Volume No: 30

The EPC Primary Newsletter

www.taipeieuropeanschool.com

Telephone: +886 2 8145 9007

5th June 2009

• Fri 12th June British Infant reports sent home

• 17th June—18th June British Infant Parents Evenings

• Fri 19th June British Section Exchange Day

• Thurs 2nd July Last day of term

• 31st August 2009-2010 academic year begins

Dates for your diary:

It might not seem like long to the summer holidays, but the TES primary sections

are still incredibly busy places!

In the British Infant Section, Year 2 and the nursery classes are all practicing

for their shows. In Year 6, the children will all be breathing a sigh of relief at the

finishing the last of their Key Stage 2 SATs by the time this newsletter is

published.

In this weeks newsletter find out about the recent road

safety programme conducted by the French section and the

chess competition run by Mr Fagg, what Whizz Bang! means in

year 2, making mummies in Year 3 and swimming lessons in the

German section. You

will also find the

latest news from the

British PTA and an

appeal for help from

Saturday Soccer.

Les élèves de 5ème présentent Les élèves de 5ème présentent Les élèves de 5ème présentent Les élèves de 5ème présentent

L'éducation à la sécurité routière à l'école primaire et au collège c’est acquérir des sa-

voirs et des comportements réfléchis face aux dangers de la route.

C’est dans ce cadre que nous avons organisé une sortie sur le terrain qui a regroupé les

CM2 et les 5ème. Ces derniers, qui passeront l’examen de l’attestation de

sécurité routière premier niveau à la fin de l’année ont

pu chapeauter leurs plus jeunes camarades, qui ont ap-

pris à découvrir la signalisation routière et à savoir se

déplacer de manière autonome dans le milieu urbain.

Nous avons terminé la séance en salle infor-

matique où ont été projetées et commentées

les différentes photos prises pas les élèves sur

la signalisation et les infractions.

Home

Vous êtes un enfant ou bien un parent ennuyé qui ne sait pas quoi faire ? Ne cherchez plus la ré-ponse : les exposés des Cm1/Cm2 ! Vous les adorerez car ils vous apprendront plein de choses intéressantes. Les Cm1/Cm2 ont travaillé presque un an pour faire leurs exposés. Évidemment, un an, on se dit qu’ils sont vachement bien faits, vu le temps qu’ils y ont passé. Confirmation, ils sont super bien faits, jusque dans les moindres détails. La présentation, les textes – archi simples -, les anima-tions et tout le reste. Au départ, nous nous sommes posé une question : l’espace se réduit pour chaque habitant de la Terre, comment va-t-on faire ? Nous avons recherché les informations nous permettant de ré-pondre à nos interrogations. Grâce à ce travail, nous avons compris que notre environnement était en danger et que nous pouvions le sauver. Vous aussi vous le pouvez ! Un premier geste : connectez-vous sur le site de la section fran-çaise, rubrique « travaux des élèves », sous rubrique « exposés des Cm1/Cm2 ». Dans nos expo-sés, vous trouverez des renseignements indispensables, mais aussi des photos, parfois rigolotes, et surtout de merveilleuses animations.

Protéger notre environnement

Les élèves de CM1/CM2, ont présenté en format « power point » des exposés sur les

problémes d’ environnement ….et sont heureux de vous inviter à les consulter sur le

site web de la section française :

http://www.taipeieuropeanschool.com/eft/Evenements.php

Attention, chefs-d’œuvre !

(eingereicht von Kathrin Diestel)

Aktuell in der Grundschule: Impressionen aus dem Schwimmunterricht

„Schwimmen macht Spaß!“, findet Eilien. In fünf Niveaugruppen wird trainiert und

jedes Training bringt jeden ein Stück weiter. Am letzten Montag hat die Abnahme der

„Seepferdchen“ (u.a. 25m schwimmen) begonnen und bereits beim 1. Anlauf haben es

alle Wagemutigen geschafft. Einige nahmen sogar gleich den „Schwimmpass Bronze“

in Angriff (u.a. 200 m schwimmen - in höchstens 15 min). Nächste Woche geht es

weiter!

Fotokurs mit Dirk Diestel - Thema „Ganz nah“

Schülerarbeiten aus dem Schuljahr 2008-09 von Annette Chen, Momo Zumsteg,

Josephine Meyer, Katharina Spadin, Georg Brander & Johann Ory

5th June

Dear Parents

Next Friday, all the children will be bringing home their progress reports. They are in

the same format as the reports you received in February. You will have the opportunity

to talk to the class teachers and Specialist teachers about the reports the following

week. I hope you find them useful. I certainly enjoyed reading them all, although as you

can imagine, it takes quite a lot of time! Overall, I am delighted with the progress the

children have made academically as well as emotionally and socially. We are very fo-

cused on the whole child and every aspect of their development, and I always enjoy

watching them all grow and develop throughout the year.

Just a reminder that the children

can bring in their own balls from

home to play with. Please make sure

they are named and are not made of

leather! Also can I remind you that

the children must have a hat with

them every day. The sun is incredibly

powerful at the moment. Thank you.

Best wishes

Ruth Martin

Head of the British Infant Section

Dear Year 2 Parents

Our final topic is called WHIZZ BANG! It will continue until the summer holidays.

We are carrying out lots of exciting experiments and learning really interesting facts

about materials and electricity.

You can find out more about our fun topic on the school website by following:

http://www.taipeieuropeanschool.com/tbs/documents/MicrosoftWord-unit5-WhizBang.pdf

B2CB introduce our topic

WHIZZ BANG! All about ma-

terials and electricity.

B2JB are learning what a fair

test is and why it is vital to

make sure all experiments are

carried out as fair tests.

B2MS are busy carrying out lots

of fabulous fair test experiments.

One of the experiments looks at

how friction slows moving objects

down.

While another experiment

tests how different materials

react to being submerged in

water.

B2CL are making Australian Abo-

riginal collages using different

materials.

Reminder:

Our Year Two show is on Friday 19th June at 1pm in the Amphitheatre. Any parents

that would like to help making the class costumes or backdrop for the show please

contact your class parent. Any help would be most appreciated.

Hope to see you all there

The Year Two Team

Dear Parents,

There are only four more weeks of term left for this academic year —so much to do

and so little time in which to do it! Although the children’s academic reports have

been sent home and we have conducted our final parent/teacher consultations, we are

still very much focused on teaching and learning.

The children in Years 3-5 have had their formal assessments which help inform us of

their progress. We analyse the results and look for areas of strength and areas for

development to ensure we are meeting the needs of all children in our school. The

Year 6 SATs took place this week and although we are as yet uncertain of the results

of these for a few weeks, what is certain is the attitude of the children towards

their learning. We are so impressed with their desire to do their very best and we

cannot ask for more than that! Huge credit goes to all the staff too for leaving no

stone unturned to help the children be the best that they can be.

Next week our FOBISSEA team travels to Hong Kong to compete in swimming, football, T-

ball and athletics. This is an exciting opportunity for the children to not only compete in

the sports arena but to also meet children from other schools from across the region. We

need to say a big thank you to Keith Hoo and the team of teachers and parents who have

coached and supported the children all year. They have encouraged the children to develop

their sporting ability, positive attitudes and team work. If you would like to see how the

team are doing during the competition visit: www.juniortrips.blogspot.com .

Best of luck to you all for next week!

I hope to see many of you at the Summer Fair tomorrow. I will be working at the

entrance and on the soft drink stall so do come and say hello.

Kind regards

Chess Competiton Some of the children from the British and French

Junior Sections have been taking part in a chess com

petition. Over 70 children played in the tournament,

and I am very pleased to say that all of the games were played fairly and in a sporting manner.

Every game had to be won by checkmate, which meant that some of the games took a long time

to play.

Each year group ended up with a champion. Here are the 4 winners:

Year 3 Shanker

Year 4 Jun Xiang

Year 5 Mitchell

Year 6 Andrew

The 4 champions played each other to find the school champion, and

the winner of that competition was Shanker from Year 3. I would like

to take this opportunity to congratulate the 4 winners and also thank

all of the children who took part. There will be another chess compe-

tition next year, and I hope it will be as much fun as this year’s compe-

tition turned out to be.

If any children would like to improve their chess, then chess club meets every Tuesday after-

noon and is open to anyone who has a basic understanding of how the pieces move. If you’re not

sure whether you should learn how to play, here are 10 reasons that might persuade you to start.

1. It’s fun

2. It improves concentration

3. It develops critical reasoning.

4. It improves logical thinking.

5. It improves memory.

6. It encourages good sportsmanship.

7. It promotes imagination and creativity.

8. It helps you to plan ahead and foresee conse-

quences.

9. It’s cheap.

10. People who play chess are statistically less likely to go to prison than non-chess players!

Salts and special drying solutions played an important part in

preserving ancient Egyptian mummies, but they also did an-

other job. Before refrigerators and freezers, people had to preserve

food by

B3AY scientists and historians investigate.B3AY scientists and historians investigate.B3AY scientists and historians investigate.B3AY scientists and historians investigate.

Have you ever wondered why every time you eat salty foods, you get

thirsty? Or why fresh vegetables tend to shrivel up when you sprinkle

salt on them? The answer is simple. Salt is a desiccant - it

helps remove water from things, including human

bodies. This is why the Ancient Egyptians used

salts when they were mummifying bodies.

In this experiment, B3AY tested different salts

to find out which makes the best mummified

apple!

This apple slice was

covered in baking soda

only. It is very soft

and showing a lot of

signs of rotting.

A mixture of salt and

baking soda this time

and another rotten

apple slice. This slice

is a bit drier than the

last one though.

Yuck! We didn’t cover

this apple with anything.

We call this a control

experiment. As you can

see it’s pretty rotten.

This apple slice was

covered with salt only.

It looks fresh and is

starting to feel dry.

The perfect mummy!

We placed 4 equal slices of apple in a cup in a warm dry place for 7

days. To make it a fair test, we only changed 1 factor: what we put

into each cup to cover the apple slices.

For Your Calendar: ♦ June 6, 2009 — Summer Fair at Wen Lin Road; The Fair helps BS PTA and

PSC (Parents Support Council) raise funds for numerous valuable projects. It

also gives us all one more chance to socialize before the school adjourns for

the summer .

♦ September 16, 2009 at 9am — PSC (Parents Support Council) and PA/

PTAs (Parent Associations/Parent Teacher Associations) for all 4 sections

(German, French, British and High School) welcome you to coffee morning

on the TES campus on Wen Lin Road. Become a part of PTA and meet other

parents. Come with ideas and share your visions for the 2009/2010 school

year. There is so much to do. Many current BS PTA officers are leaving. We

need to step in their shoes but some of these shoes are very big, and thus we

need your help.

Thank You For Your Great Work As we are readying this Newsletter for publication, BS PTA is holding a Thank

You Luncheon on Thursday to celebrate all parents who helped with PTA

work this year. Thank you all and hope that you will be with us next year.

There is one person, however, who will be leaving us this summer but whose hard

work and luminous personality truly enhanced BS PTA this year. Nelleke Jongebreur, the

BS PTA Chair, does not shy away from any task. Whether we strategize for a fundraiser

or move tables to serve refreshments, she is always in the midst of all the action. She has

this calm patience and perseverance about her that make her a spectacular leader. We

will miss you, Nelleke.

CLASS (PARENTS) REPS

Both terms — class parents and class reps — describe a distinct group of

parents who serve as liaisons between PTA and parents and between

teachers and parents. While you surely observed them in action this year,

we would like to encourage you to ask your Class Rep about their experi-

ences. During our last meeting of Class Reps for this year (on June 4), we

identified many possible improvements of this institution. Ultimately, how-

ever, it is parents’ willingness to assume the role of a Class Rep that will de-

termine how well we will do next year. Talking with your Class Rep may

help you decide whether this is a volunteering task that you would like to

tackle next year. As the call for volunteers reaches you at the beginning of

the coming school year, remember how important it has been for parents

in your child’s class to meet for coffees, to cooperate in preparing events

or to volunteer at school functions. These and many other activities de-

pend on Class Reps to facilitate and coordinate among parents and teach-

ers. Please consider whether you would like to become a Class Rep for

the coming school year.

MONEY MATTERS — INTERIM UPDATE

We would like to let you know that at a recent meeting of BSPTA, the committee

decided to earmark NT$80,000 for British Junior Section and NT$70,000 for the British

Infant Section. These funds will be distributed to support specific projects suggested by

department heads. Furthermore, we transferred NT$ 50,000 to HSS Parent s Association

(KS3).

TES Saturday Soccer is a non-profit, parent/volunteer organisation dedicated

to fostering the skills development of both boys and girls of all abilities up to

and including, 12 years of age. Our objective is to create a safe, inclusive and

fun environment for children so that they can develop and express themselves

freely.

The strengths of TES Saturday Soccer depend on its inclusivity and community

feel. In order to continue providing a comprehensive programme we depend

on a network of enthusiastic parent-coaches. We are eager to hear from any

parents who are interested in helping out during the 2009-2010 season. You

do not need to be a master footballer! At the beginning of the season, training

is provided to all coaches. If you are able to help out either weekly or biweekly

please contact us at:

info@saturdaysoccer.org