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Cambridge International School
12/2014
Newsletter
We are proud to announce that CIS is now an
authorised centre able to offer the International Award to our 14+ year old students. It is
an internationally recognised programme
which aims to provide a range of different opportunities for the personal development of
young people. It adds significantly to their
CVs when applying for universities. We start
running the programme in January!
Director’s Foreword
December events 2
Dear Parents,
Halloween & Maths and Science Day 3
After nearly four months of hard work along
with much fun and excitement, the first term
of the current school year is coming to a close.
Competitions 6
In this newsletter, enjoy reminders of some of
the activities of the last half-term at CIS.
What’s happening around CIS 7
We still have our fantastic Christmas production to look forward to, so hopefully we will
Your children in action 8
see you there. I would like to wish everyone a
restful and enjoyable festive break and see you
Features 18
back in January 2015.
Peter Radoja
Children’s corner 19
December Events
1.&4.12.2014 | Open Days in Year 2
More than 30 mothers and fathers of 2015/16 school year 1st graders (Year 2 in British system) attended our CIS Open Days in the first week of December. They had a chance to learn more about our
school, see our school building, attend actual Year 2 lessons, look at the work of our children, and ask
our staff and Year 2 class teachers questions.
5.12.2014 | St Nicolaus Day
Mikuláš didn't forget about our children and brought chocolates for those who were good this year :)
6.12.2014 | Christmas floorball tournament
We organised a floorball tournament for our students, parents, supporters and staff and spent a nice
Saturday morning together.
13.12.2014 | Christmas workshop
We invited all our parents to our second (and last) Christmas workshop. It lasted from 9:00 to 12:00
and our aim was to finish all the preparations for the Christmas musical because detail makes all the
difference. An invitation has already been sent to parents. All the students playing the main characters were here practicing with Ms Heidi too.
18.12.2014, 16:30| ‘12 Days of Christmas’ musical
We would like to invite you to our ‘12 days of Christmas’ musical that will take place on Thursday,
December 18th, 16:30 in Dom kultury Dubravka. All the parents, grandparents and friends are welcome. Similarly to the previous year, a professional cameraman will be filming the performance, and
the DVDs produced will be available for sale at a nominal cost.
19.12.2014 | Last day of term
Friday is the last day before we break up for the winter holidays. The school will be open till 13:30
and all the afternoon activities including the Playroom will be cancelled.
Primary school—class teachers will prepare parties with their own fun activities for their classes.
Secondary school—all the students that would like to share a talent of theirs can take part in the CIS
Talent Show as a group or individuals and perhaps win a big box of chocolates!
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Halloween
We ended October with Halloween celebrations.
Everyone came dressed up in all sorts of frightening costumes and competed for votes in three
categories—Primary, Secondary and Teachers.
The day was filled with different fun scarythemed activities, and Year 8 students even prepared a scary labyrinth in the basement for the
courageous ones.
Taisiya (in the middle) won the ‘Best
Halloween
competition
Costume’
in
the
Secondary school. Her
costume was homemade, and this is the
second year in a row
she was voted the
best. Congratulations
Taya,
we
applaud
your creativity :).
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Maths and Science Day
Primary school
Maths and Science Day was a day full of fun
and a chance for children to apply the
knowledge they have gained in practical
tasks.
They had to solve a few tasks—who stole Mr
Radoja’s fish? Where did they hide it? What
did they use to carry the fish? How did they
do it?
The children measured the pots to find out
how much liquid they can hold. A number of
them flooded the classrooms, but didn't fail to
figure out the right answer.
They were trying to find out which powder was
used to put the fish to sleep that dissolves in
water without a trace as well.
Mr Radoja’s fish was found at the Assembly and happily returned to him in
the end. The children found out that Mr
Wells was the villain and tried to punish
him there and then :)
You can find the videos from the Maths
and Science Day on our YouTube account
here:
www.youtube.com/user/
CISBratislava/videos
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Maths and Science Day
Secondary school
All secondary students were involved in an exciting treasure hunt. In order to find the hidden treasure they had to solve different tasks like building a tower, solving Einstein’s riddle or building a model of a water molecule. Students also trained their memory while learning about famous scientists
and the history of Mathematics.
We had lots of fun solving different tasks and
figuring out the location of our treasure. At the
end all teams managed to get their bit of the
treasure and as a reward for a great game they
can improve one of their Maths grades by 10%.
As the teams were mixed the students also got to
know each other better and showed very good
manners and excellent team work. Well done
everyone!
Special THANK YOU goes to Year 12 students who helped with the preparation of this successful
day! Here you can see all of us with the treasure (most of it was eaten that day :))
(Dr Magdaléna Kubešová, Teacher of Mathematics and Biology)
More photos in our gallery on www.cambridgeschool.eu.
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Competitions
Schools football round-up:
With 453 entries from across Slovakia, the Slovak Schools' Dôvera Under 12 Cup is one of the most difficult
of the National Cups to win. The draw
for our schools was: Dubová Primary
School, Grösslingová Primary School
and
Deutsche
Schule
Palisády.
Grösslingová and Deutsche Schule
moved into the play-off round.
Matej Janyík and Noah Grosser
(Y6E) netted once and Arash Motlagh
(Y6E), Artur Varmuža, Han Gyu
Choi, Joobin Park, Lukáš Košťál,
Nino Ondrovič and Tomáš Záhymský
(Y7S) added further efforts.
(Mr Peter Hodossy, Teacher of PE
and ICT)
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What's happening around CIS
Year 8T organised a bake sale with a number of great
cakes to choose from on Friday, November 7th. The
children had a chance to purchase a cake throughout
all the breaks. The cakes must have been really good
though, because they barely lasted till lunch time :).
The class agreed on donating half of the money raised
to Poppy Appeal.
Our school took part in collecting for a charity called Poppy
Appeal and raised a wonderful
£158.91 (more than €200). This
is part of the annual Remembrance Day celebration and the
money collected will be used to
help war veterans.
Mrs Kubešová, our Universities and
Careers Coordinator organised a visit
by McGill University in Canada,
which is ranking 21st in the 2012/13
QS
World
University
Rankings.
They talked about the programmes
the University offers, and how it is to
study and live in Canada for the students. They even shared a number of
practical tips on how to make the application look more appealing!
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Your children in action
Primary school
The Year 2Ds had a wonderful half term. We have been learning about shapes in Maths as well
as following and analysing instructions in Literacy. The children had an animal quiz in Science
and they did really well remembering all the interesting facts they learned about the animals. We
finished our Toys topic with a toy trading fair where the children exchanged their toys. It was great to see the children bringing and exchanging their toys. Well done 2Ds!!!
(Mrs Veronika Darwell, Year 2D Class Teacher)
Recently Year 2S experienced giving instructions including sequencing language to explain what we
were doing. As a class, we made a
musical instrument. We wrote down the instructions for making a
shaker on our own. We talked about features of instructions (How
to__, What we need__, pictures,
bossy verbs and sequencing words
of how we make a musical instru-
(Mrs Mila Gundelj, Year 2S Class Assistant)
ment).
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In Year 3M, we have been learning
To achieve this and have a real experience, we built our
about coding in our ICT lessons. We
own marshmallow towers. It was a very good experience
had many sessions of coding and
and yummy challenge. We learned that sometimes
wrote codes that moved characters
things can go wrong or not as planned. What we had to
around in mazes or drew lines. At
do was to think again or differently and to start again till
this stage, we were learning about
we succeeded.
persistence during long and hard
(Mr Masoud Motlagh, Year 3M Class Teacher)
processes.
Dear CIS and Mr Radoja,
I am very sorry for taking the goldfish. It was only
supposed to be a joke. I can't believe that so many
children in primary school could solve who did it
by using maths and science.
Your sincerely,
Dastardly Dai
Mr Radoja has made me clean his office as a punishment.
3W also welcomed a new face. Victoria has join our class all the way from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. She has already settled into our high octane
lifestyle in 3W and we are pleased that there is another friendly and eager
learner among us.
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Year 3Ws have been working very hard this half term. In maths, we were looking at measuring
time and capacity. We solved a mystery by measuring the volume of water in different bottles. In
English, we were looking at poetry and instructional writing. I dressed up as a wizard and made a
video on 'How to make an invisibility potion?' I disappeared when I drank it, I never thought it
would really work! The children did some incredible writing. I'm sure there is a future Shakespeare
or Poe somewhere in the class. I cannot fault the effort and progress made by every child in the
class. I am proud to say they each show the correct attitude to learning every day.
(Mr David Wells, Year 3W Class Teacher)
Year 4C have been experimenting and investigating solids, liquids and gases. The children have
had a lot of fun finding out about gases this month. They investigated how air has weight using balloons, watching to see how a blown up balloon is heavier than a balloon that goes down slowly.
Next the children investigated how much air there is in soil, using water to fill the spaces. They
found some interesting results!
(Ms Heidi Crowhurst, Year 4C Class Teacher)
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Year 4S have been measuring capacity in maths. They then used their skills in measuring capacity to carry out a science investigation. Pupils were trying to find out how much air was present in different types of soils as part of their states of matter topic. Pupils needed to measure
the water, pour it into the soils until the cup was full and then check how much water was left.
This told them how much water could fit into the soil and therefore the volume of air in each different soil.
(Ms Faye Smith, Year 4S Class Teacher)
In both of the Year 5 classes the children have been working hard in Geometry. They have been
learning about 2D and 3D shapes and their properties. In these photos the children are making
different types of triangles using geo-boards because sometimes it is more useful to make something once, than to see it or hear about it ten times!
(Mr Jason Harrison, Year 5J Class Teacher,
Mrs Edita Harrison, Year 5E Class Teacher)
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Year 6 Great Halloween Bake Sale
As you may remember,
Y6E held a cake bake sale
on the Friday of Halloween.
We raised an amazing 215
Euro thanks to the number of cakes that were kindly donated and the enthusiasm of the children
and staff in purchasing
them.
We decided to donate this money to Parasport 24, a Slovak charity, and two representatives
from the charity came into school to receive the money and tell us a little about the work the
charity does.
Mr Miroslav Bulovsky is the leader of Parasport 24 and Ms Paulina Triscova helps with the work
of the charity and paints, mainly
pictures of angels, which she sells
to help raise money for the charity. This is all the more remarkable as Ms Triscova was born with
no arms. She has kindly offered to
donate a painting to school,
which you can see hanging in our
dining room.
We are very grateful to them both for taking time to visit us. It meant a lot to the children to be
able to hand the money over in person.
(Mrs Judi Easton, Year 6E Class Teacher)
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Secondary school
Science
Year 8 students are presenting their projects - My Food Pyramid during Biology lessons.
Year 9 students are learning about
atomic structure and the properties of
Year 10 students - performing simple distillation
group I and II metals during Chemis-
and chromatography during a Chemistry lesson.
try lessons.
(Maria Sirnikova, Teacher of Science and Chemistry)
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Year 12s are working hard and preparing for their AS exams in May 2015. As part of their preparation they investigated enzyme activity. We used chicken liver that contains enzyme catalase to
investigate the rate of breakdown of hydrogen peroxide into oxygen and water.
(Mrs Magdaléna Kubešová, Secondary Maths and Biology Teacher)
History & Geography
Year 7s are learning about plate tectonics at the moment. In this lesson, they
learnt about how convection currents
in the mantle are causing the plates on
the surface to move slowly. Over time,
the moving tectonic plates cause earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis. At
the end of the unit, the students will
make model volcanoes which will
erupt!
(Mr Declan Hayes, Teacher of History
and Geography)
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English
During their English lessons, Year 10S have been enjoying the challenge of analysing William
Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’. In order to support their understanding, they explored the sonnet form and were provided with some structures for collaboratively devising their own sonnets.
All of the groups rose to the challenge and the winning team’s sonnet is printed below.
When asked how they felt about the task, they replied:
“ It was fun and helped me to improve my vocabulary.” - Teodora
“It was easy to find the rhyming words but difficult
to make them make sense using iambic pentameter.” – Taisiya
“It was hard but working in teams made it easier
and fun.” – Linda
“We had to co-operate with each other in order to
be successful.” – Rebeca
“It made me wonder about the challenging work
poets do.” – Alina
“We are not Shakespeare!” - Jason
Walking on the street on shining snow
Give me a hint or maybe just a sign
My affections always engraved in stone
Otherwise I will lose all of my mind
My eternal passion turns into glow
This shall be the consequence of your crime
My glistening senses prone
I will no longer feel like being blind
Your magnificent beauty lifts the shade
Your love alters my moral afflictions
You’re as far away as the silver moon
For now I’m done with making decisions
A thought of you just like a dreadful blade
For I hope our misfortunes will meet soon
By Joe, Linda and Taisiya (10S)
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Katarina Gazdova and Paulina Martinkova (Year 12P) have been studying the poetry of
Wilfred Owen as part of their AS Level English Literature course. As Wilfred Owen is recognised as one of the most famous poets of the First World War, Katarina and Paulina were set
the task of devising and delivering a presentation for the Secondary Assembly to inform students about the Great War, Wilfred Owen and the tradition of Remembrance or ‘Poppy Day’.
When asked why this was a valuable task they said:
“Remembrance Day was established in order to remember and honour all of the soldiers that
died in the First World War and any other war since then. It is important in order to realise
what war is and its impact on humanity.”
“The study of Wilfred Owen poetry, gives people a more realistic and direct personal account of
the experience of soldiers and service personnel in war. The poetry is very touching and vivid.”
“Studying Owen’s poetry has enabled us to achieve a wider sense of knowledge of the pity of
war and the lives of the soldiers/men involved.”
“It is still relevant today because, even in recent times, soldiers are being sent to war and their
experiences and emotions don’t differ too greatly from those that Owen describes in his poetry.”
(Ms Claire Smith, Teacher of English Language and Literature)
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Slovak Language
Na hodinách slovenčiny v Year 8T sme si precvičili opisný slohový postup, ktorý žiaci poznajú už z
predchádzajúcich ročníkov. Úlohou žiakov bolo
opísať obľúbené zvieratko alebo domáceho miláčika. Niektorí žiaci dokonca vyrobili aj krásne plagáty, ktoré teraz visia na nástenke v slovenčinárskej
triede. (obrázok)
Na literatúre sme sa venovali poézii a keďže Y8T
má bohatú fantáziu, rozhodli sme sa napísať aj
vlastné básne, ktoré boli tematicky zamerané podobne ako básne, ktoré sme čítali na hodinách.
Hra je šťastie a nie sen,
Šťastie
Sloboda
vždy je z toho pekný deň.
Mama má vždy rada
Odvaha a túžba,
Keď sa mama s deťmi hrá,
dieťatko to svoje.
vedie nás k slobode.
vždy je dobrá nálada.
Vždy keď sa s ním zahrá,
Aj cez búrku blesky,
A keď otec učí dieťa chodiť,
všade šťastie hreje.
budeme v pohode.
cez problémy musí sa brodiť.
(Bibi 8T)
Keď ho otec uspí,
sníva sa mu sen.
O tom, aký krásny
zažili spolu deň.
(Lucia Pauková, Teacher of Slovak Language and Literature)
Art
Over the last few weeks autumn has reached the Art
room as well. Children across the Primary School
have been working on various projects from texture
rubbings to leaf printings. The result is a beautiful
display of work in earthy, seasonal colours.
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(Viki 8T)
In Secondary, students have created wonderful food posters with the technique of painted paper collage. Their work represents current youth culture and is titled Food, Glorious Food!
The November Secondary Art Certificates was awarded to Han Gyu (Y7), Ella (Y8) and Roberta
(Y9). Congratulations to you all and keep up the good work!
(Mrs Csilla Conticello, Teacher of Art)
Features
Meet our Year 3W Class Teacher and Primary ICT coordinator, Mr Wells. He’s with us for the second year in a row now and we are very happy to have him here.
Which places have you been to (and what did you do
there)?
I really love travelling. There is an Arab proverb that says, "He
who lives sees much, but he who travels sees more." Every place
has something unique and interesting to offer and I love chatting with locals wherever I go. It's great to know people so passionate about the places they live. I have been to nearly every
country in Europe (I've yet to visit Russia, Switzerland,
Ukraine, Scandinavia and the smaller Baltic states). Slovakia is first place I have lived outside of
Wales. There is so much to see and do here. It's Europe's hidden gem.
What jobs have you done and whereabouts?
I have had a few strange jobs. I have sold water efficiency devices to farmers in Mid Wales; I slept in
a tent, in a field full of cows and sheep, once it nearly flooded because the river burst its banks.
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Also, I was a secret shopper, so I used to buy fireworks, knives and other dangerous things. The aim
was to see if shops checked my I.D. During my teacher training, I was a personal security guard. I
guarded many famous people including the Brazilian, Swiss and Korean football teams, as well as
US presidential candidates. Finally, I worked as a supply teacher in every type of school you could
think of.
Why did you decide to become a teacher?
From about the age of 13 I was involved in a mentoring project in school, helping children who
struggled with English to improve every morning before classes. From there I volunteered weekly at
a special needs school. Most places I go to explore, but I was sent to Turkey to learn more
about mentoring children with special educational needs. I found that I had a real passion and enjoyment for it. The rest is history! :)
What do you do in your free time?
When I'm not travelling, I play for the Slovak Shamrock GAA team. I had never played the game
before coming to Bratislava. it's really fun and similar to rugby, basketball and football - a great way
to keep fit. Učím sa slovensky každý týždeň, ale som zle! I cook and bake quite a lot too, I like trying
new recipes out. Learning new things is important to me. :)
Children's corner
Can you guess who the boy on the picture is? You can see his
grown up version walking around the school every day :) Ask
your class teachers to show you more of his pictures if you are
stuck and can’t figure out who he is.
Please submit your answers to your class teachers by January
12th, 2015, the first Monday after your return to school after
winter holidays. We will reward one correct answer from Primary and Secondary with a sweet prize on both Assemblies
that week.
Connect with us here:
P: +421 2 207 206 79
M: +421 918 121 892
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E: [email protected]