BRITANNICA INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL Friday 21st October 2016

NEWSLETTER

Upcoming Events

Number 9

Dear Parents What a wonderful International Day we have had today. Our primary departments delivered some great class performances celebrating the differences and similarities we share together in our inter-national community. Our secondary department set up room activities around the school exploring various nations and our PSA set up the fabulous Food Court in the gym with representation from 31 different countries. A huge big thank you to all parents who took the time to take part in this special event. We finished off with our flag parade of nations. Today was a delightful end to the first half of this term. This week our Year 3 students also enjoyed a trip out to a Wildlife Park as part of their Animals topic. The issuing of the first round of student ID swipe cards took place as planned for our older students. The process will be ongoing as outlined in last week’s newsletter. All in all an active and busy end to the first part of the year. Today we break up for the half term holiday and we return on Wednesday 2nd November after the bank holiday. Secondary students please note that the winter uniform is expected from this time onwards. All Year 7-11 students are now expected to wear a tie during this period. Have a good break. Kind regards

Mr Richard Vaughan Principal

September 2016

Friday 21st October Half Term Break Begins 2:30 Wednesday 2nd November First day of school Friday 4th November PSA Cookie Friday Wednesday 9th November Principal’s Coffee Morning Thursday 10th October Secondary Parent Afternoon

Year 4 Trip to the Natural History Museum

Mr Anthony Constable Year 4 Tees Class Teacher

Year 4 Tees Assembly

Animals and Human Fables

Mr Anthony Constable Year 4 Tees Class Teacher

“A Nation Cried. Then Silence.”

1956

This year Hungary is celebrating the 60th anniver-sary of the Revolution and War of Independence of 1956, which was a remarkable event in Hungary’s 20th century history. After liberating the country in WW2, Soviet troops did not leave Hungary but, similarly to other coun-tries of the „Eastern Block”, they stayed as an occu-pying power that influenced Hungarian politics. In 1947, the Hungarian Communist Party got into pow-er by manipulating the elections. While rebuilding the country after the war, Hungarian people had to face the terrors of the Rákosi regime. The early 1950s were characterized by poor living standards, expropriations and redistribution, the personal cult of Stalin and Mátyás Rákosi, strict censorship, a

system of secret political agents, labour camps and a political police (ÁVO and ÁVH) that kept up the atmos-phere of fear and mistrust in all walks of life. On 23rd October 1956, students in Budapest and in

other cities started demonstrations in solidarity with

the Polish workers’ uprising. Their main demands

included returning the reformer Imre Nagy back into

government, free elections, a plural party system, an

end to ÁVO terror, and the Soviet troops to leave the

country. They pulled down the giant Stalin statue

near Hősök tere, and cut the communist coat of

arms out of the Hungarian flag. The flag with a hole

became the symbol of the revolution.

Mennyből az angyal, menj sietve Az üszkös, fagyos Budapestre. Oda, ahol az orosz tankok Között hallgatnak a harangok. Ahol nem csillog a karácsony. Nincsen aranydió a fákon, Nincs más, csak fagy, didergés, éhség. Mondd el nekik, úgy, hogy megértsék. Szólj hangosan az éjszakából: Angyal, vigyél hírt a csodáról.

(Márai Sándor: Mennyből az angyal…, rész-let)

Angel from Heavens – go quickly Go to festering, frozen Budapest, Where the bells are silent Amongst the Russian tanks. Where Christmas is not glittering. No golden nuts on the trees, Nothing else but frost, freezing and hunger. Tell them so that they understand. Tell them loudly from the night. Angel, bring them news about the Miracle.

(from Sándor Márai: Angel from Heavens)

The demonstrations turned into fights against the

ÁVO and the Soviet troops. A lot of civilians joined

the freedom fighters. Thousands were fighting in

the streets of Budapest. A new government was

appointed, and the new Prime Minister, Imre Nagy

promised to fulfil the demands of the revolutionary

masses. Official government troops signed a truce

with the freedom fighters, and together they de-

feated the Soviet troops at Corvin köz (9th district).

Former political parties were rehabilitated and

banned newspapers published again.

On 1st November, Imre Nagy announced that Hun-

gary is a neutral and independent country, leaving

the Warsaw Pact. The Soviet Union promised to withdraw their troops from the country.

On 4th November, the people of Budapest were woken up by the sounds of tanks on the streets. Without an official declaration of war, thousands of Soviet tanks and soldiers entered the country, and in a few days, put an end to the war of independence. Hungary asked for international help, but even though the Western countries expressed solidarity, they did not risk military intervention against the USSR. David was fighting Goliath, but this time, in vain. The fighting was over in a week. After the intervention, Jfter Kádár was appointed by the Soviets to form a new government. Imre Nagy and members of his government were imprisoned and later executed and buried in an unmarked grave. During the brutal reprisals in the following few years, more than 13,000 people were imprisoned and more than 400 people executed for taking part in what the official communist regime labelled as the „counter-revolution”. About 200,000 refugees fled to the West. The events of 1956 were regarded as a taboo by the socialist dic-tatorship of the Kádár regime. The symbolic reburial of Imre Nagy 36 years later marked the beginning of the democratic changes of 1989. János Kádár died on the day when Imre Nagy and his government were officially rehabilitated and posthu-mously cleared of the charge of treason. Britannica's Hungarian Department carried out a cross-curricular project this year including History, Arts, English and Hungarian in KS3 and Y6 to remember the anniversary. After learning about the historical back-ground, studying a poem and watching films about the events, Y7 went on a trip to Corvin köz where the main fights took place in 1956, and Year 8 visited the House of Terrors at 60 Andrássy út, the former head-quarters of the Nazi and later the Communist Military Police. At the Secondary Assembly on 17th October, we gained an insight into the historical background. Year 7 students recited the emblematic poem of the revo-lution, Egy mondat a zsarnokságról / A sentence on Tyranny by Gyula Illyés, about the suffocating at-mosphere of oppression in the 1950s, accompanied by an artistic animation using authentic photos by the Year 6 Arts groups. We created a video clip about Corvin köz, using the photos and the thoughts of the Year 7s, followed by a video on the House of Ter-rors. Thank you very much to everybody who took part in our project this autumn. Remember how precious freedom is.

Ms Borbála Dinnyés

Teacher of Hungarian

Swimming Competition

On October 15th Saturday, Britannica Swim Team took part in a Swimming Competition again as last year which was held in MOM sportcenter, as a part of an international Fitness and Lifestyle fair "Fitparádé". This was a swimming competition for schools of district 12, for students born in 2006-2007. Our school was represented by 11 students including Levente Faludi-Országh, Alessandro Venosta, Ksenia Chzhou, Mark Barsi-Siminszky, Hanna Bleier, Anna Müllner, Boudewijn Meerstadt, Ekaterina Gosteeva , Le-vente Jakab, Trillia Simák and Nanami Fukamachi-Jones . The participants had to swim 25 metres in 3 different swimming styles. The heats were followed by the finals,

where the 8 best students had the chance to compete for victory. With their huge excitements, the students

have achieved excellent results. Levente Faludi-Országh from year 5 won the gold medal in freestyle. In addi-

tion, there were many great results in the finals although we had 2 younger students who were not in the

marked/signed age group. The last event was the most interesting one, the Relay, where all of the Schools

put their best teams of 10 students together, and in a great battle Britannica Team managed to get the 2nd

place.

Congratulations again for everyone and thank you for the parents for their support and the cheering! RESULTS: 25m Freestyle:

Levente Faludi-Országh, Gold medal Ekaterina Gosteeva, 4th place Trillia Simák, 6th place Levente Jakab, 7th place

25m Backstroke:

Levente Faludi-Országh, 4th place Anna Müllner, 4th place Nanami Fukamachi- Jones, 6th place

25 m Breaststroke: Levente Jakab, 7th place Relay: Britannia International School, 2nd place

Ms Kornélia Kovács

Swimming Coach

International Day 2016