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Blog | Newsletters | Weekly Newsletter | Boletim Informativo Semanal
BCB Weekly Newsletter (11th of June 2021)
Dear Parents,
As a school, our students, parents and staff are committed to supporting charities and to take action to help others. This week we have two amazing charities and stories to share. One is led by our Parent Teacher Association (PTA) and the other a food drive coordinated by a student for her Global Politics Coursework. This is being supported by other students in Year 12 sorting donations as an action for the CAS aspect of IBDP, something all students have to complete. It stands for Creativity, Activity and Service and is a compulsory aspect in addition to their academic studies. I will write more about IBDP next week as we will by then have celebrated our first graduation ceremony.
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Blog | SecondaryBlog | Secondary Blog
Step up-Transitioning to Secondary School
At the age of 11 years, children in many school systems transition from primary to secondary school. In most countries worldwide it has been depicted as “one of the most difficult in a pupil's educational careers”( Zeedyk et al., 2003) and a crucial stage in a young adolescent's life .The students are not only changing and growing in remarkable ways but also transitioning to a new phase in their education with much “diversity” both in academic curriculum and social settings . This transition symbolizes a significant life event characterized by various changes not just in the physical school environment, but also in academic rigor and social relations This change also corresponds to the onset of physical and emotional changes associated with puberty, making it one of the most challenging and exciting transitions.
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Blog | SecondaryBlog | Secondary Blog
Careers Week @ BCB.
As we approach the end of the academic year the Secondary team is busy organising the last week of term which is always a strange end in any international school i have worked in. The reports have been published with students receiving their end of year attitude to learning, attainment and comments whilst the tutor who has been mentoring each child for the year shares a comment for the year. So with the last of 3 reports published through iSams what should we do......?
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Blog | Newsletters | Weekly Newsletter | Boletim Informativo Semanal
BCB Weekly Newsletter (21th of May 2021)
Dear Parents,
This week has seen the final IBDP examination take place and we are absolutely delighted that we had the opportunity to complete this session. It was a long and hard decision for IB to decide who could carry out exams and who might need to go down the route of self- assessment. Brazil thankfully was allowed to complete examinations. If not, it may have proved more of a challenge for us as this method relies on previous years data from the school, something we currently do not have. There was also a risk too that the pandemic may have affected us but with all the precautions we have in place, we have successfully reached the end.
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Blog | SecondaryBlog | Secondary Blog
What’s in a name? Hybrid identities of ourselves and our students
What’s in a name? Are names important? The inspiration for this piece has come from a variety of sources, firstly from a part of the ongoing teacher professional development program about teaching in English in multilingual classrooms and from the Nord Anglia University course I tutor concerning EAL in mainstream classrooms. Finally, from a brief conversation with the Admissions department, where I was told the story of a potential family who were going to register their daughter with an ‘English’ name, ‘Cinderella’. This reminded me of some of the names I was faced with in my earlier days in South Korea; Otto, Harry (Potter) and AceKing, as a few examples.
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Blog | Newsletters | Weekly Newsletter | Boletim Informativo Semanal
BCB Weekly Newsletter (7th of May 2021)
Dear Parents,
Each month we hold a Parent Teacher Association (PTA) meeting and one of the continuing questions is about school development. This is something that was being discussed before my arrival, between much of the community and Nord Anglia, after the school become part of the Nord Anglia Education Group. Then came the pandemic and all businesses across the globe had to evaluate their position, schools were no exception to this. However, since my arrival there has been much work, developing various business cases and the paragraphs below explain in a little more detail the efforts we are taking for development.
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Blog | SecondaryBlog | Secondary Blog
Growth mindset in mathematics
What is the mindset of a mathematician? Is it someone who just follows rules? Or is it someone who has a mad sense of creativity like Mozart or Einstein? Alternatively, is it someone who has a deep sense of clarity and structure? Or is it someone who has a very fast brain? Is it someone who does extremely fast calculations or someone who takes their time with very deep understanding.
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Blog | SecondaryBlog | Secondary Blog
The use(less)ness of literature
Theodor W. Adorno, a renowned german philosopher, famously said: “To write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric. And this corrodes even the knowledge of why it has become impossible to write poetry today”. This passage can be found in Cultural Criticism and Society (1949), and it is much cited by all the cultural critics since published. After all, how can we keep doing art in such a difficult time? After facing and experiencing tragedies, what’s the meaning of the art?
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Blog | SecondaryBlog | Secondary Blog
Term 2 STEAM Space Challenges
As part of the STEAM space challenges in collaboration with MIT, our secondary students worked on the MOXIE challenge, presented by Dr. Jeff Hoffmann, professor of aeronautics at MIT. The students were challenged to design a filtering device that could produce clean oxygen on Mars. Our students have been highly engaged in this challenge and we have received fantastic projects from our pupils.
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Blog | Newsletters | Weekly Newsletter | Boletim Informativo Semanal
BCB Weekly Newsletter (16th of April 2021)
Dear Parents,
Nord Anglia is taking its commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) extremely seriously. In the past year it has updated its policy, built a steering committee and appointed voluntary EDI champions in all of our schools across the globe. The steering committee
consist of Dr Leslie Williams, Chair of Nord Anglia Education’s Global Equality Programme
and High School Director at Windermere Preparatory School; Jenny McWalter, Nord Anglia
Education Assistant Director; Jerry Singer, Group Head of Leadership, Talent and Inclusion
and also Andrew Fitzmaurice. This is truly important work as in the words of Dr Leslie, ‘It
strives to make all community members seen and heard, respected and represented. There
is an effort to embrace diversity and inclusion with a focus on anti-discrimination.’
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Blog | SecondaryBlog | Secondary Blog
Music
In this ever changing world, now, more than ever, we feel close to other cultures and peoples, so it is paramount that we learn not only to respect others but also learn how to appreciate and cherish other people’s identity and ways of life.
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