At NCBIS, we offer a varied ECA programme for our students to enrich and augment the mainstream curriculum, offering a holistic approach to child development. Our students are encouraged to participate in a vast array of arts, sports and creative activities according to their preferred interests, and designed to promote their engagement in big picture thinking, regular practice and perseverance in helping each and every young person to develop through a varied, structured range of activities. Board Games- tackling a giant Snakes and Ladder board. Austin and Osama work on their board game design. Chess ECA Carla and Karim - deciding who goes first. Chess 98 ECAS Colloborative castle building
Drama Skills - Improvisation Lego Building - Concentration Designing and building a maze Lego Building - Creating Together Drama Skills - Improvisation Exploring Purple Mash Exploring Purple Mash Exploring Purple Mash Lego Building - Imagination Lego Building - Imagination Lego Building - Imagination 99
vast array of arts, sports and creative activities according to their preferred interests, and designed to promote their engagement in big picture thinking, regular practice and perseverance in helping each and every young person to develop through a varied, structured range of activities. Lego Buiding Motor Skills Lego Lego Building - Concentrating Exploring Purple Mash Motorskills - hammer it Reading - engrossed in a good book Labeling emotions - What does my body feel like when i am in the Yellow Zone? Minecraft - The children used creativity to build and 100 Minecraft - The Year 5 and 6 children worked together to build worlds together using lots of discussion.
STEM Challenges - Designing our own Roller Coasters. Tom and William enjoying Cartooning Club. Zones activity Sophia, Toke, Hana and Andre enjoy a game of giant Snakes and Ladders. Omar’s Robot - Lego Building Designing a Winter Theme board game. Sewing Crafts Sewing Crafts With the help of a senior pupil, the children use their number knowledge to solve the clues to escape the room. The girls were working collaboratively to solve the Escape Room quest. Zak and Noah - playing fairly and problem solving. 101
Educational Visits On residential visits especially, there is an opportunity to develop social skills which have a long-lasting In the Primary School, we run a wide variety of educational visits ranging from short day trips to longer overnight trips far outside of Cairo. This year, we have had students visit Billy Beez, Fagnoon Art Centre, Cyprus, London, MonZoo, the pyramids of Giza and more. On each trip, students have gained valuable educational experiences and had fun! Nursery Kidszoo Nursery Kidszoo Nursery Kidszoo Y2 Fagnoon Y2 Fagnoon Y2 Fagnoon Reception Sitara Monkey Puzzle Reception Sitara Monkey Puzzle Y6 Investigating the Roman Ruins Reception Sitara Monkey Puzzle Y1 Pyramids Pyramids Y4 Pyramids Y4 Reception MonZoo Reception MonZoo 102 EDUCATIONAL VISITS Nursery Kidszoo
Y2 Fagnoon Y2 Fagnoon Y6 Inside the Hanging Church. Y3 had a great day at Fagnoon! Y6 Sketching geometric patterns Y5 Ski Egypt Y3 discovering the chocolate making process at Ganache. Y5 Ski Egypt Y5 Ski Egypt Y5 Ski Egypt Y4 Inside Khufu’s Pyramid Y6 Citadel 103
Year 6 Residential Trip to Cyprus 39 Year 6 students visited the Cyprus Environmental Centre in Kritou Terra from the 12th to the 16th of December 2022. The educational trip linked with the Year 6 topic, Global Goals. The Cyprus Environmental Studies Centre educated the students on matters concerning the environment, sustainability and good ecological practice and gave students valuable hands-on experience related to the topic they had been studying and researching in the classroom. Students took part in various studies and investigations like a freshwater invertebrate study, a study of the influence of wildfires on the environment, a beach litter investigation, and many other interesting educational activities. The trip provided many opportunities for Higher Performance Learning as students had to be open-minded, collaborate, be resilient and persevere when taking part in physical activities. Apart from the experience being fun and enjoyable, students were also given specific opportunities for critical thinking, strategy planning and for being creative. After dinner fun Arriving at Larnaka Airport Beautiful early morning scenery Dinner time Early morning exploration Last morning sunrise Lunch in the forest Y2 Fagnoon Y2 Fagnoon Y6 Inside the Hanging Church. 104 Y6 CYPRUS TRIP Akamas Peninsula Nature Trail
Egypt Air Waiting at Cairo airport Getting ready to find fresh water invertebrates. Studying small critters under the microscope. Fresh water invertebrate study. Bat walk Hiking to the river. Beach clean-up Going home Water study Welcome to Kritou Terra 105
λεξάνδρεια - Alexandria: Oh what a charm you were! As part of our topic, ‘Accomplished Ancients’, Year 5 and Groep 6 learned about the history of the Ancient Greeks and Romans that once ruled the land of Egypt. Their accomplishments here in Egypt are examples of the knowledge and wisdom that excelled these civilisations in their time as well as influencing future civilisations up until present day. They learned about the Greco-Roman era, when Alexandria used to be its capital. They visited the Roman Cemetery known as the “Catacomb of Kom El Skokafa”, and learned about the story of Emperor Caracalla. The adventure continued with a visit to Pompey’s Pillar and they saw the Serapeum that was used as a shelter for the hand-scripts saved from the fire of the original Bibliotheca Alexandrina in 48 B.C. After that, they visited the Roman Amphitheatre where Scientists and Philosophers used to give lectures during the glorious era of the city. A wonderful evening was spent at the beach playing games, dipping their toes in the Mediterranean Sea, and sharing many memorable moments. The trip ended with a stupendous visit to the modern Bibliotheca Alexandrina, where they were treated to a cinematic experience learning all about the history of Egypt. Until we next meet, λεξάνδρεια - Alexandria, farewell for now. 106 Y5-G6 ALEXANDRIA
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Year 5 / Groep 6 Educational Visit to PGL Liddington / London As a reflection of the topics covered, inclusive of Body Systems, Awesome Africa and the science modules they have studied, Year 5 visited the PGL centre in Liddington, England. There they worked collaboratively and engaged in raft building, buggy building, aeroball, challenge trail, challenge course, wall climbing and archery. These physical activities complemented the learning they undertook about the body systems that we have and how to look after them. Furthermore, they visited London where they explored two of the world’s leading museums: The Natural History Museum and The Science Museum. Lastly, they spent their final day at the London Eye to enjoy a bird’s eye view of one of the world’s greatest capital cities and spotted famed landmarks from an altitude giving them a fantastic vantage point of the city. They then finished their trip by attending Disney’s award winning musical, The Lion King, at the famed Lyceum Theatre. It was the best play of their lives, apparently! This trip was a wonderful opportunity for the children to travel internationally and explore another part of the world whilst still being able to reflect on their learning and more importantly, have an enormous amount of fun. 108 Y5-G6 PGL TRIP
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Primary assemblies at NCBIS aim to create, nurture and sustain a strong sense of community. They serve to develop a positive school ethos that helps us to become a close school community which celebrates each other’s successes. Assemblies at NCBIS include class assemblies, where classes demonstrate what they’ve learnt in class; HPL assemblies, where students learn more about HPL and the values, attitudes and attributes that make them better citizens; celebration assemblies where awards are given out for outstanding effort and achievement; and special assemblies for events such as Book Week, Sports Day and more. 2JE 2IC 2JE 2JE 2LC 2LC 2LC 6SN 2IC 2IC 110 ASSEMBLIES 2LC
Audience RCL 5NB 5RA 6SN 6SN 5RA 5RA 6SN 6EP & 6MC Assembly 5NB 2IC 6EP Assembly 6EP Assembly 6EP & 6MC Assembly 111
Black History Week In the Primary School we celebrated Black History Month by having our own NCBIS Black History Week from the 16th to the 20th of October. Every morning in the classrooms, during registration time, students listened to a wide variety of black music by different artists. Each year group then chose a song to learn and perform for the other year groups in the auditorium during the Black History Week concert. The concert formed the highlight of Black History Day celebrations on Thursday the 20th of October, where all students participated in Black History activities to celebrate the idea that diversity is beautiful. Many students participated in our Black History poster competition and handed in fantastic posters with inspiring quotes by black leaders and role models. Poster competition winners were announced during the Black History Week concert where they displayed their winning posters on stage. By finding out more about persons from different cultures and backgrounds whose contribution to society is often overlooked, and celebrating the idea that diversity is beautiful, NCBIS succeeded in making Black History Week a thought-provoking learning experience for all Primary students this year. BLACK HISTORY WEEK 112
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MATHS WEEK NCBIS Primary Maths Week 2022 - Maths Eyes and Maths Minds! In November we had a very successful and engaging Maths Week in the Primary School, full of thinking, enquiry, and action: with a theme of Maths Eyes and Maths Minds. There was a real buzz around the whole school. Children and staff were encouraged to remember that Maths is everywhere and we all encounter its wonder every day, but some of us might need to open our Maths Eyes to see it more, and consequently become more engaged. It was also a super opportunity to highlight how to keep a positive growth mindset when enjoying mathematical learning. Directly linked with our High-Performance Learning VAAs (Values, Attitudes and Attributes) and ACPs (Advanced Cognitive Performance Characteristics) children of all ages tackled open-ended Maths Enquiries, Maths in Art and they also used their Maths Eyes in and out of the classroom, to learn about our school environment. Every year-group, from Nursery to Year 6 collaborated together on The Great NCBIS Maths Eyes Trail and a huge number of students across all ages joined in with two Primary School Home Challenges. And it did not end there! Some upper Primary students visited Early Years to collaborate and use Maths Eyes, and Specialist teachers incorporated these very important ideas within their lessons too! Approximately 100 parents also attended a special Parent Engagement session to join in the fun. Thank you to all of the children, teachers, and parents for joining in with such enthusiasm, deeper thinking, wonder and joy during our NCBIS 2022 Maths Week. “Maths Eyes and Maths Minds are not just for Maths Week.” At NCBIS, we aim to fully embed these ideas in our everyday approach to Maths at home and at school. Long may this NCBIS Mathematical positivity continue! 115
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CHRISTMAS FAIR 117
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Our Key Stage 2 students collaborated and embarked on an incredible musical journey which featured rock numbers to ragtime, calypso and rock ‘n’ roll. This musical experience took our learners on a journey of discovery as we learnt about cultural differences all around the world at this time of year. We practised seeing different perspectives whilst celebrating together. We absolutely loved performing on stage. CHRISTMAS ALL AROUND THE WORLD 121
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CHRISTMAS EXTRAVAGANZA The Christmas Extravaganza is an all time favourite. It was really amazing to see the range of musicianship at this event. Performances ranged from dancing and showmanship to showcasing our best soloists and ensemble groups. 123
A Minibeasts Christmas A Minibeasts Christmas, a story centered around the miracle at Christmas and how all the lovely minibeasts were part of the magic that took place in Bethlehem. Year 1 and 2 took part in the Christmas performance which saw each class perform sections of the story retelling the event with some fantastic acting accompanied by a song and dance. The students all looked absolutely fantastic in the costumes parents organised, showing what support and enthusiasm our parents give to our school. The students took to the stage and worked collaboratively and demonstrated what could be achieved with hard work and resilience. It was a pleasure for the performing arts team to work with each class and they certainly managed to get everyone in the Christmas spirit with their catchy songs and dances. Excellent effort by all, well done years 1 and 2! 124 MINIBEAST CHRISTMAS
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The NCBIS Choir at Christmas Hosting the annual ‘Carols at the Embassy’ was indeed a moment for NCBIS to be proud of this year. are saying is the best Embassy Carol Concert to this day. This year NCBIS organised the massed choir concert giving the opportunity for 185 children in our British school community to show empathy and celebrate together in almighty song. By participating in this showcase, we all demonstrated our concern for society by raising money for charity. In addition to the Embassy event, our choir also sang at the Four Seasons hotel to spread Christmas cheer. Our NCBIS choir, led by Miss Lala, provided a medley of traditional Christmas carols and pop classics that were both entertaining and sung lustfully by all. Our youngest choristers practised well leading up to the event and hotel following their performance. 126 THE CHOIR AT CHRISTMAS
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HOUSE CAPTAINS Superhero House Day 2023 Superheros? NCBIS is bursting at the seams with superhero students! Last week our Primary and Dutch students took part in a Superhero themed House Day. Throughout the day, students took part in a variety of different activities. We saw our very own sporting superheroes display fantastic athletic ability in our sports activities as houses faced off against one another in multiple events which highlighted the great competitive spirit of the students at NCBIS. KS2 students were tasked with creating their very own Superhero movie trailer, I wouldn’t be surprised to see some of the ideas on the Hollywood screens soon! In the Early Years, the students showed tremendous teamwork and house spirit as they brought their very own life-size superhero creations to life. Across KS1, students created their very own superhero masks for their House superhero to wear proudly and even designed a menu to be served at their superheroes restaurant! It wouldn’t be a superhero themed day without comic books and our amazing students wrote and illustrated their unique comic books, telling the story of their house superheroes adventures. Overall, the whole day was a great success with fun had by all of our students as we look forward to the next House day! Primary House Captains, Vice Captains and the House Leader Mr Bradshaw. Air House - Ahmed Kassem, Eliza Naz Syed and Shenouda Shenouda. Earth House - Camillia Mokhtar, Lina Abdel Aziz and Sarah Salem. Fire House - Lillia Elazab, Nadi Halabi and Kenzie El Kaissouni. Water House - Srestha Lenka, Dahlia Methari and Eric Khalil. 130
CHILDREN’S MENTAL HEALTH WEEK Schools around the world celebrated Children’s Mental Health Week (CMHW) from February 6th to 13th and NCBIS was excited to join in with this important week. The theme of this year’s CMHW is “Let’s Connect”. Human beings thrive in communities, and this connection is vital for our wellbeing, and our survival. When we have healthy connections – to family, friends and others – this can support our mental health and our sense of wellbeing. And when our need for rewarding social connections is not met, we can sometimes feel isolated and lonely – which can have a negative impact on our mental health. For Children’s Mental Health Week 2023, we encouraged people to connect with others in healthy, rewarding, and meaningful ways. In the Primary/Dutch School, we had various activities throughout the week to help our students understand the importance of looking after their mental health and the role that relationships play in their mental health. Our Primary Mentors held special events in the auditorium to help students understand the importance of mental health and our student council hosted a dance party to help us all connect as a community, which everyone enjoyed immensely! Let’s Connect is about making meaningful connections for all, during Children’s Mental Health Week - and beyond. Working together, we can ensure all our children are making deep, meaningful connections that will improve their mental health. 131
INTERNATIONAL WEEK 132
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This year, the Primary School had a combined International Book Week and Poetry Week and what a rich learning experience it was for all. We kicked off the week with some of our teachers reading their favourite poems or extracts from books. A big thanks to Mr Cowley, Ms Browne, Ms Cooke, Ms Longmuir and Ms Nicholls for being confident enough to perform on the stage. In addition to this, we were fortunate enough to be treated to a poetry performance from a very talented Year 8 student, Samia Asfour, who had written her own poem about her home. We also had a visitor to school - the very talented Ms Yousra joined us to perform a few of her favourite poems. During the week, we took part in a COBIS Poetry competition with the theme ‘Who am I?’ in which all students wrote poems around this theme during their English lessons. The teachers absolutely loved reading all of them and it was so hard to choose a winner from each year group. We had lots of exciting events throughout the week such as the Book Character Parade, as well as parents and secondary students coming to share their favourite books with us during the week. It really inspired us all to read more at home and realise how important and fun reading can be. The week ended with an assembly in which the winning poetry entries from across the school were awarded with prizes. We also celebrated by listening to some of the winning entrants perform their poems, as well as being treated to poetry performances in different languages with the support of our wonderful MFL team. POETRY WEEK Book characters parade. Book characters parade. Book characters parade. Book characters parade. Poetry week - the prize winners. 136
Poetry week - Dutch poetry winner. Poetry week - an Arabic poem. Poetry week - a Spanish poem. 137
Primary Sports Days 2023 As the biggest house event of the year, Sports Day always brings about a wave of excitement across the whole of the Primary school. Students across the Early Years, Dutch and Primary school prepared for their sports days during their PE lessons and began to develop all the fantastic skills that would be on display throughout the day. As the Parents poured through the gates and onto the spectators area of the field the anticipation began to grow. Next up our students joined us alongside their teachers proudly sporting their house colours. Before each of the sports days our amazing team of House Captains and Vice Captains led each year group in a rendition of the House chants. This really built on the atmosphere and sent our students off to their first events with great excitement. Now to the action! Each year group competed in multiple events with points to be won for their House. As the students made their way from event to event, the skills on display were so impressive. Not only the physical skills and athleticism of our students but their teamwork, communication and most importantly the fantastic levels of sportsmanship and fair play that was evident across all sports days. As each day came to an end, our students having given their all, it was time to announce the winners of each individual sports day. In Early Years Fire came out on top. In Year 1 & 2 it was Air House who topped the table. Water took the title in Year 3 & 4 and finally the Year 5 & 6 trophy was secured by Air House. Four highly successful sports days led to such a close final leaderboard, so close to the point that there were only three positions with two teams tied on the same points. In 3rd place with 3400 points we had Water House! Tied for second place on 3470 points we had Fire & Earth House! Which means the winners with a grand total of 3695 points was AIR HOUSE! EYFS / Peuters - G1 138 SPORTS DAYS
Y1 - Y2 / G2 - G3 139
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NCBIS celebrated British Science Week in March with a flurry of activities and experiments across Primary. This year’s theme was ‘Connections’, and we used this hook to engage the children by looking for links and connections that exist all around us. Classes conducted fizztastic experiments such as investigating how much CO2 is in a fizzy drink linking this enquiry to their study of states of matter. Outside of class, the children were treated to engaging experiments during break time involving water. There’s always room for a bit of messy science fun! We were also lucky to have Ahmed El Droubi as a guest speaker from Greenpeace, who came in to speak to some of our classes. Thanks to his presentation, excellent connections were made between Year 6’s studies of ‘Global Goals’ and the Red Sea, protecting marine life, corals and global warming. Their new buzz word is ‘Zooxanthellae!’ 142 SCIENCE WEEK
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RAMADAN CHARITY The month of Ramadan is traditionally a month of charity, where we help those who are less fortunate than we are. At NCBIS, we strive to teach our children to have empathy and tolerance, to show concern for society, to be open-minded and to take action to help others and create change. Our students became “Action Heroes” this Ramadan by helping the workers at NCBIS to enjoy the holiday with their families by creating Ramadan Bags for each member of our support staff. From shopping for the items to creating the bags, our students were involved in every step of the way. The workers at our school do so much for us everyday, often in ways that we don’t always see. From the bus monitors who get to and from school daily to the security guards who keep us safe, from the cleaners who keep our school clean and orderly to the gardeners who ensure we have a lovely outdoor environment, we are helped by many workers on a daily basis. The Ramadan Bags initiative is one small way we can show our appreciation and help them during this important time 145
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EGG HUNT APRIL 2023 147