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Discover how BCB’s innovative Work Experience Programme gives students a head start in real careers — from aerospace to law and beyond.

Extracurricular activities help secondary students achieve balance by developing essential life skills and enhancing university applications. Discover how these activities foster growth, leadership, and a well-rounded lifestyle at BCB.

Year 11 is a testing time for students, teachers, and parents. For our students, the previously elusive IGCSE exams were a glimmer on the horizon. The realisation that the mock exams are in 24 weeks has been something of a shock to the system for many. Add this to the serious and complicated nature of the PSHE sessions in the past weeks, the Y11 pastoral team wanted to try to relieve some of the growing pressure and stress.

It can be easily said that in today’s world we are living online and I think we still have yet to fully realize the implications of doing so, one of those implications is that our tracks through the digital sand are eternal!

On 17th June BCB secondary school students took part in a house sports day. Students competed in a variety of team events, each worth up to 100 house points. The team with the most house points at the end of day won the coveted house trophy!

WIDA MODEL provides information about a student’s level of English proficiency (ability to listen, speak, read, and write), both in social and academic language. Social language is English used in everyday communication. Academic language is English used in association with school subject areas including: Language Arts, Mathematics and Social Sciences at all age levels.

Throughout the English curriculum at BCB, students are encouraged to be critical readers. But what is critical reading? According to The Writing Centre, critical reading is ‘reading that applies certain processes, models, questions, and theories that result in enhanced clarity and comprehension.’

The school has recently joined in with the puzzle of the week! It is an international maths competition to engage students, teachers and parents alike! The puzzles are designed to be accessible to all students from year 5 and up, and often our year 4s like to have a go.

"Olhos de cigana oblíqua e dissimulada. Eu não sabia o que era obliqua, mas dissimulada sabia…"

Science teachers are aware that experimentation awakens a strong interest among students at different levels of schooling. Students also tend to attribute to experimentation a motivating, playful, intrinsically linked to the senses. On the other hand, it is not uncommon to hear from teachers that experimentation increases the ability to learn, as it works as a means of involving the student in the topics that are discussed in theory lessons.

People that migrate (move) from the place where they live to a new place where they will live are known as migrants. Internally displaced people (people that migrate inside the country), internationally displaced people (people that migrate out to a different country), refugees (people that seek refuge, shelter), they are all types of migrants. Migrants, and migration, are as old as humanity itself. Migration is so common, and so present in our daily lives, that it’s very likely you know someone in your family who is (was) a migrant. My family, for instance, is made up of many migrants.

The Y11s only have about two weeks to prepare for their IGCSE exams. This is quite an interesting but also very demanding time for them - everyone remembers how stressful exams can be from back when we were in school ourselves.

Technology is an innovation of humans and learning how to intentionally engage with Big Data, Machine Learning, and the Internet of things is an essential skill in our everyday lives. As smart devices and cloud connection become an increasing part of daily life on Earth, coding and programming is evolving from an optional field of study into a basic literacy.

When reviewing vocabulary during a speaking activity recently, one student used the phrase, “I put my fork and knife down.”  I recast the sentence saying, “So, you put down your knife and fork?”. “Yes, I put down my fork and knife.”, came the response. Why did this sound so odd to me and why was the poor student confused when I tried to explain that it’s knife and fork in English, in that order otherwise it sounds wrong? I believe a direct translation from Portuguese (garfo e faca) is partly at fault for the confusion, but English must also take some of the blame.

In the arts we are enjoying the experience of teaching and learning practical work again. Our students are doing a range of activities including; printing, perspective, painting, playing instruments, playing in ensembles and performing in front of an audience.

What an interesting and eventful first term it was! As we are now heading full gear into term 2, it’s always valuable to look back upon what we have done and achieved.

January, the start of Term 2 and without doubt the most demanding period of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program (IBDP) for students and staff at BCB. For our IBDP2 cohort, the final deadlines of their controlled assessments arrive and as their courses finish revision picks up pace. For staff, alongside their usual workload comes the added need to mark and moderate assessed work. As well as plan interesting and worthwhile revision activities. It is also in the second term of the IBDP that the weight and expectations of the program become a reality for our IBDP1 cohort.

In my first post of the new academic year, I want to take the opportunity to share and discuss our IBDP results from our first cohort of students to complete the course. I am sure you will have seen the headline figures as they were shared on the BCB instagram. However, I hope to share some context about what these results mean and what we have learned from the experience.

It actually felt like my first day at BCB on Aug 16th, though I had joined a year back. For the first time, I saw most of the students, used a notebook and pen after a long time and actually had face to face conversations with my colleagues and students. Laughter, chatter, moving of furniture as the students settled into their classrooms all felt new but exciting. I know for a fact that the PE, ART and Science teachers were the most jubilant as finally they could actually do some actual practical teaching.