bisi community newsletter - British International School

Dec/Jan 2015
Sixty Fourth Edition
BISI COMMUNITY
NEWSLETTER
GUIDING STATEMENT OF
THE BRITISH INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL ISTANBUL
The British International School Istanbul provides a caring
international environment, fostering cultural diversity. Individual
students achieve their full academic potential, inspired to become
lifelong learners and responsible citizens of the global community.
YOUR COMMUNITY!
YOUR NEWS!
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For a Better BISI…
We would like to inform you of good news about our school at the start of the New Year 2015;
The orange gym is no longer!
The orange gym at the Zekeriyakoy campus has finally been re- surfaced. We have been waiting a long time for this to
happen but the wet, snowy weather over the Winter holidays delayed progress. The orange gym will now have to be
renamed to the blue and white gym, chosen by the PE department! We are now waiting for the final surface to be laid.
The surrounding walls will be covered in soft rubber matting up to two metres high, to improve safety measures in the
gym.
Improvements to the Swimming pool
The swimming pool at the Zekeriyakoy campus has also been allocated as an area for improvement. Over the summer
holidays, boys and girls toilets and changing rooms will be build on the area behind the pool. The existing changing
rooms will become swimming aid storage rooms. The showers will also be remodeled. We will inform you again of
more specific plans nearer to the summer holiday.
Playgrounds
The Alkent City campus playground has been renewed for our younger children. A new climbing frame has been built
for the children to enjoy. New playhouses and a sandpit have also been constructed to improve this pleasant outdoor
environment.
Lunchtimes
As you may know, we cater for students from 2 ½ years old to 18 years old: organising our menus can be a problematic
task! Miss Helen and Miss Ozlem have worked with our chef to improve the menus for our students from such diverse
backgrounds. We now also add the nutritional values to our menus. We take feedback from our representative Zekeriyakoy Primary and Secondary Student Councils and the City Primary Student Council to continually make improvements.
Security
Before the winter holidays, we experienced a few incidents within the Zekeriyakoy campus to warrant analysing our
security measures more closely. We have now installed cameras on each floor of the Zekeriyakoy campus, in all buildings.
Finally, we would like to remind you that we have an ‘open door’ policy. We do our very best to answer your queries
in a timely manner and are happy to meet with you to discuss issues which, together, we can try to find a solution for.
Helen Kiran
Please note that all the school photographs can be found on our Flickr account from the following link:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/britishschoolistanbul/sets/
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Message from the Pre/Primary School
Our Winter Bazaar is an annual tradition. For the previous two years, snow interrupted the Bazaar, but this
year the Bazaar went ahead on the day planned! The children had so much fun: they enjoyed tossing hoops
for the Jar Jamboree game, taking a turn on the Tombola and the Lucky Dip stalls, and having their picture
taken with Santa. They enjoyed wrapping presents for their parents at the Secret Santa stall. Salty dough
decorations and snowflakes were made and sold, and there were many festive games for the children to
play. Thank you to the Student Council at the Zekeriyakoy Campus and the PTA at the City Campus for arranging this wonderful event, all the teachers for their hard work, the Zekeriyakoy PTA for organizing the
scrumptious cake stall, and all our parents for supporting the Wacky Wednesdays so kindly. The proceeds
from the Winter Bazaar will go to our chosen charities of locally, the Blind School in Kilyos, nationally, TKMCV
Protection for Children, and internationally, the Teenage Cancer Trust.
The Giving Tree project has also become a tradition at this time of year. Many children donated a toy that
they no longer wanted for a needy child in Istanbul. The Giving Tree was full of names written on a decoration and hung on the Giving Tree. Thank you for your support shown towards our charitable causes.
December culminated in five wonderful Winter Showcases. The children performed festive songs for their
audiences to enjoy. Thank you to the EYFS and Primary Music teachers and all the performers for their commitment, hard work and dedication to our Creative Arts programme.
Every year Speech Bubbles surprise us with a winter Pantomime. They
certainly did not let us down this December, as we were treated to a
great performance of Jack and the Beanstalk at the Sisli Terraki School
theatre. Two of our very own Primary teachers were part of the cast,
Miss Dorothy Gwillim (Zek ESL/Area Leader for Languages) and Miss Alix
Peacock (Alkent Year 1). Many of our families enjoyed this wonderful
production.
After a snowy start, the New Year got underway. The CAS students held a Movie Night, again to support our
chosen charities. The children were excited to eat their popcorn and have a drink, and then enjoy watching a
film. Thank you to the CAS students for organising the event so well.
Finally, over 40 clubs started in January. The children chose from a selection of lunchtime and after school
clubs, for example, Chess, Cross Stitch, Computers, Drawing, Puzzles, Table Tennis, Karaoke and Basketball
Club.
Happy New Year to you all!
Best regards
Amanda Ilhan
Pre and Primary Deputy Director
Richard I’Anson
Pre and Primary Director
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Alkent Primary—Winter Bazaar
We all had a very Merry time at the Winter Bazaar.
Great fun was had looking at all of the interesting stalls and deciding what to spend our money on.
The jam jar jamboree was also very popular and everyone enjoyed winning a jar full of goodies.
Meeting Father Christmas was an exciting end to our visit to Etiler.
In the afternoon we mixed up all of our classes and had fun creating lots of winter decorations.
We would like to say a BIG thank you to all of the parents who helped run and organise such a successful Bazaar!
Alison Guzel.
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Alkent — Winter Showcase
We all had a jolly time singing and performing lots of festive Winter songs.
Thanks to Mr Peter for teaching us such beautiful and fun songs.
Alison Guzel
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Etiler EYFS—Winter Bazaar
Winter Bazaar in Etiler was busy all day long as EYFS, Alkent and KS2 met Santa, had a go at the tombola,
joined the Jamjar Jamboree and had a great time. KS2 also had teacher-led activities to take part in.
Thank you parents and staff for such an enjoyable day.
Carolyn Guven
Goals for Santa
Elfing Themselves
Jamjar Jamboree
Pin the Carrot on the
Snowman
Tombole
Winter Themed Bingo
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Etiler - EYFS
Our Trip to the Rahmi Koç Museum
All of the children and teachers from the Etiler Campus Pre-School went on a visit to the
Rahmi Koç Museum as a part of our Transport Topic. We had a fantastic time and saw lots of
interesting things!
Tamarisk Wright
Cars
Trams
Fun in the
Workshops
Aeroplanes
Trains
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Etiler & Zekeriyakoy EYFS - Winter Showcase
EYFS Winter Singalong Showcase
What a fun morning for all the EYFS
children, getting the chance to sing
their special songs for their families. I
know they were very excited and all had
worked so hard on learning these.
It was a real winter theme with some fabulous costumes including dancing snowflakes and snowmen. All of the children sang winter songs and parents joined in
together too!
A big thanks to the fantastic Music Teachers Miss Lisa and Mr Pete for all
their support teaching these songs to the children and helping them prepare
their beautiful singing voices in the music lessons.
Thank you also to all EYFS teachers who worked so hard on putting the Winter
Show together. It was great entertainment for all and I think all the singing
was heard as the winter definitely arrived bringing the snow with it!
Miss Tamarisk
Early Years Co-Ordinator.
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Alkent Primary—Year 1
Writing Fun in Year 1
Year 1 children at Alkent have been busy writing their own information texts. The
children enjoyed reading books about many different types of truck. They learnt
about labels and captions in information books. They then spent time designing their
own amazing imaginary trucks! These included a Chocolate Fountain truck, an Underwater Truck and a Racing Truck. The children labeled the parts of their designs
and wrote captions too. When finished, they then read their truck book to the
younger children in Reception who then went on to draw their own imaginary trucks!
There are many budding authors at Alkent!
By Alix Peacock and Molly Hill, Year 1 Class Teachers, Alkent Campus.
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Etiler Primary—Year 3
Year 3 Getting Inspired at the Miro Exhibit!
On Friday the 23rd of January, both
Year 3 classes from Etiler went to
the Sakip Sabanci Museum to check
out the artwork of Spanish artist
Joan Miro. The children enjoyed the
abstract nature of his pieces and
spotted lots of signs of his artistic
vocabulary (stars, ladders, moons
and eyes) in his art. Using this experience as inspiration, children
created various pieces of art both at
home and in school in the Miro style.
Thank you to year 3 for representing
BISI so well at the museum!
- Mrs. Guven & Mr. Pembridge
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Etiler Primary—Year 4
Etiler Kingball Tournament!
Continuing our tradition, the House Captains from Etiler
campus organized a Kingball tournament for the final day
of last term. Each child represented their house and battled it out in a round robin tournament to see which house
prevailed. In the end Oak was the winner, after being victorious in half of their matches. The students showed excellent sportsmanship and determination throughout
the event with 6 students taking home House Certificates for their efforts.
As a final fun game, the Year 6 students took on the teachers to see who came out on top. The students
dodged and weaved as the staff desperately tried to remain dignified and I am pleased to announce the teachers are still the undefeated champions, better luck next time Year 6. A special thank you to the House Captains for all the hard working in organizing this fun and spirited event.
The Year 6 & teacher team after their intense match!
Lindsay Pembridge
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Etiler Primary—Year 4
Year 4 Lighting It Up!
As a culminating task to our electricity and energy unit, 4P and
4H from Etiler campus were given the task to design and build a
torch for someone specific. Using just a toilet roll, 2 batteries, 2
wires, a light bulb and a lot of tape, they constructed functioning
torches with a brass fastener and paperclip switch. They designed
torches for explores, scuba divers, campers and miners keeping in
mind what special features their torch would need for that profession. It was an excellent day of DT for both classes and the children were incredibly hard working in their pairs. They showed
excellent patience, focus and innovation when faced with challenges. Well done Year 4!
Mrs. Pembridge & Ms. Heather
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Etiler Primary—Year 5
5A wrote and performed their own poems for a class poetry 'slam'. A poetry slam is a competition at which
poets read their own, original work. The poems are then judged on a number scale by the audience.
The children discussed stimulus that could be used for poetry, and brainstormed ideas for their own poems.
Subjects ranged from Minecraft (obviously!), sharks, and rainbows, to Germany and bad babies! The children
were asked to use powerful verbs, vivid adjectives and interesting rhymes, in an informal style. For the reading, we took advantage of some clement autumn weather to perform outside, and children gave and received
constructive criticism, as well as giving the all important scores!
James Appleby
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Etiler Primary—Year 5
5A started to explore programming and robotic control in an engaging and hands-on experience using ProBots.
Pro-Bots are 'turtle' robots, disguised as race cars! Commands are entered via keys on the back of the 'car'.
The children started by becoming familiar with the controls, moving on to explore what the robots could do
given a short sequence of simple commands. They went on to navigate the robots through a specific task of
drawing shapes, and experimented with entering commands more quickly and more accurately using a repeat
function.
5A loved being able to control the robots, and make complex projects simple, through trial-and-error development and testing.
James Appleby
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Zekeriyakoy Primary—Year 1
1L began their spring term with a wonderful weather assembly!! They worked hard and very professionally to
produce dances reflecting three differing climate zones in the world. Penguins shuffled in beat to represent the
arctic zone. A hot, fiery display by the girls illustrated the desert climate. Finally, a simple but effective umbrella dance to show the rainforest climate.
Bravo 1L, you did a great job!
Lizzie Lincoln
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Zekeriyakoy Primary—Year 3
Year 3 Trip to the Miro Exhibition
Year 3 Zekeriyakoy were amazed at the art and style of Joan Miro during their recent trip to the exhibition at
the Sabanci Gallery. The children looked at the paintings, discussed Miro’s style and finally recorded ideas in
their sketchbooks. Some comments about the trip included:
“I thought Miro’s work was very creative.“ Lucy
“When I saw the paintings that Miro had done, I thought that he expressed many different subjects.“
Genavieve
“I think Miro is a very good artist.“ Mateo
“I enjoyed Miro’s paintings and sculpture because they had a lot of detail and creativity.“ Blanca
“I think Miro showed a lot of emotion in his work.“ Rafael
“Having visited the exhibition, I was surprised how good Miro’s paintings were.“ Ashton
“Miro saw subjects and turned them into paintings and sculptures.“ Aylin
“Miro used primary colours well.“ Loryn
Year 3 had a very successful trip to the Miro Exhibition at the Sabanci museum. They made careful studies of the symbols he used and made their own painting in class based on his ideas.
Year 3 teaches.
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Zek Primary
Winter Showcase
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Zekeriyakoy Primary—Year 5 & 6
The Y5 and Y6 students battled it out in a 7 a side football tournament to decide the annual
champion. Maple after winning both of their games, clearly dominated this tournament. Cedar and Oak drew their match, and after the relevant matches against Maple they where also
tied in points and goal difference.
A penalty shoot out had to bring the decision which ended 4:3 in favor to Cedar. Unlucky
hero of the tournament is captain Mathis who walked as goalkeeper backwards over the line.
The enthusiasm of all players involved and also the improved level of technical and tactical
skills was a pleasure to see and has reinforced our decision to have a rematch in spring.
Christian Huegel
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Zekeriyakoy Secondary—Winter Showcase
Year 7, and other years, have presented and made a wonderful show that included many different talents. Everyone enjoyed the show with two funny comedians, Max and Raffi, who guided our show with
funny jokes. Year 7 sang the last four songs: O Christmas Tree, Jingle Bells, Have Yourself A Merry Little
Christmas and We Wish You A Merry Christmas. (Nicole Isupova)
Something that you really enjoyed about the Winter Showcase:
'I enjoyed everyone singing with a lot of energy.' (Peri Bayram)
'I enjoyed the teachers singing Jingle Bells.' (Yoojin Lee)
'I enjoyed the crowd showing support.' (Eren I'Anson)
'I enjoyed seeing amazing singing performances.' (Can Zehebi)
'I enjoyed being on stage with friends.' (Antonella Anda
'I enjoyed Polly playing the cello.' (Giulia Conca)
'The singing was like I was at a real concert.' (Malik Ekin)
'I liked how people co-operated and sang together.'(Alexander Terstiege)
'I enjoyed watching Mr. Howard's Magic Show.' (Soyong Kim)
'I really enjoyed being part of the semi-chorus.' (Enis Sharshari)
'I loved playing in front of an audience.' (Polly Thomas)
'I enjoyed Mr. Jeff's singing.' (In Kyo Jung)
'I really enjoyed Selin playing the piano and when Aina and Erin sang.' (Benedetta
Sesia)
'I really enjoyed wearing Christmassy clothes, as well as learning the words for each
carol.' Hanin Sharshari)
Lisa Mayer
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Zekeriyakoy Secondary — Year 8
Year 8 went on a Year 8 Arts (Visual Art, Music and Drama) trip
to the Miro Exhibition at the Sabanci Museum on Friday 23rd
January. Each class were looking at the artwork from a different
perspective: Year 8B were looking from a musical perspective,
using Miro's work as inspiration for original compositions and
graphic score.
“I liked the many colours in the exhibition. The paintings show
the mood of the artist.” ( Rishibh Prakash)
“I learnt that your paintings don't need to be so sophisticated to be an artist.” (Matthew Periam)
“It is really beautiful if you draw with the primary colours mixed with white and
black.” (Aral de Moor)
Lisa Mayer
********
The Visual Arts group looked at Miro's work with an eye to creating their own original
work in his style. It will be a mixed media project utilizing watercolors, printmaking, and
oil pastels.
Barbara Tanjala
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Zekeriyakoy Secondary — Recycling Project
Recycling initiatives with Sariyer Council
We recently welcomed to the school Mr. Oğuz Afacan, the Director of Sariyer Council’s Environmental
Protection Department, and staff from Biodizel for a presentation to Secondary students on recycling waste
cooking oil.
We heard that waste cooking oil is a major environmental pollutant, estimated to constitute 25% of all water
pollution worldwide. It has an adverse effect on life in rivers and lakes and also leads to the formation of the
infamous ‘fatbergs’ that regularly block sewers and drains in our towns and cities.
The council is committed to reducing these problems by encouraging greater rates of waste oil recycling and
has formed a partnership with Biodizel, a company that specialises in converting used cooking oil into biodiesel for use in cars and other vehicles.
The council wants to raise awareness of their environmental services amongst school students in the area and
chose our school to launch their campaign. All our students received an everlasting shopping bag filled with
information on recycling, containers for collecting used batteries and a fascinating environmentally-friendly
pen that can be composted after use to grow the basil seeds held in the pen’s clip.
Students and parents can bring waste cooking oil to school in sealed plastic bottles for collection or leave it at
numerous places throughout the borough, such as Muhktar’s offices, mosques and old people’s homes. If you
have more than five litres of oil to dispose of, the council will collect it from your home or place of work free
of charge (phone 444 1 722 or email [email protected]).
We are also working with the council to organise a clean up of the beach at Kilyos by both our students and
those from other local schools on Tuesday, 21 April, 2015. The council will provide transport and trucks for
collecting rubbish and we hope that it will make a lasting impression on our students about the need to care
for the environment.
Claudia Azizoğlu, Şükran Uzun and David Mayer
On behalf of the BISI Environmental Committee
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Zekeriyakoy Secondary — ISL Swimming
Our senior school swin team participated this year in the ISL tournament hosted by Uskudar American
Academy at the Gslatasaray pool in Uskudar.
Our team suffered from some late athlete drop outs but the remaining boys and girls had a fantastic experience with plenty of high class competitions.
Most successful swimmer from BISI was Deniz Atay winning 3 medals. Taking into consideration that this
was an open age tournament (up to 19y ears of age) our 12 to 13 year olds did very well indeed.
Christian Huegel
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Zekeriyakoy Secondary — IGCSE Drama Group
On 19 December 2014 Year 11 Drama group has presented to the whole
school their IGCSE coursework of monologues from ‘The Trojan Women’.
The stage revealed steps to Athena’s Temple in ancient Troy. The Greeks
slaughtered the Trojan women or carried them off as prizes. The men they’d
fought for ten years all lay dead, the city was burning, yet still widows, sisters and children had to be put to the sword. The women were spoils of war,
even Helen (Ela Kir), the flighty queen whose face had launched a thousand
deaths: the great beauty became the men’s most prized booty. A whole city,
a whole civilization was in flames, but Helen would go home with the husband she’d jilted. The war need not have happened.
Euripides shocked his audiences by portraying their great heroes as cruel and
cowardly. His ‘Trojan Women’ is one of the most powerful indictments of
war ever written. Brendon Kennelly (English version) gives the play a twentieth-century edge. The women are usually seen as passive victims at the
whimsical mercy of their male conquerors, but Kennelly draws from them a
strong, active, resolute and shrewd note. Through Kennelly’s words, the
Trojan women come to themselves: despite total humiliation, they will keep
their dignity, aware that they will be the moral and emotional victors in the
continuing war with the men. He said: ‘Almost fifty year ago, I heard the
women in the village where I grew up say of another woman “She is a Trojan”, meaning she had tremendous powers of endurance and survival, was
determined to overcome disappointment and distress, was dogged but never
insensitive, obstinate but never blackscowling, and seemed eternally capable
of renewing herself. And she did all this with a consciousness that seemed to
deepen both her suffering and her strength’. And so Kennelly draws upon
the spirit of those Trojan women, not just the country women of his childhood, but women throughout the world, women everywhere. Elahe Hossenizadeh (Women), Mare Blanken (Cassandra), Diana Anda (Andromache), Ela
Kir (Helen) and Sheida Kiran (Hecuba) have exceeded the audience’s expectations who were mesmerised by their performances.
The Year 11 Drama group have made me proud and I can only hope for
many more successful projects like this one, in their future years as IB Theatre students.
Ms Sophie Slav
Drama and IB Theatre teacher
British International School Istanbul
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Zekeriyakoy Secondary—Students vs Staff Football!
CROCKED TEACHERS EARN HONOURABLE FOOTBALL DRAW
By I.M Balls
The annual football game between the Staff and Senior Boys was played on the last day of
the Autumn term within the narrow confines of the Zekiriyakoy ping-pong pitch. In contrast
to the snow in which this fixture has been played before, a pristine sunny day saw the staff
team of semi-lame over-weights right and ready to put the disastrous thumping of the previous year to bed.
Over coached and under-achieving this season, the Senior Boys were keen on a soft and late
scalp, and an opportunity to put one over their classroom tormentors. The ever-involved international refereeing Director, Mr. Bradley, awarded the boys a dodgy early penalty when
Huegel the Hulk, showing admirable control of his base and brutal instincts, merely leaned
on a boy. Georgie Best made no mistake from the spot and the staff found themselves trailing
early doors, unable to string two passes together against the swarming boys.
Drawing deeply on immense reservoirs of resilience and guile, inspired by Magic Mclellan
and Huegel the Hulk in the midfield engine room, the staff rallied. Soon after half-time
Lightning Leaver picked up the run of Munificent Muller, delivered a Delap-throw to the
near post, and the ball was in the net off the head: 1-1.
Resurgent and growing in confidence the staff threatened another before the boys came back
with a vengeance. Only the combined rear-guard efforts of the staff, especially Swarthy Somers, Fire Fieraru and Mighty Mahon in goal kept the boys at bay. Cameo roles by Blackpool
Boardman and Ghostly Gunnell completed the comic staff cast that huffed and puffed to an
honourable draw.
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DIRECTORS OF SCHOOLS
Amanda Ilhan
+90 212 202 7027
Pre School & Primary School Deputy Director
[email protected]
Richard I’Anson
+90 212 257 5136
Pre School & Primary School Director
[email protected]
William Bradley
+090 212 202 7027
Director of Secondary and Principal of
Zekeriyakoy Campus
[email protected]
Tuba Guven
+90 212 286 7375
Director of Admissions
[email protected]
Helen Kiran
+90 212 202 7027
Head of PR/Communications
[email protected]
Find us on
www.bis.k12.tr
https://www.facebook.com/BISIstanbul
https://twitter.com/#!/BISistanbul
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