Bushey St James Trust
Newsletter July 2018 The BSJT – An exciting, innovative, forward-thinking organisation to be proud of! It seems hard to believe that Hartsbourne Primary School have only been part of our Multi Academy Trust (MAT) for 7 months, seamlessly joining Bushey Meads and Little Reddings Primary School on our exciting journey of school improvement in December 2017.
have been the really high quality professional development opportunities that have been planned and delivered across the three schools – in a different school each term. The latest BSJT Teacher Toolkit had the theme of The Literacy Journey from Early Years to Year 13 and provided a superb insight into how our young “The whole is greater people develop their reading and than the sum of its parts” writing skills from their formative years right up to heading off to Aristotle 384 -322 BC university and careers beyond school. Our MAT (one of the earliest to As a professional development form) has now been in existence opportunity it was superbly for six years, but the momentum crafted and delivered by a to collaborate and create an exciting learning organisation that number of outstanding teachers from all three schools and fully puts teaching and learning and student achievement at the heart supported the learning journey across the MAT – enabling us all of everything we do is growing to see the bigger picture and each and every term. appreciate the wider context in “The whole is greater than the which we work – so helpful! sum of its parts” is a quote I would like to thank all our hard originally attributed to Aristotle working and dedicated colleagues the ancient Greek scientist and – so many of them going the extra philosopher who lived in the 4th mile for the students in our care Century BC, clearly an ancient saying, but the truth of it still rings and always putting their true. “Thank you for your support As Headteachers we meet each and every week to review our and encouragement and for work, share best practice and plan the many messages of new developments across our positive praise.” three unique and individual achievements and our core schools – always looking to business of teaching and learning maximise the resources that we have and achieve the very best for at the centre of what we do. We are constantly inspired and all students in our care. motivated by what is happening Some of the highlights for me
around us and excited by the future. We know that you as parents and carers really do appreciate what we have here within the Bushey St James Trust and the many opportunities that we are working so hard to afford to all our young people. Thank you for your support and encouragement and for the many messages of positive praise that you give to us across all three schools within the Trust. We all know the current pressures
in education at the moment and our staff – teachers and associate staff are doing an amazing job. We would like to thank them for their commitment, dedication and hard work and for contributing so enthusiastically to our innovative and forward thinking organisation – it is great to work alongside you. Do have a great summer break and a good rest. Jeremy Turner Executive Principal
Secondary School Experience Week Ninety Year 6 students from the primary schools within our Trust (Hartsbourne and Little Reddings) came to spend a week at Bushey Meads to experience what life is like at secondary school. The students experienced a range of lessons throughout the week which culminated in a music, dance and drama performance to parents and carers on the Friday afternoon. One of the most popular of the subjects covered were the science lessons which definitely had the some significant awe and wonder moments as the students looked at and experienced the chemicals that are used to create fireworks! The students had a fantastic time throughout the week and said: “Last week made me feel less nervous about secondary school because it was much easier to find my way around the school. I thought next year I would get lost, but now I know I can easily find my way around.” Ellie
Mr Harper, Deputy Headteacher from Hartsbourne Primary School, “The week made me feel said: confident that the level of work "It was an excellent week and an won’t be such a massive jump. I got the feeling at lunch time there invaluable experience for the children. They were definitely was time to catch up on tired by the end of it, which I’m homework, rather than people sure will happen in September! I just playing games the whole also can’t say enough about how time.” welcoming and supportive BMS Lametra staff were all week. The teachers really tried hard to make the “Moving around classes helped me to feel less nervous about next year. I was really worried about finding my way around secondary schools because they are so big.” Luca
“Last week helped me to understand how secondary school lessons work. They were really fun and creative!” George
“Going to Bushey Meads made me even more excited to go to secondary school.” Imogen
Secondary School Experience Week continued. lessons fun and were very patient with my increasingly overconfident cohort! The atmosphere around the school was so pleasant all week and even staff who weren’t working with us would always stop and take the time to say hello or point us in the right direction! They were a great credit to the school and I would like to thank them all for making our week such an enjoyable one.” Even if the students aren’t coming to Bushey Meads School next year it definitely helped to show them the main differences between a primary and secondary setting – walking to and from lessons, the larger scale of the learning environment being the main ones.
Happy Memories at BMS!
“As a parent I would like to thank you for offering my child this experience as it has definitely helped take away some of the fears and anxiety of going to secondary school.” Year 6 Parent
“I enjoyed last week because it enabled me to see what secondary school was like. It helped me to understand the main difference between primary and secondary school.” Zack
“All of the teachers were really nice to us but I really like the art teacher. She helped us create 3D models of our initials made out of clay.” Aahan
“It was definitely fun. It was different and helped me understand what secondary school is going to be like. It felt like a genuine experience of secondary school, even during break and lunch.” Aaron
Secondary School Experience Week continued. The big smiles from all the Year 6 students we saw every day of the week in June and the wonderful thank you card from Little Reddings said it all. A big thank
you goes to all the dedicated and committed teachers at Bushey Meads who worked so hard to provide such a great secondary school experience week for our
The Whole Week was Fab!
I was lucky enough to accompany our Year 6 students from Little Reddings Primary School to a taster week held at Bushey Meads School a week or two ago. It was a fantastic opportunity for the children to experience what life is like in a Secondary school, from the moving around after each lesson, to the variety of teachers and learning opportunities available. We experienced some amazing lessons, such as: cooking our very own vegetable Chow
Mein in Food Technology, creating personalised clay plaques in Art and recreating a scene from Shakespeare in Drama, to name but a few. I truly believe that this week was hugely beneficial to our Year 6 children, regardless of whether or not they will be attending Bushey Meads School, as they now have a much clearer picture of life at secondary school and will feel more settled in September. Sian Woodroofe, LRS Teaching Assistant
Year 6 students in the BSJT! The event in the Main Hall on the Friday afternoon showcased the excellent talents that exist amongst our primary school pupils. It was a real testimony to their hard work and commitment to be able to put together such enthusiastic and great performances in just one day, recognised by so many parents!
“I truly believe that this week was hugely beneficial for our Year 6 children, regardless of whether or not they will be attending Bushey Meads School.�
Secondary School Experience Week continued. Our Week At Bushey Meads…… At Bushey Meads we enjoyed art because we put our initials on a piece of clay and decorated it with patterns of our own designs. The teacher taught us how to do this and he also showed us some of the Year 10 clay masterpieces. Our second favourite lesson of the week was science because we got to test chemicals on a Bunsen burner. We put a variety of salts on a damp stick and placed it into the flame of a Bunsen burner and watched it change colour and then, during the second lesson, we made electricity flow through three different types of materials; two of them allowed electricity to flow around it and one didn’t.
lessons. The teachers I remember were: Miss Miller Head of Dance, Miss Atchuthan a Science teacher, Miss Brown a music teacher and Mr Besisira a technology teacher. We learnt about burning chemicals on a Bunsen burners. Also we did a scene from the Tempest in drama. On Friday we had to choose an art subject from music, drama and dance. We chose drama and we had to learn our lines in one day. My favourite lesson was art where we made clay plaques with our initials on. Overall our week was really fun and we learnt a lot. We cannot wait until we join Bushey Meads!! By Isiah and Aahan Thank you very much for giving us the opportunity to visit Bushey Our Week At Bushey Meads…… Meads. We enjoyed all the lessons From Grace and Adele planned especially drama, art, music, science, humanities and Our Week At Bushey Meads…… many more. The teachers were Our week at Bushey Meads was very nice; they all put lots of very fun because we got to effort into planning our amazing experience what secondary school
was like. One of our favourite lessons was dance as it was very active and enjoyable. We also really enjoyed drama because it helped us with the play we are doing at Little Reddings. As for our favourite teacher, we think all of them were awesome, but overall, Miss Walters (our form tutor for the week) was the winner as she was funny and entertaining. As we moved on to lessons they all taught us in their own ways. Some were fun, some were interesting and some were active. However we still enjoyed them all. We particularly liked the English lessons as in one we got to eat a sweet and in the other English lesson we played a fun game with Adjectives, Pronouns, etc. To continue, we loved technology as Mr Besisira was very funny and nice. Overall, our week was very fun and helped to prepare us for our secondary schools. Thank you very much for the brilliant experience. From Nancy and Ava
Overall our week was really fun and we learnt a lot. We cannot wait until we join Bushey Meads!!
strategies to encourage all students to complete the This year, I’ve had the privilege of activities to a high standard. The working not only with a wonderful primary students responded very positively to the workshop, wrote Year 7 English class, but also with 10 of our most able students from some fantastic poems and ended across the cohort. In March, these the workshop with performances of these. students were taken to a More All teachers involved in the Able Poetry Workshop at Stanmore Library where they were project were full of admiration for not only the Y7 students who led able to spend the day working with the published poet Neal Zetter. Their enthusiasm and the poetry that they produced was so impressive that I suggested they created their own poetry workshop and teach students at both Hartsbourne Primary School and Little Reddings School. The students jumped at the opportunity and we began working on the project. Meeting with Raquel AbeledoPineiroa (Teacher of Year 4, at Hartsbourne and Michael McMahon, English Lead and the workshop, but also for the teacher of Year 5 at Little Year 4 and Year 5 students who Reddings provided me with really were able to respond so well to helpful insights into the needs of such a challenging two-hour Key Stage 2 classes. Weekly workshop. The event went so well lunchtime meetings with the Year that myself, Raquel and Michael 7 students enabled two lessons have already discussed the and various resources to be possibility of the workshop designed; I was amazed by the becoming an annual event, quality of teaching ideas that the students were able to produce, and I’m sure this is a testament to the great lessons that they are regularly exposed to in many different contexts around BMS. And if I had been impressed with their lesson planning, I was knocked off my feet when I saw their teaching. As the students led three poetry workshop mornings, they exuded confidence and clarity when explaining the different tasks to the Year 4 and Year 5 students, used timers to ensure their pacing was accurate and were even able to apply a range of behaviour management
BSJT Poetry Writing Project
further strengthening the many partnerships and collaborations that are already taking place across the three schools within the BSJT Trust, as well as allowing further opportunities to create an effective, robust transition between KS1/2 English and KS3 English. In this edition of the BSJT Newsletter I have published just
two examples of the superb poems that were written during the workshops. I do hope that you enjoy reading their works, all linked to the exciting theme of “Superheroes”. Fazana Farook Lead Practitioner for English and BSJT Transition
BSJT Poetry Writing Project Rex Titan Brave as a lion Rex Titan Wise as an owl Rex Titan Skilled as a survivalist Rex Titan Kind as a mother Rex Titan Strong as an ape Rex Titan The pillar that upholds the law Rex Titan Beats Baddies with their own moves Rex Titan Changes space and time to save the day Rex Titan Goes anywhere to protect the world Rex Titan Little Reddings School Year 5 Pupil
The Undercover, Coming Back Mr Undercover That’s who I am, You can’t see me But I am a man. I save people that’s what I do, I like me and my crew. I fight all day and night When I fight I use all my might My code name is Jaffe, My sidekick is Jin, We don’t have much money so we eat from a bin. I am Mr Undercover I have guns and ice I am a crime fighting hero, But I am very nice. I am as strong as a gorilla I like it that way I am a crime fighting hero and I am here to stay! Hartsbourne Primary School Year 4 Pupil
It was an amazing project – I learned so much from the Bushey Meads School students and was so pleased with my final poem! Year 5 Pupil
Getting GDPR Ready! Most of us by now have heard all about the hugely important GDPR agenda which has affected all organisations up and down the country. GDPR (General Data Protection Regulations) ensure that all data held by organisations, including schools, complies with the latest policies and procedures and that all staff are using data appropriately and in a safe and secure way. School delivering a comprehensive training session to all staff across the MAT. Mr Searle has also attended each Full Governing Body Meeting within the Bushey St James Trust this term and has trained all Governors in the key aspects of data protection and security pertinent to their roles and the within the work that they do within their schools and across the Trust. Each school has a Data Protection Link person and their details are provided.
For the Bushey St James Trust the DPO is: Assistant Headteacher - Graeme Searle. The DPO link person at HPS is: Assistant Headteacher - Julie Durrant-Patel. The DPO link person at LRS is: Subject Leader - Natalie Lewis.
The benefit of being within a Multi Academy Trust (MAT) means that we can pool resources and expertise and ensure that compliance across all three schools within the Trust happens in a coherent and comprehensive way. The MAT’s Data Protection Officer (DPO) is Assistant Headteacher, Mr Searle. Pictured here at Little Reddings Primary DPO Contact Details should you need to report a data security breach: Email address/phone numbers: searleg@busheymeads.org.uk 0208 950 3000 jdurrant@hartsbourne.herts.sch.uk 0208 950 6853 nlewis@littlereddings.org.uk 0208 950 5388
She is one of many other BSJT students who have achieved great success within our Trust over recent years. Other alumni from Little Reddings School are as follows: Daniel who has an unconditional offer to study Law with Criminology at the University of Derby.
University of Derby University of Southampton
Rikesh who has accepted an offer to read Advanced Psychology at Southampton University
Jordan who has accepted an offer to study Computer Science at the University of Surrey
University of Surrey
University of Worcester
Joey who has accepted a place at Worcester University to study Computer Games Design and Development
We would like to wish these students and all Year 13 students the very best of luck for their future careers. Sara Ash, Deputy Headteacher
BMS Art Exhibition Mr Turner writes‌‌superb BMS Art Exhibition launches the Bushey Festival 2018: Many of our talented artists had their work exhibited at the very prestigious opening of the Bushey Festival 2018.
Kimeera who has an unconditional offer to study Civil Engineering at University College London (UCL)
University College London
Oxford University
With the A level examinations over, the majority of Year 13 students at Bushey Meads School are now waiting to see which university they will continue their studies at. Through the UCAS process each student can apply for up to 5 university courses and then, if they are lucky enough to secure an offer of a place, they decide which their firm choice is and which their insurance choice is. It is particularly nice to track the students who started their school journey at Hartsbourne or Little Reddings Primary Schools. Our stand out student within the Bushey St James Trust is Amira who went to Little Reddings Primary School. She has accepted as her firm choice a place at Oxford University following a very rigorous interview process. Amira, who is currently one of our Head Girls, is hoping to read English Language and Literature at Oxford. She has also chosen the University of Birmingham as her insurance choice.
Brunel University
The Learning Journey from Primary School to University
Myah who has accepted an offer to study psychology at Brunel University.
Held at Reverley Lodge in Bushey Heath and attended by a number of dignitaries including the Mayor of Hertsmere Councillor Brenda Batten and other community leaders, all who were there commented on the exceptional talent on display.
Art Exhibition continued…
Little Reddings and Bushey Meads Maths Club
It made our hard working Head of Art, Mr Heywood and I extremely proud of the talents of our young artists and was a truly fitting start to our local Festival.
Sixth Formers and KS2 Mathematicians at LRS Maths Club
“The quality of work on display is so impressive and makes for a truly fitting opening to the Bushey Festival 2018. We would like to thank all the students and staff of Bushey Meads School for making the exhibition a reality.”
Earlier this term we introduced an exciting new maths club at Little Redding’s school. As Bushey Meads Sixth Form students we assisted Mr Kasza with helping students from Year 3 to 6. We are both Year 12 maths A level students and we volunteered to go to Little Redding’s Primary School because we are both very passionate about maths and we also believed it would be an exciting opportunity for us to help share our passion and inspire the younger students. Maths is one of those subjects that underpins so much of what you do in life and we wanted to foster a curiosity to learn more. During one week at the club we started off by practising how to read large numbers before moving on to memorising the cube numbers ready for a maths trick. In the following weeks we hope to introduce the students to KenKen and Sudoko, as well as a variety of other maths tricks. The students seemed to really enjoy the session and are looking forward to the following weeks to come, and so are we! By Riya and Emma
The Literacy Journey from Early Years to Year 13 On Wednesday the 27th of June all teaching staff from across the Bushey St James’ Trust came together for the third and final Teacher Toolkit session of the year. This session focused on writing across the years from Early Years, all the way up to Year 13. It was a fantastic opportunity to learn about how children learn to write through mark making and developing their fine motor skills in Nursery and Reception, all the way up to Sixth form where the children are learning to develop their understanding of high level texts and interpreting meaning behind the different use of language.
It was great to have all three schools together again as the teachers took part in the range of interactive sessions that were provided. Teachers from Bushey Meads took part in the mark making (as part of the Early Years Toolkit) and acting out the actions to the Gingerbread Man (in the Key Stage 1 session), with Early Years teachers interpreting a Shakespeare scene using different materials.
All three Teacher Toolkits this year have given us a great insight into learning across the years and they have shown how important smooth transition and teamwork is to ensure the children in Early Years develop the skills and understanding to move onto the next level of learning, therefore resulting in becoming highly successful Sixth Formers developing into high achieving adults. I’m sure 2019 and 2020 will bring the Trust even closer with a further three more Toolkit sessions being planned. Carly Simmonds, Headteacher
There was so much enthusiasm to learn from each other - it was infectious!
BSJT Teacher Toolkit continued At the Toolkit the teachers formed one of six groups and followed a carousel of ‘immersion activities’ based on literacy. The six immersion activity sessions were: Foundation Years (Early Years / Reception) Wai Ling and Rebecca Cantwell (LRS) Key Stage 1 - Leigh Parr (LRS) and Geraldine Allsopp (HPS) Key Stage 2 - Michael McMahon (LRS) and Paul Stevenson (HPS) Key Stage 3 - Amy Buck and Kelly Spain (BMS) Key Stage 4 - Liam Lester and Sara-Luise Smith (BMS) Key Stage 5 - Lynn Court and Stephanie Knowles (BMS) Each immersion activity lasted for 12 minutes, in which time a very brief overview of what students were introduced to during that particular Key Stage was given, before the teachers then completed a fun and interactive learning task - just as the students would do. After completing all six sessions, teachers were then able to piece together ‘The Literacy Journey from Early Years to Year 13’ and this provided an invaluable insight into how each element builds on the previous and lays a foundation for future progress. The success and enjoyment experienced by staff across the trust has meant that three more Bushey St James Trust Teacher Toolkit sessions have already been calendared for next year. Graeme Searle, Assistant Headteacher
The Teacher Toolkit gave us such a good oversight of the learning journey and where our key stage fits in – it was great!
BSJT Student Voice Conference During our summer term Student Parliament Meeting, Bushey Meads School welcomed Year 3 to Year 6 pupils from Hartsbourne and Little Reddings Primary Schools. The meeting was led by our Senior Student Leadership team including Leon Hirsh, Victoria Woolmer and Nathaniel Haley. The theme of the morning was focused around the transition process from primary to secondary school and was delivered in a timely fashion during our Secondary School Experience week. Leon led a great ‘getting to know you’ session of SPLAT with all the students. It was terrific to see everyone integrating, laughing together, sharing and creating memories. I had a wonderful moment when I stood back and watched them all in action, thinking about just how incredible it was to be a member of such a great community. Our students really do benefit from what our schools bring together. We learn from one another and benefit in ways that are invaluable to the lives of the students and the staff. Noah Haines (one of our BMS Buddies) gave a brilliant presentation to the primary school pupils about the work that the BMS Buddies do to help all students make a very successful transition from one school to another. During the meeting students from Hartsbourne and Little Reddings gave Noah plenty of tips as to how this process could move from excellent to ‘off the chart’. It also gave the students first-hand information as to what worries the younger students potentially
see the value that it added to the Student Voice agenda across the Bushey St James Trust. She was also very good at playing SPLAT! We are currently sharing the information gained through this joined School Council/Student Parliament venture with the rest of the BMS Buddy Team and they will use this to further improve our important transition work across the MAT. I and the students are already looking forward to the next joint meeting in the Autumn term. Mrs L Wright, Associate Leader
have, enabling the buddies to empathise and plan effectively for potential issues in the future. They wanted to know a variety of information such as what they might expect to eat for lunch, how much homework they will get and where to go if they felt lonely! LRS Governor Sandy Mercado also joined us for the meeting. She is a governor who is linked to Student Voice at Little Reddings. She was very impressed by the format and content of the meeting and could
“It was a very informative joint meeting that gave us loads of good ideas to make things better.”
One Amazing Day! Thursday 11th July saw the fifth of our five exciting, enrichment days at Bushey Meads. Students of all year groups were able to select from a range of 30 different activities, catering for all tastes and interests. Paintballing was a big favourite, as was Karting and climbing, with less physical trips such as those to Greenwich Observatory and Planetarium, Whipsnade, Paradise Park and Graduates from our Trust schools were among those taking part, of course. Among them and shown in these sample pictures we see
Tiggywinkles small animal hospital, providing plenty of educational enjoyment to smaller groups. A ‘flavourite’ activity was the walking food tour of Shoreditch, sampling delicacies on the way and hearing how they were made. The boxing taster, run by experts, also ‘packed a punch’. Another group of students went fishing - a terrific day supported by keen amateur fishermen. Back at school, students chose from activities including art, dance, PE or music for the day, with many choosing to bake a 'showstopper' cake and we mustn't forget our year 8 Spain trip has been taking place at the same time!
One Amazing Day!
Lenny and Zak boxing, Christie, Jack and Tiffany on the fishing trip, Kaitlyn and Courtney preparing for paintballing and Desmond re-enacting a medieval battle. Still to come this summer and probably the pinnacle of the trips offering, is the amazing World Challenge expedition to Swaziland! Nearly 30 year 11 and 12 students, among them Carter, Zoe and Ben from Little Reddings and Lana from Hartsbourne, will be enjoying an amazing opportunity to support a community project at a school and to experience everything that country has to offer. Look out for a full report in the next BSJT newsletter. Bill Fisher Senior Assistant Headteacher
News from Hartsbourne I am writing this in the quiet of the early morning, before the rush of another day starts and looking back over the year - and what a year it has been! It only seems like five minutes ago that it was September and we were full of energy for the new term. Now we are rather tired, but it is the happy-tired of a job pretty well done. One of the most exciting things that happened since joining the BSJT in December is the acquisition of a school mini-bus to be shared between the three schools. Some of the things we’ve already used it for are: to take Year 6 pupils to and from Bushey Meads for their week-long visit, to transport pupils from Little Reddings to Hartsbourne for the Bushey Festival Quiz, Y5 pupils to BMS for the Language Olympics and to transport Year 6 to Heath House to sing songs and play games with the elderly residents. These wonderful enrichment opportunities are made possible by having the mini-bus and we are very grateful to the Trust for their support.
The Year 6 visit to Bushey Meads for a week long transition experience was amazing. The children enjoyed a full week of teaching and learning with secondary teachers, ending with a short show for parents that included drama, music and dance. Other work we do to prepare Year 6 for transition is a residential trip, a visit from the Watford Schools Trust, cycling proficiency, transition day with the new school and the Year 6 show. The show is one of the highlights of the year and the children work hard to entertain us. We were lucky enough to be awarded a small grant from CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health) to undertake some drama work with a group of
children. Since boys’ emotional well-being is sometimes underappreciated I decided we would put together a group of boys from across the three schools. We invited Trestle Theatre in to do a mask and drama workshop with the group and the day ended with a short performance to Year 4 and Year 5. Reception celebrated the Royal Wedding with some role-play weddings of their own and a parent baked this wonderful cake! Our annual Parents’ Forum meeting took place early in the summer term and parents had the opportunity to tell us what is going well at Hartsbourne and what could be even better….. Some of the things going forward onto the next school improvement plan will be: improving enrichment opportunities ensuring trips and visits are equally planned across every class
Hartsbourne News Continued tweaking the homework list as there was too much choice More visits to BMS for the children to experience things like cookery Our staff have also enjoyed the opportunities for professional development across the Trust. This term our Teacher Toolkit was held at Little Reddings and we shared our understanding of the writing journey from Nursery to post 16. This was a wonderful opportunity for teachers building on the success of sessions on Stretch and Challenge and Assessment. Reception and Key Stage 1 have maintained their results from last year and that is very pleasing. Due to the great teaching of Mrs Allsopp, Mrs Durrant-Patel and Mr Parnell those children will be moving on from a place of strength. Overall class results for Year 6 SATs are not as strong as last year, however individually children have done well and many have exceeded their targets. There’s certainly no ‘coasting’ in Year 6 under the determined leadership of Mr Harper. So the end of another year has come and we are all looking forward to a well-earned rest. We also look forward to all the good things to come in September and meanwhile wish you all a happy and restful holiday.
Winners of HPS World Book Day Dressing Up Competition
place last year. From the start, we decided that Mini Olympics was going to come back this year with lots of new, exciting games! Events like Mini Olympics allow pupils who are at different points in their French language learning journey to interact with other pupils. Some of the most powerful learning experiences can happen between pupils and Mini Olympics allows pupils to talk and share their experience of language learning. Also, it allows primary school pupils to see what is coming up ahead in their learning journey; they get a glimpse at secondary school language learning – seeing it through the eyes of secondary school language learners competing or Valerie Hudson, Headteacher helping in the games. They asked questions about topics MFL Mini Olympics covered, length of lessons and the th On 16 July 2018, the French Mini Olympics took place at Bushey Meads School. This long-standing event is a collaboration between Little Reddings School and Bushey Meads School. Sandra Garcia and I were really excited to run this event because it did not take
level of difficulty. Also, they get the chance to learn from the BMS Language Leaders who lead the games and this is invaluable.
This exchange was very memorable for all pupils involved. Language leaders felt it was a, ‘great learning experience,’ and I believe that an experience like the latter will contribute to increasing the retention and recall rate of key words amongst the primary learners, because it is so memorable. Each event was a great success.
the French national anthem, presenting medals and trophies on podiums. I could go on. In essence, I want it to be an event where primary and secondary school children feel inspired, motivated and I think that there is only one thing left to say, ‘Que les jeux commencent!’
MFL Mini Olympics continued At the Mini Olympics the students played giant noughts and crosses, a parts of the body relay race, a spelling game and a balloon game. The children were engaged, eager to take part and had clearly spent time learning the key vocabulary that was provided for them. Each team worked so well together and supported each other. There was a buzz around the field that showed a love for the French language. As I looked around the field, I could not help but think that we need to keep developing the Mini Olympics each year; making it bigger and better so we keep developing a love of learning French.
Laura Moses, LRS French Teacher
at the world.’ What do I envisage the future of the Mini Olympics to be? Several primary school competing, more events singing
Chair of the Bushey St James Trust writes……
In essence, I want it to be an event where primary and secondary school children feel inspired, motivated and determined to go from strength to strength in their knowledge of the French language. It is just like the Chinese proverbs says, ‘to learn a language is to have one more window in which to look
It has been an incredibly productive year within the Bushey St James Trust. We have welcomed new Members to our organisation, new highly skilled and experienced Trustees and Directors to our Trust Board, as well as a number of parents and members of the local community who now sit on our local governing bodies and committees; all focussed on one thing – to benefit the pupils and students of the three schools we serve. It has been wonderful to see how well the Trust has moved to the next level with Hartsbourne Primary School joining Bushey Meads and Little Reddings in December of this academic year. In a very short space of time we have seen our professional development programme for staff being significantly enhanced with our well-crafted Teacher Toolkits enabling superb practitioners from across the three schools to showcase best practice and develop knowledge
of Assessment for Learning, Stretch and Challenge and the learning journey from Early Years to Year 13. We look forward with anticipation to what the future brings and are already making plans to further embed and strength the very positive collaborations across our MAT next year. In the meantime though, I would like to wish all our hard working and superb staff a very happy and safe summer holiday and a good rest in the coming weeks. With very best wishes also to all the families and friends of the BSJT - enjoy a great summer!
Sam Russell Chair of the Bushey St James Trust