Overcoming Guilt and Embracing Growth

See the presentation here.

The session included an open discussion on the importance of emotional wellbeing in academic success, healthy revision habits, and effective revision techniques.
Although the session was focused more on supporting students in the exam years, Y11–13, all parents in Years 7–13 were welcome to attend.

Presenter: Hannah Scorer, Key Stage 4 Coordinator

See the presentation here.

Sources:

https://www.headspace.com/

Any good school acknowledges the reality that bullying can happen. What matters is that a good school has procedures in place to identify and minimise bullying as much as reasonably possible.

This workshop was designed to raise awareness of the kinds of bullying that can take place, as well as strategies that can be used at school and at home to minimise its effects. It also explored the relatively new phenomenon of cyber (online) bullying and discussed what can be done to prevent it.

What Participants Gained:

• Understanding what bullying is: including how it is described by the UK Department for Education, and specifically in the context of (inter-)national Anti-Bullying Week #powerforgood.
• Thinking about culture: bullying behaviour often exists within overlapping contexts—friendship groups, school classes, individual institutions, and within a national perception of what is acceptable.
• The online world: schools with strong adherence to healthy values educate pupils on what healthy online behaviour looks like, particularly in terms of relationships with others. A healthy school culture also teaches young people to share concerns, whether with parents, school staff, or even social media companies.
• Reporting mechanisms: schools like IBSB with strong anti-bullying policies offer a range of ways for pupils to share concerns, including anonymous reporting (post box or QR code), pupil surveys, and trained student mentors.
• Proactive parenting: good schools foster an open dialogue with parents on these matters, educating through workshops and regular kindness initiatives for pupils, such as charity work and form-time activities. Parents are similarly advised to engage in open dialogue with children about online activity and put reasonable limits and checks on their online behaviour.
• Anti-bullying and kindness within school culture: IBSB keeps anti-bullying approaches at the forefront, regularly revisiting key definitions and reporting mechanisms in form times, assemblies, and the taught PSHE curriculum. Anti-Bullying Week was marked this November as a whole-school event, alongside Kindness Week (May 2025), which began this year.

This parent workshop provided practical strategies to recognise and minimise the impact of bullying, whether in person or online.

You can view the presentation from the workshop here.

This workshop was designed to offer parents deeper insights into how their child’s brain develops and functions, enabling them to build stronger, more positive relationships with their children.

By combining practical parenting techniques with the latest research in childhood emotional and cognitive development, participants learned effective ways to support their child’s growth.

Throughout the workshop, parents explored strategies to help their children integrate different parts of their brain, fostering the connections needed for them to better understand and manage their emotions and thoughts.

The session empowered parents in their parenting journey with science-backed methods for nurturing their child’s well-being and resilience.

You can view the presentation from the workshop here.

Congratulations to Sarmiza Badelita for her recent success in the recent ISSDC NASA Competition at the Cape Canaveral Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. Sarmiza was fortunate to be selected from the many applicants from around the world to attend a special NASA summer camp, and from this initial group was again chosen to work together with the other students selected for 4 days and 3 nights designing a space settlement on the Moon. Here is what Sarmiza had to say about her experience:

“I recently returned from the NASA Cape Canaveral Kennedy Space Centre, where I participated in an amazing experience with some incredible bright and talented students. The fact that I got to meet and work with students from around the world was amazing. And then to be selected as a member of one of the top 4 teams to design a space settlement on the Moon, was truly humbling.”   

Sarmiza is a student enrolled at IBSB in the first year of her A Level programme, aspiring toward a future career medicine.

Congratulations to Daria, Fibi, Andrei, Diana, Irina, and Mario who completed a three-day hiking expedition in the Ciucas Mountains. They displayed excellent planning, preparation, teamwork, and resilience in overcoming all the challenges the expedition entailed (from the additional measures related to SARS-COV2 prevention, to navigation in poorly marked areas, and simply finishing 20 km walks and over 1000m vertical ascent per day).

Also, we are happy to announce that the DofEIA programme is growing in our school, as three members of staff were trained as ‘leaders’ last week: Ms Carmen Raducanu, Mr Anthony Varden, and Mr James Hudson. The role of the leader is to mentor the participants and ensure that they have the necessary support to achieve their personal goals in every section of the programme (Skills, Service, Physical Recreation, and Adventurous Journey).

With Carmen, Anthony, and James now on hand to help programme coordinator, Ms Johanna Croci, we have no doubt that our students will continue to receive the best possible support on their Award journey.

EYFS have been learning about Mini beasts and are now able now to differentiate between insects and spiders. They learned that insects have got 6 legs and 3 body parts, while the spiders have got 8 legs and 2 body parts. They then had a lot of fun outside bug hunting in the garden using nets and magnifying glasses. They were also involved in various hands-on activities like spider hand printing and making spider webs, developing their hand-eye coordination and control and had the opportunity to grasp new mathematical concepts like ’symmetry ’and ’the same’ whilst carrying out their investigations. So don’t be surprised if they come up to you all excited with a bug they’ve caught wanting to tell you all about it!

This week Year 1 had fun in their music lesson where they learned that it is important to respect each other and work as a team. Each student having received a whistle, followed the teacher’s instructions, paying attention to each other to know when it was their turn to play, and as a result managed to create music in harmony. They all learned how important it is to have patience and to listen carefully to the sounds around them. More importantly, they learned that an enthusiastic attitude and trying your best can create a beautiful song together and were very proud of their result.