Our new school website has now gone live, so please do have a browse and provide us with feedback.  It isn’t completely finished yet, as we are still awaiting some video and photographic work to be completed, but we are very happy with it so far. You will also notice that the newsletter is now embedded on the website itself and the format has changed.

Thank you to parents who were able to join us for the information session yesterday. For those who missed it, please find the PIS E-safety and appropriate online conduct slides here.

The TBS library is a great resource, which we are sure our community has been missing during recent lockdowns. We are aiming to offer families the opportunity to access library resources in the safest way possible over the next few weeks. The library will only be accessible by prior booking and those visiting must adhere to our safety protocols. Library Booking Link

This September, we introduced Composer of the Month activities throughout TBS. We listened to music by the Japanese composer, Koji Kondo, then tried to compose our own ‘catchy’ melodies based on his video game music. In primary, we composed using various composing programmes and different kinds of musical instruments. 

The compositions in primary were really exciting, making it extremely difficult for Mr. Leahy to choose this month’s TBS Primary Composers of the Month. The following composers have been chosen, and their compositions can be heard by clicking the link in their names. 

TBS’s Foundation/EY Composer of the Month is Jeongwon  

KS1’s Composer of the Month is Shiori (with Yubin highly commended)  

KS2’s Composer of the Month is Leo

The Foundation 1 students made big elephant ears and went for a walk to listen to different sounds in the environment. They heard a dog barking, baby crying  and friends talking. The students of Foundation 2 listened to a story about friendship and used their creativity to make dolls out of junk materials.

The Year 1 students have been designing and making clothes for their soft toys and dolls by following a plan. They will be showing their plans and final products during our whole class Zoom session this week. Look how thoroughly Kasvi planned her work and followed all steps to make a beautiful night suit for her doll Mia.

We have been really impressed this week by the engagement and uptake of the additional daily reading challenges in Year 2. This has included reading in unusual spots, superb summary work and lots of reflections in journals. The students have also been practising different ways to add up, like Ravi using dienes. One of this week’s possibilities was to invent something useful, have a look at Seongwon’s super inventions!

Year 3 have been researching all about the life of Mary Anning, a famous paleontologist, as part of their Footprints from the Past topic. Their task was to create a colorful and eye-catching poster, with writing broken into small chunks that stand out and a fun design that is engaging to read.

As part of their new topic ‘How Humans Work’, Year 4 have been reading and reviewing a new book – The Magic School Bus: Inside The Human Body. In their reviews, they needed to introduce and summarise the book, share their opinion and work out whether they would recommend it and how highly they would rate it.

For Low-Tech Wednesday this week, Year 6 were challenged to create a stand for a mobile phone or tablet. There were some incredibly creative designs with fantastically put together plans. The planning phase is something that Year 6 have all been working incredibly hard on over the last few weeks, so it was great to see the amount of progress that has been made.      

Linking to their IPC unit of ‘Moving People’, Year 5 spent their Low-Tech Wednesday creating pieces of art raising awareness of the refugee crisis. Their artwork needed to contain a powerful message, have a statistic and be eye catching to attract people’s attention.

Once again, this week has produced some incredible pieces of work created by the students. It is so impressive to see the creativity and ingenuity of the TBS students whilst online. Their dedication to producing fantastic pieces of work is second to none and should really be applauded. However, it is extremely important that students know to have a work-life balance and is why there has been such a focus on their well being over the recent weeks. As a school community, we are striving to ensure that students are able to further their learning but know when it is time to take a step back and have some time to themselves. Active encouragement from home for them to take part in physical activity, read a book or take up a new hobby can really make a difference to their attitude towards learning.

This week saw the culmination of the P.E online house competition. Students were tasked with a range of  different activities each week and had to try and post the highest score possible. This directly correlated to a points system that students gained throughout the six weeks of competition. There were some fantastic performances by students right across the Key Stage and it was great to see so many people staying active whilst the school is still online.

In Year 7, there has been a continuation of their learning on different cells. Students were asked to complete an extended piece of writing to compare the difference between animal and plant cells. After this, they were tasked with making models that represented the cells which looked amazing.

The Year 8s have been having amazing fun in drama creating masks. They have designed their own masks using Commedia dell’arte characters as a basis for their work. Next week they are going to bring them to life and use Papier Mache to create their designs.

Moreover, in Geography the Year 8s have been looking at Volcanoes and whether they are good places to live for different civilisations. They also learnt about the dangers and the activity that can occur when living in such areas. They were then tasked with creating their own Volcanoes with different labels showing the features found within one.

In Year 9, the students have been looking into fractions whilst in Maths. They were asked to create visual representations of how to add, subtract, multiply and divide fractions. Some of the work is really eye catching and will be a great revision tool moving forward.

A huge congratulations goes out to Dia (Y8) for receiving student of the week. It is evident from all the work she has been doing she is going above and beyond to ensure that it is of the highest standard. Her Geography work has been outstanding and it is great to see that she is challenging herself to attempt tricky extension questions. Also, her PSHE wellbeing diary was exceptional with it being very well thought out and she ensured she tried a range of different activities.

After asking Dia for some advice to other students, she said: 

‘Try your best for every task, then think how you can challenge yourself further. Know what your priorities are and manage your time well. Work hard but have fun. Be determined to achieve your goals and you will get there! Adapt to your circumstances and make the best of it, we will probably not get the chance again!’

As week 7 draws to a close and the lure of Dashain holidays draws ever closer, it has been pleasing to see many of our KS4 students still working so hard.  This week, students have been engaged in a variety of learning across their different subjects. 

In Business, Year 10 students have been producing their own business plans.  Amongst others, we have seen students developing plans for a pani puri business, a stationery business, and a new luxury apartment building.   The students have had to think about all aspects of business from starting up, location, competition and marketing to HR policies.  We may have some budding entrepreneurs in our midst!

Meanwhile in DT, students have been getting creative at home designing and making planters.  Aman has been designing and making planters using rubber gloves and cement.  I look forward to sharing some images with you soon, and Mr Hannay apologises to parents for any mess students have been creating at home! For now, here are some design images.

In KS4 Spanish, students  are  building up to a creative project with Y11 in which they are inventing and presenting their own app. While in Year 10, students are working towards writing a text in three tenses.

In Year 11 Geography, students have made a start on their coursework. After a virtual lesson on how to carry out various river channel measurements and collect data, students have this week been examining examples of previous coursework and marking them so they can gain an understanding of what, and perhaps more importantly, what not to do!

In PSHE, students have been learning valuable skills about how to write a good email!  Not only will these skills stand them in good stead at school, it will also continue to be of use throughout their lives.

This week’s student of the week is Nirbhaya in Year 11.  He Has been making good progress in many of his subjects and proactively seeking extra help where needed.  

In English, Ms. Williams has said there has been a clear improvement in the quality of his work. Ms Hemelik says Nirbhaya has been a pleasure to teach in Biology. Indeed, many of Nirbhaya’s teachers have been impressed with his participation and class attendance.  Here is what Nirbhaya has to say: What I really like about online classes is that I get to plan my day according to the work that has been assigned.  I get to decide which subject I need to focus on more.  Online classes are challenging sometimes, but I also like the fact that there is time to complete my assignments.  I am looking forward to meeting all of my friends when lockdown restrictions end.  The thing I want to say to other KS4 students is that you should not be afraid of making mistakes.  So I hope in the coming year, you make mistakes because if you are, you are creating news things, trying new things, living, pushing yourself, changing your world.  You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re doing something!

This week has been a busy one and as we are getting closer to the end of term, lots of students have been completing end of topic tests and submitting assessment tasks. 

It is getting towards the time of the year that UCAS and Common App deadlines begin to loom! It comes around very quickly. I have been sharing different virtual university fairs with students through their Google Classroom.  The Council of British International Schools has organised a free online University Fair, which will take place next week. If students are interested they must register today.  

It will bring together UK and international universities with students, families and staff from COBIS schools via the University Guy’s virtual platform. During the fair attendee will tune into presentations from individual universities and be able to talk to university representatives through the platform’s chat function. 

The topics that will be covered are: 

• How to write a personal statement 
• Choosing a UK university and degree 
• Studying in London 
• How to prepare a creative portfolio 
• Options available in the Netherlands

I will continue to share these opportunities on Google Classroom and encourage all Key-Stage 5 students to take advantage of these. 

A message from the creativity prefects; Eshaan and Jinny

I hope you all are having an amazing week. We as prefect representatives for creativity, would like to organise a project based on our community’s experiences during the time of the Covid-19. 

Irrespective of the country we are in, everyone has had massive changes in their lives throughout this time. We thought it was a good idea to compile photos of lockdown experiences from people all over our school community, and to make a collage from those photos. We have taken inspiration from the National Portrait Gallery’s collection: ‘Hold Still’.

We would like to compile photos of people all over our school, including parents, siblings, teachers, nursery students up to sixth form students.  We think this would be an excellent and creative way to share our experiences during this time, and make our community feel more united by showing how we are all facing similar challenges, irrespective of where we are in the world. If you have any photos, please send them so you can contribute to this project!

Please send your photos with a short caption to Ms. Hemelik: ahemelik@tbs.edu.np 

Here are some photos we have collected from our teachers so far:

‘Ms Middlebrook’s paper hug’  ‘Lockdown in Kathmandu’

 ‘In the absence of team sports’  ‘My classroom’

Student of the Week! 

This week’s student of the week is Roisin Rai.

Her teachers have commented on how she is thriving in her new subjects and really going above and beyond to thoroughly understand content. 

Rosin’s advice: 

My advice is just to keep smiling and stay positive. Try and challenge yourself everyday but also make time for what makes you happy; because at the end of the day you won’t remember all the tests, you’ll remember the things that made you smile!