School News

From Primary School:

Information letter from Mr. Paul, Head of Primary School

Dear parents and students,

A belated welcome back to Term 4!  

Last week, we hosted another special event in the Lower Building - a celebration of International Women's Day.  It was great to see many mums join us for a couple of hours of fun activities, and enjoy being part of our growing community.  We will continue to aim to have more events like this where parents and children are together in our school for part of a day.

Looking ahead, next Friday afternoon (April 1) we will be having our annual Gorki's Got Talent show.  Many of our students are already rehearsing for this - singers, dancers, gymnasts, magicians, sporting exhibitions, and who knows what else?!  If your son or daughter is performing, you are welcome to join us on this day and watch the show!  More details a little closer to the time...

Mr. Paul Curry
Head of Primary

Just the one update from teachers this week - Year 6 and Ms Stacey:

Welcome back to school everyone! 

What a great start Year 6 have had to the term. It has been great to see all of their smiling faces and eagerness to learn. We have some very excited members of the class, who are enthusiastic about taking part in our upcoming talent show.

This term in English, we have begun our investigation into different views about topics. We are reading and summarising information. Also, we are making comparisons and will be discussing a range of controversial issues. We are going to be developing and expressing our opinions further and take part in mini debates. In Science, we will be reviewing our understanding of electricity and in Maths furthering our knowledge of translation, rotation and reflections. 

We have a very busy term ahead of us! Thank you for your continued support.

 

Regards

Miss Stacey (Year 6 Teacher)

Well, the sun is shining, and temperatures are rising, so let's hope Winter is behind us, and Spring has sprung!

Have a pleasant week,

 

From Secondary School:

Information letter from Mr Christopher, Head of Secondary School

Dear Parents and Guardians,

I hope you are all well and are enjoying the increase in temperature. 

We released our most recent reports for your child during the holiday period. On the back of these, we will be having our Parent, Teacher, Student conferences next week so that you can discuss your child's progress. We will be sending out information about these conferences in the next couple of days.

Our year 10's and 11's recently went on a school trip to the Moscow City museum and VR experience. A great time was had by all, learning about the detailed history of Moscow city and the effort that went into constructing such an architectural project.

Despite the current circumstances in the world today, we continue to operate as a school confidently. However, we do understand the concerns some may have, and as always, I am happy to meet with and answer anybody's queries.

I hope that you all have a lovely week.

Christopher Kingshott

Head of Secondary

 

Message from Mr. William (Mathematics Teacher and Year 10 Form Tutor)
 

Dear CIS Community.

After a hopefully relaxing and enjoyable holiday, we started our fourth term with CIS.

Year 7 have now started Chapter 6 on Presenting Data, and we will be working on frequency tables, surveys and questionnaires. 

Year 8 are in the middle of Chapter 6 on Statistics, and we have been working on frequency tables, surveys and the advantages and disadvantages between questionnaires and interviews. 

Year 9 are in the middle of Chapter 7 on "Rounding, Multiplying and Dividing", where we looked at Scientific Notation which deals with huge and tiny numbers, which allowed us to look at the scale of objects in the universe ranging from the very small to the very large. We showed them a fascinating simulation showing minor things in the universe to the most considerable things.

Year 10 are working through finishing their Unit 2 and will be doing a test at the end of the week. Next week, they will be going on to do Geometry. Homework will mostly be Cambridge exam-type questions, so students get used to the questions they will see in their exams.

Year 11 are working through Cambridge Exam past papers in preparation for their IGCSE exams, and they are going through about 3 of them per week. We are also studying Probability & Statistics in between doing past papers. Next week, we will also be compiling a portfolio of evidence for each student, which will consist of completed exam papers.

Study materials for all classes are regularly uploaded to Edupage to help students with their studies.

During my lessons, I like to show the uses of Mathematics in real life, and we complete Mathematics Kahoots so I can see how students are with the lesson content.

The school recently purchased a class set of Casio scientific calculators for students to use during the lesson. I would encourage each student to have a Casio scientific calculator at home to get to know the functions of the calculator and use them with confidence. 

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact me anytime via Edupage.

Take care and stay safe.

Kind regards,

Mr McQueen (Mathematics Teacher and Year 10 Form Tutor)

 

Message from the Russian Curriculum Teachers

 

 Январь и февраль для обучающихся, осваивающих российскую образовательную программу, стал очередным этапом подведения итогов. Вся работа была нацелена на подготовку и выполнение модульных аттестационных работ в Year 7, Year 8, Year 9,

Year 10, Year 11. Сейчас мы ждём оценок и надеемся на успешные результаты.

Наиболее сложным этот период стал для Year 11, кроме выполнения модульных аттестационных работ и кембриджских пробных экзаменов, им предстояло получить допуск к ГИА за курс основной школы. Допуском к государственным экзаменам является успешное прохождение собеседования, проверяющее по ФГОС развитие устной речи и уровень коммуникативной компетенции. Собеседование состоит из 4 заданий: выразительного чтения предложенного текста, его пересказа с использованием небольшого дополнительного материала, небольшого монолога по одной из предложенных тем и диалога с экзаменатором по выбранной теме. Наши ребята успешно прошли это испытание. Получили «зачёт» и были допущены до итоговой аттестации. Далее нам предстоит подготовиться и 15 июня так же успешно сдать ОГЭ по русскому языку. ОГЭ по русскому языку состоит из изложения, тестовых заданий, проверяющих знания русского языка за курс 5-9 классов, и сочинения. Продолжительность экзамена 3 часа 55 минут. Итоговая отметка по русскому языку в аттестат будет выставлена с учётом годовой и экзаменационной. Будем готовиться.

На уроках литературы ученики 5 класса знакомятся с произведениями русских классиков: Л.Н. Толстого, А.С. Пушкина, М.Ю. Лермонтова, Н.А. Некрасова, И.С. Тургенева и пр. Хочется отметить, что изучение литературы влечет за собой разбор исторических событий, в контексте которых были написаны данные произведения. Дети учились выстраивать дискуссии, обсуждения и споры на предмет таких нравственных понятий, как благородство, честь, отвага, верность. Разбирая художественные произведения 19 века, учеников живо заинтересовала тема крепостного права, бесправия, подавления воли людей. Безусловно, ученикам интереснее работать над темами, которые им хочется исследовать. Как результат, сочинения, эссе и изложения по 19 веку получились очень эмоциональные и наполненные неожиданными выводами! Следовательно, эти знания помогут нашим ученикам мыслить и выражать свои рассуждения открыто!

В феврале же в классах на уроках литературы и на классных часах начался серьёзный разговор о роли чтения в развитии личности. Трудно переоценить в этом процессе роль чтения, благодаря ему у нас развивается мышление, воображение, память, речь, и чем раньше мы станем это понимать, тем успешнее будет наша жизнь. Именно это мы и хотели донести до наших учеников. Пробудить интерес к чтению мы попытались, опираясь на тех, кто любит читать, кого мы часто видим с книгой и в школьной библиотеке, и в перерывах между уроками. Да, есть у нас в школе такие ребята! К ним-то мы и обратились с просьбой рассказать в презентации об интересной книге и представить её в классах. Откликнулись многие, и не только дети, но и учителя. Самыми активными были ребята из Year 7, они вместе с Мс Еленой посетили классные часы в нескольких классах, рассказывали о прочитанных книгах увлечённо как на русском, так и на английском языках. Рассказали об интересных книгах мисс Елена, учитель русского языка и литературы, мистер Алексей, учитель искусства.

У старшеклассников наибольший интерес вызвала повесть Анатолия Алексина «Безумная Евдокия», в которой на фоне советской школы 20 века поднимаются проблемы, возникающие в отношениях между людьми во все времена. Пусть школьники сейчас не носят пионерские галстуки и не играют в «Зарницу», но проблемы отношений родителей и детей, родителей и учителей, детей и учителей возникают и сейчас. И нам необходимо научиться решать их, анализируя своё поведение, вырабатывая правильную позицию. Именно этому и учит повесть Анатолия Алексина. Думаю, именно поэтому и захотелось старшеклассникам прочитать её. Так интересно и увлекательно и читать произведения, и делиться своими эмоциями!

 

Мс Вера Николаевна – учитель русского языка и литературы

Мс Елена – учитель русского языка и литературы

From Primary School:

Information letter from Mr. Paul, Head of Primary School

Dear parents and students,

I have really enjoyed being outside during breaktimes this week to listen to students communicating socially in English.  Lots of children were very excited about being rewarded with a small prize for impressing me with their use of spoken English - there were so many winners that I had to go back to the shops on Wednesday for more prizes!  The enthusiasm to impress was lovely to see, but I did remind them that I will bankrupt myself if I do this every day - next week I still want to see that enthusiasm and hear that social English use but because they truly want to rather than for a owl-shaped pencil sharpener.  

This week we began our initiative to improve attendance and the importance of all lessons each week called 'Every Day Counts'.  Just think...if you miss just one week of school, that is FORTY lessons of education lost.  Every day absolutely does count, and we will be promoting this in lots of different ways throughout the rest of the academic year.

Also this week, members of the Upper Primary School Council helped with Zoom interviews for prospective new staff members at CIS Gorki.  Ekaterina (Y3M), Konstantin (Y4M), Anastasia (Y5) and Stephaniya (Y6) asked excellent questions and conducted themselves extremely maturely and professionally, and the candidates both said they were incredibly impressed with our students.  Very well done to all four of them!

Mr. Paul Curry

Head of Primary
 

Now, here are some words from Mr Mat and his Year 3 class: 

Dear parents and guardians,

Deep into this third term, the students are hanging on and have been kept busy by constantly challenging themselves to learn more.

In English, the students have been learning about myths, legends and fables. They have finished writing their fables and they were proud to share it with their classmates. They will start learning about the features of letters and postcards. They will also look at the differences between scanning and reading carefully and understand when to use which method.

In Mathematics, the students had been rounding numbers to the nearest 10 or 100. They also counted money and became familiar with the pounds and the pence of the pound sterling. They are now learning how to divide by certain numbers to find remainders.

In Science, the students have finished the unit about human and animal senses and have now started a unit called, “Looking After Ourselves”. In this unit, the students will sort food into different food groups and discuss why healthy eating is important. The students will also learn how exercise and sleep can have an impact on our school.

In Global Perspectives, the students have been researching information about an animal on the internet. They have been learning how to take notes of the important information. 

 

Thanks 

Mr Mat

Year 3 Teacher

 

And what have out youngest students been up to?  Let's find out from Ms Anna in Pre-Nursery:

This term, in Pre-Nursery, we have been learning about different types of animals; ones that you might keep as a pet at home, have on a farm or find inside a forest. Next week, we should have lots of fun talking about all the animals you might see at the zoo!

We have all been enjoying reading our new books at storytime each day. The current favourites are ‘Dear Zoo’ and ‘Where’s Spot?’. We have also been learning some new nursery rhymes, with ‘Humpty Dumpty’ and ‘Horsey, Horsey’ being requested the most often! It has been so wonderful to see the children not only doing the gestures for the nursery rhymes but beginning to sing along as well, and then asking to do it again!

These past couple of weeks, we have been exploring ‘floating’ and ‘sinking’ in Understanding The World. The children especially enjoyed deciding which objects around the classroom to test out! Next, we should have lots of fun investigating the properties of various materials, with the words ‘hard and soft’, ‘rough and smooth’ etc.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! 

 

Ms Anna (Pre-nursery Teacher)

 

Finally, enjoy a few photographs of our Upper Primary students playing in the snow - an icy 'hill fort' and an ingenious 'ice laptop' - and also some of our Pre-Nursery students!

 

From Secondary School:

Information letter from Mr. Christopher, Head of Secondary School

Dear Parent, Guardians and Students,

I hope that you're all well.

Across Secondary, we have been busy this week.

Our Year 11's have finished their IGCSE and Russian Curriculum mock assessments, which have taken place over the last two weeks. Although a challenging experience, sometimes having taken multiple examinations in one day, the experience will continue to prepare them for the real-examinations later this year. We will share the results with them shortly and then work with them to help them achieve their best selves.

Congratulations to the 25 students in Key Stage 4 who completed the HULT International Business school Entrepreneurship course. We have now received the certificates and will give them out during our end of term assembly. Three young ladies of these students also won a scholarship and some free mentoring from the Harvard professor who facilitated the classes.

Our student council are aiming to reduce plastic wastage in school. To do this, they have removed plastic cups and are encouraging students to bring in their reusable water bottles. Ultimately, we want all to be globally-minded, helping take care of the environment. 

This week we have been finalising our next trips, and soon we will announce these to all of the students. I cannot wait.

I will you all a restful weekend.

Christopher Kingshott

Head of Secondary

 

Message from the ESL Department
 

Dear Parents, Students and Guardians,

Our ESL Department have been working really hard since the beginning of the school year. Our main goal is to improve the students’ level of English, letting them return to their classrooms as soon as possible and become very confident English speakers. Moreover, we are honoured and happy to announce that some of our ESL students have already come back to their classrooms and are making quite impressive progress at the moment. 

ESL teachers do their best to help those students who are temporarily struggling with the English language. We don’t want our lessons to be old-fashioned, we want our lessons to be informative, interacting and beneficial. That’s why we always try to find new modern ways of teaching our subject. At the moment our team is working on integrating some school subjects into ESL sessions, so that the students have an opportunity to understand the school material better.

This term, KS1 students have started to receive ESL lessons to their full potential. We started by assessing the student's English level and then created individually tailored learning maps that follow the Cambridge English framework based on those results. We are proud to mention that the student's listening skills are improving rapidly and they can now independently understand basic information in English. Nevertheless, a systematic approach yields the best results in language acquisition. That is why our lessons follow a logical sequence of vocabulary expansion and grammar constructions to help students with their oral communications. Already, the students have learnt how to ask questions, follow class instructions, communicate their feelings, and introduce themselves and their friends in English. More importantly, we encourage the students to use their critical thinking skills and apply their knowledge to analyse, infer, draw conclusions, express their opinions and give a personal response to texts. Students also practised phonics daily in order to become confident writers and fluent readers. Overall, we do our best to make sure that our ESL students are engaged during their lessons and are enjoying themselves learning English.

This term KS2 students are actively working on their speaking skills. Nevertheless, we do not forget to concentrate on listening, reading and writing skills. Every lesson has a well-defined structure, so each skill is worked on thoroughly. The students are aimed at becoming better English speakers and are keen on learning new things with their teachers. They are learning how to tell the time, talk about past events, fashion and weather. Besides, some of our ESL students are even capable of discussing soluble and insoluble substances. They also love English games that help them repeat the new information in an entertaining way. We also integrate Maths and Science into some of our ESL sessions and learn specific vocabulary that helps the students to be actively engaged during the lessons with their form teachers.

Y8 ESL students have been working very hard. This term has brought many new language challenges and opportunities. Tenses are used in communication, both verbal and written, to indicate the time at which something happened. We have just finished practicing to talk about actions or events that happened at some unspecified time before now, and that have some effect or influence on the present.  English is the language of our international communication in all areas, such as politics, science, media or art and it is often the language of entertainment as well as socializing. So, this term we have discussed fashion, style and trade.  Also,the students have made their own investigation what is ethical trade nowadays, what are sweatshops and how popular brands are involved in this trade processes.

Year 9 ESL class has achieved writing-related goal this term! Unsurprisingly, the best writers in any class are always readers. In Year 9 class students read fiction stories and get them modelled with multiple opportunities to retell them before being expected to write them. How does it work? Imitation – Innovation – Invention! 1) Students orally recite the story. 2) Then, they map out the story. 3) Finally, they use the underlying structure of the original text to create their own version on a different topic. Over time, they move towards independent writing as they create texts about their own topics. This methodology is called ‘Talk for Writing’ which is working great to dramatically improve students’ writing. This approach has been highly effective in Year 9 as grammar objectives such as use of adjectives, sequencing words, question words, past simple tense revision, sentence structure etc. are always embedded in the modeled texts. Therefore, Year 9 students have improved their reading, speaking, listening and writing skills significantly!

Many thanks to our incredible students for their hard work! Have a lovely weekend!

 

Kind regards,

Ms Valerie, ESL Coordinator, KS2 ESL Teacher

Ms Valeriya, KS1 ESL Teacher

Ms Anastasia, KS3 ESL Teacher

Ms Tamara, KS3 ESL Teacher

From Primary School:

Information letter from Mr. Paul, Head of Primary School

Dear parents and students,

This week I have had the pleasure of visiting all Primary teachers' lessons to formally observe the teaching and learning as part of individual professional development, but also to closely and accurately assess the progress our school is making on many levels.  I have been really delighted with what I have witnessed - teachers planning and delivering interesting, varied and interactive lessons across a range of subjects and topics, and enthusiastic students enjoying a wide range of different tasks and activities.  Variety, as they say, is the spice of life, and that is absolutely the key in education too.  Students love a variety of things to do in their lessons, and our teachers certainly provide that.  It has been such a great experience!

The main language of communication in our school is English - the vast majority of our staff and students speak it to at a conversational level, and most of that majority are fluent.  We continue to make a real push to hear our students use English not only in their lessons but socially too, and we reward with praise those who we here in the lunch room, or in the corridors, or outside at breaktime.  Being immersed in a foreign language is easily the best way to learn it quick and with accuracy, so next week I am going to give spot prizes to students I hear using English around school - this has been relayed to them in assembly - so it would be great if you could encourage and remind your child at home that using English has rewards not just for life and the opportunities it can create, but also in a prize form next week!  

Mr. Paul Curry

Head of Primary
 

This week, our Reception class teacher Ms Kalyn would like to tell you all about what's been going in their classroom:

Dear parents and guardians,

It has been a very interesting term for Reception. We have embraced the snowy weather wholeheartedly, and have brought the topic into our classroom. This week we have specifically been learning about Polar animals. The children were very excited to learn about Penguins. We read a story called The Runaway Iceberg. We were very surprised to receive a letter from Rossi and Gaspar (the penguins we met in the story). We ready their letter and replied to it, pretending we were a different polar animal who could help them. It was very fun revealing maps for the penguins by painting paper with blue ice – we all had blue hands afterwards!

In Numeracy we have been learning about number bonds (pairs) to 5 and 10. We made a number rainbow to help us. We even learnt how to whisper count in 2s to 20!

It has been wonderful learning about polar animals and discovering where on the map they may live. Most children can now point out Antarctica on the map and understand why some animals live there, rather than in Moscow. They were interested in learning about protecting our oceans, so that the animals they have loved learning about are kept safe. 

Next week, we will have a surprise visitor in our class! There are many exciting activities ahead.  Miss Kalyn

Miss Kalyn

Reception Teacher and Phase Leader

 

Also, we have some information from the Russian curriculum classes in Year 4 and Year 5 from Mr Anatoliy:

Письмо Year 4 and Year 5. 

Здравствуйте уважаемые родители и учащиеся, настало время для подведения небольших итогов перед окончанием третьей четверти! На протяжении данного периода, дети демонстрировали вовлеченность в образовательный процесс, усердие при изучении нового материала и сознательность в решении возникающих трудностей. Как ученики Year 4, так и учащиеся Year 5 показали высокую мотивацию и интерес к учебе. 

На уроках русского языка мы продолжаем закреплять наши знания по темам: «части речи», «члены предложений», «типы предложений», «фонетический разбор слова», «состав слова» и многим другим. Навыки необходимые нам в этом: грамотное письмо, умение определять орфограмму и проверять ее, находить и обозначать главные и второстепенные члены предложения, задавать к ним вопросы. 

Уроки литературного чтения, всегда, вызывают неподдельный интерес учащихся. Мы изучаем творчество великих русских писателей: Л. Н Толстого, А. Н. Некрасова, И. А Бунина, Н. Н. Носова. На примере их биографий мы знакомимся с историей и бытом прошлого. Ребята учатся определять главную мысль текста, задавать вопросы по тексту, составлять план для пересказа. 

На каждом уроке окружающего миры мы узнаем что-то новое о нашей планете, а также о животных и растениях, которые ее населяют. Все ученики с удовольствием принимают участие в исследовательской деятельности. Задают вопросы по интересующим их темам.
 

Thank you to Mr Anatoliy for his comments.

As the snow continues to fall heavily on Gorki, I hope you all enjoy your weekend, and I'm sure green grass can't be too far away, surely?

 

From Secondary School:

Information letter from Mr. Christopher, Head of Secondary School

Dear Parent, Guardians and Students,

I hope that you are all well and that you are staying safe.

This week has been Safer Internet week, where our students have been learning how to stay safe when using the internet. With developing technologies, such a topic becomes increasingly apt and forms an integral part of our curriculum. I would also like to thank all the students concerning their matureness throughout the projects that they have been doing in school.

In terms of the education that we provide, every day counts, and students should be attending school and, whilst arriving at school on time every day. Doing this allows them to receive the best educational experience.

Our Student Council has introduced a scheme, which aims to eliminate single-use plastic cups at school. Soon students will be expected to bring their reusable water bottles to school, allowing everyone to contribute to a worthy cause.

I hope that everyone has a restful weekend.

Christopher Kingshott

Head of Secondary

 

Message from Mr Bruce Courtin (Science Teacher and Year 8 Form Tutor)

Dear CIS Community.

The new year has brought many new challenges and opportunities for our Gorki secondary students in science class. They have had the chance to discover new worlds, imagine matter at its smallest scale, and to understand our physical world in practical ways.

The Year 11’s have been hard at work putting the finishing touches on their learning and are gearing up for a tough next few months of studying, revision, and test taking. They show high spirits and, in class, have wrestled with some existential questions surrounding fossil fuel use and developed a greater understanding of our dependency on organic molecules. They also looked at how radiation is produced from radioactive elements and will hopefully know what to do in the event of some nuclear disaster.

The Year 10’s have been putting their mathematical minds to work by looking at how work, energy and power are used every day and how to calculate these values in some basic situations. They will be getting their scientist badges soon as they pivot to chemistry and study how bonding happens and try out experiments involving acids and bases in the laboratory.

The Year 9s have completed their physics unit that involved them building circuits, using Archimedes’ principle to calculate densities of unknown metals, and reasoning why high heels are probably not the best footwear for a snow day.

The Year 8s recently calculated the speed of sound to within about 10% of the actual value! That’s what I call accuracy. They have been able to combine some musical theory with technology and have seen how sounds and musical notes can be seen electronically in waveform. When summer rolls around, they will even have the skills to quickly calculate how close a thunderstorm is using their knowledge of sound.

Lastly, the Year 7s have been on an interstellar journey through our universe and have allowed their imagination and curiosity to bring them to far away galaxies, black holes, and to the lesser known moons and planets in our solar system. This unit culminated in a research project about moons and planets and their work is on display outside the science room. If you have a chance, take a look at their creativity!

The rest of the year is shaping up to be full of great experiences! Have a fantastic weekend,

Mr Bruce Courtin (Science Teacher and Year 8 Form Teacher)

Message from Mr Scofield (ICT / Computer Science Teacher)

Dear parents and guardians,

The ICT lessons for secondary students has been focusing on building essential skills for 21st century. Students have been working in different projects and the outcomes are very impressive. It’s easy to see the dedication and progress of the classes.

For year 7, we are working with robotics and 3D design. Students are working in a project to create their own robot to solve a personal or more broad world issue. The project goes from opening a business (start-up) up to the designing of a robot using CAD. Right now, we are using an online web application called TinkerCad where students are designing their own robot in a 3D environment.

For year 8, students have been working on a fantastic web application for app development. The MIT App inventor, an application from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, provides an easy but powerful application for app development. Students have finished all beginning tutorials and the results were outstanding. Students were able to see their own app running on a phone. Right now, and we are moving to a more advanced part of the project.

For year 9 we are already on a second assignment using iMovie for video editing. In the first assignment we worked with music, lyrics and video editing. For this second assignment, we are working on a Cooking Masterclass, where students show the cooking steps using online footage. Once again, the final videos were outstanding.

For year 10, we are about to finish a unit on Hardware including CPU and storage. Students are working more on exam style questions to give them an idea to what expect on a real exam and avoid surprises. Students are showing a great commitment to IGCSE Computer science lessons.

And one last update…

The Safer Internet Day takes place every February 8 around the world. As it didn’t go unnoticed at CIS, we have decided to run an assembly to rise awareness of how to be Safe online and to show students some actions to take to avoid any issues while using internet.

That’s all from me.

Warm regards

Mr. Scofield (ICT and Computer Science Teacher)

From Primary School:

Information letter from Mr. Paul, Head of Primary School

Dear parents and students,

We are now exactly half way through the academic year!  June might still seem a long way off, especially with the mountains of snow continuing to pile up around here, but in my experience the second half of the year always goes far faster the first half.  We will have green grass, birds singing, and the sun beating down (a bit) before we all know it - so there is to time to waste regarding the teaching and learning here at CIS Gorki!

We have a new monthly value - 'Empathy'.  To be empathetic means to understand and share the feelings of others or, in other words, to imagine how someone must be feeling at a given time.  Empathetic people are able to challenge prejudices, entertain new ideas, and deeply understand the thoughts of others.  We want our young learners at CIS Gorki to develop their empathetic skills over the coming month.

This week, I have been closely monitoring the cloakrooms in Upper Primary, and how the students both take care of their personal items, and how maturely and efficiently the change after break for their next lessons.  Our staff have been vigilant in ensuring the cloakrooms look as smart as the rest of the school, and this helps to instil independent skills and encourages students to take responsibility for their own actions.  Even something as straightforward as hanging up your coat, and putting your shoes in the correct place, is an important part of the school day and is a simple cameo of a responsible young learner.

 

Mr. Paul Curry

Head of Primary
 

This week, we have some information from another of a new teachers in the Lower Building, Mr Alex, who is now leading Year 2 on their educational odyssey.  He writes:

 

Dear Parents and Guardians

It has been another busy week for Y2 at CIS Gorki! In English we have been learning how to turn verbs into their past forms so that students can start to more accurately describe their past experiences. At the start of every week from now on, I will be asking students about their weekends, and hope to see progress in the accuracy of their responses!

In Maths, we have been developing our geometrical skills by identifying 2D and 3D shapes. The class have made excellent progress in calculating the number of edges and faces that these shapes have. It has been great to see some of the class attempting this with some pretty complex shapes! In Science and Topic, we have explored animal vocabulary and started to look at basic food chains, securing new vocabulary around words such as ‘carnivore’, ‘herbivore’, ‘predator’ and ‘prey’. Throughout all of these lessons, students have been encouraged to use language developed in previous weeks.

Perhaps the highlight however was during our Wednesday Project session, when we explored the nature of sound as a wave of movement through the air. Using online software, the class were able to create and design their own soundwaves made by playing musical instruments and making noises.

After a few days of remote learning at the end of the week, I am very excited to welcome the class back into school on Monday morning for another week of exciting – face to face! – learning! 

Mr Alex

Year 2 Teacher 

 

It sounds like Year 2 are having some amazing experiences across all their lessons.

Now onto one of our old guard, Mr Bronek and Year 3B.  What have his students been up to, I wonder?  

Dear Parents and Guardians,

I hope that the beginning of the new term is finding you well. The winter persists with cold temperatures and snow, much to enjoyment of our children. At times it is as difficult to get the children to play outside as to bring them back in as soon as they experienced the joy of playing in the snow.

In our class children continue to do very well and they work very hard. In English classes we are working on our non-chronological reports, they will be ready soon. In Maths we have covered basic operations and now we are focusing on column method and in Science we are exploring various senses; children thoroughly enjoy themselves when discovering this topic.

Have a lovely weekend!

Regards,

Mr Bronek

Year 3B Teacher

So, onwards we march from Monday, and into the second half of the year - what will we learn, discover and enjoy?  Let's find out together.

Have a great weekend!

From Primary School:

Information letter from Mr. Paul, Head of Primary School

Dear parents and students,

Another snowy week at CIS Gorki!  This doesn't stop the teaching and learning across both our buildings, however, and the attitude of the students remains really positive and thirsty for education.  Whilst Covid cases continue to have an effect on classes, with both Zoom and hybrid learning needing to be used though only when absolutely necessary, I am still very pleased with how this term is going.  Illness took me out of school for a large part of the week, and this meant I could not host the planned School Council meeting, but we will catch up with that next week.  Minutes from the meeting will be shared with parents.

Mr. Paul Curry

Head of Primary
 

Now some news from teachers.  Firstly, Ms Lydia hasn't been with us very long but has settled into life at Gorki extremely well, getting to know all about her Year 1 students.  She says:

Dear parents and guardians,

Year 1 have had a fantastic week; we have been reading and retelling the story of Jack and the Beanstalk! Students have been acting out the giant shouting ‘fe fi fo fum’, and are doing some very convincing impersonations!  Drama lessons with our young learners are always a lot of fun, and are a great way to encourage the vital skill of spoken language, especially a second language.  I am really pleased with all the students.

In Science and Project we began learning about plants and the environment; here you can see students learning about the different parts of a plant, and using their senses to explore the flowers.  Students have consolidated their learning about parts of a plant, and begun to explore what a plant needs to survive. We looked at how water is absorbed through the roots, travels up the stem, and is used in the leaves for photosynthesis. We discussed how amazing it is that plants can use light to produce their own food!

Well done everyone and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend in the snow!  

Miss Lydia

Year 1 Teacher 

 

In addition, Miss Stacey returned to the classroom after two weeks of successful Zoom lessons.  Unfortunately, the class had to quarantine almost immediately, so it has been more Zoom for most of the week - let's hope everyone is back on Monday.  She says:

Dear Parents and Guardians,

What an interesting start to the year Year 6 have had, with Zoom lessons and online learning. The adjustment was an easy one for us all with the class have kicking off the new year with loads of enthusiasm.

We have started a few new units this term, with Science focusing on “Material Changes”. We have lots of exciting and fun experiments to look forward to over the course of the term which will enable us to develop our practical skills further. We have started looking at how we can mix and separate soilds and next will examine solutions. 

In Maths, we began the term by investigating data handling. We are showing confidence with using line graphs and are now more familiar with interpreting pie charts and how to draw them. We have just moved on to decimal numbers and how to multiply fractions. We have been also been consolidating our understanding of inequalities. 

During English, working through our animated film-based unit called ‘The Alchemist’s Letter’. We have analysed how the creator used symbols within the film e.g. a key and what it could represent and pathetic fallacy for how the character’s emotion could be displayed through changes in weather. We are now incorporating more elements of the figurative language studied into our writing. 

We are looking forward to what the rest of the term has in store for us. Thank you for your continued support -

Miss Stacey

Year 6 Teacher

 

From Secondary School:

Information letter from Mr. Christopher, Head of Secondary School

Dear Parent, Guardians and Students,

I hope that you are all well and that you are staying safe.

It is no secret that Russia has been experiencing a surge in COVID cases recently, with these affecting our community. However, as a school and as educators, we continue to strive to deliver the best education to your children that we possibly can.In Secondary school, if your child is COVID positive or if someone in your household is COVID positive, please contact via Edupage. We can discuss hybrid learning options so that your child can still take part in classes.

The successful development of this part of the school is paramount, so any feedback that you can provide is always appreciated.Thank you to all parents and students for their understanding during the last few weeks. We aim to provide the best possible education whilst keeping everyone as safe as possible is our utmost priority.

I would also like to congratulate some of our Year 10 girls for their achievement relating to an Art Cafe. More news on this next week.Have a lovely weekend.

Christopher Kingshott

Head of Secondary

 

Message from Mr Chris Mackin (English Teacher and Year 9 Form Tutor)

Dear CIS Community.Returning to school after the winter break, our students have been reflecting on what they have already learnt this academic year, and hardening themselves to the challenges ahead.

The main focus of the English department during the next term is poetry. Poetry is something that learners can find difficult and persistence is key. To that end, alongside the typical model for analysising works of literature, we are pushing the students to truly explore their own ideas and bring their own experiences to each piece. This rounded approach to learning is already proving fruitful and it has been great to witness the growing confidence as students begin to develop their interpretations, coupling their own views with their understanding of poetic structure and device.

It is Shakespeare for Year 7, with perhaps his most famous play. While the students were aware of Romeo and Juliet, this is their first attempt at scaling the language that can prove as difficult as it will be (ultimately) rewarding. Mr. Jackson has been impressed with the level of engagement the play has generated.

Year 8 are focusing on poetry written in the trenches during the First World War. These poems are tough and forthright, with frank truths that the soldiers wanted the wider world to hear. They also demonstrate the tragic waste of life, given that several of the men who wrote so beautifully about the conflict were destined to die in it. The poems have led to energetic discussion and impressive written analysis from the students.

Year 9 have been focusing on the brighter side of poetry, the era or romanticism. These poems are odes to the beauty of the world around us, but within this cheerful remit there are also more searching questions about the nature of existence itself. The students have enjoyed delving into the themes of each poem, and considering how they are linked and what separates them from other types of poetry.

Year 10 have continued their preparation for next year’s exams. At the moment we are focused on Paper one. Using an extract from Robinson Crusoe, the students developed their ideas about the nature of implied and explicit. These are terms that children are familiar with from a young age, but in exams students will be expected to answer how and why some information is concealed, as well as make appropriate inferences which link to their wider knowledge of story and structure. I have been impressed at how well Year 10 have approached the task this week.

Year 11’s exam preparation continues with their study of the proscribed text. Othello is seen by some as one of Shakespeare’s lesser tragedies, but- as with all his work- it contains a bounty of beautiful language and the type of universal themes and comments on humanity to still resonate strongly. Mr. Jackson reports that the students are forming solid views and finding the best way to express them.

More good news: The efforts to improve on uniform have been noted by form teachers. Students now come in looking smart and ready to work. This is the type of small improvement in standards that will have beneficial ripples across the entire school and we would like to thank you, as parents and carers, for your continued support with this.

Thank you,

Message from Mr Alejo (Spanish Teacher)

The theme of the month is team work. In the past, teams were not so important as people in the cities were craftsman and in the fields the teams consisted of the family members. But as society and economic evolved, the complexity of the problems and the size of the tasks increased, the teams became essential and they increased their roles. Now teams are everywhere and they could be very diverse with members of different countries, religions, background, etc. even can be working together at the same time in different places using various languages.So languages emerged as tool and a way to communicate and they are vital in team working as they can join people and help to share knowledge, culture, values and ideas, not limiting us to only one country.

In our school we try to promote teamworking involving our students in many projects to get used to this form of working, to be prepared to integrate teams in a satisfactory way or to lead it.

Regards

Mr. Alejo (Spanish Teacher)
 

From Primary School:

Information letter from Mr. Paul, Head of Primary School

Dear parents,

A somewhat challenging week for some of our students and staff as Covid cases alter the teaching and learning for a minority of classes.  This is obviously not what we want, but we must take the positives from the obstacles we face - and, after dipping into a few Zoom lessons, I have been really impressed with the positive approach to online learning from students this week.  Hopefully we will get all students and staff back to school in the very near future.

Across both buildings so far this term, everything has felt very calm and studious.  Lessons are ticking along nicely, and Gorki feels like a warm and happy place in Term 3.  Our staff are always looking to introduce fresh, innovative ideas in and out of the classroom and on Wednesday next week I will be asking our School Council representatives to do likewise - I look forward to hearing their student-centred projects which could become part of the day-to-day life on our campus.  

 

Mr. Paul Curry

Head of Primary
 

Now, let's hear from Mr Joshua in Nursery about what he and his class have been up to recently:

Dear Parents and Guardians

We had a successful start of Term 3 and needed no time to adapt after our holidays! Everyone is excited to be back at school in order to play with friends, and most importantly, to continue our academic studies. It is, however, still cold and snowy. Please ensure that everybody is dressed warm enough for their outdoor breaks.

This week in Nursery was exciting and eventful. For literacy, we continued our study of phonics by learning all about the letter ‘l’. We learned to identify the letter amongst other letters, in addition to recognise words starting with l, such as lion, light, and leaf. Everybody made an amazing lion craft as a beautiful reminder of what had been learned. Besides phonics, we also explored our rhyme, Humpty Dumpty, through the innovation stage of Talk for Writing. The three stages of Talk for writing are Imitation, innovation and invention. The innovation stage aims to encourage students to change the rhyme using their imagination. The main story line remains unchanged, but certain components are changed to create a new different rhyme or story.

For mathematics we delved deeper into prepositions. We learned to identify and describe the location of an object using prepositions of place. We have learned: in, on, under, behind, in front of, next to, between. Several games were played to reinforce the newly learned language, including hiding an object and describing the location when found.

Have a great weekend and stay healthy!

Mr. Joshua

Year 2 Teacher 

 

Mr Ian and Year 5 have also been enjoying themselves in their lessons:

Dear Parents and Guardians,

In Year 5 we have been reading and enjoying examples of narrative poetry. Michael Rosen is a particularly well known English poet whose poems often tell a story and he performs them in a very entertaining way that children love. If you want to see some of his poems, check out his website through the following link: https://www.michaelrosen.co.uk/ Next week, the children in Year 5 will be performing some of their favourites in class. 

In Maths, we have been practicing counting on to the next 100 or the next 1000 in order to be able to subtract more quickly, both with whole numbers and with 2 place decimal values.  

Mr Ian’s special multi-sided dice brought back from the UK have been making regular appearances as they are great for improving our quick mental calculation skills.  

Year 5 have just finished their unit on space so we are now more familiar with the planets of our Solar System and can place them correctly in order from the Sun. We’ve also explained how we get night and day and investigated the orbits of the Earth and Moon. Our new focus will be on light and identifying different sources and how light travels.  

As with Science, we have recently completed a focus on countries of the world and how we actually define a country. There were a few surprises this week when we looked at Russian imports and exports. I thought grechka would be a significant Russian export but it didn’t feature in the top 20! With this topic completed, Year 5 will be investigating the world of work and looking to the future to see whether the jobs we anticipate doing in the future will be done by robots.  

Our numbers are swelling in Year 5 with a new boy starting last week and two more children joining us very soon. Perhaps Year 5 will be the largest class in school soon.  Mr Ian.

Mr Ian

Year 5 Teacher

Finally, returning to Covid, please can everyone stay safe over the weekend, take all necessary precautions, and let's see if we can have a full and healthy school once again as soon as possible.

From Primary School:

Information letter from Mr. Paul, Head of Primary School

Dear parents,

Once again, happy new year and welcome back to school.  I hope everyone had a lovely and relaxing holiday and, judging by the enthusiasm shown by the returning students, the three-week break has certainly restored a lot of energy and drive.  

This eight-week term will take us all the way to early March, and hopefully by then winter will be disappearing.  But until then, it will be cold and snowy so a reminder to ensure children have all the clothing they need for outdoor break, and it would be beneficial if some spare clothes could be provided in case items become damp.  

We have some new arrivals in school this term!  Joining us from the UK are Mr Alex and Ms Lydia, who have taken over teaching the Year 2 and parallel Year 1 classes respectively.  Both have settled in really well and are enjoying their first week both at Gorki and in Russia itself.  Please welcome when you see them in the Lower Building.  In addition, Mr Casey has joined us as the school's new Head of Campus.  He will spend his time across both buildings during the day, and is really looking forward to steering Gorki in the next stage of our development.

Mr. Paul Curry

Head of Primary
 

As usual, this week we have some information from two of our teachers.  Firstly, Mr David in Year 1 has a few words:

Dear parents and guardians,

Firstly, welcome back to school!! I hope you all are well rested and had a fantastic holiday wherever you were! Now that we are returning to school, we are entering a fresh new term which will bring many exciting moments and challenges. I am very much looking forward to what we will achieve during this new term.

As you know, a new term means a new topic! I am thrilled to announce that our new topic in Year 1 will be Space and Our Universe. This allows us to explore many different areas of learning and enables the opportunity for cross-curricular activities with our Project this term, which is Saving Our World. This is an area of learning that I am very enthusiastic about because I thoroughly enjoyed this topic during my time in education and beyond this! I am sure all the children in Year 1 will share my love for this area.

We also welcome a new teacher to Year 1, Ms Lydia. Who will be taking over Year 1V. I am sure you will all give her a warm welcome and wish her all the best as she embarks on a new experience here at CIS Gorki.

I would like to thank you all for your continued support, it is appreciated by all.  

Mr David

Year 1 Teacher 

 

Also, some interesting details from Mr John in Year 4:

Dear Parents and Guardians,

Welcome back parents and cares of CIS Gorki. Our Year 4 students looked well-rested and ready to begin our new term of 2022. Let's discus some of the fun activities and learning we accomplished this week:

In our English class, we began a short writing task about New Year's Resolutions and why many people make wishes during this celebration. Students wrote about their New Year's Resolution and expressed how they will make their wish come true. We also had our introductory to our unit on Poetry. We spent time understanding the Elements of Poetry such as stanzas, rhythm, and rhyme.

Math Our math class consisted of reviewing material we had covered in Term 2: Measurement, Multiplication, and Place Value. In one of our activities, students had to use measuring cups for liquids to add water from smaller measuring cups to come to an amount with accuracy.

In Science class we introduced the students to their new unit on Sound. Students have learned how the ear takes sound and sends it to our brain as information. We learned how sound travels in waves and they can even have different lengths, pitches, and tones.  

Mr John

Year 4 Teacher

 

From Secondary School:

 

Information letter from Mr. Christopher, Head of Secondary School

Dear Parent, Guardians and Students,

I hope you are all rested and enjoyed the holidays, with readiness for term 3. It is great to see all the students returning to school, and I would like to express how pleased I am, seeing them dressed in their school uniforms. Across the school, this will achieve greater cohesion, emphasise character, and develop students' work ethic.

Due to the nature of the Covid Pandemic, it is unfortunate that we had our Year 10 class in distance learning. However, when such incidents happen, our Secondary school is confident in providing the best learning experience possible.

Over the next few weeks, I am excited to share all the new and exciting initiatives we have planned for the remainder of the academic year and beyond.I wish you a restful weekend.

 

Christopher Kingshott

Head of Secondary

 

Message from Mr. John Pedersen (Humanties Teacher and KS3 Phase Leader)

Dear Parents, Students and Guardians,

Welcome back to Term 3!

I am sure you are all well-rested after the break and ready for a successful and productive 2022.

For our Year 11s, time is now becoming short to ensure they are well prepared for their upcoming IGCSEs. The mock exams are scheduled to take place beginning at the end of the month and this will serve to highlight areas in need of development as well as give an indication of grade expectations. In addition, the Year 9s will begin their preparation for their Checkpoint Exams: the culmination of Key Stage 3 (Years 7,8,9), which will take place in May.

The last House competition of 2021 was held in the 2nd last week of term and consisted of a general knowledge quiz based on the nations which each class had been assigned for International Month. Yashin took out the top spot, followed by Tchaikovsky and Pushkin, with Gagarin bringing up the rear. Despite this, Pushkin House still retains a very narrow lead (of one point) over Gagarin House.

The Secondary School Student Council met several times during term 2 and as a result of their feedback several changes were made to school procedures and facilities. I am sure you have noticed the abundance of benches which have been placed around the school so students are able to relax comfortably and chat with friends during their breaks. In addition, and in response to Student Council actions, the range of options for students at breaks have been broadened.

At the end of the second term there was another meeting of the Council and the issues raised will be discussed by the Senior Leadership Team in coming weeks.

The first meeting of the Student Council for this term will take place next week. I look forward to working closely with out student representatives in improving the student experience in our school.

Regards,

Mr. John Pedersen (Humanities Teacher and KS3 Phase Leader)

From Primary School:

Information letter from Mr. Paul, Head of Primary School

Dear parents,

The final Friday Bulletin of 2021, and what a week we have enjoyed!  At this time of year, winter concerts dominate events in schools, and this was very much the case at CIS Gorki.  Everyone thoroughly enjoyed our two Primary-led concerts on Wednesday and Thursday - Lower Primary's 'The Toys Left Behind', directed by Ms Kalyn and Ms Valerie, and Upper Primary's 'Peter Pan', directed by Mr Simon.  The amount of effort both children and staff put into making these shows so successful was staggering, and I am immensely proud of everyone who contributed in any way at all.  The video of both shows will be sent to parents in due course.

Today, we enjoyed letting our hair down with some festive parties and fun activities across both buildings.  The children enjoyed dressing up and playing with their friends in games and dancing.  It is always a lovely way to say goodbye to the old year, and welcome in the new one in just over three weeks' time, when we all return to school on January 10.  

Mr. Paul Curry

Head of Primary
 

As usual, here is some news from two of our classes - firstly let's find out what Year 2 have been doing:

Dear parents and guardians,

Mr Paul took over the class again following Ms Pauline's return to Skolkovo, and we enjoyed a mix of curriculum-based learning in English, Maths and Science, together with some fun activities in afternoons whilst children also rehearsed for the concerts.  The English focus was on poetry, and the children investigated different rhyme schemes, created Japanese haiku poems, acrostic poems on their own name, and shape poems.  Maths was centred on using money and working out the remainder from ten pounds after buying fictional books.  In Science we completed our studies of changing materials, and introduced the next top of 'light and dark' by discussing natural and artificial light sources.  The remainder of our reduced classroom time was spent being artsy and crafty in making different types of Christmas decorations for our rooms and the reception area.

I have enjoyed working for many weeks with Year 2.  They are a lovely bunch of kids with a range of engaging personalities, and I am sure I will still see them a great deal after their new incoming teaching Mr Alex joins the school in January.  I wish you all a great winter holiday - Mr Paul.

Mr Paul Curry

Year 2 Teacher and Head of Secondary

 

Mr Marcin also has a few words about his Year 4 students:

Dear Parents and Guardians,

Our first term is nearly over! How quick has this term gone, and how nice it is to see many happy settled children, enjoying everything they have been doing in Year 4. It has been a very busy term!  The children have all worked really hard and shown great resilience throughout the term.

In Literacy we have had exploring dragon poetry and how to use adverbs to enhance our sentences. The children really liked creating own mythical creatures and working on the invention aspect of our Talk for Writing.

In Mathematics we have been exploring measurement and have revisited 3-digit subtraction.

In the last two weeks we have been busy rehearsing for the Winter Concert . They all deserve the end of term party we will be having on Friday and the children are in for a real treat and will meet Santa! They will be able to bring their own treats but do make sure that everything is nut-free.

I am looking forward to another fun term

Mr Marcin

Year 4 Teacher

 

From Secondary School:

 

Information letter from Mr. Christopher, Head of Secondary School

Dear Parent, Guardians and Students,

Our Secondary performance of Mamma Mia was a great success, and I cannot wait to share with you the video of these performances so that you can see for yourself. The performance was highly entertaining, and I appreciate the hard work that our children put into their roles. The Year 10 and 11 students recorded a New Years message for you all that we will also share.

We also had our end of term awards assembly, where we celebrated the achievements of many of our students. Photos of this event are attached, and I hope that the children enjoyed the book gifts for them that our English teachers helped to pick out.

This Tuesday, several students will deliver the presents and fulfil the Christmas wishes of those less fortunate than ourselves. We will share details of this visit.

Please remember that from the beginning of Term 3, we would like all of our students to be wearing our branded school uniform.

I wish every one of you a well deserved holiday, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

 

Christopher Kingshott

Head of Secondary

 

Message from Mr. Marius Harmse (P.E. Teacher )

Dear Parents, Students and Guardians,

As term 2 is at its end, we can congratulate each student on their hard work during this term.

 

In PE, the primary classes have been busy this term improving their ball skills and we played some volleyball. For term 3 they will be able to enjoy some football and take part in various exercises designed to improve core strength and become fitter.

In the secondary PE classes, we have been focusing on a new sport for most learners, Netball, and was very satisfying to see their commitment in learning and developing in skills sets necessary to compete. They have also competed in our athletic section of the term with long jump.

The IGCSE classes have hit the ground running, missing the first term, we started of the second term where we had a lot of work to catch up on. The students worked very hard and finished all the work that needed to be done. In term 3 they will have more practical lessons where we will see the effect of exercise on breathing patterns and heart rates.

I am very excited for term 3 and to see all the progress that they have made.

Mr Marius Harmse (P.E. Teacher)

From Primary School:

Information letter from Mr. Paul, Head of Primary School

Dear parents,

The winter holidays are now just around the corner and next week's final days of the calendar year will be dominated by winter concert full rehearsals and then videoing the concerts themselves. It remains a great pity that parents cannot attend but Covid restrictions must be adhered to. Let's just hope that 2022 will see this pandemic finally under control, and everything (and everyone) can return to normal.

Next Friday, on the final day of term, we will be having some fun activities across the school, and children are invited to attend in non-uniform, which also includes costumes. Early next week I will send more detailed information about how we want to celebrate the end of term - but it will include presents for all children, and maybe even a visit from Father Christmas...

Mr. Paul Curry

Head of Primary
 

Two more teachers want to chat about recent events in their classes. Firstly, Mr Mat from Year 3:

Dear parents and guardians,

The students have been very busy at school learning their lines and rehearsing for the Winter Concert. They have been able to demonstrate their skating skills by attending ice skating lessons. They have been learning valuable lessons by participating in three different charities and have been preparing for the International Month Gallery. We have been on a trip to Kidzania where the students were able to learn through realistic role-play.

In English, we have been learning about the features of an instruction text. We had a look at the purpose, the language and the layout of the text. We have also learned about compound words and prefixes. Next week, the students may be writing an instruction text on how to organize a fun party.

In Mathematics, the students have been using bar charts and pictographs to compare things between groups. We have also been using a problem-solving method to understand and solve mathematical problems.

In Science, the Year 3 pupils have been learning about living things and understanding what the seven life processes are. They have been discussing what similarities and differences humans have between them. They have also learned how to create different groups to sort animal based on their similarities.

In Global Perspectives, the students have cooperated in groups to create posters about different ways to save water and have presented them to the class.

With the winter holiday fast approaching, I wish you all a lot of fun in the snow, and Happy New Year 

Mr Mat

Year 3 Teacher 

In addition, here is some information about Pre-Nursery from Ms Anna:

Dear Parents and Guardians,

It has been a wonderful term with Pre-Nursery! I have really enjoyed getting to know all the children and having great fun together with our main topics of clothing and food! The children have loved the song, “Put On Your Boots” and this is a song we continue to sing whilst in the cloakroom getting changed. The children especially seemed to enjoy looking at different patterns and sorting, for example, clothes on small scale laundry lines. Later in the term, we had fun role playing in our classroom food shop, and then café.

It has been lovely singing various songs and nursery rhymes together, and finding out which ones the children like best and ask to do again. It is also great to hear a child singing one of the songs later in the day whilst playing or outside the classroom.

We have had fun exploring different colours and rainbows. The colour game, ‘Little Mouse, Little Mouse, Where Are You Hiding?’ has also been a success and we have enjoyed playing on nearly a daily basis.

Next term, I look forward to us exploring the topics of ‘places and animals'

Have a lovely, snowy weekend

Ms Anna

Pre-Nursery Teacher

 

From Secondary School:

 

Information letter from Mr. Christopher, Head of Secondary School

Dear Parent, Guardians and Students, 

I hope you are all well, and I hope you are excited about the holidays ahead.

Thank you so much to everyone who has made donations to our charities over charity month. We have raised a significant amount for the children's hospice and the dog shelter, and we will share shortly the amount raised. We have also collected all the presents needed, in collaboration with the Skolkovo campus, to fulfil the wishes of those less fortunate than ourselves over the holiday period. We will share details and information, in regards to delivering the presents.

For the last week, we will have several things going on, and most of the lessons in Secondary will run as the norm. Students will be busy rehearsing for the Christmas concert. Furthermore, students will be finalising the International gallery, which celebrates cultural diversity. On the final day of school, there will be a Christmas party for the students and an awards ceremony celebrating the achievements of our students.

I wish you a wonderful week.

 

Christopher Kingshott

Head of Secondary

 

Message from the Mr. Simon Hubbard (Drama / Year 7 Form Tutor)

Dear Parents, Students and Guardians,

Second star to the right and straight on till morning, we will be in Neverland soon.

Upper Primary are in full swing of rehearsals for the famous children’s story ‘Peter Pan’, we have been learning our dance routines, preparing the props, and dusting down the stage.

Over this period the students have experience what it would be like to perform in a large musical, this gives them confidence on stage and the ability to work with older and younger groups, all together.

There are no such thing as small parts, only small actors, the students each have text to say and have exceled in the English language over coming nervous energy and channelling it into a positive experience.

This is one musical concert you will sit down with your popcorn and watch over and over again. Fly us to Neverland Peter and Tinkerbell.

A hot Greek island in summertime, young romance, and a few surprises.

Secondary are putting the final touches to the Russian School premiere of the world-famous musical based on ABBAs songs, ‘Mamma Mia’

Lines are learnt, costumes are pressed, and the lights will be on in the Trevena soon,

Working on this show the students have created dances routines (With a little help), learnt 1970’s disco songs and built up their memories on the CIS Gorki stage. Working as a team the whole of secondary have helped put this concert together, as its going to be performed for the first time EVER in a Russian school the students have grabbed the responsibility with both hands. To be filmed over two concerts we are sure that all the dance moves, emotional scenes and the fun loving energy will be caught on film for your to enjoy for many years to come.

Regards,

Mr Simon Hubbard (Drama Teacher / Year 7 Form Tutor)

From Primary School

Information letter from Mr. Paul, Head of Primary School

Dear parents,

Dear parents and students,It has been such a busy week at Gorki! So much going on across both buildings, and a lot of fun too!

It has been Charity Week this, culminating in our annual 'Dress Down' day on Friday. In the Lower Building, children (and teachers) were invited to come to school in their pyjamas, whilst in the Upper Building it was a 'dress festive' day. This was all in aid of one of our chosen charities for this year, the CIS-associated Dog and Cat Shelter. The students had a great day showing off their winter nightclothes and Christmassy-themed jumpers, and many of the teachers joined in too!

Also during Charity Week, two decorated boxes were installed in the two reception areas of our campus. These are for donations of small gifts such as sweets, chocolates, socks, hats, gloves, scarves etc for another of the charities we have supported for several years now, Constanta Fund, which supports children who come from underprivileged backgrounds. These boxes will stay in place until the end of term, so it would be great if as many students could bring in small gifts to be donated to children who may not receive any gifts at all this holiday.

Finally, we have also teamed up with other CIS campuses in Moscow to support a company-wise charity Pushkino and each class has been asked to provide two presents that children in the hospital have directly requested. Please contact your child's class teacher for further information on this, if desired.

This week we held our first Upper Primary Student Council meeting. Most of the representatives were available (Stephaniya Y6, Anastasia Y5, Konstantin Y4, Ekaterina Y3) and I was hugely impressed with the depth of thought all students had put in pre-meeting, arriving with their own list of points to make and suggest. We spoke at length about food, excursions, special days, the library, talent show, indoor breaktime, form time activities, the house system, and Edupage. I will send a full summary of the meeting via Edupage, and many congratulations for a very positive meeting to all who attended.

Preparations for the Winter Concerts continue in both buildings, with Mr Simon leading rehearsals for Mamma Mia and Peter Pan along with our new dance teacher Ms Shushan, and in the Lower Building, Toys Left Behind is being led by Ms Kalyn and Ms Valerie. The students are very enthusiastic towards the three concerts and we are sure they will look and sound superb on the day.

This week, we said goodbye to Ms Pauline, who has been temporarily leading Year 2 for the past few weeks. Ms Pauline has enjoyed her time at Gorki, and will miss the students, but it is time for her to take up her permanent position elsewhere at CIS. We wish her all the best, and she will be welcome back here any time. Mr Paul will take over from Ms Pauline in Year 2 until the end of term, and we look forward to our two new teachers arriving in January.

Mr. Paul Curry

Head of Primary
 

This week's Upper Primary class teacher giving the lowdown on events in the classroom is Year 3's Mr Bronek:

Dear parents and carers,

How time flies!! We are nearly at the end of the second half-term, the spirits remain high and the good learning continues. The most exciting part of the term is ahead of us.In Mathematics we are continuing with embedding various topics and skills and in Science we are continuing with grouping living things and identifying various categories. In English, we have finished writing our instruction texts and we shall start our persuasive writing next week. Children will use their persuading skills to convince Santa Claus to deliver to them the present that they really want.

The winter visited us this week in her full glory, and children are very, very excited for breaktimes now and playing in the snow. Please continue to be aware of children's needs with regards to winter clothing, consider the warmth of the clothing for your child as well as how quickly they can change back into their indoor clothes.

Thank you for your help, have a nice weekend.

Mr Bronek

Year 3 Teacher

And from Lower Primary it is Miss Kalyn in Reception:

Dear Parents,

Reception have been learning so many wonderful things this term. In particular, this week, they have mastered Talk 4 Writing. We learned to tell the story of The Little Red Hen through reading pictures on a story map. As a class, we then changed the story to make it our own. Some of the children really enjoyed this and wanted to make their very own stories. Talk 4 Writing is a wonderful literacy method that teaches children correct grammar and vocabulary, and the ability to tell their own stories – even if they cannot read or write yet.

In numeracy we have been learning about numbers to 20. It has been very tricky to learn 11-20, however we have persevered and included this concept in our play. We made a shop where everything costs between 11p and 20p. The shop has been a very popular area this week.Have a wonderful weekend!I wish everyone a pleasant and frosty winter weekend!

Ms. Kalyn

Reception Teacher and Phase Leader

 

From Secondary School:

 

Information letter from Mr. Christopher, Head of Secondary School

Dear Parents and Guardians,

This week has been a big week for CIS Gorki Secondary.

Key Stage 3 went on their first school trip of the year to visit the facilities of the modern-day pentathlon. Feedback from the children in regards to this trip has been positive. Great fun was had by staff and students, and a positive experience was gained. Please see some of the attached photos.

This week has also been the school's charity week, where we have continued to raise money for the dog shelter and a children's hospital.  Thank you to everyone that contributed, and wore their festive clothes to school. The donations will be put to good use.

We are also collaborating with our Skolkovo campus to fulfil the Christmas wishes of those from low-income backgrounds with Special Educational Needs in Moscow. Every class in Gorki is purchasing at least two presents requested by such individuals, which will be donated in person. On this list of wishes, there are items that many of us take for granted in Moscow, such as a warm coat. 

We appreciate any support that you can give, and with this, some joy can be bought into the lives of those less fortunate than ourselves. 

Have a nice weekend.

 

Christopher Kingshott

Head of Secondary

 

From the Russian Curriculum department:

 

 

Уважаемые родители и ученики кампуса СIS Горки!

 

Невероятно быстро бежит время. Казалось бы, только сейчас вернулись с осенних каникул и вот уже первый снег за окном, и мы с нетерпением ждём наступления новогодних праздников и зимних каникул. Мы уже почти добрались до середины учебного года, и хочу с радостью отметить, что очень приятно наблюдать, как ученики вовлечены в школьную жизнь. За несколько месяцев совместной работы учеников и учителей в российской образовательной программе произошло много событий.

 

Начальная школа

 

Для первоклассников, учащихся Y3 класса, первое полугодие учебного года — это время новых знакомств, адаптации, привыкания к одноклассникам и учителям, время первых творческих успехов и познания неизвестного. Мы уже научились уверенно различать понятия «гласные и согласные» «звук и буква», правильно делить слово на слоги и устно составлять связный текст из 2-4 предложений по сюжетным картинкам и наблюдениям, определять последовательность событий в произведении, характеризовать поступки героя, давать им положительную или отрицательную оценку. Умеем не только свободно считать до 20 и больше, но и решать текстовые задачи в одно действие на сложение и вычитание, грамотно записывая условие и решение. В ближайшем будущем нам предстоит попробовать свои силы в международном математическом конкурсе-игре «Смартик» — это как первая предметная олимпиада! Каждый урок окружающего мира – это открытие и знакомство новыми культурными объектами родного края, традициями, объектами живой и неживой природы, правилами безопасности.

 

Для учащихся Y4-Y6 классов начальной школы учебный год начался с независимой предметной диагностики от Московского центра качества образования. Работы помогли оценить знания учащихся и определить точки роста каждого ученика, во втором полугодии посмотрим на изменения.  А совсем недавно учащиеся Y4-Y6 приняли участие во всероссийском международном конкурсе «Русский медвежонок», с нетерпением ждём результатов.

 

За первое полугодие учащиеся Y4 и Y5 классов проявили себя, как ответственные и заинтересованные в учебном процессе. На уроках русского языка ребята с удовольствием продолжают работать над формированием грамотного письма, учатся подчеркивать главные члены предложения, определять части речи. Ребята обожают уроки литературного чтения, погружаясь в мир волшебства, учатся фантазировать и мечтать. Уроки чтения становятся еще интереснее, когда в роли учителя выступают ученики. Изучая поэзию, дети учатся составлять картину настроения стихотворений, тонко чувствовать замысел писателя, тренируются чувствовать ритм стихотворений. Каждый урок окружающего мира, открывает для учащихся новые знания о животных и растениях. В процессе познания природы и социального мира происходит совершенствование сенсорных процессов, мышления, речи, развивается любознательность. Каждый ученик с удовольствием презентует свои проекты и делится впечатлениями.

 

Работа в команде очень важна. Учащиеся Y6 класса знают об этом и с удовольствием занимаются исследовательской и проектной деятельностью. Так, например, на уроке русского языка, объединив свои силы обучающиеся Y6 класса выясняли одинаковые ли падежные окончания имеют имена существительные при склонении. На уроках математики учащиеся изучают умножение на числа, деление, нахождение показателей скорости, времени, площади. Также активно ведётся подготовка к написанию очень важной работы в конце 4 класса - Всероссийской проверочной работе.

 

Творческие и непохожие друг на друга проекты, презентуют учащиеся на уроках окружающего мира. Ребята проводят самостоятельные исследования на разнообразные тематики окружающего нас мира: история и экономика родного края, моя школа и моя семья, изучение родословной и создание генеалогического древа, семейные традиции, история родного языка.

 

Мс Алёна - учитель начальных классов Y3B, Y3M

Мс Дарья – учитель начальных классов Y4M, Y6

Мр Анатолий – учитель начальных классов Y4J, Y5

 

 

Средняя и старшая школа

 

Совсем недавно ученики средних и старших классов написали первые аттестационные диагностические работы по всем изученным темам предметов Российской программы. У учащихся Y11 класса полным ходом идёт подготовки к Основному Государственному Экзамену, учащиеся уже определились с выбором предметов по выбору для сдачи и усиленно повторяют весь пройденный за время обучения по российской программе материал. Также активно тренируются выполнять экзаменационные задания и заполнять экзаменационные бланки ответов.

 

На уроках русского языка и литературы учащиеся средней и старшей школы Y7- Y10 классов продолжают отрабатывать навыки грамотной устной и письменной речи, выступают с подготовленными проектами, учатся представлять и защищать свои работы. Основным разделом первого полугодия является одна из самых интересных тем в курсе русского языка - «Лексика». Она включает в себя знакомство с такими понятиями, как общеупотребительная лексика, лексика, ограниченная в употреблении (профессиональные слова, диалектизмы, жаргонизмы), эмоционально окрашенная лексика, изобразительно-выразительные средства языка. В ходе изучения этой темы, знакомясь со словами, ограниченными в употреблении, ребята Y8 класса даже составили профессиональные словарики своих родителей. Ребята на уроке удивляли учителя жаргонизмами, которые употребляют в своей речи, общаясь в своих небольших группах. Но особенно они удивляли своими знаниями неологизмов (новых слов, появляющихся в языке сегодня). Дети, стараясь опередить друг друга, объясняли значение таких слов, как «твиттер», «хэштег», «геймер», «дайвер», «лайфхак».

 

Важно помнить, что легко запоминается та информация, которая интересна! Поэтому, на уроках русского языка и литературы ученики усваивают материал при помощи обучающих игр, коммуникативных викторин и познавательных заданий.  «Умная доска» помогает закрепить и повторить изученный материал. Она и проверит, и подскажет, и поможет. Учащиеся средней школы Y7-Y9 также приняли участие во всероссийском международном конкурсе «Русский медвежонок».  

 

Мс Елена – учитель русского языка и литературы Y7

Мс Вера – учитель русского языка и литератур Y8-Y11

 

Математика — это серьезный фундаментальный предмет, который развивает логическое мышление и помогает системно подходить к решению любого вопроса. Но наш мозг устроен так, что лучше запоминает информацию, окрашенную положительными эмоциями. Поэтому уроки математики оживлены с помощью различных  учебно-наглядных комплексов-презентаций со слайдами и видеофрагментами, приложениями с дополнительным материалом и игровыми элементами.  Материал преподносится простым понятным языком. Не каждому легко дается математика, но ребята стараются справиться со всеми возникающими трудностями, посещая наш математический клуб, выполняя дополнительные индивидуальные работы, тесты и домашние задания.

 

Второй период обучения проходит очень динамично. Все ученики Y7-Y11 классов прошли первую аттестацию по математике и отлично справились с этим, не получив ни одного отрицательного результата. Теперь мы начинаем подготовку ко второй аттестации, которая пройдет в феврале. Ученики Y7-Y8 классов продолжают изучение различных видов чисел и занимаются отработкой навыков арифметических операций с ними. Учащиеся Y9 класса познакомились с системой функциональных понятий и продолжают делать свои первые шаги в геометрии. Ученики Y10-Y11 классов совершенствуют свои знания по математике, уже ставя перед собой целью успешную сдачу экзамена в форме ОГЭ. Поэтому освоение материала школьной программы у них проходит в параллели с подготовкой к ОГЭ и отработкой навыков решения тренировочных тестов.

 

Впереди у нас много работы, но и много интересного. Уже в начале следующего года все ребята примут участие в международном конкурсе по математике «Кенгуру». Задания это конкурса составлены так, чтобы каждый ученик нашел для себя интересные и доступные вопросы и задания, поэтому, я надеюсь, это соревнование заинтересует ребят и вселит в них уверенность в своих возможностях, что является одной из основных целей нашего обучения.

 

Мс Ольга – учитель математики Y7-Y11

 

Мотивация детей и подростков к обучению — один из ключевых вопросов всех методик и подходов современной педагогики. Мы поддерживаем желания учащихся развиваться и добиваться поставленных целей!

 

Большой труд учителей и учеников стоит за всеми образовательными процессами.  Школа – это живой организм, мы всегда должны двигаться и развиваться, стоять на месте – это не для нас! Сейчас наши учителя активно проходят курсы повышения квалификации. Учеников уже в феврале вторая аттестация, Всероссийская проверочная работа (ВПР) и, конечно, пробные экзамены ОГЭ. Подробная информация будет в рассылках.

 

Мы желаем вам отличного зимнего настроения и в скором времени прекрасных дней на новогодних каникулах, незабываемого и бесценного времени с семьёй.

 

Мс Анастасия – Координатор Российской программы

Команда учителей Российской программы

 

Dear parents and students of the CIS Gorki campus!

 

Time is going incredibly quickly! It would seem like we have just returned from the autumn holidays and now the first snow is already falling outside the window. We are looking forward to the Christmas and winter holidays. We have almost reached the middle of the school year, and with great pleasure I have been watching how students are involved in school life. During several months of students and teachers’ collaboration, many events have happened in the Russian educational program.

 

Primary School

 

For our first-graders, Year 3 students, this first half of the school academic year is the time for new acquaintances, adaptation, getting used to classmates and teachers, the time for the first educational successes, and new knowledge. We have already learned confidently to distinguish the concepts of "vowels and consonants", "sound and letter", correctly divide a word into syllables and verbally make up a coherent text of 2-4 sentences based on pictures and our observations, determine the sequence of events in the text, characterise a hero’s actions and give them a positive or negative evaluation. We can not only freely count up to 20 and more, but also solve text maths problems in one action for addition and subtraction, correctly writing down the condition and solution of the problem. In the nearest future we will try our hand at the international mathematical game "Smartik" - it's like the first subject of Olympiad! Each Russian Science lesson is a discovery and acquaintance with new cultural motherland objects, traditions, living and non-living things, and safety rules.

 

For Y4-Y6 students this academic year has begun with an independent subject diagnosis from the Moscow Center of Educational Quality. The assignments helped to evaluate the students' knowledge and determine the growth points of each student, and in the second half of the year we will have a look at the changes. Not long ago, Y4-Y6 students took part in the all-Russian international competition called "Russian Bear", so we are looking forward to getting the results.

 

The first half of the academic year has showed that Y4 and Y5 students are very responsible and interested in the educational process of learners. During Russian language lessons the children continue to work on their writing skills, learn how to find the main parts of the sentence and to identify parts of speech. Children adore reading lessons, immersing themselves into the world of magic as they learn how to dream big. Reading lessons are even more interesting when students become teachers for a while.

 

By studying poetry children learn to understand the writer's intentions and train to feel the rhythm of poems. Each Russian Science lesson students learn some facts about animals and plants. In the process of cognition of nature and the social world, critical thinking and speaking skills are improved, and curiosity develops. Each student is extremely happy to present their project.

 

Teamwork is very important. Y6 students know a lot about teamwork and are happy to be engaged in some research and project activities. For example, during Russian language the Y6 students worked together to find out whether the endings of nouns are the same in declension process. In maths lessons students study multiplication of numbers, division, indicators of speed, time and area. We are also preparing to write a very important assessment at the end of the year - All-Russian assessment test.

 

Various highly creative Russian science projects have been presented by students. They are making independent world-around-us research: the history and economy of motherland, school and family, the creation of a family tree, family traditions, and the history of the native language.

 

Ms Alena – Russian Primary school teacher (Y3B, Y3M)

Ms Daria – Russian Primary school teacher (Y4M, Y6)

Mr Anatoly – Russian Primary school teacher (Y4J, Y5)

 

Secondary school

 

Secondary school students have recently written the first diagnostic assessments, of which the purpose is to test students’ knowledge of all the Russian program subjects. The Y11 students are preparing for the Main State Exam with high levels of concentration. Students have already made their choices of subjects to pass and strenuously repeat all the material they have gone through in their Russian program subjects. They are also actively preparing to mock exams and fill in exam answer forms.

 

During Russian language and literature time Y7- Y10 secondary students are working hard to develop their written and oral skills. They are presenting projects and developing their interpersonal skills. One of the main sections of Russian Language of the first half term is "Vocabulary". It includes common vocabulary and limited vocabulary in use (professional words, dialectics, jargon, etc.) Studying this topic, Y8 students has created their own professional dictionaries of their parents. Even the teacher was surprised with some words they used working in small groups. But the teacher was especially surprised by students’ knowledge of neologisms (new words appearing in the language today). The children were trying to be the first to explain the meaning of words such as "twitter", "hashtag", "gamer", "diver", "life hack".

 

It is always good to remember that interesting information is easy to remember! Therefore, in the Russian language and literature lessons students learn the material with the help of educational games, communicative quizzes and cognitive tasks. The smartboard is also helpful in consolidating, repeating and checking the studied material. Secondary school Y7-Y9 students also took part in the all-Russian international competition called "Russian Bear".

 

Ms Elena – Russian language and literature teacher (Y7)

Ms Vera – Russian language and literature teacher (Y8-Y11)

 

Mathematics is a fundamental subject that develops logical thinking and helps to find the systematical solution of any issue. But our mind is better remembering information based on positive emotions. Therefore, maths lessons are taught with the help of various educational and visual presentations, video clips and applications with additional material and game elements. The material is presented in a simple way to be fully understood. Maths is not the easiest subject to everyone, but our secondary students are trying their best to cope with all the difficulties. They are attending extra Maths club to doing additional individual work, tests and homework.

 

The second term is very dynamic. All secondary students passed their first mathematics assessment perfectly, with no negative results. Now we are starting preparations for the second assessment which will be in February. Y7-Y8 students continue to study different types of numbers and practice arithmetic operations with them. Y9 students are getting acquainted with the system of functional concepts and continue to take their first steps in geometry. Y10-Y11 students are improving their knowledge of mathematics, and they have already set a goal to pass OGE exams successfully.  They are also studying new maths curriculum topics in parallel with the preparation for the State Exam and the develop exam skills by completing OGE tests.

 

We have a lot of work to do ahead but also a lot of interesting things to do too. At the beginning of next year all secondary students will take part in the international mathematics competition "Kangaroo". The tasks of this competition are designed to make each student find interesting solutions to questions and tasks, so I hope this competition will motivate students and help them to feel more confident about their abilities, which is one of the main goals of teaching.

 

Ms Olga – Russian Maths teacher (Y7-Y11)

 

An educational motivation is one of the key issues of all teaching methods and approaches of modern pedagogy. We always support our students' passion to develop and achieve their goals!

 

The great collaboration work of teachers and students is the basis of educational processes. School is a social developing system; we always have to move quickly and learn new things fast. No progress in life is not our motto! Our school teachers are actively passing professional development courses. In February the second assignment will take place, as well as the All-Russian Verification Work (VPR) and, of course, the mock exams. Detailed information will be posted in our newsletters.

 

We wish you a great winter and wonderful Christmas holidays. Enjoy this priceless time with your family!

 

Ms Anastasia – Russian Curriculum Coordinator

Russian teachers team

 

 

 

 

From Primary School:

Information letter from Mr. Paul, Head of Primary School

Dear parents,

Today, the Primary students visited Kidzania on their first excursion of the year.  Kidzania is an interactive city made for children that inspires fun and learning through role-play.  The students all said they had a fantastic time pretending to be in lots of different occupations and professions, and even one of our teachers said it was 'the best school trip ever!'.  There will be lots of media of the day coming soon on Edupage and Instagram.

Also today, Early Years had a visit from the unusual musical outfit Playtronica.  Playtronica's mission is to explore, inspire and provoke curiosity using music, play and creative possibility.  The children interacted with different fruits and vegetables to create their own musical compositions!  It was an amazing experience, and everyone really enjoyed the strange sounds they were able to create.  There will also be lots of media from this event too.

Rehearsals for the two Christmas concerts continue to go well, and there will be more details about them during next week.  Mr Simon is very happy with the progress made so far.

Mr. Paul Curry

Head of Primary
 

Now, here is some information from one of our newest teachers, Mr Joshua Prinsloo in the Nursery class: 

Dear Parents, 

We have successfully completed week 3 of this term. It may be getting darker and colder outside, but it doesn’t prevent us from having exciting activities to brighten up our days!  

Our topic this week in Nursery was shopping. We discussed the idea of shopping and how one goes about it. We explored a variety of objects related to shopping, such as a trolley, money and a shopping bag. We even made and decorated our own little paper shopping bags! 

In Phonics, we discovered the letter ‘h’. Because this sound is absent in the Russian language, it is very useful to learn the proper pronunciation of this letter. We learned some common words starting with h while developing the ability to recognise and identify them from other words.  

One very basic, but vital skill to master from an early age is the understanding of patterns, a repetition of 2 or more things. The concept of patterns forms part of mathematics, although it is the foundation of logical thinking and reasoning which is used in everyday life. This week we learned to complete AB patterns – where there are only two variables.  

Thank you for your continual support and care you put into your child’s development.   

Have a great weekend! 

Mr Joshua 

Nursery Teacher 

In addition, some news from Year 4J and Mr John Veshi:

Good day parents and patrons of CIS Gorki,

We are off to an exciting Term 2 with our Year 4 students. Here are some of the engaging activities we are doing in class this week:

During our English lessons, students are given an opportunity to rewrite a story they were presented at the beginning of term during our Talk to Write lessons. After being given the story "Elf Road" in previous weeks, students had to write and retell the story by changing the main character. This provides the opportunity for students to use adjectives and descriptive language to make the story more interesting. It is also a way to show their creativity in their story elements.

After beginning our new term, we continued learning about habitats in our Science lessons. We investigated the habitat of a snail and discussed what it needs to survive. Students were actively engaged when asked if one or more things were changed, would the snail survive? This brought thoughtful discussions and understanding of the necessities of an animal's environment.

Have a great weekend -

Mr Veshi

Year 4J Teacher

 

From Secondary School:

 

Information letter from Mr. Christopher, Head of Secondary School

I hope that you are all well,

This week we have been going through the minutes of our most recent student council. Based on the meeting minutes, we will be incorporating a wider ranger of educational activities into our lunchtimes. More details to follow soon.

For assembly, stunt divers visited us who explained deep-sea diving and how underwater videography works. This insight was fascinating for staff and students alike. We plan to have several different guests visit the school throughout the year to give children unique perspectives of the world around us.

With our theme of the month being Perseverance, this trip to the facilities of the Modern-Day pentathlon will give our students insight into what it takes to be a world-class athlete. The students will have the opportunity to meet and talk with some of the athletes. They may also see them participating in some of the events. On-site, there is also a museum, where the children can learn about the history of the discipline.

I wish you all a great weekend.

 

Christopher Kingshott

Head of Secondary

 

Message from the Mr. Vinicius Scofield (ICT / Computer Science Teacher)

Dear Parents, Students and Guardians,

First of all, for those who don’t know me, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Vinicius Scofield and I am the new ICT teacher that has just arrived in Moscow. I am not so new to the school as I have already been teaching some lessons online. 

I am very impressed with the school campus and students. We have a brand-new campus with huge growth potential. 

As I have just arrived, this week I am trying to get to know my students and colleagues, along with the surrounding area. I will overlook all aspects of laptops usage and the educational aspect of technology use in the school.

For the ICT lessons specifically, I bring new approaches where students have more practical and hands-on lessons. From now on, the focus of ICT lessons will be on how to use computers for problem-solving, and connecting such to computational thinking. We have a lot of web applications, gadgets, educational software that will be introduced throughout the year.  The lessons will also focus on building the necessary skills to use a computer wisely for school research, projects, data presentation and many other aspects of teaching and learning. 

It’s noticeable that our children show excitement and engagement within the ICT lessons, along with myself. I love ICT and I can’t wait to show the new format of the ICT lessons.

I will keep you posted in regards to the ICT curriculum and cool projects we have coming in the future.

Regards,

Mr Vinicius Scofield (ICT / Computer Science Teacher)

From Primary School:

Information letter from Mr. Paul, Head of Primary School

Dear parents,

Sickness caught up with me this week, which is unfortunate but unavoidable at times.  When unwell, it is better to think about the positives in life and not dwell on the negatives - if we all concentrate on what is good, we can overcome anything.  I hope to be fighting fit again on Monday.

Mr. Paul Curry

Head of Primary
 

Year 6 details from Ms Stacey:

Dear all, 

What an excellent start Year 6 have had to Term 2. Everyone came back well rested after the holiday and we kicked off our learning by jumping into new topics in all our subject areas.  

In English, we are looking at ‘Science Fiction’ and this has quickly become a class favourite. We have examined the features of science fiction texts and are more confident that we can recognise this amongst other types of fiction. We are using the Talk for Writing process to learn, model and begin writing our own science fiction stories. Our main focus is on character description, setting and openers. 

Our new topic in Science is ‘Living Things in the Environment’. We began the unit by examining habitats and food chains. We are pretty confident identifying consumers and producers and we understand the difference between predators and prey. We are moving on to deforestation next week. 

Negative numbers, perimeter and area and been our major focus areas in maths. We are confident when adding and subtracting negative numbers and have developed our understanding of area, particularly when working out the area of composite shapes.  

We are very excited to be learning about our international month country Japan. We have already conducted some research into our country, and we will be comparing it to Russia to see what their similarities and differences are. 

We are looking forward to the rest of the term! 

Thank you for your continued support. 

Miss Stacey

Year 6 Teacher

 

Year 1 info from Mr David:

There has been a lot happening in Year 1 this week!! We have been looking at instructional writing in Literacy, where the children have been writing down the steps on how to bake a cake and what ingredients are needed to succeed. 

In mathematics, we have moved onto 2D shapes and the children have been completing activities on the names of these shapes and their unique properties. This has been an exciting start to our term because we have begun our new topic of Ancient Rome (following on from Ancient Egypt). The children have been thoroughly encapsulated by this topic and this week we have been paying attention to the Roman Army and Gladiators (following on from our introductory lesson last week). 

Once again, I want to thank you for your support and I am very excited to continue our educational journey this term. 

Take care, Mr David

Year 1 Teacher

 

From Secondary School:

 

Information letter from Mr. Christopher, Head of Secondary School

I hope that you are all well.This week we have had our second Parent-Teacher Association Meeting, where we shared many of the exciting things happening in our school. Thank you to those that attended. Please feel free to ask questions and contribute to our agenda for the next meeting.

Shortly we will be announcing details of our first school trip of the year, which will be to the modern-day pentathlon training grounds, where students will have a tour, with some having the opportunity to try some of the events.You may have noticed a Christmas tree in our foyer.

Over the coming future, students will help decorate it, ready for advent Sunday.

I wish you all a restful weekend.

 

Christopher Kingshott

Head of Secondary

 

Message from the ESL Department

Dear Parents, Students and Guardians,

We are honoured and happy to announce that we started this school year with new ESL Department on board! The main priority of our school is high level of the English language knowledge and if there is any help needed, we are right here for you!

Our English as a Second Language team would like to share how additional English support is provided across school.

Communication is key! Therefore, students are strongly encouraged to use only English language to express their thoughts. CIS Gorki ESL department firmly believes that communicative approach will enhance students’ abilities to communicate in real-life contexts, express their feelings and explain things in English. ESL teachers seek to develop language skills in 1) vocabulary through extensive reading, 2) speaking in terms of fluency and comprehensibility, 3) academic writing, and 4) listening for details. Inevitably, our ESL learners have been increasing their awareness of correct usage of English grammar as well, throughout all language aspects mentioned above. Additionally, ESL department fosters a positive learning culture which helps students to acquire higher motivation that leads to wonderful learning outcomes.

Every lesson is thoroughly planned and concentrated on filling those knowledge gaps that students might sometimes have. ESL teachers are in a very close connection with all class teachers, and that means that every child who goes on ESL lessons has a personal programme and personal approach.

This week with KS2 we concentrated on our school environment and everyday timetable. We also started discussing different countries, their geographical and cultural peculiarities. We paid attention to the correct sentence structure, practiced making questions and improved listening skills. Our priority is to make a child feel comfortable in English-speaking environment and not afraid of using tit actively throughout the day.

KS3 students are focused on vocabulary building, reading and grammar. Our ideas for literacy and English this week encouraged students to think about how language is used to promote a particular sport, to describe personality and to how we can use our communication skills during shopping time. Technology is an important component of the ESL KS3 curriculum. We use a variety of websites as it correlates to the grade level instruction, as well as the needs of each individual student. Students love using different learning apps during ESL lessons, especially when we are building and improving vocabulary skills.

CIS Gorki ESL Team consists of amazing teachers who have many years of experience, fresh and creative vision of how a modern lesson should look like. They want ESL lessons to be informative, entertaining and engaging. The teachers try to make every English lesson truly beneficial and remarkable. So you can confide in them and be sure that your child will get the best English support that you could ever imagine.

ESL approaches, methods, and beliefs are consistent and, consequently, highly effective! CIS Gorki ESL students have already made good progress. That is why, ESL department ensures that they will keep up this excellent learning pace.

Regards,

Ms Valerie, ESL Coordinator, KS2 ESL Teacher

Ms Tamara, form tutor, KS3 /KS4 ESL Teacher, Tutor

Ms Anastasia, ESL Teacher and Russian Curriculum Coordinator

From Primary School:

Information letter from Mr. Paul, Head of Primary School

Dear parents,

Welcome back, and we hope everyone had a pleasant vacation (despite the lockdown).

Term 2 has got off to a pleasing start.  The weather may have turned, and winter has arrived, but we at CIS Gorki don't let that put us off!  The Value for this month is a suitable one - PERSEVERANCE.  Or, in other words, the value of 'never giving up'.  When it is cold and wet outside, sometimes we can be forgiven for wanting to stay in the warmth of our homes, but we PERSEVERE and we achieve what we want to achieve through never giving up.  Nothing is easy the first time you do it - and if we all gave up on something we couldn't do first time, not a lot would ever be achieved.  This term, we want our students to persevere in their lessons, and to not give up when things get difficult.  

Mr. Paul Curry

Head of Primary
 

This week, we have class information from our two newest members of staff.  Firstly, Ms Pauline is working with Year 2 at the moment, and she has this to say about her short time with the class:

This week we have spent time revising addition and subtraction in mathematics and using a 100 number cube accurately to solve problems.  Children investigated the concept of perseverance in Understanding the World and saw a short, silent clip about a young boy who aspired to become an astronaut.  Eventually, as an elderly man he succeeded and the children designed their own cartoon to illustrate this before deciding what their life goal was and whether they would work hard and not give up to achieve this aim.  In English we are reading Stories from Around the World.  Our first story was about How the Bear Lost his Tail and the children have been reading aloud, sequencing the story, predicting the ending and talking about their opinions of the characters.  Additionally they have tackled comprehension questions and written in full sentences to answer simple content question based on the text.  We have explored Pollution in Topic and Project and focused on the importance of recycling and how important it is to use water sensibly.  The children have been researching their ideas, designed a recycling poster and used a COP26 activity to decide what our planet will look like in 50 years time. 

 

It has been fun getting to know the children in class this week and I look forward to seeing them again next week.

Ms Pauline

Year 2 Teacher

 

Also, Mr Ian joined us before the holiday and became Year 5's class teacher.  Here are some of his observations about his time with the class so far:

 

New term – new teacher! Year 5 are raring to go and all geared up for Term 2

In English we have just completed our poetry focus having compared and reflected on poems with a natural theme. We’ve been able to extend this idea into writing our own haiku and cinquain, focusing on the correct syllabic structure for each type of poem. 

We’re currently moving onto a fiction topic that is all about myths and legends. We will immerse ourselves in examples of each text type and identify the features associated with each one. Once we are more familiar with the text features, we will attempt to write our own myth/legend. 

Moving on from a brief focus on reading timetables and also calculating perimeter more efficiently, Year 5 are practicing their subtraction skills by looking at the values involved and then deciding on the best method to use in order to do the calculation more efficiently and, of course, with accuracy.

Our unit on plants is coming to an end. Pollination was the key word and process that we explored this week. We learnt about insect and wind pollinated plants. Children had fun throwing screwed up paper at their teacher holding a ruler to demonstrate how their paper balls represented pollen grains and by collectively throwing them in one direction, there was a possibility that one paper ball (pollen grain) might actually connect with the ruler (representing a wind-pollinated plant). Unfortunately accuracy was not great and no ‘pollination’ occurred but also no teachers were harmed in the making of this activity!

In Global Perspectives Year 5 will be embarking on a unit that is essentially geographical in content. It’s titled ‘Working with other countries’ and will link with the International Month focus that all classes will engage in. Using the skill of research as a main feature, Year 5 will explore such questions as: What is a country? How do countries differ? How can we find reliable information based on various countries? We’ll have the opportunity to focus on a specific country once the International Country For Each Class Draw has been made and will link this into our GP topic.

It promises to be a very productive term with plenty of learning at the very heart of it. 

 

Mr. Ian

Year 5 Teacher

 

From Secondary School:

 

Information letter from Mr. Christopher, Head of Secondary School

We have reached the end of our first week for term two, and I have been impressed with how hard our students are working. This month's theme is 'Perseverance', which is especially apt for our examination takers this year.

This week we have had a famous street artist from Nizhny Novgorod visit the school. He talked to the students on this topic during assembly, which was very insightful. We also had the live draw for International Month streamed,  where each class had a country to represent selected for them. The children will create a gallery containing these countries for everyone to view on the day of the Christmas concert.

Next week will be our Parent Meeting week, where parents can discuss their child's progress via zoom. We will also hold our Parent Association meeting where we can share all of our exciting school initiatives. There will also include an opportunity to ask any questions. As always, please feel free to contact teachers via Edupage at any time. 

I wish you all a restful weekend.

 

Christopher Kingshott

Head of Secondary

 

Message from Mr Courtin (Science Teacher)

Science classes at CIS Gorki have been electric lately (literally) as the Year 9’s have started their static electricity unit and have discovered all sorts of fun tricks that exploit electrostatic charge separation, such as levitating plastic bags, bending water, and rolling paper cups without so much as touching them. Prior to that, they were studying plants and got to have an intimate look at lilies and the complex reproductive organs that are not only essential to flowering plants, but also beautiful.

The Year 11 class has also moved onto electric circuits and has made use of the laboratory to build their own circuits and design safe ways of connecting wires. They are, of course, taking their studies seriously and preparing for the upcoming IGCSE exams in the springs. 

In Year 7, we have been talking about animals, ecosystems and adaptations the last few weeks and students had the opportunity to create their Ultimate Animal for their chosen ecosystem, full of special adaptations and powers to help it survive. I’m always astounded at the creative that students can bring to class! 

The year 10s have had the most class time of all year levels and as a result, have been moving incredibly effectively through the curriculum. They have learned about specialised cells, done experiments to investigate osmosis in potatoes, tested the effectiveness of enzymes in their saliva to break down starches, and have graphed their motion in a set of races. They always bring a great attitude and lots of energy to class. 

Lastly, the Year 8s have missed quite a bit of class due to COVID related issues but we are starting off Term 2 right but looking at matter and peering into the tiny, tiny world of atoms and molecules and understanding the properties of all things that make up the physical world. 

Students continue to show enthusiasm and curiosity and I’m excited for what the rest of the year has in store.

Mr. Courtin

Science Teacher

From Secondary School:

 

Information letter from Mr. Christopher, Head of Secondary School

Dear Parents, Guardians and Students,

It was great to see so many people dressed up for our Autumn Festival, with many of the costumes being incredibly creative and scary. The carved pumpkins also looked great. When we return for term 2, we will announce how much money we collected for the dog shelter.

By now, reports should have gone out via Edupage. If you have any questions regarding your child's grades, please feel free to contact the teachers via edupage, and they will respond after the holidays. In the second week of term two, we will also have parent, teacher and student meetings so that you have a chance to discuss your child's progress.

I hope everyone has a good rest during the holiday period, and we look forward to everyone's return for Term 2, where we have a variety of exciting initiatives to announce.

 

Christopher Kingshott

Head of Secondary

 

Message from Mr Pedersen (Humanities Teacher and KS3 Phase Leader)

We have made it to the end of the first term! Congratulations! It has not always been easy, but I believe it has been a successful term. Our school has grown significantly and many new faces have been welcomed and assimilated into our growing CIS community.

To the students who are receiving their report cards I say: Well done all! Your grades are a work in progress and as your teachers will often remind you, school is the place to make mistakes. It is a place to try, fail, and try again so you will succeed later in your lives. So do not feel disheartened if the grades are not what you expect, and equally do not become complacent if you have received the grades you hoped. Your schooling is a process and you will grow and gain new knowledge throughout these years.

I have welcomed the ease of communication which the Edupage system affords us and I have been pleased with the number of questions I have received from both parents and students regarding homework and assignments. It highlights the active involvement of the whole community, and that is what makes a school successful.

History and Geography this term have obviously been new areas of study for many of our students and this has proven challenging. The language barrier can be a significant barrier in these subjects as there are many terms and ideas which are very specific to these subjects and the students may never have come across them before. In geography, even if you know the name of a country in your own language, it may be completely unfamiliar in English. This is a unique challenge and the students this term have put in a great effort overcoming it.

I wish you all a well-earned and restful vacation and hope to see you all back in school for the next term.

All the best,

Mr Pedersen

Humanities Teacher

KS3 Phase Leader

From Primary School:

Information letter from Mr. Paul, Head of Primary School

Dear parents and guardians,

The last full week of Term 1 has come to a close, and I know many of us - parents, students and teachers - are looking forward to a well-deserved holiday soon.  However, before that we have next week's Autumn Festival to look forward to.  Messages regarding it have already been sent via Edupage - and I am really pleased to see so many parents using it regularly already - and we are all looking forward to celebrating the end of term in a fun way.  

Autumn is a special time of the year, in my opinion.  It's when our planet looks at its most beautiful, with the colour changes of nature vibrant and breath-taking.  Autumn has also inspired some wonderful quotes from people through the ages: "The wind is rising, and the air is wild with leaves. We have had our summer evenings; now for Autumn eves!" – Humbert Wolfe

"It was a beautiful, bright autumn day, with air like cider and a sky so blue you could drown in it." – Diana Gabaldon

"Autumn leaves shower like gold, like rainbows, as the winds of change begin to blow." – Dan Millman

I hope everyone thoroughly enjoys their Autumn break from school when it arrives next week!

Mr. Paul Curry

Head of PrimaryThis week, we have two more teachers to tell us about their activities with students in their classes.  Firstly, Mr Marcin and Year 4:  

In English this week, we have written a character and setting description using complex language. The children learned to identify the different features of stories and used adjectives to describe the setting and main characters of familiar stories.  In grammar we understood how to use speech marks in writing to identify when a character is talking.  I am very pleased with the engagement from the students in our English lessons so far.

In Mathematics learned how to add two 3-digit numbers using column addition; subtract a 3-digit number from a 3-digit number using an expanded column method (decomposing only in one column).  Students have been working hard on their 3-digit addition and subtraction skills and in Science they investigated different types of medicine and what they are used for.  

I am enjoying working with these lovely students in Year 4, and I wish you all a pleasant weekend

 

Mr Marcin.

Year 4 Teacher

 

In addition, from Early Years, here is Ms Anna and her Nursery class:

 

This has been Nursery’s first week back after being closed and it is so wonderful to be back in the classroom together!  

On Friday last week, on our very first day back, we all had a fun day discussing the season of autumn outside. During outdoor play, we collected various leaves to then bring inside with us to create some beautiful autumn pictures. Afterwards, we read a story about a squirrel who was the fastest creature in the forest and would win every Golden Aron race. However, in the end he realised that the most important thing was helping and spending time with his friends! 

Then, this week, we’ve started to learn about our bodies and all our different body parts. We’ve also had fun continuing to create our alphabet books with the letters c and d, making both colourful caterpillars and fire breathing dragons! Everyone in Nursery have been fantastic remembering both the sounds and names of the letters we have looked at this term. We’re also been enjoying playing around the various 2D shapes to see how we can use them to create pictures, as well as funny triangular, circular and square-shaped faces. In Maths, all the children have been brilliant with their subsidising and number sorting. We especially enjoyed making our beautiful number crowns on Tuesday. Then, as well as looking at and naming in English our different body parts, we have also been discussing how to keep our bodies healthy. This week, we’ve particularly focused particularly on our teeth and oral care. We’ve discussed the proper way to thoroughly brush our teeth to keep them strong and have beautiful smiles. All children were also very good at picking out which sugary foods are bad for our bodies and teeth, shouting out “no!” and shaking their heads at the ice cream, lollypops, etc! Finally, we’ve also been exploring our five senses of sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch!  

We are so happy at how well the children are quickly settling back into school again after being away for two weeks and it has been so wonderful to see, from the beginning of this term, how much the children have become increasingly more confident and excited in circle time and class activities. I so look forward to next term exploring with them the topics of clothing, weather and food!  

Have a lovely weekend! 

 

Miss Anna

Nursery Teacher

 

From Secondary School:

 

Information letter from Mr. Christopher, Head of Secondary School

Dear Parents, Guardians and Students,

We are happy to welcome our Year 8, Year 10, and Year 11 back to school from Distance Learning. Parents and students succeeded in making the most out of the unfortunate situation, and we commend your patience in this matter. Of course, we cannot guarantee that Distance Learning does not occur again, but we can say that we are ready and prepared to offer the best learning experience possible. As the Head of Secondary, I am keen to keep developing, so I welcome any feedback that you may have.

I also want to touch upon languages and why we believe compulsory Spanish benefits our school. The level of the IGCSE Spanish qualification that students will eventually receive is of a conversation level rather than fluency. Spanish for us is more to encourage a love of languages and culture. Perhaps, in the future, we will offer different languages also. It is also seen as highly beneficial to universities and employers to have two languages IGCSE's.

I hope that you all have a great weekend, and I love forward to seeing all our students for the last week of term 1.

 

Christopher Kingshott

Head of Secondary

 

Message from Mr Alejo (Spanish Teacher)

Dear CIS Community.

In Spanish, we have been trying to build a base to help all students to improve their knowledge of the language. During recent weeks we have studied: the alphabet, numbers, pronouns, verb to be, regular verbs and some vocabulary. This will help us to understand the language and move further and faster in the future. With willingness and some effort, I hope that students will be able to talk in Spanish about some interesting topics.

Also, I uploaded all study materials to Edupage on weekly basis. In the next few days, we are going to see the improvement and results of the efforts made as we are having exams that will evaluate and motivate students.

Thank you,

Mr. Alejo

Spanish Teacher

From Primary School:

Information letter from Mr. Paul, Head of Primary School

Dear parents and guardians,

For many of us, this has been quite a challenging week.  Covid cases have caused the school into online teaching in many classes, and with this a readjustment of how we normally teach and learn. However, in everything we do that is challenging, we must meet it head-on and overcome - sometimes that is through trial and error, but eventually reaching solutions that perhaps on occasion we didn't know we had in us.  For that reason, I want to say a big thank you to the parents and students in Early Years and Lower Primary who have engaged with Zoom lessons this week, and we as educators have identified what works and what doesn't regarding how to best conduct this form of teaching.  

Elsewhere in the school, the monthly value of RESPECT has been to the fore.  Many teachers have commented to me via email, as I recover from illness in my apartment, how impressed they have been with students in general showing respect in many ways.  Speaking personally, it frustrates me that I am not able to be there this week to enjoy this - as I stated last week, I believe respect is one of the key fundamentals to the development of young people into fine young adults.  Respect everything and everyone - we are all equal, essentially, and all worthy of equal treatment and equal consideration.  

Mr. Paul Curry

Head of Primary

Now, onto details from class teachers.  In Lower Primary, our Phase Leader and Reception class teacher Kalyn wants to sing the praises of her children:

Reception have had a fantastic start to the year! We have been learning lots, and have put so much effort into everything that we have done. This week was no exception! We discovered that we all have superpowers – what’s yours?

In literacy, our class started reading a book titled ‘Supertato’. It is about a superhero who rescues vegetables from an evil pea! Using the story, Reception have learnt about character descriptions, labelling, and prediction. In Understanding the World, we discovered that we are all superheroes and that we all have superpowers – kindness, respect and bravery. We even made our own superhero disguises (masks and capes) and rescued kidnapped toys using a secret map.

Reception are doing a fantastic job with phonics – they are progressing at lightning speed! Some of the Reception children are already completing reading books with words in them!

In mathematics we learnt to count to 100! We also began to talk about measurement. We measured the heights of superheroes using cubes and discovered that you can match a person to their footprint by measuring length!

We are so proud of each and every single child and the progress that they are making, and we were so excited to share what we have been doing!

Have a wonderful weekend! 

 

MISS KALYN

Reception Teacher

 

In Upper Primary, Mr Mat and Year 3M have been busy too:

How times go fast? We are already in the second month of the school year and students have been adapting to the routine well. 

In English, we are learning about dialogue and how to write a quote using speech marks. Next week, we will start writing our own story where the main character encounters a problem and needs to find a solution. We are going to find an interesting setting for the story and develop the characters using adjectives. 

In Math, we have just started learning about multiplication and division. To understand these mathematical operations, we are going to be using manipulatives, we are going to be drawing and we are going to learn how to multiply by learning it by heart. We are going to learn about the special relationship between division and multiplication and find out how knowing 3 x 5 = 15, can help us find 15 ÷ 3 = 5. 

In Science, we have been growing beans for the past few weeks. We are now going to experiment by placing one plant without light and compare its growth to a plant with light. The students have given their predictions and will write down their observations of the changes. We are also learning about how temperature can affect the growth of a plant.

In Global Perspectives, the students have been finding ideas on how humans use water. We are going to reflect on ways that we waste water and come up with solutions to change some of our habits. In groups, the students will start preparing and present a poster of their idea to the class in the coming.

Have a lovely weekend everyone

Mr Mat,

Year 3M

 

From Secondary School:

 

Information letter from Mr. Christopher, Head of Secondary School

Dear Parents, Guardians and Students,

I hope that you are well. 

It is no secret that this week we have had our Year 8, Year 10, and Year 11 students in Distance Learning from home. Although this is not the ideal situation, the feedback I have received from teachers has been overwhelmingly positive. As a whole, students have conducted brilliantly, and they should be incredibly proud of this fact. We continually strive to improve our distance learning, with any feedback provided considered and appreciated. 

For the students that were in school, we had our annual Lazer Run event. The Lazer run models a modern-day pentathlon event when participants run and then shoot targets. The Olympians Sofia Kozlova and Artem Nedov also attended, and it was great to meet them. A lot of fun was had by all, and students participated for house points. We will share the results of the event next week.

I wish you all a lovely weekend.

 

Christopher Kingshott

Head of Secondary

 

Message from Mr Chris Mackin (English Teacher and Year 9 form tutor)

 

Dear CIS Community.

 

It has been a time of adjustment as our year 8, 10 and 11 students transition to online learning. 

Speaking as their English teacher, I have been hugely impressed with the way the students have managed the change. They have been punctual, alert and more than proficient at both contributing to lessons and submitting work. 

It has also been great to see how maturely the Year 9s have adapted to being the oldest in the school, being excellent role models to our Year 7 students and contributing to a pleasant and calm learning atmosphere.

Years 7, having finished Coraline, are now thinking about the concept of ‘The Hero’s Journey.’ They have especially enjoyed applying the framework to some of their favourite comic book characters and stories, something which has deepened their understanding of structure and the universiality of writing.  

Year 8 have continued reading Warhorse. To further their understanding of the novel’s context, this week and last we read war poetry. Written by serving soliders themselves, the poems offer a poignant testement to the human cost of war, an awareness of which will aid the students as they begin to discuss and write about the themes and issues addressed by the book.

I have been very impressed with Year 9’s ability to engage thoughtfully with Of Mice and Men. Though written in relatively simple language, it remains a mainstay in the British curriculum because of the wide range of themes it deals with, all of which remain relevant today. The students have shown a real maturity when discussing the book and their written work is a testament to how much thought they have dedicated to the book’s core meaning. 

Year 10 continue to work on their coursework. To help us we have studied short stories from writers as varied as John Cheever and Stephen King, with the students themselves identifying why these writers are as lauded in the form as they are. Now the fun part, with the students writing their own pieces, which will eventually be submitted as part of their coursework portfolio.

Year 11 have had an enjoyable time reading 1984. 1984 is a book that can be enjoyed as both an entertaining romp and a startling treatise. It is refreshing that our oldest students have been able to deconstruct and analyse it with the care and merit it deserves.

Something else that we are pleased about as a teaching staff is the ongoing usage of edupage. Streamlining communication like that is something that we believe will lead to mutually beneficial benefits, the ultimate goal being, as always, to best possible education for our students.

 

Thank you,

Chris Mackin

English teacher

Secondary Displays

Secondary ESL Board

From Primary School:

Information letter from Mr. Paul, Head of Primary School

Dear parents and guardians,

This week, we awarded our first set of specialist teacher awards to students right across Primary.  The sheer number of different children being rewarded for their wide range of different skills in various subjects is a real testament to the breadth of talent we have in our young learners here at CIS Gorki.  From showing talent in acting and performing, to creative artistic ability, to sporting prowess, it really does prove that everyone has serious ability and interest across our varied subjects.  

Our monthly value of respect is up-and-running, and I am delighted that I was able to hand out my first set of Headteacher Awards this week to three students who showed exceptional levels of respect in different ways.  I truly hope to be able to distribute more of these very special awards this month.

Mr. Paul Curry

Head of Primary

This week, we also have two more sets of testimonies from Upper and Lower Primary.  First up is what's been going on across Year 1:

Week 5 is nearly over and it went by in a flash. That is the beauty of teaching, every day offers new activities, revelations and interests, and as the saying goes, time flies when you're having fun.

It has once again been a really busy time in Year 1 with lots of activities happening within the school. This week, in English we started a new story entitled “What can we make?”, which helped the students identify the names of body parts and also developed their ability to deduce what a story might be about or what might happen. The students then made their own robots and presented them to the class! In Maths we covered number bonds and addition using a number line method.

This week we also learned about the Ancient Egyptian Gods and Goddesses, their meanings, history and attributes. Our students were amazed by the story of the Egyptian Gods and made masks of the ones they really liked. In Project, the children listened to a story about a girl who lived in Africa and were then encouraged to think about cultural differences. We had a very illuminating discussion on the similarities and differences between our way of life and the girls from the story. The students also made their own baskets with fruits and tried to carry it on their head as the main character did.

A huge well done to all the children who made us proud in so many different ways this week!

Also from our Year 1 team we would like to thank the parents for your kind words and wonderful presents on Teachers' Day. We are glad to be a part of the children’s growth and we will endeavour to keep making their learning journey both fun and of high quality!

Have a lovely weekend - the Year 1 team

Additionally, here are the comments from Year 3 teacher Mr Bronek:

Dear parents and carers - how time flies! We just had the beginning of the year and four weeks have gone already!  Though occasionally we are treated to sunny weather, we are aware that winter is on its way.  Children are very much enjoying the time spent in school and getting familiar with the curriculum.

Next week, in English, children will continue learning about character descriptions and will continue to improve their grammatical knowledge. In Maths, we have started covering various types of addition and subtraction and we are planning to expand onto structured multiplication and division. We are continuing to learn about plants in Science and we shall put our skills to practice when we start to grow them. Have a lovely weekend and the education continues on Monday!

Mr Bronek

Year 3 Teacher

 

From Secondary School:

 

Information letter from Mr. Christopher, Head of Secondary School

Dear Parents, Guardians and Students,

I hope you are well and have had an excellent week.

Our school building is large, with us having several display boards that need filling. As educators, these must feature excellent work created with enthusiasm and passion. Now that we are halfway through the first term of the academic year, our boards in Secondary are starting to take shape. I am sharing some of the pictures of some of them for you to see.

English is the primary spoken language of our school, although many of our students do not have English as their first language. By providing an environment where students are encouraged to speak English, we can ensure the development of the children's English language ability. Not everyone learns at the same pace, so we provide additional English support to those that need it from our excellent English as a Second Language team. I would also like to share the displays in one of our ESL classrooms.

I hope you all have a great weekend.

Regards

 

Christopher Kingshott

Head of Secondary

 

Message from Mr. William McQueen (Mathematics Teacher)

 

Dear CIS Community.

 

We are now one month into the school year and we are all settling back into the routine of life at CIS.

I have been impressed by the students in my classes, they are polite, work well and fun to have in class.

Year 7 have now finished the Number & Calculation 1 unit and will do a practice test before taking a test sometime next week. 

Year 8 will finish the Number and Calculation 1 unit and Expressions & Functions unit next week so we will do a practice test next week before doing the unit 1 Test the following week. 

Year 9 have now finished the Fractions and Indices unit and Expressions & Formulae unit and will do a practice test next week before doing the test the following week. 

Year 10 are working through their first IGCSE material on Numbers. We will finish this unit around the end of our first term and we will do a unit test early next term. Homework will mostly be Cambridge exam type questions so students are used to the type of questions they will see in their exams.

Year 11 are working through Cambridge exam type questions for Section 7 on Graphs on Mondays and Tuesdays and then on Friday’s we spend a lesson revising some important topics. At the moment we are revising the Trigonometry, chapter 6.

Study materials for all classes have been uploaded to Edupage and details of homework is uploaded on a weekly basis.

During my lessons, I like to show where Mathematics is used in real life and we like to do a Mathematics Kahoot so I can see how students are with the lesson content.

The school recently purchased a class set of Casio scientific calculators for students to use during the lesson and I would encourage each student to have a Casio scientific calculator at home so they can get to know the functions of the calculator and be able to use them with confidence. 

If you have any questions, please contact me anytime via Edupage.

 

Take care and stay safe.

 

Mr McQueen
Mathematics Teacher

From Primary School:

Information letter from Mr. Paul, Head of Primary School

Dear parents and guardians,

This week's assembly focused on our Value of the Month, which was RESPONSIBILITY.

Being a responsible young person can come in many ways: responsible for owning your own thoughts and feelings; responsible for your actions in and out of school and how they can affect other people; responsible in understanding what is right and wrong.  There are many others, but these for me are perhaps the main three, and I am really happy to see the vast majority of our cohort behaving in a responsible manner each and every day.

Our Values are underpinned by our adoption this year of Values-based Learning, and I was pleased to present this concept to our Parents Group on Thursday morning.  Values-based Learning takes a number of core values and inserts them into our regular teaching - rather than explicitly discuss different values, they are implicitly taught through regular teaching.  The end goal is to have out students self-assured, happy and - of course - responsible to the highest standards.  The presentation is shared with all parents at the foot of this newsletter.

Mr. Paul Curry

Head of Primary

We have two of our class teachers sharing their initial experiences in the classroom this week.  First of all, here are some thoughts from Mr David in Year 1:

This week in Year 1 we have been completing some exciting activities that will inspire and bring out the creativity in our students. In English, we have been studying a “Hide and seek story” which teaches our students about games and how we play them. The students then acted out the story and re-told it from their perspective. In Mathematics we have been focusing on numbers bonds and addition up to 20 and 30! 

Our project this week has been continuing our focus on Ancient Egypt. The children have created a drawing of an Egyptian person, which will be put on display on our new Ancient Egypt working wall very soon!! So keep an eye out for this, outside our Year 1 classroom !! The children also created a 3D pyramid which they took home on Tuesday. Let us know if you did not receive this and we can send one home with your child. 

We had a birthday this week as well - so happy birthday to Melania, who turned 6.  

Thank you for your continued support and we will keep the fun activities happening in Year 1

Mr David

Year 1 Teacher

Also, here is Mr John in Year 4:

In our English class, we have begun our unit of Storytelling. Students have been learning about the Elements of a story, starting with Characters and Setting. We discussed how some characters have good and bad traits. Our most recent activity on Setting had students write about what they saw in a visual picture of a mountain range. They really enjoyed this lesson as it allowed them to be creative and showcase their English abilities. In Maths class, students are reviewing their number facts in addition and subtraction. Students are understanding that there are many ways to create the value of 100 and learning the academic language for written word problems as well. The students really enjoyed an interactive game where students needed to correctly match the number problem to the correct answer when timed.

Regards

Mr John

Year 4 Teacher

 

From Secondary School:

 

Information letter from Mr. Christopher, Head of Secondary School

Dear Parents and Guardians,

I hope that you have had a wonderful week.

In collaboration with the HULT International Business school and a professor from the University of Harvard, CIS Gorki has enrolled our Key Stage 4 students on an exciting course. This course is focussing on Entrepreneurship and business startup.

Session one focussed on defining Entrepreneurship and allowed students to identify their strengths that suit the Entrepreneurial mindset. Session 2 focuses on the anatomy of a business startup whilst identifying methods for doing this with no money. These students will eventually have their ideas judged, with some ideas possibly becoming a reality.

In addition to this exciting initiative, please remember that Edupage has now gone live to parents, meaning that you can communicate with all of your child's teachers via the webpage and app, should you have any questions for them. We want to encourage such communication, as it is an integral part of the learning process.

I wish you all a wonderful weekend.

Regards 

Christopher Kingshott

Head of Secondary

 

Information letter from Mr. Jackson, English Teacher

This year is off to an amazing start for Global Perspectives, particularly in Years 10 and 11 where the students are preparing for their IGCSEs. They have been going over the strategies they can use when analyzing sources and how to use the facts therein to knock the essay portion out of the park. 

At the same time, the students in Key Stage 4 are equally busy completing their group projects, which will be sent to Cambridge as one of the components for their IGCSEs. In these projects, students work together and create local solutions to global issues. For example, one group in Year 10 is combating the negative environmental effects of the meat industry by organizing a non-animal product bake sale for the school, the proceeds of which will go to local charities. In Year 11, another group is coordinating lessons in which they will educate fellow students about gender inequality around the world and what we can do ourselves to be part of the solution. 

We are very excited to see the results of these projects and others. Soon they will finish their group projects and move onto their individual reports, which include an exciting range of new topics to dive into. The students have truly hit the ground running and are set to have an excellent year.

Regards

Jackson Bidwell

English Teacher

 

 

From Primary School:

Information letter from Mr. Paul, Head of Primary SchoolDear parents and guardians,We are edging towards the end of our first full month in school. In the Lower Building this week, there really is a lovely vibe to classes and lessons where children are clearly enjoying their education. I am particularly pleased to see our youngest students already following new routines with new teachers and following the rules automatically without being reminded throughout the day. In the Upper Building, the story is very much the same - quality education from quality teachers to quality students! 

Mr. Paul Curry

Head of Primary

 

Here is the first of our weekly updates from one of our class teachers - Ms Stacey and Year 6:

 

What an excellent start to the year Year 6 have made already. I have been really impressed with their positive attitude to school and that they are always ready to learn.  

This term began with us examining how people communicate around the world. We will be focusing further on how different cultures and people interact, through using ICT and engaging in research. Year 6 have already shown that they are able to communicate well through group work activities, in pairs and during whole class discussions. 

We have had fun during our science lessons, identifying different human organs and body system. As scientists we have conducted experiments to measure our heart rate and we are learning to think more scientifically.  

 In English we are reading ‘Cogheart’ and the children have already found the beginning of this book interesting. As writers, we have been using this to write descriptively, and have focused on relative clauses, fronted adverbial and subordinating clauses. We are getting quite good at identifying which is which! 

Our class is full of budding mathematicians, we have enjoyed reviewing our understanding of place value and have moved on to algebra. We are finding algebra exciting and are beginning to develop our understanding of how to work out equations that have two variables missing. 

 

Thank you for your continued support. 

Miss Stacey

Year 6 Teacher

 

From Secondary School:

 

Information letter from Mr. Christopher, Head of Secondary School

Dear Parents, Guardians and Students,

This week saw the start of our Ice Skating lessons, which will form part of our P.E. curriculum, starting with Year 6 and Year 9. For those that bought their Ice Skating equipment and permission slips, enjoyment seemed to be had by all.

We also hard four lovely furry visitors to the school, in the form of trustful canines. These four dogs were from an animal shelter owned and run by the parents of some of our students. They will be the house mascots for our house system, and we have several initiatives planned throughout our academic year to help give these animals the best life possible. More information will be to follow soon.

Mr. Christopher Kingshott

Head of Secondary

 

 

From Primary School:

Information letter from Mr. Paul, Head of Primary School

Dear parents and guardians, We are now smoothly into the new academic year, with our Primary classes all working hard on their core and specialist subjects in both English and Russian.  From observing classes in action, the bonds that are being formed by new and returning students are really pleasing to see, and just as importantly our teachers and assistants are forging positive relationships with their students, many of whom are new to each other.  It is always an important time of the year, and creating a happy and productive classroom environment works wonders for the rest of the year.  

This month's value that students are trying to follow in and out of lessons is RESPONSIBILITY.  Being responsible is a key trait that we want our students to develop throughout their education and into adult life.  Taking responsibility for your actions means understanding what you do and say can have impacts in many different ways, so choosing the correct words and actions are vital in being a positive young person.  Congratulations to those students who received assembly awards for clearly showing a responsible attitude this week.  

Clubs successfully got underway this week too, with many of our students taking advantage of the wide selection of activities provided by teachers and assistants.  Once again, it is great to see positive students choosing to do extra-curricular sessions on topics that interest them.

From now on in these bulletins, we will be hearing from one of the Primary class teachers, who will say a little about what has been happening in their classes in recent weeks.  The first dispatch comes from Mr Paul, the Head of Primary and also the interim Year 5 class teacher as we await the imminent arrival of Mr Ian from the UK.  

Paul Curry

Head of Primary

Mr Paul (Year 5):  It has been a positive and entertaining start to the year with this small but select band of students.  After a week of 'getting to know you' activities and baseline assessments across a broad range of topics, we are now working with textbooks on the core subjects of English, Maths and Science.  The standards of knowledge and understanding in all subjects are very pleasing, and I am really enjoying having discussion activities with these interesting and thoughtful young people.  Focus and concentration is good and they all clearly want to succeed in their education.  It is my task in these early weeks to get them not only speaking and writing in English but also thinking in English too - this means performing as if they are first-language speakers fully immersed in a second language, which is obviously challenging but something in which I believe passionately.  The more young people use English as their thinking and social language, the more natural it will become, and obviously, the more fluent everyone will become too.  I think they are all up to the challenge!

I hope everyone has a lovely weekend, and Week 3 at school will build upon the successes enjoyed across Primary so far.

From Secondary School:

 

Information letter from Mr. Christopher, Head of Secondary School

Dear Parents, Guardians and Students,

I hope that you're all well.

During our recent Secondary school assembly, we shared our vision for the house system and the student council in Secondary school. With these two bodies, several student leadership opportunities have opened up to the students. Such roles include Student Head of House and Class Council representative, where students can voice their ideas and suggestions for improvement to their teachers and school leaders. With such, our students can influence their learning, atmosphere and development for the better.  Not only do these roles provide valuable leadership experience, holding such a position is seen as beneficial when applying to universities. If students want to apply for one of these roles, they should complete an application through their form tutor.

It is a common misconception that grades and marks are the only things of importance when applying to University. However, the reality is that the world's top universities are looking for individuals with a wealth of experience in different areas. Such areas may include charity work, sporting achievements, extra-curricular activity and leadership experience. At CIS Gorki, many opportunities will exist for students to do this, and we would like to encourage all to take them throughout the academic year. Extra-curricular after school clubs have started this week, providing one such opportunity to develop, and we would like to encourage more of our Secondary school to attend.

I hope you all have a restful weekend, and I look forward to sharing more of our exciting news within the school next week.

Mr Christopher Kingshott

Head of Secondary