Lealands News March 2015

Lealands News School Newsletter | Issue 23 | March 2015 | Student Name ______________________

Coming up >>>

End of Term Friday 27th March

Summer Term Begins Tuesday 14th April

Inside this issue:

Bank Holiday Monday 4th May

Half - Term Monday 25th May Friday 29th May

Headteacher’s Introduction School Notices Sports News Christmas Jumper Day Update Valentines Day Menu Thinking Maps Year 10 Maths Feast Student Voice Update Beds University Taster Session Year 10 Work Experience Careers Fair Cambridge University Trip

P2-3 P4-5 P6-7 P8 P9 P10 P11 P12 P13 P14-17 P18-19 P20

Winter Games NHC Dance Showcase Year 8 Art Literacy Week Textiles Competition International Schools Update Coca Cola Enterprises Trip Rotary Tournament Commonwealth Day Dance Show Summer Exam Timetable Anne Frank Trust Ambassadors

P21 P22 P23 P24-25 P26 P27 P28 P29 P30-31 P32-33 P34-35 P36

Lealands High School, Sundon Park Road, Luton LU3 3AL Tel: 01582 611600 Fax: 01582 612227 Email:admin@lealands.luton.sch.uk www.lealands.luton.sch.uk

Aspire

Believe Achieve

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Introduction from Headteacher - Mr Burridge I am sure you will agree, when you read through this edition of the newsletter, that many of our students have continued to excel themselves in a wide range of activities and events.

Some highlights so far this term have been the Year 7 fantastic performance of songs from 'Joseph and The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat'. The Dance Show was another great example of Lealands' talent on display. The dedication and hard work of our students and staff in preparing for so many wonderful performances is wonderful to see. We are all looking forward to the Easter Concert and the Summer production which will be upon us soon. This edition also contains many examples of sporting success and we are particularly proud of the way our Sports Ambassadors and Leaders support a wide range of activities in and out of school.

Literacy Week and World Book Day were even bigger and better this year with daily events, competitions, prizes and special activities related to literacy and books in all Key Sage 3 lessons. This year we invited students, as well as staff, to dress as a character from a book and were really pleased with the effort and thought that so many students put into this.

Our Year 11 students have been busy applying to colleges and sixth forms alongside this busy time of preparing for public examinations. We had a special day which included a Careers Fair and various workshops and activities to prepare them for interviews and applications. This event was new for this year and was very successful. We hope to repeat it again in the future.

Year 10 students have also had a busy time with two weeks of work experience earlier in the term. It has been good to hear about their experiences and especially positive to receive a number of letters from employers praising our students. Year 9 have been working through option choices and these will be finalised early next term.

We have, as I am sure you are aware, faced some challenges, this term. I hope that you have felt that our communication and response to any concerns raised continues to be a strength of the school. We always welcome feedback and I am available and very happy to

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Introduction from Headteacher - Mr Burridge meet with parents, by appointment, should you wish to discuss any matters relating to the school. I would also like to thank all of you who have sent messages of support.

You may have become aware that Lealands, along with Cheynes Infant School and Tennyson Road Primary are working very closely with Sundon Park Junior School. The Heads from all of these schools have attended meetings with parents recently to explain the support that will be provided. In particular, Mrs Bendefy has been appointed as the Chair of Governors at Sundon Park Junior School. We are looking forward to the opportunities this more formal relationship will bring for our schools to work even more closely together in the interests of the local community and children we all serve.

Our school continues to grow and we have been informed by the Local Authority that we are over-subscribed for entry in September 2015. In many ways this is very positive news, but it will also require careful planning so that additional teaching staff can be recruited and the needs of a growing school population are well met.

Thank you for your continued support.

Mr J Burridge Headteacher

Term Dates Spring Term Ends: Friday 27th March 2015 Summer Term: Tuesday 14th April 2015 - Friday 17th July 2015 Half - Term: Monday 25th May 2015 - Friday 29th May 2015 Bank Holiday: Monday 4th May 2015

Academic Year 2015/2016 Autumn Term: Monday 7th September 2015 - Friday 18th December 2015 Half - Term: Monday 26th October 2015 - Friday 30th October 2015

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Online Payments Don’t forget you can pay online using the ‘Parents Payment’ link from the homepage of our website: www.lealands.luton.sch.uk If you do not have your link code to login, please contact the school finance office on 01582 611600. Parents can pay online for the following: Voluntary Contributions

Events, Trips and Visits

Technology Years 7, 8 and 9 Graphics Year 11 Resistant materials Years 10 and 11 Art Food Technology Year 10 Textiles Year 10

Prom 2015 PGL Claythorpe Court September 2015 Blue Peris November 2015

Please Remember You Can Now Pay For School Meals Online The school prefers for all school meals to be paid for online. This gives you the flexibility to top up your child’s account at home using a debit or credit card rather than having to use cash or cheque.

Access to the online payments can be found on our website using the link at the top of the page ‘Parents Payment’; this will take you directly to the registration/log in website.

Further details and an online payments instruction manual can be found on our website: www.lealands.luton.sch.uk

Contact Information For Students It is extremely important that we have up-to-date contact information for all students.

Any changes to a student’s address, contact telephone numbers or email addresses should be passed to me at the school preferably by email to admin@lealands.luton.sch.uk or by telephone on 01582 611600 as soon as possible.

Many thanks for your assistance in this matter.

Mrs A Lawes, Deputy Headteacher’s PA

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Value of the Month

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Sports News Trampoline Competition In February, Lealands hosted two trampoline competitions. The first took place on Wednesday 11th February and included competitors from Years 7 and 8. Congratulations to Shannon Mongey from Year 7 who placed first in the individual event.

The second event took place on Tuesday 24th February and included competitors from Years 9 - 11.

Congratulations to Megan and Natalia who came first and second in the individual event.

Everyone put in an amazing performance. Well done from all at Lealands!

Cross Country Competition The county cross country competition took place on Wednesday 11th February at Ampthill Great Park. It was a cold day, but fortunately there was no rain. I had qualified for the Year 7’s event after coming in the top 10 of the Luton Schools Cross Country race. There were approximately 67 other girls running in the same event as me. The course was a very hilly 2km run, in contrast to the very flat course of the Luton schools event. There were a lot of strong runners.

Some had competed at this level a lot of times, but this was my first time! Just before the line there was a final challenge of one last steep hill, which was the most challenging part of the course. I crossed the line and came 49th, which I thought was a good achievement at this level. I hope to run again next year and do even better.

By Meghan, Year 7

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Sports News Congratulations to the Years 7 and 8 netball teams who recently took part in tournaments.

We are pleased to report the Year 7s came 3rd overall and the Year 8s came 4th. This is an excellent achievement, well done girls!

Year 7 Team: Chelsea Mafuva Meghan Davis Shannon Mongey Kaylen Harris Jayleigh Richards-Cruikshank Elise Francis Skye Nanton

Year 8 Team: Isabel Goldney, Hannah Janman, Shenikah Kama, Jenetta Akurienne, India McKenzie, Ashley Keenan, Daisy Fujino, Faith Douglas and Danielle Robertson

Students nominated for Awards Congratulations to the following students for their success in ICT/Computing last half-term (January - February) Year 7 Radiah Khan

Year 8 Shakinah Kama

Nitin Verma Hannah Parker Leonardo Sposito

Year 9 Farshad FaridyMasooleh Morgan Paul-Joseph

Year 10 Mateusz Walenda

Year 11 Steven Edwards Osei Boffa

Computing Computing Year 10 Year 11 Kyle Farmer Thomas Cutler Zac Robinson

Omar Yasin

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Christmas Jumper Day - Update

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Valentines Day Menu

For Valentines this year, Lealands’ kitchen staff put together a stunning themed menu of love. This included beautiful handmade cakes, tarts and biscuits.

Staff and students are lucky to be treated to such a fantastic variety of homemade cuisine every day!

College Open Days Barnfield College

Shuttleworth College

Monday 18th May 2015

3pm– 8pm

Wednesday 3rd June 2015

3pm– 8pm

Bedford College Tuesday 19th May 2015

Thursday 21st May 2015

5pm - 8pm

North Herts College 5pm– 8pm

Tuesday 21st April 2015

4pm– 8pm

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Thinking Maps Thinking maps are an excellent way to help your child visualise a particular thinking process. By using thinking maps, children can sequence, classify, simplify parts of a whole, describe, define, compare and contrast and understand cause and effect. We are encouraging students to use these maps in their learning at school.

The thinking map shown here is an extended bubble map describing different parts of social diversity. This map is an excellent way of reviewing learning on any topic, but would work particularly well for revising characters or settings in English.

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Year 10 Maths Feast On Monday 9th March I, along with three other students, went to Putteridge High School to take part in the ‘Year 10 Maths Feast’; a competition organised by the Further Mathematics Support Programme. It was a stimulating experience which helped us to consolidate our mathematical knowledge and apply it when faced with a variety of challenges.

We enjoyed developing our teamwork skills and competing against other able mathematicians, especially with the final relay challenge. We divided our team into two and found solutions to part of a puzzle before giving the answer to our teammates to continue with the next part of the puzzle.

By Naa Ntodi Year 10 The team included: Candice Lawlor 103MP, Samuel Ojo 103MP, Naa Ntodi 106DF, Mateusz Walenda 102ST

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Student Voice Update Lealands’ Head Boy and Girl, James Ford and Ashley Thomson have been working hard on “Our Story” and you will all be seeing their presentation very soon. They will be giving assemblies and visiting Tutor Groups to tell you all about this very exciting new project.

Our fantastic Year 10 group have also been busy planning the British Heart Foundation / Children In Need dodge ball competition. This event is taking place just after the newsletter deadline so will be covered in full in the next edition.

Another of our Student Voice projects is also taking place just a little too late to make this edition of the newsletter. The group of students that meet every Thursday are planning a very special lunch. The students, the majority of whom have English as a second language, are bringing in food from their homeland. This special taster menu will be shared amongst the group and invited guests. A tasty reward for all their effort and commitment to the group. Well done.

A reminder to all students that if they have any issues or concerns that they would like to raise please contact Mr Payne. Student Voice meetings take place daily during lunchtimes in PE 2.

Help one another; there's no time like the present and no present like the time. ~James Durst

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Taster Session at University of Bedfordshire In February, Year 8 student Jamie O’Connor visited the University of Bedfordshire for a taster morning. He was given a tour of the Park Street Campus and attended a Media Performance lecture. Jamie was allowed to control the vision mixer when the university students recorded their short commercials. Jamie said he wants to be a film maker when he is older so it was a great chance for him to find out about university life and career options.

Jamie wrote the following report about his morning: I liked talking to the students because they were giving me good tips on what I need to do to achieve becoming a film maker. I got to use the equipment and was telling people when to zoom in and cutting to different cameras using the vision mixer. I got to see all the facilities on the student campus. They even have their own nightclub. We were given a voucher for £5.00 to spend in the canteen and I bought a spaghetti bolognese, a drink and a muffin.

Students nominated for Awards Dillan and Sailesh Jethwa were recently shortlisted to take part in the AQA Unlocking Potential Programme. The programme is the brainchild of Dame Kelly Holmes and both our students received a very nice letter from the double Olympic champion. Only 40 students are chosen to take part nationally and unfortunately Dillan and Sailesh did not make the final cut.

Ryan Cooper has also been nominated for the Sky Sports Student of the Year Award. Ryan took part in last year’s Sky Sports Project and is also going to be involved in delivering this year’s. Sky have not made the announcement as to which students have been shortlisted yet so we are keeping our fingers crossed.

Well done Dillan, Sailesh and Ryan. Keep up the good work.

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Year 10 Work Experience In February, our Year 10 students took part in a two week work experience programme. This gave them the opportunity to learn and acquire new skills, as well as experiencing work life first hand in their chosen field. Our students worked in a number of organisations from well-known retail outlets to local nurseries and restaurants.

It was a great success and I would like to congratulate all our students for their hard work and commitment in completing their two week work experience.

Here are some of the accounts taken from students who took part in the programme:

Kayleigh Castle 102ST - The Meads Primary School For my work experience I was placed at The Meads Primary School, for two weeks from 8.30am to 4pm. I worked with a variety of children from all different backgrounds, from ages 4 to 5 years old.

My duties included supervising the children at all times making sure they were safe and happy.

I took part in a variety of projects based around the movie Finding Nemo. I helped the children write about the film as well as helping them on their science project and with mental arithmetic.

In the mornings I was tasked with filling the fruit bowls and making sure the class had all their resources for the day such as books and crayons. I also had to help tidy up the classroom at the end of the day before I went home.

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Year 10 Work Experience

The staff at The Meads Primary School were really nice and they made me feel very welcome and treated me like a member of staff.

I really enjoyed my two weeks placement and it has strengthened my ambition to become a teacher.

Adam Line 101DF - Vauxhall Motors I was placed at Vauxhall Motors for my two weeks and I was really nervous, not knowing what to expect. My first day at Vauxhall was an induction and the staff I met were really friendly. They made me feel very welcome which eased any worries and concerns I had.

My working hours were from 8am to 4pm and I worked with a number of people from undergraduates, to project managers responsible for jobs such as testing product safety and measuring vehicle parts. I also worked in various sites such as the paint shop and controlled a robot which was programmed to paint cars on the production line.

My work experience gave me a valuable insight to any future career paths that I might wish to follow within the car manufacturing sector.

I really enjoyed my two weeks work experience and realised that it is important to work hard in order to achieve a career which is enjoyable and rewarding.

Mateusz Walenda 102ST - MK Solicitors For my work experience I was placed at MK Solicitors on Dunstable Road for two weeks, working as a personal assistant for various solicitors at the firm.

My hours were from 9.30am to 5.30pm and I was responsible for various tasks such as drafting reports and letters for cases, emailing clients and answering telephone enquiries.

During my contact with the clients I had to be polite at all times and I had to listen very carefully making sure I did not make any mistakes in order to ensure customer satisfaction.

I was also given the opportunity to shadow solicitors and sit in meetings with clients in order to gain an insight into the working practices of a qualified solicitor.

I thoroughly enjoyed my two weeks at MK Solicitors.

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Year 10 Work Experience Syed 102ST - Motorised Cars For my work experience I wanted to work with cars, so I decided to work at Motorised Cars, a local garage which specialises in MOT’s and general servicing and fixing of vehicles. My working hours were from 9am til 5pm and the staff were really friendly and helpful.

During my two weeks, I learnt a lot about cars and how they work mechanically.

My role was very practical as I had to get my hands dirty changing tyres, oil filters and replacing brake discs and pads. I also helped with the MOT testing of cars and was trained on the MOT machine which logs vehicles for testing, passing and failing.

I really enjoyed my work experience; the staff gave me a lot of sound advice on what options and courses to take to become a qualified mechanic. I would definitely recommend this placement to anyone who wants to be a mechanic.

Photos from the Year 10 Work Experience

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Year 10 Work Experience

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Careers Fair Lealands recently developed their careers programme with the introduction of a Careers Fair for Year 10 and 11 students. It provided them with a fantastic opportunity to meet a variety of local businesses and colleges without having to leave site.

The school sports hall was transformed into an exhibition, with displays from twenty three local exhibitors. Students were encouraged to visit them all, asking questions and finding out information which they could use to make decisions about their future. There were surveys to fill out, competitions to enter, leaflets and lots of interesting freebies to collect.

The exhibitors included all of the local further education colleges, apprenticeship schemes, the British Army, volunteer police cadets, Barclays Bank, SKF, Hayward Tyler and Vauxhall.

The Year 11 students were off timetable for the day to join the careers fair, which also included attending a seminar on revision skills and ‘job readiness’. During the seminar they were given activities which encouraged them to work in teams and find solutions for certain problems. They were also asked to try to complete challenging activities which would work both sides of the brain, which proved more difficult than it sounds.

The event proved to be thoroughly successful and has helped students and staff to make many connections with local colleges, sixth

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Careers Fair forms and businesses. The school had some fantastic feedback from the agencies involved, many of which said they would be interested in coming back if they organised another event in the future.

Matt Fountain from Vauxhall said “Students really engaged – great behaviour”. Lee Daly from Barnfield said “Students were very well behaved and spoke in a very mature manner”.

Khaled from Oaklands College was also impressed with the students and commented “I particularly enjoyed the questions the students asked – they weren’t shy! I was impressed to hear their questions and views, really polite!”

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Cambridge University Trip On Thursday 27th February, students from Lealands visited Pembroke College in Cambridge. The trip was part of our on going commitment to inspire our students to fulfil their true potential and encourage them to believe that the impossible is in fact possible.

During the morning they learned about the day to day lives of undergraduates at Cambridge University. They were given examples of the workload that they could expect if they were one day students at the world famous university. They completed tasks that helped them understand how they should select appropriate courses to study and also how they might budget effectively. Current undergraduates gave a tour of the college and a first hand account of life at Pembroke.

They were happy to answer questions, of which there were many, and when asked why they had agreed to give the tour their answer was in itself inspiring. They said that their journey from GCSE's to Cambridge was indeed a difficult one but also one which was achievable for anyone. They said that they wanted to let students from "ordinary" schools and backgrounds know that they were just like them a few years earlier.

After a lovely lunch in the great hall they were treated to a tour of the college's own museum. Everyone was very impressed with the thousands of exhibits and wished that there was more time to explore, but unfortunately the day had come to an end.

All in all a fantastic trip to a magnificent place.

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Winter Schools Games On Friday 6th March students from Lealands helped deliver one of the biggest sporting events in the school calendar. The Winter Games are county finals for students from Year 3 to Year 13, competing in swimming, athletics, table cricket, boccia, rugby, tag rugby, hockey, handball and rowing. Lealands’ students from Year 9 delivered the athletics event.

Our 6 Gold Ambassadors from Year 10 were responsible for covering the event on Social Media across 3 venues, Inspire Sports Village, Venue 360 and Luton Rugby Club. The Gold Ambassadors were also involved in the opening ceremony and were flag bearers for the Luton schools.

The event was attended by England hockey player, Kirsty Mackay, and Paralympic athlete, Julie Rogers. Julie was the guest of honour and was interviewed on stage by Shannon Shakes and Tia Travers in front of nearly 1000 participants, dignitaries and spectators.

The girls were very nervous but did an outstanding job. All our leaders performed to the highest standard and represented Lealands impeccably.

Gold Ambassadors: Nadine Scarlett, Amoy Smith, Kayla Perry, Elise Crick, Shannon Shakes and Tia Travers.

Year 9 leaders: Geri Matthews, Clare Frost, Natalia Buonassisi, Sophie Shaw, Charlotte Carey and Harry Baker

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North Herts College BTEC dance showcase BTEC Level 3 performing arts dance students from North Herts College kindly visited Lealands High School recently, to showcase work from their course to Year 9 and 11 students.

Among the performers were some talented ex Lealands students. It was great to see them continuing their studies and amazing to see how well they are progressing at college.

The dancers performed a variety of styles covered in their course including; ballet, contemporary, urban and jazz.

The performance was extremely beneficial for the Year 9 students.

They watched what they could achieve if they were to choose BTEC dance as an option in Year 10. It was also a fantastic opportunity for our current Year 11 BTEC dance students to see first-hand the type of work covered if they chose to continue the BTEC course at North Herts College. The students were also given the opportunity at the end to ask questions to the performers and the dance teacher.

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Art Department Update In art this term, Year 8 students have been learning about what makes a successful composition and have been inspired by the work of artist Georgia O’Keeffe.

They showed a confident understanding of what makes a good composition and were able to combine aspects of O’Keeffe’s paintings with their own ideas.

Students used colour blending techniques with watercolours to paint a final idea in this style.

A selection of final paintings were chosen for display within the art department and are making a colourful addition to the work we have around out art rooms.

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Literacy Week and World Book Day Monday 2nd March - Friday 6th March was Literacy Week here at Lealands, which included World Book Day on Thursday 5th March.

The purpose of the week was to promote the importance of literacy across the curriculum so that students understand that basic literacy skills are essential in all lessons and not just in English.

The week commenced with an inspiring visit from author, Christopher Edge, who presented his books and his experiences of being an author to Year 8 students throughout the day. The day culminated with a select group of students taking part in a writing workshop - it’s not every day that our students are taught to write by a professional author and we hope that the students involved will be inspired to write their own pieces in the near future.

(There are more details about the visit on the opposite page.)

To encourage and inspire the students to continue to read for pleasure, they participated in a number of events and reading based activities. Assemblies and all Key Stage 3 lessons across the curriculum had a literary or literacy theme. In Technology and Art, all Key Stage 3 lessons were based on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; poetry was taught in Languages, whilst book report writing and advertising were taught in Humanities and English alike. Meanwhile, in ICT students were asked to make a potential movie trailer for a book; in music, students were taught the lyrics to Jonah Man Jazz and in drama, games of literary charades were enjoyed by all, plus they read the life story of Marilyn Monroe. Literacy skills were also explicitly taught in science and maths.

To celebrate World Book Day, teachers and students came to school dressed as their favourite book characters. It was great to see everyone make such a fantastic effort with their costumes and many prizes are due to be given out in rewards assemblies at the end of term to congratulate students on the fantastic effort they put in during the week across the whole of curriculum.

Well done Lealands High School!

For more photos, please see the Gallery Page on our website.

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Children’s Author, Christopher Edge Visit As part of Literacy week and World Book Day, children’s author, Christopher Edge, visited Lealands to help inspire and motivate our Year 8 students into writing.

Author of Twelve Minutes to Midnight, Shadows of the Silver Screen and The Black Crow Conspiracy, he initially talked about how his main character Penelope Treadwell came about. He talked about the power of famous Victorian books such as Sherlock Holmes, Dracula and War of the Worlds and the authors that wrote them.

Penelope is a thirteen year old girl who writes grisly tales in a bestselling magazine which are enjoyed by readers from Victorian Britain. To help her succeed as a writer she uses the male pen name of Montgomery Flinch. One day she receives a letter from the governor of Bedlam which plunges her into an adventure more terrifying than anything she ever imagined.

The Year 8 students then listened intently while Christopher read an extract from his first book Twelve Minutes to Midnight.

Following this, he went on to talk about how he got his inspiration for other characters in the book and the other books in the series. He told them he uses everything around him. For example; photographs, real life stories, newspapers and even just daydreaming. He suggested that when they are writing stories they should use the same tools as he does.

Sessions were held throughout the day in our Learning Resource Centre. He also kindly agreed to be involved in a recorded interview by Rudo Makoni and Naa Ntodi from Year 10, as part of the upcoming BBC School Report event. At the end of the day he signed copies of his books for the students.

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Textiles Fashion Competition As part of Literacy Week and World Book Day, Lealands recently offered students the opportunity to become the next top fashion designer!

The competition was open to students in Years 8, 9 and 10. The brief was to design a dress based on a book, a play or a character from a book or play. They could be created using any media of choice, as long as they were no larger than a piece of A4.

Winning Entry

By Anais Justin Year 8

The designs had to include the finished dress, plus details of the colours, materials and textures of the materials it could be created with. Prizes included a fashion design book, colouring pencils and drawing pencils.

The entries were judged by Headteacher, Mr Burridge and Head of Technology, Miss Ayres. The standard of the designs was outstanding and all met the brief in an extremely imaginative way.

Four runners up were chosen, with the overall winner being created by Year 8 student Anais Justin. The design was based around the character Matilda from the book of the same name by Roald Dahl. The dress includes a top section with a pattern of sums, to represent Matilda being good at Maths. There is a large red bow around the waist to represent the bow she wears in her hair. There is also a section of the skirt in the same pattern as her shirt, plus a quote from the book. There are also books on the skirt which represent her love of reading. Finally there is a picture of a falling glass of water on the front to represent Matilda’s mind powers.

The best entries will now be entered into a national competition; ‘Stardust Boutique Design-a-dress Competition’. This competition is open to Secondary Schools across the UK and includes a £100 cash prize, plus £500 towards the school’s prom. This competition will be judged on Tuesday 7th April 2015.

By Clare Frost

By Abisha Tharmaseelan

By Carla Lindars

By Jessica Farquharson 26

International Schools Update It has now been two years since our partnerships with Subodh School in India and Sazira School in Tanzania were formed. The British Council who provide the funding for these links have assessed the progress made and have decided that the quality of the joint projects is worthy of a further year of support.

We will be looking forward to hosting colleagues from India and Tanzania in the next academic year.

We have been providing financial support to Sazira School so that their students are provided with food at lunchtime and clean drinking water from a recently excavated well.

We have also provided sports equipment to enable their students to undertake PE after school.

This year we hope to be able to help them with making life a little more comfortable for the boys who sleep on the floor of a classroom during the week, as their homes are so far away. Mr Josephat, the headteacher has asked if we can help in providing mosquito nets and simple mattresses for the boys.

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Business Studies Trip to Coca Cola Enterprises On Tuesday 3rd March, Year 10 Business and Computing students visited Coca Cola Enterprises in Milton Keynes. The purpose of the visit was to learn more about how Coca Cola Enterprises use technology in their production methods. The day included the students developing their own ideas for a new drink that could be launched by Coca Cola and then a tour of the factory production line.

Many of the students were surprised at the amount of products that were produced at the location in Milton Keynes.

Below are comments from students about what they thought of the day:

“I learnt a lot about what the company produce, it is not just Coke.” - Eduard Avili “I wasn’t keen to go on the trip at first but I am glad I did. It was interesting to hear about employee benefits and what methods were used to motivate them.” - Dominika Pitak “I feel intrigued to find out more about how the different processes work.” - Syed Ali “I was fascinated to learn of the scale of mass production. 48,000,000 cans a year are produced, with 100,000 cans and 82,000 pouches of Capri Sun produced every hour.” Kieran Bloomfield

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Technology Rotary Tournament March 2015 More than 120 school children, college students and their teachers from the whole of Bedfordshire gathered at Stopsley Baptist Church on the 6th March to take part in the annual Rotary Technology Tournament. Originally devised by a former Luton industrial training expert and Luton North Rotary Club member, Derrick Upcott, the competition formula has now become an international success.

Lealands entered two teams of students for the tournament.

Group A: Matthew Fitzgerald, Lauren Gibson, Amy Shakespeare and Ethan Tann Group B: Yahya Ettawri, Kieran Murphy, Carla Lindars and Emily Silk.

Teams of four are set a challenge designed for their age group; foundation, intermediate and advanced. This year they had to design, build and test a vehicle in which they could transport a rescue package across a deep river that had no bridge, only a suspended cable, and drop the package on the far side. All the necessary components were supplied and they were given specific times for the design, build and test phases of the exercise.

John Hockey, Industrial Design Manager, SKF, Linpac and Dupont presenting the prizes said: "Design and development is a fantastic profession to be in. Don't stop at the first solution.

Do not be put off because it is considered that it won't work. Focus - get great solutions.

Don't ignore people in the team who do not necessarily join in. A good team will include generalists, who know a little about a lot, and logical people who may know a lot about a smaller range of subjects."

In the foundation section the winner was Redbourn School and Lealands 'A' (Matthew Fitzgerald, Lauren Gibson, Amy Shakespeare and Ethan Tann) were the runners-up!

Congratulations to all students who took part and did themselves and the school proud.

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Commonwealth Day Observance We were very fortunate to receive an invitation for 8 of our students to attend the Commonwealth Day Observance at Westminster Abbey.

Lauren Young, Meghan Davis, Holly O’Dell and Mark Jenner from Year 7, Narisha Mehta and Charlie Nelson from Year 8 and Lucy Field and Harry Stewart from Year 9 made the journey to London on Monday 9th March.

We travelled to Green Park and took in the sights of Buckingham Palace, The Mall, Admiralty Arch, Trafalgar Square, the National Gallery, the crypt at St Martin-in-the-Field, Whitehall, Horse Guards Parade, Downing Street and The Houses of Parliament before arriving at the Abbey.

The multi faith service had representatives from the 53 Commonwealth Countries and in attendance was the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh, the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall and The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Kate was attending one of her final public engagements ahead of her due date next month.

Also present was the Nobel Peace Laureate Kailash Satyarthi.

On their way home the students wrote accounts of their day: “Today was great! In London there was lots to do and here were some things I did. We got on the train to Green Park and walked around and did some sight seeing. We had a quick snack and watched the soldiers. My favourite part of the trip was going to Westminster Abbey where I sat about 1.5 metres away from the Queen! Before hand we had a guess of what colours the Queen would be wearing. Mark was the closest to cream (which was the colour she was wearing) saying white. We all had a great time and a good laugh.” By Lauren Young Year 7 “Today was brilliant. We went sight seeing while we were waiting for the ceremony to start. We saw numerous landmarks and almost got lost on the tube! It was an amazing day out over all” By Lucy Field Year 9

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Commonwealth Day Observance “I really enjoyed my day in London. We did a mixture of things like; going to Westminster Abbey, walking past Buckingham Palace, watching the changing of the guards and many more. The part I enjoyed most was when I saw the Queen, Kate and Prince William and watched the changing of the guards.” By Holly O’Dell Year 7 “I had a good day. We met the Queen and Commonwealth Athletes. We had to guess the colour of the Queen’s hat. I guessed white / cream which she wore, so I won some chocolate. We also went to Piccadilly”

By Mark Jenner Year 7 “I had a fantastic time, it was amazing watching the parade and it was also fun seeing all of the other things around us. When I saw the Queen I felt special and I also saw William and Kate, Kate is now pregnant again. It was the Observance for Commonwealth Day 2015! I saw gold, silver and bronze medalists for judo. Then sadly we had to leave London to come back home.”

By Meghan Davis Year 7 “When we went to London for Commonwealth day I had a great time throughout the whole of it. We got the train to Green Park where we got off to go sightseeing. We saw; Big Ben, the London Eye and the Houses of Parliament. This was all before Westminster Abbey where we saw the Queen. That was my favourite part, but I also had a great time listening to peoples stories and opinions about the commonwealth”

By Charlie Nelson Year 8

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Dance Show 2015 Students at Lealands have been showing off their talent for dance at the recent annual dance show. Over forty students from Years 7 – 11 performed a variety of dance styles from urban, ballet and contemporary to a fantastic acrobatic cheerleading performance.

On Tuesday 3rd March, children from Pirton Hill Primary School, Sundon Park Junior School, Leagrave Primary School and Cheynes Infant School were invited to Lealands to be the first to see the performance. The children watched and clapped along to the music enjoying the different dances and music on show.

On Wednesday 4th and Thursday 5th March, the dancers from Lealands were joined by Next Generation Youth Theatre and Year 5 and 6 students from Pirton Hill to perform to the general public. This is the second year they have performed over two nights and it was fantastic to see the school hall sold out for both nights.

All of the dances on show had been choreographed by the students themselves during lesson time and as part of the extra-curricular programme. All of the backstage was also operated by students under the supervision of staff members.

As a surprise addition to this year’s show, dance teacher, Mrs Harley performed a piece with her daughter Ava, for charity.

She collected money after their performance and managed to raise a fantastic £151. This will be donated to local charity, Reecie Nelson Superstars, who raise money for The Brain Tumour Charity.

Following 6 months of hard work and dedication from both students and staff involved, this year’s dance show was yet again an overwhelming success. It was clear for all to see the abundance of talent there is throughout Lealands High School!

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Dance Show 2015

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Summer 2015 Exam Timetable SUMMER EXAM 2015 TIMETABLE

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Summer 2015 Exam Timetable SUMMER EXAM 2015 TIMETABLE (CONTINUED)

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Anne Frank Trust - Ambassadors Programme Lealands has recently received the news that they have been put forward for the Anne Frank Ambassadors programme.

The programme involves students from six regions around the UK who volunteer to spread Anne Frank’s story and message of hope to local Primary Schools.

The programme involves: 

  

Education seminar days that include workshops, tutorials and activities. Students explore prejudice and discrimination and examine how these attitudes contribute to a conflicting and destructive society.

Using the knowledge gained in the seminars, students create a workshop aimed at Year 6 pupils, which they then deliver to their local primary schools.

At the end of the programme, they attend a celebration event, which is a reward for their work and recognition for becoming active citizens.

Once they have graduated, Ambassadors have the opportunity to mentor the next generation of students on the programme.

The programme will give our students the opportunity to:      

Understand the history of the Holocaust and its lessons for their lives and communities.

Learn to become active citizens in their local communities.

Continue to increase their confidence, public speaking and presentation skills.

Develop their creative skills.

Build their team-working and leadership skills.

Develop positive behaviours and attitudes.

The school is extremely pleased to have been given this great opportunity to develop and engage the students. It fits in perfectly with our curriculum of citizenship, history and religious studies at Key Stage 3. It also fits in with our Year 10 history where we look at life in Germany and the impact of German occupation in Europe. We also facilitate an annual study tour to Amsterdam which includes a visit to Anne Frank’s house.

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