Baku-Oxford School Spring Newsletter 2017-18

September 17 , 2018

BOS NEWSLETTER SPRING 2018

Dear School Community,

I hope you all had an enjoyable and restful Novruz holiday! Welcome back.

Following on from the previous newsletter, I am pleased to inform you that we have received confirmation from The New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) that we are now fully accredited. We are now the only school in Azerbaijan with both CIS and NEASC accreditations. Along with the introduction of The International Early Years Curriculum (IEYC) this year, and with the introduction of the International Primary Curriculum (IPC) in grades 1 and 2 next year, I feel that we have successfully placed ourselves as ‘the International School of Choice’.

In the conclusion of their report, the Visiting Team offered a number of commendations for the progress that Baku-Oxford School has made in order to meet the standards for accreditation by NEASC. Of particular note are:

• the provision of a wide variety of professional development opportunities for faculty;

• the excellent purpose-built physical education facilities;

• the exemplary language provision which offers students opportunities to study several languages;

• the school’s ongoing commitment to health, safety, and well-being; and

• the students’ dedication, passion, and active engagement in promoting environmental awareness in the school community.

Related to the commendation about the school’s commitment to Health, safety and well-being, parents might like to reflect on the recent fire evacuation of the building that happened on the Thursday before the Novruz holiday. During this time a minority of parents refused to follow instructions, delaying the head count and thereby holding up the re-entry into the building. Taking into account recent events in Azerbaijan and Russia those parents concerned should now understand why we do what we do as international best practice. Some parents will be contacted individually about what happened on this day and a range of sanctions will be implemented.

Apologies for ending the newsletter on a negative but important note.

Alexander Simester

Head of School

Early-Years Foundation Stage

Welcome back after the Novruz break, we hope you enjoyed time celebrating the occasion with family and friends. Early Years students have been busy studying our exciting IEYC units. Nursery acted as dinosaur detectives and learned about different types of weather. Foundation 1 also learned about the weather while Foundation 2 read a series of famous stories to develop a love of reading. Our new topics commenced this week: Nursery: My Toy Shop Foundation 1: Dinosaur Detectives Foundation 2: Brilliant Bug Ball 

Due to the virus that swept across the city in January, we had many students absent for extended periods. Every morning our school doctors come to check the children are well. If your child does take time off due to illness, please make sure you check the weekly newsletters and work at home on the concepts taught that week so there are no gaps in learning. 

There are still a handful of children that are arriving late each day, causing disruption to the rest of the class. Please ensure your children are in their class before the 9 o’clock bell when lessons begin. The Novruz concert was the highlight of Baku-Oxford School’s spring celebrations. Over 100 children performed on stage on the 16th March and I’m sure you will all agree that they did a wonderful job. A huge thank you to Seva, the tailor, who made our super costumes for the performance, the children looked spectacular.

Ms Clare Ranns

Head of Early Years Foundation Stage

Primary School News

On behalf of all the Primary Staff at Baku-Oxford School, we hope that you had a happy and safe Novruz holiday. It is always a busy time in school and, in addition to the wonderful Novruz celebrations that took place before the break, several exciting developments were put in place that have added to the learning experience that our families benefit from. 

Primary students have been benefitting from the new swimming pool and, as our experience in using it grows, the current swimming programme will be extended so that ultimately all children will have the opportunity to learn to swim and acquire water confidence during the academic year. Many parents have been using our new Twitter and Facebook feeds and the feedback we have received has been overwhelmingly positive, with families enjoying the regular photos and videos of their child’s learning life.

Baku-Oxford Students have been demonstrating their excellence in out of school events as well, including a Science Olympiad where pupils won more than fifty percent of the available awards. In sport, our Primary Team came third in the ‘Funny Starts’ tournament hosted at Baku Modern School. It is very pleasing that our continued improvements as a school are beginning to bring success externally and we are all very proud of children who represent Baku Oxford and role model our values. In the next few months, there will still be a lot of learning taking place and it is very important that students keep up their standards right up until the end of June.

Progress Reports will be issued several weeks after the holidays and we encourage parents to read these carefully and meet with teachers who are always happy to give advice in how best to help support your child’s learning. As always, families play a key role in ensuring students achieve their potential, so please continue to ensure that your child is punctual, properly dressed and kitted out, as well as well rested and nourished, at the start of each school day. Thank you for your continued support.

Graham Tait

Head of Primary School

Secondary School News

World Scholar’s Cup Baku Round

The World Scholar’s Cup is an international competition that motivates students to discover new strengths and inspires future scholars and leaders. It is held in more than 100 countries around the world and the winners of the regional rounds qualify for the Global rounds where they can compete with their peers from around the world. The Baku round was held for the first time on January 24-25 and 5 BOS teams participated in the regional round. The students took part in four events: Scholar’s Bowl, Collaborative Writing, Scholar's Challenge and Team Debate. We are proud to announce that all five teams have the chance to participate in the Global round that is going to be held in Kuala Lumpur in June, 2018. 

Novruz celebration, Carpet Museum field trip, Azeri week

It has become a tradition to celebrate Azerbaijani week on the eve of Novruz. Various activities and field trips held throughout the week helped to enhance students’ knowledge of Azerbaijani literature and experience Azerbaijani culture and cuisine. One of the most exciting events of the week was the Poetry Contest, where students impressed their teachers and peers with their favorite poems in Azerbaijani. The field trip to the Carpet Museum organised for grade 6 gave students a chance to explore the rich history of carpet weaving, which is considered to be the integral part of Azeri culture. Grade 9-10 students demonstrated their knowledge of Azeri language in the performance “I speak Azerbaijani”

The festive spirit of the holiday was embraced by the BOS community at Novruz celebrations on March 16th. Students dressed in graceful national costumes and staged lively dance and music performances in the school yard. All the guests and parents were invited to taste national sweets and dried fruits served in beautifully decorated ‘khoncas’. A dushbara masterclass given by teachers aroused great interest not only among students but parents.

Breast Cancer Awareness Presentation

For several months, we have been working on a Breast Cancer project aiming to raise awareness among Azerbaijani women. We conducted interviews in the city centre and gathered information from the National Oncology Center. The steps we made seemed quite successful, as we were able to gather parents and students in order to make a presentation about our long and productive work. We provided women with information on how to prevent the illness and do regular check-ups. Our presentation was to encourage women to love and care about themselves.

End of semester awards

Throughout the first semester Secondary school students have made a lot of contributions to our school life, gained new knowledge and made significant improvements in different subject areas. The long awaited end of semester awards ceremony took place on February 23rd. Students who displayed outstanding hardworking attitudes from grade 6 to grade 11 were nominated for different awards. These included-Leadership award for continuous contributions and positive impact on school life, Most Improved and Best in Awards for growth in specific subjects, The Oxford Five Award for displaying punctuality and attendance and other certificates for sporting achievements and work within the community.

Science Week at BOS

The Science Exhibition took place during the second week of February. All grade level students starting from Grade 5, including Alevel participated in the event. The purpose of Science Exhibition was collaboration between students of different ages, sharing scientific ideas, working in teams and also using knowledge in practice. Students provided visitors with clear information and a variety of experiments. There were different presentations and practice experiments starting from honey production, evolution of the car lights, components of lipstick and life-cycle of butterflies.

Jamila Chiragzade

Head of Secondary School