BISC students enjoyed a busy but proud weekend which launched off the week. The first CISSA event of the year demonstrated the fantastic teamwork, professionalism and sportsmanship of our teams, while the BISC MUN delegation received an array of awards at the CAC MUN. Well done, everyone.

Next week will see the first set of parent evenings of the year, across the School. We look forward to seeing parents then. As the first official parent-teacher conference of the year, it will be an important opportunity to discuss the students’ academic progress and set targets for the year.

Health and Safety Notice

Fog is regularly descending heavily in the morning, and often suddenly. It seems to be affecting the areas surrounding the School. We will always try to issue an email in the morning, and as soon as we can, if there are any issues relevant to traffic or weather conditions. However, as a reminder, students should not worry about arriving late if there are difficult driving conditions and focus on getting to School safely.

Prophet’s Birthday - Thursday 28th September

A reminder that the School is closed tomorrow, Thursday 28th September, in celebration of the Prophet's birthday.

CACMUN ‘45

Our BISC delegation was remarkable at CACMUN 45. All delegates made brilliant contributions in their committees and most of our students were recognised by their chairs as hardworking, passionate and diligent participants. Many of our students submitted high quality resolutions and clauses that passed and we are also very happy to see some of our quieter delegates gaining confidence and raising their placards.

While the essence of MUN is about all students learning and developing a variety of skills and knowledge, we are also proud to share that our BISC delegation was recognised with eight awards:

Nour - Best Delegate - DISC

Mustafa - Best Delgate - ECOSOC

Ahmed M - Best Delegate - GA

Daniel - Best Delegate - HRC

Sherif - Best Delegate - EVC

Farida - Honourable Mention - GA6

Judi - Honourable Mention - SPECPOL

Gisele - Honourable Mention - DISC

BISC delegates received the highest number of awards at the conference. Well done to all.

In addition, our Secretary-General Abdelrahman and President Youssef, led two committees as chairs, with professionalism and respect. They followed MUN procedures carefully and continue to spread their knowledge of MUN at BISC and beyond. 

This is only the start for MUN this year and we look forward to BISCMUN XI, THIMUN 56 and more. 

Senior School Production 

The Drama and Music departments are pleased to announce that more than 30 students have signed up to produce the musical “We Will Rock You” by Ben Elton. 

Rehearsals are now underway, and students auditioned for parts and got their hands on the first scripts this week. The show is scheduled to be performed on 4th, 5th and 6th March 2024.

Year 7 Arabic Performance

مسرحية " زيارة ومفاجأة" - الصف الدراسي السابع

فى إطار مسرحة المناهج الدراسية،  قام طلاب الصف السابع أثناء حصة اللغة العربية بعمل مسرحية لدرس "زيارة ومفاجأة" بتشجيع من أستاذ سعودي. اشترك الجميع في العمل، وكان هناك تجاوبًا رائعا من الطلاب الذين قدموا عملاً متميزاً لموضوع قاموا بدراسته في الفصل الدراسي الحالي

Within the framework of the Arabic Drama Curriculum, Year 7 students were encouraged by their teacher to perform a play during their Arabic Language class, representing the lesson “A Visit and A Surprise" (زيارة ومفاجأة).

Everyone participated, and there was an excellent response from students, who presented brilliant work from a topic they studied this term. 

Accelerated Reader

Senior School Accelerated Reader quizzes opened this week, and already our students have read nearly two and a half million words between them!

Our first Readers of the Week this year are:

Maria in Year 7, who has been challenging herself to read increasingly advanced texts, and is achieving fantastic results with AR!

Omar in Year 8, who has already read 5 books this term across a range of genres.

Lilly in Year 9, a fantastic reader that has read nearly ¼ million words already this half term.

All three students beat their termly targets this week. Well done to all of you, and to everyone else who has finished a book and passed a quiz this week. Remember that everyone is working towards their reading target, and that there are deadlines to meet:

Year 9 reading target deadline: Thursday 12th October 2023.

Years 7 and 8 reading target deadline: Thursday 30th November 2023.

Girls on Board

On Sunday, the Year 9 girls took part in a Girls on Board Workshop. Girls on Board is an approach which helps girls understand the complexities and dynamics of female friendships. The approach empowers girls to develop a solution focused approach to friendship problems. Girls on Board sessions are non-judgmental and reflective, designed to raise empathy amongst the girls and it is that empathy that fuels the search for harmony and resolution. 

The girls engaged in the workshop really well and there were some excellent and valuable discussions throughout the session.

CISSA Varsity U19 Football Tournament

Well done to our Senior footballers, who played in a CISSA U19 tournament hosted at BISC last weekend.

The BISC boys' team featured a number of students from the lower end of the age bracket and they performed very well over their four games, winning two against ISC-6 and AIS-W, whilst losing narrowly to BSE and Alsson.

Unfortunately, the girls' team only played two games, as other schools were not able to get a team together. The first game was against ISC-6 and it was a very tight match with BISC scoring the winning goal with virtually the last kick of the game. They lost the next match against a very strong El Alsson team, but the BISC team will take a lot of positives from the match they won.

Senior School Band ASA

Mrs Clarke and the band were practising in the Music Room this week, in preparation for future performances.

Parent Meet and Greet Pastoral Meetings

Thank you to all the parents who attended our Meet and Greet sessions with Form Tutors and Heads of Year. It was a valuable experience to bring the School and home closer together. We hope to offer more opportunities to open dialogue between pastoral leaders and parents, so that we work together to secure students' personal and academic development. You can find copies of the presentations here:

• Year 7 and 8
• Year 9
• Year 10

Arabic History Guests

بمناسبة الذكرى الخمسين لعبور قناة السويس عام ١٩٧٣، تستضيف المدرسة يوم ٢ أكتوبر المهندس/ ويليام مهني (جد الطالب دانيال في الصف العاشر). شارك م/مهني في حرب أكتوبر ١٩٧٣، وخدم في القوات المسلحة لمدة ٧ سنوات، عمل بعدها في مجال صناعة الأدوية

في ٣ أكتوبر، سيستضيف طلاب الصف الثالث عشر العقيد ضياء خيرالله (جد الطالب عثمان). وكان العقيد خيرالله قائدآً لسرية استطلاع في حرب أكتوبر، وبعد الحرب تقدم في مسيرته العسكرية، وأصبح نائب مدير معهد الحرب الإلكترونية، كما أشرف على تدريس وتدريب مئات الضباط المصريين والعرب

On Monday 2nd October 2023, the 50th anniversary of the 1973 crossing of the Suez Canal, BISC students will meet Engineer William Mehany (the grandfather of Daniel in Year 10).

Engineer Mehany fought in the 1973 War, and served in the army for seven years. After the war, he pursued a career in the pharmaceutical industry.

On Tuesday 3rd October 2023, Year 13 students will meet Colonel Diaa Khairalla (the grandfather of Othman in Year 13) who was the commander of a reconnaissance platoon in the October war. After the war, Colonel Khairalla progressed to become Deputy Director of the Institute of Electronic Warfare, where he supervised the training of hundreds of Egyptian and Arab officers.

Senior School Assessment and Reporting Cycle 2023-2024

Please see the Assessment and Reporting Cycle for the Senior School here.

Library Books

Please return overdue library books to the Senior Library. This will help us all as a community to ensure a wonderful selection of books is available to all.

News from the Careers Department

With the support of Mr Owen, Ms Coughlin and their tutors, our Year 13 students self-selected tasks to complete during their Careers period this week, enabling them to progress in their college/university applications.

For UCAS applicants, we recommend that they read University of Manchester’s Writing an Effective Personal Statement Guide for crafting the Personal Statement, the 4000-character essay that outlines why the student wants to study a particular course at university and demonstrates their skills, knowledge and experience to succeed in this course.

Upcoming events

Year 3 Trip to NMEC

The Year 3 classes had a fabulous time on their trip this week, as they explored the wonderful artefacts in the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation. The children were able to learn about four main crafts that shaped Egyptian culture; pottery, woodwork, textiles and ornamental crafts. The highlight of the trip was visiting the Royal Mummies Hall where the children were able to see eighteen kings and two queens from the ancient dynasties. See all the photos here.

Year 6 Mindfulness and Team Building Activities

Year 6 pupils had a great time participating in a range of mindfulness and team building activities this week. The session’s themes were kindness and encouragement.

Girls' Football Match

Well done to the Under 11 girls’ football team, who played their first fixture of the season against Marvel International School this week.

Board Games After School Activity

Mrs Thatcher runs a board game club, and this week pupils were enjoying Uno, chess, Shut the Box and a ‘Guess the Drawing' game - great fun!

Coding After School Activity

Pupils in Years 3 and 4 are learning the building blocks of coding with Mr Dyal, creating their own characters and stories using logic and multimedia.

Key Stage 1 Assembly

In last week’s assembly, we enjoyed a musical showcase by Year 1 pupils on stage, before awarding our Stars of the Week and Mathematicians of the Week. See all photos here.

Key Stage 2 Assembly

In last week’s assembly, we had an important talk about animal cruelty, as well as distributing awards to Stars of the Week and Mathematicians of the Week. See all the photos here.

No Hat, No Play

Please ensure your child has a hat for break times. We still have a large number of children who are not wearing their hats and are, therefore, missing the opportunity to play with all the new wonderful playground equipment.  Hats are available from the uniform shop (which is open from 08:00 - 17:00). 

Timings of the School Day - Reminder

Please be reminded that the first lesson of the day starts at 08:00; therefore, your children should be in school at 07:55 at the latest.  

School ends at 15:10 from Sunday to Wednesday. After school activities finish at 16:20. On Thursday, school ends at 14:50.  

Please ensure that you collect your children on time as there have been an increased amount of late collections. 

Teacher-Parent Conferences

We look forward to welcoming you for the Teacher-Parent conferences in the Junior School on Tuesday 3rd and Wednesday 4th October next week. Please remember to sign up using the link sent via Engage. The meetings will comprise of 10 minutes each and you will have the opportunity to view your child’s English and Maths books. 

The Arabic Teachers will also be available on a first-come-first served basis in the Multi Purpose Hall. 

If for any reason you are unable to attend, please contact your Class Teacher to inform them. In addition, if you are unable to access the Engage system, please contact eman.gamal@bisc.edu.eg.

After School Activities are cancelled on Monday 2nd, Tuesday 3rd and Wednesday 4th October.

Upcoming Dates

Please remember that on Tuesday 3rd and Wednesday 4th October you are invited to meet with your child’s class teacher to discuss how they have settled into the Foundation Stage, as well as their progress so far. If you have not yet made an appointment please do so or, alternatively, if you are not able to attend on either of these days, please contact your class teacher for an appointment at a suitable time.

You will be invited to meet the Foundation Stage specialist teachers for PE and Arabic later on in the term. You will receive information about this nearer the time.

All FS2 parents are invited to an Arabic Workshop on Thursday 12th October, at 13:00 in the Multi-Purpose Hall.

Foundation Stage One

This week, FS1 children have continued to explore the Mesozoic Era. They have completed a number of arts and crafts activities, including designing and describing a made-up dinosaur. 

In Mathematics, we have focused on counting to five, emphasising 1 to 1 correspondence. 

Next week, will conclude our Dinosaur topic and to mark the end of this topic, FS1 will be going on an exciting 'Dinosaur Hunt'!

Foundation Stage Two

FS2 read the story of "The Little Red Hen". We are learning about the importance of teamwork.

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

Keeping our students safe online is a priority at BISC. We are happy to share advice from the Safeguarding Training Centre, to enable parents to understand the pros and cons of various social media, games and digital trends.

This week we are sharing tips about fake news.