NewsletterPRIMARY OCTOBER 2013 / FIRST TERMKing’s College Alicante

As this is my first introduction to a newsletter, I would like to take the opportunity to say thank you to children, staff and parents for making my first two months at King’s such a positive experience. The warm welcome, kind wishes and practical support say a great deal about our school.

It has been a busy month in school with children settling well into their new classes and enjoying their learning. One of the most important events this month was the Monitoring Day. This was a new initiative for Primary and the feedback from parents and teachers alike has been very positive. The opportunity for parents to talk about the progress your child is making, to ask questions of the teacher and to discuss targets for the future was welcomed by everyone. The Day really emphasised the importance of school and parents working together in partnership to give

our children the best opportunities in their learning and to help each child reach their full potential.

Next month will see further partnership opportunities as we hold three Maths workshops in school. The workshops will be led by our staff and will give parents the opportunity to find out about teaching and learning methods at King’s. Details are in the date section. Please join us if you want to see how it all ‘adds up’ at King’s!

Best wishes

Mr. P.B. SloanHead of Primary

Message from the Head of Primary

Nursery NewsThe children in Nursery have settled in really well to school life. We are very proud of how well they have adapted to a new school and learning environment. We now have lots of happy children who are keen to learn new things in English and in Spanish.

This month we have been celebrating our various “Colour Days” and learning lots of new songs and creating some wonderful pieces of work that you can see displayed both outside and inside the classrooms.

This week we have been “Investigating”. We have been enjoying experimenting with different materials and objects and doing some basic experiments with the children. Next week we are looking forward to Halloween and dressing up with lots of fun activities.

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During the last few weeks Reception have been thinking all about people who help us. We were thinking about all the people who help us outside of school like the police, fire fighters and doctors. We also visited all the people who help us in school. There were lots of people to visit like Ana the nurse, Jose the caretaker, Sra Sanchez in the library and Carol in the office. At the end of the week we asked Mr Sloan the Head of Primary, who is another person who helps us in school, to come and visit us during our special assembly to show him all we had learned!

Reception News

Y E A R 3A L I C A N T E C A S T L E V I S I T

It was back in time for Year Three as 3S, 3D and 3W all went on a visit to Castillo de Santa Barbera. This term Year 3 have been learning all about the Middle Ages and part of their topic includes learning about life in a castle. At King’s we are very lucky in having a wonderful resource on our own doorstep in the shape of Castillo de Santa Barbera. The children had a great time on their visit. Special favourites were the reproduction medieval weapons. The life sized catapults, mangonels and trebuchets really caught the imagination. They also very much enjoyed the Playmobil Exhibition which set out the Middle Ages in miniature models! The visit was a great success and the trip to a real castle helped to make the topic come alive.

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As part of the Expressive Arts curriculum Year 4 pupils have brought Drama and History together. Using Ancient Egypt as their inspiration, the children retold the dramatic story of the discovery of Tutankhamen’s tomb by Howard Carter in 1922.

It’s a fantastic story all about finding the treasure filled tomb of a long dead Pharaoh that had lain undisturbed for three thousand years. The tale is made even more thrilling by the suggestion that there was a curse attached to the tomb!

The children used a mix of fact and imagination to produce some fantastic drama and used the method of ‘freeze frames’ to bring the story alive. They had a great time and came up with some truly thoughtful work.

Y E A R 4 : D R A M A

Y E A R 4 : C A N O P I C J A R S

Ancient Egypt is a wonderful topic, filled with fascinating stories, intriguing facts and plenty of scope for the imagination. One of the children’s favourite areas of this topic is that of mummification! Children learn all about the process, the links to Egyptian beliefs and then go on to make their very own canopic jars.

“What is a canopic jar?” I hear you ask! In the words of Year 4 pupils - “When an Ancient Egyptian died, they opened up the body and took out the organs and put them in the canopic jar”. “They did this to protect the organs for the afterlife!”

Our photo shows some canopic jars created by children in Year 4. We’re pleased to say there are no organs whatsoever in any of them!

Our Additional Support classes are already starting to have a positive effect on pupils’ learning. Primary pupils have been using our new Primary Library Room and trailing some new technology. We plan to extend the trial of tablet technology over the coming months to further engage, support and extend pupil learning.

A D D I T I O N A LS U P P O R T C L A S S E S

E L E C T E D H O U S E C A P T A I N S

Congratulations to this years’ elected house captains. The results of the election were very close as always ; best wishes to them in their new role. I´m sure they will do a fantastic job in representing their houses. May the best team win!" Mrs Hughes (Years 5/6 Team Leader)

PRIMARY HOUSE CAPTAINS

Wind - Sami (6C) and Inés (6F)Earth - Gonzalo (6C) and Nereida (6C)Fire - Jose Miguel (6G) and Gema (6G)Water - Carlos (6F) and Irene (6G)

As a way of encouraging children to read, the school held its first Book Fair of the year, on Tuesday 15th October. It was a very successful day. Our students, teachers and parents enjoyed looking through books and buying many! Thanks to all those who bought a book because with every purchase we earned FREE books for our school.

Sra Sánchez SchoolLibrarian

N E W S F R O M T H E L I B R A R Y

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This term at King’s College Alicante we have introduced a new initiative which is aimed at motivating children to improve their handwriting and develop their cursive handwriting skills.

Until this year, Year 6 children wrote in pencil but from September they have been writing in black pen and will continue to do so unless their handwriting is not of a high standard in which case their teacher will get them to write in pencil and work towards securing a pen licence.

In Year 5 children write in pencil but if they demonstrate excellent cursive writing skills, they are awarded a pen and a pen licence, after which they can write in pen at school.

“One of the reasons why we introduced the scheme, “ said Mrs Gandhi Literacy leader Key Stage 2, “is because we know from the UK and other parts of the world where they have used this method that children have been motivated to improve the handwriting and secure their licence. It is also vital that as children progress through to upper Key Stage 2 and Secondary, they are able to write comfortably in pen.”

Mrs Hughes Leader of Years 5 and 6 said, “Already several children from Year 5 have achieved their pen licence. Well done to them all and hopefully we will see more licences awarded this year.”

In the spring term, children from Year 4 will have an opportunity to work for their pen licence – good luck to them too!

A L i c e n c e t o …W R I T E I N P E N ! ! ! !b y M r s . G a n d h i , Y e a r 6 T e a c h e r

Poster Competition on How to Protect and Improve Our School Environment for Year 1 - 3 and a Writing Competition (fiction or non fiction) Years 4-6.

Prizes: Book Voucher for Winner and Runner Up from each year group.

Entries must be the child´s work done outside school.

Judges are Mr. Sloan, Mrs Gandhi, School Council Chairpeople from Year 6 and the Head Girl and Head Boy 2013-14.

P O S T E R A N D W R I T I N G C O M P E T I T I O N

D E A D L I N E : F R I D A Y N O V E M B E R 2 9 T H

So what has the Primary School Council been up to?

This year the Primary School Council has not only hit the ground running but it has already got its teeth into some exciting and juicy topics.

In September at its second meeting, the Council members were told by the new Head of Primary, Mr Peter Sloan, that they could have 300 Euros to spend on things to improve school life. The members discussed this with their respective classes and came up with ideas to make improvements in and around school.

The kinds of items which featured on the wish list varied from the impossible (A swimming pool) to more realistic things such as more zone activities and games for golden time. The children also identified a need to have improved school meals – an issue which has since been explored separately by Mr Sloan with the hope of seeing some immediate improvements.

At October’s School Council meeting, members will vote on some of the more realistic ideas. Look out for the results of the vote in next month’s newsletter.

The Council has also restarted zone activities in Key Stage 2 and this year not only do we have a group of excellent Zone helpers but we have a Zone Manager, Gonzalo (6C). Gonzalo volunteered to oversee the zone helpers every lunch time, ensuring zone games are placed on the patio and collected at the end. Gonzalo said, “I am really pleased to be doing this job. I enjoy having some extra responsibility as a member of the School Council.”

One of the areas the council will be exploring this year is how to improve our patio times, making it safer but at the same time fun to play. Mr Sloan said, “It is great to have an active school council. These members are eager to get involved and I am looking forward to working with them.”

D E C I S I O N M A K I N Gb y M r s . G a n d h i , Y e a r 6 T e a c h e r

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King’s College and King’s Group 2013Christmas Card Challenge

BackgroundThis year King’s Group have decided to open a competition to our GCSE & A-Level pupils, to design a Christmas card image which will be displayed on the 2013 Christmas cards for the entire group, this includes the seven schools (Spain, Panama and the UK) as well as the Group head office.

Objectives

Objective and role of this communicationTo design one image per applicant that would be suitable to feature on the King’s Group 2013 Christmas Cards and E-Cards.

Type of imageThe image must be designed to reflect one of two biblical themes:

• Matthew 2:1 “Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem.”

• Matthew 2:10: ‘When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy’.

For further information please refer to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_Magi

We shall be including information on the final design to inform readers that the card was designed by a King’s College pupil (Inc. name and school) and was inspired by verses from the Gospels of Matthew.

Media Details Target audienceKing’s College Parents who have children from Nursery age through to 18

FormatImages should be submitted on A4 or A3 paper. Designs may be landscape or portrait. Images will ultimately be shrunk to include on a card which is 14.5cm x 10.5cm

Type of ImageApplications can be constructed by the artist in any format: including painting, drawing or electronic. Please remember that the image should be able to be printed on paper and used electronically.DO NOT: use metallic or special colours (Fluorescent or Glitter for example) as these cannot be re-generated electronically.

JudgingPlease take a photo of your artwork and submit via email to Paul Youlten, Marketing Director christmascompetition@kingsgroup.org

Entrants will be accepted from any pupil studying GCSE or A Level at a Ki ng ’s C ol leg e sc hool , and there is no limit to the number of participants per school.

Finalists will be chosen and asked to submit their original design, and then a winner will be chosen by Sir Roger Fry Chairman, Elena Benito CEO and Paul Youlten Marketing Director.

The winner will be announced by King’s Group via email.

DeadlineFinal deadline to submit artwork via email will be Tuesday 12th November 2013.

QuestionsShould you have any questions, please contact Charlie Lewis, Marketing Assistant charlie.lewis@kingsgroup.org

Hallowe’en PRIMARY

Hallowe’en PRIMARY

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I m p o r t a n t D a t e sN O V E M B E R 2 0 1 3

King’s College AlicanteGlorieta del Reino Unido 5

Alicante 03008 SpainTlf: 965 106 351

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

www.bsalicante.com

1 s t N o v e m b e r C O B I S C o n f e r e n c e2 n d N o v e m b e r C O B I S C o n f e r e n c e4 t h N o v e m b e r S c h o o l c l o s e d6 t h N o v e m b e r Y e a r s 3 / 4 M a t h s W o r k s h o p 3 . 4 5 i n t h e G y m1 2 t h N o v e m b e r E a r l y Y e a r s P a r e n t i n g C l a s s – B e h a v i o u r1 3 t h N o v e m b e r Y e a r s 1 / 2 M a t h s W o r k s h o p 3 . 1 5 i n t h e G y m1 5 t h N o v e m b e r E a r l y Y e a r s R e p o r t s o u t2 0 t h N o v e m b e r Y e a r s 5 / 6 M a t h s W o r k s h o p 3 . 4 5 i n t h e G y m2 6 t h N o v e m b e r E a r l y Y e a r s P a r e n t i n g C l a s s a b o u t T o i l e t i n g , H e a l t h & H y g i e n e

Out first whole school Monitoring Day held on 11th October was a huge success. Thank you to all parents and pupils who attended and to all the staff who prepared the interviews and targets with the pupils.

I am very pleased with the results from our survey following the day and we will be discussing some of the positive suggestions you have made for improvements in the future.

Summary of the survey results:

Monitoring Day taking place on 1 day (rather than overall several) 85% How suitable was the length of time allocated for each interview 91% How was the quality of discussion with the teacher 95% How helpful was the interview for you and your child 91% How suitable was the date of Monitoring Day in the school calendar 70% The convenience of the time of your interview 72% The overall experience of Monitoring Day 91%

M O N I T O R I N G D A Y

QUESTION OVERALL SATISFACTION RATING %