Grade 2 at Kensington became Culture Vultures for their last Unit of Inquiry this year.

The students now understand that culture goes beyond aspects that can be seen and heard such as food, clothing, flags and stories. Culture also relates to people's beliefs, values, attitudes and fears.

Various workshops and guest speakers, along with parent volunteers, helped the students to experience first-hand many different cultures. This gave the children a much deeper understanding of diversity within cultures and the realisation that a country may not hold just one culture but several.

Activities included a Maori cultural workshop, and flamenco and Adanta African dance workshops.

400 students took to the stage on Friday night in Southbank's annual Suzuki concert.

This celebration of musical achievement featured, for the first time performers from Westminster, as well as Hampstead and Kensington. It was held at the fittingly international venue of Central Hall, Westminster - the chosen venue for the inaugural General Assembly of the United Nations in 1946.

The Suzuki Programme at Southbank teaches all five to 11 year old students to play the violin or cello, in the same way as they learn their mother tongue: through listening, motivation, repetition, imitation, step-by-step mastery, memory, vocabulary, parental involvement, encouragement and love.

What do ex-Beatle Ringo Starr and Hampstead Principal Jane Treftz have in common?

They are both recipients of the Gold Goat badge from charity Kids for Kids. Ringo said receiving his was better than a Grammy and only Honorary Presidents and the privileged few are deemed worthy of the award. Jane was therefore humbled to be presented with the little brooch at a recent Town Meeting. The founder of Kids for Kids, Patricia Parker, said: "Nobody more deserves it."

Jane, and the Southbank Hampstead community, have supported the charity for the past eight years and together they have made an incredible difference in Darfur: so far helping 33,000 families in 41 villages. Southbank was the first school to provide a handpump enabling the villagers to help themselves. We have also been involved in the lend-a-goat scheme which provides goats (and therefore milk) to families. This year, we raised over £1200 through the wheelathon event with the local Jack Taylor School. Ex-Hampstead, now Westminster pupil, Samantha donated through her Bah-Mitzvah six goats, a donkey, cart, and first aid trainer!

Kids for Kids implements long-term sustainable projects identified and run by the communities themselves.

The Milton Toubkin Award for Making a Difference celebrates the way Southbank students make positive changes in the world.

The award is not "won", rather it is a statement acknowledging how certain students live their lives, and it is perfectly in line with the ethos of Southbank and the IB.

At Hampstead, two Grade 4 students, Adi and Taija recently received the award for their self-initiated school-wide recycling project. They impressed teachers and other students in the community for their creative ideas, enthusiasm and ability to follow through with a project. They have raised awareness of the
importance of recycling and set an example for others. They used their spare time to research and plan; showing commitment, enthusiasm, taking risks, solving problems and working co-operatively and independently. The idea for the project came from their class Unit of Inquiry, Pollution.

This year, Milton himself (Southbank's founder) presented the award, adding: "I'm very glad to be at Hampstead to see all the wonderful things still happening here." Adi and Taija will now have to decide how to put the £200 donation they have won to good use, making even more of a difference.

The award is sponsored by the Milton Toubkin Scholarship Trust, a charity which raises funds primarily to provide scholarships for students to study for the IB Diploma at Southbank. Kensington and Westminster campuses will be announcing their recipients shortly.

The Southbank Class of 2008 was sent off in style on Saturday 31st May. The Graduation Ceremony for the 44 students took place in Westminster at Church House, Dean’s Yard, and was attended by families, friends, and current and past staff.

The graduating address was delivered by journalist Mr Richard Gizbert (father of Thomas, who has been with us since Grade 1 and has received an offer to study at Cambridge University). Along with the graduation diplomas, the Janet Kuehn Memorial Travel Fellowship was awarded to Minna Schilling and the ECIS International Award for International Understanding was presented to Andrea Barros by Damas Urenge, Head of the Mwereni School in Tanzania. The day was rounded off with a Prom at the Landmark Hotel. The students are now looking forward to receiving their IB Diploma results in July.

Our Grade 5s recently got a taste of life as a Westminster student.

The group from Kensington and Hampstead spent a morning following a Middle Years Programme timetable at the Portland Place campus. The students took part in lessons and got to know the people and facilities.

Tomer, who took part in Science, PSE, Humanities and Spanish classes, said: “It is a much bigger school. I like the lunch area and the way all the grades seem to mix together outside of lessons. With so many more people there is a great chance to make a lot more friends. It was a really exciting and inspiring day.”

Antonin, who tried Maths, Science, Humanities and PSE, added: “I am really looking forward to going there. I like the idea of having my own locker. The different staircases and numbers for classrooms is confusing, but we’ll soon get used to it.”

Grade 5s also recently took part in a joint drama workshop at Hampstead. Run by the ISTA International Schools Theatre Association, the session encouraged children to develop their skills in working together. At first, they found it challenging, but by the end of the day they were swapping email addresses with one another!

These activities are part of a programme of transition events, making the move from Primary to Middle School a smoother and less daunting for both students and parents.

Achieving one medal in the United States Academic Decathlon is difficult enough, but this year Southbank Westminster won a team Bronze, plus seven individual medals.

This, and the International Maths competition recently hosted by Westminster (with a great deal of help from Kensington parents), are both good examples of academic accomplishments of which Southbank should be proud.

The United States Academic Decathlon is the premier academic competition in the United States, providing students of all learning levels the opportunity to excel academically through team competition.

This year for the first time the event was opened up to American International Schools abroad. Our students competed online on 17th April and 1st and 2nd of May.

“Many congratulations to all the students who took part, their teachers and Lisa Saleh. This really is an outstanding achievement for Southbank,” adds Westminster Principal Terry Hedger.

Hampstead pupils took part in the annual joint Southbank-Jack Taylor School Wheelathon this month.

The sponsored charity event took off at Paddington Recreation Ground with a special send-off from Marvin who promotes the NFL in Britain and is associated with the Miami Dolphins.

The participants – pupils and staff – made their way around the track in varying combinations of wheels and footwork. The Jack Taylor children were welcomed warmly and many of our students helped them around the track, taking them by the hand or pushing their wheelchairs.

This event raises significant funds for the charity Kids for Kids every year. It is a fine achievement by two very different school communities who work together for the benefit of children in Darfur.

A Southbank alum has been invited to attend this year’s Harvard Project for Asian and International Relations (HPAIR) Business Conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Kim Emily Fechner was accepted from a highly selective pool of international applicants and will be one of just 400 delegates - top university students and rising young, working professionals.

The conference brings the world's top managers, researchers, and experts together with the best of tomorrow's leaders in order to explore the future of business and innovation in Asia.

As a school that values close links with parents and a strong community spirit, our International Evenings are very important.

Held at each campus, and organised by the PTAs, these are occasions which offer delicious food, enjoyable entertainment and truly world class networking, while providing the entire community with opportunities to appreciate the enormous diversity and dynamism that prevails here.

As we strive to enhance our international mindedness it is good to experience not
only the interesting differences in food and customs but the human commonality that exists on such a special occasion.