FEBRUARY 2011

T H E P R I M A RY N E W S L E T T E RPrimary News from the Pupils and Teachers of The British School of Alicante

Love the World You´re In DayThis St. Valentine’s Day we celebrated in a different

way at BSA through a ‘Love the World you´re in Day.’

All the Primary staff and children came to school

dressed in green and took part in Assemblies and a

variety of eco-friendly activities in their classes.

Looking after our planet and, in particular, Global Warming, are often items which appear on world news regularly. Recently the floods in Australia have made the news as well as tropical storms worldwide, bushfires and melting glaciers. The list goes on! With the ever increasing concern and threat of global warming we feel that our pupils need to know how they can look after their planet.

“Love the World you are in” day took place on 14th February to coincide with St. Valentines. You will see in this newsletter how the children organised recycling, learnt about climate change and many other issues concerned with caring for their environment. The school

council played a large part in organising activities and preserving and protecting our environment was the theme of our assemblies that week.

The School Council, in partnership with the secondary School Council have been working towards the Eco-schools award since September. This initiative will guide us through a seven step process to help our pupils address a variety of environmental issues, ranging from litter and waste to healthy living and biodiversity. The programme includes three levels of award: Bronze, Silver and the Green Flag award which symbolises excellence in the field of environmental activity. “Love the world you are in” enabled us, as a whole school to bring the project together and focus the pupil’s attention on their planet and how we can make changes to protect it.

In conjunction with a local charity we will soon be receiving a clothes recycling bin at BSA to help clothe people in disadvantaged parts of the world. More information on how you can help will follow shortly.

Head of PrimaryFiona Thomas

Message fromthe Head of Primary

On February 14th, 2011, out on the patio, during the Primary breaks, the School Council members helped to collect all the plastic bottles and pots and put them in separate recycling bins. At the end of the afternoon we had collected a whole supermarket trolley and one bin bag full of plastic waste! We want to be able to continue to do this on a daily basis but do not have recycling bins on the school premises!

These are some of the activities we had during the day:

• Nursery have been identifying materials, especially plastic!• Reception discussed why recycling is a good idea.• Year 1 drew pictures and made collages of the World in their Hands.• Year 2 discussed the effect of humans on animal habitats.• Year 3 drew posters to compare a perfect or polluted world.• Year 4 calculated the carbon footprint produced by travelling to school• Year 5 and 6 researched climate change and the impact on Tiki the penguin.

Love the World You’re In DayBE GREEN!

In November last year I organized a writing competition with the editor of Jungle Drums (a Costa Blanca magazine), the theme of which was to write creatively about something that would improve the school (and creative they were). Ideas ranged from alien space craft to a drama studio run by Johnny Depp. We decided that all entries deserved to be printed and extracts appeared in the January issue of the magazine. Overall winner was Olivia Topp (5S) with a piece entitled The Unknown World of Seasons (a place I would very much like to visit,

except that teachers are not allowed), runners up were, Jemel Richards (6L), Maria Garcia (6M), Ines Tretter (6M) and Ivonne Hernandez (6M)

On the 15th of February during year 5 and 6 assembly the winners of the writing competition were presented with their prizes by Dave Bull (editor of the magazine). He told the children that he was impressed with the quality of all the entries stating that he himself would be proud to have written as well as our pupils. This competition was a wonderful way for our children to get a glimpse of life as a published author and for their parents and teachers to bask in their success.Mr. Bull is keen to work with BSA in future and has asked pupils from the school to think of ideas for contributions to the magazine, such as a drawing competition, or design a chair competition (for example) If you have any ideas please let me know.

In the meantime carry on writing!Mrs. Manners

Year 5 and 6 Writing competition

Virus CompetitionPupils from Year 5 were given the task, in Spanish class, of inventing a new virus, describing it and making a graphic representation. This is one of the best:

Un virus que yo conozco se llama "Tuttienfermative". Afecta a una zona muy rara: el pie. Su función es hacer que los pies huelan mal, te duelan al pisar y que los dedos del pie se hinchen y se pongan rojos. Por último, te duele mucho el talón y te pica la parte de abajo del pie. Sólo se pueden curar con crema solar y con los pies metidos en un cuenco de agua hirviendo con patatas. Son triangulares, morados y muy, pero que muy pequeños. Sus ojos son enanos y tiene una pequeña boca que, al morderte, provoca estas raras sensaciones.

Por Inés Tretter (6M)

When the representative from the Protectora de Animales in Bacarot, (Animal Sanctuary), visited the school to accept the donation from Secondary, she brought with her a beautiful, white female puppy that had been found inside a rubbish bin. The puppy was about one month old, and was taken to the Sanctuary to be cared for until they could find her a home. Year 3 were shown the puppy, and wanted to give her a name.

A competition was held, with children bringing in money, and a name. The name chosen for the puppy was “Liliana”, and this name was given by Paula Serna in Year 3B. 50 euros was raised for the Sanctuary, and some children also brought in old blankets and towels

Liliana

for the animals to sleep on. Should anyone wish to donate money, blankets or towels, please send them to Mrs Pilkington in Year 3P. Thank you very much for your support and cooperation.

In Early Years we had great fun celebrating the Chinese New Year on Friday 4th February. The children came to school dressed in brightly coloured clothes and some of the children and teachers even came in traditional Chinese clothes!

The children made lanterns and dancing dragons and participated in lots of exciting activities. The Secondary children came to visit the Nursery classes and they played traditional Chinese games. All the children ate Chinese food at lunchtime and even managed to eat some of the food using chopsticks, which was quite difficult.

The children learnt a lot about the traditions for this Chinese festival and some of the children brought in Chinese artifacts and musical instruments for us to play. We learnt some phrases in Chinese and had a go at Chinese writing. We had a special assembly in the afternoon where we sang a Chinese song and the children shared with each other all the super things they had made. We all enjoyed celebrating the Chinese New Year.

Chinese New YearCelebrations in Early Years

Piano Concert Photographs

Headteacher ´s BlogI invite all parents to read the Headteacher´s blog which is available on our website. News and information will be posted and updated regularly . I hope this will keep you more informed of school developments.

Glorieta del Reino Unido 5Alicante 03008 Spainwww.bsalicante.com

email: carlos.lazaro@kingsgroup.org

• March 1st – World Maths Day

• March 3rd – Carnival and World Book Day

• March 11th – Primary Reports

• Week Beginning 14th March – Parent Meetings

• Week Beginning 21st March – Parent Meetings

Dates for March

For more dates please see our Parent Calendar on the website.

www.bsalicante.com