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Dear Parents and Guardians, I hope you enjoyed your long weekend and the extra lie in on Monday morning. On Friday Loreto Villegas Maestro won 2 awards at the NADFAS young artist competition for her piece titled “Long Walk Home”. I would like to thank her family for attending the event at Espacio Joven in San Roque. Congratulations to Oliver Hoad, Arthur Caceres Bennett, Lelia Mordirzadeh and Maria Kostychenko, all of whom were nominated to represent the school. Their art is now on display in reception area, if you would like to view it.  Meanwhile our Under 14 girls football team was participating in the Mediterranean cup in Italy. The girls fought hard against some large schools and made the semi finals. Whilst they lost the semi final to Cairo, they won the third place playoffs! I would like to congratulate the girls and thank Kevin Dennis and Marre Nieman for their support, time and dedication. Thank-you to The Kindred Project for organizing the inspiring session led by Ven. Robina Courtin on Tuesday morning. Students and parents who attended found it both interesting and informative.  On Thursday our athletics team attended the yearly competition at Cartema. The students from M1 – D1 represented the school with great passion and enthusiasm, achieving an impressive 2nd place for the whole team. More details of individual performances will come next week. Congratulations to all the students, from P1- M3, involved in the music concert in the theatre on Thursday afternoon, and thanks as always to our many dedicated music teachers. I am delighted to announce that the main project of the school year – heating the pool has been completed! Staff will test the pool tonight! This means that from next week the students will be swimming in their PE lessons, a whole month earlier than previous years. The plan over the summer break is to complete the project by covering the pool so that by October we will have a fully heated indoor pool with a retractable roof.
Finally I sadly inform you that one of our beloved founder board members, Peter Templeton, brother of Mr. Paul Templeton passed away last weekend. Peter was a visionary, a dedicated artist and sportsman and a great supporter of the school and our mission. We will miss him deeply, but value the huge contributions he made to help create such a beautiful learning community. Paul and the family would appreciate being given time to grieve. We thank you in advance for allowing them space to come to terms with their loss. If you wish to write any memory of Peter or a message to Paul and the family, a “memories book” will be placed in the reception next week. Best wishes Jak Kearney
Whole School News Cultivating courageous compassion Inspiring teaching on Buddhism and Cultivating Courageous Compassion for M4 students, staff and parents led by Ven. Robina Courtin, world renown Buddhist nun. What an absolute treat to have her at school! Thank you, Robina for enthusiastically reminding us that one has the ability to change one’s mind and to never give up! Rice Day On Wednesday we will have a Rice Day for P3-D2 students. This fantastic student run initiative is a brilliant opportunity to raise awareness of the UN’s Sustainable Development goals, specifically Goal 2 Tackling Hunger. The Kindred Project will send the resulting money saved by the cantina to the NGO Help Refugees for their project of developing early childhood centres for the thousands of children still stuck in Greece. Warriors Race Having been inspired and motivated by Javier Sanchez, who runs the Friday Bike Club, nine SIS students ranging from P1 to M1, took part in the under 12s category of Tarifa’s ‘Warrior Race’. The event, which was held last Sunday, involves many different disciplines including running, climbing, and crawling under and over various (in some cases very muddy) obstacles. Well done to all who participated, but especially to Manolo who lead the SIS team to the finish line.
Mental Health Awareness Week
Dear Parents Next week, we will be recognising Mental Health Awareness Week with a number of activities organised by our Psychology Team exploring the theme: “It’s OKAY to say you’re not OKAY”. As part of this, we want to let our students know that they are not alone when they are not feeling OKAY. SIS staff are completing a confidential questionnaire to give students an idea of just how common it is to experience issues such as anxiety, depression, etc. We would also like to invite parents to complete the questionnaire. It is completely optional and 100% confidential and anonymous. If you would like to take part, please click on this LINK. Thank you for your collaboration!
Primary School News Fundamentals Dear Parents, We invite you to participate TOMORROW from 11:00 to 13:00 in a family workshop at Fundamentals to ‘Create your own “Urban Vegetable Garden”; given by two educators from “HUERTUM”, a movement whose main purpose is to develop agriculture and promote healthy eating in urban areas. The cost of the workshop is 30 euros per family with all materials included. You can find full information in the following link- This family activity lets you create and cultivate a vegetable garden together which you can then take home! Reserve your place on info@fundamentals.es
Message From Emma Butler PYP6 Exhibition
Next Wednesday P6 would like to invite all parents to their IB PYP exhibition. This will be held in the Timber building between 10.00 and 12.00. It would be lovely to see as many parents as possible coming to support this very special event and help celebrate all the students’ hard work.
Primary Student Led Conference Day Last Friday we had our annual IB PYP Student Led Conference Day. Despite the dreadful weather it was wonderful to see so many parents participating in this important event. During the day I had the pleasure of visiting all the classrooms and observing how confident our students are and how they were able to ‘teach’ and ‘explain’ to their parents what they are doing at school and where they are on their learning journey. Very impressed. Great to see a) what you’re learning b) how you’re learning, and c) how much you’ve learned I think it is a great way to work together as parents and children to understand the knowledge that our child has learned. I am impressed how much knowledge he has. This activity has a very good and positive effect. A very insightful day! Very impressed with the level of detail in the learning process and how creative it is! Enjoyed the interaction with our son in his learning zone! It is very interesting to interact with the kids in their environment. This helps us understand the work they do at school. A good opportunity also to talk with the teachers. It was very useful to see what our child is learning. You can see the development and progress clearly. And nice to do the activities together with her. Thank you. I was happy to see what the kids are studying. I am very impressed by the school’s approach. I like the way of it being student-led and how they have to think and explain things for themselves. I think this initiative is a great way to help us see where we can support our kids. It also gives the kids confidence which is great to see. A very valuable experience on how we can help support our child. I liked the interaction that came about through the child and parent working together. It is an excellent activity to become part of the community. I loved the leadership, the taught vision. Changing teacher and student roles gives insight with our kids. Family Fun Day Spring Fair  P1 Unit Based TripYesterday P1 visited the Okay bakery in La Linea as part of their Unit of Inquiry on food from the ground, and with a special emphasis on wheat. The staff at the bakery made every effort to ensure our students had the opportunity to experience first hand the many uses flour has in a bakery. They saw how bread and cakes are made and marveled at the machines that make the bakers’ job so much easier. Needless to say, once again the students behaved beautifully and were perfect SIS ambassadors!  EC1 Unit ‘Our World’ – now with ‘missing’ video link! Once again we had fantastic support from parents who came in and shared their culture and traditions with EC1, thank-you. The children develop their understanding of the concept of form, which involves describing what things are like, as they talk about the activities they have been involved in. Bringing the outside world into the classrooms so that the children explore through shared experiences supports the understanding of the connections between culture, food, music and celebrations and encourages them to value their differences. It was a fantastic unit for the children to be immersed in so many wonderful rich traditions.
P6 Exhibition Tips Video To prepare P6s for their Exhibition, and in response to demand from research carried out by the psychology team last year, a video has been created with useful tips for students to follow during their IB PYP Exhibition. Filmed by Psychology Assistant, Ravi Amruth, the video gives students pieces of advice so they work in a way that allows them to avoid undue stress, present their work to the best of their abilities, and develop their skills as effective learners. The psychology team would like to thank the M1 students and staff for their time in ensuring that previous Exhibition students could discuss their experiences. The video complements bi-weekly drop-ins run by Kelly Lewis-Cole and Ravi Amruth, designed to support P6 students in their work, in the run up to their final exhibition, on the 10th of May.
Bugsy Malone Congratulations to the cast and crew of Bugsy Malone and thank you so much to everyone who came to support the show. The total ticket sales amounted to 4.825€. This money will go directly towards helping fund Hogar Betania’s summer camp for 80 children from the local area.  Maths Challenge competitionThis year 30 students from M1 and M2 participated in the UK Junior Mathematical Challenge competition, which took place at school on Thursday the 27th of April. Well done to all participants and good luck for the results.
M2 Spanish Language Acquisition class debateThe best way to learn a language is by speaking it, and therefore last week in our Spanish class we had a debate connected with our unit ‘What will life be like in the future?’; this involves discussions of controversial issues related to this theme.  “Why study in Germany? “Last week I had the opportunity to spend a fascinating few days at Jacobs University in Bremen. Currently, most of our students study in the UK, Spain, the Netherlands or the USA but this is changing, with an increasing number of students making multi country applications. There has been a significant swing away from the UK in the past 3 years as many of our students take the opportunity to study in the Netherlands, but in the English language. German universities are starting to get in on this act, with a number of courses now taught in English, often focusing on engineering routes. Jacobs University in the city of Bremen teaches exclusively in English, but you must study German alongside your degree programme. The teaching classes were really interesting, and I sat through both Engineering and Computer Science classes, and was shown around the modern Bio Medical labs. It is an all campus site, and all undergraduates are in halls of residence. Once you have completed your degree in Germany, if you are a non-EU citizen you are allowed to stay to search for work for up to 18 months. Obviously this is not an issue for EU students. The exclusive “blue card” is available for those who can earn in the 45k€ range in engineering, but as long as you are employed you are guaranteed residency. See http://www.jacobs-university.de/ You can find more information on my site U&C Website” or on my FB postings” Jason Mungles  Community ASSIST  Assist is a free service designed to help families from the school community to relocate, find useful contacts and benefit from discounts or privileges with local businesses and partners. Assist acts as a fundraiser for The Kindred Project. On the back of your SIS access card, you will find your ASSIST membership card that will allow you to enjoy many exclusive benefits. New Offer!! Flash your ASSIST card!! – TROCADERO, restaurant and beach bar is offering a 5% discount on the restaurant bill to all members of ASSIST. More offers or privileges accessible at http://assist.guide/#offersFundamentals – Summer Fun Kids
The hot summer months are nearly here and what better place for your little ones to enjoy themselves than at the Fundamentals Summer Camp! Our qualified and caring team offer fun, creative and educational activities each day while also providing a safe and exciting space for children to make new friends.  This year’s camp for children from 2 to 6 years old runs for 4 weeks from 9am to 2pm Monday to Friday, starting on the 3rd July and finishing on the 28th July. For more information, please contact info@fundamentals.esAdvertise your business in the SIS 2017 Year Book As we enter the final term of the academic year we have the pleasure of putting together the 2017 Year Book. Our Year Book celebrates some of the best moments, trips and activities for each year group as well as focusing on the D2 graduating class. Parents, we would like to offer you the opportunity to advertise in this much-anticipated keepsake. For further information please contact marketing@sis.gl  Indie NightIndie Night will be held in the theatre on Friday May 19th. The idea is similar to last year’s Soul Night, but with Indie style music. We will be performing as a full band from 7:00 to 9:00 pm, with a short 15-minute interval. We will be performing a set of quality music, with the intention of raising money for the Tiwizi Association, The Kindred Project’s partner in Asni. Many of us have just been there personally, and it means a lot to be able to make a difference. Tickets cost will be 5 euros.  Sotosol Walk Save the date! More information next week.  |
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