The end of the week is here with us. It has been a great week where our students continue to show aspects of Growth Mind-set. It was a pleasure to have one of the students (Benjamin) remind us of the concept of Growth Mind-set during the assembly. The interesting question he posed to us was, “What happens when someone has a growth Mindset?” The answers were as follows:

• They keep trying until they succeed
• They love learning
• They know progress takes time
• They ask for help
• They get inspired by others
• They are not afraid to fail
• They love challenges
• They view mistakes as opportunities
• They put forth effort
• They learn from feedback

 It is our hope that with all these in mind, the vision of having learners enjoying success will be realised.

Book Week.

As scheduled in the term calendar, BKIS will be having book week from Monday 4^th.  Exciting activities have been lined up including DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) moments. This requires everyone to have a book while in the compound as the signal of DEAR moments will be randomly given.

We take Children’s Book Week incredibly seriously!  It is time to literally bring literature to life and also don a fancy dress outfit that will awaken young imaginations. Our Book Week stories will cover a wide range of characters including those you love to hate, famous heroines to swashbuckling adventurers. We will enliven our classrooms during Book Week as Robin Hood, Harry Potter or as a fairy tale princess.

Some classes will re-enact classic stories, delving into contemporary favourites and introducing famous authors; awakening a passion for fiction and introducing children to the gift of reading - even inspiring the next generation of visionary writers and poets!

On Friday, students, teachers and even parents can sail the seven seas as a pirate and never grow up as Peter Pan, or play croquet and scream "OFF WITH THEIR HEAD" to any latecomers in any costume of their choice! Certainly, there are pupils searching for a golden ticket within their Wonka Bar as the crazy Willy Wonka from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. On the other hand, we surely encourage the singing of many witty songs as an Oompa Loompa! Team your outfit with a range of accessories from outrageous wigs, sweeping hooded capes and absurd hats. Fly into action as Batman or Banana man to give yourself the best Book Week - ever!

We are not done yet, on the same Friday, there will be the Principal’s challenge. Watch this space!

 Sports Training Schedule

The P.E department has offered to re structure the training schedule for after school and morning sessions as follows:

 For us to develop strong sports team, there must be a deliberate effort to create extra time for training. I am sure Mr. Azenga will be very encouraged to see high level of commitment from the students and parents. This will definitely lead to the TEAM EXCELLENCE.

Family Picnic and Swimming Gala

We have a very busy day tomorrow. There will be Nyasa Swimming Gala at Aga Khan School from 9.00 am.  Our swimming team will be taking part in this under the supervision of Mr. Azenga. The team (for those who want to be dropped by the school bus) will leave the school at 8:30am.  It is our hope that the programme shall end in good time.

The much awaited Family Picnic is finally taking place tomorrow. A lot of preparations have gone into this courtesy of our dedicated members of ROBs under the leadership of Pavleen. It shall start at 1.00pm. Kindly see the attached poster for more details.

We have excitedly started the second half of the term after a well-deserved Mid-Term Break. The annual target of Team Excellence continue to manifest itself in various activities within the school. Our boys and girls continue to leave the term value of Persistence even as they work in teams with clear goal of displaying Growth Mind-set in their learning.

Chess Tournament

The participation of the BKIS students in the Kisumu Region Chess Championship that was held over the half term was a confirmation of confident individuals ready to face learning challenges that come their way. The team of 5, did their best to qualify for the National Championships to be held in Nyeri from 5^th to 8^th April. Exemplary results were posted with:

• Deven L. getting 1^st position in Under 8 boys’ category
• Dhara S. emerging top in Under 10 girls’ category
• Chengbang Z. getting position 3 in U10 boys’ category
• Hawi and Leon also getting beautiful certificates for great participation in Under 10 boys’ category.

 Tae Kwondo Tournament

One of our own; Krit P. has continued to show his love for the Tae Kwondo sport. Over the half term, he participated in a tournament and come home with beautiful medals. A big congratulations to him.

 EAMUN Annual Conference

The seniors have been away in Nairobi for the 37th EAMUN annual conference which comes to a close today. It has been a great opportunity to explore their talents in public speaking as well as deliberations and confidence building. The East Africa Model United Nation (EAMUN) simulates the activities of the real United Nations Organization in which the delegates are grouped in committees. Our participants in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) were excited to have won their debate on the 2^nd day.

 Parent Teacher Consultation

It has been a very important week in the teaching and learning cycle where feedback and sharing of the progress of learners was done. At BKIS we believe that holistic development of a child depends upon the hard work of student, parent and teacher. These three stake holders integrated effort give the best learning outcomes.

Parent teacher meeting is an opportunity to exchange observation of a child with each other. Sharing daily experience and observation provides a wider prospect for parent and teacher to plan, prepare and execute planning for better learning outcome of a child. It is a great time to identify a student’s strengths and weaknesses and how we can work together to help the child develop in school.

We appreciate all those parents who made it possible to have successful sessions on Monday and Wednesday. The feedback received will be used to enhance the realisation of the learners’ potential in school activities.

 Assembly Presentations

Alexi’s confidence in singing continues to impress. As young as she is, she was able to confidently sing in front of everyone during our assembly today. In deed her voice lessons are paying off.

The value of PERSISTENCE was well acted out by our Year Six students in their creatively written script. The script was titled the “Water Vending Machine” in which they reminded us that although persistence entails striving and sticking to a course of action, it also calls for an occasional change of strategy, as doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results, contradicts the entire concept of persistence.

 School Production

Rehearsals for the KS2-4 production have started well. Students are working on their lines every Friday from 3:10-4:10pm with the guidance of our teachers. The key costumes have already been acquired.

The first half of the term has come to a successful end with notable achievements to be proud of. Our boys and girls have continued to apply the concept of growth mind-set in their learning which is very encouraging.

This has been a very special week in our calendar with BKIS joining the rest of the

world in marking Cancer Day. Through the guidance of the Student Council, the students raised some money by selling purple ribbons to help the young cancer patients at JOORH. We also had a wonderful presentation by one of our parents Dr. Okell captured below:

WORLD CANCER DAY.

BKIS joined the rest of the World on Monday in celebrating the World Cancer Day. Students, teachers and parents joined hands in supporting this by buying purple ribbons to mark the day. The proceeds from the sale will be used by our Student Council members to purchase items for the childrens’ Cancer Center and Hospice at JOORTH Hopsital in Kisumu. We are grateful to each one of you who took part in this exercise  to support the cancer patients in Kisumu.

On the same day in the after noon, we had the priviledge of having one of our parents Mama (Aryanna Year 4 and Nathanniel FS 1 ) give us a talk on cancer, what it is and what we can do to prevent it.

We learnt that we need to eat healthy, do lots of phyisical exercises and take good care of our general health. We also learnt that it is better to seek medical attention  as soon as we feel unwell as some conditions can be cured at early stages. She taught us that there are 4 stages of cancer and that ther are so many types of cancers in the whole wide world. She encouraged us to support any family members or friends that we may know who are going through Cancer. Together we can do it!

It was amazing to see the interest of all students from FS2 to Year 10 engage her during the Q & A session. Thank you very Much Mama Aryanna for that informative session.

 MSMUN

The students took part in the 25^th Annual MSMUN Conference last week. This year’s theme was; TUJENGE PAMOJA. For the duration of the conference, delegates had to engage in various activities to showcase the theme. BKIS was representing Zambia in Human Rights (Diya), Ecology (Aiden), Technology (Maaya) and Health (Cindy) Committees. Our students had a chance to Lobby, Amend and debate resolutions which they had written last term. It entails rigorous research and diverse knowledge in over 100 countries. The objective of the club is to develop confidence of students by enriching skills in research, presentation, debating, lobbying, problem solving and diplomacy. It is no mean task interacting with over 800 peers for a week!

 Continuous Professional Development (CPD)

Braeburn continues to value the need of CPD to the teachers. A group of teachers were taken through a four day training program on Leading Learning from the Middle' course by Karen Ardley Associates.  BKIS was represented by Mr. Karanja who confirms that it was indeed an excellent course.

 Humanities Week

BKIS ended the first half of the term in a style by celebrating our diversity. Different nationalities were represented through in depth research and presentation focusing on fashion, famous people, food, flags and festivals by classes as listed below:

 A big thank you to Ms. Isa who took us through a precise talk with the emphasis on the need to embrace our diversity.

 International Mindedness Talk

Having had wonderful presentations from our confident learners, our parents were treated to another informative talk on International Mindedness by Mr. Rob Williams. Thank you all, to the parents who made the talk possible.

It is amazing to see the students continue mentioning the aspects of growth mindset in their daily interactions. This is supported by various displays around the school on the same. In our today’s assembly, they reminded each other of the aspect of “change your words, change your Mindset”. It is encouraging to note that the students continue to:

• View challenges as learning opportunities.
• Know their learning styles and use the right learning strategies.
• Focus on the process instead of the end result.
• Cultivate a sense of purpose.
• Know that need for improvement does not mean failure.

MEET AND GREET SESSION

What a better way to end the week and to start the new month! The ROBS committee has slotted an exciting Meet and Greet session today in school from 5.00 pm as shown on the attached poster. All parents are invited.

 POETRY VERSE SPEAKING.

There’s something about being able to recite a poem or a chunk of verse by heart. If we do this when we’re young these fragments tend to stay with us for life. Especially if they chime with us and reach into our mesh of inner meanings.

Last week we took some of our lovely children to The Inter School Verse Speaking contest held at Nairobi Academy. The competition was stiff: there was a whopping 60 participants but that didn’t deter us from doing our best. Most of our participants were new to the experience but they all admit that it was indeed a thrilling experience for them. They learnt a lot while in there. When asked if they would go a second time, all of them nodded in the affirmative.

They look forward to participating again next year!

WESTERN CIRCUIT JUNIOR CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP

This tournament took place on Saturday at Citam School - Kisumu. Aryanna Okell, Hawi Ryan and John Chenbang represented our school. We would like to thank the parents who attended the tournament to support students. Thank you for the team spirit. This was done in preparation for the upcoming National Chess Tournament (Kenya National Youth Chess and Cadet Regional championship) which will take place at Makini School (Kibos) Kisumu on 9^th February 2019. All the students did their best and Chenbang was awarded a medal for position three out of 46 participants in his category.

 

Next week, we will be having Humanities Week and this year's theme is "Celebrating Diversity". All classes will explore different countries around the world and get familiar with different features, customs, and types of food, values, environments, climate and everything else our beautiful and diverse world has to offer! The classes will be exploring the following countries;

We would like to welcome you all to join us on Friday (8th of February) after lunch, to celebrate our diverse and wonderful cultures! On this event, students, teachers and parents are expected to dress up in any cultural attire that represents a culture, tribe or country. The activities will include: food sampling, class presentations, a fashion walk and many more extraordinary events!

To make this event a marvelous success, we are requesting parents to help out by;

Preparing some small bitings from your culture which will be put up on display after lunch. (Kindly note that lunch will be as usual although we will be encouraging cultural foods as much as possible). After lunch, a cultural buffet will open where everyone will be able to sample bitings from different cultures/countries. Kindly add a note describing the ingredients and the origin as the food will be categorized per country.

Students and one of our parents will be presenting lovely speeches, dances and exhibitions from various cultures represented in our school. You cannot miss this!

INTERNATIONAL MINDEDNESS MEETING

..After the cultural day presentations on the Friday 8^th, our parents will have a meeting in the Science lab facilitated by Mr. Rob Williams from 3:30pm. Already the teaching staff and high school students have had a session on this and I can promise you it is enriching. All are welcomed.

Assembly Presentations

We are back with our assembly music presentations. This week Dhara S. took us through a well mastered piece on the key board. Well done Dhara.

World Cancer Day.

BKIS will not be left behind in marking this important day on Monday 4^th February 2019.The Student Council will be selling ribbons to students and parents at 100/= after which the collection will be taken to Cancer Hospice and Cancer Ward in JOORH; a small gesture to show the value of caring to the cancer patients. We also hope to have a small talk on cancer on that day.

It has been an exciting week where our focus of Healthy Me was well executed. The children are now more aware of the importance of keeping a healthy life style especially considering what they eat. To reinforce this further, the students and staff had a session facilitated by a senior nurse from Aga Khan Hospital.

The samples below of display work on Healthy Me Week can confirm the great learning or reminder that occurred. It is our hope that this can be deliberately instilled in our students by ensuring that they consciously think of healthy eating at all time.

 Scouts Patrol Leaders Training

Efficient leadership skills are an added advantage most especially in the current competitive world. The BKIS Patrol Leaders got the rare opportunity to sharpen their leadership skills, as they went through a two day rigorous leadership training camp held at Greensteds International School, where they joined other patrol leaders from all the International Schools. They learnt important skills on what it entails to be a good leader, as well as how to utilise various communication channels to ensure effective and seamless undertaking of activities within their patrols. They learnt how to best manage talents, individual differences and group dynamics of each and every member within their patrols to ensure the objective set out is achieved. 

Family Picnic

Following the ROBS meeting held on Tuesday this week, the famous Family Picnic has been pushed to 2^nd March after Half Term Break. To make it even better this time, there will be a session of Meet and Greet to both parents and teachers on the 1^st of February after school. A detailed programme will be sent out soon.

Inter School Verse Speaking

Our team of Tyler, Precious and Arav are getting ready for the event which will be held next Saturday. In our assembly today, we had the pleasure of listening to them recite their lovely poems. We wish them well as they have final touches on them.

Assembly Presentations

• Martin Luther King Junior Day

In preparation for this day, our year 5 took us through an educative assembly about the ideals of Martin Luther King Junior. King was hugely influential in the American Civil Rights Movement (despite never holding public office) and was a major advocate of non-violent activism in the struggle for the end of racial discrimination under US law. He was assassinated in 1968.

The Year 5 students reminded us that if we set our targets and work towards them then we shall achieve our dreams!

    Growth Mind-set

The focus of the High School Assembly was on Growth Mind set. Our Year 7 students reminded their peers on the importance of having growth mind-set in their studies and school life. 

Teachers’professional Developments

At BKIS we value continuous professional development of teachers. Mr. Azenga recently took part in Lifesaving refresher course in preparation for our busy swimming term where he was awarded:

• Level 3 Certificate in Lifesaving
• Bronze Medallion Certificate
• First Aid and Life Support Certificate
• Lifesaving Certificate of Registration

…And we officially welcome Halai into BKIS community.