COBIS, the Council of British International Schools, is running a free webinar aimed at parents entitled: ‘From Passenger to Explorer: Harnessing the Four Modes of Learning to Unlock Teen Motivation’. In this webinar for parents and carers in COBIS schools, Jenny Anderson, award winning journalist and author, will explore the four learning modes—Passenger, Achiever, Resister, and Explorer—and share insights on how to identify disengagement early and ignite young people’s motivation.

Eco Committee Meeting: Yeti tracks to a greener TBS

This week, we held an inspiring Eco Committee meeting led brilliantly by our Secondary Eco Prefects and Primary Eco Ambassadors, who guided us through our journey toward achieving the prestigious Green Flag award. The student leaders showcased the incredible progress we’ve already made and outlined our exciting next steps. Our journey began with Finn Webster (Year 6) winning last year’s logo design competition, creating the visual identity for our eco initiatives, and the previous Secondary Eco Prefects writing our TBS Eco Code that guides our environmental commitments.

Our current Eco Ambassadors have already conducted a comprehensive sustainability audit of the school, raised funds to purchase coloured recycling bins to complement our food waste bins, and successfully eradicated paper cups in the canteen, a significant achievement!

Looking ahead, our next steps include creating recycling centres around the school, eliminating paper cups at all school events and in the Yeti Café, and embarking on two ambitious long term projects: raising money for a water fountain outside the school gates so the wider community can refill water bottles rather than purchasing single use plastic, and implementing a system to refill whiteboard pen ink to reduce plastic waste and make our resources more sustainable. The meeting concluded with planning for our much anticipated Eco Fair on Friday, 30th January at 2:00 pm, where our community can celebrate our achievements and learn how to continue making a positive environmental impact. We are incredibly proud of our student leaders for driving meaningful change and inspiring us all to be responsible stewards of our school, community and planet!

We will be holding our Whole School Eco Fair on Friday, January 30th from 2pm – 4pm.

Year 6 Family Assembly

We were thrilled to welcome families to the Year 6 Family Assembly this week, the first family assembly of the year, where our students brilliantly presented their unforgettable Chitwan Expedition adventures. 

The students shared captivating stories from their journey, highlighting how they learned about sustainability in action, experienced an exciting jeep safari, visited the Vulture Feeding Centre, and engaged with the important work of Stand Up For Elephants (SU4E). 

They entertained us with an elephant quiz that tested everyone’s knowledge and performed a lively jungle song celebrating their expedition memories. The students also spoke about their visit to a local market where they managed their own money to purchase items, and excitedly described taking resources from TBS to Shree Singhnath Basic school where they led activities they had planned and prepared themselves – a wonderful example of community partnership and service learning in action. The assembly concluded with an uplifting message passed on by the Jane Goodall Institute that perfectly encapsulated the spirit of their experience: “Together we can, together we will, together we must change the world!” It was inspiring to see our Year 6 students demonstrate such confidence, compassion, and commitment to making a positive impact. Well done, Year 6!

Little Yetis

This week it has been wonderful to welcome back our Little Yetis, our Busy Builders theme encouraged the children to explore, create and problem-solve through hands-on play. The children enjoyed builder-themed books and sensory activities such as oobleck and cars, supporting curiosity and descriptive language. Our craft focus will link letters and early literacy, with children printing using bricks and exploring large Duplo bricks with letters to build and recognise sounds. The children worked together using giant building bricks and number puzzles to develop counting, collaboration and problem-solving skills in an active way.

Sports Day

Luveena and Shajonee (Y9)

Over the weekend on 11th January, parents, teachers and students watched and participated in some amazing track and field events, all the students took part in events with co-operation and kindness. Over the course of 5 hours, we saw students challenging themselves with great confidence and providing support and compassion for their teammates, showcasing how TBS has grown together and developed as a community. This kindness and enthusiasm was explicitly showcased by the creative cheers and roars that echoed throughout the grounds in every competition. 

Makalu had its first golden trophy, securing it with a grand total of 726 points. According to Year 11 Upasana, who has been here since Year 2, this is the first time Makalu has ever won and she took pride in that. Kanchenjunga’s winning streak has finally been brought to an end by Makalu and its uprising. However, Kanchenjunga took the lead in the track events by a total of 387 points, Dhaulagiri in the field events by 347 total points with Makalu right behind them with a total of 344 points and Makalu in the lead for the house cheers with 40 points.

Along with a great time for all, there were also 12 school records broken for different events by many of our students. Saksham in Year 8 broke two records in 200m with 30 seconds, and 800m with 2 minutes and 44 seconds. Yaja Sapkota in Year 9, broke the record for triple jump with 7.55m and Snigdha in Year 9 for 300m with 54.90 seconds. In the senior category, a record was broken in the relay by Abdul, Aarya, Jase and Saugat with a record of 52.40 sec.

A big shout out and thank you to the PE department and the rest of the TBS community including parents, teachers, TBS staff and students, behind the scenes who gave up their own time and got everything set up on the chilly Kathmandu morning and made this long awaited event possible. Despite the hiccups that they experienced earlier on in the year, they still managed to make it an enjoyable and fun day for all, in this year’s 25-26 TBS Sports Day.

This link will take you to the medal presentation photo folder.

Zonta at the Secondary Sports Day

A huge shoutout to the Zonta Club, a fantastic student-led volunteering group, for all their help on the day! They volunteered their time to run face painting, take Polaroid pictures, and sell Sweet Fix Pops, helping to raise money for a great cause and create such a fun, lively atmosphere. Students help plan these events with their wonderful ideas, so stay tuned for future events, especially with International Women’s Day coming up!

Year 11 Mocks – Advice and Reflections from Students after their First week of Examinations

Upasana and Nikhil (Y11)

With the first half of the Year 11 mock examinations over, we have interviewed some students about their experiences over exam week and asked them for some advice they would give to others going through exams as well. This article will provide some insight into other students’ studying habits, and some good tips to take into account before the next round of exams.

“Mocks do not decide the actual grades you get in your iGCSEs. They are made so you can understand the areas where you need to improve in order to ace your iGCSEs”– Abhiroop, Year 11

For Year 11 students, this is the first time examinations have been carried out in genuine exam conditions. Sure, there were the end of year exams in the library, but never in the hall with full 2 hour question papers. Furthermore this is the first time we have had to prepare ourselves with the knowledge of the entirety of subject specifications, not just for one minor topic test. One must remember that there is heavy emphasis on the word ‘mock’ in ‘mock exam’; these examinations are made to push us, help us understand the areas in which we need to seek help from our teachers, and to most importantly prepare us for the legitimate thing.

“Mocks are challenging; our arms hurt from writing. It is good to remember to just relax, don’t stress out. Don’t procrastinate revision, but don’t let it take over your life” – Mateo & Athalia, Year 11 

Whether you’re a Year 11 preparing for an exam, or Year 10 curious as to how to get ready for tests, we have sourced some study advice & resources that may come in handy. 

“Mocks can be stressful, intense but at the same time weirdly motivating” – Maulik, Year 11

Timing and schedule: 

It is important to have a simple structure/plan to follow on the run up to exams. Building a schedule to block in small revision sessions, whilst still having enough time to rest, is always a good idea. Websites such as Google Calendar and Notion are perfect for this task, and are completely free to access. Google Calendar has an easy-to-use interface, and doesn’t take long to learn how to use. On the other hand, Notion is on the more complicated side of things, but once mastered, can be very useful. Just 30 minutes per subject a week could be the difference between a B and an A*.

“It is important to remember that Failure Doesn’t Define You and that mocks are a good opportunity to learn.”  – Bilos, Year 11 

While the traditional method of making strict revision timetables work for some people,  others may find that they are a little difficult to stick to. An alternative would be the Retrospective Revision Timetable – something that is a little more flexible. We were recently taught how to use this timetable in our PSHE lessons and have found that it is very effective. This method uses spaced repetition to ensure that you target your weak areas more often instead of content you already know well. 

“Hard, challenging, but I think I did well. I would recommend doing past papers to prepare before the exams” – Victoria, Year 11

Revision websites:

In order to put into effect such schedules, revision resources are required. This could be past papers, quizzes, or flashcards. Writing out terminology and creating physical flashcards are incredibly useful – but if you find making resources by hand too time-consuming, there are also very good online alternatives that can save paper and time. For instance, Quizlet, which is a website that provides the user with numerous ways to learn definitions quickly. Likewise, Seneca and Save my Exams are great ways to go over content quickly. For more specific subjects, Cognito, Physics and Maths Tutor, and Maths Genie are all great websites to do topic based papers on. 

“Apply what you have learned about effective revision, don’t slip into bad revision habits, and most importantly, trust yourself.” – Ms Williams, Assistant Head of Secondary

Next week, being the final week of mock examinations, is on its way. Reflect on what you could have done differently, but don’t fret over it, there’s still time to improve and learn from those mistakes. Don’t view these examinations as something that causes stress – instead see them as a good opportunity to prepare for your real exams. To quote Mr Draper, 

“The best way to perform well in an exam is to wake up on the morning of the exam having had a good night’s sleep and mentally refreshed for the exam ahead. Spending many hours cramming last minute revision for the exams is categorically not the best way to prepare for an exam session – any more than a full high-intensity training session would be conducive the day before an important sports event.” – Mr Draper, Head of Secondary

 Volleyball tournament 

Abhirop (Y11)

Recently there was a power league that took place within the Year 11 P.E class, with the team names being assigned after SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) nations. It was a phenomenal display of sportsmanship, teamwork, and athletic ability. All teams gave it their all and worked well together.However in the end it was Team Pakistan that prevailed against all odds and won the tournament, with team captain Manashi leading them to victory. Team Pakistan led by Manashi and MVP Nyhal Shah, was able to secure victory. Here we have an exclusive interview with the vice captain of Pakistan, conducted by Abhiroop mandal. When asked a question about the leadership and team chemistry he had this to say, “Our team chemistry was incredible, we were always supporting each other after every mistake and it worked, our team won despite being in the second tier of the power league.”