Baku-Oxford School Spring Newsletter 2018-19
May 28 , 2019
Baku-Oxford School Spring Newsletter2018 – 2019 Academic Year |
Dear School community,
Welcome back to the school after the Novruz break. I hope you all had an enjoyable and relaxing time. We now enter the final 3 months of school and it is important that students maintain their focus and concentration, particularly for those taking international and state examinations.
As a faculty we will be setting high expectations for students, both academically and disciplinary, and expect the support of parents in doing so. Every year towards the end of June we get families withdrawing students for unapproved extended breaks, which is detrimental to student learning. Unless there are exceptional circumstances all students (with the exception of grades 10 and 11) should be present until the last student day of the school year, which is Friday 21st of June. Please note that students who do not meet our minimum academic or attendance requirements (please refer to your parental handbook) may not be allowed to move into the next grade.
To support students who need extra help in meeting our expectations, we will be providing additional classes in English and Mathematics after school from grade 1 upwards and integral to the normal day in Early Years. Those students who require these lessons will be contacted shortly and individual plans put in place. From grades 3 and above, the results of the ISA assessments will be used to identify those areas that need further development.
In the upcoming weeks we have some important events and meeting to note in your diaries as below:
Friday 12th-Sunday 14th April: Baku International Model United Nations
Monday April 22nd: Earth Day Celebration
Monday 23rd-Thursday 25th: Library and Book Week
Thursday 25th April: Spring Progress Report (please note that this is not a full written report)
Monday 29th April: Parent-Teacher Meeting
Please make sure to check your e-mails and SMS as this is how we communicate important information with the community and through our website, twitter and facebook. We have also attached next years. calendar again for your information and forward planning.
Thank you for your continued support!
Alexander Simester
Head of School
Early Years Foundation Stage
Welcome back after the Novruz holiday, we hope you enjoyed a pleasant break with family and wish you happiness and good health this season.
Early Years have been busy since our last newsletter, the learning never stops!
Nursery were ‘Dinosaur Detectives’ and learned about ‘Weather Wonders’, Foundation One have been creative through our unit ‘Imagine That’ and building through ‘Loose Parts’. Foundation 2 enjoyed a range of stories and fairytales in their unit ‘Once Upon a Time. We all enjoyed the class performances by our F2 students of The Three Billy Goats Gruff (Elephants class), The Enormous Turnip (Pandas class) and We’re Going on a Bear Hunt (Giraffe’s class) during our weekly assemblies.
Novruz was celebrated on the 15th of March with our annual performance of traditional Azerbaijani dances and Spring related songs. We would like to express our gratitude to all the parents who came to watch the children perform so beautifully and to thank all the staff involved who help to make it a success.
I came across an article recently titled ‘Here’s what a four-year old should know’. There was a lot of interesting information from the author, much of it familiar to us as educators, but what came across to me most was that parents need to know the single biggest predictor of high academic achievement is reading to children and Mum or Dad (or both) taking the time every day or night to sit and read them wonderful books. Please believe from our experience that this is the most important thing you can do to aid your child’s success.
My favourite quote from the article was that children should know ‘that they're wonderful, brilliant, creative, compassionate and marvelous.’ Which is what we really truly believe about our students at Baku-Oxford School. If you would like to read more similar articles about a range of similar parenting threads, please see the website: www.kidspot.com.au
As we move into the warmer months, Early Years students will be able to take full advantage of our outdoor learning space. They will engage in sand and water play and build on their gross motor skills and team work through our large outdoor equipment. Please send in a Sun hat/ cap so that the children enjoy the outdoors safe from the Sun.
We look forwards to your continued support at the end of this very busy year.
Ms Clare Ranns
Head of Early Years Foundation Stage
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Primary School News |
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Fun Sports
On March 14th grade 4 and 5 students took part in an indoor Fun Sports activity. We’d like to thank the PE department and all the homeroom teachers who helped and contributed to make this event a great experience for our students.
Exhibition
An exhibition by grade 4 students held on March 1st helped pour out all the creativity and talent of our Primary students. Fourth graders undertook research on history, culture, religion, geography and cuisine of different countries and transferred the knowledge they gained to their creative posters. The most rewarding part of this assignment was the exhibition day when students proudly presented their vivid and informative projects to their teachers, parents and peers.
Musical Palette
A joint project between the BOS Enrichment department and the Musical school of Bul-bul was a great success. Students who took part in the field trip to the Art Museum last semester continued their research about the history of national musical instruments of Azerbaijan. The presentation made by the Enrichment students gave information about tar, khaman and ghaval which is called trio in Azerbaijani Mugham. Talented students of the Bulbul school fascinated the audience with their beautiful performances.
“Jobs”- guest speakers
Inviting parents as guest speakers helps to enhance parent-school collaboration and gives students the opportunity to see their parents in the role of the teacher. An interactive and interesting presentation about their professions was held by parents from each grade 1 class on February 15th. We’d like to thank the parents who volunteered to take part in this programme and hope that more joint projects will be carried out in the future.
Khojaly
Every year BOS students commemorate the victims of the Khojaly massacre which is one of the tragic events in Azerbaijan history. Grade 5 students visited the monument erected in memory of the victims and laid the flowers on the memorial “Mother’s cry”.
Aygun Nasirova
Head of Primary School
Secondary School News
Dear All,
The first half of the second semester was extremely busy for Secondary students. It has been a term of creativity, learning and growth. This newsletter will provide you with a glimpse of the spirit that makes our school such a vibrant place to be.
Celebrating Modern Languages week
In order to explore language learning, raise awareness of the benefits of studying languages and highlight the linguistic diversity in the BOS community we celebrated the Modern Languages week on February 10-14th. Throughout the week Secondary school students participated in Russian, German, Spanish and French activities that involved presentations, intercultural classes, and food tasting.
Highlights of the Humanities program
As a part of the Humanities program, 7th graders were involved in the organization of a multicultural event, where diverse religions and nationalities were represented. Participants shared their national food, information regarding each religion and presented their projects to teachers and other students. Prior to the event students participated in an exciting field trip to religious sites in Baku city, where they had a chance to gather information, find out the answers to their questions regarding particular beliefs, rituals and traditions, and observe religious ceremonies.
Novruz celebration
On March 15th BOS celebrated Novruz which reflects the rich cultural heritage and the traditions of Azerbaijan passed down through the centuries. The Azerbaijani language and literature department prepared an incredible performance “Novruz Adventures of Fatima” with students of grade 6. National dances and songs were performed by different grade levels adding a festive spirit to the day. We would like to thank all the parents who prepared various types of traditional Novruz khonchas and supported us during the event.
MUNDP 2019
Baku-Oxford School students recently participated in the MUNDP 2019 conference at the Koc School in Istanbul, Turkey, along with 750 delegates from different countries. This year’s conference focus was Africa - a region that has experienced growth in the past decade, although still immensely struggling with persistent poverty rates. The mainstream problems of the tremendously culturally diverse African continent were discussed and solutions were generated to these fundamental issues.
Drug Prevention Assembly
A ‘Drug Use Prevention’ presentation was delivered by BOS Secondary students as a part of the Community Service programme, aiming to raise awareness of the issue and provide relevant information to the students. This topic is being discussed with Secondary students throughout the academic year and is also a part of BOS PSHE Curriculum.
THIMUN
A group of High School students represented Baku-Oxford School at the THIMUN (The Hague International Model United Nations) conference from January 27th, 2019, to February 1st, 2019. This conference is a five-day simulation of the United Nations for secondary school students. Over 3200 students and teachers from around 200 schools located in more than 100 different countries, took part in this event.
World Scholars Cup
Baku-Oxford School students experienced two days of exciting, enriching and fun competition in the regional round of the World Scholars Cup. They achieved excellent outcomes and have now qualified for the Global Round of 2019. We congratulate all the students on their incredible results and hard work and wish them all the success in the future!
Enrichment students developing diplomacy skills
The main topic of Semester II in Enrichment was “Diplomacy as the art of negotiation”. The aim of the project was to raise awareness among learners of global issues around the world and at the same time, offer opportunities to explore possible solutions through research and cooperation.
Throughout this course, pupils learned how to decide which diplomacy tools work best in different situations. In addition, students could develop an understanding of negotiation, sanctions, and other elements used in diplomatic relationships. As a subtopic of the main motion, Enrichment covered a topic of “Genocide is the end of humanity” There was a study case of the Khojaly tragedy and the role of diplomacy in negotiations related to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.
As a practical approach to this project, Enrichment students were taken to the main workplace of diplomats, which is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and had a chance to see how diplomats work in real life.
The trip went really well. Students got to visit the museum dedicated to the history of diplomacy in Azerbaijan, where they saw many interesting photo captions and document samples from the very beginning of Azerbaijani diplomacy up to present days.
During the second part of the visit, our students received a chance to hold a conference with Leyla Khanum – the spokesperson of the MFA. Pupils asked their questions concerning the topic of “Diplomacy as the Art of Negotiations” and its subtopic “Genocide is the end of humanity”.
Leyla khanum had stated that it was the first time they had school pupils visiting MFA premises, nevertheless our pupils managed to impress the press secretary by asking challenging questions!
Jamila Chiragzade
Head of Secondary School