Archived News 201920 T2:2
Headteacher's News Sunday 5 April 2020
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And here is Efe in class 4.04, playing a piece by J S Bach for his Trinity Music Exam.
Well done to both our musical exhibitors this week, for keeping your practice and performance routine going during these unusual times, and for not letting the current situation interfere with your determination to achieve.
IMG_6982.m4vParent-teacher conferences: subject teachers
Many thanks to parents who found time to meet online with class/form teachers last week. Many productive discussions took place, about progress up to now, and targets to focus on for the next steps in learning.
We are aware that many parents would also welcome the opportunity to connect with subject teachers. To that end, we're going to run five-minute online conferences in the first week of term 3, from 19-23 April. Online appointments will be bookable via the portal at mis.thebsbh.com. The booking system will be open from Tuesday 7 April until 23:00 on Thursday 16 April.
Appointments will be available with subject teachers other than your child's class/form teacher, as we have just completed conferences with class/form teachers, in the closing days of term 2.
Some of our subject teachers teach up to 400 students, so appointments with those teachers may fill up quickly. If you find a teacher's schedule full and you really need a conference with that teacher, please let us know we shall make the necessary arrangements to accommodate you.
Many thanks for taking part on our online parent-teacher conferences. Clear, transparent communication between home and school is a key element of successful education.
Virtual learning in action
Here's Hala in class 3.10 at work on her studies in Virtual School. She has arranged her work space well, with the screen at a comfortable distance, and a notebook within easy reach. She has plenty of light and she has a tidy desk so she can focus on what she is doing. Books are nearby, so she can keep up with her reading when she has finished her school work. Thank you, Hala and parents, for sharing the photo.
Alizeh in class 6.08 has also arranged a work space conducive to effective study. She has a good sitting posture and a comfortable eye-screen distance. Like Hala's above, her desk is tidy and uncluttered, and she has a conventional notebook to hand so she can take notes during her live lessons throughout her schedule for the day.
Both the above students have attended all their virtual school classes, as have many others. Well done! Attendance at virtual school is really important while the school site is temporarily closed to students.
Activity, Happiness, Health!
Here's a message from Ms Gray, Head of PE in juniors.
As we approach the holidays, I would like to remind everyone of the importance of keeping active.
To give you an idea of how much exercise you should be getting, please click on this Physical Activity Recommendation document (US Department of Health) as it is a great guide for all ages. If you are not used to exercising, please consult a Doctor before undertaking physical activity.
We already know that exercise has many physical health benefits, such as strengthening muscles, strengthening bones, improving heart health, managing body weight to name a few, but are you aware of the mental health benefits? A health benefit that may not be so widely known, but incredibly important in the strange, limiting social times we are currently finding ourselves in, is the ability of exercise to release a chemical in our brains that makes us feel happy - endorphins. Ever felt good and at ease with the world after exercising? Thank endorphins for this! Endorphins are a chemical that our brain releases to fight stress. The release of endorphins during and after exercise can lead to lower levels of fatigue, depression and stress.
So what are you waiting for, get off the couch, step away from the fridge and enjoy being active and healthy with your children during the holidays. They are already ‘mini pros’ at this, so let them guide you and help you on your exercise journey this holiday.
Here is the PE Activity Logbook that your children have been using over the last few weeks, which should give you a range of ideas to use if you need them.
Above all, have fun, stay active and healthy!
Enjoy your holiday
Ms A Gray (Head of Junior PE)
Headteacher's Awards
Here are the latest awards. There really has been some terrific work going on in Virtual School. Keep it up, everyone!
In other news this week...
Holiday homework packs - Check out Google Classroom on Wednesday 8 April, for links to some optional activities to try at home, if anyone feels bored and in need of something to keep them occupied. All activities are optional, and will not be marked or graded, so please do not feel under any pressure.
Have a relaxing break - term 2 ends at 3pm on Wednesday 8 April. Term 3 begins on Sunday 19 April - looking forward to seeing everyone resuming their learning then. As far as we know, we shall still be operating Virtual School at that time.
Headteacher's News Sunday 29 March 2020
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Music meets Science
Yousif in class 5.08 made - and then played - his own musical instrument in virtual school, based on the factors that affect frequency of vibration.
Yousif Kazerooni 5.08 LO_ I can play a melody using various levels of water to change the pitch..MOV
Personal, social & health education
Mrs Halpin shared with me some super collaborative work done by classes 6.03 and 6.04 during Thursday's lesson. The students came up with excellent, positive advice on how to stay physically and mentally well as we spend our rather confined, isolated days at this unprecedentedly challenging time. I was also impressed by class 6.10 during my Thursday morning PSHE lesson - they showed a remarkably mature set of strategies for getting through difficult times, finding ways to support family members, promising themselves periodic treats through carefully-rationed online retail therapy, getting fresh air and exercise without compromising safety, and keeping busy to make good use of their time.
Virtually Enthusiastic Learners
I'm grateful to Dr Eman of the PCC for sending me these super pictures of her children, Ahmed 6.03, Yasmine 5.09 and Marya 3.09, busily at work on their virtual lessons. I continue to be extremely impressed by the upbeat, 'can-do' approach our students have taken to virtual school, although I know that everyone is keen to get back to normal operations as soon as possible. We welcome all feedback on how virtual school is going and we take everyone's viewpoint into account, to provide the best remote learning experience we can.
Chess.mp4Virtual break time
Social interaction is a vitally important part of normal school life. While we're operating remotely, it's still possible for children to interact socially without the need to meet in person. Check out this short video of two of our Year 5 students enjoying a game of chess over a live link.
Young Performers
BSB's traditional musical performances continue while we are operating virtually. Below you can see and hear Andrew 4.06 and Mason 6.08, playing their ABRSM pieces, grades 1 and 2 respectively. Great playing, boys! Watch this space for more contributions from BSB performers.
4.06 Andrew.MOV6.08Mason.m4v
Fygo 3.05 proudly displays his certificate
Headteacher's Awards
Congratulations to this week's awardees, all of whom have impressed their teachers with their commitment to trying their very best at virtual school, attending all lessons, getting their work in on time, and finishing it to a high standard. Keep up the great effort in virtual school - we'll see who's among the award winners next week.
Year 3 Virtual School Video b.mp4In other news this week...
Online parent-teacher meetings: Don't forget to sign up, if you haven't already, for an online appointment, via the portal at mis.thebsbh.com. Connection instructions have been sent by email. Most class teachers' online appointments will be on Tue 31 Mar and Wed 1 Apr. Online booking will be open until 12:00 noon on Mon 30 Mar.
Headteacher's News Sunday 22 March 2020
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Juniors Week 3.mp4Virtual School - An Explorative Adventure
We - that's everyone in the BSB community of students, parents, teachers, administrative and support staff - have completed our third week of Virtual School and are embarking upon our fourth. Following last week's announcement from HRH Prince Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, that school campuses and buildings must remain closed to students for an indefinite period, none of us knows how long the current situation will go on. However, for as long as it takes, we shall continue to provide the best we can in remote learning, and to listen to the views of our students and their parents.
The video comprises highlights of last week's remote learning. Our journey is explorative insofar as Virtual School is new to us all, and it takes time to fine tune an operation of this magnitude and complexity, to get it running smoothly and achieving the right objectives.
Many of our students and parents report that the workload of assignments and projects has been too heavy. Accordingly, we are reviewing that, while focusing on other ways of delivering lesson objectives and monitoring learning. We shall place greater emphasis on direct contact, via live streaming, between teachers and groups of students. We shall spend more time on Personal, Social and Health education, listening to what children have to say, and giving them a chance to tell us how they are doing. There will be fewer assignments to be completed each day. This will not reduce the amount of learning taking place. We intend that learning will actually increase, because students will feel less overloaded and will therefore function more productively. Students should focus on their core subjects of Arabic, English, Maths and Science, as well as the all-important PSHE that I mentioned earlier. If we can get the balance right, children should feel that their studies are continuing and they are able to make progress, without being swamped with too much. Please do keep telling us how it is going, for it is your valuable feedback that enables us to know how to improve.
Arabic Week
Our unstoppable Arabic department is going full steam ahead with Arabic Week during this time of remote learning. Check out these fliers and keep a close watch on Google Classroom for the week's special virtual events and activities.
Happy Mothers Day .mp4
The Soap and Water Song
Washing our hands has never been more important than now, as we do battle with viruses and work together to safeguard our health. Check out these videos, featuring photos of our very own Y3 and Y4 students showing us how hand washing should be done.
Soap and Water Year 4 BSB.wmvSoap and Water Year 3 BSB.wmvHeadteacher's Awards
Well done Khalid, Ricardo and Albert for excelling in the second and third weeks of Virtual School. Watch this space to see who's in the hall of fame next week.
In other news this week...
Staff training - virtual lessons will end at 1200 on Sunday 22 March, as teachers will be busy with online staff training meetings all afternoon on that day. Normal virtual school will resume on Monday morning, 23 March.
Learning target conferences - these are planned for 31 March and will take place online - your child's class/form teacher will update you on your child's progress and learning targets. More information to follow, including online appointment times and connection details.
Headteacher's News Sunday 15 March 2020
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Virtual BSB forges ahead
The school site is strangely quiet during these days of at-home teaching and learning. The best parts of the day are the times when I can join virtual classes, including the ones I teach myself, and glimpse something of the vibrancy, creativity and synergy that are the trademarks of our school. Although the cyber-domain of Virtual BSB is necessarily different from all being together in real school, it is still an environment conducive to learning, in which students and teachers can interact productively. It even has some advantages over real school, such as the accessibility of lesson materials and assignments, which persist in cyberspace long after the timetabled lesson slot has ended.
We are frequently asked how long the current arrangements at school will continue. At the moment, our plan is to resume normal school, with students in classrooms, on Sunday 29 March, as per the instructions we received a week ago. If that plan needs to be changed, we shall update the BSB community as soon as we are able to do so. The world is dealing with an unprecedented situation - a 'black swan event' that no-one saw coming, in the words of blogger Keith Woodford, Honorary Professor of Agri-Food Systems at Lincoln University, New Zealand. At such a time, we must all do the right thing as best we can, based on the information available to us at any given moment. By keeping up what routines we can, subject to the limits within which we have to work, we are able to maintain learning progress while doing the best we can to safeguard everyone's health.
"Some of my Google Classroom pages have disappeared!"
I've heard a few students say that, over the past few days. Please check out my blog post from Thursday 5 March, which you can find by scrolling down below. All the up-to-date Google Classroom codes can be found in the online master spreadsheet which was updated last weekend, as promised.
Head Teacher's Award
Last week's HT Award goes to Jood in class 4.03, who has been working really well in Virtual School, making sure her learning stays on track. Teachers will be looking out for students throughout Years 3 to 6 who are making a supreme effort and doing the best they can, as well as anyone achieving fantastic results. Let's see whose name comes up on the next award list.
Headteacher's News Thursday 5 March 2020
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Virtual School
The unpredictability of life can be the source of great opportunity. The BSB community, long renowned for a warm family atmosphere and strong team spirit, has come even closer together, despite our unavoidable physical fragmentation as we have all worked at home these past days. Students have done a fantastic job of keeping their learning going, using 21st century skills and technology to maintain communication with their teachers, lesson by lesson. The Gulf Daily News featured us today.
It is heartening to see children participating eagerly each day in virtual school video conferences. Although students are unanimously agreed that real school is better than virtual school, Google Apps and G-Suite allow electronic submission of assignments, for teachers to provide feedback, moving their learning forward. Together we have turned potential frustration into genuine fulfilment, as parents, teachers and children overcome obstacles and keep up the school's educational momentum. I'm only occasionally distracted by my dog bringing me her toys to play with while I'm working.
Virtual attendance in online lessons has been good this week. A few students have yet to take part. If your child has not yet logged in, please do make every effort to help them access the virtual school from Sunday. Lessons taught during the time of virtual school will not be repeated when normal school resumes. We shall have moved on to new learning by then. If there is any help you need from us to get connected to virtual lessons, please email your child's class/form teacher in the first instance.
Improvements to Google Classroom structure
In response to helpful feedback from parents, we are in the process of simplifying the network of Google Classroom pages, effective from Sunday morning, 8 March. Because some pages are used by large groups of children, e.g. all those studying a particular subject in one year group, the stream can become clogged with a high volume of posts, making it harder for children to find announcements and assignments relevant to them. Moreover, it means that each student has a lot of different pages to navigate.
To address that issue, we are going to move several subjects onto class/form Google Classroom pages. From a student's point of view, they will find most of their messages and assignments on one Google Classroom page. They will also find that only their classmates from their own form class are on that page, so the stream of comments should be less crowded. I don't think children will find it hard to adapt to the change; all they need to do is visit their form/class Google Classroom page each morning and most of what they need will be there. We shall update the master spreadsheet of Google Classroom access codes during the weekend, to reflect these changes.
To find their work, students should go to their form class Google Classroom page at the time of the lesson, and click Classwork at the top. Then, they should click on the appropriate subject in Topics on the left side
English
Maths
Science
Humanities
Art
PSHE
Computing
Music
Drama
French
PE
Subjects which have sets of students drawn from more than one class, such as Arabic, Islamic Studies, RE, Citizenship, Y3/4 extra French, Y3/4 extra Arabic and 1-hour PSHE, will continue to use the Google Classroom page structure they have been using this week. Those subjects will not be moved to form class pages.
If anything isn't clear, please email your child's class/form teacher or the subject teacher for the lesson, who will be pleased to point you in the right direction.
In other news this week
The planned Academies Concert, which had been scheduled for 12 March, has been postponed to a date yet to be decided.
Today is World Book Day - be sure to encourage children to read for pleasure this weekend.
Hand washing & hygiene - all too often, I hear comments from children, such as, "I don't need to wash my hands because I have hand sanitiser." As we know, and as doctors are reminding us via news media, thorough hand washing with soap and water is a powerful defence against COVID-19 and other pathogens. Hand sanitiser is great for the times when we can't access soap and water, but it is not a replacement. Let's make sure children get that message and stay safe. Furthermore, I've noticed, during online video lessons and meetings, that a lot of children and adults touch their faces frequently, probably without realising it. That's a habit we should aim to drop - touching our faces with unwashed hands is a common way of picking up respiratory viruses.
Blog moving to Sundays - instead of Thursdays, the blog will be published on Sundays, from the next edition onwards. Therefore, the next update will be Sunday 15 March.