Happy Autumn holidays, human beings!

There are 17 pupils in Upper Primary this school year and they have all been very excited to be back at school after the Covid spring and the summer holiday. During the first two months, we have spent a lot of time on building routines and getting to know each other. It is nice to see that new pupils have been welcomed into the ISG family and have started to incorporate the ISG values at school, as well as the dedication to learning that we aim for at our school.

A lot of new learning has taken place, and it has been great to be back in the classroom. Pupils have been able to show the knowledge and understanding of both Numeracy, Literacy and our IPC-topic, learning about the Human body. Pupils have had PE-lessons, Music classes, Recorder group practises and much more. We have all appreciated being together at school again. We have had many Covid-safe birthday parties in our classroom since August and start of school year; Ms Jenny, Fiona, Mohana, Sarah, Mr Francis, Mr Romain, Alma, Lucia, Phoevos, Hamza have all turned one year older! Happy birthday!

We have wrapped up our first IPC-unit, ´Being Human´ in which we explored the different systems within our bodies. From the brain to the skeleton, and further down to the heart and the digestive system, we have explored it all, inside and out. At assembly, pupils have presented their learning to the whole school, and during an extended writing sample they have summarized - after plenty of drafts - the gist of their learning. On the last day before the holiday, the Queen of Internal Organs can say that she was proud of what the pupils achieved.

Unfortunately we were still somewhat constrained due to Covid-regulations (not much contact with parents, no trips and only one swimming lesson) but in comparison to a complete lockdown, this was nothing. We have been so delighted to see all pupils active, making friends, engaged in learning and developing themselves. It was also lovely that we had a chance to see our Upper Primary parents during Parent-Teacher meetings, it felt like it was a long time since we sat down together for a good chat.

In Upper Primary, there are 10 pupils following the bilingual programme. The Year 6 pupils are preparing for a possible transition to a local secondary school, learning about more complicated spelling rules, getting the word order of an ómdat-zin´right, learning numeracy vocabulary in Dutch, exploring their IPC-unit in Dutch, and so on. The group of Dutch beginners have looked at the alphabet and started to learn words and make basic sentences, so that all communication can be held in Dutch now.

During a normal school week, pupils following the English programme also focus on different subjects, and one of the favourite activities is when pupils sit down and focus on Verbal reasoning tasks and Non-verbal reasoning tasks. Pupils have improved their thinking skills, by challenging their brains with different puzzles, patterns and challenges!

After a busy first 9 weeks at school, pupils now deserve to rest and enjoy their free time during the Autumn Holidays. They are welcome back to school for more learning in November. A new IPC-unit awaits, as well as many new challenges in Literacy, Numeracy and other subjects. Every day is a chance to learn something new!