FROM THE PRINCIPAL
We were very pleased to welcome the trustees of BHS, Quaker International Educational Trust (QuIET), who held a meeting at the school on 21 January. QuIET is a UK registered charity whose directors are responsible for the safe keeping of the school. During their visit to BHS the directors met with students, parents, old scholars, staff, and governors.

STAFF DEVELOPMENT
Maya Bou Hamad, the Lower School Counsellor attended a workshop between 24 and 30 October 2011 with ALCS, a Guru NGO in Morocco and the Middle East & North Africa [MENA] region, on Advocacy for all the French speaking countries in the MENA region. The workshop's aim was to strengthen the attendees with skills to become advocates for issues related to sexual health and protection, including HIV awareness, thus creating a hub and recruiting, training, as well as transferring their message to the community in more efficient ways. She also attended a workshop called Healing the Wound of History at the Lebanese Center for Drama Therapy on 6, 7, 8, 13, 14, & 15 January 2012.

Elementary Supervisor and Drama Teacher William El Roumouz attended a 6 day workshop in January called Playback Theater at the Lebanese Center for Drama Therapy.

HOLIDAYS
On the occasion of Mar Maroun the school and Nursery will be closed on Thursday, 9 February 2011.

EMERGENCY PROCEDURES
If a sudden decision is made to close the school, we will send an SMS message to the contact person in each family (as specified by each family in the most recent Family Data Update returned). If school is closed before the end of the school day, early bus departure will be arranged.

All information will also be posted on the school Web site. To view the latest Web site updates, please remember to refresh your browser by clicking the Refresh or Reload button on the toolbar (whilst on-line). Parents who need further information should contact either Reception or the appropriate section office.

Please assume that we are open, unless you are otherwise informed by a reliable source.

PA NEWS
The first PA event of the year is the annual brunch at Grand Hills Hotel & Spa, Brummana on Thursday, 2 February 2012 at 10:30 AM. Entertainment will be provided by the Scene Scene Comedy Theatre team, and there will many surprises. You are warmly invited to attend and bring guests from the wider community. The proceeds of the event will go towards funds for financial aid and to support the facilities at the school. Tickets at 50,000 LL are available at the Bookshop and from each Lower School Section, as well from PA members. Should you need any further information concerning this event, please contact any PA member.

UPPER SCHOOL NEWS
Brevet/Baccalaureate Exams
The government official exams will commence on the following dates:
Brevet - 12 June 2012
Bacc II GS/LS - 18 June 2012
Bacc II SE - 25 June 2012

SAT I and II Exams
Students in Grades 11, 12, and Secondary 3 LP who are planning to sit for the SAT I and SAT II exams in May should submit their completed forms to the Registrar by Friday, 16 March.

Secondary Section

Christmas Choir: The Upper School Christmas Choir was a success. Around 42 Secondary students from different nationalities and backgrounds sang on stage with Notre Dame of Paris Soloist Aline Rizk Al Haddad. The Concert was followed by a reception outside Dobbing Hall.

Assemblies: On 10 January, the DoS met with students and reintroduced the Exemption Policy. The policy was then displayed in every classroom. On 17 January, the HoS met with Secondary students to share important dates coming up, mainly the mid-year exams.

New Year Wishes: Principal Dr. Walid El Khoury visited all Secondary classes to wish students a happy, healthy, and successful new year. He looked into some students’ work and tried to help them solve their homework.

Community Service Programme: Francis Keenan with the help of DoS Samar Barakat sent cakes and juice to the elders at Dar El Rahmeh. Students took the cakes and juice and helped in presenting them to the patients. Special thanks to Ms. Keenan for her generous gift.

Advisory Programme: The advisors had individual meetings with their advisees. They will also discuss with students “Survival Strategies for Exams” which will help them get prepared for the mid-year exams.

Prom Committee: The Prom Committee has been working hard to deliver a memorable Prom. They have raised sufficient funds so far through several food sales such as: McDonalds Sale, Elementary Bake Sale, and Upper School Bake Sale. The Prom Committee has set many goals and will strive to achieve them. There are many events planned for the future.

Tip for Parents: Parents are expected to urge their children to set a study schedule for their exams. The exams will be scheduled before 10 February especially for the LP classes.

Intermediate Section
Assemblies:
12 Jan. - Representative Maria Mamlouk from St. Jude’s Caner Centre gave a presentation in which the Intermediate students were given a glimpse of the hardships and pain cancer children go through. Next week, we shall begin the Letter-a-thon project with students with the aim to raise donations for the Cancer Centre.
19 Jan. – Director of studies Samar Barakat gave a presentation explaining the school’s exemption policy. Students were encouraged to work harder so that they may be eligible for exemption from final examinations.
26 Jan. – Honour Roll certificates were distributed and pictures were taken to later be posted in the MTB building.

Advisory:
In the past two weeks, advisers have been going through the topic of manners and etiquette which includes table manners. As a group they have been discussing what is accepted as proper behaviour and what isn’t in our society. One example has been “greeting people you meet” whereby students are being encouraged to greet teachers, relatives, and friends they encounter with friendly greetings.
In the coming two weeks, advisers will be working on helping students organize a study schedule for the mid-year examinations and informing them of techniques to deal with test anxiety.

Prefects: The second group of Grade 9 prefects has begun their School Service duties. They will act as assistants to the supervisor within the MTB building for Term 2 until the third group takes over. Their duties will include: making sure lights are out when students leave the building for breaks and at the end of the day, that all windows are closed to ensure rooms remain heated, to help with distribution of papers etc.

Science Projects: All students in the Intermediate Section (with the exception of Brevet students) have submitted projects which are on display in the Science Building. Many of these projects are quite impressive and reflect a great deal of research and effort. Best project winners will be announced next week.

MUN: Dr. Marcy Newman has been working closely with four Grade 9 students (Douha Knio, Nicole Abou Samra, Amani Kmeid, and Michel Raffoul) who will be representing the Intermediate Section of our school in a National MUN Conference in March.

Panasonic Project Competition: Teacher Alex Brear has been working with a group of Grade 9 students who plan to enter a short film in this upcoming national competition. The theme of the film will be based on communication and the problems people face due to lack of communication.

Medical Check-ups: We are in the process of sending Intermediate students down to the clinic for their annual medical examinations. If the school doctor notes any concerns regarding your child, she will send a note home with your child.

Yearbook: all students received a copy of last year’s Yearbook. We are now in the process of preparing items for next year.

Points for Parents: With the Mid-Year examinations less than 2 weeks away, we urge parents to help with preparing their children for this time of year. Students should follow a rhythm of sleeping at a reasonable time every day, decrease amount of time spent with entertainment activities (internet, TV, etc..), and focus on working seriously on daily homework and revision of work covered during the day. Students also need to devote time daily and on weekends to follow a revision schedule in which they go back and start revising material covered starting from the beginning of the year.  They will feel very overwhelmed if they leave all the revision until the last 3 days before the Mid-Year examinations.

English Department
The following students will be competing in this year's LAU Writing Competition which is part of the LAU Science and Literature Fair: Grace Abou Abdallah, Frederic Azar, Natasha Ghawi, Pio Ibrahim, Jennifer Mehzer, and Sandra Pelgrim.

The following students won the Young Writers Poetry Contest and their work will be published in a volume of poetry by young readers: Kareen Abi Fadel, Nicole Abou Samra, Sara-Luna Akl Ayroun, Catherine Al-Aswad, Ali Al-Khudairi, Michelle Bado, Abdul Rahman Dalbani, Amy Daoud, Magalie Eid, Nicole El-Helou, Ghina Fahs, Christina Farhat, Maria Habib, Katelyn Kazan, Myriam Maalouf, and Sandra Pelgrim. Congratulations!

P.E. News
Santa Fun Run Results:

The winners are: Junior Boys Category - 1st Kai Koenye, 2nd Gio Gaspard, and 3rd Fouad Berberi; Senior Boys Category - 1st Toni Srour, 2nd Victor Eid, and 3rd Toufic Ziadeh Girls Category - 1st Louana Kaloustian, 2nd Sophia Shuker, and 3rd Luciana Riachi. Well Done!

Basketball: The Senior Boys Team won an away game vs. College Melkart 61:17 on 14 January and another away game vs. Zahret El Ehsan 65:35 on 19 January. The team also won an away game vs. Sagesse High School 48:44 within the LAU Tournament.

LOWER SCHOOL NEWS
Elementary Section News

Happy New Year!  Yes, we are still at the beginning, and we wish you all the best. We certainly enjoyed a beautiful Christmas Show with the children and the parents alike. It was a wonderful closure for 2011. We started this year with determination to finish the school year on a successfully high note.

Head of Section Shatha Abou Khalil welcomed back the children and reminded them that perseverance is the key to a successful year.

Grade 5C prepared a presentation showing the importance of purchasing the appropriate school bag.  Children across the Elementary Sections were reminded and taught how to choose a proper light weight school bag. They learnt that a school bag should not weigh more than 10% of their body weight including the books in it. They were made aware of the fact that a heavy bag would affect their healthy normal growth, as well as their straight backbones.

Grade 4A displayed a PowerPoint presentation defining “Cyber Bullying”. Students were overwhelmed to know that many of their regular chat behavior might go under the category of what is known as “Online Social Cruelty.” Their awareness was raised to the point where they could identify improper communication on the web.

Our students are already preparing for the upcoming Spelling Bee and Social Studies contests. May the best-prepared win!

The Science Fair is already under way, as are book reports in an attempt to promote reading across the sections. Many are on display on corridor boards to share.

Grade 1 students played the role of linguists where they designed a project about the different groups of nouns.

Grade 2 students read a story about a boy trying to ride a bike without training wheels, and then they wrote about their favorite part in the story.

Integrating Math with Art, Grade 2 students used the solid figures to create shapes.

Grade 3 students used the Active board to learn about photosynthesis and how plants grow and reproduce.

Grade 3A prepared and presented a PowerPoint presentation on recycling. Grade 3B shared a fantasy about honesty through a PowerPoint presentation

Infant Section

The children settled back quickly into the school routine, and are glad to see their friends again. Throughout January, all activities in the Infant Section are focused on the most visual aspect of winter, which is snow. They are using simple ways of creating winter scenes using construction paper, glue, glitter, cotton, and salt.

On 17 January, KG II students visited the Kafaat College. They were distributed into three groups and each group worked with a cook and 4 of his assistants. They spent the morning preparing a 3 course menu and then they all gathered in the dining area to eat the lunch that they have cooked. The trip was highly educational for the students; they learned many things. Detailed pictures of the trip are available at the Secretary’s office if you wish to see them.

KG II students brainstormed ideas that come to mind when we say winter: building snow men, making snow angels, ice skating, skiing, drinking hot chocolate, and lots of other fun activities. They drank hot chocolate in class while listening to a story related to cold weather.

KG II students listened to the fable," Stone Soup”. Afterwards they prepared and enjoyed with their teachers a delicious vegetable soup.

The value for the month of January is honesty and you can't imagine how hard it is to teach it to little ones. Teaching children honesty is a real challenge given the examples of dishonesty that they encounter every day in the world around them. Your example, and your constant feedback, about your child’s behaviour can be a powerful influence on your child.

Now that the weather is extremely cold and many of our children are showing signs of colds and flu, please remember to keep your child at home if he/she shows any of the following symptoms:

THANK YOU TO....
- An anonymous donor for donating magazines and books to the Elementary libraries.
- Grade 5C student Angela Kortbawi for donating a book to the Lower Elementary Library.
- KG IIA student Henry Chedid for donating books to the Infant Section Library.

The Newsletter will be published once a month. If you would like to receive a free copy of the Newsletter by email, please send an email with “subscribe” in the subject line to: najat.wakim@bhs.edu.lb.

BHS Newsletter
4 May 2012
29 March 2012
23 February 2012
26 January 2012
21 December 2011
25 November 2011
13 October 2011
9 June 2011
12 May 2011