THE BULLETINBPS NEWSLETTER

Issue 22

The Bulletin BPS Newsletter

17 th February 2017

JOY IS THE SIMPLEST FORM OF GRATITUDE – KARL BARTH

Contribution of BPPTA to British Primary We are now just over half way through our academic year and this is a good opportunity to reflect on the work our BPPTA have been doing up to now. Our British Primary Parent Teacher Association work hard, from August all the way through to the following June. Their contribution to our school community is a very important one and their desire to support the school, provide opportunities for our children through close collaboration with staff, as well as working closely with the other elements of TES, enriches our children’s ‘BPS Experience’. Our BPPTA play a number of important roles in school life. They provide a warm welcome for new families and for parents who are new to our school. This often gives those parents who are new to Taipei an opportunity to meet and make new friends. The BPPTA make a major contribution in talking with BPS and TES management about issues such as the cafeteria, and school buses, and have taken on responsibility for dealing with lost property. Another service provided is the PTA second hand uniform shop, giving parents the opportunity to

by Mr. Peter Sloan

recycle outgrown uniform. This partnership between PTA and management provides an opportunity for the section and school to listen, and respond to, parental issues. BPPTA also provide valuable opportunities for us to meet together as a section or school community. This was particularly evident at last year's Summer Fair as well as the monthly workshops, organised by BPPTA. They also work closely with PSC and other sections and were involved in organising this year's tree lighting ceremony and took part in the Autumn Festival. The school has been especially delighted this year with the support for our reading programme in school. BPPTA have funded the visits of Stu Duval, a New Zealand author and Dr. Peiling Hu, a translator working in Taiwan. Their annual Book Fair goes from strength to strength and offers our children the opportunity to buy top quality books in English as well as the BPPTA contributing more books to our class resources. So, the BPPTA is about much more than raising money! This is, however, an important part

of their role and the last twelve months has seen a fantastic effort from the BPPTA, supported by our parent community, in raising funds to enrich our children’s experience at BPS. Over the last two years the BPPTA has donated a tremendous 1,356,000 NTD for our children. This was done thanks to our committee’s commi hard work and our school community’s support. The funding came from bake sales, the summer fair, the autumn festival and second hand uniform sales. The funds have been used to pay for the visits of authors Stu Duval and Peiling Hu, to th purchase 25 Anniversary gifts for our children, to buy resources for children to th create 25 Anniversary tiles, to enlarge and equip our Reception Playground and to fund equipment for our Infant and Nursery playgrounds. I would like to say thank you to our Chair for the last two years, Catherine Lai, and to everyone who has served on the BPPTA Committee, helped with events and supported the work of our BPPTA. You all make a big difference to our school community and to enrich the experiences of our children.

THE BULLETINBPS NEWSLETTER

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Leading Voice of Children’s Publishin Publishing World Visits by Mr. Craig Gamble Children en at the EPC were fortunate to receive a visit from the award winning American children's book editor Mr Neal Porter. Neal has worked in the publishing business for over 40 years and has worked for publishing houses such as Macmillan Children’s Books, Orchard Orc Books and Dorling Kindersley before founding Roaring Brook Press and Neal Porter Books. Mr Porter spent 40 minutes talking to our student’s about his passion for picture books and explaining to them how a book goes

from an author’s imagination to a fi finished book that can be read by children. He showed examples of the art work for Stephen Savage's Supertruck and explained how the publishing team work with the author and illustrators to produce dozens of various copies, each with a slight change, before selecting the final design and layout. The children asked Mr Porter a range of questions about his work and he left them with his top tip for writing which was to write from the heart about a topic that you are passionate about.

A Musical Collaboration by Mrs. Jennie Bonnalie

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What started as a one-off off event has now developed into a weekly occurrence enjoyed by all. Ms Kao invites a group of her older students to perform to the Nursery childre children. n. It provides the Nursery students with an opportunity to listen to different musical instruments, and hopefully be inspired to not only appreciate music, but maybe learn an instrument themselves. Often the songs chosen by the older students are ones that are familiar to the younger students, and they can join in and sing along. We have even had older brothers and sisters playing in front of their younger siblings. For the older students, this experience provides them with an opportunity to play to a live audience, and helps boost their confidence in performing. Thank you to all of the students and especially to Ms Kao for helping to make this happen.

THE BULLETINBPS NEWSLETTER

Nursery Playground Opening

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by Mr. Duncan Millward

On Monday morning, members of the Parent Support Council (PSC) which includes parents from all three sections joined the British, French and German nursery aged children to officially open the new Nursery playground. Although ugh the playground has now been open for a few weeks for the children to start using it, the official ribbon cutting with Dr Weston and the PSC was held at 10.00am. The

Bus Service Semester 2

children are so excited about the enormous sand pit, the rolling hill, the bicycle track and the bucket cket swing. Indoor and outdoor flow can now happen through the day and the enrichment this provides the Nursery environment is fantastic. A big thank you to all of the PSC members, including our own BPS PTA chair, Catherine Lai for their support.

by Kerry Nockolds

The new semester is underway and the bus routes (pick up and drop off) are in full swing. We would like to thank the parents for their cooperation as the bus us fees were moved onto the AOS system this semester. The AOS system is very familiar to us as parents as we use it for Field trips, Summer School, etc… so nearly everyone added their funds and pressed “join” without incident. Whilst there were a couple of parents delayed, we have contacted them to confirm the process. If you have any questions please contact Ms Natalie Wu at EPC. The next session of registration for the new academic year will be in May so please make sure you watch out for the registration registrat form and notification from Ms. Wu.

THE BULLETINBPS NEWSLETTER

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(Thu) 23 Feb

- Year 6 Mystery Trip

(Mon) 27 Feb

- School INSET Day (no school)

(Tue) 28 Feb

- Peace Memorial Day (Public Holiday)

(Thu) 02 Mar

- Year 6 Trip to Tamsui Forts and Tamkang Maritime Museum

06-10 Mar

- Year 6 Kenting Trip (B6.3/ B6.4)

13-17 Mar

- Year 6 Kenting Trip (B6.1/ B6.2)

16-19 Mar

- FOBISIA Maths Competition – Team to KL

Library Reading Time

(Wed) 22 Mar - Early Years Foundation Sports Day (BN/ BR) (Thu) 23 Mar

- Key Stage 1 Sports Day (Year 1-3)

(Fri) 24 Mar

- Key Stage 2 Sports Day (Year 4-6)

23-27 Mar

- FOBISIA Music Festival – Team to HK

For more details of the school academic calendar, please click the link below: http://www.taipeieuropeanschool.com/ca http://www.taipeieuropeanschool.com/calendarM.php

Reception Playtime

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Year 6 PE Lesson