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The general objective in the Spanish Class this year is to develop the intellectual, personal, and professional abilities of the students. They need to acquire basic language skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) to be able to communicate with speakers of the target language: Spanish.

One of the most relevant aspects in my opinion is to create active listeners: The students will acquire necessary listening skills to follow and comprehend discourse such as lectures, conversations, interviews and discussions.

They will produce a written response based on the information listening texts and they will learn to use strategies to listen actively: taking notes, preparing questions and providing feedback.

Regarding speaking skills, the objective is to develop adequate speaking skills to communicate effectively in different situations about different and relevant topics in real life situations: at the restaurant, shopping for clothes, at the travel agency, booking a flight or reserve a hotel room or introducing ourselves for the first time.

For their writing skills, the idea is to develop important writing skills that will enable them to produce academic texts required in their respective year groups. Use the correct linguistic structures and grammar when expressing their thoughts.

The students will be able to write grammatically accurate basic and complex sentences using the subject’s pronouns, verbs and adjectives correctly. Also promoting creative writing for example: the script of the role-plays or writing the lyrics for the introducing myself rap project in year 6.

Creating habits and improving their confidence: In every lesson, the year 3 to year 5 students are writing and then reading to the class information about the date, the time, how they are feeling, the season of the year, the weather, clothes that they are wearing and school subjects for the day.

Reading and comprehension exercises: The students will analyse and synthesize information presented in different sources: stories, comics, articles and news. The students will identify words and/or phrases related to the topic.

To improve in their reading and comprehension skills they must learn the question words or interrogative questions: what, where, when, why, how, how much/many, who and which, to be capable of understanding what they need to answer.

After answering all the questions about the text, the class will participate in discussions about their own experiences, to increase their knowledge and vocabulary about the specific topic they need to participate in these conversations.

The role plays help them to develop collaboration and interaction skills and creative writing and thinking. The students also prepare questions for the class to increase their interaction and participation.

Javier Vidal
Spanish Teacher

Our weekly programme that is derived from the Cambridge curriculum helps us perform different exercises and play games that are skill based and always motivate teamwork rather than focusing on individual skills only.

We learn about our bodies and how we can use them to the best of our abilities within the sports fields.

The curriculum is based on the sporting codes we provide at BIS, thus, it is important for students to participate and enjoy the different skill sets taught throughout the year as per the curriculum requirements.

As coaches we want our students to participate in different activities and expose them to different types of sports within our lessons, hence we provide the support that is needed to achieve this goal.

We cannot achieve all of this without the help of our lovely parents, so we ask that our lunch boxes are filled with health conscious nutritious food on a daily basis.

Promoting good eating habits is vital to a child’s development physically and mentally, It is said that eating healthier 80% of the time and doing 20% exercise compliment each other.

What Experts Say

“The 80/20 rule approaches healthy eating with a message of moderation-80 percent healthy choices and 20 percent flexibility for less healthy option. Nutrition professionals back this approach, as it is feasible for all, allows for variety of foods, and avoids deprivation.” – Chrissy Carrol,RD,MPH

Let’s try and pack a healthy lunch box.

We are most certainly improving and setting the tone at our PE lessons every week and I (Coach Mpho), am getting the greatest joy seeing the improvement and the strides that our students are making, getting the idea of how to move the body over a game of dodgeball, soccer, handball and more.

Also knowing the amount of power needed to make a short or long pass, throwing skills, learning new games and most of all having fun with your peers and improving your game.

Week 6 – Handball skills, teamwork, accuracy and movement.
Class – 5HK

ATL skills observed – Listening and communication skills, self-awareness and sense of urgency – teamwork

Planning

The students warm up by taking a jog around the 5 aside court ,do shuttles that incorporate push ups, sits, lunges, jumping jacks/body weighted squats to get the blood flowing and the heart rate going.

They then go into stretches from neck to toes, whilst illustrating and explaining to them which parts of the muscles they are stretching and the importance thereof.

In this case, a class is split into 2 teams that verse each other etc. (red vs orange team)

Instructions are as follows:

1. No one is allowed to keep the ball for more than 3 seconds creating a sense of urgency in their play.
2. Teams have to pass to everyone in their team to have a legitimate goal awarded, which creates a team effort where everybody participates, teams are not allowed to run with the ball which forces them to work together – teamwork.
3. Teams are allowed to pass the ball by either bouncing or no bounce, two-handed passes for more accurate passes.

Objective
The objective of the lesson is to establish and develop good communication skills, passing accuracy and most importantly following the rules of the game and applying all the skills taught throughout the curriculum.

Assessing
Can a student apply themselves through the activity that is focused and based on team building?
Can they pass, throw and catch the ball?
Can they be creative in terms of movement and creating space on the field?
Are they calling for the ball, communicating to their teammates?
Do they understand the rules of the game abide by them?

The students attitude, enthusiasm and the will to do better is as important as his performance.

In Closing

As the winter season slowly drags on to its end, we welcome Spring and the sunshine. I am grateful for the support that has been shown by our BIS family, parents, teachers, ground staff and all who make our school united and warm throughout the soccer and netball season by rooting for our students.

I also wish congratulate all our junior and senior Tennis teams that represented BIS in Sun City last week as well as all our soccer and netball boys and girls who participated with much courage and enthusiasm in all their matches this season.

Well done to you all, we are all very proud to be part of the winning mindset.

Mpho Mahlangu
PE Teacher

We believe that music tuition in our school not only contributes to the establishment of a healthy balance between the physical, academic and aesthetic aspects of the development of our students, but that the disciplines associated with it (intellectual, physical, educational and creative), can also play a positive role in other spheres of their education and later, their adult life.

In the past two terms, the music department has grown from strength to strength. We are increasing in numbers for individual instrument tuition. We have also re-introduced recorder classes in Year 2 as part of our class music programme. It gives the students the opportunity to discover if playing an instrument is something they would like to invest time and effort in.

Our High School band is well established and they are performing every end of the month during break time. We are also looking at more ensemble opportunities in the near future.

Last week, we had our BIS Eisteddfod for the second year running and it was a huge success. We had a lot of interest and it was lovely to have the parents’ support for poetry and music. Our judges was very impressed with our students and our school. We would like to congratulate our category winners of this year.

KS1 Poetry: Nathaniel Dhewa
KS1 Music: Vaishnav Rajesh
KS2 Poetry: Mansoor Daniels
KS2 Music: Indiphile Jentile
High school Music: Gabriella Davids and Faith Chivaka

We are working hard in class music to introduce new activities, instrument play, movement and songs which all the students seem to enjoy!

Beverley du Plessis
Music Teacher and BIS Eisteddfod Coordinator

It is safe to say that coding is one of the most constructive hobbies for your child to adopt, especially since it can help them develop persistence, communication, creativity, and higher-order thinking.

Yes, learning to code also sets your child up for potentially lucrative career opportunities, but it also offers children so much more than that. A modern parent cannot go wrong by encouraging their child to program.

At BIS, we have coding and robotics lessons every day during the week – Monday to Friday. The students enjoy their coding lessons and it is rewarding to see them grasp the concepts and solve problems by themselves. Here are reasons why coding is so important for children:

1. Coding Boosts Problem-Solving Skills
Coding is, without a doubt, one of the most straightforward ways for children to boost their problem-solving skills.

In a programming context, coders are constantly challenged and asked to problem-solve. The practice all but requires them to break issues down into more manageable sub-problems, then progress through an iterative process of identifying, prioritising, and implementing solutions. Thus, children start honing their problem-solving skills as soon as they take on their first coding challenge.

Research indicates that even if your child doesn’t want to go into coding as an adult, establishing a practice of coding early in life will nevertheless help them build highly-transferable cognitive skills. Is it any wonder why children should code?

2. Coding Improves Computational Thinking
Computational thinking is a branch of knowledge that involves expressing problems in a way that a computer would. Students who learn this model of thinking are encouraged to break down complex problems into smaller issues, thereby revealing underlying process patterns.

As researchers for an earlier study wrote on the matter, “We believe that children as young as ten can directly benefit from opportunities to engage in computational thinking […] Children can begin by solving puzzles on paper, continue on game boards, and ultimately complete their solutions on computers. Through this process, students can be guided through increasingly complex algorithmic thinking activities that are built from their tacit knowledge and excitement about game play.”

2. Coding Encourages Persistence
Computer science is one of the few professional disciplines where it’s entirely acceptable to be near-constantly failing. Not only is failure immediately recognisable — i.e. a program “breaks,” and doesn’t work as intended — but success literally cannot be achieved until all errors are handled. Even the most straightforward programs require a coder to understand a set of problems and solve them; otherwise, the code won’t run as intended.

However, with all this frustration and failure comes a real, lifelong character benefit: persistence.

When children begin programming, they come to learn that failure is transient, and doesn’t have to be frustrating or a progress-stopper. Even small successes can provide the encouragement kids need to push through issues in their programming. Over time, this perseverance can bolster a child’s grit — and serve as one of the most important indicators of their future educational and career success.

Coding can help your child develop a growth mindset: a philosophy wherein one’s ability to learn can be improved upon, adjusted as needed, and stand firm against demoralizing failures. What better mentality could a child adopt early in life?

3. Coding Improves Computational Thinking
Computational thinking is a branch of knowledge that involves expressing problems in a way that a computer would. Students who learn this model of thinking are encouraged to break down complex problems into smaller issues, thereby revealing underlying process patterns.

As researchers for an earlier study wrote on the matter, “We believe that children as young as ten can directly benefit from opportunities to engage in computational thinking […] Children can begin by solving puzzles on paper, continue on game boards, and ultimately complete their solutions on computers. Through this process, students can be guided through increasingly complex algorithmic thinking activities that are built from their tacit knowledge and excitement about game play.”

4. Coding Teaches Creativity
Creativity, creativity, creativity; it’s something every early educator and parent is wholly concerned with, and yet it’s not a quality prized by most working adults.

Creativity tends to decrease as we age. The adage is true — adults tend to be less creative than children. By the time we reach our sunset years, we have effectively “unlearned” one of the most important skills in life.
“Creative people have rapid and effective responses that help them to achieve their life goals and allow them to enjoy the journey… It is both a skill set and a unique and individual personality structure that’s developed throughout childhood and fine-tuned in adolescence,” Notre Dame researcher Doireann O’Connor once noted.
So, how do we preserve a child’s creative skills as they age?

Experts suggest that kids should learn to code. As a practice, coding positions developers as “creators” or “world-builders” within a programming environment — by definition, the discipline requires creative thinking and an experimental mindset.

With programming, kids are constantly prompted to experiment. Once they understand basic functionalities, they can continually ask themselves, What if I tried this? Would that work?

5. Coding is a Career-Building Skill
The importance of programming cannot be understated in our economy, which is now overwhelmingly driven by technology.

The biggest hurdle is just mastering that first programming language — but once they do, they will be well-positioned to learn different languages, frameworks, and technologies later on in life.

Sonia Terblache
ICT, Coding & Robotics Teacher

“Students learn best when they are actively engaged in the learning experience.”

Storytelling and role-play lessons are some of the methods that I have been using during the years at Blouberg International. The students can increase their understanding of a topic by interacting and sharing with others, growing and stimulating new ideas.

Storytelling is a very powerful medium in the classroom; but the stories must be entertaining, exciting and stimulating, taking your students from everyday life into fantasy worlds or great adventures.

“Gain the students attention by making the stories fun.”

When you are telling or writing the stories, be sure to make them fun or interesting for your students. You can create crazy scenarios or characters. For example, famous people booking a hotel room with insane requests or ordering super weird food.

First, you need to gain the students attention. Try to use different voices for the characters or animals and vary in the volume and tone of your voice.

“Role-play can help to develop confidence to speak in different social situations.”

When you introduce a story, be sure to explain its purpose or learning objective so they know which life skills they are developing order food and drinks at the restaurant, book a hotel room, organize a holiday tryp or buy clothes at the shops. 

Encourage your students to interact with their classmates at the end of the story, for example asking the class some of the main details of the story: price per night, room number or if there is a swimming pool or internet connection at the hotel.

“Build specific skills that they can use in real life.”

It is very important to introduce key vocabulary and expressions that they can use in real life situations: At the restaurant: “I would like to drink”, “I would prefer to eat”, “the bill please” raising the level of difficulty depending on the year group: using conditional, future or past tense…

You may need to give them structure, a similar story or script to base the exercise on, relevant content and language to work within, then the students can tell their own stories, playing with ideas, exploring the meaning, and making creative writing of their original ideas.

Resume of the advantages of the role-play lessons:

• Explores real-life situations to develop understandings of other people’s feelings and actions.
• Promotes development of decision-making skills: making reservations for a hotel or booking a flight.
• Actively engages students in learning and enables all students to contribute.
• Promotes a higher level of thinking.

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Once students have created their own stories, they need to practise their lines with their group. You can allow each group to use objects (plastic food, cutlery or credit cards) or to dress up to bring the story to life in the classroom.

They can also set up simple scenes with a few signs and create their own names in Spanish, such as Restaurant El Toro Loco or Hotel El Palacio Real.

Be careful not to let the learning purpose of drama be lost in the goal of the performance and make sure everyone participates and contributes the same.

You can also ask your students to send the script on a word document, so you can project it on the board to make it easier for the rest of the class to follow the story.

Javier Vidal
Spanish Teacher