November 2008 - British School Of Bucharest

The British School of Bucharest Magazine 

Issue 1 - November 2008 

Visit the BSB website at www.britishschool.ro 

On Page 9 

BSB Students Explore 

the Sights of London 

One of the best aspects of studying at an 

international school is the many chances students 

have to learn about other cultures. 

One way to do this is to head off on one of the school’s regular 

trips abroad. This summer, some of our students enjoyed a 

summer trip to England, where they participated in a 5 day 

outdoor adventure camp and 2 day tour of London. 

On Pages 4 & 5 

On Page 20 

On Page 10 

Students eat Pizza as Science 

Experiment 

What does pizza have to do with science, 

you ask? Find out just what Mr Powers, the 

new Head of Science, has been getting up 

to with the students in the BSB science lab 

this term. 

Key Stage 1 Students Move into 

New Building 

One of the more noticeable changes is 

the development of a second floor in 

Ringwood. Read about the new changes to 

Key Stage 1 and some of the other changes 

at BSB inside this issue. 

BSB Summer Shakespeare 

receives standing ovation 

The Summer Production was one of the 

highlights of the BSB calendar and it was 

to rapturous applause and a standing 

ovation that BSB students lined up to take 

their final bow. 

Contents 

· Editor’s Note 2 

· BSB Charity Update 2 

· Principal’s Report 3 

· Foundation Report 4 

· Primary School Report 4 

· Key Stage 1 Report 4 

· Key Stage 2 Report 5 

· Secondary School Report 5 

· Ringwood students to get new 

lunch room 5 

· Happy builders hard at work 

on the Foundation Stage 

art/lunch room 5 

· New Teachers 6 

· Where are they now 6 

· BSB Blogging 7 

· Ms. Jennifer Ullman, Year 6 

Teacher 7 

· Jeans for Genes 8 

· Student Council for 2009 8 

· BSB Students take London 

by storm 9 

· A “Sweet” Story 10 

· Science Speak 10 

· The Music Department 

adds a little Rhythm 11 

· Student in the spotlight 12 

· Starting School at BSB 13 

· Healthy Bake Sale 13 

· Year 6 celebrating Bake Sale 13 

· Entrevista con Rocío Martí 14 

· Year 4 Art 14 

· European Day of Languages 15 

· BSB University Course 

Overview 2008 16 

· BSB Physical Education 18 

· Personal Health Social 

Education 19 

· Gafencu Sports Day 19 

· BSB’s A Midsummer Night’s 

Dream 2008 20 

· Foundation Theatre: The 

Window Sill 20 

· The Drama Department 21 

· A Day in the Life of a TA… 22 

· New Primary School 

Equipment in Use 22 

· Ks1 Star Of The Week 

Celebrations 23 

· Reading at Anthony Frost 

British Book Shop 23 

· Primary School House 

Competition 24 

· House Point Chart 25 

· Secondary School House 

Competition 25 

· Foundation Stage 26 

· Exceptional Student Writing 28 

· Years 1-6 Class pages 30 

· What is CPD? 33 

· The Eight Millennium 

Development Goals 34 

· My Day 

at the MDG Conference 34 

· Adult Classes underway 35 

· Bucharest International 

Schools’ Forum 35


Editor’s Note 

Mr Kendall Peet, 

BSB Newsblast Lifer 

September and October were particularly busy months 

for BSB, as always, with the bustle of the first week 

back in which both returning and newly arrived students 

find out who their form tutors, class teachers, subject 

teachers and TAs will be for the year, which classrooms 

and locker they have been assigned, and what their 

weekly schedule looks like. It’s an exciting time to be on 

campus and with such a busy calendar planned for the 

year ahead, it is sure to be a great year for all concerned. 

The University Courses, are back in full swing, with more 

courses than ever being offered, thanks to the great 

work of Mr. Ian Davidson and his hard working team, 

which you can read all about on Pages 16 and 17. You 

can find out about some of the charity work being done, 

as well as the sporting events that have been organised 

by the newly arrived PE teachers who are now heading 

the BSB Healthy School campaign (pages 18 & 19). There 

has been a lot going in the classrooms, and you can 

read on to find out why students received chocolate as 

a reward in English classes and ate pizza in the science 

lab (Page 10). You can also find out about some of the 

new teachers who have joined us this year, what some 

of our past students are getting up to (page 6), and what 

it is like to be a student beginning your first year at BSB 

(page 13). Mr Sonny Leese talks about the new initiative 

to get BSB classes online (page 7), some of our senior 

school students inform us about the importance of MDG 

(Page 34), and several teachers return from a CPD trip 

to England and tell all (Page 33). We do a little catch up 

with a write up on the Summer London Trip (page 9), The 

School Summer Productions (page 21), and Gafencu’s 

Sports Day (page 19), and are offered a brief glimpse 

into the world of the BSB TA (page 20), thanks to 

Mr Jonathan Crispin’s little foray into journalism. In all, 

it is a full, fun packed issue with a little of something for 

everyone. 

I would like to very briefly thank everyone who 

contributed to this issue; in particular, I would like 

to thank Mr Brad amacher and his team of University 

Course writers for the many articles they contributed to 

this issue, Ms Doina Antohiand MsHelen Calthrop for the 

great job they did collecting up the information for the 

class pages, and Mr Serafini for helping to reduce my 

stress levels immeasurably by offering to help put this 

issue together. 

Happy reading 

BSB Charity Update 

Ms Hussain and Reverend Martin 

Jacques with the food collected for 

Stelian Charity Food Bank. 

One boy who received a shoe box. 

Young Rosia Montana pupils 

receiving the BSB shoe boxes 

This year we hope to repeat and build on the 

fundraising successes we had last year with the 

Shoe Box Appeal, entry into the DHL Marathon, 

and various other fun charity fundraising events. 

Already this year we have started well with the 

Jeans 4 Genes Day raising over 3000 Ron for 

genetic research (Turn to page 8 for a detailed 

review), and the Harvest Festival Food Bank 

Appeal, which raised a large amount of food for 

people in the Romanian community in need. 

Reverend Martin Jacques attended the Primary 

School Assembly and personally thanked all the 

BSB children for giving so generously and, along 

with a representative from Sf. Stelian (www. 

sfstelian.ro), answered many of the questions 

the children had about the charity work they are 

currently doing in Romania. 

With Christmas nearly upon once again, it is 

time now to turn our attention toward the Shoe 

Box Appeal, to collect gifts for children from 

poor families in Romania who cannot afford to 

buy presents for their children. Last year BSB 

students brought in a large number of shoe 

boxes full of presents and donated them to a 

school from the village of Rosia Montana. Miss 

Renaudin and Miss Marcu took the boxes to 

the children of this village, which is situated 

in a poor mining area in the North-West of 

Romania. We hope this year to again be able 

to give presents to students in need, so please 

give generously. 

We want our students to have an active 

participation in the choice of the initiatives and 

charities we are going to support this year. To 

this end, the School Council and the secondary 

house captains are going to research charities 

and make a decision as to who they would like 

to support. 

Some of the fundraising events planned for this 

year ahead include: 

· The Artisan Fair on the 12th of December 

· A Quiz and BBQ Night for Parents (in spring) 

· A Sponsored Whole Day Keep Fit Relay 

· Funny Socks Day 

Ms Dorothea Draser, BSB Charity Committee 


2


Principal’s Report 

Jo Puddy Wells 

Principal 

The Front Desk 

If you need any information or help 

with regard to BSB, please do not 

hesitate to contact our office team 

during normal working hours. 

Office hours: 8.00am-5.00pm, 

Monday-Friday. 

For help relating to school 

transport, student lunches, 

or sports and clubs, and for general 

enquires, please contact: 

Tanya Biryukova, Office Manager 

Email: office@britishschool.ro 

Tel: 021 267 8919 

Fax: 021 267 8969 

Cristiana Patru or Adina Suciu 

Email: office@britishschool.ro 

Mob: 0728 133 432/3 

On behalf of BSB, we would like 

to wish all returning and new 

students the very best for the year 

ahead. 

Dear Parents and Friends of BSB 


Welcome to our first newsletter of the academic 

year, and a warm greeting to all our new staff and 

families that have joined the BSB community this 

year. 

One of our main aims this year is for the school to 

become more involved with the wider community, 

and to this end we have already established several 

new initiatives and links with relevant groups. We 

are now an official supporter of the charity Light into 

Europe which works with Blind and Deaf schools in 

Romania (www.lightintoeurope.org). We have been 

working alongside them for many years, but felt that 

the time had come to make a more official bond; 

we look forward to the many collaborative projects 

in the future including liaison between staff, a 

visit on Children’s Day in 2009 and also the part 

sponsorship of a guide dog in the new year. They 

are already looking for families who might consider 

fostering a guide dog puppy, so please be in touch 

if you feel you could commit to this wonderful 

opportunity. 

As we become more established we are also able 

to cultivate healthy links with international schools 

outside of Romanian. This year we are planning 

projects that will involve Literacy (Brighouse 

School UK), Art (Highgate School, Nicosia), and P.E. 

(British School of Brussels). I am sure you will read 

more about these ventures in upcoming editions 

of Newsblast. We are also working alongside 

Bucharest schools and already a new series of 

sports fixtures has begun. 

You may also have noticed that we have been able 

to expand our adult classes at school to include Art, 

English and Romania, all of which have proved very 

popular with parents and friends of BSB alike. We 

would like to extend our programme of activities so 

if you have any suggestions please let us know, and 

if you would like more information on any of these 

classes please contact our office. 

This October saw the establishment of Monster 

Munchkins, our first toddler group aimed at children 

currently too young for our crèche class. They are 

meeting on a Monday morning in the community 

room, and it has been a pleasure to see some new 

families on our campus, it is a great opportunity 

for the community of young families in our area to 

come together for a chat and play; it seems to be 

proving a great success, and our thanks go to Emma 

Donaldson and Ali Power for their work in setting 

this up. 

Already our PTA group has organised several 

coffee mornings for new and old parents, Class 

representatives are helping in classrooms, plus 

we have had two Ladies Nights out in Bucharest, 

as well as a great day of Halloween activities for 

the students. Our thanks go to all those involved 

as this is such an important part of school life and 

could not happen without the commitment of time 

that is so generously given. We hope that as many 

of you as possible would like to get involved with 

upcoming events including the Artisan Fair and carol 

singing in December and the traditional collection 

of filled shoeboxes to be donated over the holiday 

period. 

We are all enjoying the atmosphere created through 

these collaborations and feel it is a vital part of our 

students learning to be part of an active community 

so thank you to all those supporting our new 

ventures. 

We have a very full schedule of events this year, 

however one of our top priorities to help in our 

school’s development, has been to commit to 

an Independent School’s inspection this coming 

May. I.S.I. (www.isi.net) is a body approved for the 

purpose of school inspection by the DCSF, British 

Government body, and we are looking forward to 

their teams visit. We have been informed that the 

team will include Mrs. Sara Wiggins as the reporting 

inspector and Ms. Christine Ryan who is currently 

the Chief Inspector of the Independent Schools 

Inspectorate. The inspection will last for one week 

and will include a full inspection of all aspects of 

the school structure for teaching and learning. I 

hope to keep you informed with more information 

concerning the inspection nearer the time, however 

if you have any questions about how this will work 

please do not hesitate to be in touch. 

We are very happy to be able to expand our 

opportunities to the students to learn a musical 

instrument, and with the funds raised at last year’s 

Summer Fair we are purchasing some instruments 

that children can borrow for a term while they begin 

to learn the instrument. Following this if the student 

chooses to carry on with the instrument they will 

need to purchase their own, but it gives the chance 

to try the instrument before an expensive purchase 

is made. Hopefully through this new project we will 

build up a more comprehensive group of musicians. 

Although we have been treated to a marvelous 

musical recital this term we are looking to establish 

a larger group, and see more of our students taking 

part. Initially we have found flute, guitar, cello and 

violin teachers. However if you have discussed 

another type of instrument and would like to make 

an alternative suggestion please be in touch. 

For now may I wish you a very happy Autumn term; 

and if I may help in any way in answering your 

questions or responding to a query please do not 

hesitate to be in touch. 

Kind Regards, 

Jo Wells 

principal@britishschool.ro 

3


Foundation Report 

Ms Angela Harvey, 

Head of Foundation 

Hello to everyone. Well the year has started in a rush 

and I’m sure everyone is looking forward to making the 

most of this year knowing that it will pass by in a flash. 

Learning will take place, fun will be had, friendships will 

be made and lost and made again, and undoubtedly as 

always, knees will be scraped, tears will be wiped, and 

we will all be one year older. So… how can we make the 

best of this year? Well, fortunately we have way too many 

ideas to just share with you in this paragraph, so instead 

we will share them with you in all the other ways we have 

e.g. departmental newsletter, communication book, 

display board, e-mail and letter. Please let us know your 

ideas? Keep in touch. Talk with us. We want to share this 

fresh new school year with you. 

We have lots of new Teachers and Teaching Assistant’s 

this year. I am sure you have met most of them by now, 

but if you are not sure who somebody is, take a look 

at the display boards just inside the front door of each 

building – we have a wonderful team of people who all 

have something special to bring to the Foundation Stage 

Department. 

Primary School Report 

Ms Naima Hussain, 

Head of Primary 

Time in a school seems to be governed by different rules 

to time outside the school gates. On the one hand, the 

first half term seemed to race past in a blur; it barely 

feels like a moment since I was welcoming back the old 

faces and meeting all the new ones on Day 1; and yet, 

on the other hand, it also feels like the new classes have 

always been working together, here in our beautiful 

campus. Faces, which two months ago were unknown 

to us, now feel as familiar to us, as those which we have 

known for years. In this regard, I am forever amazed 

by the ease in which children adapt and accustom 

themselves to new experiences and routines; walking 

around the classrooms and observing the children 

playing together at break time, it is very obvious and 

pleasing to see that new relationships have been forged 

very quickly throughout the school. 

The teachers and pupils in primary have been very 

busy this first half term. I have seen some amazing 

work being done around the school and it is always a 

pleasure to see how happy and engaged the children 

are with their work, their classmates and their teachers. 

All the children seem to have thrown themselves 

Key Stage 1 Report 

Ms Lindsey Banks, 

KS1 Co-ordinator 

Key Stage 1 began the school year in a super new 

building. Over the summer the Foundation/Reception 

Ringwood building was extended and developed to 

house KS1. Years 1 and 2 returned from their summer 

break and found a great new facility waiting for them 

- how lucky they are! The new staircase mens that Years 

1 and 2 have a separate entrance from the rest of the 

Ringwood building. This will create easy access to our 

classrooms. As well as 4 spacious classrooms, we also 

have our very own ICT suite fully equipped with 8 new 

computers. The classes will use this suite to support 

Ms Angela Harvey, Head of Foundation 

wholeheartedly into the clubs, new university courses, 

and assemblies, as well as the many special events that 

we have had already this year. The days have been jam 

packed with memorable activities, such as the Jeans for 

Genes and Language Day assemblies, House football 

tournaments, bake sales, the Harvest festival, music 

recitals and spelling bee, to name just a few. 

We have also had a lot of help and interest from our 

parent class reps this year and so a huge thank you has 

to go to all the parents who have contributed to these 

activities, or helped in other ways. 

Following on from the half term break, teachers had two 

training days focusing on science, PSCHE and art, as well 

as getting things ready for another busy half term- I’m 

sure you will have the chance to read about this in a 

future issue of Newsblast. 

I hope you all had a wonderful half term break and fid 

yourself returned to BSB refreshed and ready to work 

and to enjoy all the exciting things we have planned for 

you all leading up to Christmas. 

Ms Naima Hussain, Head of Primary 

their learning. All classes have a timetabled session 

each day. 

Miss Banks would like to thank the teachers, TA’s and 

cleaning support team for all their hard work in creating 

a colourful and inviting environment for our students. We 

look forward to welcoming you to our new building if you 

haven’t yet seen it - come and have a look! 

Ms Lindsey Banks, KS1 Coordinator 


4


Key Stage 2 Report 

Mr Patrick Kennedy 

Key Stage 2 Coordinator 

Key Stage 2 has really hit the ground running this year. 

We have welcomed many new children to our class and 

some new teachers also. Many staff have taken on new 

roles in our school including myself, as the new Key 

Stage 2 coordinator. 

We have made several new developments, including 

changes to both our assemblies and playtime 

procedures. Assemblies are now in the Primary dining 

hall on Mondays and Thursdays- we have some really 

exciting ones coming up. The children are now enjoying 

their playtimes on the grass, with the space giving them 

all the opportunity to move around freely to play their 

games. 

Secondary School Report 

Christmas is fast approaching and in preparation for 

this year’s celebration, the children are busily learning 

Christmas carols in their music sessions as Key Stage 

2 children will join in a Christmas celebration later this 

term. There are also many other exciting developments 

as well. Building on the successful introduction of the 

interactive whiteboards last year, we now have new 

laptops for the children to use. Each child will have 

access to these and this will greatly enhance their 

learning opportunities. There are so many exciting 

things happening in our school, it is looking like this 

year will be an incredible year for both teachers and 

students alike. 

Mr Patrick Kennedy, Key Stage 2 Coordinator 

Ms Jane Greenwood 

Head of Secondary School 

I should like to extend a warm welcome to parents and 

students old and new as we enter the Autumn/Winter 

term 2008. It gives me great pleasure to start the year 

by heralding our examination successes. Our Year 

11 students enjoyed IGCSE examination success; 2 

students have moved to schools in the United Kingdom 

and Germany, and our other students have become the 

first Key Stage 5 students in BSB. The BSB students 

achieved outstanding SATs results this summer, a 

testament to the hard work of the students and the 

staff. Key Stage 3 students achieved a 100% success 

rate (the benchmark is a comparison across all schools 

in the UK), and 38% exceeded the national standard. 

In Mathematics over 73% of the students in Year 9 

achieved a level exceeding the UK national standard and 

2 students achieved Level 8 - the highest level for this 

Key Stage. The Key Stage 2 SATs results (our current Year 

7 students) achieved equal success whereby 96% of 

BSB students achieved the UK national standards and a 

staggering 60.6% of them exceeded them. Well done to 

all the students. 

The new academic year brings both new students and 

staff to the school. This year I should like to welcome 

several members of staff who will be teaching secondary, 

and in some cases primary students as well: Mr Lampert 

(Mathematics), Mr Power (Science), Mr Perrett (French), 

Ms Marti (Spanish), Ms Fortune (Drama/PHSCE), Ms 

Kemp (PE/PHSCE), Mr O’Brien (PE) and Mr Ellis (English 

as a Second Language). Our students are quickly settling 

into their studies and extra-curricular activities. We offer 

a range of afterschool clubs including chess, fencing, 

karate, music, a range of sporting activities, and an 

outdoor adventure club - indeed, something to suit every 

taste. 

I hope that you have found the draft calendar and the 

secondary parent handbook useful. The information 

should enable you to see when certain events such 

as music evenings and productions, activities, 

consultation evenings and examinations will take place. 

Any additional information will be circulated via letter 

and email. I anticipate a full and varied programme 

of activities over the academic year. I look forward to 

working with you and your family in what will be a busy 

and productive year in Crawford House. 

Ms Jane Greenwood, Head of Secondary School 

Ringwood students to get new lunch room 

Happy builders hard at work on the Foundation Stage art/lunch room 

The builders are back at BSB, providing a 

great point of interest for Pre-Schoolers, 

whilst building the new room on the side 

of our building to complement the new 

Key Stage 1 level finished over the summer 

beak. This new room will be utilized for art 

and messy play, and will also provide a 

separate space for Reception and 

Pre-school students to eat lunch in. They 

have also created steps from each class 

room to make it easier for the younger 

students to enter and exit classes and we 

will have a fenced in area at the front of the 

Foundation building, which can be used for 

outside learning during fine weather. 

Look out for mention of other 

improvements to come in Issue 2. 


5


New Teachers 

Ms Jennifer Kemp, Head of 

Physical Education 

Ms Kemp, the new Head of Department, and Mr O’Brien 

are the new PE teachers at BSB. We are very glad to have 

them join the BSB staff. Here are a few basic things 

about them: Ms Kemp has been teaching for 6 years. She 

has taught in England for 2 years, Madrid for 3 years and 

now she is here teaching in Romania for the first time. 

She is primarily a PE teacher, but is also a qualified high 

school art teacher. This year Ms Kemp will be teaching 

us both PE and PSCHE. She says she enjoys Bucharest 

a lot, and thinks that it has a good social life and lots to 

do. Her favourite sport is athletics. She likes BSB as the 

students are very friendly, willing to learn new things, 

and very enthusiastic. She is especially looking forward 

to the GCSE courses with years 10, 11 and 12. Mr O’Brien 

has been teaching for 8 years now. He has taught all 

around the world, in places such as Wales, Kuwait, which 

is in the Middle East, Venezuela, and in China. He is 

teaching for the first time in Bucharest. He teaches PE 

to the primary school. Out of all sports, his favourite 

is rugby. He likes Bucharest, as he thinks it is a very 

accessible city, and is very happy to be part of BSB. 

Maria, Year 10 

Mr Anthony O’Brien, 

Physical Education 

Mr Kevin Power, 

Head of Science 

As you have all noticed, we have a new science 

teacher! His name is Mr. Kevin Power and you can find 

him downstairs, at the ground floor, in the science 

lab, looking through microscopes or investigating 

miscellaneous substances in round test tubes. He is 

not here to blow the school or neighborhood up, but to 

teach us something about science. With a vast store of 

teaching experience, some fourteen years, believe me, 

he has what it takes to make you if not love science, then 

at least make a frozen frog jump out of the fridge. He 

has taught in many other places, such as Kenya, Berlin, 

London, Columbia, Washington DC, and Nevada and has 

decided to make Romania his next port of call. When 

asked about the reason why he came to Romania, he 

answered leisurely that it was close to his and his wife’s 

relatives. He was born in 1968 in Osceola, Arkansas, in 

the United States and studied at Bentonville High. During 

the interview, he also “confessed” that while being in 

high school, he played clarinet and saxophone in a band. 

Bet you didn’t know that, right? After high schol he went 

on to study at the University of Arkansas, University of 

Surrey, and then worked at the Peace Corps Roehampton 

Institute who sent him off to work in Kenya, where he 

met and befriended an old African maumau warrior from 

Kenya called Muratti. I’m afraid that my space here is 

limited, so if you want to find out more about the above 

story, then go ask him yourselves! For now, all I can say 

is that we would like to wish Mr Power a warm welcome 

to our school and hope that he will enjoy it here! Just in 

case you might want to send him a present, his birthday 

is on the 29th of January. 

Senia, Year 10 

Mr Nic Perrett, 

Head of Languages 

Our new Head of Languages and French teacher, Mr 

Nicholas Perrett, arrived in Romania in the summer of 

2008, and is originally from Bath, England. During his 

short time here in Romania he says has enjoyed his time, 

saying that the Romanian community is very friendly. 

His main wish while here in Romania is to experience 

as much of Romanian culture as he can, saying that he 

loves to travel and to experience new cultures. During 

his last 15 years teaching French he has taught in several 

countries, including Germany, France, America, and a 

little more off the beaten track, South Korea. One of Mr. 

Perret’s key interests is Italian food (both cooking and 

eating). He said that he likes to play football and hockey 

in his free time. During the course of the interview, he 

also mentioned that he thinks the school has a nice 

atmosphere, with very friendly teachers and studentsincluding 

this year’s Mures House captain. 

Edoardo, Year 10 

Where are they now 

Hello to everyone! 

I am very happy to be able to send you all a 

little bit of news from us in France. The whole 

family is great and we have settled in France 

very fast. The city we are in now is called 

Toulouse; it is big and very beautiful. This is 

a great city because we can go everywhere 

by bike and there are not a lot of cars. We 

have a big house with seven rooms, a huge 

underground room, but a small garden, which 

doesn’t really matter because we have a park 


really close to our house. 

We are now all in a French school which is 

also very close to our house, so Gonzague, 

Priscille, and I can go by bike. It’s great! The 

French school is very different to the English 

system, but we are managing to adapt! We like 

our new school, but miss the BSB people a lot! 

We miss you all a lot! 

Merry Christmas! 

Constance, Year 9, Toulouse, France 

Us in France in our new house ▼ 

6


Technology Update: BSB Blogging 

Blog is short for “web log.” Basically, a 

blog is an online journal. You can write 

or post about whatever you like: updates 

of your life, political opinions, a great 

trip, favourite recipes, what music you’re 

listening to - anything that takes your 

fancy. At BSB we are using blogs to further 

the children’s learning, to celebrate their 

achievements, and to communicate with 

parents and families. 

Blogs can include words, photos, movies, 

hyperlinks to other websites, and lots 

more. They are usually composed of one 

or more blog entries. Each entry can have 

its own title and always says the date and 

time you published it. Blogs show the last 

entry first, and you can scroll down to read 

earlier entries. So it’s like a reverse diary. 

You can also leave a comment for the 

teacher to see. 

Each class in Key Stage 1 and 2 now has 

its own blog. The specialist teachers have 

them too. To access the blogs please go to 

the websites below. 

To find your class blog look for the class 

name at the beginning of the address. 

E.g. 4K’s Blog - www.4kbsb.edublogs.org 

Key Stage 1 

www.1jbsb.edublogs.org 

www.1hbsb.edublogs.org 

www.2bbsb.edublogs.org 

www.2wbsb.edublogs.org 

Key Stage 2 

www.3lbsb.edublogs.org 


www.4hbsb.edublogs.org 

www.4kbsb.edublogs.org 

www.5tbsb.edublogs.org 


www.6sbsb.edublogs.org 

www.6dbsb.edublogs.org 

Specialists 

www.pebsb.edublogs.org 

www.dramabsb.edublogs.org 

www.mflbsb.edublogs.org 

www.ealbsb.edublogs.org 

www.musicbsb.edublogs.org 

Ms. Jennifer Ullman, Year 6 Teacher 

How long have you been in Romania? 

I’ve lived here in Romania for four months. 

However, I have visited many times before and 

have seen many of the beautiful attractions 

throughout the country. 

Do you like Bucharest? 

I enjoy living in Bucharest, especially since it’s 

very different from where I’ve lived in the past. I’ve 

never lived in a city before, so it’s interesting to 

experience a new lifestyle. However, it has taken 

me a little while to adjust to driving in all of the 

traffic. 

What did you teach in America? 

I worked for nine years in a school district of about 

13,000 students, near Columbus, Ohio. I taught 

3rd grade (which would be equivalent to Year 4) for 

three years and 6th grade science (which would be 

equivalent to Year 7) for three years. I also served 

as the district science coordinator for three years.... 

Science is my favorite subject. I also coached cross 

country and track. 

What are your hobbies? 

I like to ski, horseback ride, run, and do basically 

anything dealing with the outdoors and nature. 

Jennifer Ullman 

Year 6 Teacher 

How long did you live in America? 

Before now, I have lived my entire life in America. 

This is my first time living abroad. 

Where in America did you grow up? 

I grew up in a small town outside Cleveland, Ohio. 

I lived there until I left for college. My parents still 

live there. 

What is your favourite animal? 

My favourite animal is the Okapi, which is native 

only to the Congo. 

Johann, 6U 


7


Jeans for Genes 

Mures getting down to business; 

decorating jeans to help others! 

On Friday October 3rd it was Jeans for Genes 

Day. Jeans for Genes is a fundraiser for children 

born with genetic disorders. These disorders 

range from minor (cleft lips) to major (sickle 

cell anaemia). In the UK every half an hour a 

genetically disordered baby is born. To give 

a helping hand BSB held Jeans for Genes on 

Year 10 

October 3rd 2008, in which each child bought 5 

or 10 Ron and wore jeans. In total the school has 

raised 3000 Ron. A big thank you goes out to all 

the students who participated and to all the staff 

members who took their time to organise this 

event. 


Mures wins the contest 

for the most creative jeans! 

Jeans for Gene’s day was great! 

It was a sea of jeans! 

Although we had to wear our school T-shirts 

we still had great fun wearing jeans. Before the 

day during our assembly we learned all about 

Genes and children with genetic disorders. We 

all agreed that we wanted to help out. We all got 

into a giving mood by designing and decorating 

jeans with our House Teams and Danube were 

the winners! 

Mena and Calista, 4H 

Primary Student Council 

& the new Senior School Student Council 

Primary Student Council is a group of students 

elected by their classmates who represent the 

school as leaders. We had to write and deliver 

speeches on why we would be great leaders and 

what we will do to try and make BSB a better 

place. So far we have discussed some of the 

ideas given in the suggestion box. 

While we know that ‘No Homework Week’ 

probably isn’t the greatest idea we had a laugh 

anyway. However, we are busy discussing the 

next course of action! 

Anna, 4K 

The Senior School’s Student Council held their 

first meeting on the 24th September, and it looks 

like we are going to have an exciting year. We 

have got a keen and dynamic team consisting 

of Alex, Louisa, Ana Maria, Shani, Maria and 

Isabela, ably assisted by Mr Hammacher, Mr Ellis 

and Ms Jezeph. The President is Alex, the Vice 

President is Louisa and the Secretaries are Shani 

and Ana Maria. 

This year we will look at lots of things we can do 

to improve students’ lives, following on from the 

good work of last year, when we put rubbish bins 

around the school, a salad bar in the lunch room 

and last but not least, we made lunch breaks 

longer! 

Alex, Year 12, and Mr Bill Ellis 

BSB Primary Student Council with the 

Student Council president, Alex 

The New Senior School Student Council 


8


Westminster Bridge in front of The London Eye. ▼ 

BSB Students take London by storm 

On June 3rd, The annual Secondary School 

International Trip got underway. This time 

England was the destination. We were 

accompanied by Mr. John, Ms. Renaudin, 

and Mr. Murchison and had a fabulous 

time. 

Upon arrival we were whisked off to the 

New Forest area where we lodged down 

for the next 5 days at the PGL camp in 

Shorefield. During our time there we 

participated in a plethora of activities, 

including abseiling, archery, ball sports, 

camp craft, climbing, eco trail, fencing, 

orienteering, raft-building, beach walk, 

rifle shooting, sensory trail, water sports, 

swimming, and a trapeze and ropes course 

to name just a few- as you may very well 

imagine, it was a very busy 5 days. 

After an intense 5 days in Shorefield, it was 

finally time for what was the big event for 

many of the students-London! The trip was 

often confused as, “The London Trip” and I 

suppose this is easy enough for anyone to 

do considering all the activities and sights 

the students experienced in the great city. 

First off, we checked into the Elizabeth 

Hotel in Eccleston Square: ‘Winston 

Churchill, used to live next door to where 

we stayed!’ Mihnea Year 9. 

While in London it was all a bit of a blur, 

as the students moved from one amazing 

sight to another, starting with the London 

Duck tour. This was a tour of the city on 

an amphibious vehicle that was originally 

used to land the soldiers on the beaches in 

WWII. The tour went all around London and 

culminated with us actually driving into the 

Thames! 

Mr. John then managed to arrange a tour 

in “The London Experience”. This was the 

latest attraction put on by the “London 

Dungeons” group and, in this case, 

followed London chronologically from its 

beginnings to its contemporary position 

as a city the whole world looks up to. Of 

course, the tour included all the scary and 

gruesome details and was really quite 

interesting. 

Immediately following this the students 

went to “Grease, The Musical” at the 

Piccadilly Theatre. That night everyone was 

exhausted and went to bed in ample time 

to prepare for the final day-shopping and 

the flight home. 

‘Shopping should have been one of 

the horrific events in the “London 

Experience”.’ - Mr. Murchison. 

After a long and eventful week everyone 

was disappointed to say goodbye to 

England, but relieved to return laden 

with souvenirs to their waiting families: I 

actually missed my brother! 

Louisa, Year 9 

In front on London Bridget, Near The Globe 


9


A “Sweet” Story 

Year 7 winners of Mr Steve 

Murchison’s ‘Sweet Story’ 

competition: Ana, Naomi, Jennéa. 

The ‘up and coming stars’ that the 

winners chose as their personal 

favourites: Bianca (Andreea), 

Matthias, and Natalie displaying 

their sweets. 

In Year 7 English we read Roald Dahl’s 

“Boy”. One of our favourite chapters in 

the book was “The Bicycle and the Sweet 

Shop.” In it, one of Roald Dahl’s friends, 

Thwaites, tells the author that he should 

never eat Liquorice Bootlaces (a type 

of sweet) because his father, who is a 

doctor, had told him that they were made 

out of rat’s blood. 

After reading this story, Mr. Murchison suggested 

that we write our own ‘sweet’ stories, based on 

a sweet that we liked. In our stories we added in 

as many disgusting ingredients as we could- it 

was fabulous. 

We then displayed them on the wall. We 

collected sweet wrappers and displayed them 

as well. For fun, we decided to turn it into a 

competition. Mr. Murchison chose six out of 

all the stories and some other students chose 

the best three. The winners were awarded with 

their own ‘sweet’ surprise - a chocolate bar. As 

a bonus, the winners got to choose the three 

stories that they thought were best. These 

students were also awarded prizes of chocolate 

bars but they were given to them by the winners. 

If you wish to see the stories we wrote, why not 

visit Crawford House – the ‘Sweet Stories’ will be 

there waiting for you to read! 

Ana and Andreea, Year 7 

Science Speak 

Alex and Albert checking 

Salivary Amylase in different pH 

concentrations 

Hello from the science room. This first half term, one of the 

many things the senior students have been working on is 

enzyme experiments. Using Salivary Amylase, we have used 

the scientific method to determine ideal temperature and 

pH levels for amylase to change starch into maltose. We are 

concentrating on asking “why” this works, “what” makes it 

change, “how” we can do things differently to improve the 

experiment, and what are the practical everyday applications of 

this knowledge. 

Alex and Susana 

working on their conclusions 

for the Salivary Amylase lab 

Analysing the contents of pizza 

“My favorite part of science this year, so 

far, was the first lesson when we used the 

van de graaf. 

I liked it because I had to put my hands 

on the metal ball and my hair went static! 

I also liked when we made a circle and 

felt the current going through us. I look 

forward to other experiments!” 

Bethan, Year 9 

“My favourite part about science this 

year was when we did our swimming 

experiment. We had to go swimming to 

increase our pulse rate then we had to 

measure it. 

We then had to get out the pool and run 

up and down the track course twice and 

only in our swimming costumes! That was 

okay even though the little kids started 

laughing at us. 

Nevertheless, we learned a lot about 

our own pulse rates, breathing rates and 

about what sort of movement makes them 

increase and decrease.” 



10

The Music Department adds a little Rhythm 

to Student Life at BSB 


Mr Des Mulvany leading 

a senior school assembly 

The History of the Drum kit 

All pupils are taught rhythm. Rhythm is a very 

important part of any piece of music. The pupils 

are taught about creating rhythm by playing 

drums and percussion instruments. They will 

find out what a drum is, about the history of 

drumming, and the different types of drums that 

they can play. Different types of drums are found 

around the world. 

A drummer keeps the other musicians playing 

together and helps make sure that nobody 

speeds up or slows down. 

Choosing your style 

One of the great things about the drums is that 

they are relatively easy to learn. With a little 

practice you will be able to play a basic beat 

within a few hours. Within a few months, you will 

be able to play along to your favorite songs 

Drums can be played in a wide variety of musical 

styles, from classical and jazz, to rock and pop 

music. They can be played alongside other 

percussion instruments. But first, there are some 

basic things that every drummer should know. 

The history of drumming 

If the human voice is the oldest instrument in 

the world, drums are a close second. This is not 

surprising when you think that drums are a quite 

simple instrument. All you need to make a drum 

is a stick and a surface to hit. The oldest drums 

found date back over 6,000 years. Drums were 

once used to communicate. A person’s voice 

does not carry very far, but drums can be heard 

for many miles. In certain areas of Africa drums 

were worshipped and even given names. 

When the Ancient Greeks and Romans arrived in 

Africa, they started using African drums to keep 

soldiers marching in pace and call out orders. 

Many European armies continue this tradition of 

using drums when they marched. 

The Modern Drum Kit 

By the 1920s, musicians began to play more 

than one drum at the same time. Once the 

drums were arranged properly, bands didn’t 

need a group of drummers any more. Bit by bit, 

the modern drum kit took shape. 

The Electronic drum kit was developed in the 

1980 by a company called Simmons but it will 

never replace the normal drum kit. 

Drum facts: The largest drum kit. 

The worlds largest drum kit is played by 

Michael Mc Neill from Missouri. His drum kit 

consists of 105 pieces: 7 drums, 19 toms, 3 

snares, electronic drums.10 percussion drums, 

25 cymbals, 16 bells, 20 other percussion 

instruments and 1 kitchen sink. 

Famous Drummer 

Buddy Rich is regarded as the greatest jazz 

drummer of all time. His career started at the 

age of 3 years and spanned decades. He won 

many awards for his drumming despite the fact 

he could not read a note of music and he never 

received a single drumming lesson. All the 

students have drumming lessons in the British 

school of Bucharest. The great thing about 

drumming is that you don’t even need a drum kit 

to get started! Most drummers will tell you that 

they always tap on different things. This is, after 

all how drumming started many thousands of 

years ago. Before long, recognising rhythms will 

become a habit. This first exercise will get you 

thinking about those rhythms. 

Mr Des Mulvany MA, BA hons, PGCE 

Head of Music 

Mr Des Mulvany 

Mr Desmond Mulvany comes from Ireland but 

has lived for many years in America. He has been 

teaching for 10 years and moved to Romania in 

September of 2007. The schools where he has 

taught before were all in England and he enjoyed 

his teaching experience then a lot because 

he says that his was one of the most popular 

subjects. He says that he enjoys teaching in BSB 

because it’s a nice school in a nice atmosphere 

with many lovely students. He thinks there are 

many students currently enrolled at BSB with a 

lot of musical talent playing a variety of musical 

instruments, and this makes his teaching 

experience particularly colourful. He is now also 

preparing three students from Year 10, including 

myself, for the IGCSE exams. 

If you want to learn more about Mr Mulvany 

and his colourful musical past, then why not 

stop by the music room for a friendly chat. He is 

always happy to share a few stories with anyone 

passing by- and believe me he does have some 

interesting stories! 

Edoardo, Year 10 


11


Student in the spotlight 

Susana, Year 12 

Susana has recently joined Year 12. She comes 

from Portugal and can speak Spanish, Greek and 

Portuguese. She likes the school and thinks everyone 

is very friendly. However, she finds the studying a 

bit difficult because she has to do two classes in 

one. Her favourite subject is PE. She has probably 

developed her passion for sports from her father, 

who is a football coach. Susana has two dogs named 

Nany and Minie. She likes sunny, warm weather, so 

she would like to visit Borabora. 

Noor, Year 8 

Noor is in Year 8. She has recently moved from 

Dubai to Bucharest, but originally she comes from 

Pakistan. The thing she likes most about Bucharest 

is the weather. The weather is cooler than in Dubai 

and has four seasons. Basketball and football are her 

favourite sports and her favourite food is French fries 

and spaghetti. She has one brother in year 6 and 

two sisters in the primary school. Noor has relatives 

in Australia, Pakistan, Dubai and Norway. One day 

she would like to visit Canada. 

Alex, Year 12 

Alex is in Year 12. He is the school council president 

and one change he would like to make is the colour 

of the uniform as he thinks it looks cheeky. He likes 

Italian food and listens to rock and house music. He 

has 3 dogs and is interested in computers. One of his 

dreams is to visit Australia and China. His opinion 

about Sushi on Friday is that it’s a very good idea, 

however, he would like it if there was a bigger variety 

of sushi. Next year he is hoping to go to Switzerland 

to study hotel management. 

Andreea, Year 7 

Andreea is in Year 7 and comes from Romania. She 

has moved from a public school to BSB and thinks 

our school is very nice. She likes the teachers and 

her favourite subjects are art, maths, English and PE. 

She is very interested in astrology and likes reading 

books about it. In the October holiday she visited 

London with her family. The places she would like to 

visit most are the Maldives and Canada. Her hobbies 

are playing golf and swimming. She has one cat 

called Barny. Her favourite TV shows are ‘One tree 

hill’ and ‘Dansez pentru tine’. 

Ayesha, Year 9 

Ayesha Naeem is her 4th year in Romania. She has 2 

brothers. Her hobbies are singing, dancing, reading 

horror books as well as watching horror movies. 

She also likes spending time with her friends and 

especially going to parties. She would like to visit 

USA and Canada, in particular Toronto. Her favourite 

subjects are English, drama and health education 

(PSCHE). Her favourite movie is ‘Just my look’ and she 

would like to see ‘Wild child’. Ayesha is vegetarian 

and would like to change the school lunch. She plays 

flute and her favourite colour is baby pink. 

Jasmina, Year 9 

Jasmina is currently studying in Year 9. She comes 

from Austria and has been at our school ever since 

Year 1. She likes to talk, write, and dance. She is also 

very sporty and enjoys watching comedies. Jasmina 

has a younger sister in Year 2. In the October holiday 

she went to Austria. She has one cat named Susy. 

Her favourite subjects are geography, English, art, 

and music- she plays the piano. She would like 

to visit England and Holland. If she could change 

something about the school uniform it will be the 

‘black shoes rule’, so we could wear dark coloured 

shoes. 



12


Starting School at BSB 

Alex, Year 10 

September first was the day school started at 

BSB. This was very unusual for me since the 

school I went to before, Mark Twain, just up the 

road, started two weeks later, on the fifteenth of 

September. 

I came to the start of school very enthusiastic, but 

I was also pretty scared because I didn’t know 

anyone there. 

On the first day I met some of my new colleagues 

at the gate, my new form teacher and as I soon 

discovered my English teacher Mr Peet, and then 

went into school to meet the rest of the teachers. 

The first day at a new school is always a bit weird 

because no one knows you, and you really don’t 

know anyone else either. 

Gradually, however, it gets easier and better as 

every day passes as you make new friends and 

slowly get used to the new teaching system. Before 

coming to this school I had to choose two subjects 

for my IGCSE exam at the end of Year 11. In the end, 

I chose Business Studies and Music. 

Later I found out that everyone in my class chose 

Business Studies, probably because everyone 

thinks knowing how to create and run a business is 

very important these days. Im glad I chose buisness 

studies, but I’m also really happy I chose music, 

because we have a really cool teacher, Mr Des 

Mulvany, who makes school a fun place to be. 

All in all, I can honestly say that coming to BSB was 

the best choice I could have made. 

Alex, Year 10 

BSB first ever Healthy Bake Sale 

This term Year 4 is presenting the 

first ever healthy bake sale! We had 

big discussions about what it means 

to be healthy and what we should 

eat. So we decided to have a healthy 

bake sale. 

We brought cheese and crackers, fruit on 

sticks, salads, olives, muffins with fruit 

and lots of other good food. It was a big hit 

and mostly everything was eaten. However, 

we did notice that the chocolate covered 

bananas were the first to go! 

Marcel checking out the Healthy options at BSB 1st 

ever Healthy Bake Sale 

BSB’s 1st ever Healthy Bake sale was tasty and 

nutritious. 

Year 6 celebrating their Bake Sale 

Our bake sale was first one of the year and we had all 

sorts of cakes, cupcakes, cookies and much more. Many 

sweets went really well and quickly. We ended up with 

667 Ron and we all want to spend the money on different 

things. I personally think that it was the greatest bake 

sale of the year. 

Ana, 6D 


13


Entrevista con Rocío Martí, profesora de español 

English summary of the interview 

Miss Martí is telling Susana that she likes Romania and that she worked previously in Madrid and Dublin. She thinks 

that her pupils in Primary and in Year 7 have had a head start in Spanish. Learning Spanish is not as easy as it might 

seem, but with the necessary effort, they will succeed. 

Susana Peseira from Portugal, IGCSE 

candidate for Spanish from Year 12, 

is interviewing Miss Rocío Martí, 

Spanish teacher and SEN coordinator 

at BSB. 

Susanna: Cuánto tiempo llevas en Rumanía? 

Miss Martí: Llevo aquí 3 meses exactos. 

Susanna: Te gusta Rumanía, Bucarest? 

Miss Martí: Tiene sitios preciosos, aunque otros 

no tanto, en general me gusta mucho. 

Susanna: Dónde has trabajado antes de este 

colegio ? 

Miss Martí: He trabajado 4 años en Madrid 

en dos colegios Británicos Internacionales, 

International School of Madrid y Saint Anne’s 

School tanto en Primaria como en Secundaria. 

He trabajado también durante un año en Dublín 

enseñando español. 

Susanna: Tienes muchos alumnos de español en 

el Colegio? 

Miss Martí: Sí, tengo muchos alumnos en 

Primaria aunque sólo a Year 7 en Secundaria, 

pero espero que el año que viene haya más. 

Susanna: Tienen tus alumnos facilidad para 

aprender el español? 

Miss Martí: En general todo el mundo piensa 

que el español es muy fácil, pero hay que 

estudiar. En este colegio los alumnos hablan 

más de un idioma, así que estoy sorprendida de 

la facilidad con la que aprenden. 


Hola a todos! Bienvenidos al club de Español! 

Primary school students actively 

involved in Various fun language 

activities 

Year 4 Art 

Spanish is new this year on the primary and 

Year 7 curriculum, a welcome addition to the 

MFL family of German and French. So far we 

have been studying the calendar (days of the 

week, months of the year, etc.), numbers, 

colours, describing faces, etc. and through the 

year we will study animals, celebrations, likes 

and dislikes, etc. The Spanish room is in the 

Primary Building, we have boards with our work 

displayed, please come and see what we have 

been doing! 

I have thoroughly enjoyed my first term at 

BSB. Our pupils are so excited to learn a new 

language and so eager to say “iHola!” when they 

see me around school. 

In this picture you can see Pelin, Thomas, Alex 

and Philip playing the Spanish game called 

“La Oca” (“The Goose”), Calista and Raluca are 

playing “Guess who” in Spanish and Amelia, Seo 

Young and Alliss are completing a domino about 

colors in Spanish. As you can see all of them 

were very focussed! 

Ms Rocio Marti, Spanish Teacher 

Lea bravely holding the Preying 

Mantis whilst Oscaraims his camera 

looking for the perfect shot! 

The girls from 4H (Gurbani, Mariana, 

Joanna and Julia) are future 

photographers! 

Tudor and Alessandro working 

together to capture the moment in 

print for all to see. 

For our art lessons this month Year 

4 have become photographers. We 

learned how to use cameras and 

how to set up great shots. We all 

brought our cameras from home 

and went on a photo expedition. A 

girl in our class named Lea found a 

huge Preying Mantis, which became 

a photo favourite! When we were 

finished we copied our pictures onto 

the computers and got to investigate 

the photo shop tools that let you add 

colour, cut and paste other images 

and do lots of other things. 

Oscar and Stefano, 4H 


14


European Day of Languages, 26 September 

Celebrating linguistic diversity, plurilingualism and lifelong language learning 

Logo of Language Day by the 

European Commission 

Can you find a better place to celebrate the 

European Day of Languages than our school? 

With approximately 40 languages spoken by 

our students, who come from many different 

countries all around the world, this is a truly 

international and plurilingual place. Along with 

English, everybody speaks or is learning to 

speak at least one more language. We provide 

French, Spanish and German as Modern Foreign 

Languages. 

The week leading up to Language Day on 

September 26th was marked by activities and 

competitions with a language focus in which 

both the Primary and Secondary Schools 

participated. In our MFL lessons we turned the 

focus for a while away from the foreign language 

to have a look at each child’s native language. 

Grouped by native languages, the children gave 

a message in front of the camera in a large 

variety of languages including French, Romanian, 

Arabic, Turkish, German, Czech, Urdu, Greek, and 

of course English. KS2 pupils wrote postcards 

to our partner schools from Italy, England, 

Austria and Spain. Year 5T for example made 

very professional looking postcards with famous 

sights from Bucharest and Romania, like the 

People’s Palace and Bran Castle. We are looking 

forward to the replies we will get and hopefully 

we will stay in touch with our penpals from these 

European countries. 

The second challenge was to create a class 

poster with a phrase from every language spoken 

by the pupils in that class. Well done to Year 4H 

and Year 5B for their brilliant posters! 

Pupils were encouraged to think about their 

favourite word in any language (preferably their 

native language) and write down what it means, 

where they have encountered it and what it 

reminds them of. 

In Secondary School, the house and vice 

captains explored the diversity of languages 

spoken in Crawford House by interviewing 

peers and staff on how to say a phrase of their 

choice in a different language. Andreea Prasacu 

and Susana Peseiro, the two leaders of Arges, 

managed to round up the largest number of 

languages, including some as exotic as Swahili. 

In the assembly dedicated to this event, 

students competed for house points in the Who 

Wants to Become a Millionaire Language Special. 

Ms Dorothea Draser, German Teacher 

Can you guess what some of the favourite words of our pupils in KS2 mean? 

Match them up. 

Obrigado by Thomas 5T 

Chat by Eleanor in 5T 

Zealous by Tatum in 6D 

Shalom by Daniel in 5T 

Vata de zahar by Liria in 5B 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Hebrew for Hello 

Portuguese for Thank you 

Candy floss in Romanian 

Enthusiastic in English 

French for Cat 

Solve this puzzle and you could 

win a 200 Ron Book Voucher- 2 

prizes to be won (Primary and 

Secondary School each have 

1 voucher). All entries must 

be submitted to your class or 

form teacher before the end of 

November. All correct entries 

will go into a draw to be drawn 

in the last assembly of the year. 

Winners will be published in the 

next issue of BSB Newsblast. 

An example question from the European Day of 

Languages Quiz in Secondary School 

5T postcards of Language 

Postcards of Language 


15


BSB University Course Overview, October 2008 

After the long summer holiday it is great to see all our pupils back in school, 

refreshed and eager to learn new skills. This year our university courses are even 

more varied than before and this has helped to ensure that the majority of pupils 

received their first choice of course. 

Codes and Code Breaking, Planning a 

Dinner party, French, Romanian and 

Spanish for Key Stage 1 pupils and Problem 

Solving are just some of the learning 

opportunities available for our pupils. 

Indeed, this edition of Newsblast has 

been put together with the help of our 

Junior Publishing university course, so 

congratulations to all those involved. Our 

cookery courses are always very popular 

and over-subscribed, but we are fortunate 

to have 3 different cookery groups. Special 

thanks must go to our parent volunteers 

- Mrs Rouf and Mrs Henderson who are 

running one of these courses. If you would 

like to get involved with our university 

program please see our advert in this 

newsletter. Finally, one course that I am 

particularly excited about is our very own 

BSB tv and I am looking forward to it’s 

‘launch’. The producers of ‘CNN’ and ‘BBC 

World’ better look out! 

Mr Iain Davidson, University Course Coordinator 

BSB TV: 3… 2… 1… Action! 

Do you want to be interviewed by BSB TV? Do you 

want to be seen on television? BSB TV is bound to 

interview you! This term we have been interviewing 

people and editing them on the computers. We had 

lots of questions to ask them and it took much time to 

load when we put them on the Digital Movie Creator 

3! Some of the interviews took more than 3 minutes! 

Mr. Kennedy complained that it takes too much time 

to load! We had lots of fun putting animation and 

editing them! Some people like Mr. Mulvany made us 

say the question again and again. I hope I will be able 

to do a similar course next term! 

Alexandra, 5B 

French Course 

We have our French course with Mr Leese once a week 

and it is great because we get to use French in the 

course. We learn new words and try to speak in French, 

which often makes us laugh. My favourite thing in 

French University was when I tried the brie cheese. 

Oskar, 2B 

My favourite thing about French was the numbers and 

colouring running games. 

Sarah, 1J 

My favourite time in French was the food party. 

I liked the pate. 

Darius, 1J 

Gardening 

In the University Gardening course we are learning all 

about plants and how to take care of them. We are 

learning how to pot seeds and grow plants and how 

to transfer them into the ground and then take care 

◄ Some students in the Gardening Course tending to the gardens 

of them. It is incredible how much you need to know 

in order to look after plants properly. 

“I like gardening University because we plant flowers. 

They are growing a lot!” 

Miruna, 2B 

Improvisational drama 

I chose Drama for University because I wanted to 

learn about theatre and learn new games and have 

fun at the same time. I like most the drama games 

because they are a lot of fun. I am learning special 

games of improvisational theatre. 

Robert, 5B 


16


BSB Junior Editors University Club 

We are the BSB News Blast Junior Publishers. 

We write articles for the BSB News Blast. We do 

interviews and use cameras to take pictures for the 

news paper. First of all, we discuss what we want 

to write in the meeting room and then when it’s 

approved we go off to the ICT suite. Now we do my 

favourite thing, the writing. After that, we help each 

other to edit our work. At the end of the university 

course Mr.Hamacher gives in our work to Mr. Peet, 

the editor of News Blast. If it’s good enough it will go 

into the magazine but if it’s not good enough it won’t 

make it in and it’s back to the drawing board. 

Monster Storms Course 

◄ The BSB NewsBlast Junior Editors: Igor, Thomas, Rhea, Mena, Calista and Anna, who was absent. 

In our university we are studying monster storms. So 

far we’ve studied hurricanes and tornadoes. We’ve 

learned that both types of storms need moisture, 

warm air, and energy to form. We also learned 

that the storms can be different strengths called 

categories. Monster storms are very dangerous and 

cause destruction. 

The Monster Storm Team 

The Rowing Course 

◄ Students experimenting with devices to imitate some of the phenomena that occur during storms 

In rowing we have been learning pace, speed and 

rowing technique. We are all aiming to row a total of 

just over 11,000 metres which would give us a grand 

total of 55,000 metres. There are four people in the 

rowing course- me, Johann, Basil and Cinar. We are all 

from 6U and are enthusiastic rowers. 

Harry, 6U 

University Cooking Course 

◄ Cinar showing good rowing technique while Johann and Mr O’Brien help keep the running total of metres rowed. 

I like this course because we are learning how to 

cook. When I grow up I want to learn how to do all 

kinds of food. We have cooked cake, pizza, papanasi 

and Raffaello. The other reason why I like cooking is 

because it is fun and I learn a lot. Also I can teach my 

mum how to do all these foods that I did in cooking. 

Chira, 4H 

World Cup History 

Codebreakers Alert! 

Ross, Sarah and Suparnan 

writing codes, Year 5 

I think that football World Cup History is really fun! I 

also lean a lot. I think it’s clever because we learn and 

have fun! I think everyone likes World Cup History. 

In football World Cup History we have been learning 

about the first World Cup all the way up to guessing 

In our Codes and Codebreakers University Course we 

have been learning about all the different codes that 

people from long ago and today have been using. 

There are picture codes and a man called 

Giambattista della Porta made up a code of 

boxes and dots which we learned. Then we used 

substitution codes, using a different letter or number 

about the next World Cup in 2010. We have also been 

looking at the best goals, saves, star moves etc. I 

recommend this to anyone who likes football and 

would like to play or lean more football. 

Scott, 6U 

for our message. We also 

learned about Morse Code and Call Sign Codes and 

next week is Braille and Sign Language. 

Every week we have to write a message in one of the 

codes for someone else to solve. Sometimes it’s hard 

to work out. It’s a fun course to do. Everyone should 

try it! 

Cesar, 6D 


17


BSB Physical Education 

Harry 6U, Mohammad, 

Cezar, and Hristos 6D, and 

Mr Anthony O’Brien with 

our gold contenders 

Hristos showing us his 

super pull shot! 

On behalf of myself and Mr Anthony O’Brien we would 

like to congratulate all our young performers this 

term. It has been a great start to the year for the PE 

department. Brand new equipment, fresh ideas and 

lots of energy and enthusiasm to boot! It is going to 

be a superb year for Physical Education with links 

being made across our school committees and with 

our neightbouring schools as we speak, dates have 

already been chosen for our first matches! Keep on 

the look out for the new PE notice board and for 

further details… 

Striking and Fielding with a focus on Cricket has 

been our first curriculum area of the year. The good 

weather played a part in this choice and the pupils 

have worked very hard. Right from the start of the 

year some of our KS2 pupils were put through the 

Asda Kwik Cricket Awards scheme. These awards are 

popular throughout the UK and are a key component 

in PE at KS2. There are 3 award categories, Bronze, 

Silver and Gold and while Year 3 and Year 4 have 

been working towards their Bronze Award the Year 6s 

have been tackling the Silver Award, with a selection 

of higher achieving pupils being invited to try for the 

Gold certificate. 

To gain an Award the pupils had to consistently 

demonstrate their fielding, bowling and batting skills. 

Cricket is a difficult sport to master and both myself 

and Mr O’Brien have been very impressed with our 

pupils interest as well as the skills on display. Well 

done and congratulations to all those who took part 

and won certificates and we look forward to seeing 

the rest of KS2 out on the cricket pitch later in the 

year. 

5T working on their leg kick! Full stroke in action… Flavius, Year 11, preparing 

to take a long corner! Sticks 

down well done Year 10/11/12! 

Dennis on the counter-attack! 

Key Stage 2 basketballers 

Year 5 and Year 8/9 have been powering up 

and down the pool this half term gaining 

more confidence in the water and working 

on their strokes! Year 10, 11 and 12 having 

completed a unit of work on striking and 

fielding have moved into their first invasion 

game unit of the year Hockey. Basketball 

training will also be running at lunchtimes 

to get ready for a fixture against ISB soon. 

Sports clubs have also begun with vigor. 

The Key Stage 2 basketballers should be 

proud of their first term’s work. Learning 

new skills and tactics of the game has been 

our focus. I am looking forward to gaining 

a few more additions to the club next term. 

Staff participation 

Ms RocioMarti, Ms Dorothea 

Draser and Ms Helen Jezeph 

deciding who is going to go 

first! 

Mr Steve Murchison 

and Mr Bill Ellis just 

about to take flight 

Mr Patrick Kennedy, Mr Sonny 

Leese and Ms Lyndsey Banks 

racing after Mr Alex (4H TA) 

Ms Doina Antohi 

making that inch perfect 

pass to Mr BillEllis 

Ms Antohi Doina again having 

an impact on the game with 

Ms Marti, Mr Hamacher and 

Ms Fisher looking on 


18


In addition as apart of the Healthy Schools 

Programme teachers are also encouraged 

to keep healthy and increase their level of 

physical activity. I invited a “Streetsurfing” 

company from right here in Bucharest to bring 

some boards for all staff to try at the very 

beginning of the year (www.streetsurfing.ro). 

Another club for staff is Mr Hamacher’s 

Ultimate Frisbee club every Wednesday. The 

numbers have been rising and rising each 

week with staff so eager to take part since 

the beginning of term. “It’s a really fun way 

to stay fit and burn off a few calories” quoted 

Ms Rocio Marti after her first session. 

All in all, a very successful half terms work 

with lots more to come. A huge thank you to 

all for the support....a waterfall begins with 

only one drop of water! 

Best Wishes, 

Ms Jennifer Kemp and Mr Anthony O’Brien, 

BSB Physical Education Department 

Personal Health Social Education 

with Citizenship / Healthy Schools Committee 

Year 9 girls discussing 

balanced diets in class. 

PHCSE has really taken off this year providing our 

pupils with the knowledge, understanding, skills 

and attitudes to make informed decisions about 

their lives. This term Key Stages 3, 4 and 5 have 

been working under the umbrella of “Enjoying and 

Achieving”. Year 7 and Year 8 have been working 

with Miss Fortune on creating positive relationships 

and managing their money. Year 9 and 10 have been 

looking at healthy lifestyles and linking this to body 

image. They are currently carrying out a survey about 

secondary pupils food habits and Year 11/12 have 

been looking at how economies function, morality 

Gafencu Sports Day 

On Friday the 6th of June the Gafencu 

site held their Sports Morning at La Club. 

The students competed in seven relay 

activities and various races. We are proud 

to announce that the Mures team won 

the most points and achieved first place 

with Danube, Arges, and Olt following in 

second, third and fourth place. 

Congratulations to Harauna, Patrick, Darius 

and Lara who placed first in our boys’ and 

and rights. Lots of discussions and debates and lots 

lots more to come. 

The PHCSE programme at school is directly linked 

with our Healthy Schools Programme and the 

committee of Miss Kemp, Mr Hamacher, Miss Beggs 

and Mrs Pillay are busy organising future healthy 

eating events, communicating with the house 

committee about physical activity events and will be 

working with the school council on issues such as 

bullying to support our pupils emotional health and 

well-being! 

girls’ races. We were glad to have some 

parents attend the event and cheer on our 

athletes. A big thank you to Mrs Willemot 

for running our rest station. 

Patrick (Alexandru in the background) 

Maria 

Selina and Karl 

Mario 

Lara, Luca, Patrick and Alexandru taking a break. 

Luca, Tudor, Reis, and Darius waiting for their 

activity to start 


19


BSB’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Summer 2008 

Drama Notice 

Stage 3 and 4 Drama by Mrs. Fortune. 

Clubs running at BSB this term 

are: Key Stage 1 and 2 Drama run 

by Ms Doina Antohi 

Our Christmas production 

this year will be a play called 

Cinderella and Rockerfella. The 

production will involve both Key 

Stages 2 and 3. 

Shakespeare wrote “A Midsummer 

Night’s Dream” for a cast of about 20 

people. It is most likely that it never 

crossed his mind that it could be 

adapted for over 100 little people; 

children, that is. And to be honest, it 

hadn’t crossed my mind either. 

The rehearsals were eventful and there were 

times when I was not sure that it would all come 

together in the end. The result, however, was 

great. The lighting, the costumes, the great 

music and the spacious stage of “L.S. Bulandra” 

Theatre made all the difference; in the end, the 

children had a great time, the parents too, and 

all was well that ended well. 

Doina Antohi, Drama Teacher, September 2008 

Here are some thoughts from the students 

who took part: 

“The rehearsals were fine but got a bit boring 

after a while. It was fun to be on stage during 

rehearsals. The night of the performance went 

very well and was well organised. Even though 

we made a few mistakes, I think everyone 

enjoyed it. My role in the play was Hypolita the 

Duchess who was marrying the Duke. I enjoyed 

doing it and found the part interesting. Overall I 

thought the play was great and I had a fantastic 

time.” 

Natalie, Year 7 

“It took some time to put the scenes together 

and act it all over again from the top. However we 

had a great time talking about our parts. During 

the big night, I thought that I was doing the last 

rehearsal and there would be no need for panic. 

Meanwhile, backstage, all of us were excited, 

which made it difficult for us to concentrate. My 

role was Hermia. I think it was a really hard role 

to perform. It was hard to think about what kind 

of a girl she was. She was spoiled, innocent, 

and always did what she had in mind. At first 

I thought about her and read the whole script, 

imagined the story, created the effect in my 

mind. I would like to say that, if you get excited 

before performing, then just count to 10 and take 

deep breaths.” 

Polen, Year 7 

“I liked the rehearsals very much. I enjoyed 

watching the others. During the night of the 

performance, I was afraid our group (The 

Apprentices) will forget something and we did. 

My name in the play was Starveling and I enjoyed 

it very much.” 

Matthias, Year 7 

“Since I didn’t have a big part, it seemed like 

the rehearsals took forever. The night of the 

performance was a bit scary at first, but overall 

it was good. I would have liked to have a bigger 

speaking part.” 

Ana, Year 7 

“The rehearsals were fun, because you got to 

see everyone else acting. The performance night 

was good; I sat near the stage and got to hear 

everyone say their part. But someone skipped a 

whole scene that night, and I thought that wasn’t 

fair. I was one of the narrators, and I had to dress 

up as a clown. It was fun being a clown.” 

Naomi, Year 7 

“I think the rehearsals were really useful. Not 

everyone got to do their part in every rehearsal 

but it was still a lot of fun. The night of the 

performance was nervously awaited by all the 

students and staff. I was really excited to be 

performing the ‘real thing’ at last. I played Helena 

in the production and I thoroughly enjoyed 

playing such a wonderful character. I hope this 

year’s production is as good as last year’s.” 

Jennea, Year 7 

Foundation Theatre: The Window Sill 

Foundation Stage Pipera worked really hard for 

weeks to learn and practice their lines, songs and 

actions for their production of ‘The Window Sill’. 

Alice (aka Christina) is a little child who is so small 

she cannot see over her window sill. She asks her 

shadow (aka Smaragda), the grass (Creche), the 

animals (Preschool) and the flowers (Reception) 

why she cannot grow as fast as they do. By the 

end of the production Alice has grown and can 

see over the sill. She is so happy and everybody 

sings about how one day they may be bigger than 

their audience! Our last rehearsal was incredibly 

successful and if you know anything about the 

theatre you will know that that is a bad sign! 

However, the children performed beautifully on the 

day. Well done Foundation Stage Pipera. 

Ms Angela Harvey, Head of Foundation 


20


The Drama Department 

Antoine and Daniel, 4K, developing 

conflict in Drama 

4 K working as a team in Drama 

KS 1 Drama Club performing a 

Monster Story 

The Drama department focuses on 

creative development of students, 

providing the opportunity for different 

means of self expression. 

The classes take place in rooms that are different 

from what the children usually know: the 

furniture is limited to chairs that are not always 

used. Drama is about large, however intimate 

and comfortable spaces, surrounded by curtains 

and lightened by spotlights. 

The Drama lessons, often linked to literacy and 

history themes, are centered on types of games 

that develop abilities and skills meant to build 

on social and emotional intelligence. 

Drama activities start out by focusing on 

lengthening concentration span, as there are 

a lot of games that require prolonged and 

sustained attention. 

Some other activities stress self confidence and 

trust as main coordinates of a positive, confident 

self image; the children are encouraged to stand 

in the spotlight and speak and act out in front 

of peers; learning how to confidently speak in 

public, and express and illustrate one self beliefs 

and ideas in front of others becomes essential. 

Quite a great number of activities concentrate on 

team work and cooperation between members 

within the team. Children work together to fulfill 

several tasks and they learn to define their role 

within a group that has to reach a certain target. 

Most Drama activities are team oriented rather 

than hierarchical, pointing out the fact that each 

member has a highly important role when the 

group has to achieve a goal. 

Leading abilities are however highly encouraged, 

as a team always works best when led by 

someone the group trusts. As everyone is 

given the opportunity to lead, leading a team is 

another skill that Drama develops. 

What the team usually works toward is solving 

a problem together, in order to ‘save’ all the 

members of the group. Several solutions to 

the same problem are tried out; all ideas and 

approaches are encouraged, thus leaving room 

for creativity in problem solving. 

As a result, communication reaches its highest 

expression, as all children have to interact with 

each other in order to fulfill the given task; 

communication of different types is theorised 

and expressed: the children get to analyze and 

experiment meanings of body language, facial 

expressions and tones of voice. 

Drama challenges perceptions by getting 

children to use their senses differently than they 

usually do: recognizing someone by touching 

their hair, for example, while blindfolded, is a 

kinesthetic experience the children highly enjoy. 

Becoming another happens at a more complex 

stage, and teaches self control, discipline, 

tolerance, empathy, and understanding 

ideas and the way humans interact; ability 

to understand others’ motives and choices 

becomes critical. Through acting, children reach 

depth of understanding. 

All these happen in a safe atmosphere; children 

are confronted with different situations without 

experiencing the actual dangers, pitfalls, or 

consequences that those situations might imply. 

Drama traces the boundaries of a parallel reality 

where most socially forbidden gestures are 

allowed and encouraged. It is the safe way to 

go through situations that would otherwise be 

harmful, by getting to analyze consequences 

without actually experiencing them. This is where 

the educational power of Drama lies. 

But the bottom line of it all is that Drama is a lot 

of fun; as there is no right or wrong, all ideas, 

thoughts, and perspectives upon the world, are 

encouraged. 

Drama is basically the subject where ‘the world’s 

a better place when it’s up side down’. 

Ms Doina Antohi 

Drama Teacher for Foundation Stages and KS 2 


21


A Day in the Life of a TA… 

If you have ever entered the classroom of one 

of the Foundation, Key Stage 1 or Key Stage 2 

classes, then you are likely to have noticed at 

least one other adult working there in addition 

to the class teacher. These hard working adults 

are there to provide additional support for 

the children, and at BSB we refer to them as 

“Teaching Assistants” (TAs); in this article we are 

going to spend a bit of time thinking about the 

work of the TAs and the contribution they make 

to our school. 

The TA day begins bright and early. Some start 

their day by travelling to school on a school bus 

in order to collect the children who travel by bus, 

while others travel independently and arrive at 

8:00 in order to help get things prepared for the 

day ahead. 

Once the day begins, the TA spends his (yes we 

now have male TAs!) or her day assisting the 

class in a variety of ways. This often involves 

supporting individuals or small groups in 

subjects like numeracy or literacy in order to 

help the children further understand the lesson 

being taught. 

The TA also takes much of the responsibility for 

the class’ development in reading by listening 

to the children read and ensuring that they 

regularly have new books to take home. 

If you were to do a survey of every child in the 

school and ask them what their favourite part 

of the day is, no doubt many of them would 

say playtime. Playtime, though, would not be 

possible if there were no adults to supervise 

the children, and here again the TAs play a big 

part as they regularly go outside to ensure that 

playtimes are safe and happy. 

In addition to all of this, the TA helps to prepare 

the classroom by displaying the children’s work, 

photocopying activities, and making sure that 

the class has all the resources that are needed 

for the class lessons. 

Since arriving at BSB over a year ago, I have had 

the privilege of overseeing the work of the TAs 

and have had the opportunity to observe the 

giftedness and commitment of all of them. In 

this time I have seen what a vital role they play 

in creating a friendly and hardworking classroom 

environment and I therefore want to thank them 

all for their hard work and for being such great 

people to work with. 

Mr Jonathan Moore-Crispin 

TA co-ordinator & 6U TA 

New Primary School Equipment in Use 

There are new extraordinary games in 

the playgrounds of BSB for KS2. There 

are gigantic dominoes for building giant 

towers. There is a new game similar to 

tennis called Swing ball, where a tennis 

ball is attached to a rope that is attached 

to a stick and then it’s a battle to see who 

can get the ball wrapped around the post. 

And finally there is an enormous Snakes 

and Ladders board. Instead of figures, you 

are the figures! However, some children are 

missing after playing this game and people 

say the snakes ate them! 

Igor, 6D 

Sara, Ross and Calin building a Domino Tower; 

looks like it needs some support 

Swing Ball is a HIT! 

Beware of Snakes 


22


Ks1 Star Of The Week Celebrations 

Andrei, 1H Deniz, 2W Andrei, 1J Karin, 1J Bram, 2B 

Every Thursday in KS1 each class takes it in 

turn to perform class assemblies to celebrate 

their work. As well as sharing super work 

we also reveal the Stars of the Week. Each 

teacher chooses one student from their own 

class who deserves special recognition. 

This may be for super work or for excellent 

behaviour. It is a great honour to be a Star 

of the Week as many of the children have 

already found out. Charles from 2B said “That 

was great, when do I get to do it again?” 

Christina from 1H was thrilled when she was 

chosen and said “I bet my brother in Year 3 

hasn’t got one of these trophies”. 

During the Stars of the Week ceremony 

students are presented with certificates. 

They sit at the front of the Hall and wear very 

special satin sashes and fabulous hats for 

the duration of the assembly. The students 

have their pictures taken afterwards and this 

then goes onto our Stars display in the main 

hallway of our building. Recognition indeed! 

Here are some of the Stars of the Week so 

far.... 

As well as Star of the Week, we have a Star 

of the Month. The winner for September was 

Christina from 1H. Congratulations Christina 

and you get to keep that fabulous gold 

trophy! Well done to all our Stars of the Week. 

Ms Lindsey Banks, KS1 Coordinator 

Reading at Anthony Frost British Book Shop 

This month I was lucky enough to spend my Sunday 

lunch time doing one of my all time favourite activities; 

reading to children. Each month the shop asks guest 

readers to come and read to the children and it was a 

real pleasure. They were a great audience and I saw 

lots of familiar faces as well as meeting some some new 

ones. We read my favourite picture book, ‘We’re Going 

on a Bear Hunt’ as well as another old faithful, “Flat 

Stanley”, and all the children, myself and Mrs Puddy 

Wells spent a very pleasant lunch time among some 

beautiful books. 

Ms Naima Hussain, Head of Primary School 


23


Primary School House Competition 

Key Stage 1 

Mures 

Arges 

Olt 

Danube 

Everything you ever 

wanted to know about 

the Primary School House 

Competition 

Q.: What on earth are House teams? 

A.: Well, house teams are four groups that divide 

the school. 

Isabella 

KS1 House Captain 

Alexander 


Erin 


Victor 


Houses 

There are four Houses: Olt, Arges, Danube and 

Mures. Each house has a house captain and a vice 

captain. Each house collects house points and are 

trying to win the Behaviour Cup. 

Alexandra 

KS1 House Vice Captain 

Key Stage 2 

Lena 


Noah 


Ethan 


Harry, 6U (House Captain) 

Hi my name is Harry and I am house captain for Mures. I am 10 years old. My hobbies are 

football, Ps2, golf, rugby, handball and swimming. I have been house captain for a few 

weeks now and I hope to lead Mures to the top of the board. 

Egor, 6D (Vice House Captain) 

My name is Egor and I come from France, I’m ten years old. I am Vice Captain of Mures, I 

liked the idea of being Vice Captain before I became one. I like playing on the computer 

and playing football. I have a brother and a sister, both in Arges. Now, being a vice 

Captain, I am looking forwards to making Mures the best and beating all the houses at all 

competitions, especially on Sport day. I hope that all Mures will have fun! 

Andrei, 6D (House Captain) 

Hi my name is Andrei Atanasiu. I am 10 years old and I am House Capitan of Arges. I have 

a bigger brother and sister, my brother is 14 years old and he is house vice captain of 

Mures my sister is 25 years old. My hobbies are tennis, karting, football, basket ball, PSP, 

and cricket. My favourite subjects are P.E., Maths, and German. 

Rhea, 6D (Vice House Captain) 

Hi! My name is Aishwarya Asthana and I am Vice Captain of Arges. I am 10 years old and I 

come from India. I hope Arges earns lots of house points and wins this year’s best house 

team! I will do all my best to be a good Vice Captain!! Go Arges!!! 

Fillipo, 6U (House Captain) 

Hello, my name is Filippo, I am 10 years old and I am House Captain of Olt. I come from 

Italy. To all of you that are in Olt reading this newsletter I encourage you to get the most 

house points ever!!!! 

Tatum, 6D (Vice House Captain) 

Hi, my name is Tatum Rouf. I am 10 years old and Vice-captain of Olt. I come from England 

and have a younger sister. I’m going to encourage Olt to earn more house points. I 

promise to be a great Vice Captain. GO OLT!! 

Antonio, 6D (House Captain) 

My name is Antonio Salameh and I am the house captain of Danube and I come from 

Syria/Greece I like playing basketball and football I’m 10 ½ and I have 5 dogs and 2 

rabbits. I’m also looking forward to beating all the house teams and being the best 

house captain of Danube (no offence) but I also like playing with friends and Alex the vice 

captain, but I want you guys to have fun! 

Alex, 6D (Vice House Captain) 

Hi my name is Alex I am 10 years old and I am vice captain of Danube. I come from 

Romania, I have a brother and I like Lego. I hope that Danube will win and have a good 

time. 

House points 

All houses try to get house points. You get house 

points through good behaviour, (you get smiley 

faces for work) the house with the most house 

points is named House of the week. A house 

captain goes all over the school to collect house 

points for all four houses. When this is finished 

the house captain counts the house points and 

rights the total on the total bar. In the assembly 

the teacher reads out the results. The house that 

has the highest wins the Behaviour Cup. Winning 

the Behaviour Cup means your house wins twenty 

five house points. 

House Captains & Vice Captains 

House Captains are the captains of the house and 

there are four in Key Stage 2. The House Captains 

lead their houses in the House Competition. If the 

House Captains are sick, on holiday, or on a school 

trip, the Vice Captains stand in for them. The Vice 

Captains have the same “power” as the House 

Captains but can only replace the House Captain 

when the House Captain is away. 

But how do you become a House Captain? 

It’s easy, you get elected. In the second week of 

school and you need to be in Year 6 

Key Stage 2 Captains and Vice-Captains 

Students who want to be a house captain have to 

write a speech. Then, at the Thursday assembly, 

the houses are divided and send to different 

classrooms. There, the Year 6 students have the 

opportunity to address their house before they 

go out to allow the house to vote. The student 

with the most votes is named House Captain, the 

student with the second highest number of votes 

is named Vice Captain. 

House Competitions 

House competitions are the competitions created 

by the house/vice captains. They are three times 

a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. It works 

very easily, two house teams play on Monday 

and the other two play on Wednesday. While the 

House Captains are playing the other two House 

Captains referee. On Monday the 13th of October 

the Basketball competitions started. Egor and 

the other members of the House leaders plan to 

include other sports this year, including a junior 

marathon, rugby, snowman creating for winter, 

volleyball, field hockey, chess and many more fun 

activities! 

Igor, 6D 


24


House Point Revamp 2008 

Since the beginning of term, the 

Secondary House Committee has been 

busy working on new ideas for the House 

Point competition. As you all know, 

house points are given by members of 

staff in recognition for helping others as 

well as competing in house activities and 

sports games during the year. 

Secondary School 

House Competition 

Mures 

Arges 

Olt 

Danube 

Once a week the house points are 

collected and presented in the Assembly 

on Tuesday. The house that has the most 

points at the end of the week will now 

receive a House Cup to indicate they 

have the most points for that week. 

These scores are then collated at the end 

of the term and whichever house has 

the most points will have a non-uniform 

day. At the end of the summer term, the 

house that has the most points overall 

will be rewarded with a final treat. Ideas 

the committee have at the moment 

include a trip out, a barbeque and many 

others which are all hush hush at the 

moment. 

The new committee members are Mr 

Pantella, Mr O’Brien and Mr Perrett. 

House Point Chart 

For September-October 2008 

Denis, Year 10 

House Captain 

Hi, my name is Denis 

Zisman and I’m the 

House Captain for 

Mures this year. I’m 15 

years old and I’m in 

Year 10 this year. This 

is my sixth year at BSB. 

I’m a friendly person 

who enjoys playing 

sports and I believe I 

am a person you can 

relay on for almost 

anything. I like meeting 

new people and making 

new friends and think 

that I am a cool person 

to hang around with. 

I enjoying going out 

on weekends and 

partying with friends. 

I think BSB in general 

is a pleasant place to 

study, a place where 

people fit in easily and 

makes friends quickly 

as it is a cosy school. 

This year I hope, and 

will try my hardest, 

to lead my house to 

victory in the House 

Games Competition. I 

will participate as much 

as possible and will try 

to inspire others to do 

likewise. I truly believe 

that the house cup this 

year will go to Mures! 


House Captain 

Hi, my name is Andreea 

and I’m the new House 

Captain for Arges. I’m 14 

years old and currently 

in Year 10. I like playing 

hockey, swimming, 

and drawing. I like all 

kinds of music, from 

classic to rock, as long 

as it is good music. I’m 

a friendly, happy, and 

a sociable person. I 

like being surrounded 

by people and having 

fun with my friends. I 

consider myself a team 

player and last year I 

found it very interesting 

to see what a house 

captain does for and 

gets from his/her team. 

Being a house captain 

is a very interesting job 

because you have to be 

there for your house, 

to help them to get as 

many points as possible 

and maybe win. 

Nour, Year 12 

House Captain 

Hi, my name is Nour 

Chehab and I’m 17 years 

old. I’m currently in 

Year 12 and have been 

at BSB for 4 years now, 

of which the last three 

years I have been the 

house captain for Olt. I 

think I’m a very friendly 

person and everyone 

says I’m really good at 

helping people with 

personal issues and 

giving them advice. I 

enjoy going out with 

friends on weekends 

and having a great time 

around people. I like 

going to BSB and this 

year there’s been great 

improvements around 

the school and it made 

it seems to be more fun 

and interesting as well 

as better surroundings 

in which to learn. This 

year I can tell that Olt is 

much more enthusiastic 

about the competitions 

and winning every week 

because of the new 

changes that happened 

this year with the house 

awards. I hope this year 

we will win because Olt 

is known for winning in 

past years at BSB. 

Polen, Year 7 

House Captain 

Hi, my name is Polen 

Turkmen and I’m the 

new house captain 

for Danube this year. 

I’m in Year 7 and I am 

nearly 12 years old. I 

come from Turkey. I 

have been in the British 

School of Bucharest 

(and in Danube) for 7 

years. I was a house 

captain last year, when 

I was in Primary, where 

I think we really worked 

together as a team, 

which is what makes a 

team successful in my 

opinion. I hope that we 

will be successful this 

year in collecting house 

points and helping 

the team to improve 

because I really want 

Danube to win at least 

once in the senior 

school. I hope we all 

make a great effort each 

week. 

Tudor, Year 9 

Vice House Captain 



Vanesa, Year 7 





25


Foundation Stage 

Creche Gafencu 

Jakub and Anna Sofia are taking 

turns choosing different coloured 

pegs to put on their boards. 

Agata and Jason playing follow the 

leader while enjoying the warm 

autumn weather. 

Over the past few weeks, the 

children have been learning 

about themselves, their senses, 

personal hygiene and their likes 

and dislikes. Some have enjoyed 

discovering the way things 

feel, such as a corn flour and 

water mix, shaving foam, jelly, 

beans, sand and corn or just 

play dough. Others spent time 

in our discovery corner exploring 

the way cinnamon, nutmeg and 

vanilla smell. Some 

children had fun learning about 

personal hygiene routines at our 

crèche beauty salon or at our 

doll’s hospital. The ‘patients’ 

are washed and groomed at our 

salon, then sent straight to our 

hospital where only the children 

know how to administer medicine 

and treat our doll patients. 

Although all of these sensory 

experiences are great fun, the 

children all agreed that story time 

is their favourite part of our day. 

Creche Pipera 

Lisa, Victoria and Matthew 

reading books 

Ayesha, Evelina and Jonty getting 

creative with the paints 

It has been a busy and exciting 

first half term in Creche. We have 

had great fun this term exploring 

our new classroom and garden. 

We love our messy area and have 

been getting very creative, we 

have been painting with brushes, 

rollers and our fingers. Outside 

we love playing in the little 

houses; you will often find us 

pretending to have coffee and 

cakes. The rocking crocodile 

is another favourite activity, in 

which we see just how many 

children can we fit on him. Most 

importantly, we have been 

making new friends and gaining 

confidence so we are ready for a 

busy year in creche. 

Pre-school Gafencu 

Sasha painting with his eyes 

closed. He is imagining the leaves 

changing colour and falling while 

listening to Vivaldi’s Autumn Allegro. 

Benjamin demonstrating how he 

can measure his name with a tape 

measure. 

This half-term in Preschool 

students have been learning 

about themselves. They have 

been working very hard at 

recognising their name and the 

names of their friends. Students 

explored their likes and dislikes, 

shared their baby and family 

photos, as well as their favourite 

toys and favourite thing to do 

at school. We talked about our 

bodies and what different parts 

help us to do. We learned about 

our sense of touch and felt 

different textures, we used our 

eyes to see Autumn changes, we 

explored our sense of hearing 

by listening to various sounds 

and guessing what they were, 

we tasted different fruits, and we 

smelled different scents. All of 

the students are looking forward 

to our next unit, ‘Celebrations’. 

Pre- School C 

Pre school C off for a bike ride, but 

we need to make sure no one is left 

behind. 

Leaf hunting, Vlad helps Lisa fill her 

box, but what has Constance found? 

Pre- School C have been enjoying 

their first half term at school. Life 

is always busy in our classroom, 

but we have also greatly enjoyed 

our “adventures” out into the 

wider school grounds. Sometimes 

we take the bikes and scooters, 

we love to drive around the 

grounds and we always head for 

the round- about. Some of us are 

very keen on directing the traffic 

and you never see a traffic jam 

when we are on duty. Some times 

we pop in to visit Mr Mulvany 

in the music room, and enjoy 

an impromptu concert, or travel 

all the way to crèche to visit our 

friends there. We are getting very 

confident about meeting new 

people and every body at school 

should watch out as we may be 

visiting you soon. 


26


Pre-school H 

Developing independence skills at 

snack time. 

Investigating the paint tools 

We have now completed our first 

term in pre-school, and after a 

few initial tears all the children 

have rapidly developed a sense 

of ownership of their work space. 

This is most evident when a child 

shows with great confidence a 

visiting grandparent or parent 

around. 

In pre-school we have been 

encouraging the children to 

develop their independence 

skills- maybe some of you have 

noticed this at home, when, for 

example, your child insists on 

pouring their own milk or water. 

We have also being encouraging 

them to take responsibility for 

tidying their toys and resources 

away when they have finished… 

has any one noticed this 

happening at home? 

Reception Gafencu 

Students in the Reception class 

at Gafencu will probably say that 

their favourite thing to do these 

days is to build with the big soft 

blocks in the library. They have 

made and ridden motorbikes, 

built and sailed boats, helped 

each other to make the tallest 

towers, been extremely respectful 

of each others’ constructions, 

and then had great fun together 

knocking everything down again. 

Whilst lots of great learning 

has been taking place in the 

classroom, the children have 

particularly enjoyed learning the 

‘Jolly Phonics’ phonemes. This 

is a system which uses a story, 

and a physical activity to help 

children to use many different 

sections of their brain to learn 

letter sounds. We have cracked 

eggs (‘e’), danced with castanets 

(‘c’ and ‘k’) and wobbled jelly 

(‘j’)- all in the name of good solid 

learning. 

▲ “J j j j j jelly” say Sai, Smruti, Meea, Luca, Alice, Francesco and David as they make the jelly wobble and learn using Jolly Phonics. 

Reception B Visits the Office! 

Reception B decided to pay a 

visit to the office to help the 

office staff for an afternoon. The 

children were kept very busy 

answering phones, preparing 

mail and working on the 

computer. Miss Cristiana said she 

was thankful for the help! 

Back in class the children have 

been busy setting up meetings 

and giving out their business 

cards. Some of the children have 

even started making credit cards 

so they can pay for their business 

lunches in our ‘Cozy Café’. 

“British School of Bucharest, Isabelle 

speaking.” 

“Hello Ms Deanna, this is Tabi, don’t 

forget we have a meeting today at 10 

o’clock.” 

Reception H Students building big! 

Tedy is proud of his very tall tower! 

Kristian, Tedy, and Daniel 

are working together! 

Our construction area is a 

favourite spot to play in! Over 

the past weeks we have enjoyed 

using big wooden blocks to build 

towers higher than ourselves! 

We then toppled them over 

and watched the blocks come 

crashing down! What great fun! 

Other children built a long bridge, 

spanning our entire carpet, and 

then used cars to drive on it. 

Building also helped us with our 

social skills, as we got to make 

new friends, learn English (for 

some of us this is new), share, 

and take turns. You will hear lots 

of giggle and laughs from our 

construction area! 


27


Exceptional Student Writing 

Using 

powerful imagery in a poem: 

My Brother 

My brother is a computer. 

He’s full of useless 

information. 

Someone tried to delete 

information, 

But he got an electric shock, 

And now he is in hospital. 

He’s full of baby games, 

And likes playing them all, 

He hates people touching him, 

Especially when they don’t 

wash their hands. 

Writing an account of an incident 

in a range of genres: 

Mystery 

“OH MY GOODNESS!” shouted 

Egor 

while 

running towards the P.E. 

hall. “THE TROPHIES ARE 

MISSING!”All year 5 started 

running toward the trophy 

cupboard. Everyone started 

running all around the school. 

“Stop!” shouted Andrei. 

“Look, a… a… a footprint.” 

Everyone was staring at 

the footprint for over half 

an hour, thinking: is it a 

teacher’s footprint? It was a 

beautiful day, I was playing 

with my mini monster truck, 

when suddenly – BOOOM!!! 

Something landed on our 

house. But what - ? I had 

no time to waste. I dashed 

into the forest, up a tree, to 

the top. What happened to 

my family? Why didn’t they 

come? What was the thing that 

landed on our house? All day 

long I ate three apples, but 

always thinking what was that 

thing, it surely wasn’t human… 

or was it? 

Fear 

Fear was walking past a gun 

shop. He waited outside the 

door, to push someone down 

the stairs. He sees a man 

through the door window 

buying a shotgun. Fear 

decides to follow him home. 

When the man got home, Fear 

was still following him. The 

man started to walk up the 

stairs when suddenly Fear 

pushed him down the stairs. 

The man yelled and shot fire 

bullets 

randomly. The fifth bullet hit 

Fear in the head. Fear fell 

down in agony and died. 

Idan, 6D 

Amelia, 3L 

Annie on a Treasure Adventure 

Annie 

was a girl who 

liked going on adventures. 

She was 14 years old and 

studied special things she 

found on adventures. 

One day Annie was searching 

for something special to study 

at her warm house. Soon she 

couldn’t find anything so she 

thought she could quickly go 

home and get a spade and 

come back to start digging in 

the forest. 

Soon she came back with 

a spade. Then she found 

a perfect spot and started 

digging. Soon it was 12 cm 

long. She kept on digging. 

Soon it was all hard and she 

couldn’t dig. She lifted a 

hard thing that was hard to 

carry. Then she saw it was 

an enormous treasure box. 

Then she couldn’t hold on any 

longer and dropped it. Then 

she ran home and got a cart 

so she could carry the special 

treasure home. 

When she came back she 

couldn’t find the special 

treasure, she could only find 

the long hole. She was just 

about to go to her warm house 

when she heard a rustle in the 

bushes. Then a man came out 

with the treasure box and hid 

behind a tree. Then Annie 

said “Give me that treasure or 

I’ll call the police.” The man 

didn’t give it to her. Annie got 

so cross. 

Annie went to the police and 

told him all about the man 

and the police went to the 

forest. Soon he took the evil 

man to jail. Then Annie got the 

treasure and a special award, 

a medal. 

The end. 

Orphan Mill 

“WAKE UP! NOW!” shrilled 

a high pitched voice. Henry 

groaned, and turned over in 

his very broken bed. He wasn’t 

going to get up. Too comfy. 

“Ouch!” Henry suddenly leapt 

out of bed (because he’d 

gotten hit by the saucepan.) 

“That’s what you get when you 

don’t answer the wake – up 

call,” said the maid, and then 

she left. Henry was an orphan, 

and lived in an orphanage 

run by John the boss, who, 

in the orphans’ opinion, was 

the wickedest man on earth. 

You know why? Because when 

visitors weren’t around, the 

orphanage turned into a mine 

shaft. And guess who did all 

the building, moving 

rocks and riding carts through 

collapsing tunnels? The 

orphans! Henry reached for his 

clothes. … All right, rags. He 

didn’t know how he was able 

to get out of bed, he thought 

to himself as he trudged of to 

the pet house. I forgot to tell 

you earlier that the orphans 

were allowed one pet to help 

them do their 

job, like a rabbit to dig you 

out if you get buried, or a 

dog to warn you if a cart was 

coming. As for Henry, he had 

a jet black (mostly by soot) 

horse called Nightmare. 

(Horses were used to pull 

carts of stones.) 

Sarah, 5T 


28


Liria, 5B 

Strange Setting 

I went in a rocket. I fell off the rocket. 

I didn’t know where I was. I saw many 

bumps on the ground. The ground was 

rocky. I saw aliens, I think one billion 

aliens. I was impressed when I saw a 

man, walking to a castle. I think I was on 

a planet very close to the sun. I smelled 

good food. The castle was a jail. 

It was pitch 

black, and 

there she 

was, 

Becki 

Ramstone, 

sitting on her bed, 

crossed-legged, and as 

still as a statue. She couldn’t 

sleep. She could hear creaky tiptoes, 

slithering like a serpent under her bed. 

She could hear the clock, gently going 

tick-tock. What if there’s a thief down 

there? It couldn’t have been Mum or 

Dad, could it? Maybe there’s a thief 

down there, and he wants to get 

Dad’s expensive TV set. Who knows? 

But Becki had a brilliant idea. 

She slowly got out of her bed, put 

her slippers on, and she slipped on 

a black blanket. She could see her 

big, tall, black Labrador, sleeping all 

over the floor. The dog’s name was 

Alexandra, but Becki called her Alex 

for short. 

Becki kept walking. The creaking 

footsteps stood still, and so did 

Becki. She looked around: nothing 

Clara, 3P 

Eldan, 3P 

My teacher dropped us in a 

strange place. I can see red 

trees and pink birds. The floor 

is red and I see one person 

only. He has strange ears. 

Everything is red and so is 

the person. I move a little 

forward and I see a sign. It 

says Mini Mountain, turn 

but dead silence. She ran back to 

her room, but just as she reached 

the door, a massive hand pulled 

her back, and escaped through 

the chimney. 

Becki didn’t move in the tall 

figure’s hand. She just let it 

happen. The thing ran, and then, 

slowly, she could see the thing 

lifting itself with its great wings. 

Yes, they were floating in the mid 

air. 

When they landed, it landed with 

a great thump. Believe me, it was 

a massive figure, but it looked like 

a flying serpent to Becki. It walked 

into its cage. He put Becki on a 

table. “What are you?” “A human”, 

answered Becki. The thing laughed. 

“What are you?” asked Becki. The 

thing howled with anger, showing 

his great big white teeth. “I am a 

dragon”, he answered. “And your 

name?” “Rex”, replied the dragon. 

“Why did you take me away?” “I need 

a friend to play with”, he answered. 

“but why don’t you play with all of 

those other dragons?” “Because they 

are always eating humans and being 

mean.” “Well, now you have me, what 

are you going to do?” 

I saw everyone was 

small and I was a giant. 

There were small houses 

and so many people around 

me, like one million. They 

wore red dresses and had 

swords and they wanted 

to take me somewhere. 

They took me to a lake 

that was very deep and 

threw me in it. It was so 

big that I reached the 

bottom. There were 

sharks, crabs, and big 

fish. I heard a big noise. It was a 

Elad, 3P 

submarine and it took me on it’s back. It smelt 

very good like pizza. Some sharks and crabs came. 

They were so scary. 

Year 4K Class Poem 

left. I turned left and walked 

for two hours. I saw another 

sign with lights. I smell mashed 

potatoes. I see a little man. 

He takes me to the swimming 

pool. I jumped in it and my 

teacher made me come back. 

I want to be a Superstar 

I want to explore the world 

I want to be the smartest girl 

I want to do a ballerina twirl 

I want to be a famous earl 

I want to be a superstar 


I want to live near the seashore 

I want to ride a dinosaur 

Yee Haa 

I want to be kind for evermore 



I want to be a dog with fur 

I like it when a cat goes purr. 

I want to be addressed as Sir 

- Yes Sir 



I want to be a super cool surfer 

I want to be a scuba diver 

I want to have my own pet tiger 

I want to be a lion tamer 



I want to fly to outer space 

I want to win an Olympic race 

I want to be a knight with a mace 

I want to be a flying ace 




29


Year 1H 

From All Over the World 

1H group photos 

Year 1J 

Show and Tell, Stories, and Self Portraits 

1H Self-portraits 

1J at work on their self-portraits 1J students enjoying a story 

The children in Year 1 J have 

enjoyed participating in an 

assembly based on “Show and 

tell”; we shared information 

about favourite things and 

toys – how we got them, and 

The children in Year 1 H are from 

all over the world. Between 

us we represent 11 different 

countries! We have much 

enjoyed learning about these 

countries, finding out about 

the ways we are similar, as well 

as learning about the things 

we do differently in our native 

cultures. 

what they mean to us. We 

also enjoyed painting self 

portraits that we displayed in 

class - we looked closely to our 

features and to how they are 

different and represented them 

on paper. In science, we have 

been measuring our hands to 

see how many cubes we can 

carry. We have investigated in 

order to see if there is a link 

between size and our capacity 

to hold larger amounts. We 

We have also been thinking 

about our lives in Bucharest - 

the things we like to do and the 

places we like to go. 

It has been a very exciting start 

to our year together! 

Mr Stuart Harrison, Class Teacher 

used different strategies to 

pile up, layer the cubes, so 

that sometimes smaller hands 

could carry more. We worked 

together on a storyboard of 

“Where the Wild Things Are”. 

We discussed and wrote about 

our favourite ways to enjoy 

stories, based on the book 

“Amazing Grace”: some of us 

like to dress up, act stories out, 

become characters, listen in 

bed, use puppets or dolls etc. 

Ms Helen Jezeph, Class Teacher 

Year 2B 

2B students in there new class 

Miss Banks and Miss Livia 

welcomed the new 2B at the 

beginning of term. 

We are now working together as 

a team and the children know 

the routines of 2B. What a finely 

tuned working team we are!! 

We have been learning the 

times tables in Maths. In 

Literacy we’ve been exploring 

Traditional Stories. We 

performed a class assembly 

this month to KS1 and some 

of the classes in KS2. It was a 

great success and the children 

made up their own dance 

routine. All good practice for 

when it’s a parent assembly 

and you all get to come in and 

see us! 

In Science, we have been 

investigating Materials and 

their Properties - looking at a 

range of different natural and 

not-natural materials. We have 

experimented with popcorn to 

see how it changes before and 

after applying heat. 

Thank you once again for all 

your support - particularly with 

the wonderful artefacts you all 

provided for our Topic subject, 

it was super. 

Ms Lyndsey Banks 

Key Stage 1 Coordinator 

Year 2W 

The children in Year 2 W have 

been having a lot of fun in 

Science. 

We have been learning about 

the properties of water as part 

of our Science Materials topic. 

We designed an experiment to 

show us which methods cause 

ice to melt the fastest. 

We have also observed boiling 

water changing into steam and 

then back again to liquid when 

it cools. 

Mr Mark Williams, 

Class Teacher 

A sample of 2W student work 


30


Years 3L & 3P 

Roman Day 

To see more pictures of our Roman 

day please have a look at one of our 

blogs: 

www.3lbsb.edublogs.org, 

www.3pbsb.edublogs.org 

Year 4H 

Science: Habitats 

Mena and Mariana searching for 

mini-beast in a flower garden habitat. 

Roman day was on the 8th October and we 

dressed up as Roman and Celts. We started 

Roman day by remembering what we have learnt 

about the Romans. We had a lot of fun 

on the Roman day. 

First we did some Roman literacy. In Roman 

literacy we read a story called ‘Escape from 

Pompeii’. Then we did some Roman Maths. 

In the afternoon we had a feast of Roman food. 

We had pancakes with honey, oranges, apples, 

grapes, marzipan, olives and Glorious Gladiator 

Cake. It was very tasty. After the feast we made 

mosaics and some children had a gladiator fight! 

Here is what some of us thought about the day: 

‘I liked dressing up and making the helmets 

because we used many colours like blue, purple 

and orange. The colours were very light and 

good. We dressed up like Romans. I couldn’t 

believe it. I loved the Roman Day because I 

Searching for mini-beasts and 

noticing the apples, which are all 

part of the food chain in this habitat. 

In year 4 we have been studying 

animal and plant habitats. We 

learned that a habitat is a place 

that provides food and shelter 

for both plants and animals. For 

example we investigated the 

plants and animals living in sea 

grass beds, tropical rainforests, 

woodlands and many others. 

looked like a real Roman.’ (Anda Voicu) 

‘I enjoyed the Maths because I liked learning the 

letters.’ (Ioana Roibu) 

‘The Feast was very good and so much! I had a 

good time.’ (Engin Berberoglu) 

‘I liked making the beautiful mosaics because 

I liked the things we did in teams.’ (Amelia 

Spackman) 

‘In the Roman day I liked making mosaics and 

fighting with swords because we were in teams.’ 

(Philip Gogos) 

‘We made some spectacular Mosaic. My group 

made a flower pot mosaic. Other groups made 

different types of mosaic. We used confetti for 

tiles.’ (Bridget Calthrop) 

Year 3 

We also discovered that there 

are habits all around us at the 

BSB, so we went outside and 

had a look. We found minibeast 

habitats everywhere 

under rocks, on leaves, in 

bushes and up trees. 

Tudor, 4H 

Year 4K 

Enthusiastic entomologists examine BSB 

Up close and personal. 

Daniel pauses to record what he has 

found 

Tasos has an eye for detail. 

Elena and Clotilde contemplate a 

bugs life. 

Year 4’s Science unit has seen the children 

carefully consider their surroundings. 

While learning about habitats, the children 

took some time to explore and find out 

about different habitants that share our 

wonderful garden areas. They found a 

huge range of insects and mini-beasts and 

they carefully recorded the results. It was 

fun to record the facts and to look closely 

at the details of the tiny creatures while 

contemplating the way they behave. 


31


Year 5B 

Ancient Greek Pots 

Dilara and Maria making their 

containers 

Year 5T 

Learning about the human body 

Raphaela Werner listens to Bianca 

Lucini’s heartbeat as Miss Catalina 

looks on. 

In our History lessons, we have 

been learning about the Ancient 

Greeks and their pottery and 

we decided to make our own. 

We used clay and Ms Barclay 

showed us how to make pots 

from coils or pinch pots or slab 

pots. Then we spent the lesson 

making our own designs. 

The clay felt quite squidgy and 

soft and it was fun to get a bit 

dirty. The best thing about 

making the pots was to discover 

Year 5T takes its pulse after running 

on the spot for 1 minute. 

how the clay worked and what 

we could do with it. 

Doctor in the House! 

Suparnan and Finn 

In our Science Lesson, Ms 

Barclay dressed as a doctor. 

She wore a coat from the 

Science Lab and tied up her 

hair. Liria was the patient and 

Ms Barclay showed us how 

to find her heartbeat using a 

In Science this term we have 

been looking up how to keep 

healthy. We have learned about 

diet, our heart and things that 

affect our body. We listened 

to our heartbeats using a 

stethoscope and learned how 

to take our pulse rate. 

We investigated what effect 

exercising has on our heart rate. 

Firstly, we took our resting pulse 

stethoscope and how to use 

a pulse meter. After that, we 

used stethoscopes and pulse 

meters to listen to each others’ 

heartbeats and count the 

pulses while resting and then 

after a little bit of exercise. We 

saw that there were changes. 

My partner was Joo-Yun. I 

couldn’t find her heartbeat and 

we joked that maybe she wasn’t 

alive! It was a really fun lesson! 

Alexandra, 5B 

rate, and then we exercised 

for one minute. Immediately 

after we took our pulse to see 

how it had been affected by the 

exercise. Afterwards we took 

our pulse every two minutes to 

see how long it would take to 

return to normal. Later in class 

we graphed our pulse rates 

changed. 

5T Students 

Year 6U 

Diversity in 6U 

Year 6D 

Literary Genres 

A class of many nationalities bridged 

through one language - English. 

Welcome to 6U, which is 

located on the first floor of 

the primary building. Our 

teacher is Miss Ullman and our 

assistant is Mr. Jonathan. We 

are a unique class. In our class 

of fourteen students, thirteen 

languages are spoken. Also, 

out of the fourteen students, 

only two of us are actually 

British. Some of the languages 

spoken are Turkish, Arabic, 

Serbian, Russian, Hungarian, 

Urdu, French, Italian, 

Romanian, and of course 

English! We have written our 

class guidelines so that all of 

the languages are recognized 

and appreciated, but here at 

school we speak in English. 6U 

is also a unique class because 

six out of the fourteen students 

are new to the school this year, 

so we have been spending the 

first few weeks getting to know 

each other. Welcome to BSB! 

Basil, 6U 

Tatum and Casey (Year 6D) 

performing their presentation of 

literary genres 

Year 6 D has been learning 

about different literary genres 

and the way they are employed 

in literary works in order to 

convey certain meanings. 

While most of the class chose 

to display their work as a 

poster, two students, Casey 

Whelan and Tatum Rouf, chose 

role-play to illustrate their 

work; in this, Casey interviews 

a well known author - who 

highlights the different types of 

genres and what each features 

specifically. 

The students were then read 

the opening of a story (mystery 

genre) which ended with: “It 

has been ten days since this 

began. Ten days of hell.” After 

that, students had to write what 

had happened in those 10 days, 

as a flashback, continuing the 

story, but not in the “right” 

order. 


32


What is CPD? 

And why is it important? 

CPD is an acronym for Continuing Professional 

Development. It is an integral part of any school 

program and forms a core basis of the BSB 

Development Plan. This summer, several of our 

teachers headed off to England to participate in 

a variety of training courses. Following is a brief 

report about three of the teachers. 

A Visit to Woodhouse Primary 

School, England 

Last year we were visited by the Head and 

Deputy Head of a leading primary school in the 

UK called Woodhouse. They spent two days with 

the staff of BSB working on assessment practices 

and how to raise achievement by setting targets. 

The work was very worthwhile and all parties 

gained a lot. 

This summer I visited Woodhouse School 

myself for two days to work with their Senior 

Management Team on assessment, target setting 

and effective use of ICT. This was a wonderful 

visit for me as I got to meet the students and 

staff and share knowledge and experience with 

another school who are working with very similar 

students to those of BSB. We have also initiated 

greater links between the two schools and are 

starting learning projects between the students 

at BSB and Woodhouse. 

EDA Course in Headship Skills, 

Cambridge, UK 

During July I attended a course with the 

Education Development Association in 

Cambridge. On my course were Heads and 

Deputy Heads from independent schools from 

locations as diverse as Bermuda, Luxemburg 

and Kenya. This was a wonderful opportunity 

to share good practice and learn new skills with 

many professionals in the field of education. 

During this 5 day course our group of 12 

delegates discussed a wide range of issues 

connected to managing international schools 

and we all learned a lot from each other. 

Our course leader Polly Patrick was a very 

experienced Head teacher from the UK and she 

provided us with a wide variety of advice and 

training directly from the UK government. For me 

this was a very valuable experience and I gained 

a lot of useful knowledge and contacts with 

people in a similar position to myself. 

Ms Naima Hussain, Head of Primary 

Key Stage 

Management Training 

In the Summer I attended a week long residential 

course at Cambridge University. Throughout the 

week Ms Lindsey Banks and I attended seminars 

and tutorial sessions covering a variety of topics 

relating to our new appointments as Key Stage 

Coordinators. 

The course was very interesting, providing us 

with some excellent background information 

about our new positions. We covered a variety 

of subjects, including how to be an effective 

manager, how to carry out an observation and to 

co-coordinate staff effectively. 

The course was run by a current head teacher 

from London and drew on the expertise of 

other head teachers also. There were 24 other 

teachers from various international schools also 

attending. 

By the end of the course I think we had all gained 

a real insight into the new roles that awaited us; 

the course also gave us an important opportunity 

to discuss with other teachers issues relating to 

teaching in general and international schools. It 

certainly was a very busy week, but also a very 

satisfying week, and one we were very happy to 

have had the opportunity to be apart of. 

Mr Patrick Kennedy, Key Stage 2 Coordinator 


33


The Eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 

On September 25th we were present at an MDG 

meeting to discuss MDGs, which are for PEOPLE like 

you am me. MDGs are guidelines to improve life by 

preserving humanity, by eradicating preventable 

diseases, by providing opportunities for those 

that don’t have it, and by trying to form coalitions 

dedicated to strengthening human relations, 

equality and democracy. 

The MDGs provide concrete markers and goals 

for improvement. As each goal becomes closer to 

being met, momentum builds and more people are 

able to help in some way. More people are aware 

of how to help; thus, they help themselves, others 

and humanity through small personal steps. 

These personal steps in turn become local goals, 

local goals develop into national goals, and and 

national goals spread into international awareness. 

Awareness of these MDGs is integral to the success 

that humanity desperately needs. Education is 

needed and helping humanity by addressing the 

MDGs step by step, person to person, community 

to community, nation to nation and eventually 

globally will render humans triumphant over our 

current woes. 

The UN, Britain and Romania have been making 

asserted efforts to achieve these goals by 2015. We 

have 7.5 years left to do our part in reaching these 

targets. What role do you play in making these 

goals a reality? Go to: http://www.undp.org/mdg/ 

to find out more about the MDGs and, what YOU 

can do to help HUMANITY. 

There are eight goals in total. Some of the main 

goals include making sure every child gets an 

education, decreasing the child mortality rate, 

fighting for woman’s equality, and combating HIV 

and AIDS. 


My Day at the MDG Conference 

Alexandra and Louisa with Mr Robin 

Barnett HM Ambassador to Romania 

The meeting started at 10 am. Some people present 

were: students, the British ambassador Mr. Robin 

Barnett, UNDP representative Mr. Jan Sorensen, 

people who are part of non-governmental societies 

which help these goals come true, people that did 

some work with the eight goals and other people 

that had something to say about this situation. 

First we were all introduced to the eight goals and 

Mr. Barnett gave a small speech in Romanian, 

which was very impressive. This lasted around 20 

minutes. Then we were given a puzzle which we 

had to do in 10 minutes, a task in which we failed. 

This was followed by the most interesting part of 

the workshop. It was a debate. People gave their 

opinion about the eight goals. The people that 

did some work on the subject had the opportunity 

of talking about it. The debate lasted around 40 

minutes. 

During the debate the goals that were most talked 

about were education, maternal health and 

reducing child mortality rate. The debate at one 

point derived from Romania and went on to the 

problems in Africa. It was more like a comparison 

between Africa, Romania and the whole world. They 

all agreed that Romania isn’t such a poor country 

after all and that it has a very strong educational 

system. 

At the end Mr. Murchison finally got the chance to 

talk and said that for these goals to be achieved 

everyone should be aware of the problems. After 

the debate prizes were awarded for the people who 

worked towards the eight goals. The winner came 

from Iasi and he came up with the idea of making 

people aware of problems by using mobile phones. 

At the end we were all invited to have something 

to drink and eat some cookies. We talked to the 

British ambassador and people that were present. 

After that was done all three of us went to finish 

the puzzle, as leaving it undone might be a bad 

omen. We then got the chance to see the British 

Council library. It is more towards high school and 

university. It has a great deal on business. However 

it also contains DVD’s, magazines, some history 

books, teacher English books and has a small 

section on fiction books. That was the end of our 

visit at the British Council. Afterwards we went and 

ate and talked about what we have learned. Then 

we got picked up and the day ended. 

For me this visit was very interesting. I learned a 

lot of new things and I was introduced to these 

eight goals. Personally I think that 2015 is too soon, 

however these goals can be achieved. With time, 

patience and the involvement of everyone these 

goals will be eventually achieved. 

Alexandra, Year 10 


34


Adult Classes underway 

Mr Ellis teaching 

the Advanced Adult English class 

on Tuesday, from 2.10-3pm 

Adult Art classes run 

Thursday, 9.30-11.30am 

or 12.00-3.00pm 

In response to a high level of parent interest, a 

range of Adult classes are now being offered at 

BSB. Classes on offer in the term ahead include: 

Art 

Following on from last years success, the Art 

Department is offering a new course in Art and 

Design, exploring painting and drawing through 

a variety of materials and based on the topic Still 

Life. 

· Thursday: - 9.00 am-11.30am (Coffee break 10.00-10.30) 

- 12.00 am-3.00am (Coffee break 1.30-2.00) 

· 12 places available 

· 700 lei per term (including all materials) 

For further information contact Barbara Lavery 

barbara.lavery@britishschool.ro 

Romanian for Beginners 

By the end of the course you will be able to: 

• Understand basic Romanian words and 

phrases 

• Speak in simple phrases and have basic 

conversations in Romanian 

• Have some knowledge about Romania and its 

history and culture 

· Starting Monday, 13.45-14.45 pm 

· 12 places available 

· Classes will be 6 euro per session 

For further information contact Mrs Ana Maria 

Marin anamaria.marin@britishschool.ro 

English classes 

English classes are offered at 4 levels: 

• Beginner 

• Pre-intermediate 

• Intermediate 

• Upper intermediate/Advanced 

· Each level will have 1 lesson per week: please contact 

the office for dates 

· 12 places available per level 

· Cost: 8 euro per session 

For further information contact Mr Kendall Peet 

kendall.peet@britishschool.ro 

Pilates fitness classes 

A system of exercises using special apparatus, 

designed to improve physical strength, flexibility, 

and posture, and enhance mental awareness. 

· Teacher: Mr. Atanasiu 

· Contact the office for details. 

· Cost: 33 Ron per class 

If you would like to attend any of these courses 

in the following term, please contact the office 

by phone 021 2678919 or email (office@ 

britishschool.ro), and they will be able to 

confirm your place and give you further detailsplease 

note that spaces are strictly limited, so 

enroll early to avoid disappointment. These 

classes are open to friends in the community, 

if you wish to be accompanied by someone 

who is not a British School parent. There are 

plans to extend adult classes to include foreign 

languages and a variety of other courses. 

Bucharest International Schools’ Forum 

International school principals meeting to discuss key issues 

At the invite of the new AISB Director David Ottaviano, 

Bucharest’s international Heads of School met last 

month to discuss the possibility of coming together 

for various events. Sports events were highlighted as 

a priority, but it was also discussed that various Arts 

and Drama opportunities would be good occasions to 

come together. To seize the opportunity to start fixtures 

for our students Ms Kemp, Head of our PE Department 

has already set up a meeting for all of Bucharest’s 

international schools’ PE teachers and hopefully this will 

be the beginning of many productive links. 


35

A beautiful campus, fantastic facilities, an unforgettable education.

November 2008 - British School Of Bucharest

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?