The exhibition is a gigantic project, which you will maintain through out fifth grade. Most students think that it is the most enjoyable part of the whole fifth grade. It is also the thing that makes fifth grade at BIS so different from all the other grades. In your exhibition, our can do a project about anything that has to do with growing up and the world around you. Some themes are:
· Eating Disorders
· Peer pressure
· Drugs
· Alcohol
· Puberty
· Natural disasters
· Music
· Fashion over time
· Asthma
· Stress
· Gangs
So as you can see your choice is very widely spread. But the tricky bit is not to choose a topic, but to maintain it. The exhibition is like no other unit, because you will not receive any information from your teacher or any specific tasks. You have to research your topic and answer some guiding questions. The information you collect in this way have to be presented in forms of a brochure, a poster and a PowerPoint presentation. After you have done so, you need to identify a problem, find a solution and determine a possible action.
After you have completed part one, you will move on to part two, in which the class will split up into small groups and share their results, solutions and actions, to create one group action and maintain it. Often it seems hard at first to do an action, but most students are able to take action by talking to other classes about their topic, or by creating a brochure, which they hand out to a certain group of people.
The exhibition is very special, because for most students it is the first time that they are working absolutely independently and freely as an individual and as a group. Not only does everyone have a different topic, but also everybody has an advisor. The advisor is a teacher; with whom you will meet while you are maintaining the exhibition. He/she will help you with any difficulties you have in your project and give you tips on how to improve your product and your working process. Yet they will not do the work for you but only guide and advise you through it. At the end your advisor will also asses you, just like your homeroom teacher and yourself. But in this project the grade isn’t the most important thing, the most important aspect of the exhibition is that you learn how to efficiently apply research and production skills in order to make the most of your time.
After both part one and part two, you will present your results and your achievements to your parent, your friends and your advisors with the others as a very formal event. Then it is sadly time to clean everything up again and after that has been done, the school year is over and the less formal part takes place: THE FIFTH GRADE GRADUATION!!!! This is a party for you your teachers and your parents at which you celebrate the last day of fifth grade and have a big party and after that you are well prepared for secondary school.

In January 2006 our school has moved into a brand new building, which combines the ELC, the primary and the secondary school in one building. Therefore it is quite a large school with many class rooms and some extras. The cafeteria in our school is used by both primary and secondary students and therefore only available at the beginning of lunch time for primary students. It is a large sunny room, from which one can see the outside cafeteria and the inside school garden (no entry until the grass has grown properly). There is a catering service that offers three different menus, including salad, dessert and drinks. They also offer warm drinks, muffins, donuts etc. and ice cream. Most people like the food, because it is a lot better than the one in the old school, but because there are so many people who like it, there are always long lines. But the most exciting thing about the cafeteria is that you can pay with your scholar card, once you put money on to it, you also need the card to enter the school in the morning.
Right next to the cafeteria is the big gym or sports hall which you also share with the secondary school, therefore your P.E. lessons won’t always be in there, but often. The gym features climbing ropes, basketball hoops, gymnastic equipment and you can build up two goals on each side. When the weather is good, you will often do P.E. outside which is very fun. If the gym is not available for your class and the weather is bad, you will be working in the primary MPR, which is a medium sized room, with an orange rubber floor, where there is enough space, the do simple physical activities such as jumping jacks or climbing on the monkey bars along the wall.
Another exciting place is the library which is divided into a primary and a secondary part, the primary part alone contains over………. Books and is about half the size of the cafeteria. It has a corner where you can read and you have one class period each week, in which your teacher will take you up there to choose new books research things on the internet and read. It is the most quite space in our school.
The most likely loudest place in our school is the large playground, on which you’re allowed to go when it is not raining. In summer, the gate to the big field at the back on which you can go and play soccer, or where you can just sit on the grass and talk to your friends. There is also a smooth concrete surface on which there are two basket ball hoops, so that you can have a proper game. There is also a big model of a dragon, in form of a climbing frame with a bridge and a slide.
At the end of each week you have a full school period of assembly, in which different classes present something they have learned. This assembly takes place in the so called performance room, which are actually two rooms that can be combined to make one, by moving the inner wall away. .This assembly takes place in the so called performance room, which are actually two rooms, which can be combined to make one, by moving the inner wall away. Your parents are welcome to watch the assembly as well. They are usually very interesting performances that are very enjoyable. This is the reason why most students like this room.
Also the class rooms are very pleasant, because they are rather large and the fifth grade is one of the few lucky classes who have a direct view on the Rhein. But also the art classroom is very big and contains a lot of equipment and student work is always on display that is what makes every classroom so unique and interesting.
Another section of our school that you will surely like is the computer lab, because we have Windows and Apple computers, which allows every student to develop their individual preferences and the extremely new and optically appealing Apple computers give our school a touch of high tech atmosphere.

When you will be part of our school community you will have the option to attend some extra curricular activities, which will either take part after the lessons or I lunchtimes, they run for at least a quarter term, after that they either end or continue, if they continue you can then make a choice if you want to continue as well or if you want to do something different. The activities are different each year therefore I can’t say what you will be able to choose from next year, but some of the activities which were available this year are:
· Drama club, practice skits and learn them until you can perform.
· Student Council (you need to be elected by your class to join) here you can decide about what should be done to improve the school and your learning atmosphere.
· Scrap booking
· Craft club you can design your own clothes or produce a cell phone bag, what ever you want to do
· Latin dance learn how to do cha-cha-cha and other exciting dances
· Soccer club improve your dribbling and shooting skills, together with others
· Stamp club look at stamps and trade them with your friends.
Both, physical, artistic and language activities are available for you to join, so sign up and have some fun once you’re at our school.