STEAM week was a special event for the Primary school at BIST. It was a week where children learned things in a slightly more ‘hands-on’ kind of way. But what does STEAM actually stand for?

S – Science

T – Technology

E – English

A – Art

M – Maths

A mixture of the core subjects and challenges all students need to attempt to understand and engage with throughout a school career.

This week was an opportunity for children to try something different. The subject was FOOD, which students found very appealing! For the start of the week, the teachers did a colour experiment with substances and quite a big explosion that caught the students’ attention. And that was just the beginning because this particular week was even more challenging because many discovered certain art skills that they didn’t know they even had, cooked a delicious salad, and participated in fun games. 

Students realised that learning is not so difficult and it’s actually pleasant.  They can’t wait for another STEAM week where they can have a lot of fun while learning!

The second edition of House Games at the British International School of Timisoara was one of the biggest successes in the school’s early history.

British School of Timisoara selected a lot of students from both the primary and secondary school to represent the sports teams.  Mr. Cosmin, the PE secondary school teacher, and Miss Fabiana, the primary school PE teacher, organized teams for basketball, football, table tennis and badminton. The teams were organized by year groups and by key stages. The students made the teams according to their talent and abilities. The House Games did not just consist of only sports competitions, but also Kahoot with the following topics: Geography, Science and English all hosted by Mr. Jennings and Ms. Kristina, Miss Milica and Mr. Nastase. Ms. Milica told students that it would be really fun if we would organize these Kahoot games, so the teachers tried to find the easiest way to play it online all at the same time in our lunch hall. 

BIST in collaboration with the leaders of each house (Lupus, Ursa and Aquila) will organize new house games after this lockdown for all the sports previously mentioned. The most important thing is that each house will not be represented in the competitions by the most athletic students, but also ones who are trying to learn new sports and participate and created many memorable experiences at school. 

The last games were held on 21st of February, which was also the Romanian Culture Day. The event was quite epic and all the students were very happy and enthusiastic to participate in the challenging but entertaining obstacle course. There were not only sports games, but also some very interesting general knowledge questions about Romanian Culture.

It was very important for both teachers and students because we all got to know each other better and we saw what each of us is capable of. It was a great event that definitely made the BIST community stronger. 

The leaderboard for the House Points are presented here:

 1st  place: Ursa  – 3187 points

 2nd place: Lupus – 3017 points

 3rd place: Aquila – 2380 points

These are not the final scores and there will be more activities from which houses can earn lots of praise points and bring their team to the top.

The COBIS Art Competition is a celebration of creativity across o the COBIS member schools. This is a fantastic opportunity for our students to compete on an international level and gain exposure, as their artwork is viewed all over the world. The COBIS Art Competition 2020 started in October and ends on Friday 28th of February.
The theme for the COBIS Art Competition 2020 is ‘Today’s Actions Shape Tomorrow’s World’. Students can interpret this theme in any way they wish, but it must be reflected in their artwork.

There are five categories students can enter:

• Early Years and Foundation Stage
• Key Stage 1
• Key Stage 2
• Key Stage 3
• Group Entries

The winners will be announced on the COBIS website by early April 2020. The winning entries will be published on the COBIS website.

The 9th grade students learned about Pop Art during the Creative Arts classes. They were introduced to different visions of this modern art trend, by studying the works of Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein but also by applying the concepts in practice. Using bright colours, water colours, markers, pencils, bold outlines and repetitive patterns they created their own works that were displayed in the school’s main hall.

The Carol service happened on the last day of school before the Christmas holiday, at the Millenium church. This was the first event of its kind that had ever taken place: there was anticipation, nerves and excitement. Every year-group at BIST was prepared to sing their festive song. 

The celebration started in the morning with designated  students arriving earlier for last minute rehearsals. Before the service, students distributed the programmes to the parents who had arrived early to ensure a good view of the service. By the time we began, the whole church was full of students, staff, parents, grandparents and other family members. It was an incredible sight to see. The Y7, Y8 and Y9 sang together three songs. Between the songs, we had readings, telling the story of the nativity. Our voices filled the cavernous church as we sang a celebration to Christmas but also to the beginning of the life of this new school.

In December 2019, the first Christmas show at the British International School of Timisoara took place.  Children from all the Primary School classes performed in front of their families in a beautifully and seasonally decorated lunch hall.  First, years R, 1 and 2 performed a wonderful show about why we celebrate Christmas. The two children who played Mary and Joseph, the religious characters in the Nativity story, were amazing. The cutest part was that all Key Stage 1 children wore stars. Key Stage 2 also had an amazing show: six children travelled metaphorically to different countries to see how every nation celebrates Christmas. After the theatrical performance, the children were praised with enthusiastic applause which was very well deserved! 

On the 1st of December, students from BIST celebrated The National Day of Romania. This celebration was special, not only because it was the first National Day celebrated by BIST, but also because it could be celebrated and enjoyed by all our nationalities in the school.

For this occasion, the students from Primary School presented information about Romanian history and culture. Students from Secondary School attended a presentation about the Great Union: this was held in the school’s atrium. Students from Spain, Great Britain and Poland celebrated Romanian day by making wishes in… Romanian! At the end, all the students participated in a traditional Romanian dance, emphasised by the colours of the students‘ houses: red, yellow and blue.

Everything was joyful and multinational: a superb, uplifting first Romanian National day at BIST.

In October 2019, four of our Primary School students took part in the Reagional Creative Writing Competition, „Clipe de toamnă”, organized by ISJ Timiș, CCD Timiș, Secondary School no.7 ”Sfânta Maria” and ”Împreună pentru copii” Association.

Based on a collaboration agreement between the two schools, BIST students, coordinated by Ms. Adelian Leanca, Romanian language teacher and Ms. Raluca Bembe, Romanian language teacher, competed in the creative writing section. They won outstanding awards for their creations, which makes us proud of their involvement in activities outside of school:

Lara year 4     – 1st place

Gloris year 4  – 1st place

Anda year 5   – 2nd place

Raul year 5    – 3rd place

In Physics, the students from Y7B studied air resistance, one of the forces slowing things down. They designed their own parachutes from plastic bags and as parachutists they used various toys. They weighed the mass of the parachutist by using an electronic scale and they measured the surface area of the parachute. They launched the parachutes from the balcony of the indoor courtyard and measured the time taken to fall down was measured with a stopwatch. They noticed that air resistance is affected by both surface area and the weight.