The IB Diploma at BISC

As our Year 13 students approach the end of the Diploma programme, it seems timely to remind the community about what the programme stands for and why it is the program of choice at BISC. 

The Diploma is considered the gold standard for Secondary Education and as such, is demanding but also very rewarding. Research shows that IB Diploma students go on to outperform students with other common qualifications at university level.

“The findings indicate that the IB students of this sample were much more likely than other students to achieve good honours degrees.” (Frank-Gemmill, G., 2013. The IB Diploma and UK university degree qualifications. Journal of Research in International Education)

“The graduation rate of DP candidates at institutions considered in this sample was consistently higher than the institutional rate. The percent difference ranged from 5% to 35% for the 4-year graduation rate (University of Virginia, University of South Florida, respectively), and from 4% to 29% for the 6-year graduation rate (University of Virginia and University of California, Los Angeles, University of South Florida, respectively).” (Postsecondary Educational Attainment of IB Diploma Programme Candidates from US High Schools)

Promoting open communication based on understanding and respect, the IB encourages students to become active, compassionate, lifelong learners. An IB education is holistic in nature—it is concerned with the whole person. Along with cognitive development, IB programmes address students’ social, emotional and physical well-being. They value and offer opportunities for students to become active and caring members of local, national and global communities, and they focus attention on the values and outcomes of internationally minded learning described in the IB learner profile.

Below are the attributes that the IB learner should strive to achieve; I would ask that you go through these with your children this weekend.

As part of our Egypt and Middle East Programme, led by Dr Alia El Mahdi, Year 7 students were accompanied by Arabic and History teachers on a day trip to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization. Students acquired a deeper understanding of Egyptian culture in a welcoming and exciting environment. They saw monuments from different eras and enjoyed clay formation activities led by specialist providers.

All of these activities were taking place in the Arabic language; exposing students to Arabic in an authentic environment. One satisfying comment from one of our students was: “It was nice seeing things that we have learnt about in Arabic History lessons in reality”. More pictures here.

A delegation of 50 BISC students was brilliant at the El Gouna International Model United Nations (EGIMUN) conference. Our students earned 5 out of the 10 awards given at the conference, reflecting how dedicated and engaged our delegates are. We are committed to developing MUN for our students, giving them the opportunity to discuss relevant and current global issues. Our students were well behaved and respectful to their peers and staff throughout the different activities.

Outside of the event, there were many fun activities around El Gouna that the students enjoyed, such as beach activities, a beach clean up and a bedouin night with interesting shows. We are now looking forward to BISCMUN X! More photos here.

Year 8 Spelling Bee

Congratulations to all participants who competed in our Spelling BEE competition on Monday and a special thank you to the parents, students and teachers who came to support. The winners of this year’s spelling competition are:

English: Farida 

French: Yaseen 

Spanish: Hussein 

Arabic: Hussein 

Year 11 Lecture

Dr Mazen delivered two different lectures about the political situation in the contemporary Middle East.

To recognise excellent effort and engagement in language lessons, the MFL department has an initiative called the Language Star of the Month. We are so excited to have named 29 students from years 7-13 as our Language Stars of the Month for February. Their names will be on display on the board outside S204 for the next month to celebrate this achievement. 

This month, we say well done, ¡enhorabuena! and félicitations! to:

Keyan, Tatiana, Tamara, Seif, Maia, Natalia and Abdallah in Year 7
Arnav, Carma, Maya and Yassin in Year 8
Mona, Jaida, Kenzie, Mahmoud A. and Lamees in Year 9
Rokaya, Jaida, Khadiga and Abdelaziz in Year 10
Hannah, Hassan K., Anant and Omar in Year 11
Osman, Khadiga, Leeza and Kenzi in Year 12
Dana in Year 13

Universities and Careers Updates

Year 13 students have started receiving offers from US universities, and we have some Californian institutions that have issued offers. Good luck to students who applied to the University of California colleges.

30 out of 42 students have one or more conditional offers from UK universities. We will share more offers in the upcoming days.

Pupil Leadership Conference

On Wednesday 15th March, there will be a Pupil Leadership Conference (PLC) for the first time ever at BISC. The PLC has been organised by our students to provide training in leadership roles and a forum where they can share, discuss and advocate their ideas and visions across both Junior and Senior schools. This falls in line with our vision to effect a positive change in society and addresses the need to increase the student voice. The conference will allow young leaders to take a deep dive into topics that impact younger populations on micro and macro levels.

The day will involve the children taking part in a series of workshops to develop their leadership skills, and the pupils will have a choice as to which workshops they would like to attend.

IB Visual Arts Exhibition

Parents are invited to join us for an exhibition of the work created by our talented IB Visual Arts students. Details are on the poster below.

Elevate Education Parent Workshops

BSME Under 11 Squad

Last Thursday, 30 students from Years 5 and 6 set off early in the morning to go to Abu Dhabi to compete in basketball, netball, football, athletics and swimming at the BSME Games. The squad of 15 girls and 15 boys produced some fantastic performances, playing against some of the most accomplished schools in the Middle East.

Overall we came 6th out of 11 schools, which was brilliant, and we came back with medals in athletics, swimming and girls’ football. The girls only lost one football game all day, and that was to the eventual winners. They battled on to come in 3rd place - bronze medallists!

In basketball, netball and boys' football we came in 6th, 7th and 9th respectively, with some incredible efforts and only narrow losses.

Eleanor gained the Most Valuable Player of the whole netball tournament, as voted for by the officials. This was a well-deserved accolade as she was positive, motivating and refused to give up. A real credit to the school.

Individual Medals:

Ahmed  - Bronze in 100m Individual Medley

Tia - Bronze in Standing Triple Jump

Youssef S - Silver in Standing Triple Jump

Tia - Silver in the Javelin Throw

These 30 young athletes were great ambassadors for BISC. Over the three days of competition we had some lows and highs, tears of sadness and tears of joy, frustration at times and elation at times, losses and wins - but through it all, teamwork, fun, songs, grit, determination and steely competitiveness. The characteristics of resilience, risk taking and communication shone through and our team learnt how to depend and rely on each other.

This was one of the best trips Ms Foley has been on. Thanks go to Mr Yaqub, Mr Holder, Dr Lynch and Ms Bukhari for making it a smoothly run, fun and safe trip.

A very big well done to all the BSME 2023 squad members and may they remember this experience fondly, and carry the lessons learnt across into their future sporting careers and indeed their whole lives. More photos here.

Year 1 Fagnoon Trip

Year 1 students had a fantastic day at Fagnoon on Tuesday, where they made a variety of clay pottery artifacts, decorated a wooden photo frame using beads, had a wonderful time meeting the animals and ran off lots of energy in the play area. This trip is linked to their Art curriculum and topic of Materials. More photos here.

Class 2M Assembly

Ms Minnow's class was in action today at the Junior School assembly, combining elements of a talent show and talk of their dream jobs! More photos here.

Class 5J Assembly

Class 5J performed the pop classic 'Reach for the Stars' in assembly today, singing and dancing beautifully.

Year 2 Drama

Students in Year 2 had fun striking a pose with Ms Eyres in Drama class today. Natural born performers!

Maths Workshop

Thank you to all the parents who attended the Maths Parent Workshop on Sunday.  It was great to see such a large number of you. We have sent out a copy of the presentation and calculation policies on Engage for your reference. 

Book in a Box competition

Congratulations to all children who took part in the Book in a Box competition. As a prize for their amazing creativity, the winners have been awarded a mufti day for their class. These will take place on the following days next week:

Mufti Days:

1E - Thursday 16th March

1H - Thursday 16th March

2B - Tuesday 14th March

2M - Tuesday 14th March

3i - Thursday 16th March

3M - Thursday 16th March

4T - Monday 13th March

4E - Sunday 12th March

5O - Thursday 16th March

5G - Wednesday 15th March

6M - Wednesday 15th March

6F - Wednesday 15th March

KS2 Accelerated Reading and Reading Timetables

Parent Conference Meetings - Reminder

After School activities will be cancelled on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday next week due to the Parent Conference Meetings.

Book Fair

We are delighted to announce that we have chosen a lovely selection of books worth a total of 65,053LE from the proceeds of the Annual Book Fair. They are all now on display in the Junior Library. A huge thank you for your great support as well as the Junior Library team for their hard work.

Well done to Sharifa in Year 3 who won a gold medal in a recent gymnastics tournament!

Great Mathematical Pi Bake Off Years 4-6

We will be holding our own Bake Off Competition for Years 4-6, themed around the magical number ‘Pi’. Students are invited to create a cake or pie and bring it on Tuesday 14th March to the tables in front of the Junior Office. Please remember to include your name and class name.

All students in Key Stage 2 are invited to enter this global competition, before the deadline of Friday 31st March.

Star-studded judges include Fraser T Smith, Plested, Amy Wadge, Jimmy Napes and Calum Scott), and there are fantastic prizes up for grabs, including a Yamaha instrument worth up to £1,000, home studio set-up, a recording studio session with a top producer and a chance to perform at The Young Songwriter 2023 showcase.

Check out www.songacademy.co.uk/SAYS23 for further information, plus songwriting tips. If you would like advice or support, please contact Mr Shaun Bracey or Mr Callum Watt.

This week, FS1 have been learning about different habitats. They have been looking at the dangers that face some animals and ways in which we can help prevent further damage to our planet. Next week, our focus will be recycling and the children will be making crafts from recycled milk bottles. 

FS2S were lucky to have a trip to the ice cream shop at the Westtown Hub this week!

FS2F also had a wonderful time visiting the Hub and learning about the different roles of people in their community.

In FS2H, we listened to the story ‘Who Sank the Boat?’ The children each made a paper boat. They floated their boats and retold the story to see which animal would sink in the boat that they had made. 

Keeping our students safe online is a priority at BISC. We are happy to share advice from the NOS (National Online Safety), to enable parents to understand the pros and cons of various social media, games and digital trends.

This week's advice is about the popular gaming platform ROBLOX.

If parents would like copies of any of the photos you have seen in the Bulletin, please email s706@bisc.edu.eg.