Kamyk Newsletter [25/10/2019]

Senior School end of half term assembly

To finish the term we are having a lovely assembly. We are awarding certificates for those students who have been given the highest number of merits this half term. Merits are awarded for excellent class work and high quality homework. We are also having some short drama performances from the students. Our student leaders have awarded prizes for those students who came to school in the best costumes and this will be announced in the assembly.

Senior Parent Consultation Evenings

On Tuesday the year 7 parents had the chance to formally sit down with their child’s teachers and discuss the start they have made to the new school year. We were really impressed with the turnout and feedback we received.

Year 8 and 9 parents will have the chance during the first week back after the holiday.

Tuesday 5^th November - Year 9

Thursday 7^th - Year 8

To sign up for an appointment with your child’s subject teachers please follow the following link or click on the Parents Evening link on your VLE homepage. https://praguebritish.parentseveningsystem.co.uk/

Please note that when adding your child’s name into the system it is important to add any special characters (Czech accents for example). If you have any issues logging into the system please contact our Data Manager, vivienne.hambleton@pbis.cz

Show and Share

Our primary “Show and Share Events’ will begin after the holiday. There is more information on this page. https://pbis.fireflycloud.net/events-2/archive/show-and-share---autumn-term

This is the opportunity for all parents to come into school, spend 30 minutes (8.30 – 9) socialising with parents in the same year group and then at 9 am moving to the classroom to look at your children’s work with them. These events happen each term and are always hugely popular. I would encourage all parents to attend.

Year 6 - Monday 4th

Early Years and Year 5 - Tuesday 5^th

Year 4 - Wednesday 6th

Year 3 - Thursday 7th

Year 2 - Friday 8th

Year 1 – Tuesday 12^th November

Halloween Primary Disco

On Wednesday, 6th November we are going to hold a special Halloween Day in school.

The whole school will have the opportunity to come dressed in their scary Halloween costumes for the day. Early Years will have special events in their classrooms. Also, in the afternoon there will be two Halloween discos.

Disco Times

Early Years

We will take part in Halloween themed activities in class during the day. We would like to kindly ask you to provide some snack food to be shared with other children in the class. Sign-up sheets are on classroom doors. Reception classes will also join the year 1 - 3 disco in the afternoon.

Reception and Years 1 - 3

1.30 - 2.30

There is no need to sign up for this disco as all the children will attend.

Years 4 - 6

3.10 - 4.30

Please sign up via the VLE if you wish for your child to attend.

Be aware that children attending this event will not be able to take the bus home afterwards due to the timings. Please collect your child from their classroom at 4.30 pm.

Please note that any external clubs that normally run on Wednesdays will not be cancelled.

Class/ Year Group Representative Update

Although we are still missing class representatives for some classes, we are eager to start our meetings. The meetings will be taking place during the week beginning 11^th November.

If you have any feedback for your representative please contact them using the email address below before the meeting date. If you are willing to be a representative for one of the classes who do not have a rep please contact me.

Fireworks Night

The traditional PBIS Fireworks Night will be happening on Friday November 8th at Libus. There will be fireworks, food and fun for all the family.

Lantern parade - like last year we will have a lantern parade leaving form Kamyk at 1730, arriving at Libus just before 1800. Bring your lanterns, torches and anything else that glows to light the way between the two schools. Please note that all children should be accompanied by a parent for the parade and that lanterns should be electric, not fire.

More information here.

Pre-Nursery

It is hard to believe that the first half term has come to an end! We are really pleased that all the children have settled in and are enjoying their time in school. On Tuesday we were joined by Bruno who enjoyed his first week in school too.

This week we have been busy preparing classroom decorations for Halloween. On Monday and Tuesday we worked on making the bats that you can see hanging in our classroom. On Wednesday we were making ghosts using PVA glue and salt. On Thursday we were printing pumpkins using either a sponge, an apple or both. On Friday we focused on developing our fine motor skills with playdough.

We also looked at how to look after our snails with Mrs Kasha. We loved seeing them coming out of their shells, touching them and spraying them with water. In Music with Mr Coleman we even started learning a song about a snail! We also loved the Eskimo song he was teaching us and were singing it all day on Thursday!

Please put in your diaries Show and Share on the first Tuesday back (5^th November) where you are invited to stay with your child after drop-off and look together at their learning journey book, the work on the walls and to join in with some Halloween craft and play! After this finishes at 9.30 you can stay on to join our workshop led by Ms Lesley, entitled ‘Never Underestimate an Early Years Child! Tips and Strategies for Supporting at Home.’

Our special Halloween Day is going to be held in school on Wednesday, 6th November. The whole school will have the opportunity to come dressed in their scary Halloween costumes for the day. Early Years will have Halloween themed activities in class during the day. We would like to kindly ask you to provide some snack food to be shared with other children in the class. Sign-up sheets are on classroom doors (lunches remain unaffected).

We would like to thank you for your continuous support and wish you a lovely holiday.

Nursery

In this last week of the first half term, the children have been exploring autumn and pumpkins. We explored the story of the ‘Pumpkin Soup’ by Helen Cooper. The story talks about the three friends, Cat, Squirrel and Duck, who make pumpkin soup together every day. One day the Duck has a different idea and wants to change the rules. What happens with these three friends? Ask your child, as they will definitely be able to tell you. It is a lovely story about friendships and we have been referring back to this tale while dealing with challenging behaviours. The children have been responding very well to the meaning of the story. In relation to this story, on Thursday, the Tigers and the Lions classes have arranged a little pumpkin party. The children in the Tigers class made a pumpkin soup and the children in the Lions class made a pumpkin pie. Both classes met in the afternoon and had their story read once again. The Tigers served the pumpkin soup to the Lions and the Lions served the pumpkin pie to the Tigers. We all enjoyed such delicious food and felt proud. It was a lovely way to finish this first half term. We have been so pleased to watch the children making fantastic progress in many areas of their development this term. Most of the children have settled well and have been forming new friendships. Next term’s theme continues as the ‘world’ and we are looking forward to teach your child all the exciting topics.

We would like to say a big thank you for all your hard work and your continuous support. We wish you a restful half term holiday and safe return.

Show and Share is on the first Tuesday back (5^th November) where are invited to stay with your child after drop-off and look together at their learning journey book, the work on the walls and to join in with some halloween craft and play! After this finishes at 9.30 you can stay on to join our workshop led by Ms Lesley, entitled ‘Never Underestimate an Early Years Child! Tips and Strategies for Supporting at Home.’

On Wednesday, 6th November we are going to hold a special Halloween Day in school. The whole school will have the opportunity to come dressed in their scary Halloween costumes for the day. Early Years will have Halloween themed activities in class during the day. We would like to kindly ask you to provide some snack food to be shared with other children in the class. Sign-up sheets are on classroom doors. (Lunches remain unaffected).

Reception

This week we have ‘visited’ India and learnt all about the festival of light, Diwali, and how it is celebrated. The children loved the story of Rama and Sita in which Rama must rescue his wife from a monster with help from monkeys that help him build a bridge across to the island where she is held captive. We even built our own bridge to save Sita! We had the wonderful experience of a parent coming in to tell us more about Diwali, and share some yummy traditional food with us such as Diwali sweets. We got out the clay for the first time this year to make our own ‘Diya’ lamps covered in bright jewels and learnt that lighting candles is an important part of the celebration, as are fireworks. We also made our own rangoli patterns and designed henna Menhdi patterns for our hands!

In phonics we introduced the first ‘tricky words’, I and to, that cannot be read by blending phonic sounds. We also learnt the sounds ‘r’ and ‘j’ and tried writing words such as ‘red’, ‘rat’ and ‘job’ using the sounds we can hear in the words.

Maths was all about teen numbers and understanding that the ‘1’ actually means 10! We keep maths very active and did lots of fun artwork, drawing and modelling to learn about the numbers 16-20.

Next term we’ll be starting with Halloween around the world, learning about weight using pumpkins and squashes, and carrying on with some new tricky words and our last graphemes (single letter sounds) such as ‘v’, ‘y’ and ‘z’!

Show and Share is on the first Tuesday back (5^th November) where are invited to stay with your child after drop-off and look together at their learning journey book, the work on the walls and to join in with some Halloween craft and play! After this finishes at 9.30 you can stay on to join our workshop led by Ms Lesley, entitled ‘Never Underestimate an Early Years Child! Tips and Strategies for Supporting at Home.’

On Wednesday, 6th November we are going to hold a special Halloween Day in school. The whole school will have the opportunity to come dressed in their scary Halloween costumes for the day. Early Years will have Halloween themed activities in class during the day. Reception classes will also join the year 1 - 3 disco in the afternoon between 1.30-2.30 pm. We would like to kindly ask you to provide some snack food to be shared with other children in the class. Sign-up sheets are on classroom doors. (Lunches remain unaffected).

Reception Team

Year 1

We can not believe we are coming to the end of the first half term in Year 1. Time has flown by as we have been very busy bees learning lots of new and interesting things. We have really enjoyed our topic on ‘Holidays’ and we are looking forward to our new topic on ‘Marvellous Toys’.

This week we have been practising how to write sentences using the correct syntax so it makes sense, using capital letters, full stops and finger spaces. We have been using this success criteria to check all our sentences work.

In maths we have been reinforcing all the areas that we have covered so far this term, such as counting and grouping in fives, quick recall of number bonds, estimating, doubling and practising naming and describing 2D shapes.

We have been very creative in our topic work lessons this week. We have designed and made our dioramas based on the physical and human features that we have been learning about in geography. We are also had an amazing time on our trip to Tocna. Enjoy flicking through the photographs which you can find using the link below. We would like to thank the parents who came along and helped, it is very much appreciated.

https://pbis.fireflycloud.net/year-1-3/kamyk/year-1-trips-and-events-photo-album/20191024-y1-trip-to-tocna-airport

In computing we have been working with programmable robots and guiding our beebots through a Super Mario maze.

Have a wonderful holiday everyone, have fun and recharge those batteries ready for our next half term! Thank you for all your support at home and with everything we do at school.

The Year 1 Team.

Swimming will continue every Tuesday.

Please note the Halloween Disco is on Wednesday 6th November, please encourage your child to dress up!

The firework display will be on Friday evening 8th November at Libus.

Year 2

In maths in year 2, after the children finished their assessments, they worked on problem solving. Some of the children continued to draw diagrams to help them solve problems and others used the method of read, plan, work and check. We also revised number bonds to 100, doubling and geometry.

In English the children finished their fact files. They have also been working on SPAG: spelling, punctuation and grammar. Some of the children were looking at how to form questions properly. We have also been working on reading comprehensions.

In creative curriculum, the children made a timeline of buildings from old to new and they looked at how building styles have changed throughout the year. To finish off our building topic they made their own buildings which had to be waterproof, windproof and strong. The children had to select their own materials for building and with the help of the teacher they used saws to cut wood.

After half term, we will be having a STEAM week, judging the children’s photography entries and collaborating on some House artwork.

Please note the Halloween Disco is on the afternoon of Wednesday 6th November, children can bring a costume to wear.

Show and Share morning is Friday 8th November. There will be refreshments in the canteen from 8:30 and then parents are invited to their child’s class from 9am.

The firework display will be on Friday evening 8th November at Libus.

We wish you all a wonderful half-term holiday!

Year 3

After a chocolate-filled first half term, the children discussed the importance and implications of buying FairTrade products, watched ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’, and 3A and 3Cz finally made it to Chocotopia for their trip. We’ve enjoyed this topic immensely,but are also looking forward to our new topic starting in November.

In English, the children have been working on persuasive writing, thinking about how to convince you to buy their chocolate bars, and in maths we have been doubling and halving numbers which cross over 100, as well as an introduction to year 3 fractions.

After half term, we will be having a STEAM week, judging the children’s photography entries and collaborating on some House artwork.

Please note the Halloween Disco is on the afternoon of Wednesday 6th November, children can bring a costume to wear.

Show and Share morning is Thursday 7th November. There will be refreshments in the canteen from 8:30 and then parents are invited to their child’s class from 9am.

Have a wonderful half-term holiday!

Year 4

We are coming to the end of our final week of Remarkable Rainforests and realising that we have studied so many aspects of the forests now. We appreciate what they represent in our world and are beginning to see some of the dangers that they are facing. We are also enjoying the wonderful homework created by the students is all around our Year 4 rooms. We cannot wait to share this in Show and Share soon! Our Henri Rousseau themed artworks are incredibly beautiful, don’t forget to keep that morning free on Wednesday 6th!

Our rainforest themed story writing has been a wonderful way to close our topic this week. Exploring narrative was fun. We have now begun to make our own targets for our writing to make it more powerful.

Maths assessment papers are coming home this week, so please take time to go over them with your child. We have gone through the papers and have set targets to work on in the next half term. We continue to work on reading the time, checking timetables and knowing the intervals of how long something lasts. As you travel over the holidays perhaps you can challenge your child on these themes.

Have a safe and wonderful holiday with kind regards from your Year 4 team!

Photo Competition FULL STEAM Ahead!

This year’s STEAM project was introduced by Miss Drummond on Monday where we saw some amazing macro photographs linked to science. We will all have a go at thinking deeply and creating a photograph that can be exciting and ‘close-up’ as well as something linked with science in some way or another.

We have a deadline for photographs taken by our students to be sent in by Wednesday 6th. Voting for the most interesting photo and caption will take place by our school community on Friday.

Show and Share: Year 4 - Wednesday 6th

Refreshments will be provided for you in the canteen from 8:30-9:00.

Please come with some snacks for students to share and enjoy being in the classroom with your child, who are excited to present to you all that they have done this term in Year 4. In past years this has been a wonderful opportunity for your child to share in their learning journey, their growth, as well as set targets, but most of all to show you just how proud they are!

Halloween Disco (Wednesday 6th):

The Halloween Discos will take place on Wednesday 6th November.

Years 4 - 6: 3.15 - 4.30 (Parents must sign up on the VLE if you want your child to attend.)

Holiday Homework

Design a pumpkin for your class. Sheets in your homework books!

Take a photo for the photography competition and email it to your class teacher!

Finish off your rainforest project!

Read lots! Reading Eggs is available to you. If you can work on your driving tests, this would be great.

Mathletics and Times Table Rockstars are there for you to enjoy if you have time!

Photo Competition Gallery

On Friday 8th, there will be a gallery of all the entries to the photo competition. Children will have the chance to vote for their favourite pictures.

Year 4 EAL

Year 4 EAL children have been working very hard since the beginning of this academic year. In September, we focused mainly on talking in order to develop fluency, improve pronunciation and use grammar correctly.

In October, we have focused on constructing sentences. The children have practised using verbs in all forms and tenses.

The children have been helping each other and working as a great team!

Year 5

What an amazing half term we have had in year 5! There has been lots of learning and fun and we are so proud of what the children have achieved already.

It was time to assess our learning and identify some targets in Maths as we completed our assessments and reviewed our learning.

This week the children have been busy tying up our Wonderful World topic. In our Creative Curriculum, the children have loved designing their own buzzer games. This has included an application of many skills as they have made electrical circuits, used some engineering ingenuity and shown off their artistic flair. In English, we have finished off our Dr. Who science fiction stories - they are weird and wonderful! We really enjoyed writing them together.

We have been continuing to write our own games in Computing using block coding. The children now all have 'Scratch' accounts and we would encourage them to practice at home to develop their skills.

Some information and reminders:

• The children need to complete the 'REVEAL' MIT photography challenge. They need to take a close up picture of something that shows a scientific idea or principle. Please send the pictures along with a caption to the class teacher. Deadline is Wednesday 6th November.

• There is no further homework for the holidays however, the children are invited to use Reading Eggs, Mathletics and Timestables Rockstars as much as they like and this work will be seen by the teacher. It is a great opportunity to practice those times tables if this is something your child needs to improve on.

• Year 5 Show and Share morning: this will be Tuesday 5th November. You are invited to the canteen for coffee and pastries and to chat with other parents. Then at 9am you are welcome to join your child's class and they will show you their books and you can test their buzzer games! We look forward to seeing you all there.

We wish you a safe and happy holiday and look forward to seeing the children on Monday 4th November.

EAL Year 5

Year 4 EAL children have been working very hard since the beginning of this academic year. In September, we focused mainly on talking in order to develop fluency, improve pronunciation and use grammar correctly.

In October, we have focused on constructing sentences. The children have practised using verbs in all forms and tenses.

The children have been helping each other and working as a great team!

Year 6

Our first creative curriculum topic has come to it’s grand finale this week we entered into the last stage of our Island Project. On Tuesday we traveled through the fog to Libus Campus where we were greeted by some Y13 students who kindly gave us a tour of the school before we settled down to the finale pitches. Our shortlisted students put on very convincing presentations and confidently answered some very grilling questions from a panel of four serious business men and women. After much deliberation from the judges they made their final decision on the winning groups. Well done to everyone and a special congratulations to the following winners:

Joesef, Ella & Agata (6C) The Island of Jagella (near Portugal)

Danil, Rudolf, Elam (6A) Dream Island (near Hawaii)

Elektra, Samuel, Min Jun, Artemiy, Sayana (6D) Island of Skylar (near The Shetlands)

Eva, Woojun, Peter, Anastas, Matias (6B) The Magic Isle (near Madagascar)

The winners remained at Libus for special treat of hot chocolate and cookies before returning to Kamyk. All the students presented themselves enthusiastically and respectfully at Libus and they did themselves and the school proud as did the students at Libus who made us all feel really welcome.

In other areas of the curriculum, this week we have been exploring further into the structure of microorganisms and creating our own 3D model of a microscopic creature. We have learnt how to classify them as either a ‘Eukaryote’ or a ‘Prokaryote’, i.e. does it have a nucleus with structured DNA or not?

This week has also been our assessment week and as such we have been completing our end of term tests in maths and English. These are currently being graded and recorded and will be sent home after the holidays.

It has been a wonderful term in Year 6 and we have been very busy, therefore the Year 6 team would like to thank all the parents for their support and wish everyone a relaxing and happy half-term break.

Some information and reminders:

Show and Share (Monday 4th November):

Refreshments will be provided for you in the canteen from 8:30-9:00.

This is an opportunity for your child to host you as their guest and share with you all the work they have done so far. You will have the opportunity to spend quality time with you child look through their books together and getting to know their learning environment. Please bring some snacks and treats to share (no nuts please).

Halloween Disco (Wednesday 6th November):

The Halloween Discos will take place on Wednesday 6th November.

Years 4 - 6: 3.15 - 4.30 (Parents must sign up on the VLE if you want your child to attend.) Student can bring a costume to change into at school.

Holiday Homework

• Design a pumpkin for the class (we will carve one of these for the disco)
• Send the final photo entry for the MIT STEAM competition email it to your class teacher stating final entry and ensuring it has a caption!
• Finish reading Journey to the River Sea and summarise.
• Complete ‘Books I have read’ in the back of the homework diaries for all books read this academic school year.
• There is no further homework for the holidays however, the children may use Reading Eggs, Mathletics and Timestables Rockstars as much as they like.

KS3 Humanities

The first half term has seen the students settling into their humanities lessons and learning a wide variety of different topics from Ancient Egypt in Y7 to Trans-Atlantic Slavery in Y9. Some of our units are drawing to a close and many students will have assessments shortly after the holidays so they should spend a little time reviewing their learning and making sure they don’t forget what they’ve learnt! If they haven’t yet joined the Quizlet groups now would be a perfect time.

If you visit something historical, geographical or philosophical (related to our topics or not) on holiday feel free to tweet us @PBISHumanities or send us a postcard!

VLE Tip - We talk about the VLE a lot and all the students are aware that all the resources for their humanities lessons can be found in the subject/year group/topic area. Another thing we are in the process of developing are 4+ learning areas. For each topic we have a specific page with a variety of links to websites, worksheets, book recommendations etc. All sorts of things to encourage students who are interested to go beyond the curriculum and develop their learning further. For example the 4+ learning area for the Y7 Medieval Realms topic is here.

Careers Speed Dating – URGENT APPEAL

Your child needs you!

Yes, literally!

Do you love your job? Would you enjoy speaking to young people about your profession?

If so, we have the most fitting experience planned for you and our students.

On Wednesday, December 11 (1700 – 1900), we are planning a big Career Showcase Event during which you can promote your profession to our students in small groups and 1:1. They will ask you questions about what you do and why your job is so wonderful.

We would really welcome your support. If you could spare our students a couple of hours then please contact Mr Peachment (Anthony.peachment@pbis.cz), Mrs Cordes (jane.cordes@pbis.cz) or Mr Klaiss (alexander.klaiss@pbis.cz).

Even if you can only do an hour, your and others children will really appreciate it. Please sign up on the the VLE https://pbis.fireflycloud.net/events-2/libus/careers-evening-11-december/careers-speed-dating-sign-up

Ceilidh 2019

On Friday 18th October, staff and parents joined with friends in an evening of Scottish dancing. Led by the Scottish band, Quern, our enthusiastic dancers were led through a variety of dances. For some, this was their first ever time dancing at a Scottish ceilidh and it really was great fun, learning and dancing together. The evening also gave the chance for whisky tasting as part of the refreshments and the whole event was raised funds for the Czech Cystic Fibrosis klub which supports families living with cystic fibrosis. A big thanks to all those who joined us for the evening.

We raised a total of 15200kc this year.

https://pbis.fireflycloud.net/events-2/whole-school/ceilidh-18th-october

Thank you! Lunches for Kids Charity Project Update

We’d like to thank all the parents, students and staff who have contributed to our charity project, Lunches for Kids. Our school has raised 35,037kc since January and this money will now be used to help children in the local area who would not otherwise be able to afford a hot lunch.

We re-launched this project early in 2019, but it was was originally designed by one of our alumni students targeting UN Sustainable Development Goal 2, Zero Hunger as part of our first ever Global Challenge. Since the relaunch, parents, students and staff have been able to donate 20kc per month to the charity Obědy pro Děti (this is the approximate equivalent to 1kc per school meal for the entire month.). Every crown we raise goes directly to school canteens in the Prague 4 area in order to pay for meals for children. Although 1kc may be a small amount, it can make a big difference!

If you would like to opt-in to the Lunches for Kids charity project this year, in the ‘card transactions’ section of MyPBIS you will find an option to approve taking 20kc from your child’s lunch account monthly to give directly to the charity. If you would like to opt-in for each of your children, you will need to register ‘yes’ for each child.

Information about the charity itself (and its transparent bank account) can be found here: http://www.obedyprodeti.cz/en/ If you would like any further information about the project, please contact: phillippa.tichotova@pbis.cz.

Charity Bring and Buy Sale at Kamyk 13^th November

Do you have cupboards and drawers full of stuff that you no longer need? Bring it along to the Kamyk Bring and Buy sale on Wednesday 13^th November. More details coming after half term.

Start sorting out your junk now!

Ukrainian Coffee Morning 11^th November at Kamyk

On Monday 11^th November we can look forward to delicacies in the Kamyk canteen provided by our Ukrainian community. From 0830.

Have a great half term

Lorraine McIntosh

Chair, Kamyk and Libus Friends

HALF TERM SPORTS CAMP IS BACK!!!

The half term is just three weeks away and registration is now open for our Half Term Sports Camp. Our four day, action packed sports themed programme is open to all children aged 4 - 13 years. Each day will run from 08:30 - 17:00, and the programme will include training in gymnastics, tennis, floorball and wall climbing!

The programme will be based at our campus in Kamýk, with a complimentary daily bus service available from our Vlastina site. For full details and access to the online registration form please visit the following VLE page:

https://pbis.fireflycloud.net/extra-time/holiday-programmes/half-term-sports-camp-2019

Portrait Photo Orders

This year's class photos are ready and can be seen at http://www.pbisphotos.cz Just enter the password (case sensitive): PBIS2019

Please note that the order deadline is TODAY, OCTOBER 25, and that orders placed before the deadline should be delivered by the first week of December.

Prices for the photographs are displayed in the form. The final amount will be deducted from your child’s school account.

In the meantime, we hope you like the photos! If you have any questions, concerns, or comments, please email pbisphotographer@gmail.com.