School News

Dear Parents / Guardians,

As we reach the end of the first term, and I thought it prudent to write to you and highlight some of the changes that have happened so far and to identify some that are still in development.

The school campus is undergoing a transformation to try and soften it, the hope is that by term 3 we will be able to make more use of the outdoor space and will be encouraging students and staff to make best use of all facilities in their learning journeys.

Students are being encouraged to be more accountable within the school for their attitude to learning and this will develop hand in hand with the rewards and sanction system which is a vital part of the students lifelong learning skills.

The progress reports will be issued very soon, please remember that these reports are the start point for conversations about how to improve and move towards the attainment each student id individually capable of. We will have a parent teacher meeting in November to discuss these and other issues.

I would like to say a big thank you to all the students, staff and parents that regularly make every effort to be in school, on time, fully equipped and ready for an academic day. There are, however, a few that are causing some concern with their lack of punctuality and/or readiness for the day.  May I take this time to remind parents that the signed Educational Agreement clearly sets out all expectations on the school and of the students not least of all is drop of and pick up of students in accordance with school timings (3.1.10), There are also clear obligations to ensure that school is informed of any absence (3.1.8), all students are to wear proper school uniform (6.9), students are required to attend all lessons in full (6.17) and if a student needs to be absent permission must be sought in writing (6.18). 

To assist us in creating a ‘safe and productive’ environment, (part of our core values), we will be looking to improve our entry and exit procedures at school so please bear with us when we bring these into effect from next term. We will focus on students leaving the campus during the school day at first and ask you try to support your children’s education by not taking them out of school unless there is a real emergency or significant issue. Every lesson missed impacts student's progress, and ultimately their attainment. We have systems in place within the school to support, nurture and care for students that might need such – they do not need to leave because of incidents in school nor should they be contacting home to request such. 

From the 6^th November we would like to put a more robust system in place ensuring students are more easily accounted for and to help us identify significant patterns of absence. As such please be aware that parents will be required to email the school reception requesting time off for their children with a stated reason. A pass will then be issued by reception to allow the student (s) to leave – without this pass our security team will not allow the student to leave unless the parent is physically present. This process requires several hours to enact so please do so first thing in the morning, for an afternoon time, or the day before for other times. It will be very difficult to release any student at short notice without a parent reporting to reception. We hope you understand that this is in the student's best interest and is not designed to cause unnecessary frustration or delay, rather to ensure that we are doing the ‘best by each student’. 

There are still a few staff changes that need to happen and each of the classes directly impacted will be informed of the changes in order to ensure transparency. There are many reasons for these changes and not least of all current situations around the world.

We are rapidly approaching our Winter Concert / Play and I would like to remind parents that the end of the school year is the 16^th December 2022, if students are removed from school prior to this it can affect not only their attainment but also their socialising skills.

The representation of parents in the school is still quite poor and I would strongly encourage you to please contact us and look to take a more pro-active part in the development of the school and the learning environment for your children. There will also be more opportunities to become better acquainted with our edupage system.

As always, we are extremely proud of our school community as a whole and we want to thank you all for your support, trust and involvement in our student’s education as well as our campuses continual development. We look forward to seeing you all in term 2, have a great holiday and enjoy the time off.

 

Gorki campus team

Message from the Head of School (Mr. Daniel Brace) 

 

Almost the final newsletter of the term and I would like to thank everyone in our school community for their effort, hard work, support, commitment and dedication to the continual improvement of Gorki campus. It has been truly heartening to hear many positive comments from parents and stakeholders over the past few days and I hope these messages are also being received by our group and the students themselves.  

There has been, and will continue to be, some landscaping work carried out to soften our school environment as well as efforts to try and improve activities for the students in and around the campuses. 

There has been a slow uptake for the “Parents council” and I would strongly encourage anyone wishing to have a voice or to help deliver actual change across the school community, to become part of the council by letting myself, your child or Mr Pederson know. There are a number of programs and changes I would like to enact within the school but these are very difficult without support from the wider school community. Currently our student and staff councils have had a number of successes within the school and it is a shame that our parents have not yet had the feelings of success with projects. 

Please remember there are a number of different activities and events next week designed to help us see out term 1 on a high note. There are opportunities for students to dress up for Halloween, for parents (and other relatives) to visit the school, opportunities for students to show off their baking skills as well as the publication of the term 1 progress reports.  

Term 2 will begin with changes to the student entry and exit process so as to ensure improved awareness of the need for ALL students to be in school for the WHOLE day in order to receive the best chances at academic, and social, success. We will also be clamping down on poor uniform standards as well as poor punctuality. It is very important that we are supported in this from home as well as through conversations with the form, (homeroom), teachers and senior staff. 

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to remind the school community as a whole that we communicate best when we communicate often. To that end remember to be using EDUPAGE effectively and if further training, or pointers are required we are here to help every morning (except Mondays). We will also run a special training event on edupage for parents, Monday 7th November at the end of the school day. Please let us know if you wish to attend. 

Have a great break and I look forward to seeing you all in term 2, if not before. 

  

Key Dates 

24th October - Bake sale (Secondary) - Pumpkin carving displays begin 

26th October - Pumpkin Carving Judging / Parents Coffee morning 

27th October – Costume Day and bake sale (Primary) 

28th October – Costume Day (Secondary), Relatives Day (Primary) - Progress reports due 

7th November – Edupage parent training (15:00 – 1530), New entry/exit policy and uniform checks in place. 

 

Primary 

 

Message from the Head of Primary (Mr. Paul Curry) 

 

Term 1 is always the longest, strangest and hardest term in schools.  We are nearing the end of it, with some fun and interesting activities planned for next week to celebrate our many successes, but before that, let me explain what I mean: Longest – over eight weeks is a long time for our students to attend every day and concentrate to the best of their abilities throughout, but many of our young people have been hugely successful at both elements; Strangest – each year is a new experience and it has to start somewhere, and for children this is often a scary or nervous thing to deal with – meeting new people, having new lessons, doing new things.  Adapting to new things and changing what you have been used to takes time, but our community always does this in the right way; Hardest – coupling together long and strange is a hard challenge, but once you have been successful in Term 1, following terms simply build upon those successes!   

It has been a pleasure to formally visit a lot of lessons this week and observe the teaching and learning taking place across both buildings.  A lesson observation is much more than watching the teacher – it is the interaction between teacher and student, student and teaching objectives, and student and student, among a lot of other things.  The best lessons are the ones that flow quickly with high levels of engagement and obvious educational progress that can be accurately measured.  It has been very pleasing to see much of that taking place this week, and I look forward to seeing a lot more over the coming months. 

Enjoy your weekend, and we look forward to lots of activities of a celebratory nature next week! 

 

Message from the Year 1 Teacher (Ms. Jeanelle Greyling) 

  

The Year 1s have learned a ton of new things this week. Since they know most of their Jolly Phonics sounds already, we have started focusing on our grammar. They can read and write personal pronouns and even know when to use each pronoun. The Year 1s also enjoy the challenge of unscrambling simple sentences. The group still finds the articles “a”, “an” and “the” a bit abstract, but we know that they will get the hang of it through lots of practice.   

All of the pupils love Maths, which makes presenting the lessons much easier. We have learned about estimation, comparing numbers, and reading and writing number words recently. They can use key words like “estimate”, “equal”, “fewer”, “less”, “more” and “same” confidently. They also have no problems with counting backwards and forwards to 20. 

In Science, we are learning about humans, specifically our senses. The pupils enjoyed experimenting with activities such as being blindfolded and trying to put body parts on the correct place, smelling experiments and listening walks. In ICT, we are learning about the parts of a computer / laptop and where these parts go. We have already made our own cut and pasted paper laptops and drawn our own computers consisting of all the key parts. We have also started using the school tablets. 

In Global Perspectives, we have been learning about this month’s topic: Innovation. The pupils know several inventors and inventions that changed the world and have even designed some of their own interesting inventions. Some of the memorable invention ideas were robot doctors, cellphones that can walk, robot soldiers, and space robots. You can take a look at these drawings in the reception area. 

Next week, we look forward to learning all about Halloween and decorating the classroom with all our self-made Halloween crafts! On that note, please don’t forget to dress up as your favourite Halloween character for our Autumn Festival next Thursday, 27 October. 

  

Kind regards, 

Ms. Jeanelle 

 

 

 

Secondary 

 

Message from the Head of Secondary (Mr. Christopher Kingshott)   

Dear Parents and Guardians and Students, 

I hope that you are all well. 

This week we have had our Spanish day where students were able to come into school wearing Spanish traditional dress. Although not all were able to do this, I did see some impressive costumes around the school. There was also a house competition consisting of a quiz related to the event. Today, we will have a Spanish concert, during our final period of the week, which should be great. 

Next week is the final week of our longest term. It has been incredibly busy but also incredibly rewarding, continuing to see our school, develop. I am extremely excited about eating some delicious cakes during Monday’s Bakesale, and seeing everybody's costumes for the Autmn festival.  I wish you all a wonderful weekend. 

 

 

Message from the Aleksei Sinkevich (Art Teacher and Year 11 Form Tutor) 

 

Dear Parents and Guardians, 

In year 8 students research, experiment, produce and reflect upon a portrait or image of a friend with the intention of conveying a particular mood. They will explore the proportions of the face and the figure. They will look at the work of artists from a variety of historical periods and cultures for inspiration. They will also consider the expression of their subject, the inclusion periphery objects and the backdrop to their portrait, as well as selecting their own materials and processes. 

  

Year 9 take the theme title ‘Identity’. Students looking at examples of work from a range of artists that relate to the theme in different ways such as portraiture, still life, landscape, and sculpture. Students may refer to their previous work on still life and how objects can reflect an identity. Alternatively, they may explore another aspect that make up an identity, such as heritage, family, interests or take a more literal response and create a self-portrait. When gathering images to explore the theme, learners encouraged to use photography as well as at least one other media, such as pencil, to record their observations. Students have time to reflect on past work, decide which media they would like to use, and experiment with these in order to develop their initial images. 

  

In year 7 learners develop their understanding of how to use line and shading to create form, shape and pattern using a variety of tools such as pencil, pen and charcoal and drawing from a range of still life objects. Learners are introduced to drawing techniques that encourage them to consider how to approach drawing a range of objects, including those that are man-made and natural. As examples, they may draw an object with a decorative surface, a three-dimensional object with few surface qualities, or a flat object with a rough, textured surface as well as exploring multi-viewpoint compositions and positive and negative space. 

 

 

 

Russian Curriculum 

 

Message from the Russian Primary Teacher (Ms. Marina Shuraeva) 

 

Добрый день, уважаемые родители! 

Вот и подходит к концу второй учебный месяц в школе. Одним из самых ярких событий этой недели стал «День испанской культуры». В этот понедельник все дети были очень яркие, красивые и даже успели попробовать традиционное блюдо "тако" на обед. Маракасы, кастаньеты и широкополые сомбреро, вот что стало антуражем для наших учеников на этой неделе. Однако, мне как учителю, приятно отметить, что восторг в глазах детей вызывают не только яркие костюмы, но и собственные успехи в учебе, в частности, по российской программе. 

В течение сентября для учеников Y3 (1 класс) проходил адаптационный период. На уроках обучения грамоте ребята наблюдали за особенностями устной и письменной речи. Составляли схемы простых предложений. Придумывали предложения с опорой на рисунки и схемы. И уже на этой неделе писали свои первые рукописные предложения и абсолютно каждый из ребят написал успешно! Это наша общая победа. Привычный шаг для человечества, но огромный для маленького человека. Мы читаем слоги и слова, а еще юными первооткрывателями успешно покоряются звуковые схемы и схемы предложений, наклонные, повороты и крючки. Мы сравниваем фигуры, группируем их, расставляем в нужном порядке, знаем сложение и вычитание, разницу и взаимосвязь между ними. А теперь все это начинаем делать еще и с цифрами. 

В то же время, наши, уже бывалые и отважные путешественники - Y5 (3 класс) сражаются с безударными гласными, бороздят лексические значения, ориентируясь в синонимах, антонимах и даже омонимах. Мы работаем с текстами, составляем планы и анализируем поэтические произведения. И даже собираем досье на знаменитых писателей! А по математике наши ребята уже стали настоящими экспертами в работе с множествами и подмножествами, а также с их элементами. На этой неделе учащиеся так же познакомились с новым видом задач "на приведение к единице", так что, если вам нужно узнать "сколько ткани нужно использовать для пошива 15 школьных форм, если на пошив 5 форм уходит 15 метров ткани" - милости просим в Y5 ( 3 класс). 

Мы налаживаем учебный процесс. Очень приятно видеть, как учащиеся CIS с каждым днем становятся взрослее, серьезнее и отвественнее. У нас всё получится, вместе! 

 

 

Message from the Head of School (Mr. Daniel Brace) 

At the end of yet another fantastic week in Gorki we find ourselves rapidly approaching the end of term assessments and progress report deadline. These will be completed by the 28th October ready for parents to access, through Edupage, over the end of term break.  

It is important to recognise the amazing impact staff, that are unfortunately moving on, have had on their classes as well as taking the time to welcome our newest team members. All impacted classes will be notified as usual and we hope you will make the staff feel at home.  

I would like to say a big thank you to all the students, staff and parents that regularly make every effort to be in school, on time, fully equipped and ready for an academic day. There are, however, a few that are causing some concern with their lack of punctuality and/or readiness for the day.  

May I take this time to remind parents that the signed Educational Agreement clearly sets out all expectations on the school and of the students not least of all is drop of and pick up of students in accordance with school timings (3.1.10), There are also clear obligations to ensure that school is informed of any absence (3.1.8), all students are to wear proper school uniform (6.9), students are required to attend all lessons in full (6.17) and if a student needs to be absent permission must be sought in writing (6.18). 

To assist us in creating a ‘safe and productive’ environment, (part of our core values) we will be looking to improve our entry and exit procedures at school so please bear with us when we bring these into effect from next term. In particular we will focus on students leaving the campus during the school day.  

Please try to support your children’s education by not taking them out of school unless there is a real emergency or significant issue. Every lesson missed impacts student's progress, and ultimately their attainment. We have systems in place within the school to support, nurture and care for students that might need such – they do not need to leave because of incidents in school nor should they be contacting home to request such. 

From the 6th November we would like to put a more robust system in place ensuring students are more easily accounted for and to help us identify significant patterns of absence. As such please be aware that parents will be required to email the school reception requesting time off for their children with a stated reason. A pass will then be issued by reception to allow the student (s) to leave – without this pass our security team will not allow the student to leave unless the parent is physically present. This process requires several hours to enact so please do so first thing in the morning, for an afternoon time, or the day before for other times. It will be very difficult to release any student at short notice without a parent reporting to reception. 

We hope you understand that this is in the student's best interest and is not designed to cause unnecessary frustration or delay, rather to ensure that we are doing the ‘best by each student’. 

 

Key Dates 

17th October – Spanish cultural day (21st – concert) 

19th October – Gor v Sko football  

27th October – Autumn festival, opportunity for students to ‘dress up’ 

28th October – Parent & Relatives Day 

28th October – Progress reports ready 

6th November – Welcome back to school – the new exit/entry procedures will be in place 

November – Our FIRST school excursions this school year – more details will follow 

 

Primary 

 

Message from the Head of Primary (Mr. Paul Curry) 

Hello parents!   

Our House System is really starting to grip the interest of our students across both buildings.  Event 2 ended this week, with many weird and wonderful inventions in the challenge centred on our monthly value of ‘innovation’, titled ‘I Want to Change the World!’.  These events challenge our students to use different skills in order to gain the most points in helping their house to be the best – healthy competition, independent and collaborative skills development, and enhanced creativity are all positively encouraged throughout all classes.  Next week, Event 3 will be a photography-based challenge, and one that parents can be actively involved with – Mr Joshua (Reception teacher) will send full details. 

We are planning our first excursion of the year, to take place in November (after the vacation).  Excursions are a valuable way to take children away from the traditional classroom/school-based setting, and experience a hands-on or real-life approach to education.  Once we have finalised our location and planned activities, we will inform you all, but a pleasing mix of interesting learning opportunities, active participation, and a lot of fun is the idea! 

The autumnal colours of the trees in and around our campus are beautiful and – for me – this is always the most naturally visually striking time of the year.  However, the falling leaves on the ground also remind us that winter is just around the corner, and the need for appropriate clothing is becoming a necessity – we don’t want out children coming down with weather-based ailments.  Wrap them up warm! 

Have a lovely weekend! 

 

Message from the Year 5 teacher (Ms. Fiona Hodson) 

My name is Ms Fiona, and I am the new year 5 teacher. I have been in Russia for 5 years and have taught mainly Year 4 and 5 in the Cambridge curriculum for English, Math and Science. Before coming to Moscow, I had a teaching post in South Korea, working at various Elementary schools. I am from Cape Town, South Africa, a beautiful coastal city on the Southern tip of the African continent. Our educational heritage is British. Long ago, many top-class schools were established that are still in existence today - schools like Bishops, St Andrews, Michael House and the like.  There is a rich history of excellent education in my home country, which I am enjoying transferring to Russia and CIS Gorki! 

This week I am spending time getting to know the students, and them to get to know me. I’m happy to say that they are a lovely group of children and we are looking forward to a productive year ahead. 

In Maths we completed rounding decimal numbers, triangles and symmetry.  In English we practised writing, the simple present tense and a task about our solar system.  In Science we planted seeds to grow plants and discuss the anatomy and life cycle of flowering plants. 

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to message me on EduPage. 

Many thanks – Ms Fiona. 

 

Secondary 

Message from the Head of Secondary (Mr. Christopher Kingshott)  

Dear Parents and Guardians, 

I hope that you are all well.  

At Secondary we have been studying the relationships between completing homework tasks with full effort, and attainment scores. My year 9 Mathematics is a good example of this, as I can track the students time spent on homework. The individual who spent the most time studying at home, also received the highest grade in their most recent assessment. If you truly put effort into something, your chances of success become increasingly likely. Whilst a small percentage may succeed without effort, most will not reach what they are truly capable of. At our school, we want to inspire children to take control of their learning and do the right things to achieve the best possible results.  Next Monday, we have Spanish day, which I am thoroughly looking forward too, along with a small Spanish concert on Friday. For Monday, students can wear red and yellow colours and/or traditional Spanish and Latin American costumes. I hope you all have a great weekend.  

 

 

Message from the English teacher and Year 10 form tutor (Mr. Christopher Riordan) 

Dear CIS Community,  

My name is Chris Riordan. I’ve been living and teaching English in Russia for over 10 years, but this is my first at CIS Gorki. I must say it’s been an amazing experience so far. I’ve been so impressed with the level of English that is spoken here and the talent of the children I teach English to in secondary school.  

 While English as a Second Language focuses on building a foundation and improving the level of communication, years 7 – 11 are focusing on improving their reading and writing skills above all else.  

Year 7 has been involved in analysing elements of various fiction genres. They’ve already written several short stories featuring elements of fantasy, sci-fi and fairy tales. They are now delving into horror, soon to be followed by a deeper look into non-fiction. We’ve got some excellent creative writers there.  

Year 9 has also been improving their skills transferring thoughts and ideas into words on the page. The latest topic has been dealing with using dialogue effectively to enhance their creative writing. I’ve been very impressed with the effort given forth.  

Year 10 has been taking a closer look at various types of texts (narrative, descriptive, argumentative, persuasive, etc.). We have some excellent writers in this class and it’s been a joy building rapport with them. They have recently written a persuasive text, trying to convince readers of something they should try or a change they ought to make.  

Year 10 also has an upcoming assembly on the Day of the Dead. They have done a really good job of putting together an interesting, informative and interactive event for Secondary to join. They not only have an educational presentation that highlights this tradition in Mexican culture, but a version of the classic game-show Jeopardy, testing what the audience learned.  

Year 11 has been working on responses to summary questions, transcript writing and proper letter writing. Recently, they “interviewed” Harry Potter and Voldemort to make a Q & A transcript. Knowing this is their last year here, makes me a bit sad as we always have interesting discussions and debates.  

Coming to this school has greatly improved the joy in my day-to-day life and has provided a boon to my sense of purpose. The students have been fantastic to work with and I look forward to continuing our English journey together.  

 

Russian Curriculum 

 

Message from the Russian and Literature teacher (Ms. Elena Silnikova) 

Здравствуйте, уважаемые родители!  

 

Подходит к завершению первый учебный период в школе. Время пролетает быстро и продуктивно. Что же успели освоить наши ученики за это время? Y7 (5 класс) – это переходный класс, ученики повторяют материал, освоенный в начальной школе и знакомятся со следующей ступенью. Закрепляют знания по морфемике, морфологии и орфографии, а именно: вспоминают, как разбирать слово по составу, повторяют грамматические признаки частей речи, практикуют правильное написание слов. Учащиеся подробнее вникают в тонкости синтаксиса, пунктуации и культуры речи. Ученики пробуют свои силы в написании подробного изложения, в сочинении – описание картины и других творческих работах. Все это помогает создать базу для дальнейшего освоения русского языка для устойчивого формирования системы мышления. В Y8 (6 класс) мы уделяем много внимания значению слов (лексикологии), тексту, умению оформить мысль красиво (фразеологии и культуре речи).  

 

На уроках литературы и Y7 (5класс), и Y8 (6 класс) с начала учебного года узнали больше о русском фольклоре, заглянули в волшебный мир славянской мифологии, пробовали писать свои сказки и рисовать иллюстрации к ним. Ученики расширяют свой кругозор, проявляя заинтересованность в поиске новых произведений. Великие русские классики А.А.Фет, А.С.Пушкин, Ф.И.Тютчев, М.Ю.Лермонтов щедро делятся с учениками описанием ярких, красочных, печальных картин осени, что вдохновляет детей на написание творческих работ! Сочинения становятся самостоятельнее и интереснее с каждым годом.  

 

Важно помнить, что дети приходят в школу, чтобы учиться, умение анализировать свои недочеты и ошибки – это часть учебного процесса. И если сегодня получилось не так, как хотелось, то это повод, чтобы продолжить работать в данном направлении, но не повод расстраиваться и опускать руки! Системный и каждодневный труд обязательно имеет положительный результат! «Нужно любить то, что делаешь, и тогда труд – даже самый грубый – возвышается до творчества.» - писал Максим Горький. 

 

Message from the Head of School (Mr. Daniel Brace) 

What a week! We have experienced the inter house debate competition with themes ranging from “social media makes us less social” to “Giving is better than receiving”. I must thank all of the students that took part, it was a fantastic event with some incredible energy and support from the onlookers. Tchaikovsky took the title but with strong performances from the rest I am not sure they will hold the title for long? Space week has also been a focus for learning this week with some amazing coding in computer science, fantastic design and research in Primary as well as some incredible art works in lower primary. The culmination is our joint assembly today featuring our very own ‘Mars Rover”. It promises to be a magnificent event - I hope the pictures do it justice. A huge thank you to Mr Cooper and Mr Curry for organising the events and to all the staff supporting, this will be the first of many special events and we can’t do them without you.  

There are also a number of changes occurring around school to continue our drive to improve the learning experience and environment for students throughout the year. This will see some staff changes (those classes will be notified of the changes as they happen). The school is getting greener with more plants, trees & flowers around to soften the environment and there are moves planned for the library and sports equipment to improve student activity during their non-contact times.  

I would like to thank all the parents and students that made our “Teachers Day” so special on Wednesday and those that managed to join me for coffee that morning. School councils have been busy and there will be changes to the canteen and some exciting news on trips / excursions soon. We wish you a fantastic weekend and look forward to seeing you back on Monday, on-time and in the correct uniform (with water bottles). Thank you. 

NB – the science day presentations were absolutely fantastic – a huge well done to all the students that presented or helped with the presentations you did yourselves, and us, proud. Thank you. 

 

Key Dates 

Space day – 7th October 

Inter campus football tournament – 19th October (postponed from 5th due to weather) 

Autumn festival - 27th & 28th October 

Last day of term 1 – 28th October 

 

Primary 

Message from the Head of Primary (Mr. Paul Curry) 

 

This week we have enjoyed our first ‘special’ week of the term – International Space Week.  During the week, all classes took part in a number of different activities designed to educate and entertain in equal measure, all centred on discovering more about planets, the sun and the moon, and all other celestial bodies that float above us in the night sky.  Presentations to other classes took place in special Friday assemblies, and everyone has a very enjoyable week! 

I have had the pleasure of spending a lot of time with Year 5 this week, teaching English and indulging in interesting conversations with many of the students.  What I have really enjoyed is seeing the enthusiasm and friendliness between students, and I know this is being reflected all around the school and in every lesson.  Our young people enjoy coming to CIS Gorki, and there really is nothing better than motivated, happy students doing their very best. 

I have also been communicating with many parents, usually sending home messages of congratulation for the good work from their son or daughter, and occasionally to highlight a current area of weakness that a student should focus upon.  We like to be as transparent as possible with everything in and around school, and we always welcome your feedback.  On that note, the first termly reports of the year will be with parents soon, and this will give more precise information on early academic performance. 

Have a great weekend and wrap up warm as winter edges nearer! 

 

Message from the Year 2 classroom teacher (Mr Peter Reynolds) 

Dear all parents,   

The students have had a busy week this week. In Mathematics we have been learning about number squares and partitioning of numbers. In English we have been learning about stories, in particular, about the Chen family and their power cuts. In science we have been looking at the topic of habitats, we investigated the difference between a habitat and the environment. This linked well with the topic in English about the use of energy when speaking about the environment.   

Overall, it has been a positive start to the new term for Year 2. They have settled well into class and they are beginning to get to grips with the workload placed on them. They have begun to develop the necessary 21st century skills of communication and collaboration when working in class with each other. They have all demonstrated that they are enjoying school and learning every day.   

Warm regards,  

Mr Peter   

Year 2 Teacher 

 

Secondary 

 

Message from the Head of Secondary (Mr. Christopher Kingshott)  

Dear Parents, Guardians and Students,  What a fun week we have had. 

Throughout the school several events have been taking place.  

The first main event was our debating competition where houses competed against each other in structured debates. I have just been a judge for the final, where Pushkin house and Tchaikovsky house debated whether giving is better than receiving. By a narrow margin Tchaikovsky was victorious. Congratulations to them! 

Friday was our international space day, with exciting events going on across the school that the students had prepared. Thank you very much to all those that put in so much work to make the events a success.  I wish you all a wonderful weekend.   

 

Message from the P.E. Teacher and Year 8 Form Tutor (Marius Harmse) 

We started this year with a bang in PE. 

Year 5 to year 9 did their first of two-bleep tests for this year. Some students reached a very high level and in year 9 one student even reached level 15.5!  

The primary and secondary classes started their year with some gymnastics. They learned how to do rolls, front flips, wall stands, cartwheels and in-flight motions. Primary also started to learn how to dribble a basketball and we will focus more on that for the second part of term 1 

Term 1 will also see the year 7 to 11 take part in their very first football match against the Skolkovo campus. The teams are almost ready and we look forward to make this a regular event. Hopefully this will be the start, where CIS Gorki can participate in sporting events and competitions against other schools and campuses.  

With only three weeks left of term one, students can start to look forward to a well-deserved break.  

 

Russian Curriculum 

Message from the Learning Assistant Y2 (Ms. Marina Yakunicheva) 

 

Рада приветствовать вас, уважаемые родители, ученики, коллеги! 

Как же насыщенно и весело проходят дни учёбы в школе! Ребята успевают учиться, общаться, играть со сверстниками, гулять и веселиться. 

На одном из уроков развития речи ребята Year 2 отправились в Математическую страну. Жители этой страны приготовили для них разные задания. Путешествие было далеким и трудным, но наши смелые и сообразительные математики справились со всеми заданиями. Мы отгадали загадки про числа, повторили понятия десяток и нумерацию до 20, посчитали примеры с помощью счетных палочек.  

На остальных уроках ребята из Year 2 также занимаются правописанием букв, чтением слогов и слов, продолжают работать над вниманием и зрительной памятью. С каждым днём мы узнаём больше новых слов, определений, терминов. Иногда нам бывает трудно, но большинство справляется с учебной задачей. От этого очень радостно всем участникам процесса. Ведь всегда приятно когда ты или твой одноклассник справился и, конечно, получать похвалу от учителя на уроке.  

Message from the Head of School (Mr. Daniel Brace) 

 

A slightly wetter and windier week here at Gorky campus but there were still many opportunities for some excellent learning throughout the school, from ICT using models to Science “Cellular cakes” it has been very productive. 

Mr Marius has been hard at work preparing the school football teams for our first ever inter-campus tournament, we are looking pretty good so far just don’t tell Skolkovo. Ms Amanda is also getting busy with preparations for our ‘Winter concert” event at the end of December, first call for auditions went out this week.  

Thank you to those parents that attended the coffee morning on the 28th it was lovely to see you and to hear your suggestions. There will be some changes in upper primary next week which are being taken to reflect suggestions and improvements that we can facilitate throughout the year groups. We are sorry to say that we have to say goodbye to one of our teachers already due to personal issues – we wish them all the best and will be contacting the year group directly to introduce the new teacher replacing them. 

I wish you all the best for the weekend and look forward to seeing many of you next week or in the upcoming “parent teacher consultations”. 

 

Key Dates 

 

Wednesday October 5th – “Heads up” coffee morning 0900 - 1000 

Wednesday October 5th - Teachers' appreciation day 

Friday 7th October – International Space Day 

 

Primary:

 

Message from the Head of Primary (Mr. Paul Curry) 

 

We have reached the halfway point of Term 1 – the longest term of the year, but also for many reasons the most important, as students, teachers and indeed parents all get used to being back in school and forging new routines and relationships.  I have been delighted with the positive vibes I get from walking around both buildings and diving into lessons that are full of variety and enthusiasm.  I’ve taught a few lessons of English myself this week, and there really is nothing better than engaging with our students in educationally exciting topics, such as writing fantasy stories with Year 5. 

We start our Monthly Value 2 from Monday, which is ‘Innovation’.  For the first month of the year, we were focused on ‘ambition’, with students setting out on the long year ahead with hopefully ambitious ideas of what they want to achieve both in and out of school.  One way of showing ambition is to be innovative, and I look forward to seeing our young people displaying and developing their innovative skills across many lessons. 

Next week, we will have our second Primary House Event, linked with ‘innovation’.  The challenge will be to create a new invention that will change the world!  Credit will be given to imagination and unique ideas – no flying cars and no robot helpers because that’s what everyone usually comes up with!!  In House Event 1, Tchaikovsky enjoyed the greatest success and claimed the 4 points across school, with Pushkin second, Yashin third, and Gagarin fourth.  Better luck to Gagarin next week! 

Finally, most of our students are wearing their uniforms with pride on a daily basis, but I am still seeing too many trainers (especially of non-dark colours) being worn by older children.  Black or brown smart shoes is what we expect – our school looks great, so we want our children to look just as great too! 

I wish you all a lovely Autumnal weekend! 

 

Message from the Year 6 Teacher (Ms. Marna Greyling) 

 

After the first month in Year 6 it seems that the children are starting to settle down. They are starting to get used to the new environment and to their new teacher. The academic standards in Year 6 are high due to the fact that they will be writing the Primary Progression Tests at the end of the year. We have nine months to prepare them for these tests, and for Secondary School.   

We started to use 20 minutes in the beginning of each day with D.E.A.R. time – Drop.Everything.And.Read. Although the children didn’t like it at the beginning, I can see a remarkable improvement in their reading skills. Well done everyone!   

During our English lessons we started to read the exciting book “Friend or Foe” by Michael Morpurgo. This is the delightful story of the adventures of two boys during WW2. I place a lot of emphasis on Spelling and Grammar as the children need to read and write well in order to excel in the Cambridge system. Therefor we will be writing a Spelling Test every Friday, and will complete many written tasks. During our Grammar lessons we are currently focusing on Punctuation and Past Tense. We write a lot, and we are slowly upgrading from pencil to pen.   

Although the Math is more difficult than it was last year, in reality it is merely an extension of the work covered in Year 5. Having said that, all the children love Math and some of them show a real talent for the subject.    

Science in Year 6 is an exciting journey where we will explore the Human Body, Electricity, Light, Magnetism and many other interesting topics. I will incorporate as many practical sessions as possible – I agree with the children that Science is the best subject in school! During this week we downloaded a Cellphone App to measure our Heartbeats, and the excitement ran high as we saw how fast our hearts were beating after jumping up and down for 2 minutes.  

I believe that school offers so much more that academics. School shapes children’s personalities in a way that no amount of homeschooling or tutoring can achieve. School is the platform where they learn how to interact with peers, how to accept norms, and how to be tolerant to members of all groups. I love to see how my Year 6’s formed friendships in class as well as on the playground. They are beginning to show empathy towards others, and I watch with amazement how they develop into the socially responsible persons they are meant to be. 

 

 

Secondary:

  

Message from the Head of Secondary (Mr. Christopher Kingshott)  

 

Dear Parents, Guardians and Students 

I hope that you are all well,   Walking around the school, it has been great to see our walls in the classrooms and corridors of Secondary school taking shape. Teachers and students have been working tirelessly to make sure that the best of what our children have produced is displayed for everyone to see. It also helps makes our school environment a pleasant place to be. Some photos are attached. 

I have been teaching some Mathematics this year to Year 8 and Year 9, and I just want to say what a pleasure it is to teach them, and I really commend them in terms of their eagerness to learn and overcome and solve problems. With the general dedication that they are showing currently, they can do anything.  I wish you all a pleasant weekend. 

 

Message from the Humanities and Science Teacher (Mr. Bradley Parker) 

 

This week in class:  

Global perspectives year 10 we are exploring culture. How do we define this word? What is culture? Is it the food we eat, the music we listen to? How about the clothes we wear? In short, YES it is all of those things. We will explore what this word means in detail and various types of culture. What does it mean to be Russian? Or Canadian? Do we have cultural differences? In this class we will dive into these topics and find out. 

• Year 11: We will be finishing our religion studies and presenting our findings with our slide presentations. So far the work I have seen has been nothing short of brilliant! After that we will be moving onto the subject of Power, Authority, & Governance. What is the difference between these three positions? Would a teacher be in a governance position? Perhaps one of authority? This class will break down what all three of these roles mean and how they fit into the world around us. We will finish this unit with a Ted-talk, looking forward to learning from my students! 

In all science classes we will be preparing for international space day on October 7th. 

Year 7- Posters and clay models on celestial objects. With a special presentation on the Parker Solar Probe. 

Year 8- 3D map of the surface of Mars with a fully operational Mars Rover, additional posters and slides on Space-X. 

Year 9- Two slide presentations. The first will be on the “Dear-moon project”...... What is it? You will find out! The second will be on the future of space travel, the space-X “starship and falcon 9 heavy rocket”.... These vehicles will be the future of mankind and you will have an opportunity to get an inside look and learn all about them in this presentation. 

I am excited to show off all the amazing work my classes have been doing. I hope everyone has a great week! 

#ITTAKESALLOFUS 

 

Russian Curriculum:

Message from the Primary Russian Curriculum teacher (Ms.Alyona Sherbakova) 

 

Осень глазами учащихся Y4 (2 класса) 

Здравствуйте, уважаемые родители! 

Много образовательных событий и открытий происходит в школьной жизни наших учеников , и в математике и в литературе, но сегодня особенно хочется поделиться успехами и талантом наших учащихся в русском языке.  

На минувшей неделе у учеников Y4 случилась проба пера, учились писать сочинение по картине. Прорабатывали литературные приемы, продумывали как исключить повторение и подобрать синонимы, обсуждали, что можно написать о полотнах художников, которые так трепетно и реалистично преподнесли своё видение осеннего мира природы.  

Описывать творения живописцев, несомненно, всегда сложно, а особенно юному писателю, но результат превзошел все ожидания. Ребята составляли текст-описание по холсту Ильи Семёновича Остроухова «Золотая осень», а также  составляли свободный текст об осенней природе.  

Искренность созданных учениками строк вдохновляет, ниже представлены цитаты из детских работ, отрывки о «Золотой осени» И.С. Остроухова: 

     «У нас перед глазами золотой, изумрудный, рубиновый, шоколадный листопад. Листья мягкие и теплые, как ковёр с длинным ворсом.» 

     «У меня было предчувствие, что я попаду в рай, так спокойно и тихо в золотом осеннем лесу.» 

      «Стоит дуб. Какие на нём драгоценные листья: золотые, жёлтые, зелёные, коричневые. Сороки идут по дорожке и болтают.» 

      «Позади тропинки стоят сиротливые дубы. Они почернели от дождей и ветров. На переднем плане, усыпанный листьями, стоит высокий клён. Он склонил свои ветви, потому что на них много золота. А оно же тяжёлое.» 

      «Передо мной картина И.С. Остроухова «Золотая осень». На картине изображена осень. На лесной поляне стоят ярко-жёлтые деревья. Разноцветный ковёр из сухих листьев. На поляне царит тишина. Только белобокие сороки тараторят на дороге. Мне понравилось на этой картине то, что там очень много разноцветных красок и красиво всё показано.» 

       «На картине я вижу призрака, он смотрит на меня, он чёрный, ой, мне страшно!» — это о могучих богатырях-дубах)   

     А вот и свободные тексты, с личными впечатлениями. Все мы видим осень по-разному, по-своему. Вот несколько авторских, интересных вариантов детей : 

    «Осень – ужасное времяпрепровождение. Кататься на скейте невозможно, перила и бордюры мокрые, как и дороги. Всё завалено листьями. Скейт-парки все мокрые. Все болеют.» 

     «Чем сильней ветер, тем больше резных листочков опускаются нам на плечи, дружелюбно обнимая нас.» 

Сегодня поделилась драгоценным опытом наших детей. Надеюсь вы впечатлены. Этот месяц выдался по-настоящему осенний и у нас получилось прочувствовать и описать осень во всей её красе. Планов до конца первой четверти у нас много: попробовать на зубок тексты-рассуждения , описывать события, опираясь на факты, учитывая все детали и понемногу изучать эпистолярный жанр (письменный способ общения на расстоянии). 

Хотелось бы пожелать вам хороших выходных и завершить письмо строками стихотворения Фёдора Ивановича Тютчева: 

«Есть в осени первоначальной 

Короткая, но дивная пора – 

Весь день стоит как бы хрустальный, 

И лучезарны вечера… .»