Coptic Easter

BISC would like to wish our community a happy and peaceful Easter. 

Year 6 Production - Aladdin

Congratulations to Year 6 for their outstanding performance yesterday. They really showcased so much talent, commitment and hard work. We are also looking forward to their Year 7 transition programme launching soon; further details will be published to Year 6 parents shortly. 

GCSE Examinations

Our first official, written GCSE examination begins this weekend. Year 11 students are encouraged to allow plenty of time for travel to ensure they arrive to School on time. Please note that there are official IB and GCSE examinations throughout the School holidays this weekend. Students and parents are asked to please check the schedule issued last month carefully. Revision and support sessions continue, and we hope to see Year 11 students attend these.

Key Dates Ahead

Battle of the Bands

Well done to our Senior Swing Band and our Junior Band; both played superbly at the 'Battle of the Bands' in Gezira Club Zamalek last weekend. 

Competing against many other bands from schools across Cairo, our Junior Band managed to place third and our Senior Swing Band second. This is a real credit to their hard work and passion for music, and we are very proud of them. 

Year 7 Dragon’s Den

Over the last half term, students have been working on their persuasive writing techniques and putting together presentations on items and/or ideas they created. This culminated in four groups selected by their classes to present to the entire cohort and our ‘Dragons’.

Well done to those who were chosen to present: Maryam from Mrs Gabb’s class; Nayla, Lamar and Nahla from Ms Watkins’ class; Mariam, Habeeba and Malak from Mrs Osman’s class and finally Tamara from Ms Ibrahim and Ms Marei’s class.

All groups did fantastic presentations and incorporated excellent persuasive skills effectively. In the end, our 'Dragons' of Mr Powley, Mr Tabram, Ms Hamid and Ms Turner voted that Maryam had the best product while Nayla, Lamar and Nahla had the best presentation, this was seconded by the Year 7 cohort. More photos here.

Open Mic Concert

On Monday 6th May, we held an Open Mic concert, and we were entertained by students performing a variety of wonderful pieces. Well done to all the performers. More photos here.

Year 12 Careers Meeting 

During this week's Careers lesson, Year 12 students participated in a workshop called ‘Realising Your Ikigai: Turning Your Passion into Your Career’. The session provided guidance on identifying and communicating their aspirations, in their university application essays, via concrete evidence.

Chloe, a member of the BISC STEM Careers After School Activity, led an interactive part of the workshop in which she informed Year 12 students about higher-educational and professional pathways in the UK, USA, and Egypt to pursue a career in medicine as a neonatologist, a role that Chloe has identified as her Ikigai. Year 12 students then identified and analysed specific evidence of motivation and academic readiness for Chloe to study medicine, which she had provided within the paragraphs of her 'Y13 UCAS Personal Statement for Medicine'.

Photography Competition

Senior School students entered a photography competition this term. The photos have now been displayed and winners were chosen. Well done to all participants.

The overall winner was Tia M in Year 9, while the winner for Best Aesthetic was Zidane in Year 10.                     

Year 11 End of Year Celebration Assembly and Trip to Arkan

Last week's Year 11 end of year assembly was a joyous occasion, celebrating a range of academic, pastoral, community and outstanding achievements. Congratulations to all students who won awards. More photos here.

Following the assembly, Year 11 enjoyed one last year group celebration as they watched a movie at CIMA in Arkan. We would like to congratulate all students on a successful year. We wish you all the very best of luck with your preparations for the upcoming GCSE examinations.

Stars of the Week

Year 7 - Mohamed B for having shown determination to work hard on areas he needed to improve within a range of subjects to help himself progress and develop further. This was all done while remaining respectful to all members of the BISC community.

Year 8 - Lara for her consistent hard working attitude, excellent punctuality and immaculate presentation when wearing her uniform.

Year 9 - Mohamed K for being so polite and friendly. Mohamed has received a lot of positives throughout April; reflecting his positive attitude at School.

Year 10 - Mahmoud A for demonstrating a great attitude with full attendance and the most positives. 

Year 12 - Youssef EH and Anika 

Sporting Achievement

Sina in Year 9 recently competed at the 18th Rhythmic Gymnastics African Championships, securing gold medals for the Egyptian team.

Sina has demonstrated amazing resilience during her training and throughout the competition season and we are all very proud of her achievements.

Reading News 

This week’s Readers of the Week are Ismail W in Year 7 and Loulwa E in Year 8. Both students have shown outstanding commitment to their reading progress this year and as a result, have exceeded both 2024 targets. Ismail and Loulwa also scored 100% on the quizzes which took them over the finish line for their final target of the School year. Well done!

Congratulations to the following students who have all achieved 100% on reading quizzes:

Year 7: Ibrahim AK, Rasheed A, Amira EH, Mansour EM, Maryam K, Linda L, Mohamed S, Sherbahadar T, Ismail W, Youssef S.

Year 8: Harun AH, Loulwa E, Dacil, Daniella, Valentina, Lucia, Laila M, Victor, Taliyah S, Laila S, Mohsen S.

Year 9: Alia AE, Maya AK, Hebatalla, Louis, Farah ED, Abdel Rahman ED, Noor EA, Jude, Arnav, Chloe, Farida M.

The deadline for the last Year 9 reading target is Thursday 9th May. Very well done to the following readers, who achieved this term's targets well ahead of schedule:

Hussein AE, Noor EA, Abdallah E, Farida S, Mostafa S, Sarah AR, Nelly, Tamara K, Nuria, Hebatalla, Louis, Shaker, Farah ED, Malak EM, Jude, Chloe, Ameena M, Adham N, Laila Y, Seif AH, Abdel Rahman ED.

Year 6 Production

'Ready, Respectful, Safe' Poster Competition

Last term, we challenged the Junior School pupils to design and create a poster for our 'big 3' school rules. The pupils certainly rose to the challenge, as there were over 50 posters submitted! It was an extremely challenging decision; however, the Pupil Council Representatives from Years 5 and 6, along with Mrs Bukhari, were very impressed with the final winner; Nabil from Class 3O.

Congratulations to Nabil for his creativity and simplicity. His poster will be printed and displayed in all classrooms.

Accelerated Reader

Some Junior School pupils have recently passed 1,000,000 words on Accelerated Reader. Well done to Fuad (3O), Sonny (4D) and John (5S) for reaching this superb achievement. Also, congratulations to Ali A (6F); not only is he a word millionaire but his comprehension really stands out with 98% accuracy on his quizzes, which is the highest quiz score out of all word millionaires. Well done to all, we look forward to celebrating more word millionaires in the coming weeks.

Punctuality

Please can we request that you make every effort to get your child to School on time in the mornings. The late register has been very lengthy this week. Lessons do start promptly at 08:00, so any arrival after this time will mean that your child is missing valuable teaching and learning time.

Upcoming Events 

Foundation Stage One 

The 'Gingerbread Man' book has provided the Foundation Stage 1 children with much food for thought! We made playdough shapes and measured them, cut out gingerbread templates and decorated them, and finally iced and eaten gingerbread men cookies.

Last term, we planted a variety of seeds and there has been an exciting development; we have grown our first ever tomatoes. We are keeping them well-watered and hopefully, after the short Spring break, we will return to find them big, red and juicy enough to eat, accompanied by our lettuce leaves.

Foundation Stage Two

Foundation Stage 2 children read the story 'Jack and the Beanstalk'. They planted beans and participated in role-play activities in the class Garden Centre. As part of our growth topic, the children created a class height chart and learnt how to measure and compare items of various lengths accurately.

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

This week, we are sharing advice about Free Speech versus Hate Speech.