Issue 10 Page 1

Date: 23rd February 2017

Issue: 10

Whole School News

A quiet night in? The Year 3 Overnight Experience

Last week, the Year 3s has an overnight experience at school in which they

developed their social and self-management skills. The central idea of their

current unit of inquiry is “People explore for different reasons” and there were

activities linked to this. The children worked in teams on the field to promote

their understanding of the eight points of the compass and then made an

exploration of the whole school in the dark using flashlights. The evening

culminated by a campfire where the children roasted sausages before turning

in for the night, after an exhausting but exciting time!

- Mandy Carydias, Year Three Class Teacher

Independence in Nursery

An important goal in Early Years is to make the children more independent; it is one of the things we work on every school day. In the morning the children are asked to put their water bottles, folders and lunch boxes in the right places. During activities the children are encouraged to do as much as they can independently so we can observe what a child is able to do and where extra support and help is needed. We are then also able to assess in which areas the children need more experiences. In Nursery we find children are very used to having everything done for them, so this is a big change for them when they start school at NCBIS. Packing up their lunchboxes after they have finished eating seems so self-evident for us, but for a Nursery child it has all kinds of challenges. Just think of the closing of some of the many containers they bring with them, and the zippers of their beautiful decorated lunch-bags. When it’s time to go home the children are confronted with a similar challenge; they are asked to pack their bags by themselves, asking for help only if they really need it. It’s a hard day's work in Early Years!

-Karien Hoogenboezem, Nursery Class Teacher

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Dutch Circus Hannes at NCBIS

Last week we had a very special week at NCBIS. Mr. Anne and Mr. Rob of circus Hannes have been working with

all Primary and Dutch students as well as many Secondary students. The students have learned several juggling

and balancing skills. On Thursday all Primary and Dutch students showed one of these skills in a brilliant

performance for the parents. It was wonderful to see the enthusiasm and concentration on the students’ faces.

Circus activities are a great way to train motor skills as well as cooperation and performance skills. We would

like to thank Anne and Rob of Circus Hannes and our NCBIS PE team for a fantastic circus week.

- Olga Kes, Head of Dutch Stream

Assembly for Valentine's Day

Hoda and Louis treated us to a Valentine's rendition of "City of Stars" from Lala land musical on Tuesday, before

CAS students distributed their colourful roses. Thanks everybody!

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Mr. Thorne, Head of Maths, then gave us the excellent results of the UK Senior Maths challenge for Gifted and

talented students and dedicated the Assembly to a celebration of our Maths results over the year.

We struck gold!

Special congratulations to Sabrina Perrenoud, Shintaro Yamagata, Ryo Ebihara, Sauhaard Walia and Amelie

Loubens who all achieved a gold award in the gifted and talented Maths competition, known as UKMT, in the

English speaking world. This places them within the top 2% of the best Mathematicians worldwide for this age

group. Congratulations also, to the 3 Silver awards and 13 Bronze, all announced at Assembly - a phenomenal

number for such a relatively small school and wide age group entered. Well done, one and all!

International Award

"Last weekend over 60 students from years 10 and 11 went to the Wadi Degla Protectorate to undertake their

bronze and silver award expedition and camp. We were challenged to reach the checkpoints, while working co-

operatively with our group members. Everyone showcased numerous qualities such as resilience and risk taking,

as well as many of the IB learner profile attributes. We completed a total of 18 km, and successfully coped with

all the mental challenges.

We met at school early Friday and set off to Wadi Degla, immediately departing with great excitement and

exhilaration. Checkpoints were reached along the way and targets were undoubtedly surpassed, before striking

camp and preparing dinner. We were all exhausted by nightfall.

The following morning we woke up and dismantled tents whist others prepared a tasty breakfast. We embarked

on our second day of the challenge with a new target in mind — to make it back HOME. However, it wasn’t that

easy. Everyone faced numerous difficulties, but managed to defeat the odds and was able to develop as

individuals and a group.

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The expedition ended with great success and everyone is to be commended on their impeccable performance

and achievement. Of course, we cannot forget the support of the teachers, who made it all possible."

Galal Abou El Dahab, Zeina el Deeb and Stijin Hendrickx

Boys JV Football

On the 3rd February the NCBIS Boys JV football team travelled to the International School of Choueifat to take

part in the annual CISSA EASTERN CONFERENCE. The draw proved to be our first challenge as we were set to

play 4 matches back to back.

The first game against MES was particularly difficult as it was the first time our JV team had played together.

Nonetheless the team as a whole performed well but with clear areas for improvement. A quick reshuffling of

positions took place before the next game. Thankfully, the team was able to enhance the performance to win

the next two consecutive games against AISE & HIA. With 2 wins behind us, the scene was now set for our last

game against ISC-C. It was a very closely fought match but our lack of matchplay fitness proved telling, and we

could not keep pace with the well drilled opposition.

Overall NCBIS finished the tournament in third place. Alongside a great performance, the boys learned to work

as a collective unit and enjoyed themselves. There is no doubt that we have some very talented players here at

school - with a little more practice and focused training, maybe next year we can go all the way!

The team -

Year 9 - Yassim

Year 10 Khaled, Yehya, Seleem, Ahmed, Yossef, Max, Arif Year 11 - Galal (Capt) Mohamed, Basel, Abdel Rahman, Adam, Omar, Fady, Ronald,

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MUN Conference, Hayah Academy, Cairo

Six students from NCBIS attended the MUN conference, held at Hayah International Academy 8-11 February.

Our students participated in three of the forums, these being Security Council, as the delegation of Japan (Muda

Gadain & Sidney Fitzpatrick), General Assembly 3 – Social, Humanitarian, Cultural Council, as the delegates of

Australia (Sanchi Havanagi) and New Zealand (Rachel Williams - missing from the group photograph), as well as

the UNODC as delegates of Tunisia (Paulina Sanchez) and Cuba (Lefty Armelinos). We were highly impressed

with all our participating students, who got stuck into debates with students from 11 other schools across Cairo.

During the three days, they discussed issues such as indigenous people’s rights, the war in Yemen and

combating the issue of human trafficking. The Security Council also had a mock crisis situation to debate civil

unrest in the United States. We were very proud of the extent to which our 6 students got involved, and were

able to make excellent points of information, despite many of them being first time attendees at a conference.

Well done NCBIS delegates!

- Sarah Newton & Rebecca Gardner – MUN Directors

Artist of the week!

NCBIS students are not short of creativity, and at GCSE

and IB Diploma level, the art work can be simply

stunning. Artfann already exists as a blog to celebrate

NCBIS creations, but we would like to feature our artists

over coming weeks and show the range of skills, art

techniques and vision that they possess.

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After Nicole Stark's self portrait for Culture and identity

last week, it is our pleasure to show a page from

Sabrina Perrenoud's workbook research on artist John

Piper, and the reflection of her own cultural

background in her impressive architectural drawings.

- Artwork by y11 GCSE Art student, Sabrina Perrenoud