SES Blog
Athletics Day at Surabaya European School: Celebrating Sportsmanship and Team Spirit
A Day of Energy and Excitement
Surabaya European School (SES) recently held its annual Athletics Day, a much-anticipated event that brought together students, teachers, and parents for a celebration of fitness, teamwork, and fun. The school grounds were filled with energy as students from different year levels participated in a variety of athletic challenges designed to test their strength, speed, and endurance.
Inclusive Activities for All Ages
From traditional races to creative team relays, every activity was carefully planned to ensure all students could join in and shine in their own way. Younger children enthusiastically ran short-distance sprints, while older students took part in long-distance runs, tug of war, and obstacle courses. The mix of competitive and playful games created a lively atmosphere where every child felt included and encouraged.
Sportsmanship and Team Spirit
Beyond the competition, Athletics Day was about building character and promoting core values such as respect, resilience, and teamwork. Students cheered one another on, celebrated victories, and showed grace in challenges. The sense of community was clear, with parents and staff applauding every effort and milestone.
A Memorable Community Event
The highlight of the day was the closing ceremony, where participants were recognised for their achievements and sportsmanship. Instead of focusing solely on winning, the event emphasised effort, perseverance, and the joy of taking part.
Athletics Day at SES was more than just a sports event—it was a celebration of togetherness, growth, and healthy living. It reflected the school’s commitment to nurturing well-rounded individuals who value both personal success and collective spirit.
Week 7 and 8
Dear Parents,
It was nice and valuable to see all of you during the Parent Teacher Conferences. Your insights about the children are always meaningful, and we truly appreciate the home school collaboration. What matters most is always the best interest of the children.
Circle time is always a delightful moment, especially with the presentation of grace and courtesy. The children learned how to respond when a teacher calls their name: stop, look at the teacher, and walk towards them. They also discussed table manners, which they now apply during lunch time.
Reception children are actively working on honing their skills, from learning sounds with the I Spy game to memorising the alphabet. Please remember that we encourage children to say the sounds, not the names of the letters. Some children are building words, while others are practicing blending sounds. The children work at their own pace, and each step is celebrated as part of their growth and confidence.
Meanwhile, Nursery children have been introduced to language through classified cards and vocabulary enrichment activities. These activities are good for expanding their vocabulary, strengthening memory, and building a foundation for expressive and receptive language.
Unit – My Five Senses
We kicked off Week 7 with the sensory bins! The children had lots of fun using their sense of touch to feel, explore, and describe what they thought was inside the bowls. In Montessori Sensorial activities, children practice refining their sense of touch through materials such as fabrics, touch boards, and touch tablets. Touch is an essential sense, especially for people with visual impairments, and the children also discovered how the Braille Pen Set helps enhance writing skills.
Exploring taste brought out many expressive reactions as the children sampled different foods to identify flavours. They learned new vocabulary to describe tastes: bitter, sour, salty, and sweet. The children created an “I Can Taste It” flip book, recording and drawing each food item they tried.
We wrapped up the week with a fun cookie-baking activity, which the children thoroughly enjoyed, especially when it was time to taste their delicious creations!
Year 1 additional learning covered – Week 7 and 8
Phonics
To identify sounds represented by more than one letter, for example /ch/, /sh/, /th/, /qu/, /ng/, /nk/
To use phonic knowledge to read decodable words. Reading and writing CVC words,words with adjacent vowel / consonants using sounds covered, words with double consonants such as bell, mess, mitt, back.
Language / Literacy – Reading. Guided Reading groups – Practising fluency of reading and gaining the confidence to recognise sounds and blend them to read words and sentences. Reading comprehension, to be able to answer direct questions about the book.
Language / Literacy– Weekend news
The children planned their writing by recording key words on their planning sheet:. ‘My weekend snapshots’. They concentrated on spelling familiar words accurately (and, went, to, the, with, my, me) as well as using a capital letter for ‘I’, for proper nouns and to start some sentences in more extended writing.
Language / Literacy– Grammar analysis
We discussed and learned what a sentence is made of: an article, a noun,an adjective,a verb, a preposition, a conjunction.
In pairs, the children built sentences by putting the words in order. Use the symbols and place them above the words.
Maths –
Addition
There are many ways we can add numbers up. During these last two weeks, the children have learned how to add by combining two sets of quantities. We used unifix cubes, counters and the part-whole models to combine two quantities and find the total.
Adding by counting on is another strategy which the children learned how to use number lines to count on from a given number to find the total.
Place Value
Starting with the Montessori Teen boards which the children are familiar with, the children learned how to use the Numicons and the unifix cubes when learning to compose and decompose numbers from 10 to 20. For example, 14 is made of 1 ten and 4 units / ones.
Important Dates
11-20 Oct: School Holidays
21 Oct: School reopens
21 Oct: Diwali Dress Day
22 Oct: Montessori Language Workshop
31 Oct: Halloween Dress Day
Kind regards,
Montessori Team
