THE PRIMARY N E W S L E T T E RPrimary News from the Pupils and Teachers of The British School of Alicante

Message from theHead of Pr imary

An important event for Primary this month has been the Healthy Me project which was initiated by the Primary School Council last September. It was so amazing to see all their hard work coming together in a number of activities/projects.

The Eco-Warriors have been busy now for a number of weeks checking classrooms and other areas of school and awarding good practice with eco-stickers. Likewise the Healthy Snack week was a great success, and I would like to thank parents for their support. The Health and Safety group have also been involved in checking various areas of school and reporting any risks encountered. All these activities were combined with the “Race for Hunger” event which children, parents and staff supported whole heartedly.

The success of such events is a credit to our pupils and staff and one which the Inspectors recognised: “The pupils enthusiastically accept responsibility and consider it an honour to be elected to the school council. They readily translate their strong social and civic awareness into action...” (ISI Report). The culmination of these events was indeed the work which has been going on throughout the year, sometimes behind the scenes, but always driven by the pupils for the pupils.

Fiona ThomasHead of Primary

Ear ly Years Sports Day

MAY 2012

EARLY YEARS

The Early Years children were very excited about their new classes. They visited their new class on Friday 25th May to meet their new teachers. The children are getting so grown up now and are ready for the next stage in their school life.

In order to prepare the children for their new class we participated in lots of transition activities until the end of term. From June, the Nursery children will be starting the day with a whole class carpet time. The Reception children from Monday 28th May will be lining up outside the siesta hall and will say goodbye to their parents before coming into school. In the dining room they are now taking away their own trays at lunchtime ready for Year 1. As the weather is now getting warmer the Early Years children will no longer be wearing their apron at lunchtime in June and September.

On behalf of all the Early Years we would like to wish all the Early Years children lots of luck and good wishes in their new classes. We are very proud of the progress they have all made this year and their hard work. Thank you also to all the parents for their support this year and for making it such a successful and happy year for all of us.

The activity and sports morning was a great success in Early Years and the children and teachers had a lot of fun. The Nursery children participated in their activity morning during the ¨Healthy Me¨ week and did lots of exciting activities. The Reception children enjoyed joining together with Year 1 for their sports morning. We were very proud of all their excellent behaviour in the activities which involved skipping, sack race, skittles, target games and running.

The children excelled themselves in the Race for Hunger and ran many laps around the grass course. Thank you to all the children, parents and teachers for their contribution to such a valuable cause and all the money we have raised for charity.

THE RACE FOR HUNGER AND SPORTS DAY

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Thank you to all the parents who have supported the parenting classes over the last two terms. They have been well supported and we hope that they have proved useful to you. We would like to say a special thank you to Maeva and Ana for working hard to prepare the themes and for making the classes so interesting and informative.

We value your feedback on these classes and please speak to Joanna, Maeva or Ana if there are any other topics you feel it would be useful for us to address in the future.

PARENTING CLASSES

THE RACE FOR HUNGER AND SPORTS DAY

The Reception children have been caring for their garden area and are very proud of how well the plants are growing. The sunflowers have now grown so high they are now taller than all of the children and even the teachers! We have all enjoyed our topic of growing and now know that plants need soil, water, sun and lots of love and care to grow so well.

THE RECEPTION GARDEN AREA

The children enjoyed the visit from Steve Smallman, the visiting author. He came to school to read his books and the children listened really carefully to his interesting stories. He is also an artist and drew some excellent pictures for the children, which we will frame and put up around the school.

STEVESMALLMANVISIT

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HealthySnack WeekKS1

MakingBread inNursery E

The children in Nursery E have learnt the process of making break. They all loved to play with the flour and knead the dough. It was a fantastic activity that taught us how to use different ingredients to produce a product that we enjoy every day. Well done!

Over the last few months the school council has been working very hard.

Eco warriors from the Eco sub group have been patrolling and carrying out their Eco checks to see if pupils and staff are switching off lights, turning off taps and fans, making sure projectors are turned off and generally being environmentally friendly. This month most of the classes got an excellent stamp with only a few being nearly there...

The Health and Safety Sub – group have ensured that the patio has a regular litter pick up with all year groups taking part. The Patio has therefore been much cleaner and safer... well done everyone in Key Stage 2 for doing your bit. The Healthy Me sub-group have had a special healthy eating week where children brought in healthy snacks to school. A separate article is included in the newsletter about this.

Well done to School Council members for all their help in the Race for Hunger – it was really appreciated.

This year the school council has had the invaluable support of a number of teachers without whom all of this work would be more difficult to achieve. First and foremost a big thanks to Mrs Crompton who has developed the school council over the last few years and made it into what it is today. Thanks to Mrs Pilkington for her work with the Health and Safety Sub-group, thanks to Mrs Davidson for her work with the Healthy Me Sub-group and last but not least thanks to Mrs Bennett and Mrs Gandhi for their work with the Eco-subgroup.

School Council

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Primary and Secondary pupils are taking part in our 2nd day of Race against Hunger. Thank you to all pupils and staff who took part and to parents and staff who supported this worthwhile event, particularly Mr Roberts and Miss Parry. Congratulations to Takuma and Miss Wood who completed 21 and 18 circuits respectively.

RACE AGAINST HUNGER

On May 7th 2012, budding entrepreneurs from Year 6 presented their innovative chocolate designs and ideas to a panel of fearsome Dragons from Year 10´s Business Studies Course.

As many readers will know from the last edition of the newsletter, year 6 have been working on the topic of Chocolate since term two. To complete the topic they were given the task of working in pairs to design a chocolate product which they would present to future business people and potential investors.

The idea came from the popular television programme in Britain called Dragon´s Den and the similar American programme called Shark´s Tank where innovators take their ideas to a panel of wealthy and successful business leaders, make a pitch and attempt to gain support from these so called Dragons. If Dragons like the idea and think it has potential to be successful, they will invest some money in exchange for a share of the business; they may also give useful advice but if they think the idea has no mileage they will say “They are out!”

Out of 36 business ideas throughout Year 6, six products and twelve finalists went forward to the Dragon´s Den on May 7th. The finalists were: Santiago, Diego, Tian, Samuel, Patricia, Noa, Mafalda , Victoria From Year 6H and Alejandro, Selene, Germán and Uma from Year 6 G.

They made their pitch eloquently and then took some tough questions from the awesome Year 10 Dragons who were Daria, Marta, Alejandro and Juan.

YEAR 6 ENTREPRENEURS MEET YEAR 10 DRAGONS! PLAY VIDEO

Pyramid shaped chocolate delights

Goldy Delights designed by Noa and Patricia (6H)

Chocolates full of vitamins for cats

Yorkat designed by Santi and Deigo (6F)

A Black and White chocolate bar which makes you feel positive about your futureDestiny Bar designed by Selene and Alex (6G)

All products had to have a unique selling point (USP), a slogan or catchy phrase and children had to think about the packaging of the product.

John Thomas Business Studies teacher said that he was very impressed with the ideas that had been presented to the Dragons. “The Dragons found it very difficult to choose winners as all the ideas were very creative,” Mr Thomas stressed.

Mrs Gandhi, Year 6 teacher, said “This has been an exciting topic and the children have loved designing their

The Three winning products were:

Children practising being dragons during the lessons on Dragon´s Den

own ideas and pitching them in front of Year 10 Dragons. The Dragons were fantastic and I know we will be doing this again next year with Year 6”.

Mrs Thomas, Head of Primary explained, “These kinds of initiatives inspire children and introduce them to the wider world. It is incredible to see ten and eleven year olds developing their own product ideas and having the confidence to make a pitch to older students. Another benefit of such an exercise is the cross working between primary and secondary. For Year 6 this will be another way of introducing them to the next chapter of their learning journey.”

MIGUEL Y6FPAULA Y6G

Important Dates

Glorieta del Reino Unido 5Alicante 03008 Spainwww.bsalicante.cominfo@kingsgroup.org

We have now received our report from ISI following our recent 6 day inspection. You should also have received a copy by e mail. I am immensely proud of the pupils and staff and the many excellent comments and plaudits in the report are well deserved. I am also very grateful for the continued support we receive from parents. As a school community we can be very proud of what we have achieved. Our formal recognition from ISI as an ́ Excellent´ school is further enhanced by the many congratulations I have received from distinguished educationalists around the globe who have described our report as ´One of the best I have ever read´, ´Without doubt it is amongst the best school reports written´ and ´Outstanding success´. This clearly puts us amongst the very top British Schools Overseas and Independent UK Schools and constitutes a marvellous accolade for our school and for King´s Group in general. I hope you will enjoy reading it as much as I did!

INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS INSPECTORATE (ISI)

DOWNLOAD ISI REPORT

Diamond Jubilee Celebrations in School – 5th June

Week of 4th June - Year 6 Trip to Benicassim

7th June - Year 3 and 4 “Olympics Musical”

8th June - EYFS Trip to the Farm

12th June - Year 5 Trip (Overnight)

14th June - Year 4 Trip (Overnight)

15th June - Year 6 Graduation Assembly

18th June - Year 4 Trip (Overnight)

20th June - Year 2 Assembly

22nd June - Reception Break Day

Last Day of Term - 22nd June

First Day of Term - 5th September