Welcome to 2015

I hope all students, parents and visitors to the site had an enjoyable and relaxing Christmas. I wish a Happy New Year to everyone and hope 2015 brings you health and happiness.

The Form 5 students have now entered a very intensive learning and revising period of the academic year. With the Checkpoint Examinations only weeks away the focus will be on preparing the students to perform to the best of their ability and providing them with the confidence required to achieve their potential.

I would suggest that if students have not started revising at home that they begin now. Many of the students have purchased the Cambridge Checkpoint Guide for students. I would strongly recommend using this resource as a revision aid as it is specific to the Cambridge Curriculum and will provide students with key information and practice questions.

As a side note, prior to the Checkpoint Exams, the students will sit the Form 5 Progression Test. This will allow the students, and I, to understand the progression they have made this year and provide valuable information about areas of English, Maths and Science that they may need to revise more closely. I will confirm by the end of the week the date of the Progression Test.

I would like to highlight that some of the Science topics covered in Form 4 may come up in the Checkpoint Exam. It is therefore imperative that students revise these topics at home using the Cambridge Student Book, their class workbook from last year and any other resources that they find useful. We will not have time to cover each part of the Science curriculum from last year in class as we still have Science units to cover from the Form 5 curriculum.

If you have any questions or queries regarding the examinations please do not hesitate to contact me at sarah.lee@obs.edu.pt

Many thanks. 

Christmas Party!

I hope to see everyone in their party clothes tomorrow with their dancing shoes on!

Criminal Penguins!

It was great to see everyone enthusiastic about the new Science topic. We will continue finding out about animals and their habitats tomorrow.

Remember to have a look at the work of David Attenborough on www.youtube,com

Some of the videos may not relate to the Science topic we are covering but they are very, very interesting. 

Here is the link to the penguin clip which first appeared on David Attenborough's 'Frozen Planet' documentary. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1f--GZSptnk

Enjoy!! 

The Start of Advent

It's that special time of year when homes are decorated with lights and the shops are full of people buying presents.

It's the lead-up to Christmas. It's also the start of a festival called Advent.

Advent is the season in the Christian calendar that lasts for four weeks.

It begins four Sundays before Christmas Day and ends on Christmas Eve.

At this time Christians look forward to the birth of Jesus and think about what this means.

The word 'advent' means 'coming' or 'arrival'.

It's also the start of the New Year in the Christian Church.

During Advent Christians attend church services. They light a special Advent candle on each of the four Sundays leading up to Christmas Day.

A wreath is another traditional Advent decoration, made from green leaves and circle-shaped.

They are often hung on the door or placed on the dining table.

Another part of Advent is opening the windows of an Advent calendar.

The calendar shows that Christmas is coming.

Each day a new picture is revealed.

Behind each door is a picture, or maybe even a chocolate!

The day after Advent ends is Christmas Day: the day when Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.

Study Guides

There has been a new page added to the blog titled 'Study Guides'. This page has revision books ideal for the Cambridge Checkpoint examinations. Although the exams are a few months away, it may be a good idea to purchase these if students wish to complete individual revision at home.

Learning Objectives

The learning objectives for this half-term for English, Maths and Science are available to view on each subject page. I believe sharing the learning objectives with parents is a good communication tool as it enables you to understand what your child is learning in class. I hope you find it worthwhile.

Congratulations!

Well done to everyone who competed in Lisbon.

A special congratulations to the Boys Division 5 Basketball team who won the Fair Play Cup.

English Website

Thank you to Sunny for finding a very good website to revise and test our English knowledge and skills.

http://www.compare4kids.co.uk/literacy.php

Please chose a few activities from 'Week 1 Day 3' (verbs and adverbs) to see how good your English is!


Miss Lee

Lisbon!!!

Good luck to everyone from OBS who is representing the school in Lisbon! 

Welcome back!

I hope everyone had an enjoyable and relaxing half-term break.

Can I ask that all students who are going on the Lisbon sports trip to return their permission slips as soon as possible.

Many thanks!

Enjoy!

It has been a fantastic start to Form 5. I hope everyone has a great half term break and has the opportunity to reflect on what they have achieved so far this academic year. 

Enjoy!!

Miss Lee J

Diwali

Yesterday we celebrated Diwali with a variety of activities. I would like to thank Sunny, Soham and Ishaa who discussed their traditions with the class in detail and could answer questions that the class asked. The boys in the class had a fantastic time wearing the traditional dress that Sunny brought in to share.

A special thanks must go to Ishaa's Mother who kindly came to class and showed us some of the objects and materials that her family use during this festival. We also had the pleasure of watching Ishaa and her Mum dancing to some Indian music. 

Please see the 'Class Photograph' page for great images of the day.

Happy Diwali to everyone! 

Harvest Festival

A reminder to students.

Everyone should wear PE kit to school tomorrow and bring full school uniform in their bag to change into before we leave as a class to celebrate Harvest Festival.

Many thanks.

Cross Country

Unfortunately, due to adverse weather conditions the cross country competition that was scheduled for tomorrow (Friday 17th October) has been cancelled.

Reminder

OBS Cross Country Championships 2014-2015

Parque da Cidade,   Friday October 17^th 2014

End of half term assessments

The end of half term assessments for Maths, English and Science will take place next week.

Monday - Maths
Tuesday - English
Thursday - Science

The assessments are designed to test students knowledge of the topics they have covered so far in each subject this year.

As a side note, the Primary section will participate in the cross-country championships on the morning of Friday 17th October.

Kensuke and Cakes

It has been an extremely busy day in 5L. The morning started with students learning how to write a newspaper report using Kensuke’s Kingdom as a stimulus. The novel is proving to be very popular with everyone eager to find out what is going to happen to Kensuke and Michael. Though the novel is a piece of fiction there are many aspects to the story that are based on real events. The class have recently found out that Kensuke sought refuge on the island because of the atom bombings in Japan near the end of WWII. Many students could discuss their prior knowledge of this topic and others carried out research at home and brought it to class to share with their peers. Understanding historical events is imperative if students are to understand the world which we live today. It was excellent to see all students engaged and responsive in their learning of this topic. 

In Maths, we put our measuring skills to the test by making fairy cakes! Mr Evans, though NOT a professional chef, was on hand to help the class with the activity. Both Miss Lee and Mr Evans were extremely impressed with the student’s ability to work cooperatively in their group and how they followed a recipe using the exact amount of ingredients required for the cakes. Understanding how to apply Maths knowledge gained in the classroom to a wider context is something the class are working on this year so there will be more activities like this for the students to look forward to. Below is a photograph of the class and more photographs are available on the photographs page. If students wish to try the recipe at home it is available on the Maths page.

 Miss Lee would like to thank all parents for their generosity to make this activity possible. 

Fairy Cakes

This week in 5L we are concentrating on the topic of Measure for Maths. On Wednesday the class will be putting their knowledge into a real life context. We will be measuring ingredients to successfully make delicious fairy cakes! Each student has been asked to bring in something to help their group complete the activity. The ingredients should be brought in on Wednesday. Thank you to everyone for their participation in the activity. 

Weekly Roundup

It has been a busy week in 5L!

In English, we focused on improving our comprehension strategies so that we are able to understand a piece of text better. This involved the class discussing and selecting the main ideas from ‘Kensuke’s Kingdom’ and only noting down the information we thought vital to the novel. We also had the opportunity to create a visualiser (please ask the students what this is as it can be used as a revision strategy for all subjects) and we summarised the ideas into paragraphs. The class would like to thank Miss Corcoran from the secondary English department for coming into the class and teaching us about inference. Inference is a difficult skill to develop but Miss Corcoran was thoroughly impressed with our answers.

Division was the focus in Maths with everyone consolidating their learning in a variety of ways. Miguel’s favourite Maths game this week was division ‘Snakes and Ladders’. He said “I learned more about division and how I could improve and challenge my learning. I also found out the times tables that I could work on at home”.

‘Organs of the Body’ is proving to be a popular topic in Science. The class completed their investigation about the ‘heart’ with everyone participating in various activities. Mariana enjoyed the Science lessons as she “thoroughly enjoys learning about this topic as it is very interesting” and Beatriz thought about “the organs as a puzzle” when her group had to put the science dummy’s organs back together.

Photographs from the week are available to view in the ‘Class Photographs’ page. 

The decision has been made...

The votes have been cast and counted. The class have decided that the name of the Form 5L teddy will be...