I would like to echo the message sent last week regarding the excellent Year 5 results in the official Egyptian Ministry of Education examinations. This was an outstanding achievement and a testament to the hard work of our students and the Arabic teaching team. Today, we had some special awards for our top performing students with some wonderful prizes given. The event was led by the Dr. Alia El-Mahdi and the BISS Chairman, Eng. Ahmed Ezz. 

Our IB students finish their official examinations tomorrow. I would like to congratulate all concerned as, despite the high pressure, our students have been composed and focused throughout the three-week period. 

As we are approaching the end of the academic year, which is quite assessment focused, the school would like to remind all members of the BISC community of the reasons why we assess and what the aims are for our students.

The IB Diploma is recognised worldwide, including in Egypt, and many BISC alumni have gone on to study at prestigious universities all over the world, including Stanford, Harvard, Oxford and Cambridge. The breadth of subject choices in the IB Diploma enables students to have the flexibility to access many different disciplines of study at university level, from Engineering to English Literature. A quality IB Diploma is the end result we want for all of our students at BISC but diligence, perseverance and resilience are required.

To be successful at IB level you need the ability to think critically and work independently. Sometimes this focus can be lost as we focus on the shorter term. While students and parents are rightly always hoping for the highest grade possible in every assessment, the point of assessments and grading is sometimes missed. Assessments and grades are used to track progress and highlight areas for improvement with the aim to develop the skills required to achieve the highest possible outcomes at GCSE and IB level and to be able to access the university course of their choice.

Assessments come in many forms; quizzes, homeworks, essays, projects, verbal answers in class and many more. Tests are of course a necessary form of assessment but tend to cause the most unnecessary stress and anxiety for both parents and students. Unit tests or assessments given throughout the year should be viewed for what they are; a tool for teachers and students to be aware of areas for improvement and not something that affects the end goal. 

It is important that you emphasise this at home. What the students learn for the assessments is far more important than the grade. If a student makes mistakes which she/he learns from then this is beneficial. If a teacher learns that most of the class is weak in one area, then this is also beneficial as it can be remedied. Asking why we are successful or not is the key, not the grade itself.

A Night at the Musicals

Students from Years 7 - 12 performed in ‘A Night at the Musicals’ review this week, showcasing some songs, routines and performances from iconic hit musicals.  Students displayed their acting, singing and dancing skills in the performance and worked hard as a group to organise a fast-paced show reel of songs from different musical genres and styles. Well done to all students involved.

Arabic Drama

ضمن برنامج مصر والشرق الأوسط الذي ترأسه الأستاذة الدكتورة عالية المهدي، وتحت إشراف المخرج: أ/ شريف سالم،  بدأت التدريبات النهائية للعرض المسرحي "الفيل النونو الغلباوي" والذي يشارك فيه عدد من طلاب الصف الرابع والخامس والسادس الابتدائي. العرض سيكون نتاج نشاط نادي الدراما المصرية. 

As part of the Egypt and Middle East Programme headed by Dr. Alia Elmahdi, a number of Year 4, 5 and 6 students were busy rehearsing for their upcoming show “The Playful Little Elephant” this week. The show is the production of the Egyptian Drama Club, supervised by the Egyptian Director, Mr. Sherif Salem.

Year 13 BTEC Assignment

This week there was a distinctively different aspect to the BTEC Year 13 Travel and Tourism lessons, as students completed their final compulsory assignment of the last unit - dealing with challenging customers and situations at an airport in an assessed role-play scenario. A mock-up of an airline check-in and departure gate desk leant an air of reality to the exercise, as students displayed the customer service and problem-solving skills needed to appease and re-assure customers with a variety of prescribed issues from BTEC. Another skill for our bright students to take into the adult world.

Well done to all customer service agents and actors!

Swimming League

BISC hosted a swimming competition last weekend featuring seven other schools. We had approximately 45 swimmers taking part from Years 5 to 10, with a number of pupils at the younger age group representing the school at swimming for the first time. It was an enjoyable event with BISC finishing second place overall.

Year 7 History Projects

Students in Year 7 were tasked with producing creative projects reflecting the periods that we have been studying in History this year. The History department is very impressed with the level of enthusiasm and commitment shown by our students and we are delighted to be able to share some images of their success with you. More photos available here. 

AFI Notifications

For parent's information: as a trial we will be turning off the AFI parent notifications from Sunday 21st May. 

News from the Careers Department

Students of Years 7 and 8, along with parents and guardians, attended a Careers Assembly on Monday. Mr. Raza explained the importance of the subject selections, university prerequisites, summer camps and extracurricular activities. Students asked mature questions and showed a keen interest in attending summer courses in the holidays.

The Careers Department also hosted a representative from the famous Onsi Sawiris Scholarship foundation to speak with interested students in Year 12. The students learnt lots of information regarding the prestigious scholarship, and we have a good number of strong contenders. 

Year 12 Careers meetings will commence on Sunday 21st May. We will discuss the university course options and tailor-made advice and targets for Year 13. Year 12 parents and guardians are welcome to attend these meetings. In the meantime, good luck to the students receiving their IB Year 12 mock results.  

Finally, another polite reminder to Year 13 students to choose Conditional FIRM and Conditional INSURANCE university courses on the UCAS portal. Good luck to all students with their IB exams. 

Mr. Raza

Creative Arts Week

Children from across the Junior School have embarked on a captivating artistic journey, recreating their beautiful city’s stunning photos in the distinctive styles of renowned artists. With fervent enthusiasm, they have blended the vibrant essence of Cairo with the iconic techniques of artistic masters. Inspired by Yayoi Kusama, and other famous artists of the past, they have captured the city’s natural energy in an ethereal dance of colours, inviting viewers to re-imagine the city’s essence. From the grandeur of Cairo’s pyramids through the lenses of different artistic lenses, these young visionaries bring a fresh perspective, honouring both their heritage and the artistic greats.

We saw a number of classes in action during the week. Enjoy more photos on the links below:

Class 1E    Class 1H    Class 2B    Class 3K    Class 3D   Class 3I   Class 5J   Class 6B   Class 6F

Komodo - giving our pupils a voice! 

We have been fortunate to be given the opportunity to trial an exciting new online platform, Komodo, which uses AI to gather data on our students' wellbeing. Children from Years 3 to 6 will have the opportunity to complete fortnightly surveys on how they are feeling about various aspects of their school life. The surveys will provide useful information about their feelings and concerns and enable us to see any patterns that may emerge and how we can best support them. Hopefully, we will be able roll this out across the whole school in the future. Mrs Bukhari sees this as an excellent opportunity to increase pupil voice and gather essential 'live' data about our students' wellbeing.

BISC Ambassadors - Al Alamein Residential

Following our very successful Year 6 residential to Al Alamein, we are proud to award certificates to our best ambassadors; those who made an outstanding effort and displayed exemplary behaviour throughout the trip.

Ms Fisher, Mrs Bukhari and the Year 6 team would like to congratulate: 

Ethan, Ahmed M, Linda and Karma S!

Below are highlights of the trip to El Alamein, which included a trip to the War Museum and the many memorials in the town.

BISC Junior Swimmers

Once again, our junior swimmers swam fantastically to help secure a 2nd place result for the BISC team, out of 10 schools, behind BSE and ahead of Choueifat, Cairo. The following pupils swam their socks off in individual and relay events:

Charlie, Karim, Ahmed K, Ibrahim A, Eleanor, Maryam K, Layal, Maria and Yosef (all Year 6). Lili  Ahmed, Osman, Hussein N, Leyla, Taya and Hannah (all Year 5). Zeina A was our lone Year 4 swimmer and she did very well in the crawl. 

A big well done to this team for representing BISC so well and behaving beautifully. We are really proud of them. More photos can be seen here.

Safe Footwear in School

Please ensure that all children are wearing the correct (polishable, black) and suitable footwear to school. Sliders are not permitted unless a valid medical note and reason is provided.

Words of the Week

Below are the words of the week that we've been learning in Junior School.

In Class This Week 

FS children are loving their swimming lessons as the weather warms up. Look at these smiles!

This week in F2H the children have been creative and made some beautiful ancient Egyptian necklaces. They worked on their cutting, painting and decorating skills to make a beautiful necklace each.

They also had a lesson this week learning clay modelling techniques with Senior School Art teacher, Ms Fravigar. Each child moulded and carved the clay to make their own scarab beetle design.

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