Queensmead

News

WE Day

February 2016

Arena on 9th March.

The interview lasted

around five minutes and

afterwards we were able to

speak to Huw Edwards

properly and also have a

photo taken with him.

It was an amazing day.

Fabian Rapp

Year 10

Student

On Thursday 28th January I

travelled to the BBC to be

interviewed by Huw

Edwards about my charity

work for Free The Children

and WE Day. Holly

Branson the charity's

co-chair for WE Day also

attended.

I was so excited to be

interviewed live for BBC

News at Five but was also

really nervous. However,

Huw Edwards was really

nice and soon put me at

ease.

He asked questions about

WE Day and what happens

at the event and all about

my volunteer work. Holly

Branson was asked what

her role as co-chair for the

charity involves.

We will be attending the

WE Day events at Wembley

WE Day

A group of Post 16 students

travelled to Loughborough to

visit the university on 5th

February.

After two long hours in the

mini bus we finally arrived.

We were greeted by two

friendly students who gave

an extremely interesting talk

and answered all our

questions about Higher

Education.

Afterwards we were given a

tour of the campus. Perhaps

the most intimidating feature,

was the vast amount of sport

related resources the

university has to offer. It was

overwhelming to be told that

Olympic gold medallist, Mo

Farah, had trained there.

All of the cylindrical buildings

in the centre of the campus

are used for student

accommodation which is very

convenient for those that live

there. We visited the large

library with multiple floors,

highlighting the studious

aspect of the university.

After the tour the same

students spoke to us about

finance and budgeting.

Unsurprisingly, it is a vital

aspect of university life that

all students must consider.

Overall the trip was a great

experience as we saw what

facilities the campus has to

offer and got a glimpse of

what life will be like at

university.

Khalid Aleem

Post 16

Student

Loughborough University Trip

Year 10 students from

Mrs Gibbons' English class

entered a 100 word story

writing competition run by

Young Writers. This was a

nationwide competition,

with winning entrants

given the opportunity to be

published and see their

stories in an anthology of

work.

Amazingly, several of our

entries were successful

and massive

congratulations go to the

following students for their

superb effort and writing

skills.

Scott Ditton

Brooke Jeffries

Haris Mohammad

Roya Mohamed

Akshat Parikh

Joanna Peristiani

Ronni Pullen

Fabian Rapp

Lily Slavova

Mrs Gibbons

English Department

Young Writers Competition

Young Writers Competition

A Level and AS Level Biology

students had the exciting

opportunity to attend a talk

from Ariana Mirzarafie from

the Centre for Stem Cells and

Regenerative Medicine at

King’s College London, on 2nd

February.

Queensmead students study

stem cells in both years of A

Level Biology and learn about

the current and future medical

treatments that could arise

from stem cell research.

Ariana explained about the

research that is being done in

the department on

regenerating muscle and skin

tissue. Stem cells come from

bone marrow, unused

embryos or umbilical cords

and have the potential to be

changed into any type of cell

in the body. Ariana also

showed students some of the

equipment that is needed to

sample stem cells in the lab,

including samples of scaffolds

(used to hold the stem cells)

made from 3D printing.

The talk enhanced the

students’ enthusiasm for the

topic and gave them a higher

level of understanding for

their examination essay. It

also challenged them to think

about their aspirations and

future careers after university.

Mrs Gordon

Science Department

“The stem cells talk allowed

me to learn extra information

for my synoptic essays and

current issues in research

such as: the translational gap

and how eugenics have

shaped our society. Seeing

the intricate structures made

by scientists, and the lab work

they do, inspires me to one

day apply my own scientific

knowledge into research that

could be developed into the

next regenerative medicine.”

Mariam Sabir

Year 13 Student

“The stem cell talk was

greatly thought provoking; it

really makes you wonder how

the world will be when 3D

printed organs are used

habitually without second

thought! It has even made me

think about doing stem cell

research when it comes to a

career selection in the future.”

Jeshan Canayah

Year 12 Student

Stem Cell Talk

Ariana Mirzarafie

A group of Year 11 and

Year 13 students visited

the Annual Careers Fair

hosted by Heathrow on

Thursday 11th February.

This large event hosts all

of the companies linked to

the airport. These range

from the Home Office to

Construction companies

and Gordon Ramsey's

restaurant chain.

This was a fabulous

opportunity to show

interest in a particular

career or gain further

insight into the

requirements that a career

in a specific job may entail.

Employers offered

apprenticeships and full

time employment with

training.

All thirty students enjoyed

the morning and found it a

valuable experience.

Mr Walden

Head of Year 11

"I have signed up for

apprenticeships in the

construction companies at

Heathrow for September.

I am also interested in the

British Gas opportunities"

Alex Busila

Post 16 Student

Heathrow Careers Fair

On 9th February ten Year 9

students visited the

Northwood Synagogue to take

part in a workshop all about

the Holocaust.

We first looked at all the

different laws and privileges

that were taken away from

the Jewish people during the

war by Hitler and his

followers. Examples of some

of these were: they were not

allowed to own a bike, read a

magazine or interact with

German people. Each of the

laws may have seemed small

but put together this had a

large affect. The Jewish

people were only allowed the

basics and that was no life at

all.

Over six million Jews were

killed in the Holocaust with

over 1.5 million of them

children. The Jewish people

were blamed for everything

that went wrong as they were

seen as different. As a result

of this discrimination Jewish

people were rounded up and

put into concentration camps

where they were forced to

work or in some cases just

killed. Twenty percent of

people died from disease and

starvation.

In the second part of the

afternoon we had the privilege

of meeting a Jewish survivor

of the Holocaust called Eve

Glicksman. She spoke to us

about her shocking but

incredible story.

Throughout Eve’s younger

years her family were

constantly split up and were

always on a mission, to stay

well away from the Germans.

Her story was amazing and

really showed how scary and

cruel this event was.

Near the end of the day Eve

shared her aims in life which

is now to pass the word about

what happened during the

Holocaust and prevent

something so awful and brutal

from happening again. She

asked us if we would help by

spreading the word.

I had a really good day and

learnt so much at the

synagogue.

Charlotte Masters

Year 9 Student

Holocaust Memorial Day

On Wednesday 24th February

Year 10 History students

attended a presentation from

Eve Glicksman, who is a

survivor of the anti-Semitic

persecution by the Nazis in

the 1930’s. Whilst Eve was

never in a concentration camp

herself having escaped on a

Kinder Transport to England

just before the war, she was

able to share her experience

of the anti-Semitic laws and

escalating violence towards

the Jews in Germany.

This was an invaluable

opportunity for the students

to hear a personal account of

the events they are studying

for GCSE and they used it well

by asking Eve many questions

after her talk and the feed-

back from them has been very

positive.

Some of the responses

included:

“It’s one thing to have your

teacher telling you about

these things, or to read about

it, but to hear it from

someone who actually lived

through it was amazing, it

was completely different.”

“I felt really lucky to hear Eve

tell us about her experience

as not many people will get

the opportunity to hear it in

the future.”

The students approached the

talk in a mature manner and I

was very pleased with their

behaviour and their insightful

questions.

Miss Tomlin

History Department

Holocaust Survivor Talk

Four of Queensmead's

budding mathematicians,

Junayd James, Nataliya

Klymko, Fatima Hussain

(Year 8) and Isabella

Wasden (Year 9) attended

the UKMT Junior Team Maths

Challenge held at Preston

Manor High School on

Wednesday 24th February.

The team competed against

other schools from across

North London in a series of

events which consisted of: a

group round, cross number,

shuttle and, finally, the relay.

The students did particularly

well on the cross number

round. However, facing

fierce competition, they

came 18th out of twenty four

schools overall. All four

students did exceptionally

well by tackling challenging

mathematical activities while

working as a team.

A huge thank you to Miss

Jackson for organising the

team entry and investing the

time in preparing students

for the competition.

Students from Maths

Challenge Club, which takes

place during Thursday

lunchtimes in M3, will now

begin preparing for the

upcoming Year 8 Hillingdon

Team Maths Challenge event

which will be held at

Queensmead School in

March.

Well done and best of luck to

the Junior Maths Challenge

Team!

Miss Karadia

Maths Department

Junior Maths Challenge

Four inspiring

mathematicians from Year

10; Saugat Rai, Georgina

Valtcheva, Olivia O'Shea

and Sean O’Connor

attended the Maths Feast

run by FMSP held at

Feltham Community

College on Friday 26th

February.

The team had to compete

in four rounds against

other schools from across

London. These tasks

included a starter,

Amuse-Bouche, complex

numbers task,

investigation into

pentominoes and a relay.

Throughout all tasks,

Queensmead presented

fantastic determination

and resilience towards

some tough and often by

mind-boggling

problem-solving questions.

There is no overall winner

in this competition;

winners are announced in

terms of performance on

each round. Our school

won the Amuse-Bouche,

however our team

performed to an admirable

level in all tasks.

In particular, I want to

praise the teamwork which

was absolutely

outstanding. I was left

speechless in the way they

organised themselves and

how they rotated the lead

of their team according to

each team member’s

mathematical strengths.

Other teachers commented

on how well they

co-operated as a team. I

have been on other maths

competitions before, but

the level of decisiveness,

maturity and leadership

these Year 10’s

demonstrated was

exemplary.

Thank you to Miss Jackson

for organising the entry

and to our Year 10

students who did

Queensmead proud.

Mr Patel

Maths Department

Senior Maths Challenge

Youth Travel Ambassadors

(YTA) is a youth-led

programme for secondary

schools in London. Young

people aged 11-19 can make

a difference to the transport

issues affecting their school

communities.

Our Youth Travel

Ambassadors have been

working really hard this year

putting together their final

presentation for the Dragons

Den style panel where they

will compete with other

schools in the borough, on

Wednesday 16th March. They

will try and win over the panel

with their campaign on

behaviour change.

The ambassadors produced a

fantastic assembly this week

promoting safer travel which

they performed to Years 7, 8

and 9 and also a special

guest; Michael Kitchen, who is

the Youth Travel Ambassador

Co-ordinator for Transport for

London.

I wish the Youth Travel

Ambassadors lots of luck and

would like to take this

opportunity to thank them for

all their hard work and

commitment.

Caitlin Brennan

Michael Goddard

Nataliya Klymko

Ho-Kit Lam

Matilde Perez Moscoso

Grace Phillips

Sophie Taylor

Mrs Oakley

Environmental

Officer

Youth Travel Ambassadors

Michael Kitchen

Year 9 GCSE PE students

spent the day at Bucks New

University campus on 4th

February gaining an insight

into higher education and the

diversity of careers available

within the sport and leisure

industry.

The day emphasised where

studying PE can take them in

the future, and allowed them

to speak to professionals in

the sporting industry to gain

expert advice on the

qualifications and experience

required for their future

dream careers in the sporting

world!

As well as presentations and

lectures led by experts in the

fitness, sport, and exercise

science field students had the

opportunity to participate in

various activity taster

sessions.

Students battled it out on

court trying out a fast and

furious paced game called

Global VX. A sport which

combines skills from dodgeball

and lacrosse to create a new

action packed combat sport.

The objective is simple, to

propel balls at the opposition

to score points and avoid

being hit yourself by

deflecting and catching the

projectiles with your Darth

Maul inspired stick.

Students also tried out clay

pigeon shooting in a state of

the art shooting simulator and

received coaching from

professional shotgun coaches.

Jayden Robinson, Ta-Jean

Myton, Tyreke Martin, Joseph

Mills, Awal Idriss Gouled, were

all commended by dance

fitness instructors for their

shape cutting to Uptown Funk

on the dance floor during a

Zumba workout.

Numair James and Jade Malhi

took on the wild training

timed circuit challenge and set

respectable times of two to

three minutes to complete the

four stages which had the

delights of titan bag shuttles,

parallettes press ups and

resistance band sprints.

The day finished with a

lecture from ex-professional

Harlequins Rugby player Tom

Williams who spoke about the

incredible highs of his career

such as winning the Aviva

Premiership in 2012 to the

controversial lows of the

Bloodgate scandal in 2009.

This provided students with a

unique insight into

perseverance, resilience, how

to bounce back from adversity

to achieve and believe

anything is possible if you set

your mind to it.

Miss Reed

PE Department

National Sports Roadshow

PE

Dates for your diary

It has been a great

start to 2016 for PE

and Sport at

Queensmead. Whilst

the weather has been

bad and a lot of

fixtures have been

postponed there has

still been plenty going

on in lessons and in

extra-curricular

activities.

In lessons students

have enjoyed a

fantastic variety of

activities including

lacrosse, hockey,

indoor athletics,

badminton,

trampolining and

football.

In extra-curricular

activities there has

been a large number

of participants in

netball, rugby and

Gaelic football.

There have also been

some good successes in inter-school fixtures

with wins for the

senior girls futsal

team, 3rd in the

Borough for the Year 7

indoor athletics, 4th in

the Borough for the

Year 7 and 8 table

tennis team, as well as

a great final week for

the Year 8, 9, 11 and

senior boys football

teams who all won

their quarter final ties

and will proceed to the

semi-finals after

half-term.

Stand out

performances have

been from George

Scrutton and

Jayden Robinson (Year

9), Ethan Watts and

Joseph Plampin (Year

8), Luke Collis and

Joshua Veitch (Year

11) and Dheejay

Ramphul-Keesoondoyal

and Gregory

Hadjinicolaou (Senior

Boys).

We look forward to

more participation and

excellent performances

after half-term.

Mr Conway

Head of PE

March Thurs 3rd Year 8 (8e, 8f, 8g, 8h) Consultation Evening 5pm-8pm

End of Term Thursday 24th March — Monday 11th April

April Thurs 14th Year 9 Consultation Evening 5pm-8pm

Thurs 21st Year 8 Options Evening 6.00pm –7.30pm

On Thursday 28th January

eight students from

Queensmead School

represented the Borough of

Hillingdon at the Middlesex

Cross Country Championships.

This is as a result of their

excellent performance at the

Hillingdon competition a few

weeks before. It was a very

cold and muddy experience

but despite this everyone's

spirits were very high.

The first race to begin was the

boys Under 13 race where

Dylan Love and Gabriel Smith

came 69th and 72nd

respectively. The Under 13

girls then began their race

where Tia Newman and Grace

Derby performed excellently

coming in 60th and 63rd place.

Lucy Parker began the race

but unfortunately could not

finish due to injury.

A huge amount of effort was

put in by all and they did

fantastically at their first ever

cross country championship.

Kai Strachan was our only

Under 15 representative and

he came in 67th place which is

a fantastic achievement.

Last to run were the Under

17’s. Girls were first to go

and we had Charlotte Morgan

representing Queensmead.

She ran an excellent race

coming 34th. Ben Scott for

the boys then completed his

race and finished 24th. These

are both excellent positions

and demonstrate the hard

work and commitment that

they have to their running.

Congratulations to all who

competed, everyone was

fantastic on the day!

Miss Rix

PE Department

Middlesex Cross Country Competition

Korfball

John has been running an

after school Korfball club at

Queensmead since September

and this takes place every

Thursday between 3-4pm in

the sports hall.

John will be back in lessons on

Thursday 11th February

delivering more taster

sessions to Year 7 students.

Mrs Carter

PE Department

Queensmead School has been

given the fantastic

opportunity to work with

Harrow Korfball Club.

On Thursday 28th January

John Armand, a qualified

Korfball coach, came into Year

7 lessons and delivered an

exciting and challenging

session to the students. This

enabled students to

experience the skills and

techniques in a competitive

situation.

Year 7 Cross Country Champions

A massive well done to the

Year 7 girls who as a team

won the Borough Cross

Country Championship

recently.

Ten schools from across

the Borough were involved

so it was an amazing

achievement.

Grace Derby

Tia Newman

Lucy Parker

Danielle Scott

Aishah Shinwari

Macy Willis

Sade Willis

Well done also to the Year

10/11 team who came a

very creditable third in the

Borough Cross Country

Championship - Charlotte

Morgan, Tia Grace, Nicole

Moore and Lauren Mills

Mrs Wallace

PE Department