my parents. The story of my birth, which would always start with the fact that on the day I was born the snowfall in England was the heaviest ever, became increasingly dramatic over the years. I now have a clear picture of my poor father stranded in a telephone box all night, praying. It was too dangerous to drive to the hospital and the snow was so thick that he couldn't open the door of the telephone box. What the exact truth is, I will never know!

One thing I am sure of is that the decisions made by my parents all those years ago contributed enormously to the way my life has turned out. My father was late in life to consider an expatriate posting. He was already in his late forties when he accepted a job with Bahrain Petroleum Company. Altruistic and unmaterialistic through and through, he was very clear in his mind why he chose to uproot the family and move to Bahrain. He did not particularly like hot weather and Bahrain, although magical in many ways, was relatively unsophisticated in 1979. However, Bapco offered an exceptionally good educational package for his three children - education at a boarding school at that.

I still remember the pain of parting at Bahrain airport (2:45 am is a particularly brutal time for any flight to take off!). As a twelve year old, I would have preferred to have stayed in Bahrain with my family rather than flying to the other side of the world for the start of a new term. He was however determined, "But it's a good education - no one can take it away from you."

I was generally happy at the boarding school but I can't pretend it was always easy. In fact there were times when it was exceptionally hard and I was desperately homesick. But, was it worth it? Yes. Absolutely. One hundred per cent.

Is educating children at the BSB hard at the moment? Yes, without a doubt. Online learning is hard for teachers, hard for children and hardest of all for parents. Is it worth it? Yes, without any shadow of a doubt. My father's words come to mind - education is something that cannot be taken away from you.

I thank parents for their continued support during these difficult times as we continue to strive to provide the best possible education for the students. Something that will stay with them all their lives.

I hope you enjoy the photographs from an uplifting and innovative Book Week! An enormous thank you to all who contributed.

Book Week:

We look forward to celebrating Book Week and dressing up for Character Day next Thursday.

In addition to this, there are additional live story times, hosted by some very special readers at the following times. Links will be found on the Remote Learning Blog. Don't forget to tune in....

Although we have missed our colleagues in Juniors and Seniors on campus for part of this week, we were delighted to be able to increase outdoor learning opportunities for children in Infants in their absence. The glorious weather and the freedom to make the most of the vast astroturfed area has been a huge boost to spirits, as teachers continue to imagine new ways for children to have fun in safe, socially distanced ways.

The positive impact of increased outdoor time has led us to plan Spirit Week for all children in Infants next week. The focus will be on keeping each other cheerful and relaxed, with a positive growth mindset.

Each year group will have their own Spirit Day and the schedule is as follows;

Sunday 24th January- Nursery Spirit Day

Monday 25th January- Reception Spirit Day

Tuesday 26th January- Year 1 Spirit Day

Wednesday 27th January- Year 2 Spirit Day

I do not wish to detract from the powerful element of surprise for the children. At this stage, all they need to know is that they should wear P.E. kit on their allocated Spirit Day!

Children who are learning remotely will also celebrate Spirit Day and I hope the occasion gives us all a reason to share some smiles!

Bahrain Young Performers Virtual Festival

It is with great excitement that we are now able to announce the first ever Virtual Bahrain Young Performers’ Festival, hosted by the British School of Bahrain. As in previous years, the event will be a competitive festival with a variety of opportunities to celebrate the diverse talents of young performers across Bahrain.

Entry to the competition will be by video submission via the online Google Form. The 1st and 2nd Rounds your videos will be judged by international performing artists and teachers with experience in each category and age group. We are pleased to state that the virtual format will make it possible for each entrant to receive a short written critique of their performance from the judges.

The Grand Final will be a live, socially distanced event for participants and their families only. Prizes will be awarded to the winners alongside digital certificates for all those involved.

To promote social distancing and COVID-19 precautions, this year’s competition will involve only individual performances with various categories for singers and instrumentalists, actors, public speakers/poetry recitalists & dancers. We are also delighted to be introducing a Musical Theatre category, especially for those talented stage performances!

Here is a letter with full details of the Bahrain Young Performers Virtual Festival.

There is no doubt that this past year has been an emotional roller-coaster for many families.

Difficult decisions have had to be made as we have adapted to a new normal and done all we could to keep family members safe. There is much talk of the effects of the pandemic on mental health. Even though not everyone has been infected by COVID-19, everyone has been affected in some way. Developing emotional intelligence for our children is important for their well-being. In order for them to be able to read and understand the feelings of others, they must first be able to interpret their own.

Feelings and emotions were the focus of assemblies and PHSE lessons this week. We were very pleased to receive the children's responses to the challenges set.

It is a pleasure to begin 2021 with an enormous thank you!

We are very grateful to the maintenance and facilities team, the IT team, the cleaning team and the security team who have worked tirelessly over the break to ensure that classrooms were set up with the appropriate safety protocols for the return to campus of classes N3, R6, 1.8, 1.9, 2.7 and 2.8.

I would also like to thank you, the parents, for your support at drop off and pick up time this week as we have had to adapt the logistics to keep the larger cohort of children safe. Nearly all parents have done their utmost to minimise their time on campus, encouraging children to be dropped off independently.

Whilst it is a shame to have to sacrifice many of the conversations, greetings and general passing time of day with other parents that are a part of the fabric of a school community restraint has meant that traffic is flowing smoothly and children leave and enter school in a safe, socially distanced manner.

We have also witnessed some moments of great thoughtfulness - parents who have perhaps a little more free time starting to use the satellite parking to ease congestion and parents who bring a little slip of paper with their child's name on to save time at the Stop and Collect.

There is a general sense that although we would all love to take things a little more slowly, and enjoy conversations with each other at the end of the day, the community is pulling together and doing what needs to be done to keep the children learning and to keep the community safe. Thank you!

Now that there are so many classes learning on campus, it is probably worth reminding families that the resources on the Remote Learning Blog are still available for your use. I strongly recommend that all families continue to use the Remote Learning Library.

The power of reading to our children is never, ever to be underestimated!