BRITANNICA INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL Friday 1st June 2018

NEWSLETTER

Upcoming Events

Number 32

May—June 2018 Mon-Fri 28th –2nd June Mural Painting Project Thursday, 7th June Britannica's Got Talent Audi-tions Friday, 8th June Transition Morning for Year 6 Deadline for bringing back

library books Monday, 11th June Step up Day Tuesday, 12th June Year 6 Transition Parent Meet-ing

Dear Parents, Welcome to this week’s Newsletter. Assemblies It was fantastic to meet Klára from the Gyea Children’s Foundation at our two assemblies this week. Klára came to talk to us about the wonderful work her, and her team do to feed and support children all over Hungary. The number of families, all across Hungary, who they have helped, is incredible. I was extremely proud to hand over the 1 million forint donation to them on behalf of the school and PSA. The Spring Fayre is always a great occasion but it also serves a valuable purpose in raising money for charities such as these. Thank you to everybody who contributed to the Spring Fayre in any way. You have truly made a difference to someone else’s life Staff Leavers and Joiners The end of the academic year often represents a time of change within international schools. Over the next two weeks, I will update you about staff changes this year. From the Primary and specialist phases of the school, Anthony Constable (Year 4 class teacher), Lilla Rakosi (TA and part-time Hungarian teacher), Zita Zembrovsky (part-time Hungarian teacher and li-brarian) and Bea Barták (Hungarian teacher) are all moving on to exciting new adventures outside of Britannica International School. I would like to thank them for their hard work and dedication to the students at our school and wish them well in their future careers. Two new staff joining the Primary phase of the school are Fiona Durbridge and Eva Kiss. Fiona is join-ing us at the start of next term from her current international school in Spain. Originally, from the North East of England, she has also previously worked in the UK and China. Eva is from Budapest and is returning home after ten years working in schools in the UK. She has a wide range of school experi-ence having worked as a cover supervisor and teaching assistant in several schools in London, most recently in Lewisham. You may see Eva around the school over the next few weeks, as she is starting with us on Monday. She was keen to get to know the children and staff prior to the summer break. We wish them both well and I am sure you will give them a warm welcome. Manchester City Attached to today’s Newsletter is a letter giving further information regarding the Manchester City football course mentioned in last week’s Newsletter. We are looking at organising a group of students to travel to the UK on Saturday, the 28th July. I know this is in the middle of the summer break, so before starting to put any firm plans and bookings in place, we wanted to gauge whether there is enough interest to proceed. Please read the letter carefully. If it is of interest to your family, please write an email to Barbara at our reception. Her email address is on the letter. Have a great weekend Kind regards Neil McGarry Principal

Secondary News

We started the week off with an Assembly where we welcomed the representative of Gyermekétkeztetési Alapítvány (http://gyea.hu/), the charity we supported at Spring Fayre. Students and staff got to find out more about the Foundation and its work, and how the money raised will help children and families in need. This presentation was followed by Mr McGarry introducing the Manchester City Football language and football camps. These are available to our students this summer as the result of a partnership between Orbital Education and Manchester City.

Internal examinations started this Wednesday. All students from Years 7 to 12 are taking their end of year examinations. These examinations are valuable assessments and provide experience of IGCSEs and examination conditions. CIE examinations continued this week, including a marathon Art AS/A level examination spread out over three days.

Soon it will be time to hand back library books and textbooks so please make sure you start collecting those. The deadline for bringing back library books is 8th June. Please make sure you look thoroughly for the books as any misplaced/lost/damaged books will need to be paid for. For exam classes (current Year 10 and 12), textbooks can be kept over the summer but please make sure you check them back with the Librarian and then out again before taking them home.

Have a great week end! Zsófia Alibaux-Jakab Head of Secondary

The ‘Word of the Week’ is displayed in classrooms and around the school and is used throughout lessons in order to ensure students are developing their vocabulary.

The ‘Word of the Week’ for the week commencing 4th June is: prestigious

Prestigious:

1. inspiring respect and admiration; having high status

He grew up in a middle-class family and attendedthe prestigious Institute of Technology.

Synonyms: distinguished, respected, illustrious,notable

Antonyms: disreputable, obscure, minor, humble, lowly

The Department for

MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING has had a facelift and would like to introduce its new looks.

We therefore would like to invite Parents and Colleagues to a workshop on the

12th of June, 2018, 16.00 (after the Meet-the-Teacher session)

to introduce our new curriculum in Mathematics and Computer Science. The workshop will consist of the following programme points:

Our new name. Separation of Advanced Mathematics and Core Mathematics in KS3

with separate curricula. A possible new route for AS/A-level exams in Mathematics and

Further Mathematics. Separation of Computing and Computer Science in KS3. The new linear curriculum in Computer Science Y8 – Y13. Assessment within the department. Short student presentations on the work they have done. Questions.

Our workshop should end between 17.30 and 18.00. Please, come along and have a close look at how we work in our Department. Andor Spisák Head of Mathematics and Computing

Primary News This week every class in Primary has been involved in painting the mural, Year 1 Axe had a lovely assembly and Year 6 have been rehearsing for their show on the 14th June. There was plenty of time for some lovely learning in classes too. Class News Year 4 have been reading maps in Topic and also looking at circuits in Science. It has also been a busy week for them as they have visited their reading buddies in Year 2.

Project Mural Primary was abuzz this week with our Project Mural commencement. The artists prepared the wall while the children added the paint, flourishes and style. Enor-mous amounts of fun was had by all, followed by humungous amounts of pride for what we have accomplished. Well done, Primary! Our artists were incredible – a huge thanks to Mrs Egerszegi, Ms Bilski, Miss Lilla and Tina Gibson. Many thanks to our parent helpers: Kata, Noi, Viktoria, Tanja Also, many thanks to our parent helpers and planner, Ray and Tina, and Mr Milbich for the use of the scaffolding. There have been some comments on the location of our mural…don’t worry, this is intended to be enjoyed by more one class only. The long term plan is to continue our child-centred environmental improvements with creating a KS1 garden immediately in front of the mural and alongside the Garden Corridor. But that is another exciting community project for next year…

Important Dates

Monday 4th-Thursday 7th June

Music Recitals

Tuesday 5th June Dentist Visit for Prima-ry classes

Thursday 7th June Britannica’s Got Talent Auditions

Friday 8th June Celebration Assembly

Friday 8th June Transition morning Year 6

Friday 8th June Year 3 Dentist Visit

Friday 8th June New Class Letters to parents

Monday 11th June Step Up Day

Tuesday 12th June Year 6 Transition Par-ent Meeting

Thursday 14th June Year 6 Production

Friday 15th June Music Assembly

Friday 15th June Reports and assess-ment Parent Workshop

Friday 15th June Reports and assess-ment reports issued

Monday 18th June Trips Week

Friday 22nd June Prize Giving Assembly Britannica’s got Talent

Reading Books Every child in Primary takes home reading books as part of their learning journey in reading. These books are selected for your child so that they are at exactly the correct level to move your child’s reading to the next stage. In order to ensure there are plenty of titles for your child and future students to enjoy, please do check around your homes to see if there are any forgotten books languishing under beds or on shelves and return them to school for everyone to enjoy. Early Leave and Holiday Requests Please remember that it is the expectation that children attend every day at school and we strongly discourage removing children from classes to go on holidays, even when it is a shorter week. The children do miss out on learning. Some families may decide to leave early at the end of the year, but this is also discouraged. The last few days are really an opportunity for children to emotionally close the year, strengthen their social relationships and say goodbyes to friends who may not return after the summer. Without this closure, children may not end the year as positively as they otherwise would have done. If an absence is unavoidable, then all requests must be sent to me or Mr McGarry for authorisation. It is not enough to simply inform class teachers. Uniform Swap Now the school year is almost over, are you wondering what to do with your child’s too-small uniform? Well the PSA have the solution for you! The PSA will be running a uniform swap on Monday 11th June. Parents are welcome to bring in old uniforms before Friday 8th June and then visit on Monday 11th (Step Up Day) and take uniform for next school year. Alternatively, Angela will also be on site selling new uniforms so you can be prepared for next year. Any leftover uniforms will be donated to charity or recycled. Thank you to Myriam and the PSA for running this useful event! Assembly Assembly this week was by Year 1 Axe, registering high on the cuteness factor with their assembly about very fierce and scary PIRATES! We also had a visit from Dramaworks to promote their summer workshop, while the children found out what good work their spring fayre tickets have done. Many congratulations to all of our Stars of the Week and Merit book entries too. Check out the Britannica Facebook page for photos of assembly.

Star of the Week

1 Axe All of Year 1 Axe 5 Teme Lili

2 Medway Alberto 5 Thames Selbi

2 Mersey Dalija 6 Trent Ludwig

3 Tamar Reanne 6 Tyne All of Y6 Tyne

3 Stour Elizaveta PE Matthieu 1 Axe

3 Tweed Eitan Hungarian

4 Tees Leon Drama Mark Y6 Trent

4 Taw Phaedra Music Aron Y1 Axe

EAL Harry Y2 Medway

Ms Marie Moreton

Head of Primary

PSA News

Dear Britannica Parents, We are in the final month of this school year and we still have so much to do before school lets out. This past Monday at secondary assembly and today during primary assembly we were briefed by the Meals for Children charity. They were graciously surprised by the 1Million HUF donation that was presented to them from the profits of the Spring Fayre. The school, children, and parents can be very proud of their support for this charity. Thank you all!! Today marks our last Cookie Friday for this school year and a big Britannica thank you to Y5 Teme and Y10 parents for their support of today's Cookie Friday. A job well done! And again, a very big Thank You to Noi Saralamba for all of her hard work as our Cookie Friday Chair. She will be sorely missed, and we wish her and her family the best of luck as they return to Thailand. Please join us On 7 Jun, after drop off, at the Normafa Szamos' for coffee and to say thank you to our departing secretary, treasurer, and Cookie Friday chair. They all have done great work for PSA this past year. On 11th June we will hold a children's uniform exchange day. The idea is for parents to bring in uniform(s) in good condition that are too small for their children and exchange for uniforms that would fit their child(ren). The exchange/swap will be from 8:30am till approximately 4:00pmish and will take place on the path between the parkoló and the cafeteria, weather permitting. We will have tables set up with uniforms organized by size. Parents are welcome to look through the tables and take what they need. So, beginning next week parents can drop of their child(ren)'s outgrown uniforms in good condition to their child(ren)'s respective classrooms. Or they can give them to their child(ren) to drop off. All clothes that remain at the end of the exchange day will be donated to charity (items without school logo) or brought to a rag recycling company. A big Britannica Thank You goes out to Myriam dos Santos for organizing this event. Next, we will provide an end of school year free Ice Cream social for the children on 15 Jun. Please remind your children of the Ice Cream (iScream) social. If you have not had a chance to view the mural the children are painting, please do so. You will be amazed, as I was, at the fantastic job each and every child has done. We have some great talent under the Britannica roof! We are seeking volunteers for next year to fill the secretary and treasurer position. Please consider volunteering, your PSA needs your support. Until next week, on behalf of the Executive Board, thanks for all that you do, and remember to "Bring Your Passion". Our children are counting on you! Respectfully, Ray Rabatin PSA - President

DramaWorks Summer Camp Date: 25th – 29th June 2018 Time: 8:30 – 16:00 Ages: 7-12yrs Location: Britannica International School, 1121 Budapest, Kakukk út 1-3. Cost: 50 000 HUF (includes snack and hot lunch), 10% sibling discount Make a show in a week! Join us for a fun filled, action packed week putting together a theatrical show! Taught by professional native English speaking drama and music theatre teachers from DramaWorks Theatre Company. Students will explore acting skills, improvisation, storytelling, drama techniques and staging which they will use to devise their own plays. They will discover the magic of some of the best Broadway musicals. They will learn a variety of songs and scenes including movement and characterisation. During crafts they make props and scenery for their show. The week will conclude with a performance for parents! Information and Registration:

DramaWorks Theatre Company Email: contact@dramaworks.hu / dramaworkskft@gmail.com Mobile: +36 (20) 316-7268