It has been another busy week for all of the Primary students, in particular Year 2 who held a fundraising event for Shramik School in the form of setting up their very own restaurant. This also served as the Exit Point for the topic You Are What You Eat.

The children did a wonderful job not only making the pizzas ready for their parents and carers, but also setting up the restaurant area, serving food and drinks, and helping collect payments which once covering costs came to 24530 NPR as donations. All of the students and parents had a wonderful time as you can see in the photos below.

All of the Year 2 team would like to thank everyone who attended and supported us in making this possible.

We also welcomed parents for our eSafety information session led by our Computing Coordinator, Ms Katherine Harriswho shared our approaches to teaching eSafety at school along with information on age restrictions for a variety of social media apps and advice on parental controls. It was wonderful to see so many of our parents engaging with this topic.

Whilst teaching in Year 3 later this week, I was able to utilise our eSafety and computing curriculum whilst looking at the different types of digital devices we use, the applications we use them for and the differences between digital and non digital ways of drawing.

Our Year 3 students logged onto our school laptops, successfully logging in, using the ‘Paint’ software and saving their digital versions of the paintings they had previously created using watercolours.

It is a pleasure to see our young learners expanding their computing skills and their digital literacy in a safe and informed way.

Our Primary team are busy planning for another exciting week next week, when we are combining our TBS Poetry week with organising community partners projects. We are looking forward to welcoming students from Mary Ward school & Shamrik School to come and spend the afternoon working with our Years 1, 2, 3 and 4 students to learn, rehearse and perform poetry together.

When former students look back on their time at school years after leaving and are asked to reflect on their most memorable experience they (sadly) rarely mention their year 10 chemistry lessons (or any other academic lesson for that matter). They generally remember the friends they have made and the experiences they have shared – most notable on school trips. Expedition week provides all our students with an amazing opportunity to learn about themselves. They will be challenged, they will be taken out of their comfort zones, they will do things that they didn’t think they were capable of. They will learn about themselves and they will learn about working in a close knit team. Most importantly they will have fun – even if some of it may only be fun in hindsight! Expeditions are an incredible opportunity and a core part of the education at TBS. We trust that the character development that will take place next week will enable students to be more resilient in their academic learning and will give learning opportunities that will be genuinely life-long. Thank you to all parents for your support in sending back forms promptly and attending the Parent Information Sessions. We hope you enjoy the photos that will be sent back and circulated on school social media and year group WhatsApp groups next week.

This week has seen Year 11 drama students deliver their exam monologue piece to camera. They were very successful with students nailing their performances on the first take. Thank you to all who provided audience support and created the live atmosphere so necessary to lifting each actor’s performance to its full potential.

There are over 46 clubs and activities running in the secondary section. Last week I had the privilege of joining the Friday climbing club. Under careful supervision, it was wonderful to see some students overcome their fear and scale the 30 m wall for the first time, whilst others, more confident, challenged themselves to set personal best times in the speed climb. The unofficial inaugural TBS Key Stage 3 House climbing competition was won by Liam who scaled the wall in 32 seconds with Jasper in second just a second behind!

Clay, a versatile, sustainable, and resilient resource, which has played a pivotal role in human life, from Stone Age grooved vessels to decorative artefacts and icons, habitats to our contemporary educational settings. Nepal has long traditions of making and manufacturing with this medium, with over 10,000 potters living and working in Thimi, Bhaktapur and Kathmandu Valley alone.

With our new ceramics kilns and studios established and building upon ceramic prior learning, culminating in last year’s successful “TBS pottery throwdown”, we are now utilising clay and pottery throughout primary workshops and the secondary curriculum. It is our belief that ceramic manipulation not only nurtures creativity but also aids in the development of fine motor skills, spatial understanding and problem-solving abilities whilst offering a hands-on and practical approach to learning via artistic expression and cognitive growth as part of our Art and Design curriculum.  Here are just a few examples of how clay, pottery and ceramics have been used this term; further information is available via our curriculum overviews on the TBS website.

TBS has collected a selection of stationary, school bags and equipment which we have donated to 50 students at The Swiss Air Preschool in Chitwan. Below you can see the students looking very smart and happy with their new school bags.

On Friday last week, our Community Partnership & Outreach team held an online JAWs to share best practice in the form of workshops and case studies.

It was a great success as TBS hosted 16 international schools from across Asia who participated in a series of three targeted workshops covering topics including collaboration, TBS as a teacher training centre, fundraising and expeditions; two cases studies presented by our secondary student leaders and facilitated by Ms Anne Goldie & Ms Samantha Bishop and a panel forum focussing on how to move partnerships forward. We are very excited to be collaborating with these schools in the future.

Last week, the TBS secondary MFL team had the excellent opportunity to jointly organise a World Languages JAWS with Kellett School in Hong Kong through FOBISIA. We brought together 40 language teachers across Asia and discussed ways to strengthen classroom practice and explore the incorporation of AI. Our three staff members ran workshops on oracy, real world application and language promotion and thoroughly enjoyed working with their counterparts at Kellett. It was an excellent occasion to collaborate and share experiences from across the international schooling community. A big thank you to the attendees, to FOBISIA and to Kellett School!