"We Are Not Amused" Victorian Art for the Upper Juniors

The children in Upper Junior have been studying pictures of Queen Victoria including a family portrait by Winterhalter, 'The Royal Family', 1846.

On Friday, they discussed the symbolism of some of the more luxurious items in the painting, then made a sketch of some of the items.

The class used a range of pencils and shading to show texture and light in their drawings and produced some excellent pieces of work.

The children will continue to work on their sketches over the next few weeks adding colour and texture with paints and pastels. They will also make their own golden frames to display them in for a mini exhibition.

Sports Activity Day In Alfaz

On Friday 24th September the whole school decamped to the Polidesportivo in Alfaz for our special Sports Activity Day.

One of the main goals for this day was to promote a sense of school spirit and teamwork, as we encouraged the older students to lead and work with the younger pupils in their teams.

This they did magnificentally and it was great to see the way in which everyone was encouraged to do their very best.

A big congratulations to all the Upper Secondary for their outstanding work on the day.


Sometimes just keeping up with the little ones was hard work for our team leaders!


Members of the winning "Green" team can be seen here with Lewis from Upper Secondary.

Sierra Bernia Goes To Sierra Bernia!

Mr Allan, Sierra Bernia School's Director, believes that every pupil should have the opportunity to visit the range of mountains the school takes its name from.

So, with this in mind, an intrepid group of Upper Secondary explorers took to the mountains on Wednesday 15th, to climb and explore the Sierra Bernia range.

Once again, this was a real team-building exercise and it was great to see how the group worked together to make sure everyone succeeded and enjoyed the day.

After thoroughly exploring the old fort near the top of the range the group climbed still higher until it was time to turn around and head back down.

A tired but elated group arrived back at school just after lunch. The day was a great success and thoroughly enjoyed by all.

Sierra Bernia Sports Day!

Friday 18th June saw the whole school attending the Polidesportivo in Alfaz for our annual Sports Day.

This is a really fun day where four "house" teams compete against each other to be crowned champions at the end of the day.

Everybody has the opportunity to gain points for their team and, although it is always good to win, the real fun is just in taking part.

Many parents and friends came to add their support to the day as the pupils went through a variety of sports events, both serious and fun. I'm not sure there is currently an Olympic category for "Egg and Spoon" race!

Enjoy the photographs of our future sporting stars in action!

Junior School Visit To Terra Natura

On Wednesday 24th March Years 3-6 had a wonderful visit to the Terra Natura animal park near Benidorm.

The day was full of workshops and guided tours, and the children were brilliantly looked after by the Terra Natura staff for the day. Everyone learned so much about the various animals on show.

It was particularly exciting to be in the aviry with birds flying around the children's heads. This was followed by the bird of prey display were we could see these magnificent creatures up close.

It was a wonderful day out for the children and a great deal was learned about the work of the park. Our sincere thanks go to the staff of Terra Natura who made our day there so informative.

Year 1 Assembly - The Three Little Pigs

On Carnaval day Mrs Vaughan and Year 1 gave us a wonderful assembly telling the story of the Three Little Pigs.

The children really loved this story and acted it out with great energy and enthusiasm.

The assembly was thoroughly enjoyed by the other pupils, the staff, and the many parents who came in to support the children.

Merit Awards

Congratulations to the Year 8 who are storming the Merit Award tables at the moment! From left to right we have Alicia, Claire, Lucia, and Jodie.

Every student at SBS recieves Merits for a whole range of activities - excellent homework or classwork, helping or showing kindness, or just going that extra mile as a pupil.

The awards qualify them for different levels of certificates from Bronze up to Platinum.

Well, Year 8 have certainly thrown down the challenge. It's now up to the other years to catch them up!

Year 9 Science Trip To The Cuevas del Canelobre

In their science lessons Year 9 have been learning about the formation of rocks. Rocks in a science lab are one thing, but to actually go into a real cave and see some magnificent rock formations is quite another!

The trip to the Caves at Canelobre near Alicante, was a wonderful opportunity to see these powerful processes at work first hand. Leaving a wet SBS at 9.30 we reached the caves by 10.30 and entered the cave itself at about 11.00 am.

For those of you who have never been there the cave is like a massive natural Gothic cathedral! It has a fascinating history stretching back hundreds of years, and many splendid examples of stalagmites and stalactites.

(Now, which way around is it? Which ones come down from the ceiling and which grow up from the floor? Ask any Yr 9 - they will know.)

The class was brilliantly behaved throughout and thoroughly enjoyed their day's exploring!

Year 2 Assembly - Doing The Right Thing When You're Six Years Old!

In a brilliant assembly Year 2 showed us all how they make decisions about how to behave.

We all know that doing "the right thing" can be very difficult at times! As part of their Personal, Health, & Social Education Programme, Yr2 have been exploring the importance of thinking carefully about the choices they make!

This was very cleverly shown in an assembly that had all the lower school really thinking about what was going on. Congratulations to Mrs Luckhurst and all the Yr 2 pupils for a very thought provoking 20 minutes!

Years 7 & 8 Become Greek & Roman Time Travellers!

On Tuesday, 13th October, immediately after the October "puente" holiday, Years 7 and 8 set off, on the School bus, for Alicante, for an all day excursion. Mrs Ana Rico, Year 8's Form Tutor, and Mrs Holmes, who teaches History to both classes, were guides for the pupils.

Their first stop was at the Tossal de Manises, the site of the Roman City of Lucentum, which today, we all know as Alicante City. Archaeologists are still at work on the site, excavating ancient ruins. One of the main points of interest of this part of the excursion was to look at a part of the original floor mosaic, which is situated near the observation point.

The group moved on to the Parque de Palmeras, where they enjoyed some free time and their snack lunches, before going on to Alicante City.

The main purpose of the excursion was to visit MARQ~the Museo Arqueologico de Alicante, where The Body Beautiful exhibition is being held. This excellent display of ancient Greek sculptures is a result of collaboration between The British Museum in London and the MARQ.

The Exhibition, which has been running since April, was opened by Her Majesty Queen Sophia of Spain. The high light for all of the pupils was the remarkable Discobolus, or the Discus- thrower. This sculpture is famous the world over, and the one on show in Alicante is a Roman copy that was found in Emperor Hadrian's villa in Tivoli, Italy.

Year 3 Assembly - Scarecrows

Mrs Martinez's class welcomed the autum season with a display of hand-made scarecrows in this week's assembly at Sierra Bernia School.

They also introduced themselves and their families in perfect English which was great considering that four of the children began the school term not speaking any English whatsoever!

Well done Year 3 and keep up the good work!

Year 5 & 6 In The News.

After producing the school magazine and delivering a wonderful assembly all about newspapers, Years 5 & 6 have found themselves in the papers themselves!

Front page on The Costa Blanca News and inside The Post! So, "Hold the press", and let's look forward to hearing from our budding journalists in the future!

Coughs and Sneezes!

The school was pleased to welcome back Mrs Sweet this week after a few days away with a very bad chest infection. Year 4 were very pleased to see her as were all the art classes who are producing outstanding work under her guidance.

Sadly, Mr MacInnes was unwell on Monday and had to go home. All the pupils and staff wish him a speedy recovery and look forward to seeing him back with us again soon.

Cricket Training In Spain

On Saturday 3rd October Matthew Cowley (Year 6) represented the school at an all day training session organised by Cricket Espana.

Matt, a keen junior player with Sporting Alfaz Cricket Club, went to La Manga with 16 other young people from SACC. All the boys and girls had an absolutely brilliant day, and received expert coaching throughout.

At the end of the day Matthew captained the Alfaz side against an older and stronger Spanish team in a game of Kwik Cricket. Although well beaten, all the players thoroughly enjoyed the game. The picture shows all the chidren taking part in the training day organised by Cricket Espana.

Teddy Bear's Picnic!

On Wednesday 30th September Nursery and Years 1 & 2 had their annual Teddy Bear's Picnic. Due to the somewhat uncharacteristic weather we have been experiencing this week it was decided to hold the picnic in the school grounds - just in case we needed to get all the teddy bears under shelter quickly!

As always this was a fun day for the children and, thankfully, the rain even held off until near the end of the day!

All teddy bears and children were safely returned to their mums and dads at the end of a very enjoyable day.

It's A French Song, In An English School, In Beautiful Spain!

Year 5 and 6 would like to say Merçi beaucoup, to Mrs Llorca Salvador (Amalia's mum),who has been helping them this week with their French lessons.

They have been busy learning a song about a lonely witch in preparation for the SBS Hallowe'en party and began by translating the song from French in to English.

We look forward to learning more from Mrs Llorca Salvador. Á jeudi!

Geography Field Trip To Algar Falls

On Friday 11 September, the Examination Class went on their first Geography Field Trip of the year.

Field work is an essential part of the IGCSE course, and so it was decided that the first Field Trip should be held during the first week of term. The destination was the Rio Algar, in Algar village, about 25 minutes from the School.

At the river, the Class worked in groups to measure the width and average depth of the river. This meant that everyone had to get into the river.....and there were screams of how cold the water was! Soon enough everyone was working away with ranging rods, tape measures and metre rules.

The next part of the exercise was to measure the surface speed of the water at each site. The students used oranges as their floats and timed their float over a distance of 10 metres. They took readings at the left bank, in the middle of the stream and at the right bank~and found the average speed, as this is more accurate. With this information they were able to calculate the discharge of the river, which is measured in cubic metres per second (cumecs).

Once the exercise had been carried out at two sites, we all made for the Restaurant Don Joan, where there were showers, and more importantly, a very inviting swimming pool and diving board!

There was a bit more work to do......drawing graphs of the cross sections of the river and checking of calculations and then lunch, followed by more fun in the pool.

Mrs Holmes, the geography teacher, was pleased with the attitude and application of the class. The Class thanked Mr Holmes, who had driven them to and from Algar in the School van. It was a perfect way to spend the first Friday of the new academic year!