Juniors Archived News 2020-2021 Term 2:2
Headteacher's News Thursday 18 March 2021
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Lessons in sets - Years 5 and 6 - an experiment
Lessons such as Arabic, Citizenship/PSHE, and Islamic Studies/RE, that are taught to sets of students from several form classes, present a particular challenge during blended school. For safety, we remain in our class bubbles throughout the day and we cannot mix into sets for lessons. So, teachers move from classroom to classroom part-way through a lesson, to teach the members of their set who are in different classes. This makes the lesson quite fragmented for the children.
Following very helpful feedback from parents, we are going to try an experiment in Years 5 and 6. When school was fully remote, we found that the lessons in sets worked far better, because children could spend the whole lesson connected to their own set's teacher. That can still work in blended school, if students who are studying in school bring a pair of earbuds or headphones, along with their device. Then, each set can connect with the right teacher, even though they are in different rooms. Let's not rush to judge this idea until we've tried it - we can start on Sunday if everyone in Years 5 and 6 remembers their earbuds or headphones, on days when they have a subject lesson that is taught in sets.
Safe arrival, safe learning, safe departure
Education is an unmissable element of a young person's life. At BSB, students, parents and staff work together to keep learning on track, come what may. Over the past calendar year, we have developed our Blended Learning provision and our students have gone from strength to strength.
We must also keep safe, not just while we are in school, but while arriving each morning and departing each afternoon. BSB Junior students are well practised at arriving, through the canteen gate, from 7.15am onward, maintaining distance, sanitising hands and passing through the temperature check point. The system works, because everyone takes their time and keeps their distance from everyone else.
I need to see the same excellent practice, please, at the end of each afternoon when we go home. The pedestrian area near the pickup u-turn becomes quite busy, with lots of people passing through, for approximately 5 or 10 minutes per afternoon. After that, the area is deserted. All it takes, to maintain distancing at that busy time, is for everyone to agree not to walk into a populated area until it has cleared. That entails, if the area ahead of you is filled with people, holding back for a moment or two until the people ahead have moved on. I know that means a minute or two longer until getting home, but that is a small price for the safety benefit it confers, at the time of this global situation. We have looked into various alternatives, such as dividing gateways into one-way halves; however, we must take care not to create even narrower pinch-points where distancing would be nigh impossible. Thanks to everyone in anticipation of helping us keep spread out at pickup time.
When driving within school grounds, please
maintain adequate separation from the vehicle ahead of yours, and
ensure all persons in your vehicle are properly restrained by seat belts, most certainly not leaning from the windows of moving cars.
Bahrain Young Performers Festival
The GRAND FINAL is tonight, Thursday 18 March, and the results will be announced at 9.30pm.
Here are all the links to the results so far:
BYPF 1st Round Results & Preparatory Winners
BSB students who have reached the final:
Level 1
Xavier Carter - VOICE - British School of Bahrain
Level 2
Anumita Chaudhry - VOICE - British School of Bahrain
Veda Varma - POETRY RECITAL - British School of Bahrain
Nirvan D’Souza - PIANO - British School of Bahrain
Efe Yildirim - PIANO - British School of Bahrain
Level 3
Jennika Elyannah L. Bangunan - VOICE - British School of Bahrain
Ali Adil Alkhalifah - PIANO - British School of Bahrain
Level 4
Salma Bitar - DANCE - British School of Bahrain/Victoria Dance
Formula One Question Competition
Children aged under 13, all over Bahrain, are invited to enter an exciting competition - think of a question you would like to ask a Formula 1 driver, and email it to media@bic.com.bh.
Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) and Formula 1 have collaborated to give children under 13, who are residents of Bahrain, the opportunity to ask a question to an F1 driver during a global broadcast press conference!
This question, together with the driver’s answer, will be broadcast across the world to the hundreds of millions of fans tuning in to the F1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix race weekend from all four corners of the globe.
What is the one question you have always wanted to ask your driver heroes? It doesn’t even need to be about motorsport. It can be funny, different or just a burning question that you think the whole world needs to hear the answer to.
To enter the competition, e-mail media@bic.com.bh with your written question. The best 10 questions will be selected for broadcast with a video recording arranged with BIC.
The final day for accepting entries is Monday, March 22 and entry is only permitted to Bahrain residents under the age of 13.
Junior Duke Award
Special congratulations to Saad in class 3.04, who gained his Bronze certificate, and Valentina in class 4.04, who attained her Silver certificate, in the Junior Duke Award. The award scheme is about gaining valuable life skills while having fun, and that chimes harmoniously with our goals and values at BSB. These two students are proud to be our first certified achievers in the scheme; it is my hope that they will inspire others, who signed up for the programme earlier this school year, to reach the same standard. Very well done indeed.
Head Teacher's Awards
Very well done to all of this week's awardees, who have earned their certificates in so many ways. Education is a vital part of modern life; students' effort and achievement deserve recognition as we work together to keep learning going, through these challenging times. Please have a safe and restorative weekend.
Headteacher's News Thursday 11 March 2021
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Return to Blended School
'Let us in!' I hear students clamour, as they try their best to break out of the Zoom screen and back into the real classroom. At last, we are able to do just that. Education is the essential foundation of all our futures, as tomorrow's adults sail further on the unexplored ocean of their learning journey. The educational voyagers of today have certainly earned their sea legs, adapting to the ever-shifting, stormy waves and tempestuous winds of the current global situation.
There has been an increase in the number of students whose parents wish them to attend school in person, rather than online. Inevitably, as we have to maintain distancing in the classroom, that means a reduction in the number of days per week in school, in some classes. Safety remains our top priority. During this weekend, parents will be sent a personalised email. Parents who opted, in the December survey, to send their child into school for the second half of this term, will be notified which days their child can attend school. Parents who opted for fully remote learning will receive confirmation of that.
As always at BSB, whatever the circumstances, learning goes ahead.
Online Parent-Teacher Conferences: Years 3 to 6
We are pleased to announce online parent-teacher conferences with class/form teachers, during next week, 14-18 March. The booking system is open now and will remain open until 23:59 on Saturday night, 13 March. At your online meeting, your child's class/form teacher will relay information on how your child is doing in their various subjects.
There will be further online conferences, with specialist subject teachers, after the spring holiday. Booking details will be sent to you a little nearer the time.
Head Teacher's Awards
Congratulations to this week's award winners. Keep up the great work, everyone! Have a pleasant weekend. We look forward to seeing you next week.
Headteacher's News Thursday 4 March 2021
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World Book Day 2021
This week's lavishly literary activities have led up to World Book Day, when we traditionally dress up as our favourite book characters. Reading is an essential life skill and, like many such skills, it's something should never stop getting better at, no matter how old we are. Mr Maguire took on the persona of The Demon Headmaster. I had great fun dressing up as Nogbad The Bad for the junior online assemblies. Special thanks to Ms Rogers and Ms Moore, the leaders of English teaching in the junior school, for putting together the week's programme, and to parents, staff and students for making it all work so wonderfully. Perhaps as never before, education is especially vital at this time; a lifeline thread of continuity amid the turbulence of the global status quo. Far from being less important, special events like Book Week ensure that learning remains undiminished, whatever the circumstances under which we operate. Please enjoy this Google photo album of Character Day costumes.
Ammar in class 5.08 created a storyboard especially for Book Week, about a rather selfish king who set his carpenter an impossible task. I'm looking forward to seeing Ammar's graphic novels in print, in a few years' time. A great start to your authorial career, Ammar, and a well-deserved Head Teacher's Award is yours, below.
Smooth Operators
Year 6 students have had a super-healthy week, fuelling up each morning before their PE workouts, on Healthy Smoothies. A well-made smoothie contains natural unrefined sugars for energy, and lots of fibre for a healthy digestive system and strong circulation. Check out this super-smooth Google photo album.
Update from the Juniors' Librarian
Last week, Mr Hesham posted a video by Ms Bedoor Khalaf, a Bahraini author of children's stories. Here is a link to Ms Bedoor's website, where you can find out more about her books. https://bedoorkhalaf.com/
VID_20210213_113951.mp4Ibraheem Omar's Magic Cube
Ibraheem Omar in class 5.07 has been learing origami in his spare time. He kindly sent me this video clip of his Magic Cube, which I hope you enjoy.
Head Teacher's Awards
Congratulations to all of this week's award winners. Keep pushing those standards up, so learning never stops and we all aim to do the very best we can. Have a safe and restful weekend.
Headteacher's News Thursday 25 February 2021
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COBIS Coding Challenge
Message from Mrs Drennan
Huge congratulations to all those eager Computer coders who have been participating in the Upper COBIS Coding Challenge Competition over the past few months.
It has been a challenging competition. Students had to complete a series of 12 prior lessons on Discovery Education to prepare them for using this type of block coding.
Once they had completed Level 1 - Level 6 then they had to sit a quiz where they had to score 7 out of 10 or above to make it through to the next round.
Once in the competition the students had to design a working tool app that would help someone perform a task or solve a problem. They used block coding to create this app and then submitted their task.
All students that completed these steps earned themselves a participation certificate. We are all very excited to hear the winners announced on the 22nd of April 2021.
Good luck, everyone!
Ms Bedoor Khalaf - Local Author
Message from Mr Hesham, Junior Librarian
Ms Bedoor Khalaf is a children's author from Bahrain. We have copies of her books in the BSB library. Mr Hesham will be reading the books in Library lessons next week. Here is a video that Ms Bedoor made especially for the BSB community. Reading, and listening to stories, are great ways to spend our time when we can't get into physical school, and reading keeps our learning and language skills going too.
VIDEO-2021-02-21-22-09-02.mp4
Mahatva masters spelling
Mahatva in class 3.02 was featured in the blog earlier this term, following his commendable performance in an online Speed Maths Challenge. Well, he's been active again, this time in an online Spelling Bee Challenge, where gained second place in his category.
Well done, Mahatva. Super achievement.
Head Teacher's Awards
Here are this week's awards. Well done, everyone, and keep up the splendid work.
