Dear Parents,

Welcome to a happy and purposeful new school year. I hope you are all well rested after an enjoyable summer. Below you will find information for the new school year and an outline of our curriculum plans for the term.

First some organizational points:

Mrs. Hewerdine: Mrs. Julia Hewerdine, who has been the Headteacher at Sancton Wood and now Holme Court School, will be teaching Caribbean Class on Friday’s. She has a wealth of experience and her other hat at CIPS is that of special needs advisor. I look forward to working closely with her.

Miss Grass: Miss Grass is our teaching assistant, who we warmly welcome.

Reading:
Please ensure that your child is equipped with a book bag to bring to school daily. These will shortly be available from Mrs. Rigby in the office if you do not have one already.
The children and I will be discussing the importance of daily reading, which I know you will endorse and support. Please read with your child for 10 minutes each day. Setting a regular time to make it part of your child’s daily routine can ensure a positive experience.

Snacks:
Please send a healthy snack for your child’s mid morning break. I encourage predominantly fruit, carrot and cucumber sticks or the like. If you feel your child needs more a cereal bar, rice cakes or pieces of cheese are appropriate. Please avoid biscuits, crisps and fizzy drinks.

Please be sure to send a water bottle refilled daily.

Morning Routine:
The school day begins at 8.50am when the children can come into the classroom and change their reading book if they have finished the previous one. They are at and age now where they can be asked to do this independently. Then they will be ready to read the settling activity on the whiteboard, which encourages a calm and purposeful start to the day. These activities will support your child’s learning. As the children are ready, please say goodbye outside the classroom, and allow their independence to grow by letting come in by themselves. Of course if you need to speak to me I am available between 8.50 and 9.00am.
Just a reminder that prior to 8.50 children should go directly to breakfast club in the hall and register is taken promptly at 9.00am.

Homework: Your children will receive homework every Tuesday from Tuesday 30th September. This will include spellings and one other numeracy or literacy task. Completed homework should be returned to school by the following Monday.

P.E. Caribbean Class will have P.E. on Monday’s and Friday’s and swimming on Tuesday afternoons. On Monday please send the children to school in their kits and tracksuits. On Tuesday please bring swimming things and on Fridays please bring P.E. kits to change into at school. There is a big pink ‘tub’ in the entrance area where kits should be stored.

V.I.P.Talks:  Last year one of the children’s favourite sessions was V.I.P. talks. We will continue these popular events from Friday 26th September. The children are asked to prepare a talk about a subject of particular interest to them. This could be a hobby, a pet, a holiday or day out or a discovery from the natural world… just about anything infact! The children will present their talk to the class and take questions from the audience. It would help if the children have had an opportunity to practice their talk to adults at home. They may find it useful to bring relevant resources; (photographs, pamphlets, pets, a piece of artwork etc.) and to have prompt cards to give their talk structure. You are most welcome to come and listen on your child’s presentation day. We will let you know a week ahead of time when it is your child’s turn.

Toys: Please do not allow your child to bring toys to school. Scooters at this time are for Junior Children only. Thank you for your understanding in this.

Please do not hesitate to contact me with any queries or concerns, briefly in the morning, or by Email through Dr. Sturdy. At other times appointments can be made.

We look forward to a happy and settled first term in Year 2 and thank you for your support in helping the children to make a positive start to the new school year.

Best Wishes

Claire Willis.

Dear Parents,

It has been so lovely to see all our children returning to school, and with a smile on their faces! We are delighted to welcome many new faces and thrilled to see how quickly everyone is settling in. From our very modest beginnings two years ago, where we opened at Brookside, in the centre of Cambridge, with 25 pupils, the school is now almost completely full. We had not anticipated reaching capacity for at least five years, and, while it has been extremely hard work, it has also been an absolute pleasure. Some of our ‘original’ children reminisce fondly of our small beginnings but enjoy having a wider circle of friends to be with. We strive to ensure that our high level of knowledge and care for all of our pupils is not diminished in any way and remain firmly committed to keeping our class sizes small, with a very high staff: pupil ratio.

In our determination to offer the most personalised, exciting and effective education to our pupils, we look closely at the curriculum offered, the environment we teach in and the demands we make on our pupils. We have now worked with the IPC (International Primary Curriculum) for several terms and are very pleased with its relevance and accessiblity to children. Class teachers will shortly be writing to let you know what Topic is being followed this term. We continue to teach our Maths and English programmes broadly in line with that taught in the rest of the UK, but being an independent school, we do not need to follow these as rigidly as other schools. This flexibility allows us to focus on specific target areas for each child while ensuring all areas of the curriculum are fully covered.

We are proud to offer children the opportunity to learn a wide range of languages. French and Spanish are taught throughout the school, and we are happy to arrange for children to study another language by arrangement. We have a small number of pupils currently learning Japanese, Chinese and Arabic. With our close connections with the University, we can arrange for other languages to be taught to a high standard. We are very impressed with our new intake of multi-lingual children who have just joined the school and plan to work closely with them at keeping these languages at a good level.

You may remember that at the end of last term I outlined two of my aims for this school year: to improve the music and sports provision in school and to aim to achieve excellence in both subjects.

We are delighted to announce the formation of a Senior Band which takes place on Wednesdays and the continuation of Orchestra on Tuesday lunchtimes. We have also introduced a Choir for pupils from Adriatic up to Tyrrhenian. The choir will meet on Wednesdays at 3pm to work together on vocal percussion, gospel, jazz, pop, folk, traditional songs in Spanish, Latin and Aboriginal dialect and carols for Christmas. We offer tuition in a wide range of musical instruments. Please contact us if you wish your child to learn an instrument in school.

We have recently become members of the Cambridge Athletics Association and look forward to arranging a series of sporting fixtures with neighbouring schools in the coming months. We have our first invitation to enter Senior pupils for the District Cross Country Championships in December. I am also pleased to inform you that we are running enrichment sports on Thursday lunchtimes for all keen students in our Junior Department. Please ensure your child brings appropriate kit. Early focus will be on athletics (track, field and cross country), tennis and football. Students can only choose one of these activities for their session. We had excellent attendance for our first week and I have high hopes for the next Olympics!

After a very busy summer, we are delighted to announce the opening of the new Jill Sturdy Centre (the JSC) in time for the start of term. This centre, at 5 Glisson Road, Cambridge provides the opportunity for our older pupils to have a little more independence, to meet with more students and to enjoy their own spacious and, may I say, trendier, surroundings. It has been named after my late mother, to honour her vision and commitment to providing a broad, engaging and exciting education to as many children as possible. We feel this is being carried on proudly at the International School. The centre offers classroom space to pupils from Sancton Wood and the International School. It has been beautifully decorated and designed and the children all seem very pleased with it. Our Art Room for the Upper School has been relocated to Glisson Road, so all our older pupils have the opportunity to be there at least once a week. You are all most welcome to pop in and have a look. We do plan to let our older Juniors do some art sessions there on special occasions. We are currently waiting for Planning Permission for our new log cabin for the Junior and Infant Art Room. We expect this to be installed over the Christmas break.

As is usual in a school, much refurbishment is completed over the summer break. Classrooms have been painted, carpets cleaned and new furniture bought. Our main concentration has been on improving our toilet facilities, a crucially important aspect of school life. The main toilets have been completely stripped out and rebuilt and really are a massive improvement. We have also had two infant toilets installed in the small room beyond the creative area near Caspian class. This allows our younger children to be more independent managing their needs during the school day.

Please do keep in very close touch with us. If your child is struggling with any aspect of their work or social life at school, we want to know. The staff will look forward to meeting you at our Parents Evenings held just before half term.

I hope all our pupils have a happy and purposeful term ahead. There will be plenty of opportunities for fun as well as hard work. I look forward to seeing you whenever you wish to come in and see what your children are getting up to. You are always welcome.

Kind regards

Harriet Sturdy
Principal
Cambridge International School

Dear Year 7 Students and Parents,

May I take this opportunity to welcome you to Cambridge International Upper School.

As a student, you may have some reservations moving from the Junior school environ but these are completely natural and hopefully my letter will alleviate some of those worries.

Hear are a few of the guidelines and some of the exciting privileges Upper School students enjoy.

Students are expected to be in class for 8.50am ready for their tutor who, for Year 7 will be Dr. H. Sturdy. Formal registration is  9.00 –9.05.  First lesson begins at 9.05. The lessons are normally 40 minutes with one of the afternoon lessons lasting for 50 minutes.

I would like to give you the specific break and lunch times but we are in the process of modifying these and are looking to overlap some of the breaks so that Year 7 students still spend time with friends in the Juniors.

At lunchtimes, students are allowed into the park to play. This has been thoroughly enjoyed by Upper School even when it has been a little muddy but students all bring in an extra pair of shoes to use for this.

With regards to uniform, we operate a Dress Code. For the boys we expect to see them in navy blue or beige chino style trousers or standard grey with a crisp white shirt and a navy or grey jumper. The same applies for the girls plus the option of a navy or beige knee length skirt. The School encourages children to wear the navy blue blazer which is also shared by Sancton Wood and can be bought at John Lewis in Cambridge. Sensible shoes are preferred, not trainers as these are for Sport. The School tie is also available but is not yet mandatory. We expect to see students following the Dress Code Monday to Thursday and on Friday everyone is allowed to wear their own clothes for our Casual Day.

Your school day is longer as we finish at 3.50pm, you will quickly get used to the extra 20 minutes.

In terms of lessons, you will enjoy the full complement of subjects taught by subject specialists. This can be a little daunting as you will have many new teachers but after a week you will know their names and during the first few days you will be given clear instructions of what is needed for that lesson.

One of the fabulous things we have in Upper School is the diary, which is a professional secondary school academic diary in full colour. It has so many features and exciting tips that you will love keeping it up to date with work and notices. You can write out your timetable, keep friends telephone numbers and even look up an element on the Periodic Table. The diary will be issued in September.

We also go out on excellent trips including a Geography fieldtrip to the coast, Science talks, Art workshops, plays, Maths Challenges to name but a few. These are relevant to your lessons and curriculum and work will be expected but it is such fun that it never feels like hard work.

Other lessons which you may not have experienced before are Film Making, Religious Education and Discussion plus there will be a rotational option of subjects, for example, Technical Drawing and Design and Technology. This will provide another opportunity for Upper School students to mix with Year 6 from Juniors.

My final piece of information is with regards to homework. The individual subject teachers will set this with the core subjects normally giving two pieces in a week. It is important to record all homework in your diary but I do email all Upper School homework to the parents. This has proved to be very successful and allows parents to monitor what homework is being completed more effectively. Year 7 students should expect to spend an hour a night and two hours at the weekend completing homework. This will vary a little across the weeks but it is the general rule for this age.

I hope this letter clears up a few questions you may have had before starting in September.

All there is left to say is have a super summer holiday and I look forward to seeing you in September.

Kindest regards,

Nina Young
Head of Upper School

Dear Parents,

We have had a short, but very productive and happy term. New staff to the school have made a fantastic impression and we have enjoyed receiving numerous emails from happy parents commenting on the positive changes. We appreciate all the feedback we get from you, and where you have concerns, we try very hard to address these quickly and helpfully.

The last few weeks of term have been particularly busy, finishing off with an exciting series of trips arranged around Science Week. I know the science staff have been very excited at the thought of sharing their love of the subject with as many people as they can! I am sure your children have been coming home talking a lot about some of their discoveries. Trips to the Tutankhamun Exhibition and Science Museum also rate as very memorable experiences for the children.

This term has also seen some great academic achievements. Particularly notable are more excellent IGCSE results for two of our students, with yet another A* in one of our languages! We were also very impressed by the quality of entries for the Short Story Competition judged on World Book Day. Many of the stories were absolutely fascinating and it was a pleasure to see the effort put in. The standard achieved by the prize winners was really wonderful, and I am pleased to announce that their entries will be available for you to read on our website shortly. Ben Cameron was awarded 1st Prize, Jorinde van de Scheur, 2nd and Erin Ko, 3rd. Well Done to these particularly impressive winners and to all entrants.

Equally pleasing were the results of the National Intermediate Maths Challenge. Bronze certificates were awarded to the following children, Marcos Ryhanen, Peter Deininger, Ivan Causey, Ruairidh Grass and Zainab Al Dawood and a truly impressive Silver and Best in School to Hanna Ishikawa.  As I write, Jorinde van de Scheur, Eunji Kim, Emil Sorensen and James Dye are representing the School  in the Group Regional Maths Challenge. On a slightly less cerebral note, but marking the excellent creativity of many of our pupils, congratulations to all those who entered our Easter Egg Competition. We were dazzled by the imagination and skill shown by our entrants. Winners to be announced on the last day of term! I am glad I am not a judge for this as it is going to be extremely difficult to choose the prize winners. Come and see for yourself!

The steady progress made in creating a new school has been helped by the enthusiasm and practical help of many parents. Thankyou to the hardy volunteers who spent a Sunday morning painting beautiful designs on the playground. We have not finished this task but it already looks a great deal better. The playground continues to be a target for improvement for us next term. We have purchased a significant number of new playground toys, most of which will be put into use at the start of the new term.

A particular achievement this term has been the improvement in our Libraries for the children. The Upper School Library under the care of our new English Teacher Mrs Parsons is undergoing transformation and receiving considerable care and attention to good effect. Children have set Library times and are encouraged to read widely from the newly organised and attractive stock. The complete creation and organisation of the Junior School Library is entirely down to the dedication and expertise of Mrs Colette Austin who has devoted hours of time to creating a library for the Juniors from absolutely nothing. We are absolutely delighted by this and it has been lovely to watch children gravitate towards the Library and to start borrowing and avidly reading from our new collection.

Thankyou to all parents who help on trips, offer practical help and support us so enthusiastically in developing our School.

All parents will be receiving a report on their child’s progress this term. This takes the place of the Parents Evening held in Michaelmas Term. Infant reports are fairly short and succinct, the detailed report is to be issued at the end of the School Year. All pupils will receive a further report at the end of the year. We do encourage you to use the page at the back to fill in your comments as we find this a useful form of feedback.

One very interesting form of official feedback came in the shape of OFSTED two weeks ago. In line with their short notice, we received a phone call on Monday March 3rd informing us that we would be inspected on Wednesday and Thursday March 5th and 6th. We supplied the inspection team with over 100 regulatory documents and policies and crossed our fingers!

We received informal feedback at the end of the inspection and have also had a draft copy of the Report. When this has been through its verification procedure, we are obliged to distribute a paper copy to all parents. Until that time, we are not allowed to quote from the Report. However, we are allowed to give you an idea of their findings. I am sure you have heard from the children how pleased we were, and in particular how delighted we were with the comments from the Inspectors about their behaviour and attitude.

There are six main categories reported on and findings can range from Inadequate, Satisfactory, Good and Outstanding. You can imagine our delight when our School was awarded one Satisfactory (for our emerging but pleasing curriculum, still in an early phase of development), two categories relating to teaching and learning received Good with the comment that several lessons observed were Outstanding and three categories including Health and Safety, Behaviour and Social, Moral and Cultural Development all received the highest possible (and rarely awarded) Outstanding.

We are so proud of our School, our staff and our pupils and I am sure you are too. For a school which is so new, and which has grown so quickly and also moved location, this is an unimaginably good report and we are really overjoyed by these findings. We were also touched by the many parents who, we are told, reported to OFSTED so positively in the questionnaires. Thanks too to all those who reassured us that we had absolutely nothing to worry about and that any Inspector would recognise how lovely the School is.

So, thankyou, parents, staff and children for making this school. We are still young (well, the School is anyway!) at only 18 months old. It is a great place to be and although there is a lot of hard work to be done, this is accompanied by great joy that we are surrounded by happy and achieving children.

While I very much hope that no pupils are leaving us in the summer, other than those returning to their home country, can I request that if anyone has plans to move on, please let us know as soon as possible as we now have a considerable waiting list in several age groups and want to be clear in our offers to prospective parents.

Have a wonderful Easter break and get ready for a fun filled summer of exams, trips, swimming and lots and lots of studying.

Yours sincerely,

Harriet Sturdy
Principal
Cambridge International School
(also known as the three outstandings from OFSTED school!)

24th February 2008

Dear Parents,

The second half of Spring Term appears to be happy and purposeful. We are delighted to welcome Luca Vendruscolo and Leonard Andersen  to Caspian Class and hope they enjoy their time with us greatly. We have had a real surge in admissions recently, so much so that it is almost impossible for any staff to catch Mrs Greer between showing families around the school!  We are particularly pleased to note the number of girls registering for the next school year. This will balance out some classes very nicely indeed.

We had great fun painting parts of the playground at the weekend. I was so pleased to work with such a sterling group of helpers and am most impressed with the results.  All volunteers who came proved to be most creative and artistic and even my attempts do not look too crooked! We do need to hold another session, as we have a fair bit of space still to cover.  I am sure the children will enjoy these additions to the playground. We have been very pleased to watch some really nice playground games developing. One kind parent has donated several books on playground games and also come in to show the children some games, and these have already been adopted and are becoming favourites. Any parents who wish to come in to share some memories of their times at school break, please do!

I must reiterate our plea to parents of Upper School that they ensure their child brings in alternative shoes for playing in the park. It is very hard to keep on top of all the mud coming in and although a good number of students remember each day, there are enough who don’t which means the school is still very muddy after lunch.

We have become increasingly disappointed in the quality of lunches offered by our current supplier and have just signed a contract with Lunchtime UK, a local firm which provides food to several other schools in Cambridge. Their operations manager is a previous Sergeant Major and I am quite sure everything will run very smoothly. I am attaching a sample menu which you will note offers soup and sandwiches every day as well as very well balanced hot meals. There is some ambiguity as to who is having hot lunches and we may need to contact some parents to check whether they do wish their child to have a school meal.

You may be glad to see that Raven, Loopy and Chuckle are back! They are well rested from their holiday at Holme Court School where they had the run of many acres of land as well as the company of three other chickens. Our children seemed very pleased to see them back and I am very impressed with the diligence of those who ensure they have fresh water and food every day.

We had very closely fought elections to the Student Council this week. We had been amused to see slogans around the school promising to make break times longer and getting more outdoor toys and will be interested to see how Councillors set about achieving this. We will have a Meeting of the Council one Friday in every month and a member of staff will attend for the last ten minutes to listen to the ideas and proposals put forward. Congratulations to Adam, Marcos, Aniella, Zahra, Jean and Joshua  in the Upper School and to Vincent, Olivia, Robin, Martha, Medina and Adara. I am sure all children will be pro-active and effective. It was interesting to see that children can gauge which children are good at campaigning and getting the opinions of their peers listened too.

I am also very pleased to appoint Eamon Ouali and Anna Krylander to the roles of Charities Officers. These two youngsters will be responsible for deciding which charities we support each term and for motivating their classmates to arrange and support fundraising events.

Med class are attending the Tutankhamun exhibition this week which is a real privilege. We hope very much that they learn a great deal from this once in a lifetime opportunity. Our other big event this week is our Mother’s Day Assembly which is this coming Friday at 9am. We do hope all mothers from the Infant and Junior sections are able to attend. We have not yet practised for this but in true CIPS style are sure that we can produce something very pleasing in one week! Our children are so talented and quick to learn that they will I am sure, charm all our mothers on Friday.

We will let you know shortly what events are booked for Science Week. A quick reminder that the Juniors and Caribbean will be off to the Science Museum on March 3rd and will need to be in School by 8.15 that day. Also, all Juniors will be attending a Science performance on March 6th put on for CIPS and Sancton Wood Juniors at Sancton Wood School. Upper School pupils will be attending lectures put on by the University of Cambridge. More information to follow.

Advance warning that we are running an Easter Egg competition again this year. So consider yourselves warned when your child comes home and tells you they have 24 hours to produce a masterpiece made up of eggs! Last year’s entries including a marvellous piano made of an eggbox and a pianist who was an egg, as well as a super representation of Easter Island, a football match and many other very creative efforts. Deadline for entries 17th March.

Although it is still very cold, it is worth turning your attention to Summer Uniform. It is very easy for the boys (Infant and Junior), who simply need to wear shorts in grey or navy blue. Girls need to buy a blue stripy dress which is available online at Marks and Spencer and is very durable and attractive. It is worth placing your order soon, as they are a very popular item. We did not go with John Lewis as our supplier for this item as the cost was three times as much! Please ask to see a copy of the dress from us at School before ordering, to ensure you get the right style and shade.  The web address is  http://www.marksandspencer.com and the product code is Product Code: T766408  £6.00 - £9.00 (Stain Defence Short sleeved stripe dress)

This comes with every best wish to all our parents, who seem to be as smiley and enthusiastic as our children and who are always a pleasure to see.

Kind regards

Harriet Sturdy

Dear Parents,

Staff and pupils have achieved a lot in a few short weeks. Everyone has settled back into school and there is a perceptible feeling of motivation and interest from all our pupils. Nothing could delight us more. Lessons look dynamic and challenging, and our pupils look engaged and enthusiastic. Homework in the Upper School is being handed in promptly and well completed, thanks in part to the new system of emailing out to parents the substance of homework due. Junior pupils are clearly enjoying the simplified, effective method of homework being completed in one homework book and being marked and returned promptly.  Thankyou to all parents for their help in supporting these systems.

Playgrounds

I feel very confident that the quality of education inside the classroom is of an extremely high standard. Many pupils are working well above their chronological age, and all pupils are making steady marked progress in one or more areas of the curriculum. My attention is now turning to outside the classroom. I do not feel, and I know staff and children will agree, that we have the best options at playtime. It is important to remember what a vital part of the school day break and lunch are. For this reason I am asking for your help. Many of you will have played happily in the playgrounds of a wide range of countries. Come and tell us what you played, come and teach the children how! Tyreese’s mum has come up with a great idea whereby children can research playtimes in other countries and show their classmates alternative games. Can any parents spare the time to indulge in games from their childhood. I certainly remember spending happy hours jumping with elastics, but we do not see this in our playground. I am sure you have many other ideas.

Before we invest in any more expensive outdoor play equipment, I would like to see how creative we can be. Could I ask parents of Infant children whether any of you can come to school on the first Sunday after half term (24th February), to paint lines and animals on the playground, and helping to make the playground more enticing? Thankyou.

Junior parents, we need to find out exactly what the children would like. We are consulting them on this and would also value your input. We are more than happy to buy outdoor toys if they are durable and fun and good for sharing!

Upper School parents, we have a good solution that is working well so far for lunchtimes. If the teacher on duty is happy to do so, we have been going out in the park. All children know the parameters and so far this is working well. I have been strongly advised not to allow rugby to be played unless supervised by a RFU coach, which I clearly am not! The game is, as you know very dangerous and we have a wide range of strengths and sizes in our Upper School. We will stick to football and other less dangerous games. It was lovely to watch children who often stand chatting all break, running around playing hide and seek last week!

House Captains and Student Council

Warm congratulations to Joshua McCray, Fredrik Krylander and Adam Memon who are our new House Captains for the year. I am confident that all three will motivate and inspire their teams to achieve great things. House points are a good motivator and it is lovely to see how loyal pupils are to their Houses.

We will be starting campaigns for election to the Student Council this week. Children are free to write petitions and display them round the school. We wish to appoint four Student Council reps in the Junior School and four in the Upper School as well as two children to take on the role of Eco-Councillor. Regular meetings will be held by the Council and this provides an opportunity for our student body to lobby for change and improvements. It is only as effective as the representatives on it, so children elected will need to be motivated and good at inspiring their classmates.  The Infant School will arrange for more informal discussions of children’s ideas, perhaps during circle time.

Restaurant Meals

This week Aegean, Adriatic and Med pupils will go out for lunch on Monday.

On Thursday Tyr and Ionian classes will go out for lunch.

Due to the introduction of trampolining for the Juniors, we cannot fit in a lunch trip on Thursdays. Arabian class will therefore go to a restaurant on Tuesday this week.

IGCSE students have made arrangements with Mrs Young for their restaurant meals.

We will make sure that all parents are advised which day of the week their child will be going to a restaurant and which days exciting international foods will be brought into school.

Events this week

We have a busy lead up to half term and one where we will have the pleasure of seeing many of you in school. On Monday, parents of pupils in Med and Tyr are invited to an Open Morning. You will have the opportunity to look round the whole building (many parents have never seen the Upper School at work!) and then join us for a cup of tea or coffee in the Assembly Hall at 10.30. You are welcome to sit in on any lessons. On Tuesday, parents of Caribbean and Aegean pupils have this opportunity and on Thursday Adriatic and Arabian parents are warmly welcome. If you cannot attend the specific day allotted to your child’s class do come along on a different day. The Mornings are not intended as Parent/Teacher Consultations as the teachers will all be teaching. The purpose is for you to see your child’s school on a normal day. No special lessons are activities are arranged, we are just aware that few parents get the chance to see a typical day at school.

On Wednesday Caspian class are going to the Folk Museum as part of their IPC topic on Homes and on Thursday, if the river has gone down, Caribbean pupils will take a trip on the Rosie narrowboat to complement their IPC topic work on transport. This is at risk of cancellation for safety reasons and an alternative will be arranged for another time if this cannot go ahead.

Book Week: 4th-8th February

Advance warning to parents of Juniors and Infants: 4th February promises to be a colourful day where all pupils are asked to dress as a character from their favourite book. Please do not feel the need to buy new costumes, the day is fun and educational rather than an exercise in fashion! As long as the children are recognisable as their chosen character (and bring the book with them) that is all we want.

Please can parents email me or sign up for reading from book that has been special to you as a child. All classes will be participating in this during the last lesson of each day during Book Week. We positively welcome all parents to this event. Infant parents, the slots are 2.50 each day of Book Week, Juniors, 3.10 and Upper School 3.30. We look forward to hearing your contribution.

Ski Trip

We regret that we did not get enough pupils to warrant going ahead on the ski trip. While there was a handful of very keen students, it was still a small percentage of pupils and for this reason we have decided to offer it in the next school year. We still have our Field Trip for the Summer to look forward to. Our first such trip, to Caythorpe Court in Lincolnshire was truly wonderful. More details to follow after half term.

As always, do keep up the close contact you have with us. Any concerns (or compliments!) will be listened to and dealt with most promptly.

With kindest regards

Harriet Sturdy (Dr)

Principal

Cambridge International School

Dear Parents,

It is a pleasure to see all our students back again, happy and smiling. We are delighted to welcome six new students to the school.. I hope very much that our new pupils will settle in as quickly as all our children have and know all the ropes by the end of the week! We do have some spaces in our Caspian class, (Reception class) Adriatic (Year 5) and Tyrennhian class (Year 8/9) which we would like to fill. If you have any friends who may be interested in finding out more about our extremely popular school, do please ask them to get in touch with us. We now operate a waiting list for three of our classes, which is excellent given that we are still very young!

I am also delighted to welcome three new staff members, Mrs Louise Mieszkian, (Head of Junior School and Arabian Form Teacher) Mrs Ruth Parsons, Upper School English Teacher and Mrs Paula Elliott. All three have spoken very warmly of the pupils so far and we are very happy to have such experienced teachers on board. All three teachers will be pleased to meet any parents if there are any specific queries they can help you with.

Cambridge International Parents Association

I would like to repeat my thanks to CIPA for their highly effective fundraising achieved by the organisation of many excellent social events. The first result of your generosity is to be seen in the new flat screen being mounted in the entrance hall next week. General information will be up on this screen as well as a rolling programme of past and recent photographs of CIS in action. We would be unable to have this without CIPA, and we are very grateful indeed. New members are actively being sought for our Parents Association: the more help and enthusiasm we have, the greater the benefits to all. CIPA provides a warm welcome to new parents and it is a very good way to meet and get to know other parents. The Christmas Fair was a wonderful event, touched with such good humour and friendliness. It was extremely well organised, extremely well attended, and full of lots of very tasty chocolate, be it given out by Father Christmas in his grotto, or at the most popular stall, the Chocolate Tombola! Thankyou to all parents for their support at this event.

Healthy Eating Schools Initiative

Moving swiftly on from chocolate, Mrs Spies will shortly be sending out some information to support our push to promote healthy eating. I am assured that staff are keen to participate in this, so feel free to question us if we walk round with doughnuts in our hands! We do intend to modify our restaurant programme this term, in part because it seems we are not achieving our original aim which is to introduce our pupils to a range of foods from different cultures. We have therefore arranged for some of our meals out, to be meals in, from suppliers of Indian, Chinese, Greek foods etc. If your child does not like the food on offer, there will always be an alternative. Restaurant meals will still take place, but not each week, to facilitate this new initiative. We are also looking closely at the nutritional merits of the meals delivered daily to school and amending where necessary so that children are sure to have a wide variety of healthy foods for lunch. Thankyou to the band of willing volunteers who come in and serve lunch and clear up so valiantly every day. This is hugely appreciated by the school. If any other parents have time to help one day a week, we would be delighted to hear from you.

Christmas Productions

I am sure you were as proud as I was watching the Christmas school productions. The children performed brilliantly and both shows were extremely enjoyable. The DVD of Alice the Musical is now available for you to buy. Please send in a cheque or cash for £8.00 and we will send the DVD home this week. We will let you know when the Snowman is ready. Photographs of both performances are available for you to view and print off from the following website. URL: http://cambridgeinternationalschool.myphotoalbum.com

Username: cambridgeinternationalschool Password: cis2007. We were unable to print off the ones ordered at the Christmas bazaar and hope this alternative will be better. Do let me know if you have any difficulties accessing the site.

Tracksuits

The new navy blue tracksuits have arrived in school. They look very smart and have the school crest on them. I hope children will be proud to wear them. Please note that if you have recently bought a suitable tracksuit we do not expect you to buy a new one until your child has grown out of their current one. If you do wish to buy a new one, please let us know. They cost £30 and are available at school. The new school tie and blazer badge for the Upper School will be in stock shortly. These will be optional, as we know many of our international pupils are not used to wearing uniform at all, and we remain happy as long as all Upper School students honour our dress code.
Reading and ICT

Well Done to all children who participated in our Sponsored Read. We raised the very impressive sum of £650 and because we reached our target, Usborne books top this up so that we have over £1000 spend on new reference and fiction books. We are keen to build up our International fiction section and would ask parents if they might kindly donate a fiction book from their home country, if they have any spare. We have moved our Junior Library into the main entrance hall to try to increase the prominence of books to this age group. We will have formal Library sessions where greater reading will be encouraged for all students. The Upper School Library remains where it was and is also home to six new PC computers, to complement our laptops which are in high demand. We are restricting the time pupils spend on computers during break and lunch and have two ICT lunchtime clubs, one for Juniors and one for Upper School, which will be supervised by me. We are keen to ensure all pupils get some fresh air at break and lunch and so we need to lure them away from the enticements of technology some of the time!

Ski and Snowboarding Trip (March)
As mentioned in a previous letter, we are considering running a ski and snowboarding trip this term. If we have enough interest, we propose to take a group of students at the end of this Easter Term. The cost is expected to be approximately £800 and this will include flights, ski passes and accommodation and all food. The trip is open to pupils aged 10 or over. Mr and Mrs Young, Mrs Spies and Mr Sturdy will accompany the school on the trip, so your children will be in very safe hands. Because the cost is quite high, we cannot run the trip with fewer than 20 students as the cost per student increases considerably. Please email me by January 18th if you are interested in your child coming. We will then make the decision whether to go ahead and let you know by Monday 21st. Payment will be made in three instalments commencing this month.

Please find enclosed a copy of this term’s school calendar. This provides the broad overview of all events booked this term. If any wonderful opportunities arise during the term that we feel our pupils would benefit from then parents will be notified.

I do hope your child has a happy and productive term. We feel very well settled now in our new school and delight in embracing new initiatives as well as continuing to work at consolidating all we have established so far. It remains for me to thank you most warmly for your continued and very vocal support of the school. This means such a lot to us all, and we thank you for taking your time to feedback to us on a wide range of issues. This feedback is essential to us and we are very receptive to any comments you may have, so do please keep in close touch with us. We look forward to seeing you during the term.

With kind regards

Harriet Sturdy (Dr)
Principal
Cambridge International School

Dear Parents,

Staff and pupils have achieved a lot in a few short weeks. Everyone has settled back into school and there is a perceptible feeling of motivation and interest from all our pupils. Nothing could delight us more. Lessons look dynamic and challenging, and our pupils look engaged and enthusiastic. Homework in the Upper School is being handed in promptly and well completed, thanks in part to the new system of emailing out to parents the substance of homework due. Junior pupils are clearly enjoying the simplified, effective method of homework being completed in one homework book and being marked and returned promptly.  Thankyou to all parents for their help in supporting these systems.

Playgrounds
I feel very confident that the quality of education inside the classroom is of an extremely high standard. Many pupils are working well above their chronological age, and all pupils are making steady marked progress in one or more areas of the curriculum. My attention is now turning to outside the classroom. I do not feel, and I know staff and children will agree, that we have the best options at playtime. It is important to remember what a vital part of the school day break and lunch are. For this reason I am asking for your help. Many of you will have played happily in the playgrounds of a wide range of countries. Come and tell us what you played, come and teach the children how! Tyreese’s mum has come up with a great idea whereby children can research playtimes in other countries and show their classmates alternative games. Can any parents spare the time to indulge in games from their childhood. I certainly remember spending happy hours jumping with elastics, but we do not see this in our playground. I am sure you have many other ideas.

Before we invest in any more expensive outdoor play equipment, I would like to see how creative we can be. Could I ask parents of Infant children whether any of you can come to school on the first Sunday after half term (24th February), to paint lines and animals on the playground, and helping to make the playground more enticing? Thankyou.

Junior parents, we need to find out exactly what the children would like. We are consulting them on this and would also value your input. We are more than happy to buy outdoor toys if they are durable and fun and good for sharing!

Upper School parents, we have a good solution that is working well so far for lunchtimes. If the teacher on duty is happy to do so, we have been going out in the park. All children know the parameters and so far this is working well. I have been strongly advised not to allow rugby to be played unless supervised by a RFU coach, which I clearly am not! The game is, as you know very dangerous and we have a wide range of strengths and sizes in our Upper School. We will stick to football and other less dangerous games. It was lovely to watch children who often stand chatting all break, running around playing hide and seek last week!

House Captains and Student Council
Warm congratulations to Joshua McCray, Fredrik Krylander and Adam Memon who are our new House Captains for the year. I am confident that all three will motivate and inspire their teams to achieve great things. House points are a good motivator and it is lovely to see how loyal pupils are to their Houses.

We will be starting campaigns for election to the Student Council this week. Children are free to write petitions and display them round the school. We wish to appoint four Student Council reps in the Junior School and four in the Upper School as well as two children to take on the role of Eco-Councillor. Regular meetings will be held by the Council and this provides an opportunity for our student body to lobby for change and improvements. It is only as effective as the representatives on it, so children elected will need to be motivated and good at inspiring their classmates.  The Infant School will arrange for more informal discussions of children’s ideas, perhaps during circle time.

Restaurant Meals
This week Aegean, Adriatic and Med pupils will go out for lunch on Monday.
On Thursday Tyr and Ionian classes will go out for lunch.
Due to the introduction of trampolining for the Juniors, we cannot fit in a lunch trip on Thursdays. Arabian class will therefore go to a restaurant on Tuesday this week.
IGCSE students have made arrangements with Mrs Young for their restaurant meals.

We will make sure that all parents are advised which day of the week their child will be going to a restaurant and which days exciting international foods will be brought into school.

Events this week
We have a busy lead up to half term and one where we will have the pleasure of seeing many of you in school. On Monday, parents of pupils in Med and Tyr are invited to an Open Morning. You will have the opportunity to look round the whole building (many parents have never seen the Upper School at work!) and then join us for a cup of tea or coffee in the Assembly Hall at 10.30. You are welcome to sit in on any lessons. On Tuesday, parents of Caribbean and Aegean pupils have this opportunity and on Thursday Adriatic and Arabian parents are warmly welcome. If you cannot attend the specific day allotted to your child’s class do come along on a different day. The Mornings are not intended as Parent/Teacher Consultations as the teachers will all be teaching. The purpose is for you to see your child’s school on a normal day. No special lessons are activities are arranged, we are just aware that few parents get the chance to see a typical day at school.

On Wednesday Caspian class are going to the Folk Museum as part of their IPC topic on Homes and on Thursday, if the river has gone down, Caribbean pupils will take a trip on the Rosie narrowboat to complement their IPC topic work on transport. This is at risk of cancellation for safety reasons and an alternative will be arranged for another time if this cannot go ahead.

Book Week: 4th-8th February
Advance warning to parents of Juniors and Infants: 4th February promises to be a colourful day where all pupils are asked to dress as a character from their favourite book. Please do not feel the need to buy new costumes, the day is fun and educational rather than an exercise in fashion! As long as the children are recognisable as their chosen character (and bring the book with them) that is all we want.

Please can parents email me or sign up for reading from book that has been special to you as a child. All classes will be participating in this during the last lesson of each day during Book Week. We positively welcome all parents to this event. Infant parents, the slots are 2.50 each day of Book Week, Juniors, 3.10 and Upper School 3.30. We look forward to hearing your contribution.

Ski Trip
We regret that we did not get enough pupils to warrant going ahead on the ski trip. While there was a handful of very keen students, it was still a small percentage of pupils and for this reason we have decided to offer it in the next school year. We still have our Field Trip for the Summer to look forward to. Our first such trip, to Caythorpe Court in Lincolnshire was truly wonderful. More details to follow after half term.

As always, do keep up the close contact you have with us. Any concerns (or compliments!) will be listened to and dealt with most promptly.

With kindest regards

Harriet Sturdy (Dr)
Principal
Cambridge International School

Dear Parents,

Welcome back after what I hope was a happy and restful half term break.. As the nights draw in and the days seem long, we look forward to a fun filled yet hard-working six weeks ahead.

I am delighted to report on the safe and successful school trip to Pompeii. This was led by Mr Lord, who teaches Spanish and Latin at Sancton Wood and Latin for us here at CIS. I would like to thank him, Mrs Spaxman, Mrs Atkins and Mrs Siegel for overseeing such a happy trip. All children returned safe and well, and by all accounts had a fabulous time. We will look forward to hearing all about it from the travellers. We were delighted to see how well the pupils from both Sancton Wood and CIS integrated and I believe some good friendships have been made. We now look ahead to planning a joint ski trip in February half term.

We have many exciting trips planned for the next few weeks, and of course, children will soon start rehearsing for the school plays which, I hope, may prove a highlight of our term! I am sure you will all be very helpful when it comes to providing costumes. We will try to ask as little as possible, and certainly will not expect very fancy costumes to be made up the night before! We do ask you to help your child learn their lines, be it in a major role or as part of the chorus, all essential parts!

This week, on Thursday, Caribbean class will welcome Year 2 pupils from Sancton Wood, our sister school, who have heard about the chickens and are very keen to come and visit them! I know our pupils will very much enjoy showing off Loopy, Raven and Chuckle and impressing their visitors with the wealth of knowledge they now have about chickens.

Also on Thursday, Arabian pupils will spend the morning with Mrs Shaw Miller in Cambridge continuing their study of Classical and Renaissance Cambridge. They will then have their lunch and return to their classrooms to complete their scrapbooks as we approach the end of this teaching unit. I know the children have learnt a great deal about Cambridge and am glad they have had the opportunity to visit local places of interest.

On Monday November 5th, all pupils in Aegean, Adriatic and Arabian have been invited to take part in a ‘Tree for All’ campaign by the Woodland Trust (see attached letter). Please ensure your child is dressed appropriately for the weather and the setting. The experience should be most illuminating for the children and I think they will be proud to be involved in planting trees and helping to ensure the woodland remains well populated.

On Tuesday November 6th, 26 Upper School pupils will be lucky enough to travel to London to see the highly praised Terracotta Warriors exhibition. More details as to which classes are to attend are to follow later in the week.

Ms Rogerson has asked me to pass on her requests that all children attend sports lessons with the following uniform and equipment. (see attachment) She is becoming frustrated by the number of children still inappropriately kitted out, and I would like all pupils this term to make a really good effort to wear the correct kit. Thankyou, parents, for your help in this.

We have made a few changes to some of the classes over the holidays. We had long confirmed that the (largely) Year 9 group would be made into a class of their own after half term, so welcome Ionian, our new class. There will still be some lessons taken with Tyrennhian pupils, including all sporting and dramatic lessons. All Upper School classes are closely integrated with some pupils benefiting from working in a higher or lower level group for a particular subject and this will still continue where appropriate.

We have also, following our first half term of assessments moved a few other pupils into more suitable classes. We track pupil progress very carefully, and we are confident that all pupils who are moving classes will be well stimulated and happy in their new grouping. Please do not hesitate to ask if you have any questions relating to this. We do not intend to make any further class changes during the School year. This was simply done now as a result of our first half term of assessments. We believe all pupils are now in the best grouping for their academic and emotional levels of maturity.

I do hope the children will enjoy the new surfaces which are now laid down in both playgrounds. We have made great progress in improving our outdoor area, and although we still have some way to go, are pleased to see it looking more respectable. We look forward to seeing the vegetable garden take shape in the next few weeks.

Thankyou for your extremely generous support of The Blue House appeal to provide housing for street children in Peru. Mrs Talavera, who is closely involved in this project was most touched at the effort put in with the cake sales and with the final amount of over £200 which was raised. This will make a real difference. Thankyou so much. (And what wonderful cakes……I considered it my duty to buy a large number, as did many staff, and we all had a thoroughly enjoyable day!)

We look forward to seeing you at our forthcoming Parents Evenings. Reminders will be sent nearer the time.

Please also send in your money to reserve your tickets for the Blues Night! We very much hope to play to a Full House, and have just a few tickets left to sell. The evening promises to be great fun and will provide the height of good music and company!

With warmest regard to all parents and pupils.

Harriet Sturdy (Dr)
Principal
Cambridge International School

Dear Parents,

Term is well underway and all our pupils seem happy and settled. We are part of a wonderful cosmopolitan melting pot and it has been truly touching to watch children from across the world welcome each other.

I hope that children have now got into the swing of work! You should expect your child to be spending approximately 45 minutes on each homework subject set. Homework is intended to show the teacher that the child has understood the lessons, to consolidate what they have learnt and to provide useful reinforcement. Pupils are not expected to cover new material as homework, except where they may be asked to read something in advance of a lesson.

Homework is, generally speaking, being handed in on time. We have given everyone a good chance to settle in. However, from half term, children who are late with three homeworks will receive a detention which takes place after school.

On a happier note, children are very much enjoying being awarded merit points (which also translate into House points) On receipt of 50, pupils will be awarded a cinema voucher or book token. Points are awarded for general helpfulness, attitude, excellence or huge effort.

Auditions will be taking place over the next two Fridays for our Christmas Performance, Alice the Musical. We have some very strong singers and actors amongst our pupils and I look forward to a great performance. Any volunteers to help direct, design and generally walk around being helpful, MOST gratefully received!

Over the past few weeks, we have carried out a fair bit of academic screening on our pupils to assess ability level and suitability for the work being set. Most pupils are best placed in the class appropriate to their age. In some case, we are recommending a pupil attends a higher or lower level class, but this is not a big issue and no pupil is made to feel extra clever or less able because of this. Academic zoning like this can be hugely beneficial allowing all pupils to be taught at the most appropriate level for them, at this particular stage in their development. To ensure none of our classes become too big, and to enable us to teach at the right level, we are opening a new class after half term. This will be mainly for pupils who are technically Year 9 and their new class will be called Ionian. Some lessons, such as Sport, Music and Film-Making will continue to be taught in larger groupings as we believe this is better for group dynamics. There will also be more zoning for other subjects for pupils in Mediterranean and Tyrrenhian. Over the next few days, we will be speaking to all parents of children who are moving classes. We see this move as hugely positive, enabling our older pupils to work at a very impressive pace indeed, and ensuring that all pupils are taught at a level that is suitable for them.

Restaurant Meals for Mediterranean and Tyrrenhian take place on Thursdays.

Please do encourage your child to participate in any after school sports activities. Sancton Wood is very keen to embrace CIS children in their teams, knowing we have such strong sportsmen! Netball is on Mondays, Rugby and Football Thursdays. We also run a Judo club on Mondays at Cherry Hinton Sports Hall and the coach is actively seeking older pupils. Pupils will all be graded just before Christmas.

Please find below a short summary of the work your child will be covering this term. Further details relating to English, Maths and Science are to be found in the accompanying booklet from the University of Cambridge. While we follow the Checkpoint system from the University, we also teach using a wide range of resources and curricula so do not be surprised if your child comes home with a Heinemann book, for example, as well as a Checkpoint one. The years of teaching experience among our staff have enabled us to make informed choices about supplementary material for the children.

We love having this vibrant, inquiring set of children in our Upper School. Staff have been delighted at the progress already made by each child. What is clear is that we have a happy school, a kind school and a friendly school. It is clear that our pupils enjoy learning, and this makes them a real pleasure to teach. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any queries at all. We look forward to talking to you in depth about your child’s progress at our Parent Consultation evening in November.

With best wishes

Harriet Sturdy
Principal
Cambridge International School

Mediterranean

English
Using Cambridge University Checkpoint curriculum, the following work is being covered:
Writing: Story Structure, Characterisation, narrative devices, visual and sound effects, learning to validate an argument, link writing & reading and reflective writing
Reading: Collaboration & modifying views,repetitions & form in a free verse, to infer and deduce,word choices and poetic form.
Spelling: Rules and practice on e, v, s and z at the end of words as well as looking at how to form plurals, s or es at the end of a word, and apostrophes.

English Literature: Prose and poetry based on two themes: childhood experiences, growing up and gaining independence. We are following Cambridge University’s citizenship collection, Who We Are.

In Current Affairs we will continue to include research from sources like theBBC, Guardian and Reuters as well as full use of modern media sources.

History
We are very pleased to welcome Ms Roxanne Stevenson, a specialist in Middle East Studies and International Relations who is giving Arabian, Med and Tyr pupils a series of lectures entitled The History of Today’s Hotspots: Ancient Persia and Mesopotamia. This includes study of the civilization, geography, society, customs and arts of the two regions, the laws and organisation of empire, and discoveries that archeologists have made that enable us to better understand these critical areas. A term project will encourage a larger report on one aspect of the material studied in a comparative way across both civilizations.

Towards the end of term and carrying us over into the new year, several classes will start collaborative work on a major project which is to produce and understand a chronological timeline of major historical events. It is essential that pupils are aware not just of specific events, but where they fall in the broad sweep of History and how this affects future generations. This can take a lifetime to understand, but we will take our first steps in trying to do so.

Maths
Med pupils are covering the first year of the Checkpoint syllabus. This term we are looking at:
Revising the 4 rules of computation, and using negative numbers, recognising the equivalence of decimals, fractions and percentages.
Looking at letters and symbols to represent unknown quantities, and solving simple equations.
Using coordinates to plot points on the Cartesian plane
Constructions of simple shapes; Transformations of 2 d shapes; Collecting and organising data.

Science
The areas of study for Med pupils this term are Acids & Bases, Vital Organs, Changing State.

French
Pupils are learning to converse confidently about their name and age, birthdays, colours and classroom objects. After half term, we will learn about where we live, the family, animals, and looks and character.

Spanish
This term we will cover Modules 1 and 2 in the Listos 1 book. Module 1 includes topics related to greetings and introductions, in my rucksack, my age and birthdays, days of the week, and the alphabet. Module 2 covers where I am from, where I live, my pets, my family, and describing people. Each of these modules include practice on each of the four areas of the IGCSE exam - oral, reading comprehension, listening, and written.

Latin
We are discovering the basics of the Latin language embarking on a study of Roman daily life in Pompeii. We will begin to look at The Cambridge Latin Course. This will be a curious blend of language based games in the playground and more formal study in the classroom. Vocab lists will be sent home regularly.

ICT
Most children can MSN each other whilst many can send emails, but only a few can extrapolate pictures, diagrams and visual/audio files combined to create a compelling online document. This term we are experimenting with the different software packages available to Apple Macs which can assist dynamic presentations in our digital age. Software Packages being explored include - text/excel/paint/iphoto.

Drama
Modern drama is a social communication platform that stretches children to read behaviour and to interpret alternative languages through speech, body movement and reactions. We are focusing on group work to build confidence and to express ourselves unhindered by language or cultural differences.

Film-making
Every craftsman needs to learn what his tools can do before he can start his work. This term is that introduction to the digital/optical information and equipment all students need to learn before exploring their Storytelling impulses. We are familiarising ourselves with the new broadcast cameras and later this term with the digital media suite Final Cut Pro, before as a group we create a short end of term project which we would like to screen.

Art
This term we have been looking at African Art, including making masks using different media. We will also be tying in with the History lecture series looking at Mesopotamian art. We plan to take a major part in making our school look festive in the coming months and helping with costumes for the eagerly awaited School musical!

Practical Skills
This subject is designed to give the children hands on experience of many of life’s practicalities, ranging from as basic as learning to cover their school books with sticky back plastic tosome very exciting DIY andhome maintenance.

Geography
Med students are studying flooding and also looking in depth at a Case Study of Brazil.

Indoor Sports
Fitness and stamina!
Outdoor Sports
Cross Country for the first half of term, followed by team sports.
Upper School pupils have Indoor Sport on Tuesdays and Outdoor sport on Wednesdays. Please ensure your child has the correct kit in school. Children must change into white sports socks, this seems to be the major item forgotten each week and for hygiene reasons, as well as our wish for children to dress correctly, this is not ideal. Both sports teachers are working on building up the fitness levels of our pupils, as well as extending their skills base.
Tyrrhenian

English
Tyr pupils are studying the following in their English lessons
Reading: Explaining information from a text,presenting information, and building vocabulary, skimming and scanningfor main ideas,understanding the text as a whole,predicting whata text is about, understanding text structure.
Writing: Describing the past (based on pictures), writing for a particular audience/purpose (e.g. a story or leaflet), planning, researching and drafting, understandingsome word/language aspects, writing Letters (formal and informal), writing newspaper/magazine articles
Creative Writing: Re-writing a children’s story from their point of view, essential features of children stories, understanding theme and plot, writing a playscript. We are working with the aim of bringing out a class magazine at the end of the term/beginningofnext term withstudents’creative writing works.

English Literature
Tyrrhenian have begun looking at the history of English Literature from Beowulf to Harry Potter. This survey will take the whole year.

Current Affairs
This term we are exploring the topics of today being broadcast and published across the merging media platforms - print, web and radio. With careful consideration we will discuss and debate the emergence of online “journalism” and ask ourselves – who and what can we rely on for factual reporting?

History
Tyr are continuing the work they did last year on Ancient Greece with a series of study days looking at Gods and Myths (including a visit to the Museum of Classical Archaeology), Greek Poetry and Drama (including a trip to see the Greek Play at the Cambridge Arts Theatre, Medea by Euripedes), the Acropolis and Greek revival architecture in Cambridge, and Intellectual Life in Greece, including a visit to the Fitzwilliam Museum.

We are also very pleased to welcome Ms Roxanne Stevenson, a specialist in Middle East Studies and International Relations who is giving Arabian, Med and Tyr pupils a series of lectures entitled The History of Today’s Hotspots: Ancient Persia and Mesopotamia. This includes study of the civilization, geography, society, customs and arts of the two regions, the laws and organisation of empire, and discoveries that archeologists have made that enable us to better understand these critical areas. A term project will encourage a larger report on one aspect of the material studied in a comparative way across both civilization.

Maths
Venn Diagrams; Ratio and proportion; Area and perimeter of the circle
Using standard units of length, mass and volume; Constructing and solving equations
Transformations of 2d shapes; Using percentages, fractions and decimals.
Multiplying and dividing integers and decimals

Science
This term pupils are covering Plant Biology: Plant reproduction (comparative to human reproduction); photosynthesis and all aspects of botany.
Geography
Students are looking at the Developing World, Weather & Climate in Europe.

French
We are looking at and learning to converse about the geography of France, describing towns and talking about what there is to do in the town. Pupils are learning how to say what they like and don’t like doing and we are working on the use of the past tense. After half term, we will talk about the family, jobs, describing the house, saying what is wrong, jobs in the house, laying the table (you can always get them to practice doing this at home too!!!)

Spanish
This term we will cover Modules 4 and 5 in the Listos 1 book. Module 4 includes topics related to the home - where I live, my house, my bedroom, my daily routine, and after school activities. Module 5 covers my neighbourhood - how to say where I am going, giving and understanding directions, the weather, and what my town is like. Each of these modules include practice on each of the four areas of the IGCSE exam - oral, reading comprehension, listening, and written.

Latin
We are studying the basics of Roman Civilization with reference to Pompeii. We will master the use of the accusative and nominative (singular and plural) across the declensions and the present tense across the conjugations.
Art
On their Friday lessons, this half term Tyr. have been looking at the work of Keith Haring and using what they have observed to produce their own Haring style image. They have developed their images using the techniques of silk painting and screen printing and produced an individual piece of work. The final stage will be to put all their images together into a large wall hanging using cotton and fabric paint.
After half term they will be looking at self portraits. Looking at the work of artists such as Frida Kahlo and Archibald Motley the class will work towards producing a multi media self portrait.

Pupils have also been looking at Mesopotamian art and different scripts. We will shortly be looking at different festivals and how to approach these with different art media.

Indoor Sports
Fitness and stamina!
Outdoor Sports
Cross Country for the first half of term, followed by team sports.
Upper School pupils have Indoor Sport on Tuesdays and Outdoor sport on Wednesdays. Please ensure your child has the correct kit in school. Children must change into white sports socks, this seems to be the major item forgotten each week and for hygiene reasons, as well as our wish for children to dress correctly, this is not ideal. Both sports teachers are working on building up the fitness levels of our pupils, as well as extending their skills base.

ICT
Most children can MSN each other whilst many can send emails, but only a few can extrapolate pictures, diagrams and visual/audio files combined to create a compelling online document. This term we are experimenting with the different software packages available to Apple Macs which can assist dynamic presentations in our digital age. Software Packages being explored include - text/excel/paint/iphoto.

Drama
Modern drama is a social communication platform that stretches children to read behaviour and to interpret alternative languages through speech, body movement and reactions. We are focusing on group work to build confidence and to express ourselves unhindered by language or cultural differences.

Film-making

Every craftsman needs to learn what his tools can do before he can start his work. This term is that introduction to the digital/optical information and equipment all students need to learn before exploring their Storytelling impulses. We are familiarising ourselves with the new broadcast cameras and later this term with the digital media suite Final Cut Pro, before as a group we create a short end of term project which we would like to screen.