TES British Secondary & High School Section - NewsLetter

ESC Newsletter Coming up this month: Issue 12  29 & 30 September: Music Performance Evenings Welcome from the BSHS Head  2 October: Autumn Festival As the summer heat begins to cool and we move into autumn, the school becomes no less busy in terms of the vast array of learning experiences, extra curricular activities and all round enrichment opportunities that we offer at our school.  22 October: Terry Fox Run  23 October: Halloween Disco  30 October: Sports Day Please note that High School Progress Reports will be sent home with students on October 23rd, and not on October16th as it says on the TES calendar Inside this issue: ESCPA 2 IB Spotlight 4 University Counsellors 7 New House Points 18 Sports News 20 And much more! September 2015 Chrysta Garnett, Head of British Secondary and High School Section Dear Parents and Students This month alone has seen our entire student body engaged in our annual Team Building Day, which involved over 500 students across all three sections developing valuable life skills that can only continue to enhance levels of overall academic attainment. The metal of our Year 7s was tested in some unfriendly weather conditions on their Camp Taiwan outward bound activities; our Year 9s raced around the city in the Great Taipei Race; our H1s pitched their culinary talents against each other in our Masterchef competition; and our H2 students impressed us with their business acumen in The Apprentice, which saw an Executive Panel judging our welldeserved finalists’ promotional videos. Whilst providing a fun opportunity for cross section collaboration and team building, such days also offer our students a chance to develop crucial life skills, such as resilience, perseverance, creativity, risk-taking and problem solving. My thanks to our Heads of Year who organised the events and of course to our teachers who cajoled and encouraged students to excel on the day. We were also able to offer High School Theatre/Drama students an additional enrichment opportunity in the form of Mark Hill, a Butoh Theatre expert (Japanese Dance Theatre), who worked with students of all age ranges for a whole week in September. Dan Grayson, who has fast become one of our favourite annual visitors, also returned to the British Secondary and High School this month to work with H4 students and their parents on a two-day programme, including a University Admissions Boot Camp. Dan’s experience as a former Tufts Admissions Officer and his well known expertise on the college applications process supports the powerful four-year High School university guidance programme we are now working to put in place with our ever expanding UCC Department. I would like to draw your attention to the upcoming Parent Teacher meetings for Year 7 and Year 8/9 students and parents in early October, as well as to the TES Autumn Festival at the EPC on October 7th, which is a fantastic family event. I hope to see you there. Please also remember that the school will not be open on Monday 28th September for Mid Autumn Festival.