Year 11 Belfast update
The current Year 11's (10th graders) at BSW are undergoing their final major Design and Technology project. This consists of both paper and practical work. The project has 7 sections and the students have had to meet various deadlines along the way, the practical deadline, is quickly approaching. Although there has been an overwhelming stress of completing the project and keeping up with other deadlines from various subjects; the students have thoroughly enjoyed the journey of completing their projects. Along the way they have developed a spectrum of skills such as: marking out material, construction methods, development of ideas, planning the production of their products and developing an analytical perspective of their project.   The students are consistently reviewing their previous work and editing it to achieve the highest possible mark in each of the sections. With an extremely committed teacher along with perseverance and patience the students have developed skills that will remain with them for life. Through the stress and through the meltdowns they have truly enjoyed every second of the overwhelming paperwork and practical, conquering the problems that seem to appear every second.
Claudia, Kiera and Sue, Year 11 Belfast

Year 5 Chicago update
Recently Year 5 went to the Maryland space observatory at night, because we had been learning about space. First of all we went to the lecture room to hear about one of Saturn’s many moons Titan, from two students from the Maryland University who work in the space department. We found out lots of interesting facts, Titan is special because it has lakes on its surface made methane gas.
After that we went to a room with lots of telescopes. All the different telescopes were made for different things, one of them was used for spying on enemies. We got to use one of their telescopes to see Jupiter, some of us saw the great red spot on Jupiter which is thought to be a storm of swirling gas.
We all learned a lot, here are some of Year 5’s comments.

‘I thought it was really fun and I enjoyed looking through the telescope’

‘It was really fun and I learned a lot’

 ‘I learned that lecture means a talk not torture’

‘I think it was the best school trip ever!’

Year 6 New York update
On Thursday March 7th, BSW celebrated World Book Day. There were lots of different activities going on. One of the activities was different teachers and students reading stories for other people to listen to on the school YouTube account when they go to bed. Sixteen stories have been uploaded. The stories have all different genres and are for all different ages so everyone is entertained. You can see these videos on the school's YouTube channel. BritSchoolofWashington.
One of these is a story by Anthony Browne named Willie the Wimp which is read by our Primary Head Boy. The Story is about a monkey named Willie who wants to become braver.
Another one of the stories is read in German by one of our junior prefects. The story is called Heute ist Lucy Prinzessin by Isabel Abedi.
World Book Day has been a great celebration that everybody enjoyed. I hope we celebrate it next year as it was so much fun!
Emily, Year 6 New York

Year 4 St Louis
At the BSW we learn by exploring what happens in our daily lives. For example, money and trade is our International Primary Curriculum (IPC) topic this term, so our teacher asked us to get into groups and create a company to compete for the end of topic award. My team decided to create a cupcake company called Octopus. The other teams were called British Bakery, Sweet Life and Creamies, Flaming Frog and Phoenix Deserts. Our first task was to create a poster, which would be the company’s logo. Our poster was an octopus hugging a cupcake.  The next big mission was to do market research, so we had to play spy and find out what our competitors are doing.
We were very disappointed to learn that there are hundreds of cupcake companies in the US, which meant that it would be very challenging to be successful with our new little company. Then we had to decide which flavors to produce, how much would each cupcake cost, how many stores we would open and what packaging we would offer. The most popular flavor was “octopus delight”, a chocolate chip cupcake with a free octopus toy inside. Unfortunately our team did not win the first prize, but we tried hard and learned that winning is not everything in life. At least we learned how to succeed in business!
Mati, Year 4 St Louis

Year 8 Plymouth update
Recently, saw the start of the Year 8 ski trip journey. We started off on the bus; overall it was a 6 hour bus journey. We arrived at the NRAO (National Radio Astronomy Observatory) and were greeted by a presentation given by a tour guide. The guide told us about the history about radio astronomy. There was one telescope which was named: The Green bank Telescope. The Green bank Telescope was the biggest and tallest of its kind. We got to come up close behind the fence. After looking at the Green Bank Telescope we were headed off to the ski resort.
The rooms which were described as 'cozy' were actually cozy! That surprised me because in my mind I imagined the room to be very small and not very nice looking. We then started skiing the following day The first day of skiing ended shortly after it started because of very bad weather. The weather was so bad that Snowshoe had closed the mountain for that day. Fortunately in exchange we got an extra day of skiing! Before the ski trip I actually did go skiing once but I didn't really enjoy that first time skiing, I couldn't ski! During the trip however I did learn how to ski and now I would say I am pretty decent at skiing. I would say overall this trip was great! The only downside was the weather; it was a bad thing yet it extended our stay, so it is also a good thing. Everything else was awesome, this trip changed my opinion about skiing, before this trip I would've said "I don't like skiing, it's hard, boring and too much work" however now: "Yay skiing! It's quite fun actually, although it's a hard sport to learn and it may have you working just a little harder than the average sport, it's still very fun."
By Khairul, Year 8 Plymouth

Year 3 Nottingham update
Recently, Year 3 Nottingham class and the other Year 3 class Atlanta were going to the Zoo to find information about rainforests. We walked to the place where it had everything about the amazon rainforest. In the Amazon section we saw sea creatures, snakes, and spiders. It was all damp and cool and there was a flamingo, monkey, and fish. One time a flamingo flew at my face and I dropped my paper that I should have been filling in, and it went in the river! Finally Year 3 went to the next room. It had games, frogs, and books. The next part of our journey was to the Botanical Gardens. At the botanical gardens first we met a lady. She was talking about the gardens and some types of trees. A few minutes later we got to go to the jungle. I saw a cocoa pod which makes chocolate and I saw plants, water, and rivers. Year 3 learned that there are 4 layers of a rainforest which are: the Forest Floor, Understory, Canopy, and Emergent layer. It was finally the end of the trip. We were all exhausted getting back on the bus to go back to school. When we got back to school I could not believe that I learned so much. I learned: there are four layers of the rainforest, chocolate is made from cocoa,and there are different types of trees in the rainforest like Kapok, and Strangler Fig. Even though my friends and I were very tired we enjoyed seeing all the animals and plants for real.
Walker, Year 3 Nottingham

Year 11 Philadelphia update
At the British School of Washington there are a lot of things that make the school special, one of those things are the sports teams. There are a lot of teams and as a school we are encouraged to take part in these teams.  A few sports that I have participated in this year are British football (soccer) , the team had practises after school and during lunch time. We played a few games, sadly we didn’t win but it was still a really fun time meeting other people from the years below and above. Another sport I have participated in is swimming. This was new for BSW this year, it was a really fun thing to do we raced against eight other schools. I met a few other new people from other schools who were really nice.  Some other sports that are available are basketball, cricket, rugby, hula hooping for the younger years and many more. I think having the sports at our school makes us a closer community, it lets us meet more people from the other years and it lets us have a lot of fun!
Marlot,  Year 11 Philadelphia

Year 6 New York update
This school year I joined an E–mammal camera trapping project. E–mammal, a scientific study led by the Smithsonian Institution is an investigation where citizen scientists place 'camera traps' - infrared movement activated cameras- in natural areas. The aim of this project is to learn about mammal distribution and use that knowledge for conservation efforts. We worked in Rock Creek Park.

For this project I worked with the green team at school. Every week our team would collect a camera which had been placed approximately 3 weeks before and position a new camera to be picked up three weeks later. To my knowledge we have surveyed over eight species of animals including coyotes, flying squirrels, possums and a hairy  woodpecker.

I enjoyed this project due to the fact that I learned about the many types of animals on my doorstep, also because of my passion for photography and this diverse way of doing so. This was exceptionally significant to me because of the many discoveries we made but also because of the intricate science involved and on top of all of that I had oodles of fun!
Charlie, Year 6 New York

Year 10 Cardiff update
After the return from Christmas break, the Year 10s were given the opportunity to take up ice skating in some of their PE sessions. Having ice skating as one of our options for PE this year was a real chance for some people to get out, have a fun time and show off their skills; for others it was a whole new adventurous experience that was just dying to be explored!

From getting on the bus, to slapping on our skates and hitting the ice, ecstatic emotions, huge smiles and lots of opportunities to bond were shared amongst us. Having the chance to have fun whilst maintaining the ideology of keeping fit, opened my eyes to a new experience. As students glided over the white, silent ice, a feeling of high morale and lively energy was instilled. For those who were less familiar with skating, we witnessed a real determination flow through their boots. Whenever someone was in need of advice or guidance, there was always someone willing to help. In my opinion, it was evident that what made ice skating so fun and thrilling was the care and guidance bestowed by BSW students on their fellow peers. It was a truly rewarding experience and one not to be missed!
Sarika, Year 10 Cardiff

Year 6 Birmingham update
This week in school we have just started our new topic, weather and climate. So far we have learned a little bit about Antarctica and its harsh weather conditions. Did you know it once reached -128.6 F. That is cold! 

The entry point to our topic involved us pretending that scientists were trapped in Antarctica and that we had to go and rescue them. We had to complete two weeks training which included bringing in gear! It sounded exciting. We have written a diary and made a list of the things we may need.

We have also Skyped a friend of our teacher, Tim who had been to Antarctica. Tim answered any questions we had including one we all wanted to know, ‘how do you go to the bathroom?’ the entry point was really fun. I definitely think I will enjoy this topic.
Izzy, Year 6 Birmingham

Year 5 update
BSW’s House cup is always exciting. This one was no exception. With the houses gearing up for this term’s cup, no one could rest peacefully. There were tensions between the houses. The atmosphere around the school had become tense, ready for 2012’s final showdown  between the teams; Chesapeake, Shenandoah, Potomac and Patuxent. To add to the excitement the House Christmas Tree Competition results were going to be announced and would add to the totals. Going into the assembly Chesapeake were favourites. Then came the Christmas tree results and Chesapeake came in fourth, a bit of a blow to their title hopes. The winners were Shenandoah.

The moment of truth arrives, everyone was waiting patiently. House points are awarded for sports, whole school competitions, earning class and subject trophies, behaviour and work. Over a term thousands are earned by BSW pupils. The results; “In fourth place, Shenandoah.” The students couldn’t believe their ears, as the Shenandoah House Captains pulled off the blue ribbon from the cup, everyone wondered what had happened to Shenandoah who had been in second place up until a week ago. Then came “Potomac” (red ribbon removed), “In second place, Patuxent” (gone was the yellow ribbon). A huge cheer came from Chesapeake. They had won and the green ribbon would stay on the cup for next term. Everyone had a good time, I certainly did.
Matteo, Year 5  and member of Chesapeake.

Year 7 San Francisco update
Throughout this half term, members of Year 7 have been working on an outdoor sculpture with University of Maryland student, Nicholas Patrick, who is studying landscape architecture. When we were first introduced to the idea as part of our IMYC (International Middle Years curriculum), none of us really knew what landscape architecture was. However, we quickly caught on when we took a trip to the University of Maryland and learned about Nicholas’ studies. While we were there, we got to see the models he and his classmates made of a park they are designing in DC.
After the trip, we met Nicholas at school to start designing and making our own sculpture to be put on the BSW grounds. The first thing we did was go around the school to photograph places that had specific memories for us attached to where we might place a sculpture. We broke into groups and made a model based on a theme that was assigned to us, e.g movement, programme, time and weather. The groups presented their ideas. The winning proposal is a sculpture consisting of a series of poles, interlocking ropes, hula-hoops and other school resources representing the movement of children of various ages. We have been building the sculpture for the last few  weeks and it has now been placed in front of the school so everyone can see it, as a temporary installation it will be there for about a month. We are very proud of our work and have enjoyed learning about the process.
Stella and Sofia. Year 7 San Francisco

Year 3 Atlanta update
Year 3 Atlanta and Year 3 Nottingham classes have been studying the author Roald Dahl as part of the English unit Authors and Letters. We have used various Roald Dahl stories as inspiration for our English work and everyone in the class has really enjoyed it.

From James and the Giant Peach some of us looked at the characters of Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker and used their descriptions to help write a poem about a long lost relative. We also looked at some of the other nasty characters Roald Dahl had created in ‘The Twits’ and we created our own Twit family members using some gruesome and disgusting adjectives and comparisons.

From the ‘The BFG’ we thought about what ingredients we would put in our dreams. Some of the ingredients we thought of included, a tablespoon of friendship, a sprinkle of respect and a drop of the sun.

We also studied ‘George’s Marvelous Medicine’ and used this to help us write our own ‘Roald Dahl story’.  Instead of medicine some of us used disgusting cakes and we also changed our main characters.

It was great fun using Roald Dahl’s fantastic books to help us with our writing and we would recommend his stories to everyone!

Year 7 French update
This half term we have been learning about animals in French. The first activity we did in class was to brainstorm all the animals we could name.  We could come up only with basic names such as chat and chien, or poisson.  To learn more we were given as a homework/competition to write in French as many animals we could in each of this category.  Then we put them in categories according to the place where they live (farm, jungle, water, etc…). After we learned how to describe the animals, writing sentences using nouns, verbs and adjectives, and to say what animals we like more and give a reason for it.  At the same time we learned how to write the plural of nouns and the present of verbs ending in –ir (like finir). We then played a game where we had to describe an animal and our partner had to guess which animal we were describing. The animals were represented on little cards and we all had the same cards.  Then we had to choose 4 animals, describe them in writing and say why we like or dislike them.  Our partner had to assess our work and give us advice on how to improve our work. We put a lot of effort and work into this. This was all linked to our IMYC  (International Middle Year Curriculum) topic which this term is discovery. We discovered a lot about animals and about French also. We really enjoyed this all and we learned a lot.

Year 8 Seattle update
During the festive season we were given the task of putting together an activity which we would entertain the rest of the school. We came up with the idea of creating two sketches.  We decided  to create our own production of the Nativity and the story of Hanukkah. This involved scripting the scenes, finding a narrator, assigning different character roles to our fellow students and researching the story. It required us to work together as a team, do something out of our comfort zones and co-operate with each other. With a limited amount of time we had to work under pressure, to get our sketches ready. We have thoroughly enjoyed participating and making our own production and cannot wait to exhibit our sketch to the rest of the school next week.

As a school we also designed ornaments and decorated a Christmas Tree in our school Houses. We had to work with students from Nursery all the way to Year 13, it was a great way for the whole school to come together to celebrate the holiday season.

Year 12 Princeton update
Year 12 have been working hard over the last term, getting settled into and used to the IB curriculum. For the most part, the transition has been fairly seamless, but everything has certainly become more rigorous. In English we have been looking at several of Carol Ann Duffy’s poems from her collection, “The World’s Wife”, and are currently preparing for an Internal Assessment (IA), where each student will give an individual 10-15 minute presentation on one of the poems to the teacher. In Theory of Knowledge, we’ve been learning about one of the four ‘ways of knowing’: language. We’ve discussed how language is used to communicate, but also about its flaws; things like stereotypes, double meanings, and words that don’t translate to other languages the same way, and how all of these things affect how we can learn and know things. And lastly, in Physical Education we have been participating in sports such as volleyball and American Football. In volleyball we’ve learned basic skills such as setting, volleying and spiking, as well as the rules of the game. American football was mostly about learning to throw the ball properly as well as how to set up an effective offensive tactic. Overall, our year group has had a very successful start to the year.

Noelle, Year 12 Princeton

Year 2 Newcastle update
Our current International Primary Curriculum topic is Time Detectives. We visited the National Museum of American History, and decided to make our own museum. Our museum had lots of exhibitions. One was about our BIG DIG. This is when you go outside and dig in a muddy, grassy or pebbled place. Archaeologists dig for artifacts: we had a go in the school playground. Our finds included a metal goblet, a leather belt, pieces of pottery, a weight and a piece of a stone pipe. We labeled our artifacts and put them in our museum. Another exhibition was about science. Our science experiment was to bury things for four weeks, and see what happened to them. We buried things like a piece of chicken, an apple and a spoon. Everything smelled when we dug it up! The chicken bled; the apple rotted; the spoon was scratched. Another exhibit was an interactive mini-dig with lots of objects to find in a sandbox using tools. We also showed videos of class presentations about big archaeological finds, for example Tutankhamen, Pompeii and Titanic. Finally, we created a Time Capsule which we buried for next year’s class to find. Year 6 and our parents enjoyed visiting our museum.

Year 10 Washington update
Year 10 drama and English students went to watch the play War Horse at the Kennedy Centre. The play was about a farm boy and his horse and how his horse ended up getting sold to go to the army due to his father and so the boy, Albert, went off to war to try and find his horse. The play was very well done, and the puppet horses were really realistic, and there were very many dramatic techniques used; for example the use of still images and silent scenes were very affective. My favourite part was when Albert and his horse got reunited because it was done very effectively and it made you feel like you were a part of the play because you saw Albert take a journey through war to try and find his horse, and when they got reunited it showed just how much he cared for this one horse.

Year 5 York update
For the entry point of our new International primary Curriciulm topic about news we visited the Newseum. We started off at the learning center, where we were divided into six groups each with a different activity about receiving the news. One group learned about telegrams and Morse code; they even got to make their very own telegram.  When the activities ended we checked out the rest of the Newseum. The first thing we did was to look at pieces of the Berlin wall; we even got to touch it! The wall split West Berlin from East Berlin. Later, we saw which countries have a ‘free press’ and which don’t. ‘Free press’ means that the government doesn’t control the news.
We saw the ‘First Dogs’ exhibit. We never knew so many presidents had dogs. We got back at school with brains full of new learning ready to add to our knowledge harvest and start our work on ‘Making the News .‘ 

Mali and Lucas, Year 5 York

Year 13 Cambridge update
Recently,  myself, three other seniors and our Geography teacher went on a field trip to Georgetown.
First we went down to the waterfront where I must have taken some two dozen photos of the people jogging, cycling or rowing, and of the beautiful views down towards Watergate and the Kennedy Center.
The purpose of our trip was to collect data for an investigation on the distribution of leisure facilities, which is not as boring as it sounds. We carried out traffic and pedestrian counts, and we evaluated the quality of the environment. Then Francy and I asked people what they thought about the leisure facilities in Georgetown. That was one of the best parts of the day; just having the confidence to go up to people who you are never going to see again and asking them questions is English, Spanish and French such as "where are you from" and whether there should be a  Metro station in Georgetown (55% of people said YES!). 

In Year Five we have been learning about fairgrounds and roller coasters in our International Primary Curriculum work. At the end of this topic we are going to build model roller coasters that actually work.  But before we can do that we had to learn about gravity and the forces that are at work during the ride. Here are some of the forces we have been learning about: gravity, centripetal force, momentum and centrifugal force. We have also been learning about magnetism and electricity. I really enjoyed experimenting with the electric circuits and how the lights turn on and the buzzers buzz. After that we experimented with switches in circuits. In a different session we investigated how friction works. Each group had to choose which variable to change to conduct the experiment. My group changed the surface and went around the school to see what different surfaces we could find. We investigated if it had lots of friction or very little friction. Then we learned how to record our results in a scientific table. I really look forward to building our own model roller coasters this week.

Year 11 Belfast update
The girls’ volleyball team have been doing exceptionally well in our league.  Up until Thursday night’s game we were undefeated and number one in our league. The most exciting game was definitely against the Capitol School on the 5th of October. We went in knowing that they were the only other undefeated team in the league, that knowledge was enough to make us really apprehensive about the match. We started off the game winning the first set, and then Capitol won the second, we then won the third and Capitol won the fourth. This back and forth made for a very stressful final set. Everyone on the court was focused and everyone off was barely able to watch due to such a stressful situation and environment. But with a three point lead we won the final match. This game was such a different experience for us because there was a crowd from Capitol School watching and cheering for their team. We really learned how to work under pressure and work together as a team. Although this win was wonderful, we lost our game on Thursday and then lost again on Friday, to teams that we previously had beaten. These losses have made us even more motivated to win our semifinal on Tuesday night and then hopefully the final on Wednesday. We have improved so much as individuals and as a team since our first practice in September, this experience has given us the skills to work with others.

Claudia and Ellen, Year 11 Belfast