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BRITANNICA INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL Friday 23th, November 2018
NEWSLETTER
Upcoming Events
Number 12
October
14th December
Reports out
19th December
Brilliant Britannica
20th December
Last Day of term
7th January
Term 2 Starts 8:20
Dear Parents
Welcome to this week’s Newsletter! The school term continues to fly by at Britannica. It seems only a short time
since the summer holidays and yet the Christmas season appears to be upon us, already, with the Christmas
markets operational and the television adverts full of ideas for presents. We have even had the first sprinkling
of snow!
It is a busy time for all teachers as report writing season has arrived and preparations have also begun for a
number of exciting Christmas events and assemblies.
Request for Work Experience Placements:
In order to provide Britannica’s senior students with an opportunity to explore career pathways before their
university applications, we would like to ask parents to support us in offering work placements. We have a di-
verse community of parents and we are hoping that, if we work together, we can provide our older students
with exceptionally unique experiences.
If you are able to offer a placement of 3-5 days in your work place, preferably between 1st
-28th
June 2019,
please email Mr. Shaun O’Keeffe [s.okeeffe@britannicaschool.hu] and Mr. AndorSpisak
[a.spisak@britannicaschool.hu] with your details. Please include the business name, location [this does not
necessarily need to be in Budapest] and how many placements you may be able to offer. Please see the table
below for some of
the industries stu-
dents here at Bri-
tannica are inter-
ested in gaining
experiencing in.
Absence requests
I am extremely proud of our attendance figures this year but by nature, I still want us to do better! As we ap-
proach holiday season, a reminder of the school’s approach to absence requests. Firstly, we would encourage
you, whenever possible to not take your child out of school during term time. I hate to repeat myself but the
link between attendance and attainment is well proven. If there are exceptional circumstances, please request
permission at least two weeks in advance. This helps the students prepare before their absence and gives staff
time to support them with this process should approval be given. Please note that approval and authorisation is
not automatic. This is particularly so in cases where students have several previous absences and their current
attendance stands below our 95% target.
Wishing you all a good weekend
Kind regards
Neil McGarry
Principal
Business, consulting and management Creative arts and design
Accountancy, banking and finance Engineering and manufacturing
Charity and voluntary work Environment and agriculture
Hospitality, events and management Health care, social care and education
Law and architecture Information technology and computing
Sport and leisure Marketing, advertising and public relations
Media and the internet Public services, administration and HR
Transport and logistics Science and pharmaceuticals
Secondary News
Welcome to secondary news, well it seems to be
getting colder, darker and wetter! I have told to
expect it to be very cold over the coming months,
certainly a significant change from last year in Abu
Dhabi!
While I’m mentioning weather, may I just remind
again about sending your children to school with the
correct uniform, particularly keeping an eye out for logos on jumpers and shoes, children get enough
advertsing to them outside school, it would be nice to not expose them to it in school. Thank you to the
vast majority of parents who are vigilant with this.
While I’m mentioning uniform, I’d like to also mention punctuality, again the vast majority of children are in school ready for an 8:20
start, which is great! However, I stand at the front gate most mornings and there seems to be a core of children who are almost
always late which causes extra work for tutors and means the children have a very rushed start to the day. It seems to be unfair to
sanction the children when it is parents dropping them off at this time, so please, please try and help them get into school before
8:20, my colleagues and I would be very grateful.
We had a very useful meeting this week with the secondary parents representatives, it was an opportunity for my SPG colleagues to
share with them some of our ideas for changes coming over the next the few months and for next academic year. As this is mainly
about planning for the future and ideas that are still forming, this remains confidential until the plans are fixed but parent feedback
is always very helpful for us. We will meet again next term and if you’d like to be part of our consultations, please offer your
services as a class representative to the PSA, I know they’d welcome you.
Have a great weekend!
Concerns and Queries
KS3 Coordinator – Years 7-9 Laura Peters l.peters@britannicaschool.hu
KS4 Coordinator – Years 10 & 11 Shaun O’Keefe s.okeefe@britannicaschool.hu
KS5 Coordinator – Years 12 & 13 Andor Spisak a.spisak @britannicaschool.hu
Please continue to contact your child’s form teacher in the first instance. You can find all email addresses under the teacher’s
picture on the school website:
http://www.britannicaschool.hu/Secondary-Staff
I am happy to meet with you if you have any major concerns, or even if you’d just like a chat about school in general! My email
address is g.barker@britannicaschool.hu
Next Week will be
Week A
Thank you
Greg BarkerHead of Secondary
14th December Reports out
19th December Brilliant Britannica
20th December Last day of term—2:30
finish
7th January 2019 Term 2 starts 8:20
Some Important Dates
Primary News
It’s been a busy week in Primary with the house swimming competition, filming for our Orbital
Winter song and Class Representative meeting.There was also lots of time for lovely learning in our
classes too.
Class News
Tamar have been exploring right angles, finding them around the classroom and looking for objects
which have angles which are greater than or less than a right angle. Our right angle monsters were
very hungry... nom!
Year Stour children are painting with their partner the planets of the solar system in a topic- art
lesson.
There has been some 3D shape exploring in Year 1, including spaghetti and playdough square based
pyramids!
Year 2 Medway have been planning their own weather reports. Watch out for photos of our
presentations next week!
Year 2 Medway created some pictures of the Northern Lights using chalk pastels
Year 5 Thames have been designing and making bridges to test their strength in Science this week. 4
out of 5 of our designs were able to hold 1kg!
In Drama Club, the children were playing with shadows and they animated some lovely animals.
Orbital Winter Song
This week in assembly, the whole of Primary sang ‘Let it Snow’ in Hungarian as part of our joint Orbital venture to create one song from many schools,
celebrating the diverse languages and cultures within our group.
Once the movie and all its parts are collated, we will share with our community via Facebook.
Many thanks to the music teachers, Katalin Balogh and Marie Haigh-McGarry for their support in preparing the children for the filming this week!
Important Dates
28th
November
Maths & Calculations
Parent Workshop
28th
November
Year 1 Trip to
Tropicarium
29th
November
Year 6 Zoo Trip
5th
December
Reading Parent
workshop
6th
December
Hungarian Poetry
compeition
12th
December
Key Stage 1 Nativity
14th
December
Reports out
19th
December
Brilliant Britannica
7th
January First Day of Spring
Term
Music Assembly Next Week
Staying on the theme of music, next week will be our music assembly which is always
popular with children, parents and teachers alike. All are welcome to come and sing
along with our children.
Class Representative Meeting
We held our first Class Representative meeting this week where we discussed a
variety of issues, including future plans for communicating key documents and
support for home learning.
Please ask your Class Rep for more details.
Maths Parent Workshop 28th
November
Following on from the successful Phonics Workshop last week, Mrs Brandon will be
leading a Mental Mathematics and Calculations Workshop on Wednesday 28th
November in the auditorium immediately after
drop off.
Mrs Brandon will be sharing some useful insights into how Maths is taught at Britannica, and will also give some top tips for how
to help at home.
If you would like to attend, please see the link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/G2S8WCM
Assembly
This week’s assemblywas Year 5Thames’s class assembly on the theme of Magic. We also did some one-minute meditation with
Miss Lawson as a whole school.
Many congratulations to all of our Stars of the Week and children who appeared in the merit book. Check out the Britannica
Facebook page for photos of assembly.
Star of the Week
Concerns and Queries
This is a reminder to parents that if you have any concerns or worries, pleasecontact your child’s teacher. You can find all email
addresses under the teacher’s picture on the school website: http://www.britannicaschool.hu/Primary-Staff
The Key Stage Coordinators can also help: h.corrighan@britannicaschool.hu, J.bilski@britannicaschool.hu,
n.gorecka@britannicaschool.hu and of course, I would be happy to help too at m.moreton@britannicaschool.hu.
I hope you all have a wonderful weekend with your families.
Marie Moreton
Head of Primary
1 Axe Kiki 5 Teme Phaedra
1 Avon Bendeguz 5 Thames 5 Thames
2 Medway Nidal 6 Trent Konrad
2 Mersey Isabel 6 Tyne Bartu
3 Tamar Lena PE Jake 2 Mersey
3 Stour Niccolo Hungarian Judit 3 Stour
4 Tees Annabell Drama Karolina 4 Taw
4 Taw Rory Art Sena 6 Trent
PSA Newsletter
Dear Britannica Parents,
A Big Thank You to all who attended both Mrs. Moreton's Primary and Mr. Barker's Secondary Class Rep meetings on Wednesday
morning. Productive discussions were held with both Primary and Secondary Class Reps. Again, thank you!
Speaking of Class Reps--a Big Thank You to Beata Jirkovszky for volunteering to be Y7B's Class Rep, and becoming an active member
of PSA.
We are still looking for parents to be class reps for Y6 Trent and Secondary classes. Remember, you can share the responsibilities if
you feel you can't do it by yourself. Co-class reps are certainly welcomed. Please don't let your children down and volunteer for this
important role.
The PSA Executive Committee held their meeting on the morning of 15 Nov. Some of the issues discussed included collection of
funds by Class Reps, Brilliant Britannica, swimming area cleanliness, school communication, and a Primary psychologist, to name a
few. Please contact Szilvia Nemeth or Izabella Iszlai for a copy of the meeting minutes. The committee will meet again in early Janu-
ary, 2019.
Brilliant Britannica (BB) will soon be upon us (19 Dec). Stay tuned for school announcements on timings and event activities. Please
mark your calendars and come support our school as the children raise funds to support a local charity.
LOST & FOUND - The lost and found boxes are still overflowing. They are located at the top of the steps on the right hand side to-
wards Mr. McGarry's office, by the gym, and swimming area. If your child is missing a uniform, shoes, jackets, coats, water bottles,
gym clothes, class materials, laptop, books, hats, etc. they might be there. There are many large boxes that are overflowing with
children's school items. Please take a few moments and see if any of your children's items are in the boxes. It would be greatly ap-
preciated.
We will tentatively schedule a Parent Coffee Morning for 6 Dec, after drop off, in the cafeteria. The date will be confirmed in next
week's Newsletter.
Until next week…
Respectfully,
Ray Rabatin, Barbara Belyo, Izabella Iszlai, Szilvia Nemeth, Maria Molina Sierra, Anita Ajan
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