BULLETIN No.20

Upcoming Dates 

General

End of Semester One
As the first semester comes to an end we would like to thank all members of our Learning Community for everything that you have done over the last 20 weeks to make it such an enjoyable first half of the year.  We wish all members of our community an enjoyable and restful mid-year break and look forward to seeing everybody back on campus at the start of Semester Two.

Chess Tournament
The Libraries and Extracurricular Department are pleased to announce the arrival of our 2nd Chess Tournament. Click the following link for more information – chess

Coming soon – Launch of the new Bulletin from Engage.
We are very excited to share that starting in July the bulletin will be sent from the Engage / Notices. If you need to update your contact information, go to Engage, “My details” tab, check the “Request a Change” box and enter your email – screenshot

Early Years and Primary

FECOBADE (Federación Costarricense de Baile)
Congratulations to a number of our dancers on their recent participation at the Competencia Nacional de Baile Deportivo: Valentina Maroto (Year 3C) and Isabella Maroto (Year 1B) secured second place in their respective categories while Juliana Rodríguez achieve three first place finishes as well as a third place finish with her academy, Dansteps. At the same event, Miranda Guillen (Year 5A) claimed 1st place in her solo category. In addition, Miranda has now been officially selected as a National DanceSport Team member to represent Costa Rica in future events.

Primary Library
The Primary Library wishes you a very happy holiday season and takes this opportunity to announce two special activities:
– Banner (poster) contest supporting the students participating in the Chess Tournament. We will vote, and the banner that receives the most points will win House Points.
– Infographic contest about the annexation of the Nicoya District and its importance. We will also vote to choose a winner.

Spirit Week – Celebrating Internationalism
To start off Spirit Week, Primary held their weekly assembly on Monday which provided a great opportunity to appreciate the wonderful range of ” Flag ” costumes worn by the students. Amongst many Costa Rican flags and the red, white and blue combinations it was lovely to see a wide range of other nationalities represented, among others: China, Spain, Colombia, Russia, Venezuela, Ireland, Canada, Italy, India and Germany. Photo

Year 4 Service-Learning Project
The last few weeks has seen Year 4 visit La Escuela de Arte (Chepe se Baña) on a class-by-class basis. The visits have been the culmination of the Service-Learning Project undertaken by each class. This has included a cycle consisting of: 1 Awareness & Preparation 2. The Visit and 3. Reflection.  As well as an extensive donation of clothes, cleaning and sanitary products, Year 4 were able to fundraise c569,360, which was gratefully received by representatives of Chepe se Baña during the recent visit by 4B.  The experience has been highly beneficial on a number of levels for the students and aligns closely with our school values of Respect and Responsibility in particular. Photos

Primary Staffing Update
On Friday of this week our Primary School will be saying a sad goodbye to Teacher Sarah, who is leaving us to take up a new role in Switzerland.  Taking over Sarah’s responsibilities at the start of the Second Semester is Teacher Irena Zlatkova.  Irena, who in addition to her teaching qualification holds a Bachelor’s degree in English Philology, is joining us from St. Margaret’s School here in Costa Rica having previously held employment positions in Bulgaria and the USA.

Secondary

Year 8 Drama Festival
Last Thursday, June 12, the Year 8 students treated us to three plays during the Drama Festival “Theater of the Weird”, inspired by two short stories and even a student’s own original story, Salvador Ruiz’s, where human nature and their connection to technology or power structures is explored. This experience led to students discovering new skills not only in performance, but also props management, costume, stage, sound and light design, as well as teamwork and project management skills.   We would like to thank the Maintenance staff, the Audiovisuals team, the Social Media/Marketing team and Ms Castillo, Mr McDonald and Mr Kamm for such successful performances which enriched a well-established English Department tradition. You can see pictures and videos of the event in our departmental website

Mock exams Year 10 & Year 12
The mock exams for Year 10 IGCSE students and Year 12 IB students will take place from the 13th of August to the 25th of August.   These exams replicate exam conditions for the real IB and IGCSE, as well as being their internal end-of-year exams. It is important that students prepare thoroughly for these assessments and are not absent from any of them.

Dance Champion
Congratulations to Sara Molina (Year 7) on winning first place in the classical ballet category at the All-Dance Costa Rica competition.  Sara also won first place in the classical ballet category at the competencia nacional de baile de Costa Rica which took place at the weekend.

Year 12 students take part in the internal elimination round of the PLASMA competitions
This week, a group of Year 12 students participated in the internal elimination round of the PLASMA competitions, organized by Universidades.cr. These competitions are designed to explore different vocational areas and assess participants’ knowledge, creativity, and problem-solving skills through a series of challenges in the fields of Health, Business, Design, Technology, Mathematics, Debate, and Gastronomy.  We congratulate Rania Canales, Logan Convery, Isabella D’Arsie, Mariana Gallegos, Gastón Goddard, Luisana Gómez, Cristel Haaversen, Ally Lin, Daniela Martínez, Andrés Mora, Isabella Moya, Diego Víquez, Harry Wang, and Roberto Zúñiga for their enthusiasm, commitment, and outstanding performance. We wish them the best of luck in the next stages of the competition!

Uniforms
We respectfully ask all Secondary parents to check that their children have complete, official uniforms during the school holidays. This is due to the fact that a number of students wore either shorts, leggings or shoes in the first semester which do not comply with the school’s uniform requirements. We attach the document describing the uniform requirements for your information – Uniform Requirements

Virtual Meeting for Year 10 Parents
On Tuesday, July 29th at 10:30 a.m., we will hold a virtual meeting with Year 10 parents to provide information about the BN (National Baccalaureate) and International Baccalaureate (IB) programs so they can help their children make an informed decision about which programme they will study next year. Link: https://meet.google.com/xhn-xjif-mkk

Options Fair – Friday, August 1^st
– The Year 7 fair is to help students choose their options for Year 8. 8:10 a.m.
– The Year 8 fair is to help students choose their IGCSE courses. 8:10 a.m.
– The Year 10 fair is to help students choose their International Baccalaureate or National Baccalaureate courses. 10:30 a.m.

Secondary Staffing Update
As the first semester comes to an end we will be saying a sad farewell to several Secondary staff members who are leaving us to take up new positions around the globe – Mr. Kamm (English), Mr. Wellard-Jeffs (Geography/Humanities), Ms. Clater (Chemistry/Science), Mr. McDonald (English) and Mr. Lambert (Economics/Business).  We would like to express our gratitude to each of our departing staff members and wish them well in their new roles. 

As we say goodbye to the above staff members we also will be giving a warm welcome to the following incoming teachers at the start of the second semester:

Graham Jackson (Science/Chemistry) – British born Graham holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Hull as well as a Science Teaching Qualification from the University of Middlesex.  He has served as the Head of Science at Tree of Life International School since 2020.

Hunter Minks (English) – Hunter, a citizen from the USA, is returning to us having worked at the BSCR between 2019 and 2023.  Having worked previously in both China and the Czech Republic, he has just completed two years at the Wingate School in Mexico City where he served as the IBDP Coordinator.

Charlie Watts (Geography/Humanities) – Charlie is a British citizen who holds a Bachelor of Arts in Geography from the University of Wales and a teaching qualification from the University of Cumbria.  He joins us from the British International School of Kuala Lumpur having previously worked in the Czech Republic, Vietnam and the UK.

Bruce Jacob (Economics/Business) – Bruce worked at the British School in several roles, including Head of Secondary, between 1987 and 2023 after which he began his very well-deserved retirement.  He will be joining us for the second semester only as an Economics and Business Management teacher

Josué López (English) – Costa Rican Josué holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Costa Rica and is in the process of completing his Master’s in English Literature, also at UCR. Josué joins us having taught at several educational institutions here in Costa Rica including Arandú School, the University of Costa Rica and Centro Cultural.