Hurstmere newsletter spring 2015

HURSTMERE SCHOOL

Hurstmere School Hurst Road Sidcup, Kent DA15 9AW Telephone: 020 8300 5665 Facsimile: 020 8300 2039 Email: info@hurstmere.org.uk Website: www.hurstmere.org.uk

r e t t e l s w e N Spring 2015 Issue 10

Specialist Sports and Science Academy

PRIZE GIVING 2014

CHARITIES -

On Tuesday 18th November 2014, Hurstmere held its Annual Prize Giving, celebrating the success of the boys in all aspects of school life. Our guest speaker this year was Mr Steve Brown, who was captain of the GB Wheelchair Rugby team at the 2012 Paralympic Games. He also achieved silver at the 2011 European Championships.

Collecting for Change

The audience of invited guests, governors, staff, prize winners and their parents enjoyed the evening immensely, and the speech given by Mr Brown was very inspirational. It reinforced speeches from previous Prize Giving evenings, and the school’s own belief, that if one sets one’s mind to it, anything is possible and any obstacle can be overcome.

ZAMBIA Prize Giving Refreshments

£59.00

Film Night

£22.70

November Disco (not profit)

£853.29

Cake Sale (Water Project)

£115.00

Morrisons Packing (Water Project) £573.27 November Non-Uniform

£1053.76

Crayford Dogs

£155.00

Desks

£256.97

POPPY APPEAL

£133.72

Over 90 prizes were awarded on the night.

As well as the academic and form prizes there were special awards (see

£51.71

list on page 2).

SAVE THE CHILDREN Staff Christmas Jumpers

£71.40

AIDEN GOODWIN FOUNDATION Christmas Non-Uniform Day

Mr Steve Brown, our guest speaker, presents pupils with their awards at Prize Giving.

> Pg 3/12

> Pg 4

ZAMBIA UPDATE

> Pg 6 & 7

SCIENCE

£663.40

Thank you to everyone for their generosity in helping us raise so much money for these worthy causes. > Pg 8—10

GCSE ART

SPORT

ts It is toalwaysreada Dear Parenpleasure

about so many exciting events that the boys have been involved in beyond the formal curriculum. I do hope you will take the time to read the newsletter in full.

Our popularity in the community remains high and, as always, it is unfortunate that we will again have to turn away boys as we had 702 total preferences for our 218 places in September. But I am sure, as I always say to parents, “If your son works hard he will be successful in any of the Bexley schools.”

we are confident of yet another set of excellent results.

Our amended admissions policy is out for consultation and, as you are aware, the main changes involve students in the Penhill Trust (ourselves, Blackfen School and Sherwood Park Primary School) being considered as siblings in the respect of oversubscription criteria. This will help to resolve the obvious anomaly of boys who transferred to Blackfen Sixth Form no longer counting as a sibling.

Finally, we have been lucky with the weather so far this winter and as you know from past years we will always try to keep the school open if possible. Should we get a heavy downfall of snow, please check the school website for arrangements.

Our Year 11s have recently completed their mock examinations in preparation for the summer GCSE examinations and

Mr A Stringer - Headteacher

I would like to invite you our 2nd Fundraising Ball for the Zambia Project. We ran a similar event in 2013 and it was not only a great success from a fundraising point of view, raising £3,500, but it was a really relaxed and enjoyable evening.

SATURDAY 7TH MARCH AT SIDCUP RUGBY CLUB. 7.00 PM – 12.00 AM • £75.00 PER COUPLE, £40.00 SINGLES • 4 COURSE MEAL WITH WINE • DISCO, RAFFLE, GAMES, AUCTION • TABLES OF 8.

Tables are going fast, £20.00 deposit per person with booking. Please support the event and make it a night to remember.

Please send your reservation requirements to: ma.robinson@hurstmere.org.uk

PRIZE GIVING 2014 SPECIAL AWARDS Sandra Cochrane Prize for Art

Cai Earlam

Lee Powell Prize for Music

Gary Landick

Lee Powell Prize for Science

Teddy Bevan

James Herring Sportsman Award

Louis Birch

Sports Leader Award

George Lawrence

Science College Award – Upper School Science College Award – Lower School

Andy Priston Award for Sports

For a full programme showing the complete list of prize winners, please contact the school.

Luke Wilkes Joseph Hannaghan

Year 7

Freddy Barton

Year 8

Isaac Ayliffe

Year 9

Johnny Eades

Year 10

Adam Wallace

Year 11

Ben Stock

Personal Achievement Award

Robbie Seamons

Accelerated Reader Award

Harry Kemp

Work Experience Award

Alfie Lovett

Valerie Hughes-Narborough Prize for English

Matthew Gowan

Year 11 Academic Achievement

Oliver Mulvey

Governors’ Prize

Alfie Duffy

These are just a few of the pictures of the many prize winners receiving their awards from Steve Brown. All the photographs can be found on the school’s website.

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The Tag Rugby Trust has been working in Linda Compound area of Lusaka for four years, developing a ‘Tag’ Centre within the compound.

Baobab College in Lusaka (an International School) has been supporting that development from Zambia but the UK schools that have visited and helped the development have really taken the project to the next level.

Various school groups have visited (Woking, Hurstmere, Esher) and also TRT's inner city young leader group (the Rebels and Titans). They have undertaken various projects like painting classrooms and schools, developing vegetable patches, creating new libraries with donated books, donating much needed clothing and bric a brac, and through a UK church (Lidlington), mosquito nets have also been donated.

Pastor Albert and Pastor Jean have written the message below about the project and expressed their thanks to all involved over the years and more recently, the tremendous effort from Hurstmere school pupils and parents.

With the recent installation of a bore hole, Pastor Albert and Jean have sent the following messages to Mr Robinson and Hurstmere School.

Dear Mr Robinson,

One school has developed the project to the next level; Hurstmere in Sidcup Kent have trained staff at Cinema night at the Joseph Linda School.

The Joseph Linda School and the entire community would like to thank you sincerely for drilling and putting up of a hand pump at the school. The school has had a challenge of water and of sustaining the school vegetable garden which is very essential to the school as it is used for the feeding programme.

Chickens at the Joseph Linda School.

The pupils, teachers and the community of Linda Compound would like to express our greatest gratitude for helping us with water.

the Joseph Linda School in various teaching methods, and helped them develop a chicken facility to supply eggs and food for sale locally. They have also donated to the school a projector and hundreds of DVD's so they can run cinema nights for the community to raise much needed funds for teachers’ wages and the running of the school. However, the recent project has been the most impressive: Hurstmere held events and non-uniform days to raise enough money to have a bore hole drilled and provide the school with much needed water for growing vegetables, use by the children and even the wider community.

May God bless you, Pastor Albert and Jean Sipiya

Drilling the bore hole.

To Hurstmere School, pupils, teachers and management, We would like to thank your school, the teachers, students and families and friends of all students for fundraising the drilling of a bore hole and a hand pump at Joseph Linda.

Linda Compound with a population of 35,000 people has fewer than 10 bore holes. Water only comes once or twice a day but in most cases we go one or two weeks without water. With this erratic water supply it made our garden project a challenge. The surrounding households in the community of Linda Compound will benefit from the water at the school.

Once again we say thank you for giving us water in Linda Compound.

All this work and development has occurred through the Tag Rugby Trust developing a Tag Rugby project at Linda Compound and the development of a Tag Rugby centre run by Lwiindi Muleya (Pastor Albert and Jean’s daughter) who started with TRT when she was 14. She has developed the Tag Centre into a community programme that boasts 14 young leaders and 120 children (and growing) who turn up every Saturday morning to be coached Above: Community use and play Tag Rugby. of the water pump.

God bless you, Pastor Albert and Jean Sipiya

Right: Mr Reddy with Pastor Albert and Jean.

Mr M Robinson—Head of PE A Specialist Sports

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HURSTMERE SCIENCE CLUB

Here are the boys enjoying forensic activities in Science Club, trying to recreate different blood spatter patterns as sometimes found at crime scenes. We will be continuing the forensic activities throughout the coming weeks and move on to dissections after half term.

Miss F Clark - Teacher of Science

SNAILS IN SCIENCE

Some numbers for you ...

Saving Londoners' Lives (SLL) is a partnership project* aiming to increase the number of people in the capital with emergency life support (ELS) skills. It is under this project that we run Hurstmere HeartStart.

At the start of the project in 2008 only 21% of Londoners had had any training in CPR in the previous 5 years. Now, SLL have trained 3,000 teachers in over 500 schools with a roll of around 300,000 pupils. Of these pupils, 60,000 have been trained in ELS. This has helped to significantly improve the survival rate of cardiac arrest patients in London. Last year, bystanders attempted cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on 1,967 patients whilst ambulance staff were on their way. That’s 55.8% of cardiac arrests. Hurstmere has contributed a total of 205 boys, staff and parents to these figures and we’re hoping to add even more with our next course which starts on 25th February.

The Science Department has been given two Giant African Land Snails. The boys are enjoying learning about these new arrivals.

George Collins in Year 9 attended one of our courses last year…….

Since I completed the HeartStart course with Mr Sims and Miss Fuller my Scout leader has asked me to do demonstrations. I am now working on my stage 4 first aid badge. I have taught lifesaving skills to around 60 people including my brother who is 8.

First aid is not hard and more people need to get involved because it is simple, easy and lifesaving. I have really enjoyed it because I know my family and friends can feel safe around me.

George Collins –Year 9

*http://savinglondonerslives.org.uk/ about

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FUN FACTS: Giant African Land Snails are native to East Africa, and can grow to about 25cm (10in), and live for over 9 years. They make good pets as they are relatively low maintenance. Snails are hermaphrodites, meaning they carry the male and female sex organs. Therefore, if you keep more than one snail together, they will breed rapidly: the average GALS can lay up to 600 eggs a year.

ROCKET CLUB AIMS HIGHER

Rocket Club has been a phenomenal success this term and last. Since it began in September our membership has grown, and more boys from different year groups have become involved. We started off using a home-made launcher to develop our rocket making skills, learning the correct terminology for all the different parts of a rocket, and figuring out, through trial-and-error (and with a little help from Mr Richardson) how to make our rockets fly faster, further and higher.

Some pupils made gliders that smoothly floated back to earth and others concentrated on trying to get their rocket to fly over the top of the English Department.

The weather was rarely on our side,

often resulting in rather soggy rockets but that didn't deter us - we carried on regardless, improving our designs each week.

Towards the end of last term we were pleased to win the Jack Petchey Award and so we have now graduated to water rockets as we have some new launchers. These rockets are more challenging for our rocketeers as they are much bigger and heavier so require different skills to get them to fly as high and land undamaged. Therefore, we are now trialling new landing systems which include parachutes that open so that the rockets do not break when they hit the ground. The Hurstmere Rocket Club members, however, are full of enthusiasm and are making extraordinary efforts to get their rocket higher than their last design.

If you would like to get involved in Rocket Club please contact Mrs Fletcher or come along on a Wednesday after school and join in the fun.

Mrs C Fletcher - 2i/c Science, KS3

MATHEMATICS As part of our KS4 Gifted and Talented programme in the Mathematics Department at Hurstmere School Mr Wadsworth and I took 23 pupils to a Maths Conference in London, on the 18th November. The conference was titled “GCSE Enrichment by Inspiring Minds�. The session was specifically aimed at Year 10 pupils and was designed to encourage pupils to explore mathematics in a wider context, to deepen their interest in the subject, and to consider taking it to a higher level. The event was designed to in-

spire the mathematicians of the future by offering an opportunity to meet and listen to experts in their field. The talks were designed to be enriching, informative, inspirational, entertaining and to show students what the subject of mathematics looks like beyond the curriculum. There were three guest speakers: Dr Colin Wright who is well known for his juggling and uni-cycling performances in the context of mathematics; Dr Andrew Tonks who has qualifications from the Uni-

versity of Cambridge; and Neil Monteiro who is an educational presenter who had lots of mathematical tricks to show pupils. The topics covered were mathematical in content but fun and engaging for the pupils to listen to and in some cases take part in. It was an enjoyable session in the London Metropolitan University and the boys came away asking lots of questions and with a different view on Mathematics and how it is used in the world all around us.

Mrs D Halton - Head of Mathematics A Specialist Sports

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ART GALLERY— GCSE 2014 Here is a chance to have a look at some of the great artwork produced by last summer’s GCSE Art students. This is just a small selection of images, but gives a good idea of the breadth and depth of creativity, imagination and talent in last year’s Year 11. Overall last summer was highly successful for the Art Department with 87.5% of pupils taking Art & Design GCSE gaining A* - C grades. Well done to Jonathan Wilson, Bobby Moore, Charlie Williams, Nathan Tipler, Oliver Bellanti, Charlie Tyler, Ben Watkins, Michael Oyemni and James Marshall-Lougheran, whose work is illustrated here.

Mr D Blower—Head of Art

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Hurstmere Pupils Join Kent Cricket Academy A pupil and former pupil are dreaming of making the grade after being selected to join the Kent Cricket Academy.

The duo started playing the game after attending a cricket course with Bexley District Development Officer, Richard O’Sullivan, with some sessions actually being delivered at Hurstmere School.

Wicketkeeper Oliver Robinson, 15, and seamer Ben Stock, 16, will join the Academy which has produced 16 first-class players, including several current Kent stars, since its creation in 2003.

Wicketkeeper-batsman Robinson won Sidcup CC ‘Player’s Player of the Year’ aged just 15, and impressed coaches in the Kent age group teams.

He also scored 118 runs in the final of the Year 10 (U15’s) North Kent Cup when Hurstmere beat Chislehurst & Sidcup Grammar School.

Former pupil Ben Stock (who is now studying at Chislehurst & Sidcup Grammar School) captained the school cricket team to victory in the Year 7 North Kent Cup, with the team also being runners up in Year 8, 9 and 10. The biggest achievement for the team was reaching the semi-final stage of the Year 10 Kent Plate (beating many high quality cricket schools along the way).

He is also a very keen rugby player, playing for both school and Sidcup RUFC. Hurstmere are very proud of both pupils’ achievements and wish them many more successes in the future.

Ben Stock and Oliver Robinson with their coach Simon Willis.

Mr K Wadsworth - Director of Sport

Year 7 Football

Tuesday 21st October Shenfield High School (a) ESFA Rd 3 1 - 7 (Dolding, Beadle, Roast 2, Nelson, Gibson 2)

Both the A and B team have made a very good start to Year 7, only losing just one game (on penalties).

A total of 18 fixtures have been played and 28 different players have represented the school. The A team are through to the quarter finals of both the North Kent District Cup and the ESFA Cup (over 660 schools entered). The B team have also progressed well and have a home semi-final in the B team Kent Cup. Below is a list of the results and scorers. Good luck for the rest of the season.

Wednesday 22nd October Orchard Academy (h) B Kent Cup Rd 2 6 – 3 (Leek 3, Davey, Padonu 2) Wednesday 4th October Beths (a) Kent Cup Rd 3 3 – 3 (AET) Beths won 5-3 on penalties (Nelson 2, Roast) Wednesday 26th November Erith (a) B Kent Cup Rd 3 2 – 8 (Leek 3, Parrot 2, Jackson, Padonu, Bryant)

Mr J Ball - 2 i/c PE

RESULTS TO DATE

Friday 28th November Leigh Academy (h) North Kent Cup 10 – 0 (Gibson 4, Jenkins, Dolding, Leek, Nelson, Roast, Davey)

th

Friday 19 September Tunbridge Wells Grammar School (h) ESFA Rd 1 7 – 3 (Beadle 4, Nelson, Stewart, Dolding)

Tuesday 21st October Greig City Academy (a) ESFA Rd 4 0 – 9 (Leek 3, Dolding, Roast, Davey, Stewart, Nelson, Gibson)

Tuesday 23rd September Harris Falconwood (h) Kent Cup Rd 1 10 – 0 (Stewart 3, Jenkins 2, Beadle 2, Dolding, Nelson, Dyer)

Thursday 11th November City of London School (h) ESFA Rd 5 4 – 4 (AET) Hurstmere won 5-4 on penalties (Nelson 2, Stewart, Dolding)

Wednesday 1st October St Pauls (h) Friendly 4 – 3 (Leek 2, Parrot, Padonu)

Thursday 8th January Habadashers Academy Crayford (h) North Kent Cup 11 – 1 (Dolding 2, Leek 2, Jenkins 2, Parrot 2, Nelson, Stewart, Davey

Friday 3rd October Priory School (a) Kent Cup Rd 2 0 – 7 (Beadle 3, Nelson. Dolding, Gibson, Fernandes) Tuesday 7th October Coopers (h) B Kent Cup Rd 1 6 – 0 (Leek, Parrot, Acourt, Davey, Padonu, Jackson)

Friday 16th December Brentwood School (a) ESFA Rd 6 1 – 1 (AET) Hurstmere won 5-4 on penalties (Nelson)

Friday 10th October Kingsford Community School (h) ESFA Rd 2 Kingsford Community School forfeited the fixture.

Saturday 17th January St Pauls Academy (a) B Kent Cup Q/F 2 – 4 (Wyness 2, OG, Jackson)

Monday 13th October Welling School (h) North Kent 8 -1 (Beadle 2, OG, Dyer, Nelson, Dolding 2, Gibson)

Friday 16th December Beths (a) ESFA Rd 7 1 – 2 (Dolding 2)

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Sports Leaders on their Marks!

Young Ambassador Conference

Hurstmere Sports Leaders continue to be busy running Level 2 School Games Competitions for Bexley schools. January saw the Year 7 Sports Hall Athletics Competition taking place.

This involved four secondary schools, Beths Grammar, Chislehurst & Sidcup Grammar, Haberdasher’s Askes’ Crayford Academy and Hurstmere, competing in indoor track and field events. The Hurstmere Year 9 and 10 Sports Leaders officiated at all the events and were praised by the teachers from the visiting schools for their helpfulness and professional manner. Beths Grammar had a particularly strong team and finished in first place closely followed by Hurstmere in 2nd place. Well done boys!

Hurstmere Year 10 Young Ambassadors Joshua Childs, Sam Bess and Angus Gunn attended the National Conference in December at the University of East London. A Young Ambassadors role is to promote PE and school sport by helping to increase participation and healthy lifestyles in schools, be a role model and advocate for sporting activity and be the young voices on PE and school sport in their school and community. During the day they attended 4 workshops and worked with athlete mentor Jeanette Kwakye, GB sprinter, looking at what it takes to be an ambassador.

“ Running competitions for other schools is a great way to develop my leadership skills and it is fun too.” -

“This was a great experience to learn about our role and to hear from a GB athlete about her journey in sport.” - Angus

Tom Spooner, Year 9

Gunn

“It was a great day where we met lots of other Young Ambassadors from across London and we got the chance to discuss what they are doing at their school.” - Sam Bess

Hurstmere’s Sports Leaders

Miss S Allsop—Partnership Development Manager

Hurstmere’s Young Ambassadors with athlete mentor Jeanette Kwakye

Hurstmere Winter Kayaking!?! Surely Not? I know what you’re thinking; it’s too cold and dark for kayaking after school? Yes, you are right, but we have been very lucky to receive some funding from East London Sport and Sportivate to run kayaking sessions after school in the warmth of Crook Log swimming pool! These sessions The Holocaust were also enhanced by Memorial some (not so warm) sessions on Danson Park Lake on the weekends.

Keep an eye out for information about more kayaking opportunities in the future, as the weather improves around Easter, when I will look to start running some more session at Danson Park. Again, a massive thank you goes out to East London Sport and Sportivate for the funding and Meridian Canoe Club for supplying instructors and equipment.

A selection of Year 8 students were the lucky recipients of this opportunity and all improved their kayaking skills massively as Meridian Canoe Club supplied kayak coaches and instructors. Some students even managed to start perfecting their Eskimo Roll! Great fun was had by all!

Mr T Baston – Head of Geography A Specialist Sports

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Year 8 Football

YEAR 7 CAROL SERVICE

Year 8 reach the Kent Cup Final

A SUCCESSFUL TRADITION

A great 6—1 semi-final victory against Howard School, means that we shall play Rainham Grammar School in the final on Monday 23rd February, 8.30pm kick off, at the Maidstone Football club, Gallagher Stadium. Well done to all the boys involved for progressing this far and we wish them every success in the final.

The Hurstmere Year 7 Carol Service had a tremendous turnout again this year, with parents, staff and Governors hearing over 200 boys sing as a whole year group. As usual the service was held at the Holy Trinity Church, Hurst Road and featured a variety of traditional carols and popular Christmas songs.

Mr G Joyce – Teacher of PE

Gary Landick and Matt Morley provided musical accompaniment on trumpet and clarinet; the Year 7 Guitar Group of Joe Sparrow, Max Kilburn and Jesse McKenna played John Lennon’s "Happy Christmas (War is over)” and were joined by older students Ed Demi-Ejegi, Sam Ward and Oliver Natusch as a backing band. Harmony Army (the Studio Fix choir) performed ‘I Don’t Need a Lot For Christmas”, a song written by Oliver Natusch (a Year 10 GCSE student).

Year 7 Cricket The Year 7 indoor cricket team has made a winning start at Hurstmere by beating Chislehurst & Sidcup Grammar in a six-aside event held in early January. The boys trained every Friday for six weeks in preparation for this match and managed a 9 run victory over their local rivals.

Well done to Ben Bleksley, Callum Deppe, Oliver Seal, Zack Long, Charlie Monk, Adam Brenchley and Sam Parsons.

Mr G Joyce – i/c Cricket

Year 9 Hockey

The Year 7 students, in fine voice, sang "Hark Hallelujah" and "Let it Be", "Last Christmas" and the "12 Days of Christmas", with the concert finishing with “Feed the World" and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas".

Thomas Spooner (Year 9) has recently been selected for the Kent Hockey Section. Thomas has been developing his hockey over the past few years and it is a just reward to be called up to represent his county. Good luck Thomas for your forthcoming fixtures.

Hurstmere will be hosting the Annual Bexley Hockey Tournament on Tuesday 24th March. With three training sessions starting on Thursday 5th March, Hurstmere will be aiming to be on top form in order to defend their title at the KS3 Bexley Borough Tournament.

A special ‘well done’ to the Year 7 readers who read so expertly and to Mrs Herterich for her support of the event.

All students performed brilliantly and thanks go to Mrs Roe, Mr Robertson, Mr Gilbert and Mrs Ahern for their time and support of the students and for their hard work in preparation for another successful event.

Mr G Joyce – i/c Hockey

Mr I Robertson – Teacher of Music/Teacher i/c Performance

DRAMA CLUB So far, the Drama Club has had a successful and an exciting year with not only the launch of the School’s You Tube channel ‘HBC News’ where we have been posting weekly ‘Hurstmere News’ television-type bulletins, but also the premier of our zombie-based horror movie entitled ‘Quarantine Part 2’, which is now available to watch on You Tube. The premier was an exciting evening with showings of other film projects and the presentation of certificates to participants of these projects for their excellent work and commitment.

On top of all that we have just begun filming for our next major project which will take an entire term to complete. This project explores the genre of comedy through the means of a ‘mockumentary’ type movie about a fictional school called ‘St Woodenwarks’, which the whole group is having a hilarious time creating!

Jamie Moreland Year 10 – Head of Drama Club

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Hurstmere put forward two entries for the competition: a dynamo powered portable device charger, and a high visibility safety kit. Both were developed by Reiss Eidler and Venn Edwards.

MUSIC There were a number of boys who passed their Grade 1 Trinity Exam on the drum kit last term. They sat their exams at Bird College and all were a credit to the school in their conduct in the examination. Thanks go to our drum teacher Mr John Simmons for coaching the boys through their exam. The boys who did well are: Keaton West - Pass Luke James - Pass Billy Winter - Merit We also have several guitarists completing grades outside of school such as Sam Ward and Freddie Davis. Also, Gary Landick and Matt Morley are sitting grades in Woodwind and Brass.

Good luck to them as well. Any boys wanting to enquire about drum, guitar or piano lessons should see Mr Robertson.

A number of boys are starting a composition workshop with some guest musicians from the charity "Arts Train" who are professional musicians working in orchestras. These musicians will show our boys some composition techniques as well as assisting them towards GCSE composition.

The boys chosen have been taken from our Year 10 GCSE class and some selected from Year 9 and Year 11. These boys will also be invited to represent Hurstmere in a concert at the Royal Festival Hall in July.

The Design and Technology Association recently ran a National Competition for students aged 11-18. The task was to create a new and innovative product that is used on or in conjunction with cycling. The prize was a day with a professional designer, turning the ideas into reality.

The pupils worked very hard to develop their ideas through sketching and modelling; they presented their ideas in a video which was submitted to the judges. Unfortunately, on this occasion they were unsuccessful; however their creative thinking and commitment to the project should be highly commended.

Mr M East – Teacher of D & T

CITIZENSHIP During Citizenship lessons this academic year, we have so far successfully studied Black History Month, ‘Men's Health’ and ‘Money Matters’. Many pupils were able to experience workshops provided by 'Wise Moves', and ‘African Dance and Music’ which included singing, drumming and instruments in the Main Hall.

During February we are focusing on ‘Human Relationships’ and ‘Cardiovascular Disease’ in line with Valentine’s Day and National Heart Month.

On the 19th March we, along with Blackfen School for Girls, are inviting to

Hurstmere a national project called 'Romance Academy' to run workshops with our Year 9 pupils to develop the values and skills that are needed to build healthy relationships. Following this we will be hosting a parents’ evening where Hurstmere parents will be invited to a ’Roadshow’, "equipping them to tackle the tricky parenting issues of sex and relationships or porn".

Forthcoming Themes: March Democracy April Electoral Systems May Voting and The New House Captains Mr M Wright—Teacher of PE/Head of House/Citizenship

Comic Con Autumn 2014

Studio Fix is now in its 5th year and goes from strength to strength. Our new songs have just been uploaded to www.studiofix.co.uk and are really worth a listen. Anyone wanting to join should see Mrs Ahern or speak to Mrs Roe or Mr Robertson. We are always looking for new talent, although spaces are inevitably limited.

Mr I Robertson – Teacher of Music/ Teacher i/c Performance

October saw 20 students visit Comic Con 2014 at the London Excel Centre. The purpose of the visit was to develop an interest in creative writing in the form of comic books. Students from all year groups were able to attend as a result of being members of the Comic Club held weekly by Mr Reddy and Mr Waghorn.

The event was the biggest so far at London Excel and saw a huge range of interesting costumes ranging from Star Wars characters to computer game characters.

Students had a chance to listen to talks by current comic artists and authors, whilst also getting to meet and chat to some of the newest artists in Comic Village. This was in addition to being able to browse the hundreds of stalls looking at comics, old and new, ranging in price 11

from 50 pence to several hundreds of pounds.

Students came away with a number of special signed editions of comics to read, along with the knowledge passed on from some of the newest comic writers in the country. Some students also had an opportunity to see Daniel Radcliff who was at the event to promote his latest TV show, ‘Horns’. These students will continue to be active members of the Comic Club and will help with the creation of the Hurstmere Comic! If you are interested in creating comics or just reading them, then come along to Room 14 on a Thursday lunchtime.

Mr A Reddy—Pupil Premium Manager A Specialist Sports and Science Academy

LIBRARY NEWS Once again we want to congratulate our Year 7 boys who have read over 20 million words as part of the school’s Accelerated Reader programme. Two boys have become Million Word Readers:

At Hurstmere School we are keen to provide all students with as many opportunities as possible to develop their learning across all subjects. The school currently subscribes to a service called GCSEPod which is completely free to your son and which we believe will be of great benefit to him. This is now available to all students in years 9, 10 and 11.

Harry Kemp (Year 8) receiving the Library Prize.

Cameron Freeman and George Snelling

GCSEPod has over 3,500 teacher-written, audio-visual podcasts produced specifically for mobile devices and containing all the right facts, quotes, keywords, dates and annotated diagrams that learners need for GCSE success. The GCSEPod website can be viewed on mobiles, tablets and PCs and the podcasts can be downloaded for offline viewing. The podcasts are also mapped to the curriculum and are designed to support students in the classroom, with their homework and during exam time.

All boys are now able to log on onto the Accelerated Reader website either at school or home to see what books they have read and find other books at their AR reading level.

Although boys are not able to take AR quizzes at home it does give parents the opportunity to see how their son is progressing and possibly advise on books they can borrow from our library or the borough libraries. The students can get their log in details from Mrs Tubbs during library hours.

We are pleased to accept any books that are no longer required, either for our library or to send to Zambia.

All students have already been registered with GCSEPod and so simply need to activate their account and choose a username and password. To access GCSEPod for the first time, students should follow these three steps:

Mrs E Tubbs—Librarian

DONATE A DESK UPDATE

Go to www.gcsepod.com and click “Login” in the top right hand corner

So far, the ‘Donate a Desk Appeal’ for Zambia has raised £380, which equates to just over 7 desks. We are now working with our friends in Zambia who will be looking to purchase the desks on our behalf and getting them to our link schools.

Thank you to the following people who have made donations:    

  

Click “New here? Get started.”

Enter their name, date of birth and choose their school Select a username and password (to be used when they next login) and select the subjects they study

Mrs Allen (2 desks) The Simpson Family Form Y05 Hillview School for Girls Year 13 ”Fashion” Hillview School for Girls (6th Form) Part donations from: 8 Lullingstone and 8 Upnor Mr Fujamade Miss Allsop

Once logged in, students can search for podcasts by keyword, by a specific exam or by subject area. Students can create their own personalised learning playlists which can be easily downloaded for offline viewing. Help guides explaining how to use the site are available in the “Help” section in the top navigation bar.

If you have any questions regarding the GCSEPod service please contact Mr Reddy who is leading the roll out in school.

Please use the e-mail contact as the first method of communication which is: a.reddy@hurstmere.org.uk Mr A Reddy—Pupil Premium Manager/Teacher of Geography

If you would like to donate to this appeal please go to the school website for further information http://www.hurstmere.org.uk/177/donate-a-desk-appeal

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Y7 Parents Evening Y8 Parents Evening Last day of Spring Term First day of Summer Term Staff Development (School Closed) Bank Holiday Start of half-term break Last day of Summer Term Staff Development (School Closed)

A S p e c i a l i s t S p o r t s Produced by J Dowse and Science Academy

ELECTRONIC/ON LINE EDITION— www.hurstmere.org.uk/15/publications

School photographs by Mr C Richardson and staff

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Printed by F M Litho