For the first time, Key Stage 1 and 2 joined together to create 'Cinderella and Rockerfella', a whole Primary Production - and what a success it was!

Telling the reimagined story of Cinderella, the cast of nearly 140 children between the ages of 5 to 11 sang and danced their hearts out to a delighted audience of parents and friends in our packed amphitheatre on Friday 16th November.

Continuing in the BISA Performing Arts tradition, everyone performed with confidence and enthusiasm, enjoying telling the twist on the old classic with audience participation bringing a fun additional element to the event.

A huge congratulations to you all on a wonderful, entertaining performance! Enjoy our highlights video below!

Our Primary athletes came out on top at the Primary Inter-Schools Athletics meet held at ISMAC last Friday, finishing in first place overall!

Competing in multiple events, our students brought home a stack of medals, certificates and even a few record-breaking performances! With many of the young athletes competing for the first time in this type of competition, not to mention competing in the hot November sun that Arusha has been experiencing, they were a credit to BISA both in their athletic performances and in their display of excellent sportsmanship and excellent attitude. We are incredibly proud of our young athletes and can't wait to see what you all accomplish next!

On the beautiful sunny Saturday morning of 10th November, Braeburn International School Arusha took part in the annual NTAA Athletics Meet held at ISMAC.

It was a spectacular performance from all the Braeburn students. Each one showing their greatest capability and dominating in their selected events. We left the event with a number of first place medals and certificates. With two athletes really standing out, one being Sherlyne Mawalla who broke the events Long Jump record and the other being Clinton Mutuku breaking two records, first the 1500m then the 800m. As if that wasn’t enough, Clinton earned himself the best male athlete of the meet.

Overall Braeburn came 2nd with only a two-point difference from the winners of the meet, Orkeeswa.

A BIG WELL DONE AND CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL PARTICIPANTS!! - Report by Angel Karegyesa

This term the BTEC Performing Arts students have been working on a Theatre in Education unit where we have been developing and producing a Forum Theatre play. Forum Theatre is a type of theatre originally developed by Brazilian practitioner Augusto Boal in the 1960s under the umbrella of 'Theatre of The Oppressed'. The play usually deals with a situation where there is some kind of oppression. The skit is shown twice, and on the second showing the audience ('spect-actors') are allowed to shout 'stop', step forward and take the place of one of the oppressed characters showing how they could change the situation to enable a different, more positive outcome. Several alternatives may be explored by different 'spect-actors'. The other actors remain in characters, improvising their responses. A facilitator (Joker) is necessary to enable communication between the players and the audience. The strategy breaks through the barrier between performers and audience, putting them on an equal footing. It enables participants to try out courses of action which could be applicable to their every day lives. Originally the technique was developed by Boal as a political tool for change, but has been widely adapted for use in educational contexts.

The BTEC Performing Arts students explored many different topics before settling on a play that dealt with issues of stress, harrassment and bullying. Their performance of the play, called 'Hope', on Friday at the KS4 and 5 assembly was a great success, with many members of the audience offering up some very good solutions. As part of the unit, the students also designed posters and support material, samples of which you can see here.

Children’s responses to the different feelings they experience every day have a major impact on their choices, their behaviour, and on how well they cope and enjoy life. 

Emotional development involves learning what feelings and emotions are, understanding how and why they happen, recognising one’s own feelings and those of others, and developing effective ways of managing them. As children grow and are exposed to different situations their emotional lives also become more complex. Developing skills for managing a range of emotions is therefore very important for their emotional wellbeing.

Key points for supporting children’s emotional development

Providing effective support for children’s emotional development starts with paying attention to their feelings and noticing how they manage them. By acknowledging children’s emotional responses and providing guidance, parents, carers and school staff can help children understand and accept feelings, and develop effective strategies for managing them. 

Tune into children’s feelings and emotions 

Some emotions are easily identified, while others are less obvious. Tuning into children’s emotions involves looking at their body language, listening to what they are saying and how they are saying it, and observing their behaviour. This allows you to respond more effectively to children’s needs and to offer more specific guidance to help children manage their emotions. 

Help children recognise and understand emotions

Taking opportunities to talk with children and teach them about emotions helps children to become more aware of their own emotions as well as those of others. Encouraging children to feel comfortable with their emotions and providing them with practice in talking about their feelings helps children to further develop ways to manage their emotions. 

Set limits on inappropriate expression of emotions

It is very important for children to understand that it is okay to have a range of emotions and feelings, but that there are limits to the ways these should be expressed. While acknowledging children’s emotions, it is therefore very important to set limits on aggressive, unsafe or inappropriate behaviours. 

Be a role model

Children learn about emotions and how to express them appropriately by watching others – especially parents, carers and school staff. Showing children the ways you understand and manage emotions helps children learn from your example. This includes examples of saying: “Sorry, I lost my temper” (because no parent is perfect!) and then showing how you might make amends. 

When it comes to child development, feelings matter. Everyone feels overwhelmed at times but some children can react more strongly to everyday experiences than others. For this reason, it can be useful to understand how temperament affects feelings. Young children especially need adults to help them in developing coping skills for managing emotions. A great way to help children with their emotions is to role-model talking about emotions and being calm.

This can be especially helpful when supporting children around fear and worries. Everyone gets scared, and children can get scared for all sorts of reasons. Very young children are often afraid of imaginary things like monsters hiding under the bed. Older children usually fear real things that might happen, like being hurt.  All children need reassurance and support so they can learn to cope with fear and worries on their own.

Older children can also benefit from understanding the relationship between coping with fears and helpful self-talk. Making sense of older children’s emotions requires tuning in, reflecting back to them what you’re noticing and asking open-ended questions. Helping children to manage feelings builds emotional self-awareness and can also help children to understand how thinking affects feelings.