We have come to the end of another busy but successful week. A lot of revision work has been going in preparation for the End of Term Tests next week. Students from Primary and High school will be having an opportunity to sit for some written tests as a way of assessing the learning that has been going on over the term. Time tables for the said tests have been issued. It is our hope that all students will be in next week to avoid rescheduling of tests.

Parents’ Forum

As calendared, this important meeting will be taking place tomorrow from 10.00am. This is a forum where you have the opportunity to draw the attention of the Senior Management Team to any concerns, suggestions or general comments relating to the school terms of facilities, security, resources and any other non –academic aspects of our school. A big thank you to all those who sent in the agenda items. 

Educational Trip

On Monday 18^th March, an educational trip was arranged for KS3 & KS4 students to visit Pendeza Weaving Project Centre, Kang’o Ka Jaramogi Museum, all in Bondo County and Kicomi (1983) Ltd, in Kisumu City. Students were exposed to a variety of constructed textiles techniques such as embroidery, weaving and appliqué, and use of appropriate industry technology. In History the students learnt the challenges facing industry and eventual collapse of industries in Kenya (a case study of KICOMI). They got to experience and learn the struggle and contribution of Jaramogi Oginga Odinga toward Kenyan independence.   

Assembly Acknowledgements

Musical Presentations

Swimming

Last week Saturday, our seniors took part in the Nyanza Secondary Schools swimming team selection that was held at Aga Khan Primary School. It is encouraging to report that BKIS is likely to have two swimmers represent the region in the Nationals to be held in Mombasa next Month. Congratulations to Cindy and Don. 

ABRSM Theory Exams

The much awaited certificates for the above exams finally arrived. It was once again a great opportunity to acknowledge the wonderful performance of the two students (Dhara and Maaya) who both got DISTINCTION grade.

It has been a great week with great news to BKIS family. Toyota Kenya unveiled the Kenyan winners of the 13th edition of the Toyota Dream Car Art contest on 13^th March 2018.  We are proud to announce that out of the 368 entries submitted from participants all over the country, 2 students from Braeburn Kisumu International School emerged among the best 9 in the contest. Both of the students' artworks revolved around the same theme; how to deal with the hyacinth menace in Lake Victoria. Dhara Shah's 'Hyacinth Recycler' emerged 2nd in the 8-11 years category while Arav Patel's 'Hyacinth Harvester' was 3rd in the Under 8 years category. Congratulations to the winners and a big thank you to Mr. Oketch for the guidance offered.

Mathletics

For the last two weeks BKIS students from Year 1 to Year 10 have been competing in Mathletics. It was a fun as well as a learning opportunity. Many pupils managed to get certificates which will be issued next week.

World Maths Day is the world’s largest online maths competition hosted on the Live Mathletics game engine, part of the award-winning resource, Mathletics, which is used by 4 million students worldwide. The event is open to schools with students aged 5-18 all around the world, to register for and participate in. Participating students earn points by answering as many correct questions as possible alongside other competing students of the same age and ability level. Each game on Live Mathletics runs for 60 seconds and students strike out of a game early if they answer 3 questions incorrectly. If the daily points total is high enough, one can appear on the Hall of Fame leader board that day!

This competition is now in Cool Down phase until Monday 18 March, students can continue to challenge other students around the world in Live Mathletics.

School Production

BKIS is gearing up to present Man of Steel an all-time popular school musical.

Get your seatbelts ready as this is an action-packed musical spoof, a parody of the most famous comic book Superman and a spectacular show of heroically super proportions! A comic musical that centres on the entertaining battle of our Super Hero Ken (and his Heroine Linda) triumphing over the evil Countess Olga and her motley Henchmen. If only he could get it right occasionally….why are tights so hard to wear... If only Rita and her fellow gossip ladies had super powers to fiercely protect and hide his human traits…….We can’t wait to stage it!

Rehearsals are on-going as we tirelessly work on our flight mode manoeuvres. We will step up rehearsal sessions next week as we polish our acts and singing prowess. Look out for more news on this.

 Science Fair 2019

As a way of show casing our passion for Science, BKIS students have been working on various amazing projects. The confidence and mastery of the concepts were displayed during the event. 

Assembly Acknowledgements

 Devane Tocho performed an excellent piece on the piano during our assembly in preparation for the Tea time concert next term.

Week 9 has been an exciting week in BKIS.  Actually, the excitement started last weekend when we had two well executed activities as per the term planner; Family picnic and Nyasa Swimming Gala. The aspects of team excellence were evident especially to have majority take part in both events. The summary below gives a glimpse of how the day was:

• Swimming Gala

Over the weekend we sent BKIS swimmers to represent the school in the local Kenya Swimming Federation Championship Gala held at Aga Khan Primary Kisumu. We had swimmers ranging from under 7 to under 16 category taking part. Sunshine and Sahil being the youngest swimmers in the Gala.  Krit, Annika, Sanay, Arav, Dhara, Aminah, Safiya, Emilia and Cindy tasting the waters first in the hardest event of the Gala, Individual Medley.

We had stiff completion from 9 other schools present and emerged 2nd Place overall with most swimmers bagging position one, two and three. Well done to the swim team!

• Family Picnic

It gets better each term! The activities were well planned by our ROBs committee led by Ms.Pavleen. A big thank you to all those parents who contributed to the bake sale, the table was filled with different items courtesy of the obvious excellent baking skills possessed by our mums. The students’ request of hiring two bouncing castles was honoured and it made a huge difference. It was also encouraging to have the presence of external facilitators to take care of most games which creatively involved parents, students and teachers.

The climax of the day was the whole community’s participation in the Zumba dance choreographed by Ms.Donia

Book Week

The love for books has been witnessed in BKIS this week. Involvement of everybody made a huge difference on how this year’s book week has been observed. We have had many parents involved in the reading to the students.

On Wednesday, the scavenger hunt using QR code readers was a blast! Students were excited to use their devices to read and answer questions based on books.

…..And of course dress up as a favourite character was the summary of the week!

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.