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HUMANITIES DEPARTMENT INCLUSIVE LEARNING DEPARTMENT At NCBIS Humanities takes a panoramic sweep across the traditional subjects of History and Geography, engaging with students to investigate our fascinating past and the world that we live in from both a physical and a human perspective. We share our lives together on this planet and the two subjects are intrinsic to our making sense of our experiences. The subject of Psychology adds spice to this by delving deeply into the way our minds work, relating directly to both History and Geography. In Economics and Business students investigate the ethics and mechanisms of the economies that are studied in History and Geography. Humanities is very well named, because it is all about ourselves. Stephen Parr 200
The MFL department, in keeping with the whole school ethos of embracing high performance learning, aims to create and develop enthusiastic and independent learners. We are committed to establishing a learning environment that encourages students to feel confident about taking risks and developing informed opinions about the world around them. Our curriculum focuses on learning, rather than teaching; we want students to reflect on and enhance their skills, ask questions, recognize patterns, make comparisons and enjoy the challenge. We aim to support students to understand other countries and cultures so that they can be more open and adaptable to new experiences, ensuring that each topic contains an element of cultural reference. The department is committed to developing strong, lifelong linguistic skills and to encourage students to become curious and interested in the world. Ultimately, we want our students to have a love of languages and aim to achieve this by nurturing a linguistic curiosity and an intrinsic motivation to explore and respect other cultures and people. The MFL Department is a dynamic, passionate, and enthusiastic department; a collaborative and creative approach to teaching and learning is embedded within the daily practice and future planning. The department endeavours to make learning languages fun and meaningful, providing students with many opportunities for both collaboration and independent work in each lesson. All four skills (Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening) are covered in every unit and opportunities to revisit key skills, in different ways, are built into students’ learning journeys. Grammar is the foundation for building language skills. Learning grammar enables students to speak and write more accurately, confidently and fluently. Consequently, grammar skills are taught explicitly through every unit of work, and regularly revisited; emphasis is on equipping students with the linguistic skills to unpick and decode unfamiliar language. Lessons are engaging and seen as bricks in the ever-growing bridge of language learning. We strongly feel that students need to be involved in tasks they find interesting in an environment where active and successful learning is encouraged. Competitions, technology and quizzes keep motivation levels high in lessons. The MFL department has high expectations for all students and the climate for learning encompasses the contributions of all abilities; we trust in the success of each student. A range of strategies, such as group talk, think-pair-share, learning buddies, role plays is employed to create a classroom culture where learning from others is valued. Learning in the classroom is enhanced through regular homework tasks, which consist of vocabulary learning, grammar learning, extended writing tasks, exam practice, and quizzes. Students need to be resilient language learners. Within the MFL classroom, we consistently emphasise that it is acceptable to make mistakes. We believe where students learn is in deciding how they move on from these errors. This open environment allows students to grow in confidence and not feel intimidated in speaking out in front of the class. Opportunities for reflection are built-in at regular intervals, and the curriculum is designed to build students’ independence. With skilled linguists in the department, we endeavour to challenge our students by using a high ratio of the target language. It is one of our aims to expose students to as much authentic language as possible through the classroom teacher, and the use of videos and audio materials. Using the target language ensures that students are hearing authentic language each time they are in the MFL classroom and by immersing them in the target language we aim to help them use it more independently and this will lead to increased confidence and a wider vocabulary. Claudia LoPresti MFL DEPARTMENT 201
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PHYSICAL EDUCATION DEPARTMENT PE lessons at NCBIS should be challenging but fun. We aim to foster a love of sport, a desire to improve and an opportunity for each student to find an area of sport and physical activity that they love. Not only do students learn a wide range of skills for different types of sports, but they also learn how to take part in physical exercise in a safe way and they learn how to analyse and evaluate a performance by identifying strengths and areas for development of their peers. Developing leadership skills is an important part of our curriculum. Our curriculum also supports our competitive sports programme with activities aligning with our different seasons to allow students to develop skills at an accelerated rate and also decide which sporting squads they’d like to sign up for. In addition to our core PE curriculum, we also provide academic pathways in Key Stage 4 and Key Stage 5 with our GCSE PE and Sports Exercise and Health Science options being popular with students. We are very proud to boast strong pupil outcomes in these areas. Louis Fearn 203
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DRAMA DEPARTMENT At NCBIS the Drama department is dedicated to creating a collaborative learning environment with high quality education. Students are encouraged to work in a cooperative manner, with kindness, openness, and curiosity. Our Drama curriculum aims to meet the needs of all students, providing each of them with a range of opportunities to learn and achieve. We aim to enrich the cultural, emotional, and artistic understanding of our students by exposing them to a diverse range of performance styles, play texts, practitioners, and cultural theatrical traditions. Our overarching aim is to give students the confidence to express themselves with clarity in a range of situations both in and out of their comfort zone and enable students to develop a thirst and passion for all aspects of Drama and the Theatrical arts such as performance, design, directing, scriptwriting, and backstage disciplines. We are very proud of the excellent results we have achieved at GCSE Drama and IB Theatre. Along with the Music and Art department we are also committed to producing shows that will continue to delight, entertain, and educate audiences whilst enhancing the skills of our students. Andrew Davison 206
VISUAL ARTS DEPARTMENT At NCBIS the Art Department offers outstanding teaching in Art History, Design, Art Education, and Studio Art. We are dedicated to enriching the technical skills of our students, as well as their appreciation and understanding of concepts. Our curriculum encompasses all strands within Art and design; Fine Art, Graphics, Photography, Textiles, Craft and 3D Design. This approach enhances the student experience and level of creativity. We teach a diverse range of media and techniques; landscape painting, portraiture, observational explorations and more. In addition we have an outstanding Mac lab, with drawing tablets and the Adobe suite installed on each computer. We also have a Laser Cutter and 3D printer. We endeavour to expose students to a diverse range of artists. Therefore, we seek opportunities for students to go on trips to national and international galleries and museums. To enhance the development of international mindedness of our students, we also take part in a range of national and international Art and Design competitions. Amy Rowe 207
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SECONDARY EVENTS 209
CAS: NCBIS has been able to continue with our pre-Covid selection of extra curricular activities and in particular our service opportunities for students including APE Literacy, Sudanese Kush art and PE, retirement home visits amongst others. We started off the year with a wonderful CAS Fair that offered students a chance to see what opportunities for CAS experiences and projects are available to them locally. The Year 12 and Year 13 students also showed off their CAS projects. From leading and organising successful Valentine’s Day, raising funds for Breast Cancer, sponsoring Amputees by planning Movember, leading secondary sports events like Table Tennis and Basketball competitions, and celebrating World Cup Matches, students are gaining leadership skills and learning how to engage with the community. EE: The Year 13s completed their extended essay (EE) early on in the year and were presented with EE plaques during assembly to celebrate their achievement of writing a 4000 word academic essay on a topic of their choice. The Year 12s have now begun their journey. TOK: The Year 13s have completed this course and are using the time to study. The Year 12 students are preparing for their exhibition coming up in April. Susie Belal CAS EVENTS 210
BREAST CANCER AWARENESS DAY 211
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BRITISH SCIENCE WEEK 213
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CAREERS DAY 215
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HALLOWEEN 217
COP 21 SYMPOSIUM EVENT 218
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KARAOKE EVENTS 220
KS3 WINTER BALL 221
WORLD CUP 2022 222
SOAK THE TEACHER 223
SPORTS DAY 2023 224
UNIVERSITY FAIR 225
INKTOBER 226
SECONDARY PASTORAL 227
KS3 I have been delighted with our Students in Key Stage 3. Students in Year 7 have had a very successful transition and responsible members of our community. The Lifeskills’ trip to Sohkna created many memories for us all as a year group and I hope everyone felt like they had developed essential skills from this trip. Year 8 continues to develop on their successes achieved in Year 7. The focus and dedication that are demonstrated on a consistent basis shows their maturity as a year group and a desire to be successful. Key Stage 3 and are starting to consider how life in Year 10 might look following on from their Options’ choices. A stand-out moment for this year group has to be the personal project work that was completed earlier this term. Students showed excellent maturity and enthusiasm and I hope that this contributes to their success over the coming years. James Godber 228
This year has been an exciting, busy and very productive year in KS4. Our new Year 10 students have gradually grown into the additional responsibilities asked of them as they begin to undertake their GCSEs whilst our Year 11 students have shown a great maturity, responsibility and an increased level of autonomy over their studies. We have had several opportunities for our students to develop their leadership skills and qualities through applying for student council, prefects, house and vice captains. Each of these roles have been undertaken with a true commitment to making the student experience better for all at NCBIS. Our athletes in KS4 have worked tremendously hard and shown a great desire and commitment to proudly represent NCBIS in our local CISSA tournaments as well as individual competitive fixtures against other schools. We have competed in netball, basketball and football matches throughout the year with our Under 16 girls having successful match againms MBIS and MES, our Junior Varsiy boys football team finishing 3rd in their CISSA tournament and our Junior Varsity boys basketball team finishing 2nd in their CISSA tournament. As the year has progressed our Year 11 have really stepped up their efforts having gone through a very successful mock exam schedule. I was very proud of some of the results achieved. These results were a reward for the hard work, inquisitive learning and fantastic perseverance and resilience shown by Year 11. They have set the bar high for Year 10 next year. We have also had opportunities to challenge ourselves beyond the classroom walls and even beyond Egypt with Key Stage 4 students successfully going on our Challenges week trip to Paris and Brussels. Here they were able tom immerse themselves in some new or foreign cultures, try out some of theur skills learned in Frenc MFL as well asd challenges themselves to become more independent when navigating life in a foreign city. A wonderful trip to Disneyland Paris was the culmination of this trip, a great time was had by all. I would like to wish all of our Year 11 students the very best of luck with their upcoming exams and, wherever they may be, their next stage of education. If this isat NCBIS I look forward to seeing you grow and mature further into Year 12, however, for those who are moving on remember to stay in touch and all the very best of luck. Thomas Bradshaw KS4 229
KS5 The Sixth Form years mark a transitional period for students- a time when students become young adults, develop their independence and embrace many new aspects of life. Some of you are towards the beginning of this journey; continuing to adjust to the higher academic demands of IB or A Levels, whilst others are about to leave NCBIS and embark on a new, exciting chapter of your lives. Whichever stage of your Sixth Form journey you are at, remember that you CAN accomplish great things with a little bit of dedication, motivation and perseverance . Many of you are now starting to realise your passions and your strengths and to develop a deep understanding of the wider world and your place in it- and it has been a pleasure to have been able to be a part of this journey. I am proud of each and every one of you and what you have accomplished here at NCBIS. As Walt Disney once said, ‘all of your dreams can come true… if we have the courage to pursue them’. I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavours and I am confident that with a little bit of focus and determination, each and every one of you can achieve what you set out to do, whatever this may be. Hayley Stainton As I reflect upon the academic year 2022- 2023 I can see the challenges and obstacles that many of you have had to overcome; from academics to social aspects to becoming the global citizens that I am proud to say are NCBIS students. Many of you are now starting to pave out your future beyond school and explore new horizons- it isn’t easy and nobody expects you to have all of the answers right now, but I have been extremely impressed with the research and due diligence that you have undertaken when making important decisions, such as which university to apply to or which CAS experience would be most beneficial to you. 230
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