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.

It is always a pleasure to welcome students and parents to yet a new Term and new calendar Year!

A special welcome to the families that have joined us this term. Karibuni Sana!

Term Value

As has been the norm every term, there is a value that guides our operations as we focus on the Annual Target of Team Excellence. This calendar year, we started the term by looking at Growth Mind-set as our focus. We would like to have all the students know that:

• They can learn anything they want to
• When they are frustrated by a task, they persevere
• They need to challenge themselves
• When they fail, it is a learning opportunity
• When their peers succeed, they should be inspired to do better
• Their effort and attitude determine everything

This has led to the term value of Persistence. The marvellous mistakes will be turned into learning opportunities for our students.

Healthy Me Week

Next week is a Healthy Me Week as calendared in our term planner. In our PSHE lessons throughout the school, one of the topics covered is Health and Well-being. Under this there is the aspect of Healthy Eating. To apply it, we have deliberately scheduled next week for healthy snacks and food at school. For it to be successful, everyone has to pull in the same direction. Kindly refer to the attached write up for more ideas and suggestions

After School Activities

These are officially starting next week. For sports, kindly see the table above for week 3 and 4 schedules.

A big thank you to all the parents who have facilitated the return of club forms. Miss Donia is currently working on the lists which should be out next week Monday.

Friday next week, the production rehearsals will begin for Key Stage 2-4.

Inter-school Verse Speaking Competition

As we mention during our closing assembly, BKIS has been invited to attend the annual Inter School Verse Speaking Competition to be held in Nairobi Academy on 26^th January. The last audition was done on Tuesday and I must say a big thank you to the six students who took part in this. Out of these, Arav, Precious and Tyler were chosen to represent BKIS. We wish them well even as they make final touches in their poems.

 Scouts Patrol Leaders Training

The International Schools Scouts, Kenya leaders’ team has organised for a Patrol Leaders training at Greensteds School as from Friday 11^th – Sunday 13^th January 2019. BKIS has sent six students (Precious, Malaika, Dhara, William and Hawi) to this. They left for Nakuru today morning after our assembly. The purpose of the trip is to train the patrol leaders in the following areas;

• The Patrol Method
• Scouting ideals
• Leadership skills
• The out-doors
• Association with adults
• Badges/Advancements
• Uniform

 ROBS Meeting

This termly meeting has been re-scheduled to Tuesday 15^th January from 3:15 pm.This is a meeting for the parents to chat the way forward for the planned activities.

Last Friday was the climax of the many rehearsals and practice by our young actors and actress from EYFS and KS1 when they finally staged their production, “Are We Nearly There Yet” at Simba club. The mastery of both music and the lines was just amazing! It indeed confirmed how BKIS students are Confident Individuals who enjoy success in their learning. The fantastic musical was well executed by the young learners as sampled below:

Clubs’ Assembly

Our emphasis in nurturing talents was witnessed today during the assembly. BKIS runs many clubs which in effect expose learners to different experiences for their holistic development. Through clubs, many life skills and values are imparted to the students which will eventually play a big role in ensuring that they are Responsible Citizens. This is well captured by the write up below from our club’s Coordinator; Ms. Donia:

“Learning is about so much more than just the academics. Here at BKIS, character matters and our total program is designed to inspire and encourage students to become their best selves. The development of good character lies at the heart of all that we do and this is more important than exam results. We strive to offer as many different clubs, sports and extra curriculum activities as possible and we try to accommodate the wishes and interests of our students.  Becoming a confident individual, a responsible citizen, a good friend, a true leader and a cooperative and resilient team member is not something you can learn from books; it's the life skills you need to practise and experience on a day to bay basis. At BKIS, we care about what and who you become”.

World Scholar’s Cup

The World Scholars Cup club members participated in the exhilarating Tournament of Champions which was held in Yale University – USA last week.  This was the meeting of the crème de la crème. It was without doubt a rigorous and invigorating competition. Debate topics included:

The UN should have more power to Veto national elections and - Black markets are now more important than ever- our students won the black market debate motion! Find out from them what they presented to convince the judge…Students also took part in Collaborative Writing Competitions, Scholars Bowl as well as Scholars Challenge. These sections do test your knowledge in the six subject’s studied.  That was not all, they got a chance to interact with top students from all over the world and got to pick their brains on various subjects.  Despite the extreme cold and sometimes snowing days, they got a chance to see Connecticut and a bit of Yale University. It was a life changing experience and they confess that they can’t wait to delve into next year’s theme – A world of Margins.

BKIS has Champions!