1 Dear Parents, In today’s last newsletter of the year, we take the opportunity to say our goodbyes and express our deep gratitude to those staff who are leaving Britannica, a number who have been here since the school opened. Bri- tannica’s success will always be reliant on the incredible body of staff that work tirelessly for the benefit of its students and as such, those students, their parents and the school management will always be indebted for their hard work, creativity and expertise. We especially wish all our leav- ing teachers every success and happiness in the next stage of their career. Emma Arnold – Pre-Nursery Teacher Danielle Cook – Nursery Teacher Caroline Proctor – Reception Teacher Conrad Botha – Year 1 Teacher Daniel Lines – Year 2 Teacher Alice Wilcox – Year 3 Teacher Patrick Palmer – Year 6 Teacher Jonathan Burnhill – Year 6 Teacher Karen Leong – Art Teacher Holly Brown – Geography Teacher Audrey Jenny – French Teacher Nathan King – ICT/Business Studies Teacher Rebecca Hu – Mandarin Teacher Rebecca Hatton – Head of Secondary Kim McGregor – Vice Principal Student and Staff Wellbeing In addition, we wish all our returning teachers and our Britannica students and their families a wonderful summer holiday.
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Dear Parents,
In today’s last newsletter of the year, we take the opportunity to say our goodbyes and express our deep gratitude to those staff who are leaving Britannica, a number who have been here since the school opened. Bri-tannica’s success will always be reliant on the incredible body of staff that work tirelessly for the benefit of its students and as such, those students, their parents and the school management will always be indebted for their hard work, creativity and expertise. We especially wish all our leav-ing teachers every success and happiness in the next stage of their career.
Emma Arnold – Pre-Nursery Teacher
Danielle Cook – Nursery Teacher
Caroline Proctor – Reception Teacher
Conrad Botha – Year 1 Teacher
Daniel Lines – Year 2 Teacher
Alice Wilcox – Year 3 Teacher
Patrick Palmer – Year 6 Teacher
Jonathan Burnhill – Year 6 Teacher
Karen Leong – Art Teacher
Holly Brown – Geography Teacher
Audrey Jenny – French Teacher
Nathan King – ICT/Business Studies Teacher
Rebecca Hu – Mandarin Teacher
Rebecca Hatton – Head of Secondary
Kim McGregor – Vice Principal Student and Staff Wellbeing
In addition, we wish all our returning teachers and our Britannica students and their families a wonderful summer holiday.
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What a lovely final week it has been in Pre-Nursery! Children have continued to explore jungles and have
been carefully observing a variety of animals found in the jungle. They have been very keen to discuss
different animal’s distinguishing features as well as create their own lion masks and roll their own snakes
out of clay. This week we also celebrated Alessandro’s birthday with delicious home-made chocolate
cake.
We would like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude to all Pre-Nursery parents and families for
your ongoing support. It has been a great year and we could not be more proud of each child and their
own individual achievements.
Have a great Summer everyone!
The Pre-Nursery Team
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The end of the year is upon us and what an incredible year the nursery children have had. We have loved being a
part of your child’s learning journey this year and seeing the changes that have taken place in each and every child,
as teachers we look forward to seeing and hearing those lightbulb moments, when a child says “I did it!” and this
year the children did not disappoint. Alongside the learning that has happened at school, the most enriching expe-
riences have been the trips we have taken altogether as a nursery family; teachers, children and parents. It is won-
derful to work in a school where the parents are so supportive and we thank you for your commitment to us this
year. Unfortunately, the time come for us to say goodbye to Miss Dani. Miss Dani has been a loving and dedicated
teacher in the Early Years department and we will miss her infectious laugh and happy smile each day. However, I
speak on behalf of all of us when wishing her all the best as she embarks on her new adventure. Although we will
be sad to see the children moving on, we know that they are ready to move to their new classes next term. We
have learnt together, laughed together and loved each other along the way. We would like to wish you all a happy
and safe summer holiday and wish those of you that are leaving all the very best for your future endeavours.
The Nursery Team
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As the summer term came to an end this week Reception spent the time celebrating all their achievements and look-
ing towards the future. They looked back on the happy, fun exciting times they had had over the year, what they have
learnt, friendships made and challenges we have overcome. There has been so much that it would be impossible to
name them all; but favourites would have to be hunting dinosaurs in the natural history museum, celebrating mother
tongue day and planting our beans. It has been wonderful to see how much we have grown over the year and what
we can now achieve. We now all look forward to our new challenges in Year one. The whole Reception team would
like to give a massive thank you to all our parents for the continuous support you have given us and your children
throughout the year.
We wish you all a wonderful, happy holiday and hope the memories of Reception stay with you forever.
Thank you!
Reception Team
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The learning journey for our Key Stage 1 students started way back in August. Students new and old were welcomed
into the largest Key Stage of the school with open arms and a plethora of fun and engaging activities ready to get
minds motivated.
There have been many activities to keep students and teachers busy through the year. We have had a Maths Day,
Pumpkin Palooza, Christmas Concerts, assemblies, trips, and parent’s days just to name some from the Autumn Term!
We have also had sports days, swimming galas, house events, CNY celebrations, book week, a story telling workshop,
Bee Friendly Day, more assemblies and even more trips. I am sure there are even more events that I haven’t men-
tioned! It seems that this year has also been the busiest yet! All of these activities have been for one purpose. Your
child. These events and activities have been to engage your children to apply their learning and to demonstrate to
their peers, teachers and parents what they can achieve. It is always very satisfying at this time of year to reflect on
how much our students have grown and developed in preparation for the next part of their learning.
All of this couldn’t be done without the support of the teachers and TAs, so I would like make a huge public thank you
to all of them for their hard work and dedication throughout the year.
On reflection, this year has been fantastic in Key Stage 1. The KS1 team have worked tirelessly to ensure that all our
children under our care achieve their best and that they are prepared with the skills to help move them forward. Our
students in Key Stage 1 have worked equally as hard too. They have shown great tolerance, effort and perseverance in
order to achieve their targets and to set themselves new ones. It has been great to see everyone work as a team to try
and achieve the same outcome.
I would like to wish you all the very best of luck as you continue on your learning journey!
Mr. Lines and the Key Stage 1 team
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This week saw Year 3 complete the M and M investigation. Sorting data into Venn and Carroll diagrams, interpret-ing data from bar and tally charts, designing symmetrical M and M’s and even an immense game of M and M Bat-tleships, looking specifically at coordinates. In Topic, we have been creating and completing Kahoot quizzes on Ancient Egypt, testing our knowledge and revising key facts. We have also been tracking the world cup competi-tion, watching news reports, and finding out lots of information about the various countries competing in the cup. We continued our topic on symmetry and looked at flags from the different countries finding their lines of sym-metry and all the different colours. What a fun filled educational week! Did you know a Bakewell tart got sent into
It has been a busy week in Year 4. In English, children were able to write their own raps, using features such as rhyme
and repetition to create impressive songs. In Maths, children have had a chance to work in groups to work through a
range of problems across the maths curriculum, while in Science, children classified vertebrates into the five subcate-
gories of birds, fish, reptiles, mammals and amphibians. In Topic, children have completed their China information
books, having created their front and back covers to complete the project. Furthermore, children have enjoyed play-
ing various games during the week, applying their knowledge of language and maths to successfully complete tasks.
In ICT, children had an opportunity to use Education City, while others made posters for the final day party. Finally,
children really enjoyed our final day party, where we were lucky to be treated to delicious foods from around the
world. We also had a lovely extended golden time, allowing children to relax and enjoy their last day in the current
academic calendar together. Have a lovely summer, and we look forward to seeing you again in the new term.
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This week Year 5 have finished their raps and performed these to their class-mates. They have had to consider their facial expression, movements and if their audience can understand and appreciate the rhythm and rhymes. It’s wonderful to see all the children performing with more confidence and listen to the range of entertaining raps – from ice creams and animals to things that annoy them! In Maths we have been problem-solving detectives trying to answer the various mathematical problems to answer the clues and solve the mysteries. It has also been a time for reflection in PSHE as we have looked over our favourite achievements and events this year. We also wrote our funniest memories and had to guess whose memory was whose, which proved rather amusing!
Year 6B have rounded up the final week of a fabulous year with a spoken word poem. Many of the students have written about a theme or topic that is particularly important to them. They have watched other famous spoken word poets for inspiration. Finally, they have recorded themselves using iPads and used iMovie to create a touching and emotive piece of poetry that was far beyond my expectations. Well done Year 6B. Year 6A have been re-viewing the year and have finished creating board games involving questions from all of their subjects. This has been a perfect way for them to revise pre-vious content and test each other on it. They will have the opportunity to play these games during our mini end of year celebration tomorrow. I have been amazed at how much knowledge students have learnt over the course of the year!
This year has been an incredibly busy and exciting year in Primary at Britannica. We have enjoyed numerous trips and events, shared our learning with each other and parents, and become more confident learners. I’d like to take this op-portunity to thank you, the parents, for the support you have shown the children, teachers and the school. I’d also like to thank our teachers and teaching assistants for their continued enthusiasm and desire to do the very best for the chil-dren.
I hope everyone has a very happy and relaxing Summer break and I look forward to seeing you in August.
Ms Mustoe
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Year 7 have had an interesting, exciting and fun year! Highlights have
included; movie night, Honk!, Yaolin Residential, Pumpkin Palooza, Nan-
jing and Majorca to mention just a few! The form group have loved many
of their lessons also including Science, Art, PE and Music. They also se-
cretly enjoyed dressing up as Oompa Loompas, but unfortunately will
never admit to this! Looking forward to year 8 they are hoping for more
exciting lessons and have everything crossed for another opportunity to
travel with School outside of Shanghai.
What an amazing time Year 8 have had this year… there have been so
many great achievements and lasting memories made. We were all real-
ly proud of each other as we saw our friends achieving more House
Point certificates than any other year group and really enjoyed our-
selves getting involved in all the different whole school events, like the
Recycled Art show, where Year 8 were the only year group to manage
to complete our robots made out of rubbish, to be displayed at the Re-
cycled Art Gallery for Energy Week. There have been loads of great
memories made as Year 8 students have been involved with lots of our
sports teams, most notably Ultimate Frisbee and particularly participat-
ing in the Shanghai Open. Students in Year 8 had an awesome time on
the Yaolin residential trip (even if Gavin couldn’t remember his left from
his right at times!) and have spent a great year making lasting friend-
ships. Well done to everyone in Year 8 for some really great achieve-
ments throughout the year; it’s going to be sad to be saying goodbye
to some of our friends, but we wish them the best of luck at their new
schools. Have another fantastic year in Year 9!
In Year 9 we believe we are the superstars of the school, this is un-
doubtedly because we have such a close bond. We have accomplished
so much this year. We have The Shadowz, we have Sunshine, we have
Drumline and we have Bella in Britannica voices, this year we have been
the musical maestros of the school! Everyone wants to say they heard
The Shadowz and Sunshine before they were famous! In sport, we have
star players in basketball, in Frisbee, in badminton, in swimming (the
one and only school star swimmer), in football and in friendship (urgh –
cheesy)! On the Yaolin trip we made up over half of the Duke of Edin-
burgh (5 out of 8 - and we all passed!), we made superb rafts, shelters
and fires and annihilated everyone in archery and laser tag! Our form
tutors are the best and have made us laugh all year… but nobody is
funnier than us, our form room is always filled with laughter. We have
helped out at so many activities, Pumpkin Palooza, Entrepreneur Day,
Winter Concert, Charity Events, Sports Day and so many more. This is
why everyone from our teachers to the parents to the other students all
think we are fantastic. But we are going to miss each other even more
than everyone will miss us, which will be hard thing to do! It’ll be diffi-
cult to ever be part of such a close year group again. We are the best!
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This year has been very exciting for Year 10 and 11. It has also been very busy as the students have been involved in a variety of events. We have sadly lost students who have travelled to other countries but we have also gained valuable students who have added their own unique personalities to the group.
Some of the year’s highlights include the Ultimate Frisbee tournament, where Dong Ho was awarded Most Valuable Player; Nicholas, Yi Nuo and Sylvia travelled to Mallorca to learn how to sail; Year 10 became business owners for En-trepreneurial Day; Pietro, Nicholas, and Yi Nuo took part in a two day hike bringing them closer to achieving their Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award and everyone took part in the World Cup football tournament playing alongside staff.
Well done to those students in Yellow Tigers who won the most house points for the year group. All of the students however have worked hard to earn points for their house and have taken part in house events to support Britannica’s school community and work with younger students including Crazy Hair Day, Sports Day and UN Day.
Year 11 students have been working exceptionally well throughout the year and were successful in completing all of their GCSE exams at the end of the year. We are eagerly awaiting their results later in the summer and we know they will be successful in their next steps.
Year 10 have a tough year ahead of them as they will be preparing to sit their exams. We have seen wonderful things from them this year and if they continue to work as hard as they have done so far they should do very well in a year’s time. As they become role models next year as the oldest in the school, we are sure Year 10 will relish the challenge that this brings.
Have a wonderful summer,
Miss Mayes and Mr Rosenberg
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Becci joined Britannica as her first international school, having previously
managed a large sports department in a high school in Rochdale, UK. Her
partner was to also join her in Shanghai, along with his son Joshu. I
In Becci’s first year with us as our new Director of Sport, she quickly made
an impact on our sports programme, while Joshu flourished as one of our
founding Sixth formers, achieving an excellent set of A Level grades in Bri-
tannica’s first set of A level examination results.
Becci’s organisational skills are excellent and her planning meticulous,
which meant that her impact on the Sports Department and whole school
events was soon very noticeable. It was of little surprise to anyone, there-
fore, when the role of Head of Secondary unexpectedly became vacant in
March 2017, that Becci applied and was very clearly the right applicant for this important role.
Becci’s biggest achievement as Head of Secondary has been in pulling the team of teachers together as one unit. The
quality of educational delivery in all our secondary classrooms is good and that has come on the back of the phase
developing clear schemes of work, good assessment procedures and implementing good monitoring practices to
map pupil achievements and progress. Becci’s weekly phase meetings are always well organised, have a clear focus
and have guided the secondary teachers together to make these achievements. As she now leaves the school, to re-
turn to her partner in the UK, she leaves behind a school phase that is well organised, has good practices in place and
shows excellent value added in terms of student achievement.
The school owes her our grateful thanks for all she has done in such a relatively short period of time.
For the past few weeks, Year 10 students have been creating original stories and designing their own picture books.
Students started by learning the conventions of picture book design, analysed their favourite childhood stories, and
began preparing their own stories in groups. They created their own characters, narrative and illustrations. The stu-
dents were very surprised by how much they enjoyed this project. Though the process was tedious, our Year 10’s have
created exciting, original and very creative stories to share with our younger students. These books can be found in
the Primary Library next year, so please come check them out!
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Kim joined Britannica in its second year of opening as its new Director of
World Languages. At the time, the languages department were delivering
a couple of lessons in French each week, to a few students in Years 6 to 9.
A linguist by degree and with experience of leading and developing for-
eign language programmes in the UK and internationally, Kim’s vision for
World Languages at Britannica was soon to become one the school’s
unique selling points. Today, under her leadership and planning the school
now delivers a native language programme in French, Italian, Hebrew, Jap-
anese and Korean to over 150 students across the school, as well as deliver-
ing French and Spanish as a foreign language to students from Years 5 to
Year 13 and the World Languages Department has grown to become one
of the largest departments in the school. Her passion for developing our
Britannica students as bilingual and often trilingual learners has ensured that our Italian, Jewish, Japanese and Korean
communities are currently some of our biggest nationality groups in the school, with parents eager to enrol their chil-
dren in a school that recognises the value and importance of children maintaining their native language whilst still em-
bracing a full English immersion school curriculum.
In 2016 Britannica decided to apply for CIS accreditation, even though it was still a very young school. Kim’s commit-
ment to the school, her academic background and her meticulous approach to organisation meant she was the ideal
member of staff to take on the very important role of CIS Accreditation Officer. The school currently looks forward to
its final CIS visit in October 2018, in the hope of achieving CIS accreditation status. This will be an achievement which
will be on the back of Kim’s hard work and guiding hand as she has led the staff through the accreditation process
over the last 18 months. It is also largely thanks to Kim that we have a full set of best practice school policies, an inter-
nationalism and educational technology curriculum that are embedded in our teaching, full curriculum planning docu-
ments for all subjects across all years and have experienced a CIS process in which every member of the school com-
munity has been involved and has had ownership.
In support of those who managed the school academically, Kim also took on the role of pastoral senior manager un-
der the title Vice Principal – Student and Staff Well Being. Her background in mentoring and counselling provided
great expertise in developing our Staff Performance Management Processes, safeguarding and child protection pro-
cedures, staff induction and peer mentoring programmes within the school. In addition, she has had a pivotal role in
leading our provision for those students who have required extra academic or pastoral support and the school’s cur-
rent emphasis on personalised learning can be traced back to Kim’s original developments of this within the school
programme.
It is clear, as Kim steps down from her role at Britannica and moves onto new ventures in her career that she leaves
behind a legacy of which she should be very proud and a school that is so much more developed because of her ex-
pertise, leadership and her unstinting hard work.
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This year has been such a busy one with lots of big events ….
Britannica’s Got Talent, whole day music stage at Pumpkin Palooza, Singing at the Christmas tree lighting for the Fair-
mont Hotel, Christmas concerts, Sing up, Britannica instrumental concert, Honk!, Secondary Showcase Open Day and
End of year Celebrations.
Next year there are more planned events and if your child was not involved then look out for upcoming events that will be sent out at the beginning of the next academic year. We have had a successful Music 1:1 program this year and are going to have enrolments available at the start of next year. If you are interested in finding out more about this great program please email me for details.
I would just like to thank all of the staff in the Expressive Arts Department for their efforts in making this year successful and look forward to the planned events for next year.
Lastly, I would like to say thank you to all the parent support we have received for all the different events we have had as it would not be possible without your support. I
would like to wish you all a very happy summer break and hope that you will come back to Britannica rested and ready for another eventful year.
Estelle Owens
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Students in years 6-13 celebrated in style this week at Britannica’s Summer Ball. Students were treated to the DJ’ing
talents of DJ J (Jerry Chen – Year 9) and Britannica’s most famous band The Shadowz. Students received subject
awards for Outstanding Academic Achievement and Outstanding Effort from their teachers; students also achieved
their final house point certificates and we found out the winners of the House Point Trophy. This year Green Dragons
and Red Phoenix shared the trophy with both houses earning 1,095 house points each.
The evening continued until 8 pm with students dancing, posing in the photo booth and enjoying a delicious buffet.
I would like to say a very big thank you to all the parents and teachers who helped make the evening special. I wish
you all a very relaxing and enjoyable summer.
Miss Hatton, Head of Secondary
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2017 – 2018 SUMMER TERM BRITANNICA SCHOOL CALENDAR
