BSB.CONNECTFriday 9th May 2014ISSUE 23www.britishschool.org.cn

INSIDE: Our Primary School Music Circuses, Student shine as Young Entrepreneurs and fantastic results at U19 ACAMIS Football

CELEBRATING MUSIC AT BSB

From the PrincipaLDear Parents and Friends

It only takes a brief look through my diary each week to remember how many things we have to celebrate, given the remarkable talents of our young people here at BSB. As I hope you have noticed, we have decided that our foyer, which used to look rather bare and cavernous, should be a pure celebration of the many and varied achievements of students.

Last month, we had an awe-inspiring display of the creative work in Secondary PE and Design Technology. This month, we turn to literary skills, as we demonstrate the remarkable writing talents of our German Primary School children, and national prize-winning writer Amy Wei in Year 11, as well as some interactive displays for you and your children to enjoy together and work by our younger French classes. You have a part to play too – please do inform your child’s teachers of anything that they do that is worthy of celebration. We have now started whole school assemblies in Secondary (a new feature for BSB) with the sole purpose of recognising and rewarding achievement in any field of endeavour.

On a wider scale, I have had the privilege to watch two of the ‘music circuses’ which are the culmination of Primary students work in their PIPS classes. The progress made is amazing and we have some really committed and talented young musicians here. This is a unique feature of BSB, where every child in Primary learns a musical instrument in a structured fashion, and we know that it paves the way for great musical skill in the future. As with Sport, we believe that the ability to play a musical instrument and appreciate music is a core part of a young person’s development and it was delightful to see the hard work come to fruition. My thanks to all the music teachers for their commitment, and also to the many parents who supported these events.

On a wholly different note, two of our young BBC reporters, Leoni Reusing (Year 8) and Jun Yu (Cathleen) Loh (Year 9) joined Mrs Cundall and myself at the very formal second UK-China People to People Dialogue. This year’s dialogue was co-chaired by China’s Vice Premier, Liu Yandong and by the UK’s Secretary of State for Health, Jeremy Hunt MP and the students had the opportunity to mingle and chat to a number of very significant UK and Chinese diplomats, universities and business people, which they did with a confidence, manners and genuine interest in and understanding of the matters being discussed that amazed everyone they met.

Changes to AQI policy - limit at 200Now that we are building the Dome this summer, we have the chance to review the AQI policy to ensure we are doing the absolute best for our children in terms of their health, and correctly balancing the need for physical activity and exercise, and the need to avoid breathing in an excessive level of pollutants. I am very pleased to say that we have therefore decided that, from August 2014, Primary children will remain inside when the AQI level is above 200 (currently 250). In Secondary, the limit will remain at 250, but we will limit the range of outdoor activity to avoid strenuous activity when it is above 200. Once we have confirmed other building changes in the summer, we will also review whether we should lower the limit for Early Years even further, by allowing them to have excellent alternatives to run around which do not involve going outside.

We used the statistics we have gathered during this school year to arrive at this decision (clearly we are talking about the winter months and we would expect these statistics to improve over the last two months of the school year) and you may be interested in knowing what these are. We used the AQI at 10 am i.e. decision time for Primary breaktime. There were:

• 31 days when the AQI was over 250 – indoor play• 17 days when it was between 200 and 250 – so only 17 additional days

where children would use the Dome and other indoor facilities rather than being outside under our new regime,

• BUT65 days when it was between 150 and 200, which is why we do not believe that we should go lower than 200 for the majority of Primary School for the short time that they are actually outside.

With very best wishes

Andy PuttockPrincipal

FRONT COVER PHOTO... Year 4 student Dylan Minsker concentrates very hard on his cello performance during the recent Music Circus.

COMMUNITY

prepare for the biggest Summer Fair!The British School of Beijing, Shunyi (BSB) is holding its annual Summer Fair on Sunday 25th May and everyone is invited to come along and soak up some sun and the welcoming BSB community atmosphere.

With more than 100 stalls of food, drinks, games, arts and craft and souvenirs lined up for the day, it is set to be largest public event the school has ever held.

Doors open from 10.30am to 3.00pm. There is no entry fee and everyone is welcome.

120,000 RMB OF PRIZES IN OUR BUMPER RAFFLEThis week students will have received two booklets of Summer Fair raffle tickets. It is a bumper raffle this year with 40 companies donating an amazing 120,000 RMB worth of fantastic prizes.

All money raised from the raffle will be donated to New Hope Foundation Charity.

This amazing charity provides surgeries and foster care to children in need across China.

Please help support their work in bringing hope to the lives of these beautiful children.

www.hopefosterhome.com

MOVING ON.... The end of the school year often means families relocating.

Our Secondary Counsellor, Naomi Taylor, has written an article about how you can help prepare your children for the change that awaits them.

She offers advice and help based on the many disucssions she has had with families going through this process.

Find the article on our school website here.

To further discuss this important issue or any other issues, please get in touch with Naomi directly.

naomi.taylor@britishschool.org.cn

From the Head of Primary Dear Parents,

This week has been a wonderful week to be the Head of Primary. I have had a steady stream of children through the office door beaming with pride at the work they had produced.

This is one of the best parts of my job, sharing the successes of the children with them and listening to them explaining the work and efforts they put into it. One such example is on our facebook page where there is a video of David from year 1JM explaining about a wonderful piece of homework he had done.

Go to the link on Facebook here.

Continuing on the theme of sharing successes, last week the choir were invited to sing at the St. George’s Dinner at the Westin Hotel. They did a fantastic job and were a real credit to the school. Thank you so much to Ms Chaplin and her dedicated team for ensuring this ran smoothly and was a success.

This week there has been plenty to celebrate too. Pencil cases continue to flood in for our Year 6 appeal to take to Guizhou. An article on the school they are supporting is in this edition of the newsletter so please ensure you read it to see how and who you are helping.

Thursday saw our Year 5 and Year 6 children take to the stage for their music circus. There was a great array of instruments on display as all the woodwind and brass PIPs groups took to the stage to entertain the crowd. The performance was incredible and a huge well done must be given to all children involved and a massive thank you to Ms Chaplin and her team.

Last but not least it has been rainbow day in our EYFS today. The corridor was a riot of colour with children making rainbows out of cereals, making rainbow coloured cakes and dressing in all colours of the rainbow. It was fantastic to see the children consolidating their learning and understanding of what they have been taught and the smiles were evidence that a great day was had by all.

As always, have a lovely, relaxing weekend,

Christian

PRIMARY

Pictured is the Primary School Choir performing at the St George’s Dinner at The Westin Hotel in downtown Beijing. The choir represented the school beautifully at this charity event.

Reception students have been studying the growing of beans, observing and recording their data.

fun in the foundation stage gardenTeddiesTeddies have started new theme of Down at the Bottom of the Garden. We have been reading the Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle and have made lots of caterpillar and butterfly art. We also counted the fruits and pasted the correct number of fruits next to each numeral.

NurseryThe children in Nursery have been playing in their Garden Centre, planting flowers and selling them to their friends. They have been looking for different mini beasts when playing outside in the garden. They have dressed up as butterflies and ladybirds and made different mini beast from different media. The butterfly cakes and butterfly bananas were particularly fun to make and eat. We have reviewed 2D shape looking for real shapes in the classroom. They have also been doing some phonics and really enjoyed standing under the umbrella!

ReceptionReception have had lots of fun exploring plants. They made a greenhouse for beans and observed them grow. All children completed bean diaries to record what they observed. The children also made observational drawings of flowers and coloured them beautifully. Some children were challenged to make a 3D flower using a variety of materials.

PRIMARY

Students in Pre-Nursery made some fantastic paintings of The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

Students in Nursery have been getting outdoors and doing lots of learning in their Garden Centre.

PRIMARY

making moving picturesfrom Year 1 Teacher, Ms Jennie Matthews

As part of our new theme Playtime, Year 1 have been investigating , designing and making moving pictures.

To do this we linked our learning to Nursery Rhymes. We looked at different Nursery Rhyme pictures and talked about what was happening in them and what may have happened before and after. Leading on from this we designed our own pictures keeping them nice and simple. We then made our moving pictures, adapting our designs based on lever and disc mechanisms.

We are really proud of our pictures and will be spending time evaluating our work next week to see what we can do to make them even better.

Students used a lever and disc mechanism to create moving pictures to tell their stories. Very creative!

Students in Year 2 concentrated on learning about money in Maths class, using real coins to help with the process.

that will be 20 pence, please!from Year 2 Teacher, Ms Kayleigh Roberts

This week in 2KR, we have been learning all about using British money! To begin with, we worked out the value of each coin and then we ordered them from the highest to the lowest value. Then we became shop keepers and had a great time buying 3 items from our shop. We had to make sure that we were using the correct coins to be able to ‘eat’ the items!

Then we moved on to giving change by working out the difference between two amounts. We were using coins to support our learning as well as a number line to show how we got to our answers.

PRIMARY

K2’s reading project - “Hanno malt sich einen Drachen”from Klasse 2 Teacher, Ms Yvonne Duennebier

This is the story of the boy “Hanno”, who has got a lot of problems at school because he is very shy and overweight. Classmates bully him and Hanno is scared to talk in class. One day, he sits on the playground and draws the shape of a little dragon in the sand. All at a sudden, the dragon becomes real…With the help of the tiny, little dragon Hanno gains a lot of self-confidence, loses weight and finds friends.

Part of the project was to analyse the characters of the book. The students drew them in life size, found many words to describe the characters and presented their work in front of the class. We had a lot of fun doing the huge posters which you can see hanging in our classroom.

Klasse 2 students have been learning about character analysis as part of their reading topic.

PRIMARY

kung fu punctuation and a maths car!from Year 3 Teacher, Ms Charlotte Simon

Year Three have had a truly exciting start to Term 3. We have jumped straight into all our core subjects and have had fun exploring the start of our new topic as this term, we are “Going Underground”.

In English we have launched ourselves in an adventure story unit. We are basing our learning around Dick King Smith’s much-loved classic book ‘The Hodgeheg.’ It is a wonderful adventure story about an English Hedgehog called Max, who is determined to find a safe place for him and his family to cross the road. We have read the story now and have been exploring the different techniques that Dick King Smith uses in order to produce such exciting stories. We noticed that his punctuation is perfect and so we focused on how to improve our own. We decide the only way was through Kung Fu Punctuation!

The art of Kung Fu punctuation is simple and invaluable in the fight against bad grammar. All the children learnt the basic moves and commands needed. We then used the technique to punctuate text from the book, battle each other and quick fire punctuation bouts and to help us correctly punctuate our own writing.

Term 3 Maths so far has all been about practising and preserving. We have been brushing up on our mental maths skill and exploring fractions. In order to improve our recall and accuracy, we spent a week revising and consolidating language used in maths questions. For our home learning we had to time to keep practising with a task they asked us to match the correct maths words with the symbols.

Thomas Gill, 3DS, took the challenge one step further and displayed some extreme creativity through his flexible thinking. Thomas not only matched the maths language correctly but he created a maths car and placing the vocabulary on and around the body of his mathematical vehicle!

In Science, before we go underground we are exploring over ground, by focusing on plants and what they need to grow. We always start with what we know first and in 3LD you can see that the children created some working walls to record what facts they already knew about plants.

Many of the children clearly remember all the basic they covered in Year 1 and were able to identify and describe plants that turned into vegetables in their garden. Lots of classes went into our outside learning areas in order to explore the plants we have on the school grounds, we managed to find lots of different kinds if seeds and realised we actually have lots of plants inside the school too.

We always aim to dig deeper, so in 3CS we have started to look deeper in the plants. By pulling them apart and using the magnifying glasses, we were able to explore the different parts of the plant and what they do.

Year 3 have jumped into Summer Term, using things like Kung-Fu punctuation and creative Maths to help consolidate learning. In Science, students have been studying plants, including observing them under the microscope.

Thomas Gill takes his maths car for a spin.

Year 3 music circusHere are some photos from the Year 3 Music Circus performance. Students have been in their first year of learning with Violin, Cello or Guitar as part of the Music curriculum.

PRIMARY

PRIMARY

it’s bellissimo in year 4! from Year 4 Teacher, Ms Maeve Doherty

Our topic this term is ‘Italy’ and we have been learning about Italian food such as pizza and pasta. All of Year 4 were lucky enough to visit ‘Gung-Ho Pizza’ recently to learn all about how to make delicious pizzas.

During our trip we learnt how to be chefs and how pizzas are made. Rocio from 4MD really enjoyed the trip.

She enthused: “It was amazing because we got to make our very own pizzas using cheese, tomato, pineapple and pepperoni, mine tasted delicious!”

BELLISSIMO..... As part of their topic on Italy, Year 4 learned how to make pizzas at Gung-Ho Pizza.

Year 4 music circusHere are some photos from the Year 4 Music Circus performance. Students in Year 4 are in their second year of learning the Violin and Cello and their first year of learning Guitar as part of the Music curriculum.

PRIMARY

PRIMARY

year 5 learn how plants reproducefrom Year 5 Teacher, Ms Gemma Soady

In year 5, we have begun our new science topic on plants.

The students have been paying extra attention to detail when exploring plants and all the elements that makes them up.

They have been studying the 7 life processes for all living things as well as parts of plants.

The students have been working hard to understand and remember the technical names and also their jobs.

They have learned how a flower has both a male and female part, helping the plant to make new seeds within their life cycle.

OUR LIVING PLANET..... Year 5 are learning about the 7 life processes of all living things and as part of this are studying the life and reproductive capabilities of plants.

Year 5 music circusHaving begun learning wind and brass instruments as part of the Music curriculum this year, Year 5 students showed off their talents in a great Music Circus performance. Here are some photos.

PRIMARY

PRIMARY

“TOGETHER WE CAN HELP THIS MIGRANT SCHOOL”from Year 6 Teacher, Mr Chris Cottrell

Year 6 are excited about their Residential trip to Guizhou and as part of the visit, they will visit a local primary school with a student population of largely poor migrant workers.

Year 6 will do some community service work there and will help teach the children English and work with them on an Art project.

As part of the trip, we are running a stationery appeal.

We would like as many children as possible to bring a pencil case into school that we can be given to children in Guizhou. Suitable items to include are pencils, erasers, highlighters and coloured pens. Unfortunately, we can’t take any scissors, compasses or anything edible.

Year 6 would like these donations by the 31st of May for our trip in early June. Thank you for your support.

WE WANT YOU.... Some examples of student posters displayed around school for the Guizhou Pencil Case Appeal.

Year 6 students will be doing community service in this Migrant School in Guizhou. As you can see, their facilities are very poor. Please help our students with their Pencil Case Appeal.

Year 6 music circusYear 6 students have been in their second year of learning Trombones, French Horns, Trumpets, Clarinets and Flutes as part of the Primary Instrument Programme (PIPs). They showcased what they have learned at this week’s Music Circus.

PRIMARY

PRIMARY

SO MANY TOPICS COVERED IN PRIMARY chinesefrom Primay Mandarin teacher, Ms Eileen Chu

This week we have been working hard in Chinese lessons.

Year 5 has been working on the topic of hobbies. We have talked about Chinese people’s hobbies, such as Tai Chi (Taiji in Pinyin) and Basketball. Students watched a clip and tried doing Taiji. The girls enjoyed it very much!

Year 4 had a lot of fun creating houses and their facilities. In the beginners group, students made 3D houses and introduced their project to their peers. In the intermediate group, students designed their future houses using posters.

Year 2 are currently working on the topic of ‘means of transportation’. Students are enjoying acting out being drivers and pilots while the others guess the forms of transportation.

Year 1 have been exploring the topic of nationalities. Students made their national flag and presented it to the class using the sentence pattern ‘ wo shi (__) ren’.

What a productive week!

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT.... Year 5 students tried out the popular hobby of Tai Chi, Year 4 students drew their future houses and presented them to their peers, Year 1 explored the topic of nationalities and are pictured here holding their country’s flag and Year 2 acted out means of transportation while their peers guessed what they were doing! A very busy week in Chinese!

From the Head of SECONDARY Dear Parents,

Our students here at BSB never cease to amaze me. They represent us wonderfully in so many different ways, and this week I have some great examples of that to share with you.

STUDENTS ATTEND HIGH LEVEL GOVERNMENT MEETINGFirst of all, two of our students attended a high level government meeting last week, the People to People Dialogue between China and the UK. The meeting was chaired by Vice Premier Liu Yandong and Secretary of State Jeremy Hunt, and took place at the State Guest House, Diaoyutai. This ‘Dialogue’ is an integral part of the UK’s strategic relationship with China, focusing on people, exchange and cooperation across education, science, health, sport, youth and culture. Our young reporters joined the international pros from the BBC, CNN and CCTV, and it was a great experience for them.

STUDENTS STRIVE TOWARDS INTERNATIONAL AWARDOn the 19th and 20th April a group of Year 10 students successfully completed a 2 day hike and 1 night camp in the Yanqing hills, north-west of Beijing. This was as part of their Bronze Award to prepare them for the main expedition that will take place in June in the hills around the Great Wall. They completed their trek while carrying 60 litre rucksacks and spent much of the first day in the rain . The students worked well together, showed great enthusiasm and were a credit to themselves and the school. A big thank you to Mrs Usher, Mr Alles and Miss Hemming who helped plan the route and run the hike and to Mr Jamie Cawley, who let us use his car and driver for the weekend.

EARTH DAY WITH TOP CHINESE OFFICIALSStudents from Year 9 and 10 attended an Earth Day event organised by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. They were called upon to give an international perspective on global environmental issues, presenting their ideas to some top Chinese officials! Many thanks to Mr Robinson and Ms Song for organising this event, and also to the students who participated for representing us.

NEW DAILY EMAIL FORMATOur new daily email has been very well received by most parents, despite the teething problems we experienced with our mail server. Hopefully these are now resolved, and you should all be receiving a shorter and much more relevant summary of your child’s day in school. If you are not, then after checking spam and junk folders, contact Queenie on queenie.liu@britishschool.org.cn and she will be able to see if the email address we are sending to is correct.

ACAMIS FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSOn the sporting front I am very pleased to tell you that our under 19 ACAMIS soccer teams did very well at the weekend. The boys were undefeated and became worthy tournament champions, whilst the girls lost only once and were runners up. Well done to all who participated!

WORLD SCHOLARS CUPThe preliminary round of the World Scholars Cup took place at ISB last weekend. We entered 6 teams, and I am very happy that, of the 6, no less than 5 have made it to the next round in Singapore. This is a great achievement, and all of those who participated can be very proud of themselves. Mrs Sankar, who organises WSC, has promised a more detailed summary for me, as several of our students achieved individual honours.

So, as you can see from the above list of accomplishments, there really is a lot going on here at BSB, and a great deal to be proud of – we really do have a special community and a lot to celebrate.

Regards

Steve Lewis

SECONDARY

SECONDARY

students shine at Young Entrepreneurs CompetitionFrom Mr Mounter and Mr Miller, Business Studies Teachers

On Wednesday 30th April, five teams of Year 10 Business Studies students travelled to BISS for the annual Young Entrepreneurs competition.

At the competition, students needed to sell their marketing plan based on a product or service they had developed. They needed to present their formal marketing plan in the form of a 5-minute pitch, TV advertisement for their product and compete in the poster component of the competition.

The teams from BSB included• 4 plus 1 (Hybrid toothbrush)• Wolftech (I phone 5 in built projector)• Dawn Breakers (Key chain locator with 3G)• Dessa (Revolutionary shower head design)• U-Shoes (Innovative new football boots)

During the competition, all 5 teams performed well and BSB was lucky enough to have 3 teams make the final of the 5-minute pitch. Dawn Breakers, U-Shoes and Wolftech all made the final on the day. After an excellent pitch U- Shoes achieved a second place for BSB in the product pitch section.

In the other categories of judging on the day, BSB also performed well. In the poster competition U-Shoes achieved a third place in a strong field for their poster design.

Dawn breakers also achieved a third place in the TV advertisement for their key chain locator. This was an excellent achievement as U-Shoes and 4 plus 1 also were finalists in the TV advertisement category.

The competition from the other schools was of a high standard and the judges were very tough on all competing teams. From the results the Year 10 Business Studies students achieved it shows that BSB has very talented and innovative students in our classes.

We were extremely proud of all the Business Studies students who participated at the Young Entrepreneurs competition. Well done once again.

BSB had 5 teams competing in the annual Young Entrepreneurs Competition, displaying a great depth of talent and innovation.

SECONDARY

plea for new focus on environmental educationFrom Mr David Robinson, English Teacher (also see next article from May MacLeod)

BSB students May MacLeod and Eleanor Holmes delivered a passionate bilingual speech to the audience of Chinese government officials and environmental experts asking for a new focus on environmental education in schools and a change in the mind-set of the Chinese population regarding the natural world.

To support this they quoted the ancient Chinese Daoist text the Dao De Jing stating “If you interfere with the way of Nature, you can never master the world.’ This was then contrasted with the view set forth by Chairman Mao in the nineteen forties which stated “man must use natural science to understand, conquer and change nature and thus attain freedom from nature”. There was a mixed reaction from the audience with some applauding and others looking more muted. They went on to describe how standard environmental practices such as recycling and energy conservation should be expanded but also supplemented with a greater awareness of the plants, animals and natural habitats that surround us in Beijing. Finally they expressed a desire that we move away from the desire of all to have a car to promoting a more sustainable city where cycling and walking was made safer and more comfortable.

Next, our international group of year nine students performed a self-penned version of Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World” mashed together with music from Jessie J’s “Who You Are” backed by images of Beijing’s most beautiful nature areas and neglected native wildlife such as the Yellow Siberian Weasel, Hog Badger and Azure Winged Magpie.

Students then observed a Chinese nature worshipping ritual from the Han Dynasty and some Tai Chi from members of the Chinese Culture Conservation Society. The event was a great success with opportunities to share culture and ideas about the environment and to take a few steps along the road to a greener tomorrow.

BSB students made an impassioned plea for a greener tomorrow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in April.

SECONDARY

Our Earth day experienceFrom May Macleod, Year 12

While many consider Earth Day to be yet another date on the calendar, several students, including myself, were lucky enough to be given the opportunity to go to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences on the 22nd of April and voice our views. It was a privilege to be invited to celebrate China’s 24th Earth day and speak to experts from various Ministries such those of water resources and environmental protection. The day was eventful and enjoyable for all of us and the experience was one to share.

Upon arriving at our destination, we were welcomed and shown into the seminar which was already taking place, and heard the speeches of other event participants, discussing issues such as global warming and water pollution. Lunch was held in a large sterile government canteen, within which we received many pleasant smiles and stares at the arrival of foreigners. Eleanor Holmes and I delivered a bilingual speech I had written; our passionate plea to save our environment, and our ideas on how to do so. There was a gasp of surprise when I spoke Chinese despite being a British student and an even bigger one when we had the audacity to quote Chairman Mao on his harsh, backward beliefs about nature. Our speech’s main focus was promoting conservation and green living through education and advertising, encouraging standard environmental practices to be carried out in classrooms and universities, young people propelling the future. This would lead to people seeking to create green spaces in the world around them, and taking an interest in their city’s environment.

The theme of this year’s World Earth Day was ‘Green Cities’, and in light of this we proposed discouraging the idealization of cars (without a car in China you are a nobody) and instead making cycling and walking in Beijing an easier, safer experience. I feel that our speech received mixed reactions but all in all was appreciated and acknowledged.

A student made video done by the year eights was then played, as they expressed their opinions on the pollution here and how it compared to their hometowns, despite being coarsely edited, it succeeded in amusing the officials and allowing them to hear from an alternate viewpoint. The ladies of year nine, clad in green, sang an adapted version of Neil Armstrong’s ‘Wonderful World’ to conclude our presentation, as pictures of Beijing’s wildlife played behind them. After rapturous applause, we were in turn entertained with a Han dynastic ceremony demonstration, followed by a gu zheng and Tai Chi performance, giving us a slice of Chinese culture to taste.

The day spread goodwill from the British school unto its community, a city which we all share and should cherish, playing our part in the bettering of our planet. Perhaps I did not reach into the minds of every single person at the event, but I am content with the thought that I made them think, reconsider, making the bit of difference that is in my power as we all should.

BSB student May MacLeod delivers her bilingual speech on environment education and saving the environment to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

SECONDARY

The International AwardYear 10 students prepare with a two-day hikeFrom Mr Nick Bourne / Mr Samuel Gilmour International Award Staff Coordinators

On the 19th and 20th April, a group of Year 10 students successfully completed a 2 day hike and 1 night camp in the Yanqing hills, north-west of Beijing. This was as part of their Bronze Award to prepare them to the main expedition that will take place in June in the hills around the Great Wall.

The route was a varied mix of dirt tracks, sand dunes and rocky outcrops. We encountered a film crew recording a new Chinese war film. The day started out very wet and rainy but the students diligently carried on with the task of navigating while carrying their 60 litre rucksacks..

By lunchtime the sun had appeared and the students had reached the highest point in the expedition. It was a welcome sight of the Great wall and sunshine at the top. The students discussed the route and made decisions in their teams, they showed great enthusiasm and were a credit to themselves and the school.

A big thank you to Mrs Usher, Mr Alles and Miss Hemming who helped plan the route and run the hike. We would also like to thank the parent Mr Jamie Cawley who let us use his car and driver for the weekend.

Students in Year 10 participated in a two-day hike in preparation to achieve their Bronze International Award.

artist of the week!From Ms Charlotte Yearn, Art Teacher

This week’s artist of the week is Sarah Hwang, (9C).

As part of their unit focusing on ‘light and shadow’ 9C have been looking at the work of Rob Ryan, a British artist famous for his paper cuts depicting stories and his own personal experiences and also comparing traditional Chinese paper cuts to the now quite diverse approach to using paper as an artistic medium. Sarah has displayed a natural talent for this difficult skill and has created an amazing paper cut incorporating her name with beautiful flowers and birds.

SECONDARY

Chinese paper cut by Sarah Hwang, 9C

Sport

Pictured are BSB competitors in their first-ever Key Stage 1 Gymnastics competition. The team competed against Harrow and won the competition - a great experience for the students.

U11 Softball

The U11 FOBISIA team visited BIBA to take part in the annual softball tournament. The team competed against three other teams in their group. In the first game they played Daystar losing a very hard fought match but ended up losing 4-3.

In the second game they played BIBA 2 and beat them convincingly 13-0. BSB needed to win the final game to make it to the third/fourth play-off which they did with a 6-4 win.

In their final game BSB batted second which gave them the chance to see what the opposition was like from BCIS. With some good fielding in the centre of the park and at 1st base it wasn’t too long before BSB had their 3 outs and were next up to bat.

Over the course of the 2 innings BSB scored 6 runs to BCIS’s 4 meaning that 3rd place was in the bag for BSB.

primary sport updateFrom Ms Samantha Mitchell, Head of Primary Sport

Key Stage 1 Gymnastics

Nine students travelled to Harrow to take part in the first ever gymnastics tournament for Key Stage 1.

Competitiors took part in three different disciplines including the mini vault, body management and a floor routine. Students were marked out of ten with the top three scorers winning a medal.

Pilar Kaiser, Emily Barber, Natalia Mota, George Moody Stuart won Individual Medals and the team came 1st overall against the Harrow team. A great start to gymnastics competitions for Key Stage 1.

Sport

Pictured are the U19 Boys ACAMIS team in action. The boys were undefeated for the tournament in Dalian and won the ACAMIS trophy for the second year running.

U19 BOYS WIN acamis football TOURNAMENTFrom Mr Adam Worsley, PE Teacher and Team Coach

The boy’s team went to ACAMIS with the weight of expectation on their shoulders as pre-tournament favorites and current ACAMIS Champions. During the five and half hour train journey to Dalian, the tension steadily mounted and the boys began to focus on the task ahead.

The first game was against the host team DAIS in where the boys had a scare as DAIS scored the first goal and the team had to dig deep to find a response. In a moment of crisis Herman Palmgren stepped forward to find the equalizer, this relaxed the team and then they started to play and ran out 5-2 winners.

After a good night’s sleep the boys faced strong opposition against MLIS and in a hard fought contest BSB won 3-2 in a close encounter, a brace from Emil Boby being the difference between the two sides. The next game before lunch break was against a weak HIS team who were duly dispatched 5-0 with a fantastic strike from Jaebin Lee who scored despite a serious knee injury. The BSB team was now beginning to click and play some fantastic football. HKA were the next team who were routinely beaten 6-1 in a feisty affair with the HKA players attempting to break the BSB team’s rhythm with cynical fouls. BSB ran out comfortable winners with two fantastic strikes from Paul Ryu.

BSB had the record of played 4, won 4 and were top of the table this meant they would play the winner of the 4th or 5th placed team. The winner of the play-off was HIS who then faced BSB. The HIS coach made the interesting decision of playing his center forward in goal and must have based his negative tactics on watching Chelsea play recently. BSB still managed to win 4-0 despite ‘the bus being parked’ with KP Mothapo running the show and scoring twice.

BSB then set up the final with MLIS; the game all had been waiting for. Incredibly, some still believed MLIS to be the better team despite heavy BSB victories throughout the competition. MLIS started the better team and scored a fortunate early goal through a poor refereeing decision. This got the crowd going as they sensed an upset, however

BSB then took control with a beautiful shot from Leago Matshediso who cut in from the wing to guide the ball into the bottom corner. Emil Boby who had been the team’s top scorer was not to be out done as he then picked up two goals himself, both powerful shots which were too hot to handle for the MLIS goalkeeper. MLIS managed to pull one goal back and then Marcus Wagner pulled off the save of the tournament in the dying seconds to ensure a justified BSB victory.

Alex Chipper led the team exceptionally well and put in some sterling performance in defence with his partner in crime Alex Simon.

Congratulations to all the boys involved.

u19 girls proud runners-up in acamis footballFrom Ms Sian Evans, PE Teacher and Team Coach

The Under 19 girls’ soccer team travelled to Dalian on 24th April to compete in the ACAMIS 2014 soccer tournament. The girls had won this tournament two years in a row and were definitely the competition favourites. Our outward journey was over five hours long and as a result we arrived at least two hours after the other teams and just in time for our first game. The other teams were actually excited at the prospect of the “BSB Giants” (as we were called) not arriving and there being more chance of another team winning victory.

We arrived, ran on to the field and won our first game 6 – 0. The Giants were back and ready to win yet another ACAMIS tournament. The BSB girls were not only the favourites to win, but soon became the favourites among the other teams, to the point that if another team was not playing, they were on the side lines cheering for us. The girls made many friends because they behaved themselves in a friendly, supportive and incredibly generous way towards the other teams and coaches. The other girls even managed to sacrifice scoring too many goals against a much weaker side. This was noticed by coaches and the tournament organiser.

The girls easily reached the championship game to play against Hong Kong Academy. HKA were definitely a match for them, so this promised to be a spectacularly competitive game. The HKA commented that this would be a “dog fight”, one which would have each girl playing as though their life depended on it and he wasn’t far wrong.

The game quickly went to a 2 – 0 lead for BSB, but just before half time HKA’s number 8 (a phenomenal player) equalised the score with back-to-back goals. We began the second half at ground zero. Both teams fought hard, but because of equally strong defence could not score. The game went into extra time. Both teams scored goals. There was nothing left to do, but to go into a penalty competition.

A lot of pressure was placed on 10 players and 2 goal keepers. The fate of this game was totally in their hands (or feet).The result: 3 – 2 to HKA. Disappointing – yes, but I am not disappointed with the girls. The BSB girls’ team played with stamina, skill and real team work. There was no way they could have played any better and as their coach I am very proud of them all:

• Lina Boby – scored 10 of our 20 goals in the tournament.• Matilda Bello – a very skilful player, who was remembered

by the other coaches because of her exceptional play in past tournaments.

• Lucy (Luch) Evans – captained a team with authority and respect.

• Juanita Eben – drives a ball down the wing with finesse and power.

• Klara Novakova – did not have much playing time, and yet scored the best goal of the tournament.

• Ria Acevedo– feared by other teams as being the fasted on the pitch.

• Tanya Valdez – more energy than any other player on the field. • Zuzie Dabrowska – our slip and slide goalie• Jenny Jiang – when she is in defence, a train would have had

trouble reaching the goal.• Femke Vriens – proved her worth when the girls played against

Dalian; she almost defended the goal single-handedly.• Pheladi Tshehla – not only an exceptional player, but the real

heart of the team, who kept spirits up, no matter how tired everyone felt.

• Kate Ferrier – the only player, who could defend our goal and score a goal against the opposition without changing her position on the field.

As the U19 girls’ soccer coach, it has been a pleasure to work with them. They have made my job very easy, not only because of their high level of competence, but because they have proved to be great ambassadors for our school. Their football skills and their general behaviour was exemplary.

Sport