INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLS
Budapest ~ Hungary

Careers Conference Feburary 2010

Despite weather warnings and inches of fresh snow, The British International School pushed forward with their annual careers conference on Thursday night. The evening was highly successful, with a diverse group of attendees all looking for career inspiration. And inspiration they got! With over 20 speakers informally discussing their professional specialism and answering questions from the audience, participants were able to get a real and accurate understanding of an array of career paths. The atmosphere was relaxed and adult, enabling student and parents to gather a  depth of information in a short period of time.

The aim of the evening was to enable KS3 to IB level students, and their families, to start preparing for future academic options, and ultimately a career. By listening and speaking to a variety of professionals about  different skills and qualifications, young people increased their aspirations and discovered a wealth of knowledge about working life.

Waste Not Want Not
Our 10:10 Commitment

The British International School Budapest has committed itself to the 10:10 campaign; to cut carbon emissions by 10% in 2010. Educational institutions have a duty to empower the next generation to not only understand the importance of the natural environment, but be equipped with the tools to live harmoniously within it. This is why there will be a push through 2010 within the school community to reduce our emissions through three main themes – electricity, gas and transport. 

Last week Alan Wilkinson, head of primary, started the year with a special assembly dedicated to 10:10. Children from the primary school suggested ways they thought would assist in reducing our emissions, such as car shares, recycling and playing the Play Station in the dark to reduce the use of electricity!

We consider ourselves as more than a school, but a community made up of students, staff and parents. Therefore we will encourage students to make little changes, with parents help, around the house.

Dragons' Den Meet Business Students - December 2009

“I was impressed by the attention to detail and the remarkable professional approach which al the student teams put into the project.”

Mr Howard Cohen,  Director, Global Cynergies
AKA Dragan

Have you ever considered completely turning your life upside down, investing all you have into an idea you truly believe in and pitting yourself against top business professionals in order to gain investment on national television? This is the principal idea behind the popular TV programme ‘Dragons’ Den, and BISB have adapted the structure to enable Year 10,11 and IB business students to apply their theorical learning into practice.

Business teachers believed that by recreating a similar environment to that of Dragans’ Den, students would learn and practice important aspects of business strategy.

"This scenario addresses key aspects of all the KS4 and IB areas of study – marketing, finance, human resources, external influences on business, leadership and creative thinking. It empowers students to put into practice what they tend to learn theoretically - to build on 'thinking skills', working outside their comfort zones, ability to work under time pressure, communication skills and how to compromise effectively. "

Henny Letschert, Business Teacher

In order to measure achievement in a fair manner students were presented with the same task; the potential purchase of a failing budget airline.  Four local business professionals, Debra Molyneux, Jolie Powell, Howard Cohen and Jane Thompson, visited the school to act as Dragons. Students were grouped together to develop a business strategy that would impress the professionals and answer any critical questions related to their ideas. To aid students staff created a detailed website hosting all the information students required to develop a comprehensive presentation, it was the pupils task to interpret the data and think creatively in order to win the contract.

Six groups  presented their business proposals to the Dragon along with the whole of the secondary school, who voted on their abilities.

The afternoon was an invaluable experience for students; who were tested in a pressured environment and outside of their comfort zones. All groups reacted positively to the situation highlighting unusual ways to increase revenue  and answering questions in confident manner.  Well done to all those who took part.

Learning about Learning – Target Setting Day - November 2009

It is an important part of the learning experience to be assessed and to strive for continual improvement. However, not being aware of your personal learning style and the mechanism that assist you to learn can make personal and academic improvement harder.

Target setting day aims to assist students to evaluate their own learning styles and provide tools to help them in improve their abilities. As The British International School believes the key to a pupil’s development is a healthy and strong partnership between the school, parents and the student, we chose to develop a programme that included parents along with students.

Parents Feed Back on Target Setting Day:

• All Planned well, great idea to have holding room.

• More organised website/ up to date information.

• Repeat target setting sessions throughout the year.

• Very informative and useful.

• Sensible amount of time has been given to a specific area of learning. Child focussed.

• Thank you. This is an interesting and useful process.

Culture  Club - October 2009
The British International School brings together pupils from 36 countries with a total of 21 different languages spoken. This rich tapestry of diversity is unique to international schools, and an important ingredient of the BISB. Culture Week is an annual event to give children an opportunity to learn more about different cultures and societies, while celebrating diversity and intercultural relations.

Over the lower 2 levels of the school, the classrooms were transformed into 20 different countries, and in total 24 nationalities took part. Parents and teachers worked together to create a unique learning environment which had the dual purpose of representing the different nations while enabling participants to learn through all 5 senses. Every country organised a range of activities suitable for different ages and academic abilities.

Children in the Primary School and Year 7 spent the first part of the week journeying through all the continents. They had the opportunity to learn and experience an array of cultures and traditions through games, presentations, dance, film, quizzes, sport and food! They took part in a beautiful Indian marriage, an Irish treasure hunt quiz, tried their hand at Korean and Japanese Choreography, tested their knowledge on Poland, created Hungarian dolls, practiced African music, made English biscuits, learnt the art of Chinese chopsticks, and there were many, more activities.

In the Secondary School pupils were also given the opportunity to visit the array of countries and experience the themed activities. However the preparation and presentation of a themed formal debate, was this year’s key feature. Depending on the curriculum requirements of the year different skills were honed. While Year 7s considered methods of research and the formulation of arguments, Year 10s aim was to develop points and counter points.

International food day was a spectacular event; gone was the tradition sports hall and in its place was a food bazaar full of local dishes prepared by the parents of the school. The children were allowed to wander from stall to stall sampling the different flavors and collecting national stickers for their passports. Esther Rietberg kept the atmosphere lively with her commentary, world music played and parents wore national dress

None of this would have been possible without the help of enthusiastic parents and staff. A big thank you to all the parents who worked exceptionally hard to represent their homelands and provide interesting and varied learning experiences for the pupils.