Year 9 Music
This week in Music Year 9 have worked on their aural skills, learned The Lumineers song “Ho Hey” by ear. Students worked independently in small groups to work out the structure, chords and strumming patterns to the song on ukulele, guitar or keyboard. They showed excellent curiosity and determination throughout the lesson and reflected well on our whole-class work so far this term.
First Orchestra Rehearsal
After the success of our String Ensemble and Quartet last year, and an exciting TISAC Choral Day, the Bromsgrove International School Orchestra had its first rehearsal on Wednesday lunchtime. Led by Mr M-T, Ms View and Ms Hutchings, they started learning Grieg’s “In The Hall of the Mountain King”.
Year 7 Music

This week in Music Year 7 have been developing their feel for rhythms and grooves. Through “Chair Drumming” they learn the different parts to a rock beat for the kick drum, snare drum and hi-hats. They were very determined and were soon playing along to some well-known songs as a class. To finish the lesson, they all took a big risk, trying out their new skills on a real drum kit in front of the class!

On Saturday morning at 6am nine students joined Mr Owens and Ms Lowry to travel down to Pattaya to take part in a beach and reef clean up with Mermaids Dive Centre.
We collected more than 30 bags of rubbish on one small beach popular with tourists. Common items were: Styrofoam plates and boxes; plastic cutlery, bottles and straws; glass bottles for beer and energy drink; and old clothes and fishing equipment.
The trip showed everyone the scale of the problem- it is estimated that the equivalent of one garbage truck full of rubbish is dumped into the sea every minute world wide- and convinced us all that we need to do more to stop creating waste in the first place.
Please follow this link for pictures and videos:  https://www.mermaidsdivecenter.com/mermaids-international

On Tuesday 18th September we welcomed four members of the Oxford University Debate team to school. Our Year 12 students were given the opportunity to attend workshops with them to develop their critical thinking and debate skills. Our students thoroughly enjoyed the experience which culminated in a mini debate following the rules and procedures that the Oxford Union use. In addition the students learnt more about the application system and their experiences of securing a place at Oxford.

Today Mrs Hardy led the students through the dissection of a squid meanwhile Miss Lowry got the students to put their DIY skills to the test building a compost bin for the school.

This half-term in Science, the Year 6 Hawks are learning about electricity, including using scientific symbols to draw their own circuits. They are also busy using their curiosity to design experiments to test their predictions.

This week during Science week, the Hawks were set a challenge to see if different fruit and vegetables can be used to charge their mobile phones! They used copper and zinc rods, wires and voltmeters to test how much power was made before making a prediction based on what they had learned. They then posed their own questions and worked in teams to design an experiment to test their ideas.

The Hawks put their scientific knowledge to the test, showing amazing curiosity, determination and teamwork!

The secondary school kicked off their science week with two lunchtime sessions where they had the chance to build their own aquaponic systems which allows fish to thrive in a tank that is naturally filtered by plants.

This Thursday, 13th September, marked the birth of the famous children’s author ‘Roald Dahl’. Year 2 celebrated this day by dressing up as one of his famous book characters. It was lovely to see so many children getting into the ‘Roald Dahl’ theme by coming to school in some amazing and imaginative costumes. We had children dressed up as; The Enormous Crocodile, Charlie from ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’, Willy Wonka, Matilda, The Twits, Trunky from the ‘The Enormous Crocodile’, The BFG; and so many more!

Throughout the day, the children took part in a variety of exciting activities which included; making colourful paper plate ‘Roly Poly Birds’, as well as writing and sending messages in ESIO TROT language. However, the highlight of the day was certainly making a magical, amazing potion inspired by ‘George’s Marvellous Medicine’. We tested 2 potions:

  1. Baking soda and coca-cola
  2. Baking soda, red food colouring, washing up liquid and white vinegar

The first potion just fizzed as all the carbon dioxide escaped into the air. The second potion, however, caused a HUGE eruption of lava as the bicarbonate of soda (akali) and white vinegar (acid) reacted with each other! The look of excitement and amazement on the children’s faces was a joy to behold! Hopefully this experience will stand them in good stead for next week’s ‘Science Week’ and inspire them to read and enjoy many more stories written by the wonderful Roald Dahl.

Today, the Year 10 triple scientists put their knowledge of terminal velocity into practice and made their own parachutes and dropped eggs from the third floor!

 

This morning Primary enjoyed a lovely Wai Khru ceremony. Wai Khru is a Thai ritual in which students pay respects to their teachers in order to express their gratitude and formalize the student–teacher relationship. It was another great opportunity for us to embrace the heritage and culture of our host country, and better understand the country that we live in. The flowers shared were beautiful and the Primary students performed some melodic chants. Thank you to the families that also brought in flowers for their teachers.

Registration for Chinese Academy (Primary and Secondary – Windsor Park),  Swimming Academy (Primary and Secondary – Windsor Park), Basketball Academy (Secondary – Windsor Park) and Music Academy (Primary and Secondary – Windsor Park) will open soon – look out for the information coming home. Please complete the registration form for Chinese and/or Basketball and return it to school if your child would like to join the academy. Please note registration for Music Academy in Term 1 is open at www.bromsgrove.ac.th/music until 17:00 on Monday 10 September 2018.