From the Director’s Desk This week while reading the weekly Council of British International School’s news briefs around the globe, I came across an interesting BBC news article about Spanish parents who went on strike to protest increasing homework. Thousands of parents in Spain are going on strike against state schools over the large amount of homework given to their children. Students from 12,000 schools nationwide will be told not to do their weekend homework for the month of November. The Spanish Alliance of Parents' Associations (CEAPA), which called the strike, argues that homework is detrimental to children. So what does this say about the learning methods used in Spain? CEAPA president Jose Luis Pazos says education in Spain has been very reliant on the traditional method of rote-learning - memorising work. He stresses that what children have to learn is how to manage information and how to decide what to memorise and what not. "Society has changed deeply, but the environ-ment in the classroom hasn't," he says. The homework debate has been raging in other countries too, and it is not just parents who are concerned. In the US state of Texas, a secondary school teacher near Dallas sent a letter to parents telling them that she will not be assigning homework to students this year. Instead, she said she wanted them to spend more time with their families. A high school in Britain scrapped traditional homework at the start of term in favour of a more "independent" approach to learn-ing. The narrative seems to be more western and foreign to Africa. TBIS however is an International school thus international influence on policy directly impacts our school at least on matters academic. So is there a need to Worry??? Being a research student, I decided to delve deeper into this conversation and I can confirm that we will not be adopting a “no homework” policy neither do I anticipate a homework strike from our parents. Prof Susan Hallam from the Institute of Education says there is "hard evidence" from research that homework really does improve how well pupils achieve. "There is no question about that."But she says this doesn't mean that endlessly increasing the amount of homework will keep delivering better results. Homework must be adequate and concise to allow prompt marking which then allows the teacher to assess learning and learner progress with appropriate feedback given to the learners. But she says there is no evidence that homework can be actively counter-productive to learning. A big study published by the Department for Education also found home-work made a positive difference. After taking into account family background, the amount of time spent on homework was found to be a strong predictor of doing well in exams in secondary school. Pupils who did that amount of homework were almost 10 times more likely to achieve five good IGCSEs than students who did not spend any time on homework. We strongly believe in homework and we will en-deavour to use it positively in ensuring we avoid the politics and focus on its bene-fits in the learning continuum. Have a lovely weekend —Tobias Oyugi

BRIDGING THE GAP — WEEKLY

We care, We share, We learn together

12 November 2016

The Bridge International School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children

and young people and expects all employees and volunteers to share in this commitment.

From the Director’s Desk—P.1

Field Work Y11—P.2

Halloween— P.3

TBIS & the Broken Bridge— P.4

This issue

1

Year 6 Assemblies

We had a wonderful year 6 assembly where the year 6 students got the chance to showcase their talents in drama, music, dance and po-etry. It was an assembly full of fun activities and every-one enjoyed it. All classes are assigned a Friday in which they present their assembly items. Parents and guardians are always invited.

2

Y3 Science The Exuberant but Windy Day

O n the 24th October 2016, the

wonderful and engaged year

11 students accompanied with

their lovely humanities teacher

Ms. Mukom went outdoors to

carry out measurements of the

weather studied in class. Before

this, we had already done weather

measurements in class on tem-

perature, wind speed, wind direc-

tion and clouds.

Du ring this pleasant and exciting

outdoor experience, we measured

the temperature using the maxi-

mum and minimum thermometer

which has a U-shape containing a

metal index, mercury and alcohol.

The temperature at TBIS for that

day was 8°.

Secondly, we found out the wind

direction using the wind vane and

according to the instrument, the

wind was from the South. There

are three main types of clouds;

cumulus, stratus and cirrus. This

is where we first of all disagreed

and finally came to a conclusion.

According to Tonia and Daniel it

was the stratus clouds because of

its sheet-like appearance and

Chloe thought it was cirrus. The

teacher asked us to check again

and we took a close analysis of it

and discovered that it was the

stratus cloud because of its shape

and colour.

—By Davila and Tonia

The above pictures show

the year 3 pupils of TBIS

in a Science class, en-

gaged in the study of

forces. They are using a

force meter to weigh dif-

ferent objects in class.

They are capable of

drawing and recording

their findings on a table,

where they are expected

to write the weight of

selected objects in New-

ton. At the end of this

lesson they were capable

of estimating and meas-

uring the weight of ob-

jects out of the class-

room, in their homes

and the environment.

Saturday 19th Nov — Stay and play

Saturday 26th Nov—Parent’s Teacher’s forum

Saturday 3rd Dec — Funfair day

Important Dates and Events

Halloween is a very old holiday

that is still celebrated in countries

around the world today, and each

country has its own interesting

set of customs and traditions.

Myths and legends surround this

mysteriously spooky holiday, but

Halloween can also be a lot of fun

with a little imagina-

tion and creativity!

Ghosts, masks, bats

and Pumpkins are

also a symbol of Hal-

loween. Painting

and creating pumpkins

with beads into jack-o'-lanterns is

a Halloween custom. This exer-

cise encouraged Foundation 1

children to explore other objects

around the class and to see how

they reacted when they wore the

ghost masks played with their

friends. It was exciting as they

screamed ‘trick or treat’ and

BOOOOOO.

3

T he Y4 are enjoying creative writing! During the last week of No-

vember they focused on writing Poems. Due to the Halloween

event at TBIS (an event which has really become all about the kids

having fun dressing up and pretending to be someone else or receiving

candies…), Year 4 children wrote poems to inform us not to fear a sin-

gle thing you see on Halloween, because they know they really are not

what they seem to be. Have fun reading their poems!

Ms. Grace

Halloween F1 Year 4, Creative Writing

SOME OUTSTANDING HALLOWEEN OUTFITS

Contact Us……..

+237 233471378/698876019

Email: info@thebridge-intschool.com

www.thebridge-intschool.com

DISCIPLINE WORK EQUALITY 4

The Bridge

International

School

&

the Broken

Bridge

“We exist to build bridges and not to see them broken.”

—SheiJini

Our beloved nation Cameroon was hit by another tragic incident leaving the entire nation in total disarray. The incident hap-

pened on Friday 21st October, 2016 when an overloaded train derailed from its track and capsized along the sides of the road. It

all began later in the day when a broken bridge along the Douala –Yaoundé highway led to a massive drift of travelers from bus

agencies to the railway station. Unfortunately for these passengers, the overloaded train overturned on the tracks in the town

of Eseka, killing more than 70 and leaving over 600 passengers injured. The Bridge International School is greatly saddened by

this tragic event. While our hearts grieve deeply for the families of the bereaved victims, we wish to pass on this piece of en-

couragement to all fellow Cameroonian directly involved with the tragic event.

Bridge the gap of love and hatred

To love is the greatest message we advocate in The Bridge. Love is greater than death because when we love we share and con-

nect our hearts and souls together. Death is only a physical separation that leaves many people uncertain and heartbroken.

Love on the other hand is a spiritual touch that last for eternity. Noting can thrive without love. If we rebuild the broken

bridge at the Douala /Yaoundé highway without closing the gap of love and hatred in our community, many more bridges will

be broken because the gift of love is the strongest bridge of age and eternity. When we love, we build, but when we hate, we

break bridges and suffer the consequences. While we mourn for our beloved ones, let us remember that there are many people

out there in our community in need of our love and concern. When we share love with our fellow comrades in a way that

shows respect for humanity, we are certain that our bridges will last forever.

Bridge the gap of mediocrity and excellence

Many Cameroonians are blessed with multiple skills and talents in all works of life. Be it business, trade, arts, science, and

technology. But surprisingly, the rate of unemployment is still unacceptably high. It’s probable that many talented Cameroo-

nians are sleeping on their dreams, waiting for a special breakthrough. Dear friends, God has spared your life today for reasons

best known to Him. If you don’t strive to impact the community with the skills he has given you, your dreams might end up in

a train wreck. The Bridge International School is calling on you to get your dreams off the table and put it into action immedi-

ately. We exist because we want to bridge the gap of mediocrity and excellence. While we train young Africans, Asians, Ameri-

cans and Westerners to integrate the job market with sound knowledge and ideas in every conceivable filed of life, our dream

is to see African talents skyrocket the global trade market in the near future. (To be continued...)