NewsletterPRIMARYKing’s College Alicante

Education is a complex matter. It is not just about academic excellence, although this is clearly at the heart, but about preparing our children to take their place in a fast changing, often confusing world. At the beginning of this term I was reminded of how often some of the best learning for life can take place outside the classroom. The occasion was the very first Basketball Tournament between ourselves and King’s College, Murcia.

The tournament involved two teams of Year 5 and 6 children from both schools. The standard of basketball was good and every game was hard fought by the children – sometimes very hard fought indeed! At the end of the tournament final, between the Alicante and Murcia teams with most points, I was delighted that King’s College, Alicante emerged as winners and that they did so without either of our school teams losing a single game.

The children were delighted and I was very proud of them all. It wasn’t a matter of just winning, but also that they were so positive in the way they conducted themselves throughout the day. The children worked hard together as a team, they didn’t give up when things got tough, their behaviour was fantastic, they didn’t moan at each other

when mistakes were made and they showed excellent sportsmanship. These are qualities that are so important in our lessons and in life. Our children were a credit to themselves, their families and to the school.

I must thank our parents who were able to come along and support, their presence was a great encouragement to the children. Many thanks too, to Sr. Castillo who was kind enough to organise the use of Pabellón ‘Pitiu Rocher’ for the event.

As I said at the beginning, education is complex and it is important that we sieze every opportunity in the classroom, on the patio, on a school visit or during a sporting event to help our children be the very best they can be.

Best wishes

Mr. P.B. SloanHead of Primary

Message from the Head of Primary

MAY 2014 / THIRD TERM

Basketball Tournament

This month Nursery have been looking at and learning all about Pets, Wild Animals and Farm Animals. We have been learning lots of new vocabulary and language and we have created some wonderful pieces of artwork.

Now the weather is getting warmer we have also been enjoying the outdoor area and using the water tray, and investigating and exploring new things. This month we are also practising and preparing for Reception and we are looking forward to the Changeover morning on Friday 30th May.

Learning about animals

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Year 3 visited the biscuit factory. The children learnt about food hygiene and weighing ingredients, then followed instructions to make yummy biscuits. They were given the opportunity to design their own biscuits. There were lots of interesting designs including stars, hearts and footballers!

Year 3visits thebiscuitfactory

As part of their Pirate topic Year 3 designed their own pirates. In literacy they wrote exciting adventure stories about their pirates. Here are 3W´s pirates:

Pirates inYear 3

To get the Year 3 children inspired and excited about their ´Pirate´topic, we went to Alicante to visit the pirate ship. Children were able to explore each deck discovering new things, which got them thinking about pirates in the past.

Outside on dry-land the children, using all their sketching skills developed throughout the year, sat and carefully sketched the ship. The trip didn´t end there...After having their lunch on the beach, the fun really began. Big queues were formed at the water fountain as friends splashed and cooled each other down with water. There were many attempts at digging big holes in a quest to reach Australia. Soon it was time to return back to school. Lots of fun was had by all!

Year 3 visit the Pirate Ship

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Pupils comments... Andres (4S) “I liked exploring the forest and I learnt a lot.”

Violeta (4J) “It was a very good trip, but very hot! I like looking at the mountains!”

Angel (4B) “I liked looking for animals in the forest.”

Alba (4B) “In the museum I liked looking at photos of the different animals that live in Font Roja forest.”

Paula (4B) “I liked being high up and looking down at the land and the river.”

Year 4 had a fantastic day at Font Roja natural park near Alcoy. Following the nature trails the pupils were encouraged to identify different species of flora and fauna and the staff explained about the history and geography of the area. The pupils were also reminded of the importance of respecting our natural environment.

Year 4 Trip to Alcoy

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Year 5 are learning about the life cycle of plants in their science topic this term. On the 29th of April the year group went to the beautiful Huerto del Cura botanical gardens in Elche. They saw the largest palm tree in Europe together with an amazing variety of cacti and other plant life. They learned about the history of the gardens and how they were created. Afterwards the children took a 2km walk through the palm parks and learned how to identify male and female palm trees as well as how they pollinate and fertilise. The trip concluded with an afternoon in the municipal park investigating and identifying the parts flowers. The children had a wonderful day.

Year 5 Trip to Huerto del Cura

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Open Arms Malawi believes that every child has right to life, survival and development. They provide medical attention, shelter, food and love to some of Malawi’s orphaned and abandoned children and work to ensure that the children in their care have the chance to grow up with the love of a family and the security of a home.

They return, support and monitor immunised and fit toddlers to their relatives when they can, creating families and avoiding institutional care and in doing so enable communities to provide nutritious meals and nursery education to the orphans and vulnerable children within their community. “When we read the above and looked into the work of Open Arms Malawi we knew how important our Year 6 Cake Bake Sale was,” said Mrs Gandhi Year 6 Teacher and PSHE Coordinator.

78 Year 6 children brought in their own home baked delights on May 16th and sold like they have never sold before. In addition to cakes there was a healthy option of Watermelon and strawberries which were also very popular.

charityworkKCA fundraising

Nothing was left at all and the amount raised was 1025 Euros

Mr Sloan, Head of Primary, said, “The Year 6s were fantastic!”

Jimena and Ines (6F) said that they loved the cake bake sale and wished we could do it more often.

Gonzalo (6C) said it was really good knowing that the money raised was going to a special charity, which would make a real difference.

Lucy (6C) said it is really good that so many children throughout primary have bought things.For the first time ever everything was sold out; nothing was left at all and the amount raised was 1025 Euros. Jose (6G) worked out that this was 548775.164183 Malawian Kwacha. He added “Hopefully, it will buy a lot of important things for the orphans.”

Mrs Hughes, Leader Year 5 and 6, said she was really pleased with all the efforts made by children and teachers in Year 6.

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Reg’d charity ‘Open Arms’ (England & Wales) no: 1090655

P.O. Box 509 Blantyre

MALAWI Tel: (265) 01820160

openarms@africa-online.net www.openarmsmalawi.org

29th May 2014

To the children of the Alicante international school: Mr Sloan has informed us of your generous fundraising effort for the children of Open Arms in Malawi. He and his wife visited and supported Open Arms when they were in Malawi, and we are pleased that this connection continues. Our main focus has always been to care for orphaned and vulnerable infants, and to help them to return to their extended families when they are two years old. There are many reasons why poor families find it hard to cope with the care of a newborn who has lost his mother, and the services we provide can make a big different to the baby’s life. Donations we receive help us to cover the costs of buying baby milk, paying the salary for a Care Giver who will be like a mother to the baby, and all the related costs of providing medical care and a home for a child’s first two years. In Malawi your donation will buy 270 tins of Lactogen baby milk powder, which will provide 30 babies with milk for two months. Thank you for supporting us! Best regards, Jasmine Leitao, Neville Bevis, and the staff and children of Open Arms

Open Arms Infant Home

This is the thank you letter our school has received from Open Arms Malawi.

On Tuesday 27th and Wednesday 28th May, our Piano, Violin, Guitar and Drums students, have allowed us to enjoy two magnificent concerts, where we’ve been able to see all their improvements achieved along this academic year.

Live Musicin theLibrary

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The Primary School Council met for the last time this year. The meeting was full of mixed emotions a sadness that their year´s work had come to an end and happiness at the work that they had done and achieved this year.

Achievements this year include: Wrapper Free Friday (Members acknowledged that it had not always been easy but they 2/3 agreed that this is something that should be continued as it makes a difference.

Eco- Walks – all members agreed that the Eco- Walks had been very good. These should be continued.

Zone Toys – Basketballs (huge success), hoops, stilts and noughts and crosses. Zone Manager Idea.

Support to the Hondon Valley Dog Rescue Centre – The Council congratulated 5S in particular for taking the initiative – members were very glad they had supported and would continue to support this worthy cause. An help that can be given to the Dog Rescue Centre is greatly appreciated.

Members said equally they had been pleased to support the Cake Bake Sale for Malawi – this is something they wanted to see the Council do more of.

50% of members said that healthy me week had gone well and others said we need to work on it for next year.

Competitions – 100% of members agreed that everyone loves competitions and that the Council had had a good selection this year with excellent participation.

Primary School Council End of Year Celebration!

“This is one of the finest School Council´s I have worked with... thank you for all your hard work!” Mr. P Sloan

Areas to improve for next year: Litter Patrol did not work as well as the previous year – a new idea which will be looked at for next year is a Super Clean up Team!

Closer working with the Secondary Council especially on Recycling.

Mr Sloan, Head of Primary attended the final meeting and congratulated the Council for all its hard work and said, “This is one of the finest School Council´s I have worked with... thank you for all your hard work!”

Tara and Guillermo (Head Girl and Head Boy respectively) said, “We have loved our involvement in the Primary School Council – it is a really great way of connecting with the whole school. We will miss attending meetings.”

Co-Chair and Zone Manager, Gonzalo (6C) said that he had loved his role as Zone Manager and also co-chairing meetings had been exciting.

A new Council will be appointed in the new Academic Year.

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News from the librarySarah McIntyre Author visit

Sarah McIntyre adores raspberry jam. She also loves wild hats, enormous wigs and making silly comics with her friends. She first studied Russian literature but ten years later, went to Camberwell College of the Arts and learned how to write and illustrate books. She works with two other artists in their studio in an old police station in Deptford, which they call The Fleece Station because they started out all making comics about sheep. You can often find her flouncing about in huge stage events and she blogs almost every day. Visit Sarah's website and blog: http://www.jabberworks.co.uk

On Friday, 9th May, the author and illustrator Sarah McIntyre came to our school and organised a series of drawing workshops for our primary students. Everyone was delighted at her drawing techniques and her fabulous dress and hat designs. At the end of each session Sarah sold and signed many of her books and she even drew some of her books characters in them.

Here are some of the best pictures of the day

Sarah wrote some comments in her web site about her visit to our school:

“One of the people who most made my visit a success was librarian Maria Jose Sanchez, at King's College in Alicante. She was a perfect example of the way a librarian can prepare kids for an Author Visit; a librarian's groundwork gets the kids excited, they pay way more attention because they know who I am, and they come away inspired. (I was in good company; other authors who'd come on this Spain Book Tour with Bookbox International included James Mayhew, Steve Cole, Nick Sharratt, Ali Sparkes, Shoo Rayner, Ian Beck, Korky Paul, Caroline Lawrence, Guy Parker-Rees, Tony Mitton, the 2 Steves, Steve Smallman, Savior Pirotta, Miriam Moss, Julia Golding, Paul Cookson, Brian Moses and Kay Umansky. Lucky schools!)”

“Sometimes great people come in small packages. Oh, and Maria Jose's son had great specs and loved to draw; I wanted to take him home with me.”

“I led the different year groups of kids in drawing different characters. Here are a couple sharks from There's a Shark in the Bath and Superhamster from Superkid. I started them off with the basic character and then they'd customise theirs.”

BasketballTournamentPhoto Album

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It made me feel proud when…

We asked our the four captains of our two basketball teams, a boy and a girl for each team, what it was that made them feel proudabout taking

part in the tournament.

It made me proud to lead my team because we never lost a game. We were unbeaten! We did an amazing job as a team, all of us working together like we

needed to do. I loved how we all got up and fought for the ball, even if we lost it. All of my team should be proud of themselves because they did a great job.

Lucia, Joint Captain, King’s College Alicante Basket

The thing that made me proud was that I did my best and that I encouraged the team. It was great that we had lots of fun.

Sigfrid, Joint Captain, King’s College, Alicante Basket

I am very proud because we had to manage the team changing for substitutes all the time and, of course, because we won the Tournament.

Gonzalo, Joint Captain, King’s College, Alicante Lakers

When Mr. Sloan chose me to be the Captain I felt pressure because I was representing the school. However, we successfully got to the final and then won

the competition. I felt incredibly proud of my team! Roser, Joint Captain, King’s College, Alicante Lakers

HOVAR A very big thank you to everyone that has brought in dog beds, toys, treats, blankets, towels and dog food to help the dogs at HOVAR. They are a small charity that helps abandoned and neglected dogs. Many of the dogs that they rescue are scared and afraid so the items that have been donated help them to become happy and healthy dogs. For some of these dogs, it is the first time that they have played and felt safe. All your donations have already made a huge difference to the lives of these dogs. If you would like to donate any items that can be used by the kennels, please bring them into school before the end of term.

Thank you and a very big WOOF from all the dogs at HOVAR.

King’s College AlicanteGlorieta del Reino Unido 5

Alicante 03008 SpainTlf: 965 106 351

Fax: 965 108 096info.kca@kingsgroup.org

www.bsalicante.com

I m p o r t a n t D a t e s

J U N E 2 0 1 4

W b 2 n d J u n e – S A T W e e k

4 t h J u n e – N u r s e r y a n d R e c e p t i o n F a r m V i s i t

5 t h J u n e – E a r l y Y e a r s S p o r t s

W b 9 t h J u n e R e s i d e n t i a l v i s i t s Y e a r s 4 & 5

1 3 t h J u n e – Y e a r 6 G r a d u a t i o n

1 3 t h J u n e – P i r a t e D a y i n N u r s e r y

W b 1 6 t h J u n e – R e s i d e n t i a l v i s i t s Y e a r 6

1 9 t h J u n e – Y e a r 2 G r a d u a t i o n

2 0 t h J u n e – R e p o r t s O u t / E n d o f T e r m

2 5 t h J u n e - O p e n D a y f o r P a r e n t s

W e d 3 r d S e p t e m b e r - F i r s t D a y o f T e r m 2 0 1 4 - 1 5