From The Arts & Crafts Club
The Arts & Crafts club was launched at the beginning of the year and has proven to be very popular with the students in KS2. We have 2 groups meeting on a Tuesday afternoon. The Year 3 & 4’s with Mrs Goch and the Year 5 & 6’s with Frau Pani.
The students have learnt that art is not instant and takes some planning and many hours to complete. It is a process that takes time and some practice too.
Some of the different medias we have discovered this year include:
– Paper- We have made sunset collages, paper flowers for the collaborative Art Auction display and simple origami frogs that can jump.
– Sketching- simple line art and sketching beautiful and expressive owls.
– Coffee granules and water- to paint a picture with a difference.
– Charcoal- for most students this was a new medium and we first explored ways to use the charcoal and then we created striking landscapes.
– Acrylic: Painting is a firm favourite with the students. Having fun with butterflies and making their own creations.
– Salt dough: Making hedgehogs and painting them. The Year 5 & 6 students particularly enjoyed making the salt dough themselves with the 3 ingredients.
Here is the recipe to try at home: Mix all together and knead well to make a smooth and soft dough.
125ml(½ a cup) Flour
60ml Salt
30ml Water
Some comments from the students:
“My favourite was making the paper jumping frogs.” Antonia Year 3
“I like art club because we get to do fun things and I can practise my art and learn more art.” Tyler Year 4
“I love art club because you are able to be creative and have fun.” Layla Year 5
“I like that we paint and do fun activities.” Isabel Year 6
“My favourite was the salt dough hedgehogs.” Nuraan Year 6
‘I like that we do painting and make things.” Neo Year 6
“I loved sketching with the charcoal.” Siyana Year 6
Looking forward to many more creative and fun Tuesday afternoons.
Frau K. Pani
Primary School – Arts & Crafts Club Coordinator
For inspiration see photos & collages in Google photos:
Sunset Collages
Sketching- owls
Coffee art
Art Auction collaboration
Line art
Charcoal
Acrylic butterflies
Paper art – Frogs
Salt dough creations-Hedgehogs
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More About Music
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
WATCH: Ms La Bercensie collaborating with one of her music students, Ileana Dias in Year 5.
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Library Etiquette
Do you still remember the majesty of the Public Libraries that we had to frequent in our youth? The days before internet was a quick fix search. Dewey decimal systems and the smells of old and new books. The librarian peeking at you over her reading glasses as you quietly and carefully walked past her massive counter. The feeling of excitement when you held your first library card. The library was an ocean of possibilities, peacefully beckoning you to crack the spine of a hardcover adventure. Hours were spent finding corners to read in, and making sure you returned your books on time to avoid that dreaded R2 fine. If you were lucky, you didn’t have to take notes by hand, but could make copies of those precious pages before using them for your school projects.
As mystical as the library was, it was also a character forming experience. We all knew the rules, almost as sure as muscle memory. From the moment we walked through those heavy doors, we understood that this was a place of resolute respect and consideration, quietly whispering to one another as we discovered other universes hidden in the pages of classic novels.
I have asked our students during the course of this week if they have visited the local library and not surprisingly, most of them have not. We all know that with the hustle and bustle of this day and age, we rarely have the time for simple pleasures, like visiting our local library. If you do ever find that you have a free morning with your child, then I would like to recommend Milnerton Library to you. The facilities are very well kept, and the staff are knowledgeable and kind. This would be a wonderful introduction to the vast community of libraries that our city has to offer. Proper library use is a vital skill, especially when it comes to the later years of education. Why not set our children up for success sooner rather than later. University and high school notoriously consists of ample amounts of research, and knowing how to effectively utilize the available facilities would be extremely beneficial to our children.
In our very own school library, we have discussed library etiquette this week during our lessons. It almost feels like a lost art and is certainly a worthwhile topic.
We discussed a few of the items below:
- What is the function of a library? We established that the library is one of the few places in society that is completely free. You don’t need to spend money to visit and enjoy the facilities. Being afforded the use of the facilities does come with some responsibility though. The resources are loaned to you in good faith, which makes you accountable for how it is treated and returned. Everyone is welcome in a library as it is a public space, cementing in our minds that education should be fully inclusive and knowledge freely available to all. Libraries can be used to study, do research, read, create awareness and so much more. However, the primary function is the loan and return of books.
- Where do we get our books? The students showed a great sense of understanding that the school library mainly grows through your kind donations, this includes the Birthday Book Programme as well as books that you would like to donate when you are no longer using them. We also discussed the purchasing of resources like our readers; and why we should look after the resources in the library. Some classes even delved into publishing, which is a very interesting topic in its own right.
- General Manners: We explored the rules of libraries and especially our school library. Students were reminded that we enter a library quietly; how to look for books and keep the shelves neat; and, where to return the books and how to check out new books for the week. Our conduct in a library is also extremely important: remembering that one must remain kind, caring and encouraging. If we conduct ourselves with consideration to our fellow library users, everyone will enjoy their experience and continue to benefit from the facilities.
- Returns: We discussed books not being returned and why we should always return our books. We should all have access to the knowledge in the library and if we fail to return our loaned books, the next student will not have access to the material. At this stage there are so many books outstanding at our library, that I would like to ask parents to please check if there are any school library books still at home. Your assistance with this will be greatly appreciated.
It has been such a privilege and a pleasure the last few weeks, getting to know the students even better, sharing stories, reading and brainstorming. I simply can’t wait to see what the future holds for our school library.
Trindade Camara
School Librarian
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Coding!
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
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Welcome Back
I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you back to the beginning of Term 3. My wish is that you have relaxed, recharged, and feel ready to start the new school term. Campus bounced back this week with students returning from their vacation and new students joining the BIS family. Our students are indeed grateful to see their friends again as they prepare for their collaborative learning and captivating lessons.
We have been looking forward to what Term 3 has in store, including yesterday’s IES Sports Day, Year 10 camp, and our Macbeth production at the Baxter Theatre on August 10th.
I appreciate your positive energy and I look forward to working with you in the new term. All signs point to another incredible and productive school term.
I know each of us wants to make a difference in the lives of our students.
Parents, here is how you can support us and help your child become independent and “own” their learning:
- Be sure to check in with your child daily, about the learning tasks, activities, and assessments they are working on.
- Demonstrate a positive attitude about education to your children. What we say and do in our daily lives can help them to develop positive attitudes toward school and learning and to build confidence in themselves as learners. Showing our children that we value education and use it in our daily lives provides them with powerful models and contributes greatly to their success in school.
- In addition, by showing interest in your children’s education, parents and families can spark enthusiasm in them and lead them to a very important understanding that learning can be enjoyable as well as rewarding and is well worth the effort required.
- Encourage them to complete work to the best of their ability
In closing, I would like to share this interesting post from the “parenting team”, and I would like to add teachers to that team as well – because we are all in this together.
Challenge: Back to School
Been There, Been Through That…9 Tips for Parents of High Schoolers
https://community.today.com/parentingteam/post/been-there-been-through-that9-tips-for-parents-of-high-schoolers
We thank you once again for the consistent and unwavering support you have always shown.
Carmen de Villiers
High School Coordinator
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Term 2 Reflection
We have reached the end of an action-packed semester and would like to thank all our families for your support and dedication. A heartfelt thank you to our teachers for all their hard work to provide a stimulating and constructive environment for our students.
Well done to our High School students who performed well this term in their CASS assignments and examinations – We are so proud of the progress you are making.
Our term was filled with many highlights such as our Year 11 journey, Art Auction, special outdoor and sporting events, and ending the term on a high note with the various class challenges and student wellness day. On all these occasions, we were inspired by our students’ creativity, ingenuity, and growth.
We wish all our BIS families a safe and warm winter holiday. May we continue to encourage each other and be kind to ourselves and those around us.
Carmen de Villiers
High School Coordinator
WATCH: The High School Houses Challenge Each Other During the Term 2 Wellness Day House Games: https://youtu.be/YQNbmTPuvho
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Murderous Macbeth: Paranoid Prefect
We all know and love to hate Shakespeare’s infamous ‘Macbeth’, also known as the “Scottish play”, which etches out the tragedy of an ambitious man who murders his way to the crown. Encouraged by his even ruthless wife and the predictions of three “fates”, Macbeth goes down a dark, haunting, and intriguing path to his demise.
Now, what if we take that basic plot and set it in 2022, in an all-girls school, with head prefect as the goal? The product is all the teen drama one could dream of… but make it a nightmare.
Mackenzie “Lady” Macbeth and her girlfriend, Bethany, want to rule the school. Who do they need to take down to get to the top? And how will they make it happen?
Still dark, as evil plots unfold; still haunting, as there are literal ghosts; and still intriguing, as we try to understand methods and motives: this play is bound to disturb and entertain.
Blouberg International School’s modern version of ‘Macbeth’ will take to the Baxter Theatre stage during the Shakespeare School’s Festival, on Wednesday, 10 August, and again on our school stage on Friday, 12 August.
To book click here! https://www.webtickets.co.za/v2/Event.aspx?itemid=1513749284 (Please ensure to book for one of the days our school performs, as we do not perform every day)
Come to see if they can wash the blood off their hands.
Genevieve Kerswill
High School English Teacher and Drama Coordinator
(PHOTOS BELOW: Moments on stage from our Midsummer Night’s Dream performance at the Shakespeare School’s Festival in 2020 at the Fugard Theatre)
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Building inspired students with The President’s Award at Blouberg International School
In 2019 Blouberg International School introduced The President’s Award and joined many of our international IES and SEK schools who are also doing The President’s Award.
For more than 35 years, The President’s Award has been making sure that young people develop a lifestyle that gives them the valuable life skills required to pursue their ambitions.
The President’s Award’s mission is to empower young people between the ages of 14 and 24, by providing a balanced, non-competitive framework for self-development that will increase their self-esteem and enhance their capacity to achieve in whatever context they find themselves; enabling them to become responsible active citizens within their communities.
The benefits of achieving The President’s Award at any level are endless. The Award is about helping you along the path to a productive and prosperous future. As many of our participants say, it’s a life-changing experience.
“Participating in The President’s Award gives one the edge over others when you apply for college, university or a job. Universities want to see evidence of so-called soft skills that you have developed through extracurricular activities, such as communication, commitment, leadership and teamwork. Your President’s Award is a fantastic way to demonstrate these skills in practice.”
Formal education alone is not enough to equip young people to be world ready. According to business leaders, the following skills are considered important in helping young people become ready for the world in the order of importance:
- Individual Skills
- Analytics
- Social Skills
- Humanitarian Skills
- Technical Ability
This leads to longer-term impacts, such as:
- Improved employability and earning potential
- Improved physical health and fitness
- Improved mental health and well-being
- Increased engagement with charitable and community causes
- Improved environmental impact
- Increased social cohesion
- Reduced offending
Students from 14 years old and up to Year 12 are encouraged to enrol for The President’s Award.
For more information contact Mr Riaan Vosloo (riaan.vosloo@iesmail.com), Ms Caroline Grix (caroline.grix@iesmail.com) or Heidi La Bercensie (heidi.labercensie@iesmail.com).
Kind regards
The President’s Award Team
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High School Music
In a world where we can experience music almost everywhere, in public, in our homes, at concerts, radios and on our phones, it plays in integral part of our experiences as people. Music serves as a language to communicate and build our cultural identities, explore our passions, and convey our emotional experiences. Studying and learning music liberates the imagination and helps students develop into more innovative individuals.
At BIS we offer subject music to all year 7 and 8 classes, and thereafter students can choose to take music as an IGCSE subject. We also offer an extensive individual music programme and offer individual lessons in a wide variety of instruments including piano, voice, all string instruments, all brass instruments, clarinet, flute, saxophone, drums, and guitar. In addition to subject and individual music, our high school also offers students the opportunity to be part of the high school choir, band, marimba band, and various other ensembles. Our band which started in term 1 2022 just had their very first performance this week, and we cannot wait to see how our band will grow and what they’ll achieve in the future.
Next term we are excited to have our annual BIS Arts Eisteddfod take place. This is an opportunity for students to have a chance to build confidence and skills through performing to an audience and receive feedback from external expert adjudicators. It is also an opportunity to watch and share with fellow musicians. It is very important for our musicians to not only learn how to play their instrument, but to also learn how to become a confident performer.
Through participation in our music programme, students will become more confident individuals, learn to compose their own music, explore and enjoy music from different genres and different parts of the world, and develop their potential as solo and ensemble performers.
Music is an experience found across all cultures and regions, and therefore our music programme at BIS aims to be a form of expression that offers a way to communicate across the different cultures and regions. The music classrooms are a place where difference and respect can be recognized, practiced and celebrated together.
Heidi La Bercensie
Music Teacher
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Primary School Music Programme
Watch our students perform click here…
Music builds a sense of belonging, discipline, confidence, creativity, movement skills, and cooperativeness.
BIS has a developmental music programme from Pre-Reception to Year 6. The music education programme offered is holistic, child focused and inclusive. All students have the opportunity to be actively involved in learning music through singing, playing and dancing. They have opportunities in the music classroom to compose, create and perform music while developing a repertoire of songs that target specific skills appropriate to their level of learning music.
The class music programme selects songs that foster tuneful singing and aural development. Creative movement is also integrated encouraging spatial awareness. Students learn graphic and traditional notation in rhythm and melody from Year 1 onwards.
Through dancing and movement they learn a lot about rhythm and tempo and through singing they learn all about pitches and note names. We have a few percussion instruments, like bells, boomwackers, ukulele and glockenspiels that the children play to learn about pitches and rhythm.
We have two choirs in the Junior school and also a band, a small violin ensemble as well as a marimba band. We also have an extensive instrument programme and have tuition in the following instruments, flute, brass instruments, guitar, clarinet, saxophone, piano, singing, drums and violin.
In a multicultural school, music makes connections across cultures and aids those who do not yet have good English skills. It links students with the immensely rich history and diversity of cultures.
Beverley du Plessis
Music Teacher
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