Bushey Meads News
Issue 74
1st July 2016
On a day when a group of Year 5 students were visiting Bushey Meads School for an inspirational Technology Day, it was a real delight to visit the IT Faculty and see what exciting things were happening. Whilst the Year 5 students were engaging with a programming activity, our own students were having a great lesson writing code to control their BBC Micro:bits, which every Year 7 student received.
Dates for the Diary 4 July Y8 Spanish Trip Catalonia 5 July Y12 Law Trip Old Bailey Y12 EPQ Training 3.15-4.15 7 July Y10&12 Celebration of Child Care 8 July Y7-10 So Last Era Rewards trip
I was provided with a detailed explanation of how the students were using the specialist software and programming code to control messages to the Micro:bit and was given a great demonstration of what they could get the bit to do. The students were very excited that their new hardware could be programmed to play music and they are looking forward to creating their own computer games – very impressive! Mr Turner – Executive Principal
KEY STAGE 3 KEY STAGE 5
Student of the week is Jay - 7Willow for his outstanding attitude and contribution to the Bushey Meads community. Jay has been a consistently well behaved and enthusiastic student. Not only does Jay have 100% attendance and nearly 150 achievement points, he also plays for the school football team and is one of our BMS Buddies. Jay has conducted himself in a mature and sensible manner as a Buddy and contributed to the smooth transition of the new Year 7 students. Keep up the excellent work. Well done!
Dan - 12Sycamore Our KS5 student of the week is Dan who has served the school community as a Senior Technician and has supported the running of many school events. He has been a real support for the performing arts faculty and an inspirational leader to younger students. Dan is studying graphic design, ICT, media studies, photography and the Extended Project Qualification.
Arrangements for Collecting Exam Results Years 11-13 will all be excited and anticipating the moment where they can open their results following their hard work this year. Students can arrive at school at the times given below which will be followed by the distribution of the results. Thursday 18th August: Sixth Form Study Centre YEAR 13: Arrivals from 8:30 Results distributed: 8:50 YEAR 12: Arrivals from 9:30 Results distributed: 9:45 Thursday 25th August: Main Hall YEAR 11: Arrivals from 9:00 in the School Restaurant Results distributed: 9:30 from the Main Hall
Danielle Bowe - Lead Practitioner for English and Whole school Literacy This week’s WOW is particularly apt given our celebrations at rewards evening on Wednesday night- Virtuoso. A reminder also, that auditions have opened this week for our next fantastic school production-‘Bugsy Malone’.
Theme of the Week - Excellence Mr Turner – Executive Principal Our outstanding Head of Faculty for PE and Health, Mr Cartledge, led a series of inspirational assemblies this week for all year groups in the school on the theme of excellence. He based his thoughts around the amazing achievements of long distance athlete Mo Farah, arguably the best British athlete of all time, and encouraged all students to demonstrate real determination, selfdiscipline and desire to achieve at the highest level.
Teacher Toolkit - Marking & Feedback- 22nd June Mrs Charles The Marking and Feedback Teacher Toolkit which took place after school on Wednesday was attended by Teachers, TAs, TAPIs and Learning Supervisors, and followed the Marking and Feedback Fortnight 3. The session opened with an impressive presentation by the Student Learning Consultants who talked enthusiastically about what helps them best and why. The SLCs were followed by representatives from each faculty who showcased exemplary marking and feedback and at the end of the session marking champions received a prize in recognition of their outstanding practice.
Year 10 Pre Public Examinations PPEs With our Year 11 students now having completed all their GCSE examinations, they enjoyed their final Year 11 Leavers Assembly and their superb Prom on Monday night. Our Year 10 students are now officially the oldest students in Key Stage 4. I have been very impressed with how seriously they have taken their Pre Public Examinations or PPEs and how well they are preparing for arguably their most important school year to date as they embark on their final few weeks of Year 10 and look forward to the crucial Year 11 chapter. The photo above shows them at the start of their all-important English PPE on Monday morning – a great preparation and experience of what is to come this time next year. Well done Year 10s! Mr Turner Executive Principal
Sara Ash, Assistant Headteacher
Wednesday 29 June saw our annual Rewards Evening celebration where 150 students from years 7 – 13 were recognised for their hard work and commitment this academic year. We were honoured to have Baroness Billingham of Banbury as our guest to issue the certificates to all the students and also speak to the audience. Her story of being a “Barnados” girl and spending time in foster care as a child was inspirational with the key message “it does not matter where you start but where you finish”. Baroness Billingham has been a member of the House of Lords since 2000, entering a career in politics after being an English teacher. Students, parents, carers, staff and governors together made the evening an occasion to remember. Particular recognition must go to the seven students, listed below, who were voted “Student of the Year” for their year group and the students receiving the special awards for service to the school community – an amazing achievement. Students of the Year Year 7 Luke Robinson Year 8 Samuel Bilson Year 9 Yama Qarib Year 10 Jessica Smith Year 11 Vamsi Dyjecinski Year 12 Evie Hewitt Year 13 Kevin Tailor Executive Principal’s Award James Allett and Eleanor Williamson Chair of Governors’ Award Emily Charalmabous and Benjamin Nunes
Mr Chalkley – Head of D&T faculty
Year 7 students representing each House took part in the first Rocket Car Challenge, inspired by the BLOODHOUND Super Sonic Car that hopes to break the Land Speed Record later this year. The students built their cars in lunchtime and after school workshops and on Friday, 24th June took them to Watford UTC to race. There was a large variation in the performance of the cars, ranging from top speeds between 35mph to 55mph in 1 second! Congratulations to all the students involved and particularly the winning team from OAK house! To find out more about the BLOODHOUND car, go to www.bloodhoundssc.com Check out the video of the Bushey Meads cars on our website, made by Devan Palmer in year 10.
SEN SPORTS Jayne Maloney
On Thursday, 23rd June, after school, we welcomed Mark McManus from Watford FC to our SEN sports club. At least 13 of our SEN students and three members of the SEN staff from Base took part in an inclusive skills and drills based football session followed by a energetic football match, where staff also joined in. Student Kai Shah, 8 Maple, said: “Mark included everyone in the session and he made it feel like a proper football training session. I really enjoyed it.” Mark will be returning for the next two Thursdays and hopefully in the future too. Thanks to Mrs Hedges and Ms Andrews for their amazing support as always.
Woodside Stadium, Wednesday 24th June 2015 A great day for Bushey Meads athletics teams ! Last Wednesday saw 100 Bushey Meads students from Years 7-10 competing in the annual Watford District Athletics Championships at Woodside stadium. The event featured all 15 secondary schools in the area and was a very competitive day of highly entertaining athletics. It proved to be a very successful day for the school with all of our athletes contributing to a fantastic win in the overall District B League competition. In the overall schools combined competition Bushey Meads came a very creditable 6th place overall which was a fantastic reflection of all members of the team. Special mention must to go the three students who won their individual events on the day to become outright District Champions for 2016. These were : Kaitlyn Williams - Year 8 Girls Discus (Distance : 21.68m) (Kaitlyn recorded her 2nd District Championships win in a row after 6 consecutive County League successes) Max Musula - Year 7 Boys Shot Put (Distance : 9.79m) Jack Leyshon - Year 10 Boys Javelin (Distance : 37.15m) In an excellent day’s athletics for our students we also had 13 further podium finishes - an excellent achievement. 2nd Toyosi Ojedeji - 2nd Year 7 Boys 100m Jess Benveniste - 2nd Year 7 Girls 1500m Joel Smith - 2nd Year 9 Boys High Jump Yama Qarib - 2nd Year 9 Boys Shot Chris Osei - 2nd Year 10 Boys 100m
3rd Tavi Vieru - 3rd Year 7 Boys Pole Vault Shantae Plummer - 3rd year 7 Girls Javelin Henry Stewart - 3rd Year 9 Boys Javelin Megan Sjollema - 3rd Year 9 Girls Long Jump Bella Parker - 2nd Year 9 Girls Javelin Curtis Meale - 3rd Year 10 Boys 400m Sam wright - 3rd Year 10 Boys Pole Vault Rez Bharmal - 3rd Year 10 Girls 200m
Other top 5 finishes included : Tom Phillips - 4th Year 7 Boys Long Jump G Zhelyazkova - 5th year 7 Girls Hurdles Billy Garvey - 4th Year 8 Boys Pole Vault Jack Fordham - 5th year 9 Boys 300m Aidan Angold - 4th Year 9 Boys Pole Vault Euan Enright - 4th Year 10 Boys 1500m Aidan O’Mahony - 4th Year 10 Boys High Jump Chris King - 5th year 10 Boys Shot Olivia Mcmanus - 5th year 10 Girls High Jump Year 10 Boys Relay - 4th Well done to all of our students who took part making it such a successful day for the school. B League Boys - Totals 1.Bushey Meads - 496 2.Bushey Academy - 403.5 3.FC Academy - 266.5 4.Rickmansworth - 254.5 5.Westfield - 158
B League Girls - Totals 1.Bushey Meads - 352.5 2.St Margarets - 349 3.Bushey Academy - 306.5 4.Rickmansworth - 274 5. FC Academy- 165 6.Westfield - 59
B League OVERALLS 1.Bushey Meads - 848.5 2.Bushey Academy - 710 3.Rickmansworth - 528.5 4.FC Academy - 431.5 5.Westfield - 217
Overall results 1
St Clement Danes
1207
2
Parmiters
1074
3
Queens
1060
4
Haberdashers
1047
5
St Michaels
1004
6
Bushey Meads
848.5
7
Aldenham
782
8
The Bushey Academy
710
9
Rickmansworth
528.5
10
Watford Boys/Girls
507.5
11
Royal Masonic
476
12
St Joan of Arc
471
13
Francis Combe
431.5
14
St Margarets
349
15
Westfield
217
Cricket result Year 8 Cricket Date : Tuesday 21st June Result : BMS Win FCA 44-4 (15 overs) BMS 49-0 (9 overs) Team: James Kimber, Ryan Pearce, Rosh Marsh, Lewis Reid, Pavit Sangasinha, Hassan Ali, Vedant Christian, Pallav Hingu, Yash Gohil, George Issa, Arunesh Uthayakumar and Billy Garvey Comment : This was a good start by the Year 8 cricket team. FCA batted first and the team fielded well, making good decisions and communication in the field. An area to improve was our bowling with the boys needing to focus on their line and length which will reduce the amount of wide balls. Hassan and Pavit batted comfortably but were frustrated at the lack of quality balls that were provided. Overall a good performance and on to the next fixture versus St Joan of Arc.
A reminder all the latest BMS PE and Health news can be found daily at the PE and Health Faculty twitter page @BMSPEand HEALTH
PE Information Rounders Results Sadly with the recent rain and saturated fields the year 7,8, 9 and 10 district rounders tournaments were all cancelled this week. However this did not stop a friendly game taking place on the boggy fields of Bushey Meads between the year 8 and 9 rounders teams. The game was a very close affair with the year 9 squad just sealing a 10 - 9.5 victory with the final ball of the game - well done Megan Shah! We will try really hard not to be beaten by the weather! Year 8: Abby Andrews, Kelly Lavelle, Cerys Lightfoot, Nathra Sriharan, Nicole Redmond, Kanishka Gunasegaran, Anna Finley, Vanshits Mishra, Amy Sjollema, Tashfia Monzur, Ayesha Sindhi Year 9: Mel Bonyadi, Bella Parker, Megan Sjollema, Anouska Barrett, Ragavi Aravindan, Megan Shah, Riya Kulkarni, Angel D’Alwis, Ashvina Trivedi, Lottie Wright
Staff Development - Wednesday 29th June Wednesday morning saw PE staff at Bushey Meads further their professional development by attending an athletics coaching session. The session was run in conjunction with athletics satellite club Watford Harriers, and delivered by the school's regular athletics coach Peter Griffiths. Students in year 7 who have regularly attended athletics training took part in the session so that staff could observe some of the practices used in order to help develop running and relay techniques. Through using a series of mini challenges Peter demonstrated how students could solve problems to warm up and use the correct running techniques in order to improve their athletic performance. The session finished with students aiming to demonstrate their new techniques in a competitive game of noughts and crosses. Staff gained valuable tips for assisting in lesson delivery and the students whose attitudes were exemplary enjoyed a fun session that they can build on for the future. Thanks go to Peter and Watford Harriers for putting on the session. Students involved: Charlie Mainwaring, Luke Robinson, Tom Phillips, Aaron Doody, Vicky Fordham, Isobel Hart Lauren Roberts, Louisa Wright, Betty Coste, Francesca Boselli, Shantae Plummer, Jess Benveneste, Zeal Rathod, Caitlin Jones, Zoe Picksley.
Sports Clubs provided by external coaches Girls Yoga - Thursday’s after school, all welcome Athletics with Watford Harriers Athletics Club Tuesday’s Bring kit and meet in the sportshall / astro at 3.05 Sessions will continue throughout the Summer term on Tuesday evenings.
House Points 2015-2016 10000
ASH
9592
BEECH
9583
MAPLE
8688
ELM
8671
SYCAMORE
8621
OAK
8579
WILLOW
8253
9500 9000 8500 8000 7500
Year 8 Spanish trip 2016 Mrs Charles – Spanish teacher
40 Year 8 students will be spending the 4th - 8th July in Barcelona on a language and culture trip. The students will be accompanied by Mrs Charles, Mr Chalkley, Ms Rowden and Ms Cutts. To follow our blog, please go to 'Trips and Visits' > 'Year 8 Spanish Trip 2016' on the school website or click on the link below.
http://www.busheymeads.org.uk/category/trips-visits/y8-spanish-trip-2016/ ¡Hasta luego!
Channels of Communication In a large school it is important to know who to contact if you would like to raise a concern or provide us with information. If you have a concern you would like to share with the school regarding your son or daughter your first point of contact needs to be the subject teacher or the form tutor. They can be contacted via the school email: reception@busheymeads.org.uk, marking it for their attention, or by telephone: 020 8950 3000.
EXECUTIVE PRINCIPAL Mr Turner
SENIOR ASSISTANT HEADTEACHER KS3 – Mr Fisher ASSISTANT HEADTEACHER KS4 & KS5 – Mrs Ash
HEAD OF FACULTY PASTORAL TEAM Mr O’Kelly (KS5) Ms Danecha (KS4) Mr Malik (Yrs 8 & 9) Ms Smart (Year 7) HEAD OF DEPARTMENT
FORM TUTOR
SUBJECT TEACHER