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It is that time of year when Primary students in Year 6 look forward to transitioning into Secondary with students moving from both the CF and CJ Primary to a vastly different and strange new world …….or is it?

Technology is an innovation of humans and learning how to intentionally engage with Big Data, Machine Learning, and the Internet of things is an essential skill in our everyday lives. As smart devices and cloud connection become an increasing part of daily life on Earth, coding and programming is evolving from an optional field of study into a basic literacy.

Exercise makes us feel good – that’s well documented. But do you know why? Does it burn off stress? Reduce muscle tension? Or release endorphins perhaps?

When reviewing vocabulary during a speaking activity recently, one student used the phrase, “I put my fork and knife down.”  I recast the sentence saying, “So, you put down your knife and fork?”. “Yes, I put down my fork and knife.”, came the response. Why did this sound so odd to me and why was the poor student confused when I tried to explain that it’s knife and fork in English, in that order otherwise it sounds wrong? I believe a direct translation from Portuguese (garfo e faca) is partly at fault for the confusion, but English must also take some of the blame.

In the IB, students face what is possibly two of the most critical years of their lives. Small but consistent decisions they make now can unlock future opportunities that they may not even know exist yet.

As we approach the middle of the school year, I’d like to take some time to explore what is happening within the mathematics department, in the classroom and with student’s at home.

Summer has arrived in the southern hemisphere as well as the main rainy season of the year. The hottest season is known as the wettest one, which is to be expected. However, we have noticed that weather events have become more extreme over the years. In the context of extreme weather events, our secondary students have engaged in the STEAM challenges in collaboration between Nord Anglia and MIT.

In the arts we are enjoying the experience of teaching and learning practical work again. Our students are doing a range of activities including; printing, perspective, painting, playing instruments, playing in ensembles and performing in front of an audience.

What an interesting and eventful first term it was! As we are now heading full gear into term 2, it’s always valuable to look back upon what we have done and achieved.

January, the start of Term 2 and without doubt the most demanding period of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program (IBDP) for students and staff at BCB. For our IBDP2 cohort, the final deadlines of their controlled assessments arrive and as their courses finish revision picks up pace. For staff, alongside their usual workload comes the added need to mark and moderate assessed work. As well as plan interesting and worthwhile revision activities. It is also in the second term of the IBDP that the weight and expectations of the program become a reality for our IBDP1 cohort.

In most international schools, Year 11 is considered to be one of the most important years on a student’s learning journey. This is the year in which students complete their Cambridge IGCSE exams. These exams can seem extremely formal but this also makes them rigorous and fair - in fact, they are often the first (but not the last) externally assessed exam that students take on their educational journey.

As parents, nothing is more important than our children’s academic performance and wellbeing at school. And so at BCB, we understand that having those communication lines open between parents and teachers is crucial to the continued success of our students.

On Friday we marked UNICEF World Children’s Day with a non - uniform day whereby we all came dressed in blue to symbolise this special day. Amy Bater who is our Global Campus Lead has spent the last month raising awareness of this important and special annual event amongst students and teachers.

Our Year 8s have been pondering upon how Pseudocode is the first step to learning the skills of programming and creating logic which is a great method for uncovering unclear decisions and defining all inputs, outputs and interactions needed to effectively solve a problem.

Ten students from BCB are on their way to the annual global games competition in January held exclusively for Nord Anglia Education schools across The Americas. They will compete in a range of sports, from flag football to track and field, and swimming to sand volleyball and I have the privilege of accompanying them.

In the Y11 ESL classes, we were looking at spelling words and ways to learn new forms of vocabulary. We looked at several ways, from learning synanyms, to translating, to writing sentences in context and having dedicated vocabulary books. One of the more interesting ways to help us to remember words and spellings is by using mnemonics.  We found some of the examples we were given interesting and so I thought I wood share them here.

One of the many highlights so far this year has been studying Othello with the year 10s. No easy task, but with the momentum of energy created by the positive news of vaccinations, ease of restrictions and general global optimism have, I believe, been pivotal in the encouraging level of student engagement in classes this year.

All IB students have to do an “internal assessment” (IA) in mathematics in order to get their IB Diploma - this is a 12-20 page mathematical exploration on anything that the students are interested in. Some past examples of successful IA topics include: - Finding the optimal trajectory of a basketball - Exploring different strategies when playing Monopoly - Modelling the best “kick” in karate - An exploration into the number e≈2.718... - The mathematics behind shuffling cards - Exploring the birthday paradox

During the first 2 weeks back to school, starting a new academic year, we wanted to hear our students' voices and learn about their perspectives with regards to language learning. We used the Language Portrayals because each person has a particular connection to the language(s) they know along with their lives. What would that look like to our pupils? Is there a preference for any language? Which one do they prefer talking about? Or writing? Or listening to music?

​​​​​​​Vaccines have shown to be crucial to the fight against diseases in the history of medicine. Throughout history, they have helped to significantly reduce the incidence of polio, measles and tetanus, among many other infections. Today, they are considered the most cost-effective strategy in the control of viral and bacterial diseases.