Transcript BISI COMMUNITY NEWSLETTER - British International School

September 2014
Sixty First Edition
BISI COMMUNITY
NEWSLETTER
GUIDING STATEMENT OF
THE BRITISH INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL ISTANBUL
The British International School Istanbul provides a caring
international environment, fostering cultural diversity. Individual
students achieve their full academic potential, inspired to become
lifelong learners and responsible citizens of the global community.
YOUR COMMUNITY!
YOUR NEWS!
1
Message from the Pre/Primary School
Another year begins in our very busy Pre and Primary School! We welcome all our new staff, children and parents to our School!
As part of our new teachers’ induction week in August, they enjoyed an overnight stay in Polonezkoy and a boat trip down the Bosphorus. We welcomed all staff back to school in the last week of
August. We held training on safeguarding children as part of our commitment to continuous professional development. A consultant came over from the UK to deliver the training to ensure that
we are aware of child protection procedures. The Early Years Department also participated in a
day’s seminar lead by Future Creative that involved reviewing the team’s philosophy and their
teaching of Personal, Social and Emotional Development as part of the EYFS curriculum.
We invited new parents to an open morning/afternoon also in August. They met with their child’s
class teacher and we answered frequently asked questions. At the beginning of September, all
parents were invited into their child’s classroom to discuss the overview of the year.
The PTA at both campuses hit the ground running this year. They organized our inaugural External Activities Fair in the first week of September. This fair catered for all individuals and groups
who support our community by teaching private lessons for our children. There were private music
teachers, drama teachers, language courses, fencing and ice hockey coaches, and counselors for
example in attendance. The Zekeriyakoy Campus PTA organized our traditional Sunday Brunch at
the Dalia Beach Club to welcome new parents to our school and greet returning parents from last
year again. The City Campus PTA organised a picnic at Emirgan Park for children and parents. The
Sunday Sports Clubs began this month as well. Class Parent representatives were met to discuss
this term’s events.
The children have been out and about already in Istanbul. Year 2 visited the zoo as part of their
studies in Science; Year 3 visited the old Zekeriyakoy village several times this month, and Year 4
visited Sultanahmet twice, these trips are taken to enhance the children’s studies of their History
and Geography projects. Year 6 have already been on a residential trip to Sile! They all had a
wonderful time getting to know each other and began to increase their awareness and understanding of independence and responsibility. We held meetings regarding the ski trip for Years 4
and upwards, and a Space Camp meeting for the Year 5 children and parents.
Additionally, over 25 after school clubs began this month, and class/ individual photographs were
taken by Fatih Topuz.
We wish you all the best for the year ahead! Have a great Bayram holiday!
Amanda Ilhan
Pre and Primary School Deputy Director
Richard I’Anson
Pre and Primary School Director
2
City Campus—Year 5
Learning about Tectonic Plates with Oranges
Class 5A extended their understanding of natural disasters, by using oranges! The children peeled the oranges, or earth's crust, to reveal the fruit, or mantle. They divided the peel up into 8 large and 9 small pieces, to
represent tectonic plates. Then came the hard part... sticking the tectonic plates back onto the earth, with
toothpicks, like a 3D jigsaw!
The activity helped the children understand how and where earthquakes and volcanoes happen all over the
world, including here in Turkey.
James Appleby
3
4
Year 6 So Far
So far this year we have had more responsibilities. We have to take care
of our homework diaries, be vice and house captains for our teams and
remember to complete all our daily homework. We also have to act as
stair monitors as well as learn lines for our school play! The differences
that I have noticed from Year 5 are that we now have our own lockers,
we have higher level homework and we are expected to set a good example for the younger children because we are the oldest in Primary.
This year, I’m particularly looking forward to our school trip to Cappadocia in June, our school play and sports day. I loved the trip to Sile- it
was the best I have ever been on.
Victoria Romano, 6T
Sile
Cappadocia
5
Year 6 Trip to Sile!
On Wednesday, 10th of September, Year 6 went to Sile. They went there for one night and did a range
of different activity’s including a lot of art, rock climbing and hiking.
On the first day the first activities was hiking. There were a lot of spiky plants and the children had all
been recommended to wear long trousers. They first stopped at a small bay looking at the sea and talked a
while about coasts. Then they went back to have lunch.
After lunch, the group made clay models of animals or things that lived under the sea. They had a great
time making them.
“I loved making the sea creatures out of clay” said Jane (10).
The last activity they did that day was the team games like tug of war and balancing. That was great
fun, too!
After dinner, they were told to put on some warm clothing and to come outside where a large campfire
was set up. They told each other horror stories and roasted marshmallows. Much too soon, it was bedtime.
The next morning after breakfast, the group went for a walk down the beach, looking and talking about
the different features of a coast. Later they had to make a map of the area. One of the last activities was rock
climbing and all the students had to go. Finally they were allowed to go swimming in the sea and they played
in the water until it was time to leave.
All the children had a great time and we asked some students what they thought of the trip:
“I really enjoyed this trip and had a lot of fun with my friends” Aira (10).
“This was a very, very nice trip and I really liked it” Rosa (10).
Cara Frigeri
6
Zek Campus—Sports
Our new Primary Football Team posing proudly with their new kit.
The squad is training every Thursday after school preparing for the events this fall which are
held in Ankara on the 10th of October and the ISL tournament hosted by BISI on the Kilyos
stadium on the 23rd of October.
Mr. McLellan and Mr. Huegel
7
Message from the Secondary School
IB Results 2014.
For the fifth year running we have seen an improvement in our IBDP Results.
Our students achieved average score of 32.5 for a truly excellent year on year improvement of 2.9 points.
The highest score achieved was 41 by Christopher Schmitz. Well done Chr istopher !
One third of the results were above 35 points. The following students all achieved an overall score of 35 or
above:
Nur Kurdi, Lode de Herdt, Robin Haverstock, Vishwesh Shah, Carmelo Konmaz, and Christopher
Schmitz.
The school would like to congratulate every student in the Class of 2014 for all their hard work over the
past two years, you have made us very proud of you. The effort you have put in has paid off and now we
would like to extend our best wishes as you embark on the next leg of your journey of discovery.
WELL DONE…..
Back Row: Oliver Deyhle, Hamad Alzawawi, Vishwesh Shah, Vasily Rashkovich, Carmelo Konmaz, Christian Tilley,
Christopher Schmitz, Zev Meerdink, Anton Tvircun, Kaan Varol, Lode de Herdt, Yersultan Kudereyev,
Front Row: Halil Gencay, Arzu Alieva, Elif Gultekin, Robin Haverstock, Raad Momani, Maya Ellena, Nayong
Kim, Yasemin Serpen, Nour Kordi,
David Davutoglu
8
IGCSE RESULTS JUNE 2014
Congratulations to the IGCSE Class of 2013-2014 who have done fantastically well with 19 candidates receiving their ICE award diploma. After two years of hard work their efforts paid off with 21% of students
awarded a Distinction, 68% a Merit and 2 students receiving a Pass award for their ICE diploma.
This is another successful set of results for the British International School of Istanbul with 88% exam pass
rate and 92% of students achieving 5 or more A*/C grades, thus keeping the upwards trend of results started
a few years ago.
This year the school averaged a B grade across all departments.
Several of our students gained four or more A* grades and we offer special congratulations to:
Marius Mueller
9A* and 2 A
Ji Won Min
9 A*, 1 A and one B
Hyochang Yoon
5 A*, 2 A and 2 C
Jacob Jurkovic
4 A*, 3 A, 2B and one C
So Jin Yoon
4 A*, 2 A and 2 C
We are very proud of all of our students in the IGCSE Class of 2014. Many of our students will move on to
different countries to complete the final stage of their secondary education and for those who are leaving us,
they leave with our very best wishes for the future. Those who are staying will be joining our IB Diploma
Programme and have two years of hard work in front of them before they finally graduate.
The success of our students in both the IB and IGCSE has been a collaborative effort between our students,
their parents and our teachers. BISI would like to thank all of our parents whose support has been invaluable throughout the course. We would also like, especially, to thank our teachers for the excellent job they
have done in preparing our children for their examinations and encouraging them at all times to achieve
their full academic potential.
William
9
Welcome back to BISI for the 2014 – 2015 Academic Year
Whilst I sincerely hope everyone had a wonderful summer. I have to say that it is good to be back and well
into the swing of the new academic year!
I hope you will make a point of turning to the pages detailing our IB and IGCSE results and that you will
join me in congratulating the students of the Graduating Class of 2014 and the IGCSE Class of 2014. The
Graduating Class gained the best IBDP results in the history of BISI and the IGCSE Class gained results that
were right up with any of the previous results we have seen. I am immensely proud of our external examination students who really did set the benchmark for our future IB and IGCSE students to aim for.
I have challenged the Graduating Class of 2015 to not only reach the magnificent level set by their predecessors but to improve upon this level. They are capable of doing better and it is now time for them to step up
to the mark and show us all just how good they really are.
At the same time I am challenging the IGCSE Class of 2015 – not only to emulate the feat of their predecessors but to set new standards in IGCSE results for this school. I know that you are capable of this, so come
on Year 11; your time has come and we are all rooting for you to show us exactly what you are capable of.
As always, the start of a new academic year is an incredibly busy time for everyone and this year circumstances have conspired somewhat to make things even harder than normal. On September the 1st the secondary school found itself no less than four teachers short – Ms Slav and Ms Garner had both been admitted to
hospital and new teachers Mr and Mrs Meyenn had to return to Australia because of a serious illness which
befell Mr Meyenn.
The staff have worked incredibly hard covering the shortfall with everyone taking on extra lessons. I want to
thank all of my teachers for the professionalism they demonstrated during this difficult time and especially I
want to thank those teachers who took it upon themselves to help in the planning and preparation for various
lessons as we tried to minimize the impact upon our students.
All is well that ends well however and we are very happy that Ms Slav and Ms Garner have both made recoveries and are back in the classroom. Furthermore, we have also managed to find excellent replacements
for both Mr and Mrs Meyenn and now have a full complement of teachers once again.
And that brings me neatly to introducing our new members of staff:
Cathal Mahon will be teaching PE and ESL
Ian Crump will be teaching Mathematics
Jeff Stroud will be teaching Computer Science
Kevin McLellan will be teaching Economics and ICT
Luke Mills will be teaching Fr ench, Ger man and Spanish
Nicole Earhart will be teaching Year 7 and 8 Science
Penelope James will be teaching Geogr aphy
Ruth McLellan will be teaching Business Studies
Seef Eddine Marsden will be teaching Mathematics
10
I am sure that you will join me in welcoming all of our new teachers and you will get the chance to meet them
at the Parent Teacher Conferences on the 4th of November.
We have also made some changes to roles in the school:
Richard Robinson is now the Deputy Dir ector of Secondar y
Sandra Scotland adds the r ole of Guidance Counsellor to her r esponsibilities
Katya Skoudy is the new Key Stage 4 Coor dinator
Seef Eddine Marsden is the Key Stage 5 and IB Coor dinator
Barbara Tanjala will now teach Ar t and ESL
Agnieszka Huegel is now the Head of SEN and also takes on Gifted and Talented Coor dinator
Once again, please join me in congratulating everyone on their new roles and wishing them the very best of
luck as meet the challenges of these roles head on!
I think we have a great year ahead of us at BISI and I am looking forward to every minute of it.
With best wishes,
William
********
Message from the Head of PR/Communications
Dear Parents
I would like to welcome our students back to school and to the start of our 2014-2105 academic year. We
look forward to another action packed year, with many activities and events, which will be reported back to
you monthly through the Community Newsletter and through our website.
Please note that we have set up a new Flickr account, where you can find all the beautiful photographs taken
of various events, by our in-school photographer, Mr David Mayer:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/britishschoolistanbul/sets/
Wishing all our families and students a successful and pleasant year ahead and a restful Bayram break.
Helen Kiran
11
Secondary—Year 7-Gallipoli Trip
To quote the UK tourists sharing our hotel, 'you have the most polite
and well-mannered students'. This year's group of 7's were indeed fantastic.
They were engaged in the history of the area, enjoyed the trips and experiences and interacted with each other showing mutual respect and
consideration at all times. Due to the amazing behaviour and level of
interest we were able to cram a whole lot of activity in to this week.
We started on day one with a tour of all Gallipoli war sites and memorials, the Lone Pine Cemetery and the Interactive Museum. The following day we traveled to Troy, Cannakale and then Assos and on the third
day, because we had completed the 'normal' trip itinerary, we had
enough extra time to venture to Bozcaada - which no other group has
been able to do.
We soaked up the local culture, learned an awesome
amount of historical facts and looked at how past
events have shaped, or continue to shape our future
here in Turkey. All in all, this trip rocked. Next year's
group have a lot to live up to!
Miss Bell, Mr Mayer, Mr Mahon, Mr Smigelsky and
Miss Nursena
12
13
Mingyu Park from the British International School Istanbul was representing Turkey and
South Korea at the 56th annual LIYSF – a world leading event for the globe’s most promising
young scientists – the theme of which was: ‘Eureka – Breakthrough and Development in Science’.
This was a cutting-edge residential programme – which run from 23rd July – 6th August 2014 at Imperial College London – which attracted around 400 young scientists aged between the ages of 1721 from all over the world (60 countries); most attended as winners of national and international science prizes or competitions. Over the two weeks, students boarded at Imperial College and embarked on a world-class programme of lectures, with access to research centres, laboratories and
leading education institutions.
Richard Myhill, Forum Director for LIYSF commented: “ LIYSF continues to offer an unrivalled and unique opportunity for participants to share ideas with student peers from around the
world, to learn about different international scientific approaches and share in each other’s cultures.”
The modern world still presents new challenges and the scientific advancements continue to increase. The students who attended LIYSF were the thinkers of today and they will be the driving
force behind moving science forward in the future.
This year the Key Note speaker was Professor Peter Jenni who is one of the founding fathers of the
ATLAS collaboration, which today comprises some 3,200 scientists in 177 institutions in 38 countries. In 2013 he received the High Energy and Particle Physics Prize of the European Physical Society and the Special Fundamental Physics Prize.
The closing speech was delivered by Professor Sir Roy Anderson.
14
Mingyu wrote: “ LIYSF had a full, rich and varied programme with incredible lectures and
speakers, visit to world leading departments, debates and an engaging social programme. It was a
marvellous opportunity to meet scientists of my age from all over the world and to discuss the latest
developments in science. It provided the ideal venue to hear leading researchers discuss their work,
its applications and its implications at a global level. The lecture programme, seminars, visits and
social events significantly expanded my knowledge as well as helping to consolidate my future career choices. I particularly enjoyed the visit to the chemical engineering department in Imperial College and Physics department in the University of Oxford. The lectures I enjoyed the most were the
opening lecture by Professor Peter Jenni which was about Higgs Boson and the option lecture
about galactic archaeology. All the debates were very intriguing and the social events as well as the
free time at night were enjoyable. Overall It was a memorable and life-changing experience and I
would definitely recommend people at my school to participate LIYSF next year.”
Visit to the Chemical Engineering Department
Mingyu Park (18, South Korea) from the British International
School Istanbul
15
16
17
DIRECTORS OF SCHOOLS
Amanda Ilhan
+90 212 202 7027
Pre School & Primary School Deputy Director
[email protected]
Richard I’Anson
+90 212 257 5136
Pre School & Primary School Director
[email protected]
William Bradley
+090 212 202 7027
Director of Secondary and Principal of
Zekeriyakoy Campus
[email protected]
Tuba Guven
+90 212 286 7375
Director of Admissions
[email protected]
Helen Kiran
+90 212 202 7027
Head of PR/Communications
[email protected]
Find us on
www.bis.k12.tr
https://www.facebook.com/BISIstanbul
https://twitter.com/#!/BISistanbul
18