Seniors latest news
Thursday 27th December 2018
Highlights from Year 7 trip
Thursday 13th December 2018
Signing off for 2018
Year 9 students have been working on storytelling and Mumming performance, and during several classes over a week they shared their humours and comic stories. The stories range from Ancient Greek to traditional fairy tales performances in an exaggerated and interactive way. Mumming performers would visit different homes telling traditional stories using bright costumes, masks, exaggeration, audience participation, song, dance and stock characters (evil, hero and narrator). The year nines shared their stories with each other in the main drama studio to much laughter! The main objective was to give the students' confidence and performance experience to prepare them for working on Shakespeare’s ‘Julius Ceasar’ next year, which should be a challenging and rewarding experience. Thank you to Mr Bissell for his work with the students on this.
There's also been a lot of productive work. Ms Friend, our History and Geography teacher covering Ms Timmer-Arends' maternity leave, has seamlessly integrated with our Humanities team and has become very popular with her students. Her Year 7 students have been studying medieval Europe in recent weeks, and it culminated this week in the creation of a fantastic display of models of castles and medieval houses, and posters explaining what life in the Middle Ages was like.
Y8 enjoyed an end of year rewards trip to MJ's bowling and all staff and students had a brilliant time! Miss Gay felt it was important to recognise the positive, hard working attitude that the students have demonstrated in Term 1.
National Day 2018.mov
Finally, National Day 2018 saw the school come together to celebrate the rich culture and heritage of Bahrain.
The school was awash with red and white in representation of the Bahrain flag and the day was packed with a variety of activities. Students enjoyed a Bahrain Challenge quiz, a wonderful exhibition which took onlookers through a journey of time on the island, and an assembly with dancing, singing and readings.
Thank you to the whole school Arabic faculty, Ms Khulood and Mrs Hunt for all their efforts in making the day such a success, and of course to our wonderful technicians, Mr Mike and Mr Nelson, for their IT support.
Please enjoy the video montage from the day, and thank you to Mrs Novak-Khamis for her beautiful painting on the occasion!
Mr McHugh, Mr Ridgway and Ms Jones would like to thank all students and staff for their hard work in Term 1, and wish our whole school community a well-deserved break!
Think Pink 2018
Today the 6th Form Charity Committee on behalf of the school presented a cheque to Mrs Julie Sparkel a representative from the Think Pink Bahrain Charity Association for 3269BD. As a school we have supported this worthy charity for many years and the amount raised this year beat last years total of 3082BD. Well Done BSB
Thursday 6th December 2018
Just one week to go!
A HUGE thank you to Ms Vardalia for organising an immensely successful and heartwarming fundraising and celebration programme for Bahrain's migrant workers, and in particular our own cleaners and security staff. The students worked immensely hard to make this a success - Ryle Hassett raised BD340 himself and many members of the Sixth Form aided Ms Vardalia in putting together the shoeboxes and bags for our workers and the wider community. Today the BSB cleaning and security staff enjoyed a meal and received gifts from a large number of our staff and students, who came down to say 'thank you' to arguably the hardest workers on the school site.
The BSB Senior School has donated almost BD400 to the appeal and we are proud to be supporting such a tireless group of men and women who keep our site safe and clean. We ask all parents and students to say hello to them, and thank them for their work. Speaking of tireless, Ms Vardalia has now spearheaded the Migrant Workers' Appeal at the BS for two years now and, like so many BSB teachers, she puts considerable time and effort into extra-curricular activities, charitable drives, and support for students that go way beyond her reponsibilities as a teacher. Mr McHugh was quite embarrassed today when some cleaners said thank you to him - Ms Vardalia was the star behind such a wonderful day, and she is the one to be thanked.
Meanwhile, sport continues to thrive at the BSB and in particular, our Senior Boys' teams are doing very well. What was impressive was just how many students and staff came to watch the basketball match between BSB and RVIS yesterday. BSB came away as convincing winners, but the ability and sportsmanship on both sides was what counted the most. Well done gentlemen, and keep it up!
Even though we are just a week away from the end of term, the BSB remains a busy, exciting and productive place to be. On Monday, Y7 and 8 girls going to the World School Games in February were invited to watch an interview with and to meet Sarah Al Sammak - Bahrain's first competitive female cyclist and founder of Cycling Bees Bahrain. Words Café (Budaiya Highway) and author of the book '#100 Bahrain Stories', Tanzeel Khadir, came together to showcase not only the book, but also Sarah's story. The BSB PE Department felt this was wonderful exposure for our female athletes, especially since inspiring opportunities like this rarely happen in Bahrain (and certainly not usually high-performing women)!
The students all had a great time listening to the interview, hearing about how Sarah was first introduced to cycling, and then overcame a lot of cultural barriers in Bahrain so she could follow and develop her passion for cycling. Sarah went on to ride in 4 continents and has won 15 medals in competitions around the Middle East and further afield. The girls were hanging on Sarah's every word and were particularly interested to hear about the Cycling Bees - Bahrain's first ladies' cycling club.
We wish Sarah lots of her luck in her up and coming 'impromptu' race - the 'Spinneys Dubai 92km Cycle Challenge', and you can learn more about Tanzeel's book and stories by liking the Facebook page '100 Bahrain Stories'.
This week our A-level students delivered a masterful theatre of cruelty performance using Edward Albee’s ‘Zoo story’ as a stimulus this is part of the A-level drama course and is examined. The Theatre of Cruelty is a form of theatre originally developed by French playwright, essayist, and theorist Henry Becque and developed by Antonin Artaud. The Theatre of Cruelty can be seen as a break from traditional Western theatre and a means by which artists assault the senses of the audience, and allow them to feel the unexpressed emotions of the subconscious. [Source: Wikipedia]
During this week Y10 IGCSE drama class have been sharing with the younger years some devised children's theatre. The IGCSE course requires them to use a stimulus ( Picture, object or poem) to create an original piece of theatre, this year the students prepared a comedy performance: Pantomime style: a theatrical entertainment, mainly for children, which involves music, topical jokes, and slapstick comedy and is based on a fairy tale or nursery story, usually produced around Christmas.
ANTI-BULLYING WEEK 2018 #ChooseRespect
This week has been Anti-Bullying Week in the Senior School. The focus and theme of this year' campaign is 'Choose Respect' over Bullying. The campaign has been led by our Senior School Community Ambassadors who planned a whole week of events. As a school we have a zero tolerance approach to any forms of bullying and this annual event is an important part of our school calendar.
Following a consultation with over 8000 children, teachers and members of the Anti-Bullying Alliance in the UK, it emerged that a top priority was showing that bullying is a behaviour choice, and that young people can set a positive example by opting to respect each other at school, online, in their communities and homes.
The aims of the week were to support students, school staff and parents at the BSB to understand:
The definition of respect
That bullying is a behaviour choice
That we all need to choose to respect each other both face to face and online
That we can respectfully disagree with each other i.e. we don’t have to be best friends or always agree with each other but we do have to respect and be civil to each other.
Odd Sock Day 2018
Today we held our annual " Odd Sock Day" in support of Anti Bullying week .It was an opportunity for students and staff to express themselves and celebrate their individuality.
We Choose Respect Pledge 2018
During break times today students, staff and other members of the BSB community joined together in signing the BSB 'We Choose Respect Pledge'. The signed pledge will now be displayed within the school as a reminder of our commitment to Respect all members of our Community.
The British School of Bahrain Anti Bullying Video 2018
Our School Community Ambassadors along with other members of our student body made an Anti Bullying video which was shown to all students during assemblies this week and also today during tutor time. Well done to the Community Ambassadors.
My Video-1.mov#Antibullyingweek2018
Miss Jones
Movember @ the BSB
Sunday 2nd December
Movember is an annual event involving the growing of moustaches during the month of November to raise awareness of men's health issues, such as prostate cancer. Khalid Almoayed a student in Year 12 took up the challenge of raising funds for this worthy cause. Khalid raised over 300BD for the Bahrain Cancer Society, well done Khalid.
Head Boy and Head Girl of Middle School
Thursday 29th November
We are pleased to announce that Joy Masri and Shiv Govind from Year 9 have been elected to the positions of Head Boy and Head Girl of the Middle School. They will sit on the Student Executive Committee along side the Head Boy/Head Girl of the Junior School and Zaher Al Mudhaweb and Zeina Galal who are the Head Boy and Head Girl of the whole school. As an Executive team they will meet with Mr Smith every half term to discuss matters relating to the student body.
Also Congratulations to Liam Marshall, Larissa Naghaway and Pok Rui Lai who have been elected to the positions of Head of Middle School Ambassador. They will represent Miss Jones on the Senior School Council. Well done to all.
Thursday 29th November
An Interview with Sarah Al-Sammak
On Monday, Y7 and 8 girls going to the World School Games in February were invited to watch an interview with and to meet Sarah Al Sammak - Bahrain's first competitive female cyclist and founder of Cycling Bees Bahrain. Words Café (Budaiya Highway) and author of the book '#100 Bahrain Stories', Tanzeel Khadir, came together to showcase not only the book, but also Sarah's story. The BSB PE Department felt this was wonderful exposure for our female athletes, especially since inspiring opportunities like this rarely happen in Bahrain (and certainly not usually high-performing women)!
We all had a great time listening to the interview, hearing about how Sarah was first introduced to cycling, and then overcame a lot of cultural barriers in Bahrain so she could follow and develop her passion for cycling. Sarah went on to ride in 4 continents and has won 15 medals in competitions around the Middle East and further afield. The girls were hanging on Sarah's every word and were particularly interested to hear about the Cycling Bees - Bahrain's first ladies' cycling club.
We wish Sarah lots of her luck in her up and coming 'impromptu' race - the 'Spinneys Dubai 92km Cycle Challenge', and you can learn more about Tanzeel's book and stories by liking the Facebook page '100 Bahrain Stories'.
Mrs McHugh
Wednesday 28th November
BSB 'enjoys' Marathon Relay!
The highly-popular annual running event promoting the value of team spirit and a healthy lifestyle across Bahrain took place on Friday 9th November, and the BSB proudly entered two teams - one staff, one student - to race against the other schools from around Bahrain. The day itself was very enjoyable with the clouds providing ideal running weather. The student team had a strong start with Omar Yehia completing his 2.6km in 9.44m, however the staff soon took over and seemed to accelerate into the distance (especially when there was a hiccough due to traffic and Lucas Moes clocked up an extra kilometer or so) until Ridwan Amozlouf got hold of the baton! Ridwan caught up with and overtook Mrs Smith on leg 13, completing the 3.1km in an impressive 10.12m. In the end, the students finished just ahead of the staff team. Congratulations to all our runners, listed below, and our fantastic support team of Mr Graham, and Mr and Mrs Marshall who were absolute stars!
Students (finished 73rd)
Omar Yehia
Aseel Al Araibi
Isla Caulfield
Tayla Finch
Tala Al Ajjawi
Eva McAuliffe
Zein Saeed
Zuhair Khan
Ali Hamad
Lucas Moes
Nathan Taylor
Maryam Ghuloom
Ridwan Amozlouf
Ahmad Almassri
Hamzah Chaudhry
Liam Marshall
Staff (finished 83rd)
Mr Graham
Mr Smith
Mrs Smith
Ms Turner
Mr McHugh
Mr Ibn-T
Mr Doyle
Mr Gorick
Mr Rule
Ms Perkins
Ms Williams
Mr Swick
Mr Brennan
Mr Garwe
Mr Ali
Ms Myburgh
Wednesday 28th November
World Scholar' Cup
Mr Motara and Ms Bouroubi returned this week after a week long adventure at Yale University. Their comprehensive report is available for your reading pleasure. A massive congratulations to all of the students, Mr Motara, Ms Bouroubi and also Ms Hughes-Swick for their success. The whole school are very proud of all of you!
World Scholars' Tournament of Champions.pdfThursday 22nd November
The importance of effective study
This week, Smayan, Neha and Kamal from Year 12 presented to our Year 10 students, on the topic of studying hard. It is great to see our older students helping those beginning their GCSE journey, and the tips they provided them are so good, we thought we should share them with parents so that you can use them to support your own child(ren) at home.
After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb. Nelson Mandela.pdf
We would also like to draw your attention to a worthy cause being promoted by Ms Cullen, to help the setting up of a library in Kenya, Africa. If you have any 'outstanding condition' books at home, or would like to purchase them, you can deliver them to any of the locations mentioned in the flyer, which is attached.
Finally, sincere apologies to Mr Holmes, who sent us loads of pictures from the end of half term disco for Year 7 students... and then we forgot to add them sooner! Here they are, finally!
Buy a Book for Charity! Poster.pdf
Thursday 15th November
Swimming Success
Saif Tohami (8A) took part in the Nautilus Annual Swim Meet that took place in Muscat, Oman over the weekend 8-10th November, 2018. This was a 50M (long course, 8 Lanes) swimming pool at Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex, Muscat. Saif represented Bahrain Swimming Academy under the umbrella of Bahrain's Swimming Association.
The competition attracted a large number of participants from different GCC countries like Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait and the host country Oman, competing in different age categories and different competitive classes as well (Professional and Amateur). Saif competed in the higher category (the Professional one) and achieved the following results:
Saif participated in 6 professional races (in the 11-12 Age category) and achieved 6 different medals in all the races he participated in (3 Gold Medals, 1 Silver, 2 Bronze). He obtained his gold medals in 50M, 100M & 200M (Breast Stroke), his silver medal in 100M (Freestyle) and his bronze medals in 50M & 200M (Freestyle).
We are very proud of the boys' achievements and are sure that all members of the community will join us in congratulating Saif.
BSB Senior School Blog Inter House update .pdf
Cyber Safe Assembly Key Stage 3 Cyber Safety @the BSB
This week at the BSB we have been focusing on Cyber Safety with our Key Stage Three students. During Assemblies students have been participating and engaging in interactive presentations where the focus has been on educating them about safety on line, rules of social media, cyber-bullying and the effect on people, respect on line and the importance of thinking before posting something. Thank you to the KS3 Head' of Year for leading upon this important topic. #Stop block tell &#Create no hate
Please find attached the presentation shown to the students and also a link to video used in the assemblies.
Thursday 8th November
Creativity and activities galore
The new half term started with a bang, as students across all many year groups got involved in the wide range of activities being offered.
Commedia dell’Arte (which translates as “theatre of the professional”) began in Italy in the early 16th Century and quickly spread throughout Europe, creating a lasting influence on Shakespeare, Molière, opera, vaudeville, contemporary musical theatre, sit-coms, and improv comedy. The legacy of Commedia includes the first incorporated (i.e. professional) theatre company, the first European actresses, and many of the themes and storylines still enjoyed by audiences today. If you have seen an episode of Mr. Bean or watched Charlie Chaplin movies you have seen commedia dell arte at work. This week AS students have been entertaining the school community performing (Latzzi/o) a short comic interlude that was used in commedia to entertain and engage audiences. Later on, next term year 8 students will be involved in a completion involving this style of theatre.
Our Year 11, 12 and 13 art students had an exciting opportunity to be part of a community arts project with Artreach Bahrain. Under the guidance of Art Reach members, we were invited to explore the wonderful world of mosaic and create artwork for a garden display at the Children’s Psychiatric hospital. It was a very relaxing afternoon and our piece will be joined together with other schools and members of the community in one joint piece for the children and visitors to enjoy.
Over the half term holiday, our Year 11 Geographers travelled to Cyprus to conduct field work, ably led and supported by our Dream Team of Dr Slater, Mr Sheikh and Ms Cullen. The trip was a resounding success, with our students adapting well to a very different work environment, and both staff and students showing flexibility when the field centre needed to change their plans for our group slightly. Our sincere thanks to all staff who helped, but especially Dr Slater who planned and led such a fantastic trip.
One trip ends, and preparation for another begins. It was great, and at times a little amusing, to watch our students grapple with poles and guidelines as they practiced setting up tents in preparation for their Duke of Edinburgh trip to Dubai and Oman. Despite our initial amusement, the students quickly got to grips with the process, and while they should expect decent weather on their travels, their speed should stand them in good stead should they ever travel to the UK for camping in the wet, British Summer weather...
Finally, continuing our fantastic track record in supporting local, national and international charities. Several Year 9 and 10 students organised a charity bake sale to raise funds for the Tony the Dog father Charity. They raised over BD200 for this worthwhile charity.
