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Dear Parents, Pupils, Friends and Followers.

AZBUKA is now closed for the winter holidays. Here are the dates children return to school:

10th January 2017 – Russian-English Primary School and Nursery (Mortlake site)
14th January 2017 – Saturday School including all after school clubs (Kew Gardens site)

We wish you all a very Happy New Year and look forward to seeing you at the start of the new term.

Another year came to an end and we have celebrated it in style! Here is some photos from AZBUKA concerts and New Year celebrations.

Year 1 class begins at AZBUKA! This September AZBUKA Russian-English Bilingual School welcomed their first Year 1 to the school.

The children follow a special bilingual programme, which has been developed over many years, based on international in depth research. In the Reception Class the children have lessons in English once a week (10% of all lessons). In Year 1 the lessons are split equally between Russian and English.

We have two wonderful primary school teachers leading the children in the curriculum in Year 1: Sasha Williams (teaching lessons in English); and Elena Rozenberg (teaching lessons in Russian).

New at AZBUKA bilingual school for 2016/17

Starting from this year we have introduced school uniform for the Reception the Year 1 classes.

Also from the 1st November we are able to offer a school canteen service at AZBUKA where children can enjoy hot school dinners. The meals are varied with carefully selected dishes of Russian and European cuisines cooked daily on the school premises!

Visit us

Azbuka will run an Open Evening at the school on the 25th November. Please follow the link to register your interest.

Follow our news on facebook.

Photos by Alisia Zelenska

Friday 25th November 2016 at 7pm at AZBUKA Russian-English Bilingual School & Nursery, Vernon Road, London SW14 8NH, MORTLAKE (map).

All parents are welcome. Book early to guarantee a place. Just email your full name to admin@azbukafoundation.org

This event will be held in English, Questions & Answers in both languages.

Please note that Open Evenings take place only twice a year.

Six AZBUKA children had roles in Opera Holland Park’s ambitious Queen of Spades in August, experiencing the thrill of taking part in top quality opera, learning how to work with professional performers – and even teaching the singers a few things about Russian pronunciation!

Opera Holland Park asked the AZBUKA Foundation to provide help for its new Russian language production of Tchaikovsky’s masterpiece at Holland Park in Kensington, recognising our skill in bilingual teaching including through the use of the performing arts.

It offered a valuable partnership of our different skills, with the chance to bring together friends, parents and supporters of the Foundation in the prestigious west London venue.

The children who volunteered showed great interest in Pushkin’s version, reading or hearing the story and watching film versions to prepare. They took part in six rehearsals, becoming particularly engaged when the dress rehearsals began with music and props. Friends and family attended, and they were given stage mums and nannies.

They enjoyed teaching the cast pronunciation of some Russian words, and loved their costumes, their parts and the life backstage.

Then, they took part in 8 performances during early to mid August in the canopied open air venue in front of Holland Park mansion, including a VIP evening that helped introduce AZBUKA to guests including the current Russian ambassador to the UK and the former British ambassador to Moscow.

The Opera was widely reviewed as a critical success by the Guardian, the Times, the FT, the Telegraph and others.

The children said afterwards that they missed their time in the opera, and have kept singing the music and the songs afterwards. They will keep their memories of Queen of Spades for a long time.

Andrew Jack
Photography: Robert Workman
The Queen of Spades, Opera Holland Park 2016