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March 2015 Sixty Sixth Edition

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.

BISI COMMUNITY NEWSLETTER

YOUR COMMUNITY! YOUR NEWS!

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For a Better BISI…

Secondary School

We would like to announce some changes that will be implemented in the Secondary school.

For the 2015-2016 academic year, we are planning to employ a full time University and Careers Counsellor

to aid our IGCSE and IB students in their future educational and career planning.

We are also planning to employ a Teacher Librarian, who will be in charge of our Secondary library. We

have plans to refurbish and expand the contents of our existing Secondary library too. We hope to have this

work complete before the start of the next academic year.

Grey Gym

The walls of the grey gym are to be covered in safety padding in order to lessen the risk of injury. This work

will be complete before the start of school on Tuesday 14 April.

Helen Kiran

Please note that all the school photographs can be found on our Flickr account from the following

link: https://www.flickr.com/photos/britishschoolistanbul/sets/

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Message from the Pre/Primary School

It is a tradition now that we begin the month with a Coffee Morning for parents with a guest speak-er at our Zekeriyaköy Campus. This month was no exception. Miss Lynne, Area Leader for Literacy, lead a presentation and discussion on the ‘Importance of Reading at Home with your Child’. Many thanks to Miss Lynne for leading a lively discussion, and to the participating parents. We are always delighted to see how confident our children have become when performing on stage for hundreds of people. This month we enjoyed four performances! The Zekeriyakoy Campus Year 3 and Year 4 Spring Show, ‘Scherazade’ told the tale of how the two princesses from the Palace kept the Sultan busy by narrating stories to him. The Alkent Campus children performed ‘Stella the Starfish’. Their performance was an array of colour, with the sea creatures guiding the star-fish home. The Etiler Campus chose the popular theme of recycling for their performance, ‘One Planet Future’. The items that had been tossed onto the scrapheap told of their frustration. The Warriors stopped the developers from building houses there, and the scrapheap was restored into allotments where the bugs could live happily ever after. The fourth show we enjoyed this month was performed by the Mother Tongue Drama group. As our Guiding Statements command, we celebrate cultural diversity in our school

and promote the teaching of Mother Tongue Language. Lead by Area Leader for ESL and Languages, Miss Gwillim, a group of children attended the United Nations International Day for Languages Event at the Enka School. The children performed a play about their favourite reading book character- Floppy- speaking their own language to each other. Congratulations children for en-tertaining us so superbly! The teachers did a wonderful job leading practice after practice to ensure that their high expectations of the children were reached. As indicated above, we celebrate the talents of our global students. In line with our Guiding Statements, we are committed to pro-moting internationalism and interculturalism. Our Guiding Statements are embedded into our school: we now need to go a step further. It is good practice in effective schools to have a definition of internationalism and interculturalism. Therefore, we ask our community to define what internationalism and interculturalism means to you at BISI. If you haven’t already done so, we would appreciate to collect your definition. March saw an exciting ski trip organised to Bulgaria this year for our Year 4, 5 and 6 children. We usually ski in Turkey, but Mr Huegel, Head of PE, decided to try a new venue this year. All reports were extremely positive. It was a long way to travel on a coach, but when they got there, the children really enjoyed their week. Their days were filled with skiing lessons, but the evenings

were just as exhilarating. Well done to all the children for behaving so well, and to the teachers for caring for our children so con-siderately. A trip of this nature encourages the children’s developing skills of independence and responsibility. Our Student Councils have been very busy again this month. The Zekeriyakoy Student Council organized another Friday Movie Night. The children enjoyed their popcorn snack and drink, and then settled down to watch the movie. Thank you to the CAS stu-dents for helping us organise the event. The Key Stage 2 children participated in their Cross Country Gala held in the Belgrade Forest. The children tried their best to com-plete the course and gain points for their house. The top three girls and boys in each year group received a bronze, silver or gold medal. They have been picked to compete in the Istanbul Schools’ League (ISL) against other international schools in Istanbul after the holiday. Our students also competed in the ISL Chess Tournament. Congratulations to all our students for competing with such sportsmanship. Our supportive PTA were busy again this month, celebrating World Book Week with a very successful Book and Bake Sale, and collecting stationery items for next month’s Children’s Day. The PTA also packed copious amounts of chocolate goody bags for the children’s Spring Egg Hunt on the last day of term. A huge thank you goes to Kent for sponsoring the event; we really appreciated their generosity. The Zekeriyakoy children were treated to watch the Secondary Drama group performance of ‘A Sting in the Tale’. In support of these drama students, the children dressed up in animal bonnets. The children then found their goody bags/ eggs in our school gardens. Finally, thank you for attending our Parent Teacher Meetings this month to discuss the progress of your child with your Class Teacher. Have a wonderful holiday and see you on Tuesday 14 April for the start of the Summer Term. Enjoy this month’s Newsletter! Amanda Ilhan Richard I’Anson Pre and Primary Deputy Director Pre and Primary Director

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The Alkent Year 2 classes recently went on two exciting trips as part of their

‘1453 the Conquest of Constantinople’ topic.

First we visited Rumeli Hisari fortress to explore the place where Fatih Sul-

tan Mehmet II prepared to attack Constantinople.

Following this, we all visited the 1453 Panoramic Museum where we saw a

fantastic display explaining what happened during the battle for Constantino-

ple. We also looked at and studied the old walls of Constantinople.

We all had an exciting time and learnt lots of interesting information!

Alison Guzel and Candace Borcharding.

Alkent — Year 2 Trip

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Alkent — School Show

Stella the Starfish

Staff and children at Alkent have been busy rehearsing for their perfor-

mance of “Stella the Starfish” this half term. All their hard work paid off

as the Alkent children put on a fine performance this March. Reception ,

Year 1 and Year 2 children sang, danced and acted their hearts out during

their performance at the Zek Campus. The show starred Reception chil-

dren as Rainbow Fish and Seaweed, Year 1 children as Turtles and Sharks

and Year 2 children as the Clown Fish, main characters and narrators.

Parents and staff alike were proud of the children’s wonderful singing,

dancing and acting.

Alix Peacock

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Etiler—EYFS Trip

Early Years Aquarium Trip

Ladybirds, Tigers and Butterflies have all

been learning about Under the Sea! They

had a fantastic trip to the Aquarium where

they saw……….

“Lots of big fish” “Baby sharks”

“Grandpa Shark” “Jelly fish”

“Nemo Nemo!” said the children

They said “Hello” to the turtle and Rays.

They came to say “hello” back to the chil-

dren. We all stayed for picnic lunch before

heading back to school and falling asleep

on the bus dreaming about all the sea

creatures we saw.

It was a great day with lots fun had by eve-

ryone.

Tamarisk Wright

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AQUARIUM TRIP

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On Friday 27 March, the Pre-school children had a lot fun dressed up in their clothes from home and wear-

ing their Spring Hats. Can you spot the Easter Bunny hidden in the photo? We went on an Easter Egg

hunt , we helped our friends find the eggs too. They were hidden in the tyres, under the slide and in the

flower pots. I wonder who put them there ....

After we handed in our eggs we got a special goodie bag full of surprises. Thank You to the people that

organised these for us. The children were all very very happy. Have a happy holiday everyone.

From all in EYFS

Etiler— EYFS Bonnet Parade

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Etiler— Key Stage 2 Show

One Planet Future- Etiler Show.

A musical which shows how we should tthink about what we use and throw

away. Take care of our planet was the lively, spirited message of our all-

singing, all-dancing amazing- acting team. The wardrobe department made

lovely costumes for all except the plastic bags, who designed their own.,

Peter Lawson and Nikki Dereboy got them word perfect and Mr Lawson got

the songs sung so rousingly.

A great effort from everyone and lots of fun for all. Thanks!

C. Guven

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Our annual Cross Country race on the perfect track in the beautiful Belgrade forest along the lake was held on

23 March. All students had at least one training session on the actual race course and have been training in PE

lessons and cross country running. The weather was perfect and many parents came out to see their children

competing and enjoying the morning out of school .

Thank you all for helping and supporting to make the day successful and fun for our primary students!

Below the results of the top 5 runners who are also all nominated for the ISL XC which we will host on the

1st week back after the spring break.

Christian Huegel

Primary Cross Country

Y5 boys 1st Lucas

Harvey

Ege & Byongzu

shared 3rd

Manas 5th

Y3 boys 1st Alessandro

Peter

Dominic

Elliot

Makmun

Arthure

Y4 girls 1st Maxine

Polly

Eunsun

Yeanjae

Ahyeon

Y4 boys 1st Deniz

William

Auguste

Kerem Turhan

Hangul

Y3 girls

1st Lauren

Luise

Ho Ju

Seung Yeon

Blanca

In Hye

Y6 girls 1st Evy

Jil

Hazal

Victoria

Maxima

Y6 boys 1st Matthis

Nicholas

James

Max

Lewis

Y5 girls 1st Elisa

Alice

Lara (city)

Alix

Alisha

Now to the house competition results:

1ST Cedar 136 Points

2nd Oak 114 Points

3rd Maple 54 points

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Primary Chess Tournament

On Thursday 5 March we hosted the Annual ISL Chess Tournament for Primary and Secondary students.

The Primary tournament saw 24 players from the City campus, Zek Campus and IGA and the Secondary

tournament saw 34 players from IGA, MEF and the Zek Campus.

Results after 5 rounds played in each tournament:

Primary:

1st Taeho ZEK

2nd Manas ZEK

3rd Siwan Kim IGA

Min Woo City (needs medal)

Kayato City (needs medal)

Ege Zek (needs medal)

Alisha Zek (needs medal)

All secondary students played as one group without any age limits, but got divided after the tournament

into age groups for the medals

Years 7/8/9

1st Garam IGA

1st Hyun Seo BISI

3rd Cem Y. BISI

Arman H. BISI (needs medal)

Cem (twin) BISI (needs medal)

Eren S. BISI (needs medal)

Jin Ho BISI (needs medal)

Years 10 and above

1st Gensay MEF (he has not tied or lost a game in 2 years)

2nd Rachel IGA

Arif MEF (needs medal)

Juheyeon "Nahar" IGA (needs medal)

Bada IGA (needs medal)

Thank you to our coaches and parents who helped with the

event and to Nikki Dereboy for running the Primary tourna-

ment!

Christian Huegel

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Scherezade

Year 3 and 4 acted the colourful tale of Scherezade, the princess who saved her life by telling fascinating sto-

ries. Each class performed their own tale and everyone sang and danced together beautifully to try and keep

the audience entertained just as Scherezade tried to entertain the wicked sultan.

Kate Thomas

Zekeriyakoy– Year 3 & 4 Show

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Zekeriyakoy– Year 4 Trip

Trip to the Glass Furnace Factory in Beykoz

On the 18th of April year 4T and 4SS visited the glass furnace factory in Beykoz. The children watched

two demonstrations about glass making. The first demonstration showed how a penguin could be made.

The children then watched how the glass is heated to 900 degrees C in the furnace and formed into differ-

ent shapes. One child even had a go at blowing the glass! The children then made their own plates and

tiles using broken glass.

Kate Thomas

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International Mother Tongue Day

The International Mother Tongue Day was to be held on February 24th this

year and like the past three years BISI primary was invited to perform a short

mother tongue play at Enka Schools in Istiniye. We chose and adapted a fa-

miliar children’s reading book, Super Dog, and auditioned eleven children

who were all given parts in the play. It meant using the mother tongue club

time plus several lunch times in order to be ready to perform. A few days be-

fore the actual performance, we were informed that the date for Enka had to

be postponed because of the snow holidays, and that we would be performing

on March 19th instead.

Not deterred, the students did an assembly performance in Zekeriyakoy and

then one in the afternoon in Etiler which went well. It also gave the students

extra performance practice time and their friends, teachers and parents were

able to appreciate the amount of hard work the students had put in to ensure a

successful performance.

The students did their final performance at Enka on March 19th and with the

excitement of being in another school and a little bit of stage fright did very

well judging by the audience’s enthusiastic response.

A big thank you to Mrs Gwillim, Miss Marion and Miss Hatice for their con-

tributions.

In the photos you can see the children rehearsing, and performing at Zekeria-

koy and Enka.

Marion Oner & Dorothy Gwillim

Zekeriyakoy– ESL Department

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Whole School Ski Trip

After many years of travelling to Turkish ski resorts the school administration has agreed to try a new venue.

Both, Primary and Secondary school, travelled to Pamporovo located in our neighbouring country Bulgaria.

Having overcome many organisational obstacles 100 students and 9 accompanying staff set off on Sunday

8th of March on a six day winter trip.

The snow conditions in the resort have been exceptional: 4m of snow and more coming down on the day we

arrived! Power supply to more than 800 locations in southern Bulgaria had been disrupted on of Sunday

evening due to heavy snowfall and Pamporovo was one of them. The Secondary school students enjoyed a

candle light dinner on the day of arrival and a candle light breakfast the following morning.

Other than the exceptional weather conditions we experienced perfect powdery snow, empty slopes, evening

karaoke, snow tubing, bowling, Igloo building, movie nights and billiards.

All participants were absolutely fantastic and well behaved and all returned home happy. We are looking

forward to going back to Pamporovo next year.

Christian Huegel

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It's 6:30 in the morning, Saturday the 28th of March; Istanbul is beginning to wake up and I am sat in the

passenger seat of my car writing my newsletter piece whilst my wife, Cher, drives us to Greece. Yes, the

Spring Break is upon us! Teachers, parents and students are off to far flung places for two weeks of very

well-deserved rest and recuperation. Many will have started their journeys yesterday and may already

be at their destinations by now, others, like me, will be setting off today. The driving conditions are per-

fect, there is enough cloud so that we are not squinting in the sun but not enough cloud so that we are

driving through pouring rain, and best of all there are no lorries on the road - it is too early for them to

cross the bridge!

Whether you are travelling or staying in Istanbul, may I wish every member of our community a wonder-

ful holiday. But whilst you are having your holiday perhaps you might spare a thought for our Year 11

and Year 13 students, the IGCSE Class of 2015 and the Graduating Class of 2015 respectively. Yes, they

may be travelling and no, they are not in school, but holiday? - not a bit of it. These students both have

the most important exams of their lives coming up and they, by now, will be deep into their revision pro-

grammes. Their holiday will be spent working as they put in a final push to get the best grades they pos-

sibly can before entering the next phase of their educational journey. With just eight school days left be-

fore their exams it is heads down working for them with the pleasure of a break put off until their exams

are over and done with.

And these students have a lot to live up to - both the graduating classes of 2013 and 2014 had a 100%

pass rate in the Full IB Diploma Programme - can we go for 3 out of 3 with another 100% pass rate this

year? Time will tell, but I am sure our students are really going for it. The Graduating Class of 2014

gained the best IBDP grades our school has ever had, but I have always maintained that our current

graduands are even better than them. Will they rise to the challenge of beating a points average of 32.5

and a top points score of 41? I think they will, but we will have to wait and see. And what of our IGCSE

students? Well, I am on record as stating my belief that the IGCSE Class of 2015 are even better than this

years graduating class, so we could have records broken at both levels.

Whatever will be in terms of results and statistics is all in the future. The reality of now is that the par-

ents of our Year 11 and Year 13 students will see precious little of their sons and daughters over the

Spring Break. So I hope the entire community will join me in wishing the very best of luck to our Year 11

and Year 13 students for their revision and for their final exams.

The disembodied voice of Kate in our GPS system has just told us to head for Tekirdag and Ipsala, we are

well out of the city and surrounded by green fields and I think it is time for me to write the final words,

finish this article and start my Spring Break.

I hope every member of our community has a wonderful holiday

William

Message from the Secondary School

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Zekeriyakoy-Secondary—Maths Week

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You’re hired! Business Studies students compete for job at Disney

Year 10 Business Studies students have been putting their classroom business theory into practice as they were given

the task of applying for a job at Disney’s prestigious ‘Cultural Exchange Programme’ open to university students

based at Disney World, Orlando, Florida.

As part of the process the students had to complete an application form which included a 300 word essay on how they

met the job description and person specification and why they should be hired. The students were all interviewed by

Mr McLellan who has 8 years experience of working in the recruitment industry. The students took the recruitment

task and interview role play very seriously and dressed in smart formal clothes for the interview.

Feedback from Mr McLellan after the interview process provided students with sound advice and guidance on how

they could improve for future interview situations. Mr McLellan felt that the students did a fantastic job and had

really prepared themselves and knew their information about the job role and Disney. It was a very difficult decision

to pick one candidate to hire and it was very close between four students: Martina Celemente, Selin Dolay, Batuhan

Kulaç and Mariam Zara.

However, based on this student’s faultless answers and amazing eye contact Mr McLellan announced ‘’Martina

Celemente – you’re hired!’’ Martina was presented with a small prize for winning and commented: ‘’Through this

process I have developed my interviewing skills for my future. I found the process very challening but also rewarding.

I was overjoyed to be hired – Disney here I come!’’

Ruth McLellan

Zekeriyakoy-Secondary—Business Studies

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On the 5 to 8 March ten students from Years 8 and 9 took part in the Model Government Europe Confer-

ence. Similar to the Model United Nation's format, students debated real world issues as representatives

from governments and ministries. BISI students took part actively. Despite being some of the youngest at-

tendees BISI students debated articulately and with energy and enthusiasm. Special commendation goes to

Kaan and Sarika who narrowly missed best delegate award.

A great weekend which marked the beginning of many more successful and rewarding conferences to

come.

Penelope James

Zekeriyakoy-Secondary—ACIMGE Conference

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Zekeriyakoy-Secondary—Creative Arts Week

Creative Arts Week 2015

The short, busy term compelled us to start Creative Arts Week earlier than usual and spread it over sever-

al weeks. To start us off, Year 12 IB Theatre presented extracts from Orphans by Lyle Kessler to Key

Stages 4 and 5, on 17 March 2015. Orphans is a psychological drama about deprivation and criminality,

and the young actors created gritty close-ups of young men trapped by their attempts to forge a better life.

They communicated the yearning and tragedy of the situation to an appreciative audience.

On Friday 20 March, the entire Secondary School met in the Zekeriyaköy Campus Theatre for the annual

Talent Show. Deftly introduced by George Arveladze and Ramon Klomp, ar tists and ar tistes from

all year groups presented origami, posters, ballet, hip-hop, singing and playing in a range of styles and

genres. Mr Howard charmed and astonished the audience with mind-blowing Magical predictions and

eye-popping sleight of hand.

The winners were chosen by a panel of judges invited by the Production Team from Year 13 and staff:

1st Place: Sheida Kiran, singing “Wishing you were somehow here again” from The Phantom of the

Opera

2nd Place: Akanksha Shah, contemporary dance “Gravity” by Sara Bareilles

3rd Place: Ashutosh and Vasudeve Bhadouria, dance, to a remix.

Ashutosh and Vasu also won the Special Audience Prize.

The IB Diploma Art Exhibition opened on Monday 23 March with a well-attended Vernissage in the

Blue Gym. The students met and greeted guests from the whole school community, and discussed their

work with enthusiasm. The themes of this ‘very personal’ exhibition (William Bradley) included

‘Demeaningification’, ‘Dark Humour’ and ‘Power/Energy’. A favourite exhibit was the toy Voodo Doll

in a box.

The following day, Tuesday 24 March, saw the opening of the Key Stage 3 Art Exhibition in the School

Reception area, with Year 8 showing Pinch Pots and Relief Tiles, and Year 7 Pointillism. Both shows

contain fascinating work that has come out of long, multi-part processes requiring skill and resilience: the

pottery from our new kiln and the works on paper as the end product of photography, draughtmanship,

use of colour and imagination and careful reflections, some or which can be seen in the exhibition. The

Artworks will be on show at the beginning of next term if you have missed them so far. Please come

along and admire them.

On the same day, Year 10 presented scenes from two comic plays, Absent Friends by Alan Ayckbourn

and Arsonists by Max Frisch. The students, some playing multiple roles, had the audience eating out of

their hands, and the comic moments were delightfully and, well, comically handled – as they debated ex-

tra-marital affairs and the presence of petrol-filled oil drums in an attic.

Still to come: Scenefest 2015 “A Sting in the Tale”, three folk tales from around Europe, and, next term,

Year 7 Devised scenes ‘Variations on Bugsy Malone’, and in June, the first performance of our Big

Choir, which meets on Mondays in term-time: new members always welcome!

Dr Dominic Sargent

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ARTS

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TALENT

SHOW 1st Place

2nd Place 3rd Place

Year 10

Drama

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Year 12

Drama

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DIRECTORS OF SCHOOLS Amanda Ilhan Pre School & Primary School Deputy Director +90 212 202 7027 amandailhan@bis.k12.tr Richard I’Anson Pre School & Primary School Director +90 212 257 5136 richardianson@bis.k12.tr William Bradley Director of Secondary and Principal of +090 212 202 7027 Zekeriyakoy Campus williambradley@bis.k12.tr Tuba Guven Director of Admissions +90 212 286 7375 registrar@bis.k12.tr Helen Kiran Head of PR/Communications +90 212 202 7027 communications@bis.k12.tr

Find us on

www.bis.k12.tr