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Mr Ridgway's update

As we close the doors on term 1 we can look back with a huge amount of pride. This final week has been as productive as the first, with a great balance between learning in the classroom and enrichment activities outside the classroom. In addition to the Bahrain football team winning the GCC Cup we had our Year 8 rewards trip, Year 9 options evening, whole school winter concert and concluded the term with the magnificent Bahrain Day celebration. I have never seen excitement at the level of today's assembly when the one and only flipperachi entered to surprise our students. His words were very wise and inspirational. Finally, best of luck to our Year 13 students who are interviewing with Oxford and Cambridge Universities over the coming days; you have done incredibly well to get this far and they will be lucky to have you.

I want to say a big thank you to all of the BSB staff, students, parents and community members for making this school what it is and I thoroughly look forward to next term.

Wishing everyone safe travels and a pleasant winter break.

Mr Ridgway

Head Teacher Commendation

This week's Head Commendations went to these fine Year 12 students who have been recognised by Edexcel for their fantastic GCSE results.

Salma Sarkis - Top mark in Bahrain - Double Award Science

Hassan Khan - Top Mark in Bahrain - English Literature

Xena Al Ajjawi - Top Mark in Bahrain - Business & Physics

Basil El Said - Top Mark in Bahrain - Biology

Loobdhak Dey Argho - Highest Mark in Bahrain - English Language

- Highest Mark in the Middle East - Computer Science

- Highest Mark Internationally - Computer Science

Congratulations to all students for this amazing achievement, which will be further rewarded next term.

Winter Concert

We were treated on Wednesday evening to a variety of musical talents and performances from across the whole school. It was a wonderful celebration of the talents of our students from infants, juniors and seniors, and a rare chance for us to come together as one school.

Year 9 Rewards

The trip may have been postponed to January thanks to the success of the Bahrain football team, but that didn't stop Ms Gay holding her rewards assembly on Tuesday morning. A phenomenal number of students being recognised by their teachers for great work throughout this term. Well done to all.

As we approach the end of this term there are no signs of the momentum we have built slowing down. Staff and students alike were in awe this morning as we welcomed visits from World Class athletes who are in Bahrain for this weekend's Ironman Triathlon event. We were first joined by Chloe McCardel, who holds the World Record for the longest ever open water swim, at 128km. She has also swam the English channel on 29 occasions. We were then joined by triathletes Jan Frodeno, an Olympic and World Champion, Daniela Ryf, 4x World Triathlon and 4x Ironman 70.3 World Champion and Ashleigh Gentle, World #2 ranked ITU triathlete. They answered student questions about their sporting career and school life and posed for photos, much to the delighted of all who were lucky enough to meet them. Year 7 students went on their rewards trip to Funland today and drama students have been completing their final performances to various audiences across the school. We have also had student sporting success with Faris and Saif Tohami winning gold medals at a swimming event in Saudi Arabia, representing Bahrain, along with Yasmeen Ahmed represented the Bahrain Women's football team. Maybe one day these three students will be visiting schools as the World leading athletes.....

Wishing you all a pleasant weekend.

Mr Ridgway

This week's Head Teacher commendations were given to the 6th form environmental committee, who did such an amazing job in organising the Green week. Not stopping there, plans are in full swing with a recycling agreement to be signed shortly along with initial meetings to look at making our own compost from food waste. Exciting times ahead for this group of passionate, committed young leaders.

A Level PE students took their learning to the Rugby Club this week as part of their unit on training methods. They were able to experience the facilities to explore both weight and plyometric training.

A few short clips from the Year 7 rewards trip. A full report will be included next week.

Movember

The students led a Movember initiative, which came to an end this week with lots of fundraising and activities. The PCC, staff and students came together on Tuesday and Wednesday for staff v students volleyball, a bake sale, beard and moustache makeovers and sponge the teacher. A big thank you to everyone involved from the charity committee, but special thanks to Kaviesh Kinger and Tamara Almoayed who took a lead on this initiative. Final charity totals and donations will be announced shortly.

Hero Door Challenge

Year 7 & 8 students have been busy decorating their form room doors as part of the superhero challenge set by the Year 12 psychology class over the last few weeks. I began the tough task of judging today with Year 8, who came up with some excellent ideas. The Year 8 winners will be announced next week in assembly, followed by the Year 7 judging process.

INTERNAL CONFERENCE: MUN held on 19 November

Imagine the drama room with rows of chairs and desks - delegates seated with placards of their country in front of them. Not what you would usually see in a drama room but this was the setting for our first internal MUN conference this year. The stage was the perfect platform for the chairs to oversee and for the delegates to deliver their speeches. Although, no drama unfolded, there was lively debate as 23 students practiced the skills they had learnt in the after-school MUN club. For some, this was indeed “baptism of fire”- the first time that they had to deliver an opening speech.

The executive committee did a great job in organizing the event and keeping track of student’s progress. This information was used to inform the awarding of trophies. I was impressed by the dedicated and commitment of students, who after a full school day, were still engaged at 7.15 in the evening! The conference ended with pizza and awards. Congratulations go to: Arjun Arun for best delegate; Samira Abbey for most diplomatic delegate and Meike Huisman for most improved delegate. The simulation was a successful way to help delegates gain confidence to be able to attend other MUN conferences and of course to prepare for our very own BritMUN in March.

This week has been green week, organised and delivered by our wonderful 6th form environmental committee. Their enthusiasm, attention to detail and genuine concern for a more sustainable future is admirable and we will do everything we can to support them in achieving their aims. Welcome back to our World Scholars, who had an absolutely fantastic week at the Tournament of Champions in USA. I thoroughly enjoyed following their every move on twitter and am most grateful to Mr Motara, Ms Hughes-Swick and Ms Bouroubi for all of their efforts, both leading up to and throughout the week. I would also like to thank the PE department for their work in preparing our Under 15 teams to participate in the BSME Games last weekend. They were fantastic competitors and did us all very proud. Special mention to Dana Al Marzooqi and Abdul Khader Feroz Khan, who both won gold medals in the High Jump. This makes them "Middle East Champion", which is a wonderful achievement. Finally, to our staff and students who took part in the Bahrain Relay Marathon last Friday, thank you and congratulations. The staff team finished 36th out of over 180 teams, and 3rd in their category.

Wishing you all a pleasant weekend.

Mr Ridgway

Marathon Relay

The BMR is one of the biggest and oldest races on the island. Approx 200 teams take place racing in relay through the desert and local area around the BIC, covering 48km. BSB for the 2nd year running put in 2 teams for the event, one staff and one student. Last year the students were leading the staff going into the final leg and the competition was fierce with a student win. This year both teams fought hard through the event and students were leading for the 1st half of the race. Teachers managed to pull back the excellent lead the students had set to take the win. On the day, students and teachers racing together, sharing the buses and race atmosphere was amazing. Its always such a pleasure to spend time with seniors outside of school in these settings and both staff and students are a credit to the school. A massive well done to all who took part in the day and in the organization of the teams. Both teams ranked well in the standings with the staff managing to rank 36th out of the 190 teams. Already we are looking forward to next year’s event where staff and students will be out to represent the BSB in the local community to their absolute best. A special shout-out goes to Nicolas Kolodziejczyk from 7G who not only stepped in to assist the Marathon Challenge Club as a non-member, but who also volunteered to run a second 3km stage of the race when his team-mate had to withdraw due to illness. Bravo Nicolas! Thank you to Ms Williams for leading the students and Mr Graham from Juniors for being our BSB Team Captain. A big thank you to our photographer Ms Cullen, and also to the parents for all their enthusiastic support. Well done all runners!

After the long weekend it has felt like even more than usual has been jam packed into this week, which started with Remembrance day. I was accompanied by our Head boy and Head girl, Smayan Sharma and Mehnaz Maqbool at a remembrance service held at the British Embassy. It was a lovely service which included a series of readings, multi faith prayers and a wreath laying ceremony to remember those who gave their lives for their country during World Wars 1 & 2. Mehnaz joined the Head boy and Head girl from St Christopher's in reading the poem In Flanders Fields by John McCrae. Smayan then joined Mehnaz to lay a wreath on behalf of the BSB community. We were then visited by the Chelsea Pensioners on Tuesday, from the Royal Hospital Chelsea, who were treated to some fantastic performances as a welcome, followed by some time with each school. In seniors they were treated to some student war poetry, which was part of a recent inter house competition. They also donated 2 books to the library.

This week has also seen the World Scholars students taking part in the Tournament of Champions, BSME games U15 students setting off to their 3 day sports competition, a public speaking seminar for the middle school, World Diabetes Day and the grand final of the Bahrain Young Performers Festival. I am very grateful for the hard work our teams of staff and students put in to these events which really do make me very proud to be a part of.

Wishing you all a pleasant weekend.

Mr Ridgway

BSME Games U15

Best of luck to our BSME games teams, who are competing in football (today), netball, volleyball (Friday) and athletics (Saturday). Spectators are most welcome to go along and support tomorrow (St Chris Isa Town) and Saturday (St Chris Saar).

We look forward to hearing all about the competition next week.

Go team BSB!

Year 10 Triple Science students, selected based upon the hard work and commitment they have shown to their studies in Biology so far this year, were given the opportunity to take part in the American Mission Hospital Med-Athlon. This was a first of it's kind event in the kingdom of Bahrain where students aged between 14 and 18 were competing against each other in a Triathlon with special focus on Healthy living and the appropriate use of antibiotics. It has to be noted that our students were the youngest to take part in the competition, however this did not hold them back!

Due to such a large number of participants, the competition was held over two days; a preliminary round which took place on Wednesday 6th November at American Mission Hospital Manama and a live final round which took place at Al Rajah School on Saturday 8th November. A massive well done to Mariam Ali, Arjun Arun and Sandra Zaki who all delivered speeches during the preliminary round on the specified topic. All three students independently carried out research and put together high quality speeches which they delivered with great confidence in front of an audience of medical professionals, teachers and students from across the country. Ramy El Hamaky, Mohammed Al Saie, Heba Bangash, Bartosz Lejman, Isa Haji and Noora Freja all took part in the preliminary quiz round, competing against approx 18 other schools. A massive well done to these students as British School of Bahrain was selected in the top 6 schools who made it through to the live final. Isa Haji and Ramy Hamaky represented our school amazingly in the live final, carrying themselves with great maturity and confidence. The live final was an enjoyable event which allowed our students to not only gain a huge amount of knowledge but also develop many valuable skills. Arjun Arun and Manal Ashraf also produced posters for the competition which were displayed at the live Final.

The British school of Bahrain as well as all students who took part were presented with awards which they will receive in their celebration assembly next week. All students were a credit to our school and we are very proud of them for their achievements.

Experiential learning in Sixth Form

This week the BTEC Sport (Level 3) students have been getting into the 'nitty-gritty' world of health, safety and risk in sport as part of one of their mandatory units of study. Their first assignment was to research legislation, legal factors and regulatory bodies to build a case of accusing/defending negligence in sport and physical activity from real-life cases the UK. The students took to the court room to debate the points, carefully making reference to any legal factors that could to support and strengthen their case. Misters Ridgway, Roy and Macmillan all stepped in as presiding Judges, while the remainder of the class acted as the jury. There were many great comments and arguments that were put across the table, concluding in both cases being judged in favour of the prosecution.

The second assignment was to assess risk in sport and identify precautions that are undertaken to minimise them. This involved a trip to the Bahrain Rugby Football Club to meet their General Manager, Derek McKenzie, and Sports Coordinator, Lindsey Gibson, to discuss the risks associated with and management of risks in rugby, and to identify the practice that the Club is undertaking generally to improve the safety of users in their facilities.

The students are to be commended for throwing themselves into these opportunities, and it was important that they did so in order to gain understanding of such an important aspect of sport and physical activity. The next steps for the students will be to apply everything they have learned so far by planning and leading a safe sporting activity of their own.

Mrs McHugh

It has been another very busy week in seniors, despite the unexpected shortened week. Mr Maguire has been back for another visit before taking up his role in January, and spent most of Monday in seniors lessons, where he was very complimentary of the staff and students in their learning. Myself, Mr O'Connor and Mr Maguire were blown away on Tuesday morning by the presentation from the environmental committee, led by Imran Nasir. The passion for their proposals to make the school more eco-friendly and the maturity with which they delivered it was most impressive. Congratulations to our quiz team who took part in the AMH Medathlon yesterday, qualifying for the finals on Saturday despite being noticeably the youngest competitors present. More to follow on the event next week. Finally, best of luck to our World Scholars Cup team, who flew off to Yale yesterday evening for the Tournament of Champions. I for one will be following their progress closely over the next week.

Wishing you all a pleasant long weekend.

Mr Ridgway

Headteacher Commendations

This week saw a large group of students taking awards for a range of achievements, from a Year 9 humanities essay submission rated as A-Level standard, to running success in the marathon challenge club. It is proving so valuable to have this weekly chance to talk to the students about their achievements and allow them a forum to discuss their ideas further.

Bahrain First

We were honoured to take a large group of students to the National Stadium yesterday to celebrate the Bahrain First activities, attended by HM King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa. His Majesty announced today's holiday as part of the celebration.

World Scholars Cup - Tournament of Champions

Best of luck to our students who have jetted off to Yale for the Tournament of Champions over the coming week. They have put an incredible amount of hard work into preparing for this as well as the 2 previous qualification rounds to even get there, led by the expertise of Ms Bouroubi, Ms Hughes-Swick and Global round 'Coach of the Year' Mr Motara. Please do follow their exploits on twitter, @bsbcup.

The Big Draw

Our art club students have been very busy painting pots in the art room for The Big Draw Bahrain Event.

Some of the students went to the opening day at The Avenues to take part in activities and see their pots placed in the Labyrinth which was created there to promote wellbeing and health.

It is great to be back after a short holiday to recharge the batteries and get ready for another busy half term. Our Year 11 students start their countdown to the mock exams as they take preparations to the next level, attending parents evening to hear some key revision tips and finalising those revision calendars to get ready for the exams to start next month. My best advice for our students is to remember that the mock exam grade is not actually the most important outcome, it is the ability to cope with the intense examination schedule, learn about pre and mid exam routines that work for them, and highlighting gaps in knowledge from review of exam papers in January.

I would also like to wish our World Scholars team the very best for their trip to Yale next week for the Tournament of Champions. Just to reach this stage is an absolutely phenomenal achievement and I am certain they will absolutely make the most of the fantastic experience and do us all very proud. Thank you to our staff team (Mr Motara, Ms Hughes-Swick and Ms Bouroubi) who have prepared them so well for the competition.

Please note that all boys should be in their ties from Sunday onwards.

Wishing you all a pleasant weekend.

Mr Ridgway

House Points

Students in the photo are of some of the highest achieving house point earners for this half term. They collected rewards in the form of day passes - wearing PE kit, jumping the canteen queue, using their phone in the library and having their hair down. Future suggestions have included the option of having a chocolate bar!

The full list of students were:

Y7 - Ethan Lima, Nirvan D'Souza, Heidi Edelmann*, Jhaanvi Padmanabhan, Giselle Menezes

Y8 - Zeynap Senates, Aadel Wish, Joshua O'Neill, Cristina Al-Shanti, Nickolas Polemitis

Y9 - Ella Enslin, Abigail Roots, Dia Nanda, Fatema Ali Shubber, Mora Scapuzzi Carmody

Y10 - Aqdas Manjlai, Anna Zajaczkowska, Manaal Khan, Leen El Malik, Eyad Aman

Y11 - Layal Alsharif, Layla Al Marzooqi, Salma Bitar, Dania Janahi, Ali Alaali, Sophie de Boer

Y12 - Nooh Haji, Abdulmuez Ashraf, Lara Al Hamer, Golnar Zolfi, Fatima Jamsheer

Y13 - Edward Erhunmwunsee, Tushar Java, Brenda Scapuzzi Carmody, Yasmeen Toorani, Zain Janahi, Vian Rifat

*Heidi is to be further commended for being the first student in the senior school to achieve bronze status with 50 points.

What an absolute pleasure it has been to be a part of the fantastic events and activities throughout this first half term that make our school such an outstanding one. But most of all, I have enjoyed spending time in the corridors, classrooms and playground, watching the students show all of the key skills we teach them in practice; kind, polite, respectful and compassionate towards all members of the community. It is always a pleasure to be greeted by such happy, enthusiastic students who are eager to take the time to say hello. It is these chance interactions that are the true measure of our community.

Wishing everyone a happy holiday wherever you may be around the world.

Mr Ridgway

Think Pink

The 6th form charity committee and the PCC did a phenomenal job of bringing together one of the best charity events I have witnessed; such a range of activities that went beyond Wednesday. The community spirit and support shone through as students wrote heartfelt messages of support to loved ones on the wall of hope, took part in various sporting activities through the week, entertained us with some fantastic music and gave generously to the Think Pink charity. A big thank you to Mr Venter for agreeing to shave his head for charity! I am delighted to announce that as things currently stand, we have already raised more than 1500bd! A wonderful achievement.

Well done to the following students for their contribution:

Smayan Sharma, Mehnaz Maqbool, Vian Rifat, Mohamed Ali, Dana Abdulnabi, Alex Estanom, Annie Kennaugh, Myrthe Gerritsen, Yasmeen Toorani and Mohamed Deeb.

Thank you to @blackcobraproductions for the wonderful photos! More can be found here.

TradeQuest

The BSB team started their tradequest journey last Thursday with the team of eight students getting the opportunity to experience Bahrain Bourse and meet their investment advisor, Deepak Mutha.

Kamal Haddad, Karthik Arun, Atta Yousafi, Lina Al Ammari, Abdulla Kaiksow, Mohamed Abdulla, Rashid Saif, and Zaid Haddad are the talented economists who make up the BSB team and stand an excellent chance of cashing in on the 10,000bd prize money available.

Cyprus Field Trip

Some pictures from the students first full day at the centre. The 25 geographers from Year 11 spent 30 minutes in the morning learning about the different investigations they would be conducting along Potima Bay and revised some coastal theory as they were quizzed throughout the lesson. After travelling to Potima Bay, the students split into 5 different groups, each responsible for measuring a different characteristic of the beach from long shore drift to pebble size. They have made their way to the second site along the beach where they will conduct further investigations and swap answers to hypothesize the changes along the bay.

As we head towards our mid term break there is no sign of slowing down in seniors; everywhere I turn I am astounded at the wonderful work being completed by the team of staff and students. This week I have been very proud to launch the Head Teacher Commendation, a weekly meeting with a small group of students to celebrate the amazing things they have been doing, as nominated by their teachers. We were very pleased today to welcome a very special guest, The British Ambassador HE Roddy Drummond, who had taken some time out of his busy schedule to visit the school this morning. As half term approaches next week we will be supporting the Think Pink charity with a range of activities to raise funds but more importantly raise awareness of the ways in which all members of our community can look after themselves and others. More details can be found below.

Wishing everyone a happy weekend.

Mr Ridgway

Head Teacher Commendation

5 students were rewarded this week for their efforts. We were joined by HE Roddy Drummond, British Ambassador, and the Deputy Head Boy and Girl, Mohamed and Vian. Bader Al Refai (Y10), Lewis McBain (Y10), Hassan Al Aali (Y11), Vivaan Nair (Y8) and Caio Nunes Toro (Y7) were delighted to receive their awards whilst enjoying some juice and light snacks. The achievement wall is taking shape and will grow over the coming weeks as the spotlight shifts to the next batch of deserving students.

Psychology Trial

This week in psychology class, Year 12 students took part in a mock trial. Adolf Eichman’s trial was replicated with students playing the different roles to rein-act the trial. Students demonstrated their understanding of obedience, using psychological explanations to both explain and refute the defendants behaviour.

Aladdin Auditions

We are now coming to the end of our Aladdin Auditions and are all set to have a great double strength cast from Year 5 up to Year 13, who will start rehearsing after half term.

Watch this space and enjoy our outakes film...

Helping Your child with Revision

The leadership team hosted an information talk for parents this week, discussing the various strategies that might work to support your children while they are revising. Whilst aimed specifically at Year 10 and 11, we were delighted to welcome parents of students from all Year groups. The discussion centered around how to facilitate good study habits, covering diet for brain function, neuroscientific methods of learning and, most importantly, the MYTH of talent. There is a wealth of evidence available to suggest that potential is limitless in all students, if they work hard and work smart. A copy of the handout is available here. --------------------------->

What an absolutely fantastic week it has been, jam packed full of achievement, celebration and learning. I have had the pleasure of attending some high quality volleyball here in school, be a part of the wonderful Year 7 & 8 celebration assembly and music demonstration, and managed to find some time to pop in to a range of classrooms across the senior school to witness first hand some great teaching and learning. A special mention must go to the music team, made up of teachers across the whole school and academies, who absolutely blew us away with there musical talents. I would also like to commend Yisi in Year 8C for having the courage to get up and perform to such a high standard in front of such a large audience of her peers; very impressive indeed. We also brought the student council together for the first time for a photo opportunity. We look forward to discussing many issues with them over the course of the year.

Wishing everyone a happy weekend.

Mr Ridgway

BSME Games 2019-20

The PE department have selected their U13 and U15 teams to represent BSB in the BSME (British Schools of the Middle East) games 2019-20. These will take place on 14-16 November for the U15 team here in Bahrain, and 23-25 January for the U13 team in Dubai. The teams are training hard to prepare for these tournaments, where they will face some stiff competition. We wish them all the best and look forward to hearing all about their experiences in this elite sporting competition.

Year 7 Humanities

Caio Nunes Torro in 7C went above and beyond this week to produce a stunning booklet all about the Kingdom of Bahrain. Absolutely amazing!

I have been absolutely amazed so far this term at what I have been seeing in classrooms, corridors and around the school. Learning has been fast-paced, exciting and purposeful, and our students have been kind, courteous and polite. I have been fortunate enough to meet with various members of the community, including parents, the senior prefect team, the environmental committee and the KS3 head prefects. The maturity shown by the students throughout these interactions has been phenomenal, far beyond their years. But most importantly, I have seen the way students interact with each other, when they don't know someone is watching, and that is the true measure of where we are as a community. Our students are compassionate and considerate and this shines through as I make my way around the school.

Wishing everyone a happy weekend.

Mr Ridgway

World Challenge Cambodia

On the 1st July five intrepid Year 12 explorers and a Year 13 lone ranger embarked upon an expedition to Cambodia. A World Challenge Trip is not your bog standard school trip or relaxing holiday. It is an adventure that tests all participants on every level: from budgeting and ensuring transport, food and accommodation are organised to the physical challenges of carrying all supplies through dense and humid jungle and building a classroom.

We learnt some Khmer, tried new foods, made friends, went to the circus, wandered the night markets, got the best prices for tuk-tuks, had our feet cleaned by fish and listened to Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabelo singing 'Senorita' about a thousand times on the bus! Best of all, we survived for 14 days in a country without a single McDonald's restaurant.

Making a Difference

For many, the Summer is a chance to relax, spend time with family and recharge the mind ready for the new term. Not for Tanisha Banerjee in Year 12. Having completed her GCSEs she decided to do something different. Not content with trekking to 14500 feet above sea level on foot, she applied to volunteer in a care centre for children with cancer. Of the experience, she said, "This experience has taught me one of the most significant lessons ever which is that a positive attitude is bound to bring good to everyone around you." We are all very proud of Tanisha for her wonderful effort to make a difference in someone else's life.