Prime News December 2021

PrimeNews
SIS PARIS OUEST Boulogne • Saint-Cloud • Sèvres December 2021

SIS Paris Ouest has two types of programmes:
Extension and Integrated. Both programmes offer
the same level of language and literacy instruction to
children who are fluent in English.
Our students are exposed to quality literature,
cultivate reading skills and learn to become confident
authors. They become proficient in communicating
ideas with ease and precision in English.
Teachers work from a bespoke curriculum based on
the Primary Framework for Literacy in the UK. This
curriculum emphasises creativity and the application
of literacy skills to meaningful tasks, quality fiction
and non-fiction being a principle focus. Our native
English speaking team is sensitive to children’s
individual needs; they are recognized and taken into
account accordingly.
Extension Programme
Our Extension Programme gives bilingual children
aged 4-10 attending other schools the opportunity
to immerse themselves in English on Wednesday
afternoons throughout the school year. Classes take
place at the Gambetta Primary School in Sèvres. The
curriculum focuses on language and literacy during
the 3 hours of class. Working within a structured
academic English speaking environment on a weekly
basis improves your child’s chances of being able
to pursue a bilingual programme in middle school.
Children who are not fluent in French may attend our
Wednesday classes.
Integrated Programme
Students aged 6-10 attend one of our public host
schools in Boulogne or Sèvres on a full-time basis and
follow the national primary curriculum in French with
teachers employed by the French national education
system. They have 6 hours of class in English with our
teachers twice a week in language and literacy as well
as history, geography and science. Integrated students
must be fluent in French.
Sections Internationales SIS Paris Ouest
Office : 1 parvis Charles de Gaulle
92310 Sèvres
Tel. : 01 72 77 70 40
Office hours: 8:00-12pm; 2-5:30pm
www.sissevres.org, info@sisparisouest.org
President of the association: Saïd Saïdi
Director: Elisabeth Lau-Vanchet
Deputy Director: Ina Effenkammer
Deputy Director: Katarina Pekkanen
Administrative Team & Admissions
Primary Admissions Assistant : Jennifer Maurel
Secondary Admissions : Katarina Pekkanen
Preschool & Primary Teachers 2021-2022
Head of Primary : Catherine Potter-Jadas
Head of Primary Extension : Ralph Tidmarsh
Integrated programme teachers :
Joanna Lhonoré, Connie Montrella, Catherine Potter-Jadas,
Ralph Tidmarsh
Extension programme teachers (Wednesday) :
Patrick Amos, Sarah Armstrong, Rachel Chatterjee,
Hannah Coyle, Juliana Daxland, Doris Fisahaye,
Genevieve Goldsack, Cynthia Kaiser, Joanna Lhonoré,
Amber Minogue, Rochelle Paulello, Monica Perillat,
Taylor Scott, Rashmi Shangrai, Louise Smit,
Mirella Sobolewski, Neil Sinclair, Ilse Willems
PrimeNews • December 2021-2022
Production editor: Anne Cornell-Pouret
Photos: © SIS Paris Ouest teachers
Cover photo: © Catherine Potter-Jadas, Love in a Box
project: Our integrated P2 class in Boulogne showing
everyone what needs to be put in a Love in a Box (or bag
as in this case). A big thank you to all the families that
joined us in making up boxes to go to children who are
less fortunate than ours.

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Catherine Potter-Jadas
Head of Primary
Dear Parents,
I will not bore you with more descriptions of what life is like in class
following the COVID restrictions, they are now an everyday feature of
our lives and do not impede the progress of the children in any way.
On my recent trip to Brussels for a European Commission, I had the
opportunity to mix and exchange with teachers from almost every
part of Europe; it made me realise how lucky we have been being back
into school as many of them were in lockdown and teaching from afar
for much longer periods than we were. The feeling of frustration was
palpable and the opinion that the only way to teach was in person, was
unanimous!
So in this issue of Prime News, you will see us all masked still, but
genuinely delighted to be in each other’s company and enjoying the
experience of learning through actions as we move over to the literacy
approach Talk for Writing, in which the children imitate, innovate and
invent.
Happy holidays,
Catherine Potter-Jadas
Our Extension programme teachers had fun wearing costumes on Fancy Dress Day in October
Ralph Tidmarsh
Head of Primary Extension Programme
We’re thrilled by the variety of learning and activities that have been on offer
this term: radio plays, architectural constructions, musical theatre, a visit from
real bat scientists that seriously inspired the children to dream of adventurous
careers, human biology, chemistry and physics, painting and music, sports and
games. I’ve also had the privilege of covering lunch duty on Wednesdays this
term. Miraculously the sun has shone every single week, meaning we’ve been
able to picnic outside. Skipping and baseball have also made a major comeback at
playtimes and, as you’ll see from the photos, a palpable joy continues to permeate
SIS lessons and sessions.
2021 - 2022 • Sections Internationales de Sèvres SIS Paris Ouest

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Little Peas (MS)
Extension Programme
Mirella Sobolewski
Our youngest pupils have class on Wednesday mornings. As
portrayed in the photos below, they have been working on
a wide variety of activities: painting ghosts with sponges,
learning how to control their pencils by drawing spider webs,
counting and Halloween vocabulary, discussing Remembrance
Day, and learning about Thanksgiving.
PrimeNews • December 2021

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P1 (GS)
P1 P • Extension
Rochelle Paulello
Using Talk for Writing to study about an old lady who
swallowed a fly!
P1 S • Extension
Mirella Sobolewski
Bread making writing exercise.
Pupils have been working on phonics.
2021 - 2022 • Sections Internationales de Sèvres SIS Paris Ouest

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P2 (CP)
P2 Boulogne • Integrated
Catherine Potter-Jadas
Pupils have been very busy this term. We talked about
what we were grateful for as did our French classmates
and we made a big tree together. We also had a visit
from Mr Tidmarsh to record some phonics songs.
P1/2 P • Extension
Monica Perillat
P1s and P2s have been activating their
literacy skills with whiteboard practice
and class story telling for our Talk4Writing
projects. We explored dictionaries and lined
up in alphabetical order. Finding the correct
order was challenging with Charlotte, Chloe,
& Constance. Or Aidan and Aiden!
PrimeNews • December 2021

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P2 F • Extension
Doris Fisahaye
Our class is thankful for ...
P2 Sèvres • Integrated
Ralph Tidmarsh
Our class had fun making marble mazes using
paper drinking straws!
2021 - 2022 • Sections Internationales de Sèvres SIS Paris Ouest

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P3 (CE1)
P3 C • Extension
Hannah Coyle
Our class has been reading
about giants and goblins this
term. Pupils also enjoyed
playing bingo.
P3 N • Extension
Neil Sinclair
Pupils had fun reciting the poem ‘Nobody Rides The
Unicorn’ by Adrian Mitchell and visiting our library.
PrimeNews • December 2021-2022

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P3 Boulogne & Sèvres • Integrated
Connie Montrella
In Boulogne, pupils have worked hard
to learn many ‘Talk for Writing’ texts.
They are experts at adding expressive
gestures to the stories. Here they are
reciting the First Thanksgiving Story.
In Sèvres, pupils love playing games and learning at the same time.
In these photos, they are playing a game with the months.
2021 - 2022 • Sections Internationales de Sèvres SIS Paris Ouest

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P4 (CE2)
P4 D • Extension
Juliana Daxland
The class enjoyed an icebreaking
game on the first day.
P4 G • Extension
Genevieve Goldsack
Students perform their Talk for
Writing model text, The Elephant.
The class learned about
conjunctions and King
Midas.
P4 C • Extension
Rachel Chatterjee
King Midas was a
greedy man who
counted gold in his
sleep!
PrimeNews • December 2021

11
P4 Boulogne • Integrated
Connie Montrella
Our class knows all about healthy living.
Here they are working cooperatively to
create their food group posters.
P4 Sèvres • Integrated
Catherine Potter-Jadas
The class has nailed timelines
— even BC dates!
Année 2020 - 2021 • Sections Internationales Paris Ouest

12
P5 (CM1)
P5 Boulogne & Sèvres • Integrated
Joanna Lhonoré
The P5 in both Boulogne and Sèvres have been exploring
grammar and punctuation through many activities
including apostrophe relay races, tic-tac-toe nouns and
abstract squares. The students showed off their artistic
talents with their Weaving Well-Being posters about
respect and positive relationships. They have also been
enjoying the different steps of our Talk 4 Writing units:
acting out the text, drawing story maps, brainstorming
new vocabulary and obviously writing and illustrating
their own stories at the end of the process. Well done!
PrimeNews • December 2021

13
P5 W• Extension
Ilse Willems
In addition to reading Because of Winn-Dixie, the class has
met our reading challenge by reading more than 30 books (of
at least 100 pages each)! Could our year’s total be over 100
books?
We’ve also been busy writing fables. Having learned, with
movements, the “Crying Wolf” fable, we made a “hug” or a
“handshake” with the original to create our own.
P5 A• Extension
Patrick Amos
Students prepared theatrically for a
"show, don't tell" descriptive burst
writing session inspired by a wolf
photo, where words like "snarl" carry
MORE weight than "angry."
2021 - 2022 • Sections Internationales de Sèvres SIS Paris Ouest

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P6 (CM2)
P6 Boulogne • Integrated
Ralph Tidmarsh
Pupils got into building bridges: they had to
traverse a metre’s gap using only newspaper. Not
easy! They also learned how to read good old
fashioned maps, too.
P6 S• Extension
Louise Smit
These photos were taken when our class
was knee deep in investigative work - trying
to catch the elf that tangled all of Santa's
Christmas lights.
P6 Sèvres • Integrated
Joanna Lhonoré
Our class has been exploring the world using
their map skills while analysing the different
transport infrastructure in various countries
and cities. We travelled from Kenya, to Ireland
and then went all the way to Alaska. We
also visited the cities of Bourg St. Maurice,
Nairobi and Bordeaux. In correlation with
International Children’s Day on November
20th, students were able to explore The Convention of the
Rights of the Child as part of a common project with all
CM2 students. They created a Tree of Children’s Rights, both
in English and in French, and decorated a space on the
playground where they can share their knowledge with the
other children in the school.
PrimeNews • December 2021

15
P6 A• Extension
Sarah Armstrong
Our class has been using the Talk 4
Writing method this term. We learned a
text by heart to be able to perform it and assimilate common language patterns to reuse in their
writing. The sillier the actions the better! In studying ‘Exquisite Corpse’, we encountered more
silliness —we got some hilarious sentences when playing consequences. We giggled so much we
forgot we were revising parts of speech ;-)
Our class wants to give a HUGE shout out to our amazing library
volunteers. Getting them to get their noses out of the books they have
borrowed is a bit
of challenge…
P6 K• Extension
Cynthia Kaiser
Students planned persuasive arguments on white
boards before adding them to a cartoon strip about
a child persuading a Dad to let him play video
games.
2021 - 2022 • Sections Internationales de Sèvres SIS Paris Ouest

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Wednesday Workshops
Children enrolled in our Extension or Integrated programme may also register for one of our workshops held on
Wednesday mornings throughout the school year. These extracurricular activities in English enable children to
learn more about Art, Music, Science, Sports or Theatre.
PrimeNews • December 2021

2021 - 2022 • Sections Internationales de Sèvres SIS Paris Ouest
17

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Games Club
Our Integrated students are invited to join our Games Club. Under the guidance of one our teachers, students play
a wide variety of games in English during their lunch break in Sèvres or Boulogne.
Boulogne
PrimeNews • December 2021

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Sèvres
The students in the Games Club in Sèvres
have been enjoying a variety of games
this term. The P3 group has shown an
interest in puzzles, Connect 4 and Who’s
Who and of course Saboteur. A new
card game introduced by one of the P5
students has been very popular as well
as Labyrinth and Sequence. The P6,
who have been participating for quite
some time, rotate through many of
the games, but have learned a new
card game, Spite and Malice, that is a
recent favourite for many.
2021 - 2022 • Sections Internationales de Sèvres SIS Paris Ouest

Happy Holidays
Boulogne • Saint-Cloud • Sèvres
Production Editor : Anne Cornell-Pouret • 12/2021
SIS Paris Ouest
Anglophone Section
T. 01 72 77 70 43
info@sisparisouest.org
www.sissevres.org
Sites:
Ecole Gambetta A
4 rue Victor Hugo
92310 Sèvres
Ecole Ferdinand Buisson
29 avenue Pierre Grenier
92100 Boulogne