Message from The Head
It was great to start the week with meeting some of the Year 4 student in the tea party with the head. They told me all about what they are studying at the moment and what their best pieces of work are.
A huge thank you to everyone who took part in the Vlastina bake sale on Tuesday. Thank you to the Vlastina friends and to Mrs Manny for organising the bake sale. A total of 10,882Czk was raised.
We also had our first parents representative meeting of the year. Thank you to our parent reps for giving their time to this. To see the minutes of the Parent Representatives meeting, please click here. Photographs of the parent representatives from each year group will shortly be displayed on the year group doors.
Finally a huge thank you to Mrs Tichotova for arranging the visits of our global goals ambassadors along with our Head Boy and Head girl who delivered an assembly about children’s rights and their experience of presenting in the UN. Our students were clearly inspired and were reminded that they should never forget they can have an impact on their environment.
School photographs
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 FRIDAY, 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, if you have any questions, concerns, or comments, please email pbisphotographer@gmail.com.
Primary Halloween disco
On Friday 25th October we will have our primary Halloween disco 14.00 - 16.00. If you would like to sign you child up to attend the disco from 15.00 - 16.00 you can do so here: Students can come dressed up for the day if they wish or bring a costume to get changed into.
https://pbis.fireflycloud.net/events-2/vlastina-halloween-disco-25th-october-2019
Settling in Primary Parents’ evening
Next week we have our Primary settling in parents’ evening from 15.10 - 19.00 for the British and the Czech British program students. This is an opportunity for you to discuss your child’s progress so far. Appointments for this can be made through your VLE page. If you have any issues with this, please contact Ms Vivienne Hambleton: vivienne.hambleton@pbis.cz
Your child should bring home their books this weekend for you to look through ahead of the meeting. All books will need to be brought back into school on Monday.
Please be aware that this first meeting is just with class teachers. If you would like to speak with your child’s specialist teacher (Music, PE, Dance, Language, EAL, Learning Support) please feel free to contact them at any time to arrange an appointment.
Also, please remember that you do not need to wait for parents’ evening to meet with a teacher if you have an area of concern. Although parents’ evening is timetabled each term if you need to meet your childs’ class teacher at any point just email them to arrange an appointment.
Secondary reports and parents’ evening
Please be aware that secondary reports will be available for parents via their VLE page Friday 18th October. The secondary parents’ evening is on Thursday 24th October 15.30 - 19.00. The booking system for parents to make appointments with their childs’ form and subject teachers will be available shortly next week. You will be emailed once this is set up.
Please remember that you do not need to wait for parents’ evening to meet with a teacher if you have an area of concern. Although parents’ evening is timetabled each term if you need to meet your childs’ class teacher at any point just email them to arrange an appointment.
Linked with this, most teachers will be setting and collecting their first half-termly assessments in the next few weeks. Once assessed, teachers are happy to allow the books home, so please do check on their outcomes. Due to the nature of teaching a dozen subjects, it is impossible to guarantee a date on which the books come home, so we opt for a 'window' instead. Although the forthcoming parents evening (Oct 24th) is more about general settling-in for the year (attitude and organisation), it is nonetheless a good chance to ask further questions about the great things going on in childrens’ books.
Primary Swimming
Please note that the Vlastina swimming sessions start after Christmas. This year we are trialling having only years 1, 2 and 3 swimming. The older students have been removed from the rotation to allow for more curriculum focus and due to the fact that most of our older students are proficient swimmers. We are therefore keeping KS1 and Year 3 as our focus for the development of swimming skills.
Students who cycle to school
Please note the bicycle rack is now located inside the school playground behind the gym. From next week, if you cycle to school and wish to leave your cycle at school please tell our security guard as you arrive. Marketa Stepanova, our school administrator or Nikola Rihova our school receptionist will then open the side gate for you. At the end of the day they will unlock the gate for you as you are ready to leave.
Car Parking around Vlastina
As you may have noticed, some blue lines have appeared on the roads surrounding Vlastina. This is a part of a city wide expansion of zoned parking which limits parking to local residents. Of course this would represent a logistical challenge for our school community and we are working closely with the relevant local authorities to find an acceptable solution to this issue.
We will keep you updated of any developments, however for now please note that the proposed changes do not take effect until November 18th . This means you can continue to park in the streets around the school as at present.
Performing Arts at PBIS
Last weekend, PBIS hosted the Juilliard NAE Regional European and Middle East Dance and Music Professional Development course and welcomed 40 performing arts teachers. This is a wonderful opportunity for teachers to collaborate and learn both from Juilliard curriculum specialists and each other. Photos and information can be found https://www.nordangliaeducation.com/schools/prague/british-international/article/2019/10/7/juilliard-nae-regional-music-and-dance-professional-development-course-at-pbis
A big thank you to the students in year 2, 6 and 9 who shared their learning.
Upcoming events in October
Friday 11th - Year 11 drama performance – Libus theatre
Saturday 12th - Maximum Music weekend. Performance at 17h00, Libus theatre
Wednesday 16-18 – Performing Arts CP performances – One Act Plays
Friday 18th - Ceilidh dancing with a live band and whisky tasting. 19h30 – Libus gym
Trusting Children Baby Playgroup
Calling all Parents with young babies! Come and join our baby playgroup every Wednesday from 8:45 until 9:30 in the Early Years Multifunctional room. The playgroup follows the philosophies of Maria Montessori and Magda Gerber who both encouraged children's natural development. Join other parents in discovering the beauty of independent play. Watch your babies explore various resources, follow their curiosity and discover new friendships.
The playgroup is led by Aisha Nayyar and Kim Ashton who are both PBIS employees currently on maternity leave.
If you have a baby aged between 6-18 months get in touch to book your place. Email trustingchildren@gmail.com
Vlastina Friends Events
After a successful lampshade workshop last school year, we have arranged another one!
For those of you who would like to make a unique hand made piece for their home, we are running a session next Tuesday, 15th October. The Workshop will take place from 9 am to 11 am in the school dining room. The fee is 250 Czk per person, which will be donated to Acorus.
The price of the material used for the lampshades depends on the size of the finished piece. The options are: 20x18cm 675 Czk or 30x21cm 1,260 Czk.
Due to capacity, the number of participants is limited to a maximum of 10 persons. If you would like to join us, please book your place by writing to us at vlastinafriends@pbis.cz or marketa.stepanova@pbis.cz.
To get some inspiration beforehand, you can visit the website of our workshop leader, Štěpán Slíva: https://stepansliva.wixsite.com/website-3.
Choco-Art Workshop
We would like to invite you to an extraordinary chocolate workshop evening on 16.10. 2019 at Café Pavlína in Slovanský dům.
“Decorate your own chocolate” and use it as a gift for your family or friends. We will work with sweet decorations and amazing combinations of ingredients according to your own taste. You can try what it feels like to be a confectioner and create amazing combinations of high quality chocolate bars.
The workshop price CZK 600 includes 2 large hand made chocolate bars (180g), further chocolate will be available at a discounted price of CZK 250 per piece.
Have you ever drawn on chocolate or decorated it with rose petals or crushed frozen strawberries? If not, come and try to make your own chocolate masterpiece.
We will start at 7 pm, Café Pavlína, Slovanský dům, Na Příkopě.
We have limited number of places (20 persons), so please apply for registration by mail to marketa.stepanova@pbis.cz
Save the Date!! Ceilidh at Libus
On 18th October we will be hosting our annual Ceilidh. For those who don't know, a ceilidh is a Scottish social event with dancing. A useful opportunity to practice your Gay Gordons for Burns Night. More information coming next week. Tickets available at reception.
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
Early Years
We started our week with a trip to Bykos pumpkin farm. All the children really enjoyed looking around the farm, meeting some rabbits and chickens and riding on the tractor and we all tasted some pumpkin soup (even though we didn’t all like it). We also brought lots of pumpkins and corn back from the farm to be investigated and worked with in the classroom. We have kept our pumpkin theme for most of the week, singing songs about pumpkins, digging the seeds out of pumpkins and doing crafts related to pumpkins. We have also had an ice cream station in the classrooms this week, and all the children have really enjoyed making and selling ice cream to anyone who visits. The lions and the tigers have enjoyed working together more this week.
The tigers have been focusing on listening for the starting sound of words in our phonics lessons and we have played lots of games of ‘I spy with my little eye..’ and in our number work we have been looking at everything to do with the number 4, including talking about 1 more and 1 less and different ways which we can show the number 4.
Year 1
In English Year 1 have been thinking about the fabulous wordless book ‘Flotsam’. We were so inspired by the illustrations in it that we created our own undersea world. We even described our creations!
In Maths we are continuing to focus on our number work. We can now find 10 more or less than a number between 11 and 90 using a number square.
We had a special Science lesson this week all about materials and how absorbent they were. We made predictions about what would happen if we made an umbrella out of different materials. We then tested our umbrellas by pouring water on!
We learnt about the Russian artist, Kandinsky, this week. We made our own painting of concentric circles in his style. We created secondary colours by mixing primary colours and tints and shades by adding black or white.
Year 2
Year 2 have become experts at buildings! In both English and CC we have been focusing on famous buildings from around the world. In English the children chose a favourite building and then carried out their own research. After collecting lots of facts, the children thought about the adjectives they could use to describe it and then put it into an expanded noun phrase. The children worked hard to think of what they would be able to see, smell, hear, taste and feel.
In CC we continued looking at famous buildings from around the world. The children made their own fact files including so many interesting facts! Later in the week we looked at different materials. We grouped them into man-made and natural materials and thought about where they come from. The children then thought about what adjectives we could use to describe them as well as what they are used for and why.
In maths we have been adding and subtracting. We have practised using a number line to add and subtract amounts when bridging 10. When adding and subtracting 2 digit numbers we realised we needed to partition the digits into tens and ones first to make the sum much easier to solve. Later on in the week we started adding 3 numbers together. We looked carefully to see if there was a double, number bond to 10, 20 or 100 which we could add first before adding the last number on. Next week we will be looking at shape.
Year 3
We had a super, spectacular, start to the week making our very own chocolate rooms using edible goodies! In English we have been continuing to read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and entered the world of pure imagination that is inside Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory as well as following the journey of the different characters. We made our own chocolate rooms to inspire us to write a description of what we would see and do if we were entering into them. We learnt about alliteration and used it along with similes and adjectives to make our writing really interesting. We could really picture ourselves being inside these delicious, edible rooms!
In CC we have been learning about fair trade. We investigated what fair trade is, what foods are fair trade and how fair trade helps people such as those that grow cocoa beans. We enjoyed making posters to persuade people to buy fair trade products. See if you can spot the fairtrade symbol next time you go shopping!
In Maths both classes have been naming, describing and sorting different 3D shapes. We have also been practising telling the time as well as learning how to read calendars. Ask your child to point out any 3D shapes that you might come across and see if he/she can name them!
EAL Years 1, 2 and 3
In year two we have been talking about Autumn and practising our verb to be by asking questions and writing up our findings.
Year 4
In Year 4 this week we have been ‘cheeky chimps’ and ‘groovy gibbons’ as the children have been experimenting with using Purple Mash for coding in their computing lessons! The children coped well with the new interface and created games involving amongst other things; snails racing, shapes shifting and traffic crashing!
In math we continued looking at the topic of time, we focussed on methods for calculating how much time has elapsed and we then used real life timetables and calendar issues to reinforce our learning.
In English we finished out topic of non-chronological reports. The children produced their own reports across a wide variety of topics and the finished results were both impressive and educational.
Finally in CC we began the week by looking at the wide range of products we get from rainforests, it is fair to say we were all surprised at the variety of products the rainforest gives us. After this we then took another look at Fairtrade and how that topic relates to a lot of the rainforest products we had been studying. The children showed good maturity when discussing this issue and all had great fun during our ‘Banana Split’ debate!
Year 5
This week in English, the children have put on their journalist hats and have begun to identify the main features of newspaper articles. They have also looked at the differences between direct and recorded speech and converted between the two. In our ‘Wonderful World’ Creative Curriculum topic, we have continued to focus on planet Earth. The children have researched the layers of the Earth and can now identify the crust, mantle, outer and inner core layers. To build on and extend this further, the children created 3D models to show the layers using Styrofoam balls, paint and labels. In Maths, the children have been converting between different measures of time. They have built on the skills they developed last year and have been applying them to Mastery level questions in class and can now convert between analogue and digital 24 hour time. Finally, the Year 5 teachers have been really impressed by the children’s work from the biome art project that we set for homework this week. We have seen some excellent drawings, paintings and 3D dioramas. Well done to all involved.
Year 6
Year 6 are now in their final stages of rehearsals for their fabulous show - Treasure Island. We have spent some of this week practising our scenes. Don’t be surprised if the children are muttering their words or singing along to songs (which are on the VLE) this weekend. All year 6 have the task of being word perfect this coming Monday, so written homework will be minimal! Please talk to your children this weekend about costumes, if you haven’t already! Please talk to your children about costumes, if you haven’t already. They have been asked to start bringing them into school and save the date…. Parents are invited to the Year 6 show on Monday 21st October at 2 p.m.
In the meantime, in Creative Curriculum, the children have continued with planning, investigating and evaluating their science investigations. 6A and 6B have also had an art lesson to create crayon batiks to be displayed in the classroom.
In maths, 6A and 6B have been improving their mental and written understanding of three operations - subtracting, adding and multiplying. They will look at division early next week. They have been prompted to explain their methods and apply them to problem solving. In English, they have continued to use ‘show not tell’ devices in their narration of stories and character descriptions. During these lessons, they have also demonstrated their understanding of weekly spellings and practised uplevelling their sentences. To uplevel sentences, children have been encouraged to use expanded noun phrases, adverbials, subordinate and relative clauses.
Y6Cz children started a new Science topic about Space last week. They visited a programme Movements of the Earth in the Planetarium and had a chance to try practically many models related to this topic.
EAL Y4,5 and 6.
This week in EAL we have been learning about present continuous and how we apply it for things that we are doing now. We also learnt about personal pronouns and how to use them when speaking about different people and things.
German
In the last couple of weeks, we had many fun activities in Year 3. We learnt how to greet each other, and how to introduce ourselves. Children are able to tell some basic sentences about themselves and name some stationery items in their pencil case, and they are familiar with colours. They can sing many songs in German as wells. We practised listening and speaking.
In Year 4, we continued to play some interactive games on the Language Learning Platform Linguascope. We reviewed and practised school stationery items, colours, animals and some basic grammar rules. Children were enjoying many funny activities in class.
Year 5 pupils are able to use the verbs können and mögen to talk about what they like and what they do not like. They ask and answer questions about their hobbies. We started to learn from a new book Prima 1, and revised how to introduce ourselves and express our feelings.
In Year 6, students played many dialogues and practiced how to introduce themselves. We learnt about pastime and hobbies. We discussed how to use the formal you in German and organized a competition who can get more information about a topic.
Year 7 students discussed the major problems of verb conjugation. They practised role-plays as well. We started with the new book Planet Plus A1.1 and researched international words in German. Students practised using dictionaries and singing a rap version of the alphabet was fun.
In Year 8, we started studying how to use verbs. Students practised to find and correct errors in sentences and to play dialogues. They started to enrich their vocabulary in a new topic about friends.
After consolidating their knowledge of verb usage, Year 9 students started to work on their vocabulary of the topic holiday experiences. They learnt how to make grammatically correct sentences and practised listening comprehension as well.
Primary Music
Early Years have been enjoying a ‘mini djembe’ drum which was kindly donated by Ms Anna, one of the lovely Vlastina TAs. Enjoy the pictures – thank you Ms Anna! Year 1 have been responding to Bach’s ‘dance’ rhythms and creating some long and short note rhythms of their own. Year 2 have been looking at pitch, inspired by George Gershwin’s ‘They Can’t Take That Away From Me’ and Year 3 have been making irregular accented rhythms a bit like Stravinsky! Year 4 have completed their compositions based on Beethoven’s ‘famous four notes’ seed idea, and Year 5 have been learning how to play the melody of ‘It’s A Wonderful World’ linking to their Creative Curriculum topic. Year 6 are working really hard for their show, which we look forward to immensely.
Senior School
Most teachers will be setting and collecting their first half-termly assessments in the next few weeks. Once assessed they will be happy to allow the books home, so please do check on their outcomes. Although the forthcoming parents evening is more about general settling-in for the year (attitude and organisation), it is nonetheless a good chance to ask further questions about the great things going on in childrens’ books.
Art
No work in progress unfortunately this week (which is not to say no progress!), but Mr Buckley was thoroughly delighted with the quality of research homework produced on the life and art of Frida Kahlo. The turn-in rate was superb, but the stand-out feature is the amount of creativity students have shown in recording her imagery, rather than presenting just a bunch of pasted wikipedia facts!
English
Year 7 are now reaching the culmination of several weeks’ work and are beginning to write their first formal essay on which they will be assessed. Once marked, these will be available for parents to see either at home or at parents evening. The students have put a lot of effort into their work and look forward to sharing the fruits of their labour at home.
Year 8 have been getting dramatic this week and have been learning about Shakespeare through performance. All students took part in a dramatic reconstruction of several key scenes from the play, delivering their lines in original Shakespearean English. Next week, they will be finishing the play and starting to complete their first piece of extended writing.
Year 9 have been having some lively discussions about the nature of power and discrtimination this week. We are now reaching the end of John Steinbeck’s ‘Of Mice and Men’ and are starting to delve more deeply into the major themes running through the book. As we move towards the end of the half term, they will be starting to turn these discussions into more detailed essays, which parents will be able to read at home.
Humanities
Year 7 are heading towards the end of their map skills unit and will soon be completing their end of unit assessment. Plenty of notice will be given and it will be a great opportunity for students to demonstrate the map skills they have been developing. In history Year 7 have been learning about the birth of ancient Egypt and have been demonstrating their research skills.
Next week Year 8 will begin the topic ‘Restless Earth’ in Geography. I would encourage all students to have a look on the ‘4+’ section of the VLE, as there are some fantastic resources that will deepen their knowledge of the issues we look at in class. In history we are continuing to look at the renaissance and are now investigating the challenges made to Catholic Church in this period.
Year 9 are continuing to investigate the experiences of enslaved Africans during the period of the Atlantic Slave Trade. In Geography we are beginning to study ecosystems and pupils have produced some good pieces of work looking at how energy is transferred in an ecosystem.
Prague British International School
Address: Vlastina 19 | 161 00 Prague 6 | Czech Republic
Tel: + 420 226 096 200 | Mob: +420 775 695 337´
paul.kurczij@pbis.cz
www.pbis.cz