23 Sep 2016

Year 6 Update WK 6

28th September – Last Year 6 Swimming lesson…6D to leave school as close to 8:30 as possible, 6H leave at 9:30 and 6F to leave at 10:30am

Monday 26th September-Friday 30th September – ISA testing for Year 6

Tuesday 27th September – Parent Consultations 3-Way Conference

Thursday 29th September – Parent Consultations 3-Way Conference

Wednesday 5th October – Camp Information Evening 7pm…in the hall

Thursday 6th October – BHS staff training, school closed

Friday 7th October – BHS staff training, school closed

Saturday 8th October to Sunday 16th October – half-term holiday

Monday 17th October – ESF staff training, school closed

Monday 24th October – School photos

Tuesday 25th October – School photos

International Schools Assessment (ISA)

Next Tuesday and Thursday your child will be taking their ISA assessments. This will include tests in maths, reading and writing.

It is very important that your child is present on these days because we will also be introducing the children to strict test conditions, assessment procedures and examination success criteria.

The ISA is an achievement test for children in international schools. It is designed to serve a number of purposes for these schools, enabling them to:

• evaluate instructional programs against objective evidence of student performance, to identify gaps in student understanding, and to measure growth in learning, between grade levels and from year to year within one grade level;

• provide normative data in relation to selected populations;

• measure individual children’s achievement in order to reflect on and address strengths and weaknesses; and

• monitor an individual’s or a cohort’s progress over time.

P.T.A. Levy

Please can you make sure you return the PTA Levy form and cheque to your child’s class teacher as soon as possible.

BHS Community Choir

Last January we held the inaugural meeting of the BHS Community Choir and went on to perform at the International Food Fair, the Chinese New Year show and the Summer Music Concert. The choir will re-form this year, starting on Thursday October 20th at 7pm. Everyone is welcome – no experience necessary! New and existing members are very welcome. Please click on this link to register:

https://goo.gl/forms/fERvdJNghaaC1YYa2

Healthy Food

Please keep reminding your children of the importance of healthy snacks. It would be great to see the children eating more fruit and vegetables. We work hard in school to promote a healthy lifestyle so your help would be much appreciated.

Hygiene at school

We have had a number of children off school recently, please help to keep Beacon Hill to stay a hygienic place and limit the amount of illness by reminding your children to sanitise and wash their hands regularly. As mentioned on ‘Meet the teacher’ evening it is encouraged that your child brings a small towel to school so they are able to wipe themselves down after outside play. We had many cases this week of children who are literally dripping with sweat and therefore learning is disrupted- it is also unpleasant for the children sitting next to them.

Printing – It is important for the children to have access to a working printer at home. There will be times throughout the year when the children will need to print their home learning tasks at home. This is also very good preparation for secondary school.

The Golden Book awards are as follows:

6F – Man Nok Ho

6D – Veer Sonney

Learning Centre : David Ma (6F) and Chloe Wong (6F)

Music : Bernice Lau (6D)

Well done to Devona Chick who played the piano beautifully during assembly.

Thank you to Kaden Ng for helping Ms. Chung with the handing out of Golden Book certificates.

Year 3 Summative assessment

On Thursday the Year 6’s worked along side the Year 3’s helping them with their end of unit assessment. The Year 3’s showed their knowledge and understanding of position and direction, coding, non-verbal communication and the importance of signs and symbols in everyday life. The Year 6’s did an amazing job of being active listeners, mime artists, code breakers and they worked with a supportive and empathetic attitude.

Swimming

With only 1 lesson left we have been very impressed with the children during their swimming sessions. Their organisation before, during and after swimming has been fantastic. We have seen clear improvement in stroke development, water confidence, fitness levels and effort. With swimming being an extremely important life skill, we hope that the children continue to develop their skills, confidence and enjoyment of swimming and water based activities.

During iTime the children have been learning about their own skills and how they all have strengths.

They have used this information to help them select teams or groups to solve a variety of different problems.

Grow Your Mind Day

This Friday the children had the opportunity to open their minds and try something new. Thanks to the staff of BHS, children were able to experience some of the teachers passions. Opportunities ranged from cooking to theatrical make up. It was fantastic to see the children have a go and at the same time see some interests ignited. We hope we have inspired our Year 6’s to think carefully about their first personal inquiry.

Learning Centre

This weeks Thinkers Key was ‘The Disadvantages Key’. Children were set the challenge to think of all the disadvantages of our BHS school bags. The children discussed and listened to each other until they had exhausted all their thoughts. They then had to draw a prototype of the new and improved school bag. The results were brilliant, maybe one of our entrepreneurial Year 6’s will visit the PTA and pitch their new idea!

P.E.

During PE this week the children were challenged to plan, perform and reflect as a team. They thought carefully about the different roles and responsibilities that their team required and made connections with our classroom activity based on personal skills. On reflection, the children talked about cooperation, communication and collaboration being important factors of a successful team. We also talked about winning and losing and how success is not always measured by coming first, but by how you have worked together.

Home Reading and Reading Levels – Our reading programme in underway and all children should be aware of their reading level and reading age. The children are responsible for borrowing books and making sure they are changed frequently. Each week your child is required to write a reflection about their reading or about the book they have borrowed.

Year 6 Unit of Inquiry 1

Transdisciplinary Theme : Sharing the Planet

Central Idea : Peoples response to conflict may impact the quality of human life.

Lines of Inquiry – We will inquire into…

causes of conflict
conflict resolution and management
consequences of resolutions

Concepts : causation, perspective, responsibility

Learner Profile : open-minded, communicator, caring

Attitudes : co-operation, tolerance, empathy

We have continued editing our conflict scenarios on the iPads. We have been using ‘iMovie’ and ‘Explain Everything’ to show the children’s understanding of conflict and conflict resolution. The children are currently very busy researching, sourcing and creating their own ‘Conflict Monitor’ handbooks, ready for the start of their playground monitor jobs next week!

In preparation for our next unit please ask your children to find any books, articles, pictures or symbols that they think are associated with Leadership.

Strand Maths – Measurement

Central Idea – Conversion of units and measurements allows us to make sense of the world we live in.

We have continued with our investigations into measure and are looking at problems which rely on the children’s knowledge of area and perimeter. We have begun to look at how area and perimeter is used in the real world and we are using formulas to help us solve problems quickly.

Next week we will be investigating the area of triangles.

Number Maths – Place Value

Central Idea – The base 10 place value system extends infinitely in two directions.

The children have been inquiring into maths conventions and rules. They have been looking closely at patterns when working with positive and negative integers. We have also been looking at a variety of different strategies when adding and subtracting integers.

We have continued to plan and discuss issues that we could use to create an interesting and informative discussion text. In 6D we have been looking into whether we still need zoos. What do you think? Here are some pictures of 6D in their paired writing session, getting stuck into the pros and cons of zoos.

Oral presentations

This week we have been learning about oral presentations. Children randomly selected a topic which stated whether they were for or against the motion. In preparation for their head to head debate the children used their knowledge to prepare arguments supporting their side.

They then used specific key word searches on the Internet to find supporting evidence, backing up their arguments.

During their debates the children used active listening skills whilst their opposing partner presented their case. Then in turn the children fought their corner. There were some very interesting discussions and many thought provoking statements shared!

homelearning

Spelling : Please keep up with the home spelling tests. The children should be tested on their words at home 3 times per week ready for our buddy test on Friday. Any words that the children spell incorrect during the buddy test on Friday will get carried over to next week’s ‘Words I need to learn…’ All children need to remember to bring back the Spelling Journals each day during the week.

Reading : Each child should be reading for at least 20mins each night.

UOI – Conflict Monitor Booklets

Number Maths :

Miss Fearn – Mathletics
Ms Davis – Mathletics
Mr Hoskins – Mathletics
Mr Hubbard – Mathletics

Next week we will only have one Number Maths sessions due to our swimming program and the I.S.A. assessments. When swimming concludes and we return to our normal schedule, we will also start sending home Number Maths Home Learning.

Thought of the Week :

“Your mind is the strongest and most valuable muscle you can grow in the gym”

Year 6 Update WK 6

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