BRITANNICA INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL Friday June 2nd 2017

NEWSLETTER

Upcoming Events

Number 35

Dear Parents

Welcome to this week’s Newsletter. With the sun shining brightly, it has been another action –packed

week at Britannica.

Primary Sports Day

Yesterday, all of our Primary children took part in a fantastic day of sporting activities at four different

venues around the school site. As well as the more usual swimming, sprint and relay events, the students

also had the opportunity to show their skills at jumping, throwing a medicine ball and catapulting a spe-

cial child friendly javelin. There were some outstanding performances in all areas and the atmosphere

was super! Even those who did not win were quick to praise and congratulate their peers. The Britannica

Community spirit was evident for everyone to see. I would like to thank the PE department and all the

staff who organised the children to be in the right place at the right time throughout the day and who offi-

ciated so officiously! Special mention must go to Mrs Tron, whose patience at the start line with the large

number of false starts was incredible. Next week it is the turn of our Secondary students to demonstrate

their array of talents.

Meet SLT

Tuesday morning saw the first of a new style of meeting where the Senior Leadership Team meet with

parents. A wide range of discussion points were covered including the results of the recent parent sur-

vey, plans for facilities, classes and teachers for the next academic year and then a question and answer

session where parents could raise any points not already covered in previous items.

I really enjoyed hearing the views and thoughts of our parent body regarding the future direction of Bri-

tannica and how to celebrate our strengths and address areas of weakness. Please feel free to speak to

your class rep or one of the PSA or school leadership teams if you were unable to attend and would like

to see the meeting notes.

Thank you to all those parents who attended, your support, ideas and encouragement are truly valued and

appreciated. The next opportunity to ‘Meet SLT’ will be during the early part of the Autumn Term.

Look out for the date on the school calendar.

Bank Holiday

To remind everyone, Monday is a Bank Holiday and the school is closed.

Have an enjoyable long weekend and we look forward to seeing you next Tuesday.

Kind regards

Neil McGarry

Principal

June 2017 Monday, 5th June School Closed for Bank Holiday Wednesday, 7th June Britannica Swimming Competition Secondary Exams Finish Years 7-10 Thursday, 8th June Secondary Sports Day Friday, 9th June Transition Day Sunday, 11th June Year 11 Tutor Trip Monday, 12th June Step up Day Sunday-Wednesday 11- 14th June Year 12 Barcelona Trip

Year 8 and 9 Drama Exam

Engaging, creative and collaborative, are three words that can be used to describe the year 8 and 9 Drama exams this week.

The students were expected to draw together the variety of techniques that they have accumulated across the different units in the

year, as well as their characterisation skills and narrative voice.

Year 8 students had been working on their assessment piece for the last few weeks in groups of around 5 students. It has been de-

vised from Simon Armitage’s Poem, “About His Person” in which artefacts are found on a body. From this the students had to

develop a 5-10 minutes’ performance that incorporated non-naturalistic elements; exploring how the character had died, and the

subsequent actions and thoughts of the guilty or innocent person who was put in prison for the deed.

The work produced was generally of a high quality, with effective transitions and pace. Below are a few sample images from the

different performances, as well as a link to one of the performances. This is an unlisted video, which can only be accessed by peo-

ple with the link.

https://youtu.be/XMhjrb3dz7g

The year 9 students, were given a more difficult task, which involved presenting a non-naturalistic and surrealistic devised perfor-

mance from unseen stimuli material. Students were given the task of developing it in 2 periods, from choosing one of three text

extracts. The performance could only utilise the works given in their extract: encouraging them to focus upon symbolism and vo-

cal intonation to create and develop meaning.

The students worked well collaboratively to develop intriguing pieces which they entitled; Guns ‘n’ Roses, The rupture reforms,

Disappearing stars, and Trauma in Ancient Egypt.

Students should be proud of their Drama achievements as their progression throughout the year has been astounding and wonder-

ful to watch.

The year 7 Drama exam will take place next week, exploring the tale of “Theseus and the Minotaur” with traditional Greek Thea-

tre components.

Miss Cockle and Miss Earl

British Ambassador visits Britannica International School

On Friday 26th May, The staff, students and parents of Britannica International School were delighted to welcome Her Bri-

tannic Majesty’s British Ambassador to Hungary, Mr Iain Lindsay OBE and his wife Mrs Bridget Lindsay.

This was Mr Lindsay’s first visit to the school, following his official arrival to Budapest last spring.

After being greeted by school Principal, Mr Neil McGarry, Mr and Mrs Lindsay received a tour of the school’s facilities

alongside two of Britannica’s growing number of ‘Student Leaders’.

Sophie who was one of the students showing the Ambassador around said “The British Ambassador and his wife were

very nice and friendly, it was a lot of fun walking around the school corridors with them. They liked our school facilities

and they were amazed how much playing space we have.”

This was followed by a visit to the Primary Singing Assembly where Mr Lindsay awarded some very special Britannica

Ambassadors certificates to students chosen because they epitomise the seven key Britannica qualities; resolute, independ-

ent, responsible, inquisitive, respectful, global, lifelong learners.

Mr and Mrs Lindsay spent the second part of their visit within our thriving secondary department learning about the Crime

Map of Budapest in Geography and programming Micro Bits in the newly upgraded ICT suite.

Our Year 8 geographers have been investigating crime patterns in Budapest using the Hungarian Police interactive map,

online. Students have then been using Google street view together with further research to establish reasons for variations

in crime rate and type by place.

The Ambassador was introduced to Year 9 students working with Microbits. Microbit programming opens a bridge be-

tween computer programming and products where creativity comes to life. The students developed real world applications

to technology including interactive mood badges, reaction timers and alarm systems. The Ambassador and his wife were

invited to discuss the ideas with the students and see some of the prototypes in action.

As Mr Lindsay commented: “Thank you for welcoming us to Britannica this morning, we have really enjoyed our visit

and look forward to coming back soon.’

We are very grateful to Mr and Mrs Lindsay for taking time in their extremely busy schedule to come to visit us here at

Britannica.