NOVEMBER 2014 Sixty Third 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 One of the highlights of our year is our International Week. Every day of our school year we celebrate the cultural diversity of our students. However, International Week ensures that we underline the importance of our students as global citizens, as our Guiding Statements dictate. This year, we concentrated on Languages as the theme for the week, lead by the Languages Team. Many activities took place across the school. Several children were chosen to teach the class in their home language throughout the week. There were languages quizzes to complete throughout the week too. Our week culminated in International Day. At Zekeriyaköy Campus, the children appreciated the Flag Parade and they had photographs taken in their country groups. Miss Hatice and Mademoiselle LaPointe then lead stimulating assemblies at both campuses focusing on Turkish and French- the languages that we teach. In their coun- try groups, they designed a poster focusing on the word ‘love’ and portrayed what their country means to them. The children savoured our delicious Food Courts! The parents did an outstanding job of cooking for the Pre, Primary and Lower Secondary students! At Zekeriyaköy Campus, they decorated each room with artefacts from their country for the children to discuss. The children had a quiz question to answer in each classroom and a passport that needed a stamp from every country! The children also showcased their talent on stage. Several children sang songs from their home country. At the City Campus, they set up two food halls, with flags for every nationality in our school. Thank you to the PTA for arranging a stunning Food Courts and to our highly experienced Languages Team for organising the focus of our International Week this year. With further reference to our Guiding Statements, we strive to ‘work with the home to provide a learning environment that is stable and caring’. We encourage open, honest communication with our parents. To this end, we held Open Days on all campuses this month where parents could visit any class they choose to understand more clearly how their children are being taught. We were delighted to thank our experienced, committed teachers at our school again this month. Last month, we not- ed World Teachers Day and this month we celebrated Teacher Appreciation Day in Turkey. At Zekeriyaköy Campus, our ancillary staff organised a delicious spread of sweet and savoury food our teachers to enjoy. Many thanks to the ancillary staff for arranging this event. At the City Campus, our parents set up three rooms in our various buildings around Etiler, and laid on a beautiful spread of food and drinks. They also presented the teachers and teaching assis- tants with a gift as a show of appreciation. Many thanks to the parents for arranging this event. November saw our season of giving continue. We voted on the nominated charities put forward from our community. The results were; the Blind School in Kilyos chosen for our local charity, TKMCV Protection for Children for our national charity and Teenage Cancer Trust for our international charity. Money raised from the Winter Bazaars and summer Fun Day will go to these charities this year. The children enjoyed our Winter Wacky Wednesdays that started this month. Thank you for sending your child to school with a prize/jam jar full of goodies for our Winter Bazaars on Thursday 11 December, 13:30- 15:00. At Zekeriyaköy Campus, the PTA and CAS students arranged an exciting Movie Night at the end of the month. They relished watching the film ‘Home Alone’ after eating a snack and having a drink. Proceeds from the Movie Night will go towards our charities. The children have been out and about in Istanbul this month to enrich their learning in the classroom. The Year One classes visited the Toy Museum, Year Two went to the Fire Station, Year Four visited Santral Istanbul to further their studies on energy, and Year Five attended the Military Museum and the Sabanci Museum to experience the Miro Exhi- bition. Enjoy this month’s newsletter! Amanda Ilhan Richard I’Anson Pre and Primary Deputy Director Pre and Primary Director 2 Alkent Primary—Halloween Halloween at Alkent We all had a wicked time at our Halloween events. Lots of scary monsters, super heroes, fairies, witches and spooky creatures came to school! We all enjoyed our special assembly sing a long. This was followed by a choice of exciting activities including Halloween games, food and art. A fun time was had by all! Alison Guzel 3 Alkent EYFS & Primary— International/Languages Week On Tuesday we dressed in our beautiful costumes. Do you know we have 30 countries and 22 languages represented in Alkent? On Thursday afternoon we had a wonderful celebration of delicious foods, kindly prepared by our parents. On Friday we had an assembly to show everyone all of the fantastic work we had been doing throughout the week. Everyday in our classes we learnt about a special country and did special activities based on that country. Ms Gaby’s class found out about China, whilst Ms Helen’s class learnt about Ireland. In Year 1, Ms Hill’s class studied India and Ms Pea- cock taught her children all about Zambia. Myanmar was class 2B’s chosen country and 2G learnt all about New Zealand and Maori traditions. We also had lots of mums and dads come in to read stories in their mother tongue. A BIG thank you to everyone for making this such a successful and enjoyable week! Alison Gűzel 4 Etiler EYFS—Halloween Halloween Surprises Preschool The Preschool children joined in with the Year 3’s at the Primary school for Trick or Treat and were surprised by the lovely Halloween song. Then it was the Year 3’s turn to vist Preschool and they got a very special treat watching the Preschool Halloween Parade. This was a lovely morning for all. A big thank you to the volunteers that organised the goodie bags for all the children, they really enjoyed their treats. Tamarisk Wright Early Years Co-Ordinator 5 Etiler Primary—Halloween On Halloween we all dressed up and had lots of activities all over school. The Hall backdrop was perfect for class photos and Assembly, which was spooky and musical with songs from each year group giving us chills! Thank you Etiler parent volunteers. Carolyn Guven 6 Etiler Primary—Autumn Festival Autumn Festival was full of good will as we brought something for the Little Sisters. Ms Dereboy started off by reminding us why. Then Mr Peter took over to host the Cook Off! Mr Pembridge and Mr Appleby battled it out with seasonal produce. It was a draw! Carolyn Guven 7 Etiler Primary—Languages Week Internatıonal and Languages Week in Etiler Primary Another busy week flew past in Etiler primary campus. This time we were celebrating Languages and International Week. In our campus alone the students come from five Continents and speak over 20 different languages. So this week children were asked if they would like to give a short lesson teaching their home language to their classmates. Each class had several volunteers who prepared some entertaining lessons after which the kids and teachers had great fun showing off their new skills! Throughout the week everyone was also encouraged to write in their own language on our graffiti wall. This turned out to be amazingly popular…. Children just love writing! One of the highlights of International Week was, without doubt, the interna- tional food court where we all got the chance to sample typical dishes from a range of countries, generously prepared and organised by the parents. Following the food court the students were invited to perform a song of their liking from their country in front of the rest of us. It was fantastic to see some of the shyest ESL kids up there with the microphone giving us the full karaoke experience. This year we heard a number of Arabic songs! Of course no international week is complete without the chance to dress in tra- ditional costume or be creative with national colours and this was done in style as always in Etiler. Jackie Goudy Korea Yehya singing in Arabic Saadet singing in Turkish Didi teaching arabic Year 4P in costume 8 Etiler Primary—Year 3 In October we had a visit from Enka Schools Grade 2. They had been learning about Homes, Responsibility and what it meant to them. The children got together in the Hall and in groups Year 3 were asked questions about their homes. After that, the Enka children showed us their word wheels about what they did at home. They also sang a song about relatives. We will continue this link through email and we hope to also visit their school soon. 3P and 3G in Etiler. 9 Etiler Primary—Year 6 Trip To Compare and Contrast Kilyos and Rumeli Feneri, Two Coastal Settlements 6D Visited two villages, Kilyos and Rumeli Feneri. Both places are located on the coast of the Black Sea. The places are both close to Istanbul, so they are easy to get to. There are people living in both of the villages, and there are some markets and supermarket there as well. Even though there are some similarities, there are a lot of differences too, such as: the types of shops and restaurants, the develop- ment of the villages and the people living there.