THE BULLETIN BPS NEWSLETTER
Issue 13
The Bulletin BPS Newsletter
18th November 2016
CHILDREN ARE MADE READERS ON THE LAPS OF THEIR PARENTS – EMILIE BUCHWALD (CHILDREN’S AUTHOR)
Safety First
REMINDERS
by Mr. Peter Sloan
Year 6 Kenting Trip I am writing to ask for your assistance in keeping our children safe. We appreciate that parking places at school are hard to find and that traffic is usually heavy at home time. However, we are seeing that parent cars are regularly parking on the zebra crossing on Wenlin Road. This is illegal and it is a hazard. Cars parked on the crossing mean that children and parents on foot are forced on to the road, the parked cars reduce visibility for other drivers and the cars on the crossing are a potential danger when they are pulling out. If you use a driver, please make sure that they are aware of this or that if you are in a taxi, ask them not to stop on the crossing. Please help to keep our students safe by keeping the crossing clear.
Year 6 Kenting Trip Parent Meeting st (Mon) Mon) 21 November 1:40pm
Year 6 Show rd (Wed) Wed) 23 November 11:00am
THE BULLETIN BPS NEWSLETTER
Reading Day
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by Mr. Duncan Millward
What an exciting day for the EPC Reading Day! The classrooms and corridors were filled with magical stories, fantastical tales, meaningful memoirs and humorous yarns. Stories were shared from our distinguished guests from local embassies, our British Primary Section Council, and parents who were willing to o share their story-telling story skills. The purpose of the day was to promote the love of rea reading and enjoyment of books. Reading is a vital area of the curriculum that spans subjects in the skills and knowledge it fosters. Schools have no more fundamental responsibility sponsibility than teaching children to read. In the British Primary Section there is a current review of the teaching and learning in Reading, and more information will be shared to parents in regards to how you can help at home. Reading is an area of schooling scho that relies on
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the partnership of home and school. We know that parents who spend time reading with, and reading to their children makes a big difference to academic results at school. Thank you to our 48 volunteers who have given up time to read to our children today. A literary celebration was had by all and we have awoken some hidden talents from parents who may just become the next Stu Duval.
THE BULLETIN BPS NEWSLETTER
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Reverse Christmas Tree by Mr. Peter Sloan As you are aware Christmas is coming and d I am writing to you with advance notice of one of our events. The festive season is a traditional time for giving to others and this year BPS will be having a Reverse Christmas Tree as we have in previous years. The idea behind this is that tha we ask our children to give rather than to receive. In each classroom we will have a posting box and we are inviting children to bring in some money in an envelope. These envelopes can be decorated or just left plain. The envelopes should then be posted in the class post post box. We’ll ask classes to bring the boxes into Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 assemblies in the final week of this term. We asked the children in our Tribe Council to choose charities they would like to support this year. They chose the Society of Prevention Preventi of Cruelty to Animals and the Ti Hwei Home for Orphans. Details of the charities can be found at http://www.spca.org.tw and http://www.tihwei.org.tw
Another Special Guest for TES by Peter Sloan We are looking oking forward to the visit of Dr. Peiling Hu on Thursday of next week. Peiling is now teaching English and Contemporary American Literature in the Department of English at Tunghai University in Taichung, Taiwan. She is also working as a professional book critic.
Dr. Hu will also hold a workshop for parents and will identify how to support our children in their reading and how to encourage skills that will develop analysis. These skills help children to grow as critical thinkers and support their learning in school and also in their future career.
We are especially interested in her role as a translator of children’s books. Strictly No Elephants is the first children’s book she translated and she is currently working on translating the latest instalment of the bestselling illustrated series Diary of A Wimpy Kid,, scheduled to be released this November, together with a non-fiction fiction adult book on slavery.
Dr. Hu will share the importance of interpretation of books, how to interpret books, the art of translation, and how parents can discuss books with their own n child. We will also learn picture books aren’t just pictures or simply stories for young child but how the topics within book content can be put into action. From the seminar, we as parents will learn to inspire our child to dig out the morale behind the story.
Dr. Hu will be talking about her work with children in Years 3 and 5. There is also a super opportunity for parents to hear her talk about her h work as a translator and to share the importance of reading.
The workshop will be 13:40 – 14:30 in the Cookery Room (room #I204)
Book Critic, Columnist, and Translator (including the latest Diary of a Wimpy Kid!!)
Venue: Cookery Room (I204)
THE BULLETIN BPS NEWSLETTER
Dutch at TES
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by Petra Hoeve
True, children with a Dutch or Belgian passport can register for Dutch lessons. At the request of parents to maintain their mother tongue, and in close cooperation with the class teacher, the children leave 4x40 minutes a week their classroom to meet in the Dutch classroom. They work with the Dutch teacher to learn, maintain, or reinforce Dutch language skills. This requires dedication and hard work, but with lots of fun, in the relaxed environment of the Dutch school "Orange Dumpling". Due to the small number of Dutch children at T.E.S., and taking into account the curriculum of the day school, most children qualify for individual lessons with the Dutch teacher. There is varied attention for conversations, reading, reading comprehension, technical reading, vocabulary, spelling, grammar and
writing. For some children, the emphasis is on the maintenance of the Dutch language. For others the focus is to remain on the level of their peers at primary schools in the Netherlands. The latter requires motivation, commitment and perseverance from the children supported by the parent(s) at home and also the encouragement and support of the class teacher. In the "Orange Dumpling 'classroom, the children clearly enjoy learning new sounds, words, meanings or spelling rules. They love to read out loud from their own texts, listen to stories from a book or just chat with the teacher about a hot news topic or personal subject. For some children the Dutch class is a period a day to share with each other in their own language, especially while they are growing in confidence in their other languages. There are many occasions when children walk by to say something to the Dutch teacher, or pop their head round the door to see what is happening in Dutch lessons. Others ask to demonstrate something learned during their daily programme or in school activities in the final five minutes of the lesson. In Mid-October the Dutch children's book week was a wonderful way to let the kids fantasise about stories, writing lyrics and
creating illustrations. With admiration, they listened to each other or read each other's texts. Creativity and uniqueness were very much the theme throughout all the stories set aro round the title "Forever young – grandfathers and grandmothers." A special touch came for the junior children when an email correspondence started with a famous Dutch children's books writer Harm de Jonge – actually the master of the teach teacher. This will be continued throughout the year, because how special it is to strengthen your language skills with a real author?
Do not hesitate to look at the "Orange Dumpling website for activities completed in the Dutch school in Taipei: www.oranjedumpling.com www.oranjedumpling.com.
THE BULLETIN BPS NEWSLETTER
Year 5
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Year 2
(Thu) 17 Nov
- EPC Parent’s Meeting 3:30pm – 7:30pm
(Fri) 18 Nov
- Reading Day
(Sun) 20 Nov
- Chess: 2016 Taipei Schools Cup Team Championship
(Mon) 21 Nov
- Year 6 Kenting Trip Parent’s Meeting 1:40pm to3:00pm
(Wed) 23 Nov - Year 6 Show 10:40am to 11:40am (Thu) 24 Nov
- Year 1 Trip to Wei Chuan Pushin Ranch - Lower Choir singing at Taipei Regent Hotel (Lower Choir students only)
(Sat) 26 Nov
- Christmas Bazaar 10am-4pm 10am
For more details of the school academic calendar, please cli click ck the link below: http://www.taipeieuropeanschool.com/calendarM.php
TES Primary Orchestra