Milepost 1 had a wonderful time sharing and eating the food they brought for our IPC unit on "Food - We are what we eat". By bringing in food from their home countries, students were able to develop their skill of Internationalism - being able to respect one another's individuality. Our menu included: vegemite on toast from Australia; beetroot salad and meringue berry cake from Lithuania; samosas from India; poppy seed and nut potica from Slovenia; and chocolate chip cookies from the United States of America.

(Tanya Charlesworth, Milepost 1 teacher)

This year, for the first time, there was an exhibition in the Gospodarsko razstavišče (exhibition centre) for education providers, and in particular secondary schools and universities. Our stand attracted an enormous amount of interest, with, at one stage, over thirty people visiting simultaneously. In all we handed out over 1000 prospectuses (so have to reprint for the forthcoming Open Day!). As well as some of the teachers joining us, a number of our Secondary students volunteered their free time to come and help out. Their uniforms certainly attracted attention and many visitors commented on how smart they looked. We hope that our efforts will be rewarded with some enrolments.

Our thanks to Klemen Horvat at Infokart for arranging to have our smart new exhibition stand printed and supplied so quickly (we were only given the opportunity to participate a week in advance!).

On a very wet rainy Tuesday morning the children of the Preschool and Primary Section set off by bus to see a ballet performance. The ballet was called "The Seasonal Changes of the Trees". It included images portrayed through dance of butterflies, flowers, fun on the snow, the growth of plants and the falling of the leaves in the Autumn. All of the children sat amazingly enraptured throughout the various scenes. The dancers were of all ages, the colourful costumes reflected the four seasons and the dancing had been choreographed to suit the ages and abilties of all the buddding ballerinas. This was a great combined trip with children and teachers from Vito Kraigher School. Thanks to everyone for arranging the cultural outing and let's hope it is the first of many more to come.

(- Sue Williams, Preschool teacher)

On the afternoon of the final Thursday of our first term, the Secondary Section students presented a short dramatisation of the Charles Dickens classic "A Christmas Carol", produced by our English teacher Mrs Christmas. All of the students were involved and we were very impressed with the professionalism of the production, which was put together in just four weeks.

An audience made up of Preschool and Primary Section students and a large number of families appreciated the performance with enthusiastic applause. We congratulate the students on their achievement and look forward to future dramatic presentations.

We held our first Charity Bazaar on Tuesday of the last week of term. Students, parents and staff made craft items and cakes for sale. In addition, we sold Christmas cards with designs by the students. Articles made by the students for sale included Christmas crackers, gift tags, jewellery, Christmas table decorations, wax paper stars, felt balls and gingerbread biscuits. We were really pleased with the number of visitors, also from Vito Kraigher, who held their 1st Grade's bazaar at the same time.

As a result of our community's efforts, we have raised 516 Euros, which will be donated to the charity chosen by the winner of the Christmas card design competition, Jessica Branks (Y7), which is the Central Asia Institute. Well done and thank you to everyone who helped.

As part of their IPC 'Buildings and Structures' topic, Mrs Charlesworth's Milepost 1 class of 5- and 6-year-olds designed and made castles and also made and brought various accessories to put in their castles' courtyards. They also made a moat from modelling clay.

The topic, which lasted for six weeks, started with a visit to the city centre (including Ljubljana Castle) and included learning all about different kinds of building and putting these into historical context from pyramids to medieval castles to the children's homes.

On Friday 5th December we celebrated Sv. Miklavž (St. Nicolas) day with a special Assembly. At the start, two of our Middle School students explained who St. Nicolas was, with the aid of some pictures.

After the presentation was finished, the Primary Section students were surprised by St. Nicolas and his assistant demons and angels (otherwise known as the Secondary Section students in costume) bursting into the room. The younger ones were delighted and received traditional gifts of apples, gingerbread men, dried fruit and walnuts. Many thanks to Mrs Eckman and Mrs Christmas for their work on preparing the event with the students.

During the previous day's Assembly, the Senior Section students heard about Santa Lucia in a presentation by one of the Lower Secondary students who comes from Sweden.

This week we completed our first Community Survey parents' questionnaire. We asked our parents for their responses to twenty-five questions in order to help us to improve our school and to assist with our forward planning.

Here are some of the salient points:

• All 100% of the respondents either "agree" or "strongly agree" that their children are happy at school (89% strongly agree); also that they feel welcome when they come to the school, that they can talk to their child's teachers about their progress, and that the teachers have made an effort to get to know their child.
• There has not been a single instance of bullying or intimidation outside school because of the uniform.
• Parents appreciate the good quality and choice of fresh fruit which is always available (free of charge) to the children.
• 78% think that our classrooms are attractive and well furnished. 89% think that the classrooms are well resourced.
• Challenges which have been flagged as requiring our creative attention include our current storage of coats/bags, the selection of library books and facilities associated with the host school (notably washrooms and lunches).
• We were rated at an average of 4.9 out of 5 for "Politeness towards your child" and "Professionalism of teachers", while our weekly email newsletter was rated at 4.8 and our website at 4.4.
• 89% of our parents think that our fees represent either "good" or "excellent" value for money.
• 89% say are "highly satisfied" overall and all 100% of the parents rate us as better than their previous school where applicable (i.e. excluding Preschoolers who have not been to school before).

On Thursday 4th December, Milepost 1 (Mrs Charlesworth's class) visited the centre of Ljubljana as part of their leaning for their current IPC Topic, "Buildings and Structures".

As well as a visit to the castle, the children (aged 5 and 6) looked at the various bridges and other structures in the city centre, which is pedestrianised. They saw and drew examples of old and new buildings and had a virtual reality presentation about the castle and its history.

We are pleased to announce that our new online school uniform shop has just gone live. We are the first school in Slovenia to have school uniforms, and it is important to us that the children look great in their uniforms, wearing them with pride.

Our new supplier, Schoolwear International, has been working for nearly two months to provide this valuable facility for the convenience of our parents. All items can now be ordered online and paid for by credit card and the clothing will then be delivered to the school weekly for distribution to parents. The school keeps a sizing set for the children to try, to ensure that the size ordered is correct.

Schoolwear International's Managing Director, Graham Michelli, said, "We are delighted to announce the formal launch of the British International School of Ljubljana's very own 'virtual' school shop. This is a 'virtual' shop where you can buy everything you need to outfit your child for school. All the garments provided are carefully chosen winners in the challenging environment of school and all will be subject to constant review" 

The shop is accessed from the "Details" menu on our website.

Our morning Assembly on Tuesday 2 December took the form of a dramatic presentation of an adaptation of the story of Medeni mož (the Gingerbread Man), which was performed in Slovene by the Milepost 3 class, assisted by their Slovene teacher, Mrs Anda Eckman, who selflessly took the role of "Stara gospa" (the old woman!).

The audience, made up of the rest of the school and several parents, thoroughly enjoyed the show and were very impressed by the standard of the Slovene. One of the students, Lina (who is Slovene), introduced the show in English. The other students who come from countries which include Poland and India, only started learning the language this September and so we are very proud of them for the standard they have reached in just two months.

On Tuesday, November 25th, 2008 we invited a guest to join the MP 1,2 and 3 Club time and lead them in making felted balls.
The entire process took about 90 minutes and all the students followed through, completing the felted balls they had started. Our guest also conducted the workshop in Slovenian, which allowed the students to experience and test their knowledge of Slovenian, mainly through listening to instructions and also allowing them to communicate in Slovenian if they wanted.
The students and teachers all enjoyed both the new craft, the social time spent as a whole group, and making loads of suds (our guest was surprised at much soapy suds could actually be created during this craft - she had never seen so much at one time). The children were told that these felted balls were going to for the school's bazaar. They were all happy to participate collectively in this event. In all, there are 18 felted balls ready to be sold for the bazaar.
In the end, the students expressed their desire to make more felted balls to keep.

(- Tom Majer, Milepost 2 teacher)