Issue 16 16th January 2015

Bushey Meads News

Dates for the diary

17 January Y12/13 Othello Theatre Trip 20 January Y12 EPQ Skills Research Trip, Hatfield F1 Schools competition, Chelsea FC 21 January BMS Governors Meeting 22 January Y12 EPQ Skills Research Trip, Hatfield Y10 Enrichment Day 23 January Art Trip to Tate Britain 25 January Antiques Fair 13 February Inset Day – school closed to students Half Term Monday 16 to Friday 20 February

More Positive Feedback!

With staff at Bushey Meads School working so hard to provide such a positive learning environment for all students, it is always encouraging to receive letters and emails that recognise all good work being done at our wonderful school. Just this week a lovely email came into the school from a parent of one of our Year 7 students…..

13 January 2015

Dear Mr Turner

I just wanted to say how impressed I am with Bushey Meads since my son has started at the school.

I was over the moon to find he had been awarded a High Achiever award - such a fantastic thing to give motivation to children to work harder!

He has settled in so well and I just wanted to say thank you to all the staff for working so hard with the pupils. The transition from Junior to Secondary School was so much easier than I had thought it would be, and he always speaks about how helpful and friendly everyone is, and for a parent that is such a relief.

Many Thanks to you all.

Year 7 Parent

Many other parents have spoken to me and also taken the trouble to telephone and/or write to staff at the school with similar messages and I would like to thank you for your continued encouragement and support. It means a lot to us!

Mr Turner Executive Principal

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STUDENTS OF THE WEEK

Laila – 7 Elm Laila has been nominated this week because of her continued hard work at school. Laila has an incredible 16 entries on our award system, 4 of which were awarded this term alone. This week Laila played an important role working together with the Pastoral Manager, Miss Dhanecha to help one of her friends who was upset this week. Laila's approach to the situation was measured, mature and objective which was particularly impressive at her age. Laila is a credit to the school and we are proud to have her as part of our school community. Well done Laila!

Branden - 11 Ash

Branden is this week's KS4 student of the week. Branden recently sat his Pre Public Examinations and achieved a B grade in Graphics which was significantly higher than his aspirational target. Branden stated that his success was down to the amount of revision he did and going through past papers to gain an understanding of how to answer the questions. Branden is planning on studying Construction at West Herts College in September.

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Lauren - 12Ash

Our KS5 student of the week this week is Lauren who is

currently in Year 12. She has been awarded this for her

outstanding effort in all her lessons and her excellent

attitude.

Lauren is currently studying Biology, Chemistry, Physics and

Psychology.

THEME OF THE WEEK – SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” Winston Churchill

We all have a social responsibility to contribute positively to the world in which we live and this message was communicated to all students via year group assemblies this week and particularly highlighted on Monday during the Year 11 assembly.

Andy Young and Ellis Weintrob from Youth Connexions spoke to the students about the National Citizens Service (NCS). NCS is an excellent opportunity for young people to make a huge difference to their communities. The project offers 15-17 year olds the chance to get together over the summer to try new exciting things, then with the support of a team, design, plan and deliver a social action project that makes a real difference to the area in which they live. Students can still sign up for the project and details can be found at:

https://www.youthconnexions-hertfordshire.org/youth-work/national-citizen-service/about-ncs/

Year 12 and 13 working hard! By Sara Ash Assistant Headteacher

This week has seen all our 6th form students sitting their Pre Public Examinations. Now halfway through their courses, it has given them a real taster of what to expect in their real examinations this May and June. The students will receive their results on Friday 6th February in the afternoon where we will all gather together to open the envelopes and see the results. Hopefully the hard work will pay off!

Architecture Club By Luxsa, 7S (Stem Leader) Danny, 7O

It has taken lots of patience to do this and the end is in sight! We are building it up bit by bit and eventually we will get there. We have had a few problems along the way in trying to get it to fit together.

We really enjoy coming to the club. We love designing, planning, solving problems and we think it is great for our future!

Staff Profile – Miss Sarah Brown, Music Teacher

By Miss Brown

Hello everyone and thank you for welcoming me so warmly to the school over the past few weeks. I am the new music teacher at Bushey Meads School. I am delighted to have the further responsibility of Instrumental Coordinator across the Bushey Meads St James Trust. This means that I will be working with Little Reddings Primary school, alongside Bushey Meads, to develop lots of exciting musical opportunities for all students within the Trust. Singing is my passion and I love working with choirs and vocal groups of all ages. I also play piano, clarinet, guitar and bass guitar which means that I enjoy classical music and leading orchestras as well as rock and pop music and working with bands. Currently, I am very much enjoying working with the students and the Arts Faculty staff on our upcoming production of Les Misérables. The show will be fantastic and I very much hope you will be joining us in the audience to celebrate the students' achievements. This will be my seventh year of teaching. Previous to my current role, I spent six years at Friern Barnet School in North London. During my time there, I developed a keen interest in travel and how it could benefit students' cultural capital. From 2012 to 2014 I led a European Union funded Comenius project entitled "In The Footsteps Of Mozart". This gave students the opportunity to travel throughout Europe and musically collaborate with peers across nine EU countries. It was a wonderful experience that enabled students to develop their awareness of citizenship, modern foreign languages, our shared European culture and, of course, our shared language of music. Having developed a taste for travel, I recently returned from a trip to South East Asia before taking up a new post at Bushey Meads St James Trust. I visited Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia and Indonesia. It is a truly beautiful part of the world with breath-taking scenery, friendly locals and lots of adventure to be had. A highlight for me was climbing the Rinjani, an active volcano in Indonesia on the island of Lombok. At a towering 3882 metres high it was a bit of a struggle! Nevertheless, the views were absolutely worth the hike. I am delighted to join the school and look forward to getting to know all the musicians as I settle in over the next few months. If music is your passion then please do pop in to the music department to introduce yourself.

Have Your Say! The U.K. Youth Parliament Elections

By Roger Newbold, Head of Humanities Faculty From January 26th – February 13th children and young people across the U.K. will have the opportunity to vote for their representatives to sit in the U.K. Youth Parliament. Students from Bushey Meads have taken part in previous years, but for the first time this year, there will be not just one but two Bushey Meads candidates hoping to be elected; Leon Hirsh (9B) and Jewel Mhizha (8W). They will be competing not only against one another for your vote but also against three other local students to be chosen as the representative from Hertsmere. As well as voting for your preferred candidate, there will also be the opportunity to vote for your top three priorities as selected by Herts 1125 members. Look out for further details on how to vote and information from Leon and Jewel in forthcoming editions of the newsletter.

Tutor Time at BMS By Mr Turner, Executive Principal

Many staff at BMS really go the extra mile in all areas of their work, but on Friday morning last week I was really impressed with Form 7Ash and the activity that their Form Tutor Mr Hawkins had arranged for them to complete. Each and every Friday he challenges his tutees to a Weekly Challenge and last Friday it was the ‘Egg Challenge.’

In teams of 4 or 5, students had to devise a way to protect an egg from breaking when it was dropped from the ceiling onto a table, using just newspaper and straws! The tutor time activity was exemplary practice and Mr Hawkins is one of the many form tutors at the school who has established very good weekly routines with their tutees. It was clear to see that the students in 7Ash clearly love their 'Friday Challenge'.

All students were really engaged in the 'Egg Challenge' and were actively working in teams, developing their social, thinking and problem solving skills and, above all, they were enjoying the learning experience. In addition many elements of Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural (SMSC) learning were being covered all of which are important life skills that support the wider education agenda.

The activity was superbly developing so many transferable skills which will undoubtedly spill over into many areas of the curriculum for his students.

Joint Senior Leadership Team and

Governors Strategic Planning Meetings By Mr Turner, Executive Principal

‘Personalising the

curriculum to maximise the achievement

of all students.’ I would like to thank all our hardworking Governors and Trustees for their major contribution to the school and continued support for the Senior Leadership Team and the wider staff body. This year we have introduced a series of extended joint SLT and Governor Strategic Planning Meetings - two per term which help to shape the ongoing strategic direction of the school. So far this year there have been three such meetings focussing on the GCSE and A level results, the wider performance and overall effectiveness of each faculty in the school and the important plans to personalise the school curriculum across all three key stages from September 2015.

At our third Strategic Planning meeting on Monday evening of this week Assistant Headteacher, Mr Fisher, gave a superb presentation to SLT and three key Governors and Trustees - outlining his excellent work with key leaders in the school since September and the proposed curriculum plan for the school for the next academic year. From next September students at Bushey Meads will get more choice and have greater flexibility in their learning, undoubtedly leading to improved success in their achievement. A number of exciting new courses will be offered to students at every level of the school and our superb Sixth Form will become an even more attractive option as a future pathway for all students, whatever their aspirations for the future. There is still much work to do but Monday evening was a ‘moment in time’ to enhance our curriculum provision and take it to the next level and I would like to thank all the staff across the school for their contributions this year to shaping our future curriculum and building a solid platform for securing even greater student achievement and improving progress.

Language Leaders at Little Reddings By Marie-Claire Dawson, Head of Modern Foreign Languages Faculty This week, four of our intrepid Language Leaders organised a Spanish

lesson for Year 5 at Little Reddings. They did this independently as part of their award requirements. Nadia, 10O delivered the lesson, ably supported by Hannah 10M, Josh 10S and Jodie 10O, accompanied by Mrs Dawson and Mrs Woodhouse. Well done to our fabulous Language Leaders for providing such an exciting opportunity to Year 5 who were understandably thrilled!

Word of the Week By Mr Dawson, Head of English Faculty

Spectrum (noun) ‘Spectrum’ is the activity - not the word.

Read the list of words below. These words are similar in meaning - but there are subtle differences between them. There is a spectrum of meanings here.

angry livid furious cross irate agitated irritated annoyed

Arrange these words in order of intensity… from most... to least angry. The first person who has a version which tallies with the version done by our ever-helpful English Advisor (Ms. Tamsin Church)

and gives this version to Mr. Dawson, wins a prize.

PE and Health Faculty News By Ashley Cartledge, Head of PE The PE and Health Faculty have a very busy term ahead, with lots of events taking place in both curriculum and extra-curricular time. At the moment, all students in KS3 are completing the 12 minute run tests to

provide us with some baseline information about each student’s fitness levels. The health and fitness of all awareness and improve all round fitness. We are already looking forward to our whole school Health Week on the week beginning Monday March 16th, where all students in years 7 to 11 will be participating in the Multistage fitness testing with results available to students and parents via the Learning Gateway. Students can check previous results on the Gateway to give them a target for our March testing. The week will finish with the whole school charity Fun Run on Friday 20th March. In March, we also be running a range of Inter House sports competitions after school, which we hope as many students as possible will participate in. Extra-curricular clubs and practices are already up and running with full details appearing weekly in the PE and Health section of the school website. This term we have clubs in basketball, rugby, gymnastics, dance,

trampolining, table tennis, fitness, hockey as well as competitive intra-school fixtures in a range of sports. Lunchtime recreational sports clubs will also continue for each year group with Sports C redits continuing to be given for all extra-curricular sports attendance. SPORTS LEADERS This week, the Year 10 Sports Leaders have also been delivering health and fitness training sessions to their peers. The leaders have planned and delivered some excellent sessions and the response and effort of the year 10 students to the sessions has been excellent.

WELL DONE ALL! The Year 11 Sports Leaders have been playing a very active role in supporting the PE and Health Faculty with our after school sports provision. This week students have run the scoring table for a school basketball match, supported with after school basketball, rugby and gymnastics clubs. We have been really pleased with the attitude of all the Sports Leaders.

Kelvedon Nuclear Bunker Trip

By Amira Izhar, Arts Faculty Journalist

If you remember, a lively, spirited group of young acting talent entered a competition for Crime Prevention using Drama and by some miracle ended up winning it with a play called Just One Step, written and performed by the team and consequently ensuring them a performance at the Maltings Theatre, St. Albans and since then two extra charity performances at the same venue. Their award for winning the competition was a trip to a Secret Nuclear Bunker in Kelvedon, Essex. On the 9th of February the team set out on the minibus accompanied by esteemed teacher of the Dramatic Arts, Mr Knowles and his companion Mr Futerill to drive the hour long journey to Essex. On the minibus the group of actors were given packs and put into teams as they would be carrying out a quiz upon arrival with information found in the booklets in their packs. After a tour of the creepy bunker and a mishap with some glass crayons, the group was given a chance to learn some skills about how to talk somebody out of a

hostage situation, a key memory of the trip. Another plus was that whilst exploring the frightening nuclear bunker, a cast filming a horror movie entitled ‘Hallow’s Eve’ were there too, making the experience even scarier! The group were lucky enough to have an audience with the director of photography of the film, Bob Horwell who was an actor (played Nick Neeson in Coronation Street) and cinematographer and shared his experiences with us. Overall, the winners of the competition enjoyed their day out and are very much looking forward to their next prize - a trip to the London Dungeons!

Les Miserables! By Amira Izhar (Arts Faculty Journalist)

The school production of Les Miserables is well under way, with the enthusiastic students learning the songs for Act 2 already. On Tuesday the 13th, the ensemble were taught a waltz by our choreographer Aimee for The Wedding and the rebels practised their songs upon a makeshift barricade led by Enjolras. The actors and actresses always bring a high level of energy to each rehearsal and do a great job

of showcasing what an outstanding amount of talent they have. However, the nights of the show loom closer and so to ensure you get the best seats for yourself, your friends and family, pop down to the Student Window at break or lunchtime to purchase your tickets! They cost £4 for students and £8 for adults and this year, upon buying your tickets, you will be asked where you would like to sit, so get there early to bag the best seats for the show! The performances will take place on the 9th to the 12th of February, with the Junior Cast performing on the 9th and 11th and the Senior Cast on the 10th and the 12th. Hope to see you there supporting your friends and enjoying a fun filled evening packed with drama, passion and the revolution. Don’t miss it!

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