BORLASE NEWS Issue 1
19th September 2014 Early School Closure & Inset Day
WHAT’S ON
School will finish early for the open evening on Thursday 25th September. Lessons will end at 1.40pm and buses will depart at 2pm. School will be closed on Friday 26th September for staff training.
PA Comedy Night Saturday 20 September Open Evening Thursday 25 September INSET Day Friday 26th September
Next Newsletter Friday 3rd October
Welcome back to the New School Year! We are pleased to welcome the following new members of staff to Borlase: Kirsty Ashby (ń́́́́́́́́́́́ee Williams) Dance Shona Avery MFL Michael Bagshaw Physics Christopher Black Psychology Toby Bownass Humanities Support Rachel Cork MFL Alicia Godfrey History Rachel Harding Business Studies Susanne Lewis Mathematics Graham Nicholls D&T Kim Nicholas Psychology Richard Noden Maths Thomas Rendell History Catherine Sadd English Jenny Varias Maths Julie Wells History Elizabeth Wren Physics Zoe Wildman PE Isabelle Bertaud du Chazaud French Sergio Guilbardo Arceo Moreno Spanish Kimberly Holt PE & Sport
Year 12 Oxbridge Evening An introductory talk will be given at 7pm on 20th October by the senior tutor at Somerville College, Oxford. Parents and students are welcome to attend. Further details will follow.
Year 13 students - UCAS This is a reminder that all students who need to meet the early deadline of 15th October must remember the internal deadline of 30th September. The internal deadline is necessary to ensure that applications can be reviewed and finalised before the 15th October. Miss S Kettlewell 6h Form Admin.
Police Dogs At the end of last term Great Marlow School, Thames Valley Police and SWBGS worked together on aiming to ensure a drug free school environment. An independent 'drugs dog company' came in with WPC Taylor, PC King and PCSO Jones to 'sweep' the school for illegal substances. We are delighted to say that there were no traces of illegal substances found at SWBGS. In today's society illegal substances
are increasingly accessible and we work hard through PHSCE, external speakers, parents and the ethos of the school to support our students to make the right choices. Miss R Williams
Your Articles Please! Thank you to everyone who contributes to this newsletter. For the next issue please send all articles and notices by Wednesday 1st October to Kfarquhar@SWBGS.com
Behaviour Policy
Old Borlasians reunion
A reminder that the school's behaviour policy is available for parents to read via First Class in the Policies section. It will also be available by the new website, which we expect to launch next week, at the old address (www.swggs.com). In either case the policy gives details about our expectations for behaviour around the school and on schoolrelated activities, as well as guidance on sanctions and rewards. If anyone needs a paper copy, please apply through parents@swbgs.com.
The first Borlase reunion that the Development Office is holding will be on Saturday 27th September. There will be Old Borlasians from the 1930s-1974 era. One such Old Borlasian (John Manley 1951-1957), will be bringing his Bristol 403 for display. This is a result of a half-century long vow.
Year 7s at Longdridge Day On Saturday 13th September our new year 7s spent the day at Longridge Activity Centre for a range of teambuilding and outdoor adventurous activities. We were very lucky with the weather and pupils had a great time doing the various wet and dry events!
In the 1950s, Robin Pitman, the then Art Master at Borlase, brought his brand new Bristol 403 car close to the school cloisters - a supercar at the time. The students were given a design tutorial centering on the sought-after motor. Mr Manley said: "Twenty young boys all lusted after owning such a vehicle one day. It took me until 1972 before I became the proud owner of such a model, and I will be pleased to display it at school for my contemporaries." Miss C Blakeway-Phillips
Year 12 German Work Experience These included dragon boat racing, climbing, Jacobs Ladder, Leap of Faith, gocarting, zorbing and raft building. A big thank you to all the staff who volunteered for the day and to all the year 7s who entered into all the activities with courage and high spirits.
There will be a meeting for Year 12 German students and their parents on Thursday October 9th at 7pm in M7, when students who undertook two weeks work experience in Germany last year will give a presentation and answer questions. Mrs C Carter
Year 9 Aachen Christmas Market Trip
Mr C Robertson (Head of KS3)
The trip to the Aachen Christmas Market will take place on 5th – 6th December this year and is open to all pupils studying German in Year 9. It is always a hugely enjoyable trip and is ranked very highly by pupils. This is a great opportunity to speak some German, experience the excitement of a traditional festive market and maybe buy some presents for Christmas. Letters have been sent to parents by email; please don’t delay in responding if your son / daughter would like to go. Mrs. L Fortnum
SPORT
Rowing
Grace Bolton & Colm Kennedy Sports Captains
The summer of 2014 presented some fantastic performances and results from Borlase rowers. At the end of July, five Borlase athletes were selected to row for team GB! Three at the Coupe de la Jeunesse in Libourne, France, and two at the Junior World Rowing Championships in Hamburg, Germany, with Chris Lawrie also going on to represent GB at the Youth Olympic Games. In France, Megan Barry and Georgia Mulraine kickstarted the Coupe de la Jeunesse by winning a bronze medal in the women's 8. Megan also went on to win a silver medal in the women's 4the next day, with Georgia racing as a spare. Rufus Biggs was our third Borlase rower at this regatta competing in the men's quad. The success continued in Germany where Chris Lawrie raced in the men's quad, bringing home a silver medal, and Fraser Russell raced in the men's double. After the Junior Worlds, Chris flew out to Nanjing, China, where he represented GB at the Youth Olympics, finishing 4th place in the men's single scull.
Sports Fair Friday 12th September saw Borlase's first ever sports fair. Sports stalls ranged from the more traditional hockey, rowing, rugby, football and netball to newer activities such as badminton, basketball, self-defence,
cheerleading and fitness. It was a great success with many pupils joining us on the field to sign up. We would like to thank all the Sixth Form team captains and yr11 prefects who helped us and we are sure that this event will continue to grow in strength over the years.
Rugby The first XV has just returned from an extremely successful summer tour of Australia, Singapore and Indonesia, in which they won 4 out of 6 games, including an opening game win against the Singapore national side, less than 36 hours after landing in Singapore! Other results included wins against Lindfield in Sydney, All Saints Anglican School in Surfers Paradise and Redcliffe rugby club, with the two losses coming against Logan City and Meriwether High, who will play Borlase again in the return fixture on their tour in January. The boys also enjoyed a huge amount of free time whilst on tour, and solidified their progress with a 29-5 win away at John Hampden last week, in the opening match of the season. The year 10s also started with a fantastic 54-0 win against Chesham Grammar, whilst the Year 8s went down in a very close game against John Hampden 27-19.
Boys Hockey Eight players made their first XI debuts in the opening game of the season against Portsmouth Grammar, and promised a lot as they fought back from 4-0 down at half-time to lose narrowly 5-4. The second fixture against Millfield was a tougher experience though, as the boys lost 8-2, captain Jack Turner scoring both goals. The Year 11s then drew 3-3 against Millfield too, after conceding in the very last minute.
U14 GH v Headington School (friendly) result: Win 5-1 Barclay (2), Harris (1), Yeomans (1), Fores (1) What a great start to the U14 campaign for this season. The game began with fairly even possession, but Borlase took an early lead with some great teamwork down the right hand side from Barclay and Smith who delivered the ball to Harris to open the score. With a run of good attacking play across both sides of the field, Borlase forced a penalty corner which was deftly put away by Amelia barclay to make the score 2-0. A positive half time talk saw the girls go out with determination in the second half. Jess Fores stepped up to CF and caused the Headington defence problems, working with Yeomans, Bayliss, Heuser and Rolfe to keep the ball in the attacking 25 an after a run of good possession, she eventually put the ball firmly in the goal. Headington fought back well, but some improved defending and clearing meant that Borlase retained possession and found a rhythm, enabling Ellie Yeomans to slot in another goal. The constant pressure that Borlase applied meant that Headington did not get possession for any length of time and Borlase eventually capitalised on this with Barclay slotting the ball once more past the Headington keeper. A great start to the season - we look forward to our first league match next week against Chesham Grammar.
Hannah Newberry, Year 13, wins Young Darwin Scholarship The Young Darwin Scholarship is an amazing scholarship that gives 16-17 year olds the chance to have a real taste for the environment; covering subjects from geology to biology. Once awarded the scholarship you are invited to a 5-day residential trip in Shropshire. This trip was the perfect opportunities to really get your hands stuck in and learn about the environment and the conservation that is being done. I learnt a huge amount of things I would never have known before, it gave me a really good chance to discover what I like most about the environment and find my niche. I found I have a real interest for insects the family arachnids especially, this lead me to find a rare spider – Arctosa leopardus - which had never been recorded at the centre before and hadn’t been recorded in Shropshire since 1993. The trip involved whole ranges of activities; badger watching, going down an old iron mine, which now contains bats, canoeing and walking. We were also given a chance to talk to experts in their field, which was a real eye opener for career opportunities in the future. Over the five days I thoroughly enjoyed myself and am very much looking forward to going behind the scenes of the Natural History Museum next year with the Young Darwin Scholarship team. It’s an amazing opportunity to be a scholar, not only have I been provided with these experiences but I am also being provided with the support to do future prospects. Hannah Newberry
Sustainability and Environmental Impact Project
Farnborough Airshow Success Several 6th Form students with an interest in engineering and aviation visited the Schools Futures Day at the Farnborough Airshow at the end of last term. Congratulations to Adam Woollett who won the Cobham Plc competition for the best “selfie” photograph of the day. In addition to winning a prize, Adam was invited to spend a day visiting the headquarters of Cobham, which is a major sponsor of the event. Well done Adam. Mr M Adamson
As part of the school's on-going improvement plan we are looking at ways to increase sustainability, to progressively reduce our negative environmental footprint and strengthen our pupil, staff and parental awareness of environmental issues in the school. As part of this project the school has commissioned an environmental assessment from Oxford Brookes and we will shortly be considering their recommendations and drawing up a strategic plan which will be implemented over the next few years. We are looking to put together a small working group of ‘stakeholders’, including staff, governors, pupils and parents, to consider practical suggestions and priorities and to help to raise awareness of environmental issues in the school community. If you have prior experience and expertise in this area and would be interested in joining the working group please contact Mr Adamson via parents@swbgs Mr M Adamson
Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award 37 students from the school successfully completed their Duke of Edinburgh Gold expedition in Norway during the last week of the summer holiday. Five of the students were from Year 11 with the remainder drawn from Year 12. The expedition involved kayaking in the Norwegian Fiords and some strenuous walking in the mountains carrying full expedition kit, including several “wild camps” along the way. They had previously taken part in a kayak training weekend at Hawley Lake and spent a week kayaking and walking in north-west Scotland as part of their preparation. Well done to all the students who took part. The school plans to run a similar expedition next summer. Mr M Adamson
Above and Beyond Fund 2014/15 Please . join us in supporting the
Above and Beyond Fund. Creating a Learning Environment Today for the Leaders of Tomorrow Thank you to those already donating. To find out more about the funds, contact Celia or Kate in the Development Office on 01628 816519 or celiabp@swbgs.com www.friends.swbgs.com Registered Charity No: 1096750
Calling Old Borlasians! If you would like to hear about alumni relations and relevant school news, please contact us. Celia Blakeway-Phillips, Development Director celiabp@swbgs.com / 01628 816519
Would you like to Advertise? If you would like to advertise in a forthcoming Borlase production programme, or the annual Borlasian magazine, please contact the Development Office: Kate Farquhar, Development Officer kfarquhar@swbgs.com / 01628 816519
Interested in art? We are a completely independent art school and currently run Saturday morning art classes for young artists aged 5-15 at Sir William Borlase's Grammar School in Marlow. Our Clubs are very popular with both teachers and children as they are all about learning and making art fun. For more information visit us at
www.elmartschools.com or
www.facebook.com/elmartschools