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1st July 2008

Dear Parents

We reach the end of a very busy and eventful academic year. It has been a year of achievement in all areas of school life, academic, cultural and particularly sporting. We have witnessed great individual performances in gymnastics and tennis and great team performances, particularly in basketball where our boys and girls teams came 2nd in the local leagues in their first year of competition. As I said at prize day this bodes very well for the future of our school.

We have a very pleasant event to look forward to over the summer. Some of you may know that Miss Montague will marry and will return in September as Mrs. Kelby. We wish Miss Montague and her husband to be, a happy future.

My last newsletter of the year contains very important information for you all.

Summer Holidays

• The term ends for all students and pupils on Tuesday, July 1st at 12.30. Infant children can be collected and taken home immediately after prize day.
• The new term for Infants begins on September 2nd at the normal time.
• The new term for all other pupils begins on September 7th at the normal time.

Pupils in Year 5

The day for pupils in year 5 will change in September. Research into current practices in Independent Schools in the UK shows that many quality schools have a slightly longer day for this age group. A slightly longer school day offers us more opportunities to broaden and enrich their curriculum.

Year 5 pupils will now finish school at 2.45pm along with children in Year 6. We feel very confident that they will cope admirably with this and it will be a popular move with children and parents.

Important information

The school website will be re-launched in a new format in August 2008. Any essential information over the summer holidays will be posted on the website.

We have lots of work to accomplish over the summer holidays and the school office will be open throughout July and August. Administration staff and senior managers will be on holiday but there will always be someone in school over the period. The office will be open from 08.30 a.m. to 12.30.p.m.

Examination Results

• GCSE results will be in school on August 21st. You can go on-line to get your son/daughter’s results.

• A Level results will be in school on August 14th. You can go on-line to get your son/daughter’s results

• Original Certificates will not be in school until late September 2008. If you are leaving Bahrain this summer and will not be in the country at this time these can be sent to you providing you have left a forwarding address and the sum of BD5.00 to cover courier costs. Please note that certificates cannot be couriered to a PO Box address.

• SATs results will be posted to you individually, as usual, early in the autumn term.

Staff Leavers

Sadly we say goodbye to some teachers this week. Mr. and Mrs. Sirl, Mr. Horne, Mrs. Osborn and Mrs. Murray are leaving to go overseas. Mrs Atkins is also leaving. We thank them all for their hard work and wish them success and happiness in their new careers and lives. Mrs Warren and Mrs. Manful, two valued assistants are also leaving and we wish them good luck.

New Teachers

As our school has grown rapidly we have had to replace these teachers and recruit many more. A list of new staff includes the following people and I look forward to introducing all new members of staff in September.

NAME                                 CURRICULUM
Mr. James Watt                 Physics and Science
Mr. Mark Bannister           History and Politics
Mr. Euan Riddle                Biology and Science
Mr. Jim Bluett                    Mathematics
Miss Sara Al Shiban        English KS 2
Mrs. Sandra Bowker        PE KS2
Mr. Daniel Furness           Music Drama KS1/2
Miss Lisa Kane                Biology and Science
Mr. Paul Millington            ICT and PE
Mrs. Eileen McMurchie    Design Technology
Miss Jessica Ockenden  Mathematics
Mrs. Eleanor Porter          Geography/History
Miss Jenny Walsh             Art
Mrs Jemima Watt             Mathematics
Mrs. Karen Moffatt            Senior Manager
Miss Ruqaya Amer           English
Mrs Carole Robson          Mathematics KS 2
Miss Victoria McKeown   English & Humanities KS2
Miss Hutchinson                KS1 teacher

Senior Leadership (management) Team

We have enlarged the Senior Management Team for the start of the new academic year.

• Mrs. Karen Moffatt joins the BSB in August. Karen has held a variety of leadership positions in international schools and has responsibility for whole school development projects. These include the School’s Technology and ICT Plan, Continued Professional Development and Curriculum Coordination.

• We are delighted that the school has been selected by Fieldwork Educational Services as one of 20 schools worldwide to pilot its ‘Looking for Learning Initiative’ and Karen will manage its implementation. Parent meetings will be held in the new term to keep you updated with this important development.

• Mrs. Julie-Anne Gilbert has been promoted to the Senior Management Team as ‘Infant School Leader’ and has responsibility for day to day issues in the Infant School.

Infant School Leadership Team

Recently we appointed the following teachers to positions of responsibility:

Mrs. Ros Sager : Literacy Coordinator
Mrs. Linda Kvatch : Year 1 Leader
Mrs. Jane Law : Year 2 Leader
Mrs. Elaine Norton : Foundation Leader
Mrs. Sian Clarke : Foundation Leader

Junior School Leadership Team

Recently we appointed the following teachers to positions of responsibility:

Mr. Dermot Toal : Head of Science
Mrs. Margot Richardson : Head of Humanities
Miss Clare Maidement : Head of Creative subjects
Mrs. Saphira Isa : Head of Mathematics
Mrs. Sharon Stevenson : Head of English

Moving to Hamala Years 3 and 4

As announced, all pupils in Years 3 and 4 will move to Hamala in September 2008. Their new term will start on Sunday, September 7th at the normal time. Class lists will be posted on the school’s entrance board. Details of the first day arrangements including class lists and form rooms will be on this board. Mrs. McIntyre and I will be available on this morning if you need to see either of us.

Children in Years 3 and 4 will move into their new designated rooms as soon as they are available.

Students at Adliya

Classrooms vacated by our Year 3 and 4 children will be occupied by students in Years 5, 6 and 7. A site plan showing classrooms and form rooms will be posted at Adliya on the first day of term.

We were all delighted with the number of parents that could attend our Prize Days. If you are leaving the British School we wish you all much success in your future and hope that you will keep in contact with us.

I wish you all a very happy and safe holiday.

Best Wishes



Bill Frost
Director


Sports News - Soccer

Our under 8 team (kindly sponsored by BNP Paribas bank) has performed exceptionally well again and won the EZFIT under 8 Soccer tournament!! They played two games. The first game they won 9 - 1 and the second game 5 - 4. Goals were scored by Dillon Laubscher Y1 (7), James Tweddle Y2 (5), Bryan van der Meer Y2 (1) and Cailum Lawson Y2 (1). Our School also won two awards: Best Player was won by Lewis Hind and Top Goal Scorer by Dillon Laubscher.

BSB Boys and Girls Basketball Teams

This has been the most successful season for the BSB boys and girls basketball teams in school history.

To start the year off the girls’ senior teams whom were all no older than 15 years of age at the time faced seniors from other schools who were older and had more experience. Nevertheless, the girls managed to have an almost perfect record with only one loss awarding them with the second place position in their league. Anyone who was lucky enough to watch these girls compete would agree they truly played with the utmost intensity and skill.
To end the successful year, the boys’ intermediate basketball team displayed true school spirit by overwhelmingly beating every team in their league at least once. During the regular season their only loss came against the long time number one ranked Bahrain School Team. This great show of talent and effort by the boys led them to a second place finish to their regular season.

However, they were much more impressive in the final tournament held for the championship at the end of the season. The boys were successful in avenging their only loss by defeating the Bahrain School Team which propelled them to the championship game in the tournament.

The British School of Bahrain would like to congratulate the boys and girls basketball teams on their successful seasons. Their hard work and sportsmanship is greatly appreciated by all their fans, parents and teachers. Job well done! We are looking forward to another great basketball season next year. Keep up the good work!

"Coach"
Zaied Alobaidi

 

The British School of Bahrain PO Box 15775 Adliya Bahrain - Tel: (+973) 17710878 Fax: 17710875 Hamala Tel: 17613330