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What an amazing week we had! Artistic interventions during breaks and lunchtime, giving opportunity for everyone to enjoy and appreciate different musical genres, ensemble and dance performances and visual arts works. We were able to see children interacting with these video and audio interventions by copying dance moves, singing along, and showing themselves completely amazed with people drawing and painting.

As we approach the end of the academic year the Secondary team is busy organising the last week of term which is always a strange end in any international school i have worked in. The reports have been published with students receiving their end of year attitude to learning, attainment and comments whilst the tutor who has been mentoring each child for the year shares a comment for the year. So with the last of 3 reports published through iSams what should we do......?

The BCB Arts Department organised a very special week for everyone, the BCB Expressive Arts Week, which begins next Monday the 31st of May.

Dear Parents, Lots of information and news this week, please read on.

Can machines think? — Alan Turing, 1950. Less than a decade after breaking the Nazi encryption machine Enigma and helping the Allied Forces win World War II, the great mathematician Alan Turing changed history a second time with a simple question: "Can machines think?"

Dear Parents, This week has seen the final IBDP examination take place and we are absolutely delighted that we had the opportunity to complete this session. It was a long and hard decision for IB to decide who could carry out exams and who might need to go down the route of self- assessment. Brazil thankfully was allowed to complete examinations. If not, it may have proved more of a challenge for us as this method relies on previous years data from the school, something we currently do not have. There was also a risk too that the pandemic may have affected us but with all the precautions we have in place, we have successfully reached the end.

What’s in a name? Are names important? The inspiration for this piece has come from a variety of sources, firstly from a part of the ongoing teacher professional development program about teaching in English in multilingual classrooms and from the Nord Anglia University course I tutor concerning EAL in mainstream classrooms. Finally, from a brief conversation with the Admissions department, where I was told the story of a potential family who were going to register their daughter with an ‘English’ name, ‘Cinderella’. This reminded me of some of the names I was faced with in my earlier days in South Korea; Otto, Harry (Potter) and AceKing, as a few examples.

Dear Parents, Each month we hold a Parent Teacher Association (PTA) meeting and one of the continuing questions is about school development. This is something that was being discussed before my arrival, between much of the community and Nord Anglia, after the school become part of the Nord Anglia Education Group. Then came the pandemic and all businesses across the globe had to evaluate their position, schools were no exception to this. However, since my arrival there has been much work, developing various business cases and the paragraphs below explain in a little more detail the efforts we are taking for development.

Dear Parents, It is sometimes a bit tricky to find benefits of our current situation but every day I benefit from lessons that I would not normally see, and certainly not on such a regular basis.

One of the areas of exploration in IB Diploma for English is how literature fits into time and space. In other words, how a text may be interpreted and received by audiences across different time periods and cultures. We have already begun developing this kind of conceptual thinking at KS3 this year as we study Shakespeare in term 3.

What is the mindset of a mathematician? Is it someone who just follows rules? Or is it someone who has a mad sense of creativity like Mozart or Einstein? Alternatively, is it someone who has a deep sense of clarity and structure? Or is it someone who has a very fast brain? Is it someone who does extremely fast calculations or someone who takes their time with very deep understanding.

Dear Parents, Around the world last Friday, 23rd April, school’s celebrated World Book Day. This was no different at BCB where all Primary staff and children enjoyed a fantastic time together, celebrating the joy of reading.

Theodor W. Adorno, a renowned german philosopher, famously said: “To write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric. And this corrodes even the knowledge of why it has become impossible to write poetry today”. This passage can be found in Cultural Criticism and Society (1949), and it is much cited by all the cultural critics since published. After all, how can we keep doing art in such a difficult time? After facing and experiencing tragedies, what’s the meaning of the art?

As part of the STEAM space challenges in collaboration with MIT, our secondary students worked on the MOXIE challenge, presented by Dr. Jeff Hoffmann, professor of aeronautics at MIT. The students were challenged to design a filtering device that could produce clean oxygen on Mars. Our students have been highly engaged in this challenge and we have received fantastic projects from our pupils.

Dear Parents, 2021 marks the year of BCB’s first graduating students. This is a landmark moment for any school and especially for us as we are completing it during a pandemic. This has given us extra challenges but just further illustrates the qualities that an IB school, and IB students, have.

We're proud to share an update on the amazing 33 university offers BCB's first graduating class have received so far

Dear Parents, Nord Anglia is taking its commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) extremely seriously. In the past year it has updated its policy, built a steering committee and appointed voluntary EDI champions in all of our schools across the globe. The steering committee consist of Dr Leslie Williams, Chair of Nord Anglia Education’s Global Equality Programme and High School Director at Windermere Preparatory School; Jenny McWalter, Nord Anglia Education Assistant Director; Jerry Singer, Group Head of Leadership, Talent and Inclusion and also Andrew Fitzmaurice. This is truly important work as in the words of Dr Leslie, ‘It strives to make all community members seen and heard, respected and represented. There is an effort to embrace diversity and inclusion with a focus on anti-discrimination.’

In this ever changing world, now, more than ever, we feel close to other cultures and peoples, so it is paramount that we learn not only to respect others but also learn how to appreciate and cherish other people’s identity and ways of life.

Over 70% of our planet’s surface is covered by water, and the oceans hold over 95% of it. So why do we mistreat our water supplies given how necessary it is to support life on Earth?

The International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme emphasises student agency in their education and their progress through the DP. Student agency is emphasised in both the Learner Profile and the IB’s Approaches to Learning (ATL). The IB Learner Profile describes a broad range of human capacities and responsibilities that go beyond academic success. They also imply a commitment for learning to respect oneself, others and the wider world. The ATL illustrates the skills needed for students to develop to become successful life long learners. Taken together the qualities that are developed through studying the IB reflect the transformative potential of the curriculum to produce not only world class students but world class citizens.