BULLETIN No.13

Upcoming Dates
 

 
General
 
Kangaroo Maths Winners
Congratulations to our BSCR national medal winners in the Kangaroo International Mathematics Competition 2025 that was held on March 20th.  Well done to all participants!
 
Year 5:             Damon Wu Wu (Bronze Medal)
Year 6:             Alessandro D´Arsié (Silver Medal)
Year 7:             Naima Alvarez (Gold Medal)
Year 8:             Judy Wu Wu (Silver Medal), Natalie Lipschitz (Bronze Medal)
Year 9:             Emiliano Robalino Carmiol (Gold Medal), Luisa Rodriguez (Silver Medal),
                         Elena Bonilla Desanti (Bronze Medal), Manuel Chacon (Bronze Medal)
Year 10:           Jonathan Chin (Silver Medal)
 
Health Week Activities
We are pleased to share with our learning community the schedule of activities for Health and Wellness Week, starting on Monday:
Early Years Activities
Primary Activities
Secondary Activities
 
Early Years and Primary
 
Year 4B Assembly – Superheroes!
Year 4B celebrated Superhero day by hosting a wonderful assembly and fundraising activity for Chepe Se Baña (please see our Social Media pages for pictures of various members of our community dressed as superheroes!). Chepe Se Baña’s Escuela de Arte Heroes supports San Jose’s homeless population by offering them food, a place to wash and free workshops and classes. We are proud to share that BSCR has already raised over ₡475,000 to donate to this worthy cause, thanks to your generous donations.
 
Health and Wellness Week in EY and Primary
Starting on Monday the 5th of May we will be celebrating Health and Wellness Week with a range of activities:
Monday, May 5
On this day, students will participate in an internal walk for mental peace. Students who wish to participate may come wearing a white shirt or blouse, following the school’s dress code protocols. – Internal Walk for Mental Peace.pdf
Tuesday, May 6
During recess, students will take part in a sports rally. They may wear sports clothing, again following the school’s dress code protocols
Thursday, May 8
We invite all parents of students in Years 2 to 5 to join our virtual talk, in Spanish, on “Keeping Children Safe in a Technological Era”.  In this talk we will share strategies that parents can implement to help manage their children’s use of technology. Niños seguros en una era tecnológica.pdf   If you are unable to attend the session, we will be recording it and will share a link to the recording in next week’s bulletin.
Throughout the week, we will also have other activities with our students. We encourage you to create spaces for conversation and reflection at home about health and wellness.
Parent Workshop – Puberty: Changes and Challenges’
We are delighted to invite all parents from Year 4 and Year 5 to the workshop “Puberty: Changes and Challenges”, which will be delivered by our Psychologists Andreína Azofeifa and María José González from the school’s Student Development Services (SDS).  The workshop will be on campus, in Spanish, on Wednesday 21st May from 8:30 to 10:00 am. This workshop serves as a complement to the activities which our Year 4 and Year 5 students will be participating in. In this workshop, we will examine subjects such as: the physical and psychosocial changes during puberty, the social patterns that emerge in the conformation of gender roles and the role of sexual education within the family.
 
ITEPs Students
Friday 2nd May marks the last working day for our three ITEPs students (International Teacher Education for Primary Schools). Senna (Early Years 3), Esmee (Year 1) and Danka (Year 3) have been with us over the last few months as they undertake the final stages of their “Bachelor in Education” courses. This arrangement, as always, has been reciprocally beneficial for all involved and we look forward to continuing our strong partnership with NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences, Netherlands next year.
 
We would like to place on record a sincere thank you for their commitment and contribution over the last three months. Both staff and students will certainly miss having them around. Best of luck in your future endeavours Senna, Esmee and Danka!
 
Book Week
The week of April 21st-25th was a festive week, celebrating both International Book and Copyright Day and World Arts Day. For this reason, Teacher Carlos (Music) and Teacher Adi (Primary School Librarian) teamed up to host numerous cultural and artistic activities, workshops, crafts, and contests throughout the week for all Early Years and Primary students.
 
Something important we would like to highlight is that the play presented at the closing assembly was written by the Drama Club members with the support of Teacher Carlos. The background music was composed by Teacher Carlos. We also featured an opening podcast by the Podcast Club members: Congratulations, you did wonderfully well! We also had an excellent performance by the Primary School Band to close the celebrations.
 
We also had a special visit from Costa Rican author Óscar Brenes Cerdas, with whom children and adults learned about legends and musical instruments of the indigenous peoples of Costa Rica.
 
In this link, you’ll find a video that summarizes everything that happened during these important celebrations. A huge thank you to all the children, teachers, leadership team, and technical and maintenance staff for their enthusiasm, joy, support, and active participation! We hope you enjoyed it. Long live books and the arts!
 
Note: We will soon announce the winners of the Photography Contest.
 
Secondary
 
Year 6 and Year 9 Art Exhibitions
The Art Department is pleased to announce that the Year 6 Cultures of the World – China project and the Year 9 work on the theme of Edible delights exhibition are both now on exhibition on the display boards beside the secondary bridge. All of the work displayed demonstrates the students’ understanding of composition and use of the formal elements.  Congratulations to all the Year 6 and Year 9 Art students for their hard work and artistic achievements shown through their artwork and for making a great artistic start to this academic year.
 
IGCSE exams – November timetable
Please click on the following link to access the final Year 10 IGCSE exam timetable for this year.  The exam session starts on September 29th and finishes on November 12th.  Please note that as these exams dates are organised by Cambridge, and are applicable to all Cambridge Schools around the world, we are unable to change them – IGCSE Site
 
Book Week
Last week we celebrated our love for reading and the value of books in our lives with a series of activities in Secondary.  Some highlights included:

• library workshops, exhibits and challenges
• a visit by the author Nacer Wabeau
• a screening of “King Lear”
• the literary costume competition (see the website for winners and honorable mentions)
• literary-cultural kiosks by Year 11 and Year 12 students
• English Department creative writing competition
• a book week assembly with different presentations organized by the language departments
• book swapping during break times, organized by the Student Council

Please visit our website for further information about these activities.
Finally, we would like to thank all the people who make our Book Week activities a success. We would also like to encourage all members of our Learning Community to make space in your daily routine to submerge yourself in the pleasure and magic of reading a book.
 
Parent-Teacher Meetings
Thank you to all Secondary parents who attended the Parent-Teacher meetings on Wednesday of this week.  If you wanted to speak with one of your child’s teachers, but were unable to meet with them on Wednesday, then please email them directly to organise a meeting.
 
IGCSE Ceremony
On Monday of this week our Year 11 students received their formal IGCSE certificates from Mrs. Dana Cryderman, Political Advisor at the Canadian Embassy, here in Costa Rica.  Congratulations to each of our Year 11 students on their achievements.