Bowling and Beach!

December in Costa Blanca!!

Come and join us!

On the last day of the Christmas term, the Primary and Lower Secondary pupils had a great day out , bowling in Benidorm and then expending energy on the beach. One of the advantages of this part of the world....sunny beach days on the 20th of December!....

Here are a number of photos of a great day out which the staff and students all enjoyed after a hard terms work, and it was a perfect build up to Christmas...

Time for a drink! not sure whether it was before or after the bowling!

( below) fun in the sun!

organised chaos!!

Mrs Letchford giving a new student a lift....!

A great day out , the pupils behaviour was a credit to the school and thanks to all staff who made it all possible. See you all next term...

Sierra Bernia Christmas Charity...

Every year the pupils at the school, collect toys, toiletries, stationary etc, in Christmas bags, for the orphans at Emaus, sporsored by the Bed Centre ,Calpe. This year the pupils were as generous as ever, and the many full christmas bags ensured that children, who are not as fortunate, have a Happy Christmas. These are some photos of the younger pupils before the bags were given to Emaus ... Well done all and thanks for your generosity

Move over Wayne Rooney!! Sierra Bernias 5-a-side footy!

On a damp Friday afternoon, Sierra Bernia school organized a 5 a side football tournament at the local Sports centre, with more dribbles than the Bernia Babies on a good day, the day was a great success!

Organized by one of our parents, Mr Cooper, who has helped train and organise the football all term, and without whose valuable support the football would not be as popular as it is, the tournament was closely contested, with the winning team, led by Dani, running out the eventual winners. (pictured left)

With exams looming, this was a great release of energy, (ohh to be young again.....!), and although the competition was closely fought, all the players showed fair play and sportsmanship and did not show the 'prima donna' attitude of many footballers! Below are a number of images of a great fun day, which all helps in making Sierra Bernia the close community school it is ....

Well done all!!

Geography Art......

Continuing the theme of making art with the basic materials found around them, the Upper Primary have been studying coasts in their Geography lessons, and have been exploring the different types of beaches found in the local area.

They found sandy beaches, shingle beaches and pebble or stone beaches. From these beaches they gathered materials of each beach type to make some original and exciting art work. Throughout this page are a number of images that were created.......

This theme of 'Art in Action' stimulates creative activity in enquiring minds, skills and abilities that are encouraged throughout the pupils time at Sierra Bernia, also this kind of work proves that you do not need massive amounts of expensive materials to produce excellent work.

With the world around you, a creative mind, supportive teachers and a bit of imagination you can produce the kind of work seen in many of these recent blogs.

Christmas is coming with the Bernia Babies!!

Christmas came early for the mums and toddlers at the Bernia Babies Club when Santa made a surprise visit last Tuesday

Whilst the babies were working away like busy little elves, preparing Christmas cards for their mums and dads, Father Christmas made a grand entrance and then presented each child with a gift and plenty of Christmas cheer. Even the mums recieved a little something from Santa...a cheeky kiss!!

The following pictures need no commentary as they show the wonder of Christmas for the little one's.........

Due to school examinations and the Infant Christmas play, Bernia Babies will not be regrouping until 17TH JANUARY 2012.

Mrs Letchford would like to thank all the mums, dads, grandmas and grandads for bringing along their little ones to join in the fun, games and singing each week, and on behalf of everyone at Sierra Bernia School, wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Maths? Fun?...........Yes!!..read on.....

Many students ( and adults!) have a fear of Maths, so in Sierra Bernia school,under the guidance of Kanchan Ahuja, our Maths specialist, the school recently held its second ' Maths Fun Day' following on the success of the first day in May of this year.

Nursery, Lower secondary, and Upper secondary were all involved, and the day was a great success, and certainly helped to dispel any idea that Maths is boring...

The Upper Secondary were set a task to build a newspaper bridge strong enough to hold heavy weights . The only materials they were given were newspaper and masking tape.....

The picture on the left shows Kanchan and some of the upper secondary pupils mulling over the problem....

The project required a knowledge of strong base structures in Maths shapes, and here Vera, one of our Upper Secondary students, is seen considering another solution to this problem.....

Did it work ? there was only one way to find out! Mr Westcott who would be considered ( even by himself!) to be a 'heavy weight' ,was asked to sit on the finally completed bridge , so with much trepidation of all involved he lowered himself (gently) onto the bridge in front of all those who had spent a great deal of effort putting this together.........

YES!!!!!!!!!

It worked!.. all this with just newspaper and masking tape...This was a fantastic effort by all and below is a photograph of the upper secondary group involved, with Kanchan, whose drive and enthusiasm is, as you can see from this and other blogs, typical of the staff at Sierra Bernia School

With Kanchan are (from left to right) Daniil,Borja, Vera, Donna, Menno, Kirill and Maxim...well done all.

The nursery and infants also had great fun on the day with fun activities such as skipping, apple bobbing, hula hoops, eating cookies and blindman's bluff. We all look forward to Maths Fun Day 3!!

Aztec Art......

Mrs Letchford's Upper Primary class have been learning about the Aztec civilisation in their History lessons this term. As part of their studies, they have created a range of Authentic Aztec artefacts including Aztec temples, 'Day of the Dead' masks, Aztec books, also known as codices, and golden pendants.


The variety of materials used to create their work, produced some amazing results which are shown throughout this page.......fantastic images, we hope you agree!!
All these pieces are in amazing detail, if you visit school at any time, we are sure that the Upper Primary pupils will be more than glad to show you them, and all the other examples of their work!

Again well done, this is a flavour of the standard of work we see almost daily at Sierra Bernia, and just another example of how our teachers continually support our pupils to be creative and develop all the skills that a truly rounded education should offer...

Viking longboats.......

During this term, Mr Westcott's Lower Secondary group in History and Geography, has been working on such topics as The Romans, The Middle Ages, Volcanoes, Earthquakes and map reading skills. As part of their work the group has been encouraged to undertake projects to emphasise what they have learnt.



With the support of Mrs Byles, a student teacher with us at the moment, they have just completed a project on building a viking longboat, which also brought in teamwork skills, drawing to scale, and art and craft studies....The results were amazing, top left shows one of the boats that was completed. Top right is a picture of the other boat completed. Both very impressive......



left are one of the groups who completed one of the boats, Marcelo,Ahmar, Sofia, Charlie and Amelia.

Right is the other group of Jack, Maksim, Ella, Alex, & Kieron

All the group together with Mrs Byles, who helped them through this project....well done all!

A Day in the life......of Sierra Bernia

We went around the school on a typical day with a camera to get a snapshop of what is going on ......quite a lot!!!

pictured left are the Nursery to Year 2 children
starting practicing for the nativity play on the 16th of December

(left)Joseph making sure that Mary is ok!..ahhhhhh!!The rest of the choir ( below)also practicing hard for the big day!!

Fernando, who teaches Spanish and Valenciano, helping students in his room. It is very important that although we are a British Curriculum school, that the Spanish language and culture is taught to all students.
Sierra Bernia is a truly international environment, where students from, Spain, UK, Russia, Holland, Pakistan etc all work happily together...




Below are examples of the displays that are evident in all classrooms , which pupils and staff are very proud to share with all visitors to the school...







....When we called into Mrs Letchford's room there was a very interesting discussion with years 5 and 6 about the issue of bullying....It is very important that these kind of topics are discussed at an early age so that pupils are aware of the issues involved, and this Personal and Social education has a great importance in Sierra Bernia, so as we say we can 'educate for life'.......




This was just a brief visit around the school, but we hope it gives you a feel of the range of activities that the dedicated staff try and encourage at all times......remember our motto ' Education for life'......look out for more daily snapshots.

A Smoothie Process.....!

THE WHOLE TEAM....ENJOYING THE FRUITS OF THEIR LABOUR!!

Mrs Letchford has been working with the Lower Secondary pupils to find ways to encourage people to get their 'five a day'. After weeks investigating the range of smoothies available by to the public on the market, each student developed their very own smoothie by finding a suitable market for their health drink, and then designing their product to suit. Below are pictures of Charlie, Kieron and Marcelo, a real trio of smoothies!!

The students assessed thickness, texture and flavours, as well as correct dairy ingredients to use. They came up with a range of smoothies that were suitable for young children, sports people, school children and the 'older market' who would benefit from the extra fruits found in their smoothie drinks. Ella ( below right) is obviously enjoying hers!!

All the Lower Secondary were involved and really enjoyed the project. This practical example of Food Technology was a great success, and if in the future one of our students becomes a budding entrepreneur selling smoothies, then remember where it all started!!

Below are Maksim and Alex hard at work... not forgetting Sofia and Ella...