Secondary Bulletin - 20 September, 2021

It was a great pleasure to welcome so many Secondary parents at our coffee mornings last week. This was a fantastic opportunity and your valuable feedback as well as incredible support were greatly appreciated. I look forward to many more opportunities where we can meet and get to know each other better.

IB TOK Exhibition

We were delighted to be able to welcome our IB families to school on Thursday to enjoy our first IB TOK Exhibition. This Exhibition is the culmination of a great deal of work that took place in Year 12: students had to choose one of the 35 Exhibition prompts and 3 objects from their own lives that they will explore this prompt through. An example of a prompt is 'Why do we seek knowledge?' The choice of objects is practically endless: we saw on display a dictionary, a piece of cardboard, pictures of fish, and a digital watch. The Year 13s took it in turns (first Mr Crismond's class, then Ms Donnelly's class) to stand by their exhibits and explain the thinking on display. It was wonderful to hear the clarity of thought they possess about questions so challenging and complex! It also felt really positive to have families in school, something many of our guests commented on. We hope to be able to host more events for our families in the very near future.

We also invited other Secondary teachers and our Year 12 students to the Exhibition. Armed with a reflection task, the Year 12s circulated the Exhibition, hopefully getting inspired as they listened to their Year 13 peers explain their work! Year 12s will be hosting their own Exhibition at the end of this Academic Year, so this was a great way to show what is in store for them.

Students quotes

Fatma Erdogan 13B: "The TOK Exhibition was a new experience for me as I had to present my exhibition to people who had limited TOK knowledge and did not know about TOK before. Therefore, I had to learn how to explain the exhibition by using different terminology and formulating my ideas in a simpler but precise way. Additionally, I enjoyed listening to other classmates presenting their exhibitions."

Ellyza Malibiran 13A: "Before the TOK exhibition started, I felt this nervous but an exciting emotion because this was a new experience for me. I was afraid that I would stutter or forget what to say, but the moment I was standing in front of an audience, I found myself speaking the language of TOK fluently. To say I was also surprised at myself is an understatement, but the encouraging words and compliments from teachers, parents and other peers was what made all the hard work I put into my exhibition worth it. What was also interesting was to see non-TOK learners take their own perspective in answering the prompt; it made me realized how TOK as a subject can interest a wide range of communities."

Legally Blonde

Rehearsals are already in full swing for the Secondary production of “Legally Blonde”. This high energy Broadway musical is based on the famous movie starring Reese Witherspoon as Elle Woods, a sorority girl who follows her love to Harvard Law School, but of course this version has music, dance and more! The story is entertaining, the characters are hilarious, and the music is fantastic! The cast is comprised of students from Y7-13, and everyone is already having a wonderful time working on singing and acting skills and performing together. We all look forward to the show!

School Photos

This week school photos will be taking place on Thursday and Friday 23^rd and 24^th September. We will be taking group as well as individual photos. Please be reminded to make sure that your child is wearing full school uniform and is smartly turned out.

Absence

At the British School of Beijing, the safety of your child is of paramount importance and informs everything we do as a school. As such, we want to ensure that the processes for recording and reporting absence is undertaken in a rigorous manner.

Thank you for your support and use of the new system.  We are aware that the daily email can be distracting. As such, now that the new system has been implemented, we will no longer send the daily email. To make the process easier, you can access the form on the school website by clicking ‘parents Essentials’ on the top right-hand corner of the website.

• All absences should be reported by 8:15am.
• After 8:15am, we will collate this information and inform relevant stakeholders of your child’s absence.
• Any absence not recorded by 8:15am will be treated as unauthorised and will prompt our support staff to phone parents to establish the cause of absence.
• If your child does not make use of the school bus service and is late it is essential that they sign in at the school's main reception. The secondary support staff will cross reference absence with the late sign-in and period 1 registers before calling home by 9:00am.

Mornings

The safety of your children is our primary concern. As such, it is important that our students are supervised and cared for from the moment they arrive on campus and until they leave us at the end of the school day or after any CCAs. Therefore, no students will be allowed on site until 8am. Between 8am and 8:15am, Secondary students should proceed to the Multi-Purpose Room (MPR) where they will be supervised until 8:15am. At that point they can proceed to their lockers and form rooms.

Uniform

At BSB we insist on the highest standards in all areas of school life. I am very pleased to see that our students adhere to the uniform rules and represent the school with pride.  However, at times there are a few issues that still need to be addressed. Please support us by reinforcing the following with your children:

• No sneakers or casual shoes of any description.
• No extreme hair styles or unnatural or bleached colouring.
• Only one earring stud per ear is allowed.
• All students should make sure that their top buttons are done up.
• Jumpers or cardigans should not be worn without a blazer. If students do not wear a blazer they should not come to school in jumpers or cardigans.
• IB students must ensure their clothing choices adhere to the ‘business smart’ guidelines. This includes not wearing clothes that display logos or writing.

Global Campus

NA Global Campus sports event – 2K run Sat 25^th September 12.30-4.30pm

On Saturday 25^th September Mr Thorp will be running an NAE Global Campus 2K running event on the school track. If you wish to take part, please check your PE Teams page for more details and sign up by the end of Wednesday 22^nd September. Details will then be sent to those students before the event.  Students in the school production can come and take part in the afternoon after their rehearsal time. 

Ask the Artist – Norbert De La Cruz III

We are pleased to announce we have just launched the next ‘Ask the Artist’, which features dancer and choreographer Norbert De La Cruz III. Norbert graduated from the Juilliard School with a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Arts and Dance. He is recognised for his versatility in performance and choreography with strong classical and contemporary dance skills.

You can find his full biography and examples of his dance work on Global Campus (link below). He is a current a member of Faculty and guest choreographer at The Juilliard School and will gladly welcome questions from our students. 

Click here

Students can log in with their school username and password. Students can ask questions until Monday 11^th October 2021. Students can ask him about anything they’d like, from ‘does he have a favourite dance style?’ to ‘what it’s like being featured in Dance Magazines Top 25 to watch’? Norbert will review all the questions and we’ll share which ones he’s chosen to answer week commencing 23^rd November 2021. Students will receive two Global Campus badges if they ask a question: a Critical Thinking badge (2 stars) and a Cultural Awareness badge (2 stars). 

Calendar

Please see this term’s calendar of Global Campus activities covering dance, drama and music. There will be something for all age groups, interests and levels and the activities can be done at home or in the classroom. Our performing Arts team will be promoting these fantastsic opportunities

Travel Update

Families are turning to us for travel guidance for forthcoming holidays and whilst we have not had official directives, we can share the following:

1. We continue to urge you to avoid any unnecessary travel outside of Beijing at this time. This will support us in offering the highest levels of health and safety for your child and our school community.
2. Where travel is necessary, we ask that you inform the school before leaving Beijing so that we can give further guidance where necessary. If your child is not going to travel during the holidays, then there is no need to fill in this form. 

Please click here or scan the QR code below to fill in the Travel Survey Form if you are travelling outside Beijing.

3. According to the risk level of your destination, it may not be required for students to stay away from school for 14 days nor to take a nucleic test, but we are yet to receive exact details of the requirements.

If the risk level of your destination or travel accommodation location were to change whilst you are travelling, you may find yourself quarantined or required to complete 14 days of health monitoring at home in Beijing before being allowed to return to school.  The school would not be able to provide VSE or financial compensation should school be missed by the student during any quarantine or exclusion period arising from such travel.

If we receive specific guidance from the Shunyi Education Committee which contravenes our guidance above, we will alert you immediately.

Year 10 - Duke of Edinburgh’s International Bronze Award Scheme

Most year 10 students have now signed up for the International Award. Our students are looking forward to their first trip to the Silver Pagodas Mountain Park taking place on Sunday 26th September. Mr Bourne has emailed details to all the parents concerned. I have not doing the outing will be a fantastic learning experience for all.

Co-Curricular Activities

The co-curricular programme is now in full swing. I am delighted to see so many of our students seize the rich range of learning opportunities. Please see the photos of our students actively involved in co curricular learning.

Wishing everyone a restful mid-autumn festival holiday tomorrow.

Bevan Graham

Head of Secondary